ABUSE TRACKER

GERMANY
Deutsche Welle

A member of Limburg’s Catholic diocese in western Germany has been placed under investigation on suspicion of possessing child pornography.

A Frankfurt prosecutor’s office spokesman told reporters that the suspect’s home and office had been raided by police on February 1 and a data storage device was seized as evidence.

Officials confirmed on Thursday that the employee had been suspended from his position at the church following the accusation. Both the prosecutor’s office and diocese spokesman, Steven Schnelle, refused to reveal the suspect’s identity or his position within the diocese; however, they confirmed that he was not a priest and had no direct contact with children or adolescents during his role at the church.

According to the Frankfurter Neuen Presse newspaper, authorities began investigating the case weeks ago after suspicions were initially raised, culminating in the search of the man’s apartment.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
10 Feb 2017

THE child abuse royal commission would not be “beyond its remit” if it recommended obliging priests to break the vow of secrecy if a person confessed to sexually abusing a child, senior Australian Catholic priest Frank Brennan said in evidence on Thursday.

“I don’t think it would be beyond your remit, and if parliaments were minded to pass such a law,” Father Brennan said during the final Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing into the Catholic Church.

Father Brennan warned commission chair Justice Peter McClellan that a recommendation instructing priests not to give absolution to a person confessing a child sex crime until it was reported to police could be “a fundamental interference with the usual separation of church and state”, but “these things can be done”.

Father Brennan warned that while the commission would have the authority to do it, such a recommendation “could become politically problematic”.

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UNITED STATES
The Badger Herald

by KORT DRIESSEN · Jan 24, 2017

As a society in general, it seems as though we often look to high-profile, public figures for guidance. These people have the power to make waves that reverberate through our culture and have undeniably lasting effects, whether for the better or for the worse.

Because of that, it is essential that we hold these people to a higher level of accountability, and that we not loosen our moral code simply because of fame or stature.

John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods and director of Conscious Capitalism, has recently proven exactly why this is true. Mackey released a statement last June pledging his loyalty to his friend Marc Gafni, an ex-rabbi accused of child molestation and using his position to extort children. Gafni said of one of his young accusers, “She was 14 going on 35, and I never forced her.”

In response, more than 130 activists, students, and professors have recently signed an open letter to Whole Foods and Conscious Capitalism, imploring them and Mackey to open a dialogue concerning sexual violence and rape. As of yet, there has been no response.

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ITALIA
H24

[Exhumation of the remains of the parish priest, dead for 11 years, for the recognition of paternity.]

E’ morto da undici anni ormai, ma di fatto il parroco di una piccola frazione di Minturno originario della Ciociaria, stenta a trovare pace. Il suo nome, assai noto nella comunità per l’impegno profuso sin dal 1950 nella cittadina pontina, viene ripetuto da un decennio in procedimenti giudiziali e ora il suo corpo verrà finanche disseppellito. Riesumazione utile a dare finalmente una conferma a un uomo cresciuto nella sua canonica insieme alla mamma, la perpetua, nella consapevolezza che quel prete fosse suo padre.

Ultima prova disposta dalla magistratura: il Dna. E oggi il giudice civile del tribunale di Cassino, Gabriele Sordi, dopo aver disposto la riesumazione della salma del noto sacerdote, ha dato formalmente incaricato i consulenti tecnici d’ufficio affinchè procedano.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

[with video]

Thursday, February 9th 2017

By Charles Gazaway, Digital Content Producer

BRANDENBURG, KY (WAVE) – A Louisville priest has been sentenced to serve seven years in prison after being convicted on a sexual abuse charge.

Fr. Joseph Hemmerle was director and camp counselor for Camp Tall Trees in Meade County for 30 years. In November, Hemmerle was acquitted on one charge of engaging in a sexual act but was found guilty on a count of inappropriate touching.

