ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK
New York Post

Satmar Hasidim — they’re just like everybody else!

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

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Joanna Molloy

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

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

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

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

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CANADA
Cape Breton Post

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 06/12/2012

Reporter: Chris Uhlmann

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

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

Brother Timothy Graham, welcome.

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

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

TIMOTHY GRAHAM: Absolutely not. I mean, …

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

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

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

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

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WYOMING
County 10

By Joshua Scheer, reporter, county10.com

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

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

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

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

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WYOMING
KUGR

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

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WYOMING
KUGR

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

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By TOM MCILROY
Dec. 7, 2012

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

December 7, 2012

Barney Zwartz

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

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

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

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

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OREGON
Corvallis Gazette-Times

By CANDA FUQUA, Corvallis Gazette-Times

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

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

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

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

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Dec. 6, 2012

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Updated: 09:07, Friday December 7, 2012

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

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

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

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

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HOUSTON (TX)
KHOU

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

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

By Genevieve Gannon
From: AAP
December 07, 2012

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

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

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

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

“This abuse ultimately led to his death.”

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC
December 7, 2012

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

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

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

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

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MISSISSIPPI
WTVA

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

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

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

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Sun

December 06, 2012

Elizabeth Ann Murphy

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By TOM MCILROY @TomMcIlroy
Dec. 7, 2012

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

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

Samantha Donovan

Transcript

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

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

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

Samantha Donovan reports.

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

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

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

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTAQ

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

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

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

12/06/12

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

Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
Jewish Chronicle

By Anna Sheinman, December 6, 2012

A prominent figure on the modesty committee of Brooklyn’s Chasidic Satmar community is standing trial accused of 88 counts of sexual abuse of a young girl, which included forcing her to watch and re-enact pornography.

The alleged victim, then aged 12, had been sent to 54-year-old Nechemya Weberman for counselling by her religious school because she was deemed rebellious, the New York Daily News has reported.

The girl’s mother told a Brooklyn court this week that she was forced to pay $12,800 for counselling sessions for her daughter who read magazines such as People and Cosmopolitan, wore tights that were not deemed thick enough and asked her teachers searching questions about religion.

The now 17-year-old girl said on the stand this week that in these sessions she was forced to watch pornography and then “copy what was in the porn”.

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NEW YORK
WABC

N.J. Burkett

NEW YORK (WABC) — Closing arguments were made Thursday in the trial of a well-known ultra orthodox member of the Jewish community in Brooklyn, accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl he was supposedly counseling.

The jury could get the case Friday.

Nechemya Weberman left the courthouse with his wife and one of his 10 children on what could be his last night of freedom.

His attorneys insist that Weberman is being framed by a young girl who despises ultra-orthodox Judaism.

“She came to hate her community and she hated her religion,” Defense attorney Stacey Richman told the jury, “This is her opportunity to say, ‘I hate this.'”

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NEW YORK
Gothamist

In the latest round of testimonies at the trial of Nechemya Weberman—the ultra-Orthodox Jewish counselor accused of sexually abusing a teen girl in Brooklyn for years—Weberman himself took the stand. He was adamant that he “never ever” inappropriately touched the alleged victim, who saw him for counseling multiple times a week for a three year period starting when she was 12. But he did admit to defrauding his own charity.

Weberman admitted on the stand to using money from his nonprofit organization, B’lev V’Nefesh, to pay for his own child’s tuition at the United Talmudical Academy in Williamsburg, the same school which insisted to the victim’s parents that the teen meet with Weberman for counseling or else leave the school. “So you’re getting a salary and paying your children’s tuition?” asked Assistant District Attorney Kevin O’Donnell. “I did if I needed to,” Weberman replied. Weberman, who called himself a “rabbinical counselor” despite no training, said the non-profit was used to raise money for those who can’t afford his services.

But prosecutors brought up the fact that financial records show that the charity’s credit cards were used at BMG Corset & Lingerie, The Lingerie Shop and other undergarment stores. “Me, myself, I’m not aware of this,” Weberman claimed. “This is the first time I heard about it.” Weberman also described his first meeting with the teen: “She said, ‘Why should I trust you? Why should I talk to you? You look like a Hasidic f–k. You look like my father,’ ” Weberman testified.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The defense and prosecutors offered their closing arguments Thursday in the sex abuse trial of prominent Brooklyn ultra Orthodox leader Nechemya Weberman.

Weberman, 54, smiled as he left the courthouse with his wife on Thursday, seeming upbeat. But it could be his last night as a free man, CBS 2′s Sean Hennessey reported.

The jury will soon decide if Weberman used his Brooklyn home office as the place where he sexually abused a young girl he was counseling.

But with no physical or forensic evidence, the panel must decide whether to believe the rabbinical counselor or a teen girl who testified that she was abused for three years.

“From the time she was 12, he began sexually abusing her,” prosecutors said during closing arguments. They also alleged Weberman “wanted his sexual needs satisfied and he made her comply.”

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By JOSH SAUL
Last Updated: 7:50 PM, December 6, 2012

Prosecutors say he was a feared power broker in the most insular of Orthodox Jewish sects in Brooklyn who thought he could get away with anything — including the alleged sexual abuse of a 12 year old girl.

That’s the argument an impassioned assistant district attorney made to jurors today as the nearly two-week-long sex abuse trial of Hasidic counselor Nechemya Weberman drew to a close.

“What happens in the defendant’s office stays in the defendant’s office,” prosecutor Linda Weinman said, referring to the secrecy surrounding the small room where Weberman, 54, allegedly forced himself on the girl — and where he also admittedly hosted other pretty young Satmar women.

Prosecutors argued the now 18-year-old alleged victim was terrified to report the three years of abuse because of Weberman’s exalted status in the cloistered Satmar sect in Williamsburg.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Archdiocese reveals there are 120,000 pages of clergy sex abuse related documents under court review

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT 414.429.7259

In a startling admission today in Federal Bankruptcy Court, Frank LoCoco, a lawyer representing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee conceded that at least 120,000 pages of abuse and financial related church documents have been turned over to the Creditors Committee and the Court. That’s 60,000 more than previously reported. Most of these documents are still under court seal because the Archdiocese, while claiming transparency, refuses to release these documents to Catholics or the public and are fighting motions by victim/survivors and Creditors to immediately release them.

Why are these documents so important for the protection of children? Because they detail decades of child sex crimes by scores of clergy and others working in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Many of these documents, including the 570 direct victim reports filed into the court, concern an institutional pattern and practice of fraudulently concealing and transferring known child sex offenders. According to attorneys representing 350 of these victims, there are at least 100 never before identified child sex offenders whose identities are contained in sealed court documents, 70 of whom are priests. Many are likely to be religious order clerics, such as Franciscans and Jesuits, others are clergy who might today be working in parishes and schools.

When you build a management structure of an organization to enable and then hide criminal acts, there are bound to be financial consequences, including fraud, which is what has brought the archdiocese to Federal Court in the first place.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Victims of sexual abuse by the clergy and the Catholic Church hierarchy have gathered in Newcastle’s cathedral complex to acknowledge a family’s suffering after their son was raped by a priest.

Daniel Feenan, who was abused by a Hunter Valley priest, was there for the launch of his mother Pat’s book, Holy Hell.

The book documents the Feenan family’s rejection by fellow Catholics when they went to the police and how the priest was “tipped off” that he was under investigation.

Pat Feenan says she chose the cathedral complex for Thursday evening’s launch for maximum impact.

“I thought this is an appropriate place to launch it it’s the centre of the Catholic Church,” she said.

Ms Feenan received a standing ovation from around 200 supporters.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Gina Tenorio

A priest arrested in July on sexual assault charges has pleaded no contest to three sex-related charges involving a 17 year-old girl and two women.

Luis Jose Cuevas, 68, was arrested in July at a home in San Jacinto, according to the Long Beach Post. Before his arrest, he had been living on the grounds of St. Athanasius Catholic Church in Long Beach, the paper reported.

