ABUSE TRACKER

HARRISBURG (PA)
The Associated Press

September 25, 2018

By Mark Scolforo

The state House overwhelmingly passed a proposal Tuesday to give victims of child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania an opportunity to file lawsuits over claims that would otherwise be too outdated to pursue, but a key Senate leader said the current draft had “glaring problems” that required more work.

The House voted 173-21 without debate to send the Senate a bill creating a two-year window for litigation, a way for older victims to pursue lawsuits that fall outside the state’s statute of limitations.

Establishing such a window was among the recommendations in a state grand jury report last month that found hundreds of Roman Catholic priests abused children in the state going back to the 1940s, and that church officials covered it up.

After a closed-door meeting among Senate Republicans to discuss the bill, majority leaders emerged to say they planned to make additional changes, mentioning grand jury recommendations to stop nondisclosure agreements in civil settlements from prohibiting contact with police and changes to rules for reporting suspected child abuse.

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

UNITED STATES
CNN

September 26, 2018

By Faith Karimi and Jay Croft

Minutes before a handcuffed Bill Cosby walked out of the courtroom as an 81-year-old convicted sex offender, he removed his dark pinstripe blazer and purple tie, and rolled up the sleeves on his crisp white shirt.

Judge Steven O’Neill had just sentenced Cosby to three to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand 14 years ago. It took more than a decade, two trials and dozens of accusers to seal his fate.

After the sentencing, the judge took a break to consider the defense attorney’s request to free Cosby on bail during the appeal. As people waited for the judge’s bail decision in the hallway, where court officials had ushered them, the man once known as “America’s favorite father figure” sat with his attorneys and took off some of his clothes.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
MPR News

September 25, 2018

By Martin Moylan

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Kressel said Tuesday he will confirm a bankruptcy reorganization plan for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, bringing to a close a years-long process triggered by hundreds of allegations of clergy sexual abuse.

In a courtroom at the federal court in Minneapolis, Kressel told about 100 attorneys and abuse victims and their friends and families that he hopes everyone can learn from the process, especially in regard to protecting children.

After the hearing, victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson said the plan is an affirmation of the power, will and diligence of abuse victims who wanted justice for themselves and safeguards to prevent the future abuse of children.

“It was the survivors that began to say, ‘No more.’ And it was the survivors that insisted that they come clean with all the files, all the offenders, all their identities, all their secrets,” he said.

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ST. MARTINVILLLE (LA)
KLFY

September 25, 2018

By Caroline Marcello

Five men previously listed as John Doe on a suit filed against the Diocese of Lafayette and St. Martin De tours Catholic Church have released their names.

In August, alleged victim Doug Bienvenu said to News 10 that Father Kenneth Morvant gave him alcohol when he was 9 years old and then waited until Bienvenu was drunk to sexually molest him.

Bienvenu and 10 other alter boys, previously listed as John Doe, filed a lawsuit saying the late Father Morvant abused them.

On Tuesday, 5 of the men previously listed as John Doe on the lawsuit have come forward and released their names, and now they are demanding that the Diocese release the list of names of other priest accused of sexual abuse in the diocese.

“If we released our list why can’t they release theirs?”

Bienvenu was the first and only alleged victim named on the lawsuit until Jene Tally, Travis Tally, Douglas Dorrice, Kevin MacVoid, and Stiton Rigney came forward.

There are five other John Doe’s listed on the lawsuit and Bienvenu says by tomorrow he thinks those alleged victims will also release their names.

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DALLAS (TX)
Get Religion

September 25, 2018

By Bobby Ross Jr.

I want to call attention to a story on today’s Dallas Morning News Metro & State section cover about a sex abuse lawsuit settlement involving Dallas Theological Seminary.

I have a rather simple point to make about the superficiality of the coverage.

But first, this important context might be helpful: In news reports everywhere, it’s difficult to miss the ongoing Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal. Just today, Pope Francis acknowledged that the mess is “outraging the Catholic faithful and driving them away.”’

However, if the Catholic scandal is a case of a massive church hierarchy mishandling and covering up countless rotten deeds, how can journalists wrap their minds — and their notebooks — around similar abuse in free-church settings?

Free-church settings are those where congregations — such as independent megachurches, Churches of Christ/Christian Churches or autonomous congregations that are part of a voluntary association such as the Southern Baptist Convention — operate outside the realm of a church hierarchy.

In other words, the buck stops — or fails to stop — with a local pastor or elder/deacon group, as opposed to a formal structure with real denominational control.

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JACKSONVILLE (FL)
News4Jax I-TEAM

September 25, 2018

By Vic Micolucci and Colette DuChanois

Suit accuses Titus Harvest board of trying to take church assets worth millions

A popular Jacksonville pastor’s widow is suing the board of her late husband’s church over a considerable amount of property that is in the megachurch’s name, according to records on the lawsuit.

The News4Jax I-TEAM on Tuesday tallied up the value of all the property in question and learned it’s worth more than $25 million.

After Pastor Rodney “R.J.” Washington, founder of Titus Harvest Dome Spectrum Church, died of cancer last year, April Washington, his widow, said the board of directors for the megachurch kicked her off.

“I just want the opportunity for myself and church family mainly to get back to what God has called us to and to continue this vision that was given over 30 years ago,” Washington told News4Jax last week at her attorney’s office.

Washington filed a lawsuit against the two-person board of her late husband’s parish, claiming the board cut her out of millions of dollars.

“Unfortunately, this is a story of greed and deceit and breaches of trust,” said attorney Bacardi Jackson, who represents Washington.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Associated Press

September 25, 2018

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has settled a lawsuit filed by a man who alleges he was abused when he was a boy by a priest.

The man’s attorney said Tuesday the archdiocese agreed to pay $2.9 million to the alleged victim of disgraced former priest Daniel McCormack. The man, who is in his 20s, claims McCormack abused him twice when he attended St. Agatha’s Catholic Church.

McCormack was committed indefinitely in July to an Illinois facility in Rushville for sex offenders, where he has been living since 2009. He completed a five-year sentence that year for molesting five boys in the West Side Chicago parish where he worked as a priest, teacher and basketball coach.

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YAKIMA (WA)
Yakima Herald-Republic

September 25, 2018

By Emily Goodell

Editor’s note: This story contains details that might be upsetting to some readers.

A lawsuit accuses two former Toppenish priests of sexually abusing a child over nearly a decade in the 1950s and 1960s.

The lawsuit, filed against the Catholic Diocese of Yakima and St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Toppenish, alleges that two priests sexually, physically and emotionally abused a woman identified as L.L. for much of her childhood.

L.L. was 5 years old when a priest at the church — who was not identified by the woman’s attorneys — began to sexually abuse her, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Yakima County Superior Court.

“The priest gave (her) chewing gum and candy in order to gain her trust before sexually abusing (her),” the lawsuit says. “The perpetrator, the unidentified parish priest, would take (her) to his private office where he would then proceed to touch (her) bare legs, caress her body and rub his fingers on (her) vagina.”

The lawsuit alleges that on multiple occasions, the priest performed oral sex on L.L. while masturbating beneath his robes. The frequency of the sexual abuse intensified when she entered the third grade and ended in 1959 or 1960, when the priest left the parish, according to the lawsuit.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
WITF

September 25, 2018

By Lindsay Lazarski

On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will weigh arguments over redactions in the explosive grand jury report that exposed alleged widespread child sexual abuse and cover up in six of the state’s eight Roman Catholic Dioceses.

About a dozen clergy members — whose names have been redacted from the report — are fighting to protect their identities and reputations, claiming their due process rights have been violated. They argue the court should adopt the redacted version as the final draft.

Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro disagrees with that conclusion. He claims the court can reconcile both the privacy rights of clergy members and the public’s interest in the investigation.

One option, Shapiro suggests, is for the court to recall the grand jury or to bring the investigation before a new grand jury to resolve objections. In addition, he says the anonymous clergy members should have the opportunity to testify before the grand jury, and that investigators should be able to bring in new evidence.

The nearly 900-page report documents the stories of more than 1,000 children who have been allegedly abused at the hands of more than 300 “predator priests.”

Since the report was released last month, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office has received more than 1,100 calls to it’s clergy sex abuse hotline and several other state’s attorneys general have initiated their own investigations.

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FRANKFORT (KY)
LEX 18

September 25, 2018

By Bridgett Howard

Attorney General Andy Beshear is asking lawmakers to strengthen Kentucky’s hand in cases involving crimes and victims in multiple counties throughout the state by allowing his office to petition the state Supreme Court for special grand juries.

Beshear says the need for such a law in Kentucky has been recently highlighted by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s use of a statewide grand jury to investigate abuse in a religious institution.

A provision in Pennsylvania law allows its AG to take such action. Kentucky law doesn’t currently provide for such a grand jury or allow the state attorney general to seek one.

Beshear said the procedure is necessary to investigate child abuse, human trafficking, public corruption or drug trafficking that may occur across jurisdictions.

“The major advantage of having a special grand jury is that it consolidates the investigation and prosecution of crimes that may have occurred in numerous counties to numerous victims,” Beshear said. “When needed, this process would work faster, be more efficient and happen on a larger scale for the many victims impacted.”

Beshear said that while his office seeks approval from lawmakers from this provision, his Office of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention and Prosecution is available for any organizations that may want child abuse prevention training for its members.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
ABC 4029

September 25, 2018

The Catholic Diocese of Little Rock released a list of 12 clergy earlier this month who served in Arkansas and have had “credible” allegations against them of sexually abusing minors.

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ESTONIA
USA TODAY

September 25, 2018

By Susan Miller

The flames of fury over priest sex abuse scandals are eroding the faith of Catholics and chasing many from pews, Pope Francis admitted Tuesday – and the church needs “to change.”

The pope’s frank comments, delivered before young people in Estonia on the final day of his pilgrimage to the Baltics, coincided with a stinging report of abuse of children by Catholic clergy in Germany.

Francis told the youths the church must take action to restore the faith of future generations and be transparent and honest.

“They are outraged by sexual and economic scandals that do not meet with clear condemnation, by our unpreparedness to really appreciate the lives and sensibilities of the young, and simply by the passive role we assign them,” he said at the Kaarli Lutheran Church in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

“We ourselves need to be converted,” he said. “We have to realize that, in order to stand by your side, we need to change many situations that, in the end, put you off.”

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GALLUP (NM)
The Associated Press

September 26, 2018

The Sisters’ Council of the Diocese of Gallup is planning weekly prayer gatherings in response to the ongoing sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church.

The sisters in a statement said they will commit themselves to praying the rosary either privately or with community members every Wednesday.

The Gallup Independent reports two local prayer gatherings are scheduled this Wednesday.

Sister Pat Bietsch, chair of the Sisters’ Council, suggested the community prayer gatherings. She is among more than 60 Catholic sisters currently working in the Gallup Diocese.

