ABUSE TRACKER

NEW ZEALAND
Radio New Zealand

A group that investigates church-related sexual abuse says clergymen from New Zealand are among those that Australian police want to interview.

The federal government is setting up a Royal Commission to investigate how institutions including schools, foster homes and churches have handled accusations of abuse.

The Catholic church in New Zealand says its officials will investigate the handling of a paedophile priest who came from Australia to Hamilton in the 1980s.

But John McNally of Broken Rites, a support group in Australia, says that case is the tip of the iceberg, and the police want to talk to some members of the Catholic order, St John of God.

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AUSTRALIA
Armidale Express

By Jane Lee
Nov. 14, 2012

THE royal commission into child abuse will expose hundreds more victims who have been attacked in state care to the present day, victims’ advocates say.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a federal royal commission into child abuse on Monday, bowing to pressure surrounding the Victorian inquiry and the New South Wales government’s announcement of a special commission in the Hunter region.

While the government has yet to release its terms of reference, Ms Gillard said it would not be limited to the Catholic church, and would cover a range of institutions including state authorities, boy scouts and sports groups.

The Victorian inquiry faced criticism that it was only charged with investigating religious and non-government organisations, not public orphanages or children’s homes.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Pat Power
November 13, 2012

The Prime Minister took the only course open to her in agreeing to a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in our country. There has been more than enough media coverage to convince any fair-minded person of the terrible damage done through the abuse of children.

Over the past 20 years I have listened to people who have suffered such abuse, sometimes many years ago, and every time I hear a heartrending story I see another facet of the horror of this criminal behaviour.

The loss of childhood innocence, the secrecy which means little ones carry a burden they can share with no one, the misguided sense of guilt they often carry for many years, blaming themselves for what someone else has done to them, their shame before God; all of which may be compounded at times when they do try to unburden their troubled souls and find they are not believed or understood.

Some experience failed marriages; speaking to such people it becomes clear that sexuality, which is meant to be God’s joyous gift, has been a source of confusion and hurt because of their destructive childhood experiences. Every person’s experience will be different, but I believe the present publicity, painful though it be, will give more people the opportunity to unburden themselves and thus take the first steps towards finding healing and peace.

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AUSTRALIA
Stock & Land

RACHEL OLDING

14 Nov, 2012

TONY HERSBACH and his son were in their kitchen on Monday evening putting in some timber fittings when they heard Julia Gillard announce on the radio a royal commission into institutional child abuse.

Mr Hersbach, 59, was overwhelmed. He was elated, terrified, satisfied and exhausted. It has been more than 40 years since his parish priest, the man who assumed the role of surrogate father, repeatedly molested him. He is still waiting for the truth.

”That’s what I’ve struggled with for so many years,” he said. ”That the whole story has never come out. I’m still trying to get the church to admit what they did. I’m still trying to get over what happened. It affects me every single day.”

Father Victor Gabriel Rubeo sexually abused Mr Hersbach when he was 11 years old until he was 18 at a house in Laverton in Melbourne’s west.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Becky Ianni on November 12, 2012

Is there any crime a bishop can commit that would get him kicked out of America’s bishops group? Or even denounced by one of his fellow bishops? That’s what we can’t help but wonder.

At least three men will be at today’s bishops meeting who, we believe, shouldn’t be. We think they should have voluntarily stayed home. Or, even better, we think they should have been disinvited by their brother bishops. Why? Because when we ignore wrongdoing, we encourage wrongdoing.

Who are these three?

One (KC Bishop Robert Finn), just last month, was criminally convicted of keeping evidence of child sex crimes from police for months.

Another one (Archbishop Thomas Wenski), also just last month, finally suspended a priest from his parish after the fourth man filed the fourth civil lawsuit against the priest.

And the third (Bishop Daniel Conlon), back in September, abruptly and inexplicably announced that he was putting a credibly accused priest, back on the job even though the priest had been suspended for child sex abuse allegations. Ironically, and sadly, that bishop heads the USCCB child sex abuse committee.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Chichester People

Right Reverend Peter Ball, 80-years-old, the former Bishop of Lewes has been arrested on suspcision of sex abuse.

The former Bishop of Lewes and Gloucester, was arrested at his home in Langport, Somerset on suspicion of abusing eight boys and men in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.

Vickery House, 67-years-old, was also arrested near his home in Haywards Heath in West Sussex. The retired Church of England priest was arrested for two sexual offences involving two teenage boys in East Sussex between 1981 and 1983.

The arrests follow a review and subsequent inquiry over the past six months by a team of Sussex Police detectives.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY
Nov. 14, 2012

MAITLAND-Newcastle Bishop Bill Wright has formally apologised to three women – including a former nun – who were sexually harassed or assaulted by the late priest Terry Sylvester.

The bishop has confirmed the allegations about the priest’s offences against a nun after it was revealed by the Newcastle Herald in September. The public apology came after parishes across the diocese at the weekend were read a statement from the bishop, at his direction, that criticised the Herald for ‘‘misrepresenting’’ facts.

In a lengthy statement, Bishop Wright confirmed the diocese accepted that Father Sylvester had engaged in ‘‘a pattern of verbal harassment and a single incident of physical harassment of a sexual nature against an adult person’’ in the late 1970s.

The Herald has a document identifying the ‘‘adult person’’ as a Hunter nun. The matter was not reported to police.

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UNITED KINGDOM
AFP

LONDON — A retired Church of England bishop was among two clergymen arrested on Tuesday by police investigating allegations of sex abuse dating back three decades.

Peter Ball, 80, the former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester, is being held on suspicion of abusing eight boys and young men aged from 12 to their early 20s in the late 1980s and 1990s.

A 67-year-old retired priest, named by British media as Vickery House, was also detained at his home on suspicion of separate sex offences against two teenage boys between 1981 and 1983, Sussex Police said.

The abuse is alleged to have taken place in East Sussex in southern England.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Retired Church of England bishop, 80, arrested by police over historic child sex abuse allegations at scandal-hit Diocese

By Steve Nolan

Police investigating historic child sex allegations in a scandal-hit diocese arrested a retired Church of England bishop today.

Peter Ball, 80, was arrested at his home in Langport, Somerset, on suspicion of eight sex offences against eight boys and young men aged between 12 and their early twenties in the late Eighties and Nineties, sources said.

The offences are alleged to have taken place in East Sussex and elsewhere within the diocese of Chichester.

Rev Ball, former bishop of Lewes and later Gloucester, has connections with Prince Charles whom he has described in the past as a ‘loyal friend’.

He is thought to be the highest member of the clergy to be arrested in connection with a sex abuse investigation.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Police have arrested a retired Church of England bishop and a retired priest in an investigation of alleged child sex abuse in the diocese of Chichester.

Britain’s Press Association said 80-year-old retired bishop Peter Ball was arrested at his home on suspicion of eight offenses with young men in the 1980s and 1990s. Police would not identify the suspect, but when asked about Ball, police said the force arrested an 80-year-old at his home on suspicion of sex offenses.

British police do not generally identify suspects under arrest by name until they are charged.

Police confirmed that a 67-year-old priest also was arrested on suspicion of abuses in 1981 and 1983. He was not identified.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Digital Journal

By Steve Hayes
Nov 13, 2012

Langport – A retired bishop of the Church of England has been arrested by police investigating allegations of child sexual abuse. He was arrested at his home this morning on suspicion of eight separate offences.

As the Guardian points out, the Right Reverend Peter Ball is thought to be the most senior member of the Church of England to have been arrested in connection with a child sexual abuse inquiry. He was arrested on suspicion of offences against eight boys and young men, ranging in age from twelve to their early twenties. The offences are alleged to have been committed during the 1980s and 1990s.

Bishop Ball was the former bishop of Gloucester. He resigned in 1993, as This Is The West Country notes, after receiving a police caution for committing an act of gross indecency against a teenager.

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UNITED STATES
Voice of the Faithful

Bishop Robert Finn of Missouri stands convicted of covering up for a priest caught with thousands of images involving “child sex” on his computer. That this is a travesty is an understatement. That he has not resigned or been removed or even censured by his brother bishops is abhorrent. As U.S. bishops gather for their Fall General Assembly, Sept 12-15, in Baltimore, Bishop Finn’s situation appears not to have made the agenda.

Bishop Finn’s conviction is the most significant example of how Roman Catholic bishops have exempted themselves from the requirement to follow their Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. Over the decade since this Dallas Charter was adopted, bishops have failed to report allegations of clergy sexual abuse, have kept accusations from their own review boards, and in at least one instance, have simply decided that the Charter does not apply to them at all. The U.S. bishops’ own National Review Board, which conducts audits to ensure bishops are carrying out the Charter guidelines, even warned them against “complacency or Charter drift” in its June 13, 2012, 10-year report.

Although Voice of the Faithful® is disappointed at the relative inaction on this issue by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at previous national meetings, we call for them to act immediately at their present Fall General Assembly by doing the following, which would put teeth into fraternal correction and make the USCCB position on child protection absolutely clear:
•When USCCB learns a bishop has engaged in activity that would be prohibited by the Charter, or
•When USCCB learns a bishop has disregarded the principles of the Charter and has failed to take the actions required by the Charter, or
•When USCCB learns a bishop has made public statements indicating his disagreement with the Charter’s principles or his unwillingness to take the action the Charter requires,

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BALTIMORE (MD)
National Catholic Reporter

by Jerry Filteau | Nov. 13, 2012

Baltimore —
Portents of a major social justice conflict among the U.S. bishops rose on the first day of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ annual fall meeting Monday when retired Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, Texas, denounced a proposed pastoral statement on workers, poverty and the economy as a betrayal of Catholic social teaching.

