ABUSE TRACKER

CHILE
IOL

Santiago – Chile’s Catholic church confirmed on Tuesday that a priest was instrumental in the forced adoption of at least two babies without the knowledge of their mothers, and had also maintained an “inappropriate relationship” with one mother.

Gerardo Joannon is being investigated judicially for illegally handing over an undetermined number of babies for adoption in the 1970s and 1980s, born to single mothers who were told the infants had died.

The priest has said the babies were removed mainly from middle-class women due to the stigma attached to unmarried mothers at that time in Chile’s Catholic society.

“The preliminary investigation has established the truth of the accusations… he always knew that both babies did not die,” said Alex Vigueras, a regional church head who is in charge of the probe into Joannon.

The priest even led masses for the supposedly dead children who he knew to still be living, Vigueras said.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Set forth below is Fr. Thomas P. Doyle, O.P.’s extremely important address on August 2, 2014 at SNAP’s 25th Anniversary Convention in Chicago.
______________________________________________________

A letter sent by the Vicar General of the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana to the papal nuncio in June, 1984, was the trigger that set in motion a series of events that has changed the fate of the victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and clergy of all denominations. The letter informed the nuncio that the Gastel family had decided to withdraw from a confidential monetary settlement with the diocese. It went on to say they had obtained the services of an attorney and planned to sue the diocese.

This long process has had a direct impact on much more than the fate of victims and the security of innocent children and vulnerable persons of any age. It has altered the image and role of the institutional Catholic Church in western society to such an extent that the tectonic plates upon which this Church rests have shifted in a way never expected or dreamed of thirty years ago.

I cannot find language that can adequately communicate the full import of this monstrous phenomenon. The image of a Christian Church that enabled the sexual and spiritual violation of its most vulnerable members and when confronted, responded with institutionalized mendacity and utter disregard for the victims cannot be adequately described as a “problem,” a “crisis” or a “scandal.” The widespread sexual violation of children and adults by clergy and the horrific response of the leadership, especially the bishops, is the present-day manifestation of a very dark and toxic dimension of the institutional Church. This dark side has always existed. In our era it has served as the catalyst for a complex and deeply rooted process that can be best described as a paradigm shift. The paradigm for responding to sexual abuse by clergy has shifted at its foundation. The paradigm for society’s understanding of and response to child sexual abuse had begun to shift with the advent of the feminist movement in the early seventies but was significantly accelerated by the mid-eighties. The paradigm of the institutional Church interacting in society has shifted and continues to do so as the forces demanding justice, honesty and accountability by the hierarchy continue their relentless pressure. The Catholic monolith, once accepted by friend and foe alike as a rock-solid monarchy, is crumbling.

The single most influential and forceful element in this complex historical process has not been the second Vatican Council. It has been the action of the victims of sexual abuse.

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ILLINOIS
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: John D. Fitzgerald was a priest of the Chicago archdiocese, ordained in 1933. His early career was spent in the Chancery, as a Metropolitan Tribunal official. In 1951 Fitzgerald settled into a pastorship of Ascension parish in Oak Park IL, where he spent the remainder of his career. One source notes his death to have been in 1984, but he is listed in the Official Catholic Directories through 1986. In 2005 a woman reported to the archdiocese that Fitzgerald sexually abused her in 1964, when she was a teenager and Ascension parishioner. The information was kept quiet until the woman spoke to the media in July 2014. The archdiocese acknowledged paying for the woman’s therapy.

Ordained: 1933
Died: Nov. 4, 1984?

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OHIO
Vindicator

Published: Wed, August 13, 2014

Staff report

Leaders of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said they have written Bishop George V. Murry of the Diocese of Youngstown about having a public discussion on the issue of abuse by clergy.

David Clohessy of St. Louis, executive director of SNAP, indicated that the request was motivated in part by an email sent last week by SNAP, noting it had discovered a former deacon and teacher at two parochial schools in the diocese had lost his teaching license.

Ernest Formichelli, who taught at Cardinal Mooney High School from 1976-2013 and St. Christine School, 1971-76, had lost his teaching license, according to September 2013 minutes of the Ohio Board of Education.

Formichelli is no longer a deacon, and the state board “revoked permanently the five-year professional high school teaching license and permanent non-tax teaching certificate” of Formichelli.

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TEXAS
Fox 7

Cedar Park Police Chief Sean Mannix is not holding back when it comes to his feelings about the conviction of Greg Kelley and the movement to get that conviction overturned.

Mannix called Kelley supporters cult-like in an internal letter to his officers and said with each rally they are causing the victims’ families to be victimized all over again. That letter has since been made public.

The fight for GK supporters have held multiple rallies since Kelley’s conviction including one over the weekend and they will gather back here at the courthouse Wednesday.

Mannix, whose department handled the case, cautioned his officers not to be discouraged by critics of their work.

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IRELAND
Commonweal

David Carroll Cochran
August 12, 2014

For an Irish Catholic Church desperate for good news, the bad keeps coming. Most recent are the revelations about a mother-and-child home run by the Bons Secours sisters in the town of Tuam, County Galway, which operated from 1925 to 1961. While some early, highly sensationalized media reports about hundreds of dead babies dumped into a septic tank have turned out to be false, details about the treatment of children—their living conditions, mortality rates, and burial after death—unleashed a fresh round of shock and outrage in a nation that has seen plenty of both during two decades of reports detailing a history of physical and sexual abuse in Catholic settings.

This string of revelations has obviously sparked blistering criticism of the church in Ireland. Much of it is deserved, but it is also important to understand the multiple dimensions of the calamity that Irish Catholicism finds itself in.

The abuse crisis in Ireland is really two crises. The first is the sexual abuse of minors by priests. This crisis has followed a now-familiar pattern. For decades, a small number of priests used their position to abuse vulnerable children. Some continued undetected for years; others were discovered at the time. When this happened, church leaders, especially bishops, consistently hushed up the crimes, transferring offenders to new and unsuspecting communities while pressuring victims and their families into silence. The need to “avoid scandal” produced scandalous behavior, allowing abuse to continue and the abused to suffer in shame and silence.

This dimension of the crisis, then, is not unique to Irish Catholicism; we continue to see similar revelations from around the world. If given access to minors, a small percentage of men will sexually abuse them. While this percentage is not higher among Catholic priests than ministers in other denominations or those in secular positions such as coaches, teachers, or counselors, it is the historical response by Catholic leaders (as well as the church’s size, longevity, and practice of keeping detailed personnel records) that has produced an abuse crisis in country after country. From the United States to Germany to Australia to Ireland, it is the cover-up as much as the crime that has sparked outrage.

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UNITED KINGDOM
North Devon Journal

A RETIRED NFU officer has denied sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy at his Devon farm more than 40 years ago.

Philip Huxtable is a lay preacher, former Captain of the Braunton Boys Brigade, governor of two primary schools in North Devon and clerk to three parish councils.

He is on trial at Exeter Crown Court accused of abusing a boy who he met while running a youth club and whom he employed with a Saturday job for three months on his farm at Shirwell in 1973. …

The jury were read two testimonials detailing Huxtable’s work in the community as an elder of the Christ Church Methodist and United Reform Church in Braunton and the associated Boys Brigade, where he was Captain for 18 years.

He was also chair of governors at Shirwell Primary School for eight years and a governor at North Molton school for 20 years. He has also been clerk to the Pilton, Shirwell and Fremington parish councils and chairman of the Dexter Cattle Group.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Tuesday 12 August 2014

The Catholic church has joined calls for a national redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse, with mandatory participation by the institutions concerned, but wants to retain some of its controversial gag orders to prevent victims suing.

In its submission to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, the church also altered its previous position by proposing a cap on financial compensation.

The Truth Justice and Healing Council, which represents the Catholic church in dealings with the royal commission, said the legally binding deeds of release, which many victims of abuse signed in order to get redress under the church’s Towards Healing program, should remain in place to prevent civil litigation against the church.

But the releases should not prevent victims making a second claim under an official national scheme. The submission said that while there are “strong policy arguments” against allowing someone to reopen a claim, “where an individual can show that there was something manifestly inadequate about the process in which they reached their settlement, they ought to be entitled to reopen the matter”.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

The government should run a mandatory compensation scheme for victims of institutional child sex abuse, the Catholic Church says.

But Archbishop Philip Freier, the newly installed Anglican Primate of Australia, said talks were still going on about the best model for a compensation scheme.

He said there were “active discussions” on Tuesday about the issue in the wake of the Victorian parliamentary committee inquiry into child sex abuse.

“I think there were a couple of models that the Victorian policymakers are putting forward so settling on one might be a bit premature for me yet,” Archbishop Freier told reporters on Wednesday.

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AUSTRALIA
Christian Today

By: Rachel Ford
Wednesday, 13 August 2014

The Catholic Church has called for a national victims’ redress scheme in a bid to alleviate the suffering of child abuse victims.

A submission to the child abuse Royal Commission by the Truth Justice and Healing Council proposed the scheme be operated by the government, but funded by the institutions responsible for the abuse.

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

He also expressed hope that the redress scheme would be a ‘giant step forward’ in providing justice for victims continuing to suffer from the ‘devastating impacts of child sexual abuse, and added that a non-adversarial approach would be needed to ensure ‘just, compassionate and fair’ compensation was provided.

A spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests approved of the proposed scheme, but said that ultimately “actions speak louder than words.”

“Our experience has been that they make big promises but, when it comes down to it, what they deliver is nothing like the PR message,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

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MASSACHUSETTS
New England Public Radio

[with audio]

by: Henry Epp
AUGUST 12, 2014

The Catholic Diocese of Springfield installed its new leader in a service Tuesday. Bishop Mitchell Rozanski now leads the estimated 200,ooo Catholics in western Massachusetts.

About 900 people filled St. Michael’s Cathedral in Springfield to welcome the new Bishop. Judith Kennedy of Chicopee sat in the pews nearly an hour before the service. She says she’s excited for Rozanski’s leadership.

“We’re like lost sheep, and he being our new shepherd, we’re anxious to follow him,” says Kennedy. “He seems like an open fellow, just have to convert him to the Red Sox fan.” …

A national group representing survivors of sexual abuse by priests says it’s “not optimistic” about Rozanski’s ability to address victims of abuse. Rozanski was asked after the service how he plans to approach victims.

“I believe that as bishop, I show the way, to reach out to victims of sexual abuse, to bring God’s pastoral love and care, to show them that nothing is their fault, and that this was perpetrated upon them, and that the bishop has to be there as an agent of reconciliation,” said Rozanski.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican

By Jim Kinney | jkinney@repub.com
on August 12, 2014

SPRINGFIELD – Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski was asked Tuesday if he has a message for those in the Springfield Diocese who suffered sexual abuse at the hands committed by priests.

The topic came up at a brief news conference just after the installation ceremony at the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel.

Rozanski said:

“I believe that as bishop I show the way to reach out to victims of sexual abuse, to bring God’s pastoral love and care, to show them that nothing is their fault. This was perpetrated upon them and that the Bishop has to be there as an agent of reconciliation.”

Earlier in the news conference, Rozanski spoke of feeling at peace as he walked into the cathedral Tuesday. He felt at peace because he found a people at prayer.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

INGRID PERITZ
MONTREAL — The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Aug. 12 2014

The Redemptorist religious order is probably best known in Canada for its association with the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré shrine near Quebec City, a major tourist attraction and holy pilgrimage site for devout Catholics. Now the congregation is in the spotlight for a dark chapter in its past.

The Catholic community has agreed to pay $20-million to people who were once schoolboys in its care in what is described as a record sexual-abuse settlement in Quebec.