She called the abuse “a grave sin,” saying it has affected the diocese and the church immensely. She also said investigations in New Mexico and elsewhere must be transparent and that the council wants survivors to know the sisters will be praying for them.

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VATICAN CITY
Friendly Atheist

September 25, 2018

By David G. Mcafee

Pope Francis has finally admitted the obvious: The ongoing scandal involving priests sexually abusing children (or covering up for others) is causing people to flee the Catholic Church.

The P.R. Pope has been able to get a lot of good press for the Vatican over the last couple of years, but he hasn’t been able to contain the most damaging scandal of all. He now says the Church must change its ways if it wants to continue to have a seat at the table, according to the Associated Press.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call

September 25, 2018

By Tim Darragh

Attorney General Josh Shapiro, in Allentown Tuesday for the first time since the release of the grand jury report on child sex abuse in six Catholic dioceses, said it is “unconscionable” that Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert is leading the diocese after handling the cases of predator priests.

The Allentown Diocese, he said, is “exhibit A” to support the allegation that the church covered up for sexually abusive priests and promoted those who enabled it.

“Catholic church leaders were rewarded for their role in the cover-up and Father Schlert is one example of that,” he said during a 45-minute interview at The Morning Call.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

September 26, 2018

By Sean Philip Cotter

Bill Cosby will spend up to a decade behind bars as the man who once was one of the great icons of American pop culture was legally designated as a “sexually violent predator.”

Judge Steven O’Neill sentenced the 81-year-old disgraced comedian to 3 to 10 years in prison for drugging and molesting Andrea Constand in 2004 at his Philadelphia estate.

“It is time for justice. Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The time has come,” O’Neill said during the hearing.

Over the past few years, upwards of 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual assault, turning the nation against one of its most widely beloved celebrities — a man who had been regarded as wholesome and was admired for one of the first portrayals of a well-to-do black family on TV.

“He was America’s dad on ‘The Cosby Show,’ ” Boston University communications professor Tobe Berkovitz told the Herald yesterday. “Now he represents betrayal — betrayal of what we thought was good in America.”

The sentence comes after a Pennsylvania jury in April convicted Cosby on three counts of aggra­vated indecent assault.

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ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE
The Associated Press

September 25, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis acknowledged Tuesday that his landmark deal with China over bishop nominations will cause suffering among the underground faithful. But he said that he takes full responsibility and that he — and not Beijing — will have the ultimate say over naming new bishops.

Francis provided the first details of the weekend agreement signed during an in-flight news conference coming home from the Baltics. The deal aims to end decades of tensions over bishop nominations that had contributed to dividing the Chinese church and hampered efforts at improving bilateral relations.

China’s estimated 12 million Catholics are split between those belonging to the government-backed Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which is outside the pope’s authority, and an underground church loyal to the pope. Underground priests and parishioners are frequently detained and harassed.

Francis — and before him Pope Benedict XVI — had tried to unite the two communities, and years of negotiations kicked into high gear over a year ago.

Francis acknowledged that both sides lost something in the talks, and said members of the underground Chinese church “will suffer” as a result of the deal, the text of which has not been released.

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ANCHORAGE (AK)
The Associated Press

September 25, 2018

By Dan Joling

A man drove an Alaska Native woman to a dark street, said he would kill her and choked her until she blacked out.

He then masturbated on her face. Originally charged with kidnapping, 34-year-old Justin Schneider pleaded guilty to a single count of felony assault in a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced last week to two years in prison with one year suspended.

Having already spent a year in home confinement, he stepped out of the courtroom with no more time to serve.

The case has stirred outrage, with victims’ advocates pointing to it as another example of a lenient sentence for a crime against women amid the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct. The judge said he thought the sentence was too light but deferred to prosecutors on what could be proven at trial.

Advocates are pushing to oust Superior Court Judge Michael Corey in November when he faces a vote to keep him on the bench, months after a successful recall of a California judge who sentenced former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner to six months in prison for sexual assault.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, an independent facing re-election, vows to change state law that does not classify Schneider’s actions as a sex crime.

“The punishment in this case in no way matched the severity of the crime,” Walker said in a statement. “We must fix this problem immediately, and we will.”

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
The Republic

September 25, 2018

The Latest on a former New Mexico priest who fled the U.S. decades ago (all times local):

12:40 p.m.

A federal judge has ordered a priest who fled the U.S. decades ago amid allegations of child sex abuse to be held pending trial.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Molzen ruled Tuesday that Arthur Perrault was a flight risk despite arguments from his defense attorney that he had no passport, no family and no means to leave the country.

Prosecutor Sean Sullivan argued that the 80-year-old priest was a danger to the community.

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TALLINN (ESTONIA)
CBS/AP

September 25, 2018

Pope Francis acknowledged Tuesday that the sex abuse scandals rocking the Catholic Church have outraged the faithful and are driving them away, as a new report on abuse by German clergy members put more damning statistics about such crimes into public view. Francis said the church must change its ways if it wants to keep future generations.

Francis referred directly to the crisis convulsing his papacy on the fourth and final day of his Baltic pilgrimage, which coincided with the release of a devastating new report into decades of sex abuse and cover-up in Germany.

Francis told a gathering of young people in Estonia, considered one of the least religious countries in the world, that he knew many young people felt the church had nothing to offer them and simply doesn’t understand their problems today.

“They are outraged by sexual and economic scandals that do not meet with clear condemnation, by our unpreparedness to really appreciate the lives and sensibilities of the young, and simply by the passive role we assign them,” he told a gathering of Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox young people in the Kaarli Lutheran Church in the capital Tallinn.

He said the Catholic Church wants to respond to those complaints transparently and honestly.

“We ourselves need to be converted,” he said. “We have to realize that in order to stand by your side we need to change many situations that, in the end, put you off.”

It was a very public admission of the church’s failures in confronting sex abuse scandals, which have roared back to the headlines recently with revelations of abuse and cover-up in the U.S., Chilean and now German church.

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BERLIN (GERMANY)
Reuters

September 25, 2018

By Riham Alkousaa and Maria Sheahan

The head of the Catholic Church in Germany apologized on Tuesday “for all the failure and pain”, after a report found thousands of children had been sexually abused by its clergy, and said the “guilty must be punished”.

Researchers from three German universities examined 38,156 personnel files spanning a 70-year period ending in 2014, and found indications of sexual abuse by 1,670 clerics, with more than 3,700 possible victims.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported the findings earlier this month after the report was leaked. The scandal comes as the church is grappling with new abuse cases in countries including Chile, the United States and Argentina.

“Those who are guilty must be punished,” Cardinal Reinhard Marx, chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, said at a news conference to launch the report in the city of Fulda.

“For too long in the church we have looked away, denied, covered up and didn’t want it to be true,” he added.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
FOX13

September 24, 2018

By Ben Winslow

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has settled a series of lawsuits filed by a group of people alleging they were sexually abused within a church-run program for Native American children.

Craig Vernon, a lawyer representing some of the alleged victims, said in an email to FOX 13 that his clients asked for their cases to be dismissed in Navajo Tribal Court after reaching agreements with the LDS Church.

The settlements involving up to a dozen people came as a result of mediation. Terms of those settlements remain confidential, he added.

“Our clients felt that this settlement was a recognition that what happened to them, never should have happened; that resolving this case was an important step in continuing to heal from the scars of the past,” Vernon wrote.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

September 24, 2018

By Julia O’Donoghue

A man who says he was raped by a janitor at Jesuit High School in New Orleans while a priest watched has asked state officials to look into sexual abuse within Catholic institutions in Louisiana.

Richard Windmann received a nearly half-million-dollar settlement from the Catholic Church in New Orleans because of sexual abuse he alleges took place at Jesuit in the late 1970s. This week, he asked Attorney General Jeff Landry and Louisiana State Police to investigate the church further and to put pressure on the Catholic hierarchy in Louisiana to release a list of priests who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct.

“In my opinion, you should get on the right side of this, do your job, the job we pay you to do,” Windmann wrote in an email to Landry and, a day later, to the state police. He said if no one acted on his complaint within five days, he would take it to federal authorities.

Windmann’s request for help from the attorney general was first reported by WVUE Fox 8 Monday (Sept. 24).

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GERMANY
CNN

September 25, 2018

By Atika Shubert

The German Bishops’ Conference is releasing the results of its own report into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church over the past seven decades. CNN’s Atika Shubert reports.

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GERMANY
DW

September 25, 2018

By Heike Mund, Elizabeth Grenier

Decades of concealment were revealed through the German Catholic Church’s new study on the sexual abuse of minors by clergy members. Such cases have long been explored by feature films. Here are a few memorable works.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Sun

September 24, 2018

By Jonathan M. Pitts

Archbishop William E. Lori has told clergy members of the Archdiocese of Baltimore that state authorities are investigating the archdiocese’s records related to the sexual abuse of children.

Lori told priests and deacons in a letter Monday that the office of the Attorney General Brian Frosh has informed the archdiocese that it plans to “conduct an investigation and thorough review” of the records.

“I write today to inform you that the archdiocese has been in discussions with the Maryland attorney general,” the archbishop wrote.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said Monday that, consistent with policy, it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such an inquiry.

But the letter from Lori appeared to affirm that Maryland has become the latest of several states to open similar investigations in the wake of an explosive Aug. 14 Pennsylvania grand jury report that revealed that more than 300 “predator priests” in that state were credibly accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 children over seven decades.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The New Orleans Advocate

September 25, 2018

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

The man who was fired over the weekend from his staff position at a prominent Mandeville church has surrendered to police in Mississippi on accusations of molesting an underage boy, authorities said Tuesday.

Travis Bush, 36, turned himself in after investigators in Bay St. Louis obtained a warrant to arrest him.

Detective Sgt. Rachel Jewell of the Bay St. Louis Police Department said the particular crime that Bush is accused of committing implies that the boy in the case is 16 years old or younger, but she declined to release any more details.

Milton Ramirez of the U.S. Marshals Office in New Orleans said his agency was aiding the manhunt for Bush before he surrendered by early Tuesday afternoon.

Bush often sang at services held by St. Timothy on the Northshore United Methodist Church and held the title of assistant director of worship arts before leaders of that congregation announced his dismissal on Sunday.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Celebrity

September 25, 2018

Bill Cosby was sentenced on Tuesday to three to 10 years in state prison for the sexual assault of Andrea Constand.

Judge Steven T. O’Neill rendered the decision Tuesday, the second day of the sentencing hearing at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., saying, “I’m not permitted to treat him any differently based on who he is or who he was.” O’Neill also ruled that Cosby is a “sexually violent predator” and fined him $25,000.

