ABUSE TRACKER

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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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

[Sadists in the spiritual garb: The final report on the abuse cases in the Regensburg choir testifies to the incalculable physical and sexual violence inflicted on the children by priests, teachers and educators.]

Der Abschlussbericht zu den Missbrauchsfällen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen zeugt von unfassbarer körperlicher und sexueller Gewalt, die den Kindern von Priestern, Lehrern und Erziehern angetan wurde. Die Kirche hatte lange Zeit nur Ignoranz für die Opfer übrig.

18.07.2017, von ALBERT SCHÄFFER, MÜNCHEN

Mehrfach hat Ulrich Weber am Dienstag bei der Vorstellung des Abschlussberichts zu den Missbrauchsvorwürfen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen Fragen damit beschieden, sie ließen sich nicht in zwei oder drei Sätzen beantworten. Der Bericht des Regensburger Anwalts, der als unabhängiger Ermittler eingesetzt war, umfasst 440 Seiten – doch auch sie reichen nicht aus, um ein Geschehen zu begreifen, das ein Fanal für die katholische Kirche ist. Sie setzte über Jahrzehnte in einer ihrer renommiertesten Erziehungsinstitutionen Kinder und Jugendliche einer unfassbaren körperlichen und sexuellen Gewalt von Priestern, Lehrern und Erziehern aus. Und sie begegnete lange Zeit Opfern, die den Mut fanden, ihr Schicksal zu offenbaren, mit „Ignoranz und Desinteresse“, wie Weber es in seinem Bericht nennt.

Der Bericht kann nicht ohne Statistiken auskommen: Mit mindestens 547 gibt der Ermittler die Zahl der Opfer an, die nach 1945 bis in die neunziger Jahre in der Vorschule und dem Gymnasium der Domspatzen geschlagen oder sexuell missbraucht worden seien. Die Dunkelziffer schätzt er weit höher ein. Es sind Zahlen, hinter denen sich beklemmende Einzelschicksale verbergen. „Meine fröhliche Kindheit endete, als meine Eltern mich am ersten Schultag der 3. Klasse in dem Internat in Etterzhausen zurückließen“, wird eines der Opfer in dem Bericht zitiert. Von da hätten die Erzieher „uneingeschränkt Gott“ gespielt: „Angst ist bis heute mein ständiger Begleiter“.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

[Alexander Probst, one of the abuse victims at the Regensburger Domspatzen has written his story of suffering in the boarding school of the world-famous boy choir. In the book he talks about sexual abuse, beatings, his fear of director, teachers and prefects. FOCUS Online publishes passages from the book.]

Mindestens 547 Chorknaben der Regensburger Domspatzen sind Opfer von körperlicher oder sexueller Gewalt geworden. Das geht aus dem am Dienstag vorgelegten Abschlussbericht zum Missbrauchskandal bei dem weltberühmten Chor hervor.

Zu den Missbrauchsopfern bei den Regensburger Domspatzen gehört auch Alexander Probst. Der Mann aus Dietfurt hat seine Leidensgeschichte im Internat des weltberühmten Knabenchors aufgeschrieben. In dem Buch berichtet er über den sexuellen Missbrauch, die Prügel, seine Angst vor Direktor, Lehrern und Präfekten. FOCUS Online veröffentlicht Passagen aus dem Werk. (“Von der Kirche missbraucht. Meine traumatische Kindheit bei den Regensburger Domspatzen und der furchtbare Skandal” von Alexander Probst mit Daniel Bachmann ist im Riva-Verlag erschienen und kostet 19,99 Euro.)

Auszug aus Kapitel: “Lieber Vati, ich glaube, ich bin der Bub, den Du Dir wünschst.”
Präfekt Hansch hat alle Jacken mitgebracht. Mittlerweile haben sie alle ihre Nummern. Das war ein Riesendurcheinander in den ersten Tagen, weil sie von Anfang an nummeriert mitgebracht werden mussten, aber nicht alle Mütter der Aufforderung nachgekommen sind. Jetzt hält Präfekt Hansch eine der Jacken hoch. Mit lauter Stimme sagt er: „97.“ Ich schaue zu Boden, ich will es nicht sehen. Ich höre es laut klatschen, dann fängt 97 an zu heulen. Hansch schnauzt ihn an und wendet sich an alle.

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DEUTSCHLAND
cath.ch

[“Painful, necessary step, which must be followed.” We Are Church commenting on the final report on the elucidation of the abuse scandal at the Regensburger Domspatzen said more work must be done.]

Wir sind Kirche zum Abschlussbericht zur Aufklärung des Missbrauchskandals bei den Regensburger Domspatzen

Pressemitteilung München/Regensburg, 18. Juli 2017

Die KirchenVolksBewegung Wir sind Kirche sieht den heutigen 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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ROME
Vatican Radio

Pater Zollner: Missbrauchsopfer brauchen das Gespräch

(Vatican Radio) Father Hans Zollner, SJ says a new report on abuse at a prestigious German musical institution is an “important step forward.” Father Zollner is President of the Centre for Child Protection of the Pontifical Gregorian University, and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The report identified hundreds of instances of physical abuse, as well as dozens of cases of sexual abuse of members of the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir in Germany. Forty-nine members of the Church are accused of abusing the children, including nine persons accused of carrying out sexual violence against children.

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Fr Zollner said the report shows that Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg “has taken seriously all the allegations, that he did not shy away from all that would ensue.”

The fact that the investigation was carried out independently, and conducted to the highest scientific standards, all with the willing cooperation of the local Church, “shows that the bishop is very courageous in taking on an issue that has been looming for many years.” Zollner acknowledged that the scandal of abuse at the choral institution was “the talk of the city” for many years, but it is only now that the facts have become “plain, in the light of day.” Bishop Voderholzer, he said, “has done something that will bring at least the chance of some justice for the abused.” It will also give institutions the opportunity to review their procedures with regard to screening personnel, and to responding to reports of abuse.

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FRANCE
20 Minutes

AFP

[Vaucluse: Abbot of the Institut Notre-Dame-de-Vie is charged with sexual assault.]

Nouvelle affaire de pédophilie au sein de l’Eglise ? Un abbé de l’institut Notre-Dame-de-Vie à Venasque (Vaucluse) a été mis en examen fin juin pour des abus sexuels sur une mineure et relevé de ses fonctions, a-t-on appris ce lundi auprès du responsable des prêtres.

Selon le responsable des prêtres de l’institut, le père Benoît Caulle, la mise en examen de l’abbé le 27 juin pour « des faits graves d’abus sexuels sur mineure » serait intervenue à la suite d’une plainte déposée par la victime pour des faits datant de 11 ans.

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FRANCE
La Croix

Loup Besmond de Senneville, le 18/07/2017

Le prêtre, qui a été mis en examen le 27 juin pour abus sexuels sur mineure, est relevé de toutes ses fonctions ecclésiastiques.

Ses responsables font part de leur « immense compassion » pour la jeune femme à l’origine de la plainte.

Un prêtre, membre de Notre-Dame de Vie (NDV), a été mis en examen pour abus sexuels sur mineure, a révélé cet institut séculier installé dans le sud de la France dans un communiqué publié le 14 juillet.

Le prêtre a été mis en examen le 27 juin à la suite d’une plainte déposée par une jeune femme. « Lui sont reprochés des faits graves d’abus sexuels sur mineure, commis il y a 11 ans », peut-on lire dans le communiqué. Le prêtre a été placé sous contrôle judiciaire.

Le Vatican informé

En attendant que « la justice se prononce », les responsables de l’institut NDV ont pris « des mesures d’éloignement de tout mineur » et ont interdit au prêtre « tout exercice public de son ministère ». Ils ont également « informé de cette mise en examen » la Congrégation pour la doctrine de la foi, à Rome.

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FRANCE
La Croix

In a statement released on July 14, the Notre Dame de Vie institute in France revealed accusations against one of its priests.

Loup Besmond de Senneville

The Notre-Dame de Vie (Our Lady of Life) movement revealed in a statement released on July 14 that one of its priest members is being investigated for the sexual abuse of a minor.

The secular institute is based in the south of France.The priest was placed under investigation on June 27 following a report lodged by a young woman.

“He is charged with serious acts of sexual abuse of a minor committed eleven years ago,” the statement said.

The priest has since been placed under judicial oversight.

Vatican informed

While waiting for “justice to be done”, Notre-Dame de Vie (NDV) leaders have taken “measures to distance [the priest from] any minor” and forbidden him from “any public exercise of his ministry”.

They have also informed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome of the indictment.“I have tremendous compassion towards this young woman and her loved ones,” said Fr Benoît Caulle, who is responsible for NDV priests, in the statement.

“These acts, which the Church absolutely condemns, are profoundly destructive.”

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Repoter

Luke Hansen | Jul. 19, 2017

WEST ST. PAUL, MINN.
In this interview, Susan Pavlak, a lifelong resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, describes being sexually abused by her high school religion teacher, a former nun, beginning in 1970. The abuse, according to Pavlak, happened on several occasions over four years. The alleged perpetrator, whom Pavlak has chosen not to identify by name in this interview, has never been charged in a criminal court; and Pavlak has never sought damages from any party in a civil court.

Pavlak has sought reconciliation and restitution outside of the legal system. In 2001, in the presence of an official of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Pavlak met with the person she said abused her, she explained, in order to “restore right relationship with her.” In 2002, Pavlak utilized a non-adversarial process to settle with the archdiocese, which agreed to reimburse her high school tuition.

Pavlak, a retired operations manager, has collaborated with Gilbert Gustafson, a perpetrator of child sexual abuse, on the project Uncommon Conversation, which seeks healing and reconciliation among survivors, perpetrators and others involved in child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Gustafson was ordained a priest in 1977, pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of a minor in 1983, served four and a half months in jail, and was permanently removed from active priestly ministry in 2002. This interview with Pavlak, edited for length and clarity, took place in West St. Paul, Minnesota.

NCR: What was your early experience as a Catholic?

Pavlak: My family’s life was centered on faith, family and security. My grandfather and father were police officers, and my father ended his career as the federal marshal for the district of Minnesota.

My family was very involved in parish life. My folks chaired the capital campaign for our parish.

I attended Catholic grade school and high school. My experience was pretty uniformly good, except for the occasional evil nun. In my day, you could still get hit in Catholic school. We had Mass every day. Today I go to Mass every week, and I am an active member of my community.

What happened during your junior year of high school?

The student council leaders were asked to arrive a week or two before school started and give a little speech for the incoming faculty. Afterward a teacher came up to me and introduced herself as a religion teacher and student council liaison. I also learned from her that she recently left a religious order and was living in community with two former sisters and a sister on leave. That was my first introduction to my perpetrator.

I had just turned 16. She was, I believe, 25.

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FLORIDA
WTXL

Ashley Richmond Jul 18, 2017

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) – Some Tallahassee parents are on edge after a man who works with local children is arrested for sexual abuse.

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office arrested 41-year-old Roshad Thomas on six counts of sex offense against a child.

Thomas has been working with kids in the Tallahassee area for more than a decade. According to his LinkedIn page, he was a Youth Pastor at Cavalry Chapel for more than 13 years.

He’s also worked at Maclay School. A statement from Kimberly McWilliams, Maclay School’s Director of Communication, reads: “Earlier today, it was brought to our attention that Roshad Thomas, a former member of the Maclay School faculty, who taught Life Management in the Upper School during the 2016-2017 school year, was arrested for alleged sexual misconduct committed prior to 2015. Mr. Thomas also worked with several of our sports teams and Middle School Life Management classes. After speaking with the authorities, the allegations do not involve any students from Maclay.”

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GERMANY
La Croix

At least 547 children were the victims of physical and sexual violence in the Domspatzen Choir at the Regensburg cathedral in Germany between 1945 and 1995. After two years of public inquiry, a final report requested by the diocese has been made public.

