ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

Christa Brown

“True evil lies not in the depraved act of the one, but in the silence of the many.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hello to all of you!

It’s been a long time since I visited my blog, but today is Martin Luther King Day and I found myself reconnecting with a column I wrote for MLK day in 2013. It was previously picked up and published by the Associated Baptist Press — now known as Baptist News Global — which by the way is not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. I think this may just be the best job I ever managed to do in succinctly summarizing the complex issues at work in the problem of Baptist clergy sex abuse and denominational complicity. An excerpt:

“In countless stories of Baptist clergy sex abuse, we have seen the sad truth of King’s words made manifest. Even with childhood histories of horrific abuse – of having been molested, raped and sodomized by Baptist preachers – countless such victims have said that the worst of their experience came when they tried to tell about the abuse within the faith community.

That was when they faced ‘the silence of the many.’

That was when the relational fabric of community, and often even of family, was torn asunder.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

Adoption campaigners have again expressed concerns that tens of thousands of people could be excluded from the mother and baby home inquiry.

Ahead of a Dáil debate on the terms of reference for the inquiry today, the Adoption Rights Alliance expressed fears that the investigation will be limited to only the practices and procedures of institutions, adoption agencies and individuals with a direct connection to a mother and baby home.

The group said that if the scope of the inquiry was not widened, tens of thousands of mothers who gave birth in State and private maternity homes but suffered the same fate of forced and illegal adoptions as those born in mother and baby homes would be excluded.

Under terms of reference, the inquiry will investigate how unmarried mothers and their babies were treated between 1922 and 1998 at 14 State-linked religious institutions.

The three-year inquiry — which has a €23.5m budget and may cost millions more in redress — will examine mother and baby homes, county homes, vaccine trials on children, and illegal adoptions where babies were trafficked abroad.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MASSACHUSETTS
Road to Recovery

TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2015

A Catholic religious order of priests and brothers, known as the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, and the Diocese of Fall River, MA, enabled the sexual abuse of at least two minor boys from Massachusetts by one of its members, Fr. James R. Nickel, SS.CC., in Fairhaven, MA, and West Harwich, MA, respectively

Two men have filed lawsuits in Superior Court, Bristol County, MA, alleging sexual abuse by Fr. James Nickel, SS.CC., and alleging negligent supervision by leaders of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts; Bishop Daniel Cronin, retired bishop of Fall River, MA; and others

What
A demonstration and leafleting alerting the media, parishioners, and the general public of the filing of two Superior Court lawsuits in Massachusetts against former Bishop Daniel Cronin of the Diocese of Fall River and leaders/supervisors of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts religious order (copies of the lawsuits will be provided)

When
Wednesday, January 21, 2015 from 11:00 am until 12:30 pm

Where
On the public sidewalk outside the headquarters of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts religious order, 77 Adams Street, Fairhaven, MA (near St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Parish run by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts)

Who
Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, Co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families.

Why
Two men have come forward to report that they had been sexually abused by Fr. James R. Nickel, a priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts religious order, when they were minor boys in Fairhaven, MA, and West Harwich, MA, respectively. The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts religious order administers at least two parishes in Fairhaven, MA (St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s), and were in charge at one time of Holy Trinity Parish in West Harwich, MA, on Cape Cod. Fr. James R. Nickel, SS.CC. worked within the geographic boundaries of the Diocese of Fall River with the permission of Bishop Daniel Cronin at the time of the sexual abuse of the children. One plaintiff as a minor was sexually abused by Fr. James R. Nickel from approximately 1972-1974 when he was approximately 13-14 years of age at Holy Trinity Parish in West Harwich, MA. Another plaintiff as a minor was sexually abused from approximately 1983-1986 when he was approximately 12-14 years of age at St. Mary’s Parish in Fairhaven, MA. Both boys suffered serious injuries from the sexual abuse. Demonstrators will call on the Diocese of Fall River and the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts to help these men heal and give them the resources they need to recover.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Tom Symonds
Home affairs correspondent, BBC News

The inquiry into historical child abuse is likely to be the longest and most complex ever.

But right from the start there have been arguments about who should take on the task of delving into Britain’s darkest secrets, and how they should go about it.

When on 7 July 2014, Theresa May announced there would be a public inquiry into child abuse, she may have been excused for thinking an important item had been ticked off the governmental to-do list.

She had little alternative.

Since the Jimmy Savile scandal it has been clear that many men and women abused as children are no longer prepared to endure the silence that has hung over this issue for decades.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Westminster child abuse inquiry to hear Margaret Thatcher was presented ‘allegations of unnatural sexual proclivities’

ADAM WITHNALL Wednesday 21 January 2015

A UK academic has uncovered a file which he claims could contain allegations of “unnatural” sexual activities against public figures at the height of the Westminster child abuse scandal.

Dr Chris Murphy, a security and intelligence lecturer at the University of Salford, found the classified document while searching the National Archives in Kew.

While its contents have not been made public, Dr Murphy said he was immediately alerted by the title showing it had been taken to the then-Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

The title read: “PREM19/588 – SECURITY. Allegations against former public [word missing] of unnatural sexual proclivities; security aspects 1980 Oct 27 – 1981 Mar 20.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: FRED ZIMMERMAN Updated: January 20, 2015

Actions were needed, but goodwill missions will be constrained and employers will face uncertainties about their liabilities.

Well, our archdiocese is bankrupt. Possibly deserved, but still a sad event. None of us can tolerate sexual impropriety. But bankruptcy means that missions will be constrained; parishes in poorer areas will have less support; schools will be reduced in number, and good, well-meaning and conscientious dedicated people will be affected.

Minnesota’s Child Victims Act, which removes the civil statute of limitations for sexual abuse allegations, was passed by the Legislature in 2013. No doubt there was widespread concern about the matter of sexual abuse, as there should be. However, some of us do wonder if the Legislature fully comprehended what would happen when the act was passed. Other institutions and members of the business community might well wonder if the curtailment of the statute of limitations might be extended to other arenas.

The cases involving the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are old. The 64 accused priests and brothers were born an average of 81 years ago. Of these, 79.7 percent were removed from ministry an average of 20 years ago. Forty-seven percent of the accused have died. Settlements were made or attempted with the people affected — a process perhaps delayed and made complicated by the threatened and filed lawsuits. Settlements are needed, of course, and many were offered and accepted.

In this modern age, few of us are able to go through life without some exposure to sexual impropriety that makes us sick. These cases involve a wide spectrum of vocations and personalities. Despicable as they are, the cases are not simple. I have dealt with several in my years in industry and during my several decades as a corporate director. The cases take time and are often confusing. The arduous task of finding the exact facts is neither quick nor simple. People have to be interviewed — and qualified. Qualified and willing witnesses able to provide credible evidence must be found, and their statements must be verified. Unfortunately, what is ultimately proven is not always immediately proven.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OREGON
Argus Observer

PAYETTE — A former youth pastor has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to sexual battery.
Forest Rueben Gibson, 34, was a youth pastor in Canyon County when a teenage girl there made allegations against him. While investigating her claims, Canyon County Sheriff’s Detective Shawn Becker heard from a second victim in Payette County.

Gibson met the second girl at church camp, according to information from Barbara “Bobbi” Richart, chief deputy prosecuting attorney in Payette County. Gibson pleaded guilty to sexual battery against that girl — who, because she is a minor, is not being named — in District Court Jan. 9.

The battery took place on or about Feb. 23 through April 8, 2014, according to court documents. Gibson was arrested April 28.

At his sentencing, the first victim addressed the court and Gibson, Richart said. The girls said that because of his position with the church, she had trusted him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MISSOURI
Lake News Online

Posted Jan. 20, 2015

Morgan County

A trial setting for a California, Mo. man charged with multiple felonies related to alleged sexual relations with two underage girls has been rescheduled.

Travis Smith was formerly a pastor at a church in Stover.

He is facing charges of forcible sodomy, forcible rape, sexual abuse, statutory sodomy and three counts of second degree statutory rape in Moniteau County, stemming from alleged incidents in 1998, 1999 and 2005.

Judge Kenneth Hayden will now preside over the trial setting hearing on March 13, 2015 instead of the original date of Jan. 16, 2015 after Moniteau County Prosecuting Attorney Shayne Healea made a motion to appoint a special prosecutor to the case.

Healea is facing his own troubles after being indicted Nov. 21 on charges related to an alleged drunk driving accident in Columbia in October.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Crystal Dey
Forum News Service
POSTED: 01/20/2015

BAGLEY, Minn. — A Lutheran pastor in Clearwater County is charged with 16 counts of felony criminal sexual conduct for acts that allegedly occurred between 2009 and 2014 with juvenile boys.

Scott Morey, 42, of Shevlin appeared in Clearwater County District Court in Bagley in far northwestern Minnesota on Friday facing eight first-degree, three second-degree, two third-degree and three fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charges.

Morey had been a pastor at Calvary Lutheran Church in Winger, Immanuel Lutheran Church in Bejou and Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in McIntosh. The Rev. Dr. Lawrence Wohlrabe, bishop with Northwestern Minnesota Synod ELCA in Moorhead, said Morey resigned as pastor at the churches Dec. 12.

Morey remains on the ELCA clergy roster, but has been asked to cease functioning as a pastor pending the outcome of the court proceedings in Clearwater County.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
WKBW

[with video]

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) – The trial against a local pastor accused of sexual abuse and incest resumes Wednesday.

A jury was seated Tuesday in the case against 70-year-old Roy Harriger, who is accused of abusing two of his children back in 2000 and 2001.

Harriger is charged with course of sexual conduct, sodomy and incest.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
WIVB

[with video]

By Mark Belcher, News 4 Digital Producer
Published: January 21, 2015

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – A jury has been selected in a trial over a local pastor accused of sexual abuse.

The jury was selected Tuesday, and the trial will proceed Wednesday for Rev. Roy Harriger, a pastor 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.

Fifteen people across three states came out saying the 70-year-old molested them as children, and Harriger was arrested.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OREGON
Bend Bulletin

By Claire Withycombe / The Bulletin / @kcwithycombe
Published Jan 21, 2015

Deschutes County Circuit Judge Beth Bagley, after hearing arguments from attorneys, postponed a decision Tuesday on whether to modify release conditions for a Gresham pastor accused of sexually abusing two children in Deschutes County between 2002 and 2004.

Bagley is scheduled to make a decision after hearing further arguments Thursday.

Appearing via video from the Deschutes County jail, 42-year-old James Worley wept as his lawyer, Richard Cohen, argued to reduce the $1 million bail set by Deschutes County Circuit Judge Walter “Randy” Miller on Jan. 7. Members of the Powell Valley Church, where Worley is a general pastor, filled the courtroom, holding hands and bibles.

Cohen argued Worley had been cooperating with authorities since the allegations of abuse were disclosed by a female in July 2012. He was arrested on a warrant by Gresham Police on Dec. 17, Cohen said.

“It’s been known for a long time,” said Cohen. He said Worley, per a court ruling, has maintained no contact with one of the alleged victims, a female who is now an adult.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

LOUISIANA
The Advocate

BY HEIDI KINCHEN| HKINCHEN@THEADVOCATE.COM
Jan. 20, 2015

A Baton Rouge trial judge will be allowed to determine whether a teenager’s communications with her Catholic priest about alleged sexual abuse by an older parishioner were actually confessions or if the priest had a duty to report the allegations.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to intervene in the case, which has pitted state laws meant to protect children against the age-old secrecy surrounding religious confessions.

State District Judge Mike Caldwell, who sits on the 19th Judicial District Court, has said the priest would not be legally compelled to break the seal of confession by testifying about what the young woman told him. The Diocese of Baton Rouge, however, has argued that if the girl testified about the confessions, the priest would have to either accept her version of events or break the seal and face automatic excommunication.

The case involves a woman who claims that in 2008, when she was 14, she told her pastor she was sexually abused by a now-deceased church parishioner. The woman, Rebecca Mayeux, has said the Rev. Jeff Bayhi, of Our Lady of the Assumption in Clinton, responded by telling her it was her problem and she should “sweep it under the floor and get rid of it.”

In 2009, Mayeux’s parents sued Bayhi, the Baton Rouge diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, and George Charlet Jr., the man who allegedly abused her. They argued in the lawsuit that the priest neglected his duty under state law to report the alleged abuse to authorities.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

LOUISIANA
WAFB

[with video]

By Tyana Daquano

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) –

A decision made Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court could threaten the sanctity of confessions told to Catholic priests, so says the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge. They are involved in a sexual abuse case, filed by a Baton Rouge family.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to get involved in the case, the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge released a statement that said in part, that they are “disappointed the court denied our request … to intervene in this case, which has significant ramifications for religious freedom in Louisiana and beyond.”

