ABUSE TRACKER

HELENA (MT)
The Associated Press

September 27,.2018

The defendant said the church covered up her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses must pay $35 million to a woman who says the church’s national organization ordered Montana clergy members not to report her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member, a jury ruled in a verdict.

A judge must review the penalty, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ national organization — Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York — plans to appeal.

Still, the 21-year-old woman’s attorneys said Wednesday’s verdict sends a message to the church to report child abuse to outside authorities.

“Hopefully that message is loud enough that this will cause the organization to change its priorities in a way that they will begin prioritizing the safety of children so that other children aren’t abused in the future,” said attorney Neil Smith Thursday.

The Office of Public Information at the World Headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses responded to the verdict with an unsigned statement.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
syracuse.com

September 28, 2018

By Julie McMahon

Sixty-four Central New Yorkers are among the nearly 1,000 victims of clergy sexual abuse in New York state who plan to take settlements from the Catholic church.

The victim compensation program offered through the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse is nearing its conclusion after about seven months. Victims have started to receive and accept financial offers in Syracuse and across the state.

Program administrator Camille Biros said in five New York dioceses, there were 1,262 claims. From that, 1,133 offers were made. As of Thursday afternoon, 981 signed releases to settle the claims.

In Syracuse, 85 victims were invited to participate in the program. That’s more than the 76 “credible” victims the church has previously acknowledged publicly.

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ROME
Crux

September 16, 2018

By Inés San Martín

A priest who was once a national hero in Chile, and who now finds himself another casualty of that country’s massive clerical sexual abuse crisis, has been expelled from the priesthood by Pope Francis after being found guilty of abusing minors and vulnerable adults.

The Archdiocese of Santiago in Chile released a statement on Saturday saying that Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had notified the Chilean Church that on Sept. 12 Francis had decreed, “with no possibility of appeal,” the “removal from clerical state ‘ex officio et pro bono Ecclesiae’” of Father Cristián Precht Bañados.

Precht, who rose to fame in Chile for his defense of human rights during the government of dictator Augusto Pinochet, had already been suspended from ministry from 2012-2017 after the CDF found him guilty of abusing both minors and adults.

The former priest had played a key role during the visit of St. John Paul II to Chile in 1987, serving as the vice-president of the local organizing committee and also as head of liturgies.

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Vatican sanctions Cristián Precht with expulsion from the clerical state

SANTIAGO
24Horas.cl Tvn

September 15, 2018

La determinación fue confirmada por el Papa Francisco y comunicada por la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe.

Este sábado el Arzobispado de Santiago informó que el Papa Francisco sancionó con dimisión inapelable del sacerdocio al exvicario Cristián Precht.

A través de un comunicado, el Arzobispado de Santiago confirmó que “el Santo Padre Francisco ha decretado, de forma inapelable: La dimisión del estado clerical ‘ex officio et pro bono Ecclesiae’ y la dispensa de todas las obligaciones unidas a la sagrada ordenación, del Rev. Cristián Precht Bañados. El mismo decreto establece que el obispo comunique a la brevedad la nueva situación canónica del afectado al pueblo de Dios”.

De esta manera, Precht, quien recurrió a la justicia con recursos de amparo y protección, dejará de ser sacerdote.

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Pope Francis decrees expulsion of priest Cristián Precht

SANTIAGO
Emol / Agencias

September 15, 2018

By Camila Gálvez

El Arzobispado de Santiago informó que el prefecto de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, cardenal Luis F. Ladaria, S.J. les notificó este sábado su decisión.

A través de un comunicado el Arzobispado de Santiago dio a conocer que el prefecto de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, cardenal Luis F. Ladaria, S.J., los notificó este sábado de la decisión del Papa Francisco de decretar la expulsión del sacerdote Cristián Precht.

“La dimisión del estado clerical ‘ex officio et pro bono Ecclesiae’ y la dispensa de todas las obligaciones unidas a la sagrada ordenación, del Rev. Cristián Precht Bañados. El mismo decreto establece que el obispo comunique a la brevedad la nueva situación canónica del afectado al pueblo de Dios”, informaron.

El religioso es indagado por denuncias de abusos sexuales a menores en el marco del caso Maristas.

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About the perpetrators

GERMANY
Frankfurter Allgemeine

September 24, 2018

By Lydia Rosenfelder

Am Dienstag stellen die deutschen Bischöfe eine Studie über Kindesmissbrauch vor. Nur ein Viertel der Fälle wird beleuchtet – doch schon das hat es in sich.

Am Dienstag wird die Studie über sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch in der katholischen Kirche vorgestellt. Sie liefert wichtige Erkenntnisse. Zum Beispiel erklärt sie, welches Verhältnis zwischen Tätern und Opfern besonders riskant ist. Etwa dieses: Ein Junge, gerade in der Pubertät, wird von seinen Eltern auf ein katholisches Internat geschickt. Er wird nicht gefragt, er muss sich fügen. Im Internat hat er Heimweh. Ein Erzieher nimmt sich seiner an. Der Erzieher ist selbst einsam und zudem noch unreif. Er wird zudringlicher, der Schüler zieht sich zurück, spürt etwas „Fremdes“ im Verhalten des Mannes. Doch ihm fehlt der Mut, das auszusprechen. Der Erzieher fühlt sich nur noch stärker zu ihm hingezogen, immer wieder bedrängt und nötigt er den Jungen sexuell. Rückblickend schildert der Mann das als Ausdruck eines unkontrollierbaren Impulses. Das Verhältnis schlägt in Gewalt um. Die Autoren der Studie schreiben: Der Erzieher sei in dieser Beziehung, auch für ihn selbst überraschend, mit der ganzen Intensität seiner Gefühlswelt, Erotik und Sexualität konfrontiert worden. Damit er weitermachen kann, setzt er den Jungen unter Druck. Macht ihm Versprechungen, droht Strafen an. Der Junge wird schließlich so stark von ihm misshandelt, dass die Internatsleitung darauf aufmerksam wird. Der Erzieher wird versetzt.

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A deep look into the dark past

GERMANY
Frankfurter Allgemeine

September 25, 2018

By Daniel Deckers

Die Ergebnisse eines Forschungsprojekts über den Missbrauch innerhalb der katholischen Kirche erschüttern selbst die erfahrensten Wissenschaftler. Die Reaktion der Kirche: Sie will sich bessern – wieder einmal.

Sie waren alle drei Messdiener. In der „MHG-Studie“, wie der Projektbericht „Sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen durch katholische Priester, Diakone und männliche Ordensangehörige im Bereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz“ kurzgefasst heißt, kommen sie vor. Nicht namentlich, denn in der Studie gibt es weder Namen noch Orte. Auch keine Täter, nicht einmal Opfer. Die Rede ist von Betroffenen, wie den drei Kindern, und Beschuldigten, wie ihrem Peiniger.

Ihm, einem katholischen Priester, hat man seine Untaten nachweisen können. Sie wurden sogar dokumentiert. Das war nicht immer so. Manch andere Täter tauchen in den Akten oder in Berichten von Betroffenen nur als Beschuldigte auf. Was wirklich vorgefallen ist, wird man nie erfahren. Viele sind längst verstorben, andere lassen sich nicht mehr identifizieren. Personalakten oder andere Dokumente seien in unbekannter Zahl „vernichtet oder manipuliert worden“, stellen die Wissenschaftler der Universitäten Mannheim, Heidelberg und Gießen (daher das Akronym MHG) um den Forschungskoordinator Harald Dreßing fest. Und wenn man ihrer doch habhaft werden konnte, dann erwiesen sie sich als „ausgesprochen heterogen und ohne einheitliche Standards“. Nicht-Wissen-Wollen als System? Dreßing, der als forensischer Psychiater in mehr als dreißig Jahren vieles gesehen und erlebt hat, zeigte sich am Dienstag in einer persönlichen Bemerkung ob des Ausmaßes von sexueller Gewalt in der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland und dem Umgang damit „erschüttert“.

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Sexual abuse

GERMANY
Deutschen Bischofskonferenz

September 25, 2018

Seit Ende Januar 2010 wird durch die bekannt gewordenen Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs am Canisius-Kolleg in Berlin eine öffentliche Debatte zu diesem Thema geführt. Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann (Trier) ist Beauftragter der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz für Fragen des sexuellen Missbrauchs im kirchlichen Bereich und für Fragen des Kinder- und Jugendschutzes. Lesen Sie auf dieser Themenseite mehr zu den relevanten Aspekten.

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Researchers press church in the abuse scandal

GERMANY
Radio Bamberg

September 25, 2018

Fulda (dpa) – Eine erschütternde Studie über jahrzehntelangen sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen bringt die katholische Kirche in Deutschland unter Reformdruck.

Die in Fulda vorgestellte Untersuchung zeigt nicht nur die erheblichen Verfehlungen katholischer Kleriker in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten auf, sondern benennt auch problematische Strukturen, die Missbrauchsfälle auch heute begünstigen könnten. Der Leiter der Studie, Harald Dreßing, betonte, die Missbrauchsthematik sei daher keineswegs überwunden. «Das Risiko besteht fort», sagte er.

Die Studie ergab unter anderem, dass zwischen 1946 und 2014 mindestens 1670 katholische Kleriker 3677 meist männliche Minderjährige missbraucht haben sollen.

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MHG study: Sexual abuse of minors by clerics

GERMANY
ZI

September 24, 2018

By Harald Dreßing

Ziel des Forschungsprojektes war es, die Häufigkeit des sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger durch Kleriker im Verantwortungsbereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz zu ermitteln. Darüber hinaus wurden die Formen des Missbrauchs beschrieben und kirchliche Strukturen und Dynamiken identifiziert, die Missbrauchsgeschehen begünstigen können.

Mit einem interdisziplinären wissenschaftlichen Ansatz, der kriminologische, psychologische, soziologische, psychiatrische und forensisch-psychiatrische Kompetenz einbezieht, haben die Forscher von 2014 bis 2018 im Auftrag der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz den Missbrauch in einem Umfang untersucht, der in keiner der bisher publizierten nationalen und internationalen Studien zu dieser Thematik in dieser Breite zu finden ist. Alle 27 Diözesen Deutschlands hatten sich vertraglich verpflichtet, am Forschungsprojekt teilzunehmen.

Neben Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern des Zentralinstituts für Seelische Gesundheit waren auch Forscher des Instituts für Kriminologie sowie des Instituts für Gerontologie der Universität Heidelberg und des Bereichs Kriminologie, Jugendstrafrecht und Strafvollzug der Universität Gießen beteiligt (MHG-Studie steht für Mannheim, Heidelberg, Gießen). Prof. Dr. Harald Dreßing, Leiter Forensische Psychiatrie am ZI, koordinierte das Forschungskonsortium. Das gesamte Projekt gliederte sich in sieben Teilprojekte (TP1 bis TP7):

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Leading researcher laments lack of education in church

GERMANY
Epoch Times

September 25, 2018

Der Wissenschaftler Harald Dreßing beklagt einen mangelnden Aufklärungswillen in weiten Teilen der Kirche. Die Missbrauchsthematik sei keineswegs überwunden und das Risiko bestehe weiter fort.

