ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

To say it’s been a bad week for the Home Office is a gross understatement.

The Border Agency admitted losing track of 50,000 illegal immigrants and failing to expel 175,000 more, a second huge sham marriage trial collapsed amid claims of perjury, and the backlog of asylum claims has soared by 70 per cent.

But most egregiously, it has emerged that Home Office civil servants – with a flagrant disregard for the truth – tried to conceal the close links between Fiona Woolf, head of the public inquiry into historic allegations of child abuse, and Leon Brittan, a key witness in the probe.

Mrs Woolf was already under pressure over her friendship with the former Tory minister – who as Home Secretary in 1983 ‘lost’ a dossier detailing the abuse claims.

But after it was revealed that the Home Office had helped her rewrite a formal letter no fewer than SEVEN times with the express intention of disguising how close that friendship really was, her position was untenable.

At best this was dissembling, at worst downright lying. Mrs Woolf – whose predecessor Lady Butler-Sloss also quit over concerns about her establishment links – has rightly resigned.

But shouldn’t the Home Office officials who colluded with her in this debacle also be identified?

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ALASKA
News-Miner

FAIRBANKS — A federal magistrate judge granted bail on Friday to a Fairbanks priest accused of trying to make child pornography.

Clint Landry was released to the care of two third-party custodians after a bail hearing Friday morning, according to federal court records.

Landry, 57, had been in federal custody at Fairbanks Correctional Center.

He was arrested last week on charges of attempted production of child pornography and one count of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor for crimes that allegedly took place in May.

Landry had been a priest at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Fairbanks’ largest Catholic congregation.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Daily News

RONNIE POLANECZKY, DAILY NEWS COLUMNIST
POSTED: Sunday, November 2, 2014

THE BANISHMENT of the Rev. Thomas Chang Soo Cho back to South Korea is meant to heal a Catholic community divided by gossip and fear.

But it can’t happen unless those in Cho’s community summon the will to behave like the Christians their faith calls them to be.

Everyone was excited when Cho arrived in August 2013 from Seoul, South Korea, for a five-year stint as pastor of St. Augustine Lee Kwang Heon Catholic Community.

Part of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, the 250-member community holds services in the basement of Holy Cross Church in Springfield, Delaware County. It also rents the rectory, where Cho lives, which is attached to a big community room.

Cho replaced a pastor who was beloved, but left some members hungry for more spirituality.

So they were delighted when Cho, 60, began offering Bible classes that drew as many as 100 participants. He also arranged pilgrimages to the Holy Land (everyone paid their own way) so parishioners could walk where Jesus once did.

“He made our faith feel alive,” says parishioner Jongtaek Park.

But early on, Cho noticed gaps in the parish’s finances. Tens of thousands had been paid in reimbursements to church members whose expenses were not validated with receipts. Weirdly, the amounts were in round numbers: $250 here, $1,000 there.

And records showed that the total collected in church offerings didn’t always make it into the church’s bank account. No one could account for the discrepancy, Cho said.

So he created a finance committee to track spending. He also asked the Archdiocese to audit the parish, whose accounting didn’t follow procedures required by the Archdiocese.

And that, say Cho’s supporters, is when some parishioners began spreading lies about Cho.

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AUSTRALIA
YouTube

Published on Oct 30, 2014

“The Role of Church Law in the Child Abuse Issue: Help or Hindrance”.

Discussion on Wednesday 29 October 2014, jointly sponsored by Catholics For Renewal Inc. and Catalyst For renewal in front of an audience at Pumphouse Hotel Fitzroy.

Part 1. Speaker: Kieran Tapsell, Retired Lawyer and author of Potiphar’s Wife.
Part 2 Responder: Canon Lawyer Rev. Professor Ian Waters (speaking in a private capacity.
Part 3. Audience interaction with presenters.

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AUSTRALIA
YouTube

Published on Oct 31, 2014

“The Role of Church Law in the Child Abuse Issue: Help or Hindrance”.

Discussion on Wednesday 29 October 2014, jointly sponsored by Catholics For Renewal Inc. and Catalyst For renewal in front of an audience at Pumphouse Hotel Fitzroy.

Part 1. Speaker: Kieran Tapsell, Retired Lawyer and author of Potiphar’s Wife.
Part 2 Responder: Canon Lawyer Rev. Professor Ian Waters (speaking in a private capacity.
Part 3. Audience interaction with presenters.

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
CNW

Assembly of First Nations Pushes for Deadline Extension on Indian Residential Schools Personal Credits

OTTAWA, Oct. 31, 2014 /CNW/ – The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) will continue to assist former students of residential schools to submit their applications for personal credits for education – a compensation program offered by the Government of Canada as set out in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA). This comes after a willingness expressed today by the Government of Canada to extend the current deadlines for the personal credits application process. Currently, the first deadline is midnight today – October 31, 2014.

“In response to some of the administrative challenges and time constraints expressed by former students, the AFN has been pushing for an extension to the deadline for applications for personal credits for education, and it is our hope that all parties will agree to this extension,” said AFN National Chief Ghislain Picard.

The decision to extend deadlines is not yet finalized as it requires agreement by all parties to the IRSSA as well as a court order. More information is expected early November.

“We welcome the move for an extension in the personal credits for education process, and look forward to reviewing the process prior to agreeing on new deadlines,” said AFN Regional Chief for NWT Bill Erasmus who is the national executive member who leads work in this area. “AFN will continue to assist Common Experience Payment recipients in the application process, as the intent of the personal credits as negotiated and agreed to in the Settlement Agreement is to try to regain what was taken away during residential schools, and we think it’s important for all common experience payment recipients to have the choice to apply for funding through this program. It is our hope that the extension becomes final and that former students have adequate time to submit their applications. This is just another step toward healing and reconciliation in this country, and we continue to encourage Chiefs and former students to outline their concerns related to personal credits to assist advocacy efforts.”

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Saturday 1 November 2014

THE parish of a controversial Catholic priest is expected to close under a major church re-organisation.

Father Matthew Despard was suspended last year after publishing allegations of homosexual bullying within the Church in the wake of the Cardinal O’Brien sex scandal.

His parish, St John Ogilvie, in Blantyre, is now one of about 40 parishes in Lanarkshire facing merger or being shut due to both dwindling numbers of priests and falling congregations.

A report by the Bishop of ­Motherwell Joseph Toal states the parish is likely to merge with St Joseph’s, Blantyre, which has a much larger Catholic population within its vicinity.

It comes amid further evidence of divisions within the parish, with supporters of Fr Despard claiming they were told by his stand-in, Fr Willie Nolan, effectively the general manager of the Diocese, that they had “no permission” to pray for the priest.

The Herald also understands Fr Despard is facing further legal action relating to his accommodation, which is due to come before the Sheriff Court in the coming weeks.

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CALIFORNIA
10 News

[with video]

Steve Fiorina, Joe Little
Oct 31, 2014

SAN DIEGO – A $13.5 million judgment was handed down in San Diego Superior Court against Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, which oversees Jehovah’s Witnesses.

It is specific to allegations of abuse of a 7-year-old boy who attended the Spanish Congregation bible study at the Jehovah’s Witnesses church in Linda Vista.

Team 10 uncovered the story last year; Gonzalo Campos, a leader of those classes, admitted abusing children on a video deposition and avoided prosecution by fleeing to Mexico.

Attorney Irwin Zalkin said there are many victims protected by secrecy within the church.

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IRELAND
Drogheda Independent

Fiona Magennis
PUBLISHED
01/11/2014

The Franciscan Order in Ireland has ‘apologised unreservedly’ for the first time to those who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Ronald Bennett, a former spiritual director and bursar of Gormanston College.

Speaking during a Mass to mark the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the college, Minister Provincial of the Franciscans in Ireland Fr Hugh McKenna said the order must acknowledge the ‘shameful reality’ that they had failed those students abused by Ronald Bennett.

He said the criminal acts carried out by Bennett on repeated ocasions and over meany years meant that innocent pupils were ‘profoundly harmed’.

‘On behalf of the Franciscan Order I want to apologise unreservedly to each and every survivor for the pain and harm inflicted on those who suffered abuse while under the care of the friars,’ he said.

‘I apologise for the breach of trust and the suffering victims and their families endured,’ he said. ‘I also know that no apology of mine can ever be sufficient. I acknowledge with deep shame that the Franciscan Order failed you.’

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BELGIUM
De Redactie

The West Flemish Priest found guilty 5 years ago of sexually assaulting an underage teenage boy has decided not to take on the post of parish priest in the coastal resort of Middelkerke. The Bishop of Bruges Jozef De Kesel has apologised for having appointed the 40-year-old clergyman. Meanwhile, the Mayor of Middelkerke says that she is pleased with pleased with the Priest’s decision.

The Bruges Diocese’s Peter Rossel told journalists that “The Priest has informed the Bishop of Bruges that given the situation he cannot take on his appointment in Middelkerke. Understanding his situation, the Bishop has accepted this.

Monseigneur De Kesel realises that this appointment has hurt victims of sexual abuse. The Bishop would therefore like to take this opportunity to offer his sincere apologies.”

The priest’s appointment to the Middelkerke unleashed a storm of protest, not least from the Mayor of Middelkerke and her team of Aldermen. The Municipal Cabinet sent a letter to the Bruges Diocese asking for the Priest’s appointment to be revoked.

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CALIFORNIA
U-T San Diego

By Kristina Davis
.OCT. 31, 2014

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego judge has found that the governing body of the Jehovah’s Witness church covered up years of sexual abuse by a local church leader and continued to put children in danger of being molested, a ruling likely to echo across the country as alleged victims from other congregations take similar cases to court.

The church’s hierarchal body, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, was ordered Wednesday to pay Jose Lopez $13.5 million in damages for the abuse he suffered in 1986 at the age of 7 as part of the church’s Linda Vista Spanish congregation.

Six other men and one woman who said they also were molested by the same man, church leader Gonzalo Campos, have also sued the Watchtower but settled their cases out of court.

Mario Moreno, associate general counsel for Watchtower, denied the cover-up allegations in a statement: “Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor child abuse and strive to protect children from such acts. The trial judge’s decision is a drastic action for any judge to take given the circumstances of this case. We will seek a full review of this case on appeal.”

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CALIFORNIA
San Diego 6

[with video]

By Nancy Aziz
Story Published: Oct 31, 2014

A San Diego Superior Court judge entered a $13.5 million judgment Friday in a sexual abuse case against the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Jose Lopez was awarded the money nearly 30 years after he says he was sexually molested by his Jehovah Witness bible-study teacher who later went on to become a church minister and elder.

The suit alleged the church knew Gonzolo Campos had abused another boy before he molested Lopez, but elders continued to allow Campos to teach bible study to children at the Linda Vista Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

At a news conference today Lopez said the award will never relieve his pain.

“It’s never going to be over for me. It was just a horrible thing and I want people to know what happened to me,” he said.

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NEW JERSEY
South Jersey Times

By Alex Young | South Jersey Times
on October 31, 2014

SALEM — Rev. Jonathan H. Smith, former pastor at Salem First Presbyterian Church, was sentenced Friday to four years in New Jersey State Prison for aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Smith, 59, pleaded guilty in July to sexually assaulting a victim that was less than 13 years old. At Smith’s arraignment in April, Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Rastelli revealed that the victim was a member of Smith’s family that spent time at Smith’s home on Market Street in the summer of 2013.

The boy’s mother reportedly became concerned when he returned home after his time in Salem, and something didn’t seem right. The victim told his mother about the incidents, and the mother alerted the authorities.

