ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Boston.com

By NICOLE WINFIELD / Associated Press / December 12, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — European evaluators have given the Vatican a mixed report card in its efforts to comply with international norms to fight money laundering and terror financing, praising progress over the past year while highlighting delays and shortcomings at the Holy See’s financial watchdog agency. Chief among them: its failure to inspect the embattled Vatican bank.

In the progress report released Thursday, the Council of Europe’s Moneyval committee revealed that 105 suspicious transactions had been flagged to the financial watchdog agency in 2013 as potential cases of money-laundering — a significant increase over 2012 when only a half-dozen were reported. The increase stemmed from the bank’s ongoing process to review all accounts at the Institute for Religious Works to make sure its customers and assets are clean.

Three of those cases were forwarded to Vatican prosecutors for investigation, including one that made headlines earlier this year: the case of the Vatican accountant, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who was arrested by Italian authorities in June after he allegedly tried to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) from Switzerland into Italy without declaring it at customs.

The Scarano affair prompted the bank’s top two managers to resign and laid bare the lax controls that for years fueled the bank’s reputation as an off-shore tax haven where money could be laundered. Scarano is also under investigation for alleged money-laundering in a separate case involving his Vatican bank accounts; Vatican prosecutors seized 1.98 million euros from his accounts as part of its own investigation, the report showed.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

BY PHILIP PULLELLA

(Reuters) – The Vatican has made significant progress in financial reforms but still risks being used for money laundering unless it strengthens controls, a European watchdog said on Thursday.

The 30-page report by Moneyval, a monitoring committee of the Council of Europe, is expected to add impetus to Pope Francis’s efforts to clean up the Vatican’s finances after decades of scandal.

It advocates stronger controls on the Vatican’s bank – whose main purpose is to provide financial services for Vatican employees and religious groups – and another financial office.

Moneyval’s first report, in 2012, found the Holy See failing in seven of 16 “key and core” areas and made recommendations for changes to its financial legislation and practices.

“It is clear from this review that much work has been done in a short time to meet most of the Moneyval technical recommendations. There are many welcome clarifications and improvements …,” Moneyval said.

It said the Vatican’s new legal structure for combating money laundering and other financial crimes was “much improved” but still needed to be tested in practice. It applauded “wide-ranging” measures to “rectify deficiencies in all areas …”

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UNITED STATES
Bustle

By Katie Zavadski @katiezavadski

For those who thought Edward Snowden had it in the bag, you were wrong: TIME magazine named Pope Francis 2013’s Person of the Year Wednesday. Egypt’s not-really-democratic leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, won the reader poll with 26.2 percent of the vote, followed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with just over 20 percent. Miley Cyrus pulled in third, with 16.3 percent, but let’s be honest: we’d hoped TIME wouldn’t pick her even if she came in first amongst readers. But the two reader frontrunners, while surely influential men, don’t come close to Pope Francis. …

4. HE’S DEALING WITH SEX ABUSE IN THE CHURCH
Done are the days of the church covering up sex abuse! Or so we hope. The new pope acknowledged that such horrors had occurred, offering a prayer in the Netherlands that said, “I wish to express my compassion and to ensure my closeness in prayer to every victim of sexual abuse, and to their families.” He also moved to include sex abuse as a “crime against minors” and launched a committee in the Vatican to investigate such claims. Meanwhile, he also really loves children, in a non-creepy way:

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CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise

DECEMBER 11, 2013 BY JOHN ASBURY

A Menifee Mormon bishop was sentenced Wednesday, Dec. 11, to three years in prison for molesting two teenage girls who attended his church.

Todd Michael Edwards, 49, received two concurrent sentences of three years in prison for two felony counts of sexual battery and sexual penetration with a foreign object. A witness intimidation felony was dismissed as part of a deal with prosecutors when he pleaded guilty Nov. 13.

Edwards, who was the bishop of the Menifee Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sat in court with his hands folded, carrying a plastic bag of diabetes medication.

He remained free until his sentencing hearing Wednesday, when he stood before Judge Becky Dugan in a Riverside courtroom. He was led away by deputies and handcuffed before being booked into Riverside County jail, where he will await being taken to state prison.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

[with video]

By Bennett Haeberle

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) – Fired from his job as a Hardin County teacher a day after his arrest on a sex abuse charge, WDRB News has learned Edwin Bonet-Ruiz has been let go from two other posts: his role as a Spanish pastor at a Radcliff church and as a special deputy working for the Hardin County Sheriff’s Department.

Hardin County Sheriff Charlie Williams told WDRB News that Bonet-Ruiz has worked for the sheriff’s department for nine years as a special deputy – working traffic duties at places like the county fairgrounds and acting as a Spanish translator for the sheriff’s department and other area police departments.

Williams says Bonet-Ruiz, 54, did not have arrest power, but was working in an unpaid position. Williams added that those duties were revoked after Bonet-Ruiz’s arrest on Monday.

Edwin Bonet-Ruiz is accused of hugging and kissing a 14-year old student in his classroom last week at Central Hardin High School. After the girl told a school resource officer of the incident, investigations were launched by both the school district and the Elizabethtown Police Department.

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)
WLS

[with video]

December 11, 2013 (CHICAGO) — A 27-year-old Chicago man on Wednesday filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Chicago, alleging he was a victim of convicted priest Daniel McCormack.

Darryl McArthur also came forward to speak of the alleged abuse, choosing not to file his suit as a “John Doe,” because he said he wanted “to put a face to the abuse and a voice to victims.”

The abuse allegedly occurred while he was a student, altar boy and an athlete at St. Ailbe, where McCormack, convicted in several similar cases, was an associate pastor in the 1990s, McArthur said. It began in fourth grade, continuing through sixth grade, McArthur said.

“He gained my family’s trust, as a priest and a coach, and he used those opportunities to sodomize me,” McArthur 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.

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Jennifer Ingham says she first understood the abuse inflicted on her was not her fault the moment her family priest cried and told her she was not the only victim of a Catholic Church sex predator.

But as far as Father Frank Mulcahy is concerned, that meeting 23 years ago never happened.

He has denied attending any meeting with senior church figures, Mrs Ingham and her then-husband in early 1990, at which she allegedly disclosed abuse she had suffered as a teenager and young woman at the hands of Father Paul Rex Brown.

And although Fr Mulcahy knew her father from their boarding school days and gave him communion on his deathbed in Lismore, the retired clergyman says he didn’t know who Mrs Ingham was.

Both gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney on Thursday.

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

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Mankato Press Conference Thursday

Diocese of New Ulm, Servants of the Paraclete
Named in Sexual Abuse Lawsuit

The identities of 12 priests with accusations of sexual abuse of a minor remain protected

What: At a news conference on Thursday in Mankato, sexual abuse attorney Mike Finnegan of Jeff Anderson & Associates along with attorney Mike Bryant of St. Cloud will:

• Announce the filing of a sexual abuse lawsuit on behalf of a man, Doe 10, who was sexually abused as a young boy by Fr. Francis Markey at St. Andrew Parish in Granite Falls, MN. The lawsuit names the Diocese of New Ulm and Servants of the Paraclete as Defendants and alleges both Defendants were negligent in failing to supervise Markey and allowing him to work in communities and parishes with access to children.
• Request the release of 12 names of accused and admitted child molesters from the Diocese of New Ulm.
• Discuss the release of 34 names released in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on December 5, 2013 of priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors and St. John’s Abbey release of 18 former monks who likely offended against minors.

WHEN: Thursday, December 12, 2013 at 11:00 AM CST

WHERE: Hilton Garden Inn – Room 301
20 Civic Center Plaza
Mankato, MN 56001

WHO: Attorney Mike Finnegan, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based, sexual abuse lawyer has represented thousands of survivors of sexual abuse by authority figures and clergy. Attorney Michael Bryant has over 20 years of experience as a personal injury attorney and has teamed up with Jeff Anderson to help sexual abuse survivors in Minnesota.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

live stream

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is continuing its hearings, into the discredited “Towards Healing” process – the Catholic Church’s mechanism for dealing with claims of abuse throughout Australia (except for Melbourne, which has its own process, “The Melbourne Response” set up by Cardinal George Pell).

It has heard of the abuse of Mrs. Joan Isaacs by priest, Frank Derriman, and the problems she encountered with the “Towards Healing” process (see last two days’ postings). There had been a heavy involvement from the church’s lawyers and insurers in the process, Evidence has pointed to the clear impression that the church was concerned with protecting its wealth, rather than helping victims, as the “Towards Healing” documentation had claimed.

The enquiry has heard from some of the people who operated the “Towards Healing” process. Evidence of incompetence and outright deception were revealed.

Kenneth Robertson, the former convenor of the Queensland professional standards office was the Towards Healing representative that Mrs. Isaacs first reached out to. Robertson said he did not think Mrs. Isaacs had received a just and compassionate outcome. “First of all [because of] the delay of two years which was absolutely nonsense. I don’t think that the negotiation with regards to the monetary outcome was handled well at all,” Robertson told the enquiry.

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MICHIGAN
The Detroit News

Mike Martindale

Troy —A popular priest removed at St. Thomas More Parish during an embezzlement investigation is seeking access to his personal bank accounts frozen nine months ago by authorities.

Rev. Edward Belczak, 67, has not been criminally charged but was “temporarily excluded” as head of the parish in January by the Archdiocese of Detroit after an internal audit revealed $429,000 in “questionable transactions and practices.” Belczak, pastor at the church for nearly 30 years, was also ordered out of his church-provided lodgings.

Troy police obtained a search warrant and had Belczak’s bank accounts frozen as part of an investigation that now involves the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A request to unfreeze the accounts scheduled Wednesday before Oakland Circuit Judge Denise Langford Morris was adjourned until Dec. 18.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON DECEMBER 11, 2013

Two US media outlets today mentioned scandals over crimes against children. One involves 6,000 potential crimes in one jurisdiction. The other involves potentially 16 times that many likely predators.

Let’s compare them.

The New York Times reports that more than 6,000 possible crimes against children have not been investigated by state officials in Arizona.

TIME Magazine names Pope Francis its “Person of the Year” and mentions, barely, the vastly more possible – and likely – crimes against children by Catholic clerics. (In the US alone, with just 6% of the world’s Catholics, some 6,000 US priests are proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesters. If you extrapolate, the likely number of predator priests across the globe is astounding.)

So on one hand you have 6,000 possible crimes against kids in one jurisdiction with .092% of the world’s population.

On the other hand, you have 6,000 likely crimes against kids in another jurisdiction – the US Catholic church with roughly 6% of the world’s population.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Statement by Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

We applaud Darryl McArthur for seeking justice against the Chicago archdiocese for its reckless and callous misdeeds with Fr. Daniel McCormack, a credibly accused predator priest who was promoted and kept on the job despite repeated “warning signs.”

We hope Darryl’s courage will inspire others who were hurt by clerics to step forward. Adults who were molested as kids have nothing to be ashamed about. We understand their fear. We understand why they often want to protect their privacy.

Still, it sends a powerful signal when victims voluntarily choose to reveal their names when they take action against those who commit and conceal hideous crimes against children. We wish more of them would do so.

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)
Chicago Sun-Times

BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRKA Staff Reporter December 11, 2013

A 27-year-old Chicago man on Wednesday filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Chicago, alleging he was a victim of imprisoned pedophile priest Daniel McCormack.