He has reportedly entered his plea Tuesday. He was facing one felony count of committing a lewd act on a child and two misdemeanor sexual battery charges.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

[with audio]

Last night in Newcastle 36 year old Daniel Feenan spoke publicly for the first time about how he was raped as an altar boy by a Catholic priest and trusted family friend. The launch was held in the Newcastle cathedral complex, with victims of sexual abuse sitting side by side with the policeman who triggered a Royal Commission and the Newcastle’s bishop.

Philippa McDonald

Transcript

TONY EASTLEY: Last night in Newcastle 36 year old Daniel Feenan spoke publicly for the first time about how he was abused as a child at the hands of a Catholic priest and trusted family friend.

Daniel Feenan’s mother Pat Feenan has documented how her son was raped as an altar boy and how the entire family was betrayed by the church that was central to their faith.

What made last night’s launch more exceptional was that it was held in the Newcastle cathedral complex and victims of sexual abuse, as well as the policeman who triggered a royal commission and Newcastle’s bishop all sat side by side to acknowledge the Feenan family’s suffering.

Daniel Feenan spoke to the ABC’s Philippa McDonald.

DANIEL FEENAN: The last 10, 20 years have been a struggle. There is no doubt about that. Life is getting better but there is still the memories and the disappointment of where I am in life at the moment, I guess, to where I could have been.

I have three beautiful children and I have a very strong woman in my life as well but it is looking back and the realisation of actually what did happen. And in the last two to three weeks with everything that has been evolving, I guess smiling and thinking ‘No I did do the right thing at the end of the day’.

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CHILE
Publimetro

La magistrada del Séptimo Juzgado Civil de Santiago, Jenny Book se declaró incompetente para instruir la acción civil interpuesta por tres de los querellantes en contra del sacerdote Fernando Karadima para conseguir una indemnización de la Iglesia Católica por encubrir los abusos sexuales del ex párroco de El Bosque.

La jueza Book cita las exigencias que el Código Orgánico de Tribunales impone cuando el libelo es en contra del Arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezatti, representante legal de la Iglesia Católica capitalina.

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TENNESSEE
News Channel 5

Posted: Dec 03, 2012

NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Weeks after one plaintiff dropped his complaint against Mt. Zion Baptist Church, word has come that the one remaining case will be dismissed.

Early in 2012 former church member Valencia Batson filed a civil lawsuit accusing church leaders of sexual exploitation, battery and harassment. Later in the year another former member, Corey Corbin filed a similar lawsuit.

In his case, Corbin said he and his now ex-wife had sought marital counseling from Walker. Corbin alleges Walker started a sexual relationship with Corbin’s wife and ruined his marriage. In November Corey Corbin decided to drop his complaint against Mount Zion Baptist Church and its pastor, Bishop Joseph Walker.

During church service Sunday, Bishop Walker announced that the remaining lawsuit would be dropped.

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

TENNESSEE
The Tennessean

Mt. Zion Baptist Bishop Joseph Walker faces amended sex lawsuit with more details

Written by
Bob Smietana
The Tennessean

On Sunday, Bishop Joseph Walker told members of his congregation at Mt. Zion Baptist Church that if they waited and had faith, God would deliver them from their troubles.

On Monday, Walker learned he might have to wait longer for his own to be over.

Two former church members sued Walker earlier this year, accusing him of using his authority to engage in sexual misconduct. One lawsuit was dismissed in November, and the attorney for the other plaintiff filed court documents to withdraw that suit.

But the attorney for former church member Valencia Batson filed an amended lawsuit Monday that includes intimate details of her alleged sexual relationship with Walker, as well as accusations of financial misdeeds at the church.

“This is not over,” said Connie Allison, Batson’s attorney. “It is not going away.”

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TENNESSEE
Christian Post

By Audrey Barrick, Christian Post Reporter

December 6, 2012

Bishop Joseph Walker was hit with an amended lawsuit Monday by a former church member who is accusing the charismatic preacher of sexual abuse.

Valencia Batson’s earlier lawsuit against Walker, pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Nashville, was essentially dropped after her attorney filed a voluntary nonsuit in November. But her attorney filed a new complaint this week, going into more detail about the alleged abuse.

“Plaintiff Batson was so severely damaged by the sexual assaults by her spiritual leaders that she developed PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) and other debilitating conditions such that she was unable to take action within any usually applicable statutes of limitations,” the complaint reads.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Karl Stagno-Navarra

Just days after two former priests were sent to jail for their role in abuse on a number of victims at St. Jospeh’s Home in Hamrun, 12 victims have filed for financial compensation from the Archbishop’s Curia, the two priests who were jailed and the Missionary Order of St. Paul (MSSP).

The victims have called for a meeting to be held within a week in order to quantify the damages.

In their letter, victims Lawrence Grech, Joseph Magro, Leonard Camilleri, Jason Camilleri, David Cassar, Noel Dimech, Angelo Spiteri, Raymond Azzopardi, Charles Falzon, Oliver Goodram, Paul Cauchi and Joseph Mangion, claimed that the authorities knew that the people who were supposed to be looking after them were abusing them, but did nothing to stop it.

Defrocked priests Godwin Scerri and Carmel Pulis were left to keep their positions at the home, holding absolute control over their victims.

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

MALTA
Times of Malta

The victims of sexual abuse by two former priests this morning filed an official letter demanding compensation.

The letter, from victims Lawrence Grech, Joseph Magro, Leonard Camilleri, Jason Camilleri, David Cassar, Noel Dimech, Angelo Spiteri, Raymond Azzopardi, Charles Falzon, Oliver Goodram, Paul Cauchi and Joseph Mangion was addressed to abusers Carmelo Pulis and Godwin Scerri, the Missionary Society of St Paul, the Archdiocese of Malta, the Prime Minister, the Education and Family ministers and the Attorney General.

In their letter, the victims claimed that the authorities knew that the people who were supposed to be looking after them were abusing them but did not do anything to stop what was happening. Mr Scerri and Mr Pulis were kept in a position in which they had absolute control over their victims.

The victims said they suffered damages because they could not lead a normal life.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

Another lawsuit alleging sexual abuse against a Kansas City priest has been dismissed. And like a similar lawsuit that was dismissed in October, the suit was dropped by the plaintiff in order to appeal a judge’s decision in the case.

Rebecca Randles, the attorney for David Tate — who filed the lawsuit in July 2011 against the Rev. Michael Tierney, Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City St. Joseph — said the case would be re-filed after the appeal is resolved.

At issue is the judge’s dismissal of the diocese from the lawsuit. Jackson County Circuit Judge Peggy Stevens McGraw dismissed the diocese in April, finding that it only would be liable if Tierney had been engaged in activities within the scope of a priest’s employment. In doing so, Randles said, the judge was strictly interpreting some case law that has held that a diocese could not be considered liable if the alleged abuse occurred off church grounds.

The lawsuit, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, accused Tierney of sexually abusing Tate at the home of Tierney’s mother and at a hotel swimming pool in Kansas City in the early 1970s when Tate was about 12 years old. It said the diocese knew of Tierney’s misconduct with children and covered it up.

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MISSISSIPPI
WREG

[with video]

December 4, 2012, by Dennis Turner

(Senatobia, MS) ”Pastor Singleton, did you have an inappropriate relationship with that young man?” Seventy-one year-old Larry Singleton kept his head down and remained silent as he entered Tate County Justice Court Tuesday.

His arrest Monday night came after an 18-year-old man came to Deputies, saying he’d been forced into having sex with the man.

Investigators wouldn’t say how long it had gone one.

”That’s part of the investigation, is trying to determine exactly for how long it was going on, but it began when the man was 11-years-old, ” said Tate County Sheriff Brad Lance.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Dec. 6, 2012

ROME — Famously, the behavior of bureaucracies is often driven as much by compromise, by an effort to balance competing agenda, as by strict logic. It’s a rule of thumb that certainly applies to the Catholic church, and there’s probably no better recent example than the Vatican’s decision to strip Austrian Fr. Helmut Schüller of his title as “monsignor.”

