ABUSE TRACKER

INDIA
Mint on Suday

Vidhi Choudhary

Michael Rezendes is a Pulitzer-winning investigative reporter on The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team. In over two decades with the Globe, he has worked as a reporter and editor, covering presidential, state and local politics. In 2003, Rezendes did a story that revealed the cover up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, chronicled in the Academy Award-winning movie Spotlight.

On his maiden visit to India, Rezendes spoke at The Media Rumble, a news media conference organized by Newslaundry. In an interview to Mint on the sidelines of the event, Rezendes talked about the need to fund investigative media outlets and the financial difficulties news organizations face today. His advice to other journalists: question the truth, find the truth and publish the truth.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

What’s the biggest change that you’ve seen in the US journalism landscape over the last 5-10 years?

I’ve seen a very terrible, discouraging financial weakening of most news organizations in the United States. Most traditional news organizations… are cutting their staff, city halls are not being covered, state houses and courts are not being covered. I think because the revenue model has been destroyed by the internet, basic accountability journalism is not happening in cities all across America and I think its very troubling.

What could address this financial weakening?

I think there is going to be a new financial model that will evolve or maybe there’ll be several that evolve. I’m very interested in the non-profit model right now. There are some non-profit organizations in the United States that are doing very well. Pro Publica, the Centre for Investigative Reporting and the Centre for Public Integrity. These are all news organizations that exist with donations and they are doing very well and producing great work. …

The expose of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church was the biggest story of your career. Personally, what stays with you?

Always question authority.

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TEXAS
The Texas Law Journal

‘Wake up the Pope’: The North Texas verdict that shook the Catholic Church two decades ago – WFAA

By Bruce Tomaso

(July 20) – After the Rudy Kos case, plaintiffs’ attorney Sylvia Demarest went on to represent another dozen or so victims of sexual abuse in lawsuits against the Catholic Church.

She could have kept that lucrative practice going forever; with thousands of priests accused of having molested children, there was no shortage of potential clients.

But in 2004, Demarest retired from active litigation. She’d had enough.

“After a while, I just couldn’t take another abuse case,” she said. “There’s only so much sadness and suffering you can tolerate.

“Emotionally, it took a toll. I went all in for my clients. It took me a long time to move beyond what had happened to them—what their church allowed to happen to them.”

The Dallas lawyer found a way for her work to live on: She donated a trove of records she’d collected over 11 years—information on 2,600 priests accused of pedophilia, plus her litigation files from the Kos case and others—to BishopAccountability.org, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit project dedicated to documenting the Catholic crisis.

Today, that database, augmented by records from other sources, is online and accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

“What Sylvia did was momentous. She was a visionary,” said Terry McKiernan, a co-director of BishopAccountability.org.

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TEXAS
WFAA

Sylvia Demarest’s Gift of Disturbing Data – The Texas Law Book

TWENTY YEARS AGO THIS MONTH, AN EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL TOOK PLACE IN A DALLAS COUNTY COURT. IT PITTED 10 YOUNG MEN AND THE FAMILY OF ANOTHER AGAINST THE DALLAS CATHOLIC DIOCESE. THIS SPECIAL REPORT TELLS THE STORY OF THE TRIAL OF RUDY KOS, A REMARKABLE AND HISTORIC TALE OF COURTROOM JUSTICE.

Bruce Tomaso, The Texas Lawbook

Editor’s note: The following article contains sexually explicit references.

A dozen jurors walked into a Dallas courtroom two decades ago to deliver their verdict. For more than two months, they listened to graphic, horrifying testimony about a pedophile priest who preyed on young boys for years.

Witness after witness told their detailed stories of sexual abuse that stretched years by Rudy Kos, a long-time priest in the Roman Catholic Church. Even lawyers for the church and its bishop provided evidence against the priestly pervert in their own ranks.

Twenty years ago this month, the 12 Texas jurors issued a decision that rocked the very foundation of the church. They decreed that the church itself had sinned – that church leaders were grossly negligent because they knew about the sexual abuse but did nothing to stop it.

The jury ruled that the Catholic Diocese engaged in fraud and conspiracy to hide the crimes of Kos from the public, from law enforcement and even from parishioners. The jury awarded a historic and unprecedented $119.6 million to 10 young men who had been repeatedly molested as children by Kos. An 11th plaintiff had killed himself prior to trial.

In an extraordinary move, the jurors wrote a letter to the diocese, which they read in open court after their verdict was rendered. The letter urged church leaders to change their policies on dealing with reports of child abuse.

“Please admit your guilt,” the jurors said, “and allow these young men to get on with their lives.”

“We asked this jury to speak to the world, and they have done that,” Dallas lawyer Windle Turley said after the verdict.

Sylvia Demarest, another lawyer involved in the case, told reporters, “I hope they wake up the pope with this verdict.”

The diocese, claiming the jury’s judgment would plunge it into bankruptcy, settled with the plaintiffs for $30.9 million.

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AUSTRALIA
The Sunday Telegraph

LINDA SILMALIS, chief reporter, The Sunday Telegraph

ORGANISATIONS responsible for children would no longer be able to sidestep child abuse claims by shifting blame on to individuals under major changes being considered by the state government.

The introduction of “non-delegable” duty of care would apply to religious organisations, out-of-home care facilities, juvenile detention centres, day and boarding schools, early childhood education, long daycare, family daycare, outside school hours services and preschool programs.

The institutions would be ­liable for the actions of “everyone” associated with them.

The onus of proof for child abuse claims would also be ­reversed, with liability hinging on an institution proving that it took “reasonable steps” to prevent the crimes.

And churches and other religious bodies with members ­accused of child abuse would no longer be able to avoid being sued as a result of being an “unincorporated association”

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AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

CHRIS PIPPOS, Sunday Tasmanian

TASMANIA’S Anglican Church hierarchy has aired its frustrations over delays into the internal investigation of a former bishop who allegedly allowed a paedophile to remain in the church.

Anglican Church Vicar General Chris Jones said he “absolutely” understood the frustration felt by victims about the slow progress of the review into findings involving former Tasmanian Bishop Phillip Newell, adding the matter was “with the lawyers”.

“We want this sorted,” Dr Jones said.

“I think it’s really important for our commitment to survivors that we can conclude this matter.’’

In February, a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse report found evidence that now-retired Bishop Newell was made aware in 1987 that now-convicted paedophile Louis Daniels, involved with the Church of England Boy’s Society, had sexually abused three boys, then was later promoted within the church.

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ROMA
El Pais

[Money was diverted from the Bambino Geso children’s hospital to pay for renovations to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s apartment.]

DANIEL VERDÚ

Roma 13 JUL 2017

El ático tenía más de 300 metros cuadrados y una magnífica terraza de otros 100. El todopoderoso cardenal Tarcisio Bertone, secretario de Estado del Vaticano con Benedicto XVI (cargo similar al de un primer ministro) trasladó ahí su residencia y quiso reformarlo, aunque la idea fuese a costar algunos cientos de miles de euros. Más allá de la escandalosa cifra, el problema es que parte de ese dinero, como quedó demostrado, se obtuvo de los fondos del hospital para niños del Vaticano Bambino Gesù. Su antiguo presidente, Giuseppe Profiti, y el extesorero, Massimo Spina, serán juzgados ahora por un tribunal del Vaticano por malversación. Bertone, que sigue viviendo en el famoso ático, a 50 metros de la mucho más modesta residencia del Papa, no se sentará en el banquillo. La gran incógnita es si durante el proceso será llamado a declarar como testigo.

El baile de cifras que rodeó al polémico ático —dos apartamentos unidos para él y las tres monjas que le acompañan— fue el primer síntoma de los desmanes que durante un tiempo se produjeron en el Vaticano. Primero se supo que la aventura inmobiliaria había costado unos 150.000 euros, dinero que el propio Bertone —quizá empujado por el papa Francisco— restituyó al hospital cuando trascendió el escándalo. Posteriormente, Bertone aseguró que también había puesto otros 300.000 euros de su bolsillo y finalmente trascendió que lo que desembolsó el centro médico fueron 442.000 euros. Entre unas cosas y otras —se habló de un equipo de música de 18.000 euros, mármoles de lujo y suelos de roble— la factura que cobró la sociedad radicada en Londres de un constructor italiano en bancarrota, muy cercano al propio Bertone, salió por 792.544 euros.

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CHILE
ACI Prensa

[Priest condemned for sexual abuse in Chile: The 14th Court of Guarantee of Santiago de Chile declared the priest and former vice-rector of the National Sanctuary of Maipú, Fr. Rodrigo Gajardo, to be guilty of sexual abuse.]

SANTIAGO, 19 Jul. 17 / 07:43 pm (ACI).- El 14° Juzgado de Garantía de Santiago de Chile declaró culpable de abuso sexual al sacerdote y ex vicerrector del Santuario Nacional de Maipú, P. Rodrigo Gajardo.

El sacerdote reconoció su responsabilidad en el hecho y fue condenado a la pena de “61 días de presidio menor en su grado mínimo y a la suspensión de cargo u oficio público durante el tiempo de la condena”, según señala el fallo del 27 de junio de la magistrada Claudia Santos.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[A judge investigates a teacher for child abuse at a school of the Legionaries of Christ in Boadilla.]

Era responsabile di una parrocchia a Monselice. L’intervento del vescovo e la «sospensione»

PADOVA Doveva essere un luogo sicuro, uno di quei posti in cui poter mandare tranquillamente i propri figli, convinti che lì non sarebbe potuto succedere loro nulla di male. E invece quella canonica, tra paramenti sacri e incensi, si è trasformata in un luogo da evitare, così come il padrone di casa. Perché il parroco ora si ritrova bollato di un’accusa pesantissima, violenza sessuale su un minore, un suo parrocchiano, e per questo sta affrontando davanti al giudice per le udienze preliminari di Padova, Margherita Brunello, un processo in abbreviato. A finire sotto inchiesta è un giovane prete che, fino a qualche tempo fa, era il titolare di una delle parrocchie di Monselice. Così come pure di Monselice è quella che sarebbe la sua vittima, un ragazzo quindicenne.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandfunk

[The sinful church: The public pressure on the abuses in the Catholic Church should have to continue, commented Joachim Frank in the Dlf: Otherwise, those who still had not understood anything would get the upper hand – like the former prefect of the Congregation for the Congregation of the Faith Gerhard Müller.]

Der öffentliche Druck zu den Missbräuchen in der katholischen Kirche müssten, anhalten, kommentierte Joachim Frank im Dlf: Ansonsten würden diejenigen, die immer noch nichts verstanden hätten, wieder Oberwasser bekommen – wie etwa der ehemalige Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation Gerhard Müller.

Von Joachim Frank

Destruktiv, zerstörerisch war die katholische Kirche lange genug. Die Seelen ungezählter Kinder und Jugendlicher hat sie zerstört. Nein, nicht die Kirche als Ganzes. Wohl aber all jene Priester, Ordensleute, Seelsorger, die sich an Schutzbefohlenen vergingen, sie schlugen, misshandelten, sexuell missbrauchten.

Und die Kirchenoberen, die wegschauten, abwiegelten, sich um die Täter sorgten, noch mehr aber um die heilige Kirche. Das alles hatte System: Institutionenschutz vor Opferschutz. Schon deshalb ist es falsch und gefährlich, die Vergehen auf Einzelfälle und individuelles moralisches Versagen zu reduzieren.

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VATICAN/DEUTSCHLAND
Vatikan Radio

[A sharp criticism of the media coverage on the fall of the Regensburger Domspatzen comes from the Vatican medium Osservatore Romano. The recently released final report on the scandal had aroused great interest in the Italian media. In an editorial of this Saturday the author writes Luccetta Scaraffia that it is measured in the distribution of news “with two dimensions”.]

Scharfe Kritik an der Medienberichterstattung zum Fall der Regensburger Domspatzen kommt vom vatikanischen Medium Osservatore Romano. Der kürzlich veröffentlichte Abschlussbericht zu dem Skandal hatte in den italienischen Medien großes Aufsehen erregt. In einem Leitartikel von diesem Samstag schreibt die Autorin Lucetta Scaraffia, es werde bei der Verbreitung von Nachrichten offensichtlich „mit zweierlei Maß“ gemessen. Denn während beispielsweise Praktiken von sexistischen und körperlich wie seelisch verletzenden Initiationsriten in einer römischen Kaserne aus den 1980er Jahren, die vor einigen Tagen bekannt geworden waren, keinerlei öffentliche Empörung oder größeres Medienecho ausgelöst hätten, sei der Missbrauch im Kinderchor der Domspatzen auf reißerische und tendenziöse Weise durch die Medien gegangen. In den Berichten sei teilweise sogar der Eindruck entstanden, es handele sich um 547 Fälle von schwerem sexuellen Missbrauch der Chorknaben. Außerdem wurde verschwiegen, dass der Abschlussbericht zur Aufklärung der Fälle von der Diözese selbst in Auftrag gegeben worden war, um „den Gerüchten und Anzeigen zu diesem Skandal auf den Grund zu gehen“, wie Scaraffia schreibt. Die Autorin ist Historikerin und Mitglied des italienischen Komitees für Bioethik.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Domradio

[From the pyre to the silence. The Congregation of the Inquisition – formerly called the Holy Office and now as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – is the oldest authority of the Holy See. Since its foundation 475 years ago, it has experienced a changing history and continuous development of its tasks.