Der Wissenschaftler Harald Dreßing, der das Studienprojekt über Missbrauch in der deutschen katholischen Kirche geleitet hat, beklagt einen mangelnden Aufklärungswillen in weiten Teilen der Institution. Das Ausmaß des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern und Jugendlichen als auch „der Umgang der Verantwortlichen damit“ hätten die Forscher „erschüttert“, sagte Dreßing am Dienstag in Fulda bei der Vorstellung der Untersuchung.

Er betonte, die Missbrauchsthematik sei keineswegs überwunden. „Das Risiko besteht fort“, sagte der forensische Psychiater, der am Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit in Mannheim arbeitet. „Unsere Studienergebnisse legen nahe, dass es in der katholischen Kirche Strukturen gab und gibt, die den sexuellen Missbrauch begünstigen können“, sagte er. Gründe dafür seien beispielsweise der Missbrauch klerikaler Macht, die Verpflichtung der Priester zur Ehelosigkeit (Zölibat) sowie ein innerkirchlich „problematischer Umgang“ mit dem Thema Sexualität, vor allem mit der Homosexualität.

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ROME
Crux

September 28, 2018

By Inés San Martín

Seven years after Fernando Karadima was found guilty by the Vatican of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a life of penitence and prayer, Pope Francis has made the “exceptional” decision to remove him from the priesthood.

A Vatican statement released on Friday said the decision was made “in conscience and for the good of the Church.”

The now former priest had been found guilty of abuse by the Vatican in 2011, and had been sentenced to a life of penitence and prayer.

Karadima was never sentenced by Chilean courts due to the country’s statute of limitations.

To this day, it’s unknown how many people were sexually abused by Karadima. Presumably, the number of people who were psychologically abused, victims of his abuse of power, or who had their consciences manipulated by the priest, is even larger.

In the 1980s and 1990s Karadima led a one-time impressive lay movement from his parish in El Bosque, Chile, with some 40 young men finding their vocation to the priesthood there. Four of these men, who formed his “iron circle,” were later made bishops.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

September 28, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

The former Vatican ambassador who accused three popes and their advisers of covering up for a disgraced American ex-cardinal has challenged the Vatican to say what it knows about the scandal and accused Pope Francis of mounting a campaign of “subtle slander” against him.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano penned a new missive a month after his initial 11-page document sent shockwaves through the Catholic Church. It was uploaded to a document-sharing site late Thursday.

Vigano denounced the official Vatican silence about his claims and urged the current head of the Vatican bishops’ office to speak out, saying he has all the documentation needed to prove years of cover-up by the Vatican about alleged sexual misconduct by ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

“How can one avoid concluding that the reason they do not provide the documentation is that they know it confirms my testimony?” Vigano wrote. “The pope’s unwillingness to respond to my charges and his deafness to the appeals by the faithful for accountability are hardly consistent with his calls for transparency and bridge building.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics 4 Change

September 27, 2018

By Susan Matthews

Last week, Pennsylvania bishops issued a joint statement outlining a myopic and self-serving plan for compensating past victims of clergy child sex abuse.

Read the statement here.

In a PhillyCatholic.com editorial on the statement, Archbishop Chaput seemingly boasts about how the archdiocesan victim’s assistance program “has quietly served hundreds of abuse victims and their families for more than 15 years and underwritten their therapy and care in an amount totaling more than $18 million.”

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DAVENPORT (IA)
The Catholic Messenger

September 2018

By Barb Arland-Fye

Catholics in the Diocese of Davenport and around the country want to know what they can do to prevent clergy sexual abuse and its cover up from ever happening again. Their outrage and call for action comes after news broke this summer about some bishops’ culpability in covering up clergy sexual abuse committed decades ago.

What they may not know is that the Davenport Diocese’s rigorous policies and procedures to protect children and vulnerable adults from clergy sexual abuse appear to be having a positive effect. Bishops, priests and deacons are members of the clergy.

In 2002, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People which was implemented in dioceses across the country, including the Davenport Diocese. Allegations of abuse of minors or vulnerable adults have been reported in the Davenport Diocese since then, but none allege abuse that occurred post-2002, said diocesan Chief of Staff Deacon David Montgomery.

“The Dallas Charter is working,” writes Stephen J. Rossetti in America magazine (Sept. 20). “Abuse rates in the Catholic Church have fallen dramatically,” added Rossetti, who assisted the U.S. bishops’ committee on the drafting of the charter.

Deacon Montgomery provided statistics of allegations the diocese has received over the past five years. All of the allegations relate to abuse reported to have occurred more than 20 years ago:

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Archdiocese of Washington

September 28, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In late July 2018, our Holy Father Pope Francis requested that Archbishop Theodore McCarrick withdraw from all public ministry and events. To that end, Archbishop McCarrick now resides at St. Fidelis Friary in Victoria, Kansas in the Diocese of Salina, with the permission of the Provincial Superior of the Franciscan Capuchin Community responsible for the Friary, Fr. Christopher Popravak, O.F.M.Cap., and the Bishop of Salina, Most Reverend Gerald Vincke.

Out of consideration for the peace of the community at St. Fidelis Friary, respect for the privacy of this arrangement is requested.

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BINGHAMTON (NY)
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

September 28, 2018

By Maggie Gilroy

When he was a child, a Broome County priest sexually abused him.

About 30 years later, the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse offered him money in compensation for the trauma he endured.

How the victim chose to spend it is a testament to the process of healing.

Now an adult no longer living in the area, the man is using the money to aid two Broome County food pantries and to purchase masses to be said for the victims of clerical sex abuse — as well as for their abusers.

He hopes the donation will demonstrate forgiveness and bring healing at a time when major bombshells — such as the Pennsylvania grand jury report of abuse by over 300 priests and allegations against former archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Theodore McCarrick — have triggered hurt and rage against the Catholic church.

“I didn’t feel that I needed to heal. But a lot of other people do,” the victim said. “And that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing. There is a tremendous amount of hurt and anger and sorrow and suffering out there, which is all entirely valid and lamentable, and I hope bit by bit can be mitigated and maybe even brought to a sense of peace and comfort somehow.”

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STEUBENVILLE (OH)
The Marietta Times

September 28, 2018

By Michael Kelly

Diocese of Steubenville will publish names of abusers in October

The Diocese of Steubenville, which includes several parishes in Washington County, announced Wednesday it will publish the names of priests in the diocese against whom credible allegations of sex abuse have been made and who have been removed from active ministry.

Diocese Communications director Dino Orsatti said Wednesday the list, which is expected to include between 12 and 20 names, will appear on the diocese website around the end of October.

Both Orsatti and an advocate for victims expect that publication of the names is likely to bring a wave of victims forward, as has happened in other locations where the names of accused priests have been made public.

Judy Block Jones, Midwest regional leader for SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), said Wednesday the Diocese of Steubenville announcement is “a welcome step” but further measures are needed.

Jones, who now lives in the St. Louis area but grew up in southeast Ohio, said she has heard from several people who have stories of abuse in Washington, Belmont and Noble counties but have not come forward publicly with accusations.

“It’s very quiet in that area, but I know about these things personally because the victims have contacted me directly,” she said. “These are small parishes, they’re afraid to come forward, and a lot of times they blame themselves even though they were just kids.”

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

September 28, 2018

By Nicole Hensley

A former Conroe priest facing decades-old child molestation accusations has been staying at a gated retirement community in southwest Houston while out on bail, according to officials.

The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has been housing Manuel Larosa-Lopez at the St. Dominic Village along Holcombe Boulevard after he was released on a $375,000 bond two weeks ago, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office confirmed. The property is fenced off save for a guarded driveway.

The diocese touts the village, which includes a senior home and about a dozen apartments for retired priests south of the Brays Bayou, as providing “all the comforts of home” on its website.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Trib Live

September 27, 2018

By Deb Erdley

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro had no idea the flood gate he was opening last month, when he went public with a grand jury report on Catholic clergy sexual abuse.

The clergy sexual abuse hotline in the attorney general’s office has been ringing day and night for six weeks, tallying 1,181 new calls as of Thursday, he said.

“As a result of the heroism of the survivors (who testified before the grand jury), more and more survivors are finding voices,” Shapiro said.

He declined to discuss specifics about the deluge of new complaints.

“There has been a lot of useful information, helpful information and information we are working through right now,” he said. “And there has been information about matters we were not aware of.”

Shapiro said he also has fielded calls from attorneys general in 40 other states seeking to launch their own investigations. Within 10 days of the release of the Pennsylvania report, attorneys general in Missouri and Illinois launched investigations. Last week, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette did the same.

Likewise, the U.S. Justice Department has reached out to Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Philly

September 25, 2018

By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

To the people of the Archdiocese:

Dear friends,

On Friday, September 21, the bishops of Pennsylvania issued a joint statement pledging substantial new financial aid for victims of clergy sexual abuse in decades past. I want to underline our commitment to helping abuse survivors, whether their claims are time-barred or not.

Perennial critics of the Church may dismiss the bishops’ statement; this is a regrettable part of today’s ugly political environment. But our local Church has proven the sincerity and scope of her commitment since I arrived here as Archbishop seven years ago. In fact, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Victims’ Assistance Program has quietly served hundreds of abuse victims and their families for more than 15 years and underwritten their therapy and care in an amount totaling more than $18 million.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

September 28, 2018

By Philip Pullella

Pope Francis has defrocked Father Fernando Karadima, the 88-year-old priest at the center of the vast sexual abuse scandal in Chile, the Vatican said on Friday.

Chilean priest Fernando Karadima is seen inside the Supreme Court building in Santiago, Chile, November 11, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Vera
Karadima was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing teenage boys over many years. He was ordered to live a life of prayer and penitence, but he was not defrocked.

Seven Chilean bishops have resigned since June following an investigation into an alleged cover-up of Karadima’s actions.

Karadima, who has always denied wrongdoing, escaped civilian justice because of the statute of limitations in the country.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

September 28, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis has defrocked the Chilean priest at the center of the global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy, invoking his “supreme” authority to stiffen a sentence originally handed down by a Vatican court in 2011.

In a statement Friday, the Vatican said Francis had laicized the 88-year-old Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was originally sanctioned to live a lifetime of “penance and prayer” for having sexually abused minors in the upscale Santiago parish he ran.

