ABUSE TRACKER

WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

In announcing his decision to remove the statue of Joe Paterno from outside of the Penn State football stadium Penn State President Rod Erickson stated that the 7 foot statue of Joe Pa “has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing”. Erickson added “I believe that, were it to remain, the statue would be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse”.

On the same day that a forklift lowered the statue of Penn State’s disgraced football coach onto a flatbed truck to be carried away and placed into storage the President of the NCAA Mark Emmert announced that “corrective and punitive measures” would be taken against Penn State adding that he had “never seen anything as egregious”. The NCAA will announce its sanctions against Penn State on Monday noting that they will be “well beyond what was done in the past”.

The bronze statue of Joe Paterno was removed and sanctions will be imposed against Penn State because Paterno and University officials covered up, concealed, and enabled the child sex crimes committed by football coach Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was convicted of sexually assaulting at least 10 boys and is expected to spend the remainder of his life behind bars. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh described Paterno and his colleagues as having “total and consistent disregard” for the children Sandusky brutally assaulted.

In sharp contrast to what is taking place on the campus of Penn State University the Archdiocese of Milwaukee continues to honor and glorify those bishops who enabled and facilitated the rape and sexual assault of countless children. Despite a declaration of bankruptcy, and over 8,000 acts of reported abuse which span decades, the bishops of Milwaukee, including William Cousins, Rembert Weakland, and Richard Sklba are still provided with admiration and acclaim by church officials.

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UNITED STATES
WCF Courier

By STEVE THEISEN | Posted: Sunday, July 22, 2012

Steve Theisen is the director of the Iowa chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

The July 1st Courier editorial, “Child sexual abuse convictions a win for children everywhere” with the accompanied editorial caricature, was indeed encouraging for sex abuse survivors, their loved ones, and children. (Penn State University assistant football Coach Jerry Sandusky convicted and former Philadelphia cardinal’s aide found guilty of endangering children).

But to further protect children and to stop predators, we, as a society cannot stop there. Because sex offenders are shrewd and cunning, we need to do everything possible to enable sex abuse victims to come forward, expose predators, and protect kids. We know it’s safe for legislators to “get tough” with child molesters and pass laws restricting their activities, movements, and putting them on a registry but that is far from what is needed.

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FLORIDA
The Daily Commercial

Published: Sunday, July 22, 2012

MILLARD K. IVES | Staff Writer
millardives@dailycommercial.com

A molestation investigation that shut down a Eustis day-care center on Thursday has led to similar accusations from four more victims, the Department of Children and Families reported Saturday.

According to a Lake County Sheriff’s report, detectives began an investigation of Kenneth Hagins of Tavares after parents of a 5-year-old boy at Pat’s Kidzworld Development in Eustis said on July 11 that he had been molested there by Hagins.

Carrie Hoeppner, a DCF spokeswoman, said allegations of sexual assault the day before were made against the same man by a developmentally disabled man at SunriseArc, a group home in Mount Dora.

However, Hoeppner said the investigation stemming from Pat’s Kidzworld turned up three more juveniles and another adult who lodged molestation complaints against Hagins.

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FLORIDA
San Francisco Chronicle

EUSTIS, Fla. (AP) — State officials say a Central Florida child care facility has been closed and a worker who also serves as a youth pastor was arrested on charges of sexual battery against children.

Pat’s Kidz World Development Center in Eustis surrendered its license Thursday in place of having it immediately revoked, according to a statement released Saturday by the Florida Department of Children and Families.

The employee, 40-year-old Kenneth Hagins of Tavares, surrendered Friday and remained in custody Saturday at the Lake County Detention Center. In addition to the battery charge, he is accused of lewd and lascivious acts on an elderly or disabled person, according to jail records. His bond was set at $200,000. Jail officials could not say if he has a lawyer.

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FLORIDA
13 News

EUSTIS —
The man suspected of sexually abusing a child at a day care remains in jail on $200,000.

Kenneth Hagins worked at Pat’s Kidzworld Development Center in Eustis.

Department of Children and Families investigators said Hagins, 40, may have abused a disabled person while working at a group home.

Hagins is a youth pastor with Promise Land Ministries in Eustis, who surrendered on Friday.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

By Patrick Barnard

Federal prosecutors are reportedly recommending a one year prison sentence for former Greenwich priest Michael Moynihan, who allegedly used church money for his own personal expenses.

The former pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish is to be sentenced Monday in New Haven after pleading guilty last year to obstructing a federal investigation, according to an Associated Press report.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

July 23, 2012

Richard Baker, Nick McKenzie

POLICE have admitted for the first time that a notorious paedophile priest escaped justice and lived out his life in Britain because they failed to question him about serious child sex allegations.

Victoria’s Assistant Commissioner, Steve Fontana, confirmed Father Ronald Dennis Pickering was not pursued because detectives handling complaints about him in the 1990s believed force command was unlikely to support any request to travel to Britain.

Pickering, who died recently in Britain after fleeing Australia in 1993, has been linked to the suicides of up to eight people he allegedly sexually abused as children at various Catholic parishes around Melbourne in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

The Melbourne archdiocese has acknowledged in writing Pickering’s ”proclivity for child abuse” and has financially compensated several victims. Pickering is understood to have received some pension entitlements from the church after its leadership became aware of his crimes.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

In a 29-page, scorched-earth sentencing memo, prosecutors assail Monsignor William J. Lynn as a “cold,” “craven” “yes man” who, in his position as secretary for clergy for the Philadelphia archdiocese, functioned as an “amoral” enabler of predator priests.

Although defense lawyers have tried to portray Lynn as a powerless, low-level functionary, the prosecutors in their sentencing memo brand the monsignor as a “central actor” in the archdiocese sex scandals while he served as Cardinal Bevilacqua’s secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. In that job, prosecutors said, Lynn waged a 12-year campaign of “constant deceit,” managing to keep both victims and parishioners in the dark, while displaying “a willingness to sacrifice anyone to please his superiors.”

“Defendant’s apparent lack of remorse for anyone but himself, his refusal to accept responsibility, and his failure to understand the criminality of his actions all demonstrate character in serious need of rehabilitation,” prosecutors Mariana Sorensen and Patrick Blessington conclude. “A maximum sentence may be the only way to impress upon defendant that he committed a serious crime, that there are more important rules to follow that instructions from corrupt or misguided bishops, and that protection of children trumps the reputation of abusers and the institution that harbors them.”

Lynn is scheduled to be sentenced at a 9 a.m. hearing Tuesday in front of Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, who presided over the monsignor’s ten-week trial After being convicted of one count of endangering the welfare of a child, a third-degree felony, Lynn faces a jail sentence of between 3 1/2 and 7 years. If the prosecution’s sentencing memo is any guide, Tuesday’s hearing won’t be a spectacle for the faint-hearted.

The prosecutors begin their narrative in September 1992 when a former altar boy at St. Philip Neri Church in East Greenville, Pa., then a medical student, told the monsignor about being repeatedly abused in the 1970s by Father Ronald V. Avery. When he was a young teenager, the victim said, he was one of many altar boys that Avery would take to his Jersey shore house, ply them with liquor, and then wrestle with him.

The victim told Lynn that Avery would “sometimes touch his genitals while they roughhoused.” The victim also told Lynn that “Avery molested him in the priest’s bed after [the victim] has assisted Avery” while he was working his part-time gig as a disc jockey. The priest subsequently took the victim on a ski trip to Vermont, where he molested him again in a motel bed.

Lynn “referred to himself as the cardinal’s ‘delgate’ in matters having to do with sexual abuse,” the prosecutors wrote. In 1994, Lynn included Father Avery on a list he drew up of “37 pedophiles and priests” accused of guilty of sexual abuse of minors. On the list, Lynn wrote that Avery was “guilty of sexual abuse of a minor.”

Avery was shipped off to St. John Vianney, an archdiocese-owned facility, for nine months of psychiatric evaluation and treatment. The therapists recommended that Avery “not be assigned to a ministry involving adolescents or vulnerable minorities,” the prosecutors wrote. At the time, Avery was also the legal guardian for six H-Mong children.

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NEW YORK
NBC New York

An administrator at Fordham University resigned Friday after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused a boy more than 40 years ago, according to a published report.

Brother James Liguori, who served as president of Iona College in New Rochelle for 17 years, became the executive director of Fordham’s Westchester campus in 2011.

He stepped down Friday a day after a lawsuit by his alleged victim was made public, reports the Daily News.

In a statement, Fordham University said Liguori passed all background checks when he was hired by the university, and officials say they began investigating the claims immediately.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Updated July 21, 2012

Paris Arrow

William Lynn is the highest Roman Catholic Church officer to be brought to justice and found guilty by a secular jury in our American secular court of law (without Rosaries or Eucharist or Vatican Canon Laws influences) and it is time our American justice system also give him the maximum penalty of 7 years of jail time without parole in deference to the hundreds of thousands of victims of the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.ca/ named aptly after the longest reigning pope of the 20th century who did and said nothing about this most heinous crimes against children in Christendom and of the 20th century and ironically John Paul II is also the fastest tracking saint and biggest Opus Dei Golden Cow.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

In March 2008, Cardinal Justin F. Rigali handed Bishop Michael J. Bransfield welcome news.

After a four-month inquiry, Rigali, then head of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, declared unfounded a claim that Bransfield had molested a Lansdale Catholic High School student in the 1970s.

The outcome wasn’t unusual – other priests had been cleared of decades-old allegations – but the process was.

In a break from practice, the accusation against Bransfield bypassed the archdiocese’s civilian review board, according to a source briefed on the case but not authorized to publicly discuss it. The board was formed to conduct independent examinations of abuse claims and assesses priests’ suitablility for ministry.

Instead, Rigali acted after reviewing the reports of an investigator who interviewed Bransfield, his accuser and others.

