ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

December 20, 2017

Prior to his resignation, Law spent two decades as one of the highest-ranking Catholic officials in the United States.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston who became a symbol of the Roman Catholic Church’s worldwide sexual abuse scandals, died on Wednesday, the Vatican said. He was 86.

Law, whose resignation from his Boston post in 2002 shocked the Church and brought abuse into the open, had been living in Rome and was in declining health in recent years.

The Vatican did not give a cause of death but sources close to Law, who died in a hospital in Rome, said he had been suffering from the complications of diabetes, liver failure and a build-up of fluids around the heart, known as pericardial effusion.

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BOSTON (MA)
CBS/AP

December 20, 2017

BOSTON (CBS/AP) — The death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston whose failures to stop child molesters in the priesthood sparked what would become the worst crisis in American Catholicism, has drawn little sympathy from survivors.

Since 1950, more than 6,500, or about 6 percent of U.S. priests, have been accused of molesting children, and the American church has paid more than $3 billion in settlements to victims, according to studies commissioned by the U.S. bishops and media reports. As the leader of the archdiocese at the epicenter for the scandal, Law remained throughout his life a symbol of the church’s widespread failures to protect children.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney who has represented dozens of people who say they were sexually abused by priests, said Law’s death has reopened old wounds.

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ROME
WCVB

December 20, 2017

Bernard Law, the former Archbishop of Boston who resigned in disgrace during the clergy sex abuse scandal, has died at age 86 in Rome.

The Vatican released a brief statement Tuesday night confirming his death: “Cardinal Bernard Law died early this morning after a long illness.”

Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley released a statement on the death of his predecessor Wednesday morning.

“I recognize that Cardinal Law’s passing brings forth a wide range of emotions on the part of many people. I am particularly cognizant of all who experienced the trauma of sexual abuse by clergy, whose lives were so seriously impacted by those crimes, and their families and loved ones. To those men and women, I offer my sincere apologies for the harm they suffered, my continued prayers and my promise that the Archdiocese will support them in their effort to achieve healing,” Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley said in a statement. “As Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law served at a time when the Church failed seriously in its responsibilities to provide pastoral care for her people, and with tragic outcomes failed to care for the children of our parish communities. I deeply regret that reality and its consequences.”

In a statement, Pope Francis expressed condolences to the College of Cardinals, adding may God “who is rich in mercy” welcome Law in his eternal peace.

“I raise prayers for the repose of his soul, that the Lord, God who is rich in mercy, may welcome him in his Eternal peace, and I send my apostolic blessing to those who share in mourning the passing of the cardinal,” his statement read in part.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

December 20, 2017

The Latest on the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston who was a central figure in the clergy sex abuse scandal. (all times local):

3:05 p.m.

Pope Francis is sending his condolences for the death of Cardinal Bernard Law and says he is praying for his soul.

Francis sent a telegram of condolences Wednesday to the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. The letter makes no mention of Law’s role as the former archbishop of Boston, where he was responsible for covering up for sexually abusive priests in a scandal that erupted across the nation and eventually cost the American church some $3 billion in legal fees.

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ROME
NPR

December 20, 2017

By Tovia Smith

Once considered among the most influential prelates in America, the Archbishop was forced to resign amid the church’s growing sex abuse scandal, which indelibly stained his reputation

Cardinal Bernard Law, the former Archbishop of Boston — once widely seen as America’s most influential prelate before resigning in disgrace amid the growing clergy sexual abuse scandal — has died in Rome.

The Holy See’s press office confirmed Law’s death “after a long illness.” He was 86.

In a carefully worded statement, reflecting the ongoing anger at the longtime prelate for his role helping to cover up the sins of pedophile priests, his successor, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley said, “I recognize that Cardinal Law’s passing brings forth a wide range of emotions …particularly … all who experienced the trauma of sexual abuse by clergy.” He offered “sincere apologies [and] continued prayers and … support.”

O’Malley went on to say, “It is a sad reality that for many, Cardinal Law’s life and ministry is identified with one overwhelming reality, the crisis of sexual abuse by priests … because his pastoral legacy has many other dimensions,” from civil rights and ecumenical work, to his care for the poor and immigrants.

The Vatican today also released a statement expressing condolences, praying “for the repose of his soul,” but making no mention of the clergy’s sexual abuse scandal.

Law was at ground zero of the crisis when it exploded in Boston in 2002. He remained the face of the scandal, as it swelled to the tsunami that engulfed the Catholic Church worldwide.

Law’s response to the growing crisis only fueled the rage. For example, shortly after the scandal broke, he showed little compunction, issuing a carefully worded, Nixonian concession.

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ROME
Inquisitr

December 20, 2017

By Lorenzo Tanos

Law, who earned controversy in 2002 for his alleged mishandling of sexual abuse allegations against Boston-area priests, died in Rome on Wednesday at the age of 86.

Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston who allegedly turned a blind eye to decades of child molestation accusations against his archdiocese’s priests, died early Wednesday morning in Rome. He was 86.

As of this writing, Cardinal Bernard Law’s cause of death has yet to be announced, but a report from the Associated Press indicated that the disgraced former archbishop was recently hospitalized, and had been feeling sick in the time leading up to his death. According to the Guardian, Pope Francis has yet to comment on Law’s passing, but will likely be sending an official telegram of condolence on Wednesday, and celebrating his funeral mass, as is the tradition with Rome-based cardinals.

Born in Torreon, Mexico on November 4, 1931, Bernard Francis Law graduated from Harvard University in 1953, and was ordained as a priest in 1961. As a young priest, Law was active in the fight for civil rights in the 1960s, before he spent some time with the national bishops’ conference. Following a stint as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri, Law was named archbishop of Boston in 1984, and was known for making public comments against government officials who favored abortion rights. Per the Guardian, he was also “beloved” by Pope John Paul II, who served as the head of the Catholic Church until his death in 2005.

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ROME
Reuters

December 20, 2017

By Philip Pullella

Cardinal Bernard Law, a once-influential church figure, who became a symbol of the Roman Catholic Church’s worldwide sexual abuse scandals after failing to stop pedophile priests, has died, the Vatican said Wednesday. He was 86.

Law, whose resignation from his Boston post in 2002 shocked the Church and brought abuse into the open, had been living in Rome and was in declining health in recent years.

The Vatican did not give a cause of death but sources close to Law, who died in a hospital in Rome, said he had been suffering from the complications of diabetes, liver failure and a build up of fluids around the heart, known as pericardial effusion.

Law was archbishop of Boston for 18 years when Pope John Paul – who in 1984 had appointed Law to run one of the most prestigious and wealthy American archdioceses — reluctantly accepted his resignation on Dec. 13, 2002, after a tumultuous year in Church history.

A succession of devastating stories by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team showed how priests who sexually abused children had been moved from parish to parish for years under Law’s tenure without informing parishioners or law authorities.

The resignation sent shock waves through the American Church and began a trickle down effect around the world, as the cover-up techniques used in Boston were discovered to have been used in country after country.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

December 19, 2017

Cardinal Bernard Law has died after a brief hospitalization due to congenital heart failure, according to sources close to the cardinal and a report from the Boston Globe. He was 86 years old.

Law was appointed Archbishop of Boston in 1984, and resigned from the position on Dec. 13, 2002, after reports revealed that he did not disclose multiple allegations of clerical sexual abuse to the police or to the public, or intervene to remove priests accused of sexual abuse from priestly ministry.

“It is my fervent prayer that this action may help the Archdiocese of Boston to experience the healing, reconciliation and unity which are so desperately needed,” Law wrote at the time of his resignation.

After his resignation, Law moved to Rome. He was assigned as the Archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in 2004 by Pope John Paul II, a largely ceremonial position from which he retired in 2011, at the age of 80. The appointment was controversial, especially as many in the US continued to call for his criminal prosecution.

Law was born on November 4, 1931 in Torreon, Mexico, the son of a Catholic father, an Air Force colonel, and a Presbyterian mother.

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ROME
Religion News Service

December 20, 2017

By Cathy Lynn Grossman

(RNS) — When a leading cardinal in the Catholic church dies, his legacy of caring for priests and believers are usually the highlights of remembrances.

Not so with Cardinal Bernard Law, driven out in disgrace as Archbishop of Boston in 2002. His priests and his people had demanded he step down after a year of painful revelations that the diocese had known about — and sheltered — scores of priests who sexually abused children and teens.

After Law died Wednesday (Dec. 20), his successor, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, issued a statement that began with an apology to “ … all who experienced the trauma of sexual abuse by clergy, whose lives were so seriously impacted by those crimes, and their families and loved ones.”

O’Malley offered them his “sincere apologies,” and continued prayer and support for healing, before turning again to the tragic legacy of Law, putting him in the context of a wider church failure.

“As Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law served at a time when the Church failed seriously in its responsibilities to provide pastoral care for her people, and with tragic outcomes failed to care for the children of our parish communities. I deeply regret that reality and its consequences….”

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, went directly to the same point, beginning his statement by urging any victim today to contact both their church and their local law enforcement.

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ROME
Daily Beast

December 20, 2017

By Barbie Latza Nadeau

Bernard Law, the American cardinal who became of the face of the Catholic clerical abuse scandal in America, is dead at the age of 86, but his cover-up legacy lives on.

ROME—Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston who resigned in shame at the height of the American clerical sex-abuse scandal in 2002, who died early Wednesday morning in a Roman hospital, never rose above the disgrace that brought him down—at least not outside the Vatican’s protective walls.

He was sent to Rome in 2004 by Pope John Paul II, and, despite making a public apology for his failings and culpability in the cover up of rampant clerical sex abuse against children, he remained active in policy-making dicastery departments of the Holy See. He was allowed to resign honorably from those duties in 2011 when he turned 80, the official age all cardinals cease such roles.

He seemed to escape any scrutiny or punishment by the church for his well-known crimes, and instead remained part of the Vatican elite under John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, enjoying celebrity status that is akin to a clerical club membership bestowed on all top cardinals in Rome. He was often spotted dining with high-ranking cardinals at Rome’s better restaurants.

Law, whose sins were laid bare in the Oscar winning film Spotlight, was also the frequent object of protesters who picketed and left posters with the faces of the many victims of sex abuse by predatory priests in front of the majestic Saint Mary Major basilica in Rome, where he has served as the chief priest. Much as devout Catholics make a Vatican stop part of any trip to Rome, victims of clerical sex abuse paid similar homage to the basilica where Law preached.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

December 20, 2017

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Cardinal Bernard F. Law, who had been one of the United States’ most powerful and respected bishops until his legacy was blemished by the devastating sexual abuse of minors by priests in his Archdiocese of Boston, died early Dec. 20 in Rome at the age of 86.

Before the abuse scandal forced his resignation in 2002, Cardinal Law had been a leading church spokesman on issues ranging from civil rights to international justice, from abortion to poverty, from Catholic-Jewish relations and ecumenism to war and peace.

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston said in a statement Dec. 20, “As archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law served at a time when the church failed seriously in its responsibilities to provide pastoral care for her people, and with tragic outcomes failed to care for the children of our parish communities.”

Cardinal O’Malley also recognized that his predecessor’s death “brings forth a wide range of emotions on the part of many people. I am particularly cognizant of all who experienced the trauma of sexual abuse by clergy, whose lives were so seriously impacted by those crimes, and their families and loved ones. To those men and women, I offer my sincere apologies for the harm they suffered, my continued prayers and my promise that the archdiocese will support them in their effort to achieve healing.”

Cardinal O’Malley said Cardinal Law would be buried in Rome, where he had his last assignment. According to the Vatican, his funeral Mass was to be celebrated the afternoon of Dec. 21 in St. Peter’s Basilica with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, presiding. Pope Francis, as is customary for cardinals’ funerals, was to preside over the final rites at the end of Mass.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Twin Cities Pioneer Press

December 18, 2017

By David A. Dana And Susan P. Koniak

Our courts and our legislators are guilty. Over the past few weeks, we have seen how our legal system has empowered and encouraged sexual predators to continue abusing women through secret settlements and nondisclosure agreements, despite knowing how dangerous silence can be.

