ABUSE TRACKER

ROM
Die Presse

[Fathers and nuns from Italian religious embezzling funds on a large scale and their hospitals almost driven into bankruptcy. Entangled is also a Cardinal.]

Patres und Nonnen aus italienischen Orden haben im großen Stil Mittel veruntreut und ihre Krankenhäuser fast in den Ruin getrieben. Verwickelt ist auch ein Kardinal: Warum hat er dem Papst 30 Millionen Euro verheimlicht?

27.06.2015 | 18:57 | Paul Kreiner aus Rom (Die Presse)

Es braucht schon einen speziellen geistlichen Humor, um eine Klinik für Hautkrankheiten nach der Unbefleckten Jungfrau Maria zu benennen. Söhne der Immacolata nennt sich auch der Orden, der die fachlich hoch renommierten IDI-Spitäler in Rom seit mehr als einem Jahrhundert betreibt. Doch unbefleckt stehen die Brüder von heute nicht da. Ganz im Gegenteil: Die Oberen sind mit der Kasse durchgebrannt. Der Chef, Pater Franco Decaminada, hat sich ein Luxuslandhaus in der Toskana gekauft. Dazu kamen etliche nicht ganz billige Autos, Bargeldabhebungen von 82 Mio. Euro und verschwiegene Konten in Panama, in Liechtenstein und der Isle of Man.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on July 5, 2015

One of my closest friends once told me, “When you really think about it, bullying is just low-level sexual abuse.” That thought stuck with me.

What also stuck with me is how prevention of bullying is similar to the prevention of child sexual abuse. It requires good communication, strong self-esteem, and engaged parents who understand the depth of the problem.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Gabrielle Knowles
July 6, 2015

Children as young as four and their parents will be educated about sex abuse and prevention in what is believed to be a world-first under a major program being launched by the Perth Archdiocese of the Catholic Church.

Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said the Safeguarding Project would have at least two trained “safeguarding” officers in all 105 Perth parishes to run programs for families and be a point of contact for people with concerns.

Police Sen. Sgt Andrea Musulin, who is co-ordinating the project and training the volunteers, clergy and other church personnel, said it was crucial children were taught and empowered to protect themselves and to speak up.

“If a child has no age appropriate and developmentally appropriate knowledge of sex … then they have no knowledge to draw from with which to resist and thereby prevent an offence,” she said.

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MINNESOTA
Dairyland Peach

July 5, 2015

Minnesota has experienced a horrific parade of violence against children in recent years. Just last week, we learned of the death of Sophia O’Neill, age 2, of Minneapolis, stomped to death allegedly by her mother’s boyfriend, age 17.

The disappearance of Barway Collins, of Crystal in March captivated the state until his body was found and his father was charged with his murder.

The murder of Pope County’s Eric Dean, age 4, after 15 reports to the county of possible abuse went unaddressed, caused the Legislature to act.

And coming out in a trickle have been years of pedophile attacks by Roman Catholic priests, of which 179 in Minnesota alone have been accused.

It is easy to become angry at the accused and the convicted, to send them to prison and pretend that we have accomplished something. However, we have a major public health issue confronting us, and are nowhere close to solving it. The reported crimes are just the tip of the iceberg. …

n the wake of Eric Dean’s death, Gov. Mark Dayton formed a task force to review the state’s child protection efforts. It returned with 93 recommendations.

The Legislature responded by enacting several changes:

• Law enforcement must now review every report of alleged child abuse, even if the report was received initially by social services.

• A provision that kept child protection teams from looking at previously screened out reports was repealed.

• The priority for action was changed from keeping a family together to putting the safety of the child foremost.

• An additional $52 million was appropriated, most of which will go directly to hire more child protection workers. Currently, the caselo

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SOUTH AMERICA
The New York Times

Pope Francis’ Visit to Latin America Will Test His Ability to Keep Catholics in the Fold

By WILLIAM NEUMAN
JULY 4, 2015

QUITO, Ecuador — Pope Francis has turned heads with bold stands on climate change and income inequality. He helped broker a historic thaw between the United States and Cuba. He has shaken up the stodgy brand of the Roman Catholic Church.

But for all his forays into international diplomacy and deftness at image-making, his trip to South America, which begins Sunday, will test his skills in what could be a much more difficult task: putting parishioners in pews and keeping them there.

When Francis was named pope in March 2013, becoming the first pontiff from Latin America, he was hailed by many as the kind of figure long needed by the Catholic Church to appeal to its vast base in poorer countries. …

The church has also been hurt by revelations of sexual abuse of children by priests. Francis has spoken out strongly on the topic, and he recently approved the creation of a tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up or ignoring cases of sexual abuse. But in Chile, he has been fiercely criticized for naming as bishop a priest who was closely associated with a cleric at the center of a notorious sexual abuse scandal.

Although the countries that Francis will visit share in these regional trends, they have generally seen a more limited shift away from the Catholic Church, according to the Pew survey.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 1 July 2015

Former Catholic priest John Joseph Farrell appeared in Sydney’s Central Local Court on 30 June 2015, charged with 26 sexual offences which were allegedly committed against five boys between 1981 and 1984 in northern New South Wales. According to court documents, some of these 26 offences allegedly occurred while Father Farrell was based at the Moree parish (within the Armidale Catholic diocese); and some allegedly occurred when Father Farrell visited a parish at Tweed Heads (in the Lismore diocese) on the NSW north coast. This court case is confined to these five children (and these 26 charges) and it does not include any charges which Farrell might face regarding any other children.

Father John Joseph Farrell worked as a Catholic priest in the 1980s and the early 1990s. He later lived at a private address in the town of Armidale until late 2012. More recently, he has been living in the Harden area (between Young and Yass) in southern NSW.

In late June 2015 John Joseph Farrell was arrested at Harden by a Sydney-based specialist team of detectives from the Sex Crime Squad of the NSW Police. Police charged him with the 26 alleged offences, with no police bail. On June 25, he was taken in custody to a local court (at Wagga in southern NSW) to enable these 26 charges to be officially filed. Farrell entered the courtroom with two Corrective Services officers. Two specialist detectives were present in court.

In the June 25 hearing, Farrell’s lawyer applied for a media-suppression order which would prevent Farrell’s name from being published. He said that Farrell could be placed in danger if his identity were made public. He said the type of charges laid against Farrell generated vilification and outrage in the community.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 2 July 2015)

Many years ago, Broken Rites began researching “Brother Gabriel Mount”, who had worked in Catholic children’s homes conducted by the St John of God Brothers in New South Wales and Victoria. We discovered that he eventually became a priest (“Father Roger Mount”), working in Papua New Guinea. In October 2014 he was brought back to Australia, where Victorian police charged him with multiple child-sex offences allegedly committed within Victoria. He is in custody in Victoria, where a magistrate has committed Mount to face a trial (due to begin on 3 July 2015). New South Wales police, also, are investigating Father Mount concerning incidents that are alleged to have occurred in NSW.

Broken Rites research ascertained that, early in his church career (in the 1960s and 1970s), Roger Mount was listed in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory as Brother “Gabriel” Mount, a member of a Catholic religious order called the St John of God Brothers. (When men joined this religious order, they normally adopted an ancient “saintly” name – hence Brother “Gabriel”.)

Later, Brother “Gabriel” Mount transferred to Papua New Guinea, where he left the St John of God order and became a diocesan priest. He reverted to his birth name, becoming Father Roger Mount, and was attached to the Diocese of Port Moresby. He reached a senior rank in this diocese. His most recent parish, Sogeri, is on the southern end of PNG’s famous Kokoda Track.

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IRELAND
Sunday World

By Steven Moore

Paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth paid off one of his child sex abuse victims with cash he made from selling mass cards, we can reveal.

The Sunday World has learned that the notorious paedo cleric made a $20,000 money transfer to a victim he had abused in Langdon, North Dakota.

The money was paid to a 12-year-old boy who had been raped by Smyth during his time in the United States – where he was sent by the Catholic Church following abuse allegations in Ireland.

And Smyth, who abused hundreds of children over a 40-year period, is believed to have used cash he ‘earned’ from a lucrative mass card operation he ran.

Evil Smyth fooled parishioners into buying his specially signed cards – which would cost five punts at the time – by claiming the money was going to missions.

“It’s more evidence of just how low Brendan Smyth could stoop,” said a source.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Maeve Sheehan
PUBLISHED
05/07/2015

RTE could be facing further legal bills from the Mission to Prey programme that has already clocked up an estimated bill of €2m in costs, fees and fines for the state broadcaster.

The broadcaster settled a legal action last week taken by former Archbishop of Benin, Richard Burke, who claimed he was defamed in the Prime Time documentary at a cost of €338,000.

While RTE did not pay him damages, the Sunday Independent has learnt that the broadcaster has agreed to pay €275,000 towards Richard Burke’s legal fees, plus €53,000 in VAT. RTE had said it made a “contribution” to his costs, but Mr Burke’s lawyer said his client had “no exposure” to costs.

It was the second settlement arising from the Prime Time Mission to Prey programme, broadcast in 2011. Fr Kevin Reynolds had already received a confidential settlement – rumoured to be more than €1m between damages and legal fees – when he sued over false accusations that he raped a Kenyan teenager and fathered her child.

A third cleric, Bishop Philip Sulumeti, from Kenya, also instigated legal action against the broadcaster, claiming that he too was defamed in the programme. Robert Dore, the solicitor who acted for Fr Kevin Reynolds and for the former Archbishop Burke, is also representing Bishop Sulumeti.

Bishop Sulumeti has claimed that his inclusion in the Mission to Prey programme damaged his good name and his reputation. He was depicted as defending Fr Reynolds, whom RTE had wrongly accused of rape.

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AUSTRALIA
Stuff

BRIAN HOUSTON

“It’s not about you – it’s about your father.” These words introduced me to a nightmare that would change my life. I was 45 years old and what developed after that sentence was a product of someone else’s past that would frame so much of my future.

It was October 1999, and I was senior pastor of Hillsong Church, which my wife Bobbie and I had started from scratch in 1983 in a humble warehouse in northwest Sydney. From that beginning it had grown to a weekly attendance of thousands, and that year we’d been asked to take over the Sydney Christian Life Centre that my parents had founded in 1977 after we emigrated from New Zealand. I was also national president of Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal church umbrella organisation overseeing more than 1100 churches.

On that spring day the general manager of Hillsong, George Aghajanian, with whom I’ve worked for many years, sat across from me in our weekly meeting. We moved through the agenda quickly; I thought we might wrap up early, so I could get in a quick jog. But then George looked at me and said, “There’s just one more thing, Brian.” He hesitated, and I sensed he had something important to tell me; the look in his eyes suggested it was not going to be good news.

“It’s not about you,” he said. “It’s about your father.” My heart pounded, and it felt as if all the blood drained from my face. George told me of a phone call to our office: the caller said he’d recently been ministering at a local church where a lady confided in him a secret she’d carried for years: “Frank Houston sexually abused my son.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By MARTIN BECKFORD FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 4 July 2015

The scandal-hit inquiry into child abuse has already cost taxpayers more than £1.2 million – before it has questioned a single witness.

In the year since it was set up by David Cameron to examine claims of VIP paedophile rings and Establishment cover-ups, the inquiry has been mired in controversy.

