ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

You can sign Becky’s petition at change.org/abuseinquiry

Jan 24, 2015 By Nigel Nelson

An abuse survivor has begun a petition at change.org demanding the Home Secretary stops dithering over the inquiry promised 3203 days ago

Home Secretary Theresa May is under increasing pressure to get her inquiry into historic child sex abuse off the ground.

It comes as our May-o-meter records 203 days have elapsed since she first ­announced it.

Today abuse survivor “Becky” will launch a ­petition on website change.org ­urging May to get a move on.

Becky demands: “Start the ­inquiry you promised to abuse survivors without ­further ­delay.”

Her plea comes after the death of Leon Brittan last week as child abuse campaigners fear others will now take what they know of the alleged paedophile ring cover-up to their graves.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Inquiry into historic sex abuse has ‘wasted’ £25,000 on controversial eight-strong panel that Theresa May is poised to sack

Tens of thousands of pounds have been ‘wasted’ on the Government’s inquiry into historic child abuse and key figures are set to be sacked even though it has barely begun.

The controversial eight-strong panel has had seven meetings, as well as ‘listening meetings’ with survivors, putting their bill at well over £25,000 already – despite Theresa May being poised to give them the boot.

Thousands more have been paid to a barrister accused of bullying panel members, while the Home Office has rented central London offices and is paying up to 15 staff to run the back-office operation.

Yet six months after it was set up to investigate claims of VIP paedophile rings dating back to the 1970s, the inquiry is without a chairman, and has not had a proper hearing.

Last week former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, a key witness, died before giving evidence.
Last night a leading child abuse campaigner branded the panel’s wages ‘a massive waste’.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

What has the sex abuse scandal cost the Catholic Church? Not merely ruined lives. Not merely $2.7 billion dollars. Jo Renee Formicola argues that a price has been paid that we haven’t even been noticing.

What she points out is this: because of the perfidious negligence of the bishops, civil law now trumps canon law. The two millennial tradition of the separate and conflicting realms in the West – civil / temporal vs. spiritual – has now collapsed. Bishop Finn in Kansas City willingly gave oversight of his diocese to the county government – just to avoid a misdemeanor rap. But, in effect, every bishop has done the same. Protecting pedophiles has led to this. From the article …

“The legal system has stepped forward to do what the church itself would not do. It has challenged the church and demanded information on priests’ medical and psychiatric records,” Formicola said. “Things that were held ecclesiastically as being outside the law and protected by privilege, are no longer protected by privilege.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

Jerry Slevin

Argument of Some U.S. Catholics That Church Position on Contraception Doesn’t Affect Poor Women in Developing Nations: What’s at Stake Here?

Perhaps I have not been clear in what I have written this week (here and here) about some of the fault lines that are apparent among American lay Catholics now that the pope’s comments about contraception and family planning in the Philippines have opened discussion of those issues all over again. I’m going to try again.

In her National Catholic Reporter article about the Catholic church’s complicity in the suffering of Glyzelle Palomar, Jamie Manson provides a clear, compelling case for why the issue of contraception (and the denial of contraceptives to women in developing nations) should concern all Catholics everywhere — as an ethical challenge: she writes,

For more than a decade, the Roman Catholic hierarchy obstructed the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill, a proposed Philippine law intended to bring free or subsidized birth control options (condoms, birth control pills and intrauterine devices) to government health centers, including remote areas where some of the poorest live. It would provide family-planning training for community health officers and require sex education in public schools. It also would vastly improve maternity care for poor women. Abortion and abortifacients would remain illegal. …
What I have been trying to draw attention to is not the response to issue of contraception of the Catholic hard right as represented by groups like Human Life International, which has long argued that contraceptives should be actively opposed for women in developing nations. I’m trying to focus on what is a quite typical and predictable response of a solid core of American Catholics who are pro-contraceptive-use, who use contraceptives themselves, but who want flatly to deny that the Catholic magisterial teaching about contraceptives has much effect at all on women and children in poor nations. I want to focus on the response of many American Catholic “liberals” to this discussion, in other words.

In comments made by some lay Catholics in the U.S. at NCR this week, you can see this position clearly developed, with claims, for instance, that a majority of Filipino women must be using contraception, since the birth rate in the Philippines is moderate. This claim flatly denies what both Jamie Manson and NCR’s editors are saying. In fact, it calls into question the integrity of these fellow lay Catholic witnesses to Catholic ethical truths in an important intraecclesial Catholic ethical discussion. It also flatly denies that the official teaching of the Catholic church vis-a-vis contraception has much effect at all on the lives of poor women and children in places like the Philippines.

Another tactic of this same set of lay American Catholics who themselves use contraceptives and who themselves approve of contraceptive use for others is the claim that the debate about contraception is a tired debate that reflects concerns of over-the-hill Vatican II lefties, while younger, with-it lay Catholics have transcended that post-Vatican II debate. Since lay Catholics in general, in the Western nations, no longer care what the magisterium says about these issues, and no longer listen when the magisterium talks about sex . . . .

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Therese Bonnici
Sunday, 25 January 2015

The judge presiding over the civil court case involving the sexual abuse of boys by priests at St Joseph Home in the late 1980s, Mr Justice Joseph Micallef, also happens to be the president of Radju Marija, a radio station which is strongly associated with the Church, although the Church is not directly involved.

Given the doubts raised by the connection to the Church, the lawyer of the victims has now requested that the judge abstains from the case, and a decision is yet to be taken by the court.

According to the local code of organisation and civil procedures, a judge can be challenged from sitting in a case if he is related by consanguinity or affinity in a direct line to any of the parties. He can also be challenged if he is the tutor, curator, or presumptive heir of any of the parties; if he is or has been the agent of any of the parties to the suit or if he is the administrator of any establishment or partnership involved in the suit.

Despite the fact that Radju Marija is not led by the church – the lawyers are concerned that there is a conflict of interest.

Radio stations transmitting religious content, such as Radju Marija, need to first be approved by the Church. The radio station is transmitted from the Dominican Friars Convent in Rabat, and up until a few months ago, it was directed by Fr Charles Fenech, who is now facing charges of sexual abuse in court. Radju Marija is a civil and private not-for-profit organisation, however it is operated by priests, religious and lay people.

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WASHINGTON
The Register-Guard

By The Associated Press
JAN. 25, 2015

SPOKANE, Wash. — The Catholic Diocese of Spokane has settled a malpractice case it filed against the law firm that handled its bankruptcy over priest sexual abuse claims.

The church and the Paine Hamblen law firm settled Friday, but the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The malpractice lawsuit was set for a trial in February, but both sides reached a settlement through a ­mediation effort.

“The settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing by either side,” both sides said in a joint statement. “Rather, it is a resolution of differences in an amicable manner which allows the parties to move forward with the important work that each conducts in the service of the common good.”

Jane Brown, the managing partner of Paine Hamblen, said her firm is pleased with the outcome. Robert Gould, a lawyer hired by the diocese to pursue the malpractice case, declined comment.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By Emma Swain Jan. 25, 2015

Maitland survivors of child sexual abuse are being urged to have their say on whether to remove or lift the legal time limit to sue for damages.

NSW Attorney-General Brad Hazzard said the NSW government has released a discussion paper on whether to amend the Limitation Act 1969 as part of its response to the inquiries into child abuse in religious, non-government and government organisations.

“The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has uncovered widespread claims of abuse and the legal barriers survivors face in pursuing justice many years after the event,” Mr Hazzard said.

“Civil litigation offers people an opportunity to sue perpetrators and responsible institutions for damages suffered as a result of their abuse.

“However, it is well documented that many survivors of child sexual abuse do not disclose their experiences or act on them until decades after the abuse, well after the time period has ended.”

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NEW YORK
Newsday

January 24, 2015
By BART JONES bart.jones@newsday.com

Bishop William Murphy hits the mandatory church retirement age of 75 in mid-May, and although he may not depart immediately, it is setting the stage for a momentous shift in one of the largest Roman Catholic dioceses in the nation.

By church regulations, Murphy, like all bishops, must submit a letter of resignation to the Vatican on his birthday, May 14. It could be accepted immediately, or he could be permitted to remain in his post for months or even years, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior analyst with the National Catholic Reporter who has written two books on the Vatican.

“We’ve had cases where the day after his birthday a bishop’s been replaced,” Reese said. “And we’ve had cases where it’s been five years,” though one or two is usually the limit. “It’s so very unpredictable.”

John Thavis, a longtime Vatican reporter and author of “The Vatican Diaries,” said that if a bishop is in good health, things are running well in a diocese and the bishop himself would like to stay on, it’s common for him to be permitted to do so for a few years.

“If there are no problems, if it is smooth sailing, it’s probably something they can wait a year or two on,” Thavis said. If things are not smooth, he said, “expect it sooner, I would say.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By KEILIGH BAKER FOR MAILONLINE

In the wake of the Westminster child abuse scandal and allegations of establishment cover-ups, hackers Anonymous have decided to expose international paedophile networks.

The hacking group says it is is planning on collecting evidence against international paedophile rings and their abuse of children to find the links between different operations and ultimately bring the perpetrators to justice.

Named ‘Operation Death Eaters’ after Voldemort’s band of evil followers in the Harry Potter series, the group is calling for a global effort in exposing the paedophile rings through the power of social media.

This newest Anonymous campaign comes just weeks after the group declared war on jihadists in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris.

Now, they are building a grassroots database of paedophile cases from across the world in order to ultimately expose an ‘international cult’ of child sex abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis is pushing a population growth policy — generally, more Catholic babies are always better — that is completely irrational and harmful to millions of poor Catholics. In the 17th Century, popes tried to get Galileo to accept that the sun revolves around the earth — another irrational papal position that took 400 years for the Vatican to get right. But how many of the poor cared which sphere revolved around which sphere, really?

For my detailed analysis of Pope Francis’ misguided geo-political and moral strategies, please see my : “Pope Francis Is Still Failing Too Many Abused & Abandoned Children, No?‏” at the link, Pope Still Fails Abandoned Children, No .

With papal acquiescence, if not full support, a childless and celibate African bishop has called for more Catholic babies to replenish Catholics killed in inter-tribal wars as reported here

[National Catholic Reporter]

An informed African woman has a different perspective, however, see here

[The Guardian]

And Kenyan bishops are opposing children’s vaccinations, apparently on “anti-birth control” grounds as reported here

[Commonweal]

Why this irrationality? Maximizing money and power for the Catholic hierarchy, it appears. More Catholic babies mean more Catholic donors and voters, in some hierarchs’ short sighted view. They seem to be oblivious to the millions of Catholics worldwide rushing to the Catholic Church exits, often led by mothers.

Pope Francis appears to want to try to cover all financial and political bets, and will likely fail in the process. He needs to trust Jesus more and stop trying to control Catholics. He needs to listen more closely to Jesus in Luke 12:27 :

“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.”

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UNITED STATES
MyCentralJersey.com

Lorraine Ash, @LorraineVAsh January 24, 2015

MADISON – When the Catholic sexual abuse scandals of the last 15 years entered American courtrooms, a kind of showdown was at play: canon law versus civil law. It got the attention of Jo Renee Formicola, a political science professor at Seton Hall University.

After 10 years of researching legal reports, church documents, newspaper accounts, and personal stories, the Madison resident penned her ninth book—”Clerical Sexual Abuse: How the Crisis Changed US Catholic Church-State Relations” (Palgrave Macmillan, $105), released last November.

