ABUSE TRACKER

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

20 MAY 2014

A Catholic order of nuns has admitted that emotional abuse and neglect took place in its residential homes in Northern Ireland.

The Sisters of Nazareth have already acknowledged and apologised for physical and sexual attacks which occurred within their properties, a focus of the UK’s largest ever institutional child abuse public inquiry.

A senior member, speaking on behalf of the congregation, said evidence from victims at the Londonderry homes was “shocking and harrowing”.

Sister Brenda McCall said: “We must accept that at certain times, by certain sisters, things were just not right.”

The treatment of young people, orphaned or taken away from their unmarried mothers, in houses run by nuns, brothers or the state is a key concern of an investigation chaired by retired High Court judge Sir Anthony Hart which is being held in Banbridge, Co Down.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Hinckley Times

Police and Crime Commissioner Sir Clive Loader has given his backing to a support service for male victims of sexual abuse.

First Step offers a free and confidential service to male survivors of rape and sexual abuse living in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland who are over the age of 13.

Sir Clive visited co-ordinator Cas Beckett at the First Step offices located within Victim Support in Bishop Street, Leicester, to discuss how the service is making a difference to the lives of local people.

Promoting First Step and raising awareness of male abuse support services contributes to priority number six in Sir Clive’s Police and Crime Plan – to ensure a positive outcome from victims and witnesses of serious sexual offences.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

Tue, May 20, 2014

The Sisters of Nazareth who ran two children’s homes in Derry, have again admitted and apologised for physical and sexual abuses suffered by residents there.

Sr Brenda McCall, speaking on behalf of the order, was asked if it was accepted by the order that in some cases the standard of care was not acceptable.

She admitted much of the testimony already heard by the inquiry into historical abuses at care homes was “shocking and harrowing”.

Certain behaviour by some nuns was “just not right,” she said.

Asked was the order guilty of physical abuse, Sr Brenda said: “Unfortunately yes, I would accept that. Yes.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 20, 2014

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

A Chicago Catholic university is confirming today that it still is hiring the most recent U.S. ambassador to the Vatican despite allegations that he “likely” recently sexually harassed a married couple. This is a stunningly reckless move.

[Inside Higher Ed]

Miguel H. Diaz will start as a professor at Loyola University on July 1. The university says it conducted its own review into the allegations and decided to move forward with hiring Diaz.

We strongly urge Loyola University officials to reverse this irresponsible decision. At a bare minimum, we believe students, staff and the public have a right to know how university officials allegedly conducted their “review” and who was involved in it. We urge students and staff at Loyola to insist on this transparency.

No students and staff at any college should be subjected to sexual harassment. Given the findings of University of Dayton officials, Diaz does not belong on any campus.

This case is similar to one at Adrian College, a Methodist school in Michigan. Adrian officials hired Thomas Hodgman as a professor, despite his sworn admission that he sexually abused a teenaged high school girl, and despite allegations that he impregnated her, gave her a sexually transmitted disease and molested two other girls. One of Hodgman’s victims, Joelle Casteix, won a $1.6 million settlement. But Hodgman still teaches at Adrian today.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 20, 2014

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

Shame on church officials for dragging their feet with these negotiations. There’s simply no reason it must take this long to resolve credible child sex abuse cases.

[Tribune-Democrat]

Delays only mean even more suffering and uncertainty for deeply wounded adults who have suffered long enough.

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CITTE DEL VATICANO
L’Huffington Post

La Bild pubblica oggi una notizia relativa a possibili indagini dell’Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria della Santa Sede e della Città del Vaticano relative a un prestito di 15 milioni di euro che sarebbe stato concesso dallo Ior alla casa di produzione televisiva “Lux Vide” (della famiglia Bernabei, ma impegnata su temi religiosi con fiction come “Don Matteo”) dietro sollecitazione dell’ex segretario di Stato Tarcisio Bertone. Di tale indagine non c’è traccia però nel Rapporto presentato ieri dal direttore dell’Aif, Renè Brulhart.

Interpellato dall’Adnkronos, il cardinale Bertone ha smentito decisamente l’accusa di malversazione riportata dal tabloid tedesco poiché, ha detto, “la convenzione dello Ior con la società Lux Vide è stata discussa e approvata dalla commissione cardinalizia di vigilanza e dal consiglio di sovrintendenza nella riunione del 4 dicembre 2013, come dimostra il verbale relativo”.

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VATIKAN
Bild (Deutschland)

Von NIKOLAUS HARBUSCH

Rom – Nach BILD-Recherchen ermittelt die Finanzaufsicht des Vatikan (AIF) gegen Papst Benedikts früheren Staatssekretär.

Kardinal Tarcisio Bertone (79), einer der mächtigsten Männer im Vatikan, soll 15 Millionen Euro von Konten des Vatikan veruntreut haben. Das Geld soll an ein Medienunternehmen geflossen sein.
VergrößernJahresbericht der Finanzaufsicht des Vatikan (AIF)

Auf einer Pressekonferenz im Vatikanischen Pressesaal legte der von Papst Franziskus eingesetzte Schweizer AIF-Chefermittler Rene Brülhart (43) seinen Jahresbericht vor. BILD befragte ihn zum „Fall Bertone“. Seine vielsagende Antwort: „Ermittlungen gegen Bertone werde ich weder bestätigen noch bestreiten. Zu Einzelfällen werde ich hier nichts sagen.“

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Berlin, May 20 – Vatican prosecutors have opened an investigation into allegations that former Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone embezzled 15 million euros from Vatican accounts, German daily Bild reported Tuesday citing unofficial Holy See sources. The newspaper said the money went to an unidentified television producer friend of Cardinal Bertone’s. It said it was moved in a transfer in December 2012 despite resistance from the Vatican Bank. Bild reported that Renè Bruelhart, the head of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF), said that he could “neither confirm nor deny” the reports that Bertone is being probed. Bertone was appointed Vatican Secretary of State by Benedict XVi in 2006 and served in the position until last year, when Pope Francis replaced him with Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Pope has received a letter signed by 26 Italian women who admit to have feelings for a priest or a monk and are asking for a review of the celibacy law

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

“Dear Pope Francis, we are a group of women from all over Italy (and further afield) and are writing to you to break down the wall of silence and indifference that we are faced with every day. Each of us is in, was or would like to start a relationship with a priest we are in love with.” This is the letter’s opening statement. The 26 women signed with just their name and the initial letter of their surname, plus the name of their hometown, but they did write their surnames and telephone numbers on the envelope. All of them claim to be in a relationship with a priest. The women say they are just “a small sample” but add that they are writing on behalf of many other women who are “living in silence.”

“As you are well aware,” the letter reads, “a lot has been said by those who are in favour of optional celibacy but very little is known about the devastating suffering of a woman who is deeply in love with a priest. We humbly place our suffering at your feet in the hope that something may change, not just for us, but for the good of the entire Church.”

“We love these men, they love us,” the 26 women write in their letter, “and in most cases, despite all efforts to renounce it, one cannot manage to give up such a solid and beautiful bond. Unfortunately, this brings with it all the pain of not being able “to live it fully”. This continuous giving and then letting go is soul destroying. When this enormous pain leads to a definitive separation, the consequences are no less devastating and both parties are often scarred for life. The only other alternatives are either for the priest to abandon the priesthood or for the relationship to carry on in secret.”

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ITALY
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

A group of women claiming to be the secret paramours of priests have written to Pope Francis to urge him to roll back the church’s celibacy requirements.

A popular pontiff, Pope Francis receives hundreds of letters every day—but a recent one, signed by 26 women who would like his permission to have sex with their priest-boyfriends, was undoubtedly not like most of the others.

The letter, published by La Stampa newspaper’s Vatican Insider website on Sunday, began with a plea for the pontiff to take heart and make celibacy optional for the signatories’ paramours, who happen to be priests. “Dear Pope Francis, we are a group of women from all over Italy (and further afield) and are writing to you to break down the wall of silence and indifference that we are faced with every day,” wrote the women (who signed with their first names and a last initial). “Each of us is in, was or would like to start a relationship with a priest we are in love with.” Their phone numbers were also apparently made available in case the pope would like to call the women to discuss the issue.

The women, who reportedly met up on a closed Facebook group, say they represent only a “small sample” of an apparently large group of secret lovers of priests. According to Vatican Insider, the letter noted, “a lot has been said by those who are in favour of optional celibacy but very little is known about the devastating suffering of a woman who is deeply in love with a priest. We humbly place our suffering at your feet in the hope that something may change, not just for us, but for the good of the entire Church.”

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CANADA
VOCM

Although police won’t be pressing charge, the Church’s own investigation into a local priest continues, because of new policies in Rome. Archbishop Martin Currie says Father Wayne Dohey will remain suspended until the Church comes to a conclusion regarding the unspecified complaints. Currie says this new policy is a way to handle the bad publicity the Church has received in recent years.

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MASSACHUSETTS
TheMediaReport

Last week, leading contingency lawyer Mitchell Garabedian dramatically claimed that the Catholic Church is “once again acting in the most immoral way by allowing the wholesale sexual abuse of children.”

Wow! “Allowing the wholesale sexual abuse of children”? What exactly could have prompted Garabedian’s shocking claim? Did the Diocese of Fall River (serving Southeastern Massachusetts), at whom Garabedian directed his comments, recently return a dangerous child abuser to ministry? Did the diocese recently look the other way as abuse was being committed?

As it turns out, the diocese did none of these things. Instead, the diocese simply did not kowtow to Garabedian’s demand for money in his latest abuse suit against the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

20 May, 2014

From today, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold 7 days of private sessions in Brisbane over the next two weeks.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines said private sessions are an important way for Commissioners to hear first-hand about the impact of child sexual abuse and to better understand how it might be prevented in the future.

“All people affected by child sexual abuse while in the care of an Australian institution have the opportunity to tell the Royal Commission of their experiences in a private session with a Commissioner.

“The information provided in private sessions will help the Royal Commission better understand how child sexual abuse in institutions can be prevented,” she said.

Ms Dines said the Royal Commission has made regular visits to Queensland to hold private sessions, meet with service providers and host information forums. The Royal Commission also held a public hearing in Brisbane in February this year.