The “penance and prayer” sanction has been the Vatican’s punishment of choice for elderly priests convicted of raping and molesting children. It has long been criticized by victims as too soft and essentially an all-expenses-paid retirement.

The Vatican didn’t say what new evidence, if any, prompted Francis to re-evaluate Karadima’s sanction and impose what clergy consider to be the equivalent of a death sentence. It said Francis made the “exceptional decision” for the good of the church, and cited the church canon that lays out the pope’s “supreme, full, immediate and universal power” to serve the church.

The statement said the decree, signed Thursday, takes effect immediately and that Karadima was informed of it Friday.

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CHILE
NPR

September 28, 2018

By Bill Chappell

Pope Francis has defrocked Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, making what the Vatican calls an “exceptional” decision based on his own conscience and concern for the good of the Catholic Church. Karadima has been the face of the Church’s abuse scandal in Chile.

The move is effective immediately. It was announced in a brief communique from the Vatican’s press office, stating that Francis had signed the decree removing Karadima from the priesthood on Thursday, and that Karadima was informed of the pope’s decision on Friday.

Karadima, 88, had already been forced to retire from ministerial duties, after a Vatican tribunal found him guilty in 2011 of sexually abusing dozens of minors, in a scandal that erupted in 2010.

In June, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of three bishops over the church’s handling of the sexual abuse cases — including Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who has been accused of covering up Karadima’s actions.

Barros was a protégé of Karadima, who was accused of abuse in cases that date back to the 1980s. Both of them have denied the claims against them.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

September 27, 2018

By Elizabeth Renzetti

Women made time Thursday to gather around television sets and laptops to watch Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony to the U.S. Senate judiciary committee. Judging by the outpouring on social media, some of them were in tears. Some were enraged. Far too many of them understood, in the heart and the brain and the gut, what Prof. Blasey Ford meant when she said, “Brett’s assault on me drastically altered my life.”

Brett is of course Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice for Supreme Court justice, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by two other women in addition to Prof. Blasey Ford. (Justice Kavanaugh denies the allegations.) The consequences of that day, at a drunken impromptu party in suburban Washington more than three decades ago, were evident in Prof. Blasey Ford’s shaking voice. She remembered that Mr. Kavanaugh pushed her into a room and locked the door and got on top of her and tried to remove her clothes and covered her mouth with his hand to stifle her screams. She remembered that he and his friend, also in the room, laughed uproariously. It was her most indelible memory, she told the committee: They were “having fun at my expense.”

Prof. Blasey Ford was too ashamed and afraid to tell anyone initially what had happened. Her schoolwork suffered, she testified. She had trouble making friends. The legacy of that day followed her into adulthood: When she renovated her house a few years ago, she insisted that two front doors be installed, a suggestion that at first mystified her husband, but is abundantly clear from the point of view of someone who is always looking for a way of escape.

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UNITED STATES
TIME

September 27, 2018

By Abigail Abrams

When Christine Blasey Ford testified on Thursday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about her accusation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her 36 years ago, millions of Americans listened to her describe the intimate details of her alleged assault and the trauma she says she has lived with for decades since.

For many of those people, her words and the questions she was asked brought up personal memories. Some shared their experiences on social media, others talked to friends or co-workers and others called into news networks to publicly recall their incidents of assault. It turns out many people also called the National Sexual Assault Hotline looking for help.

The National Sexual Assault Hotline saw a 147 percent increase in calls on Thursday compared with a normal weekday on which sexual assault did not dominate the news, according to RAINN, a large anti-sexual violence organization that administers the hotline.

The organization told TIME it often sees an uptick in survivors asking for help when sexual assault is in the news.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

September 27, 2018

By Shelby Le Duc

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, with the help of a third party investigator, is launching an investigation next month into of all of its priests and Deacons.

A Texas-based independent investigative firm will be conducting an “outside review of the files of all priests and deacons who have served in the diocese,” according to a Catholic Diocese of Green Bay news release.

“As we work to assure all clergy abuse cases have been identified and objectively reviewed, the diocese has arranged for Defenbaugh & Associates Inc., who specializes in this kind of work, to review files beginning in early October,” the release states.

The announcement of the investigation comes a week after news broke that retired Bishop Robert Morneau withdrew from public ministry. He said his exit was prompted by his failure to report a priest’s sexual abuse of a minor almost 40 years ago that allowed the priest to assault other youths.

In a letter to the diocese, Morneau admitted to failing to report to police a 1979 incident in which former priest David Boyea sexually abused a child. Boyea then went on to abuse more children, and in 1985 pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was also permanently removed from the priesthood.

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VATICAN CITY
CNA/EWTN News

September 27, 2018

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has issued a new letter addressing his allegation that senior prelates have been complicit in covering up alleged sex abuse by Archbishop Theodore McCarrick.

Headed with Archbishop Viganò’s episcopal motto, Scio Cui credidi (I know whom I have believed), the letter, dated Sept. 29, was released Sept. 27.

The former apostolic nuncio to the US prefaced his letter giving “thanks and glory to God the Father for every situation and trial that He has prepared and will prepare for me during my life. As a priest and bishop of the holy Church, spouse of Christ, I am called like every baptized person to bear witness to the truth … I intend to do so until the end of my days. Our only Lord has addressed also to me the invitation, “Follow me!”, and I intend to follow him with the help of his grace until the end of my days.”

He noted it has been a month since he released his testimony, “solely for the good of the Church,” alleging that Pope Francis and other high-ranking prelates knew of grave sexual sins committed by Archbishop McCarrick.

He said he chose to disclose the cover-up “after long reflection and prayer, during months of profound suffering and anguish, during a crescendo of continual news of terrible events … The silence of the pastors who could have provided a remedy and prevented new victims became increasingly indefensible, a devastating crime for the Church.”

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HELENA (MT)
The Associated Press

September 27, 2018

By Matt Volz

A Montana jury has ruled that the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization must pay $35 million to a woman who says the church covered up her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses must pay $35 million to a woman who says the church’s national organization ordered Montana clergy members not to report her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member, a jury ruled in a verdict.

A judge must review the penalty, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ national organization — Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York — plans to appeal.

Still, the 21-year-old woman’s attorneys say Wednesday’s verdict sends a message to the church to report child abuse to outside authorities.

“Hopefully that message is loud enough that this will cause the organization to change its priorities in a way that they will begin prioritizing the safety of children so that other children aren’t abused in the future,” attorney Neil Smith said Thursday.

The Office of Public Information at the World Headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses responded to the verdict with an unsigned statement.

“Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor child abuse and strive to protect children from such acts. Watchtower is pursuing appellate review,” it said.

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SPAIN
AKA Catholic

September 24, 2018

By Randy Engel

AN INTERVIEW WITH MR. JUAN CUATRECASAS ON THE GAZTELUETA SEX ABUSE CASE
[Note: The following interview with Mr. Juan Cuatrecasas Asua is a follow-up to the detailed investigative report of the Gaztelueta sex abuse case by this writer that originally appeared as a two-part series, “The Gaztelueta Sex Abuse Case – Opus Dei On Trial,” on AKA Catholic HERE and HERE. The reader may want to refer to that report before reading this interview with Mr. Cuatrecasas, the victim’s father. The Gaztelueta case is expected to go to trial on October 4 to October 11, 2018, at the Audiencia provincial de Vizcaya (Bizcaia) in Basque, Spain. – R.E.]

Randy Engel: Thank you, Mr. Cuatrecasas, for agreeing to this interview. I am grateful that you write and speak English so well. Is this your first American interview on the Gaztelueta case?

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UNITED STATES
Reuters

September 28, 2018

The American Bar Association has called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to delay the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh so that the FBI can investigate the sexual assault accusations against him, the Washington Post reported.

Association President Robert Carlson requested the delay in a letter sent to the committee on Thursday evening, the Post reported, after a day of testimony by university professor Christine Blasey Ford who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her 36 years ago, and by Kavanaugh who denied it.

“The basic principles that underscore the Senate’s constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI,” Carlson wrote to Chairman Charles Grassley and ranking committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein that, the Post reported.

Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge chosen by President Donald Trump, said he was the victim of “grotesque and obvious character assassination” orchestrated by Senate Democrats.

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ROME
LifeSiteNews

September 27, 2018

By Diane Montagna

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has today issued a new extraordinary testimony, responding to Pope Francis’ refusal to answer the charge that he knew of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual abuse, yet made McCarrick “one of his principal agents in governing the Church.”

In the four-page document (see below), the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States also responds to the Pope’s recent homilies which seem to cast himself in the role of Christ and Viganò as the diabolical “Great Accuser.”

“Has Christ perhaps become invisible to his vicar? Perhaps is he being tempted to try to act as a substitute of our only Master and Lord?” Archbishop Viganò asks in the new statement, sent to LifeSiteNews today.

Given the symbolic date of September 29, the liturgical feast of St. Michael the Archangel, and bearing the Archbishop’s episcopal coat of arms and motto, Viganò:

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DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register

September 27, 2018

By Lee Rood

A U.S. cardinal at the center of the Vatican’s response to the sex abuse crisis besetting the Catholic church is being accused this month by clergy abuse survivors of mishandling cases in Iowa and Texas.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, led a delegation of Catholic leaders this month to meet with Pope Francis about the crisis.

In public remarks, DiNardo blamed the “moral catastrophe” on “the failure of episcopal leadership.”

“The result was that scores of beloved children of God were abandoned to face an abuse of power alone,” DiNardo wrote.

But one Iowa abuse survivor told Reader’s Watchdog that DiNardo is guilty of the same leadership failures.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
VOA News

September 27, 2018

By Cecily Hilleary

Elsie Boudreau was 10 years old that afternoon in 1978 when Father James Poole called her and two playmates into the office of a small radio station he had founded in Nome, Alaska.

“He had us line up against the wall and began asking us questions,” said Boudreau, who grew up in St. Mary’s, a tiny Yup’ik village in northwest Alaska where Poole had earlier served as pastor. “Then, he told the two other girls that they could leave, but that I should stay. He said it was because I was so much more mature than the other girls.”

The abuse began with hours of French kissing and later escalated, lasting nine years.

“I have a memory of him being on top of me in a super high bed,” Boudreau said. “I must have had an out-of-body experience, because when I look back, I’m actually hiding behind a door, peeking out, seeing myself in bed with him, a little girl with long hair in braids.”

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CARMEL (IN)
WIBC

September 27, 2018

By Kurt Darling

An anonymous man accuses a Mt. Carmel parish priest of molesting when he was a child in 1982.

More sexual abuse claims against Catholic priests in Indiana, this time within the Diocese of Lafayette.

An anonymous man, who was a child of the St. Ann’s parish in Montery, Indiana says he was abused by a Father James Grear during a Catholic youth rally at Mt. Carmel parish in Hamilton County in 1982.

