ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
Go Erie

May 17, 2018

By Ed Palattella
@ETNPalattella

Persico says he and Shapiro discussed pending grand jury report, which Persico says will contain ‘difficult’ information.

In the latest example that the Catholic Diocese of Erie is preparing for the release of a grand jury report, Erie Catholic Bishop Lawrence Persico met in Erie on Wednesday with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office is conducting the grand jury investigation.

The attorney general’s office has yet to release the grand jury report, though the grand jury’s term ended on April 30, suggesting that the release of the report could come soon.

In a statement released Wednesday night, Persico said he met with Shapiro to discuss the report, and Persico said he will accept its findings and will not block its release.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

May 17, 2018

Christina Tkacik
The Baltimore Sun

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against an East Baltimore Catholic school and a teacher who worked there following his arrest in a sex abuse case.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of the student alleges that Ryan Penalver, 27, a history teacher who had worked at St. Frances Academy, used his school email account to prey on the 15-year-old who expressed a desire to harm herself.

“This family [of the victim] is devastated and has asked us to uncover exactly how this happened,” said attorney Hassan Murphy, whose firm, Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, is handling the case.

The lawsuit alleges that prior to his abuse of the victim, listed under the pseudonym “Jill Doe,” Penalver had also engaged in inappropriate communications with other students and that members of the school community were aware of this.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Go Erie

May 17, 2018

The opening of the former Erie Catholic bishop’s second statement regarding a priest facing sexual abuse charges is curiously worded: “The Erie Times-News stated in its May 14, 2018, edition ‘that the Diocese of Erie engaged in a cover-up of David Poulson’s behavior under the administration of Bishop Donald Trautman,’ according to Attorney General Josh Shapiro.”

Let’s remove Trautman’s emphasis on the messenger and go to Shapiro’s own words concerning evidence the bishop never got around to mentioning in either of his statements.

“I would point out that Bishop Trautman was the leader during this time. … And this abuse and cover-up occurred largely during Trautman’s tenure,” Shapiro said at a May 8 news conference.

Shapiro’s characterization is drawn from an investigative grand jury’s presentment in the case charging the Rev. David Poulson, 64, with sexually abusing two boys between 2002 and 2010. The presentment cites a confidential memo dated May 24, 2010, in which Trautman references Poulson.

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CANADA
CBC News

May 16, 2018

An expert in preventing child sex abuse says that while convicted offenders changing their names may raise public concern, scorn from society can increase the risk they will reoffend.

This year, two Saskatchewan men released after serving time for child pornography offences have been thrust back into the public eye after legally changing their names. One of those men has since been charged with new offences.

Jenny Coleman, director of Stop It Now, a U.S.-based organization dedicated to preventing child sex abuse, said supports such as community acceptance, faith-based counselling and proper housing can help past offenders reintegrate into society. On the flip side, attention and disdain from their communities can push them back down a dark path.

“When their life is imbalanced, when it’s stressed out, when they’re a mess — it’s easier for them to cross lines and to cross boundaries,” said Jenny Coleman, director of Stop It Now, a U.S.-based organization dedicated to preventing child sex abuse.

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MICHIGAN
New York Post

By Natalie Musumeci

May 16, 2018

Michigan State University has reached a $500 million settlement with the hundreds of women and girls who say they were sexually abused by sicko sports doctor Larry Nassar.

The settlement was announced Tuesday by the university – where the depraved ex-USA Gymnastics doctor was on staff – and lawyers representing his more than 300 victims.

“Michigan State has shown leadership by its willingness to begin closing this dark chapter,” Jamie White, one of the attorneys suing MSU, told the Lansing State Journal. “The victims of Nassar can never be made whole but this is a step in the right direction.”

Nassar, who worked for the Olympic governing body of gymnastics and MSU for decades, has been sentenced to three prison terms — two for his sex abuse crimes and another for federal child pornography charges.

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MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

David Jesse and Gina Kaufman, Detroit Free Press

May 16, 2018

Michigan State University has settled hundreds of lawsuits filed against it by the survivors of MSU doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual assaults.

The settlement will cost the school $500 million. The school will pay $425 million now and hold $75 million in reserve in case other Nassar victims come forward.

MSU will now work on how it will pay the settlement, MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant told the Free Press.

Survivor attorney Jamie White said this is a chance for the women to begin to move forward.

“I don’t think they can ever be made whole, but this is a step in the right direction,” he said.

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ALABAMA
WTVY

By Ken Curtis

May 16, 2018

Dothan (WTVY)– A Baptist pastor charged earlier this year with three counts of Sexual Abuse involving two children is now charged with molesting a teenager.

Besides the earlier cases that investigators say involve boys under the age of 12, Williamson was most recently charged with illegally touching a 16-year old boy.

In the latest case, investigators say he “pushed in on the victim’s private parts in an effort to make him sit down.” He previously was charged with brushing against clothing in the genital area of two boys, one of them twice.

Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza said the first three incidents occurred at a summer church camp last year. Investigators say the latest arrest involves molestation that occurred between August and September of 2017.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A group of Chilean church sex abuse victims is making its voice heard as the country’s Catholic leadership meets with Pope Francis, demanding that the Vatican recognize crimes, cover-ups and the need for reparation.

A statement from six named victims of the Marist Brothers religious community — and other unnamed abuse survivors — was issued Wednesday on the second day of the emergency summit Francis convened with 34 Chilean bishops.

The scandal within the Marists, who operate schools in 79 countries, exploded in August when the community revealed that at least 14 minors had been abused by a brother. Another brother abused at least five more.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

16 May 2018

by Ruth Gledhill

It is “vital” that Cardinal Vincent Nichols give evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), a lawyer has told a hearing.

Sam Stein QC, said at a preliminary hearing into the Archdiocese of Birmingham, that he has been pressing “for some time” for Cardinal Vincent Nichols to appear in person. Mr Stein said that whilst he appreciated counsel to the inquiry is “wanting to take a step-by-step process” in terms of potentially calling him as a witness, “it is obvious that where he was the Archbishop of Birmingham from the year 2000 to 2009, he is key to many of these events.”

Setting out details of the hearing, which is taking place in November, counsel to the inquiry, Jacqueline Carey, said that a number of core participants had also requested the Cardinal give evidence; he will be asked to give a statement and after it has been received, consideration would be given to him appearing in person. She added: “It is also anticipated that Cardinal Nichols will be asked to provide a statement in respect of the wider Roman Catholic Church investigation and, again, once received, the inquiry will consider that statement and consider whether he should be called in respect of the wider hearing as well.”

Ms Carey outlined that allegations of abuse had been made against more than 40 people “involving a large number of complainants” and that at least 14 priests have been convicted before the criminal courts. The inquiry will consider several case examples more fully, including those of Fr Samuel Penny and Fr James Robinson both of whom were convicted.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Forward

Ari Feldman

May 16, 2018

he Reform movement’s rabbinical association censured the rabbi of a Durham, North Carolina synagogue after receiving a complaint that was “sexual in nature,” but didn’t tell his congregation, spurring a watchdog group to demand that the movement be more forthcoming about accusations of sexual wrongdoing against its clergy.

“It’s kind of shocking,” said Shulamit Magnus, a professor of Jewish history at Oberlin College who helps lead the Committee on Ethics in Jewish Leadership, a group that has advocated for a standard set of professional ethical guidelines across Jewish organizations. “After all the awareness that’s been raised in the #MeToo era, this is not something that we should be hearing about at this stage.”

The committee’s call for more transparency comes almost a year after the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis admitted it had not widely disclosed that another rabbi had been expelled for violating “sexual boundaries” and for “financial misconduct.” The Conference subsequently released a list of expelled rabbis.

Now activists like Magnus are saying the lack of transparency on the part of the CCAR toward Durham’s Judea Reform Congregation shows that the list is not enough. The CCAR needs to tell congregations about any sexual complaints they receive against their rabbis, she said.

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MARYLAND
JMore

by Simone Ellin, Associate Editor

May 4, 2018

This article was updated at 10:30 a.m. on May 9.

A letter was recently made public by nearly 40 congregants of Temple Oheb Shalom, expressing support for the synagogue’s board of directors regarding last week’s suspension of Rabbi Steven M. Fink for alleged sexual misconduct.

On the morning of May 3, members of Temple Oheb Shalom were notified in an email signed by the Pikesville congregation’s president, Mina Wender, that the synagogue’s longtime spiritual leader was suspended with pay.

According to the temple’s letter, the suspension came after allegations “of an improper incident of a sexual nature that may have occurred a number of years ago involving Rabbi Fink and a then teenager, who was a minor at the time.”

Also on May 3, an email titled “An Open Letter to Oheb Shalom” was circulated among a select group of congregants.

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UTAH
Fox 13

MAY 16, 2018

BY BEN WINSLOW

SALT LAKE CITY — In a pair of legal motions, both The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the ex-Missionary Training Center leader accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 1984 ask a federal judge to dismiss her lawsuit.

McKenna Denson speaks to reporters at a news conference alongside her attorney, Craig Vernon, over her lawsuit against the LDS Church. (Photo by Ben Winslow, FOX 13 News)

McKenna Denson filed a lawsuit earlier last month against the LDS Church and Joseph Bishop, accusing him of attacking her inside a room at the faith’s Missionary Training Center when she was a young sister missionary. In their response to those lawsuits, the Mormon church and Bishop say the lawsuit is brought too late.

“Plaintiff McKenna Denson initiated this lawsuit amid a media flourish in early April 2018. At the core of her complaint is the allegation that Defendant Joseph Bishop sexually assaulted her in early 1984,” Bishop’s attorney, Andrew Deiss, wrote in a motion to dismiss.

“The time to prosecute these claims, however, is long past—they are all barred by the applicable statute of limitations. Because the time to bring these claims has expired, the Court should dismiss all claims against Mr. Bishop with prejudice.”

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JAPAN
NHK

The chief priest at Yakushiji Temple in Nara City has resigned over what he calls an improper relationship with a woman. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Buddhist temple’s chief steward said on Tuesday that the temple had accepted Taiin Murakami’s resignation, and allowed him to leave Yakushiji.

Murakami assumed the post in August 2016. He led the project to reconstruct most of the temple’s buildings by May 2017. A ceremony was held this month to connect the central pillar of the East Pagoda.

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CANADA
Global News

May 15, 2018

By Mike Armstrong
Global National Quebec Correspondent Global News

A convicted pedophile priest has left behind a confession meant to help his victims sue the church.

Paul-Andre Harvey died of natural causes May 3 at a minimum security prison in Laval, Que. He was serving a six-year sentence for the sexual abuse of 39 girls.

