ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
Lancaster Evening Post

A priest who went on the run after sexually assaulting a woman has been jailed for eight months.

Father Hilary Ogom Nwadei, 58, pleaded guilty to fondling the woman’s breasts and exposing himself while staying at St Mary’s Priory in Leyland.

Nwadei, from the Diocese of Issele-Uku, Delta State, Nigeria, began staying at the Priory in September 2013 while he studied a doctorate in law at the University of Central Lancashire, and also preached to the congregation.

During that time he complained of loneliness and befriended his victim who he regularly confided in and often hugged during these exchanges.

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IRELAND
Yahoo! News

The Journal

New child protection guidelines for the Catholic Church in Ireland will include a section on priests who have been accused of abuse.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCCI) confirmed to TheJournal.ie that guidelines about the duty of care to an accused priest will be included, with a draft due to be submitted for a period of consultation next month.

Sean McDonagh of the Association of Catholic Priests said this was a welcome move in the case of wrongly accused priests in the Church.

He said there is a difficult balancing act when it comes to abuse allegations, between duty of care to the child and fairness to the priest involved.

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ILLINOIS
Alj Jazeera America

Former employee of school founded by Mohammad Abdullah Saleem details alleged abuse to Al Jazeera America

February 19, 2015

Following the arrest earlier this week of a prominent Illinois imam accused of sexual abuse, one of his alleged victims is speaking out about the ordeal she says was suffered at the hands of Mohammad Abdullah Saleem.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, the alleged victim told of how she was at first honored to meet the respected imam, but ended up “terrified” to be in his presence.

Saleem, 75, founder of a school called Institute of Islamic Education in the Chicago suburb of Elgin, was charged Tuesday with felony criminal sexual abuse. Saleem’s attorney Thomas Glasgow has said that his client “categorically denies” the allegations.

Prosecutors allege that Saleem abused a young woman in her 20s in a series of escalating incidents that took place in the months after she began working as an administrative assistant the school in September of 2013. A civil lawsuit has also been filed, accusing the imam of abusing three others — all minors — alongside the administrative assistant.

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ILLINOIS
ABC News

Associated Press

In a Feb. 17 story about a lawsuit accusing the head of the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, Illinois, of sexual abuse, The Associated Press, based on information from the plaintiffs’ law firm, erroneously referred to an umbrella group, the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, as the Council of Islamic Organizations in Greater America. Based on the same source, the AP also erroneously reported that the Elgin institute is a member of the umbrella group, when it is not.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

FEBRUARY 19, 2015
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark has launched its primary fundraising drive with a new name this year, striking “archbishop” from the title in a change widely seen as a reaction to parishioner protests directed at Archbishop John J. Myers last year.

The renamed Sharing God’s Blessings Appeal launched this month and follows a year in which parishioners were angered by revelations that the archdiocese was spending $500,000 to expand Myers’ 4,500-square-foot retirement house in rural Hunterdon County. Some churchgoers withheld donations from fundraising campaigns in protest, and the archdiocese confirmed that contributions dipped last year compared with the year before.

Jim Goodness, an archdiocese spokesman, denied that parishioner dissatisfaction with spending on the house played a role in renaming the fundraiser, saying it was motivated by a desire to inform the faithful about the many programs funded by the appeal, including schools and Catholic Charities.

The appeal, which attempts to raise $10 million each year, is operating simultaneously with a separate $90 million capital fundraising effort to fund programs into the future, as well as to address some immediate needs.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN FEBRUARY 21, 2015

MELBOURNE’s Yeshivah Centre is one of the biggest Jewish organisations in the southern hemisphere.

So when the royal commission into child sexual abuse blew open its strict code of silence, it sent shock waves around the Jewish world.

Now mainstream Jews are desperately trying to distance themselves from the ultra-orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement that runs Yeshivah.

Chabad, perhaps more than most, has strictly observed the code of silence since post-war migrants established Yeshivah here in the 1940s.

Known as mesirah it explicitly prohibits Jews from informing on each other to civil authorities.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
BBC News

A prominent US rabbi has pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism after secretly filming women in his congregation’s ritual baths.

Barry Freundel, 63, may have recorded as many as 150 women in the changing area at his orthodox synagogue in Washington DC.

The women were disrobing for the ritual Jewish bath, known as a mikvah.

He has confessed to recording at least 52 nude or partially nude women. Prosecutors say he should be jailed.

They say the actual number of women filmed is likely to have been much higher.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Daily Beast

Ben Jacobs

At one of the most influential synagogues in Washington, a rabbi secretly taped dozens of women as they undressed for a ritual bath. Now he’s on trial, and his victims are speaking.

Converting to Judaism is a long, difficult process but for hundreds of would-be converts Rabbi Bernard “Barry” Freundel helped ease the path. Freundel was a leading rabbi who presided over Kesher Israel, one of the most influential synagogues in Washington, D.C. with congregants like Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and former Senator Joe Lieberman. He helped draft conversion policies followed by rabbis across the United States. But Freundel wasn’t just ministering to many of those he converted. He was victimizing them too.

On Thursday, Freundel pled guilty to 52 misdemeanor counts of voyeurism in D.C. Superior Court for videotaping young women when they were about to complete the conversion process by immersing themselves in a Jewish ritual bath known as a mikvah. Court documents describe how Freundel victimized well over a hundred women by using different video cameras hidden in an adjacent bathroom to tape women from multiple angles as they showered and undressed before the ceremony. One camera had even been hidden inside a clock radio. Each individual count of voyeurism carries a possible sentence of up to a year in jail. As a result, the 63-year-old rabbi could face imprisonment for the rest of his life.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

The head of the Catholic Church’s military diocese has pleaded not guilty to five additional child sex offences from more than 40 years ago.

Bishop Max Leroy Davis, 68, appeared briefly in Perth Magistrates Court on Friday where his lawyer Seamus Rafferty entered the pleas.

Davis has been charged with four counts each of indecently dealing with a boy under the age of 14 and committing indecent practices between males in public.

The offences against two complainants are alleged to have happened in 1969 when he was teaching at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia, northeast of Perth.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Legal Intelligencer

Lawrence “Skip” Persick, The Legal Intelligencer
February 20, 2015

Child abuse investigations in Pennsylvania are governed by something called the Child Protective Services Law (CPSL). Over the last two years, in the wake of the Penn State and Catholic Church sex-abuse scandals, there has been a push in the state legislature to significantly overhaul the CPSL and close some loopholes and ambiguities. The last and most sweeping of these changes, actually 23 pieces of new legislation, took effect Dec. 31, 2014. Educators are the group of professionals that are most largely affected by these changes.

Although there are several significant changes to the way child abuse is reported and investigated in Pennsylvania, the most significant change affecting educators is that the “chain of command” reporting procedure for child abuse is no longer acceptable. In fact, this is something that went from an accepted practice to a third-degree felony if the underlying abuse rises to the level of a felony.

These changes are best illustrated through the Penn State example. An assistant football coach at Penn State University saw Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing a boy in the shower of the football locker room. He reported that to the head coach, who supposedly reported it to the athletic director, who supposedly reported it to the head of campus security and to the university president. As we now know, the matter was never properly investigated and no one caught up with Sandusky until years later. Under the old version of the CPSL, neither the assistant coach nor the head coach had a mandatory duty to do anything for two reasons. First, only certain school employees were subject to the old CPSL’s mandatory reporting requirements and, second, the definition of “school” did not include colleges and universities.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Star

by Chris Burn
chris.burn@thestar.co.uk
Published on the 20 February 2015

Hundreds of people are expected to attend a special church service for the victims of child grooming in Rotherham.

Local churches have arranged a service on Tuesday, February 24, at Rotherham Minster at 7pm to pray for the future of Rotherham and those who have been directly affected by child sexual exploitation.

Among those due to attend are Bishop of Sheffield Steven Croft and South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner Alan Billings.

It follows a similar service being held in Rotherham last September in the wake of the publication of the Jay report, which revealed at least 1,400 children in the town had been victims of sexual exploitation over a 16-year period.

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UNITED STATES
Commonweal

Paul Blaschko February 17, 2015

Any college-aged man entering a Catholic seminary during the ongoing crisis of the priestly sexual-abuse scandals does so with a certain amount of self-consciousness. Alongside predictable questions raised by the decision to embrace a life of celibacy, the seminarian faces widespread doubt about whether the church is capable of providing the formation necessary to produce well-adjusted, sexually healthy priests. Some critics of the church see sexual abuse as the natural result of celibacy, which they regard as a psychologically unnatural way of life. On this view, there is nothing mysterious about the church’s failure to provide adequate sexual formation, since the very attempt to form sexually normal celibate men poses an impossible task. The only solution to the problem of priestly sexual abuse would be to drop mandatory celibacy.

[This article is part of a larger package of stories on the priesthood. Read all of them here.]

But this view is simplistic. For one thing, most sexual abuse is committed by non-celibates, a lot of it within families. For another, the percentage of celibate clergy who abuse tends to mirror the percentage among their non-celibate counterparts in other faiths, as well as among secular professionals. And even if the alleged psychological abnormality of celibacy explains why a particular priest commits abuse, it does nothing to explain the equally or more troubling fact that large numbers of non-abusing priests and bishops have been willing to ignore, or in many cases cover up, the actions of those who did. The critique of celibacy alone cannot explain why priests systematically shirked their moral duty to report such crimes, or why bishops chose to assign and reassign serial child molesters to unsuspecting parishes. It does not account for the systemic nature of the church’s failed response to the abuse of children, and this is at least partly what makes these scandals so heinous.

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ALABAMA
WSFA

MOBILE, AL (WALA) – The Archdiocese of Mobile is attempting to block subpoenas related to sexual abuse allegations, according to court documents. Reverend Johnny Savoie at St. Pius X Catholic School is being sued by four parents for allegedly failing to protect their children from claimed bullying problems.

During that lawsuit, attorneys found a statement by Father Savoie to his parish that an Archdiocese investigation found there was no evidence supporting previous claims of sexual abuse allegations involving a minor.

FOX10 wanted to find out what the archdiocese had to say about it – but so far, they refuse to comment, and their attorneys have also been putting up quite the fight in court.

It all started when four parents of former students at Saint Pius X in Mobile filed suit against Father Johnny Savoie, the school’s head administrator. They claimed he didn’t stop their children from being bullied, despite repeated requests for help.

“Multiple occasions (I) went in to the principal’s office and was told it would be taken care of, to go ahead and go to work,” said Kristen Rosson, one of the parents filing suit in the case.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Brendan Kirby | bkirby@al.com
on February 19, 2015

A national support group for sexual abuse victims said Thursday that a Mobile priest accused of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a teenager a decade ago should be suspended.

The allegation has surfaced in connection with an unrelated lawsuit accusing St. Pius X School of failing to protect students from severe bullying. The Rev. Johnny Savoie is the pastor of the church and oversees the school’s administrators.

Barbara Dorris, outreach director of Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, criticized Archbishop Thomas Rodi’s handling of the sexual-abuse allegation.

“Alabama’s highest ranking Catholic official is breaking the national church abuse policy and breaking the trust of parents, parishioners and the public by recklessly, callously and secretly mishandling child sex charges against one of his priests.”

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

ALISON BALDING MT DRUITT-ST MARYS STANDARD FEBRUARY 20, 2015

FORMER St Marys parish priest Richard St John Cattell has been sentenced to two years and six months jail for child sex offences.

The 74-year-old faced Penrith District Court today charged with two counts of sexual assault and indecent assault to a child aged under 16.

The offences were committed against an altar boy, 12, during the 1980s while he served at Our Lady of the Rosary parish at St Marys.

Judge Jennifer English sentenced Cattell to one year and six months for the sexual assault charges and two years and six months for the indecent assault charge to be served concurrently.

He will be eligible for supervised parole on August 19, 2016.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN FEBRUARY 20, 2015

A RABBI blamed for not stopping the sexual abuse of at least 10 students who were molested under his watch has stood down from his roles with the Yeshivah Centre.

Senior Chabad figure Abraham Glick last night confirmed he had resigned from four leadership positions within the troubled Yeshivah community.

It followed mounting pressure sparked by his evidence at the child abuse royal commission last week that probed Yeshivah’s handling of sex abuse allegations.

Rabbi Glick, who was the principal of Yeshivah College between 1986 and 2007, is the third high-profile rabbi to stand down in the wake of public hearings.