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SCOTLAND
The Courier

By MICHAEL ALEXANDER, 17 May 2014

A Scot who says he was subjected to sexual abuse, sadistic beatings and mental torture at the hands of a paedophile Catholic brother at a residential school in Fife during the 1970s is demanding a public inquiry into all cases of institutional abuse in Scotland.

David Sharp, who has described the catalogue of abuse as “Scotland’s shame”, has also told how he was trafficked to Ireland to be raped by up to five men — and believes some of his rapists were priests.

As police confirmed a report had gone to the procurator fiscal surrounding abuse allegations at the former school in Falkland, Mr Sharp told The Courier publicity had led to other alleged victims coming forward.

Mr Sharp, 55, originally from Glasgow and now living in England, says a man he knew as Christian Brother Ryan began preying on him when he was 10 and residing at St Ninian’s School in Falkland, run by the Irish Christian Brothers.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

[The Ryan Report – via BishopAccountability.org]

Patsy McGarry

Tue, May 20, 2014

The fourth and final report on implementation of the 99 recommendations arising from the Ryan report is expected to be laid before the Oireachtas by Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan next month.

The report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (the Ryan report) was published five years ago today, on May 20th, 2009, and included 20 recommendations focused on government departments and institutions responsible for services to children. The then government accepted all its recommendations.

An implementation plan which was published in July 2009 contained 99 recommendations. These focused on addressing the effects of past abuse; developing and strengthening national childcare policy and evaluating its implementation; strengthening regulation and inspection functions; improving the organisation and delivery of children’s services; giving greater effect to the voice of the child; and revising Children First, the national guidelines for the protection and welfare of children and underpinning these with legislation.

Overall offer

Meanwhile, the 18 religious congregations which ran the residential institutions for children investigated by the commission have given no indication that they intend improving on their overall total offer of € 480.61 million to the €1.45 billion costs of redress to victims.

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CANADA
The Province

BY TAMSYN BURGMANN, THE CANADIAN PRESS MAY 19, 2014

VANCOUVER — Carla Robinson’s mother was sexually abused as a child attending two Indian residential schools in British Columbia, but her father dodged that system and encouraged both his daughter and her children to pursue higher education.

The decades-old torment for her mother, however, has resurfaced to produce fresh anger and suspicion after the Robinson family learned a $3,000 education credit offered as part of the residential schools settlement may not be used as tuition for her 12-year-old granddaughter’s private arts school.

Many more survivors also fear they won’t be able to access the money.

Robinson’s case is one among hundreds of wide-ranging complaints expressed by First Nations families across Canada since a January announcement that remaining compensation from the $1.9 billion settlement fund would be dispersed for educational purposes. A dedicated information line, set up to help survivors making their claim, has also received more than 9,300 calls to date.

The notion that reconciliation could be fostered through education, when that was the source of so much trauma for her mother, further appals Robinson, who lives on the Six Nations reserve near Brantford, Ont.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

‘Fear of everything. Fear of God. Fear of the Christian Brothers. Fear that I would go to hell’

[The Ryan Report – via BishopAccountability.org]

Patsy McGarry

Tue, May 20, 2014

On May 20th, 2009, five years ago today, the Ryan report was published. It dealt with the abuse of children in residential institutions run by 18 religious congregations.

Pages 113 to 119 in Volume V of the report – the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, to give it its official title – record recollections of childhood by some who were in the institutions. They told their stories to an interviewing team.

Here are sample extracts, unedited, lest we forget . . .

Statements of “worst thing” that happened to participants while living in an institution:

– After running away having my hair cut off to a very short length and was made to stand naked to be beaten by nun in front of other people.

– When I told nuns about being molested by ambulance driver, I was stripped naked and whipped by four nuns to “get the devil out of you”.

– A brother tried to rape me but did not succeed, so I was beaten instead.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott
kmellott@tribdem.com

— Negotiations in a settlement for what may be nearly 100 claims of sexual abuse by a now-dead Franciscan friar who taught at Bishop McCort Catholic High School are continuing despite a lack of participation by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Attorneys representing the alleged victims of Brother Stephen Baker, said to number 85 or so, are waiting for a response from the Franciscans by way of a mediator, a Boston attorney said Monday.

“We’re supposed to receive a response soon from the Franciscans,” Mitchell Garabedian said. “Whether the diocese is involved or not, I don’t know.”

Word that the Baker settlement talks are continuing came the day after the diocese announced that the priest at St. Anne’s Parish in Davidsville was no longer filling that post.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Inside Higher Ed

May 20, 2014
Loyola University of Chicago plans to hire a theology professor and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican after it reviewed allegations that he sexually harassed a married couple at his current employer.

Miguel H. Díaz, who was President Obama’s representative to the Holy See from 2009 to 2012, was found to have likely engaged in “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature” toward a married couple who were his colleagues at the University of Dayton. Díaz planned to join the faculty at Loyola before the news broke – and still will after the Chicago university conducted its own review of the events. A spokesman for Loyola said in an email, “We have reviewed the allegations raised against Miguel Diaz and our offer to him stands.” He will become a professor at Loyola on July 1.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: Probe in Australia return to quiz more witnesses

BY DEBORAH MCALEESE – 20 MAY 2014

A team from the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry is to travel to Australia next month to speak to a “significant” number of alleged victims.

The team, including inquiry chairman, retired judge Sir Anthony Hart, will examine the operation of a child migrant scheme involving the transfer of children from institutions in Northern Ireland to institutions throughout Australia.

This visit, the second to Australia by members of the inquiry team, will form the second module of hearings, which are due to commence at the start of September.

At the end of September the inquiry hopes to pursue investigations on the former De La Salle Boys’ Home, Rubane House, in Kircubbin, Co Down.

The inquiry is investigating abuse claims against children’s residential institutions in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1995.

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OKLAHOMA
Huffington Post

The Huffington Post | by Steven Hoffer

Posted: 05/19/2014

A pastor in Oklahoma who allegedly molested a 15-year-old girl is accused of giving the victim a pill to prevent her from becoming pregnant, an affidavit says.

Damien Keith Bonner, 32, was arrested Wednesday following an investigation by Owasso detectives and the Department of Human Services, KJRH reports. The pastor at Galilee Baptist Church in Tulsa was charged with six counts of lewd molestation.

According to Tulsa World:

A police affidavit filed Friday shows that a woman filed a sexual-assault report at the Owasso Police Department on April 16 after her 15-year-old daughter told a family friend she’d been involved in a sexual relationship with Bonner.

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VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)

9 May 2014 18:05 by Abigail Frymann

Pope Francis is establishing a commission under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to examine the appeals of priests punished for sexual abuse of minors and other serious crimes.

The Vatican press office issued a brief note today stating that the Pope had named Argentine Archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan of Rosario to be a member of the CDF “in the commission being established to examine the appeals of clergy for delicta graviora,” the Vatican term for sexual abuse of minors and serious sins against the sacraments.

Archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan worked with Pope Francis between 1993 and 2000 when both prelates served as bishops in the diocese of Buenos Aires.

The note described Mollaghan as having led the Archdiocese of Rosario “until now,” suggesting that his new role on the commission would be a full-time job in Rome, the US-based Catholic News Service reported.

The Vatican did not provide further details about the commission, when it would be established or what the extent of its mandate would be. It did not mention what Archbishop Mollaghan’s position on the commission would be.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

[with video]

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) – Last December, St John’s Abbey disclosed the names of 18 clerics who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse. Now, the personal files of 5 of those men are public — revealing what church officials knew and when.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson released roughly 450 pages that document the history of five St. John’s monks who have worked in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis accused of sexually abusing children.

“You know, he’d bring me places I’d never been before — nice restaurants,” Lloyd Van Vleet recalled.

With a devout mother and absent father, Van Vleet says he was about 14 years old when Father Robert Blumeyer — who was a priest in Wayzata at the time — began abusing him, and it went on for years.

“It stole my childhood,” he said. “I quit doing everything I liked to do. I quit playing baseball; I quit collecting — everything I did changed.”

Blumeyer is one of the 5 priests who were removed from ministry and sent to St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. — along with:

Robert Blumeyer
Cosmas Dahlheimer
Thomas Gillespie
Francis Hoefgen
Brennan Maiers

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 05/19/2014

A monk who taught at St. John’s University and seminary from the 1950s to the 1970s has been sued by two Minnesota men who claim he sexually abused them at a cabin owned by St. John’s Abbey.

Richard Eckroth, a member of the Benedictine Order who is also a priest, abused more than 360 of what he referred to as his “cabin kids,” said Jeff Anderson, attorney for the two men who filed suit Monday in Stearns County.

Eckroth, now 87, has advanced dementia and lives at St. John’s Abbey “under close monitoring,” according to abbey spokesman Brother Aelred Senna.

“St. John’s Abbey was made aware of these allegations against Fr. Richard Eckroth late last week,” the abbey said in a written statement released Monday. “Sorting out the truth of allegations against Fr. Eckroth is complicated by his advanced dementia. … Incidents involving Eckroth are alleged to have occurred more than 40 years ago. While there have been credible claims of inappropriate behavior by Eckroth, there has also been conflicting testimony regarding allegations against him.”

The abbey, which also is a defendant in the lawsuit, said it would “cooperate to seek the truth as we have in the past.”

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MINNESOTA
WJON

ST. PAUL (AP) — Attorneys for two men are suing St. John’s Abbey and a priest over alleged sexual abuse that happened 40 years ago.

Attorney Jeff Anderson filed the lawsuit in Stearns County Monday. Anderson is seeking the full release of the abbey’s files on abusive priests and monks.

In addition to the abbey, the lawsuit names the Rev. Richard Eckroth, who took dozens of children to a St. John’s-owned cabin near Bemidji during the 1970s. The two men allege Eckroth sexually abused them at the cabin when they were boys.

