ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Northern Rivers Echo

Adam Davies 20th Feb 2014

A FORMER primary school teacher has revealed he knew that after police had arrested veteran teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes over child sexual abuse claims he was dealing with a “catastrophic situation”.

Terence Michael Hayes came under intense scrutiny on Wednesday during his second day of evidence at the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse where questions were raised over the truthfulness of his evidence.

Junior counsel assisting the commission, Andrew Naylor, pointed out several discrepancies between Hayes’s trial in Toowoomba and versions he had given the royal commission over the past two days.

Mr Hayes was the first person in Australia to be charged under laws requiring reporting to police suspicions of child sex abuse, but was subsequently acquitted.

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AUSTRALIA
Sunshine Coast Daily

MANY have been shocked by the revelations that have come from the Royal Commission’s inquiry into child sex abuse at a Toowoomba Catholic primary school.

It has been revealed that the school’s principal and other senior staff failed to follow protocol in dealing with students’ claims they had been sexually abused by teacher and convicted pedophile Gerard Byrnes.

The former principal failed three times to report the sexual abuse allegations levelled against Byrnes.

During the past week, we have not allowed comments on Royal Commission hearing due to the sensitive nature of the issue.

But now we want to know what you think?

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IRELAND
RTE News

A group of former Magdalene laundry workers laid wreaths at the gates of Leinster House this afternoon in protest against what they called the Government’s inadequate response to their plight.

They were marking the first anniversary of Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s apology to all former inmates of Magdalene homes.

Meanwhile, the National Women’s Council said many of the survivors have yet to receive a penny from the State.

A group of former Magdalene laundry workers criticised what they say is Government’s inadequate response to their plight.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

Wed, Feb 19, 2014

Wreaths have been laid at the gates of Leinster House and on the graves of undocumented Magdalene women by protesters marking the anniversary of the Taoiseach’s apology on behalf of the State.

They say that redress, recommended by the Quirke report and backed by the Department of Justice and Equality, has not been forthcoming for many Magdalen survivors.

Payments ranging from €11,500 for women who worked in Magdalene laundries for three months or less to €100,000 for those who stayed there for 10 years or longer, have not been made they said. Other forms of redress, including enhanced medical cards and educational support measures, are still awaited by many they said, although some survivors have received payments.

Survivors of Magdalene Laundries on theit way into the Dáil this day last year to sit in the public gallery for the debate on the McAleese Magdalene report and an apology from Enda Kenny on behalf of the State. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times. Anniversary of Kenny’s Magdalene apology to be marked

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry
Wed, Feb 19, 2014

In what is believed to be the highest court settlement in a child abuse case in Ireland, a High Court judge has ordered the Christian Brothers congregation to pay €370,000 damages following sexual abuse of the “most extreme” kind inflicted on a young boy over a five-year period in the 1980s by a since deceased brother.

Mr Justice Kevin Cross found negligent failure by the congregation in taking no steps “whatsoever” to supervise the brother or prevent him getting access to a vulnerable child, despite having “full knowledge” the brother had previously abused other young boys.

Even by the standards of the 1980s, the congregation ought to have put in place a system to watch and monitor the brother to ensure he did not have access to this boy or any others, the judge said. There was no evidence of any system put in place or any treatment of this brother that differentiated him from a vast majority of non-abusive brothers, he said.

Warning

Despite the brother having been given a canonical warning in 1960 relating to abuse, it seemed clear the congregation proceeded to treat him in precisely the same manner as every other member of their congregation, the judge said.

This negligence resulted in the boy being grievously assaulted over a prolonged period of time with significant adverse consequences to him, he said.

The abuse suffered was among the most extreme he had seen in his legal career and had caused severe injury affecting the man throughout his life, the judge added.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

A 42-year-old man who was sexually abused by a Christian Brother over a five-year period starting when he was aged 8, has been awarded €370,000 by a High Court judge.

Mr Justice Kevin Cross said the sexual abuse was of the most extreme he had seen in his career.

“He suffered severe injury which has affected him throughout his life, ” the judge said.

The man, in his evidence, said the abuse took place in a Christian Brothers’ premises in Artane, Dublin, when he had volunteered to help out with gardening. It happened in a store room; a basement; and a room which overlooked rose beds, and happened three to five times a week in the early 1980s.

The man also told how the Brother, who has since died, put his hand inside his trousers and fondled him when he visited him in a convalescent home.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

[Summary: A man who was sexually abused by Salesian priest Rimsky Rojas has filed a criminal complaint against Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati of Santiago for allegedly obstruction the investigation. In a nine-page letter, Marcelo Vargas argues that Ezzati has concealed information and events in 1986 when he was 14 and a student at the Salesian institute of Valdivia.]

Un hombre que fue víctima de abuso sexual por parte del sacerdote salesiano Rimsky Rojas presentó una querella criminal en Valdivia en contra del arzobispo de Santiago Ricardo Ezzati, por el delito de obstrucción a la investigación.

Se trata de un escrito de nueve páginas, en que Marcelo Vargas argumenta que Ezzati habría ocultado información y encubierto los hechos ocurridos en 1986, cuando tenía 14 años y era estudiante del Instituto Salesiano de Valdivia. La querella involucra también al entonces director del establecimiento, sacerdote Alfonso Horn, indicó a Radio Bío Bío el ex estudiante:

Según Vargas y como se explica en la acción legal, cuando fueron interrogados por Fiscalía, Ezzati y Horn negaron conocimiento de los abusos, lo que sería contradictorio al mérito del proceso, según lo indagado por la PDI en el sumario criminal, el cual determinó responsabilidad del sacerdote Rimsky Rojas.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KTLA

[documents via Jeff Anderson & Associates:
The Punitive Damages Motion Aguilar-Rivera
LA Documents 2-19-14
Los Angeles Archdiocese child sexual abuse timeline
Offender Bios – Aguilar-Rivera et al]

by Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Archdiocese has settled what officials said is the last of its pending priest molestation lawsuits, bring to a close a decade of wrenching abuse litigation that cost the Catholic Church more than $740 million.

Attorneys for 11 men who say they were abused by Father Nicolas Aguilar-Rivera alleged in court papers that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and a top aide had “actively thwarted” and “misled” Los Angeles Police Department investigators at the time. (Los Angeles Times / April 29, 1992)

The church reached the $13-million agreement with 17 victims last week, on the eve of a trial scheduled to begin Feb. 14 over the alleged acts of Father Nicolas Aguilar-Rivera, a visiting cleric from Mexico who police believe molested more than two dozen boys over nine months in 1987.

Eleven men, who were ages 7 to 12 when they were allegedly abused by the priest, were scheduled to appear in court to testify that Cardinal Roger Mahony and his aides had enabled the priest to flee just days before police were notified.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Feb. 19, 2014 NCR Today

A new report challenges the number of priests in the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese with credible clams against them of sexual abuse of minors.

The archdiocese lists 39 priests with substantiated (sufficient evidence to believe allegation occurred) claims of abuse, but a story published Wednesday by Minnesota Public Radio found at least 70 priests since 1950 with allegations or suspicions of child sexual abuse.

MPR compiled its list from court records, private settlements, police reports and internal church documents, as well as numerous handwritten and emailed lists and memos stored at the chancery. According to MPR, the latter lists have never been viewed by local law enforcement, who have not asked the archdiocese for its files on alleged priest abusers.

From MPR:

“ … inside the chancery over the past 15 years, secret allegations of abuse have collected in filing cabinets, a vault and the basement archives.

“The MPR News investigation found that at least 21 priests named as suspected child abusers by other dioceses and religious orders had served in the Twin Cities archdiocese. At least four priests have been the subject of lawsuits for alleged child sexual abuse but haven’t been named on the archdiocese’s public list. Records show at least 10 clerics have been criminally investigated.”

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MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A published report says an official list from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis of 33 priests “credibly accused” of sexual abuse was incomplete.

Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) News says the actual number is more than double the official count.

MPR reports its investigation found the archdiocese dealt with allegations and suspicions of child sexual abuse involving at least 70 clergy members since 1950.

The priests served in nearly every parish of the archdiocese, according to MPR, which based its own list on a review of other lists compiled by church officials, court records, private settlements, police reports and church documents.

MPR says the list included men who admitted abusing children, such as the Rev. Gerald Funcheon, who testified under oath in 2012 that he had sexually abused a number of boys. “I couldn’t count ’em up,” he said. “I’ll go, I don’t know. I’ll go to 18 … I can’t give you a number on this.”

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MINNESOTA
Winona Post

By Sarah Squires

A Ramsey County judge ruled in January that the Winona Diocese and Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis must disclose by Tuesday, February 18 lists of priests accused of molesting children since 2004.

The deadline comes on the heels of the December release of names of diocesan priests “credibly accused” of sexual abuse, which made public the names of 14 former Winona Diocese priests who were included in a census compiled by the John Jay College in 2002. The latest court ruling would require the diocese to disclose lists of priests facing any sex abuse accusations; the names would be released only to the plaintiff attorney and court itself.

When the Winona Post went to press late Tuesday afternoon, attorneys on both sides of the issue were still waiting for a motion filed by the diocese with the Court of Appeals to see if the deadline would be extended or the ruling overturned.

Winona Diocese Director of Mission Advancement Joel Hennessy said on Tuesday that he did not believe the list would be released that day, but added that diocesan attorneys were still mulling the issue, watching the clock, and hoping the Court of Appeals would take up the motion.

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MINNESOTA
Albany Times Union

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A report says an official list from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis of 33 priests “credibly accused” of sexual abuse was incomplete. Minnesota Public Radio News says the actual number is more than double the official count.

MPR reports (http://bit.ly/1nNSx07 ) its investigation found the archdiocese dealt with allegations and suspicions of child sexual abuse involving at least 70 clergy members since 1950.

The priests served in nearly every parish of the archdiocese, according to MPR, which based its own list on a review of other lists compiled by church officials, court records, private settlements, police reports and church documents.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Tagesspiegel

[Summary: The UN child protection committee has heavily criticized the Catholic Church regarding cases of child abuse. The Vatican now wants to establish a new body designed to prevent sexual violence. The group is expected to start work next week. Jesuit Hans Zollner, founder of the child protection center at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome will be assisted by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, a member of the eight-member advisory committee to Pope Francis. Zollner said he doubts the commission can meet all expectations of the UN at least on a global scale but should look back on and reappraise abuse cases around the world.]

Das UN-Kinderschutzkomitee hatte die katholische Kirche im Zusammenhang mit Fällen von Kindesmissbrauch schwer kritisiert. Jetzt will der Vatikan ein neues Gremium einsetzen, das sexuelle Gewalt verhindern soll.