In a deal announced on Tuesday, the order approved settling a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of abuse victims at the school during a 27-year span beginning in 1960. The students, all boys, were aged 12 to 16 at the time.

“This is a landmark case,” said Robert Kugler, a Montreal lawyer who represents the victims. “This is the highest amount that has ever been paid by a religious congregation in Quebec to settle a class action dealing with sexual abuse.”

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AUSTRALIA
Yahoo! News

By Kate Stowell and staff | ABC

The leadership of the Catholic Church has formally proposed a major shake-up of its compensation scheme for survivors of clergy child sexual abuse.

In a written submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, the church said it wanted the Government to set up a national scheme to determine claims and compensation.

The scheme would be independently run, but would be funded by institutions where abuse occurred.

Abuse survivors who had already received money under the Towards Healing and Melbourne Response programs would be allow to apply.

Francis Sullivan from the Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council told AM the church did not want to wait for the Royal Commission’s findings.

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LOUISIANA
KATC

[with video]

District Attorney Mike Harson tells KATC without victims coming forward, he can’t prosecute old cases of alleged sexual-abuse by priests.

The priest sex-abuse scandal was brought back in the spotlight after a sweeping investigation by Minnesota Public Radio last month.

The Diocese of Lafayette has acknowledged “credible accusations” against 15 priests, but is refusing to release their names. “The Bishop sees no purpose in releasing their names,” wrote diocese spokesman, Monsignor Richard Greene.

Msgr. Greene adds that none of those 15 priests are still in the church here, or elsewhere. Of those 15 only one, Father Gilbert Gauthe, ever faced criminal charges in Lafayette.

“Put out the 15 names,” says Abbeville attorney Tony Fontana, who represented a number of priest sex-abuse victims and their families. “Start showing that you care more about protecting kids than you do about protecting the pervert priests.”

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CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Aug. 12

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

A $20 million clergy sex abuse settlement means one thing: Catholic officials were incredibly scared of the evidence about complicity that would have emerged in court.

[Toronto Sun]

That’s almost always the motive when the church hierarchy pays this much money to abuse victims.

We applaud these brave men and women for having the strength to report these crimes, the wisdom to seek justice in court and the tenacity to endure needless legal delays by Redemptorist officials. Kids are safer today because of the courage of these victims. We hope their action will prevent future abuse and cover ups. And we are confident that their healing will be helped by this resolution.

No amount of money can restore the stolen childhoods and shattered trust of these once-innocent and trusting children. Those who committed or concealed these heinous crimes should be in jail. But the civil justice system can help validate those who have been severely and needlessly harmed, and that’s what we believe happened here.

We hope the bravery of these victims will inspire others who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups in Canada to speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Steve Lieberman
slieberm@lohud.com 3:47 p.m. EDT August 12, 2014

A prominent Monsey rabbi who runs a boys school pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning to charges he sexually assaulted a 7-year-old male student repeatedly in his yeshiva office.

Gavriel Bodenheimer, 71, principal of Yeshiva Bais Mikroh for decades, stood shackled at the waist during his arraignment on three counts of first-degree criminal sexual act and one count of first-degree sex abuse.

Judge William Nelson set Bodenheimer’s bail at $25,000 cash or bond. The rabbi’s lawywer, Deborah Wolikow-Loewenberg, said he would be able to post bail and be released later Tuesday.

“We are going to fight the allegations because they are not true,” Wolikow-Loewenberg said after the court session.

Ramapo police arrested Bodenheimer Monday based on a sealed grand jury indictment. He was kept overnight at the Rockland County jail in New City pending his court appearance, when the indictment was unsealed.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED 12/08/2014

The Vatican’s heresy case against Irish priest Fr Tony Flannery is built on shaky ground, according to a new book by a leading Irish theologian, who also accuses the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of being “tyrannical”.

‘The Church: Always in Need of Reform’, by Augustinian Fr Gabriel Daly, is due to be published by Dominican Publications before Christmas.

It deals with the need for reform of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Rome’s doctrinal watchdog which was formerly known as the Inquisition.

Discussing the plight of Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery, who was silenced by the Vatican in 2012 and threatened with excommunication, as well as the treatment of three other censured Irish priests, Fr Daly accuses the CDF of being “theologically inept”.

He focuses on an article Fr Flannery wrote for the journal ‘Reality’ which was cited by the CDF as one of the reasons for its decision to censure the Redemptorist.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

BY GEOFFREY VENDEVILLE, THE GAZETTE AUGUST 12, 2014

Victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Redemptorist priests at the St-Alphonse Seminary in Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré, east of Quebec City, have reached a $20-million, out-of-court settlement with the Catholic order.

“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.”

The agreement will be submitted to a judge within the next 30 days for final approval.

On July 10, Quebec Superior Court judge Claude Bouchard awarded the victims between $75,000 and $150,000 each in compensation. The parties reached the settlement at the last minute before the deadline to appeal the decision expired the afternoon of Aug. 11. Kugler was only able to reveal the sum of money included in the agreement after meeting with a judge Tuesday morning.

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CANADA
Toronto Sun

QUEBEC CITY — A Catholic order has agreed to pay $20 million to at least 100 former students molested by priests between 1960 and 1987.

Nine priests were accused of abusing children at Saint-Alphonse college east of Quebec City. Some of the priests have since died.

The college is associated with the internationally revered shrine at the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre Basilica, located northeast of the city.

A lawyer for the Redemptorist order at the centre of the scandal confirmed the cash settlement Tuesday.

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CANADA
CBC News

The Redemptorist Order of Catholic Priests will pay $20 million to victims of sexual abuse at its St-Alphonse Seminary near Quebec City during the 1970s and ’80s.

Robert Kugler, the lawyer representing former students at the seminary, said the landmark out-of-court settlement is the largest ever paid in a class-action sexual abuse lawsuit in Quebec.

In July, Superior Court Judge Claude Bouchard ordered the Redemptorist Order, the St-Alphonse Seminary and Rev. Raymond-Marie Lavoie to pay at least $75,000 to each of the lawsuit’s 70 claimants.

Other victims have since come forward, bringing the number of total claimants to more than 100 — and counting.

“That number is likely to go up by a lot… We have tried to simplify the process to ensure that a maximum number of victims present claims,” Kugler told Radio-Canada.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

by Andrew Quinn
Twitter: @AndrewEQuinn

Published on the 12 August 2014

Derry man, Brian Doherty, has a message for Pope Francis.

“Don’t forget about Northern Ireland,” said Brian.

Brian Doherty was born in 1947 and when he was three weeks old he was placed into the care of the Sisters of Nazareth in the St. Joseph’s Home in Termonbacca. Brian remained there until he was 14 years-old.

Brian has spoken very openly about the abuse he suffered at the hands of the Sisters of Nazareth in the 1940s and 50s and within the last 12 months he has sent six letters to Pope Francis asking him to meet with survivors of clerical abuse from Northern Ireland.

“The Pope met with clerical abuse victims from Ireland and mainland United Kingdom last month but there was no one there to represent the victims from Northern Ireland. Do we not matter simply because we are from Northern Ireland? It’s as simple as this, child abuse is wrong no matter what part of the world you are from.

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TEXAS
Watch Keep

I am posting with permission of the Cedar Park, Texas Chief of Police Sean Mannix, his statement on the Greg Kelley child sexual assault case emailed on July 30, 2014 to his police department, a matter of public record.

All,

As you are all aware, on July 15, 2014, Greg Kelley was convicted of two counts of Super Aggravated Sexual Assault of a small child and sentenced to 25 years in prison with no eligibility for parole or appeal, through a plea agreement. In most cases the next step would be a quiet departure to a state prison with little fanfare. Not in this case. I know that you are all in tune with the fact that Mr. Kelley has garnered much support from his old classmates and others and a movement was established called “Fight for GK”. This group has been very vocal in their support of Mr. Kelley and very critical of the police department and the DA’s office. The Fight for GK movement has taken on a cult-like appearance, as it is mostly high school kids that have only been exposed to the news reports and what fellow supporters have told them, with no interest in seeking the truth. This movement, in my opinion, has been fueled by what I can only characterize as some of the most biased news coverage of a trial that I have ever encountered in three decades of doing this work. In this case there was tremendous coverage of the defense case and Mr. Kelley’s support group and very little coverage of the substance of the trial itself. I have not been able to figure out if the bias was intended or just lazy reporting.

You all saw Detective Dailey take a beating by the Defense with no coverage of his testimony to the Prosecution. A picture was painted that he did something improper by entering the interview room and asking the child to tell them what the child had told his mother. This was irregular, but not improper. In a perfect world the child would have been subject to a deep forensic interview, but at the time the CAC had lost their only staff member qualified for such interviews. We have a luxury of having a child advocacy center available to us. Many investigators around the country do not have access to these resources and are forced to do the child interviews themselves. While that is not ideal, it is anything but improper.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on Minnesota Public Radio’s (MPR) latest attempt to discredit St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt:

Those waging war on Archbishop Nienstedt are losing ground, and they know it. In a contrived attempt to keep the flame alive, MPR is now charging that “New Documents Show Falsehoods in Nienstedt Testimony.” But as with previous efforts, this one comes up lame.

The story involves Rev. Kenneth LaVan. Here is the relevant timeline.

Some thirty years ago, two teenage girls made accusations against LaVan. About the same time, he was also charged with “boundary violations” with adult females.
In 1998 he retired.
In 2008 Archbishop Nienstedt is installed.
In 2013, after accusations that not enough was being done about accused priests, an outside firm is hired to investigate this issue. In December, Nienstedt is apprised of LaVan’s history and he is formally and permanently removes him from ministry.

MPR is saying that Nienstedt should have known about this priest when he allegedly approved a limited assignment for him earlier last year. But inconveniently for MPR, the documents it references never mention child sexual abuse. What Nienstedt approved was a monitoring plan based on the priest’s inappropriate conduct with adult women. Moreover, when MPR finds it necessary to cite the fact that Nienstedt “spent time socially with LaVan,” and that he even wrote a letter to him thanking him for a gift, it shows how utterly desperate it is.

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ITALY
Malta Independent

The 60-year old archpriest of Taormina, Don Salvatore Sinito”, has been abruptly removed by the Archbishop of Messina.

The case has raised a scandal in the Italian press.

On the one hand, the priest was commended for restoring and reopening the many small and historic chapels of the town but on the other hand he was criticised for turning the whole into a big money-making enterprise especially anything to do with weddings, which are very popular there.

He had given new life to the saint of the town after the feast had fallen into neglect but he was criticised widely for the decision not to accompany dead persons to the cemetery but only to the church’s porch.

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NEW YORK
Post-Standard

By Douglass Dowty | ddowty@syracuse.com
on August 12, 2014

Syracuse, NY — An Onondaga County Court judge today warned a Syracuse priest that if he continues to fight child pornography charges and loses, he could wind up behind bars.

Robert Ours, 65, was charged in May with six counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child. The retired priest, who led churches in the Southern Tier, lives at a residence for priests in Syracuse.

The Syracuse Diocese alerted authorities to the allegations against Ours earlier this year, and the diocese cooperated with the investigation, prosecutors have said.

Plea negotiations have gone on all summer, but Ours is still contesting the charges.

Today, County Court Judge Joseph Fahey set a hearing for Sept. 4 to determine whether authorities properly investigated the computer with the child porn.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

August 12, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

Advocates for survivors of child sex abuse have cautiously welcomed the Catholic Church’s proposed compensation scheme for victims of institutional abuse.

The Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council has called for a national redress scheme to be administered by the federal government but funded by the institutions responsible for the harm, in a recommendation to the royal commission into child sex abuse.

Its submission, lodged on Tuesday, also recommends that victims who have already received compensation be able to access the new scheme for an independent review of past settlements.