Eckroth has previously denied abusing children. An abbey spokesman said in a statement that sorting out the truth of the allegations against Eckroth is complicated by his advanced dementia.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

DOE 33 AND 34 COMPLAINT

PRIEST FILES

• Fr. Brennan Maiers File Timeline
• Fr. Cosmas Dahlheimer File Timeline
• Fr. Francis Hoefgen File Timeline
• Fr. Robert Blumeyer File Timeline
• Fr. Thomas Gillespie File Timeline
• Eckroth, Richard Timeline

ADDITIONAL ST. JOHN’S DOCUMENTS

Statement of Doe 33
2-26-97 Memo from Tim Anderson to Flynn re Public Nusiance
4-15-11 St. John’s Alumni Letter
10-23-87 Memo from McDonough to Roach re Dahlheimer SOL
12-9-13 Statement from St. John’s Abbey
Fr. Richard Eckroth photo
Abbots of St. John’s photo

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Robert McClory | May. 19, 2014 NCR Today

In November, I gave a talk about Pope Francis at the Call to Action conference, and every story, every quote I gave about him was greeted with smiles, cheers and laughter. It was something like a papal pep rally.

In my inbox on Friday morning were no fewer than four no-nonsense messages from very upset Catholic organizations urging the signing of petitions calling on Pope Francis to apologize for Cardinal Gerhard Müller’s harsh words to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and urging him to tell the Vatican to back off the “unjust reform agenda” it imposed on U.S. nuns. It is time, several said, “to stop bullying Catholic women leaders.”

My, how things have changed in six months. Of course, the vigorous scolding by Müller has been the big story in recent weeks, but his harangue (the sentiments, if not words, of which it appears the pope agrees with) is only one among a sudden outburst of hierarchical moves to parade power and retake the high ground. Here are some examples you may have seen in NCR or elsewhere.

Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada, a longtime human rights and peace activist, was sentenced in March by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to “a life of prayer and penance” to be lived in a Franciscan friary in Wisconsin. He may not present himself in public as a priest or celebrate the sacraments but may say Mass in private. His singular offense was concelebrating a liturgy in November 2011 with a Roman Catholic woman priest.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER  , Star Tribune Updated: May 19, 2014

Lawyers release documents on five monks known to have sexually abused children.

The clergy sex abuse lawsuit against the Twin Cities archdiocese headed northwest Monday, when archdiocese documents related to child abuse by five monks at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville were publicly released and a lawsuit was filed to pry open the abbey’s files.

The letters and internal memos released were among the thousands of pages of documents the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis provided to attorneys as part of a lawsuit.

They covered five monks previously identified as abusers — including the Rev. Richard Eckroth who brought hundreds of students to an abbey cabin for overnight trips.

Attorney Jeff Anderson filed a lawsuit representing two victims of Eckroth in Stearns County Monday, seeking the full release of the abbey’s filers on abusers.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

The public inquiry into institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland is to travel to Australia to interview alleged victims transferred there.

More than 100 children were removed from church-run residential homes in Northern Ireland, most to Western Australia after World War II.

An investigation chaired by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is examining whether they were physically, sexually or emotionally harmed during their journey.

Lawyers and support staff are expected to pay their second visit to Australia next month ahead of public hearings in September.

Mr Hart said: “The inquiry will examine the operation of the child migrant scheme in the context of children from Northern Ireland institutions who were sent to Australia.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

19 MAY 2014

A former nun interviewed by police investigating alleged abuse at a children’s home in Northern Ireland has said she loved the young people, a public inquiry heard.

In the 1970s, the ex-nun worked at Termonbacca boy’s home in Londonderry, run by the Sisters of Nazareth religious order, and admitted witnessing sexual acts. But the woman denied causing physical or sexual harm.

The treatment of young people, orphaned or taken away from their unmarried mothers, in residential homes run by nuns, brothers or the state is a key concern of the UK’s largest ever institutional child abuse investigation being held in Banbridge, Co Down.

It is considering cases between 1922, the foundation of Northern Ireland, and 1995.

The former nun said: “I gave my best part of my life to caring for kids in Nazareth House and I loved every minute of it and I loved them.

“I cannot undo what people have said about me.”

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MINNESOTA
WCCO

[lawsuit]

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — More information on members of the clergy accused of sexually abusing children was released on Monday.

The files of five monks who worked in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis were made public as part of a new civil lawsuit.

The monks include Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Thomas Gillespie, Francis Hoefgen and Brennan Maiers. The public relations representative for the archdiocese said that all five names had previously been released “as part of our ongoing commitment to disclosure and transparency,” and that most of them had already received significant coverage in the media.

The monks served at St. John’s and are accused of abusing boys in the early 1970s.

Two of them — Blumeyer and Dahlheimer — have died since the alleged incidents. The other three either left or were removed from the ministry.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

[with video]

[lawsuit]

By: Megan Stewart

St. John’s Abbey was urged Monday to release more information about clergy members accused of sex abuse.

Files on five monks of St. John’s were released at a news conference, which was held by Anderson and Associates, the law firm currently suing the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. They were obtained in a 2013 lawsuit filed in Ramsey County.

A former monk and an alleged victim are among those asking for more disclosure.

The alleged victim said he was abused sexually by Father Robert Blumeyer while Blumeyer was a monk at St. Johns.

Blumeyer’s file was released Monday. Documents show Blumeyer was a philosophy professor for three decades at St. Johns before he died in 1983. The victim said he brought his allegations to the Abbot in 2006 and was cut a check to keep quiet.

Other files released were of monks Cosmas Dahlheimer, Thomas Gillespie, Francis Hoefgan and Brennan Maiers.

Attorney Jeff Anderson said the files he obtained on the Abbey were heavily redacted. On June 19, he plans to ask Ramsey County Judge John Van de North to order the full release of the files. Anderson said his claim will be backed by a law passed in Minnesota last year that allows courts to force disclosure of information.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

By: Jennie Olson

More details were unleashed Monday about five monks from Saint John’s Abbey who are accused of sexually abusing children.

Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Bryant released the files on the five monks, which were obtained after a 2013 lawsuit in Ramsey County. The files include Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Thomas Gillespie, Francis Hoefgen and Brennan Maiers, the attorneys say.

The attorneys have also announced a new sexual abuse lawsuit to be filed in Stearns County against a priest accused of abusing two boys back in the 1970s. The young boys were parishioners at St. Joseph’s when they say they were sexually abused at a cabin in northern Minnesota.

The lawsuit named Richard Eckroth, the Order of St. Benedict and St. John’s Abbey, Anderson said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
4NI

The Chairman of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, Sir Anthony Hart, has today announced that a team of Inquiry lawyers, support staff and Acknowledgement Forum Panel members will pay a second visit to Australia next month.

The visit will form part of the preparations for the Inquiry’s second module of hearings, which will examine the operation of a child migrant scheme involving the transfer of children from institutions in Northern Ireland to institutions in Australia.

The Chairman said that the module – Module 2 – will commence hearings at the beginning of September.

The Inquiry hopes to commence hearings for Module 3 later in the same month. That module will focus on the former De La Salle Boys’ Home, Rubane House, in Kircubbin, Co. Down.

The Chairman said: “As you will be aware, today is the 35th day of public hearings devoted to St Joseph’s Home, Termonbacca and Nazareth House Children’s Home, both in Derry/Londonderry, and we expect that the public hearings in relation to these institutions should be completed by the end of this month, or at the latest by early June.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF MAY 19, 2014

The Vatican released statistics today showing a dramatic spike in reports of suspect financial transactions in 2013, framing it not as a rise in illegal activity but as proof that new transparency mechanisms, intended to bring the Vatican in line with international best practices, are working.

According to the numbers presented today, there were 202 potentially suspect movements of money reported to Vatican regulators in 2013, as opposed to just six in 2012 and only one in 2011.

The data were presented in a news conference on Monday by René Bruelhart, a Swiss anti-money laundering expert who directs the Financial Information Authority, known by its Italian acronym “AIF,” which was created in 2010 under Pope Benedict XVI as a financial watchdog unit.

Bruelhart insisted that the primary reason for the increase in suspicious transaction reports is that “the system works,” reflecting new transparency requirements launched under Pope Benedict XVI and strengthened by Pope Francis.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

Reuters in Vatican City
The Guardian, Monday 19 May 2014

The number of reports of suspicious financial transactions at the Vatican leapt to 202 in 2013 from six the previous year, its Financial Information Authority (AIF) said on Monday, attributing the rise to keener vigilance prompted by reforms at the scandal-ridden Vatican bank.

Since 2010, the Vatican has been enacting legislation to bring its bank, the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), in line with international standards on financial transparency.

The AIF said the bulk of the suspicious transaction reports it had received involved the bank, but declined to give specific numbers or percentages. Five were considered serious enough to be referred to the Vatican’s prosecutor.

“We are not perfect yet, we are not super-good yet,” Rene Bruelhart, the Swiss lawyer who heads the AIF, told a news conference. “We are more than satisfied that the direction we are going is good, but there is still quite a bit of way to go.”

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VATICAN CITY
Financial Times

By Giulia Segreti in Rome

The Vatican’s financial watchdog reported a sharp rise in suspect money transactions in 2013, indicating that internal monitoring and the application of anti-money laundering regulation is improving, as pressure over compliance with international standards remains high.

In its second annual report, the Financial Information Authority (FIA) recorded 202 suspicious transactions, up from six in 2012. Five of these reports have been passed on to Vatican prosecutors for further judicial investigations.

René Brülhart, director of the FIA, ruled out that the surge was due to a “rise in abusive activities” but explained that “it means that the reporting system starts to work and there is much more awareness.”

“Decisive intervention, which has strengthened the legal and institutional framework of the Holy See, confirms the firm intention by the Vatican to effectively . . . combat financial crime,’’ reads the annual report published on Monday.

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho May 19, 2014

In a brief note this morning, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan of Rosaria, Argentina, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he will have “responsibility for” a commission to examine appeals by clergy accused of “delicta graviora”–a canonical term that includes the crime of sexual abuse. The Vatican statement provided no further details about this new commission.

As Catholic News Service notes, over the past decade, the Holy See has laicized 848 priests for abusing minors or vulnerable adults. Over the same period, another twenty-five hundred priests were ordered not to have contact with minors, and to live our their lives in prayer and penances, usually for reasons of advanced age.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 19, 2014

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

In yet another sign that the Vatican is moving backwards on clergy sex crimes and cover ups, Pope Francis is setting up yet another church abuse panel – this one to help hear appeals of accused child molesting clerics.