Darryl McArthur also came forward to speak of the alleged abuse, choosing not to file his suit as a “John Doe,” because he said he wanted “to put a face to the abuse and a voice to victims.”

The abuse allegedly occurred while he was a student, altar boy and an athlete at St. Ailbe, where McCormack, convicted in several similar cases, was an associate pastor in the 1990s, McArthur said.

It began in fourth grade, continuing through sixth grade, McArthur said.

“He gained my family’s trust, as a priest and a coach, and he used those opportunities to sodomize me,” McArthur 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.

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

By Tara Mills
BBC News

The assembly’s health committee is hearing evidence from those leading inquiries into the abuse of young people in Northern Ireland.

The inquiries were launched in September after it was revealed that police had identified a group of 22 young people – aged between 13 and 18 – that may have been abused.

Of the 22 cases under examination, 18 involved children in the care system.

They had been recorded as missing a total of 437 times.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC news

MLAs have questioned how effective two child sexual exploitation inquiries can be without statutory powers.

The assembly’s health committee has heard evidence from those leading inquiries into the abuse of young people in Northern Ireland.

Two inquiries were launched in September after it was revealed that police had identified a group of 22 young people who may have been abused.

The alleged victims were aged between 13 and 18.

The health committee was told the profile of victims in Northern Ireland was always changing.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Manya Brachear Pashman
Tribune reporter
11:51 a.m. CST, December 11, 2013

A 27-year-old Chicago man came forward today, accusing former Roman Catholic priest and convicted sex offender Daniel McCormack of sexually abusing him when he attended baptism classes at St. Ailbe parish on the South Side.

Darryl McArthur, the owner of an auto wholesale company, is the first victim to file a lawsuit under his name without using a John Doe alias.

“I want to show a sense of courage today,” said McArthur. “I feel it is time to put a stop to the culture of secrecy.”

McArthur said McCormack abused him between 1994 and 1996 while taking baptism classes at St. Ailbe. McCormack also served as McArthur’s basketball and football coach.

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)
CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has been hit with another lawsuit involving convicted ex-priest Daniel McCormack – one of the most notorious alleged child molesters in archdiocese history.

Unlike many other lawsuits filed against the Chicago archdiocese by men who said they’ve been abused by priests, there is a name attached to this suit.

“I respect and appreciate the privacy of being a John Doe, but my name is Darryl McArthur, and I feel it is time to put a stop to this culture of secrecy within the Catholic Church,” McArthur said

He is 27 years old said McCormack sexually abused him in the mid-’90s at St. Ailbe Parish on the South Side.

“I want a family, and I felt as though this needs to be put at closure in my life for me to make that next level in my life,” McArthur said. “Because when I do start a family, I want to be able to share with my kids what has happened to me without breaking down.”

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UNITED STATES
Center for Constitutional Rights

Supplemental Submission To the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child In Advance of its Review of the Holy See During Its 65th Session

December 2013

I. Introduction

The Center for Constitutional Rights and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests submit this supplemental information for the Committee’s consideration in advance of its review of the Holy See during its 65th Session. This information supplements that contained in an alternative report submitted to the committee on 28 February 2013, entitled “Fighting for the Future: Adult Survivors Work to Protect Children & End the Culture of Clergy Sexual Abuse” (hereinafter “Alternative Report”).1

This submission addresses the Holy See’s response of 25 November 2013 to the Committee’s List of Issues (CRC/C/VAT/Q/2) (“LOI”) and further provides additional information on developments since 1 March 2013, particularly in relation to Question 11 of the LOI.

II. The Vatican’s Response to the List of Issues

We note that the Holy See’s response goes to great length to confine its obligations and liabilities under the Convention to the territory of Vatican City State, where it acknowledges citizenship
and/or residence of 31 children. The Holy See seeks to redirect responsibility for widespread and systemic violations of the Convention and OPSC occurring in other sovereign territories that were committed, abetted, facilitated or covered up by Catholic officials acting under its authority to other States.

In doing so the Holy See overlooks a critical feature of international law and the extraterritorial obligations of States to respect, protect and fulfill human rights. This Committee has recognized that “the Convention does not limit a State’s jurisdiction to ‘territory’” and further that “[i]n accordance with international law, the Committee has previously urged states to protect the rights of children who may be beyond their territorial borders.”2

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013

Statement by SNAP leader Mary Caplan of New York (mcaplan682@aol.com)

Despite having taken virtually no steps whatsoever – as head of a diocese, a religious order or now, the worldwide church – to protect children or expose predators or punish enablers or reform laws relating to abuse, Pope Francis continues to enjoy considerable personal popularity. Carrying his own luggage, paying his own hotel bill, living in smaller quarters, and talking more about the poor are admirable moves. They do not, however, address the most devastating crisis the church faces – and has faced for decades – heinous crimes against kids.

[Center for Constitutional Rights]

That’s why we in SNAP – with the valuable help and support of the Center for Constitutional Rights – continue to prod secular authorities, especially at the international level – to do what the pontiff and his top aides refuse to do: prevent the raping and sodomizing of children by publicly exposing those who commit and conceal this awful violence.

Today SNAP and CCR are submitting another report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. In it, we document more recent clergy child sex crimes and cover ups across the world and the refusal of Catholic officials to stop them. And in it, we harshly criticize Pope Francis’ dreadfully disappointing and disingenuous response to a legitimate request for information about this crisis by this UN panel.

Days ago, the pontiff filed a formal response to the UN panel’s questions. He claims that the Vatican can provide information only about known and alleged child sex crimes that have happened on Vatican property. This is a dodge, and not an artful one. We suspect that virtually no one on the planet believes it. Nor should they.

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MINNESOTA
The Post Review

By Derrick Knutson
December 11, 2013

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis last week released a list of former priests with credible claims against them of sexual abuse of a minor. Among those on the list is Clarence Vavra, 74, who served at Church of the Sacred Heart in Rush City and St. Gregory Catholic Church in North Branch in 1977-1978.

Vavra started his tenure with Catholic Church as an associate priest at St. Rose of Lima in Roseville in 1965, and retired from the Shieldsville parish in 2003, where he also served as an associate priest.

During his years as an associate priest, pastor and administrator, the Catholic Church moved him 16 times in Minnesota. Many of those assignments were one or two-year stints.

Vavra currently lives in New Prague.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

BY ELIZABETH DILTS
Wed Dec 11, 2013

(Reuters) – Time magazine named Pope Francis its Person of the Year on Wednesday, crediting him with shifting the message of the Catholic Church while capturing the imagination of millions of people who had become disillusioned with the Vatican.

This is the third time the magazine has chosen a pope as its Person of the Year. Time gave that honor to Pope John Paul II in 1994 and to Pope John XXIII in 1963.

The Argentine pontiff – who, as archbishop of Buenos Aires was known as the slum cardinal for his visits to the poor and penchant for subway travel – beat former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and gay rights activist Edith Windsor for the award. …

With the Catholic Church marred in recent years by sex abuse scandals, Francis formed a team of experts Thursday to consider ways to improve the screening of priests, to protect minors to help victims.

Still, Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a victim advocacy group, said in a statement Wednesday that more action was needed.

“After nine months of essentially ignoring the church’s most severe crisis, (Pope Francis) hastily announced last week that he’ll appoint an abuse study panel,” Blaine said. “He has not, however, made a single child safer.”

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UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

In the wake of Nelson Mandela’s death, journalist Peter Beinart posed this piercing question: “Why, in recent days, has the American media focused so much more on Mandela’s capacity for reconciliation than his demand for truth?”

Beinart, who is also an associate professor at City University of New York, presented a possible answer: “Perhaps,” he said, “it’s because, all too often, America wants reconciliation without truth itself.”

I think Beinart may be on to something.

“Truth itself” can be terribly hard. It’s way easier to skip straight to the reconciliation part.

Certainly, we have seen this pattern in Baptistland, where religious leaders are fast to preach on forgiveness but disinterested in the truth about clergy sex abuse and cover-ups.

Indeed, in America’s largest Protestant faith group – the Southern Baptist Convention – religious leaders are so disinterested in – or afraid of – the truth about the extent of clergy sex abuse and cover-ups that there doesn’t even exist the possibility of a denominational process for assessing clergy abuse reports. Nor does there exist any denominational process for keeping records on how many abuse reports a minister may have, for informing congregations about multi-accused ministers, or for disciplining those clergy who cover-up for the unspeakable crimes of their colleagues.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Off My Knees, A Blog by Michael Baumann

FACSA – Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse

Contact Your PA House Rep ASAP

Please contact your local PA House legislator and ask him/her to support Rep. Mark Rozzi’s proposed amendments to Senate Bill 681 which the full PA House will be voting on very soon possibly in the next day or so.

A. How to find your legislator: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/

B. Bullet points we suggest you use in your communication with him/her:

Please support SB 681
Additionally, please support the all the Rozzi amendments that will help give justice to victims of child sex abuse which increase the statute of limitations from 12 years to 32 years for civil actions arising from the sexual abuse of a minor and create a two year “window” to allow past child sexual abuse victims the opportunity to seek civil recourse from their perpetrators.
Include a short sentence or two of why you support this legislation.
Thank them for their consideration of this matter.
Include your name and address.
—————————————-
FYI: Letter we sent to all legislators today. It has a bit more detail about the proposed legislation.

December 9, 2013

Dear Legislator:

The House will soon consider SB 681 which would allow victims of sex crimes to protect themselves from predators. While we support this legislation, we ask that you also support the Rozzi amendments to give victims access to justice. Currently, Pennsylvania’s archaic statute of limitations laws mean that thousands of victims cannot have access to the courts for civil proceedings – just because their legal “clock” has expired.

The first Rozzi amendment would remove the statute of limitations for civil actions arising from the sexual abuse of a minor and provide a “window” up until age 50 for abuse victims to file civil action if the statute of limitations has expired. It would also remove “sovereign immunity” defenses for public officials who commit sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (updated 10 December 2013)

Broken Rites is researching a senior Catholic priest, Father Rex Brown, who was protected by the church while he committed sexual crimes on children – including numerous boys but also some girls. The church has been forced to admit that Brown was an abuser and it has been forced to make settlements with some of his victims.

The settlements were made through the church’s “Towards Healing” process, and these victims have found the Towards Healing process to be an unsatisfactory experience.

In 2007 the Lismore diocese accepted a complaint from one of Rex Brown’s victims (let’s call him “Edgar” — not his real name) and the diocese agreed to sign a deed of settlement with Edgar. Broken Rites knows about Edgar’s case because he had previously sought advice from Broken Rites about how to obtain justice.

In 2013 the diocese made a settlement with a female victim of Brown. This victim feels now feels that she has been victimised AGAIN by the way the church treated her during the Towards Healing process.

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

The sex abuse trial of twice convicted Oblate priest Father Eric Dejager continues today in Iqaluit in Nunavut. Unfortunately this Canadian horror story is now receiving little media coverage. Hopefully there will be coverage of yesterdays’ testimony. There was nothing from Monday.

Today I will blog the testimony from Wednesday past when I had the good fortune to be in the Iqaluit courtroom to see and hear with my own eyes and ears. Some of those children were such brave little souls, doing what they could as a children to protect other children from “Eric.”

Please keep the victims/complainants in your thoughts and prayers. This trial is very difficult for them.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

12/11/13

Hella Winston
Special Correspondent

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office possessed compelling evidence that the allegations lodged by a key witness against chasidic abuse whistleblower Sam Kellner were false, but used that testimony to indict Kellner anyway, The Jewish Week has learned.

