ABUSE TRACKER

CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

MARK KENNEDY, OTTAWA CITIZEN

An upcoming public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women must explore a range of possible causes, including the role of gangs and the international sex trade, says the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

It also says the inquiry must expose “systemic” flaws that can be remedied with new policy.

In its final report, the commission strongly supports a public inquiry and provides more than 20 specific recommendations on how it should be structured. The TRC says the inquiry should look at the role played by governments, the RCMP and other police and the child welfare system.

Aboriginal women are more likely than other women to experience risk factors for violence.

As well, the commissioners say the inquiry should look at whether serial killers are at fault, and how the threat of violence against Canadian aboriginal women compares to similar threats in other countries.

“Aboriginal women are more likely than other women to experience risk factors for violence,” the commission says in its report, to be released Tuesday. “They are disproportionately young, poor, unemployed, likely to have been involved with the child welfare system and to live in a community marked by social disorder.”

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

[with video]

DREW GRAGG

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report into the history of Canada’s residential school system will be released tomorrow in Ottawa.

The commission released its summary report in June, with 94 recommendations for reform.

Then-prime minister Stephen Harper gave the report a cool, non-committal reception. But newly elected prime minister Justin Trudeau is much more supportive and has endorsed the report, pledging to enact its recommendations. He will have to work with premiers, because many of the proposals fall within provincial jurisdiction.

Trudeau promises to launch a new “nation-to-nation” relationship. That relationship will start with reconciling the mistakes of the past and building a better future for Indigenous people.

The Citizen’s parliamentary bureau chief Mark Kennedy has spent years writing about the TRC and the history of Canada’s aboriginal residential school system.

He has prepared this package on what Canadians should know about the report.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Dec. 14, 2015

The commission that has spent the past five years trying to learn the truth about abuses of children at the former Indian residential schools says it is time for the names of all of those students who died, and the locations of their burials, to be known.

The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is to be made public on Tuesday morning. Its main findings – including the determination that what happened behind the walls of the church-run schools amounted to cultural genocide – were released last spring along with a list of 94 “calls to action” to address ongoing problems. What is being put forward now is thousands of pages of contextual details, historical data and voices of survivors.

One section is devoted to the commission’s assertion that the students who perished in the institutions must be identified and their remains located.

“As a parent, as a family, when you’ve lost somebody, you need to know everything about that loss that you can get your hands on,” Murray Sinclair, the chair of the commission, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. “You need to know all that can be disclosed, you need to know why they died, where they died, what they died of, and you need to know as well, where they are buried.”

Justice Sinclair says his commission’s final report is about 2,300,000 words long and presents, in tremendous detail, the post-colonization history of Canada’s indigenous peoples.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kirchen Zeitung

[Time is not a measure of respectability. The doctor and Protestant theologian Dr. Bernd Deiningerhas been therapist for nearly 25 years to Catholic clergy. He said it is important to support victims of Abuse. The former Bishop of Hildesheim, Heinrich Maria Janssen, is said to have severely sexually abused a boy for several years. Many of his former companions are shocked. Had they not remembered something? How could he live a normal life as a bishop?]

Der Arzt und evangelische Theologe Dr. Bernd Deininger therapiert seit fast 25 Jahren katholische Geistliche. Für die Kirchenzeitung erklärt er, wie ein Mensch zum Täter wird und warum es wichtig ist, die Opfer zu stützen.

Der ehemalige Bischof von Hildesheim, Heinrich Maria Janssen, soll einen Jungen über mehrere Jahre hinweg schwer sexuell missbraucht haben. Viele der ehemaligen Weggefährten sind schockiert. Hätten sie nicht etwas merken müssen? Wie konnte er nach außen hin ein ganz normales Leben als Bischof führen?

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg Digital

Von Robert Werner in Nachrichten, Überregional

Demütigungen, Schläge, foltergleiche und religiös aufgeladene Strafen, Übergriffe aller Art – dafür steht der frühere Direktor des Domspatzen-Internats Johann Meier. Kürzlich hat der Verein der „Freunde des Domchors“ dem sadistischen Gewalttäter die Ehrenmitgliedschaft aberkannt – heimlich, still und leise. Anmerkungen zum ehemaligen Domspatzendirektor Johann Meier, seinen (Ex-)Freunden und dem Domkapellmeister a.D. Georg Ratzinger. Eine Recherche in zwei Teilen.

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NEW YORK
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on December 14, 2015

Two unrelated cases in New York State are going to test Catholics’ faith in their leadership.

The rest of us are going to get an unprecedented look at how NY church leaders handle cases of sexual abuse.

Case number one is dominating the headlines – I mean, how often do you see this:

‘Sex slave’ priest who ‘stole from church for BDSM with his master’ railed against gays and lesbians and called parishioners ‘sinful’, congregation claims

The story is lurid and new details are being leaked every day.

But here’s the meat of the story: the “sex slave priest” Fr. Peter Miqueli is being accused by worshippers of stealing millions to pay for his BDSM “boy toy” and their very icky antics. But the REAL news hasn’t been released yet: I predict that when the always-fatal “drip, drip, drip of information” is fully underway, we are going to learn WHAT NY Cardinal Timothy Dolan knew about the perv priest and WHEN he knew it … and that Dolan knew a whole lot more (a whole lot sooner) than he says he did. …

Case number two is not in the headlines …yet. But the effects of the case are going to change the way that some New Yorkers look at child sexual abuse in their dioceses.

The Supreme Court of the State of New York has decided that a public nuisance lawsuit against the Diocese of Rockville Centre can proceed. The lawsuit was brought by a Long Island girl who says she was sexually abused by Fr. Gregory Yackyshyn in 2003, when she was eight years old.

A year earlier in 2002, the Suffolk County Supreme Court Grand Jury issued a report of its investigation into the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The report concluded that “officials in the diocese failed in their responsibility to protect children.”

The report went on to say that their actions “were more than simple incompetence. Diocesan officials agreed to engage in conduct that resulted in the prevention, hindrance and delay in the discovery of criminal conduct by priests.”

It gets worse. In 2004, the diocese disclosed that they knew there were 66 sex-offending priests in the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joe Slobodzian
POSTED: MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2015

Almost 3-1/2 years after a Philadelphia jury said it could not reach a verdict in the sex-assault trial of former Catholic priest James J. Brennan, the retrial of the 52-year-old has been put off again.

Again, as in the sixth time since June 22, 2012, when a Common Pleas Court jury hung. On Friday, Assistant District Attorney Meghan Goddard and defense lawyer William J. Brennan – not related to his client – met with Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright and decided that Jan. 4 would no longer work for what is estimated to be a three-day jury trial. Instead, the parties will meet on Jan. 4 and decide on a new trial date.

No legal issues or problems caused the delay, just the usual scheduling conflicts.

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MINNESOTA
Bring Me The News

A Minnesota woman is suing Zion Lutheran Church, saying she was abused by a youth minister there when she was a minor.

The woman, identified as Jane Doe 115, says she went to the Hopkins church while growing up, and because of that had developed a trust with the church and its members, according to a news release from Noaker Law.

But from 1974-77, the lawsuit says, Jane Doe was sexually abused by a youth minister who was a member of the church. She was between 11 and 14 years old at the time, according to the complaint.

Zion Lutheran Church told BringMeTheNews Monday it had no comment.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

Jennie Lissarrague

A Minnesota woman has filed a lawsuit against the Zion Lutheran Church in Hopkins alleging that she was sexually abused as a child in the 1970s.

The victim says she was abused by youth minister John Huchthausen starting in 1974 when she was 12 years old. She was a parishioner at the church at the time.

The civil complaint was filed in Hennepin County and alleges negligence against the church for exposing her to the alleged abuse and for failing to properly supervise Huchthausen.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Dec. 14, 2015

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

We applaud the brave woman who is suing an abusive Minnesota youth minister and shining a light on child sex crimes and cover ups in Protestant denominations.

[Bring Me The News]

She reports having been repeatedly sexually violated when she was 12 and a member of the Zion Lutheran Church in Hopkins, Minnesota. The alleged predator is Rev. John Huchthausen who reportedly arrived at the Church in 1974 after being as a missionary in the Philippines. He appears to have stayed at the church until 1979.

We hope others who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in Protestant churches will come forward, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and call police.

We share the concern voiced by Doe’s attorneys: that relatively fewer women who were abused as girls seek justice than men who were abused by boys. We urge every single person who was raped or molested as innocent kids or vulnerable adults to use the courts to warn parents, police, prosecutors and the public about clerics who commit or conceal sexual violence.

The new civil suit was filed in Hennepin County.

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NEW YORK
Staten Island Advance

By Eddie DAnna | danna@siadvance.com
on December 14, 2015

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — While its investigation is ongoing, the Archdiocese says it has yet to substantiate claims against a priest with Staten Island ties accused in a lawsuit of using collection-plate money to support a homosexual relationship with his “sex master.”

In an email sent Sunday night to parishioners, the Archdiocese’s communications office said officials have met with parishioners at St. Frances de Chantal R.C. Church in the Bronx to hear their concerns over Rev. Peter Miqueli.

“To date we have found nothing to substantiate the allegations that have been raised, and, in fact, with regard to the parish finances, we know that the allegation that Father Miqueli stole $1 million from each parish, as was alleged by the plaintiffs’ attorney, is completely false,” the Archdiocese email reads. “We did find that Father Miqueli had deficient management and administrative practices, and have put forward several directives to remedy those deficiencies.”

The investigation, including a “forensic audit of the parish,” will continue, according to the email.

According to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last Monday, several worshippers claim Father Miqueli used their money to fuel BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism) sex romps with his “sex master,” Keith Crist.

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UNITED STATES
Mennonite Church USA

Ervin Stutzman is executive director of Mennonite Church USA.

The Discernment Group working to care for victims of John Howard Yoder’s sexual abuse and to advocate against sexual abuse in the Mennonite Church has established a Care and Prevention Fund with Mennonite Church USA.

The purpose of the fund is threefold: 1) to recompense, at least in some small measure, the material costs that persons victimized by Yoder or another credentialed leader of Mennonite Church USA undertook on their road to healing; 2) to provide tangible care for persons who have experienced sexual abuse; 3) to assist in prevention of sexual abuse.

We invite individuals with particular concern for victims and prevention of sexual abuse to contribute to this fund.

In addition, we are encouraging a number of Mennonite institutions specifically involved in promoting Yoder’s teaching and writing ministry to contribute to the fund. Further, we will receive an offering during the adult worship service on Wednesday, July 1 and the youth worship service on Friday, July 3, at Mennonite Church USA’s Kansas City Convention. That evening, there will be a Service of Lament and Hope at a nearby church facility, focused on the hurts experienced through sexual abuse in our denomination and the healing we seek from God.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

The Catholic Church still has not got its act together and needs outside help to change a culture which has protected pedophile priests, an inquiry has heard.

Retired priest Fr John McKinnon said the church would never have held a royal commission into itself and needs people from the outside looking in to change its culture.

“I just think that we need help, but it will have to be help that we don’t want, in a sense. Help that’s hard for us to face,” Fr McKinnon told the child abuse royal commission.

“I just wonder whether we almost need to get to a stage where we’ve got to face the wall before we bounce back in a realistic way. But I hope this helps us, I really do.”

Fr McKinnon said there were a lot of failures by advisers to former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns on the College of Consultors.

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UNITED STATES
Esquire

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
DEC 14, 2015

Holy hell, you should pardon the expression. It is for stories like this that God made tabloid newspapers.

“I have made the decision to step aside … while this unfortunate and regrettable situation is investigated,” said Miqueli’s resignation letter, which was read to the faithful at St. Frances de Chantal Church. Two days earlier, a lawsuit filed by members of St. Frances de Chantal and Miqueli’s former church, St. Francis Cabrini on Roosevelt Island, accused Miqueli of using the looted funds to help finance a perverse master/slave love affair with boy toy Keith Crist. The priest played the submissive role, even agreeing to drink Crist’s urine, the suit charged. The priest paid his sex partner $1,000 a pop for the rough sex sessions, according to the suit.

