ABUSE TRACKER

INDIANA
ABC 57

By Melissa Hudson
Story Created: Jan 15, 2014

WALKERTON, Ind. — The pastor of Saint Patrick Parish has resigned and retired after an investigation by the Diocese of Fort Wayne – South Bend found evidence he sexually abused a minor more than 40 years ago.

Father James Seculoff has been in the clergy for more than 50 years.

According to Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, once they received the allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, they launched a preliminary investigation.

That investigation revealed strong evidence the abuse did occur.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by SNAP spokesman Kate Bochte 630 768 1860 (cell), keight@sbcglobal.net

Chicago Cardinal Francis George must answer two simple questions. First, why not disclose the names and the records of ALL Chicago child molesting clerics, whether they’ve been sued or not and whether he’s been forced to or not. And second, why not disclose the names and records of dozens of Chicago child molesting religious order clerics (Jesuits, Marianists, etc.) like 14 of his colleagues have done?

He claims he’s “committed” to “transparency.”

[Chicago archdiocese]

But he deliberately protects the roughly 1/3 of all child molesting clerics who work or have worked in his archdiocese by hiding their identities.

In 2010, Chicago native Bishop Gerald Kicanas, who heads the Tucson diocese, told the New York Times that excluding religious order priests from predator priest lists “doesn’t seem appropriate … Our goal is to demonstrate to the person harmed that the church understood their pain and the harm that had been done to them, and to get as many victims as possible to come forward.”

[BishopAccountability.org]

We urged Cardinal George to disclose the names, photos, work histories and personnel records of all child molesting Catholic clerics. Not just those that are sued. Not just those on the archdiocesan payroll. All of them. Anything less is selfish and irresponsible.

He should stop burnishing his image. He should start protecting his flock.
He should stop splitting hairs. He should start acting responsibly.
He should stop pledging “transparency” and start practicing transparency.
He should stop disclosing when forced and start disclosing voluntarily.

We’re a support group. We have a tiny staff. We have no investigators. We certainly have no subpoena powers.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims to Bishop: Come clean about fugitive cleric
Stop defending indicted priest, SNAP urges Catholic official
Bishop must not use bankruptcy to stonewall victims, they say

What: Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and supporters will urge the bishop of Stockton to:

— “come clean” and turn over evidence about a local priest indicted Monday for child sex crimes,
— publicly apologize for keeping that priest in ministry during a civil child sex abuse trial,
— reach out to child sex abuse victims in the diocese and urge them to report to law enforcement, and
— stop using bankruptcy to stonewall victims, dupe public, delay justice

When: Thursday, January 16 at 11:00 am

Where: Outside of the Stockton Diocese Headquarters

212 N. San Joaquin St. (between Miner and Channel) in Stockton

Who: Two-to-three adults who belong to a self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Some were molested as kids; others are concerned Catholics.

Why: On Monday, a Calaveras County grand jury indicted Fr. Michael Kelly on four felony counts of child molestation.

[Modesto Bee]

Kelly, who in April 2012 was found liable for sexually abusing a Stockton boy, fled to Ireland after the verdict and amid rumors that he was under criminal investigation.

Thoughout the five-year litigation with Kelly victim Travis Trotter, Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire maintained Kelly’s innocence, even publicly disagreeing with the unanimous verdict against the priest

[Stockton diocese]

If convicted, Kelly could face up to 14 years in prison.

The same day that Kelly was indicted, Blaire announced that the Stockton Diocese filing for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, January 15. In a statement, Blaire claimed he wants “compensation for victims who have not had their day in court,” but said that legal costs had depleted the diocesan treasury. More than a decade ago, the diocese spun off parishes, schools and charities as separate corporations, a move, victims believe, to protect those assets from civil liability in sex abuse cases.

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INDIANA
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Rosa Salter Rodriguez | The Journal Gazette

A priest with a long history in Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend parishes and schools has been removed from ministry after a “credible” allegation of sexual abuse of a minor 44 years ago, diocesan officials said Wednesday.

The Rev. James F. Seculoff resigned as the pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church, Walkerton, where he had served for about six months, said Sean McBride, diocese spokesman.

Before that, Seculoff, a native of Fort Wayne, was pastor at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, New Haven, for several years, McBride said. Seculoff also served other Fort Wayne area parishes.

Around the time the abuse is alleged to have occurred, Seculoff was elevated from principal at the former Huntington Catholic High School to superintendant of diocesan schools. He held that post until 1978.

McBride said the Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades, diocesan bishop, sent a letter disclosing the allegation and announcing the removal that was read at Mass at St. Patrick last weekend.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A woman from Warwickshire who was raped by a Catholic priest when she was a child is travelling to Switzerland to hear leaders of the Catholic Church explain what it is doing to prevent child abuse in churches.

Sue Cox gave up her right to remain anonymous and now represents hundreds of people who say they were abused by priests.

Senior figures of the Vatican will be questioned by the United Nation’s committee tomorrow.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

Pope Francis shakes up Vatican Bank, sets financial cap for sainthood

By Eric J. Lyman | Religion News Service, Wednesday, January 15

ROME — Pope Francis on Wednesday (Jan. 15) took his biggest step yet at cleaning house at the scandal-ridden Vatican Bank, replacing most of the institution’s advisers with fresh faces.

Among the new appointees: Vatican Secretary of State and Cardinal-designate Pietro Parolin; Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn from Vienna; Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto; and veteran diplomat Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, a close friend of the pontiff’s.

French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran is the lone cardinal adviser who was retained.

Francis’ move essentially undid a decree issued last year by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who confirmed the Vatican Bank’s supervisory body for another five years, just days before announcing his retirement. The most high-profile figure sacked on Wednesday was Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Benedict’s secretary of state and the face of administrative woes of Benedict’s papacy.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

[with video]

Michelle Gallardo

January 15, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Thousands of pages of documents were handed over to they attorneys of sex abuse victims by the Archdiocese of Chicago on Wednesday.

“I want to offer apologies to all victims affected by these sins and crimes” Bishop Francis Kane said during the news conference.

The documents include complaints, personnel files and more and are expected to identify 30 former clergy members accused of abusing children, and the church officials who help protect the accused. They are being released as part of a legal settlement.

The archdiocese says 95 percent of the incidents in these cases, all of which were reported to the police, occurred prior to 1988.

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INDIANA
WNDU

WALKERTON, Ind. The pastor of St. Patrick Parrish in Walkerton, Rev. James Seculoff, has resigned amid allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.

A letter from Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese was read to parishioners on Sunday, January 12 telling of the accusations.

It stated a preliminary investigation revealed sufficient evidence that sexual abuse of minor did occur “many” years ago.

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CHICAGO (IL)
City of Angels

by Kay Ebeling

My luck. I click on Chicago radio to hear about the snow and instead find out Cardinal George is releasing names of 30 priests credibly accused as pedophiles. (30 more priests, why doesn’t the Archdiocese release say 30 more priests?) Standing there in my kitchen hearing the news I shout out loud, as I doubt the Chicago Archdiocese and Francis George are ever going to acknowledge my perp priest and what they let him do to me and my sister in the 1950s.

Father Thomas Barry Horne was founding pastor at St. Peter Damian Church in Bartlett, which today is a Northwest Suburb but in 1949, when the parish began, was just a small country farm town with a few thriving nightclubs downtown near the train station. In all there have been three pedophile priests as pastors of this one small town church, which curiously, was named for the monk who first wrote about the perils of pedophilia in the priesthood in the Eleventh Century.

Last week Cardinal George said in his muddled explanation for the release of the list and the church’s handling of pedophile priests, “The response, in retrospect, was not always adequate to all the facts, but a mistake is not a cover up.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014

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

The Pope made another move today to purportedly ‘clean up’ the Vatican bank.

It may seem like an odd question, but does Pope Francis care more about money than children? He pushes out church officials who are allegedly complicit with financial misdeeds but not those complicit with sex crime cover ups.

He gently moves aside a few bishops who are too stern in their demeanor or too ostentatious in their dress. But he won’t act against bishops who are too close to child molesting clerics, too reckless with kids’ safety or too callous toward wounded victims.

The well-being of vulnerable children should trump the re-organization of church finances.

Fewer Catholics leave due to monetary scandals. More leave due to child sex scandals. Any “reform” efforts should start there.

Pope Francis has spoken several times about his priorities – a focus on the poor, priests close to their flocks, a dedication to service instead of careerism. But by neglecting the clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis, the Pope is revealing that his priorities need re-alignment too.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

A CHILD sex abuse victim has accused whistleblower policeman Peter Fox of exploiting her ordeal and giving false information in the national television interview that triggered the royal commission into institutional abuse, saying she no longer trusts him. Previously confidential documents released by a state government inquiry reveal the victim, who cannot be named, explicitly contradicts the description of her given on the ABC’s Lateline program and is deeply upset her case was discussed on air.

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A St. Paul-Minneapolis priest ordained in 2003, Wehmann has been the subject of several reported incidents of “boundary violations” with children. Among these was a 2006 report by a family about Wehmann’s overly intimate behavior with their children when he was a guest in their home. He admitted to the behavior, which included what the priest called “root beer kisses.” Wehmann was placed on leave in December 2013.

Ordained: 2003

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Written by
Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News

Father Paul Gofigan’s dispute with Archbishop Anthony Apuron may end up in court.

Gofigan issued a statement on Tuesday, saying Apuron hasn’t retracted comments that Gofigan allege tainted the priest’s reputation.

A phone call and an email to the Archdiocese of Agana leadership for comment were not returned as of press time.

Gofigan had sent the archbishop a letter on Jan. 13, which gave the archbishop until noon Tuesday “to make the retraction in writing, and to give a copy of (Apuron’s) retraction to every member of Guam’s clergy.”

Gofigan’s letter to the archbishop states Apuron allegedly made slanderous comments about Gofigan and a parishioner friend and a friend’s family at a gathering of more than 30 members of the clergy from Guam and the Philippines.

Gofigan wrote that the archbishop made the alleged comments at an archdiocesan retreat in the Philippines.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago

January 15, 2014

Today the Archdiocese of Chicago will release to plaintiffs’ lawyer, Jeffrey Anderson, documents related to 30 Archdiocesan priests who have been accused of abusing minors at various times during the last half century. This release of documents is part of a mediation agreement between the Archdiocese and claimants’ lawyers. All of the documents relate to cases that date back many years, in some cases decades. Ninety-five percent of these cases occurred prior to 1988. These cases were reported to civil authorities and the Archdiocese did not hide abuse or protect abusers. All of the priests involved in this document release are out of ministry and 14 are deceased. No priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor serves in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago today.

