ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Irish Times

John McManus

It is strange state of affairs when a former president of the High Court has to come out and publicly declare that a new maternity hospital will not be run by nuns. But such is the level to which the debate about the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) moving to the St Vincent’s hospital campus has descended.

It is of course physically impossible for the Sisters of Charity to run anything at this stage. There are just 213 of them in Ireland and their average age is 76. You cannot help feeling that after a lifetime of thankless personal service all that the majority of them want to run is as far away from this mess as possible.

Their ability to influence what sort of medicine is practised at St Vincent’s and possibly the new NMH is very limited, and by the time the new hospital is built and opened it will be even less.

In any case Nicholas Kearns, the former High Court president and deputy chairman of the NMH, is confident the agreement they have with the St Vincent’s Hospital Group (SVHG) is bulletproof. Rhona Mahony, the master of NMH, is equally confident.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Kathy Armstrong
April 28 2017

The former Master of the Coombe Hospital has resigned from the project board of the new National Maternity Hospital in solidarity with Dr Peter Boylan.

Dr Boylan resigned from the board yesterday after criticising ownership of the new €300m taxpayer-funded facility being given to the Religious Sisters of Charity, saying they were “blind” to their actions.

RTE reports that in his resignation note Professor Chris Fitzpatrick echoed these sentiments.

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IRELAND
The Irish Sun

by Eoghan McDermott
28th April 2017

DR Peter Boylan resigned from the National Maternity Hospital board yesterday and issued a stinging parting shot that perfectly summarises this most Irish of situations.

He said: “I can’t remain a member of a board which is so blind to the consequences of its decision to transfer sole ownership of the hospital to the religious Sisters of Charity and is so deaf to the concerns of the public which it serves.”

In his resignation letter he offered more detail as to why this move would be an utter disaster and fail the very people it is intended to serve.

He wrote: “Hospitals on land owned by the Catholic Church are obliged to follow Catholic teaching and canon law on medical practices and procedures.

“The proposed hospital will be built on land owned by the religious Sisters of Charity, the hospital will be owned outright by the religious Sisters of Charity.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Kathy Armstrong
April 28 2017

Doctors will find it “very difficult” to have clinical independence working in a hospital that is owned by a religious organisation, Prof Chris Fitzpatrick said today.

Dr Fitzpatrick stepped down from his role on the project board of the National Maternity Hospital in solidarity with Dr Peter Boylan and expressed his concerns about the Sisters of Charity having ownership of the €300m taxpayer-funded facility.

Speaking on Today With Sean O’Rourke on RTE Radio one, he said: “I was concerned and have been concerned in relation to the ownership ad governance model that has emerged from recent negotiations.

“I very much share the view of Dr Peter Boylan and felt I’d no alternative other than to resign from my position on the project board.

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GUAM
Radio New Zealand

The Northern Marianas’ former bishop Tomas A. Camacho is facing a second sexual abuse lawsuit.

A 65-year-old former altar boy has come forward, alleging the former bishop sexually abused him when he was a 10-year-old in Guam.

The accuser, known only as B.C., filed a $US5 million lawsuit in the federal court in Guam against Mr Camacho, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Agana, and 50 other unnamed entities and persons.

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NETHERLANDS
NL Times

By Janene Pieters on April 28, 2017

The Old Catholic Bishop of Haarlem Dirk-Jan Schoon suspended another priest on child sex abuse charges. This priest has been retired for 13 years, but is still involved in celebrations in the Amsterdam parish and was used in emergencies, NOS reports.

Last week the Old Catholic Church suspended another priest, Nico S., after he was arrested in Cambodia. The Cambodian authorities found a large number of nude photos of boys under the age of 15 in his possession. It is believed he paid the boys to pose naked for him. After his arrest the Church admitted that they knew about S.’s sexual preferences for young boys.

After that arrest a 58-year-old social worker from Amsterdam told the Volkskrant that he was abused by another Old Catholic Church priest in 1973. The priest took nude photos of the then boy and made him perform sexual acts. The victim reported this to the church and an independent complaints committee in 2014. The complaint was ruled well-grounded, but the priest was not suspended. He was only banned from working with young people.

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IOWA
KCRG

[with video]

NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) — A youth church leader is under investigation for allegedly having inappropriate contact with children.

32-year-old Benjamin Craig Tweedt, of North Liberty is charged with one count of sexual abuse third degree, two counts of lascivious acts with a child, three counts of indecent contact with a child, and two counts of lascivious conduct with a minor.

According to police, it is alleged that Tweedt had multiple one-on-one sessions as a youth church leader with four victims over 10 years. Some of the sessions occurred on church retreats or in victims’ bedrooms. Parkview Church removed Tweedt from their student ministry as soon as they were aware of the situation.

“We’re grieving for the families of the victims that have been involved in this situation” said Doug Schillinger, the lead pastor at Parkview Church.

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IOWA
KWWL

[with video]

IOWA CITY (KWWL) –
We are hearing from the pastor of an area church where a former youth leader is facing several charges including Sexual Abuse.

32-year-old Benjamin Tweedt of North Liberty is accused of inappropriately touching several children.

Many parents trusted Tweedt as a mentor for their kids.

Tweedt was immediately removed from student ministries at Parkview Church in Iowa City when they became aware of the accusations.

The alleged sexual contact took place during one-on-one mentoring sessions between Tweedt and four different victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

Katie Burgess

Ordinary parishioners would have a greater say in the future direction of the Catholic Church in Canberra, in reforms overwhelmingly supported at a meeting of concerned churchgoers on Thursday night.

More than 200 people attended a meeting convened by the recently formed Concerned Catholics of Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese.

The group has called for more lay people, including women, to play a greater role in church decision-making, after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse pointed to power imbalances in the church as a reason why abuse in many cases carried on with impunity.

The group is also pushing for a diocesan pastoral council to be established, with more members of the laity given a seat at the table.

Meeting chair Professor John Warhurst described it as a watershed for Catholics in the Canberra region.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Premier

Thu 27 Apr 2017
By Premier Journalist

An 81 year old man has been charged with historical child sex abuse against boys at a former cathedral school in Lincoln.

Roy Griffiths, from Dorset, is accused of eight offences.

The charges are six counts of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 14 and two counts of inciting a boy under the age of 14 to commit an act of gross indecency.

He has been bailed to appear at Lincoln District Magistrates Court on Thursday 8 June.

The charges come as part of Operation Redstone, an ongoing enquiry into allegations of abuse dating back to 1958 following a review of past safeguarding cases by the Diocese of Lincoln.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lincolnshire Live

By James Peck | Posted: April 28, 2017

Police have urged potential victims and witnesses of sexual abuse at a Lincoln school to come forward.

The force is trying to track down 127 former pupils who attended the Cathedral School in the city between 1963 and 1970 as it investigates alleged historic sexual abuse.

The appeal follows the arrest of 81-year-old Roy Griffiths from Dorset, who has been charged with eight sexual offences.

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NEW YORK
Democrat and Chronicle

Victoria E. Freile and Tina MacIntyre-Yee, Democrat and Chronicle Published April 27, 2017

A reporter who was part of The Boston Globe investigative team to uncover the Catholic church’s cover-up of clergy sex abuse is the keynote speaker at a child abuse conference in Rochester.

“If someone doesn’t have the courage to speak up, problems will persist,” said Sacha Pfeiffer, who was part of the paper’s Spotlight investigative team than won a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2003. The same team was featured in the 2015 film by the same name, which won the 2016 Academy Award for Best Picture. “The damage that something like sexual abuse does plays out through your entire life.”

More than 750 people from across the country are taking part in the two-day conference at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center, said Mary Whittier, executive director for the Bivona Child Advocacy Center in Rochester.

The summit features workshops for child abuse experts ranging from cyber crime, technology and trauma assessment and treatment.

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TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

Cardinal not wanted after his role in handling sex abuse allegations

By Lindsay Ellis
April 27, 2017

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York since 2009, will speak at the University of St. Thomas’ May commencement ceremony despite student calls for the university to reconsider.

Students say they are concerned about Dolan’s role in handling sexual abuse allegations when he was archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee in the early 2000s.

A petition calling for the private Montrose university to cancel the speech brought more than 100 signaturesin the last several days, and four students Thursday afternoon distributed leaflets from the heart of campus with photos of Dolan’s face, media coverage of allegations against him and a link to an online petition.

“Send it to everyone you know,” said Victoria Villarreal, a senior studying communications, as she passed a flier to a woman.

“I did,” she responded.

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NEW MEXICO
The New Mexican

By Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican

A new lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe says a 2015 film about widespread child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in the Boston area triggered a New Mexico’s man’s childhood memories of being sexually abused by two priests at an Albuquerque church.

Attorneys representing the man, identified as John Doe 66, filed the suit Thursday in the 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque. It also names the Church of Ascension Parish in Albuquerque’s South Valley as a defendant.

The lawsuit, one of more than 60 similar complaints against the archdiocese filed in the last few years by the Law Offices of Brad D. Hall, comes as the archdiocese has asked a state judge in the First Judicial District in Santa Fe to seal records in a separate case alleging sexual abuse by one of its priests.

Filed in December, that suit says seven San Miguel County men, who are not identified, were molested as children by a priest at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Las Vegas, N.M. The priest, Monsignor Hubert C. Lomme, died in 1986 at age 79. The men’s attorneys are asking a judge to reject the archdiocese’s request earlier this month to conceal documents in the case. The request is “overbroad, complex and limiting,” the attorneys say, calling it a “gag order.”

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NETHERLANDS
Dutch News

The Old Catholic church in the Netherlands has suspended a second pastor involved in a child abuse scandal, this time involving a retired priest who abused a young teenage boy in the 1970s.

