ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

NY priest apologizes for saying priests seduced by kids, 1st offense shouldn’t mean jail time

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, August 30, 7:55 PM

NEW YORK — A New York priest has apologized after coming under criticism from church officials and advocates of sex abuse victims for saying that priests accused of child sex abuse are often seduced by their accusers and that a first-time offender should not go to jail.

The Rev. Benedict Groeschel of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal made the comments in an interview with the National Catholic Register published this week. The website for the conservative independent Register then removed the story and posted an apology for publishing the comments. Groeschel and the friars did as well.

Asked about working with priests involved in abuse, Groeschel said, “Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.” …

Editor in Chief Jeanette De Melo posted a note apologizing for “publishing without clarification or challenge Father Benedict Groeschel’s comments that seem to suggest that the child is somehow responsible for abuse. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our publication of that comment was an editorial mistake, for which we sincerely apologize.”

Groeschel also posted an apology to the site. “I did not intend to blame the victim. A priest (or anyone else) who abuses a minor is always wrong and is always responsible. My mind and my way of expressing myself are not as clear as they used to be. I have spent my life trying to help others the best that I could. I deeply regret any harm I have caused to anyone,” he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

[interim report]

David Batty
The Guardian, Thursday 30 August 2012

An inquiry into child sex abuse by Church of England clergy in Chichester has found many children suffered “abiding hurt and damage” because local safeguarding measures had fallen “woefully short” for two decades.

The inquiry by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office concluded that the West Sussex diocese has “an appalling history” of child protection failures, with “fresh and disturbing” allegations continuing to emerge.

Lambeth Palace will now oversee clergy appointments and the protection of children and vulnerable adults in the diocese amid concerns that safeguarding procedures remain “dysfunctional”.

The archbishop, Rowan Williams, who set up the investigation, said the interim report “confirms that there have been many and longstanding failures in implementing a robust and credible safeguarding policy in the diocese of Chichester”.

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UNITED STATES
Metro

CASSANDRA GARRISON

NEW YORK

A Franciscan friar in Westchester, N.Y., apologized Thursday for shocking comments he made to a Catholic newsletter, where he appeared to defend not only child sex abuse, but also disgraced former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky.

In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Benedict Groeschel, 78, said boys without fathers are often the ones to approach their abusers.

“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer,” Groeschel, who is part of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said.

“It’s not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing,” he added.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Michael Clifford

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Cardinal Brady has no right to lecture anyone on the morals of abortion when, back in the 1970s, his ineptitude failed to protect children from clerical sex abuse, argues Michael Clifford

THERE are times when irony descends into farce. On Sunday, Cardinal Seán Brady was interviewed on RTÉ radio’s current affairs programme, This Week. He was on the phone, which was a strange way for the Primate of All Ireland to address the nation in this day and age. His chosen subject was abortion, a good choice for a hierarchy reeling from scandals. But what amazed was the sheer neck he displayed in lecturing on morals.

The cardinal referred more than once to “respect for all human life”. He described the Supreme Court judgement in the X case as “flawed”, as if he knew better than the judges appointed to administer the law in a republic. And he made a point of referencing the welfare of small children, in relation to the forum from where he threw himself into the abortion issue on Friday.

Coming from another member of the hierarchy, these issues would be regarded as standard fare. But the cardinal is a man who has practically no moral authority in light of what has emerged about his role in covering up clerical sex abuse.

Earlier this year, it emerged that he was one member of a team of clerics that in 1975 interviewed a 15-year-old Brendan Boland about the activities of paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth. The boy told the panel of others who had been abused by Smyth, yet he was sworn to secrecy about the process, and Smyth kept on abusing. The report was passed up to the hierarchy, and the 35-year-old Fr Brady, as he was then, washed his hands of it.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on remarks made by Father Benedict Groeschel in the National Catholic Register regarding the sexual abuse of minors:

A quarter century ago, Father Groeschel and seven other priests broke away from a religious community to found the Franciscan Friars of Renewal. His service to the Church over the past half-century has been nothing less than heroic. His ministry to the least among us is especially noteworthy.

Father Groeschel holds a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University, and has put his training to work by counseling some of the most mentally and socially challenged people in our society. In addition, for the past four decades he has been screening men for the priesthood, weeding out those who should not be ordained. His record is impressive.

In a recent interview, he hypothesized how a young person (14, 16 or 18, as he put it) could conceivably take advantage of a priest who was having a nervous breakdown. He also referred to Jerry Sandusky, the disgraced Penn State football coach, as “this poor guy.” For these remarks, and related comments, he is now being labeled as a defender of child abuse.

The accusation is scurrilous. In the same interview, Groeschel emphatically said that priests who are sexual abusers “have to leave.” His reference to Sandusky was exactly the way a priest-psychologist might be expected to speak: “poor guy” conveys sympathy for his maladies—it is not a defense of his behavior! Indeed, Groeschel asked, “Why didn’t anyone say anything?”

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BEL AIR (MD)
Baltimore Sun

BY KAYLA BAWROSKI, kabawroski@theaegis.com

August 30, 2012

A Bel Air youth pastor was terminated from his position after being charged with the sexual abuse of a minor.

Walter Harrison Yocum, 35, of the 3200 block of Ady Road in Street, was charged Aug. 23 with third- and fourth-degree sexual offense, sexual abuse of a minor and second-degree assault.

The incident dates to a week in mid-July, during Vacation Bible School at Calvary Baptist Church in Bel Air, where Yocum is a youth pastor, according to charging documents.

On Aug. 21, a 16-year-old girl came to the Child Advocacy Center and in a forensic interview, told interviewers she was approached by Yocum at VBS earlier this summer, according to charging documents.

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OHIO
Sacramento Bee

By JOHN SEEWER
Associated Press

CLEVELAND — An Amish bishop accused of orchestrating hair-cutting attacks in Ohio coerced women at his settlement into having sex with him so he could turn them into better wives, one of the women testified Thursday.

The woman said what started out as hugs turned into kisses and then sex. She said she resisted at first.

“He would say things like, ‘I can’t understand why you won’t obey me, the other ladies can,'” the woman testified. “I always gave up. I was afraid not to.”

Prosecutors say the alleged sexual “counseling” of married women shows the control Samuel Mullet Sr. had over followers at the Amish settlement he founded two decades ago. The 16 people accused of carrying out the hair-cutting attacks last fall all lived on Mullet’s settlement in eastern Ohio near the West Virginia panhandle.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By JUDY THOMAS and MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

When confronted by the diocese’s computer director about her concerns over lewd images found on a priest’s laptop, Bishop Robert Finn replied that, “Sometimes priests do things they shouldn’t,” court papers filed Thursday alleged.

“Sometimes, boys will be boys,” the bishop is purported to have said, court records show.

Julie Creech, the director of management and information systems for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, described her meeting with the bishop during an Aug. 17 deposition in a Jackson County civil case. According to that lawsuit, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan abused a 9-year-old girl months after the diocese learned of the photos on his computer.

Finn and the diocese are scheduled for a criminal trial starting Sept. 24 on misdemeanor counts of failing to report Ratigan’s suspected abuse of children. Ratigan is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in federal court earlier this month to producing and attempting to produce child pornography.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Sacramento Bee

The Associated Press

Published: Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An employee of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph says the bishop commented that “boys will be boys” when he was told about lewd images of children on a priest’s laptop computer.

The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/OCj2rF) reports that diocese computer director Julie Creech described her conversation with Bishop Robert Finn during an Aug. 17 deposition. A partial transcript of the deposition was filed Thursday in a civil lawsuit in Jackson County Circuit Court.

That lawsuit alleges the Rev. Shawn Ratigan abused a 9-year-old girl months after the diocese learned of the photos on his computer.

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NAPERVILLE (IL)
Daily Herald

By Lee Filas.

A Naperville priest has been suspended by the Joliet Diocese following allegations he sexually abused a child more than 25 years ago.

Rev. James Nowak, 75, who served as pastor at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church from 2002 to 2007, was placed on temporary administrative leave. He is not permitted to celebrate public Mass or administer sacraments, said diocese spokesman Doug Delaney.

Nowak is retired, and is listed as member of the board of directors at Montini High School in Lombard, according to the school’s website.

It’s unknown where Novak was working at the time of the alleged abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Coastal Times

JOANNE MCCARTHY

31 Aug, 2012 03

HE was the ”right-hand man” of a bishop, and a one-time acting bishop himself, but priest Tom Brennan has become the first Australian Catholic priest charged with concealing the alleged child sex crimes of another.

Father Brennan, 74, was arrested and charged yesterday with two counts of misprision of a felony – failing to disclose a serious crime – relating to alleged child sex offences by defrocked priest John Denham against two boys in the late 1970s.

The offences allegedly occurred at St Pius X, in the Newcastle suburb of Adamstown, where Father Denham was a teacher and Father Brennan was school principal.

Strike Force Georgiana’s Detective Sergeant Kristi Faber also charged Father Brennan with eight counts of sexually assaulting a boy, 8, at a Waratah church in 1984 and 1985, and two counts of assault.

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UNITED STATES
The Christian Century

Aug 30, 2012 by David Gibson and Daniel Burke

c. 2012 Religion News Service NEW YORK (RNS) The Rev. Benedict Groeschel, a prominent author and speaker who is especially popular with conservative Catholics and bishops, has sparked outrage by saying that priests who sexually abuse children “on their first offense” should not go to jail.

He added that in “a lot of cases,” the child is “the seducer.”

The New York-based Franciscan also expressed sympathy for Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach who was convicted in June of 45 counts of child sexual abuse in a scandal that rocked college football and dominated the news much as the clergy crisis has.

Groeschel’s comments, in an interview published Tuesday (Aug. 28) by the National Catholic Register, spread like wildfire around the Internet after they were reported by Religion News Service, and they prompted comparisons to Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin’s controversial remarks about “legitimate rape” and abortion.

They also threatened to raise more questions about the hierarchy’s response to the abuse scandal even as the bishops have been hoping to turn the corner on a decades-long scandal that has cost billions in settlements and damaged the church’s moral standing.

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NEW YORK
ABC News

NEW YORK August 31, 2012 (AP)

A New York priest is apologizing following criticism he’s receiving for saying that priests accused of child sex abuse are often seduced by their accusers and that a first-time offender shouldn’t go to jail.

The Rev. Benedict Groeschel of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal made the comments in an interview with the National Catholic Register published this week. The website then removed the story and posted an apology for publishing the comments.