It’s a rap on the knuckles obviously intended to make a statement, and yet no one in authority seems to want to say out loud quite what that statement is.

Beyond confirming that it happened, senior Vatican spokespersons have directed inquiries about the move to the Vienna archdiocese. Meanwhile, Michael Prüller, a spokesperson for Vienna’s Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, has told reporters that the decision “was made in Rome” and “has nothing to do with us.”

The result is that while the world knows Schüller is no longer a monsignor, there’s no official explanation as to why.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on December 06, 2012

Watch closely the language that Catholic officials use when they try to distance themselves from accused clerics.

Bishops recruit, educate, train, ordain, hire, supervise, and often transfer and protect predator priests. But once allegations surface, top church staff often pretend they’ve never even met the accused. In many church notices, he was “Fr. Smith” on Tuesday, but suddenly, on Wednesday, became “Smith” or “Mr. Smith” the minute child sex abuse allegations arose.

It almost always takes years for the Catholic hierarchy to defrock a priest. So when one goes from being Fr. Jones to Mr. Jones in a matter of hours, it’s just a public relations maneuver.

Independent statistics are hard to come by, but we’re pretty convinced that the overwhelming majority of pedophile priests – even many of those who are convicted and imprisoned – are never defrocked.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on December 06, 2012

The priest always seems to land on his feet. He pled guilty to child sex crimes. Still, he was hired to work for the archdiocese.

And he was allowed to live in Cardinal Francis George’s Gold Coast mansion.

When a newspaper disclosed this, George pledged that the priest would leave Chicago.

Then, in 2008, the priest was again discovered quietly working in the archdiocese.

And now, the he has won a legal decision to keep his personnel records secret.

He is Fr. Kenneth J. Martin. Originally from Delaware, Martin pled guilty in 2001 to molesting a boy “for two and a half years, at least once a week,” according to a prosecutor. He was sentenced to probation.

Still, according to the Associated Press, this week Delaware Judge Christopher Sontchi issued a one-page order that Martin’s employment files would not be made public. The decision came “almost six months after hearing arguments behind closed doors and barring reporters from the courtroom,” the AP wrote.

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CALIFORNIA
Santa Barbara Independent

Thursday, December 6, 2012

By Barney Brantingham

MOLESTED SCOUT: Tayln Lang, now 38, couldn’t understand why he kept losing job after job, year after year. Finally, determined to get to the root of the problem, “I took a long, hard look at my life and realized that it was due to a loss of self-worth,” the result of being molested by a Boy Scout leader, Lang told me Monday.

The sexual abuse he suffered from the age of 13 to 16, and its psychological effects, were inflicted by “a controlling, domineering, dominating” man with a wife and four children, Lang told me. Lang has just won a confidential settlement from the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and the Mormon church, which sponsored Troop 275 in Oxnard.

The settlement not only brought a measure of closure and healing, Lang said, “but the most important thing is to ensure that this doesn’t happen to any other young man and is brought to light.” According to his lawsuit, filed in 2010, he was molested by Mark Gum, first in Oxnard and later in Butte County. Although Gum is named in the suit, his whereabouts are unknown, according to Santa Barbara attorney Tim Hale, who filed the suit.

Gum, according to the suit, took advantage of the fact that Lang was vulnerable because of his unhappy home life in a dysfunctional family and created “an overwhelming emotional dependency that rendered plaintiff desperate for the perpetrator’s attention, approval, and affection.” Gum “made plaintiff his sex toy,” according to the suit. The Scouts and the Mormon church (also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS) knew or should have known that Gum presented a risk, the suit said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Sydney – Mornings with Jill Emberson

How do you reconcile the implication of sexual abuse occurring within your religious organization with your personal belief in God?

Jill was joined three local Catholics to discuss their faith in light of new sex abuse claims, the Royal Commission and State Inquiry.

Former Australian Cricketer and Newcastle Port Chaplain Rick McCosker, former university lecturer and Maitland-Newcastle Diocese’s social justice council member Moira Gordan, and Chairperson of the St Vincent de Paul Social Justice Group Pam Tierney, who had walked away from the church for 3 years but has now returned, told their stories.

With all of these issues facing their personal connection with God and the institution they have come to rely on, Jill asked whether their faith had been reassessed and shaken by these revelations.

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

AUSTRALIA
7 News

Premier Colin Barnett thinks the royal commission into child sex abuse may lead to a compensation bill of $2 billion or more.

State premiers met in Canberra today, ahead of a Council of Australian Government meeting on Friday.

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill flagged a State leader’s discussion of the terms of reference for the inquiry with Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

“The outcome can’t be another set of volumes with a million recommendations to sit on a shelf gathering dust,” he said, referring to a South Australian Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

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

– Fr. Rudolf Voderholzer of the clergy of Munich and Freising, Germany, as bishop of Regensburg (area 12,081, population 3,588,232, Catholics 1,772,434, priests 1,244, permanent deacons 243, religious 2,878), Germany.

The bishop-elect was born in Munich, Germany in 1959 and ordained a priest in 1987. He obtained his doctorate in dogmatic theology from the University of Munich in 1997, and in 2004 became president of the Department of Faith and Science of Religions and Philosophy of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Since 2005 he has been professor of dogmatic theology at the University of Trier, Germany, and since 2008, director of the “Pope Benedict XVI” Institute at Regensburg.

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EUROPE/UNITED STATES
Surfky

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (12/5/12) – Yesterday, SurfKY News reported on the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online at a ministerial conference in Brussels. Read more about the alliance by clicking here to view the original article.

The initiative, launched by Attorney General Eric Holder and European Union (EU) Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström, aims to unite decision-makers all around the world to better identify and assist victims and to prosecute the perpetrators.

The following is a transcript of Holder’s remarks today:
Thank you, Commissioner Malmström, for that kind introduction – and for welcoming me back to Brussels for today’s important conference. On behalf of President Obama, my colleagues across the United States government, and the American people we are privileged to serve, I also want to thank you for your efforts and leadership in helping to safeguard our most vulnerable citizens – and our common future – from exploitation and abuse.

It’s a privilege to count you as a colleague – and an essential partner – in advancing this work on a global scale. And it’s an honor to join with you in convening such a distinguished group of leaders, experts, and allies from around the world – as we mark the official launch of the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online, and renew our shared commitment to protecting the safety, rights, and best interests of all of our children.

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WYOMING
Catholic News Agency

By Kevin J. Jones

Lander, Wyo., Dec 6, 2012 / 04:03 am (CNA).- Wyoming Catholic College has discharged its new chaplain Father Stuart MacDonald following the discovery of a “pattern of misbehavior” around students such as excess drinking and bad language.

“I think it’s very sad that this happened. I think it’s particularly sad that it involved a priest of the Catholic Church,” college president Father Robert Cook told CNA Dec. 5.

“I really am very happy that we so quickly and so definitively dealt with this in what I believe was a totally proper and appropriate manner.”

The college discharged the chaplain on Nov. 19 after an investigation found he engaged in “very bad language” and “telling bad jokes” with students.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Updated December 5, 2012

Australia is now debating on how to get rid of the “medieval law that needs to change”, meaning the medieval Catholic law of the “seal of Confession” that protects pedophiles and does nothing to protect children, and it neither seeks justice or compensation for victims of criminals. We offer here our related article to help non-Catholics and lawmakers in Australia and around the world to understand better how “sins and crimes are not synonymous” in the Catholic belief — with the sincere hope that they will get rid once and for all – this hypocritical “holy” Vatican Catholic Sacrament of Confession because it is the most corrupt system of injustice in the world because it protects criminals and persecutes their victims.

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

VIRGINIA
The Virginian-Pilot

By Steven G. Vegh
The Virginian-Pilot
December 5, 2012

Retired Catholic Bishop Walter F. Sullivan has an inoperable liver tumor and was due to be released Wednesday from St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond for hospice care at home, a diocesan spokesman said.