Earlier this month the church suspended a pastor who was arrested in Cambodia and charged with taking photographs of boys and possessing child pornography.

It later transpired church officials were aware of his sexual tendencies but allowed him to continue as a priest on condition he was monitored closely. In the new case, a 58-year-old social worker from Amsterdam told the Volkskrant that he had been groomed and abused by the pastor while under his care.

Despite his complaint against the man, first made two years ago, the pastor was not suspended. Instead he was banned from having contact with children.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Donna De Jesus

Guam – A new website has been launched which provides statistical information about alleged sexual abuse of minors by the Catholic Church in 49 countries. It was created and designed to encourage legislation to expand the statute of limitations on sex crimes committed against minors. According to the website’s creator and analyst, G.R. Pafumi, the database took him two and a half years to complete. VictimsSpeakDB.org contains a database of Survivor Accounts of Catholic Clergy Abuse, Denial, Accountability and Silence, or SACCADAS.

“It’s almost like a standardized profile, and it extracts data from the database. It tells you how long it has been since a priest in Guam was reported for abuse, in other words, the diocese knew about it, and when the last time an abuse occurred,” Pafumi explained in a telephone interview with PNC. “Looking at Guam now, there’s almost 60 years between the first report of abuse in 1956 and the last incidence of abuse that I have on the database of 2015. When you put it all together in one page, it paints a pretty ugly picture of the Catholic Church.”

Since the statute of limitations was lifted on Guam, Pafumi was able to identify 14 clergymen in the SACCADAS database. In a phone interview with PNC, Pafumi said he is working on a comprehensive analysis on Guam abuse, and specifically on former priest Father Louis Brouillard. Although, he says since many church records were destroyed before 1950, there could have been more instances of abuse.

“That doesn’t mean that’s all the abuse that’s out there; that’s only the abuse that I have been able to identify. Right now, my database has got 37 records just on Brouillard. He may have been the worst offender in Guam. The real uncertainty is what is the real number of victims who have not come forward, and how many will come forward,” Pafumi said.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

George Houde
Chicago Tribune

A former associate pastor at an Arlington Heights church was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday for distributing child pornography, according to court records.

Clovis Vilchez-Parra, 36, also was ordered to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to the charge during a hearing in Cook County’s Rolling Meadows branch court. Numerous other pornography charges were dropped in exchange for his plea.

Vilchez-Parra was a priest at the Mision San Juan Diego Catholic Church at the time of his arrest in 2015 by police in Palatine, where he lived in housing provided by the Archdiocese of Chicago, authorities said.

Prosecutors said Vilchez-Parra used computer file-sharing software to locate, download and distribute pornographic images of children younger than 13. The computer activity was traced by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, prosecutors said. Authorities obtained a search warrant and found the images on a laptop computer and a flash drive at his residence, prosecutors said.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

MSPs have unanimously backed the general principles of a bill to scrap the time bar on survivors of childhood sexual abuse suing for damages.

The Scottish government wants to end the three-year limit on bringing a civil actions in such cases.

The Limitation (Childhood Abuse) (Scotland) Bill has passed its first legislative hurdle at Holyrood.

The justice committee previously heard that the cost of compensation could total at least £200m.

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NEW YORK
WXXI

By BETH ADAMS

A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist whose reporting was the subject of the 2015 film “Spotlight” was the keynote speaker today at the Bivona Child Abuse Summit in Rochester.

Sacha Pfeiffer was part of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigative team that uncovered decades of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Boston.

Some of the survivors who divulged the details of their abuse to Pfeiffer had not revealed their stories for decades, even to spouses or other family members.

“We were very worried that our reporting, and later the movie, might make people somehow feel re-victimized or re-traumatized,” she said, “But I was so glad that I think it almost across the board it had the opposite effect. It made people feel like finally their stories were being told, finally they don’t have to be ashamed, finally they don’t have to keep the secret anymore, and finally the church is being held accountable, so I think it was an empowering thing for most of them.”

Pfeiffer has kept in touch with some of the survivors she interviewed for the 2002 reports. One of them, Joe Crowley, told Pfeiffer that when he was a teen questioning his sexual identity, he attended counseling sessions with a priest who ended up sexually abusing him. Crowley died earlier this month at the age of 58.

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TEXAS
Patch

By James Brock (Patch Staff) – April 27, 2017

HOUSTON, TX — Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, is no stranger to controversy, and the decision to have him give the commencement address to students at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic school in Houston, has embroiled him in yet more.

Some students at the university say that Dolan’s opposition to same-sex marriage and his handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests in Milwaukee — he’s a former archbishop of that diocese — make him an unsuitable speaker. As of Thursday afternoon, about 100 St. Thomas students had signed a petition urging the university to cancel Dolan’s speech.

Priests in Milwaukee accused of sexual abuse against minors were under Dolan’s leadership offered as much as $20,000 each to leave the church.

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TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

By Lindsay Ellis Updated Thursday, April 27, 2017

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York since 2009, will speak at the University of St. Thomas in Montrose’s May commencement ceremony despite student calls for the university to reconsider.

Student concerns relate to his role in handling sexual abuse allegations and his reported remarks criticizing same-sex marriage.

A petition calling for the university to cancel the speech brought 100 signatures in the last several days.

University President Robert Ivany said Thursday morning that he does not believe the critical view reflects the general campus opinion. The university’s governing board of directors selected Dolan to speak two years ago in a unanimous decision, he said.

Ivany, who will step down after this semester, plans to meet with graduate student Christina Cochran on Monday to discuss her concerns, he said.

A small group of students is “outraged” by the selection, Cochran said by phone Wednesday.

“In my opinion, this student does not reflect in any way shape or form the attitude of the students of St. Thomas,” he said. He said he will listen to her concerns but that Dolan will speak at commencement.

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TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News

Julieta Chiquillo, The Dallas Morning News

Investigators with the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Postal Service served a search warrant Wednesday at the Grapevine offices of televangelist Benny Hinn.

A large number of agents walked in and out of the offices with boxes, KXAS-TV (NBC5) reported, but officials wouldn’t confirm to the TV station what they’re investigating or whether they’re looking into Hinn.

A woman who answered the phone for the Benny Hinn Ministries headquarters said she had no information.

Hinn was the subject of a 2007 U.S. Senate inquiry that looked into the spending of six televangelists. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, questioned the personal use of church-owned airplanes, luxury homes and credit cards by pastors and their families, but there was no definitive finding of wrongdoing when the investigation ended in 2011.

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TEXAS
The Washington Times

By Jessica Chasmar – The Washington Times – Thursday, April 27, 2017

The North Texas headquarters of televangelist Benny Hinn was raided this week by U.S. Postal Service inspectors and IRS criminal investigators, according to local news reports.

The search began about 9 a.m. Wednesday at Mr. Hinn’s Grapevine offices and continued Thursday morning, NBC 5 reported.

The station reported seeing a large number of federal agents walking in and out of the building with boxes, but investigators would not confirm nor deny an investigation into Mr. Hinn.

“Today, we are here on official business, we are conducting a search warrant on the premises, basically that’s all I can tell you today,” Special Agent Michael Moseley with IRS Criminal Investigations told ABC News affiliate WFAA on Wednesday.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Mark O’Brien

In one of the few self-critical reflections on journalism in mid-twentieth century Ireland, journalist Michael O’Toole observed that up to the 1960s journalists were generally “a docile lot, anxious to please the proprietor, the advertiser, the prelate, the statesman”. The era was, he argued, characterised by “an unhealthy willingness to accept the prepared statement, the prepared speech, and the handout without demanding the opportunity of asking any searching questions by way of follow-up”.

There were many reasons for this. The Censorship of Publications Act had hobbled journalism by curtailing reportage of certain types of court cases; poor pay and employment conditions along with low educational levels among journalists hampered the development of journalism as a viable career; and strict censorship during the second World War, as one journalist put it, “had an effect on both the press and the public for some years after”. As a result, many of the more unpleasant aspects of life in newly independent Ireland were, for many decades, kept out of the public arena.

Writing in 1941 Seán O’Faolain noted that “it is a tradition in Dublin newspapers not to exploit personal scandals, however juicy the news. You can call that anything you like – Hush-Hush, Cowardice, Prudery, Decency . . . Whether the thing is good or bad it is an instructive approach to standards of behaviour in Journalism”.

Unsurprisingly, given their institutional power, court cases involving Catholic priests were an absolute no-go area for the press. In 1941 a High Court case in which two schoolboys sued one of their teachers, Rev John Kearney, was completely ignored by the Irish press but received sustained coverage in the British press. As reported in the Daily Mirror, the boys alleged that “Fr Kearney had forced them to strip and gave them each twenty lashes with a loaded sporting whip”. The description of the assault left nothing to the imagination: the student was “was told to take off his coat and trousers, and even his shirt was pulled up by Fr Kearney. He was told to get across a chair, and received nearly twenty fierce lashes with the whip. He called for mercy, but none was shown. Then he had to witness the same horrible exhibition of cruelty. Later he was expelled.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com April 27, 2017

Doris Y. Concepcion said Thursday it is now up to Rome to decide Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s fate, after she testified before a Vatican tribunal about Apuron’s alleged sexual abuse of her son in the 1970s.

Concepcion said her deceased son, Joseph “Sonny” A. Quinata, shortly before he died 12 years ago, told her that Apuron molested him when he was an altar boy in Agat.

“I did what I have and needed to do from the get-go. All I ever wanted from all this was to expose Apuron and have him defrocked,” said Concepcion, now living in Prescott, Arizona.

The Vatican tribunal led by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke received Concepcion’s personal testimony in Arizona in March, followed on March 17 in California by former altar boy Walter Denton, who accused Apuron of raping him in a church rectory when he was 13 in 1977.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

SAM RIGNEY
27 Apr 2017

A CONVICTED Catholic paedophile priest and a convicted Hunter Marist Brother each charged with fresh child sex offences dating back to the early 1970s have had their matters mentioned in court for the first time.