The first two chairmen were forced to quit and an expert panel was scrapped amid infighting. There have been no public hearings, only a handful of meetings have been held with victims, and officials have only just got around to warning Whitehall not to destroy incriminating evidence.

But as Justice Lowell Goddard, the New Zealand judge drafted in to get a grip on the troubled investigation, prepares to officially launch its work with a public statement this week, The Mail on Sunday can reveal the staggering costs incurred in its first nine months – equivalent to almost £5,000 a day.

Among the costs is the £177,000 paid to a human-rights barrister who has effectively been running the inquiry behind the scenes.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said last night: ‘These are quite large figures for an inquiry launched a year ago which has not yet taken any formal evidence. The committee will monitor developments and progress and has every confidence in Judge Goddard’s ability to progress matters.

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IRELAND
The Sunday Times

Justine McCarthy
Published: 5 July 2015

RTE’S Mission to Prey programme has now cost the state-owned broadcaster more than €1.5m in libel damages, legal costs, and penalties.

The bill does not include payments to the station’s own lawyers, witness expenses, or costs incurred by four separate inquiries resulting from the programme broadcast in 2011.

Last Thursday, the broadcaster settled a second High Court defamation case arising from the Prime Time Investigates programme at a cost of €338,000, including VAT.

The libel suit was taken by Richard Burke, a former Catholic archbishop from Co Tipperary, who claimed he was wrongly depicted as a child sex abuser in the programme.

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MINNESOTA
Post-Bulletin

Posted: Saturday, July 4, 2015

Al Depman, letter@postbulltin.com

Three emotions pass through me as I read the ongoing coverage of the leadership collapse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: sadness, revulsion and hopefulness.

Sadness because my upbringing, education and philosophical underpinnings are all Catholic. Catholic grade school, high school and the University of Notre Dame provided 16 consecutive years of Catholic influence, leaving me with a sense that the priesthood was my calling. The church was steeped in tradition, art, history and had a global infrastructure that I found a neat complement to the United Nations. The daily Latin mass was a mysterious ritual, especially to this curious altar boy. I still have my Mass card and can by rote respond to the priest’s cues.

So I decided to enter the seminary. However, at 18, I fell in love with a young lady and realized I couldn’t combine marriage and priesthood. I marveled at the time how disciplined and special those called to the priesthood must be to stay single and chaste.

Shortly thereafter, this image collapsed.

Revulsion courses through me as I re-read the lawsuits my two younger brothers filed against the Diocese of Camden, NJ,, in 1994 as part of a group of 18 plaintiffs alleging they were sexually abused by priests from 1967 through 1970 and contending the church tolerated such conduct for decades and conspired to cover it up.

Re-reading the painful, graphic testimony and remembering how the parish priests ingratiated themselves with our family, sharing dinners, parties and trips fills me with pain. The priests used their holy positions as leverage to seduce my parents into completely trusting them and simultaneously sexually seducing my brothers. Their lawsuit was dismissed in 2002 because it exceeded the statute of limitations and the Superior Court judge wouldn’t issue an exception.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Henrietta Cook, Timna Jacks

Police are being called to Victorian schools three times a week to investigate sex offences that are often perpetrated by children.

The revelation comes amid reports of a surge in the number children sexually abusing other children in the wider community that has been linked by treatment services to family violence and pornography.

New data from the Crime Statistics Agency data shows 170 sexual offences were committed in Victorian state, independent and Catholic school grounds last year, including 41 during school hours.

With around 80 per cent of offenders 18-years-old or under, experts say schools are struggling with the controversial issue.

Angela Sdrinis, who runs a law firm that specialises in institutional abuse, said she was receiving more reports of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Saturday 4 July 2015

The chair of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse is worried there will not be enough time for all victims to tell their story, despite a two-year extension to the inquiry.

Justice Peter McClellan says the royal commission has already held more than 3,600 private sessions since it began in April 2013.

Informal private sessions are held in conjunction with public hearings.

The sessions allow abuse victims to speak directly with the inquiry’s commissioners.

McClellan expects 7,000 private sessions will be held by the time the royal commission is completed in December 2017.

The inquiry’s original term was extended by two years in 2014 after it warned it needed more time and money.

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VATICAN CITY
News 24

2015-07-04 13:09

Vatican City – The Roman Catholic Church should not have “leaders for life” in its ranks, otherwise it would risk being like a country under dictatorship, Pope Francis said on Friday.

Francis, 78, has said before that he would be ready to resign instead of ruling for life if he felt he could not continue running the 1.2 billion-member Church for health or other reasons.

“Let’s be clear. The only one who cannot be substituted in the Church is the Holy Spirit,” the Argentinian-born pontiff said in an address to some 30 000 people at an inter-denominational rally of Christians in St. Peter’s Square.

“There should be a time limit to positions (in the Church), which in reality are positions of service,” he said in an address that was in part prepared and in part extemporaneous.

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ARGENTINA
El Liberal

[Mons Puiggari. “In the Church there is no place for pedophiles.”]

Publicado el 04/07/2015 – El arzobispo de Paraná, monseñor Juan Alberto Puiggari, aseguró que “en la Iglesia no hay lugar para pedófilos” tras el escándalo mediático generado en torno al juicio que se sigue al sacerdote Justo José Ilarraz por presunto abuso sexual y las recientes acusaciones dirigidas a otro presbítero por presunta corrupción de menores.

Monseñor Puiggari sentenció que en la Iglesia local “no hay lugar para pedófilos” y “lo que más se quiere es defender la verdad”.

El prelado explicó por qué la jueza Paola Firpo lo visitó en la curia local. La magistrada quería confirmar si una carta escrita a máquina en 1993, acompañada de su firma y dirigida al cura Ilarraz, era verdaderamente suya. “La jueza vino, me mostró la carta y le confirmé que sí. Y gracias a Dios, esa carta de comienzos de marzo de aquel año coincide con lo que venimos diciendo desde la Iglesia”, dijo el arzobispo, que por esos años estaba a cargo del seminario local.

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ARGENTINA
Tucuma Noticias

[The Bishop of Parana acknowledged a letter he sent to Ilarraz in March 1993.]

Una comitiva encabezada por la titular del Juzgado de Transición N° 2, Paola Firpo, concurrió en la tarde de ayer a la sede del Arzobispado de Paraná para cumplir con una nueva medida probatoria en el marco de la causa que enfrenta el cura Justo José Ilarraz por presuntos abusos sexuales contra pupilos que cursaban sus estudios en el Seminario Arquidiocesano, donde el exprefecto de disciplina tenía un importante rol dentro de la comunidad educativa.

La visita al corazón de la curia paranaense tuvo como objetivo que el arzobispo Juan Alberto Puiggari -prefecto mayor del Seminario cuando ocurrieron los hechos- reconozca una carta que le envió a Ilarraz el 17 de marzo de 1993.

El prelado atendió a la magistrada en un despacho lindero a la librería San Francisco Javier: allí se le exhibió la correspondencia, de color amarillento, la cual denotaba el paso del tiempo. Si bien Puiggari no recordaba la carta ni su contenido, reconoció que estaba firmada de su puño y letra.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Publik-Forum

[A priest from the diocese of Aachen was convicted in February for sexual abuse and given six years imprisonment. The abuse was uncovered only because courageous parents raised the alarm from the German community in Johannesburg, South Africa. To date, they are waiting for an apology from the German Bishops’ Conference.]

Ein Pfarrer aus dem Bistum Aachen ist im Februar wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs zu sechs Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Aufgedeckt werden konnten die Taten nur, weil couragierte Eltern aus der deutschen Gemeinde im südafrikanischen Johannesburg Alarm geschlagen hatten. Sie beschuldigten den Pfarrer, sich mit Jungen ins Bett gelegt zu haben. Bis heute warten sie auf eine Entschuldigung der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz

»Wir haben verstanden.« Dieses Signal sendeten die katholischen Bischöfe aus, als sie im Laufe des Jahres 2010 mit zahlreichen Missbrauchsfällen durch katholische Geistliche konfrontiert waren. Keine Toleranz mehr gegenüber Tätern, keine Vertuschung von Missbrauchsfällen und Hilfen für Überlebende sexueller Gewalt wurden versprochen. Aber wenn es um die Anerkenntnis von Schuld und Verantwortung in konkreten Fällen geht, tun sich die katholischen Hierarchen nach wie vor schwer – und das selbst in der Zentrale der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz.

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OREGON
Oregon Catalyst

Salem, OR – A bill that would refer the issue of eliminating the statute of limitations for rape to the 2016 general election ballot was introduced in the Oregon Senate Thursday by Senator Tim Knopp (R-Bend) and Representative Jodi Hack (R-Salem).

Senate Bill 973 would allow for prosecution of first degree sex crimes to be commenced at any time instead of being restricted by the statute of limitations. Proponents of the measure believe this would give sexual abuse victims a greater opportunity for justice since many sexual abuse victims go years before telling others what happened.

The bill comes after an earlier piece of legislation was passed this legislative session extending the statute of limitations for first degree sex crimes from six to twelve years. Although the bill, HB 2317 A, received unanimous support from both legislative houses, many legislators still believe the bill did not go far enough.

“While extending the statute of limitations for sexual abuse crimes to twelve years is better than what we currently have, the original hope for [HB 2317] was a 20 year statute of limitations,” said Knopp. “I decided to introduce SB 973 now because I believe victims of rape and sexual abuse deserve every opportunity for justice.”

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IRELAND
The Argus

Anne Campbell
PUBLISHED
04/07/2015

A Dundalk man abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth says the former cardinal’s latest apology to victims is ‘weak and feeble’ and barriers are still being put up against victims by the Catholic Church.

Brendan Boland, from Marian Park, was a victim of Ireland’s most notorious child abuser but bravely spoke out about what happened to him in the early 1970s. However, the then Father Sean Brady was one of the clerics involved in swearing Mr Boland, and another teen, to silence when the victims gave evidence to an investigative panel of priests at the Friary in 1975. Smyth continued to abuse children until he was jailed in 1994.

On Thursday last, the former All-Ireland primate Sean Brady told the North’s Historical Abuse Inquiry that ‘there was a shroud of secrecy and confidentiality with a view not to destroying the good name of the church’ and Smyth had committed ‘unspeakable’ crimes.

The Cardinal said: ‘The scandal that somebody who was ordained to serve people should so abuse the trust for their own pleasure was appalling and it was. To offset that, the scandal was kept a secret – very, very secret. Everybody involved would be bound to secrecy too’.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune JULY 3, 2015

Archbishop Bernard Hebda, interim leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, will meet worshippers and celebrate his first mass at the St. Paul Cathedral on July 12.

Hebda, a veteran cleric currently serving in New Jersey, was appointed by the Vatican to oversee the archdiocese following the resignation of former Archbishop John Nien­stedt last month.

Hebda will arrive in the Twin Cities next week, and celebrate a “welcome mass” at the 10 a.m. cathedral service, according to the archdiocese. The mass celebrant typically greets parishioners after the service.

His schedule earlier in the week is not available.

Hebda is currently the coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., and is slated to succeed Newark Archbishop John J. Myers next year. He will oversee the Twin Cities archdiocese until a permanent archbishop is selected by the Vatican, dividing his time between Minnesota and New Jersey.

