ABUSE TRACKER

PHILIPPINES
Deutsche Presse Agentur

June 25, 2018

By Girlie Linao

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has sparked controversy in the predominantly Catholic country for calling God “stupid,” but his spokesman has defended the contentious statement as his personal belief.

Duterte made the statement on Friday evening during a speech in his southern home city of Davao, where he questioned God’s logic in the Biblical creation story of Adam and Eve.

“Adam ate (the fruit of knowledge), then malice was born. Who is this stupid God?” he said.

“That son of a bitch is stupid if that’s the case. You created something perfect and then you think of an event that would tempt and destroy the quality of your work.”

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

HARRISBURG (PA)
The Tribune-Democrat

June 26, 2018

An opinion issued Monday afternoon by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court explains some of the reasons why it issued a stay last week on the release of a grand jury report concerning child sexual abuse within several Roman Catholic dioceses in the state.

Last week’s stay – requested by unnamed parties – was granted by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Western District.

“Although the claims evidently differed in particulars to some degree, they shared certain key commonalities,” the opinion says.

“Most, if not all of the petitioners alleged that they are named or identified … in a way that unconstitutionally infringes on their right to reputation and denies them due process based upon the lack of pre-deprivation hearing and/or an opportunity to be heard by the grand jury.”

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

HARRISBURG (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer (Philly.com)

June 25, 2018

By Angela Couloumbis & Liz Navratil

After being criticized for halting the release of a long-awaited grand jury report into clergy sex abuse, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday offered the first explanation of its decision, saying it needs to resolve legal challenges by “many individuals” named in the report who fear their reputations will be harmed.

In a five-page unsigned opinion, the justices offered no clues as to the identity of the petitioners, or the specifics about the circumstances of their objections. Instead, they explained that concerns had been raised about the secretive nature of the grand jury process and the ability of some people to address or respond to the allegations contained in the more than 800-page document, which details decades of abuse in six of the state’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses.

“Most, if not all, of the petitioners alleged that they are named or identified in Report No. 1 in a way that unconstitutionally infringes on their right to reputation and denies them due process based upon the lack of a pre-deprivation hearing and/or an opportunity to be heard by the grand jury,” the court wrote, later adding: “A number of the petitioners asserted that they were not aware of, or allowed to appear at, the proceedings before the grand jury.”

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

LEXINGTON (KY)
Hey Kentucky via LEX18

June 25, 2018

By Chris Tomlin

In an open letter released to the public Monday, Tates Creek Presbyterian Church pastor Robert Cunningham detailed allegations of abuse against one of the church’s former clergy — and laid out a plan for the church’s future.

“It has come to our attention that Brad Waller sexually abused boys and men under his care as a pastor of TCPC,” wrote Cunningham in his address to his 1,250-member congregation and the media. ”While all of this misconduct took place over a decade ago, our church leadership is nevertheless committed to handling this horrific news with utmost sincerity, urgency and transparency.”

Cunningham’s statement is in response to the recent deposition of Savannah pastor Brad Waller, who was relieved of senior pastoral duties at Georgia’s Grace Church of the Islands in April after a confession detailing “foot-rubbing” of adult and youth male members of his church.

In a confession from Waller on public record, the former pastor stated: “I, Brad Waller, confess to the sin of abuse of authority in my role as a pastor. I have been rubbing the feet of men and youth in my care. There was a sexual element to this, however, physically it never went past foot-rubbing.” He was deposed from his office at the same meeting.

Waller had served as a minister under the administration of Tates Creek Presbyterian Church from 1995 to 2006, where his responsibilities included directing youth and college ministries. He was also involved in youth ministry at the University of Kentucky.

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

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

June 25, 2018

By Peter Smith

Christa Brown of Tennessee has called on Baptist churches for years to set up an independent panel to evaluate allegations of sexual abuse by clergy— such as the youth minister who sexually assaulted her as a teenager — and to keep predators from striking again at another church.

Pastor Jimmy Hinton — a Somerset Church of Christ minister who confronted his own pastor-father about the sexual abuse that landed the latter in prison — has worked to educate churches on the ways child molesters manipulate fellow believers into trusting them with their children.

Melanie Jula Sakoda has made it her own mission to hold Orthodox Christian churches accountable for sexual abuse by their priests and others.

All of them agree on this: that a future Pennsylvania grand jury could find as much evidence of sexual abuse and cover-up among other religious groups and youth-serving organizations as a current statewide grand jury is expected to find among Roman Catholic dioceses. That grand jury is expected to release a mammoth report if it clears ongoing legal challenges by individuals named in its report.

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

HARRISBURG (PA)
The Associated Press

June 25, 2018

By Mark Scolforo

Pennsylvania’s highest court said its decision last week to hold up the release of a major grand jury report on sexual abuse in six Roman Catholic dioceses is the result of challenges filed by “many individuals” cited in the report.

The Supreme Court said in a five-page opinion released Monday that most of those individuals claim they are discussed in the report in a way that would violate reputational rights guaranteed by the state constitution. They also say they have a due process right to be heard by the grand jury.

“A number of the petitioners asserted that they were not aware of, or allowed to appear at, the proceedings before the grand jury,” the court said in the unanimous, unsigned opinion.

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

HONG KONG (CHINA)
South China Morning Post

June 22, 2018

By Clifford Lo and Phila Siu

Ngai Lap-yin, who was fired from the Brotherly Love Swatow Baptist Church in Tsz Wan Shan, says he is ready to stand trial in court

A Hong Kong pastor has admitted that he behaved “inappropriately” after a woman accused him on social media of abusing his position as a father figure among church-goers to sexually harass them.

Ngai Lap-yin, who was fired two months ago from the Brotherly Love Swatow Baptist Church in Tsz Wan Shan, confessed on Friday night that he had harmed “sisters” from his church and said he regretted his behaviour.

He told the Christian Times – a widely read publication among the city’s religious community – that he had made mistakes and already reported the “serious matter” to police on Thursday night, accompanied by another pastor.

To express his regret, Ngai said he was willing to stand trial in court. He was first suspended by the church for two weeks in May before eventually being fired in the same month, he added.

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

INDIA
Express News Service

June 25, 2018

Father Alphons Aind, a member of the management of the school from where the women were abducted, was arrested on Saturday on charges of not doing enough to prevent the incident and not informing the police even after the accused took the women away.

The Secretary General of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), Theodore Mascarenhas, said on Sunday that the manner in which multiple charges had been slapped on a Catholic priest arrested in connection with the abduction and gangrape of five women in Jharkhand’s Khunti indicated that there was no intention to let him come out on bail. He also said the Church does not have anything to do with the Patthalgarhi movement.

Father Alphons Aind, a member of the management of the school from where the women were abducted, was arrested on Saturday on charges of not doing enough to prevent the incident and not informing the police even after the accused took the women away. He has been named in both cases lodged in connection with the incident.

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

PALM BEACH (FL)
Sun Sentinel

Sun Sentinel Editorial Board

By the time a nasty quarrel reaches the Florida Supreme Court, it’s usually about more than just the people involved. If it doesn’t have a broader implication for the public or for the law, the court is not likely to want to hear it. But if there is a significant public policy question, the court serves the people best when it interprets its jurisdiction liberally and agrees to take the case.

The case of Father John Gallagher vs the Diocese of Palm Beach, Inc., meets the public interest test. The priest is trying to sue the diocese for defamation, alleging that it maligned him after he accused it of trying to cover up the misconduct of another priest who showed child pornography to a teenager. The diocese claims that the lawsuit is really about Gallagher’s pique at not being promoted and that it is exempt from such litigation under what’s known as the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine.

After Palm Beach Circuit Judge Meenu Sasser refused to dismiss the suit, the Diocese won an order from the Fourth District Court of Appeal last month that forbade the trial court from trying the case. It’s that decision that Gallagher’s lawyers are asking the Florida Supreme Court to reverse. They make a good argument.

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

VATICAN
The Republican

June 25, 2018

By Anne-Gerard Flynn

In a wide-ranging interview with American journalist Philip Pullella of Reuters News Agency at the Vatican June 17, Pope Francis reiterated that women would not be ordained as priests.

He cited the issue as one of dogma that John Paul II had “closed the door on” and that he was “not going to go back on that.”

However, he said there should be more women in the Roman Curia, the central government of the Church within the Holy See through which the pope governs and whose members Francis had harsh words for in 2014.

“Women have an ability to understand things, they have a different vision of things,” the 81-year-old pontiff told Reuters.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS

June 25, 2018

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has reached a settlement with a family who accused a priest of sexually abusing their son.

The archdiocese reached a settlement with the family of Sean McIlmail, who say that Father Robert Brennan sexually abused him for years. McIlmail, of Willow Grove, died from a drug overdose in October 2013 at the age of 26.

“It is our hope that with the matter resolved, there will be closure and a path forward,” the archdiocese said in a statement.

The statement continues, “We are deeply sorry for any abuse that has taken place at the hands of clergy as well as the pain that survivors and their loved ones have suffered. Each survivor has their own unique story and it would not be our place to discuss it on their behalf.”

Deborah McIlmail, the mother of Sean McIlmail, alleges that the abuse by Brennan lasted four years and began in 1993 when her son was 11 and attending Resurrection of Our Lord Parish school in Rhawnhurst.

