ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
9 News

Victoria’s Anglican bishops say they are in the process of checking all clergy files to ensure that any past instances of sexual abuse are known.

The bishops say they are working to strengthen child protection measures that are already in place in its five Victorian dioceses.

Friday’s statement comes after evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse about an Anglican Church institution in NSW.

The Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse also recently handed down its report.

“We have worked together to scrutinise our protocols and ensure they meet the high standards we expect of clergy and church workers,” the bishops said in a statement.

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NEW YORK
Empire State News

ALBION – State Police announce the arrest of Reverend Roy Harriger Sr, 70, of Middleport, on sexual abuse charges, following an investigation by State Police Investigators in SP Albion.

Harriger, currently the Reverend of Community Fellowship Church in the Town of Hartland was arrested for two counts of course of sexual conduct, two counts of incest and four counts of sodomy. All charges are felonies.

These crimes occurred between September 2000 and September 2001 in the Town of Yates, Orleans County, when he was the Reverend of the Wesleyan Church in Lyndonville, NY. Investigation revealed that alleged crimes have been perpetrated in New York, as well as the states of Michigan and Pennsylvania between 1974 and 2003.

The incidents that occurred in Michigan and Pennsylvania have been referred to their respective State Police agencies.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

The journalist whose stories about child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church prompted a royal commission has won the nation’s top journalism award.

A reluctant journalist whose work on the issue of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church prompted a royal commission has won Australia’s top journalism award.

Joanne McCarthy, who wrote a series of articles for the Newcastle Herald, won the Gold Walkley Award at a ceremony in Brisbane on Thursday.

She told a room crowded with some of the nation’s most respected journalists that she took great pride from her role in prompting a royal commission into the issue.

“This was about a hell of a lot of individuals in the end across the country who just decided enough was enough,” she said during her acceptance speech.

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NEW YORK
WIBX

By Kristine Bellino November 28, 2013

A small town pastor is being anything but revered in Hartland, New York following his arrest on sex abuse charges.

The Reverend Roy Harriger, Senior, of Middleport is being held at the Orleans County Jail in lieu of bail on allegations that he engaged in illegal sexual conduct between September 2000 and September 2001 in the Orleans County town of Yates, New York.

The 70-year old Harriger, who presided over the Community Fellowship Church in Hartland, was reverend of the Wesleyan Church in Lyndonville, New York when the crimes were allegedly committed. New York State Police say that their investigation “revealed that alleged crimes have been perpetrated in New York, as well as the states of Michigan and Pennsylvania between 1974 and 2003.” In a written release police say that those crimes have been referred to authorities in their respective states.

Harriger was arraigned before Judge Donald Grabowski and is being charged with the following:

* Felony Course of Sexual Conduct (two counts)
* Felony Incest (two counts)
* Felony Sodomy (four counts)

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CANADA
Mississauga

IQALUIT, Nunavut – RCMP confirm they have an active arrest warrant on child sex abuse charges for a second Arctic priest who left Canada.

Police in Iqaluit, Nunavut, say Oblate priest Joannis Rivoire is wanted on three sex-related charges dating from his time in Rankin Inlet between 1968 and 1970. …

Oblate officials in Ottawa confirm Rivoire is alive and living in France. Since leaving Canada, according to Oblate news letters, Rivoire was for some time a treasurer for a well-appointed “retreat-centre-hotel” in France’s Avignon region for fellow members of his order.

Before he returned to the country of his birth, Rivoire had a long history in Canada’s Arctic.

He was posted to Igloolik — the same community where Dejaeger would later serve — from 1960 to 1964. From 1975 to 1993, he worked in several communities on the western shore of Hudson Bay, including Repulse Bay, Rankin Inlet and Arviat.

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CANADA
Daily Observer

By Ryan Paulsen, Daily Observer
Thursday, November 28, 2013

Father Dan Miller’s only words on Thursday morning before learning that he will spend the next nine months in prison were “just that I’m very sorry.”

The statement was made before Justice Timothy Ray delivered his sentencing decision, the last chapter in a legal saga that began in February of last year when the disgraced Catholic priest was charged with six counts of indecent assault. One of the charges was subsequently dropped by the crown.

Miller sat, expressionless, as Ray delivered his decision, outlining the basic elements of the case, which surrounds several incidents dating back to the 1970s, all against altar boys aged 9-13.

In his decision, Ray detailed the aggravating factors in the case, reiterating the position of trust, authority and confidence that Miller held with the families of his victims, the specific nature of the incidents in levels of detail that drew audible reaction from the crowded gallery, and the fact that Miller has never taken absolute and unqualified responsibility for his actions. He also did mention that a mitigating factor was that Miller did enter a guilty plea, which spared his victims the trauma of reliving their experiences in a trial context, although Ray quickly noted that the guilty plea was only entered after the victims had already had to deliver victim impact statements in discovery.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Archbishop Phillip Aspinall gets a little confused at times. This week he gave evidence to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, in a hearing focused on Allan Kitchingman (see previous posting) and the North Coast Children’s Home (see previous postings) run by the Anglican Church (known elsewhere as the Episcopalian Church or the Church of England).

Aspinall and his church announced last week, on the eve of the present hearings, that he had appointed the first, and only, female bishop, Sarah Macneil, to replace disgraced ex-bishop, Keith Slater. She will be consecrated later in the year as bishop of the Grafton diocese. Coincidentally, this is the very diocese that was being investigated by the Royal Commission.

Also, coincidentally, since the announcement came on the eve of the hearings, it attracted world-wide coverage, and over-shadowed the first day’s hearings, involving damning evidence from victim, “Tommy” Campion (see previous postings).

There was one problem, though – Ms. Macneil was, in act, the fifth female bishop appointed by the Anglican Church in Australia. This would not have attracted quite as much media attention. The first one, Kay Goldsworthy (pictured below) was appointed over five years ago, in Perth. Aspinall would have remembered the event because he accompanied Bishop Goldsworthy to her first official engagement in her new role, at the school where she once served as chaplain, PerthCollege.

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CANADA
Sun News

QMI AGENCY

Mounties have issued a Canada-wide warrant for a priest accused in a string of child sexual assaults in Nunavut.

Johannes Rivoire, who is now in his 80s, is accused of committing the offences between 1968 and 1970.

Police believe he has fled the country. Local media outlets report he’s living in France.

He’s been wanted on three sex-related charges since 1998, Cpl. Yvonne Niego said. At least two involved young girls.

“If this individual returns to Canada he will be arrested and brought before the courts to face justice,” RCMP said in a statement Thursday.

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

Nine months and 10 days. Exactly what the Crown asked for for Father Daniel Miller.

The convicted molester and Roman Catholic priest was immediately taken into custody, handcuffed and escorted out of the courtroom by a police officer. His destination is unknown, but, he will be behind bars.

More to come. I just got home but did want to pass on the word to those who are waiting for the news.

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CANADA
CBC News

Nunavut RCMP have confirmed that there’s a longstanding Canada-wide warrant for the arrest of a priest wanted in relation to sex crimes allegedly committed in the eastern Arctic between 1968 and 1970

Father Johannes Rivoire is currently living in France. The warrant was issued in 1998. The priest is now in his 80s.

RCMP say if he returns to Canada he will be arrested and brought before the courts.

Rivoire faces three charges: one for indecent assault involving three complainants in Repulse Bay, and two counts of sexual intercourse involving females under 14 years of age in Rankin Inlet and Repulse Bay.

According to Sylvia MacEachern, an advocate for victims of sexual abuse in Ottawa, Rivoire appears to have arrived in the North in the early 1960s. He served in Repulse Bay, Igloolik and Chesterfield Inlet and would sometimes fill in for priests in other communities, including Eric Dejaeger in Igloolik.

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CANADA/FRANCE
Nunatsiaq Online

DAVID MURPHY

Nunavut RCMP are on the hunt for another Oblate priest who faces historic sex crime allegations in Nunavut.

The RCMP issued a news release Nov. 28 stating that there is a Canada-wide warrant for the arrest of 83-year-old Father Joannes Rivoire.

The warrant was actually issued in 1998, but nothing has been done to find him since.

The warrant is “in relation to sexual assaults allegedly committed in Nunavut between 1968 and 1970,” the news release said.

Rivoire is believed to currently live in a monastery in southern France. He left Canada in 1993.

Yvonne Niego, a communications spokesperson for the Nunavut RCMP, said three charges were laid in 1997.

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CANADA
La Presse

La Presse Canadienne
IQALUIT

La Gendarmerie royale du Canada a confirmé l’existence d’un mandat d’arrestation pour des accusations d’agression sexuelle contre des enfants envers un deuxième prêtre oblat qui a oeuvré dans l’Arctique, mais qui aurait quitté le pays depuis.

La GRC à Iqaluit, au Nunavut, a indiqué que le père Joannis Rivoire est recherché en lien avec trois accusations liées à des crimes sexuels remontant à son passage à Rankin Inlet entre 1968 et 1970.

Un autre ancien prêtre oblat, Eric Dejaeger, subit actuellement son procès dans la capitale du territoire arctique en lien avec 69 accusations d’agressions sexuelles contre des enfants, qui auraient eu lieu entre 1978 et 1982.

Dejaeger avait pris la fuite pour rentrer dans sa Belgique natale, où il a vécu pendant 18 ans sans être inquiété, avant d’être renvoyé au Canada en raison de violation des lois sur l’immigration.

Rivoire vivrait quant à lui en France.

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CANADA
Edmonton Journal

BY THE CANADIAN PRESS NOVEMBER 28, 2013

IQALUIT, Nunavut – RCMP confirm they have an active arrest warrant on child sex abuse charges for a second Arctic priest who left Canada.

Police in Iqaluit, Nunavut, say Oblate priest Joannis Rivoire is wanted on three sex-related charges dating from his time in Rankin Inlet between 1968 and 1970.

“We have a valid arrest warrant,” Cpl. Yvonne Niego said Thursday. “If he returns to Canada, he will be arrested to face justice.”

Niego said the alleged offences are against children, including a 14-year-old.

Former Oblate priest Eric Dejaeger is currently on trial in Iqaluit on 69 charges of child sexual abuse alleged to have occurred between 1978 and 1982. Dejaeger was originally facing six of those counts in 1995 before he fled to his homeland of Belgium, where he lived for nearly 18 years before he was returned to Canada on immigration violations.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

In his Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” the Pope describes some ailments of today’s Catholicism

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

“A supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others.” This is the phase Francis uses in the Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” to describe certain ailments of today’s Catholicism. Francis devotes a number of dense paragraphs of the lengthy document outlining the direction of his pontificate to this. In these paragraphs he explains the various forms of “spiritual worldliness” present in the Church.

