ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
The Mercury

BLAIR RICHARDS | November 25, 2012

MENTAL health support agencies say they will need extra resources to cope with demand from abuse survivors during the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse in Australia.

Within six days of the announcement of the royal commission into child sexual abuse in religious institutions, state-based organisations, schools and not-for-profit groups such as scouts and sporting clubs, the Federal Government reportedly received 300 emails to its website and 180 calls from people and organisations wanting to make submissions.

Mental Health Council of Tasmania chief executive officer Darren Carr said Australians would be deeply shocked by what comes out during the inquiry.

Mr Carr said while the inquiry would be a time for healing, it could also trigger trauma in abuse survivors, and counselling services needed to be adequately resourced to deal with demand.

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NEDERLAND
Tubantia

ALBERGEN Kardinaal Simonis heeft in een ontmoeting met twee slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door wijlen pastoor Boonk in Albergen, zijn welgemeende en oprechte excuses aangeboden, zo blijkt uit een verklaring die na afloop is uitgegeven. ‘Als ik er aan denk welk een vreselijk leed u allen is aangedaan, dan spijt me dat geweldig. Het moet voor u afschuwelijk zijn geweest dat de pastoor zijn zilveren priesterjubileum zo groots heeft kunnen vieren in de gemeenschap waarin hij u als kinderen heeft misbruikt.’

Simonis was van 1983 tot 2007 aartsbisschop van Utrecht. Het seksueel misbruik van negen misdienaars in Albergen vond plaats aan het eind van de jaren zeventig en het begin van de jaren tachtig.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

With the creation of the six new cardinals, Benedict XVI “purifies” the Church hierarchy and gives us a preview of his successor’s characteristics: non-European and a pastor of persecuted communities

GIACOMO GALEAZZI
Vatican City

The Filippino cardinal was in tears as a group of Nigerian nuns prayed with their hands raised towards the sky and Indian pilgrims kneeled down around the obelisk gripping their rosaries. Emotions and fragments of a special and unprecedented day. For the first time in history, a batch of cardinals that come from countries outside Europe. St. Peter’s Square, packed as it was with faithful from emerging countries, was the prophesy of a global Church of the third millennium. With today’s mini Consistory, Benedict XVI pointed towards an exit from the Vatileaks scandal, he “purified” the ecclesiastical hierarchies corrupted by scandal and outlined the characteristics of his successor: non-European and a pastor of persecuted communities.

The Pope essentially renewed the Church’s hierarchy and changed the face of his “senate”. “What makes the Church catholic is the fact that Christ in his saving mission embraces all humanity” and Christian Messianism proposes “a mission directed to the whole man and to every man, transcending all ethnic, national and religious particularities” the Pope explained in the homily pronounced during the Consistory for the creation of six new cardinals, his main collaborators in the Church government. “It is by following Jesus, – Benedict XVI remarked – by allowing oneself to be drawn into His humanity and hence into communion with God, that one enters this new kingdom proclaimed and anticipated by the Church, a kingdom that conquers fragmentation and dispersal.”

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IRELAND
Roman Catholic Diocese of Cloyne

[Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Diocese of Cloyne]

Today, the feast day of Saint Colman, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has appointed as Bishop of the Diocese of Cloyne, the Very Reverend Canon William Crean, Parish Priest of the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church in Cahirciveen, Diocese of Kerry.

Saint Colman is the Patron Saint of the Diocese of Cloyne and his feast day is 24 November. Archbishop Dermot Clifford has been Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Cloyne since 7 March 2009. The Diocese of Cloyne has a Catholic population of over 150,000 people, comprises 46 parishes and has 107 churches. The diocese includes most of County Cork, see www.cloynediocese.ie.

Life and ministry of the Very Reverend Canon William Crean PP VF:

William Crean was born in Tralee on 16 December 1951, the son of the late Patrick and Margaret Crean (née O’Donnell). His primary and secondary education was in Tralee and later in Saint Brendan’s College, Killarney. As one whose family numbered several vocations to priesthood and the religious life, he too heard the call to the priesthood. Having completed his BA in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, he became a student at the Pontifical Irish College, Rome, while completing his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University and he went on to obtain his Licentiate in Sacred Theology in 1977.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

OLIVIA KELLEHER

Canon William Crean, parish priest of Cahirciveen in Co Kerry and newly appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Cloyne, has admitted a level of apprehension about the appointment.

Speaking today at St Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh, the bishop-elect said he was committing himself to do all he could with others in the diocese to bring healing and hope to the lives of all victims of abuse and their families.

“Because I am deeply conscious of the trauma of these years past – so much suffering endured by young people at the hands of a few – sufferings compounded by the failure of those who didn’t believe them and those who didn’t hear their cry for help,” he said.

“One thing I ask, however, is your patience to allow me time to grasp the full measure of this deep hurt,” he added.

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IRELAND
Irish Independet

By Brian Hutton

Saturday November 24 2012

POPE Benedict has appointed a Kerry parish priest as new bishop of the troubled diocese of Cloyne.

Canon William Crean will take over the role left vacant since John Magee, private secretary to three popes, resigned in disgrace in 2010.

The Cloyne report into clerical child sex abuse allegations in the diocese found that Bishop Magee did not follow proper child protection guidelines.

Most Rev Dermot Clifford has been running the diocese since as apostolic administrator.

Ireland’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, said he wished Canon Crean all the help he needs to take on the “challenging” role.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 25, 2012

Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie

ONE of at least 12 students who allege they were sexually abused by a priest at a New South Wales Catholic school has been awarded compensation by the state government.

Fairfax Media can reveal that Cameron Searl, a former student of Chevalier College in Bowral, was awarded $20,000 by the Victims Compensation Tribunal in December 2008 after it determined he had been sexually abused between 1984 and 1985 by a priest who taught music at the school.

”Having carefully considered all of the material on this file, I am satisfied on a ‘balance of probabilities’ that the incidents of sexual abuse occurred in the course of the commission of an offence and involved violent conduct on the applicant,” the Victims Compensation Tribunal concluded.

The head of Missionaries of Sacred Heart, Father John Mulrooney, last week confirmed that 12 students had told the school’s principal or the church that they had been sexually abused by Father Tony Caruana during the 1980s.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The parish priest of Cahirciveen, Canon William Crean, has been appointed Bishop of Cloyne by Pope Benedict today.

The Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, has welcomed the news of the appointment.

Cardinal Brady said he believes the appointment of Canon Crean, augurs well not only for the parish of Cloyne but for the parishes and dioceses of Ireland.

Cardinal Brady was speaking from Rome ahead of the start of today’s consistory which will see the creation of seven new cardinals in Saint Peter’s Basilica by Pope Benedict.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

By Richard Weir
Friday, November 23, 2012

A Catholic chaplain assigned to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford has been suspended while the Archdiocese of the Military investigates “personal conduct matters” involving the priest, Boston church officials said in a statement today.

The statement, released by the Archdiocese of Boston, said the Rev. Luke Odor had been residing at the rectory of the Church of St. Isidore in Stow since 2007 while serving as a priest at the VA center.

“The Archdiocese for the Military has informed us that they have started an investigation into personal conduct matters involving Father Odor. The investigation does not involve any matters related to Saint Isidore’s Parish or the Archdiocese of Boston,” the statement noted. “As a result of this action Father Odor’s faculties have been suspended by the Archdiocese for the Military and in keeping with our policies, the Archdiocese of Boston has followed with similar action.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 24, 2012

Jill Stark

Suicide helplines, psychologists and victim support groups are struggling to keep up with a surge in demand for counselling, as the royal commission into child sexual abuse triggers renewed trauma for survivors.

Callers distressed by media coverage of the upcoming inquiry flooded Lifeline with requests for help in the week following Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s November 12 announcement.

The national suicide helpline – which usually manages 1500 calls a day – experienced a 16 per cent increase in calls, taking an additional 250 calls each day from abuse survivors, some of whom had never spoken of their ordeal.

While the number of royal commission-related calls has since dropped to about 40 a day, Lifeline chief executive Jane Hayden said the service is still over-stretched and warned demand is likely to increase further when proceedings begin.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

Peter Jackson’s widow says an inquiry into child abuse triggered devastating memories.

Natalie Poyhonen

Transcript

CHRIS O’BRIEN: A warning tonight on how challenging it can be to deal with child sexual abuse, as the Federal Government prepares for next year’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Peter Jackson was a man who on the surface had it all – a loving wife, children, memories of a stellar international rugby league career and a burgeoning media role. But he was tortured by the anguish of sexual abuse as a teenager. His widow tonight reveals from a letter he wrote just before he died how media reports of a previous investigation into paedophiles triggered a downward spiral which lead to his death. Natalie Poyhonen reports.

SIOBHAN JACKSON, WIDOW: One of the powerful things about Peter’s story is that it’s not about one institution, it’s over institutions, it’s about a Catholic brother who was working in an Anglican boarding school, who was a football coach.

This is a supremely conditioned athlete. And this is an abused child. It’s easy to defend yourself when you’re a powerful football player.

NATALIE POYHONEN: Peter Jackson died at just 33 years of age leaving behind his wife and three children. As Australia prepares for the upcoming Royal Commission into Child Abuse, his widow Siobhan Jackson knows from bitter experience what can happen. In 1997 while in drug rehabilitation her husband wrote a letter about how he felt watching news reports of a Commission of Inquiry that was then underway.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, (VIS) – The Holy Father appointed: …

– Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico, and Archbishop Jose Horacio Gomez of Los Angeles, U.S.A., as members of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

– Fr. William Crean of the clergy of the diocese of Kerry, Ireland, pastor of Cahersiveen and vicar forane, as bishop of Cloyne (area 3,440, population 164,500, Catholics 161,600, priests 118, religious 203), Ireland. The bishop-elect was born in Tralee, Ireland in 1951 and ordained a priest in 1976. He studied in Ireland and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and has held a number of pastoral roles.