Charges of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By Marty Graham

SAN DIEGO, Calif., Oct 31 (Reuters) – A Californian judge has ordered the Jehovah’s Witnesses to pay $13.5 million to a man who was sexually abused in the 1980s by a church leader, attorney for the victim said on Friday.

Church elders had assigned a man to work with Jose Lopez on bible studies, even though they knew he had admitted to molesting another boy in 1982, because they felt he was “repentant”, Lopez’s attorney Irwin Zalkin said.

Lopez, who filed the civil suit in 2010, first went to the Spanish-speaking Kingdom Hall church in San Diego in 1985 at the age of seven, according to the complaint.

Mario Moreno, a lawyer for the church – whose parent group is the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York – told the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper that the church will appeal Superior Court Judge Joan Lewis’ judgment.

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OHIO
Daily Caller

Betsy Rothstein 10/31/2014

AKRON, OHIO — When you bring down a TV evangelist, chances are high that you’re going to be told you’re going to hell. You’ll get a quasi-death threat or two. You’ll be told you made stuff up and worse, that you exploited people for your own gain.

So it is for Bob Dyer, a longtime columnist and reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal, who recently wrote a series of stories uncovering the weirder and possibly illegal actions of Ernest Angley, the famed 93-year-old evangelist who presides over Grace Cathedral in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The list of accusations is short but extremely bizarre: He allegedly covered up sexual abuse within the church and personally examined the swelling genitals of his male parishioners who had vasectomies at his urging. Angley readily admitted to Dyer he doesn’t believe the world is a worthy place for children — his wife died in 1970, they had no children and he encouraged his congregants to do the same.

Oh, it gets worse. Women were encouraged to have abortions. There was also a murder in the Church cafeteria — a male employee had an unrequited romantic interest in a colleague. So he murdered her. The eatery was comprised of volunteer employees even though it was operating as a for-profit business. This is a no-no with the IRS. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the Labor Department or the IRS didn’t start poking around,” said Dyer. “But I’m not in a position to initiate and it’s not my role.”

Sitting in the newspaper’s dingy, windowless conference room in downtown Akron a few weeks ago was Dyer, a grizzled, old-school journalist who refused to join Facebook until this summer and who has all his tweets automated so he doesn’t have to deal with it. He has worked at the paper for the last 30 years because “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” He explained how he uncovered such a behemoth of a story, what the reaction has been and if he has regrets.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Sexual abuse by priest: Eight years before Curia Response Team is too long – Bishop Scicluna

Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna said that having a case of alleged sexual abuse by a priest taking eight years or more before the Curia’s Response Team without a decision being taken is way too long, both for the victims as well as the priests involved.

Speaking on Xarabank on Friday following the story published in The Malta Independent on Wednesday about Fr Charles Fenech – accused of sexually abusing a number of women – Mgr Scicluna said that there should be an effort for such cases to be resolved in a more expedient way.

He said that he had learnt about the case via the media and said that it was a shock for him to hear that one of his colleagues was in such a predicament. He said that he had spoken to the acting commissioner of police about the case in the past days.

The name of the priest was not mentioned during the programme, with presenter Peppi Azzopardi referring only to “a priest” although the Dominican Priory, in a statement following the publication of the name by The Malta Independent, also named the priest involved.

Asked whether it is true, as reported by this newspaper, that one of the alleged victims was offered a six-figure sum to keep her mouth shut on the abuse, Mgr Scicluna said he was not aware of this but said that any offer to buy someone’s silence is wrong.

He said that the Church is obliged to pass on information regarding alleged abuse by priests to the police, but it was not clear when this should be made. Whether the case should be passed on to the police once the Church hears about it, or during or after the investigation is still a matter that is not clear.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

October 31, 2014

REBUTTAL to the Vatican Insider’s article on the General Audience speech of Pope Francis last October 29, 2014, “Francis: When Christians become a source of scandal, people choose atheism”.

The Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team is at it again making their Vatican Circus puppet fattest-clown-in-white Pope Francis babble false statements and preaches down against the laity, the lowest hoi polloi members in the Vatican Pyramid. In his General Audience last Wednesday, Pope Francis spoke one the most fallible speech ever twisting facts and blaming “Christians” or the laity – for atheism – which is really caused by Pope Crimes and Vatican Evils especially in the 20th and 21st centuries’ scandals that have propelled massive exodus of millions of Catholics quitting hundreds of churches thereby forcing their closures and sales.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Dominic Casciani
Home affairs correspondent

Who would be the chair of a formal inquiry?

The catastrophic double-failed launch of the historical abuse inquiry raises serious questions for the Home Secretary over how she and her officials have managed this process to date – but it also demonstrates how difficult it can be to find someone capable of doing one of the toughest jobs in public life.

Right from the get-go, an inquiry chair is under massive scrutiny. They would be naive in the extreme not to realise that they run the risk of being accused of failing to get to the bottom of things or, worse, penning an official whitewash.

And that’s why Fiona Woolf has quit: She realised that without the confidence of victims and survivors of abuse, the inquiry she had hoped to lead would not command the support of the very people she wanted to help.

There are a number of key criteria for selecting an inquiry chair. They need some serious intellectual and analytical skills because they may have to wade through thousands of pieces of evidence and hundreds of statements from witnesses.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Newsday

October 31, 2014

By The Associated Press DENISE LAVOIE (Associated Press)

BOSTON – (AP) — A watchdog group that documents the clergy sex abuse crisis on Friday added four names to its public database of priests and other religious leaders accused of sexual abuse.

BishopAccountability.org, an online research site that has chronicled the clergy sex abuse crisis since it erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002, named clerics with the Congregation of Christian Brothers, the Dominican Order and the Salesians of Don Bosco.

One of the alleged victims, now a 48-year-old man, said in a recently settled lawsuit that he was abused by three clerics, starting when he was 12. Two of the clerics — the Rev. Sean Rooney and Brother Alan Scheneman — were members of the Salesians.

The man said Rooney molested him in 1980, when he was 14, while they were on a bus traveling from Don Bosco Technical High School in Boston to Sacred Heart Retreat House in Ipswich, during a school trip for students from the Salesian Junior Seminary, in Goshen, N.Y., where Rooney was a teacher and the boy was a student. He said Rooney also repeatedly sexually abused him at the junior seminary, according to the lawsuit filed by Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian.

The same alleged victim said Scheneman repeatedly sexually abused him in 1981 at the junior seminary, where Scheneman was a faculty member.

John Kelly, a Massachusetts attorney who represents the Eastern Province of the Salesian Society, confirmed there was a monetary settlement, but declined further comment. …

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, said the group publishes the names of accused clerics “to advance transparency in the Catholic Church and to help protect children.”

“We are told by many survivors that seeing their perpetrators names made public is a source of tremendous validation and healing,” she said.

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NEBRASKA
World-Herald

By Michael O’Connor / World-Herald staff writer

A local man alleges a religious order priest based in Omaha sexually abused him 30 years ago when he was a minor, the Archdiocese of Omaha announced Friday.

The archdiocese said the Rev. Anthony Palmese was associate pastor of Omaha’s Holy Ghost Parish in 1984-1985 when the alleged abuse occurred. The priest was a member of the New Jersey-based Order of Augustinian Recollects.

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NEBRASKA
KETV

[with video]

OMAHA, Neb. —An Omaha man is alleging a religious order priest sexually abused him 30 years ago when he was a minor, the Archdiocese of Omaha reported Friday.

Video: Man alleges priest sexually abused him three decades ago

The Rev. Anthony Palmese was associate pastor of Holy Ghost Parish in 1984-1985 and a member of the New Jersey-based Order of Augustinian Recollects when the alleged abuse took place. The man and his family were members of the parish at the time. Palmese died in 2012.

The Order of Augustinian Recollects founded Holy Ghost in 1918. It provided the parish with a pastor from its ranks until leaving Omaha and transferring Holy Ghost to the archdiocese in 1986.

The archdiocese learned of the allegation on Dec. 30, 2013, said Deacon Tim McNeil, chancellor of the archdiocese. The allegation was reported to local law enforcement and the order’s headquarters. McNeil said that because Palmese belonged to the Augustinian Recollects, the order is carrying out the investigation.

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NEBRASKA
WOWT

An Omaha man is alleging a religious order priest sexually abused him 30 years ago when he was a minor, according to the Omaha Archdiocese.

The Rev. Anthony Palmese was associate pastor of Holy Ghost Parish in 1984-1985 when the alleged abuse took place and a member of the New Jersey-based Order of Augustinian Recollects.

The man and his family were members of the parish at the time. Palmese died in 2012.

The Order of Augustinian Recollects founded Holy Ghost in 1918. It provided the parish with a pastor from its ranks until leaving Omaha and transferring Holy Ghost to the archdiocese in 1986.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Lilly Fowler lfowler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8221

Saturday, John L. Allen Jr., a prominent Vatican correspondent for the Boston Globe, will discuss Pope Francis’ reign at National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville. The talk, which starts at 9 a.m., will cover the three pillars of Francis’ vision for the church.

In this Q&A, religion reporter Lilly Fowler talks to Allen about his years covering the Roman Catholic Church, the Boston Globe’s new website, Crux, and Pope Francis’ leadership so far. …

What do you see as Pope Francis’ primary strengths and weaknesses so far?

The most striking thing is the way that he’s completely changed the narrative about the Catholic Church. Eighteen months ago, the big Catholic stories were sex abuse scandals, crackdowns on nuns and bruising political controversies. Those stories obviously haven’t gone away, but they are no longer the dominant Catholic narrative.

The dominant Catholic narrative today is more like rock star pope takes the world by storm. He has created a public perception of himself as a man of genuine simplicity, genuinely caring about ordinary people, who is trying to lead the church to be a friend to the world. That’s a very attractive narrative for a lot of people, which means people are taking a more sympathetic look at the Catholic Church.

He is also a serious reformer who has, among other things, thoroughly launched an internal house cleaning operation in the Vatican itself beginning with a push for greater financial transparency and accountability. Also in terms of the personnel that he’s elevating, he clearly has a preference for non-ideological, moderate, pastoral leaders. He is changing the composition of the leadership of the church. …

There’s still a lot of news about sexual abuse. Do you think there’s going to be a point when that’s going to become the dominant narrative again?

(Pope Francis has) said all the right things. He’s created a new commission to lead the charge for reform, and he’s staffed it with people who are seen as on the cutting edge of best practices in child protection. The test really will be is he serious about accountability and more precisely, are we going to see a bishop some place drop the ball on zero tolerance held accountable? He has launched an investigation of Bishop (Robert) Finn in Kansas City. If that process ends with a bishop resigning, that is, basically losing his job, then I think some people would be inclined to say that something meaningful is happening.

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OHIO
Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A well-known Irish priest who was suspended and muzzled by the Vatican is visiting Cleveland this weekend on an 18-city speaking tour.

The Rev. Tony Flannery, who is marking 50 years as a member of the Redemptorist order in County Galway, was suspended from public ministry in 2012 for suggesting that “the priesthood as we currently have it in the church” did not originate with Jesus.

He began to speak publicly on the need for church reform after refusing a year later to sign a statement saying that women can never be priests and that he accepted all the stances of the church on contraception, homosexuality and refusal of the sacraments to divorced and remarried Catholics.

He will speak on “Repairing a Damaged Church” at 7 p.m. Saturday at Independence Middle School, 6111 Archwood Drive, Independence. He is being sponsored by a nationwide coalition of reform and progressive Catholic groups including Lakewood-based FutureChurch.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Editorial

The home secretary’s all-embracing inquiry into historical child sex abuse has become a humiliating shambles. To lose Fiona Woolf, the second inquiry chair forced out before it has even started, is a disaster. Theresa May must get a grip on the idea that this is an inquiry into establishment and institutional failings. It cannot be led by someone from an establishment background. She should accept the resignation of Mrs Woolf and find someone the victims can trust. Then she must reset the inquiry with a sharper focus, and she must make it sure it is, and it is seen to be, genuinely independent of the Home Office and the wider establishment.