If approved in its draft form, the statement would be “lampooned” in the Catholic academic world, he said.

Fiorenza, a former USCCB president, said the proposed statement devotes only one short sentence to the long history of Catholic social teaching on workers’ rights to organize in unions, to bargain collectively with their employers and to go on strike if their demands for just wages and working conditions are not met.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Diocese of Chichester, Church of England

The Diocese of Chichester can confirm that two men, a retired Bishop aged 80 and a retired priest aged 67, were arrested this morning, Tuesday the 13th November, by detectives from Sussex Police. These arrests relate to allegations of sexual abuse in the 1980s and 1990s. We can confirm that the retired Bishop has had no ministry in Sussex for many years and no longer lives in this area. The retired priest has had his Permission to Officiate suspended.

These arrests occur as part of an investigation in which the Diocese of Chichester has been working closely with Sussex Police. We have also been working closely with Elizabeth Hall, the National Safeguarding Adviser for the Church of England, and Kate Wood, the safeguarding consultant appointed by the Church of England to compile a file of evidence that was handed to Sussex Police in May.

Our cooperation with Sussex police in this investigation continues our ongoing commitment to do all that is necessary to bring any alleged criminal matters to the attention of the public authorities, and to ensure that the Diocese of Chichester is a safe place for all in our church communities, whilst being an unsafe place for any who may seek to abuse them.

A special helpline has been set up for anyone who feels they need support or advice whenever learning of this or any similar cases. The helpline is staffed by the NSPCC and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Calls will be handled sensitively and confidentially. Where appropriate, callers will be referred to specially trained police officers and, if required, a range of counselling services, who are able to offer expert support to those who come forward. Funding is available for counselling for people who are directly affected by these events.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Solihull News

Nov 13 2012

A retired Church of England bishop is among two clergymen arrested by police investigating historic allegations of child sex abuse within the scandal-hit Diocese of Chichester.

Peter Ball, 80, was held at his home near Langport, Somerset, on suspicion of eight sex offences against eight boys and young men aged from 12 to their early 20s in East Sussex and elsewhere in the late 1980s and 1990s, sources said.

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AUSTRALIA
Brimbank Weekly

By Mark Russell
Nov. 13, 2012

A FORMER Catholic priest has appeared in court today accused of sexually abusing boys at the Salesian College Rupertswood in Sunbury.

David Edwin Rapson, 59, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court charged with one count of rape, five counts of indecent assault, four counts of indecently assaulting a child under 16, and one count of gross indecency between 1973 to 1990.

Rapson had been a teacher and former vice-principal at Rupertswood.

Prosecutor Anne Hassan told the court the charges against Rapson involved seven complainants who had been aged in their early teens at the time of the alleged abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Deborah Gough
Nov. 13, 2012

COUNSELLING over sex abuse is being sought for children in Catholic and non-Catholic schools, and the royal commission announced this week can expect to hear about current as well as historic cases, a Melbourne clinical psychologist has said.

While Cardinal George Pell, leader of the Archdiocese of Sydney, on Tuesday continued to describe the instances of child sex abuse as “historic”, psychologist Andrew Fuller said he was treating children who had suffered abuse at Catholic schools recently.

“Kids from all types of schools suffer; there is all sorts of abuse,” Mr Fuller said.

“It is pretty horrendous. It is certainly something that has occurred recently. A royal commission is something I would support, but I do think it is almost a bottomless pit,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

By Rashida Yosufzai
From: AAP
November 13, 2012

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has become emotional telling parliament that he doesn’t understand how Catholic priests who admit to paedophilia in confession aren’t reported to police.

His remarks follow a press conference called by Cardinal George Pell in Sydney in response to the federal government’s announcement of a royal commission.

Australia’s most senior Catholic told reporters “the Seal of Confession is inviolable” even if a priest confesses to child sex abuse.

“I heard Cardinal Pell today indicate that the bonds of the confessional remain intact,” an emotional Mr O’Farrell told question time.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From:The Australian
November 14, 2012

THE Catholic Bishop of Newcastle, whose northern NSW diocese has allegedly experienced some of the worst child sex abuse, said it was possible a pedophile ring once existed among its clergy.

Bishop Bill Wright said his staff had “tried to join the dots” between individual abusive priests.

“One priest who was abusing someone was in a parish next to another priest who turned out to be an abuser. Or one known abuser contributing funds to the defence of another known abuser,” Bishop Wright said.

“We’ve not exactly been able to join those dots. What we haven’t got is evidence of them passing victims around, what you would call a ring. It’s possible.”

The Maitland-Newcastle diocese has paid out at least $15 million in settlements to more than 100 victims, while unofficial estimates put the total number of victims at hundreds more.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

A BROTHER at a Sydney Catholic school has become the latest member of the Church charged with child molestation.

Patrician Brothers College Blacktown Brother Martin Harmata did not appear in Wyong Court this morning after being arrested on the NSW Central Coast yesterday evening.

The 59-year-old allegedly molested two boys aged 12 and 13 in his care during the late 1980s.

Both children were in Harmata’s care at the time and police will allege that all incidents occurred on school grounds.

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AUSTRALIA
CNN

By Monica Attard for CNN

updated 12:21 AM EST, Tue November 13, 2012

Sydney, Australia (CNN) — In Ireland it took years to weed out the details of systemic sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy.

In Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has put no time limit on what will be the most wide-ranging inquiry into child sex abuse in the nation’s history — one that will not be confined to the Catholic Church.

As she announced the establishment of a Royal Commission into institutional responses to instances and allegations of child sex abuse, Gillard said the inquiry would not target any one church but would encompass all religious institutions, state institutions, schools and not-for-profit groups like scouts and sports clubs.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Karl Stagno-Navarra

Addressing the media outside the law courts soon after he witnessed defrocked priests Godwin Scerri and Carmelo Pulis be escorted to jail in a prison van, Lawrence Grech – who had put his face to the cases against the two priests – said that he was not going to forgive them.

“I will not forgive,” Grech said, adding that “government must now insist with the Archbishop’s Curia to transfer all the files it has on many other victims to the Police, just across the road, so that they would be thoroughly investigated.”

Grech, who according to Judge David Scicluna who presided over the Court of Criminal Appeal was the subject of “blatant contradictions” and at times “lied” in his evidence, cried when he was asked how he felt when he saw Pulis and Scerri being handcuffed and taken to prison.

“I regarded Fr. Pulis as my father…what can I say, I am saddened,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

Megan Levy
Breaking news reporter

A senior detective who blew the whistle on an alleged police cover-up of sex abuse in the Catholic Church said he had received threatening messages on police letterhead since speaking out on an issue that he acknowledged would end his career in the force.

But after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a sweeping royal commission into child sex abuse on Monday, Detective Inspector Peter Fox said he felt vindicated and satisfied that the thousands of voices of abuse victims would finally be heard.

The senior investigator’s explosive allegations on Lateline last week – that the Catholic Church had covered up crimes of paedophile priests and silenced police investigations in the Newcastle-Hunter area of New South Wales – helped to trigger the royal commission, which will probe organisations ranging from church and state authorities to the Boy Scouts and sports groups.

Detective Inspector Fox said the royal commission was a “wonderful result”. He said the push for the inquiry had affected him and his family, including his wife, who suffered a nervous break-down after receiving threatening letters.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

November 13, 2012

Noel Towell

More than 100 Canberra men have come forward saying they were abused while at school at two Canberra Catholic colleges between the 1970s and 1990s.

Lawyers acting for the victims say the national royal commission announced by the Prime Minister on Monday was the only acceptable response to the legacy of institutional sexual abuse.

Jason Parkinson, of Porters Lawyers, has taken legal action throughout Australia against the Catholic and Presbyterian churches as well as the Salvation Army and the Church of England on behalf of victims.

He says the inquiry had to be nationwide to cope with the ”Chinese walls” erected by institutions to avoid legal responsibility. Mr Parkinson said the scale of abuse of his clients, former students at Catholic schools Marist College and Daramalan College between 1976 and 2000, had left many of the city’s young people ”terribly scarred”.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

November 13, 2012

David Ellery

Victims of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church and their families have paid a “devastating” price for misconduct by some clergy and church workers, according to the former Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Francis Carroll.

Bishop Carroll, who held the See from 1983 to 2006, said the actions of a relatively small number of people had also damaged the church and seriously undermined the morale of many other members of the clergy.

“I can personally attest that many good clergy are horrified by what has occurred,” he said.

Bishop Carroll, who now lives in Wagga Wagga, but maintains close ties with his former diocese, has welcomed Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement of a royal commission into sex abuse – as long as it is thorough.

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UNITED STATES
Minnesota SNAP

By Vinnie Nauheimer

The Catholic Hierarchy lost more in this past election than Mitt Romney ever could. The sin of hypocrisy has caught up with and trampled the power of what once was a powerful voice in American politics: the hierarchy of the American Roman Catholic Church. The bishops played their final hand in American politics and came up woefully short, aces and eights: the dead mans hand. Catholic bishops were undeniably roundly, soundly, and publicly rebuked in a fashion that was equal to the effort they expended to influence the election. Whether the hierarchy accepts it or not, they will now be consigned to pages of the volume: No Longer Politically Relevant.

