ABUSE TRACKER

RANCAGUA (CHILE)
Publimetro.cl

July 24, 2018

[Regional Prosecutor of Rancagua quotes Cardinal Ezzati as “accused”: he will testify on August 21 in courts]

La presunta responsabilidad por el delito de encubrimiento estaría gravitando sobre el alto prelado de la iglesia católica

By Fernando Peñalver

El cardenal Ricardo Ezzati recibió este martes una citación por parte de la Fiscalía Regional de Rancagua, a fin de que declare en “calidad de imputado” el próximo 21 de agosto por el presunto delito de encubrimiento.

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.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Radio ADN 91.7

July 24, 2018

[Cardinal Ezzati is summoned by the prosecution to testify as an accused. The priest is accused of the crime of concealment.]

El sacerdote es acusado del delito de encubrimiento.

El Cardenal Ricardo Ezzati fue citado por la Fiscalía Regional de Rancagua para declarar en calidad de imputado el próximo 21 de agosto, por la eventual responsabilidad que podría caber en el delito de encubrimiento, informó el Arzobispado de Santiago mediante un comunicado.

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.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
La Tercera

July 24, 2018

[Prosecutor’s office to declare as imputed to Cardinal Ezzati for alleged cover-ups of abuses …
The Regional Prosecutor’s Office of Rancagua summoned Ricardo Ezzati to be charged with the alleged crime of covering up in cases of abuse.]

La Fiscalía Regional de Rancagua citó a declarar como imputado al cardenal Ricardo Ezzati por el presunto delito de encubrimiento en casos de abusos.

Según se informó en un comunicado alojado en la página de Arzobispado de Santiago, Ezzati fue citado a presentarse el 21 de agosto a las dependencias de la fiscalía.

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.

INDIA
IANS via The Quint

July 24, 2018

Former Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Tuesday wrote to state police chief loknath Behra demanding the arrest of Franco Mulakkal, the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar (Punjab), who is alleged to have sexually abused a nun.

In his statement issued to the media, Achuthanandan says that a detailed statement and supporting evidences from the father of a nun who has suffered at the hands of this bishop has been handed over to Behra.

“It’s most unfortunate that this nun continues to be under the bishop and is living in fear. Now that the allegations raised by the nun is true, the police should immediately arrest the bishop,” says Achuthanandan in his letter.

His statement comes two days after police have stepped up protection to the convent near Kottayam, which is home to the nun who had alleged that she was sexually abused by the Catholic bishop.

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.

COLUMBUS (OH)
Think Progress

July 23, 2018

By Lindsay Gibbs

This is not actually a story about partisan politics, or Jim Jordan.

It’s been 20 days since reports first surfaced about Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) ignoring allegations of sexual abuse when he was an assistant coach for the Ohio State wrestling team. Because of the trumped-up nature of these modern times, most reporters who are tied to the political news cycle have moved on, resigned to the fact that Jordan will remain in his prominent leadership position within the Republican Party.

With each new revelation about Dr. Richard Strauss’s decades of abuse during his time as a team doctor at Ohio State, the story is framed in one of two ways: Either as “bad news for Jordan,” by those inclined to believe survivors, or as the work of the “deep state” by those on the far right.

But this is not a story about politics. And it is absolutely not a story that should be viewed through the distortion of a partisan lens.

Yes, Jordan should be held accountable for any abuse his silence helped enable. But if we don’t look at this story systematically, we’re missing the entire point.

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.

EBENSBURG (PA)
WJACTV

July 20, 2018

By y Matthew Stevens

A Cambria County judge entered a ruling Friday that redacted briefs into child sex abuse allegations made against six state Catholic dioceses should be made public.

In his opinion, Judge Norman Krumenacker said, “The information in the report is no longer protected by grand jury secrecy as the Grand Jury intended it to be released to the public in an expeditious manner.”

The ruling comes after a July 6 state Supreme Court order asking attorneys on both sides to present their argument on their stance on the redacted briefs being made public. “Today, Judge Krumenacker ruled in favor of the Commonwealth and victims that our brief should be made public,” said PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

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.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

July 24, 2018

By Cindy Wooden

Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, head of the Vatican office for laity and family, said he was “shocked” when he heard allegations of years of sexual abuse and harassment by Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the man who ordained him a bishop and whom he served as an auxiliary bishop for six years.

“I was shocked, overwhelmed; I never heard any of this before in the six years I was there with him,” Cardinal Farrell told Catholic News Service July 24.

The Irish-born cardinal was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Washington in 1984, and shortly after Cardinal McCarrick was named archbishop of Washington in 2000, the future Cardinal Farrell was named his vicar general.

The Vatican official said he had never met Cardinal McCarrick until Cardinal McCarrick became archbishop of Washington.

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.

DEMING (NM)
Deming Headlight

July 20, 2018

Diocese not yet served as of late Wednesday

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces has responded to a civil lawsuit they are named in regarding a man who claims he was sexually abused as a child by Fr. Joseph Anderson and Fr. David Bentley of Holy Family Catholic Church in Deming, NM. The man, listed in his complaint as John Doe 85, served as an altar boy at Holy Family throughout his childhood, and alleges that he was sexually abused by the two priests on hundreds of occasions between 1994 and 2001.

The following is a statement received by the Deming Headlight on Wednesday, July 18, 2018:

“The Diocese of Las Cruces learned on Monday, July 16, 2018, that it has been listed as a defendant – along with Holy Family Parish, the Servants of the Paraclete, and the Benedictine Monks, Inc of Wisconsin – in a recently filed civil lawsuit that alleges sexual abuse of a minor from 1994 to 2001 by Father Joseph Anderson and Father David Bentley.

“Father Bentley departed the Diocese in April, 2002, and Father Anderson died in May, 2002.

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.

CHANDIGARH (INDIA)
NDTV

July 19, 2018

Zirakpur station house officer (SHO) Pawan Kumar said the priest, Bajinder Singh, was nabbed from the Delhi airport as he was about to board a flight for London

Punjab Police arrested a priest and self-styled healer from the Delhi international airport following a complaint from a woman in Zirakpur that he had raped her, said an official on Thursday.
Zirakpur station house officer (SHO) Pawan Kumar said the priest, Bajinder Singh, was arrested from the Delhi airport as he was about to board a flight for London where he was scheduled to attend a healing event on July 21.

Singh is the pastor of a church in Punjab’s Jalandhar district. He was reported to be popular among people as a healer.

The woman, a resident of Zirakpur town, adjoining Chandigarh, had complained to the police in May this year that Singh had sexually assaulted her and recorded a video of the assault.

She alleged the accused used to threaten her that he would post the video on social media if she complained against him or did not agree to his demands.

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.

INDIA
UCA News

July 24, 2018

By Saji Thomas

Lawyer’s move follows arrest of alleged mastermind behind abduction of five women from Jesuit-run school

A Catholic priest accused of abetting the gang rape of five women has applied for bail after police arrested a person thought to be the mastermind behind the crime in eastern India.
Police have arrested John Jonas Tudu and claimed to have cracked the June 19 case of five women abducted from a Jesuit-run school and raped in a forest in Jharkhand state.
The women were taken from Stockmann Memorial Middle School in remote Kochang village in Khunti Diocese. Two nuns who were with the women were spared.
Police arrested school principal Father Alphonse Aind on June 22 and charged him with conspiracy, abetting abduction, gang rape, preparing obscene material and causing hurt. He has been held in jail while police investigated the crime.
“It’s all false charges. The priest was nowhere at the crime scene of abduction or gang rape,” said Jesuit Father Peter Martin, a lawyer who moved a bail application on July 23 for the release of Father Aind.

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.

SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Daily Herald

July 18, 2018

By Genelle Pugmire

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints filed a motion for dismissal Wednesday in a sex abuse case of a woman who accused a former Provo Missionary Training Center president of sexually abusing her.

McKenna Denson alleges in her federal lawsuit against the church and the former president, Joseph L. Bishop, that he sexually abused and even raped her while she was at the MTC in 1984.

The church says all five causes of action, or accusations, in Denson’s case are subject to either a three-year or a four-year statute of limitations.

The five causes she is implicating the church in includes: sexual assault; negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, common law fraud, and fraudulent concealment.

“Ms. Denson’s first three causes of action are subject to Utah’s ‘catch all’ statute. Although a defense based on statutes of limitation is considered an affirmative defense, they may be asserted in a motion to dismiss under circumstances like the ones here,” church legal document says.

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.

ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call

July 21, 2018

By Tim Darragh

The judge overseeing the grand jury that investigated sex abuse in six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses ruled Friday that legal briefs containing “specific factual findings” of individuals named in an investigative report may be made public.

Lawyers representing unnamed priests and possibly other individuals named in the grand jury’s report, which is expected to catalog decades of sexual abuse of children by clergymen, sought to block release of a brief filed by Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office.

They argued the brief, even though redacted, violates grand jury secrecy and includes findings about the priests named in the report. The report remains sealed.

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.

INDIA
Crux

July 20, 2018

An audio recording of a conversation between a Catholic cardinal in India and a nun who has accused a bishop of rape seems to verify the cleric knew of the alleged sexual assault earlier than he later claimed to the authorities.

The 4-minute recording was broadcast by an Indian television station on Thursday, and in it Cardinal George Alencherry, the head of the eastern rite Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, can be heard conversing with the 43-year-old nun.

She has accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the Latin rite Diocese of Jalandhar of sexually assaulting her several times, which the bishop has vehemently denied.

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.

KERALA (INDIA)
AFP via Scroll.in

July 19, 2018

By Joseph D’Souza

We must worry less about our public image and more about getting justice to women who have been sexually exploited by church leaders in Kerala and elsewhere.

When the #MeToo movement first started gaining steam in the United States in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal last year, everybody was asking the same question: who would be next? It did not take long to get an answer.

American politicians, powerful media executives and famous news anchors came toppling down after brave women told their stories of abuse and, for once, people believed and heard them. Finally, the movement reached the church, and pastors, even seminary presidents, were held accountable, for their actions and for failing to protect those under their care.

