ABUSE TRACKER

JAMAICA
Loop

The businessman and operator of a downtown Kingston funeral home, who is now before the courts on allegations he molested a boy in St Catherine is also a Bishop of a church and a member of the revivalist movement in Jamaica.

Probe by Loop News has found that Shawn Lawrence – who last week identified himself only as a business operator after he was charged with buggery and indecent assault following an investigation by CISOCA detectives, is also a religious leader.

The accused appeared in the St Catherine Parish Court last week on the charges.

Although the full details were not disclosed in open court, Loop News ascertained that it is being alleged that the molestation occurred during visits to Lawrence’s Linstead, St Catherine home by a church sister and the boy.

Lawrence was remanded in custody until next week when he’s due back in court.

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

IRELAND
Killkenny People

Sam Matthews 18 Feb 2017

The closing date for people who were residents or workers in – or have specific knowledge of – the Thomastown County Home in County Kilkenny, to speak to a confidential Commission of Investigation is March 1.

The Commission of Investigation was established to investigate the experiences of mothers and children in 14 Mother and Baby Homes and a number of County Homes between 1922 and 1998, including the Thomastown County Home, St Columba’s Hospital.

The confidential committee is continuing to meet with anyone who was resident in, or worked in, these homes between the above years, and with others who have specific knowledge of these homes.

The closing date for applications to meet the confidential committee is March 1, 2017.

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

VATICAN CITY
7 News

Vatican City (AFP) – A real-life version of the hit political drama “House of Cards” is unfolding at the Vatican, from cardinals openly defying the pope to anonymous posters sullying his name.

In the latest episode, a group of powerful Princes of the Church released a statement defending Pope Francis — but religious watchers warn the move could backfire and work in the favour of his conservative challengers.

“No pope controls everything,” said Vatican expert Luigi Accattoli. “There has always been some resistance, even from cardinals.”

But this time the critics are “louder and more numerous”.

The root of the row lies with the Argentine pontiff’s calls for the church to be more understanding towards those it considers “sinners”, and in particular his intimation last year that some believers who have divorced and remarried should be able to take communion. …

US cardinal Raymond Burke took on the guise of conspirator-in-chief, warning the 80-year-old pope in November that he could be sanctioned if he does not reply.

Burke has since become a rallying point for conservatives, often giving interviews criticising Francis’s decisions.

Religious watcher Sandro Magister told AFP that inside the Vatican there was “great resistance towards a pope who opens doors in every direction and is ambiguous”.

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

VATICAN CITY/GUAM
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — American Cardinal Raymond Burke says he’s aiming to wrap up the sex abuse investigation involving Guam’s suspended archbishop by the summer.

The Guam archdiocese said Burke left the Pacific island U.S. territory on Saturday after meeting this week with witnesses.

Burke, a top canon lawyer, is presiding over the church tribunal hearing the case against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who faces multiple allegations of sex abuse of altar boys in the 1970s. Apuron has denied the claims and has not been criminally charged.

Burke’s presence on Guam had raised eyebrows because he has been involved in some high-profile clashes with Pope Francis.

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

VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Oli Gamp
February 18, 2017

The chief magistrate for the Vatican has confirmed that the city-state’s authorities have frozen more than €2m (£1.7m) following allegations over money laundering in 2016.

Promoter of Justice Gian Pietro Milano confirmed the news, which is part of an attempt by Pope Francis to clean up the finances of the Holy See, after it was alerted to suspicious activity by the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF).

While the exact actions that took place are not currently known, Milano stated that two cases resulted in indictments and three were dismissed.

Reuters said Milano had confirmed the total amount of frozen assets at €13m (£11.1m) from a period between 2013 and 2016 after years of controversy that has seen the Vatican’s banking system riddled with scandal and corruption.

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

VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

Vatican officials froze more than 2 million euros ($2.12 million) in cases suspected of being linked to money laundering in 2016. The move is part of the Holy See’s drive to clean up its finances, as mandated by Pope Francis.

The latest disclosure from chief magistrate Gian Pietro Milano, whose official title is Promoter of Justice, came during his annual address on the state of the Vatican’s criminal justice system.

Milano’s speech was short on details, but he added that since 2013 a total of 13 million euros was frozen. The freezing of money followed alerts from the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF), which the pope has given enhanced powers.

Milano didn’t reveal how much of the money was subsequently unblocked, following investigations, but he said that last year two cases led to indictments while three were shelved.

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

ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Bishop Calogero Marino kept his word. As promised yesterday afternoon he met with the President of the Abuse Network – Francesco Zanardi – a spokesman for those who in the Savona diocese and beyond have been abused by clergy. The interview lasted nearly an hour. Mr. Zanardi said the meeting was positive.]

after the meeting that it was a positive, suffered acts of clerical pedophilia (acts of which he was a victim). The head of the diocese, in Savona since last January 16, welcomed Zanardi in an interview that lasted nearly an hour, without others were present. “An extremely positive balance”, the commentary of the Network Abuse The spokesman, after the meeting. “The way to make the bishop, his gentleness towards me, the attention to detail and the humility with which he acted surp

IN DIOCESI DEL LEADER DELLA RETE “L’ABUSO”. APERTURA AL DIALOGO DA MONSIGNOR MARINO

SILVIA CAMPESE SAVONA.

Il vescovo Calogero Marino ha mantenuto la parola. Come promesso, ieri pomeriggio ha incontrato il presidente della Rete L’Abuso, Francesco Zanardi, portavoce di chi, nella diocesi savonese e non solo, ha subito atti di pedofilia clericale (atti di cui lui stesso fu vittima). Il capo della diocesi, a Savona dallo scorso 16 gennaio, ha accolto Zanardi in un colloquio che è durato quasi un’ora, senza che altri fossero presenti. «Un bilancio estremamente positivo», il commento del portavoce di Rete L’Abuso, al termine dell’incontro. «Il modo di fare del vescovo, la sua delicatezza nei miei confronti, l’attenzione ai particolari e l’umiltà con cui si è comportato mi hanno sorpreso – ha dichiarato Zanardi -. Atteggiamenti a cui, decisamente, non ero abituato all’interno della diocesi savonese, a partire dal predecessore, monsignor Lupi.

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

ITALIA
Il Mattino

[con il video]

[The faithful do not trust the church any more. It is said that Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe has a dossier on a bleak scenario confirmed by 28 men who said they had sex with a priest in exchange for money.]

Incontri a luci rosse tra sacerdoti e ragazzi. Questa l’ipotesi contenuta all’interno di un dossier finito sulla scrivania del Cardinale Crescenzio Sepe. Questo scenario fosco viene confermato da un ventottenne che avrebbe dichiarato di avere avuto rapporti con un prelato in cambio di denaro.

Ma cosa ne pensano gli abitanti del quartiere e i membri della parrocchia? «È vergognoso che si verifichino ancora cose simili ai giorni nostri», afferma Elena. «Conosciamo bene questa parrocchia e siamo stupefatti di quanto in queste ore stiamo apprendendo dai giornali. Io qui ho fatto la prima comunione e non posso credere che proprio da questa chiesa sia partito tutto.

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

AUSTRALIA
PerthNow

Kate Campbell, PerthNow
February 18, 2017

A WA Anglican Bishop believes it will take a generation before trust in the church is restored in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal.

And it’s unlikely the community will ever view the clergy in the same way again, Anglican Bishop of Bunbury Allan Ewing concedes.

“In some ways that’s a good thing. If there was ever a way in which the wider community’s regard for the clergy allowed those who had evil intent to prey upon the innocent … then I’m really pleased that’s no longer the case,” he said.

The extent of alleged child sexual abuse within the Anglican Church will be exposed at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse next month.

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

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella | VATICAN CITY

Vatican authorities froze more than two million euros in cases of suspected money laundering in 2016 as part of Pope Francis’ drive to clean up the finances of the Holy See, its chief magistrate said on Saturday.

Gian Pietro Milano, whose official title is Promoter of Justice, made the disclosure during his annual address on the state of the Vatican’s criminal justice system.

Milano gave no details in his speech but added that the total amount of suspect money frozen between 2013 and 2016 was about 13 million euros.

The money was frozen following alerts from the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF), which Francis has given more operative power.

Milano did not say how much of the money was later unblocked following investigations but that in 2016 two cases led to indictments and three were shelved.

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

UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Betty Clermont

As most already know, preceding the national conventions, “a high volume” of “positive media coverage … propelled Trump to the top of the Republican poll.” After the nominations became official, “Clinton and Trump’s coverage was virtually identical in terms of its negative tone. ‘Were the allegations surrounding Clinton of the same order of magnitude as those surrounding Trump?’” asks Thomas E. Patterson in a report from Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

While there is enough blame regarding 2016 polling to go around, as regards the Catholic vote, the Washington Post led with “Donald Trump has a massive Catholic problem” followed by the New York Times “Clinton Challenges Trump for a Traditional Republican Bloc, White Catholics.”

Both inferred that Pope Francis had an effect on U.S. Catholics that was detrimental to Trump. Both ignored that the PRRI polls (here and here) upon which they based their reporting showed that although Clinton led, support for Trump by white Catholics exceeded both the total electorate and white voters in general. Other polls reported that nearly two-thirds of Catholic registered voters are white and that “the IBD-TIPP daily tracking poll – rated by Nate Silver as the most accurate national poll of the last presidential cycle in 2012 – consistently pointed to a Trump win among Catholics.”

In the end, “Trump won the highest percentage of Catholic voters (52%) for a Republican candidate since 2004. White Catholics supported Trump by a wide, 23-point margin (60% to 37%). Both white and Latino Catholics cast more ballots for Trump than for Romney in 2012.” “Evangelicals helped Trump in states he was mostly going to win anyway. Catholics? Now we’re talking about Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. And that was the election.”