Now, as is well-known, we don’t go in for mere voyeurism here in the shebeen—But, if we did, hoo, boy!—so our excuse for mentioning Father 50 Shades Of Grace here is to mention once again that Dolan From New York is proving to be a rather less than effective leader of his flock.

Earlier in his career, when he was presiding in Milwaukee, Dolan almost literally buried church funds to keep them away from litigants who’d been molested by priests of that archdiocese, stashing $57 million away in an archdiocesan cemetery trust fund. Despite these shenanigans, he got the red hat and the big chair in New York where he has behaved like a cheap-seats Spellman, wearing his Yankee cap, cracking wise on satellite radio and on Morning Joe, and being altogether a handy nuisance for those people opposed to what Papa Francesco is about over there in Rome.

Now, as it turns out, he probably knew more than he’d liked to have known about his alleged wandering slave-boy cleric. Here’s the tell.

Dolan said he turned the e-mails over to investigators soon after receiving them this past summer from whistle-blower Tatyana Gudin, onetime live-in girlfriend and confidante of the priest’s S&M “master” Keith Crist. First, though, Dolan invited Gudin to take her evidence to archdiocese investigators, the cardinal said. Gudin backed out when the archdiocese insisted she come alone, explained attorney Michael Dowd, who is representing her and the lawsuit’s 14 parishioner plaintiffs.

Jesus H. Christ on a steam table, there’s a damn hit movie out there right now about what happens when first you take your evidence to archdiocesan investigators. That Dolan thought he could run this rap after everything else that’s gone on over the past 15 years is proof enough that he’s learned nothing. Your Yankee cap won’t get you into heaven anymore, pal.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

A group of angry Catholics is taking its campaign to have Cardinal George Pell removed from the Catholic church on the road – in a bright red caravan.

The small, as yet un-named group has collected more than 10,000 signatures on a petition calling for Pope Francis to sack Cardinal Pell over his response to child abuse within the church in Australia.

The caravan, emblazoned with the words “SACK PELL NOW”, will leave Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral on Tuesday and will be driven by volunteers across the state to gather more signatures.

It will return to Melbourne in February, when Cardinal Pell is due to appear before the royal commission into child sex abuse.

Ill health prevented him from travelling from the Vatican City to Melbourne for an expected appearance this week.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

December 15, 2015

Judy Courtin

The Catholic Church continues to harm sex abuse victims by its failure to acknowledge the extent to which it covered-up sex crimes against children.

For three weeks, the County Court of Victoria has been host to countless victim survivors of Catholic clergy child-sex crimes. The severe psychological and psychiatric harm caused by these crimes was evident not only with the primary victims giving evidence, but also the many family members of loved ones who had killed themselves because the pain and damage of the sex crimes were too great to bear.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse fastidiously scheduled four weeks of hearings into the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and the Diocese of Ballarat. These were to be concluded this week by three days of evidence and cross-examination of Cardinal George Pell. But such an apotheosis was abruptly truncated on Friday as Cardinal Pell belatedly made an application to the court to have his evidence heard from Rome via videolink, rather than attend in person in Melbourne, as previously contracted. Pell’s blood pressure, it seemed, was elevated. He was well enough to give evidence, but not to travel.

As well as refusing the application, Justice Peter McClellan​ categorically quashed any perceived or real conflict of interest by declining to accept Pell’s invitation that his senior counsel, Allan Myers QC, be granted a private and confidential audience to determine Pell’s application to not travel to Australia. It is the imperious quality of this request that highlights Pell’s hard-wired sense of entitlement – that same sense of entitlement that has underpinned decades of rebuff and cruel dismissal of victims and their families by Pell and his henchmen.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By The Rev. Kenneth Doyle
Catholic News Service
December 14, 2015

Q. I am an Irish Catholic/Catholic-school kid, now 68 years old, and this is what I want to know: Given the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy, how can my Church allow Bernard Law to remain a priest — no longer in Boston, but at the Vatican, no less? Given his performance in Boston, letting him continue as a priest in good standing is awful. My non-church-going Catholic friends comment on the Church’s hypocrisy because of issues like this one. I agree with them, although I intend to remain a practicing Catholic. (Loudonville, New York)

A. In early 2002, the grave scandal of sexual abuse of children by clergy was uncovered, largely through a series of articles in The Boston Globe. Later that same year, Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as archbishop of Boston in the wake of that scandal for what was widely regarded as a lack of proper oversight on his part.

In 2004, Cardinal Law was named archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome; even though that post is largely ceremonial, some saw the appointment as the Vatican’s failure to grasp the magnitude of the sex abuse crisis.

In 2011, shortly after he reached the age of 80, Cardinal Law was replaced as archpriest of St. Mary Major. In accord with the “zero tolerance” policy adopted by the US bishops in June 2002, every cleric who has been credibly accused has now been removed from active ministry, but some have argued that bishops who failed to exercise due diligence in clerical assignments should also be punished.

In June 2015, Pope Francis created a Church tribunal to judge bishops who failed to protect children. During 2015, at least three bishops worldwide have resigned or been removed from office in the wake of sexual abuse scandals in their dioceses.

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MINNESOTA
Noaker Law Firm

New National Team Seeks Justice for the Female Survivor

Zion Lutheran Church CloseWhat: Press Conference: a newly-formed national attorney team will discuss a civil lawsuit filed by a local woman against the Zion Lutheran Church in Hopkins, Minnesota. The woman alleges sexual abuse by Youth Minister John Huchthausen beginning in 1974 when the girl was 12 years of age and a parishioner at the Church.

When: Monday, December 14, 2015 at 1:00 pm

Where: Noaker Law Firm, 333 Washington Avenue N., Third Floor, Minneapolis, MN 55401

Who: Jane Doe 115 is represented by Hamilton James, a newly formed national attorney team. Internationally renowned Constitutional lawyer and outspoken child protection adocate Professor Marci Hamilton, has joined three of the nation’s leading lawyers representing women and men in child sexual abuse cases — Leander James, Craig Vernon and Minneapolis-based Patrick Noaker.

“We are honored and immensely humbled that the leading intellect in child protection advocacy has chosen to work with us,” said Leander James. “For years, Professor Hamilton has been the go-to intellect for legislators drafting child-protection legislation and appellate courts addressing Constitutional aspects of child sexual abuse cases,” added Craig Vernon.

According to Professor Hamilton, “It has become clear to me that the best route to child protection is through the legal system. The best advocacy comes with a dedicated team. It is a fact that the entities that hide abusers simply will not stop until they are held accountable in a court of law. The window of time created by the Child Victims Act in Minnesota, which will close in May 2016, is an example of what is needed for the public to learn where hidden predators are.

Professor Hamilton says that she has been increasingly concerned that female survivors have not come forward here in Minnesota and elsewhere, even though girls are abused at a higher rate than boys. “I applaud Jane Doe 115 for her courage in coming forward today and I hope that women across the country will find their voices so that the public will learn who the hidden predators.”

More Detail:

In the civil Complaint filed in Hennepin County, the woman described as Jane Doe 115 brings claims of negligence against Zion Lutheran Church for exposing her to the sexually abusive Huchthausen, when she was a minor and for failing to properly supervise Huchthausen.

Click Here for a Photograph of Rev. John Huchthausen

Click Here for Photograph of Zion Lutheran Church HD Size 4MB

Click Here for Close Photograph of Zion Lutheran Church HD Size 2MB

According to the Zion Lutheran Church website, Rev, John Huchthausen arrived at the Church in 1974 after serving as a missionary in the Philippines. It is unknown whether he molested children while in the Philippines. Huchthausen was installed as a pastor in 1976 and appears to have remained at the Church until 1979.

“This young 12-year-old girl was subjected to repeated, severe sexual abuse at the hands of her youth minister, in and around the Church and during youth activities,” reported attorney Patrick Noaker. “The sexual abuse continued for two and a half years, until the girl was 14.”

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Julia Marsh and Priscilla DeGregory December 14, 2015

The Rev. Peter Miqueli was intensely jealous of his S&M boy toy — and it was that jealousy that led to his ouster from the pulpit, The Post has learned.

Miqueli flew into a rage after discovering that his bought-and-paid-for “master,” Keith Crist, had a longtime girlfriend he secretly shacked up with in the Harlem apartment for which the priest was paying rent.

The randy rev eventually forced Crist to pick between him and the woman earlier this year, spurned girlfriend and whistle-blower Tatyana Gudin told The Post.

When Crist picked Miqueli, kicking her out of the apartment, it helped set off a chain of events that has led to the priest’s downfall at St. Frances de Chantal Church in The Bronx.

It was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Gudin said of getting tossed into the street by both Miqueli and Crist, prompting her to reach out to a lawyer, church parishioners and even Timothy Cardinal Dolan to tell them the priest was leading a secret life of lust and larceny.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A former Brother and teacher at a Catholic school in Wollongong has been charged with historic sex offences against a pupil more than 20 years ago.

The 73-year-old is charged with 21 offences, including nine counts of indecent assault in authority and 12 counts of homosexual intercourse between a teacher and a pupil.

The offences allegedly occurred while the man was teaching a Catholic school in Wollongong between 1989 and 1991.

Police allege the victim was a student aged 12 to 14 at the time.

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NEW YORK
Church Militant

The news is now out — no thanks to the archdiocese of New York under Cdl. Timothy Dolan, which has dismissed faithful Catholics’ concerns for many months now.

An alleged homosexual priest, Fr. Peter Miqueli, whom parishioners at not one but two parishes in the New York archdiocese say has been stealing money from the parishes for years and using it in part to finance a sadomasochistic homosexual fantasy life has finally broken into the secular press.

ChurchMilitant.com was the first to report on the rumblings of all this last month — but unsatisfied with stonewalling for months from the New York hierarchy, the parishioners went public and filed a lawsuit, forcing Cdl. Dolan’s hand and the story into the open. We have linked to the story in the secular press, which has many of the more lurid details, but we will not air them here. Suffice it to say, they are lurid. But we offer the link to make the point that there is something terribly wrong in the Church in America.

ChurchMilitant.com has been investigating this story for more than a year after receiving various calls from within the archdiocese from concerned officials that nothing was being done or taken seriously. In fact, even with all these charges of theft and deviant sex flying around, Fr. Miqueli was left alone as pastor, despite pleadings from the faithful. And here is the problem in a nutshell: There is no real concern about homosexual priests in the ranks of the clergy as long as they are not molesting boys. And the reason is because there is too much gay-friendliness on the part of senior clergy and bishops and even cardinals.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By Melissa Cunningham
Dec. 14, 2015

THEY are in a city full of people but there were moments Ballarat’s clergy sex abuse survivors never felt more alone.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s public hearing into Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat commenced at the Melbourne County Court last week.

As more truth emerges of Ballarat’s dark history of abuse, torture and rape survivors Andrew Collins and Peter Blenkiron say the emotional toll of being away from their loved ones intensifies.

“It’s really, really hard,” Mr Collins said. “I’m surrounded by people and I still feel alone. I’m really missing my family and my support structure but it’s important to be here so I’ve got to get through it.”

Mr Blenkiron said many of the survivors attended the public hearings then go back to their accommodation and fall to pieces.

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ITALY
Evangelical Focus

The Italian Evangelical Alliance (AEI) “joins the appeal” made by several entities (among them, the International Press Institute) which “cannot tolerate the interference of a foreign state violating important principles of freedom of press and the limits of its jurisdiction.”

In a statement, the AEI supported the right of journalists Emiliano Fittipaldi (author of the book Avaritia) and Gianluigi Nuzzi (author of Via Crucis) to inform about scandals affecting the Vatican.

On November 24, the State of Vatican City put on trial two journalists for reporting on the financial scandals of the Holy See in their publications, which were printed in Italy.

“The Vatican does not deny the veracity of the documents published, but accuses the two journalists of making them public by concealing their ‘secrecy’”, the AEI says.

“FREEDOM OF PRESS IS GUARANTEED BY THE ITALIAN CONSTITUTION”

“On trial there are not just two journalists, but also citizens of the Italian Republic. On trial is the right (in fact, the professional duty) of the journalist to disclose news of which he/she is aware.”

The texts defends “the freedom of press, guaranteed by the Italian Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.”

