ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Tom Wills, Louis Goddard, Times Data Team
May 9 2017
The Times

A child abuse charity has called for police to be given more resources to tackle indecent web images, after The Times exposed an online paedophile network with up to 10,000 British members.

Peter Saunders, founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said that the Freedom Hosting II network was likely to be “the tip of the iceberg”.

The network operated on a clandestine part of the internet designed to frustrate attempts by the authorities to identify website users and operators. It hosted at least a dozen forums where users exchanged images of abuse and was free to operate for almost two years before being shut down by hackers.

“Police should be given far more resources to smash these corrupt, evil groups of people and the people who facilitate this disgusting trade,” Mr Saunders said. He added that an obsession with targets within the police was preventing forces from dedicating time to complex child abuse investigations.

Paedophiles accessed the network using Tor, a system that anonymises internet browsing. Paradise Village, the largest of a dozen forums on the server, hosted more than 80,000 users. Details of the network came to light after hackers leaked its databases.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Olivia Kelly

Dublin City Council has recommended that the new National Maternity Hospital be placed under the control of the State, if it secures planning permission from An Bord Pleanála.

The Health Service Executive in March applied to An Bord Pleanála for the €300 million move of the hospital from Holles Street to St Vincent’s Hospital, following the resolution of an 18-month dispute between the two hospitals over governance of the new facility.

However, the announcement the following month that sole ownership of the hospital would be given to a healthcare group owned by the Sisters of Charity sparked public protest, and resignations from the Holles Street hospital board and the project board planning the move.

Earlier this month Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the new hospital will have full clinical independence.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Herald

By Carl_Eve
May 09, 2017

A landmark inquiry into child sexual abuse is in Plymouth today to listen to organisations supporting victims and survivors.

Groups like the Devon Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Services, Intercom Trust and North Devon Against Domestic Abuse will hear from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) about its Truth Project.

The Truth Project has been hearing from victims and survivors around the country for over 18 months, and opened in the south west in February. So far, more than 700 victims and survivors have come forward.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, May 09, 2017

By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Irish Examiner Political Correspondent

Health Minister Simon Harris is due to meet the boards of St Vincent’s Hospital and Holles Street over the national maternity hospital standoff this week amid ongoing public anger over the location of the facility.

He said the voices of those who protested over the issue on Sunday have been heard and ownership of the hospital is “on the table”.

Speaking to reporters at an organ donation launch in Dublin, Mr Harris said he understands the anger of almost 2,000 people who protested in the capital at the weekend calling for the Sisters of Charity to have no role in the new hospital and to gift the site to the State.

Saying he has “heard the people very clearly”, Mr Harris said it is understandable the public wants ownership of the new facility and that the issue will be raised at meetings with the two hospitals’ boards this week.

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MAINE
WABI

MAY 8, 2017
BRIAN SULLIVAN

A Waterville based priest has been removed from his post after accusations of sexual abuse of a minor.

A church official from New York told the Morning Sentinel the Rev. Larry Jensen was permanently removed from the ministry because of the claim he abused a child more than a decade ago in Connecticut.

That official says the church became aware of the allegation last week.

The Jensen, 62, had served for the last decade at St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church in Waterville.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The scene of the crime, they say, was Ontario, Canada.

It was 1968.

A Philadelphia area teen and his parish priest had taken a camping trip. It’s claimed it was anything but innocent.

And 49 years later, Paul Eberz, of Freehold, New Jersey, has come out from the shadows to talk about the sexual abuse he says he endured in Canada.

“The priest, he’s a bad guy,” Eberz said.

The priest he’s referring to is Father John Mulholland. Eberz, at 18, says Mulholland sexually abused him on that trip north across the border. Paul knew “Father John” from his parish, St. Joseph Church in Warrington.

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CALIFORNIA
KALW

By JAKE J. SMITH

When Miguel Prats revs the engine of his Harley Davidson, it might sound angry to some — but not to him.

“When I’m on this bike, I literally feel surrounded by angels,” he says. “You can be frustrated, you can be anything. You get on this and go for a ride, and it just goes away.”

Today, Prats has a wide-eyed, happy-go-lucky demeanor. But he says 15 years ago, he was angry and tortured inside. In 2002, when the Boston Globe uncovered widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, the story brought back a memory that Prats says he had repressed: shortly after he turned 18, he himself had been sexually abused by a priest.

When this memory came flooding back, Prats felt furious and alone. He went on the internet looking for someone to talk to. What he found was a group called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). SNAP had helped the Globe uncover the abuse scandal. You may remember them from the film Spotlight.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted May 08, 2017

WATERVILLE, Maine — A priest at a Waterville church was removed from the priesthood Sunday after a report of sexual abuse of a minor about 15 years ago in Connecticut was substantiated, according to a church official.

The Rev. Larry Jensen, 62, was removed from the St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church, by Bishop Gregory John Mansour, head of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, New York, the official said.

Jensen may never again conduct Mass in public or present himself as a priest, but will take early retirement and receive a portion of his retirement benefits, Michael Thomas, vicar general of the church, said Monday in a telephone interview. Jensen had been pastor since July 2006, according to information posted on the church’s website.

The bishop announced Jensen’s removal at weekend Masses.

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NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Patrick W. Quigley was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of New York in 1981. He was assigned to a Staten Island parish for six years, followed by a brief stint at Staten Island’s St. Joseph by the Sea High School, after which there is an unexplained two-year assignment gap. In 1990 he resurfaced as an assistant at a Manhattan parish and, in 1993, he was transferred to Stony Point.

In September 1994 Quigley was arrested for soliciting teenage boys for sex in Haverstraw, New York. He pled guilty in December 1994 and was sentenced to probation. The archdiocese sent him to Maryland for treatment of “alcoholism.” His status thereafter was ‘Absent on Leave’, and he was laicized in 2005.

Quigley was last known to have been living in Brick, New Jersey. He died in 2010.

Ordained: 1981
Laicized: 2005
Died: April 4, 2010

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
petersmith@post-gazette.com
MAY 8, 2017

Just over a year ago in a Hollidaysburg courtroom, Corey Leech took the stand and, in a poised and confident voice, testified in excruciating detail how a Franciscan friar began sexually abusing him from his early teens.

Mr. Leech gave voice to scores of victims of the late Stephen Baker in his testimony, which took place in the pretrial hearing of three Franciscan supervisors who face criminal charges for allegedly failing to protect children from the abusive friar.

Mr. Leech told of Baker abusing him on the athletic training table at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown. He spoke of the friar abusing him on car trips and at his monastery.

“He wanted to prevent other children from living his nightmare,” Mr. Leech’s family wrote in his obituary. “While he did more than his share to help others, it was too late for Corey. His nightmare was inescapable.”

Mr. Leech, 31, was found dead on Friday in his apartment in Richland Township near Johnstown in Cambria County. He had struggled with substance abuse, according to his obituary.

Mr. Leech’s family and supporters recall him as someone long concerned for child welfare. He was a nurse in a neo-natal intensive care unit in Johnstown, recalled for his gentle manner both with at-risk infants and their families.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Paul Walsh Star Tribune MAY 8, 2017

A Twin Cities law firm intends to file a lawsuit Monday against a current Minnesota bishop and a Roman Catholic diocese in the state alleging that a survivor of clergy sex abuse was threatened with retaliation if he revealed how he was assaulted as a child.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who for many years has pursued many legal cases in connection with clergy sex abuse in Minnesota and elsewhere, said this is the first time a U.S. bishop has been sued for coercion.

At a news conference scheduled for Tuesday at Anderson’s offices, the abuse survivor and a priest from the diocese will speak publicly for the first time about “how the bishop threatened retaliation against the survivor and a family member if he disclosed the sexual abuse,” a statement from Anderson’s law firm read.

The bishop “threatened harm to [the] survivor’s vocation” and the “survivor’s son’s career as a priest if he did not recant his abuse report,” the statement continued.

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ROME
JTA

[with video]

ROME (JTA) – Pope Francis danced with a delegation of Hasidic Jews and discussed with them issues including the protection of Jewish cemeteries in Europe and combating child sex abuse.

The pontiff held a 45-minute audience at the Vatican on Monday with the group, which was led by Rabbi Edgar Gluck.

A video on the Yeshiva World News website and also posted to YouTube shows the pope swaying to the music as members of the delegation dance and serenade him with the song “Long years shall satiate him.”

Yeshiva World News quoted Gluck’s son Zvi, who was part of the delegation, as saying the pontiff pledged to work toward enacting “stronger rules against destroying Jewish cemeteries to build roads or homes.”

Zvi Gluck, the founder and director of Amudim, an organization dedicated to helping Jewish victims of abuse and addiction, also tweeted that the pontiff had pledged “zero tolerance” for the sexual abuse of children and said “We need to keep kids safe.”

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ROME
Crux

Pope Francis on Monday met with a delegation of Jewish leaders from Poland, discussing serious matters such as the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and even child sexual abuse, but also lighthearted moments, including the pope … sort of … joining in a song and dance performed by the group.

ROME – Since the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, popes meeting Jewish leaders has become commonplace. Not every day, however, do you see a pope busting a move with those Jewish leaders, but that was the scene Monday in the Vatican.

Pope Francis received a delegation led by Rabbi Chaim Boruch (Edgar) Gluck of Poland in a 45-minute private audience, who was joined by his son, Zvi, the founder and Director of Amudim – an organization dedicated to helping abuse victims and those suffering with addiction within the Jewish community, as well as another Rabbi and other people.

Gluck had met Francis when he travelled to Krakow in Poland for World Youth Day in July 2016, when they discussed the destruction of Jewish cemeteries around the world, and the pontiff suggested the two continue their conversation in the Vatican.

There was serious business in the discussion, as reflected in a tweet dispatched by Zvi Gluck after the encounter. Apparently the topic of child sexual abuse came up, and he quoted the pontiff as saying, “Zero tolerance … We need to keep kids safe,” which he said the pope said to him, his father, and members of the delegation.

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MAINE
WGME

WATERVILLE (WGME) – The Diocese of Portland says there has been a claim of sexual abuse against a pastor of St. Joseph Maronite Church in Waterville.

The diocese says a substantiated claim of sexual abuse of a minor has been made against Fr. Larry Jensen. Jensen is not a priest of the Diocese of Portland.

