ABUSE TRACKER

ALABAMA
WTVM

[with video]

By Leah Jordan, Reporter

MADISON, AL (WAFF) –
Church members are still in shock after a church employee was arrested on child pornography charges. John Martin has since been fired from his position as Assistant Director for the Parish Religious Education Program.

“It’s a rude awakening. You can never be certain,” Father Phil O’Kennedy, Pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, said.

After Martin’s arrest, an important first step for the church was researching when Martin had been in contact with children.

“You look at most the folks here and they’re grownups. They know the big, bad world as well as I do; they don’t need help from me on how to handle it,” O’Kennedy said. “The worry for all of us is our youth and our children.”

O’Kennedy said Martin had been around youth only a couple of times – one of those times just last week when he was a driver and chaperone for a youth ministry trip to Atlanta.

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.

CHILE
Bio Bio

[About 30 lay people from Osorno entered a church where a traditional Mass held in celebration of the Virgin Mary because the Mass was led by Juan Barros, the embattled bishops of that diocese. The Mass is attended by various local authorities, including those from the civilian world and the armed forces. Mario Vargas, spokesman for the lay group, said the Mass is to celebrate the patron saint of Child and it is inconceivable that a person like Barros would preside.]

En la Parroquia del Carmen en Osorno se realizó la tradicional misa en celebración en el día de la Virgen que precisamente lleva dicho nombre. A la instancia asistieron diversas autoridades locales, entre el mundo civil y de las Fuerzas de Armadas, misa que fue dirigida por el cuestionado obispo de la diócesis de Osorno, Juan Barros.

Al lugar se dirigieron una treintena de personas, pertenecientes a la agrupación de laicos de Osorno, para manifestar su descontento contra el obispo de la ciudad, y exigiendo que se retire de sus funciones.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Betty Clermont

The new pope enacted a law criminalizing leaks of detrimental information to the press. Nevertheless, two books were going to be published exposing pervasive corruption during Pope Francis’ pontificate. The pope had two of his employees arrested and then put on trial along with a third employee and the authors of the two books.

The result was months of free publicity for the books. Additionally, the public came to learn that no crime – not sodomizing children or fraud – is considered as grave as exposing the pope’s secrets. No physical evidence was produced proving the defendants’ guilt during the trial. Nevertheless, the prosecution recommended that the only woman among the five defendants receive the harshest penalty for “instigating” and “conspiring.”

Pope Francis enacted a law on July 13, 2013, criminalizing leaks of Vatican information, “an obvious response” to the 2012 scandal known as “Vatileaks.” Pilfered documents had exposed “petty turf wars, bureaucratic dysfunction and allegations of corruption and homosexual liaisons.” The crime of revealing damaging information had never existed before in the Vatican.

On October 31, 2015, Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda (54), secretary for the Prefecture of Economic Affairs, and Francesca Chaouqui (33) were summoned to the Vatican for questioning and then arrested with Pope Francis’ “personal approval” regarding “the unauthorized removal and sharing of confidential documents.”

The Spaniard, Vallejo Balda, had been secretary of a temporary commission, already dissolved, established by the pope to recommend changes to the Vatican’s financial administration. Chaouqui, an Italian laywoman formerly employed in the Rome office of Ernst & Young, had been a member of the same commission. Chaouqui was released after a couple of days because “there were no evident reasons to keep her in custody, and also in view of her cooperation with the investigation.” Vallejo Balda was imprisoned in a Vatican jail cell.

Chaouqui’s attorney, Giulia Bongiorno, later pointed out the Vatican’s “alleged violations of Chaouqui’s due process rights by interrogating her without an attorney.”

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ITALY
Irish Independent

Catherine Deveney
PUBLISHED
17/07/2016

A British man who travelled to Verona in an attempt to forgive the Catholic missionary who sexually abused him at Mirfield seminary in Yorkshire almost 50 years ago, is being prosecuted in the Italian courts on three counts of “trespassing, stalking and interference in private life”.

Mark Murray (60), who filmed his encounter with Fr Romano Nardo at the Verona headquarters of the Comboni missionaries in April last year, said he was “appalled and disgusted” when a letter summoning him for criminal proceedings in Verona on September 14 arrived last week at his home in Wales.

“The Combonis know these ‘crimes’ are not true. They are trying to intimidate me,” he said. “It’s all about power and control. They are trying to send out a message, ‘Don’t dare take us on’.”

In 2014, the Observer reported exclusively on widespread abuse at Mirfield in the 1960s and 70s after a group of 11 British men settled out of court with the missionary order, receiving sums of between £7,000 and £30,000.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, July 17th, 2016

The Diocese of Gallup threatened to withdraw a monetary settlement that included $21 million for victims of clerical sexual abuse if claimants insisted that the church publicly release the personnel files of accused priests, attorneys for the claimants said.

Public disclosure of priest files became a “significant issue” during the final months of the diocese’s 31-month bankruptcy case, said James Stang, a Los Angeles attorney who represented the 57 people who filed claims against the diocese.

“We asked that (the files) be published or be delivered so we could publish them if we wanted to, and they said no,” Stang said. “We were told that it was a package deal.”

Faced with the possibility of losing the financial settlement after more than two years of legal wrangling, a committee representing claimants in the case felt they had little choice but to withdraw their demand for records, he said.

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IOWA
Des Moines Register

Morgan Gstalter, mgstalter@dmreg.com July 16, 2016

Roman Catholic officials said the priest arrested during a prostitution sting in Hamburg last week has been suspended from public ministry, pending the outcome of his criminal investigation and legal proceedings.

The Diocese of Des Moines released a news release Monday regarding the arrest of Rev. Dominic Yamoah on July 9. Yamoah was arrested for solicitation in Fremont County during a police prostitution sting after he allegedly tried to persuade an undercover source to perform sexual acts for money.

The diocese said Yamoah is a pastor at three parishes in their diocese: St. Clare in Clarinda, Sacred Heart in Bedford and St. Joseph in Villisca. They are making arrangements for pastoral care during his suspension, the release said.

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BRASIL
Imprensa

[José Afonso Dé, a Brazilian priest, who was named at the end of the Spotlight movie, has died at age 82. He was convicted of sexual abuse.]

Citado em uma lista no fim do filme “Spotlight – Segredos Revelados”, que mostrou uma investigação jornalística de como a cúpula da Igreja Católica acobertou casos de pedofilia nos Estados Unidos, o padre brasileiro José Afonso Dé morreu na última quinta-feira (14/7), aos 82 anos.

De acordo com a Folha de S.Paulo, o religioso foi acusado de abusar sexualmente de nove adolescentes coroinhas, entre 2009 e 2010, em Franca (SP). Ele fazia tratamento contra um câncer de próstata e estava internado na Santa Casa da cidade há cerca de 30 dias, com um quadro de pneumonia.

Padre Dé foi oficialmente afastados de suas funções, mas seguia evangelizando ao receber fiéis em sua casa. O velório ocorre na capela do Asilo São Vicente, ao lado do velório central de Franca. Haverá uma missa de corpo presente, às 14h, seguida do sepultamento no cemitério Santo Agostinho.

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MEXICO
Arsenal

[Priest accused of rape was arrested in Oaxaca; He was responsible for the cathedral.]

Rebeca Romero/ADNsureste

Oaxaca.- Un joven de 19 años, quien fungiera como acólito además de prepararse a fin de recibir los sacramentos, denunció al sacerdote C. F. M. P. por el delito de violación equiparada agravada.

De acuerdo a la denuncia penal asentada en el expediente 274/2016, misma que fue realizada el 29 de marzo del presente año, el agraviado narró que los hechos se registraron el 24 de marzo, después de celebrarse la visita de las 7 casas por haber sido Jueves Santo, en la Catedral Metropolitana.

Asentó que junto con un amigo que también es catequista identificado como J. C. estuvieron apoyando en las actividades en este templo, terminando alrededor de las 01:00 horas, por lo que se quedarían a dormir en la casa adjunta ya que temprano se llevarían a cabo otras actividades.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Coffs Coast Advocate

Leah White | 16th Jul 2016

THE first alleged victim in the historical sexual assault trial against Catholic priest John Patrick Casey has given evidence in a closed session of the Lismore District Court.

Casey has been charged with 27 counts of sexual assault, indecent assault and rape of three boys under the age of 16 said to have occurred in the 1980s.

The trial will cover 18 separate incidents.

Due to a change in law when the majority of the alleged offences occurred (from June 10, 1985 to May 30, 1987) a number of the charges have been paired to address the change in law.

The first alleged victim, now in his 40s, was the third witness to be called to provide evidence in the trial on Tuesday.

The court was closed to the public, which included the media and Casey’s 15 supporters, at 12.15pm.

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FLORIDA
Church Militant

by Rodney Pelletier • ChurchMilitant.com • July 15, 2016

MIAMI, Fla. (ChurchMilitant.com) – Faithful Catholics in the archdiocese of Miami are satisfied a parish priest is being removed after evidence showed he was having an improper relationship with a parish maintenance worker.

Christifidelis, a group representing several families at St. Rose of Lima parish in Miami Beach, released a graphic report showing the result of an investigation by a private detective and members of the parish. Father Pedro Corces is shown spending time with a man he hired to be a maintenance worker on parish property.

Records show they frequently went shopping together, went out to eat at expensive restaurants several times a week and even went on vacations together. Photos and receipts from a vacation they took to Puerto Rico show the room the occupied had only one bed. Receipts for items purchased from sex shops and gay musicals were found in Fr. Corces’ garbage.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

The attorney for a former Passaic priest convicted of sex charges two weeks ago asked a judge on Friday for a new trial, arguing that the jury convicted his client without sufficient evidence.

Passaic County prosecutors, however, argued that the trial of Jose Lopez in state Superior Court in Paterson involved no irregularity that warrants a new trial. Judge Sohail Mohammed said he will make a decision next week.

Lopez, 37, was convicted in June 28 of luring, child endangerment and criminal sexual contact after prosecutors argued that he took a 14-year-old girl into his private suite at St. Mary’s Church in Passaic and molested her. The jury found him not guilty of attempted sexual assault.

Lopez, who faces up to 10 years in prison, has since been held without bail at the Passaic County Jail as he awaits sentencing in November.

Defense attorney James Porfido said at a hearing before Mohammed that the panel that convicted Lopez deliberated for only five hours to reach a verdict. He said that period of time could not have been enough to consider all of the evidence in the trial and argued that the jury was ready to convict his client from the start without listening to the case.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholic Philly

By Matthew Gambino • Posted July 15, 2016

Archbishop Charles Chaput issued a letter July 14 updating the faithful of the Philadelphia Archdiocese on the status of a bill that proposes to lift the statutes of limitation on civil lawsuits of child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania.

The letter in English and Spanish was dated for this weekend, July 16-17, and sent to all priests and deacons in the archdiocese via email along with several supporting documents showing the long-term effects of child sexual abuse for adult survivors and numerous resources to which abuse victims in Philadelphia, its four suburban counties and statewide may turn for help.

Another document (in English and Spanish) in the package detailed the church’s assistance to victims of clergy sexual abuse, both in implemented policies and financial assistance of some $18 million over recent years.

Also included was information to help the clergymen offer pastoral care to survivors of child sexual abuse in their parish.

The archbishop’s letter describes House Bill 1947’s “potential to devastate our parishes, schools, and charitable ministries” because of civil lawsuits that could be filed against private institutions such as Catholic parishes and dioceses in the state if the bill were to become law. The House bill was approved in April.

