ABUSE TRACKER

MALLORCA
Mallorca Zeitung

[Ex-Prior denies new allegations of child abuse.]

24.11.2016

Ein ehemaliger Vorsteher des Klosters Lluc hat vor Gericht die gegen ihn erhobenen Vorwürfe des sexuellen Missbrauchs an mehreren Internatsschülern kategorisch zurückgewiesen. Nachdem ein erstes Verfahren wegen Verjährung der mutmaßlichen Straftaten eingestellt worden war, musste sich der Priester am 10. November wegen eines weiteren Falls erstmals den Fragen der Richterin in Inca stellen, wie die MZ-Tageszeitung “Diario de Mallorca” am Donnerstag (24.11.) berichtet.

Die neuen Vorwürfe erheben die Eltern eines ehemaligen Internatsschülers im Kloster Lluc. In den Jahren 2012 und 2013 soll der damalige Prior des Klosters einen zu der Zeit siebenjährigen sowie zwei weitere Jungen in das Büro zitiert und an den Genitalien berührt haben. Die anderen beiden mutmaßlichen Opfer bestreiten die Vorfälle.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

RABBI Yaakov Glasman of St Kilda Hebrew Congregation has become Australia’s new “top rabbi”.

He was elected as president of the Rabbinic Council of Australia and New Zealand (RCANZ) at its first annual general meeting in Sydney last week.

The body, representing more than 100 congregational rabbis, was established in the wake of last year’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which saw the integrity of a number of senior spiritual leaders being questioned and led to calls for an overhaul of existing rabbinic structures, including the existing Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia.

According to Rabbi Glasman, the RCANZ aims to start afresh with new leaders and a determination to make sure rabbis are professional and accountable.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

With the filing of two more complaints Wednesday, the Archdiocese of Agana now faces a total of nine civil suits filed with the Superior Court of Guam that allege, among other things, child sexual abuse by priests of local parishes.

The first complaint, from 63-year-old Chalan Pago resident Paul Joseph Borja, stated that Borja was molested by a local parish priest when he was serving as an altar boy at the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in 1965.

In court documents filed Wednesday, Borja alleges that the now-deceased Rev. Antonio C. Cruz, who served as a priest for the Chalan Pago Parish at the time, molested and abused him.

The allegations presented in the suit state that Rev. Cruz had obtained permission from Borja’s mother for Borja to meet Cruz at his residence on the second floor of the Chalan Pago Parish. According to court documents, the events that transpired that night constituted sexual abuse that included Cruz performing oral copulation on the then-12-year-old Borja.

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CANADA
Local Xpress

by: Ian Fairclough

Weird. That’s how defence lawyer Clayton Ruby described the trial of Rev. Brent Hawkes during closing arguments in Kentville provincial court Wednesday.

“This is a weird case, and the evidence is weird,” he said, adding the weirdness will make it a proceeding that will be remembered years from now.

“There’s a theme through my submissions, to watch for the weird case,” he said. “Because the weirdness tells you things that ordinary cases don’t tell you.”

Ruby conceded that he didn’t have the evidence to show the three Crown witnesses were lying, but “we do have an abundance of evidence that their testimony is unreliable.”

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CANADA
Global News

Canadian Press

KENTVILLE, N.S. – Closing arguments were made today in the trial of a prominent Toronto pastor accused of performing sex acts on a teenage boy more than 40 years ago in Nova Scotia.

Brent Hawkes, a high-profile rights activist, has pleaded not guilty to charges of indecent assault and gross indecency.

The charges stem from events in the mid-1970s, when he was a teacher in his mid-20s in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.

The trial in Kentville, N.S., has heard emotional testimony from a middle-age man who said Hawkes led him down a hallway naked during a drunken get-together at his trailer and forced oral sex on him in a bedroom when he was about 16 years old.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

ALY THOMSON
KENTVILLE, N.S. — The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016

Brent Hawkes’ lawyer told his gross indecency trial Wednesday that the evidence against the Toronto pastor is “weird,” but the prosecutor contended that doesn’t make it any less plausible.

Defence lawyer Clayton Ruby said in his closing argument that the entire case will be remembered as weird, amid “an abundance of evidence” that the testimony of the witnesses is unreliable.

“The weirdness tells you things that ordinary cases don’t tell you,” Ruby told provincial court Judge Alan Tufts in Kentville, N.S.

A middle-age man testified last week that Hawkes led him down a hallway naked during a drunken get-together at his trailer in Greenwood, N.S., in the mid-1970s, and forced oral sex on him in a bedroom when he was about 16 years old. Two other men have also testified they attended the get-together as teenagers, and one said he witnessed Hawkes performing oral sex on the complainant.

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CANADA
Daily Xtra

Matthew DiMera

“This is a weird case, and the evidence is weird,” defence lawyer Clayton Ruby said today in his closing arguments in the Brent Hawkes sexual assault trial.

Hawkes, a longtime leader of Toronto’s gay community and recipient of the Order of Canada, is facing one charge of indecent assault and one charge of gross indecency for allegedly having oral sex with a 16-year-old more than 40 years ago in Kings County, NS, when he was a high school teacher.

“I have not got the evidence to show that the three witnesses are lying,” Ruby told provincial court Judge Alan Tufts. “But we do have an abundance of evidence that their testimony is unreliable.”

The Crown’s case against Hawkes is based almost entirely on eyewitness testimonies from three witnesses whose identities are protected under a publication ban.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

24 November, 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published more than 70 submissions received from a range of individuals and organisations in response to its consultation paper on criminal justice issues.

The consultation paper was released on 5 September this year. It elicited responses from survivors, advocacy and support groups, legal practitioner representative bodies, Directors of Public Prosecutions, academics and governments.

Royal Commission CEO Philip Reed said the large number of submissions reflected the importance the community placed on improving the criminal justice system.

“The Royal Commission has long been aware of the need to better understand the contemporary response of the criminal justice system to institutional child sexual abuse and identify ways it can be made more effective,” Mr Reed said.

“These submissions will be instrumental in informing our final recommendations on criminal justice.”

The Royal Commission has invited a range of groups and individuals to speak to their submissions as part of a further Royal Commission public hearing on criminal justice issues, commencing on Monday 28 November.

The consultation paper covered issues such as joint trials, admissibility of an accused’s ‘bad character’ and matters such as police communication and their response to reporting of child sexual abuse, prosecution responses, delays and sentencing.

The consultation paper and its submissions form an important part of the Royal Commission’s wider work in criminal justice, which include an issues paper, public roundtables, research and a previous public hearing.

Read the submissions.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith

Prosecutors are being trained to be more understanding of abuse and its victims ahead of a predicted flood of court cases related to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

The harrowing story of Andy Kershaw, who was subjected to brutality and abuse after being taken into care in England at the age of eight has been made into a film by the training consultancy Safe To Say.

The film, commissioned by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), will now form part of its staff training.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

Joel Adams , Reporter / Argus_JoelA

AN INQUIRY has been launched into the Church’s handling of a settlement paid to a woman who was abused as a child by the wartime Bishop of Chichester.

Liberal Democrat peer and QC Lord Carlile of Berriew has been named as the independent reviewer into the case, and his report is expected next summer.

However, there is no promise that the final review will be made available to the public.

The formal terms of reference insist: “ The Church of England will determine whether the full report can be sufficiently redacted or otherwise anonymised to enable its publication without risking disclosure of the complainant’s identity.”

In February The Argus exclusively told the victim’s story. She was sat on the bishop’s knee at the age of five and molested while being told it was a secret because God loved her.

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AUSTRALIA
Sunbury Leader

SUNBURY’S Salesian College will host a public apology to victims and loved ones affected by decades of historical sexual abuse there.

Australia-Pacific Province of the Salesians of Don Bosco provincial Father Greg Chambers will present the apology on December 8 to victims and their families in gardens in front of the Rupertswood Mansion, where a plaque will be placed on a “sorry stone”.

Years of abuse at the then boarding school at Rupertswood Mansion from the 1970s to ’90s has led to past priests being imprisoned, while other staff associated with the college at the time have been ordered to pay substantial compensation.

The dark history of Salesian College has again come to light with the ongoing Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Salesian College principal Mark Brockhus said the apology and monument was a starting point in confronting the college’s past which had impacted on dozens of victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Christopher Knaus

Anti-child abuse campaigners have urged federal and state governments to avoid playing political games with the national redress scheme, after Victoria said the federal government for “dragging its heels” and keeping survivors in the dark.

The council of Australian governments meeting early next month could be critical to the future of the national redress scheme, which was a core recommendation of the royal commission in September last year.

Social services minister Christian Porter announced the proposed $4.3 billion model of redress earlier this month, which allowed states, territories, and institutions to opt in or out. But most states and territories remain cautious and are yet to fully commit.

This week, NSW, Queensland, Victoria, and the ACT told Guardian Australia they were still waiting on further detail from the federal government on how the scheme would work.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Nicola Anderson
PUBLISHED
24/11/2016

Former Irish President Mary McAleese has described her doctorate study in canon law as “sleeping in the same bed as a python”.

“You never finish it, you just get to the point where you have to abandon it,” Mrs McAleese said.

She spent the last three years living the quiet life in convents and seminaries in the Vatican with a quip that her social life was “very active” given the 11pm curfew.

Her studies have “filled her head up with crap”, the former President said. …

Instead, she wants to look at the hierarchical structure of the Church, which she says is “not serving its purpose”.

She slated the Vatican’s recent threat to withdraw from the UN Convention on Children’s Rights over its discomfort in being cross-examined on issues like child sexual abuse.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

[with video]

KENTWOOD, Mich. (WOOD) — A pastor at a Grand Rapids church was arrested after police say he tried to meet an 11-year-old girl for sex.

David Robert Diehl, 39, of Kentwood, was arraigned Wednesday on child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime charges.

Diehl was arrested on Nov. 22 after he responded to an undercover officer’s post on Grand Rapids Craigslist, which warned about a poster offering “sex with daughters.”

Michigan State Police say Diehl is a pastor at Church on Fire in Grand Rapids.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Anne Connolly

Bishop Greg Thompson says members of the Newcastle Anglican diocese acted like a Sopranos-style protection racket when it dealt with sex abuse complaints.

“What’s particularly distinctive about the story of abuse in this diocese is the habituated protection of perpetrators and the undermining of survivors as they came forward. It was like a religious protection racket,” Bishop Thompson told 7.30.