He said he formally resigned from all leadership positions including as the head of Yeshivah Centre’s spiritual leadership, Vaad Ruchni.

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CHILE
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 19, 2015

SANTIAGO, Chile — A group of Chilean priests on Thursday demanded the resignation of a bishop, accusing him of covering up for a prominent priest who sexually abused altar boys.

The priests and deacons in the southern city of Osorno made their request to Ivo Scapalo, the papal nuncio in Chile. They said newly appointed bishop Juan Barros Madrid covered up for the Rev. Fernando Karadima.

Victims have said Karadima began abusing them at his residence at the Sacred Heart of Jesus church in Santiago about 20 years ago, when they were between 14 and 17 years old.

The Vatican sanctioned Karadima by ordering him to a life of “penitence and prayer” in 2011. A Chilean judge later dismissed a criminal case because the statute of limitations had expired, but she determined the abuse allegations were truthful.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald (UK)

Cardinal also defends ‘lavish’ 80th birthday dinner, saying there were no truffles

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, former Vatican Secretary of State, has said he knew Benedict XVI was planning to resign “at least seven months” in advance – and that it was “not at all easy” to keep it a secret.

The cardinal made the revelation in a candid interview in which he offered a staunch defence of his record and his lifestyle – much criticised in the Italian press – since stepping down.

Asked if he was surprised by Benedict XVI’s resignation, the cardinal said: “I had guessed it, but put it out my thoughts. I knew long in advance, at least seven months before. And I had many doubts. We debated the topic at length after it seemed already decided. I told him: Holy Father, you must bestow upon us the third volume on Jesus of Nazareth and the encyclical of faith, before you sign things over to Pope Francis.”

The cardinal added that it was “not at all easy to keep this secret. The pope meditated and reflected deeply with God about this choice.”

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SOUTH DAKOTA
SDPB

[with audio]

By CHARLES MICHAEL RAY

Those who say they suffered childhood sexual abuse by clergy will have to comply with 2010 statute of limitations after a narrow vote by a state legislative committee.

In 2010, with the backing of church lobbyists, state lawmakers approved a new statute of limitations restricting some types of civil litigation in childhood sex abuse cases. Proponents testified that alleged abuse in Catholic Indian Boarding Schools happened so long ago few of the accused are alive to defend themselves.

Opponents to that law argue the new statute of limitations was applied retroactively by the courts resulting in the dismissal of several ongoing childhood sex abuse lawsuits—further damaging the victims who are still alive today.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 20, 2015

Desmond O’Grady

A spectre is haunting the corridors of the Vatican: has Cardinal George Pell gained too much power?

Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Pell to head a new office set up to ensure greater transparency in Vatican finances following a series of scandals. It was asked to prepare its statutes and proposed control of all Vatican economic affairs after years in which the various departments had a measure of financial independence.

But recently, the head of the Vatican Council for Legislative Texts, Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, has questioned Cardinal Pell’s proposed reforms, with other critics of the former archbishop of Sydney viewing his actions as grandstanding.

Cardinal Coccopalmerio’s criticism carries weight, as his department assesses the statutes of Vatican offices, including Cardinal Pell’s Secretariat for the Economy.

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ALABAMA
Fox 10

By Kati Weis, FOX10 News Reporter

MOBILE, AL (WALA) – The Archdiocese of Mobile is attempting to block subpoenas related to sexual abuse allegations, according to court documents.

Reverend Johnny Savoie at St. Pius X Catholic School is being sued by four parents for allegedly failing to protect their children from claimed bullying problems.

During that lawsuit, attorneys found a statement by Father Savoie to his parish that an Archdiocese investigation found there was no evidence supporting previous claims of sexual abuse allegations involving a minor.

FOX10 wanted to find out what the archdiocese had to say about it – but so far, they refuse to comment, and their attorneys have also been putting up quite the fight in court.

It all started when four parents of former students at Saint Pius X in Mobile filed suit against Father Johnny Savoie, the school’s head administrator. They claimed he didn’t stop their children from being bullied, despite repeated requests for help.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Courthouse News Service

By DAN MCCUE

(CN) – A prominent Washington D.C. rabbi pleaded guilty on Thursday to 52 counts of videotaping naked women as they prepared for a ritual bath, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.

Rabbi Barry Freundel was arrested on October 14, 2014, on charges he videotaped six women while was the spiritual leader at the orthodox Kesher Israel Congregation, in Washington’s upscale Georgetown neighborhood.

According to prosecutors, the 63-year-old rabbi was seen entering the synagogue’s large changing area and shower room two days earlier and placing a digital clock radio on a countertop facing the private bath.

A short time later, an unidentified individual associated with the mikvah, a ritual cleansing bath, discovered the clock contained a hidden recording device and turned it over to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.

After an initial investigation, the department executed search warrants to seek evidence at Freundel’s home and office at Towson University, and computer forensic exam revealed the rabbi had taped scores of women on 25 different dates between March 4, 2012 and Sept. 19, 2014.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Lauren Markoe | Religion News Service February 19

WASHINGTON — The Georgetown rabbi charged with videotaping naked women as they used his synagogue’s ritual bath pleaded guilty Thursday (Feb. 19) to 52 counts of voyeurism.

The counts correspond to the 52 women who prosecutors said had been spied on by Freundel with a hidden camera during the three years for which the statute of limitations applies.

The rabbi’s sentencing hearing in D.C. Superior Court is scheduled for May 15.

“As we seek to move forward and heal as a community, we await the judge’s decision on sentencing,” the board of Kesher Israel, where Freundel had been rabbi for 25 years, said in a statement after his plea. “The scope and duration of these horrible crimes are still hard to completely comprehend.”

Freundel’s arrest in October rocked Washington’s Jewish community, where he enjoyed a reputation as a respected scholar and an advocate for converts. His former synagogue, Kesher Israel, is a Washington landmark attended by Washington luminaries such as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.

Observant Jews use a ritual bath, called a mikvah, for conversions and sometimes before the High Holy Days or Sabbath. But it is most often used by married Jewish women, seven days after the end of the menstrual period, to mark a transition to a state of purity, where conception is more likely.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
McClatchy DC

BY GREG GORDON
McClatchy Washington Bureau
February 19, 2015

WASHINGTON — An orthodox rabbi in the nation’s capital pleaded guilty Thursday to secretly videotaping 52 women, mainly congregants at the temple he led, as they removed their clothing to step into a Jewish ritual bath.

Rabbi Bernard Freundel admitted to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism charges for invading the women’s privacy between March 4, 2012 and last Sept. 19. Prosecutors said in papers filed in Superior Court for the District of Columbia, however, that the evidence shows his behavior dates to 2009 and that he also surreptitiously recorded another 100 women who were undressed or partially clothed.

Voyeurism carries a three-year statute of limitations, so it was too late to prosecute him for most of the secret videotaping. Even though the charges are misdemeanors, Freundel faces a maximum sentence of 52 years in prison.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Here Ross Douthat writes the best piece I’ve yet read on Fifty Shades of Grey. He points out that sexual anarchy, like political anarchy, devolves not so much into chaos, but into a world where the strong prey upon the weak. He writes …

This is the sexual revolution of Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt and Joe Francis and roughly 98 percent of the online pornography consumed by young men. It’s the revolution that’s been better for fraternity brothers than their female guests, better for the rich than the poor, better for the beautiful than the plain, better for liberated adults than fatherless children … and so on down a long, depressing list.

This is because lust (as opposed to sex in general – sex is a good thing, but lust is a desire for sex without any resrtaint) is all about power. Lust is not about physical pleasure, it’s about physical, emotional and psychological control.

Which brings me to a real Nutt case.

After my wife and I were received into the Catholic Church, back in 2000, our parish priest suggested that we prepare for Confirmation by attending RCIA, the “Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults”. Foolishly I agreed.

It was nine months long and a total joke. It was run by a liberal nun in a pants suit and her cadre of parish supporters, and it made sure that absolutely nothing Catholic was taught to any of us. It was a shocking wake up call that the Church so lovingly described by Chesterton and Belloc had taken quite a few steps backward.

One of the things Sister Liz (that was her name, God rest her rebellious soul) made us do was go to a Mass at “the Rock” church on the near North Side. The only difference between what went on in RCIA at our parish and what was going on at the Rock church was, while the latter made me just as miserable, it didn’t last nine months, but only for about two or three hours.

That’s right. The Mass went at least that long, because the pastor, a certain Fr. Nutt, a charismatic preacher, was working the crowd for all the “amens” he could get, and took about a thirty minute recess for “the sign of peace” in the middle of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The “sign of peace” became a party with high fives and shouts of laughter and Fr. Nutt traveling all over the nave, visiting every single parishioner and yukking it up. While the consecrated host sat patiently on the altar.

In my opinion, he was clearly and obviously an egomaniac. Had I still been an atheist, and had Fr. Nutt been given a TV show where he was shouting at people and “faith healing” them, I would have chalked him up as just another brash and shallow phony, like the televangeslits of my youth who so turned me off to the Christian Faith.

Not long after that, Fr. Nutt disappeared in one of the first sex scandals to hit the archdiocese of St. Louis. (See details below).

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Brendan Kirby | bkirby@al.com
on February 19, 2015

The Archdiocese of Mobile investigated and cleared a priest in late 2013 after receiving an allegation that he had sex with a teenager nearly a decade earlier, but it is unclear whether church leaders reported it to authorities.

The allegation has surfaced as part of a lawsuit accusing the school overseen by the priest, the Rev. Johnny Savoie, of failing to prevent severe bullying. It is one of four bullying lawsuits pending against St. Pius X School and its administrators, including Savoie.

The sexual abuse allegation is not directly related to the bullying case, but lawyers for the plaintiff have gone to court to force the priest to provide more details an internal investigation conducted by the church.

Savoie, who is pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church in Mobile and supervises the principal of its school, acknowledged the allegation to his congregation in February of last year.

Read Rev. Savoie’s testimony here

“I wish to share a very serious matter with you,” he told parishioners, according to a statement offered by the defense in the bullying case. “An accusation has been made against me that approximately nine years ago I was involved in an inappropriate sexual conduct with a 16-year-old. The accusation was reported to the Archdiocese and then communicated to me. I adamantly deny the accusation.

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GERMANY
National Catholic Reporter

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt | Feb. 19, 2015

The Cologne archdiocese, Germany’s largest and the world’s richest diocese, has for the first time published its financial accounts revealing assets of 3.35 billion euros ($3.82 billion) at the end of 2013.

The assets were essentially bound in reserves to cover long-term obligations, vicar-general Stefan Hesse said when he presented the accounts at a press conference on Ash Wednesday.

At the end of 2013, the archdiocese was in possession of 2.4 billion euros ($2.73 billion) worth of stocks, funds and company holdings and 646 million euros ($736 million) of tangible assets, including schools and conference buildings. Reserves for long-term obligations and risks amounted to 1.66 billion euros ($1.89 billion). Pension reserves for the archdiocese’s 4,000 priests came to 410 million euros ($467 million).

In 2013, the archdiocese received 573 million euros ($503 million) from church taxes paid by the 2 million Catholics belonging to the Cologne archdiocese. After expenses such as church employee salaries had been subtracted, the archdiocese had a surplus of 59 million euros ($52 million).

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WASHINGTON (DC)
JTA

By Suzanne Pollak and Geoffrey W. MeladaFebruary 19, 2015

WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week) — Rabbi Barry Freundel, the former spiritual leader at a prominent Washington synagogue, pleaded guilty to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism.

The plea Thursday means that Freundel could be sentenced to a maximum penalty of 52 years of incarceration and ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines. Sentencing was postponed until Friday, May 15.

The afternoon hearing was moved to a larger courtroom that could handle the number of victims.

During the hearing, Freundel appeared red-faced and kept his head bowed low and made no eye contact with the more than a dozen victims who packed the second floor courtroom. He wore a black fur hat, a black rumpled and dirty suit, a black and gray tie and a black and gray kippah.

Freundel, 63, was arrested last October on six charges of voyeurism after investigators discovered secret cameras installed in the mikvah shower room and additional recording devices in his home.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Daily Mail (UK)

By Ian Simpson

WASHINGTON, Feb 19(Reuters) – A prominent Washington rabbi charged with secretly videotaping dozens of women during ritual baths pleaded guilty to 52 misdemeanor counts of voyeurism on Thursday.

