ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Fiji Broadcasting Corporation

The Vatican has placed its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Jozef Wesolowski, under house arrest on charges of sexually abusing children.

The former archbishop was defrocked in June after a Church tribunal found him guilty of abusing Dominican boys. He will now be tried by a criminal court, becoming the highest official to face abuse charges in the Vatican.

Wesolowski, who is originally from Poland, served as a papal envoy to the Dominican Republic for five years

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

Josephine McKenna | September 23, 2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis had ordered the arrest of a former Polish archbishop accused of child sex abuse in the Dominican Republic because the case was “so serious,” the Vatican said Tuesday (Sept. 23).

Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, former nuncio to the Dominican Republic, is pictured during a 2011 ceremony in Santo Domingo. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found the archbishop guilty of sexual abuse of minors and has ordered that he be laicized.
Show caption

Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, former nuncio to the Dominican Republic, is pictured during a 2011 ceremony in Santo Domingo. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found the archbishop guilty of sexual abuse of minors and has ordered that he be laicized. RNS photo by Orlando Barria/CNS
This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

Jozef Wesolowski, who was defrocked by a Vatican tribunal earlier this year, is under house arrest inside Vatican City due to the “express desire” of Pope Francis, the Vatican said in a statement.

“The seriousness of the allegations has prompted the official investigation to impose a restrictive measure that … consists of house arrest, with its related limitations, in a location within the Vatican City State,” the Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Maria Khan
September 23, 2014

In the first-ever arrest of its kind inside the Vatican, a former archbishop accused of paying for sex with children, while he was serving as a Vatican ambassador in the Dominican Republic was arrested on Tuesday.

A statement issued by the Vatican said that Jozef Wesolowski has been placed under house arrest awaiting a criminal trial.

The arrest comes after Pope Francis insisted, “that such a grave and delicate case has to be handled without delay, with the just and necessary rigour.”

Wesolowski was earlier detained in the Vatican prison but later granted house arrest in a Vatican apartment for medical reasons.

Wesolowski, 66, was recalled to Rome last year and defrocked by a Vatican tribunal in June after Dominican media pressed paedophilia charges on him while he was serving as a diplomat in Santo Domingo.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Examiner

The Vatican has put its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic under house arrest after opening a criminal child sex trial against him.

It marks the first time a high-ranking Vatican official has faced criminal charges of sexually abusing youngsters.

Josef Wesolowski had already been defrocked in June after the Vatican’s canon law court found him guilty of abuse and imposed its toughest penalty under church law, laicisation – returning to life as a layman.

But today, the Vatican City State’s separate criminal court opened a preliminary hearing into his case and ordered him placed under house arrest.

A Vatican statement said Wesolwski presented medical documentation detailing health concerns that presumably prevented a more restrictive type of detention. The Vatican has a few small detention rooms inside its police barracks, but no long-term facilities.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
Caracol Radio (Colombia)

El exnuncio apostólico en República Dominicana, Jozef Wesolowski, se encuentra bajo arresto domiciliario en la ciudad del Vaticano, informaron este martes fuentes oficiales.

Wesolowski ha sido acusado de abuso sexual de menores durante su misión en el país caribeño y ya había sido retirado de su labor como sacerdote por un tribunal vaticano a principios de este año.

El sacerdote polaco de 66 años huyó de República Dominicana cuando se inició una investigación por el pago a menores de edad para sostener relaciones sexuales.

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VATICAN CITY
The Christian Times

Sarah Adams
23 SEPTEMBER, 2014

The Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic has been placed under house arrest as the church’s investigative arm follows up on reports of sexual abuse from June.

Former Archbishop and Vatican Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Josef Wesolowski was already defrocked from his religious authority back in June after the church found him guilty of abusing young boys in the country. He is now being investigated by the Vatican’s criminal court and has been placed on house arrest as the investigation carries out.

According to the Associated Press, Wesolowski reportedly presented medical documentation that proved he was not well enough to be under arrest at a Vatican facility, and therefore he was allowed o remain at home.

A spokesperson for the Vatican previously said that Pope Francis hopes “that such a grave and delicate case be handled without delay, with the just and necessary rigour.”

Francis has also said that such acts that exploit minors are comparable to a “satanic mass” in the church.

The pope has pledged a crackdown on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Earlier this year, a Vatican delegation met with the United Nations to outline ways the Holy See would seek to curb and end sexual exploitation in its religious organization.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Daniel Burke, CNN Belief Blog Editor

(CNN) – The Vatican announced on Tuesday that it has placed a former ambassador under house arrest while he faces charges for “serious acts of abuse of minors” while he was the Pope’s official representative in the Dominican Republican.

Jozef Wesolowski, who was defrocked by the Vatican in June, is one of the highest-ranking church officials to be accused of abusing children during the Catholic Church’s widespread and costly sexual abuse scandal.

It is the first time a top Vatican ambassador has faced such charges and represents a major test for Pope Francis, who has been accused by some victims’ groups of downplaying the sexual abuse scandal.

Wesolowksi’s arrest, the Vatican said Tuesday, “is a result of the express desire of the Pope, so that a case so serious and delicate would be addressed without delay.”

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FLORIDA
JRN

By Andrew Murphy.

VENICE, Fla – Major developments out of Sarasota County, FOX 4 has learned the Diocese of Venice is being sued for $5 million over a case of sexual abuse.

The suit, which was filed Tuesday morning, involves former diocese volunteer Robert Little, who was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old boy last year.

Little worked at Saint Francis Xavier church in Fort Myers and lived in a church-owned property when the abuse happened.

He accepted a plea deal, and will serve just under a year in jail, followed by 10 years of probation.

4 In Your Corner reporter Gabrielle Sarann will have all the latest information in our newscasts tonight.

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FLORIDA
ABC 7

The Diocese of Venice is being sued for $5 million over a case of sexual abuse.

The suit filed Tuesday morning is related to former diocese volunteer Robert Little, 74, who was convicted of molesting a mentally disabled 13-year-old boy last year.

Little worked at St. Francis Xavier Church and lived in a church-owned property when the abuse happened.

The Diocese of Venice in Florida noted in a statement released Tuesday that: “The incident did not take place on the property of St. Francis Xavier Parish or that of the Diocese of Venice.”

The suit claims the church knew of Robert Little’s past abuse allegations and covered them up, which the Diocese of Venice in Florida denies.

“At no time either prior to or since the arrest of Mr. Robert Little did the Diocese of Venice or the Parish receive any complaint of an assault by Mr. Little as alleged in the complaint. This is despite a public request by the Diocese of Venice and the Parish for anyone to come forward to report incidents of abuse to law enforcement and the Department of Children and Families,” said the Diocese in its statement Tuesday.

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VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

AFP

A former Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic has been placed under house arrest in the first case of criminal proceedings by the Holy See over the sexual abuse of children, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Pope Francis had personally ordered swift action in the case of Polish former archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who was convicted of sex abuse by a Church tribunal in June and defrocked pending further criminal proceedings.

Lombardi said the legal move was “the result of the pope’s express wish for a case this serious and sensitive to be dealt with without delay, with the necessary scrupulousness and full undertaking of responsibility on the part of the institutions which head up the Holy See.”

Italian news agency ANSA said Wesolowski was being held under house arrest in an apartment within the same building as the criminal court.

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NEW YORK
Newsday

The Rev. Augusto Cortez sought after being accused of molesting Hampton Bays girl, officials say

September 23, 2014

By ANDREW SMITH andrew.smith@newsday.com

Law enforcement officials are trying to find a Catholic priest — on probation for groping a Brooklyn girl — who disappeared after a Hampton Bays family accused him of molesting a 7-year-old girl.

The family, which had befriended the Rev. Augusto Cortez, 50, wants to know why he was allowed to act as a priest even though his order promised a Brooklyn court he wouldn’t after he was put on probation for molesting a 12-year-old girl there in 2008.

To the family’s horror, their decade-long relationship with Cortez ended in June when they say they found he had molested their 7-year-old daughter during a high school graduation party for their older daughter, and may have given the younger girl a sexually transmitted disease.

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VATICAN CITY
USA Today

Michael Winter, USA TODAY September 23, 2014

A defrocked Catholic archbishop accused of molesting boys in the Dominican Republic has been arrested and will be prosecuted for sexual abuse, the Vatican announced Tuesday.

Jozef Wesolowski, who served as archbishop in the Caribbean nation until being recalled in August 2013, will be under house arrest in Vatican City rather than be held in a small jail cell because of unspecified health issues, the Vatican said. He will be tried under the laws of the Vatican City State and, if convicted, could face time in an Italian prison.

In June, a church tribunal convicted the native of Poland of sex abuse and stripped him of his church powers and priestly duties. He is the first top papal representative to face the harshest sentence under church law, known as laicization.

The Vatican said it acted because of the “gravity of the accusations” and with the “will expressed by” Pope Francis that “such a grave and delicate case might be addressed without delay, with the just and necessary rigor, with the full assumption of responsibility by the institutions of the Holy See.”

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VATICAN CITY
euronews

[with video]

A former Catholic archbishop has been arrested as part of a paedophile investigation.

Jozef Wesolowski is accused of paying for sex with children while serving as The Holy See’s ambassador in the Dominican Republic, according to a Vatican spokesman.

The arrest reflects the wishes of Pope Francis, who earlier this year compared child abuse to a “satanic mass”.

The pope requested “that such a grave and delicate case be handled without delay, with the just and necessary rigour,” according to the Vatican.

Wesolowski, a Polish national, is currently under house arrest inside the city state.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

Catholic World News – September 23, 2014

Vatican police have arrested Josef Wesolowski, the former apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic, who will now face criminal charges for sexual abuse.

Then-Archbishop Wesolowski was recalled from his post in the Dominican Republic in August 2013, after the Vatican was presented with evidence that he had molested young boys. In June of this year, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) found him guilty of sexual abuse and he was stripped of his clerical status. Shortly thereafter, the Vatican announced that Wesolowski would be liable to criminal prosecution, which would begin after a Vatican tribunal heard his appeal of the canonical sentence imposed by the CDF.

The case of the disgraced archbishop had been watched closely, as an indication of the rigor with which the Vatican under Pope Francis would prosecute a ranking prelate. That question was answered when, following his canonical appeal, the Vatican’s criminal tribunal opened a hearing on criminal charges and ordered his arrest.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican has placed a laicized papal ambassador under house arrest as he awaits a criminal trial for sexually abusing young boys.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, released a statement Sept. 23 regarding the case of former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, a Pole who served as nuncio to the Dominican Republic until August 2013.

The Vatican announced in June that a canonical court had investigated Wesolowski on charges of sex abuse in the Dominican Republic and concluded by dismissing him from the clerical state, depriving him of all rights and duties associated with being a priest except the obligation of celibacy. Wesolowski would face a criminal trial under the laws of Vatican City State, the Vatican said at the time.