There is no comparison, of course, between the importance of a U.S. president and an inconsequential Catholic official. However, the highly inaccurate reporting about Cardinal Raymond L. Burke further impugns the media’s credibility.

There have been dozens upon dozens of recent articles about Burke, one of 226 cardinals in the Catholic Church. The articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post have been the most influential, so I will concentrate on those.

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

NEW MEXICO
KRQE

[with video]

By Aaron Drawhorn
Published: February 17, 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A $16 million judgment Friday was awarded to a man who suffered abuse as a child at the hands of a longtime New Mexico pedophile priest.

Father Arthur Perrault fled New Mexico in 1992 and has been hiding out overseas ever since.

“Nobody knew where he was for 25 years,” said attorney Brad Hall.

“We will pursue a pedophile to the ends of the earth, no matter how long it takes us to find him,” Hall said, noting that Perrault was finally discovered living in Tangier, Morocco, last year.

He was working at a school at the time he was located, and since his past was revealed, he no longer works there.

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

NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Friday, February 17th, 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A judge handed down a $16 million judgment this week against a former New Mexico priest for failure to respond to a lawsuit filed by a man who alleges he was sexually abused by Arthur Perrault in the early 1990s.

Second Judicial District Judge Denise Barela-Shepherd handed down the default judgment Thursday after she found that Perrault had been properly served with the civil lawsuit, but failed to defend himself against the allegations.

She ordered Perrault to pay $1 million in damages and an additional $15 million in punitive damages. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Perrault, who vanished from his Albuquerque parish in 1992, was tracked last year to Tangiers, Morocco, where he was teaching at an English language school for children.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Reveal: The Center for Investigative Reporting

By Trey Bundy / February 17, 2017

The Jehovah’s Witnesses settled a lawsuit this week brought by a Pennsylvania woman who says the religion’s leaders covered up sexual abuse she suffered as a teenager.

The settlement came five days into a trial in which Stephanie Fessler, a former Jehovah’s Witness, claimed the religion’s parent corporation violated Pennsylvania’s child abuse reporting laws by instructing local leaders – known as elders – not to report her allegations to police.

According to Fessler, a middle-aged Jehovah’s Witness woman, Terry Monheim, began sexually abusing her when she was 14. At 15, Fessler disclosed the abuse to her parents. Her father was an elder in their congregation.

Fessler’s parents informed other congregation elders, who interrogated Fessler and Monheim but failed to report the abuse to police. As a result, Monheim continued to abuse Fessler for another year, according to court documents.

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

IOWA
Omaha World-Herald

World-Herald News Service Feb 17, 2017

The Rev. Paul Monahan was sentenced Friday to a suspended prison sentence and ordered to register as a sex offender for all five counts of invasion of privacy after he turned down a deferred judgement.

Associate Judge Gary Anderson sentenced Monahan, 83, to a suspended sentence of 30 days in jail per each count to be served concurrently, a year of informal probation and to register as a sex offender for 10 years. A minimum fine was also suspended.

After the year of probation, Monahan will have to be supervised for 10 years on special parole.

Monahan’s attorney, Dan McGinn, said his client plans to appeal.

In December 2016, Monahan was found guilty after a bench trial of invading the privacy of five male high school students who said the retired priest looked at their genitals in a public restroom.

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

JAMAICA
Jamaica Gleaner

Saturday | February 18, 2017

Orantes Moore

Since the beginning of the year, several pastors have been accused of molesting young children. Among them is an elder from the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Haywood Hall, St Mary, Narry Hudson, who recently appeared in court charged with three counts of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

While many of the parish’s religious leaders are reluctant to talk about sexual abuse in the Church, ministers such as Claude Williams of the Oracabessa Circuit of Baptist Churches understand the problem must be aired, shared, and discussed.

Speaking to Family and Religion earlier this week, the veteran youth and evangelism director said: “I try to stay away from the court of public opinion, but at the same time, you cannot hide your head in the sand and pretend there aren’t issues floating out there. My thing is, to whom much is given, much is expected.

ABUSE OF POWER

“It is unfortunate that children, who are among the vulnerable in our society, would have gone to those of us who claim to be the moral authority of the nation and we are found to be abusing our powers. In terms of denominations where you have established churches with stricter regulations, I believe great care must be given to the recruitment of our pastors.

“There should be a system of accountability so we can dispose of the pastors found to be in violation of that trust. It is very shameful and scandalous, and I believe it forces the Church to take another look at the way we have been operating and conducting ourselves.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
East London and West Essex Guardian

Anna Slater, News Editor

A SEXUAL abuse victim whose life was “destroyed” by an MP who told her to “adjust her medication” is demanding an apology four years on.

Teresa Cooper, who now lives in Ongar, says the sting of what Eric Pickles said to her in 2013 has never stopped hurting.

The 49-year-old was 14 when she was used as a guinea pig for drug trials and sexually assaulted while living at the Church of England run Kendall House.

Grandmother Ms Cooper confronted the Ongar and Brentwood MP and a wildlife event, saying: “Nothing has changed…only you have ignored it. You have ignored it.”

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

MALAYSIA
Free Malaysia Today

Nawar Firdaws and Tarrence Tan | February 18, 2017

PETALING JAYA: Paul Pakianathan is no stranger to cases of sexual abuse involving children, having rescued a victim himself.

He told FMT the young girl he rescued was sexually abused by her own brother. Her mother knew about it, but did nothing for several years.

Pakianathan, a senior pastor at the Community of Praise, said the case came to his knowledge when the mother took the girl to his church for a separate matter but his instinct told him that something was not right with the girl, who at the time was in her early teenage years.

“I decided there and then I must speak to her and find out what was going on,” he said. “And that was what I did. Soon after, she opened up to me and spoke of the sexual abuse she was facing.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

“Their voices cry out to God and we need to hear them.”

That was the powerful message delivered by Deb Helt in a Reading Berks Conference of Churches-sponsored workshop last week about Samaritan SafeChurch, a Lancaster County group that helps congregations raise awareness about child sexual abuse.

The workshop was part of the first-ever Christian Resource Expo at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, 201 Washington St.

Helt, a senior facilitator and congregational support specialist for Samaritan SafeChurch, said, “We want churches to be safe places for people to come.”

To that end, the group wants to inspire churches to become proactive in preventing child sexual abuse in churches and the community.

Helt, who is also a pastor of Hosanna! A Fellowship of Christians in Lititz, said she first got involved with Samaritan SafeChurch after its founder, Linda Crockett, spoke to her congregation. Helt said some members of her congregation initially resisted the idea of talking about sexual abuse.

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

AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

On the face of it, it appears the Catholic Church has short-changed the region in terms of payments to victims of abuse.

The Illawarra Mercury revealed recently the Wollongong Diocese was named as one of five areas with the highest of proportion of priests alleged to be perpetrators.

Yet in contrast, the region has only received a handful in compensation payments to victims.

The Mercury has revealed only half a million dollars has been paid to Wollongong victims of alleged child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church.

That equates to less than two per cent of the $280 million paid out by the church over the past 35 years to victims.

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

AUSTRALIA
Tamut and Adelong Times

By Frances Vinall – February 18, 2017

The Archbishop of the Canberra-Goulburn Catholic Diocese, which includes Tumut, will testify at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse next week.

Archbishop Christopher Prowse will sit before Justice Peter McLennan on February 21, to discuss what safeguards the church has in place to protect children.

Records have shown that the Canberra-Goulburn Diocese had a rate of paedophile priests higher than the national average, with 8.5 per cent of their priests in the 2000s being alleged perpetrators.

In other words, one in twelve priests in this area are accused of having sexually abused children.

And since less than 20 per cent of survivors are estimated to have come forward, the true numbers could be higher still.

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

RUSSIA
RAPSI – Russian Legal Information Agency

ST. PETERSBURG, February 17 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The St. Petersburg City Court on Friday extended the detention of Russian priest Gleb Grozovsky, who stands charged with sexual abuse of children, RAPSI learnt from the court’s press service.

The hearing was held behind closed doors.

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

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

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

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

HARRISBURG, PA
State Rep. Mark Rozzi has officially renewed his push to give victims of child sexual abuse more time to confront their abusers in court.

The Muhlenberg Township Democrat’s bill would eliminate, going forward, the time limits for victims to press criminal charges or file lawsuits against their abusers and organizations that shield them. Now, victims have until age 50 to pursue charges and until age 30 to sue.

The bill would also open a two-year window during which victims of any age would be allowed to sue, regardless of when the abuse occurred.

Rozzi, himself a victim of childhood sexual assault at the hands of a Catholic priest, championed a similar bill last session. The measure cleared the House but fizzled in a stalemate after senators removed the retroactive piece allowing past victims to sue.

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

CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

February 17, 2017 Joelle Casteix

I love paperwork.

Yesterday, the Diocese of Orange issued a statement responding to the latest sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit against Fr. Richard T. Coughlin. In it, they said:

Richard Coughlin was ordained in the archdiocese of Boston in 1953 and incardinated in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in the 1960s, predating the Diocese of Orange, which was founded in 1976. Coughlin left parish ministry upon founding the All American Boys Choir in the early 1970s. Coughlin never served as a priest of the Diocese of Orange. (emphasis mine)

They’re parsing words here. The diocese is trying to say that after 1976, when the Diocese of Orange was formed, Coughlin did not serve as a priest in any official capacity. Are they trying to say that he’s the chorus’ responsibility? I don’t know.

But the truth is far different. Here are photos of the 1993 Diocese of Orange Catholic Directory. Yes, I have a copy. I am that weird.

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

MAINE
Portland Press Herald

BY EDWARD D. MURPHY
STAFF WRITER

BIDDEFORD — A former priest from Boston accused of molesting two boys repeatedly in Kennebunk three decades ago entered a plea of not guilty Friday.

