ABUSE TRACKER

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
Sin Embargo

Ciudad del Vaticano, 5 Dic (Notimex).- El Papa Francisco decidió hoy establecer una comisión especial de primer nivel en El Vaticano para la defensa de los niños y el combate a los abusos sexuales contra menores.

“El comité deberá aconsejar al santo padre sobre las acciones para la protección de los niños y la atención pastoral de las víctimas”, informó el cardenal estadunidense Sean Patrick O’Malley, arzobispo de Boston.

La propuesta del establecimiento de la comisión salió del llamado “C-8″, el consejo de cardenales que asesora al pontífice en el gobierno de la Iglesia católica que este día concluyó su segunda reunión de trabajo.

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VATICAN CITY
Latinos Post

Pope Francis Announces the Creation of a Commission Against Child Abuse in the Catholic Church

After various years of involvement in pedophilia cases, the Catholic Church has decided to create a commission of experts to prevent the sexual abuse of minors by priests and provide support for those who have suffered from this abuse.

According to CNN, the creation of this commission was promoted by Pope Francis, in an attempt to stop these abuses from ever happening again and to guarantee the well-being of the victims.

The creation of this commission which seeks to protect minors from priests is one of the actions carried out by the so-called “C-8” (Council of Eight), a committee of Cardinals from around the world created by the Pope last March to advise Pope Francis on the changes he plans to carry out within the Church.

According to Mexican website Sin Embargo, the C-8 completed its second meeting in Rome on December 5 and shortly after announced the creation of a commission comprised of professionals that will provide advice against priests.

The same source highlighted that American Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, told the media that “The committee will advise the Pope on the actions undertaken to protect children”.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Sentinel & Enterprise

By Michael Hartwell, mhartwell@sentinelandenterprise.com
POSTED: 02/01/2014

LANCASTER — The Rev. Thomas Hultquist was named temporary administrator of Immaculate Conception Parish in Lancaster Thursday by the Worcester Diocese.

The previous pastor, the Rev. Edward P. Lettic, was placed on administrative leave last weekend by Bishop Robert J. McManus of the Worcester for allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor.

The allegations date back to 40 years ago in Greater Worcester, before Lettic was assigned to Immaculate Conception Parish in 1993. The allegation was listed as “credible” by McManus and if proven to be true Lettic will be removed from the priesthood.

Raymond Delisle, spokesman for the Worcester Diocese, clarified that Hultquist’s role is that of an administrator, and he is not the church’s new pastor. The church’s new permanent pastor will probably be appointed by McManus in June, when pastoral assignments are customarily announced.

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VATIKANSTADT
kath.net

[Summary: Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has warned local church against “separatist tendencies.” Episcopal conferences should never write arbitrary explanations or relativize church dogmas.]

Präfekt der Kongregation für die Glaubenslehre warnt Ortskirchen vor “separatistischen Tendenzen” und regionalen Sonderwegen. Bischofskonferenzen könnten niemals eigenmächtige Erklärungen abfassen, die die Dogmen der Kirche relativieren

Vatikanstadt (kath.net/KNA) Der Präfekt der vatikanischen Glaubenskongregation, Erzbischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller, hat die Ortskirchen vor regionalen Sonderwegen gewarnt. «Separatistische Tendenzen» nationaler Bischofskonferenzen würden der Kirche schaden, schreibt Müller in einem Beitrag für die Vatikanzeitung «Osservatore Romano» (Freitag). Einzelne Bischofskonferenzen könnten niemals eigenmächtige Erklärungen abfassen, die die «definitiven Dogmen» der Kirche oder ihre sakramentalen Strukturen relativierten.

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MONTANA
Die Welt

Die elfte Diözese ist in den USA nach einem Gerichtsverfahren über Missbrauch in finanzielle Schieflage geraten. 15 Millionen Dollar an Entschädigungen werden für Vergehen an 362 Kindern fällig.

Wegen Zahlungen in Millionenhöhe an die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs hat eine katholische US-Diözese Konkurs angemeldet. Es ist die elfte Diözese, die in den USA nach teuren Gerichtsverfahren über jahrzehntelangen Missbrauch durch Priester, Nonnen und andere Mitarbeiter in finanzielle Schieflage geraten ist. Die Diözese Helena im US-Staat Montana reichte ihren Insolvenzantrag bei Gericht ein, wie der TV-Sender NBC am Freitag (Ortszeit) berichtete.

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MONTANA
Tages Anzeiger

Die katholische Kirche von Helena in Montana muss 17,5 Millionen Dollar an die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs bezahlen. Es ist bereits die elfte Diözese, die in den USA aus diesem Grund Konkurs geht.

Wegen Zahlungen in Millionenhöhe an die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs hat die katholische Diözese Helena im US-Bundesstaat Montana Konkurs angemeldet. Es ist die elfte Diözese, die in den USA nach teuren Gerichtsverfahren in finanzielle Schieflage geraten ist.

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SCHWEIZ
Kipa

[Sexuelle Übergriffe im kirchlichen Umfeld – Schweizer Bischofskonferenz]

[Summary: The Swiss bishops have renewed the Catholic Church policies on sexual abuse. The guidelines have been significantly expanded.]

Freiburg i.Ü., 31.1.14 (Kipa) Die Schweizer Bischöfe erneuern die Richtlinien der katholischen Kirche gegen sexuellen Missbrauch. So tritt am Samstag, 1. Februar, die dritte Auflage der Bestimmungen mit dem Titel «Sexuelle Übergriffe im kirchlichen Umfeld. Richtlinien der Schweizer Bischofskonferenz und der Vereinigung der Höhern Ordensobern der Schweiz» in Kraft, teilte die Schweizer Bischofskonferenz (SBK) am Freitag mit. Der Geltungsbereich der Richtlinien werde damit deutlich erweitert, heisst es in der Mitteilung.

Erstmals erliess die SBK 2002 Richtlinien gegen sexuelle Übergriffe in der Seelsorge. Diese wurden 2010 verschärft. Nun setzt die SBK die dritte Auflage der Richtlinien in Kraft. Neu werden die Bestimmungen nicht alleine von der Bischofskonferenz, sondern auch von der Vereinigung der Höhern Ordensobern der Schweiz erlassen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

Unter Missbrauchsverdacht: „Flugblatt“-Priester räumt Vorfall von 1984 ein

[Summary: Under suspicion a priest has admitted to sexual abuse during the 1980s.]

Seit eineinhalb Jahren steht ein katholischer Priester im Verdacht, den damals 16-jährigen Tobias D. (Name geändert) missbraucht zu haben. Gegenüber unserer Zeitung und der Opferinitiative Schafsbrief räumte der beschuldigte Priester nun einen anderen Vorfall ein.

Seit Juli 2012 wird ein katholischer Priester beschuldigt, in den 1980er Jahren einen Jugendlichen in einer saarländischen Gemeinde sexuell missbraucht zu haben. Der heute 45-jährige Tobias D. hatte den Fall beim Bistum Trier angezeigt. Die sogenannten kirchenrechtlichen Voruntersuchungen laufen noch.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Main Post

[Summary: Bernhard Rasche, born in 1958, at age 12 was sent to a board school where he claims to have been sexually abused by the prefect. He has filed a suit against the Wurzburg diocese.]

Opfer oder nur Zeuge? Bernhard Rasche, Jahrgang 1958, aus Bischofsheim in der Rhön. Mit 12 Jahren kam er ins Internat Lebenhan (Bad Neustadt/Saale), wo er eigenen Angaben zufolge von einem Präfekten sexuell missbraucht wurde. Rasche hat den Missbrauch 2008 angezeigt.
vergrößern

Bernhard Rasche, nach eigenen Angaben Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs in den 70er Jahren durch einen Pater im Internat Lebenhan (Lkr. Rhön-Grabfeld), hat über seine Würzburger Rechtsanwältin Barbara Rost-Haigis Klage gegen die Diözese Würzburg eingereicht: Damit geht ein lange schwelender Streit um Behauptungen der Kirche, Rasche sei nur Zeuge sexuellen Missbrauchs und kein Opfer, nun vor dem Amtsgericht Würzburg weiter.

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MONTANA
Beartooth NBC

[with video]

Camilla Rambaldi

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for bankruptcy protection to settle 362 claims of children sexually abused by clergy members serving the Diocese.

Two lawsuits were filed in 2011 claiming the clergy members sexually abused the minors from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Helena Diocese victim Thomas A. Lozau Jr. says, “You know when being a kid and trying to tell when it was happening, like I said, you just tell me who you are going to believe.”

Diocese spokesman Dan Bartleson said in a statement the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case will help resolve the abuse claims.

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CANADA
Brantford Expositor

George Ferris, the former minister sentenced this week in Brantford courts to a total of 5 1/2 years in prison for sex crimes, has been deposed of the office of priest in the Anglican Church of Canada.

A media release issued Friday by the Anglican Diocese of Huron stated that Bishop Robert Bennett has taken disciplinary action against Ferris following the former Paris and Cambridge minister’s recent convictions and sentence hearings.

Ferris, 66, was sentenced in Ontario Court after being convicted of sexual assault offences relating to three male victims who were molested in the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1980s, Ferris had ministered at St. James Anglican Church in Paris.

The effect of Ferris being deposed is that he is no longer considered to be a priest.

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

Fri Jan 31, 2014.
By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer

The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals on Friday upheld a lower court’s decision clearing Bishop Edward Slattery and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa of wrongdoing in connection with a civil lawsuit filed by a man who says he was molested as a child by a parish priest.

In June 2012, Judge Daman Cantrell ruled in favor of the diocese and Slattery in Tulsa County District Court. The appeals court found that the findings of fact and conclusions of law adequately explained that decision.

The suit was brought by Kelly Kirk, who says he was molested, and his father, Gordon Kirk, alleging that Slattery and the diocese inflicted intentional emotional distress on them. Kelly Kirk also alleged invasion of privacy.

The accusations stemmed from a 2002 slander lawsuit against the Kirks filed by the Rev. Paul Eichhoff, a priest in the diocese. As a result of that lawsuit, the Kirks’ names were made public. The Kirks alleged that the diocese acted in concert with Eichhoff to file that suit.

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OHIO
Beacon Journal

By Colette M. Jenkins
Beacon Journal religion writer
Published: January 31, 2014

The Rev. Samuel R. Ciccolini has regained the key role of his identity as a priest.

“After consultation with his advisers, the Bishop [Richard G. Lennon] has granted Father Sam’s petition to say public Mass and hear confessions,” said Robert Tayek, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland.

A popular Roman Catholic priest from Akron known as “Father Sam,” Ciccolini was granted early retirement for health reasons last May. At that time, he was prohibited from public ministry and could only say private Mass (with no one present) because of a felony conviction for cheating on his taxes and committing bank fraud.

Ciccolini, 71, was released from federal prison last April, after serving a six-month sentence.
The mandatory retirement age for priests in the diocese is 75.

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PARAGUAY
ABC Color

[Summary; Priest Cecilio Ferreira, pastor of a parish in San Gerardo, has been accused of sexual abuse and rape of a child under 15 by the child’s mother. This first became public on Jan. 24 and the priest held a press conference to publicly deny that he had abused the child. However, after a series of steps ordered by prosecutor Celso Sixto Marin, including a report from forensic psychologist Azucena Avila, and witness statements, Ferreira was arrested.]