The diocese says it was notified by Bishop Gregory John Mansour, the bishop of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn. Bishop Mansour says that Jensen has been removed from the ministry.

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MAINE
WMTW

WATERVILLE, Maine —
A priest at a Waterville church has been removed after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor.

Fr. Larry Jensen had worked at St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church in Waterville since 2006.

The Diocese of Portland said the abuse allegations involved a 17-year-old boy and were related to abuse more than 15 years ago outside Maine.

Church officials in New York said a complaint had been filed against Jensen in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The diocese said that once the claim was substantiated, Jensen was removed from the Waterville church and permanently removed from the ministry.

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MAINE
CentralMaine.com

BY AMY CALDER
STAFF WRITER

WATERVILLE — The Rev. Larry Jensen of St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church on Appleton Street has been removed from the church amid allegations of sexual abuse of a minor 15 years ago in Connecticut.

“He has been permanently relieved of priestly ministry and he can not present himself as a priest anymore,” Michael Thomas, vicar general of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, N.Y., said of Jensen Monday morning in a telephone interview.

Thomas said the victim, a male, “was close to 18 but not 18,” when the alleged abuse occurred at the time Jensen was a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

“Father had some sexual contact with this minor, and we were kind of shocked when we got the call last week,” Thomas said. “I confronted Father with it and he didn’t admit it, but he didn’t deny it.”

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ITALIA
Giornalettismo

[Only one in four of Catholic Italians always go to Mass.]

Gli italiani entrano sempre meno in chiesa. Nel nostro Paese va regolarmente a messa ogni settimana solo una persona su quattro. È quanto emerge dai dati Istat aggiornati al 2016 ripresi da un articolo pubblicato oggi sul Giornale a firma di Pier Francesco Borgia. I dati analizzati dal sito Truenumbers segnalano un carlo di 6 punti percentuali in 10 anni.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

5/8/2017

First Bishop in the United States Sued for Coercion

In 2015, a Minnesota Bishop Suppressed Report of Child Sexual Abuse

Survivor to speak publicly for the first time Tuesday about abuse by a former top official in Minnesota diocese

Bishop threatened harm to survivor’s vocation and his son’s career as a priest if he did not recant his abuse report

(St. Paul, MN) – At a news conference on Tuesday in St. Paul, attorney Jeff Anderson, a child sexual abuse survivor, and a Minnesota priest will announce the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of the survivor naming a current Minnesota bishop and diocese as defendants. This is the first time in the United States a bishop has been individually sued for coercion.

“The coercion and concealment in real-time demonstrates the crisis continues unabated,” said Attorney Jeff Anderson.

In 2010, the survivor, who was exploring whether to become a church Deacon, reported his abuse to the bishop. The bishop advised the survivor to tell no one of his abuse. In 2015, the diocese was ordered to produce all information on clergy accused of child sexual abuse, however the perpetrator’s name, a former top official in the diocese, was not included in the required, court-ordered disclosure. After the court order was issued, the bishop actively suppressed the survivor’s abuse report.

Tomorrow, the survivor, as well as a priest of the diocese, will speak publicly for the first time about how the bishop threatened retaliation against the survivor and a family member if he disclosed the sexual abuse.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 11:00AM CT

WHERE: Jeff Anderson & Associates, PA
366 Jackson St., Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

* The press event will be live-streamed from our website at www.andersonadvocates.com and will be streamed via Facebook Live from our Facebook account Jeff Anderson & Associates.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665, Office: 651.237.5143
Mike Finnegan: Cell: 612.205.5531, Office: 651.237.5143

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IRELAND
Newstalk

8 May 2017
Michael Staines

The Minister for Health is hoping to bring forward proposals to end the ownership dispute that has engulfed Ireland’s new National Maternity Hospital by the end of the month.

Minister Simon Harris said officials from the Department of Health are meeting with both hospitals this week – after which he plans to attend talks himself.

Over the weekend an estimated 2,000 people took to the streets calling for the new facility to be kept in public ownership.

Protestors gathered at the Garden of Remembrance before marching to government buildings.

Marchers carried a petition signed by 103,607 people demanding that the decision to hand ownership of the hospital over to religious group, the Sisters of Charity be overturned.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY SHAUN DOUGHERTY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 8, 2017

With less than two months left in the legislative session, it looks like once again lawmakers will leave survivors of child sex abuse behind and fail to pass meaningful reforms to our statute of limitation laws. All New Yorkers, not just survivors like myself, should be disappointed that Senate Republicans choose to hide behind legislative procedures and avoid a vote on the Child Victims Act, instead of committing to helping victims.

New York’s statute of limitations for child sexual abuse crimes are the most restrictive in the country. Survivors have only five years after they reach legal age to file criminal or civil charges against their abusers. I know first-hand how inadequate this amount of time is; it took me a decade to share my story of clergy abuse with my family and more than 30 years to speak publicly about it.

My abuse occurred in 1980 in Johnstown, Pa., by Father George Koharchik, who was my teacher and coach. He was also a trusted friend of the family who had a weekly bowling game with my parents. His betrayal led me down a road of depression, drug addiction and attempted suicide. It made learning difficult and relationships hard.

I’m fortunate that I have been able to build a successful life — I’m married now and own a restaurant in Long Island City — but I know others that haven’t been so lucky. Many battle mental and physical illnesses and struggle to get the help they need.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Victims of historical child abuse are being forced to take their fight for justice to the courts after being “abandoned” by Northern Ireland’s warring politicians.

In January a landmark report into state and church abuse recommended compensation, a memorial and a public apology to abuse survivors.

Dozens of victims had given evidence during a four-year public inquiry about the abuse they suffered as children in care.

However, the collapse of the Stormont government has meant a promised redress scheme has not been set up.

A lawyer for abuse survivors, Claire McKeegan of KRW Law, said they now face the trauma of lengthy court proceedings for justice.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish Sun

By Adam Higgins
7th May 2017

A DEFENCE Forces veteran who suffered terrible abuse in a boys home has told how he fears some survivors will not live long enough to see justice done.

Patrick O’Rourke, now in his seventies, says political upheaval in the North has prevented a vital report being published.

He relived the horrors of his childhood when he told the Historical ­Institutional Abuse Inquiry of the sexual and physical abuse he ­suffered at the Termonbacca Home for Boys in Derry.

But with negotiations to restore a government in Stormont, dragging on, and further delayed by the UK snap General Election, he fears some of the older survivors will pass away without seeing justice.

The Stormont impasse means the Inquiry report has still not been presented to the Northern Ireland assembly and survivors must continue their wait for a formal apology.

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OREGON
Mail Tribune

What’s happening in the case of Donald Courtney Biggs, the former Medford pastor who was arrested a couple years ago?

— No name given, via email

Biggs, 38, formerly a youth pastor with Mountain Church in downtown Medford before his 2015 arrest, has a trial set for June 12 in Medford, U.S. District Court records show.

He is lodged in the Jackson County Jail without bail, where he’s been since January 2015 on federal charges alleging he secretly recorded minors while they were changing their clothes, solicited photographs of them and transported three victims across state lines in incidents between June 2012 and March 2014.

His last court appearance was in November. Case filings show that Biggs is on his third court-appointed defense lawyer, previously requesting different federal public defenders in November 2015 and June 2016. Reasons behind the disagreements with his previous lawyers aren’t listed in court documents.

Nine juvenile victims are identified by their initials in case filings, three of whom Biggs is accused of taking to California. Biggs pleaded not guilty to nine counts of using or attempting to use a minor to produce a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct and three counts of transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity with a minor.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

[Investigation of abuse in the Old Catholic Church.]

Opnieuw zijn er priesters opgedoken die in de oud-katholieke kerk seksueel over de schreef zijn gegaan. Het kerkgenootschap, dat als liberaal bekendstaat en in Nederland zo’n vijfduizend leden telt, maakte dit zelf bekend nadat een crisisteam vorige week een inventarisatie had gemaakt.

Bij zeven geestelijken blijkt sprake te zijn geweest van een ‘onaanvaardbare seksuele houding in pastorale relaties’, zo schrijft de oud-katholieke kerk in een officiële mededeling. De zaken speelden volgens de kerk ‘lang geleden’ en vijf van de priesters zijn inmiddels overleden. “Ook al zouden sommige van deze zaken reeds lang zijn verjaard, de kerk wil niet doen alsof ze daarmee ook niet zouden zijn gebeurd”, melden de oud-katholieke leiders Joris Vercammen en Jan Schoon in de brief.

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SCOTLAND
The Sun

By Lauren Windle
7th May 2017

A WOMAN who was molested by her father over five years and then by the Jehovah’s Witnesses she asked for help has spoken out about her ordeal.

Terrified Angie Rodgers, from Ayrshire, was abused weekly by her perverted Jehovah’s Witness father Ian Cousins from the age of 11.

The brave teen eventually plucked up the courage to confide in the Jehovah’s Witness elders, who took little action and she was later abused by one of them too, Harry Holt.

Angie, now 36, said: “I turned to the church for help and I was abused a second time.

“I was a child and they should have helped, but they turned on me. They make me feel sick.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get over what happened. I’ve just learned to live with it.

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IRELAND
The Times (UK)

Michael Cogley
May 8 2017
The Times

More than 1,500 people marched in Dublin yesterday against the Sisters of Charity taking ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital.

The Times reported in March that the Sisters of Charity, which owns St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, would own the new hospital on the Elm Park site in Dublin after it is built with €300 million of taxpayers’ money.

The protest march, which began at the Garden of Remembrance and finished at Merrion Square, was organised by Uplift, a campaign organisation. The rally ended up with a presentation of a petition of 103,607 signatures printed on 50 metres of paper close to the current maternity hospital on Holles Street. The petition aims to prevent the Sisters of Charity becoming the sole owners of the hospital.

Siobhán O’ Donoghue, the director of Uplift, said the petition was collected over two weeks and would keep pressure on Simon Harris, the health minister.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Olivia Kelly

The relocation of the National Maternity Hospital from Holles Street to St Vincent’s Hospital is being supported by Dublin City Council, even though the new building breaks height rules for the site.

The Health Service Executive in March applied to An Bord Pleanála for the €300 million move, following the resolution of an 18-month dispute between the two hospitals over governance of the new facility.

However, the announcement the following month that sole ownership of the hospital would be given to a healthcare group owned by the Sisters of Charity sparked public protest, and resignations from the Holles Street hospital board and the project board planning the move.