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

BHOPAL (INDIA)
UCA News

June 25, 2018

By Saji Thomas

Church officials defend Jesuit priest arrested on charges of aiding the abduction and gang rape of five women

Police in India’s Jharkhand state have arrested a Jesuit priest on charges of aiding and abetting the abduction and gang rape of five social activists, but church officials say the charges are fabricated.

Father Alphonse Aind, principal of Jesuit-run Stockmann Memorial Middle School in remote Kochang village in Khunti Diocese, was sent to custody on June 22, a day after the June 19 rape case was reported.

The priest, two Ursuline nuns and two teachers were interrogated on June 21. Police released all but the priest.

The social activists and the two nuns were part of a team holding a street play in the school to create awareness about the trafficking of girls at the invitation of priest, who is also the local parish priest.

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

BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

June 25, 2018

By Jay Tokasz

The Buffalo Diocese priest recently investigated by the Erie County District Attorney’s Office due to a complaint of inappropriate touching has been identified as the Rev. Fabian J. Maryanski, who already was on administrative leave due to a previous allegation of sexual contact with a teenage girl.

Maryanski, 77, was not charged in the recent investigation, nor did he face any criminal charges from the prior accusation, which was not brought to the attention of law enforcement authorities.

A spokesman for the diocese confirmed that Maryanski was the subject of the DA’s investigation.

“District Attorney Flynn notified us today that Fr. Fabian Maryanski was the subject of his investigation. Fr. Maryanski had already been placed on administrative leave as a result of our Diocesan investigation,” spokesman George Richert said.

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

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The New Orleans Advocate

June 23, 2018

By Jim Mustian

In 2002, at the height of the sexual abuse scandal that devastated the Catholic Church, nearly 300 American bishops met in Dallas and created a charter intended to protect children and prevent future cover-ups of predatory clergy.

The letter and spirit of the accord were clear: The church, in its proactive atonement, would impose a “zero-tolerance” policy toward any cleric involved in sexual misconduct. And, in a bid to end decades of enabling and obfuscation — and a lack of communication between parish and parishioner — the prelates pledged to be “open and transparent” in discussing a crisis without precedent in the church’s history.

“This is especially so with regard to informing parish and other church communities directly affected by sexual abuse of a minor,” the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People states in its seventh article.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
OneNewsNow.com

June 25, 2018

By Michael F. Haverluck

A recent report has exposed widespread child sex abuse across the United Kingdom at the hands of teachers, clergy, doctors and social workers.

A new “Truth Project” report – based on the largest archive of evidence provided by abuse victims ever produced in the U.K. – reveals that pedophile attacks by some of the most trusted professions is pervasive across all U.K. communities and social classes.

“[The report] presents detailed accounts from 50 of the 1,400 people who have so far given evidence to the Truth Project – part of the huge Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) set up by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary,” the Daily Mail announced. “Researchers believe [that child sex abuse] has been perpetrated in schools and other institutions much more widely than previously thought.”

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

PENNSYLVANIA
GetReligion

June 25, 2018

By Julia Duin

In newspapers across Pennsylvania, many Sunday editorial pages were filled with angry protests against the Catholic Church and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The reason?

Everyone had been waiting for a huge grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse in six dioceses (Greensburg, Pittsburgh, Erie, Harrisburg, Allentown and Scranton) across the state.

In this case, it’s crucial to note that even the leaders of the various Catholic dioceses – not to mention the victims – wanted this 800-page report released. But then last Wednesday, the state supreme court ordered it sealed.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
The Associated Press

June 22, 2018

By Michael Tarm

Chicago Public Schools correspondence provided to The Associated Press shows that the nation’s third largest school district gave a former Roman Catholic priest access to its schools for months despite knowing he was forced to leave the priesthood for sexually abusing a boy of 6 when he was around 15.

Only after the victim and the AP asked why the district let former cleric Bruce Wellems enter schools as part of alternative-schooling programs he oversees, did the nation’s third-largest school district recently ban him.

Criticism that the district hasn’t done enough to protect 370,000 students at nearly 650 schools from sexual misconduct intensified after a June 8 article in the Chicago Tribune, which reported CPS didn’t adequately vet its own employees and cited scores of alleged cases of sexual abuse by staffers. Illinois lawmakers held hearings on the issue this week.

Wellems, 61, isn’t on the district’s staff. But he has worked with CPS as executive director of the a nonprofit Peace and Education Coalition, which runs CPS-sanctioned alternative schools at CPS properties for at-risk kids, including the Peace & Education Coalition High School in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. The AP reported last year that Wellems has remained executive director even after leaving the priesthood over the abuse. CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in a statement to the AP Thursday that, in addition to the new ban on Wellems, the district was now doing a full review “to determine if an ongoing relationship” with the coalition “remains appropriate.”

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

NASHVILLE (TN)
Tennessean

June 24, 2018

By R. A. Mathews

Men in power have long been using the Apostle Paul’s words to silence women. Not anymore.

Paige Patterson isn’t alone; there are many like him. This disgraced Southern Baptist seminary president’s actions promise to unleash a wave of voices.

A tidal wave — #MeToo4Christians.

Allegedly, in a 2000 audio recording, Patterson tells a battered woman to “be submissive in every way” to her violent husband. Patterson uses words from the Apostle Paul, forgetting a few — I’ll get to that.

There are also the rape incidents he allegedly mishandled terribly. Not to mention repeatedly demeaning women.

I attended a Southern Baptist seminary and have been a Baptist theologian for decades. Do I have stories? I wouldn’t know where to begin.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

June 24, 2018

By Maura Dolan

At least 200 former University of Southern California students have joined lawsuits against the university, alleging it failed to heed warnings for nearly 30 years that a campus gynecologist was sexually abusing patients.

Lawyers representing the alleged victims expect the number of women suing to reach at least several hundred and possibly thousands. If successful, the suits could cost the university hundreds of millions of dollars.

“I have never seen anything like the volume of calls we are getting,” said John Manly, a lawyer who has represented sex abuse victims in mass litigation cases.

In the first three weeks following the Los Angeles Times’ revelations, Manly said he received calls from 120 former patients of Dr. George Tyndall, a student health clinic gynecologist who was employed by USC and is now under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department over allegations of sex abuse.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
FOX News

June 25, 2018

The University of Southern California is reportedly facing a growing number of lawsuits against the school over allegations that a campus gynecologist sexually abused patients for nearly 30 years.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that at least 200 former students have joined suits against the school. The paper reported that that number could increase to thousands and potentially cost the school hundreds of millions of dollars.

“The alarming thing is we have women from the very beginning of his employment in 1989 to the very end,” John Manly, a lawyer who has defended sex abuse victims, told the paper. “It indicates he engaged in this behavior throughout his tenure at USC.”

The Times reported earlier this month that complaints about Dr. George Tyndall weren’t properly address by USC for years and university officials never reported him to the medical board, even after he was quietly forced into retirement.

Tyndall, 71, denied wrongdoing in interviews with the Times and hasn’t responded to phone calls and emails requesting comment from The Associated Press.

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

MADISON (WI)
The Associated Press

June 25, 2018

A state senator is taking a judge to task for sentencing a former University of Wisconsin-Madison student accused of sexual assault to three years in prison.

Alec Cook, 22, of Edina, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three female students as well as choking or stalking two others. He was initially charged with more than 20 crimes against nearly a dozen women.

Cook faced up to 40 years in prison; prosecutors wanted 19 years. Dane County Circuit Judge Stephen Ehlke gave him three years on Thursday.

Sen. Lena Taylor, a Milwaukee Democrat, said in a statement Friday that Ehlke for some reason thought Cook was special and let him off the hook. She questioned the message Ehlke sent to Cook’s victims.

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

WALTHAM (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

June 25, 2018

We are very sorry to report that our wonderful friend and colleague Kathy Shaw died Sunday evening at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Worcester MA after a long illness.

Kathy had been a distinguished and award-winning religion reporter at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, as well as a mental health crisis counselor and a union activist. Beginning in 1992 and continuing through 2005, Kathy did groundbreaking reporting on the clergy abuse crisis in the Diocese of Worcester and beyond. In 2002, she started working on Abuse Tracker, the news blog about the clergy abuse crisis created in March 2002 by Bill Mitchell and the Poynter Institute. The byline “Posted by Kathy Shaw” first appeared on June 12, 2002, when the U.S. bishops were meeting in Dallas.

In the sixteen years since, Kathy posted tens of thousands of articles in Abuse Tracker, transforming the news blog into an indispensable resource and record, used by everyone who works on the clergy abuse crisis or cares about it. Thanks to Kathy and Abuse Tracker, every local development in the abuse crisis could be followed by people everywhere. Abuse Tracker was hosted by Poynter for a year, then by the National Catholic Reporter until 2006, and then by BishopAccountability.org, where it will continue.

Kathy Shaw was a steadfast friend, a tireless and generous colleague, an exuberant presence on social media, and a loving advocate for survivors everywhere. When arrangements for her memorial service are set, we will announce them here, along with a longer appreciation of her life and legacy.

Terence McKiernan
Anne Barrett Doyle

• Please view a brief video about Kathy.

• See also the bio that Kathy wrote when she and Abuse Tracker joined BishopAccountability.org.

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

KERALA (INDIA)
The News Minute

June 25, 2018

By Megha Varier

Kerala man has alleged that a group of priests blackmailed and sexually abused wife using her confessions.

The Malankara Orthodox Church in Kerala has suspended five priests over allegations that they sexually abused a woman from Thiruvalla.