“I didn’t want to write an angry book,” said Formicola, who specializes in church/state relations.

“I also didn’t set out to write a book that was going to come down on all clergymen,” she added. “I do teach with a lot of very kind, caring, compassionate priests, and I see what this issue has done to them.”

The result is an objective, behind-the-scenes account written for a mass audience. On the other hand, “Clerical Sexual Abuse,” lauded as “scrupulously fair” by the author’s peers, is published by an academic press and priced accordingly.

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UNITED STATES
GlobalPost

Jason Berry
January 24, 2015

On each pilgrimage, Pope Francis gives the global audience another glimpse into his complex mind.

The first unscripted pope in the age of mass media gives lengthy airborne press conferences, as when he famously replied, “Who am I to judge?” in reply to a question about gay priests on the flight from Brazil to Rome last year.

Pope Benedict avoided reporters and the charismatic John Paul rarely exposed himself to long encounters with the press. Both popes gave selective interviews to reporters or biographers they trusted.

Francis thrives on the intellectual agility of being interviewed, a trait consistent with Jesuit training in the Socratic method: question sparks answer, answer drives new questions and the wheel of learning turns.

But improvisational remarks have unpredictable receptions.

At a Sunday Mass for 40,000 people at University of Manila, 12-year-old Glyzelle Palomar, who lives in a foundation home for abandoned children, read a statement in her native dialect, translated for the pope and press.

Well-groomed, in a lovely dress, she said: “There are many children neglected by their own parents…[and] are also many who became victims and many terrible things happened to them like drugs or prostitution.”

Voice breaking, Glyzelle asked, “Why is God allowing such things to happen, even if it is not the fault of the children?”

As she broke down, Francis moved close; she wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face in his side.

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MARYLAND
ABC 2

Ron Snyder
Jan 23, 2015

BALTIMORE – Coming forward with allegations of sexual assault can be difficult enough for many people.

That difficulty often is magnified exponentially when the perpetrator is a faith leader. This was the case this week when Baltimore County police charged and Ohio rabbi of sexually abusing a minor.

Police said Rabbi Frederick Martin Karp, 50, of Beachwood, Ohio is awaiting extradition from New York after being arrested there following the accusations in Maryland.

Locally, there are organizations that can assist such victims deal with the trauma and find the help they need, whether it is psychological, physical, legal or financial assistance. Located off Park Heights Road in northwest Baltimore, CHANA offers a Jewish community program to the needs of those who experience physical, psychological, sexual, or financial abuse.

Over the last 20 years, CHANA (Counseling, Helping & Aid Network for Abused Women) has assisted people of all faiths and backgrounds deal with such abuse, including cases involving a rabbi or other faith leader.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kent Online

by Jamie Bullenjbullen@thekmgroup.co.uk

A woman who claims she suffered beatings during her five years at a convent has vowed to seek justice, as hundreds of alleged victims urge Home Secretary Theresa May to rethink an inquiry into child abuse.

Rosalinda Hutton, 57, of Littlebrook Manor Way, Dartford, was one of 300 people at Parliament last week to demand changes after the resignations of two senior inquiry panel judges.

Previous chairmen Lady Butler Sloss and Fiona Woolf were both forced to stand down over fears they both had close links to the establishment.

The inquiry was set up seven months ago but has been criticised for achieving very little. People who say they were victims gathered in London to demand the process be reformed.

Rosalinda was 11 when she joined St Anne’s Convent in Orpington.

She claims she was punched in the face, grabbed by the hair and kicked on the ground while others were beaten.

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UNITED STATES
HLN

By Diane Kaye

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately one in six boys and one in four girls are sexually abused before the age of 18. And it may surprise you that 90% of those victims are molested by someone they know, according to the Justice Department.

So what can parents do to protect their children from sexual predators?

A new app created by Jeff Herman, child advocate and attorney for victims of sexual abuse, may be the answer.

“Most children are groomed before they are sexually abused,” Herman told HLN. “The grooming process follows typical patterns that can be identified as red flags. After representing hundreds of victims of sexual abuse it became readily apparent to me that many kids can be protected from sexual abuse if their parents recognized these red flags and responded.”

Herman said it’s not enough to simply teach our children about good touch and bad touch.

“A child is no match for a seasoned predator,” Herman explained. “Parents must be equipped with knowledge and be prepared to act.”

That’s where the SafeParent app comes in.

The app has a quiz for parents to take with their kids. The quiz contains a series of questions regarding “red flag” behavior about an adult in their child’s life. The answers are weighted based on the statistics relating to the seriousness of the red flag. When you’re finished, the SafeParent meter will score your answers and calculate a concern score ranging from low to immediate threat.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

Jan 24, 2015 By Leona Greenan

A suspended Blantyre priest has been left out of an official directory listing for his parish – sparking anger among his supporters.

Father Matthew Despard hasn’t been named in John Ogilvie Church’s entry in this year’s Western Catholic Calendar, yet his stand-in Father William Nolan has been named as the administrator.

The priest was suspended back in 2013 after publication of his book called Crisis in the Priesthood, which accused the Catholic Church in Scotland of covering up sexual bullying.

Father Despard’s supporters, many of whom meet following Saturday vigil mass on Saturday evenings to pray for his reinstatement and for “a speedy outcome” for the priest, were disappointed to learn he was not named in the calendar.

Parishioner Ann Reid said: “I’m not happy. In my book Father Despard is still the parish priest. To leave him out speaks volumes.”

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Op-Ed

By GREGORY ORFALEA

The outcries began as soon as Pope Francis announced that, after 80 years of formal consideration, Father Junipero Serra, founder of the California missions, was to be made a saint. The outrage isn’t new. It hews back to the accusation that Serra actively participated in “genocide,” a notion promoted by California Native American advocates such as Rupert and Jeannette Costo in the 1980s. For others it is bad enough that, to modern eyes, the mission system was oppressive.

But look closer. The majority of California’s Indians were never in the missions. The system didn’t enslave them (though it was a version of indentured servitude). And what killed most of them, in or out of the missions, was disease, lethal germs — which no Spaniard of Serra’s time had any clue about.

The “criminals” in this enterprise were not the Spanish, but the Americans. The indigenous population at the time of European contact (225,000) declined 33% (to 150,000) under Spanish and Mexican rule. Under American rule (from 1848 on), when most of the missions were in ruin, sold off or closed, the Indian population plummeted, to 30,000 in 1870 — an 80% drop. Either figure is tragic, but there is no mistaking who the major culprit was.

Where is Serra in all this? And where the case for sainthood? Lost in the red herring of obvious, harmful effects of colonialism on the native population.

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DEUTSCHLAND
RP

[Since becoming aware of the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church five years ago, the Essen diocese has found 173 references to sexual violence. This also included most Catholic churches in Duisburg. The allegations date back to the early 1950 and many of the accused persons have died. They found 56 accused priests of which 41 have died and 16 nuns of which 11 have died. Twelve priests were prosecuted and seven were convicted. Eight priests were sentenced under canon law and seven cases are ongoing.]

Duisburg. Es gab auch Hinweise aus Duisburg. Viele Täter sind bereits verstorben. An die Missbrauchsopfer wurden 300 000 Euro gezahlt. Bischof Overbeck ernannte zudem eine evangelische Missbrauchsbeauftragte als “neutrale Instanz”.

Seit Bekanntwerden des Missbrauchsskandals in der katholischen Kirche vor fünf Jahren lagen dem Bistum Essen insgesamt 173 Hinweise auf “sexualisierter Gewalt” vor. Diese Zahl teilte das Bistum Essen, zu dem auch die meisten katholischen Gemeinden in Duisburg gehören, mit. Der Bistumssprecher erläuterte zudem die Angaben: Grundlage dafür seien sowohl Hinweise von Opfern als auch eigene Recherchen gewesen. Zudem seien sämtliche Personalakten lebender Priester durch eine externe Anwaltskanzlei geprüft worden. Die Vorwürfe reichen bis zum Beginn der 1950er Jahre zurück, viele der Beschuldigten sind bereits verstorben, einige konnten namentlich nicht ermittelt werden.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

24 JANUARY 2015

A former intelligence officer has revealed that a senior civilian was driven by the Army to Kincora Boys’ Home on visits at the height of the child sex abuse scandal there in the 1970s.

Brian Gemmell left Belfast as a captain in Military Intelligence in 1976. Last August he volunteered, through an article in the Belfast Telegraph, to help the Hart Inquiry into Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) or any other body investigating the Kincora scandal.

Speaking last week, Mr Gemmell told us he had not yet heard from the HIA.

He said: “One soldier who worked for me told me after I left that he drove a civilian, who he now thinks was MI5 but never identified himself, from HQNI to a meeting in Kincora. He did it a couple of times.”

He went on: “My intelligence NCO (non-commissioned officer) drove him to Kincora and he was inside for half-an-hour and then he drove him back. I am prepared to give the inquiry the name of the driver.” He added: “It didn’t really impact him that significantly at the time sitting outside in the car.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 23 January 2015)

Broken Rites has helped to obtain justice for victims of an Australian paedophile Catholic priest, Father John Sidney Denham. This priest got away with his crimes for four decades, while his superiors and colleagues looked the other way. Finally, Broken Rites helped to expose Denham, resulting in him being jailed in July 2010 and again in January 2015.

Broken Rites began researching Father John Denham in the late 1990s. Broken Rites ascertained that Denham (born on 8 September 1942) was recruited in the 1960s as a trainee priest for the Newcastle-Maitland Diocese, north of Sydney. As a trainee and later as a priest, he officially belonged to this diocese, and it is usual for diocesan priests to spend their whole career in one diocese. (The Catholic Church in the state of New South Wales is divided into eleven dioceses.)

As a trainee priest, Denham was a danger to children from Day One. According to statements made in court, some of Denham’s child-sex crimes were committed during his period of training.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

January 24, 2015

Rachel Kleinman

Orthodox Jewish communities in Sydney and Melbourne are bracing themselves for royal commission hearings into how yeshivas dealt with child sex abuse.

Police have been swamped with reports of child sex abuse following evidence given in public hearings, as well as stories told in numerous private sessions.

Commissioners investigating institutional responses to child sexual abuse have reported more than 480 cases to police forces across the country since hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse began in 2013.

More cases may emerge from new hearings due to start soon in Melbourne. Melbourne and Sydney’s Orthodox Jewish communities are bracing themselves for the hearings, which will examine how Orthodox yeshiva centres dealt with numerous cases of child sexual abuse across decades.

The commission will look at the handling of individual cases involving Aron Kestecher and convicted sex offenders David Samuel Cyprys and David Kramer, who both pleaded guilty and were jailed in 2013. All were employees of St Kilda East’s exclusive Yeshivah College or its umbrella Yeshivah centre.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Maeve O’Rourke
PUBLISHED
24/01/2015

If the Taoiseach’s emotional apology to Magdalene survivors was a highlight of his term, next week’s introduction of Magdalene legislation is in danger of being a low point. Quietly and deliberately, the Government is preparing to break its promise to approximately 500 elderly women regarding the redress package they were promised in 2013.

Next week, the Dáil will debate the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill. The purpose of the Bill is to implement the remaining aspects of the Magdalene redress scheme recommended by Mr Justice John Quirke in 2013.

Judge Quirke’s very first recommendation was that the women should receive a card entitling them to ‘the full range of services currently enjoyed by holders of the Health (Amendment) Act 1996 Card (“the HAA card”)’.