“He’s not in any pain,” said Stephen Neill, the editor of the Richmond diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Virginian.

Sulllivan was ordained a bishop in 1970 and became head of the Richmond diocese in 1974. He took mandatory retirement at 75 in 2003.

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CANADA
Sun News

KRISTY KIRKUP | QMI AGENCY

OTTAWA — The courts can decide if documents related to Canada’s residential schools can be released for a commission probing the dark legacy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper signalled Wednesday.

In recent documents filed to the Ontario Superior Court, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) suggested Ottawa was hampering the retrieval of documents related to its mandate.

After the government’s historic residential school apology in the House of Commons in June 2008, the TRC was mandated to learn about the government assimilation program that lasted 130 years.

Sexual abuse was commonplace in residential schools.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By ANDREA PEYSER
Last Updated: 2:33 AM, December 6, 2012

This is not kosher.

Nechemya Weberman lumbered into a Brooklyn courtroom yesterday as big as a rabid bear in an oversized black coat and matching yarmulke, side curls tucked behind his ears.

The slimy bastard, 54, is charged with repeatedly and monstrously sexually assaulting a young girl he controlled by counseling the child in the office of his Brooklyn home deep inside the Orthodox Satmar religion, a cult-like sect more secretive than Scientology.

It’s a place where laws governing girls’ dumpy dress code are enforced by the masked men of the “modesty police’’ — a terrorist group that might well be called the Jewish Taliban.

He played your jolly old Yiddish uncle on the witness stand. With an arrogant smile, he described running a kind of Hasidic shelter for wayward girls under his own roof, doling out beds to at least three young ladies — including his niece — who had refused to cover themselves like mummies, just like Mom.

All were welcome, the less clad the better.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By JOSH SAUL
Last Updated: 2:39 AM, December 6, 2012

He left himself wide open.

A Hasdic leader, on trial for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old girl, took the stand in his own defense yesterday — and ended up admitting that he raided his community nonprofit to pay for everything from his kid’s tuition to frilly lingerie.

Leaving himself vulnerable to a barrels-loaded cross-examination by Brooklyn prosecutors, accused child molester Nechemya Weberman denied sexually abusing a Williamsburg girl who had been sent to him for counseling sessions from the age of 12 to 15.

Defense attorney Michael Farkas asked him: “Mr. Weberman, have you ever inappropriately touched [the alleged victim]?”

To which Weberman answered, “Never ever.”

But once prosecutors got a crack at him, rather than hammer away at the sex-abuse allegations, they got the Satmar counselor to admit to a host of financial misdeeds.

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NEW YORK
New York Magazine

By Adam Martin

The ultra-Orthodox man who’s accused of sexually abusing a girl he counseled testified on Wednesday that he “never ever” did so, but he didn’t deny dipping into the funds of a charity he founded, paying his kids’ private school tuition from the nonprofit’s coffers. “Did you use this not-for-profit for your own personal gain?” Assistant District Attorney Kevin O’Donnel asked Nechemya Weberman, according to the New York Daily News. “Yes I did,” he replied.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Joanna Molloy

With a costumed crowd pressing against velvet ropes begging to be let in, the Brooklyn criminal courtroom resembled a nightclub Wednesday.

The iconoclastic garb of the Satmar Hasidic Jewish sect was unmistakable as members showed up to support Nechemya Weberman when he took the stand to defend himself against charges that he sexually molested a beautiful Satmar teenager while he was supposed to be her therapist. Lubavitcher and Modern Orthodox Jews showed up to support the woman, sequestered in another room, quietly celebrating, if you could call it that, her 18th birthday.

Ladies in wigs and hats, with long skirts and arms and legs covered, sat apart from the men in dark suits, wearing yarmulkes, their hair in forelocks, as the jury as diverse as Brooklyn itself stared out over the insular community and got a lesson in Hasidism 101 from the testimony.

Like the fact that what you wear is no joke, as the alleged victim found out when she began to break the dress code with short skirts and sheer tights, and when she began to share pop songs like “Love Can Kill You” and sneak off to Hollywood movies.

The recalcitrant teen had come to the attention of an internal committee of men called the Va’ad Hatznius, which helps enforce modesty rules — among 613 commandments Satmar members believe must be followed.

According to the testimony of another young woman who’d taken the stand Wednesday morning, you don’t want to mess with Va’ad Hatznius.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Weberman testifies he ‘never ever’ sexually assaulted young girl, says he didn’t know anything about lingerie bought by charity he founded

By Oren Yaniv / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

A prominent Hasidic counselor said he “never ever” sexually assaulted a beautiful Brooklyn girl, and testified he didn’t know anything about lingerie bought by a charity he founded.

Nechemya Weberman, taking the stand in a child-sex-abuse case, acknowledged Wednesday that he founded a charity and used it to pay for his salary and his kids’ education.

Weberman stands accused of forcing a Brooklyn teen to perform oral sex, as well as watch and reenact porn, over a three-year period, beginning when she was 12.

The 54-year-old defendant testified he did not inappropriately touch the alleged victim, who turned 18 Wednesday.

Prosecutors also raised the specter that Weberman may have sexually abused other teens — allegations that were also denied in court.

Presenting himself as a “rabbinical counselor,” Weberman, said he started a not-for-profit organization called B’lev V’nefesh, Hebrew for “in heart and soul,” around 2000. He said it was used to raise money for those who can’t afford his services.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: December 5, 2012

Nechemya Weberman, the unlicensed ultra-Orthodox Jewish counselor charged with repeatedly sexually abusing a young girl in his care, testified in a Brooklyn courtroom on Wednesday that he had “never, ever” touched her inappropriately.

“What were you looking to do in terms of her?” asked Michael Farkas, a defense attorney, as Mr. Weberman testified in his own defense.

“To save her life,” Mr. Weberman said.

He spoke on the concluding day of witness testimony in a closely watched trial in State Supreme Court; it is one of the first times a prominent member of the insular Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg has faced child sexual abuse charges before a secular court. Closing arguments are expected to begin Thursday.

The unusual decision by Mr. Weberman, 54, to take the stand in his own defense turned the trial into a credibility battle between Mr. Weberman and the accusing witness, an 18-year-old who claimed over four days of testimony last week that she had been forced to perform oral sex on him during counseling sessions, when she was between the ages of 12 and 15.

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MONTANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will urge the Great Falls/Billings Catholic bishop to

–do “aggressive outreach” to find others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by a recently accused priest, and

–permanently post on his website the names, photos and whereabouts of all child molesting clerics who live or work (or have lived or worked) in his diocese.

They will also urge ALL current and former Montana Catholic employees to “come clean” about clergy sex crimes and cover ups by sharing everything they know and suspect with law enforcement officials (instead of assuming and hoping that the church hierarchy will handle such cases quietly and ‘in house.’)

WHEN
Thursday, Dec. 6th at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE
In front of St. Patrick’s Co-Cathedral 215 North 31st Street (corner of 3rd. Ave. N,) in Billings, MT

WHO
Two to three members of an international support group for victims of clergy abuse called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY
Fr. Dennis Druggan was suspended in July because of allegations that he molested a child at St. Labre Indian School in Ashland, MT in the mid-1980s. But SNAP contends that the Great Falls-Billings Catholic diocese, and especially Bishop Michael Warfel has done little or nothing to tell his flock about the allegations, help police or prosecutors pursue Druggan or find and help others whomay have been hurt by him or have information about his crimes. (Druggan has denied the allegations.)

For a decade now, bishops have pledged to be “open and transparent” in clergy sex cases. And Pope Benedict has said that the church will “do everything possible” to help victims heal. So SNAP believes that Warfel has both a moral and civic duty to use his “vast resources” to try and find others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Druggan.

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

NEW YORK
Wall Street Journal

Associated Press

NEW YORK — A religious counselor accused of sexually abusing a girl under his guidance for three years testified in a Brooklyn court Wednesday, denying it ever happened.