Groeschel also apologized, saying he did not intend to blame victims, and that he regrets any harm he caused to anyone.

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

UNITED STATES
The Jerusalem Post

By REUTERS

08/31/2012

NEW YORK – A Roman Catholic priest in New York expressed sympathy this week for some clergy who sexually abuse children, as well as for convicted child rapist Jerry Sandusky, saying that it is often the “youngster” who is the seducer.

The remarks by the Rev. Benedict Groeschel, 79, co-founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in Westchester County outside New York City, drew strong criticism from the Archdiocese of New York and the support group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster – 14, 16, 18 – is the seducer,” Groeschel said when asked by an interviewer from the National Catholic Register, the nation’s oldest Catholic newspaper, about his work with priests who abuse children.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Timothy McDonald

The survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have renewed their call for a Royal Commission after the police in Newcastle charged a former priest with covering up abuse.

Retired Newcastle Catholic priest, Thomas Brennan, has been accused of sexually assaulting a child in the 1980s, and charged with failing to report sexual abuse by defrocked priest John Sidney Denham in the 1970s.

It is believed to be the first time a priest has been charged over an alleged cover-up, and survivors and advocates are hopeful that it might set a precedent.

Bob O’Toole is from the Clergy Abused Network, which helps victims in the Hunter Region.

“I think it’s a good thing,” he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Archbishop of Canterbury apologises after Church report accuses clergy of failing to protect children from 20 years of abuse at ancient diocese

By Steve Doughty

A savage Church of England report today accused the clergy in an ancient diocese of a ‘disastrous’ failure to protect children from abuse by paedophile priests.

The investigation carried out for the Archbishop of Canterbury said that many lives had been blighted, and a string of court cases was just the tip of the iceberg of corruption in the Diocese of Chichester.

It followed deepening concerns after one vicar was jailed for five years for sexually abusing two boys and another parish priest died without being charged with any offence after abusing at least 10 boys.

Three retired priests in the diocese are currently facing charges of sexual offences against children.

The‘interim’ report of the inquiry – known in ecclesiastical terms as a visitation – comes more than a year after an initial inquiry by retired judge Baroness Butler-Sloss and has itself taken eight months to produce.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on August 30, 2012

The question raised by the Fr. Benedict Groeschel controversy is simple: why is Cardinal Dolan – and every other US Catholic official – silent? This week, Groeschel, a prominent New York-based priest and founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal said teens act as “seducers” in sex abuse cases against clergy.

But the real issue isn’t that Groeschel makes such hurtful, stupid and Todd Akin-like remarks. (Many Catholic officials have thought and said much the same. We suspect many still do right now.)

The real issue is “Why do priests who make callous, mean-spirited comments that hurt the already-wounded never suffer any consequences?” The real issue is “Why are there not hundreds of Catholic officials publicly denouncing Fr. Groeschel, especially Cardinal Timothy Dolan, whose archdiocese employs or employed him and in whose archdiocese he lives and works?”

Can you even think of one instance, over the past 25 years, in which even one bishop or other top church staffer disciplined or denounced even one church employee for making even one ignorant, hurtful statement?

It doesn’t happen. And that’s why priests like Fr. Groeschel continue to rub salt in the already-deep and still-fresh wounds of thousands of suffering child sex abuse victims and their loved ones.

But it should happen. So today we are calling on two prominent Catholic officials to discipline Groeschel.

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NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York

This is the statement from Joseph Zwilling, Communications Director for the Archdiocese of New York, in reaction to comments attributed to Fr. Benedict Groeschel in a recent interview with the National Catholic Register.

“The comments made by Father Benedict Groeschel that appeared on the website of the National Catholic Register are simply wrong. Although he is not a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, what Father Groeschel said cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged. The sexual abuse of a minor is a crime, and whoever commits that crime deserves to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The harm that was done by these remarks was compounded by the assertion that the victim of abuse is responsible for the abuse, or somehow caused the abuse to occur. This is not only terribly wrong, it is also extremely painful for victims. To all those who are hurting because of sexual abuse or because of these comments, please know that you have our profound sympathy and our prayers.

The Archdiocese of New York completely disassociates itself from these comments. They do not reflect our beliefs or our practice.”

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NEW YORK
NBC New York

A well-known New York priest is coming under criticism for saying that priests accused of child sex abuse are often seduced by their accusers and that a first-time offender should not go to jail.

The Rev. Benedict Groeschel of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal made the comments in an interview with the National Catholic Register this week. The interview has since been removed from the news source’s website and the outlet did not return a call seeking comment.

The Archdiocese of New York repudiated the comments in a statement posted on its website, calling them “simply wrong.”

Groeschel is not a priest with the Archdiocese but has worked with it in the past. He did not return messages seeking comment.

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UNITED STATES
ABC News

[with video]

By COLLEEN CURRY

Aug. 30, 2012

A well-known Catholic priest who hosts a weekly religious television show said in an interview this week that child sex abusers are often seduced by teenage boys and should not go to jail on a first offense.

The Rev. Benedict Groeschel, 79, who hosts a weekly show on Catholic television network EWTN, made the comments in an interview with the National Catholic Register. He also referred to convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky as a “poor guy.”

“People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to – a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer,” Groeschel is quoted as saying in the interview, which is no longer available on the paper’s website.

The interview, billed as a reflection on the 25 years since Groeschel founded the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal order, covered many topics, but has gained attention for Groeschel’s comments on child sex abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Gothamist

A prominent NY friar has come to the defense of priests who have been caught in sex scandals with underage boys, claiming that oftentimes, the priests are “seduced” by teens. Father Benedict Groeschel of the conservative Franciscan Friars of the Renewal made his comments in an interview with the National Catholic Register. As if claiming teens seduce pedophiles wasn’t a disgusting enough sentiment, Groeschel also expressed sympathy for Jerry Sandusky, calling him a “poor guy.”

“People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to—a psychopath,” Groeschel told them when asked about his work with sexual abuse perpetrators. “But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster—14, 16, 18—is the seducer.” He continued, arguing that those kids are looking for father figures: “It’s not so hard to see—a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own—and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing.”

The friar, who is based in Westchester but does outreach in the Bronx and Brooklyn, doesn’t think priests should go to jail if they are caught for the first time having a sexual relationship with a child: “I’m inclined to think, on their first offense, they should not go to jail because their intention was not committing a crime.” He argued that there is a precedent for that attitude toward priests abusing children: “Until recent years, people did not register in their minds that it was a crime. It was a moral failure, scandalous; but they didn’t think of it in terms of legal things. If you go back 10 or 15 years ago with different sexual difficulties—except for rape or violence—it was very rarely brought as a civil crime.”

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UNITED STATES
Sun News

QMI AGENCY

A well-known Catholic priest called convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky a “poor guy” and says clergymen in a lot of cases are seduced by children.

Father Benedict Groeschel, 79, told the National Catholic Register boys without father figures are often the ones who initiate sexual relationships with abusers.

“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer,” said Groeschel, the host of a weekly show called Sunday Night Prime.

“Well, it’s not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping but not having intercourse or anything like that.”

The New York-based clergyman with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal went on to say he doesn’t think child sex abusers should be tried on their first offence.

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

UNITED STATES
Gawker

Max Read

Father Benedict Groeschel, a prominent friar, television host, and director of the Office for Spiritual Development for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, gave an interview to the National Catholic Reporter this week. It’s been taken down — why? Probably because Groeschel claimed that “in a lot of cases” of abuse, “the youngster… is the seducer.” And expressed sympathy with Jerry Sandusky.

Renew America’s Matt C. Abbott grabbed the interview before it was taken down:

[Interviewer]: Part of your work here at Trinity has been working with priests involved in abuse, no?

[Father Groeschel]: A little bit, yes; but you know, in those cases, they have to leave. And some of them profoundly — profoundly — penitential, horrified. People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.

[Interviewer]: Why would that be?

[Father Greoschel]: Well, it’s not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping but not having intercourse or anything like that.

It’s an understandable thing, and you know where you find it, among other clergy or important people; you look at teachers, attorneys, judges, social workers. Generally, if they get involved, it’s heterosexually, and if it’s a priest, he leaves and gets married — that’s the usual thing — and gets a dispensation. A lot of priests leave quickly, get civilly married and then apply for the dispensation, which takes about three years.

But there are the relatively rare cases where a priest is involved in a homosexual way with a minor. I think the statistic I read recently in a secular psychology review was about 2%. Would that be true of other clergy? Would it be true of doctors, lawyers, coaches?

Here’s this poor guy — [Penn State football coach Jerry] Sandusky — it went on for years. Interesting: Why didn’t anyone say anything? Apparently, a number of kids knew about it and didn’t break the ice. Well, you know, until recent years, people did not register in their minds that it was a crime. It was a moral failure, scandalous; but they didn’t think of it in terms of legal things.

If you go back 10 or 15 years ago with different sexual difficulties — except for rape or violence — it was very rarely brought as a civil crime. Nobody thought of it that way. Sometimes statutory rape would be — but only if the girl pushed her case. Parents wouldn’t touch it. People backed off, for years, on sexual cases. I’m not sure why.

I think perhaps part of the reason would be an embarrassment, that it brings the case out into the open, and the girl’s name is there, or people will figure out what’s there, or the youngster involved — you know, it’s not put in the paper, but everybody knows; they’re talking about it.

At this point, (when) any priest, any clergyman, any social worker, any teacher, any responsible person in society would become involved in a single sexual act — not necessarily intercourse — they’re done. And I’m inclined to think, on their first offense, they should not go to jail because their intention was not committing a crime.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

by JOHN BURGER
08/27/2012

Editor’s Note:

Child sexual abuse is never excusable. The editors of the National Catholic Register apologize for publishing without clarification or challenge Father Benedict Groeschel’s comments that seem to suggest that the child is somehow responsible for abuse. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our publication of that comment was an editorial mistake, for which we sincerely apologize. Given Father Benedict’s stellar history over many years, we released his interview without our usual screening and oversight. We have removed the story. We have sought clarification from Father Benedict.

Jeanette R. De Melo
Editor in Chief

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UNITED STATES
New York Magazine

By Joe Coscarelli

Friar Benedict Groeschel, the 79-year-old director of the Office for Spiritual Development for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York and a leader of the Bronx-based Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, has a theory on pedophilia. In an unbelievable interview with the National Catholic
Register, Groeschel explained of abusive priests, “People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him.” Then he kept going.