Rabbi Barry Freundel, 63, was accused of installing video cameras to spy on women in the bathing area for his Orthodox synagogue, Kesher Israel Congregation, in Washington’s upscale Georgetown neighborhood.

“Guilty,” Freundel, a bearded figure wearing glasses and a yarmulke, said when asked how he pleaded by District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Alprin.

Prosecutors said Freundel recorded the women between early 2009 and October 2014 using devices installed in two changing rooms for the National Capital Mikvah, which is next to the Kesher synagogue.

The mikvah, or ritual bath, is used most frequently as purification by people converting to Judaism and by Jewish women seven days after the end of their menstrual cycle.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald has promised to examine the option of funding “complementary therapies” for Magdalene survivors.

In a statement to RTÉ News, her department explained that the therapies were excluded from a special medical card scheme approved by the Dáil yesterday.

It said this was because Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has reservations about providing and funding them through the health service.

The Department of Justice says Ms Fitzgerald, on a personal level, is open to the benefit of such therapies.

She said she would fund them through a separate scheme run on an administrative rather than a statutory basis.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that less than 20% of the deceased residents of a Magdalene Laundry in Dublin are buried in the plot marked by a headstone bearing their names.

The Justice for Magdalene Research group – which published the finding after researching Glasnevin Cemetery’s archives – has called on the Commission of Investigation into scandals surrounding Mother and Baby Homes to investigate the burial practices of the religious congregations which ran the High Park Laundry.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Pamela Duncan

The work of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes is now officially underway following the formal appointment of the three individuals who will conduct the investigation.

The establishment of the independent commission, which has a three-year deadline and which will cost approximately €21 million, followed the signing by the Taoiseach of a Government order at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Dr James Reilly said it marked a “significant moment”.

“The Commission can now start the process to ensure that what was once hidden and covered up in these homes, and in wider society, can be revealed and openly acknowledged”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

A former secondary school chaplain cleared of accusations of having a sexual relationship with a student must pay 75 per cent of the legal costs of an unsuccessful bid to be restored to the chaplaincy position, the High Court ruled.

The priest was allowed return to the school to teach religion but not as school chaplain, following an investigation which found he had had an inappropriate but not sexual relationship with a girl in the secondary school between 2006 and 2007.

He had been accused of developing a close relationship with the girl which allegedly became sexual when she was in fifth year but broke down when she was in sixth year. It was claimed that sexual encounters occurred in the oratory of the priest’s office and in his house.

It was also alleged that the priest got the student drunk while on a pilgrimage abroad and she woke up the next morning in his bed.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

The case of a Catholic bishop charged with historic child sex offences is set for a return to court in Perth.

The head of the Catholic Church’s military diocese, Bishop Max Leroy Davis, has been charged with three counts of indecently dealing with a 13-year-old boy in 1969 while teaching at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia, northeast of Perth.

The 68-year-old, who now lives in Canberra, is not required to appear in person but continues to report to Belconnen Police Station as part of his bail undertakings.

He has also stood aside from his duties while the matter is being dealt with.

It is understood Davis is the first Australian bishop and most senior Australian church official to be charged with a child sex offence.

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ALABAMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 19

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-503-0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A decade ago, an accusation of child sex abuse was made against an Alabama priest. And as best we can tell, virtually every Catholic employee in the state who knew about it kept it quiet.

Alabama’s highest ranking Catholic official is breaking the national church abuse policy and breaking the trust of parents, parishioners and the public by recklessly, callously and secretly mishandling child sex charges against one of his priests.

[Lagniappe]

For a full year, Mobile Archbishop Thomas Rodi has hidden allegations that Fr. Johnny S. Savoie was accused of molesting a youngster. Now Rodi is going even further and using parishioner donations to pay lawyers to try to keep a continued lid on these allegations.

Shame on these archbishodi. And shame on Fr. James J. Cink, Leanne Oberkirch, and Colleen McNorton, who are supposed to handle these cases with Rodi.

In 2002, every US Catholic bishop adopted a policy to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex abuse allegations and to suspend accused priests while investigations are conducted. But just three years later, Alabama Catholic officials again opted for the time-tested, self-serving approach that almost all of the church hierarchy has embraced for centuries: secrecy. And they evidently did NOT suspend Fr. Savoie for even one day.

Mobile church officials claim to have done some sort of quiet, internal so-called investigation into these charges. Based on our 25 years of experience in these cases, we have no faith whatsoever in these church processes. Alabama Catholics should not have such faith either.

We call on Archbishop Rodi to end his inexcusable and hurtful secrecy about this troubling case. We urge him to suspend Fr. Savoie now and bring in outside experts to conduct an independent investigation into these allegations. We beg him to go to each parish where Fr. Savoie worked and prod anyone with information or suspicions that might prove or disprove these accusations to come forward and call police. That’s what a truly caring shepherd would do.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Ciaran D’Arcy

A group of Magdalene survivors have criticised the Government which they say is denying women access to medical cards.

As part of the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014, survivors of Magdalene laundries are to receive medical cards entitling them to a wide range of primary care and hospital-based treatments.

However, Magdalene Women spokesperson Maureen Sullivan says members of the group are being made suffer while the legislation is delayed.

“A lot of the women are very ill, some of them have cancer, some of them have died, and we haven’t received our medical cards,” she said at a demonstration outside Leinster House on Thursday.

“They’re reneging on what Judge Quirke has recommended and a lot of the women haven’t been settled. It’s two years since the apology, so really Enda Kenny can have his apology back. What he’s doing is wrong- this is abuse all over again to these women.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The JC

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has warned communities of the danger of sheltering Jewish child abusers.

Acknowledging the “shockwaves” caused by the sex abuse scandal engulfing two Chabad institutions in Australia, he said paedophiles must be brought to justice “however embarrassing for our communities”.

As more details from the Australian inquiry emerged, Rabbi Mirvis said on Tuesday: “Let there be no doubt: it is a legal, moral and religious imperative to report cases of sexual abuse to the police.

“Nobody is above the law and no institution is greater than its members or followers. The impact of bringing sexual predators to light, however embarrassing for our communities, pales into insignificance when the alternative would result in the shame of protecting criminals, abandoning victims and risking the safety of so many others.”

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The pope’s meetings with the world’s Cardinals are over. Who is in charge now at the Vatican? Has the ex-bouncer pope lost his tight grip? Perhaps Pope Francis is getting ready to retire? The pope has buried for now all bishop accountability demands in a “do nothing sex abuse commission”. The over studied abuse and accountability issues will now be studied further endlessly at Rome’s Jesuit run Gregorian University. Most importantly, Pope Francis has added more supportive Cardinals now, apparently enough to tilt the next papal election to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, his heir apparent.

Francis’ new Cardinal and longtime pal from Argentina has also indicated that Francis will change no teachings at the absurd “all celibate male” Final Synod on the Family in eight months. Is Francis already packing his bags? Is he also going to quit like his incompetent predecessor had to do two years ago?

Parolin just publicly called for a major military escalation in Libya. Top German Cardinal Reinhard Marx just, in effect publicly told Vatican money czar. Cardinal George Pell, to shut up about new found Vatican wealth.

For the “mythical premises” underlying these surprising developments, please see “Five Crucial Myths Pope Francis Preaches: Why?” , here,

[Christian Catholicism]

For the overall implications and fatal flaws of Pope Francis’ present plans, notwithstanding the papal mythology, please see “The Crisis Pope Francis Faces” here [Christian Catholicism] .

Marx seems overly sensitive about money, but he also seems to have a job to do — to protect the $7 billion annual German subsidy to Catholic bishops that Hitler earlier topped off in 1933 for Pope Pius XII in exchange for, among other benefits, advancing Hitler’s rise to Fuhrer status.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WBAL

WASHINGTON —The rabbi and former Towson University professor accused of secretly videotaping more than 150 women at a Jewish ritual bath in Washington, D.C., is expected to plead guilty Thursday to dozens of counts against him.

Jeffrey Harris, the attorney for Barry Freundel, said his client will enter a guilty plea to 52 counts of voyeurism in Washington D.C. Superior Court on Thursday afternoon.

It’s unclear so far what sort of sentence Freundel will face.

Freundel, 63, was arrested in October after a hidden camera disguised as a digital clock radio was discovered in the shower area of the National Capital Mikvah, a ritual cleansing bath affiliated with the Kesher Israel synagogue, which is where Freudnel had worked as a rabbi for several years.

Police said they initially found videos of six women entering and exiting the mikvah shower, and court documents showed Freundel appeared on film setting up the recording device. A search of his home turned up other media storage devices.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Keith L. Alexander and Michelle Boorstein February 19

Barry Freundel, a long-time D.C. Orthodox rabbi, is expected to plead guilty Thursday afternoon to dozens of charges involving the secret videotaping of nude women as they prepared for a sacred bath, Freundel’s defense attorney said.

A D.C. Superior Court hearing in the case, initially set for 10:00 a.m., was pushed back to 1 p.m. and moved to a larger courtroom to allow enough space for any victims who wished to attend.

Freundel’s attorney, Jeffrey Harris, said his client planned to plead guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism. A guilty plea is not final until a defendant formally enters it in court and it is approved by a judge.

Prior to the hearing, D.C. prosecutors sent a note to victims saying Freundel had agreed to a plea involving all women whose images were identified and who were allegedly videotaped during the past three years. Any older cases would be outside the statute of limitations.

Prosecutors wrote that they wanted to “assure everyone that if this plea goes through, as victims of crime, you will have the right to submit a written as well as an oral victim impact statement at a sentencing hearing, expressing how this crime has impacted you.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Baltimore Sun

A lawyer for a rabbi accused of videotaping women at a Jewish ritual bath says his client will plead guilty to more than 50 counts of voyeurism.

Barry Freundel, a former associate professor at Towson University, is expected to enter the plea Thursday afternoon in D.C. Superior Court. His lawyer, Jeffrey Harris, says his client will plead guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism.

Freundel is currently charged with six counts of voyeurism for videotaping six women. But prosecutors told a closed-door meeting of victims last week that Freundel had taped more than 150 women, though the statute of limitations bars them from charging him with many of the tapings. Several people who were inside spoke to The Associated Press.

An attorney who said his firm is representing some of the alleged victims has said several were Towson University students.

Attorney Steven Kelly, of Silverman Thompson Slutkin & White LLC, did not attend the Washington meeting last week. But based on information from clients and his firm’s investigation, he said, Freundel allegedly took students from various courses, not just religious studies courses, to the mikvah, or ritual bath house. He said some students were offered extra credit to participate.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CBS Baltimore

Meghan McCorkell

WASHINGTON (AP/WJZ) — A rabbi accused of videotaping women at a Jewish ritual bath is due back in court Thursday.

Barry Freundel is currently charged with six counts of voyeurism for videotaping six women.

Meghan McCorkell reports according to The Washington Post, Freundel will plead guilty to 52 counts of voyuerism.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
ABC News

Associated Press

A lawyer for a rabbi accused of videotaping women at a Jewish ritual bath says his client will plead guilty to more than 50 counts of voyeurism.

Barry Freundel is expected enter the plea Thursday afternoon in D.C. Superior Court. His lawyer, Jeffrey Harris, says his client will plead guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism.

Freundel is currently charged with six counts of voyeurism for videotaping six women. But prosecutors told a closed-door meeting of victims last week that Freundel had taped more than 150 women, though the statute of limitations bars them from charging him with many of the tapings. Several people who were inside spoke to The Associated Press.

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UNITED STATES
Frum Follies

Child sex abuse is covered up by intimidating victims everywhere in the ultra-orthodox world from Israel to the US, from the northern reaches of Canada and Europe to the southern tips of South Africa, Argentina and Australasia. Periodically some unusual victims break the code of silence and the civil judiciary tries, convicts, and sentences the offenders. But most of the predators continue to offend protected by the community which covers up the crimes and intimidates the witnesses. The rabbis who orchestrate the cover ups escape unscathed.

But an unusual set of individuals and circumstances changed the game in Australia. Many of those complicit were exposed on national and international media, top rabbis were forced to resign their positions. “Peak” Jewish bodies in Australia have denounced this sordid pattern. Chabad, the dominant group in the Australian rabbinate, is reeling. Even its international organization was forced to implicitly apologize and promise to behave better in the future. All this got sensational coverage in Australian media and the Guardian (UK).