“One is the attraction of gnosticism, a purely subjective faith whose only interest is a certain experience or a set of ideas and bits of information which are meant to console and enlighten, but which ultimately keep one imprisoned in his or her own thoughts and feelings. The other is the self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism of those who ultimately trust only in their own powers and feel superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past,” the Pope goes on to write.

This constitutes a “supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline” which “leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying. In neither case is one really concerned about Jesus Christ or others.” Neither of these cases, which are both “adulterated forms of Christianity” inspire the mission.

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DEUTSCHLAND
WDR

[Summary: Victims of sexual abuse at the Evangelical Church of Westphalia will most likely get lower compensation that originally promises.]

Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch bei der Evangelischen Kirche von Westfalen bekommen wohl geringere Entschädigungen als ursprünglich versprochen. Eine Anlaufstelle in Münster beginnt jetzt mit der Arbeit. Sie soll Anträge von Missbrauchsopfern annehmen und darüber entscheiden. Bärbel Wegener : Kein Limit nach oben bei Entschädigungen hatte die evangelische Kirche von Westfalen noch im Frühjahr versprochen, man wolle soviel zahlen wie vor deutschen Gerichten üblich ist. Bei schwerem sexuellen Missbrauch kann das bis 50.000 Euro sein.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box and Jared Owens
From: The Australian
November 29, 2013

IN a prearranged interview outside the royal commission, former Anglican registrar Pat Comben tells reporters he has left the priesthood in protest, he says, at the most recent child sex abuse scandal to engulf the church.

This scandal centres on the Diocese of Grafton, in northern NSW, and particularly the actions of a few senior officials including Comben, a “dominant”, “assertive” and “aggressive” character, the commission hears.

For years, the commission is told, the diocese refused to accept legal liability for dozens of cases of brutal physical and sexual abuse committed at a Church of England children’s home in Lismore. Some of the worst of this abuse, including rape, was committed by priests.

Speaking after giving evidence in Sydney’s Governor Macquarie Tower, Comben says he was forced by others in the diocese to take this tough line in the negotiations. If not, he says, “I would have been sacked by the church.”

A current administrator of the diocese, Archdeacon Greg Ezzy, is later asked on oath by the commission about Comben’s account. “This is the first time I’ve seen anything like this and certainly that would not have happened,” Ezzy claims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jared Owens and Dan Box
From: The Australian
November 29, 2013

THE incoming bishop of an Anglican diocese at the centre of a child sex abuse scandal has declined to support the head of the Australian Church in calling for new laws to force churches to pay compensation to the victims of such crimes.

Despite having spoken openly to the media after her appointment as Bishop of Grafton last week, Reverend Sarah Macneil yesterday declined all requests to be interviewed or provide a written statement about the proposal.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

NEWCASTLE Herald reporter Joanne McCarthy last night capped a stunning year by winning Australian journalism’s most prestigious award, the Gold Walkley.

McCarthy collected the coveted award at last night’s gala ceremony in Brisbane for her reporting on child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, which led to a state inquiry and royal commission.

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UNITED STATES
GlobalPost

Jason Berry

November 27, 2013

Pope Francis stands as a rare figure on the global stage, speaking truth to the power of a globally interconnected financial system and governments of the developed world as he puts continuing stress on social responsibility to the poor.

In a document released yesterday, which the Vatican said the pope wrote in August, Francis calls the global economic system “unjust at its root” for promoting a “survival of the fittest” mentality.

He remarks on “widespread corruption” and “self-serving tax-evasion” – coincidentally, less than a week after JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay a $13 billion fine, negotiated with the Justice Department, for selling faulty mortgages in the 2008 economic meltdown. The bank’s CFO, Marianne Lake, said in a conference call with reporters that “$7 billion of compensatory [damages] payments will be deductible for tax purposes.” …

He addresses sexual abuse in the context of human trafficking as a form of slavery: “This infamous network of crime is now well established in our cities, and many people have blood on their hands as a result of their comfortable and silent complicity.”

A certain risk seems inevitable with language of this kind, given the continuing crisis of clergy sex abuse that damaged the bishops’ moral authority in recent years, and which Francis inherited from Pope Benedict.

Francis’s reference to a church “clinging to its own security” came on the same day a clergy abuse survivors’ group in Milwaukee, Wis. released a letter drafted by Father James Connell, a canon lawyer and former diocesan official, to the Congregation for Clergy in Rome, asking the Vatican to nullify a controversial $57 million transaction by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, as archbishop of Milwaukee six years ago, burying the money in a cemetery trust to avoid paying settlements to clergy abuse victims.

In 2007, Dolan shifted the $57 million from general funds into a special cemetery trust as lawsuits by abuse victims mounted. Dolan soon went to New York to become archbishop and subsequently a cardinal. In Milwaukee, the diocese faces 550 victim cases. The diocese filed for federal bankruptcy relief three years ago in an effort to bargain down the settlements; the bankruptcy turned into grinding litigation in which church lawyers challenged the validity of the victims’ claims.

A group of sympathetic clergy rallied to the cause of the victims. The letter that Father Connell wrote as part of the Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance, asks the Vatican to rescind the $57 million transfer, approved by Cardinal Claudio Hummes, who was prefect of Congregation for Clergy at the time.

The Vatican policy on clergy abuse, such as it is, encourages bishops to report crimes to law enforcement and work within a given country’s laws. But with bishops bound by canon law to seek approval for shifts of funds over $5 million from Congregation for Clergy, the Vatican is in a position of de facto micromanaging certain decisions that bear on large settlement issues.

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VATICAN CITY
Times of Malta

Pope Francis has named his personal secretary, Mgr Alfred Xuereb, to supervise the activities of the Vatican Bank, in a sign the pontiff wants to keep a tight grip on the drive to clean up its operations and image.

Mgr Xuereb, 55, a Gozitan, will be responsible for overseeing two commissions created by the Pope to supervise the bank itself and the economic structure and finances of the Holy See, the Vatican said in a statement.

Since taking office in March, Pope Francis has moved to tackle years of financial scandals involving the Vatican bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion, which is under investigation on suspicion of money laundering.

Mgr Xuereb will keep the Pope informed about the work of the commissions and any action that needs to be taken, it said.

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VATICAN CITY
Inquirer (Philippines)

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis is trying to get a better handle on the reform of the troubled Vatican bank and the Holy See’s finances, naming his top assistant to look into the work of two commissions of inquiry he set up this year.

Francis on Thursday named his personal secretary, Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, to be his delegate to the two committees. A Vatican statement said Xuereb was tasked with “keeping his eye on the committees and keeping him informed on their working procedures and possible initiatives.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 28 November 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Msgr. Alfred Xuereb as delegate for the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) and for the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Organisation of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, in order to exercise a supervisory role and to inform the Pope, in collaboration with the Secretariat of State, on working procedures and on any initiatives taken.

The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., emphasised that this appointment gives an official character to a role that Msgr. Xuareb has fulfilled for some time.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

ROME (Reuters) – Pope Francis named his personal secretary to supervise the activities of the Vatican bank on Thursday, in a sign the pontiff wants to keep a tight grip on the drive to clean up its operations and image.

Alfred Xuereb, a 55-year-old Maltese prelate, will be responsible for overseeing two commissions created by the pope to supervise the bank itself and the economic structure and finances of the Holy See, the Vatican said in a statement.

Since taking office in March, Francis has moved to tackle years of financial scandals involving the Vatican bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion, which is under investigation on suspicion of money laundering.

Xuereb will keep the pope informed about the work of the commissions and any action that needs to be taken, it said.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Pope Francis is trying to get a better handle on the reform of the troubled Vatican bank and the Holy See’s finances, naming his top assistant to look into the work of two commissions of inquiry he set up this year.

Pope Francis on Thursday named his personal secretary, Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, to be his delegate to the two committees. A Vatican statement said Mgr Xuereb was tasked with “keeping his eye on the committees and keeping him informed … on their working procedures and possible initiatives.”

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WEST VIRGINIA
Christian Post

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
November 27, 2013

Close to a dozen males have come forward to accuse a West Virginia man and former church youth volunteer of sexually abusing them as minors.

While the West Virginia State Police has not disclosed the man’s name, Westminster Presbyterian Church has confirmed that the suspect “has volunteered in various capacities for the church, including with youth trips that required chaperones.”

The church’s senior pastor, Jonathan Rockness, also claimed that while the Bluefield’s church had alerted authorities at the beginning of the year, the police initially did not find enough information to prosecute him.

“In June, the police reported back to us that they would not be pursuing the case, as the behavior we reported was inappropriate, but not actionable,” Rockness said in a statement shared with WOAY Television. “Even though the legal authorities declined to pursue the case any further, the leadership of the church was not satisfied that we had gotten to the bottom of the situation.”

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ITALIA
La Repubblica

Nonostante il coraggio con cui Francesco sta delineando la riforma della Chiesa, a volte si ha l’impressione che Ratzinger – tramite i suoi uomini – agisca come una sorta di “papa ombra”. La credibilità del nuovo pontefice verrebbe immensamente danneggiata se i reazionari del Vaticano gli impedissero di tradurre presto in azioni le sue parole e i suoi gesti.

di Hans Küng, da Repubblica, 27 novembre 2013

La riforma della chiesa procede: nell’esortazione apostolica “Evangelii Gaudium” Papa Francesco ribadisce non solo la sua critica al capitalismo e al dominio del denaro, ma si dichiara anche inequivocabilmente favorevole ad una riforma ecclesiastica «a tutti i livelli » . Si batte concretamente per riforme strutturali come la decentralizzazione verso diocesi e parrocchie, una riforma del ministero di Pietro, la rivalutazione dei laici e contro la degenerazione del clericalismo, per una efficace presenza femminile nella chiesa, soprattutto negli organi decisionali. Si dichiara altrettanto espressamente favorevole all’ecumenismo e al dialogo interreligioso, soprattutto con l’ebraismo e l’Islam.

Tutto questo troverà ampio consenso ben oltre l’ambito della chiesa cattolica. Il rifiuto indiscriminato dell’aborto e del sacerdozio femminile dovrebbero suscitare critiche.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Teacher

MELBOURNE, Nov 28 – An American Catholic Brother charged with child sex abuse has had some of his bail conditions suspended over Christmas so he can take a beach holiday.

Bernard Joseph Hartman is facing 14 charges of indecently assaulting two boys and two girls aged between six and 16 at St Paul’s College in Altona between 1976 and 1982.

