ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Annette Blackwell
August 4, 2015

A Jehovah’s Witness official says the church’s stance to never let women hold decision-making roles compares to Muslim and Aboriginal people adhering to their own ancient beliefs.

Rodney Spinks, who advises church elders on how to handle child sex abuse cases, told the sex abuse royal commission on Tuesday women would never make decisions in the Jehovah’s Witnesses because it would mean changing a “clear scriptural arrangement”.

Commission chair Peter McClellan said the practice did not fit with current understandings of responses to child sex abuse and asked if women could become decision makers because victims often preferred to tell their intimate stories to women.

Mr Spinks said there was no possibility that would happen because the church would not adjust what it saw as “clear instructions” in the Bible.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Tuesday 4 August 2015

The Jehovah’s Witness church says it will comply with mandatory reporting obligations when they learn about sexual abuse crimes against children in their congregation.

A royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has heard that the theocratic church records more than one child abuse allegation every month yet in 60 years has never reported them to police.

In the second week of a hearing into the church’s handling of abuse incidents, the head of the community’s service desk, Rodney Spinks, acknowledged they dealt with matters internally and did not encourage reporting to police.

The service desk under the auspices of the church’s legal entity, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society Australia, is the first point of contact for elders looking for advice on how to deal with child abuse reports.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

[with video]

Peter Kirkwood | 04 August 2015

A few months have passed since the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse sat in Ballarat. Witnesses there, including paedophile and former priest, Gerald Ridsdale, spoke of some of the most horrific cases of abuse in the Catholic Church.

The Commission will continue hearings about the situation in the Ballarat Diocese in November. It confirmed at the end of last week that former Bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns will be compelled to take the stand. Cardinal George Pell is also expected to give evidence then.

The ongoing revelations about sexual abuse in the Church have had a drastic effect on believers, forcing some to turn away from the institution, and demoralising many who remain.

In this edition of Eureka Street TV two journalists who are practising believers — one a cradle Catholic and the other a recent convert — speak candidly about the effect of the sexual abuse crisis on their faith. In their professional lives, both have reported on different aspects of the crisis.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Newsburg

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Blase Cupich has removed a priest from his pastoral duties as authorities investigate why he had questionable material stored on a computer in his possession.

The Archdiocese of Chicago announced Monday they told the Cook County state’s attorney’s office that church officials found “sexual images and material” on the computer of St. Pancratius pastor the Rev. Octavio Munoz Capetillo. Church officials did not provide further details about what they found.

Chicago police officials will only say detectives are in the midst of an ongoing investigation.
Church officials say while the investigation is underway, an administrator will take over Capetillo’s duties at St. Pancratius and he will reside away from the parish.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

Father Octavio Munoz Capetillo, pastor of St. Pancratius in the Brighton Park neighborhood, was removed from ministry by Archbishop Blase Cupich on July 27, according to a statement posted on the Chicago Archdiocese’s website.

Munoz was removed from his post “pending resolution of an investigation of material found on a computer in his possession,” the statement said.

After the material was discovered, Munoz was reported to civil authorities, the statement said.

Chicago Police confirmed they were investigating Munoz but did not provide additional details Monday evening.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran Aug 3, 2015

Earlier this year, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis offered to give a priest who had been convicted of sexual misconduct $10,000 in exchange for leaving the priesthood, according to a court filing by the priest.

The Rev. John Bussmann made the allegation in a claim submitted Monday as part of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case. He said the archdiocese owes him $680,365 in unpaid salary, living expenses and other support.

Bussmann, 61, refused the archdiocese’s $10,000 offer to leave the priesthood, according to a supplemental document he filed with the claim. “Because Fr. Bussmann considers his vocation a valid calling from Almighty God, he cannot in conscience ‘sell’ his priesthood for any amount of money,” it said.

Bussmann’s filing came on the final day for creditors to file claims against the archdiocese as part of bankruptcy proceedings. At least 342 alleged clergy sex abuse victims had filed claims as of Monday afternoon, according to victims’ attorney Mike Finnegan. At least two other priests accused of sexual misconduct have also filed claims, as have many of the archdiocese’s parishes.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Elizabeth Mohr
emohr@pioneerpress.com

Monday marked the deadline to file claims in the bankruptcy case of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

By 5 p.m., more than 650 claims had been filed and processed, though the final number likely won’t be available until Tuesday. At least 370 of those were filed by victims of clergy sexual abuse — that number was expected to rise to more than 400 — and more than 150 were filed by local churches or parishes. Dozens were also filed by other religious organizations and Catholic schools.

An attorney filing on behalf of many victims said it was shaping up to be the third-highest number of abuse claims in an archdiocese or religious order bankruptcy in recent memory. In the case of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, there were more than 500. In the Jesuits’ Oregon Province case, there were about 460.

A Twin Cities archdiocesan legal representative could not be reached for comment.

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, citing an operating deficit and sex abuse lawsuits.

There is hope that the archdiocese’s many insurance policies will cover the claims, but the insurance companies have reportedly pushed back and how much eventual coverage will be available is unresolved.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

Esme Murphy

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) — Monday at 5 p.m. was the deadline for filing a claim against the Twin Cities Archdiocese.

As of Monday evening, the Archdiocese is facing $25.6 million in claims, but that figure will jump dramatically. Of the 655 claims against the Archdiocese, more than 400 are from victims of clergy abuse.

A bankruptcy court will decide at a later date how much those claims are worth, and there was a last minute rush Monday to beat the deadline.

At the offices of attorney Jeff Anderson the phone has not stopped ringing. Office coordinator Michelle Stoltz answered the phone all day.

“It’s been frantic, nonstop,” Stoltz said.

Stoltz said some victims waited until Monday to come forward and file a claim.

“I had a man tell me he was very nervous to call in,” Stoltz said. “He felt that God was going to strike him dead.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune AUGUST 3, 2015

Clergy sex abuse claims against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis poured in as the 5 p.m. deadline approached Monday. By the end of the day, the scope of the church’s problem was more clear: Attorneys counted more than 400 claims.

Attorneys representing sex abuse victims had been working around the clock to prepare the claims, stemming from the sexual abuse of children by dozens of Catholic priests over decades.

“It’s been very busy, both over the weekend and today,” said Mike Finnegan, an attorney with the St. Paul law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates. “There’s a lot of people with a lot of questions, some breaking their silence for the first time.”

An official count was not available from the bankruptcy court as of the filing deadline, but 370 claims had been filed as of Monday morning.

Finnegan said the 400 claims tallied represent the third highest number filed against a Catholic institution in bankruptcy. That is partly due to the large number of Catholics in the archdiocese, he said. There are about 800,000 Catholics in the 12-county metro area.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Survivors of child sexual abuse in Ballarat are up in arms over the royal commission’s decision to move the hearings to Melbourne later this year.

The commission expects to hear from former bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, and Cardinal George Pell, when it continues its inquiry into Ballarat’s Catholic Church in November.

However, the Ballarat and District Survivors Group said it was not consulted on the decision and called for the hearings to be held in the city.

Spokesman Andrew Collins said it was an important part of the community’s healing process.

“The next step is to try and get the hearings moved to Ballarat or at least the bulk of the hearings here, otherwise it just won’t have the same impact,” he said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Observer Chronicle

Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich has faraway from ministry a former director of Casa Jesus, a famend archdiocese coaching program for Latin American males who aspire to develop into clergymen, after supplies have been discovered on a pc in his possession, the archdiocese stated Monday on its web site.

The Rev. Octavio Munoz Capetillo had lately been assigned pastor of St. Pancratius Church on Chicago’s Southwest Aspect.

“Given the character of the fabric, we reported our considerations to the civil authorities and can cooperate absolutely of their investigation,” the archdiocese stated in a press release. “Within the interim, Archbishop Cupich has withdrawn Father Munoz’s … authority to minister.”

Chicago police have opened a legal investigation into the matter, Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman, stated Monday.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

[with video]

CHICAGO (WLS) — According to the Chicago Archdiocese, St. Pancratius pastor and former Casa Jesus rector Father Octavio Munoz Capetillo has been removed from his ministry during a civil investigation.

Munoz served as associate director of Casa Jesus, a program that recruited Latin American men into the priesthood, from 2008 to 2009 and as director from 2009 to 2015. In July, he was transferred from Holy Name Cathedra to St. Pancratius in Brighton Park.

The Archdiocese posted a message on their website Monday saying the removal is “pending resolution of material found on a computer in his possession.” The Archdiocese says due to the nature of that material, they reported concern to civil authorities and are cooperating with their investigation.

An Archdiocese spokesperson said that they contacted the Cook County State’s Attorney after finding “sexual images and material,” but did not offer any further details. The spokesperson also said that Munoz’s transfer to St. Pancratius happened before church leaders learned of the materials in question.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

3 AUGUST 2015

BY TOM PETTIFOR

Lowell Goddard launched Britain’s largest public inquiry into historical abuse from the “corridors of power” to the poorest parts of the country

Child sex claims against former PM Sir Edward Heath have emerged after a judge vowed to uncover the truth about abuse by politicians.

Lowell Goddard launched Britain’s largest public inquiry into historical abuse from the “corridors of power” to the poorest parts of the country.

The New Zealand judge said: “No one, no matter how apparently powerful, will be allowed to obstruct our inquiries. No one will have immunity from scrutiny.”

Heath is the first former Prime Minister to be linked to child sex abuse allegations that have swept across Westminster since Labour MP Tom Watson made allegations of an paedophile ring linked to Downing Street in 2012.

A raft of politicians from across the political spectrum has been accused of abusing children, including the late former cabinet minister Leon Brittan, Liberal Democrat Sir Cyril Smith and current Labour peer and former MP Lord Janner.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
Arquidiócesis de Chicago

August 3, 2015

On July 27, 2015, Archbishop Blase J. Cupich removed Father Octavio Munoz Capetillo, pastor of St. Pancratius from ministry, pending resolution of an investigation of material found on a computer in his possession. Given the nature of the material, we reported our concerns to the civil authorities and will cooperate fully in their investigation. In the interim, Archbishop Cupich has withdrawn Father Munoz’s faculties, his authority to minister. An Administrator will be appointed to assume Fr. Munoz’s duties at St. Pancratius and Father Munoz will reside away from the parish until the matter is resolved.

The Archdiocese is committed to ensuring those serving our parishioners are fit for ministry. Archbishop Cupich offers his assurance of prayers and solidarity with the community at St. Pancratius, knowing that this development is unsettling and he pledges to provide updates on this situation as they become available.

_____________________

Declaración en torno al Padre Octavio Muñoz Capetillo

3 de agosto de 2015

El 27 de julio de 2015, el Arzobispo Blase J. Cupich separó de su ministerio al Padre Octavio Muñoz Capetillo, párroco de San Pancracio, en espera de la resolución de una investigación sobre un material encontrado en una computadora que él tenía consigo. Dada la naturaleza del material, comunicamos a las autoridades civiles nuestras preocupaciones y cooperaremos plenamente en la investigación. En el ínterin, el Arzobispo Cupich ha retirado al Padre Muñoz sus facultades, su autoridad para ministrar. Se nombrará un administrador quien se encargará de los deberes del Padre Muñoz en San Pancracio, mientras que el Padre Muñoz residirá fuera de la parroquia hasta que se resuelva el asunto.

La Arquidiócesis tiene el firme compromiso de asegurarse de que aquellas personas que sirven a nuestros feligreses son aptos para el ministerio. El Arzobispo Cupich ofrece sus oraciones y su solidaridad a la comunidad de San Pancracio, a sabiendas de que estas noticias son inquietantes, y promete que estará dando actualizaciones sobre esta situación a medida que se produzca nueva información sobre el caso.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Manya Brachear Pashman and Jeremy Gorner
Chicago Tribune

Chicago police have confirmed a criminal investigation has been opened into a parish priest who was removed from ministry by the Chicago Archdiocese after it said materials were found on a computer in his possession.