Der Papst setzt ein neues Gremium ein, das sexuelle Gewalt verhindern soll. Kommende Woche nimmt es seine Arbeit auf. Erstmals benennt einer der Initiatoren in der Wochenzeitung “Zeit” die Ziele: „Die Kommission soll dem Schutz von Kindern und Jugendlichen dienen und unter anderem Modelle pastoraler Hilfe für Missbrauchsopfer entwickeln“, sagte der Jesuit Hans Zollner. „Die Kommission kann aber nicht alle Erwartungen der UN an den Vatikan erfüllen, zum Beispiel die Missbrauchsfälle weltweit aufzuarbeiten.“

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 19, 2014

VATICAN CITY
The select group of eight cardinals advising Pope Francis on reforming the governance of the Catholic church have made a set of recommendations to the pontiff on how to restructure its central bureaucracy, especially financial operations, the Vatican announced Wednesday.

But the pope has yet to make any decisions on the matter and the recommendations will remain secret, said Vatican spokesman Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi.

The Council of Cardinals, Lombardi said during a briefing, “has worked intensely and drafted proposals and has taken … them to the Holy Father.”

“[The pope] will be the one deciding if those suggestions are to be taken and applied,” the spokesman said.

On Monday and Tuesday, Lombardi said the eight cardinals had been studying especially the Vatican’s troubled financial past, meeting with separate groups commissioned by the pope to study the Vatican’s economic and administrative structures and the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican bank.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Feb. 19, 2014

MILWAUKEE Lawyers representing people with claims against the Milwaukee archdiocese complained to a judge Tuesday that they were not consulted before the archdiocese filed its bankruptcy reorganization plan last week.

The claimants’ lawyers also asked bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley not to rule on the plan until an appeals court rules on the status of a hotly contested cemetery fund, which the archdiocese says is off limits but the claimants want made available in the bankruptcy settlement.

Kenneth Brown, one of the lawyers representing those who filed claims against the archdiocese, argued that the “disclosure statement” — the list of assets and liabilities that is the basis for the reorganization plan proposed by the archdiocese — could be radically different if a federal appellate court overturns a decision related to the multimillion-dollar fund meant to provide the perpetual care of archdiocesan cemeteries.

Allowing the archdiocese to eliminate the cemetery fund before the higher court rules would be the equivalent of “allowing Bishop Listecki to settle litigation against Bishop Listecki,” Brown said. Jerome Listecki is archbishop of Milwaukee.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014

Statement by Frank Meuers of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com)

A lengthy new Minnesota Public Radio investigation reveals that St. Paul/Minneapolis Catholic officials have long under-reported the number of predator priests in the Twin Cities area.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Here’s the story’s bottom line – despite decades of pledges and policies that allegedly require “openness” about clergy sex cases, St. Paul Catholic officials continue to protect predators and keep secrets. Archdiocesan staff say 33 predator priests. Two independent sources put the figures much higher (BishopAccountability.org says 45. Minnesota Public Radio says at least 70.)

But here’s what’s the most frustrating to us: “All of the lists obtained by MPR News contain information that police have never seen.”

What are the police and prosecutors doing? Why aren’t they seizing church abuse and cover up records now, before archdiocesan staff have time to destroy, “lose” or alter them?

According to MPR, “St. Paul police have not asked the archdiocese to turn over its files on accused priests. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi has told MPR News that he doesn’t plan to convene a grand jury. St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith has told MPR News he lacks probable cause for search warrants or subpoenas to seize the chancery’s files.”

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

[Correction: The trial starts Monday, Feb. 24.]

By Gustavo Arellano
Wed., Feb. 19 2014

Over two years after getting arrested on seven felony charges of molesting his student, the trial of former JSerra High School Spanish teacher Ricardo Aldana is finally going to start today, according to lawyers for the victim.

A quick refresher: Aldana was a popular volleyball coach in South County whose defenders came out in full force upon getting arrested. Those defenders shut up after details emerged that Aldana had also been accused of molesting a student while at Hawthorne High, and that JSerra officials hadn’t uncovered that tidbit. They insisted Hawthorne High brass never told them; the rest of the world laughed.

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POLAND/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Poland judicial authorities on Wednesday ruled to send Polish priest Wojciech (padre Alberto) Gil to three months of pre-trial detention, on charges of sexually abusing minors in his country, and in a highland town of the Dominican Republic, Polish media report.

Citing a source close to the investigation, Polish courts ruled to hold the priest in, and if convicted on all four counts, could spend up to 12 years in Poland prison.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP Volunteer Western Regional Director, ( 949-322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com )

We are proud of these brave victims who came forward to seek justice for their abuse and accountability for the fraudulent cover-up of abuse by Archdiocesan officials like Cardinal Roger Mahony and Bishop Thomas Curry. These tenacious men and women are the reason that the public is learning just how horrible the scope and scale of the abuse and cover-up have been in Los Angeles.

We can only hope that Archbishop Gomez and Pope Francis take more than “symbolic” actions to make sure that these crimes stop. No one has been punished for covering up abuse, and allowing predators to escape law enforcement. When no one is punished, how do we know that the crimes have stopped?

Cardinal Mahony is celebrating Mass with Pope Francis, even though the LA Cardinal had no problem allowed molesters to roam free and escape punishment. That is the true injustice and shows the true intentions of the church when it comes to protecting children.

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NEW YORK
Timothy Cardinal Dolan

Just a few items to share with you.

For one, late tonight I leave for Rome, summoned there, along with my brother Cardinals from around the world, by Pope Francis. Your intentions accompany me, and I already look forward to returning back here in a week. …

Since I was elected to the Permanent Council for the Synod of Bishops, I must remain in Rome Monday and Tuesday for all day meetings of that council.

Two, you know how I always try to alert you to any potentially negative publicity about the Church, or about me. Well, there could be some. My home archdiocese of St. Louis just complied with a court order to release the documents regarding cases there of sexual abuse of minors. (Cardinal Egan already did that here a decade ago, sharing all of the information we had on abusive priests with proper district attorneys, something we continue to do today.)

Anyway, since I was an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis for a year (2001-02), and vicar for priests for nine of those twelve months, I would anticipate that my name will again be highlighted in the press. I sure have nothing to hide, and am very much at peace with law enforcements officials reviewing the files. In fact, we already released all the documentation to them a dozen years ago!

This will be, I suspect, a repeat of last year’s attempt by the same tort lawyers to muddy my name. A year ago, they contended- – remember?- -that while Archbishop of Milwaukee I had “hidden funds”, and they had even deposed me. Nothing of course ever came of it, although the ever-compliant press here gave me headlines about being deposed. (The headlines were much smaller when the Judge eventually ruled that I had acted properly.) However, knowing how their attorneys operate, and some reporters here cooperate with them, I would anticipate some attempt at bad publicity again. I’ll keep you posted…

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

Sex abuse victims blast NY Cardinal
His latest blog is “preposterous” they say
Dolan claims he may soon get “negative publicity”
But the files he fears have been sealed by a judge
And in civil cases, he claims law enforcement will see records
SNAP “He’s either dreadfully ill-informed or he’s being deceptive”

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is blasting New York’s Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan, calling him “deceptive and self-absorbed” and accusing him of “attacking real victims and their advocates while posturing as a victim himself.”

In his latest blog post, Dolan warns that “negative publicity” about him may result from clergy sex abuse records in St. Louis, where he was an auxiliary bishop for a year (2001-2002).

[Cardinal Timothy Dolan blog]

A judge recently ordered St. Louis’ archbishop to turn over the documents – under seal – to a 20 year old victim and her lawyer.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say Dolan’s claims are “preposterous and self-serving.”

“Every single file is under seal. Two people – the victim and her lawyer – can see them,” said David Clohessy, director of SNAP. “Dolan’s either dreadfully misinformed or deliberately deceiving his flock so he can win sympathy and posture as a victim.”

Dolan writes that “law enforcement will review the files” in the case.

“But that’s just not true, because this is a civil suit,” Clohessy said.

The lawsuit in question alleges clergy sex crimes over a four year period that ended around 2001. In June of that year, Dolan was made an auxiliary bishop. There do not appear to be any ties between Dolan and the accused priest, Fr. Joseph D. Ross.

“Dolan’s name will very likely never be mentioned publicly in any way in connection with this case unless it actually goes to trial”, said Barbara Dorris of SNAP. “There have only been about 35 civil trials involving predator priests, so Dolan knows the chance of this case ever being heard in court are extraordinarily small.”

Dolan also charges that last year, lawyers who represent clergy sex abuse victims tried to “muddy” his name.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

Updated: 02/18/2014

By: Leslie Dyste

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis appealed two matters to the State Court of Appeals on Tuesday.

They are asking the appeals court to throw out a lower court ruling forcing Archbishop John Nienstedt and former Vicar General Father Kevin McDonough to testify.

They are asking that another list of priests be kept sealed. That list contains the names of priests who were accused, but not “credibly accused” in the eyes of the Archdiocese.

The archdiocese released the names of nine more priests accused of sexual abuse on Monday.

Church leaders say it’s all in the name of transparency, but some say it’s more proof of an attempted cover up. All but one of the alleged incidents happened decades ago, and three of the nine priests have since died.

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VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014

Statement by Becky Ianni of Virginia, SNAP Leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 703-801-6044, SNAPVirginia@cox.net )

A lengthy and very disturbing investigation has been done into campus sex crimes at Patrick Henry College.

[The New Republic]

Our hearts ache for each of the young women who were sexually assaulted at Patrick Henry College. Both the attacks and the college administrators’ responses are appalling.

We urge college officials to fire Sandra Corbitt, the dean of student life and the school’s primary disciplinarian.

If even one fourth of what several victims say about her is true, Corbitt should be ousted. It’s clear that she has acted in ways that protect her reputation and the reputation of the school, but has endangered the vulnerable and further hurt the already-wounded.

According to writer Kiera Feldman, Patrick Henry College “is one of only four private colleges in the United States that eschews federal funds in order to avoid complying with government regulations.” This means it isn’t subject to three laws:

1) The Clery Act, which requires schools to issue campus crime reports.

2) Title IX which requires schools to “hold an investigation independent of a criminal investigation and ensure that victims can change dorms and class arrangements, get campus restraining orders, and receive help filing a police report if they choose to do so.”

3) The Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act which requires schools to “have prompt disciplinary proceedings and inform victims of their rights.”

Here’s a simple step forward: though Patrick Henry isn’t bound by these laws, school officials can voluntarily comply with their provisions. That’s what they should do. That’s the bare minimum.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

Three more child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits have been filed against the Chicago archdiocese because of the heinous crimes of Fr. Daniel McCormack.

[CBS Chicago]

We are deeply saddened each time we hear about more kids who were sexually assaulted by this prolific predator who was repeatedly given free passes and second chances by Cardinal Francis George and his top deputies.