Nechemya Weberman told a courtroom packed with his supporters that he “never, ever” inappropriately touched his accuser. He also said he never sexually abused anyone inside his office where he counseled patients.

Defense attorneys said she fabricated stories as an act of revenge. She revealed to Weberman that she had a boyfriend at age 15 — forbidden in her community — and believed he told her parents about it. Both Weberman and his accuser belong to an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect.

Weberman has pleaded not guilty to 88 charges of sexual abuse and misconduct.

The ongoing trial has rocked the insular, tight-knit group of ultra-orthodox Jews, not only because of the shocking charges, but also because the case is being played out in a public court and the guarded society strongly discourages going to outside authorities.

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AUSTRALIA
Business Spectator

AAP

State premiers are keen to have input in the development of terms of reference for the federal royal commission into child sex abuse.

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill met with other state leaders in Canberra on Thursday ahead of a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on Friday.

“The overwhelming message from that is the outcome can’t be another set of volumes with a million recommendations to sit on a shelf gathering dust,” he told reporters, referring to a South Australian Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry.

“The way it is conducted will be absolutely crucial and we will be passing on our views to the commonwealth.”

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

CANADA
Calgary Herald

A former church youth volunteer who admitted more than a year ago to sexually abusing boys and child pornography charges and was facing a long term offender hearing this week, now wants to vacate his guilty pleas.

Kim Ross, lawyer for Roderick Kyle Janssen, told provincial court Justice Catherine Skene on Wednesday that his client does not accept some of the agreed statement of facts presented by the Crown.

Skene, however, that before holding a hearing on vacating the pleas she wanted Ross and Janssen, 36, to review a transcript of the Oct. 31, 2011, court appearance in which he pleaded guilty to 18 charges related to the abuse of the boys over a five-year period and making and distributing child porn.

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

AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

WHAT HAPPENED

He’d had enough. Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox of the NSW Police had investigated too many cases of child sex abuse over the length of his career to keep silent any longer.

He simply had to speak out. It cost him his career, as he knew it likely would, but he spoke out anyway.

By lifting the lid on years of sexual abuse cases in the Hunter region, and an alleged police cover-up of sex abuse in the Catholic Church, Peter Fox sparked nothing less than a sweeping Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

The details of many of the cases Fox investigated are horrific. He outlined some of those details in a revealing interview on late night television, and a nation was sickened to the core.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Ballarat will begin its healing process when Victoria’s inquiry into sexual abuse in the church arrives in the city – at the centre of some of the scandal’s worst offending.

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

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

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

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

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

Lisa Whitehead

Transcript

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

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

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

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

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Lisa Whitehead and staff

Among the litany of accusations that led to the recent announcement of a royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse, none have been more shocking than those surrounding the Catholic order Saint John of God.

A former nun, who worked for the order, has spoken to 7.30 about what she says is a culture of collusion within its ranks.

Most of the boys and young men placed in their care were intellectually disabled – the Brothers took a vow dedicating themselves to serving the church in the assistance of those who suffer and are in need.

But dozens of the boys in institutions run by SJOG have alleged they were subjected to horrifying sexual and physical abuse at the hands of some of the brothers.

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

CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

A well-known Orange County church has been roiled by allegations that a volunteer sexually assaulted children.

A Sunday school volunteer at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa allegedly formed relationships with children in his church and went on to sexually abuse at least one of them multiple times between November 2009 and November 2011, according to church leaders and court documents.

Two families at Rock Harbor came forward with new allegations against Christopher Bryan McKenzie, the pool cleaner accused of years-long sexual relationships with at least three children younger than 14, pastors said Monday night.

McKenzie, 48, of Costa Mesa, attended Rock Harbor and applied to be a child-care volunteer at the 3,000-member campus in late 2007, Communications Director Jeff Gideon said.

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

DELAWARE
The News Journal

Written by
From staff and wire reports

A Delaware bankruptcy judge has granted motions filed by two former priests who objected to release of their personnel files as part of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington’s $77 million bankruptcy settlement.

Kenneth Martin and Charles Wiggins, who were removed from ministry by the late Bishop Michael Saltarelli in 2001 and 2003, respectively, had sought protective orders to prevent the diocese from releasing their files to members of a creditors committee for possible subsequent disclosure to the public.

Judge Christopher Sontchi on Tuesday issued one-page orders granting the motions, almost six months after hearing arguments behind closed doors and barring reporters from the courtroom.

The diocese agreed to a $77 million settlement with some 150 alleged victims of priest sex abuse to end its bankruptcy case. The agreement also required church officials to turn over internal documents detailing how the diocese handled pedophile priests.

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

UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

December 5, 2012

Posted by Grant Gallicho

Last Friday, Mollie did a superb job cataloging Bill Donohue’s shortcomings both as a crusader against anti-Catholicism (which obviously includes using the occasion of World AIDS Day to call people with HIV promiscuous) and as a surrogate for the conservative movement (giving Dick Morris a run for his money). Her conclusion was pointed: “Seriously, your excellencies and eminences: what will it take to make you rethink the wisdom of encouraging Bill Donohue to act as your public interpreter?” Wish I knew. Donohue has said lots of offensive things on a variety of topics, but his record on one subject in particular ought to give Catholic bishops considerable pause before lending him support: the sexual-abuse scandal.

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that the clergy of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph are divided on the question of whether their bishop should resign after being found guilty of one count of failing to report suspected child abuse. (A diocesan school principal warned the diocese about about Fr. Shawn Ratigan’s “inappropriate behavior with children” in May 2010; seven months later disturbing photos of little girls were found on Ratigan’s laptop; Finn didn’t restrict Ratigan until February 2011; and the police weren’t notified until May 2011.) The Times story is ugly: One priest goes on the record recommending the bishop step down. Another says his liberal colleagues are using Finn’s travails to push for a new, less conservative bishop. More than one hundred thousand people have signed an online petition urging Finn to step aside. The diocese has spent $1.4 million on legal fees. And the Times spoke with two priests who say that at a recent meeting of diocesan clergy Finn denied any wrongdoing. Yet he agreed to a set of stipulated facts that led a judge to render a guilty verdict. “I truly regret and am sorry for the hurt these events caused,” Finn told the judge at the time. And now he’s privately telling priests that he did nothing wrong?

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

MISSISSIPPI
The Democrat

By: Theron Fly
December 05, 2012

A 71-year-old pastor remains in Tate County Jail on charges of sexual battery of a child following a hearing at Tate County Justice Court Tuesday.

The suspect was identified by Tate County Sheriff Brad Lance as Larry Singleton, pastor of the Bay Springs Baptist Church in Lafayette County.

An arrest warrant for Singleton was enforced Monday night, days after an 18-year-old man came to deputies saying that he’d been forced into having sex with the man, Lance said.

According to Lance, the sexual abuse is alleged to have begun when the victim was 11 years old and continued for years.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By MARY ALEXANDER
Dec. 6, 2012

THE south-west’s new Catholic bishop has promised to do his “utmost” to ensure the safety of children, both now and in the future.

“I hope to respond as well as I can to those who have been hurt in the past and to those who still carry a legacy of pain,” Ballarat diocese bishop Paul Bird said in a statement released yesterday.

His comments come as the state parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse prepares to sit in Ballarat tomorrow. It is the first time the joint investigative committee has held hearings outside Melbourne, with witnesses expected to appear from 11.30am.

“The inquiry will hear submissions particularly from those who have suffered abuse and those representing the people who have been hurt so deeply,” Bishop Bird said.

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

WISCONSIN
Star Times

By Mike Tighe, Lee Newspapers

The Diocese of La Crosse is “not doing real well financially,” said Bishop William P. Callahan, who nonetheless sees a bright future as people respond to the church’s needs.

That future might include parish consolidations and different educational models, Callahan said in a rare, wide-ranging exclusive interview with the La Crosse Tribune.

A member of the Conventual Franciscan order who has presided over the 19-county diocese since August 2010, Callahan also acknowledged the economy’s effect on people’s ability to donate to the church.