Die Kongregation der Inquisition ist die älteste Behörde des Heiligen Stuhls. Seit ihrer Gründung vor 475 Jahren hat sie eine wechselvolle Geschichte und ständige Weiterentwicklung ihrer Aufgaben erlebt.

Sie ist die älteste der neun vatikanischen Kongregationen. Am 21. Juli 1542 unter Papst Paul III. (1534-49) als “Kongregation der Römischen und Universalen Inquisition” gegründet, war sie lange Zeit die oberste, aber auch die am meisten gefürchtete Behörde des Heiligen Stuhls.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Hannah Leone
Aurora Beacon-News

A former Aurora priest charged with sexually abusing two young girls at their Catholic church appears to have eluded deportation to his native Colombia — for now.

Alfredo Pedraza Arias entered a courtroom late Friday morning in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and left in the custody of the Kane County judicial center in St. Charles.

A June 14 deportation order signed by a federal immigration judge cast uncertainty on whether Arias, 50, would be in the U.S. when his felony trial on the sexual abuse charges was scheduled to begin July 31. The case has been continued, however, with no new trial date set.

On Friday, Kane County Judge Linda Abrahamson remanded Arias to the county judicial center’s custody based on a bond increase ordered earlier this month. That change stipulates that he must post 10 percent toward an additional $100,000 in bail in order to be re-released.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Martin Evans, crime correspondent
22 JULY 2017

The Church of England withdrew support for sex abuse victims on the advice of its insurers, it has been claimed.

Officials allegedly severed ties with victims who had suffered at the hands of clergy, once compensation had been paid.

One sex abuse victim, who was paid £35,000 in compensation after being raped in the 1970s by a member of the clergy, claimed he was cut adrift once the payment had been made and blamed the church’s insurers, Ecclesiastical.

An independent review into the case stated that the insurer’s advice had “directly conflicted” with the pastoral and compassionate responsibilities of the church, adding that “financial interests were allowed to impact practice”.

The findings of the review, conducted by Ian Elliot, a child safeguarding specialist, were accepted in full by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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NETHERLANDS
NL Times

[Kinderen Jehova’s slecht beschermd tegen misbruik – Trouw]

[Ouderling is rechercheur, rechter én psycholoog – Trouw]

By Janene Pieters on July 21, 2017

Children of Jehovah’s Witnesses are easy targets for pedophiles, newspaper Trouw reports after speaking to victims, members and ex-members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. One victim called the Christian society a “paradise for pedophiles”.

The victims Trouw spoke to were abused in the 80s and 90s. But according to the victims and others involved, abuse is still happening. The Netherlands counts about 30 thousand Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Netherlands follow the international guidelines of the organization. Their own legal system is above that of international authorities. In the organization, male elders are the judges. According to Trouw, for a conviction in the society, at least two witnesses are needed. This creates a problem as in many child sexual abuse cases, the only witnesses are the victim and the perpetrator. And perpetrators don’t tend to testify against themselves.

Perpetrators are also not forced to leave the community, unless he or she shows no regret. Other members are not told about the abuse, because talking about such a case without a conviction is seen as slander.

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KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Matthew Glowicki, @MattGlo July 21, 2017

The trial of a former Louisville pastor accused of sexually abusing three young sisters in the 1990s ended abruptly on the second day of testimony.

Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Barry Willett declared a mistrial Thursday shortly after one of the now-adult sisters took to the witness stand to testify.

On Wednesday, the first day of evidence in the trial, prosecutors told jurors that 79-year-old Allen Lehmann sexually abused the girls a number of times during the ’90s when they made short visits to his home.

Lehmann, who now lives in Indiana, was living in Louisville at the time as pastor at Trinity Chapel Assembly of God church.

The three girls were all under age 15 at the time, according to court records.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By ALYSSA DANDREA
Monitor staff
Friday, July 21, 2017

Concord police files requested by the Monitor two months ago are being withheld because of a criminal investigation launched last week by the attorney general into St. Paul’s School.

Concord police Chief Bradley Osgood said in a letter Thursday that the documents are now exempt from disclosure under New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know law in light of the attorney general’s probe into how the elite boarding school responded to cases of sexual misconduct over several decades.

Previously, Osgood said the city needed approximately 60 days to fulfill the Monitor’s May 25 request for all calls for service to St. Paul’s School, and all related offense reports referencing assault crimes at the institution, dating back to 2007. The newspaper also requested all police reports on now-closed sexual assault investigations during the same time frame.

The Monitor filed a second Right-to-Know request June 27 requesting the same type of information and documentation from 2007 to 1987. Police acknowledged receipt of the request, but had not indicated a time frame for completion.

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MICHIGAN
Gaylord Herald Times

Jordan Spence The Alpena News

ROGERS CITY — The Rev. Syvestre Obwaka was found not guilty of two criminal sexual conduct charges on Thursday, following approxmiately two hours of jury deliberation in 53rd Circuit Court. The trial lasted three days.

After the verdicts were read, Obwaka said “Jesus thank you,” as he was embraced by family and friends.

Obwaka was charged on two counts of criminal sexual conduct in February. He was charged with a count of first degree criminal sexual conduct with personal injury and third degree criminal sexual conduct force or coercion.

The alleged victim in the case is a male priest who also is part of the Diocese of Gaylord.

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PENNSYLVANIA/AUSTRALIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
petersmith@post-gazette.com
JUL 21, 2017

Brother Bernard Hartman, a former teacher at North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, is expected to be released from an Australian prison this weekend and return to the United States after completing his two-year prison sentence for sexually abusing three children in that country in the 1970s and 1980s.

Hartman, 77, a member of the Marianist religious order, “will be resident in a non-Marianist facility, specializing in supervision of men with significant personal issues and/or court referrals,” said a statement from the Rev. Martin Solma, provincial for the Marianist Province of the United States. The facility will provide “24/7 supervision,” and he said Hartman would have “no external ministry or freedom of movement.”

Father Solma did not specify where Hartman would live, but he said it would not be in Pennsylvania, where Hartman once taught. Nor, he said, would it be in Ohio, where Hartman lived in a Marianist facility in Dayton between his abrupt removal from North Catholic in 1997 and his extradition to Australia in 2013 to face charges there.

Hartman joined the Marianists in 1958 and was a science teacher. He was not an ordained priest.

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UNITED STATES
Albuquerque Journal

By Diane Dimond / Crime and Justice | Diane@DianeDimond.com
Saturday, July 22nd, 2017

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert cut a pitiful figure this week as he left a federal prison in Minnesota and his wheelchair stuck on a bump in the sidewalk. His wife, fumbling at his side trying to manage his aluminum walker and other items, wasn’t immediately able to help him over the hurdle. The just-released prisoner was momentarily stuck. Pathetic for a man who was once second in line to the presidency of the United States.
I didn’t feel sorry for him one bit. Hastert is one of the worst kind of criminals in my book. He robbed children of their innocence and damaged their futures forever.

When Hastert was sentenced to 15 months in prison last April, the judge called him “a serial child molester” and noted he had sexually abused at least four members of the wrestling team at Yorkville High School in suburban Chicago from 1965 to 1981. I’m betting there were more young boys who fell victim to coach Hastert’s lust. Preferential serial child molesters rarely stop at four.

But Hastert was not convicted of sexually abusing children because the statute of limitations in Illinois had long since run out. In that state, a victim has 20 years from their 18th birthday to report a sex crime and Hastert’s popular position in the community back in the day had been enough to keep all his victims quiet – for decades.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Six out of 24 complaints made in 2016 to the Commission for the Safeguarding of Children and Vulnerable Adults (Safeguarding Commission) were substantiated, and the necessary steps were taken, the commission said today.

During 2016, out of the 12 complaints involving minors received by the Commission, two allegations were substantiated and the necessary steps were taken in all cases. The other concluded cases were either not proven or were referred to the relevant entities as they did not fall under the Commission’s remit. Up to December 2016 assessments were being carried out on 12 complaints, of which 6 had a restriction imposed on the pastoral activity as a precaution.

In the case of vulnerable adults, the assessment on the concluded cases was carried out in less than 6 months. Out of the 12 complaints received by the Commission in 2016, 4 allegations were substantiated and the necessary steps were taken in all cases.

The other concluded cases were either not proven or were referred to the relevant entities as they did not fall under the Commission’s remit. Until the end of the year, the assessments of 10 complaints were underway, and while in each case the necessary action was taken, in one particular case a restriction on the pastoral activity was imposed as a precaution.

Azzopardi would later say that high-risk individuals would be placed under strict restrictions, such as a suspension from pastoral activities.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill
July 22 2017
The Times

Sir John Major should have been called before a public inquiry to explain why his government refused to accept any responsibility for the plight of child migrants, a leading campaigner said yesterday.

Margaret Humphreys, director of the Child Migrants Trust, told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that as the scale of the scandal emerged in the 1990s her efforts to engage the Conservative government were in vain. Sir John and other ministers repeatedly said that the issue of ill-treatment of the migrants was a matter for governments in Australia and other countries.

Some 7,500 children were taken from their families in Britain and deported to farm schools and institutions in Australia and other former colonies between 1948 and 1970. Many suffered physical and sexual abuse, neglect and deprivation.

The inquiry allowed Sir John to submit evidence in writing this week in which he said he had no useful recollection of the issues.

Dr Humphreys said the attitude of the government in the 1990s had been very distressing for former migrants who wanted help to be reunited with surviving parents.

She said: “I was very disappointed he did not attend this inquiry.” She also told the inquiry to reject arguments that standards were different in the 1940s and 50s.

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IRELAND
Sligo Champion

Jessica Farry
July 22 2017

“Nobody should have to go through life without knowing who they are, especially when there are people out there who have the answers.”

Those are the words of Councillor Gino O’Boyle is looking to find information on his father Seamie’s family, and where he came from.

Seamie sadly passed away in 2015, but he, and his wife Mairead, had spent decades searching for answers.

Seamie was brought to the Nazareth House in Sligo on the 25th of July 1957 from Cavan by a Maureen McCabe and Cyril McCaul and was organised by Fr Patrck Gallagher from Rockcorry (Monaghan). The McCabe family home in Tullyvin (Cavan) was the last place Seamie was before being brought to Sligo.

That was the only information he had.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Five men who sued over alleged abuse as children in Christian Brothers’ schools have failed in their attempt to have their damages actions against the State restarted.

The men previously discontinued their actions against the Minister for Education and the State after the Supreme Court, in the landmark 2008 case of Louise O’Keeffe, found the State could not be held vicariously liable for the actions of abusers employed in national schools.

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UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By Australian Associated Press

Child migrants kept being trafficked from Britain to Australia despite officials knowing that some institutions they were sent to harboured pedophile rings, a U.K. inquiry was told.

Dr Margaret Humphreys of the Child Migrants Trust told the child sexual abuse inquiry in London that recruiters were sent to the U.K. to select children for church and charity-run farm schools in Australia.

‘We would categorise that now as child trafficking,’ she said on Friday.

The inquiry is examining the sexual, physical and emotional abuse suffered by thousands of children in care who were sent to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Rhodesia up to the 1970s.

Among the worst offenders were the Catholic order the Christian Brothers who ran farm schools in Western Australia and the royals-backed Fairbridge Society which ran farm schools in NSW.

The inquiry has heard from former child migrants that say they were routinely sexually abused and flogged by staff, were poorly fed, clothed and educated and used as virtual slave labour on the farms.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

July 21, 2017 Joelle Casteix

This week, a lawyer for the Claretian Missionaries announced that Bruce Wellems was forced to petition the Vatican to give up his collar.

That’s right. He can’t be a priest.

For those of you who have been following this blog, that’s huge news. But for this person, it’s vindication:

That’s Eric Johnson. Bruce Wellems was 15 when he sexually abused seven-year-old Eric. I don’t say “allegedly,” because Wellems has admitted it.

Eric has been fighting for years to expose what happened to him and to get some semblance of justice.

According to the Chicago Tribune:

“I could have chosen to remain anonymous, but I did not, which was not easy for my family nor myself. Yet I continue to push for justice,” [Eric Johnson] said. “[Wellems] is a danger to the kids and the community.”

Wellems contends that his good work since the time he abused Eric should make up for his past. But here’s the rub: Not once has he apologized for what he did to Eric and/or may have done to others. Not once has he understood the lifelong pain that sexual abuse causes victims.

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TEXAS
ABC 13

By Mayra Moreno
Thursday, July 20, 2017

THE WOODLANDS, Texas (KTRK) — A Montgomery County religious leader has been charged with prostitution.

According to charging documents, 52-year-old Eddie Hilburn was taken into custody after he agreed to pay for sex.

Officials at The Woodlands First Baptist Church confirmed that Hilburn is an associate pastor.

According to the church’s website, Hilburn has been with the church since 2012 and had previously served at other churches across Texas and Wisconsin.

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SOUTH AFRICA
SABC

Friday 21 July 2017
Olwetu Matsipane

Nigerian pastor, Timothy Omotoso will appear in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Friday for a new bail application.

He faces charges of human trafficking and sexual abuse after allegedly keeping under-age girls at his house in Durban.

The Jesus Dominion International Church leader was denied bail after his previous application.

While handing down judgement, presiding magistrate Thandeka Mashile said the nature and gravity of the offences permitted no bail.

