ABUSE TRACKER

ARLINGTON (VA)
Catholic Diocese of Arlington

Posted March 16, 2018

The Diocese of Arlington has been advised that Fairfax County Police Department also have an active investigation regarding Fr. Duesterhaus. Father Duesterhaus has stated that he is cooperating fully with the investigation. Fairfax County Police can be reached at (703) 691-2131.

Posted March 14, 2018

Rev. Michael R. Duesterhaus, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation of an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor. The alleged incidents occurred between 2001 and 2004. Fr. Duesterhaus denies the accusation. No determination has yet been made regarding the allegation. The Diocese is fully cooperating with law enforcement and will continue to do so.

Like all priests, diocesan employees and volunteers who work with children in the Diocese of Arlington, Fr. Duesterhaus has undergone criminal background checks during his service. His current assignment, from which he is on administrative leave, is as parochial vicar at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Winchester.

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.

MARTINSBURG (WV)
Herald Mail

March 30, 2018

By Matthew Umstead

A 2013 lawsuit that claimed Mormon church leaders covered up the sexual abuse of several children by a church member who has been excommunicated and imprisoned has been settled, according to Berkeley County Circuit Court officials.

The settlement ended a trial that began on Jan. 18.

Terms of the settlement were not available Friday, when the six-member jury seated for the trial was released from service after 27 days in court.

Inclement weather and illness delayed the trial, which 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes initially estimated would last six to eight weeks.

At the start of the trial, a plaintiff’s attorney told jurors that the case was about how far a powerful institution would go to protect and defend itself. But an attorney for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told the jury that the church was not responsible for the crimes of Christopher Michael Jensen, and asserted that the alleged abuse didn’t occur on church property.

Jensen, 26, is serving a 35- to 75-year prison sentence in a West Virginia prison for his February 2013 conviction in circuit court on two counts of sexual abuse and one count of sexual assault.

Jensen was convicted of sexually abusing two boys while babysitting them in 2007. The children didn’t report what occurred until 2012, attorneys have said.

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PERTH (AUSTRALIA)
PerthNow

April 1, 2018

By Kim Macdonald

CATHOLIC youngsters are being taught to identify grooming by sex abusers by a child protection veteran who claims most children have no idea when it is happening, even if confronted with pornography.

Andrea Musulin, who worked in the police child protection unit for three decades before being recruited by the Catholic Church to run its Safeguarding program, said most children were uneducated about paedophilia.

In the wake of the Catholic sex abuse scandal, a new guide written by Ms Musulin is being used by the Church to help children identify when they are in unsafe situations.

The book urges children to tell adults when someone looks at obscene images in their presence, plays games involving genitalia, or asks them to keep secrets.

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.

BATAVIA (NY)
The Daily News

March 30, 2018

By Brian Quinn

The statute of limitations may have run out on a former Pavilion man’s molestation allegation.

Still, he hopes the claim he made about a former St. Mary’s Church priest will inspire others who were molested by priests to come forward.

Wayne Bortle of New Hampshire, who lived in Pavilion and attended Pavilion Central School until he was about 15 years old, has come forward publicly, alleging abuse by Father Robert Conlin, a former St. Mary’s priest who passed away in 1997.

Conlin’s name was not on a list of 42 priests whose names the Buffalo Diocese released earlier this month. The list identified diocesan priests who, since 1950, have been removed from ministry, were retired, or left the ministry after allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.

Bortle says his kids have seen him cry more recently than previously.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Spectrum News

April 1, 2018

By Kevin Jolly

The sky was a brilliant blue over St. Joseph Cathedral but a dark cloud still lingered over the Catholic Church this Easter.

The Diocese of Buffalo recently released a list of 42 priests accused of sexual abuse.

While the church is struggling to deal with the issue, another has been raised: whether priests should be allowed to marry.

“They understand marriages better. So you know this confessional stuff, you can confess anything you want. You can confess the problems in your home, but if he is not living it then he can’t understand it,” said St. Joseph’s parishioner Oksana Mychaskiw.

It might not be that easy. While many experts say there is no connection between celibacy required by priesthood and sex abuse or pedophilia, some argue it may be a contributing factor in some of the cases in the Catholic Church.

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MASON (MI)
The Associated Press

March 30, 2018

A Michigan priest accused of embezzling more than $5 million now faces a civil lawsuit filed by the insurance company for the Catholic Diocese of Lansing.

Rev. Jonathan Wehrle is charged with six counts of embezzling $100,000 or more from St. Martha Church in Okemos, east of Lansing. The charges allege Wehrle used the money to pay for home construction, maintenance and other personal purchases.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
The Columbus Dispatch

April 2, 2018

By Kelly Maile

The #MeToo social media campaign to raise awareness of sexual harassment gave Emily Joy the courage to share her own story of sexual abuse in church.

“When I was 16, I was groomed for abuse by a man in his early 30s who was a youth leader in my evangelical megachurch … in Illinois,” Joy said. “There wasn’t an understanding of consent or any sex education. The adults punished me for that rather than realizing this is a predatory situation.”

Ten years later, one tweet by Joy prompted thousands on social media to share their own stories of sexual abuse in church settings. The reaction caused Joy and her friend Hannah Paasch to create #ChurchToo. The movement has given Joy the opportunity to speak out at colleges and churches across the country. Joy will speak at Hiram College on April 24 about the hashtag that went viral and theology and sex in conservative Christian churches.

In the wake of actress Alyssa Milano’s #MeToo movement after the Harvey Weinstein scandal, “we were inspired by all these women in Hollywood and Washington,” Joy said. “We have our own stories of abuse, but we both grew up in conservative Christian environments. Sexual abuse happens everywhere, but there are specific facts and contributors in these conservative spaces.”

Once Joy posted her story on Twitter, “there were other women who started responding to it like something like this happened to me, too. Hannah and I said, ‘I think we need to compile these stories and figure out how to respond to it’.”

They created #ChurchToo. It went viral overnight.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
The Journal

April 1, 2018

By Christina Finn

During the interview, Archbishop Martin became upset as he recounted telling the Pope about the Tuam babies story.

ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN Diarmuid Martin has said misogyny is present in the Catholic Church.

In an interview with Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ Radio One, the Archbishop said he would like to see a stronger female presence in the Church.

“I believe that is achievable… But it depends on the ability of the male priesthood to reach out,” he said.

However, he added that he did not believe he would see female priests working within the Church in his lifetime.

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AUBURN (NY)
The Citizen

April 2, 2018

By Joanne Ocasio-Bizardi

Throughout April, during National Child Abuse Prevention Month, Cayuga/Seneca Community Action Agency is uniting its many programs to create an environment of awareness and support for families and children in our community. I encourage everyone to join us in standing up for the future of our community’s children.

Statistics obtained through the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, provided by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Administration for Children and Families, from its 2015 Child Maltreatment Report, help frame the extent of the issue:

• During the federal fiscal year 2015, Child Protective Services agencies received an estimated 4 million referrals involving approximately 7.2 million children suspected of being abused or neglected; this represents a 15.5-percent increase since 2011.

• In 2015, approximately 683,000 children were found to be victims of child abuse and neglect; the victim rate was 9.2 victims per 1,000 children.

• Of those children victimized, 75.3 percent were neglected; 17.2 percent physically abused; 8.4 percent sexually abused and 6.9 percent maltreated in other ways including emotional abuse, threats and/or being subjected to a parent’s drug/alcohol abuse.

• In 2015, a nationally estimated 1,670 children died of abuse and neglect at a rate of 2.25 per 100,000 children in the national population.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

April 2, 2018

By Haidee V. Eugenio

Guam’s clergy sex abuse cases have been stayed, which means the proceedings have been suspended, in light of the parties’ ongoing settlement negotiations.

Parties in the federal and local lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Agana and others associated with the Catholic Church are pursuing mediation to try to settle some 160 complaints of child sex abuse against priests and other clergy.

If out-of-court settlement fails, then motions can be renewed or refiled.

U.S. District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood ordered a stay in the cases on March 30, after a recent status hearing wherein the parties indicated they would withdraw all pending motions in the clergy sex abuse cases in the interests of facilitating settlement and streamlining the court’s docket “with leave to refile at a later date in the event settlement cannot be reached.”

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SOUTH AFRICA
eNCA

April 1, 2018

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba used his Easter sermon to address the controversial issue of alleged abuses in the Anglican church.

He said that while structures enabling the church to deal with abuse exist, they are not sufficient.

“Do people know enough about what the Canons provide?” asked the archbishop.

“What do we do in cases where the alleged perpetrators have retired and no longer hold licences? What do we do if they have died? What do we do if those abused have left the Church and perhaps converted to another faith? Are the measures in place in church schools adequate and widely enough known?

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NORRISTOWN (PA)
The Associated Press

April 2, 2018

By Kristen de Groot and Michael R. Sisak

Jury selection is getting underway Monday in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial in a cultural landscape changed by the #MeToo movement, posing new challenges for both the defense and the prosecution.

Experts say the movement could cut both ways for the comedian, making some potential jurors more hostile toward him and others more likely to think men are being unfairly accused.

“We really have had this explosion of awareness since that last trial and it has changed the entire environment,” said Richard Gabriel, a jury consultant who has worked on over 1,000 trials. “It is a huge challenge for the defense, but it could also provide an avenue and open up the topic.”

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MARTINSBURG (WV)
The Associated Press

April 2, 2018

A civil trial that started in January in West Virginia has ended in an undisclosed settlement in a lawsuit accusing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and local church officials of covering up years of sexual abuse by one man.

Media outlets report the settlement announced Friday by Berkeley County Circuit Judge Christopher Wilkes ends a trial that began Jan. 18. Details of the settlement were not made public, and lawyers and officials are barred from discussing the case.

Plaintiffs contended the Mormon church and others knew about 26-year-old member Christopher Michael Jensen’s sexual abuse convictions and allegations but “did nothing to warn and protect” their children.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

March 31, 2018

To the Editor:

“This Easter, I’ll Be Back in Church,” by Margaret Renkl (Op-Ed, March 26), reflects my sentiments exactly.

Although I haven’t stopped going to church, I have grown distant from the friends I had there. I can’t accept how my fellow Catholics can support a president and legislators who pass laws that hurt the poor and the needy. To care for them is at the core of our faith.

It broke my heart to see these people and others who desperately need health care demonstrating in the capital last year against repeal of the Affordable Care Act and some legislators voting for repeal anyway.

The silence of the bishops on so many of these destructive actions also leaves me feeling that no one in the church (except for the pope) is speaking with any moral authority.

MARJORIE IVES, JUPITER, FLA.

To the Editor:

Re “Francis, the Anti-Strongman,” by Paul Elie (Sunday Review, March 25):

Pope Francis’s persona belies a dictatorial penchant. He deals with challenges by removing those who disagree with him. The peremptory dismissal of members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for no apparent reason, is a case in point.

