ABUSE TRACKER

NEDERLAND
Trouw

[Abuse victims again feel insulted by the Catholic Church. The Wim Deetman committee in 2011 issued a report about sexual abuse of minors in Catholic institutions between 1945 and 1981. It was a bomb. Deetman investigated 2,100 reports of abuse but said the actual number is many times higher and could be 10,000 or 20,000.]

Misbruikslachtoffers voelen zich voor de zoveelste keer geschoffeerd door de katholieke kerk. Nu omdat de klachtencommissie definitief stopt. ‘Dit is zó arrogant.’

Van de in totaal 1600 meldingen moet het meldpunt er nog 500 afwikkelen
Het is 16 december 2011. De commissie-Deetman komt met haar eindrapport over seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen in katholieke instellingen tussen 1945 en 1981. Het rapport slaat in als een bom.

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

UNITED STATES
NYR

Garry Wills

Pope Francis has acted fast on his preferred issues—poverty and economic justice. Nothing in that to criticize. He has been slower—too slow, say some—to deal with the long-festering problem of sex abuse by priests. He has at last taken some of the steps people were calling for—see victims and apologize to them, authorize a panel to study the problem, promise reforms that will prevent a recurrence of these crimes. OK so far—but Pope Benedict had begun all that before him.

Why did Francis hesitate to continue what was already being done? Is it because all these things are beside the point? Very likely, they are. Without addressing structural issues in the Vatican, meaningful action to restore trust in the priesthood and church authority cannot get far. There are four such interlocking problems:

1. Celibacy. Yes, celibacy does not directly and of itself lead to sexual predation. There are many unmarried men and women who are not predators. But Catholic celibacy is not simply an unmarried state. It is a mandatory and exclusive requirement for holding all significant offices in the Church. This sets up a sexual caste system that limits vision, empathy, and honesty. It enables church rulers to be blithely at odds with the vast majority of their own people. According to a 2011 Guttmacher Institute study, 98 percent of American Catholic women of child-bearing age have had sex—and, of that 98 percent, 99 percent have used or will use some form of contraception. Yet celibate priests tell us they know what sex is really about (by their expertise in “natural law”), and in their view it absolutely precludes birth control. There is an induced infantilism in such cloistered minds, an ignorance that poses as innocence. This prevents honesty at so many levels that any trust on sexual matters begins in a crippled state, handicapping all treatment of sexual predation in the Church.

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

CANADA
Our Love and Support to Archbishop Seraphim (Storheim)

With tears of joy and deep gratitude we publish the official letter of support to Archbishop Seraphim from the HOLY SYNOD OF BISHOPS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF PORTUGAL

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Sunday Mail

By PRESS ASSOCIATION

An inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse at the heart of the establishment is likely to turn up fresh claims about the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury has admitted.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said it was something he dealt with daily and it was becoming clearer that “for many, many years things were not dealt with as they should have been dealt with”.

Abuse survivors must now be shown justice and the Church must be “absolutely transparent” every step of the way, he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show.

Asked if he was braced for the inquiry to uncover “bad stories”, Archbishop Welby replied: “I would love to say there weren’t, but I expect there are. There are in almost every institution in this land.

“This is, it’s something I deal with every day and it is becoming clearer and clearer that for many, many years things were not dealt with as they should have been dealt with.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Esther Rantzen, the founder of ChildLine, has added her voice to those who think that Baroness Butler-Sloss may be the wrong person to lead an inquiry into how the government handled allegations of child abuse by senior politicians in the 1980s.

Last week Phil Johnson, who was abused by a paedophile priest in Sussex, claimed Baroness Butler-Sloss wanted to exclude some of his allegations in a bid to protect the Church of England.

Baroness Butler-Sloss said she had never put institutions before victims. The Home Office has backed her as the right person to lead an inquiry.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Observer

Andrew Rawnsley
The Observer, Saturday 12 July 2014

It is a question of our age – arguably the question of our age – which links every story that is probably interesting you right now. It screams out of the allegations that a paedophile ring operated at Westminster. It is triggered again by the government’s desire to rush through emergency surveillance legislation in the name of combatting terrorism. It is at the heart of the debate about the future of the NHS. It bedevils the arguments over independence for Scotland. It will be up front and central and decisive at the next British general election. Whom do you trust?

Comes an answer that is as popular as it is succinct: trust no one.

Trust me, I’m a banker. Don’t think so. Trust me, I’m a doctor. Did you ever work at Mid-Staffs? Trust me, I’m from the intelligence services. And what did you have to do with rendition and torture? Trust me, I’m a police officer. How many innocent people did you shoot or stitch up to today? Trust me, I’m a bishop. Catholic or Anglican? Child abuser or investor in Wonga? Trust me, I’m a supermarket. How much horse is there in your burgers? Trust me, I’m from the newspapers. When does your trial begin? Trust me, I’m from the BBC. And what did you know about Jimmy Savile? Trust me, I’m a celebrity. How much tax are you avoiding? And were you mates with Rolf Harris?

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Mirror

Jul 13, 2014 By Vincent Moss, Matthew Drake

Margaret Thatcher was warned that senior ministers were involved in a child sex ring, a former Tory activist claims.

Anthony Gilberthorpe says he sent her a 40-page dossier in 1989 accusing Cabinet members of abusing underage boys at drug-fuelled conference parties.

Mr Gilberthorpe, who claims he was ordered to recruit boys for the ministers, says he posted the “graphic” allegations to Mrs Thatcher after befriending her. …

Her former Parliamentary Private Secretary Sir Peter Morrison has already been named in connection with a probe into the Bryn Estyn children’s home in Wrexham where Jimmy Savile allegedly molested boys.

Mrs Thatcher lobbied for Savile to be given a knighthood and he visited her at Chequers on at least 11 occasions. …

Details of Mr Gilberthorpe’s evidence emerged as retired judge Baroness Butler-Sloss came under growing ­pressure to stand down as head of the Westminster child abuse inquiry.

She is accused of keeping allegations about a bishop out of a review of how the Church of England dealt with two paedophile priests because she “cared about the church.”

In a statement yesterday, Lady Butler-Sloss insisted that she has “never” put the reputation of an institution ahead of justice for victims.

In another ­development yesterday a former social ­services official said his warnings about the threat of a Westminster-based paedophile network were ignored because “there were too many of
them there”.

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

IRELAND
Bray People

BRAY native Marie Kane met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Monday where they discussed her abuse.

Bray native Marie Kane met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Monday where they discussed her abuse.

Marie (43), who now lives in Carlow, was one of a group of six victims to meet the pope.

She asked him to allow priests marry and sack bishops who do not act on abuse in their diocese.

She said that the meeting was a very positive experience and a huge vindication for her, according to the Irish Independent.

‘I am 11 years trying to get justice in some shape or form and it hasn’t happened,’ she told the newspaper, adding that the Pope ‘seemed genuinely sorry.’

She reported that he listened intently to what she had to say, at times seeming frustrated by what he was hearing.

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

LOUISIANA
The Advocate

[state supreme court ruling]

HEIDI R. KINCHEN
hkinchen@theadvocate.com

A legal battle over whether a Louisiana priest should have reported a teenager’s claims of sexual abuse by a parishioner is pitting state laws meant to protect children against the age-old secrecy surrounding religious confessions.

The case involves a woman who claims that in 2008, when she was 14, she told her pastor she was sexually abused by a now-deceased church parishioner, but that the priest, the Rev. Jeff Bayhi of Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Clinton, told her to “sweep it under the floor and get rid of it.”

Rebecca Mayeux — whom recent court rulings in the sealed case did not name but who identified herself as the alleged victim in a TV interview with WBRZ — has sued Bayhi and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge, arguing that the priest neglected his duty under state law to report the alleged abuse to the authorities.

The Baton Rouge Diocese has said Bayhi responded appropriately because the information came to him through confession, a sacrament that includes a seal of confidentiality no priest can break.

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

NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: Sunday, July 13, 201

New Mexicans first met Michael Sheehan in April 1993 when the 53-year-old bishop was tapped by the Vatican to lead the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in a time of mounting crisis.

The leaderless archdiocese had been rocked by allegations of clerical sexual abuse.

Just three weeks earlier, the popular Archbishop Robert F. Sanchez had resigned after five women alleged he had sexually molested them when they were teenagers. New Mexicans were shocked to hear several women describe those abuses on “60 Minutes,” CBS’ news program.

Sanchez was one of at least 14 priests accused of sexual abuse at the time Sheehan arrived and lawsuits were beginning to pile up. Sheehan ultimately dismissed an estimated 20 priests as a result of the scandal.

Then-Bishop of Lubbock, Sheehan was met by a phalanx of reporters at his first news conference in Albuquerque.

“I want to put the household of faith in order,” Sheehan said following a flight from Texas. “But I cannot do it alone, nor can I do it overnight.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Sunday Mail

I was asked to find underage boys for sex at drink and drug-fuelled Tory party conferences, claims former activist

By MATT CHORLEY, MAILONLINE POLITICAL EDITOR

Senior Tory politicians took part in drink and drug-fuelled sex parties with underage boys during seaside conferences, it was claimed today.

Former activist Anthony Gilberthorpe says he was handed cash and told to ‘fetch entertainment’ – code for young boys – by members of Margaret Thatcher’s government.

But the claims were today rejected as ‘tittle-tattle’ by former Conservative minister David Mellor, who insisted those named were dead and unable to defend themselves. …

He told the Sunday Mirror how boys as young as 15 were plied with alcohol and cocaine at Conservative gatherings in Blackpool and Brighton in the 1980s.

He named former former-Education Secretary Keith Joseph, ex-local government minister Rhodes Boyson, and Michael Havers, the former attorney general who is the brother of Baroness Butler-Sloss. All of those Mr Gilberthorpe names are now dead. …

Mr Gilberthorpe alleges that in 1981 he went to a party in Blackpool where ‘several boys who were clearly aged between 15 and 16’ were performing sex acts on MPs.

He claims he saw Sir Michael Havers there. Baroness Butler-Sloss has faced calls to stand down from her role leading the panel inquiry because her brother was in the Cabinet at the time many of these allegations date from.

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

PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

By Atty. Ignacio R. Bunye
Speaking Out
Sunday, July 13, 2014

POPE Francis recently backed with strong action his pronouncements to hold officials accountable in connection with the sex scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church.

On his assumption as pontiff, Pope Francis announced “zero tolerance” for the sex abuses, which he called “the shame of the Church.” He further said that dealing with the sex abuse allegations was “vital to the Roman Catholic Church’s credibility.”

Last December, he announced the creation of a Vatican committee that will help fight child abuse in the Church.

Three weeks ago, BBC reported that the Vatican tribunal convicted a Polish archbishop and stripped him of his priesthood because of sexual abuse.

The archbishop is the highest ranking Church official so far investigated. He was found guilty of charges that he had abused boys in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic during his assignment in that city as a papal ambassador.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Scotsman

by DANI GARAVELLI
Published on the 13 July 2014

Ensuring victims of child abuse have a voice is just as important as uncovering any evidence of a mass cover-up over historic cases, writes Dani Garavelli

WHEN IAN McFadyen saw the former head­teacher of Caldicott Prep School in Slough jailed for child abuse in February, he expected to feel a sense of closure. After all, Peter Wright had been at the centre of a paedophile ring that had preyed on prepubescent boys at the school for almost a quarter of a century – a ring that McFadyen had dedicated several years of his life to exposing.

McFadyen had not been abused by Wright, now 83, but by several other teachers, one of whom, John Addrison, is also in prison. His principal abuser, George Hill, who assaulted him repeatedly, committed suicide without being charged, while another teacher, Hugh Henry, threw himself in front of a train hours before he was due to be sentenced. …

The confusing tangle of scandals at the heart of the new inquiries has been on the radar for several decades, but, it is alleged, covered up to protect the reputations of those involved. The allegations against Smith were first investigated by Lancashire Police in the 1960s, until, according to retired detective Jack Tasker, those involved were told to back off by Special Branch. Allegations about child abuse at Elm Guest House, a gay brothel shut down after a raid in 1982, surfaced eight years later during the inquest of co-owner Carole Kasir. And in 1992, officers investigating paedophile Peter Righton, a consultant to the National Children’s Bureau convicted of importing images of child abuse, are said to have gathered box-loads of evidence pointing to the existence of a nationwide paedophile ring.

The catalyst for their re-investigation was, of course, the death of Jimmy Savile. As the scale of his offending emerged, those involved in other scandals began to raise their heads above the parapet. Most significantly, former child protection officer Peter McKelvie, who helped convict Righton and had spent 20 years wondering why important leads had not been followed up, took his concerns to MP Tom Watson, who has been questioning the government ever since.

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

VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF JULY 12, 2014

As anyone who paid attention in history class knows, when Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés landed in what’s now Mexico in 1519, he promptly scuttled his ships, thereby leaving his men no choice but to press on in conquest of the Aztec empire. For centuries, that rash act has loomed as an object lesson in total commitment.