The sentence means that Cosby, once known as “America’s Dad,” will spend at least three years behind bars and then will become eligible for supervised release, although that’s not guaranteed. According to journalist Bobby Allyn, who was in the courtroom, the judge will not grant bail, and the comedian is expected to be taken away to a cell shortly.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
CBS NEWS

September 25, 2018

Pennsylvania lawmakers are expected to vote Tuesday on sweeping legislation to give child sex abuse victims more time to seek justice for crimes committed against them. On Monday night, the state house was lit in blue to honor survivors. Dozens of them have traveled to the capitol to urge legislators to pass the measure.

The survivors’ fight to change the laws in Pennsylvania gained momentum after last month’s landmark grand jury report into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Almost all of those cases are now too old for civil or criminal charges. A bipartisan group of legislators wants to change that.

“Judgment day is upon us, and this legislation will set the path straight,” Pennsylvania state Rep. Mark Rozzi said at the rally. Rozzi understands Catholic clergy sex abuse victims in a way very few politicians can. He said his priest raped him when he was 13 years old.

“Being a victim of child sexual abuse has changed my entire life,” Rozzi told CBS News correspondent Nikki Battiste.

Rozzi is leading the fight for what victims call the “window to justice,” giving them a two-year period to file civil lawsuits if their claims are already barred by the statute of limitations.

“They can go in there, identify their perpetrator, and also get compensation for the egregious crimes committed against them,” Rozzi said.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

September 24, 2018

By Brian Roewe

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has named Zach Hiner, a former staff employee, as its next executive director.

Hiner, who spent the past six years in communications roles with Prevent Child Abuse America, previously worked with SNAP from 2011 to 2013 as an executive assistant briefly to founder Barbara Blaine and then-national director David Clohessy.

“I’m excited to come home to the organization that lit the spark and turned me towards a life of advocacy and prevention,” Hiner, 31, said in a statement Sept. 14.

In his prior stint with SNAP, Hiner filled a variety of administrative roles, from updating the website to serving as a point person for press outreach. But it was listening to abuse survivors share their stories over the phone, he told NCR, that “made me want to get involved with prevention deeper,” an area he hopes to emphasize in his new position.

Hiner returns to SNAP, created in 1988 and now counting 25,000 members worldwide, at what its board of directors called “a momentous moment in time,” as the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal has erupted back into the public eye.

In the U.S., accusations around former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and revelations from the Pennsylvania grand jury report have dominated attention, while similar reports have documented the pervasiveness of clergy sexual abuse in Germany and the Netherlands, the fallout continues in Chile from alleged cover-ups, and cardinals await to stand trial in Australia and France.

Hiner, who begins his new position Sept. 24, recognizes it as an important time for SNAP, particularly through the “valuable role” of its support groups as more abuse survivors come forward and look for places to turn.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

September 21, 2018

By Mark Pattison

To be a voice for victims of clerical sexual abuse, Fr. Brendan McGuire realized he had to come to terms with the abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest when he was 18. It was a secret he had held for 35 years.

He told the story of his abuse in a homily delivered at five weekend Masses Sept. 8-9 at Holy Spirit Church in San Jose, California, where he is pastor.

In a Sept. 18 interview with Catholic News Service, McGuire said that although he always writes his homilies for distribution via email and social media, it was the first time he read it word for word from the pulpit so he wouldn’t overlook anything he wanted to say.

Parishioners responded with “thunderous applause” at two Masses and “three standing ovations” at the others — atypical post-homiletic behavior, he said.

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WINONA (MN)
Winona Daily News

September 25, 2018

By John Casper Jr.

A lawsuit brought against the Diocese of Winona by a man who claims he was sexually abused by a St. Mary’s Catholic Church priest is heading to a jury trial.

That was the ruling of the Minnesota Court of Appeals, which reversed in part a summary judgment dismissing claims of negligence by the Winona County District Court. The unpublished opinion, released Monday, affirmed dismissal of the suit against St. Mary’s, but the three-member appellate court disagreed with Judge Nancy Buytendorp’s ruling to dismiss two claims of negligence against the diocese, basing its decision on a letter from Bishop Edward Fitzgerald to the accused priest, the Rev. Richard Hatch, before he was placed at St. Mary’s.

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PATTON (PA)
Altoona Mirror

September 25, 2018

By Sean Sauro

Queen of Peace holds Mass in penance for sins of clergy abuse

A few dozen people kneeled in the dimly lit pews shortly after 6 p.m. Monday inside Queen of Peace Church, their hands clasped in prayer.

In the hour that followed, others would enter, and by 7 p.m., the church was filled with more than a hundred visitors and parishioners.

They were gathered for a Solemn High Mass held as penance for the sexual abuse of children at the hands of Catholic priests.

The Mass was held on the same day that victims of sexual abuse and their supporters marched on the Pennsylvania Capitol.

The rally, led by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, preceded a speech by Gov. Tom Wolf, urging lawmakers to support legislation to better protect victims of sexual abuse, violence and harassment.

But before Wolf took to a podium, attendees in Harrisburg heard from Cambria County native Shaun Dougherty, who was abused by a priest as a child. His words were streamed by video to a state-owned website.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Penn Live

September 24, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

Former Pa. state rep. talks about being a victim of child sex abuse

For years, the effort to reform the Pennsylvania statute of limitations has been chiefly led by Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Berks County Democrat who at the age of 13 was sexually abused by his Diocese of Allentown priest.

Rozzi has become the poster face for adult victims who were abused as children.

On Monday, his fraternity grew by at least one.

Bill Wachob, a Democrat who between 1978 and 1984 served in the House, on Monday made public his own abuse.

Wachob, who now lives in La Jolla, Calif., calls himself “collateral damage” to the clergy sex abuse crisis. He said his abuser – an older and bigger neighbor – was himself being abused by a priest.

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NEW YORK (NY)
AMNew York

September 20, 2018

By Bart Jones

Barbara Jones will evaluate and recommend improvements to the archdiocese’s response to the sex abuse crisis.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan is asking a retired federal judge to independently examine how the Archdiocese of New York handles sexual abuse allegations against priests and church employees.

Dolan, who leads New York City’s nearly 3 million Catholics, unveiled the review Thursday when he announced the appointment of Barbara Jones, who sat on the bench nearly 20 years in New York’s Southern District.

Jones, 71, has been promised complete access to records, personnel and to Dolan himself, the cardinal said.

As part of her analysis, Jones will recommend how the archdiocese can improve its response to the sex abuse crisis and whether its victim compensation program has indeed helped survivors, Dolan said.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Associated Press

September 24, 2018

Maryland’s attorney general is delving into records of the Baltimore archdiocese as part of an investigation into child sex abuse, the latest U.S. state seeking confidential church files since a Pennsylvania grand jury released an explosive report alleging widespread abuse and a cover-up scandal.

Archbishop William Lori said in a statement Monday that he has written priests and deacons in the archdiocese advising them he’s been informed by Attorney General Brian Frosh of “an investigation of records related to the sexual abuse of children.”

Unlike other U.S. states including New York that have recently announced probes into clergy sex abuse, Frosh’s office only said it doesn’t confirm or deny the existence of any investigations. But in a tweet Friday, Frosh called for victims of abusers “associated with a school or place of worship” to come forward.

Lori, who earlier this month was appointed by the Vatican to take over West Virginia’s diocese following the resignation of Bishop Michael Bransfield amid allegations he sexually harassed adults, wrote that the archdiocese is “supportive of the review.” He also pledged full cooperation throughout the process.

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SEATTLE (WA)
ECA Global

September 25, 2018

The official release today by the German bishops of their self-authorized study of the sexual abuse of children in the German church, already widely reported on last week from leaked sources, is significant not only for what it says but for what it doesn’t say. As the authors of the report concede, as shocking and alarming as their conclusions are, the true extent of the abuse is likely much greater and the actual number of victims much higher.

In fact, although claiming to be a National report on the problem of clerical abuse, it clearly is not. No examination of religious order abusers is included in the findings. Male religious orders account for approximately a quarter or all German Catholic clerics. They comprise some of the most high-profile cases of abuse which have been publicly exposed in Germany, especially in educational schools and institutions. As shown in other national studies, religious orders have some of the greatest concentration of abusers, and are particularly prone to transfer clerical sex offenders across wide geographical regions, including to other countries where their orders operate.

Researchers were also given limited and constrained access to church files, no doubt because the German bishops do not want an investigation and examination into their own conduct of systematically transferring and concealing child sex offenders in parishes and schools across Germany.

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ELLICOTTVILLE (NY)
Olean Times Herald

September 25, 2018

By Tom Dinki

An Ellicottville priest has been suspended by the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo for an allegation of abuse.

Buffalo Bishop Richard J. Malone placed the Rev. Ronald Mierzwa on administrative leave after receiving an abuse complaint against Mierzwa, the diocese announced Monday.

Mierzwa has been pastor of Holy Name of Mary Church in Ellicottville since 1994. A call to Mierzwa at the church office was not immediately returned.

The diocese did not provide details on the complaint, including what is alleged to have happened and when it allegedly happened.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
FOX 11/WLUK

September 24, 2018

By Mark Leland

With a dark cloud hanging over the Catholic church, the Diocese of Green Bay is opening its files to an independent investigator. The diocese wants to make sure any documented allegations of abuse committed by priests have been dealt with properly over the years.

“Hopefully it will restore confidence in what we’re doing,” explained Bishop David Ricken with the Diocese of Green Bay.

The diocese, including its leader Bishop David Ricken, is also paying close attention to accusations of sexual abuse resurfacing in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Before coming to Green Bay, Ricken was Bishop of Cheyenne in 2002. He was a brand-new bishop. Among his first duties was to address an allegation of sexual abuse against his predecessor, Bishop Emeritus Joseph Hart, involving a 14-year-old boy in 1977.

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BERLIN (GERMANY)
The Guardian

September 25, 2018

By Kate Connolly

Minister warns abuse of 3,677 children by about 1,670 clerics may be ‘tip of the iceberg’ for Catholic church

A “shocking” report into the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy in Germany is “probably only the tip of the iceberg”, the country’s justice minister has said.

The German Catholic church presented the results of an investigation into decades of sexual abuse of children on Tuesday afternoon. The report details the cases of 3,677 children, the majority of whom are male, who were sexually abused between 1946 and 2014. About 1,670 clerics, mainly priests, are implicated.

The justice minister, Katarina Barley, encouraged the church to work with the judicial system to bring as many cases as possible to court.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Go Local Providence

September 20, 2018

The Diocese of Providence has filed a motion in federal court seeking dismissal of the fraud lawsuit that was entered in June by the receiver for the failed St. Joseph Health Services pension fund.

In the Diocese’s stack of documents, lawyers for the Church deny any responsibility for the failure pension fund — the largest fund collapse in Rhode Island history.

The Diocese filing is in response to the 136-page complaint that was previously filed on June 20 by the receiver — a 21 count complaint filed against 14 Defendants. Similarly, the receiver filed a state court complaint in June which is 101-pages and includes 16 count complaint against many of the same defendants.

