ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

ANALYSIS
By Noel Debien

As Victoria Police deliberate whether or not to lay charges against Cardinal George Pell, they are also weighing up whether to prosecute a potential world leader. This bold notion is not purple media prose. It is simply stating the facts.

Cardinal Pell strenuously denies the allegations made against him.

The Ballarat-born 75-year-old is potentially the pope in waiting. All it takes is for Pope Francis to die suddenly, and one of the 120-odd Cardinals will be the next pope. It could be Cardinal Pell.

Cardinal Pell is the head of the Vatican secretariat for the economy. Effectively he is the third in charge of the 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church. The Cardinal has diplomatic immunity as a Vatican official, and Australia has no extradition treaty.

In the modern era, laying serious or criminal charges against a Cardinal-Archbishop has not been done in free and democratic nations where immunity could apply.

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
Catholic Outlook

Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv
Bishop of Parramatta

It is with much sadness that we learned of the sudden death of Anthony Foster in Melbourne over the weekend.

Anthony and his wife Chrissie dedicated their lives to seeking justice for victims of child sex abuse.

In 2010, when I was still living in Rome, I read the book Hell on the Way to Heaven in which they told the harrowing story of the sexual abuse of their daughters by a Catholic priest. I was deeply moved by their suffering but also inspired by their determination, courage and resilience.

Back in Melbourne as an Auxiliary Bishop, I sought them out and eventually met them on a number of occasions. I was kindly received into their home a few times and offered hospitality – a privilege I treasure. Each time we met, the Fosters would share with me their pain and suffering. They would also challenge me to do all I could as a church leader to treat victims and their loved ones with the Christian justice we profess.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Kent Online

By Joe Walker
joewalker@thekmgroup.co.uk

A priest has been convicted of abusing children across four decades as detectives urge other victims to come forward.

Eugene Fitzpatrick, 68, of Raymond Avenue, Canterbury, was jailed for 22 years after a jury convicted him of seven counts of indecent assault, four of indecency with a child and two of buggery.

All of the sex attacks took place in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

The indecent assault and indecency offences were committed against one victim in the Islington area, while a second child was victim to buggery offences at Our Lady St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Hackney.

Fitzpatrick was convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday and sentenced the following day.

DC Lorraine Simpson and DC Klementina Balint, the investigating officers, said: “Eugene Fitzpatrick is a predatory sex offender who abused his position of trust, preying on vulnerable youngsters and subjecting them to horrific sexual abuse over a period of years.

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

NEW YORK
The Journal News

Jorge Fitz-Gibbon , jfitzgib@lohud.com May 30, 2017

One of the worst panic attacks for Peter Marghella came during the Gulf War as he sat in a military tent in the sweltering heat of Bahrain.

For Marghella, a highly decorated U.S. Navy medical officer, the 17 years that had lapsed since his encounter with the Rev. Kenneth O’Connell at an upstate New York Boy Scout camp had done little to quell his nightmares.

“I took out the pistol and I cocked it and I put it in my mouth,” Marghella said. “I was literally just about to pull the trigger when the command surgeon, who was in the room next to me, divided by a partition so he couldn’t see me, just started talking to me.”

“I can’t remember what it was,” he said. “It was just kind of innocuous banter. He talked with this kind of South Carolina drawl. And I just started to concentrate on what he was saying and I took the gun out of my mouth.”

It was the second near-suicide for Marghella, and it came seven years before he finally sought help and opened up about his childhood nightmare.

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

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KENNETH LOVETT STEPHEN REX BROWN REUVEN BLAU
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, May 30, 2017

When Peter Marghella hurt his ribs wrestling with some friends at summer camp he had no idea it would change his life forever.

Marghella, who was 12 in 1973, was away at Camp Spes Mundi in Hope Falls, when, he says, a priest sodomized him inside a private house.

The priest, Kenneth F. O’Connell, suggested Marghella stay with him after the injury, away from the other campers, so he could keep an eye on him throughout the night.

“Sometime in middle of the night, I woke up and O’Connell had crawled into bed with me naked and sodomized me,” Marghella recalled Tuesday.

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.

RUSSIA
RAPSI

ST. PETERSBURG, May 31 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Investigators have completed a probe into the Russian priest Gleb Grozovsky, who stands charged with sexual abuse of children, RAPSI learnt in the St. Petersburg prosecutor’s office.

A prosecutor is to make a decision on the approval of indictment within 10 days, and then the case will be forwarded to court, a representative of the prosecutor’s office said.

According to investigators, Grozovsky committed several crimes against minors in 2011 and 2013.

In 2013, he fled to Israel and applied for citizenship. However, his application was dismissed.

In April 2014, Grozovsky was put on the international wanted list. Israeli police arrested him in September. In January 2015, a court in Jerusalem ruled that the priest should be extradited to Russia pursuant to the European Convention on Extradition. The ruling was appealed but rejected. In April 2016, the Justice Minister signed an order on Grozovsky’s extradition.

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.

SCOTLAND
Fife Today

LIZ ROUGVIE
Tuesday 30 May 2017

A man who suffered horrific sexual abuse at the hands of priests at a Fife school is staging a vigil tomorrow (Wednesday) as the Scottish child abuse inquiry gets under way.

Dave Sharp, now 58, spent six years at the then St Ninian’s School in Falkland, where from the age of 10 he says he was brutally raped, drugged, beaten, shut in a coffin with the lid closed and even taken to Ireland to be passed around men at sex parties.

His abuser, Father Gerry Ryan, has since died, but two men were jailed last year for abusing boys at St Ninian’s between 1977 and 1983.

Following his ordeal, Dave slept rough on the streets and succumbed to drink and drunk addiction.

But he’s now a campaigner for other abuse survivors and has set up a charity, SAFE – Seek and Find Everyone – with the aim of encouraging them to come forward and make their voices heard.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

BY AARON MOSELLE

The Philadelphia Courts website still lists Tuesday as the start of Monsignor William Lynn’s retrial, but an unresolved defense appeal means the former church official won’t face another jury for months, perhaps not until 2018.

Lynn, currently a free man, was convicted in 2012 of recommending the Archdiocese of Philadelphia transfer a known pedophile priest.

Much of Lynn’s three-month trial focused on clergy sex abuse allegedly committed by 21 priests over several decades. Some examples dated back to the 1940s — well before Lynn was a supervisor with the archdiocese.

Common Pleas Court Judge Gwendolyn Bright, who is presiding over the case, has ruled that Lynn’s next trial will spend far less time on these “prior bad acts.”

In late April, Bright ruled that prosecutors could detail allegations against three priests, according to court documents. Lynn’s lawyer then filed an appeal to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

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.

NORTH DAKOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By Archie Ingersoll on May 27, 2017

FARGO — The Catholic Diocese of Fargo has placed a priest on paid administrative leave after he told church officials about “concerns that had been brought to him regarding his interaction with youth,” Bishop John Folda said in a statement Saturday, May 27.

Father Thomas Feltman, pastor of St. John the Baptist’s Catholic Church in Wyndmere, N.D., and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor, N.D., won’t be performing any priestly duties and won’t be living on diocesan property while the complaint is investigated, diocesan spokesman Paul Braun said.

Braun said the diocese has reported the matter to the Richland County Social Services. When asked to elaborate on Feltman’s “interaction with youth,” Braun declined to comment.

“The diocese is cooperating fully with authorities, but due to the ongoing investigation, the diocese is referring all questions to the Richland County Sheriff’s Office,” Braun said.

A phone message left Saturday for the sheriff’s office investigator handling the case was not returned.

On Saturday, Bishop Folda told members of the Milnor and Wyndmere parishes that it was the previous week when Feltman told the diocese of the concerns about his dealings with youth.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Evening Standard

JONATHAN MITCHELL

A former priest who subjected London children to decades of “horrific sexual abuse” including rape has been jailed for 22 years.

Eugene Fitzpatrick, 68, was found to have sexually assaulted one boy in Islington, as well as raping a boy at Our Lady St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Hackney.

The offences were all committed in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s, police said.

But police fear that the “predatory sex offender” could have assaulted other children in that time, and have pleaded for survivors of his abuse to come forward.

Fitzpatrick, of Raymond Avenue, in Canterbury, was convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday, May 25, of seven counts of indecent assault, four counts of indecency with a child and two counts of buggery.

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.

NORTH DAKOTA
KVRR

May 30, 2017 Joe Radske

WAHPETON, ND – Law enforcement officials are releasing few details about an investigation involving a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Fargo.

The Richland County Sheriff’s office is looking into allegations involving Fr. Thomas Feltman, the pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor.

Investigator Josh Beto says he can’t comment on the details of the case, but says it involves “inappropriate activities.”

Beto says the sheriff’s office became involved last week after the department was contacted by Richland County Social Services.

He says at this time, he considers the investigation “open-ended” and can’t discuss the number of potential 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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Post

May 30, 2017, By Erica Doyle Higgins

FORMER priest Eugene Fitzpatrick has been jailed for 22 years for historical sex abuse, and detectives are urging any further victims to come forward.

Fitzpatrick, 68, of Raymond Avenue, Canterbury was convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday, May 25 of seven counts of indecent assault, four counts of indecency with a child and two counts of buggery.

He was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment the following day.

The offences took place between the 1960s and 1990s.

The indecent assaults and indecency offences were committed against one victim in the Islington area throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

The first assault took place in Tufnell Park in 1965 when Fitzpatrick was 17 years old and the boy was under the age of 8.

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

MARYLAND
Huffington Post

By Laura Bassett

On a frigid day in November 1969, Father Joseph Maskell, the chaplain of Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, called a student into his office and suggested they go for a drive. When the final bell rang at 2:40 p.m., Jean Hargadon Wehner, a 16-year-old junior at the all-girls Catholic school, followed the priest to the parking lot and climbed into the passenger seat of his light blue Buick Roadmaster.

It was not unusual for Maskell to give students rides home or take them to doctor’s appointments during the school day. The burly, charismatic priest, then 30 years old, had been the chief spiritual and psychological counselor at Keough for two years and was well-known in the community. Annual tuition at Keough was just $200, which attracted working-class families in deeply Catholic southwest Baltimore who couldn’t afford to send their daughters to fancier private schools. Many Keough parents had attended Maskell’s Sunday masses. He’d baptized their babies, and they trusted him implicitly.