Over the last several months, Harvey wrote a series of documents in French, explaining his crimes and laying out how he got away with them for decades.

Harvey blames police for not stopping him, and his superiors for not getting him help.

Harvey writes that when he was confronted by the bishop at the time, there were no consequences. “He told me to be more careful around children in the future and to pray more.”

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

May 15, 2018

By Kelly Heyboer kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com,
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

One of New Jersey’s most elite private schools says it will improve programs to protect students on its campus as part of a settlement reached last week with 21 victims of alleged sexual abuse at the school.

The Pingry School also reached a financial settlement with the victims for an undisclosed amount, according to a statement released Friday.

“We are deeply sorry for the abuse the survivors experienced while at our school and the pain they have endured since. Their courage in coming forward is extraordinary,” Jeffrey Edwards, chairman of Pingry’s board of trustees, said in the statement.

Pingry released a report last year that said a popular teacher and Boy Scout leader at the school was accused of abusing at least 27 boys over six years in the mid 1970s.

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SCOTLAND
Bishops’ Conference of Scotland

March 2018

1.1 We promote the safe use of Church premises.

1.1.1 The provision of safe environments is an essential requirement for all Church activities that involve children and vulnerable groups.

1.1.2 Where premises are owned, leased or occupied by the Catholic Church and used by parish groups working with vulnerable groups, the group leader must take responsibility for agreeing the use of Church premises with the Parish Priest or with the person appointed by him.

1.1.3 Where a non-parish-based group uses Church premises for activities involving vulnerable groups on a regular basis, the group leader must produce written evidence that the group observes an appropriate Safeguarding policy in their organisation. This must be presented to the person responsible for managing the Church premises, prior to the group using the premises.

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SCOTLAND
Bishops’ Conference of Scotland

This leaflet outlines the Safeguarding efforts of the Catholic Church in Scotland, in terms of people and policies.

It also provides advice to anyone who has a concern about, or who receives an allegation of, abuse.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

16 May 2018

Last month, the Catholic Church in Scotland ­published its new ­safeguarding manual, In God’s Image, offering comprehensive ­guidance and instruction on every aspect of safeguarding in the church.

It has been shaped by the recent experience and developing expertise of those involved in the front line of safeguarding in the church, both in Scotland and internationally.

In signing and ratifying this ­publication, the bishops of Scotland took the opportunity to repeat and renew apologies made to those who have suffered any form of abuse, at any time, by anyone representing the church.

We aspire to the highest standards of care and protection and we are committed to rebuilding trust and confidence in the ways in which we ensure that children, young people and vulnerable adults are kept safe.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Inside Higher Ed

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

May 16, 2018

The accusations against Columbia International University President Mark Smith were shocking enough — a former university general counsel alleging that Smith covered up rampant sexual harassment and bigotry by his son when they were both employed by another religious college.

With the allegations against Smith and his son, Doug Smith, still reverberating at the university, alumni have gone public with other stories about a longstanding climate of sexual harassment and assault. How the former Columbia International president Bill Jones would stroke the hair of students and tickle them without permission. How professors there would do everything from kiss students’ foreheads to pass on rumors they had dated “too many men.”

One faculty member sexually assaulted a student, a graduate alleges.

While the university maintains administrators were ignorant of these allegations, and indeed the graduates said they did not report them at the time, they reinforce an image of religious institutions that many have tried to shake: that sexual misconduct at best goes ignored, and worst, is knowingly dismissed.

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TEXAS
Star-Telegram

SARAH SMITH
ssmith@star-telegram.com

May 15, 2018

A pastor booted from a megachurch for viewing “inappropriate images” on his church computer in 2016 has found a job as an associate pastor in Fort Worth, according to his website.

Scott Crenshaw had served as a senior pastor at the New River Fellowship Church at the time, which has campuses in Mineral Wells, Benbrook and Hudson Oaks (the corporate office is in Weatherford).

The board of directors removed him and issued a statement: “Leadership confronted him and discussed at length the concern, the nature of which was related to inappropriate images on his church office computer.” Crenshaw had agreed to seek counseling, the statement said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican News

May 15, 2018

By Vatican News

Pope Francis has given the Bishops of Chile a series of themes for meditation at their meeting Tuesday at the Vatican.

Addressing the crisis

Chile sex abuse: Pope Francis begs forgiveness for “serious mistakes”
The Holy Father called the meeting with the Chilean episcopate to address the crisis of clerical sexual abuse, and the failure of church leaders to respond adequately to it. The meeting was prompted by the reception of 2300-page report by two special envoys sent to Rome by Pope Francis earlier this year. The envoys, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and Fr Jordi Bertomeu Farnós, travelled to the Americas to hear testimony from victims of clerical abuse.

Upon receiving the final report, Pope Francis “humbly” requesting the Bishops’ “collaboration and assistance in discerning the short-, mid-, and long-term measures that must be adopted to re-establish ecclesial communion in Chile, with the goal of repairing as much as possible the scandal, and re-establishing justice.” The meeting in Rome is intended to discuss the results of the envoys’ visit and discuss the Pope’s conclusions.

A time for meditation and prayer

The Pope held the first meeting with the Bishops on Tuesday afternoon in the auletta of the Paul VI Hall. Thirty-four Chilean Bishops were in attendance. According to a statement from the Holy See Press Office, the Pope gave each of the Bishops a text with themes for meditation. “From this moment and until the next meeting, a time is open [which is] dedicated exclusively to meditation and prayer,” the statement said.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

May 15, 2018

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Since law enforcement never filed rape and molestation charges against former Catholic priest Sabine Griego, seven people who say they are victims of his sexual abuse are now taking up the mission of accountability in a civil lawsuit filed last week.

Documents released under court order by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in a separate civil lawsuit show that by 2017 the archdiocese had reached settlement agreements with 32 New Mexicans who alleged that Griego sexually abused them as children. The Archdiocese faces dozens of suits regarding its role in covering up pedophile priest behavior.

This suit, filed May 9 in 4th District Court in Las Vegas by Albuquerque attorneys Brad Hall and Levi Monagle, targets Griego as an individual. It alleges he raped, abused and molested six male children and one female child at his home, in his car, at the churches he worked at and at his mother’s home in Las Vegas over decades.

The seven plaintiffs, now all New Mexico residents in their 50s, are in addition to victims identified by the church who were abused by Griego and by two other priests, Jason Sigler and Arthur Perrault, who have been named in dozens of civil lawsuits dating to the 1990s.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

Inés San Martín
VATICAN_CORRESPONDENT

May 15, 2018

ROME – After the first meeting between Pope Francis and 34 Chilean bishops to talk about “extraordinary challenges [regarding] abuse of power, sexual [abuse] and [abuses] of conscience” facing the Chilean Church, on Tuesday the Vatican released a statement saying Francis had given the prelates a text on which to “pray and meditate.”

“This afternoon the pope gave each of the bishops a text with some themes on which to meditate; from now on until the next meeting, a moment opens dedicated exclusively to meditation and prayer,” the short statement says.

The statement was released after the first meeting between the pope and the prelates came to an end. Having started at 4:00 pm local, it lasted for about two hours and took place in the auletta of the Paul VI Synod Hall, a room located in the hall where popes hold their weekly audiences during bad-weather months.

There will be three more meetings: One on Wednesday afternoon and two on Thursday.

The bishops were summoned to Rome by Francis in a letter dated April 8. He penned it after receiving a report from Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Spanish priest Jordi Bertomeu. The pontiff had tasked them with looking into Bishop Juan Barros, who’s been accused of covering up for a pedophile priest.

Scicluna and Bertomeu presented a 2,300-page long report that led to Francis acknowledging that he’d made “serious errors.” He also asked three victims of Father Fernando Karadima, who’s been found guilty by the Vatican of sexually abusing minors, to come to Rome. They did so in late April.

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MICHIGAN
Huron Daily Tribune

By Brenda Battel
Tribune Staff Writer

[wtih documents]

May 15, 2018

BAD AXE — A prosecutor handling a sexual abuse investigation involving priests from the Diocese of Saginaw denies threatening the Diocese in a 2004 letter.

Mark Gaertner is a former Huron County prosecutor who now works as an assistant prosecutor in Saginaw County. The Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office is working with law enforcement regarding investigations of prior sexual abuse of minors by priests in the Diocese.

Gaertner was the Huron County prosecutor when Bad Axe Police investigated a former Bad Axe Priest, Jack E. Leipert, following allegations of sexual abuse while serving at Sacred Heart Church in 2000. In that case, the county elected to not file charges against Leipert.

At the time, a 21-year-old Caseville man claimed Leipert sexually molested him.

The Diocese told the Tribune this week that it was that complaint that led to Leipert’s removal from the ministry in 2001

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INDIA
New Indian Express

16th May 2018

By Express News Service

KOCHI: In yet another child abuse case, the Kochi central police on Tuesday registered an FIR on the statements given by three minor sisters. Though a case under the POCSO Act has been registered, the police are yet to name any person. A Christian priest is allegedly involved, they said.

As per the girls’ statement, they and their mother were at a retreat centre at Madukkarai near Coimbatore. During prayer time, a woman at the centre had a revelation the elder girl, around 16 years old, is hiding something from them, the statement said. “When asked, the girl revealed they were sexually abused at their school at Kakkanad. They were also taken to other Christian establishments and subjected to sexual abuse there too,” the FIR said.

The police took the children for medical examination and shifted them to a children’s home. “We have registered an FIR. The allegations are very sensitive and we are probing them in detail,” said a cop.

The police said this may be a tip of the iceberg, and more children might have been lured to the retreat centre. The girls’ father had said Unnieshobhavan authorities were canvassing innocent people, particularly Kerala women, on false promises. Those who run the asylum were dismissed from the diocese for illegal activities and are maintaining the asylum to achieve their ill motives of keeping innocent in their custody in the name of Jesus.

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ILLINOIS
WGN

MAY 15, 2018

BY MARCELLA RAYMOND AND NANCY LOO

CHICAGO — A former youth minister has been accused of sending inappropriate pictures and messages to minors several times since 2014.

Daniel Ramos, 29, of Burbank, was arrested Monday. He appeared in bond court Tuesday and was charged with four felonies including child pornography, indecent solicitation of a child and grooming. The alleged victims are as young as 12 and as old as 17.

Daniel Ramos was the youth pastor at Victory Worship Church on the Northwest Side up until last summer when one of the alleged victims, who was between 14 and 15 at the time of the abuse, told her mother, who told the lead pastor.

Lead pastor Chris Wallace stresses Ramos hasn’t worked with the center for many months, and said the church alerted authorities last summer after learning of possible misconduct.