The sentence given was the recommendation of the jury. A request for Hemmerle to receive probation was denied

The sexual abuse allegation Hemmerle was convicted of was brought in 2001 by Michael Norris. No charges were filed against Hemmerle then, but he was reassigned after an internal investigation bu the Archdiocese of Louisville.

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ITALY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew in Rome

The Italian Catholic Church has been rocked by revelations that a priest laicised by the Vatican in 2012 for sex abuse crimes may have subsequently abused as many as 10 boys.

It is alleged that civil authorities were not informed of the Canon law conviction against the priest, Gianni Trotta, following his removal from the priesthood. In the absence of any black mark against him, Trotta was allowed to take over the training of an under-11 boys football team in the province of Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy.

In 2015 Trotta was given an eight-year prison sentence for the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old boy. On Tuesday, a judge ruled that he should stand trial next month, charged with the sexual abuse of nine other boys.

Holy See sources say it was the responsibility of Trotta’s diocese in Bari to signal his Canon law conviction to the relevant civil authorities.

The question of mandatory reporting of sex offenders by church authorities has long been controversial. For long, the Holy See has claimed that Vatican “confidentiality” with regard to cases heard by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith did not mean a ban on reporting serious accusations to civil authorities.

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KENTUCKY
WLKY

MEADE COUNTY, Ky. —
A Louisville priest has been sentenced to seven years in prison for inappropriately touching a boy in the 1970s.

A Meade County judge on Thursday morning handed down a jury’s recommended sentence for the Rev. Joseph Hemmerle.

Hemmerle was found guilty in November of one count of indecent or immoral practices with a child.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Jake Bleiberg, BDN Staff

PORTLAND, Maine — A former Roman Catholic priest, who previously spent a decade in a Massachusetts prison for the rape of an altar boy, was formally charged with 29 counts of gross sexual misconduct in a Maine court Monday.

The York County grand jury indicted Ronald Paquin, 74, for his alleged crimes against children between the ages of 11 and 14 in the late 1980s at a “seasonal location” in Kennebunk, according to a Wednesday statement from the town police.

Paquin, a prominent figure in the sex abuse scandal uncovered by the Boston Globe in the early 2000s, pleaded guilty in 2002 to the repeated rape of a Haverhill, Massachusetts, altar boy.

Paquin was released in 2015 because officials found that he no longer met “the legal criteria for sexual dangerousness,” the Globe reported.

The priest reportedly intended to go to a Boston shelter for older men when he was released from prison.

The Kennebunk police credited “two courageous victims” with helping to indict Paquin and said a warrant would be issued for his arrest, after which he will be brought to Maine for court proceedings.

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MASSACHUSETTS/MAINE
Boston Globe

By Evan Allen and Travis Anderson GLOBE STAFF FEBRUARY 09, 2017

Boston Police and U.S. Marshals arrested a former Catholic priest, who served more than 10 years in prison for raping an altar boy, on Morton Street in Jamaica Plain Wednesday, following his indictment Tuesday in Maine on 29 new counts of sexual misconduct.

Ronald H. Paquin, 74, was taken into custody without incident in the area of Lemuel Shattuck Hospital at about 3:40 p.m. Wednesday at the request of the Kennebunkport Police Department in Maine, which had issued an arrest warrant for him the same day, according to Boston Police.

Before Paquin was defrocked in 2004, he served in the Boston archdiocese at parishes in Haverhill and Methuen, and the new charges stem from his alleged abuse of two boys dating back to when he was a priest in Massachusetts.

He is accused of abusing the two boys in Kennebunkport between 1985 and 1989, according to York County District Attorney Kathryn Slattery. One of the boys was younger than 14, according to court documents; the age of the other boy was not immediately available.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

A media report earlier this month suggested such a move was under consideration, but papal spokesman Greg Burke has downplayed such speculation.

Edward Pentin

VATICAN CITY — Recent press reports have indicated that Pope Francis might be considering the transfer of clerical sex abuse cases from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to two other dicasteries. But it remains uncertain that such a move actually is being contemplated.