India, now living its own #MeToo moment, is seeing a similar pattern unfold. The wave of reckoning that started with Bollywood’s notorious casting couch and swept over legislators has now reached the Indian church.

Authorities in Kerala are investigating three high-profile cases of sexual assault involving the clergy. In perhaps the most prominent of them, a woman has accused four priests of blackmailing her into sexual exploitation. The Kerala High Court has refused anticipatory bail to the accused; they could be arrested any day now.

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

AUSTRALIA
Crux

July 20, 2018

By Christopher White

NEW YORK – Australia’s National Council of Priests has endorsed appeals for Pope Francis to intervene in the case of embattled Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson following his refusal to resign after being convicted of failing to report crimes of sexual abuse.

“While the Archbishop is exercising his constitutional right to appeal his conviction, his tenure as Archbishop of Adelaide has been compromised,” read the statement from the Council.

“For the good of the Church in Australia and for the benefit of the People of God in the Archdiocese of Adelaide, the Executive of the NCP requests that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, removes Archbishop Philip Wilson from his See,” the statement continued.

The Council’s demand comes just days after the country’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on the pope to “sack” Wilson, who is the highest-ranking official in the Catholic Church ever to be convicted of sex abuse cover-up.

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

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The New Orleans Advocate

July 18, 2018

By James Gill

Pretty much the world’s first inkling that the Catholic hierarchy had been shielding pedophile priests came when Lafayette’s Gilbert Gauthe pleaded guilty in 1985.

New Orleans journalist Jason Berry was in the courtroom for the Gauthe hearing, and thus got to break the biggest, most sordid ecclesiastical story in many years. Now that NOPD is weighing charges against ex-deacon George Brignac, Berry notes how things have changed since the days when church policy was to say nothing and shunt the perverts of the priesthood off to prey on the children of a different parish.

Three years after Gauthe was sent to prison, New Orleans prosecutors dropped charges of child molestation against Brignac after the alleged victim refused to testify. But the evidence was evidently damning, for Brignac was promptly defrocked by then-Archbishop Philip Hannan.

So for sure, the church was now sworn to quit covering up for the sinners in its midst and to extend proper protection to the children in its care. This moral reawakening may have owed much to the revulsion that overcame the public when it became apparent that the church had harbored sexual predators time out of mind. The billions paid out to settle lawsuits have also no doubt encouraged the church to mend its ways.

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.

MUMBAI (INDIA)
The Indian Express

July 24, 2018

By Tabassum Barnagarwala

The 20-year-old student, currently undergoing a computer course in Mumbai, approached Ponda police with her father on Sunday. A case under Section 354, for outraging modesty of a woman, was registered by Ponda police.

A second FIR has been lodged, this time by a 20-year-old Mumbai resident, against priest Dhananjay Bhave of the Mangueshi Devasthan temple in Goa on Sunday evening, days after a 26-year-old medical student from the USA had lodged a similar complaint of molestation against him.

The 20-year-old student, currently undergoing a computer course in Mumbai, approached Ponda police with her father on Sunday. A case under Section 354, for outraging modesty of a woman, was registered by Ponda police. “She is very disturbed. For two-three days after the incident, her father said she was very upset and kept crying,” said the complainant’s Philadelphia-based aunt. From the USA, her aunt was the first to complain, through email, to the Mangueshi temple management committee to look into the matter.

The family claims the complaint was made in June, days after the incident on June 14 when accused Bhave allegedly pulled the student by her shoulder and hugged her while her father was performing pooja and mother was in another part of the temple.

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.

ERIE (PA)
The Bradford Era

July 20, 2018

A priest who had taught at Elk County Catholic High School was among the seven names released Wednesday by the Diocese of Erie as someone with accusations of sexual harassment against him.

Father William A. Rice, retired, now lives in Fryburg, Clarion County.

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 KINGDOM
SKY News

July 24, 2018

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is hearing from Lord Carey as it investigates abuse by former bishop Peter Ball.

Key points

– Ex-Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey giving evidence about former bishop Peter Ball
– Ball was sentenced for abusing young men in 2015
– Lord Carey has told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse he was shocked
– Says “I couldn’t believe that a bishop in the Church of God could do such evil things”

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.

POCATELLO (ID)
Idaho State Journal

July 19, 2018

By Nicole Foy and Kyle Pfannenstiel

A Caldwell mother arrested last week told deputies her religious beliefs prompted her to pray for her husband rather than tell police about his alleged sexual abuse of their daughters.

Sarah Kester and her husband, Lester Kester Jr., are affiliated with the Followers of Christ Church. The church, which has a prominent following in Canyon County and in Oregon, faces criticism for refusing medical care for children and adults in favor of faith healing.

After her July 11 arrest, Sarah Kester told deputies from the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office that she didn’t tell police about her husband’s alleged abuse because it was against her belief system to involve agencies such as law enforcement, child protection services, or counseling services into personal or family matters, according to a sheriff’s office press release.

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.

GUAM
Kuam News

July 24, 2018

By Krystal Paco

Bargain hunters, thrifters, and the plain out curious, you’re invited. The Archdiocese of Agana is prepping for a major sale this weekend. Though no one’s set to buy the Yona property just yet, the Church wants to go ahead and empty the former Redemptoris Mater Seminary, formerly Hotel Accion, of all its contents.

Everything AND the kitchen sink must go. “Anyone. Anyone who’s interested,” explained Tony Diaz. “Again, we stress it’s a cash and carry basis. That means we’re not using credit cards. If you have the cash and you will be responsible for actually carrying out the items if it’s a large item, especially.” Diaz, the Archdiocese of Agana’s Communications Director, is referring to this weekend’s cash and carry sale at the former Hotel Accion turned Redemptoris Mater Seminary.

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.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

July 24, 2018

By Bruce Vielmetti

A Milwaukee man who played a key role in exposing the child sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church has died.

Gary Smith had been suffering from cancer and died Monday evening at St. Francis Terrace at the age of 68, said Kathy Shallow, a close friend whose sister was Smith’s domestic partner.

As a child, Smith attended St. John’s Boarding School for the Deaf in St. Francis, where he and as many as 200 other hearing-impaired children were molested for years by the late Rev. Lawrence Murphy.

Murphy worked at St. John’s from 1950 to 1974. Bishops had known about the abuse for decades but did not move to defrock him until he was near death. He died in 1998.

His victims, including Smith, distributed fliers outside Milwaukee’s Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in 1974, protesting inaction by the church regarding Murphy.

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 KINGDOM
Independent

July 23, 2018

By Tom Embury-Dennis

Reverend Graham Sawyer says treatment he suffered at hands of Peter Ball paled in comparison to reaction from officials

A vicar who was sexually abused as a teenager by a disgraced bishop said he was met with “cruel and sadistic” treatment when he dared to speak out about his experience.

Reverend Graham Sawyer said the abuse he suffered at the hands of Peter Ball paled in comparison to the reaction from officials in the Church of England.

He told an inquiry that the church must stop its “ecclesiastical protection racket”, in which he said people rally round to protect the church’s reputation above the interests of the individual.

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 KINGDOM
SKY News

July 24, 2018

Lord Carey told the child sexual abuse inquiry he was “shocked” by the crimes committed by disgraced bishop Peter Ball.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has admitted he feels “deeply ashamed” that the Church of England failed to act on sexual abuse claims made against disgraced bishop Peter Ball.

Lord Carey told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse that he was “completely shocked” by the crimes committed by Ball, who was jailed in 2015 for sexually abusing 18 young men over a period of three decades.

The former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester – who was released in February last year – was said to have “systematically abused the trust of the victims”, many of whom who were aspiring priests.

Giving evidence at the long-running inquiry on Tuesday, Lord Carey – who oversaw the church at the time of Ball’s arrest in December 1992 – acknowledged that his victims had been failed “in a number of different ways”.

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

NEW ZEALAND
NZ Herald

July 25, 2018

By Mick Hall

A prominent Catholic priest and theologian has been exposed as a self-confessed paedophile, who was quietly placed on a sex offenders programme by the church and is suspected of having abused dozens of children for decades.

The Herald can reveal Father Michael Shirres, who had lectured in Māori theology at the University of Auckland and wrote several books on Māori spirituality, confessed to sexually abusing a young girl and is suspected of abusing many other victims.

The Catholic church has confirmed it received five complaints against Shirres and placed him in a programme for sex offenders. Another victim says a therapist told her Shirres admitted to abusing dozens of children.

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.

MANCHESTER (NH)
New Hampshire Union Leader

July 21, 2018

By Mark Hayward

A 22-month-old boy suffered traumatic brain injury at the hands of foster parents whose license was rushed through by child protection workers, according to records and reports contained in a lawsuit brought by his mother.

Allegations in the 3-year-old case include claims that a private social service agency based in Northfield, the Spaulding Youth Center, ignored proper procedures for investigating the foster home and missed obvious red flags. In doing so, child-protection workers placed the toddler and his days-old sister in a foster home headed by a foster mom with family problems who had previously experienced the death of a baby under her foster care.

The lawsuit initially implicated the state’s child protection agency, the Division for Children, Youth and Families. After an initial version of this story appeared on unionleader.com Friday, Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeffrey Meyers contacted the New Hampshire Union Leader and said the state has paid $475,000 to settle its share of the lawsuit. He called the injury “very tragic.”

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

CHICAGO (IL)
National Catholic Reporter

July 23, 2018

By Brian Roewe

The program for the 2018 conference for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests offered little subtlety in its front-cover messaging.

“30 years strong. We’ve only just begun.”

Four years earlier at the annual gathering, also here in the same city where SNAP formed in 1988, founding member Peter Isely proposed a comma as the proper punctuation as the now global network hit the quarter-century mark: a pause to recognize its achievements as the leading advocate group for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, and to determine where it would head next.

A similar exercise at the 2018 conference, held July 6-8, would likely land at a question mark.

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.

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Washington Post

July 24, 2018

By Michelle Boorstein

Lawyers for Pennsylvania, the Catholic Church and victims of clergy sex abuse are battling behind closed court doors over an 800-plus-page grand jury report detailing allegations of clerical abuse in six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses.