According to a complaint submitted to the Church by the survivor’s husband, his wife was sexually preyed upon by the five priests. This after they allegedly blackmailed her based on her secret confessions.

Confirming the complaint to TNM, Church spokesperson PC Elias said that the five priests have been suspended pending inquiry in the wake of allegations against them.

“We received a complaint from the woman’s husband and the priests who have been accused have been suspended pending inquiry. We do not know if these allegations are true. Only after the inquiry can we say if it is genuine or fake. Future course of action will be decided based on the internal inquiry report,” he said, refusing to divulge the identities of the five accused priests.

The priests have been indefinitely suspended, until the inquiry is completed. If the allegations are found to be false, they will be reinstated, the spokesperson added.

According to reports, three of the priests belong to Niranam Diocese in Thiruvalla, and one each from Thumbamon in Pandalam and Delhi. The church has 30 dioceses across the country.

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

MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
Philstar.com

June 25, 2018

Malacañang Monday brought up the child sexual abuse involving Roman Catholic priests as President Rodrigo Duterte is facing backlash over his controversial remarks about God.

Duterte drew flak after questioning the creation story in the Christian Bible and saying that God must have been stupid for allowing temptation to destroy his work in a speech in Davao City last week.

The president’s statement did not sit well with some Christians who accuse Duterte of blasphemy and disrespecting religious beliefs.

Critics have also scored Duterte for using his public speeches to rant about religion and to attack the Catholic Church, the religious group of more than 80 percent of Filipinos.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte’s comments about God stemmed from his bad experiences in the hands of a priest when the president was young. Duterte previously claimed to have been molested by an American Jesuit priest when he was still a student of Ateneo de Davao.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

June 25 2018

A convicted paedophile priest has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a boy in Northern Ireland more than 20 years ago.

His appearance at Downpatrick Crown Court is the sixth time 68-year-old Daniel John Curran has faced sex abuse charges.

Standing in the dock Curran, from Bryansford Avenue in Newcastle, confirmed his personal details while defence counsel Noel Dillon confirmed he had been “fully advised about the issue of credit” for pleading guilty at an early stage.

The court clerk having put the charge to him, that of indecent assault on a date unknown between 16 August 1989 and 18 August 1991, Curran said simply that he was “guilty.”

In applying for bail pending sentence, Mr Dillon revealed that sentences for Curran’s previous convictions resulted in jail sentences totalling 16 years “either immediate or suspended”.

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

DETROIT (MI)
The Associated Press

June 25, 2018

The Roman Catholic Church in southeastern Michigan is urging people to step forward if they believe they were sexually abused by a priest who died in 1993.

The archdiocese says it investigated a complaint against Monsignor Arthur Karey and found it credible. Spokesman Ned McGrath says the allegation involved a girl decades ago but was received just last year.

Karey died in 1993 at age 74. He was a priest for 50 years in Detroit, Ecorse and Lake Orion. His service included work as a Detroit police chaplain.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Columbus Dispatch

June 24, 2018

By Jim Woods

A Maronite Catholic priest serving as administrator for the Sacred Heart Church in Italian Village was removed from the position by the Diocese of Columbus because of an investigation of an abuse allegation in California.

Parishioners at Sacred Heart were told at the 4 p.m. Saturday Mass that Father Pierre Albalaa had been ordered to leave the position he had started in March.

The diocese was informed last Monday by the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles that Albalaa was being investigated for a credible allegation of abuse of a minor in 2004 in California. Eparchy is the term for diocese used by Eastern rite Orthodox and Catholic churches.

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

MESA (AZ)
Salt Lake City Tribune

June 24, 2018

By Jessica Miller

Two young women told investigators in Mesa, Ariz., that one of the department’s former officers had groped and sexually assaulted them 11 years earlier at sleepovers.

The handwritten report from 1995 doesn’t explain the steps detectives took next, but within months, the case went dormant. An investigator wrote that there was scant evidence and no likelihood that Officer Gerald Salcido would ever be convicted.

Years went by.

Salcido moved to Utah, where he worked as a Provo officer for 12 years and then another decade as a deputy with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.

While he was working for Provo, he allegedly confessed to his crimes — not to police, but to his wife and his Mormon bishop. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints excommunicated Salcido in 2006, but it appears church officials never told investigators about the confession.

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

LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles Times

June 24, 2018

By Maura Dolan

At least 200 former USC students have joined lawsuits against the university, alleging it failed to heed warnings for nearly 30 years that a campus gynecologist was sexually abusing patients.

Lawyers representing the alleged victims expect the number of women suing to reach at least several hundred and possibly thousands. If successful, the suits could cost the university hundreds of millions of dollars.

“I have never seen anything like the volume of calls we are getting,” said John Manly, a lawyer who has represented sex abuse victims in mass litigation cases.

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

SCOTLAND
The Sunday Post

June 24, 2018

By Gordon Blackstock

Children’s home abuse survivors are calling for a leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland to say sorry when he appears at a public inquiry next week.

Archbishop Emeritus Mario Conti will appear before the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry on Tuesday.

The inquiry, headed by Lady Smith, is investigating allegations of abuse at Nazareth House homes across Scotland.

Archbishop Conti’s appearance comes after inquiry witnesses accused him of dismissing their claims against the Sisters of Nazareth as “fantasy”.

The inquiry has heard evidence from former residents at the Nazareth House home.

In April, one witness claimed she was sexually abused by a priest after she went to confession.

But in 1998, Archbishop Conti dismissed the allegations against the nuns as “improbable” and said some alleged victims were making “fantastical claims” and chasing a “pot of gold”.

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

NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald-Newstalk ZB podcast series

June 25, 2018

By Georgina Campbell

Sharing stories of sexual abuse amidst #MeToo

[This article is based on extracts from the Speaking Secrets podcast, a co-production by NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB. You can listen to the podcast below or subscribe to Speaking Secrets on iHeartRadio and iTunes.]

Police, courts and sexual abuse help agencies are starting to experience a surge in reported cases as the #MeToo movement encourages survivors to come forward.

The trend has emerged in a series of interviews conducted for a New Zealand Herald-Newstalk ZB podcast series, Speaking Secrets, which explores the global campaign against sexual abuse and harassment in New Zealand.

The series, which starts today, has discovered cautious optimism about the newfound ability of victims to speak out, mixed with concern that agencies and institutions will be swamped by the growing number of cases.

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WASHINGTON D.C.
WTOP-TV

June 24, 2018

By Patrick Roth

The Archdiocese of Washington said it found no allegations made against the former archbishop of Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick during his time in D.C.

McCarrick, who served as D.C.’s archbishop from 2001 to 2006, was removed from ministry after an allegation he sexually abused a teen 50 years ago when he was serving as a priest in the Archdiocese of New York.

In a letter from the Archdiocese that the Cardinal Donald Wuerl said he requested a review of all records in the Archdiocese of Washington while the Archdiocese of New York investigated the claim against McCarrick.

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UNITED STATES
GetReligion (Blog)

June 24, 2018

By Terry Mattingly

If you have not had a chance to do so, check out the waves of reader comments that we have received in response to GetReligionista Julia Duin’s epic post at the end of last week entitled “The scandal of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and why no major media outed him.”

As you can see from the headline, a major theme in this post is directly linked to life on the religion-news beat. On a technical level, in terms of journalism craft and ethics, why was it so hard for veteran reporters – like Julia – to nail down the final details of hard-news reports about McCarrick and the years and years of rumors and allegations about his sexual abuse of seminarians (among others)?

Part of it, of course, was getting people to go on the record. In some cases, people even had documentation to help support their horror stories. But, but, but … They just could not go on the record.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Review

June 24, 2018

By Debra Erdley

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to block the release of a grand jury investigative report into clergy sexual abuse hit Mark Rozzi “like a punch in the gut.”

“At first, (the decision) was very emotional and frustrating,” Rozzi said. “But then my thoughts turned to all the other victims and their families who have been hanging on by a thread. We have heard from dozens of them.”

Rozzi, a state representative from Berks County, previously testified before a grand jury about his abuse at the hands of a priest 30 years ago.

“The pain never goes away,” he told the Tribune-Review.

Victims of clergy sexual abuse and their attorneys were stunned last week at news that the report would not be made public. The grand jury investigation examined decades of allegations of abuse and cover-ups in six Catholic dioceses across the state, including Pittsburgh and Greensburg.

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SANTA FE (NM)
Las Vegas Optic

June 24, 2018

By Jason Brooks

The Catholic priest abuse set of civil suits that has involved Our Lady of Sorrows Church and many other Archdiocese of Santa Fe locations recently grew by one more plaintiff, though the abuse is alleged at a Bernalillo County site.

“John Doe 79” filed suit May 21 in the Second District Court in Bernalillo County against both the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the Parish Catholic Church of Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus.

The suit alleges abuse against a male victim, who was born in 1956 and currently lives in Albuquerque, was committed by the late Father Ron Roth when the male victim was age 14

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
New Orleans Advocate

June 23, 2018

By Jim Mustian

In 2002, at the height of the sexual abuse scandal that devastated the Catholic Church, nearly 300 American bishops met in Dallas and created a charter intended to protect children and prevent future cover-ups of predatory clergy.

The letter and spirit of the accord were clear: The church, in its proactive atonement, would impose a “zero-tolerance” policy toward any cleric involved in sexual misconduct. And, in a bid to end decades of enabling and obfuscation — and a lack of communication between parish and parishioner — the prelates pledged to be “open and transparent” in discussing a crisis without precedent in the church’s history.