Delphine Nerbollier, Berlin
Germany

In light of the vast scale of the sexual abuse and violence scandal in its cathedral choir, the Diocese of Regensburg commissioned an independent lawyer, Ulrich Weber, to report on the misconduct which first became public in 2010.

The final report, which was published on Monday, lists 547 children whose claims of mistreatment between 1945 and 1992 is said to have been “highly plausible”.

Of these, 500 are alleged to have been victims of physical violence, 67 of sexual offenses and twenty who were victims of both.Famous for its choir, the Regensburger Domspatzen is a Catholic institution oriented towards musical performance. …

Forty-nine offenders were identified, including nine for sexual abuse. In Weber’s view, the primary school principal “personally” as well as his prefects were “responsible for the violence”.

Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, who was director of the choir between 1964 and 1994, was also implicated. He is said to have “turned a blind eye and failed to intervene despite his knowledge of the facts”.

Michael Fuchs, the vicar general of the Diocese of Regensburg, defended him nevertheless.Fr Ratzinger did not know of the sexual violence but simply recognized that had “slapped” students and underestimated the extent of the violence in the institution, Fr Fuchs said.

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who was bishop of Regensburg when the scandal broke out in 2010, was also criticized for having put a brake on the investigation which was launched seven years ago.“We have made mistakes and we have learned a lot,”

Fr Fuchs said on Monday, recognizing that the Church “should have reacted better and sooner”.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

THE DIOCESE OF ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NEW YORK, HAS OPPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE NEW YORK STATE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS REGARDING SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN WHICH CAUSES VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ABUSE TO BE RE-VICTIMIZED

THE DIOCESE OF ROCKVILLE CENTRE SHOULD STOP OPPOSING STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS AMENDMENTS REGARDING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE IN ORDER TO GIVE CHILDHOOD VICTIMS OF PRIESTS AND DEACONS IN THE ROCKVILLE CENTRE DIOCESE THE JUSTICE AND HEALING THEY DESERVE

THOMAS MC GARVEY WAS SEXUALLY ABUSED AT ST. CATHERINE OF SIENNA PARISH IN FRANKLIN SQUARE, LONG ISLAND, BY FR. ROBERT BROWN (DECEASED) AND HAS BEEN WAITING FOR DECADES FOR HEALING AND JUSTICE

What
A demonstration calling for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York, to stop opposing statute of limitations legislation in New York State regarding child sexual abuse in order to allow childhood victims of sexual abuse in that diocese and all of New York State to receive justice and healing

When
Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 11:30 am

Where
On the public sidewalk outside the headquarters of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, 50 North Park Avenue, Rockville Centre, New York 11571-9023

Who
Thomas Mc Garvey, a resident of Queens, New York, who was sexually abused at St. Catherine of Sienna Parish, Franklin Square, New York, by Fr. Robert Brown; and, Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families

Why
The Catholic Conference of New York State, led by the Bishops of the Dioceses of New York State, has for years led an unfair and unjust fight against changes to the New York State statute of limitations law regarding child sexual abuse. It is time for the Catholic Conference, including the new Bishop of Rockville Centre, New York, Bishop John Barres, to cease opposing legislation that would give victims their day in court and allow for justice and healing for child sexual abuse victims. Thomas Mc Garvey, who lives in the Borough of Queens, New York, was sexually abused as a child by Fr. Robert Brown at St. Catherine of Sienna Parish in Franklin Square, Long Island, Nassau County, New York, and he has waited decades for justice and healing. He will discuss the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s opposition to the statute of limitations legislation and urge the new bishop, John Barres, to support laws that are fair and just.

Contacts
Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, Road to Recovery, Inc., 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250 – garabedianlaw@msn.com

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Cardinal George Pell will keep his honorary role at AFL club Richmond as he faces sex offence charges.

Tigers chief executive Brendon Gale has released a statement, confirming Cardinal Pell still has strong links to the club.

Pell signed with the Tigers in the late ’50s, but did not play for them in the then-VFL before he joined the priesthood.

He has been a vice-patron of the club since the late 1990s.

“In light of Cardinal Pell’s fundamental rights to the presumption of innocence and to a fair trial, he will remain a vice-patron of the club pending the outcome of any trial,” Gale told Fox Footy.

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ROM
T Online

[Fired Cardinal Müller: “Renovation, air conditioning – everything at your own expense!”
It is currently not well for Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, long one of the most important German church men. It was only then that Pope Francis disempowered him in the Vatican. Then accusations in the abuse scandal around the Regensburger Domspatzen happened.]

Es läuft derzeit nicht gut für Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, lange einer der wichtigsten deutschen Kirchenmänner. Erst entmachtet ihn Papst Franziskus im Vatikan. Dann kommen Vorwürfe im Missbrauchs-Skandal um die Regensburger Domspatzen dazu. Ein Gespräch mit einem Mann, der sich ungerecht behandelt fühlt.

Es ist Anfang Juli in Rom und glühend heiß. Die Klimaanlage brummt. Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller sitzt vor einer großen Bücherwand in seiner Wohnung unweit des Vatikans und deutet auf die Anlage. “Ich bin drei Mal umgezogen, bis ich hier in die Wohnung einziehen konnte. Dann die Renovierung, die Klimaanlage, das alles auf eigene Kosten”, sagt er. Drei Mal umziehen für einen der wichtigsten Posten der katholischen Kirche – den er jetzt allerdings verloren hat.

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ROM
Spiegal

[The dismissed chief of the CDF Cardinal Müller retaliates. Cardinal Müller, who has just been fired as the head of the CDF vociferates his grievances: In Rome, a “hypocritical papal devotion” and “courtly behavior” have dominion. He also has a clear opinion on abuse.]

Kardinal Müller, gerade als Chef der Glaubenskongregation geschasst, macht seinem Unmut Luft: In Rom herrsche eine “scheinheilige Papstdevotion” und “höfisches Gehabe”. Auch zum Thema Missbrauch hat er eine klare Meinung.

Fünf Jahre lang war der ehemalige Regensburger Bischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller Chef der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan. Pünktlich zum Ablauf seiner Amtszeit entließ ihn der Papst Anfang Juli aus seinen Diensten. Warum, wurde vom Vatikan nicht erklärt. Politische und theologische Differenzen zwischen Franziskus und dem konservativen Müller gelten aber als Hauptgrund.

Müller hatte den Papst in verschiedenen Punkten kritisiert, etwa im Zusammenhang mit dem postsynodalen päpstlichen Schreiben “Amoris Laetitia” (“Die Freude der Liebe”), in dem der Papst die Kommunion für wiederverheiratete Geschiedene unter gewissen Bedingungen möglich macht.

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ROM
T Online

[In the case of child abuse, the German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller sees the Catholic Church wrongly criticized. “It is obvious that the Catholic Church is heavier in the topic of priests being suspected a priori,” said the 69-year-old to the German Press Agency in Rome.]

Rom (dpa) – Der deutsche Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller sieht die katholische Kirche im Fall von Kindesmissbrauch zu Unrecht so scharf kritisiert. “Es ist offensichtlich, dass die katholische Kirche bei dem Thema härter angegangen wird, dass Priester a priori verdächtigt werden”, sagte der 69-Jährige der Deutschen Presse-Agentur in Rom.

“Es gibt Geistliche – Gott sei es geklagt – die solche Verbrechen begangen haben. Aber deshalb kann man nicht die anderen, nur weil sie auch Priester sind, kollektiv verdächtigen. Prozentual gesehen ist das mit Blick auf die Gesamtzahl der Geistlichen in der Welt sogar weniger als bei vergleichbaren pädagogischen Berufsgruppen – was die Straftat natürlich in keinster Weise entschuldigt und das Leiden der Opfer mindert”, sagte er.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mittelbayerische

[Domspatzen: Cardinal Müller sees no shortcomings.The former Bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, rejected the accusation that the catastrophic sexual and physical abuse scandal had been mishandled.]

Der ehemalige Regensburger Bischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller hat den Vorwurf einer mangelhaften Aufarbeitung des Missbrauchskandals bei den Domspatzen zurückgewiesen. „Eine „Chronologie der diözesanen Aufarbeitung von 2010 bis 2016“ gibt detaillierte Auskunft über die Tatsachen, die oft weit von verbreiteten Fehlurteilen abweichen“, sagte Kardinal Müller der Deutschen Presse-Agentur in Rom, bevor der Abschlussbericht zu den Vorfällen am Dienstag veröffentlicht wurde.

REGENSBURG.Erst ab 2010 habe es Meldungen von Straftaten gegeben, „die schon Jahrzehnte vor meinem Amtsantritt Ende 2002 begangen wurden. Die meisten Täter waren schon lange zuvor gestorben“, betonte Müller, der Anfang Juli von Papst Franziskus als Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan abberufen wurde. „Um den Opfern zu helfen, wurden Diözesanbeauftragte bestellt, die mit einer Kommission von Experten den Anzeigen sorgfältig nachgehen.“ Müller verwies zudem auf einen Hirtenbrief. Darin habe er die Opfer aufgerufen, sich zu melden.

Betroffene hatten Müller vorgeworfen, die Aufklärung zu behindern. Dies änderte sich unter dem neuen Regensburger Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer. Generalvikar Michael Fuchs räumte deshalb am Dienstag Fehler ein: „Wir sehen heute, dass wir früher manches besser hätten machen können.“ So sei es nicht richtig gewesen, darauf zu warten, dass sich Betroffene meldeten. Man hätte aktiv auf sie zugehen müssen. In dem Abschlussbericht heißt es, Müller müsse eine klare Verantwortung für die strategischen, organisatorischen und kommunikativen Schwächen zugeschrieben werden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[Domspatzen: Diocese of Regensburg admits mistakes. There have been at least 547 victims of abuse in the past decades at the Regensburger Domspatzen. The bishop is now apologizing and talking about neglect.]

Der Regensburger Generalvikar Michael Fuchs hat Versäumnisse bei der Aufklärung und Aufarbeitung von Übergriffen bei den Domspatzen eingeräumt. “Wir haben alle Fehler gemacht, viel gelernt und sehen heute, dass wir früher manches hätten besser machen können”, sagte Fuchs (Bild oben) am Dienstag in Regensburg. Das Thema sei 2010 “nach bestem Wissen und Gewissen” angegangen worden, was aber “in vielem auch mangelhaft” gewesen sei. Daher habe das Verfahren weiterentwickelt werden müssen.

Zuvor hatte der vom Bistum beauftragte unabhängige Sonderermittler Ulrich Weber seinen Abschlussbericht zur Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfällle vorgestellt. Darin beziffert der Rechtsanwalt die Zahl der “hoch plausiblen” Opfer auf 547. Gleichzeitig sagte er aber auch, er gehe weiter von einer Dunkelziffer in Höhe von rund 700 Opfern aus. Schwerpunktmäßig haben sich die Taten laut Bericht in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren ereignet. Bis 1992 sei durchgängig von körperlicher Gewalt berichtet worden.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Two men who used to run a Vatican-owned children’s hospital were put on trial on Tuesday, accused of diverting nearly half a million dollars of funds to renovate a top cardinal’s luxury flat.

The trial, which puts on public display the challenges Pope Francis faces in trying to clean up the Vatican, began with the court rejecting a defense motion to dismiss, as well as a request to bar journalists.

Giuseppe Profiti and Massimo Spina, respectively the former president and treasurer of the Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome, are charged with spending 422,000 euros ($481,000) in 2013 and 2014 on refurbishing the large Vatican apartment of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s former number two.

The trial was adjourned until Sept. 7, and the court left open the possibility that Bertone, who was not indicted, might be called as a witness.

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KANSAS
KSHB

[with video]

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Hours after the Archdiocese of KCK announced the suspension of priest Scott Kallal on Tuesday, a man who claims his daughter was sexually assaulted by Kallal came forward with new allegations.

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.

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KANSAS
Washington Times

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) – An associate pastor at two suburban Kansas City churches is suspended as state child-welfare workers and the archdiocese investigate his conduct, in one case involving a juvenile, the governing Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said Tuesday.

