ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC

BY THOMAS ORITI
February 11, 2014

A leader of the Salvation Army has cried while apologising to victims of child sexual abuse at boys homes run by the organisation.

Commissioner James Condon is the leader of the Salvation Army’s Eastern Territory, covering New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT.

He has sat through two weeks of disturbing evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is examining abuse at four boys’ homes in NSW and Queensland.

Former residents of the homes say they were raped by Salvation Army officers and “rented out” for sex between the 1950s and the 1970s.

Commissioner Condon says as the leader of the Salvation Army’s Eastern Territory, he accepts responsibility.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The New York Times

By PAUL VALLELY
FEB. 11, 2014

LONDON — Boys have been raped. Priests have lied. Bishops have been complicit in cover-ups. Evidence has been shredded, whistle-blowers undermined, silence has been bought and victims given false promises. And yet for all that, the blistering critique of the United Nations report on sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church may end up doing more harm than good.

The case against the church is clear. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child refers to tens of thousands of crimes by priestly abusers over several decades. It calls on the church to remove all abusers from active ministry, report them to the police and open its archives on the 4,000 cases which have been referred to the Vatican.

But the report naïvely, or ideologically, also blundered into a wider attack on Catholic teachings on contraception, homosexuality and abortion. That prompted the Vatican to respond with a forceful counterattack claiming the United Nations has gone beyond its proper area of competence — and, indeed, has violated the safeguards on religious freedom in its own Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The focus on child abuse has been lost in the row, with Vatican apologists tweeting about the Holy See being ambushed by a kangaroo court. The United Nations process, some said, had been driven by NGOs with an anti-Catholic agenda on reproductive rights. Dark remarks were made about getting the General Assembly to impose a code of conduct on United Nations human rights committees to make them more accountable.

All this has shifted attention from the key question: Is the church doing enough to deal with the abuse? Yet that is not the only reason that the United Nations committee may have made a tactical blunder by attacking wider Catholic values. For all the unified public pronouncements from church spokesmen, the reality is that behind the scenes the Vatican is deeply divided on the issue.

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director ( 314 566 9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com ), Amy Smith of Houston, SNAP leader ( 281 748 4050, spacecitysnap@gmail.com )

Abuse victims plead with Southern Baptists
They beg church officials: “Don’t appeal jury verdict”
Florida Baptist Convention should “accept justice,” they say
“Appealing will erode Baptist officials’ moral authority,” states SNAP
They call this a “watershed moment” for largest US Protestant denomination

An organization that helps clergy sex abuse victims is asking the Florida Baptist Convention to reconsider its decision to appeal a recent and unprecedented multi-million dollar verdict in a child molestation case.

[Orlando Sentinel]

Last week, a unanimous jury in Lake County, Florida, awarded $12.5 million to a man who was sexually abused as a child by a Southern Baptist minister in a church affiliated with the Florida Baptist Convention.

This is believed to be the first time that a state or national Baptist organization has been held responsible for the crimes of a minister. For years, Baptist denominational officials have successfully maintained that each church is completely autonomous such that Baptist denominational organizations can’t be sued for negligently allowing clergy child molesters to “church-hop.”

Within hours, Baptist officials announced their intention to ask a higher court to overturn the jury’s verdict.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing to Florida Baptist Convention executive director John Sullivan to urge that the statewide denominational office reconsider that decision.

The group maintains that Baptist officials are “at a historic crossroads” and “must choose between the familiar but hurtful, costly, defensive, and fundamentally immoral practice of using legal hard-ball to evade responsibility, or a more kind and smart practice of accepting responsibility, helping victims and taking action to deter future clergy sex crimes and cover-ups.”

“In the long run, this denomination will protect children, save money, prevent embarrassment, and be hailed as doing the right thing, if you act now as compassionate shepherds instead of cold-hearted CEOs,” said Amy Smith, a SNAP leader in Houston who is herself a Southern Baptist.

“This first-ever jury finding – that Baptist denominational offices should bear responsibility for harm inflicted by a clergy child molester — is a real ‘wake-up call’ for the entire denomination,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s Director. “Denominational officials can heed or ignore the call. We hope they’ll make the tougher but smarter and more responsible choice to accept responsibility, not appeal, and to implement denominational safeguards for the protection of kids.”

Clohessy compared the jury’s decision to a lengthy 1985 internal Catholic Church report sent to every US bishop, warning them that soon lawsuits involving pedophile priests would proliferate and radically undermine their reputations.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

News Release

February 11, 2014

(St. Paul, MN) – On Tuesday, February 11, 2014, at 3:00PM in Ramsey County District Court, Judge John Van de North may decide whether documents and information and additional names of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse will be released in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona. Van de North may also decide whether the depositions of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Father Kevin McDonough can be taken as part of a civil lawsuit.

Doe 1, along with his attorneys and other sexual abuse survivors, sought to force the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, to release this information and has requested the depositions of both Nienstedt and McDonough. The Archdiocese and Diocese of Winona have fought for years to keep the names and information secret and the Archdiocese has objected to the depositions of both top Archdiocesan officials.

· The original Doe 1 complaint can be found on our website at www.andersonadvocates.com.
Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.205.5531

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Feb. 11, 2014

PERSPECTIVE Cast your mind back to February 2013. Remember what was happening and how people felt. How you felt. The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on Feb. 11, 2013, caught the world by surprise, but after the initial shock wore off, it didn’t seem all that surprising.

Remember what we, in the U.S. Catholic church, had been through: an “apostolic visitation” of congregations of American women religious; a doctrinal investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the appointment of overlords to help them “reform.” Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois had been excommunicated because he supported women’s ordination. Long established and trusted scholars, Mercy Sr. Margaret Farley and St. Joseph Sr. Elizabeth Johnson, had been censured. The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board for child protection had warned the bishops that complacency threatened the continuing implementation of their policies and guidelines meant to keep children safe. The U.S. bishops seemed to be doing their best to scuttle health care reform over — of all things — artificial contraception; their campaign for religious freedom seemed petty and partisan. A clunky, ideologically driven translation of the Mass prayers had been thrust upon us.

I remember people feeling dejected and drifting away from the church. Not storming out, just drifting away.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

A former Catholic priest, James Patrick Jennings, 80, is standing trial in the Victorian County Court in February 2014, accused of committing sexual offences against boys at a Catholic boarding school in Bendigo, Victoria, in the 1960s.

Prosecutors allege that Father Jennings indecently assaulted three boarders, aged 12 and 13, at the school while in charge of one of the dormitories there. Jennings has pleaded not guilty to six counts of indecent assault.

Jennings’ defence lawyer told the jury that his client absolutely denies the allegations.

The school was St Vincent’s College, which then situated at Bendigo, 150 kilometres north of Melbourne. Father Jennings was then a member of the Vincentian religious order (this order is also called the Congregation of the Mission). He later left the Vincentian order and stopped working as a priest.

[St Vincent’s College was set up in Bendigo in 1955 and was run then by the Vincentian order. In 1977, it was taken over by the Marist Brothers. In 1983 this school then became part of Catholic College Bendigo.]

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn say the Philadelphia district attorney is resorting to hysteria, emotion and histrionics in his legal appeal to send their client back to jail.

District Attorney Seth Williams has asked the state Supreme Court to overturn a Dec. 26th opinion from a panel of three Superior Court judges that reversed Msgr, Lynn’s prior conviction on one count of endangering the welfare of a child.

In its appeal to the state Supreme Court, the district attorney said the reversal by the Superior Court panel sent a “dismal message” to the survivors of sex abuse. Also, because of the Superior Court’s overly broad language and “misapplication of law,” the district attorney warned that the state may not be able to protect future victims of child abuse.

Lynn’s lawyers saw it differently.

“The Commonwealth willfully the distorts the Superior Court’s decision, which “simply concluded” that the state’s original child endangerment law did not apply to Lynn, as he was “neither a parent, guardian, nor other person supervising the welfare of a child,” Thomas A. Bergstrom and Allison Khaskelis argue in their 27-page response to the D.A.’s petition filed today.

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UNITED STATES
Aljazeera

by Lauren Carasik @ajam February 11, 2014

Urging a sprawling religious institution to take immediate remedial action to redress a scourge of pervasive sexual abuse within its ranks is unlikely to generate global controversy. Unless that organization is the Catholic Church and the edict is issued by a secular watchdog and muddied by the Vatican’s unique status as a hybrid sovereign state ruled by its own religious laws and mores.

On Feb. 5, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a stern rebuke of the Holy See for its failure to comply with its international obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The panel’s observations in its second periodic report on the Vatican accused it of systematically protecting pedophile priests and showing greater concern for preserving its own reputation and protecting the perpetrators than for upholding the best interests of the children. It called on the church to remove abusive clergy from official duty, turn abusers and those who shielded them over to state authorities for prosecution and release its voluminous archives of sexual-abuse complaints.

The U.N. report has reignited a lingering debate between defenders of the church and critics who deplore its handling of the sex-abuse crisis. Survivor groups and their supporters hailed the report as a watershed development in their arduous and lengthy battle to seek redress for past and ongoing abuses as well as efforts to prevent future ones. They have long criticized the Vatican for hiding behind a stony and impenetrable wall of secrecy, obstructing justice, protecting abusers and punishing whistle-blowers.

Barbara Dorris, outreach director for Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, lauded the report’s long overdue attention to a troubling issue for which the church has never publicly answered.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 10

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

A high ranking cleric from a diocese that’s one of the most secretive with predator priests has been promoted to head the Albany Catholic diocese. Pope Francis has made another poor choice. While the pontiff has made steps forward on Vatican finances and governance, he has still done virtually nothing substantial to help expose predators, deter enablers, heal victims and prevent future clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

For a decade, Scharfenberger has been heavily involved in pedophile priest cases, in two roles (as “promoter of justice” and as a review board member). Yet we’ve seen not a single hopeful move in the Brooklyn diocese regarding this scandal. That diocese, like many, does only the absolute bare minimum in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases, and only then because it’s required to do so by the US church’s vague, weak and rarely enforced abuse policy.

Thirty bishops have posted pedophile priests’ names on their websites. This is, we believe, a bare minimum public safety step. Brooklyn Catholic officials refuse to do so, even though there are at least 53 Brooklyn priests who have been publicly accused of molesting kids. Equally troubling, Brooklyn Catholic officials put a lawyer in charge of responding to abuse reports, a maneuver which we consider a shrewd and unethical way to try to handle these cases quietly and prevent victims from seeking justice in court.

We have been critical of Bishop Howard Hubbard’s recklessness and callousness in chlid sex cases. So we had hoped that his replacement would be someone whose track record in this crisis had been better. But today we are disappointed.

We hope that Bishop Scharfenberger will quickly

– post predators’ names on his diocesan website and in parish bulletins,
– begin personally visiting each parish where a pedophile priest worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police, and
– start supporting, not fighting, efforts to reform New York’s archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations on child sex crimes.