Tragically, this horror could have all been avoided if only three steps had been taken.

First, church officials could have heeded warnings about McCormack’s behavior in seminary and should not have ordained him.

Second, they could have ousted him at the first troubling indication of sexual misdeeds and maladjustment (and there were several of them) early in his priesthood.

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IRELAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

The Irish government has sent a letter to survivors asking them to sign a waiver to receive their lump sum reparations.

[Irish Examiner]

We are sickened by this deceitful move against victims who have suffered so much already. The waiver they are being asked to sign is an agreement to the full terms of the redress scheme and give up any right of action against the state. The full terms have not even been finalized yet.

The government has defended its position by stating that the victims can postpone accepting the terms until they have legally been finalized, but a victims group says that the language of the letter is so vague, that option was not immediately clear.

The suffering these women endured for years is heartbreaking. The fact that the government is not being transparent with them now is maddening. We hope that the government will back track and start being now transparent. We hope that all the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries will stand up for their rights.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Updated: February 19, 2014

For the past decade, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has maintained that only 33 clergy members “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors have worked in its churches, schools and hospitals since 1950. Its list grew to 43 this week.

An MPR News investigation found allegations of child sexual abuse and other sexual improprieties against 70 clergy members in secret lists, internal church files, court records, private settlements, and police reports. Some have not previously been named by the archdiocese, but have been identified by other Catholic institutions across Minnesota.

Details of the allegations against those priests, deacons and monks are included in this database, along with the locations of their service and their current status, whenever possible. [Related story]

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

By Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
Feb. 19, 2014

At the height of the national clergy abuse scandal 11 years ago, Archbishop Harry Flynn gave speeches across the country condemning child abuse and vowing to change the church.

Meanwhile, the Rev. Kevin McDonough, his deputy at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, sat in a chancery office and checked boxes on a form. He was completing the U.S. Catholic Church’s first survey of abusive priests.

McDonough selected 33 priests. He wrote down their initials and dates of birth and sent them to researchers. The 33 men became known as the “credibly accused priests.” The paperwork McDonough submitted became known as “the list.” The archdiocese acknowledged the existence of the list in 2003 but declined to release the names.

The list symbolized all that victims believed was wrong about the Catholic Church’s handling of abuse claims — the secrecy, the failure to warn the public, the hidden offenders. Victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson received the list under court seal as part of a lawsuit in 2009. In December, a judge ordered the archdiocese to release the names to the public. The secrecy appeared finished.

But it wasn’t. The list of 33 was incomplete. An MPR News investigation has found the actual number was more than double the archdiocese’s official count. The priests served in nearly every parish in the archdiocese.

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ITALIA
Il Fatto Quotidiano

[Summary: Pope Francis is continuing the fight against pedophilia in the church. Only a week ago the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child accused the Vatican of allowing priests to abuse tens of thousands of children. However, the Holy See has defrocked a priest accused of pedophilia without waiting final judgment of the Italian state. Don Marco Mangiacasale of the Como diocese was accused to abusing four underage girls.]

Con Papa Francesco prosegue la lotta alla pedofilia ecclesiale. A dispetto di quanto affermato, soltanto una settimana fa, dal Comitato Onu sui diritti dell’infanzia che ha accusato il Vaticano di aver permesso decine di migliaia di abusi su minori, la Santa Sede ha ridotto allo stato laicale un sacerdote accusato di pedofilia senza attendere la sentenza definitiva dello Stato italiano. Si tratta di don Marco Mangiacasale, sacerdote della diocesi di Como già condannato nei primi due gradi del processo penale a tre anni, cinque mesi e venti giorni di carcere per abusi sessuali su quattro ragazze minorenni. L’ex parroco e poi economo della parrocchia di San Giuliano, con una sentenza firmata dal prefetto per la Congregazione della dottrina della fede e prossimo cardinale, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, lo scorso 13 dicembre è stato, infatti, ridotto allo stato laicale. Un provvedimento che si ricollega al lavoro svolto da Benedetto XVI che, tra il 2011 e il 2012, ha “spretato” quattrocento sacerdoti accusati di pedofilia.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 19, 2014 NCR Today

VATICAN CITY Japan’s bishops have publicly responded to a Vatican survey of global Catholics’ views on family issues, stating bluntly that church teachings are not known in their country and the Vatican’s Europe-centric view hampers efforts at evangelization in places where Catholics represent a small minority of the population.

In a sometimes pointed 15-page report issued in preparation for an October meeting of the world’s bishops, known as a synod, the Japanese state the church “often falls short” by “presenting a high threshold for entry and lacking hospitality and practical kindness.”

Stressing many times that Japanese Catholics represent only about 0.35 percent of the country’s population and that some 76 percent of those Catholics marry non-Catholics, the Japanese ask the global church to “go beyond” a series of norms and rules that separate Catholics from one another.

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VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

I’m in Rome, where Pope Francis’ “Group of 8” cardinal-advisors are meeting this week to discuss prospects for administrative and economic reforms at the Vatican.

As Francis’ one-year mark approaches, many are expecting to see the pope’s reform agenda take concrete shape in structural changes, new policies and bureaucratic streamlining.

But judging by the comments of Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, the week is likely to pass without major decisions on reforms.

That kind of lengthy timeline is not a surprise to those who have followed Vatican affairs – Pope John Paul II’s Curia reform effort took 10 years to prepare, and it was a relatively minor touch-up of the Vatican’s network of offices.

But I think the wider audience will soon be asking, What’s the hold-up?

Part of the answer is that Pope Francis has named several advisory bodies, in addition to existing ones, to help him in the reform process. Their tasks sometimes overlap, and that complicates things.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 20, 2014

CARDINAL George Pell will give evidence to a royal commission hearing next month into the so-called “Ellis defence”, a legal ruling that forms the cornerstone of the Catholic Church’s response to claims of child sexual abuse.

The country’s most senior Catholic cleric and leader of the Archdiocese of Sydney will be examined on his role as a defendant in the 2006 case, which legal experts believe has saved the church millions of dollars in subsequent claims.

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CANADA
CBC News

Court documents obtained by CBC News allege that the Catholic Church is withholding millions from former students of Indian residential schools.

The church was part of the Indian residential school settlement reached in 2006. While the government paid the lion’s share of the billion-dollar settlement, the churches were also required to make reparations.

The Anglican, Presbyterian and United churches have met their obligations, but according to the federal government, the Catholic Church is shirking its responsibility.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is one organization that was slated to receive funds from the Catholic Church.

“We’re trying to get blood from a stone,” says Mike DeGagne, former head of the organization.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (STMW) – Three men filed separate lawsuits in Cook County Circuit Court Tuesday, each alleging that an already convicted and defrocked priest sexually abused them as children at a West Side school.

The three men all alleged that the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, the Archdiocese of Chicago and Cardinal Francis George were all negligent in the hiring and retention of former priest Daniel McCormack.

McCormack was arrested in January 2006 and removed from the priesthood in November 2007. He pleaded guilty that year to abusing five children while a parish priest at St. Agatha.

The identities of the three men, ages 18, 20 and 24, were all withheld in the lawsuits, though each man alleged that McCormack abused them at some point between 2000 and 2005 while they were each students at St. Agatha.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

On the second day of meetings at which Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin has been present, a meeting was also held with the head of the Commission in charge of studying IOR reform. Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi says the situation of the Vatican’s economic and administrative structures is also important

IACOPO SCARAMUZZI
VATICAN CITY

The Pope and the eight cardinal advisors (the so-called “C8”) who are helping him reform the Roman Curia received the Commission for Reference on the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) in an audience this morning. During this meeting, both “problems” and “possible” restructuring “strategies” were discussed, bearing in mind the “Church’s mission” and the “context” of the Vatican’s economic and administrative structure as a whole. This includes the IOR. Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi communicated this, adding that the Vatican Secretary of State was present at both yesterday and today’s meeting.

Today’s meeting was the second in a three-day meeting being held between the Pope and his advising Council. Yesterday the “C8” heard the Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structures of the Holy See (COSEA). Tomorrow afternoon there will be a meeting with the 15 cardinals in charge of studying the organisational and economic problems of the Holy See (Meisner, Rouco Varela, Pengo, Rivera Carera, George, Fox Napier, Cipriani, Scola, Toppo, Pell, Vallini, Urosa Savino, Ricard, Odilo Scherer, Tong Hon).

Today the Pope and his advisors received almost all members of the Commission for reference on the IOR (cardinals Farina (president) and Tauran, Mgr. Arrieta (coordinator), Mgr. Wells (secretary): only Professor Glendon who lives in the United States was missing). Lombardi said that the Commission presented “a thorough report” which cardinals showed “significant interest in,” asking “further questions” on it after it was presented. The Vatican spokesman emphasised that the “mission for the IOR” – in other words fitting “the mission of the Church into the world” – was discussed. This debate was not just limited to a close examination of economic efficiency. More specifically, the Commission “reported on the current situation of the Institute, the problems, the interpretations of what caused existing problems or reasons why there may be problems to deal with or resolve” and “some ideas for the renewal or set-up of the Institute.”

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Daily News

By Kelly Goff, Los Angeles Daily News
POSTED: 02/18/14

The family of a teenage girl sexually abused by a former softball coach at a Catholic school in Sylmar has filed a lawsuit naming the school, the archbishop and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, alleging they failed to protect students by not performing background checks on its volunteers.

Epifanio Nevarez, 59, pleaded no contest in September to lewd acts with a child under the age of 14 after the 13-year-old girl reported the abuse an older sibling. She said he had pressured her to take part in a sex club and that there were multiple encounters over a five-month period at Nevarez’s Canyon Country home.

At the time of his arrest, Nevarez was a volunteer softball coach at St. Didacus School. He was sentenced to six years in prison and will register as a sex offender upon his release.

“Our client feels that the school and the archdiocese failed to protect her. They didn’t vet this volunteer, and this was allowed to go on for five months,” said attorney Michael Carrillo, who is representing the girl’s family.

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POLAND
The News

A priest accused of child abuse in the Dominican Republic has also been charged with crimes against Polish citizens.

Przemyslaw Nowak, spokesman for the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office, has revealed that Father Wojciech G. (full name withheld under Polish privacy laws), has had four charges brought against him in total, two of which “relate to acts committed in Poland, to the detriment of Polish citizens.

” It had previously been understood that the entire case against the priest concerned alleged crimes against citizens of the Dominican Republic.

“The acts against Polish citizens are from several years ago,” Nowak noted. Nowak said the charges relate to various sexual offences against minors, and that some of the charges carry penalties of up to 12 years in prison.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Victoria Kim
February 18, 2014

The Los Angeles Archdiocese has settled what officials said is the last of its pending priest molestation lawsuits, bring to a close a decade of wrenching abuse litigation that cost the Catholic Church more than $740 million.