“Our economy stinks,” he said. “Our people are suffering, so the expectation is not that we are going to be out there hitting them over the head saying give Callahan addressed the church’s problems with sexual abuse, his position against gay marriage and abortion, and the church’s recent battles with the federal government over mandates that religious institutions provide insurance coverage for their workers for contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion drugs.

Callahan became bishop shortly after the Rev. Patrick Umberger resigned as pastor at St. Patrick Parish in St. Onalaska after being charged with child pornography. Umberger, who was not accused of abusing children, died with the case pending.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By TOM McILROY
Dec. 5, 2012

BALLARAT’S Catholic Bishop Paul Bird has welcomed tomorrow’s sitting of a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse and said he was committed to improved safety standards.

Bishop Bird said priests, religious leaders and parishioners in the Ballarat Diocese had welcomed the inquiry and a forthcoming national royal commission as a chance for healing for the church and victims of abuse.

He said the church had changed its practices in dealing with “the tragedy of child sexual abuse”.

“It has been welcomed by many who want an independent look at what has happened, and as an exercise which will bring to light some important lessons,” he said.

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

INDIANA
Washington Times-Herald

May 2, 2012

By Nate Smith Washington Times-Herald

WASHINGTON — The trial of a Hispanic girl who claimed the Evansville Catholic Diocese and the Catholic Community of Washington covered up a rape was delayed again.

According to court records, attorneys for the Diocese asked to have the trial, set for June 18, canceled. Daviess County Circuit Court Judge Gregory Smith granted the request last week, against objections from the plaintiff’s attorneys.

A pretrial conference is set for May 18 to determine the future of the case.

The alleged cover-up, according to records, happened five years ago when a then-23-year-old girl was raped by Fredy Mendez-Morales, then 27, at the old St. Mary’s School. Morales was later convicted of rape, but family members of the mentally challenged girl say church officials tried to coerce her and the family.

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

INDIANA
Washington Times-Herald

March 20, 2012

By Nate Smith Washington Times-Herald

WASHINGTON — A trial date has been set in the case of a Hispanic woman alleging the Evansville Catholic Diocese persuaded her not to report a rape at the old St. Mary’s School.

Parties in the case against the Diocese, the Catholic Community of Washington, and three indviduals will have their day in Daviess Circuit Court from June 18 to 26. The last pre-trial conference is set for May 18.

The case stems from an alleged cover-up over five years ago involving a then 23-year-old girl, who was raped by Fredy Mendez-Morales, then 27, at the old St. Mary’s School. The school was since sold to Harvest Community Fellowship and houses Cornerstone Christian Academy. No members of the Catholic Community of Washington were named in the suit, but because the church owned the building in 2007, they were named.

It is the policy of the Times Herald not to name victims of rape or sexual abuse nor family members of the victims.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on December 05, 2012

We are glad that Fr. Cuevas’ victims will be spared the difficulty of a trial. And we hope that Fr. Cuevas will spend a long time behind bars so he won’t be able to hurt others.

We also hope that next month, when Fr. Cuevas is sentenced, the parishioners who so loudly proclaimed his innocence will show up in court again, but this time supporting the victims, not the perpetrator.

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

AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Sandie Cornish
December 05, 2012

In an effort to encourage and support Catholics shaken by clergy sexual abuse scandals, Bishop Greg O’Kelly of Port Pirie wrote a pastoral letter to his people on 20 November. He rejected generalisations and inaccuarcies in some media reporting, insisted that responsibility for wrongdoing lies with ‘individuals within the Church’ rather than with ‘the Church’, and pointed to the good done by many church organisations.

Much of what Bishop O’Kelly says is true, but he misses the opportunity to examine the relationship between personal and collective responsibility. There is such a thing as social responsibility and the Catholic Social Teaching concept of structures of sin can help Catholics to understand and deal constructively with their shame.

Bishop O’Kelly objects to the assertion that ‘the Church’ has committed sexual crimes against children, shielded offenders or obscured police investigations, yet presents examples of ‘all the good that the Church continues to do’. I don’t think we can argue that ‘the Church’ is responsible when individuals and Catholic organisations do good things, but that ‘individuals within the Church’ are responsible when evil acts are committed.

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

AUSTRALIA
CathNews

The Bishop of Ballarat Paul Bird has welcomed tomorrow’s sitting of a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse and said he was committed to improved safety standards. reports The Courier.

Bishop Bird said priests, religious leaders and parishioners in the Ballarat Diocese had welcomed the inquiry and a forthcoming national royal commission as a chance for healing for the church and victims of abuse.

He said the church had changed its practices in dealing with “the tragedy of child sexual abuse”.

“It has been welcomed by many who want an independent look at what has happened, and as an exercise which will bring to light some important lessons,” he said. …

The Church is keeping the community informed about the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into child abuse through its website, www.facingthetruth.org.au. Readers can subscribe to receive updates including Fact Sheets and FAQs.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

As a result of the document leak scandal, each Vatican employee has now been given a swipe card with a microchip so that they can be traced at all times

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

Having greeted the Swiss Guard in his magnificent uniform, an impeccably dressed monsignor walks briskly past until his eyes catch sight of the two security barriers located beyond the marble door frame. And his heart sinks with disappointment: from 1 january, anyone who enters or exits will have to swipe their new magnetic ID cards which are fitted with a chip that makes it possible to locate the card’s owner at any time.

Vatican City, Apostolic Palace, frescoed corridor in the Third Loggia: security checks in the Secretariat of State, the Holy See’s control room, have been boosted. And not just in terms of the times when the building can be accessed. This is just one of the consequences of the Vatileaks scandal. Locked archives, more stringent checks on those who wish to view dossiers and the obligation to declare every document that is photocopied. The Holy See has introduced a set of new, tougher rules, which even apply to the few members of the papal household. The personal secretaries’ office has been declared off limits to prevent a repeat of the leaked document incident.

Next to the Pope’s study

The Pope’s secretaries, Georg Gänswein and Alfred Xuereb share an office that is adjacent to Benedict XVI’s study. In this office, apart from the photocopier, there was also a desk with a computer for the papal butler. Angelo Guger, the now retired papal butler who served three Popes, used it for small secretarial tasks assigned to him by Fr. Stanislao Dziwisz. This is where Paolo Gabriele, Benedict XVI’s former butler, made copies of the famous leaked confidential documents that were passed on to Fr. Georg when the Pope had finished reading them. Because of the Vatileaks scandal, not only is the new papal butler, Sandro Mariotti, also known as Sandrone, not given any secretarial tasks, he is forbidden from spending time in the secretaries’ office. Security has also been tightened with regards to the handling of documents that make their way from the Secretariat of State to the Pope’s desk. These documents are then returned to the Secretariat of State with any additional notes and the unmistakable “B16” the Pope adds in his own writing to all letters read by him personally.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Six months have passed since the IOR’s director Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was dismissed but the Vatican Bank is still without leader. His successor will not be Italian

ANDREA TORNIELLI
Vatican City

The IOR (Institute for Works of Religion) board, which is still leaderless having controversially dismissed its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, meets tomorrow. Vatican sources have confirmed that no announcement of a successor is expected any time soon and that the appointment of the new president – a long and well-thought out process – will take place in 2013.

The lay members of the Vatican bank are: German acting president, Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz, of Deutsche Bank; the American, Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus and one of the signatories of the accusation act against Gitti Tedeschi which was deliberately leaked to the papers; the Spaniard Manuel Soto Serrano of Banco Santander and Antonio Maria Marocco, a notary from the Italian city of Turin. Together, they will discuss future arrangements and ways in which to bring the IOR in line with international money laundering directives. No significant updates are expected, however, on the name of the new president. This will be another point that will be discussed during the meeting.