The confirmation from police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi came after the diocese disclosed Monday on its website that the Rev. Octavio Munoz Capetillo had been removed as pastor of St. Pancratius Church on Chicago’s Southwest Side.

“Given the nature of the material, we reported our concerns to the civil authorities and will cooperate fully in their investigation,” the archdiocese said in a statement. “In the interim, Archbishop (Blase) Cupich has withdrawn Father Munoz’s … authority to minister.”

Munoz, who was removed from ministry July 27, will reside away from St. Pancratius until the matter is resolved, the archdiocese said. A temporary administrator will be appointed to assume his duties at the parish.

Until his recent appointment at the church, Munoz had been director of Casa Jesus, a renowned archdiocese training program for Latin American men who aspire to become priests. In that role from 2008 to 2015, Munoz, a native of Mexico, sought candidates for the priesthood from Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and other Latin American countries in hopes of recruiting clergy who more accurately reflected the church in Chicago.

Munoz, who was ordained in 2004, was first assigned to St. Agnes Catholic Church in Chicago Heights.

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OKLAHOMA
KFOR

JULY 30, 2015, BY ABBY BROYLES

SHAWNEE, Okla. — A former youth pastor was arraigned in Pottawatomie County on Thursday morning after being accused of sex crimes.

Brian Burchfield is accused of sending inappropriate text messages to teenage boys who attend a church he once worked for in Shawnee.

We’re told Burchfield was the youth pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church for several years and gained the trust of some teenage boys in the youth group.

Police tell us they’ve talked to four of those boys in the past week who told them their text conversations with Burchfield were starting to make them uncomfortable.

Police tell us Burchfield would ask the boys for pictures of themselves and talk to them about pornography.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

THE Salvation Army failed in its response to numerous allegations made against its officers, a royal commission report into child sexual abuse has found.

THE report, released on Monday, found several allegations submitted to high-ranking members of the Salvation Army had not been investigated, while others had been mishandled and victims were left in the dark.

In one case, an officer rose through the ranks of the army despite admitting to abusing an eight-year-old girl.

The victim’s mother previously told the commission she was “in disbelief” when Salvation Army officer Colin Haggar visited her in 1989 and said: “It wasn’t that serious, I only fingered her.”

Haggar admitted the abuse and was dismissed, but rejoined the army three years later and was promoted.

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OKLAHOMA
Baptist News

By Bob Allen

Two prominent Southern Baptist churches in Oklahoma are cooperating with police after the arrest of a youth pastor charged with sending inappropriate text messages to four boys at his former congregation.

Police in Shawnee, Okla., arrested Brian Burchfield, 42, July 29 on charges of soliciting sex with a minor and computer crimes. At the time of his arrest Burchfield was serving as young adult pastor at Quail Springs Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, but his alleged crimes involve four teenage boys ranging from 14 to 17 years old he met at Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee, Okla., where he reportedly served from June 2006 to April 2014.

Last year Quail Springs Baptist Church was host church for the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. At the meeting Hance Dilback, the church’s pastor since 2003, was elected president of the state affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church, Todd Fisher, was president of the state convention’s pastor’s conference in 2013 and is a former trustee of Oklahoma Baptist University.

According to the Southern Baptist Convention membership database, Immanuel Baptist Church has 5,141 members and average attendance of 850, while Quail Springs has 4,808 members: and average attendance of 1,446.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Aug 3, 2015

It’s been 30 years since Jason Berry broke the Catholic sex abuse story by courageously reporting on the case of serial abuser Fr. Gilbert Gauthe in Louisiana. When national publications refused to touch the story, Berry published his investigation in the Times of Acadiana, and that little paper proved to be the mouse that roared. The National Catholic Reporter immediately took the plunge and before long the mainstream media lost its fear of reporting how bishops systematically put the protection of their clergy and their church’s reputation ahead of the protection of minors.

NCR marked the anniversary last month with a tough editorial, which has drawn an appropriately non-confrontational response from Bishop Edward J. Burns of Juneau, Alaska, chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops. To his credit, Burns acknowledges that the church’s considerable effort to establish a safe environment for children should not be taken as “a sign that we have somehow put this scandal behind us, nor is it an occasion for self-congratulation…Rather, our shepherds, myself included, need to face and repent of the betrayal of trust. Authentic and heartfelt repentance by the shepherds of our church is not a distraction from our mission: It is the mission at this moment in the life of the church and her leaders.”

So what’s wrong with this?

What’s wrong is that, after 30 years, we are well past the “facing up and repenting” phase of the scandal — and (finally) into the “consequences for misbehaving bishops” phase. Burns makes no reference to Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph and Archbishop John Nienstedt of Minneapolis-St. Paul, both of whom were clearly forced by the Vatican to resign this year for their handling of abuse cases. Nor does he note the tribunal that has been established by Pope Francis to deal with bishops charged with covering up and/or failing to report admitted or suspected abusers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

The Inquiry has launched a new area called Share your experience developed specifically for victims and survivors wishing to share their experience with the Inquiry team. A key part of this is the publication of a new form and further guidance for victims and survivors. Both of these documents are designed to help victims and survivors through the process of contacting the Inquiry and sharing their experience. All the information provided to the Inquiry will feed into the Truth Project – the strand of the inquiry that will allow victims and survivors of child sexual abuse to share their experiences with the Inquiry.

More information about The Truth Project.

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BOSTON (MA)/ROME
WGBH

By PHILLIP MARTIN

When Bernard Cardinal Law, Archibishop of Boston, fled to the Vatican in 2002, he left behind a trail of human and financial wreckage: 550 victims abused by parish priests and court judgments that eventually topped $85 million.

Meanwhile, Law was assigned a comfortable post in Rome, where he disappeared from the headlines.

Law led America’s fourth-largest archdiocese for 18 years. His reputation as a public figure peaked during Boston’s court-ordered school desegregation crisis, when the cardinal emerged as a steadying voice of sanity. However, as his role as the architect of the abuse cover-up emerged, first in the Boston Phoenix, then in the Boston Globe, Law was transformed into a pariah. With permission from Pope John Paul II, he resigned in 2002 ahead of the mandatory age of 75. Law was subsequently appointed head of Santa Marie Maggiore, one of the most significant basilicas in Rome. He retired from that post in 2011. Where is he now? What has he been doing since then?

Like many searches these days, this one begins with Google, in a café in Rome. I comb through recent articles, but none from 2015. And I come across an excerpt from Wikipedia that reads, “It was ‘commonly believed that [Law would] live out his retirement in Rome’ when he was retired in 2011. As of March 2013 he was still living at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.” So that’s where I’m headed.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

BARRISTER KEN CHACKES is now repping the mother of a young boy who police say was sexually violated by a priest at the Cathedral parish school in the CWE. That cleric, Fr. Joseph Jiang, recently became the first religious figure in Missouri to sue police, prosecutors and other claiming they “conspired” to violate his constitutional rights because of racism and anti-Catholic animus. Meanwhile, SNAP (also being sued by Jiang) says in a new court filing that Archbishop Robert Carlson is behind the priest’s lawsuit.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

One of the reasons I’ve been slow to post in the past several days, dear readers, is that I’ve been at the national meeting of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in Alexandria, Virginia. Because I attended the meeting primarily to take part in the leaders’ gathering preceding the conference itself, I don’t have any kind of well-developed report of the conference to offer you. I didn’t attend a large number of presentations at the meeting.

At National Catholic Reporter’s website, Tom Fox has published the text of Tom Doyle’s address to the conference, which I didn’t hear (but have now read), and which is wonderful. It will give you a feel for the conference, I think, if you read it.

One of the experiences of this conference that I’ll treasure is having the opportunity to meet not only some of the national SNAP leaders about whom I’ve long read and whom I’ve long admired, but also members of the amazing Mennonite contingent who attended this conference. As any of you who have followed this blog for any length of time will know, I’ve featured the work of Ruth Krall and Stephanie Krehbiel here repeatedly. Both are Mennonite scholars involved in the discussion of sexual violence within their own religious community of origin, the Mennonite Church USA.

Ruth and Stephanie were at the conference, and I so much appreciate having had the opportunity to meet them and other Mennonite folks attending the conference (though I suspect that in giving Ruth a big goodbye hug yesterday, I thoughtlessly smashed her glasses against her face — and I cringe at the memory of my thoughtlessness). It may not be apparent to those of you who haven’t followed SNAP’s development what a big deal it is that SNAP now has a lively (and sizable) contingent of Mennonites involved in the organization’s work.

As many of you will know, SNAP began as something of a Catholic-specific organization. Its title indicates its early Catholic-specific focus: it’s a group that was started largely by people who had experienced sexual abuse by priests when they were minors (though there have been, from the beginning, also SNAP members whose abuse occurred at the hands of nuns).

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UNITED STATES
Reporting an Explosive Truth: The Boston Globe and Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church – The Knight Case Study Initiatives, The Journalism School, Columbia University

Abstract

CSJ-09-0011.0 This case is about the calculus a news organization must make when it uncovers a story that incriminates the most powerful institution in its community. It also describes the personal toll on journalists of covering misdeeds in one’s own church. In August 2001, the Boston Globe’s new editor, Martin Baron, commissioned the paper’s investigative Spotlight Team to look into the case against Father John Geoghan, a Catholic priest charged with sexual abuse of children. Within a month, the team had begun to uncover many other instances of abuse by priests. The story was potentially explosive: Boston had the highest percentage of Catholics of any major US city. The Archdiocese, and Cardinal Bernard Law, were beloved and respected. The Globe and Law had a history of tense relations. The team suspended its research to cover the September 11 attacks, but picked it up again in October. As the pieces came together, it had to decide how to play what was a literally unbelievable story, how to manage a potential backlash from the community, and how to deal with the anticipated reaction from the Archdiocese. In November, it acquired a “smoking gun”—a document that implicated Cardinal Law. The Globe, which wanted to make certain its blockbuster story was faultless, was not fully ready to publish, but the document was public and rival news organizations could discover it. The team debated what to do.

Students discussing this case will have the opportunity to examine the special challenges of covering religion, especially the dominant religion in one’s own community. They will gain insight into how individual reporters process and cope with a horrific story. They can also explore investigative techniques; the Globe had to obtain most of its information over the active objections of the Catholic Church. Students will be introduced to Computer Assisted Reporting, as well as to court reporting. They will encounter the pressures of media competition. Finally, students should gain an understanding of the dynamics of team reporting, and how team members work together in the service of a story too large for any one of them.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kirchenrecht

[“I always have time for you!” This sentence probably falls on every encounter a bishop with “his” priests, and he is – I suspect – make it clear that the Bishop also sees itself as chaplain, and that includes the pastoral care of his priests. This is a commendable attitude, and it finds its theological justification in the statement that the priests “take over the worries and responsibilities of bishops and realize so zealous in daily professional services rendered”, which is why the bishops should listen willingly (cf.. CD 16).]

“Ich habe immer Zeit für sie!” Dieser Satz fällt vermutlich auf jeder Begegnung eines Bischofs mit “seinen” Priestern, und er soll – so vermute ich – deutlich werden lassen, dass sich der Bischof auch als Seelsorger versteht, und dazu gehört auch die Seelsorge an seinen Priestern.