Earlier this month Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the new hospital will have full clinical independence.

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IRELAND
Herald

Gavin White – 08 May 2017

More than 1,500 people marched in Dublin city centre yesterday against the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital remaining in the hands of religious order the Sisters of Charity.

The protesters gathered at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Street before marching to government buildings.

The demonstration was organised by the National Women’s Council Of Ireland, Uplift and Parents For Choice In Pregnancy And Stillbirth.

Among those attending were Aoife McArdle (43) and her three-year-old daughter Clara, from Phibsborough in Dublin.

Ms McArdle said the issue “disturbed her greatly”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Kirsty Blake Knox
May 8 2017

Around 1,500 people marched in Dublin city centre yesterday against the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital being given to the Order of the Sisters of Charity.

The protesters gathered at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, before marching to Government Buildings and handing in a petition with 103,607 signatures.

The demonstration was organised by the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Uplift and Parents for Choice in Pregnancy and Stillbirth.

Among the crowd was Gerry Kelly (75), who travelled up from Waterford for the march.
Mr Kelly said he was “fed up with the Church and its influence on the State”.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

08/05/2017

Pressure is continuing to mount on the Health Minister over the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital.

Up to 1,500 people protested in Dublin yesterday to demand the Sisters of Charity have no role in the running of the €300m taxpayer-funded building.

Simon Harris maintains the current plans will mean the hospital is free from any religious interference, but has asked for an extra month to examine the ownership model.

Social Democrats TD Roísín Shortall says it simply can’t happen.

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IRELAND
Clare FM

The Social Democrats say there can be no defence in handing over the new National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

Up to 1,500 people protested in Dublin yesterday to demand the nuns have no role in running the 300 million euro taxpayer-funded building.

Simon Harris maintains the current plans will mean the hospital is free from any religious interference – but has asked for an extra month to examine the ownership model.

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AUSTRALIA
The Northern Daily Leader

Breanna Chillingworth
@breannachill

8 May 2017

AN EX-priest accused of molesting young boys in the New England has been granted bail amid reports detectives have received another complaint.

Since The Leader revealed David Joseph Perrett’s extradition to NSW on Friday, police have been contacted by other members of the public looking to speak to investigators.

New England Detective Inspector Ann Joy told The Leader investigations were continuing.

“We would encourage anyone with knowledge of any related incident, whether it is a witness or a complainant, to make contact with police,” she said.

“We will investigate those matters thoroughly and as a matter of priority.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com May 8, 2017

As the Vatican continues to receive testimony in the canonical penal trial of Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, former altar boys who testified in Hawaii on Saturday said it’s now up to Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke and four other judges to decide Apuron’s fate as soon as early summer.

The decision on Apuron will be made public, although there was no mention whether Pope Francis will have a direct role in that decision, former altar boys Roy Quintanilla and Roland Sondia said.

They said this is based on information they got from the Rev. Justin M. Wachs. Wachs serves as the Vatican court reporter for the Apuron trial.

“But from what I understand, every decision is a recommendation to Pope Francis,” Concerned Catholics of Guam president David Sablan said.

Quintanilla, Sondia, along with Sablan, said their hope is for the Vatican to find Apuron guilty of sexual abuse of altar boys, remove him as archbishop and defrock him.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

“Apologize to me and explain to me why you did this. Only Apuron can answer those questions, to me that would be justice.” – Roy Quintanilla, one of four alleged victims of sexual abuse by suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron

A canonical trial for suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who faces penal charges in connection with allegations that he sexually abused altar boys decades ago when he was a priest, is expected to be completed by early summer as two additional depositions by his accusers were taken yesterday in Hawaii.

Roy Quintanilla, Roland Sondia, Walter Denton and Doris Concepcion, on behalf of her late son, Joseph “Sonny” Quinata, have alleged they were abused by Apuron while serving as altar boys.

A tribunal from the Vatican came to Guam in February and conducted several interviews, but Sondia did not participate at the direction of his attorney, David Lujan, who expressed concerns about the transparency of the proceedings.

Lujan told The Guam Daily Post a compromise had been reached with the tribunal two weeks ago and arrangements were made for Quintanilla and Sondia to meet with the Vatican representatives at St. Stephen’s Diocesan Center in Kaneohe, Hawaii, on Sunday Guam time.

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IRELAND
Hot Press

The prestigious award for human rights defenders has been presented to the Preda Foundation in the Philippines, which was setup by Father Shay Cullen, who was the subject of a ‘Hot Press Interview’ back in 2007.

The Irish missionary priest, who was presented the Meteor Humanitarian Award back in 2009, received the Shalom award during the weekend from Ulrike Schurr, the chairperson of the Justice and Peace group of the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt.

She said that the award was richly deserved because of the international impact of the work of Preda and Father Shay Cullen. The conferring ceremony was held on 6 May in the University Grand hall and was attended by the leading civic and church personalities and the representative of the president of the University. …

In his acceptance speech Father Shay Cullen said he accepted it on behalf of those who worked on his team for human rights and protecting and healing the victims of human trafficking, abused children and young women.

He added that accepted the award not for himself “but for the victims of oppression, human rights violations, and every kind of abuse. He called on every one to take a strong stand for the human dignity and rights and never to remain silent when there are abuses in the community.”

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ARGENTINA
Washington Post

By Samantha Schmidt May 8

The students in the school for deaf children would call her the “bad nun,” the woman who was supposed to take care of them, but who would send them into rooms to be sexually abused by priests. Others said she committed abuse herself, and would force them to watch pornography on television.

And in a particularly abhorrent case, after a 5-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a priest, the Roman Catholic nun allegedly forced her to wear a diaper in class, to conceal the bleeding, according to Argentine news reports.

Because the other children at the school were deaf, only the victims’ abusers would have heard their cries.

The nun, a woman named Kosaka Kumiko, of Japanese heritage but Argentine nationality, was arrested and charged Friday on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse children at the Antonio Provolo Institute, a school for the hearing-impaired in the Mendoza province of Argentina, authorities said. She was also charged with physically abusing the students.

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ARGENTINA
El Pais

[Priest Julio Grassi was the most media savvy priest in Argentina was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The pope has not expelled or replied to the letters of the victims. The priest claims that the church continues to support him and that he has the support of the Pope Francis who was head of the Argentine church in the years of the scandal.]

CARLOS E. CUÉ
Buenos Aires 29 ABR 2017

Era el cura preferido de los ricos. Una auténtica estrella mediática, el religioso más famoso de Argentina. Desfilaba por todas las televisiones en los noventa, su gran momento. Con apoyo del Gobierno de Carlos Menem y de algunas de las personas más acaudaladas de Argentina, como Amalita Fortabat, Julio Grassi se movía cómodo en los platós y recaudaba enormes cantidades de dinero para su fundación, Felices los Niños, que llegó a acoger a 6.300 menores de la calle. Eran tiempos duros de ajuste en los que era frecuente ver a chavales sin hogar en Buenos Aires. En 2002 llegó el escándalo. El país se paralizó para ver un programa de investigación en televisión, Telenoche,en el que tres de esos niños desvalidos, de entre 14 y 16 años, que dependían de Grassi para todo, contaban los abusos sexuales a los que les sometía. Argentina enmudeció.

Desde ese día se inició una enorme batalla de poder, con todos los ingredientes habituales de un país acostumbrado a las operaciones oscuras: espionaje, amenazas, chantaje. Grassi se defendió con dureza: acudió a todos sus contactos para reivindicar su inocencia, contrató los mejores abogados, e incluso cuando entró en la cárcel —en 2013, 11 años después— logró un trato privilegiado gracias a sus contactos y el dinero de la fundación. Pero finalmente la justicia le derrotó: la Corte Suprema argentina confirmó el 23 de marzo su sentencia a 15 años por abuso sexual agravado y corrupción de menores, ya inamovible.

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NEW YORK
Times Herald-Record

By Amanda Spadaro

HAMLET OF WALLKILL – Former priest Kevin Gallagher knows he betrayed his parishioners and violated his vows.

Was it wrong to have sex with a young man? Yes, he says.

Should that have disqualified him from remaining a priest? He doesn’t think so.

In March, Gallagher, 65, was officially laicized, or removed from the clergy. He had been suspended from serving as a priest since January 2015.

In 2009, he was the pastor of Pine Bush’s Church of the Infant Saviour.

He first met Michael Kyles when he led the funeral service for Kyles’ twin brother, Tyler. Kyles claims that in 2012, Gallagher gave him money to buy heroin – a drug habit he developed after his twin’s death – and sexually abused him.

Gallagher said he never saw Kyles again until 2013, when a mutual friend reintroduced the two.

Almost immediately, Kyles began borrowing money, Gallagher said.

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ARGENTINA
Rete L’Abuso

Scandalo pedofilia in Argentina: per i pm era la complice di un prete veronese

Con le manette ai polsi e il giubbotto antiproiettile sopra la tonaca, si è professata davanti a decine di telecamere e accecata dai flash «una brava persona che ha dedicato la propria vita a Dio».

Invece secondo i suoi ex alunni all’Istituto per sordomuti Provolo di Mendoza, in Argentina, suor Kosaka Kumiko li avrebbe trattati per 6 anni «peggio di un diavolo con la faccia di donna». La latitanza della religiosa giapponese si è conclusa a Buenos Aires dopo 26 giorni: su di lei pendeva un mandato di cattura internazionale spiccato dai pm sudamericani Gustavo Stroppiana e Flavio D’Amore, che la descrivono come «la principale complice degli abusi che il prete veronese Nicola Corradi ha perpetrato a oltre una sessantina di ragazzi e bambini iscritti all’Istituto».

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com May 7, 2017

The Vatican tribunal working on Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s canonical penal trial will be hearing testimony in California from John Toves, the first person to publicly accuse Apuron in 2014 of sexual abuse, of his cousin.

Led by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, the tribunal also received a written testimony from John Michael “Champ” Quinata, alleging that Apuron raped his brother, the now deceased former altar boy Joseph Anthony “Sonny” Quinata, when his brother was 9 years old.

Champ Quinata said he’s willing to testify in person if and when necessary. He and his mother, Doris Y. Concepcion, visiting from Arizona, marked the 12th year death anniversary of Sonny Quinata with a Mass at Saint Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church in Sinajana Friday night.

