ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
RTE News

Sinn Féin motion calling on the Government to provide redress for survivors of the Magdalene laundries has been defeated in the Dáil by 75 votes to 43.

Mary Lou McDonald said the motion did not require the Government to pre-empt the findings of the report.

Fine Gael’s Dinny McGinley said the motion was premature as it came ahead of a report by Senator Martin McAleese on the issue, which is due to be completed before the end of the year.

Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said that the women involved in the Magdelene laundries were due a full apology, compensation, and pension rights.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

An investigation into institutional child abuse is to begin next Monday in Northern Ireland.

The inquiry will investigate allegations of child abuse in both state and church run institutions.

The Stormont Executive established the inquiry after intense lobbying by survivors and victims of child abuse.

The move comes in the wake of the Ryan Report which uncovered decades of endemic abuse in some religious institutions in the south.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling

It was his Catholic conscience that caused Sargent Shriver* to create the Peace Corps, Job Corps, and Head Start in the 1960s. In 2011 it was his Catholic conscience that moved Paul Ryan** to oppose Social Security and claim a passion for Ayn Rand’s Objectivist theories. Republican Newt Gingrich converted to Catholicism so he could marry his third wife and run for president as someone who is prayerful.

When it comes to pedophile priests, on the right the Catholic League defends the “high number of falsely accused priests,” along with David Pierre whose website and books criticize SNAP for its “left wing” politics, as if it’s a given that left-wing means something bad.

What happened to the socially conscious Catholics, the politically compassionate such as the Kennedys? This century Catholics are part of the most extreme elements of the Republican Party in the USA, and somehow siding with the priests in the pedophile crisis got tagged onto this right wing Catholic phenomenon.

A Self-Perpetuated Authority

The pedophile priest apologists end up running each other’s talking points on each other’s websites. They self-publish books, and review each other’s self-published books, and give the appearance that Catholics are Republicans who think pedophile priests have gotten a bad rap. A kind of legitimacy results from the redundancy.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By DAVID OWENS, dowens@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

7:02 p.m. EDT, September 26, 2012
ENFIELD — —
The former pastor of a Simsbury church has been found guilty of misdemeanor sexual assault for touching an 18-year-old man’s pubic area while administering confession.

The Rev. Edward Warnakulasuriya, 54, was pastor at St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church in the Tariffville section of Simsbury until his removal in July 2011, when the Archdiocese of Hartford learned that Warnakulasuriya was under investigation. The priest was arrested by Simsbury police on Aug. 11, 2011.

Warnakulasuriya was initially charged with three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, but pleaded no contest Sept. 19 to a single count of fourth-degree sexual assault as part of a plea bargain.

Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Debra Collins sought a 120-day prison sentence and three years of probation, but Superior Court Judge Howard Scheinblum opted for no jail, according to a transcript of the sentencing hearing in Enfield. Warnakulasuriya will be on probation for three years.

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TEXAS
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A Baptist preacher arrested in May will not stand trial for sexual assault of a child after a Texas grand jury found insufficient evidence to prosecute.

The Ennis Daily News reported Sept. 26 that an Ellis County grand jury returned a “no bill,” or refusal to indict, in favor of Mark Allen Green, 41, a cowboy church preacher arrested May 31 after the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office received reports he was in an improper relationship with a minor.

A prosecutor in the county’s district attorney’s office said that because grand jury proceedings are secret, he could not comment except to say that no indictment has been handed down in the case.

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TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

By JARREL WADE – Tulsa World | Published: September 26, 2012

Five suspended Victory Christian Center employees pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to report child abuse in an initial arraignment Wednesday morning related to a sexual abuse case at the church.

Paul Howard Willemstein, 32, associate youth pastor; Anna Alisa George, 24, high school outreach program director; Harold Frank Sullivan, 73, human resources director; Charica Dene Daugherty, 27, assistant senior high youth pastor; and John Samuel Daugherty, 28, senior high youth pastor, are scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing Oct. 31.

The Victory Christian staff members, including Senior Pastor Sharon Daugherty’s son and daughter-in-law, were suspended from their employment pending disciplinary action.

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MINNESOTA
Behind the Pine Curtain

According to an upcoming report, Saint John’s University football coach John Gagliardi recently admitted that he has been aware of sexual misconduct at Saint John’s since the 1950′s.

In fact, it was Gagliardi’s report to Father Dunstan Tucker which led to a perpetrating faculty member’s swift exit from Saint John’s after a high school recruit (and potentially a minor) from Florida confided in Gagliardi that he had been molested by the faculty member following a tour of the campus.

According to Gagliardi, the perpetrating faculty member later took a job at high school in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is unclear what steps, if any, Gagliardi took to protect the students at that high school.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Press Association

Confusion reigns over how intensely the search for runaway schoolgirl Megan Stammers and her teacher was being conducted on the Continent.

Sussex police has said it was working with Interpol and the French authorities over the disappearance of the 15-year-old and 30-year-old maths teacher Jeremy Forrest.

But BBC News reported Interpol was unable to confirm it was working on the case of the missing schoolgirl from Eastbourne in East Sussex.

Neither she nor Mr Forrest has a profile on the crime agency’s website, www.interpol.int, under its “yellow notices” section which “help locate missing persons, often minors, or to help identify persons who are unable to identify themselves”.

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WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register

September 26, 2012

By TYLER REYNARD Staff Writer , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

WHEELING – City police have launched an investigation into a 20-year-old Wheeling Jesuit University student’s allegation she was sexually assaulted by five male students in a campus dorm Saturday night.

According to Deputy Police Chief Martin Kimball, the woman said she and a male student were together Saturday night at the Rathskeller. Commonly referred to as the “Ratt,” the Rathskeller is an on-campus pub that serves beer and non-alcoholic drinks.

The pair then went back to Thomas More Hall, the woman said, near the Currie Drive entrance to the campus.

According to the university’s website, Thomas More Hall houses male and female students.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Steve Siebold

According to confidential Boy Scouts of America files, hundreds of cases of alleged sex abuse by Scout leaders went unreported to police between 1970 and 1991. What makes the matter even worse is the position that the organization is taking now.

Boy Scouts Chief Executive Wayne Brock wrote in an open letter to parents that all scouting activities now require at least two adults present, and that all scout leaders and volunteers must submit to a criminal background check and take a mandatory training course on protecting youths from abuse.

That’s all fine and great, but what about the victims? What about all those innocent children who were abused during that 21 year period? Where is the justice for them? Not only was the abuse quietly swept under the table and never reported, but the Scouts have shown no remorse, no regret and don’t seem sorry for what happened.

Just like the Catholic Church that failed to report thousands of allegations of sex abuse against children and transferred church leaders accused of such crimes to new locations, the Boy Scouts promised these individuals who were caught up in an abuse scandal that the information would not be leaked to the public to protect their standing in the community.

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HAMMOND (IL)
NWI Times

Marc Chase marc.chase@nwi.com, (219) 662-5330

HAMMOND | With an orange jail jumpsuit and leg shackles replacing the suit and tie he wore to a previous hearing, disgraced Pastor Jack Schaap admitted Wednesday to having three sexual encounters with a parish girl beginning when she was 16.

Schaap, 54, formally pleaded guilty in Hammond federal court before U.S. District Court Judge Rudy Lozano, admitting to a charge that could bring 10 or more years in prison.

Schaap, former pastor of Hammond’s First Baptist Church, entered the courtroom Wednesday in an orange Porter County Jail jumpsuit and leg irons. Throughout the proceedings, he periodically winked and gave a thumbs up to family members and others gathered in the visitors gallery.

One man seated in the gallery and holding a Bible whispered a quiet prayer to Jesus when Schaap took his seat in the defendant’s chair.

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By Connie E. Fernandez, Jhunnex Napallacan
Inquirer Visayas
4:07 am | Thursday, September 27th, 2012

CEBU CITY—Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma has ordered an inventory of all ivory pieces owned by Msgr. Cristobal Garcia, whom National Geographic linked to the illegal ivory trade, to determine if these were acquired before 1981, the year the Philippines became a signatory to an international ban on ivory trade.

Palma on Wednesday said the Archdiocese of Cebu would cooperate in the investigation being conducted by the government and would not condone the illegal trade of ivory.

But Palma also took exception to the article’s alleged bias against Filipinos’ religious practices.

Msgr. Achilles Dakay, media liaison officer of the archdiocese, said the NatGeo article was biased and created the impression that Garcia had benefited from the killing of elephants so he could make ivory pieces.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on September 26, 2012

According to today’s NY Times, Boy Scout officials are ramping up their public relations efforts on child sexual abuse before the release of more damning documents about child sex crimes and cover-ups in the weeks ahead. (Story here).

At best, it’s reckless to assume that recently-enacted abuse policies in scouting are making any impact. At worst, such claims are disingenuous.

It is important to remember that in the early 1990s virtually every US Catholic diocese similarly tried to reassure the public about predators by touting similar policies, programs and procedures. But of course, there is vast difference between printed words and actual behavior.

The new youth protection policies the Scouts are talking up look good. But remember how new many of these new policies actually are:

– Their mandatory reporting policy became effective in 2010.
– Youth Protection Training only became required in 2010.
– Background checks for volunteers only became policy in 2008.

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UNITED STATES
CNN

By Alan Duke, CNN
updated 2:23 PM EDT, Wed September 26, 2012

Los Angeles (CNN) — The Boy Scouts of America released a study Wednesday that claims children were safer from sex abuse in the Scouts than when at home or school.

The report was prepared by a psychiatric expert hired by the Scouts to review so-called “perversion files” kept by the organization from 1970 to 1991.

A newspaper review of the files published last week said they showed scouting officials “failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public.”