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CANADA
Global News

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which documented the haunting legacy of Canada’s residential schools, is set to present its final report Tuesday to the parties in the class-action settlement that led to its creation.

Justice Murray Sinclair, who has led the TRC’s exhaustive investigation over the past six years, said each member of the agreement will receive a copy of the massive findings to complete the commission’s obligation.

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement was reached after former residential school survivors took the federal government and churches to court with the support of the Assembly of First Nations and Inuit organizations.

The arrangement was designed to help repair the lasting damage caused by the schools, and – in addition to compensating survivors – to explore the truth behind the government-funded, church-operated assimilation program that existed in Canada from the 1870s to 1996.

After unveiling its summary in June, which included the key finding that the residential school system facilitated nothing short of “cultural genocide,” the TRC will now release hard copies of the full report.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By Melissa Cunningham
Dec. 13, 2015

A SENIOR Catholic figure faced scrutiny for failure to respond to the pleas of parents trying to protect their children from paedophile priest Gerard Ridsdale.

Several parents complained to Brisbane auxiliary bishop Brian Finnigan about Ridsdale’s “disturbing” behaviour in Mortlake in 1981, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse was told.

The inquiry heard on Friday that Bishop Finnigan, then secretary to Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, told parents there was no reason to be concerned about Ridsdale.

The commission was told he never reported any complaints to Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns. Bishop Finnigan said he had no proof at the time the allegations were true.

“That was the information that was said,” he told the inquiry.

“Whether it was true or not was another question.”

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UNITED STATES
Indianapolis Star

David Lindquist, david.lindquist@indystar.com

December 14, 2015

Twelve years after The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team of journalists won a Pulitzer Prize, a film based on the team’s work is collecting high honors.

“Spotlight” was named 2015’s best film by the Indiana Film Journalists Association. The drama, which explores the Catholic Church’s cover-up of clergy sexual abuse, also won in the categories of best original screenplay and best supporting actor for Mark Ruffalo.

“Room,” runner-up in the best-film category, won three Indiana Film Journalists Association awards: Emma Donoghue’s script in the best adapted screenplay category, Brie Larson for best actress and Jacob Tremblay for best actor.

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UNITED STATES
Church Militant

by Christine Niles • ChurchMilitant.com • December 9, 2015

One of the biggest lies of the sex abuse scandal is that “pedophile priests” were the culprits In spite of the well-deserved acclaim received by the film “Spotlight,” which highlights the Boston Globe’s investigative work exposing the massive sex abuse cover-up in Boston under Cdl. Bernard Law, the film is not perfect. Namely, it exhibits a distinct discomfort in pointing fingers at homosexuality — the same discomfort exhibited in large part by the Church hierarchy, which, in spite of tough measures implemented after the sex abuse crisis, fails to look at the root cause: homosexual priests, and the gay-friendly bishops who protect them.

“Spotlight” deflects from the issue, one of its characters insisting in one scene, “This has nothing to do with homosexuality.” The character claims the abuse happened to both boys and girls — and to drive home the point, “Spotlight” ends on a scene with a couple little girls waiting in a law firm conference room while their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian (played by Stanley Tucci), makes clear they are yet more abuse victims in need of help.

Statistically, though, girls are only a fraction of the victims in the Church sex abuse scandal. After the crisis revealed itself to be much bigger than Catholics ever knew, stretching far beyond Boston — to date at least 11 dioceses have declared bankruptcy within the past decade as a result of lawsuits (Duluth being the latest), with settlements totaling hundreds of millions of dollars — the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002 commissioned a study to examine the root causes of the crisis.

The National Review Board, recruiting a research team from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, released its initial report in 2004. The results were conclusive: This was not a “pedophile” scandal, but a homosexual scandal. Eighty percent of the alleged victims were male, and nearly 90 percent were post-pubescent, with “only a small percentage of priests receiving allegations of abusing young children.” An updated report, issued in 2011, revealed similar numbers: 81 percent of sex abuse victims were boys, and 78 percent were post-pubescent.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
14 DEC 2015

An Australian bishop has been accused of not being candid about his knowledge of pedophile priests in a bid to protect himself and the Catholic Church.

Brisbane auxiliary bishop Brian Finnigan had not sought to help the child abuse royal commission’s investigation into pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale’s offending in the Diocese of Ballarat, the inquiry heard.

Counsel assisting the commission Angus Stewart SC compared Bishop Finnigan’s evidence to church officials’ response to child sex abuse complaints in the 1980s.

Mr Stewart said the former Ballarat vicar-general and bishop’s secretary’s evidence lacked compassion and was not candid.

Bishop Finnigan disagreed, although he said the response of church officials was appalling.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Danny Morgan

A Catholic bishop has been accused of trying to protect himself and the church while giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Bishop Brian Finnigan was among a group of priests who handled complaints of paedophilia among priests in the Ballarat Diocese in the 1980s.

Counsel Assisting the Commission Angus Stewart SC asked the bishop why his evidence in a private hearing earlier this year differed from his evidence in public hearings today and last Friday.

“The evidence that you have given for the royal commission on Friday and indeed this morning has not been given in such a way that you have sought to assist the royal commission and the public to understand the history of Gerald Ridsdale in the Diocese of Ballarat,” he put to Bishop Finnigan.

Bishop Finnigan replied that his intention was “certainly not to create confusion”.

Bishop Finnigan: “If I have created confusion because of my various ways of expressing things all I can say is ‘I’m sorry’.”

Angus Stewart SC: “I say to you bishop that in your evidence in this public hearing you have consistently distanced yourself from any knowledge of child sexual assault by priests of the dioceses to protect yourself and to protect the church – isn’t that right?”

Bishop Finnigan: I wouldn’t agree with that.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 14, 2015

Jane Lee

A Catholic bishop has been accused of being untruthful to a royal commission in order to protect himself and the church from criticism over their handling of child sexual abuse allegations against clergy.

Brisbane’s auxiliary bishop Brian Finnigan, formerly a secretary and adviser to former Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns, has been grilled for almost two days about his knowledge of allegations against serial child sex offenders, including disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale.
He said on Friday that he only learned of Ridsdale’s crimes after 1993 and maintained on Monday that he only had “suspicions” of them before then.

Counsel assisting the commission, Angus Stewart, SC, said on Monday: “… you’ve consistently distanced yourself from any knowledge of child sexual abuse by priests of the diocese to protect yourself and to protect the church.”

He likened the Bishop’s testimony to the “appalling” experiences of survivors when they tried to discuss their abuse with church officials in the 1980s, because it “lacked any compassion” and had “not been candid”.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 11 December 2015)

A former Catholic religious Brother, Edward Mamo, who had already spent time in jail, was jailed again in Melbourne on 11 December 2015 after 14 more of his victims contacted Broken Rites and/or the Victoria Police. Mamo pleaded guilty to 21 additional indecent assaults, committed against these 14 victims while he worked as a Brother at Monivae College, a Catholic secondary school at Hamilton in western Victoria, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Mamo has also worked at Chevalier College in Bowral, New South Wales, but this Victorian court case was only for Victorian offences.

The 14 victims were boys aged in their early teens or were as young as eleven when the assaults occurred.

Some of these 14 victims contacted Broken Rites (separately) several years ago after reading on the Broken Rites website about a previous Mamo court case. Broken Rites gave each of these new victims the contact details for detectives in the Victoria Police. These detectives then found some additional victims for the 2015 case. The investigation for the 2015 case was completed by the Sano Taskforce in the Victoria Police sex-crimes unit.

Monivae College was established by a religious order, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. This order is known by its Latin initials, MSC. Monivae College was originally for boys only, including boarders as well as day boys. It has since become co-educational.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Melissa Cunningham
Dec. 14, 2015

CLERGY sexual abuse survivor Paul Levey says he has spent his whole life trying to escape his past.

Mr Levey said he been a “broken man” since he was forced to live with notorious paedophile Gerard Ridsdale after his parents separated in 1982.

After being subjected to daily sexual abuse at the hands of Ridsdale, Mr Levey spent years in a haze of drugs and alcohol, trying to numb the pain.

He said he was struggling with his parent’s separation and Ridsdale offered to take care of him.

He said his time in the “monster cave” tore his family apart.

“It destroyed me and everything I was,” Mr Levey said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Melissa Cunningham
Dec. 14, 2015

1pm

Fr McKinnon told the inquiry the bishop’s consultors never questioned him.

Admits to the commission that it was a failing on his part and the part of other consultors not to push further.

Fr Mckinnon told the inquiry the idea of celibacy and chastity means priests often miss out on life experience.

“I sometimes wonder whether the fact we’re celibate means that we miss out on the normal incentive to grow,” he told the inquiry.

12.50pm

Fr McKinnon tells inquiry he had an “instinct of dislike” for Ridsdale.

Also tells inquiry he cannot recall when he became aware of his offending against children.

He is now being probed about disgraced priest Paul Ryan’s resignation in 1991.

The resignation was discussed at a meeting lead by Bishop Mulkearns but Fr McKinnon said he has no recollection if the circumstances surrounding his resignation were discussed.

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NEW YORK
ABC 7

[with video]

By Kemberly Richardson

THROGGS NECK, Bronx (WABC) — After morning mass, Timothy Cardinal Dolan addressed allegations that are tearing a Throggs Neck parish apart – not by worshipers, but by the man who once led them – Father Peter Miqueli.

“We’re dealing with a lot of innuendo, a lot of rumors, a lot of gossip – what we have to deal with is the truth,” Cardinal Dolan said.

Frustration is felt by many at St. Frances de Chantal Church and so as not to be a distraction, Miqueli abruptly resigned this weekend by voluntarily stepped down from his post. Just days ago, parishioners sued the embattled priest for allegedly stealing roughly $1 million from St. Frances and his prior church on Roosevelt Island.

One woman claims she has proof that Miqueli used part of the cash to buy a home in New Jersey, and to fund a drug-fueled lifestyle for him and his alleged boyfriend.

Cardinal Dolan tells Eyewitness News that he forwarded the emails from the accused to the Bronx District Attorney.

“They are lured, terrible – now when I read them about three months ago, it was she saying ‘this is what I’m telling you, I have photographs, I have evidence – and I said, ‘oh, I’m glad, please come in and give them to me and to the police, and she didn’t’,” Cardinal Dolan said.

The Archdiocese of New York was also named in the lawsuit, is investigating all of this, and says so far it has found no evidence of embezzlement.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By C.J. Sullivan December 13, 2015

Worshippers at a Bronx Catholic church broke into applause Sunday when a letter from their disgraced priest was read before Masses announcing he was stepping aside in the wake of a humiliating sex scandal.

The Rev. Peter Miqueli was nowhere to be found at St. Frances de Chantal Church when another priest read a letter from him, causing cheers to break out.

Craig Burner, one of the cheering parishioners, said Miqueli should have been out months ago.

“He was just mean and nasty. His letter is a lie,” Burner said. “We reported him to the archdiocese, and they said they would look into this, but they never did.”

Miqueli is being investigated for allegedly lifting church funds to pay for private boy toy Keith Crist, a muscular S&M master.

Parishioner William Doucet said he grew so suspicious of Miqueli that he stopped using cash for the collection plate.

“I stopped giving money in my envelope and would only write a check when I heard about the funny business with the money,” Doucet said.

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CANADA
Edmonton Journal

ALEXANDRA ZABJEK, EDMONTON JOURNAL

Published on: December 13, 2015

A victim of a notorious pedophile who worked at a Catholic Church in Edmonton in the 1970s is suing the former priest, the Archdiocese of Edmonton, and the Oblate Fathers of Assumption Province for $3-million.

In a statement of claim filed in court last week, the plaintiff — a resident of Edmonton who is not identified — said she was a five-year-old girl when Eric Dejaeger befriended her and started spending time with her under the guise of spiritual guidance.

Dejaeger has since been convicted of sexually assaulting numerous children while working in Canada, including the woman who filed the lawsuit. He is currently serving a 19-year sentence for 32 sex offences against Inuit children between 1978 and 1982. As part of that prison term, he is serving five years concurrent for his assaults on the woman.