The church reached the $13-million agreement with 17 victims last week, on the eve of a trial scheduled to begin Feb. 14 over the alleged acts of Father Nicolas Aguilar-Rivera, a visiting cleric from Mexico who police believe molested more than two dozen boys over a mere nine months in 1987.

Eleven men, who were ages 7 to 12 when they were allegedly abused by the priest, were scheduled to appear in court to argue that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his aides had allowed the priest to flee in the days before police were notified.

Attorneys for the men alleged in court papers that Mahony and his top aide, Msgr. Thomas Curry, had “actively thwarted” and “misled” Los Angeles Police Department investigators at the time.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

A Catholic principal didn’t trust or like a paedophile teacher, but never reported child sex abuse complaints against him to police because he did not want to compromise the bishop.

Terence Hayes, who currently works as a year seven teacher, was principal of a Queensland primary in 2007 and 2008 when serious child sex abuse complaints were made against teacher Gerard Byrnes.
But Mr Hayes says he never reported any allegations to police, as the school’s child protection manual and state laws required, because he was always told to go to his superiors first.

“In the Catholic system, principals are not autonomous. We are virtually middle managers. So as, per the advice that had been given to me, we were constantly told we can never do anything without going to the office and getting advice of our superiors,” he told a hearing of the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane on Tuesday.

“Principals were of the understanding that CEO (Catholic Education Office) was the first port of call, and that the bishop must not be compromised.”

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Teacher Magazine

BRISBANE, Feb 19 – A Catholic principal believed a pedophile teacher was a risk to students but gave him the benefit of the doubt and didn’t report a serious child sex abuse complaint against him.

Terence Hayes has taken the stand for a second time at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane.

The primary school principal received a complaint from a schoolgirl in 2007 about inappropriate behaviour by teacher Gerard Byrnes, including the most serious allegation that he “had put his hands up our skirts”.

Hayes told superiors at the Catholic Education Office about the girl’s complaint on three separate occasions, including once in writing, but he never told them about the most serious allegation.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Teacher Magazine

BRISBANE, Feb 19 – A former principal admits he was grossly incompetent for failing to report a pedophile teacher he knew posed a risk to students.

Teacher Gerard Byrnes was arrested in November 2008 and charged for molesting and raping 13 schoolgirls, all during class time.

Principal Terence Hayes first heard a schoolgirl’s abuse complaint about Byrnes, including that he had “put his hand up their skirts”, in 2007.

But Hayes did not tell his superiors the full extent of the complaint, and he never reported it to police, he told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane on Wednesday.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

[with video]

SARAH ELKS THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 19, 2014

A FORMER Catholic principal admits he knew an alleged pedophile teacher was a “risk” to his students after a child complained he’d sexually abused her, but failed to report him to police and kept him on as teacher and child protection officer.

After intense questioning by barrister Andrew Naylor, counsel assisting the sex abuse Royal Commission, sacked Toowoomba primary school principal Terence Hayes today conceded he had “ultimate responsibility” to tell police of alleged sexual abuse.

Mr Hayes was principal when teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes molested or raped 13 girls – aged between eight and 10 – at the school in 2007 and 2008, with most of the incidents occurring in his classroom during class.

Byrnes is in prison after pleading guilty to 44 counts of abuse, including 10 of digital rape, and Mr Hayes has a new job as Year 7 teacher at a Catholic school.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Queensland principal who was sacked for not telling police about reports of a teacher molesting students says it is hard to come to terms with how he handled the issue.

Teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes molested 13 female students, all aged between nine and 10, at a Catholic school in Toowoomba in 2007 and 2008.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking at why Byrnes was allowed to go on offending for more than a year after allegations were first made against him to the school.

Byrnes, the school’s child protection contact, pleaded guilty in 2010 to child sex offences, including rape. He carried out all but two of his crimes in the classroom.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A former Catholic school principal has no explanation for failing to report serious child sex abuse allegations to police, an inquiry has heard.

Terence Hayes did not report complaints against pedophile teacher Gerard Byrnes, who molested and raped 13 girls in 2007 and 2008.

But that was despite knowing about new Queensland laws which made it compulsory to report child sex abuse allegations to police or child protection agencies.

Giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Wednesday, Mr Hayes was asked if he had any explanation for failing to take the matter to police.

‘No,’ he replied under cross-examination from the Catholic diocese counsel Jane Needham SC.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: Now to the latest from to the Child Abuse Royal Commission.

Today the former principal of a Toowoomba primary school admitted he was grossly incompetent for not reporting allegations of sexual abuse by one of his teachers to the police.

Terry Hayes was the head of the school when 13 girls were sexually abused by their teacher, Gerard Byrnes in 2007 and 2008.

Stephanie Smail is covering the Royal Commission in Brisbane and joins us now.

So Stephanie how did this former principal come to make this admission this morning?

STEPHANIE SMAIL: Good morning Eleanor. Terry Hayes has been questioned again about a meeting he had with the girl and her father in September 2007. The commission has heard the girl told Mr Hayes, her father and another staff member that her teacher Gerard Byrnes put his hands down her shirt and up her skirt but the former principal has told the inquiry he didn’t tell his superiors at the Catholic Education Office all of that information.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Department of Justice has defended asking victims of the Magdalene laundries to sign waivers accepting “all the terms” of the a redress scheme which it has yet to fully legislate for.

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

Justice for Magdalenes Research has hit out at the “subterfuge” being employed by the Government in providing justice to victims of the laundries.

The group pointed out that the department is writing to women offering formal lump sum payments, while stating that all other aspects of the scheme remain subject to legislation or discussions with other Government departments.

Despite the fact that the full terms of the scheme are not finalised, women are requested to sign a waiver accepting “all the terms of the scheme” and waiving “any right of action against the State or any public or statutory body or agency” arising out of their time in a Magdalene laundry.

However, in a statement issued to the Irish Examiner, the department defended the waivers, stating they were recommended by Justice Quirke as a pre-condition of receiving benefits under the scheme. It also defended asking people to formally accept the terms of a scheme it has not yet finalised.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Less than one-third of Magdalene Laundry survivors have received compensation from the State — one year after Taoiseach Enda Kenny apologised to victims in the Dáil.

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

The Department of Justice has said it has received 684 applications from women who were incarcerated in Magdalene Laundries run by the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of Charity, the Good Shepherd Sisters, and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity.

The department has issued 300 letters of formal offer and another 32 provision assessments have been issued. A total of 206 women have accepted the formal offer and payments of €5.6m have been issued.

None of the 684 applicants have, to date, received their statutory, old-age pensions or health care benefits.

The Department of Justice has said it is currently finalising the drafting of the necessary legislation to provide the medical provisions recommended in the Quirke report.

Steven O’Riordan, Magdalene Survivors Together, expressed concern that survivors were being offered lesser amounts of compensation than they were entitled to due to the records of the Orders not matching the accounts of the women in terms of duration of stay.

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IRELAND
The Journal

A YEAR AGO, Taoiseach Enda Kenny made an emotional address to survivors from the Magdalene laundries in Ireland.

In his speech, Kenny said the government and the citizens of Ireland “deeply regret and apologise unreservedly to all those women for the hurt that was done to them”.

Today, the call has been made for the government to take action on legislation relating to the apology.
Restorative justice

JFM Research called for the State to begin immediate work on the Magdalene Laundries restorative justice scheme earlier this month.

It said that survivors have still not obtained the redress called for by the UN Committee Against Torture, and that it is “gravely concerned” by “unacceptable additional delays”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

A wreath will be laid at the gates of Leinster House at midday today to mark the first anniversary of Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s apology to women who had been in Magdalene laundries.

A second wreath will be laid at Glasnevin cemetery on the graves of undocumented Magdalene women buried there this afternoon.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) has called on the State to deliver on its promises to provide full restorative justice for women survivors of the laundries without further delay.

Its head of outreach Rachel Doyle said that “a year ago today, Enda Kenny’s apology saw the Magdalene survivors vindicated and gave them hope of finally achieving justice. Yet one year on, many of the women are yet to receive a penny.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Catholics, and many who are not, must be heartily weary of the never-ending litany of cases involving people abused by clerics.

Just yesterday a man abused by a Christian Brother in the 1980s was awarded €370,000 in a case that revealed extreme cruelty.

Part of reconciling the horrors of the past with the possibility of the future is acknowledging a debt and then discharging it.

It is therefore very unfortunate that so many women who suffered well-documented hardship in the Magdalene laundries are still waiting for compensation promised by the State.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Published February 19, 2014.

An appeals court in New York will examine dueling decisions by federal judges in two recent high-profile child sex abuse lawsuits and, at least in the Northeast, the court’s decision is likely to affect the access future child victims will have to civil remedies years after their alleged abuse.

Lawyer Kevin Mulhearn represented plaintiffs in both cases, which were filed long after New York State’s statute of limitations for child sex abuse suits.

In the first case, against Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, Mulhearn persuaded a judge that the school’s cover-up of abuse and the positive statements it made about an abuser were enough to override the state’s statute of limitations.

But Mulhearn lost his second case, a $680 million lawsuit against Yeshiva University, in January of this year, despite using an identical legal strategy.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

[Summary: One of the victims of sexual abuse by an expelled priest in the Arecibo diocese filed a lawsuit asking the court not to disclose the victim’s identity and personal information to the justice department. The victim, identified as DJMG, said the victim has a constitutional right to privacy and free exercise of the Catholic religion and does not want documents and confidential information the victim had with church authorities to go to the justice department.]

Una de las víctimas de abuso sexual por parte de uno de los sacerdotes expulsados en la Diócesis de Arecibo radicó hoy una demanda en la que suplica al Tribunal que no autorice la divulgación de su identidad, datos y circunstancias personales al Departamento de Justicia.

En una demanda de ocho páginas la víctima, identificada por las inicales DJMG, puntualiza que tiene un derecho constitucional a la privacidad, la intimidad, el respeto a su dignidad humana y al libre ejercicio de su religión católica por lo que no le interesa que se divulgue al Departamento de Justicia los documentos y comunicaciones confidenciales que mantuvo con las autoridades eclesiásticas.

Asimismo la víctima establece que según la Regla 511 de Evidencia de Puerto Rico las comunicaciones confidenciales que brindó a miembros del clero de la Iglesia Católica son de carácter privilegiado y tiene el derecho a que no se divulguen al gobierno ni a nadie, sin su autorización.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Aguas Digital

Los Ángeles (EE.UU.) / EFE – La arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles (California) acordó pagar 13 millones de dólares a supuestas víctimas de abuso sexual por parte de un sacerdote católico mexicano que estuvo de visita en Los Ángeles en 1987, informaron hoy los abogados.

