ABUSE TRACKER

CANADA
National Catholic Reporter

May. 16, 2012
By Catholic News Service

OTTAWA, Ontario — Raymond Lahey, the retired bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, who was convicted of importing child pornography, has been laicized by the Vatican, said the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A statement on the CCCB website Wednesday said the conference learned from the Vatican that “Raymond Lahey has been dismissed from the clerical state.” As such, he loses all rights and duties associated with being a priest, except the obligation of celibacy, said the bishops’ statement.

“Raymond Lahey has accepted the Decree of Dismissal, which also requires him to pray the Liturgy of the Hours in reparation for the harm and the scandal he has caused, and for the sanctification of clergy,” the statement said.

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CANADA
Cape Breton Post

ANTIGONISH — The Vatican has dismissed Raymond Lahey from the clerical state.

This will mean that the former bishop of the Diocese of Antigonish will no longer function as a cleric, will no longer have the rights and duties of being a cleric, is not permitted to exercise any ecclesiastical offices or functions and is not permitted to preside at any of the sacraments or religious services.

However, any sacraments that he performed prior to this decision continue to be valid.

Lahey was convicted of possessing child pornography.

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DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News

By Jennifer Emily/Reporter
jemily@dallasnews.com
1:12 pm on May 16, 2012

Testimony got under way today in the Dallas County trial of a former priest accused of engaging in a murder-for-hire plot to kill a man who accused the priest of molesting him as a boy.

Prosecutors allege that John Fiala was distraught over indictments that accused him of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy in his rural West Texas parish when he asked a neighbor to kill his accuser.

Fiala faces a charge of solicitation of capital murder, which is punishable by up to life in prison. He’s also been indicted on four charges of sexual assault in Edwards County.

The neighbor, Scottie Fisher, testified that Fiala told him about his legal troubles in November 2010 when they were renting rooms at a house in Garland. Fisher said that Fiala was crying and that he tried to comfort the man he had known just three weeks by patting him on the back.

“Can you go out and kill him?” Fisher testified that Fiala asked.

“I said ‘Hell no.’”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Courts Service has revealed RTE’s bill for defamed priest Fr Kevin Reynolds’ legal team was more than €150,000.

Declan O’Neill, Taxing Master, ruled Fr Reynolds’ solicitor Robert Dore be paid €80,000 for his work on the defamation case.

Mr Dore, and his firm Dore and Company, had originally sought an instructions fee of €275,000.

He had argued the case occupied his time between mid-June and mid-November, that it pervaded his office, and that the amount of time spent by his practice was enormous.

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APPLETON (WI)
Post-Crescent

Written by
Jim Collar
Post-Crescent staff writer

APPLETON — A Port Washington man testified Wednesday that a sense of failure accompanied his long-held secret of being molested in 1978 at the hands of a priest.

“I didn’t protect my brother,” Todd Merryfield told a jury as he fought back tears. “I’m the oldest brother. That’s my job and I failed.”

Merryfield, 48, opened the second day of testimony in an Outagamie County civil trial alleging fraud by the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay. Merryfield and his brother, Troy Merryfield, are suing the diocese for unspecified compensation, claiming the diocese knew priest John Feeney sexually assaulted other children prior to 1978 and misrepresented his safety around children.

The diocese denies the allegations.

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INDIA
Deccan Herald

May 17, 2012
By Nalla Ram

A Sanskrit scholar burnt the hands of a seven-year-old girl on Tuesday for stealing Rs 2 from a temple’s offering plate on Tuesday. The callous incident, which took place in a temple at Madhurawada in Visakhapatnam, came to light on Wednesday.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

“On the job training,” was what Msgr. William J. Lynn told the grand jury in 2004, describing the preparation he had to be the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s chief investigator of allegations about priests sexually molesting minors.

There was little direction from then Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua and only “rare” questions from the archbishop when he filed a report on a wayward priest, Lynn’s testimony reads.

That portrait of Lynn drawn from his grand jury testimony — an innocent, inexperienced priest thrust into a job that required the training of a lawyer, detective and psychologist — has been a mainstay of his defense in the landmark Common Pleas Court trial in which he accused of enabling pedophile priests to continue to prey on children.

City prosecutors today continued trying to undercut that portrait using documents from the church’s Secret Archives on abusive priests that were turned over to prosecutors in February on the eve of the trial.

A 2002 memo from Bishop Joseph Cistone to Lynn, introduced by Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington, refers to the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the church’s lobbying arm in Harrisburg, and its effort to prevent the legislature from extending the deadline for purported victims of sexual abuse by priests to file lawsuits against the church.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kanas City Star

By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

A lawyer representing a Catholic priest charged with producing child pornography today asked a Kansas City federal judge to delay the trial until August.

If granted, the continuance would put trial dates for the Rev. Shawn Ratigan and his boss, Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, within a month of each other.

Ratigan is charged with 12 federal felony counts relating to the possession and production of child pornography. Finn is charged in Jackson County Circuit Court with misdemeanor failure to report suspicions of child abuse for the six-month delay in reporting Ratigan to child welfare authorities after church officials learned of lewd photographs on the priest’s laptop.

Finn’s trial currently is scheduled to open Sept. 24.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

[This is first in a continuing series of profiles of individuals whom the media often cites in its coverage of the Catholic Church abuse narrative.]

When the media is seeking a voice to blast away at the Catholic Church over the sex abuse issue, one reliable source is often Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, O.P., a Dominican priest and canon lawyer. What the media will never tell you, however, is that Doyle has a storied history of contempt for the Church and a penchant to misrepresent the faith.

Fr. Doyle’s desire to seek justice and compassion for innocent victims of Catholic clergy abuse is to be commended, and Catholics can learn much from his seemingly unrestrained fervor to provide healing. However, Doyle’s open disdain for the Catholic Church is so exaggerated and over the top, one cannot help but wonder why he still remains a Catholic priest.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Article by: MARYCLAIRE DALE , Associated Press
Updated: May 16, 2012 – 2:19 PM

PHILADELPHIA – Evidence in a groundbreaking priest-abuse trial shows the men running the Philadelphia archdiocese used byzantine methods to keep child sex-abuse complaints from prying eyes.

Memos unearthed from long-secret archives show the complaints were not just under lock and key — but protected by locks, keys, alarms, safes, computer passwords and other measures.

One 1994 list shown to jurors Wednesday lists three diagnosed pedophile priests and 13 more deemed “guilty” of abuse, often because they had admitted it.

Yet most remained active priests until the “zero tolerance” policy adopted by U.S. bishops in 2002. And some remained priests years later.

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CANADA
570 News

ANTIGONISH, N.S. – A Roman Catholic bishop who was convicted of importing child pornography into Canada has been stripped of his clerical duties.

The Holy See in Rome has dismissed Raymond Lahey from the clerical state in what is one of the most serious penalties that the Roman Catholic Church can impose, the Diocese of Antigonish, N.S., said Wednesday.

The decision means Lahey, a former bishop of Antigonish, can no longer work as a cleric nor preside at any religious services or sacraments.

“This decision reminds all of us of the serious harms that come from all forms of pornography, especially child pornography,” Antigonish Bishop Brian Joseph Dunn said in a statement.

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NEDERLAND
Limburgs Dagblad

[Jan Schafraad, niet ‘Jan S.’]

Advocaat Titus Weller heeft bij de deken van de Amsterdamse Orde van Advocaten een klacht ingediend tegen de advocaat van de Maastrichtse pastoor Jan S., Geertjan van Oosten. Advocaat Van Oosten zou zich in een interview in deze krant onnodig grievend hebben uitgelaten over twee Limburgers die een aanklacht tegen de pastoor hebben ingediend wegens seksueel misbruik. In de krant zei Van Oosten niet uit te sluiten dat de aanklagers van de pastoor ‘etterbakken’ zijn die op geld uit zijn.

ANP

De twee Limburgers zeggen door S. misbruikt te zijn toen deze nog broeder was in jongensinternaat Bleijerheide in Kerkrade. S. ontkent.

Van Oosten liet woensdag desgevraagd weten geen reden te zien voor excuses, omdat het tweetal S. publiekelijk heeft beschuldigd van seksueel misbruik. Naar zijn mening is er een hetze ontstaan tegen de pastoor. Hij herhaalt dat de motieven van de aangevers mogelijk niet zuiver zijn.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joan Chittister on May. 16, 2012 From Where I Stand

This month, it was the Leadership Conference of Women Religious that bishops were concerned about. Before that, it was Catholic Charities in the United States. Then it was Caritas, the church’s umbrella organization for the coordination of international charity. And now it is the Girl Scouts. Each of them has been curtailed, “investigated” or put in some kind of canonical receivership because of their reputed lack of orthodoxy on sexual issues or because of association with other groups that, according to the bishops, have the same problem. And all of that in the face of the sex abuse debacle of the church itself, still to be resolved, never monitored, and totally closed to outside investigation.

The question is, Where has all this energy for empirical destruction come from in a church now projecting its own serious problems with sexual issues onto everything that moves?

In his new book, Pius XII: The Hound of Hitler, noted historian Gerard Noel traces the history of this pope’s “Great Design.” The material starts with the rise of the young canon lawyer Eugenio Pacelli to a position of power in the Vatican. It winds its way through Pacelli’s election as Pius XII and the suppression by Pacelli himself of Germany’s Catholic Centre Party and even Catholic social action groups in pre-WWII Germany, the only bodies in Germany strong enough to have checked the rise of Nazism. It concludes with the rise of another man, Adolf Hitler, whose reach for power matched his own but whose rise his very Concordats assured.