Can bishops be politically significant to national politics when they can’t influence their own parishioners? They can’t. Bishops along with their pundits loudly proclaimed their ability to hold sway over the Catholic population of between sixty to seventy million Catholics in the United States, but as this election proved to the world, they couldn’t deliver a pizza without a GPS.

Only a few years ago, Bishop Chaput, Archbishop of Denver, was able to rally Colorado Catholics as a block to defeat a revision of the Statute of Limitations Bill that would have made it easier for victims of Clergy Abuse to recover damages from their abusers and the church that protected them. This year Colorado was one of only two states that passed a bill legalizing marijuana.

Not since the days of the Legion of Decency have the bishops been so vocal. In those days they utilized all the media in their efforts to prevent scandalous movies like Baby Doll or Lolita from being viewed by Catholics under the pain of sin. Below are some of the numerous exhortations voiced against Obama by bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

A retired Church of England bishop is one of two clergymen arrested by police investigating historic allegations of child sex abuse in East Sussex this morning (November 13).

Former Bishop of Lewes Peter Ball, 80, is being held at his Somerset home on suspicion of eight sex offences against eight boys and young men aged between 12 and their early 20s.

The abuse is alleged to have taken place in East Sussex and elsewhere in the late 1980s and 1990s.

An unnamed 67-year-old retired priest, has also been detained at his home near Haywards Heath, West Sussex, on suspicion of separate sex offences against two teenage boys in East Sussex between 1981 and 1983.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Shoreham Herald

Published on Tuesday 13 November 2012

AN 80-year-old man was arrested today (Tuesday, November 13) on suspicion of eight sexual offences committed against eight boys and young men.

The man was arrested at his home near Langport, Somerset.

The alleged offences, involving victims ranging in age from 12 to their early 20s, took place at addresses in East Sussex and elsewhere during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

A 67-year old man was also arrested at his home address near Haywards Heath today on suspicion of two separate sexual offences against two teenage boys in East Sussex between 1981 and 1983.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – A former Church of England bishop was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of sexually assaulting boys as young as 12, police said, the latest public figure to be accused after weeks of child abuse claims that have engulfed the BBC and celebrities.

Separate police investigations into the late television presenter Jimmy Savile have fuelled a national abuse scandal that has dominated public debate and provoked a bout of national soul searching.

Police said Peter Ball, 80, was held in western England on suspicion of sex offences against eight boys and young men, aged from 12 to their early 20s, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was a bishop in Lewes, southern England, and Gloucester, in the southwest.

A woman who answered the telephone at his house in Somerset, southwest England, declined to comment on the arrest.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Religion News Service | By Daniel Burke Posted: 11/13/2012

(RNS) Three Catholic bishops met with leaders of the American nuns’ group they are tasked with overhauling in an “open and cordial” meeting on Sunday (Nov. 11), according to a joint statement.

Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle led the bishops’ discussion with four officials from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, including its new president, Sister Florence Deacon.

Citing doctrinal deficiencies, the Vatican asked Sartain in April to rein in the LCWR, which represents about 80 percent of 56,000 American nuns. The nuns have disputed the Vatican’s assessment, and have called for additional dialogue with the hierarchy to resolve their differences.

Sunday’s meeting “was open and cordial and those present agreed to meet again to continue the conversation,” Sartain and Deacon said in a joint 88-word statement. A spokeswoman for the LCWR declined to say what topics were discussed or when future meetings might be held.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Tom Pugh

Tuesday 13 November 2012

A retired Church of England bishop was among two clergymen arrested by police investigating historic allegations of child sex abuse within the scandal-hit Diocese of Chichester.

Peter Ball, 80, was held at his home near Langport, Somerset, on suspicion of eight sex offences against eight boys and young men aged from 12 to their early 20s in East Sussex and elsewhere in the late 1980s and 1990s, sources said.

A second man, an unnamed 67-year-old retired priest, was also detained at his home this morning near Haywards Heath, West Sussex, on suspicion of separate sex offences against two teenage boys in East Sussex between 1981 and 1983, Sussex Police said.

The arrests follow a review and subsequent inquiry over the past six months by a team of Sussex Police detectives.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

November 14, 2012

Phillip Coorey
Sydney Morning Herald chief political correspondent

When Prime Minister Julia Gillard walked into cabinet at 4pm on Monday, she had already decided to hold a broad-ranging royal commission into the sexual abuse of children.

Her decision crystallised earlier that day after consultations with senior colleagues, including Treasurer Wayne Swan and Environment Minister Tony Burke.

Inside cabinet, there was no resistance. The Minister for Workplace Relations, Bill Shorten, was a little put out, according to cabinet sources, only because he would be embarrassed.

On Friday, with Gillard in Indonesia, Shorten had wanted to back calls for a royal commission after revelations about the systemic abuse and cover-ups by the Catholic Church in the Hunter Valley. But the ”line” from the Prime Minister’s office that day was to dead-bat calls for a commission until Gillard returned home.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

November 14, 2012

Jack Waterford

The religious institutions have largely passed through the gauntlets that are child abuse investigations. Government has yet to do so.

The Catholic Church is inevitably the main target of the inquiry into sexual abuse of children. It pretty much deserves what it has had so far, and what it will get, but my bet is that it will emerge from the long inquisition ahead in far better shape than some of the other institutions under scrutiny, including government itself. This inquiry could be a big own goal.

Julia Gillard has yet to settle the terms of reference for the commission, but she has already made it clear that it will extend beyond the Catholic Church to other religious and civic bodies, and possibly schools, which have been given the charge of children. That was the condition on which Tony Abbott, and to an extent Catholic prelates, agreed to manifest a faint enthusiasm for the project.

The inquiry could take ages, every now and again sending a great fizz of sparks across the political horizon. Some will come from accounts of abuse – in orphanages, schools and other children’s institutions. Some will be from amazement at some of those who engaged in abuse, and at their brazenness.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Cardinal George Pell refuses to name priests who admit in the confessional that they are paedophiles

CARDINAL George Pell has refused to name and shame priests who admit in the confessional that they are paedophiles.

Cardinal Pell yesterday welcomed the royal commission into sexual abuse and said he would front the commission if called on – but openly advised priests to avoid hearing confessions of sexual abuse from fellow priests to help preserve the sanctity of the confessional.

He also claimed there had been a “smearing” of the Catholic Church.

The Government released details of the royal commission, which it said would begin work early next year, amid concerns from MPs that the scope of the inquiry, which could last 10 years, was possibly too broad to get a significant result for abused children.

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AUSTRALIA
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The President and Permanent Committee of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, on behalf of the Australian Bishops, have given their support to the announcement by the Prime Minister of a Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

Below the full text of statement released by Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Monday:

“This is a serious issue not just for the Catholic Church but for the whole community. As Catholic bishops and as individuals we share the feelings of horror and outrage which all decent people feel when they read the reports of sexual abuse and allegations of cover ups.

Over the past 20 years, there have been major developments in the way the Church responds to victims, deals with perpetrators and puts in place preventive measures. In addition, there is a much greater general awareness of the issue of paedophilia in the broader community. Sexual abuse of children is not confined to the Catholic Church. Tragically, it occurs in families, churches, community groups, schools and other organisations. We believe a Royal Commission will enable an examination of the issues associated with child abuse nationally, and identify measures for better preventing and responding to child abuse in our society. We have taken decisive steps in the past 20 years to make child safety a priority and to help victims of abuse. This includes working closely with police.

While there were significant problems concerning some dioceses and some religious orders, talk of a systemic problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is ill-founded and inconsistent with the facts. To assist in determining the appropriate scope of the Royal Commission, it would be very useful for police and child protection authorities to release the information they have about the number of cases they are dealing with now and the situations which they have arisen: families, government organisations and non-government organisations, including churches. In NSW it would also be helpful to highlight when the offences occurred and, in particular, whether they occurred pre or post the Wood Royal Commission in the 1990s, and the rigorous child protection regime put in place after it.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

THE former Bishop of Lewes was arrested this morning on suspicion of sex abuse dating back more than 20 years ago.

The Right Reverend Peter Ball is being held on suspicion of eight sexual offences committed against eight boys and young men, ranging in age from 12 to the early twenties, at addresses in East Sussex. Police say the offences date back to the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The news coincides with the arrest at his home in Haywards Heath this morning of retired Church of England priest, Vickery House. The 67-year-old was arrested on suspicion of two separate sexual offences against two teenage boys in East Sussex between 1981 and 1983.

Both have been detained in Somerset and Sussex respectively, for interview and further enquiries by Sussex Police officers. Police have stressed that the allegations against the two men were being dealt with separately.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

November 14, 2012

Its terms of reference have yet to be officially decided, but the royal commission into sexual abuse in institutions run by governments, churches and community has already been given a potentially wide brief by the Prime Minister. In announcing the inquiry on Monday, Julia Gillard declared there would be no deadline for completion, and that ”victims must be allowed to heal, and perpetrators must be brought to justice”.

These are lofty ambitions, certainly, but many of the victims and their families are likely to be profoundly appreciative. Like a good many other countries, the abuse of children and young adults within institutions has been longstanding and widespread in Australia.