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IRELAND
Northern Star

22nd July 2012

AFTER battling post-traumatic stress, suicidal thoughts and alcoholism for nearly five decades, Marlene ‘Del’ Burgess has finally turned the corner on her fight to recover from sexual abuse at the hands of a Lismore Catholic priest.

It’s taken years of therapy, it destroyed her marriage and Marlene believes the legacy of the abuse has been visited upon her own daughter and grandchildren.

But she feels finally she can call herself a survivor.

Between the ages of 10 and 14 the now Ballina resident says she was abused by the late Father Paul Rex Brown and beaten repeatedly by a nun she confided in.

In 2003, after 40 years of keeping her dark secret, Marlene revealed her story to The Northern Star.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Top boss at Fordham University’s Westchester Campus, Brother James Liguori, resigns amid allegations he sexually abused a boy more than 42 years ago

By Oren Yaniv / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, July 21, 2012

A top administrator at Fordham University resigned Friday amid allegations he sexually abused a boy more than 42 years ago.

James Liguori, executive director of Fordham’s Westchester campus, who previously was president of Iona College, stepped down one day after a lawsuit by his alleged victim was made public.

“Brother Liguori passed a criminal background check in fall 2011, when he was hired by Fordham,” the university said in a statement. “University officials began investigating immediately, and on Friday [he] submitted his resignation, effective immediately.”

The man who filed the suit claimed Liguori molested him in 1969 at the Cardinal Farley Military Academy in Dutchess County, which was run by the Christian Brothers.

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UNITED STATES
Jay Nelson’s Renegade Catholic Blog

[THE PROBLEM OF SEXUAL MOLESTATION BY ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY :
MEETING THE PROBLEM IN A COMPREHENSIVE AND RESPONSIBLE MANNER – via BishopAccountability.org]

Most survivors of clergy abuse by now have heard the woeful tale of The Manual (full title: The Problem of Sexual Molestation by Roman Catholic Clergy: Meeting the Problem in a Responsible Manner).

It’s widely known how back when the first scandal arose in Louisiana in the early 1980s, Ray Mouton, the attorney for the perpetrating priest, Gilbert Gauthe, called for help. And how Fathers Tom Doyle and Michael Peterson responded. Together, the three men wrote a proposal on managing the already brewing clergy abuse crisis for the country’s bishops, and how, mysteriously, nothing ever came of it.

Why? Could it be that was the entire point of the exercise?

While going through old newspaper clippings about the scandals for my book Sons of Perdition, I came upon a curious fact that had emerged. Our old neighbors, the Servants of the Paraclete, were advised by the bishops’ organization at one point to destroy their records. The purpose was supposedly, “to make room.” The archbishop of the hosting diocese of Santa Fe was also told to do the same. But how did the folks in Washington come to think both places were running out of space and they had to tell them to do something about it?

Unfortunately, no precise date was given, just the “mid 1980s”. Interestingly, The Manual was completed on June 8-9, 1985 and presented at the annual National Conference of Catholic Bishops pow-wow shortly thereafter – as close to “mid 1980s” as one can get.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

UPDATED FRIDAY

Msgr. William J. Lynn poses “no danger to the public,” his defense lawyers argue, so putting him away for a maximum prison term of seven years would amount to “cruel and unusual punishment.” Lynn’s defense lawyers are also asking that Lynn be freed from jail pending an appeal.

On Tuesday, Lynn will stand before Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, and be sentenced for his June 22 conviction on a third-degree felony of endangering the welfare of a child. He is facing a prison term of between 3 1/2 to 7 years. Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington has already said that the prosecution will seek the maximum sentence of seven years for Msgr. Lynn.

Lynn’s defense team, however, argued in a sentencing memo filed Wednesday that Lynn has never touched a child, and that “no reported Pennsylvania case has ever dealt with a situation where an individual had been convicted of EWOC [endangering the welfare of a child] without ever knowing the child that he or she was accused of endangering.”

“Msgr. Lynn has never harbored any intent to harm a child,” Lynn’s lawyers argued. “To the contrary, letters from friends, teachers, fellow priests, nuns and family members extol Msgr. Lynn’s love and respect for children and their safety, offering in supporting innumerable examples of the care and protection he showed the children he has come across.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Paolo Gabriele gets a provisional release after he was put in prison on charges of leaking confidential documents from the Apostolic Palace

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

After being held in prison for almost 60 days on charges of illegal possession of confidential documents belonging to the Pope, Paolo Gabriele, Benedict XVI’s former butler has been released from his security cell in the Vatican Gendarmerie building, where he has been confined since 23 May 2012.

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CHICAGO (IL)
411 Bookworm

A former Buddhist monk who allegedly raped and impregnated a 15-year-old girl more than ten years ago was arrested for the crime yesterday.

Camnong Boa-Ubol, 62, is accused of repeatedly raping the girl over a period of two years when he worked at a Chicago temple.

The 62-year-old was charged with one count aggravated criminal sexual assault and was ordered to be held on $5 million bail at Cook County Circuit court this morning.

The alleged attack took place at the Wat Dhammaram temple in unincorporated Stickney Township.

The court heard today that the victim was just 13-years-old when Boa-Ubol approached her in a nearby car park and said he would pay her if she cleaned around the outside of the temple.
It was when she started working inside the temple the monk started kissing her, which eventually led to her first rape in 1997, according to the Chicago Tribune.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Everything Paolo Gabriele did, he did for love of the church and the pope, said the lawyers for the personal assistant to Pope Benedict XVI accused of leaking private documents.

However, Carlo Fusco and Cristiana Arru, the defense lawyers, said whether or not anything Gabriele did was a crime will be up to Vatican magistrates or a Vatican court to determine.

The lawyers spoke to reporters July 21 after Gabriele was allowed to leave a Vatican cell and return to his Vatican apartment to be with his wife and three children. He had been in custody for 60 days.

Vatican magistrates said they had finished their interrogation of the 46-year-old papal valet and were putting him under house arrest. The magistrates are still drafting their formal decision on whether or not they believe they have enough evidence to put Gabriele on trial for his alleged part in the “VatiLeaks” scandal.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The Pope’s butler has been released from custody and moved to house arrest.

The Vatican said that Paolo Gabriele will remain under house arrest pending a decision on whether he should stand trial for leaking confidential papers to the media.

He was charged in May after a series of leaks exposed alleged corruption and internal conflicts at the Holy See.

Mr Gabriele’s lawyer Carlo Fusco said his client had operated on his own in an “act of love” toward the Pope.

The so-called “Vatileaks” scandal saw an Italian investigative journalist publish hundreds of secret documents detailing fraud scandals, nepotism and cronyism within the Holy See.

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VATICAN CITY
London Free Press (Canada)

By Philip Pullella, Reuters

Last Updated: July 21, 2012

VATICAN CITY – The pope’s personal butler, who has been detained on suspicion of leaking documents alleging corruption in the Holy See, acted alone and was not part of any wider plot, his lawyer Carlo Fusco said on Saturday.

Separately, Father Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said the butler, Paolo Gabriele, had been released from preventive custody and placed under house arrest following a seven hour interrogation on Saturday.

Gabriele was charged in May over illegal possession of secret documents and has been held in a secure room at the Vatican police station awaiting a decision on whether he is put on trial.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

By Dario Thuburn (AFP)

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI’s butler was released from a Vatican cell and placed under house arrest on Saturday as he awaits a ruling on whether he should stand trial for leaking confidential papers.

“His detention is no longer necessary,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters, adding that the ruling would come by early August at the latest.

Paolo Gabriele “will reside at home with his family in the Vatican”, he said.

Gabriele’s lawyer meanwhile said his client believed his was “an act of love” for the pope and a bid to make the Catholic Church “more alive”. He stressed that Gabriele had acted alone and not as a part of any Vatican “plot”.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

July 21, 2012

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI’s jailed butler has been placed under house arrest nearly two months after he was detained for alleged involvement in leaking sensitive Vatican documents.

Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Saturday that Paolo Gabriele will return to his family home in the Vatican while judicial authorities decide whether to seek a trial or drop the investigation. A decision is expected within days.

Gabriele was arrested May 23 on suspicion of stealing and leaking the documents. The leaks exposed corruption, infighting and power struggles at the Vatican’s highest levels.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, June 27 (Reuters) – The board of the Vatican bank met on Wednesday to start the hunt for a new president to replace Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was unceremoniously ousted last month.

The Vatican said the board, which is made up of outside lay experts, had met to “identify the universally recognised criteria of professionalism and experience” needed for the job.

The board includes Carl Anderson, the American head of the international charity group Knights of Columbus, Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz, formerly a top executive at Deutsche Bank, Manuel Soto Serrano of Banco Santander and Antonio Maria Marocco, a prominent Italian notary.

Former Bundesbank head Hans Tietmeyer has denied Italian media reports that he was a candidate to become the next head of the bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).

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OSTERREICH
Michael Tfirst

Benedikt XVI. hatte als Kurienkardinal im Vatikan erklärt, wie es seinerzeit Schönborn auch nach längerem Leugnen letztendlich bekannte, dass die Vorwürfe gegen den Benediktiner Groer stimmen. Was machte Herr Ratzinger Jahre später? Er schickte im Jahr 2008 seinen Botschafter an Groers Grab, wo dieser eine Festrede hielt und Groer als Unschuldslamm hochjubelte……… Du sollst mein griechischer Götterknabe sein, schrieb ein anderer Benediktiner aus St. Peter in Salzburg…….

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

Gerhard Ludwig Müller ist einer der mächtigsten Männer der katholischen Kirche – und übt Kritik an einer Gruppe von ungehorsamen Priestern. Deren Vorgehen sei mit dem christlichen Glauben nicht vereinbar, so der neue Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan.

München – Kurienerzbischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller hat eine Gruppe von reformorientierten Priestern ermahnt, die sich beim Kommunionempfang für wiederverheiratete Geschiedene nicht mehr ans Kirchenrecht halten wollen. Sie förderten “ein Kirchenbild, das davon ausgeht, dass die Menschen sich selbst ihre Kirche schaffen, nach eigenem Geschmack und jeweiligem Zeitgeist”, sagte der neue Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan der “Süddeutschen Zeitung”. “Dies ist aber mit dem christlichen Glauben nicht vereinbar.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

Der von Papst Benedikt ernannte Chef der Glaubenskongregation hat Reformpriester zum Gehorsam aufgefordert. Die Kirche dürfte nicht dem Zeitgeist folgen, warnt Müller.

Der neue Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan, Kurienerzbischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller, hat reformorientierte katholische Priester zum Gehorsam gegenüber der Kirche ermahnt. Ein Kirchenbild, “das davon ausgeht, dass die Menschen sich selber ihre Kirche schaffen, nach eigenem Geschmack und jeweiligem Zeitgeist” sei “mit dem christlichen Glauben nicht zu vereinbaren”, sagte Müller der Süddeutschen Zeitung.

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CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times

By Tracey Kaplan
tkaplan@mercurynews.com
mercurynews.com

Posted: 07/20/2012

A juror who led the effort to acquit Will Lynch for punching a priest he claims molested him as a child confessed Friday that he would have handled the attack on the cleric differently.

“I would have used a club,” said Rich Parker, a semiretired bail bondsman.

In an interview with this newspaper, Parker offered the first peek at the jury’s deliberations in a case that shined the national spotlight on clerical sex abuse and its impact on victims.

Lynch, now 44, pummeled the Rev. Jerold Lindner at a Jesuit retirement home in Los Gatos in spring 2010, about 35 years after the priest allegedly sodomized him and forced him to have oral sex with his 4-year-old brother during a religious camping trip in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The beating left the 65-year-old cleric bloodied, bruised and with two small cuts requiring stitches.

Parker’s account came on the same day Santa Clara County prosecutor Vicki Gemetti officially entered into the court record a decision that District Attorney Jeff Rosen had already announced: The office will not retry Lynch for misdemeanor assault.

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CALIFORNIA
KGO

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — The Santa Clara County district attorney formally announced Friday that misdemeanor charges will not be re-filed against a man accused of beating a priest.

On July 5, a jury found William Lynch not guilty of felony assault and elder abuse charges in the attack on retired Catholic priest Jerold Lindner two years ago.

Lynch says that Lindner sexually abused him and his brother when they were young children.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Published 08:38 p.m., Friday, July 20, 2012

By Michael P. Mayko

HARTFORD — Twenty-two lawsuits seeking hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of 23 Haitian boys who claim they were sexually abused by Douglas Perlitz will meet their first legal test on Aug. 7.

U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny set aside that afternoon to hear oral arguments from a small army of defense lawyers seeking to dismiss the cases on various legal grounds.

On that day Chatigny will listen to arguments from both sides, ask questions and request written legal briefs. He could write a decision by early next year.

An attempt to settle the cases failed during an all-day session July 9 in Boston.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Written by
Terence Corcoran and Ken Valenti

Brother James Liguori, the former president of Iona College in New Rochelle and a current top administrator at Fordham’s Westchester campus, has resigned amid accusations that he sexually abused a teenage boy in 1969, Fordham officials announced in a statement Friday night.

“On Thursday, July 19, 2012, Fordham University learned that an advocacy group has claimed a lawsuit alleging child abuse was filed in 2008 against Brother James A. Liguori, associate vice president and executive director for Fordham Westchester,” the statement read. “Brother Liguori passed a criminal background check in fall 2011, when he was hired by Fordham. University officials began investigating immediately, and on Friday, July 20, Brother Liguori submitted his resignation, effective immediately.”

A network of sex-abuse victims announced Thursday that a California man had accused Liguori of sexually abusing him. The alleged victim, who lives in Orange County, Calif., claimed that Liguori abused him in 1969 at the Cardinal Farley Military Academy in Rhinebeck, N.Y., according to a release from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Liguori is a member of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers, and it was the religious order’s bankruptcy case, filed last year as the order’s assets were being drained by sex-abuse cases, that opened the window for the case to emerge, according to Joelle Casteix, SNAP’s western regional director.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Defense claims teen rape accuser of Hasidic leader Nechemya Weberman is seeking ‘revenge’

By Oren Yaniv/ NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

A teenager accused a prominent Hasidic leader of raping her only after she learned he persuaded her father to secretly record her having sex with a boyfriend, defense lawyers argued Wednesday.

The explosive allegation was made in Brooklyn Supreme Court as the trial date for the Satmar leader, Nechemya Weberman, 53, was set for the end of October.

“There is a motive of revenge,” defense lawyer George Farkas said when asking to introduce the sex tape evidence at trial.

“I haven’t seen the video, but I heard it’s very explicit,” a source said.

Prosecutors acknowledged the tape was shown to them and that the case against the boyfriend was eventually dropped. They note that Weberman accompanied the father to the district attorney’s office in 2010 to make an allegation of statutory rape.

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UNITED STATES
Toledo Blade

BY NOLAN ROSENKRANS
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo is to be on the NPR show Fresh Air next week.

He follows a leader of an organization representing 80 percent of American Catholic nuns. As a guest , she discussed a Vatican review of the nuns organization. The bishop is a leader of the review.

The interview by Fresh Air host Terry Gross with Sister Pat Farrell, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, was broadcast Tuesday. It focused on the organization’s response to the findings of a two-year “doctrinal assessment” of the nuns group.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Published on Saturday 21 July 2012

A LEADING evangelist from Eastbourne has been criticised for urging a victim of sex abuse within the church not to go to police.

Ian Jackson (pictured) told victim Lina Barnes she should not report the man who abused her as a young girl and he would not support her if she involved the police and in court proceedings.

Lina, who has waived her right to anonymity, said she had sought spiritual help from Ian Jackson for the historic sexual abuse at the hands of former preacher and author Allan Cundick but has been let down by both him and the church.

In a series of emails to Lina Barnes, Mr Jackson said, “I am not prepared to give you any support in relation to the involvement of the police and court proceedings.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Deborah Bell

A 24-year-old man, who says he was the victim of a sexual assault when he was only 12 years old, told Perth Amboy police on July 5 what happened to him.

Two weeks later, the police and the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office made an arrest.

Jeffrey Mackintosh, 46, now of Phillipsburg, was arrested at his home Thursday and charged aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, and endangering the welfare of a child, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

In 2000, police said, Mackintosh was a youth pastor at the Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church, then located on King Street in Perth Amboy.

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NEW JERSEY
CBS New York

MIDDLESEX, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – A former youth pastor was charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy years ago.

Jeffrey Mackintosh, 46, of Phillipsburg faces sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child charges.

Mackintosh was arrested after the alleged victim – now an adult – approached the Perth Amboy Police Department this month.

Investigators believe Mackintosh assaulted the boy during the year 2000 when he was a youth pastor at Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church.

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NEW JERSEY
MyCentralJersey

MIDDLESEX COUNTY — A former Perth Amboy youth pastor has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy multiple times more than a decade ago.

Jeffrey Mackintosh, 46, of Dinah Drive, Phillipsburg was arrested at his home 9:15 p.m. Thursday, and charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan and Perth Amboy Acting Police Chief Benjamin Ruiz.

Mackintosh, who works as a computer technician, is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick in lieu of $100,000 bail, with no 10 percent down payment.

He was arrested during an investigation by Investigator Gregory Morris of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and Perth Amboy Detective Pete Boulieris which began July 5, 2012, after the 12-year-old boy, who is now an adult, contacted the Perth Amboy Police Department.

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NEW JERSEY
WABC

PERTH AMBOY, New Jersey (WABC) — The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s office says a former youth pastor has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy on numerous occasions more than a decade ago.

Police say 46-year-old Jeffrey Mackintosh was arrested Thursday night at his Phillipsburg home.

He faces charges of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Mackintosh is in custody on $150,000 bail and it’s not clear if he has a lawyer.

Prosecutors say the child victim, who is now an adult, contacted the Perth Amboy authorities on July 5 to report the abuse.

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ALASKA
San Antonio Express-News

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — The Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks has scheduled an August mass to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Officials say Bishop Donald Kettler will celebrate a mass of thanksgiving at 10 a.m. Aug. 12 at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Pope John XXIII officially established the diocese on Aug. 8, 1962, but officials say the history of the church in Alaska stretches back to the 18th century.

The diocese covers 400,000-square miles including multiple Alaska Native villages.

The church filed for bankruptcy after numerous claims of clerical sexual abuse, reaching a bankruptcy settlement with more than 300 victims.

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NEW YORK
The Ram

By CONNOR RYAN
NEWS EDITOR

Br. James A. Liguori, associate vice president and executive director of Fordham’s Westchester campus and former president of Iona College, submitted resignation today, after being linked to a child sex abuse lawsuit in a claim released by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) Thursday.

“Br. Liguori passed a criminal background check in fall 2011, when he was hired by Fordham, University officials began investigating immediately, and on Friday, July 20, Br. Liguori submitted his resignation, effective immediately,” Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, said in a statement. “The University takes any claim of abuse with the utmost seriousness. Fordham’s primary concern is always for the victim in such cases — it could not be otherwise. I know that you keep anyone who has been so victimized in your thoughts and prayers.”

The suit charges that Liguori sexually abused a boy, now identified as John Doe, in 1969 while Doe was a student at the Cardinal Farley Military Academy in New York, according to the statement. The Irish Christian Brothers, a New Rochelle-based Catholic order (now known as the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers), ran the school at the time of the alleged abuse. Liguori is a member of the order.

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CHILE
Big Pond News (Australia)

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Chilean authorities will investigate 61 schools in the country’s capital for possible child sex abuse, the attorney general has announced, in the latest government step to address a sharp rise in reports of such crimes.