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ITALIE
Volkskrant (Nederland)

In Milaan is een priester opgepakt wegens jarenlang seksueel misbruik van gedetineerden. Don Alberto Barin (51) maakte misbruik van de zwakke positie van arme buitenlandse gevangenen. Bijna 5 jaar lang eiste hij seks in ruil voor sigaretten, tandenborstels, zeep en shampoo. Hij had een voorkeur voor jonge Afrikaanse mannen. .

Dat hebben Italiaanse media dinsdagavond gemeld. Het OM heeft overtuigend bewijs verzameld met behulp van een videocamera. Die werd na een klacht van een slachtoffer geïnstalleerd in de ruimte waar de katholieke geestelijke gedetineerden placht te ontvangen.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Saturday, November 24, 2012

A new bishop has been appointed to the diocese of Cloyne in Co Cork for the first time in two years following a scandal over the handling of abuse allegations.

The Pope has appointed Canon William Crean of Cahirciveen in Co Kerry to the post vacated in 2010 by Bishop John Magee.

An official report found that Bishop Magee had failed to fully implement the Church’s own child protection guidelines.

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AUSTRALIA
Jewish Chronicle

By Dan Goldberg, November 23, 2012

Another major Jewish organisation in Australia is embroiled in a child sex abuse scandal, adding to the trauma triggered by recent revelations of similar cases involving students at a Chabad and Adass Israel school.

The name of the organisation, the defendant and the alleged victims cannot be revealed due to a court suppression order.

But it can be revealed that a man has faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on more than 25 counts of child sex abuse, including indecent acts with a minor and sexual intercourse with a child.

The defendant, who is not believed to be Jewish, entered a “not guilty” plea and is scheduled to face court again next month, with a trial date expected to be set for next year.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 25, 2012

Paul Bibby, Rory Callinan

HE WAS dubbed the playboy rapist – a male model and occasional actor whose seductive charms hid a violent, narcissistic streak that eventually caused him to be jailed in 2009 for more than seven years over the brutal rape of a woman in the eastern suburbs.

But now Simon Monteiro claims that, years before he cut a swathe through Sydney’s high-society women, it was he who was the victim of violence and sexual abuse, at the hands of the notorious Catholic Church order, the St John of God.

And he says this abuse left him so traumatised he has been unable to have ”meaningful relationships” with women because of his ”inability to deal with conflict”.

Simon Monteiro, who has accused McGrath’s order of abusing him. Photo: Julian Andrews

Monteiro, 45, who once dated Oscar nominee Barbara Hershey, is suing the order and three of its brothers in the Supreme Court for at least $750,000 in damages over what he claims were years of rape, intimidation and abuse.

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ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

The Herald

A SEXUAL abuse scandal has been unearthed at the Anglican Church’s Shirley Cripps Children’s Home in Chikwaka that has led to the arrest of one care-giver. Police at Juru have arrested a man who worked at the home in connection with the case after a report made by the Church of the Province of Central Africa led by Bishop Chad Gandiya.

Bishop Gandiya told journalists on Wednesday that his church had to quickly send a team of care-givers after receiving reports that most workers had left the home following the church’s victory at the Supreme Court.

“The reports we received were that the sexual abuse was widespread. We alerted the police, although we were not yet in control of the institution. Police responded swiftly and a suspected male abuser was arrested. I understand that the man is now out on bail,” said Bishop Gandiya.

One of the girls, according to Bishop Gandiya, was unceremoniously transferred from the school.

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COLORADO
CBS Denver

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – A former youth pastor accused of sexually assaulting a member of the youth group was in court on Friday.

Matt Capranelli was advised in Douglas County Court that he’s being charged with sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.

Capranelli worked at Mountain View Community Church in Highlands Ranch. Court documents indicate the alleged abuse happened from 2004 to 2007.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

OLIVIA KELLEHER

Canon William Crean, parish priest of Caherisveen, Co Kerry, has been appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Cloyne by Pope Benedict XVI.

The previous Bishop of Cloyne, Dr John Magee stepped down in 2010 after it was revealed he did not follow proper child protection guidelines.

The Cloyne report, which investigated how clerical child sex abuse allegations were handled in the diocese between 1996 and 2009, detailed a catalogue of failures on the part of church authorities. It laid the blame squarely with the former bishop and Msgr Denis O’Callaghan.

In 2009 the Cork based Bishop said he was withdrawing from the running of the diocese in order to dedicate himself fully to the Commission of Investigation of Cloyne report.

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MALTA
The Malta Business Weekly

Mgr Charles J. Scicluna was this morning ordained auxiliary bishop during a ceremony delivered to a St John’s co-Cathedral filled to overflowing, in the presence of family members, visiting archbishops and bishops, representatives from across the Maltese diocese, among other dignitaries.

Today’s Episcopal Ordination – a ceremony led by Archbishop Paul Cremona celebrating Mgr Scicluna’s moment of renewed commitment to the Church – took centre-stage, overshadowing the political scene, with a string of activities held this week to the run-up to the ceremony. The ordination was televised live on TVM 2.

Following one of the readings, all present burst into applause.

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IRELAND
Huffington Post

November 24, 2012

VATICAN CITY — The pope has named a new bishop for the troubled Irish diocese of Cloyne, where for years its previous bishop ignored the Irish church’s own rules requiring suspected priestly sex abuse to be reported to police.

Cloyne has been without a resident bishop since John Magee, private secretary to three popes, resigned in disgrace in 2010 after a church-appointed commission found that he and his deputies fielded complaints from parishioners about two pedophile priests starting in 1995, but told police nothing until 2003.

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday named the Rev. Canon William Crean, a parish priest in Cahersiveen, to replace Magee.

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CANADA
Radio Canada

[avec la video]

Exclusif – D’anciens élèves de l’Institut des sourds de Montréal dénoncent les agressions sexuelles dont ils disent avoir été victimes il y a une quarantaine d’années pendant qu’ils fréquentaient cet établissement dirigé par les Clercs de Saint-Viateur.

Pour la première fois, certains ont accepté de témoigner publiquement de cette période trouble de leur enfance dans le cadre d’un reportage qui sera diffusé jeudi à l’émission Enquête.

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CANADA
Radio Canada

Après la diffusion du reportage de Radio-Canada sur des allégations d’agressions sexuelles d’anciens élèves de l’Institut des sourds de Montréal, la communauté des Clercs de Saint-Viateur a réagi dans un communiqué rendu public jeudi.

« Nous condamnons tout acte pédophile. Si de tels gestes se sont produits, nous le regrettons », écrit le père Roger Brousseau, responsable des communications.

Mais la communauté des Clercs de Saint-Viateur précise qu’elle ne commentera pas la cause « par respect pour les tribunaux ».

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

By Janet Bagnall, GAZETTE education reporter
November 23, 2012

MONTREAL — Another chapter of Quebec’s dark history of the sexual abuse of children in church-run institutions was aired this week by Radio-Canada. But this was not just any chapter. It threatens to be one of the most horrifying in an already heartbreaking record.

It deals with the sexual abuse of young boys, already vulnerable because of their age but doubly or triply so because they were also deaf and mute. Their alleged abusers were educated men who promised to set the boys free from their silent world.

Clerical and lay members of a much-admired Roman Catholic teaching order, the Clercs de Saint-Viateur, these men did not set the boys free. The boys who say they were abused ended up in a living hell, terrified of telling anyone what was happening to them. They remained trapped in that hell in adulthood, unable to erase the grotesque images in their heads of masturbating priests and anal rape.

This case may turn out to be the worst ever seen involving the abuse of deaf children. Unlike the previous record, held by a single Roman Catholic priest, Lawrence Murphy of Wisconsin, in Quebec more than 30 clergy are alleged to have abused the deaf children in their care, sometimes one after another. (Murphy, who may have sexually assaulted as many as 200 children at a school for the deaf in Wisconsin, was denounced in 1996 to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. The Vatican took no action against Murphy, who died in 1998.)

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AUSTRALIA
The Maitland Mercury

By Margaret Dennis
Nov. 24, 2012

Patricia Feenan and her family were devout Catholics. They had complete trust in the godliness and integrity of the church and its leaders, until a black-hearted priest by the name of James Patrick Fletcher took away their son’s innocence forever.

There was a lot priestly business in the Feenan family home. John Feenan was the business manager of the Maitland Newcastle Diocese and Patricia was a special minister at the church in Clarence Town.

“I had a traditional Catholic upbringing where the priest was almost like God,” Patricia said.

“I guess [James Patrick] Fletcher groomed the whole family; he didn’t only did groom Daniel and his brothers – his brothers weren’t abused – but that was part of this thing . . . to groom us all and he had other families with sons.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Brian Ballou and Martin Finucane
| Globe Staff
November 23, 2012

A chaplain at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford who has been living at a church rectory in Stow is under investigation for “personal conduct matters,” the Archdiocese of Boston said today.

Reverend Luke Odor is being investigated by the Archdiocese for the Military, which supervises him, the Boston archdiocese said in a statement.

Odor has been suspended by the military archdiocese and the Boston archdiocese said it had followed suit, taking “similar action.”

It wasn’t clear what Odor allegedly might have done. The Boston archdiocese said the allegations did not involve any matters related to the Boston archdiocese or the church in Stow.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

November 23, 2012 – 12:26pm By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau

An 83-year-old former Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused boys when he was younger has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

Albert LeBlanc, now married and living in Bouctouche, N.B., pleaded guilty in May to six counts of indecent assault. His guilty plea came at the beginning of what was expected to have been a weeklong trial in Yarmouth.

LeBlanc faced 50 counts but pleaded guilty to six charges, each of which related to a different male victim.

The offences occurred between Jan. 1, 1970, and Dec. 31, 1985 when LeBlanc lived in Yarmouth County, where he worked first as a priest and later, after he left the priesthood in 1975, as a probation officer.