[Catholic News Service]

[Naharnet]

Put quite simply: What matters most is the safety of boys and girls, not the bureaucracy for proven, admitted and credibly accused priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers and bishops.

This is another indication that the Catholic hierarchy’s main focus remains on accused priests, not on vulnerable kids or wounded adults.

Kids aren’t raped by priests because Vatican officials move slowly. Kids are raped by priests because Vatican officials continue to be more worried about their colleagues’ careers than their flocks’ safety.

Rather than tweak biased and secretive internal church processes, Francis should be helping to reform secular child safety laws and firing bishops who violate them. Instead of changing an inherently self-serving procedure, the Pope should be making sure his staff fully cooperate with effective secular justice systems which have long done a far better job of resolving child sex abuse and cover up cases (instead of putting themselves above such justice systems, as Italy’s bishops have recently done).

It matters little what church panels are set up and who’s appointed to them, as long as top Catholic officials keep rebuffing and stiff-arming law enforcement and government officials across the globe, whether they’re in Poland, Ireland or Geneva.

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VATICAN CITY
Asia News

Vatican City ( AsiaNews) – In 2013 there “has seen a significant strengthening of the legal and institutional framework of the Holy See and Vatican City State to effectively combat financial crime, an institutionalization of international collaboration of the competent authority of the Holy See with its foreign counterparts, and a massively improved performance in monitoring potential financial wrongdoing .”

The was stated today by the Director Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria (AIF) of the Holy See , René Brülhart , who presented the Authority’s annual report on the activities and supervision of financial information for the prevention and combating of money laundering and the financing of terrorism (Year II , 2013) . ” The Evaluation conducted by Moneyval, the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism of the Council of Europe, in December 2013, and our statistics allow us to say that today we have a proper and equivalent system in place to prevent and fight financial crime. A system that is well in line with international standards”.

As evidence of the “significant strengthening” , the AIF indicates ” a notable uptake in suspicious transaction reports (STR) from 6 in 2012 to 202 in 2013. This increase reflects both the development of the legal framework and a substantial improvement in the operational performance of the supervised entities with regard to the prevention of financial crime. Five reports have been passed on to the Vatican Promoter of Justice for further investigation by judicial authorities “.

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VATICAN CITY
Naharnet (Lebanon)

The Vatican on Monday said it was setting up an appeals body for priests under internal investigation by the Catholic Church for alleged child sex crimes.

The new committee will be part of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Church’s doctrinal watchdog, which handles investigations carried out under Canon Law.

The Vatican said in a brief statement that the body would “examine appeals by clergy over grave crimes” and that Argentine archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan would take part.

The statement did not add further details about the body.

The Catholic Church has been rocked by a wave of revelations and accusations about child sex abuse, which began in Ireland and the United States in the early 2000s.

The Vatican’s ambassador to the United Nations, Silvano Tomasi, said recently that 3,420 cases based on “credible accusations” had been investigated over the past 10 years.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Nicole Sotelo | May. 19, 2014 Young Voices

Meet Trish Vanni, a Catholic mother of three from Minnesota. She has worked for the church, holds a doctorate in theology, and carries nearly $100,000 in educational debt. She recently began an online campaign through GoFundMe to heighten awareness about Catholic women’s ministerial debt and to raise funds to help pay her loans. When I heard her story, I made a contribution toward her campaign then began to investigate.

Why do so many lay ministers struggle financially? I know there is a wage gap in society, but is there a wage gap in the church? Is there a gap between lay ministers who are predominantly women and the clergy, who are solely men? Here is what I discovered.

Approximately 38,000 Catholics, the majority of whom are women, currently serve as parish lay ministers, according to a 2012 CARA study. Their median ministerial salary is $31,000 per year.

For lay workers like Trish who hold a doctorate, the median salary rises to only $40,000, clearly not enough to pay off educational loan debt, let alone raise a family.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
Minuto Uno

El Vaticano informó este lunes por la mañana —por medio del nuncio en Argentina Mons. Emil Paul Tscherrig— la decisión del Papa Francisco de nombrar al arzobispo de Rosario Monseñor José Luis Mollaghan, miembro de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, en la comisión que se está creando para el examen de las apelaciones de eclesiásticos acusados o condenados por “delicta graviora”.

En los medios eclesiásticos se lee este nombramiento no como una “promoción” sino como una “remoción” ya que aún no cumplía con la edad de 75 años para jubilarse y teniendo en cuenta su actuación como arzobispo se le aplicó el viejo adagio vaticano que reza “promoveatur removeatur” ya que próximamente cumplirá funciones esencialmente administrativas en la Curia Romana.

El hasta ahora controvertido arzobispo rosarino de 68 años, continuará como Administrador Apostólico de “sede vacante” (es decir, que la diócesis no tiene un obispo titular) con las facultades de obispo diocesano mientras el Papa designe a su reemplazante en los próximos días.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 19, 2014

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

A Pennsylvania priest has been suspended after child sexual abuse allegations surfaced. We are glad action has been taken and law enforcement has been notified, but we are worried there might be other victims suffering in silence and self-blame.

[Tribune-Democrat]

We also worry that Catholic officials may have kept these allegations quiet for weeks or months before disclosing it. The church hierarchy almost always discloses when the abuse allegedly happened but almost never discloses when they got the abuse report. Catholics deserve to know this.

Fr. Michael Lewandowski (who has been at St. Anne Parish in Davidsville since 1997) is accused of sexual misconduct with a minor in the 1980s. The allegation was reported to the Altoona- Johnston diocese from the Franciscan Order that Lewandowski is a member of.

Bishop Mark Bartchak and officials from the Franciscan Order should visit every parish Lewandowski worked and post Lewandowski’s work history and photo on the dioceses website and parish bulletins. Children are kept safe when suspicions about predators are reported immediately.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 19, 2014

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

Contra Costa officials, including the DA and the police chief, want a review of the child abuse reporting law and a possible changing of the law. We are grateful officials not only want a review of this law, but are speaking out publically about it.

[Mercury News]

As the law stands now there is a one year statute of limitations for mandatory reporting violations. When a child is sexually violated often times it is not just the perpetrator who is guilty of causing serious harm. More often than not somebody knew or suspected the abuse, but stayed silent.

We have mandatory reporting laws for a reason. To put a restrictive statute of limitation on holding those who broke the law and harmed children responsible is wrong. Any statute of limitation involving child sexual abuse hurts children and helps the guilty. And we hope it is changed.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican indicated Pope Francis was establishing a commission under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to examine the appeals of priests punished for sexual abuse of minors and other very serious crimes.

In a brief note May 19, the Vatican press office announced the pope had nominated Argentine Archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan of Rosario to be a member of the congregation “in the commission being established to examine the appeals of clergy for ‘delicta graviora,'” the Vatican term for sexual abuse of minors and serious sins against the sacraments.

The Vatican did not provide further details about the commission, when it would be established or what the extent of its mandate would be. It did not mention what Archbishop Mollaghan’s position on the commission would be.

In indicating that the archbishop has headed the Archdiocese of Rosario “until now,” the announcement signaled that being part of the commission would be a full-time job in Rome.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Washington Post

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, May 19

DAVIDSVILLE, Pa. — A diocese has suspended a Franciscan priest from working in a southwestern Pennsylvania parish after learning that his religious order had also suspended him due to an allegation of child sex abuse in Maryland in the 1980s.

Bishop Mark Bartchak, who heads the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, advised members of St. Anne Parish in Davidsville, that the Rev. Michael Lewandowski can no longer function as a priest in the diocese.

That decision announced Sunday was prompted by Lewandowski’s suspension by the Franciscans Order at Our Lady of the Angels Province in Ellicott City, Maryland. Lewandowski had served at the southwestern Pennsylvania parish since 1997.

The bishop says the diocese and the Franciscans are not aware of any other allegations against Lewandowski.

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VATICAN CITY
Europe Online Magazine

Vatican City (dpa) – The Vatican‘s financial oversight body on Monday said suspicious transactions within the world‘s smallest country had increased dramatically last year.

The Director of the Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF), Rene Bruelhart, said there were 202 cases in 2013, up from 6 in 2012.

Meanwhile, five transactions were reported to Vatican prosecutors, up from two in the previous year.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican ‘s Financial Intelligence Authority revealed on Monday that it has recorded an increased number of suspicious financial transactions being reported in its monitoring of financial activities of the IOR – the Istituto per le Opere di Religione, or Vatican Bank.

The so called “AIF” was releasing its annual report at a press conference in the Vatican.

Authority Director, René Bruelhart, said the report showed that there were 202 suspicious transactions reported to the Financial Information Authority in 2013 compared with only six a year earlier and just one in 2011.

Five of those were referred onto Vatican prosecutors for possible investigation.

Bruelhart explained that the increase in numbers of suspicious transactions doesn’t mean that more illicit activity is taking place. He said it just means that new laws and procedures are being implemented and are working to flag potentially problematic transactions that may require further investigation.

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News

VATICAN CITY May 19, 2014 (AP)

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

The Vatican’s financial watchdog agency said Monday that “corrective measures” were necessary at the Holy See’s troubled bank to continue the path toward financial transparency and compliance with international norms.

Financial Intelligence Authority Director Rene Bruelhart said a long-awaited investigation of the bank, officially called Institute for Religious Works, included looking into its practice of not disclosing the names of the true account holders in its transactions with Italian banks.

He said the main problems identified in the inspection, which has been called for by European anti-money laundering evaluators, concerned the bank’s procedures for identifying high-risk activities, and that more detail was necessary.

Bruelhart spoke to reporters Monday after his authority’s annual report showed a spike in the number of suspicious financial transactions being reported: 202 in 2013 compared with only six a year earlier and just one in 2011. Five of those 202 were referred to Vatican prosecutors for possible investigation.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Mon, May 19, 2014

The UK’s largest ever public inquiry into institutional child abuse is to travel to Australia to interview alleged victims transferred from Northern Ireland.