The Government is now refusing to give the women such a card. This is absolutely clear from the wording of the draft legislation.

No amount of spinning that the women will receive an “enhanced medical card” changes the fact that they will not receive what was promised: the full range of HAA card services.

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ALASKA
KTUU

ANCHORAGE –
Police arrested 39-year-old Simi Seu for alleged third-degree sexual abuse of a minor, and investigators ask anyone else who was abused to come forward.

Seu inappropriately touched a 14-year-old girl while attending First Samoan United Methodist Church, according to the Anchorage Police Department.

Police report that investigation revealed Seu was also inappropriately touching other female juveniles, typically while attending church.

APD believes Seu may have additional juvenile victims.

Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call Detective Leonard Torres with APD’s Crimes Against Children Unit at 907-786-8573.

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ALASKA
KTVA

By KTVA CBS 11 News January 23, 2015

ANCHORAGE – A man has been arrested under charges of sexually abusing a minor in an Anchorage church in December, and the Anchorage Police Department is now asking any other potential victims to come forward.

Simi Seu, 39, was arrested following an investigation into accusations that he inappropriately touched a 14-year-old girl while attending the First Samoan United Methodist Church located on West 9th Avenue.

Investigators believe Seu may have also been touching other young women inappropriately, mostly while on church property or engaged in church activities.

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ALASKA
Anchorage Dispatch News

Jerzy Shedlock
January 23, 2015

Anchorage police reported Friday that 39-year-old Simi Seu has been charged with third-degree sexual abuse of a minor and three counts of harassment for touching multiple young girls at a local church.

Seu may have additional underage victims, police said.

Detectives began investigating Seu in late December 2014 after receiving a report that he’d been inappropriately touching a 14-year-old girl while attending a local church, the First Samoan United Methodist Church.

The investigation found Seu “was also inappropriately touching other female juveniles,” police said. The majority of the abuse occurred at the church, they said.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Breeze

By Larry Altman, Daily Breeze
POSTED: 01/23/15

A Harbor City man who taught religious school at a Lomita church was charged Friday with posing online as a 15-year-old girl and enticing a teenage boy to perform sex acts on video chat, prosecutors said.

Steven Joseph Mesplou, 30, also instructed the teen’s 8-year-old brother to expose himself during the online meetings, prosecutors said.

Mesplou is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 20 at the Long Beach courthouse on four felony counts of a lewd act upon a child and two counts of contact with a minor for a sexual offense, the District Attorney’s Office said.

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ALASKA
KTUU

In this video:

— 39-year-old Simi Seu was arrested and charged with sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree, along with three counts of harassment.

— Police say they received a report of a 14 year old girl who had been inappropriately touched at the first Samoan United Methodist Church.

APD says there could be other victims who have not yet contacted police.

— Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call detective Leonard Torres with the Crimes Against Children Unit at 786-8573.

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NIGERIA
News 24

23 January 2015, 14:08
Solomon Izang Ashoms

Durban – Earlier this week a video showing well renowned pastor and popular motivational speaker in South Africa, Sthembiso Zondo in the nude, went viral on social media.

The recorded video, taken by a woman sitting in front of him, shows the unmarried Pastor Zondo talking on his phone, while pacing up and down around the lounge in front of a woman sitting on a couch, the video shows the pastor wearing nothing, using his hand to rub his penis, twice.

Divorced Zondo is the founder and senior pastor of Soul Renaissance Ministries Durban, South Africa, established in 2001. He also founded Zero-to-Hero, an NGO whose objective is to preach the gospel of hope.

This is indeed a very sad story seeing that Pastor Zondo influences millions of people and is ranked as one of the most influential pastors in South Africa. The new rockstars in town are definitely pastors, they command respect, attention, drive state-of-the art cars, they are always on TV and radio and wear designer clothes.

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OREGON
KAJO

A former youth pastor for Mountain Christian Fellowship has been charged with multiple crimes related to the explicit filming of girls and women in his Jacksonville home.

The Southern Oregon High Tech Crimes Task Force says they’ve obtained 28 videos recorded by a hidden camera in 36-year-old Donald Biggs’ bathroom of girls and women in various stages of undress. The Jackson County District Attorney’s Office has filed charges of six counts of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse, six counts of using a child in display of a sex act and two counts of private indecency.

Biggs was already lodged in jail before the new charges surfaced on two counts of second-degree burglary and invasion of privacy for allegedly breaking into the church he worked at and stealing computer hard drives and for texting a 14-year-old girl inappropriately. His bail is set at $6 million.

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NEW YORK
WIVB

[with video]

By Mark Belcher, News 4 Digital Producer
Published: January 23, 2015

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – A pastor on trial for accused sex abuse will likely learn the verdict of his trial Monday.

A jury, which was selected Wednesday, has heard the case, and spent time deliberating Friday before being excused for a weekend recess. They’ll get back to work on Monday, and are expected to make a verdict then.

The case they’ve heard, is that of an Orleans County pastor who was charged with three counts of coercive criminal sexual conduct against a child, one count of first degree incest, two counts of incest and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Harriger was arrested after 15 people across three states, including relatives, came out saying the 70-year-old molested them as children. Although many of the 15 cases are past the statute of limitations, police say three are still within the statute of limitations.

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NEW YORK
The Daily News

By Scott DeSmit sdesmit@batavianews.com

ALBION — A jury failed to reach a verdict Friday and will resume deliberating Monday in the Orleans County Court trial of a former pastor accused of molesting three of his grandchildren.

Jurors received the case after lunch and deliberated until late afternoon before Judge James Punch sent them home.

Deliberations came after closing arguments from defense attorney Larry Koss and District Attorney Joseph Cardone.

Koss asked jurors to use “common sense” regarding the evidence against Roy Harriger Sr., 71, former pastor of Ashwood Wesleyan Church.

Koss detailed the allegations against Harriger and, specifically, the testimony of Harriger’s son, George Harriger.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Defenseless children paradoxically may defeat the overly defended and childless Vatican. Pope Francis’ seeming smokescreen on contraception was almost blown away, in a “David and Goliath moment”, by a courageous 12 year old former Manila street child victim of sexual abuse. She movingly asked the pope in front of the world’s media, in effect, how can an omnipotent God (and powerful popes) permit sexual abuse to happen to innocent children. This is not a question of theodicy, but of moral theology — the short answers are “lust” and “greed”, mostly of powerful men.

* Francis, evidently taken by surprise, tried to give the girl a 30 minute Jesuitically evasive and woefully inadequate dissertation on suffering, followed shortly thereafter by his latest missteps on doubling down on his contraception ban. This is further discussed wonderfully by prophetic theologian Jamie Manson, at [National Catholic Reporter] , and here where contraception expert Patricia Miller calls the bluff of Pope Francis, as well as by incisive theologian, Bill Lindsey, here, and by me in earlier remarks here, Curtain Up On Pope’s Veto of Hillary C’s Pill

* And as luck would have it in a tough week, Pope Francis’ “secretary” and the ex-pope’s “convent mate”, Archbishop George Gänswein, even weighed in gratuitously according to Crux. by expressing regret over cases in which Vatican spokesmen have had to issue clarifications about things Pope Francis has said or done. What was that all about — criticizing the boss publicly?

* And the objections to Pope Francis’ plan to canonize 18th Century Franciscan, Father Junipero Serra, who had been a very harsh taskmaster of Native Americans, continue to be heard, see,

* [SFGate]

* Nevertheless. Pope Francis still seems almost oblivious to the frequent and obvious connection between millions of abandoned and unaffordable children worldwide and their sexual exploitation. whether by sex traffickers or predatory priests. The shameful public relations ploy during Francis’ visit (that Cardinal Tagle likely was aware of), of locking up street children, and even putting homeless families in expensive resorts, until Francis left, failed totally, as reported here [Daily Mail] and here So the Vatican media machine now tries to pivot and instead hypes that Pope Francis had more spectators at his free final Mass than rock stars and sports teams have at their paid events, which proves what exactly?

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

01/23/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

I, perhaps more than anyone, want to believe that the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has changed. I want to believe the statements of leadership that they are putting the needs of victims and the safety of children above self-interest and the protection of clergy, and I want to believe that all of their new employees and new initiatives are having a positive impact on the way the Archdiocese is responding to sexual abuse committed by clergy.

But I don’t.

From where I stand, the old adage applies: changes wrought from turbulent times do not impact the reality of the situation except to cement the status quo. Never was this more obvious than with the absolutely unconscionable situation that resulted from the release last week of the file of Father William Stolzman.

The release of Father Stolzman’s file, amongst six others, had been agreed upon as part of the ongoing negotiations of the Doe 1 settlement. Along with the release of the six files, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis issued the following statement:

Statement Regarding Unsealing of Priest Files

Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Source: Anne Steffens, Interim Director of CommunicationsFrom Archbishop John Nienstedt, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

By virtue of an agreement reached between Jeff Anderson and Associates and the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in the Doe 1 case, the files of seven current or former priests previously assigned to the Archdiocese have been unsealed. One of the files, that of Rev. Michael Keating, was publicly released earlier this week.

Two of the priests are/were of religious orders. Of these seven men whose files were unsealed, one left the priesthood in 1990, one is deceased, one is retired, one is prohibited from ministry, one has restrictions placed on his ministry, and two are on leaves of absence.

What this statement does not say (following a long tradition in the Archdiocese of telling people what they want to hear, rather than what is true), is that one of the seven was- at the time of the announcement- actually a regularly scheduled Sunday presider at a parish in the Archdiocese (even on days when the Children’s Choir would be present), as well as an Archdiocesan-appointed chaplain to the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee.

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VATICAN CITY
Fox News

January 23, 2015
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis is warning his new cardinals to keep the partying to a minimum — and keep their egos in check — when they are formally elevated at a Vatican ceremony next month.

In a letter written to the 20 new princes of the church published Friday in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Francis warned the cardinals to avoid the type of ostentatious festivities that “stun worse than grappa on an empty stomach.”

Traditionally, new cardinals are feted with lavish parties, often funded by well-meaning parishioners, following the ceremony where they receive their red hats.

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WASHINGTON
Spokesman Review

The law firm of Paine Hamblen has been absolved of all wrongdoing in its bankruptcy representation of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane.

A mediated settlement signed Friday ends the diocese’s malpractice suit against its former law firm.

Though terms of the settlement were not disclosed, court records indicate the diocese did not receive any money.

The two sides mediated under the guidance of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph Mabey. After meetings in mid-January the sides reached a deal.

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WASHINGTON
National Catholic Reporter

Tom Gallagher | Jan. 23, 2015 NCR Today

Just a few weeks before starting the legal malpractice trial, the Spokane, Wash., diocese and the diocese’s former legal counsel, the Spokane-based Paine Hamblen law firm, agreed to a settlement, according to a joint press release published Friday. The lawsuit brought by the diocese stems from the diocese’s 2007 bankruptcy because of priest sexual abuse claims.

The diocese released a brief statement:

Following a mediation conducted by former Bankruptcy Judge Ralph Mabey (Salt Lake City, Utah), the parties to the litigation pending in In re Catholic Bishop of Spokane in the United States Bankruptcy Court in Spokane, have settled their disputes in a manner satisfactory to all parties.