Attorney-General Sabas Chahuan said on Friday his office will look at 49 schools in eastern Santiago and 12 on city’s west side. Several teachers have recently been accused of sexually molesting children at schools in affluent neighbourhoods in the eastern part of Santiago. …

Pinera also urged lawmakers to review and fast-track about 100 bills before Congress that could protect children against sexual abuse. Under new measures, young sex abuse victims will need only to provide a video-recorded statement once so they can avoid the stress of repeatedly having to retell their painful episodes.

The president said the sex offender database would be fully functioning from August.

Chile is one of South America’s most strongly conservative nations in social matters. The Roman Catholic Church retains a firm influence in society, although in recent years it has been hit by scandals in which priests have been accused of molesting children.

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CANADA
The Windsor Star

By Craig Pearson, The Windsor Star July 21, 2012

A victim of convicted pedophile Rev. William Hodgson Marshall – who was scheduled to enter a plea Friday to two new counts of sexual abuse – said he is frustrated the case was delayed.

Marshall, 90, appeared briefly by video from the Joyceville Institution, near Kingston, but only to hear his lawyer Andrew Bradie ask that the matter be put over so that he has time to discuss new developments with his client. Ontario Court Justice Lloyd Dean set Sept. 4 as the next court date.

“I feel upset. Victims are kept in the dark,” said Patrick McMahon, 44, who was sexually assaulted at age 13 by Marshall and who was in court Friday hoping to see the Catholic priest plead guilty to two cases involving victims from Saskatoon. “I find it very frustrating. The justice system is all about delay, delay, delay.

“It doesn’t give any satisfaction to victims.”

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ILLINOIS
WLS

BRIDGEVIEW (WLS) – A former Buddhist priest was ordered held on $5 million bond Friday, charged with fathering a child with a 15-year-old girl while he belonged to a west suburban temple.

Camnong Boa-Ubol, 62, was charged with one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault and Cook County Judge Peter Felice ordered him held on $5 million Friday, Cook County State’s Attorney’s office spokesman Andy Conklin said.

Boa-Ubol was a Buddhist priest who lived and worked at the Wat Dhammaram Temple in Stickney Township when he fathered the child, according to a May 2012 release from the Cook County Sheriff’s office.

In a 2009 lawsuit, the woman and her daughter claimed Boa-Ubol sexually assaulted and battered her at the temple between July 1998 and May 1999.

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CONNECTICUT
Stamford Advocate

Associated Press

Updated 06:40 p.m., Friday, July 20, 2012
NEW HAVEN — A former Greenwich priest should be sent to prison for about a year for obstructing an investigation into his personal use of church money, federal prosecutors said.

Michael Moynihan, who resigned in 2007 as pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish, is to be sentenced Monday in New Haven after pleading guilty last year to obstructing a federal investigation. Moynihan wants to be spared prison time, according to prosecutors.

“There is simply no excuse for a religious leader to knowingly lie and provide false documentation when an effort is being made to uncover facts surrounding off-the-book accounts,” prosecutors wrote in court papers Wednesday. “The court should reject the notion that religious leaders or other types of white collar professionals should be sentenced more lightly than the powerless because, for the former, the embarrassment of conviction alone is more devastating than it would be for those who have enjoyed fewer advantages in life.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

Norbert Denef befindet sich im 43. Tag seines Hungerstreiks. Er setzt seinen Hungerstreik fort.

Sowohl die Wortlosigkeit der SPD am 13. Juni 2012 (siehe Pressemitteilung vom 11. Juli 2012 http://netzwerkb.org/2012/07/13/hungerstreik-tag-36-es-geht-um-unsere-kinder/) als auch die Ereignisse im Bundestag am 19. Juli 2012 (siehe Pressemitteilung vom 20. Juli 2012,

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Record Searchlight

SACRAMENTO — The preliminary hearing for a suspended Redding priest charged with seven felony counts of child molestation was continued today for the second time until Sept. 7, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento County district attorney’s office said.

That hearing had been scheduled for last month, but was continued then until today.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, 32, was arrested Nov. 30, 2011, after surrendering to law enforcement officials in Sacramento County. The allegations came to light when the diocese received a complaint from a parishioner’s family.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS News

Philly DA seeks 7-year sentence for Monsignor William Lynn, priest convicted of felony child endangerment

By Paula Reid Topi

(CBS) PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia District Attorney is seeking seven years in prison for Monsignor William Lynn, the Archdioceses of Philadelphia official convicted of felony child endangerment.

The District Attorney filed a motion today arguing that the maximum sentence of seven years is the only way to impress upon Lynn that, “[T]he protection of children trumps the reputation of abusers and the institution that harbors them.”

Lynn was convicted on June 22. He is the first American church official who has not actually abused children to be convicted of endangering the welfare of a child in a jury trial and subsequently incarcerated.

Lynn’s lawyers have asked the court to show leniency. They argue that Msgr. Lynn poses no danger to the public and has been sufficiently rehabilitated during the legal ordeal, which began in 2002.

Advocates for survivors of sex abuse want to see Lynn jailed. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), released a statement saying that Lynn still poses a threat to public safety. SNAP argues that Lynn put “hundreds” of children at risk by helping “perhaps dozens of predators stay hidden, employed, and around kids.”

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[court record]

Posted by Joelle Casteix on July 20, 2012

Late yesterday, the California Second Appellate District Court ruled that Los Angeles Archdiocese officials cannot block the release of confidential priest files of 25 known, admitted, or jailed child molesting clerics.

The files were a part of the Archdiocese’s 2007 $660 million settlement with more than 500 alleged victims of child sex abuse. Legal maneuverings by lawyers for the Archdiocese and the accused priests have held up the release of the files for five years.

We are thrilled that hundreds of pages of long-secret church records about pedophile priests will soon be released. Kids are safest when citizens know more, not less, about dangerous child molesters. The public will also be able to learn what church officials knew about predator clerics and when they knew it. That will help ensure some accountability and justice for people who recklessly put kids in danger.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

July 19, 2012 7:32 pm | Author: Jerry Berger
Beginning Aug 7, the largest group of America’s nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, meets at the Millennium Hotel downtown. Outside, with picket signs and childhood photos, members of SNAP will protest what they call LCWR’s “nearly complete refusal to deal with past child sex crimes and cover-ups by its nuns or prevent future ones.” No one has a solid estimate of how many Catholic sisters have molested kids, SNAP says, but at least one local nun, Sr. Judith Fisher, was sued for abusing a girl for seven years. That case was settled out of court in 2004. SNAP board chair Steve Theisen of Iowa is spearheading the demonstration.

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Examiner

By: Bay City News | 07/20/12

Santa Clara County prosecutors Friday officially announced their decision not to re-file misdemeanor charges against William Lynch for beating Fr. Jerold Lindner, who Lynch claims molested him more than three decades ago.

Deputy District Attorney Vikki Gemetti on Friday morning formally told Judge David Cena of her office’s decision.

Cena responded by saying that the charges were dismissed and Lynch’s bail released.

“It does put an exclamation point on the case,” said Lynch’s attorney Pat Harris.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Msgr. William J. Lynn is evil, conniving and remorseless and deserves nothing but the maximum term in state prison for allowing Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests to sexually abuse children, prosecutors argued Friday.

“Every workday he woke up, went to his office and there pursued a deliberate, orchestrated plan that shielded and enabled child rapists,” Assistant District Attorneys Mariana Sorensen and Patrick Blessington wrote in a sentencing memo.

Lynn, 61, faces up to seven years in prison when he is sentenced Tuesday by Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina.

A former top aide to Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, Lynn last month became the first Catholic church official convicted for enabling clergy sex abuse.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

July 20, 2012 by Susan Matthews

According to a Catholics4Change reader this was posted on the Web site of Epiphany Parish in Philadelphia. It appeared in the July 15th parish bulletin and was written by Father John Pidgeon, the pastor.

“Lifting the statute of limitations and opening a window in which victims can sue is a topic that must be given serious consideration. If this is the way to best protect victims and provide justice for those harmed, then I am all for it. While I am not fully convinced that this is the answer, I do find a major flaw in the argument that lifting the statute of limitations and opening a window for civil lawsuits would unfairly target the Catholic Church. Such an argument is like a driver who is pulled over for speeding saying to the police officer, “Its not fair that you pulled me over and not the others”. Other institutions may very well have similar problems like us but to claim we are being unfairly singled out is like the high school student caught cheating complaining that it’s not fair he was caught while others who were cheating were not. Some get caught and others do not.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Jul. 20, 2012 All Things Catholic

For sure, I’m no Nostradamus. To cite just one example of my failures as a prognosticator, in 1999 I published a biography of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger containing four reasons why his election as pope was improbable. We’re now, of course, into the eighth year of his reign.

A month ago, however, I finally got one right.

On June 22, previewing an evaluation of the Vatican’s financial transparency by Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body, I wrote: “The report is probably destined to trigger confusing and conflicting headlines about how well the Vatican did.”

On cue, these headlines ran shortly after the report’s release on Wednesday, July 18:
•Associated Press: “Vatican passes key financial transparency test”
•AGI: “Moneyval flunks the Vatican”
•L’Espresso: “Moneyval passes the Vatican”
•RTE: “Serious failings identified in Vatican Bank”
•Sunday Times: “Report cites progress in Vatican anti-money laundering efforts”

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CANADA
Windsor Star

WINDSOR – A victim of convicted pedophile Rev. William Hodgson Marshall — who was scheduled to enter a plea Friday to two new counts of sexual abuse — said he is frustrated the case was delayed.

Marshall. 90. appeared briefly by video from the Joyeceville Institution, near Kingston, but only to hear his lawyer Andrew Bradie ask that the matter be put over so that he has time to discuss new developments with his client. Ontario Court Justice Lloyd Dean set Sept. 4 as the next court date.

“I feel upset. Victims are kept in the dark,” said Patrick McMahon, 44, who was sexually assaulted at age 13 by Marshall and who was in court Friday hoping to see the Catholic priest plead guilty to two cases involving victims from Saskatoon. “I find it very frustrating. The justice system is all about delay, delay, delay.

