ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Frank Brennan | 02 July 2014

On Monday, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses of Child Sexual Abuse produced its first interim report to government. The commission has asked the Abbott Government for a two-year extension until December 2017 and an additional $104 million to complete its task.

When Julia Gillard announced the federal royal commission in November 2012, I expressed some reservations about such a wide ranging inquiry, claiming that it would take at least five years, and I did not know that victims or the rest of us could wait that long to learn critical lessons about how institutions might improve their procedures for the protection of children.

Justice McClellan is adamant that the job will take five years if it is to be done properly. The good news is that the victims’ groups seem to think they can wait that long, as anything sooner would be rushed. The bad news is that we will all be waiting another three and a half years for answers about how to restructure institutions ensuring the better protection of children and about how best to provide compensation and ongoing care for victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Tim Kroenert | 02 July 2014

Calvary begins with a threat. Ensconced in the anonymity of the confessional, a man who has suffered injustice at the hands of the Church informs the priest, Fr James Lavelle (Gleeson), that he plans to kill him. Not because Lavelle has committed any wrong — quite the opposite. He has been singled out because he is ‘a good priest’, to pay the price for the sins of his brethren.

During the week leading up to the deadline set by his would-be killer, Lavelle goes about his pastoral duties within his windswept seaside parish. The ominously titled Calvary traces these earnest ramblings, which are as much a part of a personal pilgrimage — a ‘setting in order of his house’, as suggested by the killer — as a continuation of clerical duty.

He counsels a young man who is angered that he is denied the affections of women. He mediates a domestic violence situation involving affable butcher Jack (O’Dowd), his unfaithful wife Veronica (O’Rourke), and her lover, Simon (De Bankolé), an ill-tempered mechanic from the Ivory Coast. He resists the request of an elderly writer (Walsh) to acquire a gun, for the purposes of self-euthanasia.

He also endures the condescension of wealthy blue-blood Michael (Moran), and the more hostile slights heaped upon him in the local tavern by, among others, snidely atheistic doctor Frank (Gillen). Amidst these other trials he attempts to reconnect with his estranged daughter Fiona (Reilly), who feels that his decision to join the priesthood after the death of her mother was a kind of abandonment.

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THAILAND
UCA News

Fr Michael Kelly, Bangkok International July 2, 2014

It’s been a big week for the clergy and their dealings with the police across the world. In legal matters in countries covering four continents – India, the Dominican Republic, Italy and Australia – clerics are being held to account by police and civil courts.

Two priests in India have been charged with murdering the rector of a seminary in Karnataka, in southwest India; a former papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic has been defrocked by the Vatican for child abuse and will face criminal charges; a bishop in Australia has been charged with sexually abusing an adolescent 45 years ago, and a priest in Sicily has been charged with seeking sexual favors from refugees he was supposed to be helping.

Significantly, the Vatican’s Polish-born former nuncio to the Dominican Republic, Josef Wesolowski, was canonically convicted in record time last Friday. He has two months to lodge an appeal against the conviction but has still to face criminal charges that carry a jail sentence.

And in Australia, where a currently serving bishop has stepped aside after he was charged on Monday with allegedly abusing an adolescent in 1969, another senior cleric will face charges following a detailed inquiry into clerical sexual abuse over many decades in the Diocese of Maitland Newcastle.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic Church will establish a special review panel to determine if further action will be taken against two senior Hunter region priests, criticised by an inquiry into Church cover-ups of child abuse.

The Special Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese was scathing of the church’s handling of now dead paedophile priests, Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

Commissioner, Margaret Cunneen described evidence given by senior Hunter priests Monsignor Allan Hart and Father William Burston as unimpressive.

Mons Hart was considered for referral to the DPP for criminal charges, but it was found there was insufficient evidence warranting prosecution for failing to report offending by McAlinden to police.

Fr Burston was not considered for criminal charges.

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MARYLAND
Christian Post

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
July 1, 2014

Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals has dismissed a case which alleged that leaders of Sovereign Grace Ministries had attempted to cover up a sex abuse scandal at the Bethesda-Covenant Life Church.

Last year, a civil lawsuit argued that CGC church leaders, including Mahaney, “conspired and continue to conspire” to “permit sexual deviants to have unfettered access to children for purposes of predation and to obstruct justice by covering up ongoing past predation.” In May 2013, a judge threw out the lawsuit due to the statue of limitations. The defendents’ appealed the decision in early June 2014.

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MINNESOTA
Daily Kos

Homophobic Minnesota Archbishop under investigation for “inappropriate sexual relations” with men

Archbishop John Nienstedt of Minnesota is under investigation into “allegations that he had a series of sexual relationships with priests, seminarians and other men.”

The archdiocese confirmed the investigation, which was first reported by Commonweal, a Catholic magazine based in New York. Nienstedt, 67, said in a separate statement that the allegations “are absolutely and entirely false” and he said he himself authorized the internal investigation, which he called “independent, thorough.” “The allegations do not involve minors or lay members of the faithful, and they do not implicate any kind of illegal or criminal behavior,” Nienstedt said. “The allegations involve events alleged to have occurred at least a decade ago, before I began serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.” Commonweal’s story cites Jennifer Haselberger, former top canon lawyer for Nienstedt, as saying she learned of the investigation when she was questioned by attorneys from the firm that the archdiocese hired, Greene Espel.

He went on to claim that a single allegation from a former priest accused him of improperly touching his neck. However, according to the law firm hired to conduct the investigation, they have gathered quite a number of sworn affidavits along with allegations that he threatened retaliation against anyone who dared report his behavior.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic News Agency

St. Paul, Minn., Jul 1, 2014 / 05:43 pm (CNA).- Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul, Minn., has ordered a third party investigation of himself following recent accusations of sexual misconduct, which he denies as being “entirely false.”

Three months ago, Archbishop Nienstedt was cleared of an accusation of touching a male minor’s posterior region during a confirmation photo shoot in 2009. During that investigation, Archbishop Nienstedt removed himself from public ministry but was happy to return after no charges were brought against him.

Late last year, around the time the first case was opened, allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct with seminarians, priests, and other men came to light, prompting a new investigation and a statement released by the archbishop denying the claims.

“These allegations are absolutely and entirely false,” Archbishop Nienstedt said. “Nonetheless, I ordered Bishop Lee Piché to oversee an independent, thorough investigation and that he hire an outside firm unaffiliated with the Archdiocese to conduct the investigation.”

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ILLINOIS
WGEM

QUINCY, Ill. (WGEM) – The priest who called 911 from a church phone in Springfield when he couldn’t get out of handcuffs has been assigned to a Quincy parish.

The Diocese of Springfield confirmed Tuesday that Father Thomas Donovan was recently assigned to serve as parochial vicar at the Church of St. Peter. Donovan was granted a leave of absence last year after a 911 call from Springfield’s St. Aloysias Church surfaced with him claiming he couldn’t get out of handcuffs.

Bishop Thomas John Paprocki says he was advised by a special panel in September that Donovan’s “gradual return to priestly ministry is appropriate.” Donovan was then assigned as chaplain to the Sisters of Saint Francis of the Martyr Saint George.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte Observer

By Tim Funk
tfunk@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Tuesday, Jul. 01, 2014

A Superior Court judge in Stanly County dismissed a child sex abuse charge against a Catholic priest Tuesday, saying the Rev. Joseph Kelleher doesn’t have the mental capacity to go to trial.

Kelleher, now 86, is living in a retirement home in High Point and, according to a statement to the court from his doctor there, suffers from dementia and various physical ailments, including heart disease.

A native of Ireland who was part of the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte for decades, Kelleher was arrested in 2010 after a man came forward to accuse the priest of sexually abusing him in 1977, when he was a 14-year-old boy in Albemarle. At that time, Kelleher was pastor at Our Lady of the Annunciation Catholic Church. The alleged incident happened in the church parlor.

Kelleher was charged with one count of taking indecent liberties with a child. His attorney, Charles Brown of Albemarle, said Tuesday that he had pleaded not guilty. But according to court papers filed in 2011 by Kisha Scott, an assistant district attorney in Stanly County, Kelleher, in speaking with police, “admitted to touching the victim’s penis ….”

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UNITED STATES
Mennonite World Review

Jun 30, 2014 by Mennonite Church USA

ELKHART, Ind. — A Mennonite Church USA discernment group addressing sexual abuse by the late theologian John Howard Yoder has reported finding additional evidence of abuse.

After a June 3 meeting in Elk­hart, the group said they found more documentation of Yoder’s abuse of women, including fondling and sexual intercourse. The many women Yoder wronged included students, missionaries and church workers.

The group accessed previously unexamined institutional and personal files, including memos by Yoder.

In some instances, the group reported, women who engaged in sexual encounters were persuaded, at least initially, by Yoder that such behavior was permissible between Christian “brothers” and “sisters.” Many others resisted his unwanted advances, and were perplexed and distressed by his pursuit.

“We are also learning how long it took church leaders to intervene effectively,” the group reported.

An issue of Mennonite Quarterly Review planned for early 2015 will focus on sexual abuse in Mennonite contexts. It will include an article by historian Rachel Waltner Goossen on the topic the group appointed her to research: Mennonite church institutional responses to Yoder’s sexual abuse in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.

While a four-year accountability process for Yoder began in 1992, doubt lingers about its outcome, since little about it was communicated to the public.

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UNITED STATES
The Mennonite

by Carolyn Holderread Heggen

The decision of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), Elkhart, Ind., and Mennonite Church USA to revisit the legacy of our most influential 20th-century Mennonite theologian, John Howard Yoder, has resulted in articles and responses in our church periodicals and elsewhere.

More will surely appear in the months to come. Therefore, I would like to share several concerns. In common usage, “allegations” implies charges that are unsubstantiated and unproven. It is not appropriate to continue to use the term “allegations” in reference to Yoder’s sexual abuse and immoral relations with women.

A church-appointed task force heard eight women’s stories in February 1992, considered the evidence and determined that the charges were valid. I was one of those eight.

After we shared our stories, I went around the circle of church representatives and, calling them each by name, asked, “_____, do you believe us?”

Each responded, “Yes, I believe you.” Subsequently the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference released a statement that said: “From this work the task force concluded that the reports are true and that Yoder has violated sexual boundaries.”

In the June issue of The Mennonite, the article “The Decision to Disinvite John Howard Yoder to Speak” and the editor’s note that preceded it both refer to “allegations” or to “alleged victims.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

Archbishop John Nienstedt is being investigated for inappropriate sexual behavior with adult males, according to former archdiocese official Jennifer Haselberger.

The archdiocese confirmed an investigation, saying in written statements that it hired an independent firm to conduct it.

“Upon my direction, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is conducting an internal investigation involving allegations made against me,” Nienstedt wrote Tuesday. “These allegations are absolutely and entirely false.”