“This is especially so with regard to informing parish and other church communities directly affected by sexual abuse of a minor,” the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People states in its seventh article.

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AUSTRALIA
AAP (Australian Associated Press) via the Otago Daily Times

June 24, 2018

Some child sexual abuse survivors may end up with nothing or “insulting” payments under the $A3.8 billion national redress scheme, advocates warn.

People sexually abused as children in Australian institutions can start applying for redress under the scheme on July 1.

Advocates fear many survivors will be disappointed with their redress offers, given few are expected to receive the $150,000 maximum and previous compensation received from governments or institutions will be taken into account.

Tuart Place director Dr Philippa White said survivors in states such as Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania that ran their own redress schemes will have those payments deducted from their offers and upscaled for inflation.

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AUSTRALIA
9New.com.au

June 24, 2018

NATIONAL REDRESS SCHEME FOR CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVORS SET TO BEGIN:

WHAT IS THE SCHEME?

It provides redress for about 60,000 people who were sexually abused as children while in the care of institutions.

About 93 per cent of eligible survivors are currently covered.

It begins on July 1.

WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE?

A monetary payment, access to counselling and a direct personal response, such as an apology, from the responsible institution (if the survivor wants it).

HOW LONG DOES IT RUN?

For 10 years – until June 30, 2028.

Applications can be lodged until June 30, 2027.

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VATICAN CITY
The Hill

June 23, 2018

By Emily Birnbaum

The Vatican court on Saturday sentenced a former Holy See diplomat to five years in prison for possessing and distributing child pornography in the first trial of its kind, according to the Associated Press.

Monsignor Carlo Capella admitted he downloaded child pornography when he was serving as a Vatican diplomat in the Holy See’s Washington Embassy last year. The court found 40 to 55 pornographic photos, films and Japanese animation on his cellphone, an iCloud and Tumblr account, the AP reported.

The State Department alerted the Vatican to the existence of the child pornography, leading to Capella’s recall last year, according to The Washington Post.

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DETROIT (MI)
WDIV-TV, Ch. 4

June 23, 2018

Archdiocese investigated complaint against Monsignor Arthur Karey

The Roman Catholic Church in southeastern Michigan is urging people to step forward if they believe they were sexually abused by a priest who died in 1993.

The archdiocese says it investigated a complaint against Monsignor Arthur Karey and found it credible. Spokesman Ned McGrath says the allegation involved a girl decades ago but was received just last year.

Karey died in 1993 at age 74. He was a priest for 50 years in Detroit, Ecorse and Lake Orion. His service included work as a Detroit police chaplain.

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle via USA Today

June 23, 2018

A Vatican court sentenced Carlo Alberto Capella to five years in prison for the possession and distribution of child pornography on Saturday.

The 51-year-old priest admitted to viewing images of under-aged teenagers engaging in sexual acts during a period of “fragility” and internal crisis while serving as a diplomat for the Holy See in the United States and in Canada.

He apologized to his family and the Vatican. He described the episode as little more than a “bump in the road” on his priestly vocation and appealed for leniency, explaining that he loved the priesthood and wanted to continue.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

June 23, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

The Vatican tribunal on Saturday convicted a former Holy See diplomat and sentenced him to five years in prison for possessing and distributing child pornography in the first such trial of its kind inside the Vatican.

Monsignor Carlo Capella admitted to viewing the images during what he called a period of “fragility” and interior crisis sparked by a job transfer to the Vatican embassy in Washington. He apologized to his family and the Holy See, and appealed for leniency by saying the episode was just a “bump in the road” of a priestly vocation he loved and wanted to continue.

Tribunal President Giuseppe Dalla Torre read out the verdict after a two-day trial and sentenced Capella to five years and a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,830.) Capella will serve the sentence in the Vatican barracks, where he has been held since his arrest earlier this year.

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PENNSYLVANIA
GoErie.com

June 23, 2018

By Ed Palattella

Unsettled questions of law appear to be behind state Supreme Court order to hold off on making findings public.

The statewide grand jury report on child sexual abuse in six Roman Catholic dioceses, including the Catholic Diocese of Erie, is unprecedented due to its scope and the legal issues surrounding its release.

The extraordinary nature of the legal issues appears to have influenced the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to delay releasing the report until the court rules on requests from several individuals who are named in the 884-page document, which remains under seal.

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UNITED STATES
christabrown.me

By Christa Brown

[Note: “Yoga as a Practice of Restorative Justice” appeared as a chapter in Restorative Justice in Practice, edited by Sheila M. Murphy and Michael P. Seng, Vandeplas Publishing, 2015. ]

“A life of wholeness does not depend on what we experience. Wholeness depends on how we experience our lives.” – Desmond Tutu

We began the class lying on our backs, one hand on the belly and one on the chest. Our teacher, Laura, gently directed our focus inward and talked us toward becoming aware of our breath and of its movement in our bodies. She asked us to follow the cycle of our breath as our bellies rose with each inhale, as our breath filled our lungs’ upper lobes, and as our chests and bellies then fell in sequence with each exhale.

As we continued in this pattern, and as Laura continued to draw our focus inward, she suggested that we think about what our bodies needed from us today. “Where might there be some place that needs extra attention?” she asked. “Keep feeling your breath and just try to listen to your body as you breathe.”

“What is your body saying to you today?”

That was when I laughed out loud. My body was chewing me out big time. And though I quickly squelched my startled guffaw — it seemed so un-yoga­ like — I continued to imagine the pissed-off voice of my body as though it were in some profanity-laden cartoon bubble: “&#%!@?!”

Who knew that a body could be so angry? Or that it could somehow make its angry voice so loud in my mind?

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The New Orleans Advocate

June 22, 2018

Days after The Advocate reported that the Archdiocese of New Orleans had agreed to settle a sex-abuse case involving a former church deacon, Archbishop Gregory Aymond issued a letter to members of the deacon’s former parish and to Catholics generally to alert them of the accusations.

The letter was addressed primarily to parishioners at Our Lady of the Rosary, where the alleged abuse by Deacon George Brignac began in 1979. It was posted on Aymond’s Facebook page Friday afternoon.

The letter says that Brignac was removed from the ministry in 1988, and that prior to that, he had worked as a teacher at St. Francis Cabrini School, St. John Vianney Prep, and St. Matthew the Apostle before his ordination as a deacon.

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CHILE
La Tercera

June 23, 2018

[Google Translation: Chile becomes a benchmark in the fight against abuse and elevates pressure on the Pope]

By Juan Paulo Iglesias

Activistas lanzaron campaña para exigir al Papa a actuar en el resto del mundo con la misma decisión que en Chile. “La iglesia chilena no es única”, asegura a La Tercera Anne Barret Doyle, fundadora de Bishop Accountability.

“Mientras todos están mirando Chile, el arzobispo Wilson de Australia fue condenado en una corte criminal por cubrir abusos (será sentenciado el 3 de julio). Se retiró de su diócesis por el momento, pero no ha renunciado y no ha sido removido por el Papa. ¿Por qué?”. El tuit de Marie Collins, la activista contra los abusos sexuales en el clero que renunció a la Comisión Pontifica para la Protección de Menores, reiteró el jueves pasado un llamado que se ha repetido en redes sociales y en el que han insistido diversas organización contra los abusos: que las señales dadas por el Papa Francisco en el caso chileno se extiendan a otras partes del mundo. Por ello, varios promotores de la lucha contra la pedofilia en la iglesia están aprovechando lo que la agencia The Associated Press califica como “el momentum” de la crisis de abusos chilena para impulsar una respuesta global del Vaticano.

[Google Translation: Activists launched a campaign to demand the Pope to act in the rest of the world with the same decision as in Chile. “The Chilean church is not unique,” assures Anne Barret Doyle, founder of Bishop Accountability.

“While everyone is looking at Chile, Archbishop Wilson of Australia was convicted in a criminal court for covering abuses (he will be sentenced on July 3). He retired from his diocese for the time being, but has not resigned and has not been removed by the Pope. Why?”. The tweet of Marie Collins, the activist against sexual abuse in the clergy who resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, reiterated last Thursday a call that has been repeated in social networks and in which various organizations have insisted against the abuses: that the signals given by Pope Francisco in the Chilean case spread to other parts of the world. For this reason, several promoters of the fight against pedophilia in the church are taking advantage of what The Associated Press agency describes as “the momentum” of the crisis of Chilean abuses to promote a global response from the Vatican.]

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle (blog)

June 23, 2018

By Betty Clermont

* On June 19, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, described as Pope Francis’ “top expert” on sex abuse, said, in effect, that his report on clerical sex abuse in Chile would remain secret. His plan for “healing” and “reconciliation” in Chile was rejected by victims of ecclesial sex abuse.

* On May 20, Pope Francis announced he was elevating Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer to cardinal. The pope had already promoted Ladaria as head of the Vatican department that handles sex abuse claims. Ladaria had previously served as second in command. In April, a French court set a date for Ladaria’s trial. He is accused of covering up a child sex abuse scandal. Far worse, after Ladaria covered up for Fr. Gianni Trotta, the priest sexually assaulted an 11-year-old and there are nine other alleged cases of sex abuse against boys that occurred in 2014.