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CANADA
CTV Atlantic

Published Friday, Nov. 23, 2012

A former Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for sex crimes in Yarmouth.

Albert LeBlanc faced 50 counts, all alleging the sexual abuse of boys during his days in Yarmouth County, where he worked first as a priest and later, after he left the priesthood in 1975, as a probation officer.

LeBlanc pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault dating back to the 1970s – each with the name of a different victim attached.

Today, Judge James Burrill accepted a joint recommendation by the crown and defence.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Jewish Chronicle

By Simon Rocker, November 23, 2012

A leading member of London’s strictly Orthodox rabbinate this week resigned as a dayan after being confronted over allegations of inappropriate conduct with a number of women.

Rabbi Chaim Halpern, who runs a shtibl (house synagogue) in Golders Green, announced that he was stepping down from “public positions”, which include his seat on the presiding rabbinate of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.

The storm, which has been gathering around him for weeks, broke on Sunday after he attended a meeting at the home of former London Beth Din head Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, where six local rabbis examined the allegations.

The rabbis issued no public statement but a copy of Rabbi Halpern’s resignation letter, handwritten in Hebrew, surfaced on the internet on Tuesday.

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CANADA
CBC News

An 83-year-old former Roman Catholic priest, who pleaded guilty to molesting six children decades ago, was sentenced to five and half years in prison in a Yarmouth court on Friday.

Albert LeBlanc pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault in May. Some of the crimes date back to when LeBlanc was a priest in Yarmouth County in the 1970s.

Judge Jim Burrill accepted the Crown and defence’s joint sentencing recommendation.

The Crown said at least one case of abuse started when the boy was only 8-years-old. The court heard how Leblanc would entice his underage victims with alcohol and allow them to drive when they were only 13.

Leblanc’s victims have filed victim impact statements, but none of them wished to read them aloud in court Friday.

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CANADA
CBC News

Posted: Nov 23, 2012

Sentencing is underway for an 83-year-old former Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to molesting six children decades ago.

Albert LeBlanc pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault in May. Some of the crimes date back to when LeBlanc was a priest in Yarmouth County in the 1970s.

There’s been a joint recommendation from the Crown prosecutor and Lebalnc’s defense lawyer to sentence him to five and a half years in prison.

The Crown said at least one case of abuse started when the boy was only 8-years-old. The court heard how Leblanc would entice his underage victims with alcohol and allow them to drive when they were only 13.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

It is for all of us who make up the church, not royal commissions, to right these wrongs

Angela Shanahan
From:The Australian
November 24, 2012

THIS week, everyone I have met has asked me the same question. What are you, as a practising Catholic woman, going to say about the church and the royal commission into sexual abuse?

Some people have been very insistent. Like every other Catholic person I know, I am depressed and fed up with this scandal. My children and grandchildren are all Catholics and attended Catholic schools; my son-in-law is a Catholic school teacher.

I am a conservative Catholic, as one wit remarked, more pre-Council of Trent than post-Vatican 2, and hearing the likes of Craig “credit card” Thomson on ABC radio saying in outraged tones that a royal commission is needed because “they” can’t just “sweep it under the carpet” is enough to rile up the old church militant in me.

It is obvious to Blind Freddy that the sudden calling of a royal commission over sexual abuse within the church, when the police have convictions and are doing their job, is pretty suspect; particularly when royal commissions should really be looking at the workings of the state child welfare systems in this country, which are in an absolute shambles and have allowed children to die.

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AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph

Cardinal George Pell and senior members of Catholic Church had ‘sociopathic lack of empathy’ towards Foster family, parliamentary inquiry told

CARDINAL George Pell and other leaders of the Catholic Church had “a sociopathic lack of empathy” towards a family whose lives were ripped apart after a priest abused their daughters, a parliamentary inquiry into child abuse has been told.

It comes as victims speak about seizures, substance abuse and relationship difficulties stemming from childhood abuse in the church.

Anthony and Chrissie Foster, whose daughters Katie and Emma were abused after enrolling in a Catholic primary school in Oakleigh in the late 1980s, told the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into church handling of child sex abuse how their family had been torn apart by the “hell” of dealing with the trauma.

Mr Foster said the late Father Kevin O’Donnell had been reported on three prior occasions but was not brought to justice.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jill Rowbotham
From:The Australian
November 24, 2012

SCRAP it. That’s what Sydney lawyer and sex-abuse survivor John Ellis says the Catholic Church should do with its Towards Healing policy for dealing with sex-abuse victims.

Mr Ellis, who has first-hand experience of Towards Healing, said the main problem with it and the parallel Melbourne Response was an inherent conflict of interest: cases are managed by church-appointed personnel, although complainants are encouraged to go to police.

The policies will be discussed at an Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference meeting in Sydney starting on Monday.

“I think ultimately they are probably going to have to start again,” Mr Ellis said of Towards Healing, introduced in 1997.

Some victims struggled with “a perception and a reality of coming to the body that has been responsible for causing harm to you and asking them to do something about it”.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By DARA KELLY,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, November 23, 2012

Father Oliver Brennan, the former parish priest in Dundalk County Louth who was falsely accused of child abuse, said support from family and friends kept him sane during the two-year ordeal.

Speaking on the Marian Finucane programme on RTE Radio One last Saturday, he said,

“It was the worst thing in the world, to be accused of the worst crime of all.”

According to the Dundalk Democrat, Fr Brennan said that on August 14, 2010, the bishop, who was with a child safe-guarding officer, read out to him the accusation.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Grandstand Sport

[with audio]

Peter Jackson was a star of rugby league in the 1980s and 90s, representing Australia and wearing the Maroon for Queensland. But in 1997 Jackson described in a letter the mental anguish he couldn’t shake throughout his life: he was sexually abused as a child. His wife Siobhan Jackson has agreed to read from the letter because, she says, his words have extra significance as Australia prepares for the royal commission into child abuse.

Natalie Poyhonen

Transcript

ASHLEY HALL: The widow of the former NRL star Peter Jackson says authorities must learn from the past and provide comprehensive support for victims who come forward at next year’s royal commission into child abuse.

While Peter Jackson was a champion sportsman, off the field he was crippled by the sexual abuse he endured as a schoolboy.

Siobhan Jackson says her husband struggled with memories of sexual abuse memories that were triggered by publicity surrounding the Wood Royal Commission’s investigations into paedophiles.

Natalie Poyhonen has this report. …

SIOBHAN JACKSON: One of the powerful things about Peter’s story is that it’s not about one institution, it’s over institutions. It’s about a Catholic brother who was working in an Anglican boarding school, who was a football coach. So that’s just a few of the institutions where these perpetrators managed to hide.

NATALIE POYHONEN: Siobhan Jackson says the commission is going to be hard for abuse victims and their families but she believes it will be worth it.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC
November 23, 2012

The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney has been accused of trying to do the job of the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse, as he seeks access to court material.

Cardinal George Pell has applied to the court for material about the case of a boy raped by Christian Brother Robert Best.

It comes after submissions to the parliamentary inquiry heard he was present when the boy detailed what had happened to him to another priest.

Cardinal Pell maintains he was overseas at the time the boy detailed the abuse.

On Friday, lawyers for Best’s victim opposed the court releasing material about the case.

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AUSTRALIA
ZDNet

Summary: The NSW privacy commissioner has said that the Royal Commission into child sex abuse in Australia will test open government.

By Josh Taylor | November 23, 2012

New South Wales Privacy Commissioner Dr Elizabeth Coombs has said that the Royal Commission into child sex abuse in Australia will test the relationship between open government and ensuring privacy.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week announced that the government will conduct a broad-ranging Royal Commission inquiry into institutional responses to child sex abuse claims. The inquiry was launched after accusations mounted of cover-ups of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church in Australia. It is expected that the Royal Commission will take years, with the terms of reference not to be finalised until the end of 2012.

Coombs, who was appointed as the commissioner in 2011, told the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ (IAPP) Privacy Summit today that Ireland encountered issues in its inquiry into child sexual abuse in drawing a line between ensuring that the inquiry could do its job and protecting the information of the victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

A FEMALE Sunday school teacher who sexually abused a teenage girl in her care was seeking comfort and solace, a court has heard.

The devout Mormon, who cannot be named, repeatedly kissed and touched the girl in the Huntingdale home she shared with her sick husband and three children.

Prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams told the County Court the teacher, now 39, met the victim when she was 11 through the Mormon church, where she led a Sunday school and youth group.

When the girl was 15, she moved in with the woman – who was also a senior school teacher – and her family, following her parents’ separation.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

November 24, 2012

Crispin Hull

The royal commission on child sex abuse is going to face major evidentiary and constitutional problems. In announcing the commission, Prime Minister Julia Gillard stressed the evil not only of the abuse itself, but also the cover-up. Indeed, in her eyes, the cover-up seems to be the core reason for the commission.

She said: ”Australians know … that too many children have suffered child abuse, but have also seen other adults let them down. They’ve not only had their trust betrayed by the abuser but other adults who could have acted to assist them have failed to do so.

”There have been too many revelations of adults who have averted their eyes from this evil. I believe in these circumstances that it’s appropriate for there to be a national response through a royal commission.”

Some immediate questions come to mind. Who did the covering-up? How did they know about the abuse that was covered up? Was that covering-up criminal?

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

November 24, 2012

Robert Van Krieken

Interested parties have until Monday to comment on the terms of reference into the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Having spent time in Ireland recently reflecting on how the issue was dealt with in the Ryan, Murphy and other inquiries there, there are several problems arising from the proposed terms of reference.

It is still deeply problematic to focus entirely on sexual abuse without paying any attention to physical and emotional abuse. Everyone who works in this field knows how interlinked they are, and it’s invidious to construct a ”hierarchy of abuse”, where some kinds of harm are treated as unworthy of attention.