“The Diocesan Defendants express sincere sympathy for the retirees of St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island (“SJHSRI”). That sympathy, however, cannot cloud the conclusion that this lawsuit is a baseless attempt to undo difficult decisions made in 2014 to save the CharterCARE system from collapse for the sake of an entire state and the communities it sustained and served.”

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HOUMA (LA)
Houma Today

September 21, 2018

By Kelly McElroy

After a former Vandebilt Catholic High School football player filed a lawsuit against the school and the head football coach earlier this week, the Diocese of Houma–Thibodaux offered a statement on today saying it will not comment on the matter at this time.

Former Vandebilt quarterback Andrew Robison played three years at the Houma school and transferred to Hahnville after his father’s teaching and coaching contact was not renewed by Vandebilt in the spring but was later deemed ineligible at Hahnville by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association.

Robison filed the suit alleging negligence by the LHSAA, fraud against Vandebilt and bullying, slander, defamation of character and theft by Vandebilt and by Terriers head football coach Jeremy Atwell.

The statement from the Diocese reads:

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NORRISTOWN (PA)
The Associated Press

September 25, 2018

By MaryClaire Dale and Michael R. Sisak

A judge declared Bill Cosby a “sexually violent predator” on Tuesday as he prepared to sentence the 81-year-old comedian for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman over a decade ago.

The classification means that Cosby must undergo monthly counseling for the rest of his life and report quarterly to authorities. His name will appear on a sex-offender registry sent to neighbors, schools and victims.

Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill made the decision as he weighed the punishment for Cosby for violating Temple University women’s basketball administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia estate in 2004.

Cosby declined the opportunity to address the court before the judge retreated to his chambers around noon to weigh the sentence. O’Neill said he would announce his decision early in the afternoon.

The comic once known as America’s Dad for his role as wise and understanding Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” in the 1980s faced anywhere from probation to 10 years in prison after being convicted in April in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.

Cosby’s lawyers asked for house arrest, saying Cosby — who is legally blind — is too old and helpless to do time in prison. Prosecutors asked for five to 10 years behind bars, saying the comic could still be a threat to women.

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele rejected the notion that “age, infirmity, should somehow equate to mercy.”

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

September 20, 2018

By Julia O’Donoghue

Gov. John Bel Edwards isn’t making moves to launch a larger statewide investigation into sexual misconduct within the Catholic Church, despite allegations recently surfacing in the New Orleans and Lafayette area of sexual abuse in church institutions and a lack of transparency about those accusations.

At least eight other states have said they will conduct widespread investigations into clergy sexual misconduct after an alarming report in Pennsylvania identified 1,000 victims who were abused at the hands of 300 priests over 70 years. Louisiana’s governor said the state will continue to approach allegations of sexual abuse as it traditionally has — on a case-by-case basis.

“The state will do whatever it always does when it receives credible information that a crime has taken place. Actual information — it will be fully investigated,” Edwards said at a press conference Thursday (Sept. 20).

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[Publication of the research project “Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests, Deacons and Male Religious in the Area of ​​the German Bishops’ Conference” (MHG study)]

GERMANY
Deutschen Bischofskonferenz

September 25, 2018

[Note: See also Research Project (MHG Study) “Sexual abuse of minors by catholic priests, deacons and male members of orders in the domain of the German Bishops’ Conference” AND Statement of the Special Commissioner of the German Bishops’ Conference on all questions relating to sexual abuse of minors and on issues of child and youth protection in the Church’s sphere of influence, Bishop Dr Stephan Ackermann (Trier)

In einer Pressekonferenz während der Herbst-Vollversammlung der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz in Fulda ist heute (25. September 2018) die MHG-Studie vorgestellt worden. In der Kurzform „MHG-Studie“ ist sie benannt nach den Orten der Universitäten des Forschungskonsortiums – M(annheim)-H(eidelberg)-G(ießen) – und trägt den Titel „Sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen durch katholische Priester, Diakone und männliche Ordensangehörige im Bereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz“.

Die Statements von

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DANBURY (CT)
Danbury Patch

September 24, 2018

By Rich Kirby

The cleric served eight years at St. Anthony Maronite Catholic Church​ in Danbury.

New lawsuits filed on Friday allege sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests in four local municipalities, including Danbury, the CTPost is reporting.

The lawsuits were filed by five men and claim the abuse occurred from the late 1980s through the early 2000s and were filed in state Superior Court in Bridgeport.

The Rev. Larry Jensen, former spiritual director of the Diocese of Bridgeport’s Emmaus youth ministry program, has been accused by one plaintiff of abuse at St. Anthony Maronite Catholic Church in Danbury. The priest served eight years at St. Anthony’s before being transferred to St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church in Waterville, Maine. Jensen was removed from the priesthood in 2017.

Two other priests, the Rev. Walter Coleman and the Rev. Robert Morrissey, were alleged to have abused plaintiffs in Bridgeport, Brookfield and Ridgefield.

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ROCHESTER (MN)
Post Bulletin

September 24, 2018

By Emily Cutts

The Minnesota Appeals Court ruled Monday that a lawsuit against the Diocese of Winona involving allegations of sexual abuse should be sent back to the Winona County District Court.

The lawsuit, filed by a man identified in court documents as John Doe 121, alleges that while he was a student at St. Mary’s Catholic Church during the early 1960s he was sexually abused by Father Richard Hatch. He filed suit in 2015, arguing that both the Diocese of Winona St. Mary’s Catholic Church acted negligently because they should have foreseen, or known about, Hatch’s sexually abusive tendencies toward children.

Hatch died in 2005. He was ordained in 1954 and served in three churches in Minnesota – St. Vianney’s in Fairmont, St. Leo’s in Pipestone, and St. James’ in St. James – from that time through 1962, according to court documents.

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CAMDEN (NJ)
Cherry Hill Courier-Post

September 25, 2018

By Jim Walsh

The Diocese of Camden will hold prayer services for victims of the “awful” scandal of clergy sex abuse, Bishop Dennis Sullivan has announced.

The services will be held on two nights at seven South Jersey churches, said Sullivan, the spiritual leader for some 475,000 Catholics.

Sullivan will celebrate the first service at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, at St. Agnes Church, Our Lady of Hope Parish, 701 Little Gloucester Road in Blackwood.

Additional 7 p.m. services will be held at six churches on Oct. 5.

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
The Associated Press

September 24, 2018

By Russell Contreras

A former New Mexico priest, who fled the U.S. decades ago amid allegations of child sex abuse and once blamed his behavior on a cancer diagnosis which prosecutors say he didn’t have, is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

Arthur Perrault is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque for a detention hearing as prosecutors seek to hold the 80-year-old priest until his trial for aggravated sexual abuse.

Court documents filed in federal court said victims described Perrault showering them with gifts and meals before abusing them. Victims also collaboratively described Perrault as someone who smoked pipes and wore silk underwear.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
The Huffington Post

September 24, 2018

By Carol Kuruvilla

Whether the predator is a TV star or a local priest, sexual abuse survivors in Pennsylvania want lawmakers to pursue justice for victims.

Sexual abusers faced a reckoning on Monday in Pennsylvania ― whether they were celebrities shielded by their fame or priests protected by religious institutions.

The same day disgraced actor Bill Cosby began his sentencing hearing in Norristown for sexual assault, people marched to the state capitol about 100 miles away in Harrisburg to support survivors of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.

The rally drew the support of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D), a bipartisan group of legislators, and victims of former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar. They all urged quick passage of reforms recommended in a grand jury investigation report in August that identified 301 “predator priests” and over 1,000 victims in six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses over 70 years.

Meanwhile, Cosby’s sentencing hearing started in Montgomery County with emotional victim impact statements from Cosby’s accuser, Andrea Constand, and her family.

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UNITED STATES
SNAP

September 21, 2018

BISHOPS SCRAMBLE TO RESPOND TO EXPOSURE OF WIDESPREAD COMPLICITY IN HIDING SEXUAL PREDATORS

For immediate release, September 21, 2018

Statement by Tim Lennon, President of SNAP, tlennon@SNAPnetwork.org, 415-312-5820

Last month the explosive Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report exposed that, despite the promises of 2002, the Catholic hierarchy was still covering up for sexual “predators.”

https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/report/

This damning Report has had Bishops across the country scrambling to respond to angry parishioners and public outrage. The empty gestures that have been produced so far fall into three categories.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail

September 25, 2018

By Charlie Moore

– Anonymous cardinal made the comments to German magazine Der Spiegel
– He said: ‘The pope preaches mercy, but in reality he is ice-cold and cunning’
– Was referring to claims Francis knew about abuse allegations but did nothing

Pope Francis has been branded an ‘ice-cold, cunning Machiavellian’ and a ‘liar’ by one of his cardinals, a German magazine reports.

The anonymous cardinal made the comments in a bombshell interview with Der Spiegel for its 19-page report on the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal.

He said: ‘The pope preaches mercy, but in reality he is an ice-cold, cunning Machiavellian, and, what is worse – he lies.’

The cardinal was referring to claims that Francis knew about sexual abuse allegations against US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick long before he admitted he was aware of them or took any action.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle

September 25, 2018

By Betty Clermont

Since the news about the now–Archbishop Theodore McCarrick’s alleged sexual abuse of minors and seminarians, and a Pennsylvania Grand Jury report detailing the sexual abuse of over 1,000 minors by over 300 clergymen, dozens of “experts” have opined about what must change in the Catholic Church to prevent further suffering. Although well-meaning, they are wrong and perhaps using this human catastrophe to advance their own agendas.

I have chosen a sampling below that are representative of so many similar articles. To spot the errors, it is necessary to know some facts about the crime of child sex abuse.

The following statistics are from the U.S. Department of Justice National Sex Offender Public Website.

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MIAMI (FL)
NBC

September 25, 2018

“Noticias Telemundo Investiga,” the Hispanic network’s investigative unit, will present a series of two exclusive reports denouncing cases of sexual abuse by Catholic priests to Latino survivors, Wednesday, September 26 and Thursday, September 27 during the “Noticias Telemundo” nightly news at 6:30 p.m./5:30 C.

The “Noticias Telemundo Investiga” series about sexual abuse by the Catholic Church is the product of rigorous research and includes victim testimony, photos and unpublished documents, as well as commentary by well-known experts on the topic, such as Father Thomas P. Doyle. The reports come just days after a meeting at the Vatican between Pope Francis and a group of archbishops from the United States to discuss the sex abuse crisis currently affecting the Catholic Church.