More than 100 children were removed from church-run residential homes in Northern Ireland, most to Western Australia after the war. An investigation chaired by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is examining whether they were physically, sexually or emotionally harmed during their journey.

Lawyers and support staff are expected to pay their second visit to the antipodes next month ahead of public hearings in September, Sir Anthony said.

He added: “The inquiry will examine the operation of the child migrant scheme in the context of children from Northern Ireland institutions who were sent to Australia.

“Before that module can start, we have to complete our preparatory work for it and a major part of that involves a second team from the inquiry going from Northern Ireland to Australia to speak to those applicants who were not seen during last year’s trip.”

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VATICAN CITY
NDTV

Agence France-Presse | Updated: May 19, 2014

The Vatican bank’s stepped-up internal monitoring has led to a sharp rise in suspicious transaction reports — from just six in 2012 to 202 in 2013 and collaboration with foreign financial authorities has increased sharply.

“It means that the reporting system starts working, is working,” Rene Bruelhart, director of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority, a supervisory body, said as he presented its 2013 report on Monday.

The agency said that there had been a “notable” rise in reported shady deals at the bank, the Institute for Religious Works or IOR, and that it had so far passed on five requests for further investigation by Vatican justice.

In 2011, just one suspicious transaction was reported.

The AIF said that the number of requests for information it had received from foreign authorities had also increased to 28 from just one in 2012 and the number of similar requests it received were 53 in 2013 compared to three in 2012.

“This increase is also due to international cooperation fostered by a series of bilateral agreements we have concluded,” Bruelhart said in a statement.

The number of cash withdrawals above 10,000 euros fell to 1,557 in 2013 from 1,782 in 2012 and there were 550 declarations for cash deposits above that amount compared to 598 in 2012.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

Thomas Oriti reported this story on Monday, May 19, 2014

CHRIS UHLMANN: The royal commission into child sexual abuse is preparing to hear evidence that a teacher at a Perth school molested students in his classroom.

The man abused primary school students for a decade, despite repeated warnings from other teachers. Concerns were raised as recently as 2009. And because the victims are still young, there are strict rules on what can be said in the public hearing.

Thomas Oriti reports.

THOMAS ORITI: The royal commission has already examined child sexual abuse at Christian Brothers homes in Western Australia, dating back to the 1940s. But this next hearing involves some victims who are still in their teenage years.

JANETTE DINES: The case study looks at offending by a male teacher over a period of 10 years.

THOMAS ORITI: Janette Dines is the royal commission’s CEO.

JANETTE DINES: The facts involve concerns being raised by teachers and a parent about the level and type of conduct that the teacher was having with year four students.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 19 May 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has:

– appointed Metropolitan Archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan of Rosaria, Argentina as member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with responsibility for the Commission for the examination of appeals by clergy accused of “delicta graviora”, to be established.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 19 May 2014 (VIS) – The Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria (AIF) – Financial Intelligence Authority – of the Holy See and the Vatican City State has presented its Annual Report for 2013. The report reviews the activities and statistics of AIF for the year 2013.

The year 2013 has seen a significant strengthening of the legal and institutional framework of the Holy See and Vatican City State to effectively combat financial crime, an institutionalisation of international collaboration of the competent authority of the Holy See with its foreign counterparts, and a massively improved performance in monitoring potential financial wrongdoing.

“In 2013 we have taken further decisive steps to foster the legal framework, and, at the same time, to make it work in practice,” said Rene Brulhart, Director of the AIF. He continued: “The Evaluation conducted by Moneyval, the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism of the Council of Europe, in December 2013, and our statistics allow us to say that today we have a proper and equivalent system in place to prevent and fight financial crime. A system that is well in line with international standards”.

The AIF has recorded a notable uptake in suspicious transaction reports (STR), from 6 in 2012 to 202 in 2013. This increase reflects both the development of the legal framework and a substantial improvement in the operational performance of the supervised entities with regard to the prevention of financial crime. Five reports have been passed on to the Vatican Promoter of Justice for further investigation by judicial authorities.

The number of requests from AIF submitted to foreign authorities has increased from 1 in 2012 to 28; the number of requests received by the AIF from foreign authorities has risen from 3 in 2012 to 53 in 2013. “This increase is also due to international cooperation fostered by a series of bilateral agreements we have concluded,” said Brulhart. In 2013, AIF became a member of the Egmont Group, the global network of Financial Intelligence Units, and signed various bilateral agreements to institutionalize mutual collaboration in the area of anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism. Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia and the United States.

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CANADA
VOCM

A local priest who was suspended pending an RNC investigation won’t be charged, but Father Wayne Dohey will remain suspended from St. Patrick’s Parish until a decision comes back from Rome, says Archbishop Martin Currie. Currie says he learned on Friday that the RNC have concluded their investigation. However, he says that doesn’t mean Dohey will be reinstated. He says because of the way the Church has treated police investigations in the past, there is now a protocol that must be followed. He says the Church was criticized in Ray Lahey’s case for not using information properly. And he says, that’s not the only case, so he’s following a strict protocol without any exceptions.

Currie says this is his first time following the Vatican’s new protocol, but if a priest is guilty of wrongdoing in the eyes of the Church, the punishment can vary. The possible outcomes could be anything from sentencing to a monastery, to being relieved of duties as a priest.

The Archdiocese has not revealed the nature of the complaint, but has said it had nothing to do with recent allegations of fraud at the church.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Centre Daily Times

HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Rev. Michael Lewandowski has been suspended from public ministry as a result of an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor that occurred in the 1980s, according to a news release from the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Lewandowski had served in the diocese since 1997 as pastor of St. Anne Parish in Davidsville.

According to the release, the diocese received notice from the Order of Friars Minor Conventual that the action had been taken in accordance with church policies for the protection of minors.

Bishop Mark L. Bartchak, according to the news release, has withdrawn Lewandowski’s “faculties to function as a priest in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown,” and the Franciscan Order is unaware of any other allegations of misconduct against Lewandowski.

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CALIFORNIA
Mercury News

By Matthias Gafni
Contra Costa Times

POSTED: 05/18/2014

CONCORD — The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office charged Woodside Elementary teacher Joseph Martin with 150 counts of molestation, but because of difficulties with the law, it was much trickier deciding whether to prosecute his bosses for possibly failing to report the alleged child abuse.

Prosecutors say their hands were tied because the “mandated reporting” law’s language creates a narrow one-year statute of limitations window that had closed.

Tina Jones, a Concord mother of two alleged victims, and others, including the district attorney and Concord police chief, say the law’s restrictive wording stymies prosecutions. They say it should be reviewed and, if necessary, changed.

“For many of the families in this, it’s just another level of victimization … to have no legal ramifications for (district employees) is so frustrating,” Jones said. “I think a one-year statute of limitations is ridiculous.”

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PHILIPPINES
The Washington Times

By Meredith Somers-The Washington Times Sunday, May 18, 2014

The United Nations and victims advocates recently have amplified demands for an overhaul of the Vatican’s response to its sex abuse scandal, but Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle has been spearheading change for decades.

The archbishop of Manila, capital of the Philippines, said reports of abuse have even reached his island country, but the cases are being handled under instructions he helped to establish.

“There have been cases submitted to Rome for dispensation,” Cardinal Tagle said of the abuse reports in the Philippines, though he did not know the number. “In the interim, we are actively observing the guidelines we formulated. We are doing our best.”

Cardinal Tagle has been away from Manila for several weeks, having left early this month for a wedding in Chicago before flying to Rome and then to Washington, where he gave the homily Friday at Catholic University’s Baccalaureate Mass.

In an interview with The Washington Times at the university, the archbishop recalled the instructions passed down from Pope John Paul II during a conference of bishops and cardinals on what to do about the growing number of abuse cases being reported.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A former teacher convicted of sexually abusing his student four decades ago is suing his victim for the legal costs of a compensation that never made it to court.

Neville Betteridge, 70, was convicted of sexually abusing his 14-year-old student, Mark Wurth, when he was a geography teacher and house master the Blue Mountains Grammar School in the 1970s.

“I didn’t know what was going on I didn’t understand yeah the whole thing particularly with another male,” Mr Wurth told A Current Affair about the man he trusted who would take him back to his room at night.
At the time, the affluent school in Wentworth Falls was run by the Anglican Church and operated as a boarding school.

“He’s actually just a disgusting piece of filth,” said the former student, now in his 50s.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Sarah Pulliam Bailey | May 18, 2014

Two pastors are no longer listed on a Reformed evangelical group’s leadership after a different pastor from their church confessed to covering up sex abuse claims. Pastors Joshua Harris and C.J. Mahaney have left the Gospel Coalition council after a trial involving child abuse in the church they have both overseen.

A criminal trial that concluded last week has raised questions about which pastors at Covenant Life Church, a megachurch in Gaithersburg, Md., knew what about the abuse in which years.

Nathaniel Morales, 56, was convicted Thursday (May 15) of sexually abusing three young boys between 1983 and 1991 when he was a youth leader.

Former Covenant Life pastor Grant Layman suggested while testifying about allegations against Morales that he withheld information from the police about the abuse.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson said Sunday that he is filing a sexual abuse lawsuit against St. John’s Abbey and one of its monks, Richard Eckroth.

Eckroth is accused of sexually abusing two young boys at a cabin in northern Minnesota during the early 1970s when they were parishioners at the Church of St. Joseph in St. Joseph.

Anderson will hold a news conference at noon Monday to announce the filing in Stearns County court. The suit was served Friday and will be filed Monday, he said.

Anderson will also release files on the late Robert Blumeyer, the late Cosmas Dahlheimer, Thomas Gillespie, Francis Hoefgen and Brennan Maiers — other St. John’s monks accused of sexually abusing children and all former employees of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese. The files were obtained in a 2013 Ramsey County lawsuit.

Eckroth, Blumeyer, Dahlheimer, Gillespie, Hoefgen and Maiers were all listed as clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors by the Diocese of St. Cloud in a January report. Eckroth was living in Collegeville at the time of that report.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

Justin Dennis
jdennis@tribdem.com

JOHNSTOWN — A Conventual Franciscan priest with the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese has been suspended from public ministry due to allegations of sexual abuse that occurred in the 1980s.