The Archdiocese’s concern is for the rights of everyone involved, which both the Archdiocese and claimants acknowledge require careful consideration. Some portions of the documents are redacted to comply with legal restrictions about privacy of medical and mental health information and to protect the innocent. Nothing is redacted to conceal the identity of abusers.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is in full compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted by the U.S. Bishops in Dallas in June 2002. The charter requires that no priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor can serve in public ministry. The Archdiocese of Chicago refers all reports of sexual abuse immediately to civil authorities. The Archdiocese’s independent Review Board examines the findings of all investigations and makes recommendations to the archbishop regarding fitness for ministry and safety of children.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is concerned first and foremost with the healing of abuse victims and has maintained a victim assistance ministry for more than 25 years. In addition, the Archdiocesan Office for the Protection of Children and Youth, charged with assisting victims and their families and preventing abuse, has trained and processed background checks on more than 160,000 priests, deacons, religious, lay employees and volunteers; conducted more than 3,000 training sessions; and trained more than 200,000 children to protect themselves from sexual predators.

The abuse of any child is a crime and a sin. The Archdiocese encourages anyone who has been sexually abused by a priest, deacon, religious or lay employee, to come forward. Complete information about reporting sexual abuse can be found on the Archdiocesan website at www.archchicago.org/departments/protection/protection.shtm.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

[with video]

by Tonya Francisco
Reporter

The Chicago Archdiocese released thousands of documents Wednesday, detailing how church officials responded to abuse claims against 30 priests.

The documents are being released as part of settlements with abuse victims.

The files include complaints, reports from internal investigations and actions taken by the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Bishop Francis Kane, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Chicago, apologized for past sins and promised transparency in the future. “I personally have also felt the betrayal that priests and others have expressed about the few among us who have cast a shadow on all that we’re trying to do. And I want to assure the public that no priest with even one substantiated accusation of child abuse against him serves in public ministry in the Archdiocese.”

The organization SNAP, The Survivors Network of those abused by Priests, says the Archdiocese is not being completely forthcoming and is hiding the identities of dozens of other priests who are accused of molesting.

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VATICAN CITY
Fox News Latino

On Thursday, the Vatican will be forced for the first time to defend itself to the United Nations, at length in public, against allegations it enabled the rape of thousands of children. Meanwhile, Pope Francis made another move to clean house at the troubled Vatican bank on Wednesday naming a new roster of cardinal advisers to replace the ones who were in place during the bank’s latest brushes with scandal.

Only one cardinal from the previous commission overseeing the bank’s operations, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, survived the cut. The five-member Cardinal’s Commission, as it is known, names the lay board of the Vatican bank and its top two general managers and makes sure they adhere to the bank’s mission to administer money for works of charity.

The bank cleanup comes as the Vatican is gearing up for a bruising showdown over the another black eye for the Catholic Church – the global priest sex abuse scandal. The Vatican will be forced for the first time on Thursday to defend itself at length and in public against allegations that it enabled the rape of thousands of children by protecting pedophile priests, and its own reputation, at the expense of victims.

The Holy See will be grilled by a U.N. committee in Geneva on its implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Among other things, the treaty calls for signatories to take all appropriate measures to protect children from harm and to put children’s interests above all else.

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UNITED STATES
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
January 15, 2014

With all the new information that has been coming out around Minnesota about the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, one has to wonder, who can we trust? Those who have known about these crimes and continue to attempt to cover them up, are just as bad as those committing them. Even though the dioceses have been ordered to reveal a list of names of those priests accused of sexual misconduct, the fact that they have been given so much time to compile these lists is worrisome. For decades they have been accused and charged with sexual abuse crimes and for decades most of those accused of these crimes have been either moved to a different parish, or hidden away.

In the past 15 years the St. John Vianney Residence for Retired Priests, located in Rutherford, NJ has housed 7 alleged sexual predators. Until recently no one in the surrounding areas had any idea these priest, who have been living right next door to children, families, schools and churches, were accused of sexual abuse. When a sexual offender moves to a new neighborhood their information and whereabouts becomes public knowledge, so why should it be any different for priest who have been accused of these same crimes? Why are they being protected? While shining light on the names of the accused is definite progress, the church itself should be doing more to help the survivors of these crimes. As we continue to unravel the truths the most important thing to remember is getting help to those who have been abused. The protection belongs to those who have suffered the damaged caused by these transgressions.

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NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Written by
Peggy Wright
@peggywrightDR

A Mendham man with a history of psychiatric problems pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminal mischief and agreed to pay $7,500 to resolve a charge that he used a sledgehammer to destroy a monument dedicated to victims of sexual abuse by priests.

Gordon Ellis, 39, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Mary Gibbons Whipple in Morristown to a disorderly persons offense of criminal mischief, according to defense lawyer Neill Hamilton and Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Anthony Scibetta.

Hamilton called the plea offer “reasonable” and said that reasons behind the vandalism will be given at sentencing on Feb. 7 but were not laid out by Ellis during his guilty plea. Hamilton said that the plea agreement calls for Ellis to make restitution, serve a period of probation that will be determined by the judge, and continue with mental health treatment.

Ellis had been indicted by a Morris County grand jury on a third-degree charge of criminal mischief but in negotiations between Scibetta and Hamilton, the charge was downgraded to a disorderly persons offense. Both sides had recognized that Ellis had a documented history of psychiatric problems.

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CANADA
Quinte News

The father of the 26-year-old man who says he was sexually molested by a locally known Roman Catholic Priest says he noticed his son’s behaviour changing during his last year of high school.

The Kingston Whig-Standard reports the father testified yesterday.

Father Rene Labelle is being tried in a Kingston courtroom. He served as priest at a church in Read, north of Shannonville in the 1980′s and 1990′s.

Father Labelle resigned his post in 2012 as Chaplin of Holy Cross Secondary School in Kingston.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

[with video]

Michelle Gallardo

January 15, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Thousands of pages of documents were handed over to they attorneys of sex abuse victims by the Archdiocese of Chicago on Wednesday.

“I want to offer apologies to all victims affected by these sins and crimes” Bishop Francis Kane said during the news conference.

The documents include complaints, personnel files and more and are expected to identify 30 former clergy members accused of abusing children and the church officials who help protect the accused. They are being released as part of a legal settlement.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is the nation’s third largest archdiocese. Last Sunday, Francis Cardinal George released a letter to Chicago-area parishioners informing them of Wednesday’s release. He said he wrote the letter to be accountable and transparent.
“It’s always important to tell the truth. Since the publications of dozens of events that happened in the [19]80s before I got here is going to be, nonetheless, the occasion for a lot of conversation, I thought I better put it in some perspective. So, that was the purpose of the letter,” he said Sunday.

“It’s just a dishonest letter. It’s a disingenuous letter,” said Kate Bochte of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

It has been a week of starts and stops for Ken Chackes, the attorney representing Jane Doe, a young woman who claims she was sexually abused in the late 1990s and early 2000s at the hands of the now de-frocked priest Father Joseph Ross.

Last week the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Robert Dierker demanding that the St. Louis Archdiocese turn over to Chackes and the victim, now in her early twenties, the names of 115 of its employees accused of molesting children from 1983 to 2003. But the ruling was fleeting. On Monday the archdiocese won a stay from the Missouri Supreme Court that, at best, will further delay the release of the names or, at worst, ensure they remain a secret as the Church desires.

But even if the names of the accused and the victims are turned over, it’s unclear what impact they’ll have at trial.

For one, the “matrix” of sex allegations that the archdiocese wanted to keep under wraps (but which sneaked out as part of its appellate filing), is incredibly vague even with the inclusion of names. Secondly, the archdiocese’s cat-and-mouse game in court — with Dierker threatening to charge the archdiocese with contempt for dragging its feet — has already cost Chackes and his client precious time for discovery. The trial is slated to begin in a scant five weeks on February 24.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Statement by SNAP spokesman Kate Bochte 630 768 1860 (cell), keight@sbcglobal.net

Chicago Cardinal Francis George must answer two simple questions. First, why not disclose the names and the records of ALL Chicago child molesting clerics, whether they’ve been sued or not and whether he’s been forced to or not. And second, why not disclose the names and records of dozens of Chicago child molesting religious order clerics (Jesuits, Marianists, etc.) like 14 of his colleagues have done?

He claims he’s “committed” to “transparency.” [Catholic New World]

But he deliberately protects the roughly 1/3 of all child molesting clerics who work or have worked in his archdiocese by hiding their identities.

In 2010, Chicago native Bishop Gerald Kicanas, who heads the Tucson diocese, told the New York Times that excluding religious order priests from predator priest lists “doesn’t seem appropriate … Our goal is to demonstrate to the person harmed that the church understood their pain and the harm that had been done to them, and to get as many victims as possible to come forward.”

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

BY PHILIP PULLELLA
VATICAN CITY Wed Jan 15, 2014

(Reuters) – Pope Francis shook up the scandal-plagued Vatican bank on Wednesday, removing four of five cardinals from an oversight body in a break with the clerical financial establishment he inherited from his predecessor.

It was his latest move to get to grips with an institution that has often been an embarrassment for the Holy See and which he has vowed to either reform or close.

The four cardinals were removed just 11 months into their five-year terms as commissioners, which began under former Pope Benedict, who resigned last February.

The changes came as Francis approached the first anniversary of a pontificate marked by austerity and sobriety, underlined by his decision to give up the papal apartments in favor of a modest suite.

The new team includes two cardinals – Toronto’s Christopher Collins and Vienna’s Christoph Schoenborn – from relatively rich dioceses who have had extensive dealings with financial affairs.

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AUSTRALIA
Pearls and Irritations

Posted on January 15, 2014 by John Menadue

On 29 December 1170, four armed knights from the Court of King Henry II of England entered Canterbury Cathedral. They had previously heard the King complain about the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a’Becket, who was in dispute with Henry over “privilege of clergy”, the right of clergy to be tried exclusively in Church or canonical courts for any kind of crime. “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” Henry is reported to have said. Four knights of his Court took the hint, went to Canterbury Cathedral, and sliced the top off a’Becket’s head.

Privilege of clergy was whittled away over the years, and was finally abolished by the English parliament in 1827, but the Catholic Church has always hankered back to the 12th century when it had the exclusive right to try clergy for every kind of crime. Priests were special people, ontologically changed by God on ordination, and therefore deserving of special treatment. A secret canonical trial avoided “scandal”, which has a special meaning in Catholicism: the loss of faith when adherents realise that those who represent Christ are misbehaving badly.

In those countries where the Church exerted some influence, it has written some form of the privilege into the civil laws. The Vatican’s treaties with Latvia (1922), Poland (1925), Italy (1929) and the Dominican Republic (1954) provided that convicted clergy would serve their sentences separated from “lay people” or in a monastery. In Spain, Franco’s 1953 Concordat with the Vatican provided that a bishop could only be tried in a civil court with the consent of the Vatican, and clergy with the consent of the bishop. Any deprivation of liberty was to be spent in a religious house, not in jail, and the trial was not to be publicised.

Colombia’s 1973 Concordat with the Vatican provides that bishops cannot be tried by the State Courts, but only by Church Courts. Priests can be tried in State Courts, but the proceedings are not to be publicised. In 1993, the Colombian Constitutional Court declared the Concordat inconsistent with the 1991 Constitution, but the Vatican, as recently as 2007, insisted that the Concordat be honoured, that bishops should be above the law, and that trials of priests be held in secret.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

The news broke out of Geneva yesterday.

