ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
The Legal Intelligencer

P.J. D’Annunzio, The Legal Intelligencer
February 24, 2015

The plaintiff in a priest sex-abuse case is appealing a Philadelphia judge’s ruling that the statute of limitations barred his claims. Meanwhile, the case that will be the second priest sex-abuse lawsuit to go to trial in Philadelphia is set to head to the courtroom in early March.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Jacqueline F. Allen said the statute of limitations ran on plaintiff Philip Gaughan’s claims against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 2000, two years after he turned 18. Gaughan claimed he suffered psychological trauma from being sexually abused by a priest from 1994 to 1997.

According to Allen’s memorandum, Gaughan alleged that he didn’t realize the abuse had caused a psychological injury until 2010. Gaughan’s lawsuit was filed in 2011.

Malvern-based attorney Daniel Monahan, who handles the bulk of the clergy abuse cases in Philadelphia, represents Gaughan.

In arguing that the statute of limitations be tolled, Monahan said, “We’re trying to convince the appellate courts that the sex-abuse cases are like any type of latent disease case where people don’t know about it until very late in life.”

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IRELAND
Sunday World

An alleged victim of clerical sexual abuse has told a trial of a detective charged with forgery that she was angry when she found out that a file on her case had never been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Wicklow detective Garda Catherine McGowan (48), who is based at Bray Garda Station, has pleaded not guilty to one count of forgery on January 15, 2009 at Bray Garda Station and two counts of using a false instrument at Bray Garda Station and at Harcourt Street Garda Station between June 21 and 22, 2011.

The instrument is alleged to have been a letter from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), dated January 14, 2009.
The woman testified that the accused had previously informed her that the DPP had received the file and was not going to prosecute the case.

The investigation of Gda McGowan’s handling of the case was prompted by the publication of the Murphy Report which investigated clerical sexual abuse in the Dublin area. The priest in Gda McGowan’s case was one of the clerics mentioned in the report.

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KENTUCKY
WYKT

Somerset, KY- A former Pulaski County Sunday school teacher pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving a minor.

Rex Allen Murphy, age 30 of Eubank pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree sodomy, first-degree sexual abuse and use of a minor in a sex performance. The charges stem from October of 2014

Murphy’s plea deal carries a recommended sentence of 30 years in prison.

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KENTUCKY
Bowling Green Daily News

EUBANK, Ky. (AP) — A former youth pastor in Pulaski County has entered a guilty plea to sex crimes involving a juvenile.

WYMT-TV (http://bit.ly/17SUPtm) reports Rex Allen Murphy pleaded guilty on Monday to first-degree sex abuse, first-degree sodomy and use of a minor in a sexual performance.

Murphy was a youth pastor at Polly Ann Church of God in Eubank at the time he was charged.

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UNITED STATES
Homiletic and Pastoral Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2015 BY DAVID A. SHANEYFELT AND JOSEPH P. MAHER

Fr. Bob (that’s what we’ll call him) was a faithful parish priest for more than 25 years. One day, a process server showed up at the rectory door and handed him a summons and complaint. The complaint alleged that some 20 years earlier he had engaged in sexual contact with the plaintiff, who was then a young teenager and an altar server, and who now suffers from extreme mental anguish because of that conduct.

Fr. Bob is furious, mortified, humiliated, and terrified. He remembers the young man, he counseled him and found him deeply troubled—but he never, never touched him inappropriately, much less had any sexual contact with him. He calls his bishop immediately, but the bishop is unavailable. He calls the vicar general who tells him the diocese was served with a summons and complaint, too, in which the plaintiff alleges that the diocese knew, or had reason to know, of the inappropriate conduct, and failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it from occurring. The vicar general tells him to not talk with anyone, especially the press, and to wait for further direction.

The vicar general then calls Fr. Bob and tells him he is being placed on administrative leave, pending further investigation. Fr. Bob is transferred to the chancery and given a room at the local retreat center. A few days later, he meets with an attorney and tells him everything he remembers, including every action from his past 25 years that could possibly be perceived by someone to have involved inappropriate touching. He racks his brain as a kind of general confession and recalls the outer limits of acceptable conduct—an emotional embrace of sympathy with a woman in distress, a caring touch to a troubled teen. The attorney takes notes.

Several months go by, and Fr. Bob is still on administrative leave. One day, a confidential letter arrives from his bishop. The bishop tells him that due to the pending claim and ongoing investigation, his priestly faculties are suspended indefinitely, and he is not permitted to remain employed by the diocese or to receive further living accommodations. He has 30 days to move. He has no family to count on; no friends on which he wishes to impose. With $2,500 dollars in his bank account, he looks for a low-rent apartment in a bad part of town. He takes up new residence, with no job, and a stash of peanut butter and Top Ramen in the cupboard. Several months later, he receives another letter from the bishop; his priestly faculties are removed altogether. He is no longer a priest. The lawsuit settles.

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MISSOURI
Belleville News-Democratl

The Associated Press
February 24, 2015

ST. LOUIS — A former priest who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a child is free after 12 years in prison, and advocates for victims of clergy abuse say they are worried about what could happen next.

Gary Wolken, 49, was released Monday from the state prison in Cameron, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1ApaoVg ) reported.

Victims’ advocates say the Archdiocese of St. Louis has a responsibility to protect the public.

“We believe it’s disingenuous and dangerous for bishops to recruit, educate, ordain, hire, train, supervise, transfer and shield predator priests, but then defrock them when their crimes hit the headlines and do nothing else to protect the vulnerable from them,” said David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

The archdiocese said in a statement that Wolken is no longer a priest and will be subject to all sex offender regulations. It also encourages anyone wishing to report misconduct with a minor to contact clergy, church or archdiocese personnel, or police.

“We continue to pray for the victims and families of the grave evil of sexual abuse,” the statement read.

The nonprofit group Bishop Accountability says that between 275 and 300 Catholic clergy members have served prison terms in the United States since the scandal broke more than a decade ago.

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CALIFORNIA
Courthouse News Service

By ELIZABETH WARMERDAM

SACRAMENTO (CN) – A man who claims he was sexually abused, whipped and force fed by Jehovah’s Witnesses as a child must show why his claims are not time-barred, a federal judge ruled.

Cosme Presas, a state prisoner representing himself, claims that he was abused from 1994 through 1998 by congregation members and leaders of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheila Oberto dismissed Presas’ complaint without prejudice, and with leave to amend, finding that he failed to establish complete diversity of citizenship between the parties.

Presas, a California citizen, did not make clear in his pleadings whether the named defendants are all citizens of foreign states so as to invoke diversity jurisdiction.

In addition, Presas’ tort claims arise from alleged abuse occurring nearly two decades ago and therefore far exceed their applicable statute of limitations.

Although in California, the statute of limitations for such claims do not begin to run until a minor reaches the age of 18, Presas did not identify his age in his complaint.

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MINNESOTA/MISSOURI
Canonical Consultation

02/24/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Apropos of the Commonweal Magazine article on sexual formation at Saint John Vianney College Seminary in Saint Paul, it should be noted that the formation program at the Saint Paul Seminary (also in Saint Paul) has also been called into question at least in part because of the ongoing legal troubles of Reverend Xiu Hui ‘Joseph’ Jiang.

Father Jiang attended the Saint Paul Seminary prior to his 2010 ordination as a priest for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. During his seminary formation Jiang (a native of Hong Kong) was under the sponsorship of (Arch)bishop Robert Carlson, first as Bishop of Saginaw and then as Archbishop of Saint Louis, an unusual relationship that raised concern at the seminary at the time. While a student Father Jiang completed parish internships in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis including, if I remember correctly, at Saint John the Baptist Church and School in New Brighton.

Father Jiang’s legal troubles began very shortly after his ordination. Within three years he was charged with child endangerment and witness tampering in connection with inappropriate contact with a teenage girl. The criminal charges in that matter were dismissed when prosecutors could not establish that Father Jiang had been alone with the girl, but the civil case continues. Then, in May of 2014, Father Jiang was indicted by a Missouri grand jury and charged with sexual contact with a minor male under the age of 14. The sexual contact is alleged to have occurred in 2011-2012 at the parish school where Father Jiang was assigned.

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POLAND
The News

A Roman Catholic priest was arrested was smoking marijuana with two underage altar boys in the Silesian city of Gliwice in south-eastern Poland.

The 26-year-old man was detained with two boys, aged 16 and 17, after the police searched a car parked in a forest on the outskirts of Gliwice.

The priest and altar boys were inside smoking the controlled substance. The police found 2.5 grams of marihuana in the vehicle. The owner of the vehicle is the vicar of the parochial church of St. Bartholomew in Gliwice.

The parish priest learnt of his arrest from journalists

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Haredi-Cofounded Nonprofit Organization That Helped Child Molester’s Family Make Aliya Wins Jerusalem Prize

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

This year’s Jerusalem Prize for Aliyah and Absorption was awarded to the cofounders of Nefesh B’Nefesh today – despite the fact that Nefesh B’Nefesh helped the family of a child molester who fled justice move to Israel to join him there.

Several months ago, Nefesh B’Nefesh helped the family of Brooklyn haredi child molester Yona Weinberg move to Israel – despite the fact that Weinberg, a convicted child sex predator and molester, had fled to Israel shortly before that from Brooklyn to escape yet another abuse-related arrest.

Nefesh B’Nefesh allegedly does background checks on the people it helps. Nefesh B’Nefesh has sometimes denied this, but persistent reports from people familiar with organization say the checks are in fact done.

Weinberg and his family now live in the heavily haredi Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem. Local haredi rabbis have worked to stop publication of Weinberg’s record of molestation while a handful of local haredi activists – almost all originally from the US or other western countries – have complained vociferously that Weinberg now lives in their neighborhood.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 24

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

By his continuing, reckless and selfish secrecy, Steubenville Bishop Jeffrey Monforton is helping a defrocked priest and accused serial child predator gain access to more innocent kids and vulnerable adults.

[WTOV]

What a tragedy: A man deemed too dangerous to be in a parish can now teach teenagers and young adults, in part because a bishop is too selfish and irresponsible to simply say “these are credible child sex abuse allegations against him.”

And what irony: A defrocked priest and accused serial child predator talks about the child sex abuse allegations against him but his bishop, who has promised to be “open and transparent” about child sex allegations, refuses to talk.

What’s happened, precisely, is this: After several credible allegations of child sexual abuse, Steubenville’s bishop urged the Vatican to defrock Fr. Gary A. Zalenski. Vatican officials finally did so.

What this means, very simply, is this: that Zalenski been deemed by his own supervisors to be too dangerous to be a Catholic priest. He’s been formally and permanently expelled from ministry by the Vatican.

Keep in mind that there’s a great shortage of priests. And Catholic officials are often biased toward priests. They often refuse to defrock even credibly accused child molesting clerics. Usually, it’s only the most egregious offenders who are permanently ousted from the priesthood. So it speaks volumes that Zalenski has been ejected from the priesthood.

But now, Zalenski is teaching at a Belmont College. Steubenville’s bishop must do more to protect children from him and explain his own secrecy surrounding the troubling case.