During his time in Edmonton, Dejaeger was studying to be a priest and spent time at the Charles Camsell Hospital Parish where the woman’s family attended services. She met Dejaeger in 1975 and knew him for three years.

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NEW YORK
Daily Mail (UK)

The Catholic priest who allegedly stole more than $1million in donations to pay for gay sex with a sadomasochistic ‘master’ used to routinely berate parishioners for being gay or single parents, members of his congregation claim.

Rev Peter Miqueli resigned from his post as pastor at St Frances de Chantal in Throggs Neck, the Bronx, on Saturday.

The 53-year-old is accused of taking from the donation plate at St. Frances de Chantal and also stealing from his former church, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini on Roosevelt Island.

According to a lawsuit filed against him in Manhattan Supreme Court, the stolen donations were used to fund his $1,000-a-time bondage sessions with a gay ‘sex master’ named Keith Crist.

Now, members of Miqueli’s flock are speaking out, claiming the disgraced reverend seemed to harbor a unique hatred for homosexuals and single parents.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY DANIEL LEWIS, ALYN ACKERMANN, REUVEN BLAU
Sunday, December 13, 2015

Parishioners had mixed reactions Sunday to the resignation of their alleged S&M-loving Bronx priest.

The Rev. Peter Miqueli’s resignation letter was read to the faithful gathered at the start of three separate morning services at St. Frances de Chantal Church Sunday morning.

“He will come back!” shouted Theresa Chirinnos after the missive was read at the 10:30 a.m. mass. The congregation applauded.

After the service, Chirinnos, 66, said that she was a trustee at the church and helped open collection envelopes every week. She said Miqueli was arrogant but blamed a lawsuit against him alleging stolen funds on a small group of parishioners with an axe to grind.

“He no gay. He never stole money,” she said.

On Thursday, members of St. Frances de Chantal and Miqueli’s former church, St. Francis Cabrini on Roosevelt Island, accused Miqueli of using the plundered reserves to help pay for a master/slave love affair with boy toy Keith Crist. …

On Sunday, Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling admitted the church had some management problems. But he stressed that so far the claims against Miqueli have been unsubstantiated.

Zwilling said a woman in the parish says she has photos and emails that prove Miqueli was stealing money and was giving it to Crist, but after asking her multiple times to show them the documents she refused.

“We don’t have any documentation,” Zwilling said. “We don’t have any proof.”

“All we have are allegations,” he continued. “We’ve asked for documentation and we don’t have any.”

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

The Vatican refused to remove a Victorian priest despite his child sex abuse conviction and the pedophile wanted money to agree to be defrocked, documents show.

The Vatican has still not agreed to remove Paul David Ryan, 67, from the priesthood, nine years after the Diocese of Ballarat asked he be dismissed, documents before the child abuse royal commission show.

Then Ballarat bishop Peter Connors wrote to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2006 telling them Ryan was in jail and asking he be laicised as soon as possible.

The Vatican’s response in 2006 was: “The summary of the case that you have provided, while helpful, is insufficient to proceed with your request that Reverend Ryan be dismissed from the clerical state.”

The Vatican asked for further supporting documentation or that Ryan himself petition the Pope for dispensation from the priesthood, the documents show.

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NEW YORK
Free St. Frances de Chantal from Fr. Peter Miqueli

Joseph Zwilling, Director of Communications of the Archdiocese of New York, comments on the events and lawsuit regarding Fr. Peter Miqueli: CLICK HERE TO READ

A response:

While Zwilling continues to protect our pastor, Fr. Peter Miqueli, there are elements of his defense that are utterly false. He says that “The archdiocese has, from the beginning, taken these allegations seriously,” but this is hardly true. Had they been taking us seriously, we would not have had to go to the media for them to listen to us. For the past three years we have reached out to them and have been stonewalled with the most minimal efforts of help.
​
​He says that a forensic audit by the archdiocese is currently taking place. If the archdiocese is trying to protect itself, which as every time they issue a statement it is evident they are, the audit will be sloppy and not turn up any wrongdoing. Taking the audit into their own hands is suspicious and cannot be trusted.
​
One thing that Zwilling absolutely fails to comment on is Fr. Miqueli’s relationship with Keith Crist. This is a completely true, and sickening fact. There is no question about the two and their relations. The archdiocese has been well aware of the two being together and yet has done absolutely nothing, showing that they clearly approve of what is occurring.

Lastly, anything that has been said by our parish about Fr. Miquei is more true than anything the archdiocese has said or will say. The archdiocese is in the defense and is well experienced in covering things up. We as parishioners have gone to such lengths because of our convictions of Fr. Peter Miqueli. We have dealt with him and have personally witnessed his wrongdoing. The archdiocese has not. For them to try to understand the situation by staying in their offices and not really meeting with us to learn more about the situation, they cannot grasp the suffering we have been going through.

​In this situation, the archdiocese has something to lose. They have secrets they are protecting and Fr. Miqueli is a crucial element in them. If we did not stand firm in our attitude toward Fr. Miqueli, we would not have been fighting this for as long as we have been. The archdiocese, Cardinal Dolan, Zwilling, and Fr. Miqueli made this into the media circus that is has become. If the archdiocese had nothing to hide, and really cared about the issue at hand when first brought up three years ago, the extent to which this has escalated, would not have occurred.

God Bless St. Frances de Chantal and its Parishioners. ​​

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NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York

December 11, 2015

The following e-letter was sent out to parishioners on December 11, 2015.

Dear parishioners of the archdiocese:

You may have seen or heard some disturbing reports concerning a lawsuit filed against the pastor of one of our parishes, Father Miqueli of St. Frances de Chantal in the Bronx, as well as Cardinal Dolan and the Archdiocese of New York. I am sorry to have to discuss this issue, particularly during this time of the year, but I wanted you to have some more information about this than has been reported in the media.

First, I cannot and will not comment on the specifics of the lawsuit itself. As this is a legal matter, I will let the lawyers handle that in court.

But, I can say that there are a group of individuals at St. Francis de Chantal parish who have made some serious allegations concerning Fr. Miqueli. The archdiocese has, from the beginning, taken these allegations seriously, and has been investigating them, including conducting a forensic audit of the parish, which is still on-going. One of our auxiliary bishops, Bishop John Jenik, has met with the parishioners, in an effort to try to hear their concerns and reach a resolution, along with a distinguished group of legal professionals.

To date we have found nothing to substantiate the allegations that have been raised, and, in fact, with regard to the parish finances, we know that the allegation that Father Miqueli stole $1 million from each parish, as was alleged by the plantiffs’ attorney, is completely false. We did find that Father Miqueli had deficient management and administrative practices, and have put forward several directives to remedy those deficiencies.

We have asked the people who are making these charges to please provide us with documentation, but they have thus far failed to do so. I would like to reiterate that if anyone has information or documentation to substantiate the allegations, we would invite them to bring that information forward, or to contact the D.A.

However, I repeat, that we have been and continue to investigate this situation, but have not found anything that would confirm or substantiate the allegations raised. If, in the course of our ongoing investigation, we find additional information, we will, of course, take appropriate action in response.

Please keep all involved in this matter, particularly the parishioners of St. Frances de Chantal, in your prayers.

Sincerely,

Joseph Zwilling
Director of Communications

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NEW YORK
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • December 12, 2015

The parishioners at St. Frances de Chantal Catholic Church in the Bronx have had it with their pastor, Fr. Peter Miqueli, who allegedly brought habits of gross misconduct from his previous parish on Roosevelt Island into St. Frances. The Bronx parishioners, along with some of Miqueli’s former flock on Roosevelt Island, have filed a $1 million lawsuit in an effort to get him ousted and defrocked. …

Here’s what I don’t get: if you are the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, and you are credibly told that one of your priests is in an extremely kinky relationship with a gay prostitute, don’t you call that priest into your office the very next day and give him the third degree? Or at least the next day? Or the day after that?

Leaving aside the financial mismanagement charges, there are three possibilities here:

1) the Archdiocese investigated these allegations of grotesque sexual misconduct and found them groundless;
2) the Archdiocese investigated, found these allegations true, but chose not to act on them; or
3) the Archdiocese never investigated the allegations

If these salacious allegations against Fr. Miqueli are false, the Archdiocese should say so unambiguously, and clear his name.

If the Archdiocese did not take the allegations seriously, it owes the people of the Archdiocese an explanation as to why not, especially in an era of so-called zero tolerance in the Church.

If the Archdiocese substantiated these allegations against Fr. Miqueli, but left him in parish ministry, it owes the people of the Archdiocese an explanation.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on December 13, 2015

For free on Amazon, that is!

The Power of Responsibility: Six Decisions That Will Help You Take Back Happiness and Create Unlimited Success—based on my TEDxPasadenaWomen talk—is now available. And the best part is that it’s free!

Download it here.

This short (under 2-hour) read blossomed from how I learned to use the power of responsibility to take back my life and find happiness and peace after being sexually abused as a child in the Catholic Church.

The lessons I learned, the power I achieved, and the Six Decisions can be applied to ANYONE—whether you are stuck in your job, school, or the pit of victimhood.

Still on the fence? The reviews are in—and I’m overwhelmed by the response.

Here is a sampling of some of the Amazon reviews:

“If there is room for improvement in your life, this will be one of the best purchases you’ll ever make.” – Mimi E.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

John Ferguson
Victorian Political Editor
Melbourne

Tessa Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

George Pell’s most strident critics want the narrative to be Sesame Street simple.

They paint the nation’s most influential Catholic as being knowingly complicit in covering up sex crimes and then ripping off the victims by setting up a duplicitous and immoral redress scheme.

In both cases those critics are wrong.

At the same time, the evidence is pointing to deep flaws, with the most salacious of claims against Pell from his years in the diocese of Ballarat in western Victoria, where some of the world’s worst offending occurred.

But like the man himself, Cardinal Pell’s position in relation to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is deeply nuanced.

It is quite possible that he will be excoriated by the inquiry, with the church hierarchy in Australia worried that the commission is eager for a high-profile scalp.

Royal commissions do not work like normal courts; they have greater licence to destroy reputations with rhetoric and sharp commentary. They are not bound by the best evidence rule and are at liberty to admit hearsay evidence.

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UNITED STATES
Virtue Online

By David W. Virtue DD
www.virtueonline.org
December 12, 2015

The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, has suspended his right hand man, COO Bishop Stacey Sauls, and placed him on administrative leave along with two other senior church officers over what is being described as “misconduct in carrying out their duties as members of senior management of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society.” The other two suspended officers are Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Director of Mission Samuel McDonald, and Director of Public Engagement Alex Baumgarten.

No one will give information about the exact nature of the incident. However, VOL and IRD writer Jeff Walton believe it might have something to do with the security tapes that were found by General Convention Executive Officer and Executive Council Secretary Canon Michael Barlowe at the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute in Linthicum Heights, Maryland, where the Executive Council was meeting last month.

A tape-recording device had been concealed and was running, Barlowe told a shocked room. Council members were exhorted to look under their tables to see if anything was taped. The hidden tape recorder was found on the floor near the lead table where top church leaders had been seated throughout Executive Council. These leaders included Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and House of Deputies President Gay Jennings. No surveillance cameras thatmight have recorded someone hiding the recorder were found.

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UNITED STATES
The Episcopal Church

December 11, 2015

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop and Primate Michael Curry has issued the following letter to the staff of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society.

December 11, 2015

Dear Friends,

I need to inform you that on Wednesday I placed on administrative leave Bishop Stacy Sauls, Chief Operating Officer, Samuel McDonald, Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Director of Mission, and Alex Baumgarten, Director of Public Engagement. This is a result of concerns that have been raised about possible misconduct in carrying out their duties as members of senior management of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society.

I want to be clear. My decision should not be confused with a finding of fault, but is necessary to allow us to find clarity. We are taking these allegations seriously and there will be a full and fair examination of the concerns that have been raised to be conducted expeditiously by an independent investigator. To protect the integrity of that process, we will not be able to say more about the concerns at this time.

I ask that you pray for all who are involved and who are impacted by this situation.