This evidence, known to the district attorney over a year before Kellner’s arrest, was given to his lawyers only last week. These new revelations bolster existing evidence that in the Kellner case, the district attorney may have allowed one division of the office (Rackets) to use highly questionable evidence to undermine the work of another (Sex Crimes), apparently in the service of a convicted child molester whose lawyers have close ties to Hynes.

Prosecutors were set to dismiss Kellner’s case last month, but were overruled by DA Charles Hynes’ controversial Rackets chief, Michael Vecchione. The case is now scheduled for trial on Jan. 21. Vecchione is resigning this week.

In 2008, Kellner’s son was allegedly molested by Baruch Lebovits. Kellner reported the incident to law enforcement and, with the encouragement of a sex crimes detective, found and brought two additional alleged Lebovits victims forward. One of them, “MT” (previously referred to by The Jewish Week as “Yoel”), abruptly stopped cooperating with the prosecution. Another alleged Lebovits victim, “YR” (previously referred to as “Zev”), did testify against Lebovits.

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VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times

By Tom Kington
December 11, 2013

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican’s bank has unearthed more than 100 suspicious payments this year after starting full-scale checks on its customers for the first time to crack down on money laundering, up from six last year, said an official knowledgeable about the cleanup effort.

The official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the inquiry publicly, spoke after the Vatican said Monday that it had been given a positive progress report by Moneyval, the Council of Europe money-laundering monitor, after a middling grade in a full evaluation last year. The new report, which was signed off Monday and will be formally released by Moneyval on Thursday, gives an assessment but no grades.

Rene Bruelhart, the Swiss banking expert serving as director of the bank’s new oversight body, acknowledged last week that “there has been a very significant jump in suspicious transaction reports in 2013.” Bruelhart was appointed last year as part of a drive by former Pope Benedict XVI and his successor, Pope Francis, to reform the scandal-dogged institution.

Sporting well-groomed stubble and slick suits and dubbed the “James Bond” of the Vatican by the Italian media — much to his embarrassment — Bruelhart appears a fish out of water at the Holy See, where he keeps a room at the residence that also houses Francis.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

Bishop Stephen Robson has been appointed as the new Bishop of Dunkeld by Pope Francis.

He will replace Bishop Vincent Logan, who stood down after almost 30 years in 2010 on health grounds.

Bishop Robson, who is 62 and was ordained in 1979, previously served as assistant to Cardinal Keith O’Brien for almost 30 years.

His installation is due to take place at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Dundee in the new year.

Reacting to the announcement, Bishop Robson said a big priority for him in his new role would be to encourage vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

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UNITED STATES
ABC News

By DAVID BAUDER Associated Press

Time magazine selected Pope Francis as its Person of the Year on Wednesday, saying the Catholic Church’s new leader has changed the perception of the 2,000-year-old institution in an extraordinary way in a short time.

The pope beat out NSA leaker Edward Snowden for the distinction, which the newsmagazine has been giving each year since 1927.

The former Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected in March as the first pope from Latin America and the first Jesuit. Since taking over at the Vatican, he has urged the Catholic Church not to be obsessed with “small-minded rules” and to emphasize compassion over condemnation in dealing with touchy topics like abortion, gays and contraception.

He has denounced the world’s “idolatry of money” and the “global scandal” that nearly 1 billion people today go hungry, and has charmed the masses with his simple style and wry sense of humor. His appearances draw tens of thousands of people at a clip and his @Pontifex Twitter account recently topped 10 million followers.

“He really stood out to us as someone who has changed the tone and the perception and the focus of one of the world’s largest institutions in an extraordinary way,” said Nancy Gibbs, the magazine’s managing editor.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013

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

The pope has made many feel hopeful, with his personal humility, down-to-earth gestures, and obvious deep compassion for the poor. He has not, however, made a single child safer. He hasn’t exposed one predator priest or disciplined one corrupt bishop.

After nine months of essentially ignoring the church’s most severe crisis, he hastily announced last week that he’ll appoint an abuse study panel. That’s it. Meanwhile, kids are being raped, predators are being helped, police are being ignored, prosecutors are being stonewalled and secrets are being hidden.

Unlike many religious figures, the Pope has enormous power. With great power comes great responsibility, the responsibility to do more than just pick a panel to study a crisis that has been percolating for centuries and that hurts children every single day.

Pope Francis presides over the world’s only global monarchy. And it’s a wealthy, rigid, hierarchical one with a long and sordid history of enabling and hiding child sex crimes. That hierarchy is still enabling horrific child sex crimes, by their actions (refusing to give information to the United Nations) and inaction (not revealing the names of known child molesting clerics, not punishing those who conceal their crimes, not lobbying for better child safety laws).

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Catholic Officials in Violation of Treaty on Rights of the Child

December 10, 2013, New York – Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their attorneys will announce a formal new filing in their challenge of the Vatican before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child tomorrow. The submission will address recent cover-ups in the Church and the Holy See’s claims to the committee that it is only responsible for what happens within the walls of Vatican City.

WHAT: Press conference to demand Vatican answer questions posed by UN Committee and outline plans for January Geneva panel

WHEN: Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 1:00 pm

WHERE: Outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral (5th Avenue entrance) in New York City

WHO: Leaders of two non-profit groups – the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

WHY: In advance of an unprecedented meeting next month in Geneva, CCR and SNAP are submitting a new filing to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The document presents evidence of recent wrongdoing in a number of clergy sex abuse and cover-up cases and addresses the Vatican’s failure last week to respond substantively to the CRC’s request for information about the church’s global scandal.

The controversy centers on the question of whether or not the Vatican is abiding by a treaty it signed in 1990, the Convention on the Rights of the Child. CCR and SNAP outline the ways in which the Church is violation of that treaty.

Next month, for perhaps the first time ever, high ranking Vatican officials will travel to Geneva for an open meeting with the UN panel. They are expected to face tough questions from panel members and to defend the church hierarchy’s track record in these cases. Representatives from SNAP and the Center for Constitutional Rights will be in attendance.

In a separate case, in Sept. 2011, CCR and SNAP filed a 71 page formal complaint – backed by thousands of pages of documentation – asked the International Criminal Court at The Hague to investigate four top Vatican officials for “enabling or concealing widespread rape and sexual abuse of children around the world.”[PS2]

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN DECEMBER 12, 2013

A NSW detective claimed a Catholic priest had a possible pedophile connection to a convicted cleric in an internal police report despite having no evidence the first priest was involved in any criminal activity, an inquiry has heard.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox yesterday told the NSW special commission of inquiry he sent the intelligence report to the state Sex Crimes Squad in 2006, based largely on a conversation he had with the priest three years earlier.

In the report, Inspector Fox described the priest having a “possible pedophile activity link” to NSW cleric James Fletcher, who was convicted of abusing an altar boy in 2004.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN DECEMBER 12, 2013

THE Catholic Church’s response to allegations of child abuse by priests has “been done on the run”, is inconsistent in its treatment of victims and is undermined by appallingly inaccurate record keeping, says the Archbishop of Brisbane.

Giving evidence yesterday to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Mark Coleridge called for an independent, national scheme to replace the church’s authority to decide what financial compensation victims should receive.

The responsibility of the Catholic Church to decide these payouts was “a fatal confusion” within the current Towards Healing process, established to respond to the victims of child sexual abuse by priests, he said.

“In one sense, Towards Healing was something done very carefully, but in another sense it’s a process that’s been done on the run and by people who were learning as they went,” Archbishop Coleridge said.

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AUSTRALIA
Telegraph

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH DECEMBER 12, 2013

JENNIFER Ingham was a vulnerable 16-year-old schoolgirl suffering bulimia when her parish priest, Father Paul Rex Brown, sexually assaulted her – but that was only the start.

When she left school, the Lismore priest got her a job as a waitress in Sydney and arranged for them to meet at the Sydney University Motel in Glebe for sex.

He even paid for her to fly up to stay at his home at St Joseph’s Parish Church at Tweed Heads where the sex continued, Ms Ingham told the royal commission into child sex abuse yesterday.

Father Brown was removed from his office in 1986 because he drank too much and has since died – but the priest who Ms Ingham claims to have told about her sexual abuse, and who cried over it, is still very much alive and denying he even knew her, the commission was told.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Ordained a Jesuit of the Oregon Province in 1943, Duffy’s ministry took him from California to Washington state, Montana and Oregon. He died in 1992. In the early 2000s, accusations began to surface against Duffy. He has been accused of sexually abusing at least five girls, ages 6 to 12, in the 1960s and ’70s, and a “vulnerable adult” woman in the late 1980s. The abuses are said to have occurred while Duffy worked in Oregon and Washington state. He has been the subject of multiple lawsuits.

Ordained: 1943

Died: Dec. 1, 1992

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IOWA
KLJB

[with video]

Once sexually abused when they were minors, now they are taking a stand and trying to change the law.

State officials are no longer able to prosecute their abusers because of the statute of limitation but now these women along with the local organization abbreviated S.A.A.M. is working to change that.

Right now in Iowa, once a juvenile victim turns 18, he or she has 10 years to report it to authorities. After that, the statue of limitation expires.

These survivors say it takes time to get the courage to say something and they need the law on their side when they do so.

“Somebody has changed who I am, for my entire life, and they have ten years to worry about whether they have to pay for what they’ve done,” said Natalie Long. “I don’t think that’s justice at all.”

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IOWA
KWQC

n the State of Iowa, the statute of limitations on the sexual abuse of a child is a maximum of ten years. It goes into effect once a victim of sexual abuse turns 18; that person has up to ten years to try and prosecute their abuser.

But there is a relatively new, local organization that is advocating for a change in the statute of limitations when it comes to sex abuse against minors.

Abuse victims with the S.A.A.M. Foundation — a nonprofit dedicated to changing the statute of limitations for Sexual Abuse Against Minors — tell KWQC’s Morgan Ottier that it oftentimes takes longer to cope with the years of sexual abuse and to make the decision to come forward and prosecute.

“I am a victim of sexual abuse myself,” said S.A.A.M. co-founder, Natalie Long. She said it started in the early 1980s, when she was just seven, and it went on for four years.

“Back in that time I think it was more of a hidden, let’s shove it under the rug type of thing,” she said.
“I had to seek help on my own in my later twenties.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

What the audits by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church of Ireland say about six dioceses

Cashel and Emly

The audit found that all allegations were now promptly referred to the civil authorities, usually within three days of receipt by the diocese.

It said there was considerable communication between the diocese, the Garda and the HSE on all matters, including new allegations and management of men out of ministry.

It found there had been 19 allegations or concerns reported against 13 priests since 1975: “This is a relatively small number in comparison to other dioceses.”

Of the living priests following civil authority notification and church inquiries, five were currently in ministry and two out of ministry .

“Having read all files, the reviewers support the position of the five living priests who are in ministry and agree that the allegations were not substantiated or based on evidence that there was or is current risk to children, consultation in all cases took place with HSE and An Garda Síochána.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

11 DECEMBER 2013

ARMAGH: The audit team found some case files with significant gaps. It said there was “inconsistent filing leading to a lack of clarity about how decisions were made”. But it also praised Cardinal Sean Brady for adopting a more focused and committed approach to the safeguarding of children since he took over.