The archdiocese said in a statement that Father Scott Kallal was pulled from public ministry duties after two sources accused him of “boundary violations.” The archdiocese added that its 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.”

Archdiocese spokeswoman Anita McSorley declined to elaborate.

The archdiocese said Kallal’s suspension was announced last weekend during Masses at two churches he served – Overland Park’s Holy Spirit Church and St. Patrick Church in Kansas City, Kansas.

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KANSAS
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
jthomas@kcstar.com

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has suspended a priest after receiving allegations of inappropriate conduct involving two people, one a minor.

In a statement Tuesday, the archdiocese said it received the reports from two sources and conducted a preliminary investigation that revealed violations of some “safe environment guidelines” that all priests, employees and volunteers must observe when interacting with young people. Because one of the “boundary violation” allegations involved a minor, the archdiocese said, it notified the Kansas Department for Children and Families.

The investigation is ongoing, and the archdiocese said its Independent Review Board also is looking into the matter.

The priest, the Rev. Scott Kallal, 35, “has been suspended from the exercise of his public priestly ministry pending the outcome of the DCF and the Archdiocesan investigations and the recommendation of the Independent Review Board,” the archdiocese said in its statement, which was read during Masses last weekend at Holy Spirit Church in Overland Park and St. Patrick Church in Kansas City, Kan.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

By Chris Morris

Victims of historic abuse in state care are fighting back, demanding justice – in cash and apologies – to help rebuild broken lives. But some are going further.

Darryl Smith says ”blood money” is not enough to rebuild a life destroyed by sexual abuse in two countries.

The Dunedin man spent more than a decade in state care, in New Zealand and Australia, beginning as a 7-year-old boy in the early 1970s.

It was an experience that exposed him to sexual predators at one institution after another, including two run by the same Catholic order – the Brothers Hospitallers of St John of God.

And, despite receiving payouts and apologies on both sides of the Tasman, Smith says it is not enough.

The 53-year-old wants justice in the form of a national inquiry and public apology from the New Zealand Government.

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CURACAO
Curacao Chronicle

WILLEMSTAD – The Public Prosecution has appealed today the sentencing of the Court of First Instance in the case against the pastor of the Rains of Blessing Church, Orlando Balentina (1964).

Balentina was sentenced to nine years in prison on July 5, 2017, for the sexual abuse of various minors and adults who are members of his church. Also as punishment, he is not allowed to work as a pastor for 14 years.

In this case, the Public Prosecution has demanded 18 years and prohibition to work as a pastor for 14 years.

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FLORIDA
WTXL

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) – Shocking details are being revealed about a man who worked with local children.

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office arrested 41-year-old Roshad Thomas on six counts of sex offense against a child.

Thomas is a former youth pastor at a Tallahassee church, who, until recently, was a contracted employee at Maclay School.

A school official tells WTXL Thomas is a former member of the Maclay School faculty. He taught Life Management in the Upper School during the 2016-2017 school year.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston Globe

By Catie Edmondson GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JULY 18, 2017

St. Paul School’s top administrator offered a defense of the elite preparatory school on Monday while also acknowledging the recent misconduct of male students who documented relationships with girls on a crown.

The letter, sent by Rector Michael G. Hirschfeld, comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that the New Hampshire attorney general’s office has launched a criminal investigation into the school to determine whether administrators engaged in conduct that endangered the welfare of children. Concord police and New Hampshire State Police will assist in the investigation.

Hirschfeld wrote that he was “startled and saddened” by the announcement, and that he would continue to stand up for the students, staff, and faculty of the school.

“I have seen the media characterize the School in ways that stand in nearly complete opposition to the reality we live,” he said. “We are not perfect — you’ve heard me say this before — but what I need to say now, and much more often, is how proud I am of our students and our community.”

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NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Joseph L. Theisen was a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, ordained in 1959. He was assigned to parishes in Manhattan, Staten Island, Garnersville and the Bronx. There is an unexplained gap in his assignments 1983-1984. In 1987 the archdiocese began to receive allegations of child sexual abuse against Theisen. He was sent to the Servants of the Paraclete’s treatment center in New Mexico, and was “Absent on Leave” until 1994 when he was voluntarily laicized. Three young men reported to the archdiocese in 1994 that Theisen had sexually abused them in the early 1980s, when they were teens. One of them alleged abuse by the priest from 1980-1984. Each of the three received settlements of $20,000, and were required to sign confidentiality agreements.

Theisen went on to live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he died in 2013.

Ordained: 1959
Born: June 18, 1933
Died: January 25, 2013

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

A former Catholic school student and a former Boy Scout are the latest victims to come forward in separate lawsuits alleging child sex abuse at the hands of men they trusted.

Attorney David Lujan filed lawsuits in the District Court of Guam yesterday on behalf of A.W.C. and T.P.J.

A.W.C., 44, of California, alleges he was sexually abused and raped by his teacher at San Vicente Catholic School in Barrigada.

The complaint, filed against the school, accuses Ray Techaira, a deceased priest and former Catholic school teacher, of exploiting the trust and confidence bestowed upon him by sexually abusing A.W.C when he was 12 years old.

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CHILE
BioBio

[The priest Rodrigo Gajardo was convicted on June 27 after acknowledging that he sexually abused a child in the midst of a religious retreat. In the Schoenstatt movement to which he belongs they say that he was suspended from his functions and that they are waiting for an opinion from the Vatican.]

El sacerdote Rodrigo Gajardo fue condenado el 27 de junio pasado tras reconocer que abusó sexualmente de un menor, en medio de un retiro religioso. En el movimiento Schoenstatt, al cual pertenece, aseguran que fue suspendido de sus funciones y que están a la espera de un dictamen del Vaticano.

En su primera misa de alianza del Movimiento Apostólico de Schoenstatt, en Maipú, el padre Rodrigo Gajardo Figueroa vistió una túnica beige y una estola blanca. Bromeó con los feligreses, citó varios pasajes eclesiásticos y filosofó sobre las problemáticas de la libertad y la justicia. “Tenemos que tener leyes para que nos ordene la vida, para que nos sintamos seguros”, dijo el sacerdote, en medio de un sermón lleno de alusiones a los deberes y derechos de las personas (revisa acá su primera homilía). Ese 18 de julio de 2014, sin embargo, el padre Gajardo omitió un dato importante: él mismo había vulnerado la Ley unos años antes, al abusar sexualmente de un menor en un retiro espiritual del movimiento religioso al que pertenece.

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INDIA
The New Indian Express

KALPETTA: The police on Tuesday arrested the priest against whom the parents of two boys had lodged a complaint of sexual abuse with Meenangadi police station here. Senior police officers said the accused priest, Fr Saji alias Joseph, 40, of Kottiyoor in Kannur, was nabbed by a special team from Mangaluru where he had gone into hiding after the parents of the children lodged the complaint.

He was produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody. The incident came to light on July 14 when the parents of the two boys approached Childline after their wards aged 15 and 14 revealed to them about the sexual abuse incident.

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NEW ZEALAND
Otago Daily Times

By Chris Morris

New Zealand’s most vulnerable children were failed by Church and State, the head of the Catholic Church’s National Office for Professional Standards says.

Bill Kilgallon told ODT Insight the Church’s New Zealand office, created in 2004 to investigate historic abuse claims, had fielded about 22 complaints a year since 2013.

About 20 a year related to ”non-recent behaviour against children”, either within a church setting or involving clergy within the state care system, he said.

”A number of the complaints we’re dealing with would be children who were in state care but placed in an establishment run by the Church – Marylands, for example,” he said.

The complaints of abuse, cruelty and very poor conditions showed the level of care by the State or Church was ”very often very poor”, he said.

And the Church, in particular, ”should have achieved better than the State”, he believed.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Star

CLAIRE LEWIS

A Rotherham MP is seeking a change in the law over compensation for child sex abuse victims.

Sarah Champion has written to the Secretary of State for Justice calling for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority to stop ruling out payments on the grounds that children were somehow complicit in the abuse.

Since the CICA scheme was launched in November 2012 nearly 700 victims and survivors of child sexual abuse have been refused payments ranging between £1,000 and £44,000, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

While the law states it is a crime to have sexual activity with anyone under the age of 16, it is claimed that is not reflected in compensation decisions and that payment rules are being interpreted to suggest children can consent to their abuse.

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GERMANY
The Malay Mail Online

AFP

MUNICH, July 19 — The Regensburg Boys Choir has a proud history dating back more than a thousand years, but now finds its reputation tarnished by revelations that hundreds of its young charges suffered physical or sexual abuse.

One of the oldest choirs in continuous existence in the world, it traces its roots back to the year 975, when Bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg set up a cathedral school in the Bavarian town whose pupils were charged with singing the liturgy.

The pupils — only boys and young men are admitted — are called “Domspatzen”, meaning “Cathedral Sparrows.”

The institution comprises a Catholic boarding school and a secondary school where a heavy focus is on learning music.

It has a current enrolment of 320, half of whom live in the boarding school, which has a reputation for tough discipline.

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GERMANY
Aljazeera

Priests and teachers physically or sexually abused more than 500 boys at a Catholic choir school in Germany between 1945 and 1992, according to a report.

Allegations in Tuesday’s report involving the Domspatzen choir at the Regensburg Cathedral Sparrows school were among a spate of revelations of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Germany that emerged in 2010.

Many of the 547 victims remembered their time at the school as “the worst time of their lives, marked by fear, violence and helplessness”, said lawyer Ulrich Weber, who was commissioned two years ago by the diocese to probe the cases.

The victims said the school was “prison, hell and a concentration camp”, he added.

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GERMANY
The Times (UK)

David Charter, Berlin
July 19 2017
The Times

The brother of Benedict XVI, the former pope, has admitted slapping boys at a Catholic choir school and has been named as partly responsible for a culture of abuse at the school in Germany where at least 547 boys were victims of physical or sexual assault.

Georg Ratzinger ran the Domspatzen (cathedral sparrows) choir in Regensburg from 1964 to 1994 and said that slapping boys was common practice at the time. He denied knowledge of sexual abuse.

A lawyer brought in to investigate allegations, some dating back to 1945, said in his final report that Mr Ratzinger, 93, could be blamed “for looking away or for failing to intervene”. The report on the school counted 500 cases of physical violence and 67 of sexual violence, committed by 49 perpetrators.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Manya Brachear Pashman
Chicago Tribune

A popular Back of the Yards priest who admitted to sexual misconduct as a teenager has left his Roman Catholic religious order and asked the pope to remove him from the priesthood, according to a letter from the lawyer for the Claretian Missionaries provided as part of a legal settlement.

Bruce Wellems, a former priest at Holy Cross Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, who acknowledged that decades ago, when he was 15, he abused a 7-year-old boy, resigned from the Claretians in the past year, after the victim sued the order.

The victim, Eric Johnson, now 52, said Wellems abused him multiple times when Johnson was 7 years old.

“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,” he said. “He is a danger to the kids and the community.”

Wellems, 60, was barred from active ministry in the Chicago Archdiocese last year after an independent review board uncovered “additional facts that weren’t previously available.” It is unclear whether the review disclosed an additional victim.

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IRELAND
Evening Echo

Jess Casey

THE sale of a site at the former Bessborough Mother and Baby Home should be halted until a full examination of the grounds is carried out, according to a Cork woman who spent time in the institution.

Joan McDermott, originally from Mitchelstown, is calling for the sale at Bessborough to be immediately halted after it emerged plans are underway to sell a portion of the site at Blackrock.

Ms McDermott was separated from her son for 50 years after she gave birth to him while she was interned in the mother and baby home as a teenager.

“Us mothers are convinced there are bodies buried there,” Ms McDermott told the Evening Echo.

“There are mothers still alive, who do not know to this day where their babies are. Mothers who don’t know where their babies are buried.