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CHILE
National Catholic Register

May 15, 2018

Edward Pentin

While Pope Francis meets the bishops of Chile over the next three days to formulate a response to the abuse crisis in the country (see below), a case involving sexual abuse in a Jesuit school for 12- to 17-year-old boys has been making headlines in Chile but receiving little attention outside the country.

The charges relate to abuse perpetrated in the 1980s and 1990s by Father Jaime Guzman Astaburuaga who has been prevented from exercising ministry or being in the vicinity of minors after the Society of Jesus found him guilty in 2012 of a series of abuses.

The abuses included improper touching in the confessional, taking photographs of students in the nude during retreats and displaying the pictures on a school bulletin board, and perpetrating acts of violence against minors. The abuse only became public in January.

While Pope Francis meets the bishops of Chile over the next three days to formulate a response to the abuse crisis in the country (see below), a case involving sexual abuse in a Jesuit school for 12- to 17-year-old boys has been making headlines in Chile but receiving little attention outside the country.

The charges relate to abuse perpetrated in the 1980s and 1990s by Father Jaime Guzman Astaburuaga who has been prevented from exercising ministry or being in the vicinity of minors after the Society of Jesus found him guilty in 2012 of a series of abuses.

The abuses included improper touching in the confessional, taking photographs of students in the nude during retreats and displaying the pictures on a school bulletin board, and perpetrating acts of violence against minors. The abuse only became public in January.

The Colegio San Ignacio at which Father Guzman taught is reputed by local Catholics in Chile to have a history for being “ultra-liberal,” and is located just three blocks away from the conservative and affluent El Bosque parish, once run by Father Fernando Karadima. Found guilty of a series of abuses dating back to the 1980s, Father Karadima is at the center of the abuse crisis in the country, involving charges of cover-up by four of the country’s bishops. at which Father Guzman taught is reputed by local Catholics in Chile to have a history for being “ultra-liberal,” and is located just three blocks away from the conservative and affluent El Bosque parish, once run by Father Fernando Karadima. Found guilty of a series of abuses dating back to the 1980s, Father Karadima is at the center of the abuse crisis in the country, involving charges of cover-up by four of the country’s bishops.

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UNITED STATES
The Guardian (UK)

May 14, 2018

Children are being coerced and blackmailed into live-streaming their own sexual abuse from their own homes, researchers have found.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which carried out the study, says that large numbers of victims are white girls apparently from relatively affluent backgrounds, often streaming from their bedroom. Their profile contrasts markedly with that of typical offline abuse victims who are often homeless or poor, it points out.

In a three-month period last year, the charity identified 2,082 images and videos of live-streamed child sexual abuse. Of that number, 96% were girls and 98% were children aged 13 and under, with most (69%) assessed to be between 11 and 13. Almost three in 10 (28%) were aged under 10 and the youngest victim was just three years old.

The vast majority (96%) showed a child on their own in a home environment, leading the IWF to conclude they are being groomed, coerced and blackmailed into live-streaming their own sexual abuse over webcams, tablets and mobile phones.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The retired archbishop of Santiago is denying he covered-up for an abusive priest in Chile, but is acknowledging the priest’s popularity and ability to produce seminarians weighed on his decision-making.

Cardinal Javier Errazuriz wrote a letter May 10 to his fellow bishops defending his handling of the case at the center of Chile’s sex abuse and cover-up scandal. That scandal is at the heart of an emergency summit between Pope Francis and 34 bishops that began Tuesday to try to map a recovery strategy from the crisis that has discredited the Chilean church and tarnished Francis’ own reputation.

In the letter, obtained by The Associated Press, Errazuriz insisted that he was only following church law in waiting more than five years before launching an investigation into the Rev. Fernando Karadima. Only in 2009, after he received a third complaint from one of Karadima’s young parishioners, did he start the process.

Errazuriz wrote that it had been “difficult” to reach the Vatican-required standard of being convinced that the accusations were “at least likely,” particularly given Karadima’s popularity.

“They were accusing a priest with a great pastoral calling, whose preaching enriched more than 30 young people who were ordained priests and four priests who were consecrated bishops,” Errazuriz wrote. “They also accused a priest who inspired a youth association that propagated his fame.”

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

May 15, 2018

Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Thirty-four Chilean bishops summoned to the Vatican over a cover-up of sexual abuse by clergy began crisis meetings with Pope Francis on Tuesday that could result in a purge of Chile’s Catholic hierarchy.

“We feel pain and shame,” Fernando Ramos, an auxiliary bishop of Santiago, told a news conference ahead of the three days of closed-door meetings.

The scandal has devastated the credibility of the Church in the once staunchly Catholic country. It has also hurt the pope’s own image because this year he strongly defended a bishop accused in the alleged cover-up before reversing his position.

Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez of the city of San Bernardo said he could not rule out some of the tainted bishops resigning or being sacked, as many Chileans have demanded.

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
Yahoo!

May 15, 2018

Melbourne (AFP) – The trial of top Papal aide Cardinal George Pell for alleged historic sexual offences could be held in secret after prosecutors on Tuesday sought a blanket ban on media coverage.

Pell’s case returns to the Victoria County Court in Melbourne on Wednesday, when trial dates are expected to be set and the judge is due to rule on the media ban.

Pell will be the highest-ranked Catholic to face a jury after being committed to stand trial a fortnight ago. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

But reporting could be off-limits after prosecutors applied for an order to suppress “any report of the whole or any part of these proceedings and any information derived from this proceeding and any court documents associated with this proceeding”.

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 Tablet

May 15, 2018

A Chilean bishop has acknowledged the damage inflicted on survivors of clerical sex abuse and the mishandling of cases by church leaders in the country.

“I am not saying that perhaps we have made mistakes. We have made mistakes,” said Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez Errazuriz of San Bernardo.

Bishop Gonzalez, along with Auxiliary Bishop Fernando Ramos Perez of Santiago, met with journalists on 14 May on the eve of a three-day meeting between Pope Francis and 34 Chilean bishops.

Chile’s bishops are meeting with Francis this week (15 – 17 May) in an attempt to understand the causes of the clerical sexual abuse crisis in their country and the “mechanisms” that led to its 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.

PENNSYLVANIA
TribLive

May 14, 2018

The state Legislature needs to address the statute of limitations regarding child sex cases.

There are far too many cases that cannot be prosecuted because victims did not report these heinous crimes when they were children.

“Children are targeted by predators because they are vulnerable, they are young and they struggle with shame, confusion or fear,” state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “But once a victim finds the courage to come forward, law enforcement must take action.”

Shapiro made his remarks May 1 when announcing charges against a Catholic priest from the Diocese of Erie who is accused of abusing two boys for years. Even more sickening, prosecutors allege the priest forced one of the children to “confess” to the sex acts during confession.

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 MEXICO
KOB

Chris Ramirez

May 14, 2018

LAS VEGAS, N.M. — For the countless victims of clergy sex abuse in New Mexico, many feel let down by police, prosecutors and other adults who should have helped them.

The fight isn’t over. In a new lawsuit, seven men allege that former Catholic Priest Sabine Griego raped them repeatedly between 1968 and 1984.

“The goal in these seven survivors in focusing on Griego specifically is to draw attention to the fact that he has escaped any kind of prosecution, even though he has been known as a credible abuser for more than 20 years,” said Levi Monagle, who is one of the attorneys in the case.

In November 2017, 4 Investigates found Griego living in Las Vegas and discovered he had taught at a local community college where he had access to minors. When asked about the dozens of people who have accused him of raping them as children, he stormed off.

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.

ROME
Crux

Claire Giangravè
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

May 15, 2018

ROME – In the ongoing case involving the leader of a lay Catholic association in Sicily charged with the sexual abuse of at least six underage girls, a former bishop of the local diocese in the 1980s has denied having any knowledge of the accusations and said the issue “had been buried.”

“No one came to tell me clearly how things stood,” said Monsignor Giuseppe Malandrino, who was Bishop of Acireale for over 18 years (1979-1998), in an early May interview with local media. “What can I control if there’s nothing? Now everyone speaks, but at the time…”

The lay-led “Catholic Culture and Environment Association,” or ACCA, came under fire in August 2017 when its spiritual leader, Piero Alfio Capuana, 73, was arrested and charged with the sexual abuse of six minors.

Capuana, who denies the allegations, is known as the “Archangel” among his followers. He spent six months in prison, and is currently under house arrest awaiting trial.

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
Vatican News

May 15, 2018

Pope Francis is currently holding a series of closed-door meetings with the Bishops of Chile to formulate a response to the abuse crisis that has rocked the Church in that country. The discussions are being attended by 31 diocesan and auxiliary bishops and 3 emeritus bishops, and will be ongoing until May 17th.

Press conference of two Chilean bishops

On the eve of the meeting, two Chilean bishops held a press conference in Rome. They are Bishop Fernando Ramos, Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago and General Secretary of the Chilean Episcopal Conference, and Bishop Juan Ignacio González of San Bernardo.

Called by the Pope

Archbishop Ramos recalled Pope Francis’ letter of April 8th with which he summoned the bishops to the Vatican. He explained how the Bishops have come specifically: “To receive the conclusions of the report by Archbishop Scicluna following his visit to Chile, and also to discern short, medium and long term measures to restore communion and justice”. These, according to the General Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference were “the two great themes to which the Holy Father invited us with his letter”.

Discerning responsibilities

Speaking at the press conference in Rome, Archbishop Ramos said the content of the meetings with the Pope would include: “The issues of abuse of power, abuse of conscience, and sexual abuse, that have occurred in recent decades in the Chilean Church, as well as the mechanisms that led, in some cases, to concealment and serious omissions against the victims. A second point is to share the conclusions the Holy Father drew from Archbishop Scicluna’s report. And a third point is the Pope’s invitation to make a long synodal process of discernment to understand the responsibilities of each and every one regarding these terrible wounds of abuse, and to seek necessary changes so that they are not repeated”.

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
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

May 14, 2018

About half of the nearly 170 people who filed clergy sex abuse lawsuits have completed giving details and additional information to the Archdiocese of Agana’s attorneys during interviews to help evaluate claims for possible settlement.

Attorney David Lujan said 40 of the nearly 120 clergy sex abuse victims he represents had already been interviewed as of last week and interviews will continue in the next few weeks.

More than 40 plaintiffs represented by two other law firms gave their interviews in March and April. A third law firm, representing 10 plaintiffs, also has separate interviews.

Interview is part of pre-mediation process

The interview process is much like a deposition. Each person who filed a clergy sex abuse lawsuit is interviewed for an average of two hours, and those present during the interview are attorneys for the defendants including the archdiocese, along with the plaintiff’s own attorney.