The past few months seem to have proven that the IOR functions just fine even without a president. A number of names ended up on the list of figures that could potentially succeed Gotti Tedeschi. The choice will be made very carefully: timing, prudence and careful evaluation are crucial and show how delicate a choice this will be and how much care the Vatican wishes to take in appointing the person for the job. The Vatican will have to choose a distinguished European figure of international standing and not an Italian. The person chosen will have to guide the bank out of the shallows, where it has remained for some time and at the same time use teamwork to guarantee the bank’s autonomy, making it less “Italian”.

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

CALIFORNIA
Long Beach Post

By Sarah Bennett | Wednesday, 05 December 2012

A Long Beach priest arrested in July on sexual assault charges pleaded no contest Tuesday to three sex-related charges involving a 17 year-old girl and two women.

Luis Jose Cuevas, 68, entered the plea to one felony count of committing a lewd act on a child and two misdemeanor sexual battery charges, according to Sandi Gibbons of the District Attorney’s Office.

Cuevas will be sententenced January 23 and faces lifetime registration as a sex offender, one year of sex offendor counseling, five years of formal probation and 40 hours of community service.

The case began in April, when the Long Beach Police Department received information from the two adult victims, who say they initially reported the incidents to the Archdiocese. After an investigation, during which the 17 year-old victim came forward, the Long Beach Police Department presented the case to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, which subsequently filed charges.

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

CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

[note: The Clergy Abuse Tracker also posted the story which turned out to be incorrect. The story has been withdrawn from the site.]

Posted by Joelle Casteix on December 3, 2012

The story this post was based on is incorrect. I am sorry for any confusion this post caused and pain that any victims may have suffered as a result.

I accept full responsibility.

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

DELAWARE
News Times

RANDALL CHASE, Associated Press

Updated 3:07 p.m., Wednesday, December 5, 2012

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware bankruptcy judge has granted motions filed by two former priests challenging the release of their personnel files as part of a settlement in the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington’s bankruptcy.

Charles Wiggins and Kenneth Martin both sought protective orders to prevent the diocese from releasing their files to members of a creditors committee for possible subsequent disclosure to the public.

Judge Christopher Sontchi on Tuesday issued one-page orders granting the motions, almost six months after hearing arguments behind closed doors and barring reporters from the courtroom.

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

OSTERREICH
Pressetext

Wien (pts028/05.12.2012/15:20) – Am 18. Dezember veranstaltet die überparteiliche Initiative “Heimkinder-Aktiv-Community” die erste Gedenkkundgebung der Betroffenen der kirchlichen und staatlichen Befürsorgung. Die Kundgebung findet in Wien statt. Die Missbrauchsfälle in Heimen sind nach umfangreicher Medienberichterstattung noch in aller Munde. Die entsetzliche Gewalt, insbesondere der sexuelle Missbrauch an Kindern durch Nonnen und Priester der katholischen Kirche, erschüttert die Welt.

Zur Zeit leben in Österreich über 11.000 Kinder in Heimen, von denen nach wie vor nicht alle ein Hort der guten und fürsorglichen Erziehung sind. Die Heimkinder Österreichs solidarisieren sich. Sie wurden in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten sexuell missbraucht, unter Druck gesetzt, gedemütigt, schwer gezüchtigt, zu schweren Arbeiten herangezogen, ohne Geld erhalten zu haben, um ihre Bildungsmöglichkeiten betrogen, ihrer Pensionsanteile beraubt, als ungewollte Menschen zweiter Klasse behandelt und für Humanversuche benutzt.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

Das wird die erste Veranstaltung, wo endlich wir am Wort sind“, sagt Johann Kailich. Der 65-Jährige ist einer der Organisatoren einer Demonstration ehemaliger Heimkinder, die am 18. Dezember vom Wiener Stephansplatz bis zum Parlament führen soll.

Das „Wir“ sind ehemalige Zöglinge von Heimen der Stadt Wien, anderer Bundesländer und der katholischen Kirche. Kailich ist vor allem ein Anliegen, das damalige Heimsystem aufzurollen. „Jedes Opfer einzeln zu entschädigen, hat keinen Sinn – eine Rente, eine Wiedergutmachung. Wir fordern, dass der Staat alle ehemaligen Heimkinder als Opfer anerkennt und abfindet.“ Es gebe „Zigtausende“, die sich noch nicht bei einer der Opferschutzkommissionen gemeldet haben. Die müssten von den offiziellen Stellen kontaktiert werden, fordert Kailich.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Click Manchester

by Mark Langshaw. Published Wed 05 Dec 2012

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have arrested a man from Trafford following reports of historic sexual abuse.

The 63-year-old suspect was taken into custody on suspicion of indecent assault and possession of indecent images relating to an incident in the early 1980s involving a 17-year-old pupil from St Ambrose RC College in Altrincham.

He has been bailed until 12th March next year, pending further inquiries.

GMP subsequently received reports of sexual abuse at the school dating back to the 1960s, so of which referred to incidents that took place on the premises, while others that took place off site are said to have involved members of staff.

Detective Inspector Jed Pidd, from Trafford’s Public Protection Investigation Unit (PPIU), said: “First and foremost I want to stress that we are looking at historical incidents.

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

BALTIMORE (MD)
About.com

By Austin Cline, About.com Guide
December 4, 2012

In Baltimore, Maryland, a teacher named John Joseph Merzbacher apparently not only raped pre-teen students, but did so in front of at least one nun who did nothing to help. This occurred in the 1970s but it wasn’t reported until the 1990s and it’s only hitting the public media now.

This is meaningful because it involves church officials who weren’t priests. Granted, the nuns themselves weren’t raping children (isn’t it disturbing that this has to be mentioned?), but at least one was (according to the reports) facilitating and covering up the rape of children.

This indicates that the problem with Catholic priests molesting and raping children while bishops facilitated it and covered it up isn’t a problem that can be traced solely to something in the Catholic priesthood. Something about the priesthood may have played a role, but it can’t be the only issue. Something else in the nature of Catholic Church power and institutional structures must be playing an important role as well.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Age

December 4, 2012

Judy Courtin

Victims were wronged by the Catholic church and governments too.

WITH a celebratory, yet very holy, time of the year approaching, it is time to reflect on the rapidly unfolding religious revolution in Australia.

This uprising is the stuff of the thousands of victims of Catholic clergy sex crimes, and their families. After decades of obstruction and further harm from a self-serving, dishonest and defiant church, these courageous people have rallied with their loud and clear collective voice.

This voice has finally overpowered what have previously been resistant federal governments, all of which have been shamefully beholden to the Catholic Church.

The national royal commission, announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, will indeed nourish this revolution.

While governments can be congratulated for taking a stand and doing the right thing, it is not for governments to politicise these matters or to demand the spotlight. The acclaim must go to those so badly and criminally wronged. Wronged primarily by the institution of the Catholic Church, but also by the inexcusable neglect and deaf ears of all governments over too many years. Governments should be hanging their heads in shame and saying sorry for past failures to act.

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

CANADA
The Chronicle Journal

North Shore Bureau

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Victims of Canada’s legacy of residential schools are expected to share their pain at two Truth and Reconciliation Commission forums to be held in Thunder Bay starting this morning.

The hearings “provide an opportunity for those affected by the Indian Residential School system and its legacy to share their experiences,” the commission said in a news release.

The hearings, which are often emotionally charged, are presided by one of three commissioners.
The forums in Thunder Bay are to be presided by Justice Murray Sinclair, Manitoba’s first aboriginal judge and a noted expert on aboriginal legal issues.

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

AUSTRALIA
Hobsons Bay Weekly

By GOYA DMYTRYSHCHAK
Dec. 4, 2012

VICTIM of paedophile Catholic priest Victor Rubeo has come forward to praise moves to change the Altona Meadows street name that honours the man she labels a ‘‘psychopathic monster’’.

Marie, who asked that only her first name be used, said she had written to Hobsons Bay Council in a bid to find out if Rubeo Avenue was named after the priest, who she says first abused her when she was five.

In October 1996, Rubeo pleaded guilty in the Ringwood Magistrates Court to two counts of indecent assault against Tony Hersbach and his twin brother Will, committed at Laverton in 1967 when the boys were 14. Rubeo, 78, died last December 16, the day he was meant to front a committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 30 new child sex abuse charges committed against the Hersbach twins.