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CALIFORNIA
SFGate

By Caille Millner Updated Friday, January 23, 2015

On my walk home from work, I pass three storefront evangelical churches. They’re often the only institutions of well repute on those blocks, and their congregants have the pride of people who treasure respectability and order, because there’s so little of those things in their surroundings. The women wear long skirts, the men wear boxy suits, the children have clean collars.

Some of them were born here, and some of them are immigrants from Mexico or El Salvador or Nicaragua or elsewhere in Latin America, but the crucial point is that they are all from traditionally Catholic cultures, and they’ve all chosen a different church. It’s a distinct choice that can be appreciated even on the most secular level — they’re choosing to spend their time at small storefronts with ugly overhead lighting and bad carpets, instead of in San Francisco’s beautiful Catholic churches. They’re doing this because the faith of their ancestors didn’t hold enough for them.

I thought about these storefront churches when I heard that Pope Francis is planning to canonize the Rev. Junipero Serra, the priest who “brought” Christianity to California in the late 1700s.

Or perhaps I should say that I thought about why, despite a wildly popular Latin American pope, the church is struggling to hold onto believers even where it’s strongest. The Serra choice is as fine an example of the church’s tone deafness as I can imagine.

There are at least two Junipero Serras. There’s the Serra of California’s roadways and statues, the Serra whom California schoolchildren learn about in the fourth grade.

This is the Serra who was the pious, humble Franciscan. He was a man of immense personal bravery, giving up a comfortable life as a theologian in Spain to bring the Gospel to the Americas. He brought the Gospel to California — at the time one of the most remote and threatened regions of the Spanish empire — along with the famous mission system that became the first permanent European presence on the West Coast.

Then there’s the Serra whom children don’t learn about in school. This Serra is the figure of serious academic historians and a despised figure in the American Indian community. He was a brutal colonist who exploited the local indigenous communities for their labor and for their souls — Indian recruits were forced to convert, sometimes at gunpoint, and rounded up by soldiers if they tried to escape.

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

By Carol Stanton
Guest columnist

Rita Lucey is smiling. She defies her 80 years in photographer Red Huber’s wonderful picture accompanying the article about her ordination to priesthood (“She’ll become priest, get excommunicated,” Friday).

This is a woman who has given many of her eight decades to action, even imprisonment, for social justice and to care for the sick. This is a wife of 60 years, a mother and grandmother who, under ordinary circumstances, would be celebrated in Catholic officialdom as a model of what Pope Francis is encouraging priests and people to be.

This is a woman whose ordination to priesthood through the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests will automatically incur excommunication from a church that does not recognize the association as one of its own, even though many of its own are part of it. A church whose leaders continue to bar women from ordination, the participation in governance that comes along with it and the fullest use of their gifts as servant leaders.

Excommunication has a long history in the Catholic Church. Often used as a political weapon, it could place entire communities under a pall of eucharistic deprivation sometimes lasting years.

Excommunication in 2015 has not lost that whiff of weaponry, and Lucey joins a whole raft of politicians and other waywards who, by the law of the church, either incur it automatically or are pronounced “out of communion” by a local bishop. Its punitive cousins are the increasing threats of job loss for church employees who are judged to stray.

Yet, here is Lucey, well beyond the age of acceptance into any of the Roman Catholic Church’s Seminary or Diaconate preparation programs but, from all indications, a woman faithful, over a lifetime, to her church’s call to discipleship. Somewhere along the way, in her spiritual journey, she found this current path and is following it, despite the official consequences.

And she is not alone. A couple of hundred women from around the world have been following this same path. Without ecclesial space in their church of origin, they find other spaces for gathering and leading communities of worship and service to the marginalized.

Are the Rita Luceys seeking ordination because they are frustrated, disgruntled, angry and alienated and want to poke the eye of a clerical and mostly male church bureaucracy?

Maybe. Women keep Catholic parishes and dioceses going on a daily basis, bringing extraordinary pastoral and leadership skills. Many pastors will admit that should the women in their church go on strike, parish life would come to a grinding halt. It is difficult for women to minister and yet remain invisible and mostly unacknowledged. This is cause for some just anger. However, perhaps there is another and ironically more traditional reason some catholic women are seeking ordination where they can find it.

Catholic faithful, both men and women, are beginning to recognize the dissonance of not having women able to serve sacramentally — not only prepare for baptism but baptize; not only accompany the dying but bury them; not only teach the Gospel but proclaim and preach it.

A Pew Research Center survey in February 2014 shows that 68 percent of the U.S. Catholics polled are in favor of ordaining women as priests, and that 42 percent expect the church to change its position by 2050. Church leaders are not known to be swayed by popularity or polls. At the same time, the church has always taught that there is a sense of the faithful operating in the reception of church teaching, a resonating that speaks to the wisdom and timeliness of a teaching.

In 2015, a serious survey such as Pew’s could be revealing where that sense of the faithful is heading. It may be worth some attention.

Is it possible that despite being excommunicated from the center of the present church, Lucey, at 80, may be the face of the church to come? What is certain is that change rarely comes from the center.

Carol Stanton has worked as a teacher and director of programs, communications and marketing/development in the Catholic Church in Boston, Maryland, Central Florida and the Republic of Ireland. She was also a TV news reporter/anchor for WFTV and WESH in Orlando.

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PHILIPPINES
UCA News

AFP, Manila
Philippines
January 23, 2015

The Philippines government came under fire Friday after admitting that hundreds of homeless people were taken off Manila’s streets and put into luxury accommodation during Pope Francis’s recent visit, when he preached compassion for the poor.

Members of parliament demanded an explanation after Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman revealed 490 beggars and homeless people were taken to air-conditioned log cabins at a resort near Manila for the January 15-19 visit.

“The pope would have wanted to see the Philippines, warts and all. Let us not pretend that we are a first-world country,” said House of Representatives member Terry Ridon, who is initiating a congressional inquiry.

Soliman said the street people, many of whom live in shanties and hammocks tied to palm trees along the Manila Bay seafront, were removed from the capital’s Roxas Boulevard before the visit.

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IOWA
New York Daily News

BY DEBORAH HASTINGS NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, January 22, 2015

A veteran Iowa pastor has been removed from the priesthood by Pope Francis after a church investigation determined he had sexually assaulted a juvenile decades ago.

Howard Fitzgerald had been on administrative leave since June and has a 35-year history of working in Iowa churches. His most recent postings were at Immaculate Conception Church, St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Simpson College, according to the Des Moines Register.

The 63-year-old was the subject of a diocese review that found “credible evidence” Fitzgerald abused a minor in a “decades-old” incident. Those findings were sent to the Vatican, where the Pope ordered Fitzgerald removed from the priesthood.

“I encourage your prayers for Howard at this time, as well as continuing prayer for victims of sexual abuse both by the clergy and perpetrators in the broader society,” wrote Bishop Richard Pates of the Diocese of Des Moines in a memo to employees, the paper said.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

(Reuters) – Pope Francis has told the men he will elevate to the high rank of cardinal next month to be humble and shun lavish parties in their honor, saying they can do more damage than alcohol on an empty stomach.

“It is not easy to be humble servants if you see the role of a cardinal as a position of power or superiority,” he said in a letter written to each of the cardinals-to-be and published in the Vatican newspaper on Friday.

He also told them to beware that parties held for them by faithful from their countries do not become fancy social events that can disorient them and “stun someone more than grappa on an empty stomach.” Grappa is a very strong Italian liquor.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Jim Gamble

Leon Brittan’s death is a personal tragedy for his family, friends and former colleagues, to whom I offer my personal condolences. But a wider tragedy stretches beyond that intimate circle, as the opportunity for him to give evidence to the child abuse inquiry, to clarify issues concerning allegations of a missing dossier, has been lost forever. This is a consequence of the failure to deliver the inquiry, which was initially launched by the home secretary in July 2014.

Other jurisdictions have managed inquiries, so why can’t we? Why is the child abuse inquiry in Northern Ireland moving forward with some success, for instance, while the best Westminster can do is two false starts?

It boils down to trust and leadership. The bond of trust that was broken when children who should have been cared for and protected were abused is not one that will be easily mended. Abusers used their position of power and/or the influence and reputation of the institution they represented to maintain a veil of secrecy. They believed their power and control over the lives of their victims was absolute; but few will be sleeping easily tonight.

Given the relationship between those institutions, powerful individuals and the state, it’s insulting to expect survivors of such abuse to accept the imposition of an inquiry on trust alone. While some within government claim credit for setting up the inquiry, survivors had been calling for one for many years, and many feel it was the alleged destruction or loss of so many documents at the Home Office, and speculation about who did what and when, that finally forced a government response.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

Dan Horn, dhorn@enquirer.com January 23, 2015

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati launched its largest fundraising campaign in at least a half century Friday with the creation of a new charitable foundation that soon could become one of the region’s largest.

The goal is to quickly turn the new Catholic Community Foundation into a fundraising powerhouse with as much as $130 million available to help Catholic schools, priests, parishes and a wide range of social services – from food pantries to adoption.

The foundation is a departure from the decades-long practice of running all campaigns directly through the archdiocese. Under the new system, the church still will control the money but will conduct fundraising like any other private charity, with more public accountability and a board of directors comprised of lay people, priests, church leaders and Archbishop Dennis Schnurr.

Church officials already have raised about $36 million in pledges through a pilot program that began last year, but the archdiocese-wide campaign is just getting under way. They seek five-year commitments from donors – some for $100 and some for well over $1 million – and hope the new foundation structure assures potential contributors their money will be well spent.

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ITALY
Gazzetta del Sud

Ancona, January 23 – A Bolivian nun gave birth in San Severino Marche after being taken to hospital where she complained of a bad stomach ache, Italian newspaper Corriere Adriatico said on Friday. The newspaper said the nun, whose age wasn’t given, gave birth last Sunday and intends to keep the baby, whose sex wasn’t given. The nun had been staying at a cloistered convent in the province of Macerata since June. The hospital hasn’t confirmed the birth and the bishop of nearby town Camerino, Francesco Brugnaro, hasn’t made any comment on the case. Another case of a nun giving birth took place in 2011 in Marche, when a 41-year-old Congolese nun gave birth to a baby girl in Pesaro. In that case, the nun had been raped abroad by a foreign priest and initially gave her daughter up for adoption.

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UNITED STATES
Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Jan 23, 2015

I am very grateful for this thought provoking guest post and hope it challenges each of us to re-examine how we approach the value of life. Robert Peters is both my student and my friend, and he gives me much hope for the next generation. – Boz
_____________________________________________________________________________

I will never forget the first ultrasound of my unborn child. Expecting an idle smudge on a grainy screen, my wife and I were greeted by a hyperactive baby, all four flailing limbs foiling the doctor’s attempt at accurate measurement. Our child was beautiful, and very much alive.

This week marks the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and across the country pro-lifers gather to profess the humanity of unborn children. However, as Brennan Manning noted in The Ragamuffin Gospel, “the danger of the pro-life position… is that it can be frighteningly selective.” Recent events provide repeated and disturbing evidence of this selectivity.

For example, the Internet is littered with conservatives decrying the abortion of children conceived through rape, yet many of these same conservatives minimize, ignore, and otherwise dehumanize the rape survivors themselves.