The 73-year-old appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday where his lawyer requested a change to bail terms requiring he report to a police station every three days so Hartman could go to Apollo Bay with his colleagues.

Hartman is in Australia on a criminal justice visa after he returned from the US to face the abuse accusations.

He had been working in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in Ohio on clerical duties so he wouldn’t have direct contact with children or teens. Last year a woman made accusations against Hartman during the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

Jessica Grewal 28th Nov 2013

ONE of the most senior members of the Anglican Church of Australia has personally apologised to victims who suffered child sex abuse at Lismore’s North Coast Children’s home and welcomed the public scrutiny arising from the historic royal commission.

In the final moments of this week’s hearings into the Grafton Diocese’s response to claims of abuse at the home, Adrian Herft, Archbishop of Perth, took the rare step of making an unguarded statement.

He told the commission he was “profoundly saddened” by what took place at Lismore and that “people who rightly expected the sanctity and dignity of life did not receive it but received something totally opposite to that, which has harmed or hurt them”.

He went on to say he was “deeply remorseful” than any acts of commission or omission on his own part may have added to the trauma and said he hoped that the commission would help the Church to “get a handle on how best we should have our structures in place to assist the ongoing work… as it continues to be a witness in our land”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: The final day of the Royal Commission’s public inquiry on child abuse at the New South Wales North Coast Children’s Home has heard from Australia’s most senior Anglican cleric, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall.

The inquiry has wound up its examination of the Grafton Diocese and how it responded to compensation claims from dozens of abuse survivors from the children’s home in Lismore.

The Grafton Diocese spent years denying that it was responsible for the orphanage, but now says it’s re-opening all the files to make sure victims have been adequately compensated.

Today the Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Dr Aspinall, told the inquiry that the Grafton Diocese had focused on its own finances to the detriment of the abuse victims. But he said he had little power to intervene.

Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: The Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Phillip Aspinall, is the most senior religious leader to come before the Royal Commission.

PHILLIP ASPINALL: If I might use a commercial analogy: if people think that the Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia is the CEO of Australia’s Anglicans, then nothing could be further from the truth. The Primate has very, very limited powers.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ashleigh Raper

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has heard there are potentially dozens of clergy within the Anglican Church who have not been formally identified as paedophiles.

Protocols for dealing with sex offenders within the Anglican Church are being scrutinised by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission is looking into the response from the Anglican Diocese of Grafton to allegations of historic abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

The Anglican Church set up a national register in 2004 designed to provide a database for information if a member of clergy had a complaint or finding of abuse established against them.

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IRELAND
The Journal

FIANNA FÁIL LEADER Micheál Martin has claimed that his party is aware of a number of cases where the Republican movement attempted to deal with cases of sexual abuse internally rather than involve the authorities.

Martin made the accusation following the sentencing today of Liam Adams, brother of the Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, for the rape of his own daughter.

The Fianna Fáil leader told reporters today outside Leinster House that there has been condemnation of the Catholic Church over the years for not doing enough to protect vulnerable people but says that the Republican movement has similar questions to answer.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

By Lou Michel | News Staff Reporter, Thomas Prohaska | News Niagara Reporter | @ThomasProhaska

LOCKPORT – The Rev. Roy D. Harriger Sr. may have left a trail of as many as 10 victims of sexual abuse across three states and four decades, a State Police investigator said Wednesday as he announced the minister’s arrest on charges of molesting two children.

Harriger, 70, was picked up at his home on Johnson Creek Road in the hamlet of Johnson Creek, adjacent to his church, which is located within the Town of Hartland in eastern Niagara County. Lt. Kurt Schmitt said Harriger is married with three sons and two daughters. He is the pastor of Community Fellowship Church in Johnson Creek, but the sex crimes allegedly occurred from September 2000 through September 2001, when he was pastor of Ashwood Wesleyan Church in Lyndonville, Orleans County.

Harriger lived in Michigan and Pennsylvania before coming to this area, Schmitt said, and authorities in those states are investigating.

Harriger was arrested at his home Wednesday morning and charged with two counts of incest, two counts of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and four counts of first-degree sodomy.

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NEW YORK
WBFO

By WBFO NEWSROOM

State Police have arrested a Middleport pastor and charged him with a series of felony sexual charges, including incest.

Reverend Roy Harriger Sr., a pastor at Community Fellowship Church in the Town of Hartland, faces charges including two counts of Course of Sexual Conduct (B Felony), two counts of Incest (E Felony), and four counts of Sodomy 1st (B Felony).

The crimes allegedly occurred while Harriger worked out of Lyndonville Wesleyan Church in the Orleans County Town of Yates. The charges involve a young boy and a young girl.

Two of the alleged victims who came forward two months ago are now adults. The alleged crimes occurred between September 2000 and September 2001. Several other potential victims have come forward since.

Police believe the pastor, who is now 70 years old, sexually abused children dating back to 1974, including time spent in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Harriger is under investigation in those states, as well.

State Police are asking anyone with information or anyone who believes they may have been the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Harriger to contact the Albion station at (585) 589-4244.

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NEW YORK
The Daily News

An area minister has been accused of committing acts of sexual abuse against children while he was pastor of an Orleans County church more than a decade ago, state police said Wednesday.

He has also been linked to sexual abuse in New York and other states dating back to 1974.

The Rev. Roy Harriger Sr, 70, of Middleport was arrested following an investigation by state police from the Albion barracks.

The Rev. Harriger, currently the pastor of Community Fellowship Church in the town of Hartland, was charged with two counts of course of sexual conduct (a Class B felony), two counts of incest (a Class E felony), and four counts of first-degree sodomy (a Class B felony).

The alleged crimes occurred between September 2000 and September 2001 in the town of Yates, Orleans County, when he was pastor of the Ashwood Wesleyan Church in Lyndonville.

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NEW YORK
Rochester Homepage

A church pastor is under arrest for sexually abusing children, and New York State Police say there could be many victims who have yet to come forward.

Ray Harriger, 70, is charged with two counts of course of sexual conduct, two counts of incest and four counts of sodomy. The charges stem from crimes he is accused of committing between 2000 and 2001. He is the pastor of Community Fellowship Church in Albion. Police say the victims, who are now adults, reported the abuse two months ago. At least 10 other victims have come forward, some of them from Michigan and Pennsylvania where Harriger also lived. State Police say some of those allegations date back to the 70s.

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NEW YORK
WKBW

By Kendra Eaglin

New York State Police announced the arrest of 70 year old Roy Harriger Senior of Middleport, NY Wednesday, November 27, 2013.

Harriger is charged with two counts of course sexual conduct, two counts of incest, and four counts of sodomy, all felony offenses. These charges are connected to a case involving the abuse of a boy and a girl between the ages of 7 and 9 years old between September 2000 to September 2001 when Harriger was the pastor of the Wesleyan Church in Lyndonville, NY.

Harriger’s alleged sex abuse however spans a period of 40 years with close to one dozen victims coming forward.

The married father of five was arrested Wednesday morning at his home in the Town of Hartland where he is currently the pastor of the Community Fellowship Church.

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NEW YORK
CBS 12

November 28, 2013
LOCKPORT, N.Y. (AP) — A 70-year-old church pastor in western New York is charged with sexually abusing at least two children.

Investigators say felony sex charges against Roy Harriger Sr. are from alleged incidents between September 2000 and September 2001 when he was pastor of Lyndonville Wesleyan Church in the town of Yates in Orleans County.

Harriger is now pastor of Community Fellowship Church in the Niagara County village of Middleport.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 11/27/2013

A Ramsey County judge has stated that he is not sure church officials need court permission to release names of priests accused of sexually abusing children.

John Nienstedt, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, said Nov. 11 that upon “permission of the relevant court” he would be “disclosing the names, locations and status of priests who are currently living in the archdiocese, and who we know have substantiated claims against them of committing sexual abuse against minors.”

In 2009, as a part of the case of alleged abuse victim John Doe 76C against the Rev. Thomas Adamson, Ramsey County District Judge Gregg Johnson ordered the archdiocese to release its list of 33 “credibly accused” priests to the plaintiff’s attorney, Jeff Anderson.

The archdiocese did so, but petitioned the court to seal the list. Johnson agreed. Since then, Anderson has been trying to get the names released.

The issue is now before Judge John Van de North. Van de North will preside over a hearing Monday morning in a case of another man, identified as John Doe 1, who alleges abuse by Adamson while the priest served at St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Paul Park.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

NEWS RELEASE: HEARING MONDAY REGARDING NAMES AND INFORMATION ON CREDIBLY ACCUSED CHILD MOLESTING PRIESTS

Hearing Monday Regarding Names and Information on Credibly Accused Child Molesting Priests

(St. Paul, MN) – On Monday, December 2, 2013, at 9:30 AM in Ramsey County District Court, Judge John Van de North may decide whether a secret list containing the names of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona will be made public.

Doe 1, along with his attorneys and other sexual abuse survivors, sought to force the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, to release this information. The Archdiocese and Diocese of Winona have fought for years to keep the names and information secret.

Earlier this month, Archbishop Nienstedt promised to release some names but it’s not clear how many names he intends to release or whether the names have already been made public.
The original Doe 1 complaint can be found on our website at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3523 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3523 Cell/612.205.5531

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TEXAS
The Raw Story

By David Ferguson
Wednesday, November 27, 2013

The Texas woman who served 21 years in prison for allegedly molesting and abusing children as part of a series of Satanic rituals was released on Tuesday in Austin. The Austin American Statesman reported that Fran Keller, now 63, is being released as key components of the case that put her behind bars have unraveled.

The former Austin daycare owner and her husband Dan Keller were convicted of shocking crimes against three children left in their care, charges that were part of a wave of hysteria that gripped the country in the 1990s that later proved to be mostly groundless. While the Travis County District Attorney’s office stopped short of saying the Kellers are innocent of all charges against them, it did not oppose the couple’s release.

The Kellers’ attorney Keith Hampton said that Dan Keller is set to be released as early as next week.

In 1991, a 3-year-old girl left in the Kellers’ care at the Fran and Dan Day Care Center in Southeast Austin told her parents that Dan Keller had hurt her. At the prompting of a counselor, the little girl spun terrifying stories of ritual abuse that were purportedly corroborated by two other children who attended the preschool.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

It is an alarming and incontrovertible fact: False abuse accusations against Catholic priests, which have always been present, are on the rise. The mainstream media rarely runs stories about false accusations, and there are groups – especially the anti-Catholic group SNAP – who are desperate to hide the shocking truth about false accusations from the public.