She cited that Omotoso was in the country illegally, with false documents, and therefore could be a flight risk.

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FLORIDA
WCTV

[with video]

By: Lanetra Bennett | WCTV Eyewitness News
July 20, 2017

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) — A former Tallahassee youth pastor accused of fondling boys made his first appearance in court Thursday morning.

Roshad Thomas appeared before a judge via video from the Leon County Jail.

Thomas was arrested Monday and charged with six counts of sex offenses against children ages 12 to 16. Investigators have identified five victims.

The first victim said the incident with Thomas happened ten years ago, when he was 13.

Thomas’ younger sister spoke out in court Thursday. She said, “He is loved. I love him dearly. But, I’d also like you to know that we are here, available to do whatever it takes to get healing and restoration for Roshad, and more importantly for the community and any victims that might be involved.”

Other supporters were there, too.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

EDITORIAL
July 20. 2017

Sexual misconduct on the campuses of two of the nation’s most prestigious prep schools has prompted a closer look at how these New Hampshire institutions protect their students.

Phillips Exeter Academy kept quiet about a professor who had sexual relationships with his students for decades, quietly shuffling him into retirement. St. Paul’s School in Concord knew about decades of sexual misconduct by students and faculty.

When an alleged victim of sexual assault comes forward to school officials, making these allegations public must be a difficult decision. The school would want to shield the victim, particularly if he or she is a minor, from a public ordeal. Yet the school also has an inherent conflict of interest.

Too often, schools have chosen to keep parents and the public in the dark about crimes happening on campus.

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has promised to revisit Obama administration guidance urging colleges to crack down on sexual assault. But schools are not courts. Rape is a crime, not an honor code violation. Colleges are ill-equipped to provide justice for victims or due process to the accused.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Carol Hunt

“Dear Ellen, I see where you are looking for some information about the Magdalene laundry. I was in the Magdalene laundry for a good many years and I live out in the country now. But I never will forget it to my dying day. The cruelty we got. Slaved like blacks. Some of the girls were dragged by the hair of their heads and more, their hair was cut off simply if they gave the least back answer or were too slow at their work.”

I’m listening to Julian Vignoles RTÉ radio documentary which first aired in 1992.

He explains; “A letter with no name and no address. It was written last summer in response to a newspaper advertisement. For nearly 100 years single women who became pregnant, women who weren’t wanted, were banished, by their families, to the Mary Magdalene Home Laundry in Galway City. It was one of many such institutions in Ireland. Their detention was legally dubious. Some women spent the rest of their lives there. This year, a play and a song brought the memory back in Galway . . .”

The play Vignoles talks about is called Eclipsed. Written by a former postulant nun, Patricia Burke Brogan, the first I heard of it was in December 1991 when a friend of mine told me a fledgling theatre company in Galway, Punchbag, was auditioning for a new play set in a Magdalene laundry. I had just finished a two-year acting course and was willing to try out for it. It was my first audition and I landed the part of Mandy, described in the script as one of the “penitent women” signed into a fictional Magdalene laundry for the sin of getting pregnant “outside marriage”. There were eight of us in the cast. Eight women! A record number in what was, and still is, a male-dominated theatre world.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Review of Books

Ingrid D. Rowland

A photograph taken in Argentina in 2007 shows two cardinals, Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Tarcisio Bertone, sitting side by side, although their chairs are on two different levels. At the time, Bertone was the Vatican’s Secretary of State, having traveled to a village in northern Patagonia “in the name of His Holiness Benedict XVI” to preside over the beatification of a turn-of-the-century religious student.

Bertone’s wooden armchair sits on a dais that puts him a good six inches higher than Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who perches uncomfortably on his metal-and-plastic seat, and the man known to many as the “vice-pope” occupies his virtual throne with kingly complacency, clad in yards of fine Italian filetto lace beneath his golden chasuble, with a sporty pair of aviator sunglasses to complement his gold-embroidered miter (and is that a Rolex on his wrist?). Next to him, in Jesuit black under plain white robes, Cardinal Bergoglio, with his iron cross and his horn-rimmed spectacles, looks open-mouthed upon the radiant spectacle, his famously mobile face providing the perfect caption to the picture. Six years later, Bergoglio became Pope Francis, and things have not been the same since.

On May 19, the glossy, gossipy German newspaper Bild Zeitung printed a report that made immediate headlines in Italy: Vatican prosecutors had begun to investigate allegations that Cardinal Bertone, as the Holy See’s Number Two from 2006 to 2013, had embezzled 15 million euros ($20 million) from Vatican accounts, apparently to benefit an Italian television producer, a former director of the state broadcaster RAI named Ettore Bernabei, with deep connections to Italy’s conservative establishment and a longtime membership in the powerful Catholic organization Opus Dei. The transfer of these funds allegedly occurred in December 2012. The Vatican press corps swiftly denied that a “criminal investigation” was underway, and Bertone himself insisted that the deal had followed “all the rules.”

But the timing of the presumptive transaction is, to say the least, interesting. It came at the very end of the remarkable year in which confidential documents from Pope Benedict’s private office began leaking to the press, revealing power struggles within the Curia and suggestions of widespread corruption within the Church. In these “Vatileaks” documents, Cardinal Bertone figured prominently: he had personally reproved the general secretary of the Vatican governorate, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, for reporting detailed evidence of nepotism, cronyism, and crooked property deals within the Vatican, and soon Pope Benedict had transferred the whistle-blowing prelate from the Vatican to Washington.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Tom Roberts | Jul. 21, 2017

The story of Marie Collins, an Irish victim of clergy sex abuse and a witness of unimpeachable integrity, is a dual tale of how far the church has come in acknowledging and handling the scandal and of how wholly and demonstrably incapable the Catholic clerical culture is of dealing with its own sin.

Collins was one of two survivors of clergy sex abuse who were appointed in 2014 to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, an agency created by Pope Francis. She resigned the commission in March, providing NCR with a long explanatory statement.

Her decision to leave was not lightly taken. She had rejected the logic of some critics early on that any cooperation with church efforts was selling out to an institution that had generally ignored or re-victimized the abused for decades. She had later defended the work of the commission when its only other victim member, Peter Saunders, openly criticized the group for the slow pace of reform.

In March, however, three years after her appointment, she wrote: “I have come to the point where I can no longer be sustained by hope. As a survivor, I have watched events unfold with dismay.”

Among the primary reasons for her despair, she listed “lack of resources, inadequate structures around support staff, slowness of forward movement and cultural resistance.”

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

John L. Allen Jr. Editor
July 20, 2017

Back in the 19th century, French novelist and journalist Edmond About was considered the Tocqueville of the Papal States, and he had a fairly cynical view of papal justice. As the latest Vatican trial opens, it’s interesting to apply his tests. There’s also some question marks about the timing of the trial, and a juicy irony waiting to be exploited surrounding the name of one of the defense lawyers.

As the latest Vatican trial opened on Tuesday for alleged criminal shenanigans, it occurred to me that you really have to go all the way back to the 1800s to find the last time the “courthouse beat” formed any part of covering the Vatican for most reporters in Rome.

In that era, the pope still ruled over a swath of territory in central Italy known as the “Papal States,” and criminal trials were a regular event. The pope even had his own executioner, the most famous of which was “Mastro Titta,” a nickname that was a corruption of the Italian phrase maestro di giustizia, or “master of justice.”

So famous was he in the mid-19th century that Roman mothers sang their little ones to sleep with a rhyme that goes, “Sega, sega, Mastro Titta.” Segare is the Italian verb “to saw,” so the mental image is ghoulishly accurate.

In the century and a half since, the Vatican has banned capital punishment, and today is a global leader in the abolitionist movement. The pope now only exercises civil power over about 109 acres of territory, representing the physical footprint of the Vatican City State.

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MICHIGAN
WBKB

[with video]

Reverend Sylvester Obwaka walked free today after months of rape allegations brought upon him by a younger priest. The reverend was accused of raping the young man during a one–night stay at his home, and today charges of sexual assault in the first and third degree were dropped.

First to the witness stand was Hope Shores Alliance Advocacy Coordinator Jennifer Baker. The prosecution and defense questioned Baker about victim tendencies in the moment of a sexual assault, focusing on responses such as non–resistance that might seem inconsistent with how a typical juror would expect a victim to respond

“Absolutely. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s inconsistent because it’s a safety issue. So your brain is going to do whatever is going to keep you safest in that moment. So if that’s freezing, it’s freezing. Not responding, not fighting back,” said Baker.

The majority of her statements supported the theory that victims may not resist sexual encounters due to the fight, flight or freeze response, and may not even remember the events correctly because of the way a victim’s brain processes trauma. After her testimony judge Scott Pavlich dismissed the jury to take a short recess, which is when the defense made a motion for the judge to dismiss the charges, believing they had provided enough evidence to prove consent.

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MICHIGAN
9 and 10 News

[with video]

Updated: Jul 20, 2017
By Aaron Parseghian, Reporter

A Presque Isle County jury has decided Father Sylvestre Obwaka is not guilty of the sexual assault of a fellow priest, who was sleeping in his home in February.

The verdict was handed down Thursday evening.

9&10’s Aaron Parseghian was in court Thursday where Obwaka took the stand in his own defense.

“He was another priest trying to give me an understanding,” said Obwaka.

Before the jury acquitted him of first and third degree sex crimes, Father Sylvestre Obwaka told his side of the story on the witness stand.

He says he had consensual sex with the alleged victim.

During cross examination the prosecuting team questioned whether any basis of consent was discussed between Obwaka and the alleged victim.

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MICHIGAN
Presque Isle Advance

Another Alleged Victim Revealed During Rev. Obwaka Hearing Monday – YouTube

More Setbacks With Father Sylvestre Obwaka’s Trial Dates: More Details Needed From Second Victim – YouTube

July 20, 2017

by Angie Asam–Staff Writer

A 12-member jury found the Rev. Sylvestre Obwaka not guilty on two charges of criminal sexual conduct (CSC) Thursday evening.

After listening to testimony Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and most of the day Thursday the jury was sent to the jury room to deliberate shortly before 4 p.m. At 5:30 p.m. the jurors knocked on the door to let the court officer know they had reached a verdict.

Once in place the Honorable Scott L. Pavlich reviewed the verdict form before handing it back to the floor person to read the verdict. The prosecution was seeking charges of CSC first degree causing personal injury and CSC third degree using force or coercion.

The alleged incident occurred in the early morning hours of Feb. 1 and was reported to the Michigan State Police Feb. 17. The charges stemmed from a sexual encounter with a male victim, 28. Both Obwaka and the victim are Catholic priests.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
July 21 2017
The Times

A British high commissioner to Australia said that the government was not interested in the plight of abused child migrants because it was waiting for them to die, a public inquiry was told yesterday.

The claim was made by Norman Johnston, 75, who said it had taken 30 years of campaigning to get the British government to apologise for the suffering of children taken from their families and sent to schools in former colonies. Mr Johnston, president of the International Association of Former Child Migrants, told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse: “The British government sent us to places that they knew were not safe for children. I want the British public to know that.”

More than 130,000 children were sent to the colonies by charities and churches under state-approved migration schemes that ran for more than a century. Between 1948 and 1970 some 6,000 children were sent to Australia, of whom about 2,000 are alive.

John Major’s government denied during the 1990s that Britain had any duty towards the migrants. He told parliament in 1993 that he was aware of allegations of physical and sexual abuse but “any such allegations will be a matter for the Australian authorities”.

In 2005 Mr Johnston said he had a meeting in Canberra with Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke, a former Labour minister who was the British high commissioner. He said: “We tried to give the message to the high commissioner about the lack of support we were getting from Britain to help to find our families and we were given short shrift.” Mr Johnston said the meeting had been “very frank” and claimed that it ended with Lady Liddell saying: “You will have a very long wait. The British government are waiting for you all to die.”

It was, he said, “an eye-opener and a complete shock” but the remark was “the first truthful thing we’d actually heard from the British government”.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[The Domspatzen boys were beaten, abused, degraded: Why didn´t Church representatives move in on the events but instead hushed them up? The reasons lie in the self-image of the church.]

Missbrauch | Bonn – 20.07.2017

Der Untersuchungsbericht zum körperlichen und sexuellen Missbrauch bei den Regensburger Domspatzen ist eine erschreckende Lektüre: Auf über 400 Seiten wird schonungslos deutlich dokumentiert, wie Schüler über Jahrzehnte hinweg geschlagen, missbraucht, entwürdigt wurden. Versuche, die Missstände zu benennen, wurden über Jahre ignoriert oder diffamiert. Der Schutz des Rufs der Institution stand über dem Schutz der Schutzbefohlenen. Das Verhältnis von Tätern und Opfern wurde geradezu umgekehrt: die heilige Institution als Opfer von Nestbeschmutzern.

Der Umgang mit Missbrauch in den eigenen Reihen ist nicht nur eine rechtliche Frage – er ist auch eine Frage nach den Bedingungen, unter denen Missbrauch in der Kirche geschehen kann und gedeckt wird. Letztlich ist es damit eine Frage der Ekklesiologie, der Lehre von der Gestalt der Kirche.

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DEUTSCHLAND
HPD

[The tormentors do not want to talk about abuse. The press conference held by Ulrich Weber to discuss the final report on abuse cases at the Regensburg Domspatzen was hardly over when the alleged perpetrators started pointing their fingers at others.]