A second problem with the proposed terms of reference is they are almost entirely forward-looking. It will only be the testimony of witnesses that pulls the royal commission towards looking at how various institutions responded to child sexual abuse in the past.

What’s being proposed is the commission ”identify what public and private organisations and institutions should do to prevent child sexual abuse from occurring in their midst; what should be done by organisations and institutions when allegations are raised, and what can be done by the relevant institutions, organisations and government agencies to alleviate the impact of abuse that has already occurred”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Annette Blackwell
From: AAP
November 23, 2012

IF you want your say on what the terms of reference should be for the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse in Australia you have until Monday to make a submission or comment.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) and the Catholic Conference of Bishops will make their submissions on Friday and advocacy group Broken Rites will be doing so on Monday, November 26 – the official government deadline.

Within six days of the announcement of the royal commission, the government reportedly received 300 emails to its website and 180 calls from people and organisations wanting to make submissions.

Groups such as Broken Rites say there have been significant spikes in calls to their organisations since the announcement.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

The Daily Telegraph
November 24, 2012

AUSTRALIA’S most senior Catholic showed a “sociopathic lack of empathy” in dealing with victims raped by clergy, an inquiry heard yesterday.

Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, had tried to compel victims into silence when confronted with evidence of wrongdoing by parish priests when he was the Archbishop of Melbourne, the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse was told.

Anthony Foster recalled meeting Cardinal Pell to discuss a priest who had repeatedly raped two of his daughters when they were at primary school.

He told the inquiry that Cardinal Pell said: “If you don’t like what we’re doing, take us to court,” and did not appear distressed by the incidents.

“In our interactions with the now-Cardinal Archbishop Pell, we experienced a sociopathic lack of empathy, typifying the attitude and responses of the church hierarchy,” Mr Foster said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The Church of England should be “deeply ashamed” of its failure to protect children from sex abuse.

Those are the words of Dr Martin Warner – the new Bishop of Chichester – speaking to ITV Meridian today.

The Diocese of Chichester serves both East and West Sussex and the city of Brighton and Hove.

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ZIMBABWE
Nehanda Radio

By Fungai Kwaramba

HARARE – Shocking details have emerged of widespread abuse of orphans at an orphanage and schools which were run by disgraced and dethroned Anglican bishop Nolbert Kunonga, prompting human rights organisations to demand an investigation.

On Wednesday, the Anglican Church Harare diocese convened a press briefing where the dastardly endeavours which happened in the past five years under Kunonga’s watch were revealed.

Kunonga was in charge of the institutions after he seized them from the Church of the Province of Central Africa, often using violence and help from the police.

Chad Gandiya, who is the bishop of Harare, told reporters in Harare that the Anglican Church, which won a landmark court victory on Monday, was carrying out an inventory that will ultimately lead them to their vast properties which had been turned into “lucrative business joints” by the ex-communicated Kunonga.

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AUSTRALIA
Border Mail

By Mark Russell
Nov. 23, 2012

A judge today said he had “a sense of anxiety or discomfort” about a request by Cardinal George Pell for sensitive material relating to the trial of convicted paedophile and Catholic brother Robert Charles Best.

But County Court judge Roy Punshon said he recognised some of the material sought by Cardinal Pell was highly relevant to the allegations made against him.

Lawyers for Cardinal Pell have applied to the County Court for access to the transcript of the trial involving Best and one of his victims.

The victim, known as V2, claims Cardinal Pell was present when the boy had complained of being raped by Best.

Cardinal Pell has described the victim’s claims as “irresponsible, untrue” and said they were “absolutely denied”.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Kristina Keneally November 22, 2012

‘By their fruits you shall know them,’ says Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. He is talking about the religious leaders of his time, and reminding people that actions speak louder than words, especially when it comes to discerning holiness and devotion to God.

As a Catholic, I can’t help reflecting on and being challenged by this in light of recent events.

My soul has been wrenched reading the stories of abuse of children, many of them incredibly vulnerable, at the hands of Catholic priests and brothers. It’s utter horror to contemplate such crimes.

Stories of sexual abuse in the Church have circulated for years, and in America and Ireland the systematic horror has been exposed. Perhaps it was naive, but those of us in Australia — Catholic and non-Catholic alike — weren’t forced to face the potential scale and magnitude of the problem here.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A lawyer for a victim of pedophile brother Robert Best has urged a court not to release the transcript of his trial to Australia’s most senior Catholic – Cardinal George Pell.

Cardinal Pell has applied for a transcript of the case as he prepares for an expected appearance at a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse.

The inquiry has been told Cardinal Pell was present when a grade three student at a Ballarat school in the 1960s described to another priest his alleged rape by Best.

On Friday, Timothy Seccull, a lawyer for one of Best’s victims, opposed Cardinal Pell’s application, saying the cardinal was in effect trying to do the work of the parliamentary inquiry by investigating the allegation.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

MARK COLVIN: Victoria’s inquiry into child abuse has been told that Cardinal George Pell showed a sociopathic lack of empathy for a family whose two daughters were raped by a Catholic priest.

Today victims of child abuse by religious organisations gave evidence to the inquiry. They included Chrissie and Anthony Foster, whose two daughters were assaulted in the 1990s by a priest at their primary school in Melbourne’s south east.

Emma Foster eventually committed suicide. Her sister Katie was seriously disabled when she was struck by a car after binge drinking.

The fallout happened when George Pell headed the Catholic Church in Melbourne.

Alison Caldwell reports.

ALISON CALDWELL: After 16 years, Chrissie and Anthony Foster are exhausted but still very angry with the way the Catholic Church handled their daughters’ allegations of abuse at the hands of their parish priest, Father Kevin O’Donnell, in the 1990s.

ANTHONY FOSTER: O’Donnell left few physical scars, instead he left children emotionally tortured and spiritually ruined. O’Donnell and the church stole a part of their souls.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Tom McIlroy
Nov. 23, 2012

VICTIMS and family members affected by clergy sexual abuse yesterday used a Victorian parliamentary inquiry to speak of their trauma and fight for justice.

In a packed hearing room, the inquiry heard from parents Chrissie and Anthony Foster about the impact of abuse two of their children suffered from a parish priest in suburban Melbourne.

Their daughter Emma Foster took her own life after being abused by the priest, while her sister Katie was left with a serious disability after being hit by a car while drunk.

The couple said the Catholic Church and former Melbourne Archbishop Cardinal George Pell had failed to adequately deal with their complaints of abuse.

“We fervently hope you have the strength of character to stand up for the rights of children against the might of the Catholic Church,” Mr Foster said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyBurbs

Sister Pat Kelly concedes it may “seem silly,” but she’s taken to street corners lately to pitch the Catholic faith.

Or rather to re-pitch it.

“Repropose it,” she said. Repropose the faith to those who already are familiar but, for reasons as varied as people and their perspectives, have fallen away from being practicing Catholics — or walked away or run.

You could find her sitting at a table outside First National Bank in Newtown on Mondays this month. And she wasn’t actually sitting at the table, but chatting up the guys painting the building or greeting passersby as she tried not to hover too near the table so people were free to browse it.

Nothing more unnerving than a hovering nun.

“I’ve had some really great conversations,” Kelly said last week. There are books on her table, pamphlets, parish calendars, magnets from St. Andrew Church in Newtown Township.

And a confidential survey, which really is the point of this column.

The deadline for participating is fast approaching. You won’t be asked your name, but can share it if you want.

The survey’s purpose? To learn more about why some of us have stopped attending Mass, stopped receiving sacraments, stopped identifying with the religious tradition in which we were raised.

In this week when we’re giving thanks, I’m kind of grateful someone in the church has finally asked.

Find the survey online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/standrewchurch or go to the St. Andrew website at https://www.standrewnewtown.com and click on “Welcome to a Confidential Survey.” The deadline is one week from today.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

By Philip Bradfield
Published on Friday 23 November 2012

A VICTIM of clerical sex abuse has questioned why the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) has approved an inquiry that will only probe institutions which provided residential care.

The Executive’s inquiry into historical sex abuse will examine if there were failings by institutions or the state towards children in their care from 1922-1995 and OFMDFM says the inquiry will probe any organisation which “provided residential accommodation” for children.

But yesterday Michael Connolly, who has set up www.ClericalAbuseNI.com, to campaign for victims, slammed OFMDFM for, as he sees it, excluding clerical sexual abuse outside such institutions.

He said: “It is like they are telling us that only those people who suffered abuse in residential institutions count, while those of us who suffered clerical sex abuse outside of this don’t matter.

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AUSTRALIA
Online Opinion

By Sheleyah Courtney – posted Friday, 23 November 2012

As a social scientist who is interested in calibrations of power, religion and sexuality, my outlook on a discussion of the Catholic Church’s involvement in sexual abuse of Australian children is one that considers such a phenomenon as being situated and operative well within a wider psycho-social context. While there have been very recently published valuable sociological studies of such problems, for example last year Marie Keenan’s important “Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church” in Ireland, such works as this one focus especially on the institutional dimensions of the church itself. However, regarding this terrible issue, I view the intersections between the church and our society as seriously warranting greater consideration.

There are several issues that extend beyond the actual church’s internal cultural structures that are especially noteworthy to me. Firstly, child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church has a factuality that has been taken for granted for some time in the public imagination both in Australia and abroad; this knowledge has been reflected in popular culture ranging from tabloid news sensationalism to Hollywood films such as “Sleepers” (1996) starring Brad Pitt and closer to home, “Oranges and Sunshine” which exposed several cases of the thousands of English children who were illegally transported to Australia and who were placed in homes run by the Christian Brothers, were sexually abused and or forced into virtual slave labour (2011).