They involved alleged events from “at least” a decade ago, before he became head of the Twin Cities archdiocese in 2008, Nienstedt wrote.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: July 1, 2014

Nienstedt says allegations of sexual misconduct with seminarians and priests are “absolutely false.”

The Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis announced Tuesday that it is conducting an internal investigation of Archbishop John Nienstedt, following allegations of sexual misconduct.

The announcement came after a blog post was published online in Commonweal magazine, which claimed Nienstedt was being investigated for inappropriate sexual conduct with seminarians, priests and other men. The blog cites church whistleblower Jennifer Haselberger, the archdiocese’s former top canon lawyer, as the source of the information.

The conduct allegedly occurred during Nienstedt’s work in the Archdiocese of Detroit, as Bishop of New Ulm and as coadjudicator in the Twin Cities diocese.

“These allegations are absolutely and entirely false,” Nienstedt said in a written statement. “Nonetheless, I ordered Bishop Lee Piche’ to oversee an independent, thorough investigation and that he hire an outside firm unaffiliated with the Archdiocese to conduct the investigation.’’

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

BY MARY SANCHEZ
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
07/01/2014

The convicted proof of what led to the latest scandal for the Kansas City diocese languishes in prison today: Shawn Ratigan, sentenced to 50 years for child pornography.

The details of Ratigan’s guilt, the horrendous way the diocese stalled instead of immediately reporting him to authorities, is at play now in an order to pay $1.1 million in a breach of contract suit.

To the public, stories that the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese is accused of breaking agreed-upon obligations to protect children may sound like old news. Some people might think this is badgering by the diocese’s many critics. It is true that too many people seem to take glee from every negative twist and turn in sexual abuse cases involving Roman Catholic priests.

But this is about the safety of children. And the diocese, as the Ratigan case clearly proved, needed to be reminded again where its loyalties — its legal and moral obligations — must stand.

A 2008 settlement of $10 million to 47 victims and their families was intended to put to rest a large number of civil cases against the diocese for sexual abuse claims against priests. The diocese agreed to the settlement under the current Bishop Robert Finn. It also agreed to a list of non-monetary commitments to change its ways and institute more safeguards for children.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

by Bill Keller

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
After months of defending how the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis handled allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy, the archbishop himself is now the focus of an investigation into his behavior with other men.

This is not a criminal investigation, but rather an internal investigation into an accusation Archbishop John Nienstedt has violated his vows of priesthood. Nienstedt is being accused of “multiple allegations” of inappropriate sexual contact with seminarians, priests, and other adult men. The allegations come from the archbishop’s former top canon lawyer-turned-whistleblower Jennifer Haselberger.

“These allegations are absolutely and entirely false,” Nienstedt said in a statement. “Since I would instruct the archdiocese to investigate similar allegations made against any priest, I have ordered the archdiocese to independently investigate the allegations made against me.”

Nienstedt said the allegations involve events alleged to have occurred at least a decade ago, before he began serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Nienstedt became archbishop in 2008, and for the past two years has been under fire for how he has handled allegations of sexual misconduct by clergy.

The apostolic nuncio, who oversees all bishops in the united states, has been informed of the allegations. According to the archdiocese, Nienstedt has no plans to step down during the investigation.

Statement from Archbishop John Nienstedt

“Upon my direction, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is conducting an internal investigation involving allegations made against me. These allegations are absolutely and entirely false. Nonetheless, I ordered Bishop Lee Piché to oversee an independent, thorough investigation and that he hire an outside firm unaffiliated with the Archdiocese to conduct the investigation.

The allegations do not involve minors or lay members of the faithful, and they do not implicate any kind of illegal or criminal behavior. The allegations involve events alleged to have occurred at least a decade ago, before I began serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

I have ordered that the investigation be conducted for the benefit of the Archdiocese. The Archdiocese investigates all allegations of clergy misconduct. It would be unfair to ignore these allegations simply because I know them to be false. Since I would instruct the Archdiocese to investigate similar allegations made against any priest, I have ordered the Archdiocese to independently investigate the allegations made against me.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio

Institutional religions are losing members to those who claim to be “unaffiliated,” people who are often religious or spiritual in some way but don’t belong to an institution. Nearly one in five of U.S. adults are “unaffiliated” according to the Pew Research Center.

Pew experts say Catholicism is taking the biggest hit with this movement. While nearly one in three Americans were raised Catholic, today fewer than one-in-four describe themselves that way.

This trend isn’t just national. Cliff Grammich, research chair for the Association of Religious Data Archives, says the decline can be seen in St. Louis.

“All together in the St. Louis metropolitan area we found about 555,000 persons associated with the Catholic Church in 2010, that was a decrease of about 100,000 from our previous study in the year 2000,” said Grammich.

However, Grammich added that the Catholic Church was one of several institutional churches that lost members in St. Louis, perhaps because of the “unaffiliated” trend.

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ILLINOIS
Connect Tristates

SPRINGFIELD, ILL. — A priest who made headlines for unusual behavior last year has a new assignment at a Quincy Catholic church.

Monsignor Michael Kuse told KHQA Father Thomas Donovan began Tuesday as a parochial vicar at St. Peter’s in Quincy.

Donovan returned to the ministry last fall after a bizarre 911 call in January 2013.

He dialed 911 after handcuffing himself inside a church rectory in Springfield.

Investigators say no crime took place.

Father Donovan was a former preacher at St. Peter’s in Quincy.

We’ll have reaction tonight on KHQA News at 10.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

By: Scott Theisen

Archbishop John Nienstedt, the head of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, is being investigated for allegations of sexual misconduct, including claims that he made unwanted sexual advances toward a former Twin Cities priest, according to a report posted online Tuesday by Commonweal Magazine.

Jennifer Haselberger, the archbishop’s former top canon lawyer, told Commonweal the archbishop is under investigation for “multiple allegations” of inappropriate sexual conduct with seminarians, priests, and other men.

Nienstedt denies the allegations and says the archdiocese is conducting an internal investigation into them.

“These allegations are absolutely and entirely false. Nonetheless, I ordered Bishop Lee Piché to oversee an independent, thorough investigation and that he hire an outside firm unaffiliated with the Archdiocese to conduct the investigation,” Nienstedt said in a statement Tuesday.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC

By Micheal Mahoney

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —An arbitrator has awarded more than $1 million to a group of victims in the Kansas City priest abuse sex scandal.

Six years ago, 47 victims settled with the diocese for $10 million and promised that the church would clean up its act in the future. Four years ago, the Shawn Ratigan child pornography scandal hit.

The arbitrator ruled that the diocese didn’t live up to its promises not to hide future sex abuse problems with clergy members and promptly report trouble to authorities.

The records show that church officials waiting a year before alerting investigators.

Ratigan is now in prison, but the victims in the prior case argued that his case and the way the church responded to it represent a broken promise.

“Where they expected protector, they received desertion,” arbitrator Hollis Hanover wrote.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Jul 1, 2014

A Minneapolis law firm has been secretly investigating the private life of Archbishop John Nienstedt for the past six months. Nienstedt acknowledged Tuesday that he had authorized an investigation into allegations made against him.

In a statement posted to the archdiocese’s website, Nienstedt said the allegations involve events “alleged to have occurred at least a decade ago,” before his arrival in the Twin Cities. They do not involve minors, he said, nor lay members of the church, and “they do not implicate any kind of illegal or criminal behavior.”

“These allegations,” he said, “are absolutely and entirely false.”

Jennifer Haselberger, a former chancery official, said she met with attorneys from the Greene Espel law firm several times at their Minneapolis office. Some of the meetings lasted hours. The lawyers — Matthew Forsgren and David Wallace-Jackson — told her at the time that they had interviewed more than a dozen priests and laypeople in several states and that 11 people provided sworn statements. The attorneys told her that Nienstedt had authorized the broad investigation into his own life in late January.

Forsgren and Wallace-Jackson specialize in internal investigations, white-collar criminal defense and business litigation, according to the firm’s website.

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MINNESOTA
The Wire

ABBY OHLHEISER

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Archbishop John Nienstedt is well-known for his outspoken statements against gay people and marriage equality. And now, the Catholic leader is under investigation by a law firm hired by the Archdiocese, based on “multiple allegations” that Nienstedt had relations with multiple men, including priests and seminarians. Although he authorized the investigation himself, the Archbishop denies the allegations are true. His archdiocese confirmed that the investigation was underway, according to the Religion News Service.

The story was first reported by the Catholic magazine Commonweal, based on an interview with the archdiocese’s former canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger. Here’s what she told them, apparently based on conversations with the lawyers doing the investigation:

“I believe that the investigators have received about ten sworn statements alleging sexual impropriety on the part of the archbishop dating from his time as a priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit, as Bishop of New Ulm, and while coadjutor and archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis,” Haselberger told me. What’s more, “he also stands accused of retaliating against those who refused his advances or otherwise questioned his conduct.”

According to RNS, the lawyers’ lines of inquiries include an investigation into whether the archbishop had a relationship with Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, a priest at the center of a sex abuse scandal currently plaguing the archdiocese.

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NEDERLAND
Volkskrant

[Summary: A total of 1,585 complaints of sexual abuse were submitted by the June 30 deadline. These included, 1,309 men and 276 women who said they were sexually abuse by officials of the Roman Catholic Church, according to a hotline survey.]

In totaal 1585 klagers hebben zich voor de sluitingstermijn op 30 juni aangemeld bij het Meldpunt Misbruik Katholieke Kerk. Het gaat om 1309 mannen en 276 vrouwen die zich hebben beklaagd over seksueel misbruik door functionarissen van de rooms-katholieke kerk, blijkt uit een overzicht van het meldpunt.

448 klagers hebben inmiddels een schadevergoeding ontvangen van gemiddeld 30.693 euro. In 160 ernstige gevallen werd gemiddeld ruim 60.000 euro uitgekeerd. Tot dusver is 13,7 miljoen euro uitbetaald aan de slachtoffers.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Pitch

Bishop Robert Finn, Catholic Diocese ordered to pay $1.1 million for not reporting child sexual abuse

Posted By Karen Dillon on Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 2:52 PM

The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph continues to roil in its sea of child-sexual-abuse scandals.

In a revelation Monday evening by The New York TImes, an arbitrator ordered the diocese and Bishop Robert Finn to pay $1.1 million to 44 plaintiffs in March because they broke promises to report child-abuse cases to authorities and deal more strictly with predatory priests.

The “breach of contract” case stems from a 2008, $10 million settlement that the Catholic Diocese paid to 47 victims of child sexual abuse that were covered up.

At that time, Bishop Finn agreed to implement several child safety measures to protect children from predatory priests.