His rigging of the Synod on the Family and dubious editing of its summation in “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”) — an incomplete citation from John Paul II — is nothing short of dictatorial. And his circumventing of canonical process to initiate change — for example, changing the rite of foot washing on Holy Thursday, from a recognition of the uninterrupted transmission of spiritual authority from the apostles to succeeding generations of bishops, to an open-to-all act of charity — certainly seems autocratic.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

April 2, 2018

By Harriet Sherwood

Deirdre McCormack says Catholic church covered up claims by Oxford academic later detailed in acclaimed book

The next of kin of a senior Catholic priest who was accused of sexual abuse before his death wants the headstone she paid for to be removed and destroyed.

Deirdre McCormack said she was “outraged and disgusted” at the allegations made by an Oxford academic against Canon Dermod Fogarty, and said the church had tried to sweep the disclosures “under the carpet”. She is seeking the urgent removal of the headstone.

The allegations were made by Stephen Bernard in an acclaimed book, Paper Cuts, published in February, which details more than 300 assaults over a four-year period starting in 1987 when Bernard was 11.

The disclosures came as a shock to McCormack, who was Fogarty’s closest living relative and inherited his personal effects.

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PORTLAND (OR)
Willamette Week

March 30, 2018

By Katie Shepherd

“We believe it is important to uncover the truth about what happened and to hold the Church accountable—to help ensure that this does not happen to children today.”

A woman sued the Seventh-day Adventist Church on Friday for allegedly removing a man accused of sexually abusing children from his role as a teacher only to position him as the pastor of one of the largest Adventist congregations in Portland.

The suit alleges that Lee Thompson abused a young girl in the early 1970s while he was teaching at Portland Adventist Elementary School, a private parochial school run by the church. After the allegations surfaced, the suit says the Oregon Conference of Seventh-day Adventists removed Thompson from his teaching role, but offered him a position as a pastor in Mt. Tabor, where he continued to abuse the plaintiff.

The plaintiff is named only as Laura Doe. The lawsuit seeks $4 million in economic and emotional damages from the church and asks the court to mete out punitive damages as well.

“This is not the first time the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been accused of turning a blind eye towards child sexual abuse,” says Stephen Crew, who is representing Doe in the suit. “We believe it is important to uncover the truth about what happened and to hold the Church accountable—to help ensure that this does not happen to children today.”

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DOTHAN (AL)
The Associated Press

April 2, 2018

Posted By Daniella Oropeza

A former Alabama minister is accused of sexually abusing children.

News outlets report 28-year-old William Wesley Williamson was arrested Thursday and charged with three counts of sex abuse of a child younger than 12 years old. Records say he was released from jail in Houston County after posting bonds totaling $90,000.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

March 20, 2018, updated March 21, 2018

By Tom Precious

Albany – The spiritual leader of millions of Catholics in New York was at the Capitol Tuesday lobbying against a push to give a one-year window for alleged child abuse victims to sue for damages dating back decades.

“Look-back would be toxic for us,’’ Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan said of a one-year litigation period being pushed by child victim organizations and many state lawmakers.

Dolan, who is also leader of the New York State Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm of the state’s bishops, said the church is supportive of “very vigorous” changes to statute of limitations that would increase the age for victims to file civil and criminal actions.

But the church, along with organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America, has said a one-year look-back period would open the floodgates to litigation against organizations that could have to defend themselves in cases involving alleged abusers who have been dead or retired for years or decades. Victims groups dismiss the church’s concerns, saying other states that have created windows for litigation have seen no such floodgates open in their civil courts.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

March 20, 2018, updated March 21, 2018

By Tom Precious

[Includes streaming audio of the entire interview.]

Bishop Richard J. Malone said Tuesday that it was important for the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and for victims of clergy sexual abuse that he publicly identify 42 priests who have been accused of sexual misconduct involving children.

In an exclusive interview with The Buffalo News hours after he released the list of 42 priests, Malone said the diocese may struggle because of its new transparency, but it will be a good struggle.

“We’ve been working on this for months. Reviewing old cases and all of that. I have just become more and more convinced it was time to put those names out. The main reasons are really transparency. You’ve heard of the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. It calls us to transparency. I wanted that transparency to happen,” he said. “We know if a sexual abuse victim sees the name in print of the abuser, sometimes that person might have been ashamed and hidden away. Seeing the name in print, acknowledged by the church, can liberate and empower that person to come forward. And we want them to come forward for help.”

“I think the tendency decades ago was perhaps like a family. You don’t want to hang out the dirty laundry. But clearly there was dirty laundry. I hate to use that metaphor for human beings. But I felt it was time to bring it into the light.”

He noted that about 30 Catholic dioceses out of 197 in the U.S. have publicized the names of priests involved in sexual abuse allegations.

“The majority have not,” he said.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Diocese of Buffalo

March 27, 2018

By Bishop Richard J. Malone

[Includes streaming audio of the sermon.]

Reprinted with permission, the text of Bishop Richard J. Malone’s Chrism Mass homily, delivered at St. Joseph Cathedral in Buffalo on March 27, 2018.

We gather for the Chrism Mass this year at a moment in our diocesan history when our Catholic community is in the throes of a crisis. Together, we are struggling to navigate through a storm – dark, unnerving, shocking, angering, faith-shaking. As much as we hate to think about it, the fact is that the past aberrant behavior of some of our priests – a few, in the big picture – long shrouded in darkness, has come into the light – thanks to the courage of one victim, Michael, who came forward and publicly disclosed his victimization. This revelation has triggered a series of other sad stories of trust betrayed and young people harmed.

After consultation with our Presbyteral Council and Diocesan Pastoral Council – and with their strong endorsement – I disclosed the names of 42 priests who are known to have abused children and young people. I made that decision for 3 reasons: for transparency; for the empowerment the truth gives victims to come forth so that we can help them; and for mitigation of risk of future incidents when past abuses are identified.

Our Catholic people are reeling, as are we priests, and understandably so. At the same time, I’ve received more support from both laity and brother priests than I can ever remember in 18 years as a bishop. I’m sure you have, as well, my brothers. We’re in this together – all of us – lay, clergy and religious – who are the Church of Western New York. And especially we who are priests. I know from meetings with the victims – I met with two victims just yesterday – and from conversations with brother priests, who are angry and ashamed – I know the truth of Blessed – soon to be Saint – Oscar Romero’s words: “There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried.” Many of us know those tears. I do.

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LAUNCETON (TASMANIA)
The Examiner

March 28, 2018

By Stefan Boscia

A Launceston priest has no personal objection to making celibacy optional for Catholic Church clergy.

Father Mark Freeman suggested it was one of several measures that should be considered to bring the church further in line with other Christian denominations.

The Catholic Church forces clergy to remain celibate throughout their life, unlike other mainstream Christian denominations.

A recent royal commission into institutional sexual abuse recommended the Catholic Church reconsider the practice.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

March 27, 2018

The Diocese of Buffalo failed the community by allowing priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children to remain in leadership roles.

Now, it turns out the church’s careless practices may have had other unintended consequences.

The News found eight priests from the Diocese of Buffalo accused of sexually abusing children living near elementary and middle schools. Reporters had to search public records to find the addresses of the eight priests. The diocese named 42 priests it said had credible allegations of sexual misconduct involving minors brought against them. But it declined to disclose their addresses.

The diocese should ensure the public knows of any such priests living in sensitive areas to forestall problems that could otherwise arise. The church should be upfront in managing this crisis and assuring the public. News staff reporter Jay Tokasz wrote that, in some cases, accused priests have been living across the street from a school or down the road only a few houses away.

Law enforcement’s role is limited. Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn Jr. explained the problem: Because they were never convicted of a crime, he said, “these individuals are not required to be registered” as sex offenders.

It is true these accused priests were never found guilty of any offense, so they are not in any local database for sex registry offense. Legally, they cannot be prevented from living near a school.

This worrisome situation circles back to the church’s past practice of protecting priests, sending them for treatment near Toronto and then sometimes returning them to parishes and schools. It was an ugly practice that put more young people at risk, and not just here but other parts of the country. Now, the community is dealing with the inevitable consequences of the hierarchy’s initial failure to treat child sexual abuse as the criminal matter that it is.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Variety

March 30, 2018

By Gene Maddaus

The unsecured creditors in the Weinstein Co. bankruptcy have hired Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones, a firm that has represented sexual abuse victims in a dozen bankruptcies involving the Catholic Church.

The five-member committee of unsecured creditors includes two alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein’s abuses: his former assistant Sandeep Rehal and former actress Louisette Geiss. The committee also includes WME, Cinedigm, and Light Chaser Animation, a Chinese animation studio. Geiss, who filed a suit alleging that Weinstein tried to force her to watch him masturbate in 2008, will chair the committee.

James Stang, a partner at the firm, will be among the attorneys representing the unsecured creditors. The committee’s goal will be to maximize the value of the Weinstein Co. estate in order to get the greatest possible recovery. The firm’s involvement is a sign that the committee may take an aggressive approach, possibly even suing Harvey Weinstein to recover funds that he may owe the company.

“It is not unusual in a bankruptcy case that one would look for assets that may be recoverable,” Stang told Variety in an interview. “The committee is going to look at potential liability of third parties, other than the Weinstein Co., and that would include Harvey Weinstein. That’s a given.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

March 31, 2018

By Haidee V. Eugenio

A new book on sex abuse in the Catholic Church has cited the Guam church and former Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s attempts to invalidate a 2016 Guam law lifting the civil statute of limitation for child sex abuses.

G.R. Pafumi released the first of two volumes of his book, “Inhumanity in the Name of Jesus,” which argue the church’s history and teachings made the cover-up of clergy sex abuse inevitable because of unchecked power and the belief in ecclesiastical infallibility.

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BOSTON (MA)
NewBostonPost

March 29, 2018

By Kevin Thomas

Elena received her fair share of faulty Catholic teaching as a child, never believing she was good enough … “so any imperfection must be willful on my part and therefore a sin …”

“I learned not to trust my judgment on anything but to allow the priests and others in authority to usurp the role of my conscience and the role of God in my life.”

Then, Elena was molested by a priest when she was 12.

“I felt like Jesus must be on his side.”

Remarkably, both Elena and her faith survived.

“I realized, believing that Jesus was on the priest’s side was part of the lie,” she wrote. “I imagined how angry I would be if someone hurt one of my children.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB

March 27, 2018

By Marissa Perlman

A Pastor from a Parish in Dunkirk has been put on administrative leave by Bishop Richard Malone following an abuse complaint.

Tuesday, the Bishop says their investigation into the allegations against Father Dennis Riter is still in the early stages.

Dennis Riter was an active priest as of Palm Sunday, but now he will be released of his duties as long as this investigation continues.

We spoke with Mike Reck, who represents victims of child sexual abuse. He says his new client “Matt,” is the person who filed these allegations against Father Riter.

It was a very different meeting for the annual appeal week campaign for Catholic Charities, Tuesday.
Bishop Richard Malone was asked about how he learned of the allegations against Father Dennis G. Riter of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish.

Bishop Malone said, “The initial look at the case convinced us it was not what we call frivolous. In other words this is something we need to look at, that is not a judgement at all yet.”