This time, though, Maskell didn’t bring Wehner home. He navigated his car past the Catholic hospital and industrial buildings that surrounded Keough’s campus and drove toward the outskirts of the city. Eventually, he stopped at a garbage dump, far from any homes or businesses. Maskell stepped out of the car, and the blonde, freckled teenager followed him across a vast expanse of dirt toward a dark green dumpster.

It was then that she saw the body crumpled on the ground.

The week prior, Sister Cathy Cesnik, a popular young nun who taught English and drama at Keough, had vanished while on a Friday-night shopping trip. Students, parents and the local media buzzed about the 26-year-old’s disappearance. People from all over Baltimore County helped the police comb local parks and wooded areas for any sign of her.

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.

NORTH CAROLINA
WSPA

RUTHERFORD Co., N.C. (WSPA) – Jury selection is expected to begin Tuesday in a trial connected to church abuse allegations.

Five members of Word of Faith Fellowship were charged in 2015 after a former member claimed he was attacked for being gay.

The church disputes the former member’s claims, as well as allegations of abuse that others say they also endured.

Justin Covington, 20, Brooke Covington, 56, and Adam Bartley, 25, all of Rutherfordton, along with Robert Walker Jr., 26, of Spindale, were indicted on charges of second-degree kidnapping and simple assault.

Sarah Covington Anderson, 27, of Rutherfordton, faces the same charge and one count of assault inflicting physical injury by strangulation

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.

NORTH CAROLINA
Blue Ridge Now

By MITCH WEISS and HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press

RUTHERFORDTON — Jury selection began Tuesday for a North Carolina church minister accused of beating a man to expel his “homosexual demons.”

Brooke Covington, 58, a longtime minister at Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, is the first of five church members to face trial in the case. Each defendant will be tried separately.

Covington has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and assaulting former church member Matthew Fenner in January 2013. If convicted, Covington faces up to two years in prison.

Fenner, 23, said he was leaving a prayer service Jan. 27, 2013, when nearly two dozen people surrounded him in the sanctuary. He said they slapped, punched, choked and blasted him — a church practice that involves intense screaming — for two hours as they tried to expel his “homosexual demons.”

As part of an ongoing, two-year investigation into abuse of Word of Faith Fellowship congregants by church leaders, The Associated Press interviewed four former church members who said they witnessed Fenner’s assault.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Stuttgarter Nachricten

[A clergyman is now focus of an investigation in the Korntal community.]

Von Franziska Kleiner 29. Mai 2017

Bei der Aufarbeitung des Missbrauchsskandals rückt nun ein Pfarrer in den Fokus, der die Brüdergemeinde seit den 1950er Jahren geprägt hat.

Ditzingen – Erzieher, Hausmeister, Lehrer – und nun sogar der Seelsorger der Gemeinde: Auch der inzwischen verstorbene Pfarrer der Pietistengemeinde in Korntal soll zu den Mitarbeitern gehören, die in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts in Einrichtungen der evangelischen Brüdergemeinde Korntal Kindern psychische und physische Gewalt angetan haben.

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
Aljazeera

Australia plans to ban convicted paedophiles from travelling overseas in what the government said is a world-first move to protect vulnerable children in Southeast Asia from exploitation.

Australian paedophiles are notorious for taking inexpensive vacations to nearby South-east Asian and Pacific island countries to abuse children there.

Australian officials said no country has such a travel ban.

They said 2,500 new convicted paedophiles would be added to the sex offender register each year and would also lose their passports.

The register contains 3,200 serious offenders who will be banned from travel for life.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Hackney Gazette

A Catholic priest who repeatedly raped and assaulted boys has been jailed for 22 years.

Father Eugene Fitzpatrick, 68, was found guilty of the horrific attacks at Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday and sentenced the next day.

He raped one boy multiple times between 1986 and 1992 while working at Our Lady and Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Balls Pond Road, Islington.

He also indecently assaulted another boy throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The first offence took place in Tufnell Park in 1965 when he was just 17 and the boy aged under eight.

Fitzpatrick was found guilty of 11 counts of indecent assault and indecency with a child relating to the first victim, for which he received a total of five years.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Sun

By Deborah McAleese
29th May 2017

A VICTIM of historic child abuse at a Catholic Church children’s home is to make an emotional return to her hometown in a bid to trace her long lost family.

Kate Walmsley, 60, was seven years old when she was taken from her home in Glasgow and placed in the care of the Sisters of Nazareth in Derry following the break-up of her parents’ marriage.

While there she was regularly sexually assaulted by a priest and beaten by the nuns.

After more than five decades away from home Ms Walmsley is to make her first trip back to Scotland on Wednesday where she hopes to trace some family members.

Ms Walmsley said: “I have always wanted to go back to the place where I remember being happy, before all the abuse. I finally feel it is time.”

“I just want to stand on the street I used to live with my parents. I have so many happy memories of there.

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
Road to Recovery

MSGR. KENNETH F. O’CONNELL – PUBLICLY NAMED AS A SEXUAL ABUSER FOR THE FIRST TIME

SIX-FIGURE SETTLEMENT REACHED IN ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK INDEPENDENT RECONCILIATION AND COMPENSATION PROGRAM AGAINST MSGR. KENNETH F. O’CONNELL WHO WAS THE CHAPLAIN OF THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC COMMITTEE ON SCOUTING

Peter Marghella, formerly of the Bronx, New York, was approximately a 12 year-old child when he was sexually abused by then Fr. Kenneth F. O’Connell, a New York Archdiocesan priest and Boy Scout chaplain, when Peter Marghella attended Camp Spes Mundi (Latin for “hope for the world”) in Hope Falls, New York, as part of Troop #21 which was located in Mount Vernon, New York. Fr. Kenneth F. O’Connell, who eventually became Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell (hereinafter referred to as Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell), was chaplain of Troop #21.

Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell was Chaplain of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting (1973-1975). After Msgr. O’Connell’s death at the age of 54 in 1984, the National Catholic Committee on Scouting instituted an award (Spes Mundi Award), named after the camp Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell founded, honoring an adult who financially supports the promotion of the Catholic faith through scouting.

Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell was also executive director of the Catholic Youth Organization of the Archdiocese of New York. When he passed away, Msgr. Kenneth F. O’ Connell was Pastor of Sts. John and Paul Parish in Larchmont, New York.

Peter Marghella was also sexually abused as a child by Br. Damian Galligan, FMS, a Marist Brother.

Peter Marghella, his attorney, and advocate will be available by telephone to discuss the sexual assault by Msgr. Kenneth F. O’Connell, who has been named for the first time, and the recent settlement with the Archdiocese of New York Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.

Contacts
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250 – garabedianlaw@msn.com (portrayed in “Spotlight”)

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com

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.

SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY JAMES MONCUR

Historic abuse survivor Kate Walmsley fought back tears as she told of the heartbreaking moment she was ripped from Scotland more than 50 years ago.

The mother of two was shipped from her home in Glasgow to the “giant doors” of an infamous children’s home in Derry, Northern Ireland, aged eight.

Within minutes of arriving, she was stripped, scrubbed with Jeyes Fluid and had her beautiful long hair shorn off, as a matter of protocol.

And a seven-year nightmare of abuse at the hands of nuns and priests began.

Kate survived and waived her right to anonymity to give heart-wrenching testimony at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Belfast in 2014.

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

NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

MIKE MATHER
May 30 2017

A former Catholic priest jailed for molesting boys in the 1970s and 80s has admitted charges against three new victims.

Mark Mannix Brown, 74, appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Tuesday, where he pleaded guilty to four charges of indecent assault and attempted sodomy.

Some of the charges are representative.

He was remanded on continuing bail by Judge Kim Saunders, to be sentenced on July 19, following the compiling of a pre-sentence assessment and a restorative justice conference with one of his victims.

Brown was jailed for 15 months in 1990 for sexual offending against altar boys.

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
Sydney Morning Herald

Amanda Vanstone

The media frenzy surrounding Cardinal George Pell is the lowest point in civil discourse in my lifetime. I’m 64.

What we are seeing is no better than a lynch mob from the dark ages. Some in the media think they are above the law both overseas and at home. Deep pockets of your boss or lesser pockets on your victim, build bravado. If your assets aren’t on the line you can trash a reputation with gay abandon.

The systemic abuse of predominantly young boys in churches, government institutions and schools and the cover up is a stain on our past. It did irreparable harm to many young people and the Catholic Church was a chief perpetrator. Even the Victorian Police joined in the cover up.The career of a good and decent policeman who didn’t want to let sleeping dogs lie was ruined.

At least they’ve sought to right that wrong. Whether they have pursued everyone involved in ruining that career, and everyone who covered up, I don’t know. Throwing out principle, treating Pell as guilty from the start won’t right all the wrongs perpetrated on innocent children. It will simply perpetrate other evils.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
May 30 2017
The Times

An investigation into one of the worst scandals to afflict the Catholic Church in Britain is set to be dropped from the public inquiry into child abuse.

Next week lawyers for Alexis Jay, chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), will propose that no evidence be called about decades of abuse of pupils at Ealing Abbey and its adjoining independent school, St Benedict’s.

Victims were furious and accused Professor Jay of backtracking on her previous promise not to reduce the scope of the inquiry. They said the move undermined the credibility of the inquiry, which has lost three chairwomen, cost more than £20 million and shown little tangible progress since it was set up by Theresa May in 2014.

The 60-year history of abuse at the school and abbey in Ealing, west London, was exposed by The Times, leading to an independent review by a respected barrister, an emergency visit by the Independent Schools Inspectorate and intervention by the Vatican.

A report by Lord Carlile of Berriew, QC, concluded in 2011 that there had been a “lengthy and cumulative failure” by monks at the abbey to protect children in their care. He named five monks and three lay teachers as abusers. The report said that monks who had been banned from teaching because of abusive conduct had continued to live next door to St Benedict’s School and had access to children.

Lord Carlile’s report said “there were repeated acts of abuse committed by monks” and it was difficult to believe that “other monks were not suspicious of, or at least alerted to, the possibility of abusive or inappropriate behaviour by colleagues.” He recommended an overhaul of governance which would remove control of the school from monks.