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.

OHIO
The Blade

By Jennifer Feehan | BLADE STAFF WRITER

May 14, 2018

One of three Toledo area pastors caught up in an alleged child sex trafficking scheme admitted in court Monday that he had sex with two minor girls, even at times at his friend’s church office.

Kenneth Butler, 38, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to sex traffic children, obstruction of a sex trafficking investigation, and two counts of sex trafficking of children.

Although three of the charges carry maximum possible sentences of life in prison, Butler is to be sentenced to 17½ years in prison as part of a plea agreement. Judge Jack Zouhary scheduled sentencing for Sept. 12.

“This defendant has admitted to crimes that include preying on a foster child who was previously the victim of sexual abuse, and he committed these crimes in a house of worship,” U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herdman said in a news release. “Butler may hold himself out to the community as a pastor, but in the eyes of the law he is a criminal who pays money to sexually assault 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.

OHIO
Patch

By Chris Mosby, Patch Staff

May 14, 2018

TOLEDO, OH — A former Toledo-area pastor had sex with two underage girls, including a victim of sexual abuse, according to a plea agreement released by the Department of Justice. Kenneth Butler will now likely spend the next 17 years of his life in prison.

“This defendant has admitted to crimes that include preying on a foster child who was previously the victim of sexual abuse, and he committed these crimes in a house of worship,” U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herdman said. “Butler may hold himself out to the community as a pastor, but in the eyes of the law he is a criminal who pays money to sexually assault children.”

According to Butler’s plea agreement, between 2015 and March 2017, the pastor had sex with two girls both under the age of 18. On different occasions, he gave the girls small amounts of cash or rides before engaging in sexual acts.

Prior to coming to Toledo, Butler was a pastor of a Detroit church for five years. His church closed in 2013, and then he moved south and became a member of the Greater Life Christian Center in Toledo. Butler became friends with Anthony Haynes, who was the lead pastor of the church at that 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.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

May 14, 2018

An investigation into how an ex youth worker jailed for child sex offences almost became a foster carer is due to start after almost a year of delays.

Ex youth worker Michael ‘Mik’ Smith was jailed in 2014 for sexual offences against children.

He was almost approved to become a foster carer by Pembrokeshire council despite concerns about his conduct.

The council said an independent chairman would be appointed in June.

A cabinet inquiry into the council’s dealings with Smith was due to begin in June 2017, but it has not yet begun after attempts to start it failed due to issues forming a task and finish group.

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.

MARYLAND
WBAL

May 14, 2918

Barry Simms

BALTIMORE —
A former teacher at a Baltimore Catholic school faces child sex abuse charges.

Police arrested Ryan Penalver, 27, after St. Frances Academy received allegations that he had an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old female student. Penalver had been held without bail, but a judge released him Monday on his own recognizance.

Penalver has taught history at St. Frances Academy for seven years. He’s charged with sex abuse of a minor, third- and fourth-degree sex offenses, second-degree child abuse and perverted practice.

“We believe the relationship started in April and continued into May. A friend of the victim reported it to the school, who immediately contacted Child Protective Services, and they contacted us,” Baltimore police Detective Jeremy Silbert 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.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

By Elise Harris

Vatican City, May 14, 2018 / 01:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking on the eve of a 3-day meeting with Pope Francis about a massive clerical abuse scandal, several Chilean prelates said they are ready to listen, and to work toward eradicating sexual abuse in the Church.

In a May 14 press conference ahead of their May 15-17 meeting with Pope Francis, two leading Chilean bishops said clerical sexual abuse is “unacceptable” and “intolerable,” and is something they are committed to eradicating.

The bishops said their attitude going into meetings with the pope this week is one of “pain and shame,” and that their main goals are to listen to what Francis has to say and to find a way forward which brings both healing and reparation for victims, as well as stricter prevention measures.

In comments to the media, Bishop Fernando Ramos, auxiliary bishop of Santiago, said he and his fellow prelates feel pain because “there are victims, people, who have suffered these abuses and this causes us great pain.”

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.

MARYLAND
Fox Baltimore

May 14, 2018

by Bryna Zume

BALTIMORE (WBFF) – A teacher at an east Baltimore Catholic school has been fired after he allegedly had “an inappropriate relationship with a student,” according to a letter sent by the school.

Ryan Penalver, 27, was a history teacher at Saint Frances Academy, on East Chase Street near Greenmount Avenue, since 2012.

He allegedly had a relationship with a 15-year-old student and was arrested Friday, said police.

The school sent a letter to parents and guardians saying: “In accordance with Maryland law and the policies of the school, SFA reported the allegations to Child Protective Services as soon as possible. Mr. Penalver was relieved of his duties immediately, and is no longer an employee of the school.”

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

MAY 14, 2018

A 1983 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette feature article opens with heart-warming words that — 35 years later — now chill the blood:

“The Rev. Lawrence A. O’Connell, pastor of St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin Church in Whitehall, wishes only to live out his remaining years near his beloved elementary school and its children.”

The longtime parish pastor, officially retiring at age 77, said he hoped “to remain here to teach religion and stay active with the children. … I used to greet them all as they came in the door.”

O’Connell died of a heart attack in 1986, his public good name intact.

In 2004, a different narrative emerged.

That year, two women sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh to say that in those hallway greetings when they were young students in the 1950s and 1960s, O’Connell would for years put his arms around them, fondle their breasts and force them to kiss him.

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.

CANADA
Oak Bay News

STEVEN HEYWOOD

May. 14, 2018

Angel Sampson recalls being called “heathen,” “savage,” and “evil.”

She also remembers the fear of attending school, where she experienced not only emotional abuse, but physical harm at the hands of the people entrusted with her education and care.

From 1964 to ‘67, and starting when she was six years old, Sampson attended the Tsartlip Indian Day School in Brentwood Bay. It wasn’t what people might recognize as a residential school — the site of pain and suffering by many of Canada’s Indigenous people — but the conditions Sampson says she faced were not any different.

In fact, the only difference, she said, was that the children got to go home at night.

That still didn’t prevent the abuse from happening, she said. Sampson remembers having her hair pulled, being choked and battered unconscious to the point where other students thought she’d died. As a young child, she said you were afraid to talk about it, and the nuns of the Catholic Church who ran the Day School created an environment where the children were fearful of speaking 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.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

May 14, 2018

by Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — A Chilean bishop acknowledged the damage inflicted on survivors of clerical sex abuse and the mishandling of cases by church leaders in the country.

“I am not saying that perhaps we have made mistakes. We have made mistakes,” said Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez Errazuriz of San Bernardo.

Gonzalez, along with Auxiliary Bishop Fernando Ramos Perez of Santiago, met with journalists May 14 on the eve of a three-day meeting between Pope Francis and 34 Chilean bishops.

The bishops are meeting at the Vatican May 15-17 to discuss with Francis their handling of clerical sex abuse allegations.

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.

ROME
America

Gerard O’Connell

May 14, 2018

The 34 Chilean bishops have come to Rome “in pain and shame” because of the victims who have suffered abuse in their church, and they are conscious that as bishops they have erred. They have come “in a spirit of humility and openness,” willing to hear what Pope Francis has to say to them, and “ready to collaborate with him and do whatever he asks.” That was the message that two representatives of the Chilean bishops communicated to the international press at a conference at the Vatican Radio center on May 14.

The bishops had delegated two of their number to meet the press this evening: Fernando Ramos Pérez, the secretary general of the bishops’ conference and auxiliary bishop in the Santiago archdiocese, and Juan Ignacio González Errázuriz, the bishop of San Bernardo and a member of Opus Dei.

Bishop Ramos said they would have several meetings with Pope Francis over the next three days, starting early Tuesday afternoon, May 15, and continuing until May 17. They would meet him as a group “in a long synodal process,” which may not necessarily conclude in these three days, “to discern the short-, medium- and long-term measures” that need to be taken in the face of the present situation. They did not yet know if they will have individual meetings with him. Nor is it scheduled that they will concelebrate the Eucharist with the pope, he said. They did not know exactly how this whole process will unfold.

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.

ROME
Crux

Inés San Martín
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

May 14, 2018

ROME – Some might say that the 34 Chilean bishops who are now in Rome to meet with Pope Francis to address the way they’ve handled clerical sexual abuse scandals are like lambs to the slaughter. Two of them projected just that image when talking to journalists on Monday, saying that they’ve come to Rome with “pain,” “shame,” and “humility,” to “listen” and “discern.”

Bishop Fernando Ramos Pérez, secretary general of the Chilean bishops’ conference, said that the bishops who have arrived in Rome have done so with “pain, because there are people who’ve been victims of abuse,” but also with shame, “because the abuses have occurred in ecclesial environments where this type of abuse should never happen.”

“We have made mistakes, many mistakes,” said Bishop Ignacio González, who acknowledged that the Catholic Church in Chile had failed when it comes to protecting children.

The bishop, a member of the Chilean council for the prevention of abuse and accompaniment of victims said he “understood the rage, the anger,” of Chilean survivors of abuse who’ve asked for Cardinal Francisco Errazuriz, the former Archbishop of Santiago, to face trial for covering up abuse.

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

WISCONSIN
The Cap Times

May 14, 2018

By Jessie Opoien

Milwaukee attorney Matt Flynn’s campaign manager said Monday the candidate is the subject of a “smear campaign” as he faces calls from Wisconsin women’s groups to drop out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Flynn, a former chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, represented the Archdiocese of Milwaukee against victims of sexual abuse by priests during his work with the law firm Quarles & Brady.

His campaign held a call with reporters on Monday to announce a series of videos featuring three supporters of Flynn’s campaign, including Karen Gotzler, the former director of the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center. Gotzler said as a person who was raised Catholic, she is pleased Flynn worked to “rid our church of these abusers.”

The call comes a week after the Wisconsin Women’s March and the Madison and Wisconsin chapters of the National Organization for Women called on Flynn to end his campaign.

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
Erie News Now

May 14th 2018

Bishop Emeritus Donald Trautman of the Erie Diocese issued a new statement Monday regarding the charges filed against former priest David Poulson for the sexual abuse of two young boys.

It reads:

The Erie Times News stated in its May 14, 2018, edition “that the Diocese of Erie engaged in a cover-up of David Poulson’s behavior under the administration of Bishop Donald Trautman,” according to Attorney General Josh Shapiro. There was no such cover-up.

Why would I cover up Father Poulson’s behavior when I had reported to several district atttorneys the behavior of other priests? I know of no sexual abuse by Poulson during my time as Bishop of Erie. Why would I cover up Poulson’s sinful behavior when I had removed 22 priests from ministry and sought their dismissal from the clerical state?