Catholics across Pennsylvania — which is believed to have done more investigations of institutional child sex abuse than any other state — were expecting to see results of the 18-month-long probe in June. But people who are named in the report, but not charged, then petitioned, saying that to name them violates their constitutional rights. For weeks, court and state lawyers have been before the state Supreme Court, arguing about the redacting of names and entire sections and what can be released.

As of Monday, the high court’s June 20 stay remained in place, but some experts and clergy said the high-profile case could hold bishops and other high-ranking clergy accountable for endangering children.

Such a legal shift already occurred in the case of Monsignor William Lynn, secretary of clergy for the Philadelphia Archdiocese, who was convicted in 2012 in a groundbreaking case — the first in the nation to send a cleric to jail for not protecting children. Lynn’s conviction was later overturned on appeal, and he has been granted a new trial.

However, the question of how wide the net of legal responsibility for children goes remains central in that case, said Marci Hamilton, an attorney with Child USA, a think tank aimed at preventing child abuse. The state Supreme Court said Lynn’s new trial should be governed by the theory that superiors can be held responsible for endangering children under their care, even those not under their direct supervision, Hamilton said. The new grand jury represents another major chance to test whether high-ranking Catholic officials will be held accountable for children who were harmed, she said.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

July 19, 2018

By Sean O’Neill

The Prince of Wales maintained a close friendship with a disgraced bishop because he did not understand that the clergyman’s caution for gross indecency involved an admission of guilt, he has told a public inquiry.

Prince Charles said that he maintained contact with Peter Ball for more than 20 years until his conviction in 2015 for sexually abusing more than a dozen victims. Ball had to resign his ministry in 1993 after a police investigation into his abuse of boys and young men led to him accepting a caution.

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

NEW ZEALAND
NZ Herald

July 25, 2018

By Mick Hall

An organisation that offers therapy to child sex abusers says more needs to be done by organisations referring clients to them to dismantle their own cultures of secrecy and silence.

Auckland-based Safe Network spokesman Shane Harris said his organisation did significant work treating offenders by carrying out assessments and then offering appropriate clinical interventions to help curb their predatory sexual behaviour.

But he said it was unethical for churches and other organisations not to involve the civil authorities when allegations or evidence of abuse first surfaced and that a bigger impact would be made if that wasn’t the case.

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.

INDIA
The Telegraph India

July 24, 2018

Kochi: Kerala High Court on Monday granted bail to a Christian priest, arrested on the charge of sexually exploiting a married woman for years with three other priests after blackmailing her with her confession secrets.

Johnson V. Mathew, a counsellor of the Malankara Orthodox Church, was arrested from Kozhencherry in Pathanamthitta district on July 13 and charged with “outraging the modesty of a woman”.

Mathew, the second priest to be arrested in the case, had applied to the high court after a magistrate in Thiruvalla rejected his bail plea.

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
America Magazine

July 23, 2018

By John A. McCoy

Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen may have been the epitome of the Vatican II bishop—pastoral, ecumenical, inclusive and relevant. He loved telling a good story.

One he retold often was about the potluck picnic that the parishioners of a small-town parish hosted for him in the city park across the street from the church. Hunthausen took a paper plate, served himself some fried chicken, baked beans and fruit salad and looked for a place to sit. All the tables were occupied. So he found himself a spot on the lawn next to a youngster who was wolfing down the meal.

The boy, who had no idea who Archbishop Hunthausen was, chatted away about his school, his friends and his new bike. When he paused to eat some more, the archbishop asked him: “Where’d you get that tin plate? Everybody else has a paper one.”

The boy motioned at a house across the street. “At home,” he replied. “I saw there was a picnic going on, so I got my tin plate and came on over.”

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

IRELAND
VICE

July 24, 2018

By Paulie Doyle

How Irish protesters plan to demonstrate against Pope Francis touching down in their country.

The general consensus about the Pope seems to be: he’s pretty woke. Francis doesn’t care for Trump, he auctioned his famous Harley Davidson to feed the poor and says that preventing environmental catastrophe is a moral imperative. He belongs to the fair-minded Jesuits, and has made some progressive-sounding comments about women and the LGBT community.

Although no changes to Catholic teaching regarding women or sexual minorities have been made, with the assistance of a very well-oiled PR machine, the Pontiff has nonetheless become a kind of media-darling, referenced as a benign moral authority, Dalai Llama-like, by ostensibly secular liberals. “On the issue of climate change, I agree with Pope Francis,” Senator Bernie Sanders would regularly say, during rallies throughout his presidential campaign.

From the moment we met him, the current Pope’s PR campaign has been in full swing: Francis stepped out into the world wearing humble white garments, a simple cross draped around his neck – the antithesis of the ostentatious papal regalia worn by Benedict XVI. The Church was sending a message: over are the days of opulence and intransigence at the Holy See; enter the era of Francis, and a new, more open Catholicism. In the past five years, this down-to-earth ethos has substantially improved Rome’s image.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Newcastle Herald

July 24, 2018

By Joanne McCarthy

NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman has ordered the transcript of a controversial 2001 Newcastle trial against an Anglican priest after a Hunter child sexual abuse survivor described it as an “ambush”.

Steve Smith last week wrote to Mr Speakman seeking an apology from the State of NSW for a Newcastle District Court trial where three key people, including the judge, failed to disclose their associations with Newcastle Anglican Diocese.

The trial collapsed after the diocese belatedly produced a register that the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse would later note contained “a number of irregularities”.

But it was the late Judge Ralph Coolahan’s criticism of Mr Smith from the bench that shattered the man who the diocese now concedes was repeatedly sexually abused by priest George Parker in the early 1970s, from when he was just 10 years old.

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.

DENVER
The Associated Press

July 24, 2018

By Eddie Pells

The U.S. Olympic Committee is trying to remove itself as a defendant in lawsuits by gold medalists McKayla Maroney, Jordyn Wieber and Aly Raisman, three of the gymnasts who sued the federation and others for their roles in the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal.

In court papers filed last Friday, the USOC acknowledges it is “appropriately” part of “discussions concerning moral and social responsibility for sexual abuse, including legitimate questions about what could have been done to recognize and stop Nassar’s abuse.”

But, the motions say, there are no legal grounds to sue the USOC because Nassar never worked for the federation, nor were Nassar’s crimes foreseeable by the USOC.

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.

INDIA
Matters India

July 22, 2018

By Virginia Saldanha

The revelation that 110,333 cases of rape were registered in the country from 2014 to 2016, and 338,954 cases of crime against women were registered in 2016, by federal Minister Kiren Rijiju, does not come as a surprise. In fact, we should remember that these statistics are based only on reported cases and not on total incidents of rape and violence to women actually taking place.

The threat of rape and violence is a reality that Indian women live with. The threat becomes acuter in direct proportion to a woman’s social status and/or vulnerability, a poor Dalit girl/woman being the most vulnerable. Age has not been a bar for vulnerability to rape. Babies of a few months to an old woman in her 90s have been victims of rape in India.

Rape is forced sexual intercourse. Indian law amended in 2013 describes rape as penile and non-penile penetration of a woman’s orifices. So, it is clear that rape is not about anyone enjoying sex. Rape is not about sex! It is about power. Unless we address the issue of power, we will not be able to protect women/girls from rape.

Rape takes place when the perpetrator is sure of his power to force his victim to yield to him. Most rapists generally and literally ‘get away’ with their crime, because of their power to silence the victim.

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.

TENAFLY (NJ)
NorthJersey

July 20, 2018

By Rodrigo Torrejon

Amid tears and decades of buried trauma, a former Tenafly resident recalled 20 years of sexual abuse by a once-trusted priest and close family friend who became a dark, looming figure in his childhood in a recent New York Times report.

The 60-year-old man, who identified himself as James, detailed years of sexual abuse by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 88, one of the most prominent faces in the Roman Catholic Church, in the Times report. McCarrick, a longtime family friend the family called “Uncle Ted,” had baptized James at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

“I was the first guy he baptized,” James told the Associated Press Friday. “I was his little boy. I was his special kid. I was the kid he always sought out.”

It was in James’ Tenafly home where the years of sexual abuse began, Patrick Noaker, James’ attorney told NorthJersey.com. When James was 11, as he was changing out of his bathing suit, McCarrick, then 39, walked into the room and took his own pants off.

“McCarrick came into the boy’s room and he was naked,” Noaker said. “McCarrick told him to turn around and said ‘See? we’re the same.'”

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

AUSTRALIA
The Standard

July 20, 2018

By ​Andrew Thomson ​

EMMANUEL College ​is taking the groundbreaking step of erecting plaques recognising former Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns ​failed to act to protect victims, some who attended the school.

​Principal Peter Morgan​ said there was a long tradition in Australian Catholic schools of inviting the local Bishop to officially open and bless new buildings and extensions.

​He said Bishop Mulkearns performed that duty on several occasions within the Warrnambool Catholic community.

“​Plaques were affixed to buildings leaving a permanent record of these important occasions​,” he said​

​”There are two plaques at Emmanuel College recording the opening of new buildings bearing the name of Bishop Mulkearns​.”

Mr Morgan said that it was now widely recognised that Bishop Mulkearns failed to act on information and complaints against adults who abused young people in the Ballarat Diocese.

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

AUSTRALIA
Financial Review

July 19, 2018

by Phillip Coorey

The Australian government has been lobbying the Pope and other senior members of the Catholic Church for more than two weeks to sack disgraced Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson, but to no avail.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on the Pope publicly on Thursday to sack Wilson, who has been convicted and sentenced for covering up paedophilia in the church in the 1970s.

He is refusing to step down because he intends to appeal against the conviction.

“As far as Philip Wilson is concerned, he should have resigned. He should have resigned and the time has come for the Pope to sack him,” Mr Turnbull said.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
The Week

July 23, 2018

By Matthew Walther

More than a decade and a half after the septic holding tank was overturned in Boston, the unfathomable noxious waste of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in this country is still seeping out in fetid drips.

As a Catholic, I believe that the Church was founded by the apostle St. Peter at the behest of Christ Himself. I also believe that it was for many years and will for many more still remain a cesspool.