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

James Wilson @jameswilson1919 July 18, 2017

A councilor from Clondalkin in south Dublin has revealed that he was used as a baby in a vaccine experiment whilst living at a Mother and Baby Home.

Francis Timmons spent the early years of his life at the Madonna Baby Home in Blackrock, Dublin and only learned as an adult that he had been used in medical trials during his time there.

The company GlaxoSmithKline Ireland wrote to Timmons informing him that he received two injections of diphtheria tetanus pertussis (DTP) vaccine alongside 18 other children living at the Madonna Baby Home.

The experiments hoped to solve a number of illnesses prevalent in children, such as diphtheria, tetanus, polio and whooping cough.

Questions were first raised about the use of orphaned children for such trials in the 1990’s and a report published in 2000 for Ireland’s Health Service Executive found that 52 infants from four mother and baby homes had been used in a trial that began in 1960.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Star

Hamish Broome | 19th Jul 2017

A RETIRED Catholic parish priest who stands accused of several child sexual abuse offences was excused from appearing in Lismore Local Court on Tuesday where his case was mentioned.

Richard St John Cattell, 77, who now lives on the Gold Coast, faces nine historic charges including intercourse with a male between 10 and 17 years old as well as aggravated indecent assault with a boy under his authority.

Cattell served as a parish priest at several NSW parishes in the 1970s and 1980s before being promoted to Vicar-General of the Diocese of Parramatta in the early 1990s.

The offences allegedly occurred during Cattel’s time as a parish priest at various NSW parishes in Sydney and surrounds.

Prosecutor Luke Wiggins told the court on Tuesday the “bulk” of the alleged offences occurred in the Hawkesbury region on the Central Coast, while some of the charges occured at other locations such as Mollymook on the South Coast.

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GERMANY
The New York Times

By MELISSA EDDY
JULY 18, 2017

BERLIN — For decades, a “culture of silence” pervaded a Catholic music school where the brother of a future pope directed a renowned boys’ choir, contributing to an environment in which at least 547 children were abused, a lawyer who carried out an investigation of the mistreatment said on Tuesday.

The estimate of the number of children abused was far greater than a previous figure, 231, that the lawyer gave last year.

The choir — the Regensburg Domspatzen, literally the Cathedral Sparrows — dates to the 10th century and continues to perform at Sunday Mass in Regensburg’s 16th-century Gothic cathedral. The choir’s music director from 1964 to 1994 was the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, whose younger brother, Joseph Ratzinger, reigned as Pope Benedict XVI from 2005 to 2013.

Father Ratzinger, now 93, has apologized for slapping boys during his tenure, and said he stopped administering corporal punishment when the church banned it in 1980. He has denied awareness of sexual abuse taking place, and the new investigation does not implicate him in it.

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Free Malaysia Today

AFP | July 19, 2017

Since 2010, hundreds of cases of sex abuse against children or adolescents in religious institutions have emerged.

PARIS: The Roman Catholic Church faces fresh charges of child abuse, with an investigator saying Tuesday that at least 547 boys at a German choir school suffered sexual or physical abuse.

Here is a rundown of other cases that have rocked the Church in recent years.

Germany

Since 2010, hundreds of cases of sex abuse against children or adolescents in religious institutions have emerged.

The most high-profile ones involve Jesuit-run Canisius college in Berlin, and the most recent revelation of the choir in Ratisbonne, southern Germany, where at least 547 children were victims of abuse, including rapes, between 1945 and the early 1990s.

Australia

A public enquiry begun in 2013 found that 4,440 presumed cases of paedophilia had been reported to authorities at the Catholic Church in Australia. Seven percent of priests were presumed to have committed paedophilic acts, but the probe was not followed by official action.
The third highest member of the Vatican hierarchy, Australian Cardinal George Pell, was charged in June 2017 for historical sexual offences, but no details were provided.

In February 2016, Pell had testified via video-link before an Australian commission probing abuse, and admitted that the Church “mucked up” in dealing with paedophile priests in the state of Victoria.

Canada

In the late 1980s, a huge scandal broke out regarding the mistreatment of children at an orphanage in Newfoundland in the 1950s-60s.

Church officials were accused of failing to report cases of paedophilia.

United States

Between 1950 and 2013, the Catholic Church in the US received 17,000 complaints from people who said they had suffered sexual abuse from 6,400 clerics between 1950 and 1980.

In 2012, specialists in contact with the Vatican mooted the figure of 100,000 cases of child sex abuse in the US.

Faced with accusations concerning four percent of its priests, the US church has already spent several billion dollars in legal fees.

Among the senior church members forced to resign for protecting paedophile priests were Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston, Roger Mahony in Los Angeles, Robert Finn in Kansas City, and John Clayton Nienstedt in Minnesota.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen

A former youth pastor who recently served five years in Illinois prison for sexually abusing several young girls is now facing similar charges stemming from a stint in Duluth more than a decade ago.

Ellis William Simmons, 38, is accused of assaulting two girls between 1999 and 2005, when he was living and working in Duluth. The girls were 11 and 14 years old at the time of the reported incidents.

Simmons was formally charged last month with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. If convicted, the most-serious charges each carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

While the incidents were reported to police in the early 2000s, St. Louis County prosecutor Jon Holets said the victims only recently came forward with the alleged perpetrator’s name and other information that made charges possible.

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GEORGIA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By Christian Boone – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When his bill extending the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil claims was signed into law in 2015, State Rep. Jason Spencer (R-Woodbine) knew it didn’t go far enough.

The lawsuits that have been filed since the Hidden Predator Act took effect bear him out. While the law allows victims to go after the individuals they say abused them, the businesses and nonprofits that allegedly enabled or covered up predatory behavior have so far avoided any potential financial liability.

“What these cases have proven is that we stopped short,” said Spencer, who is proposing an amendment to the Hidden Predator Act that would close that loophole. “It’s our duty to balance the scales of justice for victims.”

Just last week, a Cobb County judge dismissed negligence claims against the Boy Scouts of America and First Baptist Church of Gainesville in a suit brought by man alleging he was molested 32 years ago by a former scoutmaster, Fleming Weaver. Robb Lawson, 14 years old at the time the abuse allegedly occurred, says in his suit that officials with the Scouts and the church knew Weaver had molested boys before but failed to take steps to prevent him from doing so again.

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MEXICO
El Diario

[Cardinal Rivera denounces ‘failed strategy’.The archdiocese of Mexico noted that the criminal complaint filed against Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera for allegedly covering up abuse by 15 priests who have been accused of pedophilia is a “failed strategy” and is an act desperate “revenge” on the part of the whistleblowers Alberto Athié and José Barba.]

La arquidiócesis primada de México señaló que la denuncia penal interpuesta contra su titular, el cardenal Norberto Rivera Carrera, por encubrir a 15 sacerdotes que presuntamente cometieron actos de pederastia, es una “estrategia fallida”

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (Apro).- La arquidiócesis primada de México señaló que la denuncia penal interpuesta contra su titular, el cardenal Norberto Rivera Carrera, por encubrir a 15 sacerdotes que presuntamente cometieron actos de pederastia, es una “estrategia fallida” y un acto desesperado “de venganza” por parte de los denunciantes Alberto Athié y José Barba.

En una aclaración publicada en su portal de internet Siame, la Arquidiócesis indicó, además, que esta denuncia —interpuesta el pasado 2 de junio ante la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR)— está basada en información “falsa”.

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NEW ZEALAND
Otago Daily Times

By Chris Morris

Victims of historic abuse in state care are fighting back, demanding justice — in cash and apologies — to help rebuild broken lives. But some are going further. In the second part of ODT Insight’s special investigation, Chris Morris tells Darryl Smith’s story.

Darryl Smith says ”blood money” is not enough to rebuild a life destroyed by sexual abuse in two countries.The Dunedin man spent more than a decade in state care, in New Zealand and Australia, beginning as a 7-year-old boy in the early 1970s.

It was an experience that exposed him to sexual predators at one institution after another, including two run by the same Catholic order – the Brothers Hospitallers of St John of God.

And, despite receiving payouts and apologies on both sides of the Tasman, Mr Smith says it is not enough.

He wants justice in the form of a national inquiry and public apology from the New Zealand Government.

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AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND
Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)

By Chris Morris

The Brothers Hospitallers of St John of God (SJOG) do not want to talk about Darryl Smith.

The Catholic order’s Australian head, provincial Brother Timothy Graham, declined to comment when contacted by ODT Insight.

He referred questions to the order’s law firm, which said it would be ”inappropriate” to comment while discussions with Mr Smith’s lawyers continued.

SJOG spokesman Simon Feely also responded to a request for comment with a blunt text: ”If it’s to do with Darryl Smith, there’s nothing to say that’s not been said.”

It is a defensiveness that perhaps partly reflects the spotlight on the Catholic order, and the wider Church in Australia, since the launch, back in 2013, of a Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

A final report was not due until December, but in February the commission revealed almost 4500 people had complained about almost 2000 members of the Catholic clergy across Australia between 1950 and 2010.

Within St John of God, 40% of its clergy had been accused and allegations of a cover-up had been raised, Australian media have reported.

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KANSAS
KMBC

KANSAS CITY, Kan. —
The Kansas City, Kansas, Catholic Archdiocese announced Tuesday that investigations were underway after allegations of “boundary violations” were made against one of its priests.

The archdiocese said in a news release that the allegations against the Rev. Scott Kallal, AVI, came from two difference sources.

Officials said a preliminary investigation into the allegations by the archdiocese 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.

Because one of the allegations involved a minor, the Kansas Department for Children and Families was notified. The investigation is ongoing.

The Independent Review Board has been asked to review the matter and make recommendations.

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KANSAS
Fox 4

JULY 18, 2017, BY SEAN MCDOWELL

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — A priest in the Kansas City, Kan., diocese, who helps leads the Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 11300 W 103rd Street in Overland Park, has been removed from his associate pastor position after an accusation was made against him about inappropriate conduct. The accusations involve a minor/child.

Although the archdiocese does not mention in its statement (below) that the accusation and investigation involves sexual misconduct, at the end of its statement, the archdiocese does provide information for reporting sexual abuse by priests.

According to a FOX 4 viewer, the announcement about Fr. Scott Kallal’s removal was made this past weekend at the end of the weekly services.

Fr. Scott Kallal, 35, is also a member of the Apostles of the Interior Life, an order of priests whose primary ministry is to provide spiritual direction and help young people discern their vocations.

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GERMANY
The Canary

JULY 18TH, 2017 Ed Sykes ED SYKES

A new child abuse report has come out in Germany. And it reveals shocking details of past sexual assault by members of the Catholic church. It also serves as another reminder that justice for abuse victims is still a long way off.

When schools become a “prison” of “fear, violence and hopelessness”

The report found there were at least 67 cases of sexual abuse over six decades at the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir boarding schools in southern Germany. There were also 500 cases of physical abuse. Nine of the 49 members of the Catholic church involved in the scandal were perpetrators of sexual abuse.

The lawyer who investigated the abuse, Ulrich Weber, explained how there had been a “culture of silence”. And he said the head of the choir from 1964 to 1994, Georg Ratzinger, could take part of the blame for “looking the other way and failing to intervene”. Ratzinger is the elder brother of former Pope Benedict XVI. He has denied knowing about the abuse.

Victims from between 1945 and the early 1990s said the schools were like “a prison, hell and a concentration camp”; and they described the experience as “the worst time of their lives, characterised by fear, violence and hopelessness”.

Because of the time that’s passed since the abuses, the alleged perpetrators are unlikely to face criminal charges.

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Jewish News

by Debra Rubin
NJJN Bureau Chief
July 18, 2017

An East Windsor youth educator pled guilty to two counts of second degree endangering the welfare of a child and is expected to receive a five-year suspended sentence under a plea agreement.

Sentencing for Rabbi Menachem Chinn is scheduled for Oct. 13, according to Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri. Chinn will also be under parole supervision for life, and will have to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law.

