ABUSE TRACKER

BELGIQUE
DH

C’est plus que les plaintes reçues par la commission Adriaenssens !

BRUXELLES Le chiffre fait froid dans le dos. 583 dossiers ont été introduits devant le Centre d’arbitrage en matière d’abus sexuels. Soit autant de dossiers qui concernent des méfaits commis par des gens d’Église…

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby is to stand down as chairman of Trócaire. A recent review of child protection in his diocese found he had dealt “inappropriately” with abuse allegations there.

In a statement, Trócaire said the bishop had briefed its board at a recent meeting on that review and “subsequent publicity that surrounded this”.

It said Bishop Kirby “acknowledged the grave mistakes he had made in the early 1990s and reiterated that he takes full responsibility for them. He also acknowledged that his remarks in an interview had caused offence to survivors and he repeated the apology that he had made in an earlier letter to the people of his diocese.” Board members “acknowledged and welcomed Bishop Kirby’s statement in this regard”.

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

ISLANDI
RUV

Joannes Gijsen, sem var biskup kaþólsku kirkjunnar á Íslandi í rúman áratug, eyðilagði bréf frá manni sem lýsti slæmri reynslu sinni af séra Georg, skólastjóra Landakotsskóla. Rannsóknarnefnd kaþólsku kirkjunnar telur hann með því hafa vanrækt skyldur sínar.

Gijsen hefur verið sakaður um kynferðisbrot í Hollandi á sjötta og sjöunda áratug síðustu aldar.

Gijsen var biskup kaþólsku kirkjunnar á Íslandi á árunum 1996 til ársins 2007. Hann kom við sögu í einu tilviki þar sem hylmt var yfir ásökunum um kynferðislegt ofbeldi.

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

UNITED STATES
Fr. Ted’s Blog

To All My Beloved Fellow Members of St. Paul Parish,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

I want in this letter to convey to you my thoughts and feelings as your parish priest about the situation with our diocesan bishop. I have already conveyed these ideas to Bishop Matthias and also to some members of the Synod of Bishops. While I will offer my opinion here about how I understand our situation, my prayer is for all of us to be faithful to the Gospel.

The Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America after reviewing the report and recommendation of the Response Team appointed to investigate the allegations of sexual misconduct against our Diocesan Hierarch, the Right Reverend Matthias, have accepted the fact that the allegations are substantiated. The Synod, following the OCA’s Policy, Standards and Procedures, rendered a decision regarding a course of action to take with Bishop Matthias who they found guilty of sexual misconduct.

The reaction of many in the Diocese to our bishop’s behavior has been dismay, disappointment, and even disgust. Many have questioned how he could ever again serve as bishop since he has destroyed his moral authority and by his own actions revealed a lack of pastoral wisdom or judgment which one would expect from someone who had been ordained for 40 years.

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

CANADA
CBC News

A Winnipeg-based Roman Catholic order is being sued by six men from a northwest Ontario First Nation who say they were sexually abused by a priest as children.

The men, from Lac La Croix, are seeking unspecified financial damages from the federal government, a Catholic diocese in Thunder Bay, and the order of Les Oblats de Marie Immaculee du Manitoba, along with a priest who lived and worked on the reserve in the 1960s.

The six men allege the assaults took place in the priest’s home, in a schoolhouse and in a hotel.

They say they felt powerless to speak out because of the priest’s position of power in their small community.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Armidale Express

By STEPHEN JEFFERY
Nov. 7, 2012

A FORMER Armidale priest accused of repeatedly sexually abusing three girls during the 1970s and 1980s has been granted bail.

The 59-year-old appeared in Armidale Local Court via audio visual link from the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre in Silverwater this morning.

He offered his house, valued at $230,000, as a surety, as well as $10,000 cash. His brother and sister will also contribute $5000 each in order for bail to be granted.

Magistrate Mark Richardson granted bail with strict conditions after determining the accused would spend too much time in custody while waiting for a trial to commence either next year or in 2014.

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

CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Aldo Santin

SIX men from a reserve in northwestern Ontario are suing a Winnipeg-based Roman Catholic organization for alleged sexual abuse committed against them by a priest in the 1960s.

The six men, from the Lac la Croix First Nation, are suing Les Oblats de Marie Immaculée du Manitoba, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Thunder Bay and the Government of Canada, asking the court to award them unspecified damages, general and punitive damages and damages for loss of past and future income.

The six men now range in age from 55 to 61. They allege they were regularly subjected to forced anal intercourse several times each summer when they were as young as nine until they reached the age of 14 or 15.

The men claim the priest who abused them, Father Jean Lambert, died in 1986. Lambert is also named as a defendant.

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

UNITED KINGDOM/UNITED STATES
Catholic League

This is the twelfth and last installment of Bill Donohue’s report on the BBC sexual abuse scandal and its implications for the New York Times:

New York Times op-ed page columnist Joe Nocera has asked some tough questions about Mark Thompson’s knowledge of the Jimmy Savile matter [click here]; Thompson, who will head the Times Company on Monday, was running the BBC when a report exposing BBC child rapist Jimmy Savile was spiked late last year. Concerning the question of whether Thompson ever heard about rumors of Savile’s predatory behavior, Nocera cuts him a break, saying that “given the byzantine nature of the BBC bureaucracy, these are plausible denials.”

Nocera’s position is not without merit. The only reason I mention this is because of the double standard held by some of the harshest critics of the Catholic Church: they say that Pope John Paul II must have known about predatory priests in the employ of the Holy See, and that Pope Benedict XVI (Cardinal Ratzinger under John Paul), must also have known. Yes, of course they knew there was a problem, but just how big it was, and exactly who was involved is another matter altogether.

Thompson defends himself, in part, by saying that the enormous size of the BBC—23,000 employees, eight TV channels, 50 radio stations—made it impossible for him to know details that were known to others. Again, this position is not without merit. But the BBC is tiny next to the Catholic Church.

The pope governs an institution with over 1 billion members residing in every part of the globe. Besides the Roman Curia and the College of Cardinals, those who work for the pope include: more than 5,000 bishops; 400,000 priests; almost 40,000 permanent deacons; 55,000 non-ordained male religious; over 700,000 female religious; and over 100,000 seminarians. They work in over 3,000 dioceses serving some 220,000 parishes throughout the world.

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

BELGIE
Knack

(Belga) Er zijn 583 dossiers ingediend bij het arbitragecentrum voor seksueel misbruik in de Kerk. Dat bericht La Dernière Heure vandaag. Slachtoffers hadden tot 31 oktober de tijd om hun dossier in te dienen.

De procedure voor het arbitragecentrum zorgt ervoor dat slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Kerk gehoord en erkend worden. Ze kunnen ook een schadevergoeding vragen die maximaal 25.000 euro bedraagt. “Zullen alle slachtoffers een schadevergoeding krijgen? Ik hoop het, maar ik weet het niet”, aldus Karine Lalieux (PS), voorzitster van de parlementaire commissie. (DLA)

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

MAINE
WGME

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The attorney general’s office says it won’t prosecute a northern Maine priest following allegations of possible embezzlement of parish funds.

The Roman Catholic Diocese announced in April that the Rev. James Nadeau had taken a leave from the St. John Vianney Parish in Fort Kent pending an investigation by the attorney general. The nature of the investigation wasn’t disclosed, but Nadeau’s attorneys said it didn’t involve allegations of sexual impropriety.

In a letter to Bishop Richard Malone, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said Monday there’s insufficient evidence to initiate a criminal prosecution.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Papst Gefluester

Aus den Schlagzeilen der Weltpresse ist der sexuelle Missbrauch weitgehend verschwunden – doch das Thema muss bleiben und wird auch in der katholischen Kirche weiter behandelt. Zum einen geht es um die lückenlose Aufklärung von Verbrechen in der Vergangenheit, zum anderen um die Prävention künftiger Fälle. Mit Letzterem tut sich die Kirche leichter und wird gegenüber anderen gesellschaftlichen Gruppierungen sogar zum Vorreiter. Auf einer internationalen Konferenz der katholischen Kirche in Freising bei München wurde jetzt ein neues Schulungsprogramm vorgestellt, das vom Kinderschutzzentrum in München entwickelt wurde und ab 2014 von Kirchenmitarbeitern in aller Welt genutzt werden soll.

Der Missbrauchsskandal hat die katholische Kirche in vielen Ländern erschüttert, die deutsche Kirche hatte er 2010 erreicht. Weltweit haben inzwischen fast 80 Prozent der nationalen Bischofskonferenzen eigene Richtlinien zum Umgang mit diesem Problem erlassen, so der Vizerektor der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom, Jesuitenpater Hans Zollner, bei der Tagung. Er glaubt, dass die Vernetzung der katholischen Kirche dazu führen kann, Fehler zu vermeiden, die in anderen Ländern gemacht wurden und voneinander zu lernen.

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

SCHWEIZ
Die Weltwoche

Dass Priester sich um den Nachwuchs kümmern müssen, ist so sicher wie nur irgendwas, aber: Solange die Kirche am Zölibat festhält, wird aus Nächstenliebe immer wieder Pädophilie.

Von Mathias Binswanger

Als typische Schwulenberufe gelten Flight-Attendant, Balletttänzer, Coiffeur, Modedesigner und – katholischer Priester. Gemäss Schätzungen sind heute rund 20 Prozent aller Priester schwul. Eine Prozentzahl, die sowohl die Kirche selbst als auch die Bevölkerung immer wieder in Erstaunen versetzt. Man kann sich ja als Heterosexueller noch zusammenreimen, warum Berufe wie Modedesigner oder Balletttänzer unter Schwulen so gefragt sind. Aber was reizt Schwule am katholischen Priestertum, obwohl die katholische Kirche ja im Allgemeinen alles andere als schwulenfreundlich ist?

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

ISLAND
ORF (Osterreich)

Die kleine katholische Kirche in Island hat Fälle von jahrzehntelangem Kindesmissbrauch in einer von ihr betriebenen Internatsschule zugegeben. Der Kirchenleitung wird vorgeworfen, nicht auf Hinweise reagiert zu haben.

Wie es in einem in Reykjavik diese Woche von der Kirche veröffentlichten Untersuchungsbericht hieß, war neben dem aus den Niederlanden eingewanderten Schulleiter auch eine Deutsche aktiv an sexuellem Missbrauch von Jungen und Mädchen beteiligt. Die in Essen geborene Lehrerin starb 2008.