A month ago, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., was removed from public ministry after credible allegations were made that he had abused a 16-year-old altar boy in 1971. Almost immediately after the announcement was made, it was revealed that at least two settlements had been made with victims — both of them adults at the time of the assaults — of McCarrick in the last decade. Now The New York Times reports that McCarrick began molesting a boy identified only as “James” when the latter was 11. This was a boy whom the future cardinal had himself baptized only two weeks after his ordination to the sacrificing priesthood. The abuse continued for 20 years. McCarrick allegedly referred to James as his “special boy” and insisted that the child and his siblings call him “Uncle Ted.” When James tried to tell his parents about the things his “uncle” forced him to do, he was told that he must be lying. (Through a spokesperson, McCarrick declined to respond to the Times’ request for comment. He has said elsewhere that he is cooperating with the Church’s investigation of the allegations.)

James was not the only one of Uncle Ted’s nephews. For decades it appears that McCarrick forced seminarians in his diocese to spend weekends with him at a beach house, where they were made to share his bed. There they were asked to rub his shoulders and to sit quietly while he groped their genitals. According to one file shared with the Times, McCarrick requested that a seminarian put on a striped sailor suit and a pair of shorts before joining him in bed. It was made clear to all of his victims that saying nothing was a necessary condition of their flourishing in his diocese and the wider Church.

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.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fox News

July 23, 2018

By Lukas Mikelionis

Over 50 former and current University of Southern California students sued the school on Monday for allegedly mishandling complaints that a longtime gynecologist engaged in inappropriate behavior during pelvic exams.

The latest suit brings the number of people suing the university and Dr. George Tyndall to over a hundred of former and current students.

California’s state Department of Education said last month that was probing the university’s response the accusations against Tyndall, including him touching female students during campus office visits and improperly photographing or making comments about the women’s bodies.

Some complaints were made as early as 1990 but weren’t fully investigated up until 2016. There are over 400 students who also reported the former gynecologist through a university hotline.

“The University is conducting a thorough investigation into this matter,” USC said in a statement Monday. “We will be seeking a prompt and fair resolution that is respectful of our former students. We are committed to providing the women of USC with the best, most thorough and respectful health care services of any university.”

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.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Reuters

July 23, 2018

By Aislinn Laing and Cassandra Garrison

The Chilean civil authorities are investigating 36 accusations of sexual abuse against bishops, clerics and lay workers in the Roman Catholic Church, the national prosecutor’s office said on Monday.

The investigations are among 144 reports of sexual abuse implicating 158 Church workers made since 2000, it added in a statement.

The figures were released at a news conference in the capital Santiago by Luis Torres, the head of human rights and gender crime divisions for the Chilean national prosecutor’s office.

“We have met (with the Chilean Church) and sought to agree a coordinated approach that will help to advance these (live) cases,” he said.

The national prosecuting authority gathered the figures about complaints from around the country for the first time in a bid to take control of a persistent scandal over sexual abuse within the country’s Catholic.

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.

SEATTLE (WA)
Archdiocese of Seattle

July 23, 2018

Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen, who led the Archdiocese of Seattle from 1975 to his retirement in 1991, died July 22, at his home in Helena, Montana, surrounded by members of his family.

He was 96. Upon learning of his death, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain paid tribute to him: “Archbishop Hunthausen was a humble and loving servant of the Lord, and a man of peace. As his successors, Archbishops Murphy, Brunett, and I were the beneficiaries of his pastoral leadership and his development of lay leadership, many programs of outreach to the poor, and other pastoral programs that have made this such a vibrant archdiocese. Above all, he loved the Lord, and that stood out in every conversation I had with this loving and compassionate servant of God. May he rest in peace.”

Archbishop Hunthausen was the last living American bishop to have participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). From 1962 to 1975, he served as bishop of Helena, Montana, and from 1975 to 1991, as archbishop of Seattle.

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.

ADELAIDE (AUSTRALIA)
The Advertiser

July 23, 2018

By Andrew Hough

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-catholic-archbishop-media-awards-cancelled-over-philip-wilsons-conviction-for-sex-abuse-cover-up/news-story/92b7811f93e5719e262dba3bc2c0afe4

A popular Catholic Church media awards has been cancelled for the first time in almost three decades after the disgraced Adelaide Archbishop’s conviction for covering up child sex abuse.

The Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide media citations was founded in 1990 to promote “professional excellence” as well as a “commitment to truth, balance, fairness and community service”.

But yesterday it emerged the gongs, which Advertiser journalists entered, have been cancelled in the wake of the jail term handed to Philip Edwards Wilson, 67.

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.

ADELAIDE (AUSTRALIA)
The Advertiser

July 20, 2018

By Elizabeth Henson

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/national-council-of-priests-of-australia-ask-pope-to-sack-philip-wilson-as-adelaide-archbishop/news-story/f627000dc2c90fe1a4d34d18ee5ffa52

The National Council of Priests of Australia has joined growing calls for disgraced Archbishop Philip Wilson to be sacked after he was convicted of covering up the sexual abuse of altar boys.

The council is appealing to Pope Francis to step in and fire Wilson, 67.

“For the good of the church in Australia and for the benefit of the people of God in the Archdiocese of Adelaide, the executive of the (council) requests that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, removes Archbishop Philip Wilson from his See,” the council said in a statement on Friday evening.

It came a day after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also lobbied the Pope to fire Wilson, who was sentenced to 12 months’ jail over his silence about a paedophile priest’s sex offending.

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.

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
9 News / A Current Affair

July 24, 2018

A retired Catholic priest convicted of indecently assaulting three boys is still being financially supported by the Church, which has even provided him with a new car.

Robert Francis Flaherty was five years ago convicted of the assaults, which took place in the ’70s and ’80s.

Speaking with remarkable candidness to A Current Affair, Flaherty openly made admissions about two of the attacks.

“Back in 1972 I was accused of touching a teenager. He consented to it, he was about 14 or 15,” he said.

That victim was an altar boy at Our Lady of the Rosary Church at St Mary’s.

“There may have been mutual touching, nothing else,” Flaherty said.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

July 24, 2018

By Juliet Macur

Investigators working on behalf of Ohio State University are digging through decades of records to piece together what might have happened decades ago, when Dr. Richard H. Strauss was a team doctor and, according to recent accounts, engaged in some form of sexual misconduct with more than 100 former students.

That misconduct occurred from 1979 to 1997, those former students have said. But Ohio State’s sex abuse crisis and its apparent failure to provide abused athletes with an adequate support system may have extended to more-recent years.

Eszter Pryor, a former diver who trained with the Ohio State University Diving Club as a teenager, discussed in an interview on Monday an abusive relationship that she had in 2014, when she was 16, with a 28-year-old diving coach at the university, where the diving club trained. She said she felt stuck in the relationship because there was no athlete advocate she could call and no way to report the abuse without repercussions.

Ms. Pryor, 21, filed a federal class-action lawsuit earlier this month in which she claims that the assistant coach, Will Bohonyi, forced her to have sex with him starting in 2014. She is suing Mr. Bohonyi, U.S.A. Diving and the Ohio State University Diving Club over the sexual abuse she said she endured. A criminal investigation is also continuing.

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.

SEATTLE (WA)
Associated Press via KVEO

July 23, 2018

By Gene Johnson

Retired Seattle Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen, whose outspoken support for nuclear disarmament, gay rights and an expanded role for women in the church made him one of the most controversial U.S. bishops, has died at 96.

Hunthausen died Sunday at his home in Helena, Montana, the Seattle Archdiocese said.

Hunthausen, who was born in Montana, served as the bishop of Helena from 1962 to 1975 and as archbishop of Seattle from 1975 to 1991. He was the last living American bishop to have participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, called by the pope in the early 1960s to modernize the church, the archdiocese said.

* * *

Advocates for sex abuse victims say Hunthausen could have done more to protect young parishioners, but they also credit him with being more proactive than his predecessors or other bishops around the country. The archdiocese has paid out tens of millions of dollars to child sex abuse victims, including in many cases that stemmed from Hunthausen’s tenure.

In 2009, Hunthausen became one of the highest ranking Catholic officials in the U.S. to testify at a sex-abuse trial, one that pertained to a priest who had been transferred from Spokane to Seattle for deviancy treatment. Hunthausen granted the priest, Patrick G. O’Donnell, full powers of ministry without the documentation usually required for transferred priests.

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.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Associated Press via Tampa Bay Times

July 24, 2018

Chile has investigated 158 members of the country’s Roman Catholic Church for committing or covering up sexual abuse against minors and adults, the national prosecutor’s office said Monday.

The investigations include reports of abuse by bishops, clerics and lay workers filed since 2000. Some of the cases date as far back as 1960.

In all, the number of victims is 266. That includes 178 children and teenagers, and 31 adults. The age of victims was not established in 57 other cases.

The nationwide figures follow an avalanche of sex abuse and cover-up cases that have recently embattled Chile’s Catholic Church and prompted Pope Francis earlier this year to publicly denounce a “culture of abuse and cover-up.”

The pope also said he was ashamed that neither he nor Chilean church leaders truly ever listened to victims as the country’s abuse scandal spiraled.

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.

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

July 24, 2018

By Michelle Boorstein

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/24/catholic-church-officials-and-sex-abuse-survivor-advocates-battle-over-release-of-800-page-grand-jury-report-in-pa/?utm_term=.3e02b6baf4d7

Lawyers for Pennsylvania, the Catholic Church and victims of clergy sex abuse are battling behind closed court doors over an 800-page-plus grand jury report detailing allegations of clerical abuse in six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses.

Catholics across Pennsylvania — which is believed to have done more investigations of institutional child sex abuse than any other state — were expecting to see results of the 18-month-long probe in June. But people who are named in the report, but not charged, then petitioned, saying that to name them violates their constitutional rights. For weeks court and state lawyers have been before the state Supreme Court, arguing about the redacting of names and entire sections and what can be released.

As of Monday, the high court’s June 20 stay remained in place, but some experts and clergy said the high-profile case could hold bishops and other high-ranking clergy accountable for endangering children.

Such a legal shift already occurred in the case of Monsignor William Lynn, secretary of clergy for the Philadelphia Archdiocese, who was convicted in 2012 in a ground-breaking case – the first in the nation to send a cleric to jail for not protecting children. Lynn’s conviction was later overturned on appeal and he has been granted a new trial.

