ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

First, three days of work with the “G8” of Cardinals, then two days of debate on family and the pastoral care of marriages

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

The turbulent week of reforms begins on Monday: eight counsellor cardinals are to meet with the Pope from Monday 17 to Wednesday 19 February, coordinated by Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga. The order of the day includes the first concrete proposals for the future organisation of the Vatican Congregations and the Secretary of State – topics already discussed at previous meetings – but also the beginning of a long and arduous examination of the Pontifical Councils.

General feeling is that there are too many Pontifical Councils – institutions of the Holy See that have no jurisdiction over the Congregations – and many already expect to be downsized or integrated. A number of councils may be absorbed by the new Congregation for laics, while is has also been proposed to merge the Pontifical Council for New Evangelisation with the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Either of these is possible and, although for now only hypothetical moves, would have numerous consequences for the redistribution of responsibility. In the case of the New Evangelisation, for example, its responsibilities would be reassigned to the Catechesi (once entrusted to the Congregation for the Clergy). In other words, there’s a lot of work to be done, as there are many reforms to be assessed and proposed to the Pope.

Another topic that will be addressed at the next meeting of the “G8” of cardinals, selected by Pope Francis as his councillors, is that of the finances. Proposals include the unification of the economic-financial institutions of the Holy See under a single department, a sort of “Ministry of Finance”.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Times

By Meredith Somers-The Washington Times Thursday, February 13, 2014

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, a longtime advocate for victims of pedophile priests, took aim this week at a recent U.N. commission report on the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse scandal, saying it failed to recognize the progress the church has made in the past decade.

“It stopped its study 10 years ago, so it made no mention of all the extraordinary steps the Catholic Church has taken in the past 10 years to see that these things don’t happen,” Cardinal Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, said of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child during an exclusive interview with The Washington Times.

“It made no reference at all to the fact that there’s no other institution, including our public schools, that goes through what the Catholic Church now does to ensure that children are not abused, or that if someone is abused, that is reported and that [abuser] removed,” he told The Times.

In the wide-ranging interview at his office, the avuncular Cardinal Wuerl discussed the sex abuse scandal and other challenges facing the church, the widespread popularity and influence of Pope Francis, and the upcoming canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II as well as his own spiritual journey that has posited him in the leadership of the archdiocese as it enters its 75th year.

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AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

Marcus O’Donnell
Lecturer, Program Convenor, Journalism at University of Wollongong

A year ago this week, the ageing, doctrinaire and aristocratic Pope, Benedict XVI, shocked keen Vatican watchers and the public alike by his sudden resignation. Few were prepared for the shockwaves that would follow.

The church had become embroiled in scandal after scandal: from corruption at the Vatican Bank through to its continuing refusal to deal with sexual abuse. It had lost, many would have thought irretrievably, what little relevance it still claimed in the contemporary world.

So nobody would have predicted that, less than a year later, Benedict’s successor would be lauded as Person of the Year by both Time magazine and, even more surprisingly, the lesbian and gay newsweekly, The Advocate. Then one-time-youth-culture bible Rolling Stone’s cover story earlier this year made it official: the man Gawker dubbed “cool Pope Francis” is a rock star.

The contrast between the two Popes – the fiercely, conservative, designer-slipper-wearing Benedict and the no-nonsense Francis who refused to even move into the lavish Papal apartments – couldn’t be starker. …

Late last year Francis announced that a Vatican commission would address sexual abuse in the Church, but over the course of his first year in office he has made little headway on this critical issue. As late as December of last year the Pope’s representative in Australia and his bureaucrats in Rome, were refusing to hand over documents about clergy child abusers to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into sex abuse, and only did so after the Commission went public about the refusal.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Janette Dines joins Matt Wordsworth in the studio ahead of Brisbane hearings into a Toowoomba school.

Transcript

MATT WORDSWORTH: Next week the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse will hold public hearings in Brisbane the first outside New South Wales. But unlike the investigations so far it will concentrate on relatively recent allegations of abuse at a Catholic school in Toowoomba. The Commission’s Chief Executive Officer Janette Dines joined me from Sydney earlier.

(MATT WORDSWORTH SPEAKS WITH JANETTE DINES)

MATT WORDSWORTH: Janette Dines thanks for joining us. Why did you need to bring these hearings to Brisbane?

JANETTE DINES, ROYAL COMMISSION CEO: We’re a national Royal Commission and we’ve been operating for the past 12 months around the country in every State and Territory we’ve done private sessions. We’ve had calls from around the country. So the reason we’re in Brisbane is really to reflect that national focus and we’ll do public hearings across all States and Territories in Australia over the next couple of years.

MATT WORDSWORTH: What’s the background to the case that you’re investigating here?

JANETTE DINES: The case that we’re examining in this public hearing is the case of a Catholic primary school in Toowoomba and a male primary teacher sexually abused 13 young girls over a period of around 12 months.

MATT WORDSWORTH: And I understand the Principal was warned?

JANETTE DINES: That’s right. It appears that over a course of just a couple of days two separate communications were made to the school that Mr Byrnes was behaving inappropriately towards young girls and it was decided both by the Principal, in consultation with the Catholic Education Office, which is the governing body, it was decided not to report the matter further but to simply speak to the teacher.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Crocker Stephenson of the Journal Sentinel

St. Francis — Infuriated members of a group representing clergy and survivors of clergy abuse met outside the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s headquarters Wednesday, calling the church’s bankruptcy reorganization plan an affront to Pope Francis’ s message of healing and renewal.

“This is not the way a new church is going to be born,” said Peter Isely, a member of the Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance. “This is the old church.”

Archbishop Jerome Listecki announced on a radio talk show Wednesday morning that the archdiocese, as part of bankruptcy reorganization plan, would set aside $4 million to compensate sex abuse victims.

“It’s not just what is in the plan, but how it was communicated,” Isely said. “He doesn’t have the common decency, much less the Christian charity, to look survivors and victims’ family members in the face and explain to them why this amount is so low. We find out about it because it’s been on a radio talk show.”

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CANADA
Leader-Post

BY MARK KENNEDY, POSTMEDIA NEWS FEBRUARY 13, 2014

The Harper government must release its archival files on the residential schools saga or the full truth will remain hidden from Canadians, says the head of the country’s largest aboriginal group.

Assembly of First Nations national chief Shawn Atleo reacted strongly to recent revelations by Postmedia News that the Conservative government appears to be dragging its feet on a courtordered obligation to provide millions of documents from Library and Archives Canada to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that is examining the residential schools scandal.

“If we’re going to achieve reconciliation, then the full truth needs to be uncovered,” said Atleo.

He said the scandal is “one of the most shameful chapters in Canadian history” and it’s important to document everything – even the “worst experiences” and how it traumatized First Nations communities. Between the 1870s and 1996, about 150,000 aboriginal children were pulled from their homes by the federal government and sent to the church-run schools, where many suffered physical and sexual abuse and at least 4,000 died.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will move to Brisbane next week, the first time its held public hearings outside of Sydney.

By Natalie Ahmat
Source NITV News

The Queensland hearings are scheduled to run for up to two weeks, with others to be held in South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT over the next six months.

NITV spoke to Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines earlier today and asked whether many Indigenous Australians had come forward to share their stories so far.

“We’ve done a lot of work with local groups in the community and community leaders. We’ve travelled quite extensively to begin to build those networks in Indigenous communities.

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IRELAND
Church Times

by Gregg Ryan, Ireland Correspondent

Posted: 14 Feb 2014

CHILD-protection groups in Ireland, including those within the Roman Catholic Church, have welcomed a UN report on the Vatican’s handling of child sexual abuse by clerics, and the recommendations that it has made.

The UN report was critical of moves by the RC Church to protect its own reputation, and its clergy, from the revelation of decades of sexual abuse in Ireland and elsewhere. It also criticised the response of the Church to those whom it had harmed.

The report stated: “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.”

The executive director of the survivor group One in Four, Maeve Lewis, said: “This vindicates absolutely what survivors of abuse have been saying over the past decade. The Vatican has . . . never admitted that its policies and regulations ensured that priests were protected at the expense of children’s safety. This falsehood is now exposed.”

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NB-SCCCI), under the leadership of a Presbyterian, Dr Ian Elliott, has in place procedures for all dioceses, and is seen as highly effective.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

by BRIAN FRAGA 02/12/2014

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, told the Register in an email this week that a U.N. committee issued a “rather negative” report on the Catholic Church’s steps in recent years to protect children.

Archbishop Tomasi also told the Register that the committee apparently does not understand the nature of the Catholic Church. He said he was surprised that a U.N. committee tried to teach theology to the Holy See.

On Feb. 5, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, an 18-member treaty body designated with monitoring the implementation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, issued its “concluding observations” that criticized the Holy See for its handling of the international clergy sex-abuse crisis.

The committee said it was “gravely concerned” that the Holy See did not take “necessary measures” to address the crisis and protect children. The committee also accused the Holy See of adopting policies and practices that led to the continuation of clergy sex abuse and shielding of predator-priests.

Those criticisms followed a Jan. 16 public hearing in Geneva, where some members of the committee actually praised the Holy See for the steps it had taken over the past decade to prevent sex abuse and protect children.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Robert McCoppin, Tribune reporter
8:37 p.m. CST, February 13, 2014

Two lawsuits claim that negligence by officials at Willow Creek Community Church allowed a volunteer to molest two young boys with special needs during church programs.

The latest suit, filed Thursday, alleges that the church did not sufficiently supervise Robert Sobczak, now 20, a volunteer who pleaded guilty in December to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of an 8-year-old boy. Sobczak was sentenced to two years of probation and has registered with the state as a child sex offender living in Niles.

In that case, prosecutors said, the boy was a participant in a church program for children with special needs when Sobczak took the boy into a secluded area and sexually abused him on Feb. 17, 2013. The boy immediately told his mother and police were contacted, which prompted a broader investigation of whether Sobczak molested any other children, said attorney Kevin Golden, who is representing the boy’s family in a civil lawsuit against Sobczak and the large evangelical church in South Barrington.

Children in the so-called Special Friends program are supposed to be under the supervision of two adults at all times, church spokeswoman Susan DeLay said, but Sobczak violated that policy, which she said he later admitted. Since then, DeLay said, officials have retrained staff on following the rules and have added more surveillance cameras for greater security.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic World Report

Michael Coren

It’s surely not unreasonable to conclude from events earlier this month that the United Nations has virtually declared war on the Vatican. It issued a report on Catholic clergy abuse that was so sweeping and accusing, so lacking in fact and nuance, so extreme and damning, that it resembled pamphlet propaganda rather than informed reporting. The report not only accuses the Church of covering up, in the U.N.’s own words, “the molestation and rape of thousands of children” but also demanded that the Church change its teaching on abortion, contraception and homosexuality. In other words, the same U.N. that has called for the age of consent to be lowered to fourteen and thinks Iran and Saudi Arabia are worthy to be arbiters of human rights issues, hates Catholicism and wants the world to know it.