Pacelli rose to power, Noel explains, on the arm of a canon law degree in a church still smarting from the loss of the Papal States and the consequent unification of Italy. Pacelli dreamed of using a system of Concordats — particular legal agreements with the major powers in Europe — to restore the quasi-imperial power that went with the temporal power and wealth the Papal States had assured. Pacelli’s life goal became the centralization of the church, the control of all its organizations. Under Pacelli, law became the power of the church; the Gospel, its victim.

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DEUTSCHLAND
News4Press

Klaus Michael Beier – * 1961 – ist ein deutscher Mediziner, Psychotherapeut und Sexualwissenschaftler. Er ist Direktor des Instituts für Sexualwissenschaft und Sexualmedizin an der Charité in Berlin. Klaus Michael Beier begann 1979 sein Medizinstudium und 1980 zusätzlich ein Philosophiestudium an der Freien Universität Berlin. 1986 promovierte er in Medizin, zwei Jahre später in Philosophie. Ebenfalls 1988 wurde er wissenschaftlicher Assistent für Sexualwissenschaft < / > Sexualmedizin am Klinikum der Universität Kiel an der dortigen Sexualmedizinischen Forschungs- und Beratungsstelle. Seine Habilitation für Sexualmedizin erfolgte 1994, 1996 wurde er Facharzt für Psychotherapeutische Medizin und Psychoanalytiker und zum Professor für Sexualwissenschaft < / > Sexualmedizin an der Charité sowie Leiter des Instituts für Sexualwissenschaft und Sexualmedizin. Beier leitete die Berliner Männer-Studie vom August 2002 bis Juni 2005, bei der von 600.000 Männern im Alter zwischen 40 bis 79 Jahren aus Berlin 6000 angeschrieben wurden, von denen 1700 antworteten und sich 1400 Männer im zweiten Teil in einem Interview befragen ließen. Unter anderem wurden die Teilnehmer zu ihrer Sexualfunktion und ihrem sexuellen Erleben sowie persönlichkeitspsychologische Aspekte befragt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Etwas Verpasst

Die katholische Kirche steckt in einer tiefen Krise. Der Missbrauchsskandal hat viel Vertrauen gekostet. Mehr als 180.000 Gläubige sind 2010 aus ihrer Kirche ausgetreten. Die Kirche hält jedoch an ihren Strukturen fest, es gibt immer weniger Priester. Deshalb wollen die Bischöfe Kirchen schließen und Pfarreien zu Seelsorgeeinheiten und Megagemeinden zusammenlegen. Stoppen soll den Negativtrend ein “Dialog- und Gesprächsprozess”. Bischöfe, Priester und Laien streiten bis 2015 darüber, wie die Zukunft der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland aussehen soll. Dabei ist klar: die heißen Eisen wie Zölibat, Sexualmoral und Weiheämter für Frauen bleiben in der Schublade. Ein Höhepunkt soll der Mannheimer Katholikentag im Mai 2012 werden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Suite 101

Der Eisenstädter Bischof Paul Iby hat im Jänner 2010 mit Erreichen der Altersgrenze von 75 Jahren sein Rücktrittsgesuch an den Vatikan abgegeben. Dieses wurde von Papst Benedikt XVI. “nunc pro tunc”, “jetzt für später” angenommen. Der Rücktritt des burgenländischen Oberhirten werde zu einem noch offenen Zeitpunkt wirksam.

Ein unliebsamer Kritiker

1959 wurde Paul Iby zum Priester geweiht . Promotion in Rom 1967, danach Caritas-Chef und Schulamtsleiter und später Generalvikar in Eisenstadt. 1992 wurde er zum Bischof der Diözese Burgenland bestellt. Möglicherweise wird sein Rücktrittsgesuch vom Vatikan jetzt noch schneller angenommen als erwartet. Mit der Infragestellung des Pflichtzölibats machte sich der Bischof in einem am 12. Mai in der österreichischen Tageszeitung “Die Presse” erschienenen Interview auch unter seinen Glaubensbrüdern im Bischofsrang keine Freunde. Jahrhundertelange Dogmen werden nicht gerne in Frage gestellt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
n-tv

Helmut Schüller spricht konzentriert und unaufgeregt, doch was er sagt, hat es in sich. Der Pfarrer fordert die Zulassung von Frauen zum Priesteramt und das Ende des Zölibats. Die Kommunion gibt er auch an Geschiedene, die wiederverheiratet sind – ein krasser Tabubruch. Schüller ist ungehorsam. Selbst der Papst spricht bereits öffentlich über seine Initiative.

n-tv.de: Herr Schüller, Sie lehnen eine ganze Reihe von zentralen Grundregeln der katholischen Kirche ab – müssten Sie nicht eigentlich die Kirche verlassen, anstatt darauf zu hoffen, dass die Kirche so viele Positionen aufgibt?

Helmut Schüller: Aber wir lehnen keine einzige Grundregel der Kirche ab.

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OSTERRIECH
der Standard

Graz – Wenn es um männliche Initiationsriten geht, kennt der steirische Brauch neuerdings auch recht schlüpfrige Varianten. Als Ergebnis einer Schwerpunktaktion der Polizei in Sachen Jugendschutzgesetz notierten zu Wochenbeginn erhebende Beamte, dass immer wieder steirische Kinder, die in diesen Tagen vom örtlichen Pfarrer das Sakrament der Firmung empfangen, für diesen kirchlichen Anlass höchst weltlich beschenkt werden: mit einem Bordellbesuch.

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ROME
RP – Online

Rom (RPO). Ein neuer Skandal um ihren bekanntesten Vertreter erschüttert die Legionäre Christi. Thomas Williams, das öffentliche Gesicht der katholischen Ordensgemeinschaft, gestand am Dienstag ein, vor Jahren ein Kind gezeugt zu haben.

Ein prominenter US-amerikanischer Priester der “Legionäre Christi” hat eingeräumt, Vater eines Kindes zu sein. Der als geistlicher Autor und TV-Kommentator bekannte Thomas Williams gab bekannt, er habe “vor einigen Jahren ein Verhältnis mit einer Frau gehabt”, aus dem auch ein Kind hervorgegangen sei. Williams bitte um Entschuldigung für sein mit dem Priesteramt unvereinbares Verhalten. Er wolle sich jetzt für die weitere Zukunft orientieren, heißt es in einer Mitteilung der Mitteleuropäischen Ordensprovinz der Legionäre in Düsseldorf.

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DEUTCHLAND
Readers Edition

Dierk Schäfer aus Bad Boll, Pfarrer im Ruhestand, erhielt eine E-Mail und geht in seinem Blog darauf ein (1). Im Betreff dieser E-Mail ist lediglich der Begriff „Sülze“ zu lesen. Ihm wurde ein Link zugesandt, der zur Homepage der „Diakonischen Stiftung Wittekindshof“ führt (2). Schäfer fragt sich, wo auf dieser Homepageseite der E-Mail-Absender „Sülze“ ausgemacht hat und studiert in diesem Zusammenhang das Geleitwort des Stiftungsleiters der Behinderteneinrichtung in Bad Oeynhausen (3), Prof. Dr. Dierk Starnitzke (4)zum Buch: „Als wären wir zur Strafe hier – Gewalt gegen Menschen mit geistiger Behinderung – der Wittekindshof in den 1950er und 1960er Jahren“ (5).

Schäfer stellt fest, dass Starnitzke in seiner „Aufarbeitung der Geschichte“ (2) „in sehr deutlicher Sprache die schlimmen Erlebnisse der ehemaligen Heimkinder an prominenter Stelle“ benennt. Schäfer weiter: „In Ihrem Geleitwort nennen Sie dagegen zunächst die damals allgemein schlimmen Verhältnisse und der Leser fragt sich, wer mehr zu bedauern ist, das Personal oder die Kinder. Was Sie nirgendwo erwähnen, ist die Behandlung der Heimkinderfrage durch den Runden Tisch, die von Beginn an auf Übervorteilung aus war.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Unabhangiger Beauftraghter

Richtigstellung: Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Bundesregierung hat keinen Maßnahmenkatalog zur Prävention aufgestellt

Berlin, 15.05.2012. Die Vereinbarungen zwischen dem Unabhängigen Beauftragten und Dachorganisationen zur Umsetzung der Empfehlungen des Runden Tisches „Sexueller Kindesmissbrauch“ zu Prävention und Intervention enthalten keinen konkreten Maßnahmenkatalog, wie in der Märkischen Allgemeinen Zeitung (MAZ) vom 12.05.2012 berichtet.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on May 16, 2012

Despite a decade of vigorous public relations, a new survey shows that most Catholics don’t believe their bishops are “reforming” how they deal with clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

In what must be sobering news for the Catholic hierarchy, the survey, conducted by US Catholic magazine of its readers, finds that

— only one third say Catholic parishes and schools are now safer for children,

— almost 60 % say church leaders have “done the bare minimum and should be doing much more,”

— barely half of the respondents say bishops are less likely to cover up abuse cases today than in the past

— 76% believe that “those who should get credit for the church’s reform after the sex abuse crisis include “victim advocacy groups, such as SNAP” and

— 44% say they were abused or know someone who was abused by a priest.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 16, 2012

Today, a new bishop has been officially installed as the Archbishop of Baltimore. Bishop William Lori previously worked as the Bishop of Bridgeport, CT, having led the diocese there since 2001. During Lori’s tenure, he has made several questionable and objectionable decisions.

One particular case was the handling of Fr. Jean Marie DeGraff. Last December, a Connecticut newspaper disclosed that Fr. DeGraff was arrested in October for allegedly molesting at least one child in Canada in 2010 and 2011. From 2007 to 2008, DeGraff worked at St. Mary Parish on Greenwich Avenue and other churches in western Connecticut, and during that time he had been the subject of allegations of abuse. Rather than remove Fr. DeGraff, Bishop Lori instead sent him to Canada where he was able to abuse another child.