“The Vatican should defrock him (Apuron),” Champ Quinata said. “He should also go to jail for what he did. Nothing will bring back my brother but the church should continue its efforts to change for the better, and it goes deeper than just Apuron. I think my brother is happy where he is now, because everyone now knows what Apuron did to him when he’s a child.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Sun

By David Kearns
7th May 2017

THOUSANDS of people are marching through Dublin city centre this afternoon protesting against religious ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital.

The main throughway through the capital, O’Connell St, is currently closed to allow the thousand or so demonstrators passage on their way to Merrion Square.

AA Roadwatch and gardai are advising those travelling through Dublin to avoid the city centre as best as they can for the next few hours.

Those protesting today are opposed to the Government’s decision to appoint the Sisters of Charity as sole owners of the new €300m taxpayer-funded hospital.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE took to the streets to protest against the Sisters of Charity owning the new national maternity hospital.

Over 1,500 people marched from the Garden of Remembrance to Merrion Square to hand over a petition against the move.

Campaign organisation Uplift presented a viral petition printed on 50 feet sheets of card to the gathered crowd.

Siobhan O’Donoghue, Director of Uplift said:

“We are sending a huge people powered message today to Simon Harris that he has only one real choice regarding ownership of the National Maternity Hospital – it must be kept in public ownership”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Gavin White
May 7 2017

AROUND 1,500 people marched in Dublin city centre today against the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital being given to the religious order the Sisters of Charity.

The protesters gathered at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Street before marching to Government buildings.

The demonstration was organised by the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Uplift and Parents for Choice in Pregnancy and Stillbirth.

Amongst the crowd was Gerry Kelly (75) who came up from Waterford for what he called “a massive issue.”
Mr Kelly said he was “fed up with the church and its influence on the state.

“Taxpayers money going into the hospital does not equal religious ownership of the new hospital.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Kitty Holland

Several thousand people marched under glorious Dublin sunshine on Sunday calling on the Government to ensure the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) is not controlled by a religious order.

Construction of the new NMH, which is to be located on the campus of St Vincent’s Hospital, will be paid for by the State, but – according to terms of the current agreement – will be gifted to the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, owned by the Sisters of Charity because it owns the land.

A petition on the Uplift.ie site, calling for this not to happen, has had more than 100,000 signatures.

Sunday’s march was organised by Uplift.ie in conjunction with the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI), Parents for Choice, Terminations for Medical Reasons and the Justice for Magdalenes group.

Among the slogans on numerous placards were, “No nunsense in our hospitals”, “Not just a storm in a tea-cup, storm over a septic tank”, “Time to kick bad habits” and “Savita”.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

Update 2.24pm: Large crowds have gathered in Dublin this afternoon protesting against plans to hand over ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

Several women’s rights groups say the €300m taxpayer-funded building should not be handed over to a religious order.

Today’s demonstration is organised by Parents for Choice, Uplift, the National Women’s Council of Ireland and Justice for Magdalenes.

The groups say handing over the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital – to be built on the campus of St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin – to a religious order – is a mark of disrespect to Irish women.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Up to 1,500 people are taking part in a march in Dublin city centre against religious ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital.

The ‘We Own Our Hospitals’ march is being organised by Parents for Choice, together with Uplift, the National Women’s Council, and Justice for Magdalenes.

Participants will make their way down O’Connell Street before finishing up at Merrion Square.

There has been growing opposition after it emerged the Religious Sisters of Charity will be given ownership of the €300m taxpayer-funded hospital because it owns the land on which it is to be built.

The new hospital is to be built on the campus of St Vincent’s University Hospital in south Dublin.

Parents for Choice spokesperson Sinead Redmond said it is a “mark of disrespect” to the survivors of homes where lone mothers were locked up “by this order of nuns in their laundries” to give the Sisters of Charity ownership of the new hospital.

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ITALIA
RSI News

[con video]

[A first case of abuse said to have occurred in Ticino has been brought to the attention of the diocesan commission that deals with sexual abuse in the ecclesiastical sphere. It dates back to the ’60s and it was not reported at the time. The alleged perpetrator was not a priest in the diocese but was on a “temporary stay.”]

Un primo caso avvenuto in Ticino è stato portato all’attenzione della commissione diocesana che si occupa degli abusi sessuali commessi in ambito ecclesiastico. Risale agli anni ’60 e allora non fu denunciato. Il presunto autore, ci ha confermato un membro della commissione stessa, era un sacerdote non incardinato nella diocesi, il suo era un “soggiorno temporaneo”.

La vittima ne ha parlato solo ora, dopo che il 17 gennaio sono state presentate due figure indipendenti (attualmente lo psichiatra Carlo Calanchini e la psicoterapeuta Rita Pezzati) alle quali ci si può rivolgere per una consulenza e per l’aiuto necessario a maturare la denuncia. Accanto alla creazione della citata commissione, è un passo importante per la Chiesa cattolica ticinese, un passo compiuto in realtà già da un paio di anni ma finora non pubblicizzato, tanto che fino al momento della conferenza stampa nessuno si era fatto avanti.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

A rally will take place in Dublin today calling for the National Maternity Hospital to be kept in public ownership.

The various groups- including ‘Justice for Magdalenes’ (JFM) and ‘Parents for Choice’ (PFC) have said the hospital belongs in public not private hands.

The Minister for Health Simon Harris has insisted he is “as determined as ever” to go ahead with the project and has called for a period of calm to discuss the plans with the various hospital boards ahead of a planning permission decision from An Bord Pleanála – due in the autumn.

He has insisted the religious organisation will be unable to profit from the facility and pledged to ensure that there will be no religious interference in the hospitals ethos or clinical independence.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Hayley Halpin
May 7 2017

A protest against the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital being given to the religious order the Sisters of Charity is set to take place in Dublin city centre today.

The demonstration is being organised by the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Uplift and Parents for Choice in Pregnancy and Stillbirth.

The march will gather at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm before demonstrators make their way down to Leinster House.

Uplift created a petition aimed at the Department of Health to block Sisters of Charity as “sole owners” of the National Maternity Hospital. The petition has received over 103,000 of 125,000 signatures.

Denise Kiernan, creator of the petition, is set to be one of the speakers at today’s marc

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

We have now added the timetable for Phase 1 of the Inquiry hearings to this website. It can be found in a new section called Hearings.

The evidence to be heard will include:

* Evidence from expert witnesses about:
* The legislative and regulatory framework governing children in care in Scotland up to 1968;
* The early development of care services in Scotland;
* Societal attitudes towards children; and
* The nature and prevalence of child abuse in Scotland.
* Evidence from the Scottish Government on the nature, extent and development of the State’s areas of responsibility for children in residential and foster care in Scotland.
* Evidence of the history and governance of a number of care providers, including faith based organisations, and whether there is any retrospective acknowledgement of abuse.
* Evidence of the background, development, purpose and work of survivor groups.

This first phase of hearings will begin on 31 May 2017 and run until 12 July 2017.

We have also updated the Costs table to include the Inquiry’s expenditure for the period 1 January 2017 to 31 March 2017.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Peter Swindon, Group Investigations Writer / @PeterSwindon

Survivors of systemic sexual and physical abuse have asked Police Scotland to send officers to the first public hearings of an unprecedented inquiry.

They have also urged the independent Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry to publish a detailed breakdown of spending after costs soared by more than £2m in the first three months of this year.

And there have been fresh calls to widen the inquiry to include a charity which has worked with more than 1,000 survivors but was denied “core participant” status, meaning it can’t question witnesses or view evidence.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

7 May 2017

NORMA PRENDIVILLEnormap@limerickleader.ie

FIANNA Fail TD for Limerick, Niall Collins, has again intervened in the ongoing controversy over documents from the Glin Industrial School which are now in the possession of abuse survivor, Tom Wall.

In March, Br Edmund Garvey, head of the European Province of the Congregation of Christian Brothers, wrote to Deputy Collins who had raised the issue in the Dail, and told him the Brothers would be satisfied with copies of the documents for their archives.

Now Deputy Collins has, at the request of Tom Wall, again contacted Br Garvey. “I have written to Br Garvey and asked him to confirm what he previously said to me which was that they would be happy with copies of the documents,” Deputy Collins told the Limerick Leader this Wednesday. “But I am still waiting on a reply.”

Tom Wall has, meanwhile, rejected a proposed agreement sent to him by solicitors acting for the Christian Brothers because he felt it did not include a renunciation of any legal claim to the documents by the Brothers.

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ROME
Pacific Daily News

Eric J. Lyman, For USA Today
May 7, 2017

ROME — Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron isn’t the first high-ranking church official to be accused of sexual abuse, but his ongoing canonical trial at the Vatican is ground-breaking, according to experts.

A new trial process for these types of allegations is in place under Pope Francis, and Apuron would be the first to be investigated and tried since its implementation.

Former Agat altar boys Walter Denton, Roy Quintanilla, Roland Sondia, and the relatives of former altar boy Joseph “Sonny” Quinata have accused Apuron of child molestation and rape when he was parish priest in the late 1970s. Apuron has denied the allegations.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last October named Cardinal Raymond Burke the presiding judge in Apuron’s trial. Burke’s office did not reply to requests for comment.

According to Iacopo Scaramuzzi, a Vatican expert who has written a book about Pope Francis called “Tango Vaticano,” Francis has completed a reform process started under Pope Benedict XVI that makes it possible for those accused of sexual abuse to face two trials: a canonical trial and a criminal trial. Previously, only the criminal trial was used.

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

Jordan Otero Sisson and Ken Byron

Cheers erupted through Holy Trinity Church in Hartford Saturday night at the moment worshippers learned that their beloved and historic building would not be closing, something parishioners feared for months would happen under a church reorganization plan.

But in Cheshire, the mood at the 4 p.m. Saturday Mass was much different: Parishioners at the Church of the Epiphany heard that theirs would be among the 59 parishes slated to merge with other parishes under the Archdiocese of Hartford’s reorganization plan, released Saturday. Their church will close.

“I’m going to minister to you as best as I can,” the Rev. John L. Williams Jr. said in his homily to Cheshire parishioners. “The nearest thing I can compare this to would be ministering to people who have suffered a death in their family. There’s going to be pain.”