It’s a victory.
There are too few of them.
It deserves a full measure of standing back and just knowing it happened.
A pause in the pain.
Children will have a voice.
How loud, how listened to, how effective?
All to be known in time’s true telling.
But for today. It’s a victory. It is to be savored.
Hip, Hip Hooray!

From the UN News Centre, the announcement:

A new legal instrument allowing children or their representatives to file a complaint with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is set to go into effect in April, following its final required ratification, the United Nations today announced.

This means, the UN News Centre announcement, goes on to say:

Starting in April, individual children or groups of children from the countries that have ratified the Optional Protocol will be able to submit complaints to the Committee on specific violations related to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Convention is a universally agreed set of non-negotiable standards and obligations, providing protection and support for the rights of children. Its three Optional Protocols deal, respectively, with protecting children from trafficking, prostitution and child pornography; prohibiting their recruitment in armed conflict; and allowing them to bring their complaints to the UN if their rights are being abused.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON JANUARY 15, 2014

Child molesting clerics who have worked/lived in Chicago
Each has received little or virtually no public attention in the area
Most have molested children elsewhere in one case, dozens of them
And none have ever been disclosed by Cardinal Francis George or his staff

(None of these names appear as proven, admitted or credibly accused abusers on the Chicago archdiocesan website. Nearly all of them have attracted no public attention in the Chicagoland area, even though some of them have molested dozens of kids elsewhere.)

Each has come to SNAP’s attention over just the past few months. All have been publicly exposed by media elsewhere.

In each case, SNAP believes Chicago Catholic officials (archdiocesan and religious order) should have disclosed the allegations and/or settlements against the clerics. And Chicago Catholic officials should now be reaching out to others who saw, suspected or suffered their crimes.

The names below are a few of the dozens and dozens of religious order clerics who worked or live/lived – and sometimes molested – in Chicago. But their known or alleged crimes and their years in the Chicago area are being kept hidden by archdiocesan and religious order officials. (Roughly 1/3 of US priests belong to such orders, including Jesuits, Marianists, and Franciscans.)

Information about most of these predators can be found at BishopAccountability.org (but likely NOT in the Chicago archdiocesan section, since many of their crimes took place in other cities, states or countries).

–Fr. John J. Burke

He is accused of molesting at least one child in Kankakee in the 19___s, according to newspaper reports.

Burke spent most of his long clerical career in the Chicagoland area, working at three assignments (maybe more) in the Chicago archdiocese. Two were in Arlington Heights: – at the Viatorian Provincial Center () from 1983-1986 and at the Viatorian Mission House (1115 E. Euclid Ave.) from 1961-1962. Burke also worked at St. Viator Parish, 4170 Addison St. in Chicago from 1944-1952.

He was ordained in Boston and worked in at least two other dioceses besides Chicago: Savannah, Georgia (St. Thomas Vocational School from 1943-1944) and in Joliet (St. George Parish in Bourbonnais from 1962-1983, St. Patrick’s Parish in Kankakee from 1952-1961, and Kankakee State Boys Camp for troubleed boys – from 1954-1966).

He died in 1986 at age 78 but is still memorialized glowingly on a church website run by the Viatorians, a Chicago-based religious order to which he belonged:http://viatorians.com/vc-memorial-us/burke/

There’s a clear photo of him there too.

–Fr. Ignatius M. Burrill

For 25 years, Burrill was a faculty member and counselor at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. In 8/11, the Jesuit Province of Chicago-Detroit announced that a former student at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland had come forward to allege abuse by Burrill between 1952-1956 when the priest worked at the school. In 4/12, Boston attorney Mitch Garabedian announced a settlement of one child sex abuse case against Burrill.

He also taught at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary and worked in Michigan, Indiana and Kansas.

Burrill died in March, 1987. He also worked in Cleveland. His photo is available at BishopAccountability.org

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON JANUARY 15, 2014

For the third time in a week, at a news conference this morning, Chicago Catholic officials will put their spin on abuse records which will be made public next week. Here are some questions they should be asked:

1) A third of the priests in the archdiocese are religious order priests. Fourteen bishops list those predators on their websites. You unilaterally refuse to do likewise. Why?

2) Almost 30 U.S. bishops voluntarily list names of predator priests on their websites. You had to be forced to do so through litigation. Why?

3) An independent archive group,BishopAccountability.org, lists 121 publicly accused Chicago child molesting clerics. Your website lists only around 65 such clerics. Why the discrepancy?

4) The Philadelphia archdiocesan predator priest list includes photographs, assignment histories (including time in treatment facilities), and current status. http://archphila.org/delegate/restricted.htm

Why won’t you provide this helpful information about Chicago predator priests?

5) Why did the archdiocese fight the disclosure of these records for eight years?

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COLORADO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014

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

A high ranking Ft. Worth Catholic official, Msgr. Stephen Berg, is the new bishop of Pueblo. He takes over a diocese with a dismal record on children’s safety.

We hope that he will take decisive action to safeguard kids, instead of just posturing and promising the way most bishops do.

Specifically, we hope he will expose and punish Pueblo church staffers who ignored or concealed child sex crimes and aggressively seek out others who have been hurt by the 11 proven, admitted and credibly accused Pueblo clerics. (We suspect there are more pedophile priests’ whose identities have yet to be made public.)

But Berg’s first act in Pueblo should be to immediately announce that a convicted Pueblo predator priest now heads a church in North Carolina. For the safety of kids, Berg should insist that his colleagues in North Carolina disclose this fact too.

Two weeks ago, we in SNAP learned that William Groves is now the paid president of the Spiritual Life Center in Franklin North Carolina. For years, Catholic officials claim they didn’t know where he was.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

by Philip Bradfield
p.bradfield@newsletter.co.uk
Published on the 15 January 2014

The chairman of the UK’s largest ever child abuse inquiry has praised representatives of various residential care homes for making apologies at the start of the process.

Sir Anthony Hart was speaking in Banbridge courthouse yesterday at the second day of public evidence in the Independent Historical Abuse Inquiry.

It will hear from over 300 witnesses in relation to 13 residential institutions in Northern Ireland, spanning 73 years up until 1995.

Sir Anthony yesterday commended representatives from key participants for their “willingness to work in a sensible and cooperative fashion” rather than “keeping their cards as close to their chests for as long as possible”.

He urged “wholehearted cooperation from everyone” and commended the core participants for apologies made yesterday.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry could face a challenge from lawyers representing some of those accused of abuse, the BBC has learned.

The public phase of the inquiry began on Monday and, over 18 months, it will examine allegations of abuse at 13 institutions across Northern Ireland.

Two Catholic orders have already apologised for any abuse by members.

One person accused of abuse is trying to establish if there are grounds for more rights for accused individuals.

That challenge could be to the inquiry itself or through a judicial review in the High Court.

The comments by lawyers for the De La Salle Brothers and Sisters of Nazareth were made on the second day of the inquiry into historical abuse in the care homes and borstals between 1922 and 1995.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

To Taleah Grimmage, Juror No. 7 in the Msgr. Lynn case, the news that Lynn’s conviction had been reversed came as a “slight shock.”

“While I still think he [Msgr. Lynn] ultimately played a part in the atrocities that occurred, he certainly was not the ONLY person that should have been held responsible,” Grimmage wrote in an email. “[I’m looking at YOU Cardinals Krol and Bevilacqua].”

Grimmage, who voted to convict Lynn in 2012 after sitting through a 13 week trial, as well as 13 days of deliberations, said she never understood the district attorney’s strategy of charging Lynn with endangering the welfare of a child. She did, however, believe the D.A. had succeeded in sending a message to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

As far as the monsignor is concerned, Grimmage was curious to know what effect being “unjustly” imprisoned for 18 months has had on the monsignor, who so far, has declined to talk to reporters.

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PUEBLO (CO)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Pueblo

January 15, 2014

His Holiness, Pope Francis on Wednesday, January 15, 2014 named Rev. Msgr. Stephen J. Berg as the fifth bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Pueblo. Bishop-elect Berg was formerly the Diocesan Administrator of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth. He succeeds Bishop Emeritus Fernando Isern who retired in June 2013. The announcement of the appointment was made Wednesday by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States—the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S.

Bishop-elect Berg will be introduced at 10:30 a.m., on Wednesday, January 15, 2014 at the Pueblo Pastoral Center at 101 North Greenwood Street. Bishop-elect Berg will be ordained and installed as Bishop of Pueblo on February 27, 2014, by Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila at a Mass in Pueblo. Archbishop Viganò will represent His Holiness Pope Francis at the ordination.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 15 January 2014 (VIS) – Today the Holy Father: …

– appointed Msgr. Stephen J. Berg as Bishop of Pueblo (area 124,754, population 665,906, Catholics 128,000, priests 83, permanent deacons 48, religious 70), Colorado, U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in Miles City, Montana, U.S.A. in 1951 and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A. in 1999. From 1999 to 2001 he was pastor of Saint Michael Parish in Bedford, from 2001 to 2002 of Saint John the Apostle Parish in North Richland Hills, and from 2002 to 2008 of the Saint Mary Parish in Henrietta, Saint Jerome Parish in Bowie, Saint William Parish in Montague, and Saint Joseph Parish in Nocona. From 2008 to 2012 he was vicar general and pastor of Saint Peter the Apostle Parish in Fort Worth. From 2010 to 2012 he was a moderator of the Curia. From 2009 he was spiritual director at the Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas. From 2012 he has been the diocesan administrator and pastor of Holy Name Parish for Fort Worth.

– confirmed Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S., as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

– confirmed Professor Guzman Carriquiry as secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

– confirmed the following members of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America: Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, archbishop of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, archbishop of San Cristobal de la Habana, Cuba; Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, archbishop of Mexico, Mexico; Cardinal Julio Terrazas Sandoval, C.SS.R., archbishop emeritus of Santa Cruz della Sierra, Bolivia; Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, archbishop of Lima, Peru; Cardinal Claudio Hummes O.F.M., prefect emertirus of the Congregation for the Clergy; Cardinal Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela; Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico; Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of São Paulo, Brazil; Cardinal Paolo Romeo, archbishop of Palermo, Italy; Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis, archbishop of Aparecida, Brazil; Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez, archbishop of Bogota, Colombia; Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; Archbishop Emilio Carlos Berlie Belaunzaran of Yucatan, Mexico; Archbishop Mario Antonio Cargnello of Salta, Argentina; Archbishop Hector Ruben Aguer of La Plata, Argentina; Archbishop Nicolas Cotugno Fanizzi, S.D.B., of Montevideo, Uruguay; Archbishop Hector Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte, O.F.M., of Trujillo, Peru; Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha of Mariana, Brazil; Archbishop Leopoldo Jose Brenes Solorzano of Managua, Nicaragua; Archbishop Emeritus Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago of Leon, Mexico; Archbishop Orlando Antonio Corrales Garcia of Santa Fe de Antioquia, Colombia; Archbishop Juan Jose Asenjo Pelegrina of Seville, Spain; and Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, Germany.