Now is different, we’re told. A “cultural moment.” Laws will be reformed. Courts will change their rules. Lawyers, corporations, the American Bar Association and think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation will do a 180 and end their hawking of secrecy.

And pigs will fly.

It has been 15 years since we learned how court-sanctioned secrecy and nondisclosure agreements protected pedophile priests, allowing them to continue abuse that included the rape of children. And our courts and legislatures, with a precious few exceptions, have done nothing to stop the legally sanctioned secrecy that protected those priests from exposure and prevented parents from keeping their children safe.

More recently, the public has turned its outrage to an obscure congressional fund used to secretly settle sexual harassment claims against lawmakers with taxpayer money. If Congress is going to use taxpayer money for these complaints, the public has a right to know.

But Congress is not alone.

Some local and state government agencies also use taxpayer funds to secretly settle in cases of police brutality and other serious wrongs, leaving the public in the dark on the facts.

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ITALY
Pocket News

December 18, 2017

[Google Tranlsate: Do not miss the twists in the trial against Don Mauro Galli, the former priest of Rozzano and Legnano accused of pedophilia for alleged abuses on a boy, who is celebrating at the Court of Milan. There are two innovations that emerge from the trial. The first concerns the family of the victim who would have withdrawn the civil partnership. The reason? One hundred thousand euros would be credited as compensation. The problem is that it is still not clear who has paid them.]

La Diocesi accusata di “omessa vigilanza” e intanto nei giorni scorsi alla famiglia sono stati versati 100mila euro perché ritiri la costituzione di parte civile

Non mancano i colpi di scena nel processo a carico di don Mauro Galli, l’ex prete di Rozzano e Legnano accusato di pedofilia per presunti abusi su un ragazzino, che si sta celebrando al Tribunale di Milano. Sono due le novità che emergono dal dibattimento. La prima riguarda la famiglia della vittima che avrebbe ritirato la costituzione di parte civile. Il motivo? Le sarebbero stati accreditati centomila euro come risarcimento. Il problema è che non è ancora chiaro chi li abbia versati.

Il silenzio

La seconda novità riguarda la diocesi milanese. Dalle carte raccolte dagli investigatori e consegnate ai giudici, emergerebbe il coinvolgimento di Mario Del Pini e Pierantonio Tremolada, arcivescovi di Milano e di Brescia. Secondo l’accusa, entrambi sapevano quel che combinava Mauro Galli ma tutti e due prima hanno taciuto, poi hanno permesso che il prete pedofilo continuasse la sua attività a contatto con i bambini.

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QUEENSLAND (AUSTRALIA)
Newburgh Gazette

December 19, 2017

By Dwayne Harmon

A Catholic priest in Queensland has told his congregation the church is a flawed institution, and Australian archbishops must fight for change to stop sexual abuse.

Of survivors who reported abuse in religious institutions, more than 60% cited the Catholic church, which demonstrated “catastrophic failures of leadership”, particularly before the 1990s, the report said.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president, said the bishops would take the royal commission’s recommendations seriously and present them to the Holy See.

It said priests should report abuse confided to them, even in the secret context of the confessional.

“I revere the law of the land and I trust it but this is a sacred, spiritual charge before God which I must honor and I have to respect and try to do what I can do with both”, Hart said.

“I would feel terribly conflicted and I would try even harder to get that person outside confessional, but I can not break the seal”, Hart told reporters.

Archbishop Fisher, like most of the Australian bishops who testified to the commission, said in a December 15 statement he was “appalled by the sinful and criminal activity of some clergy, religious and lay church workers (and) I’m ashamed of the failure to respond by some church leaders, and … We know very well that this happens in families that are certainly not observing celibacy”, he said.

On the call for voluntary celibacy, he said it was up to the Vatican to decide.

He further noted that the celibacy recommendations would be relayed to the Vatican, but added that “I believe that there are real values in celibacy”. “But it’s a hard thing”, Archbishop Hart said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Saturday Paper

December 16, 2017

When the royal commission sat for the final time, the church was not there. Senior figures were not present. It fell to a layperson to attend, to Francis Sullivan, whose self-critical stewardship of the Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council has been the only redemption of an institution built on the preaching of forgiveness.

“I think it would have been a real sign of solidarity with the victims if we’d had some members of the hierarchy and senior figures from the church here,” Sullivan said afterwards. “One can only assume they didn’t feel comfortable coming here.”

The absence is terrible and unsurprising. The recurrent theme in five years of testimony at this commission has been abandonment. It is an abandonment of children and of responsibility.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse investigated more than 4000 institutions. There were tens of thousands of victims. The 21-volume report from the commission was delivered to the governor-general on Friday.

The commission’s chair, Justice Peter McClellan, confirmed the greatest number of abusers were hidden in Catholic institutions. This surprised no one. In hearing after hearing, an image emerged of an organisation that not only housed but enabled abuse. Paedophiles were shielded. Victims were disbelieved. Elaborate legal structures were built to deny rights.

When the commission was announced, George Pell’s mind was fevered with conspiracy. He fumed and preened and blamed the press for a “persistent campaign” against the Catholic Church. He insisted Catholics were not the “only cab on the rank”. Later, on the stand, he compared the church’s culpability to a trucking company whose driver “picks up some lady and then molests her”.

The commission’s final report is an extraordinary document, extraordinary for the fact it exists. A redress scheme must now be set up. The thousands of lives hurt by institutional deviancy must not be left without repair. Other changes must be made and are among the recommendations.

But there is one larger change that must also take place. It is not called for in the official documents, but it is urgent and necessary. The church must no longer be allowed to interfere with public life.

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WALES
BBC News

December 18, 2017

By Jordan Davies

Eight men allegedly abused by a head teacher thought to be one of Wales’ most prolific paedophiles have received £140,000 in settlements.

Jon Styler is said to have abused boys in schools in Newport and Worcestershire in the 1970s and 1980s.

He killed himself in Newport in 2007, having strongly denied the allegations.

Newport council has agreed out-of-court settlements with the men, with no admission of liability, but said it could not comment further.

A spokesman said: “However, we would like to stress that the allegations in relation to Mr Styler are historical and there are no links between the schools where he taught many decades ago and those schools today.”

Solicitors believe Mr Styler may be one of Wales’ most-prolific sex offenders, with more than 100 victims.

Newport council inherited liability from the old Gwent County Council, which employed Mr Styler when he worked in Wales.

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FARGO (ND)
KVRR

December 18, 2017

By TJ Nelson

HE FLED TO THE PHILIPPINES AROUND CHRISTMAS OF 1998

FARGO, ND — An arraignment for a former Fargo priest who has been extradited from the Philippines to stand trial on child sexual abuse charges has been delayed.

Fernando Sayasaya was set to appear in Cass County District Court today but the hearing was moved at the last minute to Tuesday.

Sayasaya was removed from the Fargo Diocese in August 1998 after two brothers accused him of sexually assaulting them.

The priest was an associate pastor at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fargo and Blessed Sacrament in West Fargo.

He fled to the Philippines around Christmas of 1998.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS News

December 18, 2017

A Bishop has vowed an elderly priest who was released from a NSW prison after being convicted of abusing young girls won’t return to his parish.

The Bishop of Broken Bay has promised his community that a paedophile priest released from a NSW prison won’t be allowed to return to his former parish.

Catholic priest Finian Egan was released from Long Bay Prison on Tuesday morning after serving four years of an eight-year sentence for raping and abusing young girls for nearly three decades.

Coinciding with his release, the Diocese of Broken Bay has begun the process of laicisation, more commonly known as “defrocking”, by presenting its case to Rome to have the 83-year-old stripped of his priesthood.

If successful, Egan will no longer be regarded as a priest and the church will no longer be responsible for him.

“These processes can be complex given that the one Roman office deals with all requests that are submitted from all over the world,” the Bishop of Broken Bay the Most Reverend Peter Comensoli explained in a statement on Tuesday.

While Egan has the right to argue his case, the bishop has already used his power to immediately dismiss him from the public ministry.

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FRANKFORT (KY)
WDRB

December 18, 2017

By Katrina Helmer

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) — A parole board held a victim impact hearing Monday afternoon in the case of Fr. Joseph Hemmerle, who was convicted of abusing a 10-year-old boy in 1973.

Michael Norris testified in November 2016 that Hemmerle sexually abused him more than 40 years ago when he was a camper at Camp Tall Trees. Hemmerle worked at the Catholic-run youth camp in Meade County. Norris said he got poison ivy, and when Hemmerle offered to treat it, the priest sexually abused him.

“Mr. Hemmerle’s act took about 15 minutes,” Norris said to the board. “For his 15 minutes of pleasure, I’ve endured 44 years of heartache. And I will be coping with this for the rest of my life.”

In February, a judge sentenced Hemmerle to seven years in prison for “indecent or immoral practices with a minor.”

Then in June 2017, Hemmerle pleaded guilty to sexual abuse charges brought forward by another victim. A judge sentenced Hemmerle to another two years in prison on top of the existing seven.

After about 10 months in prison, Hemmerle is up for parole. A parole board must consider his sentence, the details of the case, his inmate history and a victim impact hearing.

Norris also expressed concern Hemmerle would continue to abuse children if the board decided to release Hemmerle on parole.

“He hasn’t come to terms with what he is: a pedophile,” Norris told the board members. “And as far as I’m concerned, he needs to stay where he’s at, where he can’t hurt other children.”

Norris said the jury was under the impression Hemmerle would serve at least 18 months in prison before being considered eligible for parole.

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ROME
America Magazine

December 15, 2017

By Gerard O’Connell

Pope Francis will renew the mandate of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors for another three years, informed sources told America this week. Its membership, however, will not be announced until the New Year. While many of its current members will be renewed for a second three-year term, others will be replaced.

The news, which is expected to be announced in the coming days, comes after Francis met the full commission in a private audience in the Vatican on Sept. 21. He indicated then that he wished the P.C.P.M. to continue its work, or as he put it, “to continue to be of great assistance in the coming years to the pope, the Holy See, bishops and major superiors throughout the world.”

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ALTOONA (PA)
Tribune Review

December 18, 2017

By Stephen Huba

The attorney for a Blair County woman who sued a Catholic priest is considering an appeal now that a judge has thrown out the lawsuit.

Blair County Common Pleas Judge Jolene Kopriva, whose term expires at the end of the year, said Renee Rice’s civil suit was filed after the statute of limitations had expired.

“I intend to review with my client her right to appeal Judge Kopriva’s opinion,” Altoona attorney Richard Serbin said in a statement.

Rice and her sister, Cheryl Haun, sued the Rev. Charles Bodziak last year over allegations that he fondled them in the 1970s, when they were ages 7 and 9. At the time, he was serving at St. Leo’s Catholic Church in Altoona.

The sisters also sued the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, which was the subject of an investigation by the Pennsylvania attorney general over allegations of clergy sexual abuse spanning decades. A special grand jury released a 147-page report in March 2016 detailing the alleged abuse of hundreds of minors by more than 50 priests in the eight-county diocese.

The lawsuit alleged counts of fraud, constructive fraud and conspiracy against retired Bishop Joseph Adamec and the estate of Bishop James Hogan.

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QUEENSLAND (AUSTRALIA)
Brisbane Times (AAP)

December 18, 2017

A Catholic priest in Queensland has told his congregation the church is a flawed institution, and Australian archbishops must fight for change to stop sexual abuse.

Father Peter Schultz used his homily on Sunday to personally apologise to anyone who’d suffered abuse, which he said was the fault of the church hierarchy.

“We are a flawed institution and we have to own that fact,” he told followers at St Thomas More’s Church in South Toowoomba, just a few days after the royal commission into institutional abuse handed down its final report.

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PERTH (AUSTRALIA)
Eureka Street

December 18, 2017

By Helena Kadmos

A small group of lay Christians in Perth, including myself, were so worried that our institutions might not wholeheartedly embrace the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse that we decided not to wait to find out.

On Saturday 9 December, ahead of the full release of the commission’s findings, 130 people accepted our invitation to gather on the banks of the Swan River to express our gratitude to the commissioners, survivors and their families.