Pleading guilty on July 7 before Mercer County Superior Court Judge Peter E. Warshaw in Trenton, Chinn, 40, admitted to touching the genitals of one victim at his East Windsor home and having a second victim touch his genitals at Shalom Torah Academy in Morganville, where he taught sixth and seventh grade boys and was a youth advisor. The boys were students of his at separate times, one in 2005 and the other in 2012. Shalom Torah Academy declined to comment.

Chinn was also the director of the Twin Rivers chapter of the National Council of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), the youth movement affiliated with the Orthodox Union. His position was part-time and he was suspended without pay at the time of his arrest in April, according to Rabbi Ethan Katz, regional director of New Jersey NCSY.

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FLORIDA
WTXL

Jade Bulecza Jul 18, 2017

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL)– A former youth pastor has been arrested for sex acts with children.

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office arrested 41-year-old Roshad Thomas on six counts of sex offense against a child.

On July 11, special victims unit detectives spoke to a victim who said Thomas had fondled the victim about 10 years ago when the victim was 13 years old.

As detectives investigated, they found four more victims.

Deputies say each one described sexual encounters with Thomas from 2007-2014. Thomas voluntarily spoke to detectives Monday.

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VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)

18 July 2017 | by Christopher Lamb

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone allegedly had his 3,230-square-foot flat upgraded with €422,000 from Bambino Gesù hospital

The Vatican’s former Secretary of State risks becoming embroiled in a trial examining claims that funds from a children’s hospital were used to renovate his retirement home.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was Benedict XVI’s most senior adviser, allegedly had his 3,230-square-foot flat upgraded with €422,000 from Bambino Gesù hospital, on the understanding he would host fundraising events for the Holy See-run pediatric hospital in return.

The foundation’s former President, Giuseppe Profiti, and its former treasurer, Massimo Spina, are now both standing trial in the Vatican accused of illicitly diverting hospital funds and if convicted face between three to five years in prison.

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GERMANY
The Times (UK)

David Charter, Berlin
July 18 2017
The Times

The brother of Benedict XVI, the former pope, was today named partly responsible for a culture of abuse at a Catholic choir school in Germany where at least 547 boys were victims of physical or sexual assault.

Georg Ratzinger ran the prestigious Domspatzen (cathedral sparrows) choir in Regensburg from 1964 to 1994 and admitted slapping boys, which he said was common practice at the time, but denied knowledge of sexual abuse.

A lawyer brought in to investigate the allegations, some going back to 1945, said in his final report that Mr Ratzinger, 93, could be blamed “for looking away or for failing to intervene”.

The report on the 1,000-year-old school counted 500 cases of physical violence and 67 of sexual violence, committed by a total of 49 perpetrators. Some boys were victims of both sexual and violent attacks and nine unnamed men were said to have carried out the sexual assaults.

Allegations about the historical mistreatment of young boys at the school emerged in 2010 during a series of revelations of abuse by Catholic clergymen and led to the inquiry.

Ulrich Weber, the lawyer, identified the choir’s pre-school as the place of the worst abuse because beatings were commonplace as part of a programme to instill discipline in the young choristers.

Mr Weber said there could be as many as 700 victims in all in the period examined up to 1992 and many remembered the school as “the worst time of their lives, marked by fear, violence and helplessness”. Some called it a jail while others referred to it as a concentration camp.

Mr Weber said there was no evidence that Mr Ratzinger knew of the sexual violence. No legal action against individuals are expected to arise from his report because the abuse took place more than 25 years ago, beyond the limit for charges.

Mr Ratzinger has said that the alleged sexual abuse was “never discussed” while he ran the choir.

Some of the abuse was said to have been carried out by Johann Meier, a teacher until 1992, who has since died. Mr Ratzinger was meant to oversee Meier’s work.

The report listed criticism by victims of the Regensburg diocese for failing to investigate complaints about past abuse. It said that the bishop at the time the allegations surfaced, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, bore “clear responsibility for the strategic, organisational and communicative weaknesses”.

Cardinal Müller became the head of the Vatican’s doctrine office in 2012. Pope Francis recently removed him from that position.

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DEUTSCHALDN
Regensburg Digital

[Lawyer Ulrich Weber has presented his final report on violence and abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen. He found at least 547 victims. The former cathedral master Georg Ratzinger also bears responsibility for this.]

Von Stefan Aigner in Nachrichten, Überregional

Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber hat seinen Abschlussbericht zu Gewalt und Missbrauch bei den Regensburger Domspatzen vorgelegt. Er geht von mindestens 547 Opfern aus. Verantwortung dafür trage auch der frühere Domkapellmeister Georg Ratzinger.

„Was also ist die Wahrheit? Ich glaube, dass es so viele Wahrheiten wie Domspatzen gibt und dass es vermessen wäre zu glauben, dass sich der erlebte Schrecken in der Anzahl von Schlägen und durchschnittlichen Penetrationen pro Schuljahr messen lässt. Das Böse zeichnet sich durch Qualität und Effizienz aus, nicht durch seine Quantität: Gewalt und Missbrauch waren über Jahrzehnte präsent, in der Erziehung der Domspatzen fest integriert, aber nicht jeder Schüler wurde Opfer eines sexuellen Übergriffes oder mit der Rute bearbeitet. Das war auch nicht nötig, um ein Regime des Schreckens zu errichten: Die Angst in den Herzen von Kindern manifestiert sich auch, wenn man Zeuge der Gewalttätigkeiten und Demütigungen anderer wird.“

Es ist nur eines von über 2.000 Zitaten, die Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber in seinen 440 Seiten starken Abschlussbericht zu Gewalt und Missbrauch an Einrichtungen der Regensburger Domspatzen einfließen ließ. Und seine erste Einschätzung – bei einem ersten Zwischenbericht war Weber von rund 700 Betroffenen ausgegangen – hat sich weitgehend bestätigt: Seit 1945 stufen Weber und seine Mitarbeiter 547 Opfer als „hoch plausibel“ ein, 500 von ihnen waren demnach Opfer körperlicher, 67 sexueller Gewalt. Angesichts einer Dunkelziffer habe er von seinen früheren Äußerungen nichts zurückzunehmen, so Weber.

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ROME
Commonweal

By Robert Mickens
July 17, 2017

If you read the headlines of some publications, you would be convinced that Pope Francis’s project to renew and reform the Catholic Church has been dealt a staggeringly sharp blow and is now in deep crisis.

The journalists and commentators who are pushing this story line have what they believe is mounting evidence that the pontificate is on the ropes.

They point to the kerfuffle surrounding Francis’s controversial decision on June 30 not to renew Cardinal Gerhard Müller’s mandate as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

They also cite the temporary “forced suspension” one day earlier of Cardinal George Pell’s brief as head of the Secretariat for the Economy, due to still-unspecified charges of sexual abuse that the cardinal will soon confront in an Australian court. And they note the abrupt and still-unexplained resignation some eight days before that of Libero Milone, the Vatican’s first-ever auditor general and close aid to Pell.

Then there’s the case of at least two priest-officials in the Roman Curia who were recently reported to be engaging in scandalous homosexual behavior, a perennial dark side of clerical life in the Eternal City.

One was denounced for “cruising” St. Peter’s Square in search of sex with young men. The culprit is said to be a member of an important religious order and an archbishop in a major Vatican office. There are only six such people that fit the description: two are Jesuits, another two are Dominicans, one is a Legionary of Christ, and one is a Franciscan.

The other cleric reportedly caught in a gay sex scandal has been identified as a monsignor who serves as personal secretary to one of Pope Francis’s most important curia allies. The incident involving this priest supposedly included the use of cocaine. Some “journalists” have embellished their accounts of this sordid tale with sensationalized and factually erroneous details, including the assertion that the said cardinal knew (or should have known) what naughty business his secretary was up to.

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MAINE
Press Herald

Henry Eichman, an employee at St. John’s Catholic School in Brunswick, faces a total of 20 counts of child sexual abuse in two counties.

BY EDWARD D. MURPHY
STAFF WRITER

Henry Eichman, who worked in the drama department of a Brunswick Catholic school, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to two additional sexual abuse charges in Cumberland County.

Eichman, who also faces 16 other counts of sexual abuse in Sagadahoc County and two other charges in Cumberland County, was indicted this month on the two newest charges by a grand jury.

The latest charges allege unlawful sexual contact with a child under the age of 12 and unlawful sexual touching of a student.

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GERMANY
Reuters

Madeline Chambers

BERLIN (Reuters) – Teachers at one of Germany’s most famous Roman Catholic choir schools physically or sexually abused 547 pupils between 1945 and 2015, an independent report found on Tuesday, with some boys likening the institution to a concentration camp.

The 440-page report chronicles teachers doling out physical violence including slapping boys in the face so hard that the marks could be seen the next day, whipping them with wooden sticks and violin bows and subjecting them to severe beatings.

Boys who tried to escape the “Regensburger Domspatzen”, or Regensburg Cathedral Sparrows, were hauled back into the school and beaten and humiliated in front of other boys, it said.

Allegations of abuse at the school, which dates back over a thousand years and now tours the world to perform choral music, surfaced in 2010.

After criticism of that investigation, the diocese, which acknowledged on Tuesday it had “made mistakes”, commissioned lawyer Ulrich Weber in 2015 to put together the independent report.

Former Pope Benedict’s brother, Georg Ratzinger, 93, led the choir from 1964 to 1994. He acknowledged in 2010 that he had slapped pupils in the face but said he had not realized how brutal the discipline was.

Weber said he was “to be blamed especially for turning a blind eye and not intervening despite having knowledge”, adding the investigation did not show he was aware of sexual abuse. Several testimonies said he was generally friendly.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican tribunal rejected attempts by two former executives of the pope’s children’s hospital to dismiss an embezzlement case, asserting Tuesday it could prosecute them on charges they diverted nearly a half-million euros in hospital donations to renovate a top cardinal’s penthouse.

Lawyers for former hospital president Giuseppe Profiti and ex-treasurer Massimo Spina argued that the Vatican court had no jurisdiction to prosecute activities of a hospital foundation that was located in Italy, not the Vatican.

But tribunal president Judge Paolo Papanti-Pelletier rejected the motion as the trial opened and set a new round of hearings for Sept. 7-9.

Profiti has said the funds he used from the Bambino Gesu (Baby Jesus) hospital foundation to renovate Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s apartment were an investment, since he intended to use the flat for future fundraising events for the hospital.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche Zeitung

* In seinem Zwischenbericht über Misshandlungen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen spricht Ulrich Weber von mindestens 231 Fällen. 50 weitere Kinder sollen sexuell missbraucht worden sein.

* Nach Webers Einschätzung habe es sich um ein System gehandelt.

* Weil das Bistum Regensburg bislang öffentlich von weit weniger Fällen ausgegangen war, gerät es in Erklärungsnot.

Von Andreas Glas, Regensburg

Vorher, ein kurzer Moment der Ruhe: Ulrich Weber steht vorm Eingang eines Hotels im Regensburger Westen, er raucht eine Zigarette, wirkt aufgekratzt. Er wird der Öffentlichkeit gleich erklären, was kaum zu begreifen ist.

Eine halbe Stunde später sitzt er hinter Mikrofonen, in einem Tagungsraum, in dem es nicht genug Stühle gibt für alle Journalisten. “Ich bitte um Fragen”, sagt Weber am Ende seines Vortrags. Und natürlich gibt es Fragen, vor allem die Frage, ob die Priester und die Lehrer von den Misshandlungen wussten, Georg Ratzinger zum Beispiel, der drei Jahrzehnte lang Kapellmeister der Domspatzen war.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Abschlussbericht_Domspatzen.pdf

[This is the full report into the investigation of physical and sexual abuse allegations made by former members of the Regensburg Cathedral boys choir, also known as Domspatzen.]