Dies ist eine lobenswerte Grundhaltung, und sie findet ihre theologische Begründung in der Aussage, dass die Priester “die Sorgen und Aufgaben der Bischöfe übernehmen und in täglicher Mühewaltung so eifrig verwirklichen”, weswegen die Bischöfe sie bereitwillig anhören sollen (vgl. CD 16). Auch sind die Bischöfe nicht nur gehalten, für eine gediegene Aus- und Fortbildung ihrer Priester Sorge zu tragen, sie sollen denen “mit tatkräftiger Sorge […] nachgehen, die irgendwie in Gefahr schweben oder sich in bestimmten Punkten verfehlt haben” (CD 16).

Gesetzlichen Niederschlag hat diese Aussage im can. 384 CIC gefunden, in dem dem Bischof die Pflicht auferlegt wird, die Priester mit besonderer Fürsorge zu begleiten.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Dewsbury Reporter

Evidence of historic sexual abuse at a Mirfield religious school will be considered in court for the first time later this year.

Numerous allegations of horrific abuse by priests and teachers at St Peter’s seminary in Roe Head, Far Common Road, during the 1960s and 1970s have been made in recent years.

However, despite £120,000 in compensation payouts, the cases have not reached court and there has been no apology or finding of guilt.

But a case will finally be tried in November this year, after former pupil Peter Murray, 57, launched his bid for a substantial damages payout.

The Liverpool-born nurse is suing the Verona Fathers, the religious order behind the college, for the abuse he says he suffered when he was a child.

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BELGIE
Katholiek Actie Vlaanderen

[The promotion of pedophilia by the parish,

abusing their own relatives,

know and concealment of this ‘misdeeds’

the abuse of disabled children,

the cover-ups of these messages,]

De promotie van pedofilie door het parochieblad,

het misbruiken van de eigen familieleden,

het weten en verzwijgen van deze ‘euveldaden’,

het misbruiken van gehandicapte kinderen,

het doofpotten van deze berichten,

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SCHWEIZ
SRF

[The sexual assaults by priests and religious have seriously damaged the image of the Catholic Church. In Switzerland many cases are time-barred. Perpetrators are often not identifiable. In early September a fund will be set up for victims of perpetrators within the church.]

Die sexuellen Übergriffe von Priestern und Ordensleuten haben dem Image der katholischen Kirche schwer geschadet. In der Schweiz sind viele Fälle verjährt. Täter sind oft nicht identifizierbar. Anfang September will die Kirche einen Fonds für Opfer einrichten.

Priester und Mönche sind Vorbilder. Sie vertreten eine Institution mit hohen moralischen Ansprüchen. «Jedes Mal, wenn ich mit einem Opfer zu tun habe, ist es für mich ein grosses Leiden», sagt Joseph Bonnemain. Er ist Sekretär des Fachgremiums «Sexuelle Übergriffe im kirchlichen Umfeld» und selber Priester. «Die Übergriffe belasten während Jahrzehnten ein Leben und machen Menschen zum Teil krank», fügt er hinzu.

Die Schweizer Bischöfe riefen 2010 Opfer sexueller Übergriffe im kirchlichen Umfeld auf, sich zu melden. Rund 200 Opfer meldeten sich. 182 mutmassliche Täter wurden erfasst, lediglich 20 Strafverfahren gegen katholische Priester und Mönche in dieser Zeit eröffnet. Der Haken dabei: Viele Täter sind gestorben, die meisten Fälle verjährt.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

August 3, 2015

The research, “Taking Us Seriously: Children and young people talk about safety and institutional responses to their safety concerns” was conducted by the Australian Catholic University in partnership with Griffith University and the Queensland University of Technology.

In the research published today by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, children and young people have identified what institutions should do to help them feel safe and be safe.

The children and young people who participated in the research said that in order for them to feel safe and be safe institutions need to have a focus on helping children and young people, value their participation, provide a safe physical environment, proactively protect them from unsafe people and experiences and employ safe and trusted adults.

Children and young people in the study also identified what makes a good response to safety issues including that adults and institutions take the time to listen to them and to acknowledge their concerns when they arise.

Royal Commission Chief Executive Philip Reed said hearing directly from children and young people was key to the Royal Commission’s understanding of best practice in preventing and responding to institutional child sexual abuse.

“Children and young people’s participation was central to this project,” he said.

“As well as including the direct views of children themselves, this study was guided by three children and young people’s reference groups.

“The researchers have now launched an online survey which aims to explore the issues arising in the focus groups with a broader sample of Australian children and young people.”

Mr Reed said the findings will inform the Royal Commission’s work on child safe organisations.

“A child safe organisation is one that actively protects children and young people from sexual abuse.

“This research is one of a suite of research projects involving children and young people and will add to our work in examining what organisational characteristics, culture, policies and practices – such as codes of conduct, complaint handling procedures, recruitment and supervision processes – will help keep children safer in institutions.”

The aim of the research was to seek the views of children and young people about safety issues – including child sexual abuse – in institutions, and how these are best addressed.

The report presents findings from ten focus groups with 121 children and young people conducted in a range of institutional settings including out-of-home care, schools, youth activities and childcare centres.

Key findings:
The children and young people who participated in the focus groups generally agreed that institutions were safe when a number of conditions were met:

* Focused on helping children and young people. This is demonstrated in the way adults interact with children; things children can do there; and signs that children are welcome (eg child-friendly posters, pictures and play areas).

* Valued their participation. This is demonstrated in the way adults and children interact; the value the institution places on understanding children’s fears, concerns, needs and wishes; and in mechanisms in place for children to complain, shape strategies and provide feedback.

* Provided a safe physical environment. Children felt most safe in ordered and child-friendly environments. They valued physical signs such as fences, security cameras, cameras and locks, and felt the best way of determining whether the environment is safe is to observe how children behave there.

* Proactively protected children and young people from unsafe people and experiences. This is identifying issues early; informing children of potential threats and hazards; actively communicating with children and their safety concerns; employing safe and trusted adults, and being open to monitoring by an external agency.

* Employs safe and trusted adults who: care about children and young people, act in appropriate ways, are available when children and young people need them, are able to talk about sensitive issues, prioritise children’s needs and concerns over the needs of other adults and institutions, and who do what they say they will do.

Read the full report here.

Read the kids summary here.

The focus groups are part of a broader research project examining children and young people’s views of safety. The project also involves an online survey which is being launched today. For more information, visit Australian Catholic University -Learning Sciences Institute Australia – Australian Survey for Kids and Young People.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

3 August, 2015

The Royal Commission’s Report of Case Study no.10 – the Salvation Army’s handling of claims of child sexual abuse 1989 to 2014 was released today.

This is the second case study report released into The Salvation Army. The report for Case Study 5 was released in March 2015.

The public hearing was held in March 2014 and examined The Salvation Army’s Eastern Territory’s (covering New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT) response to claims of child sexual abuse at children’s homes it operated, the experience of people who made complaints and the disciplining of officers who were subject to allegations.

A number of the claimants gave evidence to the Royal Commission that they were concerned that The Salvation Army’s claims process was not clear. The claimants also said they were unaware of what matters were considered in the determination of ex-gratia payments.

The Commissioners found that in a number of claims examined in the case study The Salvation Army did not clearly explain the claims process including what steps it would take to discipline officers or members of The Salvation Army who were implicated by the claimants.

The Commissioners also found that in a number of the claims, The Salvation Army did not give the victims an opportunity to respond to the information it had obtained. This included not giving the victims the opportunity to respond to information it had obtained that contradicted or was adverse to the victim’s evidence. The Commissioners found The Salvation Army relied on this contrary or adverse information, to determine a low or reduced ex-gratia payment.

The case study also considered allegations of sexual abuse against Captain Colin Haggar.

In 1989 Captain Colin Haggar admitted to sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl at the Salvation Army Citadel in a central west New South Wales country town. As a result of a meeting of the Officers Review Board (ORB) both Captain Haggar and his wife, Captain Kerry Haggar, were dismissed as officers.

In 1993 the Haggars were permitted to return to their positions as captains of The Salvation Army. Colin Haggar then served in a number of managerial positions within The Salvation Army including at Samaritan House and Carinya Cottage. In 2012 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel.

The Commissioners found Colin Haggar occupied a position of managerial responsibility for children even though he had admitted to sexually abusing a child. The Commissioners found that The Salvation Army should not have promoted Colin Haggar to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

The Commissioners found that Commissioner James Condon was, from 3 September 2012, required to report to the New South Wales Ombudsman the allegation of sexual abuse of a girl in 1989 by Colin Haggar as soon as Colin Haggar became responsible for Samaritan House and Carinya Cottage.

Commissioner James Condon did not take steps to report the allegation to the Ombudsman until 10 December 2013 because he had received equivocal legal advice as to whether he was required to report.

The Commissioners also found that from 15 June 2013, The Salvation Army had an obligation under section 35 of the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 (NSW) to notify the New South Wales Children’s Guardian that in 1990 it had dismissed Colin Haggar.

Read the full report.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn – Victims of clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis must file their claims by 5 p.m. Monday.

The Aug. 3 deadline was challenged by victims’ attorneys, who asked a U.S. bankruptcy court judge to honor a May 2016 deadline – the same filing cutoff for all other abuse victims in Minnesota. But, last week, Judge Robert Kressel reaffirmed his April decision, designed to expedite the archdiocese’s reorganization plan.

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January following a wave of clergy abuse lawsuits. Minnesota Public Radio News reports more than 400 creditors had filed claims. Abuse victims accounted for more than 250 of them.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A royal commission will continue to hear from senior officials of the Jehovah’s Witness Church when it resumes its investigation into child sex abuse allegations on Monday.

In the witness stand on day five of the hearing will be church elders and officials from Watchtower Bible Tract Society of Australia – the church’s legal entity.

Last week the commission heard from two women who who went through the Witnesses internal process for dealing with sex abuse allegations.

They revealed they were required to confront their abusers when they gave evidence at an internal judicial hearing before three elders – all men.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

A ROYAL commission has heard that Jehovah’s Witnesses rely on a biblical text, which also recommends the stoning of adulterous women, when it comes to judging child sex abusers in their midst.

BUT in the case of child abusers, the Book of Deuteronomy rule about needing two witnesses to a wrongdoing is applied, which in effect means it is highly unlikely the allegation against the abuser will be proved.

The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah and sets out rules and laws based on Moses’ teachings before the Israelites entered the Promised Land.

At the national hearing into how the theocratic church handles allegations of child sex abuse, Elder John de Rooy on Monday quoted Deuteronomy.

“No single witness may convict another for any error or any sin he may commit. On the testimony of two witnesses rules, or on the testimony of three witnesses the matter should be established.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Child sex abuse royal commission: Salvation Army commissioner took year to report that officer allegedly sexually abused girl, report finds

A Salvation Army commissioner failed to report to authorities for more than a year an allegation that one of its officers had sexually abused an eight-year-old girl, the child sex abuse royal commission has found.

Captain Colin Haggar admitted to sexually abusing the girl in the state’s central-west in 1989.

After initially being dismissed, he was later given a position with managerial responsibility for children within the Salvation Army.

In a report handed down on Monday, the royal commission found commissioner James Condon was required to report the allegation to the state’s Ombudsman in September 2012, as soon as Captain Haggar was given the new role.

However, Mr Condon failed to report the matter to the Ombudsman until December 2013 because, the report said, “he had received equivocal legal advice as to whether he was required to report”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC Philadelphia

[with video]

By Karen Araiza

When Pope Francis comes to Philadelphia, friend and former colleague Silvia Tuozzo expects he may bring a “healing message” that addresses deep wounds left by the priest sex abuse scandal.

Before he was elected pope, Tuozzo was hired by Father Jorge Bergoglio in 2007 to help run the television station for the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She saw him or spoke with him almost daily.

“What happened in America hurt him as a priest,” Tuozzo said from a balcony in the center of Buenos Aires that looks out over the Cathedral where Archbishop Bergoglio said Mass and served the people of his homeland.