I also ask that we all refrain from speculation, difficult though that may be. We all have a responsibility to protect the integrity of all the human beings involved and also the integrity of a fair and just process in this matter.

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UNITED STATES
The National

Stephen Applebaum

December 13, 2015

Hailed by many as the best film about journalism since All the President’s Men, director/co-­writer Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight grippingly and truthfully dramatises how a team of investigative reporters exposed decades of child abuse by Catholic priests in Massachusetts.

The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team published the first story on January 6, 2002 – but its impact was felt internationally.

The movie is a cris de coeur for a kind of local investigative reporting that is dying out, as newspaper publishers trim budgets and lay off staff – in many places, it is already dead.

“I might be wrong but I don’t think the general public fully understands just how dire this ­situation is, and how fundamental to our individual democracies a strong free press is,” says ­McCarthy.

He and fellow writer Josh Singer felt the best way to highlight the issue was to show “by example, in the extraordinary work done by the reporters and editors at the Boston Globe, and the courage of the survivors”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Melissa Cunningham
Dec. 13, 2015

A senior Catholic figure faced scrutiny for failure to respond to the pleas of parents trying to protect their children from paedophile priest Gerard Ridsdale.

Several parents complained to Brisbane auxiliary bishop Brian Finnigan about Ridsdale’s “disturbing” behaviour in Mortlake in 1981, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse was told.

The inquiry heard Bishop Finnigan, then secretary to Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, told parents he there was no reason to be concerned about Ridsdale.

The commission was told he never reported any complaints to Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns. Bishop Finnigan said he had no proof at the time the allegations were true.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

[with video]

December 11, 2015

Jane Lee
Legal affairs, health and science reporter

Cardinal George Pell’s testimony to a child abuse royal commission has been delayed until next year because he is too unwell to travel to Australia.

The cardinal was to appear in person at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Melbourne next week to give evidence on how he responded to child abuse allegations as a priest in Ballarat and as the Archbishop of Melbourne.

His lawyer, Allan Myers, QC, asked the commission on Friday to allow his client to testify via video link from Rome, where he manages the Vatican’s finances, citing ill health.

The personal details of the medical certificates detailing Cardinal Pell’s condition — which were partly in Italian — were suppressed but understood to include his blood pressure. Mr Myers said he did not wish to “waive confidentiality” of his health records.

Cardinal Pell’s office released a statement shortly after the hearing, saying he had suffered from a heart condition “for some time”, and that its symptoms had “recently worsened”. A specialist cardiologist in Rome advised “it is not safe for him to undertake long haul flights in his current condition”. He “reluctantly and only on medical advice” asked to appear via video and had only decided in the “middle of this week” not to come to Australia.

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FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

[with video]

A Miami Beach rabbi who was accused of molesting an 11-year-old girl has taken a plea deal in the case – over the objections of the girl’s mother who wanted him prosecuted as a sex offender, according to Miami media reports.

Originally charged with lewd and lascivious behavior with a minor, Rabbi Steve Karro pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor battery charge and was placed on probation for nine months, WFOR-Ch. 4 reported.

The girl’s mother addressed the judge in court in an effort to persuade him to reject the deal.

“Rabbi Karro took my daughter, touched and squeezed her buttocks, placed her on his ap…rubbed her thighs and kissed her,” WSVN-Ch. 7 quoted the woman as saying.

Prosecutors concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to take the case to trial, the station reported.

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FLORIDA
NBC 6

[with video]

By Claudia DoCampo

Rabbi Steve Karro was arrested nine months ago and accused of one count of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12. On Thursday, he walked away from that felony charge.

“Hopefully it will never happen again. God forbid that it happen again to another child. I did my best,” the victim’s mother said.

The child told her mother the rabbi had been alone with her in his art gallery. She said the rabbi touched her buttocks, stroked her hair and kissed her neck, saying he was doing a cleansing.

“Who does this to children without their parents’ knowledge and consent?” said the victim’s mother.

But prosecutors said they didn’t have any substantial evidence to prove that Rabbi Karro molested the 11-year old girl. The plea deal was partly based on two polygraph tests, exclusively obtained by NBC 6, saying “there was no deception” by the rabbi; it was basically her word against his.

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FLORIDA
CBS Miami

MIAMI (CBSMiami) — A Miami Beach rabbi accused of sexually molesting an 11-year old girl at his art gallery has taken a plea deal.

Rabbi Steve Karro was originally charged with lewd and lascivious behavior with a minor.

On Thursday he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of battery. The judge said the case would be completely dropped after Karro serves nine months of probation.

The deal did not sit well with the girl’s mother who vehemently opposed it. She addressed the court for 15 minutes urging the judge not to sign off on the deal. She said Karro should be a registered sex offender.

In the end, however, the prosecution, the defense and the judge agreed that if the case were to go to trial, Karro would not be convicted.

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FLORIDA
WSVN

[with video]

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — A rabbi accused of molesting a girl on Miami Beach has accepted a plea deal.

The victim’s mother made her case in court. “On Apr. 16, 2015, Rabbi Karro took my daughter, touched and squeezed her buttocks, placed her on his lap, took off her glasses, touched her hair, told her how pretty she was, rubbed her thighs and kissed her up and down her neck,” she told the judge.

The State looked at the case thoroughly, but said there was not enough evidence to take it to trial and convict Rabbi Steve Karro for lewd and lascivious molestation. Karro will now face a charge of misdemeanor battery and nine months of probation, against the wishes of the alleged victim’s mother. “This rabbi should be ashamed,” she told the judge.

An 11-year-old girl had alleged that Karro molested her at his art gallery on 41st Street in late May. Karro was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious molestation and denied any wrongdoing.

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NEW YORK
Church Militant

[the lawsuit]

by Christine Niles • ChurchMilitant.com • December 12, 2015

“I have made the decision to step aside from my position as pastor of this parish …”

BRONX (ChurchMilitant.com) – Following intense media scrutiny over the last 48 hours, including from ChurchMilitant.com, Fr. Peter Miqueli — the New York pastor being sued over allegedly embezzling more than $1 million to fund his perverted sex life — has resigned.

The announcement came this evening at 5:00 p.m. EST as Fr. Miqueli read a prepared statement outside of St. Francis de Chantal parish in Throggs Neck, New York. “I have made the decision to step aside from my position as pastor of this parish while this unfortunate and regrettable situation is investigated … .”

Father Miqueli insisted that he is “not guilty of the charges” documented in the 40-page lawsuit filed Thursday by attorney Michael Dowd on behalf of parishioners at St. Frances de Chantal.

The lawsuit also charges the archdiocese of New York and Cdl. Timothy Dolan with knowledge of these embezzlement crimes while they were occurring.

Miqueli concluded by saying, “It is in the best interests of the parish that this matter be resolved without me serving as your pastor,” and that “Cdl. Dolan has graciously given me permission to [resign].”

Earlier today, Cdl. Dolan admitted he’s known for some time about the allegations of drug-fueled sex romps and theft by Fr. Miqueli and that the priest has been cooperating with the archdiocese. But parishioners who have spoken with ChurchMilitant.com claim Dolan is “backpedaling.”

Speaking at a Catholic Charities event Saturday, Dolan acknowledged he saw the explicit content in emails detailing Miqueli’s sexual shenanigans. “You bet I saw it. You bet I saw it,” he said.

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NEW YORK
PIX 11

[with video]

BY NICHOLE MUSUMECI

THROGGS NECK, The Bronx— Bronx Reverend Peter Miqueli has stepped down as pastor after being sued for $1 million, for allegedly stealing church donations to spend on his home, drugs and a male prostitute.

During Saturday evening mass at St. Francis de Chantal church a letter was read announcing his resignation to all the parishioners.

“I have made the decision to step aside from my position as Pastor of this parish while this unfortunate and regrettable situation is investigated,” Miqueli wrote in the letter.

According to the lawsuit obtained by News 12, Miqueli stole donations from St. Frances de Chantal’s Church since he started working there in 2012.

In the letter Miqueli stated that he is not guilty, but he thinks it is in the best interest of the church that he steps down so he is not a distraction during the holiday season.

“I look forward to my ultimate vindication, and being able to resume my priestly ministry,” Miqueli wrote in the letter.

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NEW YORK
Forward

John A. Oswald
December 13, 2015

A New York City priest at the center of a sordid sex scandal resigned Saturday after outraged parishioners accused him of embezzling at least a million dollars in donations to, among other things, pay a male hustler for $1,000-a-session sadomasochistic encounters.

Among Father Peter Miqueli’s kinky fantasies, according to The New York Post, was being humiliated in front of a “nice Jewish girl” in the Orthodox Borough Park, Brooklyn enclave.

Tatyana Gudin, the ex-girlfriend of the male hustler, dished about a lot more of the priest’s alleged peccadillos in a letter to the New York Archdiocese.

Angry parishioners are suing the church, the priest, the alleged hustler (identified as Keith Crist), and Cardinal Timothy Dolan in a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.

“Since 2003 the defendant Father Peter Miqueli used his position of trust and confidence as a pastor, as a man of God, to misappropriate and divert hundreds of thousands of dollars of donation funds from parishioners at the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church on Roosevelt Island and the St. Frances De Chantal Church in the Bronx,” the suit says.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Kevin Fasick
December 12, 2015

The Bronx priest accused of pilfering the collection plate to pay for his bodybuilder S&M “master” resigned from his post as pastor Saturday.

“I have made the decision to step aside from my position as pastor of this parish while this unfortunate and regrettable situation is investigated,” The Rev. Peter Miqueli wrote in a letter read at the 5 p.m. mass to his distressed parishioners at St. Frances de Chantal parish in Throggs Neck.

“Cardinal Dolan has graciously given me permission to do so.”

But the allegedly pervy pastor didn’t quite confess.

“I am not guilty of the charges that certain individuals have brought against me,” he wrote.

He thought his presence at the church would “be a distraction,” particularly during the Advent and Christmas season, the letter said.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Julia Marsh and Laura Italiano
December 13, 2015

The S&M “master” at the center of a bombshell church scandal boasted about his domination over the Rev. Peter Miqueli in a series of kinky text messages — even joking that the Bronx priest is “a clueless a–hole.”

Miqueli also was a mediocre procurer of party drugs, boy toy Keith Crist and his ex-girlfriend, Tatyana Gudin, joked together in the texts, which she provided to The Post.

“I think I’m so tired from the Molly bc I wasn’t like this before,” Crist texted Gudin on the day after Christmas, 2014.

“That molly sucked,” Gudin complained in her response. Both were referring to the Ecstasy-like party drug. “Pls don’t have the priest pick out the drugs anymore,” Gudin added. “Have him stick to funerals.”

On Dec. 30, Crist boasted to Gudin in another text, “I told him to think hard how he can serve me. All while I laugh and degrade him, he wants to be more disgusting and perverted. Public humiliation 101.”

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Eileen AJ Connelly and Mary Kay Linge
December 13, 2015

The Bronx priest with a crucifix-ation on his S&M “master” was a holier-than-thou blowhard who denied sacraments to “unworthy” parishioners, railed against gays at baptism class, yelled at the faithful on the Communion line and conducted his own vindictive war on Christmas, say members of his flock.

The Rev. Peter Miqueli — whose resignation letter was read to congregants at the 5 p.m. Mass on Saturday at St. Frances de Chantal Church — “cares more about how his hair looks than anything else,” said ex-parishioner Victoria Vulcano.

Catherine Holmes said that when her 12-year-old daughter, Genevieve, was preparing for confirmation at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church on Roosevelt Island, Miqueli questioned her standing as a Catholic because she was a single mom.

“He said he would see my daughter at Mass, but where was I,” she told The Post.

Miqueli claimed Genevieve missed too many religious education classes and denied her the sacrament, Holmes said.

Neither Holmes nor her daughter has practiced the faith since.

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NEW YORK
Daily Mail (UK)

Bronx Reverend Peter Miqueli steps down after being accused of stealing from the church to pay for his male lover’s lifestyle.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY BARBARA ROSS, ROSS KEITH, LARRY MCSHANE
Saturday, December 12, 2015

An alleged S&M-loving Bronx priest is now feeling his parishioners’ pain.