What are the facts about Catholic sex abuse and false accusations? Consider:

A veteran Los Angeles attorney who has worked on over 100 clergy abuse cases recently declared:

“One retired F.B.I. agent who worked with me to investigate many claims in the Clergy Cases told me, in his opinion, about ONE-HALF of the claims made in the Clergy Cases were either entirely false or so greatly exaggerated that the truth would not have supported a prosecutable claim for childhood sexual abuse.”

Over an 18-month period in the Archdiocese of Boston, the Archdiocesan the review board – comprised largely of law enforcement and lay experts on abuse – “did not find that probable cause of sexual abuse of a minor had occurred” in 45% of the cases it thoroughly examined, again suggesting about half of the claims were bogus;

Last year in the United States, nearly half (45%) of all priests accused of abuse were long-ago deceased and thus unable to deny the charges – and this percentage continues to rise every year;

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NEDERLAND
Dagblad
Dagblad De Limburger

Er zijn aanwijzingen dat in huize Sint Joseph in Cadier en Keer meer sprake was van fysiek geweld door broeders dan in andere tehuizen. Wim Deetman verklaarde dat woensdag in de rechtbank in Breda. Daar loopt een zaak van een oud-leerling van Sint Joseph die een schadevergoeding eist voor het geweld.

Oud-Tweede Kamervoorzitter Deetman deed onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk. Hij benadrukte dat hij geen onderzoek deed naar ander geweld. Wel kwam hij aanwijzingen daarvoor tegen in onder meer notulen van de priestercongregatie. De commissie-Deetman kon het eigen archief van Sint Joseph niet vinden.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

It involves KC Catholic officials & priest
Church says it’s not responsible for crimes
Their rationale: abuse happened on private property
SNAP: “It’s perhaps the worst legal tactic by bishop ever”

For immediate release: Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013

For more info: David Clohessy ( 314 566 9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com ), Barbara Dorris ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A man who says he was sexually assaulted as a child by a priest is asking the Missouri Supreme Court to reverse a ruling that ended his civil lawsuit against Kansas City Catholic officials. Clergy sex abuse victims called the court decision “bizarre” and are harshly criticizing Bishop Robert Finn for his defense tactics in the litigation.

Two weeks ago, a western Missouri appeals court tossed out the case of John Doe D.T. v. the Kansas City Catholic diocese and Fr. Michael Tierney. The court ruled that Catholic officials could not be held responsible for the priest’s supposed child sex crimes because they allegedly occurred on private property, not church property.

“The blame here squarely lies with Bishop Robert Finn. He could have fought this case on the merits. Instead, he’s fighting it on technicalities, and in fact, on the most absurd technicality: where Fr. Tierney and his victim were standing when Fr. Tierney sodomized the child,” said Barbara Dorris of SNAP.

“Imagine a painting company sending a known rapist out to paint your mom’s house. He rapes her. Would the painter’s boss get ‘off the hook’ because the rape wasn’t on company property?” said Dorris. “Why should the physical site of a crime enable wrongdoers who commit or conceal that crime to escape responsibility?”

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Hundreds of Anglican clergy accused of sexual abuse could potentially be missing from a national register kept by the church.

The register was set up by the Anglican Church as a central repository of information about complaints and findings of abuse. It can be accessed by each diocese when someone applies for a job.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard on Wednesday that the register was not working.

Martin Drevikovsky, general secretary of the Anglican Church of Australia, said a large number of files had still to be processed and that historical information needed to be entered on the system.

In a statement to the commission, he said the Sydney diocese was reviewing 600 files which had been referred to a lawyer.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Legislate to ‘force sex abuse compo’, says Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall

Dan Box
From: The Australian
November 28, 2013

THE head of the Anglican faith in Australia said yesterday his church had failed dozens of children who were sexually abused, and called for federal laws forcing his church to compensate victims of these crimes.

In an extraordinary admission outside the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall said senior clerics in one NSW diocese “failed to treat (the church’s) procedures with anything but contempt”.

“I have heard more truth here (at the royal commission) in eight days than I found out in seven years in my dealings with the people in the Diocese of Grafton” Dr Aspinall said.

“The victims say themselves that they felt humiliated and demeaned, that they weren’t treated with dignity.”

Senior clerics were focused on money instead, he added.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JAMIE WALKER THE AUSTRALIAN NOVEMBER 28, 2013

IN a sense, Phillip Aspinall’s rise in the Anglican Church has been fostered and defined by the sex-abuse scandals that rocked it.

No wonder he voiced his frustration yesterday about foot-dragging by former bishop Keith Slater to deal with victims of historic physical and sexual abuse at a children’s home in Lismore in northern NSW.

Dr Aspinall, 53, had to clean up the mess Peter Hollingworth left behind when he stepped aside as Anglican archbishop of Brisbane to become governor-general in 2001.

Dr Hollingworth had barely settled in at Yarralumla when the clamour caught up with him that he had put the church’s reputation ahead of the hurt inflicted on sex-abuse victims while in charge of the Brisbane diocese, an accusation he denied.

Confronted by the claims, Dr Aspinall dealt with them head-on. He called a board of inquiry that effectively sealed Dr Hollingworth’s fate as governor-general, finding he had let a known pedophile stay on as a priest. He quit in May 2003 after only 23 months.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

The Daily Telegraph praised by Anglican Church Archbishop Phillip Aspinall for exposing evil in Bishop Keith Slater’s church

THE head of the Anglican Church yesterday praised The Daily Telegraph for being the “catalyst” that led to the resignation of Bishop Keith Slater and prompted the latest hearing of the royal commission into child sex abuse.

The Daily Telegraph was preparing to run stories with child sex abuse victim Richard “Tommy” Campion in May this year when a “horrified” church official uncovered the full extent of the Diocese of Grafton’s treatment of 41 abuse victims.

“She came to me with the information because she wanted me to be fully informed about the situation before interacting with The Daily Telegraph,” head of the Anglican Church Archbishop Phillip Aspinall said outside the commission.

What she had uncovered was a litany of appalling treatment of the victims who were seeking compensation for physical and sexual abuse at the former North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore by at least 12 priests and members of staff over 48 years.

“Her coming to me with that information was the catalyst that ultimately led to Bishop Slater’s resignation and the royal commission examination of this particular matter,” Archbishop Aspinall said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 28, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

A national register of abuse incidents used by the Anglican Church to screen clergy appointments is seriously deficient and so out of date that scores of names may be missing from it.

But the church’s most senior figure, Phillip Aspinall, appears powerless to effect change in the nation’s 23 dioceses, telling the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse: ”The Anglican Church makes federal politics look like kindergarten.”

The royal commission on Wednesday heard there was ”gross non-compliance” in the Grafton diocese in dealing with abuse claims.

Archbishop Aspinall has echoed the Catholic Church’s call for a mandatory national compensation scheme for child sex abuse, saying this would ensure parity for victims ”not just between Anglican dioceses” but across all community organisations ”so that we don’t have different classes of victims”.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Martin Drevikovsky, the General Secretary of the Anglican Church (known elsewhere as the Episcopalian Church or the Church of England) told the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse third “case study” hearings that right now there are hundreds of abuse investigations taking place nationwide. The Anglican Church set up a national register in 2004 designed to provide a database for information if a member of clergy had a complaint, or finding of abuse, established against them. Mr. Drevikovsky is responsible for the register.

He said that, when the Royal Commission was announced, every diocese was given directions to “search for (complaint) files and review them to ensure all necessary steps had been taken and if not, to take immediate action”. As a result, Mr Drevikovsky said, “a large number of files have come to light. In the case of Sydney it was 600. In the case of Melbourne I know it was hundreds.”

Mr. Drevikovsky’s register includes 129 clergy members who are currently listed as “persons of concern”, and up to 209 more are under investigation across the country. He told the enquiry the register was still incomplete, and expected that between 40 and 45, and “possibly more”, names would be added to the “persons of concern” register.

The revelation came during inquiries into the workings of the Church’s national register – an internal “red flag” system, which gives professional standards directors and bishops the ability to background check clergy members transferring from diocese to diocese.

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SCHWEIZ
Kipa

Lausanne, 26.11.13 (Kipa) Jetzt hauen Vertreter von Westschweizer Opfern auf den Tisch, die von Priestern oder Ordensleuten missbraucht worden sind. Mit ihrem Anliegen sind sie an die Bundesparlamentarier aus der Westschweiz gelangt. Es müsse endlich eine «gerechte Lösung» für die Missbrauchsopfer gefunden werden, so wie das jetzt bei den Opfern fürsorgerischer Zwangsmassnahmen in der Schweiz mit dem Runden Tisch auf den Weg gebracht worden sei. Dies fordert der Trägerverein der Gruppe Sapec (»Soutien aux personnes abusées dans une relation d’autorité religieuse»).

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

A retired Catholic priest on the New South Wales central coast remains on strict bail conditions after being linked to a major global child pornography ring.

Edward Sedevic, 72, from Lakehaven is facing seven charges relating to the possession of child abuse material.

He was arrested in August after police allegedly discovered two movie files and four DVDs at his retirement home.

Two weeks ago, it was alleged the former Sydney parish priest was one of 66 Australians implicated in a Canadian child sex abuse ring, which was smashed by authorities.

He briefly faced Wyong Local Court on Wednesday and was accompanied by a small group of supporters.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ashleigh Raper

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has heard there are potentially hundreds of clergy within the Anglican Church who have not been formally identified as paedophiles.

Protocols for dealing with sex offenders within the Anglican Church are being scrutinised by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission is looking into the response from the Anglican Diocese of Grafton to allegations of historic abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

The Anglican Church set up a national register in 2004 designed to provide a database for information if a member of clergy had a complaint or finding of abuse established against them.

The General Secretary of the Anglican Church, Martin Drevikovsky, told the Commission that “in the case of Sydney it was 600 [complaints]. In the case of Melbourne I know it was hundreds”.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

In his first extended interview since becoming the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s promoter of justice in 2012, Father Robert Oliver addressed questions involving accountability for bishops who fail to report clerical abuse, as well as abuse allegations against a former apostolic nuncio.

As promoter of justice, Father Oliver is responsible for addressing cases of child sexual abuse by clergy. He said earlier this year that the Congregation is examining 600 cases, most of which involve abuse that allegedly took place between 1965 and 1985.

“All the data we have suggests that the number of priests harming minors today is very, very low, and that’s based on reports not just from the United States but from other nations as well, where we see a dramatic drop in incidents of abuse,” Father Oliver told John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter. “Certainly, we have much more to do, which is why our congregation asked episcopal conferences around the world to review their abuse guidelines.”