Although he was a stern boss who rarely smiled, according to Tuozzo, the themes you hear Pope Francis talk about when he visits Philadelphia the last weekend of September, will be themes he has believed in and preached about for years.

“He has always spoken about a God of mercy. Since the first day. He really believes in a God of mercy. He really believes in love; love as healing. And I think he understands the pain in people,” Tuozzo said. “I think he needs to heal the people [in the United States] and I think he will go with a healing program to America.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The Jehovah’s Witnesses reinstated a man to the church after he repented leaving his wife, despite being accused of sexually preying on his four daughters, a royal commission has been told.

Less than three years after the man was stood down by the Witnesses for ‘loose conduct and lying’, he was welcomed back with the approval of church congregations in Queensland.

The man referred to as BCH was jailed in 2004 for multiple sexual offences against his daughter BCG, but his confession and her evidence were not enough to convince the church to expel him for child sex abuse.

BCH was stood down for leaving his wife and moving in with another woman.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Sunday 2 August 2015

The Jehovah’s Witnesses church let “repentant” child sex abusers return to the congregation, who were then kept in the dark about their crimes, an alleged abuse victim has claimed.

John de Rooy, an elder in a Mareeba, Queensland, congregation in the early 1990s, was on a church judicial committee which heard a complaint from a woman who alleged her father had abused her and her three sisters.

The woman, given the pseudonym BCG, has given evidence her father repeatedly sexually abused her but the church’s committee found her allegations were unproven.

Last week BCG said the elders refused to accept the evidence of her sisters or her mother.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By the National Reporting Team’s Lorna Knowles

A woman who alleges she suffered horrific child sexual abuse at the hands of a priest has accused the Catholic Church of failing to honour its pledge to treat victims with more compassion.

Gina Swannell is suing the church for damages in relation to sexual abuse she allegedly suffered when she was six years old at the St Francis Xavier boarding school in Urana, New South Wales.

Ms Swannell said the order of nuns which ran the school, the Presentation Sisters, had offered to mediate but the Church had declined to do so, leaving her to take her claim to the courts.

“People need to know that [what] is happening behind closed doors is not what they are saying to the public,” she said.

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UNITED STATES
Frum Follies

Sexual abuse was a plague in the [ultra orthodox Jewish] community… because they denied its existence, allowing pedophiles full freedom to sexually molest children.

Before I ever wrote a word of “Hush,” I had written for years in the ultra-Orthodox world. My writings were taught in their schools. Being a writer brought me readers, and they would tell me their stories. And more and more of them were about sexual abuse…

You begin to hear a pattern. Something happened… but you can’t think about it in a world where it is denied. You deny it to yourself… You just think about it as an isolated event. You think this isn’t the community. It’s just me or her or him…

This isn’t some theoretical concept. It’s young adults committing suicide one after another. It’s people who go through hellish agony trying to untangle themselves and deal with the trauma. It’s knowing that as long as you are silent there’s another person you are literally killing. For me that book [Hush] was survival. So the ugliness that it unleashed was a nightmare to deal with. It’s something that still hurts me to think about. I guess it always will.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

ADAM DUDDING

Take the motorway north across Auckland’s Harbour Bridge and in 15 minutes you’ll reach Albany.

There the once-green rolling hills are carpeted with light-industrial business parks – hectare after hectare of grey, low-rise boxes clumped into small groups around a carpark, with a roadside sign vaguely hinting at what might be going on inside.

In one of these grey boxes, a stone’s throw from the Albany Expressway interchange, the occupants include an animal-exporting business, a builder who’s never there, a web design company, and a smiley, white-haired Yorkshireman in his late 60s who occupies a small office with a computer, a meeting table and a view of a roundabout. His name is Bill Kilgallon, and his job is to help dig the Catholic Church out of a deep, ugly hole.

Since the mid-1980s, when the first reports of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests began to appear in the US, the scandal has mushroomed: the American church has spent a reported $3 billion settling lawsuits with victims. Abuse in church-run boys’ school in Ireland was described in a 2009 report as having been at “epidemic” levels. Senior church officials have been sacked for moving known paedophile priests from diocese to diocese, or even between countries. Last year Pope Francis reportedly told an Italian journalist that as many as 1 in 50 members of the Catholic clergy was an abuser.

In New Zealand, meanwhile, at least a dozen priests or members of Catholic orders have been convicted of sexually abusing children.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Bill White
THE MORNING CALL
bill.white​@mcall.com

Robert Corby of Bethlehem tells a story about the time ex-football star Franco Harris visited Northampton Community College to lead a town hall meeting about how Penn State handled the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

Corby, now 80, who says he was a victim of child sexual abuse by a priest, decided to attend, and at some point, very nervously, he stood up to speak about what happened to him. “I’m not here to question Joe Paterno’s motives,” he says he began. “I’m here to speak for all the victims of sexual abuse.”

He was rewarded with applause — and a surprise when the event ended. “An old guy came down the aisle, tears running down his face,” Corby recalled. “He said, ‘Thank you for speaking up for the victims.'”

The first time I met Corby, we were at Juliann Bortz’s kitchen table seven years ago, talking about Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States and the toll it was taking on people who were victims of sexual abuse by priests.

Including them.

Benedict’s first U.S. visit rekindled anger and anxiety over the betrayal by pedophile priests and the church leaders who allowed their crimes to continue. Bortz, then local coordinator for the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests — known as SNAP — was bombarded with phone calls from emotional survivors.

Bortz, then 58, was one of several victims who years ago sued the Allentown Diocese and church officials for systematically covering up years of abuse, including her alleged molestation by a teacher at Allentown Central Catholic High School when she was 14. The case was blocked by the state’s statute of limitations.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas C. Fox | Aug. 1, 2015

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Dominican Father Thomas Doyle, who has worked with survivors of priest sex abuse for more than three decades, said Friday he continues to grapple with its full dimensions.

“It just seems too big to get my head around,” he said.

Dolye spoke Friday at the 2015 gathering of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), which drew several hundred abuse survivors and supporters to the Westin Alexandria hotel here.

He mused, considering the many years of work survivor supporters have been engaged in, adding the when they got into the work “there was no plan.” Those who got into efforts to bring priest sex abuse to the full attention of the church and force bishops to be accountable, he said, “still did not understand the widespread nature of sex abuse within the church.”

“We only knew the shocking reality that a few Catholic priests had sexually molested by rape and other forms of sexual violation, a number of Catholic children. … Before long however, some began to get glimpses of a far more treacherous and complex reality that was hidden behind the
Doyle, who has testified in numerous civil suits on behalf of sex abuse survivors, confirmed he met recently with four members of the Vatican commission appointed by Pope Francis to advise him on sex abuse. Recently, a book on Doyle’s life and work with survivors was published on Amazon.

The following is the text of his July 31 remarks.

1. In the beginning there was no plan

When the reality of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy gradually emerged into the light back in 1984 and 85, there was no plan. Those of us who were involved back then and who are still around, Jason Berry, Jeff Anderson, Ray Mouton, Tom Fox and myself, among others, only knew the shocking reality that a few Catholic priests had sexually molested by rape and other forms of sexual violation, a number of Catholic children. The predatory priest who brought it all to the surface, Gilbert Gauthe, was a true pedophile with scores of pre-pubescent little boys left in his wake. Hence the inaccurate label, “The Pedophile Priest Problem.”

No one had any idea of the magnitude of the issue. In fact, I don’t think any of us even knew what the real issue was other than the fact that a few families had openly denounced Gauthe and in time a few other priests, to Church authorities.

Before long however, some began to get glimpses of a far more treacherous and complex reality that was hidden behind the thin cover of the few known cases of sexual abuse. Ray Mouton, Mike Peterson and I began to see some of the indicators as events rapidly unfolded in 1985, but we could not possibly have comprehended the monster that was slowly showing itself.

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AUSTRALIA
The Saturday Paper

In the West Australian Wheatbelt town of Narrogin, they wait for Armageddon. They wait for Jehovah’s angels to empty the vials of his wrath, turning the oceans into blood and fracturing the land with “a great earthquake, such as was not seen since men were upon the earth”. The vast fields that surround their town will no longer yield crops; the voices of avenging angels will sound like trumpets in the sky. Despite numerous revisions to their prophecies, the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe End Times are imminent. This eschatology remains central to their faith – their expectation that the world will be violently purged. Politics is anathema, a vain repudiation of this final reckoning. It is what explains their tireless evangelising – it’s pointless to change a world that will be destroyed, the real game is changing souls.

BCB – a pseudonym appointed by the royal commission into child abuse – was a young girl living on her family’s farm in the Wheatbelt. About 1979, her parents decided she should change schools to the nearby town of Narrogin. Her mother was a Jehovah’s Witness, and decided they should change to the Narrogin congregation as a matter of convenience. “The Sunday and Wednesday meetings of the Narrogin congregation were held at the Narrogin Kingdom Hall and were attended by the whole congregation,” BCB said in tearful testimony this week. “At these meetings, one of the elders would usually deliver a public talk from the platform based on a reading from The Watchtower magazine, or give a talk from the Bible. At these meetings, the elders would also lead question-and-answer sessions and give specific training about our door-to-door preaching.

“Bill Neill was one of two elders. At the time I understood that Bill’s position as an elder gave him authority in the Jehovah’s Witness community. I looked up to Bill because he was an elder. Everybody in the congregation respected and trusted Bill, including my mum.”

Neill would serially molest BCB throughout the 1980s. But compounding the trauma of this abuse was the congregation’s disastrous – and yet entirely predictable – response to it.

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NORTHER IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Alf McCreary
PUBLISHED
01/08/2015

In this month’s edition of the National Geographic Magazine, there is a front page picture with the headline “Pope Francis remakes the Vatican”. However, on the inside there is a more subtle headline across two pages, which accords with my own point of view. It reads “Will the Pope change the Vatican, or will the Vatican change the Pope?”

This cuts to the heart of the current debate about the remarkable Pope Francis, who made headlines by being the first Latin-American, and the first Jesuit, to become Pontiff, and the first to adopt the name of St Francis.

He was reputedly a strong contender to succeed Pope John Paul II previously, but the cardinals elected the scholarly German Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI, and who was also the first to resign since Pope Gregory II was forced to do so in the mid-15th century.

Pope Francis has been a breath of fresh air compared to his studious, gentle and shy predecessor. He has most of the qualities required for an age when leadership is scrutinised in such depth.

He has charisma and a knack for providing the right picture opportunities and soundbites to connect with ordinary people and to consolidate his reputation as a man for the poor. There is no doubt that this public image reflects the views of the private man but, as the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, he faces an enormous task to modernise the Vatican and to make it fit for Church leadership in the 21st century. …

At heart, there is a struggle between his reforming zeal, and the vested interests within the Vatican who see any change as a threat, and who will resist many of his serious attempts to make the Catholic Church fit for purpose. At last year’s special gathering of cardinals, the Pope received a frosty reception for some of his proposed new measures. That is why he rounded on the cardinals in a Christmas message when he outlined what he regarded as some of the “diseases” of the Vatican Curia, or civil service. He accused them of gossip, worldly profit and other “vainglory” characteristics, which was likely to increase their opposition to him, rather than reduce it.

There seems to be a battle of ideologies going on, and Pope Francis, at 78, does not have time on his side. He is undoubtedly a good man, but his major contribution may be to sow the seeds of change that will grow to fruition when he has gone.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WCVB

[with video]

SALEM, Mass. —Massachusetts prosecutors want a former Roman Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing children civilly committed indefinitely now that his prison term has ended.

Essex County prosecutors went before a Salem Superior Court judge Friday to start the process to have 72-year-old Ronald Paquin held in a state hospital as a sexually dangerous person.