This week Pope Francis scuttled some ships of his own, on two fronts which have been sources of scandal and heartache for the Catholic Church: sex and money.

On Monday, Francis held his first meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse. Two days later, the Vatican announced a sweeping financial overhaul, including new leadership and a sharply limited role for the troubled Vatican bank.

There’s such hunger in the world to believe Francis is the real deal that it’s tempting to confuse announcing a plan for reform with actually implementing it. To be clear, what happened this week was not reform itself — it was more like a prelude to action, an attempt to create the conditions for something good to happen.

In both cases, the key effect was to commit Pope Francis definitively to a particular course of action.

On the abuse front, the fact that Francis met with victims was no novelty, as Benedict XVI held such encounters six times. Likewise there was no breakthrough in his plea for forgiveness, since such apologies date all the way back to 1993 when John Paul II voiced sorrow for the sins of “some ministers of the altar.” They became sharper under Benedict XVI, who first used the magic words “I’m sorry” in Australia in 2008.

Nor was Francis’ pledge of zero tolerance a novelty. The classic papal statement comes from an April 2002 speech by John Paul II to American cardinals: “There is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young.”

Yet the July 7 meeting wasn’t entirely old hat, because Francis had something groundbreaking to say on accountability. Here’s the line: “All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.”

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

UNITEDKINGDOM
Scriptonite Daily

Scriptonite Daily / December 18, 2013

For decades, vulnerable children from care homes and other institutions were booked to order by rich and powerful men, for sex. This is the allegation put forward in ‘Nightmares at Elm Guest House’, in an interview with Chris Fay of the National Association for Young People in Care. As another significant member of the Conservative party is about to be outed this weekend, we take a closer look at these allegations and ask: how much longer can the UK establishment keep this story suppressed?

In 1974, a group of child sex abusers launched the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE). This group was legal at the time, and sought to promote the rights of ‘paedophiles’. The group espoused the view that children had the right to indulge in their sexual feelings with adults, and argued the age of consent should be lowered to four years old, or abolished altogether.

This was not some fringe group, hidden away. They had thousands of members, many from senior positions in the media, the security services, politics and other establishment positions.

The members were public and built affiliations with the Gay Liberation Front, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, mental health charity Mind, and even human rights organisation Liberty (previously named The National Council for Civil Liberties). The leaders of PIE shared platforms with Harriet Harman, Patricia Hewitt, and others.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
RT

A former official from the UK’s social services has said that an alleged pedophile network in Westminster and Whitehall was ignored because “there are too many of them over there.”

David Tombs, a former official who ran Hereford and Worcester social services for 20 years, warned the government about the possible pedophile network after the arrest of notorious pedophile Peter Righton in 1992.

Tombs claims he became aware of the pedophile behavior through a police investigation.

“I had no particular names, but that was the impression I was getting,” he told a BBC Radio current affairs program.

“It was coming across to me at the time that there were names linked into the establishment, if you like,” he said.

But when he approached representatives from the Department of Health, he was told that he was “probably wasting his time” as there were “too many of them over there” in Westminster and Whitehall.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Frances Gibb Legal Editor

July 12 2014

Baroness Butler-Sloss was facing the toughest battle of her long career last night after it emerged that she withheld allegations against an Anglican bishop from a report she wrote into paedophile priests in 2011.

The decision this week to appoint the former president of the Family Division of the High Court, 80, to head a new overarching inquiry into child sex abuse has been criticised because her brother was the
late Lord Havers, attorney general from 1979 to 1987, the periods of some of the present controversy over the failure to prosecute child abuse.

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

AUSTRALIA
WA Today

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

The Catholic Church Insurance company CCI is staying mum on whether or not it will try to recover almost $9 million that may have been wrongly paid out on behalf of the Marist Brothers.

The payments, made to Canberra victims of serial sex abusers “Kostka” John Chute and Gregory Sutton, might not have been made if CCI had been told the Marist Brothers had known for decades that the men were paedophiles and did nothing to remove them from contact with children.

In 2008 senior members of the order took advice from their lawyers on how to prevent CCI from learning Chute had been offending as early as 1960.

Details on how both the Marist Brothers and CCI responded to the abuse of dozens of children in the ACT over many decades by Sutton and Chute were revealed at the Canberra hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse last month.

Francis Sullivan, the Canberra-based CEO of the church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, sat through the hearings.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Shane Hickey and agencies
theguardian.com, Saturday 12 July 2014

The Home Office has again been forced to defend the appointment of Lady Butler-Sloss to run the inquiry into allegations of historical child abuse amid claims she refused to go public about a bishop implicated in a scandal.

The retired high court judge is reported to have told a victim of alleged abuse that she did not want to include some of his allegations in a review of how the Church of England dealt with two paedophile priests because she “cared about the Church” and “the press would love a bishop”.

The peer allegedly made the remarks to Phil Johnson, who was abused by priests when he was a choirboy, during a private meeting in the House of Lords in 2011, according to the Times.

The Home Office has again insisted it stands by the crossbench peer’s appointment “unreservedly”. Earlier this week it was forced to defend the appointment when critics pointed out that her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general from 1979 to 1987 when some of the controversy over the failure to prosecute child abuse cases could have arisen.

Butler-Sloss insisted in a statement that she had never put the reputation of an institution ahead of justice for victims.

“Throughout many years of public service I have always striven to be fair and compassionate, mindful of the very real suffering of those who have been victims of crime or other injustice. I have never put the reputation of any institution, including the Church of England, above the pursuit of justice for victims,” the statement said.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

Westminster abuse inquiry: Baroness Butler-Sloss accused of hiding claims of bishop’s paedophile allegations

LIZZIE DEARDEN Saturday 12 July 2014

A retired judge leading the Government’s investigation into child sex abuse kept allegations about a bishop out of a report because she “cared about the Church” it has been alleged.

Baroness Butler-Sloss reportedly told an alleged victim that she did not want the bishop implicated in a review of how the Church of England dealt with two paedophile priests because “the press would love a bishop”, the Times reported.

The 80-year-old made the comments in a meeting with Phil Johnson, who was abused by priests when he was a choirboy, during a meeting at the House of Lords in 2011, the paper said.

Lady Butler-Sloss insists she has “never” put the reputation of an institution ahead of justice.

In a statement, she said: “Throughout many years of public service I have always striven to be fair and compassionate, mindful of the very real suffering of those who have been victims of crime or other injustice.

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

AUSTRALIA
RT

An Australian judge has incurred the wrath of child protection and gay rights advocates after stating that incest and pedophilia may no longer be considered taboo – just as gay relationships are now more accepted than they were in the 1950s and 60s.

District Court Judge Garry Neilson was recorded as saying that sexual contact between adults and children or siblings may no longer be regarded by society as “unnatural” or “taboo.”

Just as same-sex relationships were once considered socially unacceptable, “a jury might find nothing untoward in the advance of a brother towards his sister once she had sexually matured, had sexual relationships with other men and was now ‘available,’ not having [a] sexual partner,” he said, as quoted by Australia’s Fairfax Media.

Neilson said that the primary reason for incest still being a crime is the high risk of genetic abnormalities in any children born as a result of the relationships.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Australian

JACQUELIN MAGNAY THE AUSTRALIAN JULY 12, 2014

FINDING an Establishment figure who is sufficiently distant from Westminster, but with the gravitas to oversee a far-reaching investigation into political misconduct and cover-up of child abuse, is proving a headache for the British government.

Also troubling is the idea of using as a potential template Australia’s handling of widespread child-abuse claims, with its royal commission and mandatory reporting being criticised by some here.

Just how Britain responds to persistent allegations of historical child abuse and institutional cover-ups at the highest levels, ­including parliament, has been at the forefront of 10 Downing Street conversations all week.

First came the outcry about child abuse following the jailing of Rolf Harris and outpourings of his assaults on others.

Then came the revelation that 114 files from the 1980s that named Establishment pedophiles — including eight believed to be high-profile political figures — had gone missing from the government’s Home Office building.

The inability of the government to explain the loss of the files amid fears of a whitewash has triggered a maelstrom of concern and plummeting public confidence in Westminster.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Nick Assinder Political Editor
July 11, 2014

When ministers announced that Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss was to head the over-arching investigation into child sex abuse in Britain the backlash was swift and loud.

Distinguished and unimpeachable though she is, her brother, former Tory attorney general Sir Michael Havers, had been criticised for not taking action against alleged establishment paedophiles in the 1980s when he was in post.

What surprised many of those MPs leading the demands for an inquiry was that it appeared the prime minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May had not spotted the potential conflict of interest.

Shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, told the BBC: “I don’t question this admirable, extraordinary woman’s integrity … but I’m surprised the home office didn’t look at this, because I think they have put her in a very difficult position.”

There was a very simple reason why the apparent problem was overlooked. It was because the creation of the Hillsborough-style inquiry and appointment of its head had been done in a huge rush in order to get the story off the front pages.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Week

Revelation prompts renewed calls for Baroness Butler-Sloss to step down

The retired judge heading the Westminster child abuse inquiry hid allegations about a bishop in a review of how the Church of England dealt with two paedophile priests because she “cared about the Church”, reports The Times this morning.

According to the report, Baroness Butler-Sloss told a victim of alleged abuse that she did not want his claims to be made public because “the press would love a bishop”.

Her comments were made three years ago during a meeting at the House of Lords with Phil Johnson, who suffered abuse by two priests when he was a choirboy in the Church of England Diocese of Chichester. Johnson, who kept a detailed record of the meeting, says he felt “pressured” into withholding allegations against the bishop.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Home Office

With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement about the sexual abuse of children, allegations that evidence of the sexual abuse of children was suppressed by people in positions of power, and the government’s intended response.

Mr Speaker, in my statement today I want to address two important public concerns. First, that in the 1980s the Home Office failed to act on allegations of child sex abuse. And second, that public bodies and other important institutions have failed to take seriously their duty of care towards children.

As I do so, I want to set three important principles. First, we will do everything we can to allow the full investigation of child abuse and the prosecution of its perpetrators, and we will do nothing to jeopardise those aims. Second, where possible the government will adopt a presumption of maximum transparency. And third, we will make sure that wherever individuals and institutions have failed to protect children from harm, we will expose these failures and learn the lessons.

Concern that the Home Office failed to act on allegations of child abuse in the 1980s relates mainly to information provided to the department by the late Geoffrey Dickens, a member of this House between 1979 and 1995.

As the House will be aware, in February 2013, in response to a Parliamentary question from the Hon Member for West Bromwich East, the Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, Mark Sedwill, commissioned an investigation by an independent expert into information the Home Office received in relation to child abuse allegations, including information provided by Mr Dickens. In order to be confident that the investigation would review all relevant information, the investigation reviewed all relevant papers available relating to child abuse between 1979 and 1999.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The Home Office has backed Baroness Butler-Sloss as the right person to lead an inquiry into allegations of historical child abuse, after claims about her over a previous review.

Phil Johnson, who was abused while a choirboy, claims she wanted to exclude some of his allegations in a bid to protect the Church of England.

He says she told him she “cared very much about the Church”.

Baroness Butler-Sloss said she had never put institutions before victims.

The Rt Rev Peter Ball, who was bishop of Gloucester and bishop of Lewes in East Sussex, was charged with two counts of indecent assault and one of misconduct in a public office, following her investigation into abuse in the diocese of Chichester during the 1970s and 1980s.

A court heard in April that the 82-year-old retired bishop was too unwell to answer the allegations.

Mr Johnson’s claims add to pressure on Baroness Butler-Sloss, who was appointed by Home Secretary Theresa May last week to head a review of how allegations of abuse linked to public institutions in the 1970s, 80s and 90s were handled.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The Home Office again has insisted it stands by the appointment of Baroness Butler-Sloss “unreservedly”, amid claims made by The Times (£) that she refused to go public about a bishop implicated in a scandal. A spokesman said:

[Lady Butler-Sloss’] work leading the Cleveland child abuse inquiry and as president of the High Court’s Family Division make her the perfect person to lead this important piece of work.

As the permanent secretary (Mark Sedwill) told the Home Affairs Select Committee this week, the integrity of Baroness Butler-Sloss is beyond reproach and we stand by her appointment unreservedly.

– HOME OFFICE

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Published 12 July 2014 | Ruth Gledhill

Baroness Butler-Sloss, the retired judge heading the UK government’s inquiry into child sex abuse, came under increasing pressure today after a report emerged that she kept allegations about a Church of England bishop out of an important review into paedophile priests in one diocese.

The Times on its front page reports today that Lady Butler-Sloss told a victim of alleged abuse that she did not want the claims about the bishop to be in the public domain because she “cared about the Church” and “the press would love a bishop.”

The report is by one of the country’s top crime journalists, Sean O’Neill, who has consistently led the field with accurate reports of his investigations into child abuse.

According to The Times, the revelations have prompted fresh calls for the peer to step down as chair of the new inquiry.