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CANADA
The Tyee

By Bob Mackin
TheTyee.ca

The Assembly of First Nations wants a “thorough and impartial investigation” into allegations former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong abused aboriginal students more than 45 years ago.

Delegates to the assembly’s annual general meeting this week supported a resolution calling for an investigation by the RCMP and the federal government.

The resolution also called on the federal government to meet “the affected members of Lake Babine Band Council, Burns Lake Band Council, and any other affected former students to hear their concerns about the conduct of investigations and to discuss with them acceptable remedies.”

The resolution was moved by Lake Babine Chief Wilf Adam.

The abuse allegations were raised in a Georgia Straight article by Laura Robinson in September 2012. Furlong denied the accusations and attacked Robinson’s reporting practices and credibility.

Furlong claimed vindication last September when B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge ruled that Furlong’s statements were covered by the defence of qualified privilege.

But Cathy Woodgate, one of the former students alleging abuse, says their charges have never been properly investigated.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

Inés San Martín July 16, 2016
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

ROME – Cardinals who elect a pope are sworn to secrecy, so there are some details about conclaves the world may never know, but after the choice of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in March 13 as Pope Francis, many participants were crystal-clear on one point.

They elected him in part because of his profile as a Vatican outsider, who would carry out an ambitious program of reform.

As his first move, Francis created a study commission which recommended a series of changes to the Vatican’s scandal-plagued finances, and which itself became engulfed in controversy when a former official and former member were both charged and convicted in a Vatican trial of leaking its secret documents to journalists.

As it turns out, that’s hardly the only complication that has beset Francis’s reform effort.

Based on the commission’s recommendations, Francis created three new financial bodies in the Vatican in 2014.

* A Council for the Economy, composed of both cardinals and laity, to set policy.
* A Secretariat for the Economy, headed by Australian Cardinal George Pell, to implement those policies.
* An independent Auditor General, to provide a system of checks and balances.

An internal tug-of-war broke out to define the scope of the authority of those new entities, especially Pell’s department. Early on it seemed the secretariat would take over direct administration of most Vatican finances, but on July 9, Francis issued a decree giving most of those powers back to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (ASPSA.)

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GHANA
Ghana Web

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
July 1, 2016
E-Mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

Archbishop Emeritus Peter Akwasi Sarpong must know by now that the very notion of a celibate Roman-Catholic priesthood is decidedly a jaded phenomenon that is nowadays accepted or believed to be practicable or normal by only the most naïve of parishioners or congregants. Indeed, so ridiculed has this institutional practice been subjected that it has become a veritable joke among even the global Catholic prelate itself. Which may well explain why the retired Oxbridge-educated Bishop of Kumasi would seek to relatively downplay this most immoral of moral misdeeds (See “Sexual Acts Involving Catholic Priests Not Worst of Sins – Archbishop” Ultimatefmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 7/1/16).

At its worst, sexcapades among the celibate priesthood has taken the patently criminal form of pedophilia, the wanton abuse of children, the most vulnerable and defenseless of the human species. And the irony here is that it has taken the sinister guise of priests as mentors and role-models of these largely innocent humans. It well appears that minors have been made the prime targets of pedophile priests because so blindly trusting are their adult parents that in a legion of instances, it has taken decades for the parents of the victims to come to a woefully belated realization of the lethal harm that has been done to their now-adult sons and daughters.

For an institution that is so morbidly homophobic, it is curious to note that most of the instances of clerical pedophilia, especially in the West, have been between Catholic priests and male underage children well below the age of consent or discretion. In the Third World, particularly in Africa, these illicit sexual encounters have largely taken place between philandering priests and young women. And to be certain, there have been quite a remarkable number of cases in which such encounters have ended in the deaths of these women who, faced with unwanted pregnancies by priests who were either not emotionally and psychologically mature enough and/or responsible enough to accept parental responsibilities, sought to abort these pregnancies.

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AUSTRALIA
Crux

Christopher WhiteJuly 16, 2016
CRUX CONTRIBUTOR

[Editor’s Note: Part one of Crux contributor Christopher White’s interview with Archbishop Anthony Fisher appeared on Friday, July 15. This is the second part of their conversation.]

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – This past Christmas, Archbishop Anthony Fisher – barely a year into his new post as Archbishop of Sydney in Australia – contracted Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease, resulting in temporary paralysis.

After four months of rehabilitation, he’s back at work-both catching up on past projects, but also plowing ahead to new ones.

Arguably one of the sharpest minds of the Church’s hierarchy (not to mention one of the youngest), he’s currenty at work on a forthcoming volume on bioethics. (Full disclosure: I am working with Fisher as a research assistant on the volume). And while medical ethics has been a significant part of his educational training, his thinking on these issues has been given a newly personal dimension due to his recent illness.

As he settles back into his demanding schedule, I sat down with Fisher to discuss his hopes and the challenges ahead for the Australian Church.

Among other things, Fisher said the popularity of Pope Francis is enticing many people who’ve been distant from the Church to give it another look, and that he doesn’t want future generations to look back and say, “What an opportunity you missed!”

White: Australia’s Royal Commission is looking into institutional responses to sexual abuse. How do you think the Church will fare in comparison to other institutions?

Fisher: I think the Catholic Church will probably be the most criticized of all institutions in our country in this matter. I’m not sure whether history will judge that we have been the worst offender, but we’re certainly the first to have been forced to face this head on and we are deeply ashamed and humiliated by what has been revealed by the behavior of some of our clergy and religious and by the failures of some of our Church leaders.

I think the fact that the spotlight has been turned first on us has forced us to try to deal with the fallout for victims, helping them in every way that we can to help them achieve justice and some measure of healing. We’re the first to have to look at what sort of systems we can put in place for the discernment of vocations and the support of people in the priesthood and religious life and Church workers in the future, and putting much better child protection protocols in place right across our institutions.

In all sorts of ways, we’ve had to face this first, which means we have not had templates from anywhere else to guide us. We’ve made mistakes, sometimes terrible mistakes. I hope that that experience will mean that others can learn from us as they face the same sort of questions, and that if we’ve been through the humiliation of this first, we might come through the other end a better Church.
It may be a humbled and ashamed Church in many ways, but I hope a more compassionate and more respectful Church-a Church where people will really feel safe having their children and young people involved with into the future.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse – FACSA

Last April, the PA Attorney General’s Office established a toll-free phone number for survivors of child sex abuse (who were PA residents, or were abused by someone in PA) to call if they wanted to file a report of being sexually abused or molested as a child under 18 no matter how long ago the abuse happened or no matter who committed the abuse.

The AG’s office is asking victims from all the places/institutions and all the alleged criminals that have literally gotten away with soul murder. Hopefully, the AG’s office will be able to take further steps to expose the criminals and the criminal institutions that aided and abetted the perps.

1-888-538-8541

While your specific abuse may have happened so long ago that there is no criminal or civil charges you can file, by your identifying perps and complicit institutions now, other victims may gain the courage to come forward once they realize they were not the only one abused by their perp. Additionally, we anticipate there are many institutions over the years that have hidden cases of child sex abuse when it happened and with the children they were supposed to be protecting. The perps and the institutions need to be held accountable for the damage that happened.

1-888-538-8541

Please call this number. Leave a message. Someone will call you back.

Your story could be of help to other victims.

And then SHARE, SHARE, SHARE this email/post!

PS: If you lived in the Allentown Diocese when you were abused, please also contact Rep. Mark Rozzi.
On Facebook: Private Message Rep. Rozzi at https://www.facebook.com/VoteRozzi
Via Email: MRozzi@pahouse.net

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PENNSYLVANIA
Foundation to Abolish Child Sexual Abuse – FACSA

All are welcome to join us Monday afternoon in Philly!

WHAT: Rep. Mark Rozzi to address church leaders callous disregard for victims at Monday news conference

WHEN: Monday, July 18, 2016, 1:30 PM

WHERE: Outside front entrance, Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, 1723 Race St, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Directions – Nearby Parking

CONTACT: Charlie Vaihinger
House Democratic Communications Office
Phone: 717-787-7895
Email: Cvaihinger@pahouse.net

HARRISBURG, July 15, 2016 – State Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, announced today that he will be joining with victims and advocates for a news conference next week to discuss the callous disregard and disrespect church leaders have recently shown to victims of child sex abuse.

The news conference, which will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, July 18 at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, will focus on the recent death of victim Brian Gergely and the cancellation of a scheduled meeting between victim John-Michael Delaney and Archbishop Charles Chaput.

Participating in the news conference will include:

• Marci Hamilton, University of Pennsylvania Fox Distinguished Scholar
• John-Michael Delaney, victim of notorious Rev. James Brzyski
• Patrick Conlin, whose meeting request with the bishop of the Diocese of Allentown was denied.
• Victims featured in You Have the Power video; and
• Advocates and community leaders supporting Statute of Limitation reform for child sex abuse

Additionally, Rozzi said he intends to discuss the status of House Bill 1947, a statute of limitation reform bill from which the Senate stripped his retroactive amendment, which was overwhelming approved by the House in April.

CONTACT: Charlie Vaihinger
House Democratic Communications Office
Phone: 717-787-7895
Email: Cvaihinger@pahouse.net

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

ANGUS HOWARTH
Saturday 16 July 2016

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has cost £1.8 million since launching last year, ­latest figures reveal.

At present the inquiry awaits the appointment of a new chair and panel member. The inquiry into the historical abuse of children in care is expected to last four years.

Independent expert Professor Michael Lamb, a professor of psychology at Cambridge University, resigned from his position claiming the inquiry is “doomed” due to Scottish Government interference.

And Susan O’Brien QC quit as chair earlier this month, saying the government had “sought to micro-manage and control the inquiry,” and had threatened to sack her when she resisted.

A statement posted on the inquiry website along with the lastest figures said: “Scottish Ministers are in the process of appointing a new chair and panel member for the Inquiry. Meanwhile, the important work of the inquiry continues as it seeks to fulfil the requirements outlined in its terms of reference.

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UNITED STATES
Questions from a Ewe

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Last week Philadelphia’s Archbishop Chaput said remarried divorced Catholics shouldn’t receive Communion unless they abstain from sex…likewise for same sex couples. Furthermore, he said those same people shouldn’t be allowed to serve on parish councils, instruct the faithful, serve as lectors or dispense Communion. (I think they can still operate heavy machinery and definitely can contribute financially.) He feels such people are in “irregular” relationships that offer “a serious counter-witness to Catholic belief, which can only produce moral confusion in the community.”

Coincidentally, that same week, a priest confessed to me that he is sexually active. This places him in the worldwide majority of priests, since according to psychologists who study priests’ sexuality, 50% of U.S. priests and a higher percentage of priests from other global regions are sexually active. By the way, this priest felt his sexual activity was “sinful” but seemed prepared to suffer this sin repeatedly in the future.

Regardless of one’s opinion about the sinfulness of priests’ sexual relationships, aside from converted married former Anglican priests, any sexual activity Roman Catholic priests have is categorically dishonest and unhealthy because it is secretive.

This guy, like other sexually active priests, which means the majority of priests, not only receives communion, he consecrates the host. I guess Chaput is ok with sexually active priests receiving and consecrating the host because it’s not “irregular.” It’s become so regular that it is the majority of priests who have secret, dishonest, unhealthy sexual relationships.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, June 27

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)

Local Catholic officials have kept hidden the passing of Robert Vonnahmen, one of the area’s most notorious pedophile priests. He died in a nursing home in Highland, Illinois on, or near, May 9 and his Catholic funeral was apparently held on May 12 in Elizabethtown, Illinois where he was buried.