This is the inquiry Mrs May didn’t want. It was forced on her last July in a familiar piece of Downing Street crisis management, conceded in the face of the political firestorm triggered by the charge of organised abuse by prominent Whitehall and Westminster figures and the disappearance of files containing the allegations from the Home Office in the 1980s. After Jimmy Savile and Operation Yewtree, the years of clerical abuse and repeated scandals involving children in care, the demand for an inquiry that would mark some kind of public watershed became impossible to resist.

Yet the Home Office has appeared to be unable to grasp what the inquiry is for. Either that, or it is actively seeking to control it. It would appear obvious that an inquiry into systemic institutional failure that may well include government ministers and officials should seek to recruit people as remote as possible from their home turf. Instead, the first appointee was Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, the sister of Sir Michael Havers, who was the Conservative attorney general during the 1980s. And after she was forced to withdraw, their choice fell upon Mrs Woolf, who not only lacks any experience of criminal, children’s or family law, but was at the least a close acquaintance as well as a neighbour of Lord Brittan, who was home secretary at the same sensitive period.

Once that connection was in the public domain, attempts were made to airbrush out the embarrassment. There were no less than seven different attempts to draft a letter that would present the relationship with the Brittans as inoffensively as possible. When that process was exposed, and the drafts published by MPs on the home affairs committee, Mrs Woolf was left in an impossible position.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with video]

31 October 2014

The founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, Peter Saunders, has welcomed Fiona Woolf’s resignation as chair of an inquiry into historical child sex abuse.

He said Mrs Woolf had “finally done the honourable thing” after calls for her to resign over social links with ex-Home Secretary Lord Brittan.

Peter Saunders said the process to set up the inquiry was “too important to get it wrong again”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Fiona Woolf is to step down as the head of an inquiry into historic child sex abuse, she has told the BBC.

She said it had been clear for some time that victims did not have confidence in her, adding that it was time to “get out of the way”.

Victims’ groups earlier told government officials they were “unanimous” she should quit, citing her social links with ex-Home Secretary Lord Brittan.

Home Secretary Theresa May said she had accepted her decision “with regret”.

“I believe she would have carried out her duties with integrity, impartiality and to the highest standard,” she said in a statement.

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UNITED KINGDOM
London Evening Standard

Fiona Woolf tonight announced she had resigned as the head of the inquiry into historic child sex abuse after facing unprecedented pressure to quit.

Representatives of child abuse victims had urged her to stand down over after fresh revelations emerged about her links to former Home Secretary Lord Brittan.

They also criticised her lack of expertise on the subject of child abuse.

In a statement tonight, she said: “I did not think it was going to be possible for me to chair [the inquiry] without everybody’s support.”

She told the BBC that it has been clear to her for some time that she did not have the confidence of the victims and it was time for her to “get out of the way”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Lewis Dean
October 31, 2014

Fiona Woolf has resigned as head of an inquiry into historical child sex abuse after mounting pressure that she was unsuitable for the role because of her links to Lord Brittan.

The ceremonial Lord Mayor of London had been heavily criticised over her links to former Home Secretary Lord Brittan, whose role is expected to come under scrutiny in the investigation.

Woolf had faced calls to step down from her role investigating abuse from victims’ groups.

The groups questioned links between Woolf and Brittan who was home secretary in 1984, when ministers were handed a dossier listing alleged high-profile paedophiles.

Brittan was expected to be hauled in front of the inquiry after it emerged documents relating to alleged paedophilia in Westminster disappeared from his department. He denies failing to act on the dossier while in office in the ’80s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Record

THE inquiry into historic child sex abuse and allegations of an establishment cover up at Westminster has been thrown into chaos after the chairman announced she was stepping down in the face of a barrage of criticism.

Fiona Woolf said she had no choice but to quit after accepting the victims had lost all confidence in her ability to conduct the investigation impartially.

It follows sustained pressure over her links with the former home secretary, Lord Brittan, who is facing claims that he failed to act on a dossier of paedophile allegations in the 1980s.

Her departure is a huge blow for the Government after the previous chairman, Baroness Butler-Sloss, also had to quit because her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general during the same period.

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UNITED KINGDOM
SBS

Source: AAP
1 NOV 2014

The second person appointed to lead a wide-ranging British inquiry into historic allegations of child sex abuse, including by politicians, has stepped down following criticism over her links to the establishment.

Lawyer Fiona Woolf was named to lead the government-commissioned inquiry after her predecessor, retired judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, quit in July over similar concerns.

Woolf’s decision on Friday came after groups representing child abuse victims issued a united call for her to be replaced.

Acknowledging their opposition, she told the BBC: “I was determined that the inquiry got to the bottom of the issues.

“And if I don’t command their confidence to run the panel fairly and impartially, then I need to get out of the way.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

OLIVER WRIGHT Author Biography , PAUL PEACHEY Friday 31 October 2014

Theresa May has been accused of presiding over “appalling incompetence” at the Home Office after the second head of the Government’s historical child sex abuse inquiry was forced to quit over her links with a key figure in the scandal.

Fiona Woolf, the Lord Mayor of London, announced that she was stepping down after she failed to declare that she lived on the same street as Lord Brittan and had attended five dinner parties with the former Conservative cabinet minister.

Lord Brittan was Home Secretary in 1984 when ministers were handed a dossier on alleged high-profile paedophiles. The files have disappeared, leading to allegations of a political cover-up. He was expected to be called to give evidence to the inquiry

Mrs Woolf also admitted allowing the Home Office to help redraft a letter explaining her relationship with Lord Brittan seven times in a way that appeared to distance herself from him.

Ms May is to make a statement to the House of Commons on the scandal next week. She will be questioned about why a Home Office vetting team failed to uncover links between Mrs Woolf and Lord Brittan which were publicly available on the internet.

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CANADA
CTV

The Canadian Press
Published Friday, October 31, 2014

WINNIPEG – Manitoba Appeal Court judges are reserving their decision on whether to allow new evidence in the case of a former archbishop found guilty of sexually assaulting an altar boy in the 1980s.

The judges are also taking time to decide whether his conviction should be overturned.
Seraphim Storheim was convicted early this year of sexually assaulting a boy who had come to visit him in Winnipeg in 1985.

Storheim’s lawyer, Jeff Gindin, presented the Appeal Court judges with photos and documents today that suggest the boy was in Winnipeg in 1986 and not 1985.

Gindin also argued the judge who convicted Storheim was biased against his client.

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NEW JERSEY
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Terence McAlinden was ordained a priest of the Trenton diocese in 1967. He did parish work for several years in Sayerville and Trenton before becoming Director of the diocese’s Catholic Youth Organization, a position he held for almost two decades.The CYO was headquartered in Keyport. In 1988 McAlinden was assigned as pastor to St. Theresa’s in Tuckerton. The parish moved to a building in Little Egg Harbor in 2006.

In September 2007 McAlinden was removed from active ministry after an allegation surfaced that he had sexually abused a boy in the 1980s and 1990s, beginning when the boy was age 13. In 2011 two other men alleged publicly that McAlinden sexually abused them as teenagers, one in 1969 and the other from 1980-1985. This accuser said his abuse was reported to the diocese in 1989, and that he received a settlement in 1992 and was made to sign a confidentiality agreement. Diocesan officials claimed in 2011 that there was no record of this. In October 2014 the diocese settled a lawsuit with a fourth man who claimed McAlinden sexually abused him over a three-year period in the 1980s, beginning when the man was 14 years old.

Ordained: 1967

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UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A victims’ advocate says she believes it’s important to talk about a Southern Baptist megachurch’s mishandling of alleged child sex abuse 25 years ago so other churches don’t repeat the same mistakes today.

“This is a story that needs to be told to protect other kids,” Amy Smith, a Baptist representative of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in an August interview posted Oct 22 on her blog.

Smith, 45, shared her story in an oral history project commemorating the 25th anniversary of SNAP, a support and advocacy group formed during the Roman Catholic Church sex scandal that today boasts 12,000 members in various denominations.

Smith said her involvement with SNAP began about four years ago, when she started acting on something that had been bothering her for a long time. While she was in college her youth choir director and close friend to her family left their church abruptly in 1989 without explanation.

Rumors circulated that he was fired after confessing that he had molested several boys. “We were very upset, hearing that he had done these horrible things, yet not knowing what to do with that knowledge,” she said.

“How could this be?” she remembered feeling. “How could this person that I looked up to, that I loved as a friend, really, like a family member — and feeling very betrayed and angry — and then he’s gone. We didn’t get to say goodbye. He’s gone.”

Smith said it wasn’t addressed publicly by the church staff or from the pulpit, so she “just kind of dealt with it privately and internally.”

“I got on with my life, but it always bothered me: where he was and what he was doing,” she said. “And the fear that maybe he could be harming other kids.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Croydon Advertiser

A FORMER Coulsdon Christian pastor accused of child abuse, assault by penetration on a woman and sexually assaulting 13-year-old girls appeared at Croydon Magistrates’ Court today.

Howard Curtis, 71, of Bloxworth Close, Wallington, did not enter a plea to six charges of child abuse against boys and girls, two charges of indecent assault on a girls under 16, four charges of sexual assault on 13-year-old girls and assault by penetration on a woman.

Curtis, formerly of the Coulsdon Christian Fellowship, spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address.

The 13 charges relate to eight victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, dating from between 1969 and 2012.

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MARYLAND
JWeekly

Tiny cameras and memory cards capable of holding hundreds of thousands of images were found in the Towson University office of Rabbi Barry Freundel, the Washington Post reported last week.

The memory cards and flash drives, as well as a photo of naked women and a handwritten list of names, were found in the rabbi’s office on the campus near Baltimore during a police search, the Post reported Oct. 24.

Freundel, an Orthodox leader and rabbi at Washington’s Kesher Israel synagogue, was arrested Oct. 14 for allegedly installing a clock radio with a hidden camera in the shower room of the synagogue’s mikvah. He is believed to have secretly filmed women showering and undressing.

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CANADA
Bay Today

The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG – The lawyer for a former archbishop found guilty of sexually assaulting an altar boy in the 1980s says Manitoba’s highest court should consider fresh evidence and overturn the verdict.

Seraphim Storheim was convicted early this year of sexually assaulting a boy who had come to visit him in Winnipeg in 1985.

Storheim’s lawyer, Jeff Gindin, presented three Appeal Court judges with photos and documents Friday that suggest the boy was in Winnipeg in 1986 and not 1985.

Storheim’s handwriting on the pictures says a boy “not from here” is participating in a church ceremony in 1986.

Gindin argued that the evidence casts doubt on the credibility of the victim and the Crown’s version of events.

“I never suggested this evidence taken by itself was a smoking gun,” he told the judges. “It could have been used to cross-examine witnesses presented by the Crown in a different way.”

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UNITED STATES
Call to Action

WRITTEN BY ELLEN EUCLIDE | OCTOBER 29, 2014

The Catholic Tipping Point Tour featuring conversations with Fr. Tony Flannery is off to a great start!

The Irish priest is the founder of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland. A popular retreat leader and speaker in Ireland, he was reprimanded by the Vatican but has refused to be silenced. His presentation and answers to questions during the tour have covered a wide range of issues facing our Church. Like he did in his book, Tony has shared his story, the importance of conscience and his worries about the centralized institutional Church and its lack of transparency or accountability.