PEDRO JUAN CABALLERO (Cándido Figueredo Ruiz, de nuestra redacción regional). El sacerdote Cecilio Ferreira, responsable de la Vicaría Santa Librada de la Parroquia San Gerardo de esta ciudad, fue denunciado por la madre de una menor de 15 años, por un supuesto caso de coacción sexual y violación, hecho que tomó estado público el pasado 24 de enero. El religioso en una conferencia de prensa negó públicamente los hechos.

Sin embargo, tras una serie de diligencias ordenadas por el fiscal Celso Sixto Marín, entre ellas el informe de la psicóloga forense Azucena Ávila y las testificales de la menor y otras personas que tenían conocimiento del hecho, fueron suficientes para que en la víspera el representante del Ministerio Público imputara y ordenara la detención del religioso.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Four Corners

[with complete video of the program]

In this 2003 episode, Four Corners looks at the kids society didn’t want, orphaned or wrenched from broken families, then shunted off to “homes”.

Transcript

They were the kids society didn’t want… orphaned or wrenched from broken families, then shunted off to loveless places called – without irony – “homes”.

Over decades, tens of thousands of Australian children were sent to state and charitable institutions to be raised by complete strangers.

Some kids were identified by numbers, not by their names. Chores were numbingly routine. Discipline was harsh at best. Many endured extreme cruelty – emotional, physical and sexual.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Four Corners

[video]

[transcript]

Four Corners explores how the childhood experience of “the homies” continues to intensely affect their lives.

QUENTIN McDERMOTT, REPORTER: Scattered around Australia are crumbling structures that once housed the children society didn’t want. These were children’s homes, run by the most respectable bodies in the land – States, charities, churches, the Salvation Army. But for many older Australians, the memories are intensely painful.

TRISH PASCOE: The bitter, lonely years.

QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Why do you call it that?

TRISH PASCOE: Because they were bitter and lonely. That’s the only thing I can use to describe it.

QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Some homes were well-run. In others, abuse turned children into angry, sometimes criminal, adults.

MAN IN SHADOW: To be truthful, I cannot look at a 13- or 14-year-old and not think, “I wouldn’t mind that”.

BEVERLEY FITZGERALD, PRESIDENT, QLD CHILDREN SERVICES TRIBUNAL: Its repercussions are enormous and they ripple out to every facet of a person’s life, and we have to start looking at that.

JOHN DALZIEL, THE SALVATION ARMY: That trust has been betrayed and to the Australian public now, I apologise.

QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Tonight on Four Corners, the secret history of the extraordinary cruelty inflicted on children in care.

NEWSREEL: The Salvation Army is a strong supporter of the Scouting movement as a means of building healthy bodies and minds – ideals that are carried through to their schools for children from broken homes. For these youngsters, school is home.

QUENTIN McDERMOTT: In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, tens of thousands of boys and girls from broken homes were dispatched to institutions around Australia.

(PHOTOGRAPH LABELLED ‘INDOOROOPILLY’)

QUENTIN McDERMOTT: The damage some homes caused is still there in the lives of middle-aged Australians like Lewis Blayse.

LEWIS BLAYSE: It was out in the middle of nowhere, which is where most of these places were – out in the middle of nowhere.

QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Lewis Blayse went into care in 1950 when he was five months old. His parents simply couldn’t cope.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By ANNETTE BLACKWELL Feb. 1, 2014

The Salvation Army has a lot of questions to answer.

For almost three decades there were alleged rapes, floggings and punishments at their Dickensian boys’ homes in NSW and Queensland.

The evidence has been exposed at the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

The stories are so horrific that some news operations have steered clear of publishing full details of the acts of some Salvation Army officers, in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.

The Salvation Army is not challenging evidence by the string of witnesses – former residents of four homes being examined in detail by the commission.

It is not the first time Australians have heard these horror stories. In 1999 the Queensland Forde commission looked into the Indooroopilly home and the Riverview Training Farm in Queensland, both of which are on the commission’s list.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

[The Homies transcript – Four Corners]

[video]

Hello again.

I have enabled comments on Dad’s site so that anyone who would like to say anything or discuss anything that he has written may do so.

Aletha

Love to all
Posted on January 31, 2014 by lewisblayse
Dear all,

My Dad, Lewis, passed away last night. They think he had a heart attack.

To everyone who has supported his work and encouraged him in his fight against paedophilia, thank you. He was behind in his emails, but intended to respond to all who have sent messages of support.

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NEW MEXICO
The Arizona Republic

By Michael Clancy
The Republic | azcentral.com
Fri Jan 31, 2014

The Rev. Timothy Conlon, who was hailed as a hero in 2010 for his efforts to defend a parish worker from an attacker, has been suspended from the Catholic priesthood.

Conlon, according to his religious order and the Diocese of Gallup, N.M., was credibly accused of two instances of sexual abuse that took place before he was ordained a priest in 1979. The incidents took place at least 40 years ago in North Dakota, but the Gallup Diocese only recently was alerted, according to a news release by the Crosiers religious order.

Conlon, a member of the order, worked in the Phoenix Diocese for at least 10 years. For much of that time, he was vicar of Hispanic ministry.

In 2010, he was a parish priest at Sacred Heart Church in south Phoenix when a man attacked a parish employee, Ann Conway, who was opening up for the day. He rushed to the employee’s rescue, and both were stabbed. The attacker ran off and was arrested later. Conlon was hailed as a hero at the time.

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MONTANA
Handelszeitung

Die katholische Diözese Helena im US-Bundesstaat Montana ist pleite. Es ist die elfte Diözese, die in den USA nach teuren Gerichtsverfahren in finanzielle Schieflage geraten ist. Helena reichte ihren Insolvenzantrag bei Gericht ein, wie der TV-Sender NBC berichtet. Der Schritt erfolgt im Zusammenhang mit einer Entschädigungszahlung über 15 Millionen Dollar.

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CALIFORNIA
Opposing Views

By Jonathan Wolfe, Fri, January 31, 2014

A single mother from San Francisco, California has come forward alleging sexual abuse by a trustee of her local Catholic church. The woman, Jhona Matthews, says the abuse included spankings with a paddle and forced sexual activities.

Matthews says the activities occurred over the course of a year in which she worked as a secretary at the church. The abuse was doled out by Bill McLaughlin, her supervisor at the church, and was done with the threat that she would be fired if she didn’t comply.

“Many of these sex acts and demands and the spankings occurred inside the shrine premises, in the sacristy of the shrine,” attorney Sandra Ribera said.

In the lawsuit filed by Matthews, she says the spankings given to her were done using paddle given to McLaughlin by a priest at the church. The paddle, Ribera said, has “the inscription ‘BNO,’ which stands for ‘boys night out.’ And it says, ‘To Bill M. from Father T.’”

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Boz Tchividjian | Jan 31, 2014

A former church youth volunteer in Bluefield, West Virginia, was recently arrested on charges of child sexual abuse. The arrest was a culmination of the actions by an amazing church that actually took the right steps when learning that one of its members was suspected of abusing a child. As a result, at least 12 individuals have stepped forward to report being sexually abused as a child by this individual.

This church understands the importance of responding with excellence to disclosures of child sexual abuse. This church gets it! Here are 6 lessons we can learn from them:

1. Immediately call the police: Upon being alerted to suspected abuse, the church leadership immediately went to law enforcement and reported what they had learned. This church gets it – the law mandates that we report the suspected abuse of children to those in authority. Reporting abuse may save the life of a child and is the only way perpetrators will be brought to justice.

2. Remove suspected abuser from access to children: When the church leaders were informed about the alleged abuse, they immediately suspended the suspect from attending worship services. He was subsequently removed from all church related activities. This church gets it – Christians have a spiritual and lawful responsibility to remove suspected abusers from having access to little ones. We must always caution on the side of protecting the vulnerable amongst us.

3.. Persistent in the search for truth: After reporting to the police, the church was told that the defendant’s behavior was “inappropriate”, but not “actionable”. In many ways, it would have been much easier for this church to accept the response from law enforcement. They could have patted themselves on the back for reporting the matter, and simply claimed that their hands were tied. However, church leaders were not satisfied that they had “gotten to the bottom of the situation” and decided that they had no choice but to conduct their own investigation. As a result, “actionable” evidence was uncovered and immediately reported to the police. This church gets it – the search for truth in order to protect little ones and serve abuse survivors is a profound way to live out the Gospel.

4. Cooperate with law enforcement: This church cooperated with law enforcement from day one. This church gets it – police are not the enemy, but in fact are the best equipped to investigate allegations related to the abuse of children. Even when law enforcement seemed to throw in the towel, the church leaders demonstrated continued cooperation by immediately turning over the additional evidence it had uncovered. This church gets it – the authorities must have the cooperation of witnesses in order to conduct thorough investigations and bring justice to perpetrators.

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ILLINOIS
CBS Chicago

(STMW) – A youth group leader at a north suburban Lake Villa church is charged with having sexual contact with two young girls he drove home from church.

Matthew J. Harder, 18, is a youth worship leader for the Chain of Lakes Community Bible Church, 43 W. Grass Lake Rd. in Lake Villa, Lake County Sheriff’s officers said in a release.

Harder, of the 1000 block of Barberry Lane in Round Lake Beach, was arrested Friday and charged with criminal sexual abus
e, criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse, the release said.
The investigation began Jan. 25 after two girls told the church that Harder had sexual contact with each of them while driving them home from church on separate occasions, police claim.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

By Steve Zalusky

A Lake Villa youth worship leader was charged with criminal sexual assault by Lake County authorities.

On Friday, sheriff’s deputies arrested Matthew J. Harder, 18, of the 1000 Block of Barberry Lane in Round Lake Beach.

Deputies said Harder, a youth worship leader for the Chain of Lakes Community Bible Church in Lake Villa, made inappropriate sexual contact with two girls.

The girls reported to the church on Jan. 25 that, on separate occasions, Harder had inappropriate sexual contact with them while driving them home from church, deputies said.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

[The Ferns Report via BishopAccountability.org]

DAVID QUINN – 01 FEBRUARY 2014

BRENDAN Comiskey was once one of Ireland’s best-known bishops. Indeed, with his outgoing personality, his media savvy and his mildly liberal theological views, he was seen by many as exactly the sort of bishop the Catholic Church in Ireland needed.

He became Bishop of Ferns in 1984, aged just 49, and this was another indication of a generational change in the air.

When I became editor of ‘The Irish Catholic’ in January 1996, Bishop Comiskey was still a columnist with the paper and I had some few dealings with him at that time.

But his personal and professional troubles were already mounting. The previous year, his press officer, Fr Walter Forde, confirmed to the media that Bishop Comiskey had taken a three-month sabbatical due to drink problems. He soon stopped writing his column at ‘The Irish Catholic’.

His drink problem probably contributed to his appalling handling of clerical sex abuse in his diocese. One of his priests was one of the worst offenders of all – Fr Sean Fortune, now deceased.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

DEARBHAIL MCDONALD – 01 FEBRUARY 2014

CHILDREN’S Minister Frances Fitzgerald may have been disappointed that the official launch of the €600m Child and Family Agency was overshadowed by the ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the Louise O’Keeffe case.