The U.N. Human Rights council currently includes, amongst others, Pakistan, Russia, Venezuela, China, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates. Frankly, the whole thing is laughable. But tragic, too. Pakistan has a blasphemy law under which hundreds of people are arrested and incarcerated for expressing comments considered negative about Islam. China operates gulags and executes political dissidents. The list goes on, on, and grotesquely on.

If we delve a little deeper the situation becomes positively whacky. On the U.N. Committee on the Right of the Child, led by the same Kristen Sandberg who announced the anti-Catholic report to the media with such evident relish, we have Syria, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Egypt and Thailand. In Syria, children are tortured and murdered by the government’s security service; Thailand has the largest child prostitution trade in the world; Saudi Arabia allows if not encourages child brides and female circumcision; and in Uganda homosexuals are beaten, arrested and even murdered.

Those are the nations condemning the Vatican.

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IRELAND
Sunday World

By Fr. Brian D’Arcy

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of a Child has brought Child Sexual Abuse issues to the fore in the Catholic Church once more.

From what I’ve read the United Nations watchdog for Children’s Rights produced a report which is practically a decade out of date.

For example a number of reports here in Ireland, most notably the Murphy Report, reached more radical conclusions years ago.

The Murphy Report identified the “systemic failure” within the structures of the Catholic Church as the root of much of the evil which destroyed so many children.

Murphy pointed out that until the philosophy behind the system changed other reforms will be little more than window dressing.

The United Nations Report fails to make that essential point. It highlights what most of us writing about this issue have said for over a decade, namely that defending the institutional structures of the Church became far more important than defending the innocence and rights of children for the leaders of the Catholic Church.

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Hills

Posted: Friday, February 14, 2014

By PHIL GARBER, Managing Editor
MENDHAM – The question for Fred Marigliano, himself a victim of clergy sexual abuse, remains why?

Why did a 39-year-old former borough man take a sledgehammer to the memorial at St. Joseph church to remember people who have been sexually abused by priests?

Gordon Ellis, now of Morristown, has admitted to the vandalism but said in Superior Court in Morristown on Friday that he didn’t know why he did it.

Superior Court Judge Mary Gibbons Whipple sentenced Ellis to pay $7,500 in restitution for the Nov. 18, 2011 incident, two years probation and ordered Ellis to continue with psychiatric treatment.

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ILLINOIS
Belleville News-Democrat

BY SCOTT WUERZ
News-Democrat

February 13, 2014

A Shiloh man has been accused of sexually abusing several children he met through a Fairview Heights church.

Jeffrey Strait, 47, of the 2700 block of Lake Lucerne Drive, has been charged with four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse with a victim older than 13 but younger than 17. The four counts are related to the same victim.

Since the initial complaint, five other males have come forward with similar claims, which are being investigated. Most of the alleged victims who have come forward are now adults, but the abuses occurred when they were juveniles, Shiloh Police Chief James Stover said.

The investigation began last week after a minor male made an allegation against Strait. Police said Strait, who was described as a “church deacon or youth minister” at the First Baptist Church, 10401 Lincoln Trail, used his position of authority to lure his victims.

Straight is in custody in the St. Clair County Jail on $500,000 bail.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Boston Globe

ASSOCIATED PRESS FEBRUARY 14, 2014

MILWAUKEE — Bankruptcy has cost the Archdiocese of Milwaukee more than $12 million in legal fees and other expenses, and rejection of its recovery plan could force it to pay out $13 million more, its attorneys said in newly filed court documents.

The financial details were revealed in the archdiocese’s reorganization plan, filed late Wednesday night in federal bankruptcy court. The plan proposes providing $4 million to compensate an estimated 125 victims of clergy sex abuse — less than a fourth of those who filed claims — while other victims would receive therapy but no cash payment. That is the smallest per-victim payment offered by the 11 dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy in the past decade.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, saying it wouldn’t have enough money if courts ruled in favor of victims who filed lawsuits. The seemingly stingy sum offered in its reorganization plan can be partly explained by a long, bitter court fight that has drained the archdiocese’s finances and its relatively unique organizational structure, which puts much church money out of reach.

In all, the archdiocese said it has spent $6.9 million on its own attorneys during bankruptcy. It estimated its creditors’ attorney costs, which bankruptcy rules require the archdiocese to pay, at nearly $5.6 million. The creditors include hundreds of sexual abuse victims along with others who are owed money.

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GEORGIA
Statesboro Herald

By JASON WERMERS
jwermers@statesboroherald.com

A former Catholic priest in Ohio who worked in Claxton, Pembroke and Glennville as recently as 2012 was sentenced Wednesday to 7½ years in prison for taking a 10-year-old boy across state lines for sexual purposes.

The Rev. Robert Poandl, 72, was sentenced by a federal judge in Cincinnati, nearly five months after a jury found him guilty of one count of transporting a minor across state lines with intent to engage in sexual activity, according to a Wednesday news release by the FBI Cincinnati Division.

Poandl was taken into custody immediately after the hearing to begin serving his sentence.

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TEXAS
Tyler Morning Telegraph

An Ohio priest who served in the Catholic Diocese of Tyler from 1994 and 1999 was sentenced Wednesday to seven and a half years in prison.

Robert Poandl was convicted of taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia for sex in 1991. He was sentenced in federal court in Cincinnati on one count of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex.

Prosecutors say the priest, from the suburban Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners, took the boy to Spencer, W.Va., in 1991 and raped him while visiting a church there.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A former resident at St Joseph’s Catholic home, Termonbacca, has told the Historical Abuse Inquiry how he was punished for being left-handed.

Jon McCourt, a high profile campaigner to get the inquiry set up, has waived his right to anonymity.

He also told the inquiry that he did not realise two other boys in a photograph were his brothers.

The inquiry is investigating abuse claims against children’s residential institutions in NI from 1922 to 1995.

Termonbacca and another Derry home, Nazareth House, were run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

He told the inquiry on Thursday: “I remember, when I was about five years old, being constantly beaten by one particular nun, to get me to stop writing with my left hand.”

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

Maine’s new Catholic bishop to be installed Friday; was investigator of sex abuse while at the Vatican

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Feb. 13, 2014

PORTLAND, Maine — Bishop Robert Peter Deeley, 67, will become the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and spiritual leader of nearly 200,000 people at a Mass Friday afternoon at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The event will be broadcast live on Catholic television and radio and will be streamed on the diocesan website.

The Massachusetts native to be installed on Valentine’s Day as Maine’s Catholic bishop may be a bit of a mystery to his new flock, but while in Rome his work led to the dismissal of more than 3,000 priests amid the church’s global sex abuse scandal, according to a reporter who covers the Vatican.

A native of Cambridge, Mass., Deeley was born in 1946 to Irish immigrant parents. He served as a parish priest, then in various capacities in the Metropolitan Tribunal, the ecclesiastical court in the archdiocese of Boston, for 20 years. In 2000, he assumed the presidency of the Canon Law Society of America.

Deeley moved to Rome in September 2004 to assist as an official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, or CDF, under the cardinal who became Pope Benedict XVI, according to information released by the Maine diocese in December. He returned to Boston in summer 2011 and was appointed an auxiliary bishop in January 2013.

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ITALIA
Latino Post

[Summary: A few weeks before a civilian judge in Italy delivered judgment to a priest who was convicted of molesting four children, Pope Francis on Wednesday, Feb. 12, ordered immediate expulsion from the priesthood of Marco Mangiascale. Many have interpreted this as a gesture to reinforce the new position of the church in cases of alleged abuse by priests. The priest, who is from the Como diocese in Northern Italy, was convicted last year during an ecclesiastical process of sexually abusing four minors.]

A pocos semanas de que un juez civil de Italia dicte sentencia a un sacerdote que fue encontrado culpable de haber abusado de cuatro menores, el papa Francisco ordenó este miércoles 12 de febrero su expulsión inmediata del sacerdocio, en lo que muchos han interpretado con un gesto que refuerza la nueva postura de la Iglesia ante los escándalos por presuntos casos de abusos cometidos por sacerdotes pederastas.

El año pasado, un proceso eclesiástico encontró culpable al sacerdote italiano Marco Mangiascasale de abusos sexuales en contra de cuatro menores, por lo que el presbítero de la diócesis de Como, en el norte de Italia, permanece a la espera de una sentencia definitiva, informó el diario mexicano El Universal.

Mangiacasale enfrenta una pena de tres años, cinco meses y 20 días de cárcel, al menos hasta que la justicia civil italiana emita una sentencia definitiva en contra del sacerdote que fue encontrado culpable de abusar de cuatro jovencitas menores de edad.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Huffington Post

by Meredith Bennett-Smith

Fundamentalist Christian bastion Bob Jones University has sparked controversy after summarily dismissing a consultant group investigating the way the school handled sexual assault accusations.

In 2012, the Greenville, S.C., school hired Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) to investigate how the university responded to reports of sexual assault, the New York Times reports. The group’s findings were set to be released in March.

For years there have been allegations that Bob Jones University had been stifling the reporting of sexual assaults, and the school’s decision to dismiss GRACE late last month — mere weeks before its report would be made public — has therefore been criticized by former students and others affiliated with the school.

“As always, they’re worried about protecting the church and the university, not the victims,” Camille Lewis, a former Bob Jones student and faculty member, told the New York Times.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Christian Post

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
February 13, 2014

Bob Jones University will meet in person next week with the sex abuse ombudsman group that it fired last month.

Both BJU and Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) confirmed the meeting and reaffirmed that they were both committed to figuring out how to move forward.

“Bob Jones University and GRACE remain hopeful this project can be completed with GRACE and in so doing raise sexual abuse awareness and minister to victims whose lives have been ravaged by abuse,” BJU stated in a press release.

Bob Jones University Abruptly Terminates Relationship With GRACE, Led by Billy Graham’s Grandson

A GRACE statement said that the meeting would give both parties a chance to “articulate expressed concerns, as well as to dialogue about the possibility of GRACE completing the independent investigation process started last year.”

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SOUTH CAROLINA
World Magazine

By JAMIE DEAN
Posted Feb. 13, 2014, 04:07 p.m.

Officials from Bob Jones University (BJU) in Greenville, S.C., announced plans to meet next week with the Christian group GRACE to discuss the organization’s investigation into how the Christian university has responded to victims of sexual abuse.

BJU hired GRACE (an acronym for Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) in November 2012 to conduct an independent investigation into any complaints concerning BJU’s response or counsel to students who reported they had been sexually abused at some point in their lives.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Greenville Online

Written by
Ron Barnett
Staff writer

Bob Jones University and GRACE, a firm the school hired to investigate its past handling of student allegations of sexual abuse, have set a meeting for next week to discuss “concerns of both parties,” according to a BJU statement released today.

The meeting follows a disclosure last week by GRACE, or Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, that BJU had terminated its contract.

“Bob Jones University and GRACE will meet next week to discuss the concerns of both parties and determine a plan for moving forward,” the school’s statement says. “Bob Jones University and GRACE remain hopeful this project can be completed with GRACE and in so doing raise sexual abuse awareness and minister to victims whose lives have been ravaged by abuse.”