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UNITED STATES
GetReligion

Julia Duin

Well now. I recently chanced on a Huffington Post story that came out in mid May but which was so gripping, it thought that it deserves comment even six weeks later. Consider this a kind of a GetReligion “file of guilt” post.

If the headline: “Buried in Baltimore: The Mysterious Murder of a Nun Who Knew Too Much” doesn’t get you reading the nearly 7,500-word story, nothing can.

Yes, it’s about clergy sex abuse and no, we shouldn’t ever be tired of reading about these stories. Because in this case, a nun found out about the abuse and paid for it with her life. Start here:

On a frigid day in November 1969, Father Joseph Maskell, the chaplain of Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, called a student into his office and suggested they go for a drive. When the final bell rang at 2:40 p.m., Jean Hargadon Wehner, a 16-year-old junior at the all-girls Catholic school, followed the priest to the parking lot and climbed into the passenger seat of his light blue Buick Roadmaster.

It was not unusual for Maskell to give students rides home or take them to doctor’s appointments during the school day. The burly, charismatic priest, then 30 years old, had been the chief spiritual and psychological counselor at Keough for two years and was well-known in the community…This time, though, Maskell didn’t bring Wehner home. He navigated his car past the Catholic hospital and industrial buildings that surrounded Keough’s campus and drove toward the outskirts of the city. Eventually, he stopped at a garbage dump, far from any homes or businesses. Maskell stepped out of the car, and the blonde, freckled teenager followed him across a vast expanse of dirt toward a dark green dumpster.

It was then that she saw the body crumpled on the ground.

The body was that of a nun who had found out that Maskell was raping and abusing teenaged girls at the school.

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ISRAEL
A Mother in Isrel

July 2, 2015 by Hannah Katsman

Last week, Yehuda Shohat and Ariela Sternbuch published a story in Yediot Aharonot about the advice that rabbis give regarding sexual molestation and abuse. Sternbuch called up 27 rabbis and community leaders with a story of how she or her child was sexually abused. In only a few of the cases did the rabbi suggest reporting to the police.

One of the rabbis featured in the Yediot article, Ratzon Arussi, is the chief rabbi of the town of Kiryat Ono. He has a doctorate in law, and teaches on the Jewish legal system at Bar Ilan University. He heads a beit din, or religious court, for resolving monetary disputes.

Below is my translation of the conversation between the reporter and Rabbi Arussi. I translated it from the original recording. A Hebrew transcript of the conversation appears in the Yediot article.

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SOUTH AMERICA
The Guardian (UK)

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome, Laurence Blair in Asunción, and Uki Goñi in Buenos Aires
Friday 3 July 2015

Pope Francis is expected to be confronted by a host of thorny issues when he touches down in Quito, Ecuador on Sunday to begin a seven-day tour of South America, including a contentious case involving a 10-year-old rape victim in Paraguay who has been refused access to an abortion.

The pope is sure to be asked by the Holy See’s traveling press corp to weigh in on the case – which has been condemned by human rights experts – as well as other issues that he has not spoken publicly about, such as the supreme court decision this month that legalised gay marriage across the

The popular Argentinean pontiff will be greeted like a rock star during his tour of Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay. The trip is being seen as a triumphal homecoming of sorts for the pope, who is making his first return to the region since his visit to Brazil in 2013. That trip, in which Francis visited poverty-stricken favelas, was originally planned for his predecessor, Pope Benedict. …

In Paraguay, Francis will face a wholly different political climate. Relations between Francis’s Vatican and the local church in Paraguay were complicated after Francis sacked a local bishop in 2014 who was accused of covering up for sexual abuse of one of his priests. At the time, the departure of Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano was blamed on “serious pastoral reasons” – and not a sex abuse cover-up – and the bishop claimed that his dismissal was a case of “ideological persecution” because of his opposition to liberation theology, a leftist Catholic theology that emphasises care and activism on behalf of the poor.

The other big question in Paraguay is how Francis will respond to a controversy surrounding the 10-year-old rape victim, who was denied an abortion after allegedly being raped by her step-father and despite the pleas of her mother for a medical intervention. The case has enraged pro-choice activists in Paraguay and abroad, and sparked a national debate about child abuse and the handling of underage pregnancies. Although some UN experts have declared the girl’s life to be in danger because of the pregnancy, few expect the Catholic country’s laws to change.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The independent inquiry into historical child sexual abuse in England and Wales will be formally opened next Thursday, it has been announced.

Inquiry chairwoman Lowell Goddard will give an opening statement which will set out its guiding principles.

Justice Goddard will outline how the inquiry will be run, timescales, how evidence will be taken and areas of public life that will be examined.

The inquiry was set up by the home secretary in March.

Justice Goddard took up her post the following month. Her appointment followed the resignation of two chairwomen amid concerns over their links with the establishment.

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UNITED STATES
Legal Broadcast Network

[with video]

Cecil Caulkins

A man who alleges he was abused by the late Jesuit priest Father Donald O’Shaughnessy has settled his sexual abuse claim. The Chicago-Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus has paid $950,000 to settle the case. The victim had attended the Loyola Academy in Wilmette. Chicago trial lawyer Eugene Hollander represented the plaintiff. He also represented another victim of Father O’Shaughnessy’s abuse in a case discussed in this earlier LBN report. Hollander explains the latest claim in this report.

Father O’Shaughnessy was a Jesuit priest for over seventy years. He served in Chicago and several other places around the country. Hollander explains that the matter in question was a civil claim that was settled by the Society of Jesus. Hollander maintains that the Society knew or should have known of Father O’Shaughnessy’s sexual predilections before the time of the sexual abuse. While the Society has settled the claim, there is no admission of liability as part of the settlement agreement.

As to changes in Society policy, Hollander says he is not aware of any particular changes that may have been made. The Society has not objected to having Father O’Shaugnessy’s name listed on bishopaccountability.org. The site lists priests who have been accused of sexual molestation. [Note: the name was not listed on the site as of July 3, 2015.]

Hollander says that his client is relieved to have this chapter of his life closed. He wants to move on with his life.

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FLORIDA
Local 10

[with video]

Author: Jenise Fernandez, Reporter, jfernandez@local10.com
Amanda Batchelor, Senior Digital Editor, abatchelor@local10.com

SUNRISE, Fla. –
Police fear that there may be more victims of a voodoo priest from Sunrise who is accused of raping an underage girl and manipulating and threatening several other women with whom he had sexual relationships.

Police said the rape, which involved an 11-year-old girl, happened about five years ago.

According to authorities, Brogenet Cinor, 48, took the girl to a tiki hut-like structure in his back yard and raped her. At the time, the victim’s mother confronted Cinor, but he said it was part of a cleansing and threatened to put a curse on her and her family if she spoke up, police said.

Years later, the family finally stepped forward and told police what happened.

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CONNECTICUT
San Antonio Express-News

WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — A Waterbury priest who once ran the St. Francis Home for Children in New Haven has been suspended on accusations he sexually abused a minor at the school.

The New Haven Register reports (http://bit.ly/1IyuWPj ) that the Archdiocese of Hartford says in a statement it learned that the Rev. Jeremiah N. Murasso was accused of sexual abuse of a minor and that he had been placed on administrative leave until the allegation is resolved.

The state Judicial Branch website reports no criminal charges.

Since 2012, Murasso had been pastor of two Waterbury parishes, Blessed Sacrament and the Shrine of St. Anne.

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FLORIDA
Local 10

[with video]

Author: Troy Blevins, Online Editor, Producer

SUNRISE, Fla. –
A man claiming to be a “voodoo priest” accused of having sex with an underage girl has been arrested, Sunrise police said.

Brogenet Cinor, 48, faces a charge of sexual battery on a child under the age of 12.

The victim went to the Sunrise Police Department with her parents Sept. 25 to provide details of an incident that happened when she was in middle school between 2009 and 2010, police said.

The victim and a person believed to be the girl’s mother met with Cinor, a “voodoo priest,” at his home, police said. The girl’s mother stayed in the front of the home while the girl was brought to a man-made structure in the backyard, described as being like a tiki hut made out of wood, according to the police report.

The girl told police that once she was inside the structure, Cinor asked her to pull her pants down. Police said Cinor then pulled his pants down, exposing his genitalia, and sat on a chair.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A former Catholic brother subjected a young boy to numerous sexual assaults at a Victorian boys home more than 40 years ago, a court has heard.

Roger Mount went on trial in the County Court of Victoria on Friday, charged with 13 counts of indecent assault and buggery on the boy between 1968 and 1972.

All incidents are alleged to have occurred at former St John of God managed boys home, Churinga, in Greensborough, and a holiday home owned by the brotherhood in Mount Eliza.

Mount pleaded not guilty to all counts before the jury.

In his opening statement, prosecutor Gary Hevey said Mount had subjected his victim to four years of abuse, which started when the boy was aged 10.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Beauftragter

[For the first time abuse in German institutions will be examined by a state commission. The commission should start in January 2016.]

Neue „Unabhängige Aufarbeitungskommission Kindesmissbrauch“ (UAK): Deutscher Bundestag stimmt Aufarbeitungskommission zu.

Erstmals wird Missbrauch in Institutionen und in der Familie durch eine staatliche Kommission untersucht. Damit setzt Deutschland auch international bei der Aufarbeitung neue Akzente.

Kommission soll im Januar 2016 starten.

Rörig: „Wir müssen verstehen lernen, welches unerträgliche Ausmaß Missbrauch in unserer Gesellschaft hat und was wir dagegen tun können!“

Der Deutsche Bundestag hat heute abschließend über die Sicherstellung einer unabhängigen Aufarbeitung in Deutschland debattiert und einen Antrag der Regierungsfraktionen mit Zustimmung von Bündnis 90/Die Grünen angenommen. Die „Unabhängige Aufarbeitungskommission Kindesmissbrauch“ (UAK) soll beim Unabhängigen Beauftragten für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, angesiedelt werden, im Januar 2016 ihre Arbeit aufnehmen und zunächst bis zum Ende der Amtszeit des Beauftragten, bis März 2019, tätig sein. Eine gesetzliche Grundlage wird es für die Kommission nicht geben. Auch die Finanzierung ist noch nicht abschließend geklärt. Die Einrichtung einer Kommission war seit Jahren eine zentrale Forderung von Betroffenen, weiteren Expertinnen und Experten und dem Beauftragten.

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OREGON
Business Insider

By Shelby Sebens

PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) – An Oregon Catholic priest has been placed on leave by the Archdiocese of Portland as police investigate who placed a hidden camera, carefully disguised as an electrical outlet, in a church bathroom, the archdiocese said on Thursday.

The camera was discovered in late April near a toilet in the men’s bathroom of the St. Francis Catholic Church in Sherwood by a church member who took it immediately to Father Ysrael Bien, a police statement said.

But Bien didn’t report the camera to police until May 20 when he reported it stolen, Sherwood police spokesman Ty Hanlon said. Police are investigating how the camera wound up in the bathroom.

Bien has not been charged with a crime or named as a suspect. But the Archdiocese of Portland placed him on administrative leave last week in response to his failure to immediately report the hidden camera to police.