“You could call it like a religious Sopranos, people who pretended to be religious behaved appallingly. An organised crime against survivors.”

The bishop also told how he was abused by two senior priests — including former bishop Ian Shevill — at an R-rated movie in the 1970s.

“The abuse was groping and touching and grooming me to see sexual assault as a normal thing, as an acceptable thing and as part of becoming a person in the church. That’s how corrosive it was in that moment,” he told 7.30.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
jthomas@kcstar.com

A defamation lawsuit filed against a national Catholic organization by a former altar boy whose sexual abuse case was part of a $10 million settlement with the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese is now awaiting a federal appellate court ruling.

The lawsuit, originally filed by Jon David Couzens in Jackson County Circuit Court in 2013, named as defendants the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights; its president and CEO, Bill Donohue; the KC Catholic League; and two Kansas City men who were officers of the now-dissolved local organization.

Couzens alleged that Donohue published false statements about him in news releases, on the Catholic League’s website and in documents distributed to churches. The lawsuit also accused the defendants of inflicting emotional distress.

The Catholic League, which is based in New York City and describes itself as the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, argued that the case belonged in federal court and was successful in its motion to move the lawsuit to U.S. District Court. That court dismissed the lawsuit last year, ruling that the material was first published in New York, where the one-year statute of limitations for defamation claims had expired. Missouri has a two-year statute of limitations.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Robert Patrick St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • The mother of a mentally disabled St. Francois County man sued the United States in federal court here Tuesday, alleging that a priest had abused the man when he was 8 and living in Hawaii.

The lawsuit says that the Rev. Mark Matson worked for the U.S. military under a contract at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii as a priest and religious teacher.

Matson was a Catholic priest who was a member of the Theatines religious order, based in Colorado. He was ordained in 1976.

The family of the alleged victim was stationed at Tripler at the time.

The suit says that Matson sexually assaulted the boy at least six times after Sunday services in 1997-98, raping and spanking him. The first time, he asked the boy if he wanted to see a magic trick, the suit says. Matson threatened the boy with hell if he told anyone what happened, and also told the boy that his parents knew and approved, the suit says.

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AUSTRALIA
Mercury

Rebekah Ison, Australian Associated Press
November 24, 2016

An Anglican bishop says he’s received warnings from parishioners that he is not safe in his own diocese after he revealed claims of his abuse as a young man by senior church clerics.

Newcastle bishop Greg Thompson said cathedral parishioners had turned their backs on him, and screws had been placed in his staff members’ tyres.

He said the message was that he would face public harassment and public shame if he did not “follow what they want me to do,” he told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Thursday.

As bishop of a community plagued by systemic child sexual abuse over decades, he says a national church response is needed as he says the Anglican “house is burning”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By David Marchese

The Anglican bishop of Newcastle, Greg Thompson, has told a royal commission a priest said in the 1970s he would “get ahead” in the church if he offered sexual favours.

Bishop Thompson was the final witness of the child abuse royal commission’s hearing into Newcastle’s Anglican diocese that is investigating widespread abuse carried out over decades.

The current bishop began his evidence by outlining his childhood, breaking down at times when he recalled being sexually abused by two male boarders staying at his home in his early teens.

Bishop Thompson explained how he got to know a priest, Eric Barker, in Newcastle in the 1970s who began to assault him when he was 19.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
WBTW

By Kendall McGee
Published: November 22, 2016

HARTSVILLE, SC (WBTW) – Hartsville police say they have arrested a Bishopville pastor for indecent exposure after several reports of a “flasher” in areas near Coker College.

According to Lt. Mark Blair with Hartsville police, officers responded to Second Street near Coker College Saturday at 8 p.m. after receiving a call about a man exposing himself to a woman.

Police found the vehicle the victim described and spoke to the suspect, who later confessed to the crime and several other incidents in the area.

Incident reports from Hartsville police list multiple reports of a man in a white car exposing himself to women near Coker College.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father appointed:

Rev. Gerard W. Battersby and Rev. Robert J. Fisher as auxiliaries of the archdiocese of Detroit (area 10,104, population 4,266,416, Catholics 1,220,724, priests 605, permanent deacons 221, religious 1,068), United States of America.

Bishop-elect Battersby was born in 1960 in Detroit and was ordained a priest in 1998. He holds a licentiate in pastoral theology from the “Sacred Heart” seminary of Detroit, and is completing his doctoral studies in spiritual theology at the St. Thomas University, Rome. He has served as parish vicar and pastor of various parishes in Detroit, director of formation at the “Sacred Heart” major seminary, vicar forane and member of the presbyteral council. He is currently parish priest of St. Mary of Redford and vice-rector of the “Sacred Heart” major seminary of Detroit.

Bishop-elect Fisher was born in 1959 in Detroit and was ordained a priest in 1992. He holds a bachelor’s degree in management services from the University of Detroit and studied philosophy and completed his studies in theology at the “Sacred Heart” seminary of Detroit. He has served as parish vicar, director of priestly vocations for the archdiocese of Detroit, pastor of a number of parishes and member of the presbyteral council. He is currently pastor of the national Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica in Royal Oak.

Rev. Timothy Edward Freyer as auxiliary of the diocese of Orange in California (area 2,025, population 3,114,363, Catholics 1,536,438, priests 276, permanent deacons 219, religious 420), United States of America. The bishop-elect was born in 1963 in Los Angeles, United States of America, and was ordained a priest in 1989. He carried out his ecclesiastical studies in the “Saint John” Seminary, Camarillo. He has served as parish vicar in Los Alamitos, San Clemente and Laguna Beach, and parish priest in Fullerton and Anaheim. He is currently vicar for the clergy.

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MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

Niraj Warikoo , Detroit Free Press November 23, 2016

Pope Francis has named two priests in metro Detroit to be auxiliary bishops, replacing a retiring bishop and an outgoing one.

The Archdiocese of Detroit, which has about 1.3 million Catholics in a six-country region in southeast Michigan, announced today that Rev. Gerard Battersby, 56, and Rev. Robert Fisher, 57, will be ordained in January as the archdiocese’s 29th and 30th assistant bishops. Last year, Auxilary Bishop Francis Reiss retired and last month, Bishop Michael J. Byrnes was named to lead the archdiocese in Guam.

“All of us in the Archdiocese of Detroit are deeply grateful that Pope Francis has named Father Battersby and Father Fisher, two well-loved and respected priests in our archdiocese, to be auxiliary bishops in our local church,” Archbishop of Detroit Allen Vigneron, said in a statement released today by the Archdiocese. “Both of these new bishops bring a rich set of gifts and talents to the roles they will play in leading our community in our mission to share the Good News of Jesus.”

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TENNESSEE
Raw Story

DAVID EDWARDS
23 NOV 2016

Two Tennessee churches — both with current or former leaders connected to sexual abuse — have decided to restructure a merger in light of recent allegations.

Earlier this week, the Memphis Police Department confirmed that it was investigating a city of Memphis library employee, Christopher Carwile, after he was accused of sexually assaulting at least three children while working as a youth minister at the Church at Schilling Farms (formerly known as Immanuel Baptist Church) 18 years ago.

After learning that Carwile was working at the Memphis library, Michael Hansen, his brother Brooks and childhood friend Kenny Stubblefield came forward with sexual abuse allegations dating back to 1998. Carwile was placed on administrative by the library pending the outcome of the investigation.

Michael Hansen told the Commercial Appeal that the victims informed Schilling Farms Pastor Scott Payne about the assault. And although Payne fired Carwile at the time, Hansen said that the church refused to file a police report.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Newcastle’s Anglican bishop, who has gone public with his own alleged abuse at the hands of clergy, is expected to give evidence at the last day of a royal commission hearing into the diocese on Thursday.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has previously heard Bishop Greg Thompson faces opposition from some prominent parishioners, who question timing of his abuse claims.

His expected evidence on Thursday will come the day after accused child sex abuser and former Dean of Newcastle Graeme Lawrence testified allegations against him were not true.

The royal commission heard he and his male partner sent cards to a teen, known as CKH, who alleges he first had three-way “sex” with the pair at 17 in the early 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
Mercury

CATRYNA BILYK, Mercury
November 23, 2016

LIKE many Tasmanians, I was shocked and appalled by evidence given at the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.

All abuse of children is horrendous, but it is particularly abhorrent for abuse to be committed by people entrusted with the care of those children.

I welcome the Turnbull Government’s decision to fund trauma counselling and other support, and to appoint an advisory committee of survivors and their supporters.

However, I have concerns about the Government’s proposed opt-in redress scheme. Under the proposed scheme, states, territories and institutions responsible for allowing child sexual abuse to take place can opt-in. This means if the institutions that perpetrated the abuse do not want to pay, they won’t have to. This is not good enough.

Leonie Sheedy from Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) described allowing the states to opt-in as a cop-out. We must do better.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Toby Mann
Australian Associated Press

A former Marist Brother accused of sexually abusing young boys at Catholic boarding schools was a strict disciplinarian who used violence on his alleged victims, a court has heard.

Brett O’Connor was a dormitory master at a school on Sydney’s North Shore when he allegedly began indecently assaulting a 12-year-old boy under his charge and left his alleged victim frozen in fear in his bed, Sydney’s District Court heard on Wednesday.

He has pleaded not guilty to 18 charges relating to the alleged abuse of three victims at two schools in the late 1980s, crown prosecutor David Patch said.

“The accused was a very strict disciplinarian and sometimes used violence on the boys,” Mr Patch said.

One alleged victim was hit with a cricket bat, the court heard.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Ruaidhrí Giblin
PUBLISHED
23/11/2016

A former priest who sexually abused his niece more than 30 years ago has avoided jail for a second time, despite an appeal by prosecutors in a case described as “rare and exceptional”.

The 60-year-old, whose details cannot be published to protect the victim’s identity, had pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexually assaulting his niece on dates in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

She was aged between six and 13 and he was in his 20s. He was given wholly suspended 18-month sentences by Judge Pat McCartan on March 1.

The Director of Public Prosecutions sought a review of the man’s sentence on grounds that it was unduly lenient. However, the Court of Appeal found yesterday that the sentencing judge acted within his discretion.