The shame, betrayal and confusion felt by the victims meant that not all of these incidents were reported. Those that were – either to senior church authorities or the police – were frequently denied by the perpetrators and their accomplices after the fact.

To protect the reputation of their churches, senior clergy members have conspired in cover-ups or actively frustrated police investigations.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Shannon Deery
From:Herald Sun
November 15, 2012

VICTIMS of child sexual abuse in Melbourne’s Jewish community are being ordered by religious leaders not to report incidents to police.

Jewish community insiders say Melbourne’s ultra-Orthodox Chabad community has banded together to cover up cases of sexual abuse.

Sources have also accused Jewish leaders of intimidating victims, their families and supporters and threatening to expel them from the tight-knit community.

One of the global Chabad community’s most senior figures has categorically warned at least one victim he could not report allegations of abuse to police, the Herald Sun has confirmed.

The senior rabbi, who was a leader in education for several decades within the Australian Chabad movement, said doing so would ruin the alleged perpetrator’s life and would amount to “grave sin” under Jewish law.

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AUSTRALIA
Blacktown Advocate

Patrician Brothers Blacktown former Brother Martin Harmata and teacher charged over child sex abuse

by BEN McCLELLAN and AAP

A FORMER Patrician Brothers Catholic Brother, Martin Harmata, and teacher who both allegedly sexually abused the same 13-year-old boy did so on separate occasions and were not working together, the head of an investigation into the 25-year-old allegations said today.

The two men were charged on Monday night with numerous child sex offences allegedly committed against an eight-year-old girl in 1985 and two 13-year-old boys in 1987.

All three were allegedly abused on school grounds at the Blacktown college and a Lalor Park primary school.

Sex Crimes squad Acting Superintendent Michael Haddow dismissed allegations from a former priest an alleged paedophile ring was operating at Patrician Brothers, but investigations were continuing and he didn’t rule out further arrests.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A retired Church of England bishop was among two clergymen arrested by Sussex Police investigating historic allegations of child sex abuse within the scandal-hit Diocese of Chichester, according to sources.

Peter Ball, 80, was arrested at his home near Landport, Somerset, on suspicion of eight sexual offences committed against boys and young men during the late 1980s and late 1990s, sources said.

A second man, aged 67, was also arrested this morning at his home near Haywards Heath, West Sussex, on suspicion of separate sexual offences against two teenage boys in East Sussex between 1981 and 1983.

Sussex Police confirmed arrests have been made but did not reveal the identity of the suspects.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Detective Chief Inspector Carwyn Hughes of Sussex Police, who is in charge of the investigation into historic allegations of child abuse at the Chichester Diocese, said the allegations are being treated “just as seriously as any more recent offences”.

“The Church of England, including the Diocese of Chichester, are co-operating fully with police.

Although the matters referred to are still subject of police investigation, Sussex Police make it clear that the force will always take seriously any allegations of historic sexual offending, and every possible step will be taken to investigate whenever appropriate.

– Detective Chief Inspector Carwyn Hughes of Sussex Police

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Robert Booth
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 November 2012

Detectives investigating complaints of sexual abuse in the Church of England have arrested a retired bishop on suspicion of eight sexual offences against eight boys and young men ranging in age from 12 to early 20s.

Officers from the Sussex police serious crime directorate involved in a six-month investigation into historic allegations at the diocese of Chichester arrested the Rt Rev Peter Ball, former bishop of Lewes and later bishop of Gloucester, on Tuesday morning at his home address near Landport, Somerset.

Ball is thought to be the most senior figure in the church to be arrested in connection with a sex abuse investigation. The bishop, now 80, has connections to Prince Charles, whom he has described in the past as “a loyal friend”.

Police also arrested a 67-year old retired priest at his home address near Haywards Heath on suspicion of two separate sexual offences against two teenage boys in East Sussex between 1981 and 1983.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Harlow Star

A retired Church of England bishop is among two clergymen arrested by police investigating historic allegations of child sex abuse within the scandal-hit Diocese of Chichester.

Peter Ball, 80, was held at his home near Langport, Somerset, on suspicion of eight sex offences against eight boys and young men aged from 12 to their early 20s in East Sussex and elsewhere in the late 1980s and 1990s, sources said.

A second man, an unnamed 67-year-old retired priest, was also detained at his home near Haywards Heath, West Sussex, on suspicion of separate sex offences against two teenage boys in East Sussex between 1981 and 1983, Sussex Police said.

The arrests follow a review and subsequent inquiry over the past six months by a team of Sussex Police detectives.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor
11:50AM GMT 13 Nov 2012

The Rt Rev Peter Ball, 80, who served as the Bishop of Lewes and later Bishop of Gloucester, was arrested at his home in Somerset, on suspicion of eight sex offences against eight boys and young men.

The alleged victims were aged from 12 to their early 20s in the late 1980s and 1990s when the offences allegedly took place in Sussex.

A second man, named by sources as the Rev Vickery House, 67, was also detained at his home this morning near Haywards Heath, West Sussex, on suspicion of separate sex offences against two teenage boys in East Sussex between 1981 and 1983, Sussex Police said.

It comes after a six month inquiry into allegations of abuse centering on the diocese of Chichester by a team of Sussex Police detectives.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 14, 2012

Gerard Henderson
Executive director, The Sydney Institute

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard’s, decision to establish a royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has received overwhelmingly public support. We know, on the available evidence, that the wide-ranging and expensive inquiry will focus on past crimes and whether people in authority, in Gillard’s terminology, ”averted their eyes” with respect to abusers.

We also know, on the available evidence, that indigenous children in some Aboriginal communities are being sexually assaulted in 2012. Despite the efforts of Commonwealth, state and territory authorities, these crimes continue. Moreover, regrettably, there is scant public outrage about this contemporary abuse.

Sections of the media have focused on the Catholic Church’s deplorable inability in the past century to stop the crimes of some priests and some brothers with respect to primarily male children.

However, as the Jesuit priest Frank Brennan said on Lateline, the Catholic Church reformed its handling of sex abuse allegations in 1996. Soon after Pell became Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, he set up the Melbourne Response, which was aimed at confronting abuse of children by clerics and assisting victims.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Tory Shepherd
news.com.au
November 13, 2012

SOME priests think pedophilia does not “break celibacy” and that sins can be confessed away, one of the nation’s top child protection experts says.

Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs, who has just published a seminal text on child protection, says sexual abuse by a priest is “the most damaging of all” for children and that the Catholic Church is guilty of forgiving priests instead of punishing them.

Her comments come after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a sweeping federal royal commission into institutional child sex abuse, which was sparked by revelations of abuse within the Catholic Church.

Asked whether Catholic celibacy was a possible contributor to child sex abuse, Prof Briggs told news.com.au celibacy was not the problem “for men who are sexually attracted to children” anyway.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Defiant Cardinal George Pell says sex abuse royal commission will ‘separate fact from fiction’

CARDINAL George Pell says priests who hear confessions from colleagues who commit child sex abuse should remain bound by the Seal of Confession.

Addressing the media in Sydney in relation to the royal commission into child sex abuse, Cardinal Pell explained church protocol for priests who confess to child sex abuse to another priest.

“If that is done outside the confessional (it can be passed on),” he said.

“(But) the Seal of Confession is inviolable.”

He said priests should avoid hearing confession from colleagues suspected of committing child sex abuse to avoid being bound by the Seal of Confession.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Shannon Deery
From:Herald Sun
November 13, 2012

A FORMER vice-principal of a Catholic boys school embroiled in one of the state’s biggest alleged child sex abuse cover-ups has faced court charged with abusing seven boys.

Former priest David Rapson appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today charged with abusing the boys while teaching at Salesian College Rupertswood, in Sunbury, between 1973 and 1990.

Rapson is charged with one count each of rape and gross indecency and a string of indecent assault charges.

The Herald Sun revealed last year up to seven priests and brothers at the college have been linked to secret payouts to students who alleged they were abused between the 1960s and the 1990s.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

In short, it’s a formal independent public inquiry instigated by a state government or the federal government. Royal commissions are typically called whenever there is ongoing impropriety, illegal activity or gross administrative incompetence in any area of Australian life. There are also sometimes royal commissions in the wake of natural disasters and accidents.

Why are we having it again?
Because, as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox has revealed in shocking detail, there is overwhelming evidence of ongoing sexual abuse and alleged systemic cover-ups by members of institutions like the Catholic Church. A royal commission will test these allegations and seek to put the wheels of justice in motion.

How long will this Royal Commission last?
We don’t know. They usually last at least a year, and sometimes several years. For example, the Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry ran from August 2001 to February 2004. There have been calls today for a deadline on the child abuse royal commission amid fears it could drag out for a decade.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Mike Duffy, 7News Sydney
Updated November 13, 2012

More arrests are expected after police charged two former Sydney schoolteachers with child sex offences.

The allegations go back to the 1980’s, when both worked at Patrician Brothers’ College in Blacktown.

Last night’s arrests came as the Federal Government announced a Royal Commission into child abuse.

Science teacher Brother Martin Harmata is known to thousands of western Sydney school children.

The 59-year-old outdoorsman with 30 years of service at Patrician Brothers’ College in Blacktown is highly regarded. But now Brother Harmata stands accused of the sexual abuse of two schoolboys, aged 12 and 13, in the 1980’s.

Parents are shocked.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

MARK COLVIN: Victorian victims of clerical sexual abuse are sceptical about many of Cardinal Pell’s statements.