In response, the Boy Scouts released what it said is an “independent review” by a University of Virginia psychiatry professor Wednesday, ahead of the “increased media attention” it expects with the release of more files.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Jared Shepherd

In yet another stunning example that child protection continues to take a backseat to protecting Catholic institutions and the religious, it is reported that the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts requires parents to sign a liability waiver when sending their children for religious education. The Parental Contract for Diocesan Activities rests the ultimate responsibility for supervising a child on the parent even if the child is entrusted to the church for activities and programming. Most importantly, parents must “specifically agree not to hold the Diocese or any of its employees or contractors liable for any accident, illness, or harm that may result from the trip or activity.” This preemptive focus on eliminating liability indicates that protecting youth from a broad range of harms, including child sexual abuse by clergy, is not the Diocese’s first priority. Given the track record of the Roman Catholic Church on the issue of childhood sexual abuse, including the recent tragic failures in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, this approach should come as no surprise.

On the one hand, it is a shameful practice for an institution to absolve itself of any and all legal responsibility in the realm of child protection. On the other hand, maybe it is a good thing. Finally, a Diocese is recognizing the inherent danger in parents sending their children to their church under the supervision and care of clergy. By signing these waivers, parents are on notice that attendance at a church in the Diocese of Fall River is equally dangerous to their children, if not more so, as bungee jumping, white water rafting, and skydiving. The danger in allowing their children to be supervised by clergy can, therefore, be first in a parent’s mind, even if it’s an afterthought for the Diocese of Fall River.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota SNAP

Statement by Bob Schwiderski, Minnesota SNAP Director, Contact: 952-471-3422

We are glad that Fr. Curtis Carl Wehmeyer has been removed from ministry following allegations of molesting one boy and exposing himself to another. However, the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis, can and should do a lot more in this case.

According to reports, Wehmeyer’s actions and the abuses with three counts of criminal sexual conduct, are alleged to have taken place in 2009 and 2010. The fact they happened so recently means it is likely that there could be more criminal charges in this matter. If the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis wants to prove to its flock that it truly cares about protecting kids and preventing further abuse, church officials should work diligently to help law enforcement uncover the facts of this matter.

Archbishop John C. Nienstedt should use all of the resources available to him to reach out to others who may have information on Fr. Wehmeyer’s alleged crimes. Nienstedt should visit each parish where Wehmeyer worked and actively seek out victims or witnesses at each location.
He should also request the Bishops of the Diocese of Duluth and the Diocese of Winona actively seek out victims or witnesses at each State Park camping trip location and other suggested ‘Abuse Camper – Will Travel’ camping locations.

With reported Wehmeyer statements as: “Wehmeyer stated he cannot get in trouble because he is a Catholic priest and way too many people depend on him” and the report he “ told one of his victims not to tell anyone or the “parish would fall apart,” The three diocesan leaders should also recognize many, many people are also depending on them and they also do not want their parishes to fall apart.

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UNITED STATES
CatholicCitizens.org

9/24/2012
By Phil Lawler -CatholicCulture.org

So now an American bishop is a convicted criminal. Do you suppose there’s any chance the other bishops will finally get the message?

Bishop Robert Finn has been convicted in a court of law for doing what scores of other American bishops have done in the recent past. It’s true that Bishop Finn will not serve actual jail time, and his criminal record will be erased after he completes a term of probation; but the judge had the authority to put him behind bars for a year.

In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, Msgr. William Lynn is already behind bars, for doing what his cardinal-archbishop apparently told him to do.

Some intelligent observers argue that Bishop Finn (and Msgr. Lynn, for that matter) should not have been convicted. But I am inclined to accept the judgment of the courts-as Bishop Finn, at least, has apparently done. Any loyal Catholic should also be troubled by the prospect of a secular court passing judgment on a bishop’s exercise of episcopal ministry. But in this case there is no doubt in my mind that civil officials are emboldened to police the bishops because the bishops have so calamitously failed to police themselves.

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PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

By Bernadette A. Parco and Kevin A. Lagunda

Thursday, September 27, 2012

DIFFERENT church and state groups will investigate the trade and collection of religious items made from ivory, following a magazine article that quoted a Cebu priest on the trade.

The Cebu-based and National Commission on Cultural Heritage of the Church, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7 and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) will conduct separate inquiries.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma will tap the Archdiocesan Commission on the Cultural Heritage of the Church to investigate religious items made from new ivory, including the collection of Msgr. Cristobal Garcia.

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PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

Thursday, September 27, 2012

CEBU CITY — A high-ranking official of the Archdiocese of Cebu has been suspended from his duties while the Vatican City investigates a child abuse case filed against him in the United States more than two decades ago.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said the US case against former Archdiocesan Commission on Worship chairman Msgr. Cristobal Garcia has been elevated to the Holy See or the office of Pope Benedict XVI, which initiated the investigation.

Check our new look and tell us what you think.

“The case started before the present controversy (on the ivory trade) erupted,” said the archbishop during a press conference Wednesday morning.

Palma is also president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), which apologized in 2002 for the abuses committed by priests but emphasized that errant priests were a minority.

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TEXAS/PHILIPPIES
Dallas Morning News

By Brooks Egerton/Reporter
begerton@dallasnews.com
11:01 am on September 26, 2012

Roman Catholic Church leaders have changed their story about why an internationally prominent priest dropped out of sight this summer. Now they say that the Vatican ordered Monsignor Cristobal Garcia’s suspension from ministry because of sexual abuse allegations, according to the Philippines’ leading newspaper.

Earlier this week, Filipino church officials portrayed Garcia’s absence as simply the result of health problems.

The new announcement coincides with a National Geographic story about the black market in elephant tusks. It quotes Garcia as giving advice on smuggling ivory icons and refers to my 2005 article on him — in which the priest admitted having sex with U.S. altar boys, providing them drugs and fleeing to the Philippines.

It isn’t clear why Garcia stayed in ministry after the admission. He continued to lead a large group of boys at a rural religious compound and oversaw worship practices for the massive Cebu Archdiocese. Among his international credentials: He led his cardinal’s advance team in Rome when Pope John Paul II declared a Filipino sainthood candidate to be blessed.

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PHILIPPINES
Manila Standard Today

By Jenny Ortuoste | Posted on September 27, 2012

It took a foreigner to open the Filipino public’s eyes to the tragedy of illegal ivory trading in the Philippines.

Bryan Christy’s article on the topic for National Geographic’s October 2012 issue was posted online as early as last week, and broke on Twitter when the link to the story was posted by activist Carlos Celdran, who urged authorities to investigate the matter. The story was picked up this week by local newspapers.

According to Christy, he came to the country five times to “get a lead on who was behind 5.4 tons of illegal ivory seized by customs agents in Manila in 2009, 7.7 tons seized there in 2005, and 6.1 tons bound for the Philippines seized by Taiwan in 2006. Assuming an average of 22 pounds of ivory per elephant, these seizures represent about 1,745 elephants.”

His search led him to interview Monsignor Cristobal Garcia of Cebu Archdiocese, member of a wealthy family and a collector of religious art, whose extensive collection includes ivory pieces.

Christy says Garcia gave him tips on how to purchase ivory and smuggle it into the United States, among them this: “Wrap it in old, stinky underwear and pour ketchup on it,” [Garcia] said. “So it looks shitty with blood. This is how it is done.”

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PHILIPPINES
The New York Times

By FLOYD WHALEY

Published: September 26, 2012

MANILA — Philippine law enforcement officials said on Wednesday that they were investigating whether a senior priest in the Roman Catholic Church was involved in the smuggling of elephant ivory to feed the country’s passion for religious icons.

The investigation was prompted by an article in the October issue of National Geographic magazine that quotes Msgr. Cristóbal Garcia, a senior church official on the central Philippine island of Cebu, as telling an American reporter how to smuggle illegal elephant ivory figurines into the United States. “Wrap it in old, stinky underwear and pour ketchup on it,” he is quoted as saying, to deter inspection.

The Philippine National Bureau of Investigation and the country’s wildlife protection agency are investigating the claims made in the article, government officials said.

The Philippines is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a treaty that regulates international trade in plants and animals. The trading of ivory has been banned under the treaty since 1990.

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By Connie E. Fernandez
Inquirer Visayas
12:04 am | Thursday, September 27th, 2012

CEBU CITY—Msgr. Cristobal Garcia has been suspended and stripped of all his positions in the Archdiocese of Cebu on orders of the Vatican while the Holy See investigates the child abuse case that stemmed from accusations that he molested altar boys more than 20 years ago in the United States.

Msgr. Achilles Dakay, Cebu archdiocese media liaison officer, said Garcia’s suspension happened months before the monsignor was implicated by a National Geographic article on the illegal trade of ivory in the Philippines.

Dakay’s announcement came after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said that Garcia could face up to four years in prison unless he could show proof that he legally acquired his huge collection of religious icons made of ivory.

The National Bureau of Investigation said it was gathering evidence against those involved in the illegal sale of ivory, which an environmentalist lawyer calls the “new blood diamond” in the international trade.

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GERMANY
National Catholic Reporter

Sep. 25, 2012
By Jonathan Luxmoore, Catholic News Service

WARSAW, Poland — The German bishops’ conference defended a controversial decree that said Catholics who stop paying a church membership tax cannot receive sacraments.

“There must be consequences for people who distance themselves from the church by a public act,” said Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, conference president, in defending the Sept. 20 decree.

“Clearly, someone withdrawing from the church can no longer take advantage of the system like someone who remains a member,” he said at a news conference Monday as the bishops began a four-day meeting in Fulda. “We are grateful Rome has given completely clear approval to our stance.”

The archbishop said each departure was “painful for the church,” adding that bishops feared many Catholics were unaware of the consequences and would be “open to other solutions.”

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Joshua Staab

In the wake of new sexual molestation accusations lodged against a former Jesuit High School teacher, a member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says he has letters from at least four more Carmichael locals alleging abuse by Brother William Farrington.

Joey Piscitelli, Northern California Director of SNAP, said Farrington’s purported Carmichael victims contacted him directly within the past 13 days, after a former student at San Jose’s Bellarmine College Preparatory School went public with accusations that Farrington molested him there in the 1960s. The Carmichael letter-writers claim they were abused by Farrington while he worked at Jesuit High School, Piscitelli said, though he did not give details of the allegations.