Vincent Gerard Ryan, 79, of Ryde, has been charged with six fresh offences against three alleged victims between 1973 and 1991.

He did not appear in Newcastle Local Court on Thursday and his solicitor, Sally Rostron, did not enter pleas to three charges of indecent assault on a male, two counts of sexual assault with a person under 16 years of age and attempted sexual intercourse with a child between 10 and 16.

Detectives allege the offences occurred at The Junction between 1973 and 1974 and Cessnock between 1987 and 1991, court documents state.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Premier

Thu 27 Apr 2017
By Alex Williams

A former Church of England priest from Surrey has been charged with seven child sex offences during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Ifor Whittaker from Sutton is accused of inciting the boy to commit an act of gross indecency and gross indecency.

The charges also include one offence of conspiracy with another ex-clergyman, Roy Cotton (deceased) to commit sex acts with the boy.

The charges all span between February 1987 and February 1993. The boy was then aged between 12 and 16.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com April 27, 2017

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes appointed the Rev. Danilo “Danny” Ferrandiz to, among other things, review the Neocatechumenal Way’s basic pastoral theology principles or teachings.

In an official aviso, Byrnes said Ferrandiz’s appointment as delegate to the Neocatechumenal Way in the Archdiocese of Agana is effective April 7.

The Neocatechumenal Way is a movement within the Catholic church whose practices sometimes are at odds with those of Guam’s traditional Catholic community.

Ferrandiz is parochial administrator at Santa Barbara Chapel in Agafa Gumas in Yigo, the Archdiocese of Agana’s website says. Calls and emails to Ferrandiz were not returned as of press time Thursday.

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IRELAND
Irish Post

April 26, 2017, By Erica Doyle Higgins

AN IRISH maternity hospital chief has said nuns’ ownership of a new €300m unit in Ireland is a ‘technical detail’ as criticism for the decision continues to roll in.

The Sisters of Charity are one of 18 religious congregations who managed residential institutions for children investigated by the Ryan Commission and was party to the 2002 €128million indemnity agreement with the State.

After the Ryan Report in 2009, the Sisters of Charity offered to contribute a further €5million towards the €1.5billion redress costs incurred by the State involving former residents of the institutions.

But according to the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report last month the order have contributed just €2million of their 2009 offer.

Late last year Ireland’s Department of Health said the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street in Dublin and St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group – of which the Sisters of Charity are a major shareholder – had agreed a new governance structure.

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IRELAND
Dublin Live

BY BLANAID MURPHY
27 APR 2017

The Sisters Of Charity will be blocked from ever selling off the new National Maternity Hospital, the Government said yesterday.

The Health Minister has confirmed the facility in St Vincent’s, Dublin, will be left in religious ownership despite public fears.

But he stressed the nuns’ order will be prevented from ever flogging it without the Government’s approval.

Simon Harris said: “I heard very clearly from the people of this country that they do not want a hospital via which a private entity be it religious or otherwise would profit.

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

by David Quinn
April 27, 2017

Nuns in Ireland have been so stereotyped in Irish public debate that they have been reduced to the role of the villain in an old-fashioned Hammer horror movie.

The archetype of this villainous nun is the character played by Geraldine McEwan in The Magdalene Sisters, which Irish TV channels love to air. As played by McEwan the head nun, Sr Bridget, is full of vicious intent.

In one scene we see her shaving the head of one of the girls with sadistic relish and then she beats two girls on the back of the legs with a cane until welts appear. (By the way, the official report into the Magdalene laundries conducted by Martin McAleese spoke to 100 former inmates of these institutions. They experienced mental cruelty but none reported experiencing or witnessing anyone being beaten or having their heads shaved).

In any event, ‘Sr Bridget’ is now the image of nuns many people have fixed in their heads when they think of nuns at all. It is no longer the nuns of The Sound of Music, much less real-life nuns like Mother Teresa, or Sr Consilio here in Ireland who has spent her life caring for addicts, or all the other nuns helping to care for countless number of people across the country.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Richard Curran
April 27 2017 2:30 AM

The debacle around the new National Maternity Hospital has sparked an enormous debate about the role of the Catholic Church or Catholic religious orders in providing maternity services. The row is unlikely to be the last about the place and role of religious orders in the area of healthcare.

However, there is a wider issue around the role of the State and the question of value for money. The obvious question being asked is how could the State spend €300m building a new hospital that someone else would own?

The resultant shambles has now placed the future plan for locating the new hospital at St Vincent’s in doubt and – even more importantly – it runs the risk of delaying the delivery of this vital piece of social infrastructure.

It follows on from the omnishambles that was the location of the new National Childrens’ Hospital. I am not talking about the row over whether it should be at St James’s or not, but the fact that around €30m was spent on fees and consultants preparing the groundwork for it to be located in at the Mater Hospital site before it unravelled.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Denise Calnan and Cathal McMahon
April 27 2017

Dr Peter Boylan has resigned from the board of the National Maternity Hospital with immediate effect.

Speaking on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny Show, Dr Boylan said the board is “deaf to concerns of the public it serves.”

He claimed he was a “lone voice” more or less on the board but added that he was not a lone voice in the community or the medical profession.

Dr Boylan voiced his concerns late last week about controversial plans to build a new €300m maternity hospital, which would be built on land owned by the Sisters of Charity.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Amy Molloy
April 27 2017

After refusing to step down from the board of the National Maternity Hospital earlier in the week, Dr Peter Boylan has today announced his resignation.

Dr Boylan has been a very outspoken critic of plans to have the new €300m National Maternity Hospital built on a site owned by the Religious Sisters of Charity.

Plans to have the new hospital located on the Elm Park campus at St Vincent’s Hospital have also been met with public outcry.

Here are the five latest things you need to know about the controversy:

1. Why has Dr Peter Boylan decided to step down now?

Explaining his decision on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny Show, Dr Boylan said he felt like a “lone voice” on the hospital board and couldn’t “remain a member of a board that is so blind.”

His decision follows a board meeting on Wednesday night where plans to build the new hospital on the Elm Park site were re-endorsed by the board of Holles Street maternity hospital.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Fiona Gartland

Dr Peter Boylan has resigned from the board of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH), saying it is “blind to the consequences” of transferring ownership of the hospital to the religous-owned St Vincent’s Healthcare Group.

Dr Boylan, a former master of the NMH, announced his decision on Newstalk on Thursday following a meeting of the hospital’s executive board on Wednesday night over the proposed move to a site on St Vincent’s Elm Park campus, which is owned by the Sisters of Charity.

“I can’t remain a member of a board which is so blind to the consequences of its decision to transfer sole ownership of the hospital to the religious Sisters of Charity and so deaf to the concerns of the public which it serves,” he told the Pat Kenny Show.

The executive board’s deputy chairman, former High Court president Nicholas Kearns, had previously asked Dr Boylan to resign from the board after the medic criticised the move from Holles Street.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Former master of the National Maternity Hospital Dr Peter Boylan says he has resigned with immediate effect from its board.

Earlier this week he refused to resign after publicly criticising the planned move of the hospital to the St Vincent’s campus due to the deal giving ownership of the new tax-payer funded facility to the Religious Sisters of Charity.

Speaking on Newstalk, Dr Boylan said he was a lone voice, more or less, at last night’s meeting of the National Maternity Hospital board.

However, he said he was “not a lone voice” among the community and the medical profession with regard to objecting to the proposed deal for the National Maternity Hospital.

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TEXAS
Amarillo Globe-News

By Ronald Balaskovitz ronald.balaskovitz@amarillo.com

A former youth minister in Amarillo was recently arrested on a sexual assault of a child charge following an incident in March, according to public records in Randall County.

Tate Jeffrey Pigg, 22, of Amarillo, formerly a youth pastor at Pinnacle Community Church, was arrested on April 8 following a March incident with an underage girl, according to police. He was booked in the Randall County Jail but was released on the same day.

Pigg is facing charges of sexual assault of a child and purchasing or furnishing alcohol to a minor from an incident that happened on March 13, according to records.

According to Texas State Law, sexual assault of a child involves sexual activity with a person under 17 but older than 14. The crime, if indicted and convicted, could be punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

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TEXAS
My High Plains

By: Aaron Langston
Posted: Apr 26, 2017

A former youth director at a local church was arrested earlier this month.

Tate Pigg was arrested on April 8th for sexual assault of a child, and two counts of purchasing or furnishing alcohol to a minor.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

In a volte-face, former Grand Master Fra’ Matthew Festing will vote in elections this week which are being spearheaded by the Vatican.

Edward Pentin

The Vatican has reconsidered an earlier instruction forbidding the Order of Malta’s former Grand Master Fra’ Matthew Festing from attending the election of his successor this week.

According to sources within the order, Fra’ Festing will be coming to Rome to vote in the Saturday election partly because his absence as a professed knight would have invalidated the ballot.

In January, Pope Francis asked the former grand master to resign, saying his plans to investigate and reform the order would be better served were he not leading it. In February, the order announced an election would be held April 29.

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CANADA
Kingston Whig-Standard

By Sue Yanagisawa, Kingston Whig-Standard
Wednesday, April 26, 2017

A retired Roman Catholic priest convicted in September of sexually assaulting a young boy in Kingston over a period of about four years in the late 1980s and early 1990s was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison.

Robin Quinton Gwyn, 69, has also been ordered included on the Sex Offender Information Registry for 20 years and Superior Court Justice Wolfram Tausendfreund has imposed a 20-year judge’s order that forbids the priest attending public parks, swimming areas and other places where children are or could reasonably be expected to be present, including play grounds, school grounds and community centres. He’s prohibited as well from volunteering in any capacity that places him in a position of trust or authority over anyone under 16 and is barred from having personal contact with children under 16 unless supervised by a responsible adult approved by the court.