ACHONRY: Bishop Brendan Kelly informed reviewers that the diocese did not have a safeguarding policy and procedures document in place before 2008.

A priest was allowed to remain in ministry even after the previous bishop had received an allegation, which was not reported or addressed.

The watchdog, however, commended the diocese for its work over the past five years.

CASHEL AND EMLY: Overall, the reviewers felt that all cases, involving 19 allegations against 13 priests, were well managed.

The report states that the compassion of the victims towards their abuser was striking in two cases.

However, it notes that the same compassion was not shown by one of the respondent priests, who often continued to deny the allegations.

CHRISTIAN BROTHERS: Only 12 brothers were convicted of crimes between 1975 and today.

A review of the congregation’s files found that its initial response to the need to report abuse to the authorities was not systematic and was inadequate.

It revealed allegations were made against 325 brothers — 50 of whom are still alive — with 870 complaints of abuse in the 38-year period. Since internal reviews in 2007 and 2009, the safeguarding board said it is now satisfied that reports are made promptly.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Gerry Braiden
Senior reporter

UP TO half the Catholic churches across swathes of Scotland face the prospect of closure as another diocese warns of a crisis of clergy numbers and falling congregations.

The Diocese of Galloway has released figures showing the number of priests has more than halved since 1990, with the fall in churchgoers nearly as steep.

Across the diocese, which covers most of south west Scotland, there is currently one priest for every two churches.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Wednesday 11 December 2013

At first sight, it is yet more evidence of the secularisation of the nation.

The number of regular Catholic church-goers in the Galloway diocese has dropped by half since 1990 while the number of priests has fallen from 55 to 23. With such a huge geographical area to be covered, between Dumfries, Galloway and all the Ayrshires, some priests are ministering to four sparsely attended parishes at once. Some must feel as if they spend more time in their cars than they do seeing the faithful.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Matthew Vella

An abuse survivor and campaigner against priestly sex abuse said Maltese bishop Charles Scicluna should be heading the new Vatican commission on safeguarding children and caring for abuse victims.

“Maltese Bishop Charles Scicluna… has experience of handling abuse cases from around the world from his time as Promoter of Justice in the Vatican,” Marie Collins told Catholic newspaper The Tablet.

“During that time he showed a strong commitment to convincing bishops that they must deal properly with cases of abuse in their diocese. I believe he would bring this commitment to the commission.”

Scicluna was the face of the Vatican’s fight against clerical sex abuse, before being appointed auxiliary bishop in Malta.

Collins said the new Vatican commission set up by Pope Francis should have been set up ten years ago when clerical child sexual abuse crisis “was not just isolated to one or two countries and it was not going to go away.”

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

The civil case against the Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is moving forward in Ramsey County Court.

Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North issued an order Tuesday allowing public nuisance claims against the diocese and archdiocese to proceed. That authorizes lawyers for the anonymous plaintiff, John Doe 1, to obtain diocesan records and correspondence related to former priest Thomas Adamson and others accused of child sexual abuse.

“We are both relieved and comforted that the nuisance claim can move forward so that we can continue on the journey with this courageous survivor to expose and disclose these long-kept secrets,” said attorney Jeff Anderson.

On Dec. 3, the judge ordered the names of 46 priests “credibly accused” of abuse to be publicly released by Dec. 17. The archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released its 33 names last week, and the Diocese of Winona plans to release 13 names of priests and former priests Monday.

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IRLAND
Kipa

Dublin, 10.12.13 (Kipa) In Irland hat die Kinderschutzeinrichtung der katholischen Kirche sechs Diözesen ein weitgehend positives Zeugnis zum Umgang mit Missbrauchsvorwürfen ausgestellt. Das «National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church» veröffentlichte am Dienstag den vierten Teil einer umfassenden Untersuchung über die Praxis und Methoden der irischen Diözesen in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten, darunter die Diözesen von Achonry, Ossory, Kerry, Cashel and Emly, Down and Connor und die Erzdiözese Armagh.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Christian Brothers
St Patrick’s Missionary Society ( Kiltegan Fathers)

SARAH MACDONALD, MAJELLA O’SULLIVAN AND CAROLINE CRAWFORD – 11 DECEMBER 2013

A LITANY of failures in dealing with cases of abuse stretching back four decades have been uncovered at two religious orders.

In the Christian Brothers, the church watchdog said the level of abuse from members of the order was substantial. One brother was returned to ministry after an allegation was made and only 12 brothers were convicted of offences against children.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) warned: “The number of convictions by the courts, compared to the numbers accused of child abuse, is significantly small.”

The Kiltegan Fathers, also known as the St Patrick’s Missionary Society, was also inspected and criticised for inadequate recording of allegations, incidents and suspicions.

Concerns were raised as early as 1966 about a missionary’s abuse of children in Kenya but he was only stood aside from ministry in 1986.

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HAWAII
Hawaii News Now

[the lawsuit]

By Tim Sakahara

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) –
In 2009 Troy Franks stood outside St. Anthony Church in Kailua with signs saying he was abused by a priest. He thought that was all he could do. Then he learned of the window law that allows victims to sue. Now he’s turned in that sign for a lawsuit.

At 7 years old, life for Troy Franks was miserable. He says he was physically abused by an alcoholic dad at home and sexually abused by his priest at church.

“There are no words to describe it. You survive,” said Troy Franks, who is now 46 years old.

He is the third person to accuse Bishop Joseph Ferrario, who is now deceased, of sexual abuse. In Franks’ case he says the molestations and assaults started in 1975 when he was seven and went on for three years. He says it all took place on Church property. He thinks he was targeted because of his problems at home and his personality.

“I feel that I was more on the softer side. I wasn’t that tough little boy” said Franks.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

Armagh

Down and Connor

Amnesty International in Northern Ireland has said yesterday’s audits of two Catholic dioceses there strengthen the case for an independent investigation into clerical child sexual abuse north of the border.

Its spokesman, Patrick Corrigan, described the audits of Armagh and Down and Connor as “internal Church reviews” and said they are no substitute for a proper inquiry.

Yesterday’s audit of child protection in Down and Connor revealed that since 1975 allegations of child sexual abuse had been made against 42 priests, three of whom had been convicted in the courts.

Amnesty International has claimed that both the Catholic Church and the statutory authorities turned a blind eye to a widespread problem over many decades.

Mr Corrigan said that, in some instances, priests who abused were moved across the border from parish to parish, abusing children’s rights as they went.

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ZIMBABWE
New Zimbabwe

ONE of the six women allegedly raped by RMG Independent End Time Message Church founder Robert Martin Gumbura (57) has recounted how group sex orgies were performed at the pastor’s residence and how Gumbura thwarted her efforts to escape the sexual abuse.

Speaking on the second day of her cross examination before Harare regional magistrate Hosea Mujaya on Tuesday the woman said the sex orgies often involved married women from the church, including her own husband’s first wife.

She said one would lick Gumbura’s toes, another would kiss him while he would be having sexual intercourse with the third woman at the same time.

Asked by Gumbura’s lawyer Rekai Maphosa why the three women did not overpower Gumbura and escape, she said it was impossible because the other women consented to the sex orgy.

Maphosa insisted the complainant was in a love relationship with the accused and that was why she kept going back to Gumbura’s Greendale home at the time she alleged the rape was taking place between 2005 and 2006.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

BY ANNETTE BLACKWELL
December 11, 2013

Jennifer Ingham wants to know why one good, fearless person never stepped up against the wrongs and depravities in the Catholic Church.

Ms Ingham, 51, had been “held captive” by Father Paul Brown, a parish priest in Lismore in NSW who abused her from the time she was 16 in 1978 until 1982.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard on Wednesday how Brown took advantage of her extreme vulnerability.

He continued his abuse after she finished school, secured a waitressing job in Sydney for her, arranged to meet her regularly at a motel in Glebe and would pay for her to fly to his home at St Joseph’s Parish Church, Tweed Heads.

Ms Ingham said she suffered bulimia, had ongoing psychiatric problems and attempted suicide.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH DECEMBER 11, 2013

THE enormous wealth of the Catholic Church in Australia has been revealed in the royal commission with the Brisbane archdiocese alone having $30 million in cash reserves, on top of all the church properties.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge said they were not even one of the “fat cat” diocese.

It also made a profit from its archdiocese development fund which last year was $22 million.

Despite the vast wealth, the royal commission into institutionalised responses to child sex abuse was told that since 1970, it had paid out only $2.5 million to victims of abuse by its priests and other religious brothers.

Of that, $1.7 million was covered by insurance so it had cost the church just $760,000.

Schoolteacher Joan Isaacs, who was sexually and mentally abused as part of a cult by one Brisbane priest, Father Frank Derriman, received just $30,000 in an out of court settlement agreed under the church’s Towards Health process.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

By Annette Blackwell, AAP
Updated December 11, 2013

Jennifer Ingham wants to know why one good, fearless person never stepped up against the wrongs and depravities in the Catholic Church.

Ms Ingham, 51, had been “held captive” by Father Paul Brown, a parish priest in Lismore in NSW who abused her from the time she was 16 in 1978 until 1982.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard on Wednesday how Brown took advantage of her extreme vulnerability.

He continued his abuse after she finished school, secured a waitressing job in Sydney for her, arranged to meet her regularly at a motel in Glebe and would pay for her to fly to his home at St Joseph’s Parish Church, Tweed Heads.

Ms Ingham said she suffered bulimia, had ongoing psychiatric problems and attempted suicide.

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ILLINOIS
Patch

Posted by Ben Feldheim (Editor) , December 10, 2013

In the days since it was revealed a former Orland Park priest was accused of sexual misconduct, former congregants have expressed their support of him.

Rev. Michael W. O’Connell, who served at Our Lady of the Woods and St. Michael Parish, stepped aside from his current role as pastor at St. Alphonsus Parish in Chicago, following an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a Chicago-area volunteer organization, released a statement chiding Cardinal Francis George for not taking stronger action against O’Connell.

“There’s an important difference between stepping down and being suspended,” said Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP, in the statement. “Being suspended is more serious. It will better protect kids.”

Blaine also said in the statement that O’Connell should be placed in a treatment center.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Wednesday 11 December 2013

A retired bishop of Brisbane has told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse that it “didn’t cross [his] mind” to question a priest who had allegedly told a teenage girl to “look for someone your own age” when she reported that another priest had sexually abused her.

Bishop John Gerry, the former representative for the Brisbane archdiocese in Towards Healing facilitation meetings with victims of sexual abuse by clergy, was giving evidence in the public hearing examination of Towards Healing’s dealings with Joan Isaacs, a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of priest Frank Derriman in the 1960s when she was 15 and 16.

The commission had heard on Monday that Isaacs and her mother went to Father Martin Doyle, then parish priest of Zillmere, in 1968 and showed him a letter Derriman had written to her. Isaacs said in her statement that Doyle’s response, which included a suggestion that “it is time for you to look for someone your own age”, made her feel “really ashamed”.

Derriman was transferred to another parish shortly after Isaacs met with Doyle. Derriman maintained a relationship with another victim, who subsequently bore his child, according to Isaacs.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Wednesday 11 December 2013

Senior members of the Catholic clergy were “like rabbits caught in a headlight” when Towards Healing was rolled out in 1996, and as a result placed too much trust in lawyers and insurers, the archbishop of Brisbane told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Wednesday.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who has been in the position since May 2012, told the public hearing that “the buck stops with the archbishop”, and particularly in the case of sexual abuse victim Joan Isaacs, there was a “lack of oversight” on the part of the church’s Brisbane hierarchy which led to insurers and lawyers playing a “damaging” role in the dealings of Towards Healing with a victim of child sexual abuse.