SNAP is a victim’s rights group focused on bringing awareness to past and present cases of sexual misconduct by clergy members.

“Most of these clergy predators have escaped justice or punishment, as the antiquated statute of limitations has passed for conviction, and the abusers have slid by the radar, and are not posted on Megan’s Law database,” Piscitelli said in an e-mail.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegrah

By Telegraph reporters
12:36PM BST 25 Sep 2012

In February 2009 Bishop Bell Secondary School teacher Robert Healy, then aged 27, was jailed for seven years after he admitted grooming and sleeping with two girls aged 15 and 16.

After the court case another female pupil’s mother said she would remove her daughter, 12, from the school because she felt the school’s leadership team had failed to protect students from the paedophile teacher. The court heard the relationship was known around the school.

Healy had groomed both girls on the social networking website Bebo which was popular with teenagers. Other pupils at the school knew what was going on before he was caught.

It was reported today that pupils at Bishop Bell were aware of the closeness of Mr Forrest and Miss Stammers, and had told a teacher seven months ago that they had been seen the pair holding hands on an aeroplane following a school trip. The pair are believed to be in France.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Published on Tuesday 25 September 2012

SCHOOLGIRL Megan Stammers running away with her maths teacher is not the first time Bishop Bell School has faced a relationship scandal.

The 15-year-old fled the Channel on Thursday evening (September 24) with Jeremy Forrest and police are now working with French authorities to try and trace them.

This week it emerged Bishop Bell School was investigating a relationship between the pair before they ran away.

Terry Boatwright, executive headteacher at Bishop Bell, said, “Because the investigations are on-going we’re not going to comment in detail. However, the school and the county council had been addressing and investigating concerns that had been raised, in line with procedure, when this happened. That investigation will continue and we will decide what action to take.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

By Victoria Ward
1:11PM BST 26 Sep 2012

A child protection campaigner contacted Michael Gove’s office to raise “serious concerns” about the school of teenager Megan Stammers several months ago, it has emerged.

Lucy Duckworth said she wrote to the education secretary, warning that she feared the Bishop Bell School’s child protection policies were “inadequate”.

The former consultant for the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said the Eastbourne school was “extremely hostile” when she wrote several times asking to see its child protection policy and claimed that staff refused to send her a copy.

She told the BBC: “I’ve written to (the school) and several other officials including Michael Gove, and Stephen Lloyd MP, several times since February this year and stated their child protection policies have been inadequate throughout this time.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A child abuse campaigner claims she wrote to Education Secretary Michael Gove about her concerns over the school of missing 15-year-old Megan Stammers.

Lucy Duckworth said she has had requests for meetings with Mr Gove turned down. She also wrote to Bishop Bell school asking to see their safeguarding policies and claims staff were hostile to her request.

When the policy was put online this year, Ms Duckworth alleges it contained a number of inadequacies.

She said: “What we found was there was a whole section on safe recruiting but very little on how to effectively protect children. I’m convinced that, had that policy been in place, the parents would have been able to make a decision on their prolonged contact and Megan would be with us.

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UNITED STATES/INDIA
Indian Express

An 83-year-old wheel-chair bound Indian spiritual guru, a fugitive after being convicted of groping two young girls, may have sneaked clandestinely into India, a US court has been told.

US Marshals, still looking for him, suspect that Prakashanand Saraswati, known to his devotees as Swamiji, may have fled America in connivance with his close associates.

Just days after a Hays County jury in Texas convicted him in March 2011 on 20 counts of indecency for molesting two teenagers, the self-styled guru has been missing.

A judge sentenced him in absentia to 14 years in prison on each count and the guru also forfeited USD 1.2 million in bond and promissory notes.

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PHILIPPINES
National Geographic

A Cebu priest known for his collection of religious icons carved from ivory may have incriminated himself with his revelations on the illegal trade in an investigative report appearing in National Geographic and reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Philippine newspaper reported on its front page today.

Monsignor Cristobal Garcia could face up to four years in prison unless he could show proof that his ivory collection was acquired legally, the Inquirer reported the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said on Tuesday.

Bryan Christy reported in the October 2012 issue of National Geographic that he traveled to the Philippines to understand the country’s ivory trade. In the town of Cebu he met Garcia, a senior Catholic cleric and one of the best known ivory collectors in the Philippines, who told Christy how to smuggle religious carvings from illegally obtained elephant ivory into the U.S. Trade in ivory is banned by an international treaty signed and verified by both the Philippines and the U.S.

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By Connie E. Fernandez
Inquirer Visayas Chief of Bureau
8:15 pm | Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

CEBU CITY, Philippines— Msgr. Cristobal Garcia has been suspended and stripped of his positions in the archdiocese of Cebu on orders of the Vatican while the Holy See investigates accusations he molested altar boys more than 20 years ago in the United States.

Msgr. Achilles Dakay, the archdiocese’s media liaison officer, said Garcia’s suspension came months before the priest was implicated by a National Geographic article in illegal trade of ivory in the Philippines.

Dakay said Garcia was suspended by Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma in June on instructions of the Vatican because of the ongoing investigation of the child abuse case filed against him.

As part of the penalties, Garcia is not allowed to say Mass in public and hear confessions and has been stripped of his positions in the archdiocese, including his chairmanship of the committee on worship.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A woman who claims she was sexually abused by a priest when she was a child has said she “felt sorry” for her alleged abuser at one stage.

The woman, 40, told the trial of Catholic priest Peter Donnelly, 69, that before she reported her allegations to police in September 2010, “I felt sorry for Fr Donnelly”.

She said she did not go to the police sooner was because she was “afraid”.

“The simple reason being I blamed myself,” she added.

“I thought the blame would come back on me.”

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PHILIPPINES
Manila Bulletin

By PHOEBE JEN INDINO

September 26, 2012, 6:33pm

ARCHBISHOP PALACE, Cebu City – The Catholic Church Wednesday expressed full support for the ban on ivory but sought a fair and just hearing for a bishop linked to alleged smuggling of ivory.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, in a press conference yesterday, stressed that the Catholic Church supports the ban on ivory as it is consistent with the doctrine on stewardship of creation, and the Church respects the laws of the land.

Ivory is considered a by-product or derivative from elephant tusk but its collection is one of the illegal acts identified in Republic Act 9147 or Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act.

“The Church does not condone ivory smuggling or other illegal activities, although in the past, ivory was one of the materials used in the adornment of liturgical worship,” he said. …

“He gave me phone numbers and locations. If I wanted to smuggle an icon that was too large to hide in my suitcase, I might get a certificate from the National Museum of the Philippines declaring my image to be antique, or I could get a carver to issue a paper declaring it to be imitation or alter the carving date to before the ivory ban,” Christy narrated in his article, referring to his conversations with Garcia.

In the same article Christy described Garcia as a fleshy man with a lazy left eye and bad knees where in the mid-1980s, according to a 2005 report in the Dallas Morning News and a related lawsuit, Garcia, while serving as a priest at St. Dominic’s of Los Angeles, California, sexually abused an altar boy in his early teens and was dismissed.

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SCHWEIZ
Neue Zurcher Zeitung

(sda) Heimkinder hatten es nicht leicht. Stigmatisierung, behördliche Willkür, Geldmangel, ein repressives Strafwesen und die tabuisierte Sexualität begünstigten in Luzerner Kinder- und Jugendheimen zwischen 1930 und 1970 Misshandlungen und Missbrauch.

Zwei Studien

Das geht aus zwei Berichten zur Vergangenheit der Kinder- und Jugendheime im Kanton Luzern hervor, die am Dienstag in Luzern vorgestellt wurden: Die vom Regierungsrat in Auftrag gegebene Studie von Professor Markus Furrer von der Pädagogischen Hochschule Zentralschweiz (PHZ) und die von der Katholischen Kirche des Kantons Luzern initiierte Studie «Hinter Mauern» von Professor Markus Ries.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Merkur

„Die Kirche ist doch kein Turnverein“; Leserbriefe 24. September, „Wer austritt, ist kein Katholik mehr“; Politik 21. September, „Scheinheiligkeit schreit zum Himmel“; Leserbrief 24. September

Es gibt also doch den „deutschen Weg“ in der globalen Kirche: Wenn wir in Deutschland in der Katholischen Kirche sind und bleiben wollen, müssen wir wegen des Konkordates Kirchensteuer zahlen. Wer keine Kirchensteuer zahlen will, wird aus der Kirche ausgeschlossen. Wenn aber zahlreiche deutsche Katholiken dringend notwendige Reformen erbeten bzw. fordern, werden sie mit den Worten, die Katholische Kirche muss die gesamte Welt im Blick haben und kann auf Deutschland keine Rücksicht nehmen, abgewimmelt. Wo bleibt hier die Gleichheit der Argumente? Bei dem einen geht es ums Geld, bei dem anderen um Lösung von Problemen. Aber anscheinend ist wieder einmal das Geld wichtiger als der gläubige Mensch. Es ist ja auch praktisch, ohne eigene Anstrengung Einnahmen zu erzielen. Es wird Zeit, dass dieses Konkordat endlich der Neuzeit angepasst wird. Theodor Kreis
Germering

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

Ein Austritt aus der Kirchensteuer, aber nicht aus der katholischen Kirche als Glaubensgemeinschaft ist in Deutschland nicht möglich. Der Freiburger Kirchenrechtler Hartmut Zapp scheiterte mit seiner Klage vor dem Bundesverwaltungsgericht – obwohl er sich auf die Gesetze des Vatikans beruft.

Im Streit darüber, ob jedes ihrer Mitglieder Kirchensteuer zahlen muss, hat die katholische Kirche vor Gericht einen Erfolg errungen: Ein reiner Austritt aus der Kirchensteuer, aber nicht aus der katholischen Kirche als Glaubensgemeinschaft ist in Deutschland nicht möglich. Das entschied das Bundesverwaltungsgericht in Leipzig.