Asked about the number of cases reported to the Congregation, Father Oliver said, “I suppose in an average month, we’re talking in the dozens from around the world, including cases which date back many years. We don’t have many present-day allegations of abuse, though it’s important to remember that there’s often a delay in people coming forward to make reports. Let’s be clear: One case is one too many. Yet as we look around at this problem today, we can see many positive effects from the efforts the Church has made.”

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By DYLAN GOFORTH World Staff Writer

McALESTER — McAlester police arrested a 76-year-old church elder Tuesday on allegations that he molested children at a McAlester church more than 30 years ago.

Ronald Lawrence was charged Tuesday with 11 counts of lewd molestation, five counts of forcible oral sodomy, two counts of forcible sodomy and one count of rape by instrumentation.

McAlester police Sgt. Chris Morris said a woman reported to police last month that she had been molested by Lawrence when she was a child. Morris said the alleged abuse took place more than 30 years ago.

Morris said police spoke with two other alleged victims during the month-long investigation. Police don’t know what spurred the victims into coming forward but believe there could be more who might also want to speak with police now that the allegations have come to light.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mercury

Jessica Grewal 27th Nov 2013

AT LEAST 129 Anglican Church clergy members are currently listed as “persons of concern” and up to 209 more are under investigation across the country, the royal commission into child sex abuse has heard.

The revelation came during inquiries into the workings of the Church’s national register – an internal “red flag” system, which gives professional standards directors and bishops the ability to background check clergy members transferring from diocese to diocese.

Those listed have either been convicted of or are under investigation for criminal behaviour and in particular, child sex offending.

Martin Drevikovsky, General Secretary, General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia told the commission this morning that the register was incomplete.

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OKLAHOMA
KJRH

By: Tyler Dunn

MCALESTER, Okla. – A 76-year-old McAlester man was arrested Tuesday on 19 counts of sexual abuse after police received claims he molested several children while in a position of authority more than 30 years ago.

McAlester police detectives were alerted to the alleged sexual crimes conducted by Ronald Lawrence back in August when his first accuser reported abuse at the hands of a Jehovah’s Witness church leader.

A woman now in her 40s told detectives Lawrence, an elder at McAlester’s Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, abused her when she was just eight years old, inviting her to his home, where he fondled her and raped her in his bathtub, according to her testimony found in Lawrence’s arrest warrant, which was issued Tuesday.

Two other accusers, also in their 40s, then came forward with similar stories of abuse. Both said they were very young, with one telling investigators the molestation took place from the time she was 10 until she was 13 years old. She reported being assaulted in Lawrence’s swimming pool, at the lake and in the janitor’s closet at the First National Bank where he worked, his arrest warrant indicates.

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VIRGINIA
WHSV

Rockbridge County Pastor, Larry Clark, was arrested and faces more charges of alleged child sex abuse. Clark is the Pastor at the Pentecostal Outreach Church in Buena Vista. According to the church’s Facebook page, he is also the temporary pastor of the same church in Verona.

The Rockbridge County Sheriff’s office, says Clark was arrested and charged initially on November 7th. He was arrested and charged again on Tuesday, November 26th.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

Anglican head Dr Phillip Aspinall says the church needs an external compensation scheme for sex abuse victims to prevent internal dissent.

Anglicans in Australia would take a dim view if the church sold off its multi-million dollar assets to settle with abuse victims, the head of the church says.

The primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Phillip Aspinall, told a royal commission the church needs a mandatory compensation scheme imposed on it so it can deal fairly with sex abuse victims.

Dr Aspinall said the only way a compensation scheme would work was if it was imposed from outside.

The Anglican Church of Australia is not a unified structure, dioceses have primary power and can reject or adopt laws passed by the General Synod, Dr Aspinall told the final day of public hearings into how the Diocese of Grafton dealt with victims of sex abuse at a church orphanage in northern NSW.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

The Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse has finished its public examination of the Anglican Church in Grafton and its handling of claims from abuse survivors from the North Coast Children’s Home. The Grafton Diocese says it’s re-opening all the files to make sure victims are adequately compensated. But the Royal Commission is also looking at the Anglican

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: The final day of the Royal Commission’s public inquiry on child abuse at the New South Wales North Coast Children’s Home has heard from Australia’s most senior Anglican cleric, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall.

The inquiry has wound up its examination of the Grafton Diocese and how it responded to compensation claims from dozens of abuse survivors from the children’s home in Lismore.

The Grafton Diocese spent years denying that it was responsible for the orphanage, but now says it’s re-opening all the files to make sure victims have been adequately compensated.

Today the Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Dr Aspinall, told the inquiry that the Grafton Diocese had focused on its own finances to the detriment of the abuse victims. But he said he had little power to intervene.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From: The Australian
November 27, 2013

MORE than 100 Anglican priests are known to have allegedly committed child sexual abuse or other sexual misconduct, yet this number could be only a fraction of the true total, the royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard that dozens and possibly hundreds of other allegedly abusive priests have yet to be entered into the church’s national register of such claims.

The Anglican church’s general secretary, Martin Drevikovsky, told the commission that hundreds of historical files of alleged abuse are currently being reviewed, while technical problems have also hampered the updating of information on the current system.

“Lack of resources is an issue … That’s a matter for each diocese to assess what their need is and to meet that need,” Mr Drevikovsky said.

The commission has heard that 129 priests are currently named on the register, and the Anglican church estimates at least 40 more will need to be included.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

COLETTE BROWNE – 27 NOVEMBER 2013

If you want to know what rape culture looks like there is no more evocative image than a church full of the faithful bowing their heads and being asked to pray for the acquittal of a man charged with serious sexual offences.

As Cork’s former lord mayor, John Murray, stood trial for the sexual assault of a teenager last week, a priest celebrating a funeral Mass in another part of the city used the occasion to pray for his exoneration.

The inference was clear. An innocent elderly man, a stalwart of the community, was facing scurrilous charges from a lying, scheming woman. She should not be believed.

But the jury did believe her and returned a unanimous guilty verdict. Today Murray, who first sexually assaulted the victim when she was just 13, is in prison awaiting sentence.

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AUSTRALIA
Telegraph

Retired Catholic priest Edward Sedevic banned from internet after being charged over allegedly accessing child sex abuse content from Canadian website

NEIL KEENE THE DAILY TELEGRAPH NOVEMBER 27, 2013

A RETIRED Catholic priest allegedly part of an international child porn ring has been banned from using the internet or going anywhere near children aged 18 and under.

Police allege they found four DVDs and two computer movie files depicting the sexual abuse of children in the possession of former Central Coast priest Edward Sedevic, 72, in August.

Earlier this month it was revealed Sedevic was among more than 340 people charged globally with accessing a Canadian child pornography website.

Appearing in court this morning for the first time since those revelations, Sedevic did not speak and did not enter a plea to six charges of possessing child abuse material and one charge of using the internet to access the material in 2010.

Magistrate Susan McIntyre continued Sedevic’s strict bail conditions, which require him to report three times a week to police.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- The Vatican’s new envoy Jude Thaddeus Okolo presented his credentials to president Danilo Medina during a National Palace ceremony Tuesday morning, in the presence of senior government officials.

Okolo, who came to the country November 18, arrived in the Hall of Ambassadors at 11am and spoke with Medina for around 10 minutes later.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wisconsin SNAP

Archbishop Beniamino Stella
Prefect, Congregation for the Clergy
Piazza Pio XII, 3
00193 Rome, Italy

Re.: Congregatio pro Clericis
Prot. N. 20071627
Dear Archbishop Stella,

This document is a unique collaboration between victims/survivors of childhood Catholic clergy sexual abuse and supporters of the victims/survivors. We seek your assistance in correcting an injustice caused, in part, by a decision made by Cláudio Cardinal Hummes, O.F.M. on July 18, 2007, while he served as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy. A decision he may not have made had all the details been made known to him.

Following is a timeline which delineates the circumstances of our appeal to you, as well as several supporting documents which are attached. In essence, a request for the transfer of $57,000,000.00 was granted to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, a move designed to shelter these funds from any claims and liabilities. We contend that the action does the meet the moral or legal requirements stated in the Code of Canon Law (see Appendix A).

Timeline of Events

2007 Approximately $57,000,000.00, that previously was part of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Corporation (identified as assets designated for the future care of cemeteries and mausoleums) was removed from that corporation and deposited in an account of a newly established Cemetery Trust. No documentation of the motivation for this movement of money or the existence of proper Vatican authorization to do so was made public.

January 2011 The Archdiocese of Milwaukee, under the direction of Archbishop Jerome Listecki, filed a petition for a Chapter 11 reorganization of its financial affairs under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Summer/Fall 2011 A group of Catholic clergy abuse victims/survivors and Catholic priests enter into an Alliance to promote a new kind of dialogue.

December 2011 The Alliance produced a full-page news announcement encouraging victims with a claim against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to come forward prior to the February 1, 2012, filing deadline.

February 1, 2012 Deadline given by the Bankruptcy Court for any person, for whatever reason, to file a financial claim against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

More than 550 claims were filed with the Bankruptcy Court.

2012/2013 The Bankruptcy judge determined which assets of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee are to be considered for payment of any claims and liabilities.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTAQ

MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) – The Vatican is being asked to do what a U.S. judge in Milwaukee refuses to do — make $50 million available to victims of sex abuse by Catholic priests.

Creditors in the Milwaukee Archdiocese bankruptcy case wrote a letter to an office in the Vatican that handles sex abuse cases. It asked top church leaders to revoke an order that allowed former Milwaukee Archbishop Tim Dolan to create a trust fund to maintain cemetery plots for Catholics in the archdiocese.

Federal Judge Rudolph Randa of Milwaukee decided earlier this year to allow the church to protect the cemetery trust funds from the creditors — almost 600 of whom are victims of sex abuse by priests over a number of decades.

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WISCONSIN
Wisconsin Public Radio

[with audio]

[letter to the Vatican]

By CHUCK QUIRMBACH
A coalition of clergy abuse victims and clergy is asking Pope Francis to put $57 million into a potential settlement fund with Wisconsin victims.

The Milwaukee Archdiocese says the money is already set aside for use at cemeteries.

In 2007, then-Milwaukee archbishop Timothy Dolan got the Vatican’s approval to transfer $57 million of archdiocese money into a Catholic cemetery trust fund. During the now almost three-year-long archdiocese bankruptcy case, abuse victims have tried to reverse that transfer, but a federal district judge in Milwaukee has blocked the reversal.