The newspaper reports that her comments were made in 2011, during a meeting at the House of Lords with Phil Johnson, a survivor of assaults by clergymen when he was a choirboy in the Chichester diocese. Mr Johnson, who is now a member of a national safeguarding panel for the Church of England, kept a detailed record of the meeting. The Times reports that he felt “pressured” into agreeing to withhold the allegations from the review.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By DANIEL MARTIN

The retired judge appointed this week to head an inquiry into VIP child abuse kept allegations about a bishop out of a report into a paedophile scandal, it was claimed last night.

Baroness Butler-Sloss is said to have told a victim of alleged abuse she did not want the claims to be in the public domain as she ‘cared about the Church’.

The former choir boy claims she said: ‘The Press would love a bishop.’

Labour MP Simon Danczuk, who has helped expose claims paedophiles were operating in Westminster in past decades, renewed his call for her to step down as chairman of the new inquiry.
Her appointment has already come under fire as she is the brother-in-law of Sir Michael Havers, a former Attorney General in the 1980s – when the abuse is alleged to have taken place.

Her comments were reportedly made in 2011 during a meeting at the House of Lords with Phil Johnson, who suffered assaults by a number of clergymen when he was a choirboy in the Church of England Diocese of Chichester.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Breitbart News

by NICK HALLETT 12 Jul 2014

The head of an inquiry into historic allegations of child abuse by politicians and other famous people allegedly kept accusations about a Church of England bishop out of a previous report, as she wanted to protect the church, the Daily Mail reports.

Baroness Butler-Sloss is reported to have told the victim of an alleged abuse that she did not want the claims to be made public as she “cared about the church”. She is also alleged to have said: “The press would love a bishop”.

She allegedly made the comments in a 2011 meeting at the House of Lords with Phil Johnson, a former choirboy who suffered sexual assaults from members of the clergy during his time in the Anglican diocese of Chichester.

Baroness Butler-Sloss last night responded to the allegations, saying: “I have always striven to be fair and compassionate, mindful of the very real suffering of those who have been victims of crime or other injustice.

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

OHIO
Toledo Blade

Commentary

TK Barger

Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was once known as Sister Mary Annunciata, but she reclaimed her family name after Vatican II. Born in Edgerton, Ohio, in 1908, she entered the Sisters of Mercy religious order at Our Lady of the Pines in Fremont when she was 19. She remained a nun for more than 52 years.

When she was 26, she graduated from St. Rita’s Medical Center in Lima as a trained nurse and began a hospital-oriented career. After serving as a nurse in hospitals in Ohio and Michigan, she became a nursing supervisor in Tiffin. Then she moved to Toledo in 1954 to be a supervisor at St. Charles Hospital, then after five years an administrator. In 1962, she was director of nursing service at Mercy Hospital in Toledo, and for the next decade she held that position at the hospital where she was trained in Lima and at Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in Coldwater, Ohio.

In 1971, the year she turned 63, her hospital work shifted from medical to pastoral care, and she was the main sacristan, in charge of the sacred items for the two chapels in Mercy Hospital on Jefferson Street.

Sister Margaret Ann’s life ended a day before she was to turn 72, which was also a day before Easter. It was a hospital death, but not one of care and comfort surrounded by doctors, tubes, machines, and family. Sometime between 6:45 and 8 a.m. on April 5, 1980, she was strangled and stabbed 31 times in the sacristy of St. Joseph’s Chapel, on Mercy’s first floor. According to prosecutors and a jury, there was one person present at her death, the hospital chaplain—but the chaplain was her murderer, the Rev. Gerald Robinson, 41 at the time.

Sister Margaret Ann was an “old school” nun who “demanded everything to be done exactly as she wanted it done, and on time,” a detective wrote after interviewing another sister. Did her old-school ways lead to her death?

The story of Sister Margaret Ann and Father Robinson, of a nun killed by a priest, will now fade, after 34 years. My predecessor as Blade religion editor, David Yonke, covered the story extensively, and other Blade staff contributed. Our courts reporter, Jennifer Feehan, kept tabs on Father Robinson’s recent legal efforts.

Father Robinson was suspected in 1980, but he was not arrested until 2004, after cold-case investigators reexamined the details; they even exhumed Sister Margaret Ann’s body from St. Bernardine Cemetery in Fremont after Father Robinson‘‍s indictment. Father Robinson was convicted in 2006, sentenced to 15 years to life, and died in a prison hospice at age 76 on July 4.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Channel 4

Baroness Butler-Sloss, who is to lead an inquiry into allegations of an establishment child-abuse cover-up, denies claims she refused to expose allegations about a bishop.

Lady Butler-Sloss has come under renewed pressure over her role heading an inquiry into allegations of an establishment cover-up over child abuse claims.

The Home Office has defended her appointment after claims she refused to go public about a bishop implicated in a child abuse scandal she was investigating.

She allegedly told a victim of claimed abuse that she did not want to include allegations regarding a bishop in a review of Church of England handling of two paedophile priests because she “cared about the church” and “the press would love a bishop”, said The Times.

Lady Butler-Sloss made the comments in a meeting with Phil Johnson, who was abused by priests when he was a choirboy, during a private meeting in the House of Lords in 2011, the paper said.

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

ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Tribune articles on Oct. 29, 2013, and June 20, 2014, contained an inaccuracy about checks written by a Greek Orthodox priest accused of improperly spending money from a private trust fund. The Rev. James Dokos, while serving at a Milwaukee parish, wrote checks from the trust fund account totaling $6,700 — not $6,750, as previously reported — to Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, the No. 2-ranking official at the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, according to documents obtained by the Tribune.

The Tribune regrets the errors.

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

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Maurice Chammah

While reporting recently on abuse allegations at a home for troubled teens, I realized that the article I was writing had been written before.

Sure, nobody had written about the Anchor Home for Boys, founded in Corpus Christi in the 1960s and reopened as Anchor Academy in Montana and then Missouri. Nobody had written about the boys who accuse the school of forcing them to spend hours exercising in freezing conditions with improper clothing, of barring them from speaking to anyone but a direct superior, of giving them nothing but peanut butter sandwiches to eat, of sleep deprivation and group beatings.

“Put your back against the wall and put your leg at a 90-degree angle and raise your arms,” one young man told me of a punishment he saw meted out. “If you drop your leg I’d punch you. If you drop your arms I’d punch you. If you say no I’d punch you. I’d say that’s torture.” (A short version of the article appeared at the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, and a longer version is at The Revealer. The reporting was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism).

But I wasn’t the first one to find these sorts of stories, not by a long shot. Over the past two decades, dozens of unlicensed residential facilities for teens struggling with drug problems and various behavioral issues have been accused of physical and sexual abuse. A handful of these programs are based in Baptist thinking about the necessity of physical discipline in correcting a sinful path (“Those who spare the rod hate their children, but those who love them are diligent to discipline them,” Proverbs 13:24). The Anchor Home for Boys was one of many homes founded by a magnetic Baptist preacher and radio personality named Lester Roloff.

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

VATICAN CITY
The Economist

A shake-up of Catholic finances

Jul 12th 2014 | VATICAN CITY

AS HE unveiled an extensive shake-up of the Vatican’s financial structures on July 9th, Cardinal George Pell said Pope Francis would soon name an auditor-general, free to “go everywhere and anywhere” in the walled city-state to root out pecuniary lapses. The appointment of the new official would help the Vatican work towards “transcendency”, the cardinal added, before correcting himself to say “transparency”.

Religion and finance have always sat together uncomfortably, nowhere more so than in the Catholic church. The Vatican City is a natural tax haven. Its Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR)—better known as the Vatican bank—has been wreathed in mystery and tainted by scandal since its involvement in the collapse in 1982 of Banco Ambrosiano (the bank’s chairman, Roberto Calvi, was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London).

But as a result of reforms initiated by Pope Benedict XVI and pursued vigorously by Francis, the outlines are emerging of a more transparent, rational system. Cardinal Pell, a no-nonsense Australian appointed in February to head a new secretariat for the economy, announced two main changes.

The first concerns the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA). Less well-known than the IOR, APSA generates most of the cash to pay for the Vatican’s administration. It has two sections. One oversees the property left to the Vatican after the occupation and eradication of the Papal State during Italy’s unification in the 19th century. The other section invests the papal “nest-egg”: the cash Italy’s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, gave the papacy in 1929 to compensate it for the loss of its territories. The first section is to be hived off into Cardinal Pell’s “finance ministry”; the second will become, in effect, the Vatican’s central bank.

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

VATICAN CITY
The Stanly News and Press

July 11, 2014

Foreign Policy

Friday, July 11, 2014 — The Vatican Bank’s history reads more like Dan Brown than the financial pages, but its worst — and weirdest — days may be behind it. After a year of reorganization and reform that saw a 97 percent drop in profits, the Holy See installed a new set of overseers that includes a man who made his reputation closing down North Korea’s illicit bank accounts.

But what is the Vatican Bank and why do the Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion adherents need their own financial institution? Officially dubbed the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) and founded in 1942, the bank’s history has been defined by scandal, secrecy and non-compliance with the West’s standard anti-fraud measures. In fact, calling the IOR a bank may be stretching the term. It doesn’t issue checkbooks or make loans, there are strict criteria and background checks for clients, and some of its clients-only ATMs have a Latin option.

In reality, the IOR acts more like a discrete “off-shore” institution for holding funds than it does a typical bank — in fact, in 2012 officials eschewed the “bank” title. Carlo Marroni of Il Sole 24 Ore, an Italian financial daily, has written that the bank mostly invests its nearly 8 billion euros in currency and bond markets — and lots and lots of gold. When the bank’s reported profit dropped by more than 80 million euros (about $109 million) from 2012 to 2013, 16.4 million of that reduction was “tied to writedowns and fluctuations in the value of the IOR’s gold reserves.”

Pope Francis has made reforming the bank one of his top priorities, and the bank is in now in full clean-up mode. When logging on to the IOR website, visitors are greeted with a message that reads like an admission of guilt and apology. “The IOR is engaged in a process of comprehensive reform, to foster the most rigorous professional and compliance standards,” the letter says. “We are conducting an extensive evaluation of all our clients’ accounts, with the aim of closing down those relationships that are not in line with the IOR’s mission.”

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

ARIZONA
KFYI

(KFYI News) He was a volunteer at Phoenix First Assembly of God and Highlands Church in the Valley. 28-year-old Christian Turcios pleaded guilty to six charges that include child molestation, aggravated assault and sexual exploitation of a minor.

The victims ranged in age from 6 to 14 years old. The abuse occurred during a 7 year span.

Turcios volunteered at summer church camps and was a custodian at Highland Church. He was arrested over two years ago after police found child porn at his residence. As part of the plea, the judge sentences Tucios to 30 years in prison and lifetime probation.

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

LOUISIANA
KATC

[Louisiana Supreme Court ruling]

by Kari Beal

A Louisiana lawsuit is trying to force a priest to testify what he was told in confession.

It dates back to a 2009 lawsuit with Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Baton Rouge. The parents who filed the lawsuit said Rev. M Jeffrey Bayhi ignored information that their daughter was sexually abused by Parishioner George Charlet Junior. This week, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that if the daughter testifies what she said in her confession, the priest must come forward and testify if it is true.

Now the Catholic Diocese is firing back, saying this completely goes against its religious vows.

“When a priest hears someone’s confession he cannot talk about that. It’s something so sacred that everyone priest knows when a priest is ordained what is told to him, he cannot tell anyone,” Rev. Msgr. Richard r. Greene a spokesman for the The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette and Priest of Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ in New Iberia.

UL student Kaitlin Davis with Our Lady of Wisdom Church said she agrees.

“It’s personal, it’s your salvation and Christ is giving it to you personally,” Davis said.

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

UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

Jason Berry

Innocent people persecuted by a legal system out of control? In The Witch-Hunt Narrative, Ross E. Cheit argues the media and courts have gone too far in dismissing evidence of abuse.

In 1993, a young man dying of AIDS gave a tearful interview on CNN after filing a lawsuit alleging that Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin had sexually abused him many years before. Bernardin defended himself eloquently at a press conference. Several months later, when reporters unearthed information about plaintiff Steven Cook that cast doubt on his veracity, he withdrew the suit, saying he could not trust his memory.

Newsrooms turned on a dime. Time’s cover pictured Freud as a disassembling picture puzzle. National coverage shifted from a focus on bishops concealing predators to “false memory,” hysteria fueled by the suggestibility of young victims, faulty investigators, quack therapists, and a court system hard-pressed to safeguard presumption of innocence.

In 1996, Philip Jenkins, then a history professor at Pennsylvania State University, argued in Pedophiles and Priests that the earlier coverage of clergy abuse was a “putative” crisis, one “constructed” by the media and church critics.

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

ARIZONA
Arizona Republic

Catherine Calderon, The Republic | azcentral.com July 11, 2014

A former church volunteer was sentenced on Friday to 30 years in prison with lifetime probation in connection with the molestation of children in his care as a church baby-sitter and camp counselor.