A lawsuit says when the man, identified as John Doe, returned St. Ann’s the following week he went to confession. The suit said then Bishop of Lafayette Raymond Gallagher was the one hearing confessions that day.

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[María Paz Lagos, President of Catholic Voices: “The Pope asked me to pray so that he can find the new Archbishop of Santiago”]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 26, 2018

“El Santo Padre que viene llegando de su viaje de Estonia, se veía cansado. Hay que rezar por él”, añadió.

Durante esta jornada, María Paz Lagos, presidenta de Voces Católicas, contó detalles de su encuentro con el Papa Francisco, en Roma. En la oportunidad, la representante del grupo laico le pidió al Pontífice que acelere el nombramiento del nuevo Arzobispo de Santiago. Según su testimonio, Francisco le contestó: “Mijita no he encontrado a la Persona. Por favor rece para que la encuentre”.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

September 27, 2018

The Kansas City Editorial Board

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley has promised a thorough investigation of sexual abuse allegations lodged against priests and clergy in the Catholic Church.

Missourians should expect such an investigation, comparable to the recent investigation in Pennsylvania that exposed decades of abuse and maltreatment by priests.

If Hawley needs the power to subpoena church records, he should seek it — and get it.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held a news conference Wednesday imploring Gov. Mike Parson to provide Hawley with such authority. The group thinks a full investigation should not rely on the voluntary cooperation of the institutions being investigated.

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[Review of Karadima victims’ appeal is postponed]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 27, 2018

By Felipe Delgado and Nicole Martínez

Durante la próxima semana se podría resolver la apelación presentada por tres víctimas de Fernando Karadima al rechazo de una demanda civil contra el Arzobispado de Santiago, luego que se suspendiera su revisión programada para hoy. El médico James Hamilton, el periodista Juan Carlos Cruz y el presidente de la Fundación para la Confianza, José Andrés Murillo, interpusieron el recurso civil para buscar una reparación de $450 millones por el encubrimiento que el ente religioso habría realizado de los abusos cometidos por el otrora párroco de El Bosque.

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[Ex-bishop of Chillán: “I reserve the right to denounce those who have denounced me”]

CHILE
TV13

September 21, 2018

Luego de reunirse con el clero de la diócesis de Chillán, el renunciado obispo Carlos Pellegrín, pidió “perdón por las veces en que no estuve a la altura de lo que requiere mi responsabilidad como pastor”.

El renunciado obispo de Chillán, Carlos Pellegrín, aseguró este viernes que se reserva “el derecho a denunciar a los que me han denunciado”, refiriéndose así directamente a la denuncia que pesa en su contra y cuya investigación encabeza el fiscal regional de O’Higgins, Emiliano Arias.

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[James Hamilton after suspension of allegations: “The Judiciary has to show us its independence from the Church”]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

September 27, 2018

By Tamara Cerna

“Hoy debía verse la apelación a la rechazada demanda civil de las víctimas de Karadima contra el arzobispado. Además, se refirió al porqué el ex párroco no fue expulsado del sacerdocio.

Para esta mañana estaban programados los alegatos de la apelación de la demanda civil que llevan adelante contra el Arzobispado de Santiago las víctimas del ex párroco de El Bosque Fernando Karadima, y que fue rechazada en primera instancia hace más de un año y medio. Sin embargo, fueron suspendidos. Ante esto, el abogado de los denunciantes, Juan Pablo Hermosilla, aseguró: “Fue una decepción toda esta demora, esta causa debió haberse visto hace muchos meses, aún no entendemos por qué se demora tanto (…) Estamos preparados para enfrentar este tema desde hace mucho tiempo y esperamos que el Estado chileno pueda resolverlo y zanjarlo de una vez por todas”.

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[Church of Santiago: Lay person heads the new entity to address abuses]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 26, 2018

By Sergio Rodríguez G.

La abogada Andrea Idalsoaga estará a cargo de “Delegación Episcopal para la Verdad y la Paz”. Instancia coordinará el trabajo de la Oficina de Denuncias y la promoción de ambientes sanos.

“Enfrentar el daño producido por los abusos causados por miembros de la Iglesia en la arquidiócesis, responder a las necesidades actuales y construir caminos para restablecer la confianza”. Esos son, en lo básico, los objetivos de la nueva estructura que creó el Arzobispado de Santiago para enfrentar el tema de los abusos sexuales por parte del clero, y que hoy informó a la comunidad a través de un comunicado.

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[Episcopal Delegation for Truth and Peace, the new unit for abuse accusations]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

September 26, 2018

By Juan Peña

La instancia será coordinada por la abogada Andrea Idalsoaga, la primera laica que encabeza las tareas vinculadas a este tema y a la formación en prevención.

Delegación Episcopal para la Verdad y la Paz. Así se llama la nueva estructura que creó el Arzobispado de Santiago para coordinar las denuncias de abusos cometidas por miembros de la Iglesia en la arquidiócesis. La instancia tendrá a su cargo las labores que llevan a cabo la Oficina Pastoral de Denuncias (Opade) y el Departamento de Prevención de Abusos que ahora se denominará Departamento de Promoción de Ambientes Sanos.

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UNITED STATES
The Tablet

September 26, 2018

By Massimo Faggioli

The American Church divided

The story of the Catholic Church in the United States of America is a success story. A small community of poor migrants and missionaries, barely tolerated and often unable to worship freely in a new nation founded by religious dissenters fleeing from European Christendom, grew to become its single largest religious denomination.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
SNAP Network

September 27, 2018

Governor Parson
State of Missouri

Dear Governor Parson,

As you know, our Attorney General Josh Hawley is looking into clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the Missouri Catholic Church. He maintains he can only ask for the voluntary cooperation of the same Church officials who have hidden those crimes for decades.

However, according to Mr. Hawley, you can change this. You can order him to obtain full criminal jurisdiction and use this power to conduct a genuine, thorough inquiry that will expose wrongdoers and protect kids. We beg you to do this immediately.

Why should you do this?

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LISBON (ME)
NEWS CENTER Maine

September 26, 2018

By Beth McEvoy and Chris Costa

Derek Michael Boyce was a teacher at Pine Tree Academy in Freeport. Police said they are investigating his relationship with a 15-year-old female student from the school.

A 37-year-old teacher is behind bars for allegedly having a relationship with a 15-year-old student.

Police arrested Derek Michael Boyce on September 21, and charged him with one count of gross sexual assault. Boyce was a teacher at Pine Tree Academy in Freeport which is a Seventh-day Adventist school for grades K–12.

Lisbon Police Chief Marc Hagan said they believe that Boyce and the student had an ongoing relationship.

”It was more than one incident. It appears to be an ongoing situation,” said Chief Hagan.

According to court documents obtained by the Sun Journal, Boyce told police his relationship with the girl began after she sustained a sports injury and had been depressed. He said they messaged each other over social media. He told police the relationship started in May, and turned sexual in July. He said they met in a park and performed oral sex on each other. Boyce told police they had sexual intercourse twice.

Boyce told police the sexual contact was always consensual and that no drugs nor alcohol were involved.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

September 27, 2018

By Charlie Specht

Confirmed he is taking “leave of absence”

The Rev. Joseph C. Gatto, who runs the seminary for the Diocese of Buffalo, has stepped away from his position as he faces an allegation of sexual misconduct.

Gatto confirmed Thursday morning to I-Team Chief Investigator Charlie Specht that he is taking a “leave of absence” from Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, which prepares men for the priesthood in the Buffalo Diocese.

“The pressures of the job, all the things that I’ve been doing — it’s just a temporary thing,” he said in a brief phone interview with 7 Eyewitness News. “I’ve had so many responsibilities. I’m just burned out. I’m just taking some time.”

But 7 Eyewitness News has obtained a copy of a complaint filed Wednesday with the Diocese of Buffalo, in which a local man alleges that in 2000, he went to Gatto for spiritual advice and counseling and the high-profile priest “quickly befriended me, and shortly thereafter made unwanted sexual advances toward me.”

The man said he was in his 20s when the encounter happened, and in the complaint, he added, “On one occasion he [Gatto] grabbed my knee in a suggestive manner, and invited me to a ‘cabin’ for a weekend with him alone. I declined, and ended any further communication.”

Gatto said the diocese had not contacted him about the complaint and denied his leave of absence had anything to do with allegations of sexual misconduct.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
Missourinet

September 27, 2018

An organization that provides support for victims of clergy abuse called on Missouri’s governor on Wednesday to order Attorney General Josh Hawley (R) to use subpoenas during his clergy sex abuse investigation.

St. Louis volunteer SNAP director David Clohessy prepares for a news conference on September 26, 2018 in Jefferson City (Brian Hauswirth photo)

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which is known as SNAP, held a Wednesday news conference outside the Statehouse in Jefferson City.

St. Louis volunteer SNAP director David Clohessy says Governor Mike Parson understands the difference between a real investigation and an inadequate investigation.

“And we’re asking him to essentially order the attorney general to do this probe of Catholic dioceses in Missouri on child sex crimes and cover-up and to do it right,” Clohessy says.

SNAP wants Hawley to question Missouri Catholic church officials under oath.

Governor Parson’s spokeswoman, Kelli Jones, issued a statement to Missourinet, after the press conference.

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NEW ZEALAND
Newsroom

September 27, 2018

By Phil Quin

If you’re one of millions tuning into tomorrow’s high stakes hearing on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, don’t be fooled into thinking what you witness is remotely typical of such deliberations. The process by which the 22 members of the Senate Judiciary committee plan to hear evidence from Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, is anything but normal.

The Republican majority, terrified of how the sight of 11 elderly white men grilling the victim of an alleged sexual assault will play among crucial women voters in November, has rewritten the rulebook in unprecedented ways. To avoid such a damming spectacle, committee chairman Chuck Grassley, an octogenarian from Iowa, conscripted a female prosecutor to probe the witnesses on behalf of the frail, stale, pale males on the GOP side. What’s more, he unilaterally slashed questioning time to just one round of five minutes each for Democrats on the committee, no doubt fearful of the damage experienced prosecutors like Kamala Harris of California and Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar are likely to inflict on the besieged nominee.

Acceding to Ford’s request, Grassley also limited media presence at the hearing room and authorised only a single camera to broadcast proceedings. Overall, when you consider the Committee’s refusal to call witnesses who may corroborate or otherwise the events Ford describes, along with the White House’s refusal to instruct the FBI to conduct a separate investigation into the claims (as is normal practice), it’s clear Republicans much prefer damage control to due process.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS

September 27, 2018

By Brad Edwards

Father James Nowak has faced a multitude of accusations of child sex abuse. In fact, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet paid out millions of dollars to eight men who claimed Nowak abused them.