We see this in the popular conservative blogger who glibly dismisses the prevalence of sexual assault with an unrelated hyperlink and the question, “Does any rational person really believe that the numbers are this high?” We see this in the perverse portrayal of those who condemn Cosby as “liberals” who, of course, whole-heartedly endorse Clinton’s sexual conduct. We see this in the many Christian institutions that publicly proclaim a pro-life ethic, while actively marginalizing abuse survivors and concealing predators. We see this in repeated incredulity towards abuse allegations, shackling victims in the shadows. We see this in the calloused right-wing pundits who dismiss rape survivors as little girls in need of attention. We see this in the culture warrior who only mentions child abuse if a homosexual is involved.

There is a common thread: a dehumanizing prioritization of partisanship over people, of political platforms over Biblical principles. Mark 12 lists the two greatest commandments: love God and love people. That’s it. No partisan talking points: just the simple command to love others as we love ourselves. How we treat “the least of these” is how we treat Christ (Matthew 25:40). God created man in His image (Genesis 1:27). Life is sacred, precious, and beautiful. If you ignore or exploit rape allegations to score political points, you demean the image of God. You’re not pro-life.

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INDIA
Hindustan Times

A nun has accused former priest of Shyampura Church Fijo Chirnal of sexual assault and ‘rape’. After receiving the complaint on Thursday, superintendent of police Sachin Atulkar forwarded the case to the mahila police station of Sagar for investigation.

Assistant sub-inspector JS Thakur, who is investigating the case, recorded the nun’s statement on Thursday. “We have received the case from the SP for investigation. The nun has accused Father Chirnal of sexually exploiting her between 2010 and 2012,” Thakur said.

Chirnal was transferred to Odisha later in 2012. When the Bishop of Sagar Diosys Anthony Chiyarth was contacted, he asked the correspondent to contact wicker general Father Robin.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY LIAM CLARKE – 23 JANUARY 2015

At least one Tory MP visited Kincora during the 1970s when it was riven with sexual abuse by staff of boys in their care, it has been claimed.

The allegation was made by two retired detectives who were part of a team which investigated the east Belfast boys’ home in the 1980s and successfully prosecuted three members of staff for sexual abuse.

The names of the police officers are being withheld for security reasons. They are instead referred to as officers Smith and Jones.

Both are known to the Belfast Telegraph and we have established that they conducted the inquiry. Both are also willing to help any inquiry into Kincora either here or in England. They revealed that the MP died before they could arrange to interview him.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY LIAM CLARKE – 23 JANUARY 2015

The head of Northern Ireland’s biggest criminal law practice has said that the Kincora investigation should not be conducted in Northern Ireland.

Kevin Winters wants the possible links to child abuse rings elsewhere, and to the intelligence services’ involvement, looked at as part of the overall Westminster inquiry.

He represents a number of former Kincora residents who have launched a judicial review to have abuse at the boys’ home dealt with as part of a UK-wide inquiry and not by Anthony Hart’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry which is currently sitting in Banbridge.

“The Kincora investigation will lose something if it is isolated and put into the backwater of Banbridge. There is still no compellability of witnesses in Banbridge. Until they get compellability and until they have what could specifically be described as Human Rights Act compliant powers we must part company with what is being proposed by the HIA.”

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UNITED STATES
AlterNet

By Ijeoma Oluo / The Guardian January 22, 2015

I am a woman. I am a feminist. And it took me 12 years to admit that someone I loved was a sexual predator.

This isn’t easy to acknowledge, but it feels especially important after a year marked by several high profile accusations of sexual assault and domestic violence. Almost every case featured public scrutiny of the accuser’s history and values and motivations; almost every case featured a woman who choses to publicly stand by the accused. Many other women responded with shock and disappointment: Why would any woman defend a rapist? How could any smart, confident woman be in such denial?

The public refusal to believe rape accusations is harmful to all women, and it casts a shadow on rape victims all over the world. But as appalling as it is to refuse to believe a woman who has been so brutally violated, I cannot help but feel some empathy with the disbelievers, because when a close family member of mine – who I’ll call Steve – was accused and convicted of sexual assault, I refused to believe it.

My father had left for Nigeria when I was two years old and my brother was six months old and, as we grew up, Steve was what we imagined a “cool dad” would be like: he was funny, he swore, he played pranks. He always had time for us when it seemed like all the other adults had more important things to do.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

München – Ein wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern angeklagter Pater des oberbayerischen Klosters Ettal hat sämtliche Vorwürfe gegen ihn zurückgewiesen. «Alle mir zur Last gelegten Vorwürfe sind unzutreffend», sagte der 44-Jährige zu Beginn seines Prozesses vor dem Landgericht München.

Die Staatsanwaltschaft wirft dem Ordensgeistlichen sexuellen Missbrauch von zwei Internatsschülern und versuchten sexuellen Missbrauch von zwei weiteren Jungen vor. Der Priester soll zwischen 2001 und 2005 wiederholt Schülern in die Unterhose gefasst haben.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Times

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia was taken to hospital last night after falling unwell in the Spanish city of Salamanca, where the Scottish bishops have gathered for their annual winter meeting in the Royal Scots College in the city.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Glasgow said that the Archbishop is conscious and in good spirits.

It is understood that the Archbishop became concerned about his health after feeling unwell and asked to be taken to hospital.

He was taken to the city’s University hospital and, after initial treatment and tests were carried out, doctors confirmed that he had suffered a heart attack.

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GERMANY
The Local

A monk and former teacher at a boarding school in the Bavarian alps pleaded not guilty on Thursday at his trial for abusing two pupils and attempted abuse of two more.

Jürgen R., a 44-year-old priest and teacher at the Ettal monastery school, told the judge in Munich that “all accusations laid against me are untrue” when he appeared to hear the charges.

He claims that he did nothing more than stroke the children on their backs and stomachs, saying that his mother did the same thing to him when he came to her for comfort.

“At that time I was in the place of the father and the mother” for the children in his care at the boarding school, he said.

Although he apologized for not maintaining the proper distance from the children, he argues that they came to him to cry on his shoulder due to his position as a “prefect” – the title given to teachers at the Benedictine monastery in the Ammergau Alps.

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OREGON
Mail Tribune

By Thomas Moriarty
Mail Tribune
Posted Jan. 22, 2015

Medford police have added child pornography charges against a former youth pastor they allege had been secretly videotaping women at various locations in Jackson County.

According to a Medford Police Department news release, investigators with the Southern Oregon High Tech Crimes Task Force so far have obtained 28 videos from a hidden camera in the bathroom of Donald Biggs’ Jacksonville home showing women and young girls in various states of nudity.

Biggs, 36, has been held in the Jackson County Jail on charges of invasion of privacy and two counts of second-degree burglary since Jan. 15, when he was arrested, police say, after they connected him to a Jan. 12 burglary at Mountain Christian Fellowship, where he was formerly a youth pastor.

He’s now also charged with six counts of using a child in a display of a sex act, six counts of encouraging first-degree child sex abuse and two counts of private indecency. Using a child in a display of a sex act is a Class A felony, carrying a minimum sentence of more than five years in prison without parole under Measure 11 guidelines.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

Jan 22, 2015 By Tom Pettifor

The former Tory Home Secretary has died after a long fight with cancer – leaving unanswered questions about his role in the disappearance of a dossier

Child sex abuse campaigners have spoken of their fury that Leon Brittan has taken secrets of an alleged Westminster paedophile cover-up to his grave.

The former Tory Home Secretary has died after a long fight with cancer – leaving unanswered questions about his role in the disappearance of a dossier said to reveal the existence of an abuse network at the top of government.

And detectives declared they would still be investigating claims Lord Brittan raped a teenager in 1967.

The dossier was handed to him in 1983 by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens and the row over its “loss” led to Home Secretary Theresa May launching a wide-ranging public inquiry into the allegations of a paedophile ring.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

23 January, 2015

The Royal Commission is launching a public consultation paper on redress and civil litigation at a public hearing in Sydney on 30 January 2015 at 9.30am.

At the public hearing, the Chair of the Royal Commission Justice Peter McClellan will outline key issues for consideration in the provision of redress and civil litigation for survivors of child sexual abuse in institutions.

The public hearing will commence at 9.30am. Members of the public and the media are invited to attend the public hearing in person: Level 17 Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place Sydney or watch live via the Royal Commission’s website.

A detailed public consultation paper on redress and civil litigation will be available on the Royal Commission’s website from 9.30am on 30 January 2015. The Royal Commission invites submissions by interested parties to the consultation paper by midday Monday 2 March 2015.

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FLORIDA
NBC 2

[with video]

By Jim Spiewak, NBC2 Investigator

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA –
A group of Catholics are calling for answers into allegations surrounding Bishop Frank Dewane.

The NBC2 investigators have covered the bishop’s troubles for nearly a year now.

The group wants to know why church leaders have not even acknowledged their concerns. The international group, The Voice for the Faithful, called Thursday’s meeting in part because of a letter uncovered by the NBC2 investigators, signed by ten priests and sent to the Pope’s aide in Washington D.C.

It alleges Bishop Dewane lacks financial transparency, violates canon law and uses bullying tactics.

Now the group alleges the Diocese is buying up land under a company called Trinity Enterprise Holdings instead of in the name of the Diocese and they say that could protect assets against a pending $5 million sexual abuse lawsuit.

Land records show Trinity owns land in Sarasota County. We asked the president of the Voice of the Faithful if Bishop Dewane needs to be removed from his position.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

PAUL PEACHEY Thursday 22 January 2015

The Prime Minister has led tributes to Lord Brittan, the former Home Secretary, whose retirement after years of public service has been dogged by controversy over the alleged cover-up of child abuse on his watch.

The death of Lord Brittan, at the age of 75 from cancer, was greeted with sorrow by his family and the admiration of his political peers, but with disappointment from abuse victims’ groups seeking answers about an alleged establishment paedophile ring.

As the youngest Home Secretary since Winston Churchill, Lord Brittan was a key member of Cabinet after the Conservative landslide of 1983 swept Margaret Thatcher back to power.

He was a central figure in the controversy over the policing of the miners’ strike and the Libyan embassy siege that resulted in the fatal shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher. He was forced to resign from the cabinet over the Westland affair and spent a decade in Brussels as one of the UK’s European commissioners.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

By Andrea Gagliarducci

Vatican City, Jan 23, 2015 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis completed the membership of the new Vatican body with responsibility for dealing with clerical sex abuse on Wednesday, marking a further step in providing adequate procedures to insure justice for all the victims.

The body is a specific office within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that will deal with ‘delicta graviora’, or ‘more grave crimes’. These are the most serious crimes in the Church, and most notably include offenses against morality: the sexual abuse of a minor by a cleric; or the acquisition, possession, or distribution of child pornography by a cleric.

The new office is established as a college of seven people, whose names were announced Jan. 21.

Bishop Charles Scicluna has been appointed president of the college. Now the Auxiliary Bishop of Malta, Bishop Scicluna served from 2002 to 2012 as Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – that is, as the Vatican’s public prosecutor – personally handling the sex abuses crises of 2002 and 2010 and carrying forward the ‘zero tolerance’ line wanted by St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI to tackle the issue.

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VIRGINIA
The Free Lance-Star

BY PORTSIA SMITH / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

A Spotsylvania County man who served as a youth minister at a local church pleaded guilty to custodial indecent liberties with a 17-year-old girl.

Timothy Ralph Noszek Jr., 33, waived indictment and entered an Alford guilty plea in Spotsylvania Circuit Court last Thursday. An Alford plea means that he does not admit guilt, but acknowledges that there is enough evidence for a conviction.