Von: Jan Weber

20. JUL 2017

Die Pressekonferenz ist kaum beendet, bei der Anwalt Ulrich Weber den Abschlussbericht zu den Missbrauchsfällen bei den “Regensburger Domspatzen” vorstellte, als die Täter schon mit dem Finger auf andere zeigen. Das macht sprachlos und wütend.

Der ohrfeigende Ex-Papst-Bruder Ratzinger hält die Aufklärung der Missbrauchsfälle für “Irrsinn”. Dem Bayrischen Rundfunk sagte Ratzinger: “Diese Kampagne ist für mich ein Irrsinn. Es ist einfach Irrsinn, wie man über 40 Jahre hinweg überprüfen will, wie viele Ohrfeigen bei uns verteilt worden sind, so wie in anderen Einrichtungen auch.” Der ehemalige Leiter der “Domspatzen” nennt es “Kampagne”, wenn das hundertfache Leid von missbrauchten, geschlagenen und gequälten Menschen untersucht wird? Er wagt es tatsächlich, die Opfer nachträglich zu verhöhnen?

Ihm kann ja nichts mehr geschehen, seine Ohrfeigen sind längst verjährt. Die Opfer hingegen haben jahrzehntelang gelitten und für die Anerkennung der Schäden gekämpft und werden von Ratzinger noch einmal verbal geprügelt. Scham und Schande über den alten Mann!

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IRELAND
The Times

Ellen Coyne, Senior Ireland News Reporter
July 21 2017
The Times

The HSE chief executive has suggested there was confusion and “tension” about how much control religious groups had in hospitals, adding that he welcomed plans to distance the Catholic Church from national hospitals.

Tony O’Brien praised a proposal by Simon Harris, the health minister, to carry out a review of voluntary hospitals after the national uproar over a decision to let a religious order own a new maternity hospital.

In March The Times reported that the Sisters of Charity would own the new National Maternity Hospital after it was built with almost €300 million of taxpayers’ money on the order’s land.

Following the controversy, the sisters announced that the order would be stepping back completely from healthcare for the first time in 183 years. It will no longer own St Vincent’s healthcare group, the existing hospital or the new maternity hospital.

Negotiations on the maternity hospital being owned by a new private group, are continuing.

The health minister has expressed concern that a publicly built maternity hospital would not be publicly owned. Mr Harris is also bringing forward plans for a national review of religious involvement in health.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post Jul 20, 2017

Two men who once served as altar boys and were Boy Scouts filed civil complaints in the District Court of Guam against the Archdiocese of Agana and the Boy Scouts of America.

The suits, filed by Attorney David Lujan, seek $10 million each in damages for alleged sexual abuse they endured at the hands of Louis Brouillard, a priest who worked in Guam for several decades and also served as a Boy Scoutmaster.

A.M., now 56, alleges Brouillard exposed himself to altar boys at San Isidro Catholic Church in Malojloj in 1972.

The complaint alleges the priest would talk about pornography and then sexually molest the boys, including A.M., while at the convent after Boy Scout practice, or after serving Mass.

Once the sexual abuse began, A.M. would regularly wear two pairs of jeans whenever he was around Brouillard, the lawsuit states.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register

By KELLY PUENTE | kpuente@scng.com | Orange County Register

PUBLISHED: July 20, 2017

A former Irvine church assistant is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange alleging that she was sexually assaulted by one of its high-ranking priests who previously spent time in a treatment facility for “sexually deviant” clergy.

In her lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court on Wednesday, the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, says she was sexually assaulted and harassed by Father Alex Kim in 2016 while working as his assistant when he was pastor at St. John Neuman Church in Irvine. He is also being sued.

The suit alleges that Kim, ordained in 1991, was circulated to various parishes in Orange County and ultimately promoted to pastor despite a decade-long history of sexual misconduct complaints by female parishioners. The diocese sent him to a treatment facility in 2012 before naming him as pastor at St. John Neuman, the suit says.

David Ring, the woman’s attorney, said the diocese was aware of Kim’s “history of exploiting female parishioners” but “turned a blind eye” because of his popularity and success at fundraising.

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INDIANA
nwi.com

Steve Garrison and Lauren Cross steve.garrison@nwi.com, 219-662-5331 lauren.cross@nwi.com, 219-933-3206 Jul 20, 2017

CROWN POINT — A 22-year-old man who previously attended Family Christian Center in Munster is accused of having sex at the church with a 14-year-old girl.

Javyon M. George-Boatman was charged Wednesday in Lake Criminal Court with three counts of sexual misconduct with a minor, according to court records.

Court records listed George-Boatman as a youth leader at the church, but John Ponder, the pastor of Christian Education and Pastoral Care, told The Times on Thursday that George-Boatman is not a youth leader, nor did he serve the church in any official capacity.

The church barred George-Boatman from accessing church property immediately after learning of the allegations, Ponder said.

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MALAYSIA
Astro Awani

KUALA LUMPUR: The amendment to the Legal Aid Act 1971, which is expected to be tabled at the next Parliament session, will enable underage victims of sexual crimes and their family members to get access to legal advice from the Legal Aid Department and lawyers approved by the department.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said the amendment would create a term of Legal Companion, in which legal officers from the department would give the necessary aid and advice to the victims in accordance with the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017.

“However, this will not include the court process, only to introduce and to explain to them about the law,” she told reporters at a luncheon with senior new editors here on Thursday.

She said the proposed amendment was a continuity to the government’s efforts to introduce the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 and the newly established Special Child Sexual Crimes Court.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church of England

By Martin Bashir and Callum May
BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme

Victims of abuse by clergy have criticised the Church of England’s close relationship with the insurer advising it on compensation claims.

They said the Church had cut contact and emotional support from them on the advice of Ecclesiastical – which has a senior clergy member on its board.

An independent reviewer said in one victim’s case “financial interests were allowed to impact practice”.

The Church said it aimed to separate pastoral care from insurance issues.

‘Moral responsibility’

Gilo – a middle-aged man who lives in the south-west of England – told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme he had been raped in the early 1970s by a City of London clergyman, the Reverend Garth Moore.

Gilo – whose surname he has asked us not to use – said he had made more than 20 attempts to contact senior members of the Church after his decision to report the assaults, but often received no reply.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Updated at 11.35am

Twenty-four new complaints were submitted to the Church body tasked with investigating cases of abuse and neglect, according to its annual report.

The Commission for Safeguarding this morning announced that it had received 12 new complaints involving minors and another 12 involving vulnerable adults. It did not specify the details of the complaints.

It also revealed that the commission had seven ongoing complaints involving minors, which had been carried over from 2015 and another five involving adults.

Court action, it said, had been taken on behalf of 335 people.

The commission said these had all been court applications filed under the Protection of Minors Act (2012).

The Safeguarding Commission was set up in 2015 taking over from its Response Team. It is tasked with assessing whether a person working for the Church was a risk to children or vulnerable adults.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Richard Winton

A senior Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Orange sexually assaulted and harassed a female church employee last year at a prominent Irvine parish where he was placed despite a similar prior accusation, according to a lawsuit filed by the woman.

Father Alex Kim is accused by his former assistant of sexually assaulting her several times at St. John Neumann Catholic Church. She alleged in the suit that she felt compelled to take a leave of absence to avoid his attacks.

In July 2016, Kim pushed her against a wall in the rectory “and forcibly kissed, groped and fondled her,” said the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday. Kim then “pulled his genitals out of his pants and rubbed it against” her,” the woman’s complaint alleges. The next day, according to the lawsuit, he sent her “innocuous texts messages as if nothing happened.”

The woman, who is identified only as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, has known Kim since she was a child and described him as once being her spiritual mentor, the suit says.

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UNITED STATES
ABC – The View

The Emmy nominated docuseries ‘The Keepers’ tries to unlock a terrifying mystery of a nun who was murdered nearly 50 years ago. Some believe Sister Kathy was trying to expose a Baltimore priest who spent years sexually abusing girls at the local Catholic school. Did the church and police cover it up? The two women who are seeking the truth Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub join the table to talk about how the cold case brought them together and developments that have occurred since ‘The Keepers’ has been on Netflix.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

July 20 2017

The Police Ombudsman’s investigation into child sex abuse at the notorious Kincora Boys’ Home in Northern Ireland is to conclude this year.

Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire launched the review after alleged victims complained about the Royal Ulster Constabulary’s (RUC) handling of reports in the 1980s of wrongdoing.

A separate public inquiry, which published its findings in January this year, has already rejected claims that senior establishment figures used the East Belfast institution to target children. Instead, it blamed failings by the health authorities and the RUC after dozens of residents raised concerns.

The Ombudsman’s office said: “We are investigating a total of seven complaints about how police dealt with reports of child sex abuse at the Kincora Boys’ Home in East Belfast.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Amnesty International

Victims of child abuse have told the Secretary of State that they expect him to set up a redress scheme without delay if devolved government is not re-established at Stormont in the coming months.

The abuse survivors, part of the Panel of Experts on Redress, on which Amnesty International is also represented, met the Secretary of State today at Stormont House, where they provided him with a 30-page document and letter calling for action and a start to negotiations with victims. The detailed briefing paper from survivors is based on widespread consultation with abuse victims across Northern Ireland.

Victims are angry that there has been no progress in delivering apologies, a redress scheme and support services for victims because of the absence of a functioning Northern Ireland government. They want UK government to step in without delay, if there is no return of the Northern Ireland Executive in the Autumn.

The report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry was published in January 2017, just days after the collapse of the power-sharing Executive at Stormont. That has meant there have been no Ministers to act on the recommendations contained in the report.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

July 20 2017

Compensation should be paid without delay if devolved government is not restored at Stormont after the summer, child abuse victims said.

Survivors of wrongdoing at residential homes dating back decades urged Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire to establish a redress scheme without delay if powersharing is not re-established in the coming months.

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry has recommended compensation worth up to £100,000 for the worst affected.

Margaret McGuckin, who suffered abuse as a child at Nazareth House children’s home in Belfast, said: “Today we put the Secretary of State on notice that we expect urgent action from him to establish a redress scheme which meets the needs of victims, should Stormont not be up and running again after the summer.

“Victims of child abuse have been waiting their whole lives for justice. Now they have been hit with further uncertainty and no government, just when they need it most. For abuse survivors, justice delayed truly is justice denied.

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ROME
Headlines from the Catholic World

Rome, Italy, Jul 20, 2017 / 03:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A member of Pope Francis’ commission to protect minors says a new report on the abuse of more than 500 choir boys in Germany points to a current reality in many non-western countries – and that bringing these things to light means progress for everyone.

“It will take time, but this kind of sensitivity that is created by publicly discussing these things of course will push, because people realize what is right and what is wrong, and they realize that they will be questioned if something goes wrong,” Fr. Hans Zollner told CNA July 19.

Fr. Zollner is vice-rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, director of the university’s Center for Child Protection (CCP), and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

He spoke following the July 18 publication of a report on an investigation German lawyer Ulrich Weber carried out on the Regensburger Domspatzen, the official choir for the Regensburg Cathedral.

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TEXAS
Courthouse News Service

ERIK DE LA GARZA
July 20, 2017

EDINBURG, Texas (CN) — Seriously ill and 84 years old, former Catholic priest John Feit will be tried for the 1960 murder of a South Texas beauty queen in late summer, when the last pieces of prosecution evidence arrive, a judge told him Wednesday.

At a brief hearing Wednesday, state prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to a plan to begin searching for jurors. Both sides said they will be ready for trial after prosecutors receive results from their final evidence tests.

“My understanding is that the analysis has been completed and we are waiting on the reports to come in,” said Hidalgo County Assistant District Attorney Michael Garza. “Apparently, they go through a review process and there’s some delay in that.”

Feit, dressed in orange prison clothes, sat silent and expressionless on the walker he uses in courtroom appearances as Hidalgo County Judge Luis Singleterry addressed him.

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TEXAS
KURV

Final preparations have been set for the murder trial of the former McAllen priest believed to have killed former beauty queen and teacher Irene Garza 57 years ago.

During a brief court hearing Wednesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys confirmed they’re ready for trial, and Judge Luis Singleterry set September 11th as the date for the final pre-trial hearing prior to the start of jury selection.

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CONNECTICUT
New Haven Register

By Randall Beach, New Haven Register
POSTED: 07/19/17

NEW HAVEN >> A New Haven pastor has been sentenced to serve three years in prison for second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor.

Walter Williams, who was 59 at the time of his arrest last July, lives in Northford section of North Branford. He is senior pastor at the Walk of Faith Church of Christ in New Haven, according to the church’s website.

Police said he was accused of having as many as six sexual encounters with a minor who was a member of the church. According to police, the incidents occurred between July 2015 and April 2016.

The victim’s mother contacted police after she discovered text messages between her daughter and Williams on her daughter’s phone, police said. The mother told police she also saw a graphically disturbing Facebook message from Williams to her daughter.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

A guest post by Mette Harrison

Yet again, a Mormon bishop is in trouble because of sexual abuse.

Erik Wayne Hughes of Mapleton, Utah has been charged with 20 counts of forcible sexual abuse of minors, among other charges. Two now-adult men have come forward to say they remember being drugged and sexually abused by this bishop, a man who ought to have been interested only in their spiritual welfare. They were in their teens at the time.