However, the question of how wide the net of responsibility for children legally goes remains central in that case, said Marci Hamilton, an attorney with CHILD USA, a think tank aimed at preventing child abuse. The state Supreme Court said Lynn’s new trial should be governed by the theory that superiors can be responsible for endangering not only children specifically in their care but also those who could be potentially at risk as well. The new grand jury is another major chance to test whether high-ranking Catholic officials will be held accountable for children who were harmed, she said.

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

BOSTON (MA)
UPI

July 23, 2018

[See the Reilly Report, referenced in this UPI feature and lying next to the demonstrator in the photo. In 2008, the Boston archdiocese counted 1,476 cases.]

On July 23, 2003, the Massachusetts attorney general said an investigation indicated nearly 1,000 cases of abuse by Roman Catholic priests and other church personnel in the Boston diocese over 60 years.

Photo Caption: A protester adds the name of a defrocked priest to the top of the “Cross of Shame” on July 30, 2003, outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. On July 23, 2003, the Massachusetts attorney general said an investigation indicated nearly 1,000 cases of abuse by Roman Catholic priests and other church personnel in the Boston diocese over 60 years.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
National Review

July 23, 2018

By Michael Brendan Dougherty

The idea that the Church’s sexual-abuse problem will dissipate as older generations of priests die off has always been an excuse to avoid reform.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick visited my class at Sacred Heart Elementary in Bloomfield, N.J., once. The teachers reminded us before he arrived that by virtue of his office he was a successor to the Apostles. I remember mentally taking guesses as to which of the original twelve his office descended from. Thinking back on it, I’m relieved that he never got to know me, or know that I was the child of a single mother.

About a decade ago, my wife and I sat in the office of a young Catholic priest. He was a good priest, and gradually, as the conversation went on, both he and we dropped enough key phrases into the chat to signal that we were like-minded about what we saw as Catholicism’s moral, spiritual, and liturgical crisis. Everyone relaxed considerably. I ventured my low opinion of his bishop, a revered cardinal. He didn’t contradict me. I then offered that it was young priests like him who would restore the Church. He was part of a heroic generation that had entered the priesthood at the nadir of the priest-abuse crisis, inspired by John Paul II. He had a different mindset than those in the generations immediately before him, who were formed in the 50s, 60s, and 70s and believed that they had to implement the more experimental, accommodating spirit of Vatican II. “Once they die off . . .” I started. And the young priest chimed in. “Exactly. They will be gone.”

What we were talking about had a name in Catholic circles. It was called “the biological solution.” Roughly speaking, it meant that priests attached to the reforming visions and the theological fads of mid 20th century would, by the simple process of aging and dying, be replaced by the younger, more tradition-minded, and less morally lax generation. The heavy implication was that the problem of moral cronyism in the Church, in which sexually compromised priests cover and cover-up for one another, would mostly solve itself over time.

The biological solution has long since stopped being a kind of secret handshake among young traditionalists. It has become a cause of division and crisis within religious orders. And it is obviously on the mind of Pope Francis, who seems never to be short of anecdotes about “rigid” young priests and wise old liberals.

But the past decade has taught me something: We were wrong. There is no biological solution to a moral, spiritual, and liturgical crisis.

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.

CALCUTTA (INDIA)
The Telegraph

July 24, 2018

Kochi: Kerala High Court on Monday granted bail to a Christian priest, arrested on the charge of sexually exploiting a married woman for years with three other priests after blackmailing her with her confession secrets.

Johnson V. Mathew, a counsellor of the Malankara Orthodox Church, was arrested from Kozhencherry in Pathanamthitta district on July 13 and charged with “outraging the modesty of a woman”.

Mathew, the second priest to be arrested in the case, had applied to the high court after a magistrate in Thiruvalla rejected his bail plea.

Granting bail, Justice Rajavijayaraghavan directed the priest to surrender his passport, cooperate with the investigation and not enter the limits of the police station where the woman lives.

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.

MADISON (WI)
Wisconsin Public Radio

July 23, 2018

By Laurel White

Critics Accuse Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate of Covering Up Abuse

Democratic candidate for governor Matt Flynn continued to defend his work as a lawyer for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday, pushing back in particular on claims he was involved with the transfer of abusive priests between parishes.

Flynn represented the archdiocese from 1989 until 2004, during the priest sexual abuse scandal.

His campaign for governor has been peppered with criticism from both the right and left for that work. On Monday, his campaign released a letter from former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland rebutting claims Flynn was involved in the transfer of abusive priests.

“The lawyers were not involved,” Weakland wrote.

According to Weakland, some priests who had undergone therapy were reassigned, but the process was overseen by a priest personnel board.

“Looking back, I would frankly have to admit that we were all extremely naïve,” Weakland wrote. “We did not understand the power of recidivism in such cases.”

A longtime Milwaukee priest, Domenic Roscioli, on Monday refuted Weakland’s claim.

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.

MECHANICSVILLE (PA)
PennLive

July 23, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

As Catholic officials and the faithful across Pennsylvania await the release of a comprehensive statewide investigation report into clergy sex abuse, arguably the state’s most outspoken Catholic bishop reiterated a warning as to the severity of those findings.

“It certainly is going to be sobering,” said Bishop Lawrence Persico, the head of the Erie Diocese. “The report is rather graphic, and it will be very detailed on what has occurred.”

During a phone interview with PennLive this weekend from his diocese, Persico broached broad and specific issues regarding the 18-month-long investigation by the state Office of Attorney General. The grand jury report remains under a court seal amid challenges filed by at least two dozen priests and other individuals named in the report but not charged.

“I think in looking historically at it you may see bishops named who probably in view of the way we do things now as compared to 20 or 30 years ago, it would not be considered acceptable that type of action,” he said.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

July 23, 2018

By Harriet Sherwood

Prince Charles and Lord Carey among powerful backers of Peter Ball, abuse inquiry told

Members of the establishment, including the heir to the throne, the then archbishop of Canterbury and a senior member of the judiciary, rallied to the support of Peter Ball, a Church of England bishop accused of sexual abuse, an independent inquiry has heard.

“The story of Peter Ball is the story of the establishment at work in modern times,” said William Chapman, representing survivors. “It is the story of how the establishment minimised the nature of Peter Ball’s misdeeds … and silenced and harassed those who tried to complain.”

One survivor told the inquiry the C of E’s response to his disclosure of abuse amounted to “enduringly cruel and sadistic treatment”.

The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse is examining how the church handled allegations. A five-day hearing this week is scrutinising the church’s response to claims of sexual abuse against Ball, a former bishop of Lewes and then Gloucester, who was jailed in 2015.

Ball was able to call upon the “willing assistance of members of the establishment”, said Chapman. “It included the heir to the throne, the archbishop and a senior member of the judiciary, to name only the most prominent.”

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
Inforum

July 20, 2018

By Jon Lindgren

The news story about Cardinal McCarrick was so devastating it is hard to fathom behavior this terrible. A Cardinal, of course, is among the highest ranking of Catholic clergy.

Now in his 80’s, he has finally been defrocked. But for 30 years the management of the Catholic Church has know, even acknowledged by secret payments to victims, this man is a pedophile. The church kept this secret and McCarrick retained his credentials.

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.

MADISON (WI)
Wisconsin State Journal

July 23, 2018

By Mathew DeFour

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Flynn’s role in the Milwaukee Archdiocese priest abuse scandal received new attention Monday as a letter surfaced showing he met twice with a priest to discuss abuse allegations that weren’t referred to police until nine years later.

Flynn has maintained throughout the campaign that he didn’t represent abusive priests and was not part of what abuse victims say was a cover-up by the Archdiocese.

On Monday in a 45-minute conference call with reporters he confirmed the 1993 meeting with Marvin Knighton occurred and said he had similar meetings with “a handful of others.” But he disputed Knighton’s characterization that Flynn advised to wait and see if the alleged victim filed a complaint.

“What he says there is false,” Flynn said. “I insisted (the archdiocese) go to the police on any allegation.”

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.

INDIA
The Print

July 22, 2018

By Chitleen K. Sethi

Baba Amarpuri allegedly filmed the women he raped. In some cases, he used the footage to blackmail the victims for money.

Chandigarh: Amarpuri, a 60-year-old baba or religious preacher from Haryana who has been accused of allegedly raping 60 women, some of them more than once, was also blackmailing his victims for money, said sources in the Haryana Police Saturday.

Baba Amarpuri had not only allegedly raped his victims but also filmed them. In some cases, he was blackmailing the victims using the footage, forcing them to continue to have sexual relations with him. From his richer clients, he was allegedly extracting money to keep their video footage under wraps.

He was arrested from his house-cum-temple premises in Tohana in Haryana’s Fatehabad district Thursday on fresh charges of rape. This is the second case of rape registered against him. He was on bail for an earlier rape charge leveled against him October last year.

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
National Review

July 23, 2018

By Michael Brendan Dougherty

The idea that the Church’s sexual-abuse problem will dissipate as older generations of priests die off has always been an excuse to avoid reform.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick visited my class at Sacred Heart Elementary in Bloomfield, N.J., once. The teachers reminded us before he arrived that by virtue of his office he was a successor to the Apostles. I remember mentally taking guesses as to which of the original twelve his office descended from. Thinking back on it, I’m relieved that he never got to know me, or know that I was the child of a single mother.

About a decade ago, my wife and I sat in the office of a young Catholic priest. He was a good priest, and gradually, as the conversation went on, both he and we dropped enough key phrases into the chat to signal that we were like-minded about what we saw as Catholicism’s moral, spiritual, and liturgical crisis. Everyone relaxed considerably. I ventured my low opinion of his bishop, a revered cardinal. He didn’t contradict me. I then offered that it was young priests like him who would restore the Church. He was part of a heroic generation that had entered the priesthood at the nadir of the priest-abuse crisis, inspired by John Paul II. He had a different mindset than those in the generations immediately before him, who were formed in the 50s, 60s, and 70s and believed that they had to implement the more experimental, accommodating spirit of Vatican II. “Once they die off . . .” I started. And the young priest chimed in. “Exactly. They will be gone.”