When CBS 2 Investigator Brad Edwards started looking into why Nowak was being housed next to a school, he moved, and moved again.

You won’t believe where Edwards found him now; at an Extended Stay America motel next to the Joliet Catholic Charities offices.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Cleveland Scene

September 26, 2018

By BJ Colangelo

According to reports from The Associated Press, a second Ohio Roman Catholic Diocese is planning to release a list of priests who have been removed from parishes due to allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct over the years. The list is due out sometime before the end of October.

The Ohio diocese in question is located in Steubenville, the smallest diocese in the state, with only 34,000 members. Its list will contain names and crimes of priests, possibly dating as far back as 1944. A spokesperson told the AP they expect 12 to 20 names to appear on the list.

Bishop Jeffrey Monforton wants the list to be as transparent and accountable as possible. As Orsatti said to the Associated Press, “[Monforton] would welcome any investigation like the one in Pennsylvania.” This list release follows suit with the diocese in Youngstown, that announced earlier this month it’d also be releasing a comprehensive report. The Youngstown diocese broke off from the Cleveland diocese in 1943.

The 2002 approval of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops implemented a zero-tolerance policy for crimes against children in response to The Boston Globe’s devastating reveal of decades of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of priests.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

September 26, 2018

By Jack Jenkins

Groups of religious women are speaking out about the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, citing their faith as they call on lawmakers to investigate allegations of sexual assault raised by Christine Blasey Ford and others.

“I understand that when he testifies, Judge Kavanaugh is going to cite his Catholic faith as a shield to claim these attacks never happened. Being a Catholic does not change the accounts provided by Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick,” Sister Simone Campbell, head of the Catholic social justice lobby group Network, said in a statement referencing Kavanaugh’s accusers. “I know all too painfully that being a person of faith does not stop men from being sexual predators.”

Network has been critical of Kavanaugh’s nomination for weeks, and the group’s latest statement calls on senators to launch a full investigation into the allegations against him. Network representatives are also slated to speak at a protest tentatively scheduled for Friday, the day the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on the nomination. The protest is organized in part by the National Council of Jewish Women.

The Catholic school-educated U.S. Circuit judge is expected to deny the allegations and highlight his Catholic background during his testimony before the committee on Thursday (Sept. 27).

“I am here this morning to answer these allegations and to tell the truth. And the truth is that I have never sexually assaulted anyone — not in high school, not in college, not ever,” Kavanaugh wrote in his prepared remarks. “Sexual assault is horrific. It is morally wrong. It is illegal. It is contrary to my religious faith.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

September 26, 2018

By Laura Newberry

A bill sitting on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk could give survivors of childhood sexual assault much more time — in some cases, decades — to sue those who might have stopped their abuse.

The proposed law, written by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), would allow victims to file abuse claims until they are 40 years old. It would also permit those who have repressed memories of abuse to sue within five years of unearthing the cause of their trauma.

If enacted, the bill would be a symbol of progress for abuse survivors such as Tim Lennon, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Lennon was raped by a Roman Catholic priest when he 12 years old but buried the memory until he was 43.

“If a survivor does make the brave choice to come forward, they only have a restricted amount of time to seek justice,” Lennon said of the current statute of limitations.

Victims in California can sue a third party that may have ignored or covered up abuse — such as a private school or a church — until they are 26 years old or three years after coming to terms with repressed memories, whichever occurs later.

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GREENFIELD (MA)
The Greenfield Recorder

September 27, 2018

Many years ago, a Franklin County priest, much respected and beloved by the adults in his flock, was accused by a young teenage boy of sexual assault. The parishioners were horrified at the accusation — that the youth could even think such a thing. The victim became a pariah. Until he wasn’t. Until evidence mounted and the priest was charged in court and eventually pleaded guilty.

Over the years, what seemed like a local aberration turned into a worldwide scandal, with continuing revelations of abuse by many Catholic clergy and inaction by many of their superiors. More recently, we have seen the pattern repeated and spawn the #MeToo movement as powerful lay people — entertainment and media celebrities, politicians, judges and yes, presidents Democratic and Republican — have been accused of sexual harassment, abuse and assault against people less powerful than them and more vulnerable.

On Tuesday, 81-year-old Bill Cosby saw his Hollywood career and good-guy image transformed as he was officially branded a “violent sexual predator” and sentenced to 3 to 10 years in Pennsylvania state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, becoming the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be sent to prison.

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UNITED STATES
Verdict Justia

September 27, 2018

By Marci A. Hamilton

In the same week, Bill Cosby was sentenced and labeled a sex offender for drugging Andrea Constand and sexually assaulting her; Pennsylvania House members passed by overwhelming margins a strong bill for statutes of limitations reform for child sex abuse victims in response to Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s monumental grand jury report on six Catholic dioceses detailing craven abuse and callous cover-up going back 70 years; and the third woman emerged with accusations against Brett Kavanaugh for drunken sexual misconduct, including gang rape. In sum, there was a conviction of a sexual perpetrator, legal reform for sex assault victims, and more allegations from sexual assault victims.

Each of these instances is at a different stage in the justice system, but they are all cut from the same cloth. Wonderful, upstanding men are being charged with sex abuse and assault, and other powerful men race to defend their honor. Then the truth brings them all down.

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CORNWALL, ONTARIO (CANADA)
Catholic News Service

September 26, 2018

By Deborah Gyapong

The sexual abuse crisis is like a fire that should be left to burn to purify the church, said the president of the Canadian bishops’ conference.

“When there is a fire, our first instinct is often to try to put it out to prevent damage,” said Bishop Lionel Gendron of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, Quebec. He spoke Sept. 24 to more than 80 bishops and eparchs at the annual plenary meeting of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“In this case, however, we may need to allow this fire to keep burning,” he said.

Gendron reminded the bishops of St. Paul’s words, “It is better to expose works of darkness and bring them to light.”

“The fire burning in the church today may appear to be out of our control and, in some cases, consuming that which we hold dear,” Gendron said. “But as it blazes with brightness, it is cleansing and purifying, and thereby casting light on things until now hidden in darkness.”

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CANADA
CBC News

September 26, 2018

By Sara Frizzell

Dejaeger’s appeal related to the amount of jail time awaits written decision

The Nunavut Court of Appeal will not grant ex-priest Eric Dejaeger a new trial for a 2014 conviction for sex offences in Igloolik.

Yesterday, Dejaeger’s lawyers argued in front of a panel of three judges that Justice Robert Kilpatrick made errors in his 2014 decision. The lawyers were seeking a new trial to review the evidence.

Dejaeger’s lawyer Scott Cowan had three reasons for challenging the conviction. To begin, he argued the judge did not adequately explain why he accepted some complainants’ testimonies and not others.

Dejaeger was convicted on 32 counts of various sexual offences for abusing 23 people in Igloolik. The offences ranged from anal and vaginal rape to fondling, and they took place over a four-year period in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Kilpatrick found Dejaeger not guilty on 40 counts.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Conversation

September 26, 2018

By Hadeel Al-Alosi

Last December, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse made public its final report, containing 409 recommendations. The inquiry revealed that there were numerous instances where senior officials in churches failed to report allegations of child sexual abuse while in their care.

Since then, there have been steps forward. For example, on July 1, the National Redress Scheme was established to support people who have experienced institutional child sexual abuse.

What has been particularly controversial is recommendation 7.4, which states:

Laws concerning mandatory reporting to child protection authorities should not exempt persons in religious ministry from being required to report knowledge or suspicions formed, in whole or in part, on the basis of information disclosed in or in connection with a religious confession.

The conflict between the rules of the Catholic Church on the confidentiality of confessions and mandatory reporting laws is not a new issue. These laws require people from selected professions (known as “mandatory reporters”) to report suspected child abuse to government authorities. However, recommendation 7.4 has recently reignited the debate.

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VERMONT
VT Digger

September 26, 2018

By Anne Galloway

The Vermont Attorney General’s investigation into sex abuse in the Catholic church will include the Weston Priory, following a complaint lodged against the monastery by an alleged victim.

Michael Veitch said he was sexually abused by a visiting priest from Cuba who was staying at the Benedictine monastery in southern Vermont. Veitch said he was assaulted shortly after his father, a devout Catholic, died in 1970 when Veitch was 15 years old.

A few months after his death, Veitch and his brother visited Weston Priory, where their father was buried. The two brothers had helped the monks with farming chores for a few weeks each summer, and Veitch struck up a friendship with a visiting priest from Cuba. Veitch said the priest later assaulted him.

Veitch said the experience profoundly affected his academic performance his junior year at Bellows Falls Union High School and his life went off the rails. He was unable to go to college as a young man and despite years of therapy had three failed marriages. Veitch worked for many years as a recycling advocate at Vermont Public Interest Research Group.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

September 26, 2018

By Carol Zimmermann

A panel discussion Sept. 25 at Georgetown University on the current church crisis was akin to a very large parish town hall meeting.

Panelists and audience members alike shared their pain, shock and complete frustration with recent allegations of abuse and cover-up by church leaders and they also showed a strong desire to somehow forge a path out of this.

This wasn’t a talk where audience members were scrolling through their phones to pass time or looking at their watches to see when it would be over. During the hour and a half, there were moments in the churchlike campus hall when you could hear a pin drop, particularly when panelists shared about their own experiences of being abused.

The audience also audibly gasped over references to church leaders’ seemingly callous responses to the abuse crisis over the years and they also broke into applause at several points, particularly over calls for laypeople, especially women, to have more say in the church.

When it came time for question and answer session, a line formed immediately and snaked to the back of the hall. Many of the questions, from college students, recent graduates and many long since out of college, echoed frustrations and a desire to make things right but no idea how to begin.

One questioner, who said he was a seminarian, asked in almost a hushed tone: “What can we do? How can we be a solution?”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
RNS

September 26, 2018

David Clohessy, a longtime leader with Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, stood on a sidewalk near the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and told a group of reporters about nine Catholic priests who were named in a recent Pennsylvania grand jury report on child sex abuse.

The church removed these men from their parishes and sent them to the St. Louis area to live at Roman Catholic facilities that treat sexually abusive priests, according to SNAP, which aims to expose abusive clergy and provide support for victims.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis has said the nine priests did not serve in any capacity locally.

But local Catholics were not told that abusive priests were living in the community, said Clohessy.

“They are among literally hundreds of predator priests from across the country who have been sent and spent time in St. Louis with virtually no warning to parents and parishioners,” Clohessy told reporters on Sept. 20.

Speaking to reporters about abuse is a familiar role for Clohessy.

But it’s also a new one.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE

September 26, 2018

By Kimberly Curth

There is more pressure on the Louisiana Attorney General to investigate child sex abuse within the Catholic church. This as archbishops across the state consider releasing names of abusers within the church.