According to a release from the diocese, the Rev. Michael Lewandowski, OFM Conv., has been accused of sexual misconduct with a minor. His duties within the diocese were revoked by Bishop Mark Bartchak upon receipt of a notice from the Franciscan Order detailing the allegations.

Lewandowski had served the diocese since 1997 as pastor of St. Anne Parish in Davidsville.

Parishioners were informed of the allegations during weekend Mass services.

Officials from the Franciscan Order at the Our Lady of the Angels Province in Ellicott City, Maryland, have reported the allegations to authorities, the release states. The diocese and Franciscan Order are unaware of any further sexual misconduct allegations against Lewandowski, according to the release.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily American

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has received notice from the Order of Friars Minor Conventual that Rev. Michael Lewandowski, OFM Conv., has been suspended from public ministry due to an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor that occurred in the 1980s.

The Rev. Lewandowski has served in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown since 1997 as pastor of Saint Anne Parish in Davidsville. This action taken by the Franciscan Order was made according to Church policies for the protection of minors. Parishioners were informed at weekend Masses.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Ken Briggs | May. 18, 2014 NCR Today

Scoffers were out in force when Northwestern University’s football team petitioned to form a union. How dare these upstarts kick sand in the faces of their benefactors! And how ridiculous of them to presume they had a claim on the university’s corporate enterprise? But the players convinced the court that they did have a case for considering themselves “employees” of the university who raked in tons of money which they may be entitled to more than the subsistence living they were receiving. To those weighing their plea, it was right of them to seek a formal voice in their own destiny though the immense legal and political force of the university will likely crush it as anti-union forces did recently at Volkswagen in Tennessee.

Catholic sisters may shudder by the comparison, but their plight isn’t so different. They produced good will and bona fides far beyond their numbers and resources for Mother Church yet they have no final authority over their own status in the church. Only ordained males are vested with decisions over Catholic policies and teachings. For ages, sisters have existed by sufferance of male clerics and responsible for their own financial well being. Like the football players, they give everything and get little in return.

The majority of American sisters have gone in a more independent direction since Vatican II because of opportunities they saw authorized by the Council itself. They took more initiative in deciding how they would live and how they would follow their community’s special mission. To much of the clerical order, the reforms the sisters undertook spelled “uppity.” Clerics still held all the ruling power but the sisters were testing the scope of that authority under a “people of God” church that was increasing critical of that strict chain of command.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A native of Holland, Linssen began his Jesuit seminary studies in the Netherlands Province. Because he wanted to work in Alaska, he transferred to the Oregon Province where he was ordained in 1950. He began his career in Alaska in 1952 based at Holy Cross Mission, followed by several years in Hamilton and then Nelson Island. Linssen died during a storm while on a boat downriver from Bethel in 1960. In 2010 his name was included in the the Fairbanks diocese’s bankruptcy documents on a list of ‘Individuals against whom one person has brought a complaint of sexual abuse’.

Ordained: June 17, 1950
Died: Sept. 1960

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

(ABC 6 NEWS) — Files of five St. John’s monks accused of sexually abusing children who worked in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will be publicly released at news conference on Monday, May 19. This is according to Jeff Anderson and Associates. A law firm based in St. Paul that represents sexual abuse survivors.

Files to be released include Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Thomas Gillespie, Francis Hoefgen and Brennan Maiers. The files were obtained in a lawsuit filed in Ramsey County in 2013 involving the Archdiocese, Diocese of Winona and Father Thomas Adamson.

An announcement will also be made at the press conference concerning the filing of a sexual abuse lawsuit filed in Stearns County on behalf of two Minnesota men, Doe 33 and Doe 34, naming the Order of St. Benedict a/k/a and d/b/a St. John’s Abbey, and Richard Eckroth.

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ITALY
Digital Journal

BY ERIC MORALES

Rome – A renewed light has shone on the issue of celibacy within the Catholic Church as Pope Francis receives a letter urging him to allow priests to have sex and marry.

Over two dozen women who claim they are having affairs with Catholic priests have written to Pope Francis urging him to end the priestly vow of celibacy within the Catholic Church. The group of women who met through a Facebook campaign wrote to the Pope stating that they were just a small sample of women who are secretly in love with Catholic priests, and keeping their relationships a secret.

“We love these men, they love us, and in most cases, despite all efforts to renounce it, one cannot manage to give up such a solid and beautiful bond,” they wrote. “We humbly place our suffering at your feet in the hope that something may change, not just for us, but for the good of the entire Church,” unnamed women continued in the letter that was first reported by the website Vatican Insider.

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CANADA
CBC News

Charges will not be laid against a Roman Catholic priest who has been suspended from his position at a St. John’s church.

Archbishop Martin Currie removed Father Wayne Dohey as the priest for St. Patrick’s parish in early March, pending an investigation into a complaint.

But Currie confirmed on Sunday that the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary will not be proceeding with charges against Dohey.

The decision to suspend Dohey from all ministerial duties was made public in March in a statement issued by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Media Advisory

May 18, 2014

St. Paul News Conference Monday

Richard Eckroth, St. John’s, Named in Lawsuit on Behalf of Two “Cabin Kids”

What: At a news conference on Monday in St. Paul former priest and monk Patrick Wall, along with attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Bryant, will:

· Release the files of five St. John’s monks accused of sexually abusing children who worked in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Files to be released include Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Thomas Gillespie, Francis Hoefgen and Brennan Maiers. The files were obtained in a lawsuit filed in Ramsey County in 2013 involving the Archdiocese, Diocese of Winona and Father Thomas Adamson.

· Announce the filing of a sexual abuse lawsuit filed in Stearns County on behalf of two Minnesota men, Doe 33 and Doe 34, naming the Order of St. Benedict a/k/a and d/b/a St. John’s Abbey, and Richard Eckroth. The young boys, now adults, were parishioners at St. Joseph’s in St. Joseph, MN when Eckroth sexually abused them at a cabin in Northern Minnesota in the early 1970s. They are two of many kids believed to be raped and abused by Eckroth while a monk who is now, “on restriction at the abbey.”

Request that St. John’s release the files of the five monks as well as the files on all 17 clerics from St. John’s who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse involving minor children.

WHEN: Monday, May 19, 2014 at 12:00 PM CDT

WHERE: Jeff Anderson & Associates
366 Jackson Street, Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

WHO: Patrick J. Wall, former priest and monk, works for Jeff Anderson & Associates as a consultant and advocate for sexual abuse survivors. Jeff Anderson has represented thousands of sexual abuse survivors for over 30 years and Mike Bryant of the firm Bradshaw & Bryant in St. Cloud has partnered with Jeff Anderson to help sexual abuse survivors in Minnesota obtain justice and healing.

Notes:

· Copies of the priest files, summaries and timelines will be available at the press conference and on our website tomorrow and the event will be live-streamed online with links available at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact Patrick Wall: Office: 651.583.7633 Cell: 949.307.3935
Contact Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.583.7633 Cell: 612.817.8665
Contact Mike Bryant: Office: 320.259.5414 Cell: 800.359.0061

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

Updated: Sunday, May 18 2014

By: Sarah Rebb

DAVIDSVILLE, Pa. — Officials from the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown received notice from the Order of Friars Minor Conventual that Rev. Michael Lewandowski was suspended from the ministry due to sexual allegations that occurred in the 1980s.

Lewandowski served in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown since 1997 as a pastor of Saint Anne Parish in Davidsville, Somerset County. Lewandowski was suspended to protect minors and parishioners were informed about the incident during weekend Masses.

Bishop Mark L. Bartchak withdrew Lewandowski’s faculties as a priest in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

ALTOONA – A priest with the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese has been suspended after allegations of sexual misconduct stemming from the 1980s. The Diocese released the following statement today:

“The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has received notice from the Order of Friars Minor Conventual that Rev. Michael Lewandowski, OFM Conv., has been suspended from public ministry due to an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor that occurred in the 1980s.

Father Lewandowski has served in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown since 1997 as pastor of Saint Anne Parish in Davidsville. This action taken by the Franciscan Order was made according to Church policies for the protection of minors. Parishioners were informed at weekend Masses.

Upon receipt of this notice from the Franciscan Order, Bishop Mark L. Bartchak has withdrawn Father Lewandowski’s faculties to function as a priest in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Officials of the Franciscan Order (Our Lady of the Angels Province, Ellicott City, MD) have reported the allegation to civil authorities. The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and the Franciscan Order are unaware of any other allegations of misconduct against Father Lewandowski.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

Created: 05/18/2014

By: Megan Stewart

Another lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a clergy member is expected to be filed Monday in Stearns County.

In the suit, two victims allege they were abused by a St. Joseph monk at a cabin in Northern Minnesota during the 1970s, according to filing lawyers Jeff Anderson and Associates. The lawsuit will name Richard Eckroth, the Order of St. Benedict and St. John’s Abbey, Anderson said.

Eckroth’s name was released in January in the Diocese of St. Cloud’s list of priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors. He was said to have worked at St. Benedict High School, St. Joseph; St. Augustine, St. Cloud; Seven Dolors, Albany; St. Raphael’s Convent, St. Cloud; St. Scholastica Convent, St. Cloud.

The diocese said Eckroth currently lives in Collegeville, Minnesota.

Also on on Monday at a news conference, Anderson will release files of five St. John’s monks that worked in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis who have been accused of sexually abusing children.

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SCHWEIZ
Die Welt

[Summary: The Swiss have voted to tighten laws against sex offenders. Among the new measures: A person convicted of sexually abusing children lose the right to pursue professional or voluntary work with minors or dependents.]

Christine Bussat hat als Einzelkämpferin begonnen. Ihr erstes Volksbegehren lancierte die 43 Jahre alte gelernte Schmuckverkäuferin aus Genf vor zehn Jahren ganz ohne politische Erfahrung und ohne Expertenwissen, “praktisch aus dem Nichts heraus”, wie es die “Basler Zeitung” einmal formulierte. Erfolgreich war die Initiative “Für die Unverjährbarkeit pornografischer Straftaten an Kindern” trotzdem: Knapp 52 Prozent der Schweizer stimmten 2008 für Bussats Vorschlag.