At least three bishops and dozens of Catholic officials ignored and enabled Vonnahmen’s crimes for decades. He was one of Illinois’ most egregious predators. As recently as 2013, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson let Vonnahmen run ads in the Archdiocesan newspaper for the San Damiano Shrine in southern Illinois which the defrocked child molester operated even though the Vatican defrocked Vonnahmen seven years earlier.

We call on Belleville Bishop Braxton to spread the word of Vonnahmen’s death through church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements and beg others who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes to come forward.

And we call on Carlson to apologize for and explain his reckless support of this serial predator. How does he justify encouraging local Catholics, through the St. Louis Review newspaper, to visit and donate to a facility run by a proven predator?

Once again, Catholic officials stay silent about a predator. Once again, the feelings of his victims are disregarded while the comfort of his bishop is protected. The people Vonnahmen violated deserve to know that he can no longer hurt anyone. We hope his passing will bring some comfort to those he assaulted and betrayed.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, July 13

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

A Kansas City area pastor who is also a homeless shelter staffer faces child sex charges. It’s now the duty of both institutions – church and shelter – to aggressively seek out others with information or suspicions about his crimes, so that law enforcement can successfully prosecute the pastor.

[Republic]

Rev. Preston heads My Father’s House and has also been pastor at Grace Revolution Church of the Nazarene in Miami County Kansas. But Preston’s charity has sites across six counties. We firmly believe he has molested others. And those who gave Rev. Preston positions, prestige and power to help find those wounded individuals.

According to one newspaper “The shelter’s website currently features a link to a GoFundMe web page. . .asking for funds to help Preston take a sabbatical.” We urge Preston’s employers to return those donations and explain why.

No matter what charity or church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in charities, churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice 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.

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.

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Jul 15, 2016

A federal judge has granted the bankrupt Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis permission to sell two more properties.

The archdiocese will get $900,000 for the buildings at 244 and 250 Dayton Ave., near the Cathedral of St. Paul.

One lot is vacant; the other contains an office building.

The buyer is a subsidiary of The Cathedral Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving, restoring and enhancing the Cathedral of Saint Paul.

The archdiocese has now raised about $9 million by selling church real estate, including the Summit Avenue chancery that housed offices and the archbishop’s residence.

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

SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith

The troubled Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has cost £1,800,000 since launching last year, latest figures reveal. The shocking statistic comes as the inquiry awaits the appointment of a new chair and panel member.

QC Susan O’Brien quit as chair earlier this month, days after fellow panel member Professor Michael Lamb, with both citing excessive government interference in the inquiry’s work.

The inquiry released the updated figures, along with a statement insisting the inquiry was continuing its work to investigate the abuse of children in care settings, despite the loss of two of its three person panel.

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.

MAINE
CentralMaine.com

BY RACHEL OHM STAFF WRITER
rohm@centralmaine.com | @rachel_ohm | 207-612-2368

The former co-director of a youth ministry program in Canaan accused of sexually abusing a child rejected a plea deal in the case Thursday, according to the Kennebec County district attorney, and will have to be indicted by a grand jury if the case is to go to trial.

Lucas Savage, 37, of Clinton, is charged with class B unlawful sexual contact and rejected the plea deal Thursday at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta.

Savage was a co-director of Youth Haven Ministry at the time of his arrest in March. He has not entered a plea to the charge.

“We made an offer today and it was rejected, so we have not settled the case,” said Somerset County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney. If the case is to continue, a grand jury will have indict Savage, she said.

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MAINE
WABI

JUL 15, 2016

CATHERINE PEGRAM
LOCAL NEWS

The case is moving forward against a former youth pastor in Canaan accused of sexually abusing a young girl.

The Somerset County District Attorney says 37-year-old Lucas Savage of Clinton Thursday rejected a plea deal.

He’s charged with unlawful sexual contact.

Savage would have to be indicted by a grand jury now before he could enter a plea and go to trial.

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 STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Brother Body can be a real ass sometimes, can’t he? I’m dealing with some health things right now, and finding it hard to concentrate on blogging. Please forgive the “lightness” of this posting, which is more or less a list of Catholic-themed news items or commentary I’d like to report to you, as I work on encouraging Brother Body to stop being so much of a donkey to me.

1. As many of you who have followed this blog for any length of time will know, I’ve posted repeatedly here about the former archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis, John Nienstedt, who resigned in June 2015. Click his name in the labels below, and you’ll find my previous postings about him.

I’ve also blogged about the big right-wing Catholic shindig that occurs each year out in California, the Napa Institute, at which right-wing Catholics pretend they’re being persecuted and celebrate Latin-rite Masses in pretend catacombs (otherwise known as wine cellars), before convening for lavish banquets at which expensive wine flows, where they listen to lectures about how persecuted “real” Catholics are in America today. One of my Napa Institute postings notes that in 2013, Nienstedt told the Napa crowd that the gay rights movement is linked to the devil.

Guess whom Napa Institute just invited back to officiate at several Napa sessions? Here’s Tim Lennon of SNAP on Nienstedt’s attendance at this year’s Napa Institute:

Archbishop John Nienstedt, the former head of the St. Paul/Minneapolis archdiocese, is at the Napa Institute for the next few days. Several sources have told us he works there permanently now. He’s accused of sexually exploiting and/or propositioning between five and ten young seminarians. In civil litigation and repeated media exposes (especially by Minnesota Public Radio), he’s been shown to have ignored or concealed child sex crimes by priests. And the archdiocese he ran for years faces pending criminal charges for refusing to report suspected abuse by clerics.

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.

CANADA
AM 640

Police say the Hamilton Catholic Diocese has helped in the arrest of a priest in London.

He’s been charged with fraud in the alleged theft of more than $500,000 meant for refugees.

Police say 51-year-old Amer Saka obtained the money from over 20 people under the guise of a sponsorship program to bring refugee families into Canada.

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ROMA
L’Espresso

[Anarchy at the Vatican. How many groups want to control the Vatican?]

Il processo ai giornalisti sul vatiLeaks si è rivelato un autogol per la Chiesa. Ed ha anche messo in mostra le divisioni e le spaccature tra i Cardinali. Di cui Papa Francesco non sembra volersi occupare. Ecco da chi sono composte le varie cordate

DI EMILIANO FITTIPALDI
14 luglio 2016

I danni enormi causati dal processo Vatileaks, gli scontri continui tra i vertici della curia romana, le strategie per la sostituzione del presidente dello Ior, i litigi dei cardinali sulla trasparenza dei bilanci della Santa Sede.

“L’Espresso” in edicola domani dedica la copertina alla “Santa Anarchia” che sta caratterizzando gli ultimi mesi del pontificato di Francesco, che sembra aver scelto per la guida politica della curia uno stile di governo molto diverso sia da quello di Benedetto XVI e di Giovanni Paolo II.

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SOUTH AFRICA
IOL

There’s no sign of great vengeance, but there certainly has been furious anger after the Uzalo sex pest priest episode aired.

Real life pastors are apparently up in arms after an episode of the popular drama series, in which a priest groped a worshipper and helped himself to church funds.

Making their disgust heard on a variety of platforms, the church leaders claimed that the series has damaged the reputation of the church.

“The Pastor Nkosi storyline is painting the wrong picture of Christian pastors and Christianity as a whole,” raged Pastor Caleb Mbokazi of Inheritor’s Foundation Church of Christ.

“I know the show is funded with a budget of millions but it’s clear those millions are used to painting us as bad people.”

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.

CANADA
Cornwall Standard-Freeholder

By Greg Peerenboom, Cornwall Standard-Freeholder
Thursday, July 14, 2016

A former Alexandria-Cornwall diocese priest will go to trial to defend against sexual assault charges next year.

Denis Vaillancourt was the parish pastor for several churches during the last few decades.

His trial is scheduled for June 13-15, 2017. He was charged in connection to an alleged incident last fall at a South Glengarry home.

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ESPANA
El Pais

[The former director of the Salesian school of Cadiz – Francisco Javier López Luna – was acquitted of two counts of continuous sexual abuse and 11 against moral integrity against him. That is the decision of the Third Section of the Provincial Court of Cadiz which became known today. The trial against the priest was held in May.]

JESÚS A. CAÑAS
Cádiz 14 JUL 2016

El exdirector del colegio Salesianos de Cádiz Francisco Javier López Luna ha sido absuelto de dos delitos de abusos sexuales continuados y 11 contra la integridad moral que se le imputaban. Ese es el fallo de la Sección Tercera de la Audiencia Provincial de Cádiz que se ha conocido hoy, tras el juicio contra el sacerdote que se celebró entre el pasado 5 y 19 del pasado mayo. Dos de los tres magistrados que componían el tribunal sí consideran que existen vejaciones leves en algunos hechos juzgados, aunque sin ánimo libidinoso de abuso sexual y no será condenado por ello por un cambio en la ley. Tampoco se han considerado probadas las 15 faltas continuadas de lesiones o de malos tratos que se le imputan. Ante ello, tan solo se le condena, como responsable civil directo, a indemnizar en concepto de daños morales a la cantidad de 500 euros a 12 menores.

La imputación más controvertida, que incluso mantuvo al sacerdote durante días en prisión, es la de abusos sexuales. Ahora, la sentencia considera probado que López Luna practicaba juegos como ‘el abrazo del oso’ (por el que abrazaba con fuerza a los menores, los elevaba y los tiraba al suelo), el ‘goldfish’ (golpear con la mano los genitales por encima de la ropa) o incluso arrancar vello púbico. Los jueces hablan de “tocamientos sorpresivos, breves y por encima de la ropa del sexo de los menores, en el contexto de un juego aceptado de contrario, a veces precedido de una clara provocación por parte del menor”.

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

by Greg Daly
July 14, 2016

Last month saw the publication of the final tranche of reports from the first phase of reviews by the Irish Church’s safeguarding board, and the overall picture, according to board head Teresa Devlin, is one of steady progress.

“You really need to look at the detail of the reports to see that some orders took a while to get the culture of safeguarding embedded,” she explains, continuing, “the Church has had guidance in place since 1996 and the first set of National Board standards were in 2008, and it probably wasn’t until 2012 that some of them started to put proper standards around their practices and report sharply to the Guards and the HSE. Others of course hit the ground running much longer before that.”

Observing that “for most of them it was steady progress”, she stresses that “For all of them, obviously, they’re now reporting sharply to the Guards and to Tusla – they are now following the standards and policies.”

The modern Irish Church is a safe place for children, she maintains. “It’s not for me to talk about other bodies, but I think the Church since I think about 2008 recognised that they need to do something very quickly. They put in place the national board and the standards, and it is definitely much, much better,” she says.

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.

ISRAEL
New York Times

Shmuel Rosner JULY 14, 2016

TEL AVIV — In death, Esti Weinstein has started a national conversation. A 50-year-old mother of eight, Ms. Weinstein disappeared on June 21 and was found dead in her car six days later in an apparent suicide. She left behind a note and a manuscript of a memoir. She also left a long list of questions that have rekindled animosity between Israel’s secular majority and its ultra-Orthodox minority.

Ms. Weinstein had been a member of the Hasidic sect known as Gur, Israel’s largest, and she came from a distinguished family within the community. She was married at age 17 by arrangement and thrown into a relationship that she ultimately decided she could not endure. She left her family and the closed-off community eight years ago to lead a secular life.