* On May 5, Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron was given a place of honor at an event attended by Pope Francis. Apuron is accused of rape and sexual assault of minors. In February, Pope Francis had greeted Apuron “with affection” and “privately giving him a few words of encouragement.” Pope Francis removed Apuron in 2016, meaning he found the charges to be credible, but the archbishop has always remained a free man, retaining his title, income and honors.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Associated Press via Channel 5 News, Chicago

June 22, 2018

By Michael Tarm

Chicago Public Schools correspondence provided to The Associated Press shows that the nation’s third-largest school district gave a former Roman Catholic priest access to its schools for months despite knowing he was forced to leave the priesthood for sexually abusing a boy of 6 when he was around 15.

Only after the victim and the AP asked why the district let former cleric Bruce Wellems enter schools as part of alternative-schooling programs he oversees, did the nation’s third-largest school district recently ban him.

Criticism that the district hasn’t done enough to protect 370,000 students at nearly 650 schools from sexual misconduct intensified after a June 8 article in the Chicago Tribune, which reported CPS didn’t adequately vet its own employees and cited scores of alleged cases of sexual abuse by staffers. Illinois lawmakers held hearings on the issue this week.

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NEWCASTLE (AUSTRALIA)
Newcastle Herald

June 23, 2018

By Joanne McCarthy

Glen Walsh was the whistleblower Catholic priest who died alone in a Newcastle church building in November, only weeks before he was due to give damning evidence at the trial of Archbishop Philip Wilson.

He took his own life, aged 55 – a priest who paid a devastating price for reporting Hunter paedophile priest Jim Fletcher to police in 2004, while the archbishop kept silent about what he knew.

“The church turned its back on Glen,” said his brother, John, only weeks after Wilson was convicted in Newcastle for concealing Fletcher’s crimes, in a case that made headlines around the world.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters via The Guardian

June 23, 2018

Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella tells court he developed ‘morbid’ desire

A Catholic priest who worked as a diplomat at the Vatican’s embassy in Washington has admitted at the start of his trial that he had possessed images of child sexual abuse while based in the US.

Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella, who was arrested in the Vatican in April after he had been recalled, told the court in the Vatican that he had developed a “morbid” desire after he arrived in the US to take up the diplomatic post in 2016. “It was never part of my priestly life before,” he told the court, adding that he was unhappy at the embassy in Washington.

In August 2017, the US state department notified the Holy See of a possible violation of laws relating to images of sexual abuse of children by a member of the diplomatic corps of the Holy See accredited to Washington.

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NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio

June 23, 2018

By Emily Bourke on AM

[AUDIO]

The New South Wales government has created new laws around sentencing and the criminal justice process in cases of child sexual abuse.

There will be tougher penalties for those who fail to report or protect against child abuse, and possible life sentences for abusers.

And legal loopholes that have made it hard for survivors to sue institutions will be closed off.

But the government is not moving on the vexed issue of breaking the Catholic seal of the confessional, saying it requires a national response.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Catholic News Agency/EWTN

June 22, 2018

By Mary Rezac

The release of a Grand Jury report detailing cases of clerical sex abuse in six of the eight Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania has been blocked by the state’s Supreme Court for unspecified reasons.

The court released the unsigned order June 20, but did not state which individuals or groups had applied for the stay or the reason behind the application. It also does not state for how long the stay applies or when the report could be published in the future.

“And now, this 20th day of June, 2018, the Applications for Stay are granted. The Honorable Norman A. Krumenacker, III, and the Office of the Attorney General are enjoined from releasing Report No. 1 of the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury pending further order of this Court,” the order, issued by the state’s Supreme Court, reads. Krumenacker is a Cambria County judge who has overseen the Grand Jury proceedings.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WDSU-TV

June 22, 2018

By Travers Mackel

[VIDEO]

A victim of alleged sexual abuse by a member of the clergy is speaking out to WDSU Investigates.

His comments come after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans gave him a high six-figure settlement. The man’s lawyer said there could be more victims.

The victim and his lawyer now want the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office to look into a criminal prosecution.

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NEW DELHI (INDIA)
UCANews.com via La Croix International

June 23, 2018

Guide produced in 2015 with Vatican approval was circulated only among bishops and major superiors of religious congregations

The Indian Church’s effort to deal with clergy sexual abuse cases continues to be entangled in confusion and obscurity as guidelines bishops produced three years ago remain out of reach to Catholics.

Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal confirmed that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India had produced a guide to dealing with allegations of clergy abusing children.

“It is not meant for public consumption. It is for bishops to address the exceptional aberration of sexual abuse of children by a member of the clergy,” said the archbishop.

The bishops’ conference published a guide on sexual harassment in the workplace in September 2017 after it was drawn up two years earlier. It reiterated the church’s policy to maintain “zero tolerance” of sexual abuse of children and women.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
The Associated Press

June 22, 2018

The Latest from a meeting of Michigan State University’s governing board on how it will handle a $500 million settlement with victims of sports doctor Larry Nassar (all times local):

10:45 a.m.

Michigan State University will sell bonds to pay for a $500 million settlement with hundreds of women and girls who said they were sexually assaulted by former sports doctor Larry Nassar.

Trustees approved the plan Friday after rejecting calls to fire interim President John Engler for unflattering emails that disparaged victims and their lawyers. Engler apologized Thursday for suggesting Rachael Denhollander was getting a kickback from her attorney for her steady criticism of the school.

Michigan State is freezing salaries for top administrative and leadership roles and raising faculty salaries by 1.5 percent instead of the typical 2.5 percent. Engler also is counting on payments from insurance companies.

Tuition will be higher for most students in fall, but Engler says the new revenue won’t help cover the Nassar settlement.

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NEW DELHI (INDIA)
CNN

June 22, 2018

By Manveena Suri

Five female anti-trafficking activists were gang-raped in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, police said Friday, the same region where two teens were raped and then set on fire last month.

The latest incident took place on Tuesday afternoon in Kochang village in Khunti district, a tribal area in the state, according to Amol Homkar, deputy inspector general of police in Jharkhand’s capital, Ranchi.
The five women and three men were performing a street play on the issue of human trafficking when a group of armed men on bikes disrupted the performance.

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NEW DELHI (INDIA)
CBS NEWS

June 22, 2018

By Arshad R. Zargar

Five female activists working for an organization backed by a Christian missionary group were gang-raped at gunpoint in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand this week, police said on Friday. The women were accompanied by four men and two nuns as they performed a street play to raise awareness of human trafficking in the Khunti district on Tuesday when at least six armed men attacked them.

They attackers beat the male members of the team and forced the five women into a car, took them to a nearby forest and raped them for three hours before releasing them, police officials have told CBS News.

“We have taken the statement of the victims,” Homkar Amol Venukant, Deputy Inspector General of Police in Ranchi, the state capital of Jarkhand, told CBS News on Friday. The victims told officers that the attackers “filmed the act on their mobile phones,” and threatened to publish the videos on the internet if the crime was reported.

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MADISON (WI)
The Associated Press

June 21, 2018

A judge on Thursday sentenced a former University of Wisconsin-Madison student to three years in prison for sexually assaulting three female students and choking or stalking two others.

Dane County Circuit Judge Stephen Ehlke also sentenced Alec Cook, 22, of Minnesota to eight years of extended supervision once he’s released from prison. Cook pleaded guilty to the charges in February.

Prosecutors were seeking 19 years behind bars, while defense attorneys sought probation with the possibility of jail time.

Ehlke said he had to give Cook credit for having no criminal record, no bail violations and sparing the victims a trial. The judge said he hoped that the end of criminal proceedings against Cook would “give closure” to the victims, the Wisconsin State Journal reported .

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ERIE (PA)
Erie News Now

June 21, 2018

Victims react to court ruling delaying public release of grand jury report on clergy sex abuse.

Abuse victims today reacting to yesterday’s court ruling delaying the release of that grand jury report into clergy sex abuse.

The panel investigated Erie and five other Catholic Dioceses around the state.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro launched the investigating in 2016 and had planned to make the results public next week.

The court ruling blocked that release.

Victims today told us they are confident Shapiro will keep fighting to make the massive report public.

And they think ultimately the public will learn about the abuse they suffered.

But in the meantime, the decision has been difficult to accept.

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EL PASO (TX)
Oxygen

June 22, 2018

By Jon Silman

Former Priest Miguel Luna allegedly molested an 8-year-old girl during confession, telling her not to say anything because what happens in confession, stays there.

A former Texas priest has been accused of molesting and raping a female altar server for years — with the alleged abuse starting in confession.

Miguel Luna, 68, was arrested June 11 on charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, according to court documents cited by KVIA-TV in El Paso.

Luna was arrested after the victim, now 34, decided to come forward. The abuse allegedly began when the victim was 8. Luna was taking a confessional with the victim and then start “kissing her passionately,” court documents said.

He would tell the little girl “remember this is confession, so whatever happens here stays in here,” according to the complaint.

By the time the girl turned 10, he was touching her breasts, according to KVIA-TV. When she turned 12, he allegedly raped her. The girl said she felt pain and bled after it happened, according to court documents.

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KANSAS CITY (KS)
The Associated Press

June 21, 2018

A Kansas priest has been revoked of his rank years after an investigation into multiple child sexual abuse allegations against him.

The Kansas City Star reports that Archbishop Joseph Naumann issued a decree in December removing the Reverand John Wisner from the clergy. The decree was announced May 25th.