They’re still critical of the so-called “Melbourne Response”, which he set to handle complaints in the late 1990s.

And they don’t agree that the church has improved its processes.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Cardinal Pell confirmed again today that he’d accompanied paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to his court hearings several years ago.

But he said he didn’t realise at the time the impression this would give Ridsdale’s victims.

Melbourne man Stephen Woods is one of those victims. He was 14 when he was raped by the priest. He listened to George Pell’s comments today with interest.

STEPHEN WOODS: He seems to be setting up a narrative that the Catholic Church is now the victim, that they are the ones who are just one of many assaulters in the society and yet I can’t think of any other organisation that has had so many, even though there are many clergy, but they have had so many paedophiles, and of course tens of thousands of victims.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Following the confirmation of a 2011 sentence against two priests accused of the sexual abuse of minors in their custody, Lawrence Grech, who claimed he had been sexually abused while residing at St Joseph’s Home in Santa Venera in the late 1980s, told The Malta Independent that “only time will help him come to terms with what he had been through”.

“The confirmation of the sentence is positive and at least the anxiety that I suffered as a result of hiding from the public eye what I had been through before the case came to light, is nearly over. However, time has to take its course.”

When asked whether the Church offered to further discuss compensation for the 11 sexually abused victims, Mr Grech said that the Church always made it very clear that it was not responsible for what had taken place and that “we would have to go about seeking justice against the perpetrators privately.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The Diocese of Chichester has said a retired Bishop aged 80 and a retired priest aged 67, have been arrested by detectives from Sussex Police.

The arrests follow allegations of sexual abuse in the 1980s and 1990s.

“We can confirm that the retired Bishop has had no ministry in Sussex for many years and no longer lives in this area. The retired priest has had his Permission to Officiate suspended.

These arrests occur as part of an investigation in which the Diocese of Chichester has been working closely with Sussex Police. We have also been working closely with Elizabeth Hall, the National Safeguarding Adviser for the Church of England, and Kate Wood, the safeguarding consultant appointed by the Church of England to compile a file of evidence that was handed to Sussex Police in May.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

Major churches and charities say they don’t think the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse will affect donations and support for their charitable works. Cardinal George Pell says the issue of sexual abuse has hurt the public image of the Catholic Church.The church is a major provider of health, education and charitable services in Australia.

Sue Lannin

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: Cardinal Pell says the issue of sexual abuse has hurt the public image of the Catholic Church.

The church is a major provider of health, education and charitable services in Australia.

So will the scandal hurt the church’s brand with consequences for charities and not-for-profit groups?

Finance Reporter, Sue Lannin.

SUE LANNIN: Australians make taxable donations each year of around $2 billion and the Catholic Church and its agencies are big recipients.

Organisations PM spoke to, including major charities and churches, said it was too early to tell if their donations would be affected by the fallout from child sexual abuse allegations and the setting up of a royal commission.

Advertising copywriter and commentator, Jane Caro, says she doesn’t think donations to Catholic charities will be affected.

JANE CARO: Look I think it’s a blow to the image of the Catholic Church. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. But I suspect it’ll have far less effect on charities, partly because people tend to compartmentalise, which they’ve been doing for a long time. They’ll think, oh yes, that goes on in a part of the church that I’m not involved with but my nice charity, my nice school, whatever it is, they’ll probably isolate a little bit from the generalised scandals to the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

If there was a catalyst for the royal commission into child sexual abuse it was the sheer weight of horror stories emerging from Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. Bishop Bill Wright, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Maitland and Newcastle, says he doesn’t know why his district harboured so much abuse.

David Mark

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: If there was a catalyst for the royal commission into child sexual abuse it was the sheer weight of horror stories emerging from Newcastle and the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

There were already criminal cases against priests in Newcastle and the Hunter and on top of that were more allegations from victims, and then last week from a senior policeman.

Bishop Bill Wright, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Maitland and Newcastle, says he doesn’t know why his district harboured so much abuse. He uses the words “deviousness” and “serial offenders” and says he can’t promise that child sexual abuse is not still happening in his diocese.

But Bishop Bill Wright told David Mark he welcomed the royal commission.

BILL WRIGHT: Well I’m very pleased by it because anything that the church produces by way of reports or evidence or anything else has limited credibility in the community. I’ve thought to get all the facts on the table from an independent authority with sufficient weight and all the rest of it has got to be a good thing.

It’s good for the church. I think it will be a good thing for many of the victims who want to have the whole situation clear and get the chance to have the whole story told and so on so I think it’s very welcome.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Karl Stagno-Navarra

A court of criminal appeal presided by Judge David Scicluna has confirmed a 2011 sentence against two priests accused of the sexual abuse of minors in their custody.

They were escorted to prison on a six-year sentence for priest Charles Pulis and five years for Godwin Scerri.

In handing judgement, Mr Justice Scicluna said that although Pulis and Scerri were considered to be ‘father figures’ for the boys at St. Joseph Home in Hamrun, “the fact remains however, that corruption of minors is a serious and ugly crime which could leve serious effects, be they physical or psychological on whoever experienced them.”

Judge Scicluna said that the witnesses in the case had been “credible” even though he found “blatant contradictions” by witness Lawrence Grech in a number of instances. “However the court is not ready to speculate on the motivations behind reports of abuse, because such reports were corroborated by a number of other victims.”

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AUSTRALIA
RTE News

The head of the Catholic Church in Australia, George Pell, has acknowledged the “shame” of child sex abuse among the clergy and welcomed a sweeping inquiry.

However, Mr Pell also warned that the extent of the problem within his church had been exaggerated.

Yesterday, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard ordered a rare Royal Commission, the highest form of investigation in the country, into how churches, government bodies and other organisations have dealt with possibly thousands of child sex abuse claims.

Mr Pell, Australia’s only cardinal, said the church would co-operate fully with the new inquiry, which can compel witnesses to give evidence and produce documents, and that he did not believe the Catholic Church was the main perpetrator.

“We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 13/11/2012
Reporter: Leigh Sales

Archbishop of Sydney George Pell says the media have campaigned against the Catholic Church but says the church will cooperate with the Government’s Royal Commission into child abuse within institutions.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: A day after the Government announced a royal commission into child sex abuse, the Catholic Archbishop George Pell has defended his institution’s handling of such matters. Cardinal Pell believes there’s a persistent press campaign against the Catholic Church and he objects to his organisation being singled out. He also says the Church’s association with sex abuse is, at times, exaggerated. In a press conference today the Archbishop said he would fully cooperate with the Commonwealth investigation as a way to bring to an end decades of damage to the Church’s reputation and to deliver justice to victims. Cardinal Pell has been dogged by this issue for much of his leadership in the Catholic Church.

The day after the Government called a royal commission, Cardinal Pell finally agreed to answer questions about what has led to it.

GEORGE PELL, CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY: We object to it being exaggerated, we object to being described as the “only cab on the rank”, we acknowledge – with shame – the extent of the problem. One of the reasons why we welcome the royal commission is that this commission will enable those claims to be validated… or found to be a significant exaggeration.

LEIGH SALES: George Pell’s history with the child sex abuse issue goes back decades. In the early 90s, in the Victorian town of Ballarat, one of the Catholic Church’s most infamous paedophile scandals was unfolding. The perpetrator, Father Gerald Ridsdale, abused as many as 200 children over 20 years, while his superiors did nothing to stop him.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 14, 2012

Hayden Stephens

The abused and belittled want the terrible truth to be acknowledged at last.

PEOPLE who were sexually abused as children have waited a long time for the announcement of a royal commission. They have been waiting a long time to break down the walls of legal protection that their abusers have hidden behind so successfully, for so long.

In the mid-1990s I represented more than 250 men who, as children, were victims of sexual assault and abuse while in the care of the Catholic Church and the Christian Brothers Order.

We know that the predators within the Order colluded with each other to create a systemic network of abuse. They shared information about vulnerable children and worked together to suppress complaints.

When their activities became too overt church superiors stepped in, and moved them elsewhere within the Order. In doing so, authorities reduced the possibility that a paedophile might have been exposed, and they did nothing to prevent the continuing abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Michelle Grattan
Political editor of The Age

JULIA Gillard will consult Tony Abbott on the terms of reference for the royal commission into child sex abuse, in a rare example of bipartisan collaboration between the two leaders.

The Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Ben Hubbard, made a first contact with Peta Credlin, his opposite number in the Abbott office, on Tuesday.

Ms Gillard will write to Mr Abbott and the premiers and chief ministers inviting them to be involved in the process of devising the terms of reference for the sweeping inquiry.

”I think it is very important we work collaboratively” on the terms of reference, she said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 14, 2012

Kate Hagan

SPEAKING publicly about their experience of childhood sexual abuse is likely to provide healing for many victims, experts say.

Clinical and forensic psychologist Lyn Shumack said the royal commission could provide validation for victims who felt strong enough to tell their stories.

”Feeling violated makes you feel shameful, and it’s shame that allows [abusers] to get away with this sort of behaviour because [victims] keep quiet. So it’s a freeing thing to be able to talk about it,” she said.

Monash University emeritus professor of forensic psychiatry Paul Mullen said giving evidence would be a mostly positive experience for victims motivated by a desire to stop others from suffering abuse in future.