Day of Lament was an ecumenical picnic and liturgy organised without any clerical input by lay people of different church backgrounds, including Catholic, Anglican and Uniting, the Salvation Army and an Independent Community Church. Our group comprised teachers, a pastoral practitioner, psychologist and community worker. We sought input and feedback from survivors and organisations representing survivors.

Planned over several months, Day of Lament grew out of a determination to express unequivocal support for authentic justice for survivors, at whatever cost. Lay people might not hold the purse strings of our churches but we are the living hands and feet that comprise it. Through our physical presence in a public space we aimed to make a stand that was five-fold: to lament the silence surrounding child abuse in our institutions, acknowledge the pain suffered, say sorry, pray for healing, and commit to justice.

We accepted that we could not hope to grasp the full complexity of the impacts of child sexual abuse on everyone affected by it, and therefore we made no claims to represent anyone other than ourselves. But our invitation was open to people of the same, different or no faith backgrounds: If you felt as we did, you were welcome to join us.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
Catholic News Service

December 18, 2017

MELBOURNE, Australia (CNS) — After five years of hearings, nearly 26,000 emails, and more than 42,000 phone calls from concerned Australians, the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse released its 17-volume final report Dec. 15.

Among its 400 recommendations, 20 were aimed specifically at the Catholic Church, whose leaders spent three weeks in February testifying at a “Catholic wrapup.”

Several of the recommendations related to the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference working with the Holy See to change the Code of Canon Law “to create a new canon or series of canons specifically relating to child sexual abuse.”

One recommendation was for the Australian bishops to work with the Holy See to determine if the absolute secrecy concerning matters discussed during confession also applies to a child confessing he or she has been abused sexually. The report also said the church should consider if “absolution can and should be withheld” if a person confesses to perpetrating child sexual abuse.

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PELHAM (NY)
ABC7

December 18, 2017

PELHAM, New York — A shocking report out of Australia suggests ending mandatory celibacy for Catholic priests could help protect children from sexual abuse.

The study claims tens of thousands of children in Catholic churches, schools, orphanages and sports clubs have endured sexual abuse over the recent decades, and draws a connection between celibacy and pedophilia.

Father Edward Beck, a commentator on religion and the Catholic church, argues the report’s findings are “nonsensical.”

“We’re seeing in this country right now, issues of pedophilia, especially with bold-name faces, right? Celebrities, who are married. You are certainly not celibate and they are pedophiles,” Beck said. “So celibacy does not cause pedophilia.”

Beck argues pedophilia occurs often in families, between brothers and fathers, not celibate people.

“This is a disease,” Beck said. “Now, certainly, you have instances of it with people who are celibate. But there’s not a cause and effect there, so to say, ‘If we get away from celibacy, that we’ll no longer have pedophilia,’ that’s just a non sequitur. It doesn’t follow.”

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AMSTERDAM (Netherlands)
DutchNews.nl

December 18, 2017

In total, 3,712 people have reported being victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic church to a special hotline set up in 2010 and the cost of dealing with the eight-year scandal could be as much as €60m.

Of all the reported cases to the hotline, 2,062 became official complaints and 1,002 cases were declared justified. Several hundred were not accepted because of a lack of supporting evidence, the final report from hotline officials said.

In 941 cases, the victims were given financial compensation, taking total payouts to €28.6m. Sixty-five victims who went through the most serious forms of abuse were given the maximum payout of €100,000.

According to the NRC newspaper, the real bill to the Catholic church is far higher. It says 403 victims reached secret deals with the church authorities, and received an estimated €12.8m in compensation.

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LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday

December 18, 2017

By Bart Jones

The Child Victims Act would lift the statute of limitations for one year and allow victims to sue their perpetrators.

Advocates on Monday gathered outside the offices of two state senators to press them to help get a long-stalled bill passed in Albany that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations in child sex abuse cases.

The dozen protesters, including victims, university professors and supporters, said the “#MeToo” movement exposing sexual harassment against women is giving renewed life to their campaign, which started more than a decade ago.

“I think I am more hopeful than I have ever been,” said Marci Hamilton, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading advocate on the child sex abuse issue. “This is the best chance we’ve ever had with the Senate because of the #MeToo movement.”

The protesters gathered at the offices of state Sens. Elaine Phillips in Mineola and Carl Marcellino in Oyster Bay, both Republicans who narrowly won in the 2016 election. The advocates, who have formed a group called New Yorkers Against Hidden Predators, said they want the senators to pressure Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-East Northport) to release the Child Victims Act out of committee so it can be voted on.

The bill passed the state Assembly this year, but was not taken up by the Senate, where it has languished for years.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
7News Sydney

December 19, 2017

By Laura Banks

A former Catholic priest who sexually assaulted young girls over three decades has been released from jail after spending four years behind bars.

Now 81, he was freed at the earliest possible opportunity, but when confronted by Seven News there was no apology for his actions.

His stint behind bars over, Finian Egan had ample opportunity to show his contrition but he did not say a word when confronted.

Asked if he felt any remorse for what he had done, or if he had anything to say to his victims, he remained silent.

Egan was convicted of sexually assaulting three young girls.

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BOSTON (MA)
CNS News

December 18, 2017

By Michael W. Chapman

The Boston Globe, which has turned stories about child sexual abuse by Catholic priests into a cottage industry, refuses to publish the names of its own staff members who have been charged with sexual harassment, according to Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

“Sexual abuse is still going on at the Globe,” Donohue wrote in a Dec. 18 press release. “In March, a young woman employee filed a complaint against a male journalist with human resources. She said he propositioned her to have sex with his wife. But nothing came of it.”

“One year ago, the same man propositioned her to have sex with him,” reported Donohue. “He was allowed to stay on the job, until, that is, more accusations were made against him from outside the office.”

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BOSTON (MA)
LifeZette

December 19, 2017

By Michele Blood

As noted on ‘The Ingraham Angle,’ one publication has insisted on full exposure of alleged violators — but not within its own house

The Boston Globe on December 8 published the results of a self-examination of its corporate culture in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Curiously, although the examination uncovered a recent instance of alleged sexual impropriety that resulted in the resignation of at least one reporter, the publication declined to name that reporter — describing the scandal as a “confidential personnel matter.”

This same organization has gone after the Catholic Church for sexual impropriety and abuse by priests — with demands for transparency from the church over sexual abuse allegations lodged against several priests.

“The Ingraham Angle” on Monday night took the Globe to task on the hypocritical stance. Host Laura Ingraham noted that the Globe’s reasoning for choosing not to reveal the name of the reporter included the fact that the incident did not involve physical violence.

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BOSTON (MA)
New Boston Post

December 19, 2017

Cardinal Bernard Law, the long-serving archbishop of Boston who resigned under pressure during the height of the clergy-sex-abuse scandal, is “facing his final illness” at a hospital in Rome, according to a well-connected Vatican journalist.

Rocco Palma, who runs the web site Whispers in the Loggia, reported that church officials are in “active preparation for the death” of Law, 86.

According to Palma, Law is expected to be buried in Rome.

While Palma noted that Law’s standing in the United States – and especially in Boston – is “radioactive,” as a cardinal his death will not go unnoted by high-ranking members of the Church. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Law’s successor as archbishop of Boston, will be expected to make a substantive statement and may consider going to Rome to concelebrate the funeral Mass. Pope Francis will also likely send an official message of condolences and, if he follows usual Vatican custom, will participate in Law’s funeral liturgy.

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QUEENS (NY)
QNS

December 19, 2017

By Robert Pozarycki

Four dozen priests who worked at Queens churches over the last half-century were accused of child sex abuse, according to a report released by a legal group representing victims. The Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, however, charged that the report isn’t completely accurate.

Lawyers Helping Survivors of Child Sex Abuse issued “Hidden Disgrace,” a 22-page summary which lists the names of 65 clergy members in the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens who have been accused of sexually abusing children; in some cases, the abuse occurred more than 50 years ago. An examination of the report found that 48 of the priests had been assigned to Queens churches, schools and institutions.

The report came out a week before the Dec. 21 deadline for child sex abuse survivors to enroll in the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP). The Diocese of Brooklyn launched the voluntary settlement program in June to provide restitution to those who had been abused by a priest or deacon but who could not seek legal remedies because of an expired statute of limitations. Survivors can come forward on their own or with legal representation to file a claim.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
WLKY

December 19, 2017

By Lauren Adams

A Louisville priest twice convicted of sexually abusing young boys could be released from prison after serving only months of his sentence.

One of Joseph Hemmerle’s victims testified before the parole board on Monday, arguing against his abuser’s freedom.

“When I was sexually abused by Mr. Hemmerle two things were taken away from me that I will never get back, my innocence and my spirituality,” Michael Norris said.

When testifying before the board Monday in Frankfort, Norris was at times fighting back tears.
The abuse happened at a Meade County camp in the 1970’s. Norris, now 55, was just 10 years old. Decades would pass, marked with drug and alcohol abuse, even a suicide attempt before Norris went public with the abuse.

Now, one year after Hemmerle’s conviction, he is eligible for parole.

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ALTOONA (PA)
Altoona Mirror

December 19, 2017

By Kay Stephens

Hollidaysburg — A local attorney said Monday that he is disappointed with the recent ruling by a Blair County judge, concluding that the statute of limitations has expired for a woman who last year filed a civil lawsuit, revealing that she was sexually molested, as a youth, by her priest.

The ruling prevents Renee Rice from having her day in court, Altoona attorney Richard Serbin said Monday.

Rice and her sister, Cheryl Haun, last year sued the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese and the Rev. Charles Bodziak, a former priest at St. Leo’s Church in the 1970s when Rice and Haun were growing up. The women accused Bodziak of groping, fondling and kissing them in the 1970s when they were children and he was their priest.

Bodziak denied the charges and on Monday, his attorney, R. Thomas Forr, said he thought Kopriva’s conclusion was valid.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
ABC

December 19, 2017

By James Thomas

A survivor of abuse by Catholic priest Finian Egan has slammed the church for protecting the convicted paedophile and says there are more victims out there.

“He’s evil and a monster. He preys on children,” Kellie Roche told 7.30.

“What kind of person does that?”

Finian Egan was released on parole today after serving the minimum four-year term of an eight-year sentence.

“You’d think that a paedophile would serve its full sentence. Because if anyone’s going to serve their full sentence, shouldn’t it be someone who is a threat to children?” Ms Roche said.

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BROOKLYN (NY)
Brooklyn Eagle

December 19, 2017

By Colin Mixson

A flock of legal eagles on Thursday released a list of Kings County’s most corrupt Catholic priests that they hope will encourage sexual-abuse victims to apply for compensation from the Diocese of Brooklyn before it’s too late, according to one of the lawyers.

“We’re hoping to raise awareness with this report about the Brooklyn Diocese, the availability of this program for survivors, and specifically that the clock is running and there’s a hard deadline,” said Jerry Kristal, who works for law firm Weitz and Luxenberg, which released the list as part of a multi-firm collective called Lawyers Helping Survivors of Child Sex Abuse.

The document, entitled “Hidden Disgrace,” identifies 65 priests within the local diocese who were accused or convicted of sex crimes against children. In June, the Diocese of Brooklyn launched a fund to compensate sexual-abuse victims, but survivors have a Dec. 21 deadline to report incidents in order to be eligible for money from the program.

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BALLARAT (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier

December 17, 2017

By Michelle Smith

The very visible sign of Ballarat’s child sexual abuse history – the fluttering ribbons of the Loud Fence of St Patrick’s Cathedral – have been removed and placed in a reflection garden in the church grounds.

On Sunday, about 60 parishioners removed the hundreds of ribbons that survivors had placed there from the early days of the Royal Commission hearings in to child sexual abuse in the Ballarat diocese.

The removal of the ribbons drew mixed reactions from survivors and families, as did their placement in a glass-topped chest.

A lack of consultation about the process and timing of the ribbon removal, just days after the Royal Commission in to Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse handed down its final recommendations, also angered many.

Sexual abuse survivor Phil Nagle said the ribbons belonged on the fence, and said survivors would return and replace the ribbons.

“The ribbons are our voice and a voice for all the people who can’t stand up and talk,” he said.