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

OSTERREICH
Der Standard

Verdacht der geschlechtlichen Nötigung, beharrlichen Verfolgung und Körperverletzung

Baden/Wiener Neustadt – In den Missbrauchs-Ermittlungen gegen den Pfarrer von Traiskirchen (Bezirk Baden) wartet die Staatsanwaltschaft Wiener Neustadt auf den Abschlussbericht der Polizei. Danach würden weitere Entscheidungen getroffen, sagte Erich Habitzl, Sprecher der Anklagebehörde, am Dienstag. Gegen den Pfarrer wird wegen geschlechtlicher Nötigung, beharrlicher Verfolgung und mehrfacher Körperverletzung ermittelt.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

Von Birger Menke

Ein Verlag hat der Berliner Staatsanwaltschaft eine Liste mit den Namen von fünf Kirchenmitarbeitern übergeben, die Verbindungen zu kreuz.net haben sollen. Ein in Verdacht geratener Pfarrer hat sich vom Hetzportal distanziert. Doch Texte und Kommentare lassen daran zweifeln.

Selbst für manche Gegner des Hetzportals kreuz.net war es zunächst gewöhnungsbedürftig, was der Bruno Gmünder Verlag Anfang Oktober verkündete: 15.000 Euro “Kopfgeld” versprach er für Hinweise, die helfen, die Macher von kreuz.net ausfindig zu machen. Doch die Aktion scheint sich gelohnt zu haben.

Seit rund acht Jahren verbreitet kreuz.net nach eigener Darstellung “katholische Nachrichten”. Tatsächlich waren die Beiträge anfangs noch geprägt von einer Haltung, die zwar erzkonservativ war, aber nichts Strafbares hervorbrachte. Das änderte sich: Hetzschriften gegen Homosexuelle wurden veröffentlicht, der Ton wurde rauer, die Haltung menschenverachtender.

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

CANADA
Leader-Post

By Kerry Benjoe, Leader-Post
November 6, 2012

Indian residential school survivors are getting some assistance from the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness (CCAA).

The national organization is planning events for survivors who are in the process of resolving their claims through the Independent Assessment Process (IAP).

“We applied for and received funding from the Indian Residential School Adjudication Secretariat to assist survivors of abuse from residential schools with being prepared to go into their adjudication for their compensation,” said Sanderson Layng, CCAA president and COO.

“Most people, who are applying for compensation, have already done that but now there is a waiting time between when their application is heard and when they meet with an adjudicator. Our project (Group IAP program) is working with survivors, as a group, and looking at how the group can be supportive of one another and create support mechanisms.”

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

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by NCR Editorial Staff | Nov. 6, 2012

When the bishops of the United States gather later this month in Baltimore for their fall meeting, they ought to take some time to ponder a simple question: Were their words and actions during the recent election season the kind of discourse that informs and persuades or did they contribute to the partisan shrillness that we hope our teachers are educating youngsters to rise above as they mature into voting citizens?

We do not yet know the outcome of the national election, but the results for the church are already well-known — no polls necessary here. The activity of the loudest and most extreme voices in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have left us the most politicized and divided church in recent memory. They have not only done a disservice to the cause of unity, they haven’t done much to advance the causes they so stridently champion. …

The bishops are so beholden to the huge sums of money dumped on them by the Knights of Columbus (see story) that they can’t imagine pushing back against the political agenda of an organization led by a longtime, high-level Republican operative.

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

ROME
Vatican Insider

During the course of the meeting on the history of the Vatican Press Office, the director also talked about the role of the Vatican’s communications consultant, Greg Burke and about financial transparency

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

The scandal surrounding the cases of clerical sex abuse against minors and the developments in the Vatican’s finances are illustrative of the Holy See’s efforts to become more transparent: the Vatican’s Jesuit spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi said this in a statement this morning at a conference at the LUMSA University in Rome. The title of the conference was “Birth and development of the Vatican Press Office: From the Council to today”.

“Some recent events have been a real testing bench for greater transparency in the Church,” Lombardi said, mentioning paedophilia as a primary example and recalling the scandal which broke out in 2010, the pressure of the international mass media and the efforts of the Vatican Press Office to provide “unbiased information” in relation to the Holy See’s responses (the Pope’s speeches, new canonical laws, conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University).

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

NORTHER IRELAND
UTV

A retired Catholic priest has denied defrauding his former Co Down parish of nearly £150,000 over a 19-month period up to October 2009.

Fr Conleth Byrne, 78, allegedly paid monies to a woman from the funds of his former parish of Loughinisland in the Diocese of Down and Connor.

No details surrounding the fraud were given to Downpatrick Crown Court on Tuesday, as his trial, expected to last three to four days, was fixed for the end of January in the New Year.

Initially Fr Byrne appeared apprehensive when asked to confirm his date of birth before being asked for address, which he gave as the “guest house in Portglenone Monastery”.

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

AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Cardinal George Pell says he has lost confidence in the St Johns College council at the University of Sydney and has asked priest members to resign following continued bad behaviour by students.

He says he will be asking the NSW government to review governance arrangements at the Catholic college and the need to amend outdated laws covering the institution.

Reports of loutish behaviour at the 150-year-old college have continued despite an incident in March that resulted in a female student being hospitalised.

The college suspended 33 students over the incident, in which male residents surrounded a girl and encouraged her to drink a toxic concoction as part of an initiation process.

In a statement on Tuesday, Cardinal Pell said he no longer had confidence in the capacity of the college council to ensure reform, “despite their good will and the dedication of the chairman”.

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

UXBRIDGE (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

UXBRIDGE — Two people affiliated with the Church of the End Times were arraigned yesterday in Uxbridge District Court on charges of burglary and intimidating a witness. A warrant was issued for a third person.

Courtney Bish, 20, who gave her address as 19 Industrial Drive, the same address as the Church of the End Times and Driveways Corp., was arraigned on multiple charges in Northbridge, Blackstone and Sutton of breaking and entering for a felony, larceny, destruction of property and receiving stolen property ($250 or more). The alleged crimes took place in recent months.

Ms. Bish and Gina Elliott, 41, also of 19 Industrial Drive, had been arrested by Sutton police in September on other burglary-related charges. Police estimated the pair had been involved in eight to 10 burglaries in the Blackstone Valley in Massachusetts and in northern Rhode Island.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 7, 2012

Eamonn Duff, Nick Ralston

FIVE Catholic priests quit the council of the elite St John’s College last night as the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, and the Premier, Barry O’Farrell, voiced their disgust over the initiation ritual scandal.

Mr O’Farrell said he would consider changes to the Saint John’s College Act 1857. “I will not allow the behaviour of a few to tarnish the global reputation of the University of Sydney,” he said.

“While any changes would need to be approved by cabinet, I am more than willing to work with Cardinal Pell in his efforts to reform the college’s culture.”

Cardinal Pell said he no longer had confidence that the council was able to fix the problems within the elite college at the university.

The mass resignation of the five priests from the 18-person council has left it powerless to continue to govern. Cardinal Pell called on the government to change the laws governing St John’s in a move that could mean the church cedes sole control of the 150-year-old institution.

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

UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Interview by ADA CALHOUN

Published: October 26, 2012

In April, the Vatican accused your group, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the country’s most influential nuns’ organization, of “radical feminism.” Did that surprise you?

I was surprised by us being called radical feminists. I could introduce them to some real radical feminists.

Part of the criticism was that the sisters weren’t speaking against issues like abortion, contraception and gay marriage.

But if you look at the Gospel, Jesus welcomed sinners with the idea that they would be drawn to change their lives. Human beings are frail. None of us always act the way we wish we would act.

Cardinal Levada, who oversaw the assessment of the L.C.W.R., has been questioned for his handling of sex-abuse cases.

I’m not going there.

Do you have feelings about the sex-abuse scandal?

I don’t want to go there. I’ll tell you personally, I’m appalled, but so is everyone else. We’re all appalled.

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

VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By GAIA PIANIGIANI

Published: November 5, 2012

The Vatican computer expert accused of helping Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler of stealing the pope’s confidential papers had no reason to risk his career to help the butler because he did not know him well, his lawyer argued on Monday in the opening hearing of the second trial related to a security breach at the Vatican. The pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, was convicted of leaking the stolen documents to the news media. The computer expert, Claudio Sciarpelletti, 48, is charged with helping Mr. Gabriele by giving “wavering and contradictory” answers to the authorities about a closed envelope addressed personally to Mr. Gabriele and containing material that was found in his desk, the indictment read. Mr. Sciarpelletti’s lawyer explained his client’s contradictory statements as a reflection of his confused “emotional state.” The trial was adjourned until Saturday.

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

VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By Frances D’Emilio
| Associated Press
November 06, 2012

VATICAN CITY — A Vatican computer programer accused of helping the pope’s former butler steal secret correspondence did not know the man well and had little motive to risk his 20 years on the job for him, a defense lawyer argued Monday at the start of the second trial in the scandal.

The Vatican’s accusations are based in part on information from an anonymous source that the two defendants had frequent contacts, but Paolo Gabriele, the former butler, didn’t even trust his client enough to let him upgrade his outdated work computer, lawyer Gianluca Benedetti told the court.

Claudio Sciarpelletti, the ­Holy See’s computer programmer in the key office of Secretariat of State, is facing trial a month after Gabriele was convicted by a Vatican court of the theft of the documents. The documents reportedly formed part of an Italian muckraking journalist’s book of scandalous revelations about bureaucratic infighting, power plays, and alleged corruption.

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

VATICAN CITY
Sun Herald

By HANNS-JOCHEN KAFFSACK — dpa

VATICAN CITY — A Vatican court on Monday rejected a request from defense lawyers that the charges brought against a computer technician, accused of aiding and abetting Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler in leaking confidential papal documents to the press, be dropped.

In an opening hearing largely devoted to procedural matters, Gianluca Benedetti, the lawyer of Claudio Sciarpelletti, argued that his client had no motive for committing the crime as he was not a personal friend of the butler, Paolo Gabriele, as the prosecution has charged.

Sciarpelletti has been accused of providing contradictory explanations as to how he came into possession of material that was eventually published in a chapter of a book, “Sua Santita” (“His Holiness”), which exposed infighting within the Vatican hierarchy.

The chapter in question, titled “Neapoleon at the Vatican,” refers to alleged conflicts of interest involving the Vatican gendarmerie.

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

AUSTRALIA/UNITED STATES
JTA

November 4, 2012

SYDNEY (JTA) – A rabbinical court in New York will determine the fate of a Chabad rabbi in Melbourne who was dismissed from his post amid allegations of improper conduct.