UNTERSUCHUNGSBERICHT
ULRICH WEBER/ JOHANNES BAUMEISTER

18. JULI 2017
Urheberrechtlich geschützt – all rights reserved ©

Vorwort

Nach zwei Jahren intensiver Tätigkeiten zur Informationsgewinnung, Datenauswertung und Berichtsverfassung kann nunmehr das vorliegende Untersuchungsergebnis veröffentlicht werden. Gemäß unserem Leitspruch „Hinsehen – Zuhören – Antworten“ haben wir Augen und Ohren geöffnet, um die notwendigen Antworten für dieses Aufklärungsprojekt zu erhalten.

Die Lektüre wird für viele Menschen nicht einfach sein. Vielleicht, weil sie mit den Regensburger Domspatzen ganz andere Erinnerungen verbinden als in diesem Bericht beschrieben. Vielleicht aber auch, weil sie selbst Betroffene sind und die erneute Konfrontation mit dem erlittenen Leid verheilt geglaubte Wunden neu aufreißt. Sollte in derartigen Fällen externe Hilfe oder psychologische Betreuung notwendig sein, steht dafür das im Rahmen der Aufarbeitung beauftragte „Münchner Informationszentrum für Männer“ für Kontaktaufnahmen bereit.

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GERMANY
BBC News

At least 547 young members of the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir in Germany were subjected to physical and in some instances sexual abuse over a period of 60 years, a new report says.

Some 49 members of the Catholic Church are accused of carrying out the abuse between 1945 and the early 1990s, according to the report’s findings.

Victims said the experience was like “a prison, hell and a concentration camp”.

A 2016 report into the allegations said that 231 children had been abused.

The alleged physical abuse relates to children attending both the Regensburger Domspatzen’s pre-school and high school, according to the lawyer tasked with investigating the abuse, Ulrich Weber.

Representatives from the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir have yet to officially respond to the report.

Presenting his findings on Tuesday, Mr Weber said the investigation had found 500 cases of physical abuse and 67 instances of sexual abuse over six decades.

Of the 49 church members who carried out the abuse under what was described as a “culture of silence”, nine were found to have been involved in sexual abuse, Mr Weber added.

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GERMANY
Daily Mail (UK)

By Kelly Mclaughlin For Mailonline

At least 547 boys at a German Catholic choir school suffered sexual or physical abuse in what victims have likened to ‘prison, hell or a concentration camp’, said an investigator releasing a final report Tuesday.

The Regensburger Domspatzen (‘Cathedral Sparrows’ in English), a 1,000-year-old cathedral choir in Bavaria, was in 2010 dragged into the massive sexual abuse scandal plaguing the Catholic Church in recent years.

Many victims remembered their time in the choir school as ‘the worst time of their lives, marked by fear, violence and helplessness’, said lawyer Ulrich Weber, who was commissioned by the diocese to look into the cases.

Presenting his final report on abuses between 1945 and the early 1990s, Weber said he had uncovered 67 cases of sexual abuse and 500 cases of other physical violence, with some former singers having fallen victim to both.

This more than doubled the 231 reported abuse cases he had uncovered through interviews by January 2016, when he said victims had spoken of rape, sexual assaults, severe beatings and food deprivation.

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VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

Vatican City (AFP) – A trial against two former members of a Vatican foundation charged with embezzling charity money to refurbish the luxury apartment of a cardinal opened Tuesday.

The former executives of the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu pediatric hospital are accused of diverting 422,000 euros ($485,000) in donations to a company tasked with renovating the home of Tarcisio Bertone, the state’s former second-in-command.

Former hospital president Giuseppe Profiti and ex-treasurer Massimo Spina, who face up to five years in jail, were present in the cramped gold-gilt courtroom.

Bertone, who was not part of the investigation and is not accused, was absent.

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GERMANY
Xinhua (China)

BERLIN, July 18 (Xinhua) — At least 547 children in Germany’s world-famous Regensburger Domspatzen boy’s choir have been confirmed as victims of sexual and physical abuse, a final report on one of the biggest catholic abuse scandals in the German history showed on Tuesday.

There was for decades a “system of fear” with beatings and sexual abuse, according to the report, released after a two-year inquiry that spanned cases between 1945 and the early 1990s.

Seven years after the first cases became public, the report put the number of incidents of physical abuse at 500 and incidents of sexual abuse at 67. The Roman Catholic diocese of Regensburg and the choir had subsequently assigned the lawyer Ulrich Weber to conduct an inquiry into the scandal.

Some of the victims described their membership of the choir as the worst time of their lives and likened the experience to a “prison”, “hell”, and a “concentration camp”.

An intermediary report in early 2016 had contained a much lower estimate of 231 abused
children. The number of victims in the final report has now more than doubled. …

Voderholzer’s predecessor, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller was accused of having obstructed investigations into the scandal and claimed that the media was exaggerating the extent of abuse.
Former choir director Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, had denied any knowledge of sexual abuse.

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GERMANY
Daily Sabah

GERMAN PRESS AGENCY – DPA
REGENSBURG, Germany

At least 547 members of the Regensburg Domspatzen Catholic boys’ choir became victims of physical and sexual abuse between 1945 and the early 1990s, a final report on the scandal revealed on Tuesday.

Ulrich Weber, a lawyer tasked with investigating the scandal, said on Tuesday that the victims who suffered abuse at the hands of priests and teachers at the cathedral school had described their time there as “prison, hell and a concentration camp.”

Many of the victims interviewed for the purpose of the report described their experience at the school – where boys were instructed to sing religious music in cathedral services – as “the worst time of their lives, defined by fear, violence and helplessness,” Weber said.

The world-famous Domspatzen (Cathedral Sparrows) choir has been plagued by scandal since the first abuse allegations were made public in 2010.

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GERMANY
New York Daily News

BERLIN (AP) — At least 547 members of a prestigious Catholic boys’ choir in Germany were physically or sexually abused between 1945 and 1992, according to a report released Tuesday.

Allegations involving the Domspatzen choir in Regensburg, which was run for 30 years by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI’s elder brother, were among a spate of revelations of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Germany that emerged in 2010. In 2015, lawyer Ulrich Weber was tasked with producing a report on what happened.

The report said that 547 boys at the Domspatzen’s school “with a high degree of plausibility” were victims of physical or sexual abuse, or both. It counted 500 cases of physical violence and 67 of sexual violence, committed by a total of 49 perpetrators.

At the choir’s pre-school, “violence, fear and helplessness dominated” and “violence was an everyday method,” it said.

“The whole system of education was oriented toward top musical achievements and the choir’s success,” the report said. “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.”

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GERMANY
Yahoo! News

AFP

At least 547 boys at a German Catholic choir school suffered sexual or physical abuse in what victims have likened to “prison, hell or a concentration camp”, said an investigator releasing a final report Tuesday.

The Regensburger Domspatzen (“Cathedral Sparrows”), a 1,000-year-old cathedral choir in Bavaria, was in 2010 dragged into the massive sexual abuse scandal plaguing the Catholic Church in recent years.

Many victims remembered their time in the choir school as “the worst time of their lives, marked by fear, violence and helplessness”, said lawyer Ulrich Weber, who was commissioned by the diocese to look into the cases.

Presenting his final report on abuses between 1945 and the early 1990s, Weber said he had uncovered 67 cases of sexual abuse and 500 cases of other physical violence, with some former singers having fallen victim to both.

This more than doubled the 231 reported abuse cases he had uncovered through interviews by January 2016, when he said victims had spoken of rape, sexual assaults, severe beatings and food deprivation.

Weber pointed to a “culture of silence” and placed part of the blame for the situation on the school’s former choir master Georg Ratzinger, the elder brother of former pope Benedict.

As head of the choir from 1964 to 1994, Georg Ratzinger could be “blamed for looking the other way and failing to intervene”, said Weber.

Georg Ratzinger, 93, has denied knowledge and said that the alleged sexual abuse was “never discussed” while he ran the choir.

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GERMANY
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — A report says that at least 547 members of a prestigious Catholic boys’ choir in Germany were physically or sexually abused between 1945 and the early 1990s.

Allegations involving the Domspatzen choir in Regensburg were among a spate of revelations of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Germany that emerged in 2010.

News agency dpa reported that Ulrich Weber, a lawyer tasked with investigating the abuse, said Tuesday there was violence against children in the choir’s pre-school and high school.

He said many victims described their time at its boarding school as “the worst time of their lives, marked by fear, violence and helplessness.”

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GERMANY
Deutsche Welle

The latest findings into the decades of abuse in the Regensburg Domspatzen Catholic boys choir implicate 49 church members. Victims described their time in the choir as like “a prison, hell and a concentration camp.”

A total of 547 young boys from the famous Regensburger Domspatzen choir were subjected to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of priests and teachers, according to the attorney tasked with investigating the alleged abuse.

Presenting his 450-page report into the findings, attorney Ulrich Weber, said he found 500 cases of physical abuse and 67 instances of sexual abuse spanning over six decades.

Of the 49 people church officials and teachers implicated in the report, nine were found to have been sexually abusive. Church officials had fostered a “culture of silence,” which allowed them to carry out such abuses for decades, Weber said. …

The choir was run by Georg Ratzinger, the elder brother of former Pope Benedict XVI, from 1964 to 1994, when most of the abuse is believed to have occurred.

Weber has repeatedly alleged that Ratzinger must have known of some of the cases, although he has denied having any information.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jul. 18, 2017

An “uncommon conversation” is on hold in Minnesota.

After meeting a decade ago at a sex abuse treatment conference, Gil Gustafson and Susan Pavlak each came to see in their pasts a possible way forward for their home archdiocese, St. Paul-Minneapolis, as it struggled to deal with the scandal of clergy sexual abuse.

Pavlak, now 62, was sexually abused as a child by a teacher who was a former nun at a Catholic school. Gustafson, now 66, pleaded guilty in 1983 to sexually abusing a teenage boy, and has since admitted to abuse of three other male minors. By coming to know each other, each had grown personally. They wondered if they could duplicate that experience for other victims and abusers.

In November 2012, the two held their first Uncommon Conversation event, an effort to bring together the local Catholic community — abuse survivors, parishioners, church staff, clergy and also the abusers themselves — to begin a conversation about the abuse crisis, how it has personally affected a multitude of people and how they together might move beyond the scandal.

“This is an opportunity for people to speak and be heard about a traumatic event in their life, in their family life, in their spiritual life, in their community life. And listen to others’ experience of that, move forward and through and out of that trauma into recovery, whatever that may look like for them,” Pavlak told NCR.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com July 18, 2017

A man on Tuesday filed a lawsuit, alleging that now-deceased Boy Scouts of America scout leader Edward Pereira raped and sexually abused him in the early 1970s. It is the first of 93 sexual abuse lawsuits that does not name the Archdiocese of Agana as a defendant.

Another lawsuit filed Tuesday, by a man now living in California, alleges that now-deceased priest Ray Techaira sexually abused him when he was a Catholic school student in the mid-1980s.

The two plaintiffs, represented by attorney David Lujan, filed their lawsuits in the U.S. District Court of Guam. Both are identified in court documents only by their initials to protect their privacy.

T.P.J., in his complaint, alleges that Pereirawould sexually molest and abuse him every time he rode with Pereira, who dropped him home after scouting activities.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WLOS

by Jennifer Saylor

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) —
The defense team for Word of Faith Fellowship pastor Brooke Covington is asking a judge to order what they call “secret recordings” to be turned over.

The recordings were recently referenced in a story by the Associated Press, and according to court documents were made during conversations Matthew Fenner had with the Rutherford County Sheriff and other investigators.

Covington is charged with assaulting and kidnapping Fenner during what former church members have referred to as “blasting prayers,” to rid Fenner of his “homosexual demons.”