Noszek received a suspended five-year sentence and must register as a sex offender. He was also ordered to have no contact with the victim for five years or unsupervised contact with juveniles not related to him, under the plea agreement.

He had served about two months in jail following his arrest last fall.

According to the plea agreement, a deputy responded to the back parking lot in the 11000 block of Gordon Road around 10:40 a.m. on Oct. 10 for a report about two suspicious parked cars. The cars were spotted there at least five times in the two weeks prior to this incident, the agreement said.
When the deputy arrived, he found Noszek and a 17-year-old girl in the car.

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OREGON
Statesman Journal

Alexa Armstrong, Statesman Journal
January 22, 2015

A former youth pastor for the Brooks Assembly of God church made his initial appearance in court today and was formally charged with 10 counts of first-degree rape.

Peter Bass, 36, appeared for his arraignment at the Marion County Circuit Court annex behind a glass partition sporting a blue jumpsuit and orange sandals.

With his attorney, Robert Botta, by his side, he stood casually, resting his elbows on the ledge behind the glass. Bass did not speak or enter a plea.

Bass of Brooks was arrested Wednesday morning on 15 counts each of first-degree sodomy and second-degree sex abuse, shocking the members of his small town. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office has declined to say how Bass knew his victims, but said that it was not through his work as a youth pastor.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

[On the dark side. A monk is on trial for abusing youngsters at the Ettal Monastery.]

Von Heiner Effern

Ein büßender Mönch auf der Anklagebank sieht anders aus. Im dunkelgrauen Anzug, mit weißem Hemd und blau-gestreifter Krawatte ist Pater Georg ins Landgericht München II gekommen. Aufrecht, den Kopf erhoben, nimmt er vor seinen Verteidigern Platz. Mitgebracht hat er zum Prozessauftakt ein dickes Konvolut, aus dem er gleich nach dem Vortrag der Anklage vorliest. Mit vielen Worten zeichnet er mehr als zweieinhalb Stunden lang das Bild eines Menschen. Einfühlsam, manchmal unglücklich, konfliktscheu, oft überfordert. Er beschreibt sich als einen Mann, der sich verirrt hat. Doch nicht auf die Abwege, die ihm die Staatsanwältin vorwirft. Niemals habe er sich den ihm anvertrauten Schülern als Präfekt des Internats in Kloster Ettal sexuell genähert, sagt der 44-jährige Pater Georg. Er ist nicht als Büßer gekommen, sondern um seine Unschuld zu beweisen.

Zwischen den Jahren 2001 und 2005 soll er zwei Schüler sexuell missbraucht haben. Er soll sie mit der Hand am Genital berührt und auch gestreichelt haben. Bei zweien ist er des Versuchs angeklagt, sie sollen rechtzeitig gegangen sein. Pater Georg soll seine Position als Vertrauensperson der Kinder dafür schamlos ausgenutzt haben. So steht es in der Anklageschrift der Staatsanwaltschaft. “Falsch”, sagt Pater Georg. “Alle mir zur Last gelegten Vorwürfe sind unzutreffend.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A former priest described in court as one of Australia’s worst paedophiles has had his jail term extended for sexually abusing students.

John Sidney Denham, 73, has been serving a 14-year sentence for abusing 40 children, mostly at Newcastle’s St Pius X College in the 1970s and early 80s.

The District Court today handed down a 13-year jail term for abusing another 18 boys, with Judge Syme saying the offences “represent the most abhorrent and sadistic combination of circumstances that courts are likely to see”.

“The offender operated as if he was at some paedophilic smorgasbord, entitled to abuse boys at any time or place of his choosing,” Judge Syme said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sarah Gerathy

The New South Wales Government is considering removing a time limit on legal claims being lodged by victims of child sexual abuse.

Under existing laws, victims of child sexual abuse in NSW typically have between three and 12 years to sue for damages in a civil court before the statute of limitations can be used to block their claims.

But Attorney-General Brad Hazzard said the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had highlighted the trauma this causes victims, who often taken years to work up the courage to come forward.

“Most of us would be thinking after hearing the horror stories at the royal commission that removing the limitation would be a good way to go,” said Mr Hazzard.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Thursday 22 January 2015

The NSW government is considering lifting the time limit in which survivors of child sexual abuse can sue for damages.

The NSW attorney general Brad Hazzard said the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse had uncovered widespread claims about abuse and the legal barriers survivors face in pursuing justice many years after the crime.

“It is well documented that many survivors of child sexual abuse do not disclose their experiences or act on them until decades after the abuse, well after the time period has ended,” Hazzard said on Friday.

The government has released a discussion paper on whether to amend the Limitation Act 1969 and wants to hear from the public.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

By Gary Popp
News and Tribune

LOUISVILLE, KY (News and Tribune) – The former pastor of a New Albany church was sentenced Wednesday in a Louisville court to 15 years in prison for the sodomy of a child.

Isrom Johnson, 35, Louisville, was a pastor at Prince of Peace Missionary Baptist Church along Linden Avenue at the time of his arrest in December 2012.

According to court records, Johnson committed three offenses of, “sodomy in the second degree by engaging in deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 14 years of age.”

He was taken into custody by the Louisville Metro Police Department after he was indicted by a Jefferson County Grand Jury.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

THE headmaster of an exclusive Sydney private school which will come under the gaze of the sex abuse royal commission has welcomed the opportunity to work with the national inquiry.

The royal commission announced on Thursday it will next month begin a hearing involving the Wahroonga-based Knox Grammar school and the Uniting Church in Australia between 1970 and 2012.
It relates to concerns raised about inappropriate conduct by a number of teachers towards students at Knox.

In 2010, former teacher Craig Treloar was jailed for two years for numerous sex offences against four boys, aged 11 to 13, who attended Knox in 1986 and 1987.

Headmaster John Weeks says the school regularly reviews child protection policies, student awareness programs and support structures to provide surety to parents and students about safety.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Thomas Oriti

Exclusive Sydney school Knox Grammar is set to become the focus of a royal commission, with a public hearing to examine how a number of teachers were able to molest boys for decades.

Located on Sydney’s Upper North Shore, Knox Grammar boasts former prime ministers and prominent actors amongst its alumni.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is turning its attention to the school to examine how the independent school, run by the Uniting Church, responded to concerns about inappropriate conduct from 1970 to 2012.

In 2009 and 2010, four men pleaded guilty to abusing students at Knox Grammar.

The high profile cases included former teacher Craig Treloar, who was jailed in 2010 for abusing four boys aged from 11 to 13 between 1986 and 1987.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • January 22, 2015

If you haven’t yet read the “How To Be A Gay Jesuit” post, do. The introduction, which I appended to the dialogue, was written the the Jesuit priest Fr. Tom Smolich. I had never heard of him, somehow. From his introduction:

Through the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, male religious in this country developed the Instruments of Hope and Healing, a comprehensive approach of outreach to victims of child sexual abuse and of concrete steps toward its prevention. Included in these Instruments is a requirement of continuing education for all religious in their communities.

In 2009, the Society developed an online questionnaire and four case studies in an adult learning format to meet this requirement for the succeeding three years.

This program and its structure were well received, as they provided the impetus for important conversations among Jesuits on issues we are often reluctant to engage: affective needs, appropriate boundaries, and healthy internet usage, to name a few. This 2009 program serves as the foundation for our continuing education for the next five years. This new program has been christened Conversations that Matter.

As part of Conversations that Matter, every Jesuit working or living in the United States will take a yearly on-line questionnaire which refreshes our knowledge about the problem of sexual abuse of minors and the abuse of power in pastoral ministry. The questionnaire also presents information on changing guidelines in these areas. For example, revisions in Vatican policies now include sexual abuse of vulnerable adults and possession of child pornography as offenses which disqualify a priest or religious from ministry. We need to be up to date on such changes.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Newcastle solicitor specialising in compensation for survivors of child sexual abuse says he would welcome the removal of the statute of limitations on historic abuse claims.

In New South Wales, victims of child sexual abuse typically have between three and 12 years to sue for damages, but the government is considering extending or scrapping the time limit.

Peter Kelso said although the limitation seems arbitrary, when it was first introduced legislators would not have been considering its impact on victims of historic sex abuse.

“There would be no way they would have been thinking about historical child sex abuse case,” he said.

“They would have been thinking purely about cases like workers compensation, slip and fall, motor vehicle accidents – that sort of thing.

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NEW YORK
The Daily News

By Scott DeSmit desmit@batavianews.com

ALBION — Closing arguments are expected today in the Orleans County Court trial of a former church pastor accused of molesting three children, all his relatives.

Roy Harriger Sr., 71, former pastor of Ashwood Wesleyan Church in Yates, is charged with three counts of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and three counts of incest.

Harriger, who took the stand Thursday and denied all the accusations, claiming his son and grandchildren were lying, is accused of molesting the children in 2001, 2002 and in 2008.

A state police investigation detailed allegations of abuse dating back to the 1970s in New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan, including molesting his son, who also testified this week.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Gaston Gazette

By Lauren Baheri
Published: Thursday, January 22, 2015

A recently removed pastor who once worked in Lincolnton and Shelby was charged last week with sexually assaulting a child.

The abuse is alleged to have occurred decades ago in Jacksonville, Fla.

Michael Wayne Hill, a 52-year-old former Seventh-day Adventist pastor, was charged with sexual battery of a person younger than 12 years old.

No statute of limitations exists in a child sex crime.

Hill served as pastor of churches in Shelby and Lincolnton for 15 years, according to Robert Crux, marketing director for Carolina Conference, the division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church that covers Gaston, Cleveland and Lincoln counties

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

Two separate lawsuits filed by seven men allege a series of sexual abuses against adolescent boys by a Presbyterian pastor from the early 1980s through the late ’90s at ministries in the Austin and Ukrainian Village neighborhoods.

The suits were filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court by John Does 1-3 and John Does 1-4, respectively.

The suit filed by John Does 1-4 said they were molested by Pastor Douglas Mason at San Marcos Youth Ministry. The men were between 11 and 14 years old when they were abused at different points between 1991 and 1999, the suit claims.

Mason allegedly paid for the boys’ tuition to St. Gregory the Great High School and would check each of them out of class at least once a month to molest them. The suit also lists the Archdiocese of Chicago, which runs the high schools as a defendant, claiming administrators never reported those visits to the boys’ parents or guardians.

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OREGON
Bend Bulletin

By Claire Withycombe / The Bulletin / @kcwithycombe
Published Jan 23, 2015

Deschutes County Circuit Judge Beth Bagley on Thursday lowered the bail for a Gresham pastor facing sexual abuse charges.

Bagley set bail at $250,000, reduced from the $1 million set Jan. 7 by Circuit Judge Walter “Randy” Miller for James Worley, 42, a general pastor at Powell Valley Church.

Worley faces 37 charges, including 20 counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of first-degree rape, in connection with alleged abuses reported to have taken place between 2002 and 2004, when Worley was a resident in Deschutes County. Worley was arrested Dec. 17 by Gresham Police.

The two alleged victims , one of whom is a minor, spoke at the hearing Thursday, attesting they fear for their safety if Worley were to be released from custody.

“I feel that if he’s released, other people could be hurt,” said one victim in a brief statement to the court.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WSOC

LINCOLN COUNTY, N.C. — A former pastor with ties to Lincolnton and Shelby is charged with sexually abusing a child.

Channel 9’s partners at the Gaston Gazette reported Michael Hill is charged with sexual battery of a person younger than 12 years old.