The Rev. Peter Miqueli, accused of fleecing his flocks in two city parishes to finance a freaky sex life, announced his resignation Saturday as pastor of a Bronx church.

Hours before the word came at the 5 p.m. Mass, Timothy Cardinal Dolan said the priest could go from debauched to defrocked if found guilty of swiping more than $1 million across 10 years.

“I have made the decision to step aside … while this unfortunate and regrettable situation is investigated,” said Miqueli’s resignation letter, which was read to the faithful at St. Frances de Chantal Church.

Two days earlier, a lawsuit filed by members of St. Frances de Chantal and Miqueli’s former church, St. Francis Cabrini on Roosevelt Island, accused Miqueli of using the looted funds to help finance a perverse master/slave love affair with boy toy Keith Crist.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Victims are angry Cardinal George Pell’s postponed royal commission appearance means they have to wait even longer for the Catholic Church to be held accountable.

Cardinal Pell was to appear before the child abuse royal commission in Melbourne next week but will now front a Ballarat sitting in February.

Stephen Woods was among victims of pedophile priests outraged by Cardinal Pell’s attempt to give his evidence via videolink from Rome next week, due to a worsened heart condition.

“Being held in February, that’s fine, but of course the victims are still waiting,” Mr Woods told reporters.

“We’ve been waiting years. Yet again the victims have to pay the price of an organisation that just does not want to be held accountable.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Catholic Cardinal George Pell has attacked reports casting doubt on the legitimacy on his illness, which has stopped him appearing at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Cardinal Pell was to appear at the inquiry on Wednesday but his lawyer told the hearing on Friday that Cardinal Pell was unwell and could not travel to give evidence in person.

He released a statement this afternoon in which he said the commission had reviewed and accepted the medical evidence tendered, and said reports referring to an “alleged” illness were misleading and mischievous.

“The royal commission reviewed this medical evidence and accepted it as grounds for deferring Cardinal Pell’s attendance until February,” said the statement, attributed to an unnamed spokesperson for Cardinal Pell.

“The commission also required this personal information to be treated as confidential.”

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent December 12, 2015

ROME — A Vatican spokesman said Saturday that a group of nine cardinals from around the world who advise Pope Francis on his most important decisions, a body that includes Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, will focus in coming months on what the pontiff has called a “healthy decentralization” of Church government.

During their Dec. 10-12 meeting in Rome, the council of cardinals, generally known as the “C9,” noted the importance of a speech Pope Francis gave on Oct. 17 during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, the Vatican said Saturday.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi told journalists that the C9 had underlined the need to reflect on this speech and the effect it might have in the reform of the Church’s government, so they have decided to dedicate a session to the subject when they meet again in February.

“In that speech, the pope extensively developed the theme of ‘synodality,’ but also recalled ‘the need to proceed with a healthy ‘decentralization’,” Lombardi told journalists.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

December 13, 2015

Louise Hall
Court Reporter

A priest accused of serious sexual misconduct with a “vulnerable” woman is challenging the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing procedures in a landmark legal case.

An internal Church assessment concluded the priest had sexually assaulted the woman and he has been stood aside from from his role.

However the priest has taken the Church to the NSW Supreme Court, arguing for the matter to be dealt with via canon law processes that were superseded by the Towards Healing regime in the mid-1990s.

In a preliminary judgment handed down this month, Associate Justice Joanne Harrison said the case is the first time the Towards Healing principles and protocols, introduced in 1996 to deal with sexual abuse complaints, have been challenged in court.

Prior to 1996, complaints of abuse were dealt with under canon law, the internal body of law governing the Church, pursuant to a code put out by Pope John Paul II in 1983. The priest claims the Code of Canon Law is superior law to the Towards Healing protocols, is the universal law of the church and issued by the Pope, binding everyone including bishops.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Sunday 13 December 2015

Cardinal George Pell says he is not avoiding facing child sex abuse victims after putting off flying to Australia.

Pell’s appearance before the child abuse royal commission was postponed after his doctors deemed it was unsafe for him to make the flight from Rome to Melbourne.

Claims that Cardinal Pell is refusing to attend or face victims of sexual abuse are false and ridiculous, a statement from Rome said on Sunday.

“Cardinal Pell’s whole career is a story of stepping up to meet challenges, not avoiding them,” the statement said.

The statement said Pell, who has previously appeared before the commission twice, was determined to give evidence to the commission’s inquiries into child sex abuse by clergy in the Melbourne archdiocese and Ballarat diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Moira Rayner | 13 December 2015

Lord Acton said that ‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ It was in correspondence about the then pope’s proposed new doctrine of papal infallibility. It is often overlooked that he added, ‘Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.’

Dr Kathleen McChesney with Truth, Justice and Healing Council CEO Francis SullivanWhen I was a child, the greatest misuse of priestly power imputed to the ‘RCs’ was the sometimes brutal violence used in the ‘care’ of disobedient pupils, unmarried mothers, illegitimate and ‘removed’ children and orphans in institutions run by nuns, brothers and priests.

Thanks to brave individuals and independent journalists, the sexual abuse permitted and distributed by some of these hands has been revealed in Australian parliamentary inquiries and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

It is unfair to profile the one, Catholic Church for the sins of so many more whose patriarchal culture and authoritarian practices are shared by those who professed to ‘suffer the little children to come unto me … for of such are the kingdom of heaven’.

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EL SALVADOR
Star Daily Standard Times

December 12, 2015

SAN SALVADOR, Dec 10 (Reuters) – El Salvador’s Congress on Thursday passed legislation to remove the statute of limitations on sex crimes against minors as the country’s church faces a growing number of abuse cases.

The bill said that “serious crimes” of sexual abuse of children and teenagers have gone unpunished due to the statute of limitations.

In November, the church fired a senior priest and former secretary of murdered Archbishop Oscar Romero after allegations that the priest had sex with a minor. Another priest has also been accused.

According to victims, the crimes took place decades ago and authorities could not investigate the accused priests.

Jose Escobar, archbishop of San Salvador’s Catholic Church, on Sunday asked lawmakers to remove the statute of limitations and he assured that the church would not cover up cases of abuse. He also denied an accusation that he tried to bribe a woman who was sexually abused by a priest to keep her quiet.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Jesuit Master of Deceits Pope Francis must be in a hurry for the movie Spotlight to be shown in the Philippines so the Jesuits can use it to manipulate the Filipino people, to subdue and brainwash them, to curtail them – (by making them talk about Hollywood actors especially Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams) – instead of the new reality of Jesuit sex crimes erupting in the country and children suffering silently – particularly the announcement by presidential candidate, Rodrigo Duterte, about his sexual abuse by the hands of a Jesuit priest, not only on him but all boys in his class and those two years before him and two years after him in Ateneo de Davao.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Ty Burr GLOBE STAFF DECEMBER 13, 2015

Somewhere along the line, Boston has become Hollywood shorthand for colorful thuggishness. We’ve been living with that, for better and for worse, for a few decades now. But the tide may be changing.

The newspaper drama “Spotlight” has racked up a number of year-end critics’ awards — including, as of this week, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Golden Globe nominations, and (surprise, surprise) the Boston Society of Film Critics. It continues to be considered a best picture Oscar front-runner by those who prognosticate. In one important aspect, though, Tom McCarthy’s film has already achieved a solid win.

It has taken the Boston movie away from the bad boys and given it back to the rest of us.

Here’s the thing. Two interlocked aspects make our corner of the world different from other American cities: institutionalism and clannishness. The former is responsible for Boston’s national leadership in academia, medicine, technology, the arts, and other arenas. The latter is baked into the fabric of the place, from the WASPs who founded Boston to the Irish and Italian immigrants who arrived in the 19th century and formed the spine of the area’s middle class, to the African-Americans who, as in most US cities, were historically and geographically roped off from power for decades.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By Melissa Cunningham
Dec. 13, 2015

CLERGY sex abuse survivors have been left reeling by news Cardinal George Pell will not be appearing at the child sex abuse inquiry next week.

David Ridsdale, a victim and nephew of disgraced priest Gerard Ridsdale, said the lives of survivors had been thrown into turmoil again.

He called for Cardinal Pell to “come and face the music” like the survivors have been forced to do for years.

Cardinal Pell is unable to make his anticipated appearance at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse next week due to ill health, his lawyer has said.

Cardinal Pell’s counsel, Allan Myers QC, told the hearing on Friday that Cardinal Pell, who is based in Rome, had “serious health conditions” and would be unable to fly to Australia to appear at the inquiry on Wednesday.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Margaret Sullivan
THE PUBLIC EDITOR DEC. 12, 2015

This is the second part of a look at the threatened state of local investigative reporting.

Walter Robinson was playing to the crowd. Now famous as the investigative editor played by Michael Keaton in the movie “Spotlight,” Mr. Robinson and other real-life Boston Globe journalists were in Lower Manhattan a few weeks ago, telling war stories in ProPublica’s newsroom, just before the New York film premiere.

Describing a moment in late 2001 as the Globe’s Spotlight team reported the priest-pedophilia scandal, Mr. Robinson, known as Robby, recalled seeing something he found strange on a colleague’s computer screen: “Lines going one way and lines going another way.” What is that? he demanded.

With the timing of a comic, Mr. Robinson told the answer as a joke on himself: “It’s a spreadsheet.” As intended, this got a laugh from ProPublica’s journalists, who live in the numbers-heavy world of today’s investigative reporting, where databases and spreadsheets have replaced the rumbling of the presses beneath the floor.

His story gives a tiny picture of what’s changed in 14 years. But writ large, it raises serious concerns. Digital tools are a boon to reporting, and digital distribution can make a story go global, but digital-era economics have devastated newspaper staffs.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE, LARRY MCSHANE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Saturday, December 12, 2015

His parishioners say he’s debauched — and he now could be defrocked.

The accused Bronx S&M priest at the center of a sex and embezzlement scandal faces dismissal if the charges prove true, his boss Timothy Cardinal Dolan said Saturday.

“Obviously, his priesthood will be over” if a church probe turns up evidence of anything illegal, said Dolan.

“We’ve found no evidence of embezzlement,” continued the spiritual leader of the Archdiocese of New York. “We’ve got to get to the bottom of this. I feel so bad for the parish.”

The Rev. Peter Miqueli was accused in a Manhattan lawsuit of looting more than $1 million from a pair of city parishes to help fund a perverse long-term love affair with a hunky boyfriend.

According to the detailed court papers, the 53-year-old priest and his muscle-bound boy toy shared a sexual relationship where the submissive Miqueli addressed love Keith Crist as “Master.”

The priest, as part of their bizarre affair, even drank Crist’s urine, the suit charged.

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NEW YORK
Daily Mail (UK)

By Kelly Mclaughlin and Alexandra Klausner For Dailymail.com

The ex-girlfriend of a muscled homosexual S&M master sent Timothy Cardinal Dolan emails laying out the details of the dirty sexual escapades her former boyfriend had with a New York Catholic priest.

Tatyana Gudin described in an email how Rev Peter Miqueli wore a locked Lucite chastity belt and wore a dog collar as he let his body builder lover Keith Crist pee in his mouth.
Miqueli, 52, is accused of stealing over $1million in donations to fund the sex romps, among other things.

He is currently a pastor at St Frances de Chantal in Throggs Neck and is accused of taking from the donation plate at leading churches on Roosevelt Island and in The Bronx where he led the congregations.

‘I would like to tell you who your priest, Father Miqueli, really is,’ Gudin wrote in her email to Dolan. ‘Keith has been Father Miquelis gay, for-pay prostitute.

‘More specifically, Father Miqueli is Keith Crist’s toilet slave.

‘If you don’t know what that means, Cardinal, I will break it down for you…

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Megan McGibney, Julia Marsh and Eileen AJ Connelly
December 12, 2015

Timothy Cardinal Dolan said Saturday that he not only saw the detailed emails alleging the kinky and illegal behaviors of sex-slave priest Rev. Peter Miqueli, he handed them over to the district attorney.

“You bet I saw it. You bet I saw it,” Dolan said, adding that his office asked the girlfriend of Miqueli’s S&M “master” to come in and show the pictures, documents and emails she described in her graphic messages.