Earlier, in 2010, Bishop-Accountability.org released hundreds of pages of files that illustrated how the Diocese of Bridgeport had allowed at least five priests who had been credibly accused of abuse to move to other dioceses. Despite knowledge of the accusations that these priests faced, Bishop Lori saw no harm in moving them out of his diocese, although he knew it was bad enough to warrant making the moves as quiet as possible.

We do not believe that Bishop Lori has demonstrated the ability to protect children in his flock well enough to warrant such a promotion. The Archdiocese of Baltimore would do well to choose a different individual who has a better track record on abuse. Even better would be if the Archdiocese were to promote someone from the lower rungs of the hierarchy such as a local parish priest, since their removal from abuse cover-ups would make them a better fit than someone who actively participated in them.

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VATICAN CITY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on May 16, 2012

Reuters is reporting that a top Vatican official has kept silent for months about a high profile Catholic priest’s fathering a child.

Will Catholic officials ever start being more honest and prompt about clergy sex crimes and misdeeds?

The Vatican official is Spanish Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, who was appointed two years ago by Pope Benedict to oversee the Legion of Christ. Yesterday, the Legion’s most prominent priest, Fr. Thomas D. Williams, admitted he had an “affair” and fathered a child which neither he nor his Legion supervisors are financially supporting.

It’s important to remember that Fr. Williams is also accused of having inappropriate sexual contact with

–college students in Rome, and

–the daughter of a prominent US Catholic figure.

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DETROIT (MI)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 16, 2012

A prominent Catholic priest from the Detroit area has returned home in the wake of his admission that he had an “affair” and fathered a child whom neither he nor his Catholic institution are supporting.

He’s Fr. Thomas D. Williams of the controversial Legion of Christ, a scandal-wracked and cult-like Catholic religious order. He also faces other accusations (see below).

Our hunch is that at least a few people in Detroit Catholic circles have knowledge or suspicions of Fr. Williams’ exploitation of women. If so, we hope they’ll find the courage and strength to do what’s right and report these to secular and church authorities. It’s wrong to let wrongdoers escape responsibility for their wrongdoing, or experience minimal consequences.

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APPLETON (WI)
NBC 26

[with video]

By Brian Miller

Appleton– The jury heard opening statements in a civil suit against the Green Bay Catholic Diocese. Brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield filed the suit in 2008. The brothers allege the Diocese knew that John Patrick Feeney had sexually abused children before coming to a church in Freedom in the 1970’s. Attorneys for the diocese call the allegations of fraud outlandish.

The jury heard from Feeney’s former colleagues in the priesthood and about how much they were aware of Feeney’s past, which included showering with boys and swimming in the nude, all before he came to St. Nicholas parish in Freedom.

“The evidence will show that when the diocese placed Feeney into the congregation it was deliberately indifferent to a known risk that the Catholic children of Freedom were being exposed to harm,” said John Peterson, attorney for Troy Merryfield.

Attorneys for the Green Bay Diocese say there is no evidence the bishop knew Feeney was a danger to kids. “These claims are false and wrong they are untrue and we will show with evidence in this case otherwise,” said Patrick Brennan, attorney for the Green Bay Diocese.

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APPLETON (WI)
WBAY

[with video]

By Tony Ullrich

Appleton –
The attorneys for two brothers claim the Green Bay Catholic Diocese knew one of their priests was a problem before he molested them as children.

The Merryfield brothers, who squared off in court Tuesday with the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, are seeking $900,000 in damages.

Opening statements began Tuesday morning in Outagamie County court.

The Merryfields claim the diocese knew about former priest John Patrick Feeney’s history of sexual abuse and repeatedly transferred him to other parishes without telling anyone.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Catherine Pepinster
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 May 2012

One of the heartaches of being a Roman Catholic in recent years has been the clerical abuse scandal. No pain that any of us suffers from discovering that some of our priests abused children – and even worse – that senior clergy covered up their crimes – can compare with the victims’ plight, of course, but it has knocked for six many devout Catholics’ faith. Some have left the church because of it; others are certainly more sceptical, or even more cynical about the way the church is run and the way that power is used and exploited. Quite a few are clinging on by their fingertips, fretting not only about the abuse crisis but the way that a church that flung open the shutters to the world 50 years ago because of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, appears to be going backwards, becoming more clerical, more obsessed with ritual and gesture.

According to novelist Hilary Mantel, we’re all guilty by association. This weekend the author of Wolf Hall and the newly published Bring Up The Bodies told interviewer Lynn Barber that Catholics weren’t quite the ticket. “I think that nowadays the Catholic church is not an institution for respectable people”, she said. Even Barber, one of the most experienced interviewers around, seemed taken aback, describing this remark as “strong”, although it also had a curiously quaint and dated feel to it, as though being genteel is what counts. When she got Mantel to expand, she discovered that much of her remark was down to the abuse crisis. But there was more, with Mantel going on to damn priests and nuns for being “among the worst people I knew”.

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APPLETON (WI)
WTAQ

APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Jurors in Appleton will hear a second day of testimony in a civil fraud trial against the Green Bay Catholic Diocese.

Former pastor John Feeney spent 8 years in prison for molesting Todd and Troy Merryfield in 1978, when Feeney served at a church in Freedom in Outagamie County.

Now, the Merryfields contend that the late Bishop Aloysius Wycislo committed fraud, by not telling parishioners about Feeney’s history of sexual assaults.

In Tuesday’s opening arguments, Troy’s lawyer John Peterson said the evidence would show that Feeney was a known risk to children at the Merryfields’ former parish.

But church attorney Patrick Brennan said showing risk is not enough proof. He said the plaintiffs must prove that the late bishop knew that Feeney had molested others before the Merryfields were assaulted. And Brennan said there’s not enough evidence to back up what he called an “outlandish claim.”

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UNITED STATES
Irish Independent

A PRIEST whose movie star good looks landed him frequent appearances on US TV, has admitted to fathering a child.

Father Thomas Williams who was described by US TV anchor woman Katie Couric as ‘Father What-A-Waste’ is well known for his frequent appearances on US TV, where he talks of theological and ecumenical matters.

Father Williams, who is a Dean of Papal Morality at a university in the Vatican, has admitted to having an affair with a woman who gave birth to his child some years ago. It is unknown if he is supporting or in touch with the child.

In a statement Williams admitted: “A number of years ago I had a relationship with a woman and fathered her child. I am deeply sorry for this transgression and have tried to make amends.”

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IRELAND
The Bourne Local (United Kingdom)

The chairman of RTE has said he still finds it inexplicable that the hugely-damaging Mission to Prey programme in which Father Kevin Reynolds was defamed was allowed to air.

Tom Savage said there were grave and exceptional failures implicit in the case which raised questions that go to the very heart of the State broadcaster’s public purpose.

He said RTE accepts the findings of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) report that found the station was guilty of failures in editorial and managerial controls over the now-defunct Prime Time Investigates.

“RTE accepts the findings and can offer no excuse,” said Mr Savage.

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NEDERLAND
De Telegraaf

DEN HAAG – Nederland is verplicht pedofielenvereniging Martijn te verbieden, omdat deze club een verzamelplek biedt aan onder anderen daders van zedenmisdrijven. Dat is een van de redenen die het Openbaar Ministerie (OM) woensdag bij de rechtbank in Assen gaf voor het verbieden en ontbinden van Martijn.

Een andere reden is dat de pedovereniging seks tussen volwassenen en kinderen goedpraat en zelfs verheerlijkt, zei officier van justitie M. de Meijer. Beide zaken zijn volgens het OM niet alleen in strijd met de algemene normen en waarden, maar ook met het beleid van de overheid in Nederland en daarbuiten om kinderen te beschermen tegen seksueel misbruik.

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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

EDE – De kerk moet zich open, eerlijk en authentiek presenteren in de media. Niet somber, maar vrolijk. „Relativeer niet de boodschap, wel uzelf.”

Dat adviseert „mediapriester” dr. Antoine Bodar. Hij sprak dinsdag op het symposium ”Geloof in de media?!” op de Christelijke Hogeschool Ede. Bodar kritiseerde het gebrek aan kennis van religieuze zaken bij seculiere kranten en omroepen. „Als je over religie schrijft, hoef je niets te weten. Die gedachte zorgt voor veel misverstanden.”

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Published: May 15, 2012

A telegenic American priest, widely known for his media commentary from Rome on popes, prayer and personal morality, has publicly acknowledged having an affair and fathering a child — the latest jolt to hit his scandal-torn religious order, the Legionaries of Christ.

The priest, the Rev. Thomas D. Williams, apologized in a statement on Tuesday “for this grave transgression” and “to everyone who is hurt by this revelation.” He said he would take a year off from public ministry to reflect on his transgressions and his “commitments as a priest” — a decision he said he made with his superiors.

Father Williams was the most visible American member of the Legionaries, a powerful and conservative Roman Catholic religious order that has been in turmoil since 2006, when its charismatic founder was banished by the Vatican to a life of prayer and penance.

The order’s founder, a Mexican priest named Marciel Maciel Degollado, died in 2008 amid revelations that he had sexually abused young seminarians, misappropriated money and fathered several children, some of whom say they were also victims of his sexual abuse. Only last Friday, the Legion acknowledged that seven of its priests are being investigated by the Vatican in connection with the sexual abuse of minors.