Care Leavers Australia Network executive officer Leonie Sheedy said many survivors had just received “breadcrumbs” to compensate them for the abuse they suffered, saying a fair redress scheme was well overdue.

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UNITED STATES
MintPress News

By Jason Berry | August 12, 2014

When Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the superiors who represent 80 percent of American nuns, open their four-day summer convention Tuesday in Nashville, key members of the US Catholic hierarchy will be on hand, notably the Vatican-assigned overseer of the sisters’ group, Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain.

The big question will be whether one side blinks.

Vatican officials and certain US bishops are in a standoff with the liberal leadership of the mainstream communities of American religious sisters.

The rift between the two sides opened in 2012 when the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) ordered the nuns to revise their statutes and work under the supervision of a bishop for their alleged tilt toward “radical feminism” and for promoting theological positions at odds with the magisterium, or teaching office at the CDF.

As GlobalPost reported in 2013, key cardinals and bishops behind the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) investigation had been publicly tarnished for their concealment of pedophile priests.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Northern Echo

A ROMAN Catholic priest arrested on suspicion of fraud has been granted police bail for a further two months.

Father John Reid, 66, was arrested earlier this year and was bailed by police until today (Tuesday, August 12)

Detectives were called in after an audit by officials of the Hexham and Newcastle Diocese revealed that cash was missing from St Cuthbert’s Church in Ropery Lane, Chester-le-Street, County Durham.

Police later obtained an order from magistrates at Peterlee to keep £1,770-worth Euros and £675 Sterling they had found at his home.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AUGUST 13, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

CARDINAL George Pell will give evidence by video-link from the Vatican to a royal commission next week after the Catholic Church yesterday said it would abandon the process by which it investigates claims of child abuse committed by its priests.

Key among these is the Melbourne Response, introduced by Cardinal Pell in 1996, and which will be the focus of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing, beginning on Monday.

The Melbourne Response, as well as the Towards Healing process operated elsewhere within the church, have dealt with hundreds of victims, many of whom have criticised a lack of independence during the handling of their case.

Cardinal Pell, who now is responsible for the Vatican’s finances, has previously defended both schemes, describing the Melbourne Response as “first and foremost about helping victims”.

The commission is expected to question him over three cases dealt with under the Melbourne Response. He has already given evidence about Towards Healing and the church’s use of civil litigation to respond to claims.

“The days of the Catholic Church investigating itself are over,” the head of the church’s ­national Truth, Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan, said yesterday, after formally calling for an independent victims’ redress scheme to handle abuse claims. In a 47-page submission, the council called on the commission to recommend the federal government establish such a body, funded in part by the church, to investigate claims and determine the compensation victims receive.

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LOUISIANA
IND

District Attorney Mike Harson says unless a victim comes forward, his office will not launch an investigation into recently uncovered allegations of sexual abuse by a priest from the Diocese of Lafayette.

“To engage in an investigation without their commitment would appear to be a fruitless endeavor since I would certainly have to have their involvement in order to have any chance of success and it could unnecessarily revisit their trauma and open wounds that they thought were long dealt with, all without their request or desire,” says Harson in an interview with The Daily Advertiser.

Harson also says he has no plans to ask for a list cited by Bishop Michael Jarrell of 15 priests whose victims received settlements from the diocese. He also doesn’t plan on looking into allegations against the Rev. Gil Dutel.

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CAMADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014

Contact: David Clohessy of St. Louis MO 314 566 9790,SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Brenda Brunelle of Windsor, Canada 519 800 3492, windsor@SNAPnetwork.org

Ottawa man pleads guilty in sex case
He was former head of Catholic youth group
He was indicted for 1984 child sexual assault
In 2002, a civil case against him & Knights of Columbus was settled
Victims urge others who were hurt to “come forward, get help, call police”

An Ottawa man who was the provincial director of a national Catholic youth organization admitted guilt in a criminal case stemming from an August 1984 child sexual assault.

Steve Fagan pleaded guilty yesterday to sexual assault and will face a sentencing hearing on October 17. The Crown is seeking a six month jail sentence, two years’ probation, and that Fagan be listed on the sex offender registry.

Fagan was arrested in November or December of 2013 for the sexual assault of a boy. At the time of the assault, Fagan was a member of the Knight of Columbus and State Chairman for the Ontario Columbian Squires. The Knights are a 1.8 million member Catholic men’s organization and the Squires are the Knights’ youth auxiliary.

Fagan used his position as provincial director to target and molest a boy who was a member of the organization. That individual, now in his 40s read a ‘victim impact statement’ at the hearing in Kingston.

Members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), are saluting the victim’s bravery and tenacity. They also applaud prosecutors, who pursued the case when many others might have passed.

“It takes real courage to step forward, report abuse and seek justice when you’ve been sexually violated as a child,” said Brenda Brunelle of Windsor, Canada. She’s a SNAP leader for Windsor. “This courageous young man has successfully stepped forward twice – in both criminal and civil court – and children are safer because of him.”

“All too often, victims hear that they cannot use the criminal courts because too much time has passed,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “The fact that prosecutors pursued this case shows that’s not always the case. Smart and determined police and prosecutors can often successfully pursue even older child sex crimes. But first, victims must find the courage and strength to speak up.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry

Media Release

12th August 2014

The Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry will focus on a migration scheme which involved the transport of children to Australia when it recommences its public hearings at the beginning of September.

Public hearings for the Inquiry’s second module of evidence will commence at 11am on Monday, 1st September at Banbridge Courthouse, Banbridge, Co Down, Northern Ireland.

A team from the Inquiry and its confidential Acknowledgement Forum has already made two trips to Australia, during which a total of 66 applicants, now residing in Australia, were interviewed. All these individuals had applied to participate in the statutory Inquiry and/or Forum processes.

The witnesses being asked to provide evidence to the oral hearings have been chosen because they can describe the events which occurred to them before they left Northern Ireland when they were sent as child migrants to Australia. The majority of these witnesses will provide their oral evidence via video-link. The module is scheduled to last three weeks.

Documentation examined by the Inquiry has revealed that, between 1946 and 1956, children were sent from various institutions in Northern Ireland to institutions in Australia (primarily Western Australia), as part of a UK government policy of child migration.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

Published Tuesday, 12 August 2014

The next hearings of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry will focus on a migration scheme which involved the transport of children to Australia.

A team from the inquiry has made two trips to Australia and interviewed 66 people who applied to give evidence.

“The witnesses being asked to provide evidence to the oral hearings have been chosen because they can describe the events which occurred to them before they left Northern Ireland when they were sent as child migrants to Australia,” a spokesperson explained.

“The majority of these witnesses will provide their oral evidence via video-link.”

The inquiry, which was set up to examine allegations of abuse over a 73-year period up to 1995, said documents it has seen have revealed that children were sent from NI institutions to Australia between 1946 and 1956 as part of a UK government policy of child migration.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A migration scheme that transported children to Australia will be the focus of the next public hearings of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

The inquiry (HIA) is examining the extent of child abuse in the Catholic church and state-run institutions in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.

Public hearings began in January. They ended in May and will resume on 1 September at Banbridge courthouse.

A team from the inquiry has already made two trips to Australia.

Sixty-six people living there have applied to take part in the inquiry or give statements to the confidential acknowledgement forum.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

Sixty-six people have applied to give evidence about the alleged abuse of child migrants from Northern Ireland, the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry has said.

More than 100 children were sent to Australia in the 1940s and 1950s. Most were transferred by Catholic religious orders, like the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers, who ran care homes.

Witnesses will address chairman Sir Anthony Hart’s public hearings or a private acknowledgement forum. Most will speak using a video-link.

A spokeswoman for the inquiry said: “The witnesses being asked to provide evidence to the oral hearings have been chosen because they can describe the events which occurred to them before they left Northern Ireland when they were sent as child migrants to Australia.”

The treatment of young people, orphaned or taken away from their unmarried mothers, in houses run by nuns, brothers or the state is a key concern of the retired High Court judge’s inquiry which is being held in Banbridge, Co Down, and was ordered by ministers.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Rosie Mullaley
Published on August 12, 2014

An Anglican priest and his wife have pleaded guilty to swindling money from their parish.
John and Catherine Dinn are in provincial court in St. John’s this morning.

John Dinn, 55, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud under $5,000 and one count of theft under $5,000, while Catherine Dinn, 52, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud under $5,000.

The incidents happened between May 2012 and November 2012.

According to the facts of the case, read out by Crown prosecutor Sheldon Steeves, the couple took cheques at St. Evangelist Church in Conception Bay South meant for various charities, forged John Dinn’s name on them and deposited them into the couple’s joint bank account.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Press

12 August 2014

THE Archbishop of York has said he is “deeply ashamed” of the Church of England’s failure to protect vulnerable children.

A national newspaper has reported that Dr John Sentamu has written to a number of men who were abused as children by the Very Rev Robert Waddington, the former dean of Manchester Cathedral, who preyed on schoolboys in Britain and Australia over a 60-year period.

Dr Sentamu is preparing to publish an independent report by Judge Sally Cahill, QC, in to Waddington, who died in 2007, and the mishandling of abuse allegations in 1999, 2003 and 2005 against him from former choirboys and students in England and Australia.

It also investigated the former archbishop of York, now Lord Hope of Thornes who last year expressed regret at not reporting the allegations to police or other child protection agencies.

Archbishop Sentamu wrote in his letter to Waddington’s victims that “we in the Church of England should face up to the wrong which has been allowed to be done to those children who were abused by the late Robert Waddington’’.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By John Breslin

Brendan Gleeson has revealed he was molested as a child by a Christian Brother who “dropped the hand” on him in primary school.

But Gleeson, in an interview on National Public Radio in the US, said he was not “traumatised” in any way by the incident.

“It was just one of those things where something odd happened,” said Gleeson, speaking following the US release last week of his latest film Calvary, in which he plays a priest in a small town in Ireland.

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

“I remember that was in primary school and, frankly, I was not traumatised by it at all. It was just a bit weird and obviously the vibe was that he never came at me again.

“The same guy was in secondary school and I remember a couple of us starting trading stories and really that he was a bit off.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Aug 12, 2014 By Claire Healy

Veteran Irish actor made the startling revelation during a US radio interview alongside Calvary director John McDonagh

Actor Brendan Gleeson has revealed that he was molested by a Christian Brother as a child.

Promoting his latest flick Calvary – which is on a limited US release – Gleeson appeared on NPR’s Bob Edwards Weekend alongside director John Michael McDonagh to chat about the film.

In the film Gleeson plays a good priest who is confronted by one of his parishioners about sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a Catholic priest when he was a child.

The radio presenter then asked the pair did either of them know anyone who had been abused by priests during their childhood.

Gleeson revealed: “Yeah, it’s odd. I remember a particular Christian Brother dropped the hand on me at one point.

“And 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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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, Aug 11, 2014

The work of a priest is “almost impossible unless there is humour, humanity, honesty”, a member the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) leadership team has commented.

Augusinian priest Fr Séamus Ahearne was expressing his support for a recent observation by the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, who said the willingness of Pope Francis “to break away from accepted traditions” was a cause of disquiet among some priests.

In an address last month at the Catholic Leadership Centre in Melbourne, Archbishop Martin spoke of a curate in Dublin who was “not at all happy with some of the utterances of Pope Francis, which he felt were not in line with what he had learned in the seminary, and he felt that this was making the faithful insecure and even encouraging those who do not hold the orthodox Catholic belief to challenge traditional teaching”.

Fr Ahearne said the archbishop’s observations were “apt”.

He said younger priests were “very few and some embrace a very traditionalist view of Church. It is understandable too because there is great insecurity among the young. They need certainties. We don’t have them.”