Gov. John Bel Edward’s office says Louisiana State Police are now reviewing an official complaint sent to the governor, the Attorney General and State Police by a man who says a Jesuit High School janitor raped him in the late 1970s while a priest watched.

In his email to authorities, Richard Windmann references that Archbishop Gregory Aymond has a “list of known pedophiles that are employed or have been employed by the Catholic Church” in Louisiana.

Windmann goes on to say he thinks authorities should make the list public and prosecute those listed.

In an interview Wednesday, The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, says Attorney General Jeff Landry should be more aggressive in protecting the community. The President of SNAP’s board of directors, Tim Lennon, is calling for a statewide investigation into church sex abuse in Louisiana.

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ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM ESTONIA
Catholic News Agency

September 26, 2018

The Pope told the inflight press conference that the Church is learning from its mistakes on abuse

Pope Francis said Tuesday that renewed procedures and priorities in handling sex abuse cases have yielded results in the Church, and have developed alongside a greater moral awareness of the dangers of child abuse. Francis spoke during a press conference Sept. 25 on the return flight from a four-day papal visit to the Baltic region.

Citing the Pennsylvania grand jury report released July 14, Francis said the difference between the number of historical and recent abuse cases is clear, and indicates true progress in the way the Church addresses the problem of clerical sexual abuse.

“We see that in the first 70 years there were so many priests that fell into this corruption, then in more recent times it has diminished, because the Church noticed that it needed to fight it in another way,” the pope said. “Watch the [number of cases] and watch when the Church became conscious of this.”

Francis stressed that while meaningful progress should be recognized, there is no such thing as a tolerable level of abuse: “Even if it was just one priest who abused a boy or a girl, this is atrocious, because that man was chosen by God.”

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BROOKLYN (NY)
VICE

September 26 2018

By Alex Norcia

Guess how much the Church claims St. Peter’s Basilica is worth.

Last week, the Diocese of Brooklyn and an after-school program settled with four people who were frequently abused as children at a Catholic Church, agreeing to pay a total of $27.5 million. The historic sum was reported at the tail end of a summer that has become a public relations fiasco for the Vatican worldwide, sparking something of an identity crisis within its own walls. In the past few months alone, Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington, DC, resigned from the College of Cardinals when he became the highest-ranking clergyman to be directly accused of sexual violence. Weeks later, a grand jury report out of Pennsylvania concluded that, since the 1940s, roughly 300 priests had abused at least 1,000 children in just some of the state’s dioceses. Traveling in Ireland not long after, Pope Francis was called on to resign by a prominent former Church official who claimed the pontiff knew about the McCarrick allegations before they went public. Meanwhile, state attorneys general in New York, New Jersey, and other states launched their own probes into local dioceses.

It sometimes seems as if you could rattle off a list of Catholic sex abuse scandals in perpetuity. The pope, for his part, has barely responded outside of summoning the world’s bishops to the Vatican for a meeting this winter to discuss the ongoing crisis.

Considering the unlikelihood of criminal consequences for those at the clergy’s top levels, and the fact that many of these sex abuse cases have far surpassed the statutes of limitations, the endgame seems increasingly a financial—that is, a civil liability—question. But can the Church settle with survivors forever? Will it ever, somehow, completely run out of money with which to do so? In settling sex abuse claims, the Church has already reportedly spent or agreed to spend at least $3 billion in the US alone, and about 20 American dioceses have filed for some kind of bankruptcy. There’s little evidence that will slow down, or that the price tag won’t keep climbing. (In Pennsylvania, for example, bishops said they supported a fund to compensate survivors if they could prove they were abused but, because of the statute of limitations in the state, could no longer file a lawsuit.)

But specifics on the Church’s finances, like virtually everything else that goes on behind those holy gates, are hard to come by.

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ROME
CBS NEWS

September 26, 2018

Pope Francis called sex abuse “monstrous” on his return flight from a four-day trip to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on Tuesday. During his tour, he acknowledged for the first time that the recent sex abuse scandals have “put-off” many young people, turning them away from the church.

CBS News producer Anna Matranga was on the Papal flight back to Rome, and noted that despite being asked by journalists about the church sex abuse and cover-ups repeatedly, Pope Francis initially would only discuss his trip. Then, about 40 minutes into the press conference, he did return to address the topic.

“There are accusations against the church. We all know that. We know the statistics, I will not repeat them,” he said. Then he specifically addressed the Pennsylvania grand jury report which found that more than 300 predator priests and more than 1,000 victims of clerical sex abuse.

“Look at the report and you will see that when the church began to become aware of this, then we gave it our all to stop it,” he said. But Francis spoke just hours after yet another scathing study was released, this one by the Catholic Church in Germany.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPXI

September 26, 2018

Redacted names contained in the grand jury report into clergy sex abuse across Pennsylvania could be one step closer to being made public.

In Philadelphia on Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard arguments from the petitioners and the attorney general’s office over releasing the names.

“We tried to get across to the court the importance of the grand jury process and the reporting process and the need for this whole report to come out,” said Deputy Attorney General Ronald Eisenberg.

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RALEIGH (NC)
Religion News Service

September 26, 2018

By Yonat Shimron and Jack Jenkins

In the end, it didn’t matter much what the bishop said during the Mass of Reparation and Prayer for Healing for victims of the sex abuse scandal.

His gesture said it all.

Standing in front of the altar Tuesday (Sept. 25) in Raleigh’s Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama took his violet zucchetto from his head and fell to his knees.

“I’d like all you who have been abused, who have been victims of this horrible crime, in the name of the church, I ask for forgiveness,” he said.

For the next 20 minutes, as he delivered his homily without notes in his heavily accented English — he is Colombian — Zarama was on his knees.

The Mass was one of many such healing services specifically tailored to address the clergy sex abuse crisis, which got new life last month after the Pennsylvania attorney general released the report on a two-year grand jury investigation into widespread sexual abuse and cover-up within six Catholic dioceses across that state.

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LEICESTER (UK)
Crux

September 24, 2018

By Charles Collins

Before beginning their ‘ad limina’ visit to Rome, the bishops of England and Wales said they spent time together to reflect on the “stark revelations of child sexual abuse” in the Church and will discuss the issue with Pope Francis on Friday.

The bishops also announced an independent review of the Church’s safeguarding structures in England and Wales.

Every bishop in the world is supposed to make an ‘ad limina’ visit every five years, where they visit the Vatican to meet the pope and officials of the Roman Curia.

In a statement issued at the beginning of their visit, the bishops said the recent reports about abuse “make it clear” that bishops and other religious leaders “failed to protect the children in their care from those who have done them great harm.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNS

September 26, 2018

By Matthew Gambino

The bishops of Pennsylvania’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses are supporting creation of an independent fund to compensate survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

Ever since the Aug. 14 release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report that graphically detailed the alleged sexual abuse of more than 1,000 boys and girls by some 300 priests and church workers in the state over 70 years, the bishops had “reflected deeply on the ugly record” of abuse and how “church leadership failed to protect our people over a period of decades.”

The bishops made the comments in a joint statement released by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Sept. 21.

The bishops recognize that although survivors of abuse that happened decades ago are time-barred from suing the dioceses under the statutes of limitation in Pennsylvania law, the General Assembly is considering proposals to lift those limits.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
News Tribune

September 27, 2018

By Joe Gamm

Survivors of sexual abuse by priests and their supporters delivered a letter to Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday, asking him to command Attorney General Josh Hawley to conduct a criminal investigation — and authorize him to use subpoena power in investigations — of alleged sexual abuse by Catholic Church officials in Missouri.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said they wanted the governor to add teeth to an investigation Hawley began late last month.

Hawley announced Aug. 23 he was starting an independent investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy in the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis. He asked that other dioceses in the state voluntarily allow his office to examine them. Hours later, Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of the Jefferson City Diocese invited the AG’s office to review the local diocese.

The late August activities followed a Pennsylvania grand jury release of a report on clergy abuse there.

David Clohessy, former director of SNAP, which was established to support survivors of clergy sexual abuse, said as a former law enforcement official, Parson should understand the difference between a “real investigation and an inadequate investigation.”

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

September 26, 2018

By Brian Roewe

Supreme Council urged members to contact senators to back judge’s nomination for Supreme Court

Days before allegations of sexual assault against Judge Brett Kavanaugh went public, the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council urged its membership to contact their senators to support the federal appellate judge’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Knights are one of several Catholic institutions in recent weeks that have urged their membership to support Kavanaugh’s nomination for the nation’s highest court, including the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, and the anti-abortion group Priests for Life.

Once seen as a surefire candidate, Kavanaugh’s confirmation now faces uncertainty after Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University, in California, alleged he sexually assaulted her at a house party in approximately 1982, while the two were in high school in the Washington, D.C. area, with Kavanaugh attending Jesuit-run Georgetown Preparatory School. Since Blasey Ford’s accusation became public, two additional women have come forward accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

Kavanaugh has steadfastly denied the allegations and is scheduled to address them Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as is Blasey Ford.

The Knights of Columbus Supreme Council declined to answer questions about the “action alert” to its membership, estimated at 2 million worldwide, including whether it stood by its support for Kavanaugh’s confirmation in light of the accusations brought against him, or if it supported an investigation beyond the Senate hearing.

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NASHVILLE (TN)
Ethics Daily

September 26, 2018

By Christa Brown

With the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh thrown into question by sexual assault allegations, President Trump tweeted that “if it was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed.”

Distressed by the president’s apparent ignorance of the dynamics of sexual assault, thousands of women and men have responded under the hashtag of #WhyIDidntReport, telling their stories in an attempt to answer the question that is so often thrown at sexual assault survivors: “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

I join with them.

Why didn’t I report?

Because the Southern Baptist minister/rapist had told me that everything he did was God’s will and that I was to be a “helpmeet” to him in his holy work.

Because the Southern Baptist minister/rapist had later told me that I harbored Satan.

Because I was an impossibly confused 16-year-old girl.

Because when I told the church’s music minister, he instructed me not to talk about it to anyone else.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

September 26, 2018

By Michael Sean Winters

After the Vietnam War ended, U.S. military leaders recognized that they could not grasp what went wrong and begin to fix it unless everyone could speak with absolute candor. Every crisis demands the same, including the sex abuse crisis. So, while it is always a mistake to try and figure out what the crazies at Church Militant will do or say, it is important that we monitor what is being said by seemingly responsible people to make sure we are all keeping each other honest.