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NEW YORK
WABC

[with video]

N.J. Burkett
Eyewitness News

WILLIAMSBURG (WABC) — A controversial fundraiser for a man in Brooklyn who is accused of molesting a teenage girl is fueling outrage on the streets of Williamsburg.

At the center of the storm is Nechemya Weberman, a member of Brooklyn’s Orthodox Satmar community. He was charged last year with sexually abusing a teenage girl.

Posters in Hebrew and Yiddish are promoting a fundraiser for Weberman at a catering hall on Wednesday night.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A controversial fundraiser that’s dividing an Orthodox Jewish community will be held tonight in Brooklyn.

The dinner is raising legal funds for Rabbi Nechemya Weberman, 53, who was arrested last year when a 16-year-old female accused him of molesting her during years of counseling sessions dating back to when she was 12-years-old.

Weberman has pleaded not guilty to charges of committing a criminal sex act, rape, endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

Philip Pullella
Reuters

7:02 a.m. CDT, May 16, 2012

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Leaders of the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ religious order knew that their most famous priest had fathered a child for many months before they acknowledged it this week, a top Vatican official told Reuters on Wednesday.

The once influential religious order, still in crisis following revelations that its founder was a sexual abuser with two secret families, suffered another major blow on Tuesday when American Father Thomas Williams admitted to having fathered a child with a woman in Rome.

The question left hanging was how long the order’s leaders knew about Williams’s secret life and why they continued to let him preach, teach and appear on television around the world, particularly in the United States.

“I found out about it this year,” Spanish Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, who was appointed by Pope Benedict in July, 2010 to oversee the restructuring of the order, told Reuters in a telephone conversation from his home.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

By JEREMY SHARON

The Jerusalem District Court accepted the state attorney’s request to add five new witnesses to the trial of Rabbi Mordechai “Moti” Elon, who is accused of indecent assault against two minors.

The testimony of the new witnesses will be used to support the claims of the two plaintiffs against Elon.

Judge Haim Liran said that some of the testimonies of the new witnesses were significant and their inclusion in the trial is therefore justified.

Elon’s defense team opposed the introduction of the new witnesses as an “attempt to breathe life into the corpse of an already dead indictment which anyway lacked substance.”

His attorneys also alleged that the prosecutors’ new material was first leaked to the press before being given to the defense team and accused the prosecution of trying to conduct the trial through the media.

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AUSTRALIA
San Diego Jewish World

Compiled by Garry Fabian

MELBOURNE, 9 May – One of Australia’s leading rabbis told a man whose son had been allegedly sexually abused by a youth group leader at a Melbourne Jewish school that the child would not need counselling because he was under eight years old, court documents say.

The former security guard at the Yeshivah Centre in St Kilda East, has been charged with 53 offences, including six counts of rape, allegedly committed against 12 boys between 1982 and 1991.

He is contesting the allegations at a committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court. In court documents, the parents of two separate boys said they went to Yeshivah Centre director Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner in the 1980s to complain about alleged molestation.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

AN UPDATE on changes RTE is implementing as a result of the ‘Mission To Prey’ programme has been submitted to government. Minister Pat Rabbitte requested the update during a “robust” meeting last week with the 13-member RTE board.

A spokeswoman for RTE said last night that the report outlines “all of the steps they are taking to address the serious systemic shortcomings that have been exposed by this case”.

It includes a breakdown of remedial actions at the station, their objectives and anticipated completion dates.

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IRELAND
The Irish Independent

Wednesday May 16 2012

A THIRD cleric is taking legal action against RTE claiming serious defamation as the fallout from the ‘Mission to Prey’ programme continues.

The Irish Independent has learned that papers were lodged earlier this week at the High Court by Kenyan Bishop Philip Sulumeti.

It was the first step in a defamation case which, if successful, will add to the seven-figure bill which RTE — and the taxpayer — is already facing as a result of the one-hour ‘Prime Time Investigates’ programme.

The bishop is seeking damages from the state broadcaster as a result of his inclusion and portrayal in the programme.

It is understood that he will argue that his good name was damaged by including his reference supporting Fr Kevin Reynolds’ character alongside statements of Fr Reynolds’ supposed guilt.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Bishop Richard Lennon of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland has begun meetings with parishioners of 12 closed churches to discuss their re-openings.

The diocese declined Tuesday to provide any further updates on the reopening process. But parishioners from the closed St. Adalbert in Cleveland and St. James in Lakewood said they were called by the bishop’s office to meet in separate sessions Wednesday.

“It’s very interesting and very exciting,” said Toni Sabo one of four St. James parishioners who will meet with Lennon at 3 p.m. today.

Linda Gamble and four parishioners from St. Adalbert will meet at 1 p.m. “We’re looking for the positive,” she said.

Parishioners from St. Barbara in Cleveland met with Lennon on Tuesday. “He was very pleasant,” said parishioner Michael Minich, who said the session lasted for about an hour and a half. “It was very informal.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WTAM

(Cleveland) – Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon is starting to meet with parishoners of churches he is re-opening in the Diocese.

Twelve churches have been resurrected after the Bishop closed them in 2009 due, in part, to dwindling membership and a shortage of priests.

Parishoner’s from Saint Adelbert in Cleveland and Saint James in Lakewood meet with the Bishop Wednesday.

Those meetings, according to the ‘Cleveland Plain Dealer’ are at 1PM and 3PM respectively.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

The already distraught mother had reached the end of her rope.

She and her husband, parents of a now 13-year-old boy who they allege was sexually molested by his Brooklyn yeshiva teacher, were doing the unthinkable in the borough’s ultra-Orthodox community: bucking a system stacked heavily against them and pursuing a civil lawsuit against the Flatbush school that employed the teacher, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko.

The system was pushing back, with a vengeance.

A prominent Brooklyn rabbi and Yaakov Applegrad, an administrator at Yeshiva Torah Temimah, the school parents were suing, asked the parents to a meeting — without their lawyer. After pleading with the couple to drop the suit, Applegrad and the rabbi turned up the heat and played the card they hoped would resonate powerfully with religious Jews: they compared the parents to Nazis for attempting to “bankrupt” the yeshiva. The Nazis, they said, destroyed the yeshiva in Europe built before the war by the father of Rabbi Lipa Margulies, Torah Temimah’s founder and dean. Now, the two suggested, the parents were doing the same with their lawsuit. (It is not clear that Rabbi Margulies’ father actually had a yeshiva in Europe).

The tactic worked. At a second meeting five days later, the husband, feeling “agitated … outnumbered and overwhelmed with terrible emotions,” and with his wife in tears, signed “under great duress” a document to end the lawsuit.

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AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

On Monday, a judge will decide whether or not a man who was a mentor to students at Chabad’s flagship yeshiva in Melbourne will stand trial for allegedly raping at least a dozen students, some long after Chabad knew what David Cyprys was allegedly doing. But Chabad did nothing to limit Cyprys’ contact with young boys.

David Cyprys, who worked as a security guard and a caretaker at Chabad’s Yeshiva College in Melbourne, Australia, is charged with at least 50 total counts of rape and indecent assault, all committed against boys between 1982 and 1991.

According to The Age, a Melbourne court yesterday heard that Cyprys had anally penetrated one teenager at a family home. Police told the court the victim told police “he had covered my mouth to stop me screaming.” The boy was allegedly raped before he was 16-years-old. Cyprys allegedly raped the boy on the boy’s 16th birthday, as well. Cyprys also allegedly raped the boy in the community’s men’s mikva, ritual bath.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

It was deeply frustrating, though not surprising, to see The New York Times, in its high-profile coverage this past week of abuse in the ultra-Orthodox community, neglect to credit The Jewish Week — or The Forward — for taking the lead in reporting on these issues for years.

Though the Times pledges to “deal with competitors openly and honestly,” as cited in its policy on ethics in journalism, it has a long record of ignoring the groundbreaking work of The Jewish Week in bringing to light the legal, religious and ethical problems that apply regarding abuse in the ultra-Orthodox community.

“When we first use facts originally reported by another news organization, we attribute them,” the Times policy states. But the facts in this case dispute that claim, and we have numerous examples to prove it.

Anyone who has followed the writings of investigative reporter Hella Winston in The Jewish Week since 2008 knows that the information in the two New York Times stories this past week were built on her thorough body of work and did not originate with the Times.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Charles J. Hynes / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A person with knowledge of a crime should report that information to law enforcement authorities. There is no alternative. It is a civic duty, and in some cases, it’s the law.

In 2009, concerned that sex abuse was going unreported in the Orthodox Jewish community, I started Kol Tzedek (Voice of Justice), a program to address this problem.

From when I took office as district attorney in 1990 until the creation of Kol Tzedek, my prosecutors handled only a few cases a year of sex abuse in that community. Since the inception of Kol Tzedek, we have made 95 arrests; 53 cases have been adjudicated, with a conviction rate of 72%.

I stand by these numbers.

The statistics show how absurd it is to suggest that we cover up, downplay or in any way “give a break” to sex offenders in the Orthodox Jewish community. Like any other defendants, they are often arrested in public by the police, and their court appearances are open and available to the public as part of the public record. I welcome scrutiny of these cases.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The streets of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish section of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, are plastered with leaflets urging support for a rabbi who is accused of the sexual abuse of a teenage girl and attacking her.

Some of the signs depict the 16-year-old’s complaint to police as a danger akin to a rocket attack. Behind them is an all too prevalent faith-based conviction that it’s wrong to bring civil authorities into the insular community’s affairs.

This impulse to close ranks has produced devastating results. While victimization of children and teens is no more prevalent among the Hasidim and similar Jewish sects than in other segments of society, it has gone largely unpunished.