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CANADA
CHCH

[with video]

It is one of societies most abhorrent crimes. Possession of child pornography. Charges can lead to prison time, destroying the lives and reputations of convicted felons.
It was back in June when police seized computers at a Catholic church in Caledonia following a tip that they contained inappropriate pornographic images. The incident shocked residents and devastated the parish priest, wrongfully linked to such a heinous allegation.

Father Mario Fernandes has spent his life devoted to helping others. A native of India, Father Mario worked as an addiction counsellor in Vancouver’s east side before moving to Ontario where he was appointed pastor of St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Caledonia.

In June of this year, Father Mario’s life was shattered when police seized computers at the church after receiving a complaint that they contained inappropriate pornographic images. But a thorough check by the OPP’s technical crime unit found the images in question were advertising pop ups, that the computer’s firewall was unable to block. Today the computers were returned, and the case was closed. Still the incident has shocked the community and shattered the life of an innocent man.

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POLAND
The News

A progressive priest who apparently said that the older generation of Polish bishops needs ‘to die out’ has been given a ‘final chance’ by his superiors.

Father Wojciech Lemanski was banned from leading occasional masses at his former parish of Jasienica, near Warsaw, following controversial remarks made at the Prystanek Woodstock rock festival.

However, head of the Warsaw-Praga diocese Archbishop Henryk Hoser has told Catholic weekly Gosc Niedzielny that he hopes that Father Lemanski will uphold “the unity” of the Church.

“This is the last attempt and the last chance,” Hoser said. “My decisions are designed to save his priesthood,” the archbishop argued.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Tuesday, 12 August 2014 by Neil Camilleri

The former Mgarr Parish Priest has hit out at his “unfair dismissal” by Archbishop Paul Cremona and Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna and said the two top Curia officials had succumbed to undue pressure by a small group of extreme traditionalists who wanted him out of their parish. In doing so, the Curia is exposing its “leadership crisis”, he said.

In exclusive comments to The Malta Independent, Fr Emanuel Camilleri reacted to a report in L-Orizzont about his dismissal, which claimed he had set out on the wrong foot with parishioners over a ban on unauthorised statues in the Via Sagra procession. The report also claimed that Mgr. Scicluna had personally gone to Mgarr to deliver the bad news and that the parish priest had decided on his own when to be formally appointed as parish priest. But speaking to this newspaper, Dun Emanuel gave his version of the story.

“I did not decide when to appoint myself. The ceremony was due to be held on Saturday 16h August with the Archbishop’s blessing.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 10, 2014

Konrad Marshall
Senior Reporter for The Age

Manny Waks knows all too well the backlash the coming week will bring, but he is ready.

Since Waks first went public in 2011 with personal accusations of repeated sexual abuse and cover up from his time as a young boy at Yeshivah College, he has become all too familiar with the pattern of fallout.

In the three years since his bombshell, as other survivors came forward, as government inquiries listened to the list of crimes, as abusers were exposed and jailed, Waks continued to face a fate known well to whistleblowers.

First came shunning from some segments of the ultra-orthodox Chabad community in which he was raised. Then the bullying and outright ostracism of his parents, Zephaniah and Chaya, who uprooted their lives and moved to Israel to escape harassment and isolation. And finally the no-less-painful suggestions that Waks, 38, simply “move on” and leave his pain behind.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Has anyone ever commented on the fact that, not only is it shocking that bishops have been covering for, lying for, and enabling abusive priests – but that when a priest is sexually active at all (even with consenting adults), this seems to be no big deal to bishops?

In the case of Fr. LaVan in St. Paul, who was kept in ministry until very recently (in violation of the Dallas Charter), not only was he (by the admission of the archdiocese) “credibly accused” of raping two teenage girls and yet allowed to serve in parishes for 25 years after these rapes, but over that period of time, he also had a series of affairs with adults – who were married parishioners.

As early as 1986, LaVan admitted to having affairs with at least four married women (up to that time) who were parishioners of his. He bragged to the woman whose husband he threatened to murder that he had several “woman lovers” from his parishes that he kept in contact with even after he would be sent to a new parish.

Now, it’s bad enough that LaVan was allowed to continue to function as a priest, even after the archdiocese was convinced he had raped two teenage girls.

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NEW YORK
News 12

[with video]

MONSEY – A Monsey rabbi, who is also a principal at a local yeshiva, was arrested Monday for alleged sexual abuse.

Gavriel Bodenheimer, 71, was arrested for alleged criminal sex acts and sex abuse, but prosecutors have been tight-lipped about who the rabbi allegedly abused and when. He is principal of Yeshiva Bais Mikroh, a boys’ yeshiva.

Bodenheimer’s lawyers say they have not seen the charges yet and won’t see them until the indictment is unsealed in court. They say Bodenheimer has been active in many charities in his community for decades.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 11, 2014

Aisha Dow
City Reporter for The Age

The Catholic Church found a Melbourne paedophile priest accused of interfering with young girls during confession guilty of child sex abuse, more than a decade before Cardinal George Pell denied a cover up, it has been revealed.

The ABC’s Four Corners program has obtained a confidential draft report that shows former Doveton parish priest, Father Peter Searson, was found guilty of sexual abuse by the church during an internal hearing in 1997.

That is despite the fact former Archbishop of Melbourne Cardinal Pell previously denied the church ignored complaints about Searson, in what victims described as an attitude of “hear no evil, see no evil, say nothing”.

“No conviction was recorded for Searson on sexual misbehaviour,” Cardinal Pell told the Victorian inquiry into child sexual abuse last year. “There might be victims. He was convicted for cruelty. But speaking more generally, I totally reject the suggestion.”

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AUSTRIA
The Raw Story

By Katie Halper
Monday, August 11, 2014

A woman filmed herself exposing her breasts and touching herself in an Austrian parish, in June. She also was holding a bible and rosary, in case you were worried about her going to hell. A church-going-porn-fan was trying to enjoy some secular online porn, when he recognized the interior of his church. Like any church-going-porn-watching-upstanding-tattle-tale, he informed his local priest, in what I imagine must have been an uncomfortable discussion.

In a compliment to the woman’s handwork, the church expressed outrage that, in addition to her sneaking herself in, she had snuck in a crew and cameras. According to the Austrian Times, “Local police confirmed that no permission had been requested or given for the church to be used to shoot the movies….” I’m sure the church would have been more than happy to sign a release form authorizing the woman to shoot a porn in their house of worship. The Austrian Times also reported that The ”Diocese of Linz said police are still investigating how the crew and actors were able to get into the church.” Then, the police realized that the quality and angles suggested this had been a DIY project, in a few aspects, actually.

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AUSTRALIA
Yahoo! News

By Quentin McDermott and Peter Cronau | ABC

The Catholic Church’s spokesman on child sexual abuse has questioned its stance on the sanctity of the confessional when it is used by priests who make admissions of abuse.

Francis Sullivan, the chief executive of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, has told the ABC’s Four Corners program in an extended interview that in his mind, “the child’s safety is paramount and it’s incumbent upon the church to explain to the Catholic community and beyond why the confessional and information in it is sacrosanct”.

Wayne Chamley from Broken Rites, an organisation which researches the alleged cover-up of abuse in the Catholic Church, told Four Corners that “a deviant paedophile priest may use the confessional as a way to lock in his superior”.

“It may be that tactically these people – because they’re incredibly clever paedophiles, and they’re incredibly devious – at times were able to use the confessional as a way of locking in the people who did have some authority over them, so that the person just didn’t go near them because it was signed and sealed by the confession that had been made.”

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MARYLAND
BishopAccountability.org

By Robert A. Erlandson and Joe Nawrozki
The Baltimore Sun
August 10, 1994

Baltimore City detectives investigating sex abuse allegations against a Roman Catholic priest dug up a van load of confidential records yesterday the priest had ordered buried four years ago in Brooklyn’s Holy Cross Cemetery.

City police were accompanied by the two Baltimore County homicide detectives assigned to the revived investigation of the unsolved 1969 slaying of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik.

A high-ranking county police official said investigators were there because the name of the priest — the Rev. A. Joseph Maskell — had come up during their probe of the 25-year-old crime.

Father Maskell and Sister Catherine were both on the faculty of the all-girls Archbishop Keough High School in Southwest Baltimore in the late 1960s.

Father Maskell, 55, stepped down as pastor of St. Augustine’s Church in Elkridge on July 31 amid allegations that he had sexually abused students at Keough during his tenure as chaplain and counselor from 1967 to 1975.

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MARYLAND
Websleuths

Baltimore, City Paper
By Tom Nugent | Posted 1/5/2005

snipped
The body of the 26-year-old nun was found Jan. 3, 1970, in southwest Baltimore County. The circumstances surrounding the case were mysterious and disturbing at the time; in the wake of a City Paper investigation, those circumstances seem even more disturbing now.

Years after Cesnik’s murder, a lawsuit documented numerous findings of sexual abuse at the Catholic high school for girls where Cesnik taught shortly before her death. City Paper’s investigation also reveals that a second young murder victim (killed only four days after Cesnik vanished, and only a few miles from where the nun died) attended the same Catholic church where the alleged sex-abuser had been serving as parish priest.

snipped
…Cesnik had vanished on Nov. 7 during a brief, early evening trip to a shopping center about a mile from the Westgate apartment she shared with another Notre Dame nun, Sister Helen Russell Phillips.

snipped
Talking fast, the officer told the M Squad captain that two hunters had just called to report what looked like a “woman’s body” lying near a garbage dump off Monumental Avenue, in an isolated, wooded area in the southwest Baltimore County community of Lansdowne.

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MARYLAND
Open Salon

The body of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, Sister Cathy to those who knew her, was found on January 3, 1970 covered in snow near a garbage dump in Lansdowne, Maryland, about twenty minutes outside the city of Baltimore. The 26-year-old Roman Catholic Nun had been beaten to death, her skull crushed with an unknown blunt object. Her body was too decomposed and mauled by animals and insects for the coroner to determine whether she had been sexually assaulted or not. To this day her murderer has never been found.

Catherine Ann Cesnik was born in the small community of Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania across the River from Pittsburg to a postal worker father and a homemaker mother in a deeply devout Roman Catholic family.

When they were old enough, Cathy and her sisters attended St. Mary’s Assumption elementary school connected to the Church of the same name where she was taught by the Sisters of Notre Dame. When Cathy entered St. Augustine Catholic High School she was sure of her Vocation and shortly after she graduated in 1960 she entered Convent of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Baltimore as a candidate for Sisterhood. After seven years as a Postulant, Cathy Cesnik took her final vows on July 21, 1967, taking the new name, Sister Joanita.

The Sisters of Notre Dame are a teaching Order and in 1965, while still a Postulate, Cathy Cesnik began to teach at the newly opened, all-girls Archbishop Keough High School.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

August 11, 2014

This week in ‘Crime Scene,’ former TV police reporter and Baltimore City Police spokesman Matt Jablow brings you a case that has gone unsolved for nearly 45 years.

In November 1969, a 26-year-old nun, Catherine Cesnik, disappeared after leaving her Southwest Baltimore apartment to go shopping. Two months later, her beaten body was found in a frozen field in Baltimore County.

No suspect was named in the original investigation, but in 1994, sensational allegations arose that re-opened the case. However, those leads ultimately went cold and Sister Catherine Cesnik’s murder remains unsolved.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican

By The Republican Editorials
on August 11, 2014

On Tuesday, Mitchell Rozanski will be installed as the region’s ninth bishop since the diocese was created in 1870 and the first bishop with Polish roots. To date, at least seven of the region’s eight bishops have had Irish background. The product of Catholic schools, he graduated from the Catholic University of America and its Theological College in Washington, D.C. …

Rozanski has been part of the solution in terms of the dark past of priest abuse of children.