Paquin pleaded guilty in 2003 to sexually assaulting a 12-year-old altar boy at a Haverhill church. His 12-year prison sentence ended in May, but he remains detained until his status is resolved.

A forensic psychologist testified at a probable cause hearing Friday that Paquin is still a dangerous sexual predator. The hearing was continued to Aug. 18.

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OREGON
Portland Tribune

Written by Seth Gordon

PORTLAND — A lawsuit filed July 17 in Multnomah County Circuit Court alleges that child sexual abuse occurred in the Friends (Quaker) church in Newberg from approximately 1987 to 1991.

The plaintiff, referred to by his initials “A.J.” in the suit, claims to have been sexually abused by former Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends youth superintendent Bruce Bishop when the youth was between the ages of 11 and 16 years old.

The suit makes five legal claims, including sexual exploitation and abuse and/or battery of a child, breach of fiduciary duty, intentional infliction of distress and negligence.

The suit seeks $4 million in noneconomic damages, as well as economic damages, loss of earning capacity and legal costs. It also states the plaintiff’s intent to include a claim for punitive damages.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AUGUST 01, 2015

THOSE fresh-faced, nice mannered and well-dressed young people who knock on your front door and leave behind a copy of their magazine Watchtower are all that most of us see of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

As they preach their particular brand of religion door-to-door, they can expect a range of reactions from a pleasant greeting to the door being slammed in their faces.

But they couldn’t have bargained for the reception they got at one house.

“From time to time a (Jehovah’s) Witness will come and knock on my door. I usually say I’m not interested,” a 43-year-old woman told the child sex abuse royal commission last week.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Portsmouth News

A DISGRACED priest has been jailed after being told by a judge his abuse of boys was a ‘gross breach of trust’.

Terry Knight, 77, appeared for sentencing at Portsmouth Crown Court after being found guilty during an earlier trial of indecently assaulting a 12-year-old boy.

It is the second time Knight has been convicted for offences in the 1980s at St Saviour’s Anglican Church in Stamshaw, Portsmouth.

Knight was jailed for three-and-a-half years in 1996 after admitting abusing seven boys aged between 11 and 14 between 1975 and 1985.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Fox Boston

SALEM, Mass. (AP) – Massachusetts prosecutors want a former Roman Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing children civilly committed indefinitely now that his prison term has ended.

Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office goes before a judge in Salem Superior Court on Friday to start the process to have 72-year-old Ronald Paquin held in a state hospital as a sexually dangerous person.

Paquin pleaded guilty in 2003 to sexually assaulting a 12-year-old altar boy at a Haverhill church, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. His sentence ended in May but he remains in custody until his status is resolved.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Salem News

Friday, July 31, 2015
BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER

SALEM — Normally, former priest Ronald Paquin’s age, 72, would make him statistically far less likely to re-offend, a psychologist testified during a hearing Friday in Salem Superior Court.
But the defrocked Haverhill priest, who completed a 12- to 15-year prison term this spring for rape and abuse of a child, a boy he abused for three years, is no ordinary sex offender, Dr. Gregg Belle testified.

While taking part in group sex offender therapy at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater in 2012, Belle testified, the then-70-year-old Paquin began “grooming” another inmate, described as a “young-looking male,” in apparent hopes of pursuing a sexual relationship with him.

“He’s a statistical outlier,” said Belle.

That’s one of the reasons that Essex County prosecutors are hoping to keep Paquin, the former pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Haverhill, civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person for as long as possible.

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MICHIGAN
Roman Catholic Diocese of Saginaw

Monday, 27 July 2015

SAGINAW — The Most Rev. Joseph R. Cistone, Bishop of Saginaw, announced this weekend that, after prayerful consideration and upon consultation with parish and diocesan staff, including the Priest Personnel Board, he has asked the Rev. Thomas McNamara, a senior priest of the Diocese of Saginaw, who served as vicar general until 2013, to provide pastoral assistance to St. Mary University Parish in Mt. Pleasant. Father McNamara is a familiar face in the Mt. Pleasant area, having served as pastor of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish (Mt. Pleasant) from 1991-99. Father McNamara will assume this new role immediately, while continuing his sacramental ministry at SS. Francis and Clare Parish in Birch Run.

“I am confident that Father McNamara’s priestly presence, his warm relationship with people in the area, as well as his kindness and wisdom will be of great benefit to the parishioners at St. Mary University Parish,” Bishop Cistone said.

In addition to the pastoral assistance of Father McNamara, Bishop Cistone has appointed the Rev. Thomas Held as the full-time sacramental minister for St. Mary University Parish and Casey Truelove as pastoral administrator pro tem. For the past three years, Father Held has served as the parochial vicar for Sacred Heart Parish (Mt. Pleasant). Truelove serves as Director of Student Outreach and he will take on greater administrative responsibilities for a period of time.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Jessica Shepherd | jessica_shepherd@mlive.com
on July 31, 2015

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — The Catholic Diocese of Saginaw has removed a priest from the parish serving Central Michigan University after it says he committed “boundary violations.”

The diocese announced it had placed the Rev. Denis Heames, who served as parochial administrator for St. Mary University Parish in Mount Pleasant, on administrative leave in early July. The parish serves the campus of Central Michigan University.

According to a statement released by the diocese Monday, July 27, Bishop Joseph Cistone officially removed Heames from his position during the week of July 20.

The diocese has stated the “boundary violations” were not of an illegal nature, though no additional details about the incident or incidents that led to the decision regarding Heames were released.

Cistone has announced the Rev. Thomas McNamara will provide pastoral assistance to the St. Mary University Parish for the time being. McNamara, a senior priest, will also continue his work as sacramental minister for the Ss. Francis and Clare Parish in Birch Run.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Milton J. Valencia GLOBE STAFF JULY 31, 2015

SALEM — A forensic psychologist for the state Department of Correction testified Friday that a former Catholic priest who was at the center of the abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese more than a decade ago remains a dangerous sexual predator who should stay in prison even though he has completed his sentence.

“He targeted adolescent boys that he felt were disadvantaged, came from disadvantage homes,” said Gregg Belle, a private forensic examiner who specializes in reviewing sexual offenders, and does contractual work for the state prison system.

Belle told an Essex Superior Court judge that the former priest, Ronald H. Paquin, “readily acknowledges he has always been sexually attracted to teenage boys.”

Paquin, now 72, had pleaded guilty in 2002 and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in state prison for repeatedly raping a Haverhill altar boy between 1989 and 2002. There were at least 50 incidents of assault. Paquin completed his sentence, for three counts of rape of a child, in May.

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MASSACHUSETTS
NECN

Massachusetts prosecutors want a former Roman Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing children civilly committed indefinitely now that his prison term has ended.

Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office goes before a judge in Salem Superior Court on Friday to start the process to have 72-year-old Ronald Paquin held in a state hospital as a sexually dangerous person.

Paquin pleaded guilty in 2003 to sexually assaulting a 12-year-old altar boy at a Haverhill church, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. His sentence ended in May but he remains in custody until his status is resolved.

Prosecutors want Paquin held pending a mental health examination. If that examination determines he is likely to commit more sex offenses, a trial will be held.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Press Association
Friday 31 July 2015

Hundreds of sexual abuse victims have had their compensation payments reduced after committing crime themselves, according to figures.

A total of 12,665 people who suffered abuse as children or vulnerable adults had been awarded compensation by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (Cica), an executive agency sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, since 2010.

But data obtained by the BBC under freedom of information laws showed 438 had their government-funded payouts docked over the same period.

The BBC said that in the year to June 2015, half of the 27 people who had payments reduced had convictions for drink, drug, theft or property offences, while eight were prosecuted for violence.

Cica can refuse or reduce compensation in light of a person’s criminal record or unspent convictions using a points-based system, under the Criminal Injuries Compensation scheme.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Edward J. Burns | Jul. 31, 2015

As a bishop and as the chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, the editorial “Time to end pattern of deceit, denial” was profoundly painful to read, addressing as it did the betrayal of our children and of our people by some of my brother bishops. One of the particular graces of living the Christian life within the context of community is when brothers and sisters help us to recognize our errors and our sinful behavior so that we can begin to repent and seek God’s forgiveness and healing.

We all owe a deep debt of gratitude to the survivors of sexual abuse whose courageous witness has made the church safer by giving rise to an effective child and youth protection program. They remain a top priority, evidenced by the 294 people who came forward in 2014 to report abuse that happened in the past. The problems they faced 30 years ago are not the norm today. Last year, dioceses provided outreach and support to more than 1,700 victims/survivors.

It is also true that many bishops who returned from the bishops’ conference meeting in 1992 implemented the five protection principles adopted that year, a decade before the Dallas Charter. They called for victims to come forward for healing, removed priest abusers, cooperated with authorities, implemented safe environment training and were transparent with the public and the media.

Ten years later, the U.S. bishops approved the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, and commissioned the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to do two unprecedented academic studies of this misconduct as it existed within the priesthood. They also created a National Review Board, a lay board to advise them specifically on the protection of children and they submit to an annual audit for compliance.

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MINNESOTA
Hometown Source

By Don Heinzman on July 31, 2015

Don HeinzmanI am among the 825,000 Catholics in the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese with thoughts about the unprecedented news that has rocked the archdiocese these past few weeks.
Imagine, two bishops have resigned in the wake of six gross misdemeanor charges against the archdiocese for failure to protect children from an abusive priest, filed by the Ramsey County Attorney.

On top of this, the archdiocese is undergoing bankruptcy to the extent it may have to sell its property on a hill overlooking the city of St. Paul.

Like most lay people, I believe former Archbishop John Nienstedt and his auxiliary bishop, Lee Piche, had no choice but to resign. No one is surprised Pope Francis was quick to accept the resignations.

The diocesan priests assembled for a few days of rest and relaxation in Rochester, received the surprising news that week. It naturally changed the tone of the assembly and caused the clergy to return to heal the archdiocese.

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COLORADO
Westword

Can a pastor also be a schmuck?

He can if he’s Walt Roberson.

The senior pastor for Vinelife Church in Longmont, Roberson is one of four officials or elders at the house of worship to be sentenced for failure to report pervy sex allegations involving a church employee.

The guilty party: youth pastor Jason Roberson, Walt’s son.

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iUNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

As I prepare to return to the blog next week, I wanted to end these series of guest posts with the powerful words of a dear friend I met this past year. David Linwah is a survivor of horrific child sexual abuse. David Linwah is also a survivor of being failed by the church over and over again. Through all the hurt and failings, David somehow still finds beauty and hope in Jesus. A Jesus who gave up everything in order to demonstrate His immeasurable love for David. A Jesus who values David more than life itself. A Jesus who is all too often not recognized by the very people and institutions that profess to know and follow Him. Amazingly, David still has hope that the church will one day actually reflect Jesus. The One who never fails pursuing the hurting and valuing the marginalized. The One who loves unconditionally. Perhaps, David’s words will shine Jesus into the very soul of the church and help it once again to be known for its immeasurable love. Let’s hope and pray that the church is listening. I am so grateful for David Linwah. – Boz
_____________________________________________________________________________

In our modern age the church has made a reputation for being an unsafe place. Not only do unbelievers feel unsafe when misjudged or scrutinized by the church, but many believers in Christ have left the church because of the issue of safety. As a survivor of sexual child abuse myself and a believer, I have found it very disheartening and alarming to witness the naivete of the church in response to a victim of abuse. I personally believe that the majority of the church in our nation does not understand how to respond to abuse because there is a lack of knowledge pertaining to the subject of abuse. Being made aware that there are still victims of abuse who may belong in your own ministry is crucial in the equipping of the church to become the safest place that God intended the church to be.