Families and community leaders have been ostracized for contacting law enforcement, and victims have been wrongly deterred from seeking the legal redress to which any person is entitled.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Adam Dickter
Assistant Managing Editor

With increased scrutiny on the handling of sex-abuse cases involving members of Brooklyn’s Orthodox community, some elected officials are beginning to take a stand on practices tied to District Attorney Charles J. Hynes.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the leading candidates to succeed him last week called on Hynes to discourage rabbis from screening abuse allegations before they are reported to the authorities.

The statements came after The New York Times joined many other media in detailing instances where alleged victims were intimidated within their community.

But few elected officials this week wanted to take a position one way or the other regarding another controversial practice of Hynes’ office: that of withholding from the public a list of names of Orthodox people accused or convicted of sexual abuse crimes. The list was compiled through a hotline called Kol Tzedek, which was launched in 2009 with the goal of encouraging victims of abuse to come forward to law enforcement.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Michael O’Keeffe, Kevin Armstrong and Christian Red / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Ernest Lorch, the founder of the prestigious Riverside Church Hawks basketball program whose legacy was tainted by sexual-abuse allegations, died Sunday at Sunrise Senior Living in Yonkers, N.Y., according to a female staff member at the assisted living facility.

David Sullivan, the Northwestern (Mass.) district attorney who prosecuted Lorch last year on a sexual abuse charge, told the Daily News his office received a call Monday from Lorch’s attorney, Fred Cohn, and Cohn said Lorch had died.

And Dermon Player, a longtime Riverside coach and former St. John’s assistant basketball coach, told The News Tuesday that he had spoken with Lorch’s family members who confirmed the death.

“We haven’t received any death certificate or official notification,” Sullivan, the D.A., told The News. “Once we get a death certificate, we’ll move to dismiss the case against (Lorch). We’re not dismissing it until we get the death certificate.”

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TIPPECANOE COUNTY (IN)
WLFI

Kristin Maiorano

TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) – A Tippecanoe County pastor is facing a possible felony charge after being arrested last week.

According to the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office, on Thursday, Robert Lyzenga was arrested for voyeurism, using camera or video equipment. That’s a Class D felony.

He was booked into the county jail just before 6:15 that evening and posted a $5,000 surety bond about four hours later. Details behind the arrest weren’t immediately available Sunday evening.

Lyzenga is listed as the pastor on the website for the Sunrise Christian Reformed Church in Tippecanoe County.

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CONNECTICUT
Norwich Bulletin

By GREG SMITH
The Bulletin

New London, Conn. —

A former pastor at a Haitian church in Norwich pleaded not guilty Monday to charges he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl.

Luckner Sylvain, 49, appeared in New London Superior Court Monday on charges of first-degree sexual assault, fourth-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. He is represented by Norwich attorney Paul Chinigo. The case was continued to May 30.

Norwich police allege Sylvain, a former pastor at First Haitian Baptist Church, sexually assaulted the girl multiple times in 2006 and 2007. The church’s pastor said Sylvain left the church in 2008.

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DAYTON (OH)
WDTN

[with video]

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – Four women accuse a Dayton minister of sexual abuse.

Kerry Edwin Bryant, now the lead pastor at Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church, was formerly employed at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Nashville.

Four women from that church say they sought counseling from Bryant and other church leaders and were taken advantage of when they were at their most vulnerable.

“When you are in the position of power, you are not to misuse that power. It is not for you to take control over another person and have them do things for their benefit or pleasure. That is abuse because you are damaging that other person,” said complainant Valencia Batson.

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WEST VIRGINIA
The Register-Herald

By Lisa Shrewsberry Lifestyles Editor

“I have a very bitter taste in my mouth for the justice system,” says Kathy Smith (not her real name), a resident of southern W.Va., a well-spoken professional, a mom and a grandmother. Eight years ago on July 4th, while families picnicked and readied their amateur fireworks displays, the personal equivalent of a bomb dropped, an impact from which all involved are still picking up the pieces, some too fragmented for human hands to hold.

That was the day Kathy’s pastor revealed to her his strong suspicion that a trusted member of the church where her family attended, a youth minister, had been sexually abusing her son, possibly for years. The man, ultimately indicted on charges of sexual abuse but yet to be tried in court, was a triple threat of the worst kind: An upstanding, trusted member of the community, a man boasting connections to popular political figures and one who claimed to have the highest possible connection on his side — God.

“As a parent you trust very much a person in leadership over your children when you are in church.” What bothers this mother most is her mental rearview, one that plays in reverse when she sits in her office during downtime, pointing out to her signs of the seriously wrong, now as clear as day, but too remote to help her son.

Kathy fell prey to the guise of friendship and mentorship assumed by the man who she says abused her boy for six years, from the age of 10. She noticed he took a strong interest in her child, buying him gifts, at times expensive ones. He would ask permission for them to take trips and golfing expeditions together. One time, the man called Kathy for her blessing to let him buy her son a set of golf clubs. When she began to object at the act of intensifying and unsolicited generosity, he softened his actions by saying they were an “inexpensive set.”

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CALIFORNIA
Catholic San Francisco

By George Raine

Ten years after the crisis of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests first captured the nation’s attention, Santa Clara University on May 11 hosted a conference to take stock, to determine what needs to be done to reduce risk that any child is injured.

“We pat ourselves on the back for the successes, but we are not done,” said Thomas Plante, a professor of psychology at Santa Clara and conference co-host.

The conference title, “Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis, 2002-2012,” is the same as the title of a book co-edited by Plante, who has conducted 700 psychological evaluations of candidates for seminaries over 25 years.

The so-called 10-year anniversary of the crisis – the Boston Globe reported widespread abuse in Boston in 2002 – presented an opportunity for what Plante in an interview called reflection and discernment, and also a forum for critics of the institutional church response to assail the nation’s bishops.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

Father Michael J. McCarthy like to sleep naked with teenage boys who stayed over his beach house at the Jersey Shore. He also ran a travel business on the side, planning gay cruises to places like Thailand.

Prosecutors on Tuesday used documents from the secret archive files to tell Father McCarthy’s story to the jury in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case.

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington suggested that the church had turned a blind eye to Father McCarthy’s transgressions with teenage boys, as long as scandal could be avoided by transferring the priest to another parish. In September 1992, the cardinal promoted Father McCarthy to pastor of Epiphany of Our Lord Church in Norristown, despite a complaint of sex abuse.

It was the priest’s business venture that got him into trouble, the prosecutor said, especially after the cardinal found out that Father McCarthy was competing against a business owner who had just donated $25,000 to the archdiocese for Catholic Life 2000.

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UNITED STATES
KGO

(NEW YORK) — A prominent American priest in the Legion of Christ, a troubled Catholic order whose founder was denounced by the Vatican for sexual improprieties, has admitted having a sexual relationship with a woman and fathering her child.

Father Thomas Williams, who has appeared on CBS and NBC and was interviewed by ABC News for a 2010 report on the Legion, made the acknowledgement after an activist who had sought reform in the order contacted the Vatican with his suspicions.

“I am truly sorry to everyone who is hurt by this revelation,” said Williams in a statement. He said that he would be taking a year’s leave from his public duties “to reflect on my commitments as a priest.”

According to the National Catholic Reporter, the Legion has confirmed that seven other priests are now being investigated for the alleged abuse of minors. The Legion has more than 800 priests.

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APPLETON (WI)
Press-Gazette

Written by
Jessie Van Berkel
Gannett Wisconsin Media

APPLETON — Several priests who served in the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay during the Rev. John Feeney’s tenure testified Tuesday that allegations of sexual misconduct followed Feeney in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Troy and Todd Merryfield, two brothers who were sexually assaulted by Feeney in 1978 and are suing the diocese, called the priests as their first witnesses in the two-week trial at Outagamie County Circuit Court in Appleton.

The brothers filed the lawsuit in 2008, claiming the diocese and Bishop Aloysius Wycislo — who was bishop from 1968 to 1983 and is deceased — fraudulently kept parishioners in the dark about Feeney’s history of sexual molestation that led to the boys’ abuse.

Troy’s attorney, John Peterson, said evidence shows Feeney was a “known risk” to children when Wycislo placed Feeney at St. Nicholas Parish.

But the diocese’s attorney, Patrick Brennan, said risk is not enough. He said the Merryfields must prove the bishop knew Feeney was molesting others before their assaults occurred and fraudulently covered it up — and there isn’t evidence to back up that “outlandish claim.”

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UNITED STATES
Baptist Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) — He looked like the ideal youth minister — recommended by a friend of the pastor, personable, and leading a thriving ministry to teens at Wayside Baptist Church in Miami.

But looks were deceiving.

For months, he had been sexually abusing boys during sleepovers at his home. When the offense came to light, the church had its very existence jeopardized by a $6 million civil judgment in favor of the victims. Eventually the case was settled for an undisclosed amount, and Wayside determined to do everything it could to protect children in the future.

“Now we do criminal background checks on anyone who is volunteering, and they put glass in all the doors [of children’s and youth classrooms],” said Carrel Youmans, a longtime member at Wayside who taught youth when the abuse occurred in the 1970s.

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

By Lindsay Smith

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A Buddhist priest is accused of sexually assaulting and fathering a child with an underage girl during his time at Wat Dhammaram Temple in Stickney Township.

Camnong Bual Ubol, 61, was arrested Friday evening in Anchorage, Ala. and charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

In October of 2011, Cook County Sheriff’s police were contacted by Barbara Blaine, a member of the Survivor’s Network for those Abused by Priests, regarding a then 15-year-old girl who had allegedly been impregnated by Ubol.