Ronald Paquin, who was a key figure in the Boston Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, is charged with 29 counts of sexual abuse in Maine for acts he allegedly committed between 1985 and 1988.

Dressed in an orange shirt and yellow prison jumpsuit, Paquin appeared on a video link from York County Jail in Alfred early Friday afternoon. The 74-year-old former Catholic priest walked with the aid of a cane and remained silent during the brief hearing.

He conferred with his temporary attorney, Randall Bates, after Biddeford District Court Judge Daniel Driscoll ordered him held on $50,000 bail, but the microphone on the video link was turned off so the nature of their discussion could not be heard.

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

MAINE
Seacoast Online

By Donna Buttarazzi
dbuttarazzi@seacoastonline.com

BIDDEFORD, Maine — Former Roman Catholic priest Ronald H. Paquin pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of sexual misconduct in Biddeford District Court Friday.

Paquin’s arraignment Friday was his first court appearance in Maine after being indicted by a York County Grand Jury on Feb. 8 on the allegations of abusing two boys in Kennebunkport in the 1980s.

Paquin was arrested by Massachusetts authorities at a homeless shelter in Boston last Friday. He was turned over to Maine authorities and is being held at the York County Jail.

Paquin, 74, appeared in Biddeford District Court via video feed Friday afternoon in an orange prison jumpsuit and carrying a cane. Judge Dan Driscoll set Paquin’s bail at $50,000 and conditionally appointed Portland attorney Heather Gonzales to represent him.

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

MAINE
NECN

A former Roman Catholic priest who spent more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for raping an altar boy has made an initial court appearance in Maine on 29 counts of sexual misconduct.

Ronald Paquin appeared before a judge via video conference from jail on Friday. The 74-year-old is now accused of assaulting two boys between 1985 and 1988 in Kennebunkport.

Police say the boys were 11 and 14. Court documents indicate one of them was “substantially impaired” by drugs.

Paquin was defrocked in 2004 and freed from jail in 2015. But now he is back in jail after being ordered held on $50,000 bail.

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

CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register

SANTA ANA – A former member of the All-American Boys Chorus has filed a lawsuit against a disgraced priest and the Diocese of Orange, alleging that church leaders ignored complaints of child sexual abuse.

At the center of the lawsuit is Richard T. Coughlin, the now-defrocked priest who founded chorus in Costa Mesa and who over the years has been accused of sexual abuse by at least a half-dozen people, resulting in more than $3 million in settlements.

Ordained in Boston, Coughlin joined the Diocese of Orange in 1965. The newly-filed lawsuit describes Coughlin as a serial pedophile whose gregarious and charismatic nature and Irish brogue masked decades of abuse.

According to the lawsuit, allegations of sexual abuse involving Coughlin first emerged in 1957, when he was still in Boston. A series of alleged victims of Coughlin’s contacted diocese leaders in both Boston and Southern California over the next several decades.

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

UNITED STATES
These Stone Walls

POSTED BY FR. GORDON J. MACRAE ON FEBRUARY 8, 2017

We do not have many headlines like this one on These Stone Walls. It has the look and feel of descending into tabloid journalism, but when the headline is true, there is just no higher road to take. This is a story that must be told.

And I am not the first to tell it. In late January, David F. Pierre, author of several books including Sins of the Press and host of TheMediaReport.com published a report entitled, “Lawsuit by Ex-SNAP Insider Exposes Lawyer Kickback Schemes.” And to the surprise of many, the left-leaning, usually SNAP-friendly National Catholic Reporter broke the story first in a January 18 account by NCR Editor Dennis Coday, “Sex Abuse Advocacy Group SNAP Sued by Former Employee.”

One day later, The National Catholic Register carried the story by Catholic News Agency writer, Kevin Jones entitled, “Did SNAP Receive Kickbacks for Suing the Church?” All three versions of the story have been sent to me by multiple TSW readers who asked me to write about it. A week after these accounts emerged, SNAP’s longtime Executive Director, David Clohessy, has mysteriously resigned. This is a development of immense importance in the arena of Catholic Priests Falsely Accused, one of David F. Pierre’s most revealing books.

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

PHILIPPINES
YouTube

Al Jazeera English

Published on Feb 16, 2017

Priests are treated like God in the Philippines – Asia’s largest Catholic nation. But often that trust is exploited by clergymen who are sexually deviant. And, despite a vow of chastity, some priests have children out of wedlock.

Those abuses and misdemeanours within the Church often go unpunished. Critics say investigations are kept secret and those charged with sexual abuse are still active in local parishes.

101 East investigates sexual misconduct inside the most powerful institution in the Philippines: the Catholic Church.

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

SWITZERLAND
swissinfo

[with video]

Daniel Pittet was sexually abused by a Catholic priest when he was a child. A book now tells his story, and the preface was written by Pope Francis. (SRF/swissinfo.ch)

Daniel Pittet was nine years old when he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest over a four-year period. Now he has written about his experiences in his book “Mon Père, je vous pardonne” (“Father, I forgive you”).

In the book’s preface, Pope Francis wrote that such assaults were abominable and a terrible crime. Pittet hopes that the papal preface will give hope to other victims like him. The now 57-year-old victim says he’s forgiven his tormentor.

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MAIN
WMTW

BIDDEFORD, Maine —
A former priest was arraigned on nearly 30 sex charges in a York County courtroom Friday afternoon.

Ronald Paquin is charged with 29 counts of gross sexual misconduct.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Paquin is accused of assaulting two victims between 1985 and 1988 in Kennebunkport.

Paquin already served more than 10 years in prison for raping an altar boy while working as a priest near Boston.

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MEXICO/SPAIN
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Amnesty International and Ligia Ceballos Franco have filed a complaint with Mexican prosecutors, claiming the woman was stolen as a baby in Spain during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco and handed over to a well-heeled Mexican family who raised her as their own.

Ceballos Franco said Thursday she may be among an estimated 30,000 babies who were taken from their real parents under the Franco dictatorship from 1938 to 1975.

She claims the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Merida facilitated the adoption. The Merida archdiocese didn’t respond to request for comment.

After being told she was adopted, Ceballos Franco found a local government document in Madrid saying a baby had been handed over to her Mexican parents in 1968.

She found a birth record for Diana Ortiz Ramirez, which may be her. Her biological parents were apparently told she had died at birth. The targets of such deception were often opponents of the Franco regime.

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SPAIN
Irish Times

Guy Hedgecoe Madrid

A group of former residents of a seminary are planning to stage a street demonstration on Saturday to demand that a priest who has admitted to sexually abusing boys under his tutelage face the full force of the Spanish legal system.

Some 30 men, who as children lived in the La Bañeza seminary in northern Spain, will take part in the demonstration in the town of Astorga. Among them are expected to be some of the victims of José Manuel Ramos Gordón, a former teacher at the seminary.

La Opinión de Zamora newspaper recently revealed that Ramos Gordón had admitted to abusing several pupils at the school in the academic year 1988-89, following an investigation by the Archbishopric of Astorga last year. In May 2016, he was suspended from his duties as a parish priest for “a period of no less than a year,” according to a decree signed by Archbishop Juan Antonio Menéndez, and he was sent to work in a home for retired clergy.

Letter to Francis

The probe began after a former pupil, identified only as FJ, wrote to Pope Francis in 2014, informing him of the case.

“I want us to be listened to and not to have this horror that we suffer silenced any longer, because we’ve already been ignored other times,” FJ wrote in the letter, detailing how he, his twin brother and two other boys were regularly sexually abused at night when they were 14 years old.

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KANSAS
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Feb. 17, 2017

ANALYSIS

LENEXA, KAN. It was a stump speech. A speech filled with familiar themes for those who’ve been on the beat for a while.

But for a crowd in a packed Catholic high school gymnasium in Lenexa, Kan., on a Friday evening, it was a speech filled with red meat, a reassuring message that the crowd applauded and which explained why they call Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, “Leo the Lion,” courageous and outspoken.

Burke’s Feb. 9-11 tour of the Kansas City metro area included two public Masses — one each in the extraordinary and the ordinary forms — a public address and a luncheon with the local chapter of the Catholic Medical Association, and was a calm harbor from the storms of controversy that have swirled around the cardinal as of late.

Already buffeted by his calls for Pope Francis to clarify parts of his teaching, Burke found himself in more stormy seas in mid-January over troubles in the Knights of Malta, an ancient chivalrous order that traces its roots to the crusades and today maintains a worldwide prestigious membership and thousands of charitable causes. Burke is the order’s spiritual patron. In January, Francis appointed a papal delegate to oversee the order.

Three days before he arrived in the heartland, a front-page New York Times story linked the American cardinal to the Trump administration through White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon. According to the Times article, the pair met in April 2014 when Bannon was in Rome to cover the canonization of Pope John Paul II and to recruit a Vatican correspondent for his Breitbart News.

Bannon found his correspondent — Thomas Williams, a former priest of the Legionaries of Christ, the international order known for its conservativism and for its founder, the late Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, a pedophile who fathered children with two women. Williams, an American, had built a career as a Rome-based academic whose suave, camera-friendly demeanor made him a minor media celebrity.

Williams resigned from the priesthood in May 2013; a year earlier, it became public that he had fathered a child several years before that. In December 2013, he married the child’s mother, Elizabeth Lev, daughter of a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Mary Ann Glendon.

During that 2014 visit, Bannon also met Burke. Bannon would go on to make Breitbart News a platform for alt-right politics and two years later guide Donald Trump to the presidency. Burke, meanwhile, would emerge as a spokesman for the opposition to Francis.

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AUSTRALIA
Anglican Communion News Service

The Anglican Diocese of Adelaide has issued a statement in response to a damming report by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia. A statement issued by Bishop Tim Harris said the report made for “shocking reading” and “the failures of the past have been “clearly identified.” Bishop Harris reaffirmed the diocese’s “sincere apology” to all who suffered and said the diocese was resolved that “such failings must never happen again.”