Verhandelt wurde der Fall des Freiburger Kirchenrechtlers Hartmut Zapp. Der emeritierte Professor für Kirchenrecht hatte 2007 erklärt, aus der Kirche als “Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts” auszutreten – und seither keine Steuern mehr bezahlt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
WAZ

Essen. Die Zahl der Missbrauchsfälle steigt weiter: Im Jahr 2011 gab es bundesweit 12.444 Anzeigen wegen Missbrauchs von Kindern – 4,9 Prozent mehr als im Vorjahr. Seit Jahren streiten Experten über eine gesetzliche Pflicht für Ärzte und Geistliche, solche Straftaten bei der Polizei anzuzeigen.

Die Zahl der Missbrauchsfälle steigt weiter: Im Jahr 2011 gab es bundesweit 12.444 Anzeigen wegen Missbrauchs von Kindern – 4,9 Prozent mehr als im Vorjahr. Seit Jahren streiten Experten über eine gesetzliche Pflicht für Ärzte und Geistliche, solche Straftaten bei der Polizei anzuzeigen. „Wir lassen die Kinder erbarmungslos im Stich“, kritisiert ein bekannter Fahnder, der frühere Ulmer Inspektionsleiter Manfred Paulus. „Wir müssen darüber reden, ob aus der Schweigepflicht im Strafgesetzbuch nicht eine Anzeigepflicht wird“, sagte er der WAZ.

Das Gesetz untersage etwa Kinderärzten, Verdachtsfälle ohne Zustimmung der Eltern der Polizei zu melden. Dabei kämen Täter oft aus dem familiären Umfeld. Selbst Jugendämter würden unter Berufung auf den Strafrechts-Paragrafen 203 (Verletzung von Privatgeheimnissen) auf Anzeigen verzichten. Nur die Polizei müsse Verdachtsfälle verfolgen. Doch da kommen die Fälle eben oft erst gar nicht an.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Schwabische

Ulm / sz Rund 50 Wissenschaftler aus ganz Deutschland haben an der Universität Ulm jetzt bei einem zweitägigen Treffen ein Forschungsnetz über Ursachen und Folgen sexuellen Missbrauchs bei Kindern und Jugendlichen gegründet. Das Netzwerk wird vom Bundesforschungsministerium mit insgesamt 20 Millionen Euro gefördert.

Gut jeder siebte Erwachsene berichtet nach einer aktuellen Studie über schweren emotionalen, körperlichen oder sexuellen Missbrauch oder eine schwere Vernachlässigung in Kindheit und Jugend. „Unsere Gesellschaft hat hier Defizite, denen wir uns auch wissenschaftlich stellen müssen“, erläutert Prof. Lutz Goldbeck, Leiter der Sektion Psychotherapieforschung und Verhaltensmedizin an der Ulmer Uni-Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie/Psychotherapie.

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CENTERVILLE (MA)
CBS Boston

[with video]

By Joe Shortsleeve, WBZ-TV Chief Correspondent

September 25, 2012

CENTERVILLE (CBS) – In the wake of an I-Team report, the Catholic Church’s Fall River diocese has reversed its policy on a controversial letter distributed to parents that says the church is not responsible for the safety of their children.

When parents brought their children to Our Lady of Victory Catholic church in Centerville for religious education, they were asked to sign a document absolving the church of any liability for the safety and welfare of their children.

In that Parental Contract for Diocesan Activities, parents had been asked to state, “We specifically agree not to hold the Diocese or any of its employees or contractors liable for any accident, illness or harm that may result from the trip or activity.”

Lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of people, who in the past were molested by priests and other Catholic church employees, was critical of the parental contract.

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CENTERVILLE (MA)
WHDH

[with video]

CENTERVILLE, Mass. (WHDH) — Our Lady of Victory in Centerville is at the center of a controversial parent contract that the parish pulled Tuesday.

The contract had parents agree that when another adult supervises their child the “…ultimate supervision and safety of that child is still our responsibility and ours alone.”

Parents also had to agree not to hold the “…Diocese or any of its employees or contractors liable for any accidents, illness or harm…”

“That’s extremely troublesome. I wouldn’t sign this or send my kids,” said Chris Picariello.

“It’s the responsibility of the parent to investigate and check out who they’re sending their child to be in the care of, so I would sign it,” said Bonnie Scott.

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OSTERREICH
Pressetext

Wien (ptp023/25.09.2012/17:05) – Eine neue parlamentarische Bürgerinitiative für Heimkinder setzt sich für die Wiedergutmachung des Unrechts in der Fürsorge- und Heimerziehung ein.
Sie sammelt Unterschriften für ihr Anliegen und bringt Vorschläge für Gesetzesänderungen auf Bundesebene ein.

Seitens der EinbringerInnen wird das Vorliegen einer Bundeskompetenz in folgender Hinsicht angenommen: Da die Unrechtshandlungen, um die es in der vorliegenden Initiative geht, vielfach in Form von strafbaren Körperverletzungen oder Gesundheitsschädigungen erfolgten, betrifft deren Wiedergutmachung die Rechtsmaterie des Verbrechensopfergesetzes (VOG). Es wird angestrebt, dieses Gesetz und das ABGB um einige Regelungen zu ergänzen, die der speziellen Opfersituation von Kindern und Jugendlichen in Erziehungseinrichtungen besser gerecht werden. Dazu ist nur der Bundesgesetzgeber in der Lage.

Rechtsanwalt Dr. Christian Sailer hat das Anliegen der Initiative in beiliegendem Text formuliert, begründet und erläutert. Den vollständigen Text finden Sie im Anhang “Wiedergutmachung des Unrechts”.

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GERMANY
Vatican Insider

The German Episcopal Conference’s decision has sparked a debate within the country’s Catholic world, leading to widespread controversy

Alessandro Speciale
Rome

It may seem over the top but this is the whole point of the decree issued last week by the German Bishops’ Conference, with the approval of the Holy See.

The decree requires that faithful who declare to a registry office that they are no longer members of the Catholic Church, will no longer be able to actively participate in Church life and there receive the sacraments.

Essentially, Germans who ask to no longer be registered as Catholics – and therefore no longer pay the country’s church tax (8-9% of their annual income tax bill) – will no longer be able to receive the sacraments of confession, communion or confirmation and when they die, they will not be allowed a Catholic funeral. They will also not be able to work as volunteers in Catholic associations, sing in Catholic choirs or even work in Catholic institutions such as schools or hospitals.

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AUSTRALIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on September 24, 2012

Today the Pope is promoting Cardinal George Pell to the Congregation for Bishops, a powerful international body within the church. We believe this promotion is hurtful to victims.

Victims in Pell’s diocese of Sydney have reported that the process there for reporting abuse, known as Towards Healing, is more of a smoke-screen for the diocese than a way to help victims. Some have charged Towards Healing as actively lobbying to prevent victims from getting legal representation. According to an article in the Canberra Times, 95% of Australian victims have described the system as “abusive, highly adversarial, legalistic and traumatic.”

We think that by promoting such a Cardinal as Pell who has been this antagonistic to victims is indicative of the fact that, despite lengthy statements and calls by the Pope to “bind up the wounds” of clergy abuse victims, actual church policy is to sweep claims under the rug and avoid embarrassment. When church officials are rewarded for doing more to hinder abuse claims than to actual heal them, we find it hard to imagine that the Vatican is serious about healing, and is more concerned about damage control and avoiding scandal.

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CENTERVILLE (MA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[I-Team: Parental Contract Absolves Cape Cod Church Of Liability – CBS Boston]

Posted by David Clohessy on September 25, 2012

A Boston news outlet reports that the Fall River Catholic officials are requiring parents at one parish to sign a legal form that is apparently designed to help protect the diocese in child sex abuse and cover up cases.

The contract says: “We specifically agree not to hold the Diocese or any of its employees or contractors liable for any accident, illness or harm that may result from the trip or activity.”

We are outraged by this legal maneuver. Catholic officials should be focused on protecting innocent kids, not protecting its often corrupt hierarchy.

It is also another indication that church officials are still unwilling to accept responsibility for putting dangerous clerics around kids. To try and absolve themselves – in advance – of any potential wrongdoing just shows that church officials care more about keeping their reputations clean and their lawyer fees low than they do about protecting kids.

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ILLINOIS
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BY TIM TOWNSEND • ttownsend@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8221

An Illinois priest, forced out of his parish by Belleville Bishop Edward Braxton for improvising prayers during Mass, has had his suspension reversed by the Vatican.

The Vatican decided in favor of the Rev. William Rowe on one of three counts, saying Braxton had not followed the proper procedure. Rowe said an accompanying letter from Braxton informed him that the bishop would appeal that final Vatican decision to a higher church court.

The Vatican’s reversal of Rowe’s suspension means the priest can celebrate Mass outside the Belleville diocese, Rowe said, so long as he has the approval of the bishops’ governing other dioceses where he would say Mass.

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PHILIPPINES
PhilStar

By Dennis Carcamo (The Philippine Star) Updated September 26, 2012

MANILA, Philippines – A ranking official of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines on Wednesday said the Vatican has already initiated a probe into the alleged involvement of a Cebu church official in ivory smuggling.

Based on the article by the National Geographic magazine, Msgr. Cristobal Gracias admitted having acquired some of the religious artifacts made of ivory via smuggling.

“In regard to the matter of Msgr. Garcia’s past, the case has been elevated to the Holy See and it has initiated the investigation into it long before the present controversy erupted. I have also fulfilled the Holy See’s instructions regarding submission of documents and acting upon related consequences,” CBCP president and Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said.

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CALIFORNIA
The Union Democrat

Written by Alexander MacLean, The Union Democrat
September 25, 2012

A San Andreas woman has filed a lawsuit against the Stockton Catholic Diocese and defrocked priest Oliver O’Grady, claiming she was molested as a child by O’Grady while he served at St. Andrew’s Parish two decades ago.

The alleged victim, now 31, says O’Grady molested her when she was 11 and 12 years old from 1991 to 1992, according to the lawsuit, which was announced to the public Sunday by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP.