The 2006 documentary “Deliver Us From Evil” which traces the notorious pedophile priest Oliver O’Grady and the corruption in the Catholic Church that protected him; it was Oscar nominated. In Australia there has been a victim support group, “Broken Rites” operating since 1993, and a book, “Hell on the Way to Heaven” published by Chrissie and Anthony Foster parents of two daughters who died due to sexual abuse by a priest of the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Steve Lillebuen, AAP
Updated November 23, 2012

Australia’s most senior Catholic showed a “sociopathic lack of empathy” in dealing with victims who were raped by clergy, an inquiry has heard.

Cardinal George Pell, current Archbishop of Sydney, had tried to compel victims into silence when confronted with evidence of wrongdoing by parish priests, the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse was told on Friday.

Anthony Foster recalled meeting Cardinal Pell to discuss a priest who had repeatedly raped two of his daughters when they were at primary school.

He told the inquiry that Cardinal Pell, then the Archbishop of Melbourne, had told him, “If you don’t like what we’re doing, take us to court,” and did not appear to be distressed by the incidents.

“In our interactions with the now-Cardinal Archbishop Pell, we experienced a sociopathic lack of empathy, typifying the attitude and responses of the church hierarchy,” Mr Foster said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 23, 2012

Barney Zwartz

CARDINAL George Pell showed a ”sociopathic lack of empathy, typifying the attitude and response of the Catholic hierarchy” to parents whose young daughters were repeatedly raped by a priest, the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled child sex abuse has been told.

Anthony Foster told on Friday how they met the cardinal – now Archbishop of Sydney – when he was Melbourne archbishop, in a furniture storage room at a Melbourne presbytery. They were squeezed onto a narrow wooden bench, while he sat in a ”grandiose” padded leather chair.

“In our interactions with the now-Cardinal Archbishop Pell, we experienced a sociopathic lack of empathy, typifying the attitude and responses of the church hierarchy.”

He expressed no emotion when shown a picture of the Fosters’ daughter Emma harming herself – she later killed herself – and said expressionlessly: ”Hmmm, she’s changed, hasn’t she?”

”What sort of of people did he mix with, what sort of life did he lead, that he thought this comment was appropriate?” Mr Foster asked.

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ZIMBABWE
ZimEye

Published: November 22, 2012

The Minister of Education, Art, Sport and Culture, David Coltart is moving in to investigate sexual abuses reported to have taken place at schools and other child institutions that disgraced Bishop Nolbert Kunonga seized from the Anglican church.

Shocking details have emerged of widespread abuse of children at an orphanage and other schools by the dethroned Anglican bishop which have prompted human rights organisations to press for police investigations.

Revealing that a cleansing ceremony would actually be required to ‘drive out demons before the church gets to use its defiled sanctuaries’, bishop Chad Gandiya said that he has received information that children at the Shirley Cripps orphanage were abused.

“The children’s home is very dear to us, last week we received information that children were being abused. The matter was referred to the police and we are happy a person was arrested. There is widespread sexual abuse at the orphanage.”

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Geoffrey Robinson
November 22, 2012

Last week, in an interview on ABC radio, I made a statement about the seal of confession and sexual abuse. I have been challenged on that statement, have thought further about it, and wish to make a new statement. The matter is closely allied to the question of the treatment centre run by the Church, and I’d like to start there.

It was a treatment centre, so the clinicians asked only questions directly related to treatment. This did not include seeking admissions of specific offences and, in particular, it did not involve asking the name and address of any victim. To ask such questions would send the client running away from the treatment. The clinicians therefore did not have knowledge of specific crimes.

More importantly, if one single person had been reported to the police, the entire treatment program would have closed down permanently the same day, for no offender would ever again come near it. In gaining information on one single client that may or may not have been useful in securing a conviction, the price to be paid would have been that no offenders into the future would receive any treatment.

If you ask me whether I can give a guarantee that a particular offender will never offend again after treatment, then no, I cannot give it. But if you ask me whether the number of new offences will be significantly, even dramatically less if 100 offenders receive serious treatment, then yes, I can give that guarantee.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
4NI

A former priest has appeared in court charged with sexually abusing a boy more than 20 years ago, a charge he denies.

54-year-old James Martin Donaghy, of Lady Wallace Drive in Lisburn, pleaded not guilty to four charges of indecent assault and one of common assault.

These were alleged to have happened on dates between 1 January 1989 and 5 May 1989.

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UNITED STATES
God Discussion

By Al Stefanelli
On November 21, 2012

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs was arrested six years ago and imprisoned for life after being convicted of sexually assaulting children. His incarceration has not stopped him from remaining at the head of the church. Known as ‘The Prophet,’ Jeffs still calls the shots.

His church, which maintains a small commune on the Arizona/Utah border, have been disavowed by the LDS church, which refers to them as a radical splinter group.
ABC news reports journalist Mike Watkiss stating about the community of roughly 8000,

“Anybody who thinks that Warren Jeffs’ incarceration ended his rule in this community has no idea what they’re talking about. He is in many ways more powerful because now he’s martyred.”

Mike Watkiss has covered the FCLDS community for the past 25 years.

The report also refers to a 2008 raid on the ‘Yearning for Zion’ compound in Eldorado, Texas, which brought national attention to the group after it was found to be housing pregnant children/child brides and a lifestyle more indicative of the 19th century than the post-modern world that surrounded them.

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TEXAS
News Channel 10

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – The attorney of a former high school student who settled an abuse lawsuit says the Fort Worth priest he accused will no longer be able to work with children.

Tahira Merritt tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (http://bit.ly/XFZGbd ) that a settlement reached Tuesday requires the Rev. William Paiz to not hold any position that gives him access to children, juveniles or young adults. Paiz will also not be allowed to identify himself as a priest.

A civil lawsuit accused Paiz of abusing the unnamed former student between 1982 and 1987, starting when he was 16. The ex-student is now in his 40s.

A spokeswoman for the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese says people who say they have been abused have several ways within the church to address their grievances.

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ROME
Vatican Insider

The new cardinals’ outfits and the gift lists in Roman tailor shops

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

On Saturday Benedict XVI will create six new cardinals, just nine months after last February’s consistory. Addressing the Synod’s bishops, the Pope explained the reasons for this “informed” choice of new cardinals, none of whom are European: this is a way for the Church to show its true universality after the batch of cardinals created during the last consistory, who were mainly Curia members or Italian.

The new cardinals are: James Harvey, the American head of the Papal Household; His Beatitude Bechara Boutros Raï, patriarch of the Maronite Church in Lebanon; His Beatitude Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, head of the Syro-Mankar Church in India; Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja; Archbishop Rubén Salazar Gómez of Bogota, Colombia and Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila in the Philippines.

Even though there are only six of them, Rome’s ecclesiastical tailors started work immediately on the vestments for the Church’s newly elected “princes”. When a bishop is created a cardinal, they stop wearing the violet coloured garments they donned previously and replace these with red coloured ones. Taylors prepare a list of all the garments and accessories cardinals will need. Those who wish to make a gift to a cardinal can consult this list.

Here are the current prices for items prepared by Rome’s most renowned tailor, Gammarelli, which has traditionally been the Pope’s tailor. The red mozzetta which cardinals wear with their choral vestments, costs about 200 Euro, but the price goes up if one chooses cord buttons – which are hand made and more sought after (they cost 20 Euro each) – instead of cloth buttons. The red cassock costs approximately 800 Euro, while the three-cornered hat without a bow, which is typical for cardinals, can cost between 80 and 120 Euro. The red and golden cord for the pectoral cross costs around 80 Euro: the price varies according to how elegant it is and the size of the bow on the back. The red fascia which is worn with the red cassock and the black cassock with red piping, costs about 200 Euro. A black cassock with red piping costs approximately 600 Euro, while the cardinal’s red zucchetto is priced at around 40 Euro. Finally, the red socks cost about 15 Euro for a pair.

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AUSTRALIA
Financial Review

Gerard Windsor

The royal commission into child abuse will investigate the failure of all institutions. At the beginning of last week this was far from clear; on ABC TV’s 7.30  Leigh Sales pugnaciously (or was she just throwing a well-disguised Dorothy Dixer?) asked Labor senator Chris Evans, “Why shouldn’t the Royal Commission be restricted to the Catholic Church?” Certainly it was the crimes of Catholics that brought the commission into being, and at least one priest has claimed that his church has been the main offender.

That, of course, remains to be seen. There is a suspicion that this grim honour might go to indigenous communities. Possibly the commission will not go there; if it does it will be treading on eggshells.

For the moment Catholics are the main persons of interest. If the commission is to be not merely retributive, its shaking up and improvement of Australian society will also have to make Catholicism a better institution. At the time of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, a buzz phrase to describe what was happening was ecclesia semper reformanda – the church always in need of reform.

In the intervening years the phrase has rather fallen into disuse. But it has now punched its way back with a disconcerting new twist to its meaning. A church in need of reform, not just self-administered, but reform forced on it from outside.

Catholicism’s wrongdoing has been twofold – the sexual abuse itself and then the failure to deal with it justly and effectively. Each of these failures is intricately tangled up with defining characteristics of Catholic culture. Perhaps there’s some visibility through the murk if we understand these contexts. The first is the Church’s attitude to sexuality. All human beings can be presumed to have problems with sex, but Catholicism’s are particularly knotty. For two millenniums the model has been virginity, whereas sexuality and its expression is a degradation of the human ideal. If you can emancipate yourself from sex, the thinking goes, you’ve distanced yourself from the animals, and you’ve moved that much closer to the angels, a superior species. This is not hyperbole. The evidence stretches all the way back to Paul’s Epistles, and a rethinking of the theology of it all would require a massive shift.

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TEXAS
WFAA

Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese has settled a lawsuit filed by a former high school student who alleged he had been sexually abused by a priest.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that terms of the settlement reached Tuesday were not disclosed.

The lawsuit accused the Rev. William Paiz of abusing the unnamed former student between 1982 and 1987, starting when he was 16. The ex-student is now in his 40s.