She should not be. The ECHR ruling, which exposed the failure of the State to protect its children from abuse in primary schools, goes to the heart of the new agency’s mission and underscores the need for a multi-agency approach to child protection.

The minister may also be dismayed by remarks from Brendan Comiskey, the former Bishop of Ferns who still – it seems – has not come to terms with his management of paedophile priests in Wexford.

Bishop Comiskey (79) claims in today’s Irish Independent that he did his best; that it wasn’t good enough and “that’s it”.

He has also warned that an “extraordinary amount” of revelations concerning child abuse in the wider Irish society are yet to be exposed.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

In 2005, Justine McCarthy revealed how during an interview years earlier, a drunk Bishop Brendan Comiskey issued an astonishing threat to rape her

01 FEBRUARY 2014

IT was 2pm. Bishop Comiskey was very drunk. He reeked of alcohol and was swaying. Then he told me, if you write a story like that I’ll come up to Dublin and rape you.

For the rest of that week after the bishop threatened to rape me, he phoned me in the office every day, sometimes twice a day. His morning calls were usually softer-voiced and pathetic. By the afternoon, they had grown harsher, more rambling, less coherent and more disturbing. I could measure the progress of his intoxication on the phone each day.

The more he phoned, the more I felt he was establishing a macabre bond between us. Each time I heard his voice, I felt panicky. In one morning call, he turned the tables by implying that I was the one guilty of causing him injury, or planning it. The last time the bishop rang, he apologised. He had asked in one of his earlier calls if it was true that he had made a specific threat of violence against me and what, precisely, was that threat. Spelling out to a drunk prince of the church on the phone that he had threatened to rape me was not only surreal, it felt like the second-worst kind of enforced intimacy. Now this last time he called, he sounded exhausted and sober. He said he could not remember saying it but, “if I did, I’m sorry”.

The following morning, my bland interview with Bishop Brendan Comiskey was published in the Irish Independent, depicting him, to my shame, as a compassionate and fearless rebel in the crusty conference of bishops. I never heard from him again.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

EDEL KENNEDY – 01 FEBRUARY 2014

He denied allegations about using prostitutes.

There were also reports of him being arrested in Bangkok, and queries over his purchase of a Dublin apartment

BRENDAN Comiskey didn’t just court controversy – he relished it. Loved by the media because of his brazen outspokenness, his comments could make headlines around the world.

He was happy to publicly comment on everything from contraceptives to spanking children, to former colleagues fathering children. And he even spoke in favour of allowing priests to marry.

But behind the public face was a private life – he battled a growing problem with alcoholism and he was failing to deal with sex abuse by several priests within the diocese of Ferns.

And when his facade unravelled, it did so in spectacular fashion with reports and allegations about using prostitutes, being arrested in Bangkok airport, and queries over his personal – and secretive – purchase of a Dublin apartment.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

[with video]

Bishop Comiskey breaks his silence on Ferns scandal: ‘Church was no worse for abuse than anywhere else’

01 FEBRUARY 2014

THE disgraced former Bishop of Ferns Brendan Comiskey has broken his silence for the first time about the clerical sex abuse scandal that forced his dramatic resignation 12 years ago.

The 79-year-old, who retreated from public life following revelations that he failed to protect children from paedophile priests in his Wexford diocese, told the Irish Independent: “I did my best and it wasn’t good enough and that’s it.”

He said he was part of the “tragic history” of the period and wasn’t going to make excuses for it.

But Bishop Comiskey, a reformed alcoholic who retains the honorary title of Bishop Emeritus, claimed that an “extraordinary amount” of revelations concerning child abuse in the wider Irish society were yet to be exposed.

And he claimed that there was “no more” sexual abuse going on in the Catholic Church than among the rest of the population.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

PAUL WILLIAMS SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT – 01 FEBRUARY 2014

THE heavy grey skies over Dublin unleashed a deluge as the tall, handsome gentleman emerged from the dental surgery on Burlington Road.

Unperturbed by the sudden violence of the downpour, he hoisted his umbrella and marched briskly down the pavement on the short journey to his home in nearby Ranelagh.

It had been at least 12 years since the former Bishop of Ferns Brendan Comiskey was seen in public, although he claims he has “been here all the time”.

He was once a flamboyantly liberal, religious prelate – a man seen as having a great future in the church.

Now he has been forced into anonymity by the horrific sins of the predatory priests under his control.

Brendan Comiskey was condemned for doing nothing while at least 10 clerics, including the infamous Sean Fortune, raped and abused scores of children with impunity.

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ILLINOIS
Journal-Standard

By Nick Crow
Posted Jun. 29, 2013

OREGON — A Crossroads Community Church pastor entered a not-guilty plea Friday to the charge of aggravated sexual abuse.

Charles Babler, 64, of Mount Morris has worked at the church’s Freeport and Polo campuses but is on administrative leave,

Babler entered the Ogle County Courthouse with his wife and sat quietly in Judge Robert T. Hanson’s courtroom.

Babler was arrested by sheriff’s deputies June 21 in the wake of an investigation of a 2011 incident in which police say he had contact with a person younger than 13.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

The Diocese of St. Cloud on Friday issued revisions to a Jan. 3 list of Central Minnesota clergy who had been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors:

• Raymond Jacques served in the parish of St. Paul in Sauk Centre.

• Henry Lutgen also served as assistant director of Catholic Charities in St. Cloud, St. Columbkille in St. Wendel, Community Hospital and Pine Villa in Melrose and St. Mary’s, Melrose.

• Adelbert Wolski, TOR, died Jan. 3, 2012, in Hollidaysburg, Pa.

The list is of official assignments only. A priest may have also served in other capacities, such as at hospitals and schools as an extension of his pastoral duties in a community.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 01/31/2014

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has asked a judge to block depositions of top officials by attorneys representing an alleged sexual abuse victim.

A plaintiff identified as John Doe 1 sued the archdiocese, the Diocese of Winona and former priest Thomas Adamson in May 2013, alleging sexual abuse by Adamson between 1976 and 1977.

Adamson was assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas church in St. Paul Park at the time.

The plaintiff’s attorneys, Jeff Anderson and Michael Finnegan, told the court in a motion filed Tuesday that the archdiocese had refused to answer questions and provide documents.

Finnegan said Friday that the requested information and depositions are relevant to the case.

“It’s our position that Archbishop (John) Nienstedt and (Rev.) Kevin McDonough for years have covered up and concealed child sex abuse in this archdiocese, thereby putting kids at risk — which is the heart of the nuisance claim,” he said.

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ILLINOIS
Journal-Standard

By Chris Green
Rockford Register Star
Posted Jan. 31, 2014

ROCKFORD – A Rockford woman is suing Holy Family Catholic Church and the Catholic Diocese of Rockford for $5 million, saying she was sexually abused for three years while a student at Holy Family Catholic School from 1972 to 1980.

Kathleen Gibbons, 46, is represented by the law office of Rene Hernandez. The suit, filed Friday, also names three clergy members as defendants: Monsignor Al Harte, Father Bob and Brother Allen. Harte died in 2002; Hernandez said the last names of Bob and Allen and their whereabouts are unknown.
“The case is being investigated fully, but we have no information at this time to suggest that these allegations are credible,” diocesan attorney Ellen Lynch said.

Gibbons says the abuse took place between 1978 and 1980, when she was 11 to 13 years old.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A firm of top international lawyers says it intends seeking huge damages from British public schools where former pupils have suffered serious sexual abuse by teachers.

The British-American law firm AO Advocates has told the BBC it wants to see US-style compensation payments, suggesting some UK victims could be in line to receive awards of more than £1 million.

In the last few years, former teachers at scores of private schools, including elite institutions such as Wellington College and Ampleforth, have been convicted of sexually abusing pupils, crimes often committed decades ago.

A representative of the Independent Schools Council has said that it would be “very unfair” and a “great shame” if good schools were forced to close because of compensation payments relating to historical abuse.

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MONTANA
Reuters

BY LAURA ZUCKERMAN
Sat Feb 1, 2014

Jan 31 (Reuters) – A Montana Roman Catholic diocese filed for bankruptcy on Friday as part of a proposed $17.5 million settlement with hundreds of adults alleging childhood sexual abuse by its priests, nuns and lay workers, a church spokesman said.

The Helena diocese, serving an estimated 44,500 Catholics in 57 parishes and 38 missions in western Montana, is the eleventh U.S. diocese to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization since 2004 because of liabilities linked to child abuse cases.

Under the proposed agreement, the church would pay $15 million to settle claims brought by 362 victims in two lawsuits filed in 2011. It also would set aside an additional $2.5 million for future claims and to cover legal costs, said Helena diocese spokesman Dan Bartleson.

“We don’t really have any reserves,” Bartleson said, adding that bankruptcy protection would help facilitate the payouts to abuse survivors. The agreement must still be approved by a federal bankruptcy court and by victims.

Attorneys representing the majority of claimants said the move brought the church closer to accepting responsibility for abuse that spanned three decades beginning in the 1940s and affected both young children and young adults. …

The settlement does not include the Ursuline Sisters, also defendants in the case against the Helena diocese, Bartleson said. Claims against the sisters are tied to Native Americans who allege they were abused decades ago as students in Montana schools overseen by the order.

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MONTANA
Los Angeles Times

Associated Press
January 31, 2014

HELENA, Mont. — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for bankruptcy protection Friday as part of a proposed $15-million settlement for hundreds of victims who say clergy members sexually abused them over decades while the church covered it up.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan comes after confidential mediation sessions with the plaintiffs’ attorneys and insurers, resulting in a proposed deal to resolve the abuse claims, diocese officials said.

Bishop George Leo Thomas expressed his “profound sorrow” at a news conference and apologized to the victims.

“I know the pain is real, the pain is in the present tense, and in the name of the church, I want to say I’m sorry and we’re sorry as a church,” Thomas said.

The $15 million “will at least be a beginning point for people who are seeking resolution in their lives and in their hearts,” he added. …

Molly Howard, an attorney for the plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, said she believed the bankruptcy process would resolve the case more quickly than years of litigation and trials with uncertain outcomes.

“Given the age and ill health of many of the victims, this is in their best interest,” Howard said. …

David Clohessy, the executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, criticized the diocese for seeking bankruptcy protection, saying it would allow church officials to keep records closed that might have come out in a trial.

He also said the settlement fell short because it did not publicly name the church officials who shielded and protected predator clergy members.

“Those individuals have to be exposed and punished,” Clohessy said.

Thomas said in response that church officials would comb their records to see if there were “intentional failures of leadership.” But the records from the time of the abuse are incomplete, he said.

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MONTANA
KPAX

by Jacqueline Quynh – KPAX News
Updated: Jan 31, 2014

MISSOULA – Despite the settlement, the anguish of the victims is not going away. And, even though the diocese has reached a settlement with 362 victims of sexual abuse, to some this by no means is closure. We talked with 4 victims, men and women, who came forward on Friday, to share the experiences they say, no one would believe, or chose to ignore. They talked about how hard it was to have had to carry this pain all these years alone.

And they tell us, the settlement at least gives light to something that had happened for decades, and that this acknowledgement could help prevent abuse in the future. “The apology the fact that we were telling the truth is a big deal, the most important, but it doesn’t take away the pain, I’ve dealt with for over 50 years, the disappointment because I wanted to be a nun,” said Jackie Trotch, abuse survivor.