In another motion the Rutherford County DA’s office asked the judge to lift a temporary gag order that prevents law enforcement from talking with jurors as they investigate last month’s mistrial in the case.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Four Corners

[with video]

By Directed by Annie Macgregor

Updated July 17, 2017

“It was tough, it was brutal. It was very long searching, to get what we wanted.” Former District Attorney

In the American city of Philadelphia, in the early 2000s, a team of skilled and dedicated lawyers embarked on an investigation led by a formidable District Attorney. What they uncovered was the hidden story of one of the worst criminal cover-ups in America’s history.

“I was shocked because it was so sickening, and I was shocked by how many perpetrators there were. I was shocked by how long it had gone on and by how many people knew about it and didn’t do anything.” Former Assistant District Attorney

The investigation began with a simple question: Why, in 50 years, had only one Catholic priest been officially investigated for child abuse? In a city with a strong Catholic presence, this seemed remarkable, at a time when revelations of clergy abuse were making headlines across America. Shocking cases in another US city, Boston, prompted DA Lynne Abraham to ask whether the same thing could have occurred in her town.

“I got together a group of my investigators and I said… I think it is worth a look and an investigation.” Former District Attorney, Lynne Abraham

What they uncovered – a hidden history of abuse and deception – shook the investigators and their community to the core.

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CURACAO
Curacao Chronicle

WILLEMSTAD – Last weekend, care givers in the center of Willemstad protested against the punishment of pastor Orlando Balentina. Balentina, who is a pastor at the Rains of Blessing Church in Groot Kwartier, was sentenced to nine years in prison because he sexually abused teenage girls and young women in his church. The Public Prosecution (OM) demanded 18 years in prison.

During the event, signatures were collected and merged with 17,000 other signatures that had been already collected by youth workers this year. With this, they want to force the politicians to increase the punishment for sexual abuse. Normally, there is no talk about sexual abuse and sexual violence against children in Curaçao, but after the case against Balentina, it seems as if the taboo is finally being broken. And that is a milestone in Curaçao.

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PENNSYLVANIA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Anthony J. Petracca was ordained for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in 1985. His career is marked by a number of short-term assignments assisting in parishes and, notably, several assignment gaps: 1988-1989 (not indexed in the Official Catholic Directory), 2000-2010 (Absent on Leave; appears to have been living at a Salt Lake City, UT parish during his leave 2004-2005), 2010-2012 (not indexed) and 2014-2015 (not indexed). He also worked as a college campus minister and as a hospital chaplain.

Petracca was assigned to three Windber, PA parishes and three Johnstown hospitals in July 2017 when he was removed from active ministry due to an allegation of “misconduct” with a minor in the mid-1980s. A diocesan spokesperson said law enforcement was notified and that Petracca would be living in a place where he would not be in contact with children.

Ordained: 1985

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By MARK HAYWARD
New Hampshire Union Leader

CONCORD — It wasn’t a game of sexual conquest, St. Paul’s School said Monday, but officials took disciplinary action against five boys for their role in the latest embarrassment at the prestigious preparatory school.

St. Paul’s School said the five boys inscribed their names and a description of relationships they had with female students on an unspecified crown. In doing so, the school found they violated school rules against recording relationships.

In a letter dated Monday, school Rector Michael Hirschfeld insisted that “the Manville crown incident” did not amount to a game of sexual conquest, and that the boys did not identify the girls. He also said that a school-initiated, independent investigation found that no laws were broken.

However, a top New Hampshire law enforcement official said an investigation into St. Paul’s School has just started.

“We haven’t concluded any aspect of this investigation,” Associate Attorney General Jane Young said Monday.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston.com

By HOLLY RAMER AP, July 17, 2017

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Male prep school students who recorded relationships with girls on a cardboard crown this spring violated campus rules but not the law, the head of the school said Monday.

The crown incident at St. Paul’s School was among those cited by the state attorney general’s office last week when it began an investigation into allegations of sexual assault and misconduct there. The investigation also was prompted by information about a student sexual conquest ritual called the Senior Salute, revealed during a recent graduate’s 2015 trial and the school’s recent release of a report about teachers sexually assaulting students years ago.

In a letter to parents, students and school personnel on Monday, Rector Michael Hirschfeld said the school hired an investigator in May after a student reported a possible sexual competition.

The investigation, which was completed last week, found that five boys violated a school rule by using the crown to document their relationships with girls. The boys listed their own names and were neither competing with each other nor soliciting sexual relationships to be listed, Hirschfeld said, and the investigator found no violations of state law.

Current students have been disciplined, he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Olivia Rudgard, social affairs correspondent
18 JULY 2017

Child victims of sexual abuse are being denied compensation because a Government agency rules that they “consented” to their abuse, a group of charities has warned.

Charities including Barnardo’s, Victim Support and Rape Crisis say that children as young as 12 are being denied compensation because of evidence that they went along with their abuse.

Children aged under 16 cannot consent to sexual activity under the law, unless they are aged over 13 and the defendant reasonably believed they were over 16.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, which gives out compensation of up to £44,000 to victims of sexual abuse and other crimes, uses a different set of criteria to decide whether victims are eligible for compensation.

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MASSACHUSETTS
NBC Boston

By Philip Marcelo

A New York man is suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston for sexual abuse he says he suffered decades ago at a church-affiliated home for orphaned and foster children.

Andre Jones, who’s 51, said on Monday that he was abused in the 1970s by the late Brother Edward Anthony Holmes, a supervisor and counselor at the now-shuttered Nazareth Child Care Center.

Holmes pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of children and other charges in 2006. He was sentenced to five years in prison and died in 2011, said one of Jones’ lawyers, Patrick Noaker.

The Archdiocese of Boston, the fourth-largest archdiocese in the country, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Monday, July 17th, 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A former priest who served nine years in a Michigan prison for sexually abusing two boys is named in a new lawsuit filed on behalf of a Santa Fe man who alleges that Jason Sigler repeatedly attacked him at a church in Las Vegas.

The lawsuit, filed July 5 in 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque, alleges that Sigler sexually abused the former altar boy at Immaculate Conception Church over a period of about two years. The man, identified as John Doe 68, was 9 when the abuse began in 1976, the suit said. It is the 68th clerical abuse lawsuit filed by Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall.

Sigler served nine years in a Michigan prison after pleading guilty in 2003 to molesting two boys. He returned to Albuquerque in 2014. A voice mail message left Friday on a phone number listed in Sigler’s name was not returned.

Sigler, who left the priesthood in 1982, pleaded guilty in Albuquerque to a charge of criminal sexual penetration of a minor in 1983 and received a deferred sentence, according to Journal reports at the time.

The lawsuit names as defendants the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the Servants of the Paraclete, a religious order that operated a now-closed treatment facility for priests in Jemez Springs. The Diocese of Lansing, Mich., sent Sigler to the facility in 1970, according to Journal reports.

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INDIA
India Today

Written by Bijin Jose

A priest from Kalpetta of Kerala’s Wayanad district was arrested for sexually abusing minor boys at a children’s home.

The accused identified as Father Saji Joseph, a resident of Kottiyoor, was absconding for the last three days, reports Malayala Manorama.

Joseph was arrested from Mangalore after the Kerala police launched a manhunt. The priest abused children aged between 14 and 15 years when they were housed at the St Vincent’s Balbhavan in Meenangadi.

Reportedly the sexual abuse took place during their summer vacations in 2016.

Father Joseph was exposed after one of the children shared the ordeal with his parents. Following the revelation, the parents contacted the child helpline. Further investigations revealed that another child too was sexually abused by the priest at the children’s home.

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INDIA
The Indian Express

The official said Joseph has been charged under section 377 (unanatural offences) of the Indian Penal Code, and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act.

A Christian priest in Kerala has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor boys of an orphanage for two years, police said. The victims were staying at ‘Balbhavan’ in Meenangadi where the priest was working, a police official said. Fr Saji Joseph, who was allegedly sexually assaulting the boy’s since March 2015, was arrested following complaints from children’s relatives, the official said.

He was absconding for the past three days and was arrested from Thamarassery on Monday. He was hiding in various places, including Mangaluru, they said. The official said Joseph has been charged under section 377 (unnatural offences) of the Indian Penal Code, and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Two former executives of the Vatican’s pediatric hospital are going on trial on charges they diverted 422,000 euros ($485,000) in hospital donations to renovate the retirement home of the Catholic Church’s retired second-in-command.

Former hospital president Giuseppe Profiti and ex-treasurer Massimo Spina face between three to five years in prison and fines starting at 5,000 euros if found guilty of embezzlement. The penalty can be reduced if the amount diverted is repaid before the trial starts.

Profiti has said the funds he used from the Bambino Gesu (Baby Jesus) foundation to renovate the 300-square meter (3,230-square-foot) apartment of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was an investment, since he intended to use it for future fundraising events for the hospital.

Bertone agreed to host such parties, saying he would take care to ensure that “third parties” – not the foundation – would pay for any renovations needed. Whatever happened to those “third parties” is unclear, but Bertone spent 300,000 euros of his own money for the work on top of the 422,000 that came from the foundation.

The scandal is the latest to strike the Holy See as Francis works to clean up centuries of shady business dealings in the walled-in, 44-hectare (109-acre) offshore city state, the world’s smallest. And it comes as Francis copes with the fallout from the embarrassing exit of his top financial adviser, Cardinal George Pell, who returned to his native Australia last week to face trial on sex abuse charges.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[547 Regensburg Cathedral Sparrows: “Prison, Hell and Concentration Camp”: A final report shows the extent of the mistreatment at the Regensburg Cathedral. There, significantly more children were abused than hitherto known.]

“Gefängnis, Hölle und Konzentrationslager”: Ein Abschlussbericht zeigt das Ausmaß der Misshandlungen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen. Dort wurden deutlich mehr Kinder missbraucht, als bislang bekannt.

Es handelt sich um einen der größten Missbrauchsskandale der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland: Bei den weltberühmten Regensburger Domspatzen sind über Jahrzehnte insgesamt 547 Kinder Opfer von körperlicher und sexueller Gewalt geworden. Das geht aus dem Abschlussbericht zum Missbrauchsskandal bei dem katholischen Chor hervor, der sieben Jahre nach Bekanntwerden der ersten Fälle nun vorgestellt worden ist. Demnach wurden 500 Kinder Opfer körperlicher Gewalt, 67 Kinder zusätzlich auch Opfer sexueller Gewalt.

Da einige Kinder körperliche und sexuelle Gewalt erlitten, liege die Gesamtzahl der Fälle höher als die Zahl der Opfer, sagte der von Bistum und Chor mit der Klärung des Skandals beauftragte Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber. Die Kinder hatten die Zeit bei den Regensburger Domspatzen demnach später unter anderem als “Gefängnis, Hölle und Konzentrationslager” oder als schlimmste Zeit ihres Lebens bezeichnet.

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GERMANY
Deutsche Welle

As a child in the famous Regensburg Domspatzen Catholic boys choir, Alexander Probst was one of hundreds of victims of physical and sexual abuse. Now, with the release of a final report on the abuse, he speaks with DW.

Starting in 1968, Alexander Probst joined the famous Domspatzen Catholic choir in Regensburg, Bavaria. He was in the third grade. He and his fellow students were insulted, beaten and abused on a regular basis. After two years, Probst moved to the choir’s high school. There, a teacher forced him into a secret group. The teacher would meet with the boys, drink beer, smoke, and watch pornos. The man began coming into the boys’ dormitory at night, where he would reach under Probst’s blanket and sexually abuse him. Probst says it must have happened more than a hundred times. When he told his father about the abuse toward the end of the school year, he was immediately taken out of the school.

Decades later, in 2010, Probst became one of the first victims to go public with details of the abuse he suffered during his time with the Domspatzen. For him and others like him, it was the start of a struggle for their suffering to be recognized. At the start of this year, he published a book about what he went through as a child.