Her book — copies of which have been distributed by mail and social media throughout Israel — chronicles in detail some of the esoteric habits of the sect from which she escaped. (After I submitted this article, Kinneret-Zmora-Dvir Publishing, by which I am employed, acquired rights to the book.) The Gur sect is rigid in its approach to marriage and modesty, with the aim of reaching a higher level of “kedushah,” or holiness. As researchers have documented, and as newspaper reporters have further detailed, Gur Hasidim “have sexual intercourse only once a month” during which they aim “to minimize physical contact.” A Gur Hasidic man will not use his wife’s name and he will reportedly sometimes get prescriptions for antidepressants to suppress his sex drive.

Peeping into the bedrooms of the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim, and mocking their habits — real or imaginary — has long been something of an Israeli national pastime. In Ms. Weinstein’s suicide story, the news media found a gold mine. But the issues go beyond mere voyeurism.

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ROME
The Australian

JULY 15, 2016

Leo Shanahan
Reporter
Sydney

When business managers complain about having to reform “ancient” institutions, not many are speaking literally. But as chief adviser to Cardinal George Pell — the Vatican’s top financial official — for the past 2½ years, Danny Casey has faced challenges more than 2000 years in the making.

Casey, who leads the project management office in the Secretariat for the Economy, says Cardinal Pell’s decisions have to be based on business rather than religious grounds.

“One of the lines is that we need to be businesslike, recognising that we aren’t a business … that’s really the theme of what we have been asked to do at the Vatican,” Casey tells The Deal on a recent visit home.

“We’re not a business, we’re sovereign and quite different. But that’s no excuse for not being businesslike, that’s no excuse for not having benchmarks, for being sloppy, for having lazy assets on the balance sheet that could be put to greater work.”

Pell’s time in Rome has been dominated by the royal commission into child sex abuse and his decision to give evidence via video link rather than return to Australia. But despite his image as the archetypal conservative, within Vatican ranks Pell is considered a radical in his efforts to overhaul the church’s finances.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Jul. 14, 2016

Although the court’s final decision was at least half right, the “VatiLeaks” case was a terrible mistake from the very beginning. It made the Vatican look vindictive and foolish. It was an embarrassment to the Vatican and the church.

The story starts back in November 2015 with the publication of Avarice by Emiliano Fittipaldi and Merchants in the Temple by Gianluigi Nuzzi, which were based on Vatican documents leaked to the Italian journalists. They were charged with violating Vatican law by soliciting the documents and pressuring Vatican officials to give them secret documents.

“Stealing documents is a crime,” Pope Francis said after the books were published. “It is a deplorable act that does not help.”

A new law had been approved by Francis that made taking, distributing, and publishing secret Vatican documents a crime in the Vatican City State. This law was in response to earlier leaks by the pope’s butler and others during the papacy of Benedict XVI.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Daily Bulletin

By Robert Weiner and Katie Schulze
POSTED: 07/14/16

The Justice for Victims Act, which has gained traction by passing the state Senate before the summer recess and is ready to be voted on by the Assembly, gives California the chance to take a strong stance against the Catholic Church’s ongoing cover-up of child sexual abuse.

Minnesota has passed a similar bill, but California’s enactment would not only protect children here but send shock waves across the country.

It is important the bill sponsored by Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, maintains its momentum and is passed by the Assembly in August before its adjournment for the year.

The bill, SB 813, would end the statute of limitations for sexual assault crimes and allow indefinite criminal prosecution of perpetrators. Sen. Leyva assures critics the bill “would in no way change the burden of proof, though it would simply offer victims additional time to come to terms with the horrible crime committed against them.” The Church has lobbied extensively to block extension of the statute of limitations and ensure the perpetrator is able to go unscathed.

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

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston Globe

By Jonathan Saltzman and Todd Wallack GLOBE STAFF JULY 14, 2016

Nearly 700 alumni of Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire have signed a petition vowing to withhold donations to the elite boarding school until leaders crack down on sexual abuse of students.

The alumni signed a letter to the board of trustees saying they have lost confidence in the school administration over the issue.

“Listen, Exeter cares about two things above and beyond anything else, based on what we’ve seen recently,’’ said one of the signers, Michael Whitfield Jones, a 1975 graduate who works in finance and digital marketing in New York City. “They care about money, and they care about public opinion, which is a sad thing.’’

Exeter has been rocked by sexual misconduct scandals this year, including a report in the Globe this week that the school minister tried to resolve one student’s allegations of sexual assault by asking the alleged abuser to bake bread for her.

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.

IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

Several priests who have been accused of child sexual abuse are thought to be homeless in Dublin, the head of the Church safeguarding board has warned.

Contrasting how diocesan clergy faced with accusations can lack the supports priests from religious orders have, NBSCCCI chief Teresa Devlin told The Irish Catholic that she is frequently told that “it’s easier for religious order priests because they still are a brother, they still have somewhere to live, they still are cared for – a diocesan priest may be cast out to the wolves”.

She has heard reports in this context, she said, of how there are “some diocesan priests from various parts of Ireland who are living rough in Dublin”.

Emphasising that dioceses must strike a careful balance in this area, Ms Devlin cautioned that such a situation could pose dangers for children.

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
Church Times

THE use of the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) to handle cases of clerical abuse has been questioned by a leading diocesan chancellor, Canon Rupert Bursell QC.

Writing in the July issue of Crucible, the journal of Christian social ethics, Canon Bursell, Chancellor of Durham diocese since 1989, welcomes this year’s changes to the original CDM, framed in 2003 before safeguarding was treated as seriously as today. He questions, none the less, the process of making a formal complaint, which, “unless very sensitively handled, can engender misunderstanding and further hurt to the complainant”.

Canon Bursell writes of “a very real psychological obstacle” to the necessity under the 2003 Measure of making a complaint about a priest to the diocesan bishop. “This is particularly so in the light of the manner in which clerical abuse has in the past frequently been swept under the carpet.”

Among his critique of the Measure, as now amended, Canon Bursell welcomes the relaxation of the one-year limitation period in which complaints of sexual abuse must be reported. He laments the lack of reporting on the number of cases. He advises that clergy and their spouses are precluded from holding the post of diocesan safeguarding adviser.

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PUERTO RICO
Univision

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico. – El sacerdote Floyd McCoy Jordan fue sentenciado hoy a cumplir 15 años de cárcel tras ser encontrado culpable por un jurado el pasado mes de junio por cometer actos lascivos contra un menor de 14 años durante los años 2013 y 2014 en el municipio puertorriqueño de Hormigueros.

El Departamento de Justicia de Puerto Rico informó a través de un comunicado de que la jueza Aixa Rosado Pietri, del Tribunal de Mayagüez, presidió la vista en donde la defensa había impugnado el informe previo a la sentencia y había solicitado que se le impusieran atenuantes al acusado.

Sin embargo, la magistrada declaró la petición no ha lugar y le impuso la pena de 15 años en prisión.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Tuesday, July 12, 2016

ALBANY — An upstate investor has put his money where his mouth is when it comes to pushing legislation to make it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice.

Gary Greenberg, who is also a sexual abuse survivor, donated $100,000 of his own money, as promised, to a political action committee he recently created to help with the effort, a financial disclosure filing to be made public later this week will show.

Since its creation in late May, Greenberg’s Fighting for Children PAC has raised a modest $1,635.

The PAC has already donated a combined $77,000 to the seven Democratic candidates it has endorsed in an effort to shift control of the Senate to the Dems.

“The PAC is off and running with a terrific start,” Greenberg told the Daily News in an email. “If I was a Republican senator targeted by the Fighting For Children PAC, I would be worried.”

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NEW YORK
The Island Now

Thu Jul 14, 2016

By Joe Nikic

A political action committee formed by a child sex abuse victim last week backed Democrat Adam Haber in the state Senate Seventh District race to succeed state Sen. Jack Martins.

Haber said that passing the Child Victims Act, legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations for reporting child sex abuse, would be one of his main goals if elected.

“Sponsoring and passing the Child Victims Act will be a top priority of mine as a state senator so that the victims of child abuse are able to get the justice that they deserve,” he said.

A New York businessman, Gary Greenberg, formed the Fighting for Children PAC two months ago to support state legislators who would vote in favor of the Child Victims Act.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Salon

EXETER, N.H. (AP) — A spokeswoman for a New Hampshire prep school says officials have “grave concern” about a sex-assault case that was resolved with a male student baking bread for his accuser as “penance.”

The 17-year-old Phillips Exeter Academy student had accused the classmate of groping her. The Boston Globe reported Wednesday that she told two deans about it in the fall, and then later met with a campus minister and the male student.

The Rev. Robert Thompson suggested the boy do “penance” by baking her bread and bringing it to her weekly, rather than going to police. The Globe reported the girl felt additional stress by seeing him every week, and went to police in May.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests has called for Thompson to be fired. He didn’t immediately return a phone message.

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CANADA
CBC News

London police have charged a priest with defrauding more than $500,000 intended to sponsor Syrian refugees coming to Hamilton.

Amer Saka of London, a 51-year-old Chaldean priest, is charged with fraud exceeding $5,000 and possessing proceeds of crime. The investigation started in February.

Police allege Saka got money from more than 20 victims who thought they were sponsoring refugee families.

Saka is a priest at St. Joseph’s Chaldean Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Hamilton said in March that it worried the money was gambled from a reserve for a private sponsorship program that has already brought 11 refugees to the city. It was supposed to help settle as many as 40 more.

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PUERTO RICO
Metro

By: Staff The Associated Press
Published on Thu Jul 14 2016

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A former Roman Catholic priest in Puerto Rico has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of lewd acts.

Floyd McCoy Jordan was accused in part of harassing a 14-year-old with calls and text messages from 2013 to 2014. McCoy had been a priest in the Monserrate Sanctuary in the western town of Hormigueros.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyVoice

NY BRIAN HICKEY
PhillyVoice Staff

The meeting is off.

On Tuesday morning, PhillyVoice reported that John-Michael Delaney – an outspoken clergy-sex abuse victim – would meet with Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput after years of not taking the archdiocese up on its offer.

Well, Delaney said that by lunchtime the same day, he’d gotten a message from archdiocesan officials asking him to return their call. After leaving six messages, he said he finally got in touch with someone.

Their reason for the call: To tell him the meeting was canceled because they now felt as if it was a “media ambush,” according to Delaney.

It was payback “because I went public,” he maintained, referring to comments in the story from archdiocese officials saying it’s a matter of practice for these sessions to go unreported.

The archdiocese, however, told PhillyVoice on Thursday afternoon that “the Archbishop has not reversed course on any commitments. If a victim has been promised a meeting, it will take place in due time and provided all parameters are respected,” according to spokesman Ken Gavin.

“Now, I’m pissed,” Delaney told PhillyVoice on Thursday morning. “I’m feeling victimized again. For years, I couldn’t do it. I was afraid of being in a room with a priest, and now they’re saying he won’t meet until there’s no legislation pending in Harrisburg. I don’t regret anything, but I kind of knew it was coming (after the article); I couldn’t wait to hear their excuse.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

Updated: JULY 14, 2016

by Maria Panaritis, STAFF WRITER

A onetime “altar boy of the year” who was raped by one of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s most notorious abuser priests said Archbishop Charles Chaput this week cancelled a face-to-face meeting with him because he told the media about it.

John Delaney, 45, said it would have been his first meeting with any top bishop, decades after first being raped at age 11 at St. Cecilia Parish in Northeast Philadelphia.