Gwyn was a teacher for 10 years before entering seminary and while still a candidate for the priesthood in 1985 was assigned to work for a summer with the pastor at Holy Family on Wiley Street and the following summer at St. Anthony of Padua in Centreville, north of Camden East.

He served as a deacon at St. Mary’s Cathedral in 1987, was ordained there in 1988, and was then assigned to St. Francis Xavier Parish in Brockville.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Pulse

Following the arrest and detention of Pastor Tim Omotosho, a Nigerian pastor based in South Africa over allegations of sexual abuse, a member of his church, Jesus Dominion International, has declared that the country will face a calamitous disaster in seven days.

The church member who said that the South African police erred in arresting a man of God no matter what he did, have incurred the wrath of God and a devastating natural disaster awaits them within the next seven days if he not released.

The controversial Pastor Omotosho was arrested at the Port Elizabeth Airport after he was declared wanted by the police for allegedly abusing over 30 young female church members over a period of time.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Lincolnite

Emily Norton
April 26

An 81-year-old man has been charged with eight sexual offences as part of an ongoing enquiry into allegations of abuse dating back to 1958.

Operation Redstone follows a review of past safeguarding cases by the Diocese of Lincoln.

Roy Griffiths from Dorset has been charged with six counts of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 14 and two counts of inciting a boy under the age of 14 to commit an act of gross indecency.

He has been bailed to appear at Lincoln District Magistrates Court on Thursday, June 8.

As part of the investigation, officers say they are working in partnership with the Diocese and the Cathedral and are keen to hear from anyone who might have information that could assist the enquiry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Dorset Echo

A DORSET pensioner has been charged with eight counts of sexual offences.

The charges date back to the 1950s and are alleged to have occurred in Lincoln.

Lincolnshire Police confirmed that 81-year-old Roy Griffiths, of Dorset, was charged with six counts of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 14 and two counts of inciting a boy under the age of 14 to commit an act of gross indecency.

He has been bailed to appear at Lincoln District Magistrates Court on Thursday 8 June.

The charges come as part of Operation Redstone, an ongoing enquiry into allegations of abuse dating back to 1958 following a review of past safeguarding cases by the Diocese of Lincoln.

As part of this investigation officers are working in partnership with the Diocese and the Cathedral and are keen to hear from anyone who might have information that could assist the enquiry.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

The possible inclusion of a retroactivity clause is the most contentious sticking point in the discussion about changing Pennsylvania’s statute-of-limitations laws for cases of child sexual abuse.

Many elected officials seem to be in agreement about increasing the current age limits of 30 for civil actions and 50 for criminal complaints.

However, one side, led by state Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, and advocates in the Johnstown region, want any new law to include a two-year window during which alleged victims could file civil claims against perpetrators of past abuse. Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, a Republican, backed by the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania, opposes retroactivity, believing it would violate the commonwealth’s constitution.

The state’s top law enforcement officer has taken an unequivocal stance.

“I have made my position quite clear on that issue, both as a lawmaker when I was in the (Pennsylvania) House (of Representatives), as a candidate for this office, and since I’ve been in this office that I think we should have a retroactivity provision,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said when meeting with members of The Tribune-Democrat staff on Wednesday.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, April 26th, 2017

A Santa Fe judge has been asked to take up the question of how much information the Roman Catholic Church can conceal in clerical sex abuse cases.

Attorneys representing seven New Mexico men who allege they were sexually abused as boys by a Las Vegas priest asked a judge on Friday to reject a proposed order that would allow the Archdiocese of Santa Fe to seal a wide variety of records filed in the lawsuit.

In their response, attorneys for the alleged victims called the proposed order “overbroad, complex and limiting” and “a near complete gag order” unnecessary for ensuring a fair trial.

“Even cases involving sensitive trade secrets are not typically accompanied by such restrictive protective orders” as the one sought by the archdiocese, the response said.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Donna De Jesus

This is the second time Saipan Bishop Tomas Camacho was named as a perpetrator.

Guam – Another victim has filed a suit against the Catholic Church. The victim, using the initials B.C., claims Camacho began abusing him in the early 60s when he was about 10 years old.

Camacho was serving as a parish priest at the Mongmong Church at the time, and, according to the complaint, would grope and fondle B.C. on numerous occasions when he was an altar boy. Court documents state that B.C. spent a lot of time at the church and enjoyed being an altar boy. His family was less fortunate and meals were limited, so having leftover bread that was stored in the rectory was a treat for him, documents state. An incident documented in B.C.’s complaint was when he found pornographic magazines in the rectory and began reading them. Camacho caught B.C. and threatened to tell his parents. That’s when he began to molest him. B.C. says he never told anyone about the abuse out of fear that Camacho would tell his parents about the pornographic magazines.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen

Picture the scenario, say a decade hence: a pregnant woman with diabetes is told by her doctors that giving birth may threaten her health, even her life. The woman is entitled to terminate her pregnancy under legislation, should her doctors decide this is necessary.

But where should this termination take place, if the woman is being treated for her diabetes in St Vincent’s hospital and is due to deliver her baby in the new national maternity hospital to be located there?

Best practice suggests the procedure should take place close to where adult medicine is being practised in St Vincent’s, in case something untoward happens. But will this be possible given the Catholic ethos in force in the hospital?

This is the kind of real-life scenario which can be teased out endlessly as part of the debate over moving the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) to St Vincent’s, where the site will be owned by the Sisters of Charity.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, considers it is “anachronistic” for holders of his post to be appointed automatically as chair of the board of governors of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH).

A spokeswoman for the archdiocese pointed out that under the NMH Charter Amendment Act of 1936, the Archbishop of Dublin is also designated as chairman of the hospital’s executive committee.

She added: “Archbishop Diarmuid Martin considers this situation anachronistic, and he has requested two ministers for health to change the structures so that he is no longer chair.”

She said Archbishop Martin does not attend or chair board meetings and the deputy chairperson has acted in that role for several years.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Colm Keena

There are no borrowings against the land on which the proposed new National Maternity Hospital is to be built, a spokeswoman for the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG) has confirmed.

The new hospital is to be provided out of public funds, but will be in the sole ownership of the SVHG owned by the Sisters of Charity. The group is contributing the site for the project on the St Vincent’s hospital campus at Elm Park, Dublin.

There have been calls for the compulsory purchase by the State of the land so the hospital could be publicly owned.

A spokeswoman for the SVHG confirmed the land earmarked for the hospital is owned by the group rather than the congregation, but is not covered by any of the mortgages registered against the group.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen, Pat Leahy

Minister for Health Simon Harris has called for a “discussion” on ownership in the health service, which could lead to lead to hospitals moving from religious to State control.

Mr Harris said he intended to bring proposals to Government to have a broader discussion about ownership in the health service, similar to that seen in recent years in education.

The forum on patronage and pluralism set up by former Labour minister for education Ruairí Quinn was a useful model to follow, he suggested.

The report of the forum recommended in 2012 that religious schools in 28 areas divest to multinational patrons, though progress in giving effect to this has been slow.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

The board of Holles St has voted to press ahead with building the new National Maternity Hospital at the St Vincent’s campus in Dublin.

At a meeting this evening, it reaffirmed its commitment to the original deal by a large majority.

In a statement, the board said: “This agreement provides that the clinical, financial and operational independence of the National Maternity Hospital at Elm Park DAC shall be enshrined in its memorandum and articles of association and all related legal agreements.”

Sinn Fein Councillor and board member Mícheál Mac Donncha was one of those who voted against the motion tonight.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Jack Power, Ronan McGreevy

The National Maternity Hospital (NMH) reaffirmed its commitment to moving to the St Vincent’s Hospital campus at a board meeting on Wednesday evening.

In a statement, the board of the hospital said it welcomed Tuesday’s statement from St Vincent’s in which the south Dublin hospital said the new national maternity hospital would carry out any medical procedure that was legal.

The NMH board said it had “re-endorsed its commitment to the agreement mediated by Kieran Mulvey in November last”.

This agreement ensured that the clinical, financial and operational independence of the new national maternity hospital “shall be enshrined in its memorandum and articles of association and all related legal agreements”.

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ILLINOIS
WLS

Apr 26, 2017

(CHICAGO) Three victims of defrocked priest Daniel McCormack will $4.5 million in settlements from the Archdiocese of Chicago.

John Q. Doe, who sued the Archdiocese in March 2016, alleged he was abused by McCormack on multiple occasions in 2004 and 2005, when he was an 11-year-old participating in a basketball program at St. Agatha’s Catholic Church and Our Lady of the Westside Catholic School, according to a statement from Doe’s attorneys, Mark A. Brown of Lane & Lane LLC.

The $1.75 million settlement was reached late last week, according to the attorneys.

Two brothers also agreed to a settlement of their suit, which alleged they were sexually assaulted in 2004 and 2005 when they were participants in an after school program and summer camp at the parish called “S.A.F.E.”

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BELGIE
De Redactie

[Belgium’s Roman Catholic Church has apologized to mestizo children for the role that Roman Catholic orders and institutions played during the colonial period. The Bishop of Antwerp, Johan Bonny, voiced the apology during a colloquium in the Belgian senate this week. Mestizos are the children of European fathers and African mothers. In Congo, Rwanda and Burundi there was no place for these children as blacks and whites were supposed to live completely separate lives. African mothers were pressured to give up their children. Sometimes described as “the children of sin”, they ended up in Roman Catholic institutions in Africa.]