The complaint for damages filed in San Joaquin County Superior Court in August also names several parishes under the Stockton Diocese, where it claims criminal allegations against O’Grady were known but not reported to law enforcement.

A now 25-year-old Bay Area man filed a similar lawsuit in May, saying the former priest abused him in 1992 — one year before O’Grady was convicted of four counts of lewd and lascivious acts against two other boys.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

JAMES M SMITH

OPINION: Dáil Éireann will vote this evening on a motion addressing the Magdalene laundries. Two facts are fundamental to the debate preceding it.

First is the indisputable fact that three years after Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) circulated an apology and redress scheme for survivors of the laundries, 22 months after the Irish Human Rights Commission called for a statutory inquiry into alleged abuses and provision of redress in appropriate cases, and 15 months after the UN Committee Against Torture obliged the State to ensure that within one year survivors obtained redress, the women at the centre of this debate find themselves in exactly the same position as when this all started.

No apology, no pension, no lost wages, no redress and no acknowledgement that what happened to them was wrong. A population of Irish women, aging and elderly, living at home and abroad, many vulnerable and marginalised, is left waiting as time slips by.

Second is that there is overwhelming evidence of State involvement in the Magdalene laundries – sending women to the institutions and ensuring they stayed there; direct and indirect financial support; and failing to regulate the commercial laundries and thereby prevent human rights violations.

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PHILIPPINES
Philippine Daily Inquirer

By Jocelyn R. Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
6:18 pm | Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

MANILA, Philippines—Amid a controversy involving a Cebu priest allegedly connected to illegal ivory trade, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on Wednesday said the Catholic Church does not condone ivory smuggling even if in the past it was a main ornament used for liturgical worship.

In a statement on Wednesday, CBCP President Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma stressed that while ivory artifacts crafted long before the ban were considered the cultural heritage of the Church, it was not encouraging the use of ivory for new implements.

“Let it be made clear that the Church supports the ban on ivory as it is consistent with her doctrine on stewardship of creation,” said Palma, a co-signatory in a petition by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) calling for the transfer of Manila Zoo’s lone elephant, “Mali” to a sanctuary in Thailand.

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GERMANY
Catholic Online

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
9/25/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

German Catholics have left their churches following priest sex scandals

If they fail to pay a special tax, Germany’s Roman Catholics will be denied the right to Holy Communion or a religious burial. A German bishops’ decree has just come into force says that anyone failing to pay the tax, which is an extra eight percent of their income tax bill – they will no longer be considered a Catholic.

While Catholics make up around 30 percent of Germany’s population, the number of the former faithful leaving the church has climbed to 181,000 in 2010. The exodus has been blamed on revelations of sexual abuse by German priests.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The bishops say they have been alarmed by the number of Catholics leaving the Church, and such a step would be seen as a serious act against the community.

All Germans who are officially registered as Catholics, Protestants or Jews pay a religious tax of eight to nine percent on their annual income tax bill. The levy was introduced in the 19th Century in compensation for the nationalization of religious property.

“If your tax bill is for 10,000 euros, then 800 euros will go on top of that and your total tax combined will be 10,800 euros,” Munich tax accountant Thomas Zitzelsberger says.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Catholic San Francisco

September 26th, 2012
By Michelle Martin

CHICAGO – The Scripture readings at a Chicago Mass celebrated to mark the 10th anniversary of the U.S. bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” offered the despair and isolation felt by an exile in the Book of Lamentations and the comfort of God’s mercy in the beatitudes.

Their juxtaposition shows the balance we all need, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago said in his homily at a “Mass of Atonement and Hope” celebrated Sept. 15 at Holy Family Church, site of the archdiocese’s Healing Garden.

The garden, dedicated in June 2011, offers healing and reconciliation to all hurt by clergy sex abuse.

The concelebrants of the Mass were the cardinal and five priests who are involved with the Chicago archdiocese’s response to clerical sexual abuse. It included prayers for victims and their families, for those who assist them and for the forgiveness of perpetrators. It ended with a blessing of facilitators of the Virtus program, which trains church workers about the signs of sex abuse, how to recognize adults who are trying to take advantage of children and how to thwart opportunities for abuse.

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PHILIPPINES
CBS News

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine authorities say they will question a Roman Catholic priest about ivory smuggling after his collection of ivory religious icons was featured in National Geographic magazine.

Monsignor Cristobal Garcia is quoted in the October issue of the magazine as describing how to bring ivory figurines into the United States.

National Bureau of Investigation official Sixto Comia said Wednesday that authorities are investigating the origin of ivory icons widely used in the predominantly Roman Catholic country. He said Garcia will be questioned but declined to give further details.

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TULSA (OH)
Huffington Post

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS

TULSA, Okla. — A fourth victim of alleged abuse at a 17,000-member Tulsa megachurch has come forward, and police said Tuesday that there might be a fifth.

At the same time, members of Victory Christian Center are beginning to speak publicly about the allegations that have shaken the worldwide ministry’s foundations and tarnished the reputations of its pastor and her family members.

Prosecutors added two additional charges Monday against 20-year-old Chris Denman, a former church employee. He was arrested Sept. 5 on a complaint alleging that he raped a 13-year-old girl in a stairwell on the ministry’s campus in August and molested a 15-year-old girl. He faces new charges of making a lewd proposal to a child and using a computer to commit a sex crime involving a 12-year-old girl.

Another ex-church employee, 23-year-old Israel Castillo, was arrested last week and is charged with making a lewd proposal to a 15-year-old girl and using a computer to commit a sex crime.

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
St. Cloud Times

St. Cloud Bishop John F. Kinney talked about the challenges facing his diocese, his career, his retirement plans and victims of sexual abuse during a Rotary of St. Cloud luncheon today .

The 75-year-old spiritual leader of the Catholic diocese is the longest-serving bishop in the U.S. The ninth bishop of the St. Cloud diocese was a guest speaker at Le St-Germain Suite Hotel. …

Kinney appeared in good humor and good spirits on Tuesday despite the use of a cane. However, he eventually brought up the sex scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.

“The most difficult committee that I was asked to chair were the first years of the committee on the sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church, and I chaired that committee for eight years beginning in the 1990s,” said Kinney, who has sat down with the victims.

“I would want to say that our Safe Environment Program here in the Diocese of St. Cloud is one of the best in the United States … and we are a leader internationally as far as how to address the question of the care and protection of young people in our society.”

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ILLINOIS
WBEZ

September 25, 2012

Rebecca Kruth

A priest from a southwestern Chicago suburb has been removed from ministry after being accused of sexual abuse.

The Archdiocese of Chicago says after the allegations surfaced in June, Rev. Gary Miller of St. Bernadette’s Parish in Evergreen Park left the church voluntarily. The misconduct allegedly took place more than 30 years ago while Miller was serving at St. Leonard Parish in Berwyn.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the Cook County State’s Attorney were both made immediately aware of the situation, the archdiocese said in a statement.

The Independent Review Board found the accusations to be credible and recommended the priest be removed from the ministry, according to the archdiocese.

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ILLINOIS
WLS

September 25, 2012 (EVERGREEN PARK, Ill.) (WLS) — A Roman Catholic priest in southwest suburban Evergreen Park has been removed from ministry following allegations of sexual misconduct.

The Chicago Archdiocese says the Reverend Gary Miller resigned from St. Bernadette Catholic Church over the weekend.

The archdiocese says accusations first surfaced in June that Miller engaged in the sexual abuse of a minor 30 years ago at St. Leonard Parish in Berwyn.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
NBC 4

[with video]

COLUMBUS, Ohio —
Bishop Andonis with the Archdiocese of New York says Father Nicholas Hughes will not fight the sex abuse charges against him and is working on a plea deal.

Hughes has been the interim priest for the past year at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in the Short North.

He was arrested on Sept. 19 by the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children task force for soliciting sex over the internet.

Investigators say the 56-year-old thought he was chatting with the parents of a 9-year-old and 14-year-old boy.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Mirror

Police were investigating maths teacher Jeremy Forrest over concerns about his relationship with pupil Megan Stammers BEFORE the pair ran away.

Sussex Police had already launched a probe and were talking to Megan’s parents and her school headteacher, Terry Boatwright, when the pair suddenly fled to France on Friday.

Bishop Bell head teacher, Terry Boatwright said: “The school, in conjunction with the local authority, Megan’s parents and the police, had been addressing and investigating those concerns, in line with procedure, when this happened.”

Do you know Jeremy Forrest? Call us free on 0800 282 591 or email mirrornews@mirror.co.uk

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Mirror

Two men with links to missing Megan Stammers’ school have been accused of child sex offences, it was revealed today.

In 2009, supply teacher Robert Healy, then aged 27, was jailed for seven years at Lewes Crown Court after grooming two Bishop Bell pupils on social networking site Bebo.

A former chairman of governors, Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, is due to appear at Crown Court next month charged with 38 child sex offences over an 11-year period from 1962.

The school, in Eastbourne, has previously acknowledged the links but said he was not a member of staff and the allegations were historical and unrelated to the school.

Child abuse campaigner Marilyn Hawes, a teacher for 25 years, launched a strong condemnation of the school authorities, saying the head teacher should resign.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Kevin Rawlinson

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Megan Stammers, the 15-year-old who is believed to have run off to France with her married maths teacher, could now be “anywhere in Europe”, police said tonight.

Officers plan to ask the teenager’s friends if they were given warning that she planned to disappear with Jeremy Forrest, 30.

Detectives urged Megan’s classmates not to be scared to hand over any information.

Officers also released a security video showing the pair holding hands and walking arm in arm aboard a ferry from Dover to Calais at 9.30pm last Thursday.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Caroline Davies
The Guardian, Tuesday 25 September 2012

Police were informed about concerns of an inappropriate relationship between 15-year-old Megan Stammers and her married maths teacher shortly before the pair fled to France.

Officers were told last week as Bishop Bell C of E school in Eastbourne investigated suspicions over the closeness of the schoolgirl and Jeremy Forrest, 30.