GRACE, based in Lynchburg, Va., also issued a statement about the meeting.

“During the past week, representatives of GRACE and BJU have continued to communicate for the purpose of working out a time for an in-person meeting,” the statement says. “The parties were recently able to schedule such a meeting for next week.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Religion’s Cell

This is Cathy Harris. The following is from my heart:

I plead on behalf of myself and for others who have no voice; Stephen Jones and the BJU Board members, be strong and Godly leaders. Please honor your commitment you PROMISED survivors.

Bob Jones *initiated* hiring G.R.A.C.E. Work together honestly with Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (G.R.A.C.E.) in good faith. Without games. Without spin. Without selfish motives by the school to spruce up its “Show Window”—In good faith, finish the job.

Please stop turning away from survivors of the crimes G.R.A.C.E. has been investigating for the last year.

All of us are former students and graduates of Bob Jones Academy and/or Bob Jones University.
Some of us are grown-children of BJU’s faculty and staff— their sons and daughters.
Some are even former faculty/staff and BJU Press authors.
Some of us could have been your future if we hadn’t been discarded as worthless wounded.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Feb. 13, 2014

Abuse-related expenses for the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese surpassed $400,000 in the last two years and have totaled more than $6 million in the past decade, according to financial documents released Thursday.

The records, including everything from donations to education costs, represented the first time the archdiocese has made public its full audited financial report. The move is the latest effort toward greater transparency and accountability amidst a clergy sex abuse scandal that has seen Twin Cities church leadership charged with mishandling allegations and even led to the suspension of its archbishop from public ministry.

“We are doing this because we are accountable to the people we serve,” said Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché in The Catholic Spirit, writing a guest column in place of Archbishop John Nienstedt, who remains out of public ministry while local authorities investigate an allegation of abuse against him.

“Without the time, talent and treasure of the hundreds of thousands of Catholics who support the ministry of this local Church, we could not live out our mission to make the name of Jesus Christ known and loved,” Piché wrote.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Dismissal of Yeshiva University sex abuse lawsuit makes strong case for Assemblywoman Margaret Markey’s Child Victims Act

BY MICHAEL O’KEEFFE

When U.S. District Court Judge John Koeltl dismissed the $680 million sexual abuse lawsuit filed by 34 former Yeshiva University prep school students two weeks ago because the alleged assaults took place after the statute of limitations expired, he inadvertently made a strong case for Assemblywoman Margaret Markey’s Child Victims Act.

Koeltl, displaying an astonishing lack of awareness about issues facing sexual abuse victims, claimed the plaintiffs should have brought their claims before they turned 21 years old. But mental health experts say – and sex abuse scandals involving football coaches at Poly Prep, Penn State and other institutions prove – that most victims are prepared to address the damage they have suffered until they are in their 40s.

Markey’s office sent us a press release earlier this month about her bill, which would eliminate the criminal and civil statute of limitations on child sexual abuse. Here’s what the Queens Democrat says she is doing to get the bill passed this year:

1. IN THE LEGISLATURE: Sponsorship by Members of the Assembly is the highest ever for the legislation (A1771A). I am reaching out to expand that base of sponsorship leading up to a vote in the Assembly to adopt the bill. Both the Assembly Judiciary and Codes Committees are currently reviewing the legislation and we expect the bill will come to the Assembly floor for adoption in May. More limited forms of CVA have been adopted by the Assembly four time. By calling for the total elimination of criminal and civil statutes of limitations on child sexual abuse, this new bill represents a significant expansion of previous legislation. Next stop: the State Senate where Senator Brad Hoylman has now introduced CVA in that house, as S6367. Everyone can help right now by contacting your own local Member of the Assembly and State Senate to ask them, as a constituent, to support A1771A and S6367.

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OHIO
Columbus Dispatch

By Lisa Cornwell
Associated Press • Thursday February 13, 2014

CINCINNATI — An Ohio priest convicted of taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia for sex more than two decades ago was sentenced yesterday to seven and a half years in prison.

Robert Poandl was sentenced in federal court in Cincinnati on one count of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex. Prosecutors say the priest, from the suburban Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners, took the boy to Spencer, W.Va., in 1991 and raped him while visiting a church there

Poandl, who was convicted in September, continued to maintain his innocence yesterday.

“I have never ever abused anyone, ever,” the 72-year-old priest told the judge prior to sentencing.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, February 13, 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 are grateful a serial child molesting deacon at Fairview Heights’ First Baptist Church has been caught and charged. But it’s disingenuous for the minister to distance himself from the offender and call the offender a member instead of a deacon.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

We have tremendous respect for law enforcement. But we’re also troubled by a Shiloh police officer’s assertion that he is “confident that none of these acts were committed at the First Baptist Church and that no other personnel at the church knew that the offenses were being committed.”

At best, it seems premature to say this. At worst, it seems unwise to make such a claim, instead of simply begging every person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by this minister to come forward.

Who knows what other victims, witnesses, whistleblowers or evidence may surface? We think it’s best if police and prosecutors keep open minds and not rush to judgment and risk the chance that they’ll later have to retract their statements exonerating current or former church staff.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. . .The much-awaited trial of Jane Doe vs. Fr. Joseph D. Ross and the St. Louis archdiocese has been delayed until July.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Brian Lambert

Jean Hopfensperger of the Strib says, “The Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis made public Thursday a detailed financial audit report, the first time it has provided more than a summary report to the public. The report found the archdiocese spent $8.8 million over the past decade on costs related to clergy misconduct. That does not include settlements and other payments made by the archdiocese’s insurance company, the report said. More than $6.2 million was spent on cases involving misconduct with minors … .”

MPR says, “The archdiocese showed a $3.9 million operating loss in fiscal year 2013 compared to a $1.5 million operating surplus the year before. Officials attributed that loss to an increase in reserves the archdiocese might need to cover unknown future costs related to clergy abuse claims. The financial condition of the archdiocese is ‘solid’ even with that uncertainty, they said. … MPR News reported previously that internal financial reports showed the archdiocese used stealth accounts to pay nearly $11 million from 2002 to 2011 — about 3 percent of overall archdiocese revenues in those years — for costs tied to clergy misconduct under former Archbishop Harry Flynn and his successor, Archbishop John Nienstedt.” The poor and hungry are grateful…

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ILLINOIS
CBS St. Louis

SHILOH, Ill. (KMOX) – A church official from Shiloh, Illinois has been arrested on four counts of aggravated sexual abuse.

The charges against 47-year-old Jeffrey Strait initially came to light last week when a parishioner at First Baptist Church in Fairview Heights told police about an incident where the parishioner was abused as a minor by a church deacon or youth minister.

Shiloh Police Chief Jim Stover says since then four more teenaged victims have stepped forward.

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ILLINOIS
Fox 2

February 13, 2014, by Joe Millitzer

SHILOH, IL (KTVI) – A youth minister at First Baptist Church in Fairview Heights Illinois is accused of sexually abusing teens.

Jeffrey Strait, 47, has been charged with four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse with a victim over 13, but under the age of 17. Police say the incidents occurred at his home in Shiloh, Illinois.

In a release Shiloh Police say, “We are confident that none of these acts were committed at the First Baptist Church and that no other personnel at the church knew that the offenses were being committed.”

Jeffrey Strait is currently being held at the St. Clair County Jail. His bond is set at $500,000.

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ILLINOIS
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Paul Hampel phampel@post-dispatch.com 314-340-81042

SHILOH • A deacon at a Baptist church in Fairview Heights is accused of sexually abusing boys at his home in Shiloh.

Jeffrey Strait, 47, was charged Wednesday in St. Clair County Circuit Court with four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of minors.

Police said Strait is a deacon at the First Baptist Church of Fairview Heights.

The charges allege that Strait abused at least five children who were over 13 but under 17.

Strait met the boys through his work at the church with youth groups, police said.

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ILLINOIS
KSDK

Aja J Williams, KSDK 2:36 p.m. EST February 13, 2014

SHILOH, Ill. (KSDK) – An official for a Fairview Heights church faces sex abuse charges of minors, according to Shiloh Police Department.

St. Clair County Assistant State’s Attorney Julie Elliot charged Jeffrey Strait, 47, with four felony counts aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor. Strait has been described as a church deacon who works with children at First Baptist Church in Fairview Heights.

According to Shiloh police, a person who was abused as a minor reported the abuse to police. During the course of investigation, four other victims came forward to police.

According to court documents, Strait put his hand on the penis of the first victim, who was between the age of 13 and 17 at the time of the incident.

None of the acts were done at the church, according to police, and no other church officials knew of the crimes.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: STEVE KARNOWSKI , Associated Press
Updated: February 13, 2014

MINNEAPOLIS — The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Thursday it has paid more than $8.8 million in the last 10 years over clergy sexual abuse and other misconduct by priests.

In its annual financial report, the archdiocese says about $3.2 million of that total went for room, board and living expenses for priests and ex-priests accused of sexual abuse or other misconduct. The archdiocese is required by church law to care for such men, the report says.

Another $2.5 million went to settlements for victims, and nearly $2.3 million paid for counseling and other support services for victims, accounting for 54 percent of the $8.8 million total. The numbers don’t include insurance payments.

It’s the most up-to-date accounting the archdiocese has provided of the financial impact of the clergy misconduct scandals that continue to rock the church, but the numbers only cover through the end of the 2013 fiscal year on June 30. The figures don’t reflect any expenses from a wave of fresh allegations that began last fall after a former church employee became a whistleblower and accused top church leaders of mishandling misconduct allegations against priests. …

Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney who has filed numerous lawsuits against dioceses across the country over allegations of clerical sexual misconduct, said he doesn’t trust that the numbers in the report are accurate or complete.

“When we look at something like that, and we look at how they have lied and deceived concerning child safety and their practices, they’re just as capable of lying and deceiving about their finances,” Anderson said.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said “a mountain of skepticism is in order” over the $8.8 million figure.

“We suspect Catholic officials are using these figures to begin convincing people that they’re poor so they can pressure victims to file fewer lawsuits and settle those cases more quickly and cheaply,” Frank Meuers, a local SNAP leader, said in a statement.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a trove of financial documents Thursday, detailing publicly for the first time church spending on everything from Catholic schools to clergy sexual abuse claims.

The archdiocese showed a $3.9 million operating loss in fiscal year 2013 compared to a $1.5 million operating surplus the year before. Officials attributed that loss to an increase in reserves the archdiocese might need to cover unknown future costs related to clergy abuse claims.

The financial condition of the archdiocese is “solid” even with that uncertainty, they said.

Still, the newly released documents reveal ongoing concerns about archdiocese finances. Among those concerns:

• Achdiocese officials acknowledge that they may have little or no insurance coverage for claims related to decades-old abuse. “Unknown claims can go back many years where insurance may not have been available or coverage limits were minimal. Also punitive damages and other claims may not be covered by insurance at all,” the report notes.

• “Losses from unknown claims could also be substantial,” it adds, without speculating on what those costs might be.

• The archdiocese added nearly $4 million to its “litigation reserve expense”” in 2013; the account was listed at -$1 million in the 2012 fiscal year.