The victim’s attorney, Tahira Merritt, says the lawsuit was filed after the diocese did not take action after the alleged abuse was first reported in 2010.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 23, 2012

Andrew West
ABC radio presenter and columnist

George Pell is an easy target for both liberal critics in the Catholic Church and secularist tormentors in the media.

In his recent, defensive press conference, he suggested the church was being singled out as the only institutional offender in the child sex abuse crisis. It was grist to the mill of those who are convinced the cardinal Archbishop of Sydney is making excuses for clerical crime.

His insistence that the rite of confession must remain a secret between confessor and penitent – no matter how evil the offence that is revealed – was seemingly more evidence that he was putting the church’s reputation and customs ahead of abuse victims. As his brother bishop Geoffrey Robinson conceded, it was painful.

Dr Pell is an old-fashioned prelate. He not only toes the Vatican line but, as a key adviser on education, ministry and doctrine, he has helped shape it. One of Dr Pell’s long-standing – but not unquestioning – friends calls him “a company man”. RMIT University professor Des Cahill has known the cardinal for 50 years. Professor Cahill left the Catholic priesthood in the 1970s to marry and begin a distinguished career as an academic psychologist.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 23, 2012

Richard Baker

Ross Murrin was one member of the clergy harboured by the church after repeatedly being accused of sexual offences against students.

THE Catholic Church’s little-known treatment clinic for clergy with psychosexual problems harboured known paedophiles and shielded them from police scrutiny.

Whistleblowers closely involved with the now defunct Encompass Australasia program allege paedophile clergy were diagnosed with a ”mood disorder” in order for them to be treated at Sydney’s Wesley Private Hospital and meet private health insurance criteria.

A well-placed source aware of the status of some clergy treated by Encompass Australasia between 1997 and 2008 said he believed several did not have a mood disorder but were ”cold and calculating criminals” who bragged about their exploits with children to others while at the hospital.

”Some of these people were not mentally ill, in my opinion. They were criminals who knew exactly what they had done and were proud of their achievements,” the source, who asked not to be named for fear of being sacked, said. ”People who should have been in Long Bay Jail were still living in the community.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph

Piers Akerman
The Daily Telegraph
November 23, 2012

THE royal commission announced by the Prime Minister 11 days ago will do nothing for the majority of victims or those most vulnerable to child abuse – poor and Aboriginal children.

With submissions to the government about the terms of reference to be lodged in writing by next Monday, the Gillard government has made it clear that it is not going to address these areas of greatest need.

The discussion paper released this week by Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and acting Families Minister Brendan O’Connor makes it absolutely clear that the commission will focus on sexual abuse in public and private organisations and institutions.

However, the overwhelming evidence makes it plain that the greatest risk of abuse occurs within the family home and increases incrementally if the family is poor or indigenous.

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UNITED STATES
Aljazeera

Cristina LH Traina

It is indeed a difficult and confusing time for American Catholics.

Gathering last week at their annual fall assembly in Baltimore, Maryland, US Catholic bishops failed to pass “The Hope of the Gospel in Difficult Economic Times”.

Spearheaded by Bishop Stephen E Blaire, the document was to “communicate the bishops’ concern for people hurt by the economy, especially the jobless and those living in poverty” and reiterate Catholic social justice teaching at the United States Conference on Catholic Bishops. It is difficult to immediately discern why.

Recent press around Catholic objections to the Health and Human Services mandate that insurance providers for religiously-affiliated hospitals and universities cover contraception might lead to an expectation that socially conservative bishops overruled social liberals.

In fact, the opposite may have been the case. During Tuesday’s discussion, much of the opposition seemed to come from bishops who thought the document was too tame.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A former priest has denied sexually abusing a boy more than 20 years ago.

James Martin Donaghy, 54, of Lady Wallace Drive in Lisburn, pleaded not guilty to four charges of indecent assault and one of common assault.

These were alleged to have happened on dates between 1 January 1989 and 5 May 1989.

The boy’s age was not disclosed and no details of the case were given in court during the short hearing.

Defence barrister Eugene Grant and prosecution lawyer Amanda Brady told the court there were numerous legal applications to be dealt with before the case came to trial.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Paddy Clancy

Thursday November 22 2012

A woman who has accused her teacher nun of putting her hand beneath her underwear 37 years ago has said she still has nightmares about it.

The 45-year-old mother of three – the fourth to tell of a series of indecent assaults by the nun, a Sister of Mercy – said she was touched on the bottom as a seven and eight-year-old in third class at a primary school in the midlands.

She wept deeply as she told the jury: “As a child I had nightmares. I still do. A big hand, the biggest you could get, figured in my nightmares.”

She said she was called to the desk of Sr Mary Theresa Grogan and as the rest of the class sat with their hands covering their eyes following an instruction in Irish to “sleep”, she had to read her homework.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Sowetan

Nov 22, 2012 | Tebogo Monama

A SOWETO pastor will appear in court tomorrow to face a charge of rape and two counts of sexual assault involving minors

The pastor, who cannot be named until he appears in court, will appear in the Protea Magistrate’s Court.

Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela said the 62-year-old priest had allegedly been abusing the girls aged between 12 and 15 for months.

The 12-year-old was allegedly raped and the other two fondled by the man.

“At his house there is a spaza and when the girls came to buy, that is when he got the chance to abuse them,” Makhubela said.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

As we have noted many times before, the media’s obsession with decades-old sex abuse in the Catholic Church is more about its hatred for the Church than it is about sex abuse itself.

Not surprisingly, the New York Times has obsessed over the issue. In literally hundreds (if not thousands) of news articles, editorials, and op-eds in recent years, the paper has been pummeling the Catholic Church for its handling of decades-old cases of sex abuse.

Now the Times has hired a new CEO, Mark Thompson, the former chief of the British broadcasting giant BBC, and people are asking what knowledge he had of sickening child sex abuse committed by one of the network’s most popular personalities in its history, the late entertainer Jimmy Savile.

Police in England are now reportedly investigating as many as 300 child abuse allegations against the BBC’s Savile, with one story claiming that his youngest victim may have been as young as eight years old. In addition, one of Savile’s acts of molestation apparently was captured on live television (on “Top of the Pops”) in 1976.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

“Deadly Affairs” told the real-life story of Teresa Stone and her pastor, David Love. Both were married, yet they carried on a secret affair for ten years that ended in murder.

Stone conspired with Love to murder her husband, Randy Stone. Randy had considered David, his pastor too, a trusted friend, which made the betrayal even worse. “If Randy had a spat with Teresa … He’d let David know about that and ask what he should do … It’s the biggest betrayal because Randy trusted David so much that he shared his deepest, darkest secrets with him, and the whole time he’s looking at my uncle knowing he’s sleeping with his wife,” Stone’s niece Shelly Ridge said.

The motive for their murder was that Teresa wanted to collect her husband’s $800,000 life insurance policy. She gave Love the combination to a safe that held Randy’s gun, and Love shot him in the head.

And, unbelievably, KSDK reports Love eulogized Randy Stone at his funeral. After killing him.

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AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

There is great support within the community for the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. Many people have high hopes it will right the wrongs of the past and help us, as a nation, to eliminate future child sexual abuse.

But how will the Royal Commission affect those who were abused?

Research from Australia and around the world has told us a great deal about the impact of child sexual abuse. We know, for example, that people who have been sexually abused as children are 2.4 times more likely than others to suffer from a mental disorder in adulthood and have a higher risk of addiction.

In adolescence, those who have been sexually abused are more likely to become involved in risk-taking behaviour, and are therefore more likely to be re-victimised in early adulthood and experience difficulties in their intimate relationships.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Veronica Buck

Victim support groups in Western Australia say they’ve already experienced a spike in demand since the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse was announced and fear their already large workload is only going to intensify.

Dr Philippa White runs Tuart Place, a Fremantle-based centre that helps people who have been abused as children in out of home care such as church run orphanages or juvenile correctional facilities.

“There’s been a steep increase in phone calls and inquiries and a lot of talk about it among people who are regular users of the service, it’s been a hot topic of conversation,” she said.

Once the Royal Commission’s terms of reference are announced, Dr White expects to be flooded with new and existing clients asking for support.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Leader

Published: 25 November 2012

Archbishop Mark Coleridge has written a letter to the clergy of the Archdiocese of Brisbane in the wake of the declaration of a Royal Commission into abuse

In the lead-up to the announcement of the Royal Commission and now in its aftermath, Catholic clergy have again been humiliated in a way that spares none of us.

This seems to have gone on for years, and it is hard to gauge accurately the toll it has taken on the ordained.

I suspect it is more severe than we are usually prepared to acknowledge.

In my nearly forty years as a priest, nothing approaches the sexual abuse crisis as a blow to clergy morale.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Evening Sun

The priest accused of stealing more than $380,000 from his former church, St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Bonneauville, waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

Third-degree felony charges of theft by unlawful taking, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, and access device fraud are moving on to Adams County court for Caesar Belchez, 52.

Belchez was assigned to the Bonneauville church from 2006 to 20011, and during that time, police say, he stole $384,750.76 from the church in cash, checks and credit cards issued to the parish.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Dearbhail McDonald and Tim Healy

Thursday November 22 2012

THE Director of Public Prosecutions tried three times to prosecute the choirmaster whose bank and pension accounts have been frozen following a record €4.7m damages award for raping and abusing two cousins when they were schoolgirls.

One of Joseph Carrick’s victims, Jacqueline O’Toole, who was raped and then left pregnant at 15, was awarded €4m – the highest award ever for an abuse victim.

The award dwarfs the previous record, reached only last week, when a mother of three who was raped and sexually abused as a child by her godfather was awarded €2.8m damages by a High Court jury.

Ms O’Toole and Geraldine Nolan claim that they were repeatedly raped and sexually abused by Carrick, whom they met after joining a local church choir in the early 1970s.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A woman, who was repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted by a man in her church choir in the 1970s, has been awarded damages of €4m by a High Court jury.