The police chief said he is “concerned that there is more” abuse in this case, and that other victims may come forward in the future. Furthermore, Hughes has been accused of trying to silence the young men by manipulating their feelings for him as their bishop, allegedly telling them that others had been spreading false rumors about his deeds.

The LDS Church has long prided itself on its “Gold Standard” of protecting abuse victims, including a hotline for bishops to call if they find out about abuse. But there is no such system in place for ward members when the bishops themselves are the problem.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

“I wasn’t aware of any sexual abuse”. This was stated by Georg Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI’ brother, when he was heard during the investigation into the abuses of the Regensburg Cathedral choirboys from the post-war period to the early 1990s. As the German state is no longer required to investigate time-barred crimes, it was the diocese, and therefore the Catholic Church itself, to promote and finance an independent investigation, which also encouraged victims to give information anonymously.

As it is known, the results presented in a solid 440-page report by lawyer Ulrich Weber, unveils the shocking number of 547 children victims of violence, 67 of whom were sexually abused. The names of some of the abusers, who are now dead, were already known. These facts, which cannot be underestimated or minimized, should however be put in context, namely that for decades corporal punishments were common throughout all schools in the country.

The stories of some of the victims are gruesome because they speak of both excessive punishments but also of ill-treatment at the limit of sadism and of repeated sexual abuse, which took place in the school as well as in the dormitory where the “Cathedral sparrows” lived. The choirboys told that the ones responsible of the blood-beatings were also responsible of the sexual harassment: for this reason, Weber’s lawyer suggested that the molesters would get sexually aroused by knocking out the kids.

What does Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, nowadays in his nineties, have to do with all of this? Benedict XVI’s brother directed the choir for thirty years, from 1964 to 1994. From the report emerges, though it is not so explicit for privacy issues, that the most serious episodes of sexual abuse took place in the 1950s, when he was not there. Monsignor Georg during his thirty-year career as a director has slapped some of the boys, and has publicly apologized for it seven years ago. He has never been, even remotely, accused of having in any way harassed the boys of the Cathedral. However, he was pulled into the scene because someone said he had told him about what was happening in school.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill
July 20 2017
The Times

Britain should establish a compensation scheme for surviving child migrants who were taken from their families, deported to former colonies and suffered sexual abuse, Gordon Brown told a public inquiry today.

The former Labour prime minister said sending children to farm schools and austere institutions overseas was “a government-enforced form of human trafficking”.

Mr Brown told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that an official apology he made on behalf of the government to former child migrants in 2010 only dealt with some of the issues. More evidence had emerged about the scale of sexual abuse of children and the failure of Whitehall to address the problem, he said.

Mr Brown said the issue was even larger than the Jimmy Savile scandal, in terms of the numbers of victims, the period of time involved and Britain’s failure in its duty of care towards children sent overseas.

More than 130,000 children were sent overseas by charities and churches over more than a century. Some 2,000 who were sent to farm schools in Australia between 1948 and 1970 are still alive.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Press Association
Thursday 20 July 2017

The former prime minister Gordon Brown has described the forced migration of British children as a bigger sex abuse scandal than that perpetrated by Jimmy Savile.

Giving evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Brown said the mass transportation of 130,000 British children overseas between the 1940s and 70s amounted to “government-enforced trafficking”.

He said: “This seems to me as probably the biggest national sex abuse scandal. Bigger than what people have alleged about Savile. Bigger than what people have alleged about individual children’s homes.

“Bigger in scale, bigger in geographical spread, and bigger in the length of time that it went on undetected. I’m shocked about the information that I have seen.”

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ROME
The Tablet (UK)

20 July 2017 | by Daniele Palmer

He ‘experienced shame for what has happened in the Church’ but emphasises ‘everything that was possible and necessary was done’

After being accused of bearing “clear responsibility” for the mishandling of over 500 abuse cases in a Bavarian choir school, Cardinal Müller admits that he feels “shame” but emphasises that he did all that was possible.

Published on Monday (17 July), a report states that 547 boys were abused at a prestigious choir school in Regensburg, Bavaria, between the years 1945 and 1992.

In the report, commissioned by the diocese of Regensburg and compiled by the lawyer Ulrich Weber, Cardinal Müller is accused of having mishandled the cases of abuse, despite them being well known.

In an interview with the Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, bishop of Regensburg form 2002 to 2012 and ex-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, admits that he “experienced shame for what has happened in the Church” but emphasises “everything that was possible and necessary was done.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

To read Catholic League president Bill Donohue’s account of the controversy over Australian Cardinal George Pell, click here.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Jul 20, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Three more clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed in the District Court of Guam today.

44-year-old K.Q. alleges he was sexually molested by Father Ray Techaira, who is now deceased. While attending San Vicente Catholic School., K.Q. alleges he and four other boys were being disciplined by the priest when he told them to drop their pants. The priest then allegedly fondled and kissed each of the boys’ private parts.

56-year-old A.M. and 56-year-old D.M. allege they were sexually molested by Father Louis Brouillard.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Janela Carrera – July 20, 2017

A.M. alleges Louis Brouillard raped him while he was in the shower at the rectory.

Guam – Now facing 93 cases of sexual abuse, the latest claim against the Archdiocese of Agana is by a man who says former priest Louis Brouillard regularly took him and other Boy Scout members to the movie theaters to watch pornographic films.

The latest case is filed by a 56-year-old man with the initials A.M. who says that in the early 1970s, Brouillard would regularly molest him and other altar boys and boy scout members.

A.M. says Brouillard took the boys several times to the Johnston Theater to watch pornographic films “with the specific purpose of grooming the minor boys to be comfortable with sexuality and make them amenable to Brouillard’s act of molestation.”

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ROME
Crux

Inés San Martín VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

ROME – Earlier this week, an independent investigation commissioned by the Diocese of Regensburg in Germany found that at least 547 former members of the Regensburg Domspatzen boys’ choir were subjected to some form of abuse over a fifty-year period, including 67 who were victims of sexual violence.

The 440-page report, which spanned the years between 1945 and early 1990s, found plausible accusations against 49 members of the Church for physical abuse, including nine for cases of sexual molestation.

The report collects cases of corporal violence, from slaps to physical punishment, and sexual abuse, ranging from inappropriate caresses to rape. It was released on Tuesday by the diocese on its website, and presented in a press conference by Ulrich Weber, the lawyer leading the investigation of claims of abuse at the choir and two associated boarding schools..

Most of those named by the victims have already died. The crimes, however, fall outside Germany’s statute of limitations, meaning they are no longer open to prosecution.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Luke Hansen | Jul. 20, 2017

WEST ST. PAUL, MINN.

Gilbert Gustafson was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1977, served as an associate priest at St. Mary of the Lake Parish in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, until 1982, pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of a minor in 1983, and served four and a half months in jail and 10 years’ probation. Gustafson has admitted to abusing four boys between 1978 and 1982. He was not criminally charged in the other cases.

From 1983 to 2002, Gustafson was not assigned to parish ministry, but he was in residence at two different rectories, and he served as a chaplain for a local monastery of women religious. From 1983 to 1997, Gustafson served in various administrative roles for Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. From 1997 to 2002, he worked in the archdiocese’s chancery office.

In June 2002, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops established the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, commonly known as the Dallas Charter, to address sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy. Following the charter, Gustafson was permanently removed from active priestly ministry. He could no longer present himself as a priest, use a clerical title, wear clerical attire or celebrate the sacraments.

Gustafson, however, remains in the clerical state. Thus, in accord with the Code of Canon Law, Canon 1350, Paragraph 1, the archdiocese has continuously provided financial support for his basic needs. In 2006, the archdiocese concluded that Gustafson, since he had sexually abused minors, was “permanently and totally disabled” from engaging in his occupation as a priest, and therefore was “entitled to vested retirement benefits” under the Pension Plan for Priests in the Archdiocese. Gustafson also participates in an archdiocesan monitoring program akin to civil probation.

From 2004 to 2014, Gustafson worked for a consulting firm that contracted with Catholic parishes and other non-profit groups to provide services like strategic planning, executive coaching and human resource utilization. Today he continues to do consulting work with non-profits, including some Catholic institutions (but not parishes), as a consultant in the area of leadership development. Gustafson said he has never had any contact with children in his consulting work.

Since 2012, Gustafson has collaborated with Susan Pavlak on the project Uncommon Conversation, which seeks healing and reconciliation among survivors, perpetrators and others involved in child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. In a separate interview, Pavlak describes being sexually abused by her high school religion teacher, a former nun. This interview with Gustafson, edited for length and clarity, took place in West St. Paul, Minnesota.

Hansen: What was your early experience of the church?

Gustafson: I was born in 1951 — the youngest of four children — and grew up in a classic middle class family of the 1950s. Mom and Dad were very engaged in our parish. I always liked church. It was a wonderful, warm, safe environment. The nuns and priests were an extension of my family. Church became my second family and still is family.

I started being an altar boy at about age 9. In junior high, when I could serve during the Triduum, I was just taken by it. I felt moved inside.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

I urge all my readers to become part of this demonstration in front of the Boro Park beis medrish of the Novominsker Rebbe, head of Agudath Israel of America’s Council of Sages (aka Moetzes), @ 1644 48th St., Brooklyn, NY at 3 pm, Sunday July 23.

The target of this demonstration, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Noveminsker Rebbe, and head of Agudath Israel of America, is personally culpable for protecting abusers from criminal prosecutions. He even helped keep “Rabbi” Yehuda Kolko on as a teacher in spite of his known record of abusing yeshiva boys for 30 years. He did it in spite of pleas for involvement by the late Rabbi Avigdor Miller, an extremely important Haredi leader.

At present Agudah and its head, the Novominsker Rebbe discourage reporting sex abusers to the police, and lobby the New York State legislature (successfully) to not reform the statute of limitations. All sorts of attempts have been made to persuade the Rebbe to change his stance, all to no avail. He is more interested in protecting yeshivas from embarrassment and from having to pay former students for the terrible damage caused by abuse.

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ISRAEL
YNet News

Ariela Sternbach, Yael Friedson|Published: 19.07.17

A teacher at a religious school—who was convicted of indecent assault on his students—was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison and two years of probation.

Aharon Shlomo Lisson, 34, from Beitar Illit, was a teacher at an ultra-Orthodox middle school in the city. In December, he was convicted of sexually assaulting three brothers aged 13-15.

The teenagers’ mother left the courtroom in tears after the verdict, saying, “Justice has finally been served, but no punishment can give my children back their joy of life and their lost childhood and teen years.”

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UNITED STATES
SoundCloud

In this controversial episode the #RCP team discuss Netflix’s latest docuseries The Keepers about the unsolved murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, a beloved nun and Catholic high school teacher in Baltimore. After disappearing on Nov. 7, 1969, Cathy’s body was found nearly two months later but to this day, the case remains unresolved. Only days later Joyce Malecki disappeared from a shopping mall on Nov. 11 1969 in Glen Burnie, a suburb of Baltimore. Her body was found the next day face down in remote woods. This case also remains unresolved.

In the ’90s, the case returned to the spotlight after one of Cathy’s former students accused the high school’s chaplain of sexual abuse, and claims that she was taken to Cathy’s body and threatened.

Jim and Laura deep dive into these murders and discuss with Lisa the victimology, their crime scene assessment and analysis and opine as to whether the murders of Sister Cathy Cesnick and Joyce Malecki are linked.

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GERMANY
International Business Times

By Isabelle Gerretsen
July 20, 2017

The brother of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI established a “reign of fear” while head of boys’ choir at one of Germany’s most famous Roman Catholic schools, where more than 500 pupils were physically and sexually abused between 1945 and 2015.

A report published this week accused 49 members of abusing 547 young boys who sang in the Regensburger Domspatzen choir over a period of 60 years.

Benedict’s older brother, Georg Ratzinger, was the choirmaster between 1964 and 1994.

His successor, Roland Büchner, told German newspaper Die Zeit that Ratzinger was an “impulsive, fanatical and merciless”

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FLORIDA
No Sacred Cows

July 19, 2017 by David G. McAfee

Details are still emerging from authorities about Roshad Thomas, a Florida youth minister and businessman who admitted to molesting young boys, but his Facebook posts are revealing even more information.

Thomas, 41, worked with children at a church and a private school – both in Tallahassee. He is now being investigated for molesting at least five different boys, and his social media posts are enough to raise some eyebrows.

For starters, it seems like Thomas directed a great number of his posts directly toward “high school guys” or “middle school guys.” Often these posts advertised camping events or private bible studies, and the timing overlaps with the victims’ abuse.

Just last month, Thomas posted that “ALL high school guys” are invited to a retreat to discover “the man that God has called you to be.” He added, “Don’t be scared! Come! You won’t regret it. I promise.”

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WASHINGTON
Bellingham Herald

BY CALEB HUTTON
chutton@bhamherald.com

A former music director at Bellingham Baptist Church must serve time in prison for molesting a girl for years, a Superior Court judge has ruled.

Judge Raquel Montoya-Lewis sentenced Paul Michael Bane to 5 years in prison, the same amount of time she handed the church’s youth pastor, Christopher Trent, a month ago in a separate case of long-term sex abuse of a different girl.

Confession

Bane, 57, arrived at the Bellingham police station one morning in October 2015 to confess he had been sexually touching a girl for about 8 years, according to court records. At that point police had not spoken with the girl, who was living in the Midwest, but Bane told police the girl’s story, whatever it might be, could be trusted.