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NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre

RE: Appointment of Bishop-Elect Andrzej Jerzy Zglejszewski
FROM: Bishop-Elect Zglejszewski

Good Morning. Thank you for being here today.

I think that everyone is very surprised, like I am this morning, by the news coming from Rome, and will understand why my heart and mind turns into both wonder and joy. I am humbled by the Holy Father’s appointment and even though I always wanted to serve God and the Church in the best way I can, I am overwhelmed with the sense of my unworthiness. For that reason, I turn all my emotions and wonders into a song of gratitude.

I want to thank, most of all, our Holy Father, Pope Francis. This appointment not only shows his great concern for the Church on Long Island, but also it is a concrete way of reaching out to all the faithful in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The Holy Father recognizes the depth and enthusiasm of spiritual life coming together with an amazing exchange of the diversities of our cultures. Even though we all have different accents and backgrounds, what really unites us is our faith and love for God and his Church.
I am grateful to our Shepherd, Bishop William Murphy. I would not be where I am in my life without his pastoral vision, giving me an opportunity to serve the people of God here on Long Island, first of all, as parish priest, and then as the diocesan Director of the Office of Worship and then as Co-Chancellor. In all these ministries, I had a great opportunity to meet local people with a variety of needs. I also had the privilege to discover how strong and beautiful our Church is on Long Island. Having the responsibility for liturgy in the diocese was a learning experience for me. It was and is an opportunity for me to serve my brother priests and parish leaders by assisting them in a variety of pastoral and sacramental needs.

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NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre

11 February 2014 – Pope Francis Names Diocesan Co-Chancellor as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Rockville Centre

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. – February 11, 2014 – Pope Francis has appointed Reverend Monsignor Andrzej Jerzy Zglejszewski, 52, to be an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States, made the announcement public earlier today in Washington, DC. Bishop-Elect Zglejszewski is a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre and currently serves as co-chancellor and director of the office of worship, Diocese of Rockville Centre.

The Most Rev. William Murphy, bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, will ordain Bishop-Elect Zglejszewski at a Mass of Episcopal Ordination to be celebrated at the Cathedral of Saint Agnes, Rockville Centre, New York on March 25, 2014, the Feast of the Annunciation.

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NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn

STATEMENT OF BISHOP NICHOLAS DIMARZIO ON THE APPOINTMENT OF MSGR. EDWARD SCHARFENBERGER AS TENTH BISHOP OF ALBANY, N.Y.

February 11, 2014 – This morning, the Holy Father appointed the Reverend Monsignor Edward Scharfenberger as the Tenth Bishop of the Diocese of Albany, New York.

Monsignor Scharfenberger was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Brooklyn by Bishop James Hickey (who would go on to become Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, D.C.) on July 2, 1973, at St. Peter’s Basilica. He has served in a number of pastoral and administrative positions. Most recently he served as Episcopal Vicar for Queens. In addition, he recently served as pastor of Saint Matthias Church in the Ridgewood section of Queens and also as Vicar for Strategic Planning.

“First and foremost, Monsignor Scharfenberger is a good priest,” said the Most Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop of Brooklyn. “He is primarily concerned about people and is untiring in finding new ways to proclaim the message of redemption which is at the heart of the Gospel.”

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Entorno Inteligente

El Nuevo diario / Santo Domingo, RD.− El nuncio apostólico en República Dominicana, el nigeriano Jude Thaddeus Okolo, aseguró hoy que es necesario “buscar la verdad” en alusión a las acusaciones de supuesta pederastia contra su predecesor en el cargo, el polaco Jozef Wesolowski. Wesolowski está acusado por la Procuraduría General (Fiscalía) dominicana de supuestas acciones de pederastia en perjuicio de adolescentes de extracción humilde. El fiscal general de República Dominicana, Francisco Domínguez Brito, sostuvo este lunes una reunión con Okolo, con quien trató diversos aspectos relativos a las denuncias de pederastia que afrontan el exnuncio Wesolowski y su compatriota y sacerdote Wokcietch Waldemar Gil. Wokcietch Waldemar Gil, conocido como el padre Gil, ejercía el sacerdocio en la comunidad de Juncalito, provincia dominicana de Santiago (norte), y logró escapar el año pasado a Polonia antes de ser procesado, y desde allí ha negado las acusaciones. Durante el encuentro de este lunes, el máximo representante del Ministerio Público y el Nuncio consideraron que en cada caso los tribunales deben hacer todo lo posible para buscar la verdad, “y en caso de encontrar indicios serios respecto a las imputaciones, aplicar las debidas sanciones”.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Justice minister Francisco Domínguez and Vatican envoy Jude Thaddeus Okolo on Monday discussed child abuse cases attributed to his predecessor Jozef Wesolowski and the priest Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto) in Juncalito, Santiago.

In a statement released after the meeting, the officials said the courts must do everything to seek the truth in each case and punishment if there’s evidence of the allegations.

Dominguez said Dominican investigators found serious criminal responsibility against the prelates, for which they should be punished.

The case files sent to Polish authorities include victims statements and testimony, the alleged victims’ psychological evaluations as well as various types of evidence with which Dominican Republic seeks prosecution.

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TEXAS
Telemundo

[Summary: A group of activists stood outside the Cathedral of Guadlalupe in Dallas to ask the Catholic Church to do a better job exposing clergy who have been accused of sexually abusing minors. According to members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, former preist James Brzyski, who was named by a Philadelphia grand jury as being one of the “most brutal abusers,” lives in the Dallas area.]

Un grupo de activistas estuvo a fuera de la Catedral de Guadalupe en Dallas para exigirle a la iglesia católica que haga un mejor trabajo para exponer a los miembros del clero que han sido acusados de abusar sexualmente de menores de edad.

De acuerdo a miembros del grupo SNAP, el ex sacerdote James Brzyski, fue nombrado por un gran jurado en Filadelfia como uno de los “abusadores más brutales”.

De acuerdo al gran jurado, Brzyski de 62 años, presuntamente abusó de hasta de 17 niños durante los 70’s y 80’s.

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NEW YORK
Saratogian

By staff report
POSTED: 02/11/14

ALBANY >> Rev. Msgr. Edward B Scharfenberger, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York has been appointed by Pope Francis to be the tenth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, New York. The announcement was made at the Vatican today.

There will be a press conference to introduce Bishop-elect Scharfenberger at 11 a.m. today, Feb. 11, at the Pastoral Center of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, 40 N. Main Ave., Albany, New York.

Bishop-elect Scharfenberger succeeds Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, who has led the Diocese of Albany for 37 years. Bishop Hubbard reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 on Oct. 31, and submitted his letter of retirement to Pope Francis at that time. Hubbard was instructed to stay on until the appointment and installation of a new bishop.

Bishop-elect Scharfenberger was born in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn on May 29, 1948. He is the son of Edward and Elaine (Magdal) Scharfenberger of Warwick, New York. His parents are 93 years old.

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NEW YORK
News Times

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Pope Francis has appointed a New York City priest to succeed Bishop Howard Hubbard as the leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Diocese of Brooklyn announced Tuesday morning that the pope appointed the Rev. Monsignor Edward Scharfenberger as the Albany diocese’s 10th bishop.

Hubbard was the longest-tenured bishop of a single diocese in the nation when he submitted his resignation on Oct. 31, when he turned 75, the mandatory retirement age for a bishop. He was appointed bishop of Albany in March 1977.

Scharfenberger was ordained a priest in 1973. He has held a number of parish and administrative positions in New York City, including episcopal vicar for Queens.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

A former residential care home in Derry run by the Sisters of Nazareth for more than 100 years is for sale.

Nazareth House, at Bishop Street – which closed last year – is now on the property market with a guide selling price of in the region of £750,000.

The property that’s currently for sale includes the former nursing home, as well as a chapel and a three-bedroom bungalow.

The site extends to some 1.65 acres and because of its elevated location boasts commanding views of the River Foyle and the east bank.

Property experts say it represents an “excellent opportunity” and could, perhaps, be used for “healthcare, educational or institutional use” or, alternatively, could be re-developed.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty

A man and woman have told the North’s historical institutional abuse inquiry how their separate experiences in residential homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth in Derry damaged them as children and adults.

A 58-year-old woman said that nuns in Nazareth House in Derry refused to believe her when she told them she was sexually abused as a young girl.

She told the inquiry in Banbridge, Co Down, yesterday the abuse occurred when she spent time on placement from Nazareth House on two farms when she was about 11 or 12 years of age. A man on the first farm abused her a “few” times. She remembered a particular incident when that man got into the bed between her and another girl from Nazareth House but the man’s wife came in and told him to “get out”.

She described the incident on the second farm when the owner tried to abuse her. On that occasion she ran away. “I got to hell out of there,” she said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

A public inquiry has heard that a young girl was cruelly treated by nuns and beaten “black and blue” during her time at Nazareth House Children’s Home in Derry.

Yesterday, the inquiry, sitting in Banbridge, Co. Down, heard from a 58-year-old witness who was a resident at the Bishop Street home for girls from 1957 to 1969.

She recalled that, during her time there, some of the nuns were cruel and one nun would often beat her, hitting her with a belt she wore round her neck.

She told the inquiry that she was also beaten black and blue with a stick.

The witness said that, at bath time, 100 girls were forced to queue up with no privacy and the bath water was never changed.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

A FORMER Catholic priest on trial for sex crimes against young boys will take the stand in a bid to prove his innocence, a court has heard.

James Jennings, 80, is standing trial in the County Court accused of molesting boys at St Vincent’s College, Bendigo, in the 1960s.

Prosecutors allege he assaulted three boarders, aged 12 and 13, at the college while in charge of one of the dormitories there.

Mr Jennings is facing six counts of indecent assault.

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague Daily Monitor

ČTK | 11 FEBRUARY 2014

Havlickuv Brod, East Bohemia, Feb 10 (CTK) – The Czech police arrested a 52-year-old priest and accused him of rape, sexual abuse and other crimes and the man faces up to ten years in prison if his guilt is proved, police spokeswoman Dana Cirtkova said yesterday.

Cirtkova said the case is exceptionally serious not only because of the crimes concerned but also because “the perpetrator took advantage of the helplessness and trust of the victims with whom he was in regular contact as a clergyman.”

The priest was remanded in custody on Thursday.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

An Anglican priest from Wannock who was jailed for sexually abusing young children has applied to be released from prison on compassionate grounds.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 74, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May after being found guilty of 36 separate sex offences.

The priest, from Filching Close, committed the offences against 16 children between 1962 and 1973 in Hampshire and Sussex.

One of his victims said she and her family were in ‘a state of disbelief’.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has accepted the resignation from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Albany, New York of the Most Reverend Howard J. Hubbard in accordance with can. 401 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law.