I am personally sharing with you from a place of having experienced the mistreatment of being a victim while growing up in a Christian family with parents who had served the Lord both as missionaries and as pastors. When I was only a child I was abducted on the missions field by my perpetrators. Tragically, my abduction was not a one time event but a recurring imprisonment of sexual manipulation and abuse. In the midst of my on-going abuse, my parents as well as the church community where oblivious to the reality of the systematic ritual abuse that I was trapped in. Nobody found me.

Speak up, make your voice heard – courtesy of Howard Lake via Flickr (Image source)
My perpetrators were not naive in the process of my abductions. They were very intentional about appearing harmless to the church community, gaining trust and making sure that there was a very good reason why they needed to spend some special time with me. In those “ special times” I would be introduced to evil that was beyond my comprehension and capability of understanding. The agonizing truth is the absent mindedness of my parents and the church community while I was being sexually taken advantage of. In God’s great mercy I was saved and preserved to share my story with others today but the lack of understanding and knowledge that the church has in regards to responding to a victim is still extremely evident to me.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

Jehovah’s Witnesses procedures for dealing with sex abuse ‘deficient’ and can re-traumatise victims, a church expert admits at child abuse commission hearing

By AAP and RACHEL EDDIE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

An expert hired by Jehova’s Witnesses has admitted the church is ‘deficient’ at responding to allegations of child abuse.

Monica Applewhite, a US-based consultant specialising in child abuse risk analysis and education programs for institutions, mostly churches, was employed by Watchtower Australia to evaluate the Witnesses’ policies for the royal commission hearing into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney.

Watchtower Australia is the legal entity of the Jehovah’s Witness church.

Dr Applewhite, who has been an expert witness in abuse trials in Britain and the US, submitted a report in which she noted the Jehovah’s Witnesses were a cut above other religious organisations in Australia.

The doctor, who has listed work with the Catholic archdioceses of Melbourne and Adelaide on her extensive CV, said she had not found examples in Australia of a religious organisation that provided better information than the Witnesses on how to support abuse victims.

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TOWSON (MD)
Patch

By ELIZABETH JANNEY (Patch Staff)
July 31, 2015

The Georgetown rabbi sentenced to more than six years in jail for voyeurism is arguing the sentence is illegal.

Rabbi Barry Freundel admitted he planted recording devices in the changing room for a mikvah, or sacred bath, in Georgetown between 2012 and 2014, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Freundel led Kesher Israel synagogue in Georgetown and taught at Georgetown and Towson universities. Those he recorded on field trips to the National Capital Mikvah allegedly included former students.

After Freundel pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism, he was sentenced in D.C. Superior Court to 45 days for each of the offenses, to be served consecutively. The total sentence is a little less than 6.5 years.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CBS Baltimore

TOWSON, Md. (WJZ) –A judge upholds Rabbi Barry Freundel’s sentence of six and a half years behind bars for videotaping dozens of women as they prepared for a ritual bath.

Rabbi Freundel appeared in a DC federal court Friday for a motion for an illegal sentencing.

Attorneys from Freundel argue that he was wrongly sentenced, which lead to extra prison time.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WUSA

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) — Friday, a judge upheld the sentence of a former Georgetown rabbi convicted of voyeurism.

Barry Freundel secretly videotaped dozens of women while they were disrobing in a ritual bath. He pleaded guilty to 52 counts, one count for each of the victims.

The rabbi appeared in court on Friday to argue that the terms of his six and a half year sentence were illegal. A judge, however, upheld his sentence.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Bolton News

Jeremy Culley, crime reporter

THE disgraced son of a Bolton priest has been ordered to leave his vicarage home after he was convicted of possessing child pornography.

Paul Holt, son of Rev Wendy Oliver, confessed at Bolton Crown Court to an interest in ‘the feet of young children’ before being spared a prison sentence on July 20.

When the case finished, the Diocese of Manchester said it would be looking into the ‘implications’ for the parish at Christ Church, Harwood.

The Diocese has now said it is ‘important’ that Holt does not continue to live at Harwood Vicarage in Stich-mi-Lane with his mother.

In a statement to parishioners, the Diocese added that Mrs Oliver has ‘felt it appropriate to take leave from her duties’.

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NEW YORK
Forward

Frimet GoldbergerJuly 30, 2015

Moshe Menachem Taubenfeld, a prominent figure in the upstate New York Hasidic community of New Square, was acquitted by a judge of molesting a boy for several years.

Taubenfeld, 55, was accused of abusing Laiby Stern, a neighbor, who claimed the older man began an abusive reign of terror when he went to him for solace after the September 11 terror attacks in 2001.

Rockland County Court Judge Rolff Thorsen announced the verdict, which he conceded might be greeted with dismay by the public, to a packed, pin-drop silent courtroom.

“I must not and will not be swayed by public opinion,” he declared.

Hasidic men from New Square who came to support Taubenfeld outnumbered the media and supporters of Laiby Stern. Shortly after the verdict, they erupted in spontaneous celebratory songs outside the courtroom, and said they plan to continue the celebrations in New Sqaure.

“Mazel tov, mazel tov,” one of the men greeted defense attorney Gerard Damiani, handing him the phone to speak with a prominent supporter.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

31 July, 2015

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today released an issues paper on addressing the risk of child sexual abuse in primary and secondary schools.

Royal Commission CEO Philip Reed said that around 30 percent of people who have spoken to the Royal Commission were sexually abused as children in a school. “Non-government schools in particular account for a disproportionately high number of reports made to the Royal Commission. Of the Royal Commission’s 29 public hearings held to date, eight have focused on abuse in schools.

“The Royal Commission’s terms of reference require it to consider ways to ensure that institutions like schools, have effective mechanisms in place and are subject to suitable external scrutiny to respond to child sexual abuse.

“The Royal Commission is seeking submissions on a number of issues about child protection in Australian schools including governance and leadership, effectiveness of teacher training, efficacy of policies and how staff and parents are informed about policies and the need for regulatory frameworks to better protect children and young people.

“The Royal Commission is seeking submissions from interested individuals, schools, government and non government organisations on the matters raised in Issues Paper 9.

“We particularly welcome submissions from advocacy groups, teachers, parents and students with a direct experience of child sexual abuse in schools,” Mr Reed said.

Organisations and individuals wishing to respond to Issues Paper 9 have until Monday 31 August 2015 to lodge a submission by emailing schoolspolicy@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

For more information on Issues Paper 9 or to lodge a submission visit Issues Papers and Submissions.

Media enquiries: (02) 8282 3966 or media@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

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OKLAHOMA
Reveal – The Center for Investigative Reporting

By Trey Bundy / July 30, 2015

Early this morning, Debbie McDaniel stepped out into her backyard to find her patio, windows, doors and furniture tagged with ominous warnings written in black marker.

McDaniel was just hours away from being the face of a Reveal investigation showing how Jehovah’s Witnesses hide sexual abuse from law enforcement agencies and banish those who speak up about it.

On one stretch of concrete, a vandal wrote, “Watchtower Knows All,” a possible reference to the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, the parent corporation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, McDaniel said. Two of the messages included the initials JW’s, which she suspects were meant to stand for Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Also written on the patio: “We’ll be watching you in Mexico too.” McDaniel had planned a trip to Mexico this weekend but is now thinking of canceling it.

“They wrote on my bedroom door window, 6 feet from where I was sleeping, ‘JW’s for the final win,’ ” said McDaniel, who grew up in McAlester, Oklahoma, and says she was abused as a child by an elder in her congregation. Since she was expelled three years ago, she said, she has been shunned by her family and harassed by the Witnesses in the form of anonymous threats and hate letters.

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MINNESOTA
KTTC

By Frannie Smith, Producer

MINNEAPOLIS-ST.PAUL, Minn. (KTTC)– Attorneys for clergy sex abuse victims have been asking for more time to file claims. However, a federal judge puts his foot down for this coming Monday’s deadline.

Attorneys have argued that the August 3rd deadline was not publicized enough. However, Federal Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel dissagrees. He said “extraordinary efforts” have been made for the upcoming deadline.

The Archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January after several clergy abuse lawsuits.

Richard Anderson, attorney for the archdiocese, said this Monday’s deadline is not meant to keep victims from coming forward, but to keep the bankruptcy process moving along.

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FLORIDA
WFTV

[with video]

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A former employee at an Apopka church is facing charges after a child came forward with allegations of abuse that date back a year.

Joseph Averitt, 33, is charged with sexual battery against a mentally challenged child.

The child told investigators the abuse started at church, where Averitt worked as a production manager.

According to a police affidavit, the first sexual encounter happened in a booth inside the sanctuary of the church last year.

That appears to be the same place where it ended, when a church minister called police to the church Wednesday to report the allegations.

In a matter of hours, deputies arrested Averitt.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 31, 2015

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

A sexual abuse expert hired by the Jehovah’s Witness Church told a royal commission the organisation failed to meet acceptable standards in its approach to child abuse allegations.

Under cross-examination, Monica Applewhite told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse the Jehovah’s Witness Church did not meet “best practice” in handling abuse claims.

Counsel assisting the commission Angus Stewart SC asked the church’s expert witness whether structures based on biblical scriptures were in line with benchmark standards.

The church’s policies for responding to child sexual abuse allegations were “deficient when measured against current best practice,” he said.

“Does it meet all current best practices? It probably doesn’t,” Dr Applewhite replied.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

The treatment of child abuse victims by the Jehovah’s Witness church is seriously flawed, a national inquiry has heard from a consultant hired by the church.

Monica Applewhite, a US-based consultant specialising in child abuse risk analysis and education programs for institutions, mostly churches, was employed by Watchtower Australia to evaluate the Witnesses’ policies for the royal commission hearing.

Watchtower Australia is the legal entity of the Jehovah’s Witness church.

Dr Applewhite, who has been an expert witness in abuse trials in Britain and the US, submitted a report in which she noted the Jehovah’s Witnesses were a cut above other religious organisations in Australia.

The doctor, who has listed work with the Catholic archdioceses of Melbourne and Adelaide on her extensive CV, said she had not found examples in Australia of a religious organisation that provided better information than the Witnesses on how to support abuse victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

South African Christian preacher living in Australia faces deportation after being one of eight men charged with abuse of a 13-year-old girl

By Leesa Smith for Daily Mail Australia and Sarah Michael and Australian Associated Press

The South African Christian minister allegedly embroiled in a paedophile ring could be sent back to his homeland under new Australian immigration laws.

Pastor David Volmer, a father-of-two from Banksia Grove in Perth, Western Australia, pleaded guilty to 12 child sex abuse charges. A 13-year-old girl was allegedly sexually exploited by a total of eight men over two years.

Now the 41-year-old South African, who moved to Perth’s northern suburbs to set up an Acts Christian Church parish in 2013, faces being turfed out of the country after the law changed in December last year allowing Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to cancel a non-citizen’s visa if they are found guilty of a child sex crime within Australia,The Australian reported.

This comes as the South African-based church’s only Australian parish will close its doors after the shocking revelation that Volmer is allegedly one of the eight men facing a total of 503 charges for offences that allegedly happened when the girl was aged between 11 and 13, the ABC reported.

Reverend Peter de Fin, whose grandfather founded the church, flew to Perth to speak to the 50-odd members of the parish.

He said he had not been able to meet with the young victim but did want to apologise on behalf of the church and offer her counselling.

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INDIANA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis

The archdiocese released the following statement on July 27 regarding the arrest of Mr. Oscar Vasquez, pastoral associate of St. Anthony Parish in Indianapolis:

“The Archdiocese of Indianapolis has been informed that Mr. Oscar Vasquez, an employee of St. Anthony Parish in Indianapolis, was arrested by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and was charged with child molestation on July 27, 2015. Mr. Vasquez worked at the parish as a pastoral associate. The pastor informed people at all the Masses last weekend at St. Anthony Church about Mr. Vasquez’ arrest, and letters are being mailed to parishioners’ homes in both English and Spanish.