El mexicano Nicolás Aguilar Rivera, estuvo como sacerdote visitante en varias parroquias de la diócesis de Los Ángeles durante aproximadamente nueve meses en 1987, tiempo en el cual las autoridades creen que abusó de cerca de dos docenas de niños.

Aguilar Rivera viajó a México en enero de 1988, poco antes de que las autoridades expidieran una orden de arresto en su contra por las denuncias de los supuestos abusos.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

Md. man accused of sexually abusing teen while he was a church deacon in the District

By Lynh Bui, Published: February 18

Prince George’s County authorities have charged an Accokeek man with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl when he served as a deacon in the District church they attended about a decade ago.

Police arrested Maurice Blanchard, 45, last week, charging him with child abuse and sex abuse in connection with incidents that spanned almost a year starting in July 2003, according to charging documents.

As part of their investigation, authorities set up a phone call in December between Blanchard and the husband of the now-26-year-old woman, documents show. During the call, which police recorded, Blanchard admitted to having sex in 2004 with the woman when she was 15.

“During the conversation the Defendant admitted to having vaginal intercourse with the Victim in 2004,” the charging documents state.

Sandra Seegars, the woman’s godmother, said her goddaughter was babysitting for Blanchard’s family at the time. She did not go to police partly because she was scared, Seegars said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian – Communist Party of Australia

Editorial

Hopes of the faithful that Francis would be a reforming Pope have received a heavy blow. The Vatican responded angrily to a UN report on child sexual abuse by priests, claiming that it is “prejudiced” against the Catholic Church and that it peddles attacks made by anti-Catholic advocacy groups. But while the Catholic Church features heavily in revelations of cover-up and protection of serial offenders, it is far from the only organisation to which children are entrusted to be accused of failing miserably to protect them from sexual predators. The Catholic Church’s claim of a witch hunt doesn’t stack up.

Australia is getting disturbing insights into the extent of the horrors via the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It was revealed two weeks ago that boys at the Bexley Boys Home in Sydney were routinely beaten, sexually abused and rented out to paedophiles for weekends during the 1960s and ‘70s. The Salvation Army, which ran the home, isn’t denying any claims but insists that guidelines and procedures have been put in place to prevent any such practices occurring again. Like the Catholic Church, it has expressed its sorrow for the abuse and sympathy for the victims.

The Royal Commission was called following a report on the ABC’s Lateline TV program on November 8, 2012. Detective chief inspector Peter Fox essentially put his life and job on the line in an interview with Tony Jones. “I can testify from my own experience the Church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the Church,” Fox said in a letter to the NSW Premier. The public outcry forced the federal government’s hand despite strong opposition from the Church. The terms of reference are suitably broad though time will tell how the question of compensation will be handled.

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ZIMBABWE
Global Times

Xinhua | 2014-2-19
By Agencies

The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) has called for moral uprightness among church leaders in the wake of allegations of sexual violence against women and corruption.

EFZ, which represents approved members of evangelical and Pentecostal persuasion, said it was deeply concerned about the public perception of the church following recent allegations of corruption and abuse of women in the form of rape, sexual, spiritual and emotional violence.

Law enforcement is called upon to take its course on corrupt religious leaders, individual actors, leaders of parastatals, (and) public and private institutions that perpetuate this pandemic, EFZ said in a statement issued Tuesday.

A number of church leaders have been caught on the wrong side of the law on a number of occasions, the latest being independent church RMG End Time Message leader Robert Gumbura who was sentenced to 50 years over raping female followers and possessing pornographic material.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

SARAH ELKS THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 19, 2014

THE Catholic Church has accused one of its veteran educators of lying under oath to blame the church for his failure to report to police serious allegations of child sexual abuse.

In a heated exchange before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse yesterday, senior barrister Jane Needham SC_ for the church _ repeatedly accused sacked principal Terence Hayes of lying and “making up stories” to get himself “out of trouble”.

An emotional Mr Hayes “categorically” denied lying, but yesterday made a series of concessions about his failures in handling abuse allegations levelled at serial pedophile Gerard Vincent Byrnes, who molested and raped 13 girls, mostly in his classroom during class time, at Mr Hayes’ Toowoomba school in 2007 and 2008.

In 2009, The Australian revealed Mr Hayes failed to report to police an allegation by a nine-year-old girl in September 2007 that Byrnes had put his hands up her skirt and inside her shirt. It wasn’t until November 2008 that Byrnes was arrested after another molested girl’s mother complained to police.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
NBC Los Angeles

By Gillian Flaccus | Wednesday, Feb 19, 2014

When Los Angeles police were investigating allegations of child abuse by a Roman Catholic priest in 1988, they asked for a list of altar boys at the last parish where the priest worked.

Archbishop Roger Mahony told a subordinate not to give the list, saying he didn’t want the boys to be scarred by the investigation and that he felt the altar boys were too old to be potential victims, according to a deposition made public Wednesday.

The detectives investigating allegations against Nicolas Aguilar Rivera, a visiting Mexican priest, ultimately got the names of the boys from parish families. They determined the priest molested at least 26 boys during his 10 months in Los Angeles, according to the priest’s confidential archdiocese file and police records made public by attorneys for the victims.

Twenty-five of the alleged victims were altar boys and the 26th was training with the priest to be one, said Anthony DeMarco, a plaintiff attorney. It’s not clear what impact Mahony’s action had on the investigation, though at the time police complained that the archdiocese wasn’t fully cooperating.

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MINNESOTA
The New Civil Rights Movement

Judge Rules One of America’s Most Vocal Anti-LGBT Catholics Must Testify About Abuse

by CASEY MICHEL on FEBRUARY 18, 2014

On Sunday afternoon, Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North confirmed that Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt, one of the nation’s most vocal and vociferous Catholic anti-LGBT voices, must testify about covering up child abuse within the church in Minnesota. Sunday’s ruling, which mirrored his decision early last week, came in response to the Twin Cities archdiocese’s appeal to stay the testimony.

Former Vicar General Kevin McDonough, who recently resigned in light of the cover-up, will also be forced to testify before March 13. The judge also reconfirmed his ruling that the church must turn in a list of all priests accused of child and sexual abuse since 2004, though such names will remain under seal. The archdiocese released a partial list in late 2013, but had refused to release the entire list.

The church’s failed attempt at a stay represented, according to Minnesota Public Radio, a “more aggressive legal approach” than those yet fielded. It also offered its most public legal failure to date in the state, and it remains unclear whether any mechanism for appeal remains.

The ruling stands as a boon to both those seeking recourse for decades of sex abuse within the Catholic Church, as well as those who know Nienstedt for his history of outspoken bigotry. While his anti-LGBT views aren’t as prominent as Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Nienstedt arguably carries the most acidic views among high-ranking American Catholics.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Editorial

In an interview Monday on the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese’s bankruptcy reorganization plan, Archbishop Jerome Listecki said he wanted sexual abuse victims to know that “we are doing our best” even though it might not seem that way to some victims and that the archdiocese is “not going to walk away from the victim survivors.”

He also said that he wants parishioners to know that “we basically have confronted evil, and we haven’t walked away from it” in dealing with the sexual abuse scandal.

There are those who would take issue with those statements. Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and the Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance blasted the plan, announced last week, as an “obscene gesture” by the archdiocese, insulting to those who were victimized by both clergy and a church hierarchy that sometimes turned a blind eye to such abuse.

He was not alone, though we think that criticism is overly harsh. That said, we wish the church could do more, both in terms of the monetary settlements, including a lifetime fund for therapy for victims (about $500,000), and in the number of claimants allowed. If approved by the bankruptcy court, the plan would provide the smallest settlement of any of the Catholic Church bankruptcies filed since 2004. The plan limits the number of claimants to about 125 abuse victims out of the 575 who have made claims against the archdiocese.

In our view, it’s questionable that such a limited plan provides the measure of justice needed for the abuse of children. The court needs to take a close look at the plan and make sure there is nothing else the diocese can do to provide more help and more justice for victims. Perhaps there should be a campaign for victims as there have been for other church causes, or perhaps there are other sources of money for the settlement.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Meredith Rodriguez
Tribune reporter
9:49 p.m. CST, February 18, 2014

Three unidentified young men who say they were abused by Daniel McCormack, a defrocked Catholic priest who in 2007 pleaded guilty to several counts of criminal sexual assault, each filed separate lawsuits Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court.

The suits named the Catholic bishop of Chicago, the Archdiocese of Chicago and Cardinal Francis George. It claims that they were negligent in allowing McCormack, who as of last month was confined in a mental health facility after his guilty plea, to work with young boys unsupervised when they knew or should have known that he had a history of sexually abusing minors.

“The case is against the church for allowing him to be in the presence of young children when they knew he had had a propensity to try to take liberties with young boys,” said their lawyer, Richard Levin.

All three plaintiffs were members of the basketball team at Our Lady of the Westside School and were abused by McCormack at different times spanning 2000 to 2005, Levin said. A $3.15 million settlement was announced in January involving a sex-abuse victim who said McCormack abused him in 2002 at the same school.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Wednesday, February 19, 2014, 00:01 by Martin Scicluna

The United Nations Committee on Rights of the Child has recently delivered a swingeing report on the systemic and long-standing sexual abuse of children by the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the committee undermined the impact of this important report by straying beyond its terms of reference to areas like women’s rights, abortion and contraception, allowing those in the Church so minded to cast doubt on the credibility of the report.

This is a pity because the main thrust of the committee’s 16-page report contains a damning indictment of the Vatican’s “systematic” adoption of policies allowing priests to abuse children sexually. The report urges the Holy See to “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected of having abused minors and to report them to the civil authorities.

It also states that it should hand over its records on abuse of tens of thousands of children so that the culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, are held accountable.

The committee “is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by, and the impunity of, the perpetrators”.

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PUERTO RICO
Metro

Una de las personas abusadas sexualmente por uno de los seis sacerdotes expulsados de la diócesis de Arecibo solicitó intervención en el pleito sometido por obispado del municipio contra Justicia y pidió al Tribunal de San Juan que no se difunda su identidad, datos ni antecedentes personales.

El recurso apela a su derecho constitucional a la privacidad, intimidad y respeto a su dignidad humana, así como a su derecho al libre ejercicio de su religión católica y a su derecho a que no se divulguen sus comunicaciones confidenciales con la iglesia.

El afectado, en la petición, también solicita que no se divulguen las comunicaciones confidenciales sostenidas con miembros del clero religioso del Obispado de Arecibo dentro de los procedimientos eclesiásticos internos de la Iglesia Católica, que culminaron en la expulsión del sacerdote.