The investigators quickly uncovered a paternity test that proved the baby had in fact been fathered by the priest, officials said. The paternity test had been completed in 2010, but had not been turned over to authorities until the investigation.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on May 15, 2012

Camnong Boa-Ubol, a Buddhist monk who raped a girl at a southwest-side monastery was arrested yesterday in Alaska. We’re grateful that this credibly accused child molester is in custody. It’s crucial that law enforcement aggressively pursue likely sex offenders who flee to other cities, states or countries.

We’re also grateful that this brave victim and her family are cooperating with police and prosecutors. Thanks to her constancy and willingness to move forward, a dangerous predator is off the streets and children across the country are safer. Throughout this ordeal, her courage has been unwavering.

It’s very hard for any victim who was assaulted by a cleric to trust officials. But it’s important that every single person who sees, suspects or suffers child sex crimes speaks up. That’s the best way to protect kids, expose wrongdoing, and start healing.

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ROME
Legionaries of Christ

Over the past few years, in several countries, the major superiors of the Legion of Christ have received some allegations of gravely immoral acts and more serious offenses (delicta graviora) committed by some Legionaries.

The Legion of Christ is firmly committed to receive and examine all accusations presented, reaching out to possible victims and always safeguarding the rights of all those involved.

When a territorial director or the general director receives an allegation of this nature, or when there are well-founded suspicions, the civil laws of the country are observed. If civil authorities allow it, a preliminary internal investigation is also carried out for each case (cf. canon 1717 §1). In the U.S., when an allegation involves a minor, the policies established by Praesidium, Inc., an independent accreditation entity, are followed.

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ROME
Legionaries of Christ

To all Legionaries and Regnum Christi consecrated members,

It is with sadness that I send you this note, especially at a time when we are experiencing renewed enthusiasm for our mission within the Church. The last thing I would wish is to add a fresh wound when older wounds may not have healed fully.

Nevertheless, it is my duty to inform you that Father Thomas Williams, LC, after consultation with his superiors, will undergo a period of reflection, prayer and atonement without public ministry, and has just issued the following statement:

“A number of years ago I had a relationship with a woman and fathered her child. I am deeply sorry for this grave transgression and have tried to make amends. My superiors and I have decided it would be best for me to take a year without active public ministry to reflect on the wrong I have done and my commitments as a priest. I am truly sorry to everyone who is hurt by this revelation, and I ask for your prayers as I seek guidance on how to make up for my errors.”

I know that this will be shocking news to you. In the wake of all that we have been through as a Movement in the past several years, it won’t surprise me if you are disappointed, angry or feel your trust shaken once again.

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VATICAN CITY
7 News (Australia)

Philip Pullella, Reuters
May 16, 2012,

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ Roman Catholic religious order suffered another major blow to its image on Tuesday when one of its most prominent members admitted to having fathered a child.

Father Thomas Williams said in a statement he was “truly sorry to everyone who is hurt by this revelation”.

Williams, the American author of more than a dozen books on spirituality and dean of moral theology at a papal university in Rome, often appeared on American television to explain Vatican affairs and Catholic teachings.

The Legionaries have been at the centre of controversy since 2009 when they admitted their charismatic Mexican founder, Father Marcial Maciel, had led a double life, secretly fathering children, using drugs and misusing donations.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bietigheimer Zeitung

Verhaltenskodex für Verbände, Kirchen und Institutionen in Arbeit

Im Kampf gegen den sexuellen Missbrauch Minderjähriger wird jetzt an einem Regelwerk gearbeitet. Es beinhaltet zahlreiche Verbote für Betreuer.

Ein Katalog von Verboten soll Verbänden, Institutionen und Kirchen helfen, den sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen zu bekämpfen. Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bundesregierung, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, handelt derzeit angeblich mit rund 20 Dachverbänden – darunter die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz, die Arbeiterwohlfahrt und der Arbeitskreis der Internate – einen solchen Verhaltenskodex aus.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
kathweb (Osterreich)

Washington, 15.05.2012 (KAP) Im Missbrauchprozess gegen die Erzdiözese Philadelphia hat ein Jurist den verstorbenen Kardinal Anthony Bevilacqua und zwei amtierende Bischöfe, die vor 20 Jahren in seinem Stab tätig waren, schwer belastet. Die heutigen Diözesanbischöfe hätten bei Ermittlungen 2004 geleugnet, vom Verbleib einer Liste mit angeblich pädophilen Priestern zu wissen, sagte der als Zeuge vernommene Anwalt Tim Coyne am Montag laut US-Medienberichten. Bevilacqua als früherer Erzbischof von Philadelphia habe auf entsprechende Fragen nicht geantwortet.

Die Liste mit 35 Namen katholischer Geistlicher, die des Missbrauchs beschuldigt wurden, war im Februar aufgetaucht. Der im Prozess angeklagte ehemalige Personalverantwortliche William Lynn, seinerzeit auch Sekretär des Erzbischofs, behauptet, das Verzeichnis der Verdächtigten 1994 nach einer Durchsicht der Personalakten angefertigt und seinen Vorgesetzten übermittelt zu haben. Bevilacqua habe angeordnet, das Dokument zu vernichten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
hr – online

Zahlreiche Berichte über sexuellen Missbrauch an Schulen oder unter dem Dach der Kirche haben die Öffentlichkeit erschüttert. Die Landesregierung hat nun ein Konzept vorgelegt, wie Kinder besser geschützt werden sollen.

Aktionsplan gegen den sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen vorzustellen: Innenminister Boris Rhein, Sozialminister Stefan Grüttner (beide CDU), Justizminister Jörg-Uwe Hahn und Kultusministerin Dorothea Henzler (beide FDP).

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DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

12.444 Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs an Kindern registrierte die Polizei im vergangenen Jahr. Das ist ein Anstieg von 4,9 Prozent. Die Dunkelziffer nicht gemeldeter Fälle dürfte noch höher sein. Von Martin Lutz

Die Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern haben laut der Polizeilichen Kriminalitätsstatistik (PKS) für das Jahr 2011, die “Welt Online” vorliegt, erneut zugenommen. Die Zahl erhöhte sich um 4,9 Prozent auf 12.444 von der Polizei erfasste Taten.

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KANASAS CITY (KS)
The Leaven

One of the responsibilities as Archbishop that I do not cherish having to deal with involves allegations of misconduct made against clergy, employees or volunteers of the archdiocese. Fortunately for this archdiocese, such allegations are very rare. However, in the past week I have had to remove a long-standing priest from active ministry while the archdiocese conducts an investigation into a recently received allegation of sexual misconduct. This form of administrative leave is standard practice when allegations of misconduct are made against a priest or deacon.

The Safe Environment Coordinator for the archdiocese recently received a report from a 45-year-old Kansas City, Kan., man who alleges that 30 years ago (1982) when he was 15 years old, he was inappropriately touched by a priest of the archdiocese, Father John Wisner. The man claims that the alleged misconduct took place while on a youth outing.

I have spoken with Father Wisner concerning the allegation and he acknowledges the time, location and circumstances surrounding the allegation; however, he denies that he engaged in any sexual misconduct. Father Wisner has been cooperating with the investigation. I have appointed a special auditor with law enforcement and investigative experience to investigate the allegation and, in accord with archdiocesan polices, local law enforcement has been contacted and the chairman of the Independent Review Board has been notified.

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NORTHAMPTON (MA)
The Republican

By Fred Contrada, The Republican

NORTHAMPTON — A group of parishioners from a discontinued Northampton church has filed suit against the city, attempting to invalidate a new ordinance that allows closed churches to be reused for commercial purposes.

The Committee to Preserve St. Mary of the Assumption Church, Inc. maintains that an ordinance passed by the City Council last month did not go through proper procedure and should be reversed. The ordinance cleared the way for some commercial use of churches in residential zones.

St. Mary’s was among several Northampton churches that were closed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in 2009 and consolidated into a single parish on King Street. The parishioners at St. Mary’s, however, have hired lawyers in Rome to plead their case for reopening the church to the Vatican.

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STICKNEY (IL)
WLS

May 15, 2012 (STICKNEY, Ill.) (WLS) — A Buddhist priest accused of fathering a child with a teenage girl while he lived and worked at a temple in suburban Stickney has been arrested in Alaska.

Camnong Bual Ubol was wanted for aggravated criminal sexual assault until his arrest on Friday. He was born in Thailand, but he is a U.S. citizen and had been a Buddhist priest in the United States since 1995, according to a press release issued Tuesday by the Cook County Sheriff’s office.

In October 2011, Barbara Blaine from SNAP (Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests) contacted police to investigate allegations that Ubol, 61, was responsible for fathering a child with a then 15-year-old during the time he worked at the Wat Dhammaram Temple in Stickney. The release states a 2010 paternity test shows Ubol fathered a child with the alleged victim.

Ubol’s last known address was the Wat Buddhavipassana Temple in Long Beach, California. But police say he had since been removed from the temple and it was determined he was residing in Anchorage, Alaska.

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ALASKA
CBS Chicago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CBS) — A Buddhist priest who once lived and worked in the southwest suburbs has been arrested on sexual assault charges.

Camnong Bual Ubol, 61 – whose name has also appeared as Camnong Boa-Ubol – was arrested on a warrant by Cook County Sheriff’s police, according to a Tuesday news release.

Ubol was working at the Wat Dhammaram Buddhist temple, at 7059 W. 75th St. in Stickney Township near Bedford Park, when he allegedly fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

In 1991, Msgr. William J. Lynn wrote a memo outlining his interview with a man who said he had been molested by the Rev. Michael McCarthy, a longtime teacher at Cardinal O’Hara.

But Lynn made a mistake, at least in the eyes of his boss at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Lynn had told the accuser that his was not the first complaint against McCarthy.