When Tatyana Gudin didn’t show, Dolan said he turned over what information he had to the DA. “We’ve been cooperating for a long time,” Dolan said.

A lawsuit filed by parishioners of St. Frances de Chantal parish in the Bronx accuse the pastor of skimming millions from the collection plates to pay for his twisted, drug-fueled romps with his bodybuilder lover, Keith Crist.

Gudin told The Post that she talked to the investigation firm hired by the Archdiocese shortly after she received a reply email from a church attorney in August. They had set up a meeting to talk a few days from then, but the lawyer refused to allow one of the parishioner plaintiffs, Jack Lynch, to attend. Gudin canceled the meeting.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Berkshire Eagle

By Clarence Fanto
cfanto@yahoo.com
@BE_cfanto on Twitter

LENOX — The Springfield Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church has appointed Monsignor John Bonzagni as the new priest in charge of three area churches, effective immediately.

Bonzagni, 60, succeeds the Rev. Christopher “Father CJ” Waitekus, pastor at St. Ann’s Church in Lenox, St. Vincent de Paul in Lenox Dale and St. Patrick’s in West Stockbridge. His appointment was announced to parishioners at Masses this past weekend. St. Ann’s members include about 820 families, with another 100 at the Lenox Dale church.

Waitekus was named pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Longmeadow last month after 14 years of service in Lenox. Last July, he had been named co-vicar of the Springfield Diocese, assisting Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski.

“Father CJ,” as he was known, celebrated his final Masses at the three parishes on the weekend before Thanksgiving. Bonzagni already had been tapped as interim minister and had started his assignment the weekend of Nov. 28.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Dec. 11, 2015

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

It’s troubling to learn that dozens of colleges have won exemptions from laws that apply to other institutions. We believe these exemptions will make these colleges less safe for students and staff and will make it easier for administrators to hide sexual violence.

[The New York Times]

Time and time again, we’ve seen officials in many church groups claim they can’t be sued for child sex crimes or adult sexual exploitation because of their religious beliefs. We’ve seen them seek and get special treatment ostensibly because of their faith, only to use that special treatment to hid offenders and enablers and escape punishment for their wrongdoing. So we are highly skeptical of the wisdom of these exemptions.

Given how widespread child sex crimes and campus sexual violence are, we beg government officials to be very cautious and move slowly with exemptions that might make it tougher for victims to expose school staff who commit or conceal these crimes. When religious figures perpetrate or hide sex crimes, they must be held responsible in court like any other employers.

(At least a couple of Catholic institutions that have gotten exemptions have been embroiled in clergy sex scandals, including Franciscan University in Ohio and Belmont Abbey in North Carolina.)

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Leaders of the Salesian Priests and Brothers have refused to settle a childhood sexual abuse claim against one of their priests, Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB, causing the victim, who was abused in Indiana, to be re-victimized. The victim is being denied justice.

What
A press conference and leafleting alerting the media, parishioners, and general public about the refusal of the Salesian Priests and Brothers, based in New Rochelle, New York, to help settle a claim of sexual abuse of a child by a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco religious order, Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB.

When
Saturday, December 12, 2015 from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm (Masses at 5:30 pm and 7:00 pm)
Sunday, December 13, 2015 from 9:45 am until Noon (Masses at 9:00, 10:30, and Noon)

Where
On the public sidewalk outside Our Lady of the Valley Church, 510 Valley Street, Orange, NJ, 07050. The parish is administered by the Salesian Priests and Brothers based in New Rochelle, New York.

Who
Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including its co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why
The Salesian Priests and Brothers of Don Bosco, based in New Rochelle, New York, refuse to settle the claim of a man who was sexually abused in Indiana as a child by a serial pedophile Salesian priest and help him heal. They have told the man to “take a hike.” The man was sexually abused as a minor child by a serial pedophile priest, Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB, at St. Dominic Savio Juniorate in Cedar Lake, Indiana. The victim met with leaders of the Salesian religious order who coldly and callously informed him that they will not help him heal.

Demonstrators will call on the Salesians of Don Bosco, who administer Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Orange, to acknowledge and settle the claim of the childhood sexual abuse victim and help him heal.

In addition, demonstrators will call on Catholic parishioners of Our Lady of the Valley Parish to demand of their priests and brothers that they settle a sexual abuse case against Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc., Livingston, NJ – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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LOUISIANA
WWL

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office has arrested a West Bank pastor, after the mother of a 16 year old girl alleges her daughter was in a sexual relationship with Pastor Bryan K. Johnson.

After presenting them with electronic evidence that a sexual relationship was happening between the 49-year-old pastor and her 16-year-old daughter, investigators told her they could not investigate further without the cooperation of her daughter.

About the handling of the investigation, JPSO Spokesman Col. John Fortunato said, “Until such time that a crime could be established, we couldn’t proceed further with the investigation. Once we were able to establish the fact that she was a victim, we then applied for an arrest warrant for Bryan Johnson.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met with the Council of Cardinals from 10-12 December for their twelfth meeting. A statement from the Holy See Press Office said the Holy Father was present for every session.

The Statement said during the first morning, the Council heard from Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, who gave them an in-depth look at this “important Congregation”, its activities, responsibilities, and its role in ecumenism.

During this encounter, the Council noted the importance of the Address of the Holy Father on 17 October, during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops.

In this address, the Pope developed extensively the theme of “collegiality”, but also pointed out “the need to proceed with a healthy ‘decentralization’.” The Council underlined the need to reflect on the significance of this speech and its importance for the work of the reform of the Curia, and decided to dedicate a specific session to this subject during the next meeting in February 2016.

The Council then returned to work on two new departments, which had previously been discussed on numerous occasions.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Dec. 12, 2015

VATICAN CITY The Catholic cardinals advising Pope Francis on reforming the church’s central bureaucracy have decided to focus their next meeting in February 2016 on the possible decentralization of the global church’s structures, the Vatican has announced.

The Council of Cardinals will focus their reflections on an October speech by Francis that called for a “healthy decentralization” of the church, the Vatican said Saturday.

The Cardinals’ council is a group of nine prelates advising the pope on reforming the Vatican bureaucracy, known as the Roman Curia. They had been meeting in Rome for the twelfth time Thursday-Saturday.

Their advice to the pope is known to have led to the institution of a new papal commission to protect minors, the new Secretariat for the Economy that centralizes the Vatican’s financial structures, and the planned new Vatican office for “Laity, Family and Life” that is to combine several current offices.

Saturday’s release refers to a speech the pontiff made Oct. 17 during the Synod of Bishops, the three-week global meeting of Catholic prelates in Rome that discussed issues of family life. In that speech, Francis called for a more “synodal” church that listens to people at every level.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Wochenblatt

[Prof. Johannes Grabmeier, chairman of the lay responsibility group in Regensburg, said Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, former bishop of Regensburg, should resign if allegations prove to be true. A raid at Muller’s Vatican office yielded 20,000 euros in cash that was stashed behind a wiener can in a desk.]

Nach der Razzia in der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan hat Prof. Johannes Grabmeier, Vorsitzender des Vereins “Laienverantwortung Regensburg” den Rücktritt des Präfekts der Kongregation, des früheren Regensburger Bischofs Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, verlangt.

Dem Bayerischen Rundfunk (Bayern 1/Regionalnachrichten Niederbayern/Oberpfalz) sagte Grabmeier, der in Deggendorf wohnt, am Mittwoch, 9. Dezember, Kardinal Müller solle “schleunigst seinen Posten verlassen, wenn die Vorwürfe stimmen”.

Grabmeier bezieht sich auf einen Bericht in der Mittwochsausgabe der Bild-Zeitung, nachdem vatikanische Ermittler in den Büroräumen von Kardinal Müllers Glaubenskongregation etwa 20.000 Euro versteckt hinter einer alten Dose Wiener Würstchen gefunden wurden. Als Ursache für die Razzia und die Enthüllungen betrachtet Grabmeier “interne Querelen” im Vatikan, also einen Machtkampf konservativer Kirchenmänner rund um Gerhard Ludwig Müller einerseits und Anhängern von Papst Franziskus andererseits.

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NEW YORK
The Raw Story

ARTURO GARCIA
11 DEC 2015

A 53-year-old New York City priest was sued for allegedly stealing $1 million in church funds to use on an illicit same-sex relationship — which was then covered up by Cardinal Timothy Dolan and church officials, the New York Daily News reported.

The lawsuit accused Rev. Peter Miqueli used the money on $1,000-an-hour sex sessions with a man identified as Keith Crist, an ex-bodybuilder and sex worker who insisted on being called “Master” during their encounters. Miqueli also allegedly used the money to pay $264,000 for a New Jersey home the two men shared, as well as vacations in Italy and Florida and rent for a $1,000-a-month Park Avenue apartment used by Crist.

Crist allegedly informed church officials regarding the relationship, leading to the lawsuit being filed by parishioners at Miqueli’s former church, St. Francis Cabrini, and St. Frances de Chantal Church, where he is currently still listed as the pastor.

“First and foremost, we want his removal as pastor — here or anyplace in the archdiocese,” said the parishes’ attorney, Michael Dowd. “He is like a cancer and the best thing to do with cancer is to cut it out.”

While Miqueli has referred all requests for comment to the Archdiocese of New York, Crist’s ex-girlfriend Tatyana Gudin, reportedly alerted Dolan and other archdiocese officials in several emails explaining what she knew about Crist’s relationship with the pastor. Both Dolan and the archdiocese were named as defendants in the suit alongside Crist and Miqueli.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Julia Marsh, Joe Tacopino and Laura Italiano December 12, 2015

The scorned ex-girlfriend of an S&M “master” to a Catholic priest went right to the top and sent Timothy Cardinal Dolan ­e-mails that were hardly suitable for church — laying out details of the romps that were allegedly funded with cash skimmed from the poor box.

Tatyana Gudin shared with The Post her message to the cardinal that recounted how the Rev. Peter Miqueli allegedly wore a locked Lucite chastity belt along with a dog collar during pricey sessions with his bodybuilder lover.

She also claimed to the pope’s right-hand man in America that Miqueli had an interfaith fantasy of being humiliated in Borough Park, Brooklyn, in front of a “nice Jewish girl.”

Miqueli, meanwhile, remained a pastor of St. Frances de Chantal in the Throggs Neck neighborhood of The Bronx on Friday.

Gudin wrote to Dolan about Miqueli’s tastes in high-end booze and claimed he paid for many of their luxuries by putting his boyfriend in charge of a church thrift shop.

“Miqueli loved to enjoy $300 bottles of Scotch,” she wrote. “All on a priest’s $2,474-a-month salary.”

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NEW YORK
news.com.au

THE scorned ex-girlfriend of an S&M “master” to a Catholic priest went right to the top and sent the Archbishop of New York e-mails that were hardly suitable for church — laying out details of the romps that were allegedly funded with cash skimmed from the poor box.

Tatyana Gudin shared with The New York Post her message to Timothy Cardinal Dolan that recounted how the Reverend Peter Miqueli allegedly wore a locked Lucite chastity belt along with a dog collar during pricey sessions with his bodybuilder lover.

She also claimed to the pope’s right-hand man in America that Miqueli had an interfaith fantasy of being humiliated in Borough Park, Brooklyn, in front of a “nice Jewish girl.”

Miqueli, meanwhile, remained a pastor of St. Frances de Chantal in the Throggs Neck neighbourhood of The Bronx on Friday.

Gudin wrote to Dolan about Miqueli’s tastes in high-end booze and claimed he paid for many of their luxuries by putting his boyfriend in charge of a church thrift shop.

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AUSTRALIA
Truth Justice and Healing Council

Francis Sullivan, December 9, 2015

This week AAP reports thousands of child sex abuse survivors expecting the Turnbull government to commit to a national redress scheme before Christmas face bitter disappointment.

According to the AAP report hopes the government would, in line with the final recommendation of the child abuse royal commission, announce by year’s end its backing of a $4.3 billion scheme are fading, principally because some states are reluctant to come on board.

NSW and Victoria support a national scheme. South Australia doesn’t. Other states are yet to commit. But the states have written to the Prime Minister asking him to clarify the Federal Government’s position.