A preliminary IICSA hearing will be told that it will focus on abuse allegations at three Benedictine institutions — Ampleforth, Downside and Worth — but will abandon its previous commitments to investigate Ealing and Fort Augustus in Scotland.

IICSA lawyers will say that proposed dates for hearings into the Benedictines in November and December clash with the criminal trial of a man previously connected with Ealing Abbey who has been charged with child abuse offences. Rather than delay the hearings, they will say Ealing should be removed from the inquiry. The examination of Fort Augustus is being dropped because the inquiry’s remit is to examine cases in England and Wales.

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

NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

Belinda Feek

A former Waikato Catholic priest convicted and jailed for molesting young boys in the 1970s and 80s has today admitted further historic offending.

Father Mark Mannix Brown pleaded guilty to four representative charges when he appeared today in Hamilton District Court.

The former priest was jailed for 15 months in March 1990 for indecently assaulting two altar boys in the 1980s.

The now 74-year-old was the parish priest at St Mary’s Church, Hamilton, at the time.

While he has not reoffended since being jailed, he hit the headlines 11 years ago when he took in serial child-molester Howard Vivian Kitching.

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

IRELAND
The Journal

THE RELIGIOUS SISTERS of Charity have stepped back from their involvement in the new National Maternity Hospital after a massive public backlash.

Although their statement yesterday said that they had been considering this option for the past two years, it’s clear to stakeholders that it was the outrage from the public that pushed them to give up ownership.

AIMS Ireland, the representative body of maternity service users in Ireland, praised both the Minister for Health Simon Harris, and the Sisters of Charity for achieving this result, which was “undoubtedly down to the people’s voices”.

National Maternity Hospital board member Mícheál Mac Donncha (Sinn Féin) said that “it was clear that public opinion influenced their decision”.

“I’ve no doubt that their withdrawal was caused by the controversy.”

Social Democrats leader Róisín Shorthall said that the decision showed that ”the wide-spread public outcry” in relation to the National Maternity Hospital “has been heard and heard loudly”.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen

The announcement by the Sisters of Charity that they are ending their involvement with St Vincent’s Hospital at Elm Park, Dublin, after 183 years is a major turning point in the history of religious involvement in Irish healthcare.

It also represents a huge victory for “people power”, much of it expressed online after controversy erupted last month over the fact that the nuns would, through their ownership of St Vincent’s, also take control of the new national maternity hospital to be built on the same campus.

The “people” who made the running on the issue were unhappy at the extent of religious involvement in healthcare, and incensed at the notion that this involvement might be increased further though the “gifting” of ownership of the maternity hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

In Dr Peter Boylan, former master of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH), this viewpoint found an unlikely, yet articulate and determined, hero. Now in retirement, Dr Boylan spoke out against the interests of his alma mater, which had already signed up to the deal mediated last November that would give the nuns ultimate ownership of the site.

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

CANADA
CBC News

Edmonton’s Catholic archbishop says he has spoken with Pope Francis about calls for the church to consider formally apologizing for its role in Canada’s legacy of residential schools.

Over a breakfast with journalists Monday, Archbishop Richard Smith said during visits to the Vatican earlier this year he and other Canadian bishops spoke with the pope about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and calls for the pontiff to visit Canada to make an apology.

“He is a man with a very serious pastoral faith, so we trust he will do what is right and what is good,” Smith said.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he asked Pope Francis during an official meeting to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in the tragedy of residential schools.

The schools enlisted First Nations children into Catholic boarding schools with terrible living conditions. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented the deaths of more than 6,000 residential school students as a result of their school experiences.

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

VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

2017-05-29

“Morning.”
“Good morning.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“It’s a pleasure. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Holy Father.”

While evidently holding in his emotion, Catholic Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, respectfully met with Pope Francis Monday morning.

The two spoke with official translators about “issues of integration and reconciliation, along with religious freedom and current ethical issues.”

Trudeau asked Pope Francis for a public apology, on behalf of the Church, to Canada’s first indigenous communities, who suffered physical and sexual abuse by Catholic-run schools.

It is a drama that affected about 150,000 natives in the late nineteenth century, who were forced to abandon their customs and assimilate the rest of the population in schools belonging to federal authorities, Catholics or Protestants.

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI apologized and “expressed his sorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members of the Church.”

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

NEW YORK
The Buffalo News

By Melanie Blow

I know where a dangerous sex offender lives. He’s not registered under Megan’s Law and can pass a background check. I believe he is still abusing kids. I know where he meets them and where he abuses them. There is nothing I can do to stop him.

I know this man is dangerous because when I was a child he sexually abused me. I didn’t tell anyone, because he’s a relative and I didn’t want to cause family strife.

When I heard he sexually abused another girl, I called the police hoping to protect other kids. However, I learned that at the tender age of 24, I was too old to press charges. New York’s statute of limitations had closed.

I’ve attended hundreds of support groups and met thousands of survivors. My story is common. One in five children are sexually abused. It takes them an average of 21 years to disclose their abuse. By the time most survivors can talk about their abuse, they can’t press charges. That’s wrong, and dangerous to children.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Nottingham Post

By Laura Hammond | Posted: May 30, 2017

Thousands of Nottingham people who were abused as children could be suffering in silence, it has been claimed.

Professor Alexis Jay, the chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, has said she wants victims to speak about what happened to them – and has promised they won’t be judged or challenged.

The Inquiry has launched The Truth Project, which aims to listen to victims who suffered abuse in institutions such as children’s homes and schools. The findings will not be used as evidence, rather form recommendations for the nationwide inquiry.

Professor Jay said: “For generations, not facing up to child sexual abuse and its terrible consequences was a shameful blight on our national conscience. This has to change.

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

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
NIKKI DUBOSE
SPECIAL TO THE DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 29, 2017

When you’re a crook, there are no limits to the depths you will go to cover up your filth. Just ask most of the New York politicians, including former Senator Craig Johnson, who is a key ally and fundraising partner for the Independent Democratic Conference, led by Senator Jeff Klein.

Conveniently, Johnson is also a paid lobbyist, representing the Boy Scouts and opposing the Child Victims Act, the bill I have been advocating for since the start of the New York legislative session. The Child Victims Act seeks to eliminate the statute of limitations for children who have been sexually abused and provides a one year look back window in civil court for adult survivors.

Just as with the tremendous lobbying efforts of the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts appears to be covering up some major pedophile actions. Why else would they be opposing a bill to protect children from sexual abuse? The opposition have been relying on excuses to delay the passing of the bill for ages now. First, there is the “one year look back” defense. But let me just throw that one out of the window. Senate Bill 813, the Justice for Victims Act, passed in California last year, but adults still have to go through a due process; there have been no flooded jails or courts filled with frivolous lawsuits.

Then there was the “lack of public support,” made by Governor Cuomo’s spokesperson, Richard Azzopardi in a previous NY Daily News article. What a sham. Everyone from Reddit to the Women’s March NYC, to an outpouring of survivors, advocates, and organizations have been sending in letters, tweeting and calling the Governor and legislators, demanding that the bill be brought to the floor for a vote. We have the public’s support. What we lack is the moral backbone and decency in New York politics to protect children from sexual predators.

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

CANADA
Global News

By Tania Kohut
Senior National Online Journalist, Breaking News Global News

Justin Trudeau has invited Pope Francis to travel to Canada and offer a formal apology for the role of the Catholic Church in the residential school system.

The move, which the prime minister said the Pope seemed open to, would help strengthen the reconciliation process.

“The Catholic Church is unique in the sense that it’s really a global church,” said Reid Locklin, associate professor of Christianity at the University of Toronto.

“There have been lots of apologies issued, but really in terms of who speaks for the Catholic Church ultimately is the Pope.”

More than 150,000 indigenous children attended residential schools over more than 100 years. Sexual and physical abuse were “rampant” at many of the institutions, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) 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
IrishCentral

James Wilson @jameswilson1919 May 30, 2017

The release of Netflix’s documentary series about the unsolved murder of a Baltimore nun has generated such a level of interest that police have created an online submission form in relation to the case.

“The Keepers” tells the tale of Keough High School’s English teacher Sr Cathy Cesnik, whom many suspect was murdered because she knew too much about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

“We have been contacted by victims from the past who want to report the sex offenses that occurred to them,” the local police department said in a statement. “The murder investigation related to this Netflix series was handled by the Baltimore County Police Department.”

Decades have passed since the crime was committed, but local people are still desperate for police to get to the bottom of it.

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

GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Father Louis Brouillard is facing multiple allegations of sexual abuse.

Guam – Yet another lawsuit filed against the church but this time the complaint details sexual abuse not by one but by at least two other boy scout leaders during a camping trip at Ypao Beach in the 1970s.

The most recent case is now the 71st lawsuit to be filed against the Archdiocese of Agana for civil claims of sexual abuse. Like many of the other lawsuits filed, it dates back to the 1970s and details rape committed by former Guam priest and Boy Scout master Father Louis Brouillard.

The lawsuit was filed by a 54-year-old man with the initials A.N.D. who is represented by Atty. David Lujan. A.N.D. says he was just 11 years old at the time he was first raped. It happened in 1974 during a camping trip at Ypao Beach for a Boy Scout Jamboree session in which each village’s Boy Scout troop met at Ypao Beach during the summer for 2 weeks.

One night, according to the complaint, Brouillard went around the tents and handpicked 10 boys, including A.N.D., took them to a nearby building and sexually abused all the boys.

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.

NORTH CAROLINA
News & Record

AP

RUTHERFORDTON — It has been nearly 4½ years since Matthew Fenner said he was beaten in a church sanctuary by a group of congregants hell-bent on expelling his “homosexual demons.”

After countless twists and turns, the long-delayed, high-profile case finally appears ready to move forward in North Carolina Superior Court.

Jury selection could begin today for the first of five Word of Faith Fellowship members charged in the attack. Each defendant will be tried separately.

The first defendant, longtime minister Brooke Covington, 58, has pleaded innocent to one count each of kidnapping and assault. If convicted, she faces up to two years in 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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video and audio]

ANALYSIS
By Paul Kennedy

Two weeks ago Chrissie Foster said to her husband Anthony: “You know, you are perfect.”

“No, no,” said the modest man with silver hair and kind eyes.

“Yes, you are,” she said. “You’re perfect.”