The Holy Father appointed as Bishop of Albany Rev. Msgr. Edward Bernard Scharfenberger of the clergy of the Diocese of Brooklyn, and Episcopal Vicar for the area of Queens.

Also in New York state, the Holy Father has appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Rockville Centre (Long Island) Rev. Msgr. Andrzej Jerzy Zglejszewski of the clergy of the same diocese, currently Co – Chancellor and Director of the diocesan Office of Worship. The Pope has assigned to him the titular see of Nicives .

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Il Santo Padre ha accettato la rinuncia al governo pastorale della diocesi di Albany (U.S.A.), presentata da S.E. Mons. Howard James Hubbard, in conformità al can. 401 §1 del Codice di Diritto Canonico.

Il Papa ha nominato Vescovo di Albany (U.S.A.) Mons. Edward Bernard Scharfenberger, del clero della diocesi di Brooklyn, finora Vicario Episcopale per il territorio di Queens. …

NOMINA DI AUSILIARE DI ROCKVILLE CENTRE (U.S.A.)
Il Papa ha nominato Vescovo Ausiliare di Rockville Centre (U.S.A.) Mons. Andrzej Jerzy Zglejszewski, del clero della medesima sede, finora Co-Cancelliere e Direttore dell’”Office of Worship” diocesano, assegnandogli la sede titolare vescovile di Nicives.

Mons. Andrzej Jerzy Zglejszewski

Mons. Andrzej Jerzy Zglejszewski è nato il 18 dicembre 1961 in Białystok (Polonia). Ha studiato filosofia e teologia in Białystok. Nel novembre 1987 si è trasferito negli Stati Uniti e ha compiuto i suoi studi teologici, ottenendo il “Master of Arts” in Teologia presso il “Seminary of the Immaculate Conception” a Huntington (1990).

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NEW YORK
Troy Record

ALBANY>>Rev. Msgr. Edward B Scharfenberger, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York has been appointed by Pope Francis to be the tenth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, New York. The announcement was made at the Vatican today.

There will be a press conference to introduce Bishop-elect Scharfenberger at 11:00 a.m. today, February 11, in meeting rooms 1 and 2, at the Pastoral Center of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, 40 North Main Avenue, Albany, New York.

Bishop-elect Scharfenberger succeeds Bishop Howard J. Hubbard who has led the Diocese of Albany for 37 years. Bishop Hubbard reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 on October 31, 2013 and submitted his letter of retirement to Pope Francis at that time. He was instructed to stay on until the appointment and installation of a new bishop.

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Bob Gardinier
Updated 6:53 am, Tuesday, February 11, 2014

ALBANY – The diocese will announce later Tuesday morning the appointment Rev. Msgr. Edward B. Scharfenberger, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn, as the new spiritual leader for the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese.

Scharfenberger, 65, was appointed by Pope Francis early Tuesday to be the tenth bishop of the diocese, Father Kenneth Doyle said.

There will be a press conference to introduce Bishop-elect Scharfenberger at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday in meeting rooms 1 and 2, at the Pastoral Center of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, 40 North Main Avenue, Albany, New York.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

[Summary: It is unlikely that Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst will return to the Limburg diocese. He has been under investigation for alleged overspending on his new house which cost millions of euros.]

Dem Bistum Limburg wie auch der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz liegen keine Erkenntnisse über den Tenor oder über Einzelheiten des Berichts vor, den die Kommission zur Überprüfung des Finanzgebarens bei der Errichtung des „Diözesanen Zentrums St. Nikolaus“ in Limburg in den kommenden Tagen fertig stellen will. Sprecher beider Institutionen sahen sich daher gegenüber der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung nicht in der Lage, Behauptungen zu bestätigen oder zu dementieren, der Limburger Bischofs Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst werde durch die Kommission schwer belastet.

Nach Informationen der F.A.Z. gestaltet sich der Prozess schwierig, einzelne Handlungen anhand von Normen des allgemeinen Kirchenrechts oder des Partikularrechts der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland eindeutig als rechtskonform oder als rechtswidrig zu bewerten. Daher dürfte der Streit über die Bewertungsmaßstäbe mit der Veröffentlichung des Kommissionsberichts nicht beendet sein.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

[Summary: Clergy abuse survivor Norbert Denef has written to Pope Francis asking him to help clergy abuse victims.]

VON NORBERT DENEF

Sehr geehrter Heiliger Vater Papst Franziskus,

der Vatikan hat vor dem UN-Kinderrechtsausschuss in Genf erstmals zum Skandal des Missbrauchs Minderjähriger innerhalb der katholischen Kirche ausgesagt. Papst Benedikt XVI. versetzte 384 Priester wegen Missbrauchs in den Laienstand, im Jahr 2012 waren es etwa 100, im Jahr 2011 etwa 300. Danach forderten Sie Ihre Kirche zu mehr Schuldbewusstsein auf. Wir Betroffenen haben mit großer Freude zur Kenntnis genommen, dass Sie die Taten als “Schande der Kirche” geißeln.

Aber genügt das? Jahrzehntelang wurden die Täter von ihren Vorgesetzten geschützt. Anstatt die Verbrechen aufzuklären und den Opfern zu helfen, wurden die Täter stillschweigend in immer neue Gemeinden versetzt. Fast 400 Priester weltweit wurden wegen Missbrauchs in den Laienstand versetzt – aber was passiert mit den Amtsträgern, die die Täter jahrzehntelang schützten?

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

by GARETH ROSE
Updated on the 11 February 2014

SPECIALISED teams of police, lawyers and childcare experts should be created to investigate historic abuse, a report has suggested.

The Scottish Government should also review time-bar laws so that alleged victims can launch compensation cases, regardless of when offences are said to have happened.

And a National Survivor Support Fund could be created to help victims, a draft action plan proposes.

The suggestions follow “InterAction” meetings involving survivors of abuse in care, as well government, institutions and others, delivered by the Scottish Human Rights Commission and the Centre for excellence for looked after children in Scotland.

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ESPANA
El Mundo

Un juzgado de guardia de Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona) ha dejado en libertad con cargos al rector de la parroquia de Santa Rosa detenido hoy por los Mossos d’Esquadra por presuntos abusos sexuales a tres hermanos cuando estaba a solas con ellos durante las clases de catequesis.

Según han informado fuentes judiciales, el juez ha dictado una orden de alejamiento de 200 metros para I.M., de 63 años, que está imputado por abusos sexuales a tres hermanos de entre 10 y 15 años.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Minister writes to Magdalene nuns for third time seeking contribution to redress scheme

Patsy McGarry

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has written for a third time to the four religious congregations that ran Magdalene laundries seeking a contribution to the Government compensation scheme for women who worked in the laundries.

In a written reply to a question from Labour TD Anne Ferris, the Minister said: “I discussed this matter with representatives of the four religious congregations in June 2013. Having reflected on the matter, all four declined to make a contribution.

“Following a discussion of the issue at Government in July 2013, I wrote to the congregations expressing disappointment that they had decided not to make a financial contribution . . . The congregations responded reaffirming their position.”

UN committee

He continued: “I wrote to the religious congregations again on this matter two weeks ago following a statement made by the Holy See to the U

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ESPANA
El Pais

[Summary: A monitor at a youth club operated by the Legionaries of Christ for seven years sexually abused a child under age 10.]

REBECA CARRANCO Barcelona 11 FEB 2014

Durante siete años, un monitor de un club juvenil de los Legionarios de Cristo abusó sexualmente de un menor de 10 años, según ha denunciado este. Cada día, hasta que el menor cumplió 18 años y se marchó al extranjero, le sometió a tocamientos, le apartó de sus amigos, y le aisló, controlando su vida, hasta el punto de acaparar la mayor parte de su tiempo libre. Esa es la denuncia que presentó en enero a los Mossos d’Esquadra la víctima, que en la actualidad tiene 24 años. El monitor que presuntamente abusó de él a diario tiene cinco más, 29 años. Ambos se conocieron en 1999, cuando la víctima, que forma parte de los Legionarios de Cristo, se apuntó al Centro Juvenil Puigmal. Se trata de un club de actividades extraescolares, ubicado junto al colegio que esta congregación ultraconservadora posee en Barcelona.

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ESPANA
El Pais

[Summary: Carlos Sandoval, his wife and five children went to church every Sunday. He said he respected the priest, referring to Ignasi Marquis, priest in charge of the Santa Rosa church in the Barcelona town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet. Police on Wednesday arrested Marquis, 63, who is accused of abusing three of the Sandoval children.]

Cada domingo, Carlos Sandoval, su mujer y sus cinco hijos acudían a misa. “Le teníamos respeto al párroco, como párroco que es”, explicó ayer, en referencia a Ignasi Marqués, el cura responsable de la iglesia de Santa Rosa, en la ciudad barcelonesa de Santa Coloma de Gramenet. Los Mossos d’Esquadra detuvieron el miércoles a Marquès, de 63 años, acusado de abusar de tres hijos de Sandoval, de 12, 14 y 15 años.

El hombre es sospechoso de encerrarlos en su despacho parroquial y tocarles los genitales, según fuentes del caso. A pesar de eso, el juez le dejó ayer en libertad con cargos, con la orden de no acercarse a más de 200 metros de los tres menores, que estaban en catequesis en la parroquia. Cuando la policía le detuvo, Marquès alegó que estaba impartiendo educación sexual a los menores.

El hijo mayor de Sandoval, de 15 años, fue quien dio la voz de alarma. Hace dos semanas, Marquès le llamó a su despacho. “Le preguntó si había tenido relaciones sexuales, y le pidió que le enseñase el miembro”, explicó ayer el padre de los menores. Ante la extrañeza del joven de 15 años, que le preguntó al párroco que qué estaba haciendo, este le dijo: ‘Ten confianza en mí”, relató Sandoval. Pero el menor consideró que aquel comportamiento no era normal y se lo contó a sus padres.

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ESPANA
El Mundo

[Summary: The Legionaries of Christ in 2008 expelled a monitor for alleged abuse of a minor but did not report it because neither the victim or the family wanted it reported..]

La congregación de los Legionarios de Cristo expulsó en 2008 al monitor detenido hoy por los Mossos d’Esquadra por presunto abuso de un menor, pero no lo denunció porque ni la familia ni la víctima quisieron hacerlo.

Los Mossos d’Esquadra han informado hoy de que han detenido a un hombre de 29 años acusado de un delito continuado de abuso sexual a un menor durante 7 años, que cometió cuando era monitor del Club Puigmal.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

By Julie Nelson Steve Eckert February 11, 2014

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Ramsey County judge is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday on whether top Catholic Church officials should be forced to testify under oath in a civil case brought by an abuse victim.

On the eve of the hearing, KARE 11 News has obtained confidential church records documenting a pattern of abuse that dates back decades.

At the center, two alleged victims. Two accused priests. And one stunning swap.