He said had planned to tell Chaput he was unhappy that the prelate helped defeat a measure that would have loosened the state statute of limitations on abuse cases, a change that victims had sought. Under pressure from church and insurance industry lobbyists, the Pennsylvania Senate late last month squelched the proposal.

“If [Chaput is] a guy who can stop a bill that can decide my fate,” Delaney said, “he should be able to sit in a room with me and be man enough to talk about it.”

He said he had expected to meet with Chaput Monday, July 18.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Last week the inquiry into historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland finished taking evidence and over the next six months Sir Anthony Hart and his two colleagues will write their report.

They started taking evidence in January 2014 and over the past two years they have heard much harrowing evidence of the physical, mental and sexual abuse that was suffered over many years at 20 residential homes and other institutions.

The 15th and final module of the inquiry started on May 31 — day 204 of the inquiry — and ended on July 8.

That final module dealt with the Bawnmore Children’s Home in Newtownabbey and the infamous Kincora Boys’ Home in east Belfast, but the focus was particularly on Kincora.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

THOMAS ROHNER

Notorious Nunavut pedophile Eric Dejaeger may have to find money in his own bank account to appeal some of the dozens of sex crimes against Inuit children of which he has been convicted.

His application for legal aid in Nunavut has been turned down.

That’s what Justice Neil Sharkey heard at the Nunavut Court of Appeal in Iqaluit July 13.

“You’re funding application at this time has been denied,” Lana Walker, a defence lawyer with the Baffin region’s legal aid office said in court.

“You have the right to appeal directly to the [Legal Services] Board of Directors… within 30 days,” Walker told Dejaeger, who appeared via videoconference from an Ontario detention centre.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Saarbruecker Zeitung

Von Matthias Zimmermann, 14. Juli 2016

Lange hat es in Freisen rumort. Der Verdacht, ein Pfarrer könne sich an Kindern vergriffen haben, kam auch Geistlichen im Dekanat St. Wendel zu Ohren. Daraufhin wollen sie Bischof Stephan Ackermann informiert haben.

Neue Vorwürfe im Fall des mutmaßlichen Kindesmissbrauchs durch einen ehemaligen Freisener Pfarrer: Demnach soll das Trierer Bistum von Geistlichen selbst schon vor Jahren auf die Verdächtigungen aufmerksam gemacht worden sein. Das berichtet jetzt ein Priester der Saarbrücker Zeitung. Damals sei aber nichts geschehen. Die Diözese soll sich nicht darum bemüht haben, mit dem betreffenden Pastor Kontakt aufzunehmen, um die Angelegenheit zu klären, geschweige denn Anzeige erstattet haben.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Express

By ALIX CULBERTSON
Thu, Jul 14, 2016

The independent review yesterday revealed how it became standard practice for girls at Kendall House children’s home in Gravesend Kent to be drugged, raped and physically abused for almost 20 years between 1967 and 1986.

Critics hit out at the Church for not delaying its publication, considering what happened at Westminster took over the world’s news agenda.

The review, ordered by the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev James Longstaff, revealed how girls as young as 11 were habitually plied with strong anti-depressants, anti-psychotic drugs and sedatives, mostly without any medical assessment.

Any girl who resisted or did not react to the effects of the drugs were punished, which included being emotionally abused or locked in solitary confinement for days.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Martin Evans, crime correspondent
14 JULY 2016

The Church of England has been accused of attempting to “bury bad news” after publishing a damning report into abuse at a children’s home on the same day the new Prime Minister was appointed.

An independent review into activities in Kendall House in Gravesend, Kent described how vulnerable girls were regularly drugged, raped and physically abused for almost 20-years between 1967 and 1986.

But critics said the publication of the findings should have been delayed until after the momentous events as Westminster had calmed down.

The review, which was ordered by the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev James Langstaff, disclosed how girls as young as 11 were routinely, and often without medical assessment, given powerful anti-depressants, sedatives and anti-psychotic drugs.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bollettino

Vatican City, 13 July 2016 – The Holy Father appointed: …

– the following Members of the Secretariat for Communication: Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon; Cardinal John Njue, archbishop of Nairobi, Kenya; Cardinal Chibly Langlios, bishop of Les Cayes, Haiti; Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar; Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches; Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy; Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Ireland; Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius, Lithuania; Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, Italy; Bishop Stanislas Lalanne of Pontoise, France; Bishop Pierre Nguyên Văn Kham of My Tho, Vietnam; Bishop Ginés Ramón García Beltrán of Guadix, Spain; Bishop Nuno Brás da Silva Martins, auxiliary of Lisbon, Portugal; Dr. Kim Daniels, advisor to the Episcopal Conference of the United States of America for the ad hoc Commission on religious freedom; Dr. Markus Schächter, professor of ethics of mass media and in society in the Jesuit faculty of philosophy in Munich, Germany; and Dr. Leticia Soberón Mainero, psychologist and expert in communication, formerly advisor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications (Mexico and Spain).

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VATICAN CITY
Dublin Live

14 JUL 2016
BY BARRY ARNOLD

Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin as one of 16 Members of the newly-established Vatican Secretariat for Communications.

The body consists of six cardinals, seven bishops and three laypersons.

Its aim is to oversee the coordination and streamlining the Holy See’s multiple communications outlets.

When Pope Francis began his reform of the Roman Curia in 2013 with the help of an advisory council of nine cardinals, one of the areas that received immediate attention was the Vatican communications operation.

Pope Francis commissioned a study and recommendations from the global management-consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

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ALABAMA
WBRC

[with video]

By Leah Jordan, Reporter

MADISON, AL (WAFF) –
“How are we supposed to know to protect our children?” That’s the question neighbors of John Martin are asking following his arrest for possession and dissemination of child pornography.

Madison County deputies arrested Martin early Tuesday morning. They confiscated a desktop computer with images and videos of sexual abuse of children at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church where he worked. Investigators also searched his Huntsville home on Barcody Road.

“I’m shaking a little bit,” said neighbor Kate McNeil. “I walk my kid through this neighborhood, like what if he approached me or followed me home?”

WAFF 48 ran a statewide background check and found Martin had no criminal record in Alabama up until this arrest, which further concerns McNeil.

“We don’t want to go around being super paranoid and looking at everybody crossly,” said McNeil. “But at the same point, that’s incredibly scary.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Ruth Gledhill CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 13 July 2016

The Church of England today defended its approach to the case of Bishop George Bell, who was accused of being a paedophile 37 years after his death.

Despite demands to publish the evidence against him, the Church cannot do this because of a “moral duty” to safeguard the victim, it says.

Supporters of Bishop Bell, who achieved international recognition for his opposition to the Nazis and his work on behalf of the Jews during the war, have protested repeatedly at the damage caused to his reputation by allegations that have not been proven in court.

The Chichester diocese paid compensation to the complainant, Carol, in September 2015. The Bishop of Chichester Martin Warner also formally apologised to her.

Bell’s condemnation as a paedophile was then challenged by a group of lawyers, academics, politicians and senior Church figures. They wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury earlier this year, and also circulated a document in defence of Bell to members of the General Synod meeting in York last weekend.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Thu, 14 Jul 2016

Cruelty was normalised at Church of England children’s home, says report

An independent review into Kendall house, a children’s home run by the Church of England, has reported “harrowing” findings where girls were sedated and abused.

Children as young as 11 were given powerful drugs, without any medical need and the report found “disclosures of unlawful sexual intercourse, to sexual assault and in a small number of cases, rape.”
David Greenwood, the solicitor who represented 15 survivors of abuse at Kendall House, said: “I have been truly shocked at the way in which staff at Kendall House handed our heavy doses of drugs designed to treat schizophrenia to young teenaged girls. Many of the ladies I have represented have suffered poor quality lives as a result of this treatment. Many have been sexually assaulted and most were physically abused. It was only when the Home Office inspectors advised the church to alter the way they deal with drugs that this treatment was brought to an end.”

In 2015 Teresa Cooper, an abuse survivor who pushed for the Church of England to launch an investigation, said that the health problems her own children have suffered can all be traced back to the drugs forcibly administered to her at Kendall house.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

Joel Adams, Reporter / Argus_JoelA

POLICE should investigate the actions of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, according to a survivor of sexual abuse.

Graham Sawyer, who was subjected to sexual assault by the former Bishop of Lewes Peter Ball in the 1980s, made the call following revelations that information regarding Ball’s offending was not passed to police.

Newly unearthed documents indicate that Lambeth Palace, the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, received six letters following Ball’s caution in 1992 revealing Ball encouraged victims to pray naked, perform sex acts in front of him, and share his bed.

Mr Sawyer told The Argus: “I hope the police are looking into the possibility of opening an investigation regarding Lord Carey as to whether he might be guilty of misconduct in a public office.”

Mr Sawyer said he was not surprised by these further revelations, saying they represented further evidence of a cover up at Lambeth Palace.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

James Macintyre 14 July 2016

A victim of sexual abuse in 1980s by the former Bishop of Lewes Peter Ball has raised the prospect of police investigating the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey after new documents suggested that Lambeth Palace knew about abuse allegations.

The documents, unearthed by the Mail on Sunday, show that Lambeth Palace received six letters after Ball was cautioned in 1992 revealing that he encouraged victims to pray naked, perform sex acts in front of him and share his bed.

Graham Sawyer told The Argus in Brighton and Hove Albion: “I hope the police are looking into the possibility of opening an investigation regarding Lord Carey as to whether he might be guilty of misconduct in a public office.”

Lord Carey, who was Archbishop between 1992 and 2002, has denied any cover-up. At the weekend he told the Mail on Sunday he could not comment further because the current Archbishop, Justin Welby, had ordered another investigation by the Church, and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, led by Judge Lowell Goddard, was also examining the case.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Nick Murray, CBC News Posted: Jul 14, 2016

Former Roman Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger has been denied funding by the Nunavut Legal Services board for a lawyer in his appeal of 24 convictions for sex crimes against children.

Dejaeger was sentenced to 19 years in prison in February 2015 for crimes committed in Igloolik between 1978 and 1982.

Dejaeger appeared Wednesday in an Iqaluit courtroom via video conference. He’s being held at Warkworth Institution, a medium-security federal prison in Campbellford, Ont.

It’s not yet clear on what grounds he’s appealing his convictions.

The 69-year-old has 30 days to appeal the Nunavut Legal Services board’s decision to deny him funding for a lawyer.

Last year, Dejaeger was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to charges relating to the sexual abuse of three children in Edmonton between 1975 and 1978 when he was studying at Newman Theological College. That sentence is to be served at the same time as the sentence for his Igloolik charges.

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

by Greg Daly
July 14, 2016

Religious bodies should cease financial and other support for members who have been found guilty of child sexual abuse, the head of the Church’s child protection board has said.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Teresa Devlin, CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland, said “at some stage, once you know [a priest or brother] is guilty, then you do have to cut the ties, you cannot continue to pay for someone and at some stage the State has to take over with pensions”.

Ms Devlin acknowledged that there are difficult balances to be struck in this area, but said that while it is important to be compassionate and merciful it is also important not to send the wrong message to survivors of abuse.

She cited the example of a complainant who had recently told her of an alleged abuser whose accommodation is provided for the Church, saying “nobody is paying for mine”.

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NEW YORK
News 12

THE BRONX – A Bronx pastor was found guilty Wednesday on charges he inappropriately touched a female member of his congregation in 2014.