Here is the full statement:

The Anglican Diocese of Adelaide values and respects the work of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. We have carefully studied the recently released Report of Case Study No. 36: The response of the Church of England Boys’ Society and the Anglican Dioceses of Tasmania, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney to allegations of child sexual abuse.

The report makes for shocking reading. The failures of the past have been clearly identified. We recognise that it has taken great courage for survivors of abuse to give evidence, and express our sincere hope that the report in some measure helps those survivors abused by Robert Brandenburg and other CEBS leaders on their journey of healing. We reaffirm our sincere apology to all who suffered as a result of such failures of trust, and the manifestly inadequate responses by church authorities at the time that worsened the sense of abuse and distress. There is much to be learned, and we are resolved that such failings must never happen again.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Katie Nicholson, Katie Pedersen, CBC News Posted: Feb 17, 2017

The chief of a Manitoba First Nation says the lawyer who misappropriated nearly a million dollars from some of the community’s most vulnerable and traumatized people should face criminal prosecution.

“I think he should be charged,” Sandy Bay Chief Lance Roulette said of disbarred Winnipeg lawyer Howard Tennenhouse.

Tennenhouse misappropriated $960,000 from 55 residential school survivors he represented, the Law Society of Manitoba ruled in 2012. The regulatory body said many of the victims were unaware he had charged excess fees.

Tennenhouse is one of 10 lawyers disbarred in Manitoba over the past six years for financial misconduct whose cases were turned over to Winnipeg police for review. No charges have been laid against any of them, and Winnipeg police won’t say why.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

[Priest sex abuse lawsuit filed in Orange County – Fox 11 video]

February 16, 2017 Joelle Casteix

Lesson of the day for the Diocese of Orange: Don’t lie to the press and public when I can prove you wrong with your own paperwork.

Last week, another alleged victim of Fr. Richard T. Coughlin, the founder of The All-American Boys Chorus, (who—despite dozens of credible accusations and lawsuits in two states—is still a priest), was sued again in Orange County Superior Court for child sexual abuse. The alleged abuse took place in the 1990s.

The Diocese of Orange (California) and the All-American Boys Chorus were also named as defendants.

Coughlin’s case is awful. He was sent to Orange County in the 1960s from Boston after being accused of abuse there (you can read his entire assignment history here). At the time, Orange County was part of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. When The Diocese of Orange was spun off in 1976, Coughlin came along as an added bonus.

Not longer after Coughlin’s arrival in Orange, he began forming boys choral groups. Eventually, the All-American Boys Chorus was born and allegedly provided Coughlin with a steady stream of victims.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

by Bryan Carnaggio

JOHNSTOWN – A network for survivors is coming to the Johnstown-Altoona area.

The organization called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is starting a new chapter.

“My brother was sexually abused by our parish priest where I grew up in southeastern Ohio,” Judy Jones said.

Jones is the Midwest associate director for SNAP.

It’s an organization designed to help clergy abuse victims.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith

CHILD abuse survivors have criticised insurers for attempting to derail a law which would give many a fresh chance of justice.

The Scottish Government’s Limitation (Childhood Abuse) Scotland Bill could overcome the time bar which has prevented many victims from taking civil action against the institutions or individuals who abused them, because more than three years has passed since the alleged crimes.

It is currently under consideration at Holyrood’s justice committee, but in written evidence the Association of British Insurers has argued that the new law could see many more than the Government’s initial estimate of 2,200 court claims and costs could spiral. The ABI objected to the law permitting people to raise cases again which were previously blocked by the time bar and said the bill would encourage more cases to come forward.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

TOM PETERKIN

Police Scotland has revealed it has at least 5,000 files detailing child abuse alleged to have been carried out in care institutions or by prominent people since 1964.

The figure came to light in a Police Scotland document warning the cost of the Scottish Government’s historical abuse inquiry could rise.

A document produced by Police Scotland for MSPs suggests the cost of removing the time limit for victims of childhood abuse to seek civil damages in court may have been underestimated.

Police Scotland issued the warning in response to the Limitation (Childhood Abuse) Scotland Bill, which intends to remove the current three-year time bar, or limitation, for bringing a civil court claim for damages in some cases of childhood abuse.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017

It may be impossible to identify all of the former students who were abused at Canada’s Indian residential schools but abandoned their compensation claims when they were subjected to a questionable legal manoeuvre by federal lawyers, says the secretariat charged with determining which cases fall into that category.

The Department of Indigenous Affairs recently completed a year-long investigation into the claims that were rejected or reduced as a result of the “administrative split” – a technicality used to disqualify a school from being included in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. The department has since produced a list, as yet unpublished, of about 200 survivors whose applications for redress had been affected.

But claimants’ lawyers say many more former students withdrew their claims in the initial stages after being convinced by adjudicators and federal representatives that the administrative split left them no chance of success.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Friday, February 17, 2017

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

There has been “no decision” to carry out excavations on the site of any other mother and baby home other than Tuam — despite the HSE confirming as far back as 2012 that there had been a higher infant death rate in Bessborough in Cork .

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission is currently carrying out its second excavation of the site in Tuam, where almost 800 children are reportedly buried.

The Irish Examiner put a number of queries to the commission in relation to similar excavations in other mother and baby homes — in particular Bessborough.

A death register for this institution maintained by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary has been held by the HSE (and now Tusla) since 2011 and records that 478 infants died in the home between 1934 and 1953 — a higher infant death rate than recorded in Tuam.

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VATICAN CITY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Vatican City, February 16 – Pope Francis has sent one of his most vocal opponents, American Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, to the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean to investigate a complicated case of suspected paedophilia by the island’s archbishop, 71-year-old Msgr Anthony Sablan Apuron. Apuron denies the charges, brought forth by a seminarian, of abuse in the 1970s.

Burke will remain on the island for the time needed to oversee canonical proceedings on the case, although at the end of the month he is expected to attend a conference in the US.

Catholic News Service said Burke arrived on Guam Wednesday.

Burke is one of four cardinals who signed the “dubia” letter to Pope Francis expressing doubts on his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, in particular regarding the issue of giving Communion to the divorced.

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SCOTLAND
STV

David Cowan
Kaye Nicolson

The Scottish Government has pledged to find a solution as soon as possible.

The oldest survivors of child abuse in Scotland fear they are being denied any hope of winning compensation.

The Scottish Government is opening the way for hundreds of victims to seek damages through the courts but the change will not apply to cases pre-dating September 1964.

Ministers considered whether or not the so-called 1964 rule could be changed retrospectively but were advised doing so would contravene the European Convention of Human Rights.

Campaigners say the oldest survivors are dying out with no prospect of receiving justice.

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AUSTRALIA
Church Times

by Muriel Porter, Australia Correspondent

Posted: 17 Feb 2017

THE current Bishop of Tasmania, the Rt Revd Richard Condie, has begun a disciplinary investigation into a retired bishop of the see, the Rt Revd Philip Newell, in response to a report issued by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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IOWA
Des Moines Register

Molly Longman, mlongman@dmreg.com Feb. 16, 2017

A former Dallas Center pastor pleaded not guilty in a written arraignment Wednesday after being arrested last month on suspicion of sexually assaulting a child multiple times.

Randy Johnson, 52, who faces a total of 13 criminal charges, pleaded not guilty to all of the charges before a Court for Arraignment, waiving a speedy trail, according to court documents.

Johnson reportedly perpetrated multiple instances of sexual abuse on the 12- or 13-year-old girl during a year-and-a-half time period from 2013 to 2014, court records say.

Johnson faces five counts of third-degree sexual abuse, three counts of indecent contact with a child, two counts of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, two counts of indecent exposure and one count of child endangerment.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Greg Adomaitis | For NJ.com

HAINESPORT TWP. — A teacher’s aide with the St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church has been suspended over sexual abuse allegations as a criminal investigation continues, according to news reports.

FOX29 reports that the unnamed male aide, who worked at the reJOYce Christian School, was suspended without pay in December 2016 after four children made claims of inappropriate touching.

Brian Kent, a Philadelphia-based attorney who is representing the children between the ages of 5 and 6, was not immediately available for comment Thursday afternoon.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

A well-known advocacy group for child sexual abuse victims is setting up a chapter in the Altoona–Johnstown area.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests plans to hold its first confidential support meeting in Ebensburg on Feb. 28 from 6 to 8 p.m.

SNAP is establishing its local group in response to the ongoing abuse scandal within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown.

“There is so much pain and hurt there that there needs to be support there,” said Judy Jones, the organization’s Midwest associate director.

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AUSTRALIA
Ilawarra Mercury

Kate McIlwain
@kmcilwain

17 Feb 2017

Just over $500,000 has been paid to Wollongong victims of alleged child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, new data from the royal commission has revealed.

This makes up a tiny proportion (0.18 per cent) of the $280 million paid out by the church over the past 35 years, and puts the Diocese of Wollongong among the 15 Catholic authorities with the lowest average payments to victims.

In contrast, the diocese was last week named as one of the five areas with the highest proportion of priests alleged to be perpetrators.

Claims data released this week by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse shows 33 people made claim of child sexual abuse in the Wollongong diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

ANDREW THOMSON
17 Feb 2017

A SOUTH-WEST victim ​of clergy sex abuse wants ​plaques featuring Bishop Ronald Mulkearns removed from Warrnambool schools.

The man, who recently made a statement to police and gave evidence at the Royal Commission, is still a practising Catholic.

He said it was a disgrace the plaques, that recognise Bishop Mulkearns had opened buildings in the region, remained on display.

Those plaques are understood to be at St Joseph’s, Our Lady Help Of Christians and St Pius X primary schools in Warrnambool. One has already been removed from St Pius X primary.