Before sitting down with KARE 11, Sally Olson had never told her story publicly. She says she was abused when she was just 15 when a priest approached her after confession.

“We had finished confession and he grabbed me and he brought me toward him,” she says. “And held me and said, ‘I am going to kiss you.’ And he did.”

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A former Catholic priest accused of fondling teens at a Victorian boarding school decades ago also allegedly abused a boy in NSW, a court has heard.

James Patrick Jennings, 80, has pleaded not guilty to six counts of indecent assault that allegedly occurred at St Vincent’s College in Bendigo in the 1960s.

A witness has told Jennings’ trial the former priest indecently assaulted him twice at a school in NSW before he came to Victoria.

The witness’ allegations are not the subject of charges before the Victorian County Court.
He told the court he had been preparing for bed at his NSW boarding school when the first incident occurred.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

THEY have bravely recalled their darkest and most traumatic moments before strangers.

Now the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is extending its gratitude to the men and women who came forward to tell their stories.

Individuals who took part in the more than 1000 royal commission private sessions will be offered thank-you cards from commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan.

“We are enormously grateful to all those who have come forward, and helped others to come forward, to tell their story to the royal commission in a private session …,” the commission said in a statement.

The inquiry is also working on a book, Message to Australia, which will be made up of contributions from people who attended private sessions.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

[with video]

By: Jay Kolls

A member of the Catholic Church tells 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS she reported possible abuse of young boys by a priest to Archdiocese officials and nothing was done about.

Mary Tacheny attended the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Maplewood and witnessed a Priest who had “crossed boundaries” with young boys. Tacheny says, “I reported the incidents I saw to Father Kevin McDonough and he lied to me about conducting an investigation into it.” Father McDonough, at the time, was the second-in-command at the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

Tacheny says Father McDonough told her “there is no smoking gun and there is nothing more to do with this investigation.” Tacheny says she approached the people Father McDonough told her he had spoken to and says “not one of them knew what I was talking about. They told me Father McDonough had never talked to them about possible abuse by a priest at the Church.

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ROM
Badische Zeitung

In der vergangenen Woche hat der UN-Kinderrechtsausschuss die katholische Kirche wegen ihres Umgangs mit den Hunderten von Missbrauchsfällen in ihren Reihen gerügt. Julius Müller-Meiningen sprach darüber mit Hans Zollner von der päpstlichen Gregoriana-Universität in Rom.

BZ: Sind Sie von der Schärfe des UN-Berichts überrascht, der dem Heiligen Stuhl weiterhin schwere Versäumnisse im Hinblick auf sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern attestiert?
Zollner: Der Heilige Stuhl hat vierzehn Jahre nicht die geforderten Berichte geliefert, insofern wussten alle, dass es unangenehm werden würde. Auch mit Enttäuschungen und berechtigtem Ärger wurde gerechnet. Am Anfang des Berichts ist der Ton: Ihr habt eure Hausaufgaben nicht gemacht, aber ihr gebt euch Mühe. Dann folgen allerdings schwere Vorwürfe.

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DEUTSCHLAND
NWZ

[Summary: A priest who is a native of Cloppenburg has been operating a home for street children in Honduras. It is now revealed that the man has been deprived of authority to act as a priest after being convicted of sexually abusing two 15-year-old youths four years ago. The former priest bought land in 1997 near the town of San Pedro in Honduras and a short time later built a home for abandoned and orphaned street children. He took in boys and girls aged 8-14.]

Anuschka Kramer

CLOPPENBURG Viele Jahre hat ein aus Cloppenburg stammender Priester für ein von ihm initiiertes Hilfsprojekt für Straßenkinder in Honduras geworben und Jahr für Jahr durch zahlreiche Aktionen Spenden im Landkreis Cloppenburg akquiriert. Nun wurde bekannt, dass dem Mann aufgrund einer Verurteilung wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von zwei 15-Jährigen vor vier Jahren nun auch die Berechtigung zu kirchlichen Amtshandlungen entzogen wurde. Das teilte Dr. Ludger Heuer, Pressesprecher und Leiter der Stabsstelle Medien- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit im Bischöflich Münsterschen Offizialat, auf Nachfrage der NWZ  mit.

Auf Initiative des ehemaligen Priesters war 1997 ein Grundstück in der Nähe der Stadt San Pedro in Honduras gekauft und kurze Zeit später ein Heim für verlassene und elternlose Straßenkinder errichtet worden. Das Kinderheim mit Namen Hogar San Rafael nimmt Jungen und Mädchen im Alter von 8 bis 14 Jahren auf, in Ausnahmen bis 15 Jahren, die über Kinder- und Jugendeinrichtungen in San Pedro Sula vermittelt werden. Offiziell ist es ein deutsch-italienisches Projekt der Diözese San Pedro Sula. Die Kleinen erhalten Essen, Unterkunft, Kleidung, medizinische Versorgung und die Möglichkeit, Kindergarten, Grundschule und weiterführende Schulen zu besuchen.

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POLEN
tax

[Summary: For the first time in the history of Poland the powerful Roman Catholic Church is being sued for damages due to clergy child abuse. The perpetrator, a priest of St. Adalbert’s Church in the Diocese of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg, has been in jail since 2012. According to the suit, Marcin K., now 26, was sexually abuse several times by the priest when he was age 12.]

WARSCHAU taz | Zum ersten Mal in der Geschichte Polens wurde die mächtige römisch-katholische Kirche auf Schadensersatz wegen Kindesmissbrauchs verklagt. Der Täter, ein Priester der St.-Adalbert-Kirche in der Diözese Koszalin-Kolobrzeg (Köslin-Kolberg), sitzt seit 2012 im Gefängnis und verbüßt eine zweijährige Haftstrafe. Marcin K. (26), der als Zwölfjähriger mehrfach von dem Priester sexuell missbraucht wurde, fordert nun vom Täter und der Kirche jeweils 200.000 Zloty (knapp 50.000 Euro) Entschädigung sowie eine öffentliche Entschuldigung in der Tageszeitung Gazeta Wyborcza und dem Magazin Newsweek Polska.

Die Kirche hatte im Oktober 2013 einen Schlichtungstermin vor Gericht scheitern lassen. Die Polnische Bischofskonferenz lehnt Schadenersatzforderungen der Missbrauchsopfer von katholischen Geistlichen grundsätzlich ab. Die Forderungen seien ausschließlich an die Täter zu richten, nicht aber an die Institution der Kirche. Marcin K., so erklärte der Kirchenanwalt 2013, habe keine Beweise für eine Mitverantwortung der Kirche vorgelegt, so dass es für seine Forderungen keine rechtliche Grundlage gebe.

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CALIFORNIA
The Sun

By Lori Fowler, The Sun
POSTED: 02/10/14

Two of three lawsuits alleging a former Ontario priest sexually abused a child have been settled for $3.8 million, diocese of San Bernardino officials said Monday.

The diocese settled the cases against Alejandro “Alex” Castillo last month in San Bernardino County Superior Court, officials said, adding that Castillo — once a priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Ontario — has been defrocked.

“The settlement was made in the interest of healing for the victims, their family and the local church, and for the continued stability of diocesan ministries,” according to a statement released by the diocese. “The diocese acknowledges and deeply regrets the sinful and unlawful actions of Castillo while also noting that it took immediate action to remove him from ministry and notify police as soon as the allegations against him were known, in accordance with diocesan policy.”

Three civil lawsuits have been filed against Castillo and the diocese, said Joelle Casteix, western regional director for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Two were in 2011 and one in 2012.

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UNITED STATES
FrontPage Mag

February 11, 2014 by Joseph Klein

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (“Committee”) describes itself as a “body of 18 Independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child [‘Convention’] by its State parties” and “publishes its interpretation of the content of human rights provisions.” Its so-called “independent experts” include representatives from such human rights abuser states as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain. They are described on the Committee’s website as “persons of high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human rights.”

One of these “independent experts,” the Committee’s Chairperson Kirsten Sandberg, charged last week that the Holy See, a non-member state permanent observer at the United Nations and a party to the Convention, “is in breach of the Convention.” She was commenting on the “concluding observations” contained in a scathing report the Committee had issued on January 31, 2014. The report denounced the Vatican’s handling of child abuse cases, criticized the Catholic Church’s teachings on abortion and family discipline, urged the Pope to change his views on contraception and homosexuality, and interposed its own secular views on what should be taught in Catholic schools.

The Holy See, responding with a statement and in a Vatican Radio interview by its UN representative Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, promised to seriously study and examine the report’s recommendations. However, the Holy See also challenged the Committee for going beyond its mandate by attempting to “interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of human person and in the exercise of religious freedom.”

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UNITED STATES
Wall Street Journal

By CLAUDIA ROSETT
Feb. 9, 2014

In the name of protecting children,the United Nations is now preaching to the Vatican. A report on the Holy See—released by a U.N. committee last week to much media fanfare—alleged that tens of thousands of children have been abused by Catholic clerics, and that the Vatican has helped cover it up.

The committee strongly urged the Vatican: “Ensure a transparent sharing of all archives which can be used to hold the abusers accountable as well as those who concealed their crimes and knowingly placed offenders in contact with children.”

That’s rich coming from the U.N., which has still not solved its own festering problems of peacekeeper sex abuse, including the rape of minors. Exposing abusers and holding them to account is a great idea. The Vatican has spent years addressing the scandal of its own past handling of such cases. But the U.N. hardly engages in the transparency it is now promoting.

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NEW YORK
WGRZ

[with video]

Eric Morrow, WGRZ February 10, 2014

ALBION, N.Y.- An Orleans County pastor accused of inappropriate contact with three different children pleaded not guilty after an Orleans County grand jury Monday indicted him on multiple sex abuse charges.

Reverend Roy Harriger, 70, is accused of having sexual misconduct with three different children who were under the age of 11 at the time.

Harriger is also facing three separate counts of incest.

After pleading not guilty, Harriger asked the judge if he could go to church. The judge however denied that request saying that Harriger can not be around any children 18 years old or younger and that doing so would revoke his bail.

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OKLAHOMA
KSWO

LAWTON, Okla._A teenager took the stand in Comanche County Court today and accused a Lawton pastor of sexually abusing him inside a church.

He was the first witness in the trial of Bobby Burrell, who is charged with child sexual abuse. Police started investigating Burrell back in October of 2012 but didn’t arrest him until August of 2013.

Monday, the state said while Burrell was a minister at “One More Soul Outreach Ministries”, he masturbated in front of a 16-year-old and then lied to police and the Department of Human Services once he was confronted about it.

Burrell was not only a pastor but a youth guidance specialist at the Sequoyah Home where the alleged victim was staying. The state said Burrell took the victim to his church to do some tile work in one of the bathrooms but did so without filling out the proper paperwork; which is mandated by the home’s policy.