The 18 city tour kicked off in DC at the National Press Club, followed by a public event with a crowd of about 150, where Maureen reported that he and his host were “grinning ear to ear”.

In NYC, organizers said the crowd so far outreached their expectations that they had to bring more chairs to the room four times! In Rhode Island, the gathering was followed by a wonderful dinner with Fr. Tony and in Boston, the event’s Q & A concluded on a high note as the audience erupted into applause after one audience member observed that “Your being silenced may have been a cause of pain for many, but it has also been a blessing for many, like us here tonight, to hear your wisdom and inspiration.”

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UNITED STATES
Relgion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Oct 31, 2014

MaleSurvivor is an organization that is doing some amazing work in serving male survivors of sexual trauma. Last week was the first of my two part interview with it’s executive director, Chris Anderson who shared about the many challenges faced by male sexual abuse survivors. In part two of his interview, Chris and I discuss the unique struggles faced by male survivors who are members of faith communities. Chris also provides us with some extremely insightful and helpful ideas on how faith communities can actually become places where male survivors find peace, comfort, and healing.

My prayer is that the faith communities are listening and ready to become that place.

Boz: What are some of the unique struggles faced by male sexual abuse survivors? What about those who are a part of a faith community?

Chris: To a large extent I think the fact that male survivors have largely been invisible and unheard has made it very difficult for us to feel safe enough to come forward with our stories. On average, male survivors delay disclosure of abuse for 20 years. That means when a survivor finally does come forward there may be little evidence to support their claims – at first. However when investigations into institutions that employed and empowered abusers are undertaken, they will come up with substantial evidence. But far too often those investigations are never undertaken, or are forestalled by restrictive statutes of limitations. And far too often survivors who do have the courage to finally break their silence are met with suspicion, disbelief, and even anger.

Also, there are a lot of mistaken presumptions about male victims out there. To take one example, many people presume men are hardwired to want sex all the time, and that – by extension – it is impossible for a male to perform sexually if they are unwilling or fearful. Both of these statements are untrue, as is the fear that a boy who is sexually abused is far more likely to become an abuser himself.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

BJORN MAECKELBERGH
31-10-14

“Wat moet er meer zijn om een pastoor na misbruik van een minderjarige weg te houden uit een parochie?”, vraagt professor kerkelijk recht Kurt Martens zich af. Hij snapt niet dat het bisdom Brugge de ontslagen pastoor Tom F. (40) een nieuwe kans geeft nadat hij bekende een minderjarige te hebben aangerand. “Leren ze het dan nooit?”

Dat Tom F. vanaf morgen officieel benoemd wordt tot pastoor van de federatie Middelkerke is eerst en vooral daar hard aangekomen. “Die man is gezien zijn verleden niet welkom in onze jeugdige en levendige gemeente”, zegt burgemeester Janna Rommel-Opstaele (Open Vld). Ongeruste burgers klampen haar aan of bellen haar in paniek. “Als de pastoor wordt benoemd, dreigen sommigen hun kinderen weg te halen. Die man kan hier nooit nog gezag uitoefenen. Hij moet weg. Ik zal alles wat in mijn macht ligt, gebruiken om hem uit Middelkerke weg te houden.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Australian

NOVEMBER 01, 2014

Michael McKenna
Reporter
Brisbane

ONE of the world’s most revered Anglican bishops has quit the ministry following scathing criticism of his handling of allegations of the horrific sexual abuse of children in Australia and Britain by a pedophile clergyman.

Lord David Hope of Thornes, the former Archbishop of York, yesterday announced he was resigning from the ministry after 50 years in the wake of the findings of a church-ordered inquiry into his handling of allegations against ­another senior cleric, Robert Waddington.

The shock resignation of Sir David, who was knighted by the Queen for services to the sovereign, came after the inquiry found him guilty of 18 breaches of the Church of England child-protect­ion policies that were drafted under his leadership.

“After much prayerful and considered thought, I wrote at the beginning of the week to the ­Bishop of Leeds and in the light of the Cahill inquiry report I have submitted my resignation as Honorary Assistant Bishop of Bradford, now West Yorkshire and the Dales, with immediate ­effect,’’ he said.

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MINNESOTA
KTTC

By Krista Corrigan

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC)– On Thursday afternoon, an Olmsted County District Court judge denied a request to seal the depositions of three Catholic priests. These priests potentially had knowledge of a former Rochester Boy Scout Leader sexually abusing children.

This all relates to a lawsuit brought by attorney Jeff Anderson on behalf of two former scouts.

Anderson is seeking the depositions of three priests who served at St. Pius Church during the 1970s.

These priests supervised Richard Hokanson while he served as a Scout Leader there. Hokanson pleaded guilty in 1982 to molesting three Scouts in a troop sponsored by the church. These priests are Father Joseph Fogal, currently at Pax Christi in Rochester, Father Joseph Pete currently at St. Mary of the Lake in Lake City, and Father James McCauley, who is retired.

“If the defendants who have engaged in dangerous institutions are allowed to keep those practices secret, they are more likely to continue those practices. When those practices become known to us in depositions and we are allowed to make it known to the public, we believe the public is safer because of it,” said Anderson.

The deposition of defrocked priest, Thomas Adamson, who admitted abuse across communities in southeastern Minnesota, was released by Anderson’s law firm in June.

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BELGIUM
Expatica

31st October 2014

The municipal cabinet in the West Flemish resort of Middelkerke has written to the Bishop of Bruges Jozef De Kesel asking him to revoke the appointment to the position of parish Priest of a man convicted of sexually assaulting a 16 year-old boy.

The letter was sent to Bishop De Kesel via electronic mail on Friday morning, just ahead of the weekly meeting of the curates of the Bruges Diocese.

The man in question was to have started his duties as a priest in Middlekerke on Saturday 1 November.

The Mayor of Middelkerke Janna Rommel-Opstaele expressed her shock at the appointment of the priest.

“The municipal cabinet would like to stress that it doesn’t want to put this person on trial, but the character of the new priest does not meet up to our expectations for someone that is meant to set an example”, the letter reads.

It is not clear whether the issue will be discussed at the weekly curates’ meeting. The curates will meet with representatives of the Middelkerke municipal authorities later on Friday.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Oct. 31

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

“Cardinal Francis George will soon disclose more priest sex abuse files that have been secret for years.”

[NBC Chicago]

We urge him to do so soon, but not on a day on which the disclosures will be “buried” in other news (such as on Halloween, election day or the eve of election day or any Friday). When forced to reveal information about predator priests, Catholic officials typically do this self-serving kind of public relations maneuver. And it’s wrong. It undermines their claim to care about “transparency.”

We also call on George to

–release as much information as possible,
–do it in a “user-friendly” way,
–provide photos of the offenders,
–include religious order clerics (like Jesuits and Franciscans) and
–post it on parish websites (not just the archdiocesan website).

Finally, we urge him to not “over-redact,” and disingenuously exploit alleged concern for victims’ privacy by hiding more information than is needed.

It goes without saying that all names and identifying information about victims should be withheld. But often, in these cases, Catholic officials go way overboard with the Magic Markers and cross out far more information than they should. Then, they claim they’re safeguarding victim’s privacy, when in fact they’re really safeguarding their own reputations.

We urge George to act with real transparency, not self-serving partial transparency.

Grand jury reports on clergy sex crimes and cover ups in Philadelphia, for example, struck a very good balance between protecting the safety of vulnerable children and the privacy of wounded adults. It kept track of the victims which made the exposure of the truth more complete.

For the well-being of children, adult victims should have some identifying information. If there’s no identifying information, not even phrases like “Jane Doe 1” or “John Doe 2,” then the truth in the documents still remains hidden. Of course, an important part of the truth is that church officials were usually warned by Doe 1 or Doe 2’s mom long before the predator began assaulting Doe 3.

Finally, we urge Chicago Catholics and citizens to take three steps.

First, read the records carefully and focus on what’s missing, especially two things. Often, the names and roles of “enablers” are withheld– current and former Catholic employees who knew of or suspected child sex crimes and ignored or hid them. These individuals should be named and punished. And often, details are withheld that show just how many years Catholic officials kept kids in harm’s way by concealing these crimes.

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NEW YORK
New York Times

By SHARON OTTERMAN
OCT. 30, 2014

An East Harlem church that was among the first in New York to welcome newcomers from Puerto Rico. An Upper East Side parish founded with $50 donations from working-class Italians in the 1920s. A 150-year-old Midtown church that is the only one in the city to offer a daily Latin Mass.

Each of these parishes is set to hear this weekend whether it will be eliminated as part of the largest reorganization in the 164-year history of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

Church officials say more than 50 parishes will be “consolidated” next year, the culmination of a planning process that began in 2010. And while the list of churches will not be released until Sunday, it is already clear that no corner of the archdiocese will be untouched.

Protests have already begun at some endangered parishes, and more are expected across the archdiocese, whose territory includes 368 parishes in the Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and seven counties north of the city. In 2007, Cardinal Edward M. Egan closed 21 parishes, then the largest set of New York closings. The battles that ensued were public and wrenching, and in some cases, are still going on.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

[Tom Flamez, 40, the West-Flemish priest who was dismissed in 2008 after being accused to assaulting a minor is again welcome in the church although he was convicted. The Bruges bishop has nominated him as a pastor at Middlekerke.]

Tom Flamez (40), de West-Vlaamse priester die ontslagen was nadat hij in 2008 een minderjarige had aangerand, is weer welkom in de kerk. De bisschop van Brugge benoemde hem tot pastoor in Middelkerke.

Zes jaar na de zedenfeiten is de gevallen pastoor door het bisdom van Brugge in ere hersteld. De man is met ingang van 1 november benoemd tot pastoor in de federatie Middelkerke, waar hij in drie kerken als pastoor aan de slag gaat en ook met minderjarigen zal werken. Opmerkelijk, omdat de man in 2008 door het gerecht nog schuldig bevonden werd nadat hij een 17-jarige jongen had aangerand.

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BELGIE
De Standaard

door Annelies Roose

Jan De Winter, advocaat van de pastoor die werd veroordeeld voor aanranding van een minderjarige maar in ere werd hersteld en in november weer zijn functie kan opnemen in Middelkerke, vindt de vele kritiek op die beslissing ongepast. ‘Met alle respect voor de slachtoffers, maar iedereen verdient een tweede kans’, zo zei hij donderdagavond in Terzake.

De 40-jarige priester, Tom Flamez, werd in 2008 ontslagen nadat hij een 17-jarige jongen had aangerand. Hij had de jongen dronken gevoerd en betast, en werd na bekentenissen door de rechter schuldig bevonden aan aanranding. In januari 2009 kreeg hij echter opschorting van straf, waardoor zijn strafblad leeg bleef. Hij moest zich wel aan enkele voorwaarden houden, zoals het vermijden van situaties waarin hij een gezagsrelatie met minderjarigen heeft.

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CHILE
CNN

[with video]

By Rafael Romo, CNN

CNN’s Rafael Romo’s documentary “The Children of Silence” will air on CNNi at 11:30 a.m. ET on Friday.

Santiago, Chile (CNN) — Nearly four decades have passed, but Cecilia Rojas cries for her son as if she had lost him yesterday.

Rojas, a 58-year-old resident of the Chilean capital of Santiago, said her baby was taken shortly after she gave birth.

He was born two months early, but doctors and nurses assured Rojas that he was healthy and would soon be sent home with her.