But in 2010, the plaintiffs learned that Finn broke his promise by keeping the Rev. Shawn Ratigan in ministry work when he knew that Ratigan was a predator and was hoarding hundreds of photographs of girls.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Kent Faulk | kfaulk@al.com
on July 01, 2014

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Mack Allen Davis, a former youth pastor at Lakeside Baptist Church, faces sex abuse charges in Jefferson, Cherokee and St. Clair counties after two men stepped forward to say Allen molested them 30 years ago.

Davis, 73, whose last address was in Athens, faces 15 charges from the three counties, according to court records and court officials. Davis is currently being held in the Jefferson County Jail on $150,000 bond.

Davis on Tuesday appeared before Jefferson County Circuit Judge Teresa Pulliam in an attempt to get his bond reduced. The judge said she wanted to see information about Davis’ heart condition before making a decision on bond.

Davis was first arrested by Cherokee County authorities April 2 on seven counts of second-degree sexual abuse and one count of attempted sodomy. He was released on bond, but he was arrested again on May 20 based on a Jefferson County grand jury indictment.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WFMY

[with video]

IREDELL COUNTY, NC–A former employee of Iredell-Statesville Schools is facing rape charges after police said he met with a 17-year-old boy he met online.

CBS Affiliate WBTV said the suspect is Glen McCoy, 30. McCoy was arrested in Tennessee last Thursday and charged with statutory rape and sexual exploitation of a minor.

Police told WBTV McCoy drove from North Carolina to meet the teen at a motel in Madison, TN. Also officers said they have saw emails exchanged between the teen and McCoy that showed photos of them engaging in sex acts.

McCoy allegedly met the 17-year-old on a website and started messaging each other, then they exchanged photos before it escalated to the meeting, according to police.

Officials with Iredell-Statesville Schools confirmed that McCoy was employed there from September 2002 until February 2012, as a bus driver and a teacher’s assistant.

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TENNESSEE
The Tennessean

Adam Tamburin, atamburin@tennessean.com June 27, 2014

Metro police on Thursday arrested a 30-year-old North Carolina man who is accused of driving to Madison to have sex with a 17-year-old boy.

Police say suspect Glen McCoy met the victim on the Internet and began texting him this spring. He sent the victim several pictures of himself, some of which showed him driving a school bus, according to his arrest warrant.

In April, police said, McCoy drove to Madison, picked the teenager up from work and took him to a Gallatin Pike motel for sex.

Detective Robert Paul Carrigan III uncovered several pictures of the victim and McCoy engaged in sexually explicit acts together, according to the warrant.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WBTV

By Sarah-Blake Morgan

IREDELL COUNTY, NC (WBTV) –
A former employee of Iredell-Statesville Schools is facing rape charges after police said he met with a 17-year-old boy he met online.

The suspect, 30-year-old Glen McCoy, was arrested in Tennessee on Thursday and charged with statutory rape and sexual exploitation of a minor.

Police said McCoy drove from North Carolina to meet the teen at a motel in Madison, TN.

Police said they discovered emails between the teen and McCoy that showed photos of them engaging in sex acts.

McCoy met the 17-year-old on a website, according to police. At first they were messaging each other, then they exchanged photos before it escalated to the meeting.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Seth H. Langston

Posted on July 1, 2014

Another clergyman got criminally charged today. This time, the alleged abuser was not a priest. I wonder how many victims are out there. Hopefully, this case will be aggressively prosecuted.

[WBTV]

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ALABAMA
Bay News 9

By JAY REEVES,
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 01, 2014

CLANTON, Ala. —
(AP) An Alabama pastor says he’s shutting down his refuge for convicted sex offenders because of a new law.

Ricky Martin says he doesn’t like having to move men out of campers beside his church in rural Chilton County but he has no choice.

Legislators passed a law earlier this year prohibiting convicted sex offenders from living within 300 feet of each other on the same property. It takes effect Tuesday.

Prosecutor C.J. Robinson says he wrote the bill because of complaints and concerns over the large number of registered sex offenders on Martin’s property. Robinson says more than 50 men have lived at the camp since 2010.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is being investigated for, among other claims, allegedly making unwanted sexual advances toward a former Twin Cities priest, according to a report by Commonweal Magazine.

After receiving information about the allegations in late 2013, the archdiocese hired an outside law firm to investigate the accusation, selecting Minneapolis firm Green Espel. The investigation is not related to the December 2013 accusation that Nienstedt touched a boy’s buttocks during a confirmation photo shoot — where charges were not filed.

The former top canon lawyer, Jennifer Haselberger, says that she believes investigators have received about 10 sworn statements accusing Nienstedt of sexual impropriety. He’s also accused of retaliating against those who refused his advances or questioned his conduct.
The accusations date back to his time as a priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit, as Bishop of New Ulm and while coadjutor and archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

In a written statement, Nienstedt denies the allegations:

Upon my direction, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is conducting an internal investigation involving allegations made against me. These allegations are absolutely and entirely false. Nonetheless, I ordered Bishop Lee Piche’ to oversee an independent, thorough investigation and that he hire an outside firm unaffiliated with the Archdiocese to conduct the investigation.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 1, 2014

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

Some report that Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt is being investigated for sexual relationships.

[Commonweal]

We don’t care about Nienstedt’s private behavior, unless it involves sexually harassing underlings or makes him unable or unwilling to expose predators in his archdiocese.

We care deeply about Nienstedt’s public behavior, especially his continuing secrecy, recklessness and callousness about clergy sex crimes and cover ups. We are perhaps most upset that he refuses to order his long-time top aide Fr. Kevin McDonough to be questioned by police.

We believe that most priests don’t or can’t honor their celibacy pledge. So they have sexual secrets. And if you have a sexual secret, you’re less willing to report the sexual secrets of your colleagues and supervisors, especially if those secrets involve criminal behavior.

This is perhaps the most disturbing sentence we’ve read about this investigation: “he also stands accused of retaliating against those who refused his advances or otherwise questioned his conduct.”

We are highly skeptical when bishops like Nienstedt claim that allegations against them are “personal attacks” due to “my unwavering stance on issues consistent with church teaching, such as opposition to so-called same-sex marriage.” This is especially unlikely if there are in fact ten accusers including some who were or are Catholic clerics.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: July 1, 2014

Nienstedt says allegations of sexual misconduct with seminarians and priests are “absolutely false.”

The Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis announced Tuesday that it is conducting an internal investigation of Archbishop John Nienstedt, following allegations of sexual misconduct.

The announcement came following a blog in Commonweal Magazine, which claimed Nienstedt was being investigated for inappropriate sexual conduct with seminarians, priests and other men. The blog cites church whistleblower Jennifer Haselberger, the archdiocese’s former top canon lawyer, as the source of the information.

The conduct allegedly occurred during Nienstedt’s work in the Archdiocese of Detroit, as Bishop of New Ulm and as coadjudicator in the Twin Cities diocese.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

BY BARBARA SHELLY
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
07/01/2014

The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese of the Roman Catholic church keeps breaking new ground — and taking its members where they don’t want to go.

Its leader, Robert Finn, was the first bishop to be found guilty in the church’s long-running sexual abuse scandle. He was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of failing to alert the proper authorities after the discovery of photographs of children taken by a pedophile priest, Shawn Ratigan.

Now the diocese is reportedly the first to be held to account in a breach of contract case. And in a big way. An arbitrator has ordered the diocese to pay $1.1 million for violating the terms of a 2008 settlement that was intended to protect children.

That settlement was the result of a sexual abuse case brought against 12 priests or former priests in the diocese. Plaintiffs were awarded $10 million, and also achieved some nonmonetary commitments. One was an agreement by the diocese to immediately report suspicions of child abuse. After the Ratigan allegations surfaced, the plaintiffs alleged breach of contract.

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News (US)

VATICAN CITY — Jul 1, 2014

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

Pope Francis convened his top cardinal advisers for another round of financial reform talks Tuesday amid fresh turmoil at the embattled Vatican bank.

It was this time last year that the top two managers at the Institute for Religious Works were forced out after a Vatican monsignor with millions in the bank was arrested in an alleged money-smuggling plot.

They were replaced, but Italian news reports say another round of resignations is expected. A bank spokesman, Max Hohenberg, declined to comment Tuesday, saying only that the bank was working on its annual report.

The bank’s current president, Ernst Von Freyberg, was appointed in February 2013 in one of Pope Benedict XVI’s final acts in office. He has never been received in audience by Pope Francis, who was elected on a mandate of financial and bureaucratic reform.

Italian newsweekly L’Espresso reported last week that Von Freyberg would soon resign, citing among other issues a clash over access to information sought by Francis’ main liaison to the bank. A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a broader shake-up was expected next week.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Seth H. Langston

Posted on July 1, 2014

CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST FATHER JOSEPH KELLEHER DISMISSED

As I expected,the child sex abuse charges to which Father Kelleher had confessed, were dismissed today, due to his alleged health problems. This action took place nearly four years after Father Kelleher was first charged and after other victims came forward. This was one of, if not, the oldest criminal case, pending in Stanly County, NC.

Justice delayed was justice denied.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Source: Anne Steffens, Interim Director of Communications

From Bishop Lee Piché, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Several months ago, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis received claims regarding alleged misbehavior involving Archbishop John Nienstedt. The claims did not involve anything criminal or with minors.

The Archbishop asked me to investigate these claims, so I hired an independent firm to conduct a thorough investigation. The investigation is ongoing and I will respond appropriately as the process continues.

Please keep all involved in your prayers.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Source: Anne Steffens, Interim Director of Communications

From Archbishop John Nienstedt

Upon my direction, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is conducting an internal investigation involving allegations made against me. These allegations are absolutely and entirely false. Nonetheless, I ordered Bishop Lee Piché to oversee an independent, thorough investigation and that he hire an outside firm unaffiliated with the Archdiocese to conduct the investigation.

The allegations do not involve minors or lay members of the faithful, and they do not implicate any kind of illegal or criminal behavior. The allegations involve events alleged to have occurred at least a decade ago, before I began serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

I have ordered that the investigation be conducted for the benefit of the Archdiocese. The Archdiocese investigates all allegations of clergy misconduct. It would be unfair to ignore these allegations simply because I know them to be false. Since I would instruct the Archdiocese to investigate similar allegations made against any priest, I have ordered the Archdiocese to independently investigate the allegations made against me.

The investigation is ongoing. The Apostolic Nuncio, who oversees all bishops in the United States, has been informed of the allegations and he will be informed of the results of the investigation when it is completed. Let us pray that the truth will come out as a result of the investigation.

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MINNESOTA
Commonweal Magazine

Grant Gallicho July 1, 2014

Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis is being investigated for “multiple allegations” of inappropriate sexual conduct with seminarians, priests, and other men, according to the archbishop’s former top canon lawyer, Jennifer Haselberger. The investigation is being conducted by a law firm hired by the archdiocese. Nienstedt denies the allegations.