“It doesn’t give any satisfaction to victims.”

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SPOKANE (WA)
National Catholic Reporter

Jul. 20, 2012
By Tom Gallagher

The Spokane, Wash., diocese recently announced that a new settlement had been reached with respect to current, pending claims of sexual abuse. The settlement culminates almost a decade of complex litigation and a 2004 bankruptcy filing that cost the diocese $48 million.

A major complication involved the Morning Star Boys’ Ranch, which once had elements of control in favor of the diocese in its governance documents. In reality, the ranch operated on its own and was led for decades by Fr. Joseph Weitensteiner, who himself has been accused of sexual abuse. Prior to the 2004 bankruptcy, the ranch was legally separated from the diocese.

A critical issue post-bankruptcy was how to fund future claims against the diocese and, specifically, some two-dozen unresolved claims filed by former Morning Star Boys’ Ranch residents. The future claims fund was woefully underfunded and was collateralized by practically all of the real estate of the parishes and their schools. A funding default would have triggered the foreclosure of parishes and schools.

With the new settlement, the diocese and parishes agreed to put $1.5 million toward the future claims fund. There will be no foreclosures. All appeals will be withdrawn.

How did all this come about?

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VATIKAN
Handelsblatt

Vatikanstadt. Der Vatikan kann trotz einer Reformoffensive den Makel undurchsichtiger Finanzgeschäfte nicht abstreifen. Fachleute des Europarats kommen in einem am Mittwoch vorgelegten Bericht zu dem Ergebnis, dass der Heilige Stuhl den internationalen Standards zur Bekämpfung von Geldwäsche, Terrorismusfinanzierung und Steuerflucht noch längst nicht gerecht wird.

Dazu seien weitere bedeutende Schritte erforderlich, befindet der Expertenausschuss Moneyval. Der Ausschuss vergibt in zentralen Punkten vergibt schlechte Noten an die skandalumwitterte Vatikanbank IOR. Von den insgesamt 16 Schlüsselkriterien für transparente Finanzgeschäfte würden sieben noch nicht erfüllt.

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CONNECTICUT
Caribbean 360

CONNECTICUT, USA, Friday July 20, 2012 – A former pupil of a school for disadvantaged youth in Cap-Haitien, Haiti has joined 22 other former students in filing a lawsuit against a Jesuit priest now living in Massachusetts, and others, alleging the defendants did nothing to prevent the school’s former director from sexually abusing them over a 10-year period.

In a civil complaint filed this week in federal court in Connecticut, a Haitian national, now in his early 20s, says the Reverend Paul E. Carrier; Fairfield University in Connecticut, and other defendants, are liable for the abuse he suffered from Douglas Perlitz, 42, former director of Project Pierre Toussaint in Cap-Haitien, Haiti.

The Haitian man’s complaint claims that Carrier, a former Fairfield chaplain; the university, and other defendants, ¬established the school, provided its funding, and ignored signs of Perlitz’s actions.

A lawyer for the university, ¬Stanley A. Twardy Jr., said Fairfield expects to be cleared.

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UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider

Sister Pat Farrel, president of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious breaks the silence in a radio interview with NPR. The world moves on and doctrine cannot remain static she says

Maria Teresa Pontara Pederiva
Rome

It seemed like a coincidence to many but the day after a change of guard was announced in the leadership of the Holy Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – Cardinal Levada was substituted by Cardinal Müller – nuns of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious (LCWR), the association which represents 80% of women religious in the U.S. and which is preparing a national assembly to be held in August have broken their silence and agreed to talk about their placement under the supervision of an external commissioner.

Neither was it a coincidence that the first one to speak was President Pat Farrel, number two of the Dubuque Franciscan Sisters Congregation in Iowa, in an interview with National Public Radio in one of its most popular programmes. The nun reiterated the association’s official response to the Vatican’s “unfounded” accusations which could potentially be destructive to the continuation of their mission. But she went further, saying: “There are issues about which we think there’s a need for a genuine dialogue, and there doesn’t seem to be a climate of that in the church right now.”

Sister Farrel highlighted one fundamental question: is it possible to be part of the Church but be in favour of dialogue and discussion? “Questions there are much less black and white because human realities are much less black and white. That’s where we spend our days.” “I think one of our deepest hopes is that in the way we manage the balancing beam in the position we’re in, if we can make any headways in helping to create a safe and respectful environment where church leaders along with rank-and-file members can raise questions openly and search for truth freely, with very complex and swiftly changing issues in our day, that would be our hope. But the climate is not there. And this mandate coming from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith putting us in a position of being under the control of certain bishops that is not a dialogue. If anything, it appears to be shutting down dialogue.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

After 13 weeks of covering the archdiocese sex abuse trial, I was summoned for jury duty on Monday, July 9.

I reported to the first floor of the Criminal Justice Center at 8:15 a.m., figuring I would be there just for the day. Usually the court staff start laughing the minute they find out I’m a reporter, and they’re still laughing when they show me the door.

But they must have been desperate. I was shipped upstairs to Courtroom 1002, where the Hon. Judge Earl W. Trent Jr. presided. He asked a few questions about whether I thought I could be an impartial juror. I said I honestly didn’t know. Well, the judge said, when you go out to report a story, aren’t you supposed to be impartial? I try to be, I said.

To my amazement, I was chosen as Juror No. 9, given an official ID badge, and told to report to court the following morning. After a lifetime of being an observer, I was suddenly in a position to have a direct impact on somebody’s life. Terique Powell, 21, of Northeast Philadelphia, was facing a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 5 to 10 years in an armed robbery case.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

[Part 1]

Ralph Cipriano

Taleah Grimmage, Juror No. 7, has finally explained why that not guilty verdict on the conspiracy charge against Msgr. Lynn left her with knots in her stomach.

Every juror believed Lynn was part of a conspiracy at the archdiocese, Juror No. 7 explained in an email posted on this website. It just wasn’t the conspiracy that the prosecutors thought was there.

In subsequent emails, Grimmage elaborated on her complicated views about Msgr. Lynn. Yes he was just a “yes man,” she said, but he was also the guy left holding the bag for the archdiocese.

I’d like to publicly thank Taleah for providing invaluable insights into jury deliberations. Here’s what she posted about the conspiracy verdict:

Hi everyone, This is Taleah Grimmage (Juror #7). I stated before that my stomach was in knots about the conspiracy charge because, almost every single juror believed that there was a conspiracy. We just didn’t believe that the conspiracy was to endanger children.

I specifically requested that the foreman send out a question (which he did) asking if the result of a conspiracy was that a child was endangered, did the endangerment also have to be the intent. Judge Sarmina told us that it did, which made it nearly impossible to convict, with the elements that we were given of conspiracy.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

Msgr. William J. Lynn poses “no danger to the public,” his defense lawyers argue, so putting him away for a maximum prison term of seven years would amount to “cruel and unusual punishment.”

On Tuesday, Lynn will stand before Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, and be sentenced for his June 22 conviction on a third-degree felony of endangering the welfare of a child. He is facing a prison term of between 3 1/2 to 7 years. Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington has already said that the prosecution will seek the maximum sentence of seven years for Msgr. Lynn.

Lynn’s defense team, however, argued in a sentencing memo filed Wednesday that Lynn has never touched a child, and that “no reported Pennsylvania case has ever dealt with a situation where an individual had been convicted of EWOC [endangering the welfare of children] without ever knowing the child that he or she was accused of endangering.”

“Msgr. Lynn has never harbored any intent to harm a child,” Lynn’s lawyers argued. “To the contrary, letters from friends, teachers, fellow priests, nuns and family members extol Msgr. Lynn’s love and respect for children and their safety, offering in supporting innumerable examples of the care and protection he showed the children he has come across.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

Lawyers for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest convicted of child endangerment urged a judge Thursday to spare him from prison, arguing that Msgr. William J. Lynn poses no public threat, has led a life of service, and has already endured unprecedented “shaming and vilification.”

Two-thirds of Pennsylvanians sentenced for the same felony since 1996 spent only months in county jails or were freed on supervised release, the lawyers said. They said Lynn, a priest for 36 years, deserves the same break.

“A sentence of time served, probation, work release, or house arrest would ensure that Msgr. Lynn can still use his priestly gifts to improve the lives of those around him,” lawyers Thomas Bergstrom and Jeffrey Lindy said in their filing.

Lynn, a longtime aide to the late Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, faces up to seven years in state prison when he is sentenced Tuesday by Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Susan Spencer TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Ann M. McCarron never forgot being sexually abused by her pediatrician from the time she was 7 until she was 12 years old, but she never told anyone about it until she was in her 30s, after years of therapy.

Believing that she would go to jail if she spoke out, she tucked it in the back of her mind and followed a path of self-destructive behavior, including drinking vodka until she passed out.

“I was scared silent and I was numb,” said Ms. McCarron, who is now 49 and the associate athletic director at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

David K. O’Regan, 62, of Spencer, also blocked out for 40 years detailed memories of being abused at age 11 by a priest, until the bombardment of media reports surrounding the Boston clergy scandal forced him to face his past. He opened up for the first time, at age 52, to his wife.

“I didn’t think anyone would believe me. I didn’t believe it,” said Mr. O’Regan, who is a victim’s advocate for the Worcester chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

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FRANKRIJK
De Standaard

Een 68-jarige priester uit het noorden van Frankrijk is beschuldigd van verkrachting van en seksueel geweld op minderjarigen van 15 jaar. Hij is ook in preventieve hechtenis genomen. .

De geestelijke heeft de hem aangewreven feiten bekend. Ze zouden zich hebben afgespeeld in de regio Rijsel en Duinkerken, vanaf de jaren zeventig tot de beginjaren van de huidige eeuw. Er is een tiental slachtoffers bekend.