On Sept. 23, Father Lombardi said, a Vatican prosecutor summoned Wesolowski and informed him of the charges against him.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Associated Press
September 23, 2014

The Vatican put its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic under house arrest Tuesday after opening a criminal trial against him, the first time a high-ranking Vatican official has ever faced criminal charges for sexually abusing youngsters.

Josef Wesolowski had already been defrocked in June after the Vatican’s canon law court found him guilty of abuse and imposed its toughest penalty under church law: laicization, or returning to life as a layman.

On Tuesday, the Vatican City State’s separate criminal court opened a preliminary hearing into his case and ordered him placed under house arrest.

A Vatican statement said Wesolwski presented medical documentation detailing health concerns that presumably prevented a more restrictive type of detention. The Vatican has a few small detention rooms inside its police barracks, but no long-term facilities. …

Read the Statement of the Director of the Holy See Press Office regarding the penal proceedings involving former nuncio Josef Wesolwoski:

Today, the Promoter of Justice of the Court of First Instance of the Vatican City State summoned the former nuncio J. Wesolowski, on whom he had conducted a criminal investigation. The prelate – already judged in the first instance by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and reduced to the lay state at the end of canonical administrative penal process – was notified of the indictment of the criminal proceedings against him for serious acts of abuse of minors in the Dominican Republic.

The seriousness of the allegations has prompted the official investigation to impose a restrictive measure that, in light of the accused’s health condition, as evidenced by medical documentation, consists of house arrest, with its related limitations, in a location within the Vatican City State.

The initiative taken by the judicial departments of Vatican City State is a result of the express desire of the Pope, so that a case so serious and delicate would be addressed without delay, with just and necessary rigor, and with full assumption of responsibility on the part of the institutions that are governed by the Holy See.

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NEW YORK
News 12

Officials say a 6-year-old girl has been allegedly molested by a Catholic priest who is already on probation for a similar crime.

The girl says she was sexually abused more times than she can remember by 50-year-old Augusto Cortez.

The girl has also reportedly been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease.

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WATYKAN
Newsweek

Potwierdzają się ustalenia “Newsweeka”. Rzecznik Stolicy Apostolskiej ksiądz Federico Lombardi poinformował, że abp Wesołowski przebywa w areszcie domowym w Watykanie.

Abp Wesołowski w areszcie domowym

Rzecznik dodał, że postanowienie o areszcie domowym wydano biorąc pod uwagę stan zdrowia byłego watykańskiego dyplomaty. To zaś oznacza, że odstąpiono od umieszczenia go w celi za Spiżową Bramą.

Ksiądz Federico Lombardi poinformował, że we wtorek abp Wesołowski został wezwany przez promotora sprawiedliwości, czyli prokuratora w trybunale Państwa Watykańskiego, gdzie wszczęto postępowanie karne wobec niego.

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WATYKAN
Dziennik

Były arcybiskup Józef Wesołowski trafił do aresztu domowego – poinformował rzecznik stolicy apostolskiej Federico Lombardi. Były nuncjusz apostolski na Dominikanie jest podejrzewany o udział w aferze pedofilskiej w tym kraju.

Lombardi poinformował, że decyzja została podjęta przez organy sądowe Państwa Watykańskiego. Dodał, że wynika ona z wyraźnej woli papieża, aby w przypadku tak poważnych i delikatnych spraw, sąd watykański zajmował się nimi niezwłocznie. Rzecznik stolicy apostolskiej dodał, że Wesołowski trafił do aresztu domowego ze względu na stan zdrowia.

Nuncjusz Wesołowski miał dopuścić się nadużyć seksualnych wobec nieletnich na Dominkanie. Watykan podjął już wobec niego kroki wynikające z kodeksu kanonicznego. Stracił immunitet dyplomatyczny oraz został wykluczony z kapłaństwa.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
La Repubblica

ROMA – L’ex nunzio Jozef Wesolowski, 66 anni, sotto inchiesta per pedofilia, è stato arrestato oggi in Vaticano. L’arresto, reso noto dal Tg de La 7, è stato realizzato secondo le indicazioni di Papa Francesco, ha dichiarato padre Federico Lombardi: “L’iniziativa assunta dagli organi giudiziari dello Stato è conseguente alla volontà espressa del Papa, affinché un caso così grave e delicato venga affrontato senza ritardi, con il giusto e necessario rigore, con assunzione piena di responsabilità da parte delle istituzioni che fanno capo alla Santa Sede”.

Mons. Wesolowski, che ha già avuto una condanna canonica di primo grado che lo ha visto ridotto allo stato laicale dall’ex Sant’Uffizio per abusi sessuali su minori, è stato arrestato questo pomeriggio intorno alle 17.

Le accuse. Jozef Wesolowski, confermano fonti Oltretevere, è stato arrestato dagli agenti della Gendarmeria vaticana su ordine del promotore di giusitizia che lo accusa di reati di pedofilia quando era nunzio della Repubblica Dominicana tra il 2008 e il 2013. Wesolowski avrebbe adescato alcuni ragazzini su una spiaggia di Santo Domingo pagandoli per fare sesso. Un diacono, suo ex collaboratore, ha riferito di avergli procurato giovani per rapporti sessuali. Anche altri quattro testimoni hanno puntanto il dito contro il monsignore, indagato, oltre che Santo Domingo, anche in Polonia dove, in base ad accordi internazionali, Varsavia persegue i suoi cittadini anche per reati commessi all’estero.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Vatican claims “house arrest” for defrocked archbishop

For immediate release: Tuesday, September 23, 2014

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

Vatican officials in Rome claim they have put an accused child molesting ex-archbishop on house arrest. We’re skeptical.

Josef Wesolowski faces allegations of child sexual abuse in the Dominican Republic. We are grateful that this action has finally been taken, feel it should have happened months ago, and believe it’s better if secular authorities are able to jail and prosecute Wesolowski.

[Yahoo! News]

[La Repubblica]

Catholic officials – in Rome, Poland and the Dominican Repubic – should actively seek out others who were hurt by Wesolowski and help police and prosecutors convict Deacon Francisco Javier Occi Reyes, who procured boys for the then-archbishop, by making announcements about both clerics in parishes, urging those who saw, suspected or suffered their crimes to come forward, get help and call police.

We applaud the courage of the Dominican boys who were sexually violated by this now-defrocked archbishop who Vatican officials are still protecting from secular prosecution.

Pope Francis claims ”There are no privileges. . .for priests and bishops who have violated children.” While we are glad Wesolowski has allegedly been restricted, we are concerned it took so long for this to happen and doubt strongly that Catholic officials will enforce this move.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
El Nuevo Herald

El Vaticano colocó bajo arresto domiciliario al ex embajador en República Dominicana Josef Wesolowski, ante acusaciones de que el abusó de menores en el país caribeño, informó la Santa Sede el martes.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
La Gaceta

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO.- El ex nuncio apostólico en República Dominicana Jozef Wesolowski se encuentra bajo arresto domiciliario en la ciudad del Vaticano, informaron hoy fuentes oficiales.

Wesolowski fue acusado de abuso sexual de menores durante su misión en el país caribeño y ya había sido retirado de su labor como sacerdote por un tribunal vaticano a principios de este año.

Este es el primer arresto de un alto jerarca de la iglesia en el interior del Vaticano.

El sacerdote polaco de 66 años huyó de República Dominicana cuando se inició una investigación por el pago a menores de edad para sostener relaciones sexuales.

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VATICAN CITY
Dominican Today

Vatican City.- Former Vatican envoy Jozef Wesolowski, charged with sexually abusing boys in the Dominican Republic, has been placed under house arrest on Pope Francis’ instructions, for the “so serious and delicate” case to be addressed without delay.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi made the announcement in a statement Tuesday, which stressed that the measure comes after the defendant was notified of the list of offences of which he’s accused of in the criminal proceeding for the alleged “serious acts of abuse to minors in the Dominican Republic.”

Wesolowski, 66, is accused of abusing minors during his stay in the Dominican Republic, where he was the Vatican envoy.

Another similar case is that of the also Polish-born Catholic priest Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto), who’s under house arrest in his country on charges of abusing minors in his country, and in the Dominican Republic highland town of Juncalito.

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FLORIDA
WINK

FORT MYERS, Fla.- The Diocese of Venice is facing a $5 million lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims the Diocese and St. Francis Xavier Church were aware a volunteer had molested a child in 2011 and 2013 but did nothing about it.

Robert Little was arrested back in January for the 2013 allegations.

He pled guilty to child molestation charges and will serve a year in jail and 10 years on sex offender probation.

The victim’s mother believes the church and Diocese should also be held responsible.

The victim’s attorney Adam Horowitz said, “We do take issue with the Catholic Church and Diocese of Venice because upon receiving the first complaint they should have taken action to prevent Little from having access to kids.”

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, September 23, 2014

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

Child sexual abuse allegations against a Michigan priest have been deemed credible by church officials. We are glad they have come to this conclusion and hope they do more than just the bare minimum to ensure the safety of children.

We are also grateful to the brave victims who came forward and reported their abuse. Their actions will help protect other children.

Father James Menapace was reported to have sexually abused boys in the late 1990s in the Diocese of Marquette.

Often times church officials do the bare minimum after allegations are found credible. But church officials train, ordain, hire, and transfer priests; they have an obligation to prevent them from hurting more children even after they are suspended.

Bishop John F. Doerfler should immediately move Fr. Menapace to a remote and secure treatment facility so that he cannot harm any more children. He should tell parishioners, police, prosecutors and the public where Fr. Menapace is now. He should disclose when the abuse report was made. (We fear it’s taken weeks or months for Doerfler to act.) And he should disclose whether other accusations against Fr. Menapace have been made in the past.

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FLORIDA
News-Press

[with video]

Mary Wozniak, mwozniak@news-press.com August 19, 2014

The Diocese of Venice will pay six figures to settle a sex abuse case involving a now-defrocked priest and man who was abused at age 16, the man’s attorney announced Tuesday.

The accuser, now 37, came forward with his claim in 2008. In response, the priest, the Rev. Jean Ronald Joseph, of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Fort Myers, held a 2009 news conference declaring his innocence and naming the victim.

A confidential document, leaked by a priest to the accuser’s father this year, details a subsequent 4.5-year investigation and 2013 diocesan trial in which Joseph was found guilty, and dismissed, said attorney Adam Horowitz. If not for the priest’s action, “it would never see the light of day,” he said.

His client knew none of this until his father received the document, Horowitz said in a news conference releasing the document and announcing the settlement. He declined to name a more specific settlement figure.

“This is a case in which the priest held a press conference to call his victim a liar,” Horowitz said. Instead, the diocesan trial found the accuser to be credible, he said.