“The nurse put the baby on my chest while she finished the paperwork,” Rojas recalled in an emotional interview with CNN. “Then she told me they were going to take him to an incubator because he was a little small.”

She would never see him again. The next morning, a nurse told Rojas the infant had died. Her requests to view his body were denied, Rojas said. She was never given a death certificate.

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CHILE
National Catholic Reporter

Melinda Henneberger | Oct. 31, 2014

OLIVAR, CHILE Officials in Santiago, Chile, are investigating a series of cases in which newborn babies were purportedly stolen from the poor and given to the rich over many years’ time, mostly in the 1970s through the ’90s.

These weren’t political kidnappings, few of which happened in Chile during the bloody, 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, in large measure thanks to the opposition of the Catholic church. Yet at least half a dozen Catholic sisters and one of the country’s most popular priests have been implicated in these long-hidden crimes.

The following article is the first in a three-part series that looks at how this appropriation of children happened, and how it stayed secret for so long.

Maria “Rosa” Rojas and her husband, Hernán Enrique Cavieres Díaz, met as kids in this apple-, cherry- and grape-growing region south of Santiago. “We were neighbors, gracias a Dios,” said Hernán, and Rosa pulled out an old snapshot of them wearing blazers and dazed expressions on their wedding day, Oct. 14, 1983, when she was 16 and he was 19.

They’ve been blessed in the three decades since, 51-year-old Hernán said in an interview in their tin-roofed home near the fields where he’s a farm hand and she’s a seasonal worker, picking fruit as it comes in.

“God gave me a beautiful wife, and God gave me this beautiful house,” he said, ticking off his reasons for gratitude as he placed a plate of cookies and saltines on the table and Rosa made Nescafé.

The only thing more that he and Rosa could possibly ever want, and pray for every day, is to meet the newborn twin sons they believe were stolen from them — with the complicity of a nun, no less — in the Santiago maternity hospital where the boys were born on July 27, 1984.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Letters from the new head of the child abuse inquiry show her appointment was “chaotic” and raise more questions, a senior MP has said.

A letter from Fiona Woolf to Theresa May was re-written seven times.

Home Affairs Committee chairman Keith Vaz said they gave “a sense of greater detachment” between Mrs Woolf and former Home Secretary Leon Brittan.

Lord Brittan was home secretary in 1984 when ministers were handed a dossier on alleged high-profile paedophiles.

‘Not close’

The inquiry, announced in July, will look at whether public bodies and other institutions did enough to protect children from sexual abuse, from 1970 to the present day.

One chairman has already stepped down amid questions about her impartiality, while Mrs Woolf has also faced questions about her links with Lord Brittan, who has faced questions about how he handled the dossier of allegations when he was home secretary in the 1980s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By JOHN STEVENS, DAILY MAIL POLITICAL REPORTER

The head of the Government’s child abuse inquiry re-wrote a letter to the Home Secretary seven times in order to play down her links to Leon Brittan, it was claimed yesterday.

Fiona Woolf is already under pressure to resign because of her personal relationship to the Tory peer, who is at the centre of allegations of an Establishment cover-up of sex abuse claims in the 1980s.

It has now emerged that she made several changes to a formal letter she sent to Theresa May about possible conflicts of interest.

With assistance from the Home Office, she made more than half a dozen alterations to the document to remove language that alluded to her closeness to the Conservative grandee.

The different versions of the letter emerged yesterday two days after a Labour MP used parliamentary privilege to link Lord Brittan to ‘improper conduct with children’.

Victims described the latest revelations as ‘extraordinary’ and renewed their calls on City lawyer Mrs Woolf to step down.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

[Another view: Editor’s blog: Abuse priest: to name or not to name – Times of Malta]

Stephen Calleja

The M alta Independent has chosen to publish all details, including the name of a priest who has been accused by various women of improper sexual behaviour. Most of these women were vulnerable persons who sought refuge in someone who they thought would help them. They were looking for consolation, but all they got, they are saying, was someone who abused them at a time when they were in a fragile state of mind.

The Times chose otherwise, hiding the name of the priest from the public, giving him protection and, by so doing, inflicting a heavy cloud of suspicion on every other priest in this country.

Since their story was published, other priests called our newsroom to protest that they had all been put in the same basket. They were ashamed that one of their colleagues – Fr Charles Fenech – had once again thrown bad light on the institution they represented, and they wanted to clear the name of the Church because the faults of one individual, if any, should not be allowed to tarnish the reputation of a group. Just as much as the judiciary is an institution, so is the Church.

If anything, people holding positions of authority or respect should be named more than others, simply because their position imposes that they behave themselves better than others.

It has been standard practice that names of people accused of sexual crimes are published unless they are relatives of their victims. This is done to protect the victim, not the accused.

The question that arises is: why not this time too?

We have been investigating these allegations, on and off, for several years. Three years ago, at the height of the campaign for the introduction of divorce, we had gathered some details but refrained from going public because the police were not well equipped with enough evidence to press charges. Now they are and we intend to fulfil our role as journalists.

Choosing to name the priest in question was not an easy task. We had a lengthy discussion about it and finally reached the conclusion that we would be doing a disservice to our readers – and to the rest of the priests – if we kept the name to ourselves. We know that anyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and we made it clear that what these women are saying are allegations. Those who are now lecturing the rest of the media, us in particular, on ethical standards, did not wait for the proceedings to start before splashing the story. They sought the spoils of a sensational opportunity but in doing so they cast a shadow on every priest in his fifties. Because we knew the details of the story we decided not to stand aside but stood up to be counted.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Charles Fenech stopped from administering sacraments, removed from Kerygma Movement director

Rachel Attard & Stephen Calleja

Fr Charles Fenech, who has been accused of sexually abusing a number of women, has been stopped from administering his duties as a priest, The Malta Independent has learnt.

Fr Frans Micallef, Dominican Provincial, in reply to questions by The Malta Independent, said that Fr Fenech has also been removed from the post of director of the Kerygma Movement.

Asked about Fr Fenech’s role as director of Radju Marija, the provincial said that although the radio station forms part of the Dominican Convent, the appointment of a director does not fall under its remit.

The provincial has however directed Father Charles to hand in his resignation to the international directors of Radju Marija.

The Dominican Province has warned Father Fenech several times in the past and took several steps against him. It pointed out that there were several times when accusations were levelled against him and later withdrawn.

The province said that in this way it is not passing judgment on Father Charles, but it is considering all eventualities.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Ashley Prest
Posted: 10/30/2014

Justice Murray Sinclair, the head of a commission investigating the excesses of Indian Residential Schools, said on Thursday that a fundamental change in attitudes and recognition of the past were vital to heal the harm and alienation inflicted by more than a century of mistreatment.

Sinclair chairs the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, due to report next June on the effects of the 142 government-run schools on the more than 150,000 aboriginal children taken from their homes and uprooted from their culture starting in the 1870s. The last such institution closed in 1996.

In an address to several hundred spectators at the University of Manitoba’s Engineering and Technology Complex entitled “If You Think Truth is Hard, Reconciliation is Harder,” he challenged everyone to help make the necessary change.

Sinclair said the key to moving on from the suffering and shame will hinge on recognition of what took place.

“Things are going to change and if they’re going to change, we need to set the terms of what those future changes are going to result in.” he said. “Reconciliation is a hard road.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent
30 Oct 2014

A sequence of seven letters were published by the Commons’ home affairs select committee after being disclosed to the MPs by Fiona Woolf.

Through the initial drafts, a picture of her contact with Lord Brittan and his wife over a number of years was slowly built up and then, in the final version, detail was cut out and relationships appeared to be​ more oblique.

By setting out that there were “no other guests who attended” the dinners at the Brittans’ home in November 2009 and February 2012, Mrs Woolf conveyed an image of an intimate soiree with friends.

It may be that Mrs Woolf simply mis-remembered the nature of those dinners.

But by saying in the final version of the letter that there were “at least four other guests”, the meals sound more formal and perhaps hint at the atmosphere of a business event.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Georgia Graham, Political Correspondent
31 Oct 2014

Fiona Woolf is under increased pressure to resign as the head of the inquiry into child sex abuse, as ChildLine refuses to back her leadership and representatives of victims say she has “no qualifications whatsoever” to lead the investigation.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is preparing for the first meeting of officials, Mrs Woolf and representatives of victims of child abuse to discuss the terms of the inquiry.

Peter Saunders, the chief executive of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood, who will be attending the meeting said that he was yet to meet a single survivor of child sex abuse who has “any confidence” in the leadership of Mrs Woolf.

Mrs Woolf is under pressure over her personal links to Leon Brittan, the former Home Secretary, who is likely to be called to give evidence to the inquiry over his handling of allegations of abuse during his time in office.

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Jewish Standard

Joanne Palmer
Published: 31 October 2014

Shmuel Goldin, the senior rabbi at Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood, has agreed to chair a new committee the Rabbinical Council of America is convening to review its conversion process.

Rabbi Goldin also is the RCA’s immediate past president.

The committee includes 11 members; six are RCA-member rabbis and five are women. Two of the women are converts, one is a yoetzet halacha — an advisor in Jewish law — and one is a psychotherapist.

The committee has been established in response to the arrest of one of the RCA’s members, Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel of Kesher Israel: The Georgetown Synagogue, in Washington, D.C. (Rabbi Freundel’s RCA membership has been suspended in response to the arrest, and he has been suspended from his job, without pay.) The shul arguably is the most prestigious Orthodox synagogue in the nation’s capital, and Rabbi Freundel’s arrest, for videoing some of his conversion candidates with a camera hidden inside a clock radio as they stripped for the mikvah, has been profoundly disturbing, both within the Kesher community and outside it.

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CANADA
CTV

The Canadian Press
Published Friday, October 31, 2014

WINNIPEG – A former archbishop convicted of sexually assaulting an altar boy in the 1980s is appealing his case to Manitoba’s highest court Friday.

Seraphim Storheim was convicted early this year of sexually assaulting a boy who had come to visit him in Winnipeg in 1985.

His lawyer, Jeff Gindin, is asking new evidence be heard relating to the victim’s visit with Storheim and his relationship with one of the defence witnesses.

Gindin is also arguing Storheim’s denial of abuse was credible and should not have been dismissed by the judge.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Patrick Wintour
Friday 31 October 2014

The head of the government’s inquiry into historic child sexual abuse allegations repeatedly re-wrote a letter to Theresa May, the home secretary, to play down her links with former home secretary Lord Brittan, it has emerged.

Fiona Woolf has faced calls to resign over her close personal relationship with Brittan, who was in charge of the Home Office in the 1980s when it is alleged there was a coverup at the department of sexual abuse.

The home affairs select committee revealed that a formal letter between Woolf and May was re-written seven times, with Home Office assistance.

Keith Vaz MP, the chairman of the Commons committee, said the re-writes “gave a sense of greater detachment between Lord and Lady Brittan and Mrs Woolf”.

He added that it was extraordinary that the letter had needed to be rewritten seven times.

Even facts about Woolf’s contact with Lord and Lady Brittan appeared to have been amended, he said.

“Mrs Woolf’s letter to the committee raises more questions than it answers about an appointment process that has been chaotic, and a series of exchanges with the Home Office and others, where words, and sometimes even facts, have been amended.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

By Anushka Asthana, Political Correspondent

A lawyer representing 50 victims of child abuse has said the Home Office must “start again” if it wants its inquiry into historical allegations to win public confidence.

Alison Millar, a partner at Leigh Day solicitors, has told Sky News she will make the argument at a meeting with officials in Westminster later this morning.

It comes after Fiona Woolf, the second chair appointed to lead the investigation, was engulfed in controversy about her social links to Lord and Lady Brittan.