Via Andrew Sullivan:

A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer … It’s not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping but not having intercourse or anything like that.

It’s an understandable thing … there are the relatively rare cases where a priest is involved in a homosexual way with a minor. I think the statistic I read recently in a secular psychology review was about 2%. Would that be true of other clergy? Would it be true of doctors, lawyers, coaches?

Here’s this poor guy — [Penn State football coach Jerry] Sandusky — it went on for years. Interesting: Why didn’t anyone say anything? Apparently, a number of kids knew about it and didn’t break the ice. Well, you know, until recent years, people did not register in their minds that it was a crime. It was a moral failure, scandalous; but they didn’t think of it in terms of legal things.”

Groeschel goes on to say, “I’m inclined to think, on their first offense, they should not go to jail because their intention was not committing a crime.” The article has since been deleted from the National Catholic Register, but lives on through Google and various dumbfounded media outlets, both religious and not.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Justin Engel | jengel1@mlive.com

SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, MI — Two victims of sexual abuse now advocating for children’s rights this afternoon delivered a letter asking for answers from the Most Bishop Joseph Cistone, whose name recently was linked to a planned clergy sexual abuse-based lawsuit in Philadelphia.

Cistone, the diocese’s leader, earlier this year was not named in any criminal indictments, but lawyers say he and others will be named in a civil case brought on by a former altar boy who claimed sexual abuse at a Philadelphia diocese in 1992, media reports indicate.

Lawyers claim Cistone, who was appointed as the Saginaw diocese’s leader in 2009, helped oversee the shredding of documents relating to the alleged abuse.

Kathy McCreedy, a Midland resident and member of Protecting Michigan’s Children, and Brad G. Sylvester, an Auburn man who belongs to Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), at 1 p.m. today gave the letter — intended for Cistone — to Sister Judith Mary O’Brien, vice chancellor of the Diocese of Saginaw.

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UNITED STATES
Metro

CASSANDRA GARRISON
NEW YORK

Published: August 30, 2012

The Catholic church is taking some serious heat after a New York-based clergyman expressed sympathy for Jerry Sandusky and said teens are often the ones seducing grown men in cases of pedophilia.

In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Benedict Groeschel, 78, said boys without fathers are often the ones to approach their abusers.

“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster – 14, 16, 18 – is the seducer,” Groeschel, who is based in Westchester, said.

“It’s not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing,” he added.

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UNITED STATES
New York Daily News

Sympathy for ‘this poor guy’ Jerry Sandusky and other pedophiles? New York friar blames youngsters who ‘seduce’ priests, coaches

By Victoria Cavaliere / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, August 30, 2012

A prominent New York-based friar has sympathy for some pedophiles — including defrocked priests and former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky — saying they are sometimes “seduced” by their underage victims.

Father Benedict Groeschel’s jarring comments come amid ongoing fallout from child sex abuse scandals that have rocked Penn State and, over the past decade, the Catholic Church.

In some of these cases, children “looking for a father figure” are responsible for the relationship with someone in a position of power — like a coach or clergy member, Groeschel told the National Catholic Register.

“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster – 14, 16, 18 – is the seducer,” said Groeschel, a founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

Pressed on the point, Father Groeschel says “It’s not so hard to see – a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own – and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing.”

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UNITED STATES
ABC News

[with video]

By COLLEEN CURRY

Aug. 30, 2012

A well-known Catholic priest who hosts a weekly religious television show said in an interview this week that child sex abusers are often seduced by teenage boys and should not go to jail on a first offense.

The Rev. Benedict Groeschel, 79, who hosts a weekly show on Catholic television network EWTN, made the comments in an interview with the National Catholic Register. He also referred to convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky as a “poor guy.”

“People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to – a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer,” Groeschel is quoted as saying in the interview, which is no longer available on the paper’s website.

The interview, billed as a reflection on the 25 years since Groeschel founded the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal order, covered many topics, but has gained attention for Groeschel’s comments on child sex abuse.

“Well, it’s not so hard to see. A kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping, but not having intercourse or anything like that. I’s an understandable thing, and you know where you find it, among other clergy or important people; you look at teachers, attorneys, judges, social workers,” he said.

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MINNESOTA
The Legal Examiner

by Mike Bryant
August 30, 2012

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled this week concerning repressed memory in sexual abuse cases. As the Crookston Times reported:

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday tossed out a clergy abuse lawsuit by a man whose case rested on a repressed memory claim, siding with a lower court’s ruling that repressed memory is an unproven theory.

James Keenan sued the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, claiming that as a teenager he was sexually abused four times in 1980 or 1981 by Thomas Adamson, a priest who has since been defrocked.

Keenan brought his claim in 2006, well outside the state’s six-year statute of limitations, but argued that it should be allowed because he repressed memories of the abuse. A district court rejected that claim, but the state Court of Appeals revived it last year.

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JOLIET (IL)
CBS Chicago

JOLIET (CBS) — The Diocese of Joliet says it is likely that a priest in the diocese engaged in the sexual abuse of a minor more than two decades ago.

While the diocese looks further into the allegation, the priest has been placed on administrative leave.

The Diocese of Joliet said in a statement that it recently received an allegation of Rev. James Nowak sexually abusing a minor more than 25 years ago.

An investigation was initiated by The Office of Child and Youth Protection and then evaluated by the Diocesan Review Committee, according to the statement.

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UNITED STATES
The Child Custody Guide

Empowering children about child molesting, and how to defend against it–Shari Karney speaks out about

SHARI KARNEY SPEAKS OUT ABOUT

Comment on some of the agencies and non-profits that are engaged in educating and advocating against child abuse and molesting. You as a crusader for child rights and against child abuse take on various cases as an attorney. Is there an organization that you are connected with, too, that you will tell us about briefly?

Shari Karney: I like Child Help USA www.childhelp.org because they provide a haven for neglected and abused children. Also they are involved with education and protection. SNAP (Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests): www.snapnetwork.org is a network for those abused by Priests and Churches. The National Crime Victim Bar Association: www.victimbar.org puts a lot of energy into educating attorneys, helping crime victims with attorney referrals for civil lawsuits. National Center for Victims of Crime: www.ncvc.org helps victims of all types of crime. If you have been victimized, this is a good place to start. With their specialized DNA program, Stalking Center, and Youth Initiative program, it’s a safe place for crime victims (especially youth) to get information and support. California Protective Parents Association: www.protectiveparents.com protects and works with those who are victims of incest and family violence.

Our time needs to be spent educating caretakers, educating parents. We want to cut down on children being prey to opportunistic predators, which all child molesters are. We can’t just lay this on the parents, because it’s bigger than the parents. You can’t lock your children up 24 hours a day. Children (without being graphic), can be educated on what the rules are and what adults can and can’t do. Let’s teach our kids how to honor their gut feelings; How to stay safe, how to alert a trusted adult when something is Yucky, or doesn’t feel right. We want to empower our kids before they are in a dangerous situation. I don’t think parents should be expected to do all this on their own. We all need to pitch in and power up.

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UNITED STATES
SNAP Wisconsin

Almost twenty five years ago Archbishop Rembert Weakland declared that some adolescent victims of sexual assault were not “so innocent”. Weakland elaborated by saying that some adolescents “can be sexually very active and aggressive and often quite street-wise”.

Fast forward a quarter of a century later and well known Catholic priest Fr. Benedict Groeschel offers this piece of wisdom concerning the clergy sexual assault crisis that continues to plague the church:

“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him…A lot of the cases, the youngster – 14, 16, or 18 is the seducer”. Groeschel added that all of this was understandable “Well it’s not so hard to see, a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own, and they won’t be planning to get into heavy duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping, but not having intercourse or anything like that”.

Groeschel provided his insights to the National Catholic Register in a lengthy interview which has since been removed from the publications website. Groeschel leads the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a religious order headquartered in the Archdiocese of New York under Cardinal Dolan’s supervision. Groeschel also hosts his own television program which can be seen on EWTN.

In the interview Groeschel proceeded to offer his observations on the sexual assault scandal at Penn State University. He stated “Here’s this poor guy Sandusky, it went on for years. Interesting: why didn’t anyone say anything? Apparently a number of kids knew about it and didn’t break the ice. Well you know, until recent years people did not register in their minds that it was a crime. It was a moral failure, scandalous; but they didn’t think of it in terms of legal things”.

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UNITED STATES
Father, Where Art Thou?

August 30, 2012 By Fr. Michael Duffy

An interview with Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR was recently published on the NCRegister website. It was quickly taken down, but not before it caused quite a stir. The Huffington post and the NY Daily News both picked up on it. Fr. Benedict is a remarkable priest – one that I’ve looked up to for many years. His book on Fr. Gene Hamilton helped me decide to become a priest in the early days of discernment. His comments to the NCRegister however horrified me.

“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster – 14, 16, 18 – is the seducer…”

“I’m inclined to think, on their first offense, they should not go to jail because their intention was not committing a crime.”

No matter what the circumstance, a priest must be beyond reproach. The priest is always, ALWAYS called to a higher responsibility. To protect. To serve.

The Church has done so much since the scandals first broke back in 2002. We’ve done more than any other major corporation in the world. The bishop should be applauded for their vigilance.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Michael Sean Winters on Aug. 30, 2012 Distinctly Catholic

Nothing quite like being attacked by Bill Donohue to make a liberal Catholic’s day. Donohue is to informed discourse what Hurricane Isaac is to the Louisiana coast, all blustery and destructive wind. Yesterday, Mr. Donohue issued this press release attacking my post about the arrest of Archbishop-elect Salvatore Cordileone for driving while under the influence.

The key paragraphs are these:
Winters, like a lot of embittered Catholic “progressives,” is obsessed with homosexuality. That is why he was unable to write one paragraph in his screed against Cordileone without mentioning this subject. The context? Winters wants the bishop to “think with greater compassion about the complicated lives we all lead today.” He also wants the bishop to show an “approriate [sic] humility and humanness.” All of this is code for “shut up and leave the culture to us.”
Gay blog sites have also picked up on this theme. Why? San Francisco is a city where men [read: gays] are free to walk around naked in the street in front of women and children. They can even walk into McDonalds totally nude and park themselves next to Ronald McDonald, provided, the law says, they place a towel on their seat (hygiene matters). Next month homosexuals will whip each other in the street and have sex in public at the Folsom Street Fair. This is the city that Cordileone will soon inherit.