”For some people a royal commission might rekindle some memories, but in a context one hopes will be reassuring,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 14, 2012

Jane Lee

THE royal commission into child abuse will expose hundreds more victims who have been attacked in state care to the present day, victims’ advocates say.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a federal royal commission into child abuse on Monday, bowing to pressure surrounding the Victorian inquiry and the New South Wales government’s announcement of a special commission in the Hunter region.

While the government has yet to release its terms of reference, Ms Gillard said it would not be limited to the Catholic church, and would cover a range of institutions including state authorities, boy scouts and sports groups.

The Victorian inquiry faced criticism that it was only charged with investigating religious and non-government organisations, not public orphanages or children’s homes.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 13, 2012

Mark Russell

A FORMER Catholic priest has appeared in court accused of sexually abusing boys at the Salesian College Rupertswood in Sunbury.

David Edwin Rapson, 59, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with one count of rape, five counts of indecent assault, four counts of indecently assaulting a child under 16, and one count of gross indecency. The offences are alleged to have occurred from 1973 to 1990.

Rapson had been a teacher and vice-principal at Rupertswood.

Prosecutor Anne Hassan told the court the charges against Rapson involved seven complainants who had been aged in their early to mid-teens at the time of the alleged abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 14, 2012

Barney Zwartz

AS AUSTRALIA’S most senior Catholics told the media that the Catholic Church had changed immeasurably for the better in the past 20 years in tackling clergy sex abuse, a victims group cited 99 instances where it said the church’s so-called Melbourne Response had failed them.

Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell said on Tuesday the church was victim of a ”persistent press campaign” that significantly exaggerated the problem.

He told a press conference the church was serious about tackling the issue, and objected to it being described as ”the only cab in the rank”, while Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart – chairman of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference – said the church had taken decisive steps to make child safety a priority and to help victims.

But a victims group claims the Melbourne Response, set up by Cardinal Pell in 1996 when he was archbishop of Melbourne, is flawed and has often failed victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

[with poll]

November 14, 2012

Barney Zwartz

A DEFIANT Cardinal George Pell has blamed a smear campaign against the Catholic Church for public pressure that led to a royal commission into child sex abuse.

The Archbishop of Sydney said a commission into the Catholic Church was not needed, but he welcomed the broader inquiry announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Monday night as ”an opportunity to clear the air, to separate fact from fiction”.

He attacked a ”persistent press campaign” and ”general smears that we are covering up and moving people around”, and suggested that abuse by Catholic priests had been singled out and exaggerated.

He also suggested that cynicism about the church’s handling of abuse was confined to the press, and the public understood that the church was serious about tackling the problem.

”We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church. We object to it being exaggerated. We object to being described as the only cab on the rank,” Cardinal Pell told a press conference in Sydney.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former Church of England bishop and a retired priest have been arrested on suspicion of sex abuse.

The Right Reverend Peter Ball, a former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester, is being held on suspicion of abusing eight boys and men in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

He was arrested at his home near Langport, Somerset.

Retired Church of England priest Vickery House, 67, was arrested at his home near Haywards Heath, West Sussex,

A spokesman for Sussex Police said the allegations against the two men were being dealt with separately.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 14, 2012

Josephine Tovey, Phillip Coorey, Jonathan Swan

THE Premier, Barry O’Farrell, has questioned the Catholic Church’s rules exempting priests from having to report admissions of sexual abuse made in Confession, as the country’s most senior Catholic, George Pell, defended the church’s handling of paedophilia in its ranks.

On Tuesday a defiant Cardinal Pell welcomed the announcement of a national royal commission into abuse and said he believed it would help decipher real claims from ”significant exaggeration”.

”We’ll answer for what we’ve done,” Cardinal Pell said, adding that he expected to be called to give evidence. ”We’re not trying to defend the indefensible.”

But he hit out at what he described as a ”campaign” by the media and ”general smears” against the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
Jakarta Globe

Sydney. The Church should not be made the scapegoat in an Australian inquiry into child sex abuse, the country’s most senior Catholic cleric said Tuesday as victims welcomed the pedophile probe.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard ended more than a decade of growing pressure by ordering a royal commission on Monday to investigate the responses of all religious organizations, schools and state care to allegations of abuse.

Sydney Archbishop George Pell said he welcomed the inquiry, which will also examine the responses of not-for-profit organizations and the police, as an opportunity to help victims, “clear the air” and “separate fact from fiction.”

“We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church,” he told a press conference.

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AUSTRALIA
Radio Australia

[with video]

By Samantha Donovan and staff

Some of the victims of sexual abuse by the clergy do not believe the Archbishop of Sydney’s statement that the Catholic Church has learnt the error of its ways.

In the wake of the Prime Minister’s decision to call a royal commission into institutionalised child abuse, Cardinal George Pell today said he believed many claims involving the church were exaggerated and historic.

“We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church. We object to it being exaggerated,” he said.

“We object to it being described as the only cab on the rank.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A north coast support group for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse says plans for a national inquiry into the issue are fantastic.

The Royal Commission will investigate child abuse in institutions, such as schools, churches and foster homes, and look at how authorities responded.

The executive director of Alstonville’s Heartfelt House, Vicki Dobrunz says it’s a long overdue response.

“Anything that shines a light on sexual abuse and brings it to the forefront of society’s mind is always fantastic,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 13, 2012

Josh Gordon
State political editor for The Age.

VICTORIA’S parliamentary inquiry into the sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy could be wound back once a Commonwealth royal commission is established.

Premier Ted Baillieu said he did not believe the sweeping royal commission into the abuse of children announced on Monday by Prime Minister Julia Gillard would have gone ahead if his government had not announced its own inquiry.

“Without the Victorian parliamentary inquiry, there would not have been, I don’t believe, the national focus on these issues which have been there in the last few months,” Mr Baillieu said. “I think that has been critical to ensuring we do have a national inquiry, a nationally based royal commission.”

But he did not rule out the possibility that Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry could be subsumed by the royal commission, which will be a broad national inquiry covering a range of institutions.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

THE federal royal commission into child sexual abuse could take a very long time if it covers every state, a key figure in Victoria’s bushfires royal commission says.

Jack Rush QC says while it’s important that the new commission is comprehensive, it’s also important it’s done quickly.

Mr Rush was the senior counsel assisting the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, which sat for 155 days as it examined the deaths of 173 people.

He told ABC Radio on Tuesday that if the federal royal commission into child sexual abuse was too broad it could become unmanageable.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Stuart Rintoul
From:The Australian
November 13, 2012

THE Catholic Church says a royal commission into child abuse is a chance to “clear out” doubts about the church, and has defended its internal processes of dealing with abuse allegations.

“We do need this activity, the inquiry, at this stage, to make quite sure the right thing is being done, to clear out for once and for all any doubt about the church,” Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart said today.

“As I go around from parish to parish, I sense there is a great love for the church, a great love of priests, but a terrible scandal of the few who have offended so terribly,” he told ABC radio.

He said the church would “co-operate fully with the royal commission” announced last night by Julia Gillard.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Tory Shepherd
The Advertiser
November 12, 2012

THE country’s most powerful Catholic must address the festering sickness in his church, says Tory Shepherd.

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard announced last night a royal commission would aim to expunge the “vile and evil thing” that is child sexual abuse.

Meanwhile, Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney and the country’s most powerful Catholic, is acting like a child just when he most needs to man up.

In the face of the latest horrific allegations of systemic child abuse and cover-ups in the Catholic Church he has cried, by turns, “It wasn’t me”, and “They did it, too”.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, a senior investigative cop, has revealed new depths in the scandal that has haunted the church for decades.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 12/11/2012
Reporter: Emma Alberici

Interview with the policeman who helped trigger the Government’s plan for a Royal Commission into the abuse of children in the nation’s institutions.

Transcript
EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: We’re joined now by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, the senior police officer who took a stand on the issue and called for a royal commission here on Lateline last week.

It was on this program that Inspector Fox first made the allegations that his investigations were hindered by interference from within the police force and within the Catholic Church.

Detective Fox has driven from Newcastle tonight to be with us again, and I thank you so much chief inspector Fox for coming in again.

PETER FOX, NSW POLICE: It’s a pleasure, Emma.

EMMA ALBERICI: Now of course as we just mentioned, you were the one calling for this royal commission last week. You must be feeling quite vindicated.

PETER FOX: I don’t think I was the only one. I just wanted to add my voice to the many thousands out there that were already calling out for it over the last decade and more. You know, when you’ve sat down with these people, I just don’t feel that you can turn up and walk away and think, “Well, I’ve got so much knowledge about what’s gone on,” and walk off and have an easy conscience thinking, “I could have done more, but I didn’t.”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD
Nov. 13, 2012

“BUT whoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” – Matthew 18:6

This is the New Testament verse that Salt Ash man Rob Lipari turned to as he contemplated the news that Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced a royal commission on child sexual abuse in the church.

Mr Lipari, who was abused as a boy in the late 1970s, welcomed the federal inquiry but warned that its terms of reference must take historical matters into account.

This sentiment was shared by others who spoke with the Newcastle Herald last night.

The Herald sought comment from the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle but a spokeswoman said the only statement yesterday would be coming from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

[with video]

Moira Rayner November 12, 2012

A Royal Commission is or should be a rare sight. A Royal Commission is a short-term, immensely powerful ‘star chamber’ set up by the executive. They should be few, because governments shouldn’t be allowed to force people to give evidence, possibly incriminate themselves and be exposed to public obloquy, without compelling reason.