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NEDERLAND
Den Bosch Dichtbij

Stel, je bent priester en toegewijd aan de katholieke kerk. Je stelt je hele leven in dienst van God, Jezus en iedereen uit de kerststal. Je gelooft in het goede van mensen, bent al bijna 50 jaar samen met de liefde van leven en samen wil je de mooie kanten van de kerk en het geloof verspreiden. En dan ineens word je door diezelfde kerk er gewoon uitgeflikkerd. Nee, je krijgt nog 1 kans: je geliefde na 50 jaar dumpen.

Het overkomt priester Jan Peijnenburg uit Eindhoven. Peijnenburg mag van het bisdom Den Bosch niet meer voorgaan in de katholieke kerk omdat hij samenwoont met een vrouw. Een 81-jarige man mag niet zijn liefde geven aan een 86-jarige vrouw. Dan hebben ze natuurlijk ook seks en dat mag niet. Bah, vies. Want je lichaam behoort alleen God toe. En je zult je dus als priester moeten houden aan het celibaat. Dat doet Jan Peijnenburg niet en dus geeft de kerk hem een keuze. Of hij verlaat zijn geliefde Threes van Dijk, of hij wordt uit het ambt gezet. Dat terwijl andere priesters in het verleden aan piemeltjes mochten zitten of erger en alleen werden overgeplaatst.

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BELGIE
Het Nieuwsblad

BREE – Kapelaan Jürgen Soetens behoort niet meer tot de parochie van Bree. De 38-jarige priester was graag gezien in de noordoostelijke gemeente. Met zijn jonge leeftijd en enthousiasme maakte hij de mensen opnieuw warm voor de Kerk, maar hij heeft de dekenij van Bree al verlaten en verblijft terug in Zottegem, de plaats waar hij vandaan komt. De reden van zijn vertrek is simpel: het celibataire leven viel hem te zwaar.

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NEDERLAND
Nieuwslog

“Een vrouw als priester is net zo erg als sexueel misbruik van kinderen”? Is dit een belediging voor alle vrouwen?

Laten we ons nou eens afvragen wie het hier mee eens zijn. Persoonlijk zal ik niemand de kerk injagen maar eerder aanmoedigen eruit te stappen al was het alleen maar om de leugens. De claim dat vrouwen die priester willen worden vergeleken worden met de ernst van seksueel misbruik van kinderen gaat naar mijn idee alle perken te buiten. Een vrouw is evengoed in staat om een bijbel verhaal op te dragen, en als het komt tot het bespreken van (Katholieke) familie kwesties dan zou ik liever een vrouw tegenover me hebben dan een man met een tijdbom tussen zijn benen. Wat voor mensen zijn het eens met de paus? Wie in de wereld vindt dat een vrouw als priester net zo erg is als seksueel misbruik van kinderen? Wat een God vergeten quote.

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MASSACHUSETTS
outpatient clinic

Skip Shea

Lately I’ve found myself listening to Sports Talk Radio in Boston. Being a sports fan from New England is almost a natural. Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots and Bruins are all legendary teams. At least to us. Much like politics here, which most consider a contact sport. Although they should never mix, just as Mayor Menino and try not to laugh as he tries to pronounce Wes Wekler. Res Wreckler?

The real no-no’s in pleasant conversation are politics and religion. Which seems to be true as the silence from all of the politicians when the clergy sexual abuse scandal broke in Boston ten years ago still echoes. And I mean all politicians, from both parties. There were no profiles in courage.

Which brings me to Penn State. I spent a good part of the afternoon today listening to WEEI’s The Big Show with Glenn Ordway and Michael Holley as they fended off a lot of Penn State apologists. Who sounded awfully similar to the Catholic Church apologists.

Serial child abuser Sandusky is in jail for life now and Joe Paterno is dead. Time to move on. Others who may have facilitated the cover-up are still being investigated like Tim Curley and Gary Schultz. More justice will be served by the actual guilty parties. Time to move on. And leave statutes and football alone.

Or

Serial child abuser John Goeghan and Cardinal Law has moved to Rome. Time to move on. We are investigating it. Time to move on. And leave all the good priests alone. Stop Catholic bashing.

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NEW YORK
Patch

By Michael Woyton

A lawsuit has been filed in New York courts accusing former Iona College President Brother James Liguori of sex abuse and a subsequent cover up.

Joelle Casteix, western regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), posted a media statement outlining the accusations Thursday.

According of Casteix, the suit charges the victim, known as “John Doe,” was allegedly sexually abused by Liguori in 1969. At the time, the boy was at a Cardinal Farley Military Academy, which is run by the Irish Christian Brothers, in New York.

“Doe,” who now lives in Orange County, CA, reported his alleged abuse to church officials there in 2008.

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IRELAND
The Score

[with video of the Enda Kenny speech]

TODAY MARKS EXACTLY a year since Taoiseach Enda Kenny stood up in a sparsely populated Dáil chamber to deliver one of the most significant speeches in the history of the State.

In a landmark address, Kenny outlined his views on the publication of the Cloyne report which had investigated and exposed how church authorities had dealt with allegations of abuse in the Cork diocese.

The report outlined how 19 priests abused dozens of children between 1996 and 2009 and it accused those in authority at the diocese of gross negligence for not doing enough to address the issue.

Kenny said the “heartbreaking” revelations contained in the report showed “the dysfunction, the disconnection, the elitism that dominates the Vatican today” and was hugely scathing of the church’s treatment of victims of sexual abuse at the hands of members of the clergy.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

July 19, 2012

An Outagamie County judge has dismissed a $700,000 judgment against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay and ordered a new trial, citing juror bias in a landmark trial involving clergy sex abuse.

Outagamie Judge Nancy Krueger said a juror failed to divulge before or during the trial that she suspected the accused priest of inappropriate contact with her own brother and that she had a close friendship with a member of the plaintiffs’ extended family.

“The overriding emphasis of this Court must be on the integrity of the justice and jury system – and the right of all parties to a fair and impartial trial,” Krueger said in the ruling filed late Wednesday. “If even one juror harbors a material prejudice, the right to an impartial jury has been impaired,” she said.

The jury in May found that the diocese had defrauded brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield by placing now-defrocked Father John Patrick Feeney into their parish in the 1970s without telling members about his sexual history involving children. But concerns about the juror’s impartiality were raised by two fellow jurors who’d had conversations with her outside the courthouse after the verdict.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Matthew Walberg, Chicago Tribune reporter

July 20, 2012

A woman who says she was sexually assaulted and impregnated by a Buddhist monk as a teenager more than a decade ago in the southwest suburbs agonized for years about telling her story to authorities.

Two years ago she filed a lawsuit against Camnong Boa-Ubol, but to maintain her child’s privacy, she did not want to pursue criminal charges.

But after the Tribune wrote of the woman’s lawsuit last year in a story about abuse allegations against several monks, a victims rights group persuaded her to seek criminal action against Boa-Ubol. On Thursday, Boa-Ubol, 62, who had left the Chicago area several years ago, was returned here and charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, officials said.

The alleged crime occurred at the Wat Dhammaram temple in unincorporated Stickney Township. The woman was 15 when she became pregnant. In her lawsuit, she alleged that she was 14 when Boa-Ubol began a nearly yearlong pattern of abuse that resulted in her pregnancy.

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YAKIMA (WA)
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Pat Muir
Yakima Herald-Republic

The Catholic Diocese of Yakima agreed last month to pay $205,000 to a woman who sued over sexual abuse she said took place at the hands of a Jesuit priest in the 1970s.

The woman, identified as M.P. in the suit filed in April 2010 in Yakima County Superior Court, settled last year with the Jesuits for $288,000. Both suits stem from abuse she said occurred in 1977 when she was 8 years old at St. Joseph’s Parish, which was run by the Jesuits until last summer. The priest in question, Francis Duffy, had been accused of molesting girls in Oregon before he was transferred to Yakima, where he served until 1989. He died in 1992.

The woman’s lawyer, Bryan Smith of Tamaki Law Offices in Yakima, hailed the settlement as an overdue acknowledgment of responsibility. Previously, he said, the diocese had placed all of the blame for Duffy’s abuse on the Jesuits.

“The Yakima Diocese had not acknowledged any type of responsibility for Father Duffy despite the fact he preached in this town under their supervision for 20 years,” Smith said.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

A former student sued St. John’s Abbey for fraud Thursday, July 19, alleging the religious order knew one of its members had been accused of sexual abuse as early as 1958, yet let him continue teaching.

The lawsuit was filed in Stearns County by a former St. John’s Prep student who claims he was sexually abused by the Rev. Allen Tarlton in the 1980s.

Tarlton was an English teacher at the Minnesota school.

According to the St. Cloud Times, the lawsuit alleges at least three abbots knew of the allegations against Tarlton but put him in teaching roles at St. John’s Prep and at other locations in other states and the Bahamas.

A message left Thursday with the abbey was not returned.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By LAURA ITALIANO

A Manhattan judge today chided prosecutors for offering only 4 1/2 years prison to an allegedly embezzling former clerk for the Diocese of New York, calling the $1 million embezzlement “not only a crime, but a sin.”

“How come you went down?” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lewis Bart Stone asked after prosecutors announced their latest rock-bottom offer — 4 1/2 to 9 years prison — for accused accounts payable clerk Anita Collins.

Back in April, prosecutors had said they’d go no lower than six years prison for Collins, 69, who is charged with taking the money over the course of seven years, filling her Schuylerville, Bronx, apartment with Bloomingdales furniture, Belleek China and pricey Madam Alexander dolls.

“This is a woman who has stolen more than a million dollars from a not-for-profit religious organization,” the judge told prosecutors.

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CANADA
Hamilton Spectator

The Ministry of the Attorney General is likely looking at ways to justify a controversial legal resolution that permitted a charged priest to leave Hamilton for Brazil, says a legal expert.

The more time it takes for the ministry to investigate the case of Rev. Jose Silva, the less chance it has been able to justify it, Alan Young, an associate professor of the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University told the Spectator.