The investigation was spurred by information the archdiocese received late last year, according to another person with knowledge of the investigation. (This inquiry is not related to a December 2013 accusation that Nienstedt touched a boy’s buttocks during a confirmation photo shoot. The archbishop denied that allegation, and, following an investigation, the county prosecutor did not bring charges. Reportedly the case has been reopened.) Near the end of the year, it came to light that a former Twin Cities priest had accused Nienstedt of making unwanted sexual advances.

The archbishop agreed to hire an outside law firm to investigate the accusation. By early 2014, the archdiocese had selected the top-ranked Minneapolis firm of Greene Espel. Nienstedt, along with auxiliary bishops Lee Piché and Andrew Cozzens, flew to Washington, D.C., to inform the apostolic nuncio of the allegations. Over the course of the investigation, lawyers have interviewed current and former associates and employees of Nienstedt—including Haselberger, who resigned in protest in April 2013.

“Based on my interview with Greene Espel—as well as conversations with other interviewees—I believe that the investigators have received about ten sworn statements alleging sexual impropriety on the part of the archbishop dating from his time as a priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit, as Bishop of New Ulm, and while coadjutor and archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis,” Haselberger told me. What’s more, “he also stands accused of retaliating against those who refused his advances or otherwise questioned his conduct.”

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MINNESOTA
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Jul 1, 2014

(RNS) A Catholic archbishop in Minnesota who has been one of the hierarchy’s most vocal opponents of gay rights is himself the target of an investigation into allegations that he had a series of sexual relationships with priests, seminarians and other men, it was reported Tuesday (July 1).

The investigation of Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt is being conducted by a prominent Minneapolis law firm hired by the archdiocese after church officials received numerous allegations against Nienstedt.

The archdiocese confirmed the investigation, which was first reported by Commonweal, a Catholic magazine based in New York.

Nienstedt, 67, said in a separate statement that the allegations “are absolutely and entirely false.”

“The allegations do not involve minors or lay members of the faithful, and they do not implicate any kind of illegal or criminal behavior,” Nienstedt said. “The allegations involve events alleged to have occurred at least decade ago, before I began serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
CBS St. Louis

Fred Bodimer
July 1, 2014

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – The local Presbyterian Church body has issued a warning about an alleged child molesting pastor who once served in the St. Louis area.

Officials with the Giddings Lovejoy Presbytery, which represents local members of the Presbyterian Church USA, now say they consider child sex abuse allegations made in 2012 against former pastor Michael Walker Jackson are credible.

The alleged abuse took place in the mid 1980s, but no civil or criminal charges were brought.

“The Presbyterians in the St. Louis area are standing up and acting responsibly and they’re warning people about a man who they believe was credibly accused of child sexual abuse and we applaud the Giddings Lovejoy Presbytery,” says SNAP’s David Clohessy. “We hope it will inspire other denominations to show a little bit of courage and a little bit of compassion for children.”

Jackson is no longer a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA.

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FLORIDA
HLN

Florida pastor Darrell Gilyard, 52, spent three years in prison for lewd and lascivious acts with two girls under the age of 16. Now, a judge is altering the registered sex offender’s probation to allow him to “minister to children under the age of 18 as long as the children are supervised by an adult other than the defendant.”

Dr. Drew On Call airs Monday through Thursday on HLN at 9 p.m. ET. Follow the show on Facebook and Twitter @DrDrewHLN.

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TENNESSEE
CBS 3

By Janice Broach

SHELBY COUNTY, TN –
(WMC) – A once trusted Hope Presbyterian Church music teacher is now at the center of a child sex investigation.

Officials are releasing very few details about the investigation, but they do say that it involves multiple agencies.

On Wednesday, Matthew Williams was charged with child sex abuse involving a family member. On Saturday, Hope Presbyterian Church found out and terminated Williams’ contract immediately.

Collierville police confirmed there is an investigation, but that is all they would say.

Williams taught piano lessons at Hope Music Academy at the church for almost a year.

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IRELAND
Sunday World

Tuesday 1st July 2014

This is the sports car enthusiast at the centre of a massive probe into child sex abuse in St Patrick’s Cathedral which is set to rock the Church of Ireland.

Patrick O’Brien looks like a kind, mild-mannered grandfather outside his home in a leafy suburb of south Dublin last week.

Unknown to his neighbours, the 75-year-old is under investigation by Gardai after being accused of a range of sex crimes by up to 12 people.

It is not the first time the retired business executive has come to the attention of the Gardai for alleged sex crimes – and was the subject of a child sex probe in 1989.

The allegations against O’Brien are set to rock the Church of Ireland (COI) because, it is claimed, he targeted his victims while working as a volunteer in the world famous St Patrick’s Cathedral.

The Protestant cathedral is one of the city’s most famous and iconic buildings and is a popular tourist destination.

But now a number of civil actions have been launched against the board of the Cathedral – implicating the COI in the child sex abuse scandals for the first time.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By David Muller | dmuller@mlive.com
on July 01, 2014

DETROIT, MI – A trial for a priest and an alleged accomplice accused of scheming a charity for money has been pushed back to September.

The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said Tuesday the jury trial of Father Timothy J. Kane, 57, of Detroit, and accomplice Dorreca M. Brewer, 34, has been adjourned from July 7 because of a scheduling conflict. The trial is now scheduled to begin Sept. 29, before Judge Bruce Morrow.

Kane and Brewer are charged with conspiracy to operate a criminal enterprise, a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison; using a computer to commit a crime, a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison; uttering and publishing, a 14-year felony; conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing, a 14-year-felony; embezzlement between $1,000 and $20,000, a 10-year felony; and conspiracy to embezzle between $1,000 and $20,000, a 10-year felony.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCUR

By BRIANA O’HIGGINS

The Kansas City-St. Joesph Catholic Diocese has been ordered to pay $1.1 million to victims for failing to follow through on their promise to improve how they deal with sexual abuse.

The ruling from an arbitrator says the diocese is responsible for the damages after concluding that it did not promptly report a priest who had produced child pornography, the New York Times reports.

Bishop Robert Finn had previously agreed he would report any suspicion of child abuse to law enforcement officials. The agreement came after a 2008 $10 million settlement with victims of Rev. Sawn Ratigan, a priest.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCTV

Documents via BishopAccountability.org:
Arbitrator’s Modified Final Award
Judge’s Order Sending the Complaint to Arbitration
Complaint, Including the Settlement Documents
Our nonmonetary feature with links to the KC nonmonetaries and other examples

By Chris Oberholtz, Multimedia Producer
By DeAnn Smith, Digital Content Manager

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) –
An arbitrator has ordered the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese to pay an additional $1.1 million to dozens of victims of clergy sex crimes because the diocese failed to meet its promises for handling abuse cases.

The diocese is facing the penalty for not doing more to stop now-defrocked priest Shawn Ratigan from taking pornographic pictures of young parishioners after the diocese had pledged more than five years ago to prevent future abuse cases.

The diocese and Bishop Robert Finn, who has previously admitted in a criminal court that he failed to report child abuse by Ratigan to state authorities, are seeking to have the arbitrator’s order nullified. The document was unsealed in late June and KCTV5 learned about it on Tuesday.

“As best we can tell, there’s never been a case like this in which victims have successfully held a bishop responsible in court for breaking the promises he made during a settlement,” said Barbara Dorris, outreach director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Dorris said the amount of the award is significant because it will deter more Catholic officials from breaking the promises they make to victims.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Nicholas Sciarappa | Jul. 1, 2014 NCR Today

The Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese has been ordered to pay 1.1 million for violating the terms of a 2008 settlement that was supposed to protect victims of sexual abuse, according to a report in the Kansas City Star.

A breach-of-contract lawsuit alleged that Bishop Robert Finn put children in danger by violating the settlement. Filed in the Jackson County Circuit Court, the lawsuit sought no damages, but requested the judge force arbitration upon the diocese. The ruling comes as a result of an inquiry by the 2008 plaintiffs into the handling of Fr. Shawn Ratigan’s May 2011 arrest on child pornography charges.

Arbitrator Hollis Hanover ruled that the diocese breached five of the 2008 agreement terms. Hollis found the diocese in violation of its pledge to provide counseling to victims of sex abuse and their families, its pledge to not recommend the council of any priest who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse, to train its staff about sexual abuse, and to follow the law regarding the reporting of child sexual abuse. Hanover noted that the plaintiffs could have sought to declare the contract void and collect what likely would have been “a far larger award.”

“They have instead opted to seek damages for these noted breaches and to maintain the contract in force for the protection of children in the future,” Hanover was quoted in the Star article. “I here honor their preference and join in their hope that I am dead wrong in my opinion that this Diocese as presently constituted will not mend its ways.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Jul. 1, 2014

MILWAUKEE Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland had planned to move to a Benedictine abbey, but the abbot has rescinded the invitation.

“This past week the abbot of my monastery in Latrobe phoned me to say he did not think it was a good time to return there,” Weakland said in an email to NCR Sunday, the same day a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced he would move to the St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pa. Weakland joined the community of monks at the age of 18 and spent much of his time there over the next 20 years.

The Vatican recently laicized a Latrobe monk accused of misconduct, Mark Gruber, whose presence was creating some turmoil in the community. “The atmosphere was not a good one for me to return to,” Weakland wrote. “Thus I will not be returning to Latrobe right now and at age 87 one never know what can happen in the future.”

In Milwaukee, Weakland leads a low-profile life. He lives alone in an apartment and is said to attend daily Mass. He has no public role in the church, and when the current archbishop celebrates Mass and prays for the pope and bishops living in the diocese by name, Weakland is not mentioned. He was not allowed to deliver a homily at an annual priest retreat some years ago.

Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, leader of the Latrobe community, did not respond to calls from NCR.

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UNITED STATES
Faith Street

It took me years to realize that my relationship with my pastor was not romantic — it was sexual abuse.

by Marie Jensen

I was fifteen years old, lying next to my youth pastor during an overnight leadership team retreat. He was the only adult chaperone, and the rest of my peers slept soundly around me. We were talking in hushed tones about my body image issues, and he asked what part of my body I was most self-conscious about.

I told him: my stomach.

He told me he was going to touch my stomach so I would realize how beautiful it was.

His hands quickly drifted.

The next day he took me back to his apartment — I don’t know where his wife was that day — and kissed me for the first time. I remember it vividly — what I was wearing, what he was wearing, where we were standing. We were still standing, though moments later I would be on my back on his couch, his hands on the buttons of my denim shorts.

But when he kissed me the first time, he kissed me, and then pulled back, my face still firmly in his hands. “Kiss me back!” he said, exasperated.