That’s just one of the stories we heard on Friday, and they are all hard to hear. The Tamaki Law Firm vows to continue to pursue more cases of abuse. The group is currently preparing for a case against the Ursuline Sister of the Western Province. Also as part of the settlement, The Diocese of Helena will provide counseling for abuse victims.

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MONTANA
Missoulian

By Kathryn Haake

Lawyers representing victims of sexual assault that allegedly occurred for more than 40 years at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius are pledging to take the case to trial this summer – even after the Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for bankruptcy Friday to settle a similar lawsuit.

The case against the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province alleges that 10 nuns sexually abused Native American children at the Catholic boarding school from the 1930s to the 1970s, and lists 37 men and women as the victims of sexual molestation.

The lead counsel in the case, Blaine Tamaki of the Tamaki Law Offices of Yakima, Wash., is hoping to go to trial this summer and expose the alleged abuse to the public.

The 2011 lawsuit was filed in conjunction with another lawsuit against the Diocese of Helena, listing 362 victims as plaintiffs. The diocese filed for bankruptcy and pledged a settlement of $15 million Friday, to be funded by insurance and the diocese’s assets.

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CANADA
The Record

By Record staff

Convicted sex offender George Ferris is no longer an Anglican priest.

The Cambridge man has been sentenced to five-and-a-half-years in prison for three sexual assaults on teenage boys in the 1980s and 1990s.

The retired minister from Cambridge was most recently in court in Brantford on Wednesday, when he was sentenced on two charges. He was found not guilty of one count of sexual exploitation of a young person.

Ferris has now been stripped of his title of priest.

Reverend Robert Bennett, of the Anglican Diocese of Huron, disciplined Ferris on Thursday, a church press release says.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Posted on January 31, 2014 by lewisblayse

Dear all,

My Dad, Lewis, passed away last night. They think he had a heart attack.

To everyone who has supported his work and encouraged him in his fight against paedophilia, thank you. He was behind in his emails, but intended to respond to all who have sent messages of support.

Please watch ABC 24 tonight and the rerun of “The Homies” on Four Corners at 8pm.

I will post again when I have details about his funeral, for those who would like to attend.

With love,

Aletha

[Postscript: Dad believed that when we die, we become a pure beam of light energy, unrestricted by time or space. He told me that when it was his time, he was looking forward to exploring the universe.]

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UNITED KINGDOM
Whatsupic

By Michael Aydinian

Whatsupic — I often wonder whether or not people outside the UK are cognizant of what is nothing less than one of the greatest Paedophile scandals in history? It’s bad enough in the UK, for the entire mainstream media has been doing it’s level best to hush up the whole sordid affair. Indeed the very foundations of this scandal is inextricably linked to the BBC for Disc Jockey Jimmy Savile began his association with them in the mid 60’s. His eccentric, flamboyant manner would make him a household name. As well as presenting Top of the Pops, at the time a popular music show, his program ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ became prime time viewing, very much catching the imagination of younger generation! Here the somewhat outlandish wishes of children would become reality! For the largely unsuspecting public Jimmy Savile was fast-becoming an iconic figure; For the BBC he had become an absolute gold mine!

It has to be said Savile’s philanthropic activities made him the very last person people would ever suspect of wrong-doing! His lifetime work fundraising for charities & hospitals amassed as much as a staggering £40 million! Small wonder senior politicians, Prime Ministers & even Royalty were attracted to him. Evidently he spent several Christmas holidays at the residence of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It seemed he could do no wrong! Of course we now know nothing could have been further from the truth!

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

In today’s address to participants at the Plenary meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope urged them to reflect further on Benedict XVI’s teachings regarding the relationship between marriage and faith

IACOPO SCARAMUZZI
VATICAN CITY

Children must always be protected and supported in their human and spiritual development,” Francis said in this morning’s audience with participants at the Plenary meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by Mgr. Gerhard Ludwig Müller. The meeting was a chance for the Pope to emphasise the importance of not portraying Catholic doctrine as an ideology, reducing it to a “bunch of abstract, crystalised theories”; it was also a chance for him to urge the Vatican dicastery to safeguard the integrity of the faith “always working with local Pastors and the doctrinal commissions of the various Episcopal Conferences. Francis asked the dicastery to dig deeper into the relationship between personal faith and celebration of the Sacrament of marriage.”

“You must think of the wellbeing of children and young people. In Christian communities they must always be protected and supported in their human and spiritual development,” Francis said, clearly alluding to the issue of clerical sex abuse of minors. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is canonically responsible for stamping out sex abuse in the Church. “we are looking into the possibility of linking your dicastery with the special commission for the protection of children which I set up and which should be seen as an example by all of those who intend to safeguard the wellbeing of children.” In December Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston and a member of the Council of Cardinals – the so-called “C8” which is helping the Pope to reform the Roman Curia and govern the universal Church – announced the decision to set up the commission.

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CHICAGO (IL)
National Catholic Reporter

Robert McClory | Jan. 31, 2014 NCR Today

In a blistering rebuttal of Chicago Cardinal Francis George’s response to the release of the files on priest abusers, Fr. Tom Doyle analyzes in painful detail what the cardinal wrote in his Jan. 12 column in the Chicago New World. Doyle finds the cardinal “defensive, misleading and insulting in addition to the fact that it does not reflect the reality of the key issues.” He takes particular aim at the cardinal’s discussion of the case of Dan McCormack and his denial that he acted contrary to the findings of his own review board.

In the conclusion of his lengthy analysis, Doyle said, “It goes without saying that the Cardinal and the archdiocese would have been much better served had he said nothing. But he didn’t remain silent. The McCormack fiasco was not the result of confusing or bungled procedures, incomplete information. It was the result of the Cardinal’s arrogance, his over-riding concern for his and the Church’s image and worst of all, his disdain for the victims. The attitude that underlies the Cardinal’s statement is not unique to him. This attitude, painfully evident wherever clergy sexual abuse has been reported throughout the Church, shows that the bishops in general have a long, long way to go before their actions began to match up with their promises.”

Doyle’s analysis, published in National Survivor Advocates Coalition News on Thursday, follows:

Guest Opinion

CLERGY SEX ABUSE TRANSPARENCY ACCORDING TO CARDINAL GEORGE

Introducing Faith and Justice, the new column from NCR senior analyst Thomas Reese, SJ. Sign up for email alerts here.
Thomas Doyle

January 20, 2014

The leadership of the Archdiocese of Chicago has a mediocre to poor track record in responding to reports of clergy sexual abuse and their honesty with the public. Cardinal George’s recent statement to the archdiocese (January 12, 2014 in The Catholic New World) does nothing to change this pattern. This statement was issued to prepare the archdiocese for the release of the files of thirty priests confirmed as sexual abusers. His statement is defensive, misleading and insulting in addition to the fact that it does not reflect the reality of the key issues. A significant part of the statement is devoted to the defense of his mishandling of the Dan McCormack case. The McCormack files are not among those released!

In 1982 the parents of a minor boy reported that former Fr. Bob Mayer had sexually abused their teenaged son. This was under Cardinal Cody’s watch. They reported the abuse to the archdiocese and in return were intimidated and even threatened with excommunication by the chancellor at the time, Fr. J. Richard Keating who later became the bishop of Arlington VA. In 1988 they finally settled for a measly $10,000.00 that didn’t even cover their legal costs. The boy’s mother was not about to succumb to the scare tactics nor was she buying any of the dishonest mumbo-jumbo served up as excuses for their deliberate neglect. She went on to found the Linkup which quickly became one of the two most influential victim support organizations in the world.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Gumbleton | Jan. 31, 2014 The Peace Pulpit

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 8:23-9:3
Psalms 27:1, 4, 13-14
1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17
Matthew 4:12-23
Full text of the readings

As we begin this account in Matthew’s Gospel of the public life of Jesus, at the very beginning, we are challenged directly by Jesus: “Change your lives, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand — change your lives.” The word is one that means a profound reordering of our lives — a 180-degree turn, a change in our value systems. The reign of God or the kingdom of heaven — this is something that Jesus is beginning to proclaim.

It’s important that we get a sense of what Jesus means by this kingdom of heaven. First of all, it has nothing to do with the afterlife. We might think, “The kingdom of heaven — that’s where we go after we die.” No; what it refers to is the reign of God, the reign of God throughout all of creation — on our planet, on our earth, in our lives. It refers to God working effectively in our everyday lives right here and now. …

If there’s been an offense against another, we go first and be reconciled. What I’m referring to is something that became very prominent in the news this week. It was reported on national news that the Chicago archdiocese, because of court order, released the personnel files on priests who had abused victims. Over the decades, these priests have been sheltered and then moved from one parish to another, and for a long time, never really held accountable.

Now finally, the files come out, and it’s clear that the bishops were much more concerned about protecting the good name of the church, preventing what they call scandal. They did such things as recently as the year 2000. Cardinal [Francis] George wrote a letter to a priest in prison whose prison sentence he was seeking to reduce, and he writes, “It would be a great fulfillment of the millennium spirit to see your captive heart set free.”

The cardinal was saying how marvelous it would be if this priest would be released from jail. But there’s no letter to the victim. There’s no letter going to the victim, saying, “Yes, we need to be reconciled and go and be reconciled,” with the perpetrator coming, admitting the guilt, and asking forgiveness. The victims in these cases have just been ignored. Further back, a priest wrote to Cardinal [Joseph] Bernardin from jail, “How full of shame I feel for having betrayed you and the archdiocese.”

No shame or sense of having to make reconciliation with the person whom he abused or the many people he abused. There’s been a big gap in what is happening in the church and what Pope John Paul II called, “A cancer on the body of Christ” — the sex abuse scandal. We still haven’t gotten to the real way and the only way that this healing could take place. The victims or survivors are still treated as though they’re adversaries.

People still say they only want the money. They don’t recognize these are people who have been profoundly hurt, who have been denied the real acceptance of what they say happened to them. The priests deny it, the bishops hide it, and even if the person tries to forgive, there’s no one there to receive the forgiveness. There can’t be reconciliation until the one who has perpetrated the harm comes, as Jesus says in the Gospel, “Go first and be reconciled with your brother or sister, then come and offer your gift.”

We have failed in this terrible cancer on the body of the church — failed to bring about the healing that is still so much needed for the thousands of people around the world who have been abused and then denied a real chance for reconciliation, not recognized as the ones who have been hurt. My thought is that we, as a community of people, followers of Jesus, trying to change our lives and live the gospel of love, must do what we can first of all, in changing our lives to live out that commandment of Jesus — love one another as I have loved you — and spelled out in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.

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MONTANA
Kosnoff Fasy

Breaking News: Helena Diocese Bishop George Leo Thomas asks sex-abuse victims to come forward.

Incidents of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church are well-known, as are the Church’s attempts to cover up and even ignore the crimes of sexual predators. Across the country, court records have detailed how church officials for years have knowingly transferred offending priests from one location to another.

Currently, we’re involved in two large, multi-plaintiff cases in Montana against the Helena diocese and the Great Falls-Billings diocese.