The lawsuit, filed by the parents of a then 14-year-old girl, alleges their daughter was molested by an older parishioner, George Charlet, Jr., now deceased. Attorney’s say three times in confession, the girl told her priest, Father Jeff Bayhi, that Charlet touched her and made inappropriate comments.

“This is kissing and touching and fondling,” their attorney, Brian Abels said in July of last year. “The very last time our client thought she was going to be raped.”

Abels, says his client should be able to to tell what they say is an important part of her story in court.

He says because the priest did not report the alleged abuse, he and the church are liable.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
CBC News

Jan 21, 2015

Crown and defence lawyers are expected to make their arguments in Iqaluit this morning in the sentencing hearing of Eric Dejaeger.

Dejaeger, a 67-year-old former Oblate priest, was convicted last year on 32 counts of child sexual abuse dating back to his time as a priest in Igloolik, Nunavut, between 1978 and 1982.

On Monday and Tuesday, 18 of his victims described to the court how those events affected them physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Some said they have either lost or found faith in the process. One woman quoted the Bible, saying the former priest did not know God. Another said he won’t baptize his daughter. He, like most of the others who made statements, said they turned instead to drugs and alcohol to “numb the pain and shame.”

They and their families wept and wailed even as court was adjourned for the day.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

JIM BELL

The pedophile ex-priest Eric Dejaeger “did not know God,” an Igloolik sexual abuse victim declared Jan. 20 in a victim impact statement that quoted from St. Paul the Apostle’s instructions on how to live a good life.

Dejaeger, who appears before the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit this week for a sentencing hearing, is guilty on 32 counts, most of them sex crimes against Inuit girls and boys committed between 1976 and 1982 in Igloolik.

The woman, who Dejaeger molested at the Roman Catholic mission in Igloolik when she was aged between five and seven, gave the first of six victim impact statements read in court on the afternoon of Jan. 20.

She quoted verses from St. Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians that suggest Dejeager will face the vengeance of God in the afterlife.

“That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified,” the woman said

“For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Jan 20, 2015

The federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has ordered all parties into mediation.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel expressed concern about the length and cost of other church bankruptcies. He is starting off this case with mediation to encourage a relatively quick and inexpensive settlement.

Archdiocese officials said they were pleased by the mediation order, as was attorney Jeffrey Anderson, an attorney who represents sex abuse victims. He said judges typically order mediation only later in a bankruptcy, after legal bills mount.

“Here he ordered it right away, which means all those administrative costs and bankruptcy lawyers’ attorneys’ fees don’t have to be expended,” Anderson said.

Mediation could take weeks or months and may or may not work.

So far, insurers have disputed archdiocese insurance claims that would help fund compensation for abuse victims.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Canonical Consultation

01/20/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Today, the United States Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari in the Roman Catholic Church of the Diocese of Baton Rouge v. Mayeux. This means that our nation’s highest court will not consider the issue of whether the courts can determine what constitutes a ‘confession per se’ or whether such courts must ‘respect the church’s own view that such communications are confessional and absolutely protected from disclosure by the priest on penalty of automatic excommunication’. For the full summary of the issue, please see the SCOTUSblog.

This question is only one aspect of an otherwise highly contentious case which touches on the very nature of the sacramental seal (canon 983, 1). Canon law holds that the seal of confession is inviolable, and imposes ‘severe’ punishment upon a priest who directly or indirectly reveals the privileged communication. As such, the Diocese of Baton Rouge is arguing that a priest cannot be compelled to testify about the contents of a confession.

In general, I think Catholics support this understanding of the nature of the sacramental seal. However, what makes this case interesting is that the privilege is being claimed, by the priest and the diocese, not for the benefit of the penitent but for the benefit of said priest and diocese, who are being sued for negligence. For, it is alleged that a minor penitent, Rebecca Mayeux, confessed to her priest, Father George Bayhi, that a fellow parishioner, an adult, had molested her. According to nola.com, the molestation was alleged to have occurred in 2008, when both Rebecca and her alleged abuser were members of Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Clinton. The Mayeux family alleges that on three separate dates in July 2008, Rebecca told Father Bayhi that the adult parishioner had inappropriately touched her, kissed her and told her “he wanted to make love to her.” Bayhi did not report the abuse to civil authorities or take other measures to prevent further abuse from occurring because, he argues, the communications occurred during the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Generally, priests are exempt from mandatory reporting laws when the information is received in the act of sacramental confession. What makes this case interesting is that the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in May that priests should be subject to mandatory reporting laws if the person who makes the confession waives confidentiality. In other word, the Louisiana Supreme Court found that confidentially in such contexts is intended to protect the person who made the confessions, not the person who receives them.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
WCCO

[with video]

Reg Chapman

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Last week, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced it was filing for bankruptcy amid lawsuits claiming sexual abuse by priests.

Tuesday, they were in court to hash out some of the details. Archbishop John Nienstedt said bankruptcy is best for the victims and the church.

All parties involved are happy they’ve been ordered to mediation by Federal Judge Robert Kressel. They said they feel mediation without confrontation is what’s best for a speedy resolution in Federal bankruptcy court.

“An extremely positive day for the faithful,” Attorney Charles Rogers said.

Attorneys for the Archdiocese are satisfied that the church will continue to operate as it has in the past while bankruptcy procedures continue. Judge Kressel allowed the church to continue to pay critical salaries, benefits and such to make sure it continues with its core mission.

Kressel’s decision for mediation for all parties involved also sat well with attorney’s for abuse survivors.

“It’s a really good day and he really ordered a positive way to get something good done for these survivors and the operation of the archdiocese to continue,” Attorney Jeff Anderson said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Source: Anne Steffens, Interim Director of Communications

From Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens

Rev. Paul Moudry has resigned as pastor of the Church of Saint Margaret Mary in Golden Valley. Rev. Moudry has been on a voluntary leave of absence from priestly ministry since November 2013. Over the past year, Rev. Moudry has cooperated with the Archdiocese and the Ministerial Standards Board in a comprehensive review of prior misconduct (with adults in non-illegal activities) from many years ago.

Archbishop John Nienstedt accepted Rev. Moudry’s offer to resign as pastor of Saint Margaret Mary. Rev. Moudry will continue his voluntary leave of absence and has participated in making appropriate disclosure to his parishioners and trustees.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

The Rev. Paul Moudry has resigned as pastor of the Church of St. Margaret Mary in Golden Valley, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Tuesday.

Moudry has been on a voluntary leave of absence from ministry since November 2013 while officials investigated a “prior misconduct which occurred many years ago” with adults in non-illegal activities.

In a statement, the archdiocese said Archbishop John Nienstedt accepted Moudry’s offer to resign as pastor of St. Margaret Mary.

Moudry will continue his voluntary leave of absence, the archdiocese added, noting that Moudry has cooperated in the misconduct inquiry and made “appropriate” disclosure to parishioners and trustees.

An attorney for Moudry last fall acknowledged “two anonymous claims of misconduct” in an October 2013 letter to MPR News.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Fairfield Citizen

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A bankruptcy court judge has ordered the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to try to reach a settlement with attorneys for victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 protection last week, saying reorganization is the best way to put victims first while continuing the church’s mission.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports (http://strib.mn/181I6W1 ) that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel ordered the case into mediation on Tuesday. He said it would be the most efficient way to settle the bankruptcy.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan will oversee the mediation, where the archdiocese will try to settle with its insurers and victims.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

News Release

January 20, 2015

(St. Paul, MN) – At a hearing today, United States Bankruptcy Judge Robert J. Kressel ordered survivors, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and the insurance companies, over objections from the insurance companies, to mediation for resolution of all current and future claims. The mediation was ordered before Judge Arthur Boylan, a respected and former federal magistrate, now a professional mediator who was instrumental in settling the NFL dispute.

“We are delightful we have the opportunity to get to the negotiation table early before huge attorney’s fees deplete the Archdiocese’s assets and there will be ample funds for survivors with full participation from the Archdiocese and the insurance companies involved,” said attorney Jeff Anderson. “Judge Kressel’s order creates the opportunity to ensure a fair and speedy resolution of all current and future claims under the Child Victims Act.”

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.205.5531

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

KENYA
Commonweal

Lisa Fullam January 19, 2015

On Jan 14, the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement reiterating their opposition to a WHO/UNICEF sponsored mass vaccination effort aimed at reducing maternal and neonatal tetanus. Their claim is that the vaccine is laced with Human Chorionic Gonadotropin and will result in permanent infertility in vaccinated women. They also state that the same was done in Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, also under WHO sponsorship. Their fears were triggered by reports of a group called the Kenyan Catholic Doctors association, who boldly stated:

This proved right our worst fears; that this WHO/UNICEF campaign is not about eradicating neonatal tetanus but is a well-coordinated, forceful, population control, mass sterilization exercise using a proven fertility regulating vaccine.

Well, let’s unpack this.

Maternal and neonatal tetanus is most common among women who deliver their babies in unsterile conditions and/or with poorly trained assistants. While more than 90% of Kenyan women receive prenatal health care, fewer than half deliver their babies in a hospital. In 2013, Kenya abolished hospital fees for delivery in an effort to address the nation’s rising maternal death rate. At least at first, this initiative didn’t seem to have much impact.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune
Updated: January 20, 2015 – 4:43 PM

Archdiocese and victims’ attorneys will work toward settlement.

The bankruptcy filing of the Archdiocese of St. Paul -Minneapolis was ordered out of the courtroom and into the conference room Tuesday, when a bankruptcy judge ordered the case to mediation.

The archdiocese, its insurance companies, and attorneys for abuse victims will attempt to reach a mediated settlement under an order from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel.

Kressel said it was the most efficient, cost-effective way to settle the bankruptcy. He named Magistrate Judge Arthur J. Boylan to oversee the mediation.

“If he can settle an NFL strike he can settle most anything,” said Kressel, referring to Boylan’s mediation of the 2011 labor dispute between the National Football League and its players.

The archdiocese and victims’ attorneys praised the decision.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 20,

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

A new civil lawsuit charges that Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy is keeping a priest on the job in a parish despite a credible report that the priest sexually assaulted a girl.

[Jeff Anderson & Associates]

Father Gregory Yacyshyn now works at St. Jude in Mastic Beach on Long Island. He was apparently never suspended after a young woman told top Catholic officials that Fr. Yacyshyn had sexually violated her. That’s a violation of local and national church abuse policies and repeated pledges by bishops to put the safety of kids first and promptly suspend accused predator priests while investigations are done.

The alleged crimes happened at St. Francis Assisi Parish in Greenlawn. Bishop Murphy, it should be noted, was a long-time close aide and advisor to Boston’s disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law.

Bishop Murphy’s public relations staff will no doubt claim that they were allegedly unable to “substantiate” the girl’s report. Catholic officials say this often. But if they would honor their policies about being “transparent” in clergy sex cases and publicly disclose allegations against priests, many more such charges would be deemed “substantiated.”

In other words, bishops like Murphy want to have their cake and eat it too: be secretive about abuse reports, and then tell accusers “we can’t corroborate your allegation.”

We hope every single person who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by Fr. Yacyshyn – or cover ups by Bishop Murphy – will find the courage to call police, expose wrongdoers, deter deceit, protect kids and start healing.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

A MEMBER of the independent panel into child sexual abuse has told MPs she has been “bullied” by the barrister conducting the embattled inquiry.

Home Secretary Theresa May set up the inquiry to find out whether public bodies had neglected or covered up allegations of child sex abuse in the wake of claims paedophiles had operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

Panel member Sharon Evans, a child abuse survivor and chief executive of the Dot Com Children’s Foundation, which helps prevent children from becoming victims of violence or abuse, told the Home Affairs Select Committee she felt “bullied” by counsel to the inquiry Ben Emmerson QC.

Ms Evans said Mr Emmerson was “overstepping the mark” with his advice, including demands she re-write letters sent to the Home Secretary and agreed he was “running the show”.

Chair of the committee Keith Vaz asked Ms Evans about reported concerns she had over alleged threats made by Mr Emmerson in respect of evidence she would give to the Committee.

Ms Evans said: “I do feel concerned, very concerned, yes.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alan Travis and Sandra Laville
Tuesday 20 January 2015

The chaos behind the scenes of the official inquiry into child abuse has been laid bare with accusations of bullying and silencing members as the investigation has struggled to get off the ground.