First, I do not think any fair reading of my many blog posts would reveal an “obsession” with the issue of homosexuality. Certainly, I have never written a paragraph like that second one quoted above which is dripping with the kind of explicit detail that leads one to wonder if the author’s interest in the topic is not properly termed prurient. I was certainly unaware of the laws about entering McDonald’s naked, or the goings-on at the Folsom Street Fair, but Mr. Donohue seems unnaturally fascinated by them. I wish he had kept his fascination to himself: I will never enter a McDonald’s with the same blissfully simple desire for a Big Mac again without being disturbed by the image he so painstakingly paints.

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

August 30, 2012. (Romereports.com) The attorney for pope’s butler, Carlo Fusco has abruptly abandoned his case in defense of Paolo Gabriele against charges of leaking private documents in what has become known as ‘Vatileaks’. Fusco says his decision was based on “differences over the line of defense”.

He is actually a childhood friend of Gabriele. Fusco says that even though he is leaving the case, the two will maintain their friendship.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Justin Engel | jengel1@mlive.com

SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, MI — Two children’s rights groups today plan to protest outside the Diocese of Saginaw headquarters here after the Catholic organization’s leader’s name was attached to a planned clergy sexual abuse-based lawsuit, officials say.

The Most Bishop Joseph Cistone earlier this year was not named in any criminal indictments, but lawyers say Cistone and others will be named in a civil case brought on by a former altar boy who claimed sexual abuse in 1992, media reports indicate.

Lawyers claim Cistone helped oversee the shredding of documents relating to the alleged abuse.

Now members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and Protecting Michigan’s Children, a group that has worked with Michigan legislators to introduce laws aimed at better protecting children, plan to show up at 1 p.m. today at the diocese offices, 5800 Weiss in Saginaw Township.

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NEW YORK
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on how the New York State Legislature is handling charges of sexual harassment against Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez:

Assemblyman Lopez says he is innocent of physically abusing female aides. I have no way of telling. He is also charged with giving hush money. The real issue for the Catholic League is the incredible duplicity at work: we have one rule for priests accused of sexual abuse, and another for lawmakers.

The New York Archdiocese, following the rules established by the bishops’ conference, makes it clear that it must “cooperate with public authorities about reporting cases [of sexual abuse] even when the person is no longer a minor.” That’s what “zero tolerance” means.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says, “The Assembly has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual harassment.” Really? Then why weren’t the cops called? Why did he not initially insist, as he was supposed to do, that the case be given to the Assembly Ethics Commission? Instead, he apologizes for not doing so, while still insisting that what he did was “both legally correct and ethical.”

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CALIFORNIA
Healing and Spirituality

Dr. Jaime Romo

The following letter is to a local church in San Diego that acts to prevent child sexual abuse and promote healing.

Pilgrims,

Congratulations on sending the Resolution for Safe Churches and Healing Communities to the Annual Gathering and having it adopted [this document]

I have a vision of how, together, we can bring the Resolution to fruition. In fact, it is a vision of a movement that is impossible for any one person, like myself, to realize and will become a reality because of your participation.

I remember the pain I went through when I broke my own silence about being sexually abused by a priest when I was an adolescent. Many of you can remember the pain and trauma five years ago when a registered sex offender showed up asking to be part of our faith community. I think that the pain many experienced then had to do with not having a language or competency to deal with that pain at the time. Individual and collective abuse trauma experiences were triggered and we thought we might never recover, and look where we are now! We are more conscious, competent, and committed to preventing abuse of children, youth and vulnerable adults. Many are more healed and whole as a result of working with this toxic material as a church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Brighton and Hove News

The Church of England diocese that includes Brighton and Hove and the recently retired Bishop of Chichester have been criticised in an official report.

The report was commissioned by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to investigate repeated failures to protect children in the area from paedophile priests.

The archbishop said that his office would oversee child protection in the Diocese of Chichester for the foreseeable future.

His staff will also take over responsibility for decisions about the appointment of clergy, deciding who has “permission to officiate”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The News

Published on Thursday 30 August 2012

THE Archbishop of Canterbury will continue to supervise protection of children and vulnerable adults in the Chichester diocese after a report revealed it fell ‘woefully short’ of expectations.

Dr Rowan Williams – who set up an inquiry into child protection policies in the diocese – said an interim report showed ‘many and long-standing failures in implementing a robust and credible safeguarding policy.’

Dr Williams appointed Bishop John Gladwin and Chancellor Rupert Bursell QC to conduct the inquiry in the wake of child abuse scandals – the first such appointments for more than a century.

In May last year a review found serious failings after two priests were allowed to continue working despite being accused of child abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
itv

[interim report]

Dr Rowan Williams has responded to a new report on sex abuse in the Chichester Diocese and has apologised to those who have been abused as a result of failings by the Church.

Dr Williams set up an inquiry into child protection policies after abuses by East Sussex vicar Colin Pritchard and Brede parish priest Roy Cotton.

He appointed Bishop John Gladwin and Chancellor Rupert Bursell QC as commissaries to conduct the inquiry in the wake of child abuse scandals – the first such appointments for more than a century.

The Archbishop said the interim report confirmed that there had been “many and longstanding failures in implementing a robust and credible safeguarding policy in the Diocese of Chichester”.

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NEW YORK
CBS Connecticut

NEW YORK (CBS Connecticut/AP) – A top Catholic priest is claiming that some teenage boys seduced priests in sexual abuse cases.

Father Benedict Groeschel, 78, told the National Catholic Register in an interview published this past week that teenage boys could sometimes play the “seducer” toward a priest.

“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him,” Groeschel said to the Catholic Register. “A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.”

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ATLANTA (GA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on August 30, 2012

At least four individuals – two men and two women – are accusing an Atlanta minister of infecting them with the HIV virus. It’s awful when a pastor breaks his bonds of trust and honor and abuses his position by sexually exploiting congregants. It’s even worse when he actively spreads HIV among them.

In criminal matters, one is innocent until proven guilty. Yet it’s hard to imagine four adults lying about Pastor Craig Davis of the Full Gospel Baptist Church in Atlanta. If convicted of this disgusting crime, we hope that Davis will be jailed for a long time so he can’t hurt others.

We are grateful that Davis has been arrested, but disappointed that he was released so easily on bond. We suspect his victims are right when they describe him as a “master manipulator.” So his role, personality, HIV status and alleged crimes put others in the Atlanta area at risk. We hope that no one else is victimized by David and that anyone else who may have seen or suspected his crimes, whether at Full Gospel or elsewhere, will come forward to the police immediately.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

Archbishop of Canterbury vows to protect victims of Sussex church abuse after report reveals diocese’s safeguarding fell ‘woefully short’

Anna Roberts

Britain’s top vicar has apologised to victims who suffered abuse at the hands of the Church of England in Sussex. Archbishop of Caterbury Rowan Williamson spoke yesterday after an interim report into an investigation into the operation of child protection policies in the Diocese of Chichester was published.

Archbishop Williams said he will continue supervising protection of children and vulnerable adults in the diocese after investigators concluded that safeguarding had fallen “woefully short” of what should be expected.

Dr Rowan Williams, who set up an inquiry into child protection policies in the diocese, said the interim report “confirms that there have been many and longstanding failures in implementing a robust and credible safeguarding policy in the Diocese of Chichester”.

Dr Williams appointed Bishop John Gladwin and Chancellor Rupert Bursell QC as commissaries to conduct the inquiry in the wake of child abuse scandals – the first such appointments for more than 100 years.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

[Interim report]

Published on Thursday 30 August 2012

THE DIOCESE of Chichester has come in for yet more heavy criticism in a damning new report.

A “profoundly negative culture” within the diocese, responsible for Church of England churches and priests in Eastbourne and the surrounding area, led to two decades of child protection failures and the inquiry by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office said “fresh and disturbing” aspects of the way abuse claims were handled keep surfacing.

The diocese has also been labelled “dysfunctional” with no drive or direction from the top, arrogantly in denial, somewhere priests were allowed to officiate without up-to-date CRB checks and there were weaknesses within safeguarding policies, which were unclear.

Its authors said, “It is clear to us that many lives have been blighted. Some have sought justice through the courts of law. Clergy have gone to prison for their abuse of children. We are clear that those who have sought justice through the courts are but the tip of the iceberg.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

[court document]

By Michael O’Keeffe / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

In a startling court order that could be a watershed moment for survivors of childhood sex abuse, a federal judge said Tuesday he will allow portions of an explosive lawsuit to proceed against Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn.

U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block wrote he would green-light the case because officials may have lied when they claimed they only learned in 1991 that a longtime football coach had allegedly molested boys for several decades.

Block said Poly Prep’s attempts to have the lawsuit dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired falls flat because administrators might have deceived 10 former students and two day campers who claimed they were sexually abused by coach Phil Foglietta.

“Central to plaintiffs’ claims in the present case are their allegations that Poly Prep engaged in an affirmative course of conduct during the period of limitations to deceive the plaintiffs into believing that they had no claim against Poly Prep because the school had no knowledge of Foglietta’s wrongdoing…Foglietta was consistently portrayed to the plaintiffs as a reputable and esteemed football coach throughout the limitations period (1966-1991),” Block wrote in Tuesday’s order.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

[court document]

By JENNY ANDERSON

Published: August 28, 2012

A top-tier Brooklyn private school cannot automatically use New York State’s statute of limitations to prevent a case involving sexual abuse allegations against a former football coach from proceeding, a judge ruled Tuesday, because of the possibility that the school may have engaged in a scheme to cover up decades of abuse.

The ruling by the judge, Frederic Block of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, paves the way for a hearing to establish whether there was a cover-up by the school, Poly Prep, and if it prevented the plaintiffs from bringing a case within the statute of limitations. In New York, survivors of sexual abuse that occurred while they were minors must file a case by the time they are 23.

The judge dismissed all racketeering charges against Poly Prep, but allowed 2 of the 12 plaintiffs to go forward with their racketeering claims against current and former board and administration members. In his 40-page ruling, Judge Block also allowed civil charges including fraud and violations of Title IX, which specifically prohibits sexual abuse, to move forward to a hearing.

The case is being closely watched, as allegations of sexual abuse and the way powerful institutions manage knowledge of those allegations has exploded within the Roman Catholic Church, in the Hasidic community in Brooklyn and in high-profile schools like Horace Mann in the Bronx and Penn State University.