Nun hat die dreifache Mutter und Gründerin der Kinderschutzorganisation Marche Blanche eine weitere Verschärfung der Schweizer Gesetze gegen Sexualstraftäter durchgesetzt. 63,5 Prozent von Christine Bussats Landsleuten stimmten laut Auskunft des Regierungssprechers für die von ihr lancierte “Pädophilen-Initiative”.

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ITALY
Telegraph (UK)

By Tom Kington in Rome 18 May 2014

A group of 26 Italian women who claim to be having affairs with Catholic priests have written a joint letter to Pope Francis begging him to end the Catholic Church’s ban on priests having sex and getting married.

The women, who met through a Facebook campaign, wrote to the Pope requesting a meeting to put forward their case, claiming they were just “a small sample” of the many partners of priests “living in silence”.

“We love these men, they love us, and in most cases, despite all efforts to renounce it, one cannot manage to give up such a solid and beautiful bond,” they wrote.

“We humbly place our suffering at your feet in the hope that something may change, not just for us, but for the good of the entire Church,” added the unnamed women in the letter that was first reported by the website Vatican Insider.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

May 15, 2014 by J-Wire Staff

Sydney Yeshiva camp volunteer Daniel “Gug” Hayman has pleaded guilty to indecent assault by a person of authority on two male complainants and a charge of indecency against a female complaint has been dropped.

Rabbi Eli Feldman told J-Wire that he stands by the statement he made last November in which he said it was clear the Hayman was not a Yeshiva employee but a volunteer.

His full statement from last year: “Mr Daniel Hayman was arrested yesterday on charges of child sexual abuse allegations from more than 25 years ago.

Mr Hayman attended Yeshiva Synagogue to pray or for classes but was never an employee or teacher at the Yeshiva Centre. Any volunteer work that he offered Yeshiva did not include responsibility for children.

We would like to assure the community that Mr Hayman currently has no association with Yeshiva and has been disassociated from the Sydney Yeshiva Centre for more than a decade. He was instrumental in establishing the Tzemach Tzedek Synagogue which broke away from Yeshiva over ten years ago.

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UNITED STATES
Irish Central

Tom Deignan @irishcentral May 18,2014

It couldn’t last forever.

Sure, things were giddy for awhile. Pope Francis certainly seemed to have the stuff of a rock star pope. No wonder he was on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine!

But for all the cool things he said, there was still a church to run, a church to drag – perhaps kicking and screaming – into the 21st century.

Well, the dragging has begun. And so has the kicking and screaming.

Over in Cincinnati, the lay organization Voice of the Faithful, which rose to prominence in the wake of the horrors of the sex abuse scandals, has taken on a new battle. The group has paid for numerous billboards throughout the Ohio city asking: “Would Pope Francis Sign the New Catholic Teacher Contract?”

The city’s 2,000-plus teachers have been asked to sign an expanded contract which ensures that in and out of the classroom – in their private lives – they maintain rigid adherence to Catholic doctrine.

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FLORIDA
Tampa Tribune

By Elizabeth Behrman | Tribune Staff , Jose Patino | Tribune Staff Jose Patino
Published: May 17, 2014

TAMPA — A popular priest killed himself Monday, days after the Diocese of St. Petersburg launched an investigation into his church’s finances, authorities said.

A maintenance worker found the Rev. Vladimir Dziadek, 57, at the bottom of a staircase in the living quarters at St. Joseph Catholic Church on Monday, police said. A few days earlier, representatives from the diocese had met with Dziadek after an auditor discovered irregularities in the church’s quarterly financial report.

The representatives were scheduled to meet again with Dziadek, said Frank Murphy, spokesman for the diocese.

“People are concerned, and we want to get out all the facts before we say anything,” he said.

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CHILE
Oman Tribune

SANTIAGO Chile’s child welfare service is investigating reports that a Catholic priest was involved in giving babies up for adoption in the 1970s and 1980s without their parents’ knowledge, telling the biological mothers that their child had died.

Chilean investigative journalism centre Ciper published a report last month saying that an unknown number of babies who were born to unmarried mothers were illegally given to other families. In some cases, the women were persuaded it was the best choice for them, but in others they were told the baby had died soon after childbirth, the report said.

The cases took place during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. In Argentina, there are hundreds of documented cases of babies being taken away from imprisoned mothers who were considered subversives by the state during the ‘dirty war’ in the 1970s.

However, in Chile’s traditional Catholic society, the babies were removed from women from middle-class families not for overtly political reasons but because of the stigma attached to unmarried mothers at the time.

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FLORIDA
10 News

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – A Tampa pastor has been found dead amid an investigation he had embezzled money from his church.

Tampa Police say the Rev. Vladimir Dziadek was discovered Monday at the bottom of a staircase at the offices of St. Joseph Catholic Church. He had apparently hanged himself with a belt tied to a banister.

Police say the priest was due to appear at a church hearing Monday regarding allegations he had taken about $200,000 from the church and “gambled it away.” The Diocese of St. Petersburg says it is nearing completion of its investigation.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE ARCHDIOCESAN WEEKLY St. Louis Review quotes and pictures an English priest, Fr. Andrew Pinsent. Parishioners on The Hill may recall his tenure in their midst, especially the scene he caused one Sunday morning in 2007 when he accosted SNAP’s Barbara Dorris on the sidewalk outside St. Ambrose. She was handing out fliers about two predator priests who had worked at the parish. Fr. Pinsent was charged with disturbing the peace but left the U.S. before the case against him could be adjudicated.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

THE Royal Commission investigating child sex abuse in institutions will hold private sessions in the Kimberley region of Western Australia on Monday.

Officers from the commission will be in Broome and Kununurra to meet with people interested in sharing their story.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines says the visit will provide an important opportunity for people who were sexually abused as children in institutions to disclose their mistreatment.

“We strongly encourage all survivors who wish to share their story in private with a commissioner to make contact with the Royal Commission or a local support service,” Ms Dines said.

She said more than 1500 private sessions have been held across Australia to date, including more than 160 in Western Australia.

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CANADA
Calgary Herald

BY TAMSYN BURGMANN, THE CANADIAN PRESS MAY 18, 2014

VANCOUVER – Carla Robinson’s mother was sexually abused as a child attending two Indian residential schools in British Columbia, but her father dodged that system and encouraged both his daughter and her children to pursue higher education.

The decades-old torment for her mother, however, has resurfaced to produce fresh anger and suspicion after the Robinson family learned a $3,000 education credit offered as part of the residential schools settlement may not be used as tuition for her 12-year-old granddaughter’s private arts school.

Many more survivors also fear they won’t be able to access the money.

Robinson’s case is one among hundreds of wide-ranging complaints expressed by First Nations families across Canada since a January announcement that remaining compensation from the $1.9 billion settlement fund would be dispersed for educational purposes. A dedicated information line, set up to help survivors making their claim, has also received more than 9,300 calls to date.

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OKLAHOMA
News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma – A judge denied the bond reduction request for a Tulsa pastor charged with six counts of lewd molestation Friday.

Judge David C. Youll denied the request of Pastor Damien Keith Bonner who will remain in jail on a $300,000 bond.

5/14/2014 Related Story: Pastor Of Tulsa Church In Custody For Lewd Molestation

Bonner is facing six counts of lewd molestation after a 14-year-old girl accused him of abusing her.

The girl told police she met Bonner at the Galilee Baptist Church, where Bonner is the senior pastor, but said the abuse happened at Bonner’s Owasso apartment.

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AUSTRALIA
The Chronicle

Chris Calcino 16th May 2014

FORMER Catholic school principal Terence Hayes has defended his decision not to notify police of abuse claims against pedophile teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes.

Legal submissions to the royal commission into child sexual abuse have revealed a great deal of buck-passing as key witnesses argue their innocence.

Byrnes is serving 10 years’ imprisonment for 44 child sex offences involving 13 girls aged between eight and 10 years old at a Toowoomba school.

“Whilst Mr Hayes accepts responsibilities for his own failures to comply with (or indeed consult) the student protection kit, there is a systemic issue here … he did not receive the advice which he ought to have been given – in particular to comply with the student protection kit,” Mr Hayes’ submission stated.

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SCOTLAND
The Scotsman

by STEPHEN MCGINTY
Published on the 18 May 2014

CHURCH officials have warned that Catholic dioceses and bishops who ignored complaints over alleged sexual abuse by priests will be reported to police for prosecution.

Complaints of clerical sexual abuse stretching back almost 70 years are the subject of a review by the Catholic Church in Scotland, which insists any serious complaint since 1947 must be passed on to the police even if both alleged victim and priest are dead.

Tina Campbell, national safeguarding co-ordinator for the Scottish Catholic Church, said that for the first time the eight dioceses will be made accountable for their handling of clerical sexual abuse and that allegations ignored by previous bishops will be reported by her office to Police Scotland.

She said: “They are having to report if they have actioned or not. If they say, ‘we found something in the file but we haven’t reported it to the police’, they will be questioned about that.

“If there is an allegation and it has not been reported to police it must now be ­reported.”

The Catholic Church in Scotland is undergoing a two-tiered examination of its handling of clerical sex abuse. The McLellan Commission, led by the Very Reverend Dr Andrew McLellan, a former moderator of the Church of Scotland, is examining the Catholic Church’s current safety provisions and is expected to report early next year.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

What happened with the sweetheart plea deal given to Rabbi Baruch Lebovits today in a Brooklyn court?

In part the deal was given because of another sweetheart plea deal handed out earlier this week by a new Brooklyn DA many anti-abuse activists now consider to be corrupt.

In court today, Lebovits admitted to having oral sex with a teenage boy on eight different occasions from 2004 and 2005.

In 2010 Lebovits was convicted of the same charges and sentenced to 10 2/3 to 32 years in prison. But that conviction was overturned in 2012 on a technicality that did not impact the evidence against Lebovits. (The appellate court noted the evidence against Lebovits remained strong.)