A Chabad-Lubavitch spokesman confirmed that Rabbi Chaim Herzog has appealed his dismissal after he received an official letter last month saying he no longer has the authority to operate in the name of Chabad. The meeting with the beit din, or rabbinical court, is scheduled for this week.

At the center of the dispute are allegations that Herzog was waging a “turf war” against colleagues operating near his Chabad house in Melbourne’s city center.

Herzog, who has been running the Chabad of Melbourne Central Business District since 1998, declined to comment, except to say that “Everything you print is a lie and I’m not going to comment any further.”

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

UNITED STATES
The Jewish Chronicle

by Toby Tabachnick, Staff Writer The Jewish Chronicle

In 1985, after discovering that her three children were being sexually abused by an uncle, Denise instinctively turned to her priest for help and guidance.

But he did not know what to do.

“He told me they didn’t deal with that kind of thing, and that [my children] would have to see a psychiatrist,” she recalled. “The priest came out and said there was nothing he could do.”

Denise, whose last name is withheld here to protect her privacy, had an experience that is more common than one might think. Members of the clergy—including rabbis — typically are not trained in how to counsel victims of child abuse or their parents. And yet, it is the clergy that is often called on as the first responders by people of faith.

About 17 female interfaith clergy members gathered at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Monday, Nov. 5, for the workshop titled “Child Sexual Abuse and Neglect: What they didn’t teach in seminary.” The workshop, organized by the Pittsburgh chapter of Jewish Women International in conjunction with several co-sponsors, is the second in a series of domestic violence prevention programs for female clergy, intending to fill a gap in their pastoral education.

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

IDAHO
Idaho Statesman

Published: November 6, 2012

By MEGHANN M. CUNIFF — mcuniff@idahostatesman.com

Ronald Evan Morgan was 13 when he says a scoutmaster molested him on a Boy Scout camping trip in Idaho. Born and raised in the Treasure Valley, Morgan, now 46, lived with the secret for nearly three decades before suing the organization in 2007 for failing to protect him from a man he said everyone knew was pedophile.

He never got his day in court. The Idaho Supreme Court ruled three years ago that because the state law allowing claims based on childhood sexual abuse wasn’t enacted until 1989, Morgan and his two unnamed co-plaintiffs were too late.

But an August ruling by a federal judge in Boise could reopen a door previously closed.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill has allowed a $5 million lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Ore-Idaho Council of the Boy Scouts in Boise to be heard by a jury on the grounds that the organizations engaged in institutional fraud by purporting to be a safe place for young boys while they knowingly concealed sexual abuse by its members.

It’s the first child sex abuse lawsuit in Idaho to pursue such a legal angle.

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

TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

By BILL BRAUN World Staff Writer
Published: 11/6/2012

A former Tulsa church child-care worker pleaded no contest Monday to charges of abusing two young children, with the offenses separated by almost two years in time.

Meredith Allison Howard, 40, will be sentenced Jan. 29 on two felony charges of child abuse by injury.

Howard, who waived her right to a trial, has no agreement with the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office regarding her sentence. District Judge William Kellough will decide the sentence.

One case is linked to an injury that prosecutors contend was inflicted on an 8-month-old boy on Dec. 8, 2008, at a day care affiliated with Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian, 4102 E. 61st St.

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

ICELAND
Iceland Review

Bishop of the Catholic Church of Iceland Pétur Burcher has established a council of specialists, which is to provide consultation on the right for damages for victims of sexual and other abuse within the church, following the release of a report confirming the abuse.

The council is also to suggest changes to the church’s work methods when abuse is reported, as well as preventive methods and other improvements, ruv.is reports.

Supreme Court lawyer Eiríkur Elís Þorláksson is to chair the council, on which anthropologist April Frigge and lawyer Skúli Guðmundsson will also have a seat. It is to commence its work immediately and hand in suggestions no later than June 1, 2013.

The investigative committee of the Catholic Church in Iceland concluded that all of the church’s bishops from 1968 to this date, Hinrik Frehen, Alfred Jolsons, Joannes Gijsen and Pétur Burcher, failed the students of Landakotsskóli and neglected their duties.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Schafsbrief

04.11.2012. “Zweifelhafter Priester hält Messen in +Ackermanns Zuständigkeitsbereich, Stephan duckt sich weg!”

Pater Benedikt Ulitzka (bürgerlich Hubert Ulitzka) wohnt und beseelt ahnungslose Katholiken in Mettlach

Es ist unglaublich, aber wahr!

Kommentarschaf. “Der im Zusammenhang mit den von Pfarrer Klaus Leist (Ermittlungen wegen vermeintlichem Drohbriefschreiben laufen hier immer noch) als Gerüchte bezeichnete Missbrauchsvorfälle in Köllerbach stehende Pater Benedikt Ulitzka hält Messen in Mettlach. Messen in einer Art Privatkapelle einer Mettlacher Familie. Die Messfeiern sind als traditionalistisch einszustufen. Dagegen ist erst mal nix einzuwenden.

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

OSTERREICH
betroffen

[mitt Audio]

Die Pfarrer-Initiative trennt sich nun von Mitgliedern, denen sexueller Missbrauch vorgeworfen wird. Damit zieht die Initiative Konsequenzen, nachdem die Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt ihr vorgeworfen hat, zwei Missbrauchstäter in den eigenen Reihen zu haben.

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

CANADA
The News Watch

By tbnewswatch.com THUNDER BAY — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Thunder Bay is among those named in a lawsuit alleging sexual assault.

It was filed by six males members of the Lac La Croix First Nation. According to the Toronto Star, the plaintiffs allege they were sexually assaulted by a Roman Catholic priest who served on the reserve in the 1960s.

The priest has since died.

In the suit, the men are seeking damages from the Diocese of Thunder Bay, the federal government and a Catholic order based in Manitoba.

None of the allegations have been proven in court and no court date has been set.

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

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Boston Globe

By DAVID KLEPPER
Associated Press / November 5, 2012

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island judge heard arguments Monday in a legal tug-of-war over sealed documents relating to the Legion of Christ, a disgraced Roman Catholic religious order.

The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Providence Journal and the National Catholic Reporter want Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein to unseal documents from a lawsuit contesting the will of an elderly widow who left the Legion $60 million. The Legion argues that the information could taint prospective jurors and wants it to remain hidden from public view.

The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 after determining that its late founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children by two women.

The widow, Gabrielle Mee, died in 2008. Her niece Mary Lou Dauray had sought to challenge the will, saying her aunt had been defrauded by the order into leaving it her fortune. Silverstein last month threw out the challenge because he determined the niece lacked standing. Her attorney plans to appeal.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

submitted By Sister Maureen Turlish

On October 15, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced its decision to restore Rev. Joseph DiGregorio to ministry, a priest credibly accused of the sexual exploitation of a minor.

It did so while releasing as little information as possible.

The Archdiocese’s poor record of accountability and transparency began to become known as early as 2002 when then-Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua was quoted on CNN as saying, “We all are agreed that no priest guilty of even one act of sexual abuse of a minor will function in any ecclesial ministry or any capacity in our diocese.”

Later, the 2005 and 2011 grand-jury reports highlighted in graphic detail the lack of accountability and transparency shown by Cardinals Krol, Bevilacqua and Rigali.

Is there really a reason why faith should be put in this latest decision by Archbishop Charles Chaput to return DiGregorio to ministry without more information being released to the public? Chaput admitted in his statement that DiGregorio was found to have violated the church’s behavioral standards for priests.

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

CANADA
Sun News

JAMES TURNER | QMI AGENCY

WINNIPEG — A group of men from a northwestern Ontario First Nations community are suing a Winnipeg-based Roman Catholic order and others to seek redress for alleged sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of their community priest as young boys.

The six men from the Lac La Croix First Nation near Fort Francis seek unspecified financial damages from the federal government, a Catholic diocese in Thunder Bay and the order of Les Oblats de Marie Immaculee du Manitoba, along with a priest who lived and worked on the reserve in the 1960s.

The men range in age from 55 to 61.

In separate statements of claim, each alleges his life has been deeply and negatively affected by the aftershocks of sexual assaults he was subjected to — abuse the men say they felt powerless to speak out about given the priest’s position of power in their small community.

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

UNITED STATES
Joey Piscitelli

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Joey Piscitelli

The recent articles by Fr. Stephen Rossetti PhD, such as “A New Phase of Child Protection”, printed in the Washington Post on October 26th – are a lamentable diversion. They are masking the historic truth about the systematic shielding of clergy pedophiles.

Rev. Rossetti, now a “clinical professor” at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C, had the insolence to state: “the steps taken in the last 30 years to prevent the devastating trauma of child sex abuse are making a difference”.

Rossetti of all people, should know better than to boast about clergy child abuse prevention. He was CEO at ground zero; the notorious St. Lukes Institute in Maryland – the Catholic treatment center victims have dubbed “Pedophile-Paradise”.

Ever since the clergy abuse scandal exploded years ago, countless observers have asked this question:

“Why weren’t pedophile priests prosecuted and convicted?”

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

NEW YORK
Buffalo News

BY: Dan Herbeck

A nun with a casino gambling problem will be charged today with stealing more than $100,000 from two churches where she worked in Orleans County, The Buffalo News learned late Sunday.

The felony grand larceny charge will be filed against Sister Mary Anne Rapp, who in recent years has been assigned to St. Mary Catholic Church in Holley and its sister church, St. Mark, in nearby Kendall.

Sister Mary Anne is scheduled to answer the charges in Kendall Town Court this evening, Orleans County District Attorney Joseph V. Cardone confirmed Sunday night.

“This is a situation that was brought to our attention by the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and has been under investigation for months by the [Orleans County] Sheriff’s Office,” Cardone said. “It’s not a situation where the sister has been living an extravagant life. I think there are indications that she has a gambling problem.”

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

NEW YORK
Huffington Post

HOLLEY, N.Y. — Authorities say a nun faces grand larceny charges after more than $100,000 was stolen from two western New York churches where she worked.

The newspaper reports that the money was stolen from Catholic churches in Holley and Kendall, rural parishes between Buffalo and Rochester.

No other details have been released.

The nun’s attorney, James Harrington, told the newspaper he couldn’t comment on the case.