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NEW YORK
The Chronicle of Philanthropy

August 29, 2012

A federal judge on Tuesday cleared the way for alumni of a top-ranked Brooklyn private school to sue over alleged sexual abuse decades ago by the institution’s late football coach, writes The New York Times.

U.S. District Judge Frederic Block said Poly Prep cannot automatically invoke the state’s statute of limitations to head off lawsuits because the school may have engaged in a years-long scheme to hide allegations against Philip Foglietta, its football coach from 1966 to 1991. The decision makes possible a hearing to establish whether there was such a cover-up.

“The court has basically carved out an exception on statute of limitation claims where the party has engaged in affirmative misrepresentations or deceitful conduct,” said Kevin T. Mulhearn, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

[court document]

By Tim Perone

A suit against elite Brooklyn private school Poly Prep — alleging that its famed former football coach sexually abused boys for decades — can move forward, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The suit was filed in Brooklyn federal court by 10 former students and two others who attended the school’s summer camp. They allege that Philip Foglietta, the coach from 1966 to 1991, molested them.

The school had tried to have the suit thrown out because of statute of limitations, but Judge Frederic Block refused,

Block said a hearing can be held to determine whether the school’s administration conducted a cover-up about Foglietta’s alleged acts, which prevented them from bringing the suit before the statute of limitations ran out.

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NEW YORK
New York Observer

By Daniel Edward Rosen 8/29

Federal District Court judge Frederic Block ruled in a Brooklyn court Tuesday that private school Poly Prep could not use New York State’s statue of limitations to thwart a lawsuit levied by its former students who allege that a popular football coach had molested them.

The decision comes amid rumblings that a group of former Horace Mann students, who have accused the Bronx private school’s faculty of sexual abuse during the 1970s and 80s, had hired attorney Gloria Allred to pursue legal action against the school.

Poly Prep argued to have the case against former football coach Phil Foglietta dismissed on the grounds that the statute of limitations for his accusers –which include 10 former students and two day campers, according to The New York Daily News–had expired after those students turned 23:

“Central to plaintiffs’ claims in the present case are their allegations that Poly Prep engaged in an affirmative course of conduct during the period of limitations to deceive the plaintiffs into believing that they had no claim against Poly Prep because the school had no knowledge of Foglietta’s wrongdoing…Foglietta was consistently portrayed to the plaintiffs as a reputable and esteemed football coach throughout the limitations period (1966-1991),” Block wrote in Tuesday’s order.

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NEW YORK
Wall Street Journal

[court document]

By SOPHIA HOLLANDER

New York state has one of the country’s strictest statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims, despite lobbying by advocates who say the law can stymie victims who come forward too late.

Now some attorneys believe that legal framework may be shifting after a federal judge this week allowed a lawsuit detailing decades-old sexual abuse to go forward against one of Brooklyn’s elite prep schools.

“Frankly I’m going over my files right now to see if there’s anything that could be done,” said Michael Dowd, an attorney specializing in abuse cases. He plans to review some 300 suits.

“It’s the best news out of a court for the victims of sexual abuse this year, and probably in a number of years,” he said.

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NEW YORK
Connecticut Law Tribune

Simpson Thacher Partner’s Sex Abuse Claims Against Brooklyn Prep School Will Proceed

By Sara Randazzo
The Am Law Daily

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partner Philip Culhane finds a measure of peace in a federal judge’s ruling Tuesday that a prominent Brooklyn prep school can’t argue that New York State’s statute of limitations should automatically nullify a lawsuit in which Culhane and 11 other men claim they were sexually molested by a revered football coach school—and that school officials covered up the serial sexual abuse.

“No matter what happens from this point on, I’ve achieved one of my most important goals,” Culhane says, “which is for the truth to be told.”

Culhane, a private investment funds lawyer based in Simpson Thacher’s Hong Kong office, first told his story to The Am Law Daily in 2010. At the time, Culhane had decided to join a lawsuit filed by several former Poly Prep Country Day School students who claimed that longtime Poly Prep football coach and physical education teacher Philip Foglietta, who left the school in 1991 and died in 1998, had sexually abused them from the 1960s through the 1980s.

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NEW YORK
Law.com

By Andrew Keshner
New York Law Journal

August 30, 2012

The statute of limitations will not halt a lawsuit, at least for the time being, against the elite Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn brought by former students who charge they were sexually abused by a prominent football coach at least 25 years ago.

Ten alumni of the Brooklyn school and two former summer camp participants allege Poly Prep officials knew that Philip Foglietta, who coached football at the school from 1966 to 1991, had abused students but had covered up his conduct.

“Central to plaintiffs’ claims in the present case are their allegations that Poly Prep engaged in an affirmative course of conduct during the period of limitations to deceive the plaintiffs into believing that they had no claim against Poly Prep because the school had no knowledge of Foglietta’s wrongdoing,” Eastern District Judge Frederic Block (See Profile) said Aug. 28 in Zimmerman v. Poly Prep Country Day School, 09-cv-4586.

The judge dismissed claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against the school, but allowed racketeering claims brought by two plaintiffs against school administrators and officials to go forward. Block said that the two had contributed money to the school, whose football coach had been portrayed as “reputable and esteemed.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Archbishop of Canterbury

INTERIM REPORT OF THE COMMISSARIES APPOINTED BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY IN RELATION TO A VISITATION UPON THE DIOCESE OF CHICHESTER

Your Grace,

FOREWORD:
St Luke tells us that the people brought infants to Jesus that he might touch them. (St Luke 18:15ff). When his disciples tried to stop this practice Jesus called for the children saying,
„Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these the Kingdom of God belongs.‟

Not only did Jesus encourage children to come to him, not only did he offer love through touching them, but they were manifestly safe in his company.

All contemporary safeguarding policies and procedures in the Church should be a response to what we learn and see in Jesus himself. Children are meant to be safe in the care and company of the Christian Church. In witness to this faith and to our sense of obligation to children who are brought to Jesus through the life of the Christian community, the Church should set for itself the highest standards of care available to our society today. If that is true especially in relation to children, it ought also to be true for the care we offer to some of the most vulnerable adults in the modern world (see St James 1:27).

It has been particularly distressing to us to have met people whose lives have been deeply wounded by the abuse they have suffered at the hands of clergy and of lay people holding positions of responsibility in the Church. Sadly, these wounds often refuse to heal.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Archbishop of Canterbury

[INTERIM REPORT OF THE COMMISSARIES APPOINTED BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY IN RELATION TO A VISITATION UPON THE DIOCESE OF CHICHESTER]

Thursday 30th August 2012

The interim report for the enquiry into the operation of the diocesan child protection policies in the Diocese of Chichester has today been published.

The report was written by Bishop John Gladwin and Chancellor Rupert Bursell QC who were appointed as the Archbishop’s commissaries to carry out the enquiry.

In responding to the interim report, Archbishop Rowan Williams has made the following statement:

“I am very grateful to those who have been conducting the Visitation in the Diocese of Chichester and to all who have co-operated with this process – not least those survivors of abuse who have shared their experience. The abiding hurt and damage done to them is something that none of us in the Church can ignore, and I am deeply sorry that they should have been let down by those they ought to have been able to trust.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A “profoundly negative culture” within the Diocese of Chichester led to two decades of child protection failures, a report has concluded.

The inquiry by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office said “fresh and disturbing” aspects of the way abuse claims were handled keep surfacing.

Lambeth Palace has said it will now oversee clergy appointments and child protection matters in Sussex.

Three local priests have been charged this year with child sex offences.

The report by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams’s office is believed to be the first of its kind in the Church of England for more than a century.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

Miércoles 29 agosto 2012 | 19:52

Publicado por Daniel Medina | La Información es de Michelle Berstein

Tras acusaciones de “manipulación de conciencia”, la Iglesia Católica se encuentra investigando al ex párroco de El Bosque Juan Esteban Morales, quien fuera el brazo derecho y principal defensor del sacerdote Fernando Karadima. Este último fue condenado por el Vaticano en 2011 por abusos sexuales contra menores.

Según fuentes de la Iglesia, la investigación lleva cerca de un año y está a cargo del vicario judicial Jaime Ortiz de Lazcano, el mismo religioso que comenzó a indagar las denuncias por abusos de connotación sexual en contra de Cristián Precht.

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VERENIGDE STATEN
Trouw

Priesters, leraren of maatschappelijk werkers die iemand één keer seksueel misbruiken zouden eigenlijk geen celstraf moeten krijgen. Vaak is juist de jongere de verleider, meent de Amerikaanse prominente priester Benedict Groeschel.

‘Veel mensen gaan er vanuit dat zo iemand handelt vanuit voorbedachten rade – ze zien een psychopaat’, vertelt Groeschel op de nieuwssite National Catholic Register. ‘Maar zo gaat dat niet. Stel: een man heeft een zenuwinzinking en een jongere zet zijn zinnen op hem. In veel gevallen is de jongere – van 14, 16 of 18 jaar – de verleider.’

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

Lawyer for pope’s butler, charged in Vatican leaks scandal, quits over differences in strategy

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, August 30

VATICAN CITY — A lawyer for the pope’s ex-butler, who is facing trial for his role in the Vatican leaks scandal, has resigned.

Attorney Carlo Fusco said Thursday he had quit as Paolo Gabriele’s attorney over differences in defense strategy. It wasn’t immediately clear if Gabriele’s other lawyer, Cristiana Arru, was remaining on as counsel.

A Vatican judge earlier this month ordered Gabriele to stand trial for allegedly stealing documents from Pope Benedict XVI’s private apartment. The documents formed the basis of news articles and a book exposing power struggles and purported corruption at the highest levels of the Catholic Church’s governance.

Fusco has essentially acknowledged Gabriele’s guilt after Vatican police found papal documents in Gabriele’s Vatican City apartment.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

PROSECUTORS will get another opportunity to try the Rev. James J. Brennan, 49, a Roman Catholic priest charged with attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996 and related offenses.

A mistrial was declared in June after the District Attorney’s Office was unable to persuade a jury to reach a unanimous verdict that Brennan was guilty.

Common Pleas Judge Robert P. Coleman met Wednesday with Assistant District Attorneys Patrick Blessington and Mark Cipoletti and defense attorneys William J. Brennan Jr. and Richard J. Fuschino Jr. before setting March 6 as the new trial date.