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NEW YORK
WKBW

[with video]

February 10, 2014
By Jill Perkins

Albion, N.Y. (WKBW-TV) Roy Harriger pleaded not guilty to six charges in Orleans County Court on Monday after being indicted last week.

The charges include three counts of course of sexual conduct against a child and three counts of incest.

The charges stem from incidents in 2000 and 2001.

Harriger is free on $250,000 bail that transferred from another sex abuse case out of the Town of Yates. The judge did rule that Harriger is to have no contact with children and cannot even be in the same room with someone under the age of 18.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

ALBION – A pastor was ordered to stay away from his church Monday after he pleaded not guilty to six counts of sex abuse of young children.

Orleans County Court Judge James Punch told Rev. Roy Harriger, 70, of Middleport, that his $250,000 bail would be revoked if he were in the presence of children 18 and younger. After entering his plea, Harriger had asked the judge if he could go to church.

More than a dozen people have signed affadavits claiming that Harriger, pastor of Community Fellowship Church in the Town of Hartland, molested them when they were children.

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MONTANA
Independent Record

By David Clohessy

The Helena Catholic diocese is the third diocese in eight weeks to seek bankpruptcy protection, citing clergy sex abuse and cover up allegations. But don’t be confused. This is not about money. It’s about secrecy.

The huge eruption in victims reporting clergy sexual abuse happened more than a decade ago. But these three dioceses are filing Chapter 11 because they’re smart, not broke. Bishops have learned that this is a shrewd way to save the reputations and careers of top Catholic officials by keeping a tight lid on their horrific complicity.

Bankruptcy preserves secrecy by stopping all civil litigation, one of the precious few ways that victims have of piercing the long-standing and still-formidable walls of secrecy and self preservation that surround the Catholic hierarchy.

Bankruptcy court is a mathematic process. it divides money. it does not identify or punish wrongdoers. It deters no wrongdoing. it provides no chance to publicly expose those who knowingly and repeatedly committed and concealed heinous child sex crimes. It doesn’t help expose those who are committing and concealling child sex crimes right now. It thus protects and helps complicit officials, not innocent children or wounded adults.

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CALIFORNIA
Monterey Herald

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Staff Writer
POSTED: 02/10/2014

An appellate court has delayed at least temporarily the release of documents in the child sexual abuse case involving the Rev. Edward Fitz-Henry.

A two-judge panel from the 6th District Court of Appeals granted the Catholic Diocese of Monterey’s request to halt Monterey County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wills’ December order unsealing documents in the lawsuit by “John R.J. Doe.” The lawsuit was settled before trial with the diocese paying the man $500,000. All records turned over to his attorney during discovery remained sealed.

Justices Franklin Elia and Miguel Marquez stayed Will’s decision pending further review of a petition to permanently reverse it.

The diocese’s lawyers argued the records were never submitted as evidence in court. They only turned them over in discovery without a legal battle because the plaintiff’s attorney said he would not share them with the media. The court agreed to the protective order to ensure the jury pool would not be tainted.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Mary Ann McGivern | Feb. 10, 2014 NCR Today

Back in the 1980s, a priest from Portland, Ore., Ray Carey, already had a reputation for assisting seminaries in identifying applicants who were pedophiles. I was on our Loretto membership team and participated in three of his workshops. I learned interviewing skills that stand me in good stead today, centering on how to frame questions to sample interviewee behavior. I also learned more than my mother would have ever wanted me to know about child sexual abuse by the clergy. (That joke is his, too, and I’ve borrowed it for weapons trade and prisons as well as pedophilia.)

I Googled Father Carey and learned that he gives frequent talks in Portland on spiritual growth and development. He gave a talk on the gifts of sexuality last month that drew high praise in the parish bulletin. I don’t know if he still advises seminaries or speaks on abuse issues, but I wish the U.S. bishops conference would consult with him. The sex abuse scandal continues, and I fear that in the search for vocations, some seminaries still don’t screen applicants adequately. Past and potential abuse continues to be buttressed by a parallel abuse of hierarchical power.

For example, according The New York Times, the United Nations is calling on Pope Francis and the Vatican to comply with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Among the failures and shortcomings listed by the U.N. are obstruction to extending statutes of limitations; settlements that require victims signing confidentiality agreements; failure to assist birth parents seeking children adopted out of Catholic institutions without parental consent; and failure to identify and support children fathered by Catholic priests.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

[with video]

Brandie Piper, KSDK February 11, 2014

ST. LOUIS – Names of priests accused of sexual abuse in the last 20 years have been turned over by the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

Last week the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the Archdiocese had to release the names, which will not be made public. The names will be handed over to lawyers of a woman suing the Archdiocese.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

An Anglican priest jailed for sexually abusing young children has applied to be released from prison on compassionate grounds.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 74, from East Sussex, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May after being found guilty of 36 separate sex offences.

The priest committed the offences against 16 children between 1962 and 1973 in Hampshire and Sussex.

One of his victims said she and her family were in “a state of disbelief”.

She said she felt anguish at Rideout’s “obvious ploy to manipulate the system” with his application.

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UNITED STATES
Marshfield News Herald

by Oliver Thomas, USATODAY

The United Nations’ scathing denunciation of the Vatican last week over its mishandling of sexual misconduct by priests is symptomatic of a larger credibility crisis for clergy. In a single generation, clergy have gone from being some of our most revered community leaders to some of our most reviled.

Atlanta real estate developer Tom Cousins recalls that when he moved to the city in the late 1950s, he was struck by the fact that three of the 10 most influential people in the city were ministers.

“I thought it spoke well for the city,” he recently told me. Last month’s issue of the popular Georgia Trend magazine identifies the 100 most influential Georgians, and there’s not a minister among them. More telling is that a December Gallup poll found that only 47% of Americans consider clergy to be honest and ethical – an all-time low.

Why such a precipitous fall from grace for America’s spiritual leaders? At least three possible causes spring to mind:

Politics. The mixing of religion and politics has always yielded a combustible brew, but the covert became overt when the late Rev. Jerry Falwell formed the “Moral Majority” in 1980. Ensuing decades found evangelical groups looking more like “the Republican Party at prayer.” Similar charges were levied about the cozy relationship between black churches and Democrats.

Money. Jesus said to give it away. But the money scandals of Jim Bakker and other televangelists left many wondering whether clergy were following the almighty dollar rather than the Almighty.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A priest of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, Hargrave was ordained in 1947 and went on to spend the bulk of his lengthy priesthood in remote Alaskan villages. He was suspended from ministry in 2003 due to an allegation that he had made inappropriate sexual advance toward a 60-year-old woman. In a 2009 lawsuit Hargrave was called a “serial child molester”. He was accused of fondling a 6 or 7-year-old boy multiple times in 1956 in Nulato, Alaska, and of raping a 5 or 6-year-old boy in 1992 in the village of Numan Iqua. Hargrave spent the last decade of his life at the Regis Jesuit Community in Spokane, WA, working as a pastoral minister to native American communites. He died Feb. 22, 2013.

Ordained: 1947
Died: Feb. 22, 2013

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF FEBRUARY 10, 2014

Pope Francis is shaking things up in the Catholic church to such an extent that many talk about a “Francis revolution”. Yet the single most revolutionary act committed by any pope in at least the last 600 years fell exactly one year ago today, and it wasn’t Francis who did it.

On Feb. 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI used a meeting of cardinals discussing new saints to deliver the stunning announcement that he planned to resign, effective 8 pm Rome time on Feb. 28. The news was a total surprise to everyone except a handful of papal intimates, and it set the stage for all the drama that’s followed.

One cardinal said afterward that he sat in the room well after the meeting broke up, still unable to comprehend what had just happened. He played Benedict’s Latin phrasing over and over again in his mind to be sure he’d understood.

Yes, a handful of popes had resigned before, most recently Gregory XII in 1415. The circumstances, however, were so wildly different as to make Benedict’s decision essentially unprecedented – a pope not facing foreign armies or internal schism who decided voluntarily to step aside, while continuing to live on Vatican grounds and pledging “unconditional obedience” to whoever might succeed him.

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 10, 2014

How about some GOOD news out of a state legislature?

Hawaii State Legislature has TWO ground-breaking, victim-friendly bills that have just passed committee.

Why the legislative attention? The current Hawaii Civil Window, which closes in April, has opened lawmakers’ eyes to the problem of child sex abuse and cover-up across the state. Fortunately, these same eyes also see that two years are simply not enough time for many victims. Since the window opened in 2012, approximately 30 men and women have come forward to seek justice—but we are only really at the genesis of exposing the cover-up. Once that process begins, the real social and cultural change starts …

You can’t put a time limit on healing and you can’t instantly change a cultural stigma on abuse.
Here are the two bills:

SB 2687 – Sponsored by Senator Maile Shimabukuro (the sponsor of the original window) and Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland – If passed, this law would give victims of child sexual abuse up until the age of 55 to use the civil courts to seek justice and accountability.

HB 2034 – Sponsored by the Hawaii Women’s Legislative Caucus – If passed, this law removed the criminal and civil statutes of limitations on first and second degree sexual assault and the continuous assault of a minor under 14.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 11, 2014

THE international head of the Salvation Army has written to the royal commission saying he was sickened by the revelations of widespread and brutal child sex abuse within the Christian organisation in Australia.

At least 157 men claim to have been physically and sexually abused while living at boys’ homes run by the army in NSW and Queensland, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.

In what may be an unprecedented scandal in its international history, 23 men have been identified as alleged abusers, 19 of whom were officers or envoys of the Salvation Army itself.

In a personal letter to the commission chairman, Peter McClellan, the army’s London-based General Andre Cox said he has “been sickened by much of the harrowing evidence presented” to the hearing.

“I still struggle to comprehend that these acts were perpetrated by Salvation Army officers,” he said in the letter, tendered to the commission yesterday. General Cox, who has ultimate authority for the army’s roughly 1.1 million soldiers, has also revised the organisation’s child protection policies and written to every commanding officer in 126 countries about the commission’s hearing.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Professor Julia Gillard
c/o The Guardian, Australian edition (http://www.theguardian.com/au)
c/o The University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics

Dear Professor Gillard,

RE: INVITATION TO BE THANKED FOR ROYAL COMMISSION AT LEWIS BLAYSE / LEWIN BLAZEVICH PUBLIC MEMORIAL EVENT, 1 MARCH, 2014

I have already sent via Katharine Viner of The Guardian an informal invitation for you to be the keynote speaker at a public memorial event for my father, Lewis Blayse (formerly Lewin Blazevich). I wanted, however, to send a formal invitation to you to be the keynote speaker at the event.