The alleged abuse happened decades ago in Jacksonville, Florida.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

When Western Australia halved the compensation payout for children abused in state care Premier Colin Barnett received half a Christmas card from a survivor.

It was an ironic “thank you” on behalf of thousands of people still suffering the effects of what happened to them as children.

Next week the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is expected to reveal its thinking on how people should be compensated for physical, sexual and psychological damage inflicted in organisations where children should have been safe.

The commission is prioritising redress because many abuse survivors are old and ageing.
A public hearing in March will follow the commission’s consultation paper next week and final recommendations will go to the federal government in June-July.

A lot of people are anxiously awaiting the consultation paper – and they’re not all abuse survivors.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Pedophile priest John Sidney Denham will spend at least 19 years and five months in jail after being sentenced for systematically abusing dozens of vulnerable boys.

Denham, 73, had already been jailed for at least 14 years in 2010 for his “sadistic” sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But today Judge Helen Syme sentenced him to at least another 13 years for the abuse of another 18 boys, describing his crimes as some of the worst the courts have ever seen.

“As the crown rhetorically asks, `How much worse does it get?'” she stated.

Judge Syme said he treated St Pius X as “his own pedophilic smorgasbord”, with dozens having complained of abuse over four-and-a-half years at the school.

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AUSTRALIA
The New Daily

JAMES FERNYHOUGH Money Editor

A prolific paedophile priest has been jailed for his “sadistic” and “depraved” abuse of boys.

A paedophile priest who abused a “staggering” number of boys has been sentenced to 13 years in prison in a Sydney court today.

John Sidney Denham, 73, who treated schools as a “paedophilic smorgasbord”, had already been jailed for at least 14 years in 2010 for his “sadistic” sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But on Friday Judge Helen Syme sentenced him to at least another 13 years for the abuse of another 18 boys, describing his crimes as some of the worst the courts have ever seen.

“As the crown rhetorically asks, `How much worse does it get?’” she stated.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

LEIGH VAN DEN BROEKE NEWS LIMITED JANUARY 23, 2015

A Catholic priest who treated schools as a “paedophilic smorgasbord” will spend at least another 13 years in jail after being sentenced for systematically abusing dozens of vulnerable boys.

John Sidney Denham, 73, had already been jailed for at least 14 years in 2010 for his “sadistic” sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But yesterday in the District Court in Sydney, Judge Helen Syme sentenced him to at least another 13 years for the abuse of another 18 boys — describing his crimes as some of the worst the courts have ever seen.

“As the crown rhetorically asks, ‘How much worse does it get?’,” she said.

Denham’s victims intermittently left in tears as the court heard how, through the protection of church colleagues, he was able to have 18 years of uninterrupted offending across schools in NSW.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 23, 2015

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

A “sadistic” paedophile priest who repeatedly abused more than 50 young boys in the Newcastle region while being protected by two fellow priests has been sentenced to a further 13 years jail.

John Sidney Denham used his position as a parish priest and a teacher at St Pius X Catholic School at Adamstown to repeatedly assault, rape or molest at least 57 young boys without interruption for 18 years.

In the Downing Centre District Court on Friday the 73-year-old was sentenced for 48 of these offences, having already been sentenced to at least 13 years’ jail for the other nine offences.

With a partial accumulation of the sentences he now will spend 19 years and five months behind bars.

“Some of the offences represent the most abhorrent and sadistic combination of circumstances that courts are likely to see,” Judge Helen Syme said of the abuse as Denham sat in the dock with his head bowed.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

For years a Catholic priest viewed a NSW school where he taught as a “pedophilic smorgasbord” catering to his depraved desires.

Unfettered by the church, John Sidney Denham abused dozens of boys whenever and wherever he chose.

He found new victims during his frequent transfers to parishes across the state.

Denham, at 73, is already in the middle of a jail term, handed to him in 2010 for his sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But on Friday, Judge Helen Syme sentenced the priest to another 13 years jail for charges stemming from his abuse of 18 boys at St Pius X in the Hunter in the 1970s.

“Some of the offences represent the most abhorrent and sadistic combination of circumstances that courts are likely to see,” she said.

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CANADA
Digital Journal

By Marcus Hondro

A defrocked priest found guilty of 32 counts of sexually abusing Inuit children between the years 1978 and 1982 apologized in a courtroom at his sentencing hearing today. As he did so, dozens of victims and members of their families cried out.

Threatened children for sex

Eric Dejaeger, 67, and in poor health, committed offences against boys and girls, mostly between the ages of 8 and 12, but for some the abuse started when they were but four-years-old. He was appearing Thursday in an Iqaluit, Nunavut courtroom.

From Belgium, when he committed the offences Dejaeger was an Oblate missionary in Igloolik, Nunavut. His crimes were horrific and cruel, including threatening children with fire and brimstone if they did not perform sexual acts. There was testimony of the former priest offering food to hungry children for sex, even dangling food in front of them.

“I can only take responsibility for what I have done,” he told the judge. “I would like to ask for forgiveness. I promise not to re-offend. And that’s not just words.”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Jan. 23, 2015

JOHN Denham is one of Australia’s worst paedophile priests whose crimes were the catalyst for a royal commission.

When we look back and ask how this national tragedy occurred, we need only look at him.

‘‘He is a man who enjoyed the power and status of his priesthood,’’ said Judge Helen Syme when she first sentenced him in 2010.

Defrocked, shackled at times, without his books and offended by the company he keeps, Denham minus the garb of the Catholic Church is now revealed for what he is, and what he was for decades while he was moved around the Hunter and Taree – a sadistic, violent predator of children.

He was first convicted in 2000 when a courageous victim went to police. That man phoned me in June 2006 to ask why no media had ever reported it. I spoke to Denham and included lines about his conviction in a longer article, and it sat on the page like a ticking bomb.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Fri, Jan 23, 2015

A Dublin parish priest, rebuked by two Catholic archbishops last June for casting doubt on media reports that Fr Michael Cleary fathered children, has described their reaction “as disappointing to say the least”.

Fr Arthur O’Neill, administrator in Cabinteely, said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and the Catholic Primate Archbishop Eamon Martin reminded him of 1980s pop group the Housemartins.

“Their melodies and harmonies were always a mixture of populist politics and Christianity, which gave them lots of public appeal.” In his parish newsletter Fr O’Neill recalled his “real surprise” last year was “to read about myself on page one of The Irish Times ‘being rebuked’ by Archbishop Martin for daring to ask such a question.”

He said he had “simply asked what evidence was there at the time to allow so many journalists write with such certainty [about Fr Cleary].”

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CANADA
StarPhoenix

BY HANNAH SPRAY, THE STARPHOENIX JANUARY 22, 2015

A jail sentence is the only way to properly denounce an 82-year-old priest’s actions when he sexually touched a young girl 35 years ago, a Saskatoon judge ruled.

On Thursday, Omer Desjardins was sentenced to six months in jail, plus one year’s probation, for assaulting a 10-year-old girl in 1978. The victim, now 46 years old, reported the assault to police in 2013.

“Sexual abuse of children cannot be tolerated and the sentence of this court must adequately reflect society’s revulsion for such conduct,” Judge Byron Wright said while pronouncing Desjardin’s sentence in Saskatoon provincial court.

Desjardins previously pleaded guilty to indecent assault and sentencing arguments were heard in December, when his lawyer George Green argued for a conditional sentence order, or jail term served in the community.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Jemima Thackray 22 Jan 2015

Since entering the Vatican in 2013, Pope Francis has become something of a media darling, charming even the most secular journalists with his unfussy style and acts of humility (choosing, for example, to live in the Papal guest house rather than the palace).

His commitment to the poor and condemnation of exploitative economic systems, as well as his willingness to learn from other faith traditions, have made him so popular that he was even named Time magazine’s person of the year.

However, it seems that His Holiness has experienced a rather dramatic fall from media grace in recent weeks.

His comments following the Charlie Hebdo attack suggesting there should be limits to freedom of speech were disconcerting for some Francis fans. This week he has disappointed many women by staunchly defending the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which sets out the Catholic Church’s opposition to artificial birth control.

If some people had been fooled into thinking Pope Francis is the person sent to revolutionise the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage and the family, they have now been emphatically disillusioned.

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VATIKAN
Christ und Welt

Erzbischof Georg Gänswein über seine kurialen Krankheiten, sein Verhältnis zu Franziskus und Benedikt als Gegenpapst

Der Vatikan wirkt an diesem finsteren Nachmittag im Januar wie verwaist, Papst Franziskus ist auf Reisen. Kurienerzbischof Georg Gänswein (58), Präfekt des Päpstlichen Hauses, erscheint im schwarzen Talar. Gerade hat er noch in den Vatikanischen Gärten den Rosenkranz mit dem emeritierten Papst Benedikt XVI. gebetet. Mit ihm und vier Helferinnen lebt Gänswein im Kloster Mater Ecclesiae im Schatten des Petersdoms zusammen. Gänswein führt in die ausgestorbenen Gemächer der Präfektur. In Abwesenheit des Papstes hat der Präfekt seinen Mitarbeitern freigegeben. „Als Anerkennung“, sagt er. In seinem Arbeitszimmer mit Blick auf den Petersplatz sind ein übervoller Schreibtisch und nicht ausgepackte Umzugskisten zu erkennen. Das Interview findet im prächtigen Empfangssaal des Präfekten statt. Monsignore Gänswein wirkt gut gelaunt und zündet vor dem Gespräch noch einmal den Adventskranz an.

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ROME
Crux

By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent January 22, 2015

ROME — A close aide to emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has denied the former pontiff is playing any behind-the-scenes role over the issue of Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, calling such reports a “pure invention.”

The aide also dismissed suggestions that Benedict is a sort of “anti-pope” for conservatives upset with Francis, calling it “stupid and irresponsible,” and labeling such rumors a form of “theological arson.”

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, prefect of the papal household and personal secretary of emeritus pope Benedict XVI, made the comments in an interview with the German magazine Christ und Welt.

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MINNESOTA
Fairbault Daily News

By CAMEY THIBODEAU cthibodeau@faribault.com

A Catholic priest who served in Faribault in the 1980s has been accused of sexual abuse and the allegations are outlined in a file recently obtained from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Archdiocese by a St. Paul attorney who is representing survivors.

According to documents from the Archdiocese file, Father James Robert Murphy was charged with criminal sexual conduct in Minneapolis for touching a moral squad officer in an adult bookstore in 1980.

In a memorandum dated Dec. 8, 1980, from Father Robert J. Carlson to the Archdiocese file of Father James Murphy, Carlson says that Murphy saw Judge Patrick Fitzgerald, who asked Judge Robert Schumacher to take the case.