Helena Diocese Sex Abuse

The case against the Helena diocese was filed in September 2011 in Montana First Judicial District Court of Lewis and Clark County in Helena, Montana. We represent 250 men and women in that case. More abuse survivors continue to come forward, and we continue to investigate claims of abuse in that diocese. Recently, we ran a TV commercial urging survivors to come forward to file a claim while they still can, before settlement talks later this year.

Helena’s Bishop George Leo Thomas urged survivors to come forward and recently pledged that the Diocese will open its books and attempt to use a mediator to settle claims for those sexually abused by clergy in western Montana. Diocese officials posted on its web site, “The Diocese is working with victims’ attorneys and has extended an offer for Bishop George Thomas to meet with victims individually.” http://www.diocesehelena.org/resources/safe-env/_pdfs/reporting.pdf

Meanwhile, the case against the Great Falls-Billings diocese is progressing on behalf of 29 child sex-abuse victims. Additional witnesses have come forward with information, and we’re continuing to investigate. The case has been filed in Montana Eighth Judicial District Court in Cascade County. The case has numerous unnamed alleged perpetrators and five named alleged abusers, including Father Ted Szudera. One of our clients, a former altar boy, was raped by Szudera for two years. The Great Falls diocese conducted its own self-styled investigation, dismissed the allegations as unfounded and allowed Szudera to continue serving as a priest around children. Following the allegations, Szudera served on a bishop’s committee advising the diocese on how to handle clergy sex-abuse allegations.

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MONTANA
NBC News

[letter from the bishop]

By Alessandra Malito, NBC News

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena, Mont., planned to file for bankruptcy on Friday to pave the way for a $15 million settlement of lawsuits alleging clergy members sexually abused 362 children over five decades, according to a diocese spokesman.

“The settlement here will be as much help financially as we can offer to claimants,” the spokesman, Dan Bartleson, told NBCNews.com. “And the bankruptcy puts us in a place at the diocese where we can care for the Catholics who are currently part of the church.”

The lawsuits, originally filed in 2011, claimed that clergy members had abused children from the 1940s to 1980s and that the diocese knew or should have known what was happening.

“It’s widespread … (and) some of the most horrific abuse we’ve dealt with,” Dan Fasy, an attorney with law firm Kosnoff Fasy, which represents 268 of the 362 claimants, told NBC News.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Rant Lifestyle

Retired Chicago auxiliary Bishop Raymond Goedert was vicar for priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s until leaving that post in September, 1991 upon becoming a Bishop. The post of vicar for priests put him in charge of dealing with charges of sexual abuse by clergy. It was during Goedert’s tenure as vicar that two of the most notorious cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests in the Chicago Archdiocese came to light, that of Robert Mayer, who eventually served a three year sentence for fondling a teenage girl in a church rectory and of Vince McCaffrey, who is currently serving a 20 year sentence for child pornography. These were only the two most notable cases of such abuse that came to light during Goedert’s tenure.

That Mayer and McCaffrey wound up in jail had nothing to do with Goedert’s efforts; during Goedert’s entire tenure as vicar for priests, he never once called police when allegations of perversion by his priests arose. Not once…even though, as Goedert admitted, priests who were confronted with allegations “frequently, if not always, admitted to it.”

Goedert argues that he didn’t call police because, at the time of his service as vicar, clergy were not “mandated reporters,” specifically required to report cases of sexual abuse to the authorities, under Illinois law. Goedert expects us to believe that, while he was, as he puts it, “concerned for the children,” he did only what he was required by law to do to protect them. Oh, yeah, he was concerned with the children, but not to the point at which he would do anything more than the letter of the law required, especially when doing so might hurt the reputation of the Church…which, one suspects, is the heart of the matter, though Goedert would never admit that.

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UNITED STATES
The Guardian (UK)

Associated Press in Helena
theguardian.com, Friday 31 January 2014

The Roman Catholic diocese of Helena planned to file for bankruptcy protection Friday in advance of proposed settlements for two lawsuits that claim clergy members sexually abused 362 people over decades and the church covered it up.

Diocese spokesman Dan Bartleson said the Chapter 11 bankruptcy re-organization will be filed Friday morning, and comes after confidential mediation sessions with the plaintiffs’ attorneys, resulting in the deals to resolve the abuse claims.

The settlement details are being worked out, but the US Bankruptcy Court in Montana would be responsible for approving and supervising the disbursement of $15m to compensate the identified victims, plus an additional amount set aside for those who come forward later.

The victims and creditors will have the chance to vote on the proposed settlement, Bartleson said.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys said they planned to release a statement later Friday.

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AUSTRALIA
Sunshine Coast Daily

Jessica Grewal 1st Feb 2014

DRIVEN by a desire to protect church money, the Anglican Diocese of Grafton “comprehensively failed” victims of child sex abuse and in some cases, damaged them further, the royal commission has heard.

Sweeping reforms to the structure of the Anglican Church are likely after the senior barrister tasked with bringing evidence before last year’s North Coast Children’s Home inquiry released a damning assessment of its ability to deal with child abuse survivors and discipline the perpetrators.

The landmark inquiry uncovered haunting accounts from former residents of the Lismore home and raised serious questions about the Grafton Diocese’s response to a group compensation claim and its treatment of the victims involved.

Counsel Assisting the Commission Simeon Beckett found that despite having “sufficient assets to meet the claims of the abused former residents”, the Diocese chose to protect its finances rather than provide victims with “appropriate redress”.

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AUSTRALIA
My Daily News

THE royal commission has been asked to find that the Anglican Church failed in its duty to report and discipline convicted sex offender and former Tweed Parish priest Allan Kitchingman.

In a damning report released on Thursday, counsel assisting the Commissioner Simeon Beckett submitted there were 59 findings available to the commission arising from last year’s inquiry into the Grafton Diocese response to allegations of abuse at Lismore’s North Coast Children’s Home.

During the hearing, diocese members were questioned as to what steps had been taken to reprimand Kitchingman, whose name remained on the Anglican Church directory for some time after he was convicted of five counts of sexual assault.

Court documents revealed Kitchingman was chaplain of the home when he sexually abused a boy at a Ballina youth camp.

He went on to serve for more than a decade between Mullumbimby and Tweed Heads, and was charged in 2002, aged 69, and jailed for a minimum of 18 months.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Star

1st Feb 2014

Reverend Campbell Brown, a retired Grafton priest believed to be living in the Newcastle area, is accused of sexually assaulting children, including whistleblower Richard “Tommy” Campion, while he was in a position of trust at the Lismore home.

Documents tendered to the commission this week confirm Rev Brown was referred to the police in December last year.

He had previously been referred to the Child Abuse Squad in 2006.

At the time, the Grafton Diocese was told Rev Brown had not had any contact with the Church since the ordination of women, was nearly 80 years old and was vision impaired.

The commission heard the Diocese was first made aware of allegations against Rev Brown and another priest – Rev Winston Morgan, through a letter, written by Mr Campion in 2002.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service | Jan. 31, 2014

VATICAN CITY Before the year dedicated to consecrated life begins in November, the Vatican congregation for religious hopes to release its final report on the 2009-2010 visitation of U.S. women’s communities.

Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo, secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said, “We are working intensely on the final report, and after careful study and consideration, we think it will be made public soon. We’re at a good point. I think we can conclude it before the beginning of the Year for Consecrated Life” in November.

The former prefect of the congregation, Cardinal Franc Rodé, initiated the visitation in January 2009, saying its aim would be to study the community, prayer and apostolic life of the orders to learn why the number of religious women in the United States had declined so sharply since the 1960s.

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MONTANA
Washington Times

By Cheryl K. Chumley-The Washington Times

A Roman Catholic diocese in Montana has filed for bankruptcy, the latest move to resolve a long-running court fight against 300-plus plaintiffs who allege the church covered up the years of childhood abuse they suffered.

Three-hundred and sixty-two plaintiffs joined separate lawsuits in 2011, accusing church officials of abusing them when they were children, between the years of 1930 and 1980 — and that the church knew of the abuse, CNN reported.

Plaintiffs also allege the Diocese of Helena actively protected some of the church officials who were involved in the abuse, CNN said.

The case has been stretching for months. Various mediation attempts have failed, and it’s hoped that the bankruptcy will bring about an acceptable resolution, diocese spokesman Dan Bartleson said, CNN reported.

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MONTANA
KXLH

HELENA – The Diocese of Helena plans to file for financial reorganization in federal bankruptcy court on Friday, January 31st.

In a press release on Friday, the diocese called the move “a major step toward bringing resolution to 362 claims of abuse of minors by diocesan priests, religious community priests, women religious and lay workers who have served in the diocese, primarily between 30 and 60 years ago.”

The filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Butte results from negotiations with “known abuse survivors” and the diocese’s insurers.

“The Diocese chose a pastoral mode and entered into a confidential mediation process,” the diocese said.

Negotiations in the matter are still ongoing, but the settlement will include a $15 million fund for victims already identified, and additional funds for possible additional victims.

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UNITED STATES
BBC News

A Roman Catholic diocese in the US state of Montana has filed for bankruptcy protection, amid claims hundreds of children were abused.

Two 2011 lawsuits against the diocese in Helena, the state capital, allege that 362 children were abused between 1940-1980.

Plaintiffs claim the diocese protected the offenders or turned a blind eye.

The filing precedes proposed settlements reached during confidential mediation sessions, US media report.

A Montana bankruptcy court will be responsible for approving disbursement of a reported $15m (£9m) in compensation for identified victims, plus an undisclosed amount to be set aside for those plaintiffs who come forward at a later date.

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MONTANA
KAJ18

Jan 31, 2014 10:29 AM by Sanjay Talwani – MTN News

HELENA – The Diocese of Helena plans to file for financial reorganization in federal bankruptcy court on Friday, Jan. 31.

In a news release on Friday, the diocese called the move “a major step toward bringing resolution to 362 claims of abuse of minors by diocesan priests, religious community priests, women religious and lay workers who have served in the diocese, primarily between 30 and 60 years ago.”

The filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Butte results from negotiations with “known abuse survivors” and the diocese’s insurers.

“The Diocese chose a pastoral mode and entered into a confidential mediation process,” the diocese said.

Negotiations in the matter are still ongoing, but the settlement will include a $15 million fund for victims already identified, and additional funds for possible additional victims.

“On behalf of the entire Diocese of Helena, I express my profound sorrow and sincere apologies to anyone who was abused by a priest, a sister, or a lay Church worker,” Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas said in the statement . “No child should experience harm from anyone who serves in the Church.”

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MONTANA
Wisconsin State Journal

In the Spirit: Madison Bishop Robert Morlino’s former diocese to file for bankruptcy

DOUG ERICKSON | Wisconsin State Journal | derickson@madison.com | 608-252-6149

The Catholic Diocese of Helena, Mont., will file for bankruptcy reorganization Friday as part of its effort to resolve two lawsuits that claim clergy members sexually abused 362 people over several decades and the church covered it up.

Madison Bishop Robert Morlino served as bishop of the Helena diocese from 1999-2003. The lawsuits were filed in 2011 and relate to allegations of abuse from the 1940s to the 1970s, according to the Associated Press.

The allegations pre-date Morlino’s tenure in Helena, and he has not been brought into any conversations related to the lawsuits, said Brent King, spokesman for the Madison Catholic Diocese.