“I think you will find this week, if there’s no proper consultation the ribbons will keep coming back.”

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VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA)
The Age

December 17, 2017

By Rachel Kleinman

Dassi Erlich was sitting in a Jerusalem restaurant last month with her sisters, Elly Sapper and Nicole Meyer, inside a cavernous space dominated by funky light fittings, when an ultra-Orthodox Jewish teenager approached the table.

The girl had recognised the three women from Israeli television coverage. As she spoke, they listened with tears in their eyes.

“She shared a similar story to ours,” Erlich says. “An insular school, vulnerable students, a female principal abusing her power … As soon as she said it, you could see the fear. She wouldn’t tell us her name or what school she went to.

“[But] seeing us, our story and the campaign on TV had given her the courage and understanding to stop what was happening to her.”

It was a rare spontaneous encounter for the three siblings in a tightly-packed, gruelling nine-day visit to Israel.

They met with Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Israel’s top prosecutor Yuval Kaplinsky and members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. They were trailed by Israeli and Australian camera crews.

But the approach from the teenage sexual abuse survivor was a pivotal moment.

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ENGLAND
The Sunday Times

December 17, 2017

Long before the appalling cruelty inflicted on Stephen Bleach in the 1970s, the abuse at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London, was widely known but no one did anything about it (“The monks who stole my childhood”, News Review, last week).

In the 1950s I went to a grammar school in Wembley and we all heard stories about savage beatings by the monks and were familiar enough with the Marquis de Sade to recognise sexual perversion masquerading as discipline. We were thankful we weren’t Catholics. It diminished organised religion, and Catholicism in particular, in my young eyes.
Michael Cole, Woodbridge, Suffolk

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GONZALES (LA)
The Advocate

December 16, 2017

By Gordon Russell

The Diocese of Baton Rouge is probing a complaint about sexual misconduct by a Gonzales parish priest that allegedly occurred in 1996, a church spokesman said.

The Diocese of Baton Rouge is investigating a complaint it received last month about sexual misconduct by a Gonzales parish priest that allegedly occurred in 1996, a church spokesman said.

The woman, who alerted church officials Nov. 8 about the alleged abuse by Father Eric Gyan, also recently contacted The Advocate about the case. After being contacted by the newspaper, the diocese late Saturday issued a news release saying that Gyan was the subject of the complaint and that it has begun an inquiry.

The complaint is the first one the diocese has received about Gyan, according to the statement. Gyan, who was ordained as a priest more than three decades ago, is now pastor of St. Theresa of Avila Parish in Gonzales.

So far, the diocese’s investigation “has not yielded any cause to remove Fr. Gyan from his current pastoral service,” the statement said, adding that Gyan “has categorically denied the allegation.”

The woman told The Advocate that Gyan forced her to perform sex acts on him on multiple occasions in 1996, when he was the pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Brusly and she was a 10-year-old parishioner there. The abuse occurred when she went to confession to him, according to the woman, who is now 31.

Gyan, who did not return a message from The Advocate, read the diocese’s statement to parishioners at 4 p.m. Mass on Saturday.

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ENGLAND
The Tablet

December 16, 2017

By Rose Gamble and Alex Daniel

‘The victims were abused by those who they had been brought up to see as God’s representative on earth’

There is something inherent in the “very nature” of the English Benedictine Congregations’ schools and monasteries that has contributed to and “even enabled” the scale and extent of child abuse, the national inquiry into child sex abuse has heard.

On the final day of a three-week hearing into the Congregation as part of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), which is taking place in London, the inquiry heard closing statements, including recommendations, from four lawyers representing victims of abuse.

Dominic Ruck-Keene, who is acting on behalf of a group sexual abuse survivors, said he believed the role of the abbot in the English Benedictine Community is of particular concern.

Abbots, he told the inquiry, hold “too much power” and are subject to a conflict of interests. An abbot’s desire to maintain the fellowship of a community has “a very real effect on safeguarding decisions and actions” he said.

Likewise, he said, monks and priests could sometimes be seen as figures who are beyond reproach.

Mr Ruck-Keene said he noted past and continued institutional weaknesses of the English Benedictine Congregation, including a lack of central direction; a lack of central record keeping; and active investigation and management of abusive monks, even when the Abbot had been informed of particular concerns about individuals.

All these he said, “appear to have contributed to the erratic and inconsistent record of individual abbeys understanding and implementing what were meant to be national safeguarding policies.”

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GONZALES (LA)
WWLTV

December 16, 2017

GONZALES – An investigation is underway after a priest in Gonzales has been accused of sexual misconduct, according to the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

According to the diocese, an allegation of sexual misconduct was received on November 8 from a woman in her thirties against Fr. Eric Gyan, currently a pastor of St. Theresa of Avila Parish in Gonzales. The misconduct was alleged to have occurred in 1996 when the woman was a minor and Fr. Gyan was a pastor of St. John the Baptist in Brusly.

The diocese says it has notified civil officials of the allegations and, as required by canon law, “trained professional lay persons were appointed by the diocese to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the matter.”

Additionally, the diocese’s victim assistance coordinator has spoken to the woman who has made the allegation and has offered assistance on behalf of the diocese.

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MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
SunStar

December 17, 2017

A PRIEST accused of molesting two boys in the 1990s has been extradited from the Philippines to North Dakota to face charges.

The US Attorney’s Office for North Dakota announced Friday that Fernando Laude Sayasaya is back in the United States and will face child sexual abuse charges in Cass County.

Amid the allegations, Sayasaya went to the Philippines in 1998 and didn’t return. A Philippines court ordered his extradition in 2010. He appealed, lost and was ultimately arrested last month.

The charges allege Sayasaya abused two underage siblings from 1995 to 1998. He was assigned to the Blessed Sacrament Catholic church and to St. Mary’s Cathedral at the time.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for Sayasaya to comment on his behalf. (AP)

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ENGLAND
The Telegraph

December 17, 2017

By Hayley Dixon and Olivia Rudgard

The former Archbishop of Canterbury has hit out at his “unjust” successor Justin Welby saying that he will be judged for sacking him over the way he dealt with a sex scandal.

In a Christmas letter to friends, Lord George Carey has spoken out for the first time about his treatment by The Most Rev Justin Welby who “insisted” that he stand aside over his handling of the allegations against Bishop Peter Ball.

The comments come just days after Archbishop Welby was himself criticised for his handling of the sex assault allegations against George Bell, the former bishop of Chichester, who he refused to clear despite an independent review concluding that he was besmirched by the Church of England.

Although it is understood that the comments by Lord Carey on his own treatment were written in November, they were not sent out until this weekend at the end up a turbulent week for the church.

In the letter “Greetings from The Careys 2017”, seen by the Telegraph, Lord Carey updates his friends about developments in the year.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

December 17, 2017

By Harriet Sherwood

George Carey says it is ‘shocking’ that his successor asked him to quit honorary post over role in sexual abuse case

The former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has launched an extraordinary broadside against his successor, Justin Welby, in a Christmas letter to friends.

In a letter headed “Greetings from the Careys 2017”, Lord Carey, 82, lashes out at the “shocking” and “quite unjust” demand by Welby that he resign an honorary post because of his involvement in a high-profile sexual abuse case.

In recounting key events of his year, Carey tells friends of the “shocking insistence by the archbishop that I should stand down from ministry ‘for a season’ for mistakes he believes were made 24 years ago when bishop Peter Ball abused young potential priests. His decision is quite unjust and eventually will be judged as such.”

He adds: “Just as well, then, that we are surrounded by a large and wonderful family who give us great support and pleasure.”

The former archbishop, who retired from the post in 2002, resigned as honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Oxford in June after a damning independent inquiry criticised the Church of England’s handling of the Ball case.

He quit after Welby made an unprecedented request for him to “carefully consider his position”. The inquiry found the church had “colluded” with Ball, the former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester, “rather than seeking to help those he had harmed”.

Ball was released from prison in February after serving 16 months for the grooming, sexual exploitation and abuse of 18 vulnerable young men who had sought spiritual guidance from him between 1977 and 1992.

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ENGLAND
Press Association

December 17, 2017

A safeguarding expert who wrote a review of sex abuse within the Church of England said his recommendations for better practice to protect survivors have been ignored.

Ian Elliott told BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme he was “very disturbed” by statements about alleged “factual inaccuracies” in his report, and said those within the Church who could support his findings have failed to back him publicly.

Taking the unusual step of speaking out about the report, Mr Elliott said he was particularly perturbed by senior figures within the Church who wrongly believed pastoral support to victims should be withdrawn the moment legal proceedings begin.

Mr Elliott said withdrawing that care left survivors, particularly those with mental health issues, vulnerable.

He said: “Now that just simply should never happen and I needed to draw attention to that fact in the report, which I did, and I think that’s something which – my impression is – has caused a great deal of upset and concern amongst many who I do not think have the correct attitude or approach to survivors within the Church of England.”

Mr Elliott said one survivor told him he had spoken to two senior and prominent members of the CofE about his “shocking” abuse, but they had not taken “the required actions”.

He said: “(The survivor) spoke to 23 victims, all of whom he identified when and where the conversations took place. Not all of those individuals said they could remember the conversations, but half of them did and confirmed they had not taken the right actions – not known really what do to.”

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Salt Lake Tribune

December 18, 2017

In light of the recent social media #MeToo campaign, which has brought to light the deplorable pervasiveness of sexual harassment and abuse, some are questioning common practices that may cross similar, inappropriate lines.

It turns out, it is not appropriate for adolescent and teen youth to sit in a room with a male ecclesiastical leader with the door closed and be expected to answer questions about sexual history, inclinations or desires.

Salt Lake Tribune reporter Peggy Fletcher Stack recently reported on the questionable nature of the prominent practice of the “bishop interview” within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Reporters delved into the subject on the Tribune’s popular podcast, “Mormon Land,” along with Salt Lake City therapist Julie de Azevedo Hanks and a former LDS Bishop Richard Ostler.

The consensus is that the practice of Mormon bishops “interviewing” adolescents about their sexual history as part of the repentance process is both unnecessary and fraught with danger. It places adolescents in uncomfortable situations where they feel obligated to talk about sensitive issues with non-family members. It also sets men up for misunderstandings and even possible temptation. Heaven forbid the church embolden such awful acts like child abuse, as happened with Erik Hughes, who was recently sentenced for sexually abusing two boys during his time as a LDS bishop.

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ENGLAND
Dunfermline Press

December 18, 2017

More churches should be led by female priests and those “who come from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups”, the new Bishop of London has said.

The Right Reverend Sarah Mullally said the Church of England was undergoing a “period of reflection”, with the theme of diversity featuring heavily in her inaugural speech.

Ms Mullally, who is the first woman to hold the third most important role in the Church of England, suggested that the institution should be at the heart of communities if it is to stay current.

“If our churches are going to be more relevant to our communities, that means increasing churches that are led by priests that are women, who come from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups,” she said.

The former nurse acknowledged the division in the diocese of London over the ordination of female priests, and said she is “very respectful of those who cannot accept my role as a priest or bishop”.

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AUBURN (NY)
The Citizen

December 18, 2017

By Megan Blarr

Pamela Deacon O’Grady remembers the first time she met him.

It was the summer of 1978. A clarinet player at Auburn High School, O’Grady was learning the music for the fall marching band. She had just graduated from eighth grade.

“I walked in (the high school band room) and saw him for the first time,” she said. “I remember how nervous and intimidated I was … because he was so tall.”

He was her music teacher. She was 14 years old.

For the next five years, O’Grady said, he would sexually abuse her — in the band office, in the auditorium, in his car and in his home. He told her not to tell.

“I never told the secret,” O’Grady said, “until now.”

But now, she said, it’s too late.

“Due to New York’s statute of limitations, it’s too late to press charges,” she said. “Because of the statute of limitations, there is nothing I can do.”

That could change, however, for future sex abuse victims, as proposed state legislation aims to extend or eliminate the statute of limitations.

Raising awareness about the law and why it can take some victims many years to bring forth accusations is one reason O’Grady and another woman — who said she was sexually abused in the early 1980s by a current Cayuga County resident — brought their stories to law enforcement and The Citizen in recent months.