A Jan. 3 article in The Week asserted that the Pope recently had the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, ask the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts about the possibility of restoring the authority regarding sex abuse cases to the Congregation for the Clergy and the Roman Rota, where they were handled previous to being moved in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.

The article also claimed the Holy Father and some other senior Church leaders have directly intervened in several specific abuse cases that were being handled by the CDF.

The two dicasteries reportedly under consideration for handling clergy abuse cases are headed by Cardinal Beniamino Stella, and Msgr. Pio Vito Pinto, dean of the Roman Rota (the Church’s highest court of appeal).

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Philly

By Catholic News Service • Posted February 9, 2017

SYDNEY (CNS) — In a wide-ranging discussion, members of Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and experts called to testify discussed how good business practices might or might not make children less vulnerable.

The hearing included discussion of church governance, celibacy and what seminarians are being taught about power and leadership.

The Royal Commission — instituted by the government in 2013 — is conducting a three-week wrapup of its inquiry into child abuse within the Catholic Church. Unlike past hearings, which focused on specific cases, these hearings were to focus on church theology and doctrine, structure and governance, including the role of the Vatican and canon law, and issues like celibacy, confession and more.

Maureen Cleary, who has extensive experience as a governance consult for church and nonprofit organizations, told the commission there were many governing groups within the church.

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AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

Nigel Hunt, The Advertiser
February 9, 2017

THE Catholic Church has permanently banned disgraced priest Father John Fleming from the pulpit — because it does not have the power to sack him.

Fleming, right, was formally advised of the move, made under Canon Law, on Thursday following the High Court’s unanimous dismissal of his bid to overturn damning legal judgments against him.

The move, which will stop Fleming from acting in ministry in any way, is the harshest sanction the Adelaide Diocese of the Catholic Church can take.

It is understood Vatican lawyers have advised Diocese leaders they do not have the jurisdiction to defrock Fleming, simply because his misconduct occurred while he was an Anglican priest.

“I was informed today that Father Fleming’s appeal to the High Court was dismissed,’’ Vicar General Father Philip Marshall said on Thursday night.

“I understand this was Father Fleming’s final avenue of appeal and, as such, the findings made in February 2016, by the honourable auxiliary Justice Gray remain undisturbed. In the light of this I have today issued a decree under Canon Law directing that Father Fleming cease all forms of ministry. The decree will have immediate effect.’’

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

Updated: Feb 09, 2017

BRANDENBURG, Ky. (WDRB) — A local priest will soon find out how long he’ll spend in prison.

Sentencing begins Thursday morning in Meade County for Father Joseph Hemmerle. He was convicted in November of abusing a 10-year-old boy at a Catholic-run youth camp in 1973. A jury recommended a 7-year sentence.

The Archdiocese of Louisville put Hemmerle on leave, when accusations first surfaced in 2014.

The victim is now 53 years old and says he had poison ivy, when he spent time at Tall Trees Camp in Meade County in the 1970s. He testified that Hemmerle offered to treat it. That’s when the victim says he was abused.

Attorneys are expected to call several witnesses to defend Hemmerle, including former students.

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By ALYSSA DANDREA
Monitor staff
Wednesday, February 08, 2017

A House committee recommended unanimously Wednesday to kill a bill that would require corroboration of a victim’s testimony in certain sexual assault cases.

House Bill 106 met strong opposition at a public hearing last month, where law enforcement officials, prosecutors and sexual assault survivors said the bill would protect sexual predators and cause more children harm.

Republican Reps. Jess Edwards and William March wrote a letter to committee members a few days after the hearing to say they would understand if the bill didn’t survive. They said they had spoken with dozens of people, and that an “overwhelming number” expressed concern about the message the bill would send.

March said he introduced the bill after learning about the case of Foad Afshar, a Concord psychologist who was convicted of sexually molesting a young patient during a therapy session. March’s daughter was a student of Afshar’s at the New Hampshire Institute of Art and brought the case to his attention.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

Megan Gorrey

Fresh claims of historical child sex abuse have emerged against former Marist College Canberra teacher Brother ‘Kostka’ Chute, a court has heard.