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CANADA
Local Xpress

The Crown had wanted to bring forward witnesses who would say that Hawkes made alcohol available to students who visited his home, but says the defence seems to be suggesting that it was available.

While he lost an application Tuesday to bring forward rebuttal evidence, the Crown attorney in the Brent Hawkes trial says he thinks he was able to get his point across because of admissions the defence made during the application.

Bob Morrison had been attempting to have two former West Kings District High School students testify that Hawkes, who is accused of indecent assault and gross indecency against a student at the school when he was a teacher there in the mid-1970s, made alcohol available to them when they were at his home for gatherings.

Hawkes had testified during his Kentville provincial court trial that he didn’t want students driving home drunk and didn’t give students alcohol, but added that didn’t mean they didn’t sneak some booze at events at his home that were attended by students and teachers. He said he only gave alcohol to teachers.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By ALY THOMSON
The Canadian Press
Tues., Nov. 22, 2016

KENTVILLE, N.S.—Brent Hawkes’ lawyers conceded Tuesday that teenagers drank alcohol at the Toronto pastor’s Nova Scotia trailer during the mid 1970s, much to the prosecutor’s surprise.

Crown lawyer Bob Morrison had intended to call rebuttal witnesses to testify that other students, and not only the three witnesses who testified last week at Hawkes’ gross indecency trial, drank alcohol at his Greenwood, N.S., home.

But the defence said they didn’t disagree with the Crown on that point, so there was no need to hear from the witnesses.

“It was a bit of a surprise,” Morrison said outside the Kentville, N.S., courtroom on Tuesday, the fifth day of the trial. “That’s not what I had recollected (Hawkes’) evidence was . . . but the defence did concede that yes, in fact, he was aware that was taking place.”

Morrison and defence lawyer Clayton Ruby will make closing arguments Wednesday in a case that has challenged the memory of witnesses as they recounted events that happened more than 40 years ago.

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CANADA
CNW

Claims process begins in residential schools settlement affecting people who attended schools in Cartwright, North West River, Makkovik, Nain and St. Anthony that were run by the International Grenfell Association or the Moravian Church, announces Koskie Minsky, LLP.

The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador authorized this notice.

This is not a solicitation from a lawyer.

ST. JOHN’S, NL, Nov. 22, 2016 /CNW/ – The $50 million settlement (“Settlement”) between the Federal Government of Canada (“Canada”) and former students of the Schools in Cartwright, North West River, Makkovik, Nain or St. Anthony run by the International Grenfell Association (“IGA”) or the Moravian Church (the “Schools”) has now been approved by the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador and the claims process has now started. The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador authorized this press release, and other forms of notice, as part of a notification program to inform former students about their legal rights in this class action settlement.

Former students sued Canada about the management and operation of the Schools and the harms and abuses committed against the children who attended them. The lawsuits claimed that Canada exposed former students to child abuse, neglect, and physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse. The Plaintiffs claimed that Canada did not protect students’ physical and mental well-being even though it was its duty to do so.

The application to have these Schools added to the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (“IRSSA”) was denied. These Schools are not considered eligible Indian Residential Schools in IRSSA, and former students were not able to get compensation for attendance or pursue abuse claims as part of the Individual Assessment Process in that settlement.

Instead, the claims for these Schools were litigated for almost nine years and the lawyers for the Plaintiffs began presenting their claims at the trial which started in September 2015 and was adjourned in February 2016 to allow for settlement discussions.

The representative former students and Canada then reached the $50 million Settlement that provides compensation for former students who attended. The Settlement has now been approved by the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Unless they have previously removed themselves from the lawsuit, the Settlement is available for anyone who was alive as of November 23, 2006 and who attended the IGA or Moravian Schools in the following locations between the dates listed (“Class Members”):

i Cartwright – April 1, 1949 to June 30, 1964

ii Northwest River – April 1, 1949 to June 30, 1980

iii Nain – April 1, 1949 to June 30, 1973

iv Makkovik – April 1, 1949 to June 30, 1960

v St. Anthony – April 1, 1949 to June 30, 1979

The class action no longer includes claims for the “Family Class” (family members of the former students who attended the schools). These claims were discontinued at trial by a decision of the Court. There is no compensation available for the Family Class in this Settlement and any further claims are now barred.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By David Marchese

A defrocked Anglican dean has vehemently denied at a royal commission hearing that he was the leader of a group of child abusers, but admitted he failed to act when he “suspected” a priest in his charge was having sex with a teenage boy.

The ex-dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, has returned to the witness box in Sydney after beginning his evidence last week when he was questioned intensely about the events leading up to his defrocking in 2012.

Mr Lawrence has been labelled one of the most influential priests in Newcastle’s history, with a strong sphere of supporters that rallied behind him during his time as dean of the city from 1984 until 2008.

The former priest was questioned at the child abuse royal commission today about his time as a rector in Griffith, where a man known as CKH claims he was sexually abused by Mr Lawrence as a teenager.

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GUAM
Marianas Variety

23 Nov 2016 Mar-Vic Cagurangan – For Variety

HAGÅTÑA — Although the Archdiocese of Agana has officially taken over the Redemptoris Mater Serminary building from the Neocatecumental Way, the conflicting accounts of acquisition and ownership of the property have become a contest of who’s telling the truth.

Dr. Ricardo Eusebio, a former member of the recently abolished RMS board, said the ownership of the property has stirred confusion that was caused by a “gigantic mountain of lies.”

“There was no truth to the accusations by various organizations that the property was ‘given away’ to the Neocatecumental Way and alienated from the Archdiocese of Agana,” Eusebio said.

At a press conference on Monday, Eusebio also lambasted Mother Superior Dawn Marie, head of the Carmelite Order, who said last week the dispute over the Yona property and the sex scandals in the church have created a “toxic environment” that forced the Carmelite nuns to end their 50-year mission on Guam.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Nov 23, 2016

By Nestor Licanto

Archbishop Michael Byrnes is taking no chances in asserting his control over the Redemptoris Mater Seminary. He filed a complaint on November 18 in the superior court against any others who might try to claim ownership over the seminary.

The filings state it is meant to be an ancillary measure to protect and preserve the plaintiff – Archbishop Byrnes’ – rights with regard to the Yona properties, and that any future claimants, including members of the Neocatechumenal Way, have no enforceable legal or equity interest. The ten-page complaint also lays-out the background of the seminary’s purchase by the archdiocese, and seeks the court’s recognition that Archbishop Byrnes has sole and exclusive legal title.

The court action follows document filings at land management last week in which Byrnes also asserted control over the seminary and removed the previous board made up of members from the Neocatechumenal Way.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Nov 23, 2016

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

And now there are nine – two more complaints have been filed in the Superior Court of Guam involving allegations of molestation by local clergy.

63-year-old Paul Joseph Borja alleges when he was 12 he was an altar boy for the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in Chalan Pago. He says Father Antonio Cruz, who is now deceased, sexually molested and abused him. He added that when he moved to California with his family in 1968 Fr. Cruz just happened to be visiting the state and his parents invited him to their house for dinner. Borja says he went for a walk with him during which Fr. Cruz allegedly gave him an envelope with $50 inside. He says he was under the impression that the priest was trying to buy his silence.

The next victim to come forward is 59-year-old Vicente T. San Nicolas. He alleges that when he was a teenager and an altar boy at San Isidro Catholic Church in Malojloj he was molested repeatedly by Fr. Louis Brouillard who was serving as a priest there. He alleges the sexual abuse occurred over a five year period. San Nicola alleges Fr. Brouillard would ask his parents’ permission to stay the night at the Carmelite Monastery in Malojloj where the priest was living. He alleges Fr. Brouillard would walk around naked and would show him collections of various nude photos of minor boys that were taken by the priest.

Court document state that although he never spoke about it, he believes the priest also molested his now deceased brother who would also spend time at the convent. San Nicolas also alleged Fr. Brouillard also sexually molested him when he was a boy scout and the priest was a scout master.

Additionally San Nicolas alleges that he told a Deacon Jeff Barcinas about how he was victimized, but the deacon told him there was nothing we could do and the archdiocese has never taken any responsibility for Brouillard misconduct.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com November 23, 2016

Two new child sex abuse lawsuits, filed Wednesday afternoon, allege that deceased Catholic priest Antonio C. Cruz and former priest Louis Brouillard separately molested two former altar boys in the 1960s and 1970s.

Brouillard, the Archdiocese of Agana and as many as 50 other defendants are named in the latest batch of lawsuits, filed by attorney David Lujan, of the law firm Lujan & Wolff. Cruz, who died in 1986 at the age of 62, is not named as a defendant.

There are now a total of nine lawsuits filed against the church and clergy since a law was signed Sept. 23, lifting the civil statute of limitations for those accused of abusing children, as well as the institutions that supported them.

Paul Joseph Borja, now 63, alleges that Cruz sexually molested him at the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in Chalan Pago when he was about 12, around the year 1965.

Borja, a resident of Chalan Pago, alleges that Cruz tried to buy his silence with $50 about three years later, or around 1968, when they met in California.

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AUSTRALIA
PerthNow

Elle Farcic, PerthNow
November 22, 2016

A FORMER Anglican priest accused of molesting five boys warned one of his victims to keep what had happened to himself because “God doesn’t care for liars”, a jury has been told.

Raymond Sydney Cheek is on trial in the District Court accused of assaulting the boys, who are not know to each other, between 1955 and 1985.

Four of the men came forward in recent years after news of Mr Cheek being charged over an incident that allegedly occurred in Williams in 1985 became public.

That victim claims Mr Cheek undressed him and rubbed his body against him when he was 15-years-old.

The next day, Mr Cheek allegedly told the boy he should keep what had happened to himself because God doesn’t like liars.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP on November 23, 2016

A former Anglican priest accused of sexually abusing five boys over a 30-year period told one complainant it was tradition for a priest to undress an altar boy, a Perth court has heard.

Raymond Sydney Cheek, 84, is on trial in the West Australian District Court charged with committing an act of gross indecency and two counts each of indecent assault and indecent dealings with a child between 1955 and 1985.

One complainant, 48, testified on Tuesday that he was an altar boy in 1976 when he was eight or nine, and remembered Cheek as a “large, red-faced man” aged in his 30s.