This was all because of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse. The Commission is looking at many groups in Australia including the Catholic Church, other religious groups and various children’s sports programs. They were authorized by the national government and all the individual states by 2012 and they are currently authorized to function until 2017. They are well resourced with a staff of attorneys and investigators and they have the subpoena power to compel the delivery of documents and testimony (both in public and in private).

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By MaryAnn Spoto | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on February 18, 2015

TRENTON —A Lakewood rabbi accused of arranging the kidnapping and beating of Orthodox Jewish husbands until they agreed to give their wives divorces got underway this morning with prosecutors saying he orchestrated the torture – sometimes with stun guns – of three men who eventually complied.

But in a case that asks jurors to decide when religious practices cross into the realm of criminality, the attorney for Mendel Epstein said the well-respected rabbi was following Jewish law in facilitating divorces from stubborn husbands but did not break any criminal laws.

Epstein, a prominent rabbi who specializes in divorce proceedings, is on trial in federal court in Trenton along with his son, David “Ari” Epstein, and two other rabbis, Binyamin Stimler and Jay Goldstein, on conspiracy and kidnapping charges that grew out of a federal undercover sting.

“They conspired to kidnap men, tie them up, blindfold them, and beat them – including at some time using stun guns – to force them to participate in a Jewish divorce ritual,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Gribko told the jury of eight men and eight women in his opening arguments.

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ESPANA
New York Times

Un Vaticano más abierto se enfrenta a escándalo de abuso sexual en España

GRANADA, España — David Ramírez Castillo conoció al sacerdote de su parroquia, el reverendo Román Martínez, cuando era alumno de catecismo a los siete años. Después se convirtió en uno de sus monaguillos. Paso a paso, cuenta Ramírez, el sacerdote lo convenció de que, para profundizar su fe, debería pasar más tiempo con él y otros clérigos.

Dice Ramírez que lo que comenzó como simples visitas durante el día después de misa se convirtió en quedarse a pasar la noche y fines de semana fuera del pueblo, en una cama compartida, en sitios que incluían una villa privada en la cima de una colina que tenía de todo, hasta piscina.

Ahí Ramírez, hoy con 25 años y aún católico, dice que Martínez abusó sexualmente de él o lo obligó a ver como tenía relaciones sexuales con otros, incluidos varios sacerdotes, en un lapso de tres años a partir del 2004, cuando Ramírez tenía 14 años. Los sacerdotes niegan las acusaciones y un abogado que los representa dijo que son “inventadas”.

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CALIFORNIA
The Raw Story

TRAVIS GETTYS
19 FEB 2015

Parents are upset after a Catholic school in San Francisco handed out pamphlets asking elementary students about sexual acts and mercy killings.

Father Joseph Illo, who made news last month by banning girls from serving at the altar during Mass, distributed the pamphlets on the “Examination of Conscience and Catholic Doctrine” to students in grades two through six at Star of the Sea School.

The pamphlets asked students whether they had engaged in “impure acts” by themselves or with others, listing adultery, fornication, and sodomy.

Students were asked whether they had practice birth control or whether they or their spouse had been “prematurely sterilized” through tubal ligation or vasectomy.

They were also asked whether they’d had an abortion, encouraged someone else to terminate a pregnancy, or attempted suicide.

The pamphlets covered suicide, euthanasia, impure thoughts, and immodest dress.

“It was very careless on their behalf, and you would expect anyone who works around children to be much more careful,” said Siobhan McFeeney, a parent of four students at the school. “You should never show this to a 9-year-old.”

Some teachers read the pamphlets first and decided not to share them with students.

Illo said Wednesday that he has handed out the pamphlet at other parishes without any problems, but he admits some the material may be inappropriate for younger children.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, February 19, 2015

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

A recent special assembly of the Long Island-based Orthodox Church in America (OCA) nominated an episcopal candidate for the long vacant see of the Diocese of the South.

[Facebook]

While the selection of Archimandrite Gerasim Eliel is subject to approval by the OCA’s synod of bishops, normally such nominations are routinely approved. However, in this case SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is urging the synod to carefully consider this nominee and hold out for another candidate.

Eliel’s glowing resume leaves out some pertinent facts about him, in particular his long and close connection to two notorious Orthodox predators, Herman Podmoshensky and Pangratios Vrionis.

[Facebook]

While the resume mentions that Eliel’s monastery, St. Herman of Alaska in Platina, California, went into schism from the Orthodox Church in the 1980s, it chooses to omit the fact that the abbot who led the monastery into schism, Podmoshensky, left the Church in the wake of allegations that he sexually abused young men and boys. The Church never made any findings on the abuse allegations, electing instead to defrock Podmoshensky on the easier to prove charge of disobedience. Eliel, unlike most of the Platina brotherhood, chose to follow this sexual predator into schism.

[Pokrov]

The resume also neglects to mention that after leaving the Orthodox Church Podmoshensky and Eliel joined a group led by a convicted child molester, Metropolitan Pangratios Vrionis. The metropolitan has two convictions for abusing minor boys, one in 1970 and one in 2003. He was defrocked by the Orthodox Church following his first conviction, but started his own church and made himself a bishop.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, 2/19

For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP Outreach Director 314-503-0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com

Sex abuse victims blast IL university
College let controversial priest speak
Cleric resigned from St. Louis Police Board
He allegedly sexually harassed three officers
And he offered to watch child porn with one
Group wants school president to apologize & explain”
“Those responsible should be disciplined,” SNAP says

A victims’ support group wants officials at an Illinois college to explain and apologize for their decision to let a Catholic priest who was accused of sexually harassing at least three police officers speak last month on campus. Those responsible should be disciplined, the organization says.

On Jan. 23, Fr. Maurice Nutt, a St. Louis native, was the keynote speaker at a Dr. Martin Luther King Day celebration at McKendree University in Lebanon.

[McKendree University]

[Belleville News-Democrat]

In 2001, Fr. Nutt resigned his post as a St. Louis Police Commissioner after allegations surfaced that he had sexually harassed at least two officers.

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DEUTSCHLAND
kathweb

[In an extraordinary ceremony, Norbert Trelleborg, deputy chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) at the beginning of Lent asked forgiveness for sins of the Church throughout history.]

Bonn, 19.02.2015 (KAP/KNA) In einer außergewöhnlichen Zeremonie hat der Stellvertretende Vorsitzende der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (DBK), Norbert Trelle, zu Beginn der Fastenzeit um Vergebung für Verfehlungen der Kirche im Laufe der Geschichte gebeten. Trelle ist Diözesanbischof von Hildesheim, wo ab Montag die DBK zu ihrer Frühjahrsvollversammlung tagt. Anlass der Wahl des Tagungsortes sind Jubiläumsfeiern zum 1.200-jährigen Bestehen der Diözese Hildesheim.

Das Jubiläum sei aber auch ein Grund innezuhalten und sich die Verfehlungen in der Vergangenheit bewusst zu machen. Es gehe um “die Sünden von uns selbst und die Sünden derjenigen, die vor uns zur Kirche von Hildesheim gehört haben”, sagte Trelle am Aschermittwoch im Hildesheimer Dom. Trelle bat dabei auch eindringlich um Verzeihung für Gewalt und sexuellen Missbrauch, den Priester und kirchliche Mitarbeiter Kindern angetan haben. Zu lange seien Augen verschlossen geblieben, zu lange auch habe die Kirche die Opfer alleine gelassen. “Heute sehen wir, dass wir nicht den Weg der Liebe gegangen sind und Gutes unterlassen haben. Jetzt stehen wir vor dir barmherziger Gott, in dieser Zeit. Wir stehen vor dir und den Menschen, bedrückt mit alter Schuld. Wir bitten um Vergebung”, so der Bischof.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Wochenblatt

Generalvikar stellt sich Missbrauch-Debatte bei Domspatzen – hinter verschlossenen Türen

[The Regensburg Vicar General Michael Fuchs met last week with the abuse officer to talk about the abuse scandal in the cathedral choir. The meeting was behind closed doors and media representatives were not welcome.]

Der Regensburger Generalvikar Michael Fuchs hat sich zusammen mit dem Missbrauchbeauftragten vergangene Woche der Debatte um den Missbrauch-Skandal bei den Domspatzen gestellt – allerdings hinter verschlossenen Türen. Pressevertreter waren nicht willkommen.

Den Verantwortlichen der Regensburger Domspatzen blieb in letzter Zeit nicht viel erspart. Zuerst werden sie im Zusammenhang mit einer Werbekampagne der Tourismus GmbH deutschlandweit zum Thema, dann bringt eine ARD-Dokumentation mutmaßliche Missbrauchsfälle erneut aufs Tapet. Auch das Wochenblatt hatte, als die Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs in der Kirche und in der Odenwaldschule ruchbar wurden, über einen solchen Fall berichtet. Bis 1959 hatte ein Präfekt das Internat geleitet, der Jungen missbrauchte. Ein Opfer von damals, das, als die Fälle bekannt wurden, vom Internat genommen wurde, hatte dem Wochenblatt Beweise wie etwa ein Urlaubsfoto mit dem Präfekten vorlegen können. Zudem wurde der Mann damals strafrechtlich belangt.

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VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)

19 February 2015 12:02 by Christopher Lamb, Christa Pongratz-Lippitt

Clashes over reforms to Vatican finances took place this week following a meeting of cardinals after a detailed breakdown of the Holy See’s economic position was outlined.

Cardinal George Pell, Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, told a consistory of cardinals that a review of finances found a total of £978 million in assets and funds that had not been previously accounted for.

But Cardinal Reinhard Marx, President of the Council of the Economy, the body that has overarching responsibility for all the financial activity of the Holy See and to which the secretariat reports, questioned the wisdom of releasing of the figures.

“Such figures are not very helpful and I personally am always reticent about quoting figures. Assets figures only make sense if I connect them to the obligations I have,” he said in an interview with the German Catholic News Agency. “Up to now it was not usual and to a certain extent impossible to conduct a real overall budget which was up to international standards. That must change.”

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

02/18/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season, a time when Catholics both repent and prepare for renewal. It also marks the return to battle for certain priests and Catholics in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, as the opening volleys are fired in the ongoing skirmishes over the use of Form III of the Sacrament of Penance, also referred to as general absolution.

Most of those who spent the 1980s in this Archdiocese are no doubt familiar with the practice of general absolution, as it was fairly widely practiced here after its introduction in the 1973 Rite of Penance. The third rite permits absolution to be granted to large numbers of penitents without previous individual confession when certain circumstances are present, such as too many penitents in relation to the number of priests available to hear individual confessions. Consequently, the parish I attended as a child, Saint Odilia, regularly offered communal penance services utilizing this third rite, even after its application was greatly curtailed by the promulgation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law (although this did not draw nearly as much outcry as did the statue of the extremely buff and comely Jesus that adorned the reservation chapel). The new Code required the additional criteria of danger of death or grave necessity, and mandated that the diocesan bishop alone could judge whether such circumstances exist (rather than the leaving the question to the judgment of the individual priest or priests whose sacramental services were being sought).

Despite these canonical clarifications, as well as attempts by at least two Archbishops to eliminate the practice, Form III continues to be offered at certain parishes in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis during both Advent and Lent. In some cases, the knowledge that such services are offered is so wide-spread that thousands of people will attend, many from outside of the parish. In others, the practice continues in a smaller, quieter way.

The skirmishes, however, are growing louder. While one might expect that the bankruptcy filing, the criminal investigation into the practices of the Archdiocese, and the ongoing investigation into his personal conduct might have Archbishop Nienstedt sufficiently occupied, I am hearing that he has still found time to send warning letters to certain priests, threatening a variety of penalties and consequences (some of questionable applicability and canonical legitimacy) should another mass-shriving occur.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 18 February 2015)

Richard John McPhillamy has been a prominent layman in Catholic Church affairs in the diocese of Bathurst, in central-west New South Wales. He was formerly listed as an “acolyte”, assisting in various matters at Bathurst’s Cathedral of St Michael and St John. Also, he worked as an assistant dormitory master at St Stanislaus College — a Bathurst boarding school for boys. In 2011 he was jailed for committing sexual crimes against two of the boys who were under his control. In February 2015 he was convicted again regarding a third boy.

On 13 February 2015, McPhillamy appeared before Judge King in the District Court, in Sydney’s Downing Centre, after a jury returned a finding of guilty on six charges relating to this third boy. These incidents occurred in the 1990s. The jury found McPhillamy guilty of:

* two counts of aggravated indecency (victim under 16 and under authority of the offender),
* two counts of aggravated indecent assault (victim under the age of 16 years), and
* two counts of sexual intercourse (person 10 and under 16 – under authority – strictly indictable).