“Noticias Telemundo” is a leading provider of national news for U.S. Hispanics. Its award-winning television news broadcasts, airing from the Telemundo Center, include the daily newscast “Noticias Telemundo” with José Díaz Balart, “Noticias Telemundo Fin de Semana” with Julio Vaqueiro, “Noticias Telemundo Mediodía” with Felicidad Aveleyra, the “Un Nuevo Día” news segment with Paulina Sodi, and the Sunday current affairs show “Enfoque con José Díaz-Balart.” The “Noticias Telemundo Digital Team” provides uninterrupted content to U.S. Hispanics via its growing online and mobile platforms. “Noticias Telemundo” also produces news specials, documentaries and news events such as political debates, forums and town halls.

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UNITED STATES
PBS

September 21, 2018

The allegations against Brett Kavanaugh have compelled people to share their own experiences with sexual assault and why they didn’t come forward. When Chessy Prout was a freshman in high school, she was raped by a classmate. She spoke to authorities, brought charges and suffered a backlash. The author of “I Have the Right To,” Prout joins Amna Nawaz to discuss the shame she experienced.

Read the Full Transcript

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BERLIN (GERMANY)
Washington Post

September 25, 2018

By Luisa Beck and Chico Harlan

A report to be released Tuesday documents the sexual abuse of more than 3,600 people by 1,670 clergy members within Germany’s Catholic Church over a period of 68 years — and even those numbers probably underestimate the scale of the problem, the authors say.

Abuse of that magnitude constitutes one of the largest Catholic Church scandals in Europe. But at the same time, it is not altogether surprising to many church watchers. Evidence of widespread abuse and its coverup has been found in every jurisdiction that has launched an investigation. Australia, Chile and several U.S. states are part of the growing list.

The German report, commissioned by the German Bishops’ Conference and conducted by researchers from three German universities, provides a snapshot not only of abuse but of the trauma and isolation faced by victims long afterward.

It also contradicts a narrative held among some in the church that the abuse cases coming to light now are all old and that the problem has since been addressed. The German researchers said abuse occurred throughout the period they examined, from 1946 until 2014.

“We are experiencing a very dark hour in our church’s history, which will hopefully result in a cleansing and renewal,” Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck, from Essen, wrote in a letter to his diocese. “The dangers are far from being exorcised. We must fear that there is and could still be sexual abuse among us.”

Pope Francis acknowledged Tuesday that sex abuse scandals are driving people away from the church. Speaking in Estonia at the end of a tour of Baltic states, he told a gathering of young people, “We have to realize that in order to stand by your side, we need to change many situations that, in the end, put you off,” the Associated Press reported.

An advance copy of the 356-page report was shared with The Washington Post by Die Zeit, a German weekly. The report does not detail the experience of individual victims, nor does it provide the names of alleged abusers or those who helped protect them.

Critics say the study lacks the rigor of state-backed reports, such as the one released last month by Pennsylvania’s attorney general. The German researchers did not have direct access to church files and instead depended on questionnaires and other correspondence with dioceses, as well as interviews, criminal records and an anonymous online survey of victims willing to participate.

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SOUTH BEND (IN)
South Bend Tribune

September 25, 2018

By Caleb Bauer

When Bishop Kevin Rhoades decided to release the names of 18 clergy members accused of sexual abuse, he said he had come to understand “that victims deserve to see the names of their abusers made public for all to see.”

“It is my hope that by releasing these names, the innocent victims of these horrific and heartbreaking crimes can finally begin the process of healing,” Rhoades, bishop of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Catholic Diocese, said when he first announced his plans.

For Diane Bottorff King, the release of the names last week has brought her some semblance of justice, and a measure of the healing that Rhoades mentioned. She said having her abuser — the Rev. Elden Miller — publicly revealed has left her feeling “better than I have in years.”

Still, she thinks the release came at a time when the diocese had no other choice.

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TALLINN (ESTONIA)
CRUX

September 25, 2018

By Claire Giangravè

As the Catholic Church prepares for a summit of bishops in October focusing on youth and vocations within the wider context of clerical sex abuse scandals around the world, Pope Francis called for the Church to be converted and to answer young people’s call for change.

“When we adults refuse to acknowledge some evident reality, you tell us frankly: ‘Can’t you see this?’ Some of you who are a bit more forthright might even say to us: ‘Don’t you see that nobody is listening to you any more, or believes what you have to say?’” the pope acknowledged during an ecumenical meeting with youth in Tallin, Estonia.

“We ourselves need to be converted,” Francis added, “we have to realize that in order to stand by your side we need to change many situations that, in the end, put you off.”

Pope Francis is currently on the last stop of is four-day pastoral visit to the Baltic States, Sep. 22-25. Until now, the pope’s speeches had focused on calling the local faithful to openness and mercy, but on Tuesday he mentioned the sex abuse crisis for the first time on the trip.

Young people “are upset by sexual and economic scandals that do not meet with clear condemnation, by our unpreparedness to really appreciate the lives and sensibilities of the young, and simply by the passive role we assign them. These are just a few of your complaints,” the pope said.

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PORTLAND (ME)
Portland Press Herald

September 25, 2018

By Megan Doyle

The 30-year-old man who was abused decades ago by James Talbot faced the former priest in court and recalled the ‘pure terror’ of going to church.

James Talbot, a former Roman Catholic priest and longtime teacher at Cheverus High School in Portland, pleaded guilty Monday to charges that he sexually assaulted a boy in Freeport in the 1990s.

Talbot, 80, was ordered to serve three years in prison. The full sentence on a charge of gross sexual assault was for 10 years, with all but three years suspended. He also received a concurrent sentence of three years for unlawful sexual contact.

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UNITED STATES
Newsday

September 25, 2018

By Roy Bourgeois

Scandal rocks the church, and wrongly it still opposes ordaining women as priests.

As a Catholic priest, I did the unspeakable. I called for the ordination of women. The Vatican’s response was swift. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith informed me that I was “causing grave scandal” in the church, and that I had 30 days to recant my support for the ordination of women or be expelled from the priesthood.

I told the Vatican that was not possible. Believing that women and men are created of equal worth and dignity, and that both are called by an all-loving God to serve as priests, my conscience would not allow me to recant. In my response, I also made clear that when Catholics hear the word “scandal,” many think about the thousands of children who have been raped and abused by Catholic priests — not about the ordination of women.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
CNHI News Service

September 25, 2018

By John Finnerty

The state House voted 171-23 in favor of a proposal that would change the state’s statute of limitations law to open a two-year window to allow victims of old child sex crimes to sue in civil court.

The House is scheduled to hold a final vote on the amended bill today.

The Senate is likely to take the matter up next week.

Statute of limitation reform has emerged as the most prominent controversy of the fall legislative session, which began Monday.

Opening a window for lawsuits was one of the recommendations made by a statewide investigative grand jury that found that more than 300 predator priests had sexually abused at least 1,000 child victims in six dioceses over seven decades. Almost all of the cases cited by the grand jury took place too long ago for victims to now sue for damages.

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
The Associated Press

September 25, 2018

By Russell Contreras

A former New Mexico priest, who fled the U.S. decades ago amid allegations of child sex abuse and once blamed his behavior on a cancer diagnosis which prosecutors say he didn’t have, is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

Arthur Perrault is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque for a detention hearing as prosecutors seek to hold the 80-year-old priest until his trial for aggravated sexual abuse.

Court documents filed in federal court said victims described Perrault showering them with gifts and meals before abusing them. Victims also collaboratively described Perrault as someone who smoked pipes and wore silk underwear.

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IRONDALE (AL)
National Catholic Register

September 23, 2018

The Editors

EDITORIAL: ‘We want a Church that proclaims truth profoundly. We want a Church that proclaims the teachings of our Church honestly.’

Since the news of sex-abuse allegations against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and accusations of cover-up broke early this summer, laity across the United States — victims, angry parishioners who felt they were kept in the dark about predators in their midst, and parents worried for their children — have spoken out loudly. They have begged the bishops for action, for transparency and for clarity.

The most concrete and official response demonstrating that the bishops have heard the pleas of the laity came Sept. 19, when the administrative committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement outlining a plan of action that included four key points: a third-party reporting system for complaints of sexual abuse by bishops; policies for restricting bishops who were removed or resigned because of allegations; a “Code of Conduct” for bishops regarding sexual abuse; and support for a full investigation into disgraced Archbishop McCarrick.

Pope Francis, who met with U.S. Church leaders in Rome a week before their statement, has stressed his desire for the Church to engage in deeper listening. On Sept. 12, he announced that he has convened a meeting at the Vatican for all the presidents of the Catholic bishops’ conferences worldwide to discuss the issue of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults. Days later, he issued a new apostolic constitution on the Synod of Bishops, Episcopalis Communio (Episcopal Communion), dated Sept. 15, revising the way synods function.

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IRONDALE (AL)
National Catholic Register

September 19, 2018

By E. Christian Brugger

DIFFICULT MORAL QUESTIONS: In Catholic theology, scandal is leading another to do evil by word or example.

Q. I’ve heard the term scandal used frequently during the present crisis: e.g., Archbishop Theodore McCarrick’s actions are “scandalous;” people are “scandalized” by the bishops’ inaction. But the term’s meaning is not always obvious to me. Could you please clarify the Catholic Church’s teaching on the sin of scandal?

A. In popular parlance, scandal often is used to refer to moral outrage. For example, a good priest might say, “The Catholic faithful are being scandalized by the conduct of their leaders.” Here, he is referring to the shock, anger and feelings of betrayal suffered by those who are surprised and disgusted to learn of their leaders’ complicity in wrongdoing.

But Catholic theology uses the term more precisely. Scandal is leading another to do evil by word or example.

Scandal is the great sin of churchmen in all ages, but especially in our day. So it is worth some concentrated attention.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Atlantic

September 25, 2018

By Sigal Samuel

The Church is offering to pay people who can credibly say they were abused as children, but who can no longer file a lawsuit because the statute of limitations has passed.

The Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal has reached such a fever pitch that its top officials are now compelled to act. Last week, Pope Francis expelled a priest and accepted the resignation of two bishops, all of whom were accused of abuse in Chile. U.S. bishops promised to set up a hotline to field complaints about abusive religious leaders. In Pennsylvania, where a grand-jury report recently alleged 1,000 children were abused by clergy over a 70-year period, bishops announced they would support a fund to compensate victims.

This last move—variously referred to as reparation, compensation, or retribution—may seem like a refreshingly concrete bit of help for the victims. The Church is offering to pay people who can credibly say they were abused as youth but who can no longer file a lawsuit because the statute of limitations has passed. (The statute varies by state; in Pennsylvania, for example, a victim has until age 30 to file a civil suit pertaining to abuse he or she experienced as a minor.) The Pennsylvania bishops are offering to pay victims directly, through a simple arbitration process that they say will go more quickly than a court trial might. “We recognize our responsibility to provide an opportunity for sexual abuse survivors whose cases are time-barred from pursuing civil claims to share their experiences, identify their abusers, and receive compensation to assist their healing and recovery,” the bishops said in a statement.