The court’s decision is being appealed, but a coalition of victims and clergy has also written the Vatican, asking that it put the $57 million back in the archdiocese’s main fund. Abuse victim Monica Barrett says the Vatican may not have been told the full story in 2007, and she says she remains hurt by Dolan’s move.

”One again this archdiocese has chosen something behind closed doors, that affects many, many people,” says Barrett.

Barrett says she only recently found out that the $57 million is just for eight cemeteries and seven mausoleums the archdiocese owns, and not for parish cemeteries in the 10-county archdiocese. Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski says the number of cemeteries shouldn’t be the question; the need for perpetual care is.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

[with video]

by Julie Unruh
Reporter

Another settlement by the Archdiocese of Chicago when it comes sexual abuse, and another victim of Fr. Daniel McCormack’s takes home millions.

$2.3 million: That is what victim John Doe is owed in this case. Money is just one victory where this suit is concerned. If you ask his lawyers, documents — volumes of them detailing decades of abuse by priests in the Chicago Archdiocese — will be released after the first of the year.

Jeff Anderson represents John Doe, a victim of Fr. Daniel Mccormack’s at St. Agatha Catholic Church in Chicago. Anderson says his client was abused from 2004-2006 when his client was just a teen.

“He is now in his early 20′s,” Anderson said. “His trust was violated and betrayed.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

[with video]

By Charlie Wojciechowski | Tuesday, Nov 26, 2013

The Roman Catholic Church has settled a case involving a priest accused of sexually abusing a young boy at a Chicago parish.

The Archdiocese has agreed to pay the now 20-year-old man $2.3 million in the case involving former priest Daniel McCormack, which was scheduled to go to trial in the spring.

The Church also agreed to release their records in the case, along with the records of 30 other cases involving Catholic priests.

“There is no closure for this community and the safety of the kids until all the secrets of the past are revealed,” attorney Jeff Anderson said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Steve Schmadeke, Chicago Tribune reporter
November 27, 2013

The Archdiocese of Chicago will pay $2.3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a man now in his early 20s who alleged he was repeatedly sexually abused by a notorious former pastor of a West Side Catholic church about a decade ago, the man’s attorneys said Tuesday.

The alleged victim, identified in court papers as John Doe, said he was 11 or 12 when the abuse by Daniel McCormack began in 2004 inside the rectory and school building at St. Agatha’s Catholic Church.

The lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court alleged that the abuse continued even after McCormack was questioned by Chicago police about allegations he had sexually abused another boy and didn’t stop until just before he was arrested in early 2006.

McCormack, now 45, was removed from the priesthood after pleading guilty in 2007 to criminal sexual abuse charges involving five victims. He was sentenced to five years in prison but remains confined to a state mental health facility while a Cook County judge decides whether to commit him indefinitely as a sexually violent person.

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

Father Dan Miller appeared in the Pembroke courthouse this morning. He was accompanied by Father Proulx. Robert Carew, his lawyer, was not there.

It proved to be an awkward few moments for Father Miller. His name was called (He’s listed on the roster as Michael D. Miller) Dressed in gray slack sand a navy and burgundy light jacket Miller walked up to the front of the benches, all the while clutching a small sheet of paper in his right hand. He reached the last bench in the gallery on the left, – and then he carried right on into what I will refer to as the inner sanctum, the area of the courtroom reserved for lawyers and court staff ( Those who attend court know that no one but no one is supposed to go beyond that line. )

Once inside, Father Miller hesitantly moved forward, and as he did so there was a startled recognition that he was moving right into their space. That prompted a small flurry of activity – people trying to tell him to go back,- go back. Initially Father Miller didn’t quite grasp what was happening, but , at point in time realized that had to go back, and so he did. It probably was one of those moments which was over and done with in a flash, but as it played out it seemed to run in slow motion.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

[letter to the Vatican]

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel Nov. 26, 2013 1

In a move intended to bolster a potential settlement between the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and sex abuse victims, victim advocates are asking the Vatican to rescind a letter that allowed then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan to shield $57 million in cemetery funds from legal liability in 2007.

The Milwaukee chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, many of whose members have pending claims in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy, announced Tuesday that it was sending the request to the Vatican.

The action comes as the archdiocese is working on a reorganization plan to exit its bankruptcy that will be funded in part by an undisclosed settlement it reached with one of its insurers earlier this month.

The withdrawal of the Vatican’s “nihil obstat” or “no objection” to Dolan’s plan to move the $57 million into a newly created trust could allow creditors’ attorneys to pursue those funds for a potential settlement.

In 2007, Dolan sought Vatican approval to move the funds to protect them “from any legal claim or liability,” according to a document released in July as part of the bankruptcy.

“It’s apparent from the tone of Dolan’s letter that his intent in moving the money was in anticipation of the bankruptcy,” said Monica Barrett, a SNAP member who says she was raped by the late Father William Effinger at his Lake Geneva parish when she was 8.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wall Street Journal

[letter to the Vatican]

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE — Clergy sexual abuse victims and priests in Wisconsin said Tuesday that they’ve asked Roman Catholic officials at the Vatican to move more than $50 million from a cemetery trust fund and make it available to settle bankruptcy claims against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

The letter to the Congregation for the Clergy, the church office that oversees abuse cases, essentially asks it to undo an order that authorized New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan to create the trust fund in 2007, when he was archbishop in Milwaukee.

The cemetery fund had been seen as one of the archdiocese’s few significant assets when it filed for bankruptcy in 2011, but a federal judge declared the money off-limits last summer, saying the trust was protected by the First Amendment’s freedom of religion. That decision, coupled with the archdiocese’s recent announcement of a settlement with one of its major insurers, has raised questions about how much money is available to pay the hundreds of sexual abuse victims who have filed claims in bankruptcy court.

The letter sent Friday has no bearing on U.S. court proceedings but instead is an appeal to the church to do justice according to its own teachings and legal code, said Rev. James Connell, a former vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and co-founder of the Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance. He acknowledged the appeal was unusual and a Vatican response would be “historic.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) — The Chicago Archdiocese has settled another lawsuit – for millions of dollars – filed by a man who says he was abused by Father Daniel McCormack almost a decade ago.

This settlement is for $2.3 million.

The alleged victim: now an adult, but known in legal documents as John Doe 184.

The accused: 45-year-old Daniel McCormack, the former West Side priest convicted of sexually abusing boys and now in the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Attorney Jeff Anderson represents the plaintiff in this latest settlement.

“The numbers of victims of Daniel McCormack alone have yet to be fully revealed, but we know of at least two dozen that have been identified through the litigation that we’ve done.”

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
November 26, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Top officials at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have said they didn’t know about sexual misconduct by the pastor at the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Maplewood until this year, but a document obtained by MPR News shows that a church official flagged the priest for sexual misconduct a decade ago.

The internal church document says that the Rev. Mark Huberty’s misconduct involved women and that he remains an active priest. It does not include any other information. The archdiocese’s code of conduct forbids sexual contact by priests.

Hennepin County prosecutors charged Huberty earlier this month with criminal sexual conduct for an alleged sexual relationship with a woman under his pastoral care from January to April of this year. The investigation began in May when the woman reported the alleged sexual contact to Maplewood police. It’s illegal in Minnesota for priests to have sexual contact with anyone under their pastoral care.

“The complaint was made by the woman’s husband over a decade ago.,” Huberty’s attorney, Paul Engh, said. “When interviewed thereafter, the parishioner indicated that nothing inappropriate had occurred between her and Father Huberty. The matter was thus closed.”

Huberty did not immediately return calls for comment. A spokesman for the archdiocese hasn’t responded to questions about whether officials reported the past allegations to police.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES Religion and General Assignment Reporter November 26, 2013

A $2.3 million settlement in a sexual abuse survivor case involving a former priest and filed against the Archdiocese of Chicago and Cardinal Francis George was announced by attorneys Tuesday.

The victim, identified as John Doe, is now in his early 20s, and was sexually abused in his pre-teen and early teen years by Daniel McCormack, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleged “Beginning in 2004, McCormack would invite the plaintiff inside the rectory of St. Agatha Catholic Church, where he would sit plaintiff on his lap, unzip his pants and fondle” the plaintiff.

It also alleged that the defendants “knew or should have known of McCormack’s dangerous and exploitative propensities as a child molester.”

Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman also said files including information on allegations of sexual abuse made against McCormack and other priests in additional sexual abuse cases that have been settled will be released by the Archdiocese as part of settlements next month. Those files also will include information on how church officials responded to those allegations.

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ARIZONA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Nov. 26

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

We are horrified that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is stalling on more funds to investigate some 6,000 suspected cases of child abuse and neglect.

[The Bugle]

It’s hard to imagine a more compelling reason to spend extra funds than to help some of the 6,000 kids who may be have been hurt recently or who may be hurting right now.

The cause of this dreadful oversight and the fate of the CPS director can be determined later. Investigating these 6,000 troubling cases – some of which almost certainly involve continuing abuse and neglect – must come first.

Brewer should not be penny-wise and pound-foolish here. Research shows that many abused and neglected kids grow up to be less productive and more reliant on government services. So there are both moral and economic reasons Arizona officials should move mountains now to get this inexcusable backlog investigated promptly.

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NEW JERSEY/MISSOURI
The Jersey Journal

Convicted sex offender Jersey City priest headed for trial on similar charges in Missouri: report

By Ron Zeitlinger/The Jersey Journal
Follow on Twitter
on November 26, 2013

A former St. Aloysius priest who sexually molested a 17-year-old boy in the early 1980s appears headed for trial in Missouri on similar charges, according to a published report.

Gerald “Gerry” Howard, whose name was Carmine Sita when he was a priest at St. Aloysius, is seeking a non-jury trial that could begin after the start of the new year, connectmidmissouri.com reported.

Howard was a priest in the Boonville, Mo. parish of Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church between 1984 and 1987 when authorities say he sexually assaulted three minors.

He is charged with three counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of attempted forcible sodomy and two counts of kidnapping.

In 1982 Sita pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a minor in Jersey City. In January 1983, Sita was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to undergo treatment. After getting treatment in New Mexico, Sita legally changed his name and joined Ss. Peter and Paul in Boonville.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013

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

Today, there are more headlines from the Vatican about self-governance. But there’s still no action from the Vatican on clergy abuse.

[Telegraph]

It’s more minimal tinkering around the edges instead of directly confronting the most devastating scandal in the church: widespread and horrific crimes against kids being concealed and enabled by bishops.