Brennan was a co-defendant in a trial earlier this year with Monsignor William J. Lynn, 61, the former secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Tyrone Times

Published on Thursday 30 August 2012

A US court has delivered a landmark ruling that the Vatican cannot be held legally liable for the activities of a paedophile priest who is alleged to have sexually abused a boy at Benburb’s Servite Priory more than fifty years ago.

Former Benburb cleric Rev. Andrew Ronan, who died in 1982, was at the heart of a landmark legal case in the US which could have resulted in Pope Benedict being sued over sex abuse claims.

The Vatican had sought to halt the lawsuit which accused the Roman Catholic Church of transferring Rev. Andrew Ronan from parish to parish – starting in Benburb and moving to St. Phillip High School in Chicago and then to St. Albert’s Church in Portland, Oregon – despite repeated accusations of sexual abuse in all three positions.

Ronan’s history of sexual abuse allegedly dated to the 1950s at the Benburb priory.

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UNITED STATES
outpatient clinic

Skip Shea

I wasn’t surprised when I read that Cardinal Dolan would deliver the closing prayer at the Republican National Convention. He should be right at home there. After all this new batch of Republicans has lead it’s own war on woman at the same time the Vatican is waging war with Women Religious.

The Vatican didn’t like women speaking on women’s issues saying they often hosted speakers who “disagree with or challenge the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.”

Ah, the authentic teachers of the faith. You know, men.

Similarly the men of the Republican Party have decided they are the authentic teachers of women’s biology. When discussing the choice of abortion for women who have been raped Rep. Todd Akin said:

“It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”

Granted making the latter part of that statement in Freshman biology class would get you an F for a grade, but in congress it gets you a seat on the House Committee for Science, Space and Technology. …

Which brings me back to Cardinal Dolan.

While he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee he approved of payments of up to 20 grand to sexually abusive priests to make them go away, leave the church and abuse kids somewhere else without the collar. That’s the way to look out for the welfare of children in the world. In a perverse sort of way.

Literally.

By reading this it might be best to suggest that you keep women and children away from the RNC. These people are crazy with their views of rape and abuse.

But not to be out done, apparently Democrats don’t want to lose the coveted pervert vote either, so in the most unoriginal act conceivable and not forced but certainly legitimate, the Democratic National Convention will also have Cardinal Dolan say a prayer.

What?

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

An elderly Catholic priest has been charged with committing and covering up child sex offences near Newcastle in the 1970s and 80s.

The 74-year-old man went to Charlestown Police Station where he was arrested on Thursday morning.

He has been charged with 14 offences committed at a high school at Adamstown where he was principal in the 1970s and at a church at Waratah in the 1980s.

The school-related crimes include one count of buggery, relating to his alleged failure to report sexual abuse by another priest of a child at the school in 1978.

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ATLANTA (GA)
WGIV

A Georgia church pastor is under fire for allegedly spreading HIV among his church members…so far at least two victims have come forward to press charges. This shocking news set the internet on fire after it was posted on a blog by an angry church member and ex lover of the married pastor.

Pastor Craig Lamar Davis (mug shot below) of Atlanta’s Full Gospel Baptist Church was arrested for reckless conduct after investigators discovered he was sleeping with several women in the church. Davis admitted to investigators that he’s HIV positive and chose to have unprotected sex with these women.

According to an email sent to blogger Obnoxious, Pastor Davis is a church ho. The woman who reported him, Ronita McAfee, says she met Davis on Facebook and it wasn’t long before the two started meeting at his home to have sex.

A few months after the affair kicked off, Ronita says Davis called and told her that one of his ex-girlfriends called and said she tested positive for HIV. He told Ronita to call her doctor and that if she is positive it is not a death sentence. He also suggested some over the counter drugs she could take so that she would not get infected.

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ATLANTA (GA)
News One

Pastor Craig Lamar Davis (pictured) of Atlanta’s Full Gospel Baptist Church was arrested on July 22 for reckless conduct, when police investigators discovered that he has HIV and had allegedly been indulging in unprotected sex with several of his congregation members, reports WVIG. Now one of his congregation victims have come forward with her story.

Thus far, two women have pressed charges against the married preacher. One of the victims, Ronita McAfee, told police officials that she met the pastor on Facebook and began communicating with him. The online relationship soon progressed into sexual romps at the pastor’s home. McAfee says a few months in to the affair, Davis revealed that one of his former girlfriends had tested positive for HIV. The seemingly concerned preacher allegedly advised McAfee that the virus would not kill her if she tested positive and even went as far as to suggest some drugs that she could take to avoid infection.

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ATLANTA (GA)
God Discussion

Ronita McAfee, who allegedly slept with Craig Lamar Davis, a married pastor of a Full Gospel Baptist church in Atlanta, Georgia, accused him of spreading HIV. According to McAfee, a former ex-girlfriend of Davis called her to inform her that Davis gave her HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

According to the Christian Post, police arrested Davis last month, on July 22, for alleged reckless sexual conduct after spreading HIV to other women.

McAfee stated that she met Davis on Facebook and later ended up in a sexual relationship with him. After a one of his former girlfriends contacted her and told her that he gave her HIV, she confronted Davis about it and he encouraged her to get tested, but told her it would not kill her and suggested to her certain drugs she could take to avoid the infection.

Later, another woman stepped forward, claimed that she was celibate for 15 years before meeting Davis, slept with him, and he gave her HIV.

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ATLANTA (GA)
Christian Post

By Christine Thomasos, Christian Post Reporter

Craig Lamar Davis, a married minister in Atlanta, was reportedly arrested after allegedly spreading HIV to some of his mistresses who were also congregants of his church.

Davis formerly served as the pastor of Full Gospel Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., before reports surfaced about his alleged infidelity and spreading of the retrovirus that causes AIDS. While several news outlets reported that the pastor was arrested last month for reckless conduct after spreading the human immunodeficiency virus to several woman outside of his marriage, Ronita McAfee was one person who spoke about the pastor in particular in a blackbluedog.com report.

McAfee reportedly claimed that she met Davis on Facebook which ultimately led to intercourse with the former pastor. However, McAfee was later contacted by an alleged ex-girlfriend of the pastor who claimed that she had contracted HIV from him.

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CHILE
La Segunda

Adelanto: Iglesia indaga a ex párroco de El Bosque tras acusaciones de “manipulación de conciencias”

por: Miguel Ortiz A.

El sacerdote Jaime Ortiz de Lazcano -el mismo que comenzó a indagar a monseñor Cristián Precht tras denuncias de connotación sexual- está a cargo ahora de una investigación en contra del ex párroco de El Bosque, padre Juan Esteban Morales .

El proceso, según confirmaron fuentes al interior de la Iglesia, apunta a la presunta manipulación y abuso de conciencia que el sacerdote realizaba con los jóvenes miembros de la «Acción Católica», la entidad pastoral asociada a la parroquia.

Morales -quien fue el brazo derecho y principal defensor del cura Fernando Karadima , condenado en 2011 por el Vaticano por abusos sexuales contra menores- vive hoy en la Casa del Clero, en calle Santa Isabel, lejos de toda actividad parroquial.

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CHILE
Terra

Cynthia Rosales

Por “manipulación de conciencia” está siendo investigado el sacerdote Juan Esteban Morales, uno de los más cercanos colaboradores del cura Fernando Karadima y su sucesor en la parroquia El Bosque desde septiembre de 2006, cargo que dejó hace meses a raíz de la polémica. Pero, ¿quién es este sacerdote?, ¿por qué es indagado hace más de un año por la Iglesia Católica?

La periodista y autora del libro “Karadima; el señor de los infiernos”, María Olivia Mönckeberg, conversó con TERRA.cl sobre este religioso, precisamente porque formó parte de algunos pasajes de su obra.

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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Bishop Daniel Conlon

God bless you. Your commitment to the care of victim/survivors of past abuse in the Church and to the safety of children in the Church today is a true manifestation of God’s grace. What you do every day builds up the body of Christ and allows the light of Christ to shine more brightly in the world.
More than twenty years ago I had your responsibilities in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. I am confident that you are much better equipped to fulfill the task and even have a better idea what the task is. I am certain that you are doing a better job. I think we all are.

PART 1—A LONG WAY TOWARD HEALING

You understand that I must be cautious in making that assertion: that we are collectively doing a better job. Most Catholics and the public in general apparently believe that the Church’s handling of the sexual abuse of minors is barely more correct or effective today than it was ten years ago.

The May issue of U.S. Catholic reported on a survey of 300 Catholics it had conducted. The article, “Needs improvement: Readers rate the bishops’ response to church sex abuse”, does not describe the survey’s methodology. So, the survey’s objectivity and scope is unclear.

The bottom line, though: thumbs down for the bishops. For example, 59% of the respondents said that the bishops have done the bare minimum, while only 9% think that the bishops have done a good job of being transparent about past cases of abuse. 55% say the bishops are less likely to cover up abuse cases today than in the past. Remarkably—and this will certainly disappoint you—34%–just over one-third—believe that “parishes and schools are now safer for children thanks to safeguards implemented in the last 10 years.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

CWN – August 30, 2012

The August 30 issue of Origins includes “Help for Bishops in Rebuilding Trust,” a recent talk by Bishop Daniel Conlon of Joliet, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People.

“For the last few years I operated with the conviction that consistent implementation of the ‘Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,’ coupled with some decent publicity, would turn public opinion around,” he said at a conference of safe-environment and victims’ assistance coordinators. “I now know this was an illusion … I was wandering in a hall of mirrors.”

Stating that bishops’ “credibility on the subject of child abuse is shredded,” Bishop Conlon said that the lay diocesan employees “may have a better chance. People–in the Church, outside the Church, and hanging on the edge–need to know that real progress is being made” in the “daunting task of repairing the damage.”

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NAPERVILLE (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Priest on leave while church investigates ‘credible’ abuse allegation

By Melissa Jenco
Tribune reporter

6:55 p.m. CDT, August 29, 2012

A former parish priest at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Naperville has been placed on leave following an accusation of sexually abusing a minor more than two decades ago, according to the Diocese of Joliet.

The diocese has launched an investigation into the Rev. James Nowak, 75, who is retired.

“The review committee discussed it and recommended to the bishop it was credible, so he’s going to have it investigated further by church authorities. And Fr. Nowak has been placed on administrative leave,” diocese spokesman Doug Delaney said Wednesday.