He said on his first day as an altar boy, Cheek stripped him naked, leaving only his shoes on, and placed a robe on him, touching his genitals with his hands and the tassels of the waist rope.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Emily Piesse

A man has told a Perth court he was repeatedly undressed and touched in the groin by an Anglican priest in the late 1970s, while going to church with his mother.

Retired priest Raymond Sydney Cheek, 84, has pleaded not guilty to five charges spanning 30 years, including indecent dealing with a child under 14 years.

The first charge related to an alleged offence on the Easter weekend of 1955.

One man, who attended church with his mother in a south-west WA town, claims he was undressed and touched by Cheek on multiple occasions beginning in the 1970s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church of England

22 November 2016

Lord Carlile named as independent reviewer in George Bell case

Lord Carlile of Berriew has been named as the independent reviewer of the processes used in the Bishop George Bell case. The lessons learnt review, commissioned by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team, in accordance with the House of Bishops’ guidance on all complex cases, is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.

In 2015 the Bishop of Chichester issued a formal apology following the settlement of a legal civil claim regarding allegations of sexual abuse by Bishop Bell, who was Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until shortly before his death in 1958.

The aim of the review will be to look at the processes surrounding the allegations which were first brought in 1995 to the diocese of Chichester, with the same allegations brought again, this time to Lambeth Palace, in 2013. It will also consider the processes, including the commissioning of independent expert reports and archival and other investigations, which were used to inform the decision to settle the case, in order to learn lessons which can applied to the handling of similar safeguarding cases in future. The full Terms of Reference are set out below.

Lord Carlile CBE QC is a Member of the House of Lords, having served as a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament from 1983-1997. He was the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation between 2001 and 2011. He has a strong interest in cyber-related issues especially regarding National Security. (see full biography below). An executive summary of the review will be published once Lord Carlile has completed his work.

The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Peter Hancock, the Church of England’s lead bishop on safeguarding, said: “I am grateful to Lord Carlile for agreeing to undertake the review, which will take a detailed look into how the Church handled the George Bell case; as with all serious cases there are always lessons to be learnt. The Church of England takes all safeguarding issues very seriously and we will continue to listen to everyone affected in this case while we await the findings of the review. The diocese of Chichester continues to be in touch and offer support to the survivor known as Carol, who brought the allegations.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Chichester Observer

Lord Carlile of Berriew has been named as the independent reviewer of the processes used in the Bishop George Bell case.

Lord Carlile CBE QC will conduct the ‘lessons learnt review’, commissioned by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team, in accordance with the House of Bishops’ guidance on all complex cases, in June.

In 2015 the Bishop of Chichester issued a formal apology following the settlement of a legal civil claim regarding allegations of sexual abuse by Bishop Bell, who was Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until 1958.

In a statement the Church of England said: “The aim of the review will be to look at the processes surrounding the allegations which were first brought in 1995 to the diocese of Chichester, with the same allegations brought again, this time to Lambeth Palace, in 2013.

“It will also consider the processes, including the commissioning of independent expert reports and archival and other investigations, which were used to inform the decision to settle the case, in order to learn lessons which can applied to the handling of similar safeguarding cases in future.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent

The Church of England has appointed Alex Carlile to conduct an independent review of its handling of a sexual abuse claim against George Bell, one of the church’s leading figures of the 20th century.

In September 2015, the church issued a formal apology when settling a civil claim against Bell, the former bishop of Chichester who died in 1958. The alleged abuse took place in the 1940s and 1950s.

The apology and payment of compensation to a woman, known as Carol, sparked protests by Bell’s supporters, who claimed the church had acted without sufficient evidence.

In setting out the review’s terms of reference on Tuesday, the church said it would examine the processes surrounding the allegations which were first brought in 1995 to the diocese of Chichester, and to Lambeth Palace in 2013.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

An independent review into how the Church of England handled the case of a bishop accused of being a child abuser is to be led by Lord Carlile.

Last year the Church settled a civil claim over allegations of sexual abuse by the Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

It apologised and paid compensation to a woman who said she was abused by him.

The review will look at how it handled the claims and the decision to settle.

‘Neither damage nor salvage’

The “lessons learnt review”, commissioned by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team, is expected to be completed by the end of next summer.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

John Bingham, religious affairs editor
23 NOVEMBER 2016

One of Britain’s leading legal experts has been called in by the Church of England to assess whether it unfairly labelled a revered former bishop as a paedophile.

Lord Carlile of Berriew, the former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, has been appointed to oversee a review of the case of Bishop George Bell the wartime Bishop of Chichester.

Bishop Bell, who served the diocese for 30 years until his death in 1958, is regarded by some as one of the great peacemakers of the 20th Century and had been granted the closest thing Anglicanism has to a saint’s day, an annual commemoration.

But last year the Church stunned Bishop Bell’s devotees by announcing that it had concluded on the “balance of probabilities” that he had sexually assaulted a child in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Lord Carlile of Berriew has been named as the independent reviewer into the handling of the case of the late bishop George Bell, who was accused of being a child abuser.

The review, commissioned by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team, is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.

Last year the Bishop of Chichester issued a formal apology following the settlement of a legal claim over allegations of sexual abuse by Bishop Bell, who was Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until shortly before his death in 1958.

The review will examine the processes surrounding the allegations which were first brought in 1995 to the Diocese of Chichester and again in 2013, this time to Lambeth Palace.

It will also consider the processes, including the commissioning of expert independent reports and archival and other investigations, which were used to inform the decision to settle the case.

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AUSTRALIA
PerthNow

By Rebekah Ison, Australian Associated Press
November 23, 2016

A defrocked NSW Anglican priest says a card he sent an alleged sex abuse victim showing a man’s penis and captioned “thank heavens for little boys” was meant to be a “fun thing”.

Former Dean of Newcastle Cathedral Graeme Lawrence has also denied knowing the details of cards and letters sent by his boyfriend Greg Goyette, who talked to the alleged teen victim about lubricants and “educational” videos that he may find “edifying” in the early 1980s.

The sex abuse royal commission has heard the then-teenager, known as CKH, alleges ongoing sexual contact from the age of 17 with both Mr Goyette and Mr Lawrence, who was then rector of St Alban’s at Griffith.

At 19, CKH received a card from Mr Lawrence captioned “thank heavens for little boys for little boys grow bigger every day”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Road to Recovery

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA, and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania continue to disrespect a childhood sexual abuse victim of Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR, a deceased serial pedophile and member of the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania, who served in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, by not reasonably settling his claim

A childhood sexual abuse victim of Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR, from Bishop Mc Cort High School, Johnstown, PA, is being re-victimized and prevented from healing by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA, and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania, because they are not acting reasonably in the settling of his claim

What
A press conference announcing that the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA, and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania refuse to justly and fairly settle the claim of a childhood sexual abuse victim of Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR, from Bishop Mc Cort High School, Johnstown, PA, causing the childhood sexual abuse victim to be re-victimized, feel disrespected, and prevented from healing

When
Wednesday, November 23, 2016 at 11:30 am

Where
In front of the headquarters of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA, 927 S. Logan Boulevard, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648 – 814-695-5579

Who
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., 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, including several childhood sexual abuse victims of Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR, in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania

Why
John Doe was a minor child attending Bishop Mc Cort High School in Johnstown, PA, when he met a serial pedophile, Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR. From approximately 1996-1998, when he was approximately 15-17 years old and a student at Bishop Mc Cort High School, John Doe was repeatedly sexually abused by Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR. Now, at age 34, John Doe has courageously come forward to report the sexual abuse that caused him great harm. He expected to receive a timely and fair response from the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA, and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania. Instead, the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular Pennsylvania have been unfair and unjust in settling John Doe’s claim, causing him to feel re-victimized, and disrespected, thus preventing him from healing. The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania will be called upon to settle John Doe’s claim in a timely, fair, and just manner, and allow “John Doe” to heal.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., 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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ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court approved the plea bargain agreed by the State Attorney’s Jerusalem branch and Rabbi Eliezer Berland, in which the rabbi pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault.

Berland was sentenced to 18 months incarceration for his sexual attacks on two women, as well as his instructions to assault the husband of one of the women he sexually assaulted.

Following his sentencing, the rabbi apologized in court for his actions.

“For my deeds in the days of the Bible I would have been stoned and burned, but today laws are different – there are leniencies,” said Berland.

“I regret from the depths of my heart any harm of mine against a man or woman, that was caused directly or indirectly.”

Berland was also given a suspended sentence of 14 months and will have to pay two of his victims NIS 25,000 each and NIS 5,000 to the husband of the complainant who he ordered to be beaten by his followers.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

A former priest who sexually abused his niece more than 30 years ago has avoided jail for a second time, despite an appeal by prosecutors in a case described as “rare and exceptional”.

The 60-year-old man, whose details cannot be published to protect the victim’s identity, had pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexually assaulting his niece on dates between 1979 and 1985 when she was aged between six and 13 and he was in his 20s.

He was given wholly suspended 18 month sentences by Judge Pat McCartan on March 1st, 2016.

The Director of Public Prosecutions sought a review of the man’s sentence on grounds that it was unduly lenient. However, the Court of Appeal found on Tuesday the sentencing judge acted within his discretion.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

Pope Francis is not re-appointing two controversial, highly visible prelates to a global church panel. We’re glad this is happening even though we likely disagree with the pontiff for the reasons.

[National Catholic Reporter]

Cardinal Raymond Burke and Cardinal George Pell will no longer be on the Rome-basedCongregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. (Their terms have expired and Francis is not renewing them.) The two are among ex-members who reportedly “are known for preferring a more traditionalist practice of liturgy” than Francis, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

Burke, Pell and many other bishops across the world should be passed over for promotions, not given honors and in fact be temporarily suspended or permanently ousted because they’re ignored or hidden credible reports of abuse (Burke) or been credibly accused of abuse themselves (Pell).

We long to see the day when a high ranking Catholic official is defrocked, demoted, disciplined or even publicly denounced for endangering kids. There seem to be virtually no consequences for bishops who act recklessly, callously or deceitfully in sexual abuse and cover up cases.

No matter what church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 22, 2016

VATICAN CITY
The Vatican office that handles affairs relating to the Catholic church’s liturgical practices has confirmed that Pope Francis has decided not to renew the terms of several of its bishop-members, many of whom are known for preferring a more traditionalist practice of liturgy.

Francis had appointed 27 new bishops to serve as members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on Oct. 28. But the announcement of the appointments did not make clear whether the previous members’ terms had been renewed.