Bishop Malone says he was notified “very recently.”

He says he is praying for the victims and Father Riter, and wants the parish not to assume guilt.
“There will be a professional investigation that will happen, and it’s a mistake to judge.”

The situation is the first since the Bishop released a list of clergy accused of sexual abuse; where a priest was pulled from active ministry.

Lawyer Mike Reck with Jeff Anderson and Associates is representing a former altar boy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help who wants to only be known as “Matt.”

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ARLINGTON (VA)
Diocese of Arlington

March 16, 2018

The Diocese of Arlington has been advised that Fairfax County Police Department also have an active investigation regarding Fr. Duesterhaus. Father Duesterhaus has stated that he is cooperating fully with the investigation. Fairfax County Police can be reached at (703) 691-2131.

Posted March 14, 2018

Rev. Michael R. Duesterhaus, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation of an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor. The alleged incidents occurred between 2001 and 2004. Fr. Duesterhaus denies the accusation. No determination has yet been made regarding the allegation. The Diocese is fully cooperating with law enforcement and will continue to do so.

Like all priests, diocesan employees and volunteers who work with children in the Diocese of Arlington, Fr. Duesterhaus has undergone criminal background checks during his service. His current assignment, from which he is on administrative leave, is as parochial vicar at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Winchester.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

March 27, 2018

By Aaron Besecker

Fifteen years ago, when a man publicly accused the Rev. Richard P. Judd of sexually abusing him as a child, the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo wouldn’t answer questions about the preist, according to the Niagara Gazette.

Now Judd’s accuser is happy that the diocese included Judd on a list of 42 priests who had credible allegations of sexual abuse against them.

The man, identified by the Gazette as Nick D’Amico, told the newspaper that Judd abused him when he was a student at an elementary school in the summer of 1975.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

April 1, 2018

By Suzanne Szustakowski

The latest revelations about past sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Buffalo Diocese are deeply disturbing. The article in the March 21 News has revealed just how many more priests were involved than we, as parishioners, were aware of.

I had hoped the church leaders had learned the lessons of Boston, especially when our current bishop was in the Boston area and saw the destruction that scandal caused. As frequent visitors to the Boston area, we witnessed the empty churches, even on Christmas. We witnessed the distress of devout Catholics as the cover-up of this abuse persisted.

Apparently this was not enough to reform the church’s methods of dealing with this horrid crime. Even as these revelations are being made public, our bishop and prominent church leaders are protesting the passage of the look-back law that would allow victims recourse for past abuse. Our leaders are choosing to protect the church and not the victims.

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NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

March 29, 2018

By Michael J. O’Loughlin

Nearly two decades after revelations of sexual abuse by priests were widely reported, legislators in states around the country are considering changes to laws that would give victims of child sex abuse more time to file criminal and civil complaints. Catholic leaders in those places support many of those changes—but some claim provisions in the proposed laws unfairly target private organizations and that they could open them up to lawsuits over abuse that occurred decades ago.

In New York, lawmakers are scrambling to pass a state budget before breaking for Passover and Easter this week. With backing from victims’ rights advocates and the governor, they are considering a provision in the final bill that would alter the criminal and civil statutes of limitation for sex abuse cases. Part of the measure would create a one-year window that would allow civil suits to proceed for abuse that occurred decades ago, referred to as a look-back provision.

“This extraordinary provision would force institutions to defend alleged conduct decades ago about which they have no knowledge and in which they had no role, potentially involving employees long retired, dead or infirm, based on information long lost, if it ever existed,” Dennis Poust, the director of communications for the New York State Catholic Conference, wrote in an email to America.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

March 30, 2018

By Katherine Gregg

Abuse victims gave wrenching accounts at a House hearing on the bill introduced by Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee, whose legislation was motivated by her own sister’s repeated abuse as a child by their family’s parish priest.

A Rhode Island lawmaker has ripped the scab off the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal with legislation born out of her older sister’s repeated abuse, as a child, by their family’s parish priest.

Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee’s legislation would remove the seven-year statute of limitations on the pursuit of legal claims against perpetrators of sex abuse. The statute of limitations derailed a lawsuit by two former victims of an infamous pedophile priest in 2016.

A late-night hearing on her bill earlier this week drew pained personal recollections from her sister, now a 65-year-old psychologist; a well-known doctor talking about his abuse publicly for the first time; and Jim Scanlan, a R.I. man whose account of sex-abuse by a Boston College High School priest in the late 1970s figured in the Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight.”

But the tales of abuse by trusted elders were not limited to the Catholic Church. Two women describing themselves as victims of sex-abuse scandals reaching back to the 1970s at St. George’s School in Middletown and the Gordon School in East Providence also conveyed their support for the bill, which has no restrictions on how far back the cases might reach.

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SAGINAW (MI)
Michigan Live

March 30, 2018

By Michael Kransz

The Catholic Diocese of Saginaw says many parishioners are celebrating Holy Week with “very heavy hearts” after recent search and seizures on two church properties and the home of Bishop Joseph R. Cistone as part of an investigation into sexual abuse by priests.

Just days before Holy Week, which started March 25 and concludes with Easter Sunday on April 1, police raided the bishop’s home, a cathedral rectory and the diocese offices. The search warrants were executed, because, prosecutors allege, diocese officials failed to fully cooperate in the ongoing investigation into sexual abuse within the diocese.

On Tuesday, March 27, Cistone commented on the doubts some parishioners might have about clergymen.

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BRADFORD (PA)
The Bradford Era

March 30, 2018

A former priest has publicly named a now-deceased priest, who served in Elk County, as having sexually abused him when he was a teenager in the Erie area.

James Faluszczak, 48, of Buffalo, N.Y., told The Courier-Express of DuBois that the Rev. Monsignor Daniel J. Martin abused him. Martin served as pastor of St. Boniface Parish, Kersey, in 1962, and as headmaster of Elk County Christian — now Elk County Catholic — until 1970. Martin died in 2006 at age 88.

Faluszczak says he was one of many witnesses to testify before a grand jury around September 2016 to investigate sex abuse allegations in dioceses throughout Pennsylvania, according to the Erie-Times News.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WBFO

March 30, 2018

By Chris Caya

[Includes audio of Mark Lynch’s complete statement.]

A local man is going public with claims of being sexually abused as a teenager by a Catholic priest employed by the Diocese of Buffalo.

Mark Lynch, of Lewiston, says he was sexually assaulted in the rectory of Mount Carmel Parish, in Niagara Falls, by Father Joseph Schuster.

“It was 50 years ago. I was 13 years of age.”

Lynch said, he just began his healing process in December. And he chose to break his silence, Good Friday, with great reverence for the traditions stolen from him by the abuse he suffered at the hands of a Catholic priest.

That’s one of the great wounds that I have from this abuse is the fact that this man stole my sacraments. He stole my church from me.”

And Lynch says, other victims who came forward recently should not be blamed for hindering the Catholic Charities Appeal. He points to Bishop Richard Malone.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB 4

March 30, 2018

By Jenn Schanz

[Includes video interview with Mark Lynch.]

50 years after Mark Lynch claims a Buffalo priest sexually abused him, he’s speaking out.
Lynch was raised in a devout Irish Catholic family in Niagara Falls.

“On Good Friday, when Christ hung on the cross, between the hours of 12 and three, we respected three hours of silence,” it’s that tradition, Lynch told News 4, that inspired him to share his story at exactly 3 o’clock on Good Friday.

“In 1968, at the age of 13 I was sexually assaulted by Father Joseph Schuster,” he said on the steps of St. Joseph’s Cathedral Friday.

In the days after the Buffalo Diocese released a list of 42 former priests accused of sexually abusing children, Lynch reached out to News 4 via email.

“When that list came out I was hungry to find his name on that list. And it was not on that list and it was like I was punched in the gut. For some reason that moment made me feel like I didn’t count,” he said.

Aside from stating they are aware of these allegations, a spokesperson for the Buffalo Catholic Diocese would not comment further.

However, a spokesperson has explained that deceased former priests were listed only if they had at least two allegations against them.

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ALBANY (NY)
The Daily Star

March 29, 2018

By Joe Mahoney

Advocates for a one-year window to allow child victims of sexual assault to bring civil suits against molesters and employers who enabled abuse said Thursday they are deeply disappointed that the measure was sliced out of state budget negotiations.

Those crusading for the Child Victims Act — legislation that has been opposed by the state’s Roman Catholic bishops, some youth groups and the insurance industry — said they will resume their push in Albany’s post-budget legislative session, which closes in mid-June.

The one-year revival is intended to arm victims with the ability to pursue legal claims even decades after they were molested.

“We’re going to continue our grassroots effort and I think it’s highly likely we’re going to make this happen,” said Bridie Farrell, a Saratoga Springs native and former Olympic speed skater who was molested by an adult male when she was 15.

State Senate Republicans, who control the upper chamber of the statehouse, succeeded in having the measure cut out of the budget legislation submitted in January by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat.

Critics of the measure say it would lead to an evidentiary nightmare for New York’s courts.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
NBC Bay Area

March 29, 2018

By Vicky Nguyen, Michael Bott, and Mark Villarreal

Grace Leonis speaks out for the first time, accusing her JV water polo coach of sexually abusing her when she was a freshman. Friends say they reported sexting and an inappropriate relationship to the school, but police were never notified

Grace Leonis arrived as a freshman at San Jose’s Presentation High School feeling like a fish out of water. A standout swimmer, her prowess in the pool got her to the Catholic school for girls, where tuition runs $20,000 a year.

Leonis joined the water polo team but still struggled to make friends and says she often felt dejected and alone. She says she turned to her junior varsity water polo coach Jenna Roe for support. Leonis, who first met Roe at a water polo camp in August 2013, right before school started, says Roe lavished attention on her.

“I’ve never gotten attention like that before from anybody,” Leonis, now 18, said in a recent interview at her parents’ home in San Jose. “I liked it. I wanted to be around her.”

The two began texting each other. Leonis said she confessed to Roe, 24, that she had a crush on her.

“She told me she felt the same way, and at first, I was like, ‘That’s not right,’” Leonis said.

Leonis, who had just turned 14, said she felt conflicted about her coach’s response.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Associated Press

March 30, 2018

By Brady McCombs

A group of people demanding an end to one-on-one interviews between Mormon youth and lay leaders and the sexual questions that sometimes arise during the meetings plan to march to church headquarters Friday to show they’re not satisfied despite a rule change this week that allows children to bring parents with them.

Group organizer Sam Young, a Mormon father from Houston, says a parent or adult should be required for all meetings that usually happen twice a year starting at age 12. He said sexual questions often become explicit and argues children should only be asked if they are obeying the faith’s law of chastity.

Young is expecting several hundred people at the event that comes one day before a twice-annual conference put on by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They plan to deliver 55,000 signatures supporting the cause.

Church officials have said the interviews allow bishops to get to know youth better and determine their religious habits and obedience to God. The bishops are instructed how to handle the meetings and swear to keep the conversations confidential.