The emotions inside the churches in Hartford and Cheshire Saturday will likely mirror what parishioners will experience Sunday morning at Masses celebrated across the archdiocese. The areas hardest hit by the changes were parts of New Haven County, including Waterbury where four church buildings are slated to close.

Parishioners at Holy Trinity first believed their small church on Capitol Avenue in Hartford would make the cut under the plan, which will merge dozen of parishes this summer. But as planning entered its final weeks, they worried their church was doomed.

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

Interactive Map: Archdiocese of Hartford Reconfiguration

Jordan Otero Sisson

Fifty-nine parishes in the Archdiocese of Hartford will be merged under a plan that church leaders say is designed to launch a new era of Catholicism in Connecticut, church leaders said Saturday morning.

The mergers, which will be effective as of June 29, will involve unions of two, three, four, five and six parishes, according to a press release.

New Haven County was hit the hardest, with 16 parishes there slated for closure, according to the plan available on the archdiocese’s website.

The archdiocese, which currently oversees 212 parishes in Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties, spent the two years developing a reorganization plan.

Under the new structure, there will be 127 pastorates in the initial phase, from 2017-19. Sixty-eight parishes will remain as-is in the first phase. A pastorate is a single parish with a church and one or more worship sites, campus and ministries, according to the archdiocese’s pastoral planning website.

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ARGENTINA
El Pais

FEDERICO RIVAS MOLINA
Buenos Aires 6 MAY 2017

“Soy una persona buena que he entregado mi vida a Dios”, dijo la monja Kosaka Kumiko. Vestida aún con su hábito, pero esposada y con chaleco antibalas, la religiosa se declaró inocente ante el juez que la acusa de ayudar y encubrir a los sacerdotes que, durante años, abusaron sexualmente de los niños sordos que tenían a su cuidado en el Instituto Provolo de Mendoza, en Argentina. Kumiko llegó al colegio en 2007 desde Japón, y durante seis años fue “el demonio con cara de mujer” detrás de las violaciones, como la llamó uno de los abogados de las víctimas. Esos mismos niños han sido ahora los verdugos judiciales de la monja: en marzo pasado, una adolescente contó que, cuando tenía sólo cinco años, Kumiko le colocó un pañal para disimular el sangrado que le producía la violación sistemática a la que la sometían varios sacerdotes de la orden. La mujer tenía también la misión de seleccionar a los niños más “sumisos” y entregarlos como presas a los curas. Ahora ha quedado detenida, luego de estar prófuga durante más de un mes.

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ARGENTINA
The Sun (UK)

By Hannah Crouch
7th May 2017

A JAPANESE nun has been arrested and charged on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse deaf children at an Argentinean school.

Kosaka Kumiko was accused of helping priests with anal and vaginal rapes, fondling and oral sex, which were allegedly committed in the bathrooms, dormitories, garden and a basement at the Antonio Provolo Institute for children in Lujan de Cuyo.

The 42-year-old was pictured in handcuffs and wearing her habit and a bullet-proof vest as she was escorted by police to a court hearing.

A case against the nun was launched after a former student claimed Kumiko had made her wear a diaper in order to cover up a haemorrhage after she was allegedly raped by priest Horacio Corbacho.

Kumiko denies any wrong-doing and told judicial officials: “I am innocent.”

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on May 7, 2017 by Betty Clermont

Every pope “possesses supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely” according to the Code of Canon Law.

Members of the Roman Curia are appointed and granted authority by the pope.

Pope Francis has also changed the Curia administration. First he created a Secretariat for the Economy and a Council for the Economy. Next, he created a Secretariat for Communications. He replaced the management of the Vatican Bank and the Vatican’s financial “watchdog,” the Financial Information Authority. In the past year, he created new departments for Integral Human Development and another for the Laity, Family and Life replacing five previous councils. Also, the pope appointed 27 new members to the Congregation for Divine Worship, changing the department through its personnel.

Yet the anglophone media has declared in scores of reports that Pope Francis’ struggles to “clean-up” the Vatican but is thwarted by his subordinates, often characterized as “conservatives.” (e.g. here, here, here, here)

Pope Francis, however, refers to his subordinates as “the leprosy of the papacy.” He has accused them of “spiritual Alzheimer’s,” “existential schizophrenia,” “hypocrisy typical of the mediocre,” “progressive spiritual emptiness,” and having cliques that “enslave their members and become a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body.”

SEX ABUSE

Working on the FBI’s specialized team investigating child pornography and sexual abuse crimes is so disturbing that it is the only department staffed entirely by volunteers who are free to leave at any time.

Pope Francis’ leadership in allowing sexual assaults against children to continue is the most sickening and unprecedented in modern ecclesial history.

More than fifteen years after the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” on predator priests, the U.S. bishops published their most recent self-report.

Shockingly, 172 clerics accused of sexual abuse of minors, as counted between 2014 and mid-2015 inclusive, are still in active ministry, retired, resigned or their whereabouts unknown.

Another 121 were permanently or temporarily removed from ministry and 40 were laicized (defrocked). No mention is made how many are free men or if any are incarcerated.

“Research has consistently shown that false allegations of child sexual abuse by children are rare.”

Between 2013-2015 inclusive, 2,315 victim/survivors were reported to the bishops.

Suicides of clerical sex abuse victims “are over 30 times the rate in the general population.”

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IRELAND
The Journal

A PROTEST MARCH against the Sisters of Charity owning the new national maternity hospital will take place in Dublin city today.

Demonstrators will gather at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm before making their way to Leinster House.

Today’s march has been organised by a number of groups including the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Parents for Choice in Pregnancy and Stillbirth, Justice for Magdalenes Research and Uplift.

The latter organised a petition against the religious order owning the hospital. It has been signed by over 103,000 people at the time of publication.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

07/05/2017

Women’s rights groups will march through Dublin today to protest against any possibility of granting of ownership of the National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

The various groups including Justice for Magdalenes say the hospital belongs in public not private hands.

“[There is a] general wrongness in this action and it should be really, really obvious to the Government that this is not something that should happen, that it’s obviously going to outrage people and that people don’t trust the Sisters of Charity to do what’s best with their ownership of the National Maternity Hospital,” she said.

A similar protest is also taking place outside Sligo Courthouse at 2pm today.

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 GRACE MACASKILL
6 MAY 2017

Cowering under her duvet at night, 11-year-old Angie prayed that God would keep her safe.

Sadly for the terrified youngster, the church she trusted were on the side of the very man who haunted her nightmares – her abusive father.

And shockingly, when she plucked up the courage to tell elders at the Jehovah’s Witness church what had happened, one of them went on to abuse her as well.

Now a mum of four, 36-year-old Angie Rodgers said: “I turned to the church for help and I was abused a second time. I was a child and they should have helped but instead they turned on me.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Herald Live

May 7, 2017

The evidence presented at the bail application of pastor Tim Omotoso in Port Elizabeth this week has been sordid.

The pastor is accused of sexual abuse and human trafficking and, of course, these allegations must still be tested in court. However, they do also highlight a particularly South African problem: the exchange of sexual services between vulnerable young women and powerful older men.

Evidence was led that most of the teenage girls alleged to have been abused lacked a father figure and turned to the pastor to fill this role. Whether or not he abused this role is over to the law to decide.

However, The Herald on Friday also reported on the good work done by the First Things First movement which is taking a firm stand against lecturers who hand out higher marks to students who sleep with them.

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SOUTH AFRICA
News 24

2017-05-07

Nosipiwo Manona

Timothy Omotoso made his victims massage him with Vaseline before penetrating them without condoms and reciting a psalm afterwards.

An investigating officer in the case of jailed pastor Timothy Omotoso this week gave chilling testimony of how the clergyman allegedly used the modus operandi of a skilled sexual predator to lure young girls and later abuse them.

Omotoso is facing various sexual offence charges, including human trafficking and rape.

His appearances at the Port Elizabeth Magistrates’ Court have been marked by huge crowds of supporters, who have gathered outside court insisting he is innocent.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Eagle-Tribune

By Jill Harmacinski jharmacinski@eagletribune.com 

LAWRENCE — Two men who were students at Central Catholic High School in the 1960s both told The Eagle-Tribune they were physically and sexually abused by the late Brother Michael Edward and that a culture of “regimentation and intimidation” was prevalent there. 

“There was extreme physical abuse and it was just accepted,” said Michael Bresnahan, a 1967 Central Catholic graduate who now works as a teacher at the Guilmette School in Lawrence.

Bresnahan said students at that time wore collared shirts, ties and jackets and Brother Michael Edward would tell them to unbutton their shirts. The brother, he said, reached into his shirt and others, feeling their pectoral muscles and nipples. Bresnahan said he was not personally abused beyond the chest touching but witnessed the physical abuse of others.

He said Brother Michael Edward also repeatedly slapped the face of a fellow student who was forced to stand in front of the class. 

“When you are in a culture of regimentation and intimidation you don’t know what’s normal,” said Bresnahan, age 67.

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

BY MARK CUMMINGS
Editor-at-Large
cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, May 07, 2017

BUNKER’S Hill, Trelawny — The Church in Jamaica has been thrown into further disarray, with news that another man of the cloth has been arrested and charged by the police with a sexual offence against a minor.Host pastor of the Bunker’s Hill New Testament Church of God in Trelawny, Presley Smith will face the Falmouth Parish Court later this week, after he was arrested and charged on Friday with acts of sexual offences.

Allegations are that between January 2016 and January of this year, Smith, 27, a native of Kingston but who currently lives in this rural Trelawny community, committed a number of sexual offences against a 15-year-old male student who hails from the district and is now residing in Montego Bay, St James.

Investigators have said that Smith turned himself in at the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) in Kingston on May 3 and was later transferred to Falmouth, where he was subsequently slapped with charges of buggery, gross indecency, and grievous sexual assault.

A senior police officer who is close to the investigations told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that the alleged acts were committed at the pastor’s rented house in the Bunker’s Hill community.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

[Research has revealed five new cases of sexual abuse by clergy in the Old Catholic Church (OKKN). The perpetrators are all deceased. According to the church they founda total of seven clergymen guilty of an “unacceptable sexual behavior in pastoral situations”.]

Onderzoek door de Oud-Katholieke Kerk (OKKN) heeft vijf nieuwe gevallen van seksueel misbruik aan het licht gebracht. De daders zijn allen overleden. Volgens de kerk hebben in totaal zeven geestelijken zich schuldig gemaakt aan een “onaanvaardbare seksuele houding in pastorale situaties”.