The congregation has now posted a full list of its current membership on its website. The list makes clear the pope did not renew the terms of 16 congregation members, including those of U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, Australian Cardinal George Pell, and the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholic Standard

By Ann Rodgers, Special to the Standard
Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Victim-survivors who report childhood sexual abuse at the hand of clergy should not be criticized for pointing out times when Church leadership failed, according to Cardinal Donald Wuerl.

“They are the witnesses who call us to uphold our own moral teaching,” he said. “The survivors who came forward when sexual abuse was rarely spoken of in public triggered changes that protect children today.”

The cardinal also said, “Innocent people who gain public attention for coming forward should not be slandered because they did the right thing by seeking action against an abuser.”

He finds it troubling that a few online forums masquerading as victim-advocacy sites – with no apparent ties to any mainstream victim-advocacy organizations – attack some of the victim-survivors who had done the most to improve the Church’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse. In an effort to claim that then-Bishop Wuerl didn’t remove abusive priests, the sites try to discredit those who reported abuse in one of Pittsburgh’s best known cases: that of the late Anthony Cipolla.

Among those they malign is Tim Bendig, now 47, a former seminarian who sued the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1988, reporting that then-Father Cipolla sexually abused him when he was 12 years old. Cipolla died earlier this year, maintaining his innocence.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By REBECCA CAMBER and IAN DRURY FOR THE DAILY MAIL

The beleaguered child abuse inquiry faced a new secrecy row last night as it was accused of gagging lawyers from talking to MPs about why they have quit.

The Home Affairs Select Committee has requested written evidence from seven lawyers who have resigned from Britain’s biggest public inquiry.

But the Mail has learnt that the barristers have been prevented from speaking out under contractual rules. The inquiry has refused to waive legal privilege, which prevents all communications between a lawyer and their client from being disclosed without the permission of the client, which in this case is the inquiry.

According to a source, three out of four lawyers who have responded to the committee so far, say they cannot talk about their time there in detail due to legal privilege rules.

But one senior barrister Hugh Davies, QC, is said to be so frustrated that he has written a strongly-worded critique of its conduct and his views on how complaints by staff should have been handled.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Evening Standard

Senior lawyers who quit the beleaguered public inquiry into historical child abuse have raised concerns about its leadership in letters to a Commons committee.

At least one of the four barristers has directly criticised Professor Alexis Jay’s handling of the suspension of Ben Emmerson QC, the former lead counsel, sources have disclosed.

Correspondence from Hugh Davies QC, ex-deputy counsel to the inquiry, said Professor Jay should have provided more information on why Mr Emmerson was suspended in September.

He resigned the next day, and as yet no reason has been given for his suspension.

However, Labour MP Lisa Nandy used Parliamentary privilege yesterday to say there has been a claim of sexual assault. Mr Emmerson denies the allegations, saying they are “categorically untrue”.

The letters are the latest set-back for the £100 million inquiry which has seen a raft of senior lawyers resign and Britain’s largest abuse victims organisation, the London-based Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (SOSA), pull out.

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UNITED KINGDOM
New Statesman

When is is a crisis not a crisis? After the departure of seven senior lawyers, three chairs, several survivors’ groups, £15m of public money, two years and little progress to show for it, Theresa May and her Home secretary are increasingly lone voices in their insistence that all is well on the child abuse inquiry that May, as Home secretary, rightly established in the wake of distressing revelations about Jimmy Savile.

It was always a daunting and complex task to shine a spotlight into institutions characterised by secrecy and cover up, where abusers were able to operate in plain sight without challenge or consequence. The inquiry spans decades, covers hundreds of institutions and relies on the accounts of many survivors who have struggled on for years without support. Now they must face the prospect of detailing abuse at the hands of the powerful, to the powerful. How to find a chair with the legal expertise and commitment to command the confidence of survivors, the public and the inquiry staff, a person with vast experience but without personal connections to the accused?

And yet it has been done. In Australia, a Royal Commission has begun to uncover the truth since it was set up in 2013. By contrast, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has been dogged by problems since the outset, losing its first two chairs within months because of connections to the accused, before being re-established on a statutory footing. The appointment of its third chair, Dame Lowell Goddard, was so rushed and confused that the Home Affairs Committee took the unusual step of releasing a report criticising May for potentially bringing “the whole process into disrepute”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with video]

By Jake Morris
BBC Newsnight

The child sexual abuse inquiry has “crumbled” and may be impossible to fix, a leading barrister has said.

Michael Mansfield QC told the BBC the best way forward was to have separate chairs overseeing different areas.

The inquiry has been battling to keep the confidence of victims after losing its third chair, Dame Lowell Goddard, and a succession of senior lawyers.

Mr Mansfield represented the families of victims in the Bloody Sunday inquiry and the Hillsborough inquest.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Chris O’Neill-Yates, CBC News Posted: Nov 22, 2016

A 76-year-old former Mount Cashel resident is waiting for the outcome of a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s that was filed in 1999.

The man — who can be identified only as John Doe because of a publication ban — is one of 80 to 90 former residents suing the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s for abuse dating back to the 1940s and 1950s.

Twenty-five years after the infamous Mount Cashel orphanage was torn down, John Doe recalls the helplessness he felt as a boy.

“You had no freedom, nowhere to go. They could do what they wanted to you with impunity,” he said.

The man was a resident at Mount Cashel from 1948 to 1955. He said he was sexually and physically abused by four Christian Brothers and one lay person.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

22 NOV 2016

Organisations in Victoria will have to prove they took reasonable steps to protect children under their care from abuse in a move that will make it easier for victims to sue institutions for damages.

Victoria is the first state to introduce laws creating a duty of care for organisations so they can be held accountable for the abuse of children.

The onus of proof will be reversed so organisations have to prove they took reasonable precautions to prevent the abuse from happening, Victorian Attorney-General Martin Pakula said.

“We’re strengthening our laws to better protect children and ensure that organisations can be held to account in the future, and we are continuing to work on a redress scheme for victims of historical child sexual abuse,” he said in a statement.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Outlook

A new independent company to be established by the Catholic Church in Australia to develop, audit and report on compliance with professional standards to protect children and vulnerable people was announced today by Church leaders

Catholic Professional Standards (CPS) Limited represents a new national Church response to the importance of safeguarding vulnerable people. It will be responsible for setting the highest standards to ensure the safety of individuals involved with the Church at all levels and engaging with Catholic service providers.

CPS will:

* Develop new standards for the protection of children and vulnerable adults across Church entities, particularly in areas where there are no current relevant standards;
* Audit and report on the compliance of each Church authority against the new professional standards; and
* Provide education and training regarding the new standards.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia, which represent more than 200 independent Catholic entities across Australia, made the joint announcement of the new company during the bishops’ plenary meeting with religious leaders at Mary MacKillop Place in Sydney on 22 November 2016.

Member representative of CPS and the President of Catholic Religious Australia, Sr Ruth Durick OSU, said the new entity sets a new standard for the Catholic Church in Australia.

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TENNESSEE
WREG

[with video]

NOVEMBER 21, 2016, BY BRIDGET CHAPMAN

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Three men are speaking out after they say a church worker sexually abused them in Collierville when they were teens.

One of them has filed a report and the two others said they’re getting one filed now.

Kenny Stubblefield was only 16 years old when it happened, but he still remembers every detail of the night he said he was sexually assaulted by someone at his church.

“I’m just like eyes wide open,” said Stubblefied. “By the next morning when the sun came up, I had to convince myself that it was my fault. I had to convince I’d done something to deserve it and I needed to stay quiet.”

Less than a year later, he said he found out he wasn’t alone.

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GEORGIA
Golden Isles News

By WES WOLFE wwolfe@goldenisles.news

A Glynn County grand jury issued an 11-count indictment Thursday accusing the Rev. Kenneth Adkins of five counts of aggravated child molestation, three counts of child molestation, two counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes and one count of influencing a witness.

Adkins turned himself in to authorities at the Glynn County Detention Center the morning of Aug. 26 after police sought his arrest on child molestation charges.

His accuser, referred to in court by the initials A.J., is now 21 years old and went to an Army sexual assault counselor in April where prosecutors say he told of sexual acts performed on him and with him by Adkins when the alleged victim was 15 years old.

During a combative evidentiary hearing Sept. 9, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent James Feller went into graphic and specific detail of incidents between Adkins, A.J. and a girl referenced as T.V. that were associated with the ministry Adkins ran at the time on G Street.

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TEXAS
News4 SanAntonio

SAN ANTONIO – Deacon Pat Rodgers, longtime communications director of the archdiocese, has passed away on Monday.

He was 67.

Rodgers, who served nearly two decades in the archdiocesan Department of Communications before he retired in June, 2015, had suffered a heart attack on Nov. 18 before passing away at Nix Medical Center. …

He was still in the Development Office in 2002 when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) developed the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which required that each diocese have a person designated to work with the media in the area of sexual abuse. This, he explained, “was in the spirit of transparency in order that the community also be educated and protected.” Knowing of his 37 years in broadcasting, Msgr. Lawrence Stuebben, then vicar general, asked Rodgers if he would take on this new role, which expanded into being spokesperson for the archdiocese in other areas as well.

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NEW JERSEY
Politico

Robert Hoatson, a former priest who founded a group that helps victims of sexual abuse, is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor. Hoatson announced last week. ““I am running for the Democratic nomination for Governor because New Jersey deserves ethical and moral leadership that has as its foundation, the truth. We need a Governor who will work for the people and not his own political advancement, a Governor who treats the citizenry with respect, and a Governor who is a wise steward of the people’s financial and social capital.” From Hoatson’s bio: “Robert Hoatson, Ph.D., has lobbied for years in the New Jersey state legislature for reform of statute of limitations laws regarding sexual abuse of children. He has acted as a whistleblower of numerous cases of sexual abuse against children throughout the State of New Jersey, and was an integral part of the uncovering of facts surrounding the Newark Archdiocesan cover-up of the Fr. Michael Fugee sexual abuse case. In his work with Road to Recovery, Inc., Dr. Hoatson has traveled the State of New Jersey, helping to heal victims of sexual abuse and their families and advocating for justice and fairness for all. Dr. Hoatson’s perseverance in holding the soon-to-be-replaced Archbishop of Newark, John Myers, accountable for his mishandling of cases of clergy sexual abuse.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Mazoe Ford

The Catholic Church has reached a confidential settlement with two sisters who say they were sexually abused by a priest in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in the 1970s and 80s.