He has been involved with minor revisions of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. He warns of constant vigilance – at every level and institution to protect children.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Aug 11, 2014

Documents made public Monday in a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis show that Archbishop John Nienstedt made false statements under oath in April about his knowledge of a priest accused of child sexual abuse.

Nienstedt said in an April 2 deposition that he didn’t know until March that a priest accused in the 1980s of sexually assaulting at least one teenage girl and “sexually exploiting” several women was still in ministry, a violation of church policy.

“I was not aware that he was publicly in ministry,” Nienstedt said, referring to the Rev. Kenneth LaVan. “And as soon as I realized it, I had his faculties removed.” Though retired, LaVan continued to assist with Masses at Twin Cities parishes until he was formally removed from all ministry in December 2013. Nienstedt said he learned of LaVan’s continuing ministry as part of a review of clergy files conducted by the Kinsale Group, a firm hired by the archdiocese.

However, documents released Monday show that, year after year, the archbishop received updates on LaVan and approved his continuing work at Twin Cities parishes, as recently as Aug. 15, 2013.

For example, Nienstedt received an annual report on LaVan in 2013 from a church official who monitors abusive priests. The monitor described “two face to face contacts” with LaVan over the past year and noted that LaVan assists at “a few parishes in the metro area when asked,” primarily St. Olaf in Minneapolis.

Nienstedt reviewed the information and approved the arrangement for another year.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis – via KSTP

In February 2014, we disclosed that there were substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor against Kenneth LaVan. Then in March, 2014, we publicly released the following additional information, which was reported in the media at the time:

(T)he archdiocese received reports in 1988 that he had abused two girls between 1958 and 1970. In 1989 and 1992, the archdiocese settled civil suits brought by the two victims. The archdiocese removed LaVan from ministry in early 1989 and required him to undergo treatment. After completion of treatment he was returned to parish ministry at St. Joseph in Lino Lakes with monitoring. LaVan retired in January 1998, but continued to provide limited assistance at St. Olaf in Minneapolis (and other parishes as requested) until December 2013. LaVan has also been accused of inappropriate sexual relationships with adult women.

Under today’s standards and protocols, if we were to receive similar allegations regarding a priest, police would immediately be notified.

In addition, we have changed the way we use psychological treatment for priests. We consider it a way to get an understanding of their mental health. A priest who has sexually abused a child may indeed receive treatment, but would not be considered again for ministry, no matter what progress he
might make in treatment.

I apologize for the harm caused by some of our priests, and ask for forgiveness from sexual abuse victim/survivors, their families and their friends.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Megan Matthews

A file publicly released Monday, accuses the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis of ignoring the fact that a priest, Father Kenneth LaVan, was accused of inappropriate behavior multiple times. He continued in ministry until 2013.

The files, released by Jeff Anderson and Associates, say LaVan was first accused of inappropriate sexual behavior in the 1980s. He was sent for treatment twice and was diagnosed with compulsive sexuality disorder in 1989.

According to Anderson, LaVan’s history was reviewed in 1995, and despite the allegations and a lawsuit, the Clergy Review Board recommended LaVan continue in ministry. It wasn’t until December 2013, when Kinsale Management reviewed LaVan’s files, that he was removed from ministry.

LaVan’s name was not part of the original list of credibly accused priests released by the Archdiocese last December; however, LaVan’s name was later added.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a statement Monday saying it made public that there were “substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor against Kenneth LaVan” in February 2014. A month later it released a statement saying LaVan was removed from ministry in 1989 to undergo treatment. He was only allowed to return to parish ministry at St. Joseph in Lino Lakes with monitoring, after he finished treatment.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, August 11, 2014

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

One bishop writes another bishop about an accused cleric who abused three girls and several women and even “mentioned a threat about possibly burning down the house” or “have your husband murdered.”

Yet the bishops keep it all secret and let the accused cleric stay on the job for another 25+ years.

That’s what newly disclosed, long secret St. Paul Catholic Archdiocese records show.

Then-Bishop Robert Carlson wrote an incriminating memo to then-Archbishop Harry Flynn that detailed Fr. Kenneth LaVan’s abuse of women and girls. But Carlson or Flynn aren’t responding to these disturbing revelations. Instead, Archbishop John Nienstedt trots out a spokesman who claims church officials would have handled the case differently these days. Frankly, we don’t believe that. And we find that insulting. Where’s the outrage? Where’s a single Catholic church employee who has the courage to say “I’m disgusted that Carlson would urge Flynn to lie and that Flynn took this advice and that LaVan was able to spend another quarter century on the church payroll around unsuspecting families.”

Carlson also admits in one memo that he did “not confront” Fr. LaVan about “the financial misdealing or the other girlfriends as he readily admitted.”

Other phrases in just that one Carlson memo are illustrative:

“the lavish ways that Father LaVan would retain . . .his woman lovers”

“from the very beginning, there were sexual overtones to Father LaVan’s conversation with her”

“it sounds like Father LaVan has a real sexual addiction problem”

“He apparently also is doing a lot of gambling and a fair amount of drinking.”

When will it ever end? When powerful, dishonest prelates like Flynn, Carlson and others are punished, both by church officials and secular authorities. And not until then.

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MINNESOTA
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

If atheists are right, and there is no God, then let’s burn down all the churches, for they’re all monuments to lies. If Catholics are right, and there is a God and He is who He says He is, then when He says, “Know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32) we’d better realize He means it. That much, at least, Catholics should have in common with atheists: a devotion to the Truth.

But if we are too scared to be loyal to what is True, then we will also fail in being faithful to what is Beautiful and what is Good. The prince of Lies and the God of Truth don’t really mix that well.

I write a lot about Unreality on this blog, by which I mean a religious attitude that is divorced from the reality of life. Unreality is a form of idolatry, of using the things of God for your own small-minded purposes, of leaning on the Church to support your tottering house of cards, of being contrived and artificial, of adopting airs and affectations, of making the worship of God not about understanding and serving the Truth (troubling though the Truth may be), but about shoring up your own deliberately narrowed and circumscribed agenda. It is the main temptation facing devout Christians of all stripes.

And here’s how Unreality works in practice.

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ILLINOIS
OakPark.com

Monday, August 11th, 2014

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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OKLAHOMA
Opposing Views

The Highway of Holiness Church in Oklahoma City, Okla., recently invited a convicted sex offender, Dale Hoffert, to attend their Children’s Crusade event.

“I was upset. I was sick to my stomach,” mom Tanya Cotton told News 9 (video below).

“You should send your kids to church and feel safe about it,” added Cotton. “His past is not good with children. Do not be tempting him with our kids.”

Cotton saw Hoffert on a cell phone video that was shot by her 10-year-old son in the children’s church event.

Hoffert used to be the youth pastor at the church, but was convicted of forcible oral sodomy in 2007.

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VATICAN CITY
District Chronicles

By Josephine McKenna/Religion News Service
On August 11, 2014

VATICAN CITY – The defrocking of a former Vatican ambassador is a “sign of the seriousness” with which Pope Francis and the Vatican are approaching the clergy sexual abuse scandal, according to the Holy See’s representative to United Nations agencies in Geneva.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi was tasked with defending the Catholic Church’s record when he presented reports to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child and the U.N. Committee Against Torture in Geneva earlier this year.

During questioning, Tomasi was asked whether the Vatican would agree to extradite Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, a Polish archbishop and papal envoy, to his native Poland after he was recalled from the Dominican Republic last September on claims of sexual abuse.

Wesolowski was defrocked this month, and Tomasi said the former nuncio was being investigated by Vatican prosecutors. Speaking in Rome last week, Tomasi said he hoped other states and institutions would now follow the approach taken by the Holy See in dealing with cases of pedophilia.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

[with video]

Here’s why you should listen to those protesters in front of churches

By Adam Grannick for the Moral Courage Project

The two men sit across from each other on a sofa, like old friends. “When I was twelve years old,” Kevin confesses, “I wanted nothing more in life than to be a priest.” Bob nods solemnly. “In all the time that I’ve known you,” Kevin continues, “I never called you Father Bob. Many people do, but I didn’t. It would have been detrimental for me.”

Kevin is one of many abused by priests as children, and the trauma continues to affect him to this day. Battling various anxieties, Kevin spent time in shelters as well as living out of his car. His unlikely friendship with Bob Hoatson, a former priest and abuse survivor himself, stems from Hoatson’s work as an advocate for those abused by priests.

Many within the Catholic Church feel that it is unfair that so much attention be focused on the Church, when—as we’ve seen—many communities are rife with incidents of abuse. “The Catholic Church’s issue is magnified,” Hoatson explains, “because they covered it up and secreted it for so long.” There are some glimmers of progress, and Pope Francis recently formed a team to combat child sexual abuse within the Church. However, Hoatson is among those who believe that the problems that lead to abuse run deeper.

“The image of the Church, and the maintaining of the secrets of the Church, are what is most important to the bishops. I felt that it was very important for me to expose all of this, so that victims would feel more comfortable coming out, so that they can get on the road to recovery and heal from the many injuries that they’ve received as a result of the abuse.”

A big criticism that Hoatson and others like him often face is that it’s not right for clergy to blow the whistle so loudly and so publicly. The abuse occurred within the Church, so it should be appropriate to address the crisis within the Church, right? Wrong, says Hoatson. “It became very clear that anyone who was going to whistleblow inside the structure [of the Church] was persona non grata. So we had to use the media, we had to go public. Because children were still being hurt.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan has written to the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Keith Vaz MP, calling for the allegations of abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home in east Belfast to be included in a new investigation into child abuse across the UK.

Mr Durkan, who was the seconder of the original motion in the Northern Ireland Assembly which led to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry – and also questioned the Home Secretary Theresa May in the House of Commons in 2012 over allegations of abuse at Kincora – said: “The remit of the “national panel” outlined by the Home Secretary should cover cases of abuse in Northern Ireland.

“The over-arching inquiry should cover the abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home. It should seek to uncover the apparent cover-up in relation to the complicity of security services, any governmental awareness and related action or inaction.

“If any other cases of abuse in Northern Ireland, including instances and patterns before the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry were known to, or suspected by, relevant authorities, and especially if such intelligence was shared with ministers and / or their officials, then that dimension should also be examined by the over-arching inquiry.

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VIRGINIA
WHSV

By: Channing Frampton

ROCKINGHAM COUNTY UPDATE: 08/10/2014

The church’s pastor says Layman is no longer with the church. He also says the incident involves a member of Layman’s family.

A children’s pastor with a Rockingham County church has been arrested and accused of a sex crime involving a child.

A member of the congregation from the Spring Creek Church of the Nazarene tells WHSV that an announcement was made Sunday regarding the arrest of the church’s children’s pastor.

The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Leonard “Sonny” Layman was arrested over the weekend for a sexual crime involving a child. We’re also told he is in jail without bond and waiting for a first court appearance Monday morning.

According to the church’s website, Layman was called into children’s ministry in 1990.

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VIRGINIA
WHSV

By: Samantha Galvez

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) — A former children’s pastor accused of a sexual crime with a child made his first court appearance Monday morning.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Leonard “Sonny” Layman this weekend and charged him with seven felonies, including five counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

As of last Wednesday, Layman is no longer with the church.

According to members of the Spring Creek Church of the Nazarene in Bridgewater, where Layman was a pastor, an announcement was made at services Sunday morning abut his arrest.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

David Clohessy | Aug. 11, 2014 Examining the Crisis

Last week, we in the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests celebrated our 25th anniversary. This week, we take note of another, less positive milestone.

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.)