​The​ victim said the child sex abuse Royal Commission released statistics last week that revealed almost 4500 victims of sexual abuse had come forward to report abuse.

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PHILIPPINES
Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: An explosive documentary by Al Jazeera’s 101 East has revealed that many priests in the Philippines routinely sexually abuse the children in their congregation but are never investigated for their crimes.

The documentary also revealed that many more break the sacred vows of celibacy and even father children, something the Catholic church does not permit.

101 East reporter Drew Ambrose said, “The Catholic Church is one of the most powerful institutions in the Philippines.

“Victims of clergy abuse are under enormous pressure not to report abusive priests. We found that even when they do find the courage to come forward, some are paid to keep quiet.”

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MAINE
WGME

KENNEBUNKPORT (WGME) — A convicted pedophile priest from Massachusetts is in jail in Maine Thursday night, accused of molesting boys in Kennebunkport.

74-year-old Ronald Paquin faces 29 counts of gross sexual misconduct.

Victims say for years, Paquin took boys to his camper in Kennebunkport to sexually molest them.

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PHILIPPINES
Aljazeera

by Tiffany Ang’

Sexual abuse allegations against Catholic priests in the Philippines are on the rise, according to senior church investigators.

But this new 101 East documentary reveals that prosecutions of priests alleged to have committed sexual abuse are extremely rare in Asia’s largest Catholic nation.

Some alleged victims say they have been pressured not to file charges and were paid money in exchange for their silence.

Imelda* was 15 years old when she says the priest in her village sexually assaulted her.

“After he kissed me on the forehead, he hugged me,” she recalled. “It was really painful. Why did he do that to me?”

She says that when her family discovered she had reported the incident to the police, they beat her.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Tim Clarke, Legal Affairs Editor
Thursday, February 16, 2017

WA was at the shameful heart of the most rampant paedophilia within the Catholic Church, the royal commission on child sex abuse has revealed.

A commission analysis released yesterday of cases and payments covering 30 years showed the Church had paid $276.1 million to victims.

The commission released a list of Australian church institutions where most-reported incidents of alleged child sexual abuse occurred from 1980 to 2015.

The data showed 4445 people made claims. Almost 750 abuse claims were continuing at the time of the survey.

Three of the top four institutions were in WA.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

KENTWOOD, Mich. (WOOD) — A pastor at a Grand Rapids church accused of trying to meet an 11-year-old girl for sex has been ordered to stand trial.

At a preliminary hearing, David Robert Diehl was bound over to circuit court on child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime charges.

Diehl was arrested in November 2016 after he responded to an undercover officer’s post on Grand Rapids Craiglist, which warned about a poster offering “sex with daughters.”

Michigan State Police say Diehl is a pastor at Church on Fire in Grand Rapids at the time of his arrest.

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NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
Marianas Variety

17 Feb 2017 By Zaldy Dandan – editor@mvariety.com

“Faith is not, contrary to the usual ideas, something that turns out to be right or wrong, like a gambler’s bet….” — Joanna Russ

IF some believers professing a major religion (you know which one) commit one appalling atrocity after another, we will be called “ignorant and biased” if we question some of the basic tenets of their faith. However, whenever a Catholic priest is accused of wrongdoing, it’s OK to make sweeping generalizations about Catholicism. The Church is evil, its critics say, and its devotees are either too deluded or too dumb to be outraged — they should leave the Church.

And that’s why we should also give up on constitutional democracy and the rule of law. Why? Why not after reading the American Declaration of Independence (“[A]ll men are created equal, [and] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness….), and then learning about how the same government founded on such lofty if not sacred ideals dealt with U.S. citizens who happened to be of the “wrong” color. Never mind the non-U.S. colored people. (U.S. Army Gen. “Howling” Jake Smith’s instruction to his troops during the American invasion of the P.I. in 1901: “I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better it will please me…. Kill everyone over the age of 10…and make the island a howling wilderness.”)

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

On the same day an 18th child sex abuse claim was filed in Guam’s federal court, the legal counsel for the alleged victims said yesterday that he expected the number of accusers to double.

Attorney David Lujan and one of his clients spoke briefly with the media yesterday at the Archdiocese of Agana Chancery before meeting with a representative of a Vatican-led tribunal sent to Guam to receive testimony from those who have accused former Guam clergy of abuse as part of an ongoing investigation into Archbishop Anthony Apuron. The Vatican investigation is penal, or criminal, in nature, according to documents.

While all of the accusers that Lujan currently represents are former altar boys, attorney Gloria Rudolph noted that some of the victims whose cases have not yet been filed never served as altar boys.

“Some of them weren’t altar boys,” she said. “They were students at Catholic schools.”

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

di Serena Sartini

Le parole, seppure forti, non bastano. «Purtroppo mancano i fatti, manca la concretezza.

Chiediamo al Papa di ordinare ai suoi vescovi di denunciare i crimini di pedofilia commessi dai sacerdoti, cosicché intervenga la giustizia». È duro il commento di Francesco Zanardi, abusato da un sacerdote quando era ragazzino e ora presidente della Rete l’Abuso, associazione che assiste le vittime dei preti pedofili. Un appello che arriva all’indomani del discorso del Papa pubblicato nel libro-testimonianza di Daniel Pittet, vittima di abusi da parte di sacerdoti, in cui Francesco ha chiesto «perdono per i preti pedofili» e ha assicurato: «Saremo severissimi».

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ARGENTINA
Rete L’Abuso

[MENDOZA.- Amid the scandal to allegations of sexual abuse against deaf children at Provolo Institute Antonio of Mendoza, the local school government has finally decided to suspend any subsidies to the school and the school will not be allowed to operate.]

Pablo Mannino

PER LA NACION

MENDOZA.- In mezzo allo scandalo per le denunce di abusi sessuali contro i bambini sordi dell’Istituto Antonio Provolo di Mendoza, il governo scolastico locale ha deciso alla fine di sospendere l’entità educativa in maniera preventiva fintanto che la Giustizia si esprima sulla situazione degli imputati.

Durante una conferenza stampa che si è svolta nel pomeriggio di ieri, il titolare degli Assunti Giuridici della Direzione Generale delle Scuole (DGE), Francisco Fernández, e la direttrice dell’Educazione Privata, Beatriz Della Savia, hanno dato a conoscere la risoluzione. In questa maniera, con il rapporto Nº 93/2017 è stata data l’informazione che l’istituzione non darà più lezioni e smetterà di ricevere il sussidio statale.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Priests and nuns can not be silent or say false when they are questioned by the magistrates by invoking the ‘professional’ secret if they are aware of the facts of criminal law as part of their social activities of assistance to vulnerable people.]

Le motivazioni delle condanne afflitte al parroco e alla suora che negarono di aver saputo delle violenze sessuali subite da Annamaria Scarfò (all’epoca 13enne), che si era affidata alla loro “protezione”, ad opera di un branco di ragazzi.

Preti e suore non possono tacere o dire il falso quando sono interrogati dai magistrati, invocando il segreto ‘professionale’, se sono venuti a conoscenza di fatti penalmente rilevanti nell’ambito della loro attività sociale di assistenza ai soggetti deboli che, sebbene rientri nella generica “missione” degli ecclesiastici, “non rientra certamente nell’esercizio diretto della fede religiosa”, unico ambito per il quale e’ concesso, per le norme concordatarie del 1985, di evitare di rispondere.

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CANADA
CBC News

Former Gatineau priest Jacques Faucher has been sentenced to 12 months house arrest and 18 months probation for sexually assaulting three choir boys in the 1970s.

Justice Pierre Roger delivered the sentence in an Ottawa courtroom Thursday.

During the sentencing the judge cited a psychiatric report showing Faucher no longer had a sex drive.

Faucher had retired as a Roman Catholic priest in 2013 when Ottawa police laid 14 charges of indecent assault and gross indecency against him. The offences were alleged to have involved five victims and occurred between 1969 and 1974 in Ottawa.

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ROME
The Daily Beast

An American cardinal who opposes Pope Francis has just been sent to the remote Pacific island of Guam.

Barbie Latza Nadeau
02.16.17

ROME — Catholic conspiracy theorists unite! After weeks of speculation that American Cardinal Raymond Burke had been secretly slapping up anti-Pope posters and stirring up a schism among conservatives who oppose Pope Francis, the American has suddenly been shipped out to sea.

Specifically, Burke has been sent to the island of Guam, an American outpost of about 162,000 people in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. His departure was seemingly spontaneous, with the Catholic News Service only announcing his arrival when he landed on the island late Wednesday.

The Vatican press office offered a quick explanation for Burke’s departure. While it hadn’t been publicized at the time, Burke had been named by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as the presiding judge in a case against Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron last October. Apuron has refused to resign despite a handful of allegations of sexual misconduct from altar boys who served him in the 1970s.

This is the first such case that Burke has been sent to oversee. He was the head of the Vatican’s tribunal until 2014 when Francis sidelined him shortly after he started his papacy in 2013. …

Despite being well versed in Canon law, Burke’s reputation on clerical sex abuse cases is dismal. He stands accused of not reporting predator priests while he worked in the United States, and he once blamed gay priests as the authors of the assaults, accusing the perpetrators of being “feminized and confused about their own sexual identity.”

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ROME
Crux

Austen Ivereigh February 15, 2017
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

In an interview with an Austrian newspaper, the acting head of the Order of Malta has described being present at the meeting where the Grand Chancellor was asked to resign — and that it was American Cardinal Raymond Burke, not the Grand Master, who made the request.

The Knights of Malta’s chaplain, the pope’s arch-critic American Cardinal Raymond Burke, not its Grand Master, was the one who asked the order’s Grand Chancellor to resign, according to the Knights’ acting head.