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CONNECTICUT
WFSB

By Kaitlyn Naples
By Jill Konopka

WATERBURY, CT (WFSB) –
A Catholic priest currently working in Waterbury is out on administrative leave after an allegation surfaced involving the sexual abuse of a minor.

The claim comes more than 20 years later and from the priest’s time in New Haven at a facility that no longer exists.

Father Dr. Jeremiah Murasso of the Blessed Sacrament Church and the Shrine of St. Anne was serving mass up until a few weeks ago.

According to the Archdiocese of Hartford, Murasso is accused of sexually abusing a minor more than 20 years ago in New Haven.

However, many people said they don’t believe the allegations.

“From the person I know, I don’t think it could be true,” said Pasquale Musco, who is a parishioner.

“He does have full support of the church, and a lot of people in this city.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Kathy Sheridan

The parties had announced a settlement. As court 25 emptied out, Dolores Atwood stood with her devoted husband’s arm around her, looking confused and distressed, and began to weep.

RTÉ’s head of news, Kevin Bakhurst; managing editor of current affairs, television, David Nally; and the broadcaster’s solicitor, Patricia Harrington, formed a sympathetic circle around her, attempting to make some kind of sense for her of what had just happened.

Outside, Robert Dore, solicitor for Richard Burke, Archbishop Emeritus of Benin – as he is still known, though out of ministry – leaned against the court railing overlooking Chancery Park, waiting for members of the Burke party to emerge, as word spread that the settlement hadn’t yielded a cent in damages for his client.

Burke had claimed that he was branded a paedophile on RTÉ’s Mission to Prey programme. The case hinged on whether his sexual relationship with Atwood had begun when she was 14 as she claimed, or 20, as he claimed.

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IRELAND
The Journal

DOLORES ATWOOD, THE woman at the centre of former archbishop Richard Burke’s defamation action against RTÉ has said that she is “very happy” with the judgement.

Earlier the case was settled, although RTÉ confirmed that they had paid no damages in the settlement.

Burke had taken the case alleging he had been defamed by a Prime Time Investigates programme entitled Mission to Prey.

The 2011 programme wrongly branded him a paedophile, Burke claimed.

“I am very happy and I like the judgement,” Atwood said outside court.

I’m happy that I was able to come from Canada to Ireland to testify, and I am very pleased RTÉ was able to believe me and stand by me in all this. I’m really glad the truth finally came out. I am very, very happy.

When asked whether or not she can now put the case behind her Atwood said it will “take time”.

It will take time, because of the way he described me, what he said about me that was not true. That was sad, you know, but I am happy the truth finally is out there.

The court heard evidence from Atwood, who claimed she had been abused by Burke in her native Nigeria when she was 13 or 14. Burke claimed they had consensual sex when she was 20.

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NORWAY
News in English

The Catholic diocese in Oslo is appealing a claim from the county administrator that it repay NOK 40 million in state and municipal financial support after allegedly inflating its membership roster. The county administrator (Fylkesmannen i Oslo go Akershus) claims the church violated regulations to obtain more support than it was due.

Religious organizations in Norway can apply for and receive money based on their membership. The Catholic Church received a total of NOK 105.4 million in 2014 after having registered 65,500 new members between 2010 and 2014. Of that, fully 56,500 members were registered using methods that are a matter of dispute.

The diocese in Oslo was raided last February and both Biship Bernt Eidsvig and the diocese’s finance director were charged with fraud amounting to as much as NOK 50 million. The church is charged with scanning telephone catalogues for Polish and Spanish names, tracking down their resident registration numbers in Norway and then logging them as members of the church without their knowledge.

Newspaper Dagbladet reported Monday that the county administrator now also claims, after reviewing church accounts, that the church must return NOK 40,581,723. The diocese is contesting the order.

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NORWAY
The Local

Norway is claiming 4.6 million euros ($5.1 million) compensation from the Catholic church for

The diocese, its bishop and the financial officer are suspected of fraudulently registering thousands of people on its membership lists between 2010 and 2014, which enabled it to obtain 50 million kroner (more than $6.0 million or 5.8 million euros) in state subsidies.

Norway’s church denies engaging in fraud but has admitted its past methods were “unsatisfactory.”

In Norway, a predominantly Protestant country, the state provides subsidies to organised religions, the size of which is determined by the number of members.

The Dagbladet daily, which first broke the story, said the diocese had received a letter from the administration on Monday calling for the 40.6 million kroner overpayment to be refunded.

A spokeswoman for the diocese, Lisa Wade, confirmed the contents of the letter. She told AFP that the church would not be paying the sum and would take the matter up with the culture ministry.

“We have a very different understanding of the law,” she said. “It’s complex. It’s not like it’s a clear-cut case.”

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NORWAY
Newsweek

By Conor Gaffey 7/2/15

The Catholic Church in Norway stands accused of defrauding the state of €5.7m by inflating membership numbers and could see its leading bishop face a six-year prison sentence.

Between 2010 and 2014, the Catholic Church in Norway is accused of bumping up membership numbers by as much as 65,000 in order to receive greater state subsidies, an Oslo police spokesperson told Newsweek.

Norwegian police have charged Bernt Ivar Eidsvig, the bishop of Oslo, along with the financial manager of Oslo diocese and the diocese itself, with gross economic fraud of up to 50m Norwegian krone (€5.7m).

The local Oslo government body which distributes state funds to religious institutions is also claiming back the alleged over-payment and this week rejected an explanatory report which the church put forward in March.

The allegations were originally reported by Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet last year.

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NORWAY
UPI

By Andrew V. Pestano Follow @AVPLive9

July 1, 2015

OSLO, Norway, July 1 (UPI) — The Catholic Church is appealing a claim from government officials in Oslo, Norway that the church pay $5.1 million in compensation for participating in fraudulent practices.

The Oslo diocese, its bishop and its financial officer are accused of fraudulently registering thousands of people on its membership lists as to receive greater subsidies from the government.

Norway, predominantly Protestant, permits religious organizations to apply for and receive federal subsidies based on their membership amounts.

The Olso diocese registered about 65,500 new members between 2010 and 2014 and more than 56,500 people of that total were registered under disputed methods, according to Olso government officials. The diocese received more than $6 million in national subsidies during that time.

The church is accused of using telephone catalogs to look for Polish or Spanish names and then tracking down their resident registration numbers in Norway before registering them as members of the church without their consent.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

07/02/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Frequent readers of this blog will note that I have commented before on the practice of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis of grossly exaggerating the number of Catholics in its territory. I have pointed out that doing so renders all efforts at strategic planning questionable, if not ridiculous, and can also cause us to have to pay larger than necessary subsidies to affiliated organizations such as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Elsewhere, this practice is having even more serious consequences. As the UPI reported yesterday, the Catholic Diocese of Oslo, Norway, its bishop, and its CFO are accused of defrauding the Norwegian government of more than $5 million. The government, which subsidizes religious organizations based on the number of members, claims that the Diocese used fraudulent methods to register more than 65,000 new members during the period from 2010 to 2014.

Thankfully, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis does not receive this kind of federal assistance. Parishes with schools, on the other hand, do participate in USDA School Nutrition Programs such as the Free-and-Reduced Lunch Program. Can you imagine if, on top of all of our other troubles, it was determined that an Archdiocesan parish (with its corporate board of Archbishop, Vicar General, Pastor, and two lay trustees) was found to have been defrauding this government program by deliberately inflating its number of enrolled students who qualify for this benefits?

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CONNECTICUT
New Haven Register

Priest who has served in New Haven, East Haven suspended over sex abuse claim at Waterbury school

By Ed Stannard, New Haven Register

POSTED: 07/02/15

A Waterbury priest who has served in New Haven and East Haven and once ran the St. Francis Home for Children has been suspended as a result of accusations that he sexually abused a minor at the school.

The Rev. Jeremiah N. Murasso has been pastor of two Waterbury parishes, Blessed Sacrament and the Shrine of St. Anne, since 2012.

He was director of the St. Francis Home, also known as Highland Heights, from 1992 to 1995. He also served at St. Joseph Church in New Haven from 1982 to 1985 and at St. Vincent de Paul Church in East Haven from 1985 to 1989.

“The Archdiocese of Hartford has learned that an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor has been made against the Rev. Jeremiah N. Murasso,” said the statement by the archdiocese. It said he had been placed “on administrative leave until this allegation is resolved.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

by David Clohessy

Two notorious serial predator priests have been back in the news recently. Both assaulted dozens of kids. Both were shielded, for decades, by complicit colleagues and supervisors. Their horrific crimes, though they took place years ago, should not go unnoticed.

1.One of Iowa’s most notorious child molesting clerics, Fr. James M. Janssen, has passed away. He reportedly abusing many boys, often along with other pedophile priests Fr. Francis Bass, Fr. Theodore Anthony Geerts, and Fr. James W. Murphy, and of pimping his victims to Bass, Murphy and Fr. William Wiebler.

[Quad-City Times]

Janssen allegedly used sacrilege and petty crime to groom his victims, and sometimes took them out of state to abuse them. Janssen’s “stable of boys” ranged in ages from 5 to 18. He continued to abuse at least one into his twenties, and he kept in touch with several into their adulthood, according to multiple sources (see BishopAccountability.org)

Davenport Catholic officials were “warned about Janssen in 1948 before his first assignment, and he admitted abusing kids to a bishop in 1958. Yet he worked as a priest for 42 years in 14 parishes and was pastor at four of them for a total of 23 years. He was on the Priests’ Personnel Board for 13 years and was a Boy Scout chaplain for a decade.

Despite repeated pledges to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex crimes, Janssen’s long-time colleagues and supervisors in the Davenport Catholic diocese apparently have told no one in the public or the parishes that he’s gone. We suspect they didn’t tell police or prosecutors either. Sadly, none of the dozens of current or former Davenport diocesan employees saw fit to spread the news either.

2. A priest who “abused hundreds of children over decades” should have never been ordained, a Northern Ireland government panel was told last month, is also deceased.

[RTE News]

[BBC News]

Fr. Brendan Smyth died in prison after being convicted of indecently assaulting 74 children in the Republic of Ireland and 43 others in Northern Ireland. He also worked in North Dakota and Rhode Island where at least three abuse and cover up lawsuits (in 2010 and 2008) have been filed in Rhode Island because of Fr. Smyth’s crimes. He also worked in North Dakota.

In 2007, Providence Catholic officials admitted that they had received eight abuse reports about Smyth. (East Greenwich Pendulum, October 25, 2007)

We call on Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin, Bismarck Bishop David Kagan, Fargo Bishop John Folda of Fargo and every single diocesan or parish employee in the two states to show some courage, break their silence, act with compassion and use every possible means to reach out to and help others who were sexually violated by Smyth or Janssen (or by Janssen’s complicit clerical colleagues). It’s not enough for a church official to say “We’re sorry for these crimes.” Church officials must use their vast resources – parish websites, pulpit announcements, new releases and church bulletins – to seek out and console those who have been suffering for decades because of this predator.

And let me address this question: “Why does it matter whether church officials disclose the death of a predator priest?”

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FLORIDA
NBC Miami

By Brian Hamacher

A Sunrise man used his position as a Voodoo priest to have sex with multiple women and an underage girl, telling them they were cursed or had “bad spirits” and needed to be cleansed, police said.