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

CANADA
Huffington Post

Wayne K, Spear

In many respects, my friend and colleague Garnet Angeconeb is representative of the countless Aboriginal children beaten and raped in Canada’s Indian residential schools. For years he told no one, including his wife. Angry, pain-filled and confused, he drank heavily to dull his feelings. The turning-point in his life arrived during a business trip to Ottawa, on October 31, 1990:

That morning, I got up, showered, dressed, and headed downstairs to meet a colleague for breakfast. “Hey, look at this front-page article on the residential school issue,” he said as he sipped his coffee. I had my own copy of the Globe and Mail tucked under my arm. There, on the front page, was an article about how the then-Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Phil Fontaine, had publicly disclosed that he had been physically and sexually abused while attending an Indian Lake residential school. As I read the article, I began to feel an indescribable pain crawling all over my body. Through this haze of pain, I struggled to admit to my colleague that I, too, like many former students, had experienced sexual and physical abuse while at residential school. I was also enraged by the psychological and spiritual scars inflicted on me and the other students. My colleague and I grew almost completely silent. The silence continued as we ate our breakfast. After a while, my colleague quietly asked, “So you were abused in residential school?” Not knowing what exactly to say, I responded, “Yes, I was abused — sexually.” I told him that a man at the school named Hands, who eventually became an Anglican priest, had abused me and many others at Pelican during the 1960s. I felt a wave of rage overtake me. I had a huge lump in my throat as I struggled to hold back the pain I had buried for so many years. Then, as if a floodgate had been thrown open, I cried uncontrollably. It was the first time I had ever told anyone that as a little boy I had been sexually abused at residential school. For the next year I tried to figure out how to deal with that admission. I had to tell my family (I have been married since 1978 and had never spoken of the abuse to my wife). It took a lot of soul-searching — I had so many doubts.

As Angeconeb recalls years later, Leonard Hands made a deliberate point of refusing to apologize to him either during the January 5, 1996 Kenora District Court sentencing or in the years leading up to his death in 2000: “he specifically stated he was not apologizing to me. He wasn’t allowed to use my name but said he was specifically excluding “G.A.” from his apology. He claimed he had already done so during our meeting in 1992, and that I had refused his apology. It angered me but I realized he was a man going down and that it was his only way of lashing out and trying to regain some control.” No longer among the living, Hands would be the object of posthumous forgiveness. In this way, Angeconeb would begin to let go of the rage and confusion, taking a huge step forward in his personal healing and spiritual growth.

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

VATICAN CITY
U-T San Diego

VATICAN CITY — The lawyer for a Vatican computer whiz insists his client had little motive to risk his 20 years on the job to help the pope’s former butler steal confidential documents.

Claudio Sciarpelletti is accused of aiding Paolo Gabriele in the theft of papal correspondence and other documents from Pope Benedict XVI’s apartment. His attorney Gianluca Benedetti, says the two weren’t great friends and that Sciarpelletti would be unlikely to help a person he had no special relationship with.

Gabriele, who is serving the 18-month-sentence, had been scheduled to testify about their relationship Monday, but neither he nor other witnesses, including a Swiss Guard commander, took the stand. The hearing was adjourned to Saturday to give the defense more time to prepare.

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

ZAMBIA
Zambian Watchdog

ANGLICAN Diocese of Central Zambia priests have complained that their Bishop Derrick Kamukwamba has been facilitating abortion for girls who are impregnated by his nephew who is training as a priest.

The sources said Bishop Kamukwamba’s nephew Stubbs has been living a sinful life and that his uncle has been in support of what he has been doing.

“What that boy has been doing is bad and we are not happy as priests in this diocese. Before he went for priesthood, he impregnated two girls and they have children for him, as a diocese we objected to this, but since his uncle is the bishop, he went to the seminary. Before he was ordained as deacon, the church refused and the church council at the Cathedral of the Holy Nativity refused to attend his ordination service as a way of rejecting him, because that boy drinks and he is ever found in bars, all this was brought to the attention of the Bishop but he went to on and ordain his nephew,” they complained.

The priests said Stubbs impregnated one of the girls from the youth fellowship and the Bishop facilitated for an abortion.

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

UNITED STATES
Chicago Tribune

[Letters regarding Bishop Matthias now posted on Midwest web site – Orthodox Church in America]

By Manya Brachear
Tribune reporter

The local bishop of the Orthodox Church in America accused in August of “inappropriate” behavior with a woman has been found guilty of sexual misconduct by church investigators, but will remain at the helm of the Midwest Diocese.

Bishop Matthias (born David Lawrence Moriak) will stay on administrative leave until he meets the “rehabilitative measures” required by the church’s Holy Synod. Those measures include directly asking forgiveness from the woman who submitted a complaint, participating in a residential therapeutic program designed for clergy, and undergoing a mentorship with a peer bishop who will then recommend whether Bishop Matthias can return to his post.

“I am deeply sorry that I have offended, confused, and caused hurt to this young woman,” Bishop Matthias said in a letter read to parishioners during worship services on Sunday. “I will communicate my apology directly and personally to her.”

According to a statement issued by the Holy Synod, Bishop Matthias allegedly sent inappropriate text and e-mail messages to a female parishioner in the diocese. She filed a formal complaint in August, the statement said.

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

NEW YORK
Buffalo News

BY: Jay Tokasz

A local organization of rabbis has issued a statement condemning a former colleague’s participation in High Holy Day services at Hillel of Buffalo, on the University at Buffalo North Campus in Amherst.

The statement by the Buffalo Board of Rabbis, sent at the end of October to the leaders of various Jewish organizations in Western New York, expressed “deep dismay and disappointment” that Rabbi A. Charles Shalman was invited to participate in a leadership role during Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services.

Shalman was expelled in 2008 from the Rabbinical Assembly over ethics violations related to an inappropriate relationship with a member of the Amherst synagogue where he served as rabbi, as well as previous allegations of misconduct dating from 1999.

“Clergy abuse is extremely serious, and is not ‘just an affair’ or ‘an imperfection.’ It is imperative that members of the clergy who have violated that trust be prevented from functioning in any way that might be perceived as being in the role of a rabbi,” the statement reads.

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

VATICAN CITY
BBC News

A computer technician has gone on trial in the Vatican City charged with aiding and abetting the Pope’s former butler in stealing papal documents.

Claudio Sciarpelletti is accused of helping Paolo Gabriele leak the confidential documents while working in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

Gabriele was given an 18-month prison sentence by the same court last month.

He admitted passing documents to a journalist, but said he did it out of love for the church and the Pope.

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

VATICAN CITY
euronews

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A Vatican court on Monday heard how Pope Benedict’s former butler, who has been jailed for stealing papal documents, refused to allow technicians to check his computer for six years before his arrest.

The detail emerged at the first hearing of the trial of Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer expert who is charged with aiding and abetting former butler Paolo Gabriele.

Lawyers told the court Gabriele refused to have his computer maintained or updated by technicians.

Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft at a separate trial last month and sentenced to 18 months in jail for stealing sensitive papal documents and leaking them to the media. He kept some confidential information on his computer.

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

VATICAN CITY
USA Today

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The trial this week of a Vatican computer whiz over his alleged role in an embarrassing scandal of filched confidential papal documents is offering a chance for an insider glimpse at the Holy See’s security workings.

Among those expected to testify in the trial, which begins on Monday in a Vatican City tribunal, are the pope’s top bodyguard, a commander of the legendary Swiss Guards and a Vatican security official connected to an Italian company with expertise in detecting eavesdropping devices.

Also on the witness list is Paolo Gabriele, Benedict’s former butler who is serving an 18-month prison sentence at the Vatican. It will be Gabriele’s first opportunity for public comment since the Holy See tribunal convicted him last month of stealing the pontiff’s private letters and leaking them to an Italian journalist in one of the worst breaches of Vatican security in recent memory.

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

UNITED STATES
Seeking Alpha

David Warsh

Scandal over the tendency of organizations to shield sexual predators sometimes concealed in their ranks, the public investigation of which began with the Catholic Church, spread to Penn State University college football, and the Boy Scouts, recently has stained the British Broadcasting Co. The story of the late Jimmy Saville, a one-time coal-miner turned British celebrity whose television presence over fifty years loosely resembled that of American Bandstand host Dick Clark (with more than a touch of W.C Fields thrown in), would be just another strange tale of Old England, except for one thing.

The New York Times Company (NYT), which, through its Boston Globe subsidiary, started the media’s sustained attention to the issue ten years ago with a painstaking investigation of the Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese, recently hired the BBC’s Mark Thompson to be its chief executive officer. Now it turns out that a program that would have documented both Saville’s history of preying on adolescent girls and his systematic enabling over the years by the authorities (including the BBC), was quietly scrubbed during the period that Thompson served as the BBC’s director general. The New York Times own public editor has urged the paper not to “pull its punches” in considering whether Thompson is the right person for the job, “given this turn of events.”

It was at a juncture something like this one that a famous old attorney, now long retired from the courtroom, listened in a private conference room as his colleagues waxed furious at demands that the other side had made during a negotiation: Outrageous! Preposterous! Unconscionable! After a long and thoughtful pause, the counselor intoned, “Friends, it is time to rise above principle.” The deal was done and everyone went back to work.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Express

Monday November 5,2012

By James Parry

IN A corner of a country churchyard in north Norfolk lies the grave of Harold Francis Davidson, the last resting place of a man who 80 years ago was at the heart of a case that scandalised the Church of England and caused a press furore. Davidson was a church rector who strayed beyond his brief and was sensationally defrocked in 1932 after a trial that gripped the nation. The potent mix of sex, skulduggery and abuse of authority proved toxic and still resonates today.

Davidson came from a long line of clergymen but his early interests were rather more theatrical. He revelled in amateur dramatics at school and toured for several months in 1895 with a group of likeminded friends, performing as entertainers. But in the autumn of 1903 the young Davidson turned his back on the stage and was ordained as a priest.

Three years later he was posted as rector to the parish of Stiffkey St John and Stiffkey St Mary & Morston, located on a remote stretch of the Norfolk coastline. In the Edwardian era that part of the country was far from being the fashionable rural playground for the chattering classes that it is today. Local society was still deeply feudal with a small-minded establishment holding sway and with firm views on what was and was not appropriate behaviour.

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

ICELAND
Iceland Review

The investigative commission of the Catholic Church in Iceland presented its report on Friday, confirming that Rev. Ágúst Georg, principal of the church-run elementary school Landakotsskóli, and one of its teachers, Margrét Müller, abused their pupils.