“Mr. Vasquez has worked at St. Anthony Parish since October of 2012. As an employee of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Mr. Vasquez has completed the archdiocese’s child safety program and has undergone regular criminal background checks by the archdiocese. The archdiocese has never had any complaints or allegations made concerning Mr. Vasquez’s conduct at the parish. The archdiocese is cooperating with authorities.

“The Archdiocese of Indianapolis is committed to ensuring the safety of all children in its care and enforcing its policies and practices regarding the safety of children.

“If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual misconduct by a person ministering on behalf of the archdiocese, please contact law enforcement authorities and the archdiocesan victim assistance coordinator, Carla Hill, Archdiocese of Indianapolis, 1400 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46202. You do not have to give your name. Mrs. Hill can also be reached at 317-236-1548 or 800-382-9836, ext. 1548 or by email at chill@archindy.org.

“The Archdiocese also maintains a misconduct reporting system that is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week through EthicsPoint, and reports can be made at www.archdioceseofindianapolis.ethicspoint.com.

More information about the Archdiocese of Indianapolis’ sexual misconduct policy and information about how to report an abuse incident can be found on-line at www.archindy.org/abuse.” †

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INDIANA
Indianapolis Star

Justin L. Mack, justin.mack@Indystar.com

As long as police are investigating accusations of child molestation against St. Anthony’s pastoral associate Oscar Vasquez-Guzman, he will not be paid by or permitted at the church.

If found guilty, he will be terminated immediately, church officials say.

Oscar Vasquez-Guzman, 38, Indianapolis, was charged Tuesday with two counts of child molesting, seven counts of sexual misconduct with a minor and one count of attempted sexual misconduct with a minor.

He is accused of having sexual contact with two boys from the church between Sept. 10, 2013, and July 20, 2015. The boys were ages 11 to 15 at the time.

Vasquez-Guzman, who church officials say began working at St. Anthony Catholic Church in October 2012 after a criminal background check, was placed on unpaid administrative leave July 24 when officials from The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis were notified of his arrest. He was arrested the day before.

The archdiocese said in an email that the church spent weekend Masses on Saturday and Sunday informing parishioners. On Tuesday, the church sent letters explaining the situation to parishioners and to any place where Vasquez-Guzman may have served or volunteered.

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BOSTON (MA)
Yahoo! Movies

[with video]

Gwynne Watkins
Writer
July 30, 2015

In 2002, Boston Globe reporters broke a story that changed the city of Boston — and the entire Catholic church — forever. The Globe’s series of articles on child sexual abuse in the Boston diocese, and the extreme measures taken by the Catholic church to hide priests’ crimes, cracked open a massive scandal with global repercussions. Now, the story of those Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters (the newspaper’s “spotlight” team) is coming to the big screen in the movie Spotlight, starring Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, and Michael Keaton. Watch the first trailer above.

“How do you say no to God?” an abuse victim asks the reporters, explaining how he and many other children saw the priests who took advantage of them. That quote sets up the daunting task that the film’s heroes face in bringing decades of hidden abuse to light. Ruffalo and McAdams play passionate reporters who pound the pavement, spend late nights in the library, and go head-to-head with church officials to get their story. Meanwhile, their editor (played by Keaton) takes on a high-powered lawyer who has settled abuse cases — but mysteriously, has no record of the settlements. “We’ve got two stories here: a story about degenerate clergy and a story about a bunch of lawyers turning child abuse into a cottage industry,” Keaton warns him. “Which story do you want us to write? Because we’re writing one of them.”

Even after getting their assignment, the spotlight team doesn’t realize the extent of the cover-up — until an anonymous tipster reveals that 6 percent of Boston clergy, or 90 priests, have a history of sexually abusing children. “They knew, and they let it happen!” seethes Ruffalo. “It could have been you, it could have been me, it could have been any of us!” Spotlight opens in theaters on Nov. 6.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

ANGRY victims of some of the country’s most notorious paedophiles have slammed a decision by the Royal Commission not to return to Ballarat.

The child abuse Royal Commission controversially announced yesterday that its planned second hearing into institutional abuse in the regional town would now be held in Melbourne.

Cardinal George Pell and former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns are expected to attend the hearings in person.

It is understood some victims are considering lobbying the Royal Commission to forced it to return to Ballarat.

Stephen Woods, who was raped and abused by Br Robert Best, Gerald Ridsdale and Ted Dowlan, said he was stunned by the commission’s decision.

“These hearings should be held in Ballarat, its where all the offending happened,” he said.

“Ballarat needs the healing.”

Both Cardinal Pell and Fr Mulkearns have been accused of playing a part in covering-up sexual abuse in the diocese between the 1970s and 1990s.

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AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Sounak Mukhopadhyay @snksounak on July 31 2015

Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has been given new powers to execute mandatory deportation for David Volmer, a Christian priest who is a part of an eight-man paedophile ring in the country. Volmer, a native of South Africa, pleaded guilty to 12 offences including indecently dealing with a child, stupefying in order to commit an indictable offence and sexual penetration of a child.

The 41-year-old father of two was in Australia on a work visa. According to police, the Christian priest was one of the eight men who allegedly molested and raped a 13-year-old girl several times over the past couple of years. Western Australia Police described the alleged crime as “bizarre and really disturbing.”

The WA Child Protection Department is taking care of the victim. WA Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan said that a number of public had raised concerns about the teenage girl’s well-being.

“It’s important people understand what their children are doing online as well because there are cyber predators out there that will groom children online or even try to meet them,” ABC News quoted O’Callaghan, “This is a terrible case but it is a reminder there are people out there who will prey on our children.” He added that people should be vigilant about their online activities.

The victim’s father allegedly facilitated the abuse as he arranged for the other men to meet his daughter at a number of locations. One of the suspects had four million child pornography photographs and 200,000 videos. Some of the photographs belong to the victim.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By John R. Ellement GLOBE STAFF JULY 30, 2015

A former Catholic priest who was at the center of the sexual abuse crisis in the Boston Archdiocese could remain in custody even though he has completed his prison sentence, as Essex prosecutors push for him to be declared a dangerous sexual predator.

Ronald H. Paquin pleaded guilty in 2002 and received a 12-to-15-year sentence for repeatedly raping a Haverhill altar boy between 1989 and 1992. He completed the sentence for three counts of rape of a child in late May, officials said, but remains in confinement until his status is resolved.

Facing the possibility that Paquin would be released, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office is moving to have the 72-year-old Paquin declared a “sexually dangerous person.” Blodgett filed a petition to keep Paquin locked up in the spring, before his sentence actually ended, the district attorney’s office said.

Such a designation allows for indefinite civil commitment at the Massachusetts Treatment Center at the Bridgewater Correctional Complex, where Paquin is currently being held.

The first step in the complex legal process to keep Paquin locked up begins Friday in Essex Superior Court, where prosecutors will ask a judge to hold him pending a mental health examination.

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OKLAHOMA
KOCO

[with video]

By Patty Santos

SHAWNEE, Okla. —A newly completed Shawnee police report is revealing more information about the accusations a former youth pastor faces.

Brian Burchfield was booked into the Pottowatomie County Jail Wednesday on one count of soliciting and engaging in sexual communications with a minor, and one count of a violation of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act.

Police said he was texting four teens, ages 14 to 17, things that were sexual in nature.

Shawnee police Detective Ethan Rieves said the case was turned quickly, because of the possible contact that Burchfield could have with his victims in the near future.

“He freely admitted that he knew he was crossing the lines, he tried several times to quit and it kept continuing,” Rieves said. “It was hard for him to get out of that mindset of talking in that nature.”

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OKLAHOMA
News 9

BY JOLEEN CHANEY, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY – New details are emerging surrounding the arrest of a metro pastor. Brian Burchfield is accused of soliciting sexual conduct with minors who were members at his former church, and detectives say he admitted to most of the allegations against him.
The now former pastor was arrested Wednesday, after a mother of one of the victims discovered inappropriate texts on her son’s phone. There are a total of four victims who are all teen boys ranging from 14 to 17 years old.

For about eight years, Burchfield was the youth minister at the Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee. About a year ago, he left and took a new position in Oklahoma City at the Quail Springs Baptist Church. But court documents state he was still communicating with teen boys from the Shawnee youth group, and it was sexual in nature.

“There was some instants where they had some times together as a group with specific boys out of that group,” Shawnee Police Sgt. Ethan Rieves said. “There were some questionable things that went on.”

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
31 JUL 2015

A royal commission will continue to hear from senior officials of the Jehovah’s Witness Church when it resumes its investigation into child sex abuse allegations.

In the witness stand on day four of the hearing will be church officials who interviewed a respected member of the Mareeba congregation in Queensland, who was accused by his daughter of abusing her and her three sisters.

The man, known by the pseudonym BCH, was stood down by the church but later reinstated. He was eventually jailed in 2004 after his second eldest daughter went to police.

Evidence to date at the commission has been that church elders did not think his crimes were proven under their laws when an internal judicial inquiry was held even though BCH admitted molesting his daughters. He was stood down for adultery.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

July 31, 2015

Steve Lillebuen

One of Australia’s top private schools has been hit with further legal action over alleged sexual abuse.

Melbourne’s Scotch College, which has already settled five historical abuse cases, is now facing two more claims of sexual abuse on school grounds and expects even more to be filed in the coming months.

The new abuse claims, which involve allegations dating back at least 20 years, come after the school reached out to survivors of childhood abuse in May and encouraged them to come

In a letter to the school community, principal Tom Batty said the school’s handling of historical abuse remained an ongoing process that will continue to act in the best interests of abuse survivors.

“Scotch has received two further legal claims and expects further legal claims to be presented and dealt with,” he wrote in the letter on Thursday night.

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MINNESOTA
Wall Street Journal

By TOM CORRIGAN

A Minneapolis bankruptcy judge criticized legal fees and other expenses that have accrued over the course of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’s bankruptcy case.

Though he ultimately approved the bill, Judge Robert Kressel of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minneapolis said Thursday he was “stunned” and “frankly a little angry” over the legal fees and other expenses, which court papers show were approaching $1.8 million as of May 31. That includes the archdiocese’s professionals and those hired by a victims group, whose fees the archdiocese is obligated to cover.

“Airlines were reorganized for a fraction of this,” he said.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January and has since been working to reach a settlement with alleged clergy sexual abuse victims, its parishes and its insurance carriers.

Lawyers working on the case have to share the same limited pool of funds that the archdiocese’s creditors—primarily, the abuse victims—are counting on for compensation.

Charlie Rogers, a lawyer with Briggs and Morgan who represents the archdiocese, said the firm’s average billing for the case was $300 an hour, which he said is standard for the area.

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OKLAHOMA
Reveal News – The Center for Investigative Reporting

By Trey Bundy / July 30, 2015

McALESTER, Okla. – In the summer of 2012, the elders in Debbie McDaniel’s congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses expelled her for having a sexual relationship with a woman. They announced her punishment to the congregation and notified the organization’s headquarters in New York. The consequences were clear: She would be shunned by the Witnesses – including her mother, father, sister and brother – and lose her chance at eternal life.

Jehovah’s Witnesses call their version of excommunication disfellowshipping, a punishment by shunning to rid the faithful of bad associations with those who break the laws of God. Once they’re expelled, the disfellowshipped cannot have any contact with Witnesses, even polite acknowledgment on the street, until they have proved their repentance and willingness to return obediently to the organization. In some cases, they’re shunned for the rest of their lives.

The disfellowshipping in 2012 was the second time that McDaniel, now 46, had been shunned by the Witnesses in her small hometown of McAlester in southeastern Oklahoma. When she was 18, elders responded to rumors that she had become sexually active by summoning her to confess the details of her sexual history. The meeting was a spiritual tribunal presided over by three elders with the power to expel sinners they deem unrepentant.