One panel member, Sharon Evans, an abuse survivor and chief executive of the Dot Com children’s charity, told MPs that the inquiry’s counsel, Ben Emmerson QC, had effectively taken it over in the absence of an appointed chairman, and been guilty of making threats and intimidating panel members.

She made the accusations to the Commons home affairs select committee as the home secretary, Theresa May, considers whether to disband the independent panel and replace it with a fresh statutory inquiry.

The inquiry set up in July in the wake of the Savile, Rotherham and other child sex abuse scandals still has no chairman after the home secretary’s first two nominees were both forced to step down because of their connections to the establishment.

Evans was giving MPs an update on the progress of the inquiry along with other inquiry members, Drussilla Sharpling, Prof Jenny Pearce and an adviser, Prof Alexis Jay who wrote the report revealing that there were 1,400 child sex abuse victims over 16 years in the Rotherham area.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Tom Whitehead 20 Jan 2015

The troubled inquiry in to child sexual abuse was thrown in to fresh controversy last night after an expert on it claimed she was being “bullied and intimidated”.

Sharon Evans, a child abuse survivor, accused the inquiry’s lawyer of “overstepping the mark” including claims he had put pressure on how she should give evidence to a parliamentary committee.

It is the latest blow for the inquiry set up by Home Secretary Theresa May, to find out whether public bodies had neglected or covered up allegations of child sex abuse in the wake of claims paedophiles had operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

It has already been hit by the resignations of both Baroness Butler-Sloss and then Dame Fiona Woolf as the chairman after each became entangled in allegations of conflict of interest.

Mrs Evans, chief executive of the Dotcom Children’s Foundation, which helps prevent children from becoming victims of violence or abuse, told the Home Affairs Select Committee she felt “bullied and intimidated” by counsel to the inquiry Ben Emmerson QC.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Sandra Laville
Tuesday 20 January 2015

A lawyer representing victims of child abuse has called for a swift decision by Theresa May on the future of the independent panel set up to investigate institutional abuse amid concerns that evidence is being lost or destroyed.

Alison Millar, from Leigh Day, who represents around 50 survivors of child abuse, spoke as members of the independent panel appointed to carry out an inquiry into institutional failings to protect children, were due to give evidence to the home affairs select committee on Tuesday.

The independent inquiry announced by the home secretary was set up seven months ago but its future is uncertain.

Two chairs have been forced to resign over their connections with establishment figures, and no new chair has been appointed. There have been complaints from victims about the lack of transparency in the appointment of the panel of experts, and criticism over the actions of two members for what is claimed were inappropriate communications with victims.

May is considering three options to reconstitute the independent inquiry as a statutory investigation, after complaints from some survivors about the lack of transparency over their appointment. Only one of these options involves keeping the same panel in place. Sources close to the inquiry said it was anticipated that the panel would be disbanded in the near future.

Millar said the panel had lost the confidence of many victims and a decision on selecting a new panel had to be made very soon.

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NEW YORK
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Media Advisory
January 20, 2015

Diocese of Rockville Centre Sued for Hiding Sexual Offenders and Creating a Dangerous Public Nuisance

Identities and Locations of Credibly Accused Sexually Abusive Clerics Sought
Alleged Perpetrator Still Allowed to Minister in New York

What: At a press conference Wednesday, January 21, 2015 on Long Island, attorneys Jeff Anderson and J. Michael Reck of Jeff Anderson & Associates will:

Announce the filing of a complaint on behalf of a 20 year-old woman naming the Diocese of Rockville Centre, St. Francis Assisi Parish and Father Gregory Yacyshyn as defendants. Yacyshyn is alleged to have abused the woman when she was a young child and parishioner at St. Francis of Assisi in Greenlawn, New York. He remains in ministry at St. Jude in Mastic Beach, NY.

Discuss the public nuisance claim alleged in the lawsuit for the Diocese’s failure to implement proper child protection safety measures and for their continued refusal to release the identities and internal church documents on known offenders in spite of previous Grand Jury investigations.

Encourage other sexual abuse survivors to come forward and demand the diocese remove Father Yacyshyn and release the identities and names of known clerical offenders.
Photos and written statement from the survivor will be provided.

WHEN: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 at 1:30PM EST

WHERE: Long Island Marriott
101 James Doolittle Blvd.
Long Island University Room
Uniondale, NY 11553

Notes: Copies of the complaint will be available at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665 Office: 651.318.2650
Mike Reck: Cell: 714.742.6593 Office: 646.649.4960

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

Case of bishop accused in bicyclist death opens debate about theology of addiction

By Michelle Boorstein January 20

The case of a high-ranking Episcopal bishop charged with drinking and texting before fatally hitting a bicyclist has raised questions about everything from church politics to bike lanes. But no debate about Bishop Heather Cook has been as intense as that about the theology of addiction.

Is it a sin? Does it qualify for forgiveness? Or are addicts blameless victims of disease, inculpable?

And how did these topics impact the leaders of the dioceses’ of Easton and Maryland – Cook’s last two places of employment – first when she was arrested for drunk-driving in 2010, and then last year when she was selected despite that to become Maryland’s first female bishop?

In small church discussion groups, in sermons and on Christian listservs, the ways Episcopal officials handled Cook have fueled debate about how Christianity really sees addicts.

“Right now in the addictions community there is a lot of reaction to people who want to see addiction as a moral failing,” said the Rev. Joe Stewart-Sicking, a priest in Cook’s diocese who teaches pastoral counseling at Loyola University Maryland. “Sin is something we are all wrapped up in, and when you start delineating sin, we miss out that we are all interrelated. It’s not just her role that led to the suffering. Obviously other people are involved, we ourselves are involved, even if it’s making a society that someone can’t come out and get help they need.”

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, January 20

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

Why is New Ulm the only Minnesota diocese still refusing to disclose names of predator priests? Because for six key years (2001-2007), when the Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis exploded into an international scandal, John Nienstedt headed that diocese.

[Jeff Anderson & Associates]

We believe that current New Ulm officials – including Bishop John M. LeVoir – are protecting themselves and their reputations AND the reputation and career of the embattled Nienstedt.

So we hope that this continuing reckless and hurtful secrecy will backfire. We hope the recalcitrance of New Ulm Catholic officials will prod even more victims, witnesses and whistleblowers in that diocese to speak up, regardless of what courts do or don’t do to force disclosures by these irresponsible “shepherds.”

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

And another King-day-themed posting: at his Christian Catholicism site, Jerry Slevin comments on Pope Francis’s encounter in the Philippines with a street child who poured out her anguish to him immediately before the pope gave a homily reasserting the papal ban on the use of contraception:

In “dreaming” about the pope’s encounter in the Philippines with the young “street child” on the eve of Martin Luther King’s US holiday, I had a dream! I dreamed that the pope told the young former street girl what the Vatican’s real strategy was. If he told her, I dreamed it would go something like this. Pope Francis would have said:

(1) I was elected by frightened cardinals to keep them out of jail for crimes related to child abuse cover-ups and financial corruption;

(2) My priority is protecting bishops, all 5,000 of them, while maximizing their wealth in their unaccountable lifetime positions; …

And, of course, as I read Jerry’s commentary, I think of his repeated warnings to those of us who may be inclined to view Pope Francis as a kind of Santa Claus, which, in turn, echo Sister Teresa Forcades’s observation (I cited it this morning) that Catholics need to ditch the notion of a “Pope Messiah,” and I become more convinced than ever that effective change of the Catholic church will come from the bottom of the church and not the top, from its margins and not from its (corrupt) center.

And certainly not from the media that dance so beautifully to the choreography presented to the media by that corrupt center . . . .

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LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

[Supreme Court document]

By Emily Lane, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on January 20, 2015

The Supreme Court of the United States will not hear a petition by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge regarding a civil lawsuit the diocese says threatens the confidentiality of the confession, according to the SCOTUS blog.

The petition seeks to block a child from testifying in a civil suit against the church and priest about what she said in confession. The live blog, which reports on orders from the U.S. Supreme Court, reported Tuesday (Jan. 20) morning that the high court denied writ of certiorari to hear the case.

The Louisiana Supreme Court’s ruling, rendered in May 2014, laid out arguments that priests should be subject to mandatory reporting laws regarding abuse of minors if the person who makes the confession waives confidentiality. Normally, priests are exempt as mandatory reporters in the setting of confessions. The decision by the state’s high court stated confidentially is intended to protect the person who made the confessions, not the person who receives them.

The original case involves a then-minor girl who alleges she confessed during the sacrament of Reconciliation to Baton Rouge priest Father George Bayhi that a fellow church parishioner had molested her.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
ABC News

The Supreme Court is allowing a lawsuit to proceed against a Louisiana Roman Catholic church and a priest over allegations that a teen was kissed and fondled by an adult church parishioner.

The justices did not comment Tuesday in rejecting an appeal from the Roman Catholic Church of the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the priest of a state Supreme Court decision. That earlier ruling revived the lawsuit that contends the teen told the priest what had happened to her and that the priest should have reported the allegations.

The church and the priest argued that allowing the lawsuit to go forward could lead to the priest being called to testify about information that was disclosed during private confessions.

The case is Roman Catholic Diocese v. Mayeux, 14-220.

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ROME
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor January 20, 2015

ROME — When Pope Francis arrived in the Philippines Jan. 15, both his mind and his heart were focused on the people he was coming to see. His primary motive was to comfort the survivors of an almost apocalyptic 2013 super-typhoon, but he also knew the entire nation would be ecstatic that the pope — any pope, really — was in town.

The Philippines — 81% Catholic — arguably represent the greatest home court advantage for a pope on the face of the planet, and Francis wanted to return the favor.

Yet popes, like politicians, tend to craft their messages for multiple audiences. Although Francis’ principal concentration may have been on the Filipinos who defied a tropical storm to turn out in the millions, he simultaneously seemed to be speaking to a much smaller group, one that wasn’t even physically present.

In effect, Francis appeared to be talking to the roughly 300 bishops and other Church leaders who will make up the next Synod of Bishops on the Family in October.

One way to read what the pope was trying to accomplish is as a reboot of the synod debate, reassuring conservatives that whatever happens in October, the basics of Catholic teaching on sexuality and the family are not at risk.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Pope Francis is following his own advice and “creating a mess” over contraception. He was provoked by seeing in the Philippines the horrors of 1.5 million “street children”, many forced to work in Manila’s key “industry”, the child sex trade, that became inescapably evident on his recent trip. Since two modern popes condemned contraception, Francis is also undermining the increasingly incredible Vatican claim since 1870 that popes are infallible.

* This infallibility claim is the cornerstone of modern papal power. Is the pope intentionally trying to curtail future papal power? Whatever his intent, the more he pushes for his contraception ban in the face of overwhelming scientific and social evidence, the clearer it becomes that claiming personal infallibility makes popes appear weaker, not stronger. This is evident in the Pope Francis’ rambling and evasive answers to reporters on his return flight to Rome. By comparison to the mishandling of contraception, Pope Francis is making the condemnation of Galileo four centuries ago seem like a minor matter.

* Understandably, a visibly tired and frustrated Pope Francis said yesterday (1/19/15) in response to a reporter’s question that good Roman Catholics do not need to breed like “rabbits”, but should practice “responsible” parenting instead. The full question and answer is below. To see the pope’s evident frustration , please watch

* [BBC]

* The day before (1/18/15) I had e-mailed key Vatican reporters (and posted on my blog) this: “And yes, … , Pope Francis, as expected, continued to push the papal “Rabbit Rule” (Breed & Breed More!) of Popes Pius XI (1930) and Paul VI (1968), and all popes thereafter. As discussed below, this is tied to protecting the papal “power of infallibility” and appears still to be the cornerstone of the Vatican’s key moral ‘doctrine of procreative sex, ONLY’ “. This repeated my earlier statement on the Rabbitt Rule at Francis’ Breeding Policy Fails Kids, Women & Gay

* The pope, of course, is revisiting the classic struggle of twenty years ago of Hillary Clinton and Francis’ current top female adviser, Mary Ann Glendon. The pope and Mary Ann Glendon appear to be gearing up to take Hillary Clinton on again in the upcoming US presidential election. Please see Hillary Clinton vs. Pope Francis in 2015 ? If the pope reverses the ban on contraception, the “infallibility” dogma is likely finished for all practical purposes. If the pope fails to reverse the ban, the Vatican will likely lose many millions of more Catholics who leave the Church, especially women.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Media Advisory

January 20, 2014

Survivors, advocates pursue transparency, disclosure from the only Minnesota diocese yet to disclose the identities of clerics accused of child sexual abuse

(New Ulm, MN) – At a hearing today at 3:00PM in New Ulm at the Brown County Courthouse, attorneys will argue on behalf of sexual abuse survivors to allow public nuisance claims to move forward that were alleged in several lawsuits filed against the New Ulm Diocese. Five lawsuits have been filed on behalf of seven survivors alleging the diocese created a public nuisance by not disclosing the names and files on clerics accused of child sexual abuse.