Ludwing Hoffmann von Rumerstein, who is Austrian, was present at a meeting on December 6 in which the Grand Chancellor, Albrecht Von Boeselager, was asked to stand down. His refusal and eventual sacking on grounds of disobedience led to a weeks’ long row with the Vatican, who demanded he be reinstated.

The Order’s Grand Master, Fra’ Matthew Festing, eventually resigned on January 24. The Sovereign Council reinstated Boeselager and named Hoffmann von Rumerstein the Knights’ Lieutenant ad interim.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

JOE LOFARO, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

A former Ottawa priest convicted of molesting three altar boys in the 1960s and 1970s has been sentenced to 12 months of house arrest.

A judge found 80-year-old Jacques Faucher guilty last March of six counts of indecent assault and gross indecency on boys aged nine to 13 from the former Notre-Dame-des-Anges parish near Tunney’s Pasture.

The victims all told a similar story: Faucher would invite the boys to sit on his knee in private to pray or to watch hockey and he would start touching them. Court heard that he admitted to police that he had been sexually excited during these encounters, and that he sometimes ejaculated in his pants.

One of the victims told the court in a victim impact statement about the hatred and shame that “ate at me inside like a vile cancer” years after the abuse. Faucher apologized to his victims in court last October for his sex crimes. He said, “I regret them sincerely,” and, in the same speech, also criticized the media for its coverage of sex-abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Megan Neil – AAP on February 17, 2017

Only 63 of the hundreds of priests alleged to have sexually abused children in Australia have been referred to the Holy See, although half of those have been removed from the priesthood.

More than 570 priests have been identified as alleged child abusers in claims made to the Catholic Church in Australia, along with almost 700 non-ordained religious brothers and sisters.

The child sex abuse royal commission’s analysis of Australian church records shows 63 priests have been the subject of a canonical referral to the Holy See, representing nine per cent of priests who were alleged perpetrators.

The priests have been laicised – released from the clerical state and returned to lay status after a request by the priest himself – in 42 per cent of cases.

Thirteen per cent have been dismissed, with dismissal described as the most severe disciplinary measure in canon law that can be sought by a Catholic Church authority.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

ORANGE, CA — In response to a recent lawsuit filed in Orange County alleging that a priest, who was the founder of the All American Boys Chorus, was allowed to sexually prey on children for years, Diocese of Orange officials Wednesday said he never worked in the county.

The lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court on Feb. 3 does not specify a defendant, but it refers to a priest, chorus and Diocese.

The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiff, who is unnamed, was molested by a priest, who also is not named. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, identified the accused as Fr. Richard T. Coughlin, the founder and former director of the chorus in 1970.

Dogged by sexual abuse allegations in Boston, Coughlin was sent to California, SNAP alleged.

The alleged victims believed that the chorus was “run by a gregarious, charismatic and affectionate Catholic priest with an Irish brogue (who) would serve to uplift and inspire,” according to the lawsuit.

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GUAM
International Business Times

BY JOHN WALSH @JRWALSH7 ON 02/16/17

Lawyers representing former altar boys who were allegedly sexually abused by a Catholic archbishop in Guam became disheartened about their case when one of the accusers refused to testify in the Vatican’s investigation into the claims Thursday.

Roland Sondia, who publicly accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of molesting him in the 1970’s when he was 15, reportedly said he wouldn’t share his testimony with the head investigator, American Cardinal Raymond Burke, because his attorney wasn’t allowed to be present while doing so.

Sondia’s lawyer, David Lujan, said the chances of winning the case became “worse” than he expected when he was told that he wouldn’t be allowed to advise his client during his testimony.

Lujan said he feared Sondia, who was once devoutly Catholic, might be distracted from the facts of the case while he was to be “questioned by the prosecutor, who is a priest, and Archbishop Apuron’s lawyer, who is a priest, and a presider who is Cardinal Burke, and a notary who is also a priest.”

Sondia might send a written account of his testimony instead, Lujan said.

Another witness, the mother of a deceased altar boy who similarly accused Apuron of sexually abusing him, has also refused to testify in the investigation.

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FRANCE
La Croix

As part of the French Church’s transparency campaign, the Diocese of Angers has revealed the allegations of two victims of Fr Hyacinthe-Marie Houard, a charismatic, well-known local priest, who died in 2012.

Céline Hoyeau and Gauthier Vaillant

Catholics from Angers in western France are devastated this week following the publication on Tuesday evening of a letter from Bishop Emmanuel Delmas to local priests.

The bishop states that he had received testimonies from two young adult women revealing “that they had been subject during their childhood to inappropriate behavior by a former chaplain, Fr Houard”.

.Hyacinthe-Marie Houard, who died in December 2012 at the age of 85, was an eminent personality in the diocese.

Chaplain and founder of a local Scouts of Europe team, he enjoyed an excellent reputation as an educator and became secretary-general of the Catholic University of Angers. In 1983, he helped found the university’s Institute of Public Relations and Communication (IRCOM).

The two young women who complained to the bishop say that they were sexually abused at the beginning of the years 2000. Each woman made direct contact with the bishop, one during spring 2016 and the other at the end of the year.

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NEW ZEALAND
Otago Daily Times

David Tombs compares the Catholic Church’s recent responses to allegations of sexual abuse in Australia and in Peru.

Two documents released last week on sexual abuses in the Catholic Church in Australia and in Peru seem to show very different responses to the problem of historical sexual abuses. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was formally established in 2013, and it has been examining abuse by Catholic clergy and the responses of various Catholic authorities. Its report, titled “Proportion of priests and non-ordained religious subject to a claim of child sexual abuse 1950-2010” (February 2017), gives a clear sense of the scale.

The report concludes that between 1980 and 2015, there were 4444 alleged incidents of child sexual abuse in more than 1000 institutions. A total of 1880 alleged perpetrators (diocesan and religious priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, lay employees or volunteers) were identified in claims of child sexual abuse.

The figures suggest about 30% of alleged perpetrators were priests, 32% were religious brothers, 29% were lay people, 5% were religious sisters, and for 4% the religious status was not known. The total proportion of priests ministering in Australia who have been alleged as perpetrators of sexual abuse since 1950 is 7%.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Whistleblowers

Focus: The Catholic Church

Catholic Whistle Blowers, an organization of Catholic lay men and women, religious sisters, and current and former religious brothers and priests, in the United States of America, whose mission is to support victim/survivors of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, extends its heartfelt thanks and deep appreciation to the Australian government, the people of Australia, and victim/survivors of sexual abuse, for their courageous and unprecedented multi-year-long commitment of resources and personnel to the investigation of child sexual abuse. In particular, Catholic Whistle Blowers is grateful to:

* courageous victim/survivors who have come forward to report sexual abuse, boldly and bravely testify before the Royal Commission, and create a safer Australia for children;

*the government of Australia which has made child safety and the investigation of crimes against children a high priority;

*the citizens of Australia for allowing allocation of funds and resources that has enabled the Royal Commission to do its work in a comprehensive manner;

*the whistle blowers and reporters of sexual abuse allegations in Australia, especially in Catholic institutions and organizations throughout Australia, who helped to uncover widespread sexual abuse of children in Catholic parishes, schools, and institutions;

*the members of the Royal Commission for their professionalism, hard work, and pursuit of the truth

*the country of Australia for modeling for other countries, especially the United States, that investigations by governments of sexual abuse of children are necessary and very successful in helping to keep children safe; and, that the appeal of the Catholic Whistle Blowers of the United States to its government to convene a national commission to investigate child sexual abuse will finally be heard.

Very Rev. John P. Bambrick, V.F., Jackson, New Jersey
Sr. Sally Butler, OP – Brooklyn, New York
Rev. Patrick W. Collins, Ph.D., Douglas, Michigan
Rev. James E. Connell, J.C.D. – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, OP, J.C.D. – Vienna, Virginia
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D. – West Orange, New Jersey
Rev. Kenneth E. Lasch, J.C.D. – Pompton Plains, New Jersey
Rev. Ronald D. Lemmert – Peekskill, New York
Sr. Claire Smith, OSU – Bronx, New York
Rev. Bruce N. Teague, Sheffield, Massachusetts
Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, SND deN – New Castle, Delaware
Patrick J. Wall, LLM. – Dana Point, California

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SCHWEIZ
Blick

[The shocking abuse details made by 57-year-old Daniel Pittet are frightening the Catholic Church. The church is looking for more victims of Father Joël and for churchmen who helped to conceal the deeds.]

Die schockierenden Missbrauchs-Details, die der heute 57-jährige Daniel Pittet publik gemacht hat, schrecken die katholische Kirche auf. Jetzt sucht sie nach weiteren Opfern des Pädo-Priesters Pater Joël – und nach Kirchenleuten, die mitgeholfen haben, die Taten zu verschleiern.

Der Freiburger Bibliothekar Daniel Pittet (57) hat seinem Peiniger zwar vergeben. Und auch dem katholischen Glauben ist er treu geblieben, wie er im BLICK vom Montag und in seinem eben erschienenen Buch «Mon Père, je vous pardonne» schildert. Das ändert jedoch nichts am Leid, das ihm in seiner Kindheit angetan wurde. Über vier Jahre lang, von 1968 bis 1972, hat ihn der Kapuziner-Priester Pater Joël (76) vergewaltigt und für Pornofotos missbraucht.

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SCHWEIZ
Blick

[The Swiss pedophile Father Jöel has abused dozens of children for decades (yesterday’s review). The 76-year-old lives unmolested in a monastery where he found shelter. We visited him there.]

Laurent Grabet (Interview) und Jean-Guy Python (Fotos)

Der pädophile Pater Jöel hat während Jahrzehnten Dutzende von Kindern missbraucht (BLICK von gestern). Der 76-Jährige lebt unbehelligt in einem Kloster, wo er Unterschlupf gefunden hat. Wir haben ihn dort besucht.