A statement released Friday by the Helena diocese said the details of the settlements are still being worked out but that $15 million would be available to compensate the currently identified victims, with additional settlement funds for other and unknown victims.

Morlino was bishop of Helena in 2002 when the national priest-abuse crisis broke. In a 2002 story in the (Helena) Independent Record, Morlino referenced allegations of abuse that pre-dated his arrival there.

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MONTANA
ABC Fox Montana

By Emily Foster

HELENA –
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena is filing for bankruptcy protection amid lawsuits claiming clergy members abused 362 children over decades.

Diocese spokesman Dan Bartleson said in a statement Friday the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization case will help resolve the abuse claims.

The diocese covers western Montana and employs about 200 people.

The two lawsuits filed in 2011 claim clergy members abused the children from the 1930s to the 1970s.

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MONTANA
Wall Street Journal

By Tom Corrigan

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena said Friday it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to resolve more than 350 sexual abuse claims.

The filing, expected later Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Butte, Mont., follows a mediation process that resulted in a settlement with insurers and the individuals who have brought sexual abuse claims against the diocese.

“Once the reorganization proceedings conclude, we will be able to plan confidently for future ministry for the people of the Church of the Diocese of Helena,” Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas said Friday in a statement.

Should a bankruptcy judge approve the settlement, the diocese would pay $15 million to currently identified holders of sexual abuse claims with additional funding set aside for others who may come forward with abuse claims in the future.

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NEW MEXICO
Cibola Beacon

Staff Report

According to Suzanne Hammons, the spokesperson for the Diocese of Gallup, Father Timothy Conlon, a priest of the Diocese, has been credibly accused of two incidents of sexual abuse toward a minor.

Conlon, a member of the Crosier Brothers, based in Phoenix, Ariz., was in the process of becoming incardinated within the Gallup Diocese when the accusations came to light.

The accusations refer to an incident that took place approximately 40 years ago, before Fr. Conlon came to Arizona and before he was ordained a priest.

Upon learning of the accusation, Bishop James Wall immediately notified law enforcement in Arizona, and, working with the Crosier Prior Provincial Thomas Enneking, O.S.C., immediately removed Conlon from ministry in the Diocese of Gallup, where he had been assigned as Parish Administrator for St. John the Baptist Parish, in St. John’s, Ariz., and San Raphael Parish, in Concho, Ariz.

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VATICAN CITY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Jan. 31 2014

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach CA, western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com )

Today the Pope asked one ancient Vatican bureaucracy to “study” clergy sexual abuse and cooperate with another Vatican body that hasn’t even been set up yet.

This isn’t progress. It’s perhaps the 20th or 30th time that a pope has talked about his hopes and plans about clergy sex crimes and cover ups. But not a single pope has exposed a single predator or a single enabler. Not a single pope has really punished a single complicit bishop. And not a single pope has taken a single effective step to prevent clergy sex crimes or cover ups.

When will the words stop and the action start?

[Vatican Information Service]

[Catholic News Service]

Pope Francis says he hopes the latest in a long series of church abuse panels will be “exemplary.” If history is any guide, it won’t be, especially if the person who sets it up, the Pope himself, refuses to make a single dramatic move to disrupt the centuries-old, self-serving and secretive clerical culture that has creates and perpetuates this crisis.

The Pope won’t even sack convicted Missouri Bishop Robert Finn or disband the corruption-riddled Legion of Christ. “The Pope won’t even tell bishops “Report abuse to police regardless of whether laws require this.” The Pope won’t even rebuff disgraced Cardinal Roger Mahony, with whom he said mass and had a private audience earlier this month.

So the odds that his hand-picked abuse panel – whenever it’s set up – will make any difference are exceedingly slim.

And we believe his plan to put another abuse panel under the CDF is dreadful, especially given the poor tracker record of Muller on abuse. At best, this hide-bound institution has shown no interest or expertise in prevention, which should be the church hierarchy’s top priority.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas C. Fox | Jan. 31, 2014 The Francis Chronicles

In an important address to staff of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Francis today essentially said, “tone it down.”

He called for Vatican doctrinal officials to work with a new spirit of service and charity and to cooperate more with local churches. He reminded the CDF that doctrine “must be taught and judged within the context of the needs of the community.” In other words, he emphasized his pastoral vision, his Vatican II vision, as the primary vision of church. There can be little doubt this represents a major shift from the papacies of Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

He said, “right from the earliest times of the Church there has been a temptation to consider the doctrine in an ideological sense or to reduce it to a series of abstract and crystallized theories.” He went on to say that “doctrine’s sole role is to serve the life of God’s people and is meant to ensure a solid foundation to our faith,” according to Vatican radio.

There is a great temptation, he continued, “to take control of the gifts of salvation that come from God to domesticate them, maybe even with good intentions, according to the views and spirit of the world.”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Jan. 31, 2014 …

By now, many people have commented on the Rolling Stone cover story on Pope Francis, particularly the “Benedict bad, Francis good” framework the piece adopted. (Words such as “dour” and “disastrous” about Benedict loomed large.) A Vatican spokesman called the contrast between the two pontiffs “superficial journalism” marked by “a surprising crudeness.”

To be fair, comparisons between Francis and his predecessor are inevitable, and there’s no getting around the point that Francis is more of a crowd-pleaser. For sure, too, there is a shift in tone under Francis in what could be described as a “moderate” direction, though it might better be expressed as the ascendancy of the church’s pastors and diplomats over its theologians and canon lawyers.

That said, it’s also clear that Francis tends to get credit for several perceived reforms that actually began on Benedict’s watch, especially in two chronic sources of scandal for the church: money and sex abuse.

On money, it was Benedict who created a new financial watchdog agency, who opened the Vatican for the first time to outside secular inspection through the Moneyval process (the Council of Europe’s anti-money-laundering agency), and who appointed a new president of the Vatican bank who just released its first independently certified financial statement.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

By Danny Wicentowski Fri., Jan. 31 2014

A former African Methodist Episcopal Church minister was hit with a lawsuit Wednesday over allegations of sexual harassment.

Filed in St. Louis Circuit Court, the suit alleges that Reverend Frederick McCullough brazenly harassed — and nearly raped — an associate female minister during the two years he headed the Wayman AME Church in St. Louis.

“The unspoken message for women and especially female preachers has been that we must either accept the sexual harassment…or risk being being expelled,” said the plaintiff, Brenda Jones, in written statement. “I am fighting this because it has to stop.”

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MONTANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Jan. 312014

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)

Helena’s Catholic bishop is now seeking bankruptcy protection.

[Seattle PI]

It’s a selfish cop-out when Catholic institutions misuse the Chapter 11 process to protect their secrets and deny child sex abuse victims a chance to expose predators in court.

This isn’t about protecting church assets. It’s about protecting the power and reputations of powerful church officials who desperately want to keep their complicity in child sex cases under wraps.

We hope every single man, woman and child who is being or has been molested by Montana child molesting Catholic clerics steps forward, calls police and protects others. And we hope every single person who saw or suspected crimes by Christian Brothers will do the same.

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FLORIDA
New York Daily News

BY LEE MORAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014

A Florida-based Christian missionary will spend the next 58 years behind bars after being busted sexually abusing young indigenous girls in the Amazon.

Warren Scott Kennell also filmed his sick sex acts which he secretly carried out as he tried to set up a church with the remote Katukina tribe in Brazil.

The 45-year-old, who worked for the Sanford-based New Tribes Mission, at first befriended the youngsters.

Then, after gaining their trust, he abused them over a number of years.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, January 31 – Pope Francis told the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Friday that it may be directly linked with a new Vatican commission to protect children. “The possibility is being assessed,” he told the orthodoxy watchdog’s plenary session in Rome. Francis was referring to a special commission advising him on how the Catholic Church should protect children and help victims of sexual abuse by the clergy, launched last month in response to a worldwide scandal involving untold victims that has put the Church on the defensive for more than a decade. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has traditionally been tasked with overseeing reports of priests sexually abusing children, whereas the new commission deals specifically with preventing pedophelia and looking after victims.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Children and young people must always be protected against sexual abuse and always find adequate support in the church community, Pope Francis told the Vatican doctrinal office dealing with suspected cases of sexual abuse by clergy.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith should also look at ways to collaborate with a new papal advisory commission on abuse, which, the pope said, he wants to be an exemplary model for child protection.

“I want to thank you for your dedication to dealing with the delicate set of problems concerning the so-called most grave crimes, in particular cases of sexual abuse of minors by clerics,” Pope Francis said in a written speech Jan. 31.

He called on the congregation, which was given exclusive jurisdiction over a number of these most serious crimes in 2001, to focus on “the well-being of children and young people, who in the Christian community must always be protected and supported in their human and spiritual growth,” he said.

The pope asked the doctrinal office to also study ways it could cooperate with the special commission for the protection of young people he established in December.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 31 January 2014 (VIS) – The Press Office of the Holy See has announced the launch of a new Twitter account, @HolySeePress, to give notice when the Bulletin—which gives information in the various official languages of the Holy See on the important events occurring in the Vatican—is published daily. The notifications will also have a link to the Bulletin’s webpage on the Vatican site.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 31 January 2014 (VIS) – “To promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals in the whole Catholic world” is the duty that John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution “Pastor bonus” assigns to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This morning, at the end of their plenary session, Pope Francis received in audience the members of the dicastery.

The Holy Father emphasized that, “from the earliest days of the Church, there has been a temptation to understand doctrine in an ideological sense or to reduce it to a set of abstract and fossilized theories. In fact, doctrine has the sole purpose of serving the life of the People of God and seeks to ensure a firm foundation to our faith. Great indeed is the temptation to commandeer the gifts of salvation that come from God, to acclimate them—maybe even with the best intention—to the world’s viewpoints and spirit.”

The task of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith should “also always seek to keep in mind the needs of constructive, respectful, and patient dialogue with the authors. If truth demands precision, this always grows in charity and fraternal assistance for those called to deepen or clarify their beliefs.” Likewise, the Pope noted that the Congregation’s method of working is distinguished “by its practice of collegiality and dialogue. Effectively, the Church is a place of communion and, at all levels, each of us is called to cultivate and promote communion, each one with the responsibility assigned to us by the Lord.”

Then, mentioning their plenary session that was dedicated to the relationship between faith and marriage, he stated that “it is a reflection of great importance. It arises in the wake of the invitation already formulated by Benedict XVI regarding the need to question more deeply the relationship between personal faith and the celebration of the sacrament of marriage, especially in the changed cultural context.”

“On this occasion, I would also like to thank you for your efforts in dealing with sensitive issues regarding the most serious crimes, in particular, the cases of the sexual abuse of minors by clerics. Think of the welfare of children and the young, who in the Christian community must always be protected and supported in their human and spiritual growth. In this sense, the possibility is being looked into of connecting the specific Commission for the Protection of Minors, which I have established, to your dicastery. I hope it will be an example for all those who wish to promote the welfare of children.”

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IRELAND
BBC News

The High Court in Dublin has reserved its decision on an application by a Catholic bishop to dismiss cases being taken against him by three victims of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

The Bishop of Kilmore, Leo O’Reilly, is being sued as successor to the previous bishop, Francis McKiernan, as is Cardinal Sean Brady, formerly secretary to the bishop of Kilmore.

The victims accuse them of negligence.