The Diocese of New Ulm is the only Minnesota diocese yet to disclose this information.

At least 12 priests have been accused of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of New Ulm. The lawsuits filed to-date involve claims of child sexual abuse involving Father Michael Skoblik, Father David Roney, Father James Fitzgerald, and Father Francis Markey.

Note: Copies of the complaints filed can be found at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact: Mike Finnegan: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.205.5531
Contact: Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.817.8665

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DEUTSCHLAND
Morgenweb

[An Interview with Harald Dressing, a psychiatrist who is leading an interdisciplinary study of sexual abuse within the German Catholic church.

It is known that the Freiburg diocese paid 736,000 euros to 130 victims. There are 185 documented victims, including children in care.

The Speyer diocese has reported 53 cases of sexual abuse. In 33 cases, the victims have received material benefits and 15 cases were closed without resolution and four are still in process. Overall, the diocese so far has paid 223,000 euros.

In the Mainz diocese, 277,000 have been paid. Forty-two victims submitted applications and three were rejected. Two applications are still being examined.]

MANNHEIM. Vor fünf Jahren kam der sexuelle Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche ans Licht. Der Mannheimer Psychiater Harald Dreßing leitet die interdisziplinäre Studie, die die Kirche in Auftrag gegeben hat: “Wir sind völlig unabhängig”, sagt er, das stehe so im Vertrag. Die Studie läuft seit einem halben Jahr, Ergebnisse sollen Ende 2017 vorliegen.

Was tragen Sie zur Studie bei?

Harald Dreßing: Unsere Aufgabe besteht unter anderem darin zu beschreiben, wie die Akten in den Bistümern geführt werden, wie groß das Ausmaß des Missbrauchs ist, aber auch wie das Thema Sexualität in der Priesterausbildung verankert ist.

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CANADA
CBC News

The sentencing hearing for former Roman Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger will continue in Iqaluit Tuesday.

Dejaeger is being sentenced for 32 sex crimes. He pleaded guilty to eight charges at the start of his trial last year and was found guilty on 24 other charges.

He was convicted of 24 counts of indecent assault, one of unlawful confinement, two of buggery, three of unlawful sexual intercourse, one of sexual assault and one of bestiality.

Most of the crimes were committed against children in Igloolik, Nunavut, more than 30 years ago.

Crown prosecutor Barry Nordin says he expects between 16 and 18 people will give victim impact statements during the sentencing hearing.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Sorcha Pollak

Diane Croghan was 13 years old when she climbed inside a laundry van to escape the Sisters of Mercy Training School in Summerhill, Co Wexford.

After more than three years of isolation, hard work and abuse at the Magdalene laundry at Summerhill, Diane decided to run away to Dublin.

“It was dreadful, we weren’t allowed to speak with one another,” she says. “I think we worked from 7am-7pm but I’m not sure. We didn’t know the time, we had nothing to show us what time it was.”
The entrance to the former Magdalene laundry on Stanhope Street, Dublin.

After Diane escaped she found work as a domestic servant in Ballsbridge in Dublin. She later worked as a waitress in the Shelbourne hotel.

Diane’s testimony of the three years she spent working at Summerhill has been rejected by the Department of Justice reparation scheme for former residents of Magdalene laundries.

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UNITED STATES
The Garden of Roses: Stories of Abuse and Healing

Virginia Jones

I have four memories before I was sexually abused at age four during the summer of 1963.

My very first memory took place when I was about 17 months old. I remember standing by my Dad’s plant building where my family first lived when we came to Colusa County, California, in 1960. I remember the white painted siding of the building and the outfit I was wearing, probably a hand-me-down from my brother — greyish baggy pants and greyish baby t-shirt. There is nothing more to the memory. I have no idea why I remember such a dull and minor incident, but I do.

My next memory was much more upsetting. It took place the following October. My heavily pregnant mother was walking from the house to the garage by the plant building near our rural home. It was raining and the the dirt road that led from the house to the garage was pockmarked with rained filled potholes. I had trouble walking around these holes and felt abandoned. I wanted and needed help that never came. I started to cry. Looking back I guess my mother had carried me up from house to car up until then and then stopped because it was too challenging to carry a toddler while 8 months pregnant.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Emma-Jane Hade
PUBLISHED
20/01/2015

A survivor of the Magdalene laundries who is now battling lung cancer has said the Government must deliver on its promises for redress in full.

Dubliner Martina Keogh spent almost two years in two different Magdalene laundry homes when she was a young woman.

She is supporting a coalition of groups who are calling on the Government to fully implement all the recommendations made by Mr Justice John Quirke in the restorative redress scheme, particularly in relation to healthcare.

The group, which includes Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR), the National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Amnesty International, claims the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill is an “unacceptable paring back of what the Government promised”.

Maeve O’Rourke, from JFMR, said the bill promises little more than the regular medical card, “which most of the women already have.”

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SOUTH DAKOTA
South Dakots Public Broadcasting

[with audio]

By CHARLES MICHAEL RAY

The group called SNAP–Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests–is critical of the Sioux Falls Diocese for naming a homeless shelter after a bishop who was accused of sex abuse by three separate individuals.

Bishop Paul Dudley who died in 2006 at the age of 79 was cleared after an internal church investigation. Dudley was not brought before law enforcement as the statute of limitations had expired.

You can hear this story by clicking play below.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Abendzeitung

[He was a priest and educator at the venerable Upper Bavaria school called Ettal and he had a relationship of trust with children and young people. He is alleged to have exploited that trust by sexually abusing children. Five years after the discovery of excesses of violence at the Benedictine monastery, the monk must answer before the Munich District Court.]

Munich / Ettal – by profession priest, educator boarding school in the venerable Upper Bavaria Ettal – but his relationship of trust with children and young people a religious to years of sexual abuse have exploited. Five years after the discovery of the excesses of violence in the Benedictine monastery, a monk from this Thursday (January 22) has to answer before the Munich District Court. The prosecution now accuses the prior 44-year-olds to have passed between 2001 and 2005 at two boys in two other cases he tried.

Er war eine Vertrauensperson – und soll dies bei Kindern schamlos ausgenützt haben. Jahrelang habe sich der Pater sexuell an Internatsschülern vergangen, so die Anklage. Die Fälle liegen zehn Jahre und länger zurück. Jetzt muss der 44-Jährige vor Gericht.

München/Ettal – Von Beruf Priester, Erzieher von Internatsschülern im altehrwürdigen oberbayerischen Kloster Ettal – doch sein Vertrauensverhältnis zu Kindern und Jugendlichen soll ein Ordensmann jahrelang für sexuellen Missbrauch ausgenutzt haben. Fünf Jahre nach Bekanntwerden der Gewaltexzesse in dem Benediktinerkloster muss sich ein Mönch von diesem Donnerstag (22. Januar) an vor dem Münchner Landgericht verantworten. Die Anklagebehörde wirft dem nun 44-Jährigen vor, sich zwischen 2001 und 2005 an zwei Jungen vergangen zu haben, in zwei weiteren Fällen habe er es versucht.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

The Press Association

Experts involved in the Government’s troubled child sexual abuse inquiry will appear before MPs today while councils hold a summit looking at how to protect youngsters.

The inquiry set up by Home Secretary Theresa May has stalled following the resignations of the two people appointed to chair it and uncertainty about how it will be granted extra powers.

Two members of the inquiry panel and the body’s expert adviser Professor Alexis Jay, who wrote the damning report on sexual exploitation in Rotherham, will appear before the home affairs select committee.

Mrs May revealed in a letter last month that she was considering standing down the panel in favour of a royal commission or a new inquiry on statutory terms.

As well as Prof Jay, the MPs will hear from panel members D rusilla Sharpling and Professor Jenny Pearce as part of their investigation into the inquiry, which is without a chairman following the resignations of Baroness Butler-Sloss and Dame Fiona Woolf after each became entangled in allegations of conflict of interest.

Meanwhile the Local Government Association (LGA) is holding a high-level summit to take stock of issues highlighted over the past few months, review progress in tackling historic weaknesses and determine what further action is required to protect children in future.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Members of a team carrying out an inquiry into child sexual abuse are due to appear before MPs.

The inquiry was announced in July but still has no chairman, following the resignations of the government’s first two choices, and doubts remain over plans to give it extra powers.

Two members and adviser Prof Alexis Jay will face the Home Affairs Committee.

Meanwhile, the Local Government Association will hold a summit on improving child protection measures.

The inquiry, announced on 7 July by Home Secretary Theresa May, was sparked by claims of paedophiles operating in Westminster in the 1980s.

At the committee meeting later, panel members Drusilla Sharpling and Prof Jenny Pearce – along with Prof Jay – will face questions from MPs.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Eoin English
Irish Examiner Reporter

One of the country’s most notorious mother and baby homes is set to get a new lease of life as a specialist suicide support and prevention centre.

Suicide charity Console has acquired Bessborough House in Cork City and plans to convert the Georgian mansion into its largest support, training and education facility.

“Bessborough House has such a sad history but we hope to turn it into something positive and life-giving — this is a positive story,” Console founder Paul Kelly said.

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NEW YORK
Daily Gazette

Editorial

They didn’t help women and children last year. What’s going to be their excuse this year?

Two major pieces of legislation that the state Legislature failed to pass last year would have helped victims of child and sex abuse get justice, helped women attain comparable wages and protection from sexual harassment in the workplace, tightened laws on human trafficking that most often affects children and adult females, and helped protect domestic violence victims from discrimination.

One of the bills, the Child Victims Crime Bill, is being held up in the state Senate, which is controlled by Republicans. Essentially, it would eliminate the statute of limitations on new sex crimes (essentially giving traumatized victims an unlimited time to come forward and bring charges) and provide a one-year window for past victims to come forward. Religious organizations oppose all or part of the bill, fearing they will have to pay to settle age-old allegations that are difficult to prove or disprove.

On the other side, the Democrat-controlled Assembly is holding up passage of the Women’s Equality Act, a package of nine bills designed to protect women. The Senate has already passed eight of the nine bills individually this session, leaving the controversial ninth bill on abortion rights for another time.

The Assembly, as it did last year, insists on considering the bills as an all-or-nothing deal, meaning the abortion part of the bill is holding up the other eight bills related to domestic violence victims, child abuse and the other issues that have nothing to do with abortion.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Brighton and Hove News

Posted On 20 Jan 2015
By : Frank le Duc

A trial date has been set for retired bishop Peter Ball and a fellow former Brighton priest Vickery House.

The pair have been charged with child sex abuse and were the subject of a hearing at the Central Criminal Court – better known as the Old Bailey – in London last week.

Ball, 82, of Langport, Somerset, is scheduled to face a jury on Monday 5 October alongside Vickery House, the former vicar of St Bartholomew’s Church in Brighton. No venue has been selected yet.

Ball was Bishop of Lewes from 1977 to 1992 during which time he is accused of indecently assaulting a 12 or 13-year-old boy.

He also faces charges of misconduct in public office and indecently assaulting a 19 or 20-year-old man.

The misconduct charge accuses Ball of misusing his position and authority to manipulate and prevail upon others for his own sexual gratification.

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IRELAND
Sunday World

A former priest and school principal has had his appeal against conviction for sexually abusing a pupil rejected by the Court of Appeal.

Con Desmond, (79), with an address as Woodlands, Kilrush Road, Ennis, Co Clare, had pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of indecently assaulting a boy at St Stephen’s De La Salle National School in Waterford between 1978 and June 1980.

He was found guilty by a jury at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court and sentenced to two years imprisonment on each count to run concurrently by Judge Donagh McDonagh on February 19 2013.

Desmond’s appeal against conviction, on grounds of delay and conflicting evidence, was rejected by the Court of Appeal yesterday.

Giving background to the case President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Seán Ryan said the first incident occurred sometime in January 1978 when the boy who was aged eight at the time had gotten very wet cycling to school.

The evidence was that his teacher, a Brother Aengus, had sent him to the principal’s office possibly with a view to getting him dried off or sending him home because he was soaked, the judge said.