I’d never been kissed. I didn’t know how.

And so it went for everything we did — everything he did to me. I still have to correct my language after twenty years. It wasn’t a consensual affair, though I certainly felt like it was whenever I’d watch him sweeping my long hairs off his bed when he was done. It felt like an affair when he’d cry after and tell me how this was wrong but he loved me so much and we only had to wait a few more years and he would leave his wife.

It felt like I had power when he said he’d kill himself if anyone found out.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Marist Brother child molester Gregory Joseph Sutton sent to US to live a new life, royal commission told

A MARIST Brother who ­admitted to child sexual abuse was sent overseas and told to stay there and “live a new life” when a warrant was issued for his arrest, an inquiry has heard.

Former Marist Brother and convicted paedophile Gregory Joseph Sutton admitted to abusing a schoolboy in a meeting with the boy’s father in mid-1989, the Royal Commission into Institutional Res-ponses to Child Sexual Abuse heard yesterday.

“He asked me if I did it. I said yes,” Sutton said.

A couple of weeks after the admission, Sutton met with Brother Alexis Turton, the Provincial, or head of the Marist order in Australia, and four days later was on a plane to the US, his ticket provided by the brotherhood.

Asked if Br Turton knew he had admitted to abusing the boy, Sutton said he did not verbally tell his superior but “I would say my body language, by looking at the ground or some such thing that, yes, I admit to it”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JULY 02, 2014

AUSTRALIAN showman Rolf Harris’s conviction on 12 child-sex charges in Britain is yet another sign that law-enforcement authorities around the world are finally dealing with a sickening evil that was hidden for decades. Like Tony Abbott, most Australians will feel gutted and dismayed at the revelations of Harris’s abuse of four girls. The most important lesson, as from other cases, is that young people need protection, though it is impossible to legislate for every twist of human behaviour. Parental vigilance must always be one of our most important defences.

Over the past 18 months, Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has made extensive headway uncovering abuse at a range of church, community and sporting institutions. It has also shone a light on how those matters were dealt with or, in many cases, swept under the carpet. The commission has received allegations of abuse committed at 1000 institutions, referred 160 matters to police around the nation and held 14 public hearings.

In order to finish its work thoroughly, consider appropriate redress for victims and make recommendations about how to prevent and respond to abuse in future, the commission should be granted the extra two years it needs. Such an extension would give many more complainants their say and allow additional public hearings into institutions where abuse took place.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JULY 02, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

A PEDOPHILE Catholic bro­ther has told a royal commission the leader of his order alerted him to a police investigation, sent him overseas four days later and subsequently told him to “stay there and live your life”.

Gregory Sutton, a former Marist Brother ultimately convicted of 67 sexual offences against 15 children, is the first ­serial offender to publicly give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Sutton, released from prison in 2008, told the commission the then-head of the Marist Brothers, Alexis Turton, met him in 1989 and told him there was a police ­investigation into his activities at a western Sydney school.

Brother Turton directed ­Sutton to leave the country four days later, travelling first to ­Chicago and then to Canada for “assessment” at an institute used by the Catholic Church, Sutton told the commission.

“I thought it sounded extremely sudden to me. I didn’t question the timing of it,” he said.

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TEXAS
Alice Echo-News Journal

Posted: Tuesday, July 1, 2014

By Jimmy Willden jwillden@aliceechonews.com

Allegations of inappropriate conduct against a church worker or employee from a local pastor has lead to his resignation.

On Saturday, June 28, Pastor Monsignor Michael Heras of St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Parish in Annaville resigned from his position of pastor of the church after the Diocese of Corpus Christi placed him on leave while it continued its investigation.

Monsignor Heras has been a local fixture in the local Catholic scene ever since beginning his pastoral tenure in the Corpus Christi area in 1993. In July 2013, Heras was appointed as pastor at St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Parish.

A statement released by the Diocese of Corpus Christi reads as follows:

“The Diocese of Corpus Christi, and its Churches and Schools, continue to be committed to protecting children and young persons. Any accusation of inappropriate conduct, made against a church worker or employee of the Diocese is always taken seriously and fully investigated regardless of the age of the victim or the amount of time that has passed.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON July 1, 2014

THE Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese will establish an independent review panel to determine the future of priests criticised in findings of the child sex abuse special commission of inquiry.

But abuse victims have called the move ‘‘ridiculous’’ and ‘‘yet more evidence that the Church has learned nothing’’.

Bishop Bill Wright published a lengthy statement in the diocesan magazine Aurora yesterday, defending the Church’s response to the inquiry’s findings against six senior clergy.

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen made adverse findings against Father William Burston and Monsignor Allan Hart. The diocese has allowed them to retain their positions in their parishes, but withdrawn them from any committees which report to the bishop.

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NETHERLANDS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 01, 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 )

Thousands of Dutch clergy sex abuse victims registered with a commission collecting complaints. We are glad that so many victims in Holland were able to come forward and report their abuse, but we suspect there are many more suffering in silence and self-blame.

[Dutch News]

The commission was set up after the abuse scandal broke in Holland in 2010 and the deadline was June 30, 1,585 people came forward, with 448 receiving payments. The commission was meant to offer reparations to victims whose perpetrator died or the statute of limitations prevented criminal justice. We are concerned that now that the deadline is past other victims will stay silent.

While no amount of money can repair what Catholic officials so callously broke, it does help. We hope that anyone who is suffering in silence and self-blame and missed the deadline will not be discouraged and will speak up, expose wrong doing and start healing.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Hundreds of care leavers are calling on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to put in place a temporary compensation package for elderly abuse survivors.

Disappointed the child sex abuse royal commission did not make firm recommendations in its interim report about a redress scheme, Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) has launched its own campaign.

CLAN co-founder Leonie Sheedy said that while the commission’s promise to make recommendations on redress a priority was pleasing, it would be too late for many.

The organisation was hoping for the commission to make its recommendation sooner rather than later, she said.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 1, 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)

Even though he confessed to molesting a child four years ago, we fear that criminal child sex abuse charges against Fr. Michael Joseph Kelleher will be dropped today by Stanly County prosecutor Reece Saunders who, we believe, has some tough questions to answer about why he let this case linger for four years.

[Cult Education Institute]

(Apparently, a Charlotte attorney shares our fears: http://sethlangsonlaw.com/blog)

After civil child sex abuse lawsuits against Fr. Kelleher were dismissed days ago, a hearing on his criminal prosecution was put on the schedule for 2 p.m. today. That just doesn’t pass the smell test. We call on Saunders (704 986 7010) to explain his rationale and this timing.

When Fr. Kelleher was arrested four years ago, Albemarle Police Chief Ronnie Michael said “We have a solid case.”

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priestst

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 1, 2014

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

In an unprecedented case, the only one like it (we believe) in the country, an arbitrator has ordered a controversial Missouri bishop to pay $1.1 million to 42 victims of clergy sex crimes because he broke his pledges to improve how he deals with abuse cases. It’s a “breach of contract” case.

The disclosure came, perhaps accidentally, on Friday (June 20) in a virtually-unnoticed unsealed court filing by lawyers for Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn, who wants the award nullified.

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

In four sentences, here’s what is happening:

1) In 2008, 47 victims settled child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits against Finn and his diocese. As part of that deal, they insisted that Finn commit to 19 non-economic child safety measures.

[BishopAccountability.org]

2) In October 2011, 44 of those victims formally charged that Finn broke many of those child safety measures, in part by keeping two credibly accused predator priests in ministry (Fr. James Tierney and Fr. Shawn Ratigan) and by not reporting suspicions and knowledge of child sex crimes promptly to law enforcement

[News-Tribune]

[BishopAccountability.org]

In March, an arbitrator – harshly criticizing KC Catholic officials – awarded $1.1 million to the victims.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Jun. 30, 2014 Distinctly Catholic

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an important document last week that did not generate as much attention as it should have. The text deals with the sensus fidei and it represents the work of the International Theological Commission over several years. I would add that it is a very finely done document, accessible to anyone with even a rudimentary familiarity with theology.

The sensus fidei may be the single most misunderstood and abused concept in the post-Vatican II era. And, mere veracity requires those of us in the Catholic left and those of us who are not full-time theologians to admit that we have been the principal perpetrators of the misunderstandings. For all of my difficulties with certain trends in modern theology, most theologians have not misused the concept; it has been the commentariat. The sense of the faithful has been conflated with public opinion, repeatedly, and used to undermine Church teaching. It has been used to justify a stance of dissent. The misuse and misunderstanding of the phrase has been one of the more obvious examples of the maxim that a little learning can be a dangerous thing. This new document helps to ward of that danger. One wishes it had been published in, oh, I don’t know, late 1967!!!!

I do not need to repeat all that the document says, but would like to highlight a few key points that jumped out at me.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Seth H. Langston

Posted on June 30, 2014

FATHER KELLEHER UPDATE

Today I learned that Father Kelleher’s criminal case in Stanly County will be heard at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow. The stated reason is that it is on for hearing to consider the report to the Court that Father Kelleher was unable to stand trial. It remains my belief that the case will likely be dismissed tomorrow, nearly four years after charges were brought.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

Documents via BishopAccountability.org:
Arbitrator’s Modified Final Award
Judge’s Order Sending the Complaint to Arbitration
Complaint, Including the Settlement Documents
Our nonmonetary feature with links to the KC nonmonetaries and other examples

BY JUDY L. THOMASTHE
KANSAS CITY STAR
07/01/2014

An arbitrator has ordered the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese to pay $1.1 million for violating terms of a 2008 settlement that were designed to protect children from sexual abuse by priests.

The order stems from a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed nearly three years ago alleging that the diocese and Bishop Robert Finn violated parts of the settlement, putting children in danger.

The lawsuit, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court by 44 of the 47 plaintiffs from the earlier case, did not seek damages but asked a judge to force the diocese to arbitration to ensure that it had complied with the reforms agreed upon in the settlement.

In his highly critical order, arbitrator Hollis Hanover found that the diocese had breached five of the terms of the 2008 agreement. He noted that the plaintiffs could have sought to declare the contract void and collect what likely would have been “a far larger award.”

“They have instead opted to seek damages for these noted breaches and to maintain the contract in force for the protection of children in the future,” Hanover wrote. “I here honor their preference and join in their hope that I am dead wrong in my opinion that this Diocese as presently constituted will not mend its ways.”
The diocese said Tuesday that because the matter was pending, it could not comment beyond what was submitted to the court in a motion it filed to vacate the order.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 1, 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 Springfield Catholic priest who made headlines when police helped him escape a bondage outfit he’d put on now has a new assignment.

Bishop Thomas Paprocki has moved Fr. Thomas Donovan to St. Peter in Quincy, IL.