The memo further stated that the two judges would ask Murphy to see Archbishop John Roach or Carlson and begin a year of probation and counseling and that psychological testing and treatment would also be ordered. Additionally, he was to report to Roach or Carlson on a regular basis and make a report to the court after one year.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Commonweal

In November 2014, Blase Cupich succeeded Cardinal Francis George to become the ninth archbishop of Chicago—the nation’s third-largest diocese. It was Pope Francis’s first major episcopal appointment in the United States. Cupich had previously been the bishop of two much smaller dioceses: Spokane, Washington, and Rapid City, South Dakota. In 1975, he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Omaha, Nebraska, where he was pastor of two parishes before being made bishop of Rapid City in 1998. Archbishop Cupich has served on several committees, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Ad Hoc Committee on Scripture Translation, as well as the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, which he chaired from 2008 to 2011. In December, Grant Gallicho spoke with the archbishop in Chicago. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. …

GG: The first Sunday Mass you celebrated following your installation was at St. Agatha, a parish that has been wounded by revelations about the now-laicized abuser Daniel McCormack. In the homily of your installation Mass, you spoke about the need to rebuild trust broken by bishops who have mishandled abuse cases. You said that holding bishops accountable is a “sacred duty.” Every time I return to Chicago, my hometown, I’m struck by how shaken local Catholics remain over the McCormack case. According to that Chicago magazine survey, the issue local Catholics are most concerned about is sexual abuse. But when it comes to accountability for bishops, a lot of people still wonder: Where is that happening, or how might that happen?

BC: I know that this is a very important topic that is going to be decided soon by the Holy See and the pope’s sexual-abuse commission, headed by Cardinal Seán O’Malley. In November, the cardinal gave an interview on 60 Minutes and indicated that this has to be part of the equation. It is part of our good stewardship in terms of governance. There has to be a way in which we are held accountable. We’re held accountable for financial mismanagement, for personal morals, but we also have to be held accountable when it comes to protecting the vulnerable under our care. So I’m fully supportive of what Cardinal O’Malley said on 60 Minutes.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops did, however, in 2002, pass a resolution about our commitment to mutual accountability. There has to be some mechanism by which the Holy See triggers that too. It’s not just our part, but the universal church has to deal with this.

Let me say something too about folks who are really shaken, as you said. It is a healthy sign that they’re shaken. We should be shaken. We should not diminish or dismiss it as unimportant. That should say something to us. There’s a healthy sensitivity about what’s right and wrong. Maybe there was a past era in which people would say, “Well, you know, kids will bounce back” or “It really doesn’t harm them.” But there is maturity—a spiritual maturity—and a social awareness people come to that allows them to be shaken. And that’s good. We should tell people, “You should be shaken by this.” We all should be shaken by this—so that this never happens again.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston.com

By Chris Caesar
Boston.com Staff

Investigators say they will not press charges against a Catholic school janitor once suspected of indecently exposing himself to a student in a campus bathroom.

Revere police said they investigated allegations that an employee of Revere’s Immaculate Conception School acted inappropriately in the bathroom over a period of a month and a half.

Ultimately, though, detectives said no crimes were committed.

“The investigation revealed that a 64-year-old male assigned to the school’s custodial staff used the boy’s restroom, which was across the hall from his office, on several occasions in December and early January,” a statement from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office read. “One boy reported to a parent that he had observed the adult using the urinal during this time.”

The employee did not engage in physical contact, use sexual language, or engage in other behavior that would support criminal charges, the statement continues. He voluntarily met with investigators and was willingly interviewed by detectives.

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DEUTSCHLAND
katholisch

[Bishop Stephan Ackerman of Trier, sexual abuse officer for the German Bishops’ Conference, said the church in the last five years has taken on their responsibilities. He condemned the heinous acts and asked the concerned parties for forgiveness.]

Es gab Fortschritte, aber auch Rückschläge: Nach fünf Jahren Aufarbeitung des sexuellen Missbrauchs in der katholischen Kirche hat die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz heute Bilanz gezogen. Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte, der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann, sagte, die Kirche habe sich ihrer Verantwortung gestellt, die abscheulichen Taten verurteilt und die Betroffenen um Vergebung gebeten.

“Seitdem arbeiten wir an einer ehrlichen Aufklärung und Aufarbeitung, frei von falscher Rücksichtnahme, auch wenn uns Vorfälle gemeldet werden, die schon lange zurückliegen. Die Betroffenen haben ein Recht darauf”, so Ackermann.

Ackermann: Der Skandal hat die Kirche verändert

Rückblende: Im Januar 2010 kam ein Stein ins Rollen, der die katholische Kirche in Deutschland in eine ihrer größten Krisen stürzte. Nachdem Pater Klaus Mertes, der damalige Direktor des Berliner Canisuis-Kollegs, Missbrauchsfälle an Kindern und Jugendlichen an der katholischen Schule öffentlich machte, wurden immer mehr Fälle in ganz Deutschland bekannt. Die Täter der oft Jahrzehnte zurückreichenden Verbrechen waren Gemeindepfarrer, Lehrer, Ordensleute, die das Vertrauensverhältnis der Jugendlichen ausnutzten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
NetzwerkB

Norbert Denef:

“Die jagen den Kindern Angst ein, so dass sie dann damit überhaupt nicht zurecht kommen – mit der Gewalt die da ausgeübt wird.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

Von Robert Werner in Nachrichten, Überregional

Er habe „genug von dieser Institution“ und wolle „von diesen Typen“ aus dem Regensburger Ordinariat niemals mehr etwas hören“. Mit diesen unmissverständlichen Worten meldet sich ein weiterer ehemaliger „Domspatz“ zu Wort. Unserer Redaktion schildert er sein Leid als blutig geprügeltes Kind, sein Los als Opfer von sexuellen Übergriffen und seine Enttäuschung nachdem er sich 2010 bei der damaligen „Missbrauchsbeauftragten“ Dr. Birgit Böhm gemeldet hatte. Die Glaubwürdigkeit des Regensburger Bistums in Sachen Aufarbeitung von sexuellem Missbrauch von Minderjährigen und Schutzbefohlenen scheint indes tiefer nicht mehr sinken zu können. Das es auch anders gehen könnte, zeigt ein Blick nach München und Ettal.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

München – “Alle mir zur Last gelegten Vorwürfe sind unzutreffend” – mit diesen Worten hat sich ein Pater des oberbayerischen Klosters Ettal vor Gericht verteidigt. Die Staatsanwaltschaft München geht hingegen davon aus, dass der 44-Jährige wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs zu bestrafen ist. Sie hat ihn angeklagt: Der Mönch habe sich an zwei Schülern vergangen und es bei zwei weiteren versucht.

Die Vorfälle, die ihn vor Gericht brachten, sollen sich zwischen 2001 und 2005 ereignet haben. Laut Staatsanwaltschaft fasste der Mann die Schüler im Intimbereich an. Der Angeklagte aber sprach jetzt davon, die Schüler an Bauch und Rücken gestreichelt zu haben – mehr nicht. “Ich habe es in vielen Fällen an der notwendigen Distanz zu Schülern fehlen lassen”, sagte er mehrmals in seiner rund zweieinhalbstündigen Erklärung am ersten Verhandlungstag. Dies sei unprofessionell gewesen. “Zu keinem Zeitpunkt aber habe ich mich Schülern in sexuell motivierter Absicht genähert.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

A new chair of the Government’s crisis-hit child abuse inquiry should be in place by the end of the month, the Home Secretary has insisted.

Theresa May has revealed her third nomination to chair the panel will be announced soon, as well as a decision on whether to change the panel into a statutory inquiry or a royal commission.

Mrs May set up the inquiry in July to find out whether public bodies had covered up allegations of child sex abuse in the wake of claims paedophiles had operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

The inquiry has faced a series of problems, including the resignation of two previous chairs over their alleged links to Establishment figures of the time.

Mrs May said: “I am clear that the new chairman must be someone who commands that confidence and who has the necessary skills and experience to carry out this vital work.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Labour has said there is “no choice” but to restart the inquiry into historical child sex abuse, with a new chair and statutory powers.

Shadow home secretary Ms Cooper said that after six months the inquiry still had no chair, powers or clarity.

Raising the matter in the Commons, she warned that survivors of abuse “are being let down”.

Home Secretary Theresa May told MPs she would announce the new chair and powers for the inquiry at the end of January.

Mrs May also said a file found in the National Archives containing allegations of “unnatural sexual” behaviour at Westminster was being looked into.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Thursday 22 January 2015

Theresa May has announced that she will make a decision on a new chairman for the official inquiry into child sexual abuse by the end of next week, in an effort to rescue the troubled investigation.

The home secretary has told MPs that a shortlist of names has been drawn up from 150 people who were nominated and that she will consult with survivors before her preferred candidate is announced. She said that a lot of the due diligence on the existing shortlist had already been undertaken.

May made the announcement after facing accusations that she was losing control of her attempt to get the inquiry under way.

May also told MPs that a newly discovered Downing Street file dating from 1980, entitled unnatural sexual proclivities, may be a duplicate of a Home Office file that had already been seen by an internal inquiry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Tom Symonds
Home affairs correspondent, BBC News

Home Secretary Theresa May has faced calls for an inquiry into historical child abuse, which has been beset by problems, to be “re-started”. The inquiry, set up six months ago, remains without a leader, and there have been disagreements within the expert panel over its workings and its future.

Behind the scenes, there is now a bruising confrontation between the child abuse inquiry panel and one of its members, the children’s charity founder Sharon Evans, who was herself abused as a child.

She is furious that the government plans to disband the panel, and redesign the structure of the entire inquiry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

John Crace
Thursday 22 January 2015

It’s been 200 days since Theresa May said she would set up an inquiry into child sexual abuse. In that time, two chairs have come and gone because proper checks had not been carried out on them nor survivors consulted, proceedings have been started without a chair and then cancelled, some panel members have been asked to reapply for their own jobs, there have been tensions between the panel, accusations of bullying, the discovery of a file that may or may not have been missing and no clarity over what powers the inquiry might have when it does eventually start work.

On the day it was announced that Leon Brittan, the former home secretary who had been linked to historical cover-ups, had died, Yvette Cooper decided it was time to table an urgent question to find out what progress was being made.

The home secretary was in an unusually conciliatory mood. Some might say defensive. “The right honourable lady is trying to make an argument between us about this inquiry where I think none exists,” she began. She wanted nothing less than the shadow home secretary wanted.

It had been regrettable there had been delays but she had previously said that a new chair would be appointed and the terms of the inquiry agreed by the end of January and she was on course to deliver that even though she couldn’t actually say how many people were on the shortlist for the job. It’s going to be a hectic next week for Theresa.

It all sounded more or less reasonable, though May did manage to make it sound as if much of the blame lay with Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf themselves for failing to realise they didn’t have the confidence of survivors, rather than with the selection panel for not bothering to check their connections, and it did seem to be taking her department rather a long time to establish whether the new file was the same as the old one. But by the time she had nibbled humble pie – as close to eating it as she’s ever likely to get – to long-time child abuse campaigners Keith Vaz, Simon Danczuk, Tom Watson and Sarah Champion, she was beginning to sound more like her old, confident self.

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Ewan Palmer
January 22, 2015

Labour are calling for the troubled government inquiry into child abuse to be scrapped after developing into a “farce” in the six months since it was set up.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper criticised Theresa May’s review into allegations there was a cover-up of a Westminster paedophile ring in the 1980s as lacking “power and clarity” and said the victims are frequently being “let down”.

The home secretary’s inquiry has got off to a staggered start following the resignation of two of its chairmen – which it has still not replaced – as well as allegations panel members are being “bullied” and the victims voicing their frustrations at the lack of progress.

In response, May said she will make a decision over who will replace Fiona Woolf and Baroness Butler-Sloss as the new chair of the inquiry. She added a recently discovered secret file detailing “unnatural sexual” behaviour at Westminster may be a duplicate of one previously seen by a report led by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless with Richard Whittam QC.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Cooper urged the inquiry to be relaunched with a new chair and statutory powers.

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