It is the highest award of its kind.

Joseph Carrick, from Carysfort Woods, Blackrock, Co Dublin, was described in court as an “evil paedophile” who preyed on children.

Carrick, who is now in his 70s, did not defend the case taken by Jacqueline O’Toole, 55, from Pearse Street, Dublin 2.

In a separate related case yesterday, another woman, Geraldine Nolan, from Townsend Street, Dublin 2, was awarded €700,000 for rape and sexual assault by the same man.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Porsia Tunzi | Nov. 21, 2012

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents thousands of American nuns, has been awarded the Herbert Haag Prize for 2013 for Freedom in the Church.

The Catholic-based Herbert Haag Foundation honored LCWR “for their candid stance in this crisis, for their persistent loyalty to the Christian message and for the spiritual energy with which they carry the conflict,” according to a recent press release.

The award honors “people and institutions that engage themselves in the spirit of the apostle Paul for freedom in the church and in doing so give witness to the world,” the press release said.

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CALIFORNIA
Courthouse News Service

By WILLIAM DOTINGA

MARTINEZ, Calif. (CN) – A group of sisters whose parents subjected them to 20 years of horrific sexual abuse and torture say they may still have a case against church officials.

Each daughter, now an adult woman, said that church leaders, police officers and social workers stonewalled investigations to protect the parents, Zion and Glenda Lea Dutro, who were prominent evangelical leaders in Antioch, Calif.

Zion Dutro accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 300 years in prison, while his wife pleaded no contest and received a 15-year prison sentence for her actions.

The original complaint sought punitive damages from the city of Antioch, Contra Costa County, a number of officials, Calvary Open Bible Church and two pastors.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hull Daily Mail

A VICTIM of horrific abuse at an East Yorkshire care home feels justice can finally be done after a landmark court ruling.

Graham Baverstock was sexually abused as a child by Brother James Carragher at St William’s Community Home in Market Weighton.

Carragher was a member of Catholic organisation the De La Salle Order of Christian Brothers at the time.

An ongoing police investigation is looking into alleged abuse committed by others at the home.

Now the Supreme Court has ruled the Catholic Church and the Brothers are both liable to pay compensation to Mr Baverstock and more than 170 other victims who were abused at the home from the 1960s to the 1990s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

170 former pupils at St William’s school in Middlesbrough claim that they suffered appalling physical and sexual abuse within the home.

The diocese claimed the Roman Catholic De La Salle Order of Brothers, which it hired to run the school, should share the liability for the cases of abuse.

In a landmark ruling, a judge at the Supreme Court agreed that the liability did not solely lie with the diocese.

Dr Jim Whiston says that the decision made by the Supreme Court has vindicated the diocese’s view.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Frank Brennan

November 22, 2012

The following is from Fr Frank Brennan’s presentation at the Anglican Church of Australia’s Public Affairs Commission Conference The Nathan Project, University of Melbourne, 19 November 2012. This nationwide forum was named for the biblical prophet Nathan who confronted King David with God’s displeasure over his behaviour.

Introduction — the righteous Nathan and the compromising David

It is always a pleasure to return here to Trinity College to meet with Anglicans committed to social justice. I studied around this Melbourne University Crescent with some of you who were also students at the United Faculty of Theology. Ecumenical studying and working together often equips us better for engagement in the public square, using language and concepts accessible and familiar not just to those of our particular ecclesial tradition within Christianity. Thanks to my ecumenical formation, I learnt early that there was little point in quoting papal encyclicals as if they were trumps even though they might contain many pearls of wisdom. I learnt the value of communicating with concepts backed by authority, restricting myself to concepts and authority affirmed by my listeners.

27 years ago I was ordained priest in St Stephens Cathedral Brisbane. I was privileged to have the Catholic bishops of Queensland joined on the sanctuary by the Primate of the Anglican Church and the Moderator of the Uniting Church in Queensland. Archbishops John Grindrod and Frank Rush had worked together in the regional diocese of Rockhampton before going to Brisbane. John then became Primate of Anglican Church and Frank was President of the Australian Catholic Bishops conference. I worked with them and Doug Brandon, the Uniting Church moderator, in our joint commitment to improving the lives of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders during some testing political times including the Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane in 1982. When it came time for my ordination three years later, it seemed only natural and appropriate that the leaders of the three major Churches in Queensland pray together that the Spirit come upon me in priestly service. It was by doing something co-operative together for the cause of justice that we found our way clear to worship together and that we wanted to pray together in the most formal of liturgical contexts. But for our joint endeavour in the public square for justice, there is no way that we would have all prayed together on that sanctuary that night in Brisbane. We had learnt to communicate with each other and to pray together by committing ourselves in solidarity to action for justice.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

A religious congregation which provided teachers to an East Yorkshire residential school can be held liable for the sex abuse which took place there, the Supreme Court has ruled.

St William’s, a school at Market Weighton, near Hull, was closed in 1994 after the headmaster, Brother James Carragher, was accused, and later convicted, of sexual offences against boys over 20 years.

Nearly 200 men who say they were abused by Brothers at the school are claiming £8 million in damages from the school’s managers and the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, known as the De La Salle Brothers, which provided the teachers.

Defending the action, the congregation claimed it could not be held vicariously liable for the actions of the teaching Brothers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

Published on Thursday 22 November 2012

A ROMAN Catholic lay order must share liability for a multi-million pound compensation claim for child abuse at a former children’s home in Yorkshire, the Supreme Court has ruled.

The De La Salle Brotherhood, which provided staff to the St William’s home in Market Weighton, will have to compensate victims of abuse committed by its members, along with the Middlesbrough Diocese, which had overall responsibility for the home’s management.

The Supreme Court ruled in favour of an appeal from the diocese which had previously been held solely liable. The diocese remains solely liable for any abuse committed by staff who were not De La Salle Brothers.

The ruling clears the way for the settlement of up to 170 claims from former residents at St William’s. Their solicitor, David Greenwood, estimates the total value of the claims, which include the most serious sexual abuse, at around £5m.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 23, 2012

Richard Baker, Philip Dorling, Nick McKenzie

THE Catholic Church’s little-known treatment clinic for clergy with psychosexual problems harboured known paedophiles and shielded them from police scrutiny.

Whistleblowers closely involved with the now-defunct Encompass Australasia program allege paedophile clergy were diagnosed with a ”mood disorder” so they could be treated at Sydney’s Wesley Private Hospital and meet private health insurance criteria.

A well-placed source aware of the status of some clergy treated by Encompass Australasia between 1997 and 2008 said he believed several did not have a mood disorder but were ”cold and calculating criminals” who bragged about their exploits with children to others while at the hospital.

”Some of these people were not mentally ill, in my opinion. They were criminals who knew exactly what they had done and were proud of their achievements,” said the source, who asked not to be named for fear of being sacked. ”People who should have been in Long Bay Jail were still living in the community.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Religion and Ethics

By Des Cahill
ABC Religion and Ethics
21 Nov 2012

Next week, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference will hold its normal November meeting beside the tomb of St Mary of the Cross, Australia’s first saint. It is noteworthy that the bishops will discuss the holy and unholy mess created by the clerical sexual abuse scandal and the forthcoming Royal Commission into the institutional responses to child sexual abuse, as well as the continuing fallout from the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry.

The Church has already lost the public relations war. The evidence of the Victoria Police has made very sure of that by the evidence of their statistics. These show that between January 1956 and June 2012 in their Victorian jurisdiction, of the 519 “distinct victims,” 71.29% occurred within the Catholic Church system as compared to the Anglican (7.13%), Salvation Army (6.94%) and Jewish (3.47%) figures – although, of course, these figures do not pertain just to ministers of religion.

My own statistical analysis shows that at least one in twenty who graduated as priests from the Corpus Christi seminary which serves Victoria and Tasmania between 1940 and 1972 eventually became child abusers. This in many ways mirrors the study of the John Jay College for Criminal Justice of 105,000 priests, commissioned by the United States Catholic Bishops, which found that 4% became convicted abusers.

Also noteworthy is that it seems that Archbishop Denis Hart from Melbourne and Archbishop Mark Coleridge from Brisbane have taken up the public relations running. The television interview last week by Cardinal George Pell to an overflowing press room was uniformly assessed to be a disaster. He was bumbling, poorly briefed by his advisers and simply wrong in some of his comments, especially in suggesting that clerical sex abuse amongst the Catholic clergy is no higher compared to other cognate professional and religious groups.

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OKLAHOMA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A Southern Baptist pastor in Oklahoma second-guessed himself after the arrest of his former youth pastor on eight counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

Jeff Self, pastor of First Baptist Church in Coalgate, Okla., told CBS affiliate KXII television, which broadcasts in a two-state area covering North Texas and Southeastern Oklahoma, that church leaders dismissed 28-year-old Dustin Werneburg in August after the third allegation of sexual misconduct against the youth pastor in three years.

Dustin WerneburgPolice arrested Werneburg Nov. 14 at Blanchard Middle School in Blanchard, Okla., where he was serving as a teacher’s aide, the station reported. He was jailed in Coal County on three counts of second-degree rape, three counts of forcible sodomy, a charge of lewd or indecent proposals to a child and lewd molestation, all involving a girl under the age of 16.

Police said the girl’s parents found inappropriate text messages and photos exchanged between her and Werneburg. Investigators said the two began texting in November of 2011 and exchanged at least 1,000 messages.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

By Mitch Mitchell
mitchmitchell@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH — The Fort Worth Catholic Diocese settled a lawsuit for an undisclosed amount Tuesday with a former Nolan Catholic High School student who said he was sexually abused by a priest.

The lawsuit states that Rev. William Paiz abused John Doe No. 109 between 1982 and 1987 starting when the boy was 15. Doe, now in his 40s, filed suit in January, saying he was sexually assaulted while at All Saints Catholic Church, St. George Catholic Church and at other locations.