According to his report, Bane became a kind of father figure to the girl when she was younger. The sexual abuse began around the time the victim turned 12 years old. Bane would kiss her, sexually touch her, and later, started tying her with a clothesline during sex acts.

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KENTUCKY
Courier-Journal

Matthew Glowicki, @MattGlo

Jurors heard from one of three women Wednesday who allege they were sexually assaulted by a former Louisville pastor when they were children in the 1990s.

On the first day of evidence in the trial, prosecutors told jurors that 79-year-old Allen Lehmann sexually abused the three girls a number of times during the 90s when the youth made brief visits to his home.

At the time of the alleged abuse, Lehmann was living in Louisville as pastor at Trinity Chapel Assembly of God church.

The three girls were all under age 15 at the time, according to court records.

The youngest of the sisters, now 25, testified for more than two hours Wednesday. She told jurors of the Lehmann’s welcoming home where she enjoyed many a sloppy Joe and Jell-O salad. But those recollections were intertwined with painful memories of Lehmann touching her sexually on three occasions beginning when she was 6.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Wochenblatt

[The laity movement We are Church has asked the Regensburg bishop Rudolf Voderholzer to have further church institutions investigated after the final report on abuses at the Domspatzen.]

Die Laienbewegung Wir sind Kirche hat den Regensburger Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer aufgefordert, nach dem Abschlussbericht zu Missbräuchen bei den Domspatzen auch weitere Kircheneinrichtungen untersuchen zu lassen.

Die KirchenVolksBewegung Wir sind Kirche sieht den Abschlussbericht des vom Bistum Regensburg beauftragten Sonderermittlers, des Rechtsanwalts Ulrich Weber, als schmerzhaften und notwendigen Schritt an, dem jedoch weitere Schritte im Bistum Regensburg und auch in anderen deutschen Bistümern noch folgen müssen. In dem Bericht klingen mehrfach die besonderen systemischen Bedingungen innerhalb der Domspatzen-Organisation an, die dazu beitrugen, dass die verschiedenen Formen der Gewalt dort in besonderem Maße ausgeübt wurden und trotz der Exzesse damals nicht an die Öffentlichkeit gelangten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spin

[In the context of the abuse scandal at the Regensburger Domspatzen, Kapellmeister Roland Büchner raised serious accusations against his predecessor Georg Ratzinger. “There was a system of fear,” said Büchner about the time the brother of Pope Benedict XVI was choir master at the school.].

Missbrauchsbeauftragter fordert in Domspatzen-Fall Entschuldigung von Ex-Bischof

Im Zusammenhang mit dem Missbrauchsskandal bei den Regensburger Domspatzen hat Kapellmeister Roland Büchner schwere Vorwürfe gegen seinen Vorgänger Georg Ratzinger erhoben. “Es herrschte ein System der Angst”, sagte Büchner über die Zeit des Bruders von Papst Benedikt XVI. als Chorleiter der Domspatzen der Wochenzeitung “Die Zeit” laut einer Vorabmeldung vom Mittwoch. “Das muss ans Licht, auch wenn es weh tut.”

Büchner warnte davor, die Gewalttaten gegen 547 ehemalige Chorknaben zu verharmlosen. Zwar habe es sich meist nicht um Missbrauch, sondern um Schläge gehandelt. “Das waren aber nicht ‘nur’ Ohrfeigen, sondern regelrechte Misshandlungen – es wurde gewütet, es waren Körperverletzungen.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
religion@orf

[Regensburg: Heavy accusations against Pope’s brother.]

In Zusammenhang mit dem Missbrauchsskandal bei den Regensburger Domspatzen hat Kapellmeister Roland Büchner schwere Vorwürfe gegen seinen Vorgänger Georg Ratzinger erhoben.

„Es herrschte ein System der Angst“, sagte Büchner über die Zeit des Bruders von Papst Benedikt XVI. als Chorleiter der Domspatzen der Wochenzeitung „Die Zeit“ laut einer Vorabmeldung vom Mittwoch. „Das muss ans Licht, auch wenn es wehtut.“

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DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

[George Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, was an accomplice to physical and sexual abuse at the Domspatzen cathedral choir, according to the survivors an witnesses.]

Die Bilanz ist erschreckend: Mindestens 500 Kinder aus dem Regensburger Domspatzen-Chor wurden Opfer von Gewalt, 67 wurden sexuell missbraucht.

Unhaltbare Zustände, in die offenbar auch Georg Ratzinger, der Bruder des früheren Papst Benedikt XVI., verwickelt war – als Mitwisser, wenn es nach der Analyse der Ersteller des gestern veröffentlichten Untersuchungsberichtes geht. Als Mittäter, wenn es nach Aussagen der Opfer und Zeugen geht, die ebenfalls in dem Bericht zu Wort kommen.

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DEUTCHLAND
YouTube

Published on Mar 2, 2015

[The Domspatzen file.]

http://www.domspatzen.de/ http://www.swr.de/betrifft/

Nachrichten über systematischen Kindesmissbrauch im berühmtesten Chor der katholischen Kirche erschütterten 2010 die deutsche Öffentlichkeit. Schnell trat das Bistum in Regensburg diesen

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FRANKREICH
Yahoo! Nachrichten

[The French organization ‘La Parole Libérée’ provides victims of sexual abuse of the Catholic Church with a platform to tell their stories and bring to light the truth.]

Die französische Organisation ‘La Parole Libérée’ gibt Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs der katholischen Kirche eine Plattform, um ihre Geschichten zu erzählen und die Wahrheit ans Licht zu bringen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller sees no reason to apologize in connection with the abuse cases at the Domspatzen at Regensburg. In the final report presented yesterday, he was named as one of the central figures. Cardinal Müller stated in an interview with the Catholic News Agency (KNA) that he himself had initiated the process of reworking in 2010 after first reports of attacks became known. Earlier, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, the abuse commissioner of the federal government, had said that he hoped that the former Regensburg bishop.]

Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller sieht keinen Anlass, im Zusammenhang mit den Missbrauchsfällen bei den Domspatzen Regensburg um Entschuldigung zu bitten. In dem gestern vorgelegten Abschlussbericht war er als eine der zentralen Figuren genannt worden.

Kardinal Müller erklärte in einem Interview der Katholischen Nachrichten-Agentur (KNA), er habe selbst 2010 den Aufarbeitungsprozess eingeleitet, nachdem erste Meldungen über Übergriffe bekannt wurden. Daraus ergebe sich auch die Antwort auf die Frage nach einer Entschuldigung. Zuvor hatte Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bundesregierung, gesagt, er hoffe, dass sich auch der frühere Regensburger Bischof und heutige Kardinal Müller bei den Opfern entschuldigen werde.

Domspatzen unterliegen nicht Kirchenrecht
Müller wies darauf hin, dass die Domspatzen keine Stiftung kirchlichen Rechts seien.

“Somit war dies ein Angebot, die zuständigen Personen und finanziellen Mittel der Diözese Regensburg für diese in ihren Dimensionen noch unabsehbare Arbeit zur Verfügung zu stellen. Im Abschlussbericht wurde mir ausdrücklich dafür gedankt.” Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutche Zeitung

[The former Bishop of Regensburg, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, has called for an apology from Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, the federal government’s abuse commissioner. The cardinal accused him of spreading “false statements and false information.” Müller, who was interviewed by the Passau Neue Presse, rejected the comments from the commissioner that he had carried off the cover-up of the massive abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen. He said that he gave this information to the institutions of the diocese so that the investigation could begin. Müller was Bishop of Regensburg from 2002 to 2012.].

Der ehemalige Regensburger Bischof Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller fordert eine Entschuldigung von Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, dem Missbrauchsbeauftragten der Bundesregierung. Es würden “Falschaussagen und falsche Informationen” verbreitet, sagte Müller der Passauer Neuen Presse und wies den Vorwurf zurück, er habe die Aufklärung des massenhaften Missbrauchs bei den Regensburger Domspatzen verschleppt. Er habe “erstmals diese Aufklärungsarbeit an die Institutionen des Bistums übertragen, sodass mit der Untersuchung begonnen werden konnte”, sagte Müller, der von 2002 bis 2012 Bischof von Regensburg war.

Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte Rörig hatte den heutigen Kurienkardinal kritisiert: Müller habe stets von Einzelfällen gesprochen, aber die strukturellen Versäumnisse nicht untersucht. “Es wäre den Betroffenen zu wünschen, dass er sich wenigstens jetzt für die verschleppte Aufarbeitung entschuldigen würde”, sagte Rörig.

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TEXAS
RGV Proud

[with video]

By: Amy Martinez
Posted: Jul 19, 2017

HIDALGO COUNTY, Texas – A former priest is one step closer to learning his fate in connection with the murder of a McAllen school teacher. After being extradited to the Rio Grande Valley, 83-year-old John Feit was back in court for a final pre-trial hearing Wednesday morning.

“I think the purpose of this hearing was to try and establish a ground mark or a plan for jury selection and get this case tried before a jury.” Stated the Prosecution.

Within 10 minutes attorneys for both parties agreed on a trial date. On September 11, 2017, a Hidalgo County jury will be asked to listen to testimonies and observe pieces of evidence before reaching a verdict. This, after a change of venue motion was denied in early June. In March of 2016, Feit was transferred from Maricopa County, Arizona to Hidalgo County.

It was there where he was charged for the 1960 murder of Irene Garza. The decades old cold case was reopened after Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said there were new facts and evidence in the case of the former priest. Those details have yet to be released.

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GERMANY
NPR

July 19, 2017

COLIN DWYER

Over a span of roughly a half-century, at least 547 boys at a famed Catholic choir school experienced some form of significant abuse, according to an independent investigation released Tuesday. The 440-page report details an environment that some former pupils likened to a “prison, hell and a concentration camp,” which persisted for decades under the direction of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s older brother.

The education at the Regensburg Domspatzen — a boys’ choir that enjoys worldwide renown and has been around for upwards of a millennium — “was oriented toward top musical achievements and the choir’s success,” the report said, as translated by The New York Times. “Alongside individual motives, institutional motives — namely, breaking the will of the children with the aim of maximum discipline and dedication — formed the basis for violence.”

Of the hundreds of cases listed by attorney Ulrich Weber, whose report was commissioned in 2015 by the Regensburg diocese, 67 are believed to have been cases of sexual abuse.

And “these are not 547 cases where an individual was affected once,” former choir member Alexander Probst told Reuters. “Rather, this was an ongoing practice over decades where 547 children were tormented, abused, mistreated and socially harmed.”

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KANSAS
KSHB

Tom Dempsey
Jul 19, 2017

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – A day after the Archdiocese of KCK announced the suspension of priest Scott Kallall due to alleged wrongdoing, the KCK Police Department confirmed it was investigating the case.

The Archdiocese announced in a statement Monday afternoon that Kallal was suspended from his position at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Overland Park after two sources came forward with allegations of wrongdoing.

Church leaders said a preliminary investigation revealed “violations of some of the Archdiocese’s safe environment guidelines which all clerics, employees and volunteers are asked to observe when interacting with young people,” including one incident involving a minor.

On Tuesday, a man claiming to be the father of the child spoke to 41 Action News.

The father alleged that in the summer of 2015, Kallal inappropriately tickled his 11-year-old daughter and touched her breast during a weekend gathering at St. Patrick Catholic Church in KCK.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Catholic

Catholic parishes and religious communities across New Zealand and Australia are preparing for a global e-conference in August which will reflect on the topic — “Gospel Leadership in Times of Chaos: the Hope of Pope Francis”.

Australia’s former Foreign Minister, Professor Bob Carr and US theologian and expert on Vatican II Professor Massimo Faggioli are among the keynote speakers at the e-conference on August 10 which is being presented by BBI-The Australian Institute of Theological Education in partnership with the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

The e-conference, now in its 13th year, is popular in New Zealand where it has attracted strong interest over recent years. …

“I am looking forward to a timely and spirited discussion at the e-conference”, explained one of the key speakers, Australian business leader Elizabeth Proust.

As deputy chair of the Truth Justice and Healing Council in Australia, Ms Proust has been shocked by the extent of clergy abuse highlighted through the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

ANDREW THOMSON
20 Jul 2017

UPDATE, 7.30pm: Paul David Ryan, who served in Warrnambool and Ballarat, has been identified as the priest who has been charged with seven sex crime charges.

UPDATE, 3.20pm: A Former Warrnambool priest was served with seven sex crime charges in Western Australia on Thursday morning.

The charges relate to two complainants and include counts of rape, sexual penetration of a child aged under 16 years and indecent assaults.

The 68-year-old former priest has been summoned to appear for a filing hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on August 4.

Earlier: ​A FORMER Warrnambool priest is in the process of being charged with historical serious sex offences involving city schoolboys​, including rape.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Melissa Cunningham

Former Ballarat priest Paul David Ryan will front a Melbourne court next month over a string of historical child sex offences.

The 68-year-old was charged this month with multiple offences against a number of alleged victims from across Victoria.

The charges include rape, indecent assault and sexual penetration of a child under 16 years old.