He was sexually abused by Desmond on that occasion and had given extensive details about the precise events that happened, Mr Justice Ryan said. “It undoubtedly constituted serious sexual abuse”.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Pope will speak @ United Nations; SNAP responds

For immediate release: Monday, Jan. 19

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( +1 312 399 4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org )

Pope Francis confirmed today that he’ll speak to the United Nations in NYC later this year.

[Chicago Sun-Times]

When he does, we urge him to directly address the two UN panel reports that are highly critical of how top Catholic officials still endanger kids, move predators and maintain secrecy around clergy sex crimes.

Francis has basically ignored these compelling reports while defensive underlings ducked, dodged and denied the solid evidence in them and attacked the motives of the dedicated volunteers who wrote them.

While making progress on church morale, finances and governance, Francis has made minimal gestures on abuse and cover ups. He must do more. We strongly urge diplomats and UN staff to prod the pope to take tangible action to expose crimes, punish enablers, help prosecutors, deter cover ups and make kids safer right now by ousting and revealing both clerics who commit and conceal sexual violence.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

von JÜRGEN KAUBE

Wer die Mutter von Jorge Mario Bergoglio beleidigt, weiß jetzt, womit er zu rechnen hat. Wir formulieren „er“, weil wir mal nicht annehmen möchten, dass der Bischof von Rom eine Frau schlagen würde. Und wir sprechen seinen bürgerlichen Namen an, um dogmatische Komplikationen zu vermeiden, die sich aus der Wendung „Mutter des Papstes“ ergeben könnten. Auch als Papst Franziskus I. genießt Herr Bergoglio Meinungsfreiheit. Sie wird nicht eingeschränkt, wenn man feststellt, dass nicht recht durchdacht ist, was er gesprächsweise mitgeteilt hat. Wäre törichte Kommunikation nicht geschützt, brauchten wir deutlich mehr Richter.

Dennoch muss angesichts des Papstes, der bei todernstem Anlass nicht einmal ein neckisches Augenzwinkern scheut, offenbar nicht nur die Sache mit der anderen Wange in Erinnerung gerufen werden, sondern auch, wie es sich mit der rechtsstaatlichen Ordnung verhält. Denn in ihr, der aufgegeben ist, die Meinungsfreiheit zu sichern, hat nicht, wie er sagt, „jede Religion“ eine Würde, von der sie auch gleich noch selbst feststellen dürfte, wodurch sie verletzt wird. Sondern jedes Individuum. Darin steckt mehr Christentum als in familiären Ehrbegriffen. Und selbst wenn die Mütter von Individuen beleidigt werden – der Papst mag sich an den berühmten Fall Zidane erinnert haben –, fliegt mindestens vom Platz, wer daraus ein Recht zur Selbstjustiz zieht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Welle

[It was five years ago that the Berlin Jesuit Klaus Mertes drew attention to the religious school run by him and how he was found multiple cases of abuse at Canisius College. When this became know, more victims had – “survivors”, as they say often – turned to him. The advance and the courage of these stakeholders and the new cases that become known rocked the Catholic Church in Germany in their marrow. It took until the bishops came from a defensive moment to honest work-up.]

Es war eine der bewegenden Szenen der Philippinen-Reise von Papst Franziskus: Da stand ihm die kleine Glyzelle Palomar gegenüber und sollte dem Gast berichten von ihrem früheren Leben – von Drogen, Prostitution, der Zeit als Straßenkind. Drogen, Prostitution… – zwölf ist das Kind! Und es wird wohl für sein Leben zu tragen haben. Bald brachen dem Mädchen unter Tränen die Worte weg, es kam nur noch ein “Warum lässt Gott das zu?” Tröstend nahm Franziskus sie in den Arm und ermutigte sie im Weinen. Ja, ein rührender Moment. Ein Bild auch für die Kameras.

Man kann durchaus an diese Szene denken, wenn in diesen Tagen die katholische Kirche in Deutschland auf das Bekanntwerden von hunderten und tausenden Missbrauchsfällen in Einrichtungen der Kirche zurückblickt. Hunderte Millionen, vielleicht Milliarden Menschen weltweit sahen in ihren Fernseh-Nachrichten diese Szene. Die ehrliche Anteilnahme des Papstes an einem unschuldigen Opfer, einem Kind. Bei der sexuellen Gewalt von Klerikern oder Kirchenmitarbeitern waren es vielfach auch Kinder, die zu Opfern wurden. Aber als sie endlich an die Öffentlichkeit gingen, waren es laute Erwachsene, die ihr Recht, die Anteilnahme einforderten, ihr Schicksal beklagten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SR

{The Trier diocese is still conducting investigations against nine priests who are suspected of sexual abuse of children and adolescents, according to Bishop Stephan Ackermann.]

Im Bistum Trier laufen derzeit noch gegen neun Priester kircheninterne Ermittlungen wegen des Verdachts des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern und Jugendlichen. Das sagte Bischof Ackermann am Montag in Trier. Vor fünf Jahren waren die ersten Missbrauchsfälle öffentlich bekannt geworden.

(19.01.2015) Es war ein Erdbeben als vor fünf Jahren die ersten Missbrauchsfälle innerhalb der katholischen Kirche öffentlich bekannt geworden waren. Seitdem versucht die Kirche, das für sie schwierige Thema aufzuarbeiten. Am Montag zog Bischof Stephan Ackermann Bilanz. Ackermann sagte, für die katholische Kirche seien die letzten fünf Jahre ein schmerzhafter Lernprozess gewesen.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

The Canadian Press

IQALUIT, Nunavut – There’s a smell that brings it all back.

One whiff, and once again he’s a little boy being raped by a priest in a dank furnace room at the Catholic mission in Igloolik, Nunavut.

“Whenever I smell moldy wood, it takes me back to that place,” the man told a court in Iqaluit on Monday during the sentencing hearing for his onetime tormentor. “It makes me angry.”

Eric Dejaeger, a defrocked Oblate priest, was convicted last fall for 32 sex crimes ranging from indecent assault to bestiality against Inuit children. A long lineup of his former victims, who were children between 1978 and 1982 when the assaults occurred, are finally getting their chance to tell Dejaeger what he did to them in a two-day hearing which began under heavy security.

More than a dozen people were expected to testify on Monday, including the man haunted by that odour.

Dejaeger left him with lingering medical and mental problems, he said. He said he lost his job in Igloolik last year because Dejaeger’s trial upset him so much he couldn’t function.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

JIM BELL

After waiting nearly four decades, more than two dozen middle-aged Inuit sexual abuse victims from Igloolik and Kugaaruk filed into an Iqaluit courtroom Jan. 19 to begin describing how ex-priest Eric Dejaeger scarred their hearts and deformed their lives.

“Sometimes I would take showers to get the dirt off, the shame and dirty feelings, but I couldn’t get it off me,” one woman told the court, weeping as she spoke.

Dejaeger, 67, a former Oblate missionary, is guilty of 32 sex crimes against Inuit children he molested between 1976 and 1982

He entered guilty pleas to eight of those in November 2013. Following a long trial that ran from Nov. 18, 2013 until May 28, 2014, Justice Robert Kilpatrick of the Nunavut Court Justice found him guilty on 24 charges.

That included many counts of indecent assault on boys and girls, four counts of buggery, one count of bestiality with a dog, one count of forcible confinement, and one count of sexual assault.

Lawyers returned to court this week to start a lengthy sentencing hearing that began with numerous victim impact statements, most of them from Igloolik residents who flew to Iqaluit.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Former priest and school principal has appeal against conviction for sexually abusing boy rejected by Court of Appeal

Ruaidhrí Giblin
PUBLISHED
19/01/2015

A former priest and school principal has had his appeal against conviction for sexually abusing a pupil rejected by the Court of Appeal.

Con Desmond, (79), with an address as Woodlands, Kilrush Road, Ennis, Co Clare, had pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of indecently assaulting a boy at St Stephen’s De La Salle National School in Waterford between 1978 and June 1980.

He was found guilty by a jury at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court and sentenced to two years imprisonment on each count to run concurrently by Judge Donagh McDonagh on February 19 2013.

Desmond’s appeal against conviction, on grounds of delay and conflicting evidence, was rejected by the Court of Appeal today.

Giving background to the case President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Seán Ryan said the first incident occurred sometime in January 1978 when the boy who was aged eight at the time had gotten very wet cycling to school.

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CANADA
Bay Today

The Canadian Press

IQALUIT, Nunavut — A sentencing hearing for a defrocked priest convicted of dozens of horrific sex crimes against Inuit children has started under heavy security.

Observers at the hearing for Eric Dejaeger must pass through a metal detector and have their bags searched if they want to enter the courtroom, a highly unusual move for Iqaluit courts.

Victim impacts statements are expected to take two days.

Dejaeger was convicted on 32 counts of various child sex-abuse crimes ranging from indecent assault to bestiality dating back to the 1970s and ’80s in Igloolik, Nunavut.

Victims are blaming Dejaeger for a wide variety of lingering physical and mental scars.

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IRELAND
Yahoo! News

By Aoife Barry | TheJournal.ie

The government has been accused of paring back what was promised to survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.

Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR), the National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and Amnesty International (Ireland) have come together today to call on the government to implement all of Mr Justice John Quirke’s recommendations for a Magdalene restorative justice scheme.

Criticism

Taoiseach Enda Kenny apologised to Magdalene survivors on 19 February 2013.

Criticising the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014, Maeve O’Rourke of JFMR described it as ”an obvious and unacceptable paring back of what the government promised as part of the women’s redress package”.

She said that the Bill “promises little more than the regular medical card, which most of the women already have”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, Jan 19, 2015

The draft legislation to assist survivors of Magdalene laundries has been described as unacceptable, unfair and full of broken promises” by advocacy groups.

Advocates for the women say the Bill published last month represents an unacceptable paring back of what the Government promised as part of the women’s redress package.

After Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s apology to the Magdalene women last year, Mr Justice John Quirke was tasked with designing a restorative justice scheme, which the Government accepted.

The Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill, published last month, proposes the women be entitled to GP care, prescription medicines, nursing and home-help as well as dental, ophthalmic, aural, counselling, chiropody and physiotherapy services provided by the HSE.

‘Paring back’

This was described at the press conference as “an obvious and unacceptable paring back” on what Justice Quirke recommended, as well as possibly being open to legal challenge.

It was also claimed that of approximately €60 million allocated for spending on redress for the woman, just €18 million had been spent so far.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Following the news that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has filed for bankruptcy, dozens of parishes across the Twin Cities are now bracing for the worst.

Archbishop John Nienstedt made the announcement on Friday. He claimed filing for Chapter 11 reorganization would not hurt local churches.

About 50 have hired bankruptcy attorneys.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in the face of dozens of claims of clergy sexual abuse.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Peter Cox St. Paul, Minn. Jan 19, 2015

Two days after the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy protection, Twin Cities Catholics attended Sunday Masses, many wondering what happens next.

Hundreds of people streamed in to fill the pews for the 11 a.m. service at the Church of the Assumption in downtown St. Paul.

Among them was Melissa Corbo, 46, a lifelong Catholic. She said the bankruptcy won’t change how she gives or whether she attends mass.

“Hopefully it won’t affect church closings and things like that, because that’s sad,” she said. “But hopefully they’ll get through it and keep going.”

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, a step taken, church leaders said, out of concerns about the costs of current and possible future clergy abuse lawsuits.

The filing gives the archdiocese time to reorganize its finances. It may have to sell off assets to pay debts. But the archdiocese has said that the nearly 200 Twin Cities parishes, as well as community foundations, chartiies and other Catholic organizations would be protected in bankruptcy.

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CANADA
CBC News

Nine victims spoke at a sentencing hearing today in Iqaluit for Eric Dejaeger, the former Roman Catholic priest convicted last fall of 32 counts of child sexual abuse dating back three decades in Igloolik, Nunavut.

The victims, who were children at the time of the abuse, are now in their 40s, 50s and 60s. They and their families filled the Nunavut Court of Justice’s largest courtroom this morning.

The sentencing hearing gives them an opportunity to voice what emotional, physical and financial impact the crimes have had on their lives.

Dozens of complainants came forward over the course of the trial. Half were male, half female. So far today, six women and three men have submitted victim impact statements. Some read their statements themselves. Others had a family member, court officer or Crown prosecutor read a statement on their behalf.

Many victims cited ongoing anger issues and depression. One said she did not finish school and attempted suicide because of the sexual abuse she suffered as a girl. Another said he wants the Vatican held responsible. One asked that Dejaeger be put away for a long time, saying he never received or wanted financial compensation, just for it all to be over.