My father was a lifelong social justice and child protection activist and recent blogger on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and associated matters at www.lewisblayse.net. In addition to his child protection work, he was active throughout his life in areas as diverse as working to mandate seatbelts on school buses, securing better administrative treatment of welfare recipients, animal rights, women’s rights, rights for Indigenous people, anti-Vietnam war activism, activism against the Queensland ‘police state’ under the Joh regime, and many, many other areas. He died recently.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 10

Statement by Judy Jones of St. Louis, Midwest Assistant Midwest Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 636 433 2511, 314 974 5003, snapjudy@gmail.com )

Some say Archbishop Robert Carlson is now obeying a court order but honestly, virtually no one knows for sure. And we’re upset that he now says he’s found seven more credible abuse reports that he allegedly didn’t mention earlier.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

We’re skeptical about Carlson being “in compliance” because Carlson and his lawyers twice succeeded in keeping these names under wraps– first, by keeping these records hidden for decades and now, under court-ordered sealed for eternity. So no one besides the judge and the lawyers involved know whether the documents Carlson has finally turned over really do meet his legal obligations.

We hope he’s been honest. But given the horrific track record of the Catholic hierarchy, and this archdiocese, on children’s safety, we would be foolish to assume he’s really honoring the court order.

Carlson has repeatedly protected predators and endangered kids and we firmly believe he’s still doing so.

He has also violated this order several times over the past few months and we fear he may still be doing so now.

The records remain hidden because of a protective order. But let’s be honest – it protects clerics who committed and are concealing heinous crimes. Those are the only people this really protects.

Finally, we continue to worry because Catholic officials are withholding at least 40 names because church staff claim the abuse reports against them are “unsubstantiated.” But across the country, for decades, Catholic employees have deemed abuse reports “unsubstantiated” that others find very credible. In fact, Archbishop Carlson is keeping Fr. Alex Anderson in a parish right now, despite three men (who don’t know one another) having each reported being molested by Fr. Anderson (and one of them was paid a settlement).

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, February 10, 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 )

The assistant chaplain at Holy Cross and Director of Service and Social Justice Programs has been removed after allegations of “adult sexual misconduct”.

[MassLive]

We are glad that he has been removed, but we want to be clear it is inherently problematic when clergy have any sexual contact with congregants. There can be no true “consent” given the power difference between the individuals.

It has long been understood that a sexual relationship between a doctor and his patient or a teacher and his student is wrong. It is the same thing with a clergy member and one of his congregants.

We hope this charge will help others who were hurt by what may have initially seemed like “affairs” but were in fact crimes. We hope those victimized by clergy at any age will find the courage to step forward, get help, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect others and start healing

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on a worldwide survey of Catholics by Bendixen & Amandi International for Univision:

The survey of 12 nations yields some interesting results, but first a note on its methodology. Asking people to identify themselves as Catholic is not a sufficient condition for drawing conclusions: we need to know whether they regularly attend to the sacraments, or not. The survey made no effort to distinguish between practicing and non-practicing Catholics.

Asking Catholics whether priests should be allowed to marry, or whether women should be allowed to become priests, does not tell us very much. Every survey says “yes” to both, but what counts is the intensity of the conviction: few Catholics have their bags packed ready to jump ship. If that were the case then the mainline Protestant denominations would be booming; instead, they are dying. In other words, there is a difference between a preference and a demand. There is no demand for either.

The survey is revealing in ways that the media are choosing not to discuss. On the two most contentious moral issues of our day—abortion and gay marriage—there is little sympathy for the secular perspective.

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WORCESTER (MA)
MassLive

By John F. Hill, MassLive.com

A chaplain at the College of the Holy Cross has been placed on leave after being accused of “adult sexual misconduct,” according to the student newspaper, The Crusader.

Rev. Philip L. Boroughs, president of the college, sent an email to the campus community stating that Rev. Gregory Lynch has been removed from “from his assignment at Holy Cross, pending the outcome of this matter,”, the newspaper reports.

Lynch is an assistant chaplain at Holy Cross and Director of Service and Social Justice Programs.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

[with video]

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry has been told how one woman was cruelly treated by nuns and beaten during her time at Nazareth House in Londonderry.

On Monday, the inquiry heard from the 58-year-old witness who was a resident at the home from 1957 to 1969.

She described how during her time there, some of the nuns were cruel and one nun would often beat her, hitting her with a belt she wore round her neck.

She told the inquiry that she was beaten black and blue with a stick.

The witness, who cannot be named, said that at bath time, 100 girls were forced to queue up with no privacy and the bath water was never changed.

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WORCESTER (MA)
The Crusader

By Kevin Deehan
Chief News-Editor

On Wednesday, January 29, Father Boroughs informed the campus community in a mass email that a complaint had been filed against Rev. Gregory Lynch, S.J. regarding an allegation of adult sexual misconduct. Lynch is no longer at the College, having been removed “from his public ministry and his assignment at Holy Cross, pending the outcome of this matter,” according to Father Boroughs’ email.

The announcement warned that Lynch’s removal “does not represent a determination of Fr. Lynch’s guilt or innocence.” It also stated that the complaint in question did not occur at Holy Cross nor involve a student from the College.

Lynch was ordained a Jesuit priest in 2003. Prior to joining the Chaplains’ Office at Holy Cross, he worked as a history teacher and swimming coach at Creighton Preparatory in Omaha, Nebraska. While at the College, Lynch served as the Assistant Chaplain and Director of Service and Social Justice Programs. Under this title, Lynch served as faculty advisor to Student Programs for Urban Development, helped with the Spiritual Exercises retreat program, and acted as moderator of Pax Christi, among other duties.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Mike Elfland TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
melfland@telegram.com

WORCESTER — A chaplain at the College of the Holy Cross has been removed from his post pending an investigation into allegations of adult sexual misconduct, according to the college newspaper.

The complaint against the Rev. Gregory Lynch is addressed in an email sent to students by the Rev. Philip L. Boroughs, the college president.

According to The Crusader, the president wrote that the priest’s removal from campus “does not represent a determination of Fr. Lynch’s guilt or innocence.” It also stated that the complaint in question did not occur at Holy Cross nor involve a student from the college.

The Rev. Lynch has been a priest for about a decade, most recently serving as an assistant chaplain and director of service and social justice programs at Holy Cross.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Jennifer S. Mann jmann@post-dispatch.com 314-621-58040

ST. LOUIS • The Archdiocese of St. Louis has complied with a judge’s order and turned over the names of priests who were accused of sexually abusing minors over a 20-year period, along with the names and contact information of victims.

Because the list is under a court-ordered seal, available only to the judge and lawyers involved in the litigation, it is unclear exactly how many individuals’ names have been released.

Ken Chackes, lawyer for a woman whose suit prompted the disclosure, said he could not comment because of the protective order.

The disclosure is part of 2011 suit filed on behalf of a then-19-year-old woman who claims she was sexually abused from 1997 to 2001 by the since-defrocked Rev. Joseph Ross. The woman’s lawyers are trying to show the Archdiocese had a pattern of ignoring sexual abuse complaints, allowing future abuses to occur.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Fox 2

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – Last week the Missouri Supreme Court ordered the St. Louis Archdiocese to turn over the names of more than 100 priests suspected of sexually abusing children over two decades.

The church complied with the order on Monday.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the list is under a court-ordered seal. It is only available to lawyers involved in the litigation. So, it is still unclear exactly how many priests names have been released.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

A public inquiry has heard that a young girl was cruelly treated by nuns and beaten “black and blue” during her time at Nazareth House Children’s Home in Derry.

Today, the inquiry, sitting in Banbridge, Co. Down, heard from a 58-year-old witness who was a resident at the Bishop Street home for girls from 1957 to 1969.

She recalled that, during her time there, some of the nuns were cruel and one nun would often beat her, hitting her with a belt she wore round her neck.

She told the inquiry that she was also beaten black and blue with a stick.

The witness said that, at bath time, 100 girls were forced to queue up with no privacy and the bath water was never changed.

She said that, when she was 12 years old, she was sent out to what was described as a placement at two farms in the summer and was forced to do manual work.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

A quick note to inform any of you who happen to be online right now that, in a few moments (1 P.M. EST, 12 P.M. CST, etc.), SNAP president Barbara Blaine will be interviewed by NPR’s Worldview program about the recent U.N. report.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, February 10, 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 sad but not surprised that an ex-priest has apparently broken his deal with a prosecutor by continuing to profess his innocence.

Michael Fugee, a one-time Newark archdiocese priest, is again showing how remorseless and selfish he is.

[The Record]

Prosecutor John Molinelli is right – the Lenehans are not helping Fugee. They are, however, helping law enforcement by publicly exposing a criminal who is incapable of keeping his word and honoring his commitments. And they’re helping the public by showing just how unrepentant and manipulative sexual predators can be.

We disagree with the prosecutor in one key way: We are glad the Lenehan family, no matter how misguided their intentions might be, have disclosed that Fugee has violated his plea deal. Every citizen who sees criminals break the law should speak up.

In light of this new information, we hope the DA will

– investigate and if possible, take stern action against Fugee, and

–use his bully pulpit and resources to beg anyone else who may have seen or may suspect that Fugee is breaking his agreement.

And we believe Archbishop John Myers -whose colleagues and staff helped recruit, educate, ordain, and protect Fr. Fugee – should also publicly urge those who saw, suspected or suffered Fugee’s crimes – whether old or new – to call police and prosecutors right away.

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OKLAHOMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, February 10, 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 )

An Oklahoma prosecutor is charging that top Jehovah’s Witness officials knew about but concealed allegations of child rape. We are glad that the DA’s office is working to expose these heinous crimes.

[The Global Dispatch]

When officials conceal sex crimes, they are not only breaking the law, they are doing a huge disservice to the people and families that trust them. Victims who have suffered immeasurable pain and hardship are hurt anew when trusted officials hide crimes.

Now, every Jehovah’s Witness official who knew of or suspected or concealed these heinous crimes should be ousted and prosecuted for failure to report possible child sex crimes to law enforcement. If convicted, they should experience the most severe penalties possible. That’s how we as a society deter such callous recklessness in the future.

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POLAND
Sunday Catholic Weekly

Jerzy Robert Nowak

For the last several months the Polish mass media have been flooded with a shockingly high wave of anti-Church articles. In the post-communist Przeglad, 5 October 2004, it was even written about the possibility of ‘a new war’ between the Left and the Church. One could create a truly long ‘White Book’ about the fight with the Church only on the basis of the ‘literary output’ in mass media in the last half year. You could hardly see such a huge and concentrated amount of anti-Church articles in Poland in this relatively short period after the famous Gomulka’s smear campaign had been launched in 1966 on the occasion of the Millennium. (One should remember that in Gomulka times there were no periodicals, which would publish as many aggressive and lousy anti-Church articles as in today’s Fakty i Mity as well as Urban’s Nie.) What is the reason of this sudden and violent anti-Church explosion in mass media after so many years of pretending that the post-communists wanted a lasting agreement with the Church, and after their claims that they renounced all anti-Church and anti-religious phobias once for all? The answer is all too simple. The post-communists feel more and more isolated from the society when new political affairs and embarrassments have rapidly been revealed. And the polling squaring is at hand. Being more and more panic-stricken the post-communists decided to resort to the method they had tested long ago – to look for substitute subjects in order to divert people maximally from their pitiful affairs and deviousness.