Christian Salvador Turcios, 28, pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court to multiple counts of child molestation, aggravated assault and attempted sexual exploitation of a minor.

Turcios worked at Phoenix First Assembly of God and Highlands Church in Scottsdale. Police said the molestations took place over seven years.

Prosecutor Rachel Mitchell was joined in court on Friday by the families of Turcios’ young victims who spoke of the emotional distress his actions caused them.

One victim’s mother narrated her son’s struggle at school and need to seek out therapy, which has proved ineffective. The family was unable to visit the church for a long time, she said.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Western Morning News

The Home Office has again been forced to defend the appointment of Westcountry peer Baroness Butler-Sloss to run the inquiry into allegations of an establishment cover-up of child abuse amid claims she refused to go public about a bishop implicated in a scandal.

Lady Butler-Sloss, who lives near Exeter,told a victim of alleged abuse she did not want to include the allegations in a review of how the Church of England dealt with two paedophile priests because she “cared about the Church” and “the press would love a bishop”, according to The Times.

The peer made the remarks in a meeting with Phil Johnson, who was abused by priests when he was a choirboy, during a private meeting in the House of Lords in 2011, the newspaper said.

It puts fresh pressure on the former High Court judge, who has faced calls to step down after reports that her brother Sir Michael Havers tried to prevent ex-MP Geoffrey Dickens airing claims about a diplomat in Parliament in the 1980s.

In a statement, Lady Butler-Sloss insisted that she has “never” put the reputation of an institution ahead of justice for victims.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Express

THE Home Office has again been forced to defend the appointment of Baroness Butler-Sloss to investigate a potential cover-up of child abuse amid claims she put the church reputation ahead of outing an implicated bishop.

By: Helen Barratt
Published: Sat, July 12, 2014

Lady Butler-Sloss told a victim of alleged abuse she did not want to include the allegations in a review of how the Church of England dealt with two paedophile priests because she “cared about the Church” and “the press would love a bishop”, it has been claimed.

The peer made the remarks in a meeting with Phil Johnson, who was abused by priests when he was a choirboy, during a private meeting in the House of Lords in 2011, The Times reported.

It puts fresh pressure on the former High Court judge, who has already faced calls to resign after claims her brother Sir Michael Havers tried to prevent ex-MP Geoffrey Dickens airing claims about a diplomat in Parliament in the 1980s.

Meanwhile a former social services boss said his warnings about people in power abusing children were ignored because there were “too many”.

In a statement, Lady Butler-Sloss insisted that she has “never” put the reputation of an institution ahead of justice for victims.

She said: “Throughout many years of public service I have always striven to be fair and compassionate, mindful of the very real suffering of those who have been victims of crime or other injustice. I have never put the reputation of any institution, including the Church of England above the pursuit of justice for victims.

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

NIGERIA
International Business Times

By Johnlee Varghese

July 11, 2014

A 53-year-old Pastor in Nsukka, Enugu state has been arrested by the Nigerian police for tricking several women into having sex with him, after claiming that he was being directed by the Holy Spirit.

The arrested Pastor, identified as Timoty Ngwu of Ministry of Holy Trinity, works among the Umudikwere community.

The man is said to have had sexual relations with several women in the name of God. However, his wife Veronica could no longer ignore his fraud, especially after he impregnated her teenage niece.

The Pastor locked up his wife, after she confronted him about his deeds. However, Veronica managed to escape with one of her daughters. She then approached the Criminal Investigations Department unit, which handles child sex abuse cases, and lodged a criminal case against her husband.

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

UNITED STATES
Public Catholic

July 11, 2014 By Rebecca Hamilton

If a priest reveals what he’s heard in confession, will he go to hell?

I’ve read that a priest who violates the seal of confession suffers automatic excommunication which only the Holy See can remove. So, I would guess that a priest who reveals what he hears in confession is, at the least, in danger of hell.

That’s a serious question, for the simple reason that, in this anti-Catholic climate, we’re going to see more and more attempts to coerce priests to break the seal of confession. That would be a great triumph for Satan, since it would destroy the confidence of Catholics and break what has always been a powerful bond between them and their Church.

Catholics know that whatever they do, they can be forgiven by God. All Christians know this. But Catholics have the benefit of being able to actually confess their sins out loud and hear the words of absolution, applied directly to them. It does not matter what the sin is, they can do this in the confessional.

They also receive incredibly healing graces in this sacrament.

There is something about the cleansing power of the Sacrament of Confession that can make people who would not otherwise be able to approach communion feel worthy to do so. Confession heals, in and of itself. The sinner does not have to wonder if they’ve had the right attitude or if they’ve really been saved. All they have to do is confess and mean it. They can then draw a line under those bad things and walk out of that confessional, safe and secure in God’s grace.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)

Why I agitated for confessions in the Australian Anglican Church to no longer be bound by confidentiality

11 July 2014 by Garth Blake QC

While a court in the US has ordered a priest to reveal what a young girl told him in the confessional amid fears she may have told him she was being abused by a parishioner – which his diocese has stated he will not do – an Australian Anglican explains why he lobbied for his Church to make exceptions

Anglican clergy in Australia are no longer compelled to keep confessions of serious crimes confidential, following a decision made by the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia last week.

Since 1989 clergy have been required by canon law to keep confessions confidential, except where the penitent consented to its disclosure. This decision amending canon law provides that a member of the clergy who hears the confession of a serious offence, including criminal offences involving child abuse or child exploitation material, does not have a duty to keep the confession confidential.

Confidentiality will only be required if the penitent has already reported the offence to the police and, where applicable, the Director of Professional Standards.

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

LOUISIANA
Supreme Court of Louisiana

PER CURIAM

This writ presents the issue of whether a party is precluded from offering any evidence of her confession and whether a priest has a duty to report allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated on a minor parishioner. For the following reasons, we grant the plaintiffs’ writ, reversing and vacating the court of appeal’s judgment and reinstating the trial court’s judgment.

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

LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

[Louisiana Supreme Court ruling]

By Julia O’Donoghue, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on July 11, 2014

As he considers a run for president in 2016, Gov. Bobby Jindal has spent quite a bit of time articulating his concerns about religious liberty in the United States over the last six months.

“One of the most important struggles of our time is to stand up for our First Amendment religious liberty rights,” he said at the Iowa Republican State Convention in June.

The governor has accused President Barack Obama and other Democrats of waging a battle on American religious freedom several times during appearances around the country. He made the issue a central theme of his commencement speech at Liberty University in Virginia this May. It was also the thrust of his talk at the Ronald Reagan library in California last winter.

But Jindal, a practicing Catholic, is declining to weigh in on a high-profile legal case involving religious freedom that is happening in his own hometown and involves his own church diocese.

A Louisiana Supreme Court ruling could potentially force a priest from the Baton Rouge area to testify about what he was told during private confessions. The court’s ruling has revived a lawsuit that was filed by parents of a teen who says she told a priest about being fondled by a male parishioner.

The woman, now an adult, said she told the priest on three separate occasions in the confessional booth about the molestation. The Catholic Church tried, unsuccessfully, to block the woman from testifying about her confidential confessions. But the state Supreme Court said if she waived her right to keep her confessions private, the priest “cannot then raise it to protect himself.”

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

MINNESOTA
Twin Cities Daily Planet

By Emily A. King, Minnesota Women’s Press
July 11, 2014

Madeleine Baran isn’t used to being in the spotlight. The Minnesota Public Radio reporter is more comfortable asking the questions and listening to others’ stories.

But when she took the lead on an investigative story about sexual abuse by local Catholic priests, she started getting noticed. Her use of documents and interviews shed light on coverups and inaction by top-level church officials and prompted legal authorities to dig deeper into allegations.
And that, Baran said, is a victory for her profession.

“It shows the value of journalism, because here’s a story where the public did not know about it, and it was important and it required journalism – it required doing interviews, knowing how to fact-check things” and analyzing documents, she explained. “People want investigative reporting. It resonates with people. It’s what people think that journalists should be doing.”

Baran, who mostly grew up in Milwaukee, has a master’s degree in journalism from New York University. She was drawn to journalism because of “curiosity about other people and the way things work,” she said. “I know it’s kind of cliché, but it’s true that as a reporter you have this really amazing excuse for coming and asking people questions about their lives.”

She landed at MPR News in 2009 – doing online and radio pieces – but she has been a part of several other hard-hitting investigative stories, including pieces about the St. Paul police crime lab, the FBI files on the late Sen. Paul Wellstone and Minnesota’s mental health system.

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

UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

While Pope Francis the Opus Dei Beast fattest clown-in-white is doing his one-man show in the
Vatican Circus for Idiot Catholics, read more here VATICAN CIRCUS for IDIOT CATHOLICS. Opus Dei Beast PR Stunts: Vatican Bank’s profit plummet 97%. Pope Francis life in danger for tackling abuse & mafia LOL next door, at the Jesuit Gregorian University want a piece of the action. Today, Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner,a psychology professor at Rome’s Gregorian University and head of its Centre for the Protection of Minors said on Vatican Radio, that the Church is “on track” with its safeguarding policies and want to share its expertise with secular organizations working in the same field. WTF?

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

The former judge appointed to investigate allegations of an establishment cover-up of child sex abuse kept allegations about a bishop out of the public domain because the ‘press would love a bishop’

By Alice Philipson 12 Jul 2014

The retired judge appointed to lead the Government’s major review of child sex abuse allegations kept allegations about a bishop out of a report on a paedophile scandal because she “cared about the Church”, it has emerged.

Baroness Butler-Sloss told a victim of alleged abuse that she did not want to include the claims because “the press would love a bishop”.

It comes days after Lady Butler-Sloss was forced to apologise for “inaccuracies” in a previous inquiry into two paedophile priests.

Bishop Ball, 82, the former Bishop of Lewes and Bishop of Gloucester, was charged this year with indecent assault offences and misconduct in a public office.

During a meeting at the House of Lords in 2011, Lady Butler-Sloss told Phil Johnson that she would “prefer not to refer to him” because he was “very old now” and she wanted the focus of any press coverage to be two priests who were prolific abusers – one of whom was dead and the other in prison.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill Crime Editor

July 12 2014

The retired judge leading the Westminster child abuse inquiry kept allegations about a bishop out of a review of how the Church of England dealt with two paedophile priests because she “cared about the Church”, The Times can disclose.

Baroness Butler-Sloss told a victim of alleged abuse that she did not want the claims to be in the public domain because “the press would love a bishop”.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Frances Gibb Legal Editor

July 12 2014

Baroness Butler-Sloss was facing the toughest battle of her long career last night after it emerged that she withheld allegations against an Anglican bishop from a report she wrote into paedophile priests in 2011.

The decision this week to appoint the former president of the Family Division of the High Court, 80, to head a new overarching inquiry into child sex abuse has been criticised because her brother was the late Lord Havers, attorney general from 1979 to 1987, the period of some of the present controversy over the failure to prosecute child abuse.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Baroness Butler-Sloss cannot be trusted with the inquiry into institutional abuse

July 12 2014

The government’s decision this week to order a wide-ranging inquiry into allegations of child abuse in major public institutions was a mistake. The inquiry’s scope is too broad to offer any realistic hope of a timely or worthwhile outcome. It is now clear that the appointment of Baroness Butler-Sloss to lead the inquiry only compounds the original mistake.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Community Care

The public inquiry has been announced, but what does it all really mean? We take you through step by step

by Rachel Schraer on July 9, 2014

* Home secretary Theresa May announced the inquiry into historic allegations of child sex abuse in parliament this week.
* Last February, Home Office permanent secretary Mark Sedwill commissioned an investigation into documents relating to child abuse. The investigation covered information passed to the Home Office between 1979-1999.
* In carrying out this investigation, Sedwill found that 114 potentially relevant files were missing, presumed lost or destroyed.
* This included files that were part of a dossier MP Geoffrey Dickens brought to the Home Office alleging child sex abuse perpetrated from within Westminster.
* NSPCC head Peter Wanless has been tasked by Theresa May to review the Sedwill investigation, and look into how various public bodies handled abuse allegations.
* In addition to Wanless’s review, there will be a broad panel inquiry into public bodies with a duty of care to children, which is not expected to report until after the election in 2015.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Western Daily Press

Hundreds of child abuse victims and their loved ones have contacted MP Tessa Munt asking for her help since she admitted she had been abused as a child.

Survivors, families, friends, police solicitors and social workers have all been in touch, urging her to ensure the issue is not swept under the carpet.

The Wells MP says being inundated with the stories of victims has made her more determined than ever to try and expose any organised cover up and fight for justice.

Mrs Munt was one of seven MPs who set the ball rolling on a campaign which eventually led to Home Secretary Theresa May announcing an inquiry into historical paedophile allegations against the establishment.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican

By Suzanne McLaughlin | smclaughlin@repub.com
on July 11, 2014

LUDLOW – A new bill has been signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick that extends the statute of limitations for sex abuse victims to file suit against their abusers.