Young was commenting on the ongoing ministry investigation of an unusual deal between the Hamilton Crown Attorney’s Office and a defence counsel that permitted Silva, 34, to return to his native Brazil without facing prosecution for a sexual assault charge. Silva left Hamilton May 4. A countrywide warrant was put in place that would see the charge proceed in the event Silva retuned to Canada.

“We know the deal is unusual and it cries out for some justification. The reality is they (ministry officials) understand the general public would not support a deal of this nature.

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FLORIDA
WFTV

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. —

The Department of Children and Families ordered a Lake County day care that was connected to one of several sexual abuse investigations involving the same man to be shut down.

Detectives said Kenneth Hagins used to work for Pat’s Kidz World day care in Eustis, as well as Sunrise Arc Group Homes. Detectives also said he was a youth pastor.

WFTV’s Berndt Petersen confronted one Hagins’ former bosseswho said Hagins was quickly put on leave once the allegations surfaced. …

They also plan to visit a Eustis church where they believe Hagins is a youth pastor.

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NEW YORK
Talk of the Sound

By Robert Cox on Thu, 07/19/2012

A California man has filed a lawsuit claiming he was sexually abused by Brother James A. LiguoriBrother James A. Liguori in 1969 when the boy at a Cardinal Farley Military Academy in New York. The school was run by the Irish Christian Brothers, a New Rochelle-based Catholic religious order. Brother Liguori is a member of the order and served up until 2011 as President of Iona College.

According to a press statement issued by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), an independent, confidential network of survivors of religious sexual abuse and their supporters, the man reported his abuse to church officials in Orange County, CA in 2008. Catholic staffers, including Bishop Tod Brown, met with him and, in emails, a lawyer for the diocese said that she believed his allegations.

The Irish Christian Brothers, however, claimed that the allegations were “without merit” and took no action against Liguori who was, at the time, of the victim’s report, the president of Iona College in New Rochelle.

Iona College has issued a statement:

Through an Internet posting, we recently learned of a lawsuit alleging child abuse by former President, Brother James A. Liguori whose employment at the College concluded on September 26, 2011. The College has not seen the lawsuit and therefore cannot comment at this time; instead, it refers questions about the suit to the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers North America. Our heartfelt sympathy and prayers are in support of any victim of sex abuse and their family.

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RALEIGH (NC)
News & Observer

RALEIGH — More than two years after filing charges, authorities have dropped the child molestation case against Catholic priest Edgar Sepulveda.

Sepulveda’s suspension from his duties remains in place pending the completion of a Catholic Diocese of Raleigh investigation, in accordance with its procedures and those of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

Sepulveda was initially arrested in January 2010 on one count of second degree sexual offense and one count of misdemeanor sexual battery in Brunswick County, S.C., where he was visiting church members in May 2009. Sepulveda, then a resident of Beulaville and pastor of Maria Reina de las Americas Parish in Mount Olive, was first investigated when allegations surfaced in September, according to a news release posted on the diocese website.

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UNITED STATES
KTUL

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) – The leader of the New York-based Orthodox Church in America has resigned amid questions about whether he failed to report an allegation of a rape by a priest to church officials or law enforcement.

The church issued a statement from Washington Archbishop Metropolitan Jonah saying he submitted his resignation July 6. The letter from Jonah had come at the request of the Holy Synod of Bishops. Jonah did not refer to the rape allegation.

The church issued a three-page statement July 16. It said Jonah had failed to report to authorities a 2010 rape allegation involving an unidentified priest. It said an investigation of the allegation was being performed by the church.

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NEW YORK
My Fox New York

By FRANCISCO BERNARD, MyFoxNY.com –

MYFOXNY.COM –
A man who claims he was sexually abused by the former president of Iona College is filing a lawsuit.

The victim, known only as John Doe, has filed a sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) reports the man claimed to have been sexually abused in 1969 by Brother James Liguori when he was at the Cardinal Farley Military Academy, run by the Irish Christian Brothers, a New Rochelle-based Catholic religious order.

The victim now lives in Orange County, California and says reported his abuse to church officials in California in 2008.

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NEW YORK
Poughkeepsie Journal

Sex abuse claim filed in connection to former Rhinecliff military academy

Brother James Liguori, the former president of Iona College, has been accused of child sex abuse in a court filing, a network of abuse victims announced today.

The alleged victim, an Orange County, Calif. man, accuses Liguori of abusing him in 1969 at the Cardinal Farley Military Academy in Rhinecliff, according to a release from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

The academy closed in 1970, according to Poughkeepsie Journal archives.

Liguori is a member of the Christian Brothers, and it was the religious order’s bankruptcy case, filed last year as the Christian Brothers assets were being drained by sex abuse cases, that opened the window for the case to emerge, said Joelle Casteix, western regional director for SNAP.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: July 19, 2012

Lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn of Philadelphia, the first senior official in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to be convicted of failing to prevent child sex abuse by priests under his supervision, asked on Thursday that he be spared prison, arguing that a lengthy sentence “would be merely cruel and unusual.”

On June 22, after a landmark trial revealed efforts by the Philadelphia Archdiocese to conceal evidence of abuses, Monsignor Lynn was convicted on one count of endangering a child, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years. His bail was revoked and he has been in jail while awaiting sentencing, which is scheduled for Tuesday.

“Monsignor Lynn has never harbored any intent to harm a child,” wrote his lawyers, Thomas Bergstrom and Jeff Lindy, in a memo to Judge M. Teresa Sarmina of Common Pleas Court, and a lengthy incarceration “would serve no purpose at all.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Montgomery Media

By Bradley Schlegel
bschlegel@journalregister.com

The decision to declare the Rev. Leonard Peterson suitable for ministry was made through the lens of protecting the children of parishioners.

That’s according to a member of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for Child and Youth Protection, who spoke Tuesday night to parishioners of the St. Maria Goretti Parish.

During an open forum on the standards of ministerial behavior, Leslie Gomez told the audience that the investigation into 37 priests accused of various abuse charges of children was not disclosed to protect the privacy of the priests and the alleged victims.

The process was not treated like a legal matter, according to Gomez, an investigator working on behalf of the archdiocese and a former child abuse prosecutor for the Philadelphia District Attorney.

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DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times

• Brian Wellner

In a motion filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, a woman claims she was abused as a child by three Diocese of Davenport priests.

The victim, who brought her allegations after bankruptcy proceedings involving the diocese were already under way and has received a settlement, alleges that the diocese is failing to comply with its non-monetary bankruptcy requirements and requests a hearing, according to the filing.

One of those requirements is to identify on its website accused priests whom the diocese deems “credible.”

The victim claims the chairperson of the diocese review board found her “credible” and that the board told her in a letter it believed her case, even though it will not identify the priests, the filing states.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Daniel Nee

The Brick Township priest arrested last weekend for two sex offenses is now out on bail.

Fr. Marukudiyil C. Velan, 64, had been in jail since last Saturday following his arrest on two counts of criminal sexual contact and a single count of endangering the welfare of a child. His bail had been set at $75,000 cash but later changed to $100,000 with a 10 percent bond option.

A source confirmed he was bailed out Thursday. He was no longer listed in inmate records at the Ocean County Jail as of 2:30 p.m.

It was not immediately known who posted Velan’s bail or where he would be staying. Brick Patch is awaiting a statement from the Diocese of Trenton which will provide more details.

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COLORADO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on July 19, 2012

A guilty plea will help Fr. Manning’s suffering victim. But it will also protect the reputations of Manning’s church supervisors and peers who we strongly suspect hid suspicions of his misdeeds.

With a possible plea deal next month, it’s more crucial than ever that people who saw, suspected or suffered Manning’s crimes speak up. Otherwise, he gets little or no jail time and may be able to hurt even more children.

Very often accused child molesting clerics claim or exaggerate health problems to win sympathy and lighter sentences.

If Fr. Manning does plead guilty, we hope this prosecutor will hang tough and insist on disclosing as much as possible about wrongdoing by this priest, his bishop and other church staff.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Dustin Racioppi
@dracioppi

TOMS RIVER — The popular Brick priest who was arrested last weekend on sexual assault charges is free on bail today, according to Ocean County Jail records.

It is not clear who posted the bail for the priest, Marukudiyil Velan, more commonly referred to as Father Chris. When he was arrested on Saturday, his bail was set at $75,000 with the option to post 10 percent. However, the jail listed his bond set at $100,000 with an option to post 10 percent.

The Asbury Park Press asked the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office for a photo of the suspect, but it declined. State law allows authorities discretion in releasing suspect photos, but they often refuse to do so, saying media publicity could affect their ability to select a jury.

The jail would not disclose the bail source or when it was posted. He was listed in jail records as an inmate Wednesday evening, but by Thursday the records said he had bonded out.

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SPAIN
Spiegel

By Helene Zuber in Madrid

Until into the 1990s, doctors and nuns in Spain allegedly stole newborn babies and sold them to couples hoping to adopt. The vast scope of this lucrative baby-snatching network is only now coming to light as courts heed victims’ calls for investigations and possible trials.

It’s been a year since María Luisa Torres was reunited with her daughter. She gave birth to the girl in a Madrid hospital, but then the baby was taken away from her.

“For almost 30 years, I saw my child in the faces of people on the street,” says Torres in a gravelly voice. But on a summer day last month, it is indeed the face of her daughter Pilar that emerges from a stream of pedestrians on the main shopping street in San Fernando de Henares, a town near Madrid. She has big, brown eyes and a pale complexion, and her face is framed by perfectly trimmed bangs and long hair dyed a mix of black, violet and red. …

This specter of a Spanish national Catholicism even survived Franco’s death in 1975. Nuns, especially members of the Hijas de la Caridad, or Daughters of Charity, whose training was more religious than intellectual, worked in the maternity wards of hospitals and in baby nurseries. They blindly obeyed their mothers superior and priests who, in turn, decided who deserved a child and who didn’t. As a result, what were generally young or unmarried women became victims of baby theft. After all, the reasoning went, according to the Church’s teachings, these mothers were living “in sin.”