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AUSTRALIA
Metro

March 29, 2018

The hearing of a whether a Cardinal charged with historic sex offences should stand trial has concluded in Melbourne.

George Pell, 76, Pope Francis’ former finance minister and the third most senior official in the Vatican, was charged on June 29 2017 with sexually abusing multiple people in his Australian home state of Victoria.

He is the most senior Vatican cleric ever charged in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis.

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LANSING (MI)
CNN

March 29, 2018

By Majlie De Puy Kamp

Larry Nassar molested them. Now gymnasts describe a different kind of abuse by famed Olympic coach John Geddert

Late one night in the fall of 2012, 17-year-old Brittany Aragon overdosed. She took four Valium pills, lay down in bed and waited.

She was nervous, she said, but the thought of having to go back to the gym and face her coach, John Geddert, terrified her more than taking the pills.

While Larry Nassar was sexually abusing gymnasts in the back room of Twistars Gymnastics in Lansing, Michigan, Geddert – the famed Olympic coach and then-owner of the gym – was subjecting them to a different kind of horror: routinely ignoring their injuries and verbally assaulting them, according to former gymnasts and their families.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 30, 2018

By Melissa Cunningham & Adam Cooper

From the first day the door of court 22 was opened to the public, the man hired to represent Cardinal George Pell was ruthless in defence of his client.

Barrister Robert Richter, QC, is renowned for his confrontational courtroom tactics and they were on full display as he mercilessly tore into police, advocates for victims of sex abuse and even the magistrate.

Mr Richter is Australia’s foremost criminal defence counsel, known for successfully defending Mick Gatto on the charge of murdering underworld hitman Andrew Veniamin. Mr Gatto later had ‘‘Robert Richter’’ tattooed on his chest.

The QC has represented the dangerous, violent and the deeply disturbed, Hoddle Street massacre killer Julian Knight not least among them.

But Cardinal Pell, the highest-ranking modern-day Catholic to be charged with sexual offences, is Mr Richter ‘s most high-profile client.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
CNA/EWTN News

March 29, 2018

A hearing will that will decide whether Cardinal George Pell will go on trial for alleged abuse came to a conclusion Thursday after Pell’s attorney launched a vigorous defense and sought to cast doubt on the path from the first police investigations through the filing of legal charges.

Pell’s defense lawyer Robert Richter, 72, engaged in cross-examination of the charges against his client, with Victoria Police Crime Command’s head of serious crime, Paul Sheridan, taking the stand in court.

The Victoria Police launched a special operation in 2013 to investigate Pell, “Operation Tethering.” Richter charged that at its launch, “it was an operation looking for a crime because no crime had been reported.”

Sheridan confirmed the effort had been launched in 2013 specifically to gather information on the cardinal. There was a search for complainants and no one came forward until more than a year after the investigation began.

The total number of charges are not public, but most abuse allegedly took place in the 1970s. An additional allegation concerned the cardinal’s time as Melbourne’s archbishop from 1996-2001. Cardinal Pell has said he is innocent. He currently heads the Holy See’s Secretariat for the Economy and is one of the nine cardinals advising Pope Francis.

The hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court concluded Thursday after hearing testimony from 50 witnesses, including Pell’s accusers, CNN reports. The cardinal was present every day of the hearing.

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LANSING (MI)
Detroit Free Press

March 30, 2018

By Gina Kaufman and Joe Guillen

Two Michigan State University employees who allegedly were aware of complaints years ago against Larry Nassar are still on the job, raising continuing questions about the university’s response to abuses by the former Olympic doctor that go back decades.

The two athletic trainers were informed nearly 20 years ago of incidents in which Nassar made athletes uncomfortable during appointments, according to two former athletes. It’s unclear what the trainers did with the information, but Nassar wasn’t stopped.

One of the trainers, Destiny Teachnor-Hauk, is named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit, which claims she and others at MSU “knew or should have known of Nassar’s abuse yet failed to take corrective action.”

An MSU spokeswoman told the Free Press in mid-March the trainers have never been suspended and are still working.

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SAGINAW COUNTY (MI)
NBC25

March 27, 2018

By Amanda Chodnicki

A survivor who said he was sexually abused decades ago by a priest within the Saginaw Diocese is helping alleged victims get through recent events surrounding the Catholic church.

Just last week, the offices of the Saginaw Diocese, the Bishop Joseph Cistone’s residence and the rectory at Saint Mary’s Cathedral were raided by police.

Boxes of items including electronics, were seized and all the while, victims were continuing to come forward.

This survivor, Brad Sylvester, is now a volunteer with the organization “SNAP”, or the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

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MASON (MI)
Lansing State Journal

March 30, 2018

By Beth LeBlanc

A priest accused of embezzling more than $5 million from his Okemos parish is now the subject of a civil lawsuit lodged by the insurance company for the Catholic Diocese of Lansing.

The insurance provider claims to have paid out roughly $2.5 million to the diocese so far to cover its losses.

To protect the assets that will cover those losses, the agency convinced a judge Wednesday to place the Rev. Jonathan Wehrle’s sprawling estate into receivership.

“While this suit is pending, nobody wants to see the property go to waste or be damaged before the property can be forfeited,” said Randy Marmor, lawyer for The Princeton Excess and Surplus Lines Insurance Corporation.

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TORONTO (CANADA)
The Guardian

March 30, 2018

By Leyland Cecco

Canada bishops’ group said Francis would not offer personal apology for residential school system that abused generations of children

Survivors of Canada’s residential schools have expressed dismay after Pope Francis for a system that abused thousands of indigenous children for generations.

The schools, many of which were run by missionaries, were used to convert indigenous children to Christianity through a governmental policy of “aggressive assimilation”. More than 150,000 children passed through around 80 schools across the country until the last one closed in 1996.

The Canadian government formally apologized for the program 10 years ago. In 2014, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended a papal apology, which the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, personally lobbied for when he visited the Vatican last year.

While he has apologized for the “grave sins” of colonialism in South America, in a letter released Tuesday by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the president of the organization said Pope Francis would not issue a personal apology.

Stephen Kakfwi, the former premier of the Northwest Territories, attended a number of residential schools in the Canadian Arctic. He argued that survivors of the schools were not calling for a personal apology from the pontiff, but an institutional response from the Catholic church.

“We asked as for an apology from the pope, the head of the Catholic faith, for the millions of people who are Catholics around the world,” said Kakfwi, who helped arrange visits by Pope John Paul II to the Arctic.

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LAS VEGAS (NV)
The Associated Press

March 28, 2018

By Regina Garcia Cano

Elaine Wynn, the ex-wife of embattled casino mogul Steve Wynn, said during a court hearing Wednesday that she told the company’s general counsel in 2009 that she had received information alleging her ex-husband had raped an employee in 2005. The general counsel later denied receiving any information about a rape allegation.

The revelation came during testimony in a special hearing in a yearslong civil case in state court in Las Vegas involving her, her ex-husband and the casino-operating company they founded. It was the first time she testified in open court regarding the sexual misconduct allegation against Steve Wynn.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

Elaine Wynn said she did not report the information to anyone else in the company other than general counsel Kimmarie Sinatra. She acknowledged under questioning from the attorneys representing Wynn Resorts that she did not share the information with the company’s board of directors of which she was a member at the time.

“I told Ms. Sinatra that I had received information alleging that Mr. Wynn had raped an employee of the hotel in 2005,” she testified. She said Sinatra later told her the accusation “had been discussed by attorneys and that it was deemed not to have been an issue of concern for the company, that it had been handled personally, and therefore, it had been resolved.”

Elaine Wynn has argued she was not re-nominated the company’s board of directors in 2015 in retaliation for her inquiries into company activities.

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NIAGARA (NY)
Niagara Gazette

March 30, 2018

By Philip Gambini

After five decades of silence since being sexually assaulted at the hands of a well-known Niagara County priest, Mark Lynch will speak his truth this afternoon in the City of Buffalo.

“I have feared for several months the reality that, somewhere along in this healing process, a public statement would be both necessary and healing. I am answering the call from Bishop (Richard J.) Malone to come forward and be counted,” Lynch said in a prepared statement shared with the Niagara Gazette on Thursday.

Lynch, 63, will deliver his remarks today in Buffalo on the steps of St. Joseph’s Cathedral, 50 Franklin St., at 3 p.m. – a time of religious significance on the Catholic holy day of Good Friday.

“I am making this public statement in the hopes that other victims might be emboldened to come forward,” Lynch said.

In his remarks, Lynch said the sexual assault was perpetrated by a clergyman well-known in the Niagara Region, whose name he will disclose at the press conference later today.

The priest, now deceased, was not on a list of 42 known clergy abusers released by the diocese earlier this year, but Lynch said it his “understanding that I was only the first among many of his victims.”

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ALBANY (NY)
Spectrum News

March 29, 2018

A new report has been released detailing allegations of sexual abuse by priests in the Albany Diocese, including the locations they were assigned.

Forty-two priests are named in the report titled “Hidden Disgrace Three,” released by attorneys in the group ‘Lawyers Helping Survivors of Child Sex Abuse.’ They say the information needs to get out into the public to prevent further incidents of abuse, and unlike other dioceses in the state, Albany does not have a current compensation program for survivors.

Attorneys say while the diocese keeps a list of priests facing credible accusations on its website, that list hasn’t been updated since 2015. Ultimately, the group is hoping their efforts help victims come forward who otherwise wouldn’t.

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BROOKLYN (NY)
Bklyner

March 29, 2018

By Zainab Iqbal

Survivors of clergy sex abuse in Brooklyn have until this weekend to report their abuser to the Brooklyn Diocese to be eligible for compensation. Here’s what it means and how survivors can get started.

In the fall of 2016, Archdiocese of NY set up a voluntary Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP), which allows clergy sex abuse survivors to report their abuse and seek settlements with the church. This IRCP is coming to an end, which is why survivors have until Saturday to apply. The eligibility requirements require that the person who perpetrated the abuse be a priest or deacon ordained in that diocese.

In order to be potentially compensated, survivors should report their abuse (if they have not done so already) by the reporting deadline, which is this Sat. March 31. The filing deadline to IRCP is April 15, but if the abuse is not reported by this weekend, the survivor will not be eligible.

Lawyers Helping Survivors of Child Sex Abuse is a joint venture of three law firms representing over 100 survivors who have filed a claim with the IRCP’s.

“It’s an opportunity, finally, for survivors of child sex abuse to get some measure of relief,” Jerry Kristal, attorney at Weitz & Luxenberg said, “some measure of recognition hat this actually happened to them, some sort of satisfaction that the church is finally doing something to try to right the wrong that had been done to them.”

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NEWCASTLE (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

March 29, 2018

By David Lewis

The Anglican Diocese of Newcastle is using money raised from selling churches to compensate victims of child sexual abuse, but one coastal community is fighting back.

Chapter I

The church on the hill

The closest thing the tiny town of Bungwahl has to a landmark is its church. St James sits high on a hill, overlooking the sparkling Myall Lakes on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

It has been there for more than a century but many tourists fail to notice the heritage-listed building as they drive past on their way to Seal Rocks or Forster.