The archdiocese also provided details on internal accounts that have been used to pay costs related to priest misconduct.

Those internal accounts show the archdiocese paid out a total of $8.8 million over the past 10 years for expenses connected to clergy sex abuse and other priest misconduct. Those include legal expenses, payments to victims and living expenses paid to accused priests.

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MINNESOTA
Bring Me The News

February 13, 2014 By Liz O’Connell

For the first time ever, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a detailed financial audit report.

The Star Tribune says the archdiocese spent $8.8 million over the last decade on costs related to clergy misconduct, with the majority of that money – $6.2 million – being spent on cases involving misconduct with minors.

According to the 30-page audit, clergy misconduct expenses included counseling and therapy for victims, legal fees and legal settlements.

The finance report does not include settlements and other payments made by the archdiocese’s insurance company.

Approximately $1.5 million went to living expenses for priests who had been credibly accused of child sexual misconduct and were no longer in the ministry, according to the Star Tribune.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Thursday, February 13, 2014

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

The Archdiocese of Minneapolis admits to having spent $8.8 million over the past decade on costs related to clergy misconduct. We suspect this is misleading. We suspect the real figure is significantly higher.

[St. Cloud Times]

And we suspect Catholic officials are using these figures to begin convincing people that they’re poor so they can pressure victims to file fewer lawsuits and settle those cases more quickly and cheaply.

Usually, when Catholic officials do this, they take many deceptive steps to minimize their wealth. Usually, they deliberately avoid mentioning their many investments, parishes, cemeteries, schools and their for-profit enterprises. Usually, they value properties at the cost they bought buildings for decades ago, and not at the cost for which they could be sold these days.

Bishop Lee Piché is being disingenuous. He claims he’s disclosing this because “it’s the right thing to do.” He’s half right – it IS the right thing to do. But it’s being done because Catholic officials have been caught – repeatedly and recently – deceiving parents, parishioners and the public.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 02/13/2014

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has for the first time publicly released its full audited financial report for 2013 — which notes a $3.87 million deficit.

The report, posted on the archdiocese website and the website of its official newspaper, the Catholic Spirit, also contains information not previously released on the accounts used to pay victims of child sexual abuse and other priestly misconduct, as well as the priests themselves.

Over the last 10 years, the archdiocese has spent more than $8.8 million through those accounts, the report said.

“We are doing this (disclosure) because we are accountable to the people we serve,” Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche wrote in an accompanying statement.

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MISSOURI
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Ordained a priest of the St. Louis archdiocese in 1969, Joseph D. Ross has been accused by at least five people of child sexual abuse. He was convicted in 1988 of the sexual abuse of a boy in 1986. During that investigation he admitted to police that he’d been arrested twice previously for sexual misconduct involving adults, and that he was accused of molesting an 8th grade boy at a parish in the 1970s. Ross was sentenced to two years’ probation and sent to treatment. He was subsequently allowed to resume ministry; parishioners were not informed of his history of sexual misconduct, including the conviction. Ross was removed from ministry in March 2002 due to his earlier conviction, during a time of widespread public revelations in the U.S. of clergy sex abuse against children. He was laicized by the Vatican several months later. In September 2008 Ross was arrested in Arkansas, where he’d been living since his removal from the priesthood, on charges of the rape and molestation of a child. His accuser was a teen girl who reported that Ross sexually abused her in Missouri beginning when she was 5 or six years-old in the late 1990s, into the early 2000s. Ross was her family’s parish pastor at the time. Criminal charges were dropped just before trial in August 2010. The now young woman filed a civil lawsuit in Oct. 2011. A civil trial is scheduled for July 2014.

Ordained: 1969

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

The biggest temptation of self-styled “religious” people is pride.

That is to say we think that, since we’re religious, we’re better than others. This is especially tempting to think if we’ve paid some sort of price for our faith – if we’ve lost friends or given up what could have been great sex outside of marriage or told the truth and suffered the consequences when a little white lie would have made everything so easy. So jealousy plays a part too. “If I’m not having the kind of fun my wild friend Bill is having – who, even though he calls himself a Christian, drinks and sleeps around and makes a lot of money in some very dishonest ways – if I’m not gettin’ what he’s gettin’, I must be holier than thou … or at least holier than Bill.”

But we forget – especially if no one reminds us – that the point of our faith is not self-satisfaction, not jealousy, not pride, not a sense of moral superiority. The point of our faith is love.

And we forget – even though we are sustained by love – what love is capable of, and what a God who is love really is and really does.
As I wrote to a friend the other day …

The Incarnation shows us that there is nothing that God is squeamish about. You and I are squeamish and we draw back from the down and dirty part of reality. But Jesus Christ does not. He is right there with every victim, every addict, every murderer and cheat, every moral monster and sexual pervert. There is nothing so bad that Love cannot redeem it. Mother Teresa could pick the worms out of the skin of a dying homeless man. God died even for Hitler.

One of the things you and I have in common is a lively imagination and an over-sensitivity that old Jack Lewis also shared. It makes it easy for us to imagine in a very real way a God who is much different than what He really is. When our bubbles start to burst and we find situations that are less than pretty, it’s hard to picture the pristine God of our dreams getting involved in something so sordid or jarring or messy. The God of our imaginations (our fuzzy-perfect-God) is not the God who roots through the garbage to save a soul – that’s not what we picture him to be.

But it’s our image of God that’s off, not God Himself. Whatever shame or sin is at the heart of any problem, He’s going right at it.

With that in mind, consider Woody Allen.

Let me say, to begin with, that we know he’s a child molester. No normal man marries his teen-aged step daughter. A man who would do that would do what Dylan Farrow has accused him of, especially when the accusation rings as true as it does. (Also, incidentally, the entire argument of his movie Manhattan is that romance trumps all convention, especially when a grown man loves a teen-aged girl, as a middle-aged Woody does in that movie – if memory serves me).

20 years ago some people got a kick out of pretending that we didn’t know if OJ killed two people, or if Clinton was with that intern. “How dare we judge!” some people would say, and some people would get a false sense of moral superiority from saying that.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: February 13, 2014

Archdiocese releases an audited financial statement showing $6.2 million spent on clergy misconduct.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis made public Thursday a detailed financial audit report, the first time it has provided more than a summary report to the public.

The report found a $3.8 million deficit, but concluded that as of June 30, 2013, “ the financial condition of the archdiocese is solid,” even with the liability stemming from the recent wave of lawsuits claiming clergy child sexual abuse.

The archdiocese spent $6.2 million over the past decade on costs related to clergy misconduct. That does not include settlements and other payments made by the archdiocese’s insurance company, the report said.

More than $2.3 million went to clergy abuse settlements when the victim was a minor; $1.8 million went to victim support for such things as counseling and therapy; and $566,000 was paid in legal fees.

Another $1.5 million went to the living expenses for priests who had been credibly accused of child sexual misconduct who were no longer in the ministry, the report said.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS – The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says it has paid more than $8.8 million in the past 10 years over clergy sexual abuse and other misconduct by priests.

In its annual financial report Thursday, the archdiocese says about $3.2 million went for room, board and living expenses for priests and ex-priests accused of sexual abuse or other misconduct.

The report also says about $2.5 million went to settlements for victims, and nearly $2.3 million paid for counseling and other support services for victims.

Those totals don’t include insurance payments.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Thursday, February 13, 2014

Click here to read the full audited annual report

Certain financial accounts, numbered 1-515 and 1-516, have elicited interest in recent months. The total 1-515 and 1-516 expenses for the past 10 years is $8,813,492 or 2 percent of Chancery Corporation revenue during the same period. This does not include payments by our insurance carrier directly for related legal services and victim settlements. (See related account 1-515 and 1-516 expense chart.)

Account 1-515 provides for counseling and other victim support services, as well as victim settlements, for victims of sexual abuse by clergy when the victim was a minor. It also provides for living expenses for a few men no longer in ministry who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.

In FY 2013, 1-515 expense was $224,739. In 2012, it was $176,086. During the past 10 years, expenses in 1-515 totaled $6,200,066. Of that total, $2,332,859 was for victim settlements, $1,777,679 went to victim support, $566,318 went to legal services, and $1,523,210 went to priest living expenses.

Account 1-516 covers expenses related to a broad range of issues, for example: alcohol addiction; gambling addiction; and sexual conduct with an adult. It provides for living expenses for men who are dealing with addictive and behavioral issues. Some of these men have been removed permanently from public ministry. Account 1-516 also provides for counseling and other victim support services, as well as victim settlements, for victims of clergy misconduct other than sexual abuse of a minor.

In FY 2013, 1-516 expense was $307,021. In 2012, it was $229,975. During the past 10 years, expenses in 1-516 totaled $2,613,426. Of that, $176,500 went to victim settlements, $518,742 went to victim support, $209,213 went to legal services, and $1,708,970 went to priest living expenses.

Of the $8,813,492 total in expenses for accounts 1-515 and 1-516 during the past decade, $2,509,359 went to fund settlements for victims and $2,296,421 went to pay for counseling and other support services for victims. This is 54 percent of the total amount of expenses for accounts 1-515 and 1-516.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Thursday, February 13, 2014
Click here to read the full audited annual report

Notes to condensed financial statements

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis (the Archdiocese) was first established as a diocese by the Holy See in 1850 (originally Minnesota and the Dakotas) and elevated to an archdiocese 38 years later.

Now comprising a 12-county area, there are 188 parishes and 91 Catholic schools (including elementary and high schools) within the Archdiocese. The Archdiocese is home to roughly 825,000 Catholics, hundreds of clergy and religious men and women, and thousands of lay leaders, employees and volunteers who serve in the parishes, Catholic schools, and many other ministries.

The mission of the Archdiocese is to make the name of Jesus Christ known and loved by promoting and proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed through vibrant parish communities, quality Catholic education, and ready outreach to the poor and marginalized.

Nature of organization

The financial statements include all administrative and program offices and departments of the Corporation named the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis (the Chancery Corporation). Parishes, their related schools, and other separately incorporated and operated Roman Catholic entities within the 12-county area of the Archdiocese are not under the fiscal or operating control of the Chancery Corporation and, therefore, in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, are not included in the Chancery Corporation’s financial statements. Certain members of the Chancery Corporation are on the board of trustees of some of such other Catholic entities.

Basis of presentation

The financial statements of the Chancery Corporation have been prepared on the accrual basis of accounting. The Chancery Corporation reports information regarding its financial position and activities according to three classes of net assets: unrestricted net assets; temporarily restricted net assets; and permanently restricted net assets, based on the existence or absence of donor-imposed restrictions.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

by Mike Durkin

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on Thursday released a detailed financial report for the first time — a change of course from the simple financial summaries released in the past.

The archdiocese statements show $8,813,492 was spent in the past 10 years on sexual abuse settlements, victim counseling and support, legal services and living expenses for credibly-accused priests.

“We are doing this because we are accountable to the people we serve,” Bishop Le Piche wrote in The Catholic Spirit newsletter.