How many boys and girls over the decades have been sexually violated by nuns? No one knows. We in SNAP have roughly 250 men and women who report having been molested by women religious, most as children, a few as adults. Who knows how many more are out there, likely suffering in silence, shame and self-blame?

Specifically, we’ve asked the leaders of the LCWR to:

* Put a link to our website on the LCWR website so victims of abusive nuns are given options if they want to heal or take action;
* Ask member orders to do the same;
* Invite SNAP members who are victims of sexual abuse by women religious to speak to LCWR member communities during LCWR national and regional conferences;
* Give us a list of member orders with addresses and names of contact people if a survivor of nun sexual abuse would wish to find healing and comfort from an order;
* Set up a national review board for sexual abuse by women religious to ensure this abuse comes to an end and so that those who were sexually abused by women religious can begin their journeys of healing.

Sadly, however, there has been no progress on any of our requests, and LCWR officials have not made any counterproposals that would show a good-faith effort to help prevent abuse in the future or help those hurting from abuse in the past.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

RAMAPO A Monsey rabbi and school principal was arrested Monday by Ramapo police after an investigation led by the Rockland District Attorney’s Office special unit that deals with crimes against children.

The exact charges against Gavriel Bodenheimer were unclear. His lawyer, David Ascher, said the charges were contained in a sealed indictment that he had not been able to see.

Bodenheimer, 71, was being processed Monday afternoon at the Rockland County jail, Ascher said. He said he has been told the arraignment and unsealing of the indictment will take place Tuesday morning.

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LOUISIANA
The Advertiser

Claire Taylor August 11, 2014

District Attorney Mike Harson said he will not take action on newly uncovered allegations of child sex abuse by priests unless asked to do so by a victim.

“To engage in an investigation without their commitment would appear to be a fruitless endeavor since I would certainly have to have their involvement in order to have any chance of success and it could unnecessarily revisit their trauma and open wounds that they thought were long dealt with, all without their request or desire,” Harson wrote in an email Monday in response to The Daily Advertiser’s questions.

The Daily Advertiser asked Harson last week if he will ask, demand or subpoena a list of 15 priests whose victims received settlements from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette or its insurers, as stated by Bishop Michael Jarrell.

The Advertiser also asked Harson if he will investigate allegations against the Rev. Gil Dutel, pastor at St. Edmond Catholic Church in Lafayette.

Dutel says he is innocent and Jarrell said the Diocese has no evidence of abuse or misconduct by Dutel, although it also has no report on the investigation.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican

By Anne-Gerard Flynn | aflynn@repub.com
on August 11, 2014

Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, will be installed as the ninth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, on Aug. 12 at 2 p.m. at St. Michael’s Cathedral, with a public reception at 5 p.m., at the Better Living Center on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield.

During an Aug. 5 meeting at the diocesan offices, Rozanski welcomed questions on a variety of topics, with the resultant interview, Springfield’s Bishop Mitchell Rozanski, loyal to Orioles, Church doctrine and being a listener, offering insight into the next generation of bishops, as well as into the Church under Pope Francis.

The Catholic Church has faced disgrace globally during the last decade, as victims of pedophile priests have broken years of silence, and unsealed court documents revealed patterns of cover up within dioceses, as suspected clergy were reassigned by bishops, rather than reported. The Church in the U.S., alone, has paid out billions in settlement awards to victims.

A United Nations committee recently accused the Vatican of violating an anti-torture treaty it signed, in 2002, by failing to report accusations of abuse to legal authorities.

Francis, who became became pope in March, has promised to hold bishops accountable for any failures of reporting, and he has appointed a commission to advise him on Church efforts on protection of minors, and outreach to victims. The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, in 2005, created a charter mandating what dioceses must do when sex abuse allegations are made.

Against this background, Rozanski was asked to what extent the Church’s failure to report clergy sex abuse contributed to a lessening of its influence on secular society.

Rozanski said that the Church cannot evangelize, “unless we ourselves are evangelized and rooted fully in the Gospel.” He spoke about the effectiveness of the 2005 charter, and the need for dioceses to stay vigilant. In terms of secular culture, he said, today’s “crime, drugs, general lack of respect for one another, is really based on in the disintegration of family life.”

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TEXAS
Watch Keep

They called it “Freedom Fest.”

Among the crowd, Greg Kelley’s high school sweetheart, Gaebri Anderson — speaking on television about Greg for the first time.

She says there’s no way her boyfriend is guilty of this crime.

“From my perspective, I have known him for so long, I know his heart. I know he’s not capable of such terrible things,” she said.
…

But there is a big outcry, especially on social media from those who feel justice was done in the Greg Kelley case.

Amy Smith is with a group called SNAP that supports victims of abuse.

“Some of those that I have connected with on Twitter and through Facebook and then some have reached out to me privately through social media saying ‘we live here, we live in Leander, we live in Austin. And we’re very disturbed by such a public outpouring.’ And some of them are sexual abuse victims themselves and that really touched a nerve with them,” Smith said.

Smith says there are better, more private ways to show support for Kelley. She says many are upset Sunday’s Freedom Fest was held at a church.

“To a child, that says ‘They’re against me.’ And to even question ‘Is God against me because I spoke up?’ And so it’s the public way of showing support…and I don’t think you need to have a public festival with dancing and games and food and a party with a slip and slide to show support for an imprisoned friend or family member,” she said.

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TEXAS
KVIA

Darren Hunt

EL PASO, Texas –
Victor J. Reza, an El Paso diocesan school board member, has been granted $20,000 bond by a federal judge on Monday morning.

According to the affidavit in the case, Reza admitted to investigators to downloading child pornography.

In court Monday, it was revealed that Reza had done information technology (IT) work at St. Raphael Parish and St. Pius X Parish and also played in band at St. Raphael.

Reza was arrested on Aug. 5 on a federal child porn charge. According to jail records, Reza has been charged with in transit/receipt and distribution of child sexual exploitation material.

In the affidavit Reza told investigators that he works in the computer and information technology (IT) field.

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MISSOURI/MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, August 11, 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 )

“Find a suitable cover story. . . so that this thing does not blow up.” That’s what then-Bishop Robert Carlson wrote to his boss about a credibly accused predator priest.

That priest was finally removed from active ministry just a few months ago.

Carlson now heads the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The memo, written in 1985, was made public this morning in Minnesota.

It is yet another example – in Carlson’s own words – of his willingness to deceive the public and his own parishioners about child molesting clerics.

Let’s see how Carlson spins this one. Let’s see what possible excuse he offers to “explain away” such Machiavellian, self-serving and irresponsible advice from one professed spiritual figure to another.

Our guess is that he’ll ignore this, even though these are his words, in writing, while he was a bishop. (We hope St. Louis Catholics, citizens, and journalists won’t let him ignore it.) Will Carlson claim that 20+ years ago, he didn’t know lying was wrong?

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Four Corners

[with video]

By Quentin McDermott and Peter Cronau

MONDAY 11th August 2014

They were sexually abused by the clergy and then found themselves targeted by the Church’s lawyers. Why did it happen and who was responsible for the strategy?

This week on Four Corners, reporter Quentin McDermott reveals the systematic way the Catholic Church sought to conceal the sexual abuse of children, using lawyers to minimise the potential financial impact to the organisation.

Talking to the abused, their families and employees of the Church, and by examining the detail of Royal Commission testimony, McDermott pieces together a strategy that even those inside the Church now concede was misplaced and utterly unethical.

“It’s a major, major crisis. It’s not only a crisis of scandal and crime; it’s also a crisis of faith and credibility.”

The program begins by looking at two cases where the Church clearly accepted that all the available evidence suggested abuse had happened, even offering a small settlement. When this was rejected, the lawyers acting on behalf of the Church argued the abuse had never happened.

“Firstly they disputed that the abuse had occurred and then they denied that our daughters had suffered from that abuse.”

The investigation examines the tactics employed by the Church in negotiating with victims in private, often with no legal representation, during compensation negotiations. …

‘IN THE NAME OF THE LAW’, reported by Quentin McDermott and presented by Kerry O’Brien, goes to air on Monday 11th August at 8.30pm on ABC. It is replayed on Tuesday 12th August at 11.00am and 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, ABC iview or abc.net.au/4corners.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AUGUST 12, 2014

Sarah Elks
Reporter
Brisbane

THE Catholic Church did not sack a parish priest even after an internal investigation commissioned by George Pell discovered he was guilty of child sex abuse.

ABC TV’s Four Corners last night revealed the results of a 1997 church investigation into Peter Searson that concluded he had for years sexually abused girls at the parish of Doveton, outside Melbourne.

However, Searson successfully appealed to Rome the ruling by the church’s internal Independent Commissioner into Sexual Abuse, Peter O’Callaghan QC, who had been appointed by Cardinal Pell, then archbishop of Melbourne. Searson argued Mr O’Callaghan didn’t have the jurisdiction to make such a finding.

Cardinal Pell is now in charge of Vatican finances.

Four Corners reported Cardinal Pell was approached by teachers at the Holy Family School in Doveton in 1989 and in the early 1990s, pleading with him to remove Searson after repeated complaints by children, parents and other teachers.

“I didn’t do nothing; I certainly did,” Cardinal Pell told the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse last year.

He denied there had been a cover-up.“No conviction was ­recorded for Searson on sexual misbehaviour,” he said. “There might be victims. He was convicted for ­cruelty. But speaking more generally, I totally reject the ­suggestion.”

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Father Kenneth LaVan, removed from ministry in December 2013, is a serial predator whom the Archdiocese continually disregarded as being a threat to women and children.

Allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior were made in the 1980s and twice LaVan was sent for treatment. A lawsuit involving one of LaVan’s victims was settled in 1985 and by 1989 LaVan was diagnosed with a compulsive sexuality disorder. In 1995 the Clergy Review Board examined LaVan’s history and recommended he continue in ministry. Archbishop Flynn was informed in 2005 that LaVan was not part of the monitoring system and Flynn advised Father Kevin McDonough to leave the situation alone. Finally, after a review of Church files by Kinsale Management LaVan’s faculties were removed in December 2013.

Kenneth LaVan’s file was released as part of a civil lawsuit filed in 2013 in Ramsey County. Doe 1, a sexual abuse survivor of Father Thomas Adamson, successfully sought and obtained the release of a list of credibly accused priests and their secret files from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Diocese of Winona. LaVan’s name was not part of the original list of credibly accused released by the Archdiocese in December 2013. LaVan’s name was later added after Kinsale completed its review.

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

Kenneth LaVan file, part 1
Kenneth LaVan file, part 2
Kenneth LaVan file, part 3
Kenneth LaVan Timeline
LaVan Hot Docs
LaVan summary

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 08/11/2014

The Rev. Kenneth LaVan began sexually abusing girls with his first parish assignment in the 1960s, and later threatened to burn down a woman’s house and have her husband killed — yet he was not removed from active ministry in the Twin Cities until last year, according to court and internal church records.

The Rev. Kevin McDonough told then-Archbishop Harry Flynn in 2005 that, while he knew of LaVan’s “boundary violations with adult females, I had forgotten that there were two allegations in the late 1980s concerning sexual involvement with teenaged girls.”

There were “significant doubts” about the girls’ stories, however, McDonough told Flynn. Nevertheless, he raised the possibility of “reopening an investigation into these old matters.

The details about LaVan’s record at parishes in West St. Paul, Crystal, Lake St. Croix Beach and Lino Lakes, among other locations, were revealed through a court-ordered release of his internal church file. Attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who sued the archdiocese on behalf of a man alleging sexual abuse by a different priest, released the contents of the file Monday to reporters.