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas says it suspended Wisner from active ministry in 2012 after receiving many allegations he sexually abused minors decades ago. The archdiocese says an internal investigation found the allegations credible.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Philadelphia Tribune

June 22, 208

By Tim Darragh

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the expected release of a massive report examining sexual abuse and misconduct by priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses, including Scranton and Allentown.

The state’s high court issued an order barring Cambria County Judge Norman Krumenacker, who supervised the grand jury that heard testimony over two years, and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro from releasing the report until further order.

The court’s order does not indicate who sought to block release of the report, but it indicates the court received more than one application for a stay.

Representatives from both the Diocese of Scranton and Diocese of Allentown said those institutions were not among petitioners who moved to block the report.

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KANSAS CITY (KS)
The Associated Press

June 22, 2018

A Kansas priest has been revoked of his rank years after an investigation into multiple child sexual abuse allegations against him.

The Kansas City Star reports that Archbishop Joseph Naumann issued a decree in December removing the Rev. John Wisner from the clergy. The decree was announced May 25.

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas says it suspended Wisner from active ministry in 2012 after receiving many allegations he sexually abused minors decades ago. The archdiocese says an internal investigation found the allegations credible.

Wisner has denied the allegations. The archdiocese says it notified law enforcement, but Wisner was never criminally charged in relation to the allegations.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests criticized the archdiocese on Wednesday for taking so long to announce Wisner’s defrocking.

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ENGLAND
Church Times

June 22, 2018

By Hattie Williams

ALL Church of England clergy will be required by canon law to submit their name and ministerial authority to a new national register, assuming that the General Synod follows the recommendations of the National Safeguarding Steering Group (NSSG).

The group’s report, published on Friday, will be debated by the Synod when it meets in York next month.

The report also calls for a new policy on granting and renewing Permission To Officiate (PTO), a review of the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM), and new requirements to “strengthen suitability and selection” of candidates for all forms of ministry.

The report has been produced by the NSSG in response to safeguarding failures, concerns, and recommendations highlighted during the public hearing conducted by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (ICSA) in March. The hearing used the diocese of Chichester as a case-study to investigate the extent to which the Anglican Church had failed to protect children from sexual abuse.

The inquiry established that there is no public national database for the clergy besides Crockford’s Clerical Directory, which is incomplete since clerics can elect not to appear in it. Also, records of clerics with current or expired PTO, criminal records, and other concerns kept on file by dioceses tend to be incomplete, lost, ignored, or blighted by poor record-keeping.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Associated Press

June 21, 2018

By Tom Rabe

New laws that could see people jailed for failing to report child sex abuse have passed NSW parliament but religious clergy remain exempt.

The bill passed the NSW upper house late on Wednesday night strengthening state laws surrounding child sex abuse – but Greens MP David Shoebridge said the legislation doesn’t go far enough.

The new laws provide an exemption for lawyers, health professionals and religious clergy, unless the attorney-general provides special permission to prosecute.

Mr Shoebridge moved an amendment in the Legislative Council to scrap exemptions for church figures but neither the coalition nor Labor supported it.

“When it comes to the confessional the coalition and Labor both put the interests of the church ahead of the safety of children,” Mr Shoebridge said in a statement after the bill was passed.

Despite upper house Nationals not voting for Mr Shoebridge’s amendment, their party voted last week to introduce such measures at its annual general conference in Cowra.

Police minister and former Nationals leader Troy Grant said he thought the amendment to expose priests to the laws could garner support from his colleagues.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Penn Live

June 21, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

This report has been updated to clarify information on the unidentified and unindicted individuals.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court was clear and succinct on Wednesday when it barred the release of a long-awaited statewide grand jury report into clergy sex abuse.

The court’s four-sentence order offered no explanation as to why the court made the decision; what, if any, vote count was taken; nor did it give indication as to whether the order signals that the court will hear future arguments on the matter.

The seemingly abridged order simply blocked the Office of the Attorney General and the Cambria County Court of Common Pleas judge overseeing the grand jury from releasing the findings of the probe. The order may have been blunt, but it was within the strictest bounds of the law.

“The mantra here is that grand juries are secret and that’s the problem,” said Nicholas Ressetar, chief law clerk with the Harrisburg-based law firm Costopoulos, Foster & Fields. “Their dilemma is, ‘How could we become more transparent without giving up the names of the individuals or institutions making these claims?’ It’s a dilemma really.”

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
Penn Live

June 20, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

Rep. Mark Rozzi on Wednesday expressed concern for the safety and welfare of victims after a state high court blocked the release of a report that would have exposed predators across six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania.

Rozzi, who himself at 13 was sexually molested by his priest, said he was deeply troubled that victims would be devastated by the news and act out that desperation.

“We must make sure they are protected and that they are not going to hurt themselves,” said Rozzi, who minutes after news broke about the court order received text messages and phone calls from victims. “I want them to know this fight is not over by any means and I will use every resource available to continue to fight to seek justice.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Sydney Morning Herald

June 23, 2018

By Lisa Visentin

The NSW government will pursue extensive reforms as it adopts hundreds of recommendations from the royal commission into child sex abuse, but it has not endorsed new laws to force priests to break the confessional seal.

In a lengthy report released on Saturday, the NSW government formally responded to every recommendation made by the commission, accepting 336 recommendations outright or in principle, and leaving 14 “subject to further consideration”.

In the report, the NSW government acknowledged the survivors of institutional abuse “and the impact of past failures of governments to protect them”.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
Of The Morning Call

June 21, 2018

By Steve Esack and Tim Darragh

Two paragraphs, 63 words.

That’s all it took for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to halt the pending publication of a lengthy grand jury report detailing decades of child sex abuse claims and possible cover-ups in six Catholic dioceses.

The high court’s majority decision, issued Wednesday, could be unprecedented under the state’s grand jury law, which is revered by prosecutors for its investigative power, decried by some defense lawyers as unconstitutional overreach and the subject of separate judicial and legislative reviews.

But the reasoning behind the justices’ decision is unknown.

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GUAM
KUAM News

June 22, 2018

By Krystal Paco

He’s not your typical man on the run…he’s a priest. Father Adrian Cristobal was given a deadline to report back to Guam last Friday in light of clergy sexual abuse allegations against him. Though he’s been sanctioned by the Archdiocese of Agana and forbidden from acting as a priest in public, is this a strong enough message?

Apparently he’s in no hurry home. “It’s no different from any criminal mind. People don’t generally want to face the music for the crimes they have committed,” said advocate, former priest, and canonist Patrick J. Wall, referring to Father Cristobal. Wall is no stranger to the scenario, having been part of investigations involving priests who abandoned their posts, some as a result of clergy sexual abuse allegations.

“We had a abbot in England who was actually charged with child sexual abuse and he just failed to report to his hearing. And so he was on the run for almost six years. INTERPOL finally found him in Kosovo,” he explained. And so then he was just recently convicted this past year for child sexual abuse., so it does happen.”

Since April, Father Adrian has been named in three clergy sexual abuse lawsuits in the District Court of Guam. The former Barrigada altar boys are only identified by their initials to protect their privacy. L.J.C., J.C.C., and J.E. all allege they were sexually molested by the priest in the 1990s. J.C.C., however, alleges the abuse spanned over a 15-year period – and only came to an end in 2013.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Daily Beast

June 22, 2018

By Victoria Albert

A court just muzzled the ‘damaging’ findings on decades of Catholic clerical abuse. But it’s not over. ‘We are coming for them,’ says a state rep who was raped by a priest at 13.

Mark Rozzi thought he was days away from justice, or at least the beginning of it.

It started when he was 13, and a priest at his school in Hyde Park, Pennsylvania, started grooming him. For months, the Rev. Edward Graff talked with Rozzi about sex, gave him alcohol, and showed him pornography. Then, one fateful day, he raped him in a rectory shower.

Rozzi didn’t report his abuse for 26 years. But he later learned that during that period, Graff was transferred multiple times between parishes, and allegedly abused children in Texas, too. In 2002, Graff was arrested on child-abuse charges after facing dozens of accusations, The Washington Post reports. He later died in jail.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago-Times

June 22, 2018

By Maudlyne Ihejirika

The Rev. Larry Dowling still remembers when he got the call from Cardinal Francis George asking him to consider serving as pastor of St. Agatha’s Church in North Lawndale.

It was 2007, and St. Agatha’s was in agony. The church at 3151 W. Douglas was at the center of the clergy sex abuse scandal rocking the Chicago Archdiocese, with its former pastor, the Rev. Daniel J. McCormack, accused — and later convicted — of abusing five boys.

“When I got off the phone, the scripture that came to mind was Jesus on the seashore with Peter, saying, ‘Do you love me?’ And Peter saying, ‘Yes. Yes. Yes.’ Jesus said, ‘Well if you really love me, I may take you where you don’t really want to go,’” said Dowling, who was then in his 10th year as pastor at St. Denis Church in Ashburn.

“I said, ‘But I still have some things I can accomplish here. I’m comfortable.’ What I heard back was, ‘I didn’t call you to be comfortable.’”

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WILKES-BARRE (PA)
Times Leader

June 21, 2018

We respect the sanctity of the American judicial system, including the necessary secrecy of grand jury proceedings.

That doesn’t prevent us from feeling grossly disappointed in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s order Wednesday indefinitely holding up the release of a grand jury report into the handling of sexual abuse claims involving six of the eight Roman Catholic dioceses across the state, including the Scranton Diocese.

The report is expected to reveal details of widespread abuse and efforts to conceal it and protect clergy by officials within and outside the church.