The commission questioned 30 of the school’s former pupils and people who had joined the Catholic Church’s summer camps as children. Eight of them stated they had been sexually abused and 27 that they had been subject to or witnessed mental abuse, ruv.is reports.

Hjördís Hákonardóttir, who chairs the commission, said the report is a serious blow to the reputation of the Catholic Church in Iceland.

It reveals that Joannes Gijsen, who served as Bishop of the Catholic Church in Iceland 1996-2007, destroyed a letter from a man who described how he was abused by Rev. Georg, ruv.is reports.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Age

[Submissions – Parliament of Victoria]

November 6, 2012

Jane Lee

MOST of the evidence given to a state inquiry into child abuse has not been published more than a month after the deadline for submissions closed.

The committee of family and community development released 47 submissions on its website on October 10, ahead of its first hearing. They included statements from the Catholic Church and other religious groups, and a withering attack by Victoria Police on the church’s hindrance of its sexual abuse investigations since the 1950s.

But no further submissions have been published since, adding to scepticism over the inquiry’s effectiveness. Many critics are calling its six-member committee – which is due to report to Parliament in April – under-resourced and over-worked.

The committee has received hundreds of additional submissions since the inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and non-government organisations was called in April. That followed years of campaigning by victims, advocates and media.

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

UNITED STATES
Orthodox Church in America

CHICAGO, IL [MW Diocese Communications]

On Saturday, November 3, 2012, Archpriest John Zdinak, Chancellor and Temporary Administrator of the Diocese of the Midwest of the Orthodox Church in America, forwarded two letters—one from the Holy Synod of Bishops, a second from His Grace, Bishop Matthias—to members of the Diocesan Council and all rectors and priests-in-charge, who were asked to read or post them in all parishes following the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, November 4.

The text of the letter of the Holy Synod may be accessed here. The text of the letter of Bishop Matthias may be accessed here.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Merkur

München – Prügel, Zwangsarbeit und sexueller Missbrauch – eine heute 72-Jährige aus dem Kreis Starnberg ist als Heimkind schwer misshandelt worden. Wegen ihres Traumas fordert sie jetzt Schadensersatz. Und zwar vom Freistaat Bayern.

Die schlimmen Dinge, die Eva R. (Name geändert) widerfahren sind, liegen Jahrzehnte zurück. Sie sollen zwischen 1946 und 1956 in bayerischen Kinderheimen passiert sein. Doch im Jahr 2008, als die Missbrauchsdebatte entbrannte, kam alles wieder hoch. So sehr, dass Eva R. eine „Retraumatisierung“ erlitten hat.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
domradio

Bei einer internationalen Konferenz hat die katholische Kirche in Freising eine Zwischenbilanz in ihrem Kampf gegen sexuellen Missbrauch gezogen. Der Jesuit Hans Zollner zu ersten Erfolgen und anstehenden Aufgaben.

KNA: Pater Zollner, wie weit ist die katholische Kirche inzwischen vorangekommen bei der Eindämmung von sexuellem Missbrauch?

Zollner: Die Situation ist je nach Kontinent und Land anders. Weltweit haben inzwischen fast 80 Prozent der nationalen Bischofskonferenzen eigene Richtlinien zum Umgang mit diesem Problem erlassen, das ist sehr beachtlich. Einige Nachzügler gibt es in Osteuropa und auch in Afrika ist die Resonanz noch nicht zufriedenstellend.

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

OHIO
Coshocton Tribune

AKRON — A northeast Ohio Catholic priest who embezzled money from an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center he founded began serving his six-month prison sentence this week in a tax fraud case.

The Rev. Samuel Ciccolini started serving time at a minimum-security federal facility in Morgantown, W.Va., the Akron Beacon Journal reported.

The 70-year-old Ciccolini, known as “Father Sam,” has been prohibited from saying Mass or hearing confessions. Bishop Richard Lennon and his advisers in the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland won’t determine Ciccolini’s status with the diocese until he’s out of prison, diocese spokesman Robert Tayek said.

The priest was a beloved figure in the Akron area, and the community was shocked by his 2010 arrest and the discovery that he’d amassed millions of dollars, the newspaper said.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sunday November 04 2012

The supine acceptance of Vatican authority is driving clergy out of office, writes Colum Kenny

THE Irish Bishops Conference has refused to meet the Association of Catholic Priests. The hierarchy will not dignify them with a high-level meeting.

‘Cardinal snubs plea by liberal priests for meeting,’ shouted one headline. But the Association of Catholic Priests is no fringe group of lax priests. It represents more than 1,000 members. The laity may be surprised to learn that there are still that many priests in Ireland.

The behaviour of the Irish hierarchy since Vatican II has driven committed priests and nuns out of office. And it has driven many other Catholics to despair. Its recent censoring of outspoken priests to placate the Vatican now means that even a priest as mainstream as Fr Brian D’Arcy has to submit his newspaper columns for approval in advance of publication.

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

VATICAN CITY
NDTV (India)

Vatican City: A Vatican computer technician will go on trial on Monday on charges of helping the pope’s former butler steal papers, in a case that could expose other whistle-blowers within the secretive Holy See.

Claudio Sciarpelletti’s trial follows the conviction of ex-butler Paolo Gabriele, who was sentenced to 18 months in jail last month after he admitted leaking papers alleging corruption and Machiavellian politics in the Vatican.

The 48-year-old technician was arrested on May 25 as the investigation into the leaks unfolded but was released the following day.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

Monica Yant Kinney, Inquirer Columnist

Posted: Sunday, November 4, 2012

After the mixed-message end to the criminal trial of the Rev. James J. Brennan and Msgr. William J. Lynn, I speculated that even one conviction would rock both the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the state legal system.

Brennan had been accused of attempted rape and Lynn faced conspiracy charges, but after 13 days of deliberation, a conflicted jury declared a mistrial for Brennan and found Lynn – at the time the nation’s highest-ranking church official ensnared in the sex-abuse scandal – guilty of just one crime: endangering the welfare of a child.

Surely that single verdict, on that felonious charge, would embolden other prosecutors to hold other powerful decision-makers accountable. Even in cases where they were not charged with touching anyone. Even when the official had never met the victim.

Thursday, state Attorney General Linda Kelly charged former Pennsylvania State University president Graham B. Spanier with putting the school’s image before children’s safety.

Once among the country’s most revered college administrators, Spanier stands accused of lying to a grand jury for saying he never discussed reporting Jerry Sandusky to authorities and did not know about early allegations against the aggressive coach-turned-youth mentor.

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

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

by FATHER C. JOHN MCCLOSKEY
11/03/2012

MY PEACE I GIVE YOU
Healing Sexual Wounds With the Help of the Saints
By Dawn Eden
Ave Maria Press, 2012
256 pages, $16.95
To order: avemariapress.com
(800) 282-1865, ext. 1

How do you describe Dawn Eden? Former rock-music writer, chastity expert, theologian, blogger? Or simply a great Jewish-Catholic convert woman writer? Well, I will focus on the last.

Readers are aware of the painful cases of sexual abuse of children and adolescents by homosexual and pedophile priests and religious in the United States and in many countries in Europe as well. It appears that at last the worst is behind us, and the Church is taking proper measures to assure that candidates for the priesthood and religious life are carefully selected for their capacity to live the virtue of chastity. This is not simply a Catholic problem, but a societal one, since ours is a sex-soaked society. In fact, the incidence of child sex abuse is higher proportionally for public-school teachers and Protestant ministers than it is for Catholic priests.

All this makes the need for Eden’s new book, My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds With the Help of the Saints, urgent because, as its subtitle suggests, it is about healing sexual wounds.

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

GEORGIA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By Alan Judd
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATHENS —

Who could have been a more upstanding citizen than Ernest Boland?

Businessman. Rotarian. Adviser to local government officials. Full colonel in the Army Reserve. And, for 25 years, the leader of three separate Boy Scout troops.

“He helped a lot of boys start on the right path in life,” an admirer wrote in nominating Boland as Athens’ citizen of the century.

But behind the façade of uniforms and civic engagement, Boland seemed to harbor dark secrets. Across Athens, scouts and other boys quietly unburdened their shame: Boland, they told their parents, was not the trusted mentor they perceived him as, but a child molester, one who forced them to repeatedly perform sex acts with him.

These secrets finally were revealed last month through the release of long-confidential files that detailed accusations of sexual abuse by scoutmasters nationwide. Boland’s file claims he molested a dozen or more scouts and other boys between the 1950s and the 1970s. Even when some of the boys told, the file shows, prominent adults in Athens kept the matter quiet, tacitly giving Boland the chance to continue abusing boys under his authority.

The way scout officials, leaders of his church and others handled the allegations against Boland reflects the ethos of an earlier era, before such iconic institutions as the Roman Catholic Church and Penn State’s football program were forced to deal with scandals involving the sexual abuse of children. Laws did not mandate reporting suspicions of abuse to authorities, as they do now, and a common approach was to deal with child molesters, especially those who enjoyed a degree of prominence in their communities, behind the scenes.

“In those days, this was a no-no in terms of publicizing it,” said the Rev. James Griffith, who as Boland’s pastor in the mid-1970s heard reports of his sexual transgressions. “It was suspected, but there was not much done about it.”

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

PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

By Patriot-News Editorial Board

The latest charges against former Penn State President Graham Spanier, Athletic Director on leave Tim Curley and former Vice President Gary Schultz are yet another reminder that the university’s former administrators placed PSU’s image above the lives and well-being of young boys.

Child sexual abuse cases are incredibly difficult. Often the victims are afraid to come forward and plagued with guilt and emotional (if not physical) trauma.

On top of that factor is the “conspiracy of silence” of powerful institutions trying to cover up these horrific crimes. Pennsylvania has example after example: Penn State/Jerry Sandusky, Philadelphia priest abuse cases, and now the Boy Scouts of America’s “immoral” files that document decades of abuse.

How many more tragedies must come to light before Pennsylvania’s leaders put victims’ needs first? Obtaining justice for these children is further complicated by the statute of limitations. Child sex abuse cases have to be brought forward before the victim is 50 for criminal charges and before the victim turns 30 for civil charges.

However, when many of these high-profile molestations and rapes took place, the statute of limitations was much shorter, meaning men and women finally ready to come forward today can’t do so. The 2003 Philadelphia grand jury report on the Catholic Church scandal identified 63 priests who sexually abused children.