They allege they did not take steps to prevent Smyth from abusing children.

Smyth abused children in the 1970s and the 1980s.

The victims said the churchmen did not report complaints made about Smyth in interviews conducted with two young boys in 1975.

One of the boys identified one of those taking the case as a victim of the priest during these interviews.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Jan. 31

Statement by Barbara Dorris of SNAP ( 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

On Thursday, one of Archbishop John Nienstedt’s public relations staffers said “We have continuously made ourselves available to law enforcement to address any outstanding questions they may have. . .”

[St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese]

On Wednesday, St. Paul’s police chief said “We have not had the opportunity to speak with Fr. McDonough.” (McDonough is a key figure in this scandal.)

[Pioneer Press]

Someone’s lying. We suspect it’s a Catholic official, not a law enforcement official. We suspect it’s Jim Accurso, not Captain Tom Smith.

It’s time for Nienstedt and his staff to fully cooperate, not just claim to cooperate, with police and prosecutor. There are two steps he should take immediately.

First, this week, Ramsey County prosecutors publicly begged victims, especially those who were forced or pressured to sign “gag orders” by church officials, to step forward.

Nienstedt should put this plea in every parish bulletin this Sunday, verbatim, and include contact numbers for local law enforcement agencies.

Second, Niestedt should issue a public statement today promising that he will not in any way retaliate against victims who break those “gag orders.”

Third, he should announce that he’s suspended Fr. McDonough and started defrocking him because of McDonough’s complicity in decades of cover up and his refusal to answer questions from police.

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

For immediate release Friday, January 31, 2014

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

By their own admission, St. Louis archdiocesan officials admit that only 8% of the child sex abuse reports they received about priests were turned over to police or Division of Family Services.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

These reports span the years from 1993-2003, a time when even high school drop outs knew that suspected crimes, especially heinous crimes against kids, should be reported to law enforcement

It’s also very telling that in 35 cases, relatives or loved ones of victims reported abuse. Yet church officials apparently did little or no outreach, ostensibly because the victim himself or herself didn’t take the initiative. Had a third party reported a pastor stealing money, we seriously doubt that Catholic officials would have taken such a passive approach.

Finally, keep in mind that Archbishop Robert Carlson was forced to make even this vague and misleading disclosure, because a brave victim of Fr. Joseph D. Ross is seeking justice and endured years of hard-ball and stalling legal strategies by Catholic officials. If not for her courage and persistence, none of this information would ever have been made public. We are grateful to her and to every victim, witness and whistleblower who has helped peel back decades of secrecy by callous, reckless and deceitful church employees, at the top and the bottom of the Catholic hierarchy.

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MONTANA
Montana Standard

The Diocese of Helena released the following statement this morning, and will hold a press conference this afternoon, Jan. 31, in Helena:

The Diocese of Helena has taken a major step toward bringing resolution to 362 claims of abuse of minors by diocesan priests, religious community priests, women religious and lay workers who have served in the diocese, primarily between 30 and 60 years ago.

On Friday, January 31, 2014, the Diocese will be filing a chapter 11 reorganization case before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Montana to complete pre-bankruptcy mediated negotiations with known abuse survivors and the Diocese’s liability insurance carriers.

The Diocese chose a pastoral mode and entered into a confidential mediation process. The mediation resulted in the general parameters of proposed settlements with the victims and the insurance carriers. The details of written agreements are still being worked on by the parties. Under the supervision and ultimate approval of the Bankruptcy Court, $15 million would be available to compensate the currently identified victims with additional settlement funds for other and unknown victims. The process of obtaining Bankruptcy Court approval included the opportunity for victims and creditors to vote on the proposed settlement. The Diocese expects that its reorganization will be expedited by the pre-bankruptcy negotiations with all of the affected parties.

“On behalf of the entire Diocese of Helena, I express my profound sorrow and sincere apologies to anyone who was abused by a priest, a sister, or a lay Church worker,” said Helena Bishop, George Leo Thomas. “No child should experience harm from anyone who serves in the Church.”

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MONTANA
Seattle PI

By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press
Updated 7:38 am, Friday, January 31, 2014

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for bankruptcy protection Friday in advance of proposed settlements for two lawsuits that claim clergy members sexually abused 362 people over decades and the church covered it up.

Diocese spokesman Dan Bartleson said in a statement Friday the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization case came after confidential mediation sessions with the plaintiffs’ attorneys, resulting in the deals to resolve the abuse claims.

The settlement details are being worked out, but the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Montana would be responsible for approving and supervising the disbursement of $15 million to compensate the identified victims, plus an additional amount set aside for those who come forward later.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Wednesday 29 January 2014

A Salvation Army officer who allegedly raped boys and sent them to the homes of other people to be sexually assaulted had been acquitted when brought to trial, an inquiry has been told.

Detective Inspector Rick John Cunningham told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Thursday that the child protection enforcement agency investigated allegations made in 1996 about abuse at a boys’ home in the southern Sydney suburb of Bexley and at the Gill Memorial Home in Goulburn, New South Wales.

Both homes were run by the Salvation Army and the allegations were made during investigations arising out of the Wood royal commission into NSW police.

At the Wood hearing, a witness identified as EP gave evidence about being sexually assaulted by Captain Lawrence Wilson at Bexley and gave names of others who were allegedly assaulted by Wilson and Captain Russell Walker while at Bexley.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Seattle PI

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Documents released by the Archdiocese of St. Louis as part of a civil lawsuit show that 16 church employees had at least five sex abuse complaints made against them in the decades before such cases were publicly known.

The archdiocese released the information while fighting demands for further disclosures in a lawsuit filed by an alleged victim of the since-defrocked Rev. Joseph Ross.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch bit.ly/1a6KEBQ reports that nearly half of the 240 abuse complaints against 115 priests and other church employees received over a 20-year period were made in 2002. The incidents dated back as far as the 1940s.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER and TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune staff writers
Updated: January 30, 2014

The Ramsey County attorney’s office and St. Paul police began reviewing documents Thursday that indicate that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis failed to notify authorities of a child sex-abuse accusation against a St. Paul priest within 24 hours, as required by law.

The move comes a day after County Attorney John Choi announced he would not prosecute the archdiocese for its reporting of the abuse complaint against the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, now in prison for sexually abusing two boys.

Within hours of that announcement, however, authorities received an archdiocese document that appeared to indicate that the archdiocese waited more than two days to notify police. The document was made public by Minnesota Public Radio.

“We’ll be looking at the new information as to the impact it may have on the investigation,’’ said Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the county attorney’s office. “We’re still in the early stages of discussion.’’

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

» Download the ACP Family Life Synod Survey Data Analysis

A version of the Vatican survey on Family Life was prepared by the Association of Catholic Priests and hosted on this website, and over 1,500 participated in it. The participants included priests, religious, lay people, parents and teachers.

Respondents generally welcomed the opportunity to participate but there was widepread criticism of the subject matter (emphasis on sexuality) and format (overly long, complicated, linguistically challenging).

The key findings from the overall responses is that those who participated consider the Church’s teaching on family life, sexual practice and sexual unions to be little understood, not relevant, of low influence and not agreed with, whether understood or not. These findings are consistent across all age groups and religious role (clergy, lay etc) where identified.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 01, 2014

A SALVATION Army major suspended this week “in light of evidence tendered to the royal commission” is alleged in reports dating back to 1974 to have sexually and physically abused children.

Several years before the current commission hearing, the army paid compensation to two men who alleged they were sexually abused by Major John McIver, who has denied these claims.

Confidential correspondence tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse shows Mr McIver criticising the army’s response to allegations of child abuse. “Every Tom, Dick and Harry who was ever unloved by his mother and ended up in an Army institution now feels emboldened to shift the blame because he/she thinks there might be money in it,” Mr McIver wrote.

The 2009 letter, sent after the Salvation Army received two separate allegations of sexual assault, concludes: “I have a rather satisfying and enjoyable life to lead and you won’t want to be troubled by me making any premature responses.”

The commission is investigating the alleged abuse of dozens of children by five Salvation Army officers at homes in Queensland and NSW between 1957 and 1975.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

MEDIA RELEASE

Royal Commission to hear stories from the Parramatta Girls Home

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Sydney commencing Monday 24 February 2014 into the experience of women who were sexually abused as children, between 1950-1974, while residing in two institutions which were within the responsibility of the NSW Government:

a. The Parramatta Girls Training School in Sydney, NSW
b. The Institution for Girls in Hay, NSW

The hearing will also consider any related matters.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The first public hearing to be held outside Sydney by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will commence in Brisbane on 17 February. The purpose of the hearing will be to inquire into the response by the Catholic Education Office, of the Diocese of Toowoomba in Queensland, to allegations of child sexual abuse at St Saviour’s Primary School. The public hearing – the sixth since the Royal Commission was established – is scheduled to run for two weeks.

Royal Commission CEO, Ms Janette Dines, says the scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

* The response by the Principal and other members of staff at St Saviour’s Primary School in Toowoomba, Queensland, to allegations of child sexual abuse made against a teacher at the primary school in September 2007.
* The response by officers of the Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Toowoomba, to information supplied by the primary school Principal at St Saviour’s Primary School regarding the allegations of child sexual abuse received in September 2007.
* The adequacy and implementation of systems, policies and procedures of the Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Toowoomba, and St Saviour’s Primary School for the prevention, detection, investigation and reporting of allegations of child sexual abuse since 2007.
* Any other related matters.

The venue for the hearing will be Court 17, Level 4, Brisbane Magistrates Court, 363 George Street, Brisbane. Ms Dines said, “The Royal Commission has a national focus and in the first half of 2014 there will also be public hearings in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY JACK BRENNAN – 31 JANUARY 2014

A former resident of a Church-run children’s home has told an inquiry how he was sexually abused by older boys while he slept.

He told the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry that St Joseph’s children’s home in Termonbacca, Co Londonderry, was “run on starvation”.

The man was handed over to a priest at St Joseph’s by his mother when he was a child and lived at the home in the 1950s and 1960s.

He told the inquiry which is investigating abuse claims against children’s residential institutions from 1922 to 1995 that responsibility for the younger boys was given over to the older boys by the nuns. The witness described how the older boys would call out the names of children at night, before having them stripped and sexually abusing them “for their own entertainment”.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 31, 2014

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

A government department has written to YMCA NSW expressing doubt that it is a child-safe organisation and imposing tough new conditions on its childcare licence based on evidence from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

A year after one of its staff Jonathan Lord was jailed for molesting boys as young as six in his care, and a month after scorching publicity and damning evidence about lax child-safety practices, an inspection last November revealed some childcare staff at YMCA Caringbah where Lord worked were still ignorant of child-protection laws and their obligation to comply with them, the commission has been told.

A compliance notice dated January 17 from the NSW Department of Education and Communities to YMCA NSW chief executive officer Phillip Hare sets out strict conditions for continuation of the YMCA’s childcare licence, which must be met by April 30. The letter was tendered as evidence at the commission.

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

[with extensive chart]

By Jennifer S. Mann jmann@post-dispatch.com 314-621-58043

ST. LOUIS • As the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal exploded across the nation in 2002, St. Louis was exposed to seamy details that previously had been hidden behind local parish walls.

A cascade of complaints against priests and other church employees — some, of abuse kept secret for decades — poured in to the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Only recently has the archdiocese revealed the extent.