In a recent essay at The Weekly Standard, Mary Eberstadt wrote “The Elephant in the Sacristy, Revisted,” a kind of reprise of an article she first wrote in 2002. “Back then, like today, the plain facts of the scandals were submerged in what we now call whataboutism,” she writes. “According to these evasive maneuvers, the wrongdoing was supposedly explained by reference to clericalism, celibacy, sexual immaturity, and other attributes invoked to avoid the obvious.” And, for her, then as now, the key to understanding the scandal was:

A cluster of facts too enormous to ignore, though many labor mightily to avert their eyes. Call it the elephant in the sacristy. One fact is that the offender was himself molested as a child or adolescent. Another is that some seminaries seem to have had more future molesters among their students than others. A third fact is that this crisis involving minors—this ongoing institutionalized horror—is almost entirely about man-boy sex.

I think this misses the point that what really scandalized the faithful was not that some priests were perverts, but that almost every bishop in the country never thought to call the cops when confronted with the perversion. That was the real scandal.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
MyMoInfo

September 26, 2018

An organization that provides support for victims of clergy sexual abuse wants Missouri’s governor to call on Attorney General Josh Hawley to question Catholic Church officials in Jefferson City and across the state under oath.

Brian Hauswirth has our report.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Guardian

September 27, 2018

By Adam Gabbatt

In a highly unusual move, the Arizona sex crimes prosecutor will be interviewing Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers on behalf of the Republican party

When Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused the supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, testifies before the Senate judiciary committee on Thursday, she won’t be interviewed by Republican senators.

Instead, Rachel Mitchell, a female prosecutor from Arizona whose “life mission” has been to investigate sex crimes, is interviewing Ford on behalf of the Republican party.

The bringing in of Mitchell is unusual. Democratic senators on the committee plan to quiz Ford and Kavanaugh – who will also testify on Thursday – themselves.

But each of the 11 Republicans on the committee is male, and there was said to be an awareness that having 11 men grill a woman who says she was a victim of sexual assault might not be a good idea.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
WOSU 89.7 NPR News

September 26, 2018

The Catholic Diocese of Columbus says it will release a list naming priests who have been accused of sexual abuse.

“The Diocese of Columbus understands that this is an important step to restore the confidence of our faithful in their Church and its clergy,” the diocese said in a statement provided to WOSU.

Columbus is the third diocese in Ohio to announce such a move, after the diocese of Youngstown and Steubenville. It says the list of names should be available “within the next few months.”

“The Diocese of Columbus has procedures in place specifically designed to address allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests, with zero tolerance for any form of child abuse,” the diocese said. “All credible claims of child sexual abuse are immediately reported to law enforcement and/or children service agencies, and those active clergy against whom such claims have been made are immediately removed from ministry and church property pending a completion of the investigation.”

The Columbus diocese oversees 106 parishes, 219 priests and a Catholic population of almost 300,000.

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CHEYENNE (WY)
National Public Radio

September 27, 2018

By Tennessee Watson

Following the release of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report detailing decades of sexual abuse by clergy, there has been a nationwide call for action and accountability. But in many states prosecutors have run out of time to press charges.

There are just a handful of states with no statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse crimes. One of them is Wyoming, and that’s given the Diocese of Cheyenne and the police there a chance to reopen an old case.

Back in 2002, a victim called the Cheyenne Police Department to report that a former bishop, Joseph Hart, had sexually abused him in the late 1970s. Hart had served as Bishop of Cheyenne from 1978 to 2001. But the victim was reluctant to do a full interview with police. After a three month investigation, the district attorney cleared Hart, saying there was no evidence.

Steven Biegler, the current Bishop of Cheyenne, says for too long those in power have controlled the conversation. When he became bishop in Wyoming a little over a year ago, he immediately launched an investigation into the unresolved allegations against retired bishop Hart.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
Louisville Courier Journal

September 25, 2018

By Caitlin McGlade

Two Kentucky lawmakers say they will introduce legislation that would enable a sweeping statewide investigation of the Catholic Church.

The Legislature will decide next session whether to authorize special statewide grand juries like the one in Pennsylvania that recently exposed rampant sex crimes across six dioceses.

The Pennsylvania report, which found that church leaders protected more than 300 “predator priests,” highlighted the need for action here, the Attorney General’s office said.

Pennsylvania law allows its attorney general to convene statewide grand jury investigations while Kentucky’s does not.

Jefferson County Democrats Jim Wayne and Jeffery Donohue said Tuesday they will pre-file a bill to fix that. Wayne is retiring so Donohue will carry it through the session that convenes in January.

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GRANTS (NM)
The Associated Press

September 26, 2018

A New Mexico judge sentenced a paramilitary religious sect leader Wednesday to more than seven decades in prison after her conviction in a child sex abuse case that authorities say involved a victim who was taken from Uganda as a baby and mistreated throughout her life.

KRQE-TV reports that the 72-year sentence for Deborah Green in Grants followed emotional testimony from a victim, who told the judge she had 11 surgeries for broken bones suffered during years of abuse. She also said she has yet to recover emotionally and physically from what she described as torture by Green.

On Tuesday, a jury found Green, 71, guilty of kidnapping, criminal sexual penetration of a minor and child abuse.

“A weaker person would not have survived,” Judge James Sanchez told the victim. “That means you can continue on being strong.”

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FRANKFORT (KY)
WLKY

September 25, 2018

By Mark Vanderhoff

State lawmakers from Louisville joined Attorney General Andy Beshear to support legislation that could enable a statewide investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

House Democrat Jeff Donohue will sponsor the legislation.

It will allow statewide grand juries, which in turn would enable the attorney general’s office to conduct investigations across multiple jurisdictions.

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CHICAGO (IL)
SNAP Network

September 26, 2018

For immediate release, September 26, 2018

Zach Hiner, Executive Director, zhiner@SNAPnetwork.org, (517) 974-9009

Since she first came forward with allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of the current nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States, Christine Blasey-Ford has been the subject of news reports, internet comment threads, and dinner table conversations around the country. The subject of many of those conversations or think-pieces has been less about what Brett Kavanaugh allegedly did to Dr. Blasey-Ford (and potentially several other women) and more about why Dr. Blasey-Ford is coming forward now, what she has to gain from making her allegations public and whether or not she is a liar.

Dr. Blasey-Ford’s allegations are amplified largely because of the profile of the person being accused, and it is easy to dismiss the furor – on both sides – as political bickering. But as an organization that has worked with survivors of institutional abuse for more than thirty years, we know it isn’t quite so simple.

On the largest of scales, what is happening to Dr. Blasey-Ford is what happens to far too many survivors of sexual abuse when they come forward. Too many people focus on the wrong “why” – instead of asking “why did this abuse occur in the first place,” the questions are “why are you coming forward now?” or “why do you think this is helpful?” Sometimes, as seen with Dr. Blasey-Ford, the question is “why are you lying?”

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Daily News

September 26, 2017

By Esha Ray and Graham Rayman

Fifteen women are claiming Tuesday they were sexually abused by a priest at a Catholic school in Queens over a span of two decades.

The women say they were abused by the Rev. Adam Prochaski at the Holy Cross school in Maspeth between 1973 and 1994, according to their lawyer Mitchell Garabedian and Robert Hoatson of the New Jersey-based Road to Recovery group, which helps victims of sexual abuse.

Garabedian was portrayed by Stanley Tucci in the movie “Spotlight” about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series on clergy sexual abuse.

Garabedian said the alleged victims were between the ages of 5 and 16 years old at the time of the abuse.

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ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM ESTONIA
National Catholic Reporter

September 25, 2018

By Joshua J. McElwee

This article appears in the Francis in the Baltics feature series. View the full series.

Pope Francis has defended the measures undertaken by the Catholic Church in recent years to respond to clergy sexual abuse, saying the global institution has grown in its understanding of the “monstrous” problem and has “spared no effort” to protect children.

In a press conference aboard the Sept. 25 papal flight back to Rome after a four-day visit to the three Baltic States, the pontiff said that the number of children abused over past decades “has diminished because the church has realized that it must fight in a different way.”

“In older times, these things were covered up,” he said. “They covered it up because there was a very great shame. It was a way of thinking in the … past century.”

“The church has … become aware of this and has spared no effort,” he said.

Francis spoke about abuse in a 55-minute press conference in which he also addressed concerns about the Vatican’s recent announcement of a “provisional agreement” with China to resolve a seven-decade dispute over how Catholic bishops are appointed in that country.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Janet, Janet & Suggs/Globe Newswire

September 26, 2018

Janet, Janet and Suggs, LLC (JJS), a national plaintiffs’ law firm that devotes much of its practice to seeking a full measure of justice for sexual abuse survivors, announced today that it has added preeminent Catholic Church sexual abuse attorney, Richard Serbin, to the firm.

“Richard is a pioneer in the fight to help survivors of abuse by priests and clergy get the justice they deserve,” said Howard A. Janet, managing partner of JJS. “He filed his first case against the Church nearly fifteen years before Spotlight exposed the depraved, despicable conduct of the Church. Richard uncovered the existence of the ‘secret archives’ maintained by bishops where accounts of abuse were held and he’s the only attorney to secure a verdict against a diocese, a bishop and a ‘predator priest’ in Pennsylvania to date. More recently, he provided extensive expert and factual testimony to the PA Grand Jury and assisted the Office of the Attorney General in identifying 109 child predators.”

Mr. Serbin’s career and accomplishments have been profiled extensively, including features in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily Beast and Washington Post, among others. He is the author of When Clergy Fail Their Flocks and has taught numerous continuing education seminars on the topic.

“JJS was founded on the belief that the law should be used to help those who have been wronged, who have been harmed, who have been abused – whether that’s in the context of obstetrical or other medical malpractice, environmental contamination, dangerous drugs or medical devices, or institutional sexual abuse,” said Mr. Janet. “We’re in the midst of an epidemic of sexual abuse. For years, survivors have endured massive trauma with little or no hope of securing the justice they deserve. We aim to change that.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
America The Jesuit Review

September 25, 2018

By John Carr

For me, clerical sexual abuse is personal, professional and institutional. It has haunted my service of the church for more than five decades, involving the abuse of people, power and trust and a clerical culture that enabled it and covered it up. My experiences have taught me several lessons that I believe will be helpful as the church moves forward.

1. There are not enough parents in the room when decisions are made.

In the 1980s, I served Cardinal James Hickey in Washington, D.C. I was summoned to his home where he explained that a senior cleric was accused of abusing young people, and a civil attorney and canon lawyer reported that this abuse likely took place. The bishops and monsignors in the room knew this priest and insisted this was not possible, a terrible misunderstanding or an unfair attack. I did not know the priest and urged his immediate removal. Archbishop Hickey removed him.

These members of the clergy looked at these events through the eyes of a brother priest. Through the eyes of a father, this was the worst thing that could happen short of the death of a child. It undermines trust and faith, priesthood and Eucharist, sexuality and family. There need to be more parents in the room.

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GERMANY
Catholic News Service/OSV Newsweekly

September 27, 2018

The head of the German bishops conference formally apologized for sexual abuse in the Church, saying it “has been denied, turned away from and covered up for far too long.”