De Belgische katholieke kerk excuseert zich bij de metiskinderen voor de rol die katholieke ordes en instellingen hebben gespeeld in die koloniale periode. Dat heeft de Antwerpse bisschop Johan Bonny namens de Belgische bisschoppen gezegd tijdens een colloquium in de Senaat over de kwestie.

Wie zijn de metissen?

In Congo, Rwanda en Burundi was er onder Belgische voogdij geen plaats voor metissen of “halfbloedkinderen”, met koloniale blanke vader en een zwarte moeder. Blank en zwart moesten in die periode strikt gescheiden leven. Afrikaanse moeders van metissen werden onder druk gezet om hun kinderen af te staan. De “kinderen van de zonde” kwamen dan in katholieke instellingen terecht, zoals dat van de Witte Zusters in Save, in Rwanda.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Apr. 26, 2017

VATICAN CITY

The leadership of the Knights of Malta has recommended that the members of the order voting to elect its new leader decline to appoint a new permanent head of the group. It has asked instead that they consider electing a temporary leader with a one-year appointment.
Knights were informed of the recommendation Tuesday in an email from the order’s headquarters, which was obtained by NCR. The email included a lengthy opinion from the order’s juridical council that the members voting in the election have the possibility of deciding to elect only a temporary leader.

The Knights of Malta, a prestigious chivalric order founded in the 11th century, is holding an election for its new leader Saturday. The order’s previous leader, Briton Matthew Festing, resigned Jan. 25 following months of tension between the order and the Vatican.

The leader of the order is known as its Grand Master and is normally given a life appointment.

Several Italian language reports indicate that Pope Francis asked the order to consider the possibility of electing a temporary leader. Website Faro di Roma reports that Francis will be meeting at the Vatican Wednesday afternoon with some of the members taking part in the election.

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ILLINOIS
Fox 32

UPDATED:APR 26 2017

SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE – Three victims of defrocked priest Daniel McCormack will $4.5 million in settlements from the Archdiocese of Chicago.

John Q. Doe, who sued the Archdiocese in March 2016, alleged he was abused by McCormack on multiple occasions in 2004 and 2005, when he was an 11-year-old participating in a basketball program at St. Agatha’s Catholic Church and Our Lady of the Westside Catholic School, according to a statement from Doe’s attorneys, Lane & Lane LLC.

The $1.75 million settlement was reached late last week, according to the attorneys.

Two brothers also agreed to a settlement of their suit, which alleged they were sexually assaulted in 2004 and 2005 when they were participants in an after school program and summer camp at the parish called “S.A.F.E.”

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ILLINOIS
Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — The Archdiocese of Chicago will pay $4.45 million to settle three lawsuits brought by three men who allege they were sexually abused over a decade ago by a former Roman Catholic priest and convicted sex offender.

Mark Brown, the plaintiffs’ attorney, tells the Chicago Tribune (http://trib.in/2q7NYd3 ) that two brothers reached settlements in late January. They accused Daniel McCormack of sexually abusing them more than once during an after-school program at Our Lady of the Westside Catholic School in the mid-2000s.

The other man, who was a basketball player on a team McCormack coached, reached his settlement April 20.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

Siobhan Ryan / Argus_SiobhanR

A FORMER Church of England priest has been charged with sexual offences against a boy.

Ifor Whittaker, who was previously known as Colin Pritchard, has been charged by Sussex Police following offences which are said to have taken place between February 1987 and February 1993.

The 72-year-old of Rectory Road, Sutton, Surrey, is accused of two counts of citing the boy to commit an act of gross indecency, two for gross indecency, two for buggery and one offence of conspiracy with another man – Roy Cotton – to commit acts of indecency.

Whittaker was Vicar of Sedlescombe, near Battle, at the time the offences which are alleged to have taken place in the vicarage when the boy was aged between 12 and 16.

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NEW YORK
QNS

By Angela Matua / amatua@qns.com / Wednesday, April 26, 2017

A Woodside pastor who sexually abused a six-year-old girl in his wife’s daycare for one year has been sentenced to seven years in prison, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.

James Love, 46, of 51st Street in Woodside, abused the child from June 2015 through June 2016. The victim had attended Love’s wife’s daycare that was being run in their home. He was charged with first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. Once he serves his prison sentence, Love will be on post-release supervision for 10 years and will have to register as a sex offender.

According to Brown, the the church pastor, who worked at New Mount Zion Baptist Church in Harlem, touched the victim’s vagina through her clothes on numerous occasions. He also rubbed himself against the girl and tried to kiss her. He also exposed his genitals and forced the victim to touch them.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Abuse at Provolo: The number of suspects rises to nine.]

Legati e violentati al Provolo». A Mendoza la procura iscrive altri tre nomi sul registro degli indagati:si aggiungono ai 5 arrestati (tra cui il veronese don Nicola Corradi) e alla suora latitante.

«Incatenati e violentati all’Istituto Provolo». A Mendoza la procura argentina iscrive altre tre persone sul registro degli indagati: devono rispondere di abusi sessuali ai danni di bambini e ragazzi sordomuti e i loro nomi vanno ad aggiungersi a quelli dei 5 già arrestati a ottobre 2015 (tra cui spicca il prete veronese don Nicola Corradi) e della suora latitante.

Al momento don Nicola ( foto) è agli arresti domiciliari per ragioni di età (ha 82 anni) e salute, mentre in carcere risultano tuttora detenuti

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[The heavy criticism of Pope Francis by Argentinians. Here 27 reasons why Francis has consolidated the abuser” clergy culture. The list was made by the lawyer Carlos Lombardi, advisor to a network of survivors of clergy abuse (AR). He has designated cardinals in the Vatican Curia who participated in the conclave that elected him as pope, members of the so-called ” dirty dozen ” because they were accused of covering pedophile priests. They are: Leonardo Sandri (Argentina), member of the Vatican communications office, George Pell (Australia), Prefect of the Secretariat of the Holy See for Economics; Marc Ouellet (Canada), Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America; Seán O’Malley (USA), the C8 Councilor and President of the Pontifical Commssion for the Protection of Minors; Peter Turkson (Ghana), Prefect of the Congregation for the Integral Development of Human Services; Oscar Rodríguez Madariaga (Honduras), Director of C9.]

L’elenco fatto dall’avvocato Carlos Lombardi consigliere della rete dei sopravvissuti agli abusi del clero (AR)

Scarica PDF in lingua originale.

AZIONI DEL PAPA FRANCESCO CHE CONSOLIDANO IL SISTEMA DELLA COPERTURA VATICANA DEL CLERO ABUSATORE SESSUALE

– Ha designato nella Curia vaticana cardinali che hanno partecipato al conclave che lo ha eletto come papa, membri della cosiddetta “sudicia dozzina” perché sono stati accusati di coprire sacerdoti pedofili. Loro sono: Leonardo Sandri (Argentina), membro della segretaria per la Comunicazione del Vaticano; George Pell (Australia), Prefetto della Segreteria di Economia della Santa Sede; Marc Ouellet (Canada), Prefetto della Congregazione per i Vescovi e Presidente della Pontificia Commissione per l’ America Latina; Seán O’Malley (USA), Consigliere nel C8 e Presidente della Pontificia Commssione per la Protezione dei Minori; Peter Turkson (Ghana), Prefetto del Dicastero per il Servizio dello Sviluppo Umano Integrale; Oscar Rodríguez Madariaga (Honduras), Consigliere del C9.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Nicholas Kearns

The proposed new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) at the St Vincent’s hospital campus at Elm Park in Dublin will not be run by nuns. It will be run by an independent board under a new company. It will operate in accordance with the law of the land, not canon law – just as it does now. It will have no religious ethos.

The deal brokered by Kieran Mulvey after lengthy mediation says the company called the National Maternity Hospital at Elm Park DAC will exercise all key powers “in an undiluted manner” in order to preserve its autonomy “in specific clinical and operational matters”. It could not be clearer.

And lest there be any doubt this is spelled out fully in the agreement between the two hospitals. This autonomy covers “clinical and operational independence in the provision of maternity, gynaecology, obstetrics and neonatal services (without religious ethnic or other distinction), in the hospital at Elm Park, Dublin and the provision of medical, surgical, nursing midwifery and other health services”. The agreement says we control our budget, and that we make our own agreements with the Health Service Executive on our service-level agreements. The first chairperson when the hospital opens will be nominated by the NMH directors.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Fiachra Ó Cionnaith and Catherine Shanahan

The Department of Health’s secretary general failed to tell Health Minister Simon Harris of serious concerns over the independence of the new national maternity hospital when they were raised in May 2016.

The fresh controversy emerged last night as St Vincent’s Hospital Group published the 25-page legal independence document for the hospital and Holles Street’s clinical director said it will perform any legal procedure when it opens, potentially including abortions, despite ongoing fears it will fall under religious control.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, Holles Street board member Peter Boylan — who will refuse to resign over his criticism of the hospital site at a board meeting this evening — claimed the department was warned of the religious interference concerns a year ago.

Citing a letter from 2016, Dr Boylan said Department of Health secretary general Jim Breslin was told of the concerns by the HSE’s Ireland East Hospital Group chairman, Tom Lynch.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

A representative for Irish midwives said they want relocation but they do not want any religious order to have a say in modern hospitals.

Ally Murphy, of the Irish Midwives Association told Breakfast Newstalk that they want what is best for Irish women.

She was speaking as the controversy over the decision to give ownership of the new €300m National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity rumbled on.

She told hosts Shane Coleman and Paul Williams that midwives want relocation.

“However the decisions made today will shape the future of our maternity care. We do want hospitals for the 21st century. We do feel that there is no place for any religious organisation in this 21st century care.”

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE MASTER OF the National Maternity Hospital has defended the decision to relocate the new hospital on grounds owned by a religious order, saying that they will have complete control over medical procedures and governance.