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

AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

by Chris McGillion,Stephen Crittenden | Dec. 5, 2012

A statement by Australia’s Federal Attorney General Nicola Roxon that the national royal commission into child sex abuse should look into requiring Catholic priests to break the seal of confession in cases of serious sex offenses generated much discussion inside and outside the church, even as Roxon tried to downplay the issue.

Roxon, who is responsible for setting up the commission, said that of far more importance was the failure to report to police known cases of abuse and “open secrets” that came to the attention of priests and church authorities by means other than the confessional.

New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell said that priests hearing confessions of pedophilia should be subject to mandatory reporting. “I struggle to understand … that if a priest confesses to another priest that he’s been involved in pedophile activities, that that information should not be brought to police,’’ he told the state parliament.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said that she believes it is an issue that the royal commission should consider and one member of parliament has described the government’s recognition of the seal as a “medieval law that needs to change.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Messenger

By Kate Banks, Reporter

TOP Catholic school St Ambrose RC College in Hale Barns, is subject of a police investigation into historic sexual abuse, resulting in the arrest of a Trafford man.

Greater Manchester Police has confirmed that five former pupils have alleged they were abused by teachers between the early 1960s and early 1980s and more than one former staff member is being investigated, although it cannot currently confirm how many.

A 63-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault and possession of indecent images on November 9 and has been bailed pending further enquiries until March 12, 2013.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

An Altrincham school has released a statement after Greater Manchester Police arrested a man following a report of historic sexual abuse.

The alleged offences relate to an incident in the early 1980s, when the victim was 17 years old and a pupil at St Ambrose RC College at the time.

“”We are deeply concerned by the allegations and are cooperating fully with the police investigation.

“We note that the police have confirmed that no current teachers are involved and parents should have no undue concern.

“We have contemporary and rigorous child safeguarding policies, which we adhere to strictly and take extremely seriously.

“Our thoughts are with those who have made the allegations – but we can not comment further at this point.”
– St Ambrose RC College spokesperson

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MONTANA
Missoulian

Associated Press

HELENA – Attorneys for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena, an order of nuns and hundreds of alleged sex abuse victims said Tuesday they will try to hammer out a settlement during a mediation conference in April.

If the sides fail to reach a deal, the case will head to trial tentatively set for December of next year. Judge Jeffrey Sherlock would have to decide whether to hold individual or group trials for more than 300 plaintiffs.

That’s the number of people who have claimed they were abused as children by priests and nuns in western Montana. The claims go back as far as the 1940s.

The plaintiffs, many of them Native Americans, are from two combined lawsuits filed last year against the diocese and the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province. They contend the diocese and the nuns knew or should have known about the abuse, but covered it up instead of stopping it.

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WYOMING
KOTA Territory News

Updated: Dec 05, 2012

LANDER, Wyo. (AP) – Wyoming Catholic College officials say the Lander school’s chaplain has been fired amid allegations of improper conduct with students.

School spokesman Matthew Brasmer says the chaplain was dismissed effective Nov. 19.

The termination follows an internal investigation by the college, which revealed conduct and a pattern of behavior Brasmer called unacceptable as a Catholic college chaplain.

Lander Police Chief Jim Carey tells The Riverton Ranger (http://bit.ly/YMtkLc ) that his department is investigating but he declined to release details.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK – The mother of a teenage girl who is accusing a member of an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect of sexual abuse claims says she paid her daughter’s alleged abuser, Nechemya Weberman, $12,800 for “counseling” services that the girl’s school demanded she receive.

The woman testified Monday that her daughter’s Brooklyn school told her she had to send the then- 12-year-old girl to see Weberman – who was an unlicensed counselor – otherwise she’d be expelled from school, because she had questioned her teachers about their religion and had worn clothing that wasn’t modest enough.

Prosecutors say the girl was molested by Weberman, 54, for years. Defense attorneys say the counselor is the victim of a vindictive child, angry that he had betrayed her trust.

The case has been a crash course for jurors about the customs and rules in Weberman’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, home to about 250,000 followers and the largest such community outside Israel. His trial has rocked their insular, tight-knit group, not only because of the shocking charges but also because the case is being played out in a public court and its guarded society strongly discourages going to outside authorities.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Reports of historical sex abuse at a Catholic college in Greater Manchester are being investigated by police.

The alleged offences involved staff at boys-only St Ambrose RC College in Altrincham from the 1960s to 1980s.

A man, 63, from Trafford was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault and possession of indecent images in November and released on bail.

Police said current students should not be concerned, but asked former pupils with information to come forward.

The 63-year-old man was arrested over allegations of an incident in the early 1980s when the victim was a 17-year-old pupil.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Oren Yaniv / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

A once-respected Hasidic counselor accused of sexually assaulting a Brooklyn girl is expected to take the stand in his own defense Wednesday .

Nechemya Weberman, 54, is accused by the teenager of forcing her to perform oral sex and reenact porn during three years of spiritual counseling that started when she was 12.

Tuesday’s witnesses represented the torturous journey of the alleged victim — who turns 18 Wednesday — from a student who rebelled against the strict modesty rules at her Satmar school to a “depressed” teen who reported the purported abuse. In December 2010, social worker Sarah Fried testified in Brooklyn Supreme Court, the “very anxious” girl recounted her “trauma.”

“At the end of the session, she uttered the words ‘I was molested,’” Fried testified, “then ran out of the office.”

It wasn’t until February 2011 that the girl named Weberman – an accusation the defense contends was motivated by revenge upon learning the counselor set up her boyfriend to be arrested.

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COSTA MESA (CA)
The Orange County Register

By DEEPA BHARATH / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

COSTA MESA – Congregants at Rock Harbor church are dealing with a slew of emotions after four victims came forward saying that they were sexually abused by a Sunday school teacher.

Jeff Gideon, communications director for the church, said the congregation feels “shocked and betrayed.”

Christopher Bryan McKenzie Sr., 48, a pool cleaner and Sunday school teacher at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, was arrested on suspicion of lewd acts with a child after two men complained to Newport Beach police.

“Our whole community is just dealing with this betrayal and searching for answers at this point,” he said. “We are just flabbergasted by the fact that this happened in spite of all the policies and procedures we had put in place to ensure the safety and security of our families.”

Christopher Bryan McKenzie Sr., 48, a pool cleaner, was arrested Friday on suspicion of committing lewd acts on a child and distributing pornography to minors. According to court documents, McKenzie has now been charged with 10 felony counts of lewd acts upon a child under 14, four felony counts of using a minor for the distribution of obscene matter and two felony counts of distributing pornography to minors. In addition, he faces sentencing enhancement allegations for substantial sexual conduct with a child – including masturbation, oral copulation and sexual penetration – against more than one victim.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Pilot

By Jeremiah Dobruck

December 4, 2012

A Sunday school volunteer at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa allegedly formed relationships with boys in his congregation and went on to sexually abuse at least one of them multiple times between November 2009 and November 2011, according to a criminal complaint and interviews with church leaders.

These charges came to light after Newport Beach police announced Saturday that Christopher Bryan McKenzie, 48, of Costa Mesa, had been arrested for allegedly having years-long sexual relationships with two boys.

Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Herrera said two families came forward over the weekend with new allegations. The victims were as young as 8, she said.

Punishment In total, McKenzie is accused of inappropriate interaction with four boys, including substantial sexual contact on multiple occasions with three of them. He allegedly involved all of them in the production or distribution of obscene material.

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UTAH
Standard-Examiner

By Loretta Park
Standard-Examiner staff

Tue, 12/04/2012

FARMINGTON — A Centerville man entered not-guilty pleas to child sex abuse charges.

Timothy William Bothell, 43, appeared in 2nd District Court on Tuesday. 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. Another hearing is set for Dec. 18.

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 occurred between Dec. 1, 2011, and Aug. 9, 2012.

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