On the day I visited, however, the church was hard to ignore.

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SILOAM SPRINGS (AR)
The Threefold Advocate

March 29, 2018

By Megan Koontz

For years Emily Joy sat in the back of her home church, unable to tell the truth about what kind of man her pastor was. Now, she’s free to be honest

The #ChurchToo movement was spurred on by the #MeToo movement and started by activist and writer Hannah Paasch and spoken word poet Emily Joy. Joy was groomed and raped by her youth pastor at the age of 16 and felt shamed by the culture of the megachurch she grew up in. She never shared her story with anyone in her church. After attending Moody Bible College and feeling the shame follow her, Joy finally gained the courage to confide in Paasch, whom met at Moody, the secret she had been hiding, according to The Huffington Post.

On Nov. 20, 2017, Paasch posted a tweet offering the hashtag #ChurchToo and asking women who had experienced sexual abuse within the church to come forward with their stories. Within 48 hours, people around the world were using the hashtag to recount stori es of pain and abuse they had experienced within the church.

Soon thereafter, the hashtag #SilenceisNotSpiritual followed, and women who are considered prominent in the church—including Beth Moore, Jen Hatmaker, Emily McFarlan Miller and Serene Jones—and 150 other women, published a statement challenging churches to stand by women who had experienced abuse in the church.

The root of abuse that happens within the church, according to Paasch and Joy, is often linked to the purity culture that permeates evangelical churches, the “theology of abstinence that singles out women and slut shames everyone who engages in any kind of sexual activity outside of marriage. Purity culture is the religious antecedent to rape culture, as it lays the bulk of the responsibility for maintaining the sexual purity of both genders on women’s attire and behavior,” Paasch said.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Salt Lake Tribune

March 29, 2018

By Mariah Noble

The Mormon church announced Thursday that it plans to close two missionary training centers — one in Santiago, Chile, and the other in Madrid, Spain — in January.

A news release from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said ecclesiastical leaders “continue to seek the best use of resources worldwide according to the needs and demands of each area.”

Starting in January, missionaries who would have attended either of these centers will be trained at one of the remaining 13 missionary training centers around the world, including the flagship facility in Provo.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Deseret News

March 29, 2018

By Sarah Jane Weaver

In a continuing effort to counsel leaders on how to prevent, identify and respond to abuse, the First Presidency announced changes on March 26 detailing the Church actions “to protect God’s children.”

The First Presidency sent a letter and resource document — which includes an updated version of guidelines first issued in 2008 — to Church leaders in the United States and Canada.

“To help ensure the safety and protection of children, youth and adults, we ask that all priesthood and auxiliary leaders become familiar with existing Church policies and guidelines on preventing and responding to abuse,” stated the letter, signed by President Russell M. Nelson, President Dallin H. Oaks and President Henry B. Eyring.

The letter noted that in 2008, the First Presidency encouraged Church leaders to reach out in love to assist those who were suffering from abuse. “This global issue continues to be of great concern to us today. Our hearts and prayers go out to all who are affected by this serious problem.”

The changes detail how bishops and stake presidencies may conduct interviews with women and children and how they counsel victims of abuse and sexual abuse.

The revised statement on policies and guidelines specifies that children, youth and women now may invite an adult to join them in what traditionally have been personal interviews.

The First Presidency also clarified to members of bishoprics and stake presidencies how they should respond to reports of sexual abuse and how to minister in those situations. Church leaders are to rely on Church doctrine when addressing abuse and should never disregard a report of abuse or encourage members to remain in an abusive situation.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish Times

March 30, 2018

By Patsy McGarry

Bishop Philip Boyce expressed regret his focus on victims’ needs was not greater in the past

The Catholic diocese of Dromore has distanced itself from comments by a retired priest there who said he was “disgusted” at the appointment of Bishop Philip Boyce as its administrator this week.

Bishop Boyce (78) had been Bishop of Raphoe in Donegal since 1995 until he retired last year. He was appointed administrator of Dromore (which includes parishes in Antrim, Armagh and Down) after Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop John McAreavey.

That followed controversy over the diocese’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations made against former president of St Colman’s College, Newry and former parish priest at Clonduff/Hilltown, Fr Malachy Finnegan, who died in 2002.

In a BBC Radio Ulster interview this week Fr Eamon Murray pointed out that in 2011 Bishop Boyce was criticised for his handling of clerical sex abuse allegations in Raphoe.

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SCOTLAND
The Free Thinker

March 28, 2018

By Barry Duke

A 51-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons claims that he was punished after he reported Father Francis Paul Moore, above, for attempting to abuse him in a Scottish church.

According to this report, the alleged victim was just 11 when he had an encounter with Moore in St Margaret’s Church in Castlepark.

The man says the incident occurred when he had visited the church with his cousin who had been locked in an office with Moore.

He said after he banged on the door to help his cousin, the priest pounced and he knew he was going to be his next victim.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
The Herald News

March 29, 2018

By Brian Fraga

A judge is allowing a trial to proceed against former Fall River Bishop Daniel A. Cronin, who was sued three years ago for his alleged failure to supervise a priest who is accused of molesting two boy altar servers in the 1970s and 1980s.

In his ruling on Cronin’s motion for a summary judgement, dated March 5, Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Maynard Kirplani said a jury should decide the case because questions remain as to whether Cronin should have been suspicious of and investigated the late Monsignor Maurice Souza for spending a lot of time away from his parish on the Cape and going on road trips with adolescent boys.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents the plaintiffs, said the judge’s decision is significant because it says the former bishop “had an obligation to supervise in a reasonable manner” to determine whether Souza violated the Catholic Church’s rules regulating priests’ vacations and prohibiting lay people from staying in a rectory. Garabedian said those concerns could have triggered an inquiry in to Souza’s behavior.

“Bishop Cronin could therefore be found by a jury to be negligent even though it has not been shown that Bishop Cronin had prior notice of Monsignor Souza sexually abusing the plaintiffs,” said Garabedian, who has represented dozens of victims of clergy sex abuse.

Garabedian said Kirplani’s ruling “helps hold supervisors accountable which helps victims try to heal and it helps protect children.”

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

March 30, 2018

By Bob McGovern

Former altar boys who claim they were molested by a priest years ago are allowed to sue the bishop they say failed in supervising him, according to a recent court ruling.

Paul Andrews and Daniel Sherwood are suing the Rev. Daniel Cronin, the former bishop of the Fall River Archdiocese. They argue that he was negligent in supervising and retaining the services of Maurice Souza — a now-deceased priest who they say sexually molested them when they would go on out-of-state trips in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Judge Maynard A. Kirpalani ruled that the case could go on, despite a pitch from Cronin’s attorneys to toss the suit.

“While the case is certainly slim, genuine issues of material fact do remain,” Kirpalani wrote earlier this month. “In particular, an issue remains about whether Cronin, who was in charge of the diocese and had the power to remove Souza, should have known that one of his priests spent significant time away from the parish … on extended road-trips with adolescent boys.”

Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney representing Andrew and Sherwood, said it was a huge decision for his clients.

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SAGINAW (MI)
MLive

March 28, 2018

By Michael Kransz

Some Saginaw Diocese parishioners are calling for Saginaw Bishop Joseph R. Cistone to step down after prosecutors say his diocese failed to cooperate in an ongoing sexual abuse investigation.

“He has no credibility,” said Mary Ureche, a parishioner at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Saginaw Township. “The reason he’s here is because of the cover-up and shredding of documents in Philadelphia.”

Nathan Medina grew up worshiping at Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption in Saginaw. The 34-year-old said, among other options to rebuild trust, the bishop should resign.

“The Diocese of Saginaw needs somebody who can fix this, and I don’t think Bishop Cistone can,” Medina said.

Ureche and Medina were referencing Cistone’s time as a high-ranking member in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and a grand jury report on sexual abuse and cover-up within that diocese.

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ZIMBABWE
The Zimbabwe Mail

March 29, 2018

By Brill Pongo

About 3 years ago I joined a prophetic church largely out of curiosity and I quickly began to investigate the operations of how things work my fascination was mainly with the culture and behaviour of the members of these churches and the celebrity type leaders, who are treated as ‘demigods’.

Because of my previous stance and views vis-à-vis these churches I was treated more favourably by the leadership and found my way and acceptance into the inner circle very quickly.

In no time I was tasked with doing some media and PR work to assist the ‘truth’ and aid the image of the leader.

It was from that position that I was able to carry out my investigations and I was able to observe and understand a lot that goes on behind the scenes, which I will reveal in due course but for now I want to focus on spiritual abuse in general and its excesses particularly in some modern day prophetic movement churches.

My hope is that by writing about these excesses publicly, we can begin to dialog openly about this very real problem. Hiding it or pretending it doesn’t exist simply adds more confusion and anger to those who have walked through the trauma of spiritual abuse.

So I wrote these traits of spiritually abusive ministries and churches. This is not an exhaustive list, but it typifies what happens. My heart in sharing this is to simply shed light on unhealthy, manipulative, controlling practices.

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OTTAWA (CANADA)
The Guardian

March 28, 2018

Schools largely run by Catholic church took 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children away from families and force them to convert

Pope Francis will not apologize to survivors of Canada’s Indian residential schools for the role the Roman Catholic church played in operating the institutions or the abuses suffered there.

Some 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their families over much of the last century and put in the schools, where they were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten and verbally and sexually abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died. Almost two-thirds of the 130 schools were run by the Catholic church.

Bishop Lionel Gendron, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said on Wednesday in a letter to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada that Francis has not shied away from acknowledging injustices faced by indigenous peoples around the world, but that he cannot personally issue an apology for residential schools in Canada.

“The Catholic Bishops of Canada have been in dialogue with the Pope and the Holy See concerning the legacy of suffering you have experienced,” Gendron wrote.

“After carefully considering the request and extensive dialogue with the bishops of Canada, he felt that he could not personally respond.”

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LA RONGE (SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA)
LaRonge Now

March 28, 2018

By Derek Cornet

Residential schools survivors who attended a two-day gathering this week aren’t happy with Pope Francis’ decision to not apologize for the trauma they went through.

“I talked to a few people this morning and the Pope knows what happened from so many stories,” Lac La Ronge Indian Band elder Tom Roberts, who organized the event held March 27 and 28, said. “They’re not happy, I’m not happy, but what we learned at the residential school and being survivors now, is we are very resilient people. If we get knocked down, we get up.”

As one of the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Pope was asked to come to Canada and apologize to survivors, their families and communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools. Roberts said through the vast amounts of testimony already given about people’s experiences at those schools, Pope Francis should be well aware of what happened.

Roberts attended residential school in Prince Albert for seven years and said his journey in life has been hard because of it. He said people are now in a period of reclaiming their identities, which are slowly coming back. First Nations people were hopeful the Catholic Church would have apologized this summer, Roberts said, adding he feels sorry for the Pope not coming.

“It didn’t have to happen that way, where they took us away from our moms and dads as young as five years old to be taken to the residential school for 10 months out of the year,” he said.