Chrissie and Anthony were married 36 years but never tired of telling each other how much they were adored.

Their love was stronger than anything; it helped them survive the terrible crimes against their family.

It is why Anthony’s sudden death was so unthinkable.

I met Chrissie and Anthony 21 years ago while covering a story of clergy sex abuse as a cadet newspaperman.

Two of the Fosters’ daughters, Emma and Katie, were among the many victims of jailed Father Kevin O’Donnell, who had been grooming and raping children since the 1950s.

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

CANADA
CBC News

By Jason Warick, CBC News Posted: May 29, 2017

The Pope shouldn’t have to be asked to come to Canada and apologize for the harm inflicted by the residential school system, says one survivor.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Pope Francis Monday and asked for an apology on behalf of residential school survivors. Following the meeting, the Vatican issued a statement saying Pope Francis will consider the request. No timeline has been given.

That doesn’t sit well with Eugene Arcand. The Saskatchewan man has held a number of national positions representing survivors. In an interview Monday afternoon, Arcand emphasized he is stating his own views, and other survivors and their surviving children should be asked for theirs.

That said, the Vatican has long known about the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He said survivors deserve better.

“Surely, he could find it in his heart to come here and apologize,” Arcand said.

“We shouldn’t have to go on our hands and knees again to this particular church to seek some level of dignity and redress for the destruction of generations of the First Peoples of this country.”

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

ROME
The Globe and Mail

ROBERT FIFE
ROME — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, May 29, 2017

Pope Francis has offered to work with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada’s bishops on a “path forward” to issuing a historic papal apology for the role the Catholic Church played in the dark legacy of residential schools.

The pontiff signalled to Mr. Trudeau during a 42-minute private audience that a formal apology would be forthcoming to Indigenous survivors for the sexual, mental and physical abuse they suffered at church-run schools.

“I told him about how important it is for Canadians that we move forward on real reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and highlighted how he could help by issuing an apology,” Mr. Trudeau later told reporters.

“He reminded me his entire life has been dedicated to supporting marginalized people in the world and fighting for them and he looked forward to working with me and the Canadian bishops to figure out a path forward together.”

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.

SCOTLAND
Scottish Sun

By Lisa Boyle
29th May 2017

BRAVE survivors of historic child abuse in Scotland will gather for a poignant vigil to remember victims who have lost their lives.

They will be joined by survivors from Northern Ireland as well as politicians from both Scotland and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The service will be held outside The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry building in Edinburgh on Wednesday morning.

At 1pm survivors will gather to take part in a minute’s silence to remember youngsters whose lives have been taken by abusers, and those who have died without gaining justice for the crimes committed against them.

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

GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

The mounting cases of abuse of children have turned even worse with the filing of a civil case alleging repeated sexual abuse of a very young boy, who was a Cub Scout, while attending mandatory Boy Scout jamborees decades ago.

That Cub Scout, now a 54-year-old man, with the initials A.N.D. to protect his identity, filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Guam against the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts of America and former Guam priest Louis Brouillard.

A.N.D. alleges he was 11 in the summer of 1974 when he was sexually abused and raped by Brouillard, who was a priest and scoutmaster during a jamboree at Ypao Beach. The lawsuit states Brouillard went around the different camps and selected several boys, including A.N.D., and took them to a small building near Ypao where he allegedly forced himself on the 10 boys, sexually molesting and raping them and forcing the boys to perform sexual acts on him.

The civil complaint states as Brouillard abused the boys, they were crying. This happened every night for seven nights during the jamboree, court documents state.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father has appointed as bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, United States of America, His Excellency Mgsr. William A. Wack, C.S.C., of the U.S. “Moreau” province of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, currently pastor of the Saint Ignatius parish in Austin, Texas.

Mgsr. William A. Wack, C.S.C.

Mgsr. William A. Wack, C.S.C., was born on 28 June 1967 in South Bend, Indiana, in the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in political sciences and international relations from the “Notre Dame” University (1990), and subsequently entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross. He carried out his ecclesiastical studies at the “Notre Dame” University (1993) and then obtained a diploma in executive management from the same university (2002).

He gave his solemn vows in the Congregation of the Holy Cross on 28 August 1993. He was ordained a priest on 9 April 1994 for the same congregation.

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

By Jay Savage
BBC News, Sydney

Clutching a photo of two smiling girls, Anthony Foster last year delivered a powerful statement about what had become his life’s mission.

“These are my girls,” he said before television cameras in Rome.

“A Catholic priest was raping them when this photo was taken so that’s why we’ve been fighting for so long… This was my perfect family. We created that, the Catholic Church destroyed it.”

That fight occupied much of his final two decades. Mr Foster died in hospital at the weekend not long after suffering a fall at his home in Melbourne. He was 64.

Along with his wife, Chrissie, Mr Foster had relentlessly pursued the church for answers since his daughters, Emma and Katie, were abused at their primary school between 1988 and 1993.

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.

FLORIDA
WKRG

By Chris Best
Published: May 29, 2017

The Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee announced Monday that it has a new Bishop-elect. William Wack with be the sixth bishop of the diocese. It was announced in a press release on the diocese website:

On May 29, 2017, it was announced that Pope Francis has appointed Bishop-elect William A. Wack the sixth Bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. Bishop-elect Wack comes to the diocese from the Diocese of Austin (TX), where he has been pastor of St. Ignatius Martyr Parish.The Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee has been without a bishop since January 4, 2017, when Bishop Gregory Parkes was installed as Bishop of St. Petersburg. In the interim, the diocese has been under the guidance of Msgr. James Flaherty, diocesan administrator.

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

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Register

BY CINDY WOODEN, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
May 29, 2017

VATICAN CITY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he asked Pope Francis to help Canadians “move forward on a real reconciliation” with the country’s indigenous people “by issuing an apology” on behalf of the Catholic Church for its role in harming their communities.

The Prime Minister spoke to a handful of reporters in Rome’s Villa Borghese Park May 29 following a 36-minute private meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

“He reminded me that his entire life has been dedicated to supporting marginalized people in the world, fighting for them,” the Prime Minister said, adding the Pope said that “he looked forward to working with me and with the Canadian bishops to figure out a path forward together.”

The 2015 report of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which focused on past treatment of the Indigenous communities and concrete steps for a future of greater inclusion, included a recommendation that the Pope come to Canada to apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church for its participation in the residential schools for indigenous children.

Pope Benedict formally apologized in 2009 for the Church’s complicity in residential schools in a meeting with Phil Fontaine, then National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and other Native leaders, who met with the Pope in the Vatican.

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

VATICAN CITY
Sudbury.com

VATICAN CITY — Justin Trudeau says he told Pope Francis it’s important for all Canadians to move forward with reconciliation, and that the pontiff could help by issuing an apology for the role of the Catholic Church played in residential schools.

The prime minister says the Pope appeared to be open to it, noting that his entire life has been dedicated to supporting marginalized people in the world.

Following his visit to Vatican City, Trudeau says Pope Francis looked forward to working with the prime minister and the Canadian bishops on finding a way forward.

Trudeau says he also invited Pope Francis to visit Canada in the coming years.

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

VATICAN CITY
eOntarioNow

May 29, 2017 by Beth Owens

Pope Francis received Monday in a seemingly relaxed atmosphere the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, come to speak to him about the aboriginal people of Canada victims of the policies of assimilation in which the Catholic Church has actively participated.

Trudeau was to ask the Pope to come to Canada to apologize to the aboriginal people, who had been victims of more than a century of abuse in residential schools governed mainly by the Church.

This was one of the end-2015 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which heard testimony from nearly 7,000 alumni over six years.

Visibly relaxed during the public minutes of the audience, the Pope and Mr. Trudeau exchanged smiles and jokes without mentioning their 36 minutes of private conversation.

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
Catholic Whistleblowers

From the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee

May 22, 2017

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
New York State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
Re.: Child Victims Act
Dear Governor Cuomo,

If you had been sexually abused when you were a child, what would you be doing today? Or if such sexual abuse had happened to a member of your family, what would be your response?

Sexual abuse of children is a reality in New York State just as it is throughout the United States and around the world. And the voice of each of these victims must be heard whenever the voice speaks out – no matter how long it takes for the victim’s voice to come forth.

For the good of the society, when sexual abuse of a child becomes known, the victim needs access to justice and the society needs to know the name of the culprit so as to protect other children.

Thus, looking forward New York State needs to remove all statutes of limitations in both criminal and civil cases of child sexual abuse, as well as adding clergy to the list of mandated reporters and requiring criminal background checks for all employees and volunteers who work with children in either public or private settings.

Moreover, to render justice in civil cases where the current statute of limitations bars victims from speaking up in a court of law, a ‘lookback window’ of at least one year is necessary so as to provide the victims of child sexual abuse an open door to justice. Of course, guilt and responsibility would need to be established in the court, but with a ‘lookback window’ the victims at least would have the chance to prove their allegation.

Actually, by his actions, Cardinal Timothy Dolan supports a ‘lookback window’ in that the Archdiocese of New York’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, imperfect as the program is, appropriately pays out millions of dollars to clergy sexual abuse victims whose claims exceed the New York State statute of limitations. In short, no matter when the sexual abuse occurred, Cardinal Dolan is willing to financially compensate the victim.

However, Cardinal Dolan’s plan limps severely in that it excludes compensation for victims of child sexual abuse perpetrated within the context of the Catholic Church by priests, sisters, and brothers who are members of religious orders, as well as for victims of abuse committed by lay employees or volunteers. His plan also does not provide for the public naming of priests against whom there is a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor as he did in 2004 while he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee.

In addition, even while doing right by a limited number of victim/survivors, Cardinal Dolan, using the expertise of lobbyists representing the New York State Catholic Conference, appears to spare no expense in opposing any proposed legislation that includes opening a civil ‘lookback window’ which would give those victim/survivors of childhood sexual abuse, by anyone, access to the justice they have been denied for so long.

Finally, it is disingenuous for the Catholic bishops in the United States to purport adherence to a zero tolerance policy for anyone credibly accused of sexually abusing a child. Their claim is off point. As a single yet very important example, the bishops prohibit their independent ‘Charter’ auditors (StoneBridge Business Partners located in Rochester, New York) to review the sexual abuse allegation files in the diocesan offices throughout the country to verity that each diocese is in compliance with the related civil and church laws. In short, no independent source verifies that the Catholic bishops actually handle allegations of clergy sexual abuse according to procedures required by civil and church laws.