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CALIFORNIA
Jehovahs-Witness.net

WT recently settled out-of-court with 5 victims of JW serial molester. Court documents now available to post on any website

On May 20, 2010, a lawsuit was filed in San Diego, California. Defendant, the Watchtower of NY, settled out-of-court for an unknown amount of money with the Plaintiffs just weeks before the Candace Conti trial began at the end of May 2012 in Oakland, California. The law firm representing the five Plaintifs in this case was

Irwin Zalkin
The Zalkin Law Firm, P.C.
12555 High Bluff Drive, Suite 260
San Diego, CA 92130
(858) 259-3011 (800) 617-2622

The Case NO is: 37-2010-00092450-CU-PO-CTL.

The names of the Plaintiffs are listed as John Dorman, Individually, and Joel Gamboa, Individually.The Defendants were the La Jolla Congregation, the Linda Vista Congregation, JWs supervisory organization (Watchtower of NY) and a number of it’s agents in the two congregations. Also, the perpetrator was a Defendant.

A short profile about the Perpetrator, Gonzalo Campos:

Gonzalo Campos was raised by his mother, a JW. He was 17 when he was baptized as a JW minister in 1980 and became a publisher. In 1982, when Campos was 19, the body of elders of the La Jolla Congregation discussed a molestation accusation made against him by a child and his mother in the La Jolla congregation to various congregation elders.

The elders assigned two of their own elders to investigate. They did not form a judicial committee because Campos denied the complaint and there were not the required “two witnesses” to the molestation as the only witness was the victim. Nothing further was done.

Around 1983, Campos, when he was 20, was conducting a Bible study with a boy, age 6. Campos molested this boy until he was 8.Campos was made a ministerial servant in 1988 although during the years 1986-1988, there had been dealings with him over accusations of molestation. He was “reproved” sometime during those years, yet he was made a MS in 1988. Apparently Campos did everything he was supposed to do because in 1993 he was made an elder. Campos was disfellowshipped June 9, 1995 and reinstated, April 21, 2000. He presently resides in Mexico, address known because he was deposed in Zona Rio, TIJUANA B.C. Mexico on September 2, 2011.

The court documents reveal that Campos molested at least seven children, six male and one female and tried to molest two more. Plaintiff’s attorney said that Campos is a serial molester.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on July 19, 2012

If Msgr. Lynn has “endured unprecedented public scrutiny, shaming and vilification,” it’s because for years he repeatedly engaged in unprecedented, shameful deceit, callousness and recklessness about children’s safety.

Once again, a high ranking Catholic cleric is saying ‘I’m different from and better than the rest of you.’ Once again, a top church official wants special treatment, even though he basically putting children – hundreds of them – in harm’s way and helping perhaps dozens of predators stay hidden, employed and around kids.

Lynn does pose a threat to public safety. Behind bars, he can’t shred evidence, intimidate victims, discredit whistleblowers, threaten witnesses, deceive parishioners, fabricate alibis or take any of the other steps Catholic officials take to keep clergy sex crimes hidden.

Lynn’s alleged career of “service” was, in fact, a life dedicate to climbing the church’s corporate ladder, and acting deceptively and irresponsibly to protect his job and reputation and the reputations of his supervisors and peers.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Jul. 19, 2012
By Phyllis Zagano

Distances and demographics combine to tell the story.

Three-quarters the size of the United States, Australia is mainly uninhabited except along its coastline. While the U.S. shelters close to 313 million people, latest Australian census statistics report only 22 million persons on the continent’s nearly 3 million square miles.

Australia’s Christians — mainly descendants of 18th-century British settlers and Irish convicts, and of later émigrés from Germany and Italy — comprise 61 percent of the population. Australia’s newest immigrants continue arriving from the United Kingdom and Italy, but also from New Zealand, China, India, Vietnam and the Phillippines. …

Many Australian Catholics who remain — who have not shifted to “no religion” — are disaffected and are speaking out. Catholics for Renewal, Catholics for Ministry, Australian Reforming Catholics, and Catalyst for Renewal are among the more active groups, with other pockets of upset operating around the country.

Fewer than 200 Australian men are studying for the priesthood, and statisticians contend that within 10 years more than half the priests will be foreign-born — perhaps not much different when Irish and Scots clergy followed their countrymen, except the new foreign-born are not native speakers of English.

Bishop William Morris (CNS/Diocese of Toowoomba)Against this backdrop — more non-Christians, disaffected Catholics, fewer priests and religious — play out the stories of three resigned bishops: Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Robinson (born 1937), Toowoomba Bishop William Morris (born 1943), and Canberra Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Power (born 1942). All three wanted to talk about the elephants in the episcopal palaces. All three found it rough going. All three resigned, more or quite less voluntarily.

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COLORADO
The Gazette

July 19, 2012

BENZEL
THE GAZETTE

Former priest Charles Robert Manning, 77, waived a pre-trial hearing Thursday on child sex counts and will consider plea bargain, an attorney said.

Manning, formerly of St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church, 8755 Scarborough Drive,

in Colorado Springs, was suspended in January amid claims he sexually abused a 15-year-old boy.

Manning’s attorney, Richard Bednarski, said in court that Manning is mulling a guilty plea. His return date is 9 a.m. Aug. 23.

Prosecutor David Kalicki said he was unable to discuss terms of plea offer. Bednarski declined to comment after the hearing.

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COLORADO
KKTV

A Catholic priest accused of sexual contact with a teenager will return to court Thursday morning.

Father Charles “Robert” Manning is charged with three counts of counts of sex assault on a child by one in a position of trust, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and two counts of sexual exploitation of children. Besides accusations of sexual assault, Manning is also accused of providing alcohol and marijuana to juveniles.

Parishioners of St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church were stunned in January when allegations against Manning emerged. Manning was suspended from his duties while the Colorado Springs Police Department and the diocese conducted an investigation.

Manning turned himself in on May 22.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on July 19, 2012

We are grateful to the brave survivors who spoke out about Camnong Boa Ubol and the abuse they suffered at his hands. Without their courage, he would likely still be victimizing young girls without regret or repercussion. Now that he has been extradited back to Chicago where these crimes occurred, we hope that he will be held without bail.

Now, more than ever, we urge anyone who may have seen, suspected, or suffered crimes at the hands of this monk to come forward and make a report to police. Any detail, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant, could be the difference between keeping this dangerous predator away from kids or letting him back out onto the street.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Joelle Casteix on July 19, 2012

A man who says he was sexually abused by the former president of Iona College has filed a sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit in the New York courts.

The suit charges that the victim, known as John Doe, was sexually abused by Brother James Liguori in 1969 when the boy at a Cardinal Farley Military Academy in New York. Liguori is a member of and the school was run by the Irish Christian Brothers, a New Rochelle-based Catholic religious order.

Doe now lives in Orange County, California, and reported his abuse to church officials there in 2008. Catholic staffers, including Bishop Tod Brown, met with him and, in emails, a lawyer for the diocese said that she believed his allegations.

The Irish Christian Brothers, however, claimed that Doe’s allegations were “without merit,” so they took no action against Liguori. At the time of the victim’s report, Ligouri was the president of Iona College in New Rochelle. He retired in 2011.

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BELGIEN
BRF

In Zukunft kann ein belgischer Richter einem verurteilten Pädophilen verbieten, in der Nähe seiner Opfer zu wohnen. Kammerabgeordnete haben einem entsprechenden Gesetzesvorschlag zugestimmt.

Dem Gesetzentwurf liegen Empfehlungen des parlamentarischen Ausschusses zum Thema “sexueller Missbrauch” zugrunde. Da ein Wohnverbot einen besonders großen Eingriff darstellt, muss ein Richter sein Urteil äußerst gut begründen.

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VATIKAN
der Standard (Osterreich)

Neues von der fortschreitenden römischen Selbstbeschädigung

Der Vorgang ist so selten, dass der deutschsprachige “L’Osservatore Romano” gar keine Rubrik dafür kennt. Daher wurde der Rausschmiss (korrekte Bezeichnung: Amtsenthebung) des slowakischen Erzbischofs Robert Bezak fälschlich unter “Rücktritte” veröffentlicht. Dabei hatte sich der junge Bischof gerade dazu – trotz massiven Drucks der Nuntiatur – nicht überreden lassen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Gesegnet seien die Opfer, denen man glaubte, was ihnen widerfuhr.
Gesegnet seien die Trittbrettfahrer, denen man ebenfalls Glauben schenkte.
Gesegnet sei aber auch der Bischof von Trier, Dr. Stephan Ackermann, sein “Missbrauchsbeauftragter” Peter Rütten und das Generalvikariat des Bistums Trier: denn sie wissen offensichtlich nicht mehr, was sie tun.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

July 19, 2012 by Susan Matthews

Throw away the key or give him sympathy? I’m surprised by how many in the pews tell me they’d prefer the former. They also wish he had the company of all the others involved in the coverup.

When Msgr. Lynn put institutional interests before the safety of children, he sentenced several children to a life of cruel and unusual punishment. – Susan

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

July 19, 2012

Barney Zwartz

THE state MP who chaired a parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse in the 1990s says the Catholic Church was not ”fair dinkum” then and nor is it now about the state inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious institutions.

Lower house Speaker Ken Smith said yesterday that he had no confidence in Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart or his predecessor, Cardinal George Pell, ”because they knew about these things and were not prepared to do anything”.

At a seminar in the city to help victims prepare submissions to the inquiry, the Liberal member for Bass told The Age: ”I dealt with Gerry Cudmore [then the Melbourne vicar-general] and he was trying to cover his arse. I don’t think he was fair dinkum.”

So was the church fair dinkum today? ”No. I think [Archbishop Hart] is just trying to keep things smooth, and that’s sad.”

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