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SASKATOON (SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA)
Saskatoon StarPhoenix

March 28, 2018

By Dave Deibert

The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon says he remains ‘hopeful’ that Pope Francis will one day travel to Canada to apologize to residential school survivors and their families.

The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon says he remains “hopeful” that Pope Francis will one day travel to Canada to apologize to residential school survivors and their families for the role of the Roman Catholic Church in operating residential schools and for the abuse suffered by the schools’ students.

A papal apology was No. 58 of the 94 recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The commission recommended an apology similar to that offered by the Pope to Irish victims of sexual abuse in 2010. In 2015, Pope Francis issued an apology in Bolivia to Indigenous peoples in the Americas for the “grave sins” of colonialism.

Instead, Bishop Lionel Gendron, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, on Tuesday released a letter to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada saying Pope Francis has not shied away from acknowledging injustices faced by Indigenous peoples around the world, but that he can’t personally issue an apology for residential schools.

“I recognize that the recent letter to the Indigenous Peoples (of) Canada from the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) is a disappointment to many people in our community,” Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon Bishop Mark Hagemoen wrote in a statement issued to media.

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UNITED STATES
Chicago Tribune

March 29, 2018

By Jessi Roti

More than 90 percent of female concertgoers surveyed by OurMusicMyBody experienced being harassed, the campaign said Monday.

Launched in 2016 as a joint effort between nonprofit organizations Between Friends and Rape Victim Advocates, the OurMusicMyBody campaign aims to promote “fun and consensual music experiences for all” through anti-harassment policies and guidelines at music venues and festivals across Chicago.

After recognizing that festivals and venues did not have procedures in place to address issues of harassment and assault, or coordination and education between security and support teams (like medical, for example) about the next steps to take if these issues arise, the campaign became necessary — as echoed by Riot Fest creative director Jeremy Scheuch when he was asked why the festival partnered with OurMusicMyBody.

In 2017, OurMusicMyBody was responsible for the implementation of anti-harassment guidelines and policies at the city’s three major music fests, Pitchfork, Lollapalooza and Riot Fest, as well as more locally focused events Ruido Fest and Green Music Fest. The campaign also partnered with various venues such as Lincoln Hall, Schubas, Subterranean and Beat Kitchen to provide information at concerts hosted year-round.

More than 500 respondents answered questions about harassment in the online survey taken between November and December 11, 2017. The survey was broken down by gender: 379 females, 84 males and 57 nonbinary people. Harassment was defined as spoken violence and aggression to physical assault — including being drugged or being coerced into drinking.

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LANSING (MI)
Detroit Free Press

March 29, 2018

By David Jesse

A financial rating firm has dropped its outlook for Michigan State University to negative as it evaluates the fallout from the Larry Nassar sexual assaults scandal.

S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Ashley Ramchandanisaid pending investigations into MSU, along with lots of turnover in senior leadership, sparked the change. The firm also says they aren’t sure how all the fallout will shake out.

“While management reports the hiring of additional staff and implementation of amended policies to address sexual assault prevention, patient care and campus safety, in our opinion, current campus community tension may stall prompt and equitable resolution of stakeholders’ concerns.”

Ratings affect the university’s ability to borrow money through bonds and the interest rates it gets. The agency left the rating for current bonds unchanged.

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CANADA
The Canadian Press

March 28, 2018

Truth and Reconciliation Commission called for a papal apology to survivors

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today he’s disappointed with the Pope’s decision to not apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential schools and the trauma experienced by their students.

The prime minister said reconciliation is not just a matter between government and Indigenous people, but must also involve non-government actors as well.

A letter released Tuesday by the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops says Pope Francis has not shied away from recognizing injustices faced by Indigenous peoples around the world, but he can’t personally apologize for residential schools.

“Obviously I’m disappointed with the Catholic Church’s decision not to apologize for their role in residential schools,” said Trudeau.

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ROME
CRUX

March 29, 2018

By John L. Allen Jr.

Father Hans Zollner, an earnest 51-year-old Bavarian Jesuit psychologist and vice-rector at Rome’s prestigious Gregorian University, who’s considered perhaps Catholicism’s leading expert on sexual abuse and child protection, is, in almost every sense of the word, a man on a mission.

In the 21st century, we use that phrase to mean someone with a cause, and that’s certainly Zollner. He sees the protection of vulnerable people, especially children, as a core part of the Christian faith, and he’s determined to do everything in his power to promote and foster safe environments.

In the history of Zollner’s Jesuit order, “mission” also implies hitting the road, taking the Gospel to the four corners of the world, and that’s him as well. Over the past four years or so, he’s led approximately 600 training sessions in child protection for bishops, religious superiors, and Church institutions, in virtually every part of the world. When he spoke to Crux on March 28, he had just returned from a session with the French bishops in Lourdes, and he ticked off plans for the near future including stops in Kenya and in Papua New Guinea.

While he tries to go wherever he’s invited, Zollner says he gets about one-third more invitations than even someone with his inexhaustible energy and relentless commitment can possibly accept, so he hands those off to a growing network of like-minded colleagues and former students.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
The Associated Press

March 29, 2018

An Australian magistrate on Thursday closed a monthlong court hearing of evidence on whether the most senior Vatican cleric ever charged in the Catholic Church’s sex abuse crisis will stand trial.

Belinda Wallington told the Melbourne Magistrates Court she would make her decision after lawyers make their final submissions on April 17 as to whether prosecutors have a strong enough case against Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, currently on a leave of absence as head of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, to warrant a trial by jury.

Pell was charged last June with sexually abusing multiple people in his Australian home state of Victoria. The details of the allegations against the 76-year-old cardinal have yet to be released to the public, though police have described the charges as “historical” sexual assault offenses – meaning the crimes allegedly occurred decades ago.

Pell has not been required to enter pleas, but has said through his lawyers he will plead not guilty to all counts if ordered to stand trial.

The cardinal has attended every day of the four-week preliminary hearing. The first two weeks were closed to the public as his alleged victims testified via a video link to the court. Such closed courts are standard in Victoria when alleged sex abuse victims testify.

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OTTAWA (CANADA)
The Canadian Press

March 27, 2018

By Mia Rabson

Pope Francis will not apologize to residential school survivors and their families for the role the Roman Catholic Church played in operating the schools or the abuses suffered by their students.

A papal apology was one of the 94 recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and during a visit to the Vatican last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally asked the Pope to consider such a gesture.

The commission recommended an apology similar to that offered by the Pope to Irish victims of sexual abuse in 2010. In 2015, Pope Frances issued an apology in Bolivia to Indigenous peoples in the Americas for the “grave sins” of colonialism.

Bishop Lionel Gendron, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, today released a letter to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada saying Pope Francis has not shied away from acknowledging injustices faced by Indigenous peoples around the world, but that he can’t personally issue an apology for residential schools.

“The Catholic Bishops of Canada have been in dialogue with the Pope and the Holy See concerning the legacy of suffering you have experienced,” Gendron wrote. “The Holy Father is aware of the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which he takes seriously. As far as call to action #58 is concerned, after carefully considering the request and extensive dialogue with the bishops of Canada, he felt that he could not personally respond.”

Gendron says the Pope has not ruled out a visit to Canada and a meeting with Indigenous Peoples, but in the meantime is encouraging Canadian bishops to continue working with Indigenous Peoples on reconciliation issues and projects that help with healing.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

March 28, 2018

By Michael W. Higgins

Michael W. Higgins is a distinguished professor of Catholic Thought at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.

One of the highlights of the liturgical year, for me at least, when I was a seminarian in the mid-1960s, was the steak-and-wine celebration immediately following the Holy Thursday mass. The Feast of the Last Supper, as it was also known, was traditionally understood as the occasion when Jesus instituted the priesthood, so there was special reason for an enclave of clerics and would-be clerics to break their Lenten fast and rejoice in their unique and sacred calling. It was an event for men only, although in fact there were some women present: the nuns who prepared and served our food.

It was also the liturgy at which the feet of the youngest seminarians were washed by the rector and vice-rector in imitation of Jesus’s washing of the feet of the apostles at the Lord’s Supper. Again, the only women present were the nuns, who assumed a prayerful position at the back of the chapel. Their feet were excluded from the washing, although in terms of humble service – the model of behaviour Jesus exemplified – they were the best living illustration.

The faculty and students in no way saw this ecclesiastical arrangement as anything other than normative and unalterable. It was God’s will. It was their spiritual gift.

I was reminded of this patriarchal bit of theatre recently when the Mary McAleese affair erupted, first on the Irish scene and now globally.

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HUNTSVILLE (TX)
CNN

March 29, 2018

By Jean Casarez and Laura Dolan

Bela Karolyi helped build Karolyi Ranch with his own hands. It’s where he and his wife Martha helped train more than a dozen elite gymnasts to Olympic glory.

But the most powerful couple in US gymnastics history, who coached legends Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton and Kerri Strug, said they can’t recall numerous details about what happened at their ranch in Huntsville, Texas, such as whether former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was licensed to practice there or who was responsible for keeping the gymnasts secure.
In depositions obtained exclusively by CNN, the Karolyis said they had very little to do with the day-to-day operation of the ranch when it served as a training site for the women’s national gymnastics team.

Their depositions, given in May of 2017, are part of a civil lawsuit filed by former elite gymnast Mattie Larson, which claims that the Karolyis “turned a blind-eye to the perpetrator Nassar’s sexual abuse of children at the Ranch.”

Nassar has pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct in two cases and to federal child pornography charges. He is serving prison sentences of up to 175 years.

Karolyi Ranch, a 2,000-acre compound about 70 miles north of Houston, wasn’t just a gymnastics mecca bearing the coaches’ names. It became the US Women’s National Team Training Center in 2001 and a US Olympic Training Site in 2011 — during many of the same years Nassar was the national team doctor.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
CNN

March 29, 2018

By Lucie Morris-Marr

Fiery accusations by the defense against witnesses and even the magistrate dominated the last days of a month-long committal hearing into allegations of abuse against Cardinal George Pell, the treasurer for the Vatican.

Pell has attended Melbourne Magistrates Court every day of the hearing, which concluded Thursday after listening to testimony from 50 witnesses, including a number of Pell’s accusers.
The cardinal, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic official, is alleged to have committed abuse in the 1970s, in locations including a swimming pool, a cinema, a chapel and on a hill top in country Victoria. Pell has vehemently denied the allegations.

An additional allegation of abuse emerged during the committal hearing, of an incident at a sacristy at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne. Between 1996 and 2001 he was the Archbishop for the city.

A final decision on whether the case will proceed to trial will be made by the magistrate at an undisclosed future date. There is still a further hearing to take place on April 17 for the defense and prosecution teams to make their verbal submissions to the court.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Associated Press

March 28, 2018

By Jill Lawless

Harvey Weinstein’s former British assistant said Wednesday that a gag order she had to sign when she left his film company was “morally lacking in every way” and failed to stop the movie producer’s harassment and abuse of women.