But despite a national and allegedly binding US church abuse policy that mandates “openness and transparency” about clergy sexual abuse, Bishop Monforton:

— kept the Vatican’s decision to oust Zalenski secret for more than a month
— disclosed it only to his flock, not to the public
— put a tiny, two sentence notice about it in a church publication and, in an astonishingly callous and deceitful move,
— makes no mention of why Zalenski has been defrocked, and
— has just refused more requests from WTOP TV for interviews about Zalenski.

Zalenski is now on the faculty at Belmont College and has access to teenagers. For this reason and others, Bishop Monforton must do more. He should start by simply holding a news conference to warn parents, parishioners, police, prosecutors and the public about a credibly accused and permanently ousted predator priest and explaining – clearly and completely why Zalenski was defrocked.

That’s what a caring shepherd would do.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor February 24, 2015

Any day now, Pope Francis is expected to issue a new legal framework for three financial oversight bodies in the Vatican he created last year:

* A 15-member Council for the Economy, composed of cardinals and laity, which is responsible for overall policy;

* The Secretariat for the Economy, responsible for day-to-day management;

* An independent Auditor General, designed to keep everyone honest.

Strictly from a political point of view, the decision will be taken by many observers in Rome as a thumbs up or thumbs down for Australian Cardinal George Pell, who took the Vatican by storm a year ago as the pope’s chosen financial reformer and who has played to mixed reviews ever since.

For fans, including a wide cross-section of fellow cardinals who recently gathered in Rome to receive a progress report, the 73-year-old Pell is just what the doctor ordered: a tough, no-nonsense administrator capable of bulldozing through established patterns of doing business and ushering in a new era of transparency and accountability.

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CALIFORNIA
Oroville MR

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two California lawmakers who called the San Francisco archbishop’s morality clauses discriminatory are asking for a probe of working conditions at four San Francisco Bay Area Catholic high schools.

Democratic Assemblymen Phil Ting of San Francisco and Kevin Mullin of San Mateo say the clauses set a dangerous precedent for workers’ rights.

On Monday, they urged the Assembly’s Labor and Employment and Judiciary Committees to conduct the probe.

The request follows an exchange of letters between the assemblymen and San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.

The lawmakers asked the archbishop to remove the “divisive and discriminatory” clauses from a teachers’ handbook.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Newmarket Journal

Two men from East Anglia have been arrested and a further two people interviewed in relation to alleged historic sex abuse at a notorious Catholic boys home in Bedfordshire , police said.

A 72-year-old man from Bedford was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting four children, while a 79-year-old man from Mundford, Norfolk, was arrested on suspicion of six sexual and 14 physical assaults at St Francis Boys’ Home in Shefford, Bedfordshire.

The abuse is alleged to have happened at the children’s home during the 1960s and 1970s.

Detectives have so far identified more than 80 potential victims.

Both of the arrested men have been bailed until April pending further inquiries.

Police said a 68-year-old man was voluntarily interviewed under caution for sexual assault and inquiries continue.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Jack Ruhl | Feb. 24, 2015

ANALYSIS
The Catholic priesthood is aging at an alarming rate, and thousands of U.S. diocesan priests are expected to retire within the next few years. With most diocesan priest pension plans significantly underfunded, questions over where the money comes from to support them may point to a major crisis in the making.

Fewer than 26,265 diocesan priests remain in the U.S. today and of them, only 68 percent — about 17,900 — are still in active ministry. Only about one-third as many new priests are being ordained each year to make up for the ones who are retiring, dying or leaving active ministry. Dioceses now have one retired priest for every two active priests, and half of all priests in active ministry are over the age of 60.

Half of all priests currently in active ministry also expect to retire by 2019, and most of them expect to receive the pension payments they’ve been promised. Church leaders have known for decades about the looming priest shortage and its implications for sustaining Catholic parishes as eucharistic communities. Another, more hidden crisis lurks in diocesan pension reserves that are underfunded, many of them seriously.

Thousands of priests retiring in the next few years could discover that the pension and post-retirement money they expect from their dioceses is not available. I reviewed the results of the USI Consulting Group’s 2012 Diocesan Retirement Survey of priests and lay employees, focusing on priests. USI Consulting Group, founded in 1981 and headquartered in Glastonbury, Conn., provides retirement and employee benefit plan services throughout the United States.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bistum Regensburg

[Activity report of Dr. Martin Linder on the first year as commissioner of the Diocese of Regensburg for cases of sexual abuse]

Tätigkeitsbericht von Dr. Martin Linder über das erste Jahr als Beauftragter des Bistums Regensburg für Fälle von sexuellen Missbrauchs

Herzlichen Dank an meine Vorgängerin Frau Dr. Birgit Böhm!
Frau Dr. Birgit Böhm verstarb am 22. Mai 2013. Sie hatte das Amt der Missbrauchsbeauftragten des Bistums Regensburg seit 2008 inne. Vor allem seit 2010 war das Interesse der Öffentlichkeit aber auch die Resonanz von betroffenen Opfern groß, sodass Frau Dr. Böhm in dieser Zeit die bei weitem überwiegende Anzahl von Menschen mit ihren Berichten über erlittenes Leid bei diesem Weg zu dessen Anerkennung begleitete. Sie begegnete den Menschen, die sich an sie wandten als Anwältin, als Vertraute, als Begleiterin und auch als Seelsorgerin. Das konnte ich immer wieder spüren in den Kontakten, die ich an ihrer Stelle wieder aufnahm. Nur wenige Tage vor ihrem Tod begleitete sie noch ein Gespräch zwischen Bischof Dr. Rudolf Voderholzer und einigen Männern und Frauen, die als Kinder in kirchlichen Einrichtungen missbraucht wurden. Die Verletzungen, die diese Menschen erfuhren, bleiben. Hinwegnehmen lassen sie sich nicht. Es ist ein Ziel des Antragsverfahrens, dazu beizutragen, dass ein Betroffener vielleicht leichter mit ihnen seinen Frieden schließen kann, wenn sie angenommen, eingestanden und anerkannt werden. Frau Dr. Birgit Böhm trug mit ihrem Engagement entschieden dazu bei, dass betroffene Menschen und auch die Verantwortlichen des Bistums Regensburg diesen Weg gemeinsam gehen konnten. Für die Aufgabe, die jetzt mir übertragen ist, bereitete sie damit einen sehr guten Weg, für den ich ihr herzlich danke. Aufgrund Ihrer schweren Erkrankung konnte Frau Dr. Böhm zu Ihrem großen Leidwesen eine Reihe von Antragsfällen nicht mehr abschließen. Die Antragssteller waren mit einer ½ jährigen Vakanz konfrontiert und mussten Vertrauen in einen neuen Gesprächspartner fassen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

Das Bistum Regensburg will Opfern körperlicher Gewalt aus der früheren Vorschule des Internats der Regensburger Domspatzen in Etterzhausen/Pielenhofen jeweils 2.500 Euro zahlen. Es geht um 72 ehemalige Schüler, wie die Verantwortlichen am Dienstag in Regensburg erklärten. “Das ist keine Entschädigung”, sagte Generalvikar Michael Fuchs. Vielmehr gehe es um eine “symbolische Anerkennung des Leids”, der Kinder.

Die Diözese folge damit einer Empfehlung des beauftragten Rechtsanwaltes Andreas Scheulen und wolle umgehend mit den Betroffenen Kontakt aufnehmen. Auch die Kosten für notwendige Therapien würden übernommen.

Für die Aufarbeitung sexuellen Missbrauchs durch kirchliche Mitarbeiter hat die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz einheitliche Leitlinien entlassen. Eine Regelung für den Umgang mit Opfern körperlicher Gewalt gibt es nicht. Regensburg hat sich nun als eine der ersten kirchlichen Institutionen in Deutschland für diese Form entschieden. “Ob unsere Vorgehensweise auch die Früchte trägt, die wir uns wünschen, wird die Zukunft zeigen”, sagte Fuchs. Zugleich bat er alle weiteren möglichen Betroffenen, sich an die bischöfliche Beauftragte für Gewaltopfer, Angelika Glaß-Hofmann, zu wenden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Nachrichten

REGENSBURG. In der Vorschule des berühmtesten deutschen Kinderchors, den Regensburger Domspatzen, haben ein früherer langjähriger Direktor und mehrere Lehrer über Jahrzehnte Kinder misshandelt.

Inzwischen lägen Berichte von 72 ehemaligen Schülern aus den Jahren 1953 bis 1992 vor, die so schwer geschlagen worden seien, dass von Körperverletzung auszugehen sei, teilte das Bistum Regensburg am Dienstag mit.Die Betroffenen berichten von Schlägen mit Fäusten, Stöcken und einem Schlüsselbund. Zudem seien sie mit spitzen Bleistiften malträtiert und persönliche Briefe geöffnet worden.

Das Bistum hat nun beschlossen, die Straftaten anzuerkennen und den Betroffenen ein Schmerzensgeld in Höhe von jeweils 2.500 Euro zu zahlen. “Das Geld ist keine Entschädigung, sondern eine symbolische Anerkennung des Leides, welches Kindern angetan wurde”, sagte Generalvikar Michael Fuchs.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Merkur

[The Regensburg diocese has recognized that members of the boys choir were sexually abused over several decades and will pay each victim 2.500 euros.]

Regensburg (dpa) – In der Vorschule der weltberühmten Regensburger Domspatzen haben der langjährige Direktor und mehrere andere Lehrer über Jahrzehnte Kinder misshandelt. Jetzt entschließt sich das Bistum, Schmerzensgeld zu zahlen.

Inzwischen lägen Berichte von 72 ehemaligen Schülern aus den Jahren 1953 bis 1992 vor, die so schwer geschlagen worden seien, dass von Körperverletzung auszugehen sei, teilte das Bistum Regensburg mit.

Die Betroffenen berichten von Schlägen mit Fäusten, Stöcken und einem Schlüsselbund. Zudem seien sie mit spitzen Bleistiften malträtiert und persönliche Briefe geöffnet worden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bistum Regensburg

[Interim Report of the diocese to accusations of crimes of physical violence]

Dank von Angelika Glaß-Hofmann, Ansprechpartnerin des Bistums Regensburg für Opfer von Körperverletzung

Zunächst möchte ich mich bei allen bedanken, die mir in den vergangenen Jahren ihr Vertrauen geschenkt haben. Sie haben mir von tiefgreifenden Verletzungen und Gewalttaten berichtet, die Mitarbeiter kirchlicher Einrichtungen zu verantworten hatten. Diese Straftaten wurden als Übergriffe auf die Menschenwürde und als Demütigung mit oft erheblichen Folgen auf die weiteren Lebenswege empfunden. Es handelte sich bei diesen Übergriffen um brutale Verletzungen und unmenschliche Eingriffe in die Persönlichkeit von Kindern.

Deshalb bin ich sehr froh darüber, wenn sich die damaligen Opfer von Gewalttaten an mich als Beauftragte der Kirche gewandt haben und mir das Vertrauen entgegenbrachten, von den Straftaten zu berichten, deren Opfer sie als Kinder wurden. Sie geben damit der Kirche die Gelegenheit, die Straftaten aufzuarbeiten, die von kirchlichen Mitarbeitern begangen wurden, und Anteilnahme, Hilfe und Anerkennung zu leisten und um Vergebung zu bitten.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

What happened between last Friday’s papal prohibition of Ukrainian bishops’ making further political speeches and, less than 100 hours later, the Ukraine’s top bishop’s blasting of Russia, with help from Vatican Radio, and even help through the occasionally papally favored USA outlet, the Boston Globe’s CRUX website. Yes, CRUX even reported the Ukraine bishop’s blasting of the pope for using Soviet style propaganda!