Can a bishop be misled? Yes, I was misled, and others were as well. In early 2018, members of the clergy continuing education committee invited Poulson to give the Day of Recollection for the priests of the Erie Diocese. Needless to say, the Day of Recollection was cancelled.

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
Associated Press

May 13, 2019

NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Chile’s Catholic bishops said Monday they were open to whatever Pope Francis proposes to overhaul the Chilean church, including the removal of bishops, reforms of seminaries and paying financial reparation to victims of a clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Representatives of the Chilean bishops conference told reporters they were heading into three days of meetings with Francis humbled, pained and shamed for their own errors in handling abuse cases. They said they wanted to listen to Francis and would follow his lead in asking forgiveness of the victims they had discredited.

A conference spokesman, Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez, said “it’s possible” some bishops would offer to resign, but that it was up to the pope. “We’ll respect what he says. If he asks, we’ll do it,” he said.

Francis summoned the bishops to Rome for an emergency summit after receiving a 2,300-page report on the abuse cover-up scandal, which he had helped fuel. During a visit to Chile in January, Francis strongly defended a bishop, Juan Barros, who was accused by victims of Chile’s most notorious predator priest of having witnessed and ignored their abuse.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Stephen Wright for the Daily Mail

14 May 2018

A woman’s claims that she was the victim of a Westminster paedophile plot will not be examined by the public inquiry into child sex abuse after doubts emerged about her story.

Four months after the Daily Mail raised questions about Esther Baker’s account of supposed VIP abuse, it has been announced that her allegations will not be investigated by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

Inquiry chairman Professor Alexis Jay described Miss Baker’s allegations as ‘highly contentious’ and added that she is the subject of a complaint to police that she had perverted the course of justice.

‘I have decided that the inquiry will not investigate the issues that Miss Baker has raised that relate to her own alleged experiences of child sexual abuse,’ Professor Jay 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
New York Post

By Post Editorial Board

May 13, 2018

Does New York City — with its once-unimaginable record-low crime rates — still need private (but city-funded) citizen-patrol groups?

The question became more pressing with the arrest Thursday of Jacob Daskal, politically wired president and co-founder of the Boro Park Shomrim, on charges he repeatedly raped a 15-year-old girl over a period of months in his home.

It’s not the Brooklyn group’s first brush with the law, either.

Last year, Shomrim official Alex “Shaya” Lichtenstein was sentenced to 32 months in prison for bribing cops on a regular basis to get hard-to-obtain full-carry handgun permits for paying clients, including some with criminal records.

The group itself has been accused of violently beating suspects it apprehends. And Daskal reportedly was able to arrange for Orthodox Jews arrested for minor crimes to avoid being booked through the system.

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.

EGYPT
News 24

2018-05-13

Egypt on Friday arrested an activist who posted a video on social media in which she hit out at national institutions and voiced opposition to sexual harassment, security sources said.

In the clip uploaded to Facebook this week, Amal Fathi criticised organisations including state-owned Banque Misr, whose male security staff she accused of being predatory towards women.

She also criticised the government over human rights and economic conditions in the country, as well as accusing it of failing to protect women.

Fathi, a 33-year-old mother, stands accused of “insulting all the institutions of the state” and undermining patriotism, the security sources said.

She would be brought before Egypt’s prosecutor general.

London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International said Fathi was arrested for her criticism of the government “for failing to protect women”.

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.

MAINE
Press Herald

BY PENELOPE OVERTON
STAFF WRITER

May 14, 2018

Kevin Battle was a baby when church officials raided his family home in Ireland and plucked him from the arms of his mother, an unmarried 24-year-old who had run away from the convent where she and hundreds of other Irish girls were sent to give birth to secret children.

After raising the boy she named William for more than a year, his mother couldn’t bear to give him up, so she grabbed her chubby-cheeked boy and escaped home to her family in County Limerick. But the nuns had plans for the boy, so they tracked down the mother and child and forcefully reclaimed him.

Within weeks of seizing the baby, the Catholic Church sold him to an Irish couple in New York grieving the death of their own infant. The price? A $1,000 donation to the church. Records show that the convent, Sean Ross Abbey, secretly exported 438 children like Battle to America.

Yet Battle, a retired South Portland police officer who works as a harbor master and state legislator, grew up knowing none of this. He’d always known he was adopted. He’d searched for his mother, following the paper trail to Ireland in 1978, but the nuns there told him she was dead.

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
New York Post

By Jennifer Bain, Larry Celona and Laura Italiano

May 11, 2018

The politically connected Shomrim leader accused of repeatedly raping a 15-year-old girl implicated himself in a recorded phone call with his victim, prosecutors revealed Friday.

Jacob “Yanky” Daskal, 59, who helped found the neighborhood Boro Park Shomrim patrol group some 30 years ago, knew his victim prior to the alleged attacks, prosecutors said.

The major campaign donor pleaded not guilty at his Friday arraignment in Brooklyn Supreme Court and quickly posted $75,000 bond.

At the brief hearing, prosecutors said they set up and recorded a phone call earlier this week between Daskal and the young girl he is accused of sexually abusing in the Borough Park home he shares with his wife and family.

“There was a controlled phone call,” said Assistant District Attorney Kevin O’Donnell.

O’Donnell did not describe the call or elaborate on Daskal’s relationship with the girl, except to say “the parties are known to each other.”

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
New York Times

By Damien Cave

May 14, 2018

SYDNEY, Australia — An Australian court is to decide on Wednesday whether two planned trials for Cardinal George Pell, the senior Vatican official accused of sexual abuse, will be conducted in secret with the public barred from knowing what took place until the proceedings are over.

On Friday, prosecutors in the state of Victoria applied for a “super injunction” against news coverage of the separate trials. Legal experts described the application as an extreme move aimed at keeping juries in both cases from learning anything that might cause bias.

But a trial held behind closed doors would also limit accountability for the judge, jury and lawyers in the case.

“The proposed order is a blanket ban and is the most extreme form of order that can be made,” said Jason Bosland, deputy director of the Centre for Media and Communications Law at Melbourne Law School.

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WISCONSIN
Blugold Media

[with audio]

Sydney Purpora

May 13, 2018

Peter Isely, a survivor of priest abuse and a founding member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), was sexually assaulted at age 13 at Saint Lawrence Seminary High School in Fond Du Lac county. His story illustrates the struggles he and other survivors faced and how the abuse changed his life.

Documents discussed in the podcast are linked below for listener reference:

* Isely publicized his abuse in the Milwaukee Journal in 1992.
*Victim blaming tactics used by Isely’s offender.
*Court documents and victim testimony involving accused priests at St. Lawrence.

Father Gale Liefeld starting abusing Peter Isely when he was 13. The grooming techniques Liefeld used are recognized in a 2015 research article written by the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire professor and researcher, Jason Spraitz. The tactics priests who abuse children use, make it hard to identify and stop the assault.

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
Erie News NOW

May 14th 2018

Erie-area Catholics headed to mass this weekend, many entering their churches for the first time since new charges of priest sexual abuse were unveiled in the Erie Diocese.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General announced charges Tuesday against former priest David Poulson, 64, related to the sexual abuse of minors.

He also took former Bishop Donald Trautman to task for a secret memo that, if handled differently, may have protected future victims.

Most parishioners did not want to talk. One man who chose not to show his face said he is glad it is now in the open.

“I think that it was a cover up,” said a St. Patrick Church parishioner. “I think it needed to start from the Pope all the way down to the bishop, but I also think it’s been going on for years. That’s my personal opinion. Hopefully, they’ll clean it up. Unfortunately, if it came down to alter boys, that’s sad that it happened.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Go Erie

By Ed Palattella

May 14, 3018

The child sex abuse charges filed against the Rev. David Poulson were largely based on evidence the Catholic Diocese of Erie gathered and gave police.

The phone call was from Texas. It rang in the offices of the Catholic Diocese of Erie in late January.

The call set off a series of events that culminated on Tuesday with the arrest of the Rev. David L. Poulson on charges that he sexually abused two boys from 2002 to 2010.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office charged Poulson based on a presentment from a statewide investigative jury that heard evidence in the case.

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AUSTRALIA
Crux

Christopher White
NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT

May 14, 2018

In recent months, the Australian Catholic Church has been in the spotlight, primarily due to news that the former Archbishop of Sydney and the pope’s current finance minister, Cardinal George Pell, will stand trial for “historical sexual offenses” amid continuing fallout from the Church’s clerical abuse crisis.

As the Church attempts to change the narrative about its role in public life, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane has been elected as the new head of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Serving as his vice-president will be Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney.

Soon after their election, Bishop Richard Umbers, an auxiliary bishop of Sydney, tweeted that with the election of Coleridge and Fisher, the Australian bishops had “put forward the two most articulate bishops in the conference.”

In an interview with Crux, Coleridge describes how he intends to navigate the tensions between the Church and various political and ecclesial battles in Australia – and in a way that puts Jesus Christ at the center of his work.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

By Sylvia Pownall

14 MAY 2018

Presidential hopeful Kevin Sharkey has called on Pope Francis to apologise to the people of Ireland on behalf of the Catholic Church.

The 56-year-old claimed the Vatican has left us “adrift” in the wake of clerical sex abuse scandals.

The artist and former TV presenter, who wants to become the country’s first black president, was born in a mother and baby home.

He suffered a childhood of abuse after being adopted and sent to an industrial school in Galway.

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ROME
Crux

Inés San Martín
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

May 14, 2018

ROME – Starting Tuesday, 33 Chilean bishops will meet Pope Francis in Rome for three days to talk about the “extraordinary challenges” created by clerical sexual abuse and abuses of power in the country’s Church “in the last decade.”

The quotes come from a Vatican statement issued on Saturday, ahead of the meeting.

One bit of mini-drama heading in was whether Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, the retired archbishop of Santiago who’s been accused by survivors of covering up abuse cases, would attend. A member of the pope’s “C9” council of cardinal advisers, Errazuriz originally said he would skip the meeting but eventually boarded a plane for Rome on Saturday, saying simply, “I changed my mind.”

Saturday’s Vatican statement, presumably released with the pope’s green light, appeared to leave no room for doubt: At least some in the Chilean hierarchy have been found wanting, even if no actual canonical processes have taken place.

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CHILE
Associated Press

May 14, 2018

EVA VERGARA

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Even as Pope Francis apologized for his failures in connection with Chile’s most famous case of clerical sex abuse, the pope and that country’s deeply discredited Catholic Church are under mounting pressure to address another, even bigger sex scandal.

The blooming scandal of the Marist Brothers, a congregation dedicated to education, has not yet drawn great attention worldwide — unlike allegations that a bishop covered up the crimes of a pedophile priest, Rev. Fernando Karadima.