“Unnecessary statement,” the Rev. James E. Molloy, then the assistant vicar for administration scrawled in the margins of the memo. “Never admit to victims that there are other cases.”

Both sides highlighted the note Tuesday for jurors at Lynn’s landmark conspiracy and child-endangerment trial. A prosecutor pointed to it as a hallmark of the church’s attempt to minimize scandal and conceal clergy sex abuse. Lynn’s lawyer suggested it was proof of a strict chain of command that limited Lynn as he investigated abuse claims against priests.

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ROME
Catholic News Agency

By David Kerr

Rome, Italy, May 15, 2012 / 12:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Father Thomas Williams, one of the most high-profile American members of the Legion of Christ, is leaving public ministry after admitting he fathered a child.

“A number of years ago I had a relationship with a woman and fathered her child. I am deeply sorry for this grave transgression and have tried to make amends,” Fr. Williams said in a May 15 statement.

“My superiors and I have decided it would be best for me to take a year without active public ministry to reflect on the wrong I have done and my commitments as a priest. I am truly sorry to everyone who is hurt by this revelation, and I ask for your prayers as I seek guidance on how to make up for my errors.”

He also apologized to members of the Legion and the Church, “since this scandalous news will damage them as well, at the worst possible moment.”

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UNITED STATES
College Times

By Carlos Sadovi, Chicago Tribune

Published: Tuesday, May 15, 2012

CHICAGO — A former Buddhist priest from Stickney Township, Ill., was arrested in Alaska after officials issued an arrest warrant charging the man with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, Cook County Sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.

Camnong Bual Ubol, 61, had previously lived and worked at Wat Dhammaram Temple in the west suburb, according to a press release issued by Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart.

In October, representatives from the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) contacted sheriff’s police officers to investigate claims that Ubol had fathered a child with the girl while he worked and lived at the temple, Dart said.

After the allegations surfaced, police launched an investigation that determined that, based on a 2010 paternity test, he had fathered the child with the teen. But the investigation results had not been turned over to authorities at the time, officials said, and when police were contacted, they could not locate Ubol, whose whereabouts were unknown, police said.

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VATICAN CITY
Newser

By NICOLE WINFIELD | Associated Press

The Legion of Christ religious order was hit Tuesday by its second scandal in a week after its most well-known priest _ a prominent author, lecturer and television personality _ admitted he had fathered a child.

The Rev. Thomas Williams, an American moral theologian, said in a statement he was “deeply sorry for this grave transgression” against his vows of celibacy and that he would be taking a year off to reflect on what he had done and his commitment to the priesthood.

The statement was issued after The Associated Press presented the Legion with the allegation against Williams, which was lodged by a Spanish association of Legion victims. The association’s accusations, sent to the Legion and Vatican several weeks ago, also named other Legion priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Williams, who was not accused of abuse, said that “a number of years ago” he had a relationship with a woman and fathered her child. He didn’t identify the mother and didn’t say whether the relationship was over. He also did not identify the gender of the child nor say if he was involved in supporting the child.

The Legion has been beset by scandal following revelations that its late founder, the Rev. Marciel Maciel, fathered three children and sexually abused his seminarians. Maciel died in 2008 and in 2009 the Legion admitted to his crimes.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

Legion of Christ hit by second scandal in a week, prominent priest admits he fathered a child

By Associated Press,

VATICAN CITY — Legion of Christ hit by second scandal in a week, prominent priest admits he fathered a child.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
San Antonio Express-News

MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

Updated 12:33 p.m., Tuesday, May 15, 2012

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Documents from a clergy-abuse trial show Catholic church officials ignored complaints a Philadelphia priest had molested two boys until they heard he was running a travel agency — and competing with a big donor.

The documents involving defrocked priest Michael McCarthy come as the prosecution details how the archdiocese handled abuse complaints against about 20 priests. They were never charged with crimes because authorities didn’t know about the complaints for years.

Monsignor William Lynn is on trial, charged with helping the church hide abuse complaints as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. Lynn has pleaded not guilty.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on May 15, 2012

A lawyer for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia testified yesterday that he was lied to about child sex abuse when he questioned aides to former Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. One of those aides was Rev. Joseph Cistone, who today is the Bishop of Saginaw.

This disturbing testimony unfortunately comes as no surprise. Catholic Church officials have had a long and sordid history of promoting those who protect abusers instead of kids. Time and time again we see the upper levels of the church hierarchy taking steps to cover-up abuse, avoid scandal, and move predators around. Later, their subterfuge is often rewarded with a miter and more power in a new city.

This cycle must end. For the protection of kids, the church must reverse course and instruct bishops, monsignors and others to immediately turn any suspicions of abuse over the police, not to destroy evidence and move predators around. Only when the secular and independent authorities are allowed to take the lead in abuse investigations will children be safe. We hope that every Catholic prelate across the country, starting with Cistone, will begin to honor their decade-old promise to be open and honest about child-sex crimes.

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INDIA
UCAN India

By Rita Joseph
New Delhi:
A Delhi court hearing the extradition case of former priest Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, charged with sexual assault of a minor in the United States, adjourned the case until May 18.

No hearing took place as Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Bansal in whose court the trial is taking place was on leave Friday.

Jeyapaul is accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl in 2004 when he was parish priest of Blessed Sacrament Church in Minnesota, U.S.

The 57-year-old former clergyman, who was suspended by Ootacamund diocese following a canonical trial, has repeatedly denied the charges.

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UNITED STATES/INDIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on May 15, 2012

An India court has postponed the extradition trial of a priest who abused a girl in Minnesota and then fled back to his native India. The trial is set for later this month.

The priest, Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul, abused a girl from the Diocese of Crookston who had approached him for advice on becoming a nun. He faces criminal charges in Minnesota, and SNAP is urging secular and church officials to do what they can to prevent further delays in this trial.

It is very rare that a victim of clergy abuse is able to see her abuser face criminal charges in a court of law, and so SNAP is hoping that all officials involved in this case, both in India and in America, will do everything in their power to see a quick resolution and justice served.

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NEW YORK
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

By Phil Vinter

A campaign to raise funds for a rabbi who has been charged with sexually abusing a teenage girl has sparked anger from the victim’s family.

Posters promoting a fundraising event at Continental Caterers restaurant in Williamsburg for alleged child abuser Nechemya Weberman were put up at shopping areas in the city on Monday.

Written in a mix of Hebrew and Yiddish the signs show support for the Jewish clerical figure who has been charged with molesting a 12-year-old girl over a period of three years between 2007 and 2010.

Weberman pleaded innocent to the charges in February and the case is now going through the court process.

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NEW YORK
The New York Daily News

Yiddish posters up in Williamsburg asking for cash for accused child molester angering victim’s family

By Simone Weichselbaum / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Posters promoting an upcoming fund-raiser for a rabbi charged with sexually abusing a teenage girl blanketed Jewish shopping strips in Williamsburg Monday – sparking a campaign protesting the charity bash.

Signs supporting Nechemya Weberman, 53, – written in Hebrew and Yiddish mix – promote a Wednesday gathering at the Continental Caterers dining hall at 75 Rutledge Street.

Cops busted Weberman in February 2011 after a 16-year-old girl reported he was her therapist and had forced her during counseling session to perform oral sex and other lewd acts starting when she was 12-years-old.

“It is very painful,” said the victim’s mother about the street ads up on poles on Bedford and Lee Avenues. “The community has taken his side.”

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APPLETON (WI)
Fox 11

Chad Doran, FOX 11 News

APPLETON – The fraud case brought against the Green Bay Diocese by two brothers molested by a former priest is underway in Outagamie County Court.

Troy and Todd Merryfield sued the diocese in civil court in 2008. The brothers accuse the diocese of fraud for not reporting to parishioners at St. Nicholas Parish in Freedom that former priest John Feeney had a history of sexual abuse before he was assigned to the church.

Before opening arguments in the case began this morning, defense attorney Pat Brennan made a motion to have witnesses sequestered. Judge Nancy Krueger approved that motion.

Monday a jury of 12 and three alternates was selected after about six hours of jury selection. Testimony in the trial is expected to begin by this afternoon.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

By PATRICIA BROOKS ARENBURG Staff Reporter

Their cases are far from over, but seeing former Roman Catholic priest Albert LeBlanc plead guilty to sexual abuse is an important step for some of his victims.

“It means a big deal to the men because it shows he acknowledged what he does,” lawyer Aaron Lealess said.

“There shouldn’t be any doubt in anyone’s mind that he was an abuser and he did commit those crimes.”

Lealess, an Ontario lawyer representing four of the victims in civil cases against LeBlanc, spoke to the men shortly after Monday’s proceedings.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

May. 15, 2012
By John L Allen Jr

A high-profile American priest in the Legionaries of Christ has acknowledged having had a sexual relationship with a woman and fathering her child, adding another chapter to the growing scandals surrounding the controversial religious order.

Fr. Thomas Williams, known for his work as a TV commentator and popular spiritual writer and speaker, issued a statement today confirming he had fathered a child with a woman “a number of years ago,” and said that he and the superiors of the order have decided that he will take a year off without any public ministry “to reflect on my commitments as a priest.”

“I am truly sorry to everyone who is hurt by this revelation,” Williams said in the statement.

Out of what he described as “respect for the privacy of the woman and her child,” Williams declined to identify the woman or provide other details. He confirmed, however, that the relationship had occurred while he was already a priest and a member of the Legionaries.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

May 15, 2012 by Susan Matthews

[court document]

The Commonwealth’s response to Msgr. Lynn’s motion to dismiss is available online. Please give special attention to Exhibit 3, which speaks to the archdiocesan effort to protect the secret archives from discovery.