Therefore, we members of the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee urge you to do all in your power to bring about the enactment of the Child Victims Act.

Respectfully submitted,

Members of the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee who submit this Open Letter are:
Sr. Sally Butler, OP (Brooklyn, NY); Sr. Claire Smith, OSU (Bronx, NY); Rev. Ronald D. Lemmert (Peekskill, NY); Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., (West Orange, NJ); Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, SNDdeN (New Castle, DE); Rev. Bruce Teague (Sheffield, MA); Rev. Patrick Winchester Collins, Ph.D. (Douglas, MI); Rev. Thomas Doyle, OP, J.C.D. (Vienna, VA); Rev. James E. Connell, J.C.D. (Milwaukee, WI)

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., (West Orange, NJ) 862-368-2800 roberthoatson@gmail.com
Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, SNDdeN (New Castle, DE) 610-212-2770 maturlishmdsnd@yahoo.com
Rev. James E. Connell, J.C.D. (Milwaukee, WI) 414-940-8054 connell.james951@gmail.com

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

VATICAN CITY
CBC News

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived at the Vatican on Monday with plans to raise reconciliation with indigenous peoples, the global fight against climate change and the importance of religious and cultural diversity during a meeting with Pope Francis.

He will also ask the pontiff to issue a formal apology in Canada for the role of the Catholic Church in the residential school system.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission included the demand for a papal apology — to survivors, their families and communities — among the 94 recommendations in its report on the dark history and legacy of residential schools.

The Liberal government has promised to act on all of them.

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
Variety

Sonia Saraiya
TV Critic
@soniasaraiya

The Netflix docuseries should be a model for others — it avoids the mistakes that “Serial,” “Making A Murderer,” and “The Jinx” made

One of the most distinctive characteristics of Netflix’s “The Keepers,” a seven-part docuseries that premiered May 19, is that nearly every speaking character is a middle-aged woman. This is rare enough that it begins to be surprising, and soon after that, it becomes one of the defining elements of the show — following an interviewee into her living room as she is accompanied by her five small dogs, or reminiscing with another about her loving husband, now deceased. The B-roll notices things like the decorations on the walls, the family photos on the mantle, and the niceties of small talk. These are no Hollywood-friendly million-dollar kitchens, or carefully composed sitcom living rooms. The subjects of “The Keepers” keep cozy homes, in an unassuming, uncontrived way that indicates much about them. In this largely Catholic, working-to-middle class community of Baltimore, “The Keepers” manages to convey a mindset and shared, accepted values by just following the interviewees home.

“The Keepers” tells the true story of the unsolved murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, a young nun and high school teacher who disappeared in late 1969 only to be found dead two months later. Her disappearance was followed a few days later by another murder of another young woman named Joyce Malecki. Both cases remain unsolved. But Cesnik and Malecki had in common a connection to a powerful local priest, Father Joseph Maskell. As Cesnik’s former students started to ask questions about what happened, they began to uncover a shocking legacy of sexual abuse and coercion around Maskell and the high school he and Cesnik worked at: Archbishop Keough High School, an all-girls school with a primarily Catholic student body. Two former students of Sister Cathy’s, Abbie Schaub and Gemma Hoskins, started a Facebook page and a tip line. A third, who remained anonymous for years to protect her reputation, comes forward in “The Keepers” to identify herself as Jean Wehner, one of Maskell’s most-abused victims who had repressed much of what happened to her. Schaub, Hoskins, and Wehner work together to compile information, pursue leads, and corroborate Wehner’s own disturbing memories.

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

IRELAND/SCOTLAND
Belfast Telegraph

May 29 2017

A victim of historic child abuse at a Catholic Church children’s home is to make an emotional return to her hometown in a bid to trace her long lost family.

Kate Walmsley, 60, was seven years old when she was taken from her home in Glasgow and placed in the care of the Sisters of Nazareth in Londonderry, following the break-up of her parents’ marriage.

While there she was regularly sexually assaulted by a priest and beaten by the nuns.

After more than five decades away from home Ms Walmsley is to make her first trip back to Scotland on Wednesday where she hopes to trace some family members.

“I have always wanted to go back to the place where I remember being happy, before all the abuse. I finally feel it is time,” said Ms Walmsley.

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.

CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

LAKE FOREST (CBSLA.com) – A youth volunteer at an Orange County megachurch has been arrested on suspicion of having inappropriate relations with at least two boys.

Ruven Meulenberg, who volunteers as a junior high youth mentor with Saddleback Church, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with a child following a parent’s report, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

He was booked into Orange County Jail and is now being held on $100,000 bail.

Today was the first time Sunday services were held since the arrest.

CBS 2’s Greg Mills spoke to congregants who, suffice to say, were not happy hearing the news.

“It’s not acceptable,” said Lennard Cowans.

Many, like Cowans were hearing the news for the first time.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Margaret Madden
May 29 2017

Fiction: The American Girl
Rachael English, Hachette Ireland, €18.40

Boston-Irish Rose Moroney shocks her family when she finds herself pregnant at 17. It is 1968 and while Rose insists she will marry her boyfriend, her mother is having none of it. “There are ways of handling these things.”

The family’s hard-earned reputation is everything to them and Rose is dispatched to Ireland, where she can conceal her condition and place her baby up for adoption.

Young Rose is met by her aunt, a nun in Carrickbrack Mother and Baby Home, and is soon swallowed whole by the religious institution.

The girls are treated abysmally and their babies seen as commodities; sold with no emotional involvement.

Sister Agnes justifies the adoptions in the typical Catholic way: “Unfortunately, many modern girls have peculiar ideas. They think they can do whatever they like without considering the consequences. And, of course, they never pause to consider the pain and shame they’re visiting on their families.”

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

IRELAND
Irish Mirror

BY ANITA MCSORLEY
29 MAY 2017

Religious order Sister of Charity will have no involvement with the new National Maternity Hospital.

The order confirmed the news this morning as they announced they will part ways with the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG).

Sisters of Charity, which helped run the depraved Magdalene laundries, are stakeholders in SVHG, which incorporates St Vincent’s University Hospital, St Vincent’s Private and St Michael’s in Dublin.

The new €300m National Maternity Hospital is set to be built on the St Vincent’s University Hospital campus.

By relinquishing their ownership, the nuns will no longer be able to appoint directors to the board of the group.

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

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Monday, May 29, 2017

Update 11.21pm: The Sisters of Charity said they had spent the last two years trying to find the best way to give up their ownership of the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG).

“Just as our Founder Mary Aikenhead saw the need in 1834 to establish a hospital to meet the needs of the sick and poor, we believe that it is in the best interests of the patients and children born in the National Maternity Hospital today that they be provided with modern maternity and neonatal services that are women and infant centred and integrated within the Elm Park campus,” Sr Mary Christian, the leader of the order said.

“It is now time for us to relinquish completely our involvement in SVHG.

“We are confident that the board, management and staff of SVHG will continue to maintain a steadfast dedication to providing the best possible acute healthcare to patients and their families in line with the values espoused by Mary Aikenhead.”

The potential involvement of nuns in the running and governance of a maternity hospital had caused deep unease in some medical circles and among the public.

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

IRELAND
RTE News

The Religious Sisters of Charity are to relinquish ownership of three hospitals they are involved with, St Vincent’s University Hospital, St Vincent’s Private and St Michael’s.

A new company with charitable status is to be formed, called St Vincent’s.

It is to replace the Sisters of Charity as the shareholders in the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group.

The sisters will no longer have the right to appoint directors to the board of the group.

The moves follows controversy over the proposed ownership of the planned new National Maternity Hospital on the St Vincent’s Hospital campus.

The current requirement of the healthcare group to conduct and maintain SVHG facilities in accordance with the Catholic code will be amended, to reflect compliance with national and international best practice guidelines on medical ethics and the laws of the Republic of Ireland.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Cormac McQuinn
May 29 2017

THE Religious Sisters of Charity has said they will end their involvement in the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and won’t be involved in the ownership of the planned new National Maternity Hospital.

It comes after a row erupted over the plan to move the maternity hospital from Holles Street to the St Vincent’s campus, which is owned by the religious order.

Now they have confirmed that they “will not be involved in the ownership or management of the new National Maternity Hospital”.

There was concern that procedures to be carried out at the planned hospital, including fertility treatments like IVF, are against Catholic teachings and would not be allowed at the new site.
Health Minister Simon Harris said he wanted until the end of May to address the issue issue of ownership of the hospital.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen

The Sisters of Charity are to end their involvement in St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG) and will have no involvement in the new national maternity hospital on its campus, the Catholic religious order has said.

Ownership of the St Vincent’s group is to be transferred to a newly-formed company with charitable status to be called “St Vincent’s”, according to a statement from the order.

It said the Sisters of Charity would have no involvement with this new company.

Existing codes governing medical ethics at the St Vincent’s would be amended and replaced to reflect compliance with national and international best practice guidelines and the laws of Ireland, the order continued.

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

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 29, 2017

ALBANY — The Boy Scouts of America has hired a former state senator to lobby against legislation that would make it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice as adults.

The Boy Scouts this year are paying Dentons US $12,500 a month to lobby on three bills, including against the Child Victims Act.

Former Sen. Craig Johnson, a Long Island Democrat, is a principal for Dentons’ public policy and regulatory practice and one of two people from the firm registered since February to represent the Boy Scouts in Albany, according to filings with the state ethics commission.

Johnson referred questions to the Boy Scouts.

In an email, a spokesman for the organization confirmed Johnson was hired to work “on a variety of legislative matters in New York that impact youth-serving organizations” — including the Child Victims Act.

The spokesman did not respond to a followup email asking why the scouts are fighting the legislation. The organization is said to oppose for financial reasons the push to create a one-year window to revive old sex abuse cases that can’t be pursued under current law.

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

CANADA
CBC News

Inuit are opposed to the federal government’s position in the Supreme Court case which will decide whether to preserve or destroy “highly personal” accounts of residential school survivors.

The Government of Canada is arguing that the Federal Access and Privacy legislation mandates these records be preserved in national archives.

Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, which speaks for Inuit in Canada, says all Independent Assessment Process records should be destroyed, unless an individual survivor opts for theirs to be kept.

The Supreme Court started hearing arguments in the case on Thursday.

“The main issue is whether the 30,000 highly personal and descriptive, psychological, physical, and sexual abuse records by residential school survivors will be destroyed or not,” NTI’s Bruce Oviluk said.

He says the nature of small Northern communities means, even if names were redacted, making these stories public could expose Inuit residential school survivors.

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

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com May 29, 2017

Guam is a great example of how changing the law can provide enormous but long-delayed benefits to clergy sex abuse victims, according to the publisher of one of the most comprehensive databases on Catholic clergy sex abuse of minors worldwide.

G.R. Pafumi, publisher of Victims Speak Database or VictimsSpeakDB.org, said Guam alone has 75 Catholic clergy sex abuse cases involving 70 unique victims and 15 clergy.

The bulk of the alleged abuses are contained in 69 clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed so far in local and federal courts since Guam lifted on Sept. 23, 2016 the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse.

The law allows victims of child sex abuse to sue their abusers, and the institutions with which they are associated, at any time.

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

UNITED STATES
Elle (UK)

BY LOUISE DONOVAN
MAY 29, 2017

Sick of the binge-watching shamers? If someone ever tries to discredit you inhaling several hundred hours of TV, simply roll out this titbit of news: after Netflix’s new true-crime series The Keepers premiered last Friday, the Baltimore police created an online form for those who want to report abuse related to the documentary.

The show delves into the unsolved murder of 26-year-old Baltimore nun and teacher Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik (aka Sister Cathy) who went missing in 1969.

Two months after she disappeared, her decomposing body was found in a field. The show suggests she was murdered after she was about to expose serious levels of sexual assault happening in the Archbishop Keough High School, an all-girls Catholic high school where Cesnik taught.

In the Netflix original documentary, six people claim they were repeatedly sexually abused by Father A. Joseph Maskell, a priest who worked at the school as a chaplain/guidance counselor throughout the 1960s and ’70s.

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

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Published May 29, 2017

Former island priest Louis Brouillard allegedly raped and sexually molested a former boy scout every night during the Boy Scouts of America’s summer jamborees around 1974 and 1975, a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Guam Monday afternoon says.

The complaint, filed by a man identified in court documents only as A.N.D., also alleged that two older scout leaders took turns raping the boy in the 1975 summer jamboree.

That was after A.N.D. allegedly told Brouillard he was going to report what the priest was doing to him, the lawsuit says.

“During the period in which he was a boy scout, A.N.D. was sexually molested and raped by Brouillard,” the complaint says. “Brouillard was a Catholic priest for the Agana Archdiocese, and was also an employee, volunteer and/or agent of the Boy Scouts of America, who worked as a scoutmaster and performed duties for the Aloha Council.”

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

ROME
The Globe and Mail

ROBERT FIFE – OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
ROME — The Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, May 28, 2017

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is hopeful Pope Francis will heed a personal call to make a formal apology to aboriginal survivors of sexual and physical abuse at Catholic-run residential schools during a private audience with his holiness at the Vatican on Monday.

Mr. Trudeau will use the one-on-one meeting in the Apostolic Palace to request a papal apology and an “open invitation” for the Pontiff to visit Canada to address victims of the residential school system.

“The Prime Minister is using this opportunity to talk to the Pope about Indigenous issues and reconciliation and one of the things aboriginal communities want is an apology,” a government official said.

Canadian and Vatican officials have been working behind the scenes to arrange the meeting, which officials say is an opportunity for Pope Francis to make amends for a dark chapter in the Catholic Church’s attempt to “Christianize” Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Metis people.

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

ROME
Metro

By: Joanna Smith The Canadian Press Published on Sun May 28 2017

ROME — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to raise reconciliation with indigenous peoples, the global fight against climate change and the importance of religious and cultural diversity when he meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Monday.

There, he will also ask the pontiff to issue a formal apology in Canada for the role of the Catholic Church in the residential school system.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission included the demand for a papal apology — to survivors, their families and communities — among the 94 recommendations in its report on the dark history and legacy of residential schools.

The Liberal government has promised to act on all of them.

Trudeau, who is religious, is also expected to discuss the Catholic community in Canada.

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

GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

A former altar boy who was allegedly sexually abused when he was 9 years old said he reported the abuse decades later to Catholic Church officials.

G.J., who used his initials to protect his identity, filed a civil complaint in the District Court of Guam yesterday against the Archdiocese of Agana and former priest Andrew Mannetta.

The lawsuit states G.J. became an altar boy at the Mangilao parish in 1985 to learn about priesthood and considered the Mangilao church his “second home.”

Attorney David Lujan, who represents G.J., accuses Mannetta of developing an “evil campaign” to induce altar boys to spend the night at the rectory so they wouldn’t be late to serve at early morning Mass.

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.

NORTH DAKOTA
KFGO

Saturday, May 27, 2017 by Jim Monk

FARGO (KFGO) – The pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor has been placed on administrative leave for what the Diocese of Fargo calls “alleged conduct” involving his interaction with youth.

The Diocese says Father Thomas Feltman has been removed from his duties and will not be residing at the parish pending the outcome of an investigation.

Bishop John Folda says the report is being taken seriously and says “appropriate civil authorities” have been contacted.

Statement from Bishop Folda:

The Diocese of Fargo has placed Father Thomas Feltman, Pastor of St. John the Baptist’s Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor, on administrative leave from his priestly duties pending the outcome of an investigation into his alleged conduct at the Parish.

In a statement, Bishop John Folda of the Diocese of Fargo told parishioners of the two parishes: “Late last week, Father Thomas Feltman came to the Diocese to inform us of concerns that had been brought to him regarding his interaction with youth. We take any such concerns very seriously. We have reported the concerns to appropriate civil authorities at Richland County Social Services for them to review and investigate as they deem appropriate; we have placed Father Feltman on administrative leave and have removed him from his priestly duties pending a complete investigation of this matter. Father Feltman will not be residing at the Parish during the period of this investigation.

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.

NORTH DAKOTA
KVRR

Nick Broadway

RICHLAND COUNTY, N.D. — A Richland County pastor was placed on administrative leave for alleged conduct with youth.

Officials with the Diocese of Fargo said Father Thomas Feltman is being investigated.

He was a pastor for churches in Wyndmere and Milnor.

They said Feltman told the Diocese last week about concerns regarding his interactions with youth.

Andrew Jasinski was chosen to be the Temporary Administrator of the parishes.

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.

NORTH DAKOTA
Valley News Live

Parishioners head back to church this morning a day after the Fargo diocese dropped a Memorial weekend bombshell that one one of their own was being investigated for his interactions with children.

Father Thomas Feltman, pastor of the St. John the Baptist’s Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor is on administrative leave after concerns were brought to his attention regarding his interaction with children.

The Fargo Diocese says that Father Feltman approached the organization saying that there were “concerns that had been brought to him about regarding his interaction with youth.”

The Diocese then placed Father Feltman on administrative leave and reported the issue to investigators. He also won’t be living in the parish until the end of the investigation.

A Saturday evening press conference to address the media brought forward little new information. When asked about the nature of the accusations against Father Feltman, a Fargo Diocese spokesperson said that any of those questions would have to be directed towards the Richland County Sheriff’s office. The spokesperson also couldn’t say if there were similar claims made at Father Feltman’s previous parishes.

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.

NORTH DAKOTA
WDAY

[with video]

FARGO — A local pastor has been placed on administrative leave after possible inappropriate interactions with children.

According to the Diocese of Fargo, concerns were made against Father Thomas Feltman, Pastor of St. John and the Baptist’s Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor.

The incident has been reported Richland County Social Services for a review and investigation.

Father Feltman has been removed from all priestly duties and will not be residing at the Parish during the investigation.

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.

NORTH DAKOTA
Valley News Live

May 27, 2017

UPDATE: A press conference to address the media was held tonight, but little new information came from the meeting.

When asked about the nature of the accusations against Father Feltman, a Fargo Diocese spokesperson said that any of those questions would have to be directed towards the Richland County Sheriff’s office.

The spokesperson also couldn’t say if there were similar claims made at Father Feltman’s previous parishes.

Currently, the Richland County Sheriff’s Office detective assigned to the case is out of the office.

ORIGINAL STORY: Father Thomas Feltman, pastor of the St. John the Baptist’s Catholic Church in Wyndmere and St. Arnold’s Catholic Church in Milnor is on administrative leave after concerns were brought to his attention regarding his interaction with children.

The Fargo Diocese says that Father Feltman approached the organization saying that there were “concerns that had been brought to him about regarding his interaction with youth.”

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

CANADA
CBC News

An artist who’s the son of a residential school survivor is urging the Supreme Court of Canada to rule to preserve the stories of more than 35,000 people like his father so future generations can learn from the tragic chapter in the country’s history.

Carey Newman founded the group Coalition to Preserve the Truth to save the testimony delivered to adjudicators as part of the Independent Assessment Process (IAP), which was set up to determine individual compensation for survivors who suffered as a result of being forced into residential schools.

But some, like the Assembly of First Nations, want those records destroyed to protect the privacy of survivors. The documents are now in the hands of the Supreme Court, which will decide their fate.

“I think that future generations do have some right to those stories, because we are also impacted,” said Newman, who came to Ottawa Thursday to argue his case to the Supreme Court.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

Attention surrounding the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown child sexual abuse scandal has not only affected the victims themselves, but also other individuals who have been assaulted at some point during their lives.

The issue has been prominently discussed from 2013, when allegations were first made that Brother Stephen Baker molested students at Bishop McCort High School, through the release of a grand jury report last year in which the diocese was accused of perpetrating a coverup to protect predator priests, until today.

Victim Services staff members believe it has played a role in the number of people coming to their organization for help.

When making a July 1, 2016, through June 30, 2017, fiscal year budget, Victim Services anticipated seeing about 800 sexual assault clients throughout Cambria and Somerset counties. That expected total was already surpassed by the end of February.