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PUERTO RICO
Montreal Gazette

BY DANICA COTO, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FEBRUARY 18, 2014

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A man who accused one of the six priests expelled from a Puerto Rican diocese in a sex abuse scandal requested Tuesday that his name and other details not be revealed to prosecutors pursuing a criminal investigation.

The request came just days after the Diocese of Arecibo filed a lawsuit against the U.S. territory’s justice secretary saying it should not be forced to release additional information to authorities. Prosecutors complained earlier that diocese officials gave them scant information concerning the expelled priests who were accused of sodomy, lewd acts and sexual harassment.

Manuel Martinez, a lawyer for an unidentified 23-year-old man, said in a court document filed Tuesday that his client does not want the government to get involved and is satisfied with how the church responded to his accusations.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

The child abuse royal commission has heard from the former principal of a Toowoomba primary school where 13 girls were abused by their teacher. Terry Hayes says he knew he was dealing with serious allegations of sexual abuse but referred the matter to his superiors and not to police.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: The child abuse royal commission today heard from the former principal of a Toowoomba primary school where a teacher abused 13 little girls.

The public hearing in Brisbane heard that the principal received a complaint from the father of a girl about how her teacher Gerard Byrnes had touched her in 2007.

The principal at the time, Terry Hayes, says he knew he was dealing with serious allegations of sexual abuse. But he referred the matter to his superiors and not to police.

The inquiry has also heard the girl was asked to re-enact the abuse with her father in front of the principal and another staff member.

Stephanie Smail reports.

STEPHANIE SMAIL: Terry Hayes is no stranger to the witness box. In 2009 he was on trial, accused of failing to refer allegations of child sexual abuse to police.

Today the former principal faced the royal commission and was forced to explain what he did and didn’t do when the father of a grade-four girl came forward in 2007 with an allegation about one of his staffers, Gerard Byrnes.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

[with video]

MICHAEL MADIGAN THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 19, 2014

THIS Catholic school principal did not refer serious allegations of sexual abuse in his school to police because he believed “the Bishop must not be compromised”.

Terence Michael Hayes, principal when teacher Gerard Byrnes assaulted 13 girls at his Toowoomba school, failed to apologise when he took to the stand at the royal commission into child sex abuse.

Victim made to enact allegations

Under a grilling before a packed public gallery, Mr Hayes admitted: a victim was forced to re-enact the sexual abuse in his office using her dad’s hands to show how Byrnes touched her; he omitted accusations when reporting the abuse to his superiors that Byrnes put his hands down a girl’s pants; he never liked Byrnes, despite re-hiring him after he retired.

Mr Hayes is still working at another Catholic school.

Byrnes is behind bars.

Mr Hayes told the commission he thought it was more appropriate to refer allegations against Byrnes to the Catholic Education Office than the police.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

SARAH ELKS THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 19, 2014

A PRINCIPAL sacked for failing to report child sexual abuse allegations to police says he took the matter only to Catholic authorities because of an edict that “the bishop should not be compromised”.

A nine-year-old girl told her Toowoomba Catholic school principal Terence Hayes in September 2007 that teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes had put his hands up her skirt and inside her shirt, making her uncomfortable.

The Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard yesterday Mr Hayes did not take the allegation to police but merely issued a warning letter to Byrnes, on the advice of his “superiors” at the local Catholic Education Office.

“(We were constantly told) the CEO was the first port of call so the bishop was not compromised,” Mr Hayes said.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

KAREN HEALY THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 19, 2014

FROM the outset of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, we were told to prepare ourselves to hear survivors’ experiences of child sexual abuse.

We expected to learn about the past, we were not prepared to hear that we are still failing our children.

On Monday we heard that, within the last decade, senior staff in a primary school failed to refer allegations of child sexual abuse to the police.

Many of us were puzzled by the school’s child protection officer’s comment to the commission that she did not understand why more of the children did not have the courage to come forward.

What did Catherine Long mean? Was it that the children lacked confidence in the system? Or was the children’s lack of “courage” to blame for the horror that unfolded?

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AUSTRALIA
The Eastern Tribune

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19TH, 2014

BRISBANE: A Former Catholic primary school principal was fired and charged, after he failed to report sex abuse complaints against a teacher to police as he did not want to compromise a bishop.

In Brisbane, at a hearing by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Terence Hayes gave evidence against teacher Gerard Byrnes. Hayes was the principal of a Toowoomba Catholic primary school where 13 young girls were sexually abused by their teacher Gerard Byrnes. Byrnes was then arrested and was later sentenced for 10 years for molesting and raping 13 girls at the school between the age of eight and 10.

Mr Hayes said he reported the complaints to his superiors at the Catholic Education Office (CEO) when the first complaints surfaced in 2007, but he did not inform the police or child protection officials.

When Andrew Naylor SC, the Junior Counsel Assisting questioned Mr Hayes over the reason for not informing the authorities. It is obligatory by state law and the child protection manual issued to all Catholic schools in the diocese to notify the police of any unlawful activity. Mr Hayes told the hearing that the principals believe the CEO was the first port of call and that the bishop must not be compromised.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The former principal at a Queensland school has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse why a girl and her father were asked to re-enact an encounter with a paedophile teacher.

Teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes molested 13 female students, all aged between nine and 10, at a Catholic school in Toowoomba in 2007 and 2008.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking at why Byrnes was allowed to go on offending for more than a year after allegations were first made against him to the school.

Byrnes, the school’s child protection contact, pleaded guilty in 2010 to child sex offences, including rape. He carried out all but two of his crimes in the classroom.

Terence Hayes was in charge of the school when Byrnes assaulted the year four students.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Teacher Magazine

BRISBANE, Feb 19 – A Catholic principal who decided not to tell police about sex abuse complaints against a teacher will continue giving evidence to the royal commission on Wednesday.

Terence Hayes was the principal of a Queensland primary school when teacher Gerard Byrnes sexually abused 13 young girls in 2007 and 2008.

Byrnes, who is now in jail for his crimes, was allowed to keep teaching at the school after the first complaint was made, and went on to assault other girls.

Hayes has already told the royal commission into institutional sexual abuse that he didn’t tell police about the abuse claims concerning Byrnes because he didn’t want to compromise the bishop.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KABC

[with video]

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A 24-year-old man is suing the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, claiming a volunteer sexually abused him.

Robert Reynolds, 24, says Timothy Kovacs, 37, started abusing him in 2003 when Reynolds was 13 years old.

Kovacs worked as a volunteer confirmation coordinator at St. Luke Catholic Church in Temple City from 2002 to 2005.

Reynold’s attorney, Michael J. Kinslow, filed a lawsuit against Kovacs, Cardinal Roger Mahoney, the L.A. Archdiocese and St. Luke Catholic Church.

“The abuse was just horrendous. It includes multiple acts of oral copulation and sodomy. It occurred on a regular and frequent basis — three to four times a month, sometimes as much as eight times a month,” said Kinslow.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has been named in a new lawsuit that claims it failed to protect a student from being sexually abused by a volunteer softball coach.

Epifanio Nevarez, a former coach at St. Didacus Elementary School in Sylmar, was convicted of lewd acts with a child under 14 in September 2013.

The suit claims the Archdiocese, the archbishop and the school did nothing to protect children at St. Didacus and allowed Nevarez “to come onto campus and victimize the minor child.”

“Specifically, he came into contact with this minor and took her home from the school to have her participate in ‘sex games’ with Nevarez,” the suit alleges.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KPCC

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will pay $13 million to 17 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs announced Tuesday that the nation’s largest diocese moved to settle 11 cases involving a visiting Mexican priest named Nicolas Aguilar Rivera rather than go to trial.

The settlement also involves six other lawsuits involving four other accused clergy.

Cardinal Roger Mahony would have been called to testify in the cases involving Aguilar Rivera.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Breeze

By Kelly Goff, Los Angeles Daily News
POSTED: 02/18/14

The family of a teenage girl sexually abused by a former softball coach at a Catholic school in Sylmar has filed a lawsuit naming the school, the archbishop and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, alleging they failed to protect students by not performing background checks on its volunteers.

Epifanio Nevarez, 59, pleaded no contest in September to lewd acts with a child under the age of 14 after the 13-year-old girl reported the abuse an older sibling. She said he had pressured her to take part in a sex club and that there were multiple encounters over a five-month period at Nevarez’s Canyon Country home.

At the time of his arrest, Nevarez was a volunteer softball coach at St. Didacus School. He was sentenced to six years in prison and will register as a sex offender upon his release.

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INDIA
Zee News

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday extended till March 3 the judicial custody of the chief priest of Badrinath shrine in Uttarakhand, Keshavan Namboodiri, who has been arrested for allegedly confining and molesting a woman in a hotel here.

Namboodiri and one of his associates Vishnu Prasad, also co-accused in the case, were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Shreya Arora Mehta who remanded them in judicial custody till March 3 after police did not seek their custodial interrogation.

The two were produced before the court after expiry of their earlier 14 days of remand.

According to police, the incident took place on February 3 when the 28-year-old woman had gone to meet Namboodiri at the hotel.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Rhein-Zeitung

[Summary: A victim said punishment meted out to a priest retired by the diocese for sexual assaults against young people in the 1980s is appropriate. The priest was fined by the Trier diocese and cannot function as a priest.]

Koblenz/Trier – Die Bestrafung des Priesters im Ruhestand durch das Bistum wegen sexueller Übergriffe gegen Jugendliche in den 1980er-Jahren hält eines der Opfer für “angemessen”.

Das sagte der heute 45-jährige Saarländer der Tageszeitung “Trierischer Volksfreund”. “Ich bin erleichtert, hoffe, nach 29 Jahren meinen Seelenfrieden zu finden.” Vor allem die auferlegte Zahlung von 3000 Euro an eine Einrichtung, die in der Beratung und Prävention gegen sexuelle Gewalt an Kindern und Jugendlichen tätig ist, begrüßte er.

Übergriffe in vier Fällen in den 1980er-Jahren hielt das Bistum für erwiesen, erteilte einen strengen Verweis. Der Priester darf zudem sein Amt für ein Jahr nicht öffentlich ausüben.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By James E. Connell Feb. 17, 2014

An attorney once told me that bankruptcy is about money, nothing else, just money, and I suspect the attorney is correct.

The Bible teaches that the love of money is the root of all evils (1 Tim 6:10), not some evils but all evils, and I hold to the veracity of this teaching.

And the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s reorganization plan recently filed in the bankruptcy court shows a desire that no sexual abuse claimant receive money. Yes, 128 claimants in category No. 9 (statute of limitations) will be paid. But about these claims the plan states that the archdiocese has “objected to” them, yet feels that successfully objecting to the claim would require “a full trial.” It’s a cut-your-losses approach. It would be cheaper to pay the claimants than to pay the trial costs.