Delaney said the alleged abuse occurred more than 25 years ago, but he would not say where Nowak was serving at the time.

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ILLINOIS
WGN

WGN News Desk

8:08 p.m. CDT, August 29, 2012

A retired priest from Naperville has been placed on leave following an accusation of sexually abusing a minor more than 25 years ago, according to the Diocese of Joliet.

Rev. James Nowak, 75, formerly of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Naperville, will not be allowed to say a public Mass or administer sacraments while on administrative leave.

In a statement, diocese spokesman Doug Delaney said, “The review committee discussed it and recommended to the bishop it was credible, so he’s going to have it investigated further by church authorities.”

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GEORGIA
Savannah Morning News

By Jan Skutch

A Catholic priest who once served as pastor at Holy Cross Church in Pembroke was accused of sexual misconduct last week for the third time.

An Atlanta-area man told police he was molested as a child by the Rev. Bob Poandl, who in addition to pastoring in Pembroke served served in two other churches in the Diocese of Savannah, a support group for victims said Aug. 22.

Leaders of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, SNAP, want Poandl put in a secure treatment center to protect possible victims and are asking Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory and Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer in Savannah to visit each place where the Rev. Bob Poandl worked and reach out to potential victims.

“Actually he really needs to be in jail,” SNAP official Judy Block Jones said Wednesday. ”We’re really concerned there might be some new victims in that area” of the Savannah Diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Newcastle

Updated August 30, 2012

In what is believed to be an Australian first, a Hunter Valley Catholic priest has been charged with failing to report the alleged child sex offences of another priest.

Toronto Catholic priest Tom Brennan, 74, has been charged with 14 offences.

They include sexually assaulting a boy while he was a priest at Waratah in the 1980s as well as common assault and performing acts of indecency at the same church.

But the ABC has been told some of the charges – understood to be a first for Australia – relate to Brennan’s alleged actions in relation to defrocked former priest John Sidney Denham.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From:The Australian
August 30, 2012

A FORMER senior cleric in the NSW Hunter Valley has been charged with sexual abuse and failing to disclose alleged abuse by another priest.

It is thought to be the first time a member of the Australian Catholic clergy has been charged with failing to report the alleged child sex offences of another priest to police.

Father Thomas Brennan, 74, was charged this morning with two counts of misprision of a felony, or failing to disclose a serious crime, relating to alleged child sex offences at a school during the late 1970s.

Father Brennan, who was a school principal at the time of these alleged offences, was also charged with 10 counts of sexually assaulting a young boy in the early 1980s, when he was a parish priest.

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AUSTRALIA
NSW Police Force

CORRECTION Catholic priest charged with historical child sex offences – Lake Macquarie LAC

Thursday, 30 August 2012 03:23:38 PM

**CORRECTION: Further clarification of charges**

Detectives have arrested and charged a Catholic priest with child sex offences.

Strike Force Georgiana was established in March 2008, consisting of investigators from Lake Macquarie Local Area Command, to investigate allegations of child sexual abuse by various priests within the area.

About 9.15am today (Thursday 30 August 2012), a 74-year-old man attended Charlestown Police Station where he was arrested.

He was charged with the following offences whilst employed as the principal at a high school at Adamstown;

#One count of misprision of a felon to wit buggery, relating to allegedly failing to report the sexual abuse by another priest on a child at the school in 1978;

#One count of misprision of a felon to wit indecent assault on male, relating to allegedly failing to report the sexual abuse by another priest on a child at the school in 1978;

#Two counts of common assault relating to an alleged assault on two children at the school in 1978.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Roberts on Aug. 29, 2012 NCR Today

Fr. Benedict Groeschel has led an inspiring life, particularly in his role as head of a band of brothers known as the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. I’ve written admiringly of the Brooklyn-based friars in the past. For whatever one might think of their rather conservative approach to religious matters (Fr. Groeschel is a regular on EWTN), the friars live out of the heart of the gospel’s admonition to be with the poor, a position that has no liberal or conservative slant.

In short, they put their lives on the line.

In a recent interview with John Burger for the National Catholic Register, Groeschel looks back on his 25 years with the friars, a growing national and international community that started as a part of the better-known Capuchin Franciscans. His reflections are worth reading and his recollections at the end of the piece, a poetic reflection on death that leads to a recounting of a powerful moment as a youth, are particularly edifying.

But there is a section of the interview, in which he discusses the sex abuse crisis, that simply cannot stand unchallenged. It is particularly disturbing because he’s earned significant credentials in psychology. Asked whether he’s worked with priests who have been abusive he said:

“A little bit, yes; but you know, in those cases they have to leave. And some of them profoundly – profoundly – penitential, horrified. People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to – a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him (emphasis in original). A lot of the cases, the youngster – 14, 15 18 – is the seducer.”

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AUSTRALIA
Byron Shire News

Jessica Grewal | 30th August 2012

AN ELDERLY Catholic priest has been charged over a series of historic child sex offences spanning two decades.

The 74-year-old is accused of failing to report repeated allegations of sexual abuse by another priest while he was the principal of an Adamstown high school in the late 70s and assaulting several boys at a Sydney church during the 80s.

He was arrested at Charlestown on Thursday morning and charged with 15 related offences.

He will front a Newcastle court on September 24.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

By Meredith Bennett-Smith

In a recent interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Benedict Groeschel, of the conservative Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said that teens act as seducers in some sexual abuse cases involving priests.

It’s been close to decade since an investigation into clergy sex abuse cases by The Boston Globe unearthed a shocking scandal and cover-up that rocked the foundations of the Catholic Church in the U.S. and around the world.

Ten years may have passed, but the wounds have yet to fully heal in America, especially in light of the recent Penn State allegations, as well as the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, former secretary for the clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

In light of this, the recent comments by Groeschel seem both puzzling and jarringly out of step with current sentiments.

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UNITED STATES
Renew America

By Matt C. Abbott

My favorite living spiritual writer, Father Benedict Groeschel, made some comments in a recent interview with the National Catholic Register that I find quite disturbing.

The portion of the interview with Father Groeschel addressing the issue of sexual abuse is as follows (click here to read the interview, which is wide-ranging, in its entirety):

[Interviewer]: Part of your work here at Trinity has been working with priests involved in abuse, no?

[Father Groeschel]: A little bit, yes; but you know, in those cases, they have to leave. And some of them profoundly — profoundly — penitential, horrified. People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Outrage at friar’s claims that it is often the teenage boys who seduce priests in religious sex abuse cases

By Daniel Miller

Father Benedict Groeschel has sparked outrage claiming it is often boys who seduce priests in religious sex abuse cases

A friar has sparked outrage after claiming it is often the boys who seduce priests in religious sexual abuse cases.

In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Benedict Groeschel of the conservative Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said he did not believe a priest found guilty of sexual absuse should go to jail if it was his first offence.

He even went on to describe disgraced Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky as a ‘poor guy’.

Father Groeschel, an influential voice in the American catholic community, has written several books and appears weekly on a religious television network.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

[note: This article has been removed from the Register web site.]

by JOHN BURGER
08/27/2012

It’s been 25 years since Father Benedict Groeschel and seven other friars broke away from their Capuchin communities and formed what would come to be known as the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Their growth as a community of priests and brothers has been impressive — both in the numbers of young men joining them and the number of friaries they have begun in the New York metropolitan area, other states and other countries.

Wearing a gray habit fashioned after the Capuchin robe with cowl, the friars have become a common sight not only on the streets of poor neighborhoods from the Bronx to Honduras to inner-city London, but also at religious conferences and pro-life events.

Father Benedict, 78, who has been in religious life since he was a teenager, has also become a high-profile author and much-in-demand speaker throughout the world. …

Part of your work here at Trinity has been working with priests involved in abuse, no?

A little bit, yes; but you know, in those cases, they have to leave. And some of them profoundly — profoundly — penitential, horrified. People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.

Why would that be?

Well, it’s not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping but not having intercourse or anything like that.

It’s an understandable thing, and you know where you find it, among other clergy or important people; you look at teachers, attorneys, judges, social workers. Generally, if they get involved, it’s heterosexually, and if it’s a priest, he leaves and gets married — that’s the usual thing — and gets a dispensation. A lot of priests leave quickly, get civilly married and then apply for the dispensation, which takes about three years.

But there are the relatively rare cases where a priest is involved in a homosexual way with a minor. I think the statistic I read recently in a secular psychology review was about 2%. Would that be true of other clergy? Would it be true of doctors, lawyers, coaches?

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UNITED STATES
TNT Magazine

Prominent religious leader Father Benedict Groeschel has made the astonishing claim that in many cases of sexual abuse within the church, the teenagers were to blame.

In a recent interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Benedict Groeschel, of the conservative Franciscan Friars of the Renewal said ‘People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.’

The 78 yr old priest, who has a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University in 1971, is an influential figure in the American Dioceses who appears weekly on Catholic TV channel EWTN, and has written several books.

Many readers of the National Catholic Register were dismayed to read his comments published without comment, especially as the publication has an affiliation with disgraced Legion of Christ religious order. This clerical order were rocked by scandal when its previous leader, the very high profile Rev Marcial Maciel was accused of sexual abuse. It was also part of a group of investors who saved the National Catholic Registar from closing in 1995.

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UNITED STATES
Time

By Ellen Lee / San Francisco | August 29, 2012

Just days after his appointment as the next Archbishop of San Francisco in late July, the Rev. Salvitore Cordileone was in Napa Valley, leading a special mass for some of the nation’s most prominent conservative Catholic leaders.

They had gathered in the wine country to contemplate “Catholics in the Next America” and their place in the debate over abortion, marriage, sex and other hot button issues. Cordileone, 56, had already become known for his instrumental role in passing Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot to end same-sex marriage in California. And now Cordileone, the current bishop of the neighboring Oakland Diocese, had been called to head more than half a million Catholics in the San Francisco area.

“He was a rock star there. There was no question about it,” recalled Frank Schubert, one of the Napa retreat’s attendees and the political strategist who managed California’s Proposition 8 campaign.