Zelda Perkins quit Weinstein’s firm Miramax in 1998 along with a colleague who accused the movie mogul of trying to rape her. Each received a 125,000-pound ($177,000) settlement and signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Perkins told a committee of British lawmakers that she felt “defrauded” by the agreement, which contained clauses intended to stop Weinstein from sexually harassing or abusing staff.

The agreement committed Weinstein to attend therapy and required the company to act if he made any more payouts over alleged wrongdoing. Perkins said she has no evidence that these actions were carried out.

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ALBANY (NY)
Times Herald-Record

March 28, 2018

By Chris McKenna

Lex Filipowski was a 7-year-old altar boy at Holy Cross Church in Wawayanda, alone with the pastor as they changed into their robes before Mass, when the Rev. George Boxelaar pulled him close and began kissing him on the lips.

Thus began an abuse routine that escalated to groping and lasted for four years in the early 1970s, ending when Filipowski’s family changed churches. Filipowski first went public with Boxelaar’s molestation of him in a Times Herald-Record story in 2002, prompting at least 25 other people to come forward with reports of being sexually abused by the same priest when they were young boys. By that time, Boxelaar had been removed from the priesthood and had returned to his native Holland, where he died at age 81 in 1990.

Today, Filipowski has added his voice to an intense campaign on behalf of the Child Victims Act, a state bill that abuse survivors and their advocates have sought for more than a dozen years and that was part of budget negotiations in Albany this week. The bill would extend the statutes of limitation for criminal and civil cases against abusers — New York doesn’t let cases be brought after the victim turns 23 — and open a one-year window for any past victims to sue their abusers and culpable institutions.

The targets of the campaign are the Senate’s ruling Republicans, who have blocked the legislation because they oppose the one-year window.

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SAGINAW (MI)
Church Militant

March 28, 2018

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D.

Brad Sylvester asked for multiple meetings with Bp. Joseph Cistone, which went ignored

A victim of sex abuse claims Bp. Joseph Cistone of Saginaw, Michigan refused to talk or meet with him after multiple requests.

Brad Sylvester, a Saginaw local, hand-delivered a letter to the diocese in 2012 detailing his abuse at the hands of Fr. Stanislaus Bur when he was a child, and requested a face-to-face meeting with Bp. Cistone. It was one among multiple letters he had sent to the diocese that went ignored by the bishop.

Because the abuse took place nearly three decades earlier, it was beyond the statute of limitations.

Instead, the diocese sent Sr. Janet Fulgenzi, victim assistance coordinator for the diocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection. “She was just sitting in, listening to my sessions, like a bystander,” Sylvester told Church Militant of his meetings with his social worker, where Fulgenzi was present on several occasions. According to the victim, Fulgenzi asked no questions and offered no helpful advice.

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OLEAN (NY)
Olean Times Herald

March 28, 2018

By Tom Dinki

A lawsuit filed by a former Archbishop Walsh High School student alleged the Rev. James A. Spielman abused him from approximately September 1979 through 1982 when he was 14 to 17, and that school officials were aware of the abuse but did nothing to stop it.

The lawsuit, filed in 2014 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, includes allegations Spielman molested the victim, including by sexual intercourse, and that the former Walsh priest and religion teacher supplied minors with alcohol and pornography.

Both Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and Walsh officials were aware Spielman “had an unusual interest in minor boys,” yet allowed him to have frequent, unsupervised contact with them, according to the lawsuit.

Photos from the 1982-83 Walsh yearbook obtained by the Olean Times Herald state senior classes would go on annual, three-day retreats to Spielman’s “cabin on the hill.” Students even dedicated that entire yearbook to Spielman for “acting not only as a teacher but as a friend as well.”

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EAST LANSING (MI)
Lansing State Journal

March 28, 2018

By Matt Mencarini

A public relations firm billed Michigan State University for more than $500,000 for January as it tracked social-media activity surrounding the Larry Nassar case that often included the accounts of victims and their families, journalists, celebrities and politicians.

Michigan State University’s Office of Communication and Brand Strategy previously had been doing the work, which also included collecting and evaluating news articles, and some of its employees continued to do so in January.

The work by Weber Shandwick, a New York-based firm, totaled $517,343 for more than 1,440 hours of work, according to documents obtained through a public records request. The firm billed for work done by 18 employees, whose hourly rates ranged from $200 to $600 per hour.

Five billed Michigan State for more than $50,000, including one for $96,900 and another for $120,893.

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BOSTON (MA)
New Boston Post

March 29, 2018

By Kevin Thomas

Elena received her fair share of faulty Catholic teaching as a child, never believing she was good enough … “so any imperfection must be willful on my part and therefore a sin …”

“I learned not to trust my judgment on anything but to allow the priests and others in authority to usurp the role of my conscience and the role of God in my life.”

Then, Elena was molested by a priest when she was 12.

“I felt like Jesus must be on his side.”

Remarkably, both Elena and her faith survived.

“I realized, believing that Jesus was on the priest’s side was part of the lie,” she wrote. “I imagined how angry I would be if someone hurt one of my children.

“Somehow knowing God was on my side, that he was just as angry as I was, helped me to find forgiveness alongside the anger.”

That is part of one story, in a collection of essays in the recently released Christ’s Body, Christ’s Wounds: Staying Catholic When You’ve Been Hurt in the Church” (Cascade Books), edited by Eve Tushnet.

The 12 essays detail a variety of experiences, including abuse, manipulation, rejection, theft, personal judgmentalism, and racism.

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LANSING (MI)
CBS Sports

March 27, 2018

By Kevin Skiver

Interim president John Engler is trying to hold William Strampel accountable for Nassar’s crimes

With Larry Nassar being sentenced to what will amount to life behind bars, Michigan State University is now trying to address the system that made his crimes possible. Nassar’s boss when he was at Michigan State, former dean William Strampel, has reportedly been arrested for his role (or lack thereof) in Nassar’s crimes. Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth confirmed to The Detroit Free Press that Strampel was being held, but he said that he wouldn’t comment on the charges until arraignment.

The Free Press, however, is reporting that Strampel is being held for multiple charges, including at least one felony and several misdemeanors.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
UPI

March 27, 2018

By Danielle Haynes

Police in Michigan arrested William Strampel, Dr. Larry Nassar’s former boss, Tuesday on allegations he failed to protect students at Michigan State University and criminal sexual conduct charges.

The charges came after state authorities removed items from a building at the school over its handling of the Nassar case and other alleged sexual assault cases. In particular, authorities requested records and electronic devices Strampel used during his time as dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Strampel resigned from the school in December citing health concerns.

He faces four charges, including a felony charge of criminal sexual conduct, two misdemeanor charges of willful neglect of duty by a public official, and felony misconduct in office.

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ISLE (MN)
MilleLacs Messenger

March 28, 2018

By Vivian LaMoore

A $25 million settlement agreement was approved on Thursday, March 22, by the court between the Crosiers religious order and victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The Crosiers emerged from Chapter 11 as the U.S. Bankruptcy Court confirmed the reorganization plan to allow the Crosiers to settle on $25.5 Million – $5.7 million will be paid directly by the Crosiers and just short of $19 million would be paid by the insurers, Jeff Anderson, attorney for the survivors, said.

The agreement was made in advance of the Crosier reorganization settlement under the Child Victims Act, Anderson added.

“We worked with them, and they made public all of the offenders known to the Crosiers. All of the case files will be made public as well,” Anderson said. “I commend the Crosiers for being transparent and helping so many who were hurt to begin to heal.”

Anderson also commended Fr. Tom Enneking, osc, prior provincial of the U.S. Crosier Province, who took the stand and gave a “heartfelt apology and expressions of sorrow” before the court.

The Crosiers filed for Chapter 11 protection over nine months ago, according to a statement by the Crosiers. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel for the District of Minnesota, confirmed the Crosiers’ plan for reorganization on March 22. The Crosier Fathers and Brothers Province, Inc.; Crosier Fathers of Onamia; and the Crosier Community of Phoenix filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy June 1, 2017.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

March 29, 2018

By Jacqueline Le and Megan Neil

A detective who led the historical sex offence investigation into Cardinal George Pell has denied “zeroing in” on Australia’s highest-ranked Catholic.

The police investigation into Pell has come under repeated attack by lawyers during a hearing to determine if the 76-year-old should stand trial.

Robert Richter QC on Thursday said Pell was targeted for “special treatment” by detectives from Sano Taskforce, which investigates historical sex abuse.

While questioning lead investigator Sergeant Christopher Reed, the barrister said a man made horrendous allegations against a nun before alleging Pell committed a sex offence against him.

“Do you say, and I’m not attributing any blame to you, do you say that the allegation against Cardinal Pell was treated like any other allegation?” the barrister asked on Thursday.

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SCOTLAND
The Guardian

March 26, 2018

By Nick Dowson

Campaigners say move to compel court appearance if deemed in public interest is inhumane

Campaigners in Scotland have expressed anger at new guidance that could force rape victims to give evidence against their will.

Rape Crisis Scotland, , have hit out at the new “reluctant complainers” policy which means rape victims who try to withdraw from cases may be compelled to testify where prosecution is deemed to be in the public interest.

“For anyone who has the courage to report it and then gets to the point where they can’t continue – to then force them to testify is inhumane,” said Sandy Brindley, the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland. “It’s also self-defeating – if you have to put them in the cells the night before it’s not going to be useful evidence.”

Rape Crisis Scotland has written an open letter expressing its concern to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), which is responsible for prosecutions in Scotland.

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COLOMBIA
The American Conservative

March 27, 2018

By Rod Dreher

Even if you are well versed in the clerical sexual abuse scandal, you probably don’t know the name Dino Cinel. He was just murdered in Colombia by his lover. From the New Orleans Advocate, some background on this criminal:

Cinel was a historian on the Tulane University faculty and was living at the rectory of St. Rita Catholic Church in late 1988 when a fellow priest discovered him with child pornography and homemade tapes of Cinel having sex in the rectory with young men.

The story did not become public at that time, and the official response raised immediate controversy when it finally became known more than two years later.

Upon first learning of the discovery, Archbishop Philip Hannan fired Cinel, who was on vacation in Italy at the time. But some suspected the archbishop was giving Cinel a heads-up that authorities were onto him, said Bruce Nolan, who covered the ensuing scandal for The Times-Picayune.

Then-District Attorney Harry Connick, a St. Rita parishioner, let the church hold onto the video recordings for weeks, which church officials explained by saying they were trying to identify and contact any victims involved. Connick later concluded that the evidence in the case was not strong enough to prosecute Cinel.

At one point, a former sexual partner who said he was underage at the time he had a recorded encounter with Cinel sued him in Orleans Parish Civil District Court.

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BRAZIL
Daily Mail

March 26, 2018

By Sara Malm

– Bishop in Brazil ‘led group of priests embezzling £426,000 of church money’
– One priest was fopund with £19,200 hidden behind a false wall in his home
Bishop of Formosa, five clergymen and three lay people arrested in Goias
– They are accused of stealing from church donations, and ceremony fees

A group of Catholic priests in Brazil have been arrested, accused of embezzling £426,000 of church donations, funeral fees and fundraising cash.