Angela Merkel visited the pope, that’s what happened!

On Friday (2/20/15), as reported, “Pope Francis tells Ukrainian bishops to stay out of politics” here,

[National Catholic Reporter]

On Saturday (2/21/15), Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, fresh from her futile efforts with Russia’s President Putin over the Ukraine invasion, met with Pope Francis, along with 15 of her aides and the pope’s key foreign policy aides, reportedly to discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine, women’s rights and equality, children’s health issues in developing countries, etc., as considered further below.

On Monday (2/23/15), the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, held a press conference about his Vatican meetings last week, as reported by Vatican Radio, in “Ukrainian Archbishop calls on Christians to help end conflict” here:

[Vatican Radio]

Also on Monday, the Vatican’s often favored US media promoter, the CRUX website, reported “Ukrainian Catholic leader urges pope to be tougher on Russia” here,

[Crux] …

mportantly, what happened over the 100 hour weekend period apparently was an ominous and decisive visit to the Vatican from the world’s most powerful woman, the daughter of a Lutheran minister, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. For a recent superb and incisive overview of the remarkable Angela Merkel, please see “Angela’s Assets” here,

[Vanity Fair]

Germany still has a religiously divided Christianity, as it paradoxically prepares to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of Luther’s “revolt” in less than two years. As the pope, who studied in Germany, and the Lutheran Chancellor, both must know well, many of the Vatican’s sins that Luther challenged are still pervasive in Rome. These “sins” are funded now by direct German subsidies, rather than through sales of indulgences . Moreover, but for Luther, Merkel’s father likely would never have been able to have been a married cleric.

The pope should have been on guard, perhaps, when he received as a gift from Merkel a box of CDs of the music of the Lutheran genius, Bach, (and not of the Roman Catholic born German genius, Beethoven).

The pope had been preparing, before Merkel arrived, for a week long Lenten retreat with his Vatican officials. This was to be a “spiritual break” after an intense period that began with the pope’s public Christmas shaming of his administrative team, continued with his failed Philippine trip, and ended with his unusually secretive meetings with all of his cardinals.

Did Pope Francis and his likely successor, Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, really want to or even need to spend so much time now with Merkel and her entourage of 15 German officials?

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GERMANY
Irish Independent

Tony Paterson
PUBLISHED 23/02/2015

A Japanese Koi-fish breeding pond worth €213,000, wall-mounted iPads to close the curtains or even call up a prayer, an opulent bathroom fitted with a Jacuzzi and a “wellness” shower are just some of the luxuries Germany’s disgraced “Bishop of Bling” had enjoyed.

The pampered lifestyle that Limburg’s former Catholic Bishop, Tebartz van Elst, had envisaged for himself in his self-designed palatial residence not only failed to amuse his parishioners – it also embarrassed a Pontiff famous for siding with the poor.

Pope Francis removed the “Bishop of Bling” from his post in March 2014 after it was revealed the bishop had spent at least €31m of secret church funds on rebuilding and re-furnishing his residence.

Almost a year on from Bishop van Elst’s abrupt departure, his former diocese now finds itself landed with an architectural white elephant.

“We want to move away from the headlines and get back to the realities of everyday life,” insisted Limburg diocese spokesman Wolfgang Rosch who said that the church was keen to “de-mystify” the building, “The residence needs to be filled with life and become accepted,” he added.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

ONE less hurdle for victims of child abuse in Victoria has now been removed.

Victims of child abuse in this state will be able to seek civil damages regardless of when the abuse occurred thanks to new laws to remove complex time limitations.

The change in state laws was a result of the Betrayal of Trust report by the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse of religious and other non-government organisations.

This will mean victims who suffered abuse decades ago will still be able to seek damages from those responsible, including organisations.

Under current laws civil claims must be brought within either six years from the date on which the victim realises they have been abused by the victim, or 12 years from the date of the alleged abuse – whichever is earlier.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Victorian Government is set to abolish a major legal hurdle for child abuse victims who want to sue their attackers.

Legislation will be introduced into the Victorian Parliament to remove the time limit imposed on child abuse victims who want to launch civil claims.

Currently under the law there is a 12-year time limit to take action over alleged abuse.

Changes will mean people who suffered abuse as a child decades ago will be able to seek civil damages.

Attorney-General Martin Pakula said victims should not be penalised for not acting immediately.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SAMANTHA LANDY HERALD SUN FEBRUARY 24, 2015

CHILD abuse victims in Victoria will be able to pursue legal action regardless of when the maltreatment occurred, with complex time limits to be abolished.

An advocacy group for child abuse survivors says the new law — to be introduced by the Andrews Government today — is a “good first step” towards providing greater access to justice for victims.

The government’s bill will remove the limitation period for child abuse claims both past and future, regardless of the time or context of the alleged abuse.

Adults Surviving Child Abuse president Cathy Kezelman said the limitation had been a major barrier for victims wanting to pursue legal action.

Dr Kezelman said the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse had found that it took victims an average of 22 years to disclose that they had been abused — a time frame that did not fit in with current time limitations.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Monday 23 February 2015

Child sex abuse victims will no longer face a time limit on when they can claim for civil damages in Victoria.

New laws being introduced in the Victorian parliament on Tuesday will remove the limitation period for child abuse civil claims.

The attorney general, Martin Pakula, said the limits were complex and often discouraged victims from bringing claims to court.

“Victims should have the right to commence legal action knowing that an expired time limit won’t be used against them to knock their claim out of court,” Pakula said.

The new legislation will be retrospective.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 23, 2015

Richard Willingham, State Political Correspondent

Victims of child abuse in Victoria will be able to seek civil damages regardless of when the abuse occurred under new laws to remove complex time limitations.

The new laws will mean victims who suffered child abuse decades ago will be able to seek civil damages from those responsible for the abuse, including an organisation. Attorney-General Martin Pakula will introduce the laws to the Victorian parliament this week, which will apply retrospectively.

Under the law child abuse is defined as sexual abuse, physical abuse or psychological abuse that arises from sexual or physical abuse.

The Betrayal of Trust report, by the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other non-government organisations, found that time limitations were a major hurdle for victims seeking to litigate against organisations.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Child abuse victims no longer have to race against the clock when deciding to take legal action against their attackers.

New laws to be introduced in Victorian parliament will completely remove the limitation period for child abuse civil claims.

Currently civil claims must be brought within six years from the date the victim realises they have been abused or 12 years from the date of the alleged abuse.

A major hurdle felt by many people who were sexually abused as children has been removed thanks to the changes, Steve Betinsky, CEO of child abuse prevention organisation Child Wise says.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 24, 2015

Jane Lee

Child abuse victims could line up to sue the state itself once the Andrews government removes the statute of limitations from compensation claims.

The Andrews government is opening itself up to a range of potential lawsuits – including class actions – from people abused in state-run schools, orphanages and detention centres, lawyers say.

The state introduced a law on Tuesday abolishing current time limits to making compensation claims against a person or an organisation for child abuse. If passed, it will destroy what is widely considered the main legal barrier to victims receiving compensation from the institutions in which they were abused, following a recommendation from the Betrayal of Trust report of the state’s inquiry on child sexual abuse.

Lawyers who specialise in historic child abuse say most new claims are likely to be made against the Victorian government for abuse inflicted on state wards. Other legal barriers, they say, still prevent victims from suing religious organisations such as the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 12 February 2015)

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about how the Christian Brothers organisation protected Brother Edward Dowlan (now known as Edward Bales) for 20 years. From the start, they knew that he was committing criminal sexual assaults against Australian schoolchildren and, instead of dismissing him, the Christian Brothers kept transferring him to more schools, thus giving him access to more victims. When police finally charged him after 20 years, the Christian Brothers supported Dowlan, instead of supporting the victims. The victims eventually won (by getting him jailed for his crimes), but their lives had been damaged by the Christian Brothers— and one of Brother Dowlan’s victims ended up in suicide.

Twenty years after his first crime, Broken Rites arranged for one of Dowlan’s victims to have a private chat with detectives from the Victoria Police child-abuse investigation unit, who then interviewed some more of Dowlan’s victims. This resulted in Dowlan being jailed in 1996. After being released from jail in 2001, Dowlan changed his surname to “Bales” to avoid media scrutiny and, with help from the Christian Brothers organisation, he moved into a private residence of his own as Mister Ted Bales. In 2014, after more of his earlier victims finally contacted the police, Edward “Bales” pleaded guilty to some more of his crimes and was remanded in custody to await his next sentencing proceedings, which are scheduled to be completed by March 2015.

It was Broken Rites that first documented the Christian Brothers policy of continuing to support any criminal member in their ranks, even after a court conviction. A senior Christian Brothers official explained this policy in the Melbourne County Court in July 1996, when Brother Edward Vernon Dowlan faced charges for indecently assaulting boys in Victorian Catholic schools. A Broken Rites researcher was present in court, day after day, taking notes during the 1996 proceedings. The following article is based on those notes.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Feb 24, 2015

The bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis takes another step forward Tuesday afternoon with the first meeting of the creditors committee.

Citing clergy-abuse lawsuits and the costs of future claims, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January. Its Chapter 11 filing requires alleged victims to file claims in federal court as creditors.

So far, five people — all alleged victims of clergy sex abuse &,dash; have been named to the committee. Payouts to them and other creditors will depend greatly on what assets the archdiocese has available for compensation — a factor that likely will set in motion a detailed search for church assets.

The archdiocese and attorneys for abuse victims hope that insurance will cover a large portion of abuse claims that will be settled through the bankruptcy process, with church insurers potentially providing $100 million or more.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

[with video]

A former teacher at Knox Grammar has broken down as he laid the blame for his son’s ill health and early death squarely on the school he once respected.

John Rentoul, whose son David died aged 44 after a series of illnesses, told a national inquiry into how the Sydney school handled sex abuse allegations that he only found out in 2009 that his son had been abused by a teacher.

Dr Rentoul only found out about the abuse when David, who was at the school in the late 1970s, was giving evidence against his abuser Barrie Stewart.

‘I was shocked and outraged when David told us of the abuse,’ said Dr Rentoul, who taught at the school from 1969 to 1980.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

THE elite Knox Grammar has been accused of covering up 33 years of sex abuse which included students being plied with alcohol and cigarettes while teachers showed them sickening videos of paedophilia and bestiality.

One boy woke in his dormitory to find a man wearing a Knox track suit and a balaclava hiding under his bed and sexually assaulting him, the child sex abuse royal commission heard yesterday.

The man grabbed the doona, put it over his head and fled with the boys in pursuit.

It is alleged the man was a teacher, who was never disciplined and only resigned months later after being arrested while ­masturbating in his car outside the Wahroonga school, which bears the motto Virile Agitur — “do the manly thing”.

The “balaclava man” was alleged to be religious education teacher Christopher Fotis, who had told the schoolboy he “had a surprise in store for him that night”, counsel ­assisting the commission David Lloyd said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 24, 2015

Craig Hughes-Cashmore

On Monday an entire room was brought to tears as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard the heartbreaking testimony from a father of a Knox Grammar student who was a victim of child sexual abuse whilst at that school.