“I think that, especially with the media attention that this particular scandal has gotten, this particular issue, we have seen a lot of survivors who aren’t even related to this issue who are struggling a lot more because it’s constantly brought up and they’re constantly being triggered,” said Erika Brosig, Victim Services clinical supervisor.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

By Marcia Moore
CNHI News Reports

Health officials around Pennsylvania are sounding the alarm on child protection.

Pat Bruno, director of the Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital Child Advocacy Center in Sunbury said the public needs to understand how adverse childhood experiences affect adults later in life.

“What we need now is a movement,” Bruno said. “We need to make people aware that we’re dealing with a public health crisis.”

Researchers of the Adverse Childhood Experience Study found traumatic childhood experiences can lead decades later to physical and mental health problems.

“We know the more adverse childhood experiences you have, the more likely in the long term you’ll have physical problems, behavioral problems, psychological problems as an adult,” Bruno said. “We know your life expectancy will be decreased by as many as 20 years.”

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

UNITED STATES
Popesugar

May 27, 2017 by MAGGIE PEHANICK

There are things in The Keepers that you can never un-hear. Netflix’s latest true crime series explores the unsolved 1969 murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, and it’s not long until the story takes a horrific turn. The seven-part series delves into allegations of unthinkable sexual assault, perpetrated by a trusted Father at the all-girls Catholic High School where Cesnik worked. Hearing from the victims is traumatizing enough, but the way the show concludes is both frustrating and depressing. That said, the story isn’t over. Here’s every bit of news that has come out since The Keepers wrapped production.

1. Maskell’s DNA Was Tested Against DNA Found Near the Crime Scene

In February, Father Joseph Maskell’s body was exhumed. His remains were tested by a forensics lab, and his DNA did not match a sample that was taken from the Cesnik crime scene. “For now, we’ve pretty well reached the end of the road when it comes to forensic evidence,” said a spokesperson for the Baltimore County Police Department. “Our best hope for solving this case at this point lies with the people who are still alive. And we hope that someone will be able to come forward with conclusive information about the murder.

2. Maryland’s Statute of Limitations on Sex Abuse Reports Has Been Extended

In April, C.T. Wilson, the delegate who was featured in The Keepers, was finally able to pass his bill. Beginning on July 1, survivors of sexual abuse will have until age 38 to sue their abusers.

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

GUAM
KUAM

May 28, 2017
By Krystal Paco

Another $5 million lawsuit is lodged against the church. 41-year-old G.J. alleges he was sexually molested and raped by Father Andrew Mannetta while he was an altar boy at the Catholic Church in Mangilao in the mid-1980s. During sleepovers at the rectory, the priest allegedly let the altar boys watch “softporn.”

On one such sleepover, Mannetta allegedly called G.J. to the bedroom where the boy was instructed to massage and masturbate the priest before he was raped. The incident was life changing and prompted G.J. to quit as an altar boy as well as give up on his dream of becoming a priest. In 2009 or 2010, the civil complaint states G.J. reached out to the church.

Deacon Jeff Barcinas and Deacon Steve Martinez were able to determine G.J.’s allegations were true. He marks the 70th plaintiff to file suit.

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
Herald Sun

AAP, Herald Sun
May 28, 2017

THE FAMILY of Anthony Foster has accepted the Victorian government’s offer of a state funeral, which Premier Daniel Andrews says was to honour a man who “quietly and profoundly changed Australian history.”

Mr Foster, 64, died this week, reportedly after a major stroke.

Mr Andrews said in a statement today:

“History will record that a man named Anthony Foster quietly and profoundly changed Australian history.

“This afternoon, I offered his family a State Funeral in his honour.

“His wife, Chrissie, has accepted.

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
Daily Mail

By Jacob Polychronis For Daily Mail Australia and Australian Associated Press

A high-profile advocate for child sex abuse victims, whose daughters were repeatedly raped by a Melbourne priest, has died after suffering a major stroke.

Anthony Foster, 64, became a relentless campaigner after his daughters Emma and Katie were sexually abused by priest Kevin O’Donnell at their Melbourne primary school between 1988 and 1993.

He is believed to have died on Friday evening after falling and hitting his head.

Mr Foster rose to prominence after engaging in a decade-long battle with the Catholic church for a compensation payout.

The Fosters were offered a $50,000 payout from the church which they rejected – later taking them to court.

The church settled the Fosters in 2006 for $750,000.

Mr Foster publicly accused Cardinal George Pell – who was archbishop of Melbourne at the time – for stalling their compensation claim.

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

UNITED STATES
Salon

ERIN KEANE

Note: This story contains spoilers for the Netflix series “The Keepers.”

True crime fans cleared their schedules for a Netflix binge last weekend when the streaming service dropped the nonfiction cold case investigation “The Keepers,” a seven-part series about the 1969 disappearance and murder of a young nun in Baltimore. Comparisons to Netflix’s 2015 sensation “Making a Murderer” were unavoidable — another fascinatingly ambiguous criminal case for fans to get lost in, debate with fellow fans, and maybe even engage in some amateur sleuthing of their own.

Once upon a time — as recent as two years ago, a lifetime in Peak TV years — new seasons of fictional prestige dramas like “House of Cards” were awaited breathlessly. True crime was more the domain of documentary features and magazine shows like “Dateline” or “The First 48,” those nonfiction procedural counterparts to the “CSI” and “Law & Order” franchises. But three influential shows paved the way for true crime stories to claim a solid berth in the prestige tier of mass entertainment. Of course networks are now looking for the next story that could stretch into a multi-part binge-worthy series rather than a one-and-done feature film.

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

IRELAND
The Times (UK)

Toby Harnden, Washington
May 28 2017
The Sunday Times

A potential Irish victim of Joseph Maskell, an American priest who fled to Co Wexford in the 1990s following allegations of sexual abuse in Baltimore, Maryland, has come forward after a Netflix documentary revealed his possible involvement in murder.

Maskell fled to Ireland in 1995 after US police uncovered a trove of incriminating documents, including psychological profiles of his victims, that he had buried in a Baltimore graveyard the previous year. While in Ireland he worked as a psychologist in private practice and with the local area health board.

One potential victim has come forward in Ireland, where Maskell said mass despite being defrocked. “One of the attorneys in my office took a call concerning a potential victim of sex abuse in Ireland by Maskell,” said Joanne Suder, a Baltimore lawyer who represents many of the victims.

There have been no previous reports of allegations against Maskell in Ireland, which Suder said had in the past protected paedophiles. “Historically, Ireland has not been receptive to sending priests back. It’s been a safe haven for priests and it doesn’t make Ireland safer,” she said.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
28 May 2017

ANTHONY Foster was integrity personified.

His death on Saturday, aged 64, after he collapsed on Wednesday, has shattered everyone who knew him.

His death has added to the merciless toll that’s a consequence of the Catholic Church’s history of child sexual abuse.

Anthony and wife Chrissie’s two eldest daughters, Emma and Katie, were sexually assaulted by Catholic priest Kevin O’Donnell when they were barely five and six years old, and O’Donnell was in his 70s. Emma died of a medication overdose in 2007, aged 25. Katie was struck by a car in 1999, aged 16, after periods of binge drinking. She survived, but with profound disabilities.

Since the 1990s Anthony and Chrissie Foster have fought the church on behalf of their daughters, but increasingly on behalf of all survivors.

On my desk I have the book Chrissie wrote in 2010, Hell on the Way to Heaven, about that fight, including their attempt to meet Pope Benedict in Sydney during World Youth Day events in 2008, and the church’s shocking response – that some people were “dwelling crankily on old wounds”.

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 New Daily

Kaitlyn Offer

High-profile child sex abuse victims advocate Anthony Foster will be honoured with a state funeral.

Mr Foster’s wife, Chrissie, was on Sunday offered the service to commemorate a man who “quietly and profoundly changed Australian history” and she accepted, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said in a statement.

Mr Foster, 64, died on Friday, reportedly after a major stroke.

Anthony Foster and wife Chrissie spent years battling for justice for their abused daughters.He became a relentless advocate after his daughters, Emma and Katie, were raped by notorious abuser and pedophile Father Kevin O’Donnell at their Melbourne primary school in the suburb of Oakleigh between 1988 and 1993.

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
ABC News

The family of long-time advocate for child sex abuse victims, Anthony Foster, has accepted an offer from the Victorian Government for a state funeral.

Mr Foster, who died in a Melbourne hospital on Friday, aged 64, after a fall last week, was yesterday hailed as “brave and gracious” and a “hero” for his campaigning for victims.

He dedicated his life to seeking justice for child sex abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church after two of his daughters were repeatedly raped by a priest in the 1980s.

“History will record that a man named Anthony Foster quietly and profoundly changed Australian history,” Premier Daniel Andrews said in a statement.

“This afternoon, I offered his family a state funeral in his honour.

“His wife, Chrissie, has accepted.”

In a two decade-long quest to hold the Catholic Church accountable for crimes against children, Mr Foster and his wife Chrissie told the harrowing story of their family’s treatment at the hands of the church to the media and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child 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.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

Josh Gordon

Anthony Foster, the tireless advocate for victims of child sexual abuse, is to receive a state funeral.

Mr Foster, who ran a high-profile campaign accusing the Catholic Church of covering up abuse, died on Friday evening at the age of 64 after suffering a stroke.

Premier Daniel Andrews said he offered Mr Foster’s family a state funeral on Sunday afternoon, and his wife Chrissie had accepted.

Mr Andrews said Mr Foster would be remembered as a man who “quietly and profoundly changed Australian history”, after campaigning for justice from the Catholic Church.

“He fought evil acts that were shamefully denied and covered up,” Mr Andrews said in a statement. “He and Chrissie lost so much, but never their dignity, grace and strength. Anthony won’t be forgotten, and the fight for justice goes on.”

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
7 News

Kaitlyn Offer – AAP on May 28, 2017

High-profile child sex abuse victims advocate Anthony Foster will be honoured with a state funeral.

Mr Foster’s wife Chrissie was on Sunday offered the service to commemorate a man who “quietly and profoundly changed Australian history” and she accepted, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said in a statement.

Mr Foster, 64, died on Friday, reportedly after a major stroke.

He became a relentless advocate after his daughters, Emma and Katie, were raped by notorious abuser and pedophile Father Kevin O’Donnell at their Melbourne primary school between 1988 and 1993.