Leon Brittan was Home Secretary in the 1980s and was handed evidence about sex abuse cases, which victims accuse him of failing to act upon.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Child abuse victims unite to demand inquiry chair Fiona Woolf resigns over links to Tory peer Lord Brittan

By TOM MCTAGUE, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE

The head of the Government’s child abuse inquiry was facing mounting pressure to resign this morning after victims groups said no-one backed her appointment ahead of a crunch Home Office meeting.

Fiona Woolf was already facing mounting calls to quit because of her personal relationship to the Tory peer Leon Brittan, who is at the centre of allegations of an Establishment cover-up of sex abuse claims in the 1980s.

But it emerged last night that she re-wrote a letter to the Home Secretary seven times in order to play down her links to Lord Brittan.

With help from the Home Office, she made more than half a dozen alterations to the document to remove language that alluded to her closeness to the Conservative grandee.

The different versions of the letter emerged yesterday two days after a Labour MP used parliamentary privilege to link Lord Brittan to ‘improper conduct with children’.

Victims described the latest revelations as ‘extraordinary’ and renewed their calls on City lawyer Mrs Woolf to step down.

Representatives of alleged child abuse victims will meet officials from the inquiry for the first time today and are expected to call for Mrs Woolf’s resignation. Mrs Woolf is not expected to attend.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Victims’ groups are meeting officials from a child sex abuse inquiry and are expected to reiterate calls for the inquiry’s head to resign.

Some victims have already said Fiona Woolf should step down because of her social links to ex-Home Secretary Lord Brittan, whose handling of abuse claims in the 1980s has been questioned.

A victims’ representative said he had “zero confidence” in the inquiry.

The government said it still had confidence in Mrs Woolf.

The inquiry will look at whether public bodies and other institutions did enough to protect children from sexual abuse, from 1970 to the present day.

The first person appointed to lead it – Baroness Butler-Sloss – stepped down in July after concerns were raised about her family links.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

The appointment of Fiona Woolf to lead the investigation has been branded “chaotic” as calls for her to quit intensify.

The head of the historic child sex abuse inquiry is under mounting pressure to resign – just months after her predecessor was forced to step down amid allegations of conflicts of interest.

Here is an at-a-glance background to the controversy.

:: City lawyer Fiona Woolf was appointed in September to chair the panel inquiring into UK institutions’ handling of historic child sex abuse allegations.

:: The original nominee Lady Butler-Sloss stepped down because her late brother, Lord Havers, was attorney general during much of the period in question.

:: But there has been criticism of Mrs Woolf’s appointment because of her social links with former home secretary Lord Brittan and his wife.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Rowena Mason, political correspondent
Friday 31 October 2014

Survivors of child abuse are calling on Fiona Woolf to stand down as the second head of the government’s inquiry at a crucial meeting on Friday.

Woolf is under pressure over her personal links to Lord Brittan, the former home secretary, who is likely to be called to give evidence to the inquiry over a dossier allegedly detailing Westminster paedophile activity that vanished from his department in the 1980s.

It has emerged that the Home Office helped Woolf to redraft seven times a letter detailing her contact with Brittan, in a way that downplayed their meetings.

Calls for Woolf to stand down come not long after Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss resigned the role because her brother was attorney-general at the time of the scandal.

Amid fears that the inquiry is losing credibility, May will meet victims groups on Friday to hear their concerns about the appointment. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lord Macdonald, a former director of public prosecutions, said Woolf was in a “difficult position” but pointed out that the scope of the inquiry will be difficult for someone willing to take on the role as a replacement to manage.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
GWDToday

8th Circuit Solicitor David Stumbo announced this afternoon that a 42 year-old former minister has been convicted by a Newberry County jury of sexually abusing a 12 year-old girl. Mario Valerio Gonzalez Hernandez was found guilty of criminal sexual conduct with a minor in the second degree on Thursday afternoon after a weeklong trial. Circuit Court Judge Eugene Griffith sentenced Hernandez to 16 years in state prison following the verdict.

On June 29, 2013 the Newberry Police Department responded to a report from the child’s mother after she walked into her daughter’s bedroom and found Hernandez on top of the girl on the floor beside the bed. The victim disclosed to the investigators that Hernandez had performed sex acts on her numerous times since he had moved into her family’s home. When questioned by the investigators, Hernandez denied assaulting the child but told them that he was a man and “had urges.” Hernandez threatened the child not to tell anyone of the abuse, and that no one would believe her over him. The victim and her family attended the church that Hernandez pastored at the time of the abuse.

Deputy Solicitor Dale Scott and Assistant Solicitor Taylor Daniel prosecuted the case for the State, with Scott calling Hernandez a real life “wolf in sheep’s clothing” in his closing argument to the jury. Judge Griffith sentenced Hernandez to 16 years incarceration, out of maximum possible sentence of 20 years. Hernandez must serve at least 85% of this sentence before he is eligible for parole, and will be deported to Guatemala immediately following his release from State custody.

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COLORADO
Durango Herald

By Peter Marcus
Herald Denver Bureau

ENVER – Survivors of alleged sexual abuse by priests have come forward to criticize Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez for fighting legislation that would have made it easier for them to file civil lawsuits against churches.

The state measures, from 2006 and 2008, would have allowed a window for alleged victims to sue for older cases.

A devout Catholic, Beauprez said at the time that the bills served as an “attack on the church.”

He is competing against incumbent Democrat John Hickenlooper in a tight race.

“We need to support candidates who are going to do all we can to protect kids, and this Beauprez thing just angers me,” said Jeb Barrett, the 75-year-old leader of Denver’s Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

“I’m a survivor of childhood sexual assault, and I didn’t have the courage to talk about it until I was 62, 63 years old. It’s a very, very shaming thing to ever be raped,” he said.

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ARIZONA
AZFamily

by Amanda Goodman

Posted on October 29, 2014

SURPRISE, Ariz. — An after-school care assistant was arrested Monday after deputies say several hundred images of child pornography were found on his home computer.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office says Lawrence Amaral is facing 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Amaral worked as an after-school care assistant at St. Louis the King Catholic School.

The sheriff’s office says it was an undercover investigation that eventually led to his arrest.

According to police paperwork, Amaral admitted to downloading and viewing child pornography for the last three years. The images depicted children ages 3 to 14. …

The Diocese released a statement saying in part that they have no knowledge of any physical or sexual abuse of any minor at the after-school program.

They also held meetings for parents so they could address the allegations and answer what questions they could about the situation.

A spokesperson for the Diocese told 3TV that they do perform background checks on their employees, including fingerprinting. Amaral cleared those checks.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: A high-profile prosecutor in New South Wales has stood aside while the Independent Commission Against Corruption investigates claims she and her son tried to pervert the course of justice.

The commission is investigating whether Margaret Cunneen SC counselled her son’s girlfriend, Sophia Tilley, to pretend to have chest pains to thwart police officers.

It’s alleged Sophia Tilley was trying to prevent police from obtaining evidence of her blood alcohol level at the scene of a car accident earlier this year.

Ms Cunneen rejects the allegations as the result of a malicious complaint.

BRAD HAZZARD, NSW ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Ms Cunneen was agreed to – with the DPP to step aside and not take part in any current prosecutions or future prosecutions and that’s appropriate. And beyond that, she, like every other citizen of NSW, has the presumption of innocence until we see the resolution of those ICAC matters.

TONY JONES: Margaret Cunneen was most recently the commissioner presiding over the special commission into child sexual abuse and alleged cover-up in the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese. Ms Cunneen also appeared as a witness at the Royal commission into child sexual abuse expressing regret for the distress caused by her advice that swimming coach Scott Volkers should not be recharged for indecency.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Rachel Attard & Stephen Calleja

Sources have told The Malta Independent that the Radju Marija board received a number of anonymous letters alleging improper behaviour by Fr Charles Fenech. Radju Marija employees had also informed the parent company in Rome about the accusations levelled against Fr Fenech.

The board is understood to have known about the allegations about Fr Fenech for a number of years, but the friar was allowed to continue leading the station and present a radio programme every day. He was still presenting such programmes until a few days ago.

Fr Charles Fenech, who has been accused of sexually abusing a number of women, has been stopped from administering his duties as a priest, The Malta Independent has learnt.

Fr Frans Micallef, Dominican Provincial, in reply to questions by The Malta Independent, said that Fr Fenech has also been removed from the post of director of the Kerygma Movement.

The decision means that Fr Fenech cannot celebrate Mass in public, give Holy Communion, cannot hear confession and give last rites.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Mail & Guardian

31 OCT 2014 MBUYISELO BOTHA

A few weeks ago, Mary Ryan became the second South African woman to be ordained as a Catholic priest. The Catholic Church does not, of course, acknowledge this ordination.

In fact, in 2007, the Vatican declared that even attempting to ordain women would lead to excommunication, the harshest punishment the church leadership can mete out.

But Ryan and her colleagues bravely persisted.

Patricia Fresen, a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle and the first South African woman to become a Catholic priest, oversaw Ryan’s ordination ceremony, during which she said: “In South Africa in particular we know that the only way to change an unjust law is to break it. And that is what we are doing today.”

Roman Catholic Womenpriests is a growing movement that began in Austria and Germany in 2002 and now includes more than 180 female priests in 10 countries. These efforts should be applauded.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

John Allen’s title may sound a little bit sour “Phase 2 of the Pope Francis era: The honeymoon is over” – but actually it’s sweet-and-sour (like a popular food flavor) because he is actually defending Pope Francis and the recent Synod of Bishop – via Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput – who will be hosting the World Synod of Bishop next year in Philadelphia and Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to the USA. John Allen’s articles are to prepare and brainwash idiot American Catholics to book their plane tickets and hotels to go and attend the Eucharist sorcery of Pope Francis in Philadelphia and in the east coast and donate millions of dollars to the Vatican Mammon Beast (aka Opus Dei Beast).

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CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Oct. 30

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

A convicted child molesting cleric – once Canada’s top Orthodox church official – now claims he has new evidence that might have exonerated. We’re highly skeptical of this claim by Archbishop Seraphim Storheim.

[Global News]

Most child predators profess their innocence over and over, especially when, like Storheim, someone else is paying their legal bills.

[SNAP]

In this case, it’s devout Orthodox families. And that’s a shame and an injustice.

We call on Orthodox officials to stop using the generous donations of church members to fund Storheim’s desperate legal maneuvers. And we call on anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the Orthodox faith – in Canada or elsewhere – to speak up, protect kids, expose wrongdoers and start healing. The best way to do this is to contact secular aurhotiries, not church figures, with any knowledge or suspicions about child sex crimes.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Week

10/30/14
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, former vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America and dayyan (judge) on the RCA-supervised Beth Din of America, is stepping down from his position on the Beit Din of Bergen County after the Rabbinical Council of America announced yesterday that it is convening a new conversion committee with five female members.

The new conversion committee, composed of six male rabbis and five women of differing professions (including a litigation attorney, educator, psychotherapist and Yoetzet Halacha), was created in response to the arrest of Rabbi Barry Freundel of Congregation Kesher Israel on charges of voyeurism on Oct. 14.

The committee will review the current Geirus Protocol and Standards (GPS) conversion process (used by the Beit Din of America) and suggest safeguards against possible future abuses.
In a statement posted on his personal blog, Pruzansky accused the RCA of bending to media pressure and promoting “the agenda of feminists.”