Brogenet Cinor, 48, was arrested June 19 on a charge of sexual battery of a child under 12, according to a Sunrise Police arrest report obtained Thursday.

Cinor was later released on bond and it was unknown if he’s hired an attorney.

According to the report, the incident happened between 2009 and 2010, but wasn’t reported until this past September.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

A well known rabbi from the city of Safed suspected of sexual assault was arrested at Ben Gurion airport last night after trying to leave the country.

The rabbi, the leader of a congregation in Safed and the dean of a yeshiva, was asked to suspend himself from his duties last week after complaints were made about alleged sexual abuse which were being investigated by a panel of local rabbis in the city, since a formal complaint to the police had yet to be made.

Such a complaint was however filed to the police against the rabbi on Wednesday afternoon, the police stated. The allegations deal with an incident that is supposed to have taken place several years ago.

The Safed police opened an investigation into the incident but are also examining whether the statue of limitations had expired for the case in question.

A second complaint was filed later on Wednesday, Channel 2 reported.

The rabbi in question is a prominent figure in the national-religious world. Concerns over ongoing, allegedly systematic abuse by the rabbi was brought to the attention of senior rabbis in the city, including Safed chief rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu.

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UNITED STATES
American Against the Tea Partyi

If you think that Catholic priests are the only men of the cloth who molest children, think again. There is a streak of denial in Protestant churches as wide as the River Jordan. They think it can’t happen in their churches. But it does and with alarming regularity.

The good folks at Awkward Moments Children’s Bible keep an eye on local stories about pastors who molest children and the disabled. In May of 2014, they found 24 stories about pastors who committed the unforgivable sin of molesting a vulnerable member of their flock. These men are trusted by their congregations — they are leaders — which makes their betrayal of trust that much worse.

Unlike the Catholic Church, the myriad Protestant organizations have no real governing body, which means that a pastor can avoid trouble simply by moving away from the place where the crime occurred. These offenders are harder to spot, harder to accuse, harder to hold accountable. They are seen as respected community leaders and authority figures. To a child, these men are infallible and unquestioned. Which makes it easier for them to molest their victims.

Before I present the list from Awkward Moments Children’s Bible author Gilgamesh Horus, I want to quote him:

Obligatory disclaimer #1: Yes, of course – they are all innocent until proven guilty. I’m sure it was all just a misunderstanding.
Obligatory disclaimer #2: “They are obviously not real Christians!” Says who? Were they not trusted “real Christian leaders” the day before they got arrested? Wake up!

List of Pedophile Pastors.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Fox News

Published July 02, 2015

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia prison that Pope Francis plans to visit during his U.S. trip houses a former church official jailed for his handling of abuse complaints.

Monsignor William Lynn is serving a three-year prison term after being convicted of endangering children in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported that Lynn is being housed at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Center while he appeals his 2012 conviction.

It’s not clear if he will still be there for the pope’s Sept. 27 visit or whether he would be among the inmates picked to meet with him.

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ROME
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor July 2, 2015

ROME – A senior Vatican cardinal who’s become a target of a national inquiry in Australia regarding institutional child sexual abuse has drawn strong support from his successor in Sydney, who on Wednesday called scorching criticism of Cardinal George Pell’s record “tremendously unfair.”

“In reality, he was the first bishop in the country to move on [confronting abuse scandals],” Archbishop Anthony Fisher, appointed last September to succeed Pell in Sydney, told Crux in an exclusive interview.

Fisher, generally seen as a Pell protégé and confidante, suggested the cardinal’s critics today are after something more than justice.

“There’s a desire for a scalp, for a big name to go down,” he said. “They want to put [Pell] in the stocks and throw tomatoes at him … they want humiliation.”

Despite that, Fisher said he believes Pell has the backing of Pope Francis and predicted Pell will keep his Vatican job.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joe Slobodzian
Posted: Thursday, July 2, 2015

Word that Pope Francis will visit Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility when he is in the city Sept. 26-27 for the World Meeting of Families must have held special significance for one of the 2,760 men in the city’s largest jail.

He’s No. 1102886, also known as Msgr. William J. Lynn, the 64-year-old former Secretary for Clergy of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Lynn was the first church official convicted for a supervisory role over priests accused of having sexually abused children. Lynn’s conviction was a landmark in the church’s clergy sex-abuse scandal and his appeal of his child endangerment conviction has been a legal roller coaster.

Found guilty by a Philadelphia jury in 2012, he was sentenced that July to 3 to 6 years in prison by Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina and immediately incarcerated in a state prison.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Ciarán D’Arcy

Thu, Jul 2, 2015

Former archbishop Richard Burke will have “no exposure to costs” after his legal team settled a High Court defamation action against RTÉ for its ‘Mission to Prey’ documentary.

Speaking outside the Four Courts on Thursay, his solicitor John Dore insisted the ex-clergyman, who was accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with a parishioner who was under the age of consent while ministering in Nigeria in the late 1980s, is a “truthful person”.

“My client, Richard Burke, has consistently and vehemently denied the accusations made against him by Dolores Atwood, as broadcast by RTÉ in the ‘Mission to Prey’ programme,” he said, flanked by Mr Burke and his sister Joanne.

“My client is a truthful person. This litigation has been compromised to my client’s satisfaction, and he has no exposure to costs,” he added.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

BY AODHAN O’FAOLAIN

A settlement has been reached in the action by a former Catholic Archbishop who alleged he was wrongly depicted as a paedophile in the RTE Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme.

On the eighth day of the case brought by Richard Burke alleging he was defamed in the May 23rd 2011 programme, the jury was told the case had settled.

Paul O’Higgins SC, for RTE, read a statement on behalf of the broadcaster which said RTE had said that in the programme it alleged Richard Burke had sexual relations with a girl, Dolores Atwood, who was under age.

“RTÉ accepts it incorrectly stated in the programme that Richard Burke had declined to be interviewed for the programme and for this RTÉ apologises.

“RTÉ acknowledges that Richard Burke has consistently and vehemently denied these allegations, and has done so throughout his evidence at this hearing.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A case being taken against RTÉ by a former Catholic archbishop who had alleged that he was defamed by the broadcaster has been settled at the High Court.

Richard Burke, 66, a member of the Kiltegan Fathers, had alleged that he was defamed in the RTÉ Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme broadcast in May 2011.

Mr Burke claims that material used in the programme wrongly branded him as a paedophile.

He said he had not known he was to be featured in the documentary until it was broadcast, despite numerous emails having been sent by RTÉ to the Kiltegan Fathers.

Mr Burke said he had not been directly contacted by the station, or given an opportunity to respond to the allegations against him.

Yesterday, the court heard evidence from Dolores Atwood, who claimed she had been abused by Mr Burke in Nigeria when she was aged 13 or 14.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Dearbhail McDonald Legal Editor
PUBLISHED
02/07/2015

A SETTLEMENT has been reached between RTE and a Catholic Archbishop in a defamation case.

Archbishop Emeritus Richard Burke, (66), a native of Co Tipperary, sued RTE alleging he was defamed in the RTE Prime Time Investigates: A Mission to Prey programme broadcast on May 23rd 2011.

The former Archbishop of Benin, Nigeria – who resigned in 2010 over his failure to adhere to his vow of celibacy – claimed material in the programme wrongly meant he was a paedophile.
RTE had denied defamation.

It is understood no damages were received as part of the settlement. But in a statement issued outside court, Robert Dore, solicitor for Mr Burke, said his client had “no exposure to cost”.

Also speaking outside the court, RTE’s head of news and current affairs Kevin Backharst said no damages had been paid to Mr Burke, but confirmed there had been “a contribution” to costs.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Mary Carolan

Thu, Jul 2, 2015

A settlement has been reached in the action by a former Catholic Archbishop who alleged he was wrongly depicted as a paedophile in the RTÉ Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme.

On the eighth day of the case brought by Richard Burke alleging he was defamed in the May 23rd 2011 programme, the jury was told the case had settled.

Paul O’Higgins SC, for RTÉ, read a statement on behalf of the broadcaster which said RTÉ had said that in the programme it alleged Richard Burke had sexual relations with a girl, Dolores Atwood, who was under-age.

RTÉ accepted it had incorrectly stated in the programme that Mr Burke had declined to be interviewed for the programme and for that it apologises, the statement said.

It said RTÉ acknowledged Mr Burke has “consistently and vehemently” denied the allegations and has done so throughout his evidence at the hearing.

The statement said Dolores Atwood stands over her allegations and RTÉ considers her a sincere and honourable person. RTÉ and Mr burke agreed the matter is now closed, the statement added, and the case could be struck out with no order.

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ROME
DFW Catholic

Rome, Italy, Jul 2, 2015 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Beginning in the spring of 2016, Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University will begin offering an intensive one-semester diploma program on the safeguarding of minors and the prevention of sex abuse by clergy.

A new one semester diploma course in the protection of minors is being offered by the Center for Child Protection in Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, and is set to welcome its first round of applicants in February, 2016.

“There are not courses like this diploma in pontifical universities in Rome. Certainly programs in secular universities and in UK have them, but (this is a) first in pontifical and Catholic universities,” Fr. Hans Zollner, SJ said at the June 24 announcement of the course.

Fr. Zollner is the president of the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Center for Child Protection (CCP) and is a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, created by Pope Francis last autumn.

He was present alongside three other panelists for a press conference at the conclusion of the center’s June 21-24 annual Anglophone Conference, during which the diploma course was announced.

The diploma will be awarded at the close of a one-semester residential course on the safeguarding of minors. The program aims to form persons who will eventually become child protection officers for dioceses, religious congregations, and similar organizations, as well as advisors and trainers in the field of safeguarding.

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POLAND
The News

As many as 72 percent of Poles think the Church treats the problem of paedophilia among priests too leniently.

Only one in seven of those polled believes that the Vatican and bishops are actually intervening in solving a problem that has crippled the church in recent years, according to a survey conducted by the SW Research pollster for Newsweek Polska weekly.

Poles aged between 35 and 40 (i.e. people who could have school age children) tend to be most supportive of harsher sentences for paedophiles within the church.

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UGANDA
allAfrica

The Monitor

By Clement Aluma

Arua — A Catholic priest in Arua Diocese has sued Bishop Sabino Ocan Odoki over what he termed as unlawful suspension from priestly duties and defamation.

Fr Nakarai Adiga is demanding compensation for what he claims are damages caused to him as a result of the bishop’s actions.

Through his lawyer, Mr Samuel Ondoma of Alaka and Company advocated, Fr Adiga states that on July 4, 2012, Bishop Sabino made a false accusation against him and other priests: Fr Lino Buni, Fr Biajo Candini and Fr Valentino Matua, stating that they were threatening to kill him.

The case was investigated by both the police and secretary to the Papal Nuncio, Mr Edward Karani, but were found to be false.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Legal News

A legal challenge over the appointment of Susan O’Brien QC to chair an inquiry into historic child abuse in Scotland has been refused by a judge in the Court of Session.

The Congregation of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth and The Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul sought judicial review of the decision of the Scottish Ministers to appoint Ms O’Brien – who had previously acted for alleged victims of abuse – as chair to the Historical Child Abuse Inquiry in terms of section 4(1) of the Inquiries Act 2005, relying on the common law principle of “apparent bias”.