Detectives from Victoria Police’s Sano taskforce, the squad set up to investigate historic child sexual abuse, are believed to be investigating Mr Ryan in the wake of evidence revealed in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The charges are believed to date back to the years between 1981 and 1985 when Mr Ryan was a priest and the alleged victims were students at Christian Brothers College in Warrnambool.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com July 20, 2017

Now-deceased priest Ray Techaira sexually molested five San Vicente Catholic School minor students at the same time as punishment for getting into trouble during school hours, according to one of the latest lawsuits filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Guam.

Two other lawsuits, filed by former altar boys, accuse former priest Louis Brouillard of sexual abuse and molestation. The three plaintiffs are represented by attorney David Lujan.

The lawsuits filed by K.Q., A.M. and D.M. bring to 95 the total number of childhood sexual abuse cases filed in local and federal courts against the Archdiocese of Agana.

K.Q., now 44, accused Techaira of sexually molesting and abusing him when he was a student at San Vicente Catholic School in Barrigada, where Techaira was a teacher.

“One day during school hours, K.Q. and four other boys who were also students at San Vicente got into trouble and were being disciplined by Techaira. While the boys were with Techaira, Techaira ordered K.Q. and the four boys to drop their pants. Techaira then proceeded to fondle and kiss each of their (private parts),” the lawsuit says.

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El sacerdote salesiano, Henry David Betancourt Morales, fue liberado y absuelto en abril de 2016. Pese a las acusaciones por pornografía infantil, la congregación de Los Salesianos lo aceptó de regreso en un oratorio de San Juan Bosco, en Puebla.

A Betancourt se le acusó por el delito de pornografía en el tipo de almacén de videos o imágenes de personas menores de 18 años de edad con actos sexuales o exhibicionismo corporal con fines sexuales, reales o simulados sin fines de comercio o distribución. Sin embargo, el presbítero fue liberado el 29 de abril del 2016 y ya se encuentra reinstalado en el oratorio que pertenecen a la comunidad salesiana.

Ciudad de México (SinEmbargo/PeriódicoCentral).- Después de que la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) acusó al padre salesiano Henry David Betancourt Morales por el delito de pornografía infantil en Puebla en 2014, el religioso fue absuelto, liberado en abril del 2016 y reinstalado en la congregación de Los Salesianos de San Juan Bosco en Puebla.

Salesianos es el nombre que reciben los miembros de la Familia Salesiana. Se agrupan entorno a la congregación de Salesianos de Don Bosco o Sociedad de San Francisco de Sales fundada por San Juan Bosco el 18 de diciembre de 1859 en Turín, Italia, para la atención educativa y formativa de los jóvenes que en sus sociedades se encuentran en situaciones de desventaja económica, marginalidad o en riesgo, de acuerdo con información de su página web.

La misión, menciona la congregación, “es la educación de jóvenes, niños y niñas como herramienta para el desarrollo de los pueblos. Una educación de calidad basada en el amor, la razón y los valores cristianos para construir un mundo para todos”.

Juan Bosco se supone que fue un sacerdote y educador italiano del siglo XIX que fundó la Congregación Salesiana. Supuestamente promovió “un moderno sistema pedagógico conocido como Sistema Preventivo para la formación de los niños y jóvenes” y promovió “la construcción de obras educativas al servicio de la juventud más necesitada, especialmente en Europa y América Latina”.

Esa es la congregación que ha acogido de regreso a Henry David Betancourt Morales.

De acuerdo con información de la Dirección de Centros Penitenciarios en el Estado,Henry David Betancourt Morales ingresó el 4 de febrero del 2014 al penal de San Miguel y fue puesto a disposición del Juzgado Cuarto de Distrito en el estado por el proceso 03/2014.

A Betancourt se le acusó por el delito de pornografía en el tipo de almacén de videos o imágenes de personas menores de 18 años de edad con actos sexuales o exhibicionismo corporal con fines sexuales, reales o simulados sin fines de comercio o distribución. Sin embargo, el presbítero fue liberado el 29 de abril del 2016 y ya se encuentra reinstalado en el oratorio que pertenecen a la comunidad salesiana.

El presbítero Betancourt Morales fue detenido el jueves 6 de febrero del 2014 en la madrugada por presuntamente poseer pornografía infantil. La evidencia utilizada para incriminar al religioso fue encontrada los días 21 y 22 de febrero de 2013 cuando la PGR cateó el oratorio de San Juan Bosco de la capital poblana, ubicados en las calles 17 Poniente y 78 poniente, donde aseguraron documentos, equipo de cómputo y teléfonos celulares.

Entre los objetos encontrados en el cateo, la autoridad federal decomisó un par de discos duros, revisó habitaciones de los sacerdotes e interrogó a los clérigos Víctor Manuel Flota, Andrés Ibarra, al rector Cirilo Valdés así como a Betancourt Morales. A todos se les cuestionó sobre su relación con los más de 2 mil niños entre 10 y 17 años inscritos en los talleres de valores y en las actividades deportivas que se desarrollan en ambos oratorios salesianos. Después se confirmó que la PGR señaló al presbítero por contar con miles de imágenes de pornografía infantil.

De acuerdo a fuentes de la PGR, en los aparatos electrónicos de Betancourt, entre ellos una computadora marca Lenovo, fueron hallados videos y fotografías de menores que exhibían sus partes íntimas o sosteniendo relaciones sexuales, razón que motivó la orden de aprehensión en su contra.

En ese entonces, Periódico Central contactó a Daniel Beltrán, el abogado defensor del religioso salesiano quien aseguró que su defendido jamás pudo explicar de qué crimen se le acusó:

No me ha sabido explicar bien de qué se le acusa. No sabe. No le han informado el delito por el que lo tienen preso, lo mantuvieron incomunicado durante la detención y recibió tratos pésimos. Sí, le mostraron la orden de aprehensión correspondiente pero eso no daba pie para que fuera objeto de maltrato, explicó en ese entonces el abogado Daniel Beltrán tras una primera reunión con su defendido.

La aportación educativa es muy amplia, desde la más sencilla formación elemental que se da en los centros de alfabetización, pasando por la formación profesional, hasta la enseñanza superior en algunas universidades. Desarrollando diferentes propuestas educativas, procurando rescatar lo lúdico, y estimulando las potencialidades en todas las dimensiones del ser humano.

CNDH INVESTIGARÁ ABUSOS EN ALBERGUE DE GTO

La Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (CNDH) atraerá el caso de los albergues Ciudad de los Niños en los estados de Guanajuato y Michoacán e investigará presuntas violaciones a los derechos humanos de niñas, niños y adolescentes que han sido probablemente víctimas de abusos físicos y sexuales.

El pasado 11 de julio salió a la luz pública una denuncia anónima y la resolución de un amparo quepusieron en evidencia graves violaciones a los derechos de niños, niñas y adolescentes albergados en la Ciudad de los Niños en Salamanca, dirigida por el sacerdote Pedro Gutiérrez Farías, las cuales ocurrieron con complicidades de autoridades e instancias oficiales como los sistemas DIF estatal y municipal y el Registro Civil. El lugar de acogida ha recibido amplio respaldo de funcionarios y políticos en el estado y nivel federal.

Tras saber del caso, el Sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, mediante la Procuraduría Estatal de Protección a Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes (PEPNNA), tomó la determinación de implementar medidas de protección enfocadas en la intervención del inmueble.

Este miércoles, en un comunicado, la CNDH rechazó todo acto de violencia contra niñas, niños y adolescentes, así como toda conducta que esté al margen de la ley, y demandó a las autoridades competentes “atender con urgencia este caso mediante investigaciones imparciales, profesionales, a fondo y con respeto a sus derechos humanos”.

El organismo abrió una queja de oficio y ya solicita informes a diversas autoridades a fin de integrar el expediente.

La Procuraduría de los Derechos Humanos del Estado de Guanajuato ha venido practicando diversas diligencias en investigación de los hechos y ha expresado su mejor disposición de coadyuvar con la CNDH en la investigación.

La CNDH demandó a la sociedad y autoridades respeto a la dignidad y capacidad de las personas menores de edad; fomentar su participación efectiva en los ámbitos en que se desenvuelven; sensibilizarlos sobre la necesidad de denunciar las violaciones a sus derechos humanos.

El organismo advirtió que realizará todas las acciones que resulten necesarias para el esclarecimiento de los hechos, y en su momento, emitirá la resolución que conforme a derecho corresponda.

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COLOMBIA
W Radio

[The journalist (sic) whose story inspired the film Spotlight speaks in La W about the sexual abuse of the victim when he was a child by a Catholic church priest. Note: Mr. Saviano is an advocate but not a journalist.]

El periodista cuya historia inspiró la película Spotlight habla en La W sobre el abuso sexual del que fue victima cuando era un niño por parte de un sacerdote de iglesia católica.

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UNITED STATES
These Stone Walls

POSTED BY FR. GORDON J. MACRAE ON JULY 19, 2017

Father George David Byers and I were both recipients of unexpected recognition for our respective writings this summer. Father Byers, whose status as a Missionary of Mercy has been extended by Pope Francis, received a First Place citation by the Catholic Press Association for his articles in Catholic media about the Year of Mercy. Father Byers tried to play it down, but it’s a bigger deal than he lets on. [See: Missionaries of Mercy: “New Phase” from the Holy See (Amoris laetitia internal/external forum guidelines?)]

I, on the other hand, should shout from the rooftops the most unexpected recognition ever bestowed upon These Stone Walls. TSW has been cited by an organization to which I have never aspired. The site, Today’s Martyrs Resources for Understanding Current Christian Witness and Martyrdom, published a short list commending “organizations engaged in original reporting, evangelical witness, political advocacy, refugee services and other activities, led by people who have experienced some degree of persecution firsthand.”

The page of commendations at Today’s Martyrs includes Aid to the Church in Need International, Open Doors International, Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, Issues of Rights and Justice, Revival Chinese Ministries International, China Aid, and (Who would have thought) These Stone Walls.

When I was notified of this recognition, I at first thought it was due to my posts, “Criminal Aliens: The ICE Deportation of Augie Reyes,” and “Dreamers of Home The ICE Deportation of Kewei Chen.” It made sense that articles about the treatment of our fellow humans during deportation proceedings caught the attention of this international Christian human rights forum.

But I was wrong in that assumption. My writing about my friends, Augie and Chen, may have caught the eyes of some social justice concerns, but the persecuted people that the Today’s Martyrs site recognizes as the subjects of TSW’s “original reporting and evangelical witness on contemporary Christian martyrdom” are Catholic priests. Let it sink in for a moment, please, that this concern for the persecution and suppression of fundamental rights for priests comes not from a Catholic human rights forum, but from an Evangelical Christian one.

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IDAHO
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Morris-Young | Jul. 19, 2017

The prosecution of an Idaho diocesan priest accused of sexually exploiting a U.S. airman from Mountain Home Air Force Base a year ago ended in a mistrial July 7.

Elmore County District Court Judge Jonathan Medema “declared a mistrial because the jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision,” apparently in part because of resistance or advance bias on the part of one juror, reported the Mountain Home News.

A new trial for Fr. Victor Jagerstatter, 40, has been scheduled for March 7, 2018.

While administrator of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Mountain Home, Idaho, Jagerstatter was charged with raping the airman early in the morning of July 9, 2016, while the man was unconscious in a room allegedly rented from the priest.

During the proceedings, according to the Mountain Home News, Elmore County deputy prosecuting attorney Jessica Kuehn entered evidence gathered by the Mountain Home Air Force Base’s Office of Special Investigations and Sexual Assault Response coordinator.

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UNITED STATES
CBS News

[with video]

A crime series has prompted new calls for the Baltimore Archdiocese to release documents about a controversial priest.

“The Keepers” is a Netflix documentary series following Father Joseph Maskell and his alleged abuse of teenage girls at a Catholic high school.

It explores whether Maskell, who died in 2001, was connected to the unsolved murder of a nun.

More than 40,000 people have signed an online petition since the documentary’s release, reports CBS News’ Jan Crawford. …

“To my knowledge, the church has never voluntarily released any documents pertaining to the clergy abuse crisis,” said Terry McKiernan of Bishopaccountability.org.

McKiernan’s organization, which has no affiliation with the church, has published abuse documents from about a dozen archdioceses and religious orders. But he says, in each case, the files were released only after the church was legally forced to do so.

The Baltimore Archdiocese has paid nearly half a million dollars to more than a dozen people Maskell is accused of abusing. In a statement, they say state law and church policy precludes them from releasing his records because they include “personnel records, health records” and “attorney-client communications.”

“The Keepers” is just the latest crime drama to lead to public outcry over perceived injustices. The podcast, “Serial,” along with television series like “The Jinx” and “Making a Murderer” have both pushed audiences to dissect evidence on social media and led to re-examination in each case.

“The Keepers” director Ryan White says the audience could now be a critical component to accessing Maskell’s file—and cracking the case.

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AUSTRALIA
Lexology

Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Jared Heath
Australia July 19 2017

Over the last five years, a number of high-profile Royal Commissions have inquired into a range of important issues, including child sexual abuse, home insulation, trade unions, family violence, nuclear fuel and child detention. What lessons can be drawn from the history and practice of Royal Commissions and other inquiries in Australia?

Royal Commissions have served an important role of informing successive governments, both in an inquisitorial and policy context. They are an option for responding to a crisis and a call for action, as well as a mechanism for developing public policy.