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VATICAN CITY
RTE News

The Vatican has said it has arrested a former archbishop who is accused of paying for sex with children while he was a papal ambassador in the Dominican Republic.

Jozef Wesolowski, originally from Poland, is under house arrest inside the city state, the Vatican said in a statement.

He was defrocked by a Vatican tribunal earlier this year and is awaiting trial on criminal charges.

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VATICAN CITY
Newser

By NICOLE WINFIELD | ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican put its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic under house arrest Tuesday after opening a criminal trial against him, the first time a high-ranking Vatican official has ever faced criminal charges for sexually abusing youngsters.

Josef Wesolowski had already been defrocked in June after the Vatican’s canon law court found him guilty of abuse and imposed its toughest penalty under church law: laicization, or returning to life as a layman.

On Tuesday, the Vatican City State’s separate criminal court opened a preliminary hearing into his case and ordered him placed under house arrest.

A Vatican statement said Wesolwski presented medical documentation detailing health concerns that presumably prevented a more restrictive type of detention. The Vatican has a few small detention rooms inside its police barracks, but no long-term facilities.

The Holy See recalled the Polish-born Wesolowski in August, 2013 after the archbishop of Santo Domingo told Pope Francis about rumors that Wesolowski had sexually abused teenage boys in the Caribbean country. Prosecutors there say he allegedly paid boys to masturbate.

Dominican authorities opened an investigation, but declined initially to press charges since the Vatican had said Wesolowski enjoyed diplomatic immunity. Polish prosecutors as well opened an investigation.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

(Reuters) – The Vatican said on Tuesday it had arrested a former archbishop who is accused of paying for sex with children while he was a papal ambassador in the Dominican Republic.

Jozef Wesolowski, a Pole, is under house arrest inside the city state, the Vatican said in a statement.

Wesolowski was defrocked by a Vatican tribunal earlier this year and is awaiting trial on criminal charges.

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VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican says it has put its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic under house arrest following allegations he sexually abused young boys in the Caribbean country.

Josef Wesolowski has already been defrocked after the Vatican’s canon law court found him guilty in June and imposed its toughest penalty: laicization, or returning to life as a layman. On Tuesday, the Vatican’s separate criminal court opened a preliminary hearing into his case and ordered him placed under house arrest.

A Vatican statement said Wesolwski presented medical documentation detailing health concerns that prevented a more restrictive type of detention. The Vatican has a few small detention rooms inside its police barracks.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Stephanie Yeagle | Sep. 23, 2014

Former altar boy Jon David Couzens filed a sexual abuse lawsuit in 2011 against the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, in which he alleges that the diocese “intentionally failed to supervise a priest who repeatedly abused Couzens three decades ago,” according to The Kansas City Star.

Couzens alleges that Msgr. Thomas J. O’Brien, now deceased, “sexually abused Couzens and three other youths in the early 1980s when they were altar boys at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Independence,” the Star reported.

The lawsuit is the first of its kind to go to trial before a jury in the Kansas City area. It will be held before Jackson County Circuit Judge Jim Kanatzar in Independence, Mo., and is expected to last 10 days. Jury selection starts Thursday with opening statements slated for the following Monday.

The diocese’s potential witness list includes eight priests and two nuns. Couzens’ witnesses include Bishop Robert Finn and seven other priests.

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MICHIGAN
Sault Ste. Marie Evening News

BRIMLEY — Officials of the Catholic Diocese of Marquette have deemed credible allegations of sexual abuse of male minors against Father James Menapace.

The reported incidents occurred in the late 1990s after Father Menapace had retired from active ministry.

After consultation with the Diocesan Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, Bishop John Doerfler determined that a public announcement of the allegations should be made.

Father Menapace has been removed from all public priestly ministry and prohibited from presenting himself as a priest in accordance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
The diocesan attorney has reported the allegations to the appropriate civil authorities.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD Radio

A former Grandville youth pastor could face 15 years in prison if convicted for sexually assaulting a teenage girl, officials said Tuesday.

Former pastor Jeremiah Behrens exploited his position at the Grandville Baptist Church to commit sexual acts on a teenager, officials revealed.

Behrens was arraigned following an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior with a minor. He could face up to 15 years if convicted on charges of second- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By John Tunison | jtunison@mlive.com
on September 23, 2014

UPDATE: Grandville youth pastor allegedly touched teen parishioner’s breasts: court records

GRANDVILLE, MI — A former youth pastor at Grandville Baptist Church is accused of sexually assaulting a teen.

Jeremiah Levi Behrens, 34, is charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Grandville police say the charges involve a teen victim, between 13 and 15 years old.

It’s not immediately clear if the victim is a church member, but detectives say the charges relate to his position of authority at the church, 4325 40th St. SW.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

GRANDVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — A former Grandville youth pastor was arrested after allegedly sexually assaulting a teen girl.

Police say Jeremiah Behrens used his authority as a youth pastor at Grandville Baptist Church, 4325 40th Street SW, to have an inappropriate relationship with the teen girl, between the ages of 13 and 16.

According to court documents, the pastor inappropriately touched the teen who was part of the church youth program.

Behrens was arraigned Monday on charges of second-degree and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct because of his position of authority and the teen’s age, according to court records. He posted bond and was released from custody.

Behrens could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, September 23, 2014

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

The Diocese of Venice is being sued for allegedly covering up child sexual abuse. We are grateful to the victim for having the courage to hold his perpetrator and those who covered it up accountable.

Robert Little was a church volunteer at St. Francis Xavier Church when he abused a 13 year old boy. And last year he was convicted for it.

According to the lawsuit, church officials were told about other allegations of abuse committed by Little, but covered it up. That irresponsible behavior led to other children being abused. We urge Bishop Frank Dewane to reach out to others who may have been hurt by Little.

We hope this lawsuit encourages other who were hurt to come forward, report what they know, and start healing.

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OHIO
The Plain Dealer

By John Caniglia, The Plain Dealer
on September 23, 2014

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A judge Tuesday ordered a former pastor at St. Helena Church on Cleveland’s West Side to begin paying back more than $280,000 in restitution to the church.

If the Rev. Andre Matthews doesn’t, he will remain in prison for another year, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Richard McMonagle said.

The judge’s office scheduled a hearing Oct. 23 in which McMonagle will decide Matthews’ status. The former pastor has been in prison since Nov. 5, when McMonagle sentenced him to two years for fleecing the church and parishioners, a move that allowed Matthews to pay credit card bills and buy cars, as well as pay college tuition for his children.

Authorities said he stole $176,000 from the church and $106,000 from 89-year-old Aurelia Papp, who sat in her wheelchair in the back of McMonagle’s courtroom and watched the proceedings. She did not wish to comment after the hearing.

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FLORIDA
News-Press

Another sex abuse charge and $5 million lawsuit has been filed against the Diocese of Venice, this time involving a 13-year old boy who was abused in 2013 by a former Eucharistic Minister at St. Francis Xavier Church in Fort Myers.

The boy, who is now 14 years old and developmentally disabled, was abused several times by Robert Little, a former lay minister at the parish, according to the lawsuit, filed in Circuit Court Monday by Attorney Adam Horowitz.

Little pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of the boy in July 2014 and is now a registered sex offender in Florida, the lawsuit says.

“The reason we filed the lawsuit is that we became aware that there was a prior complaint against the same minister (Little),” Horowitz said. “Our investigation revealed the Diocese of Venice failed to take action.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

September 24, 2014

Joanne McCarthy

A blind Vietnamese orphan who was five when she came to Australia, 11 when she was sexually abused by a Catholic nun and 35 when she received $15,000 in compensation for her “personal trauma” has spoken out for the 10 per cent of people reporting female perpetrators to the child sexual abuse royal commission.

“I want people to know a small percentage of women are just as capable of abusing power as men are,” said Emma Pham, who was sexually abused by Dominican nun Sister Kay Fennell at the St Lucy’s School for the Visually Impaired at Wahroonga in 1979.

“She knew she could do what she did to me, so she did, and that’s the worst of it because I was so vulnerable, and so alone.”

Ms Pham came to Australia in 1972 from a Vietnamese orphanage after Catholic nuns organised a passport. Her guardian, a nun, enrolled her at St Lucy’s in 1973.

Another St Lucy’s student and a former Maitland-Newcastle diocese employee, Catherine Mahony, remembers Ms Pham’s vulnerability as the child with “nowhere to go for holidays and weekends, and no family”

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, September 23, 2014

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

A New York priest, who has been on probation since 2008 for child sex crimes, has struck again. He’s allegedly been caught abusing a six year old girl, who now has a sexually transmitted disease. Our hearts ache for this innocent girl who might never have been hurt had church officials acted responsibly.

Fr. Augusto Cortez, who is a member of the Vincentian religious order from Brooklyn, abused a 12 year old child in 2008. Vincentian officials should have immediately removed him to a remote and secure treatment facility so that he could not harm another child. Instead they allegedly wrote letters on Cortez’s behalf. It is deeply upsetting, although not surprising, that Cortex has abused another child, by exploiting the trust of an unsuspecting family.

According to news reports, after being arrested Cortez was released and has now disappeared.

We urge everyone to remain vigilant. Vincentian officials should immediately reach out to everyone who may have come in contact with Cortez and beg them to come forward and report what they know. They should use their websites, mailing lists, and bulletin boards to warn people about him.

Brooklyn’s Bishop Nicholas Dimarzio should do the same. The Vincentians work in his diocese with his permission. He is responsible for the safety and well being of his flock. He must aggressively try to find others with knowledge or suspicions about Cortez’ crimes.

We encourage anyone who saw, suspects, or suffered child sex crimes by Cortez, or any other church official, to immediately come forward, report what you know, and start healing.

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Tzedek-Tzedek

While many of us struggle with understanding why any adult would sexually abuse a child, we also struggle with understanding why any other adults would want to cover up such a heinous crime.

The cover-up phenomenon is pandemic.

To cite a few high profile examples over the past couple of years:

Jimmy Savile, UK pop culture hero and saintly charity worker – who reportedly raised UKP 30m for charity. His abuses of children only became public after his death. Hundreds of victims have since come forward to present their horrific experiences to a board of national enquiry. The abuses happened in the children’s hospitals where Saville volunteered, and even in his BBC changing rooms. Literally hundreds of victims have stepped forward since 2012; and it has become clear that hundreds more adults knew, including senior members of the BBC and staff at the children’s hospitals, and all who stood by doing nothing to protect these children from Savile for sixty years. …

The Catholic Church has become a by-word for sex abuse cover-up, due to repeating patterns of clergy who sexually abused children, and who were then protected by the Church hierarchy for decades. These scandals have rolled from Boston, USA, where the behaviour was first exposed in The Boston Globe in 2002, through dozens of other US locations, and then to Catholic communities throughout Europe, South America and Australia.