Franklin Porterfield, of Faith Love Community Church, says he was hoping the court would vindicate him and left disappointed.

“I don’t feel good about what happened,” he told News 12.

A Bronx judge handed down a split decision finding Porterfield guilty of attempted forcible touching and third-degree sexual abuse, but not guilty of harassment.

“I was found guilty of one thing and not guilty of another,” Porter said.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

A minister should be immediately fired and others should be harshly disciplined at a New Hampshire private school where sexual violence has been hidden and law enforcement has been ignored.

[Boston Globe]

Phillips Exeter Academy’s Rev. Robert Thompson made an arrogant, self-serving and perhaps illegal decision to stay silent about a sexual assault (by Chukwudi “Chudi” Ikpeazu) and take it upon himself to fashion a ridiculous agreement that minimized the horror experienced by Michaella – a purported “act of penance” that involved her assailant “baking bread for the teen for the remainder of the school year,” virtually guaranteeing that she’d be forced to see her assailant every week. Shame on Rev. Thompson.

[Union Leader]

This is a common but disturbing pattern by clergy: keeping quiet about sexual violence, assuming that they know best and usurping the role of police and prosecutor in favor of unhealthy and coercive “forgiveness” and “reconciliation.”

We are glad that, according to the Globe, “Police are also investigating Exeter itself for its handling of Michaella’s case and other instances of sexual misconduct by both students and faculty,” but outraged that “weeks after the October encounter, outside authorities knew nothing of the case — school officials didn’t contact them.”

We hope law enforcement will charge Exeter officials with obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, tampering with witnesses or similar offenses. We hope Exeter officials are found guilty and face the most severe punishment possible. And we hope staff at other schools get the message: when you know of or suspect sex crimes, call 911.

Regardless of what the justice system does, we hope Exeter’s board fires or at least demotes other administrators and teachers who put the school’s reputation and their careers ahead of the safety of students and staff.

No matter what happens next, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in schools, churches or institutions – especially at private entities – to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice 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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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

John Charles Ada Toves July 13, 2016

With all due respect, Archbishop Hon, a job’s performance is based on whether an individual “does not meet expectations,” “meets expectations,” and “exceeds expectations.” Your eminence, I must say sadly you are not meeting expectations.

You have said “we are in a hurry.” Of course we are! We have been on a gurney wounded and crying for over 30 years with all the maltreatment given by our previous shepherd. As we continue to lie in pain, of course our voices will cry louder and louder. At this point, yes, we are impatient. Wouldn’t you be?

Your excellency, you are not reinventing the wheel. Our situation is not rocket science. The words are so simple, yet you refuse to utter them. Why?

Why cannot these (alleged) victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by (Anthony) Apuron be acknowledged for their pain? Why then does the church say it has a zero tolerance of these heinous acts?

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ALABAMA
Raw Story

DAVID FERGUSON
13 JUL 2016

This week, two Alabama church officials were arrested and charged with possession and dissemination of child pornography and child sex abuse.

According to Huntsville’s WAAY Channel 31, the arrests of John Lindbergh Ellard Martin of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Madison County and pastor Jeffery Allen Elkins of the Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ in Bridgeport brings the number of high-profile arrests for child sex crimes in Alabama to nine in the last four months.

“Nine officials have been arrested for crimes against children in the past four months alone, from church and school officials to lawyers and doctors,” wrote WAAY’s Megan Wiebold. “According to a national organization to end child sex abuse, Darkness2Light, 90 percent of children who are the victim of sex abuse know their offender.”

Officials from St. John the Baptist held a press conference Tuesday to discuss the allegations against Martin, who is accused of using computers at the church and in his home to procure and disseminate images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of minor children.

“Since John Martin came to work for us at St. John’s in our Adult Education Department, we have seen nothing that would lead us to believe the charges being made against him. We are stunned by the accusations,” said Pastor Phil O’Kennedy. “Of course we will continue to work with the authorities. We encourage any parishioner who may have any information about the accusation to come forward. And we will continue to pray for Mr. Martin and his family.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston Globe

By Jenn Abelson
GLOBE STAFF JULY 13, 2016

Michaella Henry was nervous about returning to the church at Phillips Exeter Academy where she said her classmate, a towering star athlete, had slipped his hands inside her shirt and squeezed her backside as she said “no” over and over again.

For two months last fall, the ugly encounter in the basement of the Phillips Church on the Exeter, N.H., campus had kept the 17-year-old awake at night and triggered sudden panic attacks.

But instead of going to the police with her allegation of sexual assault, Michaella agreed to the school minister’s proposal to meet in the church with the athlete, Chukwudi “Chudi” Ikpeazu, to work out their differences.

Michaella avoided making eye contact with Chudi that December evening as she read a statement she had written on her cellphone. …

At the minister’s urging, the young man also agreed to an “act of penance”: baking bread and delivering it to Michaella for the rest of the year. The Rev. Robert Thompson praised Michaella for accepting the arrangement, later writing, “You did a great service for Chudi, because you gave him an opportunity to express his regret and to take responsibility for what he had done.”

Chudi, through his attorney, declined to comment.

But the bread diplomacy backfired, laying bare a string of choices that made Michaella and her family question the commitment at one of America’s premier private schools to protecting students from abuse.

Instead of improving things, the weekly bread deliveries made Michaella feel increasingly stressed, forcing her to confront her alleged abuser again and again.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Union Leader

By JASON SCHREIBER
Union Leader Correspondent

EXETER – A student at Phillips Exeter Academy is due in court next month to face a sexual assault charge alleging he fondled a female student in the latest case of sexual misconduct that reportedly was brought to the attention of police only recently.

Chukwudi Ikpeazu, 18, of Parkland, Fla., is charged with misdemeanor sexual assault and is free on $5,000 personal recognizance bail following his arrest in early June.

The student track athlete is accused of fondling a then-17-year-old student’s breasts against her will in the basement of the prep school’s church known as Phillips Church on Front Street. …

The Boston Globe reported Wednesday that the alleged victim initially didn’t report the incident to police and instead agreed to a proposal by the school’s minister, the Rev. Robert Thompson, to meet with Ikpeazu at the church to resolve the allegation.

According to a story published in Wednesday’s Globe, the minister urged Ikpeazu to agree to an “act of penance” that involved baking bread for the teen for the remainder of the school year. – See more at: http://www.unionleader.com/crime/phillips-exeter-academy-student-charged-with-sexual-assault-school-minister-had-him-bake-bread-for-victim-20160713#sthash.TYxTl60b.dpuf

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UNITED STATES
America

Sean Salai, S.J. | Jul 13 2016

Walter V. “Robby” Robinson is editor-at-large of the Boston Globe. Raised Catholic, Mr. Robinson attended Boston College High School and Northeastern University. In 2001-02, he led the Spotlight Team’s investigation that uncovered the extent of clergy sex abuse and cover-ups in the Archdiocese of Boston, winning a Pulitzer Prize for these stories which led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law and triggered a wider awareness of sexual abuse in addition to multiple class action lawsuits against Catholic dioceses around the nation. His team’s investigation of clergy sex abuse in Boston was depicted in the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight” (2015), in which actor Michael Keaton played him.

Mr. Robinson has earned a number of journalism awards and honorary degrees. He previously served the Globe as a city editor, metro editor, White House correspondent and foreign correspondent. On July 3, I interviewed him by email about his coverage of the clergy abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

It is now 15 years since your Spotlight team at the Boston Globe began investigating clergy sex abuse, leading to a Pulitzer-winning series of stories that shook the Catholic Church. From your perspective, how has the impact of this series evolved over that time?

Our stories, which focused mostly on the Boston archdiocese, have reverberated throughout the United States and around the world, and have prompted the church to begin to account for what had gone on for decades; and to begin to take steps to end the abuse, put protections for children in place, and institute a healing process within the church. Since the debut of the film “Spotlight,’’ there has been an uptick of new claims of abuse in many countries.

What have been some highlights for you in covering this story?

The principal highlight has been the satisfaction of knowing that our reporting helped give voice to the voiceless, countless victims who had lived with their pain in the shadows, very often for decades; and knowing that investigative reporting can help bring about meaningful change.

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FLORIDA
WEAR

BY ANTHONY PURA TUESDAY, JULY 12TH 2016

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WEAR) — A 70-year-old Milton man is accused of molesting a 7-year-old girl and police say he gained access to the victim by volunteering at his church.

Milton police arrested John Kelley Sr. last week.

Detective Stephen Mistovich said Kelley volunteered for the pantry at New Testament Church of Milton and it played a part in the crime.

“I believe that had a lot to do with it,” Mistovich said. “There was a lot of trust.”

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ALABAMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, July 13, 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)

An Alabama Catholic official has been charged with child pornography. Now, Birmingham diocesan staff, including the bishop himself, must aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by

John Lindbergh Ellard Martin of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church.

[WHNT]

It’s not enough for church employees to claim they’re “cooperating with authorities.” (In our experience, that usually means they’re doing the bare minimum to avoid being charged with obstruction of justice.) Catholic officials gave Martin a title, a leadership role and access to a computer. So they owe it to parents, parishioners, police, prosecutors and the public to use their vast resources to actively help law enforcement solve this case and to find and help others who may have been hurt by Martin.

Specifically, we call on Bishop Robert Baker to personally visit St. John’s parish this weekend (and any other church where Martin may have worked or helped) begging victims, witnesses or whistleblowers to call police. He should also put announcements in church bulletins, parish websites and other diocesan publications and outlets.

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KANSAS
Miami County Republic

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Jay L. Preston, the director of My Father’s House homeless shelter in Paola, was booked into Miami County Jail on Saturday for aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

On Monday, Miami County Attorney Elizabeth Sweeney-Reeder officially charged Preston, 57, with aggravated indecent liberties with a child, with the offender being older than 18 and the victim being younger than 14.

The charge is an off-grid person felony, and Preston is being held on $500,000 bond.

The charge stems from an incident that allegedly occurred in rural Miami County on or about July 7 through July 8, and the charge is the result of an investigation by the Miami County Sheriff’s Office, Sweeney-Reeder said.

Preston was not yet represented by legal counsel as of Monday, and a court date had not yet been set.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Caroline Davies
Wednesday 13 July 2016

The Church of England has offered a “whole-hearted apology” to hundreds of emotionally disturbed adolescent girls placed at a church-run children’s home where residents were drugged, locked up and physically and sexually abused over a 20-year period.

A review published on Wednesday presented “harrowing” findings about Kendall House, in Gravesend. It found vulnerable teenagers were over-medicated on psychotropic drugs and tranquillisers to control them, locked in isolation rooms sometimes for days, and in some cases raped, during the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Evidence showed the home was “on the whole, toxic and destructive to the girls placed there”, the report concluded.

Warnings about behaviour at the home, run by the dioceses of Rochester and Canterbury, went unheeded for decades, and the church’s initial response was “woeful and inadequate”, said Prof Sue Proctor, who led the review and wrote the report.

The Rt Rev James Langstaff, Bishop of Rochester, who commissioned the review, said he was “appalled and saddened” to learn of the pain suffered by those at the home, which cared for 325 teenage girls from the 1960s until its closure in 1986.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

Gili Cohen Jul 13, 2016

Israel Defense Forces chief Gadi Eisenkot said Wednesday he was standing by his controversial decision to make Rabbi Eyal Karim the IDF’s next chief rabbi, even if remarks Karim made as a civilian did not represent the military’s values.