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TUCSON (AZ)
Arizona Daily Star.

September 24, 2018

By Vickie Jahaske

How dare Bishop Weisenburger leverage the safety and security of children in his church to forestall decreased contributions. How disgusting to literally threaten those who withhold money of crippling a Safe Environment program. What nerve, after no longer being able to deny the magnitude of abuse, to shirk that responsibility off himself!

The Roman Catholic Church was forced to make safety a priority by legal and insurance issues from without, not goodness from within. The Star could be part of healing for victims of the church by giving the victims’ stories as much ink and priority as given to the bishop’s verbose statement. Part of healing is being given a voice. A safe place to share can be found at the next support meeting of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 3 at Nanini Library, 7300 N. Shannon Rd.

Vickie Jahaske

Catalina

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[Archbishop of Puerto Montt accused of having hidden abuses of ex-priest Víctor Guerrero]

CHILE
Soy Chile

September 24, 2018

El relato de una mujer que sufrió los vejámenes cuando tenía 16 años, en 2002, y que denunció a la Iglesia junto a sus padres en 2004, aparece publicado este domingo en diario El Llanquihue.

Cuando tenía 16 años, “Magdalena” sufrió los abusos sexuales y violaciones del ex sacerdote Víctor Guerrero, muy cercano a su familia, el cual si bien tiempo después reconoció tales delitos, fue encubierto por el Arzobispado de Puerto Montt.
Es lo que denuncia esta mujer de actuales 33 años, hechos ocurridos en 2002, en un reportaje publicado hoy en diario El Llanquihue. “Abusaba de mí en la parroquia y en nuestra casa. Como mis papás trabajaban en Calbuco, él tenía claridad de cuáles eran nuestros horarios, sabía cuándo estábamos solas con mis hermanas (…) fueron abusos físicos –tocaciones y violaciones-, y psicológicos. Una vez tuve la valentía de amenazarlo y preguntarle qué pasaría si contaba las cosas, y él siempre me decía ‘nadie te va a creer’. Manipulaba mucho, me hacía ver que estaba en una situación de poder, que era jefe de mis papás…”.

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[Vicaría de la Solidaridad Foundation director on Precht: “The Gospel did not hide Judas”]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 24, 2018

By Héctor Basoalto

Un emblema de los DD.HH. y ahora en el ojo del huracán por denuncias de supuestos abusos. En la Vicaría descartaron que su imagen y recuerdo sea “removido” de la emblemática institución. “Las cosas históricas hay que mantenerlas en la historia”, se dice. Aunque, de todos modos, el tema parece complicar.

“Si en el Evangelio no se oculta a Judas, que entregó a Jesús, en la historia tampoco tenemos que esconder a los personajes que han cometido cosas graves”. Con esa comparación, el sacerdote Francisco Javier Manterola, uno de los directores de la Fundación Vicaría de la Solidaridad, se refiere a uno de los mayores emblemas de esa entidad que defendió los DD.HH.: el sacerdote Cristián Precht.

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[The thread of the Precht case: Uncomfortable questions about how much Cardinal Silva Henríquez knew]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 24, 2018

By Ivonne Toro

“¿Cómo es posible que el círculo más íntimo del cardenal aparezca transversalmente vinculados a casos de abuso sexual? ¿Hubo encubrimiento o se le negó la información? ¿O aún sabiendo, no le importó por criterios de la época? ¿Supo y le dio lo mismo?”, se pregunta el sacerdote jesuita Pedro Labrín al poner el foco en el fallecido cardenal Raúl Silva Henríquez.

Fue a través de Facebook que el sacerdote jesuita Pedro Labrín hizo pública la inquietud respecto del nivel de conocimiento que pudo tener el cardenal Raúl Silva Henríquez -arzobispo de Santiago entre 1961 y 1983 y rostro de la Iglesia que se la jugó por la defensa de los derechos humanos durante la dictadura de Pinochet- respecto de los abusos sexuales por los que fue expulsado Cristian Precht, exvicario de la Solidaridad y uno de los religiosos más cercanos a Silva Henríquez, fallecido en 1999. No sólo eso: la situación de Precht puso en relieve que el círculo de discípulos del Cardenal está vinculado a indagatorias de este tipo. Se trata de figuras como el exvicario de la Juventud, Miguel Ortega, quien también aparece mencionado como victimario y Alfredo Soiza Piñeyro, quien dejó de ejercer el oficio sacerdotal tras ser también acusado de vulneraciones de índole sexual.

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[Piñera prepares to visit Europe, including the Vatican, in the midst of Catholic Church crisis]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 24, 2018

By Felipe Díaz

En medio de la crisis que atraviesa la Iglesia Católica chilena por los escándalos de abuso sexual, en La Moneda preparan una gira del Presidente por Europa que incluiría una visita de Estado a la Santa Sede. Con el turbulento escenario que vive la iglesia, una visita de Estado de Sebastián Piñera al Vaticano toma mayor relevancia, especialmente luego de que en las últimas semanas se hayan conocido las diligencias que se están realizando en el marco de las investigaciones de delitos sexuales contra menores de edad.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
FOX43

September 24, 2018

By Bryanna Gallagher

Sexual abuse survivors, advocates, and a handful of state leaders will join forces Monday night at the capitol in Harrisburg, for a survivor rally.

The sexual abuse survivor rally will begin at 5:45 p.m., at the main capitol steps. Speakers will be sharing their stories of sexual abuse while officials call on the Pennsylvania Legislature to act in defense of the survivors of child sex abuse.

Highlighting two women who will be speaking at the rally– Rachael Denhollander and Jamie Dantzscher.

Denhollander, an attorney, was the first woman who came forward to expose ex USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor, Larry Nassar. Dantzscher, a 2000 Olympic Bronze medalist, and the first of over 350 women who filed a suit against Nassar for sexual abuse.

Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, Governor, Tom Wolf, First Lady Frances Wolf, State senators, and clergy abuse survivors, and CHILD USA founder, Marci Hamilton will also be at the rally Monday night.

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NEW ZEALAND
Radio New Zealand

September 24, 2018

By Phil Pennington

The Marist Fathers has admitted a priest who led one of its top secondary schools sexually abused children.

But decades on they will not release the file on Francis Durning, rector of St Patrick’s College in Silverstream, Upper Hutt, in the 1950s.

He was publicly remembered in Catholic obituaries as a man of “profound integrity” but a victim said other clergy nicknamed him “Fred the Fiddler” for his habit of abusing boys.

The victim, who RNZ will not name, is now in his 70s. He was a 13-year-old boy when the head of the school asked him into his office.

“He grabbed me and proceeded to hug me against his body,” the man told RNZ.

“I tried to push him off with my elbows and arms, and he persisted, saying into my ear ‘I don’t know what to make of you, I don’t know what to make of you’. Eventually he stopped and said, ‘Whip it [your penis] out and let me have a look at it’.”

He fled. The retaliation later from the rector and other staff, who knew abuse was going on, ruined his schooling, the man said.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

September 24, 2018

By Michael Sean Winters

Are the U.S. bishops up to the task of restoring trust? Early indications are mixed.

The Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement last week pledging to use “every bit of the strength God provides us” to protect the church — from themselves. As is not infrequent in such cases of self-management, and if the steps they announced are any indication, the bishops have a long way to go before they can rest easy that their efforts to heal the church will not, in fact, make an already terrible situation even more dreadful.

No one can object to the first item on the bishops’ to-do list: They are establishing “a third-party reporting system that will receive confidentially, by phone and online, complaints of sexual abuse of minors by a bishop and sexual harassment of or sexual misconduct with adults by a bishop and will direct those complaints to the appropriate ecclesiastical authority and, as required by applicable law, to civil authorities.” I am not sure why they did not explain what the “appropriate ecclesiastical authority” is. Apparently, alerting a nuncio is not enough. The need for a Vatican dicastery to deal with all aspects of the clergy sex abuse mess remains obvious and urgent.

Similarly, the Administrative Committee announced it had “Instructed the USCCB Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance to develop proposals for policies addressing restrictions on bishops who were removed or resigned because of allegations of sexual abuse of minors or sexual harassment of or misconduct with adults, including seminarians and priests.” Well, no one has told the rest of us which bishops resigned for what reason, so it will be interesting to know how this will play out. I do not detect much in the way of transparency here, although I will bet Archbishop John Nienstedt’s gig as the personal chaplain at the Napa Institute is now a thing of the past.

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ST. JOHN’S (NEWFOUNDLAND)
The Canadian Press /CTV News

September 23, 2018

By Holly McKenzie-Sutter,

The prominent founder of a Newfoundland organization for clergy abuse survivors has written a letter to Pope Francis, saying the Vatican “owes God an apology” for mismanagement of abuse allegations.

“I realize you inherited this problem, but the way the Vatican mismanaged this crisis is disgraceful,” wrote Gemma Hickey, founder of Pathways Foundation in St. John’s.

Newfoundland and Labrador was the site of two highly publicized abuse scandals in the late 1980s, when allegations of widespread abuse at Mount Cashel and Belvedere Catholic orphanages met with public shock and outrage.

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UNITED STATES
Deadline

September 24, 2018

By Dominic Patten

Having filed motion after motion during the past three years to halt or stop the rape case against the now-convicted Bill Cosby, his lawyers today made a last-ditch sleight-of-hand that could knock the two-day sentencing hearing off the rails right after it started and keep him from potentially going behind bars this week.

Throwing another spanner into the multi-trial matter, the defense suddenly stated this morning that it wished to hear from the doctor who compiled the original report that Pennsylvania’s sex offender board relied on in part for its estimation that Cosby should be designated a sexually violent predator. That Dr. Timothy Foley apparently is unavailable until Tuesday morning at the earliest, which stalled a ruling by Judge Steven O’Neill on the SVP and, under Keystone State law, consequently hits the pause button on the actual sentencing.

Noting that this tactic was “clearly delaying this,” the somewhat-annoyed judge recommended that defense attorney Joseph Green see if there is “any chance” that they can get their witness in front of him ASAP. O’Neill said that while he can’t make a ruling on sentencing before the SVP determination — the acronym both sides employed Monday — testimony in sentencing and other arguments will take up the afternoon.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

September 21, 2018

By Robert Rhoden

Several New Orleans area district attorneys say they have received no new cases of clergy sex abuse in the weeks since a Pennsylvania report named more than 300 priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children, reigniting the Catholic Church’s crisis over clergy abuse.

But most district attorneys in the area did not respond to questions on whether they are considering launching a widespread probe of clergy abuse and possible cover up by church officials in their respective jurisdictions, like investigations started in other parts of the country.