So, to the archdiocese, no claim has merit. Is this how bankruptcies work?

Here is why this reorganization plan shatters hope.

The archdiocese went to great efforts to invite into the bankruptcy process the victims/survivors of sexual abuse “by any clergy member, teacher, deacon, employee, volunteer or other person connected with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee,” as was stated on the public postings about filing a claim before the Feb. 1, 2012, “bar date.” No eligibility restrictions were mentioned. And when the archdiocese recently announced its reorganization plan, the role of eligibility restrictions was not discussed.

Yet, the reorganization plan clearly shows that eligibility restrictions are central to the archdiocese arguing that no claim has merit. Some of these restrictions are because the alleged abuse was by a member of a religious order or by a lay person. Other reasons for the dismissal of claims are the statute of limitations and the lack of proof that the archdiocese committed fraud.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Star Tribune

Article by: GILLIAN FLACCUS , Associated Press Updated: February 18, 2014

LOS ANGELES — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will pay $13 million to 17 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs announced Tuesday that the nation’s largest diocese moved to settle 11 cases involving a visiting Mexican priest named Nicolas Aguilar Rivera rather than go to trial.

The settlement also involves six other lawsuits involving four other accused clergy.

Cardinal Roger Mahony would have been called to testify in the cases involving Aguilar Rivera.

Aguilar Rivera fled Los Angeles to Mexico in 1988 to avoid prosecution.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014

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

More clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuits against the scandal-ridden Los Angeles Catholic diocese will be disclosed tomorrow.

[Star Tribune]

Our hearts ache for each one of these brave victims and for millions of LA parishioners who continue to be deceived and betrayed by a corrupt Catholic hierarchy.

We are convinced that Archbishop Jose Gomez agreed to these settlements because he dreaded the devastating disclosures of church complicity that would have happened had any of these gone to trial. In each of these cases, we firmly believe that several Catholic officials knew of or suspected these clerics’ crimes long ago and kept them hidden for years, leaving unsuspecting families and vulnerable children at risk of tremendous harm.

Few cases more clearly show the recklessness, callousness and deceptiveness of top Catholic officials than the Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera case. LA Cardinal Roger Mahony and Mexico Cardinal Norberto Rivera both acted selfishly and deceitful throughout that case.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Victoria Kim
February 18, 2014

The Los Angeles Archdiocese has reached a $13-million settlement with 17 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse, including those who say they were molested as children by a visiting Mexican cleric, attorneys announced Tuesday.

The settlement was reached on the eve of a trial last Friday over alleged abuses by Nicholas Aguilar-Rivera, a priest who police believe molested more than two-dozen boys during a nine-month stay at two Los Angeles parishes in 1987. Aguilar-Rivera fled to Mexico in the days before police were notified and was never criminally prosecuted.

Attorneys for 11 men claimed in court papers that Archbishop Roger Mahony and his top aide, Monsignor Thomas Curry, were responsible for allowing the priest to flee, alleging that church leaders had “actively thwarted” and “misled” LAPD investigators at the time.

The sum covers approximately $1 million each for those alleged victims, as well as money for six others who say they were molested by other priests, according to attorney Anthony De Marco.

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KANSAS
The Raw Story

By David Edwards
Tuesday, February 18, 2014

A Democratic lawmaker in Kansas says that her bill allowing teachers, caregivers and parents to beat children to point of leaving bruises is about restoring parental rights, not abusing children.

State Rep. Gail Finney’s (D) bill expands current law, which allows spanking without leaving marks.

According to KCTV, the new legislation would permit teachers, caregivers and parents to strike children up to 10 times, and leave redness or even bruising.

McPherson Deputy County Attorney Britt Colle, who proposed the idea to Finney, told KCTV that the measure actually protected children by defining what parents were not allowed to do.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Religion Dispatches

Post by PATRICIA MILLER

Less than two weeks after the Vatican complained that it wasn’t its handling of child sex abuse cases that was problematic but a UN report that dared to dive into matters of Catholic doctrine, a group of Catholics from Kansas City, MO, has petitioned Pope Francis to remove a bishop found guilty of concealing pedophilia, the New York Times reports.

The request was made by 13 parishioners, a nun who coordinated victims’ assistance for the Kansas City diocese, and a priest, the Rev. James Connell. It was backed by an online petition signed by 113,000 Catholics. They asked Pope Francis to remove Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted in 2012 of a misdemeanor charge of failing to report a priest who had pornographic images of children on his computer. The priest is currently serving 50 years for taking the pictures but Finn remains in place as the head of the diocese.

The UN report said that the Vatican’s failure to remove bishops who facilitated pedophilia by failing to report it or moving abusers from parish to parish was one of the major unresolved problems of the church’s handling of the child sex abuse scandal.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, February 18 – Pope Francis and his eight most senior cardinals were given an update Tuesday by an internal commission examining the troubled Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) – informally known as the Vatican bank. The eight-member College of Cardinals is examining the troubled bank with an eye to its future, and met “in an atmosphere of considerable interest from the cardinals,” who asked “probing questions, to understand the subject well,” said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi. The cardinals, sitting as an advisory board, are considering the future direction of the Vatican bank, which has faced decades of allegations of wrongdoing, including money laundering. Lombardi said the “mission” of the bank is also being reviewed in the context of “the problems that there may have been in the past…(and seeking) some possible guidelines for the renewal” of the bank. No decisions have been made, but the report was “ample and detailed” and touched on its financial and economic performance as well as its social functions in the world, added Lombardi. Pope Francis, who set up the special investigative pontifical commission last June to review the Vatican bank, has not expressed any opinion on its future, said Lombardi.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 18, 2014

VATICAN CITY
While the deliberations of the select group of eight cardinals advising Pope Francis on reforming the governance of the Catholic church remain secret, Tuesday gave several peeks into the shape and contour of the discussions.

Financial reform is topping the agenda, but laity and family life are also points of discussion.

The chief concern in this round of meetings, according to the Vatican: how to make sure the financial structures of the church are “at the service … of the world and not at the operational service of the Vatican itself.”

Speaking during a briefing with reporters Tuesday afternoon, Vatican spokesman Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said the cardinals’ group, known formally as the Council of Cardinals, spent the morning meeting with a special commission reviewing the practices of the Institute for the Works of Religion, known commonly as the Vatican bank.

The bank, which is privately held and does not manage the Vatican’s budget, has been the source of controversy for years because of reports of vague withdrawals and deposits made to and by the organization.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston.com

By NICOLE WINFIELD / Associated Press / February 18, 2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Tuesday acknowledged recent infighting inside its financial watchdog agency which preceded the resignation of its president, a new development as Pope Francis works to reform the Holy See’s finances in meetings this week.

The board of the Financial Information Authority complained in a letter to the Vatican secretary of state that it was being kept in the dark about agency activities since the arrival of Swiss anti-money-laundering expert Rene Bruelhart as director, Rome daily Il Messaggero reported Tuesday.

Two weeks after that Jan. 16-dated letter, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of the agency president, Cardinal Attilio Nicora, who had clashed with Bruelhart.

The Vatican created the agency in 2010 as part of its first major push to comply with international anti-money-laundering standards. Its mission was to supervise, regulate and investigate the Holy See’s financial activities to ensure they complied with international norms, and to share financial information with other countries in the fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Bruelhart, who previously headed Liechtenstein’s financial intelligence unit, joined the Vatican regulator in 2012. He since has been credited with delivering progress in the Vatican’s compliance with international financial norms and scoring membership in the coveted Egmont group of financial watchdog agencies.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Feb. 18, 2014

KANSAS CITY, MO. Catholics here formally asking Pope Francis to conduct a canonical review of Bishop Robert Finn say the church’s lack of response to his misdemeanor conviction has caused further spiritual harm to the diocese.

“Civil law has done what civil law can do. The church has done nothing in terms of calling Bishop Finn to accountability. He continues as bishop as if nothing really ever happened,” said Mercy Sr. Jeanne Christensen, a former victims’ advocate for the diocese co-heading the appeal. She spoke at a press conference Monday outside the diocesan offices.

The Kansas City Catholics’ petition, dated Feb. 11, represents a formal request that the Vatican initiate a penal process to determine whether Finn violated church law by failing to report suspected child sexual abuse in connection to Fr. Shawn Ratigan.

In September, Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in prison on child pornography charges; a year earlier, a Jackson County, Mo., court convicted Finn of a misdemeanor for failing to report and sentenced him to two years of probation. To avoid a similar charge in Clay County, Mo., Finn entered an agreement that requires him to meet monthly with the county prosecutor for five years.

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VIRGINIA
New Republic

BY KIERA FELDMAN @kierafeldman

The security guards were bored. It was the first weekend of May 2010—a time when students at other universities were partying before finals. This, however, was Patrick Henry College (PHC), the elite evangelical school better known as “God’s Harvard.” Here, in sleepy Purcellville, Virginia, instead of police officers or rent-a-cops, the security guards were all upperclassmen. On a good Friday or Saturday night, they’d catch freshmen trying to sneak back onto campus after an evening visiting the monuments in nearby Washington, D.C. Mostly, though, they just double-checked that all the doors were locked.

Patrick Henry College was founded in 2000, but you won’t find any bold, modern architecture on campus: Its buildings were designed in the federalist style to evoke an Ivy League school. Dress code is business casual during the week. Daily chapel is mandatory. Drinking, smoking, gambling, and dancing (outside of dance classes) aren’t allowed on campus—only wholesome, school-sanctioned hijinks, like the tradition of tossing newly engaged young men in the central retention pond known as Lake Bob: a “Bobtism.” The security guards saw quite a few Bobtisms.

That May night, Adam Fisher and another guard watched the security monitors from their post. It was long past the 1 a.m. weekend curfew, a time when campus had the still and quiet feel of a small town hours after everyone has gone to bed. It seemed like any other night, but then Fisher’s colleague called out in excitement. He’d caught something on the monitors: the dim glow of brake lights, out there in the darkness. A car was pulling up to the campus entrance.

Fisher and his partner headed out past the dorms, to the fields near the entry. By the time they arrived, the car was gone, and Claire Spear was lying in a field. There was grass in her long, red hair, and she was crying.

Fisher could tell something was very wrong. “Claire, we need to go find your R.A.,” Adam said. “I’m going to take you. Is that OK with you?” She couldn’t answer. She was panicking and having trouble breathing.

Adam picked Claire up and carried her back across campus to the dorms. She was limp in his arms, and her eyes were closed. Claire struggled to explain what had happened.

“She kept saying that she had been violated,” Adam remembers.