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
MAY 16, 2014

A sexual abuse case that divided the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn and created rifts in the borough’s district attorney’s office ended on Friday as a once-prominent cantor pleaded guilty to molestation.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, the cantor, Baruch Lebovits, will receive a sentence of two years, but will receive credit for the 13 months he has already served under a previous conviction on the same charges.

The initial conviction in 2010, which was overturned, was seen as a high-profile victory for Charles J. Hynes, then the district attorney, who was trying to combat criticism that he was too lenient in prosecuting sexual abuse cases among ultra-Orthodox Jews. Mr. Lebovits was found guilty of molesting a teenage boy on eight occasions several years earlier, and was sentenced to between 10 ½ and 32 years in prison.

But in 2012, an appeals court overturned the conviction and authorized his release, ruling that he had been deprived of a fair trial because prosecutors took too long to turn over a detective’s notes about a witness.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Josh Saul
May 16, 2014

An Orthodox Jewish man pleaded guilty to sex abuse charges Friday in a deal that lets him serve as little as three months behind bars — ending a case that the Brooklyn district attorney had made a priority.

Baruch Lebovits, 62, answered “Yes” eight times as Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Mark Dwyer asked him whether he had engaged in oral sex with a teenage boy on eight different occasions in 2004 and 2005.

The case against Lebovits became a political hot potato in the 2013 race for Brooklyn district attorney when then-DA candidate Ken Thompson sent then-DA Charles Hynes a letter in November asking that no plea deal be given to Lebovits before Thompson took office.

After Thompson was elected, he assigned top homicide prosecutor Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi to the case.

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NEW YORK
Gothamist

An ultra-Orthodox cantor has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a teenage boy—and he’s only facing months in jail as a result. Baruch Lebovits, 62, was previously convicted of eight counts of molestation, but that case was overturned in 2012 on a technicality. And this week, Lebovits fully admitted that he engaged in oral sex with a teenage boy on eight different occasions in 2004 and 2005.

Lebovits was sentenced to 10 ½ to 32 years in prison in 2010 for raping children in Borough Park. At the time, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango showed no mercy, telling the court, “It is important for the courts to send a clear message that abusing and harming children will not be tolerated.”

But his conviction was reversed on a series of technicalities. According to the Times, an appeal’s court decided Lebovits “had been deprived of a fair trial because prosecutors took too long to turn over a detective’s notes about a witness.” The case became emblematic of problems under former Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes in prosecuting sexual abuse cases among ultra-Orthodox Jews.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

Baruch Lebovits, a once prominent cantor in Brooklyn pleaded guilty on Friday to molesting a teenage boy, according to The New York Times.

Lebovits received a sentence of two years, but will likely serve only a few months in city jail. The arrangement will allow him to count 13 months served in jail under a previous conviction for the same charge towards his sentence.

Lebovits was sentenced in 2010 to serve between 10.5 and 32 years in prison for eight counts of molestation. But, according to the Times, “An appeals court overturned the conviction and authorized his release, ruling that he had been deprived of a fair trial because prosecutors took too long before turning over a detective’s notes about a key witness.”

Prosecutors recently offered Lebovits four to 12 years. Last week, Lebovits’s council sent a memorandum to the State Supreme Court arguing for a lighter sentence, citing the sentences in similar cases. The prosecution offered two to six years, and the judge settled on two.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY OREN YANIV
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Friday, May 16, 2014

A Brooklyn cantor pleaded guilty Friday to molesting a teenage boy a decade ago, putting an end to a protracted and politicized case.

Baruch Lebovits, 62, will be sentenced to two years for the 2004 sex abuse, but will likely do about six months in jail after good behavior and time served.

The resolution — coming after a trial, a lengthy prison term, a reversal on appeal and years of bitter litigation — is in line with the average punishment for these type of crimes, a judge said.

“It’s a tremendous relief that justice has finally been done,” said Lebovits’ lawyer Arthur Aidala, who led the Hasidic man’s high-powered defense team.

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POLAND
The Eagle

Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Wojciech Polak as the new primate, or honorary leader, of Poland’s influential Roman Catholic Church.

The 49-year-old Polak succeeds Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk, who resigned in August after reaching the retirement age of 75. Kowalczyk was first papal nuncio in democratic Poland in 1989-2010.

Poland’s Episcopate said Saturday that the inauguration ceremony for Polak will be held June 7 in Poland’s historic capital of Gniezno, at the cathedral that dates back to the 10th century.

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MINNESOTA
The Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
May 17, 2014

Before 2013 there was a statute of limitations in Minnesota for survivors of child sexual abuse. For many years, the offenders and the church were able to hide behind this protection. They could fight using the statute of limitations and knew that unless fraud was proven, they probably could get cases dismissed. It was a time period when they didn’t have to worry about being supervised, when they didn’t have to worry about liability, and when they were able to bury old secrets. They must be penalized for this time period where they were allowed to be free of responsibility.

The Child Victims Act has changed things. By extending the statute of limitations on the civil side, we are fixing problems that cannot be fixed criminally. Everybody has to agree that these individuals belong in prison, however timelines do not allow for them to now face those charges. So the civil system must be used to get the community the most protection. The files must be turned over and all abuser names need to be disclosed.

Consequently, the civil lawsuit is the only remedy the client and society has to make sure that they are held responsible for the abhorrent things they did and continue to do.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | May. 15, 2014 NCR Today

An open letter to the pope has asked for an apology to U.S. women religious and an intervention on their behalf in their ongoing reform discussions with the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation.

It was with “respect and gratitude” but also “concern and dismay” that The Nun Justice Project, a coalition of 16 progressive U.S. Catholic organizations, wrote Pope Francis Thursday regarding recent comments from Cardinal Gerhard Müller to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The organization, representing more than 90 percent of U.S. congregations of Catholic women religious, is currently under a reform mandate from the Müller-headed Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In opening marks April 30 ahead of a meeting in Rome between LCWR and the doctrinal congregation, Müller criticized the organization’s focus on conscious evolution and the process it used in selecting speakers and presenters.

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CHILE
GlobalPost

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile’s child welfare service is investigating reports that a Catholic priest was involved in giving babies up for adoption in the 1970s and 1980s without their parents’ knowledge, telling the biological mothers that their child had died.

Chilean investigative journalism center Ciper published a report last month saying that an unknown number of babies who were born to unmarried mothers were illegally given to other families. In some cases, the women were persuaded it was the best choice for them, but in others they were told the baby had died soon after childbirth, the report said.

The cases took place during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. In neighboring Argentina, there are hundreds of documented cases of babies being taken away from imprisoned mothers who were considered subversives by the state during the military dictatorship’s ‘dirty war’ in the 1970s.

However, in Chile’s traditional Catholic society, the babies were removed from women from middle-class families not for overtly political reasons but because of the stigma attached to unmarried mothers at the time.

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CANADA
Edmonton Journal

BY JANA G. PRUDEN, EDMONTON JOURNAL MAY 16, 2014

EDMONTON – A once-beloved Edmonton priest who was the subject of multiple complaints of sexual impropriety with women in his parish has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault for alleged offences dating back nearly 30 years.

Albert Laisnez, 76, has been charged with three counts of sexual assault and three counts of gross indecency, a provision of the Criminal Code which was in existence until the late 1980s. The charges, which were laid earlier this year, relate to alleged incidents in 1986 and 1987 involving a single adult complainant.

The allegations have not been proven in court. A preliminary hearing is slated to take place in Sherwood Park on Dec. 11.

Lorraine Turchansky, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton, said Laisnez served at several parishes in Alberta between the 1970s and 1996, when he was sent to a treatment facility for priests after publicly admitting to misconduct with adult women. She said he has not been an active priest since around that time.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Boz Tchividjian | May 16, 2014

Churches should be some of the safest and most welcoming communities for those who have suffered from sexual abuse. Sadly, today these are some of the places survivors feel most vulnerable as they are often shamed, silenced, and judged.

This is most tragically illustrated by the case of a young girl who was sexually abused by a missionary doctor on the mission field. When she finally stepped forward and reported the abuse, the missionary leaders made this little 13-year-old girl sign a “confession” letter in which she had to acknowledge having “participated in a physical relationship” with the offender and end the letter with “…I know what I did was very wrong, and I am very sorry for it.” Years later this survivor told me that this damning letter is what shamed her into decades of feeling worthless and being silent. It doesn’t take a demand to sign a confession for a church to become an unsafe and unwelcoming place for survivors. Hurtful comments, the embracing of alleged perpetrators, the failure to offer assistance, and the pretending that this offense doesn’t exist in the Christian community are just a handful of ways that further wound survivors and drive them out of the very places that should be their refuge.

I want to share seven ways that I believe will help transform our churches into some of the safest and most welcoming communities for survivors of abuse.

Be a friend and listen: One of the best ways to serve survivors is to simply be their friend and listen. This does NOT mean we pity them and turn them into our special project. It means that we spend time with them, laugh with them, cry with them, and support them. It means that we validate them as human beings made in the image of God. It means that we don’t have all the answers, and it’s ok. Too many survivors have been traumatized by churches that fail to protect them, and then turn around and ignore them or tell them what to do. Perhaps we can help these amazing survivors shed the shame by being a safe person in a safe place.

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MISSOURI
The Examiner

By Karl Zinke
karl.zinke@examiner.net
Posted May. 16, 2014

Independence, Mo.

A Blue Springs resident, who was a former church youth director in Independence, will spend 30 years in federal prison for child exploitation of seven minors and pornography.

U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays sentenced Dennis W. Myers, 53, to 30 years without parole, the maximum sentence possible for a serial abuser.

Myers pleaded guilty to transporting a minor across state lines for illegal sexual activity and receiving child pornography over the Internet.

The plea deal he struck with federal prosecutors compelled him to also plead guilty in Jackson County Circuit Court to state charges of first-degree statutory sodomy and attempted enticement of a child.

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By AMANDA BLAND World Staff Writer

A Tulsa County judge has denied a request to reduce the bail amount for a minister who was charged with lewd molestation and arrested Wednesday.

Damien Keith Bonner, 32, was charged with six counts of lewd molestation and was arrested by the Northern Oklahoma Violent Crimes Task Force following an investigation by the Owasso Police Department. He remains in the Tulsa Jail with bail set at $300,000.

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