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AUSTRALIA
Central Coast Gosford Express Advocate

December 17, 2017

THE Catholic bishop of Broken Bay has taken the unprecedented step of warning his parishioners of the impending release of a paedophile priest from jail.

Finian Egan is due to be released from Long Bay Prison on parole tomorrow after serving four years of an eight-year sentence for the rape and abuse of young girls over three decades on NSW Central Coast and in Sydney.

Egan was jailed after being found guilty of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of rape in relation to attacks on girls aged 10 to 17 in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. His crimes included the assault and rape a 17-year-old girl at a church owned house at the Entrance.

Prompted by last week’s Royal Commission report into institutional responses to child abuse, Bishop Comensoli, wrote to parishioners and also imposed further restrictions on Egan.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Caller

December 17, 2017

By Dr. Patti Feuereisen

With all the #MeToo stories and the recent news on sex abusers from Hollywood to national television anchors, the conversation of sex abuse is finally in the forefront. In the three decades I have focused my work as a psychotherapist with sex abuse survivors I have heard these stories and the stories of fathers brutally molesting their daughters year after year — only to be told by their mothers to leave once they revealed their incest. And the stories of date rape and girls blaming themselves for years because they were told it was their fault. Now that the conversation is beginning from the survivors, there is a lot of talk about how to heal. I can count the times when clients have come to me having been told by a well-intentioned therapist or clergy person to forgive their abuser. They are told that if they can forgive, then they can heal and move forward.

I say NO.

The only person a survivor needs to forgive is herself. She needs to forgive herself for not being able to stop the abuse, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for not being willing or able to speak out against her boss, her minister or rabbi, her coach — whoever her perpetrator might be.

When you are not ready to forgive, when your anger gives you strength, then be angry. As far as I am concerned, forgiveness is a gift to your abuser. He is 100 percent responsible and you do not owe him a thing.

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.

ENGLAND
Premier

December 18, 2017

By Alex Williams

A former Archbishop of Canterbury has described pressure placed on him by Justin Welby to resign from his role as an honorary assistant bishop in Oxford as “shocking”.

Lord Carey accused his successor (pictured below) of “unjust” behaviour in urging him to consider relinquishing his position, following a report which criticised his response to sex abuse allegations.

Published in June, the independent report by Dame Moira Gibb concluded the 82-year-old received seven letters raising concerns about an abusive bishop but only passed one note to police.

The report also said Lord Carey did not put Bishop Peter Ball’s name onto a list of clergy whose behaviour had raised safeguarding concerns.

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.

MILDURA (AUSTRALIA)
Sunraysia Daily

December 17, 2017

By Christopher Testa

MILDURA’S Sacred Heart Parish priest says he would tell police if someone came to him with a confession of child abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has recommended a law be introduced forcing religious leaders to report child abuse, even if they are told in the sanct­ity of the confessional.

Father Michael McKinnon said while it was unlikely a child abuse perpetrator would confess to abusing children, he would report any such admission to the authorities.

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.

HOLLIDAYSBURG (PA)
Altoona Mirror

December 17, 2017

By Kay Stephens

Kopriva says statute of limitations expired in suits alleging sexual molestation

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County judge has concluded that the statute of limitations has expired for a pair of civil lawsuits initiated last year by two women who accused a local priest of sexually molesting them when they were children.

In a ruling issued Friday, Judge Jolene G. Kopriva granted requests from the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese and the Rev. Charles Bodziak, a former priest at St. Leo’s Church in Altoona, for judgments that bring the cases to an end in county court.

“In summary, as there are no applicable exceptions to the two-year statue of limitations in this case, the plaintiff’s claims are barred as untimely,” the judge concluded.

Kopriva’s ruling is subject to appeal, but in her order, she makes it clear that her decision is reflective of two Superior Court rulings, both in 2005, involving similar allegations and arguments.

“At times we reach that point in law, owing either to binding precedent or statutory authority, where a wrong may regrettably have no redress,” the judge concluded. “The appellate courts or legislature retain the power to alter that situation if they so choose. …”

The Blair County civil lawsuits were initiated in June 2016 by Altoona attorney Richard Serbin on behalf of Renee Rice, then 48, and her sister, Cheryl Haun, then 47. Both women accused Bodziak of groping, fondling and kissing them when they were children in the 1970s and Bodziak was their priest.

Haun said the abuse started at her first communion party and continued when she went on school trips, where Bodziak told her that what he was doing was OK because he was a priest.

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

NEW HAVEN (CT)
The Associated Press

December 16, 2017

A former Jesuit priest charged with child sexual assault dating to 1998 has posted bail and returned to a Catholic Church-run residential facility in Missouri.

The Portland Press Herald reports an attorney for 80-year-old James Francis Talbot said his client posted $50,000 cash bail and was sent back to Vianney Renewal Center for troubled or former priests. Many priests there have been accused of sex abuse.

Talbot has spent six years in prison for a sexual abuse conviction in Massachusetts. Talbot had been living at the Missouri facility for six years.

A Freeport man alleged Talbot abused him on several occasions when he was 9 years old at St. Jude Church in Freeport. Talbot pleaded not guilty to sexual assault charges and is scheduled to appear in court in February.

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

AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

December 18, 2017

By Sarah Gerathy

A Catholic bishop has taken the unusual step of warning his parishioners of the impending release of a paedophile priest and imposing additional restrictions on him.

Finian Egan is due to be released from Long Bay Prison on parole tomorrow after serving four years of an eight-year sentence for the rape and abuse of young girls over three decades on the NSW Central Coast and in Sydney.

The Bishop of Broken Bay, Peter Comensoli, wrote to parishioners in his diocese in the wake of last week’s royal commission report into institutional responses to child abuse.

“The pain and complexity of the matters detailed in the royal commission have reached deeply into our lives in many different ways,” Bishop Comensoli wrote.

“I want to acknowledge one local situation which will enter a new phase this week. On Tuesday … Finian Egan, formerly a priest of the Diocese of Broken Bay, is to be released on parole.”

“This development will occasion different reactions and emotions for many of you, even distress, especially for those who may have known Finian, and most particularly for those who have been offended against and hurt by him.”

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

AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

December 18, 2017

By Tracey Ferrier (AAP)

A CATHOLIC priest in Toowoomba has told his congregation the church is a flawed institution, and Australian archbishops must fight for change to stop sexual abuse.

Father Peter Schultz used his homily on Sunday to personally apologise to anyone who’d suffered abuse, which he said was the fault of the church hierarchy.

“We are a flawed institution and we have to own that fact,” he told followers at St Thomas More’s Church in South Toowoomba, just a few days after the royal commission into institutional abuse handed down its final report.

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

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

December 17, 2017

By Dominique Mosbergen

Terry Zwigoff’s claim comes on the heels of a similar allegation made this week by “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson.

A second director has stepped forward this week with claims that Harvey and Bob Weinstein blacklisted actress Mira Sorvino and prevented her from being cast in films.

Terry Zwigoff, director of “Bad Santa,” wrote on Twitter on Saturday that he’d been interested in casting Sorvino in the 2003 comedy. Zwigoff alleged, however, that every time he mentioned her name “over the phone to the Weinsteins,” the sibling producers would immediately hang up.

“I’m really sorry Mira,” the director wrote.

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

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

December 16, 2017

By Sara Boboltz

The celebrity chef oddly tacked on a recipe to an apology note to fans.

Mario Batali, the former host of “The Chew” who stands accused of sexual misconduct, issued an apology to fans on Friday through his newsletter and inexplicably ended it with a recipe for cinnamon rolls.

So far, eight women have come forward to say Batali groped them, made sexually explicit comments or other unwanted sexual advances. One particularly disturbing anecdote in The New York Times described Batali “groping and kissing a woman who appeared to be unconscious” in a New York restaurant’s so-called “rape room.”

“I have made many mistakes and I am so very sorry that I have disappointed my friends, my family, my fans and my team. My behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility,” Batali wrote in the letter, his most recent in a series of apologetic statements.

“Sharing the joys of Italian food, tradition and hospitality with all of you, each week, is an honor and privilege. Without the support of all of you ― my fans ― I would never have a forum in which to expound on this,” he continued. “I will work every day to regain your respect and trust.”

And then, the tone-deaf kicker: “ps. in case you’re searching for a holiday-inspired breakfast, these Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls are a fan favorite.”

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

UNITED STATES
Jewish News Service

December 15, 2017

By Elizabeth Kratz

The congregational arm of Conservative Judaism has severed ties with the longtime director of the denomination’s youth movement after receiving “multiple testimonies” that corroborated an allegation of sexual abuse.

Allegations about Jules Gutin, 67, who in 2011 completed his 20-year tenure as international director of United Synagogue Youth (USY) and since 2012 had conducted tours of Poland for USY, first came to light Nov. 9 through a Facebook post by a man who claimed that someone who worked with thousands of teens had abused him in the 1980s. After confirming with the man that he was referring to Gutin in his post, JNS communicated with several other men who alleged that they were underage victims of unwanted sexual touch by Gutin during that decade.

“Two of my USYers have said very similar things to me over the years, and named the same name,” said Arnie Draiman, a former USY youth advisor.

According to an email dated Nov. 21 that was obtained by JNS, Gutin asked the man who made the initial accusation on Facebook not to name him or USY in communication with the media in order to “spare my family from pain” and avoid “any harm to an organization we both love.”

“Whatever points you want to make would be just as powerful without people knowing the specific individual,” Gutin wrote to his accuser. He also wrote that USCJ was “totally justified” in suspending him from staffing any of its programs, and concluded the email, “Once again I am sorry.”

Earlier this month, when The New York Jewish Week first reported that Gutin had been terminated by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) due to sexual abuse allegations, the casual reader might have missed the news.

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.

ITALY
Live Sicilia Catania

December 13, 2017

By Antonio Condorelli

[Google Translate: Fake exorcisms, false diagnosis of “testicular tumors” and purifications. Exclusively here are the minutes that led to the arrest of the priest from Catania.]

CATANIA – “Durante gli abusi sessuali, Padre Pio Guidolin pregava a voce alta…lui mi diceva che io lo dovevo aiutare e io lo facevo perché gli dovevo dare forza e perché lui è un sacerdote e quindi pensavo fosse giusto farlo”. Intercettazioni e testimonianze raccapriccianti sono agli atti dell’operazione che ha portato all’arresto di Padre Pio Guidolin, noto sacerdote catanese accusato di aver abusato dei ragazzini della parrocchia Villaggio Sant’Agata.

Minori violentati più volte, anche per diversi anni. Dalla ricostruzione degli inquirenti, pubblicabile solo in parte per tutelare le vittime, emerge la figura di un sacerdote che avrebbe escogitato rituali a base di olio santo per “purificare” i minori e abusarli.

RITI DI “GUARIGIONE” – Padre Guidolin avrebbe plagiato i ragazzini, molti dei quali legatissimi a lui. Iniziava – secondo i magistrati – spogliando i minori, cospargendoli di olio, in alcuni casi avrebbe approfittato anche dei problemi famigliari delle giovani vittime, recitando preghiere liberatorie.

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.

ITALY
il Fatto Quotidiano

December 17, 2017

di F. Q.

[Google Translate: A Vatican usher was arrested while he was carrying cocaine and five usb sticks full of child porn videos and photos . But, as the judge wrote for preliminary investigations, “the material is clearly held for sale to third parties “.]

A riportare la notizia è La Repubblica. L’uomo non ha rivelato a chi fossero destinati droga e video. Secondo il gip: “Potrebbe godere anche di appoggi che lo spingono a trovare ospitalità in ambienti protetti”

Un usciere del Vaticano è stato arrestato mentre aveva con sé cocaina e cinque chiavette usb piene di video e foto pedopornografici. Ma, come ha scritto il giudice pe rle indagini preliminari, “il materiale è chiaramente detenuto a fini di cessione a terzi“. Allora, si sono chiesti gli investigatori, “a chi erano destinati droga e filmini in cui sono vittime minori?” Ostilio Del Balzo, così si chiama l’uomo arrestato, non ha voluto rivelarlo.