Financial statements for the 2013 fiscal year show losses from unknown sexual abuse lawsuits “could be substantial,” and “claims can go back to a time period in which insurance may not have been available or coverage limits were minimal.”

To cover future settlements, the archdiocese reserved money that contributed to a $3.9 million deficit in the last fiscal year. Despite those losses, the archdiocese believes its financial footing remains solid.

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SCHWEIZ
20 Minuten

[The Swiss Catholic Church has said they received 193 reports of sexual abuse since 2010 and half of them involved children.]

Besonders viele Fälle wurden laut Walter Müller von der Kommunikationsstelle der Schweizer Bischofskonferenz (SBK) im Jahr 2010 registriert. Damals hatte die Kirche Missbrauchsopfer mit einer Kampagne dazu aufgerufen, sich zu melden. Daraufhin gingen Meldungen über 146 Opfer und 125 Täter ein. 2011 wurden 23 Opfer und 24 Täter gemeldet, 2012 noch je neun Opfer und Täter.

Unter den in den Jahren 2010, 2011 und 2012 gemeldeten Fällen betrafen 86 sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen. Darüber, wie viele der 2009 gemeldeten Missbrauchsfälle Minderjährige betreffen, konnte Müller keine Angaben machen.

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ITALIA
Palermo

[Summary: The appeals court in Palermo has sentenced former priest Aldo Nuvola to a year in prison for sexual abuse of a minor. He was found with a car with a 14-year-old during a sexual encounter.]

La corte d’appello di Palermo ha condannato Aldo Nuvola a un anno di reclusione per atti sessuali a pagamento con un minore. I giudici hanno riqualificato il reato – inizialmente era stata contestata l’induzione alla prostituzione minorile – e ridotto la pena: in primo grado aveva avuto un anno e sei mesi. L’ex sacerdote era stato sorpreso in auto con un quattordicenne durante un rapporto sessuale.

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DOMINIKANISCHE REPUBLIK
Dom-Rep

[Summary: Priest Juan Manuel de Jesus Mota, known as Father Johnny, will have to answer in court allegations of sexual abuse of women and children. Trial will begin at 10 a.m. Feb. 18 in Constanza.]

Priester Juan Manuel de Jesús Mota, Pater Johnny, wird sich wegen der Vorwürfe des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern und Frauen vor Gericht verantworten müssen.

Am kommenden Dienstag, 18. Februar, um 10 Uhr soll die Verhandlung beim Strafgericht in Constanza beginnen.

Bereits im September des vergangenen Jahres wurde der katholische Priester vom Bischof von La Vega, Monsignore Antonio Camilo Gonzalez, von seinen kirchlichen Diensten suspendiert.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

13 February 2014 by Jim Christie

The UN committee’s critique has refocused attention on the preparation of priests for the ministry. In the first of two articles, a priest-psychotherapist argues that the handling of the abuse crisis has been inhibited by a concentration on theology rather than an understanding of the human psyche

In the late 1960s, our theology schools were abuzz with the Second Vatican Council, but that had not yet impinged on confessional practice. Among other things, we had “mock confessions”, in which (in front of everyone else) the ordinands took turns at being confessor while our professor, the redoubtable Paul Brassell, took the role of the penitent.

Fr Brassell’s amazing command of accents and dialects, and the realism of the way he said things whether coming from man, woman or child, made the whole exercise both instructive and entertaining.

Catherine Pepinster’s recent column in The Tablet about certain shortcomings in confessional practice (4 January 2014) in matters relating to the sixth commandment raises some significant issues which bring us to the contemporary problems about sexual abuse and how it is responded to. I recall Paul Brassell’s emphasis that a very brief or vague mention of a sin could be deliberately used by a penitent to “slip by” a tired priest’s attention; and “broke the sixth commandment” could be used to euphemise various things up to and including rape. The confessor was supposed to make discreet enquiries in order to establish (in his mind, at least) whether the sin was mortal, so that he could tailor his advice, and the penance, accordingly.

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POLAND
Buffalo News

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Catholic Church is preparing to publish a book on internal procedures to deal with child sex abuse by priests as cases come to the fore in the staunchly Catholic country, the head of the nation’s Catholic news agency said Thursday.

Marcin Przeciszewski told The Associated Press the book should come out by June, provided the Vatican approves the guidelines suggested by Poland’s bishops last year. It is not clear when the Vatican will make a decision.

The book appears to be a response by Poland’s church to allegations that it has been sweeping cases of sex abuse under the carpet, against the Vatican’s efforts since 2001 to punish abusers. Poland’s first conviction came in 2004, but allegations last year against two Polish clergymen — one was a Vatican envoy — serving in the Dominican Republic brought the problem to greater public attention.

“There is the will to publish it, there is nothing to hide,” Przeciszewski said. “The value of it will be that in one book everyone will be able to find guidance how the church should react, what the procedures are.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Feb. 13, 2014

MILWAUKEE When Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki announced a bankruptcy reorganization plan Monday morning, he optimistically said “we are turning a corner” on the darkest chapter in the archdiocese’s history.

“It’s time for us to get back to what the church is supposed to be doing,” Listecki said in a letter posted on the archdiocesan website. “It’s time for the archdiocese to return its focus to its ministry.”

But a bevy of appeals of decisions on key issues in the bankruptcy case as well as other federal and state lawsuits indicate the plan will not be the last word, even though it would leave the Milwaukee archdiocese with a $7 million debt.

Survivors of clergy sex abuse, the catalyst for the bankruptcy, said they were stung by what they considered the inadequacy of the $4 million victim compensation fund and dismissive of the $500,000 that Listecki said will provide a lifetime of therapy for survivors.

“It’s like being raped all over again because we’ve had to fight for decades,” said Monica Barrett, who was assaulted by a priest when she was 7 years old.

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IRELAND
Catholic Herald

By EVIE BUTLAND on Thursday, 13 February 2014

The Irish bishops have said they will not be releasing the results of a survey of Catholics ahead of the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops which is due to take place at the Vatican in October.

The Vatican ordered the worldwide survey on ‘Pastoral Challenges in the Family,’ exploring issues such as cohabitation, contraception, and Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried.

After publishing some statistical information from the survey, the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales said last week it would not release detailed results, unlike the German and Swiss bishops’ conferences.

Both Ireland and the English and Welsh Churches claim that the Vatican asked them to keep the outcome of the survey confidential. A spokesman for the Irish bishops told The Irish Catholic that they would not be releasing a statement about the results.

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MICHIGAN
WSBT

DETROIT (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest and an acquaintance have been released on personal bonds after being charged with stealing money from a fund set up to help poor people in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park.

The Wayne County prosecutor’s office says the Rev. Timothy Kane and Dorreca Brewer were arraigned Wednesday.

The embezzlement charge covers theft of less than $20,000.

Prosecutors say false applications were approved for the Angel Fund and thousands of dollars were pocketed over a four-year period. The Angel Fund is run by the Archdiocese of Detroit and funded by a single donor. It has granted more than $17 million to needy people since 2005.

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GEORGIA
WSAV

By Andrew Davis, Anchor/Reporter

A Priest who worked in the Coastal Empire for 5 years is now headed to jail for molesting a boy.

A US federal court judge in Cincinnati has sentenced Fr. Robert (Bob) Poandl to 7 1/2 years behind bars for taking a ten year old Ohio boy to Spencer, WV and sexually abusing him in 1991.

Fr. Poandl worked in the Savannah diocese from 2007-2009 and 2010-2012 at St. Christopher’s in Claxton, St. Jude in Glenville, Holy Cross in Pembroke, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Sandhill, GA.

Catholic officials transferred him about 30 times in 44 years.

“That alone is a serious red flag,” said Judy Jones of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a Chicago-based support group. “A number of bishops and other church officials have acted dreadfully in this case, even in recent years, Despite this victim’s credible abuse report, Catholic officials put Fr. Poandl back on the job as recently as 2012.”

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, February 13, 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 )

A Garland, TX youth pastor was sentenced on Wednesday for sending lewd text messages and photos to a teenage girl.

[Dallas Morning News]

It is always devastating and disappointing when a trusted and respected member of the clergy betrays his position and violates an innocent child. We hope the victim and her family can begin to heal and that anyone else who saw, suspects or was abused will find the courage to report to law enforcement. And we hope that Arapaho Road Baptist Church and Texas Baptist Convention officials use their vast resources to find others with knowledge of or suspicions about these crimes and beg them to call police.

We fear that some at this church may have ignored or concealed this predator’s crimes. We hope we are wrong. But if we’re right, we hope law enforcement officials will aggressively investigate and pursue any current or former church employee who protected an offender and endanger a child.

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NEW YORK
Jewish Daily Forward

By Irwin Kula
Published February 13, 2014, issue of February 21, 2014.

On January 30, a federal court judge threw out the $680 million lawsuit brought against Yeshiva University by 34 former students of its high school for boys who claimed they were sexually abused in the 1970s and ’80s.

The suit also pinpointed Y.U. officials, trustees, board members and faculty as responsible for a “massive cover-up” of the abuse. As expected, the judge pointed out in his 52-page opinion that the statute of limitations had expired decades ago.

I was one of those abused in the early ’70s, though I chose not to be part of the lawsuit. But now that “we are moving forward,” as a Y.U. press release declared, I suggest it is important that the leadership of the self-proclaimed “North America’s Torah-informed institution” (“Torah informed,” for those who may not know, is Jewish insider language for “most authentically religious and ethical”) understand, as should leadership of many religious institutions these days guilty of such crimes, that from God’s perspective there is no statute of limitations.

Decades-long tolerance of abuse of teenage boys is never merely a legal issue. In the court of the ethical, psychological, and spiritual, Y.U., like myriad religious institutions plagued by this behavior, is more than guilty. Y.U has exhibited a real lack of transparency in this case, neither releasing the full text of an independent investigation carried out last year nor making public the names of the board committee members specially appointed to deal with this issue.

Actions like these make the university perpetrators of exactly what allows sexual abuse to continue for years — secrecy. It is a privileging and protecting of institutional reputation over people victimized by Y.U.’s “religious” leadership. (It should be clear that there was no legal reason to keep the full report secret, as it had no bearing on whether or not the statute of limitations had expired. Also, if the ruling had been that the statute of limitations had not expired, Y.U. would have had to disclose the report in discovery anyway.)

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Woman ‘destroyed by abuse’ in Nazareth House children’s home waives right to anonymity

BY CLAIRE WILLIAMSON – 13 FEBRUARY 2014

A woman “destroyed” by sexual and physical abuse in a children’s home run by nuns has become the first witness to waive her right to anonymity in the hope that other victims will come forward.

Before the Historical Abuse Inquiry sitting began yesterday Kate Walmsley (57) said she had come to give evidence to make sure no boy or girl is ever abused at an institution in the future.

Ms Walmsley was a resident at Nazareth House children’s home in Londonderry in the 1960s.

She said she wanted to become the first victim to waive her right to anonymity to help other victims who haven’t yet come forward.