However, Lord Woolman ruled that the “fair-minded and informed observer” would not conclude that there was a real possibility of bias.

The court heard that in 2007, two alleged victims of abuse had sought damages from the Poor Sisters of Nazareth, but their claims were held to be “time barred” and Ms O’Brien represented the two clients in an appeal before the House of Lords, which upheld the time bar plea.

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

By Oranit Etzer
First Publish: 7/2/2015

A rabbi from the north of Israel, who was distanced from his city due to sexual abuse complaints filed against him by several women, was arrested on Thursday morning as he was on his way to Ben-Gurion International Airport.

The rabbi, who was the dean of a yeshiva and whose identity has not been revealed, was taken in for investigation by the northern district police. A request to extend his detention will be heard on Thursday.

Women who arrived to consult with the rabbi have complained to police, with one claiming he sexually abused her several years ago and another charging him with rape.

A number of high-ranking rabbis had requested that the rabbi step down due to the complaints against him, and he recently gave in to the demands and stepped down as dean of the yeshiva that he founded, and likewise distanced himself from its associated institutions.

The rabbi also was a community rabbi, and distanced himself from his city until the accusations against him were resolved in response to the request of the rabbis.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Tim Healy
PUBLISHED
01/07/2015

A former Catholic Archbishop has said that he first learned about RTÉ’s ‘Mission To Prey’ documentary 12 days before it was to be screened after he sent an email to his order with queries about it.

Tipperary native Richard Burke told the High Court yesterday that he was unaware RTÉ had been in contact with the Kiltegan Fathers on several occasions since March 2011.

He said he did not know in advance he would personally be featured on Prime Time Investigates programme and it was incorrect for RTÉ to say on the programme he had declined to be interviewed.

Dolores Atwood had made a formal complaint of child sexual abuse against former Archbishop of Benin, Nigeria, Richard Burke, to his order, the Kiltegan Fathers, in late 2008, the High Court heard.

She had also written to the Vatican in March 2008 and in 2005 she phoned Mr Burke’s order anonymously alleging he was having relations with women.

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CONNECTICUT
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford

Media Statement from the Archdiocese of Hartford regarding Jacob Doe v. The Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporaton

The Archdiocese of Hartford remains firmly committed to both the spirit and letter of the U.S. Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that was adopted and implemented in 2002 and to all of the policies, practices and educational programs arising out of the Charter that are designed to prevent childhood sexual abuse from occurring. In Pope Francis’ recent letter to bishops around the world, he urged them to reach out to victims of childhood sexual abuse by clergy and establish programs to assist victims who are in need of psychological and/or spiritual care as a result of such abuse. The Archdiocese of Hartford has had such a program in place since 2002 and has been reaching out to victims since then, including victims whose accused perpetrators are deceased. Sexual abuse of a minor is reprehensible conduct that cannot and will not be tolerated or condoned. The safety of our children and young people is the Archdiocese’s top priority.

The Jacob Doe case was not brought against the priest who was described as having committed the molestation. That priest died many years ago. Under our current policy and practice, any priest who has been credibly accused of sexual abuse involving a minor is removed from ministry. As Pope Francis has said, there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors.

The appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court involves a civil case against the Archdiocese of Hartford alone, and has to do with legal issues and matters of justice connected with such suits. The court’s decision addresses specific issues of law that apply generally in civil actions where one party sues another. It involves issues and questions of law and due process that do not apply to the Archdiocese of Hartford alone.

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CONNECTICUT
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford

20 June 2015

Statement by the Archdiocese of Hartford

“The Archdiocese of Hartford has learned that an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor has been made against the Rev. Jeremiah N. Murasso. The alleged abuse reportedly took place over twenty years ago, while Fr. Murasso was serving in New Haven at St. Francis Home for Children, also known as, Highland Heights. Pursuant to its established policy, the Archdiocese has placed Fr. Murasso, who most recently was serving at Blessed Sacrament and the Shrine of St. Anne in Waterbury, on administrative leave until this allegation is resolved.

The Archdiocese of Hartford condemns the type of misconduct that has been alleged. It encourages anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse as a minor by any personnel of the Archdiocese, to contact civil authorities (the State Department of Children and Families and/or the local police) and the Victims Assistance Coordinator of the Archdiocese at: 860-541-6475.”
– Archdiocese of Hartford.

Rev. Jeremiah Murasso Parish Assignments

Position, Location, Dates

Asst. Pastor, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Meriden, 7/16/1979 – 8/27/1982
Asst. Pastor, St. Joseph, New Haven, 8/27/1982 – 3/21/1985
Co-Pastor, St. Vincent de Paul, East Haven, 3/21/1985 – 3/1/1986
Administrator, St. Vincent de Paul, East Haven, 3/1/1986 – 9/14/1989
Pastor, St. Vincent Ferrer, Naugatuck, 9/14/1989 – 5/18/1992
Interim Dir., Highland Heights, New Haven, 5/18/1992 – 7/1/1992
Director, Highland Heights, New Haven, 7/1/1992 – 10/4/1995
Pastor, St. Vincent Ferrer, Naugatuck, 10/4/1995 – 9/15/2003
Pastor, St. Francis Assisi, South Windsor, 9/15/2003 – 3/5/2012
Pastor, Blessed Sacrament & Shrine of St. Anne, Wtby., 3/5/12 – Administrative Leave

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CONNECTICUT
Republican-American

BY PAUL SINGLEY REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

WATERBURY — A Roman Catholic priest at Blessed Sacrament Church and the Shrine of St. Anne has been accused of sexually abusing a minor more than 20 years ago in New Haven.

The Archdiocese of Hartford says it has placed the Rev. Jeremiah Murasso, 62, on administrative leave from the Waterbury churches until the allegation is resolved.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

Wednesday, July 1 2015

By: Maria Miller

ALTOONA, Pa. — Another friar at a monastery in Altoona has taken his own life following what appears to be an investigation by state officials.

The Blair County Coroner’s Office confirmed Wednesday that David Kaczmarek died by means of hanging. His death was ruled a suicide.

The 53-year-old was found Sunday morning at the St. Bernadine Monastery of the Immaculate Conception Province just two days after authorities reportedly took pictures outside and computers and documents from inside.

The monastery is part of the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular, defining itself online as a home for retired members of the religious community, but it’s not clear how long Kaczmarek resided there or where he came from.

Searches online and through 6 News archives show no records of Kaczmarek locally, but his picture does appear on their website several times and lists addresses for him in Minnesota and Florida – both states where the friars have ministries.

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ALABAMA
Vestavia Voice

by ERICA TECHO
July 1, 2015

Following a warrant for his arrest, former Vestavia Hills youth pastor Ryan Scott Rodgers, 36, turned himself into the New Orleans Police Department on June 26. Rodgers was on staff at Liberty Park Baptist Church from 2003-2009, according to Pastor Scott Guffin.

Guffin said the allegations against Rodgers first came to the church’s attention when the complaints were filed in New Orleans.

“We initially heard about it when the complaints were filed, and when he was here, there were no incidents or allegations,” Guffin said.

Rodgers is a youth pastor in the Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines Parishes in Louisiana.

Rodgers was booked on one count of simple battery, one count of sexual battery and seven counts of indecent behavior with juveniles. Bond was set at $100,000. He is out of jail and faces a status hearing with the Orleans Parish Magistrate Court on July 2.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Times

A RETIRED assistant priest has been spared jail string of sex attacks on three teenage boys including one from Glasgow.

The then-father Colman McGrath abused two boys who were training to join the priesthood at Blairs College in Aberdeen.

McGrath, 76, then went on to indecently assault another school boy he was tutoring at his chapel in Langside, Glasgow’s South Side.

The abuse only came to light years later and in June 2014 McGrath – who retired in 2006 – was interviewed by police about his conduct.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

BY DAVE SUTOR
DSUTOR@TRIBDEM.COM

Posted on Jul 1, 2015

HOLLIDAYSBURG – A second friar associated with the Province of the Immaculate Conception of the Third Order Regular Franciscans has committed suicide.

Rev. David Kaczmarek, 53, hung himself on Saturday, probably around 6 p.m., according to Blair County Chief Deputy Coroner Paul Kerns. His body was discovered at St. Joseph Friary on Walnut Street in Hollidaysburg on Sunday.

Kaczmarek was reportedly the subject of a legal investigation, per Kerns.

“I don’t know what the deal is with that,” Kerns said.

In January 2014, Brother Stephen Baker is said to have died from a self-inflicted knife wound to the heart, while staying at the province’s St. Bernardine Monastery on Monastery Road in Newry. Baker was accused of sexually molesting possibly more than 100 male students at the former Bishop McCort High School.

Last October, 88 former students received a combined $8 million in compensation as part of a settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Province of the Immaculate Conception of the Third Order Regular Franciscans and what is now known as Bishop McCort Catholic High School. Other cases are still ongoing.

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KENTUCKY
The Ledger Independent

VANCEBURG | A former Vanceburg pastor, facing charges of sexual abuse, appeared in Lewis County Circuit Court Wednesday.

During the pretrial hearing for 63-year-old Duncan Aker, his defense attorney, Daniel Dickerson, told Circuit Judge Robert Conley that he would like more time in order to view the recorded interview with the alleged victim in the case.

Mike Frye, with Commonwealth’s Attorney Mel Leonhart’s office, said after the defense views the recording, his office will work with Dickerson’s office to come to a resolution in the case.

“We’ll go back to court in September and see if we can’t come to a resolution,” Frye said. “If we can’t, then we’ll proceed to trial.”

The next pretrial hearing was set for Sept. 4 at 9:30 a.m.

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SCOTLAND
STV

A petition for judicial review of the decision to appoint Susan O’Brien QC to chair an inquiry into historic child abuse in Scotland has been refused.

The Congregation of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth and the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul lodged a petition for judicial review at Edinburgh’s Court of Session objecting to the Scottish Government’s appointment of Susan O’Brien QC.

Their action centred on Ms O’Brien’s involvement in a case brought against the Poor Sisters of Nazareth at the House of Lords by two former residents of Nazareth House children’s home in Glasgow who alleged they were abused in the 1960s and 70s.

Ms O’Brien acted as counsel for the former residents in their 2008 appeal which unsuccessfully challenged an earlier court ruling that the claims were time barred, or made too late.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Wednesday 1 July 2015

A judge has dismissed a legal bid by two Catholic charities to overturn the appointment of a top QC as chairwoman of an inquiry into historic child abuse in Scotland.

Lord Woolman refused the challenge from The Congregation of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth and the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul to the Scottish Government’s choice of Susan O’Brien to lead the probe.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

A judge has dismissed a legal bid by two Catholic charities to overturn the appointment of a top QC as chairwoman into historic child abuse in Scotland.

Lord Woolman refused the challenge from The Congregation of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth and the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul.

The Scottish Government’s appointed Susan O’Brien to lead the probe.