The sisters, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said they were abused by Father Dennis McAlinden, who died in a nursing home in 2005 without ever being charged.

They were suing both the estate of the late Bishop Leo Clarke, who was in charge at the time of the alleged crimes, as well as the trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

But yesterday Justice Peter Garling urged the parties to settle the case outside court so the women would not “be unnecessarily put in distress”.

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MARYLAND
CBS Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The accusations against Father Joseph Maskell, who served as the guidance counselor at Archbishop Keough High School, date back to the 1960s and 70s.

At least a dozen victims who claim they were sexually abused by Maskell have received settlements from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Donna Von Den Bosch, who says she suffered unspeakable abuse, got $40,000.

In 1970, when she was just 14 years old, Von Den Bosch was a bright, excited freshman at the school.

Just as her new life was beginning, it descended into hell.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

The former head of the Scottish inquiry into historic child abuse, who resigned in July, is to sue ministers.

Susan O’Brien, QC, resigned amid controversy, with John Swinney, the education secretary, later telling MSPs that he had been considering her removal from the post over claims of inappropriate comments about survivors.

The inquiry has been mired in problems since it was set up. Ms O’Brien’s resignation in the summer came shortly after Michael Lamb, a fellow panel member, stood down, blaming government interference.

Ms O’Brien has refused to comment on the nature of her action, which emerged after papers were lodged at the Court of Session.

The inquiry is dealing with hundreds of witnesses into claims of abuse in children’s homes dating back decades.

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CANADA
Local Xpress

The Crown says it plans to call rebuttal evidence in the trial of Rev. Brent Hawkes, who is accused of indecent assault and gross indecency against a student at the school where he was teacher in the 1970s.

After the defence wrapped up its case Monday afternoon in Kentville provincial court, Crown attorney Bob Morrison told Judge Alan Tufts he wants to call two or three witnesses to testify on the issue of whether alcohol was served to students in Hawkes’ home around the time of the alleged crimes.

The complainant and other Crown witnesses, who were students at West Kings District High School, testified that Hawkes had alcohol in his trailer and that it was offered to them on the night the complainant says Hawkes sexually assaulted him.

Hawkes testified that he never provided alcohol to students if they came to his home, although there was some there for teachers if there was a get-together with both students and teachers present.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By ALY THOMSON
The Canadian Press
Mon., Nov. 21, 2016

KENTVILLE, N.S.— Brent Hawkes’ gross indecency trial heard testimony Monday on the nature and fallibility of memory.

Timothy Moore, chair of the psychology department at York University’s Glendon College, told the judge that memories are by nature “constructive and reconstructive.”

Moore says people often recall events differently, and time “can alter or change or misdirect the nature of” memories.

“Memories can undergo a substantial amount of modification over time and the longer the time, the more opportunity for misinformation to occur,” he said in Kentville, N.S., provincial court.

Hawkes is accused of performing sex acts on a teenage boy more than 40 years ago when the Toronto pastor was a teacher in his mid-20s in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. Hawkes, a prominent rights activist, has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to indecent assault and gross indecency.

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CANADA
Chronicle-Herald

KENTVILLE, N.S. — The Brent Hawkes trial is hearing testimony today on the nature and fallibility of memory.

Timothy Moore, chair of the psychology department at York University’s Glendon College, told the judge that memories are by nature “constructive and reconstructive.”

Moore says people often recall events differently, and time “can alter or change or misdirect the nature of” memories.

He says it is well-known liquor can impair memories, and an alcoholic blackout can lead to their fragmentation and to assumptions that could be conflated with actual memories.

Hawkes is accused of performing sex acts on a teenage boy more than 40 years ago when he was a teacher in his mid-20s in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Care Appointments

Press Association

The Government has backed Professor Alexis Jay to lead the troubled child sex abuse inquiry amid growing calls by victims and MPs for her to go.

Labour MP Chuka Umunna has called for her to be removed while the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (Sosa) quit the probe amid criticisms that Prof Jay is an “uninspiring leader”.

But speaking during an urgent question in the Commons on the inquiry, Home Office minister Sarah Newton said: “I am confident, as is the Prime Minister, as is the Home Secretary, in the ability of Professor Jay to lead this inquiry.”

Prof Jay became the fourth chairwoman to lead the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) after her predecessor Dame Lowell Goddard quit in August.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

A Labour MP has criticised Home Secretary Amber Rudd for not appearing in the Commons to answer an urgent question on the national child sex abuse inquiry.

It was left to Home Office minister Sarah Newton to respond to a series of queries from Lisa Nandy, who accused Prime Minister Theresa May of hiding “behind a smokescreen of independence”.

The inquiry into historical sex abuse allegations is now being led by its fourth chairwoman, Professor Alexis Jay, and a number of senior lawyers have quit recently.

Also, last week a group representing 600 victims of sexual abuse withdrew from the inquiry, branding it an “unpalatable circus”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alan Travis Home affairs editor
Monday 21 November 2016

The Commons home affairs committee is to hold talks on the future direction of the independent inquiry into child sex abuse after receiving letters detailing the concerns of four senior lawyers who have quit the inquest.

A Home Office minister tried to reassure MPs on Monday that Prof Alexis Jay remains the right person to chair the troubled inquiry after the latest round of resignations and defections of survivors’ groups.

The Commons home affairs committee, chaired by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, is to meet in private on Tuesday to discuss the future of an inquiry that is now on its fourth chair, after the resignation of 17 lawyers and the withdrawal of several survivors’ groups.

The MPs are expected to order the publication later this week of letters from four barristers – including Hugh Davies QC, ex-deputy lead counsel to the inquiry – detailing their concerns over the conduct and management of the inquiry during the recent crises.

One of the letters is reported to repeat the allegations made by a Labour MP, Lisa Nandy, who used parliamentary privilege to name the senior counsel to the inquiry, Ben Emmerson, QC, as the person accused of an alleged sexual assault at the inquiry’s London headquarters. It is believed to criticise the inquiry’s handling of the sexual assault allegation.

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GEORGIA
News4Jax

BRUNSWICK, Ga. – Pastor Ken Adkins, who was denied bond in September on child molestation charges, has been indicted on 11 counts by the Glynn County grand jury.

Adkins, 56, pastor of the Greater Dimensions Christian Fellowship, has been in the Glynn County Jail since Aug. 26, when he surrendered on charges resulting from allegations he molested a teenage boy in 2010.

Adkins is charged with three counts of child molestation, five counts of aggravated child molestation, two counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes and one count of influencing a witness.

Adkins’ lawyer, Kevin Gough, has filed a new motion for bond and in reaction to the indictment said, “Having already demanded a speedy trial, and eager to clear his good name, Pastor Kenneth Adkins and his family look forward to his day in court.”

Adkins new bond hearing is set for Dec. 16.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A judge has retired to consider a claim for compensation by five victims of sexual abuse at a Catholic school.

More than 200 men claim they were abused at St William’s residential school in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, between 1970 and 1991.

The De La Salle order, which ran the school, has apologised “unreservedly” for the abuse and the actions of its former principal.

James Carragher was jailed for sex offences against children at the home.

Solicitor David Greenwood, acting for those claiming compensation, said St William’s was “the biggest single home where boys were abused” that he had seen.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith

The Rev Simon Sayers has been banned from being a minister for five years by the Bishop of London after admitting to initiating and engaging in two sexual acts with the teenager 20 years ago.

He has resigned his position of Rector of Warblington with Emsworth, Hampshire.

A Metropolitan police investigation into the incidents was carried out in 2015, after allegations of indecent assault had been reported to them. The sexual acts took place in the Islington area where Mr Sayers had been in a parish ministry in 1995.

A police investigation was carried out but no action was taken against Mr Sayers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Chichester Observer

Parishioners and residents of Emsworth have expressed their wholehearted and loving support for Rev Simon Sayers and voiced their ‘immense sadness at his treatment by church authorities’.

Rev Simon Sayers resigned as rector of Warblington with Emsworth on Sunday, after the Bishop of Portsmouth’s announcement banning him for five years over an incident of sexual misconduct 20 years ago.

[Chichester Observer]

Many members of the congregation walked out of a church service in protest of the announcement. Emsworth resident and church choir member Leslie Grist, said: “Simon has served this parish and town wonderfully over the last 12 years.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A number of parishioners in Emsworth and Warblington are supporting their vicar who has admitted having ‘sexual contact’ with a teenager more than 20 years ago.

Simon Sayers, of the Warblington with Emsworth parish, has resigned after church officials ruled he had engaged in conduct unbecoming a clergy person and abused his position of trust in the 1990s. He has been banned from ministry for five years.

The Metropolitan Police arrested the vicar in January 2015 after it was informed of alleged offences that took place in Islington when he was in parish ministry there in 1995. The police investigation led the Church of England to suspend Mr Sayers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Evening Standard

A vicar has resigned from his post after an investigation found he had “engaged in sexual acts” with a schoolgirl.

Simon Sayers, rector at the Warblington with Emsworth parish in Hampshire, was arrested last year over an allegation of indecent assault in London in the 1990s.

The Metropolitan Police did not charge him, but a follow-up investigation by the church concluded that his behaviour with the teenager, a 16-year-old girl, abused his position of trust.

The disgraced rector has been banned from serving in the Church of England for five years.

Police arrested Mr Sayers in January 2015 after complaints were made about alleged offences that took place in the Islington area in 1995.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

An independent company will “name and shame” Catholic Church entities that fail to adhere to new national standards to protect children and vulnerable adults.

Catholic Professional Standards Ltd will hold the Catholic Church in Australia accountable as the church seeks to rebuild the trust destroyed by its handling of the widespread sexual abuse of children by priests and other clergy.

Among the church’s many failures has been the lack of a whole system of accountability and clear, consistent and comprehensive national standards, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge says.

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UNITED STATES
Steel Magnificat

November 21, 2016 by Mary Pezzulo

When I was a teenager, for a couple of years, my mother forced me to attend meetings of the ECYD, the youth branch of Regnum Christi. Regnum Christi was the lay branch of the Legionaries of Christ, and the Legionaries of Christ had yet to be exposed as a cultlike organization founded by a voracious pedophile. At the time, all my mother knew was that the rich and conservative homeschoolers sent their daughters to ECYD meetings, so I was sent to the meetings as well even when I begged not to. After awhile, I came to see them as authorities.