She told the inquiry: “I had a dreadful experience from when I was eight until I was 12. I was mentally tortured, physically and emotionally.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

[with video]

A woman giving evidence at the historical abuse inquiry has waived her right to anonymity in the hope it will help other victims speak out.

Proceedings had to be halted on Wednesday morning as Kate Walmsley broke down in the witness box while speaking about her time at Nazarath House in Londonderry.

Kate, who is now 57, told the hearing that she was regularly sexually assaulted when she was resident there in the 1960s by a priest and by older female residents.

She said the experience had “destroyed” her – but that she wanted to become the first victim to waive her right to anonymity to help other victims who haven’t yet come forward.

The inquiry in Banbridge, Co Down, heard how Kate was described in welfare documents as a troublesome child and that she was badly behaved. She said this was because of how she was treated, adding that she had been beaten by nuns and force-fed her own vomit.

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TEXAS
KLTV

[with video]

By Lexie Cook
TYLER, TX (KLTV) –
A former East Texas priest is set to spend the next seven and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy.

Father Robert Poandl, also known as “Father Bob”, worked for the Catholic Diocese in Tyler during the 1990s.

The Diocese says Poandl mainly worked as a parish priest in Pittsburg, TX, south of Mount Pleasant.

Poandl is charged with taking a boy on a trip from Ohio to West Virginia, where he sexually assaulted him. He is not facing any charges related to his time here in East Texas.

Still, the Diocese of Tyler says they are reaching out to any possible victims.

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MISSISSIPPI
Clarion Ledger

Written by
Ruth Ingram

A Catholic priest, who years ago served in five Mississippi parishes, was sentenced to 7½ years in prison Wednesday on federal child sex abuse charges.

Father Bob Poandl was found guilty in September in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. He brought a 10-year-old Cincinnati old boy to Spencer, W.Va., in August 1991 and sexually assaulted the child.

His first assignments after taking his holy vows were in Mississippi, where he worked from 1968-73 at Catholic parishes in Aberdeen, Amory, Okolona, Houston and Fulton. Catholic officials transferred Poandl to different parishes about 30 times in his 44 years in the priesthood.

“That alone is a serious red flag,” Judy Jones, a member of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said in a news release. “A number of bishops and other church officials have acted dreadfully in this case, even in recent years. Despite this victim’s credible abuse report, Catholic officials put Father Poandl back on the job as recently as 2012.

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MICHIGAN
CBS Detroit

DETROIT (WWJ) – The attorney for a local priest accused of stealing money meant for the poor says his client is embarrassed by the accusations.

A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of 57-year-old Father Timothy Kane of Detroit — and for his co-defendant, 34-year-old Dorreca Brewer of Jackson — at an arraignment Wednesday.

The pair was arraigned side-by-side via video on several charges for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from the Detroit Archdiocese Angel Fund.

Prosecutors allege the pair scoured for needy families to apply for the money, and then took a large chunk of cash for themselves.

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The Express-Tribune

By Hilary Stauffer
Published: February 13, 2014

Vatican is probably hoping that the publicity surrounding Pope Francis’s anniversary will drown out some of the less complimentary reportage that the Holy See has been deflecting of late. Church spin doctors have been working overtime recently, doing damage control in response to a report issued last week by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Vatican officials appeared in front of the committee about a month ago, to defend their implementation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), a major UN human rights treaty. Representatives from the Holy See were obligated to appear because they are among the 194 sovereign states that have ratified the convention, and ratification requires periodic reporting to the committee entrusted with enforcing the convention’s provisions.

Much of the Vatican’s appearance — and much of the committee’s report—dealt with ramifications from the child sexual abuse scandal that had rocked the Church in recent years. The committee recommended first and foremost that all ‘known or suspected’ child abusers be ‘immediately removed’ from the clergy ranks and that they be referred to legal authorities for investigation and prosecution. It also addressed some of the Church’s other doctrines, including those regarding homosexuality, abortion and contraception.

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OHIO
WCPO

[with video]

CINCINNATI – A 32-year-old man took the stand Wednesday in federal court to confront the Fairfield priest who drove him across state lines for illicit sexual activity when he was 10-years-old.

“My name is David Harper. I am a survivor of Robert Poandl. I successfully fought to have him brought to justice,” Harper said in a statement after Poandl was sentenced to 90 months in prison.

Both Harper and Poandl were in the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Michael R. Barrett.

Before the sentencing hearing Poandl requested a lighter sentence because he said he is dying of cancer. Barrett delivered a harsher sentence than federal guidelines called for.

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OHIO
WLWT

[with video]

CINCINNATI —A Cincinnati-area priest convicted of taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia for sex more than two decades ago was sentenced to prison Wednesday.

Federal jurors found Robert Poandl guilty in September of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex. He was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison.

Poandl could have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors say the priest from the suburban Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners took the boy to Spencer, W.Va., in 1991 and raped him while visiting a church there.

Poandl’s attorney denied those allegations, and Poandl himself denied them during the sentencing hearing.

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OHIO
Fox 19

[with video]

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) –
An Ohio priest convicted of taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia for sex more than two decades ago was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on Wednesday.

Federal jurors found Robert Frank Poandl, of the Fairfield-based Glenmary Home Missioners, guilty in September of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex.

Prosecutors said the priest took the boy from Cincinnati to West Virginia in 1991 and raped him while visiting a church there. The crime was not disclosed until the victim came forward in 2009.

A federal grand jury indicted Poandl, known as “Father Bob,” in Nov. 2012. FBI agents arrested him at the Glenmary Home Missioners in Fairfield.

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TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News

By KEVIN KRAUSE Staff Writer kkrause@dallasnews.com
Published: 12 February 2014

A former Garland youth pastor who exchanged sexually explicit text messages and photos with an underage girl from his church was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in federal prison.

Joshua Earls, 30, and the 16-year-old girl had sent each other text messages with photos of each other’s genitalia. Earls met the victim through Arapaho Road Baptist Church in Garland.

Earls pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography in October and had faced up to 20 years in prison. He also faces a lifetime of probation when he is released.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn listened to hours of sentencing testimony Wednesday from Earls and his family, as well as the victim and her mother. Families from the church packed the courtroom.

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OHIO
Journal-News

By Ed Richter
Staff Writer

CINCINNATI — A priest convicted of taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia for sex more than two decades ago was sentenced Wednesday to 7½ years in federal prison.

Robert Poandl, 72, a priest with the Fairfield-based Glenmary Home Missioners, was convicted in September of the Mann Act, which is transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex. He could have received up to 10 years.

Federal prosecutors say Poandl took the boy to Spencer, W.Va., in 1991 and raped him while visiting a church there.

Poandl, who is suffering from cancer, continued to deny those allegations even as U.S. District Court Judge Michael R. Barrett sentenced him Wednesday in Cincinnati.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Bulletin

By Lori Fowler, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
POSTED: 02/12/14

While two lawsuits were recently settled by the Diocese of San Bernardino regarding alleged sexual abuse by a former pastor, a third lawsuit continues to move through the court system.

Pasadena-based attorney Anthony De Marco filed a lawsuit in 2012 on behalf of his client. They are suing the Roman Catholic Bishop of San Bernardino and Alejandro “Alex” Castillo, among other parties, claiming that sexual abuse by Castillo occurred as far back as the 1970s — and the church knew about it.

“This is a very compelling case,” De Marco said. “The proof will be unmasked as we go forward.”

Officials at the diocese, which covers San Bernardino and Riverside counties, announced this week that they previously settled two civil suits, filed in 2011, for $3.8 million.

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OHIO
The Enquirer

Written by
Brenna R. Kelly

A longtime Catholic priest was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison Wednesday after he was convicted last year of taking a Cincinnati boy to West Virginia and sexually assaulting him in 1991.

Rev. Robert F. Poandl, 73, who is dying of cancer, could have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett said he took Poandl’s health into consideration when deciding the sentence and recommended that Poandl serve his time in a medical facility.

Federal jurors in Cincinnati found him guilty in September of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex.

“He preyed on the weak and the poor, he preyed on children to satisfy his sexual desires,” Poandl’s victim David Harper, now 32, told the judge during the hearing. “It is time for justice to finally be served.”

The Enquirer does not normally identify victims of sexual abuse, but because Harper has stepped forward publicly, we have chosen to do so in this instance.

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CANADA
Catholic Register

Written by Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News
Wednesday, 12 February 2014

OTTAWA – Several prominent Canadian Catholics have reacted with sadness and dismay to a scathing United Nations committee report on the Church’s handling of clerical sexual abuse.

The UN committee investigating the Holy See’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child also advised the Catholic Church to change Canon Law, abandon its teachings on abortion and contraception and to exchange teaching on the sexual complementarity of men and women in favour of gender equality.

Though the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops welcomed some of the specific recommendations that will help the bishops with their planned revision of From Pain to Hope, its 20-year- old document on clerical sexual abuse, Archbishop Paul-André Durocher said the committee weakened its report by “venturing into areas in the moral teachings of the Church.” The committee also failed to note the progress the Church has made.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MICHAEL MCKENNA THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 13, 2014

THE former head of the Catholic body handling child abuse allegations has conceded church officials had no right to launch investigations into complaints against clergy before going to police.

Bishop William Morris, the former co-chairman of the National Committee for Professional Standards, said the church’s decades-long practice under its “Towards Healing’’ protocols to test allegations internally had often hurt the victims and damaged the prospects of a thorough investigation.

Ahead of his appearance before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Bishop Morris said the church officials did not have the skills to investigate the allegations and that victims should have automatically been referred to police.

Bishop Morris will next week give evidence into the church’s mishandling of abuse allegations against a pedophile teacher at a Toowoomba primary school in 2007.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Bustle

By Seth Millstein @SethMillstein

At Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian school in South Carolina, students are told by faculty that they shouldn’t report sexual abuse to the police, because doing so would be damaging to the body of Jesus Christ. Yup. In 2012, the school brought on an outside consulting group, Godly Response To Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), to help it reform its ways; apparently, simply abandoning this atrocious, victim-blaming attitude toward sex abuse was too straightforward of a solution. But even this modest effort amounted to nothing, because last week, just before the GRACE’s findings were released, Bob Jones fired the firm without explanation.

“This ‘notice’ took GRACE by complete surprise,” the firm wrote in an open letter to its supporters, “as there had been no prior indications from BJU that termination was even being considered. Furthermore, this termination occurred days before GRACE was to conduct the last interviews of this 13-month investigation and begin drafting the final report scheduled for publication in March.”

The allegations against BJU are pretty damning. Catherine Harris, who attended the university in the 1980s, was raised in a fundamentalist environment, and says that she was abused by somebody “from inside that bubble.” When she went to the faculty for counseling, they essentially told her that it was her fault.

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IOWA
WQAD

February 12, 2014, by Shellie Nelson

A former youth pastor pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse involving a teenage girl.

Ryan McKelvey, 27, was charged after the alleged victim and her parents told police she had been sexually assaulted. McKelvey, a former youth pastor at Heritage Assembly of God Church in Des Moines, was identified as the suspect.