– appointed Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, currently secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, as a counsellor of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

– confirmed the following counsellors of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America: Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments; Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches; Cardinal Francesco Monterisi, archpriest emeritus of the papal basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls; Archbishop Jean-Louis Brugues, O.P., archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church; Archbishop Jose Horacio Gomez Velasco of Los Angeles, U.S.A.; and Bishop Marcelo Sanchez-Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and of the Social Sciences.

– confirmed Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran as a member of the Commission of Cardinals for oversight of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) for the for the next five-year period.

– appointed as members of the Commission of Cardinals for oversight of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) for the next five-year period: Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, archbishop of Vienna, Austria; Cardinal Thomas Christopher Collins, archbishop of Toronto, Canada; Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, archpriest of the papal basilica of St. Mary Major; and Archbishop Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Jolene Toves

Guam – No apology, no retraction, but one thing Father Paul Gofigan did get was a meeting with Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

“It was just a meeting where he asked me to cool it down especially with the media and I really thought that I was going to get the letter with my request regarding the manila event with the slanderous remarks but I didn’t we didn’t get anywhere with that,” said the priest.

As we reported Father Paul Gofigan has been contemplating taking legal action against Archbishop Apuron for allegedly making slanderous and defamatory statements about him and another man. According to Father Gofigan the archbishop during a recent retreat to the Philippines for the clergy allegedly made statements suggesting he was having a homosexual relationship with a married man. Father Gofigan gave the archbishop until Tuesday at noon to put in writing a retraction of those statements the deadline however came and went.

He said, “I thought I was going to get a written letter of apology which I didn’t receive he apologize very very much in general but that was about it – it wasn’t really a meeting it was a very short meeting.”

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RUSSIA
Interfax

St. Petersburg, January 15, Interfax – Priest Gleb Grozovsky said he intended to return to Russia only after all charges of sexually abusing minors were lifted from him.

“I will return as soon as my arrest in absentia is lifted, my status as a defendant is dropped and my safe return as a Russian citizen with all constitutional rights is guaranteed,” Grozovsky said in an interview with the Orthodoxy and the World Internet portal.

“My Israeli lawyer is sending a request to the Investigative Committee on the prospects for lifting the restrictions and the status of a defendant from me and asking that it guarantee my safe return to Russia in order to cooperate with investigators and return my right for the presumption of innocence,” the priest was quoted as saying.

At the same time, Grozovsky said that despite his decision not to return to Russia until the charges were dropped, he did not hide from investigators.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

A former curate of St Matthew’s Catholic Church in Belfast has been found not guilty of sexually abusing a young female parishioner in the 1980s.

The jury was sworn in at Belfast Crown Court to try Father Peter Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill, Castlewellan for allegedly sexually abusing a girl in the parochial house of the church in east Belfast over a five year period.

Fr Donnelly, 71, was charged with six counts of indecently assaulting the girl and a further count of gross indecency with the girl.

He denied all the charges which were alleged to have taken place between 1983 and 1988.

Two previous juries in the case were unable to reach a verdict on the charges against Fr Donnelly.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

A former curate at St Matthew’s Catholic Church in Belfast accused of sex abuse has walked free from court after he was found not guilty by a jury on the direction of the trial judge.

The jury was sworn in at Belfast Crown Court to try Father Peter Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill, Castlewellan for allegedly sexually abusing a girl in the parochial house of the church in east Belfast over a five year period.

Donnelly (71) was charged with six counts of indecently assaulting the girl and a further count of gross indecency with the girl.

He denied all the charges which were alleged to have taken place between 1983 and 1988.

Two previous juries in the case were unable to reach a verdict on the charges against Fr Donnelly.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A former curate at St Matthew’s Catholic Church in east Belfast has been cleared of sex abuse charges.

Father Peter Donnelly was found not guilty by a jury on the direction of the trial judge.

The jury had been sworn in at Belfast Crown Court to try him for allegedly abusing a girl in the church parochial house over a five year period.

Fr Donnelly, 71, was charged with six counts of indecent assault and a further count of gross indecency.

He denied all the charges which were alleged to have taken place between 1983 and 1988.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Coleraine Times

A former priest who served in Coleraine for almost ten years has been cleared of sex abuse charges.

Peter Donnelly (71), from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan is a former priest of St Matthew’s Catholic Church, Belfast,

He Fwas found not guilty today (Wednesday) by a jury on the direction of the trial judge.

The jury had been sworn in at Belfast Crown Court to try him for allegedly abusing a girl in the church parochial house over a five year period.

Fr Donnelly was charged with six counts of indecent assault and a further count of gross indecency.

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MASSACHUSETTS
NECN

[with video]

(NECN: Jackie Bruno) – According to Attleboro, Mass. police, an Attleboro school principal is facing charges, accused of molesting a student.

Reverend Jeffery Nichols worked at the Grace Baptist Christian Academy in Attleboro. The academy is part of the Grace Baptist Church.

The school is shocked and saddened by the news. But now they’re focused on trying to console and counsel their community through this unbelievable ordeal.

The school is still reeling from the news that Nichols has been accused of molesting a female student for last five years. The abuse allegedly started at age 13. Now the victim is a senior, the same age as one of Nichols’ three children. His wife also works at the school as a teacher.

Head Pastor Jeff Bailey told NECN that he found out about the allegations on Monday, when Nichols appeared in his driveway.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Seattle PI

ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) — The assistant pastor of an Attleboro church who’s also the principal of an affiliated school has been charged with sexually abusing a student starting when she was a seventh-grader.

The Rev. Jeffrey Nichols of Grace Baptist Church and Grace Baptist Christian Academy was ordered held on $25,000 bail after not guilty pleas to charges including aggravated indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 were entered on his behalf Tuesday.

Prosecutors say he molested a seventh-grade student beginning in 2008 when she was 13 and continued until last June.

Church Pastor Jeff Bailey tells The Sun Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1d6jqWA ) he immediately fired Nichols when Nichols told him about the allegations Monday.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Although Pope Francis has shown no intention of changing church doctrine on issues like homosexuality and contraception, he has clearly started to alter the tone of the papacy in his first 10 months in the Vatican, making it less judgmental.

“Who am I to judge?” he has said when asked about homosexuals. In an interview published in September, he said he thought the church had been “obsessed” with abortion, gay marriage and contraception, and that he had chosen not to dwell on these issues.

More significant, as reported by Jason Horowitz and Jim Yardley in The New York Times on Tuesday, has been the 77-year-old pontiff’s efforts to focus the church more on ministering to the poor and marginalized, as well as his efforts to address the issue of child sexual abuse by priests after years of Vatican indifference and evasion.

Francis took a hugely important first step by appointing a commission to propose measures to end these scandalous abuses, and much of his legacy will depend on what action he and the commission take.

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VATICAN CITY
Kentucky.com

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
January 15, 2014

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis made another move to clean house at the troubled Vatican bank on Wednesday, naming a new roster of cardinal advisers to replace the ones who were in place during its latest brushes with scandal.

Only one cardinal from the previous commission overseeing the bank’s operations, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, survived the cut.

Francis on Wednesday named four others to round out the commission, including his hand-picked secretary of state, Cardinal-elect Pietro Parolin, and Francis’ close friend Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello.

The other members include Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, archbishop of Vienna, and Cardinal Thomas Collins, archbishop of Toronto.

On Feb. 16, 2013, just days after announcing his resignation, Pope Benedict XVI confirmed the existing members of the bank’s supervisory body for another five years. The members included Benedict’s longtime deputy and secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was widely blamed for many of the Vatican’s administrative shortcomings during Benedict’s papacy.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

Posted by Patrick Maguire (Editor) , January 14, 2014

The principal and assistant pastor at Grace Baptist Christian Academy was reportedly held on $25,000 bail Tuesday at Attleboro District Court and charged with molesting one of his students.

The Attleboro Sun Chronicle is reporting that Pastor Jeffery Nichols of Fourth St. in Attleboro turned himself into police on Monday and, according to Assistant District Attorney Erin Aiello, admitted to molesting a student from 2008 through 2013. Grace Baptist Christian Church Pastor Jeff Bailey, who is challenging for State Rep. Paul Heroux’s seat in November, told the Sun Chronicle that he was in “complete shock” when he learned, and immediately fired Nichols.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Sun Chronicle

Principal of Grace Baptist school in Attleboro charged with molesting female student

BY DAVID LINTON and JIM HAND SUN CHRONICLE STAFF

ATTLEBORO — The assistant pastor of the Grace Baptist Church and principal of the Grace Baptist Christian Academy has been charged with repeatedly molesting one of his female students.

The Rev. Jeffrey A. Nichols, 47, was ordered held in jail on $25,000 cash bail this afternoon in Attleboro District Court. A prosecutor said he violated a position of trust by molesting one of his seventh-grade students beginning in 2008 when she was 13 and continuing until the end of the school year in June 2013.

“He admitted to all the allegations made by the victim” after he voluntarily went to the police station for questioning Monday, Assistant District Attorney Erin Aiello said during a bail hearing.

The allegations came as a shock to church Pastor Jeff Bailey, who told The Sun Chronicle he immediately fired Nichols when Nichols told him about the allegations Monday.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WHDH

[with video]

ATTLEBORO, Mass. (WHDH) – The Principal at the Grace Baptist Christian Academy is accused of molesting one of his female students.

Rev. Jeffrey Nichols appeared in court Tuesday morning on several indecent assault charges.
Nichols is also the assistant pastor at the Grace Baptist Church.

Prosecutors said he admitted to molesting a seventh grade student starting in 2008 and lasting until June 2013.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICAN0
La Razon (Espana)

El Vaticano presenta un informe a la ONU sobre las medidas para proteger a los menores de abusos

[Summary: A Vatican delegation in Geneva will report on Thursday measures it has taken to condemn and prevent cases of child sexual abuse to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Representatives of the Holy See will include Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, permanent observer of the Holy See to the UN, Auxiliary Bishop Charles J. Scicluna, who for years was Promoter of Justice in cases of pedophilia handled by the Vatican; Monsignor Christophe El-Kassis, professor of international law at the Pontifical University of Vincenzo Buonomo Lateran, Jane Adolphe, law professor at Ave Maria law school in the United States. The delegation will also includes Greg Burke, representing the Vatican press office and communications consultant to the Vatican Secretary of State. Burke is, however, not an official delegation member.]

Una delegación vaticana presentará este jueves en Ginebra un informe sobre las medidas adoptadas para condenar y prevenir los casos de abusos sexuales y proteger a los menores ante la Convención de la ONU relativa a los Derechos del Niño.

Los representantes de la Santa Sede serán el observador permanente de la Santa Sede ante la ONU en Ginebra, monseñor Silvano Tomasi; el obispo auxiliar de Malta, monseñor Charles J. Sciclunapero, durante años Promotor de Justicia (Fiscal General) en los casos de pedofilia en la Congregación vaticana para la Doctrina de la Fe; el funcionario de la Secretaría de Estado monseñor Christophe El-Kassis; el profesor de Derecho Internacional en la Universidad Pontificia de Letrán Vincenzo Buonomo; y el profesor de Derecho de la Ave Maria School of Law de Estados Unidos Jane Adolphe.