“They ask very, very personal, embarrassing questions,” McDaniel said. “Not just did you have sex with this person, but did you have an orgasm? Did you enjoy it? Where did he touch you? Where did you touch him?”

In the months leading up to that 1987 hearing, McDaniel said, the congregation’s top elder, Ronald Lawrence, had staked out her apartment and questioned her about rumors that she was promiscuous.

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NEW YORK
News 12

NEW CITY – A well-known rabbi from Rockland has been found not guilty of sexual abuse.

Rabbi Moshe Taubenfeld, 55, had been accused of molesting a young boy who needed counseling after the 9/11 attacks. Taubenfeld’s accuser says he was abused from ages 8 through 13.

Rockland County Court Judge Rolff Thorsen announced the verdict after a non-jury trial.

Taubenfeld did not take the witness stand in his own defense.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

A Rockland judge on Thursday found New Square rabbi Moshe Taubenfeld not guilty of allegations he sexually abused a boy over a five-year period.

Taubenfeld, 55, also known as Mendel Zarkowsky, was charged with second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, a felony.

As he left the courtroom, his supporters started singing and dancing until court officers told them to be more composed. They said they planned to host a big celebration in New Square.

His lawyer, Gerard Damiani, said “Mr. Taubenfeld is very happy it is over with. He always denied he ever abused (the boy) or anyone.”

He said Taubenfeld had taught over 200 students over the course of his career and not one of them has ever suggested he did anything inappropriate.

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NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jul. 30, 2015

NEWARK, N.J.
In a test of Pope Francis’ pledge that bishops will be held accountable, an advocacy group for survivors of clergy sexual abuse has formally petitioned the Vatican to investigate Newark, N.J., Archbishop John Myers for possible abuse of his episcopal office.

If found complicit, the group is requesting that Myers be removed from his post and blocked from his controversial retirement home.

The Catholic Whistleblowers sent their case Tuesday to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the U.S., with instructions to forward it to the Congregation of Bishops in Rome. The group alleges that since his appointment in 1987 as coadjutor to the Peoria, Ill., diocese, Myers has mishandled abuse allegations — including former Newark priest Michael Fugee — and has shown a pattern of harsh treatment toward victims and their advocates.

“Myers did everything to protect priests, and virtually nothing to protect the innocent, the kids, the victims,” said Robert Hoatson, a member of Catholic Whistleblowers and former priest of the Newark archdiocese whose 2003 co-founding of Road to Recovery put him at odds with Myers.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By ERIC.KIEFER (Patch Staff)
July 30, 2015

A Livingston-based advocacy group is calling for a Vatican investigation into the oversight practices of Newark Archbishop John Myers.

Catholic Whistleblowers – a group of priests and nuns who advocate for victims of sexual abuse – is alleging that Myers has been “persistently hostile” toward people who come forward with abuse allegations, the Associated Press reported.

In addition, the group is alleging that Myers has left guilty priests in parishes in the Newark archdiocese and in Peoria, Illinois, where he previously served as bishop.

Myers has refuted the group’s accusations.

“Myers’ spokesman says the archbishop has aggressively confronted abusers and has removed 19 priests from church work in the Newark archdiocese alone,” the AP reported.

The group’s steering committee include West Orange resident Robert M. Hoatson, a former Catholic school teacher who led a whistleblowing campaign against the Archdiocese of Newark in 2013.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Broken Rites is not expecting much out of the highly-anticipated appearance of Cardinal George Pell and a former bishop at the child abuse inquiry.

Source: AAP

The greatest impact of the child abuse royal commission will be in prosecuting more offenders, an advocate for victims of pedophile priests says.

Cardinal George Pell and a bishop who knew about clergy sexually abusing children in Victoria’s Ballarat diocese will front the commission’s public hearing later this year.

It is what victims wanted but advocacy group Broken Rites founder Chris Wilding is sceptical Cardinal Pell will shed any further light on widespread abuse over decades in the Victorian diocese.

She also doubts former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns will reveal the full extent of what he knew, despite the commission hearing that he presided over pedophile priests being moved between parishes.

“I had great hopes for the royal commission that we would at last get some shred of truth,” she told AAP.

“But I just don’t see it happening.”

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Dave Aeikens and Tom Durian

A federal judge has denied a request to extend a deadline that allows people to file abuse claims against the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis until Aug. 3.

The victims’ lawyers wanted the deadline moved to May 2016 to match state law, which says parishes can still be sued until May. Attorney Rob Kugler said the notices sent by parishes about the deadline were “lukewarm and clouded.”

The judge ruled that notice was “extensive and sufficient.”

Lawyers for the parish committees said the request for a delay is “an attempt to have more time to persuade people to file claims.”

The case is tied to the archdiocese’s bankruptcy claim. Therefore the proceedings will follow federal bankruptcy law. More than 230 cases of priest abuse have been filed against the archdiocese and its 187 parishes.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A judge has announced that the Los Feliz convent that Katy Perry claims she bought from the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese may not belong to the pop superstar.

A ruling in court Thursday found that neither the singer nor restaurant magnate Dana Hollister can lay claim to the multimillion-dollar property until the matter is investigated further.

The judge said he’ll evaluate whether Perry’s deal with the archdiocese holds firm, saying that his initial findings deem it “clearly invalid.”

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has been in talks with pop superstar Katy Perry, who has agreed to pay the archdiocese $10 million in cash and alternative property for House of Prayer valued at $4.5 million.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran, Martin Moylan Jul 30, 2015

A federal judge on Thursday rejected abuse victims’ request to extend a deadline for bankruptcy court claims against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The deadline remains Monday.

The creditors committee in the archdiocese bankruptcy case, composed entirely of clergy sex abuse victims, had wanted Judge Robert Kressel to push the deadline back to May 2016, contending that the archdiocese had provided inadequate notice of the Aug. 3 deadline and that victims might need more time to file.

The panel also argued that pushing back the deadline would expedite a settlement and provide more insurance money for abuse victims.

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OKLAHOMA
Shawnee News-Star

A former Shawnee youth pastor was booked into the Pottawatomie County jail Wednesday on complaints involving sex crimes.

Jail records at the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center show Brian Burchfield, 42, is being held on complaints of soliciting sexual conduct with a minor by use of technology and violation of computer crimes act.

Formal charges have not been filed.

His online Linked in page shows he is a young adult pastor at Quail Springs Baptist Church and he was previously a pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee.

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OKLAHOMA
Shawnee News-Star

By Kim Morava

Posted Jul. 30, 2015

A former Shawnee youth pastor was arrested and booked into jail Wednesday on complaints involving sex crimes.

Jail records at the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center show Brian K. Burchfield, 42, is being held on complaints of soliciting sexual conduct with a minor by use of technology and violation of computer crimes act.

Formal charges have not been filed.

Burchfield’s online LinkedIn page shows he is a young adult pastor at Quail Springs Baptist Church in Edmond and that he was previously a youth pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee.

He was reported to be with Immanuel Baptist Church from June 2006 to April 2014.

The Shawnee church posted a statement on its website late Wednesday night.

“We are very saddened to hear of the allegations regarding Brian Burchfield, a former minister at our church,” it reads.

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OKLAHOMA
KFOR

JULY 30, 2015, BY ABBY BROYLES

SHAWNEE, Okla. — A former youth pastor was arraigned in Pottawatomie County on Thursday morning after being accused of sex crimes.

Authorities say Brian Burchfield is accused of soliciting and engaging in sexual communications with four teenage boys, which is a violation of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act.

Police say Burchfield was the boys’ youth pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee.

Court documents show the senior pastor and associate pastor at Immanuel Baptist met with police and told them about the alleged inappropriate conversations between Burchfield and the teens.

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OKLAHOMA
9 News

BY RACHEL CALDERON, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY – A man who spent his career ministering to young people now sits behind bars, accused of sex crimes.

At the time authorities arrested Brian Burchfield, 42, he was the Young Adult Pastor at Quail Springs Baptist Church. Samantha Decker, Director of Communications at Quail Springs Baptist Church told News 9, “Brian has been relieved of his duties at our church.”

The married, father of four was brought into the Shawnee Police department on Wednesday and was questioned by officers. He was booked into the Pottawatomie County jail around 3 p.m.. He is accused of soliciting sexual conduct with a minor by use of technology and for violating the Computer Crimes Act.

According to Burchfield’s LinkedIn account he served as a pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee and ministered there for almost eight years, before becoming Young Adult Pastor for Quail Springs Baptist Church in 2014.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune JULY 30, 2015

Victims of clergy sex abuse in the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese must file their claims by Aug. 3, U.S. bankruptcy judge Robert Kressel reaffirmed Thursday.

The Aug. 3 deadline was challenged in federal bankruptcy court in Minneapolis Thursday by victims’ attorneys, who asked the court to honor a May 2016 deadline, the same filing cutoff for all other abuse victims in Minnesota.

But Judge Robert Kressel reaffirmed his April decision, designed to expedite the archdiocese’s reorganization plan.

The victims’ committee had argued that the rights of victims to be notified of the changed date, and their ability to seek compensation, were harmed by the Aug. 3 date. They said the archdiocese hadn’t fully complied with orders to publicize the filing date and that the early deadline would not speed up financial reorganization.

The archdiocese insisted it had meet the court’s publicity plan, and that a later deadline would increase “professional fees” and impair its ability to raise funds from the faithful.

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ITALIA
Repubblica

[Don Massimo Iuculano has been suspended by the bishop after being accused of abusing three boys.

di FLORIANA RULLO

E’ ai domiciliari in una comunità religiosa don Massimo Iuculano, il sacerdote vercellese accusato di aver abusato di tre ragazzi che frequentavano la scuola dell’oratorio in cui era parroco. ”Siamo soddisfatti – spiega il legale del parroco Carlo Blengino -. La decisione è stata presa oggi dopo l’istanza da noi presentata. Sono cadute tutte le ragioni per cui dovesse stare in carcere”.

A raccontare degli abusi sono stati gli stessi ragazzi, quattordicenni e diciassettenni che frequentavano l’istituto Don Bosco di Vercelli. Proprio in quell’istituto, dedicato al sacerdote che aveva a cuore i ragazzi, il prete abusava di loro e della loro adolescenza.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Moviebreak

Seit seinem großen Erfolg mit der Hauptrolle in “Birdman” ist Michael Keaton wieder gefragt in Hollywood. Mit “Spotlight” kommt nun, mal abgesehen von den “Minions”, in denen er Walter Nelson seine Stimme verlieh, der erste Film seit “Birdman” mit Keaton in einer der Hauptrollen in die Kinos. Neben ihm werden eine Reihe bekannter Gesichter auf der Leinwand zu sehen sein, denn der Cast lässt nicht zu wünschen übrig: Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci, John Slattery, Billy Crudup und Brian d´Arcy James. Regie führte Tom McCarthy (“Ein Sommer in New York – The Visitor”, “Win Win”), der hauptsächlich als Schauspieler bekannt ist, aber in letzter Zeit auch auf dem Regiestuhl sein Talent beweisen konnte.

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AUSTRALIEN
Sueddeutsche

Missbrauchsskandal bei den Zeugen Jehovas

Die Zeugen Jehovas in Australien haben offenbar Kindesmissbrauch von mehr als 1000 Tätern jahrzehntelang vertuscht.

Die Fälle liegen weit zurück, sie haben sich teilweise in den Fünfzigerjahren ereignet. Allerdings gab es darüber Aufzeichungen und protokollierte Zeugenaussagen. Zur Rechenschaft gezogen wurden die Täter dennoch nicht.

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