With his wife by his side for support, this brave elderly man dedicated his testimony to the memory of his cherished son who died just three years ago, prematurely at the age of 44.

The hearing room listened as he spoke of the health issues that lead to his son’s death – issues that had commenced at the time the abuse had begun when his son was 12 years old.

He reported that neither his son nor his family were ever offered an acknowledgement, an apology or support by the school administration at Knox, despite the conviction of the perpetrator in 2009.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Bridie Jabour
@bkjabour

Monday 23 February 2015

The prestigious Knox Grammar school gave a former teacher a positive reference after he left the school amid allegations of indecently assaulting one student and hitting two others.

Former house resident and teacher Damian Vance gave evidence to the royal commission into institutional responses to child abuse on Tuesday as the first abuser to front the inquiry after a day and a half of victim statements.

Vance was accused of indecently assaulting a boy in 1987 on the grounds of Knox but was not asked to resign until two years later. He was also accused of hitting boys in 1985 and 1986.

When Vance needed a reference to get a job in Melbourne, the school’s headmaster, Dr Ian Paterson, provided one calling Vance a “strong teacher and personality” who knew the “arts and craft of teaching”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ashleigh Raper and Antonette Collins

A former student of a Sydney private school says students were sexually abused so often, he was not sure it was wrong when he was assaulted by a teacher in the playground.

Former Knox Grammar student Scott Ashton told the royal commission into child sexual abuse of the shock, shame and confusion he suffered after being abused at the school in the 1980s.

He said it was clear the school harboured “a large paedophile cohort” and the abuse led to him becoming a sex worker as teenager.

Students were abused at the exclusive boys school, on Sydney’s north shore, over a 33-year period from the 1970s until 2003.

Mr Ashton told the second day of the inquiry into the school it was common for teachers to inappropriately touch students, and he was touched in the playground in view of another teacher.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A ‘notorious molester’ at Knox Grammar School had memorial gates erected in his honour with the inscription ‘He touched us all’, an inquiry has been told.

Scott Ashton, 44 gave evidence on Tuesday at a royal commission hearing into how the Uniting Church and the Sydney private school responded to child abuse allegations.

Mr Ashton said he was deeply confused by the attitude at the school where all were expected to pay tribute to an art teacher Bruce Barrett who had died young.

Mr Ashton said Barrett was a ‘notorious molester’ but the school put up memorial gates at the back entrance to the Wahroonga school in his honour and bearing the inscription: ‘He touched us all’.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A mother has told an inquiry how the abuse her son suffered a prestigious Sydney school means her hopes for him are now stripped down to mere survival.

Her son, ATS, started at Knox Grammar School in Wahroonga in 2002 when he was 10.

She said her son was very happy for the first term but then changed – he became quiet and withdrawn.

He refused to talk to his parents, became angry and hostile and self-harmed before being hospitalised after a serious suicide attempt.

When he was 14, ATS revealed to a psychiatrist that he had been abused by Craig Treloar, who had been targeting boys at the school for years.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 24, 2015

Rachel Browne

A paedophile teacher received a glowing reference from Knox Grammar School praising his teaching skills, despite having indecently assaulted one student and physically assaulted two others, a royal commission has heard.

Former student ASD complained in 1987 that teacher and resident housemaster Damian Vance indecently assaulted him while they were in a room under the Knox chapel.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told that then headmaster Dr Ian Paterson did not ask Vance to resign until 1989.

Dr Paterson told Vance he should take a real estate job in Melbourne, saying “I think you know why”, Vance told the commission.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

Ean Higgins
Reporter
Sydney

A PEDOPHILE teacher sacked from Knox Grammar because the parents of a boy he abused were coming to the school was later given a glowing reference by the headmaster who dismissed him.

Damien Vance had been reprimanded by headmaster Ian Paterson for physically assaulting two boys before he was asked to leave the exclusive Sydney boys school in 1989.

When he left, Dr Paterson gave Vance a letter of service which he used to get a job in a school in Victoria.

He continued to teach until a court ordered him to stay away from all schools two decades later.

Today, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told Vance was given 72 hours to resign by Dr Paterson, who did not mention the name of the boy he abused but just suggested he quit because “the parents were coming down”.

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OHIO
WTOV

[Zalenski removed from priesthood]

[with video]

Updated: Monday, February 23 2015

By JESSICA GUAY

It’s the story of a Steubenville Diocese Priest who was kicked out of the church after a lengthy investigation involving claims that he sexually assaulted a young female parishioner.

Gary Zalenski was never charged in the decades-old case, and he was cleared by a grand jury. But the church never backed off its investigation and the accusation never stopped. Now a grown woman, the alleged victim continues to stand by her claims.

For the first time since the church removed Zalenski, he’s speaking out — and has plenty to say. Zalenski is still living in the Ohio Valley, and he says he won’t give up his fight or his faith. He would like to be reinstated by the church, and he still maintains he never did anything wrong.

“It has destroyed my life,” Zalenski said. “It has taken, this last time has taken, everything away from me.” Zalenski’s was pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Church from 1987-1991. He eventually landed in Belmont County at Sacred Heart in Neffs in 1999. Nearly 8 years later, in 2007, came shocking allegations from one former parishioner.

“The big incident happened on summer break on a pontoon boat in a lagoon on a medium-sized island across from the main boat marina adjacent to the beach with a tall medal slide at Seneca Lake,” alleged victim Beth Ann Rocker said in a YouTube video. Aside from internet videos, Rocker started writing a book that includes her claims about what Zalenski did to her on his boat.

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UTAH
Deseret News

By Marjorie Cortez, Deseret News
Published: Monday, Feb. 23 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — The House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Monday to give a favorable recommendation to proposed legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations on civil actions related to child sexual abuse.

Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, sponsor of HB277, told committee members that child sexual abuse is “heinous. It’s murdering the spirit of the child.”

When a child is molested, society and the victims themselves pay the price in terms of health care costs, mental health treatment, lost wages and productivity.

“In this case, we make sure that cost is borne by the perpetrator,” he said.

Although Utah’s criminal statutes have been changed to acknowledge that many victims of child sexual abuse are not equipped to face their accusers until an average of 20 years later, Utah’s civil statute of limitations has lagged behind, Ivory said.

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UTAH
Fox 13

[with video]

FEBRUARY 23, 2015, BY CAROLINE CONNOLLY

SALT LAKE CITY — A proposal that would eliminate the statute of limitations on civil child sexual abuse cases received unanimous support from lawmakers, Monday.

Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, argued his bill would allow victims to seek the justice they deserve in court.

“Every single day, someone who turns 22, loses any opportunity to bring a claim against a perpetrator who abused them sexually as a child,” Rep. Ivory said.

Seated behind him during a meeting before the House Judiciary Committee were three victims of abuse, who can longer pursue cases against their attackers. Ivory’s wife, Rebecca Ivory, was one of them.

“I turned my abuser in back in 2003, which was a good 20-some odd years after it happened,” Rebecca Ivory said. “It sends the message that, you know what, if you’re a victim, you have the right to seek redress.”

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ILLINOIS
The Daily Northwestern

Abigail Stratton and Asha Sawhney
February 24, 2015

The Catholic church has been criticized for its hierarchies and organization. More recently, there has been international outrage over sexual abuse scandals associated with members of the clergy. Pope Francis has taken on many of the issues of the Church and is arguably the most controversial pope the Catholic Church has had in decades. Many praise him as being the most progressive-minded Pope the Church has ever seen and hope he will reform and modernize the current system. Others are less enthusiastic. They are skeptical of Francis and believe he is a transitional figure unlikely to bring significant reform. The world continues to watch, waiting to see how and if he will effect change.

Abigail Stratton:

Before I address the larger topic at hand, I must acknowledge my personal bias: I am a Catholic. By no means do I agree with all aspects and opinions of the larger Church, but I do practice the faith, although I have actually lost confidence in the Vatican and Catholic Church as an institution. That said, I believe Pope Francis has already and will continue to bring positive change.

In general, the Church and Catholics have developed a negative reputation in the past few decades. Much of this criticism stems from opinions that the Catholic Church has not changed with the times. Many believe the Catholic Church is archaic and cannot be relevant in the modern era. I disagree. The Church is not a “modern” institution – it has existed for hundreds of years and is steeped in tradition, but it is not irrelevant. The world’s 1.2 billion Catholics are all affected by Francis’ decisions.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 24 February 2015)

According to police, a senior Catholic priest from western Sydney, Father Richard Cattell, committed sexual crimes against multiple boys in the 1970s and 1980s. Later, in the early 1990s, the Catholic Church promoted this criminal priest to become the Vicar-General of his diocese, supervising dozens of parishes in western Sydney on behalf of the bishop. In 1994, Cattell was jailed regarding one of his victims (from the 1970s). In February 2015 (aged 74) he was jailed again regarding another of his victims (from the 1980s). The February 2015 victim (Broken Rites will call him “Zachary”) submitted a written impact statement to the judge, outlining how the church provided Cattell with easy access to vulnerable children, causing long-term damage to the victim’s later life. This impact statement is included in this Broken Rites article.

Broken Rites has ascertained that Father Richard St John Cattell was ordained on 18 July 1964 for the Sydney archdiocese. He was in the same graduating group as another New South Wales priest, Vincent Kiss, of the Wagga Wagga diocese. (Vincent Kiss was eventually jailed for sexual crimes against children.)

Cattell worked in various parishes (Broken Rites has compiled a list of these) until one victim managed to get Cattell convicted in court in 1994. Since 1994, various Cattell victims have contacted Broken Rites which has advised these victims to have a private chat with NSW Police detectives These victims are from several parishes (and various years) and they do not know each other. In 2014, the New South Wales Office of Public Prosecutors selected one of these victims (“Zachary”) as the case most suitable for laying charges in court.

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ALASKA
Alaska Dispatch News

Jerzy Shedlock
February 23, 2015

The headmaster of an academy for troubled youth in Kodiak has been placed on a leave of absence following public allegations of abuse, the Eastern Orthodox diocese that runs the academy announced on its website.

The allegations center on the Rev. Paisius DeLucia, who’s accused of physical, verbal and psychological abuse of students at St. Innocent’s Academy.

The victims are so far unsatisfied with the investigation. The bishop looking into the accusations has also been accused of revictimizing three former students by inviting them for interviews at the school, according to the website Academy Abuse, which features posts by more than a dozen former students who claim they were abused by DeLucia in their time at the school.

St. Innocent’s is an alternative school for “at-risk” youths on Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. The majority of its students aren’t from Alaska.

Sgt. Eric T. Olsen with the Alaska State Troopers in Kodiak previously said troopers there are also aware of the allegations and there is an ongoing investigation. DeLucia has not been charged with any crime.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

February 24, 2015 by J-Wire Staff

Following his appearance the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Souther Synagogue’s Rabbi Yosef Feldman is no longer providing a hechsher for Sydney caterer Amaze in Taste.

South Head Synagogue’s Rabbi Benzion Milecki, Jewish Learning Centre’s Rabbi David Blackman and Kehillat Masada’s Rabbi Gad Krebsare now currently providing a new interim hechsher for AIT.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman has provided the interim hechsher to AIT for the past year but has decided in the interests of the community he would agree to an alternative hechsher solution for AIT following the bad publicity he received resulting from his evidence at the Commission.