Coleridge said while Towards Healing was “in one sense” done very carefully, it was also a process conducted “on the run, and by people who were learning as they went.”

When Towards Healing was first established to respond to accusations of abuse by clergy, senior church members including bishops “didn’t know how to respond,” Coleridge said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

The Archbishop of Brisbane says Catholic clergy were like rabbits in the headlights in dealing sexual abuse allegations in the 1990s. The national inquiry is examining the church’s Towards Healing protocols set up in the 1990s to handle sexual abuse complaints and how the redress scheme worked in a handful of cases in Queensland and New South Wales.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: The Royal Commission has been told that Catholic clergy were like rabbits in the headlights when dealing with a tsunami of sexual abuse claims in the 1990s.

The national inquiry is examining the Towards Healing protocols, which the Church set up in the 1990s to handle sexual abuse complaints, and how the redress scheme worked in a handful of cases in Queensland and New South Wales.

The Archbishop of Brisbane has described the Towards Healing process as messy and inconsistent and said there was spectacular bungling in the case of one victim in Brisbane.

Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: Seventeen years after Towards Healing was introduced, the Catholic Church is being tested on how well its own scheme delivers redress to victims of sexual abuse.

The Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge, told the Royal Commission that Towards Healing is a work in progress

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 11, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

The Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane has admitted to “spectacular bungling” and “drastic failure” in dealing with a child sex abuse victim and flagged his willingness to revisit cases where victims’ needs have not been met.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge said it was wrong that insurers and lawyers had determined how much victims were paid out. His archdiocese had $52 million from which he was prepared to draw for victim payouts.

‘‘In the end, I [as archbishop] decide whether a sum conforms to the criteria of justice and compassion’’.

In the strongest statements yet by a senior Australian Catholic Church official about the church’s mishandling of sex abuse claims, Archbishop Coleridge said a “tsunami” of child sexual abuse allegations had caught bishops and other officials “like rabbits in a headlight”.

The failures of the Towards Healing protocol, in use since 1997, meant other ways of dealing with victim complaints needed to be explored “if we are serious about coming to the aid of victims”, the archbishop told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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.

AUSTRALIA
9 News

The NSW detective who triggered a special commission of inquiry with his claims of a child sex abuse cover-up has been given a second grilling in the witness box.

NSW Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox had already given evidence about church and police handling of child sexual abuse allegations against Hunter Valley priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.
He was recalled for another public hearing in Sydney on Wednesday.

During his second turn on the stand, Insp Fox was questioned at length by counsel assisting, Julia Lonergan, about homosexual and pornographic videos and magazines he has testified a parishioner spotted at Lochinvale Presbytery.

Insp Fox previously testified that in December 2003 he approached Father Des Harrigan at Lochinvale, who told him Father Fletcher had given him the porn and he had destroyed it.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Why do some missionary societies still lag behind when it comes to child protection?

Patsy McGarry

It has been a long road. Based on the findings of the eight reviews of child protection published yesterday, we can conclude that much has been achieved by Catholic Ireland in this fraught area.

But it is remarkable that, yet again, another missionary society has demonstrated it too, apparently, has been quite oblivious to the abuse crisis that has engulfed the church and the possible implications this may have for the behaviour of some of its members.

It is as though superiors of these societies have felt that because members work abroad they were somehow immune to practices found among some fellow clergy at home, or that because they were in foreign countries it was acceptable to do things differently there.

Not only do those superiors help sustain, if not facilitate, the abuse of children through a casual approach, they have also helped damage the good name of a great majority of our missionaries. It is a pattern witnessed before in Ireland, where the bishops were concerned. Superiors of some missionary congregations, it would seem, are slow learners.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Times

Church child protection reports: 870 allegations of child abuse made against 325 Christian Brothers

Patsy McGarry

The review found that there had been 870 allegations of child abuse made against 325 Christian Brothers, 12 of whom were convicted in the courts. It found that “the numbers of allegations and Brothers accused is substantial. The files read by the reviewers left them in no doubt that a great number of children were seriously abused by Brothers. Information on the abuse in Christian Brothers’ residential establishments is well documented in the Ryan Report”.

Protocols

It noted how “until relatively recently, the internal Church processes within the Christian Brothers were not carried out” but that “there are now clear protocols in place for Brothers with allegations and accusations”.

In the 66 years between 1931 and 1997, the Christian Brothers received 92 allegations of abuse while in the subsequent 15 years (1998-2013) they received 794 allegations.

The review said that the “broadcasting of two documentaries on Irish television (Dear Daughter in 1996 and States of Fear in 1999), led to a new emphasis on the experience of victims of abuse at the hands of religious congregations”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Kiltegan congregation challenged by ‘relatively high incidence’ of serious and ongoing abuse

Patsy McGarry

A review of child protection in the Kiltegan Fathers, a missionary order based in Co Wicklow, has found that the congregation “has been challenged by a relatively high incidence of serious and ongoing abuse amongst its members”.

The report, one of eight published yesterday by the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) looking at practices in a number of Irish dioceses and religious congregations, is damning of the St Patrick’s Missionary Society for its handling of child sex abuse allegations both in Ireland and overseas. It pointed out that how it dealt with abuse allegations differed in Ireland and Africa, with its actions here more robust than overseas.

The report from the Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog found 50 child abuse allegations have been made against 14 of the congregation’s priests with one convicted in the courts. All these allegations were received by the order after January 1st, 1975.

‘Too much tolerance’

The reviewers also found that “accused priests were afforded too much tolerance and so found it too easy to avoid being held accountable for their actions”.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

By Rhiannon Elston
Source World News Australia

Jay was just ten years old when it started. First, it was a stranger who abused him. Then the stranger became a family friend, and others followed.

Terrified and wracked with shame, Jay didn’t breathe a word of what happened to anyone for over 25 years. Even today, after years of counselling, he hesitates to say the words.

“I was [a victim of] a paedophile network in the 80s and I was offended by at least ten offenders that I can remember,” he says.

Now in his early 40s, Jay — who asked for his last name not to be published — believes he may never truly “get over” what happened, but he is finding ways to cope.

“I have gone to the police, and people are in jail because of me coming forward.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

by Melinda James

Rob lived with the secret of the sexual abuse he’d suffered at the hands of a Wollongong priest for decades.

In the early 1980s he was just a small boy, aged around 7 or 8.

“I used to go into the church to find solace. At that time we were allowed to go whenever we wanted to into the church. So I used to find solace, just going and sitting and praying. I guess I was a bit of a spiritual kid,” he said.

He says he used to light a candle and just sit quietly.

“While I was there, the priest come up and talk to me and wanted to know about me and why I was sitting there and why I felt safe in the church,” said Rob.

“Then he took me into one of the rooms at one time and that’s where the abuse occurred.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Tom Roberts | Dec. 10, 2013

A Catholic group dedicated to reporting sexual abuse within the church has proposed that three prominent activists from the United States be appointed to the new Vatican commission being formed to deal with the crisis.

Catholic Whistleblowers, a network of clergy and sisters committed to reporting and monitoring abuse cases in the church, made the recommendations in a letter to Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, a member of the Council of Cardinals appointed by Pope Francis to help him in reforming the curia and in the worldwide governance of the church.

O’Malley announced Dec. 5, during the most recent meeting of the council, that Francis had ordered the creation of a new commission, to be part of the church’s central bureaucracy, to deal with the issue of sex abuse in the church. The cardinal said few specifics had been established, but that the commission would deal with protection of children and pastoral care of victims and would comprise experts from around the world, including priests, sisters and lay people.

The Whistleblower group, founded by Fr. James Connell, a retired Milwaukee priest who is a canon lawyer and former vice chancellor for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, proposed Notre Dame de Namur Sr. Maureen Turlish, Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle and Dr. Robert M. Hoatson for membership on the commission.

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ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe Mail

THE trial of pastor Martin Gumbura, the leader of End Time Message entered its second day yesterday with the aunt of one of the alleged rape victims telling the court how she left the church owing to persistent sexual demands from the man of the cloth who knew fully well that she was married with two children.

The woman, who produced a letter which she wrote in 2006 notifying the church of her decision to quit, said she was “committed to the hands of the devil” by the pastor who dealt ruthlessly with people who disobeyed him.

The woman had been called as the State’s second witness to testify on allegations made by the victim against Gumbura.

“When the complainant was planning her wedding with her fiancée, pastor Gumbura called her to his house in Kadoma on the pretext that he wanted to counsel her and help her plan the wedding.

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VIRGINIA
WSLS

By Tim Ciesco, Reporter

A grand jury will now decide if there is enough evidence to move forward with a criminal trial for a Buena Vista pastor accused of molesting at least two teenage boys.

Larry Clark was in Rockbridge County Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court Monday for a preliminary hearing, where a judge found there was sufficient cause for the case to go before a grand jury. They’ll decide whether or not to indict Clark on two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child and one count of cruelty and injuries to a child.

The charges stem from two separate incidents the alleged victims claim took place back in 2011. According to search warrants, one teenage boy says he was molested in the bathroom of Clark’s home. Another says Clark invited him to his house via Facebook and when he went to Clark’s house, he too was molested.

Due to the sensitive nature of the case, a judge kept the hearing closed to the public.

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VIRGINIA
News-Gazette

Written by Roberta Anderson

Sexual abuse charges against Larry Clark, 61, pastor of the Pentecostal Outreach Church, were certified to the grand jury following a preliminary hearing Monday in Rockbridge County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

The hearing was closed to the public because a juvenile was scheduled to testify.

Clark is charged with taking indecent liberties with and endangering the morals of a child. The offenses allegedly took place in 2011. He was arrested by the Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 7.

The grand jury is scheduled to meet again on Monday, Feb. 3.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

live stream

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IRELAND
98 FM

by Teena Gates 10th Dec 2013

A report from the Catholic Church’s own watchdog has found that 870 allegations of child sex abuse were made against members of the Christian Brothers since 1975.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church has found that allegations were made against 325 Brothers – 50 of whom are still alive and 12 of whom were convicted.

All of the allegations were reported to the Gardaí and the HSE or Health Boards.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the
Diocese of Winona fought to have the claim dismissed

Nuisance Order 12-10-13

(St. Paul, MN) – Today, Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North issued an Order allowing a survivor’s nuisance claim to proceed. The nuisance claim sought to make public the names and documents about credibly accused priests. Last week, the court ordered the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona to release the names. Today’s decision allows this survivor, Doe 1, to proceed in uncovering and making the community aware of the secret documents kept by the Archdiocese and Diocese of Winona.

“We are both relieved and comforted that the nuisance claim can move forward so that we can continue on the journey with this courageous survivor to expose and disclose these long kept secrets,” said Attorney Jeff Anderson. “Relief and truth can be known in the legal system in a way it couldn’t before. This decision is also a precedent for other courts examining this issue still pending in the Dioceses of New Ulm, Crookston and Duluth.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

December 10, 2013

Chicago News Conference Wednesday
First survivor to publicly speak out about abuse by serial child molester Fr. Daniel McCormack
Lawsuit to be filed naming the Archdiocese of Chicago involving sexual abuse of survivor at St. Ailbe

What: At a news conference on Wednesday, December 11, 2013, in Chicago, sexual abuse attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman will:

· Introduce a sexual abuse survivor who was abused by Father Daniel McCormack during the years that he attended St. Ailbe School and was a young student, altar server and member of the basketball team. The courageous survivor will speak publicly, using his name, and will discuss the important reasons why he is coming forward to share his experiences.