What we were talking about had a name in Catholic circles. It was called “the biological solution.” Roughly speaking, it meant that priests attached to the reforming visions and the theological fads of mid 20th century would, by the simple process of aging and dying, be replaced by the younger, more tradition-minded, and less morally lax generation. The heavy implication was that the problem of moral cronyism in the Church, in which sexually compromised priests cover and cover-up for one another, would mostly solve itself over time.

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.

PANAJI (INDIA)
Indo-Asian News Service /NDTV

July 23, 2018

The court has granted him interim bail until the next hearing on Wednesday.

Goa’s Mangueshi temple priest who was charged for molesting two women, has claimed that one of them fabricated the charges against him after he refused to allow the unmarried woman into the sanctum sanctorum.
The court has granted him interim bail until the next hearing on Wednesday.

The accused, Dhanajay Bhave, told the Ponda additional district and sessions court on Saturday, that he “tried to explain to the complainant that as per the norms and the rules of the devasthan, unmarried daughters/unmarried girls cannot enter the gabhara (sanctum sanctorum) of the temple”.

Bhave, who has worked at the temple as a priest for 28 years, even told her to sit outside till her parents returned.

However, the complainant picked up a quarrel with Bhave and insisted on entering the gabhara, as according to her, there is no basis for refusal, he told the court in his petition.

Bhave has been charged under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 354 for outraging the modesty of a woman.

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.

INDIA
Gulf News

July 23, 2018

Last week a magisterial court in Thiruvalla had rejected his bail, following which he approached the high court

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Monday granted bail to Father Johnson V. Mathew, one of the four priests accused in a rape case of a woman parishioner.

The court, however, asked the Malankara Orthodox Church priest to surrender his passport.

Mathew was arrested on July 13, from near Thiruvalla by the Crime Branch police probing the case. He has been holed up at the Pathanamthitta district jail since.
Last week a magisterial court in Thiruvalla had rejected his bail, following which he approached the high court.
In this case the Crime Branch has charged four Kerala priests, including Father Job Mathew who was the first to be nabbed and Father Johnson V. Mathew. Father Sony (Abraham) Varghese and Father Jaice K. George had moved the Supreme Court and managed to get a stay order till their petition is finally disposed.

While Mathew who got the bail on Monday, has been charged for outraging the modesty of a lady, the three others have been charged for rape.

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.

CHILE
La Tercera

July 23, 2018

By Claudia Soto

[Prosecutor’s office details cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church: Almost 140 priests investigated and more than 260 victims]

De acuerdo al reporte elaborado por el Ministerio Público, desde 1960, 158 personas relacionadas a esa institución han sido investigadas en 144 indagatorias. En el informe, se agrega además que el 66% de las víctimas son niñas, niños o adolescentes.

Este mediodía, el Ministerio Público dio a conocer un reporte con el detalle de los casos de abuso sexual cometidos por miembros de la Iglesia Católica de Chile en contra de niñas, niños y adolescentes principalmente, desde el año 1960 a la fecha. En el escrito, se indica que todas las regiones del país reportaron al menos un caso, pero la mayor concentración de estos se encuentran en la Metropolitana, Biobío y Valparaíso.

De acuerdo al documento, en total 158 personas han sido investigadas en 144 indagatorias distintas. De ellas, 74 corresponden a obispos, sacerdotes, diáconos que no pertenecen a una congregación, mientras que 65 sí pertenecen a una, donde 16 son salesianos y 15 son maristas. Lo que hace un total de 139 religiosos involucrados en casos de abuso sexual.

Además, se indica que 10 laicas o laicos a cargo de pastorales -de parroquias o colegios- han sido investigadas y otras otras nueve personas cercanas a alguna institución eclesiástica que están involucradas en algún caso, pero que no se ha podido determinar cuál es su función.

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.

CHILE
AFP

July 22, 2018

Bishops, priests and lay people are among 158 members of Chile’s Catholic Church under investigation for perpetrating or concealing the sexual abuse of children and adults, the public prosecutor revealed on Monday.

The cases relate to 144 separate investigations into incidents dating back as far as 1960 and involving 266 victims, including 178 children and adolescents, according to details given at a press conference by prosecutor Luis Torres.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

July 22, 2018

SR. MAUREEN A. TURLISH, SND de N

On July 18, 2018, beloved daughter of the late Paul and Mary (nee Dunn) Turlish; loving sister of Paul Turlish and his wife Janice; dear Aunt of James Paul Turlish, Jenine Steltz and her husband Brian, and Kelly Ann Turlish Lampe. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday, July 24th, at Villa Julie Chapel, 1531 Greenspring Valley Road, Stevenson, at 10:30 A.M., preceded by a Visitation at 9:30 A.M. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in her memory may be made to the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Development Office, P.O. Box 157, Stevenson, MD 21153.

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
Catholic 4 Change

July 20, 2018

By Susan Mathews

You’re a bold and brazen article. Back in the day, an Irish nun might shame a defiant student with this derogatory phrase. Today, I honor a nun with it. Sister Maureen Paul Turlish was a bold and brazen article for all the right reasons. The Sister of Notre de Namur was a rebel with a cause. She tirelessly advocated for victims of clergy sex abuse and the misled faithful.

Sr. Maureen died on July 18th in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In remembering her today, Kathy and I couldn’t help but laugh. Sr. Maureen was hilarious. Not what one expects when dealing with the horrific and tragic. Her humor was dark, honest and clever. It honored the victims. She was a pistol aimed at clericalism.

Sr. Maureen helped found the National Survivor Advocates Coalition and served on the board of directors for the Delaware Association for Children of Alcoholics and on the steering committee for Philadelphia’s Voice of the Faithful and Catholic WhistleBlowers.

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.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
GMA

July 23, 2018

By Catherine Thorbecke

Dozens of women who accused a former University of Southern California gynecologist of sexual misconduct plan to file a lawsuit against the doctor and school Monday, arguing that USC knew about the alleged abuse and protected him for decades.

Dr. George Tyndall was the University of Southern California’s sole full-time gynecologist for nearly 30 years, and he treated thousands of students since the late 80s. Tyndall was forced to retire in 2017.

The campus doctor abused “generations of women” for “approximately 30 years,” according to Andy Rubenstein, the attorney representing the 51 women who Rubenstein says plan to file the lawsuit against Tyndall and USC.

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 KINGDOM
Mirror

July 21, 2018

By Alan Selby and Amy Sharpe

They broke anonymity to get a change in the law that robs them of closure

All these women were sexually abused in their childhood homes by the very people they should have been able to trust.

They grew up with no safety or security, robbed of their innocence by those who should have loved and cared for them.

Today these fragile survivors waive their anonymity and stand together to fight for a change in the law that robs them of compensation and closure.

While the monsters responsible have mostly been brought to justice, these women say they are now being victimised all over again.

Under the absurd so-called Same Roof Rule, victims who lived with and were abused by their attacker up until 1979 are not entitled to compensation.

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 KINGDOM
Sky News

July 19, 2018

The Prince of Wales exchanged letters with disgraced former bishop Peter Ball, who was jailed for abusing young men.

The Prince of Wales is to give evidence at a long-running inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse.

Prince Charles will provide a written statement to be read next Thursday at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which is looking into the handling of allegations made against disgraced ex-bishop Peter Ball.

The former bishop of Gloucester – whose diocese covers the prince’s country home of Highgrove – was sentenced to 32 months in 2015 for sexually abusing young men in the 1970s.

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.

VATICAN CITY
La Croix International

July 20, 108

By Robert Mickens

There is an elephant in the sacristy no one is talking about, at least not in a healthy way

Just three days before the 2013 conclave began I wrote a few brief words about Scottish Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien’s decision not to attend the papal election.

A few weeks earlier he had been accused of having forced a number of seminarians and young priests into having sex (one that turned into a relationship) in the 1980s.

O’Brien, who died this past March, immediately resigned as Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh even though he was still months shy of his 75th birthday. He also announced, obviously under the Vatican pressure, that he would not attend the conclave.

“I do not wish media attention in Rome to be focused on me – but rather on Pope Benedict XVI and on his successor,” the cardinal said.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
The American Conservative

July 20, 2018

By Rod Dreher

One obvious next step in the Cardinal McCarrick story is uncovering more victims of his abuse. We now know of two. I would bet that there will surely be more. But that’s not the most interesting or important part of the story.

The key now is to uncover the networks within the clergy and episcopate. Some of you might have seen the shocking story that reader Mark Crawford told in the comments section here in recent days. I found that he told the same story in testimony before the New Jersey legislature in 2004. Here’s a portion of that testimony:

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

NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

July 17, 2018

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, is pictured during a reception for new cardinals at the Vatican Feb. 22, 2014. Cardinal McCarrick said he will no longer exercise any public ministry “in obedience” to the Vatican after an allegation he abused a teenager 47 years ago was found credible. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
The Catholic Church cannot pretend to be shocked about the pattern of sexual abuse of adult seminarians by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, recently detailed in a comprehensive story in The New York Times. As The Times made clear in its reporting, many church leaders had received multiple notices of the cardinal’s behavior. Local dioceses had been told; the papal nuncio in Washington, D.C., had been told; and, eventually, even Pope Benedict XVI had been told.

But none of these reports interrupted Cardinal McCarrick’s rise through the ranks nor his appointment as cardinal nor his eventual retirement in 2006 as a respected leader of the U.S. church. Nor did these reports lead to his removal last month from public ministry, which finally resulted from a credible allegation of abuse of a minor almost 50 years ago, recently revealed and acted on by the Archdiocese of New York.

It is true that none of the earlier reports of abuse alleged criminal behavior with minors, but they were serious enough that Cardinal McCarrick should have been called to account for the terrible misuse of his office and authority. The church and its leaders should be ashamed of their failure to do so. The slow and halting progress the church has made by way of reforms adopted in response to the sexual abuse of children, for example through the Dallas charter, has been called into question by the revelation of its ongoing failures to deal with other reports of abuse. Nor should the media, including us in Catholic media (Cardinal McCarrick was a longtime friend of this magazine and delivered the homily at our centennial celebration in 2009), be absolved of responsibility for any failure to take these and other rumors and reports as seriously as was required. To demand accountability only of the hierarchy is itself hypocrisy.