Most neutral observers would admit that the central crisis that has roiled the Catholic church and continues to roil the Catholic church is violence against kids by clerics and cover ups of that violence by bishops. Eight months into the papacy of Pope Francis has brought absolutely no progress on the scandal that most hurts Catholics at the bottom, and ironically, also at the top of the church hierarchy.

Pope Francis can ride all the buses and carry all the suitcases and make all the gestures and write all the letters he wants. But until he disciplines his corrupt colleagues and underlings who protect their reputations instead of their flocks, no meaningful reform will happen.

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CANADA
APTV

[with video]

APTN National News

The trial of father Eric Dejaeger continues in Iqaluit this week.

He’s the priest accused of more than 70 sex crimes against youth in Igloolik, Nunavut between 1978 and 1982.

Dejaeger wasn’t the only priest abusing children in that era and he wasn’t the only one to flee justice.

As APTN’s Kent Driscoll reports Joannis Rivoire who fled justice has been found in France.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Anglican Church officials, and their lawyers, have a lot to smile about. The third “case study” hearings of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have gone their way a lot. It began with the stage-managed “resignation” of ex-bishop Slater after “counseling” by Archbishop Aspinall (see yesterday’s extra posting) earlier in the year, and went on to the “surprise” announcement of Australia’s first female bishop on the eve of the hearings.

Yesterday, church lawyer, Philip Roland, had to be cautioned, twice, by Counsel Assisting the Commission, Simeon Beckett, for smiling a lot during evidence. Today’s witness, disgraced ex-bishop of Grafton, Keith Slater, pre-empted Mr. Beckett by declaring that he, also, would be smiling a lot while giving evidence. He said he made the comment “because Mr. Roland had been criticized for smiling while giving evidence.”

The evidence would include a “sincere” apology for all the terrible things he did to the many victims who approached him about the abuses they suffered at his dioceses North Coast Children’s Home. He would be smiling, not because of disrespect for the victims and the enquiry, but because it was just his “personality” and he should not be “judged” for it.

Mr. Slater had smiled at inappropriate times during his first day of evidence on Monday, so on the second day, he began by indicating he would be doing even more smiling. He told the enquiry that “I was aware, after the session yesterday that I had been smiling at various points. I recognize the gravity and seriousness of the matters that are before us…. But smiling is very much a part of the interaction with the person with whom I am speaking. I apologize in advance if I may seem to smile at times which are not appropriate.”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Nov. 26, 2013

ANALYSIS Dreams can be powerful things, especially when articulated by leaders with the realistic capacity to translate them into action. That was the case 50 years ago with Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and it also seems to be the ambition of Pope Francis’ bold new apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel.”

In effect, the 224-page document, titled in Latin Evangelii Gaudium and released by the Vatican Tuesday, is a vision statement about the kind of community Francis wants Catholicism to be: more missionary, more merciful, and with the courage to change.

Francis opens with a dream.

“I dream of a ‘missionary option,’ ” Francis writes, “that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world, rather than for her self-preservation.”

In particular, Francis calls for a church marked by a special passion for the poor and for peace.

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (UK)

Pope Francis uses first major document of papacy to call for fundamental reform of “confined” Church and attack global capitalism

By Nick Squires, Rome 26 Nov 2013

Pope Francis called for the Vatican to place mercy above an “obsession” with moral doctrine, using his first major document of his papacy to lay out a radical blueprint for a Catholic Church that was “bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets”.

The “slum Pope” as Francis has been nicknamed for his work in the shanty towns of his native Argentina, also attacked global capitalism, saying that rising levels of inequality and poverty could “explode” into conflict unless addressed by world leaders.

“The poor are accused of violence, yet without equal opportunities the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and eventually explode,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By Nicole Winfield | ASSOCIATED PRESS NOVEMBER 26, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis issued the mission statement for his papacy Tuesday, outlining how the Catholic Church and the papacy itself must be reformed to create a more missionary and merciful church that gets its hands dirty as it seeks out the poor and oppressed.

In the 85-page document, Francis pulled together the priorities he has laid out in eight months of homilies, speeches and interviews and put them in the broader context of how to reinvigorate the church’s evangelical zeal in a world marked by indifference, secularization and vast income inequalities.

He explained his most controversial remarks criticizing the church’s ‘‘obsession’’ with transmitting a disjointed set of moral doctrines, saying that in the church’s ‘‘hierarchy of truths,’’ mercy is paramount, proportion is necessary, and that what counts is inviting the faithful in.

He went even further Tuesday, saying some of the church’s historical customs can even be cast aside if they no longer serve to communicate the faith. Citing St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, Francis stressed the need for moderation in norms ‘‘so as to not burden the lives of the faithful.’’

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Daniel Burke, Belief Blog Co-editor

(CNN) – Pope Francis on Tuesday called for big changes in the Roman Catholic Church – including at the very top – saying he knows it will be a messy business but he expects his flock to dive in feet first.

“I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security,” the Pope said in a major new statement.

“I do not want a Church concerned with being at the center and then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures.”

The Pope’s address, called an “apostolic exhortation,” is basically a pep talk from the throne of St. Peter. But Francis’ bold language and sweeping call for change are likely to surprise even those who’ve become accustomed to his unconventional papacy.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

Pope Francis has called for power in the Catholic Church to be devolved away from the Vatican, in the first major work he has written in the role.

In the document, he says he is open to suggestions to changes in the power of the papacy.

He also warns that rising global economic inequality is bound to explode in conflict.

Since becoming Pope in March, Francis has struck a markedly different tone to his predecessor on several issues. …

Analysis

David Willey
BBC News, Rome

The new document did not address some of the key ethical reforms called for by Catholic progressives and ruled out any change in the Church’s teaching on abortion or the exclusion of women from the priesthood. However, the Pope has already set up an advisory council of eight cardinals who are due to gather in Rome for their second plenary meeting next week.

He has also set up new mechanisms for reform of the Vatican bureaucracy. the main thrust of Pope Francis’ pontificate, as outlined in this document and in his many homilies, is that he wants to see a less Vatican-centred Church whose greatest concern is for the poor and the marginalised, victims of an unjust global economic system that puts profit before people.

In addition, Pope Francis says that ties with Islam have taken on great importance for the Catholic Church because of the growing number of Muslim immigrants now residing in many traditionally Catholic countries. “We Christians,” he says, “should embrace Muslims with affection and respect in the same way that we hope and ask to be respected in countries of Islamic tradition.”

In his “apostolic exhortation”, Pope Francis said he preferred a Church that was “bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 26 November 2013 (VIS) – “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus”; thus begins the Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium”, by which Pope Francis develops the theme of the proclamation of the Gospel in the contemporary world, drawn from, among other sources, the contribution of the work of the Synod held in the Vatican from 7 to 28 October 2012 on the theme “The new evangelization for the transmission of the faith”. The text, which the Holy Father consigned to a group of thirty-six faithful following the closing Mass of the Year of Faith last Sunday is the first official document of his pontificate, since the Encyclical “Lumen fidei” was written in collaboration with his predecessor, Benedict XVI. “I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy, while pointing out new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come”, he continues. It is a heartfelt appeal to all baptized persons to bring Christ’s love to others, “permanently in a state of mission”, conquering “the great danger in today’s world”, that of an individualist “desolation and anguish”.

The Pope invites the reader to “recover the original freshness of the Gospel”, finding “new avenues” and “new paths of creativity”, without enclosing Jesus in our “dull categories”. There is a need for a “pastoral and missionary conversion, which cannot leave things as they presently are” and a “renewal” of ecclesiastical structures to enable them to become “more mission-oriented”. The Pontiff also considers “a conversion of the papacy”, to help make this ministry “more faithful to the meaning which Jesus Christ wished to give it and to the present needs of evangelization”. The hope that the Episcopal Conferences might contribute to “the concrete realization of the collegial spirit”, he states, “has not been fully realized”. A “sound decentralization” is necessary. In this renewal, the Church should not be afraid to re-examine “certain customs not directly connected to the heart of the Gospel, even some of which have deep historical roots”.

A sign of God’s openness is “that our church doors should always be open” so that those who seek God “will not find a closed door”; “nor should the doors of the sacraments be closed for simply any reason”. The Eucharist “is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak”. These convictions have pastoral consequences that we are called to consider with prudence and boldness”. He repeats that he prefers “a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church … concerned with being at the centre and then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly disturb us … it is the fact that many of our brothers and sisters are living without … the friendship of Jesus Christ”.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

[APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION EVANGELII GAUDIUM]

By Dario Thuburn (AFP)

Vatican City — Pope Francis called for reform to take powers from the Vatican and said Catholics should be more engaged in helping the needy, but ruled out allowing women priests in a key document released by the Vatican on Tuesday.

The Catholic leader said he was seeking advice on how his role should change — using an informal style for his first “apostolic exhortation”, in which he outlined his vision for the future of the Roman Catholic Church.

“It is my duty, as the Bishop of Rome, to be open to suggestions which can help make the exercise of my ministry more faithful to the meaning which Jesus Christ wished to give it,” the pope wrote.

Francis said it was time for “a conversion of the papacy”, adding that “excessive centralisation, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life”.

Bishops should have “genuine doctrinal authority”, he said in the document — a type of long open letter used by popes to communicate with their faithful.

“We have made little progress in this regard,” he said.

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DEUTSCHLAND
HNA

[Summary: Significant numbers of Protestants and Catholics are leaving their churches. The scandal involving Limburg Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst has had an impact on the Catholic Church but people are also leaving the Protestant churches.]

Im Vorjahr haben an den Amtsgerichten Fritzlar (auch zuständig für Bad Wildungen), Melsungen und Schwalmstadt 531 Christen ihren Austritt aus der Kirche erklärt. Im laufenden Jahr sind es bis jetzt schon 693, das ist ein Zuwachs von 23 Prozent.

Besonders eklatant ist der Anstieg in der katholischen Kirche, 125 Austritten im Jahr 2012 stehen 193 im laufenden Jahr gegenüber – das sind 54 Prozent mehr, bei den Protestanten immerhin 23 Prozent.

Jörg Stefan Schütz, katholischer Dechant und Stadtpfarrer in Fritzlar, spricht von leicht erhöhten Austrittszahlen in seinen Gemeinden (Fritzlar, Wabern und Ungedanken). Wenn der Kirche vom Amtsgericht ein Austritt gemeldet werde, suche man den Kontakt, um die Beweggründe zu erfahren.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

26 NOVEMBER 2013

A PRIEST has apologised to a family after using their father’s funeral to ask for prayers for a former Lord Mayor of Cork facing sex assault charges.