McPhillamy was refused bail and he was remanded in custody for sentence proceedings, scheduled for May 2015, when the judge will begin by hearing submissions from the prosecutor and the defence lawyer about what kind of sentence should be imposed on McPhillamy. The judge will later announce the details of the sentence.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

David Marr
Wednesday 18 February 2015

Orthodox Judaism has never been exposed to such scrutiny. From a Melbourne courtroom, the torment of the Chabad rabbis was streamed live to the world as the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse probed the city’s secretive and powerful Yeshivah community.

Sharp divisions in the Jewish world have been exposed. Two rabbis, including one of the nation’s most prominent, have been forced from their posts. Whistleblowers, humiliated and ostracised for years by Yeshivah, have been dramatically vindicated. More victims have come forward. More criminal charges may follow. Yeshivah schools face a nightmare of civil litigation.

The cast is Jewish, yet the bones of this story are familiar to anyone who has followed the scandal of child abuse in Christian schools and parishes. Rabbis and bishops have shown over the years much the same failings when faced with a choice between guarding the prestige of their faiths and the safety of children. This story is about the dangers in any cult of blind obedience to holy men.

Rabbi Yitzchok Groner died just in time. He was a dominating figure in Melbourne’s Jewish world, a mountain of a man with inexhaustible energy, deep religious learning and a stare that stopped grown men in their tracks.

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ALABAMA
Lagniappe

By: JASON JOHNSON | 14 HOURS AGO

A 2013 case over bullying and harassment at St. Pius X Catholic School in Mobile has unearthed what appears to be acknowledgement of sexual abuse allegations made against the school’s pastor, Johnny S. Savoie.

However, after the discovery, Mobile’s Archdiocese seems to have gone silent attempting to prevent any further questions or subpoenas relating to the incident.

In the original case, A.S. v. St. Pius X, a student plaintiff claims to have suffered repeated bullying at the school for more than a year despite attempts her mother made to address the issue with teachers and church administrators.

Since the case was first brought on, more clients have been added into separate, but similar cases — all of which are being led by local attorneys David Kennedy and Christine Hernandez.

While searching through Savoie’s personal files, the attorneys found a transcript of an address the pastor gave to his parish in February 2014. That letter reads as follows:

“An accusation has been made against me that approximately nine years ago I was involved in an inappropriate sexual conduct with a 16-year-old. The accusation was reported to the archdiocese and then communicated to me. I adamantly deny the accusation. The archdiocese reported the accusation to the District Attorney, in accord with the Archdiocesan policy. I requested to take a lie detector test. I did so, and it was determined that I answered the questions with no deceit. The archdiocese has determined there is no evidence to support the accusation. Therefore, I will remain serving as a pastor of St.Pius X Parish. I ask for your prayers for me and for all concerned.” – Johnny S. Savoie.

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UTAH
Salt Lake City

FEBRUARY 18, 2015, BY CAROLINE CONNOLLY

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah lawmaker criticized the state on Wednesday for not doing more to protect child victims of sexual abuse. Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, brought a bill before a House committee that he believes will remedy the problem by removing the statute of limitations in civil cases filed by victims.

“It’s kind of tragic that Utah is one of the worst states in the nation in protecting child victims of sexual abuse,” Ivory said. “And it’s one of the best at protecting predators.”

While the statute of limitations on criminal child sexual abuse cases was eliminated in 2008, the civil requirements have made it difficult for some victims to seek justice. Under current law, the statute of limitations runs out four years after the victim turns 18, or at the time of “discovery” of the act.

“The average time for a child victim of sexual abuse is 20 years to report,” Ivory said.

The statistic was reinforced by testimony given to lawmakers.

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UNITED STATES
Jezebel

Anna Merlan

A new investigation from the Center for Investigative Reporting shows that Jehovah’s Witness leaders explicitly discourage church elders from reporting child sexual abuse allegations to the police, or even to their own congregations. Candace Conti, who was repeatedly abused as a child, is now suing the church leadership, saying they failed to protect her from her abuser.

Trey Bundy is a reporter with Reveal, the CIR’s new magazine and website. His investigation found that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the Jehovah’s Witness parent company, has sent out detailed memos for 25 years directing congregations to deal with child sexual abuse allegations internally. That means not calling the police unless required to by state law, and not warning parents in the congregation about people convicted of child sexual abuse. At the same time, the church gathers detailed records on child abusers in their congregations.

That was the case with Jonathan Kendrick, a Fremont, California man who confessed in 1993 to his church to molesting his 3-year-old stepdaughter as she slept. Instead of calling the police, Bundy writes:

The elders, Michael Clarke and Gary Abrahamson, wrote to the Watchtower for guidance.

Two weeks later, a letter from the Watchtower advised the elders that Kendrick’s conduct constituted a “minor uncleanness” and that he could remain a member of the congregation. “However,” the letter said, “it would be appropriate for two elders to meet with him and provide him with strong Scriptural counsel.”

The Watchtower determined that Kendrick’s crime didn’t warrant police involvement, disfellowshipping or a warning to the congregation. Because the incident was known outside of the immediate family, it said Kendrick should lose his title of ministerial servant, which meant that he could no longer pass out Watchtower literature at the kingdom hall – the equivalent of a church for Jehovah’s Witnesses – or turn on the microphone at the start of meetings.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

By Jonathan Pitts
The Baltimore Sun

The head of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland apologized Wednesday for failing to recognize “warning signs” that Bishop Heather Elizabeth Cook — now facing drunken-driving and other charges in connection with a crash that killed a bicyclist — suffers from alcoholism.

“I regret that my sister in faith, Heather, apparently caused so much damage and suffering due to her disease of alcoholism, and [I’m] sorry I was unable to recognize warning signs of her illness,” the Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton said in a message to church members on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, a 40-day season of repentance.

Sutton added that he regretted shortcomings in the selection process by which Cook was made the No. 2 bishop in the diocese last year, despite an earlier arrest on a DUI charge. He pledged to work to “revise a process that failed us at some crucial points.”

Sutton’s statement was the most explicit apology a diocesan official has made in relation to the case.

Cook, 58, was indicted in Baltimore this month on 13 charges in the death of Thomas Palermo, a 41-year-old father of two young children. She is accused of hitting Palermo with her car Dec. 27 while texting and driving drunk along Roland Avenue in North Baltimore. She has not yet entered a plea.

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ALASKA
Alaska Dispatch News

Jerzy Shedlock

Alaska State Troopers are investigating public allegations of physical and mental abuse against students of an Eastern Orthodox church school for troubled youths in Kodiak.

Former students of St. Innocent’s Academy have submitted victims’ statements to the website Academy Abuse, which went live in early January.

The website’s authors decided to go public with the allegations after Metropolitan Joseph Bosakov — the leader of the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the U.S., Canada and Australia, who oversees the academy — failed to take satisfactory action, they said through the site. There are currently 15 victims’ statements posted to the website.

St. Innocent’s is an alternative school for “at-risk” young men and women on Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. Its website states many of the students are in need of “secure anchoring” as an antidote to a modern lack of values.

The allegations center on one academy official, who’s accused of physical, verbal and psychological abuse of students, including claims that a young man’s head was slammed against a wall and a girl was forced to drink from a dog dish off the floor. Those and other incidents allegedly happened between 1999 and 2011.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Lee Filas

A Round Lake man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to accusations he sexually assaulted a child while serving as a church volunteer.

Roberto D. Almeida, 42, of the 1200 block of West Oriole Court, formally denied charges of predatory criminal sexual assault, criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse stemming from allegations he molested a boy at different times between 2005 to 2012, Lake County prosecutor Jason Grindel said.

If found guilty of the most serious charges, Almeida would face six to 60 years in prison, Grindel said.

Bond initially was set at $1 million for the former church volunteer but lowered to $500,000 Wednesday after Grindel said an investigation failed to turn up additional accusers. Almeida remained in custody at the Lake County jail on Wednesday.

Defense attorney Thomas Needham said in court that Almeida is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has no previous criminal background and is a lifelong resident of Illinois.

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POLAND
GlobalPost

Poland’s Catholic Church on Wednesday said it would set up a handful of sites across the country where victims of sexual abuse by priests can go for psychological and legal help.

“Work is under way to launch points of contact in Poland for victims of sexual abuse committed by clergymen,” Archbishop Wojciech Polak, primate of Poland, said on his website.

He said the Church would open four or five sites across the Catholic country that would provide victims with advice.

Several high-profile cases have recently rocked the Polish Church, including that of Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who is alleged to have had sex with boys while serving as a papal envoy in the Dominican Republic.

Poland’s Catholic Church apologised in June 2014 for the paedophilia in its midst at a landmark ceremony attended by top clergy and abuse victims.

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ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

The Herald

By Diana Nherera

Government has been urged to enact legislation that regulates the registration and operations of churches as part of measures to deal with cases of sexual abuse of women and girls within the institutions. A report that was presented by the Thematic Committee on Gender and Development in the Senate recently noted concerns in the number of cases of women and girls falling victim to abuse by church leaders.

“Government should enact legislation to regulate registration and operations of the churches,” read the report. “However, there is need for full participation of different church representatives in the formulation of that legislation so that it would not affect Christians’ right to worship.”

The report emphasised the need for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development and stakeholders to partner with different churches in their interventions to combat gender based violence.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

WENDY STUECK
ALERT BAY, B.C. — The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Feb. 18 2015

Josie Hanuse was five years old when she first came to St. Michael’s Indian Residential School, an imposing brick building in Alert Bay, B.C., off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.

On Wednesday, she was back, carrying the same suitcase she’d been given as a parting gift by her parents in 1967, and sharing tears and embraces with other former students who had come from around the province and beyond to witness the symbolic demolition of St. Michael’s.

“I was one of those children who never came home,” Ms. Hanuse said after an emotional ceremony that included heavy equipment destroying the school’s front porch and the opportunity for former students to hurl rocks at the decrepit building’s façade.

The ceremony – punctuated by sobs, singing, prayers and drumming – was a symbolic watershed for former students such as Ms. Hanuse. It was also a reminder of the lasting, multigenerational impact of residential schools and the ripple effects in First Nations communities, decades after most schools have closed and years after Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a formal apology in the House of Commons in 2008.

Ms. Hanuse, for example, didn’t go back to live in the home where her parents had carefully packed the little suitcase for the journey they did not want her to take. By the time she left St. Michael’s at 14, her mother was dead and her father was deemed unable to care for his children because of his alcohol abuse. Ms. Hanuse went into foster care and began a cycle of drinking, gambling and drug addiction that ended 17 years ago, when she began what she calls her “healing journey.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

18 February 2015

Pope Francis, who has called for zero tolerance for the “despicable” crime of sexual abuse of minors, has praised new efforts aimed at helping the Church better protect children.

In a letter to Fr Hans Zollner SJ, president of the Centre for Child Protection at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pope said he was “happy about what you are doing and I sincerely congratulate you.”

Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley read the letter out at a news conference on Monday inaugurating the official launch of the centre’s new premises and its activities. The launch followed a three-year pilot project phase.

The centre offers an onsite and online prevention and child protection programme and diploma, which will be available from next year.

It was established in 2012 as a way to help build awareness and train religious and lay leaders globally about the problem of abuse.

The Gregorian University that year hosted an unprecedented conference aimed at addressing the Church’s response to the abuse scandal.

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TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

Montgomery County investigators have charged a pastor from The Woodlands with molesting a young girl beginning when she was 6 and continuing for nine years, and are now trying to determine if he may have assaulted any other young victims.

The pastor, Delso Eli Erazo, 69, is being held in the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of indecency with a child, according to a news release from Montgomery County Constable Precinct 3. His bond has been set at $200,000.

The suspect’s attorney, Cruz Cervantes, said he cannot discuss the case and has also advised his client to remain silent.

According to the Texas secretary of state, Erazo is listed as one of three directors who formed a corporation – Iglesia Cristiana Monte Sinai de Houston, Tx. Inc. – in 2012 in order to “establish an evangelical Biblical organization and place of worship.”

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CHILE
MercoPress

Fifty-one members of the Chilean Parliament have signed a letter asking Pope Francis to reverse the appointment of the Bishop of Osorno, Juan Barros, due to allegations of covering up sexual abuse.