“The committee consists of six men and five women, bolstering the trend on the Orthodox left to create quasi-rabbinical functions for women,” he writes. “What role can they [women] play in ‘review[ing]’ the GPS conversion process?” He concludes the paragraph by calling the conversion process a “purely rabbinical role.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph and Argus

by Will Kilner

The Honorary Assistant Bishop of Bradford has resigned from his position after a report into allegations of child abuse by a former cathedral dean found “systemic failures” by the Church of England.

Last week’s report by Judge Sally Cahill QC said Lord Hope of Thornes failed to follow policy and take advice after he was informed of complaints against Robert Waddington relating to boys in Manchester and Australia.

The judge outlined failures by the Church to respond properly to allegations of sex abuse against the late Robert Waddington, who was Dean of Manchester between 1984 and 1993.

She said Lord Hope’s actions meant “opportunities were missed” to start an investigation which may have led to a prosecution before Waddington’s death seven years ago.

Lord Hope stepped down as Archbishop of York in 2005 when he returned to being a parish priest in the Bradford district. At that stage known as Dr David Hope, he spent several years in charge at St Margaret’s Church on Queen’s Road, Ilkley.

In a statement today, Lord Hope said: “After much prayerful and considered thought I wrote at the beginning of the week to the Bishop of Leeds and in the light of the Cahill Inquiry Report I have submitted my resignation as Honorary Assistant Bishop of Bradford, now West Yorkshire and the Dales, with immediate effect.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former Archbishop of York has resigned from his church role after a report criticised his handling of child abuse allegations.

A report by Judge Sally Cahill QC said Lord Hope of Thornes failed to follow policy and take advice after he was informed of complaints against a cathedral dean.

Lord Hope stepped down as Archbishop of York in 2005.

He became parish priest in Ilkley and was made a honorary assistant bishop.

The report published last week outlined failures by the Church of England to respond properly to allegations of sex abuse against the late Robert Waddington, who was Dean of Manchester between 1984 and 1993.

Judge Cahill said Lord Hope’s actions meant “opportunities were missed” to start an investigation which might have led to a prosecution.

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

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

It’s heartbreaking that officials at a Muslim school kept silent for months about credible child sex abuse allegations. And now, with the accused predator a fugitive from justice, it’s outrageous that school officials are apparently making little or no effort to protect other kids, help law enforcement and adequately inform parents about the alleged sex offender. We urge parents to unite and pressure school officials to do more to protect kids.

[New Times]

Here’s why this secrecy is so hurtful: it enables child molesters to destroy evidence, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, fabricate alibis and flee elsewhere. It makes the job of police and prosecutors much more difficult. And it keeps kids in harm’s way much longer. Shame on every single employee or volunteer at Nur-Ul-Islam Academy who knew of or suspected wrongdoing by Tariq Ahmed and kept quiet about it.

We applaud attorneys for the two alleged victims who have set up websites and Facebook pages in an effort to learn more about Ahmed. But why does it fall to advocates for the wounded to do what paid school staff should be doing?

We join them in urging anyone who might have seen, suspected or suffered sex crimes or cover ups at the school to come forward, get help and protect kids and contact law enforcement officials, rather than school officials.

And we agree with those attorneys who say that Nur-Ul-Islam Academy officials should send letters to families of current and former students, explain the charges, and solicit their help in catching Ahmed.

Remember this is more than a “he said, she said” situation. There are two alleged victims. There’s a civil lawsuit (filed last Friday). There are formal criminal charges, levied by the Broward State Attorney’s office against Ahmed – six felony counts of sexually abusing and raping middle school students.

The girls’ attorneys allege that they have found proof that school officials learned about Ahmed’s wrongdoing years ago – between 2005 and 2008 – but refused to call police. We hope this isn’t true but strongly suspect that it is. And if so, we hope police and prosecutors pursue criminal cases against any teacher or administrator who opted to protect a colleague instead of protecting a child.

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FLORIDA
Courthouse News Service

By ALEX PICKETT

(CN) – A Broward County, Fla. man sued five religious and charitable organizations alleging a former youth pastor they supervised treated him and other young boys as sex slaves.

Demetrius Jones claims in his lawsuit that the organizations negligently hired and failed to supervise Jeffery London, 51, who acted as a resident adult and mentor for underprivileged boys.

For more than a decade, London regularly made Jones and other boys perform sex acts on him, Jones says.

The suit names the Bible Church of God of Boynton Beach, BJ’s Foundation, New Vision Children’s Foundation, Teched-Ventures Inc. and Lauderdale Lakes Academy. Also named is the estate of Elizabeth H. Buntrock, a well-known Broward County philanthropist who created or helped fund the charities. Buntrock died earlier this year.

Jones says the organizations aided London’s access to dozens of young boys, and alleges that the youth minister took advantage of the situation “for the purpose of grooming, manipulating, and coercing them into becoming his sex slaves.”

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MALTA
Times of Malta

A priest has been stopped from exercising his duties and removed from his posts following sexual abuse allegations.

In a statement about alleged abuses committed by the priest, the Dominican Order said it had warned him several times and it took (unspecified) measures about him. But it also pointed out that claims against him were withdrawn several times.

The province said that through its actions it was not judging the priest but taking action against any eventuality.

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CANADA
Global News

WINNIPEG – A lawyer for a former archbishop convicted of sexually assaulting an altar boy in the 1980s says he has fresh evidence that could have exonerated his client.

Jeff Gindin, who represents Seraphim Storheim, filed a notice of motion saying the new evidence should be heard when the case appears before Manitoba’s Court of Appeal on Friday.

In court documents, Gindin says the evidence relates to the victim’s visit with Storheim and Storheim’s relationship with one of the defence witnesses.

Gindin says the evidence — had it been known — could have affected the outcome of Storheim’s trial.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

by Rob Parsons
rob.parsons@ypn.co.uk
Published on the 30 October 2014

THE ex-Archbishop of York, Lord Hope of Thornes, has resigned from the Church of England days after a report accused him of failing to act on information he received about alleged child sex abuse by a former cathedral dean.

Lord Hope said in a statement today that he had resigned as Honorary Assistant Bishop of Bradford, now West Yorkshire and the Dales, “after much prayerful and considered thought”.

He said: “This ends my nearly 50 years of formal ministry in the Church of England, which I have always sought to serve with dedication. I will certainly continue to pray for the important ongoing work with survivors.”

It comes after a report published last week into the handling of allegations of sex abuse against the late Robert Waddington, formerly Dean of Manchester, which found there were “systemic failures” by the Church.

The report, by Judge Sally Cahill QC, found that: “Our conclusion, having heard his (Lord Hope’s) evidence is that his concern for the welfare of Robert Waddington seems to have been paramount in his response to these allegations.”

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Parishioners are going to have to find new places to worship with the word of dozens of Catholic churches closing.

The New York Archdiocese on said it will soon announce which parishes in the Lower Hudson Valley will merge or close.

A decision is expected next week as part of a restructuring plan, officials told CBS2.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan told the Catholic New York Newspaper Wednesday night that 14 percent, or as many as 50 churches, could be impacted.

Dolan said this really comes down to the numbers, CBS 2’s Janelle Burrell reported. Right now, New York State has 368 parishes.

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Week

10/30/14
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, former vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America and dayyan (judge) on the RCA-supervised Beth Din of America, is stepping down from his position on the Beit Din after yesterday’s announcement that the RCA is convening a new conversion committee with five female members.

The new conversion committee, comprised of six male rabbis and five women of differing professions (including a litigation attorney, educator, psychotherapist and Yoetzet Halacha), was created in response to the arrest of Rabbi Barry Freundel of Congregation Kesher Israel on charges of voyeurism on Oct. 14.

The committee will review the current Geirus Protocol and Standards (GPS) conversion process (used by the Beit Din of America) and suggest safeguards against possible future abuses.

“With changes to GPS [Gerus Protocol and Standards] protocols contemplated, it is an appropriate time for new leadership,” Pruzansky wrote on his personal blog. He stressed that he is “not resigning because of any scandal” but because the “the GPS system that has worked so well for us is about to change.”

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VIRGINIA
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

ARLINGTON, Va. — At a panel discussion on seminary admissions, Father Shawn McKnight told a group of Catholic psychotherapists that “we have to be careful not to hold our standards so high that nobody can get in.

“It’s not about finding the perfect guy. It’s about who’s called. If God is calling a man, we have an obligation to heed that call and to nourish that man,” said the priest, who is executive director of the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.

Father McKnight was moderator of the Oct. 24 panel discussion, titled “The Use of Psychology in Seminary Admissions: A Need for Guidance,” held during the Catholic Psychotherapy Association’s annual conference Oct. 23-25.

The panel addressed those involved in seminary assessment, counseling or teaching on the matter of conducting psychological evaluations for admissions purposes.

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FLORIDA
Farmer, Jaffe, Weissing, Edwards, Fisto and Lehrman

Tariq Ahmad, a veteran teacher at Nur-Ul-Islam Academy, a private school in Cooper City, Florida is now the subject of a multi-victim child sexual abuse investigation by law enforcement officials.

Ahmad, a 35 year old male, stands accused of forcing three teenage girls, ages 14 and 15 at the time, to have sexual intercourse with him while they were students at the Academy between 2006 and 2008. Tariq Ahmad started working at Nur-Ul Islam Academy in August 2006 according to his LinkedIn page. It is alleged the Nur-Ul-Islam Academy allowed Ahmad to remain a teacher even after receiving a complaint accusing Ahman of sexually abusing a child.

Tariq Ahmad previously worked in the Broward County public school district from 2001 to 2005 as a substitute teacher and teacher assistant. Ahmad’s employment has been terminated by Nur-Ul Islam Academy. According to its website, Nur-Ul-Islam Academy is a K-through-12-grade college prep school with over 300 students.

Ahmad would allegedly use text messages, social media and even code on the chalk boards in the classroom to set up meetings with the girls. The criminal investigation is being led by the Pembroke Pines Police Department who became involved after a concerned parent notified them that one of the girls was on the telephone late at night with her Tariq Islam. The parent claims to have brought the information to school officials, but received no response. The case has recently been turned over to the Broward County State Attorney’s office and an arrest warrant has been issued. Ahmad’s current location is unknown.

According to attorney Adam Horowitz: “Parents should be able to expect that their children will be safe while entrusted to the care of school officials. A school should never employ a teacher with a history of sexual abuse. The employment of a teacher with a history of sexual abuse complaints places children in grave danger.”

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WASHINGTON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Oct. 30

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

Weeks ago, Spokane’s top Catholic official quietly suspended a credibly accused predator priest. But Bishop Blasé Cupich notified only his flock, not the public. He refused to disclose when the allegations surfaced. He urged other victims to call church officials, not secular authorities. And he made no mention of possible criminal prosecution or of the need for Catholics and citizens to share what they know about the priest with law enforcement. This is disturbing and reckless.

[Spokane diocese]

Though Fr. Daniel Wetzler’s suspension took effect on Oct. 1, no word of it was circulated, apparently, until Oct. 16 when a notice was printed on page eight of the Spokane diocesan newspaper, the Inland Register. Nothing was said about helping police and prosecutors build a criminal case against Fr. Wetzler.

As best we can tell, Cupich did not hold a news conference or issue a news release about the accusations. He didn’t say when the victim reported the abuse, which is an important fact. (Did it take months or years for Cupich to act?)

Only yesterday did the public learn about the credible child sex accusations through a small article in the Spokesman-Review, a secular daily newspaper.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Law enforcement authorities say they need more tools to fight child sexual abuse and help put sexual predators behind bars.

Amendment 2, which will be on Missouri election ballot Nov. 4, gives prosecutors and law enforcement officers the help they need.