The Jewish community has also experienced increasing exposure of past child sex abuse cases, and the cover-up phenomena which have come to light parallels the behaviour in other cases, such as those above.

Many of these events have taken place in orthodox communities, which is a double-blow to the prestige and good names of these communities – the first is that these crimes existed in the most pious communities, and the second that the community leadership had often failed to side with the victims, rather denying, minimizing and covering-up the crimes.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Fall River

Brian Fraga
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Sep. 21, 2014

FALL RIVER — Like many members of his new flock in southeastern Massachusetts, Bishop Edgar da Cunha immigrated to the United States, knowing very little English.

“It was a huge adjustment,” da Cunha said as he recalled the cold late February day he arrived in Newark, New Jersey, as a 24-year-old seminarian from Brazil.

“It was 95 degrees when I left, and I arrived in the New York airport, and it was 20 degrees. That was the first adjustment,” da Cunha said. “Then the language, the culture, going to seminary, so many adjustments, but thank God, he gave me the gift of being able to adjust.”

Da Cunha, 61, adjusted well enough to be ordained a Catholic priest, and eventually an auxiliary bishop, in the Archdiocese of Newark. On Wednesday, during a 2 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, da Cunha will be installed as the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Fall River. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the metropolitan archbishop of Boston, will install da Cunha in the presence of Archbishop Carlo M. Vigano, the pope’s apostolic nuncio to the United States. Da Cunha is replacing Bishop George W. Coleman, who is retiring.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014

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

Tomorrow, Fall River Catholics officially get a new bishop.

Because he comes from a dreadfully scandal-ridden archdiocese, we are highly skeptical about how he’ll protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. So we respectfully challenge Bishop Edgar Moreira da Cunha to break the unhealthy and growing silence and inaction among the Catholic hierarchy on the church’s on-going clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis.

Despite repeated pledges to be “open and transparent” about predator priests, nearly the entire church hierarchy discloses virtually nothing about these crimes or cover ups unless forced to do so by public pressure or the actions victims, witnesses, whistleblowers, police, prosecutors courts or journalists.

Da Cunha is from the Newark Archdiocese with 42 publicly identified predator priests and a long, shameful history of protecting child molesting clerics over innocent, vulnerable children. That history continues to the present day.

As best we can tell, da Cunha has shown no real courage or compassion in one of the worst archdioceses in the US for clergy sex abuse victims. We see no evidence that he has ever said or done a single thing to break with the self-serving and irresponsible actions of his Newark colleagues, who continue to put kids in harm’s way and maintain secrecy at all costs.

Last year, da Cunha announced a new policy letting Newark Catholic officials take secretive steps to reduce public attention on predator priests.

Catholic officials claimed that this is about being sensitive to victims. It’s not. Their use of the phrase “negative publicity” shows their true intent: it’s about keeping predator priests out of the news. Church officials know that every time a child molesting cleric is mentioned in public, other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers might step forward. Preventing such disclosures continues to be a top priority in the Catholic hierarchy, especially in Newark.

The list of clergy sex abuse and cover up cases in New Jersey that have been handled in a dreadful way is long. Perhaps the two worst are those involving Fr. Michael Fugee and Fr. Carmine Sita.

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NEW YORK
Saratogian

By Molly Eadie, meadie@troyrecord.com, @mollyeadie on Twitter
POSTED: 09/23/14

ALBANY >> A 39-year-old man Monday publicly announced he was sexually abused by a teacher at LaSalle Institute more than 20 years ago.

At a news conference in front of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany Pastoral Center, Michael Cioppa, of Latham, said his alleged abuser was fired for his actions, but has continued teaching, and is currently a college professor.

Cioppa said when he was 16, the then-principal of LaSalle sent him for private tutoring at this lay teacher’s home, but told him to keep the arrangement a secret.

He received a passing grade in exchange for sexual favors, Cioppa said, and came forward two years after graduation, when he found out his younger brother would have the same teacher.

Cioppa told his father, who informed a State Trooper who was also a deacon on the Catholic Church.

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MICHIGAN
ABC 10

Courtesy: Catholic Diocese of Marquette

MARQUETTE — Officials of the Catholic Diocese of Marquette have deemed credible allegations of sexual abuse of male minors against Father James Menapace.

The reported incidents occurred in the late 1990s after Father Menapace had retired from active ministry.

After consultation with the Diocesan Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, Bishop John Doerfler determined that a public announcement of the allegations should be made.

Father Menapace has been removed from all public priestly ministry and prohibited from presenting himself as a priest in accordance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The diocesan attorney has reported the allegations to the appropriate civil authorities.

“To all victims of clergy sexual abuse, let me say that my heart is open to you. You are in my thoughts and prayers, and I am willing to journey with you to find Christ’s peace and healing,” Bishop Doerfler said.

To bring a complaint to the attention of the diocese, please call one of the Victim’s Assistance Coordinators, Stephen Lynott at 844-495-4330 or Diane Tryan at 844-694-4362. Both phone numbers are toll-free.

Those who wish to put their complaint in writing can direct their correspondence to: Victim’s Assistance Coordinator, c/o Catholic Social Services of the U.P., 1100 Ludington St., Suite 401, Escanaba, MI 49829. The letter should be marked “Personal and Confidential” and indicate whether a response is desired by phone or by letter.

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MICHIGAN
Upper Michigan Source

MARQUETTE — Sexual abuse allegations against a retired diocesan priest have been deemed credible.

The reported allegations of sexual abuse against male minors occurred in the late 1990s after Father Menapace had retired from active ministry.

Father Menapace has been removed from all public priestly ministry and prohibited from presenting himself as a priest in accordance with the charter for the protection of children and young people.

As always the diocese encourages any of those who may have a complaint to report the incident to local civil authorities.

———————————

Official Press Release:

Officials of the Catholic Diocese of Marquette have deemed credible allegations of sexual abuse of male minors against Father James Menapace (pronounced MEN-uh-PAH-chee). The reported incidents occurred in the late 1990s after Father Menapace had retired from active ministry.

After consultation with the Diocesan Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, Bishop John Doerfler determined that a public announcement of the allegations should be made. Father Menapace has been removed from all public priestly ministry and prohibited from presenting himself as a priest in accordance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

The diocesan attorney has reported the allegations to the appropriate civil authorities.

Bishop Doerfler said, “To all victims of clergy sexual abuse, let me say that my heart is open to you. You are in my thoughts and prayers, and I am willing to journey with you to find Christ’s peace and healing.”

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MICHIGAN
Fox 11

MARQUETTE, Mich. – A retired priest who worked in Upper Michigan is suspected of sexually abusing boys.

The Catholic Diocese of Marquette says the allegations against Fr. James Menapace, which it has deemed credible, stem from incidents in the late 1990s after Menapace had retired from active ministry.

The diocese says it has reported the allegations to local authorities. It has also removed Menapace from public priestly ministry and prohibited him from presenting himself as a priest.

Menapace was ordained in 1963 and retired in 1996. He worked at parishes in Marquette, Sault Ste. Marie, Brimley and Gulliver. Menapace also worked at Northern Michigan University and Lake Superior State College.

The diocese is asking any other victims to come forward and contact local authorities as well as one of the diocese’s victim’s assistance coordinators, Stephen Lynott at 1-844-495-4330 or Diane Tryan at 1-844-694-4362. Both numbers are toll-free.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
09/23/2014

Jury selection is to begin Thursday in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed against the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph by a former altar boy.

If the case goes to trial without a settlement, it will be the first lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of a minor by a priest to go before a jury in the Kansas City area.

The lawsuit, filed in 2011 by Jon David Couzens, alleges that the diocese intentionally failed to supervise a priest who repeatedly abused Couzens three decades ago.

Couzens alleges that Monsignor Thomas J. O’Brien sexually abused Couzens and three other youths in the early 1980s when they were altar boys at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Independence.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

September 23, 2014

John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor

Especially on the heels of rumors that Pope Francis is about to demote American Cardinal Raymond Burke to a ceremonial Vatican job, Saturday’s choice of Blase Cupich as the new Archbishop of Chicago cemented impressions in many quarters of a lurch to the left in Catholicism.

On Twitter, one disgruntled reaction termed this one-two punch the beginning of the “soft and fluffy Anglicanization” of the Catholic Church.

Burke is a hero to conservatives and an especially strong voice on pro-life issues, while Cupich is basically what the Europeans would call “center-left,” meaning a moderate whose own sympathies lie a bit more with the liberals. Taken together, these steps seem to paint a clear political picture.

Therein, however, lies the problem.

The impression of a recent turn to the left depends on keeping these two moves in focus – one of which is still unconfirmed, though Francis already took Burke off the Congregation for Bishops last December – and leaving a couple of other important pieces out of the picture.

For instance, there’s last Thursday’s appointment of Anthony Fisher as the new Archbishop of Sydney in Australia. A protégé of Cardinal George Pell, who today is overseeing Francis’ financial reform, Fisher is a Dominican theologian who would almost universally be seen as a conservative.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 20 September 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed the new members of the International Theological Commission and has renewed the mandate of a number of members from its previous five-year term. For the 2014-2019 term, the Commission will be composed of the following members:

– Fr. Serge Thomas Bonino, O.P., secretary general, France;
– Rev. Terwase Henry Akaabiam, Nigeria;
– Sister Prudence Allen, R.S.M., U.S.A.;
– Sister Alenka Arko, Loyola Community, Russian Federation – Slovenia;
– Msgr. Antonio Luiz Catelan Ferreira, Brazil;
– Msgr. Piero Coda, Italy;
– Rev. Lajos Dolhai, Hungary;
– P. Peter Dubovsky, S.J., Slovakia;
– Rev. Mario Angel Flores Ramos, Mexico;
– Rev. Carlos Maria Galli, Argentina;
– Rev. Krzysztof Gozdz, Poland;
– Rev. Gaby Alfred Hachem, Lebanon;
– Fr. Thomas Kollamparampil, C.M.I., India;
– Rev. Koffi Messan Laurent Kpogo, Togo;
– Rev. Oswaldo Martinez Mendoza, Colombia;
– Professor Moira Mary McQueen, Canada – Great Britain;
– Rev. Karl Heinz Menke, Germany;
– Rev.do John Junyang PARK, Corea;
– Fr. Bernard Pottier, S.J., Belgium;
– Rev. Javier Prades Lopez, Spain;
– Professor Tracey Rowland, Australia;
– Professor Hector Gustavo Sanchez Rojas, S.C.V., Peru;
– Professor Marianne Schlosser, Austria – Germany;
– Rev. Nicholaus Segeja M’Hela, Tanzania;
– Rev. Pierangelo Sequeri, Italy;
– Rev. Zeljko Tanjic, Croatia;
– Fr. Gerard Francisco P. Timoner III, O.P., Philippines;
– Fr. Gabino Uribarri Bilbao, S.J., Spain;
– Rev. Philippe Vallin, France;
– Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M.Cap., U.S.A.