The charities had raised fears of “apparent bias” relating to her involvement in a previous case.
It had been brought against the Poor Sisters of Nazareth.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Freitag

[The Bundestage on Thursday is scheduled to set up a national commission to explain sexual violence in the country. ]

Missbrauch Der Linken-Abgeordnete Norbert Müller findet die neue Aufarbeitungskommission gegen sexuelle Gewalt zu schwach. Wer aufarbeiten will, brauche echte Ermittlungsinstrumente

der Freitag: Herr Müller, der Bundestag will am Donnerstag eine nationale Kommission einsetzen, die sexuelle Gewalt aufklären soll. Seit 2010 wird doch überall aufgeklärt, reicht das nicht?

Norbert Müller: Nein, ein Schlussstrich bei der Aufarbeitung sexualisierter Gewalt wäre völlig falsch. Der droht aber meines Erachtens gerade dadurch, dass Berichte aus Institutionen wie der Kirche, den Reformschulen oder bei den Grünen vorliegen und das öffentliche Interesse langsam abnimmt.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Mike Wereschagin and Brad Bumsted
Wednesday, July 1, 2015

A Blair County friar hanged himself two days after agents with the state Attorney General’s Office raided another, nearby monastery connected to a sexual abuse scandal, the Blair County Coroner’s office confirmed Wednesday.

The Rev. David Kaczmarek, 53, died around 6 p.m. Saturday at St. Joseph’s Friary in Hollidaysburg, the coroner’s office said. Another friar found him about 8 a.m. Sunday. The Immaculate Conception Province website, of which St. Joseph’s is part, lists Kaczmarek as provincial secretary.

On Thursday and less than four miles away, state investigators raided St. Bernardine Monastery, where a friar accused of molesting children killed himself in 2013. Kaczmarek was not a target of the investigation, a source told the Tribune-Review.

Both the St. Bernardine Monastery and St. Joseph’s Friary are part of the Immaculate Conception province of the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular. St. Joseph’s serves as the province’s home for semi-retired friars, according to the province’s website.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

[with video]

A former resident of a Christian Brothers boys’ home has launched a Supreme Court bid for damages over claims of sadistic sexual abuse by three brothers more than 40 years ago.

A writ filed this week outlines the Perth man’s claims of psychiatric and psychological harm from the abuse he alleges was inflicted at Castledare Boys Home by Brothers Verdon, Dick and Daly between 1971 and 1973.

The action comes after a royal commission last year scrutinised historic sexual and physical abuse in a case study of Castledare and three other WA Christian Brothers homes.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard from 11 former residents of the homes, who named 16 Brothers as abusers.

The writ, lodged against the Trustees of the Christian Brothers and the estates of seven late leaders and members of the congregation, claimed the man was owed a duty of care and the sexual and physical assaults on him were breaches of that duty.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Durham Times

A FORMER senior clergyman has appeared at crown court for the first time in relation to historic sex allegations.

The Venerable George Granville Gibson, who previously served as Archdeacon of Auckland, one of the leading posts in the Durham diocese of the Church of England, faces a total of eight charges dating from the late 1970s and early 80s.

Following an initial hearing at South Durham Magistrates’ Court in Newton Aycliffe, last month (June 17), district judge Stephen Harmes sent the case involving the 79-year-old former church minister to Durham Crown Court.

During a short preliminary hearing at the crown court today (Wednesday July 1), the charges were not put to Mr Gibson, but arrangements were made for future proceedings in the case.

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LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

By Jonathan Bullington, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on June 26, 2015

Ryan Scott Rodgers, a 36-year-old youth minister accused by New Orleans police of having “inappropriate sexual behavior” with two male teenagers, surrendered to authorities Friday (June 26), NOPD said in an email.

Police have accused Rodgers of sexually abusing the teenagers over the course of at least a year, starting sometime in 2014. Most of that abuse took place inside Rodgers’ Central City apartment in the 1700 block of Baronne Street, police said, and involved inappropriately touching the teenagers as they slept. Police also said he purchased underwear for the teenagers and forced them to pose in front of him.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com
on July 01, 2015

A former Vestavia Hills youth pastor has been arrested in New Orleans, accused of repeatedly touching two teenage boys while they were sleeping and making them pose in underwear.

Ryan Scott Rodgers, 36, surrendered to New Orleans police on Friday, June 26, according to NOLA.com. Rodgers is charged with sexual battery and seven counts of indecent behavior with juveniles. He formerly served at Liberty Park Baptist Church as youth pastor for six years.

New Orleans police on June 25 announced the charges against Rodgers in a press release. He was not in custody at the time, and had moved out of his apartment and was believed to be staying in hotels to avoid arrest. He turned himself in two days later.

Authorities said most of the incidents are reported to have occurred at Rodgers’ Central City apartment, and said the boys were awakened by Rodgers fondling them. The victims told New Orleans Police Department Special Victims Section Detective Stephanie Taillon that Rodgers sexually abused them for over a year.

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UNITED STATES
Christianity Today

Ted Olsen

MAY 8, 2015

I don’t usually get mad at news stories. Not anymore. After 20 years of working at CT, I’m used to reading about human sin. Part of my job used to include sifting through every religion news tidbit and highlighting the top stories for our online readers. The daily drumbeat of ministry leaders resigning or being fired for moral failure was so common that I rarely noted it. But it was demoralizing. During one period, I kept hoping for a break in the streak. After one unbroken month of moral failure stories, I sought out spiritual help. My crisis passed.

So I was surprised to find myself grieving this month amid another series of reports. Grieving, and mad.

There was Patrick Sookhdeo, one of the most prominent advocates for persecuted Christians, especially in Muslim-majority countries. A British court found him guilty of sexually touching a female employee and intimidating witnesses.

Around the same time, human rights activist Chai Ling was accusing apologist Yuan Zhiming of raping her in 1990, before they both became prominent Christians. (See “Matthew 18, 25 Years Later.”)

And these weren’t the only two such cases we investigated this month. But the Sookhdeo and Yuan cases illustrated the defensive response we tend to get from organizations when their leaders’ sins are made public.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

Rev. Kaczmarek was center of AG investigation last week

July 1, 2015

By Russ O’Reilly (roreilly@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror

HOLLIDAYSBURG – Another friar of the Immaculate Conception Province has died by suicide, Blair County Coroner Patty Ross confirmed Tuesday.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

By: WJAC Web Staff

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. — WJAC-TV is working to learn more on the details surrounding the death of another friar at the Immaculate Conception Province in Blair County.

The state Attorney General’s Office is investigating the death, which authorities said was a suicide.

The Blair County Coroner told the Altoona Mirror that Rev. David Kaczmarek died at the province’s friary Saturday evening. Kaczmarek was at the center of an investigation last week, but little details are being released on what the investigation was about.

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ARKANSAS
In Touch Weekly

In Touch magazine has exclusively learned that Tontitown, Arkansas, cops recently took off-duty paid jobs guarding the Duggars while the department has an open investigation into the family.

Emails obtained exclusively by In Touch through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that the interim police chief of Tontitown OKed the off-duty work.

Kate Gosselin’s longtime bodyguard Steve Neild — who’s now working for the Duggars — paid off-duty officers from the local force in Tontitown, Arkansas, $25 an hour to provide security at the Duggar family home on May 21, 2015, and Josh’s new home on May 20 and 21 when Josh returned home from Washington, D.C., after In Touch broke the story about his sexual molestation scandal and he resigned from the Family Research Council.

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UNITED STATES
In Touch Weekly

A non-Duggar family molestation victim is preparing to file a civil suit against Josh Duggar, sources tell In Touch magazine exclusively in the new issue on newsstands today.

The shocking development means that Josh and his parents Jim Bob and Michelle could be forced to give depositions and testify about Josh’s molestation scandal. The Duggars likely will have to answer every question as they will not be able to invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination because the criminal statute of limitations has expired.

The family is once again under investigation the Department of Human Services and the fate of their reality show 19 Kids and Counting is still undecided. The impending lawsuit sets up a nightmare scenario for TLC: if the network brings back 19 Kids and Counting, the show could be on the air while the Duggars are fighting a lawsuit that exposes all of Josh’s secrets surrounding the molestations and how the family covered it up.

The Duggars will face questions about how many years it took them to get Josh and his victims counseling, what type of safeguards they put in place in 2002 after first being alerted to Josh molesting female minors. “All the church elders who knew about this will have to be named,” a source tells In Touch.

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UNITED STATES
Christianity Today

From Unquestioning Submission to Speaking Out

Michelle Van Loon

My husband and I once belonged to a congregation where leaders took their cues from the Shepherding Movement. Emphasizing allegiance and church unity, they expected members to submit to their authority in all matters. One of their favorite mantras came from 1 Corinthians, using the King James Version for extra emphasis: Touch not God’s anointed. I was taught that to question a leader was to defy God himself.

I was a naive sheep in this flock until I stumbled upon the elaborate efforts to keep hidden the pastor’s porn addiction and infidelity with a congregant. Anyone who got too close to this secret was branded a problem. I found myself drafted into the uncomfortable role of whistleblower. After my husband and I brought our concerns to church leadership, the elders made it clear that we were untrustworthy and troublemakers. After a number of failed attempts to resolve the situation, we left the church.

It took a while to heal from the manipulation and misuse of authority my husband and I experienced at the hands of these men. Over time, others experienced the same treatment, which, turns out, was a demonically effective way of deflecting attention from the real problem. Over a decade passed before the pastor’s marriage fell apart and the truth came out.

I’ve watched from afar as similar scenarios play out as whistleblowers decry leaders-gone-bad in organizations and congregations across the country: Doug Phillips, Bill Gothard, Mark Driscoll. Especially online, we hear from these voices long before the pastor finally makes a grudging public admission of his wrongdoing.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Courthouse News Service

By JOE HARRIS

ST. LOUIS (CN) – A Catholic priest accused of sexual misconduct with minors sued an accuser’s parents and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, claiming they targeted him for monetary gain because of his race.

The Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang sued St. Louis, two city police officers, the parents A.M. and N.M., the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and SNAP leaders David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris in Federal Court.

Jiang claims the officers failed to fully investigate the claims and that SNAP embarked on a smear campaign, damaging his reputation.

The charges against Jiang were dismissed by St. Louis City Prosecuting Attorney Jennifer Joyce in June without explanation.

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AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)

Cardinal Pell’s 40-year-old passport ‘disproves allegation that he knew about child’s abuse by priest’

01 July 2015 by Mark Brolly

A Melbourne newspaper says passport details prove Cardinal George Pell was studying in Oxford 46 years ago at the time a survivor of child sexual abuse says the Australian prelate, then a young priest, heard him plead for help a few weeks after being raped by a Christian Brother in the Victorian city of Ballarat.

The Herald Sun reported on 27 June that the Prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, a former Archbishop of Melbourne and later of Sydney, had given it access to a copy of his full passport, showing his travel in the 1960s and ’70s.

“The passport makes it clear that Cardinal Pell was not in Australia in 1969,” the paper said in a story headlined ‘Pell’s passport proves point’. The Herald Sun reported on Monday that Paul Lyons, 55, had challenged the cardinal to prove he was not in Ballarat at the time he told priests at St Alipius Presbytery of his rape.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A woman who alleges she was sexually abused by a catholic priest in Nigeria has told the High Court she was first abused while in hospital at the age of 13.