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

AUSTRALIA
BBC News

December 15, 2017

A senior member of the Roman Catholic Church in Australia has rejected a key recommendation of a landmark inquiry into child sex abuse.

It said priests should report abuse confided to them, even in the secret context of the confessional.

But the archbishop of Melbourne said any priest who broke the seal of confession would be excommunicated.

This means they would cease to be a member of the Church and would no longer be allowed a Catholic funeral.

The Most Rev Denis Hart said a law requiring this of priests would undermine a central tenet of Catholicism, the sacredness of the confessional.

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.

PORTLAND (ME)
Press Herald

December 17, 2017

By Eric Russell

[See also some earlier articles about Charles Malia.]

At Cheverus, they were taught moral responsibility, but victims of alleged abuse by a former teacher say they’re still waiting for the school and the Jesuit community to practice what they preach.

When Michael Sweatt looked at his son’s schedule and saw the familiar name of a teacher, he went to the school and demanded his son be removed from that class.

Cheverus officials balked at first, he said, until Sweatt revealed that the teacher, Charles Malia, abused him back in the mid-1970s.

Sweatt said the response from the school’s then-president, John Mullen, was, “Why would you enroll your son here?”

“My response was: Because I know where the pedophile is in the building,” Sweatt said. “I don’t know where he is at Deering or Portland.”

Since that day in 1997, a dozen former Cheverus students have come forward saying Malia molested them.

But Malia wasn’t alone.

Just last month, another former Cheverus employee who was a Jesuit priest when he sexually abused students at the school was charged with a new crime – sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy in Freeport 20 years ago.

For Sweatt and other victims, the re-emergence of James Francis Talbot in the news is a reminder of the justice they never got from the school in Portland. While a few victims of Talbot received civil settlements, Malia’s victims have never been offered settlements and have no power to go to court.

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

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Sydney Morning Herald

December 14, 2017

By Miki Perkins

To be heard, to be listened to, and to be believed.

That’s what survivors of sexual abuse deserve, say the lawyers and social workers who have supported thousands of people who shared their tragic stories with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, to be handed down on Friday.

Megan Ross is the managing lawyer at Knowmore, an independent legal service set up when the commission was established to give free advice to people who might want to tell their stories.

As well as uncovering the horrific extent of child sexual abuse, and devising reforms, the commission has offered a forum where survivors feel heard and believed, Ms Ross says.

“It has been a real privilege to be part of a process like this, where people feel empowered and have a sense of validation. It’s palpable,” she says.

Since July 2013, more than 8000 clients have come through Knowmore’s doors. About 23 per cent of them have been Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. About 20 per cent have been to prison.

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

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Eternity News

December 15, 2017

By Anne Lim

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse handed down its final report this week. A long-time campaigner for and supporter of survivors of abuse by clergy is retired Catholic bishop Geoffrey Robinson. He spoke with Eternity’s Anne Lim:

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson was born into a world of faith. But in another life, it’s quite likely that he would have been happier as a family man and may not even have been a priest.

The retired Catholic bishop is aghast when he looks at 12-year-old boys today because at that tender age his mother, a good Irish Catholic, sent him to the seminary.

“Looking back, I would say that my mother belonged to that category of Irish descent who desperately wanted to have a child who was a priest,” says the bishop, who went on to reject his mother’s brand of Catholicism and campaign for a radically reformed Catholic Church.

One thing he will never regret – being a crusader for justice and healing for the victims of sexual abuse by clergy.

He believes his father would have stopped her sending him away so young if he had not died from a heart attack the year before.

The young Geoffrey thought little of the consequences, though they came to weigh on him later. “It means that at the age of 12, I was committed to a life of celibacy,” he says.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
The Mary Sue

December 15, 2017

By Princess Weekes

There was a recent episode of one of my favorite podcasts, My Favorite Murder episode 99: “Shin Kick,” which discussed the murder and case of Irene Garza, and instantly I thought, I need to write about this, but how? Well, life finds a way.

Today, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse finished a 1,000-page report, filled with recommendations to the Church including that “Catholic priests should not be forced to live a life of celibacy, and the sanctity of the confessional should not prevent religious figures from reporting child sex abuse.” According to the findings by the Royal Commission, 61.8% of sexual abuse cases connected to religion came from the Catholic church.

The case of the rape and murder of Irene Garza is tied heavily to the corruption and cover-ups that happen with just that kind of abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. On April 16, 1960, Irene Garza was last seen going in for confession—in the rectory rather than the confessional, unusually—at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, Texas. Garza’s body wasn’t located until the 21st of April, in a canal, and the postmortem examination found that Garza was raped and beaten before dying of suffocation. All physical evidence, semen, blood, hair, etc., was washed away by the canal.

Father John Feit was the last person to see her alive.

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.

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

December 15, 2017

By David Marr

[See the Royal Commission report.]

The commissioners’ immense work now needs all the help it can get to overcome the religious establishment

It’s huge. Don’t believe anyone who tells you they’ve already absorbed its lessons. Digesting the 17 volumes of the report of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse is a work in progress for the nation.

It’s going to take time. Journalists and economists are given a head start on the Australian federal budget each year: a few hours’ lockup to help them get on top of the budget before it’s delivered. We – survivors, bishops, lawyers and journalists – should have been locked up with this for a week.

The danger is that after we’ve flicked through its pages for a few hours, checked out the recommendations and honed in on the more outrageous failings of the Catholic church, these volumes will fade from attention.

But this is a long game.

That’s clear even from the bulk of the thing stacked in two blue piles, threatening to tip over the governor general’s table while he shuffled papers about and signed something – a receipt? – for his summer reading.

At that point, Peter McClellan and his team of commissioners lost all their powers. For five years they’ve dug documents from their hiding places, quizzed the highest in the land, heard survivors map their horrors and researched the past in painstaking detail.

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.

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

December 15, 2017

The Australian royal commission into the institutional responses to child sexual abuse has handed down its final report. Here are the key points

Key recommendations

The royal commission’s final report (pdf) has made 189 new recommendations, including:

• The federal government should establish a National Office for Child Safety, sitting within the department of prime minister and cabinet. Its first job should be to develop a national framework to prevent child sexual abuse.

• The federal government should create a portfolio overseeing policy towards children

• All institutions should implement a list of child safe standards identified by the royal commission, to be enforced by federal, state and territory governments

• Parish priests should no longer be the employers of principals and teachers in Catholic schools

• There should be no exemption to mandatory reporting for child sexual abuse disclosed during a religious confession

• The Australian Catholic bishops conference should request the Holy See to amend a series of church laws relating to child sexual abuse, including removing the requirement to destroy documents under certain circumstances, and to consider introducing voluntary celibacy for diocesan clergy

• Anglican bishops should be accountable to an appropriate body in relation to their response to complaints of child sexual abuse

* * *

Statistics

Some statistics published by the royal commission vary slightly. These are sourced from the final information update.

• The royal commission heard evidence from almost 8,000 witnesses in private sessions, received 1,344 written accounts and held 444 days of public hearings

• The evidence related to 3,489 institutions

• Most survivors (63.6%) were male

• 93.8% were abused by a male

• 83.8% of survivors said they were abused by an adult

• More than half of survivors were between 10 and 14 when they were first abused. The average age of victims when first abused was 10.4 years

• The average age of survivors at the time of their private session was 52. The youngest to attend a private session was seven; the oldest was 93

• More than a third (36.3%) said they were abused by multiple perpetrators

• Child sexual abuse experienced in institutions continued for an average of 2.2 years

• Abuse took place most commonly in an institution managed by a religious organisation (reported by 58.1% of survivors). Government-run institutions accounted for 32.5% and non-government, non-religious institutions for 10.5%.

• Of those abused in a religious institution, 61.4% were in a Catholic institution, 14.8% Anglican, 7.2% Salvation Army and the rest in various denominations

• As a proportion of all survivors, 35.7% were in a Catholic institution and 8.6% in an Anglican institution

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.

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

December 15, 2017

By Melissa Davey

Leaders of the Catholic church in Australia have quickly dismissed calls from a landmark inquiry into child sexual abuse that the Vatican should make celibacy for priests voluntary and end the secrecy of confession.

After five years of work, Australia’s royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse delivered its 21-volume report to government containing 400 recommendations – 189 of them new – to governments and organisations about how to prevent children being harmed on such a scale again.

It found the inadequacy of canon law contributed to the failure of the Catholic church to protect children and report or punish perpetrators within church institutions.

The commission urged the Australian Catholic bishops conference to ask the Vatican to reform canon law by removing provisions that “prevent, hinder or discourage compliance with mandatory reporting laws by bishops or religious superiors”.

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

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Sydney Morning Herald

December 15, 2017

By Melissa Cunningham

People working closely with children, such as priests or foster carers, should be forced to tell police about sexual abuse under mandatory reporting laws, a royal commission has found.

Religious ministers, out-of-home care workers, childcare workers, registered psychologists and school counsellors should be brought into line with police, doctors and nurses who are all obliged by law to report sexual abuse.

This would include any abuse disclosures made to clergy in confession.

In its final report, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has called for a systematic overhaul of the culture, structure and governance practices which allowed paedophiles to flourish.

The commission called for state and federal governments to bring in a single obligatory reporting model which would mean all individuals who work with children are required to report sexual abuse.

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

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

December 15, 2017

By David Marr, Melissa Davey and Miles Martignoni

[Part 1 of this report may be found here.]

David Marr and Melissa Davey follow the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse – from the hearings in Ballarat in Victoria, ground zero of Australia’s abuse scandal, to a powerful final gathering in Sydney. The story includes evidence from Australia’s most notorious child abuser, Gerald Ridsdale, and his victims.

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

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
ABC

By Sue Peacock

Ballarat Catholic Diocese Vicar-General Father Justin Driscoll has defended the decision to cut hundreds of brightly coloured ribbons off the fence at St Patrick’s Cathedral just three days after the findings of the royal commission into child sexual abuse were made public.

The ribbons represented support for victims of child sexual abuse and were part of the Ballarat-born Loud Fence movement, which has spread around the world in the wake of widespread abuse by institutions such as the Catholic Church.

The ribbons were stripped from the fence on Sunday by St Patrick’s parishioners and placed in a special purpose-built box in the corner of the churchyard.

But just hours after they were removed new ones were being tied back on after survivors and their supporters reacted angrily to the move.

And many of them took to social media vowing they would decorate the cathedral fence on Ballarat’s main street with even more ribbons this week.

Disrespectful and a mistake

Loud fence founder Maureen Hatcher criticised the move — which coincided with the opening of a memorial garden at the cathedral for those affected by abuse — saying it was disrespectful and a mistake.

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.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Longreads

December 15, 2017

By Mike Dang

It was a year in which investigations loomed over us as we woke up each day and absorbed the news. Former FBI director Robert Mueller began investigating whether Donald Trump’s presidential campaign had any links to the Russian government and its efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. The opioid crisis was covered by a few outlets wondering who, exactly, is profiting while countless people are dying. But it is the investigations into sexual misconduct perpetrated by powerful men across several industries that has had the most significant impact in 2017. And much of the reporting has been led by The New York Times.

In early January, Times journalists Emily Steel and Michael S. Schmidt reported that Fox News had spent millions of dollars to settle sexual harassment allegations against Bill O’Reilly. By April, the two reporters began publishing stories on a near-daily basis: O’Reilly continued to thrive at Fox News despite five women coming forward with allegations against him; advertisers announced they were withdrawing their ads from O’Reilly’s show because of the Times reports; President Trump defended O’Reilly and was immediately criticized; 21st Century Fox enlisted a law firm to investigate a harassment claim against O’Reilly. In the third week of April, after all this rigorous reporting, O’Reilly was finally forced out at Fox News.

O’Reilly’s fall was a catalyst for a long-needed house cleaning at the media corporation. In May, the Times reported that Fox News co-president Bill Shine was also forced out, accused in several lawsuits of covering up the scandals at the network and dismissing concerns from women who spoke out.