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

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

Another outstanding piece this morning by Jerry Slevin. In this essay, Jerry sketches the historical and political background to the intervention of the Vatican and the U.S. Catholic hierarchy in the 2012 elections, noting the connection of papal politics (and the politicking of the USCCB) to the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church. Jerry’s essay follows:

Of the many stories generated by the medieval wars, or Crusades, against Islamic rulers that were frequently supported actively by various popes, few are more fascinating than the ones about the so-called 13th Century “Children’s Crusade.” The stories, which relate to the exploits of a large numbers of itinerants, including many docile and idealistic youth, suggest a uniquely organized effort to rescue the Holy Land. As with most wars, including the Crusades, what seems fairly clear is that children were frequently disproportionately among the casualties, directly or indirectly, including these youthful Crusaders. Then as now, the welfare of children seemed to be a low priority for a generally celibate clerical caste, notwithstanding Jesus’ clear Gospel mandate to protect children.

As the U.S. elections soon arrive, the pope is desperately leading another crusade that disproportionately negatively affects children. The pope is flexing his U.S. election year muscles to rally and bring out conservative Catholic voters in critical swing districts by opposing contraception health insurance, as well as the other “hot” wedge issue, gay marriage, that the pope claims, without real evidence and without addressing contrary evidence, hurts families, including children.

The pope’s longstanding worldwide effort against government support of effective and voluntary birth control family planning for the poor, in particular, has contributed clearly and unnecessarily to hundreds of millions of “unplanned” children worldwide, including many in the U.S., who are often consigned to lives of miserable poverty.

What is the pope’s goal with this heartless anti-contraception crusade? Firstly, the pope’s power is apparently thought to be directly related to his efforts to maximize the size of the Catholic population worldwide, especially when compared to the higher birth rates in many non-Catholic countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as the increasing Islamic populations in Western countries. Reproducing more Catholics seems to be a clear papal objective, especially since in many countries, including in the West, the pope is also facing currently a growing Catholic exodus over major papal failures, including the pope’s inability and/or unwillingness to adopt effective measures to curtail the worldwide epidemic of priest sexual abuse of innocent children. …

The challenge apparently for the pope was to find a novel way to use these weapons against Obama, who had recently been showing signs of getting increasingly aggressive against the U.S. bishops for their ongoing cover-up of priest sexual predators. The new papal attack was launched against Obama’s proposed rules requiring making available free contraceptive insurance for all employees of Church-controlled institutions, such as universities, but not for direct employees of the Church.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBZ

The archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan. has sent a case of an alleged “predator priest” to the Vatican. Father John Wisner was removed from his ministerial duties last spring after a decades old sexual misconduct accusation from a man in his forties.

Since then, two other men have come forward with similar allegations.

What happens next?

“They will either advise the archbishop on how to proceed, which would probably mean removing him permanently from ministry or they could take the case upon themselves, which means they could continue the investigation,” said church spokesperson Rose Hammes.

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

ROME
RKNieuws

ROME (RKnieuws.net) – Maandag moet computerspecialist Claudio Sciarpelletti zich voor de rechtbank verantwoorden in het kader van de Vatileaks affaire. Hij wordt beschuldigd van mogelijke medeplichtigheid bij de diefstal van vertrouwelijke documenten uit de pauselijke vertrekken.

Sciarpelletti kreeg gedaan dat zijn proces gescheiden wordt gevoerd van dat van Paolo Gabriele, de ex-majordomus (butler) van de paus, die onlangs tot 18 maanden celstraf werd veroordeeld.
Kerk & leven, één van de grootste weekbladen in Vlaanderen, pakt deze week uit met een gestoffeerd dossier over Vatileaks. Daaruit blijkt dat Vatileaks een schandaal is dat vooral toont hoe het erin het Vaticaan aan toe gaat en dat is niet altijd even fraai. ‘Ook in het Vaticaan waren schandalen nooit weg. Het Vaticaan is een oord van jaloezie en intriges en met Vatileaks krijgt de Kerk opnieuw een flinke deuk”, aldus Kerk & leven.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Globe and Mail (Canada)

CAROLINE BYRNE

LONDON — Special to The Globe and Mail
Sir James Savile, knighted by Queen and Pope, bought a brand new Rolls-Royce every year so he’d have a getaway car in case a scandal erupted and he needed to flee.

By 1991 – a year after Pope John Paul II made him Knight Commander of St. Gregory the Great in honour of his charity work – Mr. Savile had bought and sold 17 new Rolls-Royces, telling a BBC psychiatrist it would be easier to sell a new car if he had to move abroad quickly with little money.

“I could then go and be very unhappy in the south of France, covered in shame and sunshine and mad birds with bikinis on,” Sir James told Anthony Clare, a psychiatrist who interviewed the BBC Top of the Pops TV presenter in 1991 for a radio show at the peak of his celebrity and – it would now appears, his sexual crimes.

Jimmy Savile, the youngest of seven children and a star who made children’s wishes come true in the BBC TV show Jim’ll Fix It, described himself that day as a child-hater with no emotions. He said he had no attachments, had never been in love, would never marry and had never spent more than one or two nights in one location, preferring to carry an overnight bag throughout his life. He mused about how he was drawn to mortuaries and enjoyed spending five days alone with his mother’s corpse because he finally had her to himself.

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

UXBRIDGE (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Susan Spencer TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

UXBRIDGE — A Church of the End Times founder was back in court yesterday facing two charges of violating a restraining order issued last month.

Dennis H. Stanley, 36, was held without bail at the Worcester County Jail after his arraignment and will return for a pretrial conference Nov. 6.

According to court documents, a warrant was entered by the court on Oct. 23 after Beth Ellen Stanley, from whom Mr. Stanley is separated, filed complaints that he violated the yearlong restraining order awarded Oct. 5. The order requires Mr. Stanley to stay at least 100 yards away from Mrs. Stanley’s home at 41 Murphy’s Way.

Mrs. Stanley alleged that Mr. Stanley has visited or attempted to visit his brother, David H. Stanley’s home at 51 Murphy’s Way, next door to Mrs. Stanley. The houses are less than 100 yards apart.

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

UNITED STATES
Youth Today

November 02, 2012 by Maggie Lee

Organizations that serve youth must overlap their defenses against sexual predators, say experts at a youth protection conference organized by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

“The first problem we have in the country is that most people most of the time won’t report abuse, no matter how clear the evidence is … even when they walk in on a child being sexually abused,” declared Victor Vieth, executive director of the National Child Protection Training Center at Minnesota’s Winona State University.

“It’s not a close question,” he said, referring to decades of research. “People tell researchers, ‘I don’t report because I’m not quite sure.’”

In 2012 alone, personnel in the Roman Catholic Church, the BSA and Penn State University, to name a few big organizations, have all been accused or convicted of complicity in ignoring child sexual abuse, in some cases, for decades.

That’s part of what’s fueled new public attention to child sex abuse in places where kids go to worship, learn and play.

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

UNITED STATES
The Kansas City Star

Things are never looking good for an organization when a court orders it to release internal documents known as its “perversion files.”

That’s what the Boy Scouts of America was compelled to do in October in the aftermath of a judgment that awarded $19.9 million in damages to a plaintiff who was sexually molested by a Portland, Ore., scout leader in the 1980s.

The perversion or “ineligible volunteer” files point to a conundrum facing organizations that bring young people into close contact with adult leaders. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put it, “The same dynamics that create a nurturing environment, and may ultimately protect against child sexual abuse, can also open the doors to sexually abusive behaviors.”

Any organization, whether a church or civic group or business, has an obligation to protect the public from staff members who may have malign intent, but it must also protect the rights of those same staff members to privacy and the presumption of innocence until proof of guilt.

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

NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

Nelson Mail

TRACY NEAL

A frail, elderly Nelson man who used his position in a church to befriend a young boy and his family has gone to prison for 18 months for serious sexual offences committed against the teenager.

When he appeared in the Nelson District Court in May, Hugh Nielsen, 81, admitted a representative charge of indecent assault involving a boy aged 12-16 between September 2004 and May 2005, and another of unlawful sexual connection with a young person aged under 16.

He pleaded guilty to the charges after the first day of a trial, and was remanded on bail for sentencing yesterday.

Nielsen was also instructed to pay $15,000 in emotional harm reparation which he had earlier offered the victim and his family.

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

NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

By Yvonne Tahana

Teachers are walking a tightrope at Kaitaia College as they try to look after students without identifying victims of sexual abuse, principal William Tailby says.

The Far North town has been rocked by three cases this year. All involved men in positions of trust and standing in the community.

In the latest case, Daniel Luke Taylor, 37, who was the vice-president of the Kaitaia Business Association, faces 17 charges, mostly against juvenile boys.

Eric Clifford Reid, 63, a pastor at Kaitaia Family Church, pleaded guilty to 25 charges of making intimate visual recordings and 24 charges of possessing intimate visual recordings related to a woman and a teenage girl.

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

PENNSYLVAINIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

November 3, 2012

By Ann Rodgers / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Although clergy are required to report any suspicion that a child in their congregation’s care has been physically or sexually abused, many either don’t know what to do or are afraid to make the report, say organizers of a workshop for clergywomen on child protection.

Although some denominations — notably the Catholic Church since it adopted its child protection charter in 2002 — provide extensive education to clergy and parishioners about child abuse prevention and reporting, in many traditions it’s rarely addressed.

“Some clergy are getting a lot of information and others are getting none. We are trying to bring the two together to expand their knowledge and share their insights,” said Rochelle Sufrin, an organizer.

The workshop, slated for 8:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Monday at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in East Liberty, is a follow-up to Pittsburgh’s first Interfaith Clergy Workshop for Women in May. That session was on working with adults who were victims of domestic violence. The 34 participants said they wanted more information on what to do if they suspected a child was being abused or neglected.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

Catholic officials in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas are asking the Vatican to look into a case involving multiple allegations against one of its priests.

The archdiocese on Friday said it sent to the Vatican the results of an investigation it conducted into sexual abuse claims by three men against the Rev. John Wisner.

“The Vatican will look at the report that the archbishop has filed and they will either say to him, ‘Here’s how we think you should proceed,’ or they will say, ‘We’re going to take the case into our own hands and do further investigation,’ ” said Rose Hammes, spokeswoman for the archdiocese.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann removed Wisner from active ministry in May after receiving a complaint from a 45-year-old man who alleged Wisner had inappropriately touched him in 1982 on a youth outing when he was 15. The archdiocese received two more allegations after that from men in their 40s, Hammes said.

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

LAS VEGAS (NV)
KOLO

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A court in Las Vegas ordered the Catholic Diocese in Green Bay, Wisconsin to pay a sex abuse victim a half-million dollars.