Presented on Monday for delivery to Rome, the letter accuses the new bishop of the Osorno diocese, 940 kilometers south of Santiago, of covering up sexual abuses committed by the Chilean priest Fernando Karadima.

”The letter aims to condemn acts of sexual abuse in the Church, as the Pope has done (and) we believe that he must have sufficient information to review this nomination,” legislator Fidel Espinoza told Bio-Bio radio.

The appointment was announced by the Holy See on Jan. 10.

Karadima, an influential octogenarian priest was found guilty in 2011 by the Vatican of committing sexual abuse and sentenced to a life of prayer and penance.

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UTAH
Deseret News

By Marjorie Cortez, Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 18 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — An adult survivor of child sexual abuse told state lawmakers Wednesday that the molestation she endured at the hands of a middle school choir teacher haunts her to this day.

As the child of a single mother working two jobs, the attention the then anxiety-riddled middle schooler Rebecca Ivory received from her teacher was initially “very intoxicating,” she said.

“Little did I know her attention was going to cause me nightmares for the rest of my life,” said Ivory, addressing the Utah Legislature’s House Judiciary Committee.

While 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 limitation does not reflect that understanding, said Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, who is Becky Ivory’s husband.

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CHILE
Katholisch

Chile | 18.02.2015 – Santiago de Chile/Vatikanstadt

51 chilenische Parlamentarier haben Papst Franziskus in einem Offenen Brief aufgefordert, die Berufung des katholischen Geistlichen Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid zum Bischof des südchilenischen Bistums Osorno zu überprüfen. “Der Brief hat das Ziel, sexuellen Missbrauch zu verurteilen, so wie es der Papst getan hat”, sagte der sozialistische Abgeordnete Fidel Espinoza, der das Schreiben laut Angaben des Nachrichtenportals 24Horas am Dienstag in der chilenischen Botschaft am Heiligen Stuhl übergab.

Die Abgeordneten werfen Barros in dem Brief vor, er habe versucht, Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch des inzwischen nach Kirchenrecht wegen Verletzung seines Zölibatsversprechens verurteilten Priesters Fernando Salvador Miguel Karadima Farina zu vertuschen. Die Unterzeichner berufen sich dabei auf Aussagen von Missbrauchsopfern, die Barros belasteten.

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ITALIA
Globalist

[The cases of Don Maks Suard in Trieste, Don Mauro Inzoli of Crema and Bishop Joseph Wesolowski are just the latest in a long series of scandals with ancient roots. It shows even today, despite the proclamations of Pope Francis, that the Vatican is far from understanding what children who are abused face and how to prevent it.]

I casi di Don Maks Suard a Trieste, Don Mauro Inzoli a Crema e del vescovo polacco Józef Wesolowski in Repubblica Dominicana sono solo gli ultimi di una lunga serie di scandali dalle radici antiche. E dimostrano come ancora oggi, nonostante i proclami di Papa Francesco, il Vaticano sia ben lontano dal comprendere cosa sia l’abuso su un bambino, come si affronta, come si previene e come ci si “occupa” di chi ne è riconosciuto responsabile.

Quattro anni dopo “Chiesa e pedofilia. Non lasciate che i pargoli vadano a loro”, Federico Tulli getta nuova luce sull’orrore della pedofilia all’interno del clero cattolico, concentrandosi questa volta sul caso italiano. Un’inchiesta che legandosi alle durissime accuse rivolte dall’Onu alla Santa Sede nel 2014, i cui atti nel libro sono per la prima volta tradotti integralmente, chiama ancora di più in causa le responsabilità dei Papi Bergoglio, Ratzinger e Wojtyla nella gestione di un crimine dalle conseguenze devastanti diffuso in maniera capillare anche nel nostro Paese.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

Sie hat für heftige Diskussionen gesorgt: Die ARD-Dokumentation über sexuellen Missbrauch bei den Regensburger Domspatzen. Nach Manipulationsvorwürfen des Bistumsanwalts veröffentlichen die Filmemacher die Interviews in Originallänge.

Anwalt Geedo Paprotta wirft dem verantwortlichen Sender SWR vor, man habe sein Interview “bewusst in dieser manipulativen (“wütend machenden”) Form geschnitten, praktisch also zensiert”. Am Mittwochabend (18.02.15) um 20.15 Uhr wird die TV-Dokumentation “Sünden an den Sängerknaben” im SWR-Fernsehen wiederholt. Ergänzend stellt der Sender die kompletten Interviews mit Anwalt Paprotta, dem Missbrauchsbeauftragten des Bistums, Martin Linder sowie Bistumssprecher Clemens Neck auf seine Homepage.

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OSTERREICH
Steiermark

[A priest in Admont is being investigated after allegations of sexual abuse were made.]

Wie das Stift Admont am Dienstag erklärt hat, werden gegen einen Pater Vorwürfe wegen sexueller Vergehen erhoben. Konkret wird gegen ihn wegen Missbrauchs eines Autoritätsverhältnisses ermittelt, bestätigt die Staatsanwaltschaft Leoben.

Den Vorwürfen zufolge soll es zwischen dem Pater des Stifts Admont und zwei – heute 17 und 19 Jahre alten – Burschen zu sexuellen Handlungen gekommen sein. Die Mutter der beiden hat laut Wochenzeitung „Falter“ Anzeige erstattet.

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DEUTSCHLAND
KSTA

[Under the impact of new allegations of sexual boundary violations, pastor Winfried Jansen has apologized to the victims. Two other women have reported abuse to the Archdiocese of Cologne.]

Unter dem Eindruck neuer Vorwürfe wegen sexueller Grenzverletzung hat sich Pfarrer Winfried Jansen bei den Betroffenen entschuldigt. Zwei weitere Frauen hatten sich beim Erzbistum Köln gemeldet. Jansen wurde bereits zu den Vorwürfen gehört. Von Joachim Frank

Der Erftstädter Pfarrer Winfried Jansen (73) hat unter dem Eindruck neuer Vorwürfe wegen sexueller Übergriffe in den 70er und 80er Jahren die betroffenen Frauen erstmals um Entschuldigung gebeten. „Ich sehe nach und nach, dass mein damaliges Verhalten für die betroffenen Kinder und Jugendlichen sexuell grenzverletzend war“, heißt es in einer mit dem Erzbistum Köln abgestimmten Erklärung, die von Jansen und Personalchef Stephan Weißkopf unterschrieben ist. Eine weitere Entschuldigung richtet der Geistliche an seine Gemeinde „dafür, dass mein Verhalten zu großer Unruhe und zu emotionaler Erschütterung geführt hat“. Die gemeinsame Erklärung sei auch „einer großen Belastung für die betroffenen Frauen und deren Angehörige“ durch das öffentliche Interesse an dem Fall des Pfarrers geschuldet, heißt es im Text.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bristol Post

One in five requests made to Avon and Somerset police as to whether someone has a record of child sex offences has been given a positive response.

Police have received 242 requests from parents, carers or guardians under the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme – commonly known as Sarah’s Law – since it was introduced in 2011, with 47 confirming someone as a child sex offender.

Across the force’s jurisdiction, 56 per cent (158) of the total requests have come from Somerset, while 32 per cent (89) have come Bristol and 12 per (33) from North East Somerset.

Sharon Copsey, head of service for the National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), said calls to the charity’s 24-hour helpline have “soared” over the past few years. She cited recent high-profile cases – such as those of Jimmy Saville and Ian Watkins – as the main reason for this change, saying there is now “much higher awareness” about children’s safety.

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DEUTSCHLAND
RP

[A pastor in the Cologne archdiocese wants to face abuse allegations. Meanwhile two other women have filed complaints against the 73-year-old priest. The priest apologized for the first time to the victims.” At the same time, the Cologne Public Prosecutor is examining possible criminal charges against Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki regarding the archdiocese’s handing of the suspended priest.]

The entpflichtete from the Archdiocese of Cologne Erftstadt pastor wants to face the abuse allegations but now. Meanwhile, two other women have filed complaints against the 73-year-old accusations cases from the 70s and 80s, according to a study published in Cologne on Wednesday joint statement of the priest and of the Archdiocese. In it the priest apologized for the first time to those affected.

Köln. Der vom Erzbistum Köln entpflichtete Erftstädter Pfarrer will sich nun doch den Missbrauchsvorwürfen stellen. Inzwischen haben zwei weitere Frauen gegen den 73-Jährigen Anschuldigungen zu Fällen aus den 70er und 80er Jahren erhoben, heißt es in einer am Mittwoch in Köln veröffentlichten gemeinsamen Erklärung des Pfarrers und des Erzbistums. Darin entschuldigte sich der Geistliche erstmals bei den Betroffenen.

Zugleich prüft die Staatsanwaltschaft Köln Strafanzeigen unter anderem gegen Kardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, die im Zusammenhang mit dem Umgang des Erzbistums mit dem suspendierten Geistlichen gestellt wurden.

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MINNESOTA
The Catholic Spirit

Jessica Trygstad | May 20, 2014

A goodwill gesture by parishioners at St. Paul in Ham Lake has brought together a leader of the local Church and victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Father Charles Lachowitzer, vicar general of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, attended the gathering that parishioners hosted at the church in early May. It included prayer, song and members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests sharing their stories.

It’s listening to survivors’ stories that will help forge relationships and guide the Church in creating and maintaining safe environments, Father Lachowitzer said. “Safe environments,” he added, “include those of survivors’ networks that serve to empower victims.”

“For the last seven months or so, so much of my work has been pieces of paper and files and reports and meetings . . . which bring to reality that this is a serious issue in our local Church,” said Father Lachowitzer, who also met with abuse victims when he served as a pastor. “But to have faces, to have people standing there and speaking so courageously, honestly, with passion, anger — that was my biggest experience there. The faces on it really gave a sense of what kind of impact, lifelong, this type of tragedy has on people.”

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OKLAHOMA
Altus Times

by Michael Bush fbush@civitasmedia.com

The preliminary hearing for a former Altus pastor accused of sexually abusing a child has been set for March 6 at 9 a.m. Tommy Lynn Bailey was arrested in December 2014 on a felony warrant out of Jackson County on a complaint of child sexual abuse.

According Altus Police, the female victim told investigators that the sexual abuse began when she was only 14-years-old while living in the Bailey home. Police say that the investigation has revealed that the sexual abuse started around September 2007 and continued through February 2014, when the victim was in the custody of the State of Oklahoma as a foster child.

Bailey was the pastor at the Elm and Hudson Church of Christ in Altus for almost 15 years. He resigned as their minister on November 30, 2014, about two weeks before his arrest. It should be noted that none of the allegations against Bailey relate to the church itself. Bailey was also a former employee at Open Arms behavioral center in Lawton.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

WARNING: PAPAL MYTHS CAN HARM CHILDREN AND OTHERS

Myth No. 1: The Catechism of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI overrules the inspired Bible and informed biblical scholarship — only a pope can infallibly interpret them both, even when he interprets them contrary to suppressed historical facts and/or available scientific evidence.

Myth No. 2: The Catechism “proves” that Jesus’ “top man” on earth is the pope who is linked directly to the Apostle Peter.

Myth No. 3: The pope is the ruler of a real sovereign nation that altruistically offers valuable wisdom otherwise missing in world power politics.

Myth No. 4: The pope values satisfying the desperate needs of a majority of the powerless 99% more than promoting the selfish agenda of some of the powerful 1% who fund the pope significantly.

Myth No. 5: The pope values the security and dignity of hundreds of millions of impoverished and innocent children and women more than that of 5,000 “not so impoverished and innocent” cardinals and bishops — these clerics have vowed obedience and silence as they supinely serve and frequently fund the pope’s needs, in exchange for the pope’s grant to these clerics’ of an unaccountable monopoly on local power and obscene personal wealth.

{In my future remarks, I expect to discuss separately each of the five papal myths in more detail.}

Myths are over simplified stories with a supernatural twist — believed deeply and docilely by many, often from their youth. These “mythical stories” tend misleadingly to “frame” problematic issues for believers, even when unsupported by sufficient facts and/or contradicted by realities that believers irrationally neglect.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

By Andrea Purgatori

VATICAN CITY — “That there is the Casa di Santa Marta, where Pope Francis lives. That down there is the monastery where Pope Ratzinger retired. And this right here is the Terrace of Scandals.”