The Bishop of Formosa, Jose Ribeiro, along with five clergymen and three lay people were detained in prison in Goiás this week charged with stealing over 2 million reais (£426,000) from church funds.

A police raid on one of the priests’ home saw officers prise open a false wall in to find some £19,200 in plastic bags hidden in a secret storage space.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WGRZ

March 23, 2018

2 On Your Side has heard from more victims who say they were sexual abused by catholic priests.

More and more victims of alleged sexual abuse by Buffalo catholic priests continue to come forward.

Jim Napora, 56, says he was abused by two priests and both of their names are on the list of 42 that the Buffalo Diocese released.

“Seeing the list on Tuesday was such a freeing event, it vindicated me finally. I felt free,” Napora said.

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MEMPHIS (TX)
The Alabama Baptist

March 28, 2018

By Carrie Brown McWhorter

Andy Savage, who served on the senior leadership team as teaching pastor at Memphis’ Highpoint Church, has stepped down following public acknowledgment that he sexually assaulted a teen 20 years ago while serving as her youth minister at a Texas church.

Highpoint Church, a megachurch which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, was widely criticized in January when Savage was given a standing ovation after apologizing for a “sexual incident” in 1998 involving Jules Woodson, a 17-year-old high school senior in his youth group at Woodlands Parkway Baptist Church in suburban Houston.

Woodson remained silent for two decades until the #MeToo movement exposing sexual abuse by powerful men prompted her to share the story on two Christian blogs.

In a New York Times video published in early March, Woodson said she looked up to Savage and trusted him before the 1998 encounter. Afterward, she said, church leaders didn’t handle it properly.

“What happened was a crime,” Woodson said. “This is not something the church should handle internally. … We as a church, of all places, should be getting this right.”

The allegations against Savage came at the height of the #MeToo and #ChurchToo movement that saw many female Christian teachers, including Kay Warren and Beth Moore, and thousands of Christian women acknowledge past sexual abuse and call out the church’s silence on the issue.

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MCKINNEY (TX)
The Dallas Morning News

March 27, 2018

By Tom Steele

Updated March 28: Revised to include statement from the church.

McKinney police say an instructor at a Mormon church sexually assaulted multiple children over a period of years.

Noel Young Anderson, 22, was arrested Friday on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child. He remained in the Collin County jail Tuesday, with bail set at $100,000.

According to police, Anderson — a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on North Lake Forest Drive — admitted to sexually assaulting four children over the past seven years. The victims ranged in age from 2 to 6, police said.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
The Associated Press

March 27, 2018

The Latest on the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case (all times local):

7:10 p.m.

Lawyers for Michigan State University and more than 200 girls and women say they’re restarting talks that could lead to a settlement in civil lawsuits related to sexual abuse by former sports doctor Larry Nassar.

In a court filing Tuesday, the parties say they’re scheduling mediation with Layn Phillips, a former federal judge in Oklahoma.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Belfast Telegraph

March 28, 2018

A retired priest has said he is ‘disgusted’ by the appointment of Philip Boyce as Bishop of Dromore.

John McAreavey stood down as Bishop of Dromore last month after criticism of him celebrating Mass with paedophile priest Father Malachy Finnegan.

Speaking on the Nolan Show on Radio Ulster, Father Eamon Murray said he was disgusted with the appointment of Boyce as Fr McAreavey’s replacement.

In 2011 Philip Boyce was criticised for his handling of clerical sex allegations when working in the Diocese of Raphoe in Co Donegall.

Fr Murray said the appointment of Boyce would “rub salt” on the wounds of those who have already suffered from clerical sexual abuse in Dromore.

He said: “I am so annoyed about this, that he has been appointed to Dromore where there has been a huge problem. I think that’s rubbing the salt on the wound.”

A review into the handling of clerical abuse in the Diocese of Raphoe in 2011 singled out Bishop Boyce’s actions in a serious case of abuse in which he attempted to protect the priest’s family rather than have the cleric removed from the ministry.

At the time Bishop Boyce apologised for “poor judgements” in managing priest accused of “horrific acts of abuse” against children.

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IRELAND
The Journal

March 28, 2018

By Christina Finn

The government will tell the Vatican that families ‘of all shapes and forms’ should be celebrated during Pope’s Irish visit

THE TAOISEACH HAS said it would be appropriate for the Pope to visit survivors of abuse perpetrated by the Catholic Church when he visits Ireland in August.

Leo Varadkar also said that the government’s view that “families in all their shapes and forms should be celebrated” will be relayed to the Vatican.

Leo Varadkar told the Dáil yesterday that the government is very much of the view that there are many different types of families.

“All types should be celebrated, including the traditional nuclear family with the man married to the woman with children, one-parent families, families led by grandparents, and families led by same-sex couples. We will make it known in our meetings with the organisers that the government’s view is that families in all their forms should be celebrated,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Insights Magazine

March 28, 2018

Journalist Julia Baird and commentator Andrew Bolt have clashed over reports by the latter on the ABC’s webpage about domestic abuse in churches.

In a series of articles that has been running since late 2017, Dr. Baird and cowriter Hayley Gleeson have explored research that suggests churches have high percentages of domestic violence. The series has been widely read and led to a number of church denominations apologising to domestic abuse survivors and vowing to be more vigilant in detecting abuse within their congregations.

This, Mr. Bolt argued, was tantamount to an attack on churches. A tweet promoting his show, The Bolt Report, suggested that the ABC “cites a dodgy survey to slander Christians.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Journal

March 28, 2018

By Paul Hosford

The PSNI will also investigate if there was any abuse of children by any other person at the Newry school where he worked.

THE PSNI WILL investigate claims of sexual abuse made against Father Malachy Finnegan who worked at a school in Newry.

Fr Finnegan, who died in 2002, was a teacher at St Colman’s College in Newry from 1967 to 1976 and was later President of the school.

Abuse claims against him were detailed in a BBC Spotlight programme in February. The revelation that John McAreavey had officiated at the funeral mass of Finnegan led to his resignation as Bishop of Dromore earlier this month.

It was announced yesterday that Pope Francis had accepted his resignation.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
InformNNY

March 28, 2018

The Diocese of Syracuse isn’t following Buffalo Catholic leaders who identified priests accused of sexual abuse. Last week, the Diocese of Buffalo dropped a bombshell list of 42 priests who had credible accusations of sexual abuse lodged against them.

The Syracuse diocese isn’t changing its position and will continue withholding the names of priests accused of sexual abuse unless victims identify them first. Recently, a law firm representing sexual abuse victims called on the Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg to release the names of 15 priests who also had credible accusations made against them. No word from church leaders on whether those names will eventually be made public.

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BATAVIA (NY)
The Daily News

March 27, 2018

By Matt Surtel

Less than two weeks after Fr. Donald Becker was named on a list of priests accused of sexual abuse, another former St. Mary’s Church pastor is facing allegations.

Fr. Dennis Riter has been placed on administrative leave from St. Elisabeth Ann Seton Parish in Dunkirk, the Buffalo Diocese has confirmed. The news came allegations from two former altar boys and their families, including a detailed interview on WKBW Channel 7 in Buffalo.

The allegations did not include Batavia.

Riter was pastor from 2002 to 2009 at St. Mary’s Church in Batavia, before his assignment to Dunkirk.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

March 28, 2018

A retired priest has spoken out against the appointment of Philip Boyce as interim Bishop of Dromore.

Former Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey stood down in March amid controversy over celebrating Mass with paedophile priest the late Fr Malachy Finegan.

Fr Eamon Murray says his is “disgusted” with Boyce’s appointment.

In 2011 Philip Boyce was criticised for his handling of clerical sex abuse allegations when he was Bishop of Raphoe.

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NIAGARA FALLS (NY)
Niagara Gazette

March 27, 2018

By Rick Pfeiffer and Philip Gambini

FALL FROM GRACE: Attacks followed classic pattern of pedophiles.

In 2002 as the scope of the scandal of sexually abusive priests was sweeping across America, only one Niagara County clergyman stood accused.

But revelations from the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, more than 15 years later, show that Father Richard Judd was not alone in preying on youth in the region.

At least seven priests, who served in parishes in Niagara County and elsewhere in Western New York, have now been publicly identified as having had “credible allegations of sexual misconduct involving minors” made against them.

In parishes stretching from Niagara Falls to Lewiston to Lockport and as far as the Southern Tier, the priests practiced their ministry from 1962 to as late as 2004. And the faithful were never made aware of the claims against them.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

March 28, 2018

By Sean Kirst

Jonpaul Okal and Robert Swierat have never met. They grew up in separate parts of Western New York, and their lives took different turns.

But they share the same wounds.

Both say they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests in their communities, accounts supported by their families. One says he was assaulted in the basement recreation room in his home, the other in a bedroom and shower while staying at a residence for priests who taught in a Lancaster high school.

In both situations, the accused priests have been identified as abusive in unrelated cases.

Okal and Swierat each also represent a void in the way the Diocese of Buffalo is responding to accounts about improper sexual behavior. For different reasons, both said diocesan officials told them they are ineligible for a new review process that offers financial compensation in cases of credible abuse.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

March 27, 2018

By Aaron Besecker and Jay Tokasz

A former Genesee County man has accused a dead Buffalo Diocese priest of sexually abusing him as a teenager.

The Rev. Robert P. Conlin was not on the list of 42 priests whom the diocese recently said had credible allegations against them.

Wayne Bortle, 53, publicly accused Conlin of sexually abusing him in the rectory of St. Mary Church in Pavilion more than three decades ago, when Bortle was about 16.

Bortle said Conlin frequently hosted boys inside the rectory to watch television and to play pool, foosball and ping pong. Bortle said he was alone in the rectory with Conlin watching television the night he alleges the priest molested him.

“That was the only time I was there I can remember no one else was there,” he said. Bortle said he never went back to the rectory.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

March 27, 2018

By Aaron Besecker

The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo’s decision to publicly name its priests who had credible allegations of sexual abuse involving a minor will be followed by one neighboring diocese, but not by another.

After the Buffalo Diocese released on March 20 a list of 42 priests accused of abusing minors, the Catholic Diocese of Erie, Pa., said it plans to release its own list of accused priests in the coming weeks, the Erie Times-News reported last week.

But the Diocese of Syracuse has not changed its position about withholding the names of accused priests despite what the Buffalo diocese has done, according to newyorkupstate.com.

Erie’s decision comes as the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office has been investigating the diocese’s handling of abusive priests, the Times-News reported. Erie is one of six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania being investigated by the state Attorney General’s Office. A report on that investigation is expected to be released sometime this year.

Lawrence Persico became bishop of the 13-county Erie Diocese in 2012, following the term of Bishop Donald W. Trautman, who served for 22 years. Prior to working in Erie, Trautman served as auxiliary bishop of the Buffalo Diocese.

An Erie Diocesan spokeswoman told the Times-News it would disclose a list after questions arose once Buffalo released its list.

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