On Morning Ireland today, Dr Rhona Mahony, Master of National Maternity Hospital Holles Street, said that the Sisters of Charity “will be an independent company”, and that they will retain their medical practices without religious interference.

It’s the board’s duty to do their best for women and babies. We will not mention any religious, ethnic or other distinction [in hospital governance].

When asked about the clear dispute over governance, Dr Mahoney said they are the first of the co-locations, but that the integrity of their services and autonomy over them will be protected.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Update 8.30am: Dr Rhona Mahony, Master of Holles St, has come out strongly in defence of the agreement to build the new National Maternity Hospital on land that will remain in church ownership.

Controversy has raged in recent days over the fact that the new facility, to be built by the state at a cost of more than €300m, will be built on land belonging to the St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group, which is owned by the Sisters of Charity.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, Dr Mahony insisted the chosen location was the right place for the hospital, saying: “We want people to have access to the wide range of facilities and expertise available at St Vincent’s”.

She dismissed concerns over ownership as a ‘storm in a tea cup’.

Her comments follow a statement from the Bishop of Elphin who angered campaigners by claiming Catholic rule will have to be obeyed there.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com April 26, 2017

Former Guam priest and now Saipan Bishop Emeritus Tomas A. Camacho on Wednesday was accused for the second time of sexually abusing a former altar boy, this time by a man identified in a federal court complaint only as B.C.

B.C., represented by attorney David Lujan, said in the complaint he was about 10 years old around 1962 when Camacho sexually abused him numerous times when Camacho was priest at the Nuestra Señora de las Aguas Catholic Church in Mongmong.

B.C.’s complaint brings to 57 the total number of clergy sex abuses cased filed so far in local and federal court.

“One particular occasion, while B.C. was in the rectory eating bread after cleaning around the church, he found porn magazines in the rectory and started to look at them. A few minutes later, Camacho walked in and caught B.C. looking at the porn magazines and threatened to tell B.C.’s mother. B.C. was scared and begged Camacho, ‘Please don’t do that,'” the complaint says. Camacho again sexually abused B.C., the lawsuit states.

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CHILE
Katholisches

(Rom/Santiago de Chile) Am 20. April veröffentlichte die chilenische Mercedarierprovinz die kaum beachtete Nachricht, daß gegen den ehemaligen Generaloberen des Ordens, Mariano Labarca Araja, von Papst Franziskus strengste Kirchenstrafen verhängt wurden. Der Vatikan gab dazu bisher keine Stellungnahme ab.

Die Mitteilung des Ordens, das Schweigen des Vatikans

Der Chilene Mariano Labarca war von 2004-2010 86. Generalmagister des 1218 gegründeten Ordens Unserer Lieben Frau von der Barmherzigkeit vom Loskauf der Gefangenen (Ordo Beatae Mariae de Mercede redemptionis captivorum), besser bekannt als Mercedarierorden. Seit 1574 wird der Generalmagister jeweils auf sechs Jahre gewählt.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

[The Catholic Church by means of a decree of Pope Francis expelled priest Pedro Mariano Labarca Araya, who belonged to the Order of La Merced, from the priesthood. He has been accused of sexually abusing minors and seminarians. He was provincial and world leader of the order and served as rector of the San Pedro Nolasco School in Conceptcion in 2011.]

Publicado por
Cecilia Bastías

La Iglesia Católica, por medio de un decreto del papa Francisco, expulsó del estado de sacerdote a Pedro Mariano Labarca Araya, que pertenecía a la Orden de La Merced, y fue acusado de abusos sexuales contra exseminaristas y menores de edad.

Labarca fue líder provincial y mundial de la Orden, y ejerció el cargo de rector del Colegio San Pedro Nolasco de Concepción, entre febrero y septiembre de 2011.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By TANYA TALAGA Staff Reporter
JESSE WINTER Staff Reporter
Tues., April 25, 2017

An Ontario Court has dismissed two claims by St. Anne’s Indian Residential School survivors, saying no judicial probe is needed into the actions of the Canadian government because it did not hide 12,000 documents detailing abuse suffered while at the notorious school.

Survivors of the James Bay residential school have spent years trying to convince authorities that an investigation was needed regarding the access to 12,000 documents that were part of a lengthy criminal probe concerning abuse at the school. Five former church employees were convicted.

Ontario Superior Justice Paul Perell dismissed the claim concerning the 12,000 documents, known as the Cochrane documents, which are transcripts of confidential and privileged examinations for discovery of the testimony of nearly 1,000 St. Anne’s survivors who suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse while at the school. Perell said Canada has provided a “transparent explanation for why the balance of the Cochrane documents have not been produced. The documents are confidential and privileged,” he wrote in his April 24, 2017 ruling.

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NEW YORK
Patch

BREAKING: The priest was also a registered sex offender, arrested at JFK after being found by Interpol, the DA said.

By Lisa Finn (Patch Staff) – April 24, 2017

HAMPTON BAYS, NY — A man extradited back to the United States after sexually abusing a girl, 6, in Hamptons Bays, was a defrocked priest, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.

Augusto Cortez pleaded not guilty Monday at his arraignment before Judge Barbara Kahn in Riverhead, Spota said.

Cortez, 53, pleaded not guilty to the three charges in the indictment: first degree criminal sexual act, first degree sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child, Spota said.

The court remanded the defendant without bail and set a return date of May 15; a temporary order of protection was issued for the victim, Spota said.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

BY MARY SANCHEZ
msanchez@kcstar.com

On a Sunday afternoon last summer, the new bishop lay prostrate at the altar in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. was taking a step that his predecessors never fathomed as he lay face down, his body in a state of submissive penance and apology.

That day, the Service of Lament, was the most public statement yet by the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, which for decades did more to cover up than stop sexual abuse committed by diocesan priests. Johnston continued to lay prone as statements were read from the balcony, detailing the anguished thoughts of victims.

It was a deeply moving ceremony, filled with hope.

But it’s the less visible, far more behind-the-scenes shifts that have occurred in the last year that will ultimately heal the diocese. At the service, Johnston also announced a series of commitments.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 26, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Former Saipan bishop Tomas A. Camacho stands accused a second time of clergy sex abuse. Filed in the District Court of Guam late Wednesday, 65-year-old B.C. alleges he was sexually molested by Father Camacho in the early 1960s at Nuestra Senora de las Aguas Parish in Mongmong.

B.C. was an altar boy when he found porn magazines in the rectory. According to the complaint, Camacho caught him looking at the magazines and threatened to tell B.C.’s mother. The priest then performed sex acts on the boy and he never told anyone out of fear Camacho would tell his parents he was looking at porn magazines. B.C. is suing for $5 million. He is represented by attorney David Lujan.

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UNITED STATES
Benzinga

April 26, 2017

Spring Valley, NY, April 26, 2017 –(PR.com)– Author and quantitative analyst G.R. Pafumi announces the launch of his newest website, VictimsSpeakDB.org. It is derived from the proprietary Survivor Accounts of Catholic Clergy Abuse, Denial, Accountability and Silence (SACCADAS) database. The site provides comprehensive analyses of the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults in 49 countries on six continents. VictimsSpeakDB.org includes statistical data detailing the alleged abuse of over 9,000 victims molested by nearly 3,000 Catholic clergy, dating as far back as the 1920s, and as recently as 2017. The launch of the new website was timed to coincide with pending state legislation to expand the SOL (statute of limitations) for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Pafumi’s key findings of the Survivor Accounts of Catholic Clergy Abuse, Denial, Accountability and Silence (SACCADAS) database regarding alleged abuse include:

· Abuse patterns in Australia/New Zealand and Canada mirror patterns observed in the United States, including the gender of the abused and the decades in which the greatest abuse occurred (1960-1989).

· The average age at the time the abuse was first reported was 43 years for victims who came forward in the 21st century. Their average delay in reporting that abuse was 29 years after the abuse ended. This is strong evidence as to why the statute of limitations to report sex crimes against children must be expanded.

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NEW YORK
Daily Mail (UK)

By Dailymail.com Reporter

A defrocked priest on the run for allegedly sexually abusing a young girl in 2014 was tracked down in Guatemala and extradited back to the US, where he will finally face abuse charges in Long Island, NY.

Interpol, working with US Marshals, found ex-priest Augusto Cortez, 53, in Guatamala and put him on a flight to New York over the weekend, according to authorities.

Upon landing at JFK Airport on Saturday, Cortez — a former Catholic priest of the Vincentian Congregation — was arrested and sent to jail without bail.

Cortez pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree criminal sexual act, first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child on Monday, according to WABC.

The charges all stemmed from a June 2014 incident in which he is accused of molesting a six-year-old girl at a family party in Southampton, Long Island.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler
Apr 25, 2017
There’s irony in the news that a laicized priest, who once ran a counseling center, has agreed to counseling as a condition of his parole.

In case you missed the story, Edward Arsenault resigned from his post as head of the St. Luke Institute in Maryland in 2013, after he was charged with financial as well as sexual improprieties. He was eventually sentenced to a 4-year prison term after pleading guilty to misappropriating over $300,000 from the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, where he once served as chancellor. The sexual improprieties, involving an adult male recording artist, were not criminal offenses.

One more disgraced priest; one more instance of clerical corruption. But the fact that this particular priest was once the president of the St. Luke Institute—the most prominent of the centers that treated pedophile priests—begins to look like something more than ironic happenstance.

The St. Luke Center has an unhappy leadership history. Its founder, Father Michael Peterson, died of AIDS in 1987. In 1989, the institute brought aboard a Jesuit, Father Curtis Bryant, as head of therapy. Writing in Catholic World Report in February 1997, investigative journalist Lesley Payne quoted one therapist’s report on Bryant’s odd behavior:

Sometimes a visiting bishop would meet Curtis, seeing him prance around like a peacock, and say, “Who the hell was that?” We’d say, “Oh, he’s our director.”