A spokesperson for AIT said: “To ensure that the community would have no disruption of service he did not do so until a suitable alternative was found.

The new alternative became available after the Council of Orthodox Synagogues of New South Wales (COSNSW) asked Rabbis Milecki, Blackman and Krebsare to provide the interim hechsher pending the outcome of the recommendations made under the Kashrut Commission of Inquiry Report (KCI).”

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UNITED STATES
Dallas Weekly

By Jazelle Hunt NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Simone Oliver had always been called, as they say in the religious community. She was active in the Baptist church throughout her youth, playing piano for the youth choir and even ghostwriting sermons for several pastors as a teen. She loved Scripture, loved preaching, and loved God. For her, church was heaven-on-earth.

But it was also hell. At 15 years old, Oliver’s then-pastor called her into his church office, grabbed her, put his tongue in her mouth, and fondled her until she broke away. It was the third time in her life she had been sexually assaulted, already a rape survivor at 12 years old at the hands of her sister’s first husband, and again at 13 by a family friend staying in her home.

Still, her faith did not waver. In fact, it grew stronger as Oliver transitioned from being a public school teacher to a minister.

In the mid-2000s, she took on an associate pastor’s role at a non-denominational church in New Jersey. The founding pastor tried to court her for years until she finally acquiesced and the two began a secret relationship. However, a year later, he decided to marry someone else. Still, the affair continued.

“I couldn’t get out. It was almost like sinking into an abyss,” she remembered. “I had gone to someone in the church to let them know this was going on. And they pretty much turned on me.”

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By LILLIAN RADULOVA FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

A prestigious Sydney school erected memorial gates for a teacher who was known to be a ‘notorious molester’ with the inscription ‘he touched us all’, an inquiry has been told.

Former Knox Grammar School student Scott Ashton, 44, told a royal commission hearing investigating how the Uniting Church and the private school responded to child abuse allegations, that he was left deeply confused by the tribute to the late Bruce Barrett.

Mr Ashton called the art teacher a ‘notorious molester’ while giving evidence to the commission on Tuesday, as he revealed the abuse he had personally suffered at Barrett’s hands in the Wahroonga school’s classrooms on Sydney’s North Shore.

In his statement, read out by close friend Gretel Pinniger who is also known as the high profile Sydney dominatrix Madame Lash, Mr Ashton said Barrett would chase and tickle his students.

He told the inquiry that Barrett would occasionally wear a red tie, announcing ‘watch out boys, it’s a red tie day’ to signify someone would be canned that day.

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GEORGIA
Courthouse News Service

By IULIA FILIP

SAVANNAH, Ga. (CN) – A pastor sexually battered a woman in his home while counseling her after the death of her father, the alleged victim claims in court.

Kadijah Davis sued Nathaniel Small, Jr., Barbara Small, and Greater Friendship Baptist Church, in Chatham County State Court.

The plaintiff, who lives in Savannah, claims Nathaniel Small sexually battered her in the home he shares with his wife Barbara.

As pastor of Greater Friendship Baptist Church, Small offered counseling services to church members and others, according to the complaint.

After Small conducted the funeral service for plaintiff’s father in January 2013, he offered to provide “bereavement or grief counseling” to plaintiff, who was not a member of his church, she claims in the lawsuit.

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OHIO
10TV

[with video]

By Glenn McEntyre
Monday February 23, 2015

Caledonia, Ohio – A church pastor and former substitute teacher is charged with sexually abusing a teenager. 32-year-old Corby Blanton is charged with five counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. Investigators in Morrow County say it happened between 2008 and 2012, starting when the boy was 14-years-old.

Corby Blanton was in Morrow County Court Friday facing charges of sexually abusing a minor. Two days later, he was at Memorial United Methodist in Caledonia, leading service as if nothing were wrong.

“We hadn’t had church the Sunday before (because of weather), and he’d been sick the week before that, so he’d been out of the pulpit for two weeks,” said church member Andy Kazee. “And (he) expressed his joy in being back in front of us, and shared a wonderful message.”

Andy Kazee was among the congregation just learning Monday of the accusations.

“I needed to sit down it was such a surprise,” he said.

Blanton serves as Pastor at Memorial United Methodist in Caledonia, and is a Youth Pastor at First United Methodist in Shelby. He has also served as a substitute school teacher for Cardington Lincoln Local Schools.

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OHIO
Mansfield News Journal

CALEDONIA – A pastor at Memorial United Methodist Church who had served as a substitute teacher has been charged with sexually abusing a teenager between 2008 and 2012.

Investigators allege Corby Blanton, 32, has been charged with five counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, according to 10TV.com.

Blanton had been serving as a substitute teacher for Cardington-Lincoln Local Schools when he met a then-14-year-old student.

According to 10TV.com, investigators say Blanton began tutoring the boy outside of school without the district’s knowledge when the alleged sexual abuse began.

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TEXAS
Click2Houston

[with video]

Author: John Brannen, Web Editor, Click2Houston.com
Andy Cerota, Anchor/Reporter, acerota@kprc.com

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas –
A lawsuit has been filed against a Houston area pastor accused of molesting and sexually assaulting at least six young girls.

The girls claim they ere as young as 9 years old when Radhames Severino repeatedly molested them up until they were 16 years old.

“They are visibly shaken, emotional, still scared and clearly confused. This was a church they were a major part of,” said attorney Derek Hollingsworth.

Radhames Severino is accused of targeting girls in his church from 2002 to 2012. Radhames Severino’s then-wife and co-pastor Rufino Medina Severino is also named in the lawsuit.

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TEXAS
Fox Houston

By Katie McCall, Reporter

HOUSTON (FOX 26) – A Spanish language pentecostal church, “Ministerios del Instituto Biblico Elohim,” cancelled all services on Monday after our news cameras showed up.

The former Pastor, Radhames Severino, is accused in a civil lawsuit of molesting 6 girls, repeatedly, between 2002 and 2013.

They are also suing the church, and his wife Rufina Medina Severino.

The girls say they told her what her husband was doing to them, and that she did nothing.

Their attorney, Derek Hollingsworth said of the Pastor’s wife: “she would say things like just don’t be alone with him or just don’t go in his office.”

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BOTSWANA
The Voice

DANIEL CHIDA

Hardly three months after his messy divorce, charismatic prophet, T.P Elias of Gates Of Heaven Networks Church has been hit by another sex scandal.

The flamboyant young preacher with a strong following of at least 6000 congregants hit the news headlines last year when his then estranged wife, Olerato Elias, accused him of sexual misconduct with nubile women in the church.

In March last year, Olerato, 24 and her husband got embroiled in a public fight over missing condoms and morning after pills that she suspected her husband had used on three sexy “Prayer Warriors” that he had accommodate while she was away.

She accused him of running their home like a playboy mansion where young girls frolicked in the pretext of learning how to pray and he filed for divorce.

Six months later they were no longer husband and wife.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Nic Rigby
BBC News

A second man has been arrested in connection with an inquiry into alleged child abuse at a Catholic boys’ home in Bedfordshire.

The 72-year-old man from Bedford was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting four children at St Francis Boy’s Home, Shefford.

A man, 79, of Mundford, Norfolk, has been re-arrested on suspicion of six sexual and 14 physical assaults.

The two men have been released on police bail until April.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Comet

24 February 2015 James Scott

Two men have been arrested and a further two people interviewed in connection with an ongoing investigation into alleged child abuse at St Francis Boys’ Home in Shefford during the 1960s and 1970s.

A 72-year-old man from Bedford was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting four children, while a 79-year-old man from Norfolk was arrested on suspicion of six sexual and 14 physical assaults on children at the home.

Both men have been bailed until April.

A 68-year-old man was voluntarily interviewed under caution for sexual assault – enquiries are ongoing.

And a 78-year-old woman from Shefford was interviewed under caution for sexual assault, but she has been released with no further action.

So far detectives have spoken to more than 80 alleged victims during the course of the investigation.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Conor Gallagher
PUBLISHED 24/02/2015

A detective has gone on trial accused of forging a letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to the investigation of a priest accused of sexual abuse.

Detective Garda Catherine McGowan has pleaded not guilty to one count of forgery on January 15, 2009 at Bray Garda Station where she is based.

She also pleaded not guilty to two counts of using a false instrument at Bray and Harcourt Street Garda Stations between June 21 and 22, 2011.

The instrument is alleged to have been a letter from the office of the DPP dated January 14, 2009.

In his opening speech to the jury, prosecuting counsel Alex Owens SC said that Gda McGowan had forged the letter to “hoodwink” gardaí who were reviewing whether she had acted properly in investigating allegations of sexual abuse by a priest of a teenage girl.

The investigation of Gda McGowan’s handling of the case was prompted by the publication of the Murphy Report, which investigated clerical sexual abuse in the Dublin area. The priest in Gda McGowan’s case was one of the clerics mentioned in the report.

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IRELAND
Herald

BY CONOR GALLAGHER – 24 FEBRUARY 2015

A WICKLOW detective has gone on trial accused of forging a letter from the DPP in relation to the investigation of a priest accused of sexual abuse.

Det Gda Catherine McGowan (48), based in Bray, has pleaded not guilty to one count of forgery on January 15, 2009 at Bray Garda Station and two of using a false instrument there and at Harcourt Street Garda Station between June 21 and 22, 2011.

The instrument is alleged to have been a letter from the office of the DPP dated January 14, 2009.

In his opening speech at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, prosecuting counsel Alex Owens said Gda McGowan had forged the letter to “hoodwink” gardai who were reviewing whether she had acted properly in investigating allegations of abuse of a teenage girl by a priest.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conor Gallagher

A detective has gone on trial accused of forging a letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to the investigation of a priest accused of sexual abuse.

Detective Garda Catherine McGowan, aged 48, who is based at Bray Garda Station, has pleaded not guilty to one count of forgery on January 15, 2009, at Bray Garda Station and two counts of using a false instrument at Bray Garda Station and at Harcourt Street Garda Station on June 21-22, 2011.

The instrument is alleged to have been a letter from the office of the DPP, dated January 14, 2009.

In his opening speech to the jury, Alex Owens, prosecuting, said Gda McGowan forged the letter to “hoodwink” gardaí who were reviewing whether she had acted properly in investigating allegations of the sexual abuse of a teenage girl.

The investigation of Gda McGowan’s handling of the case was prompted by the publication of the Murphy Report, which investigated clerical sexual abuse in the Dublin area. The priest in Gda McGowan’s case was mentioned in the report.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Lilly Fowler

One of the first St. Louis area priests to plead guilty to sexual abuse since the crisis shook the Roman Catholic Church more than a decade ago is now a free man.

On Monday morning, after 12 years in prison, Gary P. Wolken, 49, walked out of the Western Missouri Correctional Center in the small town of Cameron.

That has some in the community worried.

Advocates for victims of sexual abuse say the Archdiocese of St. Louis could and should do more to protect the public from priests who have admitted to sexually abusing children, even after they are no longer allowed to function as pastors or have served time in prison.

“We believe it’s disingenuous and dangerous for bishops to recruit, educate, ordain, hire, train, supervise, transfer and shield predator priests, but then defrock them when their crimes hit the headlines and do nothing else to protect the vulnerable from them,” said David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

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UNITED KINGDOM
EDP 24

Press Association
Tuesday, February 24, 2015

A Catholic priest from Norwich broke down in tears yesterday at his sex abuse trial as he recalled his pornography collection.