There is such reason, and the blood has been crying out for justice for far too long. Adult survivors of sex crimes against them as children, by men who presented as the personification of God, have seen their assailants protected by the institutions they worked in. They and their advocates were finally backed up, surprisingly by police. It takes the force to confront the misuse of force.

It started with the Victorian Police Commissioner’s submission to the feeble Parliamentary inquiry established by Premier Baillieu this year. He was scathing about the local Catholic Church’s obstruction of police investigations and its staggeringly complete failure to report known paedophile priests.

Then Peter Fox, a senior Newcastle police officer, went public and, in his own words, ‘threw away’ his career by demanding a Royal Commission into these cover-ups. When he was, instead, handed an inquiry into the response to reported sex crimes in his own district, the ensuing public disgust became politically necessary to assuage.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

[with audio]

As the Royal Commission into sexual abuse against children was being announced, New South Wales police were laying charges against a former teacher and a Catholic brother. The two men aged 58 and 59 were arrested last night and charged with a number of offences dating back 25 years. Meanwhile, the senior police officer who broke ranks to speak out against the police handling of sex abuse allegations involving the clergy says he’ll now have to quit his job.

Lindy Kerin

Transcript

TONY EASTLEY: News that Australia is about to embark on a wide ranging Royal Commission into child abuse has made headlines around the globe.

(BBC NewHour jingle)

BBC NEWS PRESENTER: BBC World Service. This is Tim Franks with NewsHour…

Its details are still to be worked out but it could run for years. It will have no shortage of material to deal with.

Even as it was being announced, New South Wales police were laying charges against a former teacher and a Catholic brother.

The two men, aged 58 and 59, were arrested last night and charged with a number of offences dating back 25 years.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

A FORMER victim has applauded the Government’s announcement of a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, saying tens of thousands can now tell their story “without fear, shame and guilt”.

Pete Dillon was an eight-year-old altar boy when he was “forced and coerced” into performing sexual acts by a Catholic priest in regional Victoria.

He was warned he couldn’t tell anyone about the abuse, which went on for a couple of years, and he didn’t. He kept the truth hidden for 22 years.

Describing his 20s as a hellish period that terrified him, Mr Dillon finally sought therapy, and at the age of 30 came to terms with the abuse and came out as gay.

“It was like a massive weight off my shoulders,” he told news.com.au.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By ABC’s Suzanne Smith

The abuse of children by Catholic clergymen has exposed a major failure of society, writes Suzanne Smith. But there were those who refused to accept the status quo.

I have met many honourable people in my career as a journalist, but none so inspiring as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox and Joanne McCarthy, the courageous journalist from the Newcastle Herald.

But it hasn’t been an easy road for either of them. They have stood beside many victims when everyone else failed to take responsibility and left those victims to deal individually with the Catholic Church. This has been a major failure of our society. We all left these traumatised and shattered families to deal directly with a powerful institution.

Many gasped in horror last Thursday night on ABC’s Lateline when Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox described the anal rape of a teenage boy by the notorious paedophile priest James Fletcher.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

An ABC broadcaster in Perth, who was the victim of a paedophile, says the announcement of a Royal Commission into sex abuse at Australian institutions has been long overdue.

Eoin Cameron was repeatedly raped by the head Brother at the Marist College in Mt Gambier, in South Australia, when he was a student there in the 1960s.

He received an apology and compensation for the abuse but renounced his Catholicism when he recently discovered the man who abused him was honoured for services to the Church.

Mr Cameron is encouraging anyone who suffered abuse to step forward.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

Victims and their families have welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement of a royal commission into child sexual abuse, saying it is a bittersweet victory.

Pressure had been building on the Government to react to growing social and political outrage at the latest series of revelations of paedophilia in society, most of which are centred on the Catholic Church.

Julia Gillard announced yesterday the creation of a royal commission into institutional responses to instances of child sexual abuse.

The inquiry will cover the treatment of children in all institutions – not just the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Nicky Davis on November 12, 2012

We applaud Prime Minister Julia Gillard for this move, but caution that this is only a first step.

Aggressive investigation of all clergy sex crimes and cover ups by institutional leaders, church officials and law enforcement – regardless of when they happened or where the wrongdoers are now – must happen simultaneously.

Particular focus should be on religious orders which often hide and transfer predator priests even more often and more effectively than bishops do.

Regardless of how this governmental inquiry proceeds, it’s imperative that victims, witnesses and whistleblowers continue to find the courage and strength to step forward, get help, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and begin healing.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by David Clohessy | Nov. 12, 2012

This week, all of America’s Catholic prelates are invited to the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Almost all of them will certainly show up.

But because of their recent recklessness with children’s safety, some don’t deserve to be there. They should have the decency to stay home. More importantly, leaders of the conference should have the courage to disinvite them.

Let’s start with the first and most obvious bishop who should be forbidden to attend: Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., who was found guilty of criminally endangering kids in September. For at least five months, Finn kept hidden from police hundreds of pornographic, suggestive and inappropriate photos of young girls taken by Fr. Shawn Ratigan. Besides breaking Missouri’s mandated reporter law, Finn clearly violated both the letter and the spirit of USCCB’s Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

Yet so far, not one of Finn’s roughly 200 peers has even seen fit to criticize him. Our secular justice system has punished his wrongdoing. The full Catholic church hierarchy has ignored his wrongdoing.

But Finn is not the only member of the bishops’ conference who should be disinvited.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Washington Post

By David Gibson| Religion News Service,

Updated: Monday, November 12

BALTIMORE — After sweeping setbacks to the hierarchy’s agenda on Election Day, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Monday (Nov. 12) told U.S. Catholic bishops that they must now examine their own failings, confess their sins and reform themselves if they hope to impact the wider culture.

“That’s the way we become channels of a truly effective transformation of the world, through our own witness of a repentant heart,” Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the 250 bishops gathered here for their annual meeting.

“The premier answer to the question’What’s wrong with the world?’ is not politics, the economy, secularism, sectarianism, globalization or global warming … none of these, as significant as they are,” Dolan said, citing many of the issues that have become favorite targets of the hierarchy.

Instead, Dolan said, quoting English writer and Catholic convert G.K. Chesterton, the answer is contained in two words: “I am.”

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Gary Adshead and Luke Eliot, The West Australian
November 13, 2012

Dark chapters of child abuse and cover-up in WA will be exposed or revisited as part of the planned royal commission announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

As recently as August, _The West Australian _revealed WA Police had formed a task force to investigate 184 cases of abuse against children in State care.

But the tentacles of institutionalised sexual offending in WA can be traced back more than 60 years to the orphanages, hostels and school farms run by governments and church orders such as the Catholic-based Christian Brothers.

“There are going to be a lot of people ducking and weaving and trying put up road blocks where they can,” sexual abuse victim Todd Jefferis said. “But a royal commission will have the power to break through.”

Mr Jefferis, 39, brought Dennis John McKenna’s 15 years of systemic abuse at St Andrew’s Hostel to an end in 1990 and recently gave powerful evidence to an inquiry into how McKenna got away with molesting at least 16 children boarding at the State-run facility in Katanning.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Across the Hunter Valley victims of child abuse by clergy and their families are welcoming news that after years of fighting, there will finally be a full national Royal Commission.

The wide ranging inquiry announced yesterday by the Prime Minister will investigate child abuse in institutions, such as schools, churches and foster homes, and look at how authorities responded.

Lake Macquarie woman Tracey Pirona, whose husband John was a victim of a paedophile Catholic priest and took his own life four months ago, has thanked all those who have pushed for a Royal Commission.

She says she never gave up hope that the community’s pleas would be heard.

“It’s just the people too that supported the petitions, online and out there in the community,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

November 13, 2012

Lenore Taylor
National Affairs Correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald

ANALYSIS

AFTER so much pain, so many shocking revelations, so many years of thankless campaigning by the betrayed and so much resistance by the accused, the fight to expose the full horrible truth about institutional child sexual abuse in Australia finally reached a tipping point yesterday.

Now the nation will experience the most wide-ranging and potentially explosive royal commission in recent history. It will run wherever the evidence directs it, no matter how long it takes and whatever the consequences.

Many of the most recent royal commissions have been into specific allegations or scandals – Labor’s controversial lease of Centenary House, the building and construction industry, the collapse of HIH insurance. Some have revealed deep wounds and difficult truths, like the four-year Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

But none has ranged this widely – looking at the treatment of children in care across all religions, schools, not-for-profit organisations, community organisations, child welfare agencies and state bodies.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic and Anglican churches in Tasmania have promised to cooperate fully with a Royal Commission into the handling of child sexual abuse claims.

The Prime Minister says the national inquiry will focus on abuse in church groups, schools and state care providers.

The Archbishop of Hobart, the Most Reverend Adrian Doyle, says it has been a problem in the Catholic Church and he hopes the inquiry will provide some resolution for victims.

The Anglican Archbishop of Tasmania, the Right Reverend John Harrower, says his church has already examined the issue but he welcomes more scrutiny.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

[with video]

November 13, 2012

Phillip Coorey, Josephine Tovey

JULIA GILLARD has launched the most comprehensive inquiry into child sexual abuse in Australia’s history with a nationwide royal commission to investigate churches, charities, state governments, schools, community organisations and even the police.