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POLAND
National Catholic Reporter

Jonathan Luxmoore | Feb. 8, 2012

WARSAW, POLAND — When Ewa Orlowska, a mother of nine, decided to confront her local priest for sexually abusing her as a child, she had little idea what was to follow. The priest, Msgr. Michal Moskwa, had been the parish pastor for three decades in the southern town of Tylawa, and Ewa had been just one of his victims. But when she’d told her mother about the abuse, her mother beat her and ordered her to apologize.

When the case came to light in 2001, Orlowska reluctantly agreed to give a statement to prosecutors. “I thought: When I stand before God and he asks me what I did for those other defenseless children, still threatened by the priest’s pedophile tendencies, what would I say?” she remembers. “Would I say I lacked courage, hadn’t the strength, was afraid of my own shadow?”

Moskwa was convicted in 2004 and given a two-year suspended jail sentence and an eight-year ban from teaching children. He ignored the teaching ban, suffered no canonical sanctions, and his ordinary, Archbishop Jozef Michalik of Przemysl, returned him to his parish.

The judge reprimanded Michalik, who is president of Poland’s bishops’ conference, for ignoring repeated requests to deal with Moskwa “in the way required by Christian morality.” On the contrary, Michalik assured the convicted pedophile of his “sympathy” in an open letter, protesting the affront “to the good name of our priests.”

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POLEN
Polen Heute

[Summary: The Polish Bishops’ Conference will publish a “white paper” on pedophilia among clergy. For the first time they will also show statistics and give information on the previously secret measures they used to keep abuse cases from becoming known. At the same time some Polish senators have launched a draft law against “anti-Catholic propaganda.” They are calling on the government to censure the “anti-Catholic propaganda from one of the United Nations agencies. The bill has provoked dissent, especially from abuse victims.]

Veröffentlicht von Lars Leschewitz am Samstag, 08. Februar 2014

Die polnische Bischofskonferenz will ein Weißbuch zu Pädophilie unter Geistlichen veröffentlichen. Erstmals sollen auch Statistiken und bisher geheime Maßnahmen zur Vorbeugung publik werden. Gleichzeitig haben Senatoren ein Gesetzesvorhaben gegen „antikatholische Propaganda“ gestartet. Missbrauchsofer sind empört.

Nach Medienberichten hat die polnische Bischofskonferenz heute angekündigt, ein Weißbuch zum Thema Pädophilie in der Kirche herauszugeben. Das Buch soll noch dieses Jahr erscheinen und sowohl Dokumente des Apostolischen Stuhls als auch päpstliche Lehren enthalten. Es sollen sowohl Prozeduren gegen Pädophilie innerhalb der Kirche, als auch Anleitungen zum Umgang mit Opfern und Tätern niedergeschrieben werden. Erstmalig sollen auch Statistiken zu Pädophiliefällen in polnischen Kirchen veröffentlicht werden.

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OKLAHOMA
KSWO

Lawton- The trial for a Lawton minister charged with child sexual abuse is set to begin Monday in Comanche County Court. Bobby Burrell was arrested last August after a ten-month investigation by Lawton Police.

A worker at a Lawton group home, the Sequoyah House, alerted authorities and told them Burrell exposed himself and performed lewd acts in front of kids.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

A 58-year-old woman who has tried for over 40 years to find her sister gave evidence to Northern Ireland’s Historical Abuse Inquiry today.

The woman, who now lives in the Republic, spent 12 years in Derry’s Nazareth Home from 1957 until 1969.

She did not know she had a sibling in the home until one day when she was on a foster placement with another of the residents, who said to her “I’m your big sister”.

Giving evidence to the inquiry in Banbridge this morning, she said her sister left the orphanage as a 16-year-old and that she tried to take her with her but that she was too young to go.

The woman, named Joan, told the inquiry: “I’ve been trying to search for my sister for a long time since I left the convent, but I just can’t find her.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Mon, Feb 10, 2014

A witness to the inquiry investigating historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland has recounted how nuns refused to believe her when she told them of how she was sexually abused when she was a young girl.

The 58-year-old woman also told the inquiry today how for almost 50 years she has been trying to locate her older sister who was with her in the Sisters of Nazareth home in Derry.

The witness – who was in Nazareth House residential home from 1957 to 1969 – described a “cruel” regime where she suffered a number of beatings from individual nuns. Her most serious allegations were of two occasions when she spent time on placement on two farms when she was about 11 or 12 years of age, the inquiry in Banbridge, Co Down heard.

She recalled an occasion on the first farm where she was driving a tractor when another girl on board the vehicle from Nazareth House almost fell off. She said that in the aftermath of that incident a man abused her by touching her private parts. That abuse stopped when another man intervened and told him to stop.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 10 February 2014)

Former students of a Catholic boys’ school in South Australia (Salesian College, Brooklyn Park, Adelaide) have complained that at least three senor priests at this school between the 1960s and the 1980s were child abusers. The abuse happened under the noses of the Melbourne-based national headquarters of this Catholic religious order, the “Salesians of Don Bosco”.

Here are details of the three priests in the Adelaide incidents:

1. The Salesians’ national headquarters have acknowledged that Father Patrick Laws committed child-sex offences in 1967-68 while he was a senior staff member at Salesian College, Brooklyn Park, Adelaide.

2. Another former student of the same school has lodged an official complaint about having been sexually abused in 1969 by another teacher, Father Adrian Wenting, who eventually rose to be the head of this school.

3. And in 1980-81, this school had a paedophile priest, Father Frank Klep, as its head. Eventually, Klep was jailed in Victoria for Victorian crimes.

These three priests also worked at other Salesian schools around Australia. Salesian priests and brothers belong to this Australia-wide order, instead of being confined to a particular local diocese.

The Salesian religious order has stated that it has a “special interest” in boys. As well as owning schools, the Salesians have also operated homes, clubs and camps for disadvantaged (that is, vulnerable) boys.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

Posted by Jessica Mazzola (Editor) , February 10, 2014

A New Jersey couple says a priest who confessed in October to having sexually abused a Wyckoff teenage boy over a decade ago lied, according to a NorthJersey.com report.

According to the report, Michael and Amy Lenehan of Colts Neck say the day after Rev. Michael Fugee signed an agreement with prosecutors admitting he groped the teen between 1999 and 2001, he told them he didn’t do it. Fugee signed the confession, they told NorthJersey.com, to avoid jail time.

The remarks could become a legal issue, as one of the stipulations of the confession is that Fugee is forbidden from denouncing it, publicly and privately, the report said. He is also expected to be defrocked, and is not allowed to work with children again in any capacity, the report said.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

MONDAY FEBRUARY 10, 2014

BY JIM NORMAN AND JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD

Molinelli ‘troubled’ by friends’ comments in abuse case

Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said Sunday he would continue to monitor the comments of a confessed child-abusing Roman Catholic priest for evidence that he may have violated his agreement to never again profess his innocence.

The Rev. Michael Fugee, who has a history of violating a court order that he stay away from children, and of recanting a previous confession, agreed he would not deny his guilt as part of a deal last October to avoid prosecution and a possible prison sentence.

However, on Oct. 31, the day after he signed the agreement, he told Michael and Amy Lenehan, two of his most ardent supporters, that he had not repeatedly molested a teenager over a two-year period, but had only confessed because “my attorney said that I was sure to go to jail,” Michael Lenehan told The Record.

“The involvement of the Lenehans continues to trouble me,” Molinelli said in a telephone interview on Sunday. “I would prefer it if they would just stay out of it and keep quiet. I don’t know what they are trying to do, but I don’t think they are helping Fugee.”

The prosecutor added: “Our office knows a lot more about this case than the Lenehans do. I wish they would just be quiet and mind their own business.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Niall Murray

That child sex abuse took place to such an extent within the Church as it did historically was inexcusable, he said. But while immense progress is being made in Ireland to deal with the issues, Archbishop Martin said there was a very strange situation in which people did not seem to realise the dangers of allowing abusers move around.

“The statistics will tell us that the number of paedophiles in society always remains the same,” Archbishop Martin told RTÉ radio’s This Week programme.

“The more you make certain areas no-go zones for paedophiles, then they appear somewhere else and they could appear somewhere else in the Church as well.

“For me, the big tragedy is: Why was it that, in the 1970s, there were 12 serial paedophiles active in the Dublin diocese at the same time. Something happened in those years, I don’t know, we haven’t got the analysis of it.”

Archbishop Martin said the recent European Court of Human Rights judgment in the case of Louise O’Keeffe, abused as a child in 1973 by her primary school principal, stated that the prosecution of child sex abusers waned a little after the 1960s.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Sun, Feb 9, 2014

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said a dozen clerical child abusers were active in the Dublin archdiocese” in the 1970s.

He also described the Catholic Church’s handling of clerical child sex abuse in the past as “inexcusable”.

Archbishop Martin was speaking in the context of the UN Committee For the Rights Of The Child report last week which criticised the Vatican’s handling of clerical child sex abuse.

He said today that “12 serial (clerical) paedophiles were active” in the Dublin archdiocese” in the 1970s and described this as a “big tragedy”.

He said he had removed two priests from ministry due to abuse which took place during his period as Archbishop (since April 2004).

Where uncovering clerical child abuse was concerned “some inbuilt prejudices had to be overcome” and it would “take time to spread elsewhere,” the Archbishop said.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Myles Ma/NJ.com
on February 10, 2014

WYCKOFF — Two supporters of the Rev. Michael Fugee told the Record he denied sexually abusing a teenage boy in Wyckoff a day after confessing to prosecutors in a written agreement.

Michael and Amy Lenehan said they spoke to Fugee in October, trying to convince him to void the consent order because they believed he was innocent.

Michael Lenehan said Fugee told him he didn’t molest the teenager, and that he only signed the confession to avoid prison time. The order forbids Fugee from renouncing his confession.

Fugee, 52, also had to petition the Vatican for his permanent removal from the priesthood, one of dozens of conditions under a court-approved agreement reached with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office in October. Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said he took over supervision of Fugee from the archdiocese because he no longer had confidence in Archbishop John J. Myers’ ability to monitor him.

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CALIFORNIA
Redwood Times

The Associated Press
POSTED: 02/10/2014

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.—A Southern California diocese has paid $3.8 million to settle two child-abuse lawsuits brought against a former Catholic priest.

The Diocese of San Bernardino announced Sunday that payments settling the two civil cases involving Alejandro Castillo came from a combination of insurance and diocese funds.