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ISRAEL/RUSSIA
The Moscow Times

A Jerusalem court has held that a disgraced Russian Orthodox priest accused in his home country of several counts of pedophilia should be extradited, his sister announced via VKontakte on Monday.

Priest Gleb Grozovsky stands accused of having sexually assaulted two young girls — aged 9 and 12 at the time — at an Orthodox summer camp in Greece in 2013, according to the Times of Israel website. Investigators have reportedly claimed to have evidence that he committed a string of related crimes in and around St. Petersburg.

He maintains that the charges against him are false, and were politically motivated.

Lyubov Grozovskaya said on VKontakte that her brother will appeal the ruling to a higher court, and will also file a claim with the European Court of Human Rights.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Martin Luther King, a true Christian, dared to dream. One wishes Pope Francis would dream similarly more often. As I observed Pope Francis on his overly scripted public relations trip to the Philippines, I had a dream as well. It was triggered while observing Pope Francis outrageously lobby, in his homily at a massive outdoor Mass a few hours after hugging a twelve year old former “street child”. The pope’s lobbying was, in effect, his real response to the innocent young girl and to the world. The pope in the presence of the leaders of the Philippines amazingly called for an end to the government’s long overdue help to poor couples who want to plan their families. Is Pope Francis really serious? Why does he want to prevent couples worldwide from planning their families? This is cruel and hypocritical, no? Who speaks for the children, Pope Francis, if not you?

* In “dreaming” about the pope’s encounter in the Philippines with the young “street child” on the eve of Martin Luther King’s US holiday, yes, I had a dream! I dreamed that the pope told the young former street girl what the Vatican’s real strategy was. If he had told her the “real deal”, I dreamed it would go something like this. Pope Francis would have said:

* (1) I was elected by frightened cardinals to keep them out of jail for crimes related to child abuse cover-ups and financial corruption;

* (2) My priority is protecting bishops, all 5,000 of them, while maximizing their wealth in their unaccountable lifetime positions;

* (3) I need to preserve the Vatican’s “richest markets” , especially in the USA and Germany, and among the billionaires of the Philippines, South Korea, Mexico, et al. In the USA, I need in 2016 to get a friendly Republican, like the Bushes were, in the White House (God forbid Hillary Clinton gets elected!), now that low tax/low regulatory Republicans control the US Congress and, in effect, the US Supreme Court. Our US billionaire donors like that;

* (4) In the USA, I must also appeal to fundamentalist and Latino voters with a muddled mix of anti-abortion/contraception and anti-gay marriage crusades, and frequent appeals to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Junipero Serra and Oscar Romero, and of course, constant references to the devil;

* (5) In Germany, I must protect the bishops $6 billion annual governmental subsidy, including by getting divorced and remarried Catholics from taking their families and pro rata subsidies out of the Church;

* (6) I must push with my contraception ban to pump up the Catholic birth rate everywhere, especially in light of the high birth rate among our Muslim competitors; and

* (7) If after taking care of my bishops, obedient priests, opportunistic politicians, “scholars” and media supporters and, of course, our 24/7 insatiable civil, criminal and and bankruptcy lawyers, I, as pope, would use the rest of the donations, if any remains, to “trickle down ” what remains to the poor, and to those priest abuse survivors who keep silent.

And then I awoke from my dream.

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MISSOURI/MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Jan. 19

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

Roughly 150 pages of long-secret Catholic church records about a predator priest who molested at least one Kansas City child have been released. He worked at parishes and high schools in at least four cities, was a military chaplain for three decades, and was active nationally in black Catholic organizations.

[Jeff Anderson & Associates]

Until 2006, Fr. Thaddeus Posey worked as a professor at a Catholic university in Minnesota. But he also worked in as a chaplain at various institutions in Parsons KS and Kansas City KS from 1977-1990. He received an MBA from Rockhurst College.

We beg Bishop Robert Finn and Archbishop Joseph Naumann to show some compassion for those Fr. Posey hurt. We urge them to use their parish bulletins, church websites, pulpit announcements and public relations staffers to aggressively seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Posey’s crimes.

Fr. Posey also worked in St. Louis, at Cardinal Ritter Prep, as a ‘guardian’ at St. Patrick Friary (1986-1990), director of the St. Charles Lwanga Center (1980-1981), and as a theology professor at St. Louis University (1982-1990) where he also began his doctoral studies.

In 2004, Posey and three other priests (Fr. Michael Barry, Fr. Chester Gaiter and Fr. James Theil.) were sued for allegedly molesting Charles Spearman in St. Louis. Spearman’s case settled out of court in 2007.

The documents show that church officials sent Posey to treatment at least twice – once at the St. Michael’s Center in St. Louis and once in Washington DC. (page 51).

They also show that Posey’s victim reported the incident to the St. Louis superintendent of schools.” (page 53) That’s especially worrisome because it suggests he may have had access to city school kids.

We hope that those with information or suspicions about Fr. Posey’s crimes will speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing. And we hope that every single current and former Catholic employee in the Kansas City area will share what they know or suspect about Fr. Posey with the public, police and prosecutors.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Erzbistum Berlin

19. Januar 2015 Stefan Förner Pressesprecher

Bis zum 31. Dezember 2014 wurden im Erzbistum Berlin 31 Kleriker, vom Erzbischof beauftragte Ordensangehörige sowie Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter im kirchlichen Dienst des sexuellen Missbrauchs an Minderjährigen und erwachsenen Schutzbefohlenen beschuldigt. Im Jahr 2014 wurden drei neue Vorwürfe erhoben. Insgesamt gehen die Vorwürfe bis auf das Jahr 1947 zurück, die Beschuldigten sind zum Teil verstorben. Seit dem Jahr 2002 werden Verdachtsfälle des sexuellen Missbrauchs systematisch erfasst.

In 5 (Vorjahr: 7) Fällen läuft derzeit ein staatliches bzw. kirchliches Ermittlungsverfahren. Drei Verfahren wurden im Jahr 2014 abgeschlossen, ein neues aufgenommen.
Es wurden im Jahr 2014 drei weitere Anträge gestellt auf Leistungen in Anerkennung des Leids, das Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs zugefügt wurde, insgesamt also 17 Anträge. Davon wurden 16 bereits bewilligt. Es wurden insgesamt 77.000 € gezahlt.

Die Erstattungssumme für psychotherapeutische Leistungen betrug 13.099 €.

In diesem Bericht sind nicht erfasst die Verdachtsfälle, die bei Orden im Bereich des Erzbistums Berlin eingegangen sind.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Berlin Online

[The Berlin archdiocese said today that it has identified 31 priests who were accused of sexual abuse. The time period is from 1947 to December 2014. Some of the accused priests are dead. Three new charges were brught in 2014 and by cases are being investigated by the church judiciary.]

Berlin (dpa/bb) – Im katholischen Erzbistum Berlin sind bis Ende Dezember 2014 insgesamt 31 Geistliche, vom Erzbischof beauftragte Ordensangehörige sowie Mitarbeiter im Kirchendienst des sexuellen Missbrauchs beschuldigt worden.

Die Vorwürfe gingen bis zum Jahr 1947 zurück, einige Beschuldigte seien bereits gestorben, heißt es in einem am Montag veröffentlichten Bericht des Erzbistums. Im Jahr 2014 seien drei neue Vorwürfe erhoben worden. In fünf Fällen werde von der Justiz beziehungsweise von der Kirche ermittelt.

Bislang wurden den Angaben zufolge für 16 Opfer wegen des erfahrenen Leids Geld bewilligt. Insgesamt seien dabei 77.000 Euro gezahlt worden. Nicht erfasst seien in dem Bericht Verdachtsfälle, die bei religiösen Orden im Erzbistum eingingen.

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CHICAGO (IL)
ABC 7

[with video]

Archbishop Blase Cupich joined the Guatemalan community for Mass at St. Alphonsus church on West Wellington in Chicago.

That parish is where Fr. Michael O’Connell leads the congregation.

Father O’Connell was under investigation for allegedly sexually abusing a boy while serving at a different church, but investigators cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Outside the church, protesters from S.N.A.P. – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – handed out fliers.

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CANADA
CBC News

The sentencing hearing began today in Iqaluit for Eric Dejaeger, the Roman Catholic priest convicted last fall on 32 counts of child sexual abuse dating back three decades in Igloolik, Nunavut.

This morning his defence lawyer, Malcolm Kempt, told the court that victim impact statements could take two days.

Justice Robert Kilpatrick is expected to issue his sentence after that.

The CBC’s Peter Worden is tweeting from the courtroom. Follow him right here or on Twitter: @wordenCBC.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Government has been challenged to honour its promise to provide survivors of Magdalene laundries with the healthcare services recommended in the Quirke report 18 months ago.

Advocates for the women say new draft legislation represents an unacceptable paring back of what the Government promised as part of the women’s redress package.

It is almost two years since Taoiseach Enda Kenny apologised emotionally to the 10,000-plus women who he said had been incarcerated and socially suffocated in Magdalene laundries in Ireland since 1922.

Mr Justice John Quirke was then tasked with designing a restorative justice scheme, which the Government accepted.

It included a special medical card which had originally been designed to help survivors of the Hepatitis-C scandal.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Cahir O’Doherty @randomirish January 19,2015

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Irish life is caution. We have learned to tread carefully everywhere. It’s probably a legacy of 800 years of colonialism, which have shown us that you can’t be too careful in a small country.

It’s caution about what might take its place that prevents much needed social and political reforms from happening in Ireland at the pace they do on the European continent. We seem to prefer being stuck with a host of familiar problems in preference to tackling a host of new ones.

All that abundance of caution has a price: paralysis.

Paralysis was the word James Joyce used to describe the state of turn of the century Ireland, and it is suddenly in vogue again. The social and political fault lines that Joyce discerned in “The Dead” have altered, but the tentative, halting Irish response to the challenges of the present is as familiar now as it was then.

Joyce ended his story with a strikingly beautiful image of the nation being carpeted by snow. It’s both a shroud and a spiritual awakening.

The question then was the question now – if we are to escape the prison of our colonial past, don’t we have to confront its challenges head on?

We are now halfway through the third decade of the abuse crisis that has stunned and transformed our society. In the 1990s, when allegations against abusive clerics began as a trickle that eventually became a damn burst, the initial response was so meek, so tempered that it was ineffectual.

It was still possible, as late as the 1990s, for senior church figures to transfer controversial clerics to other parishes or to stonewall their responses in the press. At the time it still seemed possible to brazen it out in the hope that it would all blow over.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

Mike Barnicle

Pope Francis demoted the reactionary Burke, but that hasn’t stopped him popping off about how the Church panders to radical feminism.

Cardinal Raymond Burke is a 66-year-old guy who lives in Rome, dresses like Queen Elizabeth, and talks like someone who majored in misogyny at some bogus, backwoods, Bible-banging tent school. Until Pope Francis stripped him of the powerful Vatican post Pope Benedict had handed him, Burke behaved like the Catholic Church’s version of Ted Cruz, operating with an ego and an attitude that proclaimed him to always be right on matters of doctrine and dogma.

Burke’s new post makes him the equivalent of a head waiter at the annual Knights of Malta Communion breakfast, but the demotion has only emboldened him. A few days ago the former archbishop of St. Louis was interviewed by some pamphlet geared to restoring guy-talk in Catholicism, and Burke did not disappoint.

“Unfortunately, the radical feminist movement strongly influenced the Church, leading the Church to constantly address women’s issues at the expense of addressing critical issues important to men,” Burke told the correspondent from a pamphlet called (get this) The New Emangelization.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regenburg-Digital

[People who say they suffered sexual abuse as children in the Regensburg cathedral choir have responded to the Regensburg diocese with an open letter.]

Das Bistum Regensburg hat angekündigt, seinen Fall neu aufrollen zu wollen: Jetzt antwortet der ehemalige Domspatz Georg Auer (hier schildern wir seinen Fall ausführlich) darauf in einem offenen Brief und erklärt, warum er überhaupt den schweren Weg in die Öffentlichkeit gewagt hat. Wir veröffentlichen ihn in kompletter Länge. Post vom Bistum Regensburg hat Auer übrigens schon letzte Woche bekommen: Zwei Jahre nach seinem Kirchenaustritt fordert das Katholische Kirchensteueramt eine Nachzahlung von 7,27 Euro.