The new law allows any childhood sex abuse victim up to the age of 53 to file civil charges against their alleged abuser. Prior to the passage of the new law sex abuse victims only had until age 21 to file civil suits against their abusers.

The law was signed by Patrick after it was unanimously approved in the House and Senate.

Kathy Picard, 51, of Ludlow, who says she is the victim of childhood sexual abuse, says she worked for 12 years for passage of the bill. She said she now has filed suit against a male family member who abused her between the ages of 7 and 17.

Victims of childhood sexual abuse should have the right to seek justice, Picard said. She said there is no statute of limitation for charging that someone committed murder.

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

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Boz Tchividjian | Jul 11, 2014

A few months ago, I was contacted by an individual from Florida who simply wrote to encourage me. As we exchanged emails, I learned that this man is a child sexual abuse survivor who credits an amazing (and generous) counselor for saving his life. He was so moved by this experience that he decided to commit his life to helping other survivors connect with qualified counselors who can guide them through the healing process. In 2011, he took the bold step towards this commitment and started an amazing organization called Together-We-Heal.

Below is my interview with David Pittman, a man whom I admire greatly for rolling up his sleeves and getting into the trenches to love and serve survivors. I’m also blessed to call him my friend:

Boz: Thanks for taking the time to be interviewed. What is your connection to child sexual abuse?

David: My connection to this subject is two-fold. First, I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. From the time I was 12 until around 15 years old, I was molested by my youth minister at Rehoboth Baptist Church in Tucker, Georgia. My other connection is through an organization I have started called, Together-We-Heal. The purpose of this organization is to help sexual abuse survivors get connected with qualified counselors . We help raise awareness on all matters concerning child sexual abuse through public speaking, presentations and workshops. We also help to facilitate the change of laws that will better protect children from and that require more severe penalties for the offenders (i.e. statute of limitation law reform).

Boz: What ever happened to the man who abused you?

David: Years after the abuse, I informed the church about what happened and who abused me. The pastor reluctantly removed him from being a paid staff member, but allowed him to volunteer as a music leader. To my knowledge, he is still there and continues to have access to little boys. What I don’t understand is why anyone would allow their children to be around him when they know that he’s an admitted child molester.

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

UNITED STATES
SFGate

Pope Francis has washed the feet of Rome’s homeless and spoken tolerantly about gays, creating a humble, fresh image for the leader of a tradition-bound institution. But he’s moved cautiously in dealing with a decade-old sex-abuse scandal, one of the Vatican’s most pressing problems.

The pope has defrocked several church insiders and formed a commission to look into the issue and suggest reforms. But until last week he hadn’t met with victims, as the previous leader, Pope Benedict XVI, had, or spoken in the heartfelt terms he often uses.

This careful distance may be fading. Last week, Francis met with six survivors – two each from Germany, Ireland and Britain – in one-on-one sessions. He followed that with remarks that signaled a sharper direction in both his emotional thinking and church directives.

“I beg for your forgiveness,” he said in remarks at a Mass he shared with the six. He went a step further: The church was to blame “for the sin of omission on the part of church leaders who didn’t respond adequately to reports of abuse.”

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

CALIFORNIA
Bus Byway

Lawsuit Against Rock Church Ministries Drug and Alcohol Recovery Program Expands with Seven Additional Plaintiffs

Thirteen Plaintiffs Are Now Part of the Updated Court Complaint Filed by the Zalkin Law Firm on June 12

(PRWEB) July 11, 2014

In May, The Zalkin Law Firm filed a civil lawsuit in the San Diego Superior Court, Central Division, (Case No: 37-2014-00014773-CU-PO-CTL) on behalf of five female participants and one employee of the Rock Church Recovery Ministry drug and alcohol recovery program. On June 12, seven additional participants in the Rock Recovery Program joined that lawsuit and allege additional claims, including a claim of sexual abuse of one plaintiff who was a minor at the time.

In the complaint filed last month, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendants, David Powers, Tina Powers, Fred Murray, ABC Sober Living, L.L.C., Recovery Housing, L.L.C., and the San Diego Rock Church, Inc. offered drug and alcohol rehabilitation services through the Rock Recovery Ministry, a Christian twelve-step based ministry. These plaintiffs allege that they were subjected to unlawful sexual battery, harassment, fraud, and negligent care as detailed in the complaint.

The plaintiffs allege in the complaint that the defendants, David Powers, Tina Powers, Fred Murray, ABC Sober Living, L.L.C. Recovery Housing, L.L.C.; Rock Church Ministries, Inc. and the San Diego Rock Church, Inc. operated the “Rock Recovery Ministry,” a Christian twelve-step ministry that offers faith-based live-in and outreach drug and alcohol recovery programs through Defendants ABC and Recovery Housing. As participants of that program, the plaintiffs were alledgedly subjected to unlawful sexual battery, harassment, fraud and negligent care as detailed in the complaint.

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

VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

2014-07-09

The Vatican’s supreme authority on economic affairs, the Council for the Economy, cleared up any doubts about the soundness of the Pension Fund for workers of the Holy See and the Vatican City State.

“The Council recognized and acknowledged that the pensions, which are being paid today to all the employees of the Holy See, as well as the Governatorato, as well as all the pensioners, and also for the next generation are safe.”

Italian press had speculated about the existence of a “black hole” in the pension fund, worth an estimated 800 million euros. The Vatican referenced the uncertainty surrounding pension funds in many Western countries, due to the economic crisis. But, it dispelled any cause for concern.

However, to avoid headaches and to guarantee the system’s solvency in the future, the Council created a technical committee to analyze the state of the Pension Fund, and adapt it to the new economic-administrative structure of the Holy See.

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

UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

July 11, 2014

Paris Arrow

Catholics should imitate a man in Scotland who is demanding the statue of St. Michael the Archangel which includes fonts for holy water to be removed from Dumbarton church because it was created by sculptor Eric Gill who was a sexual deviant known to have had intimate relations with two of his daughters and his sisters. Sculptor Eric Gill works are also on display at high-profile locations in Westminster Cathedral in London, the BBC’s Broadcasting House and the European HQ of the United Nations in Geneva.

Dumbarton man Stuart Coleman told the Lennox Herald: “I find it detestable that art by such a man can be happily displayed publicly… I just find it at least inappropriate and at most absolutelyshocking and appalling that children will be regularly touching this statue to take from it holy water. It makes the skin crawl to think it was hand-crafted by a publicly known paedophile and put on display in such a prominent way.”

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

OHIO
Fox News

Published July 11, 2014
Associated Press

TOLEDO, Ohio – A few nuns joined about 200 mourners for the funeral of a Roman Catholic priest convicted of killing an Ohio nun in 1980.

A full funeral Mass was held Friday in Toledo for the Rev. Gerald Robinson. He died July 4 in a prison hospice at age 76.

The Blade newspaper reports that among the people attending the service were priests, deacons and nuns from across the Toledo diocese.

Organizations that help victims of clergy abuse are upset that the diocese observed the usual protocol for priest’s funeral.

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

OHIO
Toledo Free Press

In 2006, when Toledo Catholic Diocesan priest Father Gerald Robinson was convicted of the brutal murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, many wanted to believe he was just a “bad apple” and that the Toledo Catholic Diocese was not a “bad pie.” However, the controversy surrounding diocesan administrator Father Charles Ritter’s decision to bury Robinson as a Catholic priest, arguably weakens that position.

Since Robinson’s passing, we’ve heard from many upset groups.

First, there are Catholics, some offended that a convicted murderer is being buried as a “priest in good standing.” Then, there are victims of violent crimes and their loved ones, distraught that Catholic officials show such disregard for those whose loved ones have been murdered. Next, there are child sex abuse victims, devastated that Robinson is being afforded such honors, because he’s also an accused child molester. Finally, there are average citizens. Some have called this callous move by Robinson’s church supervisors another example of their flagrant disregard for anyone outside of their exclusive membership.

For each person who has reached out to us, we share all of their pain and outrage. What good could come from the Toledo Catholic Diocese honoring a convicted murderer? It is apparent that the feelings of those slighted don’t matter much to key diocesan decision-makers. It seems the feelings of Robinson’s church colleagues are weighted higher, and those colleagues apparently feel it’s appropriate to bury a convicted murderer in full priestly robes with full priestly honors. They seem blind to the fact that this rubs even more salt into the already-deep and still-fresh wounds of so many others who aren’t part of the privileged clerical caste.

The single church official who is perhaps most responsible for this callousness is Father Ritter, who has been vocal that they’ll follow the usual protocol for a diocesan priest’s funeral, as if somehow “business as usual” is OK when dealing with a murderer. Why is Pahl’s life comparatively being so devalued? Is it because she’s an elderly woman and nun? Since priests convicted of murder are exceedingly rare and Robinson is believed to be the first to be convicted of murdering a nun, what protocol covers this unique contingency?

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

OHIO
Toledo Blade

[homily by Rev. Thomas J. Extejt]

[closing remarks from Rev. Charles Ritter].

At the same church where he celebrated his first Mass as a newly ordained Catholic priest, family members, supporters, and fellow priests gathered today for the funeral of the man believed to be the first Catholic priest convicted of killing a nun.

Gerald Robinson was found guilty by a jury in Lucas County Common Pleas Court in 2006 of murder for the April 5, 1980, slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. The 71-year-old Sister of Mercy nun was strangled, then stabbed 31 times in the sacristy of the chapel at the former Mercy Hospital.

More than 200 people filled the pews of St. Hyacinth Church for the funeral Mass for the priest.

“Father Robinson for many years carried a heavy burden. Whether or not it was a burden of guilt or a burden of a miscarriage of justice, I do not know,” said the Rev. Charles Ritter, administrator of the Diocese of Toledo. “We do not know. Either way, that burden is lifted for him now.”

Father Ritter officiated at Robinson’s funeral Mass, where the Rev. Thomas J. Extejt, pastor of St. Anthony Church in Columbus Grove, delivered the homily, also speaking of Robinson‘‍s conviction and imprisonment.

“We‘‍re not here to accuse or excuse,” Father Extejt said, but just to offer prayers to Robinson’‍s family and the Sisters of Mercy.

Priests and deacons from across the diocese were seated at the front of church. Sisters — some in traditional habits — also attended the funeral.

Robinson, 76, remained a priest after his conviction but was barred from performing public ministry. He died July 4 at Franklin Medical Center in Columbus while serving a 15-year to life sentence for the crime.

Born in Toledo in 1938 and ordained in 1964, Robinson was to be buried at Calvary Cemetery. His death came a day after a federal court judge denied his motion to be released from the prison hospital to come home to spend his final days with his brother and sister-in-law in Toledo.

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

OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, July 11, 2014

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

Today, Toledo’s top Catholic official needlessly and callously raised doubts about whether a police, prosecutors, jurors and a judge wrongfully convicted a priest of murdering a nun.

Whether Fr. Robinson carried “a burden of guilt or a burden of a miscarriage of justice, I do not know,” said Fr. Charles Ritter.

Fr. Ritter could have said nothing about the unanimous jury verdict. Out of respect for crime victims, and for the family of Sr. Margaret Ann Pahl, he could have avoided speculating about Fr. Robinson’s guilt or innocence. But he chose to make hurtful remarks rather than compassionate remarks.

No justice system is flawless. But very few believe that Fr. Robinson was innocent. Remember, from the outset, Fr. Robinson lied: At first claimed that someone else confessed to the murder. Later, he admitted that that was not true. (Did a single Toledo cleric discipline or denounce Fr. Robinson for lying to police? Nope.)

Fr. Robinson was the leading murder suspect from day one. He very likely would have been convicted and imprisoned decades ago – and considerable fear would have been lifted from the shoulders of many – if a top Toledo Catholic official, Msgr. Jerome Schmit, hadn’t deliberately interfered with a police investigation. (Did a single Toledo cleric discipline or denounce Msgr. Schmit for obstructing justice? Nope.)

Church officials say Fr. Robinson’s appeals had not been exhausted. They don’t mention, however, that most of those appeals were based on technicalities, like the fact that years passed between the crime and the conviction. Again, however, that was the direct fault of Toledo Catholic officials who acted improperly.

For a week now, Toledo Catholic officials hurt and insulted crime victims and Sr. Pahl’s family. Now, one of them added police, prosecutors, jurors and a judge to the list of those they have been smeared, all because these clerics selfishly wanted to bury one of their own with full honors.

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

GERMANY
Bangor Daily News

By Reuters,
Posted July 11, 2014

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has appointed the archbishop of Berlin, seen by German media as part of a “new generation” of less dogmatic clergy, to take over the Cologne archdiocese, the largest and richest in Germany, it said on Friday.

The move makes Rainer Maria Woelki, who turns 58 next month, one of the most influential Roman Catholic cardinals and is an indication of the type of person Pope Francis wants to see in prominent Church roles.

Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper called him “the prototype of a new generation of bishops … not grumpy and dogmatic … these men speak of mercy and mean it. They’re open to people, even their critics, to a point and have a heart for the disadvantaged. Still, they’re theologically conservative.” …

They also noted that he did his doctorate in theology at a pontifical university in Rome run by the conservative Catholic movement Opus Dei.

But Woekli surprised Berliners by saying he respected all people and would gladly meet with gay activists.

A year later, in 2012, he said: “If two homosexuals take responsibility for each other, if they are loyal to each other over the long term, then one should see this in the same way as heterosexual relations.”

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

CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, July 11, 2014

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 California priest, found guilty of child sexual abuse by a jury, is being promoted. We are deeply concerned about this move and urge Catholic officials to reconsider.

[Visalia Times]

Fr. Eric Swearingen is the new pastor of a Catholic church in Visalia. He will oversee four parishes and a school. This is a dreadfully irresponsible decision.

No one knows more about the child sex abuse charges against Fr. Swearingen than the 12 impartial jurors who listened to days of evidence and testimony. By a 9-3 margin, they voted that it was “more than likely” that he molested a boy. So parents can choose to believe a charming accused child molester or his boss. Or they can choose to believe unbiased citizens who looked closely at all the facts.

You can choose to be prudent and keep your kids away from Fr. Swearingen. Or you can choose to be reckless.

Because Fr. Swearingen is charismatic and eloquent, we worry that parents will not be vigilant about protecting their children around him. We beg parents to exercise caution.

We urge Fresno Catholic officials to reverse this dangerous decision and tell parishioners about the allegations against Swearingen and the jury’s decision. We also urge parishioners to be compassionate and support victims instead of predators.

We hope anyone who was hurt by Fr. Swearingen or any other Catholic official will find the courage to come forward, call police and start healing.

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

PARAGUAY
The Tablet (UK)

11 July 2014 by Isabel de Bertodano

A diocese in Paraguay is to receive an apostolic visitation as part of an investigation into the activities of a priest accused of sex abuse. Fr Carlos Urrutigoity is accused of abusing boys when he worked as a priest in Scranton, Pennsylvania, over a decade ago. Fr Urrutigoity is Argentinian, and is now vicar-general at the Diocese of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay.

Earlier this year a statement from the Diocese of Scranton said that Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano had been warned that the priest posed “a serious threat to young people” and cautioned him “to not allow Fr Urrutigoity to incarnate into his diocese”.

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

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Jul. 11, 2014 Faith and Justice

The work of reforming the Roman Curia is not easy, but it is going well, according to Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, chair of the Council of Cardinals appointed by Pope Francis to advise him on reform of the Roman Curia. Rodriguez hopes that the council will have a new constitution for the Curia by December to replace Pastor Bonus, the 1988 apostolic constitution of Pope John Paul II.

I interviewed Cardinal Rodriguez and Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India, another member of the council, when they visited Washington, D.C., at the beginning of June.

The work of the council began with each of the eight members collecting suggestions from his part of the world. For example, most of the bishops’ conferences in Asia asked Cardinal Gracias why liturgical translations could not be done at the conference level, especially for languages in which Rome has no expertise.

Cardinal Gracias recognized the irony of this suggestion coming to him — he is a member of Vox Clara, the group appointed by the Vatican to oversee the recent English translation of the liturgy.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

An MP has accused Nottinghamshire police and the county council of losing and destroying files relating to child sex abuse allegations.

John Mann made the allegations in the House of Commons calling for the cases to be included in the independent inquiry led by Baroness Butler-Sloss.

The county council said all historical abuse claims are taken seriously.

The police said an investigation into three victims was ongoing and they will review a further two cases.

‘They deserve justice’

In a question for the Home Secretary Theresa May, Mr Mann accused the county council of destroying files while he claimed the police had lost details of the allegations.

Speaking outside the Houses of Parliament, he said they were “horrendous cases” of child abuse dating back up to 20 years but not one of them had resulted in a prosecution.

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

CALIFORNIA
Visalia Times-Delta

Kyle Harvey, kharvey@visaliatimesdelta.com July 10, 2014

The Catholic Church of Visalia on Sunday will welcome the Rev. Eric Swearingen as its new pastor, a man who has strong support from many parishioners and has what some say is a troubled past.

As pastor, Swearingen will assume the leadership role overseeing Visalia’s four Catholic parishes, George McCann School and the Bethlehem Center. For Swearingen, the transfer from Fresno to Visalia is a homecoming. He grew up in Visalia, attending George McCann and graduating from Redwood High School in 1979.

In a brief telephone interview with the Times-Delta Thursday, Swearingen said he has fond memories of stopping for a soda at Glick’s Meat Market while biking home from George McCann.

“I left here in 1979,” he said. “A lot’s changed since then.” …

Lawsuit

It was while Swearingen was conducting ministry in Fresno in 2006 that he was accused of molesting a teenage altar boy many years earlier.

No criminal charges were ever filed by either the Fresno or Kern County district attorneys but the alleged victim — who came forward nearly two decades after the alleged abuse occurred — brought a civil suit in Fresno against the pastor and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno.

Juan Rocha said that Swearingen allowed him to stay temporarily in two rectories, one in Fresno and one in Bakersfield. Swearingen reportedly gave him refuge from a troubled home life that included an alcoholic father — a story Swearingen verified, according to media reports at the time.

But the two testimonies diverged after that, with Rocha saying he was abused and Swearingen denying it.

The defense

The diocese, presided over at the time by the late Bishop John T. Steinbock, adamantly defended Swearingen. Defense attorneys sought to discredit Rocha’s testimony by showing him to be dishonest, but the judge threw out the evidence.

Rocha, who Fresno media reported at the time was an Army sergeant first class, received an administrative discharge from the Marines after a military psychologist ruled he possessed an anti-social disorder that made him a risk to himself and others. …

Local reaction

Parishioners attending mass at St. Mary’s on Wednesday and Thursday expressed confidence in church leadership, who they said they trust to make the right decisions about their pastor. Some had knowledge of the 2006 incident and some did not.

Marco Rinaldi, of Cutler, was one of Swearingen’s supporters.

“I’m 100 percent confident,” he said. “Not only do I trust church leadership, but I feel the proper process was done and that should be behind him. We’re very glad to have him here.”

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

OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, July 11, 2014

Statement by Claudia Vercellotti 419 345 9291, SNAPtoledo@aol.com

We want to express our sympathy first for those hurt by Fr. Gerald Robinson, especially Sr. Pahl’s family. They deserve respect. They should not have had to experience the pain they felt this past week.

We also want to express our sorrow and sympathy for Fr. Robinson’s family. They should have been able to bury their relative without controversy, had not Toledo Catholic officials stubbornly and selfishly insisted that “full priestly honors” be bestowed on him.

And we want to express our sympathy for Toledo Catholics who must endure officials who are so stunningly insensitive in their diocese.

We’re here today for three reasons.

First, we want to make a desperate, last-minute plea to Catholic officials: Change these burial plans. Put the well-being of crime victims ahead of your own preferences. Stop acting selfishly and honoring a criminal. Start acting compassionately and respecting his victims.

We know it’s late. But we feel duty bound to try one last time – as we’ve tried repeatedly for a week – to help Toledo Catholic officials see just how hurtful they’re being.

Second, no matter how Fr. Robinson’s funeral is conducted, there are two more honors for another wrongdoer priest. These honors are permanent. But they shouldn’t be. They should be rescinded.

A youth athletic complex and a downtown street are named after Msgr. Jerome Schmit. In 1980, Fr. Robinson was the prime suspect in Sr. Pahl’s murder. He was being questioned by police. But that questioning came to a sudden end when Msgr. Jerome Schmit barged into the police station and took Fr. Robinson away.

This is not speculation or opinion. It’s fact. It’s the sworn testimony of two police officers who were there when it happened.

Let me repeat that. Let that sink in for a minute: A top Toledo Catholic official interfered in a murder investigation by police. And because of that, a proven murderer and an accused child molester walked free for decades.

Who knows how many crimes Fr. Robinson may have committed because Msgr. Schmit blocked the police probe. This much we do know: many Toledo citizens and Catholics, including Sr. Pahl’s family, worried for years about a murderer on the loose. And those fears could and would have ended much sooner, if not for the selfish and irresponsible actions of Msgr. Schmit.

Now, Catholic officials are comfortable honoring Msgr. Schmit. And city officials are too. That’s dead wrong. That’s callous and hurtful. That breeds cynicism. It’s is precisely what leads many crime victims to shrug their shoulders and stay silent about criminals, because they’re convinced that the powerful and popular will never be brought to justice.

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

OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Group makes “last ditch” effort
They oppose “honors” at priest’s funeral
And they want two other honors for another cleric rescinded
Catholic official is name is on street & youth athletic complex
But he interrupted a police murder investigation, two cops say

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims will

— make a final plea to Toledo Catholic officials to change burial plans for a murderer/priest,
— beg them to «aggressively seek out» anyone he may have molested and
— help them try to get other honors for another wrongdoer priest rescinded.

WHEN
Friday, July 11 at 9:15 a.m.

WHERE
Outside the Toledo Catholic diocese HQ, 1933 Spielbusch Ave. in Toledo

WHO
Two-three members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including one who is a long-time leader in the organization

WHY
For days now, Catholic officials have insisted that they will give a funeral with “fully priestly honors” to Fr. Gerard Robinson, a convicted murderer and accused child molester.

And regardless of how the funeral is done, SNAP is urging local priests help get an athletic complex and street re-name. Both honor a once-powerful but now deceased cleric, Monsignor Jerome Schmit.

Two police officers have testified under oath that Schmit interrupted a 1980 police interrogation of Fr. Robinson for murder case, enabling Robinson to walk free, and perhaps hurt others, for decades.

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

SCOTLAND
Daily Record

A call has been made for a valuable sculpture in a Dumbarton church to be removed because it was made by a paedophile.

The demand is for the removal from St Patrick’s Catholic Church of a statue of St Michael the Archangel, which includes fonts for holy water.

It was created by sculptor Eric Gill, whose works are also on display at such high-profile locations as Westminster Cathedral in London, the BBC’s Broadcasting House
and the European HQ of the United Nations in Geneva.

However, he was also a sexual deviant who was known to have had intimate relations with two of his daughters and his sisters.

Dumbarton man Stuart Coleman told the Lennox Herald: “I find it detestable that art by such a man can be happily displayed publicly. I can’t imagine a piece of artwork by Rolf Harris would be so keenly exhibited within a church.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

10 July 2014

The purpose of official inquiries into cover-ups is to uncover them. The clear risk that the Government is running with the inquiry to be headed by Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss arises from the fact that the subject matter is an alleged cover-up of child sex abuse at the heart of the British Establishment. She herself, a former Tory parliamentary candidate, retired senior judge and daughter of a judge, is virtually the Establishment personified. Her impeccable rectitude and vast experience in these matters made her an ideal choice to head the inquiry – except for one thing, which has put her in an almost impossible position. It was her brother, Sir Michael Havers QC who later became Lord Chancellor, who was Attorney General at the time of events which have given rise to a strong suspicion that a paedophilia cover-up happened at the heart of Margaret Thatcher’s Government.

A dossier of allegations of systematic child abuse against prominent figures in Whitehall and Westminster was apparently “lost”. The allegations, collected by the late Geoffrey Dickens MP, were submitted to then Home Secretary Lord (Leon) Brittan, who promised they would be investigated. Nothing further appears to have happened, and a Home Office inquiry, separate from that to be led by Lady Butler-Sloss, is investigating why not.

At about that period, Dickens accused Havers of perpetrating “the cover-up of the century” by refusing to prosecute the late Sir Peter Hayman, a senior Foreign Office and MI6 official who was one of a group of men found to be in possession of images of sadistic child abuse. Havers gave as one of his reasons that Hayman was “a gentleman with a very distinguished career” with many honours, which almost sounds like an admission that the Establishment was protecting its own. So Lady Butler-Sloss may have to sit in judgement on her late brother’s conduct. Lord Tebbit, a member of the Thatcher Cabinet, said this week that he thought there may well have been an Establishment cover-up. It is not impossible Havers had been part of it.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
3 News (New Zealand)

A wave of revelations about long-hidden child sexual abuse has left Britons wondering what is wrong with their country, but experts say they are simply facing up to a problem that exists the world over.

“Child sexual abuse thrives on denial and secrecy. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to admit to and to talk about, and the UK is not alone in that,” said Jon Brown, lead official on sexual abuse at the NSPCC children’s charity.

“But unfortunately we are now being forced to face it squarely and look at the reality of what’s been going on.”

Britain has seen high-profile child abuse cases before but the revelation in 2012 that late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile was a prolific sexual predator opened the floodgates.

Abuse by other celebrities such as Rolf Harris emerged later and ministers this week launched a review into decades-old rumours of a paedophile ring involving politicians and a cover-up by the establishment.