[Parish of St. Peter]

[Huffington Post]

After the 2013 incident, Fr. Donovan was granted a leave of absence. Since his ordination in 2005 Fr. Donovan has worked at parishes in Carlinville, Springfield and Alton.

When Paprocki put him back on the job, Paprocki claimed that a therapist approved the move because Donovan had engaged in “non-sexual bondage” which was a response to stress.

[Riverfront Times]

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

Radio host John Balyo’s court date has been moved.

WOOD TV reports former radio host accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy did not appear in court Monday.

John Balyo was expected in a Battle Creek courtroom Monday morning for a hearing, but his lawyer instead waived a rule requiring the hearing to take place within 14 days of arraignment. A preliminary hearing was rescheduled for Aug. 4

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites Australia researcher (posted 1 July 2014)

An Australian jury has convicted a priest (Father James Henry Scannell, 88) on a charge of buggery, committed against a 12-year-old boy more than 40 years ago. After the assault, the priest required the boy to take part in Confession and ordered him not to tell anybody about the assault, the court was told. The victim (now in his fifties) finally reported this crime to police after learning that his aunt’s funeral in 2010 was to be conducted by this priest, the court was told.

A jury returned its guilty verdict in the Melbourne County Court on 1 July 2014. Father Scannell is listed in the 2013 edition of the official Australian Catholic Directory as a “Supplementary Priest” of the Melbourne archdiocese, which is the largest diocese in Australia. Supplementary priests are no longer in charge of a parish, but they are available for relieving other priests or for conducting weddings or funerals. Father Scannell has the letters “PE” (pastor emeritus) after his name, which means that the Melbourne archdiocese had awarded him the honour of being a distinguished priest.

In the early 1970s, according to court documents, Father Scannell was stationed at St Anne’s parish in East Kew, a leafy Melbourne suburb, where the 12-year-old served as an altar boy. The boy attended the parish with his aunt.

Father Scannell (date of birth 17 April 1926) assaulted the boy at the priest’s parish house between August 1970 and July 1972 when the boy was aged between 11 and 13.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: The child abuse royal commission has for the first time heard evidence from a convicted child sex offender.

Former Marist Brother, Gregory Sutton, has appeared at the inquiry in Sydney to give evidence about his time as a teacher at schools in Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT.

He was convicted in 1996 of 67 counts of sexual offences against 15 children.

He served 12 years in jail.

The Church has paid $1.8 million in compensation relating to Sutton’s offences.

Our correspondent covering the inquiry, Emily Bourke, joins us now.

Emily, what sort of questioning did this convicted offender face when he took the stand this morning?

EMILY BOURKE: Greg Sutton has been asked about his teaching career in Australia, which began in the 1970s. The royal commission has heard that he moved frequently between schools run by the Marist Brothers and seemingly those transfers occurred without much explanation. But we know that there were complaints about his misconduct with children dating back to his very early teaching career in 1974.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has come under fire for threatening to use the contentious Ellis defence. That defence says the church is not a legal entity which can be sued.

But in March, the former Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, told the Royal Commission into child abuse that victims should be able to sue the church.

Now, though, a New South Wales woman says the church still plans to use the legal precedent to fight her compensation claim.

Lorna Knowles compiled this report.

JENNIFER HERRICK: I was born with a congenital orthopaedic disability that caused me to walk with a highly abnormal gait, and I was really conscious of that. I would squirm inside myself at how I walked.

I didn’t have any ability to feel comfortable with males at all because of how I walked. I was stared at for 30 years, where ever I walked, I was stared at.

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AUSTRALIA
Weekly Times Now

LABOR supports giving the royal commission into child sexual abuse more time and money to finish its work and wants the government to do the same.

OPPOSITION Leader Bill Shorten says the commission’s remarkable, painful and difficult work has empowered many people who have previously felt they haven’t had a voice.

The royal commission asked for a two-year extension in its interim report on Monday, delaying its final reporting date until December 2017.

The extra time would cost another $104 million.

“If they believe that they need extra time I think that it’s incumbent on the parliament to support this,” Mr Shorten told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Monday 30 June 2014

Gregory Sutton, the Marist Brothers teacher convicted of child sexual abuse, has told the royal commission he never asked why he was transferred from school to school, and that the head of the order told him to stay in the US to avoid a warrant issued for his arrest in Australia.

Sutton was suddenly called to give evidence to the royal commission on institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Tuesday, the first time an abuser who was the subject of a public hearing has been called before one. The commission gave no prior warning, sending an updated witness list to media five minutes before Sutton’s appearance.

Sutton’s identity had been legally hidden for almost 20 years until the beginning of this public hearing, when presiding commissioner Justice Jennifer Coates overturned the suppression order.

Sutton, one of two teachers under examination in this public hearing, was convicted in 1996 after pleading guilty to 67 charges of sexual assault against 15 children. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison, with a minimum term of 12 years, and was released in 2008.

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AUSTRALIA
Tzedek

1 July 2014

In September 2013 Maccabi appointed an independent committee to investigate misconduct by former Maccabi coach Shannon Francis towards Maccabi members. Tzedek welcomes Maccabi’s public statement today in response to the report, which was recently submitted by the committee.

Tzedek CEO Manny Waks issued the following statement:

“Tzedek commends Maccabi on its initiative to launch this independent inquiry, and welcomes its findings and broader outcomes. It highlights the seriousness in which Maccabi views this matter.

Tzedek acknowledges the monumental work and commitment of all those involved in this inquiry, especially the three committee members, Nina Bassat AM, Harry Rosenberg and Daniel Aghion, as well as the senior Maccabi leadership. At all times through this process both the committee and Maccabi acted professionally, compassionately and sensitively.

We would like to take this opportunity to commend the courageous victims for participating in this process. It would not have been easy but their contribution has been invaluable – not least for Maccabi to better understand the various consequences associated with such an experience.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A former Marist Brother jailed for child sex offences has been questioned about why he fled Australia within days of being told of a police investigation into his activities.

Greg Sutton is the first convicted paedophile to be called before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The decision to call Sutton as a witness this morning was unexpected.

He spent 12 years in jail for abusing boys and girls while working as a teacher at Marist Brothers schools in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT in the 1970s and 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

An 88-year-old former priest faces the prospect of being jailed after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a boy more than 40 years ago.

James Henry Scannell was on Tuesday found guilty by a jury of one charge of buggery following a trial in the County Court last week. The jury had deliberated since last Thursday.

The court was told Scannell sexually assaulted the boy at the man’s then home in Kew between August 1970 and July 1972 when the child was aged between 11 and 13.

The boy was working at Scannell’s house for pocket money at the time.

The boy was told by Scannell to have a shower and give confession after he was assaulted, the court heard.

It was not until 2010 that the victim told relatives of the assault, the court heard, after he learnt Scannell was to conduct the funeral for the victim’s aunt.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A former Victorian priest has been found guilty of sexually assaulting an altar boy who came to his home to perform chores for pocket money 40 years ago.

The victim broke his silence when he heard the priest was to conduct his aunt’s funeral.

In the 1970s, James Henry Scannell, now 88, lured the 12-year-old altar boy into his bedroom and assaulted him.

He then ordered the child to take a shower and sent him home in tears, telling him never to speak of what happened.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF JUNE 30, 2014

As a new Council for the Economy created by Pope Francis to oversee reform in Vatican finances prepares to meet this week, the troubled Vatican bank appears set for its second shake-up in two years with the imminent departure of its president, German businessman Ernst von Freyberg.

Officials confirmed the move to the Globe on Monday, but disagreed as to whether it’s a routine part of restructuring efforts or if alleged irregularities are involved.

While struggling to avoid impressions of a crisis, Vatican officials also find themselves playing down accusations in the Italian press that a shadowy “Maltese lobby” led by economist Joseph F.X. Zahra of Malta, vice coordinator of the new council, is attempting to take control of Vatican assets, presumably for motives of financial gain.

Speaking on background, Vatican officials insist the reports are either false or exaggerated.

Officials not authorized to speak on the record said von Freyberg’s exit could be finalized as early as this week, following a meeting the Council for the Economy will hold Saturday. Eight cardinals, including Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, make up that body, along with seven lay members.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
The College Fix

by LAUREN COOLEY – FURMAN UNIVERSITY on JULY 1, 2014
FIX FEATURE

South Carolina’s Bob Jones University, nicknamed the “Fortress of Fundamentalism,” has been accused of grossly mishandling dozens of reported rapes and other cases of sexual assault over two decades – and cutting short an investigation that BJU itself commissioned.

Students who suffered sexual abuse have accused the Christian university of telling them not to report the abuse because it “would damage Jesus Christ,” according to The New York Times.

In a recent report by Al Jazeera’s America Tonight newsmagazine, one student even said she was asked “whether she would really want to prevent a ‘Godly man’ from getting an education that would allow him to ‘serve the Lord.’”

America Tonight interviewed five former BJU students who attended the school from the early 1990s to the 2010s. They alleged gross misguidance by BJU counselors when they sought help and healing for sexual abuse.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The New York Times

Documents via BishopAccountability.org:
Arbitrator’s Modified Final Award
Judge’s Order Sending the Complaint to Arbitration
Complaint, Including the Settlement Documents
Our nonmonetary feature with links to the KC nonmonetaries and other examples

By JULIE BOSMAN
JUNE 30, 2014

CHICAGO — A Roman Catholic diocese in Missouri has been ordered to pay $1.1 million to victims of sexual abuse for breaking its promises on improving the way it deals with abuse cases.

An arbitrator ruled that the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is responsible for damages after concluding that, contrary to a prior agreement, it did not promptly report a priest who had taken hundreds of pornographic photographs of young girls, according to a filing in circuit court in Jackson County, Mo.

The case grew out of a $10 million settlement with abuse victims in 2008, under which the bishop, Robert Finn, promised that he would report those suspected of child abuse to law enforcement officials in the future. At the time, Bishop Finn said in a statement that he agreed to rules “that should assure our community, our congregation and our families that the diocese will continue in its exercise of vigilance and in its devotion to training and education so that we may be confident that there will never, ever be a repeat of the behaviors, the offenses or the claims that have been associated with this matter.”

But the 18-page court filing says that promise was violated in 2010 in the case of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a diocesan priest who was discovered with hundreds of photographs of girls, including so-called upskirt images, on his laptop. Although the presence of the computer images was reported to church officials, law enforcement authorities were not notified. …

But a prominent victims’ group said it was pleased that the church has been ordered to pay damages. David Clohessy, the national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called the decision “significant.”

“It shows that even though the church hierarchy has dealt with this privately for centuries and publicly for decades, and even though all of America’s bishops pledged more than 12 years ago that they were going to reform,” Mr. Clohessy said, “this is a painful reminder that, in fact, there’s been painfully little reform.”