Questions have been raised over how education officials dealt with the warnings.

The school was criticised as Sussex police appealed to Megan’s friends to come forward if they knew of the pair’s plans.

Releasing CCTV images of the two walking hand-in-hand aboard the Dover to Calais ferry, Chief Inspector Jason Tingley said he hoped the photographs would help the public recognise the pair. “Although they entered France, it is possible that they are elsewhere now,” he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Sandra Parsons

All children have a right to expect the adults around them to behave responsibly, especially those whose job it is to teach them.

And Jeremy Forrest, the 30-year-old married maths teacher who has run away to France with 15-year-old Megan Stammers, has not so much broken what should be an inviolable bond of trust as smashed it to smithereens.

In February – that’s an incredible seven months ago — a fellow pupil reported Mr Forrest to another teacher after seeing him and Megan holding hands on the plane back from a school trip to Los Angeles. The school, Bishop Bell C of E in Eastbourne, admits it has been ‘investigating concerns’ — and, according to some reports, Mr Forrest was due to be suspended the day after he disappeared with his pupil.

Whatever the truth, the fact that he was not only allowed to continue teaching Megan but was also giving her extra maths tuition after school, so long after the alarm was first raised, almost beggars belief.

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UNITED KINGDOM
New Zealand Herald

Police have released a CCTV image of a missing British schoolgirl and her 30-year-old maths teacher on board a ferry to France.

Megan Stammers, 15, boarded the Channel ferry with her maths teacher Jeremy Forrest late last week after he spent months grooming her to escape on an “adventure” with him.

Her parents have issued a heartfelt plea for her to return, with father Martin Stammers telling media: “It’s been hell. We have no idea where she is”.

Sussex Police Chief Inspector Jason Tingley said a photo released today would aid the British and French police hunt for the pair.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Another teacher at the runaway’s school was jailed after grooming two young girls for sex

By Tom Kelly, Claire Ellicott and Inderdeep Bains

Parents at Megan Stammers’s school demanded an inquiry into its child protection procedures last night as more under-age sex scandals emerged at the Church of England comprehensive.

Incredibly, another teacher at Bishop Bell C of E School in Eastbourne was jailed three years ago for preying on teenage girls after grooming them on a social networking site.

In addition, a former chairman of governors at the same school is due to stand trial on alleged child sex offences next month. Some parents said their children were too scared to attend class after it was revealed how staff failed to remove married maths teacher Jeremy Forrest despite warnings that he was having a relationship with Megan seven months ago.

Richard Chapman, who has two children at the school, said: ‘Something needs to be done now, otherwise, where will it stop? And who will be next? The school has let everyone down and it is not like this is the first time it has happened. The school needs to be investigated from the very top levels of management. Something is not right there.’

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The school of missing Megan Stammers has come under fire from a charity over its safeguarding record.

Megan, 15, who goes to Bishop Bell C of E School, in Eastbourne, and teacher Jeremy Forrest, 30, took a ferry from Dover to Calais, on Thursday.

In 2009, a teacher from the school was jailed for grooming pupils and in March it emerged a retired priest had been allowed to remain as a governor despite child sex allegations against him.

The school has defended its record.

East Sussex County Council and bosses at the school have both confirmed they were investigating the pair’s relationship before they disappeared.

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GERMANY
Catholic News Service

By Jonathan Luxmoore
Catholic News Service

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) — The German bishops’ conference defended a controversial decree that said Catholics who stop paying a church membership tax cannot receive sacraments.

“There must be consequences for people who distance themselves from the church by a public act,” said Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, conference president, in defending the Sept. 20 decree.

“Clearly, someone withdrawing from the church can no longer take advantage of the system like someone who remains a member,” he said at a Sept. 24 news conference as the bishops began a four-day meeting in Fulda. “We are grateful Rome has given completely clear approval to our stance.”

The archbishop said each departure was “painful for the church,” adding that bishops feared many Catholics were unaware of the consequences and would be “open to other solutions.”

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NEW YORK
Newsday

A Hofstra University religion professor known for advocating in favor of women deacons in the Roman Catholic Church has won an award from Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic group that is highly critical of the church hierarchy and its handling of the sex abuse scandal.

Phyllis Zagano was given the St. Catherine of Siena Distinguished Layperson of the Year Award at the group’s 10th annual conference held Sept. 14 in Boston. Zagano is one of only five Catholics to win the award from the group in its 10-year history.

“I was honored and a little bit overwhelmed,” Zagano said yesterday. “It was quite consoling that someone out there is listening.”

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PHILIPPINES
National Geographic

National Geographic’s undercover investigation into how the global religious market for ivory is a driving force in the slaughter of thousands of African elephants has prompted extensive media coverage — and calls for an official inquiry — in the Philippines.

Bryan Christy reported in the October 2012 issue of National Geographic that he traveled to the Philippines to understand the country’s ivory trade and possibly get a lead on who was behind 5.4 tons of illegal ivory seized by customs agents in Manila in 2009, 7.7 tons seized there in 2005, and 6.1 tons bound for the Philippines seized by Taiwan in 2006. Assuming an average of 22 pounds of ivory per elephant, these seizures represent about 1,745 elephants, Christy wrote.

Christy met Monsignor Cristobal Garcia, a senior Catholic cleric and one of the best known ivory collectors in the Philippines, who told Christy that if he wanted to buy an ivory Santo Niño, a carving of the Christ child, he would have to smuggle it to get it into the U.S. “Wrap it in old, stinky underwear and pour ketchup on it,” Garcia said. “So it looks shitty with blood. This is how it is done.” International trade in elephant ivory has been banned for the last 22 years.

Read Bryan Christy’s article ‘Ivory Worship’.

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MASSACHUSETTS
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: A priest of the Boston archdiocese, ordained in 1969, Gaudreau was accused in Sept. 2012 of having sexually abused a minor in 2006. He was placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation.

Ordained: 1969
Incardinated: Boston

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

By IVEY DEJESUS, The Patriot-News

Ever since their son killed himself in 2006 after years of enduring sexual abuse at the hands of his priest, Art and Elaine Baselice have been trying to get a private audience with a high-ranking Catholic Church official.

On Tuesday, they left their New Jersey home at dawn and headed for Harrisburg where Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput was expected to meet with legislators.

The Baselices stood in the dim hallway of the Capitol’s East Rotunda, she holding a framed portrait of their son Arthur; he a poster that included photos of the two abusive priests.

The Baselices did not leave the state Capitol disappointed: After meeting with lawmakers and shaking hands with state employees who stopped by to greet him, Chaput asked to meet with the couple.

“He was apologetic. He was understanding. He was sorry,” said Elaine Baselice, unable to fight back tears. “He would like to see things changed.”

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CANADA
North Bay Nugget

By MARIA CALABRESE, North Bay Nugget

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

NORTH BAY – An 87-year-old Roman Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse dating back to 1958 is in hospital, a North Bay court heard Tuesday.

Charges against John Edward Sullivan were adjourned to Oct. 9 for his lawyer to receive medication information.

Sullivan, who resides in Montreal, was an ordained priest at the Pro-Cathedral of the Assumption when the sexual offences are alleged to have taken place at various times from 1958 to 1979.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Manya Brachear
Tribune reporter

September 25, 2012
A Roman Catholic priest in southwest suburban Evergreen Park has been removed from ministry following an allegation that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor while assigned to St. Leonard parish in Berwyn more than 30 years ago, according to the Chicago Archdiocese.

This past weekend, the Rev. Gary Miller resigned as pastor of St. Bernadette Catholic Church, where he has served as pastor since July 2001. Miller could not be reached for comment. The archdiocese did not say in the statement whether he denied the allegation.

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TEXAS/PHILIPPINES
Dallas Morning News

By Brooks Egerton/Reporter
begerton@dallasnews.com
10:00 am on September 25, 2012

An internationally prominent Catholic priest has dropped out of sight in the Philippines, years after admitting to me that he had sex with altar boys in the U.S. and supplied them with drugs.

Monsignor Cristobal Garcia’s sudden low profile coincides with a new National Geographic article on the ivory trade. It calls Garcia “one of the best known ivory collectors in the Philippines” and quotes him as giving advice on how to smuggle ivory into the U.S., in defiance of a 1989 global trade ban.

The magazine refers to my 2005 investigative piece on the priest, who had fled the U.S. after an altar boy was found in his bedroom. He’s one of over 200 Catholic clergymen we found who crossed international borders to escape justice and stay in ministry.

Filipino church leaders helped Garcia reinvent himself as an authority on worship practices and leader of boys at a rural religious compound. Now he’s said to be resting and receiving treatment for hypertension, according to today’s Cebu Daily News.

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PHILIPPINES
Philippines Daily Inquirer

By DJ Yap, TJ Burgonio, Nancy C. Carvajal
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:10 am | Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

A Cebu priest known for his collection of religious icons carved from ivory may have incriminated himself with his revelations on the illegal trade in an investigative report appearing in the National Geographic and reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Msgr. Cristobal Garcia could face up to four years in prison unless he could show proof that his ivory collection was acquired legally, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said on Tuesday.

The NatGeo report, titled “Ivory Worship” and written by Bryan Christy, who visited the country five times for the report, said Garcia had even advised him how to smuggle religious icons made from ivory into the United States.

Mundita Lim, director of the DENR-Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB), said regional environmental officials launched a probe of the report that the priest was in possession of ivory Sto. Niño figures acquired using questionable means.

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PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

CEBU CITY (Updated) — Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said the Catholic Church does not condone killing animals to make their parts into religious items, like taking the tusks of elephants and carving these into ivory statues.

“Of course, we are saddened by the news Cebu was identified as a source of the ivory trade,” Palma told Sun.Star Cebu.

He was referring to a National Geographic magazine article, “Blood Ivory”, where the writer, Bryan Christy, includes a lengthy interview with Msgr. Cristobal Garcia, the Archdiocesan Commission on Worship chairman.

Palma, who is also the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president, said he recently signed up with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to transfer an elephant from the Manila Zoo to Thailand, where it can be provided with better care and treatment.