De andere twee gevallen kwamen onlangs in het nieuws: een priester is in Cambodja opgepakt omdat hij seksueel expliciete foto’s van jonge kinderen maakte, een ander werd geschorst bij zijn parochie in Amsterdam omdat hij in het verleden een kind misbruikte.

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CONNECTICUT
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford

HARTFORD, Conn. (May 6, 2017) A headline in one of the local newspapers today stated that 127 parishes in the Archdiocese of Hartford are slated to close. This is false.

What is being announced this weekend is that as a result of a two-year pastoral planning process, as of June 29 there will be 127 parishes in the Archdiocese of Hartford, instead of the current 212.

68 parishes will remain as they are; 59 will merge. The mergers will involve unions of two, three, four, five and six parishes.

186 church buildings will remain open. 26 church buildings will close, inasmuch as regularly scheduled Masses will not be held in them.

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ARGENTINA
Televisa

En un nuevo y escabroso episodio relacionado con el presunto abuso sexual de niños sordos en la provincia argentina de Mendoza, una monja católica fue acusada por la justicia de haber facilitado y consentido las violaciones.

La japonesa Kosaka Kumiko, de 42 años, fue imputada la noche del jueves por un fiscal de “comisión por omisión del abuso sexual con acceso carnal”, entre otros cargos, y quedó detenida en la Penitenciaría de Agua de las Avispas en la ciudad de Mendoza, situada a unos a 1.190 kilómetros al oeste de Buenos Aires.

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ARGENTINA
Daily Mail (UK)

By Timothyna Duncan For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

A Roman Catholic nun from Japan has been arrested and charged on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse children at a school for youths with hearing disabilities in Argentina.

Kosaka Kumiko, 42, was charged with helping the priests with anal and vaginal rapes, fondling and oral sex, which were allegedly committed in the bathrooms, dormitories, garden and a basement at the school in Lujan de Cuyo, a city about 620 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.

The case against Kumiko began after a former student accused her of making her wear a diaper to cover up a hemorrhage after she was allegedly raped by priest Horacio Corbacho.

‘I am innocent,’ she told judicial officials, who ordered her to be taken into custody at a local women’s prison while detectives investigate the alleged crimes.

The nun, who has Argentine citizenship, has also been charged with physically abusing the students – whose torments could only be heard by those abusing them since the other children were deaf – at the Antonio Provolo Institute for children with hearing impairment in northwestern Mendoza province.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Francis G. Ozog Funeral Home

March 29, 1986 ~ May 5, 2017 (age 31)

Corey Joseph Edward Leech, 31; Johnstown. This is the story of Corey Joseph Edward Leech. It was a promising beginning that ended far too soon at the ripe age of 31. Corey, the third-eldest brother of 10, enjoyed playing and watching sports. His favorite professional teams were the Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Atlanta Braves. Corey was also a talented athlete, playing baseball, basketball, and football for Bishop McCort high school. Through his Catholic educators, Corey was introduced to a “man of the cloth,” a predator, who aimed to take advantage of a trusting, handsome, and athletic boy. Despite his years of private suffering, Corey went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude from the nursing program at Mt. Aloysius, where he also played baseball and earned his Bachelor’s degree in 2008. Corey pursued a career as a registered nurse in the regional intensive care nursery at Conemaugh and also as a traveling nurse in San Diego, CA.

He had a true passion for children and was delighted that his career afforded him the opportunity to help babies who were “smaller than his hand.”Turns out Corey was one of many children victimized by this man. When his years of private torment became national news, Corey made an uncommonly brave decision. He chose to testify. He wanted to prevent other children from living his nightmare. While he did more than his share to help others, it was too late for Corey. His nightmare was inescapable. Years of abuse by this clergyman destroyed Corey’s faith. The house of God no longer provided any solace for Corey, so he sought peace the only way he could, through substance abuse. Corey will be remembered by his family and friends as the caring, bright and fun-loving young man whose future was stolen from him by those he trusted the most.

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NEW YORK
WHEC

May 06, 2017

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – In New York state government news, victims of childhood sexual crimes petition lawmakers to let them sue abusers even if the statute of limitations has run out and child welfare advocates seek a ban on toys containing toxic materials.

The two proposals are among dozens of bills competing for attention as lawmakers begin the final six weeks of their annual legislative session.

A look at what’s coming up this week in Albany:
___

CHILD VICTIMS ACT

New York state now has one of the nation’s tightest statute of limitations on filing criminal charges and lawsuits for past molestation.

The proposal before lawmakers would eliminate the criminal and civil statute of limitations for several child sexual abuse crimes and create a one-year window for past victims to file civil suits.

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IRELAND
The Irish Sun

By Kieran Dineen
4th May 2017

THE Catholic Church has assets valued at almost €4billion that campaigners say should be controlled and owned by the State.

The future site of the €300million National Maternity Hospital — which will be built on Church land and owned by the Church — has reignited a debate about the role of the ­Vatican in this country.

And an analysis by the Irish Sun shows that Pope Francis has a far bigger grip on the State than this crisis shows.

We totted up the total value of the schools, hospitals and disability ­services which are owned and controlled by religious orders in Ireland.

A number of politicians say these should be handed over to the State, and that Rome should have no role.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

[A year ago, it was known for the first time that in the 1980s children were sexually abused in a Hamburg children home. Two former inhabitants had reported the abuse. Now the (Protestant) church is looking for more contemporary witnesses.]

Vor einem Jahr war erstmals bekannt geworden, dass in 80er-Jahre in einem Hamburger Heim Kinder sexuell missbraucht worden sein sollen. Zwei ehemalige Bewohnerinnen hatten sich gemeldet. Nun sucht die Kirche weitere Zeitzeugen.

Nach einem Aufruf des Kirchenkreises Hamburg-Ost im Oktober haben sich mehrere ehemalige Bewohner des evangelischen Kinderheimes gemeldet, in dem in den 80er-Jahren mehrere Kinder sexuelle missbraucht worden sein sollen. Die Aussagen seien schlüssig und glaubwürdig, erklärte Pröpstin Ulrike Murrmann am Donnerstag. Die Gespräche mit den Personen stünden erst am Anfang. Es habe sich aber gezeigt, so Pröpstin Murmann, „dass wir auf dem richtigen Weg sind“. Nun werde nach weiteren Zeitzeugen gesucht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
General Anzeiger

[BAD GODESBERG. At the Aloisiuskolleg (Ako) in Bad Godesberg, there was apparently a sexual assault by an employee in mid-April. The college has taken immediate action.]

BAD GODESBERG. Am Aloisiuskolleg (Ako) in Bad Godesberg hat es Mitte April offenbar einen sexuellen Übergriff durch einen Mitarbeiter gegeben. Das Kolleg hat daraus umgehend Konsequenzen gezogen.

Von Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu, 06.05.2017

Wie Dirk Schneemann, Pressesprecher der Bezirksregierung, auf GA-Anfrage bestätigte, habe das Kolleg der Schulaufsicht mitgeteilt, dass sich ein Lehrer einer solchen Tat schuldig gemacht habe. “Nach unserer Kenntnis hat das Kolleg dienstrechtliche Konsequenzen gezogen und Strafanzeige gegen den Mitarbeiter erstattet.”

Für das Ako sagte auf GA-Anfrage der gerade verabschiedete Rektor, Pater Johannes Siebner, als Geschäftsführer der Aloisiuskolleg gGmbH, man habe sich mit dem Mitarbeiter darauf verständigt, dass er das Kolleg “zum Schuljahresende verlassen und bis dahin nicht an das Aloisiuskolleg zurückkehren wird”. Die Frage, ob das Kolleg Strafanzeige gegen den Mann gestellt habe und weshalb, ließ Siebner unbeantwortet. Nach GA-Informationen soll Mitte April ein Lehrer einer Schülerin gegenüber übergriffig geworden sein. In einem Rundschreiben an die Eltern bittet das Ako zum Schutze der Persönlichkeitsrechte aller dringend um Diskretion.

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DEUTSCHLAND
RP Online

[At the Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn there was obviously a sexual assault by a teacher. There had been several such cases in the Jesuit school in the past.]

Bonn. Am Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn hat es offenbar einen sexuellen Übergriff durch einen Mitarbeiter gegeben. An der Jesuitenschule hatte es in der Vergangenheit mehrere solcher Fälle gegeben.

Der bisherige Leiter der Jesuitenschule, Pater Johannes Siebner, bestätigte am Samstag auf Anfrage einen Bericht des Bonner “General-Anzeigers”. Der Zeitung sagte Siebner, man habe sich mit dem Mitarbeiter darauf verständigt, dass dieser das Gymnasium im Stadtteil Bad Godesberg zum Schuljahresende verlassen und bis dahin nicht an das Aloisiuskolleg zurückkehren werde.

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

Jordan Otero Sisson

Fifty-nine parishes in the Archdiocese of Hartford will be merged under a plan that church leaders say is designed to launch a new era of Catholicism in Connecticut, church leaders said Saturday morning.

The mergers, which will be effective as of June 29, will involve unions of two, three, four, five and six parishes, according to a press release.

The archdiocese, which currently oversees 212 parishes in Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties, spent the two years developing a reorganization plan.

Under the new structure, there will be 127 pastorates in the initial phase, from 2017-19. Sixty-eight parishes will remain as-is in the first phase. A pastorate is a single parish with a church and one or more worship sites, campus and ministries, according to the archdiocese’s pastoral planning website.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

More than 1,000 people have attended a funeral service for the former Bishop of Gloucester.

The Right Reverend Michael Perham died aged 69 last month after a battle with cancer.

He was appointed in 2004 and retired in November 2014.

People travelled from as far away as America and Sweden to attend the service at Gloucester Cathedral, which was presided over by current bishop the Right Reverend Rachel Treweek.

In 2015 Bishop Perham was cleared by both the Church of England and police of two allegations of historical sexual abuse.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle Times

By Mary Dispenza
Special to The Times

MY silence has been disturbing me. It’s a familiar reaction for survivors like me. But I can’t keep silent any longer. Silence keeps things in darkness and prevents us from seeing clearly in the light of day.