The Sun newspaper reports ( http://bit.ly/1fT80ca) parishioners were told during mass at each of the several San Bernardino County churches where Castillo served since the 1980s. He most recently served at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Ontario.

Castillo, now age 60 and recently defrocked, served eight months in jail after pleading guilty to lewd and lascivious acts involving a 12-year-old boy.

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ITALIEN
Tageszeitung

[Summary: The South Tyrol diocese four years ago hired an ombudsman for victims of violence and sexual abuse in church institutions. Werner Palla has dealt with 40 cases of abuse.]

von Artur Oberhofer

Es war nach einer Sitzung des Beirates von Fachpersonen, der die diözesane Ombudsstelle flankiert, als Werner Palla unfreiwillig Ohrenzeuge eines Gesprächs wurde. Er hörte, wie ein bekannter Südtiroler Psychiatrie-Primar zu einem Anwalt sagte: „Du, ich glaube, der Palla macht das mit Hausverstand.“

Das, so erzählt Werner Palla, „war für mich das schönste und größte Kompliment.“

Werner Palla, der ehemalige Volksanwalt, hatte im März 2010 einen gleichwohl delikaten wie schwierigen Job übernommen: Er wurde vom damaligen Bischof Karl Golser zum „unabhängigen Ombudsmann für Opfer von Gewalt und sexuellem Missbrauch in diözesanen Einrichtungen“ ernannt.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

ELIZABETH RENZETTI
The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Feb. 10 2014

The Catholic Church probably thought the stormiest waters were behind. With a charismatic, groovy Pope at the helm, the church has been sailing an unexpectedly friendly sea. As if, perhaps, everyone had forgotten that thing. You know, that thing: The tens of thousands of children broken by abuse suffered at the hands of clergy. The priests left unpunished. The official silence.

And then, suddenly, a bolt from the sky, which religious types might imbue with a certain significance. Or you could see it as a glimpse of justice arriving far too late. A blistering report issued last week by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child noted, “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 practices and policies which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

The language in the report is surprisingly blunt and fierce, as it should be. Victims, who suffered a double torment – abuse of their bodies by people who were meant to look after their souls – deserve a public reckoning at the very least, and ideally justice in a court setting. For too long the church has pretended this is an internal issue, a matter of ethics and doctrine and not of criminal justice, to be swept under a medieval carpet and never spoken of again. The UN committee notes that it took 14 years for Vatican representatives to answer its request to come and offer testimony.

A “code of silence” imposed on clergy has meant that transgressors were rarely brought to court, the report alleges. Astonishingly, it seems some of those priests still have contact with children.

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Fox News

Published February 10, 2014
Associated Press

PRAGUE – Czech police say they have arrested a Roman Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing a teenage girl and raping a woman.

Police spokeswoman Dana Cirtkova says the 52-year-old suspect allegedly abused a 13-year old girl for producing pornography. No further details were given because of the girl’s age.

Cirtkova said Monday the priest is also suspected of raping a 37-year-old woman four times late last year.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

The first female witness to give evidence to the Historical Abuse Inquiry said she was beaten by a nun until she was black and blue.

The woman, who is now 58, said she realised the nun enjoyed it when she cried so she stopped crying when she was hit.

She lived in Nazareth House in Bishop Street, Londonderry from 1957-1969.

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

The witness also told the inquiry she was sexually assaulted by two foster carers she was placed with.

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AUSTRALIA
Gympie Times

Jessica Grewal 8th Feb 2014

THE man with the walking stick is hovering in the hall of Sydney’s Governor Macquarie Tower, resisting his wife’s attempts to coax him into the hearing room.

It’s been a long time since he has been in the company of Salvation Army uniforms and the prospect of spending the next few hours stuck with them on the 17th floor, is less than appealing.

Inside, there is nervous laughter, tears and warm greetings, as scores of grey-haired men and women, many of whom have travelled from other sides of the country, file through a door bearing the motif of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Hearing aids are adjusted and some move closer to get a better seat – they’ve waited decades for this moment and they don’t want to miss a word.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Sunday 9 February 2014

The Salvation Army is willing to discuss being part of a national redress scheme for victims of child sexual and physical abuse in its homes.

Commissioner James Condon, head of the army’s eastern territory, told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse it already had a People First redress program in place.

However, he said the Salvation Army would take part in talks on a national scheme, proposed by the Catholic and Anglican churches.

“We are more than prepared to enter into dialogue regarding that,” Condon told the hearing in Sydney on Monday in reply to a question from commission chair Justice Peter McClellan.

The commission has heard the Salvation Army has unreservedly apologised to victims of abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The Salvation Army wants those who were abused in its homes to come forward.

The army has unreservedly apologised to victims of sexual abuse but understands that many victims remain traumatised.

‘There are people in the hearing room here who find it difficult to see the (Salvation Army) uniform and that makes me sad,’ Commissioner James Condon told a hearing of the royal commission into child sexual abuse in Sydney.

‘We invite all who were harmed to get in touch with us.’

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AUSTRALIA
The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: Now to the Royal Commission into Child Abuse, where one of the Salvation Army’s most senior leaders told the inquiry this morning that the organisation had received more than 150 abuse complaints, mostly over the last decade.

Commissioner James Condon’s evidence follows two weeks of public hearings which the Salvation Army conceded have shamed the organisation. Today he told the inquiry that the Salvation Army is no longer focused on protecting its reputation but on putting victims first.

Emily Bourke has been covering the inquiry and joins us now. Emily, is commissioner Condon the most senior Salvation Army witness to appear at the inquiry?

EMILY BOURKE: He certainly is. Commissioner James Condon has been serving with the Salvation Army for more than 40 years, and he was appointed to the Commander post in 2011.

He’s revealed today that, over the past decade, there’s been a transformation in the way the organisation handles complaints. Nowadays, victims are treated warmly, their stories are believed and respected – and this is in stark contrast to the policy of the 1990s, which was to acknowledge the abuse but not to apologise to victims and not to pay any compensation claims had been proved in court.

Now, James Condon told the inquiry that the organisation has received 157 complaints; 133 people have gone through the process and received an ex gratia payment, an apology and counselling costs over the last 10 years. Here’s a bit of what he had to say.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

The world leader of the Salvation Army says he was not prepared for the horror of what is emerging about their children’s homes in Australia.

In a letter from Andre Cox read at a hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney on Monday, he said he was disturbed “to the very depths of his being” by what he was reading out of Australia.

“While we knew that many of the stories would be harrowing, nothing could really prepare us for the full horror of the stories that are emerging.”

He said he had written to leaders of the army in 126 countries to ensure their policies and procedures were regularly updated and implemented without exception and called on the army in Australia to ensure its procedures were robust.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By James Carroll | GLOBE COLUMNIST FEBRUARY 10, 2014

ON THE QUESTION of how far papal authority extends, the canon law of the Catholic Church could not be clearer: “The vicar of Christ. . . possesses full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.” (Can. 331) Note that canon law does not say, “except in cases of priestly sex abuse of children.” Canon law does not say that priests and bishops are independent contractors. Canon law does not say that what happens in Catholic parishes and dioceses around the world has nothing to do with Rome. In fact, another canon reads, “By virtue of his office, the Roman pontiff not only possesses power over the universal church, but also obtains the primacy of ordinary power over all particular churches and groups of them.” (Can. 333)

How to square that sweeping papal power with the shameless dodge put forward by the Holy See in this era of church disgrace — the claim that, when it comes to protecting children from abuse, the Roman Catholic Church is legally responsible only to safeguard those living in the confines of Vatican City, a tiny city-state that would fit inside New York’s Central Park eight times? Washing the Vatican’s hands of broader responsibility for the staggering transnational accumulation of rapes by priests, and systematic enabling of those rapes by bishops, a Vatican spokesman said, “When individual institutions of national churches are implicated, that does not regard the competence of the Holy See . . . The competence of the Holy See is at the level of the Holy See.”

Last week, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child mocked that claim by issuing a scathing indictment of Catholic child abuse, laying full responsibility at the feet of the pope himself. The committee, investigating priestly abuse under the authority of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which the Vatican is a signatory, reminded the Holy See that “by ratifying the convention it has committed itself to implementing the convention not only on the territory of the Vatican City state, but also as the supreme power of the Catholic Church through individuals and institutions placed under its authority.” The UN committee, that is, upholds canon law better than the Vatican does.

The pope’s men, including squads of lawyers who deny that offending priests and bishops are “employees” and insist that the pope as a sovereign head of state is immune from lawsuits, are obviously seeking to fend off the threat of multinational litigation that could saddle the Vatican with billions of dollars in liabilities. So far, courts have mostly sided with the Holy See.

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague Post

Charges include child abuse and porn production, suspected of abusing 13-year-old girl

Havlíčkův Brod, East Bohemia, Feb 10 (ČTK) — The Czech Police arrested a 52-year-old priest and accused him of rape, sexual abuse and other crimes and the man faces up to 10 years in prison if his guilt is proved, police spokeswoman Dana Čírtková said today.

Čírtková said the case is exceptionally serious not only because of the crimes concerned but also because “the perpetrator took advantage of the helplessness and trust of the victims with whom he was in regular contact as a clergyman.”

The priest was remanded in custody on Thursday.

A 37-year-old woman reported to the police that the priest exerted psychological pressure on her from mid-2012 and that he raped her four times in late 2013.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

14 October 2013

By Nic Rigby
BBC News

Missing police files relating to investigations into child abuse claims at an orphanage in Bedfordshire are now thought to have been destroyed.

Ex-residents have alleged they were abused at St Francis Boys Home in Shefford, in the 1950s and 1960s.

An ex-resident complained to police about missing files relating to police inquiries in 1993 and 2002.

Bedfordshire Police said they believe the files were destroyed and has begun a new inquiry into abuse at the home.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Nic Rigby
BBC News

7 November 2013

Former residents of a Catholic orphanage who claim they suffered physical and sexual abuse have expressed anger at a police decision to end an inquiry into the allegations.

In May Bedfordshire Police said it had started an investigation into abuse at the St Francis Boys Home in Shefford in the 1950s and 1960s.

Police said they had ended the inquiry as there was no-one alive to prosecute.

Ex-resident Tony Walsh said he was “disgusted” at the development.

The BBC has talked to former residents of the home who allege they were physically and/or sexually abused at the orphanage, run by the Catholic diocese of Northampton.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

10 February 2014

By Nic Rigby
BBC News

A former resident of a Catholic orphanage at the centre of a police inquiry has said he is still haunted by the “nightmare” of abuse inflicted by a priest and nuns.

Tom Browne, 70, originally from Cambridge, was sent to the St Francis Boys Home in Shefford, Bedfordshire, in about 1950.

Mr Browne has waived his right to anonymity to speak about the abuse.

He is the second man to allege abuse by Father Wilfred Johnson.

Fr Johnson ran the home between 1945 and 1954 and died in 1994.

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