Eine Begegnung mit dem Teufel höchstpersönlich war an diesem kalten, verschneiten Freitagmorgen zu erwarten gewesen. Doch umständlich kommt uns ein beleibter 76-Jähriger entgegen, gestützt auf einen Rollator. «Ich schleppe meine Vergangenheit hinter mir her», eröffnet der aus der Romandie stammende Gottesmann das Gespräch. Er hat sich seit acht Jahren in ein Deutschschweizer Kloster zurückgezogen. Man spricht ihn hier in vorwurfslosem Ton mit Pater Joël an. Im Buch, das sein Treiben enthüllt (BLICK von gestern), wird er mit vollem Namen genannt.

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SCHWEIZ
Blick

[Ephrem Bucher (73), ex-head of the Capuchin Order, has for years covered for Swiss pedophile Brother Father Joël. Now, he is sitting in the Church’s specialist committee to uncover and prevent sexual assaults.]

Laurent Grabet und Andreas Dietrich

Die katholische Kirche hat schnell auf die Enthüllungen von Missbrauchs-Opfer Daniel Pittet (57) reagiert, über die BLICK in den letzten Tagen ausführlich berichtet hat. Am Montag teilten Bischofskonferenz, die Diözese Genf, Lausanne und Freiburg sowie der Kapuzinerorden mit, dass man «die Fehler zutiefst bedauert, welche damals begangen wurden». Zudem wurden Untersuchungen in Aussicht gestellt zur möglichen Beteiligung weiterer Personen ausser des pädophilen Priesters Pater Joël (76). Selbst Papst Franziskus zeigte sich erschüttert und bat im Namen der Kirche um Vergebung.

Mehr Zeit hingegen liess sich die Kirche mit der Einsetzung einer Kommission, die sich des heiklen Themas annehmen soll. Anfang 2014 wurde sie in Aussicht gestellt – erst drei Jahre später hat sich das von den Schweizer Bischöfen eingesetzte «Fachgremium Sexuelle Übergriffe im kirchlichen Umfeld» konstituiert. Es besteht aus rund zehn Mitgliedern, Kirchenvertretern wie weltlichen Experten.

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SCHWEIZ
Blick

[Ephrem Bucher (73) resigns from the Swissbody which looks after sexual assaults in the Catholic Church. BLICK yesterday revealed his questionable role in the pedophile scandal surrounding Father Joël.]

Laurent Grabet und Andreas Dietrich

Das ging schnell! Gestern deckte BLICK auf, wie Ephrem Bucher (73), ehemaliger Chef der Schweizer Kapuziner, jahrelang das Treiben seines Ordensbruders Pater Joël (76) gedeckt hat. Dieser gibt selber zu, mindestens 40 Kinder missbraucht zu haben.

Eines seiner Opfer, der Freiburger Daniel Pittet, hat soeben ein Buch über sein Martyrium veröffentlicht. Strafrechtlich kam Pater Joël stets ungeschoren davon. Entweder waren seine Delikte verjährt, oder es setzte nur eine bedingte Gefängnisstrafe ab. Jedes Mal, wenn an einem Wirkungsort des Pädo-Priesters sein Treiben ruchbar wurde, versetzte ihn der Kapuzinerorden an einen andern Ort.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

Scandalo sordomuti: pugno di ferro del governo dopo l’arresto del prete veronese. «Gli alunni? Cambieranno scuola»

VERONA A quasi tre mesi dagi arresti choc tra cui quello del prete veronese don Nicola Corradi, non risparmia colpi di scena in Argentina lo scandalo abusi sessuali sui sordomuti. E l’ultima novità che proprio in queste ore arriva dall’altro capo dal mondo ha del clamoroso, visto che a intervenire è stato lo stesso governo che, d’autorità, ha deciso di chiudere la sede dell’istituto per sordomuti Provolo di Mendoza. Si tratta della scuola travolta dalle polemiche e dalle proteste di piazza dopo che, a fine novembre 2016, il sacerdote veronese di 82 anni finì in carcere per pedofilia insieme ad altri 4 operatori scolastici (tra cui un secondo prete e un chierichetto) tuttora detenuti nel carcere di Boulogne Sur Mer.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[“Pedophilia is not a vice, pedophilia is not an act of lust, pedophilia is not a sin, much less a crime against morality or an offense against chastity as the Catechism says, and as if the child had prepubescent sexuality. Pedophilia is a violent crime against helpless people “]

Il libro-inchiesta sulla pedofilia clericale firmato da Emiliano Fittipaldi, sin dal titolo induce a confondere peccato e reato in un pericoloso equivoco.
Cecilia M. Calamani

«La pedofilia non è un vizio, la pedofilia non è un atto di lussuria, la pedofilia non è un peccato tanto meno un delitto contro la morale o un’offesa alla castità come dice il Catechismo e come se il bambino prepubere avesse la sessualità. La pedofilia è un crimine violentissimo contro persone inermi» (Federico Tulli, giornalista autore di “Chiesa e pedofilia, il caso italiano”, L’Asino d’oro 2014).

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Megan Neil
Australian Associated Press

Child sex abuse victims are bypassing the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing process and even those whose job it is to administer it “wouldn’t have a bar of it” if seeking compensation.

The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle’s child protection agency says victims are not going to Towards Healing, instead choosing to work directly with the diocese to obtain compensation.
“I think the public standing of Towards Healing has been significantly, if not permanently, damaged,” Zimmerman Services manager Sean Tynan told the child abuse royal commission on Thursday.

“The case study conducted by this royal commission exposed a circumstance that if I were coming forward to seek compensation I wouldn’t have a bar of.”

The director of professional standards for the Catholic Church in Queensland, Mark Eustance, said he was not a great defender of the national protocol either.

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PHILIPPINES
Malay Mail Online

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — It’s no secret that Al Jazeera does a pretty darn good job with their exposes and this time around, they unveil the deep dark secrets of priests in Asia’s largest Catholic nation.

In this new documentary aptly titled “Sins of the Father”, Al Jazeera will reveal how priests in the Philippines are fathering children, violating the sacred vow of celibacy as well as a rising number of child sex abuse cases by priests.

Priests are treated like Gods in the Philippines and this has lead to some of them exploiting their power. In this exclusive investigation, 101 East reporter Drew Ambrose will reveal how church authorities are receiving more reports of child sex abuse by priests. It will also reveal how some church leaders are speaking out against the institution’s failure to properly investigate abuse allegations.

Church investigators also reveal to 101 East that in some dioceses, one in five priests have had children. But with a shortage of priests in this deeply devout nation, the church rarely takes action against errant priests.

– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/showbiz/article/sins-of-the-father-al-jazeera-exposes-philippines-philandering-priests#sthash.pUWTHSO8.dpuf

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By Daniel Peters For Daily Mail Australia and AAP

A paedophile priest who sexually abused vulnerable and homesick boys for over two decades could spend the rest of his life in jail.

Father Brian Spillane was a charismatic priest and college chaplain, and generally well regarded by the school and others.

But his ‘respected position’ masked a manipulative predator who sexually abused boys who sought his help over two decades at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst.

Now the 74-year-old former clergyman faces the prospect of dying in jail after he was sentenced in the NSW District Court on Thursday for the assaults on boys aged under 16 in the 1970s and 1980s.

The most serious charge was buggery (anal intercourse).

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4230368/Paedophile-priest-Brian-Spillane-die-jail.html#ixzz4YqjmM25Q
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

[with video]

Rashida Yosufzai – AAP on February 16, 2017

Damien Sheridan was a homesick, young boarding student who was just looking for counselling from a trusted school chaplain.

But what he endured at the hands of notorious pedophile priest Brian Spillane was to ruin his life.

Now in his 40s, Mr Sheridan describes the shattering consequences of the assault he faced at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst.

He has post traumatic stress disorder, suffers anxiety, and has watched as family and friends have also suffered as a result of his hurt.

When he can’t get out of bed for weeks on end, his 20-year-old son Zak steps in, taking care of the chores and doing the shopping.

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FLORIDA
NBC 2

[with video]

By Levi Ismail, Reporter

SANIBEL –
Parishioners at St. Isabel’s Church on Sanibel said they’re being denied permission to hold services for their former priest.

In just the past week, parishioners held services to pray for Father Christopher Senk, who is still on paid administrative leave. Senk was investigated for more than two years for allegedly financially exploiting parishioner, Marion McIntyre.

The State Attorney’s office concluded that there was not enough evidence of wrongdoing to press charges against Senk.

According to the Diocese of Venice in Florida, a timeline for a resolution of this matter will be determined by the Apostolic See in Rome.

Parishioners said only after they began prayers for Senk at church, were they told they couldn’t use church property.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a church law expert and former head of the Vatican’s highest court, arrived in Guam Feb. 15 as the presiding judge in a church trial investigating allegations of sexual abuse leveled against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of Agana.

The Vatican press office confirmed a “tribunal of the first instance” was constituted by the Vatican Oct. 5 and its presiding judge is Cardinal Burke. Four other judges, all of whom are bishops, also were appointed, the press office said.

“When an action is in a ‘first instance’ court, that indicates that it is in the initial trial phase,” according to the website of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles accusations of clerical sexual abuse.

Three men have publicly accused Archbishop Apuron of sexually abusing them when they were altar boys in the 1970s. The mother of a fourth man, now deceased, also accused the archbishop of abusing her son.

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By Randy Krehbiel Tulsa World

OKLAHOMA CITY — Child sex-abuse victims could have more than 40 years to report the crime under legislation approved Wednesday by an Oklahoma House of Representatives committee.

House Bill 1468, by Rep. Carol Bush, R-Tulsa, would eliminate the current 12-year statute of limitations and allow charges to be filed against an alleged perpetrator until the victim reaches his or her 45th birthday.