Según un comunicado publicado por la Misión de la Santa Sede en Ginebra, también estará presente como “representante de la oficina de prensa de la Santa Sede”, Greg Burke, asesor de comunicación de la Secretaría de Estado del Vaticano, “aunque no es un miembro de la delegación oficial”.

El órgano de las Naciones Unidas se encarga de revisar regularmente la aplicación de la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño, tratado de la ONU de 1989, del que la Santa Sede fue uno de los primeros países promotores en 1990. La Santa Sede deberá responder de su acción ante los expertos de las Naciones Unidas, como el resto de países miembro.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
La Opinion

[Summary: The Women and Health Collective has called on the UN Committee on the Rights of Children to investigate abuse by priests in the Dominican Republic, especially ex-nuncio Archbishop Joseph Wesolowski and Father Wjciech Gil. The organization also wants clarification of the whereabouts of Wesolowski and wants the archbishop to be trial for sexual abuse of minors. They are also asking investigation of any link between the archbishop and Gil and possible links to an international pedophile ring.]

Santo Domingo – La Colectiva Mujer y Salud (CMS) reclamó al Comité de los Derechos del Niño de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) que se investiguen las acciones de encubrimiento en que habría incurrido la Iglesia Católica dominicana en beneficio de los sacerdotes acusados de abuso sexual, sobre todo el exnuncio Joseph Wesolowski y Wjciech Waldemar (padre Alberto Gil).

La entidad también solicitó que se esclarezca el paradero de Wesolowki, y solicita “con carácter de urgencia” la entrega del diplomático eclesial ante las autoridades dominicanas para que sea juzgado por el abuso sexual a menores, según la legislación penal nacional.

De igual manera, pidieron “investigar urgentemente el vínculo entre el sacerdote Wojciech (padre Alberto Gil) y el exnuncio, y sus posibles vínculos a una red internacional de pederastia y corrupción de menores”.

La CMS entregó al organismo de la ONU un documento conocido como “El Informe Sombra” sobre denuncias públicas de casos de abuso sexual por parte de autoridades eclesiales contra niños, niñas y adolescentes ocurridos en República Dominicana.
.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Jennifer Toland TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
jtoland@telegram.com

WORCESTER — Holy Cross women’s basketball coach Bill Gibbons, who had been on a paid administrative leave since Oct. 17, the day after a former player brought a civil suit against him, returned to his position Tuesday.

“After a thorough review, the college has concluded that there is no reason for Coach Gibbons’ continued absence from the team,” Holy Cross spokeswoman Ellen Ryder said. “The college believes the lawsuit’s allegations have no legal merit. Over a 29-year span, Coach Gibbons has amassed an impressive track record. That’s why so many players, parents and alumni support him and the college’s women’s basketball program. We are focused now on completing the season and the academic year as a team and a community.”

Gibbons will be on the bench for Holy Cross’ game against Patriot League rival Army at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Hart Center.

“I am thrilled to be resuming my role at Holy Cross,” Gibbons said in a statement. “I am excited to get back on the court, and to work alongside our stellar student-athletes and coaches to focus on the rest of the basketball season. While I feel confident that I will be fully vindicated, I cannot comment on the allegations in the lawsuit that has been filed against the College and me.”

On Oct. 16, former Holy Cross guard Ashley Cooper filed a civil lawsuit against Gibbons, alleging he physically and verbally abused her. Gibbons stepped aside from his coaching duties while a review was undertaken of the allegations made in the lawsuit.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Boston.com

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Bill Gibbons has returned to his position as Holy Cross women’s basketball coach, the school announced on its website Tuesday.

Gibbons had voluntarily stepped aside in October after a former student filed a lawsuit claiming verbal and physical abuse while she was a member of the team. The school believed the lawsuit’s allegations had no legal merit after a thorough review.

The suit said Gibbons had yanked and pulled on the player’s shirt collar, shook her by the shoulder and struck her on the back during a game, leaving a handprint.

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

WORCESTER (MA)
MassLive

By Megan Bard, MassLive.com
Follow on Twitter
on January 14, 2014

WORCESTER – Women’s basketball coach Bill Gibbons resumed the post that he’s held for 29 years on Tuesday, returning to The College of the Holy Cross after a voluntary leave of absence.

Gibbons is accused of being “verbally, emotionally and physically abusive” to a former player, Ashley Cooper, who filed a lawsuit in October detailing the allegations. Since mid-October, Gibbons has been on paid leave from the college.

In a statement Tuesday night, Holy Cross Director of Public Affairs Ellen Ryder said:

“Coach Gibbons had voluntarily stepped aside while a review was undertaken of allegations made in a lawsuit by a former student-athlete. After a thorough review, the college has concluded that there is no reason for Coach Gibbons’ continued absence from the team. The college believes the lawsuit’s allegations have no legal merit. Over a 29-year span, Coach Gibbons has amassed an impressive track record. That’s why so many players, parents, and alumni support him and the college’s women’s basketball program. We are focused now on completing the season and the academic year as a team and a community.”

Cooper’s attorney, Elizabeth Eilender, said in a phone interview Wednesday evening the college’s statement was “lawyer code.”

“To us, it looks like a carefully crafted non-denial,” Eilender said.

Eilender said the coach’s reinstatement wouldn’t affect the lawsuit, which is proceeding.

“I am concerned for the welfare of the current players, I think it’s a mistake by Holy Cross,” Eilender said. “I think he’s a loose cannon.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON JANUARY 14, 2014

Victims “out” nine Catholic predators
They have not been exposed in Chicago before
And none of their records will be released by archdiocese
Yet all worked and lived in the area, sometimes for years
George keeps “hairsplitting” & hiding religious order offenders
Group to church officials: “Disclose ALL child molesting clerics”
SNAP begs Catholics: “Read the actual documents when posted next week”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, on the day hundreds of pages of long secret clergy sex abuse and cover up records will be turned over, victims and supporters will release names and information about nine child molesting clerics who worked in the Chicago area, abused elsewhere and have almost never been publicly disclosed in this area before as offenders.

They will also

—urge Cardinal Francis George to post names, photos & records of ALL archdiocesan predators (not just the ones who are sued),
— do the same with religious order clerics, so that kids can be protected and victims can heal, and
—blast him for continuing to protect a third or more of the abusive clerics who have been in Chicago.

WHEN
Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 11:15 a.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Chicago archdiocesan headquarters, 835 N. Rush Street (corner of East Chestnut) in downtown Chicago

WHO
Four-five adults who belong to a self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Some were molested as kids; others are concerned Catholics.

WHY
Today, because he has been forced to, Cardinal Francis George turns over records about 30 credibly accused predator priests to victims’ attorneys. Next week, those documents will be made public.

But George and his staff continue to hide the identities of dozens and dozens of other proven, admitted and credibly accused Chicago child molesting clerics. For the healing of victims and the safety of kids, SNAP believes their names, photos, whereabouts and work histories should be disclosed by church officials (whether they are diocesan or religious order clerics and whether they have been sued or not).

George refuses to give information about 1/3 of all predator priests who are or have been in Chicago, because they belong to religious orders. But SNAP considers this “self-serving hair-splitting.”

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Christian Post

BY MICHAEL GRYBOSKI, CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
January 14, 2014

A Roman Catholic Archdiocese plans to release its files on priests under its jurisdiction reported to have committed sexual abuse.

In a January edition of the Chicago Archdiocese’s newspaper Catholic New World, Cardinal Francis George wrote that the files on 30 priests will be released as part of a legal settlement.

“All these incidents were reported over the years to the civil authorities and claims have been mediated civilly. Almost all of the incidents happened decades ago, perpetrated by priests whom neither I nor many younger clergy have ever met or talked to,” wrote George. “Nevertheless, the publication puts the actions of these men and the archdiocese itself in the spotlight. Painful though publicly reviewing the past can be, it is part of the accountability and transparency to which the archdiocese is committed.”

Cardinal George also wrote that the Archdiocese “is committed to trying to help victims of sexual abuse achieve the freedom necessary to live with dignity.”

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

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY OREN YANIV / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

PUBLISHED: MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2014

A Brooklyn Hasid charged with posting a Twitter photo of a teen sex abuse victim testifying against her former counselor claims the picture was actually uploaded by a fraudster.

The defendant, known as Lemon Juice, was arrested in November 2012 during the explosive trial of Nechemya Weberman after a photo of the victim — who was 18 at the time — appeared on Twitter showing her testifying. Lemon Juice and two others are charged with criminal contempt.

Legal papers obtained by the Daily News show the real poster is believed to be Moses Klein, the personal driver of the Satmar sect’s grand rabbi. Weberman was a counselor for the Satmars.

The document said the AOL email address associated with the Lemon Juice account is registered to Klein, “the driver and right-hand man to Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum.”

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

CANADA
APTN

APTN National News

The federal government has been ordered to provide police documents detailing abuse at the former St. Anne’s Residential School to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Ontario Justice Paul Perell ordered the feds Tuesday to give over the documents to the TRC.

“Canada has too narrowly interpreted its disclosure obligations…[T]here has been non-compliance [with the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, IRSSA], and Canada can and must do more in producing documents about the events at St. Anne’s,” wrote Perell in his decision.

The documents stem from a five-year Ontario Provincial Police investigation between 1992-1997 into sexual and physical abuse at St. Anne’s in Fort Albany, Ont.

The police investigation resulted in criminal convictions.

It’s the second time in a year the federal government has been forced to produce documents to the TRC.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jan. 14 2014

A judge has ordered the federal government to provide survivors of one of the country’s most notorious aboriginal residential schools with thousands of documents created by police during a multiyear investigation into physical and sexual abuse at the institution.

In a strongly worded ruling Tuesday, Justice Paul Perell of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, said Canada must hand over all Ontario Provincial Police documents in its possession related to the investigation at the St. Anne’s Indian Residential School in Fort Albany, Ont. and must search out and disclose those it does not have.

“Based on its unduly narrow interpretation of its obligations, Canada has not adequately complied with its disclosure obligations with respect to the St. Anne’s narrative,” Justice Perell wrote in his ruling. He also ordered the federal government to pay the legal costs of the roughly 60 school survivors who took the government to court to obtain the documents that could support their claims for compensation.

Fay Brunning, the lawyer who represented the former students, said the ruling is a huge victory for her clients. “They had to go to this school, starting at age five or six, for up to eight years of their life and they lost their childhood innocence,” Ms. Brunning said.

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

CANADA
CBC News

About 60 residential school survivors have been successful in their bid to have files from the Ontario Provincial Police released in order to support their claims for compensation for abuse.