The proposal would amend the state constitution to give judges the discretion to allow previous acts of sexual violence against minors to be disclosed in court. The federal government and nearly all other states allow juries to learn whether a defendant in a child sexual abuse case may have been accused of similar crimes in the past.

The only reason Missouri doesn’t is because the state Supreme Court struck down a law in 2007 that allowed evidence of past sexual crimes to be used against people facing sex-related charges involving victims younger than 14.

“Evidence of a defendant’s prior criminal acts, when admitted purely to demonstrate the defendant’s criminal propensity, violates one of the constitutional protections vital to the integrity of our criminal justice system,” the court ruled.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Oct. 29

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

On Tuesday, we urge Missouri voters to pass Amendment 2 which will help protect kids by enabling law enforcement to catch and convict more child molesters at little or no cost whatsoever to taxpayers. It’s rare when a relatively small rule change can dramatically improve kids’ safety, but this is one instance in which that’s possible.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Judges should have the option to let jurors know about an accused predator’s earlier acts of sexual violence against youngsters. Those who sexually assault kids should not be able to hide their previous crimes.

Keep in mind that one in four girls and one in eight boys is sexually violated during childhood. So the legal status quo causes immeasurable, life-long harm to thousands and thousands of Missouri boys and girls every year. This must change. And the change must start with closing some of the legal loopholes that shrewd predators exploit to evade justice and keep molesting.

The Post-Dispatch reports that the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, the Missouri Police Chiefs Association and the Missouri Sheriffs Association support the amendment.

And the Post editorializes “Even if just one part of this problem was improved by allowing the admissibility of such evidence — that young children could be spared the trauma of having to relive their abuse in a courtroom — it would be reason enough to recommend supporting Amendment 2.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY REBECCA BLACK – 30 OCTOBER 2014

Home Secretary Theresa May has vowed the Security Service will co-operate fully with an investigation into a paedophile ring at the Kincora Boys’ Home in east Belfast.

Ms May added she will be monitoring the case and will bring it into a powerful UK-wide inquiry with additional powers if necessary.

Scores of young boys were abused during their time at the children’s home in the early 1970s.

There was disappointment last week when it was announced Kincora will not be included in a UK-wide Government investigation of historical child abuse.

In a letter to First Minister Peter Robinson, Ms May said she was “determined that everything possible is done to uncover the truth about what happened and that appropriate action is taken”.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

A priest has been stopped from exercising his duties and removed from his posts following sexual abuse allegations.

In a statement about alleged abuses committed by the priest, the Dominican Order said it had warned him several times and it took (unspecified) actions about him. But it also pointed out that claims against him were withdrawn several times.

The province said that through its actions it was not judging the priest but taking action against any eventuality.

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KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Oct. 29

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

We’re worried, but not surprised, that Fr. Shook, a convicted child molester, wants to be released from prison. We hope he fails in this premature effort.

[WDRB]

We hope that Kentucky officials will keep Fr. Shook behind bars for as long as possible.

Only the most reckless or foolish would believe that six months in prison would magically cure a pedophile of his compulsion to sexually assault kids.

Letting Fr. Shook out so quickly would rub salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of those he molested. It would also likely deter other victims from reporting predators to police, because they’ll surely feel “What’s the use? These pedophiles always get breaks and special treatment and light sentences.”

This move by Fr. Shook should prod others who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes to call law enforcement right away. We can’t be complacent. It’s our civic and moral duty to share what we know or suspect about child sex crimes or cover ups with police and prosecutors. It’s possible that Fr. Shook could be charged with and convicted of more child sex crimes. And that would keep him locked up longer, which would make kids safer.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

October 30, 2014

Tammy Mills
Crime reporter for The Age

A former Catholic school teacher in country Victoria avoided jail on Thursday for a historical sex assault on a student in 1970.

John Skehan, 75, was given an eight-month sentence suspended for two years and was placed on the sex offenders register after he pleaded guilty to the indecent assault of his 13-year-old student at a boys school in Shepparton.

That student was Greg Barclay, now aged 58 and a vice-president with the Australian Education Union.

In his decision not to send John Skehan, 75, to jail for an historic sex offence, Magistrate Ian Watkins took into account Skehan’s age, his ill health and that he was unlikely to reoffend. However,his victim, Greg Barclay, says he is ”gutted” by the sentence.

Mr Barclay said outside court on Thursday that he was “gutted” with the sentence. Skehan had already been convicted and placed on a suspended sentence in 2010 for the indecent assault of a young child in Broken Hill in the 1970s.

In his sentencing on Thursday, Magistrate Ian Watkins took into account Skehan’s age, his ill health and that he was unlikely to reoffend.

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SOUTH AFRICA
The South Africa

Posted By: Jeanine Singh
Posted date: October 30, 2014

A priest has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping and raping a 15-year-old girl in Itireleng informal settlement near Laudium, Pretoria police said.

The 25-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday around 1am after allegedly kidnapping the girl at the weekend and repeatedly raping her, Sergeant Ann Poortman said.

The teenager’s sister sent her to a tuck shop around 11.30am on Saturday. While she was there she saw the priest who told her to go to a certain shack in the area.

The girl’s family attended the man’s church and he was believed to be close friends with the girl’s father, Poortman said.

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WASHINGTON
Inland Register – Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane

(From the October 16, 2014 edition of the Inland Register)

Effective Oct. 1, 2014, Daniel Wetzler (pictured, left), a retired priest of the Spokane Diocese, has been permanently removed from active ministry by Archbishop Blase Cupich.

Earlier this year, Wetzler was put on administrative leave after the diocese received an accusation by an individual who claimed he was abused as a minor. This matter was referred to the Diocesan Review Board, which scrutinizes cases of alleged sexual abuse, and to civil authorities, in accord with diocesan procedures. After an investigation, the Board unanimously recommended that Daniel Wetzler be permanently removed from active ministry and submit himself to a monitoring program. Archbishop Cupich accepted these recommendations.

Another accusation was made against Wetzler in 2002. The results of that civil investigation were inconclusive; insufficient evidence existed to verify the accusation. Wetzler denied that accusation.

Following the recommendations of the Diocesan Review Board, Archbishop Cupich ordered that parishes and institutions, especially those where Wetzler served, be notified of the sanctions against the priest. The archbishop is urging anyone abused by Wetzler to come forward for healing either directly to himself or to the Diocesan Victims Assistance Coordinator, Roberta Smith (509-353-0442; email rvsmith@dioceseofspokane.org).

Wetzler was ordained to the priesthood on May 25, 1963, and served at a variety of parishes and institutions: St. Anthony/Holy Ghost Parish, Spokane, 1963-64; Bishop White (High School) Seminary, 1963; St. Ann Parish, Spokane, 1964; Mater Cleri Seminary, 1965 and 1975-76; St. Thomas More Parish, Spokane, 1966-69; Catholic Youth Organization, 1967; Marycliff High School, Spokane, 1969-75; Sacred Heart Parish, Tekoa, 1976-1982; Charismatic Renewal, 1976-2013; Sacred Heart Parish, Othello, 1982-92; St. Vincent Parish, Connell, and St. Paul the Apostle Parish, Eltopia, 1991-1992; St. Paschal Parish, Spokane, 1992-2002.

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WASHINGTON
The Spokesman-Review

Archbishop Blase Cupich has removed a retired Spokane Catholic priest from ministry following accusations that he sexually abused a child decades ago.

It is the second time in 12 years that the Rev. Dan Wetzler has fallen under scrutiny and been removed.

The decision last month by Cupich was published by the Inland Register, the newspaper of the Spokane Catholic Diocese. Wetzler last served at St. Paschal Parish in Spokane from 1992 to 2002.

The first time allegations surfaced he declared his innocence and the church investigated. He was publicly exonerated.

Another allegation from a different person who claimed he was abused as a minor has since been made and the Diocesan Review Board found the complaint to be credible. Cupich then acted on the finding.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

SA Supreme Court told Catholic Church dismissed teen sex allegations against Father John Fleming as a priest “just being inappropriate”

CHIEF COURT REPORTER SEAN FEWSTER THE ADVERTISER OCTOBER 30, 2014

A WOMAN who claims Father John Fleming used her, as a teenager, for sex has told a court the Catholic Church dismissed her complaint as the priest “just being inappropriate”.

The woman, known as “Jane”, today told the Supreme Court she was shocked by a Catholic Church worker’s reaction when she raised a complaint against Fr Fleming in 2001-2002.

She said she told the woman that, following a 1970s ménage-a-trois, when she was a teenager, Fr Fleming had used her to service his sexual needs.

Father Fleming denies the allegations.

“After I had told her, (the worker) said ‘wasn’t he just being inappropriate?’,” Jane said.

“This person was essentially telling me essentially that what I had just told her was inappropriate — it was not inappropriate, it was wrong.”

Fr Fleming, 71, is suing over Sunday Mail articles reporting allegations he was inappropriately sexually involved Jane, another woman known as “Jenny” and a man known as “Richard”.

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KENTUCKY
Crux

By Associated Press
October 29, 2014

A priest convicted earlier this year of sexually abusing a teenage boy in the 1970s is making a bid to be released from prison after serving six months of his 15-year sentence.

An attorney for the Rev. James Schook notified a judge he will ask that Schook be released on shock probation because he realizes the importance of conforming to the community’s rules.

In April, a jury convicted Schook of three counts of sodomy and one count of indecent and immoral behavior with an individual.

Schook suffers from terminal cancer. Shock probation allows inmates to be released after serving one to six months of their sentence.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic San Francisco

By Mark Pattison

WASHINGTON – Liturgical matters will take center stage on the agenda of action items at the fall general meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to be held Nov. 10-13 in Baltimore.

There will be five liturgical items up for consideration. All are subject to amendments from bishops. All but one require approval of two-thirds of the bishops, followed by final approval from the Vatican.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, who is president of the USCCB, will deliver his first presidential address. He was elected to a three-year term last November. As is customary, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States, also will address the assembly.

During the meeting, the bishops will choose a new secretary-elect for the USCCB, and vote for the chairmen-elect of five committees.

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CONNECTICUT
Fairfield Mirror

By Enxhi Myslymi, Managing Editor, and Shauna Mitchell, Editor-in-Chief

Former Fairfield University chaplain Rev. Paul Carrier, S.J. has been accused in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing a teenage boy at Project Pierre Toussaint in Haiti. Fairfield University has been named a defendant in the case on claims of negligent supervision, which is defined as a breach of duty to employees, children or adults.

Carrier was working at Fairfield as the director of campus ministry during the time period under investigation (1999-2005). Douglas Perlitz ‘92, the charity school’s founder, has also been cited as a perpetrator, in addition to the 2010 sentence where he pleaded guilty for one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct to Haiti.

According to the 26-year-old plaintiff’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian of Law Offices of Mitchell Garabedian, “The evidence has now shown that Fr. Carrier allegedly sexually abused a child, or children, and therefore we are proceeding in the civil court.”

The lawsuit stated the plaintiff’s name, but The Mirror generally does not reveal a victim’s identity.

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ILLINOIS
Pekin Daily Times

A Pekin man already facing charges for allegedly sexually assaulting a young child was indicted this week on child pornography charges.

Nicholas A. Lawrence, 26, 200 Matilda St., faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the charge, which was handed down by a Peoria County grand jury Tuesday.

Details in the indictment were sparse except to say that in May, Lawrence caused a person younger than 13 to appear in a sexually explicit photo.

A $150,000 warrant was issued for his arrest and he is scheduled to appear in court Friday to be arraigned on the charges. …

According to Journal Star archives, Lawrence was a youth pastor with the Pekin Church of God for about 20 months before he was dismissed from the position on June 30.

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