“Sexual abuse is a crime,” Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising told a news conference Sept. 25 in Fulda, Germany. “And whoever is guilty of it must be punished by law.”

The bishops met in a plenary session in Fulda and released a study, conducted on behalf of the bishops’ conference from 2010 to 2014, on abuse. The study, leaked earlier in September, researched an estimated 3,700 sex abuse cases in the German church.

Cardinal Marx said that, although prevention measures had been put in place by the bishops’ conference, it was not enough.

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BUFFALO (NY)
CNN

September 25, 2018

By Rosa Flores and Kevin Conlon

In this hardscrabble Rust Belt city with deep Catholic roots, the Catholic Church’s top official is facing calls for his resignation over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests.

Documents obtained by CNN suggest Bishop Richard J. Malone did not sanction priests accused of sexual abuse and concealed the identities of alleged “predator priests” from the public.

In a preemptive move in March, Malone released a list of 42 priests in the Buffalo diocese who had left the priesthood after facing accusations of sexually abusing minors. “The diocese of Buffalo is committed to correcting the mistakes and sins of the past,” he said at the time.

But a trove of secret diocesan records, first reported by CNN affiliate WKBW and obtained by CNN, show the number of accused priests could be up to 200.

The records are stashed by diocese officials in what they call the “Secret Archives” — confidential files of living priests who are still being monitored — or “the Well,” which contains case files that are to be shredded.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

September 26, 2018

By Judy L. Thomas and Jason Hancock

Survivors of priest sex abuse on Wednesday called on Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to give Attorney General Josh Hawley subpoena power in his investigation into possible clergy sex abuse and cover-ups in the Roman Catholic Church.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests gathered outside the Capitol with a letter imploring the governor to authorize Hawley to conduct a grand jury-style investigation into the issue. Two Kansas City-area SNAP supporters delivered the document to Parson’s office prior to the group’s news conference.

“As a former law enforcement official, (Gov. Parson) surely understands the difference between a real investigation and an inadequate investigation,” said former SNAP director David Clohessy. “We’re asking him to essentially order the attorney general to do this probe and to do it right.”

Without subpoena power, Clohessy said, Hawley has no idea whether the dioceses will provide all pertinent church records.

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BERLIN (GERMANY)
The Irish Times

September 25, 2018

By Derek Scally

New report details cases of 3,677 children abused by clerics over nearly 70 years

German investigators say they were left “shaken” by the scale of clerical sex abuse and institutional cover-up in Germany’s Catholic Church.

Speaking on Tuesday at the presentation of a report into decades of sex abuse of children in the Church, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, head of the German Bishops’ Conference, said the 366-page document marked a “shameful episode we cannot deny”.

The report details the cases of 3,677 children who were abused by about 1,670 clerics over nearly 70 years up to 2014.

“For too long in the Church we have looked away, denied, covered up and didn’t want it to be true,” Cardinal Marx told a press conference.

Two weeks after a summary of the report leaked, the lead investigator, Prof Harald Dressing, said that in his 30-year career as a forensic psychiatrist he had never encountered anything like what he had found in Church files.

“The scale of sexual abuse in the German Catholic Church, and the actions of those responsible, left me shaken,” he said.

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CANADA
Global News

September 26, 2018

Pope Francis said on Tuesday young people around the world were right to feel outrage at the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of its sexual abuse scandals.

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TEXAS
Baptist Standard

September 26, 2018

By Scott Floyd

Part 1 of this series considered the extent of child sexual abuse—how often does sexual abuse of children take place? The vast majority of experts on the matter agree sexual abuse of children is more extensive than most people realize, and, for a variety of reasons, a great deal of child abuse goes unreported.

Part 2a described a set of common indications that a child or teen may have been sexually abused.

How does sexual abuse impact adults?

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Sydney Morning Herald

September 27, 2018

By Paul Waldman

New York: Speaking to reporters at the United Nations, President Donald Trump said about Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court: “They could have pushed it through two and a half weeks ago and you would not be talking about it now, which is frankly what I would have preferred, but they didn’t do that.” No kidding.

Now we have the most shocking allegation yet, courtesy of Michael Avenatti, known to the world as Stormy Daniels’ lawyer. Avenatti has released an affidavit from his client, a woman named Julie Swetnick, who says she attended parties with Brett Kavanaugh as a high school student. The behaviour Swetnick describes Kavanaugh, his friend Mark Judge, and other boys engaging in ranges from the distasteful to the horrific.

Before we get to the specifics of Swetnick’s allegations, we should make something clear. Republicans will inevitably say that they should be ignored or discounted because they arrive “at the 11th hour.” But the date on which an accuser comes forward tells us nothing about whether her claims are true. There are perfectly good reasons she might have been reluctant up until now to come forward – for instance, since women who make sexual assault allegations are routinely disbelieved and attacked, she may have decided to go public only when she saw that Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation about Kavanaugh was taken seriously enough to warrant a Judiciary Committee hearing.

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ESTONIA
CNN

September 25, 2018

Pope Francis told a crowd of young people in Estonia that he understood that many of them were “upset” by the sexual abuse scandals rocking the Catholic Church.

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[The “top” crowd that defends Precht at all costs]

CHILE
El Mostrador

September 26, 2018

By Alejandra Carmona López

Los defensores del ex sacerdote crecen con los días. Desde Manuel Riesco, Mariana Aylwin, pasando por periodistas reconocidos, han salido a poner en la balanza el papel que jugó el ex vicario durante la dictadura en la defensa de los Derechos Humanos. Un despliegue –lobby incluido en sectores políticos y judiciales– que las víctimas de los abusos cometidos por él no logran comprender. “Parece que para ellos las vidas mías o de Patricio Vela valieran menos que las que Precht defendió”, dice uno de sus denunciantes, Jaime Concha.

“Traidor”. “Vendido”. “Solo fuiste un cuerpo usado”. “Mentiroso compulsivo”. Todo esto es lo que ha tenido que leer en redes y escuchar en los últimos días Jaime Concha, uno de los sobrevivientes del llamado “caso Maristas” y que ha
hablado sobre la fractura que significó en su vida el abuso que sufrió de parte de uno de los sacerdotes más emblemáticos de la Iglesia católica en las últimas décadas, Cristián Precht.

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[Pedro Ossandón denies concealment in abuse case]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 25, 2018

By P. Yévenes and B. Velásquez

El administrador apostólico de Valparaíso habría tenido conocimiento de la denuncia.

El administrador apostólico de Valparaíso, Pedro Ossandón, se pronunció hoy sobre el hecho de que su nombre haya aparecido mencionado en el marco de nuevo caso de abusos que indaga la fiscalía y que involucra a miembros de la Iglesia. Se trata de una denuncia hecha por una persona de iniciales C.B., quien aseguró que habría sido abusado por Pedro Quiroz, excapellán de la Fuerza Aérea de Chile (Fach), entre 2003 y 2004, cuando él era menor de edad y “el imputado se desempeñaba como sacerdote en la Parroquia San Gregorio, actual San Mateo”.

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[Bishop of Arica creates commission of laypeople to receive abuse complaints]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 26, 2018

By Ximena Astudillo

El prelado explicó que la creación de esta instancia “forma parte del proceso de maduración que estamos haciendo como Iglesia, después de nuestro encuentro con el Santo Padre en el mes de mayo”.

La primera Comisión de Verdad y Transparencia en Chile, creó el Obispado de San Marcos de Arica, para la recepción de denuncias de posibles abusos de poder, conciencia o de tipo sexual ocurridos a partir de 1986, que podrían haber cometido obispos, sacerdotes o diáconos permanentes en esta jurisdicción.

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[Church: The abuse case that mentions the Apostolic Administrator just appointed by Pope]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 25, 2018

By Leyla Zapata and Héctor Basoalto

Administrador apostólico de Valparaíso, Pedro Ossandón, declaró en denuncia sobre el excapellán castrense. Víctima dice que él, junto a obispos Santiago Silva y Juan Ignacio González, supieron del presunto delito.

En medio del complejo escenario que vive la Iglesia Católica, una denuncia amenaza con seguir agitando las aguas. Se trata del caso de C. B., actualmente mayor de edad, quien asegura que, junto con otras dos personas, habría sido abusado por el excapellán castrense Pedro Quiroz, entre 2003 y 2004. Y en su relación de hechos, ya presentada a la fiscalía, sostiene que hubo tres prelados que supieron del caso: Santiago Silva, obispo castrense; Juan Ignacio González, obispo de San Bernardo, y Pedro Ossandón, obispo auxiliar de Santiago y designado por el Papa Francisco como administrador apostólico de Valparaíso, en reemplazo de Gonzalo Duarte.

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VIDEO

[Psychologist studies the effects of celibacy and abstinence in the Church]

CHILE
Emol TV

September 25, 2018

El psicólogo Claudio Ibáñez analizó los efectos del celibato y la abstinencia. Dijo que en la población hay un 2% de personas pedófilas, en la iglesia fluctúa entre un 6 y 10% y se explicaría por la abstinencia sexual. Revisa sus conclusiones.

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[Court of Appeals reviews Precht’s appeal against the Archdiocese of Santiago]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 25, 2018

By Valentina González and Nicole Martínez

La Séptima Sala de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago escuchó los alegatos del recurso de protección interpuesto por el exsacerdote Cristián Precht en contra del arzobispado de Santiago, al que acusa de vulnerar sus derechos constitucionales.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Associated Press

September 26, 2018

By Mark Gillispie and John Seewer

The Latest on the release of names of abusive priests (all times local):

1:50 p.m.

Another Roman Catholic diocese in Ohio plans to make public the names of priests who have been accused of sexual abuse.

The Catholic Diocese of Columbus said Wednesday it intends to release a list within the next few months that will include priests who’ve been credibly accused of abuse, both living or dead.

The diocese says in a statement that the diocese understands it’s an important step to restore confidence in the church and its clergy.

The announcement comes as the Steubenville diocese said this week that it will make public the names of abusive priests by the end of October.

Three of Ohio’s six dioceses now say they will release new lists in the wake of a Pennsylvania grand jury report that listed more than 300 clergy.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
SNAP

September 24, 2018

They want him to order AG to use subpoenas

SNAP also wants Hawley to delay & expand abuse inquiry

“Make no announcement until after election day,” they urge

Otherwise, probe will be “politicized” and “hurtful,” victims argue

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will hand deliver a letter to Missouri’s governor urging him to insist that the state attorney general

–use subpoena powers to expand a statewide clergy sex abuse inquiry,

–question Catholic officials, in Jeff City & elsewhere, under oath, and

–use state resources to prod victims, witnesses & whistleblowers to come forward soon.

WHEN

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 26th at 1:00 p.m.

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