The top prosecutors in Orleans, Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes said they’ve received no new complaints of abuse but would thoroughly investigate any allegations brought before their offices. The Plaquemines Parish DA’s Office said only that it has not received any allegations or complaints of clergy abuse in 2018.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Columbia Journalism Review

September 17, 2018

By Matthew Kassel

IN FEBRUARY, A RETIRED PRIEST confessed to Buffalo News reporter Jay Tokasz that he had sexually abused dozens of teenage boys decades ago. The admission shook Buffalo, a deeply Catholic city, and several victims have come forward with stories of abuse by priests in the local diocese. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood’s statewide clergy abuse probe will reportedly focus on Buffalo’s diocese.

Tokasz, 48, previously worked at the Ithaca Journal and then at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle*, where he covered an unraveling clergy abuse scandal in the local diocese. Since 2002, he’s held a number of reporting roles at The Buffalo News, where he recently joined the watchdog team covering the Catholic church.

Tokasz traced the path of his reporting from the surprise February admission to the ongoing statewide investigation. The interview is condensed and edited for clarity.

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UNITED STATES
NCR

September 21, 2018

Inspired by their Vatican II forebearers, many young Catholics are planning to stay in the church and fight for reform of the power structures that allowed clergy sexual abuse to happen and that protected church leaders who tried to cover it up.

On the show today:

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KANSAS CITY (KS)
The Kansas City Star

September 24, 2018

By Judy L. Thomas

A former priest in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas remains licensed to practice medicine in Kansas and Missouri despite being defrocked this year after church leaders determined that he abused three minors decades ago.

John H. Wisner, who had been a priest for more than 45 years, also is a psychiatrist who holds a medical license in both states.

The Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts, which oversees licensing of doctors in that state, is investigating the allegations against Wisner, The Star has learned. If the board determines that he has violated the rules of professional conduct, Wisner could lose his license.

The Kansas Board of Healing Arts would not say whether it also was looking into Wisner’s case. In an email, executive director Kathleen Selzler Lippert said that “evidence of sexual abuse is one type of conduct that has been grounds for Board action.”

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PORTLAND (ME)
The Associated Press

September 24, 2018

A former Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused a 9-year-old boy at a Maine church in the 1990s is going back to prison.

A former Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused a 9-year-old boy at a Maine church in the 1990s is going back to prison after pleading guilty on Monday.

James Talbot, 80, pleaded guilty to gross sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact under a plea agreement. He will serve three years in prison.

The charges involve a victim whose family were parishioners at St. Jude Church when Talbot was a substitute priest. The victim said in an affidavit in a civil case that Talbot befriended his family and offered religious instruction to him.

Another of Talbot’s accusers, Michael Doherty, of St. Petersburg, Florida, attended Monday’s court appearance to show solidarity with the victim. Doherty settled a lawsuit against Talbot years ago. The Associated Press typically doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Doherty has done.

“A civil suit doesn’t give you that moment where they take him away in handcuffs,” Doherty said.

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DULUTH (MN)
Minnesota Lawyer

September 24, 2018

By Mike Mosedale

In a man-bites-dog case with few if any precise corollaries, a Roman Catholic priest designated as “credibly accused” of sexual misconduct by the Diocese of Duluth just last April has successfully sued the man who made the allegations against him.

After a three-day trial before 6th Judicial District Court Judge Theresa Neo, an eight-member jury awarded the Rev. William Graham $13,500 to compensate him for the $500 monthly stipend he did not receive during the period from May 2016, when he was placed on administrative leave from his job as parish priest at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Duluth, to August 2018, when the trial was held.

In answers to questions listed on a special verdict form, the jury said that Graham’s accuser, former Duluth police officer T. J. Davis, Jr., “intentionally interfered” with Graham’s employment and, further, that his actions were not justified.

But the jury also found that Davis’ conduct was not “so extreme and outrageous that it passed the boundaries of decency and was utterly intolerable to a civilized community” and it expressly declined to award additional damages that would “fairly compensate” Graham.

What is one to make of such an odd, seemingly contradictory verdict?

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Hoya

September 23, 2018

By Maddy Forbess and Meghan DeCourcey

“Faith and Justice” hangs from the banners of Healy Hall, urging students and faculty on to serve their community while staying true to their religious convictions.

Although Jesuits hold the two values as complementary, recent Georgetown presidents Timothy Healy and Leo O’Donovan have confronted several instances where the Catholic Church and progressive segments of the student body have pulled the University in competing directions.

The responses of Healy and O’Donovan to these contentious situations reflect distinct leadership styles that continue to define Georgetown today.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

September 23, 2018

By Angela Couloumbis

On Wednesday, the top Republican in the state Senate and a rank-and-file House member spoke for the first time, face-to-face, behind closed doors in the state Capitol.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson) and Rep. Mark Rozzi (D., Berks) are the faces of opposing sides in the emotional debate over taking a dramatic step on behalf of sexual-assault victims — temporarily setting aside the state’s civil statute of limitations that bars accusers older than 30 from suing over abuse that occurred when they were children.

The meeting, called by Scarnati, appeared to be an attempt to temper a nasty public fight on the issue, one that once led Rozzi, who was abused by a Catholic priest as a teen, to call Scarnati a “hit man” for the church.

The two parted on good terms, but without any agreement, Rozzi said.

Their meeting foreshadows a showdown when legislators return to the Capitol on Monday for a truncated voting session. It also raises the question of whether Scarnati, who has successfully led past efforts to block opening the so-called legal window on the statute of limitations, can hold together what was once an ironclad coalition of like-minded senators.

The pressure of a key election looming in November, combined with relentless headlines surrounding the damning grand jury report on Catholic clergy abuse and its systemic cover-up in Pennsylvania, has magnified the already high stakes.

What appears certain is that the House will pass a bill that will be amended to create a two-year window allowing for the filing of civil suits outside the statute of limitations on child sex abuse. It has deep support among both majority Republicans and Democrats in that chamber, which passed a more expansive measure in 2016. All eyes will then be on Scarnati and his GOP-controlled Senate.

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CHICAGO (IL)
ChurchMilitant

September 21, 2018

By David Nussman

Fr. Richard McGrath is under investigation for sex abuse

The archdiocese of Chicago failed to inform a preschool and a grade school that a priest accused of child porn and child sex abuse was living nearby.

In 2017, Fr. Richard McGrath was accused of viewing child porn on his cell phone during an event at Providence Catholic High School in the diocese of Joliet outside Chicago. Father McGrath did not cooperate with police, so the investigation made little progress. But a separate allegation surfaced accusing Fr. McGrath of sexually abusing a male student in the 1990s, leading to a lawsuit and an investigation.

Father McGrath was removed from Providence. He then went to live at St. John Stone Friary on Chicago’s South Side, a four-story building run by the Augustinian Order. McGrath is himself an Augustinian priest.

Neither the archdiocese nor the Augustinians informed the Chicago Child Care Society’s preschool next door or St. Thomas the Apostle Grade School around the corner that there was an accused predator in the neighborhood.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

September 22, 2018

By Judy Roberts

Support is vital to recovery.

Two experiences of sexual abuse, one by a priest, left Marty Meyer like many victims of trauma: outwardly normal, but inwardly distant from people, especially men.

After trying therapy and prayer for inner healing, he finally found help through “Grief to Grace: Healing the Wounds of Abuse,” a retreat program started in 2005 by Theresa Burke, a psychotherapist who created Rachel’s Vineyard retreats for those suffering from post-abortion trauma. It was Burke’s discovery that many post-abortive women had also experienced sexual abuse that led her to develop the second program.

Meyer said Grief to Grace, which takes place over five to seven days, can succeed where therapy alone does not because, in conventional therapy, about the time the client is ready to open up, the session is ending. “You never really have a chance to unpack this significant event of your life,” he said.

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
The Associated Press

September 22, 2018

By Mary Hudetz and Russell Contreras

A fugitive priest who fled the U.S. decades ago amid allegations of child sex abuse has been returned to New Mexico to face charges after being arrested in Morocco last year, federal officials said Friday.

Arthur J. Perrault, 80, a former Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and a former Air Force chaplain, has been charged in a federal indictment with seven counts of aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact between 1991 and 1992 at Kirtland Air Force Base and Santa Fe National Cemetery.

Perrault, a one-time pastor at St. Bernadette parish in Albuquerque, is one of many priests who were sent to New Mexico in the 1960s from around the country for treatment involving pedophilia.

Victims, lawyers and church documents show the priests were later assigned to parishes and schools across New Mexico — especially in small Native American and Hispanic communities.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun Times

September 21, 2018

By Robert Herguth

When a student reported last year that she had seen an image of a naked boy on the Rev. Richard McGrath’s cellphone, the priest, who was president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, was asked by the school and the police to hand over the phone.

McGrath refused, which officials say effectively killed an investigation by the police. Their focus later turned to accusations that the priest sexually abused another student at the far southwest suburban school in the 1990s — allegations that Will County prosecutors are reviewing and which also are the subject of a lawsuit by that former student.

McGrath, 71, was removed from Providence after the initial allegations surfaced in December. Since then, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned, he moved to the St. John Stone Friary, a four-story monastery in Hyde Park run by the Augustinian order of priests that’s across an alley from a preschool and around the corner from a Catholic grade school.

The Archdiocese of Chicago, the Catholic church’s arm in Cook and Lake counties, says it was informed McGrath had moved to the South Side building. But it didn’t notify the preschool operator or its own St. Thomas the Apostle grade school.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Catholic News Service

September 20, 2018

A class-action lawsuit was filed Sept. 17 against eight Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania demanding the dioceses provide proof that they submitted the names of all suspected predators.

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The lawsuit was filed in the Court of Common Pleas for Allegheny County by two people representing two classes of plaintiffs: survivors of clergy sexual abuse and children currently enrolled in Catholic schools who could be at risk of abuse, according to the lawsuit.

A Pennsylvania man and a Catholic school kindergartner are the representative plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Ryan O’Connor, the adult plaintiff, represents those who were abused. O’Connor, who is Catholic and has children at Catholic school, said he was abused by a priest when he was young.

The child plaintiff, representing Catholic school students, is represented by his mother, Kristen Hancock, a volunteer at her son’s Catholic school.

The defendants include the six dioceses at the center of the grand jury report issued in August: Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Scranton.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

September 24, 2018

TP O’Mahony warns that a papacy that promised Church reform will remain mired in controversy unless Francis ensures accountability for the mishandling of abuse cases.

THE crisis over clerical sex abuse now engulfing the Catholic Church reaches all the way to the threshold of Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where Pope Francis has taken up residence.

His own credibility is now very much on the line, and threatens his legacy as a reforming Pope.

His inaction has caught up with him, and constantly preaching about “zero tolerance” while failing to put effective structures in place for dealing with bishops and cardinals who have covered up abuse no longer impresses, as he found out in a particularly painful way during his recent Irish visit.