· Announce the filing of a sexual abuse lawsuit naming the Archdiocese of Chicago as defendants alleging the Archdiocese was negligent in allowing McCormack access to children after receiving reports of McCormack’s inappropriate behavior with a minor boy and young seminarians two years before the abuse at St. Ailbe.

· Discuss McCormack’s pattern and grooming behavior, using his position as a priest and coach, to sexually abuse this survivor and numerous other young children. McCormack, ordained in 1994, worked at various Chicago parishes including St. Ailbe’s, Holy Family, St. Agatha’s and Our Lady of the West Side Catholic School. He also worked as the director of liturgy for St. Joseph College Seminary at Loyola University.

WHEN: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 at 11:00AM CST

WHERE: Law Offices of Kerns, Frost & Pearlman and Jeff Anderson & Associates
*Please note address change
30 West Monroe
Suite 1600
Chicago, IL 60603

WHO: A Sexual Abuse Survivor, will use his name and discuss why he’s coming forward to share his story. Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, lawyers specializing in sexual abuse litigation who work together on behalf of sexual abuse survivors in Illinois helping them achieve justice and healing.

Contact Marc Pearlman: Office/312.261.4550 Mobile/773.368.0142
Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Mobile/612.817.8665

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, NM, Dec. 10, 2013

Third in a three-part series

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

GALLUP – When the Rev. Carlos R. Rodriguez, a Vincentian priest from California, sexually molested a teenage boy in a Flagstaff motel room in 1987, his religious superior aided Rodriguez’s hasty exit out of the state.

More than 25 years later, that Vincentian provincial’s identity was known only to a few people. Like most information in clergy abuse personnel files, it was sealed up in confidential church archives.

And if that religious superior had any ties to the Diocese of Gallup, no one here — particularly Catholics in the pews — would have any way to know that.

That began to change when a portion of Rodriguez’s file was released in January as part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ 2007 settlement with clergy abuse survivors. However, the identity of Rodriguez’s Vincentian provincial was still protected by the redaction of his name in the file. All throughout the record, the word “REDACTED” was stamped where his name had been protectively removed.

However, since church officials were forced to release a file in September with fewer redactions, anyone who reads the Rodriguez file on the Internet can easily see what church official advised the priest to leave Los Angeles immediately, pick up money from another church official, hole up overnight in a hotel and then catch a plane to the East Coast for quick admittance into a Catholic treatment facility.

For at least Rodriguez’s file, the protective — and deceptive — redactions are gone.
Gallup Connection

And the Vincentian provincial who aided Rodriguez? It was the Rev. Jerome “Jerry” R. Herff — one of the founding members of the Gallup Diocesan Review Board on Juvenile Sexual Abuse. Ironically, in the years Herff worked in the Gallup Diocese, he worked on the western part of the Navajo Nation, in Coconino County, the same county where Rodriguez molested the teen. And more ironically, as the clergy representative on Gallup’s sex abuse review board, Herff was supposed to advise the Gallup bishop on how to properly deal with sex abuse allegations. How Herff advised Rodriguez to flee California in 1987 has brought Herff national notoriety since his redacted name was added back into Rodriguez’s file.

Herff, who left the Gallup Diocese and returned to California in 2011, did not respond to requests for comment for this article. However, in a letter about Rodriguez to Pope John Paul II in 1997, Herff admitted to “not knowing much about child abusers” a decade before.

Herff’s actions, as documented in Rodriguez’s file, along with the recently released file of Gallup priest James M. Burns, raise a number of questions about redactions in clergy abuse files. For one, just who are these redactions protecting?

Redactions are supposed to protect the names and identifying information of abuse victims. But the initial redactions in the Rodriguez file also protected church officials like Herff who put the interest of a sexual offender over the interests of an abuse victim, his parents and law enforcement.
Burns’ redactions

So is anyone being protected in Burns’ very heavily redacted personnel file?

Terence McKiernan, the president of Bishop Accountability, the online archive that documents clergy abuse, said most of the priest files released in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles settlement feature redaction percentages in the five to 10 percent range. The Burns file is more than 35 percent redacted, he said, with 195 totally blacked-out pages and extensive redactions on many other pages.

In addition, McKiernan said, although the file features a page numbering system up to 564, nine pages are actually missing from that system that had to have been part of the original file.

California attorney Raymond P. Boucher, who negotiated the Burns file redactions with the Diocese of Gallup, said the redacted pages involve privileged attorney/client communication, documents related to Burns’ medical conditions, or Burns last will and testament. Any information related to sex abuse allegations are not redacted, he said.

However, there are many viewable pages that feature Burns’ medical and health information, from his medical allergies to his weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. And what are missing, however, are documents that a number of individuals across the diocese have said in media interviews that they remember mailing or submitting to the Gallup chancery about Burns.

“There really is no other file that is so aggressively redacted as this one,” McKiernan said of the Burns file’s 200-plus pages of missing information.

“Such extensive redactions are unique in the Los Angeles file release,” he said, “and it is a matter of serious concern whether the redactions are in keeping with the settlement agreement, and what information they conceal.”

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UNITED STATES
GlobalPost

Jason Berry
December 10, 2013

News that the Vatican will create a commission to address its global sex abuse crisis comes 11 years after American bishops, amid devastating media coverage from the Boston scandal, met for their summer conference in Dallas, trailed by 700 journalists.

With help from RF Binder, a Madison Avenue public relations firm specializing in damage control, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops by parliamentary vote enacted a youth protection charter, predicated on “zero tolerance.”

They also announced the formation of a National Review Board of 12 blue-ribbon Catholics to research the crisis and offer an agenda for resolution.

Washington, DC attorney Robert Bennett became the Review Board chair. Among other members: Leon Panetta, the former chief of staff to President Clinton; Pamela Hayes, a New York defense attorney and former prosecutor; and Judge Anne Burke, now on the Illinois Supreme Court.

The Review Board spent 18 months interviewing bishops, therapists, theologians, victim advocates, clinicians working with perpetrators and journalists including myself for the final report.

The report called for transparency and oversight of bishops to halt the practice of concealing and recycling sex offenders.

But as Justice Burke told GlobalPost, “The bishops did not follow our recommendations. They set up barriers for our work from the very beginning.”

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MINNESOTA
Patch

Posted by James Warden (Editor) , December 05, 2013

Six former Hopkins priests are on a list of priests “credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors in the archdiocese (of St. Paul and Minneapolis),” according to the archdiocese’s newspaper.

The priests on the list are:

John Brown was an associate priest in Hopkins between 1951 and 1956. The 93-year-old had a career that lasted from 1948 until 1990. He was permanently removed from the ministry in 2002 and now lives in Maplewood.

Richard Jeub started his career at St. Joseph in 1966 and worked there through 1967. The 73-year-old held several posts before he retired in 2002. He was permanently removed from the ministry that same year and now lives in Crosby.

Joseph Pinkosh was at St. Joseph from 1969 until 1972. The 70-year-old also worked in New Prague, Minneapolis and Shieldsville. He was permanently removed from the ministry in 1992 and now lives in Columbia Heights.

Richard Skluzacek was at St. Joseph between 1978 and 1990. He worked in various positions between 1957 and 1998. He was permanently removed from the ministry in 2005 and died in 2012.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

Christian Brothers

The Minister for Children described the number of child sex abuse allegations against the Christian Brothers as “chilling”.

Frances Fitzgerald said the order played a central role in Irish Society over many decades.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church today published eight audits of procedures.

They cover over 1,400 allegations against 456 priests and brothers, of whom 21 have been convicted.
Since 1975 – 870 allegations were made against 325 Christian Brothers alone, resulting in 12 convictions.

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HAWAII
Jeff Anderson & Associates

TF Complaint 12-6-13
Fr. Joseph Ferrario History
Photo of Troy Franks

Honolulu News Conference Tuesday
Third Sexual Abuse Survivor to File Lawsuit Naming Former Honolulu Bishop Joseph Ferrario
Survivor to speak publicly at press conference Tuesday

What: At a press conference Tuesday, a sexual abuse survivor along with his attorneys and advocates will:

• Announce the third child sexual abuse lawsuit naming former Honolulu Bishop Joseph Ferrario and Diocese of Honolulu. The man, born and raised in Hawaii and now residing in Las Vegas, NV, will speak publicly about his abuse and his prior thwarted attempts to notify parishioners and the diocese about the abuse.
• The survivor will speak about his experience as a seven-year-old student at St. Anthony’s grade school in 1975 when then-Father Joseph Ferrario began to groom and sexually molest him. The Diocese of Honolulu did not substantiate his abuse despite knowing other victims of Ferrario existed.
• Discuss the opportunity for sexual abuse survivors to come forward and pursue legal action under a new Hawaii law that expires April 24, 2014. The alleged victim is the third man to come forward and file a lawsuit claiming that Ferrario sexually abused him. All three boys were molested during the same time period at St. Anthony’s in Kailua.

WHEN: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 11:00 AM HST

WHERE: 7 Waterfront Plaza
500 Ala Moana Blvd.
Suite 400
Honolulu, HI 96813

WHO: Attorney Mark Gallagher, a Kailua-based affiliate of Jeff Anderson & Associates in Minnesota, Mark has over 24 years of experience as an attorney successfully seeking justice and compensation for those injured in Hawaii. An experienced litigator in Hawaii state courts on Oahu, the Big Island, Kauai and Maui, Mark has also practiced in the United States federal courts system.

Notes: A copy of the complaint and documents will be available on www.abusedinhawaii.com.

Contact: Mark Gallagher: Office/Cell: 808.535.1500
Jeff Anderson: Office/651.237.5143 Cell/612.817.8665

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER  , Star Tribune Updated: December 10, 2013

Lawyers seeking documentation of their client’s abuse by a Catholic priest say a Tuesday decision by a Ramsey County District Court judge will open the “secret documents.”

A lawsuit involving an alleged victim of the Rev. Tom Adamson included a nuisance claim against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and the Diocese of Winona, where Adamson also had served. It alleged that the church created and continued to create public and private nuisances by failing to disclose information about certain priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Judge John Van de North dismissed the private nuisance claim but allowed the public nuisance claim to move forward. It paves the way for the law firm representing an anonymous plaintiff identified as “Doe 1,” to request internal chancery correspondence and other documents from the archdiocese and diocese to support its client’s case.

“This opens up a whole new part of the case,” said Mike Finnegan, a lawyer with Anderson and Associates of St. Paul, “namely what the higher-ups knew and when they knew it.”

The archdiocese was not available for immediate comment. Its lawyers had argued that the nuisance claim didn’t apply to the case, and that it was barred by the statute of limitations.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 12/10/2013

A Ramsey County judge has ruled that an alleged sexual abuse victim’s nuisance claims against the Catholic Church may proceed.

A man identified as John Doe 1 filed suit in May alleging he was abused by Thomas Adamson, and that the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona failed to respond adequately.

Adamson had admitted to molesting boys in the Winona diocese, yet was transferred to the Twin Cities archdiocese and allowed to work at St. Thomas Aquinas parish in St. Paul Park, among other locations, with no warning to families, according to the suit.