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CAMBODIA
The Cambodia Daily

BY HANNAH HAWKINS | APRIL 26, 2017

Up to seven foreign clergymen are serving time in Cambodian prisons for child sex crimes, according to the executive director of a child protection NGO, a situation highlighted by the arrest of a Dutch priest who was charged last week with producing child pornography.

Evrard-Nicolas Sarot, 53, who was a parish priest in the Netherlands, is accused of paying 19 boys, all under the age of 15, a few dollars each to pose nude for photographs in Siem Reap City.

Another four victims have been identified since the 19 were interviewed by police last week, and other unidentified victims could have been photographed in the Philippines, where Mr. Sarot may also have worked as a priest, Samleang Seila, head of Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), said on Tuesday.

Police said Mr. Sarot was found to have nearly 1,300 images on his camera and 3,715 more on a laptop.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Manya Brachear Pashman
Chicago Tribune

The Archdiocese of Chicago will pay $4.45 million to settle three lawsuits brought by three men who allege they were sexually abused more than a decade ago by former Roman Catholic priest, basketball coach and convicted sex offender Daniel McCormack, the plaintiffs’ attorney said Tuesday.

According to Mark Brown, the attorney for the three plaintiffs, two brothers reached settlements in late January. They accused McCormack of sexually abusing them more than once during their participation in an after-school program called S.A.F.E. at Our Lady of the Westside Catholic School in the mid-2000s. The other man, who played basketball for the team McCormack coached at Our Lady of the Westside, reached his settlement April 20.

A spokeswoman for the archdiocese said she could not discuss the case “out of respect for the privacy of those involved,” but did confirm the settlement had been reached.

Now 24 years old, the former basketball player, identified in court papers as John Doe, said in an interview with the Tribune that he told his parents and the archdocise about the abuse once he was out of Our Lady of the Westside and attending high school. The archdiocese offered to cover the cost of therapy, he said.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen, Pat Leahy

The €300 million move of the National Maternity Hospital to a religious-owned site at St Vincent’s University Hospital is back on track after both institutions gave assurances about its autonomy.

St Vincent’s Healthcare Group last night dropped its threat of last week to review the project and gave its most explicit promise yet of the operational independence of the Dublin maternity hospital after it moves from Holles Street to the Elm Park campus.

“In line with current policy and procedures at SVHG, any medical procedure which is in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Ireland will be carried out at the new hospital,” its chairman, James Menton, said in a statement.

Sources say the more conciliatory approach by St Vincent’s followed the call by the National Maternity Hospital’s deputy chairman, Nicholas Kearns, for its former master Dr Peter Boylan to resign.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Maeve Sheehan and Catherine Devine
April 25 2017

The Minister for Health, Simon Harris, has released the full agreement between St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and the National Maternity Hospital.

The full statement can be found here .

Details of the agreement were first revealed in the Sunday Independent.

The agreement between the two hospitals spells out how the independence of the maternity hospital will be protected through a new Designated Activity Company providing maternity services.

The company will be a 100pc subsidary of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group. However the group’s ownership is conditional on allowing the State a ‘golden share’ in the company to protect its independence, and a ‘lien’, so that it cannot be used as collateral against loans or sold.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The 25-page agreement between Holles Street Hospital and the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group on the new National Maternity Hospital has been published this evening by the two hospitals.

It says there will be “clinical independence in the provision of maternity, gynaecology, obstetrics and neonatal services (without religious, ethnic or other distinction) in the hospital”.

There will be “legal autonomy of hospital operations” and “protection of State investment and interests”.

The agreement does not specifically state that any medical procedure which is in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Ireland will be carried out at the new hospital however St Vincent’s says this is the case.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE ST VINCENT’S Hospital Group will have ‘corporate oversight’ of the new National Maternity Hospital when it moves to its new campus, according to the agreement reached between the two hospitals.

The agreement reached in November between the SVHG and the current National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street has been released to the public.

The agreement between the two hospitals over the provision of the new NMH is in the form of a 25-page report by mediator Kieran Mulvey.

The hospital is to be located at Elm Park alongside St Vincent’s University Hospital on the campus owned by the SVHG.

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CHILE
El Dinamo

[Pope Francisco expels Chilean priest from church for sexual abuse of minors.]

El Vaticano informó que, por decreto del Papa Francisco, expulsó de la Iglesia Católica al sacerdote chileno Pedro Mariano Labarca Araya, por su participación en casos de abuso sexual contra menores y ex seminaristas.

Según un comunicado dado a conocer por la Provincia Mercedaria de Chile, se deja en claro que Labarca “ya no es más sacerdote ni religioso de la Orden de la Merced”.

Mariano Labarca fue rector del Colegio San Pedro Nolasco de Concepción, entre febrero y septiembre de 2011, consignó radio Biobío.

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OREGON
Oregonian

By Aimee Green | The Oregonian/OregonLive

UPDATE Monday, April 24 at noon: The Senate did not vote Monday morning on Senate Bill 737. A new date for a vote hasn’t been set yet.

Amaia Rennie told a state senator that she was 35 years old, healthy and less than five months into her pregnancy when her water broke and she headed to the hospital.

But things went from bad to worse when medical staff made a series of errors, she said.

She ended up with a life-threatening infection that put her in a coma and sent her into surgery to repair her heart, she said. She lost both of her legs below the knee and nine fingertips. She could no longer have children, she said.

Rennie won a confidential settlement three years ago that allowed her to cover the $120,000 cost of a surrogate birth so she could become a parent and pay for the state-of-the-art prosthetic legs that help her keep up with her now 3-year-old. …

Backing Senate Bill 737 as part of the coalition is the the ACLU of Oregon, Crime Victims United, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, the Brain Injury Alliance of Oregon, Disability Rights Oregon and the plaintiff’s attorneys group known as the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association.

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RHODE ISLAND
GoLocalProv

Tuesday, April 25, 2017
GoLocalProv News Team

The RI Ethics Commission voted 5-2 Tuesday that Supreme Court Justice Francis Flaherty violated state ethics code.

The Rhode Island Ethics Commission on Tuesday found probable cause that Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Flaherty violated state ethics code by failing to disclose that he was the President of a Catholic non-profit in Rhode Island for five years.

Flaherty had served as President of the St. Thomas More Society of Rhode Island, whose mission is to encourage Catholic lawyers to apply Christian principles to modern problems.

Ethics Complaint

A complaint had been brought against Flaherty in September by Helen Hyde, a former Rhode Island resident currently living in Connecticut, who had a sexual abuse case before the Rhode Island Supreme Court – under Flaherty – involving Roman Catholic priest Brendan Smyth.

Smyth had been convicted of hundreds of indecent assaults against children in native Ireland. Smyth died in prison in Ireland in 1997.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

Apr 25, 2017

By Katie Mulvaney
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The state Ethics Commission voted 5-2 Tuesday that there was probable cause to find that Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Flaherty violated the state ethics code by failing to disclose his leadership position in a Catholic nonprofit organization.

Helen L. Hyde, of Brookfield, Connecticut, in September filed a complaint faulting Flaherty for not indicating on his financial disclosure statements from 2010 to 2015 that he served as president of the St. Thomas More Society of Rhode Island. The nonprofit society’s stated mission is to “promote the study by Catholic lawyers of the application of Christian principles to modern problems, especially in so far as they are connected with civil or ecclesiastical law,” according to the complaint.

“The omission is not a neglectful oversight, but rather occurred five successive years in a row,” Hyde wrote, referring to the nondisclosure as “knowing and willful.”

Hyde, a former Rhode Island resident, alleges that Flaherty held that role while presiding over her appeal before the state Supreme Court. She and a man who alleged that a Roman Catholic priest sexually abused them more than four decades ago sought to recover damages from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence. Flaherty wrote the decision denying Hyde and Jeffrey Thomas damages.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

At his sentencing hearing a year ago, former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert apologized for sexually abusing boys he’d mentored decades before as a wrestling coach at Yorkville High School. “For 11 months, I have been struggling to come to terms with events that occurred almost four decades ago,” he said at the emotional Chicago hearing in which a federal judge called him a “serial child molester.”

Hastert wasn’t convicted on any sexual abuse charges, however. The statute of limitations had long ago expired. Instead, he was convicted on charges relating to bank fraud. A federal investigation into suspicious bank transactions by the former Illinois legislator and congressman had eventually revealed the sexual abuse. …

Illinois is already a leader in providing victims of sexual abuse a pathway to justice. Several years ago, in reaction to the priest abuse scandal within the Roman Catholic Church, the state removed the statute of limitations on sex abuse crimes against children. But there were crucial exceptions. Victims needed to produce corroborating physical evidence, for instance.

Few cases meet that criteria, leaving most abuse cases subject to a statute of limitations that gives a victim only until he or she is 38 (20 years after he or she turns 18) to file a complaint. The new law would remove those extra requirements and effectively eliminate the statute of limitations for cases in which the current legal time limit hasn’t yet expired.

Here’s why this is important: Ending the statute of limitations would acknowledge that many victims are simply unable to deal with, let alone talk about, the abuse they suffered as children until much later in life.

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AUSTRALIA
MUP

George Pell is the most recognisable face of the Australian Catholic Church. He was the Ballarat boy with the film-star looks who studied at Oxford and rose through the ranks to become the Vatican’s indispensable ‘Treasurer’. As an outspoken defender of church orthodoxy, ‘Big George’s’ ascendancy within the clergy was remarkable and seemingly unstoppable.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse has brought to light horrific stories about sexual abuse of the most vulnerable and provoked public anger at the extent of the cover-up. George Pell has always portrayed himself as the first man in the Church to tackle the problem. But questions about what the Cardinal knew, and when, have persisted.