During his two days here — a trip described by one Vatican correspondent as the “toughest and most difficult of his pontificate” — he was left in no doubt about the extent of the alienation and feelings of betrayal experienced by many in the Irish Church.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
Crux

September 24, 2018

By Inés San Martín

When it comes to addressing the abuse crisis currently engulfing the Church in various parts of the world, no prelate knows Pope Francis as well as Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston.

This summer has been especially difficult in the United States, with the revelations of abuse committed by ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington, and a Pennsylvania Grand Jury report detailing the alleged abuse of over 1,000 minors by over 300 clergymen of the past 75 years.

“I think the Holy Father is anxious to help the Church in the United States,” O’Malley told Crux on Saturday afternoon. “Right now, the Holy See has to respond to the questions about McCarrick’s advancement, and that will help the United States, and I think the Holy Father wants that to happen.”

The prelate, who heads the Vatican’s Commission for the Protection of Minors, spoke to Crux as the V Encuentro, a gathering of some 3,500 Hispanic Catholics attended by some 120 American bishops, was coming to an end in Fort Worth, Texas.

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ALLEGHENY (PA)
Trib Live

September 23, 2018

By Natasha Lindstrom

Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik told those gathered Sunday at a prayer service for children who were sexually abused by priests that he’s sorry for “the times that I could’ve done more, for the times that I could’ve said more.”

“I only wish that hindsight had caught up with me sooner than it did,” Zubik said during the homily portion of the special service at St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. “All of us are called to join in this time of repentance as we feel each other’s pain deeply, within and outside the church.”

Roughly 100 people gathered for the special “Holy Hour for Repentance” service, including a few dozen parishioners, a group of about 20 seminarians — or priests-in-training — and clergy and lay leaders from across the diocese’s six-county region.

Zubik called for the service to “express sorrow” for child sexual abuse victims as Pittsburgh and five other Pennsylvania dioceses respond to a scathing grand jury report alleging that more than 300 priests sexually abused at least 1,000 children over the past 70 years.

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LONDON (CANADA)
The London Free Press

September 24, 2018

By Jane Sims

Irene Deschenes watched her former parish priest, her abuser, be led from the Chatham courtroom in disgrace for decades of sexually abusing girls.

With her was a room full of other survivors of Charles Sylvestre’s depravity, brought together largely because of Deschene’s persistence and determination to bring him to justice.

That might have been the end, the final moment for her in the summer of 2006.

It was a startling discovery two months later of long-lost 1962 Sarnia police reports investigating Sylvestre’s abuse of girls, that meant the long and painful journey wasn’t over.

“That’s when the light bulb went on,” she said. “That’s the evidence. That’s the proof they knew.”

Twelve years later, the 57-year-old survivor of sexual abuse will be back in a London courtroom on Friday for what could be a ground-breaking and historic move to bring the Roman Catholic Diocese of London to account for keeping Sylvestre working as a priest while knowing he was molesting girls.

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COLUMBIA (MO)
KOMU 8

September 22, 2018

By Olivia Gerling

About one in 10 children are subject to sexual abuse, according to a local expert on the subject.

The Compass Evangelical Free Church will host a Stewards of Children Sexual Abuse Prevention training from 5:30 to 8:30 Sunday night. The event is free to the public.

“Things I find parents enjoy most about this training is I start from pre-school all the way forward on how to have conversations with their children,” said Kelly Schultz, a Child Advocate for the state of Missouri.

Schultz is also certified in the Stewards of Children program, which is a chapter of the Darkness to Light organization. The organization is a non-profit with the goal to prevent chid sexual abuse.

According to Schultz, the training is important.

“Parents that are my age probably learned not to talk to strangers, not to take candy from a stranger or pet a puppy at a park, and so we used to train children to be responsible for their safety,” she said. “We’ve really shifted our approach and we’re educating adults that they are the ones that are responsible for children.”

Schultz said a few members of the Compass church attended one of her other trainings. That’s what led them to bringing the Stewards of Children training to their church.

Pastor Mark Anderson was one of those members. In an email to KOMU 8 News, he said he attended the training and wanted other members of the church to have the same opportunity as he did.

He was the one to set up the training.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Advocate

September 20, 2018

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

Ricky Windmann wasn’t nervous when he accompanied janitor Peter Modica to his ground-floor maintenance office at Jesuit High School on an otherwise unremarkable day in the late 1970s.

After all, Modica – a former semipro baseball player – had let the skinny, light-haired boy play basketball on the school’s grounds several times, even though he wasn’t a student. He also bought Windmann a bike and stopped by the boy’s house, which was a couple blocks from the school’s Mid-City campus, to meet Windmann’s mother.

But any feeling of safety was replaced by paralyzing fear when Modica suddenly pulled Windmann’s pants down and forcibly performed oral sex on him. Windmann doesn’t recall his exact age at the time, but he said he believes he was in his early teens.

The janitor would go on to sexually abuse the adolescent several more times in the ensuing years – once in concert with a Jesuit priest and teacher, Neil Carr – only stopping when Windmann grew big enough to protect himself.

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PORTLAND (ME)
Bangor Daily News

September 24, 2018

By Jake Bleiberg

A former Catholic priest, who already served prison time for molesting boys in Massachusetts, pleaded guilty Monday to sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy in Freeport in the late 1990s.

A judge sentenced James F. Talbot, 80, to 10 years in prison with all but three of those suspended for sexually assaulting a minor under the age of 14, and three years, to be served at the same time, for unlawful sexual contact with a minor under the age of 14.

The boy Talbot molested, now a 30-year-old man, told a Portland court that the former priest stole his childhood and his faith. “What was supposed to be a man from God … turned out to be a disgusting animal,” he said.

The boy’s parents, who said they were married by Talbot, also spoke before his sentencing, with his mother calling him “the definition of evil.”

“I hope you rot in hell and I hope you die in jail,” the boy’s father said, turning to the former priest. “How can the Catholic Church allow this stuff to go on?”

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LAFAYETTE (LA)
The Acadiana Advocate

September 20, 2018

By Ben Myers

Eleven men are pursuing sex abuse allegations in state court against a late St. Martin Parish priest, saying he used “alcohol and the power of God” to prey on them.

The plaintiffs initially filed their lawsuit last year in a Washington, D.C. district court, but the case was dismissed for lack of proper jurisdiction.

The claims against Kenneth Morvant span eight years, beginning in 1971. Plaintiffs claim Morvant preyed on them methodically, traumatizing them to the point they developed dissociative amnesia. They said they filed their initial lawsuit once they recovered their memories. They refiled it last week in the 16th Judicial District Court.

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ACADIANA (LA)
KLFY

September 19, 2018

By Lester Duhé

An alleged sexual abuse victim and 10 others have filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Lafayette and Saint Martin de Tours Catholic Church.

The Petition of Damages states that more than 40 years ago, the late Father Kenneth Morvant abused Doug Bienvenu and other altar boys, by allegedly giving them alcohol and using the ‘Power of God’ to prey upon them.

This new lawsuit was just filed last Friday.

Bienvenu tells News 10 that 2 years ago he already filed 3 motions in Washington D.C., but 2 were thrown out because they said it was the wrong venue.

Now Bienvenu is hoping that the Diocese will release the list of names of other priests accused of sexual abuse in the Diocese, so what happened to him will never happen to anyone else.

“Every night he’d (Fr. Morvant) pick somebody different, but most nights it was my night. And he’d crawl in bed with us once we were sleeping when we were drunk, and he’d fondle us all night,” said Doug Bienvenu, an alleged victim.

He says that over 40 years ago beginning at the age of 8, he along with other altar boys were sexually abused by the late Father Kenneth Morvant of St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church, who’s grave is on holy grounds.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WBFO

September 19, 2018

By Nick Lippa

Every year many judges, attorneys and public officials gather for the Red Mass of the St. Thomas More Guild—a celebration to bless the legal community. This year was a little different. Protesters lined up outside of St. Joseph Cathedral late Tuesday morning asking those who entered to call for Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone’s resignation.
Ronald Cinelli is a Senior Attorney for the Children’s Legal Center in Buffalo. He said he is protesting the continuing cover-up of abuse.

“I think more lawyers should be out here protesting. I think by their presence in mass, they’re implicitly giving an ok to Bishop Malone’s handling of this scandal and that’s just wrong. He’s continuing to lie,” Cinelli said.

Malone and the Diocese of Buffalo were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed last month. The plaintiff alleges the bishop and diocese continue to withhold information on dozens of past child sexual abuse claims.

Cinelli and his wife have done more than just hold picket signs.

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NEW JERSEY
Politico

September 19, 2018

By Matt Friedman

Good Wednesday morning!

Gov. Phil Murphy is sticking by his administration’s hiring of Marcellus Jackson — who pleaded guilty to bribery — for a $70,000 special assistant position in the Department of Education.

“I hope we see a lot more of this, that somebody made a mistake, they admitted it, they repented it, they paid their price,” Murphy said at an unrelated press conference. “We have to get these folks back on their feet in society in this state. We have one of the harshest states in the nation in terms of allowing what I just said to happen. Marcellus has done all of the above, and I think we should all accept that that should be the new norm going forward.”

But as Sal Rizzo points out on Twitter, giving people second chances isn’t what’s controversial. It’s giving a person who violated the public trust a second chance working in the government that’s controversial.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New Yorker

September 23, 2018

By Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer

As Senate Republicans press for a swift vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Senate Democrats are investigating a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. The claim dates to the 1983-84 academic school year, when Kavanaugh was a freshman at Yale University. The offices of at least four Democratic senators have received information about the allegation, and at least two have begun investigating it. Senior Republican staffers also learned of the allegation last week and, in conversations with The New Yorker, expressed concern about its potential impact on Kavanaugh’s nomination. Soon after, Senate Republicans issued renewed calls to accelerate the timing of a committee vote. The Democratic Senate offices reviewing the allegations believe that they merit further investigation. “This is another serious, credible, and disturbing allegation against Brett Kavanaugh. It should be fully investigated,” Senator Mazie Hirono, of Hawaii, said. An aide in one of the other Senate offices added, “These allegations seem credible, and we’re taking them very seriously. If established, they’re clearly disqualifying.”

The woman at the center of the story, Deborah Ramirez, who is fifty-three, attended Yale with Kavanaugh, where she studied sociology and psychology. Later, she spent years working for an organization that supports victims of domestic violence. The New Yorker contacted Ramirez after learning of her possible involvement in an incident involving Kavanaugh. The allegation was conveyed to Democratic senators by a civil-rights lawyer. For Ramirez, the sudden attention has been unwelcome, and prompted difficult choices. She was at first hesitant to speak publicly, partly because her memories contained gaps because she had been drinking at the time of the alleged incident. In her initial conversations with The New Yorker, she was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty. After six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections to say that she remembers Kavanaugh had exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away. Ramirez is now calling for the F.B.I. to investigate Kavanaugh’s role in the incident. “I would think an F.B.I. investigation would be warranted,” she said.

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