I don’t have the right to speak for or against Seattle Mayor Ed Murray or the man, Delvonn Heckard, who has accused the mayor of raping him as a teen. Nor do I want to. However, I do have the right and responsibility to speak for myself, as a survivor of sexual abuse, and possibly for other survivors who have been sexually violated.

I have to talk about this issue and write about it. I just can’t stuff it down. Sexual abuse, well, it’s been a big chunk of my life. I can tell victims and survivors it gets better, but it doesn’t go away. That’s how it is: We heal and we remember. Talking about it helps.

There is, and always has been, so much silence and secrecy around issues of sex, sexuality and sex abuse. It’s a taboo topic for most of us — especially around the dinner table with family and friends. And yet predatory sexual abuse has no boundaries. It doesn’t matter. It knows no religion, race, color, gender, socio-economic bracket. It can affect us regardless of our social conditioning or whether we are gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

It’s so much easier to talk about politics or other matters than to discuss sex or sexual abuse. What we keep hidden can fester and spread. It holds power over us.
.

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ARGENTINA
The Independent (UK)

Lucy Pasha-Robinson @lucypasha

A Roman Catholic nun has been charged on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse deaf children, Argentinean authorities have said.

Kosaka Kumiko was also charged with physically abusing the students at the Antonio Provolo Institute for children with hearing impairment in northwestern Mendoza province.

The 42-year-old nun, who was born in Japan but has Argentine citizenship, denied any wrongdoing.

Kumiko lived at the school between 2004 and 2012, according to authorities. She had been on the run for about a month before she turned herself in this week.

A former student accused the nun of forcing her to wear a diaper to conceal bleeding after she was allegedly raped by priest Horacio Corbacho, prompting police to investigate.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Mary Minihan

Concerns about the possible intervention of the Vatican in the future ownership and ethos of the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) have been raised with the Minister for Health Simon Harris by Amnesty International Ireland.

Executive director Colm O’Gorman said he had set out fresh questions in a letter to the Minister this week, focused on the transfer of ownership of the NMH to the religious-owned St Vincent’s Healthcare Group.

“One significant issue which we have not seen addressed is the question of possible intervention by the Vatican regarding issues of both ownership and ethos of the facility,” Mr O’Gorman told The Irish Times.

Mr O’Gorman said the Sisters of Charity was an institute of pontifical right, meaning it was under the ultimate authority of the Pope.

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ARGENTINA
Equilibrio Informativo

Pablo Novarro

Lo cierto es que en la jornada de este martes, la religiosa se entregó en una comisaría de Buenos Aires y en los próximos días será trasladada a Mendoza para quedar a disposición del fiscal Stroppiana. Fuentes judiciales adelantaron que una vez que llegue, será imputada y trasladada a la Unidad III Penal de Mujeres ubicada en El Borbollón, Las Heras.

Se cree que Kumiko “tanteaba” a los niños para descubrir a los más sumisos, quienes luego serían abusados. El fiscal negó esta medida, por lo que ahora será un juez el que defina si se otorga un recupero de libertad -ya que la monja estará encarcelada- o una prisión domiciliaria, en caso que la defensa lo solicite.

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ARGENTINA
Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A Roman Catholic nun from Japan has been arrested and charged on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse children at a school for youths with hearing disabilities in Argentina, authorities said.

Kosaka Kumiko was also charged with physically abusing the students at the Antonio Provolo Institute for children with hearing impairment in northwestern Mendoza province.

Kumiko, who was born in Japan but has Argentine citizenship, denied any wrongdoing during an eight-hour court hearing late Thursday. She was shown being led by police in handcuffs, and wearing her habit and a bullet-proof vest.

The case against Kumiko began after a former student accused her of making her wear a diaper to cover up a hemorrhage after she was allegedly raped by priest Horacio Corbacho.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

By Lisa Redmond (Patch Staff) – May 5, 2017

LAWRENCE — The Central Catholic dean of students and basketball coach who was suspended for allegedly sending inappropriate messages to a former student has resigned, according a letter sent to the school community on Friday, the Eagle-Tribune reports.

Richard Nault, 45, was placed on adminstrative leave about a week ago amid allegations allegedly he sent inappropriate messages on Snapchat.

Nault has resigned from his position, effective April 26, according to the letter from Central Catholic President Christopher Sullivan.

Nault’s resignation comes in the wake of the school firing Andrew Nikonchuk, assistant principal for curriculum and instruction, following allegations that he had drugged and raped a former male student off campus in Lowell in 2006.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By James Duffy GLOBE CORRESPONDENT MAY 05, 2017

Richard Nault, the dean of students and basketball coach at Central Catholic, resigned Friday amid an investigation into his possible misconduct. Nault had been on administrative leave since Tuesday for allegedly sending inappropriate messages on Snapchat to a former student.

“I accepted Mr. Nault’s resignation with regret,” school president Christopher Sullivan said in a statement announcing the resignation. “Over recent months, Mr. Nault engaged a recent graduate and alumna of Central Catholic on a social media site, a practice that cannot be tolerated at our school.”

Nault, a 1990 graduate of Central Catholic, has guided the boys’ basketball team for 11 seasons, winning state championships in 2008 and 2010. Last season, Nault’s Raiders won the Merrimack Valley Conference Large Division and earned a berth in the Division 1 North final against Cambridge.

Nault was placed on leave during a misconduct investigation before resigning Friday.

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MASSACHUSETTS
CBS Boston

LAWRENCE (CBS) — The Dean of Students and Head Basketball Coach at private school in Lawrence has resigned amid allegations of inappropriate conduct.

Central Catholic High School parents were notified through an email on Friday afternoon that Richard Nault resigned from his positions at the school on April 26.

President Christopher Sullivan stated:

“I accepted Mr. Nault’s resignation with regret. Over recent months, Mr. Nault engaged a recent graduate and alumna of Central Catholic on a social media site, a practice that cannot be tolerated at our School. This lapse of good judgment, is the only incident or violation of the School’s faculty code by Mr. Nault in the eleven years he has been employed at Central. Mr. Nault has been forthcoming throughout the entire process.”

Nault’s resignation comes shortly after Andrew Nikonchuk, the school’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction, was fired. Nikonchuk has been accused of drugging and raping a student in 2006.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Eagle-Tribune

By Lisa Kashinsky lkashinsky@eagletribune.com

LAWRENCE — Richard Nault, one of the two Central Catholic High School staff members placed on leave last week pending the results of misconduct investigations, announced his resignation from the school on Friday.

School spokesman David DeFillippo released two statements Friday afternoon confirming the resignation, one from Nault and the other from Central Catholic President Christopher F. Sullivan.

“Today, it is with great sadness that I am announcing my resignation from Central Catholic High School as the Dean of Students and head basketball coach,” Nault said.

Nault was placed on leave last week along with social studies teacher John Housianitis as the misconduct investigations got underway. The school would not comment on Housianitis on Friday.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

Dan Ventura Saturday, May 06, 2017

Embattled Central Catholic boys basketball coach and dean of students Rick Nault, who has been on administrative leave for sending an inappropriate message through social media to a former student, has submitted his resignation.

School president Christopher F. Sullivan said in a letter announcing the move that Nault engaged with a recent graduate of Central Catholic on a social media site, and called that “a practice that cannot be tolerated at our school.”

“This lapse of good judgment is the only incident of violation of the school’s faculty code by Mr. Nault in the 11 years he has been employed at Central. Mr. Nault has been forthcoming throughout the entire process,” Sullivan said, adding that he accepted Nault’s resignation “with regret.”

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Paul Milo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

MORRISTOWN –A Long Valley man was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison for sexually grooming a 15-year-old girl he met through a Pennsylvania church, the Daily Record reported.

Christopher Remaly assaulted the girl in 2014, when he was 27. The victim said Remaly held himself up as a father figure and referred to her as his daughter. The victim also said she was a virgin at the time of the assault.

Remaly, a father of two children, previously had pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault.

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NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Peggy Wright, Daily Record

MORRISTOWN – Called “a beast” by his victim, a Long Valley resident who is a former youth group leader for a church in Pennsylvania was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison for seducing a 15-year-old girl he had groomed to regard him as a father figure.

Christopher Remaly, a service manager in the automotive industry, was 27 when he sexually assaulted the girl at his home in the Long Valley section of Washington Township in 2014. The victim was from a single-parent family when she met Remaly through the Pennsylvania church, and she told Superior Court Judge Thomas Critchley Jr. on Friday that Remaly told her he loved her and took her virginity.

“He called me his daughter,” the victim said of Remaly, who is married and has two small daughters of his own. She vowed not to let the entanglement with Remaly define her but she said she went through a period of despair and feelings of worthlessness.

“He broke me, he manipulated me, and stole things from me that I will never get back,” the victim said. “You can’t allow this animal to hurt someone else.”

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SOUTH CAROLINA
WSPA

GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – Deputies have arrested a youth church van driver in connection with multiple sexual assaults on a girl in the 1980s.

62-year-old Timothy Lee Anders is charged with three counts of first degree Criminal Sexual Conduct with a Minor, four counts second degree Criminal Sexual Conduct with a Minor, and Lewd Act on a Child.

The Sheriff’s Office says Anders was working at Wrenn Memorial Baptist Church doing maintenance work and driving the church van for youth.

“Most children are sexually abused not by a stranger but by someone they know,” said Suzy Cole, Executive Director for the Children’s Advocacy Center, which serves Spartanburg, Cherokee, and Union Counties. “It’s really hard for them to open up and talk about that kind of abuse so it’s not uncommon for children to go a lifetime and never tell.”

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MISSISSIPPI
WDAM

BUCKATUNA, MS (WDAM) –
A former Wayne County pastor was sentenced Monday in Washington County Circuit Court in Alabama for several sex crimes.

Indictment tacks seven new sex charges against Wayne County pastor
Tommy Joe Newberry pled guilty to two first degree sodomy charges, a class-a felony, and two second degree sodomy charges, a class-b felony, according to Washington County Investigator Rickey Davidson.

Newberry was the former pastor of Red Creek Church of God in Buckatunna.

Newberry will report to the sheriff’s department June 6 and will then be transported to jail, according to Davidson.

He received 15 years for the class-a felonies, and 10 years for the class-b felonies.

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TEXAS
OA Online

Saturday, May 6, 2017 5:00 am
By Bob Campbell bcampbell@oaoa.com

Large numbers of church-goers live with the sexual abuse they suffered as children, Odessa ministers say, but never go to their pastors or seek the help they need.