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PHILLIPINES
Inquirer

By Connie E. Fernandez
Inquirer Visayas
1:20 am | Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

CEBU CITY—Msgr. Cristobal Garcia has always been proud of his collection of religious icons and paintings.

He displayed them in exhibits during the weeklong festivities to celebrate the feast day of the Holy Child Jesus every third Sunday of January.

Some of the religious images can also be seen at the museum inside the compound of the Society of Angels of Peace, a congregation Garcia founded in Talisay City, Cebu.

His collections range from 300-year-old heirlooms to newly carved pieces, paintings, statues and “stampita” (scapular) bought in and outside the country.

So far, no one in Cebu can match Garcia’s collection. Those who know him say that he can very well afford these expensive art pieces.

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PHILIPPINES
Philippine Daily Inquirer

12:30 am | Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

A Catholic prelate came to the defense of Msgr. Cristobal Garcia, who was caught in a controversy involving ivory smuggling in the Philippines.

Msgr. Jose Barrion, chairman of the cultural heritage committee of the diocese of San Pablo, Laguna province, said he believed that Garcia’s collection of ivory-made religious images, were acquired a long time ago.

“When you say collection, we’re talking here of antique pieces, items that existed hundreds of years ago,” Barrion said in an interview.

“The images in Monsignor Garcia’s collection were not recently made, those are antiques, probably made long before the law banning ivory trading was implemented,” Barrion said.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Having spent 7.5 million fighting victims, Archbishop Listecki appears to be reversing course

September 25, 2012

Having spent 7.5 million fighting victims, Archbishop Listecki appears to be reversing course

Archdiocese signaling major breakthrough to be announced next week with 570 victims

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

Charles Dickens once wrote that the courts are where lawyers “spin masterly fictions” so judges can “waste their days reading mountains of costly nonsense.”

It is being reported today just how costly this nonsense has been for Catholics of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

The Archdiocese, which filed for bankruptcy in January of 2011, was ordered into mediation this summer with nearly 570 victim/survivors by Federal Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley. As Dickens might have predicted, Archbishop Listecki has spent an obscene 7.5 million dollars on lawyers and consultants, and not a dime on helping to heal or provide restitution to those harmed. And much of that money, all of it incidentally deriving from charitable contributions, has been used by the archdiocese to file and argue endless court motions and legal technicalities to throw out of court most of the 570 victim/survivors who have filed restitution claims. The archdiocese has also used those millions to prevent the release to the public of nearly 60,000 pages of secret church documents and depositions detailing decades of cover-up of child sex crimes by dozens of priests and employees of the archdiocese.

Ironically, when Archbishop Listecki went into bankruptcy court in January 2011 he claimed that the archdiocese had to file because it was unable to cover more than 4.5 million in mediating abuse claims, yet he has put that amount and 3 million dollars more into the pockets of lawyers in the last 22 months alone. And while Listecki has spent millions on lawyers he has so far only offered $300,000 dollars to victims and even that amount he wants to restrict to an alleged “therapy fund” to be controlled, of course, by the archdiocese.

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TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Court documents show that a Hindu guru who became a fugitive after being convicted of molesting two teenagers at his Texas ashram is likely in India.

The Austin American Statesman (http://bit.ly/Sj8TwW ) reported Tuesday that Prakashanand Saraswati (prah-KAHSH’-ah-nahnd sah-rah-SWAH’-tee) was apparently able to flee sentencing with the help of followers who are now under investigation by federal prosecutors.

A Hays County jury convicted the 83-year-old guru in March 2011 on 20 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact. He skipped sentencing after the trial while free on a $1 million bond and hasn’t been seen since.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
ABC 6

[with video]

COLUMBUS — The group SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is protesting out in front of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

The group says it wants to reach out to other who may have been hurt in light of the recent arrest of Father Patrick Nicholas Hughes last week.

Hughes was arrested by the Franklin County Sheriff’s office for trying to meet up for a sexual encounter with two boys, ages 9 and 14.

He was the acting dean at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in the Short North.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has come under fire for using his mobile phone during a meeting with the Pope.

Mr Kenny was accused of behaving discourteously as Pope Benedict XVI made an address in Italy at the weekend.

A Government spokesman said the Taoiseach would not comment on the video footage that showed him browsing on his touch-screen phone during the event.

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ILLINOIS
My Suburban Life

By Brett Schweinberg, bschweinberg@mysuburbanlife.com
Berwyn Life

Posted Sep 25, 2012

Berwyn, IL —
A Catholic priest serving in Evergreen Park has been removed from duty by the Archdiocese of Chicago after allegations surfaced that he abused a minor in Berwyn more than 30 years ago.

According to a statement from the Archdiocese, the church’s Independent Review Board determined that there is reasonable cause to suspect Miller had sexually abused a minor while serving at Berwyn’s St. Leonard Parish.

The incident was immediately reported to the Department of Children and Family Services as well as the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

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CANADA
The Catholic Register

Written by Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News
Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Ste. ADÈLE, Que. – At their annual plenary Sept. 24-28 the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) are examining the prevention of clerical sexual abuse as part of its packed five-day agenda.

The 90-plus bishops gathered from across Canada will receive the updated guidelines prepared for submission to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, conference president Archbishop Richard Smith said in his annual president’s address at the Mont-Gabriel Hotel here Sept. 23.

“Of course our ongoing response must extend far beyond the articulation of protocols and procedures to an embrace in love and compassion of any person, family or community affected by this scourge,” Smith said.

The reflections will also deal with the impact of the clerical sexual abuse crisis on the ministry of priests and how bishops can provide better support. It will also look at the conditions that increase the risk of sexual abuse with an eye to prevention, according to the CCCB program for the week, most of which is closed to visitors and news media.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

A woman, who claims she was abused by a Catholic priest as a child, gave tearful evidence about the choices she faced – reporting the alleged abuse or committing suicide.

The 40-year-old woman told the jury how she “turned to drink” in an effort to block her memories of abuse at the hands of 69-year-old Peter Donnelly.

The alleged abuse, which happened in the 1980s, was reported to police two years ago.

Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, was curate at St Matthew’s Church, Bryson Street, Belfast at the time.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A woman who claims she was sexually abused as a child by a Catholic priest in east Belfast has gave tearful evidence at his trial in the city.

Testifying at Belfast Crown Court over a live TV link up, the 40-year-old woman said she had considered suicide before reporting the alleged abuse.

The priest, Peter Donnelly from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, faces seven charges of abuse on dates between 31 July 1983 and 1 August 1987.

The 69 year old denies the charges.

During her testimony, the woman told the jury how she “turned to drink” in an effort to block her memories of the abuse she says she suffered at the hands of the accused.

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CENTERVILLE (MA)
CBS Boston

[with video]

By WBZ-TV Chief Correspondent Joe Shortsleeve

September 24, 2012

CENTERVILLE (CBS) – When parents bring their children to Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in Centerville for religious education, they’re asked to sign a document, obtained by the I-Team, which absolves the church of liability, and puts it all on the parents.

It’s called the Parental Contract for Diocesan Activities, and in it parents agree that: “Should we choose to allow another adult to provide supervision to a child, the ultimate supervision and safety of that child is still our responsibility and ours alone.”

And further that: “We specifically agree not to hold the Diocese or any of its employees or contractors liable for any accident, illness or harm that may result from the trip or activity.”

Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer for hundreds of people sexually abused by Catholic priests, was critical of the parental contract.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mittelbayerische

Deutsche Ärzte diagnostizieren pro Jahr mehr als 4000 Missbrauchsfälle bei Minderjährigen. Oft verschließt das Umfeld der Betroffenen die Augen.

München. Jedes Jahr wird in deutschen Arztpraxen bei mehr als 4000 Minderjährigen Missbrauch diagnostiziert. Das ergibt sich aus einer hochgerechneten Auswertung von Patientendaten der Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), die am Montag in München veröffentlicht wurde. Missbrauch im medizinischen Sinne umfasst nach Definition der Weltgesundheitsorganisation Vernachlässigung, körperlichen, sexuellen und psychischen Missbrauch. Wie hoch die Dunkelziffer sei, könnten selbst Fachleute nur schwer schätzen, hieß es.

Die Krankenkasse unterstrich die Bedeutung einer schnellen und zweifelsfreien Diagnose. Nur dann könne sachgerecht reagiert werden. Alle beteiligten Berufsgruppen und Institutionen müssten dafür eng zusammenarbeiten. Denn die Hilfen, die ein misshandeltes Kind benötige, könnten meist nicht von einer Person oder Einrichtung erbracht werden. Auch würden die strengsten Gesetze nichts helfen, wenn die den Kindern nahe stehenden Personen aus Unwissenheit oder Unsicherheit vor Gewalt die Augen verschlössen.

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VATIKAN
Radio Vatikan

Erzbischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller will die Polarisierungen in der Kirche überwinden helfen. Das sagte er im Interview mit Radio Vatikan. Mitte September beginnt im Vatikan traditionsgemäß das Arbeitsjahr nach den Ferien, für Erzbischof Müller ist es das erste Jahr in dieser Position in Rom. Er war am 2. Juli zum Präfekten der Glaubenskongregation ernannt worden. Pater Bernd Hagenkord hat mit ihm gesprochen.

Herr Erzbischof, ganz neu ist Ihnen die Glaubenskongregation ja nicht, sie sind ja bereits Mitglied gewesen, aber seit etwas über 80 Tagen haben Sie das Amt des Präfekten inne. Sind Sie schon in Ihrem neuen Amt und in Rom angekommen?

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Bereits mehrfach wurde in diversen Medien (Spiegel, SWR, Saarbrücker Zeitung) über die Pfarrei Herz Jesu, Püttlingen im Zusammenhang mit Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger berichtet.
Als ehemaliger Pfarrer dieser Pfarrei habe ich im Sommer 2010 drei Sexualstraftäter angezeigt, darunter zwei ehemalige in der traditionalistischen Martingemeinde in Köllerbach tätige Priester sowie einen dort in einflussreicher Stellung tätigen Laien.