“The secret personnel file of Kenneth LaVan shows a pernicious ‘blind spot’ among Catholic officials at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: the stunning and heartless minimization of the sexual abuse of girls and women,” Anderson said in a written statement.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

The priest who abused girls at confession – and how the Catholic church kept it secret: Furious families demand the truth about string of child sex abuse scandals

By EMILY CRANE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

A secret Catholic Church report found an Australian parish priest had been internally investigated and found guilty of child sex abuse, despite no criminal charges ever being laid against him.

A report into a confidential investigation into Father Peter Searson of the Doveton parish, south east of Melbourne, in 1997 found he was guilty of the offences, ABC’s Four Corners reports.

While Cardinal George Pell rejected a church cover-up of Father Searson’s crimes when he gave evidence at last year’s Victorian inquiry into child sex abuse, he did not make reference to the internal 1997 investigation or the finding that he had sexually abused children in his parish.

The revelation the church knew about Father Searson’s abuse was found in a report by the Independent Commissioner into Sexual Abuse, Peter O’Callaghan.

He was appointed in 1997 by Cardinal Pell, who was Archbishop of Melbourne at the time, to look at allegations from teachers and parents regarding Father Searson.

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WASHINGTON
Religion News Service

Sarah Pulliam Bailey | August 8, 2014 | 36 Comments

(RNS) Seattle megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll has been removed from a church-planting network of more than 500 churches he helped found after a pattern of “ungodly and disqualifying behavior.”

Driscoll, co-founder of the Acts 29 Network, has been an influential but edgy pastor within conservative evangelical circles for several years. His own Mars Hill Church attracts some 14,000 people at 15 locations across five states each Sunday.

At the same time, however, Driscoll has been controversial in evangelical circles for years. The New York Times Magazine called him “one of the most admired — and reviled — figures among evangelicals nationwide.” He has been provocative, occasionally profane and has faced allegations of plagiarism and inflating his book sales.

After Acts 29 board action, all of Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church locations have been removed from the website of the network.

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CANADA
Christian Week

By CRAIG MACARTNEY Senior Correspondent | August 1, 2014

ROCKWOOD, ON—An advocacy organization that helps the children of missionaries deal with their sometimes painful pasts has opened a Canadian chapter.

Missionary Kids Safety Net (MK Safety Net) works primarily with adults whose parents were missionaries. Some “missionary kids” (MKs) suffered abuse or trauma while their parents were in the field, and MK Safety Net is helping them connect with counsellors and other abuse survivors. The organization also helps survivors walk through the process of reporting abuse and initiating investigations.

“Even as children and teens, MKs often live in a great deal of emotional isolation from one another and that isolation continues into adulthood,” says Beverly Shellrude Thompson, a former MK and president emeritus of MK Safety Net Canada. “The work we do includes creating safe environments for people who want to talk about trauma they experienced to connect with others from their schools or people from different settings.”

MK Safety Net was founded following an investigation into abuse at Mamou Alliance Academy in Guinea. After a 1999 retreat held for survivors, including Shellrude Thompson, to review the investigation, numerous other MKs began contacting them with reports of past abuse in various organizations. The group decided to incorporate and continue their support work.

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OKLAHOMA
News 9

[with video]

By Deanne Stein, News 9

OKLAHOMA CITY –
A mother is outraged after finding out a known registered sex offender attended an annual children’s event at a southwest Oklahoma City church.

Tanya Cotton says she is still shocked that the Highway of Holiness Church, located at 2800 S.W. 38th Street, allowed registered sex offender, 29-year-old Dale Hoffert Junior, to attend the Children’s Crusade event last week.

“I was upset. I was sick to my stomach,” said Cotton. “You should send your kids to church and feel safe about it.”

After the services, Cotton watched the videos on her 10-year-old son’s cell phone when she saw Hoffert in one of the videos, participating in the service. She recognized him immediately, because he used to be the youth pastor at the church.

“His past is not good with children,” she said. “Do not be tempting him with our kids.”

Hoffert was convicted on charges of forcible oral sodomy in 2007. The victim was not a member of the church. Court records show he served time in prison until he got out earlier this year on a suspended sentence.

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OKLAHOMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Aug. 11, 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 )

Every person at the Highway of Holiness Church should be ashamed and outraged that church officials let a registered sex offender attend the Children’s Crusade event last week.

Convicted bank robbers can’t own handguns. Convicted drunk drivers can’t operate school buses. And convicted child predators should be nowhere near kids, even after “paying their debt to society.”

A reformed alcoholic doesn’t seek work in a brewery. And a truly repentant and reformed child molester doesn’t attend a children’s church service.

But Dale Hoffert Junior is just doing what predators do: spend time around kids. The more troubling wrongdoers here are the staff and members of Highway of Holiness Church, who are knowingly endangering kids by letting Hoffert near children.

You can believe God changes people without tempting fate and setting up risky situations in which children are put in harm’s way.

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UNITED STATES
Detroit Free Press

By Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Sister Sharon Holland, a Catholic nun who grew up in Pontiac as a judge’s daughter and became one of the highest-ranking women at the male-dominated Vatican, is used to navigating conflict and controversy.

And there’s more ahead.

On Friday, Holland, 75, becomes the president of the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR), an organization representing most of America’s Catholic sisters that is under attack by Vatican overseers for being too liberal.

Observers say her 21 years of experience working as a Vatican-based canon lawyer — a legal expert trained in Catholic Church law — will assist her in the delicate, yet confrontational, discussions with Vatican representatives.

Holland is a member of the Monroe-based Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) and before she earned a Catholic canon law degree from Gregorian University in Rome, she once taught elementary school at St. Mary’s in Wayne as Sister Marie Russell.

The LCWR, which is holding its annual meeting in Nashville beginning Tuesday, is comprised of female religious leaders from orders across the U.S. The Leadership Council’s 1400 members represent some 80% of an estimated 52,000 Catholic sisters in the country. Holland, who declined to be interviewed for this article, will become LCWR’s president Friday.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, August 11, 2014

For more information: Judy Jones (636) 433-2511, SNAPjudy@gmail.com, David Clohessy of St. Louis (314) 566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com

Abuse victims challenge bishop
“Stop defaming us,” group says
“Let’s have an open discussion,” they ask

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is challenging Youngstown’s Catholic bishop to a public discussion about his handling of child molesting clerics and is accusing him of “defaming” their organization.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing Bishop George Murry urging him to set up “an open debate or discussion about the on-going clergy sex abuse and cover up scandal.”

The request comes on the heels of last week’s disclosure that Deacon Ernest Formichelli has allegedly been ousted as a teacher and a deacon in the diocese. The Ohio State Board of Education has also permanently revoked Formichelli’s two teaching licenses.

“Bishop Murry’s spokesman, Fr. John Jerek, claims we’re misinformed, but conveniently, neither man will explain why,” says David Clohessy of St Louis, SNAP’s executive director. “They’re slinging mud when they should be shedding light. That’s not helpful. So we hope that Bishop Murry will overcome his fears and sit down with us in public and talk about this troubling situation.”

“Murry keep promising ‘transparency’ in clergy sex cases so why wouldn’t he have an open meeting about the biggest crisis the US Catholic church has ever faced?” said Judy Jones, SNAP’s Midwest associate director. “The bishop only comments on clergy sex cases through a spokesman, who issues a written statement only when forced to do so by disclosures from victims or reports from journalists. That’s no way to inspire confidence, bring healing, or clarify confusion.”

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GUAM
Jungle Watch

….after some parishes had already picked up their weekly copies of the U Matuna this past Friday, the Chancery suddenly gave the order to confiscate and destroy all 8000 or so copies? And then had to print a whole different edition?

The Pacific Daily News (which prints the paper) thanks you for the extra business by the way. Nice to know we have that kind of money to throw around. Gotta wonder how many homeless the cost of that extra run could have fed.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Online

[with video]

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The Vatican bank two years ago invested in an Italian television company that makes family movies, including films about popes and a series about a bike-riding country priest who helps police solve crimes.

The Vatican’s at-the-time Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone ordered the investment in Lux Vide SpA. He said the company shared the Holy See’s “lofty goal of evangelization.”

Bertone, who was the second-in-command to former Pope Benedict, pushed the deal through despite objections from the bank’s director and board members.

The Vatican last month booked a loss for the entire amount spent, as part of a wider review of Vatican finances that has also led to the closure of hundreds of accounts at the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR.

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LOUISIANA
KATC

[with video]

Newly discovered court records from the 1990s are giving us a look back at a dark era for the Diocese of Lafayette and the scope of just how many people were involved.

The church sex-abuse crisis has been back in the spotlight, after an in-depth report by Minnesota Public Radio last month. The report opened an old wound in Lafayette, which saw the first cases of priest sex-abuse in the country. When the scandal seemingly passed, federal documents relating to the scandal were unsealed in 1998. Those documents remained boxed-up in a courthouse in Ft. Worth, TX, until now.

KATC and our media partner, The Advocate, had 5 boxes of documents shipped in from Ft. Worth on Friday. The documents detail the Lafayette Diocese’s suit against their insurance company in the late 80’s. Among the documents are depositions from victims and members of the diocese, psychiatric reports on abusive priests and even personnel files.

One personnel file is a list of 41 priests, and includes basic information like dates of birth and ordination. The file goes one step further with a brief description of each priest. Some of the descriptions include terms like: “known pedophilia (sic),” “suspected of homosexuality,” and “effeminent (sic), counseling recommended.”

There were also minutes from a diocesan personnel board meeting from February 16, 1977, concerning the re-assignment of certain priests. While the reasons for the changes were not documented, two priests who would later be convicted of child molestion were discussed–Father Lane Fontenot and Father Gilbert Gauthe.

In discussing the placement of Fontenot, the diocese writes: “Because of a recent situation with Father Gilbert Gauthe in St. Mary Magdalen’s, we feel that assigning Father Fontenot to Abbeville would not be prudent. (this is strongly felt).”

Gauthe would go on to become the most notorious child molester in the diocese, and one deposition details how a father of one of his victims wanted to kill him. In the deposition, the boy’s father said when he heard what Gauthe did to his son, who was an altar boy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in New Iberia, he went to the rectory with a shotgun.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A Catholic priest has stepped aside while an “historical complaint” is investigated, the Bishop of Dromore has said.

Monsignor Aidan Hamill, who is based in Lurgan, County Armagh, has voluntarily stepped aside from his duties.

Bishop John McAreavey said he was recently made aware of the allegations.

“In accordance with both national and diocesan child protection policy and procedures, the relevant statutory authorities were informed,” he said.

Bishop McAreavey said social services were carrying out an independent risk assessment.

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TEXAS
Fox 7

[with video]

They called it “Freedom Fest.”

The goal was to raise awareness about 19-year-old Greg Kelley and to help his family with mounting legal fees.

“This is a freedom fight for Greg. This is our big fundraiser. We’ve been raising funds, we’ve raised over $23,000 already. But this is the one we started in motion pretty much right after Greg got convicted,” said organizer Pam Brimberry.

Brimberry knows Greg through her daughter. She says Freedom Fest has a line up of live music, food, a chance to sign the petition and to donate. …

Amy Smith is with a group called SNAP that supports victims of abuse.

“Some of those that I have connected with on Twitter and through Facebook and then some have reached out to me privately through social media saying ‘we live here, we live in Leander, we live in Austin. And we’re very disturbed by such a public outpouring.’ And some of them are sexual abuse victims themselves and that really touched a nerve with them,” Smith said.

Smith says there are better, more private ways to show support for Kelley. She says many are upset Sunday’s Freedom Fest was held at a church.