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Some notes while reading the Rolling Stone article on the Tyler Deaton cult. It’s a long piece, and I’ll give some highlights below, with a running commentary (the boldface is my own emphasis throughout).

They spent many hours discussing the Harry Potter books and films, which they approached with “a religious devotion,” according to [cult survivor] Herrington, whom they briefly resisted admitting to the group, because it would have broken the symmetry. The works “fueled our sense of being on a divine mission,” says Herrington. “One of their chief attractions was a sense of belonging to a secret club with exclusive access to knowledge and power. That was the root of our whole ideology.”

Such a Gnostic thrill of power is behind much of the heterodoxy in the Church today.

“In the years I was with him, things were constantly happening that I had to shrug away as being ‘the work of the Holy Spirit,'” says Herrington. “[Cult founder] Tyler [Deaton] would raise his voice and say, ‘Jesus!’ and the neighbor’s music would immediately stop. He would tell the birds to fly away and they would fly away. He would place curses on my appliances so they wouldn’t work.”

OK, that’s creepy. But cults are demonic and the presence of the preternatural should surprise no one.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, July 1 (Reuters) – The Vatican bank’s chairman is to step down as soon as next week as part of the restructuring of an institution that has been an embarrassment to the Catholic Church for decades, Vatican sources said on Tuesday.

But the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, disagreed over whether Ernst von Freyberg was leaving willingly or whether he was being pushed out over differences within the Vatican about the pace of reform.

Freyberg’s departure is expected to be announced in connection with the publication, most likely next week, of the new annual report of the bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).

The new statues of the bank are expected to make the chairman’s job a full-time, residential position and, according to one source, Freyberg has decided he wants to return to his family in Germany.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

In totaal 1585 klagers hebben zich voor de sluitingstermijn op 30 juni aangemeld bij het Meldpunt Misbruik Katholieke Kerk. Het gaat om 1309 mannen en 276 vrouwen die zich hebben beklaagd over seksueel misbruik door functionarissen van de rooms-katholieke kerk, blijkt uit een overzicht van het meldpunt.

448 klagers hebben inmiddels een schadevergoeding ontvangen van gemiddeld 30.693 euro. In 160 ernstige gevallen werd gemiddeld ruim 60.000 euro uitgekeerd. Tot dusver is 13,7 miljoen euro uitbetaald aan de slachtoffers.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

Ongeveer 350 mensen die hebben geklaagd over fysiek geweld binnen de Rooms-Katholiek Kerk krijgen een financiële tegemoetkoming aangeboden van in totaal bijna een miljoen euro. Het maximale bedrag per persoon is 5000 euro. Dat maakte de onafhankelijke commissie die over de uitkering gaat vandaag bekend.

Het gaat om mensen die op onder meer scholen en internaten slachtoffer waren van buitensporig lichamelijk en psychisch geweld, dat geen rechtstreekse relatie had met seksueel geweld. Ze hadden onder meer geklaagd bij de commissie-Deetman, het meldpunt van de kerk zelf en bij lotgenotenorganisaties.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 1, 2014

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

As police sought to bring a Catholic brother living overseas back to Australia to face 67 charges of child sexual abuse, the Australian head of the Marist Brothers told him to “stay over there and enjoy your new life”, the royal commission has heard.

In testimony before the commission on Tuesday, convicted paedophile Gregory Sutton set out allegations of a blatant and extended cover-up orchestrated by Brother Alexis Turton, head of the Marist Brothers in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

Sutton, who taught at numerous Marist Brothers schools, told the commission that, in August 1989, he was called in for a meeting with then head (or provincial) of the Marist Brothers in Australia, Brother Turton, and told that he was being investigated by police over his abuse of children at a school in Campbelltown.

Within four days of that meeting, Sutton said, he was put on a plane to the US. He then travelled to Canada for an “assessment” and “treatment” for his behaviour, at a Catholic Church institution known as Southdown.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Volume 1
Volume 2

Adam Brereton
theguardian.com, Tuesday 1 July 2014

The first year’s work of the royal commission into child abuse, compiled in their interim report released on Monday, is a grand achievement. Between the public hearings, private sessions with victims and the rigorous process of community consultation and scholarly research, the commission is already a triumph, however grim – a one-of-a-kind moment in Australian history.

The interim report is largely a plea for a time and funding extension, and apologises for not yet offering definitive profiles of either perpetrators or institutions. However the information the commission has collected to date does at least allude to conclusions to come, one of them quite unsettling: that child abuse in Australia has a distinctively Roman Catholic character.

The report records that 87% of alleged abusers were male, and 29% of those were clergy. The next largest group were teachers, at 16%, but the commission notes that “alleged perpetrators could be both members of the clergy and teachers”.

Catholic institutions were also the most commonly reported sites for abuse. Of 1,033 faith-based institutions reported to the commission, 68% were Catholic. When broadened out to include non-faith government and private sites, Catholics still comprised 41% of the total – the largest group.

In one short section on page 123, the report notes that: “The Royal Commission wants to find out why there have been a significant number of perpetrators in certain institutions.” The commission’s scholarly research projects, 21 of which were completed by June 2014, identify which certain institution that is.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Amnesty International and the United Nations have both condemned the Vatican guilty in the violation of human rights against children worldwide. To say that the “Vatican leads war against child abuse” is tantamount to saying the “Nazis leads the war against terrorism”. The Vatican created a culture of sex abuse against children with the systemic cover-up by popes, cardinals and bishops unparalleled by other institutions on earth and those same oligarchs are still in power today. Unlike the Nazis, all those Catholics all-male hypocritical princes of the church have gone unpunished for their roles in the horrendous crimes against children – all because they are shielded by the Eucharist, the apex of Satanic Mass and biggest lie of the Devil since the Garden of Eden.

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NETHERLANDS
Dutch News

Tuesday 01 July 2014

In total, 1,585 people registered complaints about sexual abuse by Catholic church officials by the deadline of June 30, the organisation collecting complaints said on Tuesday.

Most of the victims – 1,309 – were men. The deadline applies to complaints made against church officials who have either died or whose crimes took place so long ago they can no longer be taken to court.

Since the registration system was set up, 448 people have been given financial compensation, averaging €30,700. In 160 very serious cases, the payout averaged over €60,000.

In total, the church has paid out €13.7m in compensation to victims.

Report

At least 800 Catholic priests and monks were involved in abusing children in their care between 1945 and 1985, according to a comprehensive report into the church sexual abuse scandal published on December 16, 2011.

In addition, church officials, bishops and lay people were aware of what was going on but failed to take action to protect children, the commission, led by former Christian Democratic party chairman Wim Deetman, said.

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DES MOINES (IA)
KCCI

DES MOINES, Iowa —The bishop of the Des Moines Diocese has place a priest on indefinite administrative leave after finding a decades-old allegation of sexual abuse of a minor was credible.

The diocese says in a news release Monday that Bishop Richard Pate has placed the Rev. Howard Fitzgerald on leave while the matter is forwarded to the Vatican.

While on leave, Fitzgerald can’t function publicly as a priest. Pate also has asked him to not wear clerical garb.

During the investigation, Pate had asked Fitzgerald to step aside from his responsibilities at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Indianola, Immaculate Conception Parish in St. Marys and at Simpson College.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 1, 2014

The article “Sleeping with boys was ‘common practice’: royal commission on sex abuse in Wollongong, day 3” (June 26, 2014) was accompanied online by a photograph of Fr John Neill OP OAM. The article discussed allegations of inappropriate conduct against defrocked Wollongong priest John Nestor heard at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Assault.

Fr Neill is a highly respected Dominican priest, now retired. He has no involvement with the Royal Commission and has never been the subject of any allegations of child sexual abuse.

The Herald withdraws any suggestion to the contrary and apologises to Fr Neill and his fellow Dominicans for the hurt and embarrassment caused by the wrongful use of his photograph with the article.

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IOWA
Des Moines Register

Grant Rodgers, grodgers@dmreg.com July 1, 2014

A Warren County Catholic priest has been put on administrative leave and faces removal from the priesthood after a church committee found “credible” evidence he sexually abused a minor.

Church officials with the Diocese of Greater Des Moines are keeping secret details of the reported abuse by the Rev. Howard Fitzgerald, 62, including the victim’s age, gender, and when and where the abuse is alleged to have occurred. The reported abuse happened “decades ago,” the diocese said in a prepared statement.

Fitzgerald is the fifth priest in the Des Moines Diocese to face being defrocked for sexual misconduct since 2003. That year, a diocese committee found evidence of sexual abuse by three priests: John Ryan, Albert Wilwerding and Richard Wagner.

In 2007, Phillip Hobt, a priest and former teacher at St. Albert Catholic Schools in Council Bluffs, was removed from the priesthood after an incident of sexual abuse in a Chicago suburb. Nationally, scandals involving sexual abuse by Catholic priests have rocked parishes in cities across the country, including Boston, Louisville, Ky., and Providence, R.I.

In Iowa, the scandal forced the Diocese of Davenport to file for bankruptcy in 2006. A $37 million settlement called for payments to 160 victims of abuse by priests.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Dr Roisin O’Shea

Tue, Jul 1, 2014

On Sunday, June 15th, 2014, Fr Arthur O’Neill, parish priest of St Brigid’s Catholic parish, Cabinteely, Dublin, issued a challenge to 40 journalists including Fintan O’Toole to “prove” that Fr Michael Cleary had fathered two children with Phyllis Hamilton, including their son Ross. He issued this challenge by way of the official parish newsletter, thereby giving the impression that he was speaking on behalf of the church.

Before this public challenge I had never heard of Fr O’Neill. I never heard Michael Cleary speak of him, nor did I meet him or hear of him visiting the home where Michael, Phyllis and Ross lived on Leinster Road in Rathmines for many years.

I sent Ross a message on the day Fr O’Neill’s newsletter was published. I told him I wanted to respond in a short statement, and asked him to read it beforehand. Ross gave me the go-ahead and poignantly responded: “Thanks for standing up for me, it is heartening.”

Ludicrous and offensive

It is astonishing to me that Fr O’Neill has taken it on himself to challenge the parentage of Ross and his older brother, and he did so without contacting Ross, who is entitled after all these years to get on with his life without this kind of attempt to once again seek to deny who his father is. I will not stand quietly by and allow this man to bring more pain to Ross, who has had enough denial rained on him to last more than a lifetime. The challenge is even more ludicrous and offensive when the most cursory comparison between Ross and his father shows the startling likeness between them.

Michael Cleary was the brother of my aunt (who was married to my mother’s brother). The pure force of nature that was Michael would charge into our childhood periodically. He was wildly entertaining, irreverent, loud and opinionated, and through my child’s eyes seemed omnipotent. During my years in art college I thought at one stage I wanted to teach art, but quickly learned I didn’t have the patience for teaching during my first placement in Ballyfermot.