The court found the church neglected to protect the boy from known sex offender and former priest John Patrick Feeney.

The lawsuit involved one person, known in the Nevada legal system as John Doe 119. The plaintiff’s lawyer says John Patrick Feeney abused the teenage boy soon after leaving Green Bay.

“[Feeney] then ended up landing in Las Vegas, at St. Francis de Sales, where this kid and his family were parishioners,” says the plaintiff’s attorney, Jeff Anderson. “And Feeney laid his hands on this kid in a way that no priest ever should.

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

WISCONSIN
Post-Crescent-

A national organization that supports victims of clergy abuse has praised a verdict that ordered the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay to pay $500,000 in a civil lawsuit involving a priest accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy.

A Las Vegas jury ruled Thursday the diocese was negligent in transferring John Patrick Feeney to a Nevada parish where he allegedly molested the boy.

“The brave victim in this case, John Doe 119, is to be commended for holding the Green Bay Diocese accountable for concealing and facilitating decades of child sex crimes. Children in Nevada and Wisconsin are safer today because of his courage,” a group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement released after the verdict.

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

MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

Another sexual abuse lawsuit has been filed against a Kansas City priest who is awaiting sentencing on a federal child pornography conviction.

The civil lawsuit, filed Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court, alleges that the Rev. Shawn Ratigan engaged a girl in sexually explicit conduct from 2009 to 2011 when she was 10 to 12 years old.

The suit was filed on behalf of the girl — identified as Jane Doe 96 — by her parents. It seeks unspecified damages and is the fifth lawsuit to be filed against Ratigan involving child pornography allegations.

Like the others, the lawsuit also names Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph as defendants, saying that Catholic officials had been warned about Ratigan’s troubling behavior and knew of disturbing images on his laptop computer but failed to take immediate action.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

By: Danielle Krout

Updated: November 2, 2012

EBENSBURG, CAMBRIA COUNTY— The State Attorney General’s Office is now handling another alleged child sex abuse case in the region.

WTAJ News learned Friday that the Cambria County District Attorney’s office turned over the alleged child sex abuse investigation involving Father George Koharchik.

In August allegations surfaced accusing the Priest of sexual misconduct involving minors more than 30 years ago. Koharchik was put on leave from the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese. He served as a Priest at Saint Catherine of Siena Parish in Mount Union, but the alleged assaults took place in Cambria County.

“We have been in conversation with the Attorney Generals Office,” said Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Bolton Penna. “They made the decision they’re going to take over the case.”

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

CROATIA
IOL

November 2 2012
By SAPA

Zagreb –

Croatian prosecutors on Friday charged a Catholic priest with murder for beating to death a village official in the Dubrovnik region after a row over a cemetery.

Father Ivan Sinanovic stands accused of repeatedly hitting on the head the local official who, under the influence of alcohol, last May had forced open the parish house in the tiny village of Banici and attacked him, the prosecution said.

According to local media reports, the priest and official Marko Kraljevic had been fighting over the size of the local cemetery. Sinanovic had started enlarging it without consulting the village authorities.

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

MICHIGAN
MLive

By Mark Tower | mtower@mlive.com
on November 02, 2012

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — John Douglas White, 55, told police he watched necrophilia pornography before beating his 24-year-old neighbor over the head with a mallet, strangling her with a zip tie and undressing her body.

White also admitted to thinking about killing Rebekah Gay for about two weeks before walking into her mobile home about 2 a.m. on Oct. 31, according to the affidavit filed in Isabella County Trial Court by County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. David Patterson.

White told the detective that he had viewed online pornography that shows killings and sex with corpses, the affadavit reports.

“He stated he has been having bad thoughts for about two weeks about killing Rebekah Gay and then having sex with her dead body,” Patterson wrote in the affidavit summarizing White’s statement.

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

MICHIGAN
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Pastor, 55, ‘strangled neighbor, 24, after fantasizing about having sex with her dead body then helped her son, 3, get ready for Halloween’

By Rachel Quigley

A 55-year-old church pastor is accused of beating and strangling his pretty 24-year-old neighbor to fulfill a twisted sexual fantasy before hiding her body and helping her three-year-old son get ready for Halloween.

John D. White was arraigned on Thursday in Michigan on first-degree murder charges and jailed without bond.

He told investigators he repeatedly struck pretty blonde Rebekah Gay’s head with a mallet then strangled her with a zip tie at her Mount Pleasant trailer.

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

MICHIGAN
Sacramento Bee

The Associated Press

Published: Friday, Nov. 2, 2012

BROOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A central Michigan pastor accused of beating and strangling a neighbor to fulfill a sexual fantasy was engaged to the victim’s mother and had asked church members to pray for the young woman before police found her body, a friend said Friday.

Ex-convict John D. White told investigators that after killing 24-year-old Rebekah Gay in her trailer in rural Isabella County early Wednesday, he hid her body in nearby woods then returned to the trailer to dress her 3-year-old son in a Halloween costume, ready for the boy’s father to pick him up.

White told investigators he repeatedly struck Gay’s head with a mallet then strangled her with a zip tie, according to the Isabella County sheriff’s office. He said he stripped her but does not remember if he carried out his fantasy of having sex with Gay’s dead body.

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

UNITED STATES
Kosnoff Fasy

Posted on November 2, 2012

By TIM KOSNOFF

As this is written a gathering is underway in Atlanta, where the Boy Scouts of America is convening other youth-oriented groups at a symposium concerning child sex-abuse prevention

I wish the event signaled enlightenment on the part of the host organization. Alas, the one-day gathering is, in effect, being held in the dark. BSA officials have made it a closed-door event, meaning members of the press won’t be directly privy to what is — and isn’t — discussed by participants.

BSA is still in denial and is trying to deceive the public once again. The secret symposium, then, would seem to be a (the reader will pardon the expression) perversion of the spirit of openness that is supposed to be prevailing at an organization excoriated near and far by the millions who have read the sordid details of the BSA’s so-called “perversion files.” The organization’s leaders, of course, characterize the Atlanta gathering as a chance to bring together interested parties such as YMCA and Big Brothers Big Sisters officials to address the pressing need for oversight where children’s safety and well-being are concerned. Would it have occurred to BSA leaders that, in the wake of the tsunami of the bad publicity with which the organization has been deluged, we all have become interested parties?

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

YUMA (AZ)
Yuma Sun

JAMES GILBERT – @YSJAMESGILBERT

A youth pastor at Valley Baptist Church in Yuma has been arrested on two counts of furnishing harmful material to a minor.

According to the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office, a woman contacted their office over the weekend to report that her daughter had received “items of a sexual nature” from the church’s youth pastor, 43-year-old Robert Warren.

Detectives from the sheriff’s office interviewed the victim and were able to determine that Warren had made contact with the victim and informed her that he had obtained the items in question and had dropped them off at her house.

The sheriff’s office did not explain what the “items of a sexual nature” were, nor was the age of the victim given.

On Wednesday deputies went to Warren’s residence and he was taken into custody. During questioning he admitted to buying the items and delivering them to the victim’s residence.

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

YUMA (AZ)
San Francisco Chronicle

YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — Sheriff’s deputies in Yuma say they’ve arrested a youth pastor after he allegedly gave sex-related items to a girl.

The Yuma Sun reports (http://bit.ly/Rvpr9e ) the sheriff’s office says the girl’s mother told them 43-year-old Robert Warren had given the items to the girl.

Detectives interviewed the girl and she reportedly told them Warren told her he had obtained the items and had dropped them off at her house. The sheriff’s office didn’t identify the items.

Deputies went to Warren’s home Wednesday and arrested him on two counts of providing harmful material to a minor. He reportedly admitted buying the items and delivering them to the victim’s home.

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

ARIZONA
The Raw Story

By Stephen C. Webster
Friday, November 2, 2012

The pastor of a church in Yuma, Arizona said it is “standing behind” a youth pastor who was arrested this week for allegedly providing “sex toys” to a 14-year-old girl.

Police told a reporter with CBS News affiliate KSWT Desert News Now that 43-yer-old Robert Warren, who’s worked at Valley Baptist Church for more than 20 years, was reported by the mother of a 14-year-old girl who claims she received items of a sexual nature from the man.

The Yuma County Sheriff’s Office says that Warren admitted it when confronted with the allegation. They did not describe exactly what type of sex toy was provided.

Pastor Glenn Conell reportedly told Desert News that he feels this incident was out of character for the longtime youth pastor, adding that the church is “standing behind” him, but will consider taking “appropriate” action pending the outcome of an investigation.

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

NEVADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on November 02, 2012

A Las Vegas jury has awarded $500,000 to a man who was sexually abused as a boy by Fr. James Patrick Feeney.

Now that it’s been proven that Feeney molested at least one Nevada boy, it’s crucial that Las Vegas’ Catholic bishop reach out to others he Feeney have hurt. It’s irresponsible for the church hierarchy to be passive and silent here. They have ample resources. They should use those resources to find, in Jesus’ words, the lost and wounded sheep.

Nevada Catholic officials voluntarily let Feeney work in churches in the state. They are responsible, in part, for the harm he did in Nevada. These church officials have a moral duty to aggressively try to find – and help – anyone else who was assaulted by Feeney. They also have an obligation to prod witnesses and whistelblowers to speak up too, so that police and prosecutors might pursue more criinal charges against Feeney.

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

NEDERLAND
Rijksoverheid

Nieuwsbericht | 02-11-2012

De ministerraad heeft op voorstel van staatssecretaris Veldhuijzen van Zanten van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport en staatssecretaris Teeven van Veiligheid en Justitie ingestemd met het wetsvoorstel professionalisering jeugdzorg.

Het wetsvoorstel verplicht jeugdzorgwerkers en gedragswetenschappers om zich te registreren bij een wettelijk register. Ook verbinden zij zich aan een beroepscode. Als sluitstuk van de professionalisering van de jeugdzorg komt er tuchtrechtspraak in de jeugdzorg. Met deze wettelijke instrumenten worden jeugdzorgwerkers beter toegerust en wordt de kwaliteit van de beroepsuitoefening in de gehele jeugdzorg op een hoger, professioneler plan getild.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

By PATTI MENGERS
pmengers@delcotimes.com

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput this week announced the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s latest polices for the protection of children, 20 months after a grand jury investigation blasted archdiocesan officials for their handling of clerical sex abuse cases.