“To a child, that says ‘They’re against me.’ And to even question ‘Is God against me because I spoke up?’ And so it’s the public way of showing support…and I don’t think you need to have a public festival with dancing and games and food and a party with a slip and slide to show support for an imprisoned friend or family member,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Anglican Church strips former archdeacon Peter Coote of clergy position over sexual misconduct allegations

ABC

August 11, 2014

The Diocese of The Murray has revoked the licence of former archdeacon Peter Coote following an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

The decision means Mr Coote can no longer hold any office or position as a member of the clergy within the South Australian diocese.

It came after more than 10 years of investigations and hearings by the Anglican Church Professional Standards Boards and reviews of their findings and recommendations.

Mr Coote was the parish priest at Happy Valley when he became the subject of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour complaints involving three women in the southern suburbs in 2004.

At that time Mr Coote was reprimanded.

An internal church investigation took place three years later when the Anglican Church’s Professional Standards Board decided to stand Mr Coote down.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Secret Catholic Church report found parish priest Peter Searson was guilty of child sex abuse, despite no charges ever being laid against him

ABC

BY QUENTIN MCDERMOTT AND PETER CRONAU
August 11, 2014

A secret Catholic Church report concluded a parish priest was guilty of child sexual abuse, despite no charges ever being laid against him.

The internal report of a confidential 1997 investigation into Father Peter Searson, of the outer-Melbourne parish of Doveton, made a finding that “the parish priest had been guilty of sexual abuse”, Four Corners has revealed.

In his evidence to last year’s Victorian inquiry into child sexual abuse, Cardinal George Pell rejected suggestions of a cover-up of Father Searson’s crimes, stating: “No conviction was recorded for Searson on sexual misbehaviour. There might be victims. He was convicted for cruelty. But speaking more generally, I totally reject the suggestion.”

Cardinal Pell made no reference to the inquiry about the internal hearing into Father Searson which had taken place in 1997, or the finding that the parish priest had sexually abused two girls.

Cardinal Pell was regional bishop in the early 1990s when allegations were being made about Father Searson in Doveton.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Former head of St Gregory’s College Campbelltown Brother Peter Pemble charged with child indecent assault

IAN WALKER THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AUGUST 11, 2014

A FORMER Western Sydney catholic school headmaster is to face court next week over an alleged decades-old child indecent assault.

The former head of St Gregory’s College Campbelltown, 66-year-old Brother Peter Pemble, allegedly indecently assaulted a boy at Maitland between 1971 and 1972.

Detectives began investigations last year after they received information about an assault on a child.

At the time Br Pemble was studying at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium after he stepped down at St Gregory’s due to ill-health in 2008.

He returned to Australia and was questioned by detectives in Surry Hills on July 22 about the alleged Maitland assault.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

By Lindsay Toler Sun., Aug. 10 2014

Father Alexander Lippert, a Catholic priest who served in eleven St. Louis-area parishes over 33 years, sexually abused a minor in the 1970s, according to the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

Archbishop Robert Carlson says a report accusing Lippert of abusing a minor is credible, the archdiocese announced last week. Since Lippert died in April 2000 and can’t respond to the allegations, the archdiocese has officially ruled the report of sexual abuse as “credible though unsubstantiated.”

The archdiocese did not release details about the abuse or the victim, who was a minor at the time.

The archdiocese said it would post bulletins about the allegations against Lippert in the parishes where he served or resided. Lippert was assigned to Holy guardian Angels parish in south St. Louis in April 1956; Immaculate Conception in Union in July 1959; St. Liborius in north St. Louis in 1961; St. Teresa in north St. Louis in 1963; St. Ferdinand in Florissant in 1965; St. Aloysius in Spanish Lake in May 1968; St. Paul the Apostle in Pine Lawn (resided, during leave of absence) in July 1970; Basilica of St. Louis, King of France (Old Cathedral) in Downtown St. Louis in June 1980; St. Catherine of Alexandria in Coffman in November 1980; St. Ambrose in south St. Louis in May 1983; and St. Thomas of Aquin in south St. Louis in April 1986.

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UNITED STATES
Pew Research Center

BY MICHAEL LIPKA

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which includes representation from more than 80% of American nuns, is set to hold its annual assembly next week in Nashville. The meeting comes as the organization continues to draw scrutiny from the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, and also at a time when there has been a steep decline in the number of nuns.

The Vatican first began taking a hard look at some organizations of U.S. nuns about five years ago, eventually ordering an investigation and a “doctrinal assessment” of the LCWR – and a plan for organizational reform.

While the church’s specific concerns with the nuns are complex, a few major areas were highlighted in a 2012 Vatican document, which said the LCWR was “silent on the right to life from conception to natural death” and that Roman Catholic views on the family and human sexuality “are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching.” The document also raised concerns about “radical feminist themes” at programs sponsored by the LCWR, and cited addresses at LCWR assemblies that “manifest problematic statements and serious theological, even doctrinal errors.”

More recently, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, criticized the LCWR in an April address before a meeting with the organization and reiterated the Vatican’s intention to require approval for speakers and awardees at LCWR events.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill Crime Editor

The Archbishop of York has told victims of sexual abuse by predatory clergy that he is “deeply ashamed” of the Church of England’s failures to protect vulnerable children.

Dr John Sentamu has written to a number of men who were abused as children by the Very Rev Robert Waddington, the former dean of Manchester Cathedral, who preyed on schoolboys in Britain and Australia over a 60-year period.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Clarion Herald – Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans

Published on Monday, 27 January 2014

Written by Peter Finney Jr

In his decades serving as a pastor and as vicar for clergy in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Msgr. Ray Hebert, who died Jan. 16 at 85 at West Jefferson Hospital, was known for his gentle demeanor and his willingness to listen carefully with an open heart.

Although he was one of the most respected priests in the archdiocese, his loving spirit did not shield him from the cross – having to bear the weight of false sexual abuse accusations lodged against him by former residents of Madonna Manor in Marrero.

Protesting from the beginning that the 50-year-old allegations were false, Msgr. Hebert filed a defamation suit against his accusers and worked feverishly in his retirement to have the accusations publicly withdrawn.

Forgiveness shined through

When the last of his accusers finally recanted in 2010, Msgr. Hebert could have pressed for civil damages, but instead he turned the other cheek.

“Msgr. Hebert said he would withdraw his lawsuit if the man made a public retraction that was published in the newspaper,” former Archbishop Alfred Hughes said following Msgr. Hebert’s funeral Mass Jan. 20 at Immaculate Conception Church in Marrero. “He eventually did that, and then Ray withdrew the lawsuit.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Susan Edelman
August 10, 2014

David Seff, a math professor at Brooklyn College, asked a female student to meet him in a classroom one late afternoon in August 2011 to help with a “listening experiment.” Alone with the young woman, Seff pounced on her, authorities charged.

Seff, now 68, allegedly grabbed her breasts and crotch. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment last September and was ordered to stay away from her for a year.

But his case never made the news — his name was kept under wraps by then-Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.

That secrecy is over, says DA Kenneth Thompson, who succeeded Hynes in January.

At The Post’s request, Thompson’s staff last week released 20 names of defendants in cases Hynes had refused to divulge because they involved Orthodox Jewish suspects and/or victims.

Hynes, who would issue press releases on non-Orthodox sex offenders, insisted he was shielding Orthodox victims or their families from Mafia-like intimidation in their insular community. …

Other previously unpublicized suspects include:

 * Israel Moshe, 47, accused in 2010 of raping a 22-year-old woman with cerebral palsy who answered a Craigslist ad. He’s a fugitive with a warrant for arrest.

 * Alexander Rogalsky, 30, a camp counselor accused in 2011 of first-degree sodomy with a 13-year-old boy in 2003. Under a plea deal with Thompson in February, he copped to second-degree sodomy and got 10 years’ probation.

 * David Zimmer, 43, a locksmith convicted of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl in 1999 and arrested again in 2012 for taking photos of a 9-year-old girl in Borough Park. He pleaded guilty to failure to register in June and faces sentencing Sept. 13.

 * Naftolis Schwartz, 57, a Hebrew teacher accused in 2012 of sexually abusing a 13-year-old student. He pleaded guilty in February to endangering the welfare of a child and received no jail time.

* Yosef Ederi, 42, a repeat pedophile accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy at their synagogue in 2011. He pleaded guilty to child endangerment in July 2013, was set free, and struck again. In May, he was convicted of molesting an 8-year-old boy and sentenced to a year in Rikers. He’s already out.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Archbishop of York

Wednesday 23rd July 2014

The Independent Inquiry chaired by Her Honour Judge Sally Cahill QC into the Church’s handling of reports of alleged sexual abuse by the late Robert Waddington, formerly Dean of Manchester, has now concluded its investigations.

The Archbishop of York has now received a copy of the Inquiry’s Report. When all those referred to in the report have been informed of its completion, and when the Archbishop has met with the Chair of the Inquiry, it will be for the Archbishop to determine how and when to make public the findings of the Inquiry.

Although commissioned by the Archbishop, the process of this Independent Inquiry has rightly been outside the control of the Church. It has been the responsibility of the Inquiry to determine its own investigations, in order to complete the work and report as thoroughly and fairly as possible.

The Archbishop of York said: “Whilst it is never possible to put right the wrongs that have been done, the seriousness of the crimes which have been committed makes us determined both to acknowledge our responsibility and our shame for our failure to protect children in the past, and to respond far more positively to those victims who bravely come forward to share their experience today. I am thankful to all those who have participated, at some personal cost, in the process of this Inquiry. May we learn from the tragedy of abuse and ensure that systemic failure in the past can never be repeated.”

The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd David Walker, said, “I welcome the news that the Inquiry Group have completed their work and passed their report to the Archbishop of York. I wish to pay tribute to those who are brave enough to come forward and report abuse that they have suffered. They have a vital part to play in driving institutional abuse out of British society.”

Anyone wanting to inform the Statutory Authorities of past or present abuse can speak to a Local Authority Designated Officer, who can be contacted through your Local Safeguarding Children Board.

If anyone would value support from people who have been through similar experiences, they can contact MACSAS, Minsters and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors. MACSAS is a support group for women and men from Christian backgrounds who have been sexually abused by Ministers or Clergy, as children or as adults. Please see their website at www.macsas.org.uk.

The following groups may also be of help:

•NSPCC: Helpline: 0808 800 5000 (24 hours, every day) www.nspcc.org.uk
•ChildLine: Helpline: 0800 1111 (24 hours) www.childline.org.uk
•Survivors UK : Helpline: 0845 122 1201 www.survivorsuk.org
•The National Association of People Abused in Childhood: Helpline: 0800 085 3330 www.napac.org.uk

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AUGUST 11, 2014

Michael McKenna
Reporter
Brisbane

AUSTRALIAN and British child sex victims have finally been vindicated after years of cover-up by the Anglican Church, with an ­official admission that one of its most senior clergymen was a pedophile who had been ­“allowed’’ to abuse children.

Archbishop of York John Sentamu has written to victims of the late Robert Waddington — a ­former Queensland headmaster who later ran hundreds of Anglican schools in Britain — saying he was “deeply ashamed’’ the church had not listened and acted on complaints of child sex abuse.

The extraordinary admission follows a year-long inquiry into Waddington, the former dean of Manchester who died in 2007, and the mishandling of abuse allegations in 1999, 2003 and 2005 against him from former choirboys and students in England and Australia.

The inquiry, sparked by a joint investigation of The Australian and The Times of London that showed Waddington’s trail of horrific rapes and beatings of boys over five decades and inaction by senior church officials, was headed by sitting English judge Sally Cahill QC. It also investigated the former archbishop of York, now Lord (David) Hope of Thornes who last year expressed regret at not reporting the allegations to police or other child protection agencies.

Archbishop Sentamu wrote in his letter to Waddington’s victims that “we in the Church of England should face up to the wrong which has been allowed to be done to those children who were abused by the late Robert Waddington’’.

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