Ministers also announced a wide-ranging inquiry into how institutions have failed to protect children, after a myriad of claims of abuse in care homes, schools, hospitals and churches.

Jon Bird, a victim of childhood abuse who works for the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), says this official recognition of the scale of the problem is a breakthrough.

“It really is a sea change in attitudes – I never thought it would happen in my lifetime,” he told AFP.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Westminster ‘chumocracy’ has protected itself from paedophile revelations, claims Cameron’s advisor on child abuse

By TOM MCTAGUE, MAIL ONLINE DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR

David Cameron’s advisor on child abuse has lashed out at the Westminster ‘chumocracy’ that has protected itself from allegations of paedophilia.

Tory junior minister Claire Perry said Parliament was full of ‘too many people with the same interests and the same out-of-touch sense of entitlement coming together to protect their own’.

Her damning remarks come amid allegations that a paedophile network was operating in Westminster and was being protected by senior politicians.

Home Secretary Theresa May this week launched an inquiry into organisations including churches, the security services and the BBC.

A separate review will also examine the failures in Westminster to properly investigate allegations of sexual abuse.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Western Morning News

Baroness Butler-Sloss is the right person to lead the inquiry into “revolting” allegations of child abuse and a subsequent cover-up by establishment figures, Nick Clegg has insisted.

The Deputy Prime Minister said he did not know whether there had been a cover-up but the claims were so “heinous” they deserved proper investigation.

Former High Court judge Lady Butler-Sloss, who lives near Exeter, faced calls to step down after reports that her brother Sir Michael Havers tried to prevent ex-MP Geoffrey Dickens airing claims about a diplomat in Parliament in the 1980s.

But on his LBC phone-in show Mr Clegg said complaints about the appointment were “really unfair on her” and added: “I think that the idea that because she had a brother in politics at that stage disqualifies her from doing this work, I don’t accept that and I think it’s right that she has said she is going to carry on doing the job.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Third Sector

11 July 2014 by Sam Burne James

The Charity Commision says it will investigate whether the independent school’s policies have dealt with the risks to the charity and its beneficiaries resulting from recent allegations

The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into the charitable independent establishment St Paul’s School in south-west London in relation to its safeguarding policy and handling of allegations of sexual abuse.

Since February, a total of six arrests have been made as part of Operation Winthorpe, a Metropolitan Police investigation into historical abuse allegations.

The commission said it had been engaging with the charity’s trustees since May 2014 in the wake of national press coverage of those arrests and investigations, before it opened its statutory inquiry on 11 June.

The commission’s inquiry will examine four areas: the creation, development, substance and implementation of the school’s safeguarding policy; how it dealt with risks to the charity and its beneficiaries arising from the alleged incidents; whether or not the trustees have complied with and fulfilled their duties under charity law; and whether there has been any misconduct or mismanagement on the part of the trustees.

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

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 11 July 2014)

A seminary student, Paul Lane, committed child-sex crimes in the 1970s while he was training to become a Catholic priest in New South Wales. He eventually dropped out of the seminary. Forty years later, on 7 July 2014, one of his victims obtained justice by getting Lane convicted in court.

In Newcastle Local Court, Lane (aged 67 and living in Ashfield, Sydney, in 2014) was charged with four of incidents of indecent assault, committed against a 14-year-old boy in the Maitland parish in early 1975. [Broken Rites will refer to this boy as “Basil” – not his real name.] Lane agreed to plead guilty to two of the charges, and therefore the other two charges were dropped.

According to court documents, Lane was studying for the priesthood in the early 1970s at a Sydney seminary, aged in his mid to late twenties. When he was advanced in his training, Lane spent some time in the Maitland diocese, north of Sydney, gaining experience in parish work. Initially he stayed as a guest in the bishop’s house, where several other priests also lived, servicing the cathedral parish.

A senior priest from the cathedral parish took Lane to Basil’s house to introduce Lane to Basil’s family, who then invited Lane to visit them for meals. Lane took a special interest in 14-year-old son Basil. When Lane dropped out of his seminary course, this family offered to accommodate him in their home. As good Catholics, the parents trusted Lane having access to their young son.

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

CANADA
Montreal Gazette

BY GEOFFREY VENDEVILLE, THE GAZETTE JULY 10, 2014

The Redemptorists religious order must pay as much as $150,000 in compensation to each former student of the St-Alphonse Seminary in Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of members of the Catholic congregation, Quebec Superior Court ruled Thursday.

Victims of sexual abuse at the boys-only boarding school between 1960 and 1987 were to be awarded no less than $75,000 each, Judge Claude Bouchard decided.

A former student, Frank Tremblay, brought the class-action lawsuit forward four years ago in the name of all other victims against a teacher at the school, Raymond-Marie Lavoie, St-Alphonse College and the Redemptorists.

“This is a landmark decision,” said Tremblay’s lawyer, Robert Kugler. “The amount awarded, up to $150,000, is, I believe, more than any judge in Quebec has awarded to a victim of sexual abuse.”

At least 70 men said they were molested at the school when most were between the ages of 12 and 16, while authorities at the school turned a blind eye. As a result, many victims said they suffered from drug or alcohol addiction, depression and sexual confusion.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Week

Establishment should look beyond its circle and appoint more credible and younger people to these roles

There is a grievous tradition in Britain (and apparently in the Vatican) never to think outside the box when it comes to appointing a committee chairman. Need an inquiry? Send for a tried and trusted member of the establishment. The press is up to no good? Call a senior judge. A scientist is driven to suicide after “leaking” accurate information? Reach for another judge.

Never, but never, think outside the box. Who knows what a loose cannon might get up to? In the eyes of the powers-that-be, committees are set up to soothe troubled brows, not dig the dirt.

The issue is never far away, but is raised this week by two appointments drawn from the usual list of insider suspects. The first is the choice of Lady Butler-Sloss, 80, to chair a panel that will examine the handling of child abuse allegations by public institutions: the second is the selection by Pope Francis of our very own Lord (Chris) Patten, 70, to head a committee to advise the Pope on media strategy.

What the Vatican does is its business. But choosing Patten, the Pooh-Bah of the British establishment since the voters of Bath booted him out of the Commons in the 1992 general election, is close to a joke. Who in their right mind in this age of social media calls a 70-year-old to switch on a computer, never mind devise a digital strategy to help the Pope improve contact with his worldwide flock?
Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/uk-news/child-abuse-inquiry/59404/butler-sloss-and-patten-are-there-no-better-candidates#ixzz379tSWlug

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

VATICAN CIT
PR Week

by Ian Griggs

The Vatican, an institution not best known for its culture of openness, has announced the formation of an 11-strong committee to be led by Chris Patten that will oversee the modernisation of its communications.

The heart of the Catholic establishment has a long history and recent years have seen the Church endure the storms of scandal after scandal, with public outrage expressed over claims priests abused children, corruption at The Vatican bank and unsavoury links with mafia bosses.

But the election of Pope Francis 15 months ago has not only brought the winds of change to The Vatican’s bureaucracy, The Curia, it has also brought about something of a renaissance in how the world’s media, and by extension the public, view the institution and the man who leads it.

Pope Francis is saying all the right things, eschewing most of the trappings of office and castigating those within the Church who regard it as a route to a comfortable existence.

It is perhaps for this reason that the Vatican has decided to seize the moment and capitalise on the mood of public goodwill felt towards the Pope by modernising and adapting its communications to meet the needs of the 21st century.

“The Vatican is waking up the fact that it spends a lot of comms money on Vatican Radio and TV, which is like bringing a knife to a gun fight in the era of social media – that time has passed,” says Ben Ryan, a researcher at the religious affairs think-tank Theos.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) Following Pope Francis’ meeting with survivors of sex abuse this week, a leading Catholic child protection expert says the Church is “on track” with its safeguarding policies and is sharing expertise with secular organisations working in the same field.

Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner is a psychology professor at Rome’s Gregorian University and heads its Centre for the Protection of Minors. He also serves as a member of the recently established Vatican Commission on safeguarding and care of abuse victims. On Monday he accompanied two of the six abuse victims who spent almost three and a half hours sharing their stories with Pope Francis following Mass in his Santa Marta residence.

Fr Hans talked to Philippa Hitchen about those encounters, about the work of the Vatican Commission and about the way the Catholic Church is sharing its expertise with others….

The Commission met for the second time on Sunday…..we discussed membership issues, we want to add some members especially from those areas that are not represented now, Africa, Asia, Oceania……we discussed briefly statue issues, we learned that we will have soon an office here and we prepared for the meeting with the victims……

I was present as a translator for the two German victims in the encounter with the Holy Father, I can say it was amazing how much time he took…..and it was even more impressive to see the Holy Father’s reaction and these people’s reaction – all of them came out of the meeting with a sense of deep gratitude that they had been listened to…

I can say the two meetings went quite differently, the first one didn’t talk much about her own experience of the abuse that happened many years ago. She tried to interact with the Holy Father who replied so there was a real dialogue going on in which she explained about her whole journey over decades, what she has suffered from the moment she was abused and, as she said, ‘her soul disappeared from her body’ and then the little steps that helped her come back to herself…….she said Holy Father, you have to do something to help perpetrators not to offend again…

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

OHIO
Toledo Blade

BY TK BARGER

When Gerald Robinson, a Roman Catholic priest for 50 years, died on July 4, two factors were unresolved.

The appeals process after his 2006 conviction of the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl had not been exhausted and, with his death, the courts will not take further action, so officially and legally, he died a murderer who was convicted by a jury of his peers.

And, because he did not publicly confess to the crime, his life ended without good or evil being determined definitively, according to Catholic doctrine.

Because his appeal of the criminal conviction was ongoing, he remained a priest, according to church officials, even though he had been barred from giving public ministry.

He will be buried as a priest today, with interment at Calvary Cemetery after an 11 a.m. funeral at St. Hyacinth Church, 719 Evesham Ave.

In a statement from the Diocese of Toledo, the Rev. Charles Ritter, administrator of the diocese until Pope Francis names a new bishop, said, “Whether in the eyes of God, Father Robinson was or was not guilty of this crime, I do not know.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Brighton and Hove News

A cathedral steward who was jailed for sexually abusing boys over a 29-year period brought one of them to a sauna in Brighton.

Terence Banks, the former head steward of Chichester Cathedral and a BBC floor manager, was jailed for 16 years for abusing boys aged 11 to 15 years old.

Although his trial took place in May 2001, the details were contained in a church report, known as the Carmi Report, which was published this week although it was completed in 2004.

The report was published by the Diocese of Chichester, which has its main offices in New Church Road, Hove.

The diocese said that the report had proved invaluable in improving safeguarding procedures.

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

UNITED STATES
Friendly Atheist

July 8, 2014 By Hemant Mehta

Yesterday, Pope Francis met with six victims of Catholic-priest-initiated sexual abuse and assured them that bishops would be “held accountable” for not doing enough. But unless he starts pushing pedophile priests out of the Church and into the hands of the criminal justice system, those words really mean nothing.

Even CNN didn’t seem to take him seriously, with an initial headline missing a key word. (Accidentally, of course…) Neither did Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP):

“Let’s not mistake this meeting today for real action,” SNAP President Barbara Blaine told CNN. “The meeting today will not make children safer.”

“I think that Pope Francis has yet to take strong action that will protect children and he could do that by firing the bishops who have been complicit and who are transferring predators,” she said.

What the Pope said sounds fine at the outset until you give it a deeper look:

Before God and his people I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you. And I humbly ask forgiveness.

I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of Church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves. This led to even greater suffering on the part of those who were abused and it endangered other minors who were at risk.

On the other hand, the courage that you and others have shown by speaking up, by telling the truth, was a service of love, since for us it shed light on a terrible darkness in the life of the Church. There is no place in the Church’s ministry for those who commit these abuses, and I commit myself not to tolerate harm done to a minor by any individual, whether a cleric or not. All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.

I hate that he uses the word “sin” to describe the crimes… and I especially hate that he uses it first, before “grave crimes.” As if sinning is the bigger problem here, that those priests let down God. Asking for forgiveness may be nice PR, but the Pope didn’t abuse anyone, nor was he in charge when these incidents took place. He’s not the person who needs to be forgiven.

But he would be moving in the right direction by removing all priests accused of sexual abuse from their parishes immediately, kicking them out of the Church altogether if they’re found guilty of abuse (or covering it up), and supporting harsh criminal sentences against anyone involved. Let’s see him support criminal charges against bishops who transferred pedophile priests to new locations. Let’s see him open up all the Vatican’s books to secular authorities instead of impeding their investigations by limiting access.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Time

Martin Hickman July 10, 2014

As Scotland Yard triples the number of officers on high-profile child abuse cases, the UK struggles to find faith in its politicians

From politicians’ fraudulent expenses to phone hacking, Britain has become surprisingly scandal-strewn in recent years, but the latest reputational cyclone to sweep across its shores is casting an especially dark light: pedophilia in high places.