Francis recently spent several days at his Vatican hotel in talks with three of Karadima’s victims; this week he is meeting with all of Chile’s bishops to address the crisis that has implicated several church leaders and religious orders.

In the Marist case, the accusations of abuse are many.

“It’s a situation of systematic abuse where there are multiple abusers throughout time, within and outside the congregation,” Juan Pablo Hermosilla, an attorney for some of the victims told The Associated Press. He said that there at least 20 cases of abuse, but that there could be more.

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CYPRUS
9 News

By Ehsan Knopf

May 14, 2018

A bishop at a Greek Orthodox church has come under fire over video showing him forcefully plunging a wailing infant into a basin of water.

The video, captioned “IS THIS YOUR PRIEST!!!?????” and posted to Twitter by user @Miss_Patriciah last week, shows the bishop vigorously dunking the child three times into the water before handing it back to its parents.

The force of the man’s movements sends water spraying in all directions. Five girls standing in the background watching the ceremony can be seen recoiling and stepping backwards.

The video has since been viewed more than 14 million times and was filmed in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, The Sun reports.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Bradford Era

By MARCIE SCHELLHAMMER Era Associate Editor
marcie@bradfordera.com

May 9, 2018

t’s been 36 years since Jim VanSickle spoke to Father David Poulson.

The next time the Bradford Central Christian High School graduate sees the priest, he hopes it will be in a courtroom.

Poulson was arraigned Tuesday on allegations that he abused two young boys in the Cambridge Springs area. It was a story too familiar to VanSickle.

“My abuse happened from 1979 to 1982 while I was a student at Bradford Central Christian,” VanSickle said.

He spoke to Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office, and testified before the statewide investigating grand jury about what had happened to him so many years ago, when Poulson was first ordained. He’s hoping he’ll be asked to testify at his criminal trial, too.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Doree Lewak

May 12, 2018

Judaism refers to its followers as “people of the book.” But the children — some 57,000 of them in New York City alone, according to the 2013 census — of the state’s ultra-Orthodox communities are largely being denied an education that includes science, math and English books.

In April, state Senator Simcha Felder (D – Brooklyn) refused to sign off on the state budget unless yeshivas, which accept millions of dollars in government funding, were given more autonomy over curricula. Per a Post editorial, “Felder demanded [legislation] to exempt private yeshivas from state requirements to provide adequate education in basic areas such as English, math, science and history.”

It was announced on Wednesday that Felder secured some $200,000 in discretionary funds for “education access” programs for Agudath Israel, the lobbying force that helped fight state efforts to impose instructional standards on yeshivas.

Advocates who believe Jewish children are being harmed by yeshivas are devastated by the news.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Go Erie

May 13, 2018

In his latest effort, state Rep. Mark Rozzi wants the General Assembly to pass a law that would give the victims retroactive access to the civil courts.

The prosecution of the Rev. David Poulson, the Catholic Diocese of Erie priest charged on Tuesday with child sexual abuse, will take place in Jefferson County, where Poulson owns a hunting camp.

The Jefferson County connection was notable to state Rep. Mark Rozzi.

The Berks County Democrat for years has been pushing to expand the rights of child sexual abuse victims.

In his latest effort, Rozzi wants the General Assembly to pass a law that would give the victims retroactive access to the civil courts. He has lobbied for the change by sharing his story of how a priest raped him in the mid-1980s, when he was 13.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Go Erie

May 13, 2018

The Rev. David L. Poulson, a Catholic Diocese of Erie priest, was arrested Tuesday on charges he sexually abused two boys in three counties between 2002 and 2010.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Poulson not only assaulted one of the victims in two church rectories, but also defiled the sacrament of reconciliation by making that boy “confess” the sexual abuse to Poulson, his abuser.

Worse, Shapiro asserted diocesan leaders knew of Poulson’s predatory behaviors eight years ago, but did not alert law enforcement or parishioners or remove him from ministry.

Shapiro said a May 2010 diocesan memo showed that after church officials received a complaint about Poulson’s behavior with minors, Poulson admitted to then-Erie Bishop Donald W. Trautman that his text messages with boys were “suggestive to sexual advances” and that he had been sexually aroused while tutoring a boy. Trautman, Shapiro said, admonished Poulson to stop and returned him to ministry.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

John L. Allen Jr.
EDITOR

May 13, 2018

News Analysis

In one of our earliest talks over the years, the late Cardinal Francis George of Chicago gave a precocious young reporter a valuable piece of advice: “Be careful about using the word ‘unprecedented’,” he said. “In the Catholic Church, everything has happened at least once.”

Thus it is that as the bishops of Chile arrive in Rome this weekend for meetings with Pope Francis Tuesday through Thursday on that country’s clerical sexual abuse crisis, we can certainly call the summit “extraordinary,” but not a complete novelty. In fact, we’ve seen a version of this show before: April 23-24, 2002, when all the residential cardinals in the United States, along with the top two officers of the U.S. bishops’ conference, were summoned to Rome to discuss the abuse scandals exploding in America.

Looking back, that summit turned out to be a watershed.

It may be difficult to remember now how all-compassing the atmosphere of crisis was in that moment. In early 2002, the Catholic sex abuse scandals, initially centered on Boston and then rippling across the country, appeared on the front page of the New York Times forty-one days in a row, eclipsing the previous record set during the peak of the Watergate scandals in 1974 that brought down the Nixon administration.

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VATICAN CITY
Telesur

May 13, 2018

“It is fundamental to re-establish trust in the Church,” said the pope, reversing his previously dismissive attitude towards the abuse allegations.

Chile’s bishops should take responsibility for their actions and make amends for the “devastating wounds” inflicted on the Catholic church, Pope Francis said Saturday, in response to the hundreds of sex abuse allegations faced by the clergy.

Ahead of next week’s meeting with the Chilean diocese, the pontiff released a statement warning bishops of his plans to address the Catholic church’s handling of sex crimes and their perpetrators.

There is a serious need to deeply examine the “mechanisms,” consequences and causes that resulted in scandalous cover-ups and omissions of justice for victims, the pope wrote.

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SCOTLAND
Sunday Post

Written by Gordon Blackstock

13 May 2018

A LEADER of the Catholic Church in Scotland is expected to be called to give evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

Archbishop Emeritus Mario Conti may be asked to attend the hearings after witnesses accused him of previously dismissing their claims against the Sisters of Nazareth as “fantasy”.

Since April, the inquiry – led by Lady Smith – has heard evidence from former residents at the Nazareth House home which was run by the Catholic order.

Last week, one witness claimed she was sexually abused by a priest after she went to confession.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston Herald

Howie Carr

May 11, 2018

It’s beyond dispute that the late Massachusetts Congressman Gerry Studds was a sexual predator. And now, thanks to a lawsuit filed last week, even more details about his unspeakable behavior around young boys are on the public record.

In 1983, Studds was censured by the House of Representatives in a 420-3 vote after he plied a 17-year-old male Congressional page with vodka and then sodomized him. In some states, it would have been statutory rape. In Massachusetts, Studds was easily reelected six times.

Studds felt no shame. As the X-rated details of his sordid conduct were read into the record on the floor of the House, he turned his back on his colleagues.

Before his election to Congress in 1972, Studds was a teacher, a “master,” at St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H. Talk about elite — it’s the alma mater of both John Forbes Kerry and Robert Mueller (Class of ’61).

Last week, two alumni filed a 22-page lawsuit in New Hampshire against the prep school, claiming it was “a haven for sexual predators.”

One of whom was identified as future U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.).

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ROME
Crux

Inés San Martín
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

May 12, 2018

ROME – Pope Francis will be meeting with 33 Chilean bishops next week to look into the “mechanisms that have led to the cover up and grave omissions towards” Chilean victims of clerical sexual abuse.

According to a Vatican statement, Francis wanted to meet with the bishops “interpellated by the circumstances and the extraordinary challenges that pose the abuse of power, sexual [abuse] and [abuses] of conscience that have occurred in Chile in the last decades.”

The pope, the statement continues, “thinks it’s necessary to look into causes and consequences, as well as the mechanisms that have led to the cover up and grave omissions towards the victims.”

The meetings between the pope and the Chilean bishops will take place in the Vatican May 14-17. Also present will be Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

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CHILE
Conferencia Episcopal de Chile

May 10, 2018

[1. The Holy Father has summoned the Bishops of Chile to meet him to make known the conclusions of the recent visit of His Excellency Charles Scicluna to our country, and his own conclusions in this regard. He also invites us to have an open and fraternal dialogue to collaborate “in the discernment of the measures that in the short, medium and long term, should be adopted to reestablish the ecclesial communion in Chile with the aim of repairing as much as possible the scandal and reestablishing Justice”. With humility and hope we come to the call of Peter’s successor.]

Fecha: 10/05/2018
Referencia: Prot.57/2008
País: Chile
Ciudad: Santiago
Autor: El Comité Permanente de la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile

1. El Santo Padre ha convocado a los Obispos de Chile a encontrarse con él para dar a conocer las conclusiones de la reciente visita de S.E. Mons. Charles Scicluna a nuestro país, y sus propias conclusiones al respecto. Nos invita también a tener un diálogo abierto y fraterno para colaborar “en el discernimiento de las medidas que a corto, medio y largo plazo, deberán ser adoptadas para restablecer la comunión eclesial en Chile con el objetivo de reparar en lo posible el escándalo y restablecer la justicia”. Con humildad y esperanza acudimos al llamado del sucesor de Pedro.

2. A pocos días de reunirnos con él, reiteramos nuestra unión con el Papa Francisco en el dolor y vergüenza expresados frente a los delitos cometidos contra menores y adultos en ambientes eclesiales. Reconocemos que, a pesar de las acciones realizadas estos años por la Iglesia, no siempre se ha logrado sanar las heridas de los abusos, las que siguen siendo una llaga abierta en los corazones de las víctimas y para el Pueblo de Dios.

3. Valoramos el reciente encuentro del Santo Padre con tres de las víctimas de Fernando Karadima. La actitud del Papa Francisco al acogerlos marca un ejemplo y nos muestra el camino que la Iglesia chilena está llamada a seguir ante las denuncias de abuso de conciencia, abuso sexual y, en definitiva, frente a todo abuso de poder que pueda ocurrir al interior de nuestras comunidades.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

May 12, 2018

VATICAN CITY
The Vatican made it clear Saturday that Pope Francis had summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome for a papal dressing-down because of their role in covering up sexual abuse by priests and their “grave omissions” in caring for victims.