Dolores Atwood has begun giving evidence in a defamation case taken by former archbishop Richard Burke, who claims he was wrongly branded as a paedophile in an RTÉ television programme.

Ms Atwood said she first met Mr Burke when she was a schoolgirl and had gone to her local church to buy rosary beads.

She said she began meeting him after mass on Sundays and he began giving her hugs.

Ms Atwood said she found it very comforting as she had no emotional support at home. Her parents had divorced and she had problems with her stepmother.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Mary Carolan

Wed, Jul 1, 2015

A woman has told the High Court a priest kissed her and touched her breast while she was being treated for typhoid fever in a hospital in Nigeria in 1983.

Dolores Atwood, who was born in August 1969, said she first met Richard Burke, a member of the Kiltegan Fathers order, after mass at a Catholic church in Nigeria in 1982 and had enjoyed conversations with him.

When she became ill in 1983, she was treated in hospital for typhoid fever and he came to visit her, she said. She was “surprised” and, while he was there, the light went off and he kissed her and touched her breast and was “touching me inappropriately”.

When the light came back on, he had gone back to the position where he was standing before the light went off, she said.

Ms Atwood has begun her evidence in the action by Mr Burke (66), a native of Co Tipperary, against RTÉ alleging he was defamed in the RTÉ Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme broadcast on May 23rd 2011. He claims material in the programme wrongly meant he was a paedophile. RTÉ denies defamation.

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SCOTLAND
STV

A priest who abused three teenage boys in the 1970s and 80s has avoided jail.

Colman McGrath, 76, abused two boys who were training to join the priesthood at Blairs College in Aberdeen and went on to indecently assault another school boy he was tutoring at his chapel in Langside, Glasgow.

But McGrath, who is now retired, was only interviewed by police in June 2014 after the abuse came to light decades later.

McGrath pleaded guilty to three charges of indecent assault between August 1972 and September 1982 at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

06/30/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Priests and parish staff have been asked to add the following announcement to this week’s bulletins.

Come welcome Archbishop Bernard Hebda to the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Our new Apostolic Administrator will be celebrating the 10:00am Mass at The Cathedral of Saint Paul on Sunday, July 12th. All are encouraged to gather for the Eucharist and meet Archbishop Hebda following Mass. The Cathedral of Saint Paul is located 239 Selby Street in Saint Paul. For directions and other information about The Cathedral of Saint Paul, go to www.cathedralsaintpaul.org or call 651.228.1766.

If you have trouble finding the Cathedral, you can also navigate by the ‘For Sale’ signs that surround it.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

A retired priest has been told to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work after admitting indecently assaulting three teenage boys in Aberdeen and Glasgow.

Colman McGrath, 76, abused two boys who were training to join the priesthood at Blairs College in Aberdeen and a boy at his parish in Langside, Glasgow.

The offences were committed between August 1972 and September 1982.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, McGrath was put on the sex offenders’ register and placed on supervision for three years.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
TheMediaReport

Finally! A falsely accused priest has had enough and is not going to take it any more.

After being twice accused and cleared on wild charges of sex abuse, Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang has filed a federal lawsuit against his accusers, the lawyer-funded, anti-Catholic group SNAP, and members of the St. Louis police department for publicly accusing him of being a child molester.

Something rotten in Denmark

[**CLICK to read Rev. Jiang’s federal lawsuit**]

In both 2012 and 2014, Rev. Jiang was publicly accused of abuse charges which received wide media attention with SNAP breathlessly claiming that Jiang was a dangerous child molester on the prowl. Yet even at a glance the accusations against Jiang were clearly bogus.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune JUNE 30, 2015

The St. Cloud Diocese faces the prospect of making unprecedented disclosures about priests accused of sexual misconduct, under a ruling filed Monday in Stearns County court that builds on a series of legal victories for Minnesotans claiming clergy abuse.

Judge Kris Davick-Halfen ruled that lawyers can proceed with a “public nuisance” claim against the diocese by an alleged victim of priest sex abuse — a move that allows attorneys to investigate the diocese’s records and documents on all priests who have been accused of misconduct over decades.

Four of Minnesota’s six dioceses now face similar court-ordered scrutiny. Judges have made similar rulings on the public nuisance claim in the dioceses of Ramsey, Winona and New Ulm. The motion is under advisement in a case against a priest from the Diocese of Duluth.

The St. Cloud Diocese declined to comment on the ruling. It serves 130,000 Catholics in 16 counties across central Minnesota.

“These nuisance suits put Minnesota at the forefront of a growing national movement to expose those who commit and conceal heinous crimes against children,” said David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. “In no state have as many victims successfully used the nuisance argument to unearth more records of abuse and names of perpetrators.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

A range of health services will become available from today for women who worked in the Magdalene Laundries.

The move is part of the Government’s redress scheme for women who were resident in certain institutions.

The services include GP, medical and surgical services, as well as home help, counselling and nursing services.

Ex-gratia payments ranging between €11,500 and €100,000 are also being paid out. About 86% of the applications received so far have been paid, at a cost of €18m.

Claire McGettrick of the Justice for Magdalenes Committee said the health scheme coming into effect today did not go far enough.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Pilot

By Jeremiah Dobruck
June 30, 2015

Attorneys concluded their arguments Tuesday in the case of a Costa Mesa Sunday school volunteer accused of sexually abusing a half-dozen boys and trying to lure another.

Jurors will decide whether they believe testimony from witnesses who over the past few weeks accused 51-year-old Christopher McKenzie of fondling or raping the boys.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Heather Brown told jurors that McKenzie is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a man who hid behind a guise of religious piety that he cultivated at Rock Harbor church in Costa Mesa.

McKenzie met three of the boys at the church, where he helped in a fifth-grade classroom, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

“Mr. McKenzie handpicked these boys,” Brown said.

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IRELAND
Herald

THE country has been convulsed with shock, disgust and anger since the full extent of clerical child sex abuse became known.

This sickening scandal rocked the Catholic Church to its very foundations and destroyed the trust and faith of many.

Even more shocking have been the extraordinary lengths the church has gone to cover things up.

The overriding imperative of the vast majority of the church hierarchy has been to protect the good name of that institution at all costs.

misery

Many a blind eye has been turned to the misery and suffering inflicted on innocent children by evil paedophile priests.

This was further highlighted dramatically last week when Cardinal Sean Brady, the retired head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, appeared before the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Co Down.

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VIRGINIA
Roanoke Times

By Laurence Hammack laurence.hammack@roanoke.com 981-3239

LEXINGTON — A former pastor charged with molesting a teenage boy from his church is asking that his upcoming trial be moved from Rockbridge County.

Larry McKinley Clark’s attorney argued Tuesday that extensive publicity about the case would make it all but impossible to seat an impartial jury. Complicating the problem for Clark, attorney Dirk Padgett said, that news media coverage includes that of an earlier trial in which Clark was convicted of sexually abusing a second young parishioner.

“I do think it raises it to a different level if [potential jurors] are aware of a conviction,” Padgett argued during a hearing in Rockbridge County Circuit Court.

Judge Michael Irvine took the motion for a change of venue under advisement, saying he will first try to seat a jury in Lexington as the law requires. Irvine also agreed to postpone Clark’s trial, which had been set for next week, until Sept. 14.

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MINNESOTA
Al Jazeera

by Mary Turck @maryturck

On June 15 Minnesota Archbishop John Nienstedt and his deputy, Bishop Lee Piché, resigned from their positions days after the county attorney filed criminal charges against the archdiocese for failing to protect children from sexual abuse.

Nienstedt may personally be linked to the scandal: In 2014 he first ordered, and then blocked, an internal investigation of his private life. His resignation, which came after years of his insistence that he would not resign, was announced, but not explained. It highlights the bigger issues that are dogging the Catholic Church on every continent. Nienstedt’s resignation also underscores the struggle between progressives and conservatives over abuse of authority by bishops and the Vatican and, ultimately, over the direction the church will take under Pope Francis.

The fallout within the Minneapolis-St. Paul archdiocese is not surprising. Years of clergy sex abuse scandals have led to bankruptcy and the departure of many Catholics from the church. In fact, the abuses that led to Nienstedt’s resignation were first reported more than 30 years ago. Public concern escalated in 2013 as Minnesota Public Radio published an investigative series based on new evidence disclosed by diocesan canon lawyer and whistleblower, Jennifer Haselberger. The MPR reports, which documented sexual abuse of children by priests and the failure of three archbishops to respond over 30 years time, catapulted the archdiocese into a national spotlight.

The new revelations outraged Catholics across the state and nation. They already knew about the sex abuse by priests, with reports starting at least in the 1970s, but the extent of abuse and cover-ups had never been disclosed. For example, archbishops failed to report crimes to police, transferred pedophile priests from parish to parish, and sometimes arranged early retirement and special payments to the accused priests.

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NORTHERN IRELAND/IRELAND
RTE News

A Belfast solicitor has said he is finalising preparations to begin civil actions on behalf of five clerical abuse victims who allege they were let down by Irish authorities.

Last week, Northern Ireland’s Historical Abuse Inquiry heard claims of contacts between a Dublin hospital and gardaí in Finglas about paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

The substance of the claims being prepared by solicitor Kevin Winters is that elements of the Irish healthcare system and gardaí knew about the activities of Smyth in 1973.

This was more than 20 years before he was brought before the courts for his crimes.

For two decades afterwards, the Co Cavan-based priest abused children in Ireland, north and south and elsewhere.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

PUBLISHED
01/07/2015

A FORMER Catholic Archbishop has told the High Court he wanted a woman to withdraw and seek the return of a letter, sent by her to Rome, which accused him of sexually abusing her when she was aged 13 and 14.

Richard Burke denies he sexually abused Dolores Atwood in Nigeria when she was aged 13 or 14. He and Ms Atwood had consensual sex for the first time when she was aged 20 and he was 40, he insists.

Mr Burke (66), a native of Co Tipperary, has completed his evidence in his action against RTE alleging he was defamed in the RTE Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme broadcast on May 23rd 2011. He claims material in the programme wrongly meant he was a paedophile. RTE denies defamation.

After Mr Burke’s re-examination concluded this morning, the seventh day of the case, Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley and the jury were told the evidence of behalf of Mr Burke had concluded.
The jury was then asked to go out while legal discussion began in their absence.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Matt Sepic Jun 30, 2015

A ruling by a Stearns County judge could lead to the release of extensive files on sexual abuse by priests in the Diocese of St. Cloud.

District Court Judge Kris Davick-Halfen said a public nuisance lawsuit against the diocese may proceed. The unnamed plaintiff in the case claims that the Rev. James Thoennes sexually abused him in the early 1970s at a Catholic school in Foley, Minn.

Jeff Anderson, an attorney who represents victims of sexual abuse by priests, said the ruling will allow him to take depositions of top diocese officials about how they handled abuse cases.

“Given the magnitude and the importance of this effort and this ruling, we are going to move this forward aggressively,” Anderson said.

A similar decision in 2013 led to the release of thousands of clergy files by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Frank Meuers, a Minnesota leader of Survivors of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement that the nuisance suits make the state a leader in a growing movement to expose those who commit crimes against children.

“In no other state have child sex abuse victims been as successful at disgorging secrets from corrupt institutions through the creative and aggressive use of this novel legal strategy,” Meuers said.

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