After fresh allegations last week about systemic abuses and cover-ups by the Catholic Church in NSW, federal cabinet agreed late on Monday to establish a commission that would look at the sexual abuse of children inside institutions and the frequent and often deliberate failure to do anything about it.

”Any instance of child abuse is a vile and evil thing,” the Prime Minister said.

”Child abuse is a vile and evil thing” … Julia Gillard announcing the commission. Photo: Channel Ten

”There have been too many adults who have averted their eyes to this evil.

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UNITED STATES
Sacramento Bee

By Catholics for Choice

Published: Monday, Nov. 12, 2012

BALTIMORE, Nov. 12, 2012 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) gathers today, Catholics for Choice called on the bishops to engage in a serious examination of conscience as they reflect on their divisive political activities this year and the millions of dollars they spent trying to influence elections.

“The bishops had a miserable return on investment of Catholic people’s money and we demand an accounting of how they spent it campaigning on measures that Catholics clearly did not support,” said Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice. “As the bishops meet today, they are going to have to face the reality of these failures and acknowledge that they cannot pour in enough money, even spending outside of their dioceses, to buy measures at the state level that allow for discrimination and blur the line between church and state. Each bishop at this meeting should carefully question if this failed attempt at politicking truly serves the social justice mission of the Catholic Church.”

“This meeting is an opportunity for the bishops to realize the error of their ways and promise to go and politicize no more,” said O’Brien. “We hope this reflection will lead to members of the USCCB ending their divisive campaigning and returning to their role as pastors.”

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SCHWEIZ
Kipa

Schwyz, 11.11.12 (Kipa) Der Kanton Schwyz soll die Geschichten der Heim- und Verdingkinder aufarbeiten. Dies fordert ein Vorstoss der CVP-Kantonsratfraktion, der nächste Woche eingereicht werden soll. Dies berichtete die Zuger Ausgabe der “Zentralschweiz am Sonntag”. Die Aufarbeitung der Geschichten wird auch kirchliche Ordensgemeinschaften betreffen.

Das Interesse der Politik auf die Geschichten der Heimkinder sei durch einen Leserbrief eines ehemaligen Steiner Heimkindes in der Neuen Schwyzer Zeitung geweckt worden, schreibt die Zentralschweiz am Sonntag. Im Brief wurde gefordert, dass auch der Kanton Schwyz die Geschichten “schonungslos aufarbeiten” müsse. Die CVP-Kantonsratsfraktion möchte nun mit einem Postulat die Aufarbeitung anstossen. Man sei sich bewusst, dass das Thema umfangreiche Abklärungen erfordere, sagte Andreas Meyerhans, Präsident der kantonalen CVP, gegenüber der Zeitung. Vor allem gebe es im Staatsarchiv nur wenige Unterlagen zu den Schicksalen von Heimkindern. Die meisten Dokumente würden in den Gemeindearchiven lagern. Fast in allen Gemeinden im Kanton hätte es um 1900 ein Armenhaus gegeben.

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AUSTRALIEN
kathweb

Anlass für Einberufung waren neue Vorwürfe über Vertuschung von Missbrauchsfällen durch katholische Kirche und Polizei

12.11.2012

Canberra, 12.11.2012 (KAP) In Australien wird eine Königliche Kommission das Ausmaß des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern und Jugendlichen in kirchlichen, staatlichen und privaten Institution untersuchen. Premierministerin Julia Gillard kündigte die Einsetzung der Royal Commission in einer am Montag veröffentlichten Erklärung an. “Die in vergangener Zeit bekanntgewordenen Vorwürfe über den sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern sind herzzerreißend. Das sind widerliche, üble Akte, denen kein Kind ausgesetzt sein sollte”, betonte Gillard.

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OSTERREICH
Gagen Sexuelle Gewalt

Die Kath. Kirche Österreich hat von den Vorfällen der letzten Jahre nichts gelernt. Sie suspendiert die Pfarrer und Geistlichen, schickt sie wie Kardinal Groer nach Bayern in ein Sexverbrecher-Therapie- Kloster mit hellsichtigen Therapeuten und glaubt dann einen grunderneuerten Menschen in wenigen Wochen erschaffen zu haben. Die Wunder der kath. Kirche in Bayern müssten sich ja herumsprechen, oder nicht?

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DEUTSCHLAND
RTL

Bilder von Schülern auf nackte Körper montiert

Ein Foto von jedem seiner Schüler, damit er sich ihre Namen besser merken konnte. So hat Gregor B. seine merkwürdige Fotosession begründet. Doch dann soll der katholische Religionslehrer vom Gymnasium Lechenich im Rhein-Erft-Kreis die Bilder als Fotomontagen für Pornoseiten benutzt haben. Schüler und Eltern sind entsetzt.

Monatelang habe der 32-jährige Lehrer die Fotos von Schülerinnen und Mädchen aus der Jugendeinrichtung seiner Gemeinde für sein übles Hobby missbraucht. So soll er die Bilder auf fremde nackte Körper montiert haben, bevor er sie ins Netz stellte.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Klassisches Beispiel für die Versetzungspraxis von “einschlägig vorbestraften” Priestern: Die Vorgesetzten werden nicht informiert. Der Täter landet – mal wieder – in der Seelsorge und wird erneut auffällig

Als die katholische Kirche über Missbrauchsskandale debattierte, wurde auch der Fall D. aufgedeckt. Die jetzt abgeurteilten Übergriffe waren nicht die einzigen, die sich der Priester hatte zuschulden kommen lassen. Er war sozusagen zur “Bewährung” nach einschlägigen Strafen im Bistum Fulda ins Erfurter Bistum versetzt worden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
TLZ

Sechs Jahre hat Tina (Name von der Redaktion geändert) gebraucht, bis sie sich endlich ihren Eltern offenbarte. Sechs Jahre, in denen das Mädchen geschwiegen und alles in sich hineingefressen hat. Jetzt hat das Amtsgericht Sömmerda einen vorläufigen juristischen Schlussstrich unter die Geschichte gezogen, die in Weimar und Umgebung hohe Wellen geschlagen hat.

Sömmerda/Weimar. Der katholische Priester D. wurde vom Gericht zu einer Haftstrafe von 15 Monaten auf Bewährung verurteilt und zur Zahlung einer Geldstrafe von 10.000 Euro an eine gemeinnützige Organisation. Zwei Einzelstrafen wurden zu der Gesamtstrafe zusammengezogen. Das bestätigte die Betroffene ebenso wie ihr seelsorgerischer Beistand der TLZ. Die Justizbehörden schwiegen sich zu dem Urteil aus. Pfarrer D. hatte sich der damals Zehnjährigen im unmittelbaren kirchlichen Kontext unsittlich genähert.

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MISSOURI
Fox 4

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Jackson County authorities said a Grandview woman’s death in late October initially appeared to be a suicide, until a man confessed to killing the her on Friday.

The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said Bethany Deaton was found dead inside a car on Oct. 30, at Longview Lake. A probable cause statement said there was a note that read, “My name is Bethany Deaton. I chose this evil thing. I did it because I wouldn’t be a real person and what is the point of living if it is too late for that? I wish I had chosen differently a long time ago. I knew it all and refused to listen. Maybe Jesus will still save me.” The statement also said there were pills found near Deaton.

But according to her admitted killer, 23-year-old Micah Moore, it was all a cover-up to keep Deaton quiet.

The statement said witnesses told detectives they were a part of a “religious community” where they had sex with each other. Witnesses told detectives Deaton’s husband, Tyler Deaton, was the leader.

In the statement, Moore told detectives Bethany Deaton was being sexually assaulted by him, and several men at a home in Grandview. That is how Moore said he knew Deaton and her husband.

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SEATTLE (WA)
O’Dea High School

November 2012

Dear Friends,

Along with the entire school community, I am pleased that you are considering O’Dea High School. As a parent, you have many options, and I want to assure you that if you choose O’Dea for your son, he will receive a quality Catholic education in a wonderful environment. His education will be based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a community that lives its faith in prayer and service to others.

O’Dea is committed to the academic, spiritual, social and physical growth of young men and since 1923 has provided an environment rich in ethnic and economic diversity, strong in traditional values and sound in academic foundation. As a school of the Archdiocese of Seattle, it also maintains a commitment to providing a safe environment for students.

Unfortunately, recent media reports have questioned our commitment to the safety and security of the young men in our care. Former principal Brother Karl Walczak was recently accused of sexual abuse in another diocese in the early 1970s. Brother Walczak denies the allegation. Some media reports carried false charges that the church and the school attempted to conceal this information and that students at O’Dea may be in harm’s way.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by Cindy Wooden,Catholic News Service | Nov. 12, 2012

Vatican City —
A Vatican court found Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer expert in the Secretariat of State, guilty of aiding and abetting the papal butler, who was convicted of stealing sensitive Vatican correspondence.

The three-judge panel hearing the case Saturday initially sentenced Sciarpelletti to four months in jail but reduced the sentence to two months, saying Sciarpelletti had never been in trouble with the law and previously had served the Vatican well.

The judges suspended even the two-month sentence and said that if over the next five years he commits no other crimes, the penalty would be lifted.

The Vatican court indicted Sciarpelletti in August, accusing him of helping Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler, by obstructing the Vatican investigation of the butler’s role in stealing, photocopying and leaking private Vatican correspondence to an Italian journalist. The butler is serving an 18-month sentence in a cell in the Vatican police barracks.

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