In an exceedingly harsh statement that set the tone for next week’s meetings, the Vatican said Francis wanted to discern responsibilities for the crisis and map changes in Chilean church to prevent these “devastating wounds” from repeating themselves.

“It is fundamental to re-establish trust in the church through good pastors … who know how to accompany the suffering of victims and work in a determined and untiring way to prevent abuse,” the statement said.

For years, sex abuse victims have blasted the Chilean hierarchy for discrediting their claims, protecting abusers, moving them around rather than turning them over to police and then handing out light sentences when church sanctions are imposed.

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UNITED STATES
The Hill

BY MIRANDA GREEN – 05/11/18

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is defending against allegations that Administrator Scott Pruitt dined privately with a cardinal accused of sexual assault during his visit to the Vatican last summer.

A spokesman for the agency denied that Pruitt met one-on-one with Cardinal George Pell during his trip to Italy and the Vatican in June, saying that Pruitt dined with a group of 12 to 15 individuals and had no prior knowledge of Pell attending. He added that Pruitt was not aware of the allegations against Pell.

“There was not a private one-on-one dinner with Cardinal Pell, as certain media outlets have portrayed. He was one of 12 to 15 individuals who attended the dinner and EPA had no knowledge that he was coming to the dinner,” EPA’s Jahan Wilcox said in a statement. “It is incorrect to report that any knowledge of the allegations against Cardinal Pell were raised to Administrator Pruitt’s level.”

New York Times reporter Eric Lipton on Thursday tweeted documents, first obtained by the Sierra Club through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, that showed a working timeline before and during Pruitt’s trip. Those documents linked Pruitt to Pell and allege that EPA officials were aware of the allegations made against the Cardinal.

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RHODE ISLAND
Narragansett Times

By KENDRA GRAVELLE

May 10, 2018

PROVIDENCE—Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee has joined with other advocates for victims of sexual abuse to fight to abolish the statute of limitations for pressing civil charges against alleged sexual abusers.

Introduced in the House by McEntee (D-Dist. 33, South Kingstown, Narragansett) and in the Senate by Sen. Donna M. Nesselbush (D-Dist. 15, Pawtucket, North Providence), the legislation proposed would eliminate the current seven-year civil statute of limitations (SOL) for injuries suffered as a result of sexual abuse.

“Basically, what happens to these people is when they get abused as a child they’re silenced by their perpetrator,” McEntee said Monday. “Then once they get their voice as adults they’re silenced again.”

The current SOL means victims of sexual abuse have just seven years from the time they experience the abuse—or from the time they turn 18—to file a claim.

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UNITED STATES
Sydney Morning Herald

By Rachel Olding

12 May 2018

New York: Cardinal George Pell has emerged as a mystery guest who dined at a lavish Rome restaurant with embattled US environmental chief Scott Pruitt to secretly plan a public debate challenging climate change.

The five-star rooftop dinner, which came three weeks before Pell was charged with historic child sexual abuse, was deliberately removed from four different public schedules released by Pruitt’s offices due to the allegations hanging over the Vatican financial chief, it has emerged.

The extraordinary revelations not only add another twist in the tale of the American environmental administrator under fire for excessive spending and dubious ethics, but also pit Pell squarely against the Pope, who has declared that climate change is real.

Pruitt, the administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, is the subject of 11 separate investigations into his lavish travel habits, conflicts of interests and management practices.

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MICHIGAN
Church Militant

by Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D. • ChurchMilitant.com

May 11, 2018

Is the diocese of Saginaw colluding with local media in a smear campaign against the prosecutor pursuing criminal sex abuse charges against priests?

After the launch of a criminal probe into possible sex abuse cover-up in the Michigan diocese, the diocese is returning fire, calling into question the integrity of Assistant Prosecutor Mark Gaertner, who’s taken the lead in the investigation.

Gaertner is prosecuting longtime Saginaw priest Father Robert DeLand, arrested in February and charged with sexually assaulting multiple young men. The prosecutor’s office has since been flooded with tips implicating multiple other clergy, leading to the launch of a criminal investigation of the entire diocese and even raids on the bishop’s home, the cathedral and the chancery.

Now reports of a smear campaign against the prosecutor, with local media trying to discredit him by unearthing an old case and a 2004 letter.

A little background: In 2000, Gaertner was in an election race for prosecutor in Huron County against a man named Tim Rutkowski. Rutkowski is brother to current vicar general of the diocese Father Bill Rutkowski, according to inside sources a well-known homosexual in a long-term relationship with a priest in the Lansing diocese — a charge officially denied.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Go Erie

Ed Palattella

May 12, 2018

Grand jury: State police sergeant co-owned hunting camp with the Rev. David Poulson and knew Poulson ‘frequented the camp with young boys.’

The statewide grand jury presentment used to charge the Rev. David L. Poulson with child sex abuse is built around the testimony of two men who said Poulson, a former priest in the Catholic Diocese of Erie, molested them as boys in 2002-2010.

As supporting information, the presentment, which is similar to an indictment, cites statements that a Pennsylvania State Police sergeant made about Poulson.

The sergeant, however, did not investigate against Poulson.

The sergeant was Poulson’s friend.

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VATICAN CITY
Lewiston Tribune

By NICOLE WINFIELD Of The Associated Press

May 12, 2018

VATICAN CITY – Chilean bishops are arriving in Rome ahead of an expected brow-beating next week from Pope Francis, who says he was misled about a bishop at the center of the Chilean Church’s sex abuse scandal.

One top-ranked churchman is apparently not coming: Cardinal Javier Errazuriz, retired archbishop of Santiago, who sits on Francis’ kitchen cabinet. Abuse survivors have laid much of the blame for the scandal on Errazuriz, whom they accuse of discrediting victims and covering up abuse rather than punishing pedophiles.

The executive committee of the Chilean bishops conference said Thursday the 30-plus bishops were coming with “humility and hope.” They praised Francis’ recent meetings with victims of the Rev. Fernando Karadima of Chile.

Francis had invited Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo to the Vatican so he could personally apologize for having discredited them during his January trip to Chile. Francis had said their accusations against a Karadima protege, Bishop Juan Barros, were “calumny” and demanded they present proof of his wrongdoing.

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ROME
Crux

Inés San Martín
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

May 12, 2018

ROME – Days before Pope Francis is scheduled to meet with over 30 Chilean bishops to discuss the clerical sexual abuse crisis in the country, victims are speaking out, and the laity of the diocese at the center of the story are demanding to have a voice in the naming of their bishop.

The laity, more than “mere observers”

A group of laity in the Diocese of Osorno released a statement on Thursday saying that they are “expectantly” awaiting the outcome of the May 14-17 meeting between Francis and the Chilean bishops. They also request that Spanish Father Jordi Bertomeu, a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, be appointed as the “interlocutor” to choose their new bishop.

The statement also demands that the laity be consulted in the decisions that need to be made to resolve the crisis, instead of being “mere observers and receptors of important decisions already taken – either in Rome, the bishops’ conference, or the Apostolic nunciature.”

The statement called for an end to “unilateral decision-making,” adding that the Church is living through a moment which is calling it to a “profound and genuine conversion.”

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UNITED KINDOM
Catholic Herald

by Christopher Altieri

11 May 2018

t’s a bit of a head-scratcher. Just over a week ago, three abuse survivors met Pope Francis, and then gave an important press conference reflecting on the meeting. Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton, and José Andres Murillo said Pope Francis had admitted he was “part of the problem”, and had pledged to do more in future. The news was widely covered – but not by Vatican media. The weekly Spanish-language edition of L’Osservatore Romano that came out last Friday had a piece that took note of the weekend meetings and briefly mentioned the Wednesday press conference. Otherwise, crickets.

Sources inside the Secretariat for Communications, which oversees most of the Vatican’s media and public relations apparatus, including the new Vatican News web portal, suggest the decision not to cover the event -which received worldwide press attention – was in keeping with the Holy Father’s wishes that the meetings be private and reserved. The acting head of the Secretariat for Communications, Mgr Lucio Ruiz, did not respond to repeated requests for a statement, while the Press Office of the Holy See declined to comment.

“It’s a bit surprising,” the Wall Street Journal’s Vatican correspondent, Francis X Rocca, told the Catholic Herald. “After the Pope’s dramatic gesture, and given his willingness to field tough questions, it’s puzzling that his own media apparatus would keep silent on such a major event and an important topic.” Rocca saw both sides of the question. “I can understand the desire to exercise discretion, so as not to be seen to ‘spin’ the event,” he said. On the other hand, the argument could be made that a brief statement acknowledging the presser might have shown the Pope’s willingness to face criticism; it was a judgment call.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Erie News Now

May 11th 2018

This week’s arrest of a former Erie Catholic priest on sex abuse charges came only a month after the diocese released the names of 51 priests and lay people, living and deceased, who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

It is a problem the diocese has struggled with for years.

In 2002, then Bishop Donald Trautman was also dealing with the clergy sex scandal.

He asked then District Attorney Brad Foulk to review the files and documents.

Foulk said because of the statute of limitations, no accused priests could be prosecuted.

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UNITED STATES
New York Times

By Eric Lipton and Lisa Friedman

May 11, 2018

WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, dined last year in Rome with Cardinal George Pell, a prominent climate-science denialist and Vatican leader who was also facing sexual abuse allegations. The E.P.A. later released official descriptions of the dinner that intentionally did not mention the cardinal’s presence, according to three current and former E.P.A. officials.

Kevin Chmielewski, Mr. Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff for operations, said in an interview that top political appointees at the agency feared that the meeting would reflect poorly on Mr. Pruitt if it were made public. Twenty days after the dinner, authorities in Australia charged Cardinal Pell with sexual assault; he has denied the charges.

“It was a no-brainer,” Mr. Chmielewski said of the decision to keep Cardinal Pell’s participation quiet. His account was confirmed by two people who were familiar with the handling of the trip, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern over retribution.

On Friday, Jahan Wilcox, an E.P.A. spokesman, issued a statement confirming the June 9 meal took place while emphasizing that it “was not a private one-on-one dinner” and saying that Mr. Pruitt wasn’t aware of the allegations against Cardinal Pell. He also said the E.P.A. had no knowledge the cardinal would be attending the dinner.

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WISCONSIN
Sheboygan Press

Casey Hoff, For USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

May 11, 2018

Most Americans understand and appreciate the vital nature of our adversarial system of justice, where both sides can obtain legal representation. But some lawyers who run for public office are continuously being lambasted for having done their jobs as lawyers.

Matt Flynn, a lawyer who is seeking the Wisconsin Democratic nomination for governor, is being attacked because of his past legal representation of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in the sex abuse lawsuits involving priests.