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OKLAHOMA
McAlester News

Parker Perry | Staff writer

A McAlester pastor arrested Friday on a child pornography complaint has been removed from his position at the church.

Missionary Baptist Church released a statement Friday stating Larry Jones, 65, is no longer the leader of the church.

“In regards to the arrest of Pastor Larry Jones, the church held a special business meeting Friday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. and voted to remove him as pastor and a member of McAlester Missionary Baptist Church,” a statement reads.

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OKLAHOMA
Enid News

Parker Perry CNHI News Service

A pastor at a McAlester church was arrested Friday morning on an initial complaint of possessing child pornography.

Police said Larry Jones, 65, of McAlester, is the pastor at Missionary Baptist Church on Hereford Lane. Det. Sgt. Chris Morris said Jones was arrested after his wife found a letter written by him telling a story about a fantasy he had about three minors at the church.

“She was messing with the printer and it shot out a print. It was this story about three young girls,” Morris said.

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OKLAHOMA
Fox 23

[with video]

By Angela Hong

MCALESTER, Okla. — New details on a McAlester pastor arrested over the weekend on child pornography charges.

Larry Jones, 65, the pastor at Missionary Baptist Church, is now out of jail. FOX23 learned it was a story he wrote and not pictures or videos that put him in jail.

A McAlester police detective told FOX23 they believe Jones wrote a one-page story that was detailed and graphic and named girls from his church specifically.

The detective said it was the worst thing he’s ever read.

“It is shocking,” said Sgt. Chris Morris.

Morris had a difficult time repeating some of the details in the story.

“What it was, was a very graphic, detailed story about three young girls that went to his church,” said Morris.

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INDIA
Odisha Sun Times

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Sep 23:

A priest was today ‘caught redhanded’ by people in the Ganapati Nagar slum under the Nayapalli police station area in Odisha’s capital city, while he was allegedly sexually assaulting a six-year old girl at a desolate spot inside the slum.

The mother of the victim along with fellow slum-dwellers lodged a complaint with the Nayapalli police station, who in turn transferred the case to the Mahila police station for further investigation.

According to reports, the incident happened at 10am when parents of the minor girl were not present in their house.

Madhab Chandra Panda, priest of a small temple in the slum, called the little girl to a lonely place and took liberties with her private parts. Groaning in pain, the girl cried aloud for help.

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MICHIGAN
WSBT

DETROIT (AP) — A Catholic priest is scheduled for trial next week in the theft of money from a fund set up to help poor people in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park.

The Wayne County prosecutor’s office says the Rev. Timothy Kane’s trial is scheduled Monday in Circuit Court.

The 58-year-old and an acquaintance, Dorreca Brewer, were charged in February with embezzlement. Brewer on Sept. 15 pleaded no contest to charges that she lied and embezzled. The Detroit Free Press reports (http://on.freep.com/1mI0SIe ) the 35-year-old is expected to avoid jail time.

Prosecutors say that the pair approved false applications for the Angel Fund and pocketed thousands of dollars over four years. The Angel Fund had been run by the Archdiocese of Detroit and granted more than $17 million to needy people since 2005.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald (UK)

Pope Francis has named Australian theologian Tracey Rowland among the new female members of the International Theological Commission.

The Vatican announced her appointment this morning, along with those of Sister Prudence Allen RSM, Sister Alenka Arko, Dr Moira McQueen and Prof Marianne Schlosser.

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, announced earlier this month that the number of women serving on the commission would be increased. Until now, the commission had two female members, Sister Sara Butler and Prof Barbara Hallensleben.

Prof Tracey Rowland is Dean of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne. Her books include Ratzinger’s Faith: the Theology of Pope Benedict XVI.

The International Theological Commission was created by Pope Paul VI in 1969. Its task is to help the Holy See, and primarily the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in examining major doctrinal questions.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

[with video]

HAMPTON BAYS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A little girl was allegedly sexually abused by a suspended Catholic priest who was a close family friend, and who had been charged with similar a crime in the past.

As CBS 2’s Lou Young reported exclusively Monday night, the 6-year-old, who has been diagnosed with a sexually-transmitted disease, said the abuse happened more times than she can remember. CBS 2 met her at her family’s home in Hampton Bays.

The girl identified her assailant as Augusto Cortez, 50, a suspended Catholic priest who should have been on everyone’s radar as a potential threat, Young reported.

Her mother told us how she found Cortez – a once trusted family friend and guest – at a backyard party on a couch with the child four months ago.

“Her face, it showed the fear, but what mostly really assured me was he walked away and he pulled up his zipper right away,” the girl’s mother said.

Cortez was picked up and questioned for several hours at Southampton police headquarters, and was released even though he is a sex offender on probation. After that, he since vanished, and CBS 2 is told the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office is actively looking for him.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A horrifying picture of sustained physical and sexual abuse suffered for decades by mixed-race and Aboriginal children at a home in Darwin is unfolding at a national inquiry.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is sitting in Darwin to examine the Retta Dixon Home, which from 1946 until 1980, housed children of mixed descent as well as some unmarried mothers.

The home was run by the Aborigines Inland Mission (AIM).

Monday’s evidence from a number of former residents told of immense cruelty by ‘house parents’ who oversaw cottages housing up to 12 children at a time.

One witness alleged a girl who failed to properly tidy a kitchen was woken by house mother, Judy Fergusson, and stabbed multiple times on her hands with a can opener until she bled.

Children up to the age of 12 who wet the bed would be undressed and paraded in nappies in front of the other children, she said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Dr Tom Calma was told of an abuse allegation at Retta Dixon House in Darwin, decades ago, the Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission has been told.

Witness AKV – going under a pseudonym, with a protected identity – said he spoke to Mr Calma when he was a welfare offices.

The witness, a 54-year-old Eastern Arrente man from Alice Springs said he was sexually assaulted twice, and we witnessed horrific abuse.

‘There were times my sister would be tied up to the clothesline,’ AKV said.

‘And have faeces rubbed in her face.

‘(House parent) Henderson would regularly grove me in a sexual way.

‘He really seemed to have a thing for dark-skinned boys … Henderson’s favourite place for abusing boys was in the chook pen.’

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Human rights campaigner Tom Calma was ‘helpless’ when told of sexual abuse allegations: inquiry

SEPTEMBER 23, 2014

Amos Aikman
Northern Correspondent
Darwin

PROMINENT indigenous human rights campaigner Tom Calma was told of horrific allegations of sexual abuse at a Darwin missionary home that were never followed up, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, sitting in Darwin, was told the alleged abuse was reported to Dr Calma in the 1970s, while he was working for the Northern Territory government.

The alleged abuse occurred at Retta Dixon Home for children and girls, which operated inside Darwin’s Bagot Aboriginal reserve between 1946 and 1980.

The allegations were made by a witness referred to only as AKV, who said he had informed Dr Calma of the abuse at the hands of “house parent” Don Henderson when he was about 10 years old. He said Dr Calma was working for the Northern Territory government “welfare mob” at the time.

AKV initially did not want to name the man “because he’s in such high standing in the commonwealth government and connection with the United Nations, I don’t want to shame his family”, but under questioning named him as Dr Calma.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

BY NEDA VANOVAC
September 23, 2014

Carers at a home for Aboriginal children knew and did nothing for years as their colleague sexually abused their charges, a royal commission has heard.

Former residents of the Retta Dixon home for mixed-race indigenous children in the Northern Territory said no authority could be trusted with allegations that house parent Donald Henderson had molested them.

A former house parent, identified only as AKR, said in a statement to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Darwin on Tuesday she was “absolutely devastated” when she heard the allegations against Mr Henderson, and reported him to home superintendent Mervyn Pattemore.

This led to a court case in 1976, but the inquiry heard that many children were too frightened to testify and Mr Henderson was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

DAVID MARK: Former residents of the Retta Dixon Children’s Home in Darwin have broken down on the stand while giving evidence to the child sexual abuse royal commission.

Retta Dixon Home was a home for mixed-race Indigenous children run from the 1940s to 1980 by a group of evangelical missionaries.

One witness today told the commission how the former race discrimination commissioner Tom Calma, was told a young boy was sexually abused in the 1970s, but that the allegations were not followed up.

The royal commission is investigating how the missionaries running the home, along with the NT Government and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, handled allegations of severe physical and sexual abuse.

And a warning, Will Ockenden’s story contains distressing details.

WILL OCKENDEN: It was a day packed with emotions, as witnesses at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse broke down in the witness box.

WITNESS: And the doors were locked. He sexually penetrated me. There was lots of blood. (Sobbing).

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Xavier La Canna
Updated 23 Sep 2014

Prominent human rights campaigner Tom Calma was told of sexual assaults against a young boy in the 1970s that were not followed up, a royal commission in Darwin has heard.

On the second day of hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Darwin, there was more graphic evidence of abuse at the Retta Dixon Home, which mainly housed Aboriginal children between 1946 and 1980.

A witness known only as AKV said he was repeatedly abused by a former house parent at the home, Donald Bruce Henderson, who in 1984 was convicted of sex crimes against two boys unrelated to his time at Retta Dixon.

AKV said Dr Calma was working as a welfare officer with the NT government about the time the abuse took place in the early 1970s.

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LOUISIANA
TheMediaReport

David Pierre

As we have reported many times before, one of the most under-reported elements of the entire Catholic Church abuse story is the prevalence of false claims against innocent priests and priests long ago deceased who are no longer around to defend themselves.

Journalists and public relations-types – being the pack animals that they are – never pursue the ultimate counter-narrative of wrongly accused priests.

Now, in a refreshing episode of honesty, Louis Aguirre, spokesman for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, a small diocese in Louisiana, has acknowledged that in recent years “there has not been a case that we deemed to be true” even though the diocese has paid out at least one financial settlement for a claim alleging abuse decades ago.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

Josephine McKenna | September 22, 2014

VATICAN CITY ( RNS) Pope Francis has appointed a special commission to look at ways to make it easier for Roman Catholics to dissolve their marriages in the eyes of the church.

The goal of the 11-member commission announced Saturday (Sept. 20), is to reform the process, “with the objective of simplifying its procedure, making it more streamlined.”

The weekend announcement came as a bitter clash emerged among cardinals over the church’s approach to marriage, divorce and remarriage.

According to church law, Catholics can obtain annulments if they can show their marriage was not valid. But if they opt out of the annulment process, divorce in civil court and then remarry, the church may refuse them Communion.

Five cardinals are publishing a new book reinforcing the sanctity of marriage next week, only days before the world’s bishops gather in Rome for a conference on the subject. The synod will consider issues including divorce, cohabitation, domestic violence and gay unions.

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VIRGINIA
Inside Nova

A volunteer at Park Valley Church in Haymarket has been charged with sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old member of the congregation.

On Sept. 10, officials at the church at 4500 Waverly Farm Drive notified Prince William police of the incident. Police said the volunteer use a cell phone messaging application called KIK to send messages to a 15-year-old girl.

No physical contact was made between the volunteer and the girl.

Police obtained warrants charging Vincent Gunnar Bowes, 22, of Mills River, N.C., with attempted indecent liberties with a minor and use of a communication device to facilitate offenses involving a minor, said Prince William police spokesman Jonathan Perok.

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VIRGINIA
Washington Post

Va. church volunteer charged with sending sexually explicit messages to teenager

By Julie Zauzmer September 22

A church volunteer has been charged with sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old in Haymarket.

Police say that Vincent G. Bowes, 22, sent messages to the teenage girl in August using the smartphone messenger Kik. Staff at Park Valley Church, which the teenager attends, learned about the messages and alerted police.

Prince William County police spokesman Jonathan Perok initially said that Bowes was employed as a youth pastor at Park Valley Church when he sent the messages. But a church employee said Monday that Bowes was a college student volunteering at the church, not a member of the staff, and the police department amended its description of the incident Monday evening to refer to Bowes as a volunteer.

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VIRGINIA
WUSA

HAYMARKET, Va. (WUSA9) — A youth pastor at a Virginia church sent sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl, Prince William County police said.

On August 20, a 16-year-old youth pastor at Park Valley Church located at 4500 Waverly Farm Drive used cell phone app KIK to send sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl, police said.

No physical contact was made between the two, according to police. When church staff found out about what happened, they told police.

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INDIANA
WTHI

[with video]

By Chris Essex

VINCENNES, Ind. (WTHI) – A Vincennes man is behind bars for sexual misconduct with a minor.

On Friday Vincennes Police arrested 34-year-old Derrick “Duke” Hampsch.

Hampsch allegedly had improper sexual contact with a minor on multiple occasions, dating back to 2010 in Vincennes.

The investigation also revealed Hampsch allegedly committed sex acts with a minor outside of Vincennes while working as a youth program administrator.

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INDIANA
WISH

VINCENNES, Ind. (WTHI) – A Vincennes man was arrested for sexual misconduct with a minor on Friday.

Vincennes police arrested 34-year-old Derrick “Duke” Hampsch. Police say he had improper sexual contact with a minor on multiple occasions, dating back to 2010 in Vincennes.

The investigation also revealed Hampsch allegedly committed sex acts with a minor outside of Vincennes while working as a youth program administrator.

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INDIANA
WBIW

(VINCENNES) -A Vincennes youth pastor has been arrested on sexual misconduct with a minor charges.

34-year old Derrick “Duke” Hampsch, the former youth pastor at First Baptist Church, is accused of having improper sexual contact with a minor on multiple occasions dating back to 2010 in Vincennes.

He’s also accused of having committed sexual acts with a minor while outside of Vincennes city limits while working as a youth program administrator.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, Sep 22, 2014

Traditionalists in Rome’s College of Cardinals have decided to get their revenge in first, so to speak, prior to the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops which begins in Rome on October 5th.
The five men concerned include heavy-hitters such as German cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), and Irish American cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature. Both will be taking part in the Extraordinary Synod.

Involved too are Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, Italy, Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, former president of the Vatican’s Committee for Historical Sciences, and Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, former president of the Vatican’s Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See. All contributed essays to the book Remaining With Christ’s Truth, to be published on October 1st.
Pope Francis waves to a poster of the ethnic Albanian missionary Mother Teresa as he is driven through Tirana yesterday. Photograph: Hector Pustina/APCrowd of 200,000 in Albania hear pope speak of tolerance

Pope Francis: among those he married were people who had children out of wedlock, others who had divorced and others who had their marriages annulled Pope may change key rules on marriage

Another heavyweight, Irish Australian cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, will take part in the Extraordinary Synod too. He has written a foreword to another book to be published on October 1st, The Hope of the Family. It includes an extended interview with Cardinal Müller.

All make clear that when it comes to church teaching on marriage, including the ban on remarried divorced Catholics from receiving communion, they are not for turning – whatever the noises off from Santa Marta, where Pope Francis resides.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

September 21, 2014

Geraldine Doogue

What are the ideal characteristics of a man taking on the formidable job of Archbishop of Sydney in this early 21st century? Bishops have always occupied a venerable place in the life of the church. Even though Rome has steadily centralised its power in the last 150 years, the temperament and approach of a local bishop really matters to his people, more than is generally recognised by our largely secular society.

So as a Sydney Catholic, what am I seeking from Anthony Fisher? First, the Archbishop needs to be a pastoral man, who sees his job as nurturing the people of Sydney. He doesn’t have to be an avuncular soul necessarily, like Pope Francis, but he needs to prove that he likes us.
He needs to build on the virtues of Sydney, not merely define its vices; for there are many virtues in this big town, marked by generosity of spirit, vitality and creativity. As St Ironaeus said in the early second century: The greatest testament to the presence of God is a man (or woman) fully alive. That, in my view, is a good description of Sydney, which despite all its flaws, stands ready to contribute much to modern Australia.

He should revel in drawing lay people right insidethe tent, by recognising their readiness to serve and the talents just waiting to be exploited on behalf of the church. He should be humble enough to know that only skills from outside the hierarchy will save the church’s reputation and refresh it now in the eyes of modern Australia. He should especially realise how much women are keen to be invited into the venture. They have been the long-term faithful and lament, more than most, the drift they see in their parishes.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Sharyn McCowen Catholic News Service | Sep. 22, 2014

SYDNEY
New Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher has pledged to regain the confidence of Australian Catholics and the broader community in the wake of the church’s sexual abuse scandal.
Pope Francis named the bishop of Parramatta and former auxiliary bishop of Sydney to succeed Cardinal George Pell, now prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy.

“There can be no more excuses, no more cover-ups and the victims have to be put first,” Fisher said.

The Catholic church in Australia is going through a period of scrutiny, he said.

“I hope it will emerge from this purified, humbler, more compassionate and spiritually regenerated,” he said.

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NEW JERSEY
Hanover Eagle

MORRIS TWP. ‑ Voice of the Faithful New Jersey will present the documentary, “A Matter of Conscience: Confronting Clergy Abuse,” at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 19, at, St. Mark Lutheran Church, 100 Harter Road.

A liturgy will follow at 4:30 p.m.

Following the narratives recounted by psychologically-scarred survivors of clergy sex abuse and documented in their first documentary on the topic of clerical sexual transgression, “Who Takes Away the Sins: Witnesses to Clergy Abuse,“ Susan and John Michalczyk said they felt impelled to continue to expose the magnitude of the scandal by also telling the stories of courageous women and men who revealed clergy abuse and were sanctioned by church leaders—some ostracized, some removed from their positions, deemed disloyal, traitors to their religious orders or the church for daring to break the code of silence.

Bob Hoatson, field producer and co-founder of Road to Recovery, invited his colleagues in Catholic Whistleblowers to participate in the new documentary, “A Matter of Conscience: Confronting Clergy Abuse.”

Fathers Patrick Collins, Ronald Lemmert, Bruce Teague, James Connell and Thomas Patrick Doyle, and Sisters. Maureen Paul Turlish, Sally Butler and Claire Smith agreed to tell how they reported occurrences of clergy sexual abuse despite serious repercussions for their actions. Mitchell Garabedian, attorney for countless survivors of clergy abuse, and Anne Barrett-Doyle of Bishop Accountability.org generously participated in the project.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: September 22, 2014

Ground rules ensured no robes, collars or media.

It was a first in Minnesota, and perhaps a first in the nation. A support group for survivors of clergy sex abuse hosting the man who represents the church they believe betrayed them — Archbishop John Nienstedt.

The ground rules for last weekend’s meeting quietly were laid in advance. No media allowed. No robes or collar on the archbishop. The survivors would be respectful.

Held in a suburban library conference room, the unlikely meeting allowed survivors to share their painful stories with Minnesota’s top Catholic leader and provided Nienstedt a rare and inside look at the impact of abuse.

“I really didn’t think he’d be there until he actually showed up,” said Shawn Plocher, a Minneapolis man who was abused as a child. “This is a group of hurting people who want some sense of healing or closure. … I’m hoping things are heading in the right direction.”

Nienstedt said after the session that he was “honored and thankful that so many have shared their experiences with me.”

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • September 23, 2014

If you haven’t read yesterday’s thread in which people shared their stories about losing their religion, I highly recommend that you do. It’s so moving. Here is the thread for commenting critically on those stories. Today I invite readers who found religion to tell their stories. I will also start a side thread for the critical discussion of these stories. As with yesterday’s posts, please do not place critical commentary in the story thread. It’s only for stories.

I can add something to this. I’m not sure I have ever told this story.

It was 2005, and I was deeply mired in the slough of despond over my Catholic faith, because of the scandal. Discovering that a priest we were getting to know and like was in fact a manipulative liar who was not supposed to be in ministry until the sexual abuse accusations against him had been cleared up, and that the pastor of the parish we had begun attending knew all this and put him into informal ministry anyway — and hid it from most parishioners and his bishop! — was the final straw. My anger, fear, and utter lack of trust in the institutional Catholic Church was working like acid on me. I couldn’t go to mass without having to walk out half the time because I was so angry.

I prayed intensely, desperately for relief and direction. As a Catholic, theologically I believed that the only possible option was Orthodoxy. I read book after book, trying to compare the competing arguments for each church. They only confused me more. I had enough self-awareness to know that it was impossible for me to read these books lucidly. The cloud of darkness around me was like stinging flies. What I recall learning from all that was that the Catholic case for Roman primacy was not nearly as airtight as I had believed. I had only seriously considered the Roman claim versus Protestant claims. Orthodoxy was a new thing. The Orthodox arguments were making some headway with me, but they were far from a slam-dunk, at least with me. What they did was loosen my confidence in the solidity of the Catholic claim. Yet I was highly aware that my own mental and emotional state was inflamed by anger and distrust, such that I was not sure to what extent my deliberations could be trusted.

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WALES
Breitbart

by OLIVER LANE 23 Sep 2014

A new book has expressed in detail the sexual activities of a Satanic sex cult that apparently controlled a single cul-de-sac in the village of Kidwelly, Wales, and submitted a young girl from the age of seven to varied sexual abuse in a bid to appease the imagined God of an Edwardian sadist.

The group, which followed the teaching of ‘The Great Beast’ Aleister Crowley inducted the girl into their ring after she witnessed her mother performing sexual acts as part of a pseudo-religious ceremony when she was only seven years old. At the age of eleven the group leader took her virginity and she was soon being subjected to group orgies.

Although the Satanic group was a relatively small entity, it forced the young girl, who is identified by the pseudonym of Annabelle Forest into prostitution to raise funds for their ‘church’. Through the repeated abuses and being pimped out by the group leader, by the age of 18 she claimed to have been forced into sleeping with more than 1,800 people.

‘Forest’ is not the only young girl to have been initiated into this cult, although the exact number of young people, which involved teenage and pre pubescent boys as well as girls, is not known. When jailed in 2011, the cult leader had been convicted with 11 cases of rape, three of indecent assault, the crime of causing prostitution for personal gain, causing a child to have sex, inciting a child to have sex, six counts of buggery and four counts of possessing child pornography.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Central West NSW

By Melanie Pearce

Parishioners of the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst have been updated on the financial troubles facing the organisation.

Western New South Wales Anglican parishes have been asked to double their contributions to the Diocese of Bathurst as it faces a legal challenge over a $25.5m debt.

The Bishop, Ian Palmer made the announcement at Saturday’s Synod, or governing body of the diocese, when he spoke frankly of the financial and legal stress the church is facing, but also of hope and change.

For more than an hour on Saturday he addressed about 90 Synod members, made up of priests and elected lay people.

The Bishop spoke of the latest developments in the Supreme Court action launched on behalf of the Commonwealth Bank which is trying to recoup $25.5m.

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RUSSIA/ISRAEL
International Business Times

By Kalyan Kumar | September 23, 2014

A Russian priest in Israel is facing extradition after Russia sounded an international arrest warrant for the alleged sexual abuse of two minor girls. Grozovsky, 35, belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church. This father of four is a known figure in social circles. Grozovsky is also claimed to have served as adviser to Maksim Mitrofanov, director of FC Zenit sports club, reported AFP.

An Orthodox priest holds a cross as Serbs gather to mark the anniversary of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo at Gazimestan, near the capital Pristina June 28, 2014.

The Israel police arrested Gleb Grozovsky on Sunday and is planning to extradite him to Russia. Grozovsky arrived in Israel in September 2013 as a tourist and applied for citizenship. Israel rejected his request and asked him to leave. But the Russian priest asked the High Court to act against the directive, but the verdict of the court has been released yet.

Sexual Assault

Grozovsky is facing the charge of assaulting two underage girls at an Orthodox summer camp on the Greek island of Kos in June 2013. The investigators have also collected information about a series of similar crimes in Saint-Petersburg by this offender. The priest was active among the Saint-Petersburg drug addicts and ran many church-affiliated youth programmes and hosted its own radio show. Grozovsky has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct. In April 2014, the priest wrote a letter on VKontakte, Russia’s popular social media Web site, defending himself and asserting that he would return to Russia to defend his innocence.

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Robert Gavin

Albany

A former student at La Salle Institute said Monday he was sexually abused at the Catholic school in Troy more than two decades ago by a teacher who used him as his “personal prostitute” during time designated for private tutoring.

Michael Cioppa, 39, of Latham, said the teacher molested him in the man’s apartment but also treated him to favors like a plum parking spot, and the man even took a Regents exam for him.

During a news conference a teary-eyed Cioppa revealed alleged details of an ordeal he said has left him so emotionally devastated, the married man does not want to bring children into the world.

“Not after what I’ve seen,” Cioppa said.

Now a businessman working as a care provider, he said he was abused starting at age 16. When he finally came forward, he said, he was told to keep quiet.

“I just kept my mouth shut,” Cioppa said. “The internal frustration was unbearable and the confusion I suffered is still crippling my existence. I graduated and disappeared.”

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CONNECTICUT
WNPR

By RAY HARDMAN

The Archdiocese of Hartford is hoping to stem the tide of lawsuits against priests accused of child sexual abuse.

In 2002, the General Assembly passed legislation that retroactively extended the statute of limitations for lawsuits filed by victims of sexual abuse by priests from 17 years to 30 years, because it often takes decades for victims of sexual abuse to comes to terms with their abuse come forward. Lawyers for the Archdiocese of Hartford say that extension is unconstitutional, and they’re using the case of Jacob Doe to argue their point.

Not his real name, Doe and a friend claim they were repeatedly molested by Father Ivan Ferguson and Ferguson’s boyfriend in the early 1980s at a Derby School. Ferguson died in 2002.

Lawyers for Doe say the Archdiocese was aware of previous instances of Ferguson molesting children, and acted recklessly when they moved Ferguson to the Derby school. In 2012, a jury in Waterbury awarded $1 million to Jacob Doe.

The Hartford Archdiocese appealed that award to the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Attorney Wesley Horton, representing the church, reminded the justices on Monday in oral arguments that more and more states are overturning retroactive statute of limitation laws. “One of the major aspects of the rule of law,” he told the justices, “is people should know what their rights are, and they don’t get changed substantively, retroactively. That, in my opinion, is why the cases are going our way, and why this court should add its name to the vast majority of states that agree with the defendant’s position.”

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RUSSIA
The Moscow Times

By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
Sep. 22 2014

A Russian Orthodox priest suspected of having committed acts of pedophilia at a children’s summer camp last year has been detained in Israel, Interfax reported Monday.

Gleb Grozovsky, a priest from St. Petersburg, was placed on an international wanted list at Russia’s request based on allegations of having sexually assaulted two girls, aged 9 and 12, at a religious-themed youth camp on the Greek island of Kos in 2013. He is also suspected of having committed “a range of similar crimes in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region” between 2011 and 2013, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.

Grozovsky left Russia for Israel on a business trip in the fall of 2013 before the Russian Investigative Committee launched a criminal case against him. His diocese in the Leningrad region terminated the mission in November of that year, but the priest failed to return to Russia.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Megan Matthews

A woman, who says she was abused by Fr. Michael Keating as a teenager, has amended her complaint. This comes after Keating announced he was resigning from the University of St. Thomas last week.

The woman, known only as “Doe 20,” says she believes Keating is stepping down under false pretenses and that he’s still a danger to young women. Her complaint now alleges the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis knew Keating was a threat and should not have kept him in good standing.

The amended complaint was filed Monday by Jeff Anderson and Associates.

“Sadly, over the years I have come to realize that the archdiocese has been more concerned with saving face than with addressing the deep wounds they have caused,” she said in a statement. “What scares me the most is the possibility of more children being abused. No child should have to live with the fear and shame that I carried for years.”

The amended complaint also names Fr. Kevin McDonough, because when the Archdiocese investigated “Doe 20’s” abuse allegations against Keating, McDonough referred to her as “delusional,” according to Attorney Jeff Anderson.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 09/22/2014

Attorneys with the office of Jeff Anderson filed an amended lawsuit Monday in Ramsey County District Court, alleging that the Twin Cities Catholic archdiocese defamed a woman who had accused the Rev. Michael Keating of sexual abuse.

The Chisago County woman, known as Doe 20, sued Keating in October 2013, alleging that he molested her beginning when she was about 13. Keating was in seminary at the time but later became a priest and joined the faculty of the University of St. Thomas.

The amended lawsuit accuses the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and its former vicar-general the Rev. Kevin McDonough of defaming the woman in published statements. The archdiocese and McDonough have been added as defendants.

The woman accuses Keating, now 58, of abusing her from 1997 to 2000. McDonough investigated the allegations in 2006, when she first came forward.

McDonough wrote that “she had mental and emotional disability that gave her ‘delusions,’ falsely implying that the plaintiff had falsely reported… the harmful and offensive touchings by Keating that she had experienced,” the amended suit said.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson and Associates

[court document]

September 22, 2014

Survivor of Sexual Abuse by Father Michael Keating Reacts to Keating’s Resignation out of Concern for Children

(St. Paul, MN) – Today an adult woman, Doe 20, abused by Fr. Michael Keating as a teenager, filed an amended complaint and issued a statement expressing deep sorrow and concern about Keating’s announcement last week that he was resigning from the University of St. Thomas for his own career objectives.

This courageous young woman chose to file this complaint because Keating’s resignation was not only under false pretenses, but gives the impression he is not a danger to the public. “Jane Doe’s experience, and our view, is that he has and remains a danger to vulnerable young women,” said her attorney Jeff Anderson. “We applaud this brave, young survivor for her courage in standing up for the truth and protection of other kids.”

The amended complaint now includes the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis because there is good reason to believe that they had sufficient information to prevent Keating from having access to Doe 20 and others before the abuse of Doe 20 occurred, and because the Archdiocese’s review process caused further harm to Doe 20. The Archdiocese made a conscious choice to keep Keating in ministry and in good standing at the University of St. Thomas. The amended complaint also names Fr. Kevin McDonough because when the Archdiocese undertook review and investigation of the abuse allegation, he referred to Doe 20 as “delusional.”

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Sep 22, 2014

An attorney representing a woman who claims that the Rev. Michael Keating sexually abused her in the late 1990s sued the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis today for conducting a “sham investigation” into her complaint.

The lawsuit filed in Ramsey County District Court also accuses the Rev. Kevin McDonough — a former top church deputy — of defamation for falsely claiming that the woman suffered from “delusions.” Attorney Jeff Anderson said McDonough made the remark in an email to an office at the University of Mary, a Catholic school in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Anderson added the charges to a previous lawsuit he filed against Keating in October 2013. The woman, who is not named in the suit, alleges that Keating sexually abused her when she was about 13 to 15 years old.

Anderson said his client also wanted to speak out about Keating’s resignation last week from his position as a Catholic Studies professor at the University of St. Thomas. Keating, who has denied any wrongdoing, had been on a leave of absence since October 2013.

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MONTANA
Fox News

Published September 22, 2014
Associated Press

GREAT FALLS, Mont. – A Roman Catholic bishop says a central Montana parish is about evenly divided over a new priest’s decision to prohibit a gay couple from receiving Communion unless they divorce, live separately and write a statement affirming that a marriage is between a man and a woman.

Bishop Michael Warfel of the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings met Saturday with about 300 parishioners of St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Lewistown, where he also led a Mass. About half the parishioners supported the Rev. Samuel Spiering’s decision, while the other half

“There obviously is polarization, and certainly what I want to do is try to effect some healing,” Warfel said Saturday. “At the same time, as a Catholic bishop, I uphold our Catholic teachings.”

Tom Wojtowick, 66, and Paul Huff, 73, are longtime Catholics and have attended St. Leo the Great since 2003. Both sang in the choir, and Wojtowick is an organist.
ionship for more than 30 years and were married in a civil ceremony in Seattle in May 2013.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Anglican Communion News Service

The Right Revd Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham has addressed an international conference on safeguarding within the Church. His speech asked the key question of how can we become the leaders in safeguarding which with our vision of humanity and of God’s future for us all we should be. But we must acknowledge that there are continuing concerns that face the church and other institutions relating to the customer and practice surrounding matters of safeguarding.

Bishop Paul addressed CCPAS’s (The Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service) 2014 international safeguarding conference in London. The event is being attended by an audience of delegates drawn from across the safeguarding community – both within faith communities and from outside agencies and organisations.

In his speech, Bishop Paul, the lead Bishop for Children and Young in the Church of England and Chair of its Safeguarding Board said: “I am deeply honoured to have been asked to address this conference today, and to begin to open up our thinking about ‘The Contribution Faith Can Make to Safeguarding Worldwide’ – the title of the conference.

“We are all very conscious of how much the world of safeguarding has changed over the past decades, and the rapid changes of recent years.

“The UK Church has come a long way in safeguarding over the past decades. There is much for which we can be thankful. We are in a better place than we were.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A Jersey human rights campaigner has said the woman at the heart of an investigation into abuse allegations within the Anglican Church wants to put the matter behind her.

Bob Hill, a former politician, said the woman, known as “HG”, has been left out of discussions and investigations.

Jersey’s Anglican church split from the Diocese of Winchester over the matter.

The Bishop of Winchester, Tim Dakin, is reviewing the report about how the complaint was handled by the church.

Mr Hill said HG is “fed up with the way in which she has become a political football”.

“What she seeks now is closure, but she cannot get that closure until the reports have been published, if indeed they are ever going to be published,” he said.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, September 22, 2014

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

One of the most prolific child molesting clerics in the US sexually assaulted a boy at the Inver Grove Heights church where Archbishop John Nienstedt will hold his “healing mass” tonight.

He’s Brother Stephen P. Baker who worked at St. Patrick’s parish from 1977 to 1981. That’s where he sexually assaulted Doug Larson. Baker’s accused of molesting more than 80 kids.

Almost a year ago, we in SNAP urged Nienstedt to reach out to others Br. Baker may have assaulted at this church. We were ignored.

In 2005, church officials paid Larson $50,000 but told no one. As a result, “Baker may have had access to children through the late 2000s,” according to the independent archive group BishopAccountability.org.

We believe there is a good chance that Baker abused more Minnesota kids. We want Archbishop Nienstedt to disclose whether his staff has heard from more local Baker victims. And tonight, we want Nienstedt to aggressively seek out others who saw, suspected or suffered Baker’s crimes.

Last year, 11 of Baker’s victims settled their cases with the Youngstown diocese and Baker’s direct supervisors. (Both the accusations and the settlements were kept secret by Catholic officials.) Since then, at least another 69 individuals have reported being victimized by Baker. Many come from the Altoona-Johnstown diocese in Pennsylvania, where Baker worked at a Catholic school. Baker also worked at church facilities in Michigan and Virginia.

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ILLINOIS
WLS

Monday, September 22, 2014

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. (WLS) — Dario Spasic was charged with indecent solicitation of a child after police said he attempted to meet who he thought was a 14-year-old boy “to engage in sexual activities,” the Lake County Sheriff’s office said.

The 22-year-old man reached out to someone he believed was a teen boy using a mobile social networking app. The person he contacted was actually a Lake County detective with the Cybercrimes Unit.

Spasic arranged a meeting at 10 p.m. Friday with the teen to for sex, he told police, but encountered Lake County Sheriff’s detectives instead and taken into custody.

Spasic, of the 32300-block of Milwaukee Avenue in Libertyville, was charged with two counts of indecent solicitation of a child. His bond was set at $100,000.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Lisa Black,
Tribune reporter

A 22-year-old student at a theological college in Lake County has been charged with indecent solicitation of a child, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Dario Spasic contacted someone who he thought was a 14-year-old boy Friday through a mobile social networking app, and made arrangements for a meeting at 10 p.m. the same day, according to a sheriff’s press release issued today.

Spasic had actually been communicating with a detective from the sheriff’s cybercrimes unit posing as an underage boy, authorities said. When Spasic arrived for the meeting, he was arrested, the news release said.

The sheriff’s office confirmed that Spasic is a student at St. Sava School of Theology in Libertyville, and the address the department provided for him is the same block as the school’s location. St. Sava provides religious education and trains students for the Serbian Orthodox priesthood, according to the school’s website.

A man who answered the phone at the Serbian Orthodox campus in Libertyville, identifying himself as the property manager, confirmed there is a student there by the same name but deferred further questions to another priest, who could not immediately be reached.

According to a sheriff’s press release, the man who was arrested had “requested to meet with (someone) who he believed was the 14-year-old boy” with the intent to engage in sexual activities.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Now

By DAVE ALTIMARI
3:24 p.m. EDT, September 22, 2014

Archdiocese of Hartford attorneys used the case of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel to argue Monday before the state Supreme Court that a revision to a state law that lengthened the time a sexual-abuse accuser can file a lawsuit should be overturned.

Wesley Horton told the panel of seven justices that Skakel’s case, which came before the court a few years ago, was a relevant example of the church’s issue with the state law.

“Remember the Skakel case where this court said you can’t apply a statute of limitations retroactively after it has expired because it impacts the defendants rights,” Horton told the justices.

The diocese is appealing a $1 million jury verdict from last February in which the accuser, identified in court papers as Jacob Doe, testified that he and another friend were repeatedly sexually assaulted by the Rev. Ivan Ferguson and a friend of the priest from 1981-1983. The diocese also wants the court to overturn the verdict.

The victim was allowed to file that lawsuit because in 2002 the state legislature voted to extend the statute of limitations for civil cases on sexual assault claims to 30 years from when a complainant reaches 18. It had first been amended in 1991 to 17 years. The 2002 change was retroactive. …

Attorney Hugh D. Hughes, who represented Jacob Doe, said the jury was entitled to hear that the church had failed to supervise Ferguson.

“The defendant in effect crossed their fingers and looked the other way,” Hughes said. “They understood from Day 1 the seriousness of this issue and turned a blind eye.”

The diocese was first made aware of Ferguson’s abuse by a phone call in 1979. At the time, Ferguson was a teacher at Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford.

At the trial, testimony showed that when former Archbishop John F. Whealon confronted him about the 1979 allegation, Ferguson admitted to the abuse. Ferguson was sent to a treatment facility in Massachusetts. Two years later, Whealon appointed Ferguson priest director of a Derby school.

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CANADA
Truro Daily News

A Berwick man will transported to Ontario to face historic sex charges involving a boy under the age of 14.

Robyn Quinton Gwyn, 66, was brought to Windsor provincial court on Sept. 19 in custody on a provincial court warrant out of Kingston, Ontario.

The Crown was opposed to Gwyn’s release and Gwyn was remanded for six days. The Kingston Police Service will make arrangements to transport the accused to Ontario.

Gwyn, who according to court records is a retired priest, faces charges of sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching and sexual interference. The charges stem from incidents alleged to have occurred in Kingston, Ontario, between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2000.

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WISCONSIN
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on a decision by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin responding to a complaint we lodged against attorney Rebekah M. Nett:

In a letter to the Catholic League dated September 18, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin responded to the 2011 grievance we filed against Rebekah M. Nett. We asked that she be investigated for making stridently anti-Catholic remarks against U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher, et al.

The formal complaint we lodged cited the following:

Nett filed a memo written by her client, Naomi Isaacson, which said, “Across the country the court systems and particularly the Bankruptcy Court in Minnesota are composed of a bunch of ignoramus, bigoted Catholics beasts that carry the sword of the church.”

The memo called U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher “a Catholic Knight Witch Hunter.” [Note: Dreher is not Catholic.]

The memo called one bankruptcy trustee “a priest’s boy,” and another a “Jesuitess.”
For her part, Nett called Dreher and other court personnel “dirty Catholics,” adding that “Catholic deeds throughout the [sic] history have been bloody and murderous.”

Our grievance against Nett was initially taken up by the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation, but when the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility filed a petition for disciplinary action against Nett in the Minnesota Supreme Court, the Wisconsin court deferred judgment until Minnesota concluded its case. The conclusion: Ms. Nett’s Wisconsin law license has been suspended for a period of one year.

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CONNECTICUT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, September 22, 2014

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

The Connecticut Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in a case that could be monumental for children.

Hartford Archbishop Leonard Blair wants to fix what isn’t broken and turn back the clock on kids’ safety. He’s asking the justices to overturn a 12 year old law that protects children by helping child sex abuse victims expose child molesters in court. We desperately hope he loses. If he wins, mothers, fathers, boys, girls, employers, neighbors, police and prosecutors all lose.

If Hartford’s archbishop wins, it will be the biggest legal setback for the children’s safety movement since

–Wisconsin’s 1995 Pritzloff decision which, for years, made it almost impossible for clergy sex abuse victims to file civil lawsuits, no matter how egregious the crimes and cover ups

–Missouri’s 1997 Brewer decision, which made it extremely hard for victims to do likewise, and

–the US Supreme Court’s 2003 Stogner decision which enabled hundreds of alleged sex offenders – some being investigated, some who were already charged – go free.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date(s): Monday, September 22
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: St. Patrick Catholic Church, Inver Grove Heights

Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer! From the ends of the earth, I call; my heart grows faint. Raise me up, set me on a rock, for you are my refuge. – Psalm 61:2-4

Come together as a community of faith to pray for the healing and reconciliation that God alone can secure. Whether due to the wounds inflicted by a shepherd of the Church, or the loss of a loved one, or the violation of human dignity through domestic abuse or abortion, we all stand in need of the healing power of the Crucified and Risen One. But in these difficult days of confusion, anger and pain within our local Church, it is especially important to cry out to the God who alone can save us.

Join us as we pray for healing, reconciliation, and hope in a celebration of the Eucharist; the source and summit of our faith and the great Sacrament of Charity. All who are in need of healing of any kind are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Monday, September 22
7:00 p.m.
St. Patrick
3535 72nd Street East
Inver Grove Heights
Archbishop John Nienstedt presiding

Following Holy Mass, there will be an opportunity for private prayer with both priests and trained lay pastoral leaders. The Sacrament of Reconciliation will also be available throughout the evening.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivors Advocates Coalition

Editorial

Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition,

Pope Francis’ choice to replace Cardinal Francis George is Bishop Blase Cupich who will leave the Diocese of Spokane, Washington, to take over the helm at the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Apropos of nature’s season of changing colors, Cupich’s official outerwear will undoubtedly change from magenta to red in the not too distant future, again significantly ratcheting up his influence within the Church’s internal structure.

There will be mountains of words written about this choice now, at his installation, and at the time of the change-of-color events.

For now, deep into this crisis of monumental proportions with a huge Vatican public relations operation underway, we think the proof still remains in the pudding.

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