Over the past six months, Corrs has conducted extensive research into the history of Royal Commissions and inquiries at a Commonwealth level, as well as in New South Wales and Victoria (including New South Wales special commissions of inquiry and Victorian boards of inquiry). In this article, we set out some of the major findings from our research, including what we see as the key trends and lessons that can be learnt.

5 key trends

Below are five of the most interesting trends our research identified:

1. Despite the recent spate of Royal Commissions, there has actually been a decline in the number of them over time.

At the Commonwealth level for example, the number of Royal Commissions peaked at 54 between 1910-1929, but over the last decade, there have been only four.

2. Inquisitorial inquiries are now more common than policy inquiries.

At the Commonwealth level, 60% of all Royal Commissions have been policy inquiries, but over the last 4 decades 60% have been inquisitorial inquiries.

Both trends one and two could be explained by the development and growth of the public service, including the proliferation of specific sources of policy advice (e.g. the Commonwealth Productivity Commission) and standing investigative and regulatory bodies (e.g. the Independent Commission Against Corruption (NSW) and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Victoria)). However, the family violence and nuclear fuel cycle inquiries could also suggest a return to policy inquiries where the existing political or bureaucratic systems are unable to satisfactorily address complex or wicked problems.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Domradio

[The investigation report on abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen shows frightening figures. For the child protection expert Father Hans Zollner it is a a dark chapter which also affected peers from his homeland. Domradio.de: The report shows that over 500 victims have experienced physical violence.The number could be closer to 700 cases. How did you feel when you heard of the numbers? Father Hans Zollner (Head of the Child Protection Center of the Institute of Psychology of the Gregorian University in Rome): These are shocking figures. I was born in Regensburg. I know Etterzhausen and Pielenhofen, that is in my neighborhood where I grew up. These were institutions that played a major role in my childhood. We knew how important this choir is and what reputation it has. It is a staggering number, but behind every number hide people. Many people whose lives have been destroyed or very badly wounded, which is very disturbing.]

Der Untersuchungsbericht zum Missbrauch bei den Regensburger Domspatzen weist erschreckende Zahlen auf. Für den Kinderschutzexperten Pater Hans Zollner ein dunkles Kapitel, das auch Gleichaltrige aus seiner damaligen Heimat betraf.

domradio.de: Aus dem Bericht geht hervor, dass über 500 Domspatzen körperliche Gewalt erfahren haben und fast 70 Chorknaben sexuell missbraucht wurden. Die Dunkelziffer soll bei etwa 700 Fällen insgesamt liegen. Sie sind selber gebürtig aus Regensburg. Wie ging es Ihnen, als Sie von den Zahlen hörten?

Pater Hans Zollner (Leiter des Kinderschutzzentrums des Institutes für Psychologie der Universität Gregoriana in Rom): Das sind erschütternde Zahlen. Ich bin in Regensburg geboren. Ich kenne Etterzhausen und Pielenhofen, das ist in meiner Nachbarschaft, in der ich aufgewachsen bin. Das waren Institutionen, die in meiner Kindheit eine große Rolle gespielt haben. Wir wussten, wie bedeutend dieser Chor ist und welchen Ruf er hat. Es ist eine erschütternde Zahl, aber hinter jeder Zahl verbergen sich Menschen. Viele Menschen, deren Leben zerstört oder sehr schwer verwundet worden ist, was sehr erschütternd ist.

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GRMANY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service
7.19.2017

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — More than 500 boys suffered abuse at the hands of dozens of teachers and priests at the school that trains the prestigious boys choir of the Regensburg Cathedral in Germany, said an independent investigator.

Former students of the Domspatzen choir reported that the physical, emotional and even sexual abuse at the school made life there like “a prison, hell and a concentration camp,” said Ulrich Weber, the lawyer leading the investigation of claims of abuse at the choir and two associated boarding schools.

A “culture of silence” among church leaders and members allowed such abuse to continue for decades, Weber said as he presented the final report on his findings during a press conference in Regensburg July 18.

The investigation, commissioned by the Diocese of Regensburg, found that at least 547 former members of the Regensburg Domspatzen boys choir in Germany were subjected to some form of abuse, according to Vatican Radio. Of those victims, 67 students were victims of sexual violence, the radio said.

The 440-page report, which spanned the years between 1945 and the early 1990s, found highly plausible accusations against 49 members of the church of inflicting the abuse, with nine of them accused of being sexual abusive. The Diocese of Regensburg and the Domspatzen choir supplied links to the report and related news stories or resources on their respective web sites: www.bistum-regensburg.de and www.domspatzen.de.

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NEW YORK
SOME PEOPLE LIVE MORE IN 20 YEARS…

For Immediate Release
Contact Asher Lovy
347-369-4016
Asher@ZAAKAH.org

Advocates against child sexual abuse protest President of Agudath Israel of America for protecting secrets, not children

(New York, NY): ZAAKAH, an organization that advocates reforms that will end child sexual abuse in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, is protesting outside the President of Agudath Israel on Sunday. The protest will be at the Novominsker Yeshiva – 1644 48th street in Boro Park – on Sunday,July 23rd at 3 PM. The protest is against Agudath Israel’s opposition to the Child Victims Act and their policy that victims must ask a rabbi for permission before reporting sexual assault to the authorities.

“These two policies, coupled, are responsible for the coverups of thousands of cases of child sexual abuse. These policies, enacted and promoted by Yaakov Perlow, are in large part responsible for the continued sexual abuse of children in Charedi communities, and the continued apathy and indifference toward victims of child sexual abuse on the part of Charedi communities.Together, these two policies actually incentivise the coverup of abuse and coercion of victims by setting a goal for rabbis and community members who want to cover up abuse: Since the victim has to go to a rabbi, make sure the rabbi keeps the victim quiet until he turns 23, and it will no longer be an issue.” says Asher Lovy, organizer of the event.

“According to many studies, it takes, on average, between 10 and 30 years for victims to come forward about being abused sexually. Yaakov Perlow, President of Agudath Israel, knows this. He knows the harmful effects of sexual abuse its victims – suicide, PTSD, eating disorders, addiction, problems with relationships, emotional trauma, physical trauma, to name a few – and despite being fully aware of the high costs of treating the effects of child sexual abuse, Yaakov Perlow, and the rest of the Moetzes, continue to set policies for Agudah that not only deny existing victims justice, but put our children’s futures and lives in danger by enabling the continuation of child sexual abuse. Yet they continue to oppose legislation to eliminate the Statute of Limitations for child sexual abuse, and open a 1 year retroactive window for old cases, allowing survivors of child sexual abuse to get justice from their abusers and the institutions that protect them.” said Lovy.

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GERMANY
Yahoo! News

AFP News
July 19, 2017

The former choirmaster of a Catholic school in Germany where more than 500 children were abused, including sexually, was a “fanatic” who was “feared” by pupils, his immediate successor said Wednesday.

Georg Ratzinger, older brother of former Pope Benedict XVI, led the famous millennium-old choir in the southern city of Regensburg between 1964 and 1994.

He was “impulsive, even fanatical,” a “merciless” teacher when “imposing his idea of musical discipline,” the current choirmaster, Roland Buechner, told German weekly Die Zeit.

“Afterwards, he could be the gentlest person in the world. Some pupils saw him as a model, others feared him as someone who would beat them,” he added.

Ratzinger, now aged 93, has said he knew nothing about the violence at the school.

But Buechner, 63, recalled that under Ratzinger’s baton, “a system of fear ruled” among members of the choir.

“It wasn’t ‘just’ about slaps, but genuine physical abuse. People raged, there were injuries,” he said.

A report published Tuesday detailed some 547 cases of abuse at the Regensburg school, site of one of the biggest such scandals to have struck the Catholic church in Germany.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche Zeitung

[Why it is so difficult for the Catholic Church to admit abuse? Cardinal George Pell is back in his native Australia. A short film sequence showing how coming from Singapore he is led by police officers and security guards to a white limousine at Melbourne airport. Cardinal Pell, the quasi-finance minister of the pope, one of the most powerful men in the Vatican, is to answer the question before a court in Melbourne next Wednesday.

The accusation: “historical sexual assaults”.What exactly is meant by this is unclear. For several years now, men have been publicly reported and reported that Pell had committed abuse. The Australian judiciary considers this to be serious enough to initiate proceedings. And Pope Francis gave the cardinal the “permission for a time-out”.

There is no end in sight in the scandal surrounding the sexual abuse of children and adolescents in the Catholic Church.]

Von Matthias Drobinski

Kardinal George Pell ist zurück in seiner australischen Heimat; eine kurze Filmsequenz zeigt, wie er, von Singapur kommend, auf dem Flughafen von Melbourne von Polizisten und Sicherheitsleuten zu einer weißen Limousine geleitet wird. Es hat ja nicht das Heimweh den 76-Jährigen dazu gebracht, die lange Reise von Rom um die halbe Welt auf sich zu nehmen. Kardinal Pell, als Quasi-Finanzminister des Papstes einer der mächtigsten Männer im Vatikan, soll kommenden Mittwoch vor einem Gericht in Melbourne Rede und Antwort stehen. Der Vorwurf: “historische sexuelle Übergriffe”.

Was genau damit gemeint ist, bleibt unklar. Seit einigen Jahren gehen immer wieder Männer an die Öffentlichkeit und berichten, Pell habe sich an ihnen vergangen. Die australische Justiz hält dies für schwerwiegend genug, um ein Verfahren einzuleiten. Und Papst Franziskus hat dem Kardinal die “Erlaubnis für eine Auszeit” gegeben. Seine Ämter in Rom ruhen.

Es ist kein Ende abzusehen im Skandal um den sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen in der katholischen Kirche. Vor 15 Jahren brachten die Reporter des Boston Globe ans Tageslicht, wie der Priester John Geoghan Schuljungen sexuelle Gewalt antat und seine Kirchenvorgesetzten ihn deckten. Vor sieben Jahren gingen in Berlin die Opfer zweier Priester des Canisius-Kollegs an die Öffentlichkeit und lösten in Deutschland eine Welle der Enthüllungen aus, in allen Bistümern, in Internaten wie in Ettal – oder eben bei den Regensburger Domspatzen. Der schonungslose Abschlussbericht, den nun der Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber vorgelegt hat, ist einer der Belege dafür, dass die katholische Kirche sich auf den für sie schmerzhaften Weg der Aufarbeitung gemacht hat – nachdem anfangs viele Vertreter das Ausmaß der Verfehlungen leugneten.

Das ist vorbei. Es gibt nun einige Untersuchungen, die sich der Frage nähern, warum es gerade in der katholischen Kirche so viele Fälle sexueller Gewalt durch Priester und Kirchenmitarbeiter gab. Da war das Bild der heiligen Kirche, das nicht beschmutzt werden durfte, weshalb Täter geräuschlos versetzt und Opfer mundtot gemacht wurden. Da war der Männerbund, in dem man komplizenhaft über Zölibatsverstöße schwieg, war die Überforderung der Patres in den Internaten. Da waren aber auch Eltern, die alle Hilferufe ihrer Kinder überhörten und Klassenkameraden, die Teil des gewalttätigen Systems waren. Die katholische Kirche hat Opfer entschädigt. Sie hat Täter ihrer Ämter enthoben, Präventionsprogramme aufgelegt – an der päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana gibt es nun ein eigenes Zentrum für Kinderschutz. Manchmal hört man Kirchenvertreter grummeln: Jetzt könnte man mal die alten Geschichten zu den Akten legen.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Lowell Sun

By Andy Metzger, State House News Service
UPDATED: 07/19/2017

BOSTON — In 2004, Dudley police investigated what they believed to be a crime: a sexual relationship between a 30-year-old English teacher and a 16-year-old boy who was her student.

It was not a crime, Dudley Police Chief Steven Wojnar told the Legislature’s Education Committee on Tuesday.

Since 2005, Wojnar said he has been advocating for a new law to bar adults in authority from sexual relationships with teenagers and he has been perplexed about why lawmakers have not put a statute on the books.

“Nobody’s explained why,” Wojnar told the News Service.

Salem Sen. Joan Lovely this session filed an omnibus bill (S 295) that specifically outlaws teachers and other school employees from sexually abusing high school students. Offenders could be punished with up to five years of imprisonment under the bill.

Lovely said she is unsure why the bill has not moved over the years, but she has a theory.

“I think this is such an uncomfortable subject that people don’t want to talk about it,” the senator told the News Service.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Epoch Times

[Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig demands apology: Ex-Bishop has done nothing against a hundredfold sexual abuse at Domspatzen. The commissioner of the Federal Government for Questions of Sexual Child Abuse, Rörig, has accused the former Regensburg bishop and present Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller of serious failures in the treatment of the sexual abuse scandal at the Regensburg choir.].

“Unter dem damaligen Bischof Müller wurde eine umfassende, proaktive Aufarbeitung unter Einbeziehung von Betroffenen leider versäumt”, so der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, mit Blick auf den Domspatzenskandal.

Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, hat dem früheren Regensburger Bischof und jetzigen Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller schwere Versäumnisse bei der Aufarbeitung des sexuellen Missbrauchsskandals bei den Regensburger Domspatzen vorgeworfen.

„Unter dem damaligen Bischof Müller wurde eine umfassende, proaktive Aufarbeitung unter Einbeziehung von Betroffenen leider versäumt“, zitierte die Onlineausgabe der „Passauer Neuen Presse“ am Mittwoch den Missbrauchsbeauftragten.

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