For many years when Flynn worked for the Quarles and Brady law firm, Flynn was the lead attorney for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in the priest sex abuse case. In 2015, the case was ultimately settled with the archdiocese agreeing to pay $21 million to accusers and their lawyers; an amount per accuser reportedly far lower than many other priest sex abuse cases.

Peter Isely, former Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), called Flynn an “appalling choice for someone who wants to represent the citizens of Wisconsin, including families and children,” according to a story in the Wisconsin Gazette.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Examiner

by John Siciliano

May 11, 2018

The Environmental Protection Agency left out in its official dispatches that Administrator Scott Pruitt dined last year with Cardinal George Pell, a prominent climate-science denier who had been facing sexual abuse allegations, the New York Times reported Friday.

The newspaper cited three sources familiar with Pruitt’s trip to the Vatican.

Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff for operations, told the newspaper that top political appointees at the EPA feared meeting the cardinal would reflect poorly on Pruitt if it were made public.

About a month after the dinner in Rome, authorities in Australia charged Pell with sexual assault. He has denied all charges.

“It was a no-brainer,” Chmielewski said about the decision to keep quiet about Cardinal Pell’s presence. The account was confirmed by two people familiar with the trip.

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KENTUCKY
Courier-Journal

Beth Warren, Louisville Courier Journal

May 11, 2018

A priest is “on retreat” after being involved in an inappropriate relationship with an adult, Archdiocese of Louisville officials said.

The Rev. Shayne Duvall, pastor at St. Raphael Parish, “will be away for a couple of weeks to be on retreat” for “his previous involvement” in the relationship, spokeswoman Cecelia Price said in an email to Courier Journal reporter on Friday.

Price didn’t say with whom Duvall had a relationship but said it had ended.

The Rev. Jeff Shooner, vicar for priests for the archdiocese, made the announcement to St. Raphael parishioners last weekend, the email said.

“Father Shayne has fully cooperated with Archbishop (Joseph) Kurtz in addressing this situation over the past months,” Price said.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Public Radio

By LAUREN CHOOLJIAN

Chester Irons’ relationship with St. Paul’s School didn’t always feel so complicated.

He’s in his 60s now, yet he can still remember the exhilarating feeling of being dropped off at the Concord boarding school for the first time.

“I stepped out of the car with my parents and said goodbye to them and ran off with a bunch of friends I met literally 20 minutes earlier. It was a new beginning, a new adventure and I was very excited,” he recalled in a recent phone interview.

Irons said he flourished at St Paul’s, and he loved it. And decades later, he became president of the alumni association and a member of the board of trustees.

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UNITED STATES
Newsweek

BY JOSH KEEFE

5/11/18

PA Administrator Scott Pruitt had a $240-per-person dinner at a Rome restaurant with a Vatican Cardinal, who was a climate-change skeptic and under investigation for sex abuse in 2017. The EPA office did not disclose the Cardinal was at the dinner on public records, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.

Cardinal George Pell pleaded not guilty to historical charges of sexual abuse at the end of April in his home country of Australia. But in June 2017, he had dinner with Pruitt, his top aides and others at La Terrazza, a restaurant in Rome. Pruitt’s team knew Pell was under investigation for sex abuse at the time, according to Times reporter Eric Lipton, who told the story in a series of tweets containing links to EPA documents he and colleague Lisa Friedman obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and subsequent lawsuits.

Planning for the dinner with Pell started in May 2017. But as Lipton noted, none of the four calendars released by Pruitt’s office showed that Pell would be attending the dinner. Pruitt’s top aide, Samantha Dravis, sent an email on June 9 saying she was “at dinner with Cardinal Pell and Mr. Pruitt.”

According to that email, the two men were discussing a Wall Street Journal article by a former Obama administration official proposing a process of peer review for climate science that would use opposing teams to argue for and against scientific reports, a system known as “Red Team/Blue Team.”

Pell and Pruitt have both expressed skepticism about climate change. In 2011, Pell gave a speech in which he said carbon dioxide was “not a pollutant, but part of the stuff of life,” and that “plants would love it” if carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased. Increasing carbon dioxide emissions as a result of industrialization are a major cause of global warming.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

Posted May 10, 2018

[These dozen pages from the Spielman file were made public in a WKBW report on Bishops Head and Trautman and discussed in detail during the broadcast of that report.]

Excerpt from 7/19/93 letter from Vicar General Cunningham to Spielman:

Thank you for meeting with me this morning and for our telephone conversation last Friday. I fully understand that these are difficult days for you, and I want to assure you of my thoughts and prayers at this time.

As we have discussed, this letter will serve as confirmation of the fact that Bishop Head placed you on administrative leave effective July 16, 1993. During this period of time, the bishop expects that you will not engage in any public ministry; that is, you are not to celebrate Mass or the sacraments publicly. The faculties given to you at the time of your ordination are hereby revoked.

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ERIE (PA)
Erie News Now / WICU / WSEE

May 10, 2018

By Paul Wagner

[Includes video of the broadcast, with longer interview of Jim Faluszczak and a brief interview with Judith Burns-Quinn of SNAP.]

A former Erie Catholic priest who says he was sexually abused by a priest when he was a teenager, is reacting to this week’s arrest of a former priest on sex abuse charges.

James Faluszczak and a victim’s advocate came to Erie to talk about the latest developments.

They have been following the news from Buffalo.

Faluszczak calls the abuse case of former priest David Poulson disgusting and horrifying.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

May 10, 2018

By Charlie Specht

[Now includes video of 5/10/18 report on Bishops Head and Trautman.]

From the day he arrived in Buffalo on a snowy day in 1972, to his death in 2005, he was known as a kind, approachable and gentle shepherd of Catholics in Western New York.

“Bishop Head was in many ways a great man,” said attorney Steve Boyd, who worked for the bishop for two years. “But great men fail.”

The failures of Head and other bishops to stop the abuse of children by priests under their supervision — and to make a full accounting to the public of those crimes — becomes more apparent by the day.

In the last two months, 64 priests in Buffalo have been accused of sexual misconduct, most with children. The majority of priests served during the tenures of Head and his successor, but the full scope of the abuse is only now coming to light.

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UNITED STATES
The Hill

BRETT SAMUELS

05/10/18

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt reportedly dined in Rome last year with a Catholic leader who was under investigation at the time for child sexual abuse, according to newly published records.

The New York Times on Thursday released a series of internal communications obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request that show Pruitt dined at a five-star restaurant with Cardinal George Pell in June 2017. Pell, like Pruitt, has expressed skepticism about man-made climate change.

Documents obtained by the Times show that EPA officials began planning for the dinner in May 2017. Pell had also offered to give Pruitt a tour of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, which apparently did not take place.

The Times reported that none of the EPA schedules from that day noted that Pell was at the dinner with Pruitt.

Prior to the trip, EPA officials learned that Pell was under investigation, according to The New York Times’ Eric Lipton.

Pell has since been put on trial related to charges of sexual abuse spanning decades.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Meadville Tribune

By Keith Gushard
Meadville Tribune

May 11, 2018

A statement by the Catholic Diocese of Erie’s retired bishop insisting there was no cover-up of alleged sexual abuse by a priest against two boys conflicts with findings of fact issued by the statewide grand jury investigating the case.

Donald Trautman, the retired bishop of the diocese, released a statement Wednesday stating there was no cover-up of the alleged sexual abuse by Father David Poulson and that Trautman “was aggressive in the removal of abusive priests.”

Findings of fact issued by the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury after it heard testimony and reviewed church records contradict Trautman’s public statement.

Trautman told Poulson to “cease and desist” suggestive contact with boys in a May 2010 confidential church memorandum written by Trautman after complaints about Poulson had been received by the diocese. The confidential church memorandum was obtained by the grand jury after it subpoenaed the diocese “to produce any and all records related to child sexual abuse perpetrated by priests and religious leaders of the diocese,” the grand jury’s findings of fact state.

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NEW YORK
Forward

Josh Nathan-Kazis

May 10, 2018

For nearly three decades, Jacob Daskal has been chasing criminal suspects through the streets of Boro Park as the head of the Shomrim, a private Orthodox Jewish security patrol he founded.

On Thursday, the tables were turned. Police in Brooklyn arrested Daskal for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl. He has been charged with rape in the third degree, among other charges.

Daskal did not answer his phone on Thursday afternoon.

The arrest, first reported by the New York Daily News, shocked the tight-knit Hasidic-dominated neighborhood of Boro Park. Daskal, the president of the Shomrim and one of its founders, has enjoyed exceptionally close ties to the leadership of the local police precinct in Boro Park, and a prominent position in the community.

Read more: https://forward.com/news/national/400881/orthodox-security-patrol-chief-charged-with-raping-16-year-old-girl/

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WISCONSIN
WQOW

May 10, 2018

Eau Claire (WQOW) –The former Democratic Party chair officially threw his hat into the governor’s race on Wednesday, and already some Wisconsinites are calling for him to drop out.

Women’s March Wisconsin, along with some of its partner organizations including groups outside of the state, believe Flynn should immediately withdraw his candidacy for governor.

They said that’s because of his previous role representing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee against priest sex abuse lawsuits, and his original refusal to answer questions about his past work when confronted about it.

Flynn had a terse response to that request: “Go jump in a lake.”

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NEW YORK
Times Union

By David Lombardo

May 10, 2018

ALBANY – State Senate Republicans proposed legislation on Thursday that would compensate victims of child sex abuse with public money in lieu of payoffs from perpetrators or institutions where the crimes may have occurred.

The bill from Sen. Catharine M. Young, R-Cattaraugus County, would end the statute of limitations for the criminal prosecution of certain sexual offenses and provide restitution for child victims using a $300 million asset forfeiture fund controlled by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, according to a press release.

Gary Greenberg, an outspoken child sex abuse survivor who helped craft the legislation, described the proposal as a positive first step.

“It’s the first time that the Republicans have put anything on the table that will actually compensate victims … it’s progress,” he said.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

MAY 10, 2018

ALBANY – Gov. Cuomo threw cold water on a Republican state senator’s proposal to create a $300 million fund earmarked for child sex abuse survivors.

Cuomo raised several concerns, including whether the $300 million is enough.

“You would cap the recovery of people and I don’t believe there should be a cap,” he said. “I believe it should be whatever the damages are.”

Cuomo said he supports a more expansive Child Victims Act bill that he and legislative Democrats have pushed for that targets the abusers themselves and their institutions.

The Daily News reported Thursday that the centerpiece of the legislation introduced by Sen. Catharine Young (R-Chautauqua County) is the creation of a $300 million Child Victim Reconciliation and Compensation Fund that would be run out of the state controller’s office.

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