Father Anthony McSweeney, 68, denied molesting three teenage boys at Grafton Close children’s home in Hounslow, west London, between 1979 and 1981.

But he admitted being shown a child sex porn film by his close friend, the care home manager John Stingemore, 72 – who was found dead weeks before the beginning of his trial.

McSweeney did not tell the authorities as it “did not occur” to him.

He also confessed to going to Amsterdam’s notorious red light district with Stingemore, where he bought gay porn.

The once part-time chaplain at Norwich City FC was leading the congregation at St George’s Church in north Norwich when the claims against him emerged.

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NEW JERSEY
The Guardian (UK)

Associated Press in Trenton, New Jersey
Monday 23 February 2015

Prosecutors on Monday played recordings made by undercover agents who met a New Jersey rabbi who is on trial for allegedly using brutal tactics to force unwilling Jewish husbands to divorce their wives.

Rabbi Mendel Epstein is seen on grainy video speaking with two undercover agents who are posing as a brother and sister. They wanted to get the woman a divorce from her unwilling husband.

Epstein is heard saying it would cost at least $60,000 to get the “tough guys” to carry out the operation. He also discusses tactics to force the husband’s hand, including kidnapping him and using cattle prods and karate.

Epstein faces charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and attempted kidnapping with his son and two other Orthodox rabbis. His attorney does not dispute the acts were committed but says they do not rise to the level of federal kidnapping charges.

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NEW JERSEY
ABC News

TRENTON, N.J. — Feb 23, 2015
By SEAN CARLIN Associated Press

On grainy video, filmed from across a desk at his Lakewood home, a New Jersey rabbi told undercover FBI agents that his team of “tough guys” would jump Jewish husbands who wouldn’t divorce their wives by throwing hoods over their heads and handcuffing them.

“He’s going to be jumped, handcuffed and hooded,” Rabbi Mendel Epstein is heard telling the agents posing as a brother and sister seeking a divorce from her unwilling husband. “That takes 30 to 60 seconds. For 80 percent of the guys, it’s over right there.”

Prosecutors played the video in federal court Monday, the third day of Epstein’s trial on charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and attempted kidnapping.

His son and two other rabbis also are on trial in connection with a staged kidnapping in 2013 and three other forced divorces. His attorney, Robert Stahl, says some crimes were committed but don’t amount to “federal kidnapping.” He says Epstein was good at advocating for women and convincing husbands to grant divorces, a practice known as “a get.”

The female undercover agent who recorded the videos took the stand Monday for the second day; the defense is expected to question her Tuesday.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

Posted on Feb 23, 2015

Many questions remain as to why Bishop McCort Catholic High School hired Artrell Hawkins Jr. as its new football head coach on Wednesday and then rescinded the offer a few days later.

On Sunday, the school’s principal, Thomas Fleming, issued a statement in which he said, “Upon review and consultation of school protocol, Bishop McCort has unfortunately had to rescind its selection of Mr. Artrell Hawkins Jr. to serve as Bishop McCort’s new head football coach.”

Fleming further said in the statement that protocols were in place for hirings and, “Unfortunately, this process was not appropriately followed in this circumstance.”

Fleming, Hawkins, a 1994 Bishop McCort graduate and former National Football League player, and Mark Pasquerilla, chairman of the school’s board of trustees, did not respond Monday to messages left, requesting interviews.

Being a private school, Bishop McCort does not need to be as open with its decisions as a public school might need to be, said Paula Knudsen, the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association’s director of government affairs/legislative counsel.

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CANADA
The Canadian Jewish News

Josh Bornstein, Special to The CJN, Monday, February 23, 2015

In the last several weeks, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse in Australia has examined the response of the ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva Center in Melbourne and its counterpart in Sydney to cases of child sexual abuse. The commission has specifically attempted to investigate how the extensive offending by convicted pedophiles David Kramer, Daniel Hayman and David Cyprys in the 1980s and 1990s were dealt with by the rabbis and leaders of the yeshiva.

The commission has heard testimony from a number of victims of child sexual abuse within the organization. With one exception, all victims have chosen to remain anonymous.

The proceedings underline why Manny Waks, the founder of Tzedek, an Australian-based support and advocacy group for Jewish victims of child sexual abuse, was the first and only victim of child sexual abuse in the Australian Jewish community to go public. Waks displayed enormous courage then and continues to do so now. He and his family have paid a terrible price for seeking to ensure there is accountability for perpetrators and those who have tried to shield them.

The persecution and abuse directed at Waks and his family by some within the yeshiva community continued during the royal commission hearings.

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FLORIDA
Sun-Sentinel

By Sergio Carmona
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Child sexual abuse survivors, rabbis and mental health professionals all repeated this duel message as they recently addressed a crowd of 400 Orthodox Jews at Aventura Chabad — “The Orthodox Jewish community will no longer sweep abuse under the rug and survivors who step forward will be embraced.”

The event was organized by Jewish Community Watch, an organization based in New York committed to raising awareness and preventing child sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community. The organization wanted to further its goal of educating parents, preventing child sexual abuse, assisting survivors and breaking the silence and shame that surrounds CSA in the Orthodox Jewish community at the event, which was emceed by reporter Rosh Lowe. The event included survivors of abuse who bravely broke their silence and shared their story publicly.

During the event Rabbi Elchonon Tauber, a rabbinical judge from Los Angeles, insisted to the crowd that someone who knows of abuse and doesn’t report it to the police is in violation of Jewish law. He also urged the audience to view child sex abuse as they would any other crime.

“If you saw someone poisoning the food in a Cheder (religious elementary school), you wouldn’t ask your rabbi his opinion on whether or not they should be reported. You would go straight to the police. Do the same thing with abuse! If you know of an individual who is harming children, go directly to the police,” Tauber urged the audience.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

If anyone wants to save content from CofA Blog do it now, as Blogger is going to “block” it on March 23 for being “sexually explicit” and to that I say a big f— you, you want sexually explicit, look what these priests did to all of our lives. Thanks, Fundamentalists who are taking over and ruining everything. http://cityofangels12.blogspot.com

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

Jaime Baker

JOHNSTOWN, PA – Bishop McCort Catholic High School issued the following statement regarding the status of its head football coach search.

Tom Fleming, Principal of Bishop McCort Catholic High School, said: “Upon review and consultation of school protocol, Bishop McCort has unfortunately had to rescind its selection of Mr. Artrell Hawkins, Jr. to serve as Bishop McCort’s new head football coach. Coaching successions go through a formal process, such as those protocols recently followed in the hiring of both Coach Murphy and Coach Davitch. Unfortunately this process was not appropriately followed in this circumstance. We spoke with Mr. Hawkins and we sincerely appreciate his understanding in this unfortunate situation.”

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SCOTLAND
Falkirk Herald

by Chris McCall
c.mccall@falkirkherald.co.uk
Published on the 23 February 2015

The number of Roman Catholic churches and priests serving the Falkirk district could be reduced amid falling congregation numbers.

The Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh, which covers most of central Scotland, with the exception of Glasgow and Lanarkshire, plans to reduce the number of parishes it administers from more than 100 to 30.

The reforms were revealed in a letter from Archbishop Leo Cushley to the deans of the archdiocese, asking them to begin discussion on how best to organise resources at a local level.

A spokesman for the church told The Falkirk Herald that plans were at an early stage and no final decisions had been made.

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MINNESOTA
Noaker Law Firm

Upcoming Bankruptcy Court Dates:

February 24, 2015 – Meeting of Creditors

Where: United States Courthouse, Room 1017, 300 South 4th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415

What: A meeting of creditors is where a representative from the Archdiocese is questioned under oath by the trustee and by creditors. Creditors are welcome to attend, but are not required to do so.

01-27-2015 – Notice of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case, Meeting of Creditors

Recent Court Filings:

Archdiocese Chapter 11 Petition (1)

01-26-2015 – Notice of Appearance – Noaker

01-27-2015 – Notice of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case, Meeting of C

02-17-2015 – Periodic Reporting Regarding Value, Operations and Profitability

02-19-2015 – Appointment of Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in Chapter 11 Case

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UNITED KINGDOM
Pink News

A Catholic priest who is accused of molesting three boys had a large collection of gay porn, a court has heard.

Father Anthony McSweeney, 68, denies molesting three teenage boys between 1979 and 1981 at Grafton Close Children’s Home.

According to the BBC, the priest admitted to Southwark Crown Court that he bought gay porn in Amsterdam’s Red Light District alongside care home manager John Stingemore.

He kept the porn collection secret until he was discovered by his parish’s cleaner at St Peter’s in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.

McSweeney said he was “ashamed” of his habit, and became emotional during his testimony.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

23 FEBRUARY 2015

A Catholic priest broke down in tears today at his sex abuse trial as he recalled his gay and S&M pornography collection.

Father Anthony McSweeney, 68, denied molesting three teenage boys at Grafton Close children’s home in Hounslow, west London, between 1979 and 1981.

But he admitted being shown a child sex porn film by his close friend, the care home manager John Stingemore, 72 – who was found dead weeks before the beginning of his trial.

McSweeney did not tell the authorities as it “did not occur” to him.

He also confessed to going to Amsterdam’s notorious red light district with Stingemore, where he bought gay porn.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Idaho Statesman

BY JOE MANDAK
Associated Press
February 23, 2015

PITTSBURGH — Retired NFL player Artrell Hawkins Jr.’s alma mater has rescinded its decision to hire him as football coach.

Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown announced Wednesday that the school had hired Hawkins, a 1994 graduate, to replace a coach who resigned the day before. But Sunday night, the school’s public relations spokesman, Matthew Beynon, issued a statement from Principal Tom Fleming rescinding the hiring.

“Coaching successions go through a formal process. … Unfortunately, this process was not appropriately followed in this circumstance,” the statement said. “We spoke with Mr. Hawkins and we sincerely appreciate his understanding in this unfortunate situation.”

Beynon did not immediately respond to questions about how the school’s hiring process and unspecified “protocols” also referenced in the principal’s statement were not followed.

But The Associated Press has learned that Hawkins was arrested on a domestic violence charge last year at his home near Cincinnati, though he was later found not guilty.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Bethany Mandel

Not unsurprisingly, given that I’m a victim, I’ve read almost everything printed about the Barry Freundel case since it first broke back in October. I have made myself available for interviews not because I want to be known as the woman whose rabbi taped her naked, but because I think it’s important for reporters to understand the nuances of Orthodox Judaism, of conversion, of the community in Washington D.C.

Stories like these are “bad news for the Jews,” and it’s important to for the Jewish community to be clear that things like this happen not because of inherent issues with Judaism, but due to the flaws of some human beings who practice it.

It was with extreme frustration that I read Jay Michaelson’s latest column in this very paper on the case. Michaelson seems to believe that prominent members in the Kesher community should have seen Freundel’s recently exposed flaws more clearly.

He asks, “How can some of our community’s leading (if self-appointed) cultural sages lionize and valorize someone who, in fact, they didn’t really know that well?”