Our leader was an excitable and fervent housewife whose fuschia lipstick exactly matched her window shutters, which exactly matched the impatiens growing in the garden out front. She taught full-blown heresy and alarmism on a grand scale. “You can’t see God,” she said. “If you ever saw God you would drop dead. You only ever see Jesus.” And just when I thought she’d misspoken when denying the divinity of Christ, she said the exact same thing again. She told us that our guardian angels were incapable of seeing anything except the face of God and our own activity, and if we didn’t pray to them daily they’d be lonely. She talked about Limbo as if it were settled teaching of the Church. She acted as though Protestants and people of other faiths were evil con artists only pretending to agree with Catholics on some points to be devious: “if they’re not with us, they’re against us!” She claimed that God would send us to hell for not working hard enough to harangue our friends to come to ECYD meetings.

Our leader was assisted by a housewife who used to lead ECYD meetings in Mexico and whose lipstick rarely matched anything; she taught us that it was disrespectful to pray in the bathroom. I stopped praying in the bathroom, even when my painful bowel condition left me crying in there for hours, for fear I’d offend God.

We also had guest teachers, mostly from Latin American countries, who had taken a solemn promise to wear expensive dresses and not pants in order to “bring back the dignity of woman.” They taught us that “Nuestro Padre,” the pedophile Father Marcial Maciel, personally approved everyone who joined the Legion and was best friends with the Pope. They explained that their organization was unique in the Church, in that it always went first to rich and powerful people rather than the poor. “Think what influence we’ll have!” I knew that this was the exact opposite of what Christ had chosen to do, and therefore the opposite of what the Church should do, but I kept my mouth shut so I wouldn’t catch it.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

Dr. Ricardo Eusebio, president of the “Catholic Families for Apuron” organization and a member of the Neocatechumenal Way, held a press conference yesterday in which he claimed that the use of the Yona property by the Redemptoris Mater Seminary had been securely established prior to the monetary donation made to the Archdiocese of Agana for the purchase of the former Hotel Accion.

Dr. Eusebio used the press conference to respond to claims made by the Mother Superior Dawn Marie last week and criticized her involvement in the issue.

“Yes, Mother Dawn Marie claims we live in a toxic environment,” Eusebio said. “It has been fueled, however, by her own desire to seek public attention and provide her rendition of the truth in regards to the seminary.”

Last week, Marie stated that she was responsible for making the phone call that resulted in the donation of the $2 million used to pay off the loan to the Bank of Guam that allowed the archdiocese to purchase the former Hotel Accion for the use by an educational institute for the formation of priests. In a surprising twist, Marie relayed an anecdote in which she claimed that Archbishop Anthony Apuron had asked the Carmelite prioress responsible for the donation to lie about the intended purpose of the $2 million in an effort to secure proof that the money had been intended for the purchase of the Yona property specifically for the building of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary – a seminary largely run by faculty who are members of the NCW.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholic Philly

By Matthew Gambino • Posted November 21, 2016

In a letter sent to all parishes of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, Archbishop Charles Chaput renewed attention on a Pennsylvania bill that he said would endanger many of the parishes, schools and charities of the state’s 3.2 million Catholics.

The letter was to be read at all Masses on the weekend of Nov. 19-20. (See a pdf of the letter in English and in Spanish.)

It outlined the provisions of House Bill 1947, which addresses provisions to protect children from sexual abuse.

“Unfortunately,” Archbishop Chaput wrote, “it also contained damaging language that would have allowed retroactive civil suits to be filed against religious and private institutions, while protecting public entities from the same kind of lawsuits for exactly the same kinds of sexual abuse.”

The bill passed overwhelmingly in the state House last spring. The Senate voted 49-0 for an amended version of the bill that removed the provision on retroactivity, “largely because of its incompatibility with our state constitution,” the archbishop wrote.

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ISRAEL
Jersusalem Post

The High Court of Justice froze the appointment of Rabbi Col. Eyal Karim to the position of IDF Chief Rabbi on Monday, and demanded to see a clear statement from the rabbi about his position on a contentious point of Jewish law.

The interim decision was issued in response to a petition by Meretz MKs against Karim’s nomination in July, who asked the court to halt the appointment owing to several statements and responses the rabbi had made on issues of Jewish law relating to the IDF and military service. Following the ruling, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman backed Karim during a Yisrael Beytenu Knesset faction meeting saying that Karim was a “worthy” appointment to IDF chief rabbi. …

In 2003, before Karim was serving in the IDF, he was asked on the national- religious news site and forum Kipa, in the context of an “Ask the Rabbi” column, how the Torah could condone the rape of non-Jewish women by Jewish soldiers during a time of war.

He explained the Torah’s rationale, but did not explicitly state that it is forbidden in modern times. This answer was seized upon by a blogger in 2012 and created a media stir at the time, with claims that Karim had given IDF soldiers sanction to rape women.

Karim then issued a clarification on Kipa stating explicitly that: “Obviously, the Torah never permitted the rape of women,” and saying that the Biblical verse in Deuteronomy about female captives was meant to prevent rape during war time.

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CANADA
CBC News

The Brent Hawkes trial is hearing testimony today on the nature and fallibility of memory.

Timothy Moore, chair of the psychology department at York University’s Glendon College, told the judge that memories are by nature “constructive and reconstructive.”

Moore says people often recall events differently, and time “can alter or change or misdirect the nature of” memories.

He says it is well-known liquor can impair memories, and an alcoholic blackout can lead to their fragmentation and to assumptions that could be conflated with actual memories.

Hawkes is accused of performing sex acts on a teenage boy more than 40 years ago when he was a teacher in his mid-20s in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.

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SPAIN
The Freethinker (UK)

Last year performance artist Abel Azcona horrified Catholics in Pamplona, Spain, when he used 242 stolen consecrated hosts to spell out the the word ‘pederastia‘ at an exhibition he mounted in a city gallery to highlight the Church’s systematic rape of children.

According to this report, Azcona procured the Catholic crackers by pretending to receive Holy Communion at mass.

The exhibition also contained a series of photos titled “Amen”, which depict Azcona taking hosts during mass and placing them on the ground. This was meant to honour those who were kidnapped and killed under the three-decade dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which lasted until his death in 1975.

Christian Lawyers Association spokesperson Polonia Catellanos told the Catholic News Agency that the association has filed a lawsuit against Azcona for “an offence against religious sentiments and desecration”, which is outlawed under Articles 524 and 525 of the Spanish Penal Code.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

November 19, 2016 11:16 am | Author: berger

Award-winning investigative reporter, author and filmmaker David France (best known for “Our Fathers,” about the Catholic abuse and cover up crisis), is coming to town. He’ll discuss his new book “How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of how Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS” at the St. Louis County Library on Dec. 2.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Nov 21, 2016

By Nestor Licanto

A former member of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary’s board of directors has disputed the claims of a Carmelite nun who said Archbishop Anthhony Apuron asked them to lie about a $2 million gift to buy the seminary.

Dr. Ric Eusebio says Mother Superior Dawn Marie may have been misinformed when she said Archbishop Apuron asked them to confirm that the Carmelites knew the money would go specifically to a seminary for the Neocatechumenal Way. Dr. Eusebio produced email, which he says shows Mother Stella Maris, now diseased, did know from the start.

“You cannot say ‘Redemptoris Mater Seminary’ without saying the Neocatechumenal Way – is not involved because the vocations for the seminary mainly come from the Neocatechumenal Way,” said the physician.

But Bishop Michael Byrnes last week dissolved the board, and asserted his control over the seminary. Dr. Eusebio says he knows of no plan for any lawsuit to stop what Bishop Byrnes has done. “He has all the jurisdiction, the authority, the everything,” said Eusebio. “If he decides that he wants someone else that’s up to him. But what we would hope is that we could have an audience with him so that we could explain what our position is.”

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By JESSE MCLEAN
Investigative News reporter
Sun., Nov. 20, 2016

The pews of Toronto’s Metropolitan Community Church brimmed with silent support Sunday for its embattled pastor, currently on trial for the alleged sexual assault of a teenage boy in the 1970s.

More than a hundred people attended the morning masses at the Riverdale church, during which there was only a fleeting direct mention of Rev. Brent Hawkes’ trial, reminding congregants of the church’s listening groups if anyone felt the need to talk.

But after the service, those in attendance emphasized that their longtime pastor is in their prayers.

Rev. Deana Dudley said the church is handling the matter “the same way we deal with anything.

“We offer support, we offer prayer, we offer love, we offer acceptance,” she said.

“I know some people have been upset by what’s going on, so then we just do more of the same — we offer more love, more acceptance, more support, more prayer.”

Hawkes, who performed the country’s first same-sex marriage ceremonies, is the “cornerstone” of inclusivity and unconditional love that the church is known for, said congregant Ian Campbell.

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UNITED STATES
SOME PEOPLE LIVE MORE IN 20 YEARS…

NOVEMBER 20, 2016
ASHER LOVY

Two years ago, following a “Carlebach Shabbos” at my former shul, I wrote an article in which I described the conflict I felt hearing Carlebach being praised for his selflessness and kindness, while simultaneously aware of allegations that he had molested women. I left the article open ended, simply giving my two sides, and left it open for my readers to responded. And boy, did they. The responses flooded in; comments, emails, Facebook messages, even some in-person responses. They came in heavy, heated, and varied. It’s been two years, and I’ve had time to reflect more on the subject, discuss it with more people, and gain some perspective on the issue. Furthermore, since then I’ve spoken to quite a number of his victims, three of whom left comments on my original post. I’d like to address a few things.

Right off the bat, people challenged me on the ethics of sharing an article alleging that someone who is dead and cannot defend himself committed abuse that has never been proven in court. Many people have claimed it’s simply lashon hara, and therefore refuse to even listen. Setting aside whether or not those same people are as careful about the laws of lashon hara when the person under discussion is not one of the spiritual idols, I’ll take it at face value.