The court’s two-paragraph order did not reveal who had filed petitions blocking release of the report, only that those petitions had been granted.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff.co.nz

June 22, 2018

By Joel Ineson

Darryl Smith says the abuse started on his first night at Marylands – a Christchurch school for children with learning difficulties – in 1971.

Woken from his sleep, the 6 year old was called to a Order of St John of God brother’s office late in the evening and told one of the men responsible for his care wanted to speak about his grandmother. Instead, the man raped him.

The abuse continued over the course of a year and came from other members of the order and older students, Smith said. He eventually told his parents what happened.

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FRANCE
La Croix

June 22, 2018

What resolves things is acceptance, study, prudence, says Francis

Pope Francis in a new one-on-one interview with Philip Pullella, head of Reuters’ Rome bureau has spoken on various issues such as the Holy See’s talks with China, the position of women within the church, migration, populism, Chile’s clerical sex abuse crisis and reform of the Roman Curia.

On talks with China

Pope Francis said he was optimistic about the outcome of normalization talks with the Chinese authorities while at the same time acknowledging that dialogue “is a risk” but still preferred it to “the certain defeat” of not dialoguing with Beijing.

Here is some of what Francis said on the subject.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
WHTM

June 21, 2018

By Priscilla Liguori

Victim advocates and lawyers are outraged after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court blocked the release of a clergy sexual abuse report.

State Rep. Mark Rozzi says he felt like he was punched in the gut after hearing the announcement.

Rozzi was abused by a priest when he was a child and says he wants both the church and victims to know that the fight for transparency isn’t over.

“The abuse is still being covered up, and their lawyers are still fighting their dirty battles for them,” said Rozzi.

Money and power are the reasons Rozzi believes the court indefinitely blocked the report. The court said it was granting anonymous requests.

“When you have all the bishops in this investigation come out and say they support the release of the grand jury but there’s somebody else standing behind them … it draws grave concern,” said Rozzi.

The report was supposed to examine decades of abuse in six Roman Catholic dioceses.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
SBTS Communications

June 21, 2018

Southern Baptists should not “circle the wagons” amid recent controversies, but instead must become “the first refuge for anyone who is seeking help,” argued R. Albert Mohler Jr. during a recent discussion about the future of the Southern Baptist Convention. He referenced a months-long slew of firings and resignations within Southern Baptist entities, most for reasons of moral or ethical failure.

Mohler said the way forward for the denomination is to lean into the truth and not try to hide or bury these “humiliations.”

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ENGLAND
BBC News

June 22, 2018

The Church of England should take preventative measures to ensure “unsuitable” people do not get into positions of trust, according to Sir Roger Singleton.

Singleton, who carried out a review into how abuse allegations were reported, told Today that the Church needs “improved guidance” on reporting allegations.

His report is due next month and is expected to be highly critical of how the Church recorded past allegations of abuse.

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LANSING (MI)
Detroit Free Press

June 21, 2018

By David Jesse

Michigan State University President John Engler has issued a statement apologizing for an April email in which he attacked a Larry Nassar survivor.

In the email, Engler said Rachael Denhollander, the first person to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual assault, was taking kickbacks from the trial attorneys involved in suing MSU.

Michigan State’s board of trustees will address a plan Friday to pay a $500 million settlement to Nassar’s victims, a meeting that comes amid calls for the school’s interim president to resign over recent comments about some of the women and girls the former sports doctor sexually assaulted.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail Australia

June 20, 2018

By Ekin Karasin

Charlie Pickering has criticised the Catholic Church for refusing to adhere to a new law requiring priests to report confessions of child sex abuse.

Adelaide’s acting Archbishop Greg O’Kelly said last week that confessionals are ‘sacred’ and this cannot be changed.

Charlie hit back at the controversial decision on his ABC show The Weekly on Wednesday, claiming the church was ‘protecting predators in God’s name’.

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ABILENE (TX)
KTAB/KRBC

June 21, 2018

By Erica Garner

An Abilene church daycare worker accused of sexually assaulting multiple children has been indicted.

Benjamin Roberts, 25, was indicted for Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child Thursday after at least 8 child victims were identified during an investigation that began when child pornography was found at Roberts’ home in April.

Roberts was employed at the Wylie Baptist Church Early Childhood Development Center when he was initially arrested for Indecency with a Child and Possession of Child Pornography and was terminated once he was formally charged.

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LANSING (MI)
The Associated Press

June 22, 2018

By Alice Yin

Michigan State’s board of trustees will address a plan Friday to pay a $500 million settlement to Larry Nassar’s victims, a meeting that comes amid calls for the school’s interim president to resign over recent comments about some of the women and girls the former sports doctor sexually assaulted.

Although the board appears to lack the votes to oust John Engler from his interim perch, the public meeting likely will be heavily attended by people who are fed up with Engler and want him gone. The primary focus of the meeting is the school’s budget, along with the settlement plan.

Some 150 of Nassar’s victims have joined a public crusade to force Engler out of the interim job. Last week, two university trustees also signaled they could call a vote during a board meeting Friday on whether to fire him.

Engler apologized Thursday for his April email exchange suggesting gymnast Rachael Denhollander probably received a “kickback” from her plaintiff’s attorney.

“I didn’t give it the consideration it warranted,” Engler said in a statement. “That was a big mistake. I was wrong. I apologize.”

Trustee board chairman Brian Breslin called Engler’s apology “appropriate and appreciated by a majority of the board.” One of the two trustees who turned on Engler, Dianne Byrum, said she is glad he apologized and hopes he learned from it. But Brian Mosallam, the first trustee to demand that Engler step down, said in a tweet Thursday that the apology “is too little too late.”

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LANSING (MI)
The Associated Press

June 21, 2018

By Alice Yin

Michigan State University’s interim president apologized Thursday for an email remark about one of the gymnasts sexually abused by ex-sports doctor Larry Nassar, the latest sign of turbulence for the former governor tasked with steering the school out of the burgeoning scandal.

John Engler’s apology came more than a week after the public disclosure of his email exchange from April suggesting Rachael Denhollander probably received a “kickback” from her plaintiff’s attorney.

“I didn’t give it the consideration it warranted,” Engler said in a statement Thursday. “That was a big mistake. I was wrong. I apologize.”

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
FOX13

June 20, 2018

By David Wells and Kiersten Nunez

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will begin using new guidelines for bishops and other leaders in interviewing youth members.

The guidelines issued Wednesday to LDS church bishops, branch presidents and counselors in bishoprics and branch presidencies include a “Protecting Against Misunderstandings” section, in which interviews with children, youth and women are addressed.

“When a member of a bishopric or stake presidency or another assigned leader meets with a child, youth, or woman, he or she should ask a parent or another adult to be in an adjoining room, foyer, or hall. If the person being interviewed desires, another adult may be invited to be present during the interview. Leaders should avoid all circumstances that could be misunderstood,” the “Protecting Against Misunderstandings” guideline says.

The guidelines also outline the key matters for discussion in interviews with youth, including priesthood ordination, seminary, missionary service and temple-related topics.

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LANSING (MI)
Lansing State Journal

June 20, 2018

By Matt Mencarini

The special prosecutor investigating sexual misconduct at Michigan State University in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal has accused MSU’s lawyers of interfering with his investigation by withholding documents and last week told the university he will seek a search warrant.

The move followed two months of increasingly terse letters between William Forsyth, who is leading the investigation for the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, and Robert Young Jr., the university’s new general counsel and former Michigan Supreme Court Justice.

Forsyth told Young in a June 15 letter that he also will request a judge or an appointed third party to review the documents and determine what is protected by attorney client privilege and work product doctrine.

MSU’s Board of Trustees requested the AG’s investigation in late January, amid two sentencing hearings for Nassar, the former MSU and USA Gymnastics doctor who sexually abused hundreds of women and girls. Attorney General Bill Schuette then announced that Forsyth, a retired Kent County prosecutor, would lead the investigation. Although the board sought an independent inquiry into the handling of the Nassar matter, Schuette’s office said it would investigate sexual misconduct at the university.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

June 22, 2018

Negative aspects downplayed to limit reputational damage, former Barnado’s chief finds

The Church of England “botched” an inquiry into historical allegations of sexual abuse, the former head of a children’s charity has found.

Sir Roger Singleton, the former chief executive of Barnado’s, reviewed the church’s own Past Cases Review from 2010. He said the report did not give a comprehensive picture of the problem and that those conducting the inquiry had refused to speak to some survivors.

Singleton said the church “downplayed negative aspects” of the PCR’s findings in public statements to avoid damaging the reputation of the institution and the then archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

But Singleton, whose report will be published in the coming weeks, said he found no evidence of a deliberate attempt to mislead or that anyone broke the law.

The PCR examined more than 40,000 case files relating to allegations of abuse dating back to the 1950s and concluded that just 13 cases of alleged child sexual abuse required formal action.

After survivors complained that the report was inadequate, Singleton was commissioned to carry out an independent review of how it was conducted. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that it had been “botched in three ways”.

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ENGLAND
BBC News
June 22, 2018

By Donna Birrell & Alex Strangwayes-Booth & Steve Swann

The Church of England “botched” its investigation into alleged cases of abuse, a report’s author has said.

Sir Roger Singleton, who reviewed the Church’s “flawed” 2010 investigation, said it “failed to give a complete picture” of the abuse.

But Sir Roger, whose report is due out next month, said he found “no evidence of a planned deliberate attempt to mislead”.