Investigators later discovered a second victim. Court records show both victims were minors under the age of 18.

McKelvey was charged August 7, 2013, with two counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist and two counts of third-degree sexual abuse.

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NEW YORK
WGRZ

ALBION, N.Y.- The Orleans County pastor accused of inappropriate conduct with three children under the age of 11 is now facing an additional firearm charge.

New York State police charged reverend Roy Harriger with criminal possession of a firearm dating back to his Nov. 27 arrest.

Police say Harriger possessed an unregistered revolver at the time.

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MINNESOTA
KTIV

By M.L. JOHNSON
Associated Press

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Bankruptcy has cost the Archdiocese of Milwaukee more than $19 million in legal fees and other expenses so far, and rejection of its recovery plan could force it to pay out $13 million more, its attorneys said in newly filed court documents.

The financial details were revealed in the archdiocese’s reorganization plan, filed late Wednesday night in federal bankruptcy court. The plan proposes providing $4 million to compensate an estimated 125 victims of clergy sex abuse – less than a fourth of those who filed claims – while other victims would receive therapy but no cash payment. That’s the smallest per-victim payment yet offered by the 11 dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy in the past decade.

The Milwaukee archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, saying it wouldn’t have enough money if courts ruled in favor of victims who filed lawsuits. The seemingly stingy sum offered in its reorganization plan can be partly explained by a long, bitter court fight that has drained the archdiocese’s finances and its relatively unique organizational structure, which puts much church money out of reach.

In all, the archdiocese said it has spent $6.9 million on its own attorneys during bankruptcy. It estimated its creditors’ attorney costs, which bankruptcy rules require the archdiocese to pay, at nearly $12.5 million. The creditors include hundreds of sexual abuse victims along with others who are owed money.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
GlobalPost

By Brendan O’Brien

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee said on Wednesday it has proposed a restructuring plan for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court that would establish a sex abuse victim compensation fund worth $4 million, an amount advocates called woefully low.

The $4 million would be made available to abuse victims partly through a loan the archdiocese plans to secure using property as collateral and may be used to sue the church’s insurance companies, the archdiocese said in a statement.

The Roman Catholic Church in the United States has been hit with a series of abuse accusations and scandals during the past two decades. The scandals have cost the U.S. church about $3 billion in settlements and driven prominent dioceses like Milwaukee’s into bankruptcy.

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2011, citing the financial drain of settling sexual-abuse claims and acknowledging missteps by the church in dealing with pedophile priests. It expects to file a restructuring plan with the court on Wednesday that includes the fund.

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MINNESOTA
WDIO

[with video]

Father James Vincent Fitzgerald worked in the Duluth Diocese for more than 20 years. His parishes were in the northern part of the diocese, in Northome, Bigfork, Effie, Orr, Nett Lake, and Squaw Lake, according to the diocese.

It was when he served the Squaw Lake area that he allegedly abused an altar boy.

The boy was from the New Ulm area, and had met Fitzgerald at an educational church program, according to attorney Mike Finnegan.

“He was a devout Catholic, from a devout Catholic family, and was happy to volunteer to go north to Squaw Lake. Then he was trapped with the priest for two weeks,” said Finnegan, who is the attorney for the alleged victim, known as Doe 30.

Doe 30 has filed a lawsuit in Ramsey County, against the Diocese of Duluth, the Diocese of New Ulm, and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

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MINNESOTA
The Journal

February 13, 2014
The Journal

DULUTH – The Diocese of New Ulm has been named in another lawsuit alleging sex abuse by a priest serving the diocese in the Lake Lillian area in 1977.

Attorneys with Jeff Anderson & Associates and another alleged victim spoke at a press conference in Duluth Wednesday, calling for the Diocese of New Ulm to release a list of priests with credible accusations of sex abuse.

“Right now the Diocese of New Ulm stands alone in not releasing its list of credibly accused offenders,” said Mike Finnegan of the Anderson law firm.

Finnegan represents the anonymous victim, Doe 30, in a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Ramsey County. The suit claims Doe 30 was a young boy attending St. Thomas More Parish in Lake Lillian when he met Fr. J. Vincent Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is accused of taking Doe 30 on a trip to Squaw Lake, MN, where he sexually abused Doe 30 at St. Catherine’s Parish in the Duluth diocese, according to the suit.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTMJ

[with video]

By Todd Hicks

MILWAUKEE – Word of the proposed settlement from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee brought an emotional response from abuse survivors.

Several of the people who gathered outside the Cousins Center said they felt victimized all over again after hearing the details of the plan.

Peter Isely said the four million dollars that would be set aside for victims is an insult.

“That four million dollars comes to about $6,000 dollars per victim,” Isely said.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Crocker Stephenson of the Journal Sentinel Feb. 12, 2014

St. Francis — Infuriated members of a group representing clergy and survivors of clergy abuse met outside the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s headquarters Wednesday, calling the church’s bankruptcy reorganization plan an affront to Pope Francis’ s message of healing and renewal.

“This is not the way a new church is going to be born,” said Peter Isely, a member of the Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance. “This is the old church.”

Archbishop Jerome Listecki announced on a radio talk show Wednesday morning that the archdiocese, as part of bankruptcy reorganization plan, would set aside $4 million to compensate sex abuse victims.

“It’s not just what is in the plan, but how it was communicated,” Isely said. “He doesn’t have the common decency, much less the Christian charity, to look survivors and victims’ family members in the face and explain to them why this amount is so low. We find out about it because it’s been on a radio talk show.”

Isely is one of the founders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. He said the reorganization plan hurts all Catholics, not just victims and their families.

“It’s not helping victim survivors. That’s obvious. But it is not helping Catholics either. We don’t believe any Catholic is going to be very satisfied with this. This is just going to continue the shame.”

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

MINNESOTA
Mankato Free Press

NEW ULM — The Diocese of New Ulm has been named in another lawsuit that accuses a priest of sexually assaulting a boy and makes a demand for the diocese to release a list of 12 priests who have had credible allegations of sexual abuse made against them.

The latest lawsuit claims the 13-year-old boy was attending St. Thomas More Parish in Lake Lillian in 1976, which is within the Diocese of New Ulm, when a priest named J. Vincent Fitzgerald took him on a trip to Squaw Lake in northern Minnesota. While on the trip, Fitzgerald allegedly sexually abused the boy as St. Catherine’s parish, said a news release from the victim’s attorney, Jeff Anderson.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

Thu, Feb 13, 2014

A woman waived her right to anonymity at Northern Ireland’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry yesterday to reveal allegations of beatings and sex abuse at a home in Derry run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

Kate Walmsley, now in her late 50s, further alleged that a nun identified to the inquiry facilitated the abuse by one of the priests. She said when the girls at Nazareth House residential care home queued for confession on a Saturday, this nun would ensure she was at the end of the line.

Junior counsel to the inquiry Joseph Aiken asked her: “So you felt she knew what was happening and she put your hand into the priest’s hand?”

“Yes,” she replied.

Ms Walmsley said the priest brought her into his side of the confessional and abused her.
The witness repeatedly broke down. At one point, inquiry chairman Sir Anthony Hart suspended proceedings to allow her to recover.

When she returned, she confirmed various allegations contained in a lengthy statement which has been submitted to the inquiry. This included allegations of beatings carried out by senior girls at the institution and by nuns.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Pat Power | 13 February 2014

Recently I led the priests of the Diocese of Ballarat in their annual retreat. I was conscious of the burden these priests were carrying in relation to clerical sexual abuse. Yet as an outsider, I had no words of wisdom to impart to a group of men who had agonised over the issue for some time. So I invited them to share with each other their thoughts, feelings and experiences around this painful and shameful time in their lives as priests.

Each priest was painfully aware of the terrible harm done to victims of abuse, their families, the wider community and the Church. They spoke of the need for healing, forgiveness, reconciliation and continuing examination of ways to see that the climate in which such abuse was perpetrated would not continue. Later, I had a heart-rending conversation with one of the priests who said ‘I am not a paedophile and I am not a bishop, but a priest who feels he is carrying the can for all the sins committed and mistakes made by others.’

Most priests believe the Royal Commission or something similar was very much needed to face up to a terrible episode in the Church’s history. They also believe that sexual abuse took place in an environment of clericalism which was imposed by the highest authority in the Church, and which they felt powerless to confront. ‘Father is always right’ operated from the Pope down and any questioning of it was seen as disloyal or even heretical.

One of the most blatant expressions of such clericalism is propagated in an Instruction of the Congregation for the Clergy (the congregation of the Roman Curia responsible for overseeing matters regarding priests and deacons not belonging to religious orders), ‘On certain questions regarding the collaboration of the non-ordained faithful in the sacred ministry of the priest’. This was issued on 15 August 1997 after being approved by Pope John Paul II two days earlier. It can still be found on the Vatican website.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

Three years after filing for bankruptcy, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which insured itself for over $1.3 billion dollars in the 1990’s, filed a reorganization plan today that sets aside a mere $4 million dollars to compensate 575 victim/survivors who were sexually assaulted by archdiocesan priests, religious and employees.

This means that each survivor in the Milwaukee Archdiocese would receive less than $7,000. By contrast, survivors in all other church bankruptcies throughout the U.S. have received an average compensation between $274,000 to as much as $2.1 million, with a national average of $400,000 per survivor.

When Archbishop Jerome Listecki announced the bankruptcy three years ago he said that the purpose of reorganization was to bring “healing” to survivors and “make them whole.” Clearly, this was not the case.

Instead of taking the path to healing as he promised, Listecki instead has spent over $11.5 million dollars on bankruptcy lawyers and court costs fighting victims, nearly three times the total amount he now proposes to compensate survivors.

Even more outrageous, the archdiocese “compensated” known child abuser priests with a $20,000 “signing bonus” to secretly leave the priesthood. That’s on top of pension, health insurance, and in some cases continuing salaries and vocational “retraining” into new occupations working with children. That amount offered to the criminal clergy is nearly three times what Listecki believes will “heal” their victims.

But not to worry. Listecki also proposes a “lifetime therapy fund”. Of course, Listecki is going to control the therapy monies and the alleged “lifetime” of the total fund for all victims runs out at $500,000 dollars. In other words, under Listecki’s “healing” proposal each survivor would receive less than $900 for their “lifetime” of therapy.

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MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

February 12, 2014

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com)– A lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Ramsay County against the Diocese of Duluth on behalf of a man who claims he was sexually abused by a priest who had worked in the Diocese for more than two decades.

The lawsuit claims the now 30 year old man was the victim of repeated sexual abuse in 1976 when he was 13 years old and serving as an altar boy.
r.
The claim says he was abused by Father Vincent Fitzgerald who has since died.

The abuse is alleged to have started at St Thomas More, a parish in the Diocese of New Ulm, which is also named in the lawsuit.

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

UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

For the last several years now, TheMediaReport.com has provided hundreds of examples of the media’s biased and unbalanced coverage of the Catholic Church sex abuse story. And, unfortunately, our weekly posts provide only a small glimmer of the overall problem.