But that ascension was shaken over the weekend after Cordileone, driving his mother home after a late evening with friends, was stopped at a sobriety checkpoint in San Diego and found to be over the state’s legal blood alcohol level of 0.08. He was booked and released after posting $2,500 bail.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Iglesia realiza investigación canónica contra sacerdote más cercano a Karadima por “manipulación de conciencia”

por Angélica Baeza Palavecino – 29/08/2012

Fuentes de la Iglesia confirmaron hoy a La Tercera que “hace más de un año” la Iglesia inició una investigación canónica contra Juan Esteban Morales, ex párroco de El Bosque y el sacerdote más cercano a Fernando Karadima.

Las mismas fuentes aseguraron que la indagatoria es por “manipulación de conciencia” y que es llevada por el vicario judicial, Jaime Ortíz de Lazcano, quien también investiga el caso de Cristián Precht.

Una de las víctimas de Karadima, Juan Carlos Cruz, comentó a La Tercera que “ha habido un abuso de poder increíble y ojalá sigan con los obispos encubridores: Arteaga, Barros, Valenzuela y Koljatic”.

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BOSTON (MA)
Irish Central

The worldwide Catholic Church reform movement Voice of the Faithful, which started in 2002 in outrage and dismay that the Church’s power structure had kept clergy sexual abuse of children secret, is marking its tenth year with a conference in Boston this September. The event is expected to draw supporters from across the United States and Europe.

VOTF was started here in Boston, but is international now with some 30,000 members and a strong presence in Ireland. Many of the US members are also Irish or Irish-American.

The outrage in Boston that sparked the founding of VOTF back in 2002 has morphed into something different today (yet no less significant) as more and more Catholics embrace ideas previously seen as radical (women priests, optional celibacy). The importance of changing the church for future generations is also now a theme that rings true for many, as we have seen here in the US, as in Ireland and elsewhere, a lost generation moving away from religion. Amid these changes, Voice of the Faithful trudges onwards making steady progress towards its goals to support survivors of abuse, and work towards structural change in the church with greater input from laypeople, greater roles for women, and financial accountability within the Catholic Church.

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BELGIUM
Washington Post

Accomplice, ex-wife of Belgian pedophile killer settles into convent life after early release

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, August 29

BRUSSELS — The screaming, insults and scuffles that accompanied the nighttime arrival of one of Belgium’s most despised criminals at a bucolic convent have abated.

A local legislator who suggested in a Tweet that Michelle Martin, the woman who let two 8-year-old girls starve to death in a cellar and helped her pedophile husband carry out horrific abuse 16 years ago, should be “taken down,” said on Wednesday that his comment should not be taken seriously.

And political talk is centering on how to toughen the conditions for early release in Belgium to avoid having a criminal like Martin walk free after serving only 16 years of her 30-year sentence.

Meanwhile, Martin started her first day at the Clarisse convent in the village of Malonne on Wednesday. She will have to work for 20 hours a week to compensate for her living costs as she seeks, in the words of her lawyer, atonement for her crimes.

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MINNESOTA
SNAP Minnesota

[with lists and graphics]

Have you ever seen or heard of a bishop acting as a Good Samaritan toward half dead sexual abuse survivors laying along the road? On my numerous advocacy journeys I have not.

Bishops on their journeys, regardless of what they say in public or have written in their “US policy,” have not climbed off their donkeys to help the attacked survivors with shattered innocents souls. It is a known fact the bishops will not take attacked and bleeding survivors to an inn for healing and recovery.

The bishops don’t want the full truth about sexual abuse by clergy to step from the shadows of silence and emerge into the sunshine.

In the reflection of tears on my journeys I step from the silent shadows to light these truths.

Bob Schwiderski

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KENS

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A U.S. priest will remain in legal limbo until 2013 after a judge set a March date for his retrial in a child sexual assault case.

Prosecutors are retrying the Rev. James Brennan after the jury deadlocked on attempted rape and child endangerment charges.

The jury acquitted Brennan of conspiring with church officials after a landmark trial that alleged a broad cover-up of abuse complaints at the Philadelphia archdiocese.

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UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider

Now that everyone is vying to win over Catholic voters, the consequences faced by the newly appointed archbishop of San Francisco for his recent involvement in a drink driving incident, may not be so severe

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

It is still too early to tell whether the new archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone’s run in with the police last Friday night will have any consequences for his upcoming mission and what these may be. The archbishop was stopped near the San Diego campus and found to have a blood-alcohol level higher than the legal limit in California.

The prelate – a representative of the American Episcopal conference’s new conservative guard who was promoted to the position of Archbishop of San Francisco last 27 July after just three years as leader of the Diocese of Oakland and a standard-bearer in the battle against same-sex marriage – was apparently accompanying his 80 year old mother home after a meal at a friend’s house.

Cordileone apologised and said he felt “shame for the disgrace” he brought upon the church and himself, adding that he wanted to repay his “debt to society.” He is due to start his work in the new diocese on 4 October. Five days later, the archbishop who spent nine hours in a county prison cell and was released on bail, will be required to appear in court.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the DUI arrest of Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, the archbishop-elect of San Francisco:

Bishop Cordileone was stopped at a DUI checkpoint in San Diego last weekend; he was arrested after it was determined that his blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit. He has since apologized.

This won’t be the end of this story, but not because of what happened. What counts is who it happened to. It just so happens that Cordileone holds orthodox Catholic positions on sexuality, the kind of views hated by both secularists and left-wing Catholics. Consider Michael Sean Winters of the dissident weekly, the National Catholic Reporter.

Winters, like a lot of embittered Catholic “progressives,” is obsessed with homosexuality. That is why he was unable to write one paragraph in his screed against Cordileone without mentioning this subject. The context? Winters wants the bishop to “think with greater compassion about the complicated lives we all lead today.” He also wants the bishop to show an “approriate [sic] humility and humanness.” All of this is code for “shut up and leave the culture to us.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

ISRAEL’S BIGGEST-circulation daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, has this week called Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto’s appointment last week as papal nuncio to Israel “an embarrassment and a humiliation”, largely because of his conduct during the clerical sex abuse crisis in Ireland.

In particular, the newspaper highlighted the fact that the Murphy commission report on clerical child sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese reported that a request to the nuncio in February 2007 for “documents in his possession relevant to the commission’s terms of reference” received no reply.

The commission said it received no reply primarily because it had not approached either the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome or the nuncio in Ireland “through appropriate diplomatic channels”.

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ISRAEL
Worldcrunch

YEDIOTH AHRONOTH (Israel), LA STAMPA (Italy), THE IRISH TIMES (Ireland)

JERUSALEM – The appointment of Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto as Papal Nuncio to Israel last week has sparked controversy in Jerusalem after it emerged that he was linked to the pedophile priests scandal that hit the Irish Catholic Church in 2005..

The country’s biggest-circulation daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, has refered to Lazzaroto’s appointment by Pope Benedict XVI “an embarrassment and humiliation for Israel”.

Archbishop Lazzarotto, who served as the Vatican’s ambassador to Ireland at the time of the scandal, was accused of doing everything in his power to protect suspected Irish clerics.

He is thought to have spearheaded the strategy not to cooperate with Judge Yvonne Murphy – who was investigating the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin, explain La Stampa and The Irish Times.

After refusing to disclose information in Ireland, he was appointed Vatican’s ambassador to Australia in 2008.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A Philadelphia judge this morning set March 6 for the retrial of Rev. James J. Brennan, the Roman Catholic priest charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

Common Pleas Court Judge Robert P. Coleman met briefly with Assistant District Attorneys Patrick Blessington and Mark Cipolletti and Brennan and defense lawyers William J. Brennan Jr. and Richard J. Fuschino Jr. before setting the trial date.

Coleman also set March 4 for a pretrial conference.

Father Brennan, 49, was tried earlier this year with Msgr. William J. Lynn, 61, the former secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

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CHILE
La Tercera

por Felipe Passi – 23/08/2012

El fiscal de la zona Metropolitana Oriente, Ignacio Pinto, fue designado para investigar la denuncia presentada por el Colegio Verbo Divino, luego de que un apoderado acusara que un estudiante del establecimiento fue víctima de abuso sexual, pero fuera del recinto escolar.

Pinto es el mismo persecutor que indaga el caso del colegio Cumbres, en el que se acusa de abuso sexual al sacerdote John O’Reilly. El fiscal ya recibió la carpeta con la denuncia, por lo se iniciarán las primeras diligencias.

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CHILE
Terra

El abogado de las familias denunciantes de los casos de abusos sexuales en el colegio Cumbres, Ciro Colombara, dijo que la única sanción que cabe hacia el establecimiento es la cancelación de su autorización de funcionamiento. Esto luego que elestablecimiento perteneciente a la congregación de los Legionarios de Cristo, que suspendió al sacerdote John O’Reilly por denuncias de abusos sexuales, recibió una multa de 36 millones de pesos por parte del Ministerio de Educación a causa de una serie de irregularidades entre las que destacó la ausencia de privacidad en los baños, lo que afecta la dignidad de alumnos y alumnas.

Ante tal situación,menciona Cooperativa, Colombara afirmó que “en su momento se habló de que las sanciones podían llegar incluso a la cancelación de la autorización de funcionamiento. La gravedad de los hechos que todos conocemos hace suponer que obviamente esa debería ser la sanción”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

— Another sad and shocking news report about child sexual abuse made its way onto one of our front pages last weekend.

Like us, our readers, too, must be asking, what is going on? These senseless, sick criminal acts are happening all too frequently across our region.

And the case to which we now refer involves a longtime spiritual leader, a priest in the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese.

The priest, the Rev. George Koharchik, 63, has been relieved by the diocese of his duties at a Huntingdon County parish. It has been alleged that he sexually molested “young boys” at a parish in Cambria County more than 30 years ago.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

[with video]

By Maria Miller

CAMBRIA COUNTY, Pa. —

It was last Friday that Bishop Mark Bartchak of the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese told prosecutors in Cambria County that he had received allegations involving one of their priests. He said George Koharchik may have abused a number of children possibly as far back as 30 years ago.

Barchak removed Koharchik from his position at St. Catherine of Siena in Mount Union. He is not facing charges because there haven’t been any alleged victims that have come forward. 6 News reporter Maria Miller talked with prosecutors on Tuesday to find out why they’re not actively seeking the alleged victims.

The diocese said the allegations come from a time when Koharchik was in Cambria County, but said it does not plan to release the names of any churches where the abuse may have occurred.

“The alleged abuse happened so long ago that we are trying to be very mindful that this is a tough situation for all involved,” said Tony DeGol, secretary for communications for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. “We certainly don’t want to put that parish community in the spotlight unnecessarily.”

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