The Church has outlined four steps for improvement.

They include the creation of an independently-chaired panel featuring survivors which will look at options to redress past cases, an independent ombudsman to review how complaints are handled and a strengthening of the clergy recruitment process.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NBC Nightly News

June 20, 2018

McCarrick was suspended after an allegation that he abused a teenager 47 years ago was found to be credible and substantiated. Church officials also revealed two past sexual misconduct settlements involving McCarrick.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Pension & Investments

June 20, 2018

By Hazel Bradford

Class-action lawsuits on behalf of participants in the insolvent St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island Retirement Plan were filed in state and federal courts in Rhode Island.

The 2,700 participants in the plan learned in August 2017 when it was placed into receivership that the plan had been inadequately funded for years, according to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Stephen Del Sesto, the receiver for the pension fund.

At the time, plan administrators asked the Rhode Island Supreme Court to approve immediate 40% across-the-board benefit cuts. The cuts have not yet been approved.

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
Sun-News

June 20, 2018

The Diocese of Las Cruces responded on Wednesday to a lawsuit filed against the Diocese of El Paso alleging sexual abuse of a minor 40 years ago by Father Joaquin Resma when he was a priest at Our Lady of Health parish in Las Cruces. Resma died in 1983.

Until the creation of the Diocese of Las Cruces in 1982, the church was under the jurisdiction of the El Paso diocese. Both the diocese and the church are named in the lawsuit, filed by a Las Cruces man who is not named in the lawsuit in order to protect the accuser.

The Diocese of Las Cruces, serving Catholics in 10 New Mexico counties, is not named in the lawsuit. However, in a media release on Wednesday, Bishop Oscar Cantú pledged that “the diocese will cooperate with the legal process as needed,” adding, “We hold all victims of abuse in our prayers, that they might find healing and peace.”

The diocese also encouraged victims who have not yet reported their abuse to contact the diocese victims’ assistance coordinator Margarita Williams at 575-523-7577 or by email at MWilliams@RCDLC.org. It stated that victims may report confidentially or have their case reported to law enforcement.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
GoLocalProv

June 21, 2018

The very idea that the Diocese of Providence could file for bankruptcy seems absurd as it historically has been one of the most influential and wealthy institutions in Rhode Island. If it did file for bankruptcy it would not be the first Diocese in the United States to file for bankruptcy to avoid financial claims.

Today, the Diocese of Providence is facing a massive lawsuit by the receiver for the St. Joseph pension fund — a lawsuit that alleges, in part, that Bishop Thomas Tobin and other top Diocesan leaders perpetrated a massive fraud. If the lawsuit is proven to be true then the Catholic Church will have major exposure. The pension fund is underfunded by an estimated $118 million and the 2,700 plus plan members face an uncertain financial future and the potential of as much as 40 percent cuts to their benefits.

The lawsuit crafted by Max Wistow, the attorney who recovered more than $60 million in the 38 Studios case, names not just the Diocese of Providence, but 15 other defendants as well.

Tobin did not respond to questions for this article.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
GetReligion

June 21, 2018

By Julia Duin

On Election Day 2008, I was not following the historic election of Barack Obama to the presidency.

Instead, I was meeting up with a priest. At the time, I was religion editor for the Washington Times.

The documents he gave me were sensational. At first I thought it was about a priest who’d been forced out of the priesthood because he’d been caught fondling two teen-aged boys. Then I read why the priest had done this. In layman’s terms: He said he was an emotional and spiritual mess after having been sexually assaulted in 1987 by none less than then-Newark Archbishop Theodore McCarrick.

Now, perhaps many of you have read yesterday’s news about McCarrick, who went on to become cardinal for the see of Washington, D.C., a most prestigious post. This UPI story describes the bare-bones of the matter:

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NBC News

June 20, 2018

By Elizabeth Chuck and Tracy Connor

Church officials also reveal past allegations of sexual misconduct with adults.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former head of the Archdiocese of Washington, has been removed from public ministry by the Vatican following a “credible and substantiated” allegation of sexual abuse involving a teenager from nearly 50 years ago.

As the move was announced, Roman Catholic Church officials in New Jersey revealed that McCarrick, 87, also had been accused of sexual misconduct by adults three times in the past. Two of those accusations resulted in secret settlements, officials said.

In a written statement, McCarrick said he was “shocked” when he learned of the allegation involving a minor some months ago and supported a thorough investigation by the police and the Archdiocese of New York, where he was working as a priest when the abuse allegedly occurred.

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MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
ABS-CBN News

June 20 2018

By Dharel Placido

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday insisted that he respects the Catholic Church and its leaders, even as he continued linking some clergy members to alleged illicit affairs.

Critics have been saying that Duterte’s tirades against priests and the Catholic Church have emboldened killers of 3 Catholic priests slain in the last 6 months.

The President has denied persecuting the clergy and said he cannot order their killings.

“Wala kaming policy na galit kami sa pari, nothing of the sort. As a matter of fact, nirerespeto ko ang Simbahan,” he said in a speech in Mandurriao district, Iloilo City.

“Sa totoo lang hindi ko kayang magpatay ng pari, pati na babae at bata.”

(We don’t have a policy against priests, nothing of the sort. As a matter of fact, I respect the Church. The truth is, I cannot order the killing of priests, women and children.)

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NEW YORK (NY)
TIME

June 20, 2018

By Michael R. Sisak

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the retired Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., has been removed from public ministry and faces further punishment over “credible” allegations that he sexually abused a teenager while a priest in New York more than 40 years ago, the church announced Wednesday.

Pope Francis ordered the 87-year-old cardinal’s removal pending further action that could end in his expulsion from the priesthood. A church panel determined that a former altar boy’s allegations that McCarrick fondled him during preparations for Christmas Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1971 and 1972 were “credible and substantiated.”

McCarrick, the Washington archbishop from 2000 to 2006, is one of the highest-ranking U.S. church officials accused in a sexual abuse scandal that has seen thousands of priests implicated. The church also acknowledged that it had made previously undisclosed legal settlements with adults who accused McCarrick of sexual misconduct decades ago.

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EL PASO (TX)
New York Daily News

June 21, 2018

By David Boroff

A former priest in Texas accused of sexually abusing and raping a girl for years started by molesting her during confession, authorities say.

Miguel Luna, who served at 12 different locations in El Paso, started abusing the alter server when she was 8 by “kissing her passionately” when she was supposed to be privately admitting her sins, according to the El Paso Times.

“The victim recalled the defendant (Luna) telling her ‘remember this is confession, so whatever happens here stays in here,'” according to the complaint obtained by the newspaper.

The 68-year-old Luna was arrested earlier this month for aggravated sexual assault of a child.

The church was not named in the charges, but Luna was with 12 different parishes after being ordained in 1982, according to KVIA.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB

June 20, 2018

By Evan Anstey

It’s not clear who it is, but the Erie County District Attorney’s Office says a priest accused of improper behavior will not face charges.

According to the DA’s office, a priest within the Diocese of Buffalo had been under investigation. He was accused of inappropriate behavior within the past year.

“The alleged actions by the priest, whose identity will not be disclosed, did not rise to the level of criminal conduct,” the DA’s office wrote.

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

HARRISBURG (PA)
WITF

June 20, 2018

By Lindsay Lazarski

Later this month, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro is expected to release findings from a two-year grand jury investigation into widespread sexual abuse and cover-up within six Catholic dioceses across the state.

In anticipation of this report, state Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, is pushing to end the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases and give victims abused long ago another chance to file a claim against their perpetrators.

Under current state law, victims of child sexual abuse have until they are 30 years old to file a civil case, and until they are 50 years old to file a criminal case. Rozzi says that’s not enough time.

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

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Catholic News Agency

June 20, 2018

The Chilean province of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary reported Monday that a preliminary investigation is underway on Father Juan Andrés Peretiatkowicz Valdés, accused of sexual abuse and the abuse of power.

According to a June 18 statement, the case involves accusations of acts which “allegedly began at the end of the 1980s.” According to the congregation the priest has had no pastoral responsibilities for five years for health reasons.

“We express our will and commitment to thoroughly and rigorously investigate these acts and resolutely fight against the culture of abuse and cover up,” the congregation stated.

Provincial Superior René Cabezón Yáñez received the information in early May and “immediately began a preliminary investigation.”

The congregation welcomes this investigation “as a desperate cry in search of truth and justice which obliges us as Church to leave behind the poor and overdue job of listening. We believe this is the only way of reparation for those who have been violated or abused.”

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ROME
CRUX

June 20, 2018

By Inés San Martín

In a wide-ranging interview in which he spoke about the ongoing migrant crisis in the United States, Pope Francis also touched on issues such as female ordination, the ongoing Vatican talks with China and the clerical sexual abuse scandals in Chile.

The conversation between Francis and a journalist from British news agency Reuters took place on Sunday afternoon, and sections of it were published on Wednesday. Reuters also provided a transcript of portions of the interview to Vatican journalists.

Clerical sexual abuse scandals and the Chilean case

“I don’t like talking about this now, but I must say this,” Francis told journalist Philip Pullela. “Go to the statistics. The great majority of the abuses take place in the family environment and in the neighborhoods, the neighbors, the families, then in the gym, the pools, the schools and also in the Church, but some can say the [priests] are few, but even if it was only one [priest] it’d be tragic because that priest has the duty to take that person to God and has destroyed the path to God.”

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