Juxtapose this question with a statement from Michaelson’s last column on Freundel (in which he blamed “burnout” for Freundel’s transgressions) “Those of us who knew, or thought we knew, Rabbi Barry Freundel — recently arrested for spying on women in the mikveh, with a mountain of evidence suggesting his guilt — are still in shock. As much as I disagreed with many of his halachic positions, I always thought he was one of the good rabbis, the ethical ones.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

KNOX Grammar let pedophile teachers continue at the school for years after clear indications they had sexually assaulted students, shown them pornographic videos and engaged in other inappropriate conduct, an inquiry has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard that across more than three decades of abuse involving five teachers, school authorities did not report a single incident to police.

Yesterday marked the start of a two-week inquiry into abuse between 1970 and 2003 at the prestigious private day and boarding school in Sydney that operates under the auspices of the Uniting Church.

The inquiry heard from former students who said their lives had, in the words of one, been “trashed” by predator teachers Barrie Stewart, Adrian Nisbett, Craig Treloar, Roger James and Damien Vance.

The former students claimed the abuse would have been known to the headmaster for most of the period, Ian Paterson.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nicole Chettle, staff

The elderly father of a former Knox Grammar student has told an inquiry into alleged sexual abuse at the school that his adult son died as a result of trauma inflicted by paedophile teacher Barrie Stewart.

Dr John Rentoul, 80, a former assistant principal at the elite boys’ school in Sydney’s north, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he worked with three of the five former Knox teachers who were later convicted of abusing students over a 33-year period.

Dr Rentoul said his son, David, found his abuser’s criminal trial difficult and that he was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.

Stewart received a suspended sentence on charges including indecent and sexual assault.

The inquiry has been told that of the five Knox teachers convicted of offences against boys as young as six at the school only one, Craig Treloar, received a jail sentence – four and a half years.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Local Guardian

by Laura Proto, Chief reporter – Richmond and Twickenham

A Catholic priest said he was “desperately ashamed” he did not tell anyone the manager of a Richmond Council-run children’s home tried to show him child pornography, a court heard.

Father Tony McSweeney, 68, is currently on trial accused of indecent assaults on young boys in the 1970s and 1980s and possessing indecent images of children.

Mr McSweeney was a friend of jointly charged John Stingemore, the manager of Grafton Close children’s home, who died last month before he could face trial.

It was alleged Mr McSweeney watched boys in the shower at the children’s home, sexually assaulted a second boy on a number of occasions and sexually assaulted a third boy at Mr Stingmore’s home in Bexhill.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Bad news at the Oscars this weekend for the pope. Best picture went to the movie starring “superhero”, Michael Keaton, whose “Spotlight” movie covering the Boston Globe’s powerful 2003 expose of infamous Cardinal Law’s priest child abuse cover-up is nearing its global release. Law is still an honored guest at Vatican events. Papal apologists, like David Pierre, have apparently even already begun their desperate attack on the Globe’s prior management, which will only increase the movie’s ticket sales. Instead of receiving an Oscar this weekend, the pope received a box of Bach CDs and an ominous and untimely visit from the world’s most powerful woman.

Will this daughter of a Lutheran minister, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, tip the scales on the pope’s “retreat agenda” this week, as a religiously divided Germany paradoxically prepares to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of Luther’s “revolt” in less than two years?

The pope had been preparing, before Merkel arrived, for a week long Lenten retreat with his Vatican officials. This was to be a “spiritual break” after an intense period that began with the pope’s public Christmas blast at his administrative team, continued with his Philippine trip, and ended with unusual secretive meetings with all of his cardinals. Did he and his likely successor, Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, really want to or even need to spend so much time now with Merkel and her entourage of 15 German officials?

Of course, the Pope and Parolin did have to listen if Merkel insisted on it. Germany is the largest single “guaranteed source” of Catholic Church financial support, with over $7 billion in annual direct governmental subsides. When Angela talks, the pope better listen, no?

The talks reportedly (in the words of the polite diplomatic script mutually agreed likely by Merkel and the pope) focused on international crises, including the conflict in eastern Ukraine, women’s rights and equality, children’s health issues in developing countries, etc.

Women’s rights. childrens’s health …,? The pope talked to a woman about women and family issues? Almost unprecedented, no? Are these terms “code words” for issues like changing the ban on the Pill and for holding bishops accountable for protecting priest child abusers? Merkel may have trouble pushing Putin,Russia’s president, but she pays many of the pope’s bills. As Greece is learning, she surely knows how to apply her economic power. She also recently met in Washington with President Obama so likely knows where he stands on reining in this popular, but internationally meddlesome, pope, no?

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ALASKA
Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the U.S.A., Canada and Australia

In response to the allegations and complaints against Archpriest Paisius DeLucia, Rector of St. Innocent’s Academy, Kodiak, Alaska, filed at the Diocesan Chancery by a number of individuals, His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph has called the Diocesan Spiritual Court to convene on March 19-21, 2015.

An investigation by the Diocese is presently in progress and is being led by His Grace Bishop Daniil of Dragovitsa, the Metropolitan Vicar. Last week His Grace visited St. Innocent’s Academy in Kodiak and interviewed witnesses. On Feb 27-28, His Grace will meet with other witnesses in Syracuse, NY and on March 6-8 he will be visiting Indianapolis. All parties who are interested in giving their testimony may contact the Rectors of Holy Transfiguration Church, Syracuse and Joy of All Who Sorrow Church in Indianapolis for the schedule of meetings.

During the period of the investigation and until a decision of the Spiritual Court has been made, Archpriest Paisius DeLucia will be on leave of absence from St. Innocent’s Academy.

The Diocese has deep concern for all those people affected in any way. The prayers of all the faithful are requested for all involved in this weighty and sensitive matter.

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ALASKA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, February 23, 2015

Statement by Melanie Sakoda of Moraga CA, Orthodox Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 925-708-6175, melanie.sakoda@gmail.com )

An Orthodox priest who has been accused of the physical, mental, and spiritual abuse of students at a school in Kodiak has been placed on a leave of absence.

[Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese]

On Saturday, February 21, the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia announced on its website that Archpriest Paisius DeLucia was on leave pending the outcome of a spiritual court. The court is scheduled to convene on March 19-21 of this year. Bishop Daniil Trendofilow Nikolov is currently investigating the complaints.

[SNAP]

A victims’ group does not believe that a leave of absence is adequate and wants the diocese to do more.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, believes that a suspension is the appropriate response in the face of such serious allegations.

[Pokrov]

(Page 1)

“If the diocesan policy calls for a suspension upon receipt of a written complaint, then Father Paisius should have been suspended months ago, not placed on a leave of absence this weekend,” fumed Melanie Jula Sakoda of SNAP. “Doesn’t Metropolitan Joseph realize that unless this man is suspended, there is nothing to prevent him from continuing with the same pattern of abuse?”

[Academy Abuse]

The victims’ group also thinks that more needs to be said about the leave of absence. Cappy Larson, also of SNAP, pondered, “Where will Father Paisius be during this leave, and who will be in charge of the school? Current students can’t possibly feel safe to make an outcry if their abuser is still nearby, or if the person in charge has been a witness to past abuses and done nothing.”

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OKLAHOMA
KFOR

[with video]

FEBRUARY 21, 2015, BY M.DELATORRE

OSAGE COUNTY, Okla. (KOKI)– U.S. Marshals Service arrested Donald Carter at an airport in Florida as he returned from Colombia.

Donald Carter’s ex-wife says it’s hard to look at old pictures. She was in love with her husband, who, she says, was a well-respected pastor for six years.

“I don’t want him to touch any other… young girls.”

Carter’s ex-wife didn’t want to be identified, but she says multiple women approached her shortly after she granted him the split. She says the alleged victims confided in her at different times, telling her he had raped them when they were children.

“It’s unbelievable that it happened. And it’s so wrong.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 23, 2015

Marissa Calligeros

The investigation into sexual abuse at St Patrick’s College in Sale has broadened with at least one other victim contacting police.

Detectives from the child-exploitation Sano Taskforce encouraged victims to contact police after revealing they were investigating claims of sexual abuse at the former boarding school in the 1970s and 1980s.

Several men have alleged they were sexually abused while boarding at the Catholic school, south-east of Melbourne, between the ages of 11 and 15.

Police arrested an 87-year-old Sale man in relation to the investigation last Thursday, but he was released from custody pending further inquiries.

Fairfax Media can reveal another victim has since contacted the taskforce alleging he was molested at the school when he was about 12 or 13 years old.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Bridie Jabour
@bkjabour
Sunday 22 February 2015 23.07 EST

One of Sydney’s most prestigious private schools, Knox Grammar School, ignored and covered up sexual abuse of students for more than 30 years, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has heard.

Knox formally apologised on the first day of the hearing after allegations of sexual abuse of multiple young boys and teenagers were heard, including that they were fondled, masturbated and asked to perform oral sex on at least one teacher. Key documents regarding the abuse and kept by different headmasters have disappeared over the years with Knox unable to provide an explanation.

The school is also accused of not once reporting allegations of child abuse to New South Wales police despite numerous complaints.

After the allegations were detailed in the opening address of the hearing, counsel representing Knox Grammar School, Geoffrey Watson, offered an apology, the first one of the witnesses said he had heard.

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Transformation

SUSAN RAKOCZY 23 February 2015

Sexual abuse, the refusal to ordain women and some high-profile popes: most people would probably cite these things about the Catholic Church—often seen by secular society as a bulwark of conservative religion, especially because of its teachings on sexuality.

But Catholic teachings on social and economic issues are a very important dimension of the Church’s life and have their own long history. Beginning in 1891 with the first social encyclical—Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (“Of New Things”)—and continuing to Pope Francis’s forthcoming encyclical on ecology, the Catholic Church has developed a significant body of teachings on peace and social justice. These insights have often been in advance of what secular society has been willing to listen to and act on.

However, it’s also true that these insights are sometimes called the Church’s ‘best kept secret’ because there’s such a gap between teaching and practice—between what people hear in the pew in Sunday homilies and the application of these principles to the daily lives of Catholics. Why does this gap exist, and what can be done to close it?

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 23, 2015

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

Widespread child sexual abuse at the prestigious private boys school Knox Grammar was covered up for decades because the school was more concerned about its reputation than the welfare of students, a royal commission has been told.

On the first day of the public hearing into how the school dealt with sexual abuse allegations,fresh claims were made against three former staff members. A further five former staff members have already been convicted of multiple sexual offences against students.

Former assistant headmaster John Rentoul wept as he told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse about the discovery his son, David, was molested by Knox music teacher Barrie Stewart in the late 1970s.

Mr Stewart, along with other teachers, continued to work at the school despite numerous claims about inappropriate behaviour with students.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

Teachers at one of Australia’s most prestigious schools ‘forced students to watch sickening paedophile porn films’

By FRANK COLETTA FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP

Claims that a teacher at one of Australia’s most prestigious schools forced students to watch paedophile pornography, have surfaced at a royal commission into child sex abuse.

Two teachers, who were convicted of sexually assaulting boys at the prestigious Knox Grammar School in Sydney, have been called to give evidence at the national hearing.

And there would be evidence of abuse by a further three teachers who were never charged, it was revealed.

The royal commission into child sexual abuse will hear from Craig Treloar, who was sentenced to four and a half years in jail, with two years non-parole, in 2009 for indecent assault.

It will also hear from Damien Vance, who was convicted of one act of indecency on a boy under 16 and released on a good behaviour bond.