Offener Brief an die Leitung des bischöflichen Ordinariats Regensburg

Sehr geehrter Bistumssprecher Clemens Neck und Generalvikar Michael Fuchs,

laut den letzten Medienberichten will das Bistum Regensburg auf die Ausstrahlung der ARD-Dokumentation „Sünden an den Sängerknaben“ meinen Missbrauchsfall bei den Regensburger Domspatzen neu prüfen und neu bewerten, ob nun doch eine Opferentschädigung in meinem Falle infrage kommt. Des Weiteren sprach man davon, dass die Leitung des Bistums in dieser Angelegenheit mit meiner Person erneut Kontakt aufnehmen will.

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

Ex-priest, convicted molester and Oblate Eric Dejaeger is due in court in Iqaluit tomorrow for his sentencing hearing.

18 January 2015: Arctic hamlet readies for mental health fallout from priest sex abuse sentencing

It’s good to hear that counselling services and extra staff will be available for victims in both Igloolik and Iqaluit. The day will be extremely difficult for the victims and/or family members who plan to deliver a Victim Impact Statement either in person, by videolink, or in writing to be read into the record on their behalf. It will also be difficult for previous victims, and, yes, for the many “complainants” who unfortunately did not see their charges translate into a conviction, and for the complainants in Alberta whose charges will hopefully be dealt with as soon as Dejaeger is sentenced in Nunavut .

I doubt that the hearing will wrap up tomorrow. There may be quite a few statements, plus both the Crown and defence will probably want to argue why Dejaeger is or is not a threat to children, and why he should or should not spend more time behind bars.

Once that is all done, it is up to the judge to decide if he, the judge, is ready to sentence Dejaeger. Sometime sentencing is done on the heels of the sentencing hearing. Sometimes a new date some days or weeks downstream is set.

We shall see…

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Michelle Boorstein January 18

The committee planning Pope Francis’s fall trip to the United States is considering having him land Sept. 22 in Washington and visit the White House, address Congress and then head to New York for a possible stop at Ground Zero, a member of the committee reportedly said.

The comments made Sunday by Archbishop Bernardito Auza — the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations — are the most detailed thus far about the possible arc of Francis’s trip, which centers on a major meeting in Philadelphia on family issues. Auza spoke to a reporter who works for two Catholic news organizations with close ties to the Vatican: Catholic News Agency and EWTN.

Late Sunday, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, an English-speaking spokesman for the Vatican, declined to comment, other than to say “there is no official confirmation” of anything but the Philadelphia leg.

There have been rumors for months about which other cities, besides Philadelphia, Francis would visit on his trip. John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi — both Catholic — formally invited him in March to speak to Congress. If he does, he will be the first. Other popes, including Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, have visited the White House.

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OREGON
KAJO

Medford Police report the arrest of 36-year-old Jacksonville resident Donald Courtney Biggs on two charges of privacy invasion and a single charge of second degree burglary.

Biggs was an Administrative Pastor at Mountain Church in Medford and oversaw the youth program there. Medford Police began investigating Biggs November 29th after allegations arose about his inappropriate texting with a 14-year-old girl. The Church placed Biggs on administrative leave during the investigation. He has since resigned.

The investigation confirmed the initial suspicions and revealed that Biggs was responsible for secretly video-recording a woman undressing at his home, as well.

Biggs was also questioned after police responded to a burglary alarm at the church on January 12th. That interview prompted the issue of a search warrant for Biggs’ Jacksonville home. Investigators were able to determine that Biggs was responsible for the church burglary aimed at stealing computer hard drives.

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PHILIPPINES
Rappler

Aries Rufo

Jan 19, 2015

AT A GLANCE

* Veteran Vaticanista John Allen cited Tagle’s 3 strong points: “an effective communicator and missionary,” as the face of the “dramatic growth of Catholicism outside the West” and “pastoral experience” as administrator of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila

* Tagle’s “social capital” was enhanced with the papal visit, and its success is sure to catch the attention of Church leaders worldwide

* But it takes more than popularity, even among peers, to be elected pope

MANILA, Philippines – Then there was that hug that ignited the imagination of many Filipinos: Pope Francis embracing his Asian equivalent, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, at the tarmac.

This was shortly after the Holy Father arrived at the Villamor Airbase tarmac for a 5-day visit.

Uncannily, that embrace between the 78-year-old Pontiff and the 57-year-old Archbishop of Manila resembled the special set of stamps issued by Philpost to immortalize the historic papal visit.

It lasted only a few seconds but it electrified many, including local members of the Church hierarchy – as if they were witnessing the present and the future of the papacy.

The prophetic scene would be replayed during the Pope’s first Eucharistic celebration at the Manila Cathedral.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

A group representing survivors of Magdalene Laundries will today give their reaction to the inquiry into Mother-and-Baby homes.

The Justice For Magdalenes group says they are not satisfied with the terms of reference of the inquiry, which were announced by the Children’s Minister James Reilly less than two weeks ago.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Council for Civil Liberties, and Amnesty International will also participate in today’s event.

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IRELAND
Justice for Magdalenes

Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR), the National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Amnesty International (Ireland) today called on the government to honour the promise it made to Magdalene survivors in June 2013, to implement all of Mr Justice John Quirke’s recommendations for a Magdalene restorative justice scheme.

Criticising the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014, Maeve O’Rourke of JFMR said: “This draft legislation does not meet Judge Quirke’s recommendation on healthcare for Magdalene women. It is an obvious and unacceptable paring back of what the government promised as part of the women’s redress package.

Judge Quirke could not have been clearer in recommending that each woman should receive a card entitling her to the full range of health services provided to state-infected Hepatitis-C survivors under the HAA card scheme. Instead, the Bill promises little more than the regular medical card, which most of the women already have.”

Ms O’Rourke’s criticism comes exactly 23 months after Enda Kenny’s emotional apology to Magdalene survivors on 19th February 2013.

Dr Katherine O’Donnell of JFMR said: “The women who have received their lump sum compensation and pensions have promised not to sue the State in exchange for the full redress package recommended by Judge Quirke. However, this legislation is in clear breach of the women’s legitimate expectations and puts those waivers on shaky ground.”

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Caoimhseach Connolly

Monday 19 January 2015

A group representing survivors of Magdalene Laundries will today give their reaction to the inquiry into mother and baby homes.

The Justice For Magdalenes group says they are not satisfied with the terms of reference of the inquiry, which were announced by the Children’s Minister James Reilly just under two weeks ago.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), and Amnesty International will also participate in the event.

The group will also call on the government to implement all recommendations for a restorative justice programme for Magdalene survivors.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER and TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: January 18, 2015

Catholic parishes take steps to limit impact from archdiocese’s bankruptcy in wake of clergy abuse.

Twin Cities Catholics going to mass this weekend saw something waiting for them along with the bulletins and hymnals — fliers explaining their church’s bankruptcy.

The incongruous fact sheets were a stark outline of the reckoning that has come to the spiritual home of 850,000 Minnesota Catholics after decades of sexual abuse by priests, a scandal that has rocked the faith of some believers and the patience of all.

Reflective and questioning, those coming to mass were still coming to terms with a step that their archbishop said Friday had been made necessary by the damage done to victims and to the church.

Some believers, like Amy Holtan of Maple Grove, kept the news firmly within the framework of their faith.

“We have sinners who lead the church: We’re all sinners,” said Holtan, who attended St. Olaf Catholic Church in downtown Minneapolis shortly after the bankruptcy announcement. “But where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. God is in the midst of this.”

Other Catholics, like Mary Schrankler of Woodbury, aren’t planning to set foot in a church anytime soon.

“We need to understand better why this decision was made now,” Schrankler said. “Was it in the best interest of the people abused, or in the best interest of the archdiocese?”

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

(KSTP) — Allen Young walked with fellow parishioner Peter Minwegen. Young says he has come to terms with the archdiocese filing for bankruptcy.

“It was their decision to make and what more can I say, we have to go along with the archbishop,” he said.

Archbishop John Nienstedt said Friday that parishes would not be affected by the bankruptcy. The archbishop went on to say filing for bankruptcy protection is the best way for the archdiocese to fairly address victims of sexual abuse. Young thinks it was a smart move.

“I just, think that it’s ok that they did this and now the money is cut off,” Young said.

The trial for any other pending or future cases will never happen because of Friday’s bankruptcy filing in Federal Court. Plaintiffs become creditors. Church officials will not testify.

Peter Minwegen says it’s not that he’s oblivious to the filing, but he’s more angry over the fact that the statutes of limitations was removed.

“Because a lot of the accused are dead and they can no longer even defend themselves. And that’s the reason for having a statutes of limitations,” he said.

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CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times

Rebecca Kimitch

POSTED: 01/18/2015

In March 2011, Danny Wooten stood in an old dialysis center on the corner of Garey Avenue and Grevillia Street in Pomona, and amid the 150 dialysis stations and old nursing area, he envisioned a church.

Moved by the voice of God, Wooten, 51, embarked upon a massive and costly renovation of the 13,000-square-foot building. Six months later, New Covenant Christian Fellowship Center, Church of God in Christ opened its doors, . And just beyond those doors, a giant portrait of Pastor Wooten was hung.

Now, barely three years later, the church’s founder is behind bars, accused of embezzling $6.4 million from the city of Pasadena, where he was employed as a management analyst in the Public Works Department.

And the church can’t seem to survive without him, or his money. New Covenant is behind in its rent and “members are aware they are going to have to leave the property soon,” said Bishop Christopher Milton, head of the Southern California Evangelistic Jurisdiction, New Covenant’s parent organization.

Wooten allegedly directed more than $700,000 of the stolen funds to an account bearing the church’s name. The embezzlement scheme, revealed last month when Wooten and two others were arrested and charged on a 60-count felony complaint, involved an obscure fund intended to pay for placing Pasadena’s utility wires underground. Using fake invoices, more than two-thirds of the fund’s total payments were stolen over the course of a decade, according to an audit of the fund.

In addition to New Covenant, Wooten also allegedly directed $2.1 million to the Southern California Evangelistic Jurisdiction Center. Despite its similarity in name to New Covenant’s parent organization, Bishop Milton says they are not related. He said the two churches named in the embezzlement scheme are “affiliated with Pastor Wooten alone.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: EMMA NELSON , Star Tribune Updated: January 18, 2015

Bankruptcy halts clergy abuse cases, with victims watching for signs of change.

After nearly four decades, Bob Rich can still draw a map of the room where it happened.

He was 12 years old when a priest who was a visiting speaker at his school took him to lunch, sneaked him into an R-rated movie and then drove him back to the rectory and sexually abused him. The abuse continued until the summer before Rich left for college, all within a few miles of the Minnetonka neighborhood where he grew up.

After years spent away from Minnesota, a recent return has brought with it the flashbacks that Rich has tried for years to escape. He calls them “land mines,” and they’re everywhere: the wooded road where it happened for the last time, inside a parked car. News stories detailing the latest abuse revelations. The sound of church bells.

“You cannot escape it,” he said. “It’s like breathing air.”

Rich and other survivors of clergy sexual abuse across the nation are watching events unfold in the Twin Cities, with reactions to Friday’s bankruptcy filing ranging from hope to frustration.

“I believe very strongly that we are positioned in a way today to make sure the survivors are treated fairly and equitably,” said Jeff Anderson, the St. Paul attorney handling most of the Twin Cities clergy sexual abuse cases, at a news conference Friday.

But some survivors who have already gone through the legal process, either in Minnesota or elsewhere, say they’re apprehensive about what will happen here.

“What that does is it puts a stop to everything,” said Joelle Casteix, Western regional director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. “These diocese … always pitch it as a very humane way to treat everyone fairly, but their No. 1 goal is to keep their secrets hidden.”

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MINNESOTA
WJON

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Some Twin Cities-area parishes are fearful about their financial futures after the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy.

While Archbishop John Nienstedt said Friday that parishes would not be affected by the filing for Chapter 11 reorganization, dozens of parishes are taking steps to protect themselves.

Reports say 50 parishes have hired White Bear Lake bankruptcy attorney Mary Jo Jensen-Carter.
Others have hired their own attorneys or are considering joining the larger group.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy Friday in the face of dozens of claims of clergy sexual abuse. Archdiocese leaders say the reorganization will allow the church to compensate victims equitably, while still continuing its mission.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo! News

Washington (AFP) – British Prime Minister David Cameron defended the right to speech that gives offense to others’ religious beliefs, in a rebuttal to Pope Francis who said there should be limits.

In an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation, Cameron said the West must show that its values, like free speech, are stronger than those of Islamist extremists pursuing a “poisonous death cult narrative.”