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.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

July 23, 2018

By Phyllis Zagano

It’s time for the church worldwide to face up to abuse of power by bishops

Can we face the heartbreaking facts? It is time for #MeToo in the Catholic Church. There is too much abusive behavior by — or ignored by — Catholic bishops.

Washington, D.C.’s former archbishop, Cardinal Theodore (“Uncle Ted”) McCarrick, reportedly was overly fond of his seminarians, and was finally punished for abusing a minor 47 years ago. Everybody knew. Nobody did anything.

Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar (near the border with Pakistan) is accused of rape. Accused by a woman religious. There seem to be 18 other sisters with similar stories about Mulakkal and a lawsuit against the cardinal who did not respond to the allegations. Why?

Moreover, who’s next?

It’s time for the church worldwide to face up to abuse of power by bishops, especially but not only the physical and emotional abuse whispered about in seminaries, chanceries and gay bars. In the U.S., the famous (infamous?) 2002 “Dallas Charter” is all about priests, deacons and minors. Bishops are not under the charter’s jurisdiction. Yet the root of this problem is at the top, not the bottom.

The problem is endemic, and the problem is real.

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.

VESTAL (NY)
WSKG

July 23, 2018

By Katie Meyer

Harrisburg – If a common pleas judge in Cambria County gets his way, more information may be released about a sweeping grand jury report on sexual abuse of children in six of Pennsylvania’s eight Catholic dioceses.

Norman Krumenacker, the Cambria County judge who presided over the investigation, said Friday a legal response from the state attorney general that includes some information from the report should be released.

The grand jury report was initially slated for release late last month.

But a number of current and former clergy members challenged it, arguing its release would violate their constitutional rights because they were named but not charged. So, the state Supreme Court stayed the report, allowing more time for appeals.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro recently filed an argument in favor of releasing the report, which includes some of the information in the report itself.

Shapiro’s brief hasn’t been made public yet.

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.

MECHANICSBURG (PA)
PennLive

July 23, 2018

By Charles Thompson

Many Pennsylvanians are waiting anxiously to see what’s in the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury’s report on the Roman Catholic church’s handling of past abuse allegations against its priests.

Prosecutors hinted at a release in late June.

And then, court battles intervened.

But if you think this latest delay is a precursor to killing the report, however, think again.

Lawyers on all sides privately seem to expect the document will come out. Church officials have been openly preparing their latter-day congregants for it.

The fight now is down to the intersection of a pretty limited battle from a handful of people trying to protect their reputations from what they claim are investigative errors, and an abiding interest by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the state’s sometimes-controversial grand jury process.

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.

LA CROSSE (WI)
La Crosse Tribune

July 22, 2018

By Vince Hatt

On a snowy night in April 2018, Juan Carlos Cruz was at his home near Philadelphia watching Netflix and eating Honey Nut Cheerios. The phone rang. It was a Vatican official. The pope wanted to apologize to Cruz.

When I heard about this, I pumped my fist in the air and yelled “Yes!” The pope was about to start a game-changer in the long-running sexual abuse scandal in the church.

Here’s the story. In January 2018, Pope Francis visited Chile to heal a divided church. It did not happen. Rather, evidence was presented to him that one of his appointees, Bishop Juan Carlos Barros, was protecting one of his priests who had sexually abused young men. The pope not only criticized those speaking against the bishop, he charged them with slander.

The response of the National Catholic Reporter was immediate and harsh. A January 23 editorial stated: “The overwhelming consensus in the media is that Pope Francis has a blind spot when it comes to sexual abuse. … He just doesn’t get it when it comes to victims of abuse. The evidence for this assertion is the pope’s unwavering support for Juan Barros.”

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.

CONCEPCIÓN (CHILE)
Sabes

July 14, 2018

[#LetterToDirector: They accuse the priest of Concepción of rape]

Estimados y estimadas:

La presente es para dar a conocer el horrible acontecimiento que como familia hemos estado viviendo, contarle el gran dolor que desde hace muchos años estamos padeciendo. Jamás pensamos que como personas, como católicos y como padres llegaríamos a vivir. Siempre confiamos en la Iglesia, siempre nos sentimos orgullosos de pertenecer a ella.

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.

CHILE
CIPER (Centro de Investigación Periodística)

July 18, 2018

By Pedro Ramírez

[New testimony accuses Ezzati of concealing a priest accused of rape. Nun affirms that she alerted him in 2006 about a priest.]

Monja afirma que lo alertó en 2006 sobre el sacerdote

Apenas aterrizó en Concepción en 2006 como arzobispo, Ricardo Ezzati recibió a una monja, directora de un colegio, quien lo alertó sobre las relaciones de un grupo de sacerdotes homosexuales que tenían contacto con jóvenes. Uno de ellos era Hernán Enríquez. Le pidió que los apartara de los colegios. Nada sucedió. Tres años después, Ezzati recibió la denuncia de un padre que acusó a Enríquez de haber violado a su hijo en el Seminario Menor de esa ciudad. El arzobispo dijo haber investigado, pero Enríquez siguió de profesor y en 2012 Ezzati lo premió prologando un libro del sacerdote. La violación del menor y su encubrimiento recién se conocen en Concepción.

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.

CHILE
Cooperativa.cl

July 17, 2018

[Archbishop of Concepción confirmed suspension of priest accused of rape]

* El Arzobispado realiza una nueva investigación en contra del sacerdote Hernán Enríquez tras una denuncia conocida el fin de semana.

* Fernando Chomalí además pidió al denunciante anónimo que se acerque a la Iglesia.

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.

CHILE
soychile.cl

July 20, 2018

[Bishop Galo Fernandez said he felt “deeply deceived” by former chancellor of the archbishopric accused of abuse]

El sacerdote aseguró que no conocía ninguna acusación previa a los hechos que se hicieron públicos.

“De Óscar tenía muy buena impresión, de una persona muy dedicada y trabajadora, dedicada a las tareas. Jamás me habría imaginado la situación en la que estamos”, dijo a La Tercera el administrador apostólico de la Diócesis de Talca, Galo Fernández, refiriéndose al caso del ex canciller del arzobispado capitalino, Óscar Muñoz Toledo. El sacerdote, se encuentra detenido mientras es investigado por la fiscalía de O´Higgins, por cargos de estupro y abuso sexual.

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.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
El Mercurio / Emol.com

July 22, 2018

[Bishop Goic questioned treatment that Archbishop Ezzati gave to cases of sexual abuse in the Church

“Sometimes I have the impression, perhaps very subjective, that you do not share the criteria of the National Commission on these sensitive issues,” he wrote in the middle of the investigation into the Karadima case in 2013.]

[See also the article in El Mercurio.]

“A veces tengo la impresión, quizás muy subjetiva, que no compartes los criterios de la Comisión Nacional en estos delicados temas”, le escribió en medio de la investigación por el caso Karadima en 2013.

En medio de la investigación que realiza el fiscal regional de O’Higgins, Emiliano Arias, sobre un eventual encubrimiento en casos de abuso sexual cometidos por sacerdotes, se descrubió una carta escrita por el actual obispo emérito Alejandro Goic dirigida al arzobispo Ricardo Ezzati.

El año 2013, cuando se reveló el caso Karadima, Goic oficiaba como obispo de Rancagua y presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Abusos. Bajo ese cargo se dirigió al líder de la Iglesia chilena por escrito, en una carta que fue incautada ahora por el Ministerio Público desde el obispado de esa ciudad, y de la que se desconoce si finalmente fue enviada y conocida por Ezzati.

“A veces tengo la impresión, quizás muy subjetiva, que no compartes los criterios de la Comisión Nacional en estos delicados temas. A su vez, miembros de la Comisión manifiestan su disconformidad frente a algunas situaciones que te ha tocado asumir. A mí no me ha sido fácil. Mantener la comunión contigo y respetar y escuchar los juicios críticos de los integrantes requiere un equilibrio complejo. Quizás, es responsabilidad mía, ha faltado provocar un diálogo fraterno, en que, por el amor al Señor y a la Iglesia, conversemos sinceramente y aunemos criterios en materias que han marcado dolorosamente nuestra Iglesia”, dice la misiva revelada hoy por El Mercurio.

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.

DENVER (CO)
Crux

July 23, 2018

By Inés San Martín

Vatican City – Despite repeated attempts to distance himself from his country’s sexual abuse crisis, including recently asserting there’s a climate of “slander” against the Catholic Church, Chilean Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati of Santiago is facing mounting scrutiny for his role in the scandals both from outside the Church and in.

The latest headache for Ezzati, who heads the Archdiocese of Santiago, Chile’s capital, has come with the revelation of a letter by a brother archbishop, Alejandro Goic, who until recently led the Archdiocese of Rancagua.

Pope Francis accepted Goic’s resignation in June, after the bishop acknowledged he’d taken too long to respond to accusations that priests in his diocese were involved in a ring of abuses, including homosexuality and prostitution. A few days earlier, Goic had resigned his position as head of a national commission for abuse prevention.

On Sunday, a Chilean newspaper published a letter Goic had written as head of that commission on June 11, 2013, which was addressed to Ezzati.

“Sometimes I have the impression, perhaps subjective, that you don’t share the criteria of the national commission in these delicate issues,” he said, referring to the child abuse scandals.

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.

EASTON (PA)
The Express-Times

July 21, 2018

By Nick Falsone

A judge has ordered the release secret grand jury report on allegations of priest sex abuse dating back decades and involving six Pennsylvania dioceses, including the Diocese of Allentown.

Cambria County Judge Norman A. Krumenacker, who has jurisdiction over the grand jury report, gave the order on Friday in a move that could bring an end to a lengthy legal battle over whether the report should be made public.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed a brief arguing for the report’s release earlier this month after the state Supreme Court temporarily sealed it.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Friday that the Supreme Court decision was based on objections from 14 lawyers representing individuals named in the report, but not charged criminally. Those names have since been redacted.