John William Chute, 84, was last year committed to stand trial in the ACT Supreme Court for allegedly sexually abusing boys at the Pearce college in the 1980s.

Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, was among four men police charged as part of an ongoing investigation into historical child sex abuse, mostly on boys younger than 16, in ACT schools.

He faces six counts of indecent assault and two acts of indecency for offences allegedly committed against two students over several years from 1980. He has yet to formally enter pleas to the charges.

Lawyer Greg Walsh signalled at Chute’s committal in August he would make an application that his client was unfit to plead, noting he had been found unfit to plead to separate charges in the NSW District Court.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 9, 2017

ROME

Pope Francis admitted to the leaders of the world’s Catholic male religious orders in a meeting last fall that the Vatican is a corrupt place, but said he is at peace in his work reforming the church’s command structures.

“There is corruption in the Vatican,” the pontiff told members of the Union of Superiors General Nov. 26, according to a report of the meeting released for the first time Thursday by the Italian Jesuit magazine La Civilta Cattolica.

The pope made the admission after being asked by one of the religious leaders how he maintains serenity in his work.

“I do not take tranquilizers!” Francis joked, before adding: “The Italians offer good advice: to live in peace you need a healthy dose of not caring.”

“I am at peace,” said the pontiff, explaining that he has a small statue of a sleeping St. Joseph on his desk and that he places notes identifying problems he needs Joseph to help with under the statue.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Pope Francis says he is at peace with himself and not taking “tranquilising pills” while dealing with corruption in the Vatican and clergy sexual abuse.

“There is corruption in the Vatican but I am at peace,” he told leaders of religious orders he met last November in the Vatican, according to a transcript published on Thursday.

“Never wash your hands of problems,” he said, according to the Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica.

At his election in 2013, Francis was mandated to tackle financial scandals in Vatican departments, notably its bank.

He created a new economy ministry to centralise operations, strengthened the power of the Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority and appointed a general auditor.

While international monitors have applauded improved transparency in Vatican finances, there has been less praise for his handling of the sexual abuse crisis plaguing the Church for decades.

At the meeting, he said clerical sexual abuse of children was “a clear sign the devil is at work destroying the work of Jesus through those who should be proclaiming Jesus.”

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VATICAN CITY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Rome, February 9 – Pope Francis has admitted that there is corruption in the Vatican and said those who commit sexual abuse have an illness in an interview with Jesuit magazine La Civilità Cattolica. “There is corruption in the Vatican. But I am in peace,” he said in the interview, which was published by Corriere della Sera on Thursday. “If there is a problem I write a note to Saint Joseph and I put it under a statue in my room”. He also suggested some people inside the Catholic Church were not working in the same direction as him. “Sometimes (Saint) Peter’s boat can be hit by waves and that’s nothing to be surprised by,” he said. “But the same sailors called on to row in Peter’s boat can row in the opposite direction”.

When asked about cases of child sex abuse by clergymen, he replied: “if religious are involved, it’s clear that the presence of the devil is in action to ruin the work of Jesus.

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VATIKAN
kath.net

[Pope Francis has described child abuse as a “disease”. He said they will not be able to solve the problem unless they are convinced that it is a disease.]

Franziskus im Gespräch mit Generaloberen: Mahnung zur sorgfältigen Auswahl von Priesterkandidaten – Selbst der Vatikan sei nicht vor Korruption sicher, so der Papst: “Es gibt Korruption im Vatikan.”

Vatikanstadt(kath.net/KAP) Papst Franziskus hat Kindesmissbrauch als “Krankheit” bezeichnet. “Wenn wir nicht davon überzeugt sind, dass er eine Krankheit ist, werden wir das Problem nicht gut lösen können”, sagte er bei einem Gespräch mit den Teilnehmern der 88. