ABUSE TRACKER

CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By STEPHEN CEASAR

An employee of Desert Christian Schools in Lancaster was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of child molestation, authorities said.

Jonathan Macy, 31, of Lancaster was arrested on suspicion of molesting two children at Grace Chapel Church, which is on the Desert Christian campus, as the children attended Sunday services, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Macy, who is also employed at St. Mary’s School in Palmdale, is being held in lieu of $1.2 million bail.

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CALIFORNIA
SCV News

LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT | THURSDAY, AUG 14, 2014

A Lancaster man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of molesting two children in a chapel on the campus of Desert Christian School.

The investigation began Aug. 5 when detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau looked into an allegation of child molestation involving a young female child and an employee at the school in Lancaster.

Over the course of the investigation, a second victim of child molestation was identified. Both victims had come to know the suspect due to his employment at Grace Chapel Church, which is located on the campus of Desert Christian School in the 44600 Block of 15th Street West in Lancaster. The acts of molestation occurred while the children were at Grace Chapel for Sunday Church Services.

As a result of the investigation, the suspect, Jonathan Macy, a White male, 31 years old and resident of Lancaster, was arrested by Sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau Detectives during the morning hours on Wednesday, August 13, 2014. He is currently in the custody of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and being held in lieu of $1.2 million bail.

Detectives have learned that the suspect was also employed as a teacher at St. Mary’s School in Palmdale. School officials at both Desert Christian and St. Mary’s School have been cooperative with detectives.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

LANCASTER (CBSLA.com) — A Christian school employee was in custody Thursday on suspicion of molesting two young children during weekend church services.

According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Jonathan Macy, 31, of Lancaster was arrested by detectives Wednesday morning.

Detectives said that an initial investigation began Aug. 5 after an allegation of child molestation involving a girl and an employee at the Desert Christian School, which is in the 44600 block of 15th Street West.

A second victim of child molestation was identified during the investigation, officials said. It was unclear if the second victim was also a girl.

According to authorities, both the victims knew Macy, as he was employed by the Grace Chapel Church, which is on the campus of the Desert Christian School.

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CALIFORNIA
KTLA

[with video]

AUGUST 14, 2014, BY TRACY BLOOM

An employee at Desert Christian School in Lancaster was arrested after allegedly molesting two children while they were at a chapel to attend Sunday church services, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced on Thursday.

Detectives began investigating an allegation of child molestation between a young girl and the employee, identified as Jonathan Macy, on Aug. 5, a release from the Sheriff’s Department stated.

A second child victim came forward during the investigation, according to the release.

Both victims knew Macy through his employment at Grace Chapel Church, which is located on the Desert Christian School’s campus, investigators said.

The alleged molestations occurred while the children were at Grace Chapel for Sunday church services, according to the release.

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CALIFORNIA
SF Gate

Kale Williams
Thursday, August 14, 2014

A pastor from Daly City who held services at a number of Bay Area churches has been charged with multiple counts of child sex abuse, prosecutors said.

Ventje Cornelis Singkoh, a 69-year-old pastor at the IPAFC Church at 18th Avenue and Geary Boulevard in San Francisco, was taken into custody by Daly City police around 8 a.m. and was charged with three counts of felony child molestation after allegedly abusing a victim younger than 13 for more than a year, starting in January 2013 and ending February 2014, said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Singkoh also held services at the Golden Gate Christian Church on 18th Avenue in San Francisco and the First Presbyterian Church on Colfax Street in Concord, as well as at his residence in Daly City, police said. However, the First Presbyterian Church in Concord said it had no affiliation with Singkoh, and had only leased him a room at the church.

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CALIFORNIA
Lompoc Record

DALY CITY, Calif. (AP) — A San Francisco Bay Area pastor is accused of child molestation.

Sixty-nine-year-old Ventje Cornelis Singkoh was arrested on Tuesday by police in Daly City. He has been charged with three counts of felony child molestation.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe tells the San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1r9Pera) Singkoh abused a child younger than 13 between January 2013 and February 2014.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Singkoh had an attorney. He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.

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MARYLAND
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A former youth worker convicted of sexually abusing boys in the 1980s at a Sovereign Grace Ministries church in Maryland was sentenced Aug. 14 to 40 years in prison.

Nathaniel Morales, 56, was found guilty in May of abusing three boys from 1983 to 1991 while working in youth ministries and leading Bible studies at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md.

Morales, who now lives in Las Vegas, Nev., is also named in a class-action lawsuit of numerous acts to conceal child sexual abuse by leaders at the church and SGM, a Calvinist church-planting network now based in Louisville, Ky. That case has been thrown out under a statute of limitations but is under appeal.

The case, described in media as the largest evangelical abuse scandal to date, drew attention in Southern Baptist circles because of close ties between C.J. Mahaney, founder and former head of Sovereign Grace Ministries, and denominational leaders including Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and prominent Washington pastor Mark Dever.

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Robert Gavin

Albany

First, Angel Garcia lost his congregation.

Now he’s lost his freedom.

Garcia, 61, who was defrocked as a deacon in 2010 for child molestation allegations, was convicted on Thursday of two counts of sexual abuse for victimizing a 6-year-old girl in 2003.

Each of the sex abuse counts could land the one-time deacon at the Church of the Holy Family on Central Avenue in prison for up to 7 years.

The trial was not related to the allegation that Garcia sexually abused a minor in the early 1990s before his ordination as a deacon. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, which found reasonable grounds to believe the earlier allegations, defrocked Garcia.

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CALIFORNIA
Stockton Record

Posted Aug. 14, 2014

STOCKTON – Friday is the deadline for claims to be filed alleging sex abuse by leaders of the Diocese of Stockton, which is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court had ordered that anyone planning to file a claim has until 4 p.m. Friday to submit the required forms.

The court needs to determine how the Catholic organization’s assets will be distributed and to which outstanding claims.

Stockton’s diocese filed for bankruptcy in January amid pending civil litigation in claims of child sexual abuse by priests.

Previous settlements to victims and other legal costs have set the diocese back $32 million over the past two decades.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

[with video]

By: Cassie Hart

Lawyers released the file of another Minnesota priest Thursday as part of the civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The documents, released by Jeff Anderson and Associates, show Fr. Thomas Stitts admitting he abused boys in every parish he worked in.

He also admitted to having a sexual relationship with two boys.

Before he died in 1985, the file says Stitts wrote a letter, outlining his sexual activity in the archdiocese; as well as other priests’ behavior.

The priests named in the letter, begged the archdiocese to keep it secret.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah McDonald
Published 15/08/2014

VICTIMS of clerical sexual abuse have called on Pope Francis to accept Cardinal Sean Brady’s resignation immediately.

They spoke out after the Cardinal confirmed he had asked to stand down from his role as Primate of All Ireland, traditional for cardinals on their 75th birthday.

Dr Brady has faced criticism over his role in the Church’s handling of abuse claims against paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

Abuse survivor Marie Kane, who met Pope Francis last month, said she would be surprised if the Pontiff didn’t allow the cardinal to leave his position soon.

“I would hope for a quick response from Pope Francis. I would be so disappointed if it even took months,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source AAP 15 AUG 2014

When the Australian Catholic church was hit with a tidal wave of sexual abuse allegations in the 1990s, its bishops – barring George Pell – were like rabbits caught in the headlights.

Their reaction was described by the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge, when he appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Archbishop Coleridge was explaining why an internal church process – Towards Healing – set up to provide support for abuse survivors, sometimes failed badly.

In those days, the bishops just didn’t know what to do, said Archbishop Coleridge, so when lawyers and insurance brokers showed the way, the pastors were relieved.

But Cardinal Pell, who went on to become the Vatican’s supreme bean counter and the third most powerful clergyman in its bureaucracy, was definitely not among the rabbits.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Neil Ormerod | 17 August 2014

Child Abuse Royal Commission hearing

On Monday (18 August), we are beginning Round 8 of the Royal Commission’s investigation into the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse allegations. While some of these have passed without significant media attention, and in one case the Wollongong church came out looking not too bad, this upcoming round, like the Sydney based investigation into the John Ellis case, promises to be explosive in its content.

We received a preview of the matters likely to be investigated in the ABC’s Four Corners on 11 August. The program aired material relating to the Melbourne Response established by then Archbishop Pell to be the Melbourne Archdiocese alternate response to the national protocols being developed at that time by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Towards Healing. The program dealt with a number of specific cases of abuse including the case of Chrissie and Anthony Foster, whose two daughters Emma and Katie were assaulted by serial abuser Fr Kevin O’Donnell.

Their case was one of the first to be processed by the Melbourne Response process and has already been subject to investigation by a Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations. That inquiry involved some feisty, if not heated, exchanges between the parliamentarians and Cardinal Pell. His subsequent appearances at the Royal Commission on the John Ellis case were more circumspect.

At the closure of the Commission investigation of that case the Cardinal was asked to make himself available for this coming round into its investigation into the Melbourne Response, to which he agreed he would if possible. So we can expect another probing process of question and answer with Cardinal Pell the star witness. Once again we will have the spectacle of a cardinal of the Church humbled before a secular authority.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 14, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — A judge has affirmed an arbitrator’s $1.1 million breach-of-contract award against the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City and St. Joseph for violating a 2008 settlement with victims of sexual abuse by priests.

In his ruling late Wednesday, Jackson County Circuit Judge Bryan Round wrote there could “be no doubt that the Diocese, through its leadership and higher-level personnel, failed in numerous respects to abide by the terms of the non-monetary commitments” of the settlement, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/1vOMfqc ).

The breach-of-contract lawsuit was filed in 2011 by several of the plaintiffs in the 2008 case, which was resolved with a $10 million judgment and 19 specific conditions for the diocese. Among them was a requirement that any suspected abuse by priests be reported immediately to authorities.

The lawsuit accused the diocese and Bishop Robert Finn of violating the settlement through such actions as waiting nearly a year to report suspected abuse by the Rev. Shawn Ratigan and withholding evidence of possible child pornography for months.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic World Report

August 14, 2014

By Carl E. Olson

In a lengthy feature article, “This pope means business” (Aug. 14, 2014), Fortune magazine offers a detailed look at what Francis has done to “restructure the Vatican’s scandal-plagued finances.” It’s an informative, if occasionally annoying, piece. For instance, the author, Shawn Tully, drags out many of the tired and not-so-helpful storylines about Francis being the “people’s pope” whose gentle (even carefree) approach to doctrine contrasts with the harsh and dogmatic approach of Benedict. And:

The church has often promoted issues that tended to divide Catholics more than unite them. And the backlash made Rome look defensive, as many bishops and cardinals viewed their role as defending Catholic doctrines against a hostile culture of secularism.

Also, in a rather misleading paragraph:

By contrast, Francis’s upbeat, quotable approach and emphasis on charity over doctrine have quickly made him perhaps the most talked-about and admired person on the planet. (Fortune named him No. 1 on its World’s Greatest Leaders list earlier this year.) His famous “Who am I to judge?” declaration on homosexuality distanced him from Benedict’s severe criticism of gays. Francis could be called the first modern pope. His Twitter account, @Pontifex, boasts 4.3 million followers in nine languages. And his message is universally appealing: The paramount duty of the church and its faithful is to aid those in need.

Because, as we all know, Benedict never talked about charity—that is, if you discount his first encyclical, which was about charity. And most of his other writing and addresses. And, no, the paramount duty of the Church and the faithful is not to aid those in need, but to bring all men into communion with God, through Christ, and into the fullness of the Kingdom. But, hey, theology is boring and ultimate questions don’t grab headlines.

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UNITED STATES
Psychology Today

by Joe Navarro

The eye-catching headline read, “Which Professions Have The Most Psychopaths?” (The Week, October 30, 2013) What ensued was quite a dialogue on the internet, as everyone seemed to have their own favorite picks or a personal horror story. The article stimulated debate, but unfortunately did not add clarity to a worthy subject. And that subject is: Why would a so-called “psychopath” be found in greater numbers in one profession versus another?

According to the article, CEO positions attract the most psychopaths. Perhaps so, if one considers the history of Enron, Bernard Madoff, and movies such as “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013). But the one career that caught my eye, and that 30 years ago probably would have escaped me, is that of the clergy (8th in line behind law enforcement, according to the article). I say 30 years ago because prior to the revelations relating to Catholic priests abusing children, one would not think of predators going into the clergy, yet that is a reality. Which begs the question, why a so-called “psychopath” would be attracted to the clergy? As it turns out, there are good reasons for this; that predators understand all too well—but first some caveats.

Unfortunately, the term psychopath is bandied about too much, making things murkier. There is a huge difference between a psychopath as defined by Robert Hare, a sociopath, someone with antisocial personality disorder, someone with conduct disorder, an aggressive narcissist, or someone with dissocial personality disorder. Unfortunately most people, even many clinicians, don’t differentiate, and we should. Too often these terms are lumped together, as in the above captioned article, and that can be confusing. There are distinctions between all these terms, and so rather than use this vague and overused term (psychopath), I will call these individuals predators, which encompasses all of the above noted disorders and pathologies.

I should also note that I am not writing this article to criticize any particular religion, because any religious group, as history has taught us, can be taken advantage of by predators or malignant zealots. Rather, it is an analysis of why predators would choose to imbed themselves within a religious organization or seek to be part of the clergy—so that we can be more aware in order to protect our loved ones and ourselves. Knowing what we do now, it is fitting that we examine predators among the clergy and how they would use their office or a religious organization to take advantage of others.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

According to SNAP “It’s now been 10 years since we first began prodding the largest group of U.S. nuns to take action on abuse by women religious. It’s been a frustrating and fruitless decade. Almost every August since 2004, we have shown up at and held news conferences outside the annual gathering of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, America’s largest organization of nuns. We’ve begged LCWR to expose the truth about child sex crimes and cover-ups by women religious. We’ve politely but firmly urged it to take simple steps to protect the vulnerable from abusive nuns and heal those wounded by abusive nuns. And we’ve been politely but repeatedly rebuffed. (Our website lists each of our interactions with the LCWR over the past decade.)

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho August 14, 2014

In early July the Vatican announced that it would send investigators to the Diocese of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. The apostolic visitation was prompted by complaints from local bishops and laypeople following news reports that an Argentine priest accused of molesting high-school students in Pennsylvania had been welcomed into Ciudad del Este by Bishop Rogelio Livieres—and promoted to vicar general.

Weeks later, the Vatican revealed that it had removed Fr. Urrutigoity from his position as vicar general and—in an unusual step—barred Bishop Livieres from ordaining anyone for the time being. (A final decision will be made after the Vatican studies the investigators’ report.) In response, the Diocese of Ciudad del Este published a long, forceful defense of Urrutigoity and Livieres. The statement, posted to the diocese’s website, claims that Urrutigoity is innocent, that he and his bishop have been the victim of a smear campaign, that his previous bishop approved his transfer to Paraguay, and that he came with the recommendation of several cardinals—including Joseph Ratzinger.

In a 2002 federal lawsuit, a plaintiff claimed that Urrutigoity and another priest, Eric Ensey, had molested him under the guise of “spiritual direction.” He accused Ensey of abusing him while he was a high-school student in the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and he accused Urrutigoity of sexual misconduct after he graduated and was preparing for the priesthood. (No criminal charges were filed because the statute of limitations had run.) In addition to the abuse accusations, several depositions and affidavits taken in connection with the suit allege that the priests often supplied alcohol to underage boys and regularly shared their beds with them. The bishop at the time, James Timlin, suspended both clerics, and the diocese eventually settled out of court for about four hundred thousand dollars. The case rocked the diocese for years, not only because of the plaintiff’s shocking allegations, but also because the accused priests were not local to Scranton. Bishop Timlin had invited them in.

A review of hundreds of pages of court documents—including private correspondence, depositions, and affidavits—makes it clear that the Urrutigoity case is one of the most complicated to emerge during the 2002 wave of sexual-abuse scandals. It spans three decades, two continents, three countries, and two states. It involves multiple bishops—some schismatic—several dioceses, and numerous high-ranking Vatican officials. The priest’s rise to prominence tracks closely with the church’s growing awareness of the gravity of clerical sexual abuse. Accusations of misconduct have followed him from Argentina to Pennsylvania. That’s what makes his reappearance in Ciudad del Este—where the bishop had him helping with seminary formation before promoting him to vicar general—so difficult to understand. How could a Catholic priest with such a history end up as second in command of a diocese—in 2014?

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on August 14, 2014

1) Call the cops, not your college president.

There has been a ton of press about the problem of sexual assaults on campus. Recent government intervention—telling universities that they must have better “policies” and “procedures” to handle the crime—is ALL wrong.

Why? Check out this article from (the most unlikely of places) the Harvard Gazette. Funny that the author didn’t put two and two together about universities’ investigations of sexual assault. But I have, so consider yourself warned …

The same goes for ANY internal investigation of sexual abuse, whether it be a high school, the Boy Scouts, a church, or sports club.

An institution’s first job is to protect itself. If you need an example, take a look at the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. The very recent scandal in St. Paul, MN is a good place to start. This isn’t from 10 or 20 years ago, this is right now.

The moral of the story? If you or someone you love is a victim of sexual assault or child sexual abuse, call the police, not your college president or bishop. And read the article above.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

(Kansas City, Missouri) – Circuit Court Judge Bryan E. Round has affirmed in its entirety an arbiter’s award of more than $1.1 million against the Diocese of Kansas City-St Joseph. The judge also awarded interest on the judgment.

The case was an unprecedented breach of contract action brought by Jeff Anderson & Associates of St. Paul, MN and others against the Diocese for failing to report an abusive priest, Shawn Ratigan, when it became known that he was creating child pornography using children of the Diocese. Bishop Robert Finn was criminally convicted and given probation for his failure to report.

The contract being enforced was a 2008 settlement between the Diocese and 47 plaintiffs who were themselves abused by priests or other agents of the Diocese. Those victims enforced the commitments the Diocese had agreed to in resolving their claims. “The Diocese paid less in damages for agreeing to the non-economic terms demanded by the Plaintiffs. When the Diocese reached the non-economic commitments, it effectively received the benefits without paying for it,” the judge wrote.

The commitments to protect children in the Diocese remain in place and the Plaintiffs remain able to hold the Diocese accountable for following them in the future.

Contact – Attorney Gregg Meyers: Office: 651.227.9990 Cell: 843.324.1589

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
08/14/2014

The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese must pay the $1.1 million ordered by an arbitrator last spring for violating the terms of a 2008 settlement with priest sexual abuse victims, a judge has ruled.

Calling the award a “scathing indictment of the defendant,” Jackson County Circuit Judge Bryan Round said in his ruling that “there can be no doubt that the Diocese, through its leadership and higher level personnel, failed in numerous respects to abide by the terms of the non-monetary commitments” of the 2008 agreement.

Round issued the ruling late Wednesday, three weeks after hearing arguments from both sides in the case. The plaintiffs asked him to confirm the arbitrator’s order, while the diocese argued that the order be vacated.

“The order is once again an indictment of the way the diocese has handled issues of childhood sexual abuse,” said Rebecca Randles, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “We are so proud and so honored to stand side by side with these men and women who have done so much to try to protect children from the kind of abuse they experienced.”

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014

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

A judge has ruled against Bishop Robert Finn and for 42 victims of clergy sex crimes in an unprecedented “breach of contract” case, the only one like it in the country.

Because he broke his pledges to improve how he deals with abuse cases, his diocese has now been twice ordered to pay $1.1 million to the victims.

In June, in a virtually-unnoticed court filing by Finn’s lawyers, the award was disclosed. Finn wanted it nullified. So his lawyers appealed to Judge Bryan Round, who ruled against Finn today.

Church officials have the option to appeal. We hope they choose to avoid running up even more expensive lawyer bills and resolve this without delay so these brave, wounded victims can focus on their healing.

As best we can tell, there’s never been a case like this in which victims have successfully held a bishop responsible in court for breaking the promises he made during a settlement. And the amount of this award is significant because it may well deter more Catholic officials from breaking the promises they make to victims.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

The secret priest file of Father Thomas Stitts was released today as part of a civil lawsuit filed in Ramsey County. Stitts was assigned to multiple parishes, abusing boys everywhere he worked. Eventually, Stitts admitted to having a sexual relationship with two boys.

Upon his death in 1985, Stitts wrote a letter outlining not only his own, but other priest’s sexual activities in the Archdiocese. The priests implicated in the letter begged the Archdiocese to keep the letter secret and eventually the letter was destroyed.

A summary of the Stitts documents, a timeline, and a summary of Stitts’ priest file are available below.

Father Thomas Stitts Summary and Timeline
Thomas Stitts Hot Docs
Thomas Stitts Priest File Part 1
Thomas Stitts Priest File Part 2
Stitts pics

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MINNESOTA
Hastings Star Gazette

By Chad Richardson Today at 1:59 p.m.

Documents regarding former Guardian Angels pastor Thomas Stitts were released to the public on Thursday. The documents were released following a ruling in other cases relating to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Stitts was an assistant pastor at the Church of Guardian Angels in Hastings from 1966 to 1970. The suit alleges Stitts abused boys at several of the parishes he worked at. Stitts later admitted to have a sexual relationship with two boys.

Twin Cities law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates has filed lawsuits on behalf of 12 victims who say they were abused by Stitts.

“We applaud the courageous survivors who have come forward and who helped make today possible,” Anderson said. “We are working with 16 survivors of Stitts who have been suffering in secrecy, silence and shame and all have fought hard to make sure this file was made known to the public to help protect children in the future.”

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VATICAN CITY
Newser

By Jenn Gidman, Newser Staff
Posted Aug 14, 2014

(NEWSER) – It’s obvious by now that Pope Francis is a practical guy who’s trying to keep up with modern society, help the poor, and make inroads with issues that have plagued the church, all while humbly shrugging off his rep as a rock star among religious leaders. Based on an extensive article in Fortune, it also appears Jorge Bergoglio is pretty good in the boardroom, too. Highlights from the article that show Francis’ business savvy include:

* He’s not there to schmooze anyone: In his first meeting in 2013 with finance experts tasked with helping remedy the Vatican’s money issues, the pope set up a no-nonsense meeting in an unadorned conference room instead of the more ostentatious palace where popes traditionally meet with visitors
A participant called his meeting persona, which started with little small talk, as “highly managerial.”

* He knows what he wants and how to ask for it: Francis seemed hyperfocused at that get-together on the Vatican’s “unpredictable budgets” and “fat” administration that were keeping him from his main goal of helping the underprivileged. “You are the experts, and I trust you,” the pope reportedly said. “Now I want solutions to these problems, and I want them as soon as possible.” The panel’s chair tells Fortune that “in finances, he’s not a micromanager but an inspirational leader.”

* He cleans house: The pontiff, who apparently doesn’t think money matters are the clergy’s forte, according to the magazine, turned out the “old guard of cardinals and bishops” who went over the books when he took over and started replacing them with expert outsiders—including KPMG and Deloitte & Touche— who actually handle or analyze financial matters for a living.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Arutz Sheva (Israel)

By Chaim Levi, Ari Yashar
First Publish: 8/14/2014

South African police have confirmed that they nearly nabbed the fugitive “Shuvu Banim” Hassidic leader Rabbi Eliezer Berland on Sunday, and further revealed that an international arrest warrant has been issued against him.

Plainclothes police were hiding among attendees at a wedding ceremony Berland was preparing for one of his followers. Local hassidim hid the rabbi at the last moment before police arrested him, a source close to the sect told Arutz Sheva.

“We do confirm that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (also known as the Hawks) is working with the Israeli government to track Rabbi (Berland),” Captain Paul Ramaloko, National Spokesperson for the Hawks, told the South African Jewish Report on Wednesday.

Ramaloko elaborated that Berland “is a wanted person in Israel. An international warrant of arrest has been issued against him, and his name has been red flagged.”

Berland’s followers claim that the fugitive rabbi, who is on the run after facing sexual assault charges in Israel, is legally allowed to stay in Johannesburg, and one follower said “from the first moment we got here, senior figures in the Jewish community were trying to exile the Rabbi.”

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SOUTH AFRICA
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

According to a report in the Zionist Orthodox news website Arutz Sheva, South African police have confirmed that they tried to arrest Breslov hasidic rabbinic leader Rabbi Eliezer Berland Sunday. They also confirmed that an international arrest warrant has been issued for the rabbi, who fled Israel almost two years ago after Israeli police opened a criminal investigation into alleged sexual abuse committed by Berland against several of his female followers, some of them minors.

Plainclothes police mingling with wedding guests tried to grab Berland but missed him when Berland’s followers shoved a hasid who resembles Berland at police and secreted Berland in side room.

After the confusion subsided, Berland went into hiding.

“We do confirm that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation [HAWKS]is working with the Israeli government to track Rabbi [Berland],” Captain Paul Ramaloko, Hawks’ National Spokesperson reportedly told the South African Jewish Report yesterday.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Century

Aug 14, 2014 by David Briggs

The women came seeking healing. Many of these survivors of the Rwandan genocide had lost family members and some had been raped and infected with HIV. More than a few were struggling just it to make it to another day before they found Solace Ministries.

Sometimes it took a month or a full year before they spoke about their experiences with other survivors. When they did, even if it was only to say a few words before they broke down in tears, other survivors gathered around, embracing one another.

The passage from the Book of Isaiah—“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God”—was the mantra for this ministry. Envisioning a future with a sense of hope was nurtured among a loving community that reinforced their belief in a God who had not abandoned them.

One sermon topic was off limits, however, for the Solace ministers.

“They never, ever, ever preached forgiveness” until a survivor was able to go through a healing process, said Donald Miller, professor of religion and sociology at the University of Southern California. He has visited Rwanda 16 times and conducted more than 260 interviews with widows and orphans of the 1994 genocide. …

Pope Francis drew mixed reactions recently after he asked for forgiveness for “the grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse” and the sins of church leaders in their response to victims.

David Clohessy of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests referred to Francis “as a humble, brilliant, unpretentious pope.” But Clohessy said the pontiff must follow through with reforms such as holding bishops accountable and turning records over to civil authorities.

“We endanger boys and girls if we confuse words with deeds,” Clohessy said.

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MEXICO
Vanguardia

[San Luis Potosi – The parish priest of Fatima in this capital city, Jose de Jesus Cruz Rodrigues, 39, was arrested and charged with sexually abusing a 20-year-old. He is the fourth religious of the archdiocese to be involved in a problem of a sexual nature.]

SAN LUIS POTOSÍ.- El sacerdote de la Parroquia de Fátima en esta Capital, José de Jesús Cruz Rodríguez, de 39 años de edad, fue acusado y detenido por abusar sexualmente de un joven de 20 años. Éste sería el 4° religioso de la Arquidiócesis de esa Entidad que se ve envuelto en un problema de carácter sexual.

Cruz Rodríguez fue arrestado la tarde-noche de ayer, junto con el joven, Juan Gerardo Mejía García, de 21 años, quien intentó impedir la detención del cura.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Surivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014

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

A North Carolina ex-pastor has been charged with an additional 26 child sexual abuse charges after more victims came forward. We are grateful to the victims who have come forward and reported to police. Their bravery will help others who are suffering in silence and self-blame.

Orlando Augusto Caldera was a minister at Memorial United Methodist Church. A 6 year old, a 10 year old and one of the children’s mother reported to police that Caldera had sexually abused them. Their bravery encouraged an additional 5 victims to come forward.

We hope anyone else who was hurt by Caldera, or any other church officials, will find the courage to speak up, report what they know to police, protect others, and start healing.

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NEVADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014

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

A Las Vegas man, who is a former Maryland megachurch leader, has been sentenced to 40 years in jail, after being found guilty of sexually abusing three boys. We are glad he has been given such a long sentence. Children are safer when predators are locked up, where they can’t hurt another innocent child.

Nathaniel “Nate” Morales was the youth leader at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD, but currently resides in Las Vegas. By using his position of trust and authority he was able to sexually assault at least three boys, the youngest being only 11 years old.

We are grateful to the brave victims and whistleblowers who came forward and helped with this case and to the jury for finding him guilty Their bravery will keep a dangerous man away from kids for the next 40 years.

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UNITED STATES
Fortune

by Shawn Tully @FortuneMagazine AUGUST 14, 2014

The wildly popular Francis is more than a pontiff of the people. He’s an elite manager who’s reforming the Vatican’s troubled finances.

The new pope wanted to talk about money. That was the message that went out to a group of seven prominent financiers—major Catholics all—from around the world in the summer of 2013. Barely five months after the shocking resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis had summoned them to assemble at the seat of holy power, the Vatican. They knew their general assignment: to create a plan to restructure the Vatican’s scandal-plagued finances. And like Catholics everywhere, they knew that Francis had already signaled that he was a new kind of pontiff, a “people’s pope” who championed charity and tolerance over dogma. Still, they didn’t know what to expect when they arrived at the Vatican for a meeting with the pope on the first Saturday in August. How interested was he in finance, really? And how serious was he about changing business as usual inside the Vatican?

A major hint came from a change in tradition upon their arrival: The visitors didn’t report to the Apostolic Palace, the Renaissance showplace where for centuries past popes had received visitors in high style. Instead they entered Vatican City on the other side of the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square and took a 150-yard stroll through the hilly enclave to the new pope’s place of business—Casa Santa Marta, a five-story limestone guesthouse that could be mistaken for a newish hotel. There they were ushered into a nondescript meeting room on the first floor with no paintings or religious ornaments and took their seats around a conference table. The members—including Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, ex-chief of asset-management giant Invesco in Europe; Jochen Messemer, a top executive at ERGO, a large German insurer; and George Yeo, former foreign minister of Singapore—chatted nervously as they waited.

After 15 minutes, Pope Francis entered the room—and got right down to business. Attired in a simple white cassock and plain metal cross, he took his place standing at the head of the table. With little preamble, he began outlining his strategic vision, in an approach described by one participant as “highly managerial.” Speaking in fluent Italian and taking frequent pauses while a translator repeated his words in English, the pope explained to the group that for his spiritual message to be credible, the Vatican’s finances must be credible as well. After centuries of secrecy and intrigue, it was time to open the books to the faithful. Strict rules and protocols must be adopted to end the cycle of scandals that had plagued the Vatican in recent years.

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MARYLAND
Washington Post

Child sex abuser from Gaithersburg-area sentenced to 40 years in prison

By Dan Morse August 14

Nathaniel Morales, who was recently convicted of sexually abusing boys he met in a Gaithersburg church decades ago, was sentenced to 40 years in prison Thursday.

In two trials in May, jurors found Morales guilty of a series of counts of sex abuse and sex offense. Victims gave powerful testimonies of what Morales did to them and the lasting effect it had.

“Mr. Morales you are a pathetic human being,” Judge Terrence J. McGann said as he announced the sentence.

Morales, now 56, was an active adult member of Covenant Life Church in the 1980s – singing on stage during services and helping with a teenage youth group. The youth group had Bible studies that were combined with sleepovers, some of which were attended by Morales. He fondled teenage boys for several years, according to court records, before leaving the church and eventually settling in Las Vegas.

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OKLAHOMA
Newson6

Richard Clark, NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma – The pastor of the Greater Cornerstone Church in west Tulsa has been indicted for financial fraud.

Pastor Willard Lenord Jones, 63, is charged with three counts of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return.

Jones is the executive director of the Greater Cornerstone Community Development Project, located on 41st West Avenue. The community center offers a range of social services, ranging from help with food and clothing to health services.

Court documents say as executive director, Jones solicited millions of dollars in donations for the center, then diverted $933,507.80 of those funds for his own use.

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MARYLAND
WJLA

[with video]

Nathaniel Morales, former Covenant Life Church leader convicted of sexual abuse, sentenced to 40 years in prison

ROCKVILLE, Md. (WJLA/AP) – A Las Vegas man convicted of sexually abusing boys while he was a youth leader at a church in Maryland in the 1980s was sentened Thursday to 40 years in prison.

Nathaniel Morales received the sentence in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

A jury found him guilty in May on three counts of sexual abuse of a minor and two counts of sexual offense. He had faced up to 85 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Morales worked with youth ministries and conducted Bible studies for Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg.

He was convicted of abusing three boys from 1983 to 1991 at group sleepovers and in their homes.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WSOC

By Tina Terry

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Detectives with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Youth Crimes Unit have charged Orlando Agusto Caldera, 64, with 26 additional felony charges involving Caldera allegedly sexually assaulting victims while serving as an associate minister at his church.

Youth Crimes detectives were able to identify five additional female victims who they said had been sexually assaulted by Caldera, according to CMPD.

In a news conference, police said it took a lot of courage for those five little girls to speak up about alleged sex abuse by Caldera.

They told police Caldera, a former pastor at Memorial United Methodist Church, offered them gifts and candy to gain their trust then sexually assaulted them at the church.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte Observer

By Steve Lyttle
slyttle@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014

Orlando Agusto Caldera, 64, faces 26 additional charges involving sexual abuse of children, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

A former minister at an east Charlotte church faces more than two dozen additional charges of sexual assault involving children, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

Authorities said Orlando Augusto Caldera, 64, is accused of assaulting children between ages 6 and 10. He was charged with 26 felonies, in addition to the two indecent liberties with a child charges that were filed last week.

Caldera served for about five years as a minister at Memorial United Methodist Church, in the 4000 block of Central Avenue. He is no longer listed by the church as a staff member.

The first arrest came Aug. 4, after police were called to the church to deal with a disturbance. They were met by a 10-year-old girl, a 6-year-old girl and the mother of one of the children. The three accused Caldera of inappropriately touching the children, and after being interviewed by detectives, Caldera was charged.

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TENNESSEE
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Stockman | Aug. 13, 2014

NASHVILLE, TENN. The largest leadership organization for U.S. women religious began its first full day of its annual assembly Wednesday by focusing on one of the criticisms leveled against it: the contemplative, collaborative process for making decisions.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, made up of Catholic sisters who are leaders of their orders in the United States, represents about 80 percent of the 51,600 women religious in the United States. Nearly 800 of the group’s 1,400 members have gathered here for their four-day annual conference.

Wednesday morning’s session began with an examination of the decision-making process LCWR uses: contemplation, observation and exploration, reflection and dialogue, and finally, decision and action. The process is in stark contrast to the hierarchical decision-making process used by the Catholic church.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain listened intently as facilitators Catherine Bertrand of the School Sisters of Notre Dame and Mary Jo Nelson of Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters explained how truly listening to others and reflecting on their thoughts can change your thinking from individualistic to what is best for the community. Failure to listen, they said, leads to judgment, cynicism and fear.

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MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014

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

A Maryland megachurch leader will be sentenced today after being found guilty of sexually abusing three boys. We hope he gets the harshest sentence. Children are safer when predators are locked up, where they can’t hurt another innocent child.

Nathaniel “Nate” Morales was the youth leader at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD. By using his position of trust and authority he was able to sexually assault at least three boys, the youngest being only 11 years old.

We are grateful to the brave victims and whistleblowers who came forward and helped with this case. Their bravery will keep a dangerous man away from kids. Morales could face an 85 year prison sentence and we hope he gets it.

We hope anyone else who may have seen, suspects or suffered child sex crimes by Morales, or any other church officials, will find the courage to speak up, report what they know and start healing.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, August 13, 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 child sex abuse lawsuit has been filed against Fr. William Authenrieth who is originally from the Diocese of Brooklyn, abused in New York and Florida, and now lives in Massachusetts.

We urge Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio to urge his colleagues in Massachusetts to warn the public and their parishioners about Fr. Authenrieth, who has been accused of or sued for child sex crimes at least five times. Since Fr. Authenrieth was recruited, ordained, and trained in Brooklyn (before he was transferred to Orlando), Brooklyn Catholic officials should at least warn unsuspecting families about him.

Some might argue that, given his age (about 80), Fr. Authenrieth isn’t likely assaulting children now. They would be wrong.

It takes only seconds for a man to shove his hands down a boy’s pants or his tongue down a girl’s throat. And who would parents or kids trust more than an elderly, balding, stoop-shouldered, grandfatherly-looking figure?

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UNITED STATES
Cranach: The Blog of Veith

[with video]

August 12, 2014 by Gene Veith

Sinead O’Connor is a singer perhaps best known for ripping up the pope’s picture on Saturday Night Live, but her latest song shows a realization of what church is for. It’s called “Take Me to Church.” Here is the refrain:

Oh, take me to church
I’ve done so many bad things it hurts
Yeah, take me to church
But not the ones that hurt
‘Cause that ain’t the truth
And that’s not what it’s for
Yeah, take me to church
Oh, take me to church
I’ve done so many bad things it hurts
Yeah, get me to church
But not the ones that hurt
‘Cause that ain’t the truth
And that’s not what it’s for

Hear the song–which is quite good–and see the video after the jump.

Go here for the rest of the lyrics. Note the self-repudiation of the first stanza. I’m not saying she has her theology all together, but her distinction between churches that “hurt” and that churches that offer forgiveness is surely a good one.

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LOUISIANA
KATC

Abbeville attorney Tony Fontana made a name for himself representing priest sex abuse victims and their families. A lifelong catholic, Fontana says the lawsuits against the diocese shook the foundation of his church, but not his faith. Now he’s showing support for the current Lafayette priest, whose name surfaced in the latest media reports on the scandal.

When the priest sex-abuse scandal was put back into the spotlight by an investigation by Minnesota Public Radio, so too was newly-discovered evidence, including an affidavit signed by Fontana back in 1995. The statement details what Fontana knew and when. In that affidavit, Fontana brought up a name never before mentioned in the scandal, Father Gilbert Dutel, the current priest at St. Edmond in Lafayette.

“The accusations, had nothing to do with children,” said Fontana. “It had to do with young adults.”

Dutel’s name was also mentioned in a deposition by Bishop Gerard Frey in 1995. Frey said he never heard about any problems with Dutel concerning children, but there was one complaint concerning an adult. Frey said Dutel denied the accusation, and he was “transfered and sent somewhere for treatment.”

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DELAWARE
Delmarva Public Radio

By DON RUSH

The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington paid out $15.8 million to lawyers, financial advisors and others who worked on its 2011 bankruptcy.

That’s according to a final report filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court this week.

Anthony Flynn, an attorney for the diocese told the Wilmington News Journal, it was the third highest of around 10 diocesan bankruptcies nationwide.

The diocese paid $77.4 million into a trust fund to resolve the claims of victims in the priest sex abuse scandal that has rocked the church.

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DELAWARE
WDEL

By Associated Press

A 2009 bankruptcy filing by the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington cost $15.8 million in lawyers’ fees and other expenses.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2009 in the face of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by a former priest. It emerged in 2011 after paying $77 million into a trust fund for victims.

The News Journal says a report this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court detailed the overall costs of the filing.

More than $12 million of the money went to lawyers’ fees and expenses.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier-Mail

Opinion: Cardinal George Pell’s mean spirit in dealings with child abuse victims lives on after his transfer to Rome

TERRY SWEETMAN THE COURIER-MAIL AUGUST 15, 2014

THE Catholic Church has moved another embarrassing priest to a new parish.

I refer, of course, to Cardinal George Pell who has been transferred from Australia where his ineffectual, sometimes insensitive, oversight of dealings with abused children and their parents was fast becoming an insupportable embarrassment. He became the public face of a church beset with putrid crimes and clumsy cover-ups.

He has been posted to Rome to oversee the reform of the Vatican’s finances, a process that will lead to a church that is not “sloppy or inefficient’’ with its money, he assured the Catholic Herald.

He seems eminently qualified given he was so efficiently parsimonious in dealings in his own archdiocese. Pope Francis wanted a “poor Church for the poor,” but that “doesn’t necessarily mean a Church with empty coffers”, said Pell.

Events suggest that much of Pell’s life as a bishop has been preparation for guarding those coffers.

Pell might have gone to a more tranquil place but his spirit lives in television repeats of interviews and unimpressive appearances at the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into abuse and the royal commission into institutional responses to the scourge.

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ILLINOIS
Oakpark.com

Opinion: Columns
Tuesday, August 12th, 2014 12:52 PM

By Dan Haley
Editor and Publisher

Odds and ends with some a bit odder than others:

Name in the news: Had not thought about Monsignor John Fitzgerald in a good long time. Like many active or deactivated Catholics, I suppose I live with the dull dread that the next time I hear a name from the past it will not be in connection with a blessing but with a sin.

And so it was on Sunday with the news that Fitzgerald, the long-dead pastor of Ascension Church, has now been accused of sexual abuse by a woman, then a teen, who says that the priest sexually attacked her while she sought counseling from him back in 1964. While reports are still sketchy, some of the details we have were rightly provided in the parish bulletin by Larry McNally, the current pastor.

As usual, there are questions about how the archdiocese has handled this information.

More will be learned. That’s the usual pattern. But until we know more, here are a few recollections of Fitzgerald that neither endorse him nor convict him but just offer some context for a person who was a major force in south Oak Park — well beyond his church — in the 1950s, 1960s and into the early 1970s:

He is credited with using his clout in the 1950s to stop the building of an additional entry and exit to the under-construction Congress Expressway (now the Ike) just a block south of his East Avenue church. In the 1960s he was visible in Oak Park’s early open-housing efforts, lending his name to petitions and, as the Journal has reported, working to help an African-American family purchase a home in the parish in part because he wanted his school integrated.

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ILLINOIS
Oakpark.com

By Ken Trainor
Staff writer

By KEN TRAINOR
Staff Writer

Ascension Catholic Church parishioners found the following message from Rev. Larry McNally in the church bulletin on Sunday:

“In the spirit of transparency and the parish family’s right to know … I received a phone call from the Archdiocesan Office of Youth and Protection. At a SNAP [Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests] press conference, an adult female spoke and said she was sexually abused by Monsignor John Fitzgerald in 1964. Msgr. Fitzgerald (now deceased) was pastor at Ascension from 1951 until 1973. The Archdiocese has paid for her therapy.”

The accuser is Gail Peloquin Howard, who now lives in Norwalk, Connecticut. According to the SNAP website (SNAPnetwork.org), “In 2005, [Ms. Howard] reported to Chicago archdiocesan officials that in 1964, as a teenager, she sought guidance from her pastor at Ascension parish in Oak Park, Msgr. John D. Fitzgerald, who sexually attacked her during that meeting and later he offered to pay her for one year of therapy. … The archdiocese has paid for Howard’s therapy.”

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CANADA
Straight

by TRAVIS LUPICK on AUG 13, 2014

Gary Patsey’s Gitxsan First Nation name is Kaliskalan. Loosely translated, it means “last man up the river”, he told the Georgia Straight recently over coffee in Hazelton, in northwestern B.C.

In a separate interview, Dimdiigibuu, whose English name is Ardythe Wilson, told a story that revealed the path on which Patsey was set when he was given that title upon his birth.

“We’ve had a generation of people Gary’s age who have died,” Wilson began. “Most of his friends are gone. He struggles, almost alone, as a lone voice of his generation, calling out for some kind of recognition of the impacts of residential schools. And he’s doing that because that goes a long way in starting the healing process.”

Wilson, a program coordinator for the Gitxsan Child and Family Services Society, explained that First Nations people still feel the psychological trauma inflicted on them through Canada’s residential schools. The last such facility designed for assimilation, in Saskatchewan, closed in 1996, she said, and many former students died when they were still young. Depression, chronic alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, and degenerative diseases remain common problems among survivors.

At the Historic B.C. Cafe, Patsey recalled years he spent trying to suppress memories of his time at a residential school outside Edmonton.

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NEW YORK
Troy Record

Clifton Park >> A Catholic priest arrested in April pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon in Clifton Park Town Court to one count of endangering the welfare of a child.

Dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, and dark tie, Rev. James Michael Taylor, 30, stood with his attorney before Judge James Hughes and calmly and clearly said, “Guilty, your honor” when Hughes asked for his plea.

Taylor, who was a youth minister at Corpus Christi Church in Clifton Park at the time of the incident, was arrested in April, accused of engaging in inappropriate conduct with a 15-year-old Clifton Park girl. He is said to have met the girl while serving as deacon and leader of the church’s youth ministry program. Taylor is said to have had physical contact but not forced contact, and shared telephone calls, text messages, and inappropriate photos with the girl.

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Robert Gavin

Clifton Park

A Niskayuna priest who carried on a seven-month relationship with a 15-year-old girl admitted he endangered the minor Wednesday — but will spend no time behind bars.

The Rev. James Michael Taylor, who was serving as an associate pastor at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Niskayuna, pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor that carries no more than a year in jail.

But Taylor, 30, known as “Father Michael,” will receive no jail time when he is sentenced Oct. 8, according to people familiar with the case.

A five-year order of protection prevents Taylor from contacting the victim.

Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III said via Twitter that the victim was satisfied with the conviction and it serves justice. Murphy noted it was not a plea bargain, and Taylor pleaded guilty to the charge he faced.

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NEW MEXICO
Dow Jones & Company

Diocese of Gallup Seeks More Time to Reach Deal With Victims

Tom Corrigan
August 13, 2014

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup, N.M., has asked a federal judge for an additional eight months under bankruptcy-court protection to continue negotiations with more than 100 individuals who allege they were sexually abused by clergy members.

The church’s exclusivity period, during which sexual-abuse claimants or others are barred from filing their own reorganization proposals, is set to expire Sept. 8.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY SARAH MACDONALD – 14 AUGUST 2014

Cardinal Sean Brady was the only churchman from Ireland or Britain at the conclave that elected Pope Francis in March 2013.

Highly regarded in the Catholic Church, the revelation that he was linked to the cover-up of child sex abuse in the 1970s was the first time he had faced major criticism from the faithful.

Dr Brady was ordained a priest in 1964, after studying for the priesthood in Maynooth and Rome. As a seminarian he played at minor football for Cavan in GAA football and was even selected for senior level. However, he had to pass it up when he was sent to Rome to study for a doctorate in canon law.

In 1975, he was present when children signed a vow of silence after they accused paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth of sexually abusing them.

Smyth continued abusing children and was not jailed until 1994.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY SARAH MACDONALD – 14 AUGUST 2014

Pope Francis is expected to accept the resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady as Primate of All Ireland in the coming months.

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland wrote to the Vatican several weeks ago indicating that he is prepared to step down, it has been learned.

The decision by Cardinal Brady, who became Primate in 1996, to submit his notice almost a month before his birthday has been seen as surprising in religious circles.

Cardinal Brady, who turns 75 on Saturday, does not automatically abdicate the role as he can only retire with the Pope’s permission.

A spokesperson for the Catholic Communications Office confirmed: “When Pope Francis accepts the retirement, Coadjutor Archbishop Eamon Martin will become Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Michael Kelly
Published 14/08/2014

As Cardinal Sean Brady sends his retirement letter to Pope Francis this week, he’ll surely breathe a sigh of relief – and hope it’ll be swiftly accepted.

As Primate of All Ireland for almost 20 years, he has been responsible for guiding the Catholic Church through some of its darkest days and most turbulent times. It has rarely been out of choppy waters and often on the rocks.

He has been the subject of sharp criticism and intense anger from many people over his own failures in the case of the notorious abuser-priest Brendan Smyth.

Dr Brady has stubbornly resisted calls for his resignation over his failure to save further victims by reporting Smyth’s crimes to the police.

Dr Brady and his supporters point out that he was only a note-taker during the canon law investigation into Smyth, that his role was periphery. But that misses the point: as Archbishop of Armagh he presented himself as the leader of a church which had learnt the lessons of the past and had cleaned up its act on child abuse. Yet, every time the cardinal appeared, he was a potent – and for survivors, a painful – reminder of a corrupt church culture which put the avoidance of scandal and the reputation of the church ahead of the rights of children.

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

MINNESOTA/WASHINGTON
Pioneer Press

A former minister from Minnesota wanted on child-molestation charges reportedly was spotted Wednesday in Washington state.

Victor Arden Barnard, 52, was charged in April in Pine County (Minn.) District Court with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct. Barnard, who led a cult-like religious sect, is accused of abusing numerous girls and young women who lived apart from their families at the congregation’s compound in northern Pine County.

According to a news release from the Washington State Patrol, a witness reported seeing Barnard leaving a McDonald’s restaurant Wednesday in Raymond, in western Washington, heading toward the city of Aberdeen.

The patrol said that Barnard was believed to be driving a dark blue, two-door Audi with tinted windows and a spoiler and that he had a female passenger. Additional information placed Barnard in the Raymond and Aberdeen areas for about the previous week, the patrol said.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Jane Walsh @irishcentral August 14,2014

Beloved Irish star Brendan Gleeson revealed, on US national radio, that he was molested by a Christian Brother as a young boy, in school.

Gleeson, who is in the United States to promote the movie “Calvary” said a brother had “dropped the hand” on him once but that he was not traumatized by it and never told his parents.

He told National Public Radio’s Bob Edward’s Weekend show it was “just one of those things where something odd happened.”

He said “Yeah, it’s odd…I remember a particular Christian Brother dropped the hand on me at one point. It wasn’t very traumatic and it wasn’t at all sustained, it was just one of these things where something odd happened.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

Aug 14, 2014 By Stuart Macdonald

BISHOP Joseph Toal told a court that Father Matthew Despard rigged up a device to shower “liquid or powder” on anyone who opened one of the doors.

A CATHOLIC bishop yesterday accused a rebel priest of booby-trapping a church house.

Bishop Joseph Toal told a court that Father Matthew Despard rigged up a device to shower “liquid or powder” on anyone who opened one of the doors.

It’s the latest bizarre twist in the long battle between Despard and Toal over a book the priest wrote alleging that a gay mafia were operating at the top of the Church.

Bishop of Motherwell Toal removed Despard from his parish last year over the book and ordered him to get out of the parish house. But Despard refused to leave and Toal is taking court action to evict him.

Toal told Hamilton Sheriff Court that the booby trap was found in January by the priest he appointed to replace Despard at St John Ogilvie church in High Blantyre, Lanarkshire.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Thursday 14 August 2014

A Bishop has claimed a priest at the centre of a row with the Catholic Church booby-trapped his parish house.

Father Matthew Despard refused to leave his home at St John Ogilvie in High Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, despite being ordered out by the Bishop of Motherwell, Joseph Toal.

He had been suspended by senior church figures after writing a controversial book alleging a gay mafia was operating in the Catholic clergy.

Bishop Toal ordered Fr Despard to leave the house in November 2013 after disciplinary measures were taken against him, but the priest refused to comply.

The Church took legal action against him and yesterday a civil hearing at Hamilton Sheriff Court heard Bishop Toal allege a hidden device that let out liquid had been placed near a door in the property.

Father William Nolan was appointed to replace Fr Despard at the parish, and it was claimed he discovered the device in January this year.

Bishop Toal said: “My memory is that there was some door that once you got it open, some sort of liquid or powder would come down on the person who opened it.

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MARYLAND
WUSA

GAITHERSBURG, Md. (WUSA9) — A former Montgomery County megachurch leader will be sentenced Thursday for sexually abusing three boys in the 1980s and 1990s.

Nathaniel “Nate” Morales was found guilty on three counts of sexual abuse of a minor and two more counts of sexual offense in the second degree in May.

He was a youth leader at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg when he sexually abused boy at group sleepovers and in their homes from 1983-1991.

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AUSTRALIA
Pro Bono

Thursday, August 14, 2014

A submission from the Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council to the child abuse Royal Commission has called for a mandatory national victims’ redress scheme operated by Government but funded by the institutions responsible for the abuse.

CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan, said the scheme needed to be non-adversarial, low cost to claimants and provide just, compassionate and fair compensation for victims.

“The days of the Catholic Church investigating itself are over,” Sullivan said.

“For the sake of the survivors of clerical sexual abuse within the Church and all other institutions the development of an independent national victims’ redress scheme is a giant step forward in delivering justice for people suffering the devastating impacts of child sexual abuse.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
AUG. 13, 2014

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill last week that adds compensated public school coaches to the list of professionals, including teachers, required to report to authorities suspected cases of child sexual abuse and other maltreatment. This leaves uncovered some (but not all) private and parochial school coaches, volunteer coaches and college-level coaches. And it does nothing to elevate New York’s low ranking when it comes to providing justice to the victims of child sexual abuse. That shabby distinction is directly related to the state’s failure to extend its severely short statute of limitations in child-sexual-abuse cases.

Serious abuse cases involving institutions like Yeshiva University High School for Boys, Horace Mann and Penn State show that it can take years before victims are emotionally and psychologically ready to come forward. Many states have made changes to better align their statutes of limitation with that practical reality. But not New York, where people have just until age 23 in most circumstances to bring a claim against their abusers.

By comparison, Hawaii, in 2012, extended its time limit for civil lawsuits by child victims from 20 to the age of 26, or to three years from the time the victim realizes the abuse caused harm. The Hawaii reform also created a two-year window to allow victims to file claims even if the statute of limitations under the old law had expired. Hawaii lawmakers recently tacked on another two-year window. And, just a few week ago, the Massachusetts governor, Deval Patrick, signed a law raising the limit for filing civil lawsuits against abusers from age 21 to 53.

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CANADA
Daily Courier

CRANBROOK, B.C. – Two leaders of an isolated religious commune in British Columbia have been charged for the second time with practising polygamy, more than two decades after allegations of multiple marriage, sexual abuse and cross-border child trafficking first attracted the attention of the outside world.

Winston Blackmore and James Oler, who lead separate factions in a community known as Bountiful, were each charged Wednesday with one count of polygamy. Blackmore is accused of having 24 marriages, while Oler is accused of four.

Oler is also charged along with two others — Brandon Blackmore and Emily Crossfield — with unlawfully removing a child from Canada for sexual purposes.

The charges are the latest step in a series of investigations and failed attempts at prosecutions dating back to the early 1990s involving Bountiful, which follows a fundamentalist form of Mormonism.

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TEXAS
KVUE

ORANGE – Day two of testimony is under way in the sentencing of a former youth pastor who pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child.

Joshua Luke McDonald, 37, of Bridge City, was indicted in February on six counts of aggravated sexual assault. He pleaded guilty in June, admitting to having sexual relations with two victims under the age of 17.

McDonald asked that he be sentenced by a jury.

The state has rested and the defense began its side Tuesday morning. McDonald’s attorney told jurors about his client, saying, “in his short young life he’s helped a lot of people but made a mistake.”

Some supporters of McDonald cried as they heard testimony from a sex offender treatment counselor.

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CANADA
The Catholic Register

BY MICHAEL SWAN, THE CATHOLIC REGISTER

August 13, 2014

Two months after the OPP seized a computer from St. Patrick’s parish in Caledonia, Ont., looking for child porn, police have returned the computer and closed the investigation — no child porn, just annoying pop-up advertising the computer’s firewalls were not equipped to block.

St. Patrick’s pastor Fr. Mario Fernandes lived and ministered under a cloud for two months while the Ontario Provincial Police’s Child Sexual Exploitation Section investigated.

“It was very stressful,” Fernandes told The Catholic Register. “When people label you for no reason when you’re not involved in that sort of thing, and here the whole town is concerned about that.”

But two months is lightning fast when it comes to computer crimes and sexual exploitation, said investigating officer Doug Rees.

“Usually an investigation goes 12 to 18 months,” he said. “Because it’s computers and it’s forensics.”
The OPP went out of its way to let Caledonia residents know they had cleared Fernandes.

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NORTH CAROLINA
ABC 13

A Yancey County man is out on bond after being arrested over the weekend on a felony charge of taking indecent liberties with a minor.

Sheriff’s Detective Brian Shuford says Brandon Wayne Bailey, 49, paid the $25,000 bond he was being held on. Last week, Shuford says a minor came forward alleging he was inappropriately touched by Bailey during a private music lesson at his home along Highway 197 in Green Mountain.

Bailey was formerly employed at Higgins Memorial United Methodist Church, where he helped lead musical worships. Lead Pastor Wes Sharp says Bailey resigned from his position Friday, before being arrested Saturday.

“I would like to say my personal prayers and those of our people here at Higgins are for Brandon, a very valued person, employee and servant, for the alleged victim and for his or her family,” says Sharp.

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MINNESOTA/WASHINGTON
Fox 9

Updated: Aug 13, 2014

posted by Shelby Capaci

Authorities in the state of Washington may be closing in on a cult leader who was charged with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving minors after two victims came forward to say he raped them.

According to the Washington State Patrol, a credible tip on the location of 52-year-old Victor Barnard came in on Wednesday. Police say Barnard was apparently spotted leaving a McDonald’s restaurant on SR 101, and additional information leads them to believe he has been in the Aberdeen and Raymond areas of Grays Harbor County recently. Now, they’re hoping members of the public will help find him.

Troopers say the car Barnard is believed to be traveling in is a dark blue, 2-door Audi with tinted windows and a spoiler. He apparently departed toward Aberdeen with a young white woman in the vehicle. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to call 911.

A nationwide warrant was issued for his arrest on April 11 after he was charged with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving minors. The case had been inactive until a Fox 9 Investigation brought the stories of Lindsey Tornambie and Jess Schweiss to light at the end of February.

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MONTANA
Ravalli Republic

By LISA BAUMANN Associated Press

HELENA – Settlement talks earlier this month between the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province and hundreds of people who claim they were sexually abused by priests and nuns have failed, attorneys said Wednesday.

Molly Howard, an attorney for some of the plaintiffs, filed a report Tuesday in Lewis and Clark County District Court saying the parties were unable to resolve the case through discussions ordered by Judge Jeffrey Sherlock in June. It was the third attempt at a settlement between the parties with a mediator involved, Howard said.

“We didn’t have a lot of confidence,” Howard said of the talks. “This was unsuccessful.”

Ursulines attorney Thomas Johnson said the two sides remain fairly far apart although the nuns were able to bring more money to the table after a lender said they’d put up money against the Ursulines property.

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NEW YORK
Fox 23

[with video]

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. – A guilty plea was entered in Clifton Town Park Court Wednesday by a priest accused of endangering the welfare of a child.

James Michael Taylor, 30, also known as Father Michael, will not serve jail time nor be placed on probation as part of the plea.

Saratoga County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Buckley said the DA’s office only asked for a five-year order of protection in court Wednesday. She said it was per the victim’s family’s request.

The Saratoga County Sheriff said Taylor was having an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old Clifton Park girl since October 2013. The behavior allegedly included physical contact, telephone calls, text messages and photos.

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DELAWARE
The New Journal

Beth Miller, The News Journal August 14, 2014

The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington paid $15.8 million in fees and expenses to lawyers, financial advisers and other professionals involved in its 2011 bankruptcy, according to its final report filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court this week.

As other dioceses have done around the nation, the Diocese of Wilmington sought Chapter 11 protection in 2009 after a flood of civil lawsuits were filed by survivors of clergy sexual abuse under provisions of Delaware’s 2007 Child Victim’s Act.

The 2007 law opened a two-year window for child sexual abuse cases that would otherwise have been barred by the statute of limitations.

The diocese emerged from bankruptcy in 2011, paying $77.4 million into a trust fund to resolve all claims by abuse survivors and another $10 million into a pension fund for lay employees that was found to be underfunded during financial disclosures.

Several religious orders throughout the diocese – the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, the Brothers of the Holy Cross, the Capuchins – also settled cases by adding to the trust fund, which eventually totaled about $110 million.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

Documents made public Monday by attorneys attempting to make the case that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is a public nuisance suggest Archbishop John Nienstedt gave false statements under oath about a priest who was accused of abusing minors.

The documents released by St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson show that each year, Nienstedt was updated on Father Kenneth LaVan’s continuing work and approved of it as recently as one year ago. Yet, in a sworn deposition on April 2, Nienstedt claimed he did not know until March of this year that the priest accused of sexually assaulting at least one 16-year-old girl in the 1980s was still active in ministry.

“I was not aware that he was publicly in ministry,” Nienstedt said of LaVan, “and as soon as I realized it, I had his faculties removed.”

While Nienstedt contends he learned of LaVan’s continuing ministry during a review of clergy files ordered by the archdiocese, attorneys at Anderson’s law office tell a different story — one that alleges LaVan was removed to keep the case from surfacing amid increased media attention on the growing clergy sexual abuse scandal. Memos from 20 years ago show top church officials took steps to ensure the problem would not “blow up.” In fact, some of the documents released Monday expose conversations between top church officials over allegations of harassment, sexual misconduct with married parishioners, “lavish” expenditures on lovers, and a diagnosis of “compulsive sexuality.”

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NEW YORK
Niskayuna

Probation awaits the Rev. James Michael Taylor after he admitted child endangerment — a charge stemming from sexual contact he had with a 15-year-old girl while serving as a youth minister at Corpus Christi Church in Clifton Park.

Taylor, 30, pleaded guilty to the one misdemeanor count in Clifton Park Wednesday afternoon with the understanding that he won’t face any jail time. Instead, he will have a five-year order of protection placed on him that will prevent him from having any contact with the girl.

Taylor, who was suspended by the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese after being charged in April, did not make any statement following the plea and will face sentencing Oct. 8. Defense attorney Daniel Stewart said his client admitted to the count in part to prevent the girl from having to testify.

“The purpose [of this plea] obviously is to accept responsibility for his conduct, to minimize the impact on the victim and to move on with his life,” Stewart said after the proceedings.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

The Redemptorist Order (founded by St. Alphonsus Ligouri) who administers the famous shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre (built in 1926) near Quebec City is to pay $20 million dollars to the victims of its bestial pedophile priests (see news below). “It’s a landmark settlement,” said Robert Kugler, the lawyer representing victims in a class-action lawsuit. “It’s the most that has ever been paid in the settlement of a sexual abuse class action in the history of Quebec.”

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IRELAND
Huffington Post

By Antonia Blumberg

Irish singer Sinead O’Connor has no faith in Catholic Church reforms under Pope Francis, she told Billboard in an interview for the August 16 issue.

“I find it quite laughable that they’re talking about revolutionizing the church when, in fact, they’re equating female ordination and pedophilia,“ the singer said. “When you consider that, it shows you how little they think of children and the rape of children.”

In July 2010 the Vatican added a provision to what was intended to be a sweeping reform that would once and for all address the ongoing sex abuses in the church. The new rules included procedures for defrocking priests for sex abuses under canon law and extended the period during which trials could take place in a church court from 10 to 20 years after the 18th birthday of his victim.

Much to the dismay of many Catholics, the Vatican added a provision to the document that made the “attempted ordination” of women one of the “gravest offenses a priest can commit” — essentially putting it on par with sexual abuse.

O’Connor has criticized the Catholic Church over the years for sex abuses and coverups, but she said she doesn’t blame the incumbent pope personally.

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NEW YORK
CBS 6

[with video]

Updated: Wednesday, August 13 2014

CLIFTON PARK – A local priest has pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child after having inappropriate contact with a Saratoga County teen.

Prosecutors say James Michael Taylor exchanged phone calls, text messages and pictures with a 15-year-old girl between October 2013 and April 2014.

Taylor met the victim while serving as Deacon and Youth Minister for the Corpus Christi Church in Round Lake. The Albany Catholic Diocese says that Taylor will remain on leave, pending a review from Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany’s Sexual Misconduct Review Board.

While that process is ongoing, a spokesperson from the Diocese tells CBS6, “While on administrative leave, he is not permitted to publicly present himself as a priest, celebrate the sacraments or wear clerical garb.”

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NEW YORK
Time Warner Cable News

SARATOGA COUNTY, N.Y. — An area priest accused of texting and having physical contact with a 15-year-old girl pleads guilty in Saratoga County Court.

James Michael Taylor, 30, who went by Father Michael, plead guilty to endangering the welfare of a child.

Deputies say the incidents happened between October 2013 and April of this year while he was a Deacon and youth minister for the Corpus Christi Church in Clifton Park.

Investigators say Taylor’s relationship with the girl involved physical contact, text messages, and photos.

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Robert Gavin
Updated 4:42 pm, Wednesday, August 13, 2014

CLIFTON PARK — A Roman Catholic priest pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor endangerment charge and will not have to serve jail time.

The Rev. James Michael Taylor appeared in Clifton Park Town Court. He is to be sentenced in October.

Taylor was accused of engaging in physical contact and shared phone calls, text messages and pictures with a 15-year-old girl he met when he served as a deacon and youth minister at Corpus Christi Church in Clifton Park.

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CHILE
New York Daily News

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

BY CAROL KURUVILLA

The Chilean Catholic church is punishing an alleged baby-stealing priest by sending him to Spain for a period of “reflection.”

The church confirmed Tuesday that Father Gerardo Joannon “actively participated” in the forced adoptions of at least two babies, who were snatched from their unwed single mothers more than thirty years ago and handed off to married couples who raised them in traditional Catholic families. Joannon was also allegedly engaged in an “inappropriate relationship” with one mother.

But since so much time has passed, church officials have chosen to send Joannon to Madrid in October “to initiate a process of psychological and spiritual accompaniment,” the Catholic News Service reports. Joannon will not have any pastoral responsibilities during his time in Spain.

Officials from Chile’s child protection agency have urged the Chilean church to keep the priest inside the country to “clarify the truth in this case.”

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FLORIDA
News 13

By Amanda McKenzie, Reporter
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 13, 2014

ORLANDO —
A 52-year-old Orange County man has filed a legal complaint against the Catholic Diocese of Orlando, claiming he was sexually abused by a priest in Seminole County over 35 years ago.

The victim’s 13-page complaint, dated Monday, details years of sexual abuse at the hands of Father William Authenrieth, then an associate pastor at All Souls Catholic Church in Sanford, where the plaintiff served as an altar boy.

According to the plaintiff, identified only as “GS Doe” in the complaint to protect his privacy, the alleged abuse took place between January 1976 and July 1978, while he was in sixth- to eighth-grade. The incidents happened in the church’s sacristy and the priest’s living quarters.

The complaint said Father Authenrieth convinced the victim that “sexual contact between a child and a priest was completely normal.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AUGUST 14, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

THE Catholic Church’s decision to renounce its support for unlimited financial compensation for child sexual abuse has ­provoked a furious response from victims, with the national lawyers’ body also describing the proposals as “bullying”.

In a submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this week, the church contradicted its previous calls for an ­independent national body able to award uncapped payments to victims.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance criticised the submission, which said payments should be capped “in line with community standards” and that victims who accept such compensation should surrender their right to sue the church, describing it as “extremely flawed”.

National president Andrew Stone was concerned about the suggestion that any scheme could reduce the role played by lawyers.

“No lawyers is code for church power over victims,” Mr Stone said.

“This is exactly the sort of bullying behaviour that occurred in the past.”

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CHILE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, August 13, 2014

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

A Chilean priest who Catholic officials say stole babies from their mothers (claiming that the infants were dead) says he’ll return from Spain to face criminal charges if they are filed against him. We believe Father Alex Vigueras is lying.

We also think this Chilean priest is lying when he says he was trying to stop abortions. We believe he was motivated by greed. Evidence in Spain suggests that priests and nuns there stole babies from mothers for financial gain.

We suspect this was true in Chile too.

Catholic officials in either Spain or Chile should insist that this abusive priest live in a treatment center until he is quickly defrocked and harshly denounced by the church hierarchy.

We hope that every single person who has seen, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by Fr.Gerardo Joannon or his church colleagues or supervisors will contact law enforcement, get help, expose wrongdoers, and start healing.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

08/13/14
Amy Sara Clark
Staff Writer

When Kenneth Thompson unseated longtime Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes last November, advocates for Jewish victims of sex abuse were jubilant.

But, despite Thompson’s release last week of the names of 20 defendants in sex abuse cases that his predecessor had refused to unveil, in the months since Thompson has taken office the optimism advocates and victims initially felt has, for some, turned to disappointment.

Thompson campaigned on a platform of reform, including promising to more vigorously prosecute sex abuse cases than his predecessor, who is accused of dragging his feet on those cases to win the support of Brooklyn’s charedi leaders, who prefer to handle the claims internally.

But survivors and their advocates have decidedly mixed reviews of Thompson so far.

Ben Hirsch, co-founder of Survivors for Justice, an organization that advocates and educates on issues related to child safety, has been critical of Thompson’s tenure to date. He points to the DA’s plea bargain that led to no jail time for a man who threw bleach in the face of a prominent victim’s advocate as sending a message that he’s not going to go after people who try to intimidate victims and their advocates into not testifying.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

The blogger, Jewish Whistleblower stopped posting in 2005. But he’s continued to monitor abuse in the orthodox world, assiduously scouring press reports and court records. On a regular basis he shares important facts by commenting on Frum Follies and other blogs. His reporting of facts is consistently accurate and he’s alerted me to many things I did not know. — Yerachmiel Lopin

Guest Post by Jewish Whistleblower

Earlier this week Brooklyn DA Kenneth Thompson’s office released 20 names (of defendants in cases where former DA Hynes refused to divulge the names because they involved Orthodox Jewish suspects and/or victims) to Sue Edelman of the New York Post. 14 of those names have yet to be publicly reported.

[New York Post]

Today we learned from the NY Jewish Week that the DA’s office claims that “Since January, Thompson’s office has arrested seven people accused of sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community”.

[The Jewish Week]

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CHILE
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

SANTIAGO, Chile — The Catholic Church in Chile announced that Father Gerardo Joannon, a prominent Chilean priest, will be sent to a community in Madrid “to initiate a process of psychological and spiritual accompaniment” after his alleged involvement in a scandal of stolen newborn babies.

Father Alex Vigueras, provincial superior of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Chile, said Aug. 12 that an internal investigation conducted by the Archdiocese of Santiago concluded there is credible evidence that Father Joannon was involved in irregular adoptions during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.

The case is already being investigated by Chilean Judge Mario Carroza, who is working to establish the extent of the network that stole newborn babies from single mothers to give them to married couples during the 1970s and 1980s.

The victims were unmarried women, generally from well-off families, who were pressured by their relatives to give up their child for adoption to avoid the social stigma of unmarried motherhood. If they refused to do so, they were led to believe that their baby had died during childbirth.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By ALEX HAMER Aug. 14, 2014

A COUNCIL representing the Catholic Church has outlined a new scheme to help victims of sex abuse, while also apologising for its past actions.

The Truth Justice and Healing Council submitted the plan to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Tuesday, and expects it would be rolled out nationally for any institution in which a child had been sexually abused.

The move would see capped compensation, counselling and more general support available to victims, even if they have already received money from the church in the past.

Ballarat abuse victim and advocate Andrew Collins said the plan was heartening, but it needed to be put in place as soon as possible.

“I think it’s very positive, definitely a turnaround from the church, but it needs to happen soon. There are still survivors out there whose lives are ending prematurely,” he said.

Mr Collins said the federal government should step in and put in the redress scheme before the Royal Commission handed down its report in 2017. While feeling positive of the idea, Mr Collins was critical of the council for putting a cap on payments, which it had previously rejected. “The cap on payments was the clincher. Previously they said they shouldn’t be there. (But) as long as those caps were in line for what people could expect, from what they could get from the courts, it would be acceptable,” he said.

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, August 13, 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 child sex abuse lawsuit has been filed against Fr. William Authenrieth who is apparently still alive and living in Massachusetts.

We urge Orlando Bishop John Noonan to urge his colleagues in Massachusetts to warn the public and their parishioners about Fr. Authenrieth, who has been accused of or sued for child sex crimes at least five times. That’s the least Noonan can do to protect children. (After all, Florida Catholic officials recruited, educated, hired, trained, shielded and transferred Fr. Authenrieth. They can’t simply suspend him from parish work and do nothing more to seek out those he has hurt and safeguard those he may hurt.)

Some might argue that, given his age (about 80), Fr. Authenrieth isn’t likely assaulting children now. They would be wrong.

It takes only seconds for a man to shove his hands down a boy’s pants or his tongue down a girl’s throat. And who would parents or kids trust more than an elderly, balding, stoop-shouldered, grandfatherly-looking figure?

It’s irresponsible for anyone to assume that because a child molester is older, he’s somehow safer.

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UNITED STATES
The Other Journal

by David Cramer & Jenny Howell & Jonathan Tran & Paul Martens on Monday, July 7, 2014

In the years following, some say preceding, the 1972 publication of his monumental The Politics of Jesus, the celebrated Christian ethicist John Howard Yoder emotionally manipulated and sexually violated numerous women.[1] Yoder’s conduct troubles us on multiple levels. Because these behaviors strike us as profoundly dissonant with the ways in which his thought has deeply influenced us, we spent the last year attempting to find out all we could about his actions and to reflect theologically on what we found. In this essay, we first report what we know about Yoder’s manipulations and violations and their histories at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and the University of Notre Dame. Next we consider inconsistencies and consistencies between those behaviors and his theology. Finally, we utilize one aspect of his thought—his account of the fallen powers—to reevaluate his legacy in the terms of his theology.

Saying what we know is easy enough, because what we know with certainty remains minimal. Here is what we know, and we share it because it is important that readers of Yoder’s theology are aware of his conduct so that they can judge for themselves how to take his vision of Christian discipleship.

Initial reports put the number of women involved at around ten, but subsequent estimates have gone as high as one hundred. Yoder’s actions toward these women, including students, ranged from verbal sexual innuendo to physical sexual acts, including intercourse. Some commentators are convinced that these behaviors took place over most of his decades-long teaching career, whereas others believe they occurred during a fixed and much shorter period of time. In his interactions with these women, we understand that Yoder saw himself involved in a “grand noble experiment” with them even though some women use “harassment” and “abuse” to describe what he did to them.[2]

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NEW ZEALAND
The Tablet

13 August 2014 by Katherine Backler

The Vatican’s lead prosecutor on abuse cases has praised the media for keeping sex abuse cases in the public eye.

Mgr Robert Oliver, Promoter of Justice for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times: “It’s hard for any group over time to keep up the kind of energy that’s needed to do this work. What the media has been doing was to keep that energy up.”

Mgr Oliver said that the Church had “much to seek reconciliation for … particularly in not listening to victims.”

He spoke of how meeting survivors of sex abuse reminds him of the importance of his work. “You realise what this does to people… how deeply harmed they are.”

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POLSKA
Gazeta Wyborcza

Michał Wilgocki 12.08.2014

SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – dosłownie sieć współpracy ocalonych, którzy padli ofiarą nadużyć seksualnych ze strony księży) zrzesza ofiary księży pedofilów. Powstała w 1989 r., w USA ma swoich przedstawicieli w 56 krajach, m.in. w Australii, Peru, Kanadzie, Argentynie. Zbiera informacje na temat osób molestowanych przez księży. Walczy też o odszkodowania. Skutecznie. Za jej sprawą w USA zbankrutowało 11 diecezji. Ostatnia w Los Angeles na początku tego roku.

Wypłacane przez nią odszkodowania idą w setki milionów dolarów. Organizacja współpracowała także z ONZ podczas przesłuchań przedstawicieli Watykanu w Genewie w 2014 r., kiedy tłumaczyli się z pedofilii w szeregach Kościoła – przed Komitetem przeciwko Torturom i Komitetem ds. Praw Dziecka.

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POLAND
The News

The largest international organisation devoted to aiding victims of Church child abuse and exposing paedophile priests is setting up branches in Poland.

SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), which was founded in the US in 1989, currently has representatives in 56 countries.

“We want to appoint a local [SNAP] leader in every diocese or region,” said Maria Mucha, who is setting up the organisation’s Polish network, in an interview with the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

She added that each leader will “gather information about victims and perpetrators.
“You have to collect it locally, as that is the most effective method,” she argued.

In recent years, SNAP campaigns have led to the bankruptcy of 11 US dioceses owing to compensation cases involving child abuse victims.

This June, leading Polish archbishops held a penitential mass in Krakow for the sins of clergymen guilty of child abuse.

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LOUISIANA
KATC

Following a KATC investigation piece last night, a support group for those abused by priests is calling for Lafayette’s bishop to release the names of those priests with credible accusations against them.

According to David Clohessy, Executive Director of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), releasing the names would both protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. He argues that parents will be able to better protect their children from predators if they know who the predators are.

“We are disappointed in Lafayette’s Catholic bishop and its district attorney. The bishop won’t release the names of 15 credibly accused predator priests and the D.A. won’t even ask the bishop for them. What an irresponsible decision by both men,” says Clohessy.

He says after a pledge by bishops to be more open and transparent, roughly 30 U.S. bishops posted names of suspected abusive priests on their websites.

“If even one of these 15 credibly accused sex offenders is alive, let’s err on the side of safety. If he is too dangerous to put on the job in a parish, then he’s too dangerous to live among unsuspecting single mothers in an apartment complex, teach piano lessons in his home, be a volunteer tutor, coach basketball, or babysit his nieces,” says Clohessy.

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LOUISIANA
The Advertiser

Claire Taylor August 13, 2014

A national group of priest sex abuse victims is calling on Bishop Michael Jarrell and District Attorney Mike Harson to release the names of 15 credibly accused priests.

The Daily Advertiser was first to report that Jarrell, bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette, refused to release the names of the 15 priests.

Jarrell acknowledged in 2004 and again to The Advertiser on July 31 that the Diocese and its insurers had paid $26 million in settlements to the victims of 15 priests. But he told The Advertiser he “sees no purpose” in releasing the priests’ names.

The Advertiser asked Harson last week if he would request, demand or subpoena the names from the Diocese. In a response Monday, Harson said he would not investigate unless a victim stepped forward who was willing to pursue the case.

“What an irresponsible decision by both men,” David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement today. “We hope both men will reconsider.”

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TENNESSEE
Road to Recovery

August 13, 2014

MEDIA RELEASE

Advocacy organization to shed light on sexual abuse by nuns during annual convention

New York-based nun organization ignores pleas of sexual abuse victim

What: A demonstration and leafleting regarding the sexual abuse of a young girl by a nun and the injustice of the religious order of nuns toward the sexual abuse victim.

Where: On the sidewalk outside the Courtyard by Marriott at Opryland Hotel, 125 Music City Circle, Nashville, TN.

When: Thursday, August 14, 2014 from 8:00 AM until dark

Friday, August 15, 2014 from 8:00 AM until Noon

Who: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., anon-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and advocate for Cecilia Springer, a sexual abuse victim of a nun who has been ignored by the nuns in whose school she was sexually abused.

Why: American Catholic nuns have done little to address and resolve cases of sexual abuse by nuns. They have refused to allow victims to address them at their annual conventions, and the 2014 convention is no different. The demonstration and leafleting will shed light on one claim that is emblematic of all the others. A young girl, Cecilia Springer, was sexually abused by a nun at a New York City Catholic girls’ high school, reported the abuse to the school and the nuns who run the school, and they told Cecilia Springer to take a hike. Cecilia Springer is over 80 years of age, spent time as a nun, taught at the school where she was abused, and now demands justice from the Sisters of Saint Ursula and Notre Dame School, New York City. The leaders of the Sisters of Saint Ursula most likely are in Nashville this week and must come to their moral senses in dealing with the sexual abuse claim of Cecilia Springer.

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

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UNITED STATES
Road to Recovery

SHAME ON THE SISTERS OF SAINT URSULA OF NEW YORK CITY

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), a national organization of nuns, is meeting this week here in Nashville, TN. The LCWR will once again ignore a critical issue during its convention; namely, the sexual abuse of children, teenagers, and vulnerable adults by nuns.

One such case of sexual abuse by nuns comes out of New York City. The Sisters of Saint Ursula is a religious community of nuns with a regional center in Manhattan, New York City. For the past few years, the Sisters of Saint Ursula have ignored the pleas for help from a former nun from their religious order. Her name is Cecilia Springer, and she is nearly 85 years old. She was a nun for decades, and she was sexually abused by her high school Principal as a minor child.

In 1946, Cecilia Springer was a high school sophomore at Notre Dame School in Manhattan, New York City, when her Principal, Sister Mary Andrew, SU (aka Sr. Frances Doyle) followed her up the staircase from the lunch room and sexually assaulted her by embracing and kissing her on the lips on more than once occasion. At least one other classmate of Cecilia has reported a similar assault. Cecilia reported the sexual abuse to the leaders of Notre Dame School and the Sisters of Saint Ursula, who are most likely here this week in Nashville, but they have refused to help Cecilia Springer heal by acknowledging her claim of sexual abuse or providing her with resources that will help her live a more stress-free life.

Over a year ago, Cecilia Springer and her attorney met with representatives of Notre Dame School, the Sisters of Saint Ursula, and their attorney and told the story of having been sexually abused by Sister Mary Andrew, SU (aka Sister Frances Doyle). Following the meeting, Notre Dame School and the Sisters of Saint Ursula told Cecilia Springer to take a hike.

It is probable that leaders of the Sisters of Saint Ursula and Notre Dame School are here this week to partake in the deliberations of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. It is ironic that Sister Mary Dolan, SU, the regional superior (Provincial) of the Sisters of Saint Ursula, would be here among leaders because she has ignored Cecilia Springer. Sister Mary Dolan, SU, was an elementary school student of Cecilia Springer many years ago when Cecilia Springer was a teacher. Sister Mary Dolan is urged this week to come to her moral senses and respond to the sexual abuse claim of Cecilia Springer.

Sister Virginia O’Brien, SU, is the President of Notre Dame School. Perhaps she is here this week as well, and she has the opportunity to do the right thing and care for a former Notre Dame School student, teacher, alumna, and nun. It is our hope that Sister Mary Dolan and Sister Virginia O’Brien will be impressed by the discussions on topics such as justice and truth and act compassionately toward Cecilia Springer.

CONTACTS: Robert M. Hoatson, Advocate for Cecilia Springer, and President of Road
to Recovery, Inc., Livingston, NJ – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston MA – 617-523-6250

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FLORIDA
WFTV

ORLANDO, Fla. — A new clergy sex abuse lawsuit was filed against the Diocese of Orlando.
The plaintiff claims he was abused in a parish in Sanford in the 1970s.

The alleged victim is an adult. His attorney said he’s lived with the shame his entire life and is looking for justice.

This week, the unnamed plaintiff filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Orlando for the alleged abuse that happened when the victim was a teenager.

Attorney Adam Horowitz said this is the fifth lawsuit he’s filed against Father William Authenrieth, who is living in a retirement community in Massachusetts. However it’s the seventh lawsuit filed against Authenrieth in all.

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FLORIDA
ClickOrlando

[with video]

ORLANDO, Fla. –
A new sex abuse and coverup lawsuit was filed Wednesday against Bishop John Gerard Noonan and the Diocese of Orlando.

According to the lawsuit, a now 52-year-old man was sexually abused by Fr. William Authenrieth at All Souls in Sanford Parish in the mid- to late 1970s. The plaintiff was a 13-year-old altar boy when the sex abuse began, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit claims that Authenrieth engaged the boy in various types of sexual activity and gave him money, threatening him if he ever told anyone.

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

By Jeff Kunerth, Orlando Sentinel
11:50 am, August 13, 2014

Following Pope Francis’ statement last month that it’s time for the Catholic Church to make reparations to its victims, a 52-year-old Orlando man has filed a lawsuit against the Orlando Catholic Diocese for sexual abuse by a priest in the 1970s.

The Pope’s statement is important only if it is carried out by the local diocese, attorney Adam Horowitz said at a press conference this morning.

The lawsuit, filed against the Orlando Catholic Bishop John Noonan, alleges that the Orlando man was sexually abused by Father William Authenrieth as a 13-year-old altar boy at All Souls Catholic Church in Sanford.

Horowitz said he believes this is the seven lawsuit against the Diocese based on the actions of Authenrieth, who has admitted he molested boys while a priest.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

…”Find a suitable cover story and get him into an in-patient program. . . so that this thing doesn’t blow up.” That was then-Bishop Robert Carlson’s advice to his boss about predator priest Fr. Kenneth LaVern [LaVan], according to Minnesota Catholic church records. . .

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, August 13, 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 )

We applaud Cedar Park Chief of Police Sean Mannix for clarifying the Greg Kelley case.

It’s rare that a law enforcement official takes the time to explain the evidence and court process so thoroughly.

We understand why that’s rare: the job of the police is to catch those who commit crimes, not ”win over” those who side with criminals.

But this case is somewhat different, and very troubling.

It’s somewhat different because family and friends of an admitted, convicted child molester are vocally supporting him, even after a court of law found him guilty.

And it’s very troubling because this public rallying around him.

So we’re grateful to Chief Mannix for shedding more light on this case and explaining why Kelley’s backers are making the job of catching and prosecuting child sex offenders much tougher.

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CHILE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Aug. 13, 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)

Chilean Catholic officials admit that a priest who “was instrumental in the forced adoption of at least two babies without the knowledge of their mothers” will not be punished. Shame on them.

Let’s put this as clearly and simply as possible: Fr. Gerardo Joannon stole children from their mothers through deceit, and Catholic officials acknowledge this fact.

As depraved as this is, it’s every bit as depraved that Catholic officials are doing nothing to punish Fr. Joannon. Shame on every member of the Catholic hierarchy who made or is silently tolerating this irresponsible, hurtful decision.

Fr. Joannon should be loudly and promptly drummed out of the priesthood.

Instead, Catholic officials are simply moving Fr. Joannon to Spain where, presumably he’ll be around unsuspecting and vulnerable families. (Catholic officials also admit that the priest had an “inappropriate relationship” with one mother.)

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CHILE
Chilevision

[con video]

La Congregación de los Sagrados Corazones dio a conocer una declaración pública sobre la actuación del sacerdote Gerardo Joannon en el caso de dos adopciones ilegales, las cuales fueron denunciadas en un reportaje de Ciper.

En el texto, que revela las principales conclusiones de la investigación canónica que realizó el Superior Provincial Alex Vigueras, sobre este tema, se sostiene que “Joannon participó activamente en ambos casos de adopciones irregulares. No es verosímil afirmar que el Dr. Monckeberg actuó por iniciativa propia en el caso de la hija de Andrés Rillón”.

Descarta que la motivación primera en ese caso fue evitar un aborto y que Joannon siempre supo que ambas guaguas no murieron al nacer.

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