In a written decision released today, Ontario Superior Court Judge Paul Perell ruled the documents from a five-year investigation at St. Anne’s Indian Residential School in Fort Albany be turned over. The criminal investigation was conducted in the 1990s.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Justice Murray Sinclair applauded the decision.

“The release of these records is critical not only to survivors who were badly abused, but to Canadians as a whole,” he said in a written statement.

“Reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples in Canada depends on a shared and complete understanding of the residential school experience.”

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Joel Eastwood Staff Reporter, Published on Tue Jan 14 2014

Calling it the site of some of the most egregious incidents of abuse in Canada’s residential school system, a judge has ordered the federal government to hand over thousands of documents to support the compensation claims of the survivors of St. Anne’s residential school.

Sixty survivors of St. Anne’s have fought for more than a year to have the federal government release the documents, which were created during a police investigation in the 1990s.

“The documents speak to the sexual and physical abuse suffered by students at St. Anne’s,” said Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell in his decision.

The survivors say the documents will support their compensation claims under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Act.

“Finally, the level of abuse at St. Anne’s is being recognized and they will not have to prove the terrible conditions of the school in each hearing by themselves,” said Fay Brunning, the lawyer for the St. Anne’s survivors, in an email. “The adjudicators and claimants are going to obtain a true picture of the horrors of attending that school.”

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

CANADA
GlobalPost

TORONTO – An Ontario judge has ordered the federal government to produce documents that survivors of a notorious residential school say are crucial to their compensation claims.

The survivors accused Ottawa of hampering their bid for financial redress by hiding documentary evidence from a provincial police investigation into St. Anne’s in Fort Albany.

Hundreds of aboriginal children from remote James Bay communities were sent to St. Anne’s from 1904 to 1976.

The police probe in the 1990s turned up evidence of horrific abuse, including use of an electric chair and led to criminal convictions.

A government lawyer had said Ottawa received the documents from police on an undertaking they would not be passed on to anyone.

But Ontario Superior Court Judge Paul Perell says in a decision released Tuesday that the government misinterpreted its disclosure obligations and should turn over the documents to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

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CANADA
Global News

By Domenic Fazioli
Reporter

BEACONSFIELD, Que. – A little over a year has passed, and parishioners at St-Edmund of Canterbury Church in Beaconsfield will tell you they still feel angry and betrayed by their former deacon, William Kokesch.

“Personally, I feel sad,” parishioner Sonia Cary told Global News.

“Not for him, but for the Church.”

The 66-year-old was arrested in December 2012 for possession, production, and distribution of child pornography.

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CANADA
CTV

CTV Montreal
Published Tuesday, January 14, 2014

A Roman Catholic Deacon charged with child pornography will be back in court February 21.

William Kokesch was arrested in December 2012 and charged with distribution, possesion and production of child pornography.

In court on Tuesday his lawyer was tying to get more evidence from the crown about the case.

Jeffrey Boro said his client is anxious to put an end to the case, but would not say whether Kokesch plans to plead guilty or go to trial.

“Anybody who faces serious charges such as these that has somewhat of a public persona certainly is suffering quite a bit,” said Boro.

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CANADA
CJAD

A Beaconsfield deacon facing child pornography charges has had his case pushed back because of more evidence submitted by the crown.

William Kokesch, 66, was not present for a brief hearing at the Montreal courthouse this morning when they set a next court date for late next month, enough time for the defence to evaluate the recent evidence.

“I was actually surprised to receive it. There was a further analysis of what had been seized in this case,” defence lawyer Jeffrey Boro told reporters.

“Some of it was noteworthy enough that I felt a further examination of the file was necessary.”

Crown prosecutor Dominique Potvin told the judge they should determine at the next hearing whether there’ll be a settlement or a trial date set. Boro would not say if a guilty plea was in the offing.

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CALIFORNIA
Irish Central

Niall O’Dowd @niallodowd January 15, 2014

A criminal grand jury in California has indicted former Diocese of Stockton priest Father Michael Eugene Kelly, who fled to Ireland during a previous civil case he later lost.

An extradition warrant has been issued for Kelly’s arrest and deportation to the United States.The 63-year old cleric is a native of Ballingarry, Co Tipperary, where his family still lives and where he fled to after telling his bishop he did not believe he could get a fair hearing.

Kelly faces three counts of lewd conduct and oral copulation with a child and could be sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Deputy District Attorney Dana Pfeil gave evidence following a sheriff’s investigation that Kelly began molesting his alleged victim when the child was 10 years old.

The District Attorney’s Office say they will work with the U.S. Department of Justice to extradite Kelly from Ireland to Calaveras County in California.

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CALIFORNIA
4-Traders

Statements Of John C. Manly, Vince Finaldi, Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, On The Indictment Of Fr. Michael Kelly, By The Calaveras County Grand Jury For Sexual Molestation Of A Child

STOCKTON, Calif., Jan. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Yesterday, a Grand Jury convened by the Calaveras County District Attorney’s Office indicted Diocese of Stockton Priest Fr. Michael Kelly, on numerous criminal counts related to brutal childhood sexual abuse in the year 2000 while serving as the Pastor of St. Andreas Parish in the Diocese of Stockton.

Fr. Kelly absconded to Ireland in 2012, in the middle of a child molestation trial being prosecuted by this firm on behalf of another Kelly victim, only days after he was unanimously found by a jury to have raped and molested our client, a highly decorated Air Force Officer, when he was in 4(th) grade at Annunciation School in Stockton. Kelly is known to be in Ireland, but guards his location and has repeatedly taken steps to avoid service of process.

Our firm, and our clients, are gratified by this indictment, and are very grateful to the Grand Jury and law enforcement officials in Calaveras County who worked tirelessly for justice on behalf of the victim in the indictment and the numerous other victims of Fr. Kelly.

Today, we call on Bishop Blaire, the Diocese of Stockton, and Monsignor Richard Ryan, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Stockton, a seminary classmate and lifelong friend of Michael Kelly, to disclose Kelly’s whereabouts to the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office. Moreover, we call on the Holy See and the Irish Bishops to effectively issue a clerical “all point’s bulletin” to all Dioceses and Parishes in Ireland requiring the clergy there disclose Kelly’s whereabouts to US law enforcement officials immediately. We believe Kelly is being protected by clergy in Ireland and his whereabouts are known to them.

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CALIFORNIA
The Record

By Michael Fitzgerald
Record Columnist
January 15, 2014

For years, I have wanted to forgive the Roman Catholic Church. Then yet another sex scandal comes to light, and I want to kick the cathedral over.

The Diocese of Stockton’s bankruptcy filing this week eclipsed the news that Father Michael Kelly was indicted.

A criminal grand jury in Calaveras County charged Kelly with three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child and one count of oral copulation with a child.

The indictment alleges Kelly began committing these sex crimes when the victim was 10 years old.

This is where I usually say innocent until proven guilty. But Kelly was already a defendant in a civil trial. A former altar boy claimed the good father raped him.

In midtrial, Kelly fled to Ireland.

So you’re presumed innocent, unless you go on the lam. Then you’re just another lousy fugitive.

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GERMANY
Catholic Culture

Weltbild, a German publishing and bookselling company owned by 12 dioceses and a Catholic welfare organization, has filed for bankruptcy, according to multiple wire service reports.

The publisher faced criticism in 2011 for marketing 2,500 erotic books.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

[Weltbilt, which is owned by Catholic dioceses, has gone bankrupt. The Trier diocese could end up losing 8 million euros.]

Trier/Augsburg. Beim Thema Weltbild-Insolvenz spricht die katholische Kirche mit einer Zunge. Das wird auch bei der TV-Anfrage an André Uzulis, Kommunikationsdirektor des Bistums Trier, deutlich: “Wir werden uns als Bistum nicht einzeln dazu äußern. Das behält sich die Bischofskonferenz vor.” Zumindest bestätigt er, dass es keine Verbindungen zum Paulinus-Verlag gebe.
Beschäftigte nicht betroffen

Damit wird klar: Von dem Insolvenzantrag in Augsburg sind keine Beschäftigten in der Region Trier betroffen. Denn auf seiner Homepage betont der Weltbildverlag, die Folgen der Zahlungsschwierigkeiten beträfen ausschließlich die 2200 Mitarbeiter des Stammhauses in Augsburg. “Nicht betroffen sind insbesondere alle Weltbild-Filialen sowie die Gesellschaften in Österreich und der Schweiz und bücher.de”

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

[Summary: The Trier diocese has a sad record on abuse. The diocese has made compensation payments totaling 280,000 euros.]

sexueller Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche: Trauriger Rekord für das Bistum Trier – die meisten Missbrauchstaten durch Angehörige der katholischen Kirche geschahen im Bistum des Missbrauchsbeauftragten, Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann

Das Bistum Trier habe bisher Entschädigungszahlungen in Höhe von 280.000 Euro geleistet, berichtete die Nachrichtenagentur dpa. Bis Februar 2013 habe das Bistum 56 Anträge von Opfern sexueller Übergriffe bewilligt. Die höchste bekannte Summe an ein Opfer habe sich auf 18.000 Euro belaufen.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Examiner

De La Salle ran a home in Kircubbin in Co Down which is due to be examined by a public inquiry into historical wrongdoing.

Kevin Rooney QC, on behalf of the order, said: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect.”

Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is chairing the UK’s largest ever investigation into child abuse in residential homes over seven decades.

Decades of physical, sexual and emotional suffering were inflicted upon the most vulnerable by the church, state and voluntary organisations, it has been alleged.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

The North’s residential care homes were reminiscent of “a bygone age” that had not moved with the times, an inquiry into historical abuse in Co Down has heard.

Senior counsel for the inquiry Christine Smith QC told the second day of public hearings: “The evidence suggests that those homes operated as outdated survivors of a bygone age.”

Reforms aligned with the introduction of the welfare state in Britain after the second World War were not fully implemented, she said.

She illustrated this by referring to one unnamed witness who has given details to the inquiry of her treatment at the hands of residential home workers following bed-wetting incidents. This witness said that, as a child, she had had her nose rubbed in the wet mattress and forced to take a cold baths using Jeyes Fluid, Ms Smith told the inquiry.

The senior counsel had been outlining the historical and legislative background to childcare during the years 1922 to 1995, the years under examination by the inquiry under its terms of reference.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

The De La Salle Brothers have apologised unreservedly for abuse and suffering inflicted on children in their care.

The inquiry into historical abuse at a range of residential care homes in Northern Ireland heard senior counsel for the religious order offer the apology yesterday during the second day of oral hearings.

Kevin Rooney QC, for the De La Salle Brothers, said: “Brothers recognise the immense pain and

He added: “Brothers recognise the sense of betrayal that the victims have experienced and the violation of trust caused by certain brothers within the order. They recognise that there have been failures to protect the victims.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

From 1859 to 1969, 105,000 children were taken into industrial homes in Ireland.

They were often large and uninviting, designed to make economies of scale, with staff morale poor and workers displaying aloofness from charges who may have been orphaned or separated from their mothers because they were born out of wedlock.