A shift appeared to be transpiring: Institutions that had customarily protected their own interests by insulating men in power and enabling their abusive behavior began taking allegations more seriously (and it is important to note here, with clear evidence from the settlements that have been made public, that it’s not that women haven’t come forward to report abuse in the past, but that their concerns have been routinely shrugged off, and that they’ve been silenced).

* * *

Below is a (comprehensive, but not complete) list of men who have been accused of sexual misconduct, and the reporters and news outlets who broke the news and helped brave victims tell their stories:

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

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

December 17, 2017

By Ray Flynn

The Vatican is vowing to closely review the findings of a scathing report released last week by Australia’s Royal Commission that blames “catastrophic failures of leadership” within the Catholic Church for the institutional sexual abuse of children by priests over a 90-year period.

In response to the findings, the Vatican reiterated its commitment to helping the victims find healing and justice but didn’t comment on the commission’s 189 recommendations. They included a request that the Holy See consider allowing voluntary celibacy among clergy members and punishing priests who fail to report those who admit to abusing kids during the rite of confession.

I think most fair and objective people, including many Catholics, would agree that the failure to protect children from pedophile priests was an abomination. They’ll also tell you that the Catholic Church has made great progress in ensuring the atrocities committed by predatory priests are never repeated.

But it’s clear to me that there’s no link between celibacy and the sexual abuse of kids and I believe the sanctity of the confessional must be protected.

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.

REYNOSA (MEXICO)
El Mañana

December 17, 2017

By Carlos Espriella

[John Feit will be transferred to the Byrd Unit prison in Huntsville TX]

Edinburg, Tx.- El exsacerdote John Feit será transferido a una prisión estatal a principios de la próxima semana, luego de ser encontrado culpable de la muerte de la maestra Irene Garza en 1960 y sentenciado a cadena perpetua.

Las autoridades del Sheriff del Condado Hidalgo confirmaron que agentes y personal médico transportarán al ex sacerdote a la Unidad Byrd en Huntsville en los próximos días.

Feit fue condenado a principios de este mes por el asesinato de Irene Garza, siendo sentenciado a cadena perpetua, dejando así el Valle del Río Grande después de casi dos años recluido en la Cárcel del Condado Hidalgo.

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BATON ROUGE (LA)
Diocese of Baton Rouge Homepage

[Another version of this statement was posted here.]

On November 8, 2017, the Diocese of Baton Rouge received from a woman in her thirties a written allegation of sexual misconduct against a priest of this diocese, Fr. Eric Gyan, currently Pastor of St. Theresa of Avila Parish in Gonzales. The misconduct was alleged to have occurred in 1996 when the woman was a minor and Fr. Gyan was pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Brusly. This is the only such complaint the diocese has ever received about Fr. Gyan. The diocese’s victim assistance coordinator, Mrs. Amy Cordon, has spoken to the person making the allegation and offered assistance on behalf of the diocese. Following the diocese’s own Policy Regarding Sexual Abuse of Minors by an Employee when an allegation is made, and in compliance with the U.S. Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the diocese immediately notified civil officials of the allegation and assured them of our full cooperation. The diocese also informed the person who made the allegation that she had the right to contact civil officials. As required by canon law, and the aforementioned policies, trained professional lay persons were appointed by the diocese to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the matter. In addition, the Independent Review Board of the diocese was notified. The investigation is ongoing and to this point has not yielded any cause to remove Fr. Gyan from his current pastoral service. Fr. Gyan has categorically denied the allegation. The diocese takes such allegations very seriously. If anyone has information that can assist the diocese concerning this matter, please contact Mrs. Amy Cordon in the diocesan Victim Assistance Office at 225-242-0250.

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BROWNSVILLE (TX)
Brownsville Herald

December 16, 2017

By Lorenzo Zazueta-Castro

Edinburg — Nearly one week removed from getting a conviction in a historic trial, even exhaling proved challenging.

After all, securing a conviction in what was arguably the region’s biggest trial proved much more complicated for the lead prosecutor on the case, a devout Catholic, considering that the person he was trying to convict was a former man of the cloth.

Michael J. Garza, an assistant district attorney for Hidalgo County and the man responsible for finally bringing ex-priest John Feit to justice, felt uneasy days after a jury found Feit guilty of murdering Irene Garza during the 1960 Holy Week.

The case was 57 years in the making and produced a trial that included evidence and testimony of a church-led coverup to avoid bad publicity. But even in the days after state District Judge Luis Singleterry hammered the gavel for the final time at trial, Michael Garza still struggled to pinpoint the uneasiness.

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BISMARCK (ND)
Bismarck Tribune

December 17, 2017

By Cheryl Diaz Meyer

Fargo – A former Fargo priest who faces child sexual abuse charges has been extradited from the Philippines to the United States.

Fernando Laude Sayasaya was extradited to face state child sexual abuse charges filed 15 years ago in Cass County District Court, U.S. Attorney Christopher C. Myers announced Friday. Sayasaya was arrested in the Philippines last month.

Sayasaya was an associate pastor at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fargo and at Blessed Sacrament in West Fargo. He was removed from his priestly duties in the Fargo Diocese in August 1998 after two brothers accused him of sexually assaulting them.

“This successful extradition is a result of twenty years of relentless police work by Det. Greg Warren of the West Fargo Police Department and Philippine authorities,” Myers said in a statement. “This case exemplifies the strong partnerships we have developed here in North Dakota and worldwide. We would like to express our gratitude for the cooperation provided by Philippine law enforcement agencies, including the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police and the Philippines Department of Justice.”

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BATON ROUGE (LA)
The Advocate

December 16, 2017

By Gordon Russell

The Diocese of Baton Rouge is investigating a complaint it received last month about sexual misconduct by a Gonzales parish priest that allegedly occurred in 1996, a church spokesman said.

The woman, who alerted church officials Nov. 8 about the alleged abuse by Father Eric Gyan, also recently contacted The Advocate about the case. After being contacted by the newspaper, the diocese late Saturday issued a news release saying that Gyan was the subject of the complaint and that it has begun an inquiry.

The complaint is the first one the diocese has received about Gyan, according to the statement. Gyan, who was ordained as a priest more than three decades ago, is now pastor of St. Theresa of Avila Parish in Gonzales.

So far, the diocese’s investigation “has not yielded any cause to remove Fr. Gyan from his current pastoral service,” the statement said, adding that Gyan “has categorically denied the allegation.”

The woman told The Advocate that Gyan forced her to perform sex acts on him on multiple occasions in 1996, when he was the pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Brusly and she was a 10-year-old parishioner there. The abuse occurred when she went to confession to him, according to the woman, who is now 31.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail

December 16, 2017

By Sophie Inge

– Father Leo Maidlow Davis burned staff files from Downside Abbey in 2012
– However, the monk claimed any destruction of evidence was unintentional
– The school was investigated in an independent inquiry into child sex abuse

The headmaster of a renowned Catholic school may have destroyed evidence of child sex abuse, it has been claimed.

Father Leo Maidlow Davis, 63, now the senior monk at Downside Abbey, burned staff files dating back to the early 1980s in a bonfire in 2012.

However, he claimed any destruction of evidence was unintentional, saying his aim had been simply to ‘get rid of unnecessary old material’.

The fee-paying school in Radstock, Somerset, was examined as part of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Times

December 16, 2017

By Andrew Norfolk

Five years ago, the headmaster of a leading public school made trips with a loaded wheelbarrow to a distant part of its grounds, where he made a bonfire. Consumed in its flames were staff files dating back to the early 1980s.

Father Leo Maidlow Davis, 63, is today the senior monk at Downside Abbey. In 2012 he was in charge of its neighbouring boarding school. The fire may have destroyed evidence of child sexual abuse. The monk was one of the senior Benedictines who gave evidence during three weeks of hearings that ended yesterday at the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

* * *

At Ampleforth, about 40 monks and teachers have been accused of sexually abusing children since the 1960s. When police investigated sex offences at Downside in 2010, it emerged that “historic allegations and concerns” had been raised about 16 of its 23 monks.

The inquiry heard of a locked basement room at Downside, used by monks to watch personal videos. It learnt of brown envelopes containing allegations against monks that were locked in the abbot’s safe. Victims described childhood ordeals. Naked boys were taken into monks’ beds. Some were abused so often that it became routine. It was a world in which paedophiles flourished.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
ABC

December 15, 2017

The final report from the almost five-year royal commission into child sexual abuse was officially handed to the Governor-General this morning.

The document is tens of thousands of pages long, and contains a total of 409 recommendations which aim to make institutions safer for children.

Of those 409 recommendations, 189 recommendations are new today.

You can follow our live blog for updates as we continue to read through the report. But if you’re strapped for time, here are some of the big ones you should know about.

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WESLACO (TX)
KRGV-TV Channel 5

December 15, 2017

Edinburg – John Feit will be transferred to a state-run prison early next week.

Hidalgo County Sheriff authorities confirmed deputies and medical staffers will transport the former priest to the Byrd Unit in Huntsville in the coming days.

Feit was convicted earlier this month for the murder of Irene Garza. He was sentenced to life in prison.

He will now leave the Rio Grande Valley after nearly two years in the Hidalgo County Jail.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
ABC

December 16, 2017

By Tom Keneally

In politics, it is rare that a mechanism for unqualified good is put in place.

A body called by the highly provisional title, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, might have proved to have been a squib if not given appropriate powers and if not well-led.

But it was given such powers, and like others, I was delighted to hear the Prime Minister refer to the completed hearings as “an outstanding exercise of love”.

Now the Federal Government, the states and the institutions have to apply themselves to its recommendations with similar exercises of generosity of spirit.

I have been asked to record here a sense of the impact of the royal commission at a personal level. In fact, the commission has also been a revelation even to those of us who had earlier heard the subterranean reverberations of a national crisis, but had no idea of the scope of it.

The scale of the abuse, even the numbers of abusers, were greater than was ever suspected.

But then, at least as shocking, the fact that behind each abuser was a corps of friendly agents, people in authority, moderators of the public conscience who yet showed no conscience over misuse of children.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

December 14, 2017

By Jacqueline Williams

Sydney, Australia — A royal commission investigating the sexual abuse of children in Australia found Friday that the nation was gripped by an epidemic dating back decades, with tens of thousands of children sexually abused in schools, religious organizations and other institutions.

The commission, the highest form of investigation in Australia, urged government action on its 189 recommendations, including the establishment of a new National Office for Child Safety and penalties for those who suspect abuse and fail to alert the police, including priests who hear about abuse in confessionals. It also urged Australia’s Roman Catholic leadership to press Rome to end mandatory celibacy for priests.

“Tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in many Australian institutions,” said the report, which was particularly critical of Catholic organizations. “We will never know the true number. Whatever the number, it is a national tragedy, perpetrated over generations within many of our most trusted institutions.”

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CANBERRA (AUSTRALIA)
Associated Press via Washington Post

 December 15, 2017

By Rod McGuirk

An Australian inquiry into child abuse recommended Friday that the Catholic Church lift its demand of celibacy from clergy and that priests be prosecuted for failing to report evidence of pedophilia heard in the confessional.

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse delivered its final 17-volume report and 189 recommendations following a wide-ranging investigation. Australia’s longest-running royal commission — which is the country’s highest form of inquiry — has been investigating since 2012 how the Catholic Church and other institutions responded to sexual abuse of children in Australia over 90 years.

The report heard the testimonies of more than 8,000 survivors of child sex abuse. Of those who were abused in religious institutions, 62 percent were Catholics.

“We have concluded that there were catastrophic failures of leadership of Catholic Church authorities over many decades,” the report said.

Recommendations include that the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference request that the Vatican consider introducing voluntary celibacy for clergy.

It said the bishops’ body should also request clarity on whether information received in the confessional that a child has been sexually abused is covered by the seal of secrecy and whether absolution of a perpetrator should be withdrawn until the perpetrator confesses to police.

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SURREY HILLS (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
The Australian

December 16, 2017

By Tessa Akerman

Stephen Wood finds it hard to believe the church that harboured his childhood abusers for decades will willingly accept the royal commission’s recommendations to protect other children.