Deutsche Welle: You went public with your story seven years ago; how are you doing today?
Alexander Probst: I have found my peace, and that also means that I hope those on the other side [who committed these crimes] find peace. I will continue to help when I can. But this is no longer the driving force in my life, and that feels good.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandfunk

[When in 2010 former singers of the world-famous boy chorus at Regensburg cathedral reported of beatings and sexual violence, the then Regensburg bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller reckoned the allegations as slander. In the meantime hundreds of sufferers have reported their abuse. Today the final report of the investigation is published.]

Als 2010 ehemalige Sänger des weltberühmten Knabenchores von Prügel und sexueller Gewalt berichteten, wertete der damalige Regensburger Bischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller die Vorwürfe als üble Nachrede. Mittlerweile haben sich Hunderte Betroffene gemeldet. Heute wird der Abschlussbericht der Untersuchung veröffentlicht.

Von Tobias Krone

Im vergangenen Jahr sprach Regensburgs Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer aus, was Jahrzehnte lang offiziell verschwiegen worden war:

“Zu den bedrückendsten Erfahrungen meines Bischofsamts und zu den schwersten Lasten gehört die Konfrontation mit den Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Priester und kirchliche Mitarbeiter, durch die Fälle von körperlicher Gewalt vor allem – aber nicht nur – in der Vorschule der Regensburger Domspatzen in Etterzhausen und Pielenhofen.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[Sonderermittler Weber said he classified a total of 547 abuse cases as highly plausible at the Regensburg Cathedral choir of which 500 were children victims of physical violence, 67 were victims of sexual violence. In addition, one would have to assume that there were other victims.]

Von: Kilian Neuwert, Christina Fuchs, Katharina Häringer, Uli Scherr
Stand: 18.07.2017

Sonderermittler Weber sagte, er habe insgesamt 547 Missbrauchsfälle als hochplausibel eingestuft, davon waren 500 Kinder Opfer körperlicher Gewalt, 67 waren Opfer sexueller Gewalt. Einige wurden Kinder wurden sowohl sexuell als auch körperlich misshandelt. Darüber hinaus müsse man davon ausgehen, dass es noch weitere Fälle gegeben habe. Weber geht von einer Dunkelziffer aus, insgesamt könnte es bis zu 700 Fälle geben.

“Gefängnis, Hölle, Konzentrationslager”

Bei den Beschuldigten hat der Sonderermittler 49 Personen mit hoher Plausibilität bewertet. Neun dieser mutmaßlichen Täter von ihnen wurden sexuell übergriffig. Vor allem in der Vorschule habe eine Atmosphäre alltäglicher Gewalt geherrscht. Ihre Zeit in dieser Einrichtung beschrieben die Opfer laut Anwalt Weber als Gefängnis, Hölle und Konzentrationslager, als die schlimmste Zeit ihres Lebens, geprägt von Angst, Gewalt und Hilflosigkeit. Grund für die Gewalt seien meist Verstöße gegen ein willkürlich ausgelegtes Regelwerk gewesen.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Catie Edmondson GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JULY 17, 2017

A survivor of child sex abuse filed a lawsuit Monday against the Archdiocese of Boston for the repeated abuse he says he suffered while living at a Jamaica Plain center for children that was run by the church.

Andre Jones, 50, who now lives in New York, said he was repeatedly sexually assaulted between the ages of 8 and 11 by Brother Edward Anthony “Tony” Holmes at the Nazareth Child Care and Boarding School, a residential program for children who had been removed from their homes by the state.

In 2005, Holmes pleaded guilty to repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting two boys at the center. He was sentenced to five years in prison and died six year ago, records show.

According to the complaint filed in Suffolk County Court, the abuse began when Holmes took Jones and two other boys into a photography darkroom and groped the boys and forced them to perform oral sex on him. Jones alleges that he was assaulted for years.

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MICHIGAN
U.S. News

CORUNNA, Mich. (AP) — A 70-year-old priest accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Michigan church is awaiting sentencing after reaching a plea agreement in the case.

The Rev. David Ernest Fisher pleaded guilty last week to embezzlement. He was initially charged with seven counts, but prosecutors agreed to drop other charges after Fisher pleaded to embezzling between $50,000 and $100,000.

Fisher is jailed ahead of sentencing, which is Sept. 22 in Shiawassee County Circuit Court.

Fisher was pastor for 23 years at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Owosso, 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. Fisher retired in 2015 and moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Catholic Diocese of Lansing has said $450,000 was missing.

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MASSACHUSETTS
U.S. News

BOSTON (AP) — A New York man is suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston for sexual abuse he says he suffered at an orphanage as a child.

Fifty-one-year-old Andre Jones said Monday he was abused by the late Brother Edward Anthony Holmes, a supervisor at Nazareth Child Care Center.

Holmes pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse and other charges in 2006. He was sentenced to five years in prison. He died in 2011.

Jones says he lived at Nazareth from 1975 to 1978, starting when he was 8. The center was a residential program for children awaiting foster care that operated on archdiocese land.

Jones and his lawyers announced the lawsuit in front of Suffolk County Superior Courthouse in Boston. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
NHPR

By PETER BIELLO

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office announced Thursday it’s launching a criminal investigation into St. Paul’s School.

The elite boarding school has a history of sexual abuse by faculty, which it documented in a report published in May. More recently, sexual misconduct allegations have been made toward students on the campus, including high school seniors taking part in ritualistic games of sexual conquest.

To understand how the state’s involvement alters the legal landscape, NHPR’s Peter Biello spoke to Buzz Scherr, professor of law at the University of New Hampshire.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com July 17, 2017 |

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes appointed Monsignor James L.G. Benavente as a member of two advisory teams, effective July 16 at 6 p.m., according to the Archdiocese of Agana.

Byrnes’ latest official dispatch named Benavente as a member of the Presbyteral Council and College of Consultors of the Archdiocese of Agaña while at the same time continuing to “serve in his capacity as the delegate of the coadjutor archbishop for church patrimony.”

Benavente last month sent a letter to Byrnes, resigning from his position as delegate to the archbishop for church patrimony, with oversight over archdiocese properties, working with the reconstituted Archdiocesan Finance Council.

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NEW YORK
SOME PEOPLE LIVE MORE IN 20 YEARS…

JULY 17, 2017

ASHER LOVY

Author’s Note: Here’s the link to the Facebook event for this Sunday’s protest of the Novominsker Rebbe’s, and by extension Agudah’s, rape-enabling policies: https://www.facebook.com/events/261681534310970/

I started off in activism, much in the same way every other activist starts, with a young, optimistic, incredibly naïve idea of what I could accomplish if I tried hard enough. The problem: children were being abused, suffering horribly at the hands of people who violated them in ways that would viscerally incense anyone possessed of a conscience. Surely the problem was one of ignorance. It seemed to me, as it seems to many young, upstart activists, that when apprised of the horrifying reality and pervasiveness of child sexual abuse, people of conscience, people who are otherwise God-fearing fellow Orthodox Jews, could possibly stand idly by and allow such injustices to continue. No, it must be ignorance, I figured, and ignorance can be educated.

At the time I was confused about my place in the Jewish faith. I’d been raised solidly Charedi in Boro Park, taught from a young age to keep shabbos and kashrus, to daven three times a day, to value torah, and to respect gedolim. Gedolim were the closest thing we had to prophets. They didn’t talk to God, but after a lifetime of devotion to God, the study of Torah, and living piously, living as an example for the rest of us to follow, surely they were the most qualified to tell us what God wanted of us.

But that sort of devotion surely must come at a price, a certain detachment from the mundane, from the day-to-day of our lay-lives. It’s no wonder they didn’t for anything about the rampant sexual abuse in their communities, no wonder that when they were handed a case to adjudicate they made the incorrect choice. It wasn’t their fault, they simply didn’t understand the exactly nature of the problem they were adjudication. They simply didn’t understand what it means for a victim to feel so abandoned, betrayed, and violated by their friends, family, and community that the only apparent way out is suicide. They’d surely they’d never experienced being in such a mental space.

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

GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Gaynor D. Daleno | The Guam Daily Post Jul 17, 2017

Monsignor James Benavente, previously stripped of his role as head of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, has moved back to the sphere of influence in Guam’s Catholic Church leadership.

Benavente has been named member of the Presbyteral Council and College of Consultors, of the Archdiocese of Agana.

Each diocese has a presbyteral council, comprising a group of priests, which functions as the senate of the bishop and helps the bishop in the governance of the diocese, based on church laws, according to the Vatican website.

Archbishop Michael Byrnes made the announcement Sunday, and Benavente’s appointment went into effect the same day.

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

UTAH
BuzzFeed News

Posted on July 17, 2017

Zoe Tillman
BuzzFeed News Reporter

A Utah woman’s lawsuit against a former federal judge accusing him of raping her more than three decades ago is now at the center of a legal fight over how child sexual abuse claims are handled in the state, and whether victims can seek justice for old alleged crimes.

Last year, Terry Mitchell sued Richard Roberts — then the chief judge of the federal trial court in Washington, DC — accusing him of taking advantage of her age and repeatedly forcing her to have sex with him in 1981, when he was a 27-year-old prosecutor and she was a 16-year-old witness in one of his cases.

Roberts, who has since left the bench, denied the allegations, although he admitted having an “intimate” relationship with Mitchell. His lawyers argued that regardless of what happened, Mitchell had long missed the legal window to sue.

The case has turned into a broader dispute over a Utah law cited by Mitchell’s lawyers that revived expired child sexual abuse claims in the state. Roberts’ lawyers argue that Utah lawmakers lacked authority to resurrect civil claims where the clock to file had already run out.

The Utah Supreme Court will now decide if the revival law is valid. If the justices conclude that the state legislature ran afoul of its authority and they strike down the law, “it’s going to do an injustice to adult survivors everywhere,” said Lani Wallace, an attorney in Utah who works with child sexual abuse survivors.

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

WEST VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Lawsuit alleges bishops covered up teen’s 2005 Utah conviction for sex offenses and recommended teen as babysitter for young families

Sexually violent offender, Michael Jensen, is serving 35 to 75-year sentence for child sexual abuse

Evidence points to widespread cover-up

In a stunning victory for nine victims of child sexual abuse in the Mormon Church, the West Virginia Supreme Court on Friday formally overturned a lower court, ruling there was evidence that high-ranking Mormon officials covered up for a sexually violent predator for years, allowing him to molest children in Utah and West Virginia.

According to the lawsuit, filed in Berkeley County, West Virginia, Mormon officials knew that a now-convicted sexually violent predator, Michael Jensen, had been convicted of sex offenses in Utah in 2005, allegedly molested his sister, and posed a risk to children—yet they still promoted him and recommended him as a babysitter to families and as a boarder in their homes.

[Herald-Mail]

The Supreme Court determined that this evidence was admissible and could be used to support the plaintiffs’ case.

The court also allowed evidence that actions taken by the Mormon Church, including a sexual abuse helpline, were made with the intention of protecting the Church from lawsuits, instead of preventing more abuse

“This is a cover-up of ‘Spotlight’ magnitude,” said Joelle Casteix of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), the nation’s largest support group for men and women sexually abused in religious groups and institutions. “Fortunately, the victims will now get their day in court.”

The West Virginia Supreme Court’s 78-page opinion outlines Jensen’s trail of abuse from 2004 to 2012, including a juvenile conviction for sexual abuse in 2005 in Utah, and allegations of abuse against his sisters and others after arriving in West Virginia.

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MEXICO
AM

[In the case of the former priest accused of sexual abuse of minors in a private school, the bishop of the Diocese of Irapuato, Enrique Díaz Díaz, announced that he has met with the accused’s relatives, but not with the victims.]

En el caso del ex sacerdote acusado de abuso sexual a menores de un colegio particular, el obispo de la Diócesis de Irapuato, Enrique Díaz Díaz dio a conocer que se ha reunido con familiares del acusado, pero no con las víctimas.

A su llegada como Obispo, indicó que desconocía el tema pero que se pondría en contacto con los afectados, por lo que al paso de su gestión ha buscado a los involucrados para dar seguimiento al caso.

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