Christine Smith QC said institutions were run during the Victorian era of the 1800s by religious orders for spiritual purposes. Rehabilitation entailed turning the child into a productive member of society.

“By placing children in institutions, as they saw it, souls were being saved from corruption,” the senior lawyer to the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry added.

Catholics held to the 19th century ideal of redemption and rehabilitation long after that period had ended. Only those discounted as unredeemable were left to the state’s care.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

The committee investigating Jersey’s historical abuse allegation are to attend Northern Ireland’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

The investigation – looking into abuse dating back more than 70 years – began on Monday in Banbridge, County Down, and is expected to last for 18 months.

Members of Jersey’s committee will visit the hearings in February.

Patrick Corrigan from Amnesty Northern Ireland said attendees should listen to victims’ evidence and learn lessons.

‘Delivery of pain’

He said it was heartening that Jersey inquiry members would be visiting the HIA hearings, but it was also important the representatives learned from the victims.

“They are important, so learn those lessons and listen to the victims themselves,” he told BBC News.

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Belfast Telegraph

15 JANUARY 2014

Children who believe their human rights have been infringed can take their case to the United Nations under a new legal move.

The optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child has received the required 10th ratification from Costa Rica and will come into force on April 14.

Marta Santos Pais, the UN special representative on violence against children, said the “historic” move would place “the rights and aspirations of children at the centre of the human rights agenda” by giving youngsters the right to seek redress for abuses of their rights for the first time.

Initially, only children from Costa Rica and the nine other countries: Albania; Bolivia; Gabon; Germany; Montenegro; Portugal; Spain; Thailand; and Slovakia, will be able to submit complaints. But Ms Santos Pais said the UN and other organisations would keep promoting ratification of the protocol by the 183 other member states.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

AP | By John Helprin
Posted: 01/15/2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican is gearing up for a bruising showdown over the global priest sex abuse scandal, forced for the first time to defend itself at length and in public against allegations it enabled the rape of thousands of children by protecting pedophile priests and its own reputation at the expense of victims.

The Holy See on Thursday will be grilled by a U.N. committee in Geneva on its implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Among other things, the treaty calls for signatories to take all appropriate measures to protect children from harm and to put children’s interests above all else.

The Holy See ratified the convention in 1990 and submitted a first implementation report in 1994. But it didn’t provide progress reports for nearly a decade, and only submitted one in 2012 after coming under criticism following the 2010 explosion of child sex abuse cases in Europe and beyond.

Victims groups and human rights organizations rallied together to press the U.N. committee to challenge the Holy See on its abuse record, providing written testimony from victims and evidence outlining the global scale of the problem. Their reports cite case studies in Mexico and Britain, grand jury investigations in the U.S., and government fact-finding inquiries from Canada to Ireland to Australia that detail how the Vatican’s policies, its culture of secrecy and fear of scandal contributed to the problem.

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TEXAS
KVUE

SALADO, Texas — The founder of a children’s ministry in Salado has been arrested and charged with indecency with a child.

Police arrested Jon Phillip Tidball, 63, on Monday on an outstanding warrant issued in October 2013.

According to lieutenant Donnie Adams with the Bell County Sheriff’s Office, Tidball’s 24-year-old daughter told authorities last August that her father sexually abused her beginning when she was eight years old and continuing until she was 14.

Tidball, a retired Army chaplain, founded Patriot Kids’ Ministries, a ministry for children of military members, five years ago.

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TEXAS
KXXV

[with video]

By Colton Scott

A local church camp operator has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing a girl for seven years.

The charges come after the victim found out the man was running a kid’s ministry camp in Bell County.

Back in October 2013, after years of trying to get charges filed against the suspect, the woman went to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department where authorities then issued an arrest warrant. Bell County police were then able to locate and arrest the man who actually lives on the property where he runs that children’s camp.

Jon Phillip Tidball is the executive director at the Patriot Kids Ministries Camp in Salado where he’s been running the camp since January 2012. Police say that although he has been involved in numerous kid’s organizations and camps throughout Bell County, so far, no other victims have come forward with sexual abuse claims.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Child Rights Internatinal Network

The global scale of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and the Holy See’s cover-ups and denial of justice for victims, has been mapped in a new preliminary report published by CRIN today.

The report coincides with tomorrow’s (16 January) UN review of the Holy See on children’s rights, including cases of child sexual abuse committed by Catholic clerics around the world known to the Holy See*.

The report, “Child sexual abuse and the Holy See: the need for justice, accountability and reform”, published says:

“The Catholic Church is against violence. It stands for the inherent dignity and worth of all human beings. Yet child sexual abuse cases have not been addressed sufficiently for decades. Transparency, in the form of full disclosure to external judicial authorities, is the bridge between intention and achievement. The Vatican should choose full disclosure of information over self-preservation.”

The preliminary report marks the launch of a new campaign by CRIN to end sexual violence against children in religious institutions. With the report, the campaign first looks at child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church because of tomorrow’s UN review on the Holy See**.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Aljazeera

The Roman Catholic Church is still choosing self-preservation over full disclosure in child sex abuse cases, according to a report mapping the phemonenon of clerical paedophilia.

A 48-page document, published on Wednesday by the UK-based charity Child Rights International Network (CRIN), said there were still no global guidelines to directly deal with the welfare of the victims and that serious cases were not being sent to civil judicial authorities, despite decades of allegations and controversy.

CRIN director Veronica Yates said: “Child sexual abuse in religious institutions is one of the worst crimes ever committed against children.

“Our research shows that allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have been made in every corner of the world, yet the Holy See continues to harbour perpetrators of abuse, obstruct justice for victims and deny accountability.”

The report was published before a UN Committee on the Rights of a Child (CRC) meeting in Geneva on Thursday that will question a Holy See delegation on issues of transparency, access to justice for children and protection from violence in the church.

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CALIFORNIA
Turlock Journal

By Sabra Stafford
Crime Desk sstafford@turlockjournal.com 209-634-9141, ext. 2002
POSTED January 14, 2014

The Diocese of Stockton has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a series of costly sexual abuse settlements left them financially drained.

After months of contemplating the move to file bankruptcy, the Diocese announced Monday they would file the Chapter 11 papers today.

“After months of careful consideration and prayer, it has become clear to me that the Diocese of Stockton’s financial difficulties can only be resolved by filing for bankruptcy protection,” said Bishop Stephen Blaire. “This decision was reached through consultation with experts in finance and law, as well as with priests, parishioners and many others in the community our Diocese serves.”

Blaire said the Diocese has sufficient funds to cover the normal operations, but does not have the reserve funds needed to cover settle pending lawsuits stemming from sexual abuse allegations.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer

Former Roman Catholic priest Jason Sigler, a central figure in New Mexico’s clerical sexual abuse lawsuits in the 1990s, returned to Albuquerque last month after completing a prison term and parole in Michigan, state records show.

Sigler, 75, listed a Taylor Ranch home as his residence on Dec. 9, the New Mexico sex offender registry shows. Neighbors said Tuesday that Sigler recently moved into his wife’s home.

No one answered the door at the residence on Tuesday. Neighbors said they have mixed feelings about Sigler’s presence in the neighborhood.

“Am I happy about it? No,” said Paul Kubiszewski, who lives across the street from Sigler with his wife, Miriam, and two sons, 8 and 3. “Am I going to harass him until he moves? No.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Wire

BRIAN FELDMAN

On Wednesday, Chicago’s archdiocese will begin to release documents related to decades of substantiated allegations of sexual abuse by the clergy.

The files are being released as a settlement and concern 30 priests and 40 victims of abuse. All of the incidents occurred before Francis George became archbishop in 1997, and George stated that the crimes “followed the now well-known national trends” of the 1970s and ’80s.

The Chicago Tribune writes:

One-third of the total number [of priests] are dead, many others have been removed from the priesthood, and none is now in active ministry, according to an attorney who represented the clergymen’s interests in negotiations that led to the release. An attorney for the archdiocese told the Tribune that 95 percent of the incidents in the records occurred more than 25 years ago, and none occurred since 1996.

Writing on the archdiocese’s website on Sunday, Cardinal Francis George stated, “the publication puts the actions of these men and the archdiocese itself in the spotlight. Painful though publicly reviewing the past can be, it is part of the accountability and transparency to which the archdiocese is committed,” and that, “publishing for all to read the actual records of these crimes raises transparency to a new level. It will be helpful, we pray, for some, but painful for many.”

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CALIFORNIA
The Record

By Kevin Parrish
Record Staff Writer
January 15, 2014

SACRAMENTO – When the Stockton Diocese electronically files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today, it will set in motion a series of deadlines that will take most of this year to play out.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton – the 10th diocese in the nation to file for bankruptcy – represents 250,000 people in 35 parishes and 14 missions. It covers six counties, including San Joaquin and Calaveras, and employs 88 priests.

It was founded in 1962 out of what had been territory within the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the Diocese of Sacramento.

The Stockton Diocese is being represented by the Capitol Mall-based bankruptcy law firm Felderstein Fitzgerald Willoughby & Pascuzzi.

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VATICAN CITY
News 12

January 15, 2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican faces a stiff challenge of its abuse record tomorrow as it defends itself publicly for the first time against allegations it enabled the rape of thousands of children by protecting pedophile priests.

The Holy See will be grilled by a U.N. committee in Geneva on its 1990 implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Holy See submitted a first implementation report in 1994. But it didn’t provide progress reports for nearly a decade.

Victims groups and human rights organizations are providing written testimony and other evidence outlining what they say is the global scale of the problem.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Boston.com

By TAMMY WEBBER / Associated Press / January 15, 2014

CHICAGO (AP) — The Archdiocese of Chicago will hand over thousands of pages of documents involving clergy sex abuse on Wednesday to victims’ attorneys, who will make them public next week as part of a yearslong attempt to hold the church accountable for how it handled abuse allegations, including concealing crimes and putting priests in a position to continue molesting children.

The nation’s third-largest archdiocese agreed to release the files as part of settlements with abuse victims, and will include complaints, personnel documents and other files for about 30 priests with substantiated abuse allegations.

The documents are similar to disclosures made in other dioceses in the U.S. in recent years that showed how the church shielded priests and failed to report child sex abuse to authorities. Chicago officials said most of the abuse occurred before 1988 and none after 1996.

‘‘Until there is public disclosure and transparency … there is no way people can learn about it and make sure it does not happen again,’’ said Chicago attorney Marc Pearlman, who has represented about 200 abuse victims of clergy abuse in the Chicago area. He said he has been working to get the church to release the documents since 2005.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes&Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Vatican faces the UN! January 16, 2014

Watch the UN review via livestream here!

http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/category/webcast-archives/crc/

The review will take place on Thursday, January 16, 2014 from 10am-1pm CET, (4am-7am EST) where the Vatican will be reviewed on their compliance with the Convention on Rights of the Child and then from 3pm-6pm CET (9am-12 noon EST) the Vatican will be reviewed on their compliance with the Optional Protocols on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.