“While recently codified these same policies have actually guided our practices for more than a year. They’ll be reviewed on a regular basis and updated as circumstances require,” said Chaput in a prepared statement released Wednesday.

Among the key changes are a separate archdiocesan office of investigations to ensure immediate referral of any complaints to law enforcement officials, codification of steps for thorough screening of priests seeking to minister in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and referral of all complaints against clergy that involve minors to the Archdiocesan Review Board that provides recommendations of suitability for ministry to Chaput after assessing abuse allegatons.

Archdiocesan Review Board Vice Chairman Arnold Gordon, a former Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney, said, “The revised polices and procedures constitute significant evidence of the commitment of the Philadelphia archdiocese to a zero tolerance policy toward sexual abuse of minors.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY
Nov. 3, 2012

Minister for Police and the Hunter Mike Gallacher has provided the first formal confirmation that police have investigated three senior Catholic clergy for concealing the child sex crimes of a Hunter priest.

Newcastle Police Strike Force Lantle’s investigations into the church’s handling of priest Denis McAlinden ‘‘have been exhaustive’’, Mr Gallacher said in a letter to Greens MP David Shoebridge in late October.

‘‘As you may be aware, the NSW Police Force has been actively investigating allegations that sexual assaults committed by a former Catholic priest, in the Hunter Region, were concealed by three senior members of the Catholic church,’’ he said.

‘‘I am advised that Strike Force Lantle is preparing a brief of evidence to submit to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions for his review and consideration as to whether charges should be laid.

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

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A second criminal trial opens Nov. 5 in the little courtroom on the ground floor of the Vatican’s tribunal building, located just behind the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer technician in the Vatican Secretariat of State, is to be tried on charges of aiding and abetting Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler, who was convicted of aggravated theft for stealing or photocopying private Vatican correspondence — including letters to and from the pope.

The Vatican court’s indictment of Sciarpelletti was released Aug. 13 along with the indictment of Gabriele.

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

WISCONSIN/NEVADA
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Gitte Laasby and Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Nov. 2, 2012

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay has been ordered to pay $500,000 to a Nevada man who was molested in 1984 by a priest it sent there, who had previously molested two Wisconsin brothers.

A Las Vegas jury ruled Thursday for the man, identified as John Doe 119, who was molested by the now defrocked Father John Patrick Feeney. He had sought $5.2 million in damages.

An Outagamie County, Wis., jury in May ordered the diocese to pay $700,000 to brothers Troy and Todd Merryfield, who were abused by Feeney in the 1970s. But the judge threw out that verdict after learning that a juror failed to disclose that she suspected Feeney of inappropriate contact with her own brother and was friends with a member of the plaintiffs’ extended family. That case is scheduled for retrial in May.

Feeney was convicted in Wisconsin in 2004 and sentenced to 15 years in prison but was released in 2011. He was defrocked in 2005.

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

WISCONSIN/NEVADA
Wisconsin State Journal

A Las Vegas jury has awarded $500,000 to a man who claimed he was sexually abused as a boy by a former Wisconsin priest working in Nevada at the time.

The man alleged that when he was about 13, the Rev. John Patrick Feeney fondled him in 1984. At the time, Feeney was a pastor at a Las Vegas church.

The civil lawsuit named the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay as a defendant. The plaintiff alleged that officials there let Feeney transfer to Nevada without revealing a history of sexual abuse allegations against him.

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

NEVADA/WISCONSIN
Fox 11

LAS VEGAS (AP) – A Las Vegas jury has awarded $500,000 to a man who claimed he was sexually abused as a boy by a former Wisconsin priest working in Nevada at the time.

The man alleged that when he was about 13, the Rev. John Patrick Feeney fondled him in 1984. At the time, Feeney was a pastor at a Las Vegas church.

The civil lawsuit named the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay as a defendant. The plaintiff alleged that officials there let Feeney transfer to Nevada without revealing a history of sexual abuse allegations against him.

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

SEATTLE (WA)
KOMO

[with video]

By Jamie Lynn
Published: Nov 1, 2012

SEATTLE — Parents of O’Dea High School students want to know how a man accused of sex abuse became their children’s principal.

There are many questions surrounding the timeline, from when the sex abuse claim was filed against principal Karl Walczak, to when the principal was removed and what information parents were given throughout the process.

Students and parents were caught off-guard when they were told Walczak had resigned from his post as principal amid accusations of sexual abuse.

“I never felt threatened in his presence, not once,” said former student Sascha Stipe.

But the alleged victim claims Walczak sexually abused him at Brother Rice High School in Chicago where Walczak taught in the 70s.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
York Dispatch

Pennsylvania State Police have arrested a priest who lives in New Freedom on embezzlement charges from Adams County, Adams County District Attorney Shawn Wagner has announced.

The Rev. Caesar Belchez, 52, of 315 N. Constitution Ave., is charged with embezzling a total of $384,750.76 from St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Bonneauville between 2006 and 2011, according to Wagner.

Belchez could not be reached for comment.

Wagner said Belchez has been charged with theft by unlawful taking or disposition, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received and access device fraud, which are all third-degree felonies.

Belchez is accused of embezzling $311,983.95 in money and using – without authorization – $72,766.81 from the parish’s credit cards, which the parish used for the purchase of goods and services, according Wagner.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
The Evenig Sun

A preliminary arraignment was held Thursday for the priest accused of stealing more than $380,000 from his former church, St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Bonneauville.

Caesar A. Belchez, 52, was released on $50,000 unsecured bail. He faces third-degree felony charges of theft by unlawful taking, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, and access device fraud.

Belchez was assigned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg to the Bonneauville church from 2006 to 2011. During that time, police say he stole $384,750.76 from the church in cash, checks and credit cards issued to the parish.

His alleged activities were discovered by the priest who replaced him when Belchez moved to St. Joseph’s Parish in Dallastown as part of a regular change of assignments, according to the Diocese.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
WGAL

[with video]

BONNEAUVILLE, Pa. —

A suspended priest was formally charged on Thursday with taking thousands of dollars from his Adams County church.

The Rev. Caesar Belchez, the former pastor at St. Joseph the Worker parish in Bonneville, is accused of embezzling nearly $400,000 dollars over five years.

Court documents show the priest has confessed.

Belchez, who has most recently worked as a pastor in Dallastown, could face up to 21 years in prison.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Muenchner Kirchenradio

Die ka­tho­li­sche Kir­che in Deutsch­land hat wei­te­re Ak­ti­vi­tä­ten zur Prä­ven­ti­on se­xu­el­len Kin­des­miss­brauchs vor­ge­stellt. Bei einer Pres­se­kon­fe­renz am Mon­tag wurde in Mün­chen die erste Ler­nein­heit eines E-Learning-Pro­gramms prä­sen­tiert, das kirch­li­chen Mit­ar­bei­tern welt­weit Wis­sen zur Prä­ven­ti­on ver­mit­teln und sie für den Um­gang mit Fäl­len se­xu­el­len Kin­der­miss­brauchs qua­li­fi­zie­ren soll. Das Zen­trum für Kin­der­schutz Mün­chen der rö­mi­schen Päpst­li­chen Uni­ver­si­tät Gre­go­ria­na hat das E-Learning-Pro­gramm ent­wi­ckelt. In Frei­sing ver­an­stal­tet es der­zeit seine Jah­res­ta­gung.

„Der On­line­kurs ver­mit­telt hand­lungs- und pra­xis­ori­en­tier­te Kom­pe­ten­zen so­wohl für die Prä­ven­ti­ons­ar­beit als auch für kon­kre­te In­ter­ven­ti­ons­maß­nah­men“, sagte Hu­bert Lieb­hardt, Di­rek­tor des Zen­trums für Kin­der­schutz, bei der Pres­se­kon­fe­renz. Die Kir­che könne „in vie­len Län­dern die­ser Welt eine wich­ti­ge Rolle als Schutz­raum für Kin­der mit qua­li­fi­zier­ten Erst­an­sprech­per­so­nen ein­neh­men“. Er­gän­zend zu dem E-Learning-Pro­gramm, das die Erz­diö­ze­se Mün­chen und Frei­sing zur Hälf­te fi­nan­ziert, ab­sol­vie­ren pas­to­ra­le Mit­ar­bei­ter des Erz­bis­tums in ihrer Aus- und Wei­ter­bil­dung eine Viel­zahl von Schu­lun­gen zur Prä­ven­ti­on se­xu­el­len Miss­brauchs, teil­wei­se ver­pflich­tend. Auch im Fort­bil­dungs­pro­gramm für Pries­ter, das mo­men­tan neu kon­zi­piert wird, soll die Prä­ven­ti­on se­xu­el­len Miss­brauchs eine wich­ti­ge Rolle spie­len.

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

SCHWEIZ
Tagblatt

FISCHINGEN. Das Kloster Fischingen kann bei der Aufarbeitung seiner Heimgeschichte auf die Innerschweiz zählen. Sowohl das Kloster Engelberg als auch die Menzinger Schwestern bieten der Fachgruppe ihre Hilfe an. Der Verein St.Iddazell will demnächst informieren.

Inge Staub
Immer neue Zöglinge melden sich, welche die Erziehungsmethoden im Kinderheim des Klosters Fischingen anprangern. Berichtet wird von Schlägen, Misshandlungen und sexuellem Missbrauch. Der Verein St.Iddazell, der das Kinderheim von 1879 bis Mitte der 1970er-Jahre geführt hat, hat vor einiger Zeit beschlossen, eine Fachgruppe einzusetzen, um die Geschichte des Kinderheimes aufzuarbeiten.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Augsburger Allgemeine

Von Peter Richter

Ein 60-jähriger katholischer Pfarrer aus dem Raum Augsburg hat Kinderpornos gesammelt und ist deswegen vom Amtsgericht zu einer Freiheitsstrafe von sieben Monaten auf Bewährung verurteilt worden. Wie Amtsrichter Michael Nißl auf Anfrage bestätigte, ist das Urteil bereits rechtskräftig. Der Priester hat den Strafbefehl akzeptiert und sich so eine öffentliche Gerichtsverhandlung erspart.

Es war das bischöfliche Ordinariat selbst, das im vorigen August den Fall bei der Augsburger Staatsanwaltschaft angezeigt hatte. Auf Anfrage unserer Zeitung nahm gestern Otto Kocherscheidt namens der Diözese zu dem Vorgang Stellung. Der ehemalige Richter ist vom Bistum beauftragt, sich möglicher Missbrauchsfälle anzunehmen.

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