Newspapers and TV bulletins have been dominated for the past week by allegations that politicians with links to Margaret Thatcher’s government sexually abused vulnerable children in the 1980s and hid the truth for decades through their “chumocracy.” Suspicions of an establishment cover-up involving government departments, Scotland Yard and other elements of the establishment intensified in recent days when the law-and-order ministry, the Home Office, confirmed dozens of potentially-relevant files alleging sexual misconduct had gone missing from its archives.

The allegations—which centre around the suggestion that politicians of all parties and other VIPs preyed on children at a guest house in the London suburb of Barnes—have been given greater credence because in the past two years a string of national figures have been exposed as predatory pedophiles.

Most notoriously of all, Sir Jimmy Savile, a BBC children’s television presenter feted by the Royal Family and Downing Street, abused 450 victims, mostly boys and girls as young as eight over 50 years. While Savile had long been seen as odd, the scale of his offenses shocked the country, not least because he was allowed special access to hospitals and the authorities laughed at or ignored his victims, before he died a national hero. An ensuing police inquiry, Operation Yewtree – which has arrested 18 TV presenters, comedians, disc jockeys and other showbusiness associates – last month jailed fellow BBC children’s presenter Rolf Harris for indecent assaults dating back decades, on girls as young as 8.

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

LOUISIANA
Philly.com

MELINDA DESLATTE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
POSTED: Friday, July 11, 2014

BATON ROUGE, La. – Catholics are decrying a recent Louisiana Supreme Court decision that reaches into the most sanctified of church places, the confessional booth.

The ruling revives a lawsuit that contends a priest should have reported allegations of sexual abuse disclosed to him during private confessions and opens the door for a judge to call the priest to testify about what he was told. The lawsuit was filed by parents of a teen who says she told the priest about being kissed and touched by an adult church parishioner.

If the priest was called to testify, Catholic groups say, it could leave him choosing between prison and excommunication.

“Confession is one of the most sacred rites in the Church. The Sacrament is based on a belief that the seal of the confessional is absolute and inviolable. A priest is never permitted to disclose the contents of any Confession,” Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said in a statement this week blasting the ruling.

Catholic groups and a national organization that tracks church sex-abuse cases said Thursday they weren’t aware of any other cases in which a priest has been compelled to discuss what’s said during a confessional. The local Catholic diocese said that the ruling violates constitutional separations between church and state and it would seek U.S. Supreme Court intervention.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Sanchia Berg
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme

A major inquiry has been launched into how historical allegations of child abuse were handled. The UK’s National Archives contain some appalling examples of abuse at children’s homes and approved schools from decades past.

In 1952 the Home Office gave clear guidance to managers of these schools – saying they had a duty to report allegations of crimes, including “indecent practices”, to the police.

But the files show that didn’t always happen.

The files – dealing with cases that the Home Office was alerted to – show how abuse was not taken as seriously as today, and how at least one institution wanted to allow a convicted abuser to return to work with children after his sentence had been completed.

All of the cases in these files deal with attacks on boys at homes or schools. Approved schools – somewhere between a children’s home and a youth detention centre – were disproportionately male. …

If you’ve been affected…

… the following organisations can help:

* The police if you have evidence of having suffered sexual abuse so an investigation can be made
* NSPCC charity specialises in child protection
* National Association for People Abused in Childhood offers support, advice and guidance to adult survivors of any form of childhood abuse

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

AUSTRALIA
Church Times

by Muriel Porter, Australia Correspondent

Posted: 11 Jul 2014

CLERGY who hear confessions of serious offences, such as child sexual abuse, may not always be obliged to keep the confession secret after a legislative change made last week by the Australian General Synod. The priest is obliged to keep the matter confidential only if he or she is satisfied that the penitent has already reported the matter to police.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

Renae Barker
Lecturer in Law at University of Western Australia

The Australian Anglican Church has put the interests of children and victims of crime ahead of tradition and doctrine. Priests who hear confessions about serious criminal offences, including child abuse, will no longer be required to keep the confession confidential.

At the tri-annual sitting of General Synod – the church’s “parliament” – Anglican Church leaders debated the church’s response to the Royal Commission into the Institutional Handling of Child Sexual Abuse. A particular thorny issue for the church is the confessional seal. Under church law, priests who heard private ritual confessions of sins were required to keep all confessions confidential, regardless of the nature of the confession.

The 1989 Canon Concerning Confession states:

If any person confess his or her secret and hidden sins to an ordained minister for the unburdening of conscience and to receive spiritual consolation and ease of mind, such minister shall not at any time reveal or make known any crime or offence or sin so confessed and committed to trust and secrecy by that person without the consent of that person.

Acting on abuse as a crime

The Anglican Church has revised its position. Priests will be permitted to break the seal of confession in some circumstances. The Canon Concerning Confessions 1989 (Amendment) Canon 2014 states that:

… where a person confesses that he or she has committed a serious offence an ordained minister is only obliged to keep confidential the serious offence so confessed where the ordained minister is reasonably satisfied that the person has reported the serious offence to the police.

The seal of confession will no longer apply to confessions of serious offences. This includes criminal offences involving child abuse, child exploitation material or crimes punishable by life imprisonment or imprisonment for five or more years.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Scotsman

ELIZABETH Butler-Sloss is a woman of admirable intelligence and integrity who has contributed a great deal to public life, notably as a High Court judge. She served as president of the High Court Family Division in England and Wales, and her inquiry into the Cleveland child-abuse scandal resulted in landmark legislation on child protection.

She is the very model of a public servant, who can be proud of a long and illustrious career. And yet, despite all this, she should recuse herself from the job she was given this week by Home Secretary Theresa May.

Ms May asked her to lead a wide-ranging inquiry into the handling of allegations of child abuse by politicians and other members of the establishment in public institutions such as churches, the NHS and the BBC over a number of decades.

But questions have been raised as to whether Baroness Butler-Sloss’s ability to carry out this task is compromised by family and other connections. Labour’s Simon Danczuk yesterday said her position was tainted because her late brother, Sir Michael 
Havers, was the Attorney General in the 1980s.

Legal decisions taken by the government during that period might well form part of the scope of the inquiry.

It matters little that the baroness can credibly claim that she would not allow anything to get in the way of producing an honest and transparent analysis of the situation as she finds it.

Rather, the question now is whether an inquiry into an alleged establishment cover-up can be carried out by someone who is absolutely a member of that very establishment.

Those arguing yesterday that Baroness Butler-Sloss was the right woman for the job are failing to recognise the depth of public distrust of key institutions at the heart of our public life.

Rightly or wrongly, in the wake of revelations about child-sex abuse in the churches and in private schools, and the blind eye turned to paedophile Jimmy Savile, the public is in no mood to have the establishment investigated by an insider.

The common view from the outside is that the establishment, at times of crisis, closes ranks and looks after its own.

Given this inconvenient perception, any report from Baroness Butler-Sloss that concluded there was no establishment cover-
up would inevitably be regarded by many as just another example of an establishment cover-up.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with video]

A man abused by a paedophile priest in Sussex says Baroness Butler-Sloss is the wrong person to lead an inquiry into how public bodies dealt with allegations of child abuse.

Phil Johnson says she told him she wanted to exclude his allegations of abuse at the hands of a bishop from a public report because she “cared about the church” and “did not want to give the press a bishop”.

Baroness Butler-Sloss has now been asked to look into how the government handled allegations of child abuse by senior politicians in the 1980s and has already faced calls to stand down.

Colin Campbell has this exclusive report.

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

CANADA
CTV Montreal

Published Thursday, July 10, 2014

In a landmark class-action lawsuit, a Quebec judge has awarded up to $150,000 each in damages to victims who were sexually abused by priests.

The case involves at least 70 male students at the St. Alphonse Seminary, a boys’ school run by the Redemptorists order in St. Anne de Beaupre near Quebec City until it closed in 1987.

The former students, represented in the class-action by Frank Tremblay, attended the school, now called St. Alphonse College, between 1960 and 1987.

Superior Court Judge Claude Bouchard says it is ‘inconceivable’ that the religious order did nothing to stop the abuse by nine priests over nearly three decades.

Six of those priests have since passed away. All had taken a vow of poverty.

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

CANADA
CBC News

Seventy men who launched a class action lawsuit against clergy accused of sexual abuse have been awarded compensation.

It’s the first time in Quebec that this type of case has gone to trial, instead of being settled out of court.

After three months of deliberation, Superior Court Judge Claude Bouchard ordered the Redemptorist Order of Catholic priests, the Seminaire St-Alphonse and Rev. Raymond-Marie Lavoie to pay $75,000 to each claimant.

According to the decision, the victims can make an application for that amount to be doubled if they believed the abuse suffered and the resulting damage was significant enough that it justifies additional compensation.

The main claimant, Frank Tremblay, who has already spoken publicly about the abuse he suffered as a student at Séminaire Saint-Alphonse was automatically awarded the doubled amount.

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

CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, July 10, 2014

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 group of victims who suffered abuse at a Catholic school in Quebec have won their unprecedented lawsuit. We are grateful to the brave victims who came forward and demanded truth and justice.

[CBC News]

In this first-ever lawsuit to go to trial, a group of priests, the Redemptorists, the Seminaire St-Alphonse and Fr. Raymond-Marie Lavoie were found guilty of abusing and covering up decades of child sexual abuse. At least 70 victims came forward in this case. We suspect that there are dozens of others who remain trapped in shame, silence, confusion and self blame.

We are grateful to the judge who found Catholic officials guilty of such heinous crimes. Because of the actions of these brave men, children will be safer.

We hope Redemptorists officials will work hard to reach out to anyone who saw, suspects or suffered child sex crimes and urge them to come forward and get help.

And we hope other clergy sex abuse victims throughout Canada will be inspired by the bravery of these victims and take similar steps to expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

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

LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

By Emily Lane, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on July 10, 2014

The Louisiana Supreme Court recently issued a ruling that could compel a Baton Rouge Catholic priest to testify whether or not he received confessions during the sacrament of reconciliation from a minor child in 2009 regarding sexual abuse she says she endured by a fellow parishioner.

The lawsuit, filed by the girl’s family, claims the priest and the Baton Rouge Catholic Diocese are liable for civil damages for the suffering caused by the sexual abuse because of their role in failing to properly adviser her and the priest’s failure to report the abuse as a mandatory reporter in accordance with the Louisiana Children’s Code.

The church says the ruling violates religious freedoms set forth in the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, noting the priest could be excommunicated for violating the seal of confession. The Supreme Court ruled the confessions weren’t “confidential communication,” which would have exempted the priest from mandatory reporting laws, because the confessor waived her confidentiality privilege.

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

WISCONSIN
Chicago Tribune

By Alexandra Chachkevitch
Tribune reporter
July 10, 2014

A north suburban priest who was due to report to a Milwaukee courtroom this afternoon on a felony theft charge was a no-show because of car trouble, his lawyer said.

The Rev. James Dokos, who was suspended from his duties at a Greek Orthodox church in Glenview after Milwaukee County authorities announced plans to charge him with felony theft, must return to court on Monday, said the court commissioner who oversaw the hearing.

Dokos, who had served Saints Peter and Paul Church in Glenview since 2012, is accused of improperly spending more than $110,000 from a trust fund he oversaw when he was previously pastor at Annunciation Church in Milwaukee.

Dokos was charged with felony theft this week for allegedly writing checks for tens of thousands of dollars to benefit himself, associates and family members from a trust fund that was set up primarily to benefit Annunciation church, according to a criminal complaint from Milwaukee County district attorney’s office.

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

MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jul. 10, 2014

For the second time in seven months, Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt faces allegations of sexual misconduct.

The latest charges reportedly involve no minors or criminal acts, but that hasn’t silenced some corners of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese from sounding calls for a leadership change. Despite hearing those refrains, Nienstedt said he has “an obligation to preach and teach the Gospel,” and that any decision to resign does not lie with him.

“As a bishop, I made a promise to serve the Church. It is what God has called me to do, like a groom to the Church, for better or for worse. I have kept that promise since my ordination as a priest 41 years ago, and my episcopal ordination 18 years ago and I will continue to keep it,” he told NCR in an email.

Since the end of January, a Minnesota law firm hired by the archdiocese has examined numerous accusations that Nienstedt had engaged in improper sexual conduct with priests, seminarians and other men. News of the investigation broke July 1, when Commonweal magazine reported that lawyers with Minneapolis firm Greene Espel had interviewed former canonical chancellor Jennifer Haselberger about “sexual impropriety” by Nienstedt dating back to his time as a priest in his native Detroit archdiocese.

The archdiocese confirmed the report later that day in two press releases, one from Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché, who said the archdiocese received misbehavior claims “several months ago,” and that Nienstedt appointed him to investigate. Piché said that the investigation by Greene Espel, which he hired, is ongoing. He noted the claims “did not involve anything criminal or with minors.”

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