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GENEVA
Authint Mail

GENEVA — Victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests said Tuesday they hoped UN scrutiny of the Vatican would help finally to hold perpetrators to account and halt future violations.

“This is an important moment for those of us who were raped, sodomised and sexually violated as children by priests,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a global coalition based in the United States.

“Over the years, we’ve struggled to understand why Church officials continue to support and cover up for sexual predators,” Blaine told reporters, two days before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was to examine the Vatican’s record.

“We’re hoping that finally the truth will be exposed and, more importantly, the Church officials will change what they are doing and that Pope Francis will take action that will actually protect children,” she added.

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GENEVA
7 News (Australia)

Geneva (AFP) – Victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests said Tuesday they hoped UN scrutiny of the Vatican would help finally to hold perpetrators to account and halt future violations.

“This is an important moment for those of us who were raped, sodomised and sexually violated as children by priests,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a global coalition based in the United States.

“Over the years, we’ve struggled to understand why Church officials continue to support and cover up for sexual predators,” Blaine told reporters, two days before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was to examine the Vatican’s record.

“We’re hoping that finally the truth will be exposed and, more importantly, the Church officials will change what they are doing and that Pope Francis will take action that will actually protect children,” she added.

Signatories of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child agree to be scrutinised by a watchdog panel.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
Jan. 14, 2014

Three years after it declared bankruptcy as a way to deal with its mounting sex abuse claims, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is poised to file the reorganization plan that will detail how it compensates abuse victims and operates as an institution into the future.

The archdiocese has said the plan is complete. But it has offered few hints about its content or when it might be filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Milwaukee.

While the reorganization plan is a significant step toward exiting bankruptcy, legal scholars suggest that exit could still be a long way off. Even then, the legal battles could go on for years.

“This is not the end game. There will be multiple objections on multiple bases,” said Pamela Foohey, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, who specializes in bankruptcy law.

The Milwaukee bankruptcy, filed by Archbishop Jerome Listecki in January 2011, came after the archdiocese had been largely successful in fighting lawsuits dating back at least to the 1950s.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a practicing Catholic, met for almost two hours recently with Cardinal-designate Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, traditionally the top Vatican position under the pope. Ironically, Parolin had been then powerful Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano’s top deputy in 2004 when the Vatican reportedly helped undermine Kerry among US Catholic voters leading to Kerry’s loss to President Bush.

The two reportedly discussed issues related to international religious freedom, including Middle East hot spots and even US healthcare reform. US bishops appear to be contending in the current election campaign for control of the US Senate and likely the continuing US Supreme Court majority that Obamacare’s contraception insurance mandate violates their religious freedom. For more on the meeting, see:

[National Catholic Reporter]

Lurking in the background appears to be the Vatican’s goal of preventing outside governments’ involvement in the Vatican’s control of its bishops, especially in their lobbying efforts to regulate women’s reproduction options as well as their management, or mismanagement, of child abuse allegations worldwide. Looming clashes between national governments and the Vatican on these issues seem inevitable. It is unclear whether the recent meeting will lead to direct discussions between Pope Francis and President Obama on religious freedom, contraception insurance and/or unaccountable bishops. The two have never met.

Meanwhile, later this week the Vatican will have to answer on the record for six hours questions on its child abuse oversight before an international tribunal, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva.

In a 2005 meeting on related Middle East and religious freedom matters, Vatican Secretary of State Sodano, Parolin’s boss then, reportedly sought US Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice’s help in dealing with the Vatican’s oversight of a bishop in a US priest child abuse case, see:

[National Catholic Reporter]

It is unknown whether either Parolin or Kerry raised the priest child abuse scandal subject recently, although the scandal is even more pressing today than it was in 2005.

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CALIFORNIA
Merced Sun-Star

BY SUE NOWICKI
snowicki@modbee.comJ
anuary 14, 2014

The Rev. Michael Kelly faces up to 14 years in prison if he’s convicted of the charges included in a Calaveras criminal grand jury indictment presented Monday to Superior Court Judge John E. Martin. The indictment includes three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child and one count of oral copulation with a child.

It’s the first criminal charges against Kelly, a longtime Stockton Diocese priest who fled to his native Ireland in April 2012 after he was found liable in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing Travis Trotter. The diocese settled that lawsuit with the largest single award in diocesan history — $3.75 million.

A news release said the Calaveras County district attorney’s office will work with the Office of International Affairs in Washington, D.C., to extradite Kelly from Ireland. Deputy District Attorney Dana Pfeil said it’s a “lengthy” process but the indictment means the statute of limitations won’t expire, “so that we will be able to pursue justice for the victim when Kelly is caught and returned to Calaveras County no matter how long it takes.”

Kelly, who served at Our Lady of Fatima in Modesto from 1973-79 and helped start the Modesto Youth Soccer Association, responded to the indictment in an email to The Bee: “ I can categorically state to you, and to anyone else, that these allegations are totally and completely false. They absolutely never happened.”

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GENEVA
London South East

Vienna (Alliance News) – Children will be able to bring violations of their rights before a UN human rights body in Geneva from April, the United Nations said Tuesday in Geneva.

Children or their representatives will be allowed to file complaints with the Geneva-based Committee on the Rights of the Child, if all other legal avenues are exhausted in their country.

“It means children are able to fully exercise their rights and are empowered to have access to international human rights bodies in the same way adults are under several other human rights treaties,” said Kirsten Sandberg, the committee’s chairwoman.

UN treaties guarantee the development and family life of children, while aiming to protect them against various forms of exploitation.

The body’s 18 independent experts would adopt child-sensitive procedures and would issue recommendations to the country in question, she said.

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UNITED NATIONS
United Nations News Centre

14 January 2014 – A new legal instrument allowing children or their representatives to file a complaint with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is set to go into effect in April, following its final required ratification, the United Nations today announced.

Costa Rica became the tenth country to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the child on a Communications Procedure, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announcement noted.

“The Optional Protocol gives children who have exhausted all legal avenues in their own countries the possibility of applying to the Committee,” said Kirsten Sandberg, Chairperson of the Geneva-based Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors implementation of the treaty and its protocols.

“It means children are able to fully exercise their rights and are empowered to have access to international human rights bodies in the same way adults are under several other human rights treaties.”

Starting in April, individual children or groups of children from the countries that have ratified the Optional Protocol will be able to submit complaints to the Committee on specific violations related to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

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EUROPE
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jan. 14, 2014 NCR Today

Two groups of noted German theologians have bluntly outlined how church teaching does not align with the concerns or lifestyles of most European Catholics in response to a Vatican questionnaire on Catholics’ attitudes on issues like contraception and same-sex marriage.

Church sexual teachings, say the representatives of the Association of German Moral Theologians and the Conference of German-speaking Pastoral Theologians, come from an “idealized reality” and need a “fundamental, new evaluation.”

“It becomes painfully obvious that the Christian moral teaching that limits sexuality to the context of marriage cannot look closely enough at the many forms of sexuality outside of marriage,” say the 17 signers of the response, who include some of Germany’s most respected Catholic academics.

The theologians also propose that the church adopt a whole new paradigm for its sexual teachings, based not on moral evaluations of individual sex acts but on the fragility of marriage and the vulnerability people experience in their sexuality.

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GENEVA
News 24

Geneva – Victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests said on Tuesday they hoped UN scrutiny of the Vatican would help finally to hold perpetrators to account and halt future violations.

“This is an important moment for those of us who were raped, sodomised and sexually violated as children by priests,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap), a global coalition based in the United States.

“Over the years, we’ve struggled to understand why Church officials continue to support and cover up for sexual predators,” Blaine told reporters, two days before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was to examine the Vatican’s record.

“We’re hoping that finally the truth will be exposed and, more importantly, the Church officials will change what they are doing and that Pope Francis will take action that will actually protect children,” she added.

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MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 14 2014

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

The head of a church youth group near Baltimore has been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

[CBS News]

According to police reports, Robert David Wright who works directly with children at Clynmalira United Methodist Church in Phoenix, MD, was found to have pornographic photos and videos of young girls, including babies, and some images allegedly included children being raped.

It is not likely that Wright became a youth group leader coincidentally. We suspect he sought that position so he could have access to and influence over kids.

Our hearts go out to the members of the community who feel betrayed and victimized. We urge Clynmalira United Methodist Church officials to aggressively seek out anyone who may have been abused and encourage anyone who may have seen or suspect something to speak up.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Laois Nationalist

A religious order of Catholic brothers has apologised for the abuse of boys in its care in the North.

De La Salle ran a home in Kircubbin in Co Down which is due to be examined by a public inquiry into historical wrongdoing.

Kevin Rooney QC, on behalf of the order, said: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect.”

Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is chairing the UK’s largest ever investigation into child abuse in residential homes over seven decades.

Decades of physical, sexual and emotional suffering were inflicted upon the most vulnerable by the church, state and voluntary organisations, it has been alleged.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

[with video]

The inquiry into historical abuse has heard an apology from the De La Salle Brothers for the suffering inflicted on boys in their care.

The Catholic religious order said it “accepts” and “regrets” what happened to children who stayed at a home in Kircubbin, Co Down, which was run by the brothers.

It is one of a number of church and state institutions which are now at the centre of the UK’s largest ever investigation into alleged abuse over seven decades.

Kevin Rooney QC, for the De La Salle Brothers, told the public hearing: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect. That some brothers abused boys in care was in contradiction to their vocation as De La Salle Brothers.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

14 JANUARY 2014

An order of Catholic Brothers has apologised for abusing boys at its residential care home in Northern Ireland.

The De La Salle religious figures ran a property in Kircubbin, Co Down, south east of Belfast, which was supposed to provide sanctuary and education for vulnerable children. Instead they abused those under their protection, a public inquiry established to determine the extent of the abuse heard.

Kevin Rooney QC, on behalf of the order, said: “That some brothers abused boys in care was in contradiction to their vocation as De La Salle Brothers.”

He added: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect.”

The Brothers’ Rubane House in Kircubbin is due to come under the spotlight during the UK’s largest-ever inquiry into historical wrongs committed against children across several Catholic orders, voluntary groups and the state over seven decades.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Guardian

Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
theguardian.com, Tuesday 14 January 2014

Two Catholic orders have now admitted children were abused in their care at the largest inquiry into institutional child abuse in UK legal history.

The Sisters of Nazareth nuns joined the De La Salle Brothers in their admissions on Tuesday that girls and boys were subjected to physical and sexual abuse in institutions in Northern Ireland that they controlled.

On day two of hearings at the Northern Ireland historical institutional abuse inquiry, Turlough Montague, a barrister representing the nuns, said: “They recognise the hurt that’s been caused to some children in their care. They apologise unreservedly for any abuse suffered by children in their care. They go forward hoping that lessons will be learned, not just by them in the provision of care but also by carers generally in society and in wider society at large.”

Earlier at Banbridge courthouse, Kevin Rooney, a barrister representing the De La Salle Brothers, told the inquiry the religious order accepted there was abuse at its boys’ home in Kircubbin.

Rooney said: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect.

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