Fr Martin Crean OSA contacted the Cotter family in Cork to express his personal regret over what happened at the Requiem Mass and to apologise for any hurt caused.

The Cotter family confirmed to the Irish Independent that they accepted the apology and now consider the matter closed.

Michelle Cotter said she couldn’t believe the comments made by the priest, who was visiting Cork from Tipperary, which were brought to her attention by other mourners at her the funeral of her father, John.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013

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

Child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits involving eight Chicago predator priests have been settled. They are Father Robert Mayer, Father Robert Becker, Father Ralph Strand, Father Ken Ruge, Father Joseph Fitzharris, Father Robert Stepek, Father Marion Snieg and Father Daniel McCormack.

We suspect that much of the attention on this settlement will be on Fr. McCormack, Illinois’ most high profile serial predator priest. While McCormack is behind bars, several of these child molesting clerics are walking free, likely living near unsuspecting neighbors or working among unsuspecting colleagues or volunteering at unsuspecting non-profits and perhaps even molesting unsuspecting relatives’ children.

For the safety of kids these predators belong behind bars. But they won’t get there unless people speak up.

Fr. Ruge, Fr. Becker and Fr. Snieg are deceased. But we believe it’s still possible that criminal charges might be filed against Fr. Stepek, Fr. Fitzharris, Fr. Mayer, and Fr. Strand or against their supervisors or co-workers who may have obstructed justice, destroyed evidence, intimidated victims, threatened whistleblowers, refused to report suspected abuse to authorities or committed other crimes.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Elizabeth Nagel

Last week more than 300 Catholics gathered together. One by one, they came forward to an open microphone, giving their names and the parish to which they belong. I heard anger, pain, frustration – and yes, anguish.

Their perspectives varied. Some told about incidents of abuse. Others, who work for parishes, spoke about the strict standards to which they adhere in doing background checks on volunteers wishing to work with children. But they are unable to do the same with priests assigned to their parishes. Another area addressed in this debacle is the degree of pain experienced by good and decent priests in this archdiocese. Everyone present related how events relating to this scandal have deeply affected them.

There was one area of agreement. Committing sexual acts involving a child is reprehensible enough. But much of the anger went beyond the molestation of children, and instead was directed at actions of Archbishop John Nienstedt and those who work for him. Questions were raised if he is even capable of bringing about healing and necessary changes — much less whether he is willing to do so.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Bishop of Cork & Ross Dr John Buckley has said comments made by a priest at a funeral mass in the city were “offensive” and “entirely inappropriate”.

Bishop Buckley was responding to complaints about a priest who asked mourners to pray that former Lord Mayor of Cork, John Murray would not be found guilty of sex assault charges.

In a statement, Bishop Buckley said the Diocese was unaware that these comments were going to be made, does not stand over them and sincerely regrets the obvious hurt they have caused.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

SMILING Bishop Keith Slater grins so much he had to apologise for doing it before giving evidence at the harrowing royal commission into child sex abuse yesterday.

“I apologise in advance if I may seem to smile at a time which is not appropriate,” he explained. It was just his “personality”.

But there was nothing to smile about as the commission heard a litany of Bishop Slater’s failures to help more than 40 victims of physical and sexual child abuse at the former North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore, adequately compensate them or report their abusers in the clergy to authorities.

Outside the commission he even smiled as he met the first of the child abuse victims to come forward – a man he refused for so long to apologise to or compensate – and blessed him.

“I just ripped into him,” said a disgusted Richard “Tommy” Campion afterwards. “If he had told the truth we wouldn’t be here today.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Nov. 25, 2013

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

We are grateful that police are investigating alleged child sex crimes in a Philly Catholic school.

[Philly.com]

In these situations, it’s sometimes tempting for victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to contact school or church officials. That’s wrong. The independent and unbiased professionals in law enforcement should be contacted, not the biased amateurs in church or school offices.

For far too long, Philly Catholic officials have tried to handle cases like this quietly and “in house.” Those days and that practice must end.

We beg every single person who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by this teacher to call police and prosecutors. We applaud any and every one who already cooperating with secular authorities to get to the bottom of these troubling allegations.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

NJ predator priest seeks trial
He admitted molesting in Jersey City
Now, he’s accused of abusing 3 in Missouri
Cleric changed his name before being sent away

For immediate release: Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013

For more information: Mark Crawford 732 632 7687, mecrawf@comcast.net , David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com , Barbara Dorris 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell , SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A defrocked Catholic priest, who admitted molesting a New Jersey boy and is accused of molesting several Missouri boys, wants to go to trial.

[Connect Mid-Missouri]

He is Fr. Gerry Howard of the Diocese of Jefferson City. But when he worked in Jersey City in the 1980s, he was known as Fr. Carmine Sita. He’s been in jail for two years on charges that he sexually assaulted boys in the small town of Boonville Missouri, just west of Columbia.

“We welcome this move. We have tremendous confidence in the three brave men who have reported being abused by Fr. Gerry Howard in Boonville,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “We hope that the judge also lets into evidence Howard’s guilty plea in New Jersey.

“Shame on New Jersey Catholic officials for letting a convicted child predator legally change his name and then quietly sending him off to unsuspecting Missouri parishioners with no warning,” said Mark Crawford, SNAP’s New Jersey director. “This is one of the most glaring examples of how callous and deceitful the church hierarchy has been.”

“We strongly urge anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Howard’s crimes to come forward,” Clohessy said. “Police and prosecutors can never have too much evidence or too many witnesses in a clergy sex abuse trial. Pedophile priests typically get top notch lawyers and exploit technicalities, often escaping responsibility for their crimes or getting little or no jail time if they are convicted.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN NOVEMBER 27, 2013

CONFIDENTIAL documents written by a senior employee of the Anglican Church earlier this year state others within the church may be at risk of criminal prosecution for failing to report allegations of child sex abuse to police.

In one letter, tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the professional standards director of the diocese of Grafton, Michael Elliott, said the allegations related to abuse committed in a children’s home in northern NSW.

The diocese spent years denying it was legally liable for this abuse, the commission has heard. In his letter written in February to the acting registrar of the diocese, Mr Elliott wrote: “By virtue of their complaints being so mishandled, the situation has resulted in the re-traumatising of these victims. Furthermore, non-reporting to authorities may have put individuals at risk of criminal prosecution.”

The commission has heard the church received allegations that about 12 people allegedly abused children at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore between the 1940s and 80s. The allegations against three of those, all Anglican priests, were reported to police in 2006, but the others were not passed on until Mr Elliott did so earlier this year. The commission has heard that another priest, Allan Kitchingman, had been found guilty of indecently assaulting a teenage boy in 1968, before being employed at the home, where he went on to abuse another teenager and was subsequently jailed.

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GHANA
Business Ghana

A 39-year- old priest of the Anglican Church, Rev. Fr Emmanuel Quartey, was on Monday remanded in prison custody when he appered before a Cape Coast Circuit Court for allegedly raping a 20-year-old woman.

His plea was not taken and will be re-arraigned on December 11.

Chief Inspector Ockom told the court presided over by Mrs. Eva Bannerman Williams that on Sunday October 17 Hannah, a resident of Siwdo in Cape Coast approached Rev. Quartey to help her break a blood covenant she had with her boyfriend.

Rev. Fr Quartey agreed to help her and asked Hannah to meet him on October 18 in a hotel in Elmina.

She complied and met Rev. Fr Quartey in one of the rooms where he forcibly had sex with her and warned her not to tell anyone or she would die.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

One paragraph of the Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” announces changes and a “conversion of the papacy”: “Excessive centralization, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach”

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

It is only a short paragraph but it announces significant changes to the papacy as well as decentralization and more power to Bishops’ Conferences. In section 32 of the document published today, Francis refers to the “pastoral conversion” he is asking the Church to undergo and writes: “Since I am called to put into practice what I ask of others, I too must think about a conversion of the papacy.”

“It is my duty, as the Bishop of Rome, to be open to suggestions which can help make the exercise of my ministry more faithful to the meaning which Jesus Christ wished to give it and to the present needs of evangelization,” Francis adds. In the document, the Pope recalls that in the encyclical “Ut unum sint” (1995), John Paul II asked for help in finding “a way of exercising the primacy which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to anew situation.” But, Francis remarks, “we have made little progress in this regard.” “The papacy and the central structures of the universal Church also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion. The Second Vatican Council stated that, like the ancient patriarchal Churches, Episcopal conferences are in a position “to contribute in many and fruitful ways to the concrete realization of the collegial spirit.”

“Yet this desire has not been fully realized, since a juridical status of Episcopal Conferences which would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated. Excessive centralization, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach,” the Pope remarks.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Posted on November 25, 2013 by lewisblayse

Keith Slater (see previous postings), 65, the former bishop at the centre of the North Coast Children’s Home scandal, appeared before the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney today. Slater was the bishop of the Grafton diocese of the Anglican Church (known elsewhere as the Episcopalian Church or the Church of England) from 3002 until May of this year.

[This extra posting is made in the hope that the Royal Commissioners, today, will quiz ex-bishop Slater on the details of when he decided to “resign” his position.]

Slater claims he “resigned” over failings to do with his handling of the abuse allegations. The head of the Anglican Church in Australia, Phillip Aspinall, has previously said he had no power to dismiss Slater, but has implied in the media that his “counseling” had resulted in Slater’s decision. Aspinall said that he urged Slater to resign on 10th May, and that Slater did so on the 17th May of this year.

However, the churchtimes website in the U.K. reported that Slater had previously announced that he intended to retire in November of this year. Co-incidentally, this was the previously-announced month when the Royal Commission would be investigating him. Could there have been a view that Slater should go before this hearing of the enquiry?

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Star

Jessica Grewal 26th Nov 2013

A PRIEST convicted of sexually abusing a former resident of Lismore’s North Coast Children’s Home has yet to be disciplined by the Anglican Church and remains a leader of the Newcastle Diocese, the royal commission has heard.

Giving evidence on Tuesday afternoon, a clearly disenchanted Michael Elliott, Professional Standards Director for the Grafton and Newcastle Diocese, conceded that despite his urgings for safeguards to be put in place “no steps have been taken to adopt practices with respect to those convicted of child sex abuse”.

He said that as recently as “a few weeks ago” the Newcastle Diocese had adopted “safe ministry practises” protocol for clergy members but that the changes had not yet been applied to anyone, including Rev Allan Kitchingman, a former Lismore priest who was convicted and jailed in 2003 over the indecent assault of a teenage boy in the 1980s.

He also confirmed that due to administration issues, none of the people accused of abusing children at the home had been listed on a national sex offenders register.

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