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IOWA
TribTown

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: June 30, 2014

DES MOINES, Iowa — The bishop of the Des Moines Diocese has place a priest on indefinite administrative leave after finding a decades-old allegation of sexual abuse of a minor was credible.

The diocese says in a news release Monday that Bishop Richard Pate has placed the Rev. Howard Fitzgerald on leave while the matter is forwarded to the Vatican.

While on leave, Fitzgerald can’t function publicly as a priest. Pate also has asked him to not wear clerical garb.

During the investigation, Pate had asked Fitzgerald to step aside from his responsibilities at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Indianola, Immaculate Conception Parish in St. Marys and at Simpson College.

Pates says he’s apologized to the victim.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Fintan O’Toole

Tue, Jul 1, 2014

Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has strongly dissociated himself from a parish priest who cast doubt on claims that Fr Michael Cleary had fathered children.

Fr Cleary, who was among the best-known priests in Ireland and a champion of orthodox church teaching on sexuality, died at the end of 1993.

In 1995 it was revealed he had a son, Ross, with his housekeeper Phyllis Hamilton, who subsequently revealed the couple had previously given another son up for adoption.

In his June newsletter for St Brigid’s parish in Cabinteely, Fr Arthur O’Neill described these revelations as “exasperating”, unproven and the result of “shoddy practice” by named journalists, whom he challenged to prove them. He suggested his former clerical colleague had suffered a serious injustice: “The burial of a person’s legacy deeper than their body just isn’t fair – if it’s based on a falsehood.”

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Volume 1
Volume 2

SHANE WRIGHT AND ANDREW PROBYN CANBERRA The West Australian
July 1, 2014

A royal commission has uncovered child sexual abuse of such a scale that it needs two more years to deliver justice for victims.

In its interim report, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse reveals allegations of abuse have been made against more than 1000 institutions, ranging from long-day childcare centres to religious orders.

It warns that without being able to report in December 2017, the stories of thousands of victims will go untold. The commission, launched by then prime minister Julia Gillard in 2012, has found that “institutions and adults have systematically failed to protect children”.

Though its final recommendations may be some years away, the commission has expressed some support for a national agency to screen people who work with children as there are inconsistencies between the States.

But some jurisdictions have resisted such an agency, arguing it may not be achievable or appropriate.

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TEXAS
KIII

[with video]

CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) – We have new information on the story involving a local pastor accused of inappropriate conduct.

The church leader is currently being investigated by the Catholic Diocese.

Sunday, we have learned the alleged incident took place between 25 and 30 years ago. The accusation of inappropriate conduct was made against Monsignor Michael Heras, a well known church leader within the catholic community.

Monsignor Heras was most recently the Pastor at St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Parish in Corpus Christi.

Prior to that, he was the long time Pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

3 News has confirmed that Monsignor Heras is no longer in public ministry and is currently under supervision.

Information for the criminal investigation has been turned over to the district attorney’s office according to church officials.

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TEXAS
Caller-Times

Krista M. Torralva
4:26 PM, Jun 30, 2014

CORPUS CHRISTI – The Nueces County District Attorney’s office has turned information related to the pastor who resigned last week to Corpus Christi Police for a possible investigation.

The office received a letter from the Diocese of Corpus Christi on Friday, District Attorney Mark Skurka said Monday.

Monsignor Michael Heras resigned as pastor of St. Peter Prince of the Apostle’s Parish in Corpus Christi amid an investigation into inappropriate conduct, the Diocese said in a news release late Saturday.

When the diocese received an accusation of inappropriate conduct, Heras was immediately placed on leave, pending a complete investigation, and law enforcement was notified.

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TEXAS
KIII

Statement from the Diocese of Corpus Christi:

The Diocese of Corpus Christi, and its Churches and Schools, continue to be committed to protecting children and young persons. Any accusation of inappropriate conduct, made against a church worker or employee of the Diocese is always taken seriously and fully investigated regardless of the age of the victim or the amount of time that has passed.

An accusation of inappropriate conduct on the part of Msgr. Michael Heras, Pastor of St. Peter Prince of the Apostle’s Parish in Corpus Christi has been received by the Diocese. The alleged inappropriate conduct occurred years ago. In keeping with Diocesan policy, Msgr. Heras was immediately placed on leave, pending a complete investigation, and law enforcement was notified. Monsignor Heras has subsequently resigned as Pastor of St. Peter Prince of the Apostle’s Parish.

Prayers are requested for all concerned together with an appeal for the fair treatment and protection of the good name of all parties. As this is an ongoing investigation there will be no further comment.

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TEXAS
KRIS

CORPUS CHRISTI – A local pastor is placed on leave, amid allegations of inappropriate conduct against a church worker or employee.

Monsignor Michael Heras has been serving in the Corpus Christi area since 1993, making him a very well-known figure throughout the community.

He was appointed as pastor at St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Parish in Corpus Christi just last July.

Before, he served as pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help also in Corpus Christi. He was in Gregory before that for about 8 years, and has been ordained for nearly thirty.

We received a statement from the Diocese of Corpus Christi about the Monsignors’ resignation:

“The Diocese of Corpus Christi, and its Churches and Schools, continue to be committed to protecting children and young persons. Any accusation of inappropriate conduct, made against a church worker or employee of the Diocese is always taken seriously and fully investigated regardless of the age of the victim or the amount of time that has passed.

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.

TEXAS
KIII

[with video]

CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) – The Nueces County District Attorney has asked the Corpus Christi Police Department to conduct a formal investigation against a priest in the Corpus Christi Diocese who has been accused of inappropriate conduct.

Pastor Monsignor Michael Heras of St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Parish in Corpus Christi resigned from being pastor of that church after being removed from public ministry while the Diocese continues its investigation.

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UNITED STATES
Questions from a Ewe

Remember that brief 39 essay question survey the Vatican issued a few months back? You know… the one soliciting opinions about the church’s teachings on human sexuality and marriage to act as input to this October’s Synod on the Family. Well, the Vatican has compiled and released its preliminary findings from the survey in a document called an instrumentum laboris. Literally translated from Latin as…and we know the Vatican is all about literal Latin translations… granting us, O Lord, we pray, to hear about impoverished Jesus having an oblation in a gallant chalice held by his holy and venerable hands on a regular basis… But, I digress. Literally translated, instrumentum laboris means “instrument of labor”, basically a tool.

If you don’t want me to spoil your pleasure reading the 85 page report yourself, then stop reading now. However, if you don’t want to invest numerous irretrievable hours of your life reading a report that could have been written without surveying a single person, you might prefer reading this summary instead.

When it was first issued, I wrote this about the survey in a November 2, 2013 blog article, “…do not place too much hope that the Vatican seeking your opinion means the Vatican will actually heed your advice. It might again just inspire the Vatican to write another really long document in Latin explaining why you are wrong.”

It turns out that statement was prescient other than the Vatican crowd did disappoint by writing the original report in Italian rather than Latin. Don’t despair. We can still hope that some dreadfully long academic admonition in Latin emerges from the Synod itself.

To be fair, amidst the 85 pages of “We are right so how do we get these stubborn, misguided idiots to follow us…”, there were 2 entire sentences acknowledging the hierarchy’s lack of credibility as a moral authority since its culture enables criminal sexual abuse of children (paragraph 75). And there was a half sentence which came dangerously close to acknowledging cultural sexism, “In some places characterized by a somewhat sexist cultural tradition, there exists a certain lack of respect towards women…” (paragraph 55)

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VATICAN CITY
Fox News Latino

VATICAN CITY – Father Alvaro Corcuera, who led the Legion of Christ religious order through the turmoil surrounding revelations that its founder was a pedophile and fraud, has died. He was 56.

The Legion said Corcuera, who stepped down as superior in 2012 because of a brain tumor, died Monday afternoon in Mexico City.

Corcuera took over as superior in 2005, a year after the Vatican opened a secret sex abuse investigation into the Legion’s founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel. Even though the Vatican found Maciel guilty in 2006 and Legion officials opened their own internal investigation, Corcuera and the rest of the Legion leadership continued to publicly defend him as a saint until admitting to his double life in 2009.

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, June 30, 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 )

Des Moines’ Catholic bishop is being far too secretive and lax about the credibly accused child molesting cleric that he has suspended.

[Des Moines Register]

For the safety of kids, Bishop Richard Pates should disclose where Fr. Howard Fitzgerald, is now. He should disclose when Catholic officials first received allegations of child sexual abuse against Fr. Fitzgerald. He should put Fr. Fitzgerald into a remote, secure treatment center so he’ll be kept away from kids. And he should personally visit every parish where Fr. Fitzgerald worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police, so that Fr. Fitzgerald might be criminally charged, convicted and be kept away from kids even longer.

In short, Pates is not saying or doing enough about Fr. Fitzgerald. Pates has pledged to be “open” about clergy sex abuse cases. He should honor that pledge right now.

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MEXICO
aciprensa

MÉXICO DF , 30 Jun. 14 / 02:31 pm (ACI/EWTN Noticias).- El P. Álvaro Corcuera, que fuera director general del Regnum Christi y de los Legionarios de Cristo de 2005 hasta 2014, falleció este lunes 30 de junio en Ciudad de México (México) luego de una larga lucha contra el cáncer.

“El Movimiento Regnum Christi y los Legionarios de Cristo agradecemos al Señor por la vida del P. Álvaro Corcuera, religioso y sacerdote de Jesucristo, y lo confiamos a la misericordia del Señor que ha querido que donde Él esté, estén también sus servidores. Acompañamos a sus hermanos y familiares con nuestras oraciones para que la victoria de Cristo sobre la muerte les llene de consuelo. ¡Descanse en paz!”, expresó el movimiento en su sitio web.

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MEXICO
Legionairies of Christ

Fr. Álvaro Corcuera LC passes away in Mexico

Mexico City, June 30, 2014 -Today in Mexico City, Fr. Álvaro Corcuera Martínez del Río, L.C. departed for the Father’s house after a long battle with cancer. Fr. Álvaro served as General Director of Regnum Christi and the Legionaries of Christ from 2005 until 2014.

His final resting place will be in the French Cemetery in San Joaquín, Mexico City.

The Regnum Christi Movement and the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ give thanks to the Lord for Fr. Álvaro’s life as a religious and priest of Jesus Cristo. We entrust him to the Lord’s mercy and pray that “where he is, there also may his servant be.” (John 14:23) We wish to accompany his family and relatives with our prayers. May Christ’s victory over death fill them with consolation. May he rest in peace!

The Legion of Christ has opened an online book of condolences at: http://legionariesofchrist.org/inmemoryofFrAlvaro/

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