During that period, Paiz was assigned to All Saints and St. George’s Catholic Churches in Fort Worth and taught religion at Nolan Catholic High School, according to the Fort Worth diocese.

The settlement agreement includes provisions that Paiz not work in a position that puts him in contact with any children, juveniles or young adults and not be able to present himself as a priest, said Tahira Merritt, John Doe 109’s attorney.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Press

By Jennifer Bell, Crime reporter

A CATHOLIC brotherhood which supplied teachers to a Catholic children’s home in East Yorkshire can be held legally responsible for the sexual abuse of boys, leading judges have ruled.

About 170 men – including victims from York – are seeking damages after alleging they were abused as children at St William’s in Market Weighton which provided residential care and education for boys, aged 10 to 16, with emotional and behavioural problems.

The home’s former principal, Father James Carragher, was jailed for 14 years in 2004 after admitting abusing boys in his care.

Compensation claims on behalf of former pupils were first submitted in 2004. St William’s was owned by the Diocese of Middlesbrough but many of the staff were members of the De La Salle Brotherhood, a Catholic order of lay teachers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
AO Advocates

Posted by: A.Dean on Nov 21 2012

A landmark judgment in the Supreme Court today has pushed forward the law on vicarious liability, in a way that may help survivors of child abuse hold responsible parties accountable, and obtain the compensation they deserve. The ruling in Catholic Child Welfare Society & Ors v Various Claimants and The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian School & Ors concerns a dispute between the Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough and the De La Salle Order (the “Christian Brothers”) over who should pay compensation to victims of child sexual abuse committed at the St William’s School a number of years ago.

The St William’s School was managed by the Diocese, but many of its teachers and staff were members of the Christian Brothers. A number of abuses were committed by members of the Christian Brothers; these abuses occurred over decades, and one of the former Christian Brothers headmasters, James Carragher, was convicted of numerous sexual offences against boys and jailed in 2004 for 14 years. Over 170 men brought the original claim against the Christian Brothers and the Diocese for redress.

The crux of the appeal related to whether the Diocese alone is vicariously liable for the abuses of these men, or whether liability is mutually held by both the Diocese and the Christian Brothers. In 2010 the Court of Appeal held the Diocese solely liable for the abuse, and for paying £8 million in compensation to the many victims. The Diocese appealed, claiming that the Christian Brothers ought to share liability for what happened, in light of their close involvement with the day-to-day activities of the school and the numerous abuses by Christian Brothers staff. Today’s ruling has allowed the Diocese’s appeal, and in the process made new and powerful law for claimants. Writing for the Court, Lord Philips summarised the decision by stating:

This is not a borderline case. It is one where it is fair, just and reasonable, by reason of the satisfaction of the relevant criteria, for the Institute to share with the Middlesbrough Diocese vicarious liability for the abuse committed by the brothers.

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

by John C Seitz | Nov. 21, 2012

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: GENDER, POWER, AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
By Marie Keenan
Published by Oxford University Press, $62.50

If we want to understand sexual violence, we have to get to know its perpetrators and the worlds in which they were formed. In the particular context in which Marie Keenan is interested — clerical sexual abuse and its cover-up in the U.S. and Ireland since the middle of the 20th century — such an adage goes from truism to nonstarter. Pressure not to get to know clerical abusers and the institutional, educational and social worlds of their formation comes from many angles of varying validity.

A posture of attentiveness to abusers may strike some abuse victims and their advocates as excusing the abuse and losing sight of the harm it may have inflicted. For their part, media outlets have helped uncover abuse, but they have also contributed to the vilification of clerical offenders, fixating on the category of pedophilia (at the expense of other abusive scenarios), and fomenting moral panic.

Church officials, on the other hand, want to isolate abusers and officials complicit in cover-up. They would have us pay attention to abusers only as aberrant pathological individuals. The theological or institutional context for their production as clergy is more or less off-limits.

Keenan, a researcher and lecturer in applied social science at University College Dublin and a registered psychotherapist, plunges into these taboo waters, taking her readers into the theological, moral and institutional contexts for abuse and cover-up. Working with the ever-present caution that to “understand all is never to forgive it all,” Keenan makes this journey in part through analysis of extensive conversations with nine Catholic men — all retired or laicized Irish priests and brothers — who admitted to having sexually abused minors in the past.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on November 21, 2012

A Columbia University professor is siding with a twice-accused child molester who is the voice for the character Elmo and is hurting gays and lesbians in the process.

In today’s New York Times, professor Katherine Franke defends Kevin Clash as “the most recent victim” of “a ‘sex panic,’” adding that “At precisely the moment when gay people’s right to marry seems to be reaching a positive tipping point, sexuality is being driven back into the closet as something shameful.”

These callous remarks seem to equate gay sex with pedophilia, which is wrong, hurtful, and irresponsible. They play into and help perpetuate the most archaic and discredited notions about sexuality. Franke owes a deep and public apology to gays, lesbians and child sex abuse victims. And the Columbia administration should discipline her for such harmful comments which rub even more salt into the already deep wounds of many people.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WHTM

Updated: Nov 21, 2012

By Myles Snyder

BONNEAUVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) –
The case against a parish priest charged with embezzling more than $384,000 from a central Pennsylvania church is bound for trial.

Father Caesar A. Belchez, 52, of New Freedom, waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday morning when he appeared before District Judge Daniel Bowman.

Belchez is accused of taking the money between 2006 and 2011 while he was pastor at Saint Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Bonneauville, according to prosecutors. He allegedly embezzled nearly $312,000 in cash and made an additional $72,766 in unauthorized purchases with credit cards issued to the parish.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WSAU

MILWAUKEE (WSAU) Milwaukee’s Catholic Archdiocese says it will fight in court to prevent its local churches from having to pay anything toward the Chapter-11 bankruptcy in the archdiocese. Judge Susan Kelley will hold a hearing December 6 on a request by creditors – including those sexually abused by priests – to be compensated with assets from the more than 200 parishes in the 10-county archdiocese. About 575 sex abuse victims are seeking compensation from the archdiocese as part of the nearly two-year-old bankruptcy case. The church says it wants the judge to throw out 62 more claims, because those victims had previously signed settlement agreements in their cases. And it will ask Judge Kelley to let the church’s insurance carrier pay about 270 of the sex abuse claims.

Civil courts previously refused to let the Milwaukee Archdiocese use insurance to pay sex abuse victims – but the church said a different policy applied in that case.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 22, 2012

Sean Nicholls
Sydney Morning Herald State Political Editor

THE Premier, Barry O’Farrell, has announced the special commission of inquiry into the handling of allegations of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Hunter will proceed and will report by next April.

Mr O’Farrell revealed plans for the NSW inquiry before the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced a national royal commission into child sexual abuse, raising questions about whether it would go ahead.

In Parliament on Wednesday, Mr O’Farrell confirmed the NSW inquiry would proceed and released its terms of reference.

He said it was important to investigate the claims that prompted the inquiry by a senior police officer, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, that his investigations into paedophile priests had been hampered by police and the church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hill Dickinson

“Not just a borderline case” – Hill Dickinson success as Supreme Court hands down judgment in The Catholic Child Welfare Society & others –v- Various Claimants & The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools & others.

Kari Hansen, partner, and Hayley Riach, solicitor, are celebrating as the vicarious liability arguments upon which this action has been fought for the past seven years have finally been determined. The Supreme Court has clarified the law as to vicarious liability of unincorporated associations and emphasised that where there is an argument for dual vicarious liability each individual ’employer’ / ’employee’ relationship should be considered on its own merits. This is the first time that the Supreme Court has confirmed that it is possible for there to be dual vicarious liability.

In recent years, the principles of vicarious liability have been considered by Courts at all levels, particularly in the context of the sexual abuse of children. Today, the Supreme Court unanimously found that it was fair, just and reasonable for an unincorporated association of lay religious Brothers (“the Institute”) to share vicarious liability for abuse committed by some of its members.

The claims and parties

A group, presently consisting of 170 claimants, allege that they were subjected to physical and sexual abuse whilst they were residents at St William’s, an Approved School and later a Residential Care Home (‘the school’) in Market Weighton, Yorkshire, between 1958 and 1992.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Brian Farmer

Wednesday 21 November 2012

A Catholic brotherhood which supplied teachers to a residential school can be held legally responsible for sexual abuse of boys, leading judges ruled today.

Around 170 men are seeking damages after alleging they were abused as children at St William’s in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, and a former head was convicted of numerous serious sexual offences, the Supreme Court heard.

A panel of five Supreme Court justices today concluded that legal responsibility should be shared between a welfare society which managed the school and a brotherhood which provided teachers.

St William’s was founded in 1865 by Catholic benefactors and run locally as a “reformatory school” for boys, Supreme Court justices had been told at a hearing in London.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Pocklington Post

Published on Wednesday 21 November 2012

A CATHOLIC diocese has won its appeal against a ruling it was solely liable for abuse at St William’s Home for Boys in Market Weighton.

Claims of abuse between the 1960s and 1990s are being made by more than 170 ex-pupils of the former home.

The Court of Appeal ruled in 2010 that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough was responsible for an £8m compensation claim.

The Supreme Court agreed with the diocese that an organisation which supplied teachers was also liable.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From:The Australian
November 22, 2012

A NSW government inquiry into the alleged cover-up of child abuse within the Catholic Church will focus solely on abuse committed by one former priest.

By concentrating on claims about the late Denis McAlinden, the inquiry would not duplicate the work of the national royal commission into institutional responses to child abuse, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell said.

The inquiry, to be led by one of the state’s most senior prosecutors, Margaret Cunneen SC, was set up after a serving NSW detective, Peter Fox, claimed senior officers told him to stop investigating McAlinden.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox also said a network of priests in the NSW Hunter Valley conspired to conceal their abuse.

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