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

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com May 28, 2017

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes met in private for the first time with a family who says their life has been broken by Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron. Forty years ago, he allegedly raped the now deceased, former altar boy Joseph “Sonny” Quinata.

But the family said it is now putting the broken pieces together so they can all heal.

“The actions of one man have affected a whole generation of my family…I lost a brother and my children lost a father. This man affected my brother and myself,” John Michael “Champ” Quinata, 47, told Pacific Daily News.

Champ Quinata publicly accused Apuron of repeatedly raping his older brother Sonny when Sonny was 9 years old, in 1977.

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

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com May 28, 2017

The Archdiocese of Agana investigated and found to be true, in 2009 or 2010, an allegation that former Guam priest Andrew Mannetta sexually abused a former altar boy in 1985, according to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Guam.

The man, identified in court documents only as G.J., alleged that Mannetta sexually molested and abused him when he was 9 or 10 years old and serving as an altar boy at the Santa Teresita Catholic Church in Mangilao.

“After the sexual abuse, G.J. began to fail in school and lost interest in the priesthood,” the lawsuit says. “Eventually, G.J. ceased being an altar boy and gave up on his dreams of becoming a priest.”

The lawsuit says around 2009 or 2010, at a stage in G.J.’s life where he continued to suffer deep trauma from his childhood abuse at the hands of Mannetta, the former altar boy reached out to the church.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Islington Gazette

26 May 2017 Sam Gelder

A Catholic priest who repeatedly raped and assaulted boys is facing jail.

Father Eugene Fitzpatrick, 68, was found guilty of the horrific attacks at Blackfriars Crown Court yesterday after he denied all charges.

He raped one boy multiple times between 1986 and 1992 while working at Our Lady and Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Balls Pond Road, Islington.

Fitzpatrick also indecently assaulted another boy throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The first offence took place in Tufnell Park in 1965 when he was just 17 and the boy aged under eight.

Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Mubeena Cockar-Khan said: “Eugene Fitzpatrick repeatedly indecently assaulted one boy and raped another for his own gratification.

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

MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

Dan Rodricks
The Baltimore Sun

Richard Sipe, the former priest who spent 25 years studying the sexual behavior of the Catholic clergy, appears in “The Keepers,” the Netflix documentary series about the unsolved murder of Sister Catherine Cesnick and the monstrous abuse of some of her students by the chaplain of a Baltimore high school in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Sipe is the bearded fellow with the cool eyeglasses in Episode 4.

A Benedictine monk and priest for 18 years, Sipe came to Baltimore to study counseling at the old Seton Psychiatric Institute. He left the priesthood at 38 and married a former Maryknoll sister. He practiced psychotherapy in Maryland before moving to California with his wife in the late 1990s. He has written six books and contributed to numerous documentaries on the celibate priesthood and sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy. He estimates that he has reviewed more than 1,500 cases and provided expert testimony in 230.

Sipe famously helped the Boston Globe reporters who broke the story of widespread abuse by priests in Massachusetts. In “Spotlight,” the Oscar-winning film about the Globe’s investigation, the actor Richard Jenkins plays Sipe – or at least his voice, by phone – telling reporters that his lengthy study of priests found that six percent of them had had sex with children. Sipe provided the Globe Spotlight team with guidance throughout its lengthy investigation.

So he’s an old hand at this. He’s heard a lot of stories and told many.

But even Sipe felt physically ill – “I got sick,” he says – when he heard the descriptions of sexual abuse by the victims of the late A. Joseph Maskell, the former priest who served as chaplain at Archbishop Keough High School more than four decades ago.

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

IRELAND
Wexford People

By Maria Pepper
May 27 2017

A new Netflix documentary series ‘The Keepers’ which was released last weekend, has broadcast harrowing descriptions of sex abuse allegedly carried out by the deceased American priest, Fr. Joseph Maskell who spent over three years living in Wexford where he worked as a psychologist for the former South Eastern Health Board.

During his time in Wexford from approximately late 1994 to 1998, Fr. Maskell lived in Castlebridge and worked for about eight months as a clinical psychologist for the SEHB (now the Health Service Executive) which referred children to him for assessment. He later spent about three years in private practice at an office in Common Quay Street.

During his stay, the Diocese of Ferns became aware of his activities and contacted the Archdiocese of Baltimore for information, subsequently notifying the SEHB and the gardai about the risks of him having access to children.

The HSE has refused to release any information about Fr. Maskell due to a data protection policy relating to current and former employees although at the time, it informed the Diocese that Fr. Maskell had given an assurance not to work with anyone under the age of 18.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

by David Gambacorta & Maria Panaritis – Staff Writers

One name stands out on an otherwise innocuous list of upcoming clerical assignments issued this month by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia: the Rev. Louis Kolenkiewicz.

He’s scheduled to return from a leave of absence on June 19, and become a parochial vicar at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, around the corner from the archdiocese’s administrative offices. What’s left unsaid in the announcement is the reason why Kolenkiewicz has been on leave since 2015.

Bucks County prosecutors investigated the priest in 2011 for more than 12,000 pornographic images found on a computer he used at St. Bede the Venerable Parish in Holland, Bucks County, where he had been assigned. And while they did not file charges, they said they remained so concerned about the priest returning to active ministry that they helped provoke his suspension two years ago.

District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub described the news of Kolenkiewicz’s reinstatement as a surprising development after a frustrating investigation he said was hobbled by the church’s failure to preserve evidence found a decade ago and leaving local law enforcement in the dark.

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

CANADA
BBC News

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected next week to ask Pope Francis for a formal apology over the Catholic Church’s role in the country’s residential school system.

The request stems from a report into Canada’s history of taking indigenous children from their parents and sending them to residential schools.

Many children experienced neglect and abuse while far from their families.

Mr Trudeau meets with the Pope on Monday.

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.

SCOTLAND
The Courier

Michael Alexander
May 27 2017

A man who claims he was trafficked to Ireland and drugged and raped by multiple men whilst in the care of a former residential home in Fife is to hold a vigil in Edinburgh on the opening day of the Scottish child abuse inquiry.

Dave Sharp, 58, who says he was abused whilst in the care of the Christian Brothers running the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland, intends to hold the vigil outside of Rosebury House on Wednesday May 31 to remember “all victims of abuse”.

Mr Sharp, who was awarded a £15,000 pay out from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in 2015, said: “As far as the programme goes the plan is for the vigil to be from 9am till 5pm.

“At 1pm we will all stop for a minute’s silence to remember all the children (across the country) whose lives were lost or taken because of child abuse and also to remember all the survivors who died without ever seeing justice.

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.

SCOTLAND
BBC News

A former priest has been found guilty of assault to injury of a pupil at a former Catholic boarding school at Fort Augustus in the 1970s and 1980s.

The jury in Father Benedict Seed’s trial found five other charges not proven by a majority.

The 83-year-old, who appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court under the name Thomas Michael Seed, belted Paul Curran on the wrists until he bled.

Seed, of Brora, denied all the charges against him. He has been fined £1,000.

Mr Curran, now a 50-year-old businessman living in Hong Kong, told the jury at Inverness Sheriff Court that he had dreams of being “hunted” by Seed for the five years he attended the now closed Fort Augustus Abbey school in the Highlands.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Joseph Serna

A youth mentor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest has been accused of lewd acts involving two teenage boys while he volunteered there, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said Friday.

Ruven Meulenberg, 32, was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts on a child and is being held on $100,000 bail, authorities said. Jail records show he is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in a Santa Ana courtroom.

Detectives were alerted after a 14-year-old boy told his parents that Meulenberg had molested him, Lt. Lane Lagaret said. The parents told the church’s youth pastor, who called the Sheriff’s Department, Lagaret said.

Another 14-year-old boy turned up during the detectives’ investigation, Lagaret said.

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

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

27 May, 2017

Chair of the Royal Commission Justice Peter McClellan said the Commissioners and staff of the Royal Commission are deeply saddened by the death of Anthony Foster. We extend our condolences to Chrissie Foster and her family.

Anthony and Chrissie dedicated many years of their lives to bringing about justice for survivors of child sexual abuse.

Their tireless advocacy helped bring about this Royal Commission.

They attended hundreds of days of public hearings and participated in many of our policy roundtables.

With a dignity and grace, Anthony and Chrissie generously supported countless survivors and their families whilst also managing their own grief.

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
Newcastle Herald

27 May 2017

IT took the NSW Upper House seven months to debate Newcastle Animal Justice Party Upper House MP Mark Pearson’s motion to condemn the Catholic Church for its history of child sexual abuse in Australia.

He first raised it in October, 2016, in a powerful speech in Parliament after a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse public hearing in Newcastle about abuse in the Hunter Catholic Church over decades.

He was supported by barrister and NSW Greens Justice spokesman David Shoebridge, who has been a champion for survivors of child sexual abuse in Australia for many years.

It was not until Thursday that the major parties responded, and survivors and survivor groups experienced a chill about the future – after the royal commission has delivered its final report in December and politicians are responsible for how governments address its recommendations.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Bournemouth Echo

Alex Winter / Winter_Alex

A FORMER Boys’ Brigade leader and charity founder who sexually abused four children has been jailed.

One of David Wall’s victims were driven to attempt suicide as a result of the attacks, which took place between 1981 and 2001.

Wall, a married church-goer, abused his power in the Christian organisation to indecently assault three boys in his care.

The father-of-two, now 53, went on to abuse a fourth child, who was not a member of the Boys’ Brigade. Wall later founded Hampshire-based Christian charity Acts 4 Sharing.

He was finally brought to justice around two decades after the last offence he committed.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

The national child sexual abuse inquiry is to hold its preliminary hearing into allegations relating to a leading North Yorkshire independent school early next month.

The preliminary hearing relating to Ampleforth College will be held in London on June 6 to examine procedural issues ahead of the full inquiry which is due to start in December.

Now Ampleforth faces charity probe linked to sex abuse claims It is part of an investigation into “the extent of any institutional failures to protect children from sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church”, which is one of 13 separate areas of investigation being looked into as part of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

The first case study in the Catholic church investigation is into the English Benedictine Congregation, a Catholic religious order whose affiliated monasteries run or have run a number of prestigious private boarding schools around the country, including Ampleforth. Professor Alexis Jay, chair of the national inquiry, told a conference in York that the inquiry has set out a work programme.

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.