It was at St. Thomas Aquinas that Adamson abused Doe 1, the lawsuit alleges.

The victim alleges that the diocese and archdiocese created a public nuisance by concealing Adamson’s history and that of other priest offenders from the community. He also alleges their actions constituted a private nuisance by leading to his sexual abuse.

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UNITED STATES
NBC News

*** Tuesday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts covers the memorial for Nelson Mandela with Arise TV’s Leila McDowell. We’ll talk to David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests about what Pope Francis has done for abuse survivors. Today’s Agenda panel includes MaddowBlog’s Steve Bennen, NBCLatino contributor Victoria DeFrancesco Soto and The Nation’s Lee Fang.

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GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola

December 9, 2013

[See also the first article in this series: Disastrous Legacy of Abuse: Gallup Priest’s Personnel File Released, by Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola, Gallup Independent, December 7, 2013.]

GALLUP — When James M. Burns was studying for the priesthood at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Missouri in 1959, his rector raised a concern in a letter to the Diocese of Gallup.

“Whereas there is nothing precisely to which I can refer as a character defect … something in his character does not ring true,” the rector wrote Bishop Bernard T. Espelage (Burns file, page 552).

Had Espelage paid attention to the rector’s concern, perhaps Burns wouldn’t have been ordained, sparing an untold number of Catholic children and teens from sexual abuse by their parish priest.

But the Diocese of Gallup was then — as it is today — a sprawling, rural diocese in need of priests and its officials were willing to give some men a chance that wouldn’t have made the grade in other dioceses. With a lackluster seminary record — checkered with a number of red flags — Burns was an available warm body, ready for assignment.

Ordained in 1962 and removed from ministry in 1993, Burns spent most of that time in Arizona. Based on his priest personnel file, which was publicly released in October, and interviews with abuse survivors, it is believed Burns molested a series of adolescent boys throughout his 31 years as a parish priest and correctional facility chaplain.

“He said the sexual involvement with the adolescent males started about four years after ordination,” stated a psychiatric report on Burns, written at the Servants of the Paraclete’s Jemez Springs facility in March 1990. “He remembered in his first parish that two kids told him that they had been sexually involved with the last priest. He became sexually involved with them. He talked about getting in trouble in a reform school with another boy and described the boy as fifteen or sixteen years old.” (Burns file, pages 234-235)

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IRELAND
The Nationalist

Kerry

A priest facing several sex abuse allegations asked to be dismissed and went on to work in a job which gave him access to children, the church watchdog has found.

The ex-cleric was the subject of four serious complaints relating to his time working in a children’s home in Co Kerry in the 1970s.

But the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church found he was never prosecuted.

Furthermore, he was dismissed from the priesthood at his own request and was allowed to move to another part of the country and take a job involving access to children.

Overall, it was found that 21 priests faced a total of 67 allegations in the Kerry diocese. Only one priest was convicted.

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CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY, Monterey Herald
POSTED: 12/10/2013

Barring intervention by an appellate court, depositions and other records from the child molestation lawsuit against the Rev. Edward Fitz-Henry and the Diocese of Monterey will be released next month.

Monterey County Judge Thomas Wills made final Monday his tentative ruling that there was no compelling reason to withhold the records. They were previously sealed to avoid tainting the prospective jury pool when the case was still headed for trial. It was ultimately settled with a $500,000 payment to the alleged victim.

Wills stayed his order for 45 days to allow attorneys for Fitz-Henry and the diocese to appeal to the 6th District Court of Appeals. Paul Gaspari, who represents the diocese and Bishop Richard Garcia, said they are “certainly going to look very, very closely” at appealing.

“We are being forced to do the impossible,” Gaspari said, “to try this (case) again in the press without the ability to defend ourselves in the press because we are not going to violate” the privacy rights of “individuals who were swept up in this.”

The Monterey County Weekly sought to lift the protective order barring release of the records, arguing there was an overriding public interest in knowing what and when the diocese knew about the allegations against Fitz-Henry and what it did to protect its young parishioners and other juveniles in the community.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Whistle Blowers

December 10, 2013

Catholic Whistle Blowers release letter to Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley regarding Vatican commission on sexual abuse of children, teenagers, and vulnerable adults

LETTER

Catholic Whistle Blowers
P.O. Box 279
Livingston, NJ 07039
862-368-2800

December 9, 2013

His Eminence Sean P. O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Boston
66 Brooks Drive
Braintree, MA 02184-3839

Your Eminence:

It is with a sense of Advent hope and joy that we write to respond to the announcement from the Vatican that the establishment of a commission to deal with clergy sexual abuse has been approved by His Holiness, Pope Francis. As men and women who have been deeply affected by the clergy sexual abuse crisis of the Catholic Church for decades, including some who are survivors of sexual abuse by clergy and religious, we express our cautious optimism that such a commission might signal the beginning of the end of sexual abuse of children, teenagers, and vulnerable adults within the Roman Catholic Church.

Since many aspects of the Vatican commission on sexual abuse have not been determined, including its membership, mission, and goals, we would like to make the following recommendations to you as the titular head of the commission, at least at this time:

1) While the Catholic Church’s work emanates from a pastoral nature, we recommend that the Vatican commission not ignore the juridical (canon and civil law), psychological, and sociological factors that impact cases of sexual abuse in the Church. Justice for the victims and their families must be the paramount aim of the commission.

2) While we welcome the news that the commission will be composed of an array of persons from different vocations and backgrounds, we urge the selection of a broad-based group of experts, including highly qualified and independent criminal, civil and canonical attorneys; psychiatrists and psychotherapists; advocates and supporters; victim/survivors and their families. To this end, we recommend the consideration of three highly qualified Americans for appointment to the commission:

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish, SNDdeN – Advocate, Supporter, and Writer
Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, O.P., J.D.C. – Canon lawyer and Victims’ Advocate
Dr. Robert M. Hoatson – Co-founder and President, Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families

These three individuals have committed themselves for decades to the pursuit of healing for victim/survivors and the promotion of justice for all involved in the crisis of clergy sexual abuse.

Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, through her extensive writing, support of lay efforts to advocate for victim/survivors, and participation in changing and reforming laws that will protect children and teenagers, has committed herself to the mission of ending sexual abuse by clergy and other religious persons.

Rev. Thomas Doyle, O.P, was instrumental in developing in the 1980s for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops a “handbook” for treating allegations of clergy sexual abuse. In addition, he has been a recognized international expert on clergy sexual abuse, acting as a canonical and pastoral consultant and expert for numerous organizations and institutions.

Dr. Robert Hoatson, a victim/survivor of multiple Catholic Church abusers, began reporting cases of sexual abuse in the 1970s when he was a teacher in a Catholic high school. In 2003, he co-founded a charity that has helped over 2,000 victim/survivors internationally with advocacy, financial assistance, psychological services, and a host of other ministries.

3) While we understand Pope Francis’ desire to move forward and “from here on” determine that no child, teenager, or vulnerable adult will be harmed by ministers of the Catholic Church, we recommend that past cases, which will continue to surface in large numbers sporadically based on the nature of sexual abuse and the inability of victims to predict when is the “right time” to come forward and begin the healing process, be dealt with compassionately and justly. In addition, we urge the commission to discipline members of the hierarchy of the Church who have displayed reckless negligence in their handling of cases of clergy sexual abuse.

Finally, Your Eminence, all of us, Catholic Whistle Blowers and signers of this letter, have attempted in many ways and often to assist the Church we love in the resolution of the worst scandal to afflict the Roman Catholic Church. It appears that Pope Francis has embarked on a mission to end the scandal. We offer him, and you, the talents and abilities with which we have been blessed to make this happen.

Yours in Christ,

The Catholic Whistle Blowers:

Rev. John P. Bambrick, Jackson, NJ
Sr. Sally Butler, O.P., Brooklyn, NY
Rev. Patrick W. Collins, Douglas, MI
Rev. James E. Connell, Milwaukee, WI
Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, O.P., Vienna, VA
Robert M. Hoatson, West Orange, NJ
Rev. Ronald Lemmert, Peekskill, NY
Rev. Bruce N. Teague, Sheffield, MA
Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, SNDdeN, New Castle, DE
Patrick J. Wall, Stillwater, MN

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MINNESOTA
Patch

Only 30 clerics were on last week’s list of accused priests, but an animated Patch map and interactive timeline illustrate the scope of their time in the ministry.

Posted by James Warden (Editor) , December 10, 2013

There were just 30 clergymen on last week’s list of priests who have “credible claims against them” of sexually abusing minors. Those priests are a fraction of the clerics who served in the archdiocese between 1933 and 2012, the timeframe that the accused priests were in the ministry. For context, the archdiocese has 495 priests serving right now, plus 1,400 deacons and numerous religious brothers, according to the organization.

Yet the accused priests—some with long tenures in the church—have come into contact with more parishes than their small numbers suggests. In all, the priests have held positions at 92 of the 188 parishes in the archdiocese.

Some locations were home to accused clerics for a disproportionate amount of time. One accused cleric assigned to St. John’s Abbey spent a total of about 35 years there, the most of any location, according to a Patch analysis. Four accused priests spent a total of 31 years at Sacred Heart in Robbinsdale, the second-highest total and the most for a parish. At St. Joseph in Hopkins, the second-highest parish, five accused priests tallied 27 years.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The Catholic Church’s program for dealing with claims of child sexual abuse, “Towards Healing”, continued to be the focus of the fourth hearings of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, today.

Yesterday the hearings featured the church’s lawyer, Peter Gray, whose biblical quotations triggered a walk-out from some members of the gallery, and distressed many others. It also featured Mrs. Joan Isaacs, who was molested by Fr. Frank Derriman in the late sixties, and who received a short prison sentence in 1998 for that offence. Mrs. Isaacs continued her evidence at today’s hearing, concerning her experiences with the “Towards Healing” process.

She informed the enquiry that, on two occasions, she was forced to chase up the church authority for payment for counseling sessions, after her counselor revealed that bills sent to Towards Healing had gone unpaid. Despite the paltry sum offered to Mrs. Isaacs (less than $10,000 after costs), the Brisbane Archdiocese had a fund with $154 million in it which was available for compensation.

She had been made to sign a deed of release which included the phrase along the lines of not being critical of the church. In 2001, she received a second draft of a deed of release from Towards Healing, containing a clause that she could not discuss the matter with anyone, including her husband and children.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Lest there be any remaining doubt about the nastiness and true motives of the anti-Catholic group SNAP, the organization is now publishing on its web site the personal phone numbers and email addresses of priests who have merely been accused of abuse.

TheMediaReport.com has examined two recent media statements where SNAP has published such personal information. In both cases, the accusations against the clerics date back many decades, and neither cleric has ever been charged criminally.

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MINNESOTA
The Record

By Adam Tucker | December 9th, 2013

Saint John’s Abbey released a statement Monday voluntarily naming 18 monks that have “likely offended against minors”—most of whom have already been publically named. Nine of the names on the list reside at the Abbey under supervised plans, seven of the monks have deceased, and two of the monks—including Francis Hoefgen, who was indicted by a lawsuit filed on Nov. 19—have since left the clergy.

“We are including all 18 names to provide as complete of a list as we can to acknowledge the pain suffered by victims. This list underscores our commitment to being transparent in our policies and procedures for dealing with allegations of abuse,” Abbey spokesperson Br. Aelred Senna said.