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AUSTRALIA
Truth Justice and Healing Council

11 December, 2015

The Truth Justice and Healing Council has welcomed the release of the Royal Commission’s final report into Case Study 13 which examined the response of the Marist Brothers to allegations of child sexual abuse against Brother Kostka Chute and former Brother, Gregory Sutton.

The report was released today (Friday 11 December 2015) following a public hearing held in Canberra and Sydney in June, July and August 2014 which investigated allegations against Chute and Sutton in schools in the ACT, NSW and Queensland.

Mr Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council, said the report made a range of comments on people involved with Chute and Sutton and the way in which they had dealt with claims of abuse made against them over a number of years.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Riham Feshir, MPR.org / 100.5 FM on Dec 11, 2015

The Diocese of Duluth may negotiate its bankruptcy case outside of the courtroom.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel has encouraged the Diocese of Duluth and all parties involved, including attorneys for sex abuse victims and insurers, to work with a mediator to come to a resolution.

The Diocese of Duluth filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week. The decision comes a month after a jury ordered the diocese and a Catholic religious order to pay more than $8 million in damages to a man who was sexually abused by a priest in 1978. The diocese said it can’t afford its $5 million share of the settlement and filed for bankruptcy.

Mike Finnegan, a St. Paul attorney for abuse victims who’ve filed lawsuits against the diocese, said mediation is a less-costly way to work through litigation when there are numerous parties involved. He did not argue against using a mediator.

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AUSTRALIA
Great Lakes Advocate

By Melissa Cunningham and Matthew Dixon
Dec. 11, 2015

CLERGY sex abuse survivors have been left reeling by news Cardinal George Pell will not be appearing at the child sex abuse inquiry next week.

Victim and nephew of disgraced priest Gerard Ridsdale said the lives of survivors had been thrown into turmoil again.

He called for Cardinal Pell to “come and face the music” like the survivors have had been forced to do for years.

Cardinal Pell is unable to make his anticipated appearance at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse next week due to ill health, his lawyer has said.

Cardinal Pell’s counsel, Allan Myers QC, told the hearing on Friday that Cardinal Pell, who is based in Rome, had “serious health conditions” and would be unable to fly to Australia to appear at the inquiry on Wednesday.

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UNITED STATES
News & Tech

The Boston Globe on Wednesday presented the Spotlight Investigative Journalism Fellowship aimed at supporting the work of investigative journalists. A $100,000 fellowship will be awarded to an individual or team of journalists to provide resources and support to pursue an in-depth investigative story with the opportunity to publish it in The Boston Globe. The fellowship is funded by Participant Media and Open Road Films with support from First Look Media.

The fellowship was inspired by The Boston Globe Spotlight Team’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church as portrayed in the feature film Spotlight.

“The Boston Globe has an unwavering commitment to produce high-impact investigative stories that pierce secrecy and shine a light on issues, individuals, and institutions to expose the truth,” said Brian McGrory, Boston Globe editor. “Whether it is the Spotlight Team’s investigation of the Catholic Church in 2002; its relentless reporting of the criminal dealings of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger and his ties to federal law enforcement; or its most recent report on hospitals where doctors are running two surgeries at once, accountability reporting is an integral part of The Boston Globe’s daily coverage.”

The Spotlight Investigative Journalism Fellowship is available to journalists with a substantial body of work published in major media outlets. Story submissions should have a U.S. domestic focus and be of public interest. Consideration will be given for proposals that investigate serious wrongdoing and abuse of power in the public or private sectors. As part of the fellowship, the fellow(s) will collaborate with an investigative journalist from The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team and also receive support and guidance from the Globe’s editorial team as well as the First Look Media team.

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AUSTRALIA
The Chronicle

Tara Miko | 12th Dec 2015

THE Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba will await the findings of the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse before deciding whether it will refund tuition fees to abuse victims.

It comes as the Anglican Diocese of Southern Queensland this week confirmed it would refund tuition and boarding fees to confirmed victims of abuse and had begun advertising to locate them.

The 13 child victims, aged eight to 10 years at the time, of jailed former school teacher Gerard Byrnes would be eligible to have the fees refunded if the diocese were to adopt a similar policy.

The abuse was reported in September, 2007.

But a diocese spokesman said the inquiry commissioner found the church’s response to abuse had been adequate and would await the commission’s final outcomes before considering any further policies.

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UNITED STATES
Irish Examiner

Saturday, December 12, 2015

The ’Boston Globe’s’ probe into the cover-up of clerical child sex abuse in Massachusetts has made it to the big screen, writes Michael Clifford

When Tom McCarthy was studying in Boston College, he occasionally found himself next door to the campus in the residence of the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law.

College life spilled over into the Cardinal’s residence through playing football in the extensive grounds. McCarthy remembers the sense of power that exuded from the bishop’s palace.

The young Irish American student from Providence Rhode Island wouldn’t have known it but within two decades he would be back to document the demise of the same cardinal who had appeared to bestride the Boston area and beyond.

Now an established name in the Hollywood firmament, McCarthy is the director and co-writer of Spotlight, a movie based on newspaper investigation into the cover-up of clerical sexual abuse which led to the cardinal’s resignation.

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NEW YORK
Courthouse News Service

By NICK RUMMELL

MANHATTAN (CN) – Parishioners at two Roman Catholic Churches in New York claim in court that their pastor routinely dipped into donation baskets to fund an illicit lifestyle of sex, drugs and sadomasochistic rituals.

In a lawsuit filed in New York County Supreme Court on Dec. 10, the plaintiffs, parishioners at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church, on Roosevelt Island, and at St. Frances De Chantal Church, in the Bronx, say they became deeply concerned about how Father Peter Miqueli was handling donations after maintenance workers allegedly stumbled onto the stacks of cash in a church rectory.

In 2014, a group of parishioners set up a website to detail accusations of malfeasance by the pastor, and to share their concerns about an alleged cover-up.

The plaintiffs claim they shared these concerns with Bishop Gerald Walsh, but the archdiocese did nothing to investigation their allegations.

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IRELAND
Herald

Sarah MacDonald – 12 December 2015

One of the bishops most strongly criticised in the Murphy Report over his handling of allegations of clerical sexual abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin has died.

Auxiliary Bishop Dermot O’Mahony was 80 and had been ill for some time.

In a statement, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin expressed his sympathy and said the priests of Dublin were “saddened” by the news of his passing as he held, over many years, several roles of leadership and responsibility.

Fraught

However, the relationship between Archbishop Martin and Bishop O’Mahony is known to have been fraught. They clashed very publicly in 2010 over the findings of the Murphy Report, which Dr O’Mahony challenged publicly and privately.

The report highlighted how he failed to tell either the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dublin diocesan authorities or the gardai that Fr Noel Reynolds had a problem with child sexual abuse.

Fr Reynolds later admitted sexually abusing over 100 children, while a chaplain to the hospital at the time, and in eight parishes.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By The Rev. William C. Graham on Dec 11, 2015

The approaching end of the year and the shortened days make it seem to some folks that the end days are upon us, that all things are collapsing, and that the world is about to end. The recent horrific events in San Bernardino, Colorado Springs and Paris certainly heighten our fear, as do the Beirut bombings and the downing of the Russian civilian jetliner.

Violent and unexpected death, injury, suffering and terrorism all have captured the attention of people everywhere, and we see how fragile our civilization is, how delicate the balance of our peace is, and how vulnerable we are to the forces of evil.

In our day, in our own nation, the Catholic Church is reeling still from the effects of its own crisis; and, locally, it seems very clear that Catholic bishops will be spending a lot of time in court in the next years, seeking to settle legal cases involving priests and victims who, for the most part, are unknown to them. The number of court cases pending against Catholic dioceses in Minnesota is staggering, and it seems likely every Minnesota diocese could be in bankruptcy before the cases are resolved (“Diocese of Duluth files for bankruptcy,” Dec. 8).

Catholics and all people of good will share the devastating effects of this crisis. First, we mourn with all of those who have suffered as victims. We want to see justice done, healing promoted and charity fulfilled.

We must also be aware of and acknowledge the anger that many people feel, and their disappointment, too. Our pews in America are emptying not because people disbelieve the gospel but because we the Church have not been effective and holy stewards to inspire hope and confidence among the people of God.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By MARTHA AZZI FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

At the age of 13, Gordon Myers allegedly woke up to find ‘blood everywhere’ after his teacher performed a botched circumcision because he ‘didn’t like little boys with foreskins.’

Mr Myer’s, 50, attended Daruk Training School in Windsor, a Sydney boys’ home in 1978, for five years during which he claims he was raped and bashed by some staff, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard.

A member of the school performed the illegal circumcision after claiming to have received permission, reported the Mercury.

‘He knocked me out with a needle and I woke up in the middle of it and there was (a second staff member there as well), I screamed in pain. …

The revelations of this shocking alleged abuse come as victims criticise Cardinal George Pell for postponing his royal commission appearance due to ill-health.

Cardinal Pell was to appear before the child abuse royal commission in Melbourne next week but will now front a Ballarat sitting in February.

Stephen Woods was among victims of pedophile priests outraged by Cardinal Pell’s attempt to give his evidence via videolink from Rome next week, due to a worsened heart condition.

‘Being held in February, that’s fine, but of course the victims are still waiting,’ Mr Woods told reporters.

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OHIO
10 TV

A former Bishop Watterson Teacher accused of sexual misconduct with a student has accepted a plea agreement.

Brian Sze agreed to a plea deal of coercing a minor in acts for child pornography.

The charges carry a possible sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

By Jerome Christenson

Allegations of sexual abuse by a priest employed by the Diocese of Winona more than five decades ago have been made public by the Diocese and St. Mary’s Parish in Winona.

In a letter to parishioners dated Dec. 4, Rev. Jim Berning wrote that “… the Church of St. Mary’s has been named as a defendant with the Diocese of Winona in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse in 1962 by Fr. Richard Hatch, a deceased priest of the Diocese of Winona.”

The plaintiff in the suit has not been identified.

A statement by the diocese released Friday confirmed Berning’s letter and noted that Hatch was among the priests who were named publicly as “credibly accused” of sexual abuse two years ago and whose personnel files were made public in October 2014. Those names and files were released as part of the settlement agreement that concluded a suit brought against the Winona diocese and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

In a prepared statement, Winona Bishop John Quinn said, “We are committed to address all allegations of sexual abuse and will work in full cooperation as this process unfolds.”

Vicar general Richard Colletti said the bishop will be at St. Mary’s Sunday to pray with parishioners and reassure them that he and the diocese would stand with them.

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UNITED STATES
Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Open Road Film is keeping Spotlight in the spotlight with a new 30-second ad for the movie, which has had a good week with an Outstanding Cast nom (and a supporting one for Rachel McAdams) from the SAG Awards and Best Picture Drama, Director and Screenplay noms yesterday from the Golden Globes. Those come after wins from critics groups last week.

Spotlight, directed by Tom McCarthy from a script by him and Josh Singer, features an ensemble cast that includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery and Brian d’Arcy James. They play the team of Boston Globe reporters who exposed the Boston Archdiocese cover-up of pedophile priests in the Catholic Church that led to the forced resignation of the all-powerful Cardinal Bernard Law.

The pic opened in theaters November 6, a bit before the crush of awards-season films that are now crowding the marketplace, so the ad will keep it front-of-mind for both moviegoers and Oscar voters. The movie has grossed $17.5 million to date at the domestic box office.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Stephanie Chalkley-Rhoden and staff

Victims of child sex abuse and their families are angry at Cardinal George Pell’s delay in giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Cardinal Pell’s long-awaited appearance at the inquiry has been delayed after his lawyers said he was suffering from a heart condition which made him too sick to travel to Australia.

Allan Myers QC applied for Cardinal Pell, who is based in Rome, to give his testimony via video link instead, a request which was denied by the inquiry’s chair, Justice Peter McClellan.

Justice McClellan said he would call Cardinal Pell to give evidence before the inquiry in Ballarat, a diocese that has been described by victims as being a “centre of sex crimes against children”, in February.

“It is preferable that his evidence be given in person in Australia,” Justice McClellan said.

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