I am strolling on the roof of the Palazzo San Carlo with the man who for eight years was the most powerful person in the Vatican after the pope: Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s former secretary of state. For decades, he’s been one of the church’s most powerful officials — and he’s been suspected of playing a central role in some of the Curia’s most mysterious intrigues, including last year’s allegations that he mishandled millions of dollars through the Vatican Bank.

Sunlight gleams off the towering cupola of St. Peter’s, that Roman sunlight which already portends the arrival of spring. This terrace has for months been presumed to be part of Bertone’s lavish — and widely criticized — retirement complex: a 2500-square-foot luxury apartment with a view of the city. But the terrace is shared, and the supposed extravagance of the balcony can in fact be enjoyed by everybody in the building, without giving direct access to Bertone’s apartment. He gives a sly smile.

“A certain cardinal told me this would be a magnificent place to relax and meditate. But it was not up to me to decide,” he says. “Despite what has been written and said, it does not belong to me; it is for the use of all the building’s residents.”

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CHILE
Daily Mail

SANTIAGO, Feb 18 (Reuters) – A Catholic priest in Chile who was instrumental in taking babies from their mothers for adoption by others in the 1970s and 1980s will not face prosecution, after a court ruled that too much time had passed since the events in question.

Last year, an internal probe by the church found that Gerardo Joannon handed over at least two babies for adoption, telling the mothers that their babies had died and even holding funeral masses for them.

But Judge Mario Carroza dismissed the judicial case on Tuesday, saying that the deadline had passed for a prosecution to be made on the charges brought.

Joannon, now in his seventies, has said that his actions were due to the stigma attached to unmarried mothers at that time, rather than overtly political reasons. The events took place during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, an era of state-sponsored disappearances and assassinations that still casts a dark shadow over Chilean society.

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ROME
Europe Online Magazine

Rome (dpa) – The Vatican blocked an Italian probe into its scandal-tainted bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), the former HSBC employee who disclosed information on thousands of Swiss bank account holders said Wednesday.

Franco-Italian computer specialist Herve Falciani gained access to confidential data from 2006-2007 and passed it on to French authorities in the hope of exposing tax cheats hiding behind Swiss banking secrecy laws.

“Italian investigations on the IOR were blocked by the Vatican: Switzerland was ready to cooperate, but the Vatican placed its veto,” Falciani said, launching a book in Rome, as quoted by the ANSA news agency.

Over the decades, the IOR has been involved in a long list of financial scandals, allegedly offering a safe haven for the funds of Italian mobsters, politicians and entrepreneurs, going beyond its prime remit of assisting worldwide church operations.

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ROME
Gazzetta del Sud

Rome, February 18 – An Italian investigation into the Vatican bank, the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), was stopped by the Vatican even though Switzerland was willing to collaborate, charged whistle-blower Hervé Falciani in a book presentation Wednesday. He added that he hoped it would be useful to Pope Francis “who can give an example to the world”. Falciani has become a controversial figures over his involvement in the leak of documents concerning tax evaders with Swiss bank accounts, particularly HSBC account holders.

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ROME
London South East

Rome (Alliance News) – The Vatican blocked an Italian probe into its scandal-tainted bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), the former HSBC employee who disclosed information on thousands of Swiss bank account holders said Wednesday.

Franco-Italian computer specialist Herve Falciani gained access to confidential data from 2006-2007 and passed it on to French authorities in the hope of exposing tax cheats hiding behind Swiss banking secrecy laws.

“Italian investigations on the IOR were blocked by the Vatican: Switzerland was ready to cooperate, but the Vatican placed its veto,” Falciani said, launching a book in Rome, as quoted by the ANSA news agency.

Over the decades, the IOR has been involved in a long list of financial scandals, allegedly offering a safe haven for the funds of Italian mobsters, politicians and entrepreneurs, going beyond its prime remit of assisting worldwide church operations.

Under Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI, a clean-up process got underway. Under new management, the IOR has screened its client base and closed thousands of accounts, and is in the process of being downsized significantly.

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MINNESOTA
Lillie News

Allegations date to the early 1990s

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office announced Feb. 11 that it would not pursue criminal charges relating to allegations of criminal sexual conduct alleged to have taken place at Saint John the Baptist Parish School in New Brighton in the early 1990s due to lack of evidence.

According to a report from Assistant County Attorney and Criminal Division Director Richard Dusterhoft, in the fall of 2006 the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis received an email alleging sexual abuse that took place in the sacristy at Saint John the Baptist Parish School, taking place between 1992 and 1994.

On Sept. 29, 2006, the Archdiocese reported the allegations to the New Brighton Public Safety, though New Brighton police closed the case little more than a week later on Oct. 6 because they could not contact the complainant, who lived abroad, the report says.

Later that month, the Archdiocese hired an independent firm to investigate the allegations, the report says. A lengthy document created by the firm dated March 20, 2007, stated it was unlikely the abuse could have taken place in the manner described by the complainant because of the layout of the sacristy, a lack of witnesses and a lack of opportunity for the suspect.

On May 21, 2013, the complainant contacted New Brighton police and said memories of the alleged abuse had come back in “a flood,” the report says. In a signed affidavit, the complainant described the abuse, including forced touching and oral penetration.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, NM, Feb. 13, 2015

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

GALLUP – The financially beleaguered Diocese of Gallup is once again seeking applicants for its chief financial officer position.

The diocesan newsletter, The Voice of the Southwest, posted the job opening on its website and emailed notices of the opening Monday.

The Gallup Diocese, currently in mediation as part of its bankruptcy case, has not had a permanent, in-house CFO for more than 19 months. The previous CFO, Deacon James Hoy, resigned two months before Bishop James S. Wall announced the diocese would file a petition for Chapter 11 reorganization. The diocese then advertized Hoy’s position, but never hired a replacement.

Keegan, Linscott & Kenon, P.C., a Tucson accounting firm, subsequently took over management of the diocese’s finances. On Nov. 8, 2013, prior to filing its bankruptcy petition, the Gallup Diocese paid the accounting firm $75,000 for prepetition accounting and financial consulting services. Since then, the firm has billed the diocese $277,093 for services through Dec. 31, 2014.

According to statements filed by Christopher G. Linscott, one of the firm’s directors, Keegan, Linscott & Kenon is billing the diocese the following “heavily discounted” hourly rate structure: Partner/Director — $235, Manager — $130, Supervisor — $125, Senior — $100, Associate — $60, and Administrative — $35.

In the firm’s first application for payment, filed May 12, 2014, diocesan bankruptcy attorney Lori L. Winkelman stated that prior to the employment of Keegan, Linscott & Kenon, the Diocese of Gallup “did not have accounting software or systems that were appropriate for their operations” and the accounting firm had to provide “extensive training” to the diocese’s accounting staff.

The bulk of the billing hours were by John Gordon, a consulting manager with the accounting firm, who billed the diocese at the senior rate of $100 per hour for work and $92.50 per hour for travel. In a letter addressed to diocesan employees last month, Gordon was listed as the current CFO although the diocese does not list him as a chancery official on its website.

That first application for payment was the first and last time Keegan, Linscott & Kenon was required to submit a detailed breakdown of its professional fees and expenses to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Judge David T. Thuma has since agreed the accounting firm and the attorneys in the case need not submit detailed quarterly billing applications. As a result, the public no longer has access to that financial information.

The Diocese of Gallup is seeking CFO applicants with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance or a related field and a minimum of seven years financial management experience.

There is no closing date listed for the position.

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MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 18

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

One of at least six credibly accused Baltimore predator priests who worked at one Catonsville parish has died. And Baltimore’s archbishop, as best we can tell, kept this secret.

[Baltimore Sun]

We are sad for the family Fr. Ross A. LaPorta, a predator priest who passed away on Feb. 8. But we are even sadder for those he victimized. And we are sad that Baltimore’s Catholic officials apparently told no one of Fr. LaPorta’s passing.

At the same time, we are relieved that Fr. LaPorta can no longer hurt kids. We hope this fact will bring some sorely-needed and long-overdue relief and consolation to all of those who have been assaulted by him.

Baltimore Archbishop William Lori should have disclosed Fr. LaPorta’s passing. That would have been an act of courage and compassion. That’s what a caring shepherd would have done. (There is apparently no mention whatsoever of Fr. LaPorta on the archdiocesan website or the St Mark’s website. The archdiocesan newspaper’s website features only a short story saying that Fr. LaPorta moved to South Carolina several years ago.)

Instead, Lori chose to do what Catholic officials have done for centuries with pedophile priests: as little as possible. Despite a 13 year old national church abuse policy that mandates “openness” about clergy sex crimes, Lori and his aides once again opted for self-serving secrecy over transparency. Shame on them.

We hope this child molesting cleric’s death brings some degree of comfort and closure to those he has so severely hurt. And we hope that every single person who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by this priest will step forward and get help.

The others who also worked at St. Mark’s Catholic church in Catonsville are Fr. James Dowdy, Fr. Thomas Bauernfeind, Fr. Frederick Duke, Fr. David G. Smith and Fr. Charles Rouse.

Here’s what Baltimore Catholic officials disclosed in 2002 about LaPorta:

In 1999, an individual alleged sexual abuse by Ross LaPorta in the 1960s. In 1999, LaPorta was retired and living out of state. LaPorta denied the allegations. His faculties to perform ministry were removed. LaPorta served at St. Matthew from 1951 to 1963, at St. Charles Borromeo from 1963 to 1971, at St. Bernard (Baltimore) from 1971 to 1978, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Woodlawn) from 1978 to 1991 and at St. Mark (Catonsville) from 1991 until his retirement in 1998.

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CANADA
Catholic Register

BY ALAN HUSTAK, CATHOLIC REGISTER SPECIAL
February 18, 2015

MONTREAL – The Roman Catholic Church is moving forward in the aftermath of the devastating child abuse crisis, yet a sense of helplessness around the issue still has to be resolved before the damage can be fully repaired, says a leading clinical psychologist and member of a papal committee examining child abuse.

“The taboo around sexuality in the Church still has to be addressed,” said Dr. Delphine Collin-Vézina. “There have been important changes in the way certain dioceses are dealing with sexual abuse. But the Church is not advancing at a quick pace. But that is because it is a complex issue. Meaningful change takes time.”

The director of the McGill Centre for Research on Children and Families, Collin-Vézina is the only Canadian on an eight-member scientific advisory board invited to Rome to work on a papal committee examining child abuse cases.

The problem of sexual abuse, she says, is not exclusive to the Roman Catholic Church. Part of the problem is that abusers are hard to identify.

“Most of them are normal people, people of trust. You don’t know that they are dysfunctional predators hiding in the bushes. Many of them are otherwise great individuals.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

[Ross LaPorta – BishopAccountability.org]

Father Ross A. LaPorta, 88, of the Brightwater Retirement Community, passed away Sunday, February 8, 2015. Born Saturday, January 15, 1927 in Frostburg, MD, Father LaPorta was a son of the late Ross A. LaPorta and Kathleen Stowell LaPorta. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his brother, Father Gerald F. LaPorta. Father LaPorta was a graduate of St. Charles Seminary College, Catonsville, MD; St. Mary’s Seminary Paca Street, Baltimore, MD and St. Mary’s Seminary Roland Park, Baltimore, MD. In 1945, Father LaPorta was ordained into the priesthood at St. Mary’s Roland Park. – See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/baltimoresun/obituary.aspx?pid=174125430#sthash.6azYhOYO.1ZDit1Hs.dpuf

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento

California Lawmakers: Archbishop’s Morality Clauses For Teachers Send Message Of ‘Intolerance To Youth’

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – California lawmakers on Tuesday urged the archbishop of San Francisco to remove from a teachers’ handbook morality clauses they say are discriminatory and divisive.

The lawmakers said in a letter to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone that the clauses “foment a discriminatory environment” and send “an alarming message of intolerance to youth.”

Cordileone earlier this month presented teachers at the archdiocese’s four high schools with a statement that says Catholic school employees are expected to conduct their public lives in a way that doesn’t undermine or deny the church’s doctrine.

The statement outlines the church’s teaching that using contraception is a sin and that sex outside of marriage, whether it is in the form of adultery, masturbation, pornography or gay sex, is “gravely evil.”
The archbishop said the statement would be added to the faculty handbooks.

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CALIFORNIA
SFGate

By Vivian Ho

In the latest controversy to strike the Catholic Church in San Francisco, elementary school students at the Star of the Sea School were given pamphlets referring to sexual topics that some parents say were inappropriate and far too advanced for their children.