But the purpose of this site is to arm responsible journalists with the facts about sex abuse so as to improve their coverage and hopefully lower the incidence of sex abuse in our society.
What can the mainstream media do to improve its reporting of the Catholic Church sex abuse narrative? Here are five suggestions:

1. Provide context

Contemporaneous accusations of abuse against Catholic priests are extremely rare, recently averaging in the United States only eight per year even deemed “credible” by diocesan review boards. Almost all accusations against Catholic priests involve allegations from decades ago. Yet you would hardly know this from the media coverage, which almost always makes it appear that abuse is still an ongoing and current problem in the Church.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

New Bridgeport Diocese Bishop Frank Caggiano is scheduled to address a group of Catholics about the future of the church.

That may not sound like major news. That should not be major news. But the head of the group isn’t wrong to say, “It’s practically historic.”

For this group is the Voice of the Faithful, which formed 12 years ago to campaign for reform in the church in the wake of lawsuits and scandals involving the sexual abuse of children by priests.

The group’s members were ignored by Caggiano’s predecessor, Bishop William Lori, who responded only by banning them from meeting on diocesan property.

Lori took the post just in time to deal with the fallout of 109 sexual abuse cases involving 32 priests from 1960 to 1990, more than a decade before his arrival in 2001. New scandals surfaced over subsequent years. Michael Jude Fay, former pastor of St. John Church in Darien, pled guilty to stealing more than $1 million from his parish. Michael Moynihan, former pastor of St. Michael the Archangel in Greenwich, was sentenced to five months in prison in 2011 on charges related to $400,000 in parish funds that were missing. Kevin Wallin, former pastor of St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport, pleaded guilty last year to selling $300,000 worth of methamphetamine.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
CBS 58

by Sandra Torres
Story Created: Feb 12, 2014

MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Archdiocese is setting aside about four million dollars to settle with sex abuse victims. That amount gives each victim about $6,000 for what was done to them. This compensation package is a part of a larger bankruptcy reorganization plan filed in federal court. The move is upsetting several victims of Catholic priests.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee says its plan of reorganization has three parts. It will provide abuse survivors lifetime therapy for what they’ve gone through. it will take about four million dollars from non-restricted assets from the archdiocese estate. The archdiocese will pay costs related to the bankruptcy including legal and accounting fees.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests(SNAP) says that’s not enough to properly compensate the 570 victims from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Abuse victim Monica Barrett got emotion as she reacted to how the archdiocese of Milwaukee plans to compensate her and other abuse survivors. “It’s much like being raped all over again, because we’ve fought for decades to even get to this point and he says we’re out of money.”

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

MINNESOTA
KAAL

By: Leslie Dyste

There is growing pressure on the Diocese of New Ulm to release a list of priests who are “credibly” accused of sexually abusing minors.

On Wednesday, attorneys called again for that list to be made public. A lawsuit has already been filed asking for the diocese to release the list.

The attorneys also asked the Diocese of Duluth to release more documents relating to the 17 priests there, who are accused of sexual abuse.

Meanwhile, a Ramsey County judge ruled Tuesday that key leaders in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis will have to answer for their alleged actions for the first time ever, according to KSTP reporter Beth McDonough.

Archbishop John Nienstedt and the Rev. Kevin McDonough will have to go on the record and talk with investigators about how the church handled sex abuse allegations made against priests in local parishes.

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

MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By: Tom Olsen, Duluth News Tribune

For the third time in eight months, the Catholic Diocese of Duluth is the subject of a lawsuit seeking the public release of thousands of documents detailing the history of priest sex abuse cases in Northeastern Minnesota.

The suit, filed Wednesday in State District Court in Ramsey County by an alleged abuse victim, makes the same demand for the Diocese of New Ulm — the only diocese in the state that has not yet released a list of its priests who have been “credibly accused” of abuse.

The alleged victim, identified in court documents only as “Doe 30,” claims that he was abused by Father James Vincent Fitzgerald at St. Catherine’s Church in Squaw Lake as a 13-year-old in 1976. Attorneys for the man and other victims claim that the diocese likely has thousands of documents detailing the church’s handling of abuse cases, including Fitzgerald’s.

The diocese, however, said on Wednesday that no abuse allegations were ever brought against Fitzgerald during his 26 years working at six Northland parishes.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — The Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced on Wednesday, February 12th that it is filing its Plan of Reorganization in its Chapter 11 proceedings — and some victims say they’re not happy with the plan, nor how it was delivered.

The plan will establish a $500,000 Lifetime Therapy Fund for abuse survivors. $4 million will also be available to provide financial settlements for abuse survivors with eligible claims. The Archdiocese will have an operation plan to continue its ministry in the community. The plan will also solidify the organization’s commitment to preventing child sex abuse within the church.

There was immediate reaction to the Archdiocese’s reorganization plan, and not just about the content of the plan, but also, how it was delivered. Some people just hearing the fact that there was finally a plan in place were relieved, but some survivors of priest abuse had a different reaction after looking at the content.

FOX6 News caught up with Deborah Smith leaving Church of Gesu in Milwaukee on Wednesday, February 12th.

After hearing the Milwaukee Archdiocese is filing a plan of reorganization in its bankruptcy case, she had high hopes.

“Closure for the victims as well as the other people who have been hurt and healing and forgiveness for both parties involved,” Smith said.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
KCAU

[with video]

By: Jenna Rehnstrom
jrehnstrom@kcautv.com

There’s a movement going on in the South Dakota legislature to protect victims of sexual abuse. And a Siouxland native is leading the charge.

Jolene Loetscher, who grew up in Northeast Nebraska, was sexually abused by a family friend from age 15 to 16. She mostly kept quiet about the ordeal, until recently, when she confronted her abuser and began a crusade to be a voice for others.

On Tuesday, she and other sexual abuse survivors shared their stories in front of South Dakota lawmakers.

“What really sits up here before you, is a 15 year old victim of child sexual abuse and we owe it to everyone to give all those children out there the right to become survivors,” said Loetscher during her testimony.

“Jolene’s Law,” a bill named in her honor, has passed that senate committee and will be debated by the full senate. It would create a task force to study the impact of sexual abuse of kids and make recommendations to the legislature to address the issue.

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

SOUTH DAKOTA
South Dakota Public Broadcasting

[with audio]

By KEALEY BULTENA

Survivors of child sex abuse and advocates for those victims want lawmakers to address the abuse. Senate Bill 154 establishes a task force to study the impact of sexual abuse of children. Not one lawmaker in committee opposes the effort.

Mary Beth Holzworth is in the state Capitol for her sons. Two of her three boys survived sexual abuse.

“On June 10, 2009, my five-year-old son sat next to me and said, ‘Mom, uncle shared his germs with me.’ I had no idea what that meant and asked him to explain further. What he began to decribe was something I never thought I’d hear from one of my children. He explained how his uncle had sexually abused him, from fondling to oral sex to penetration. As a mother, nothing I’d ever heard had made me more sick,” Holzworth says.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Press and Dakotan

Associated Press

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota’s Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a bill to establish a task force that would study the impact of child sexual abuse.

The group would be named Jolene’s Law Task Force after Jolene Loetscher of Sioux Falls, a victim of sexual assault as a child. Members would meet later this year to suggest ways South Dakota could improve its policies for dealing with child sexual abuse, which officials say happens to one in four girls and one in six boys nationally.

No one has spoken in opposition to the bill. Supporters include child advocacy organizations, the South Dakota Sheriff’s Association and the state Department of Social Services.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

A South Dakota senate committee approved of a new child sex abuse task force. We are glad that this first step has been taken to make South Dakota children safer and we encourage legislatures to not stop there.

[Press and Dakotan]

The Senate Education Committee unanimously approved the bill, which would create the task force to study the impact of child sexual assault. The task force is named for a SD victim of child sex abuse, Jolene’s Law Task Force.

We hope this bill becomes a law and that children are made safer because of it. We also hope that this is a positive sign that SD will reexamine its archaic statute of limitations on child sexual abuse.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wall Street Journal

Milwaukee Archdiocese to Set Aside $4 Million for Victims

By TOM CORRIGAN
Feb. 12, 2014

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee said it intends to file a plan of reorganization with bankruptcy court Wednesday that would set aside $4 million to compensate hundreds of individuals who allege they were sexually abused by the archdiocese’s priests.

The plan also would create a $500,000 fund to provide therapy for the lifetime of the victims and pays an estimated $5 million in legal and accounting fees associated with the Chapter 11 case.

Some of the $4 million could be used by eligible holders of sexual-abuse claims to pursue litigation against the church’s insurers, which could add to their compensation. The archdiocese says it would provide the money by taking out a loan on several of its properties.

The plan, which after it is filed must be approved by a judge, would allow the archdiocese to continue operations and eventually emerge from bankruptcy protection.

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

MILWAUKEE (WI)
WFTV

By M.L. JOHNSON
The Associated Press

MILWAUKEE — The Archdiocese of Milwaukee said Wednesday it would set aside $4 million for clergy sexual abuse victims in its bankruptcy reorganization plan and that half the money would be borrowed from a controversial cemetery trust fund.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, saying pending sexual abuse lawsuits could leave it with debts it couldn’t pay. Its creditors include hundreds of people who have filed sexual abuse claims, a fraction of which would be eligible for payments under the reorganization plan.

Eleven Catholic dioceses have filed for bankruptcy in the past decade, and others have set aside much larger sums to compensate victims of sexual abuse. The Milwaukee archdiocese itself agreed in 2006 to a nearly $16.7 million settlement for 10 victims in California who were abused by two of its priests while they were working there. Its total payments to victims before filing to bankruptcy came to $33 million.

Peter Isely, a spokesman for clergy sexual abuse victims, called the offer of $4 million “obscene,” noting the archdiocese spent much more on legal fees and paid considerable sums to pedophile priests it was removing from ministry.

“If lawyers are worth so much more to you than survivors, and if priests are worth so much more to you than children who are harmed … that is an organization that cannot be trusted in its public role,” Isely said.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • February 12, 2014

The Christian sexual abuse investigating team GRACE, which was abruptly fired by Bob Jones University on virtually the eve of its report on allegations against the fundamentalist college. This is the second time the team, led by Liberty University law professor Boz Tchividjian, has been dismissed by a Christian organization that hired it to investigate the organization. The first time was a year ago, when the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) did so. Back then, GRACE responded to the school’s startling action. Excerpt:

In addition to responding to the alleged investigative “flaws”, it is important to recount ABWE’s repeated failures to comply with the contractual obligations to GRACE. These contractual breaches included repeated objections to providing requested documents and the failure to provide such documents in a timely matter, if at all. ABWE further breached the contract by failing to provide GRACE with access to critical witnesses associated with your organization. ABWE’s contractual breaches needlessly delayed this investigation and impaired our ability to fully evaluate ABWE’s response to the crimes perpetrated by Donn Ketcham.

When placed in the context of ABWE’s conduct over the past 20 months, the termination of GRACE strongly suggests ABWE is unwilling to have itself investigated unless the investigation is within your control. We pray that is not the case.

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