It is lashon hara. But one of the exceptions to the prohibitions against speaking lashon hara is when there’s a to’eles, a purpose. Most notably, if there’s a general purpose in the community knowing, if it will prevent some harm, then it is permitted to speak lashon hara. The benefits of discussing Carlebach’s crimes are twofold. First, it sends a message to the community that abusers will have to pay, in one way or another for their crimes, that death is not an escape from the damage caused by sexual abusers. It’s a powerful message to send because there are so many victims out there whose stories are kept hidden by coercion and fear, because the people who keep those secrets are terrified of what their families, their communities might say or do to them if they dare come forward. The more stories are made public, the more people come forward, the more victims will feel safe and secure in coming forward and telling their stories, exposing their abusers, and pursuing justice against them.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By DOMINIC LAWSON FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Paranoia has set in at the top of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. Over the weekend, its chairwoman, Alexis Jay, complained about the ‘almost continual attacks’ against it, going on to blame ‘people who would like to see it fail because it suits their agenda not to want dark institutional failings brought into the light’.

She went on to rail against her inquiry’s ‘critics’ — presumably newspapers such as the Mail which have, indeed, attacked the incompetence of a process which has so far spent over two years and £20 million without even starting its public hearings.

I can understand why Jay — the fourth head of an inquiry which has already chewed up and spat out three previous chairwomen — feels got at.

But she is deluded if she is insinuating that its media critics have ‘an agenda’ to protect ‘dark institutional failings’. Let me reassure Professor Jay that papers such as the Mail have no agenda in this, other than a desire to report the facts, however inconvenient either to her or the Government.

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
Pacific News Center

Written by Timothy Mchenry

Dr. Eusebio cites email communications between Apuron and another Carmelite nun, Mother Stella Maris which Eusebio says clearly stated the purpose of the $2 million gift.

Guam – Mother Prioress Dawn Marie’s statements about the intention of a $2 million gift to the church is not entirely accurate, according to fired Redemptoris Mater Seminary board chairman Dr. Ricardo Eusebio.

Dr. Eusebio called for a press conference Monday to respond to Mother Dawn Marie’s allegations that ousted Archbishop Anthony Apuron pressured her to lie about the intention of the $2 million gift that was donated to pay off the archdiocese’s loan–a loan that was taken out to purchase the former Hotel Accion property.

Dr. Eusebio cites email communications between Apuron and another Carmelite nun, Mother Stella Maris which Eusebio says clearly stated the purpose of the $2 million gift.

“Yes, Mother Dawn Marie claims we live in a toxic environment. It has been fueled however, by her own desire to seek public attention and provide her rendition of the truth in regards to the seminary. She attempts to discredit Archbisop Apuron and deems him guilty in regards to sexual abuse allegations against him without a trial. My recollection of the truth is different from what she professed,” said Dr. Eusebio.

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
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com November 21, 2016

The Catholic Church apologized and offers prayers to all victims of priest sex abuse after another batch of lawsuits, filed Thursday, by two former altar boys and the estate of a deceased former altar boy against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron and former Guam priest Louis Brouillard.

The world’s largest network of clergy abuse survivors said the former altar boys are enormously brave by coming forward publicly to say they were abused by a priest.

“By doing this one simple thing, they are making it easier and safer for other victims to come forward and talk about abuse. They are making it easier for witnesses and whistleblowers to come forward and tell what they know. They are also telling children who are being abused right now that it is safe to report abuse and get help,” said Joelle Casteix, volunteer western regional director for the Illinois-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

Vicente Guerrero Perez, 51, and Bruce A. Diaz, 47, in their separate complaints, said Brouillard sexually abused them between 1976 and 1980, when they served as altar boys and as members of the Boy Scouts of America.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Exclusive by Jane Bardon, National Reporting Team

Former residents of a church-run home for Indigenous Stolen Generation children in Darwin have moved a step closer to becoming the first group to gain compensation from the Federal Government after giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Eighty-five Retta Dixon Home residents launched a class action in the Northern Territory Supreme Court in September 2015 to try to gain redress for years of horrific sexual and physical abuse.

The case has now been put on hold because the Commonwealth has agreed to go into mediation.

Bill Piper is the residents’ solicitor.

“The Commonwealth have been proposing the mediation at this point, which is a very positive thing, because it’s consistent with a party to an action that is acting in good faith and wanting to try and resolve it,” he said.

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ROME
Crux

Elise Harris November 20, 2016
CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY

ROME – When Pope Francis spoke out sharply against the “virus of polarization,” three new American cardinals saw a chance for a serious examination of conscience.

“I thought it was very timely, what the Holy Father said,” Cardinal Joseph Tobin told journalists November 19.

He said that for him, the first thing to do in response is “to examine ourselves in the Church, to see whether we have unconsciously appropriated this virus” or somehow justified it “when it actually serves to divide.”

To do this, he said, could likely be considered “a resistance to the acts of the Holy Spirit.”

Tobin was among 17 priests and bishops who came to St. Peter’s Basilica from around the world to receive a red hat from Pope Francis Saturday during a special consistory set to coincide with the end of the Jubilee of Mercy.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

The Catholic Church wants nationally consistent criminal laws covering reporting child sexual abuse, but does not believe institutions should be held criminally liable.

The child abuse royal commission is examining the criminal liability of third parties in reporting abuse as part of a broader criminal justice inquiry that will be the subject of a public hearing in Sydney from November 28.

The Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council argues there should be a new, nationally consistent criminal law relating to the reporting of child sexual abuse.

TJHC chief executive Francis Sullivan said the states do not have the same laws in this area.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Rebecca Camber And Stephen Wright For The Daily Mail

The woman allegedly sexually assaulted at the headquarters of the child abuse inquiry by its top lawyer has been left distraught by the scandal, her father has revealed.

He said it had taken a huge toll on his daughter, threatening her future and financial security after the inquiry refused to investigate her allegations.

‘She has had a brilliant job and this has been a real strain on her, financially too,’ he added. ‘My daughter will come out of this with honour.’

Ben Emmerson, QC, lead counsel to the inquiry, is facing an investigation by his own law firm into claims that he groped the woman at the office of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). His lawyers say he ‘categorically denies’ the claim.

Now his alleged victim’s father has made a dramatic intervention in the controversy that threatens to derail the £100million probe.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, he said: ‘She has been very upset by this. She was down this weekend and she was quite depressed by it.

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MICHIGAN/GUAM
The Detroit News

Nicholas G. Hahn III, The Detroit News November 20, 2016

Some Catholics may think their church’s sex abuse crisis has subsided since the Boston Globe’s sensational 2002 reports.

They would be wrong.

Many of the allegations typically reach rectories of local parishes. Rarely do victims accuse archbishops of sexual abuse.

When altar boys in the Archdiocese of Agaña, Guam named Archbishop Anthony Apuron as their abuser during the 1960s and 1970s, the Vatican sent a temporary apostolic administrator to the Pacific island archdiocese.

Apuron has denied the allegations and, despite calls for him to be removed, refuses to retire five years ahead of schedule.

But Pope Francis won’t wait for an official investigation to conclude. Detroit’s own auxiliary Bishop Michael Byrnes was recently tapped as the archdiocese’s coadjutor bishop, and will take over all administrative and pastoral duties.

“There are a lot of challenges and troubles,” Byrnes recently told me, “but it’s not like they’re unfamiliar to Detroit.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

Chris Vedelago

Why does the Catholic Church continue to prefer playing public relations games over keeping its promises to victims of paedophile priests?

For more than two years, sexual abuse victims and their families have been waiting for the release of an independent investigation into the controversial Melbourne Response compensation scheme.

This report, completed by retired Federal Court judge Donnell Ryan, was supposed to put to the test long-running concerns about the fairness of a system that attempts to put a dollar value on the suffering of hundreds of victims of sexual abuse.

The victims were encouraged to come forward and tell their stories again. That was in August 2014. The review was completed in September 2015. It has, inexplicably, sat on the Archbishop’s desk ever since.

On Friday, victims finally learnt that the church would not release the report. Nor the full list of its findings.

Despite the Archdiocese’s repeated promises that it would be made public, the report has been suppressed.

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CANADA
The Daily Courier

KENTVILLE, N.S. – An expert witness is expected to take the stand today in the trial of a prominent Toronto pastor accused of performing sex acts on a teenage boy more than 40 years ago in Nova Scotia.

Last week, Brent Hawkes denied the allegations of indecent assault and gross indecency in a courtroom in Kentville, N.S.

Hawkes told the court: “It’s not true. It did not happen.”

Last Tuesday, a man testified that Hawkes led him down a hallway during a drunken get-together at his trailer in Greenwood, N.S., and forced oral sex on him in a bedroom.

Hawkes, then a teacher in his mid-20s in the Annapolis Valley, told court Thursday it wasn’t unusual for students and teachers to stop by his trailer, as they wanted to say goodbye before he moved to Toronto to work with a church.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Lucy Carter

A Supreme Court justice has ordered that lawyers for the Catholic Church and two women suing it over their alleged child sexual abuse attempt to settle the case outside court.

Two sisters, known for legal reasons as LG and MG, are suing both the estate of the late Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Leo Clarke — who was in charge at the time of the alleged crimes — as well as trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

The sisters were allegedly sexually abused by Father Denis McAlinden in the 1970s and 1980s.

McAlinden died in a nursing home in 2005 without ever having been charged in New South Wales.

A 2013 special commission of inquiry found he had a history of sexually abusing children over five decades, and may have abused more than 100 victims.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com November 21, 2016

Guam’s Carmelite nuns last week said Archbishop Anthony Apuron asked them to lie about the reason for their $2 million donation to the local church, but a group of local Catholics defending Apuron said that’s not possible.

Mother Superior Dawn Marie last week said Apuron asked the nuns to lie by saying their anonymous donation was purposely earmarked for the Redemptoris Mater Seminary and the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania, which were run by the Neocatechumenal Way.

She said the Carmelites decided to leave Guam after 50 years because of the toxic environment, including the dispute over the seminary property and sex abuse allegations against Apuron.

Dr. Ricardo Eusebio, president of the I Familan Mangatoliku Siha Pari Si Apuron or Catholic Families for Apuron, on Monday said email exchanges between Apuron and the Carmelite nuns were clear that the donors were giving the $2 million for a seminary. Eusebio said the Redemptoris Mater Seminary was the only archdiocesan seminary on Guam at the time, and RMS’ relationship with the Neocatechumenal Way has been public, open and clear since the start.

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