“I think in a free society, there is a right to cause offense about someone’s religion. I’m a Christian. If someone says something offensive about Jesus, I might find that offensive but in a free society I don’t have a right to wreak my vengeance upon them,” Cameron said.

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UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

ARTURO GARCIA
16 JAN 2015

Former CNN host Piers Morgan accused Pope Francis on Thursday of promoting aggression against anyone who criticizes religion.

“Here was my Holy Father, supposedly a man who espouses the philosophy of turning the other cheek, telling us all to whack someone in the face if they insult us,” Morgan wrote in the Daily Mail. “Well, isn’t that exactly what Al Qaida did in Paris, metaphorically speaking? They claimed the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists had insulted their religion, and reacted with physical aggression. Albeit aggression of a deadly, despicable varity.”

Morgan’s column was published a day after the Pope condemned the mass shooting that killed 12 Charlie Hebdo staff members, while saying that “there are limits” to freedom of speech and comparing insulting a person’s faith to insulting his mother.

“If my good friend Dr. [Alberto] Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, then a punch awaits him,” the Pope said, using his trip organizer as an example. “It’s normal. One cannot provoke. One cannot insult the faith of others. One cannot make fun of faith.”

While Pope Francis has emerged as “the biggest breath of fresh air since John Paul II,” Morgan argued, his remarks effectively “endorsed violence” against Charlie Hebdo, since their content — which mocked the Islamic Prophet Mohammad, among other religious figures — could lead to them being seen as “provocateurs.”

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Pope Francis’ well scripted trip to the Philippines began and ended with unscripted injections of reality about street children. The trip began with shocking revelations that young street children were being rounded up by Manila officials and held in horrible conditions to clear the streets for Pope Francis’ visit, as reported by the UK Daily Mail here: [Daily Mail]

* The pope’s last full day in the Philippines began with an emotional youth gathering where he faced a tough question from one of the street children.

* Pope Francis concluded his trip in open-air Mass. In his homily, the pope took another swipe at the Philippines’ government’s new program to make effective family planning options accessible to, and affordable by, the countries poor, saying the family was under threat from “insidious attacks and programs contrary to all that we hold true and sacred.”

* Children can be seen living on the streets of the Philippine capital, as they often do in many poor Asian, Latin American and African countries, surviving by begging and picking through garbage in vast dumps.The United Nations reportedly says 1.2 million children live on the streets in the Philippines. According to the Child Protection Network Foundation, 35 percent of Filipino children were living in poverty in 2009, the last year such data was available. Nearly one third of Filipinos live in slums

* At an emotional youth gathering at a Catholic university in Manila this morning (1/18/15), the pope had to face a question posed by a 12-year-old girl who had been abandoned. “Many children are abandoned by their parents. Many of them became victims and bad things have happened to them, like drug addiction and prostitution. Why does God allow this to happen, even if the children are not at fault? Why is it that only a few people help us?” the girl, Glyzelle Iris Palomar, asked him. The girl, who was rescued and found shelter in a Church-run community, broke down in tears and could not finish her prepared welcome. The pope hugged her and later put aside most of his own prepared speech to respond. “Why do children suffer?” the pope reportedly replied, but really had no apt answer.(My emphasis)

* Nevertheless, Pope Francis lobbied a few hours later in his homily for an end to the government’s long overdue help to poor couples who want to plan their families. Is he serious?

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CANADA
CFRA

The Canadian Press

IQALUIT, Nunavut – Extra mental-health workers have been flown to a remote Arctic hamlet as a defrocked priest who sexually abused many of its children is expected to face a sentencing hearing Monday.

“Mental-health support and counselling support are available for the people involved with this hearing,” said William Qamukaq, a community justice worker in Igloolik, Nunavut.

Eric Dejaeger, a 67-year-old former Oblate priest, will face the opening day of a sentencing hearing on 32 counts of child sexual abuse between 1978 and 1982 when he lived in Igloolik on the northern tip of the Melville Peninsula in central Nunavut.

His crimes, which range from indecent assault to bestiality, were so vile that the written judgment from the Nunavut Court of Justice began with a warning about disturbing content.

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MINNESOTA
WXOW

WINONA, Minn. (KTTC) — – After the Archdiocese of St. Paul Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy there was slight concern other diocese involved in the clergy sex abuse cases may do the same. The Diocese of Winona was rumored to be considering filing for bankruptcy in the past but Winona Bishop John Quinn said no steps have been taken to date.

The Diocese of Winona has listed the names of 15 priests who have served local parishes with “credible” claims of sexual abuse against them.

Back in March, Bishop Quinn wrote a letter to the Vatican explaining the diocese anticipated more than just those 15 claims and was considering bankruptcy.

“At this time, there are no plans for the Diocese of Winona to file for bankruptcy. However, there are still a number of months which lawsuits can be filed. We need to find that out and perhaps actions may be necessary but, we at this time are not prepared or thinking about bankruptcy,” said Bishop Quinn.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandradio

[An interview with Fr. Klaus Mertes, who opened discussion five years ago on sexual abuse of clergy in the Catholic church.]

Mit der Bekanntmachung der Missbrauchsfälle im Berliner Canisius-Kollegs stieß Pater Klaus Mertes vor fünf Jahren die Aufklärung in der Katholischen Kirche an. Seitdem sei viel passiert, mittlerweile fragen ihn auch staatliche Schulleiter nach präventiven Maßnahmen an.

Philipp Gessler: Die katholische Kirche hat sich verändert, in Deutschland und weltweit. Letzteres liegt vor allem an dem neuen Papst Franziskus, sicherlich. Die Veränderung der katholischen Kirche hierzulande wurde in erster Linie angestoßen durch die Aufdeckung des tausendfachen Missbrauchs junger Menschen durch Priester in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten. Etwas mehr Demut und Nachdenklichkeit ist eingezogen in die Kirche. Angestoßen hat die Aufklärung hierzulande Pater Klaus Mertes, der vor fünf Jahren Leiter des renommierten Canisius-Kollegs war, eines Jesuiten-Gymnasiums in Berlin.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandradio

[Hans Zollner, president of the Center for Child Protection, provided the scientific expertise to deal with the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. That priests have just abused the trust has left the deepest wounds in those who were affected.]

Hans Zollner, Präsident des Zentrums für Kinderschutz, lieferte die wissenschaftliche Expertise, um mit dem Missbrauchsskandal in der katholischen Kirche umzugehen. Dass Priester gerade das Vertrauen missbraucht haben, habe bei Betroffenen mit die tiefsten Wunden hinterlassen, ist sein Fazit.

Philipp Gessler: Wir wollen das Thema Missbrauch noch einmal vertiefen. Am Donnerstag hatte ich die Chance, mit Prof. Hans Zollner zu sprechen. Der Jesuit ist Präsident des Zentrums für Kinderschutz und des Instituts für Psychologie der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom – er liefert, so kann man das wohl zusammenfassen, für die Weltkirche die wissenschaftliche Expertise, um noch intensiver mit dem Missbrauchsskandal in der katholischen Kirche umzugehen. Denn der Skandal ist ja noch lange nicht vorbei. Zunächst stellte ich ihm eine der ersten Fragen, die sich schon vor fünf Jahren aufdrängte: Hat der Missbrauchsskandal in der katholischen Kirche, nach fünf Jahren der Forschung und Erfahrung, wirklich nichts mit dem Zölibat zu tun, was damals gerade katholische Würdenträger sehr schnell behauptet haben?

Hans Zollner: Sexueller Missbrauch, sexualisierte Gewalt kommt in der ganzen Welt vor und die kommt in allen Berufsgruppen, sie kommt in allen familiären Zusammenhängen vor, die man sich vorstellen kann. Es gibt sicherlich katholische Elemente in dem Missbrauch, den katholische Priester oder Bischöfe verüben.

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SCHWEIZ
kath.ch

[Zurich, 18/01/15 (kath.ch) The Catholic Church in Germany has processed approximately 1,500 Indemnity claims of victims. Ninety-five percent of the applications received positive decision.]

Zürich, 18.1.15 (kath.ch) Die katholische Kirche in Deutschland hat rund 1.500 Entschädigungs-Anträge von Opfern bearbeitet, 95 Prozent der Anträge erhielten positiven Bescheid, wie diese Woche bekannt wurde. Auch in der Schweiz nimmt die Frage nach einer materiellen Entschädigung Formen an.

Sylvia Stam

Um wie viele Fälle es in der Schweiz geht, lässt sich so nicht sagen, weil es bislang keine nationale Meldestelle gibt, erklärt Joseph Bonnemain, Sekretär des Fachgremiums «Sexuelle Übergriffe im kirchlichen Umfeld» der Schweizer Bischofskonferenz (SBK), gegenüber kath.ch. Die Fälle wurden jeweils von den einzelnen Bistümern gesammelt. Dennoch hat das Fachgremium für die bereits verjährten Fälle nach kurzen Wegen für eine Entschädigung gesucht:

«Wir haben ein Modell entwickelt, wie wir für die Opfer der verjährten Fälle materiell ein Zeichen setzen können», sagt Giorgio Prestele, Präsident des bischöflichen Fachgremiums, gegenüber kath.ch. Im Idealfall stünden bis Ende Jahr eine Struktur und ein Konto für einen Fonds, in den man Geld einzahlen könne.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

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

Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission has been told how the Catholic Church allowed a priest, Father Martin Newbold, to commit sex-crimes against young girls. The church concealed his crimes from the police and transferred him from one Australian state to another to protect him. Thus the church inflicted this criminal on more victims in new parishes.

Broken Rites has ascertained that Father Martin Newbold (real name Thomas Parker Newbold) was born in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1928. In his teens he was recruited as a priest for Western Australia’s Perth diocese and he was ordained as a priest on 28 July 1951, aged 23, using the name Father “Martin” Newbold.

Broken Rites has searched through 30 annual editions of the printed Australian Catholic Directory. This research indicates that, originally, from 1951 onwards, Newbold officially belonged to the Perth diocese, where his early parishes included Northam, Wagin and Belmont.

Normally, a diocesan spends his career in one diocese. In the mid-1950s, however, Newbolt was transferred, on loan, from the Perth Diocese to the Bunbury diocese, which covers WA’s south-west.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

Jan 18, 2015 By Nigel Nelson

The Sunday People today launches the the May-o-meter to shame the Home Secretary into action before the General Election in May

Today marks 196 days since Theresa May announced her inquiry into historic child sex abuse – and the nation is STILL waiting for it.

The Home Secretary now has the choice of 100 candidates to chair the inquiry after two she appointed slipped through her fingers.

But Mrs May is still dithering over who it should be.

Last week we put six crucial questions to her which she declined to answer.

So today the Sunday People launches the May-o-meter to monitor how long survivors of abuse are to be denied justice.

We want to shame the Home Secretary into pulling her finger out before the General Election in May.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MEXICO
am

[The letter of apology from Pope]

Cuando Jesús Romero Colín abrió el sobre, sus manos temblaban y el corazón le latía rápidamente. Sentado en una banca sobre Avenida de los Insurgentes, al sur de la Ciudad de México, comenzó a leer la carta que le envió el Papa Francisco. Era la respuesta a una misiva que el mexicano le escribió tres semanas antes.

“Sr. Jesús Romero Colín: Tengo recibida su carta. Con dolor, vergüenza, la releí y también con los mismos sentimientos la respondo. Perdón en nombre de la Iglesia, así con sencillez se lo pido. No me sale otra palabra. Rezo por Usted y por todos los que pasaron por ese martirio. Quiero estar cercano. En Usted, y en los que han sufrido lo mismo, veo la cara de Cristo ultrajada. Estoy a su lado y, por favor, le pido que rece por mí. Que Jesús lo bendiga y la Virgen Santa lo cuide. Fraternalmente, Francisco”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

[with video]

By: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER Updated: January 16, 2015

2013

May 23: A change in Minnesota law creates a three-year window for filing sex abuse lawsuits previously barred by statute of limitations, triggering a wave of lawsuits against the archdiocese seeking millions of dollars in damages.

May 29:The first lawsuit is filed, by a John Doe 1, in Ramsey District Court.

September 23: Former archdiocese canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger reveals evidence that church officials overlooked sexual misconduct.

October 13: A task force is formed to investigate clergy sexual misconduct.

October 14: A Twin Cities woman sues a priest for sexual contact.

October 17: St. Paul police ask abuse victims to come forward.

November 12: Archbishop John Nienstedt says he will release a partial list of accused priests.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.