The rabbi’s appointment, which still needs the approval of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, has been harshly criticized because of his remarks on women, gay people and non-Jews.

Karim has implied that it is permissible to rape gentile women during wartime, that women should not fill combat roles, and that women cannot testify in court because their “sentimental” nature does not allow it. He has also said that it is permitted to kill wounded suicide bombers and that gay people should be treated as people “sick or disabled.”

In a statement, the IDF said Eisenkot had discussed the controversial issues at length with Karim. Karim promised that under his leadership, the military rabbinate would respect all people regardless of their religion, race and sexual orientation, and that he “sees the army as the people’s army that accepts all recruits, whoever they might be.”

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ISRAEL
YNet News

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot announced on Wednesday that, despite the public controversy, Rabbi Col. Eyal Karim will be appointed as the chief rabbi as the IDF. Eisenkot made the announcement after holding a meeting with Karim following the recent publication of controversial statements the rabbi had made concerning women, gay people, and refusing orders.

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The statement released by the chief of staff’s office said, “Col. Karim made clarified during the conversation on all the matters that have come up in recent days, and he clarified beyond any doubt that he and all IDF soldiers are completely subject to IDF orders and the IDF Code of Ethics.

“The rabbi promised that he personally and the rabbinate headed by him will respect every single person, regardless of religion, sex and sexual preference, and because he sees the IDF as an army of the people absorbing of its recruits, no matter who they are. The chief of staff spoke with Col. Karim about the chief rabbinate’s tasks and how he envisages the rabbinate under his command, and he felt that he and the rabbi see eye to eye on these issues.”

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ISRAEL
Free Thought Project

Matt Agorist July 12, 2016

Outgoing chief rabbi, Brig. Gen. Rafi Peretz, of the Israeili Defense Forces, who is stepping down after six years in the position is being replaced. And, his successor, Rabbi Col. Eyal Karim’s appointment is being met with backlash — as he is outspoken for allowing soldiers to rape women during wartime.

Karim, who was announced on Monday as the intended new IDF chief rabbi, has provoked controversy with previous misogynistic statements, such as opposing female conscription and implying that rape was permissible in times of war.

According to Ynet News, Karim has been serving as the head of the Rabbinate Department in the Military Rabbinate. He is an alumnus of the Bnei Akiva Nachalim and the Ateret Cohanim yeshivas, and he served previously as a combat paratrooper, eventually commanding their elite reconnaissance unit, before taking a break from the military and eventually returning to its rabbinate.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kent News

A report into a former Church of England children’s home in Gravesend has revealed years of historic abuse which included sedating children and putting them in straitjackets.

Last Autumn, a review began to investigate a series of allegations about practices that took place at Kendall House in Gravesend.

The report published today (Wednesday) reviewed the home between 1967 and 1986, when it was closed.

During that time over 300 girls between 10 and 16-years-old were referred for placements.

These girls may have been placed in the home by a court order, through social services or by mental health services.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Girls at a church-run children’s home were routinely drugged, locked up and physically, emotionally and sexually abused, a review has found.

Hundreds of girls were sent to Kendall house in Gravesend in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, before it closed in 1986.

The independent review set up by the Bishop of Rochester said the home was a place where cruelty was normalised.

The Church of England has apologised to girls who were heavily sedated and placed in straitjackets.

‘Cruelty normalised’

In a report the inquiry team said: “The findings are harrowing.”

The home was “a place where control, containment and sometimes cruelty were normalised.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Anglican Diocese of Rochester

The Rt Rev James Langstaff, Bishop of Rochester hosted a press conference this morning to share the findings of the Kendall House Review panel report with members of the media.

In his opening statement, Bishop James said, “It was in 2014 that I determined the need for some kind of review in relation to Kendall House, and I made my intentions public in early in 2015.

The number of former residents making serious allegations about their treatment during their time at Kendall House was steadily increasing, and it was clear that no other body was going to initiate any review or enquiry.

It took longer than I might have wished both to find the right people to undertake the review and to clarify the terms of reference for the review with them. However, I am convinced that Professor Sue Proctor and her colleagues Samantha Cohen and Ray Galloway were the right people to undertake this work on behalf of the diocese of Canterbury and Rochester. I believe that the depth, detail and outcome of their work vindicate this decision and on behalf of the diocese of Canterbury and Rochester, I thank them for their dedication to what has been a challenging piece of work.

I would now like to invite Professor Proctor to speak about the review and its findings.”

Professor Sue Proctor who chaired the conference then introduced the findings of the review panel. She said, “Before sharing the findings of this review, we would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the important contribution of all those who spoke with us as part of the process. In particular, we wish to thank all the former residents and their families who took part, for their candour and courage in coming forward and recounting sometimes painful and emotional experiences about their time at Kendall House. The consistency in their accounts is striking and paints a compelling picture of life at the home. We are also grateful to those former staff who spoke with us.

Kendall House was a private children’s home for girls, based in Gravesend, Kent. It was run and funded by the Church of England, overseen by a body called the Joint Council for Social Responsibility for the Dioceses of Rochester and Canterbury. It closed in December 1986.

In December 2015, the current Bishop of Rochester commissioned an independent panel to review events at Kendall House from 1967 until its closure. Whilst it was running, and in the years since its closure, a number of allegations of abusive and inappropriate practice there had been made by former residents. These included inappropriate and over-use of medication, and accounts of emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

The scope of the review was as follows:

• To hear and consider the accounts of former residents of Kendall House, and other relevant witnesses, including complaints about the use of drugs as a means of behavioural control and allegations of emotional, physical and sexual abuse;

• To consider relevant materials relating to Kendall House; and

• To review the relevant actions of those who worked at Kendall House, or who were associated with its service provision during the above time frame.

We have considered hundreds of written documents, including the records of 44 residents, many associated reports, records of meetings and other correspondence. We have also heard recollections and descriptions of life at Kendall House from 20 former residents, a number of their friends and relatives, and 15 former staff and others who had an association with the home. These recollections refer to periods in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church of England

13 July 2016

Statement on Kendall House review from Bishop Paul Butler, lead bishop on safeguarding for the Church of England

“The findings of the independent review into Kendall House describe the harrowing regime experienced by numerous girls and young teenagers who were placed into the care of this Church of England home. The appalling standards of care and treatment should never have been allowed and on behalf of the national church I apologise unreservedly to all the former residents whose lives were and continue to be affected by their damaging experiences at Kendall House.

The considerations for the national Church contained in the report will be examined carefully and there is full commitment to ensuring that this leads to the best possible implementation. The report will be shared with senior staff, including all diocesan bishops, across the whole Church.

There are serious lessons to be learnt from this Review both at diocesan and national level to ensure that this never happens again.”

Read the full report of the Kendall House Review

Rochester Diocese: Press Conference and Statements

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UNITED KINGDOM
BT

Vulnerable girls at a “toxic and destructive” Church of England children’s home were drugged and sexually and physically abused over nearly 20 years, a report has revealed.

Revelations of sexual abuse, ill-treatment and physical abuse at Kendall House in Gravesend, Kent, between 1967 and 1986 were outlined in an independent review.

It disclosed how girls as young as 11 were routinely, and often without medical assessment, given powerful anti-depressants, sedatives and anti-psychotic drugs.

Those that resisted, challenged or overcame the drugs’ effects faced sanctions, including being locked alone in a room for days on end or emotionally abused.

Others told how they were raped after being imprisoned in an isolation room and locked in alone overnight. And for some, the trauma of living at Kendall House lasts to this day, the review said.

The review said: “The findings are harrowing. They reveal an institution which had weak governance and oversight, a place where control, containment and sometimes cruelty were normalised.

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NEDERLAND
Historici

[The archives of the Deetman Commission, which investigated abuse of minors in the Catholic Church of the Netherlands, should be transferred to the National Archives but the commission wants to keep control over who can see the archives.]

Op 6 juli kopte NRC Next dat het archief van de Commissie-Deetman, die in 2010 en 2011 onderzoek verrichtte naar het seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen binnen de katholieke kerk, nu op slot gaat. Het archief zou worden overgebracht naar het Nationaal Archief, maar de wens van de commissie zelf zeggenschap te houden over wie het archief mag inzien, heeft daar een streep door gezet.

De Commissie-Deetman werd in 2010 in opdracht van Bisschoppenconferentie en de Konferentie Nederlandse Religieuzen ingesteld om de aanhoudende geruchten van seksueel misbruik door priesters en andere geestelijken te onderzoeken. Het eindrapport dat de commissie op 16 december 2011 uitbracht loog er niet om. Niet alleen bleken er in de periode 1845-1981 tussen de 10.000 en 20.000 kinderen misbruikt te zijn, de ordes en bisdommen waren van het overgrote deel van deze zaken op de hoogte. Bij de interne afhandeling ervan was echter maar zelden aandacht geweest voor de slachtoffers . Het belang van de daders werd vooropgesteld zodat zij niet justitieel vervolgd zouden worden. De commissie identificeerde ongeveer 800 daders.

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DEUTSCHLAND
NDR

[Abuse victim in Germany sues for compensation pension.]

Vor dem Sozialgericht Hannover wird heute der Fall eines Missbrauchsopfers der katholischen Kirche verhandelt. Kläger Mario Baltes wuchs als Kind in einem Kinderheim in Eschweiler in Nordrhein-Westfalen auf und wurde dort nach seiner Aussage geschlagen, erniedrigt und sexuell missbraucht. Außerdem sei er zu sexuellen Handlungen bei anderen Kindern gezwungen worden. Begonnen hätte der Missbrauch als Baltes fünf Jahre alt war. Das war in den 60iger-Jahren. Zehn Jahre dauerte sein Martyrium. Die katholische Kirche hatte ihn für seine erlittenen Qualen mit einer Zahlung in Höhe von 8.000 Euro entschädigt und sich schriftlich bei ihm entschuldigt. Doch das reicht Baltes nicht. Er will vor Gericht eine Rentenzahlung erstreiten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

[Prosecutors are investigating a retired pastor in Ruhestand.]

Saarbrücken (dpa/lrs) – Die Staatsanwaltschaft in Saarbrücken ermittelt erneut gegen einen katholischen Pfarrer im Ruhestand wegen des Verdachts auf sexuellen Missbrauch. Es sei eine neue Anzeige über ein mutmaßliches weiteres Opfer eingegangen, sagte der Sprecher der Staatsanwaltschaft am Mittwoch und bestätigte einen Bericht des Saarländischen Rundfunks (SR). Die Anzeige sei vom Generalvikariat des Bistums Trier als Ergebnis kirchenrechtlicher Voruntersuchungen gestellt worden. Nähere Angaben zum Inhalt der Anzeige machte er nicht. Es ist das vierte Verfahren gegen den Geistlichen.

Die Staatsanwaltschaft prüfe nun, in welchem Umfang zu ermitteln sei, sagte der Sprecher. Die Behörde hatte wegen Missbrauchsverdachts in der Vergangenheit drei Mal gegen den Pfarrer ermittelt: 2006, 2013 und 2015. Die beiden letzten Verfahren wurden wegen «mangelnden Tatnachweises» eingestellt, das Verfahren von 2006 wegen Verjährung.

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CONNECTICUT
New Haven Register

By Jean Falbo-Sosnovich, New Haven Register

SEYMOUR >> A Roman Catholic priest formerly from St. Augustine’s Church, arrested in March for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from the church, has repaid all the money.