When Claire Spear arrived at Patrick Henry as a freshman in 2009, she, like all new PHC students, affirmed a statement of faith saying the devil is real, the Bible is without error, and “Jesus Christ literally will come to earth again in the Second Advent.” It was a great comfort to both Claire and her parents knowing PHC was a bubble unto its own: On campus, only good, moral Christians would be found—their kind of people, people they could trust.

“I figured nothing bad could happen to me,” Claire says.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Media Advisory

February 18, 2014

Archdiocese used therapy scam to defraud victims of civil rights; Cardinal, Bishop thwarted police, helped criminal priest escape US

What: At a news conference Wednesday sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys, Anthony DeMarco and Jeff Anderson will:

· Announce a landmark, $13m settlement on behalf of 17 survivors who were sexually abused by five different perpetrators in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, including Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera.

· Discuss how the Archdiocese paid for survivor’s therapy but did not inform survivors of their legal rights to sue, as required by law.

· Demonstrate and discuss how an international conspiracy between Cardinal Roger Mahony and a Mexican bishop allowed a child-raping priest to be dumped in LA’s Spanish-speaking neighborhoods and how Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Thomas Curry defrauded survivors by misleading the police in the case of Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera.

· Play excerpts from Cardinal Mahony’s video deposition taken in 2013 where he claims he and his deputies “did nothing wrong” in handling cases of child sexual abuse. Copies of the sworn testimony excerpts will be available for press.

WHEN: Wednesday February 19, 2014 at 11:00 AM PST

WHERE: Westin Bonaventure Hotel – Palos Verde Room
404 S. Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071

WHO: Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Anthony DeMarco along with several sexual abuse survivors, including survivors abused by the five perpetrators named in this settlement.

· Documents and additional information will be posted to our website www.abusedinsocal.com under “Case Resources.”

· Spanish speaking interpreters will be available.

Contact: Anthony DeMarco: Office: 626.844.7700 Cell: 310.927.9277
Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.227.9990 Cell: 612.817.8665

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POLONIA/REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Univision

[con video]

La policía de Polonia arrestó este lunes al sacerdote Wojciech Gil, acusado de abusar sexualmente de al menos tres menores en la República Dominicana, quien será trasladado a Varsovia para ser interrogado por la fiscalía y escuchar los cargos que pesan sobre él.

De acuerdo con la agencia Efe, los agentes se presentaron en la casa familiar de Gil en una localidad cercana a Cracovia, con una orden de detención emitida por la fiscalía polaca.

De probarse las acusaciones, el sacerdote podría pasar hasta doce años de prisión según la legislación de Polonia.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

By: Megan Stewart

Tuesday marks the deadline for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to release a full list of names of priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

The archdiocese released the names of nine more priests accused of sexual abuse on Monday, a day before the deadline.

Church leaders say it’s all in the name of transparency, but some say it’s more proof of an attempted cover up. All but one of the alleged incidents happened decades ago, and three of the nine priests have since died.

Most of the priests’ names released on Monday were already known and it’s left some wondering why those names weren’t included on a list that was released by the church in December. Also, Monday was Presidents Day, a nationally recognized holiday. Some speculate the names were released a day early because there might have been less scrutiny.

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TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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

A Springfield, TN youth minister has been charged with the murder of his 21 year old fiancée. This is an extremely troubling case.

[East Idaho News]

We are saddened that an innocent girl lost her life. We are troubled that Charles Pittman was the youth minister at Providence Baptist Church and is now accused of murder. Anyone who experienced, witnessed or suspects any other abusive behavior from Pittman should immediately report to police. We also hope university and church officials will do outreach to any potential victims.

Our hearts go out to the victim’s family.

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MINNESOTA
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

In the financial report recently released (pdf) by the archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis providing details of its financial records for 2013, there’s an interesting detail that, to my mind, richly deserves a great deal of attention. As Brian Roewe notes for National Catholic Reporter and Jean Hoffensperger and Tony Kennedy for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the report shows the archdiocese’s operating expenses jumping by about $9 million in 2012. Part of the reason is that the archdiocese, which faces an onslaught of lawsuits related to clerical abuse of minors, added $5 million to its litigation reserve fund in 2012.

But as Hoffensperger and Tony Kennedy note, the report also shows that the archdiocese “spent an additional $2.8 million on its communications office and an evangelical initiative” in this time frame. Here’s Brian Roewe on the same jump in expenses for the communications office and “an evangelical initiative”:

Also of note was the rapid growth of its communications and community relations services. In 2012, the departments’ expenses totaled $731,541, lowest among all programs and services. A year later, the expenses spiked to $3.6 million — greater than that of parish services ($2.2 million) and of the general and administrative costs ($3.1 million), which includes the archbishop, auxiliary bishops, and its financing and accounting.

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POLAND/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Reuters

(Reuters) – Polish prosecutors have charged a Catholic priest with four counts of sex abuse against children in his native Poland and in the Dominican Republic, where he was working in a rural parish, the prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.

The priest worked in the Dominican Republic until May last year. He left the parish and was suspended by his religious order after local residents accused him of molesting altar boys, church officials said. He is now in detention in Poland.

“Two of the charges concern acts that took place in the Dominican Republic, to the harm of citizens of the Dominican Republic, and two concern acts that took place in Poland and concern Polish citizens,” the prosecutor’s spokesman, Przemyslaw Nowak, told a news conference.

Another Polish cleric working in the Dominican Republic, Vatican nuncio (ambassador) Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, was recalled last September by the Vatican and is being investigated there on child sexual abuse charges.

His whereabouts are not known.

Prosecutors say the priest who has been charged denies the accusations. If convicted, he could face 12 years in prison.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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

We commend the Ceres police for their quick and decisive action in the recently revealed case of a local youth minister who was found to have child pornography on his computer.

We call on all organizations to take quick and decisive action when any type of probable negative sexual behavior is discovered, by notifying the police at once. Only when they do this, and establish a pattern of consistent action on behalf of all children and victims, will more victims feel free to come forward, and help eradicate this national shame.

This is not a small problem, nor a local problem. There are thousands of cases throughout the country, and tens of thousands of victims that are too ashamed or fearful to come forth. It’s only when all organizations take the responsibility to follow through and report all behaviors that have, and continue, to harm our children will we be fulfilling our obligations to our children and our society.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Published February 18, 2014.

A federal judge created a “Catch-22” for victims of sexual abuse at Yeshiva University’s high school by refusing to consider the impact of the school’s alleged cover-up, former students charged in an appeal of the dismissal of a $680 million lawsuit.

Kevin Mulhearn, a lawyer for 34 men who say they were abused at Yeshiva University’s Manhattan boys high school, said in the judge’s January 29 decision made it impossible for victims to bring a claim.

“There’s no way sex abuse victims can get justice if the school decides to conceal and cover-up their own knowledge and complicity,” Mulhearn told the Forward. Mulhearn filed the appeal on February 14.
Judge John G. Koeltl, of United States District Court in Manhattan, dismissed the former Y.U. students’ claims last month, citing New York State’s statute of limitations. Under state law, child abuse victims have to bring negligence claims against third parties, such as a school, before they turn 21.

Koeltl said that the students, who were abused between 1971 and 1992, knew they were abused, knew who abused them and knew who employed their abusers. They could and should have brought their claims decades ago, the judge said.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento

[with video]

Maria Medina

OAKDALE (CBS13) — An Oakdale church was raided by investigators on Monday after a tip led them to a youth minister—the pastor’s son—accused of having child pornography.

Tyler Bliss is already out of jail after bailing out Monday night.

Investigators say they’re working to identify the victims who are 13 years old and younger.
No one at Bliss’ home wanted to talk to CBS13 about his arrest.

He’s the youth minister of Bethel Assembly of God in Oakdale, and a man trusted by many families to watch their kids.

Troy Holder says he went to some of Bliss’ ministry classes and said the 27-year-old was very involved in the youth ministry.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By Jason Wells
February 18, 2014

A 27-year-old youth pastor in Oakdale, Calif., was arrested Monday on suspicion of possessing child pornography.

Acting on a tip, Tyler Bliss was arrested after two search warrants were served — one at his home in Oakdale — northwest of Modesto — the other at Bethel Assembly of God, where he oversaw the junior high, high school and college ministries, Fox 40 reported.

Carissa Higginbotham, a spokeswoman for the nearby Ceres Police Department, said images retrieved from computers and electronic devices during the searches appeared to show children under the age of 13 engaged in sexual acts.

“We were very concerned because of the access he has to children,” she told the Modesto Bee.

Ceres police investigated the case because the department has the high-tech capabilities and investigating resources for computer forensics, Higginbotham added.

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CALIFORNIA
KFBK

An Oakdale Youth Pastor is under arrest and is facing child pornography charges.

Acting on a tip, News10 reports Tyler Bliss, 27, was arrested after a search discovered the illicit material on his computers at work and home.

Lonni Beckman is a parrishoner at Bethel Assembly of God in Oakdale and knew Pastor Bliss.

“[He] helped us build a skate park here. He helped us with not getting in trouble and everything,” he said.

Ceres Police Investigator Carissa Higginbotham says they don’t know if Bliss collected the images or actually created them.

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CALIFORNIA
The Raw Story

By David Ferguson
Tuesday, February 18, 2014

A 27-year-old youth minister at Bethel Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in Oakdale, California, was arrested Monday on child pornography charges. According to the Modesto Bee, Tyler Bliss was taken to Stanislaus County jail after an investigation by the Ceres Police High Tech Crimes unit.

Police acted on a tip when they obtained search warrants and raided Bliss’ home and his office at the church, seizing computers and other electronic devices.

Ceres Police spokesperson Carissa Higginbotham told the Bee that it is too early in the investigation to establish whether Bliss was involved of the production of the materials found on the devices, which she said feature sexually exploitive images and video of children under 13.

“We were very concerned because of the access he has to children,” said Higginbotham.

The Bee reported that “Bliss has served in youth ministry at the church since 2009 and oversees junior high, high school and college programs while pursuing a preaching license with the Assemblies of God.”

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

BY PATTY GUERRA
pguerra@modbee.comFebruary 17, 2014

Investigators with the Ceres Police High Tech Crimes unit have arrested an Oakdale youth minister on child pornography charges.

Tyler Bliss, 27, a youth minister at Bethel Church, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, was taken into custody Monday and was being booked at the Stanislaus County Jail.

According to authorities, officers acting on a tip served search warrants at the church in the 100 block of East G Street and a home in the 600 block of Hudson Avenue, also in Oakdale, on Tuesday morning.

They seized computers and other electronic devices for forensic examination. Carissa Higginbotham, Ceres police spokeswoman, said it’s too early in the investigation to determine whether Bliss was involved in creating any of the images concerned.

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