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NEW YORK
The Atlantic Wire

Adam Martin
May 10, 2012

It’s always fascinating to get a look inside insular communities like New York’s ultra-Orthodox Jews, but glimpse provided by The New York Times’ Sharon Otterman and Ray Rivera Thursday is quite disturbing since it’s about how child sexual abuse often goes unpunished. The money quote comes after the first few paragraphs of introduction: “There is no nice way of saying it,” one grandmother who reported an abuser told The Times. “Our community protects molesters. Other than that, we are wonderful.” Shudder.

The thing is, this is only a story because the community’s so insular and the reporting so spare, and most people outside the ultra-Orthodox world know little to nothing about it. It’s not like there’s more abuse among the ultra-Orthodox, according to Otterman and Rivera: “Scholars believe that abuse rates in the ultra-Orthodox world are roughly the same as those in the general population, but for generations, most ultra-Orthodox abuse victims kept silent, fearful of being stigmatized in a culture where the genders are strictly separated and discussion of sex is taboo.” There’s also a stigma against turning over fellow Jews to non-Jewish authorities, as well as simple community pride and the desire to avoid stigmatization.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

Pádraig McCarthy

People in positions of responsibility in business and banking and construction and politics, whose decisions and actions contributed directly to the current economic difficulties in Ireland and elsewhere, had no intention of bringing about those difficulties, or of destroying their own businesses. They were carrying out their work and making money. Some may have had misgivings at times, or even moral qualms, but they went ahead; now we have the consequences. Unintended consequences may result from someone driving home following several alcoholic drinks. And from bishops and others who were concerned for the reputation of the church and of their priests. And from investigative journalists who go for a good story. All can be blinded by too narrow a focus on their own speciality, and in the process may wreak havoc. If we fail to consider the consequences of our actions, we are on dangerous ground.

I am seriously concerned at what may be unintended damaging consequences of the ways media have reported on child sexual abuse in Ireland. Those same media have been remarkably effective in bringing to light terrible violations of vulnerable people, both in the abuse and in the way those in authority failed when confronted with that abuse. Without taking from that, we need to examine other consequences. RTÉ, the National Service broadcaster, is currently undergoing investigation in relation to Prime Time Investigates and Frontline programmes.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

[with audio]

CHICAGO (CBS) — The Chicago Catholic Archdiocese is facing another priest sex abuse lawsuit, involving a now-dead priest who allegedly molested a boy nearly 30 years ago.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Bob Conway reports, plaintiff Martin Yanick, now 40, alleges that the late Rev. John Jordan began molesting him back in December 1983, when he was an 11-year-old altar boy at St. Adrian Parish, at 7000 S. Fairfield Ave. near Marquette Park.

The lawsuit claims that as Jordan molested Yanick, he told the boy his actions would “cleanse” him of his “sins and mistakes as an altar boy.”

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NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

Wij willen iedereen via dit blog meedelen dat wij intensief werken aan een nieuw plan, idee om alle misdaad draadjes met elkaar te verbinden. Het licht zal schijnen. Wij kunnen niet iedereen beantwoorden of met kant en klare oplossingen komen wanneer sommige van jullie terecht met voorstellen of visies komen die nog niet direct kunnen worden omgezet in daden. Maar in daden zullen ze worden omgezet.

Dan blijken veel mensen ‘zich af te keren’ van de strijd om recht en rechtvaardigheid. Wederom terecht wanneer je beseft hoe zwaar en lang deze weg doorgaat. We hebben mollen gekend, sites zijn gekraakt, onze woorden worden verdraaid en onze bedoelingen als verdort hout vertrapt. OvJ’s latent aan het werk gezet, en een civiele procedure gestart die geen erkenning vond. We hebben de Magdalena Manifestatie voorgesteld en geen solidariteit ondervonden; we hebben het geweld nooit van de agenda gehaald maar nog steeds zijn er krachten die dit thema blokkeren. Ja, er was een ruime meerderheid voor een parlementair onderzoek en opeens is het weg, wordt het zonder discussie, zonder protest ook, weggeschoven. Mea Culpa alleen bleef doorgaan en een parlementair onderzoek eisen, er is in principe een meerderheid voor nu de PVV zich ook niet meer aan het regeerakkoord of de sfeer binnen de coalitie clean hoeft te verschonen. Een ruime meerderheid, maar waarom komt die niet tot stand? Politici hunkeren naar succes en het zomerreces.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Bourne Local

A Roman Catholic priest from the Wirral has appeared in court on child sex charges.

Father Peter James Hooper, 54, has been charged with three counts of sexual activity with a child.

Hooper, from Merseyside, is a priest at St Luke The Physician Church, in Bebington.

A Merseyside Police spokesman said: “The 54-year-old from Church Road, Bebington, was charged on Tuesday May 8 and appeared in Wirral Magistrates’ Court in Birkenhead on May 9.

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CALIFORNIA
Redlands Daily Facts

Staff Reports
sbsun.com
Posted: 05/14/2012

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – An Ontario priest on Monday denied he violated his probation terms after attending a gathering in his honor in which children were present.

The Rev. Alejandro Castillo, who was found guilty of molesting a 12-year-old boy at his parish and released early from jail on April 21, was back in custody last week for violating the terms of his probation after attending the party, authorities said.

Castillo, who ministered at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Ontario and previously was in Rialto, will have a violation of parole hearing on May 23.

The priest, who was arrested Wednesday by probation authorities, will stay in custody until the hearing.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Naomi Nix
Tribune reporter

A 40-year-old man has filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Chicago alleging a priest sexually abused him multiple times between 1983 and 1984 while he was an altar boy.

In December of 1983, the plaintiff was ordered to a church rectory at night to complete a writing assignment as punishment for his alleged mistakes as an altar boy, when a priest allegedly asked him to pull down his pants, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges the priest told the boy to comply with his demands or he would tell his parents of the activity. The priest struck the 11-year-old boy with a wooden paddle and then inappropriately touched his genitals, the lawsuit alleges.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wirral News

May 15 2012 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Echo

A MERSEYSIDE priest has been charged with having sex with an underage teenage boy.

Father Peter Hooper from St Luke’s in Bebington, Wirral, appeared in court facing three charges of sexual activity with a child.

All three offences are alleged to have taken place at the St Luke the Physician diocese house in Church Road, Bebington, where regular masses are held in a small chapel.

The charges date back over an 11-month period starting in June last year, when the alleged victim was aged 14, and up to the start of this month.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

A man claims a now-deceased priest molested him when he was an 11-year-old altar boy at a Southwest Side parish.

The man claims in his suit Monday against the Archdiocese of Chicago that the Rev. John Jordan began molesting him at St. Adrian Parish’s rectory in December 1983 and told him his actions would “cleanse” him of his “sins and mistakes as an altar boy.”

The suit claims Jordan would spank the boy with a paddle while forcing him to pray before performing sex acts.

The suit also claims the boy was molested through 1984 until his family moved to Wisconsin. Jordan died three years later.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wirral Globe

A WIRRAL priest has been charged with sexual offences against a teenage boy.

Peter Hooper, of Church Road, Bebington, appeared at Wirral Magistrates, charged with three counts of sexual activity with a child.

The 54-year-old, who is a priest at St Luke’s in Bebington, faced the Wirral bench on May 9 and is due back in court on May 23.

A police spokesman confirmed that he was remanded in custody until his next appearance.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A Roman Catholic priest in Wirral has been charged with having sex with a teenage boy.

Father Peter Hooper, 54, of St Luke The Physician Church, in Bebington, was remanded in custody after a hearing at Wirral Magistrates Court on 9 May.

He will next appear at Liverpool Crown Court.

Merseyside Police said it “can confirm that Peter James Hooper has been charged with three counts of sexual activity with a child”.

A spokeswoman for Shrewsbury Diocese also confirmed that one of its priests had been charged in connection with offences against a minor.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

May 15, 2012 by Susan Matthews

A reader just pointed out discrepancies in data released by the Archdiocese regarding Msgr. Francis Feret. I got a strong whiff of public relations spin. Feret is identified as as priest “found unsuitable for ministry” because of “boundary violations.” However, immediately after the announcement, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article referencing an interview with the lawyer who represented a man who was anally and orally raped. If his abuse was unsubstantiated and some other offense a substantiated boundary violation, shouldn’t we have been told that?

The reader asked, “Are they just saying “Boundary Violation” to minimize the outcry?

Short answer? In my opinion, yes. During his press conference, Archbishop Chaput declined to discuss specifics in regard to individual priests. Also, it is my understanding from a source that at least one of the five priests removed from ministry for boundary violations is still under investigation by the District Attorney’s office for more serious offenses.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

By RUTH EGLASH

05/15/2012

Course launched recently to train haredi counselors to work with sexually abused kids shows openness to once taboo issue.
Photo: Marc Israel Sellem

A course launched last month to train haredi (ultra- Orthodox) male counselors how to work with sexually abused children in their community indicates a new willingness to address an issue that was once considered taboo.

The course, which is being run by the Jerusalem-based Haruv Institute for some 20 male social workers, therapists and psychologists from the haredi world, teaches participants how to work with ultra- Orthodox children who struggle to speak out about what has happened to them because of the Jewish tenet of lashon hara (the prohibition against speaking badly about others), unconditional respect for their elders and lack of appropriate vocabulary.

“The whole approach to this is different for haredim than for secular people,” said Tali Shlomi, director of Knowledge, Technology and Resources at Haruv, which was established four years ago to provide professionals with the training and tools to deal with sexual abuse and neglect.

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