Dies geschah auch auf dem Hintergrund, dass ein Betroffener einen der Täter ermorden wollte und mich darüber in Kenntnis setzte.

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AUSTRALIEN
T.O.P.

Das volle Ausmaß des sexuellen Mißbrauchs in der katholischen Kirche Australiens wird deutlicher. Vor einem parlamentarischen Untersuchungsausschuß in Victoria erklärte die Kirche, daß 620 Kinder Opfer von sexuellem Mißbrauch durch Priester geworden seien. Die Fällen liegen bis zu 80 Jahren zurück.

Die beiden Töchter von Chrissie Foster, Emma and Cathy, wurden durch den gleichen Priester mißbraucht und traumatisiert. Emma begann Selbtmord, Cathy verfiel der Trunkenheit und dem Drogenmißbrauch. In einem Verkehrsunfall trug sie erhebliche Hirnverletzungen davon. Die Täter, so Chrissie Foster, haben so viele Leben ruiniert, soviel Todesfälle und Leid verursacht, daß sie aus der Gesellschaft entfernt und bestraft werden müssen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
RP

Fulda (RPO). 126 000 Deutsche sind 2011 aus der katholischen Kirche ausgetreten.

Das schmälert die Kirchensteuer-Einnahmen. Bischöfe wollen damit auch den Zugang zum Kirchenleben versperren. Reformer halten dagegen nichts von “Pay und Pray”.

2011 sind über 120.000 Menschen aus der katholischen Kirche ausgetreten. Ihnen wollen die Bischöfe nun auch die Teilnahme am Kirchenleben untersagen. Foto: dpa, Oliver Berg

Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz bleibt bei ihrer harten Linie im Umgang mit Kirchenaustritten. Wenn sich Menschen in einem öffentlichen Akt von der Kirche distanzierten, müsse das Konsequenzen haben, sagte Erzbischof Robert Zollitsch (Freiburg) zum Auftakt der Herbst-Vollversammlung am Montag in Fulda. Ein am Donnerstag veröffentlichtes und vom Vatikan bestätigtes Dekret stellt klar, dass es nicht möglich ist, aus der Kirche auszutreten und zugleich gläubiges Mitglied zu bleiben. Damit macht die katholische Kirche die Mitgliedschaft von der Zahlung der Kirchensteuer abhängig.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mein Flotwedel

LÜNEBURG. Mit dürren Worten hat sich der Erzieher, der vom Celler Amtsgericht in erster Instanz wegen schweren sexuellen Missbrauchs eines Kindes und Missbrauchs von Schutzbefohlenen zu zweieinhalb Jahren Haft verurteilt worden war, gestern beim Opfer entschuldigt. Neben zwei Sätzen, in denen sich der Mann persönlich äußerte, erklärte sein Anwalt Ernst-Otto Nolte, dass der 30-Jährige die Taten einräume, die Verantwortung übernehme und für die Schäden eintrete.

Hätte er das schon zu Prozessbeginn im Februar in Celle gemacht, wären der Hauptzeugin und einer Reihe Jugendlicher intime und belastende Aussagen vor Gericht erspart geblieben. „Ein Geständnis in zweiter Instanz ist nicht so viel wert wie ein Geständnis in erster Instanz, es ist aber immer noch gewichtig“, sagte der Vorsitzende Richter der Berufungskammer in der Urteilsbegründung. Zugleich betonte er die schwere Schuld des Angeklagten. Was dem Opfer geschehen sei, „ist in der Lage, die Entwicklung eines jungen Menschen gravierend zu beeinflussen“. Das Gericht entschied sich dennoch zu einer vergleichsweise milden Strafe und verurteilte den Angeklagten zu einer Freiheitsstrafe von zwei Jahren auf Bewährung. Die Bewährungszeit beträgt vier Jahre. Dem Täter wird zudem ein Bewährungshelfer an die Seite gestellt.

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POLAND
The News

The Salesian Society has said that pupils licking cream off a monk’s bare knees will no longer be part of initiation ceremonies at a high school run by monks in Lubin, southern Poland.

Father Alfred F. Leja, chief inspector at the society, which supervises educational standards at the St Dominik Salvio high school in Lubin, said that initiation ceremonies involving a priest with white foam on his knees, with first year pupils kneeling before him, “crossed the boundaries of good taste” and would no longer occur.

Last week it was reported that the school had photographs on its web site of 13 year-old pupils kneeling before a priest, who had what TV Odra said was whipped cream on his knees – the school claims it was shaving foam – during an initiation ceremony for first year students.

The children appear to be licking the cream off the priest’s legs in the photos, which have now been withdrawn from the school web site.

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

[Deutscher Bundestag]

Nach zwei Jahren Untätigkeit der SPD und der übrigen Parteien und einem Runden Tisch von Politik und Institutionen, dessen Ergebnisse den Belangen der Täter und deren Organisationen mehr entgegenkommen als den Interessen der Opfer (z.B. bei Fragen wie Anzeigepflicht und Höhe der Entschädigung), bringt die SPD das Thema Verjährungsfristen im zivilrechtlichen Bereich, als auch im strafrechtlichen Bereich, bei sexuellem Missbrauch von Kindern und minderjährigen Schutzbefohlen, auf die Tagesordnung des Deutschen Bundestages am Donnerstag den 27. September 2012.

Tagesordnung:

12.) Beratung Ber (6.A)
gemäß § 62 Abs.2 GO
zum Entwurf SPD Verlängerung der straf- und zivilrechtlichen Verjährungsfristen bei sexuellem Missbrauch von Kindern und minderjährigen Schutzbefohlen
– Drs 17/3646, 17/…. –
(TOP 12, 00:30 Stunden)

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ARGENTINA
Religion Digital

(RD/Agencias/Valores Religiosos).- El sacerdote argentino Justo José Ilarraz ha sido acusado de abusar sistemáticamente de chicos de entre 12 y 14 años, entre 1984 y 1992. El Arzobispado de Paraná admitió las “faltas gravísimas” del cura, aunque aclaró que fue apartado del ejercicio del sacerdocio “hasta que la Santa Sede resuelva la situación”. Lo acusan de haber violado de más de 50 chicos a lo largo de ocho años.

Ayer se supo que la Justicia provincial trabaja en el inicio de una causa en la que se investigará la denuncia formulada por el quincenario Análisis de la Actualidad, dando cuenta de que el Arzobispado de Paraná nunca denunció el abuso cometido por el cura Justo José Ilarraz contra no menos de 50 chicos de entre 12 y 14 años, quienes recién comenzaban su carrera religiosa y estaban bajo su tutela en el Seminario Menor de esa capital.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE CATHOLIC Church’s child protection watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC), has said the contract of its chief executive, Ian Elliott, will conclude at the end of June 2013. Mr Elliott will be 65 next summer.

In a statement yesterday the NBSC added that “the board will engage in discussions and examine with Mr Elliott whether and how his work with the board can continue beyond that point”.

It said “we would like to make it clear that the board has not been subject to any pressures in this regard. While those discussions are ongoing, we will not be making any further statements.”

The NBSC is funded by the Irish Catholic bishops, the Conference of Religious of Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

The 10th anniversary conference of Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) in Boston this month proved to be anything but “faithful” to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church.

Youthful rebellion

TheMediaReport.com was there when Jamie L. Manson, a writer for the dissident newspaper National Catholic Reporter, unleashed a vitriolic attack on Catholics who have the audacity to be faithful to the Magisterium.

The title of Manson’s talk was “Church and young Catholics: Is there a future?” but Manson reserved her harshest venom for those young Catholics who have celebrated Church orthodoxy. After deriding those who would attend “World Youth Day,” Manson unleashed a barrage that can only described as bigoted, condescending, and nasty.

According to Manson, orthodox Catholics:
■”don’t want to see women’s equality in church or even in society” (!);
■”do not want to see gays and lesbians and transgendered people treated with dignity”;
■”are in denial about the sex abuse crisis”;
■”are afraid of cultural flux and uncertainty”; and
■”are afraid of the world.”

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FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram

Editorial

If it was true, as some critics said back when, that Roman Catholic Bishop Kevin Vann was too timid in dealing with difficult issues, that won’t be his legacy when he leaves the Diocese of Fort Worth in December.

It’s hardly surprising that Pope Benedict XVI assigned Vann to Orange County, Calif., the fastest-growing Catholic diocese in the country. The Fort Worth Diocese grew from 400,000 to 710,000 during Van’s seven years here. But that’s only one of the many challenges he ably handled.

Vann, 61, is a former lab technician who spent most of his life in Illinois. He was ordained bishop after his predecessor, Bishop Joseph Delaney, died in July 2005.

Where Delaney exercised tightly centralized authority, Vann was out in the parishes of the 28-county diocese, affable and approachable, and he reached out to other religions.

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TEXAS
Statesman

By Eric Dexheimer

Two days after a Hays County jury convicted Prakashanand Saraswati of 20 counts of indecency with a child for groping two teenagers who lived at the Hindu ashram he’d founded, newly filed court documents say his followers met in a devotee’s home a mile up the road in Driftwood to plan how to spirit him out of the country before his sentencing.

Later that night of March 6, 2011, or early the next morning, at least one of them accompanied the guru, who uses a wheelchair, over the Mexican border to Nuevo Laredo, according to the documents. After secretly moving just south of Tijuana in mid-2011, Prakashanand — who’d shaved his long white beard and cut his shoulder-length hair — then used a fake passport to escape to India in November.

The information, as well as other details of how Prakashanand’s followers in Texas and across the country clandestinely moved the spiritual leader while evading law enforcement, is included in court documents filed in Hays County. An affidavit in support of a search warrant signed last week by a Hays County judge seeks access to Yahoo email accounts of a preacher and close associate of the guru’s who lives in India.

Although many of the assertions in the document came from law enforcement interviews with devotees, much also was obtained from cellphone records and private emails written between Prakashanand’s followers.

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