The bill advanced on a vote of 10-0.

“By passing this law, you will be helping not only those who have been abused in the past but children who are being abused right now,” said Ginger Lewis, a Tulsa advocate for child-abuse victims and a survivor herself.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio and Masako Watanabe , Pacific Daily News Feb. 16, 2017

A Vatican tribunal sent to Guam as part of Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s canonical trial heard from some witnesses Thursday, but didn’t directly hear from one of Apuron’s alleged sexual abuse victims.

Deacon Steve Martinez, a former sexual abuse response coordinator — whom Apuron reportedly fired for raising concerns about the archdiocese’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations for several years — was among those deposed by the tribunal. Apuron has denied all sex abuse allegations against him and hasn’t been charged criminally, although he’s facing multiple civil lawsuits.

Former altar boy Roland Sondia didn’t agree to be deposed by the Vatican team without his counsel, David Lujan, of the law firm of Lujan and Wolff.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, a prominent leader of the Catholic Church’s conservative wing and a seasoned canon lawyer, heads the mission to interview Guam witnesses as part of Apuron’s canonical trial. Burke, who has clashed with Pope Francis on some issues, is the presiding judge in the Apuron trial.

Sondia and Lujan left the Archdiocese of Agana Chancery, where the deposition was being held, after the Rev. Justin M. Wachs told David Lujan the process doesn’t allow a witness to bring a lawyer. Wachs serves as the Vatican court reporter for the Apuron trial.

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GUAM
Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD and GRACE GARCES BORDALLO

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — A former altar boy who has accused Guam’s longtime archbishop of sexually abusing him has refused to testify before a Vatican court headed by American Cardinal Raymond Burke on the grounds that he couldn’t have his lawyer present.

Attorney David Lujan said his client, Roland Sondia, met Thursday with Vatican officials who travelled to the Pacific island U.S. territory to take testimony in the trial of Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

Lujan said it wasn’t in Sondia’s best interest to be questioned by several priests without him present.

Sondia may submit a written declaration instead.

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VATICAN CITY
News 24

2017-02-16

Vatican City – Pope Francis has sent a Rome-based cardinal who has clashed repeatedly with him to the Pacific island of Guam to investigate a case of sexual abuse.

The Pacific Daily News reports that Cardinal Raymond Burke is scheduled to interview a former altar boy who says he was sexually abused by Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

The 71-year-old Apuron is facing a Vatican trial over multiple allegations of sex abuse of altar boys in the 1970s. He has denied the charges and has not been criminally charged.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nick Wiggins and Matt Eaton

A prestigious Brisbane private school harboured a culture in which children making allegations of abuse were treated as liars, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has found.

The commission has handed down its report into what it calls Case Study 34, examining allegations of abuse at Brisbane Grammar School in Spring Hill and St Paul’s School in the northern Brisbane suburb of Bald Hills.

It heard evidence that school counsellor Kevin Lynch sexually abused “a large number of students” while he was working at Brisbane Grammar between 1973 and 1988, and continued abusing student as a counsellor at St Paul’s between 1989 and 1997.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found then Brisbane Grammar headmaster Maxwell Howell (who died in 2011) was aware of one specific complaint, but did not investigate allegations and did not refer the matter to police.

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GUAM
Radio New Zealand

16 February 2017

A lawyer representing former altar boys on Guam is casting doubt on the trial being held by the Vatican to investigate allegations the island’s Archbishop abused them.

Vatican representatives are today meeting with Roland Sondia, one of those who has accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of sexual abuse in the 1970s.

Lawyer David Lujan said he, and his client, were attending the depositions hearing which is part of a canonical trial.

But he’s already questioning its effectiveness.

“I’m dubious about anything regarding the Catholic Church and how it deals with priests and sex abuse complainants. The history has been nothing but to cover up.”

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Megan Neil – AAP on February 16, 2017

The Catholic Church admits its system that has paid $276 million in compensation to thousands of people sexually abused as children is still not fair to victims and an independent scheme is needed.

Victims who have sought redress from the church in Australia have received an average of $91,000 in compensation.

But there are huge differences in the average amount paid by different Catholic Church authorities – from as little as $22,000 to as much as $901,000.

The church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council chief executive Francis Sullivan says the data reinforces the need for an independent national redress scheme that takes the issue of compensation away from the church.

“Even though the church has paid $270 million and it took a long time to get its act together to do that, there’s no doubt the system of paying people and compensating them is best done independently of the church through a national redress scheme,” Mr Sullivan told AAP.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Feb 16, 2017

By Krystal Paco

An 18th victim has filed suit against the Church. Barrigada resident Anthony Lujan alleges he was molested by Father Louis Brouillard regularly as an altar boy, a Boy Scout, and also as a student at San Vicente Catholic School. Lujan, who is now 50, states the abuse started when he was around 12.

Although he tried to avoid Father Brouillard, Lujan would be forced to be alone with the priest during monthly confessions. Similar to other complaints, Lujan would go on camping trips with Brouillard and other altar boys where sexual abuse was a regular occurrence.

During a meeting with the press earlier today, Attorney David Lujan stated the number of victims to sue the church is likely to double. His firm further disclosed that not all victims were altar boys or Boy Scouts, but students at Catholic schools around the island.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

By Mindy Aguon | For the Post Feb 16, 2017

Allegations of sexual abuse that occurred at San Vicente Catholic School in Barrigada have surfaced as the 18th civil complaint filed against former priest Louis Brouillard and the Archdiocese of Agana was filed in the District Court of Guam this afternoon.

Anthony Lujan, 50, claims he was sexually abused by Brouillard when he was an altar boy and Brouillard was a priest at the San Vicente/San Roke Catholic Church in Barrigada and while he attended school at San Vicente Catholic School.

Lujan alleges he met Brouillard around 1979 during weekly outings that were conducted by Brouillard to recruit young boys to become altar boys or join the Boy Scouts. At that time Brouillard served as scout master of the Guam Chapter of the Boy Scouts.

At the age of 12, the Barrigada man became an altar boy at the village parish and joined the Boy Scouts. During that period, Lujan was sexually abused by Brouillard, the lawsuit states. The abuse occurred after Lujan served as an altar boy during Mass.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery, Herald Sun
February 16, 2017

THE Catholic Church has spent more than $275 million compensating victims of child sexual abuse since 1980, new figures have revealed.

For the first time data published by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today has exposed the financial cost of the church’s sexual abuse crisis.

Between 1980 and 2015 it paid $276.1 million to victims of abuse, or nearly $8 million a year.

That sum includes amounts for compensation, treatment, legal and other costs.

Of the total amount, $258.8 million was monetary compensation, at an average of about $91,000 per claim.

The highest number of payments, $48.5 million, was paid to 763 victims of the Christian Brothers.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic Church has released numbers on how many child sexual abuse claims have been made against staff from their religious schools and orphanages, showing one home for boys faced 219 accusations.

The church identified 28 institutions that had 20 or more claims of child sexual abuse. You can search the data below.

The highest number of claims came from BoysTown at Beaudesert in Queensland, with 219 claims levelled at Catholic Church members working at the children’s home.

This information is part of a large release of data revealing the extent of child sex abuse within the Australian Catholic Church that was done with cooperation from them as part of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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PERU
Crux

Catholic News Agency
February 15, 2017

LIMA, Peru – A two-part report made public on Tuesday details sexual, physical and psychological abuses committed by members of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, both those who have left the community and those who remain in it.

In addition to the movement’s founder, Luis Fernando Figari, four other Sodalits were reported to have sexually abused minors. The report named the other offenders, none of whom are still part of the community.

Seven of the Sodalits “who were identified as having physically or psychologically abused” another member or a person in formation are still in the community and performing external ministry. They have had administrative actions taken against them and are receiving training. The report did not give their names.

The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae is a society of apostolic life which was founded in 1971 in Peru, and granted pontifical recognition in 1997. CNA’s executive director, Alejandro Bermúdez, and its global director of operations, Ryan Thomas, are both members of the community.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Charlotte King

St Patrick’s College in Ballarat, infamous for its history of child sexual abuse, is determined to become a leader in child protection.

Among the “old boys” of St Patricks College are some of the most notorious convicted paedophiles in Australia.

An honours board on display is an indication of the changes the school is trying to enact.

The board lists all of the past students, with names and dates listed in gold, who have gone on to be ordained as Catholic priests.

Headmaster John Crowley said some of those names were now blacked out.

“After the first sitting of the royal commission there were details of certain individuals who were old collegians of the school, that to me were just horrifying,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Deutsche Welle

The country’s Catholic Church has paid more than quarter of a billion Australian dollars to child sexual abuse victims. An inquiry concluded that, while thousands of claims were made, many victims had not come forward.

An average of 91,000 dollars each was paid to thousands of victims who came forward with claims to the church, an inquiry was told on Thursday.

Prosecuting barrister Gail Furness said Australia’s Catholic Church had paid out 276 million Australian dollars ($213 million, 200 million euros) between 1980 and 2015.

Earlier this month, Australia was shocked by revelation that 4,445 people had made claims of child sexual abuse to the church over the 35-year-period. Of those 30,066 received payments for redress, with hundreds of claims still ongoing.

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AUSTRALIA/IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

Former Jesuit provincial Fr Gerry O’Hanlon has insisted that the Church’s centralised model of governance contributed to the mishandling of sexual abuse allegations against priests.

Speaking to the royal commission on abuse in Australia via a videolink from Dublin, Fr O’Hanlon also said that the Church suffered from the same defensive attitude as other institutions.

“I think it’s a defensiveness that you will find in many other organisations.

“We are finding it, for example, in England at the moment with regard to as different a field as professional football, soccer. We find it in different organisations. But of course it was all the more egregious coming from an organisation which, if you like, in a good sense, prided itself on doing what was good and what was right and favouring the weakest.

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