The nation’s most prominent Catholic is now the subject of a police investigation into allegations spanning decades that he too abused children. Louise Milligan is the only Australian journalist who has been privy to the most intimate stories of complainants.

She pieces together a series of disturbing pictures of the Cardinal’s knowledge and his actions, many of which are being told here for the first time.

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GEORGIA
Golden Isles News

By WES WOLFE wwolfe@goldenisles.news

The Rev. Kenneth Adkins stood unrepentant after Glynn County Judge Stephen Scarlett read his sentence, declaring that he did nothing for which he was convicted, nor even knew the victims in his child molestation trial at the time accused.

“I’m not going to let this moment define me,” Adkins said.

But that does not change what he faces — the real possibility of the end of his natural life occurring in state prison.

Adkins, 57, for three counts of aggravated child molestation, received three concurrent sentences of 35 years confinement, with the balance of his life sentence served on probation. That would make Adkins 92 years old by the time he walked free.

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GEORGIA
Florida Times-Union

BRUNSWICK, Ga. | The fate of controversial pastor Kenneth Adkins has been decided. Glynn County Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett sentenced him to 35 years in prison for eight counts of child molestation.

Prior to becoming a pastor in Brunswick, the 57-year-old spent many years in Jacksonville as a public relations and political consultant, raising the ire of many when he called gays sinners and attacked his critics on social media with crude anti-gay rhetoric and cartoons.

At 9:35 a.m. Tuesday, Adkins walked into a courtroom a very different-looking man. Gone were his tailored suits he wore during his trial. Gone was his confident and pleasant-looking face. Instead, a handcuffed Adkins emerged in a forest green jail-issued jumpsuit. His hands clasped a Styrofoam cup of coffee. His face sullen.

Moments later he learned the state wanted the judge to follow strict interpretations of Georgia law that would mandate that Adkins receive the maximum sentence with no chance of parole because of his past convictions in Florida. At a minimum, that maximum would be life plus 30 years. Scarlett called for a recess at 9:50 a.m. and headed into chambers with a stack of paperwork detailing Adkins’ various prison and jail sentences.

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GEORGIA
First Coast News

[with video]

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A judge has sentenced Brunswick Pastor Kenneth Adkins to life for aggravated child molestation Tuesday morning.

Adkins’ sentencing states he must serve a minimum of 35 years in prison, with the rest served on probation. He also faces up to 20 years for every additional charge, all to run concurrently.

Adkins turned himself in on one count of aggravated child molestation and one count of child molestation back in August of 2016. Authorities said that their investigation into the pastor focuses on suspected molestation in multiple locations.

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ILLINOIS
The Southern

MOLLY PARKER The Southern

This is the full Q&A, with minor edits, of the interview The Southern Illinoisan conducted last week with Paul Wesselmann, who grew up in Carbondale, for the story that published Sunday titled “Light shines out of darkness.” Wesselmann said he wanted to speak out about being victimized at a Catholic church camp in Southern Illinois in the mid-1980s so that his story of healing might encourage other victims of abuse to reach out for help, and know they are not alone.

1. Let’s start off with the basics. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Born June 2, 1967 (currently 49 years old; will turn 50 in a few weeks!) I grew up in Carbondale. I attended Thomas, Parish and Lewis schools as well as Lincoln Junior High & CCHS Class of 1985.

I attended McKendree University in Lebanon (BA psychology, 1989), and then left Southern Illinois to attend grad school at Bowling Green State University, Ohio (MA, higher education, 1991). After that I lived in Wisconsin 1991-2012, and currently reside in Cincinnati, Ohio (2012-present).

2. Describe what it has been like to live with the abuse you endured.

I didn’t really experience it as a burden or trauma at first … it just seemed a normal part of life because that was the life I knew. I think the most damaging outcome of the actual abuse was assuming that my feelings of attraction to other guys was somehow related to what happened to me, and the fear that I myself could/would become a predator terrified me for years — well into adulthood in fact. The church’s concealment of the abuse contributed to the shame I felt, and made it tough to trust and respect others.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

Former Archbishop Nienstedt’s never-revealed secret – broadcast May 4, 2016

UPDATED:APR 25 2017

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) – A FOX 9 investigation into former Archbishop John Nienstedt’s past has been honored with a regional Murrow Award for investigative reporting.

The story uncovered how 40 years ago, as a young priest, Nienstedt failed to protect a child in his own family who was allegedly abused by his best friend, a fellow priest. That priest, Fr. Sam Ritchey, would go on to abuse at least three other boys.

The victim, the son of Nienstedt’s cousin, told the FOX 9 Investigators how Nienstedt introduced Fr. Ritchey to the family, and how Nienstedt, an ambitious priest on a career fast track, failed to acknowledge the sexual abuse or report it to law enforcement or church authorities.

Nienstedt’s failure to address the sexual abuse allegations in his own family, and his cold and calculated response to the family decades later, would foreshadow his failure to adequately address the sexual abuse crisis in the church. Nienstedt resigned from the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in June 2015 while it was under criminal investigation and in bankruptcy.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

The Vatican tribunal investigating allegations of sexual abuse against Archbishop Anthony Apuron will meet two of the former Guam Catholic leader’s accusers in Hawaii next week.

Attorney David Lujan confirmed with The Guam Daily Post that his clients, Roland Sondia and Roy Quintanilla, have agreed to meet with Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke at a church in Hawaii on May 6. Burke is presiding over the church tribunal tasked with hearing the case against Apuron.

“We have reached a compromise,” Lujan said on Tuesday.

The attorney will not be allowed to be in the room, but can be outside while his clients testify.

“I’m satisfied that Roy and Roland will testify and stick to what Apuron did to each of them, respectively,” he said.

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ISRAEL
YNet News

An Israeli family court judge rules that Lev Tahor, currently located in the Guatemalan jungle, is a cult with children who are at-risk, including for being married as young as 15 to partners 20 years their elder.

Gilad Morag|Published: 25.04.17

An Israel court ruled Tuesday that the extremist ultra-Orthodox community Lev Tahor (“A Pure Heart”), which lives in a jungle in Guatemala and has many Israeli members, is a cult.

“It is sufficient for my ruling to consider the conduct of the community towards its children, in order to determine that this is an abusive cult that severely harms the bodies and souls of the children of the community,” wrote Judge Rivka Makayes, vice president of the Family Court contained within the Central District Magistrate’s Court. Makayes ruled in the petition filed by the attorney general and relatives of minors who are in the cult.

The judge further wrote, “The evidence presented to me, both in direct testimony and in indirect testimony, led me to the conclusion that the Lev Tahor community treats the children of the community, inter alia, with severe physical punishment, with underage marriage (from the age of 14 for boys and 15 for girls), with spouses who sometimes have age differences of up to 20 years.

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ISRAEL
Times of Israel

An Israeli judge rules the Lev Tahor community of ultra-Orthodox Jews who live in the Guatemalan jungle are a “dangerous cult.”

“Based on the conduct of the sect toward minors, it’s sufficient to call this group a dangerous cult that severely damages the physical and emotional well-being of the children of this community,” Judge Rivka Makayes of the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court says in her ruling.

The ruling comes in response to a petition filed to the court by the attorney general and several family members of sect members.

Makayes agreed with the petition that requested the categorization of ultra-Orthodox children who were illegally taken to Guatemala with their parents to join the group as “at-risk” minors.

While the ruling will have little effect on those already in South America, Makayes hopes the ruling will dissuade other ultra-Orthodox families from joining the group.

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AUSTRALIA
The Austrlaian

April 26, 2017

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

Three of the Salvation Army’s most senior commanders are closely related to men who have been accused of, charged with or convicted of sexual offences, ­including against children.

The revelation demonstrates how deeply the church child-sex scandal has affected the tight-knit Salvation Army community and comes after a royal commission uncovered evidence of horrific ­assaults allegedly committed by its officers and staff.

The commission identified at least 19 alleged child abusers within the Salvation Army over recent decades, while an ongoing police investigation into boys’ homes run by the church has led to two arrests so far.

The Salvation Army’s national chief secretary, Colonel Mark Campbell, is the son-in-law of a former major, Errol Woodbury, who was the subject of “historical allegations” that led to his being stripped of his position in 2015.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Ciarán D’Arcy
 
The Catholic Bishop of Elphin has clarified comments attributed to him in a weekend newspaper article about the patronage of the new National Maternity Hospital.

Last week’s announcement by the Department of Health that the Catholic Sisters of Charity order would be given ownership of the €300 million facility once it is up and running caused a backlash from the public and politicians. …

Speaking to local radio station Shannonside FM on Tuesday, Dr Doran said he did not specifically mention the National Maternity Hospital in his comments to the newspaper.

He said the comments attributed to him were in response to a question about canonical obligations regarding the disposal of existing church property, and were intended to be general in nature.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

25/04/2017

Update 1.40pm: The Department of Health has denied claims from Dr Peter Boylan that it was warned last year about a possible religious influence on the new National Maternity Hospital.

The former master of Holles Street says the Department was given the warning “some time ago” by the head of the Dublin-based hospital group.

However, the Department of Health says it has no record of any such letter being received.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen

St Vincent’s hospital requires “corporate unitary oversight” of all services after the National Maternity Hospital moves to its campus, according to the agreement reached between the two hospitals.

St Vincent’s wants “integration” of the activities of the NMH with existing activities on its campus to ensure their effective and efficient operation, the agreement states.

The 25-page document, seen by The Irish Times, says the new hospital will be required to treat patients “without religious or ethnic or other distinction”.

It takes the form of a report by mediator Kieran Mulvey to Minister for Health Simon Harris on the terms of agreement between the NMH and St Vincent’s Hospital Group last November.

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