Mr Wood, who was abused by notorious pedophile priest ­Gerald Ridsdale and two Christian Brothers while a child in a Balla­rat school, yesterday said the Catholic Church had a poor history of child safety and would likely not adopt all the recommendations. “It’s a cesspit of lack of ­accountability,” he said.

“It’s really just protecting their powerbase.”

Mr Wood, a spokesman for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the church saw itself as “sacrosanct” and sought to protect religious dogma such as canon law, which was not included in the Bible.

“These are only man-made rules and traditions,” he said. “If this was a non-religious organisation, it would be shut down.”

The royal commission looked at the experiences of 6875 abuse survivors. The majority of survivors, 64.3 per cent, were male and more than half were aged between 10 and 14 when they were first sexually abused.

The average duration of child sexual abuse experienced in institutions was 2.2 years, 36.3 per cent of survivors said they were abused by multiple perpetrators and 93.8 per cent of survivors said they were abused by a male.

Victims’ advocate Chrissie Foster said the recommen­dations had to be implemented despite opposition. “This canon law is not a law, it’s like a football club’s rules,” she said.

“This is the forcing on them, our civil law changing them ­because they won’t.”

Ms Foster and her late ­husband, Anthony, played a key role in raising awareness of child sex abuse by clergy after two of their daughters were abused by local priest Kevin O’Donnell.

Yeshiva abuse survivor Manny Waks said the royal commission had brought child sexual abuse into the open. “From my perspective, the ­Jewish community has had a monumental shift in the way ­issues of child abuse are ­addressed. Reports and findings and revelations … out of the royal commission really did change attitudes in the community.”

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VATICAN CITY (HOLY SEE)
Vatican Press Office

December 15, 2017

The final report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in Australia is the result of the Commission’s thorough efforts over the past several years, and deserves to be studied seriously.

The Holy See remains committed to being close to the Catholic Church in Australia – lay faithful, religious, and clergy alike – as they listen to and accompany victims and survivors in an effort to bring about healing and justice.

In his recent meeting with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Pope Francis said the Church is called to be a place of compassion, especially for those who have suffered, and reaffirmed that the Church is committed to safe environments for the protection of all children and vulnerable adults.

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LONDON (UK)
The Guardian

December 15, 2017

[See also the Final Report of the Royal Commission, including Volume 16 on Religious Institutions.]

Holy see says it will support Australian church as it listens to and accompanies victims and survivors ‘in an effort to bring about healing and justice’

The Vatican and Australia’s Catholic leaders say they will seriously consider the royal commission’s call for sweeping reforms, although archbishops refuse to break the seal of confession to reveal child abuse.

It will be up to the Pope and his advisers to consider many of the inquiry’s far-reaching recommendations, including changes to canon law and voluntary celibacy for its priests.

The government of the Roman Catholic church, the Holy See, says the commission’s final report “deserves to be studied seriously”.

“The Holy See remains committed to being close to the Catholic church in Australia – lay faithful, religious, and clergy alike – as they listen to and accompany victims and survivors in an effort to bring about healing and justice,” it said in a statement.

The royal commission recommended a number of changes to canon law, finding the disciplinary system for dealing with clergy and religious who sexually abuse children contributed to the church’s failure to provide an effective and timely response to perpetrators.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Journal Sentinel

December 15, 2017

By Ashley Luthern

It started when she was in first grade, when she still had her baby teeth.

Robert Marsicek, a priest she trusted, repeatedly molested her at a Catholic school in Wauwatosa.

“My little self thought it was OK and I thought that this was normal,” she said.

The girl, now 16, told a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge how she cried herself to sleep or didn’t sleep at all. She developed anxiety. She thought of hurting herself, even ending her life.

“I began to realize that he chose this for himself,” she said. “He did this to me and I did not ask for it.”

She asked Judge Mark A. Sanders to put Marsicek behind bars, even though prosecutors had recommended probation as part of a plea agreement.

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BROOKLYN (NY)
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

December 16, 2017

By Mary Frost

Brooklyn Diocese accuses group of pushing unproven names ahead of settlement deadline

A report sent to media outlets by an attorney group on Thursday details abuse allegations against 65 priests at the Brooklyn Diocese, including eight priests who have never been publicly identified as abusers.

The report comes out just days before a filing deadline to receive compensation provided by the diocese to abuse victims.

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FARGO (ND)
Valley News

December 16, 2017

A former Fargo priest charged with child sexual abuse in Cass County has been arrested in the Philippines and extradited to the United States.

The charges, filed against Fernando Laude Sayasaya in Cass County District Court in December 2002, allege the offenses took place between July 1995 and June 1997 for one victim, and June 1997 through August 1998 for another victim.

Sayasaya, who served as a priest in the Fargo Diocese from 1995 to August 1998, was removed from priestly ministry after allegations of abuse were reported.

A federal indictment was returned against Sayasaya for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on Jan. 7, 2003, when he failed to return to the United States following a visit to the Philippines in 1998.

Sayasaya was ordered extradited by a court in the Philippines on Dec. 28, 2010, and appealed that order.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

December 15, 2017

By Harriet Sherwood

Lord Carlile report says Church of England was wrong to accept claims of alleged victim against former bishop ‘without sufficient investigations’

The Church of England has been criticised for a “rush to judgment” in its handling of allegations of sexual abuse against one its most revered figures of the 20th century in a highly damaging independent inquiry.

The report by Lord Carlile, released on Friday, said that although the church acted in good faith, its processes were deficient and it failed to give proper consideration to the rights of the accused.

The findings, which the church has made public two months after receiving them, concerned claims made against George Bell, the former bishop of Chichester, who died in 1958. A woman now in her 70s alleged that Bell had abused her in the bishop’s palace over a period of four years, starting when she was five years old.

In 2015, the church issued a formal public apology and paid £16,800 to the woman, known as Carol. Its statement triggered furious protests among Bell’s supporters, who said his reputation had been trashed, the evidence against him was thin and that he could not defend himself from beyond the grave.

The church commissioned Carlile last year to review its processes in the case. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, he said Bell had been “hung out to dry” and there were “many errors” in the church process. There were preconceptions about the outcome of the process and “therefore obvious lines of inquiry were not followed”.

The case bore “some of the hallmarks of the unacceptable way accusations against Lord Bramall and the late Lord Brittan were dealt with”, he added.

His report concluded that the “core group” established by the church to consider the claims “failed to follow a process that was fair and equitable to both sides”.

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NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

December 15, 2017

By James Martin, SJ

On Friday Dec. 15 an Australian commission assigned to investigate child sexual abuse recommended that the Catholic Church lift its demand of celibacy from clergy and that priests be prosecuted for failing to report evidence of pedophilia heard in the confessional. In 2010, Father James Martin wrote an article making the case why celibacy is not to blame for sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Many factors underlie the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. Here is an extremely brief (and therefore incomplete) summary. First, improper screening of candidates for seminaries led to some psychologically sick men being ordained as priests. When some bishops received reports of sexual abuse, the reports were tragically downplayed, dismissed or ignored. Second, the crimes of sexual abuse often went unreported to civil authorities, out of a misguided concern among church officials for “avoiding scandal,” the fear of litigation, or an unwillingness to confront the abusive priest. Third, grossly misunderstanding the severity of the effects of abuse, overly relying on advice from psychologists regarding rehabilitation, and privileging the concerns of priests over the pastoral care for victims, some bishops moved abusive priests from one parish to another where they repeatedly offended.

That is an enormous simplification that leaves out many important causes. In general, though, that is a fair summary of some underlying reasons for these crimes. (Note that I say “reasons” and not “excuses.” There are no excuses for these crimes.)

In an abbreviated form, this was also the conclusion of an extensive study by the National Review Board, an independent group of Catholic laypersons who reported to the U.S. Catholic bishops in the wake of the abuse crisis that engulfed the American Church beginning in 2002. The board’s analysis led to the “zero-tolerance” policy adopted by the American hierarchy.

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BALLARAT (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

December 15, 2017

By Charlotte King

The Ballarat Catholic Diocese says it is open to a recommendation from the child sexual abuse royal commission that parish priests be stripped of their power over schools.

The diocese has been referred to as the epicentre of child sexual abuse, with hundreds of victims.

Earlier this month, the royal commission released its damning report into the Ballarat Catholic Diocese, describing its handling of clergy child sex abuse as a “catastrophic failure of leadership”.

The commissioners found a culture of secrecy and failures in the church’s structure led to children being abused across the diocese over a number of decades.

“That failure led to the suffering and often irreparable harm to children, their families and the wider community,” the report stated.

Catholic schools have featured more than any other institution in the number of child sexual abuse complaints.

When one of the nation’s most prolific paedophiles, Gerald Ridsdale was made parish priest of Mortlake in western Victoria, he had been sexually assaulting children for almost a decade.

The 1981 appointment put him at the helm of the local parish primary school, St Colman’s.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

December 15, 2017

By Danny Tran

It was an emotional day for many as the royal commission handed down its final report, in all 17 volumes, after five long years of investigation.

But for at least one survivor of child abuse, Rob Walsh, today doesn’t mark the end of a long campaign for justice.

He will be travelling to the nation’s capital to campaign for all of the royal commission’s recommendations to be implemented.

Mr Walsh was abused as a boy in Ballarat by two of Australia’s most notorious paedophiles, Gerald Ridsdale and Robert Best.

He said he has been heartened by the inquiry’s almost 200 separate proposals, but is sceptical of the Catholic Church’s response.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
FOX6 Now

December 15, 2017

By Trisha Bee

MILWAUKEE — A long-time priest accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting an elementary school aged girl in Wauwatosa will be sentenced Friday, December 15th.

76-year-old Robert Marsicek pleaded guilty on Monday, October 23rd to three amended counts of fourth-degree sexual assault (a misdemeanor). Marsicek was initially charged with three counts of first-degree child sexual assault – contact with a child under age 13.

Marsicek, known to many as Father Bob, was charged in connection with events that allegedly took place at St. Pius X Grade School in Wauwatosa. The alleged molestation took place from 2007 through 2010.

In December 2016, a 15-year-old girl went to Wauwatosa police to discuss allegations that she was sexually assaulted by Marsicek.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

December 15, 2017

By Mindy Aguon

A former San Vicente Catholic School teacher has been named in a new child sex abuse lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of Guam yesterday.

S.L.H., 36, who used initials to protect his identity, alleges he was repeatedly sexually abused while attending the Catholic school from 1994 to 1996.

He alleges Michael J. Unpingco, his former math and homeroom teacher, was a trusted mentor and friend who began taking S.L.H. for meals to restaurants and giving him special math tutoring when he was in the sixth grade at the age of 12.

Lawsuit details abuse

The lawsuit states Unpingco began sexually molesting and raping S.L.H. on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. On repeated occasions the boy would ask Unpingco to stop abusing him sexually; however, it’s alleged that Unpingco used various “manipulative techniques” and did not stop the abuse.

Unpingco, on frequent occasions, told S.L.H. he should permit the sexual abuse because of all the personal favors he did for the boy, in an effort to make him feel guilty, court documents state.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

December 15, 2017

By Nereida Moreno and Matthew Walberg

Jeffery Daniels left his native Peru in 2001, moved to the U.S., married and started a family, leaving behind the elite Catholic society he’d spent years with for a life in the quiet north Chicago suburb of Antioch.

Now, in the wake of an explosive report issued earlier this year, Peruvian prosecutors have charged Daniels and three other men in connection with alleged sexual abuse that occurred at the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae in Lima.

Peruvian prosecutors could not be reached for comment, but attorney Hector Gadea, who represents the alleged victims, said the four men were charged with conspiracy to commit sexual, physical and psychological abuse.

Gadea said prosecutors have asked a judge to order the men’s arrests and detention for nine months while authorities continue their investigation into members of the organization, also known as the SCV.

The charges were confirmed by an aide to Peruvian Congressman Alberto de Belaunde, who added that Daniels and the other men — including Luis Fernando Figari, the SCV’s founder and former leader — allegedly took advantage of their “proximity to minors and young adults” to abuse followers, most of whom were young men or boys.

Daniels has told local U.S. authorities that he denies the allegations. But de Belaunde, who serves on the nation’s Commission of Justice and Human Rights, applauded the charges.

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