The judge wrote in his order that the redacted report does not violate grand jury secrecy and “may be filed and made public in its current form at the discretion of the Supreme Court.”

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.

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

July 23, 2018

By Robert Mickens

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/23/the-catholic-churchs-sex-abuse-scandals-show-it-has-a-gay-priest-problem-theyre-trapped-in-the-closet/?utm_term=.aacf7b9adfe7

The Catholic Church is being rocked – again – by multiple high-level sexual abuse scandals, with allegations just in recent weeks surfacing in Chile, Honduras and D.C., home to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a once-super-popular cleric who is now facing accusations by five males of harassment or abuse.

And again, people say they are shocked and outraged, which shows how Catholics still refuse to see that there is an underlying issue to these cases. It is the fact that almost all of them concern males – whether they are adolescents, post-pubescent teens or young men.

And while no adult who is of sound psychosexual health habitually preys on those who are vulnerable, there is no denying that homosexuality is a key component to the clergy sex abuse (and now sexual harassment) crisis. With such a high percentage of priests with a homosexual orientation, this should not be surprising.

But let me be very clear: psychologically healthy gay men do not rape boys or force themselves on other men over whom they wield some measure of power or authority.

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.

WARRNAMBOOL (AUSTRALIA)
The Standard

July 22, 2018

By Rachael Houlihan

A south-west survivor of child sex abuse says a Warrnambool Street honouring a senior Catholic priest should be renamed.

The survivor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, says Fiscalini Drive in the Toohey Estate should be changed. She said she told Monsignor Leo Fiscalini she was being sexually abused in 1972 and he accused her of “telling lies” and left her in the care of her abuser.

“The County Court of Victoria has accepted my evidence as truthful, jailing my abuser last year,” she said.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuses acknowledged Fiscalini and Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew of a complaint Gerald Ridsdale had sexually molested a boy in Mortlake, yet they permitted him to continue working in the area.

Fiscalini instigated the purchase of the land in 1973 where the street now runs.

The woman contacted The Standard after last week reading about Emmanuel College’s decision to erect a plaque acknowledging child sex abuse within the church and that it should never happen again.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

July 21, 2018

Catholic bishops and community leaders were quick to issue dramatic and heart felt mea culpas over the church’s failures following the release of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s report in December, 2017.

The then president of the Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference, Denis Hart, cut straight to the heart of the issue: “This is a shameful past, in which a prevailing culture of secrecy and self-protection led to unnecessary suffering for many victims and their families,” he said.

“Once again I reiterate my unconditional apology for this suffering and a commitment to ensuring justice for those affected.”

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

AUSTRALIA
The Illawarra Mercury

July 22, 2018

By Joanne McCarthy

Australia’s Catholic priests have issued an extraordinary appeal to the Pope to remove Archbishop Philip Wilson, saying his refusal to resign is “galling” to priests and the community.

The executive of the National Council of Priests of Australia “wholeheartedly” endorsed calls for Wilson’s resignation only a day after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten backed Hunter abuse survivor Peter Gogarty’s call for the Pope to sack the Adelaide archbishop, formally a Wollongong bishop.

In a strongly worded statement described by Mr Gogarty as a “landmark” for the Australian Catholic Church, the NCP slammed the archbishop for refusing to resign after he was convicted of failing to report child sex allegations about Hunter priest Jim Fletcher to police.

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.

HARRISBURG (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

July 20, 2018

By Angela Couloumbis and Liz Navratil

Though a judge has cleared the way for the release of a key court document involving the grand jury report on Catholic clergy sexual abuse in Pennsylvania, the state’s highest court on Friday closed for the day without making it public and without explaining why.

The document was written by the state Attorney General’s Office, which led a nearly two-year grand jury investigation of abuse allegations by Catholic clergy in nearly every diocese in the state. It is expected to reveal new details of what is contained in the more than 800-page report the grand jury produced, portions of which lawyers for current and former clergy members are attempting to block on grounds that they are inaccurate or unfair.

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.

KOTTAYAM (INDIA)
The Indian Express

As Kerala Church, across denominations, fights the accusations, The Indian Express reports on what has brought it here and the debate within.

By Shaju Philip

On February 15, a 36-year-old employed in a private financial firm was collecting proofs to avoid paying excess tax. The management graduate, hailing from an Orthodox Syrian Christian family, wanted to submit his wife’s insurance policy. Sitting in his house at his native village, 20 km from Kottayam, he logged into his wife’s gmail account to get the statement.

As his wife sat beside him, he stumbled upon a bank statement which showed Rs 9,600 deducted from her account towards a bill from a five-star Kochi hotel in January. When he questioned her, she broke down claiming sexual exploitation going back 17 years by at least five priests of their Church, saying one of them had taken her to that hotel.

As evidence, she showed call details, chat history, social media accounts and bank statements. Since then, two of the priests have been arrested, while two have moved the Supreme Court for anticipatory bail.

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.

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
The Sunday Times

July 22, 2018

By Laoise Neylon

South Dublin councillors vote against flying standard in honour of visit by Pope Francis

South Dublin county council has voted not to fly the Vatican flag on County Hall in Tallaght during the papal visit next month.

A motion by Renua councillor Ronan McMahon to raise the flag in honour of Pope Francis was defeated by 11 votes to nine last week, with several abstentions.

The council’s protocols allow for the flag of a nation state to be flown in honour of a visiting dignitary, but only if councillors vote in favour.

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.

KOTTAYAM (INDIA)
Business Standard

July 22, 2018

The police have stepped up protection to a convent near here which is home to a nun who had alleged that she was sexually abused by a Catholic bishop.

“The increased police protection has been given after the police team probing her complaint asked for it,” said the official who did not wish to be identified.

Trouble began for Franco Mulakkal, the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar (Punjab) in June when the nun alleged that she was sexually abused by him several times between 2014 and 2016.

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.

WASILLA (ALASKA)
The Frontiersman

July 22, 2018

By Tim Rockey

Award-winning journalist and subject of the Academy Award winning 2015 film “Spotlight,” Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson, shared some insights and wisdom of a career spanning nearly five decades in journalism during an afternoon in Wasilla Thursday.

His work as part of the Spotlight team at the Boston Globe led to more than 600 stories detailing systemic abuse by the Catholic Church and subsequent cover-ups in Boston. Robinson, who was portrayed by actor Michael Keaton in the film, discussed journalism in the age of the Internet, principles of journalism, and growing fear for those doing investigative reporting, though not necessarily in the United States. Robinson answered questions for Frontiersman staff prior to a luncheon at Everett’s in Wasilla attended by public officials, teachers, dignitaries and others who wanted to hear what the award-winning journalist had to say.

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.

ERIE (PA)
The Herald (Sharon PA)

July 22, 2018

By Melissa Klaric

Victims like Daniel Bauer, who says he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest, have waited most of their lives for someone to listen and to validate their claims.

Bauer, 68, of Erie, did not testify in front of the 40th statewide grand jury that for two years investigated claims of child sex abuse by priests and allegations of a coverup by high-ranking church officials in six Pennsylvania Roman Catholic dioceses, including Erie.

“It’s been long enough,” Bauer said. “I’ve been trying to report abuse that happened to me for the past 30 years and each time I try, bishops don’t do anything about it. I feel victimized all over again.”

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.

HARRISBURG (PA)
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General

July 20, 2018

Attorney General Josh Shapiro issued the following statement in response to Judge Norman A. Krumenacker’s Opinion and Order released this morning. The judge’s order and opinion are linked.

“Last week, as directed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Attorney General Shapiro filed a brief to combat efforts to prevent the release of the entire Grand Jury report into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.”

“Today, Judge Krumenacker ruled in favor of the Commonwealth and victims that our brief should be made public.”

“Our office continues to fight to ensure this report is released and victims’ voices are heard by the people of Pennsylvania. This marks an important step in that process.”

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.

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Independent

July 22, 2018

By Jerome Reilly

‘The wounds of abuse are not historic but part of the present’

Pope Francis must address the “wounds” caused by clerical child sex abuse when he visits Ireland next month, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said yesterday.

The Pope’s two-day visit takes place on August 25 and 26 and coincides with the World Meeting of Families.

Some 80,000 people are expected for the climax of the gathering at Croke Park, with attendees from 116 countries.

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.

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

July 22, 2018

By Dan Herbeck

Gary Astridge and Robert Swierat are two Buffalo area men in their early 60s who say they were repeatedly raped by Catholic priests decades ago.

The two have something else in common – they say the Diocese of Buffalo has so far refused to accept any responsibility for the incidents because the abuser priests were members of religious orders and not ordained by the diocese.

Astridge said he was molested as a young boy by the Rev. Edward Townsend, who belonged to a religious order based in California but who worked for the diocese as a teacher at the old Cardinal Dougherty High School in Buffalo.

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.

WASHINGTON D.C.
The Washington Post

July 22, 2018

By Michelle Boorstein and and Julie Zauzmer

A month after the Vatican suspended Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from ministry, saying the prominent former D.C. archbishop had been credibly accused of sexually abusing a teenager decades ago, four additional complaints about sexual misconduct by the cardinal have surfaced.

Once a globe-trotting representative of the Catholic Church worldwide and one of the architects of the church’s policy on sexual abuse, McCarrick’s precipitous fall over the past month has shocked Catholics, especially in Washington, where he was a popular archbishop from 2001 to 2006.

McCarrick’s future now rests with Pope Francis, who as pontiff oversees the cardinals. Many church-watchers think this is a make-or-break moment for Francis because of McCarrick’s stature and the fact that Catholic clerical sex abuse crises are exploding in Chile and Honduras.

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.

WKBW-TV
Buffalo NY

July 20, 2018

Says he was abused at Niagara Falls parish in ’70s

By Charlie Specht

A second man has stepped forward alleging child sexual abuse at the hands of former Catholic priest and Buffalo non-profit executive Ronald T. Silverio.

Daniel McKean, 51, of Niagara Falls, said in an interview with 7 Eyewitness News that Silverio abused him while he was between seven and nine years old.

McKean said he was an altar boy at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Niagara Falls when Silverio would abuse him, typically three times per week.

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.