The number of abuse allegations made here that year, according to the archdiocese’s own record keeping, was 111 — nearly half of what church officials say they received in total over a 20-year period ending in 2003. Those incidents dated back as far as the 1940s.

It is one of several revelations found in a cryptic court filing that provides the clearest view yet of the scope of the crisis here. The archdiocese released the information while fighting demands for further disclosures in a lawsuit filed by an alleged victim of the since-defrocked Rev. Joseph Ross.

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RHODE ISLAND
Boston.com

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A group that advocates for victims of clergy abuse wants authorities to investigate the Legion of Christ, a disgraced Roman Catholic order.

Two lawsuits in Rhode Island claim the Legion of Christ deceived elderly donors into giving it millions at the same time its officials knew the church was investigating its founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, for allegations including sex abuse. The order has said its actions in both cases were proper. A spokesman for the Legion did not return messages seeking comment this week.

The Vatican took over the order in 2010 after the investigation determined that Maciel had fathered three children and molested seminarians. In December, the Legion admitted a superior in charge of American priests-in-training sexually abused a minor at the Legion’s novitiate in Cheshire, Conn., where he was novice director from 1982 to 1994.

David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said on Thursday that Rhode Island and Connecticut law enforcement should investigate.

‘‘The Legion’s known and suspected wrongdoing is so persistent and widely documented that we think action by law enforcement is warranted. No institution can or should be allowed to essentially police itself,’’ he said.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By ARIEL KAMINER
JAN. 30, 2014

A federal lawsuit accusing Yeshiva University of covering up the sexual abuse of dozens of high school students has been thrown out by the judge hearing the case.

The lawsuit sought to hold the school, former administrators and former trustees accountable for hundreds of acts of abuse by two rabbis and an alumnus during the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. But the judge, John G. Koeltl of United States District Court in Manhattan, ruled on Thursday that it could not proceed because too many years had elapsed since the abuses took place.

The plaintiffs had sought to circumvent the statutes of limitations. They argued that the clock did not start ticking on their case until Yeshiva’s role in covering up the abuse was revealed in a December 2012 article in The Daily Forward.

But Judge Koeltl rejected that argument. “In this case,” he wrote, “the statutes of limitations have expired decades ago, and no exceptions apply.”

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

A FEMALE teacher at an all-boys Catholic school in Sydney has resigned over reported inappropriate relationships with students.

The St Aloysius’ College teacher, who taught Drama and English and is aged in her late 20s, had sex last year with at least two Year 12 students who were over 16 years old.

The teacher’s behaviour was exposed when a parent found out about a relationship with her son, Fairfax Media reports.

The school sent a note home to parents this week, alerting them about the incident.

Other teachers at the school were shocked to learn of the allegations, news.com.au has learnt.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 31, 2014

Anne Davies

EXCLUSIVE

A teacher has resigned from one of the north shore’s leading Catholic boys schools, St Aloysius College, after an internal investigation revealed she had been having “inappropriate relationships” with a number of boys in year 12 last year.

It is understood the teacher had sex with at least two boys at the school, including one who was a member of the school’s leadership group.

The boys were over the age of 16 but, because of the student-teacher relationship, the alleged contact contravened the rules of the school and child protection legislation.

It is believed that the events came to light at the school after a parent became aware of the teacher’s relationship with the son.

The rector of St Aloysius, Peter Hosking, who is responsible for pastoral care at the Jesuit school, confirmed the teacher had left the school after an internal investigation into “inappropriate contact”.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

January 31, 2014

A teacher has resigned from an elite Catholic boys school in Sydney amid claims she had sex with at least two Year 12 boys last year.

St Aloysius’ College confirmed that the teacher, who taught drama and English and is aged in her late 20s, had left the school after an internal investigation into “inappropriate contact”, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The rector of St Aloysius, Peter Hosking, declined to say how many students were involved but said the Jesuit school was taking the matter very seriously and had written to parents.

The two boys understood to have had sex with the teacher were over the age of 16 at the time but the alleged acts still breached child protection legislation as well as school rules because of the teacher-student relationship.

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UNITED STATES
The Age of Blasphemy

This is crossposted from Eyes Right, the blog of Political Research Associates, where I will be doing a series of posts on the Christian Right and child sex abuse. — FC

The exposure of widespread sex abuse by Roman Catholic clergy–and of the subsequent cover-ups by church leaders–has rocked the Catholic church for more than a decade. Less well known, though closely analogous, is the issue of widespread abuse within Protestant evangelical churches. Such stories raise doubt that the evangelical/Catholic alliance that defines the contemporary Christian Right is, in any legitimate sense, a defender of “family values.”

Boz Tchividjian rattled the evangelical world in 2013, when he declared that the problem of child sex abuse in evangelicalism is “worse” than the problem in the Roman Catholic Church. The grandson of Billy Graham, a former child sex crimes prosecutor for the state of Florida, and now a law professor at Liberty University, Tchividjian has both the public profile to hold an audience, and the professional experience to back up his assertions.Tchividjian is not the only prominent evangelical speaking out. “Catholic and Baptist leaders have more similarities than differences on the child-abuse front,” wrote Robert Parnham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics. “Both have harmed church members and the Christian witness by not swiftly addressing predatory clergy and designing reliable protective systems.”

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which currently claims 15.9 million members in 46,000 churches in the U.S., has acknowledged the problem of child sex abuse within member churches. Still, too many Baptist leaders–like their Catholic counterparts–have responded to the problem with denials, inattention, and cover-ups. Indeed, Rev. Peter Lumpkins of Georgia called for the SBC’s governing body to adopt “a zero-tolerance policy toward the sexual abuse of children in churches,” but now thinks church officials are ignoring his 2013 resolution.

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MISSOURI
CBS St. Louis

By: Christina Turner, State Capitol Bureau

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (MDN) – Missouri lawmakers considered a bill that would criminalize clergy sexual exploitation.

House Bill 1346 would create a class C felony of sexual exploitation by or of a clergy person. The bill would prevent any sexual conduct between a parishioner and religious leader within 120 days of first advisement.

Rep. Kathie Conway, R-St. Charles, is the bill sponsor and vice-chair of the House Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety. She says the bill was inspired by a woman whose pastor took advantage of her in the aftermath of a difficult pregnancy. After telling her husband what happened, the victim went to the police.

“The police of course said, ‘Well, there’s nothing we can do, it was consensual,’” Conway said. “Well her response was, ‘Well, it was consensual because she was so unduly influenced by this man.”

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ESTADOS UNIDOS
Terra

[Group seeks criminal probes of Catholic order]

Associated Press

Un grupo que defiende a las víctimas de abusos sexuales por parte del clero quiere que las autoridades investiguen a los Legionarios de Cristo, una orden católica desprestigiada.

En dos demandas interpuestas en Rhode Island se afirma que los Legionarios engañaron a personas de edad avanzada para que les donaran millones de dólares mientras sus autoridades sabían que la Iglesia católica investigaba a su fundador, el sacerdote mexicano Marcial Maciel, por denuncias de abuso sexual. Un portavoz de los Legionarios no devolvió un mensaje en busca de comentarios esta semana.

El Vaticano tomó control de la orden en el 2010 luego de que una investigación determinó que Maciel tuvo tres hijos y acosó sexualmente a seminaristas. En diciembre, los Legionarios admitieron que un superior a cargo de los sacerdotes en formación en Estados Unidos abusó de un menor en Cheshire, Connecticut, donde fue director de novicios de 1982 a 1994.

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AUSTRALIA
New South Wales Police Force

Catholic priest charged over alleged historical indecent assault – Strike Force Rufina

Friday, 31 January 2014

A Catholic priest has been charged following an alleged historical indecent assault in Croydon.

In 2013, Strike Force Rufina was formed to investigate an allegation of the indecent assault of a teenage boy at a Croydon parish in 2005.

About 12pm on Wednesday 29 January 2014, detectives attached to Strike Force Rufina arrested a 38-year-old man at Burwood Police Station.

He was charged with one count of aggravated indecent assault and granted conditional bail, to appear at Burwood Local Court on 20 February 2014.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

A CATHOLIC priest in Sydney’s inner west has been charged with the historical indecent assault of a teenage boy.

Last year a strike force was established to investigate allegations a teenage boy had been abused at a Croydon parish in 2005, police said.

A Catholic priest, 38, was arrested and charged with aggravated indecent assault.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Friday 31 January 2014

A priest suspended for alleging a culture of homosexual bullying within the Catholic Church in Scotland has lost a legal challenge over access to his parish house.

Parishioners in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, have been told an interdict was granted at Hamilton Sheriff Court forbidding Father Matthew Despard, who has been suspended since last November, from preventing his replacement gaining access to the presbytery.

Father Despard, 48, had refused to leave the presbytery house of St John Ogilvie, High Blantyre, having changed the locks.

He continued to live in the property against the will of the interim Bishop Of Motherwell Joseph Toal. His temporary replacement, the Reverend William Nolan, has been unable to get into the property, leading to the court action against him.

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AUSTRALIA
The Satellite

Jessica Grewal 30th Jan 2014

THE royal commission is expected find that Anglican Diocese of Grafton failed in its handling of child abuse claims at Lismore’s North Coast Children’s Home and withheld information from the police.

In a damning report released on Thursday night, Counsel Assisting the Commissioner Simeon Beckett recommends that two Northern NSW priests – Reverend Morgan and Reverend Brown – be referred to the Anglican Church’s Professional Standards Committee to determine whether disciplinary proceedings should be initiated against them.

Final submissions arising from the November inquiry into abuse at the home closed on January 24.

Mr Beckett submitted there were 59 findings available to the commission – including that the Grafton Diocese put the interests of the Anglican Church ahead of providing financial support to victims.

He found former Grafton Diocese registrar Pat Comben was aware former Lismore Priest Allan Kitchingman had been convicted of sexual offences against a child but failed to commence disciplinary proceedings against him.

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AUSTRALIA
Fraser Coast Chronicle

Jessica Grewal 31st Jan 2014

ALLEGATIONS made against an accused pedophile priest during last year’s North Coast Children’s Home inquiry are now subject to a police investigation, documents before the royal commission have revealed.

Reverend Campbell Brown, a retired Grafton priest believed to be living in the Newcastle area, is accused of sexually assaulting children, including whistleblower Richard “Tommy” Campion, while he was in a position of trust at the Lismore home.

Documents tendered to the commission this week confirm Rev Brown was referred to the police in December last year.

He had previously been referred to the Child Abuse Squad in 2006.

At the time, the Grafton Diocese was told Rev Brown had not had any contact with the Church since the ordinance of women, was nearly 80 years old and vision impaired.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Claims of child sexual abuse at Lismore’s North Coast Children’s Home are the focus of findings and recommendations just released.

Among them is that the Anglican Church put school funding ahead of settling child sexual abuse claims.

The Commission itself is yet to release its final report, but Counsel Assisting, Simeon Beckett, published 59 findings and 6 recommendations.

He found there was a long history of knowledge about child abuse, with Reverend Pat Comben and Peter Roland knowing since 2006 of at least 20 cases.

He found Rev Comben failed to refer the allegations to police.

Another finding was that former Grafton Bishop Keith Slater wrote hostile letters to abuse survivors.

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