At the Inner Richmond school whose parish recently made news when its pastor banned girls from acting as altar servers at Mass, copies of “The Examination of Conscience and Catholic Doctrine” were passed out to students in second through sixth grades about two weeks ago, just before confession, parents and students said.

They asked questions such as, “Did I perform impure acts by myself (masturbation) or with another (adultery, fornication and sodomy)?” and, “Did I practice artificial birth control or was I or my spouse prematurely sterilized (tubal ligation or vasectomy)?” as well as, “Have I had or advised anyone to have an abortion?”

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DEUTSCHLAND
N24

Das Erzbistum Köln – das größte und reichste in Deutschland – hat erstmals sein Vermögen offengelegt. Es beläuft sich auf 3,35 Milliarden Euro, teilte das Erzbistum bei der Vorlage des Jahresabschlusses 2013 mit. Allein die Finanzanlagen, im wesentlichen Wertpapier- und Immobilienfonds, beliefen sich auf 2,4 Milliarden Euro, sagte der scheidende Generalvikar Stefan Heße. Nicht erfasst sind unverkäufliche Kunstschätze wie der Dreikönigsschrein im Kölner Dom.

Das Vermögen sei im Wesentlichen in Rücklagen gebunden, um langfristige Verpflichtungen zu decken.
Die Zahlen beziehen sich auf das Jahr 2013 und umfassen auch selbstständige Rechtsträger wie den Erzbischöflichen Stuhl, den Dom, das Metropolitankapitel, das Priesterseminar und vom Erzbistum verwaltete Stiftungen. Deutschlands mitgliederstärkste Diözese legte zum ersten Mal einen nach dem Handelsgesetzbuch testierten vollständigen Jahresabschluss mit Bilanz und Ergebnisrechnung vor. Danach hatte der Haushalt 2013 ein Volumen von 811 Millionen Euro.

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DEUTSCHLAND
report-K

Köln | Erstmals hat das Erzbistum Köln mit seinem Finanzbericht für das Jahr 2013 einen vollständigen Jahresabschluss mit Bilanz und Ergebnisrechnung vorgelegt.Demzufoglge verfügte das Erzbistum Köln 2013 über ein Vermögen von rund 3,35 Milliarden Euro. Der Haushalt des Erzbistums im Jahre 2013 hatte ein Volumen von 811 Millionen Euro, rund 573 Millionen davon stammten aus der eingenommenen Kirchensteuer.

Erstmals habe man damit einen nach den Vorgaben des Handelsgesetzbuches volltestierten Jahresabschluss präsentiert, so Hermann J. Schon, Finanzdirektor des Erbistums Köln. Damit gehe man gemeinsam mit anderen Bistümern einen Weg zu mehr Transparenz. Der Bericht enthält den gemeinsamen Abschluss des Erzbistums und des Erzbischöflichen Stuhls und zeigt darüber hinaus die Vermögenslage der Hohen Domkirche, des Metropolitankapitels der Hohen Domkirche, des Priesterseminars und der vom Erzbistum verwalteten selbstständigen Stiftungen.

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GERMANY
ABC News

Associated Press

The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cologne has published accounts showing the full extent of its wealth for the first time.

Documents posted on its website Wednesday show Germany’s richest archdiocese had assets of 3.35 billion euros ($3.82 billion) at the end of 2013.

Some 2.4 billion euros were invested in stocks, funds and company holdings. A further 646 million euros were held in tangible assets, mostly property. Cash reserves and outstanding loans total about 287 million euros.

In 2013, the archdiocese received 573 million euros from church taxes paid by the 2 million Catholics living in the region around Cologne, famous for its Gothic cathedral.

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CANADA
Leader-Post

BY WILL CHABUN, LEADER-POST FEBRUARY 18, 2015

REGINA — It’s one of those things that writers do when they’re on the trail of a story: get up in the wee hours of a morning and drive 100 miles on the possibility they’ll find a special person.

David Carpenter chuckles as he tells of his quest for Joseph August “Augie” Merasty, who years before shyly sought out a writer to tell his story.

The elderly Cree trapper’s signature was needed to let the University of Regina Press publish The Education of Augie Merasty, a 76-page book that, through one man, tells the story of Canada’s experiment with residential schools.

It is the story of how one of them failed Merasty, who attended the St. Therese Residential School at Sturgeon Landing in northeast Saskatchewan from 1935-44.

The core of this book is the memoir Merasty wrote in longhand for the forerunner to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has been hearing school survivors’ stories.

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MEXICO
Informe 21

Víctimas de abusos sexuales de religiosos en América se unieron el lunes para exigir al papa Francisco que tome acciones efectivas y someta a la justicia civil a los responsables y encubridores de esos crímenes, considerando que no bastan sus “buenas palabras”.

“Le exigimos al Papa que, por lo menos, cumpla lo que está diciendo porque para dar titulares todos somos buenos. ¡Ya basta de titulares!”, manifestó en una rueda de prensa en Ciudad de México el chileno Juan Carlos Cruz, víctima de pederastia, confesándose “profundamente traicionado” por el pontífice argentino.

Unidos en una incipiente red que enlaza a víctimas de Argentina, Chile, Estados Unidos, México, República Dominicana o Perú, los damnificados enviaron una carta conjunta a Francisco en la que recalcan que “no bastan las palabras” ni los gestos “ambiguos y contradictorios” que creen que ha expresado públicamente ya que “no generan procesos institucionales hacia la verdad y la justicia”.

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MEXICO
Inquisitr

Pope Francis has spoken about the history of sexual abuse within the church and its clergy, but the acknowledgement isn’t enough for victims.

Victims from around the world banded together on Monday to address what they feel Pope Francis should do with these “pedophile priests,” according to Patheos.

The group of victims from the United States, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico wrote a letter on Monday addressed to the Pope that was made public in Mexico City.

According to First Post, in regards to the Pope’s acknowledgement of the pain these pedophile priests has caused, the group stated, “words are not enough.”

So what are the victims looking for? The victims are asking for Pope Francis to allow “civilian trials and Church reform.”

The victims spoke very strongly about the ongoing sexual abuse scandal, referring to it as a “great holocaust of thousands of boys and girls who were sacrificed to avoid scandal and salvage the image and prestige of the Catholic Church’s representatives in the world.”

And while the Pope has spoken out against these pedophile priests and has stated that he will have a “zero tolerance” policy, the victims considered his statements to be “ambiguous and contradictory,” explaining that unless they lead to “institutional process toward truth and justice,” they are just words.

Reading the letter was Jose Barba, one of the victims of Marcial Maciel, who not only had relationships with two different women and fathered two children while acting as priest, but was accused of sexually abusing countless boys.

Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean victim who was in attendance when the letter was read stated, “We demand that the pope, at the very least, live up to his word because we can all make headlines. Enough with the headlines.”

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
State Journal-Register

By The Associated Press
Posted Feb. 18, 2015

BELLEVILLE — A Minnesota judge has ordered the religious organization that operates the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville to turn over any records related to possible sex abuse by its clergy over a 30-year period.

The Belleville News-Democrat reports that the court order covers offices of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate nationwide. The ruling comes in a civil lawsuit that accuses the late Reverend James Vincent Fitzgerald of sexually abusing two brothers during a Minnesota fishing trip.

Fitzgerald worked at parishes in Minnesota and South Dakota until his 1994 assignment at age 75 to the Belleville shrine, where he remained until his 2009 death. The order covers records from 1949 through 1978.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015

For more information: David Clohessy, 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Predator sought to get his conviction tossed out
Priest pled guilty to child sex crimes in Boonville
But weeks ago, he tried to get judge to free him
He had also molested a New Jersey boy in the 1980s
Cleric had worked in three mid-Missouri counties
After leaving his Catholic post, he was a counselor
SNAP: “He’s one of the most egregious child molesting clerics”

Late last year, a Catholic priest who lived and worked in three mid-Missouri counties asked a judge to set aside his child sex abuse plea, claiming inadequate legal representation and obstruction of justice.

Though he failed, his legal petition revealed some new information about the case.

In the 1980s in the Newark Archdiocese, Fr. Carmine Sita was convicted of molesting a boy in the Jersey City area.

Then, his Catholic supervisors let him legally change his name to Jerry Howard and sent him to the Jefferson City diocese, without warning parishioners or the public, where he sexually assaulted at least four boys – three in Cooper County and one in Boone County.

In June 2014, he pled guilty to one count of forcible sodomy and two counts of attempted forcible sodomy.

But in December 2014, Howard filed a mostly handwritten 22 page motion urging Cooper County Judge Robert L. Koffman to reconsider the plea deal. The ex-priest argues that he allegedly had poor legal representation and the statute of limitations had expired.

In that motion, Howard also claimed

–one of his victims “consented” with the abuse,
–some of his victims “colluded” with one another,
–he dismissed his attorney in November 2014 after the lawyer allegedly missed a hearing, and
–his attorney spent $25,000 on an expert, Ms. Kim Hart, who encouraged him to accept a plea deal.

[Experts]

“In his desperation, Howard is trying to blame everyone else for heinous crimes he pled guilty to committing,” said Barbara Dorris of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “We expect that he’ll find other ways to try to get free. And the best way to stop this is for others hurt by Howard to come forward to police now.”

“If you have any knowledge of or suspicions about Howard – or other child molesting clerics – we urge you call law enforcement immediately,” she added.

Howard worked first at St. Peter & Paul Catholic church in Boonville. Later, he lived and worked in Boone County (7401 Coventry Hill Road in Midway) and Callaway County too. For a while, he was a counselor at Charter Hospital in Columbia.

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SCOTLAND
Edinburgh Evening News

by JOHN-PAUL HOLDEN
johnpaul.holden@edinburghnews.com
Published on the 18 February 2015

PRIESTS have attacked plans to scrap scores of parishes across the Lothians under plans that may see Catholics travelling from church to church for weekly mass.

Clergy in East and Midlothian have joined counterparts in the Scottish Borders to express the “unanimous” view that they want all parishes to remain open and have unveiled proposals to hold Sunday services “by rota”.

But they admitted the declining number of priests may mean Sunday services cannot be celebrated every week in all parishes, leaving congregation members with journeys of up to six miles to get to church.

The suggestion comes in the wake of a letter from Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh Leo Cushley warning that a drop in income, priest shortages and falling church attendances had made it necessary to consider slashing the number of parishes from 113 to around 30.

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ILLINOIS
The Nation

Illinois- Police in Elgin, Illinois, have arrested a prominent imam accused of sexual assault, local law enforcement officials announced on Tuesday morning.

Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, 75, of Gilberts, Illinois, was arrested Sunday without incident and is charged with felony criminal sexual abuse, the Elgin Police Department said in a news release. He was due to appear in Cook County bond court on Tuesday in Rolling Meadows. Police with Elgin’s Major Investigation Division said they started investigating Saleem after a woman contacted authorities in December, and told them the abuse happened while she was working at the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin in April of 2014.

Saleem, president and founder of Elgin’s Institute of Islamic Education, is a prominent figure in the South Asian Muslim community in the United States. After the unnamed woman stepped forward to accuse him of abuse, three other women told Elgin police that he had abused them when they were children.

One of those women, who asked to be identified only by the name “Sandy,” told Al Jazeera that Saleem abused her when she was 10 or 11. “I thought, this is a revered man,” she said. “What he’s saying, what he’s doing? He loves me, that’s how he’s showing that he loves me.”

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ILLINOIS
Gulf News

AP

CHICAGO: The longtime head of a suburban Chicago Islamic school has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman who worked there, and a civil suit filed on Tuesday accuses him of abusing that employee and three teenage students.

Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, 75 — who founded the Institute of Islamic Education and is regarded as a leading Islamic scholar in the United States — is charged with felony criminal sexual abuse. Prosecutors said he abused the 23-year-old woman, an administrative assistant at the Elgin school, in a series of escalating incidents over months.

The civil suit accuses Saleem of abusing that employee, as well as three female students at the school as far back as the 1980s. The lawyer in that case, Steven Denny, said Saleem took advantage of both the trust accorded to him as a religious leader and of the tendency of Muslims to remain silent on matters of sex and sexual abuse.

The suit says a fifth person was abused when he was 11 by a male staffer at the school, not Saleem. It accuses the school of failing to protect children, many of whom lived on campus. It asks for more than $1.5 million (Dh5.5 million) in compensation, saying the victims are psychologically scarred.

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