Attorney Jeff Anderson filed a lawsuit in November in Dakota County court that names the Abbey as a defendant for allegedly concealing or neglecting to fully disclose Hoefgen’s misconduct prior to his establishment at St. Boniface parish in Hastings in 1985. Today’s letter is the first list of names announced by the Abbey since they released a list of 17 names in 2011 as part of a different case.

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IRELAND
Journal

Christian Brothers

ONE IN FOUR, the advocacy group that represents survivors of clerical abuse, today said that the reviews by the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children have been met with an overly legalistic response by the Christian Brothers.Today’s publishing of the reports shows that just 12 convictions have been made on the back of 870 allegations against 325 Christian Brothers.

While One in Four welcomed the publishing of the reports, they said they were disappointed with the response of the Christian Brothers.

Maeve Lewis of One in Four said that the findings of the report, which said that the Christian Brothers were too quick to resort to legal recourse, were in keeping with what the survivors of abuse had experienced.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Kos

by Betty Clermont

On the July 28 flight back to Rome from Rio de Janeiro’s World Youth Day and in a widely publicized interview in September with a Jesuit magazine, when asked for his opinion on abortion and same-sex marriage, Pope Francis said his position was identical to that of the Church. “I am a son of the Church,” he explained.

He is a son of the Church as restructured by his two predecessors, Pope John Paul II and his head of doctrine, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI.

Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was promoted to bishop, archbishop and cardinal by Pope John Paul II who preached: “The globalized economy must be analyzed in the light of the principles of social justice, respecting the preferential option for the poor who must be allowed to take their place in such an economy, and the requirements of the international common good.” John Paul condemned, “Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide…whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind.”

Yet he backed Latin American dictators and worked with the CIA, Reagan and right-wing Catholic groups to counter the actions of progressive clerics in Latin America. The CIA thought Wojtyla would be “a perfect vehicle for U.S. foreign policy.”

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope by a College of Cardinals comprised entirely of men appointed by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Benedict taught: “Democracy will attain its full actualization only when every person and each people have access to the primary goods (life, food, water, health care, education, work, and the certainty of their rights) through an ordering of internal and international relations that assures each person of the possibility of participating in them.” And “Commitment to promoting effective social justice in international relations demands of each one an awareness that the goods of creation are destined for all, and that in the world community economies must be oriented toward the sharing of these goods, their lasting use, and the fair division of the benefits that derive from them.”

Yet when polls showed a tie between Pres. George W. Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry in 2004, he sent a letter to the U.S. episcopate instructing the bishops to deny communion to Kerry. After favoring Gore in 2000, Catholics voted 52 percent for Bush versus 47 percent for Kerry. “Throughout the 2004 campaign, Rove maintained that, if Bush won the Catholic vote, he would be reelected. Rove was right.”

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IRELAND
Journal

Cashel and Emly

THE ARCHDIOCESE OF Cashel and Emly was given a largely clean bill of health in the latest review of its child safeguarding measures.

The report from the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCCI) found that the archdiocese had received a “relatively small number” of allegations/suspicions/concerns regarding clerics in its area and that those that were received were generally dealt with quickly.

“Archbishop (Dermot) Clifford promptly removed priests from public ministry, usually within days of the allegations being brought to his attention,” reads the report.

There was a delay in bringing allegations to the gardai in four cases but of three of these, the complainants had not wanted the gardai involved – the fourth concerned a priest who was out of ministry and had no access to children. However, this fourth case took nine years to be reported to gardai.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

MATT JOHNSTON STATE POLITICS REPORTER HERALD SUN DECEMBER 10, 2013

CREEPS who groom children for sex through websites or community groups face 10 years in jail even if no abuse occurs, under a tough new law.

The draft Bill is the first stemming from the Victorian parliamentary child sex abuse inquiry’s report, Betrayal of Trust, which found “several thousand” victims in non- ­government organisations.

Attorney-General Robert Clark will today introduce the law, designed to stop paedophiles before they strike.

It is aimed at anyone trying to groom children, from Facebook fiends to dodgy family friends, and covers those who cultivate relationships with parents to gain access to children for sexual purposes.

Mr Clark said the new law would have a maximum penalty of 10 years.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Richard Willingham

Sexual predators will face up to 10 years in prison for grooming children for sex under new laws to be introduced in the Victorian Parliament.

In response to the Betrayal of Trust parliamentary investigation into child sexual abuse and Protecting Victoria’s Vulnerable Children Inquiry, the laws will prohibit adults from communicating, in any way, with a child under the age of 16 for the purpose of sex.

”Grooming” is when an offender tries to facilitate the involvement of a child in sexual activity. Attorney-General Robert Clark said the grooming laws would apply to any communication by an adult with a child, parent or carer intended to facilitate involving the child in a sexual offence.

Importantly the law will allow police to intercept predators based on communications rather than have to set up a ”sting” to catch paedophiles. The offence is not contingent on sexual abuse having occurred or even attempted.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Kerry

10 DECEMBER 2013

Four fresh complaints of child abuse have been made against three priests since the review of safeguarding practice in the Diocese of Kerry was completed in May.

One of these refers to a retired priest living in Kerry who is the subject of an ongoing investigation in the UK.

A total of 67 allegations against 21 priests were made in the Diocese of Kerry in the 38-year period from January 1975 to May 2013.

There has only been one prosecution in the diocese in that time.

Thirteen of the priests against whom allegations were made are now dead.

One of these, who died about 30 years ago, had 25 complaints made against him while he had access to children.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Ossory

CAROLINE CRAWFORD – 10 DECEMBER 2013

A “prolific abuser” who was later convicted of sexually abusing children was not reported to gardai for 11 years after a bishop received legal advice that he did not need to notify gardai of the allegation.

The case emerged in the Diocese of Ossary which was reviewed by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church.

It found that the priest who has since been convicted and is now being monitored by State authorities was immediately removed from ministry by the then bishop Bishop Laurence Forristal.

However, after receiving legal advice in 1994 that he did not need to notify gardai of the allegation, the information was not passed on to the authorities until 2005.

A second priest also described as a “prolific abuser” was brought to the attention of Bishop Forristal by gardai in 1994 and the priest was immediately removed from ministry.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Achonry

10 DECEMBER 2013

CONCERNS about a priest who was recently convicted of abusing 18 boys in five counties over two decades were not passed onto the civil authorities when it became known in the early 1980s.

A review of the Diocese of Achonry highlighted three cases of “problematic” management of priests and religious from outside the diocese.

In 1981 a priest arrived in the diocese to provide cover for a colleague, unbeknown to the bishop. Priest P spent five months in the diocese and returned the following year when he sexually abused a boy.

The review found evidence that information about Fr P’s abuse of this young boy was made available to a priest of the diocese “at an early stage”, but had not been passed on by the diocese to the civil authorities.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 10 December 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Plenary Meeting of MONEYVAL (the “Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism”, established by the Council of Europe) has approved the Progress Report of the Holy See/ Vatican City State. The Progress Report follows the adoption of the Mutual Evaluation Report on 4 July 2012 and is part of the ordinary process in compliance with to the Rules of Procedure of MONEYVAL, according to a press communique published in the evening of Monday, 9 December by the Holy See Press Office.

The progress report, submitted for review during the Plenary, confirms that significant progress has been made. Upon request by the Holy See and the Vatican City State the MONEYVAL Secretariat agreed to carry out a full progress review. Therefore, the report contains an analysis of progress against the core and key recommendations of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force), regarding international standards on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

“The adoption of the Progress Report confirms the significant efforts undertaken by the Holy See and the Vatican City State to strengthen its legal and institutional framework”, said Monsignor Antoine Camilleri, Under Secretary for Relations with States, and Head of Delegation of the Holy See and Vatican City State to MONEYVAL. “The Holy See is fully committed to continuing to improve further the effective implementation of all necessary measures to build a well functioning and sustainable system aimed at preventing and fighting financial crimes.”

In accordance with the MONEYVAL Rules of Procedure, the Progress Report will be published in full by the MONEYVAL Secretariat on its website on Thursday.

At the legislative level, and among the principal results following the Mutual Evaluation report of 4 July 2012, Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF) has been strengthened by the amendment on 14 December 2012 of the Law on the Prevention and Countering of Laundering of Proceeds of Crimes and Financing of Terrorism. In addition to the Motu Proprio of Pope Francis on the Laws on Criminal Matters of 11 July 2013, the new laws cover all terrorist offences set forth in the Conventions annexed to the Terrorist Financing Convention as well as a new approach to the civil liability of legal persons arising from crime. In particular, a modern scheme on confiscation, freezing and seizure has been adopted. The Motu Proprio extended the jurisdiction of the Vatican Tribunal over criminal offences – including the financing of terrorism and money laundering – committed by public officials of the Holy See in the context of the exercise of their functions, even if outside Vatican territory.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Get West London

A priest and well-known community leader is facing sex offence charges.

The 42-year-old Gurudev Rajesh Parmar, founder of Hindu temple the Siddhashram Shakti Centre in Palmerston Road, Wealdstone, is facing charges of assault causing actual bodily harm, a charge of conspiring to commit sexual offences and a charge for perverting the course of justice.

The Hindu priest, who lives in Headstone Drive, will appear at Harrow Crown Court again on Friday for a plea and case management hearing.

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IRELAND
Journal

St Patrick’s Missionary Society ( Kiltegan Fathers)

A REVIEW ON the safeguarding of children in the Catholic Church has found a “historical failure” to react appropriately to abuse at St Patrick’s Missionary Society, also know as the Kiltegan Fathers, in Wicklow.

In one of eight reports published by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCCI), particular failures were identified in the society’s handling of abuse allegations outside of the State.

There were 50 allegations made about 14 members of the society since 1975 with 47 of these were reported to gardaí and the HSE. Three allegations were not reported in Ireland as the offences occurred in other jurisdictions and so were reported there and none of these priests reside in Ireland.

Just one priest has been convicted of having committed an offence against a child or young person.

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IRELAND
Irish MIrror

by Ed Carty, Lyndsey Telford and Michael McHugh

An audit of how the Catholic order the Christian Brothers dealt with abuse allegations has found only 12 brothers were convicted of crimes between 1975 and today.

A review of the congregation’s files found that its initial response to the need to report abuse to the authorities was not systematic and was inadequate.

It revealed allegations were made against 325 brothers – only 50 of whom are still alive – with 870 complaints of abuse in the 38 year period, all of which have been reported to authorities.

The audit, carried out by the church’s own watchdog the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, is one of eight being released today.

The latest and largest tranche of reviews by the oversight body scrutinise both current practice in two religious orders and six dioceses and the handling of all allegations received since January 1975.

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ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe Mail

THE trial of Harare pastor Martin Robert Gumbura, accused of raping seven women from his church, opened yesterday with the man of the cloth denying the charges and claiming that some of the victims were his lovers.

In his defence, the pastor who has 11 wives and 30 children, said he had consensual sex with five of the women including his sixth wife’s young sister.

Harare area public prosecutor Mr Jonathan Murombedzi and Mrs Kudzai Chigwedere, who represented the State in the case, applied to have all the witnesses testify in camera but regional magistrate Mr Hoseah Mujaya only granted the application in respect of three.

Outlining the defence case, Gumbura’s lawyers Ms Rekai Maposa and Mr Emmanuel Samundombe said Gumbura intended to marry the women and that the rape charges do not stick.

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