The church recently received a check in the amount of $31,160.12 from the Rev. Honore Kombo, and a credit card Kombo had opened in the church’s name, with a $25,000 line of credit, now has a zero balance. That’s according to an announcement made over the weekend during Sunday’s Mass by the church’s current pastor, the Rev. Kevin Forsyth, and information posted in the church bulletin.

“This draft repays the parish for the funds that were missing as determined during the forensic accounting audit undertaken of the parish’s financial records,” Forsyth said. “He has also directly repaid the line of credit ($25,000) he opened in the parish’s name, bringing the balance of that line of credit to zero. The parish thereafter closed that line of credit. Father Kombo has now applied to the court for accelerated rehabilitation. I know I will keep Father Kombo in prayer, and I hope you will, too.”

Forsyth, who replaced Kombo, referred all inquiries about Kombo to Maria Zone, the Hartford Archdiocese’s director of communications, who was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 13, 2016

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

An alleged sexual predator who left Australia following claims he abused three children with disability in his care should have been the subject of a thorough police investigation, a royal commission has heard.

The disability support worker from the Mater Dei School in Camden left Australia for the UK 25 years ago and has not returned, according to evidence before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission heard no action was taken against the man, given the pseudonym CID, because he had resigned from the school.

A district director with the Department of Family and Community Services and former police officer told the public inquiry CID should have been interviewed by the authorities.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

Austen Ivereigh July 13, 2016
SENIOR CRUX CONTRIBUTOR

Two days after appointing an American as its new spokesman, the Vatican has named an American laywoman as a member of the Secretariat for Communications, a body created by Pope Francis last year to manage and overhaul Rome’s different news and media outlets.

Kim Daniels is a former spokesperson for the president of the US bishops’ conference, where she served both Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Archbishop Joseph Kurtz.

She’s also a founder and former director of Catholic Voices USA. She is currently a communications consultant for organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, the Archdiocese of Washington, the Catholic Climate Covenant, and Women Speak for Themselves.

Members of Vatican departments attend at least yearly meetings in Rome, acting as external advisers or consultants by providing input into initiatives and proposals.

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CANADA
Western Star

Diane Crocker
Published on July 13, 2016

The Parole Board of Canada has granted George Ansel Smith full parole.

The retired Roman Catholic priest had been sentenced by the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador in Corner Brook in March 2013 to nine years, 11 months and 10 days in prison for 23 counts of indecent assault against a male, nine counts of sexual assault and eight counts of assault with intent.

The offences happened when Smith was a parish priest in several western Newfoundland communities and during trips to the mainland between 1969 and 1989.

In a decision released Tuesday, the parole board said the assaults were planned and included the use of bribes, manipulation, alcohol and threats to gain his victims’ compliance. It also said Smith was under the influence of alcohol during many of the assaults.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Crystal Bonvillian | cbonvillian@al.com

Madison County investigators have arrested an official from a Madison church who stands accused of possession and dissemination of child pornography.

John Lindbergh Ellar Martin, 57, is charged with possession of child pornography. He is being held in the Madison County Jail in lieu of $30,000.

Madison County Sheriff’s Office Captain Michael Salomonsky announced the arrest Tuesday afternoon at a news conference, where he detailed the weeks-long investigation into Martin’s alleged crimes.

Salomonsky said a search warrant was executed around 6:45 a.m. at Martin’s home on Barcody Road SE in Huntsville, where investigators took as evidence several electronic devices, including cell phones.

A search warrant was also executed at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Madison, where Martin worked as assistant director of the parish’s religious education program. A desktop computer, as well as a laptop, was seized from his office there.

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ALABAMA
WAAY

Bill Young byoung@waaytv.com

The Madison County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest Tuesday of a worker at St. John the Baptist Church for possession of child pornography.

John Lindbergh Martin’s arrest comes after the Sheriff’s Office, working with the Department of Homeland Security, executed a search warrant on Martin’s Southeast Huntsville home. A second search of computers at St. John the Baptist Church resulted in the discovery of additional pictures and videos of sexual abuse of children.

Martin worked as Assistant Director for Parish Religious Education Program for the church. The Sheriff’s Office said officials with the church were very helpful in their investigation.

In a release, the church’s pastor, Father Phil O’Kennedy says:

“Since John Martin came to work for us at St. John’s in our Adult Education Department we have seen nothing that would lead us to believe the charges being made against him.

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UTAH
Gephardt Daily

By Nancy Van Valkenburg – July 12, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, July 12, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Attorneys on Tuesday filed a motion for charges to be dropped against Lyle Steed Jeffs — the fugitive leader of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — claiming those charges violate Jeffs’ right to religious freedom.

Jeffs and 10 others have pleaded not guilty to fraud and money-launder charges, brought by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which hold that Jeffs and others diverted at least $12 million in Federal funds awarded to individual church members who were approved for food stamps benefits.

FBI investigators say that Jeffs and others instructed those recipients to buy goods at FLDS-owned stores with the food stamp cards, then donate those items to the church warehouse for illegal redistribution to members as church leaders saw fit.

Another practice was to illegally divert funds to front companies for the purchase of a tractors, trucks and other large, non-food items, according to FBI information.

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OHIO
JD Supra

7/12/2016

by Traub Lieberman Straus & Shrewsberry LLP

In its recent decision in Clifford v. Church Mutual Ins. Co., 2016 Fed. Appx. 0373N (6th Cir. July 5, 2016), the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, applying Ohio law, had occasion to consider the coverage available under a sexual misconduct liability policy for the perpetrator of the wrongful acts.

Church Mutual insured Licking Baptist Church under a liability policy affording several different coverage parts, including one for sexual misconduct and molestation. This coverage part contained an exclusion for “any person who personally participated in any act of ‘sexual misconduct or sexual molestation.’” Licking Baptist and one of its individual members, who at various times served as a deacon and a choir director, were named as defendants in a suit alleging that the individual had molested and raped two minors, both of whom were church members. Licking Baptist was eventually dismissed from the suit on motion summary judgment based on a finding that the perpetrator was not acting in his official capacity as an employee or volunteer of the church at the time of the alleged acts. This left the perpetrator as the sole remaining defendant in the lawsuit.

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GUAM
KUAM

Jul 13, 2016

By Krystal Paco

The Archdiocese of Agana has a new sexual abuse response coordinator. Deacon Leonard Stohr of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Yigo accepted the position in a meeting last week.

According to archdiocese spokesperson Monsignor Bibi Arroyo, Stohr will be responsible for reviewing and strengthening the policy, but cannot confirm if Stohr will be investigating the current allegations of molestation made against Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

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CONNECTICUT
New Haven Register

NEW HAVEN >> A local pastor is facing charges after police say he sexually assaulted a minor who was a member of his church and choir.

Walter Williams, 59, of Skylark Drive, Northford, is accused of having as many as six sexual encounters with the minor between July 2015 and April 2016, police said. He was arrested Monday and charged with five counts of second-degree sexual assault, one count of fourth-degree sexual assault and three counts of risk of injury to a minor.

The victim’s mother contacted police after she came across text messages between her daughter and Williams on her daughter’s phone, police said.

Special Victims Unit Detective Matthew Abbate spoke with the victim, who described six different encounters in detail, according to a release from the police department.

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CONNECTICUT
Clay Center Dispatch

Associated Press

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut pastor is facing charges after police say he sexually assaulted a minor who was a member of his church and choir.

The New Haven Register reports (http://bit.ly/29BEWt9) 59-year-old Walter Williams, of Northford, was arrested Monday. He’s charged with five counts of second-degree sexual assault, one count of fourth-degree sexual assault and related crimes.

Police say the victim’s mother contacted authorities after discovering text messages between her daughter and Williams on her daughter’s phone. The victim told police at least two of the assaults took place at Walk of Faith Church of Christ, in New Haven, where Williams is the pastor.

Williams is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. It’s unclear whether he has retained a lawyer.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Florida Baptist Witness

By Art Toalston

Alcohol consumption has jumped back into Baptist discussions, this time stirred by the termination of a high-profile pastor.

Perry Noble’s removal as senior pastor of the multi-campus NewSpring Church in South Carolina was communicated to members and attendees during Sunday worship services, July 11.

“Perry’s posture towards his marriage, increased reliance on alcohol and other behaviors were of continual concern,” according to a statement by NewSpring’s board of directors and pastor advisory team that was read aloud.

“While this is the most difficult and painful decision we have had to make, unfortunately it was necessary,” church leaders said of “some unfortunate choices and decisions” Noble had made.

“Because Perry chose not to properly address these ongoing issues and didn’t take the necessary steps toward correcting them, he is no longer qualified, as outlined in 1 Timothy 3 and the church’s bylaws, to continue as a pastor at NewSpring Church,” the leaders’ 338-word statement reported.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston Gazette-Mail

Ryan Quinn , Staff Writer

A second former Blue Creek Academy student, along with one of his parents, has filed suit against the now-closed Kanawha County Christian boys boarding school, its leaders and its sponsor, Bible Baptist Church, over allegations that he was starved and physically abused there.

The minor’s lawsuit, filed late last month, also alleges that he was sexually abused by a school staff member’s son due to “lack of supervision and other improper standards utilized by the facility.” The ongoing suit against the same defendants filed by a separate minor in May 2015 alleges sexual abuse by another student, but doesn’t specify whether the alleged abuser was related to any staff.

Both suits also name as defendants Bible Baptist Pastor James Waldeck and J.R. Thompson, Blue Creek Academy’s former director who, according to an extensive article on Blue Creek Academy in The Daily Beast, has started a new religious school in Montana. Waldeck told a reporter Tuesday he wasn’t allowed to comment and quickly hung up the phone.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

By Timothy C. Morgan

(RNS) After applying for an internship with the China Soul for Christ Foundation, a 23-year-old university student found herself in a Paris hotel bed with the foundation’s famous founder, Yuan Zhiming, according to a new independent investigation.

The unnamed woman’s story is laid out in the investigation by GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), a Virginia-based nonprofit founded by one of Billy Graham’s grandsons, Boz Tchividjian.

The student said she had two encounters with Yuan in September 2013.

“He started saying that he was lonely and that he needed to have company,” she said.

The woman stayed with him part of the first night as they watched a soft-porn feature film. The next evening, she refused his request and left.

Yuan is recognized as one of the leading preachers and theologians for the global Chinese Christian community, which has at least 70 million Christians in China and more overseas.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Today

Mark Woods

An influential Chinese preacher and theologian has been accused of sexual misconduct in a report by a group specialising in abuse cases.

Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), founded by one of Billy Graham’s grandsons, Boz Tchividjian, investigated Yuan Zhiming, founder of China Soul for Christ Foundation.

According to Religion News Service, an unnamed woman student had two encounters with Yuan, who has an influential ministry in the worldwide Chinese Christian community.

“He started saying that he was lonely and that he needed to have company,” she told investigators.

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ALABAMA
WHNT

[with video]

JULY 12, 2016, BY DREW GALLOWAY

MADISON COUNTY, Ala. – A staffer at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with possession and dissemination of child pornography.

John Lindbergh Ellard Martin, the Assistant Director for Parish Religious Education Program at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, was arrested Tuesday.

Madison County Sheriff’s Office Captain Michael Salomonsky said investigators with the Madison County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Homeland Security found evidence that Martin had used computers at his home and at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, located on Hughes Road in Madison, to possess and disseminate images and video of sexual abuse of children.

Salomonsky said investigators do not currently know the identity of any children in the images and video. He said they have no evidence to suggest that local children were impacted, however, he couldn’t rule it out.

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