In his opening statement on Monday, counsel for the commission David Lloyd said five teachers at Knox in Wahroonga on Sydney’s north shore were convicted of sex offences against students.

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UNITED STATES
Express Tribune

By Ahson Saeed Hasan

For years we’ve made fun of the Catholic priests fondling with young ones. Their ghastly and heinous acts of insensitivity disgust our spirits and we all abhor such practices. I once stopped by and spoke to John Wojnowski, himself a victim, on Massachusetts Avenue, Washington DC, who has been protesting for years, trying to bring the world’s attention to the abusive ways of the clergy.

He told me his appalling story of how a priest abused him during his childhood and how difficult it was for him to get over the traumatic event, something that scarred him psychologically for his entire life.

Fast forward to now, the year 2015, we have a 75-year-old Muslim cleric, Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, running the Institute of Islamic Education (IIE) in the small mid-Western town of Elgin, just outside of Chicago. He was arrested on February 17 on charges of felony and criminal sexual abuse but was let go on a $250,000 bail. Saleem obviously denies the charges.

Saleem, Indian by origin, belongs to a generation of immigrants who came to the US back in the 70s and 80s and settled here based on their religious skills. He established the IIE in 1989 and that was actually the time he started to hobnob with young females at the institute, students as well as employees. What one learns from those who are aware of such incidents is that the cleric got away scot-free because the community came to his rescue and mediated a settlement whenever he behaved erratically.

Saleem is a habitual offender. So far, along with the 23-year-old girl who came out of the shadows and reported her abuse by the mullah, there are at least three more women who claim to have been sexually molested by him. It is expected that more people will come forward.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Annette Blackwell
February 23, 2015

The autocratic style of a headmaster nicknamed “Snake” by boarders at Knox Grammar School made it possible for teachers to take advantage of and prey on students, an inquiry has heard.

A man using the pseudonym ARY said the governance style of Ian Paterson, headmaster at Knox for 30 years, made students fearful of reporting sex abuse by teachers.

ARY boarded at the school from Year 7 in 1974 and was there for four years. He was indecently assaulted by science teacher Roger James when he was 14.

James was convicted and given a suspended sentence.

ARY and other former students told the sex abuse royal commission on Monday there was a culture of cover-up at the prestigious Wahroonga school.

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AUSTRALIA
Gippsland Times

SANO Taskforce detectives arrested an 87-year-old Sale man on Thursday following an investigation into historical sexual assault allegations at St Patrick’s College in Sale.

The man was interviewed and released pending further enquiries.

Investigators have received what they say are a number of complaints from former male students who attended the Catholic school during the 1970s and 1980s, when St Patrick’s operated as a boarding school.

The male students were aged between 11 and 15 at the time of the alleged incidents.

Detectives would like to speak to victims or witnesses who have information relating to sexual abuse at the college during the 1970s and 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
Gippsland Times

GIPPSLAND’S new Catholic bishop will assume his role at what is a tough time for the church in the region.

More than 1200 Catholics will flock to celebrate the ordination of Bishop-elect Pat O’Regan on Thursday, who looks forward to getting back to basics with his Christian message.

“I’d like to make the Christian message believable and credible, because we’ve taken a few body blows recently,” Fr O’Regan said.

“Because some bad things have happened, I’d like to get back to the basics of Christianity and that’s the love of God, love of neighbour.

“It’s not just about being in a holy huddle in a church; it’s being a part of the world.”

Fr O’Regan has arrived in the region at a time when allegations of sexual abuse against students at St Patrick’s Catholic College in the 1970s and 1980s now Catholic College Sale are being investigated by police.

Fr O’Regan said the church was praying for those affected and would co-operate with all inquiries.

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UNITED STATES
Canonical Consultation

02/22/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

For those of you who are looking for the registration information for the webinars, the information is as follows.

The Rights of the Faithful in the Catholic Parish

An interactive seminar for Catholics wanting to understand more about their role in the Catholic parish. Topics will include the rights of parishioners in regard to strategic planning, processes for challenging planning decisions, financial governance of the parish, and other topics as requested.

Wednesday, February 25 at 7pm, or Thursday, March 12 at 7pm.
Please register for the date and time that works best for you.
https://attendee.gototraining.com/rt/7638419793056098305

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the training.

Brought to you by GoToTraining (R)
Online Training Made Easy TM
Citrix Online | 7414 Hollister Avenue | Goleta, CA 93117

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February 23, 2015

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

Eight teachers at the prestigious Knox Grammar School abused young students over a 30-year period and yet the school did not notify police, a royal commission has heard.

Day one of a public hearing into the school contained fresh allegations against three staff. Five other staff members have already been convicted over sexual offences involving students.

The commission will also hear evidence that a number of files of students who made complaints of abuse may have been deliberately destroyed.

In his opening address to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, counsel assisting the commission David Lloyd said the school did not report allegations to the police for decades.

“The abuse was perpetrated by these teachers between approximately 1970 and the year 2003,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nicole Chettle

Elite Sydney boys’ school Knox Grammar has apologised for failing to protect its students from sexual abuse by teachers.

The Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking into complaints of inappropriate conduct by teachers at the school between 1970 and 2003.

Five former teachers have been convicted on a range of charges including sexual and indecent assault.

Geoffrey Watson SC, acting for Knox Grammar, told the hearing the Uniting Church-run school in Sydney’s north failed to protect students.

“The school humbly and sincerely apologises for its failure,” he said.

“It apologises to all of those students who are damaged by these events.

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AUSTRALIA
Haaretz

A senior Chabad rabbi was delisted as an emissary from the New York-based organization as the fallout continues from Australia’s Royal Commission into the child sex abuse scandal.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman, the former director of Sydney’s Yeshivah Center, which houses the headquarters of Chabad there, was dismissed last week after his controversial comments to the Royal Commission, including his suggestion that pedophiles who had not committed sex crimes for two decades should be treated with leniency.

Feldman, a son of Chabad’s chief rabbi in Sydney, sparked a storm of protest among Orthodox rabbis and mainstream Jewish leaders. He consequently resigned his post as director of the Yeshiva Center on February 11.

His dismissal came as Rabbi Avrohom Glick, who had resigned from all posts at Yeshivah College in Melbourne, where he was principal during the time of the abuse in the 1980s and 1990s, also tendered his resignation from the spiritual committee of the Yeshivah Center.

Victims were furious that he had clung to this post, which he had described as “his calling” during the hearings at the Royal Commission.

The resignations come in the wake of the two-week hearing into the child sex abuse scandals at Chabad headquarters in Sydney and Melbourne.

A third rabbi, Shlomo Kluwgant, resigned as president of the Organization of Rabbis of Australasia, after it was revealed at the hearing he had sent a text message describing Zephaniah Waks, one of the whistleblowers, as a “lunatic” who was “killing us.” His son, Manny Waks, the only Jewish victim in Australia to go public, is still demanding more resignations.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Abuse at the north shore presbyterian school, which one student described as a ‘paedophile ring’ went on for 33 years, the Royal Commission heard today.

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH FEBRUARY 23, 2015

STUDENTS at the prestigious Knox Grammar School were given alcohol and cigarettes before a number of house masters showed them sickening pornographic videos depicting paedophiles and bestiality, it has been revealed at the child sex abuse royal commission.

One former student, who was in a sexual relationship with a resident housemaster for three years, described the school as “a paedophile ring”.

One teacher, who allegedly wore a balaclava while sneaking under a boy’s bed one night to abuse him, will be among the witnesses giving evidence.

The abuse at the north shore presbyterian school went on for 33 years from 1970 to 2003 but the school has been accused of covering it up and destroying internal reports, including files of students who made complaints, which went missing.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Ean Higgins
Reporter
Sydney

KNOX Grammar School did not inform police of a single incident of child sexual abuse perpetrated by five teachers over period of 33 years, a royal commission has heard.

Council assisting the commission, David Lloyd, said in the opening of the inquiry into Knox, an elite Sydney private boy’s school associated with the Uniting Church, that the five convicted teachers had collectively abused a number of boys, and among the penalties issued was a jail term.

“There will be particular emphasis during this public hearing on the question of what information was known by the employees of Knox and members of the Knox Council about the abuse by the teachers, and when that information was known,” Mr Lloyd told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney.

He outlined a litany of episodes of sexual abuse by the teachers, in graphic terms.

The abuse included teachers touching and fondling students’ genitals, discussion of oral sex, and taking photos of boys during sexual acts.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Two teachers who were convicted of sexually assaulting boys at the prestigious Knox Grammar School in Sydney will give evidence at a national hearing.

The royal commission into child sexual abuse will hear from Craig Treloar, who was sentenced to four and a half years in jail, with two years non-parole, in 2009 for indecent assault.

It will also hear from Damien Vance, who was convicted of one act of indecency on a boy under 16 and released on a good behaviour bond.

In his opening statement on Monday, counsel for the commission David Lloyd said five teachers at Knox in Wahroonga on Sydney’s north shore were convicted of sex offences against students.

There would be evidence of abuse by a further three teachers who were never charged, he said.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

David Pierre

***TheMediaReport.com SPECIAL REPORT*** Who Am I To Judge? In 1992, Boston Globe Touted Therapy Treatments for Sex Offenders, Then Excoriated the Church Years Later For Actually Using Them

When the Boston Globe excoriated the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002 for relying on therapists to treat abusive priests from the 1950s to the 1990s, the paper somehow apparently forgot that in 1992 the Globe itself was enthusiastically trumpeting the psychological treatment of sex offenders as “highly effective” and “dramatic.”

In a front-page article on June 18, 1992, the Globe opened:

“A new generation of treatment programs for sex offenders is proving highly effective, dramatically reducing the percentage of cases in which offenders repeat sex crimes, research shows.

“Recidivism rates declined from 9 percent for untreated offenders to 5 percent for those who underwent the new treatment in one study, and from 38 percent to 6 percent in another.

“While there is no complete ‘cure’ for sex offenders, the new findings indicate that many of them can learn to manage their aberrant sexual impulses without committing new crimes. The promising new treatments focus on helping these offenders control the complex cauldron of social inadequacies, distorted thinking, and deviant sex fantasies that prompt them to rape women, molest children or exhibit themselves in public.”

By this very article the Globe confirms that the Church’s then-practice of sending abusive priests off to treatment was not just some diabolical attempt to deflect responsibility and cover-up wrongdoing, but a genuine attempt to treat aberrant priests that was being widely promoted by secular experts in the field.

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AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Sounak Mukhopadhyay

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse said on Thursday that there would be a wide ranging public hearing into how the exclusive Sydney private school had responded to inappropriate conduct by teachers towards students from 1970 to 2012.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the hearings will include the experience of sexual abuse of former students at the school, the regulatory system governing the school’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse by its employees and the response of the Uniting Church and the school to concerns about inappropriate conduct. The Royal Commission will also investigate the systems, policies and procedures in place at the school since 1970, by which sexual abuse concerns were raised and responded to.

Former students as well as the school will give evidence from Feb. 23 about how the abuse could have gone unnoticed for such a long period. One of the cases of abuse was overlooked for over 20 years. The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing before the case study into Knox Grammar. The public hearing will be held at the Yeshivah Colleges in Melbourne and in Bondi, in Sydney’s east. While the Royal Commission’s investigation is expected to end up in criminal proceedings, Knox Grammar has admitted that it never dismissed its responsibility.

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