As a result, their lives are often distorted by marital problems, drug and alcohol abuse and obsessive work that keeps those sensitive issues in the dark.

The Revs. Russell Nebhut, Mark Woodruff and Becky Hand and support group leader Kim Baker say a reassuring atmosphere is necessary for the victim to confide in a pastor or counselor.

“Once they realize there is a safe environment where they can be honest about their past, they’re usually ready to talk about the hurts,” Nebhut said. “That opens them up to deal with a lot of different issues. For some it’s anger, for others a sense of helplessness whenever they think about the abuse from when they were 8, 10 or 12 years old. For all of them, there is a lack of self-worth.
“It took me 35 years to finally admit it and share it with someone,” said Nebhut, explaining that he was sexually exploited as a child. “Abused people tend to be driven Type A over-achievers who get some sense of value because of what they’re accomplishing. But inside, they’re dying.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Weekend Australian

THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, MAY 6-7, 2017.
STORY: GREG BEARUP

There have been many grim days for Francis Sullivan over the past few years, but none worse than the day in 2015 when Gerald Ridsdale’s face was broadcast live into a Ballarat hearing room from Victoria’s Ararat prison. Sullivan works for the Catholic Church as the CEO of its Truth, Justice and Healing Council, and is tasked with dealing with the almighty mess of child abuse.

On this day, the Royal Commission into ­Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse wanted answers from Ridsdale about what his superiors knew and when. Ridsdale is a child rapist, a Catholic priest convicted of abusing more than 50 kids, some as young as four. The first complaints to the church about his abuse were in the early 1960s, within a year of his ordination, and each time his crimes became an embarrassment he was shifted to a fresh parish where he offended again.

Sullivan, 60, was in the room with the victims, many of whom he’s come to know. He freely hands out his business card with his phone ­number on it. They call at all hours and he listens. “It was the middle of winter, an already bleak day in Ballarat,” he explains, “and Ridsdale’s image was beamed onto a big screen in the [royal commission] hearing room packed with many of his ­victims. It was the first time many had seen him since they were children and they were people my age. Some were dressed in their Sunday best, some as best they could.”

They sat, eyes glued to the screen, seeking answers. “The most galling thing was that he played them all again; the way he gave his evidence was so manipulative and I thought, ‘God, these poor blokes, this is so terribly upsetting for me, and he did nothing to me – what must it be like for them?’ ” After all Ridsdale had put them through, he was not prepared to offer the solace of truth about how his offending had gone unchecked for so long. “I remember leaving the hearing and really feeling quite disoriented,” Sullivan says. “I looked at these poor blokes outside with the media all over them like a rash, which is good for them on one level, but then the circus moved on. They left and went back to their broken lives… I felt really, really bad that day.”

Sullivan trudged back to his hotel room, opened a bottle of red and wrote a poem, trying to make some sense of the misery. He thought about the failings of the church, an institution he still believes in. He thought, My mob has got to change.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
6 May 2017

ST Pius X High School at Adamstown has removed formal references to former principal and Catholic priest Patrick Helferty after former students alleged he knew about the child sex offending of fellow priest John Denham.

Principal Robert Emergy advised parents this week that the school’s executive had renamed one of the school’s houses – a student grouping – from Helferty House to Murray House (after former Maitland Bishop James Murray) following a complaint from one former student and release of a book, The Priests, by another former student, James Miller.

“This change of name has been made because there are public allegations that the house patron, Father Helferty, was aware of the sexual abuse of students that occurred at St Pius X in his time there in the 1970s and 1980s,” Mr Emery said.

“It is alleged that Father Helferty failed to act to stop the abuse. Since Father Helferty is deceased these allegations will remain as allegations.”

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MARYLAND
City Paper

Tom Nugent
City Paper

No one knows who bashed-in Sister Cathy Cesnik’s head and left her in a Landsdowne ditch 47 years ago. But everyone who has looked at the case in the past two decades or so thinks it’s a good bet that the parish priest murdered the young nun, probably because she was going to blow the whistle on the priest’s sexual abuse of young girls at the school where she taught.

Yesterday, authorities exhumed the body of Father A. Joseph Maskell, dead 16 years, to obtain his DNA and test it against evidence found in Cesnik’s case.

“Maskell was a player in this scenario that we needed to take a look at so,” Elise Armacost of the Baltimore County Police told WJZ. “This was a step that we needed to take.”

Maskell’s brother was a city cop, and Father Maskell was friends with a lot of other cops. One of the sexual abuse allegations was that Maskell forced students to have sex with a cop.

On May 19, Netflix premieres a seven-part documentary about murder of Cesnik called “The Keepers.”

Below is a reprint of City Paper’s 2005 piece detailing Cesnik’s murder, the alleged abuse—and the murder, just a few weeks after Cesnik disappeared, of another woman who might have known something about the sexual abuse. (Edward Ericson Jr.)

The old man sat on a metal folding chair in his Essex garage. His big right hand reached out to a wooden table, to a faded police autopsy photo lying there.

“Do you see that hole in the back of her skull?” asked Louis George “Bud” Roemer, a retired homicide detective formerly with the Baltimore County Police Department. Wrinkled and white-haired, he pointed to one side of the yellowing photograph he had dug out of a box of files. “That hole is perfectly round, and about the size of a quarter.

“I’ve studied that photo over and over again, trying to imagine how she might have died,” he said. “A hole like that—it looks to me like it could’ve been made with a ball-peen hammer.”

He paused for a moment, as he recalled the still unsolved murder of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, whose body was discovered 35 years ago this month.

“It might have been a hammer,” Roemer continued. “Or maybe a tire iron. Or maybe it was a priest’s ring—one of those heavy gold rings a lot of Catholic priests wear. A priest’s ring would make a hole like that, if he hit her hard enough.”

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UNITED STATES/CANADA/ITALY
BishopAccountability.org

Summary: Robert J. Post was a member of the Congregation of Christian Brothers (Irish Christian Brothers) entering at the age of 17 in 1955, and taking his perpetual vows in 1965. He taught in Canada, Italy and the United States, serving for a time as assistant principal of Bishop Gibbons High School in Schenectady, NY, then as principal of Blessed Sacrament High School in New Rochelle. He left the order to pursue priesthood and, in 1982, was ordained for the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT.

“Fr. Bob” served as an assistant or was in residence at parishes in Bethel, Darien and Stamford, was spiritual director for numerous high schools, including in Norwalk and Danbury. Post spent every August for many years, beginning in 1987, at St. Susanna’s in Rome as a summer associate with the Paulist Fathers. For a time he was Master of Ceremonies for the Bridgeport diocese. He was also a fire department chaplain and he regularly celebrated mass for the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary sisters in Stamford.

Post was accused in a 2007 lawsuit of having engaged in improper behavior with male Blessed Sacrament students in the 1970s. By 2012 at least one former student had come forward alleging that he had been sexually abused by Post as a teenager, when Post was a religious brother. Two more men emerged with similar claims. The three were part of a legal case against the Irish Christian Brothers.

Post’s status and whereabouts during 2013-2015 are unclear. As of 2016 he was retired and living at a priests’ retirement residence in Stamford.

Perpetual Vows as Christian Brother: 1965
Ordained: 1982

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ILLINOIS
Aurora Beacon-News

Dan Campana
Aurora Beacon-News

A judge has set a late-July trial date in the child sex abuse case of former Aurora priest Alfredo Pedraza Arias, court records show.

Arias, 50, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment alleging aggravated criminal sexual abuse. He is accused of fondling two children under the age of 13 at Sacred Heart Church, as well as one at one of the youth’s homes, between 2012 and 2014. He is free on $50,000 bail and prohibited from having contact with anyone under the age of 18. Kane County prosecutors charged Arias in February 2016.

The Rockford Diocese, which includes Kane County, previously explained that Arias had been out of the ministry since October of 2014,when police and the diocese began investigating allegations against him. Arias also worked in Aurora at Our Lady of Good Counsel and DeKalb’s Hispanic Ministry, according to the diocese.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Spare Change News

By Jordan Frias

After working in Catholic education for nearly 40 years, Paul Doty, a former principal and educator of three religious schools in Boston, has been accused of sexual abuse by five men from South Boston.

According to attorney Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney representing the five men, the alleged abuse by Doty occurred while he was principal of the former St. Augustine’s School from 1986 to 1996, when his accusers were between the ages of seven and 14.

“The question remains, where were the supervisors of Mr. Doty and why weren’t they paying attention? I’ve asked the Archdiocese of Boston to look into this,” said Garabedian, who is known for helping the Boston Globe expose abusive priests in its 2002 Spotlight reports.

While in Massachusetts, Doty was principal of Charlestown Catholic School and St. Patrick’s School in Roxbury. He went on to work at elementary schools in Alabama, Ohio and Kentucky after leaving the Boston area.

Archdiocese of Boston spokesman Terrence Donilon said the church promptly notified law enforcement, as they do with all claims of child abuse, in this instance.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

May 6, 2017

GREG BEARUP
South Asia correspondent
@gbearup

Despite shocking revelations of widespread abuse within the Catholic Church, there are priests who believe the royal commission into child abuse has been a “hatchet job” and one has blamed “homosexuals and liberals” for the church’s woes.

In February, it was revealed in the royal commission that 4445 people had made complaints against almost 2000 alleged Catholic perpetrators; in one order, the St John of God Brothers, 40 per cent of the clergy had allegedly abused children.

However, Glen Tattersall, a Melbourne-based parish priest, told The Weekend Australian that many Catholics were angry with the way the royal commission has dealt with the church.

Father Tattersall, a former ­office bearer in the conservative Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, said: “I think people are quite angry about the way the church has been dealt with, actually. They consider it has been pretty much set up.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

May 4 2017

Philomena Lee has spoken of her disbelief at the Order of the Sisters of Charity involvement with the new National Maternity Hospital.

Ms Lee – who was the subject of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Philomena’ – told the Irish Independent that she believed the order’s nuns were “digging their heels in” to hold onto ownership of the hospital.

“I only heard this through my sisters the other day and it’s gone crazy,” she said. “They ran the Magdalene Laundries and they were horrific altogether. I don’t think the Church should be involved in running hospitals, I mean they ran the homes.

“We never knew what was going on, they never told us anything, you believed every word you were told,” she added.

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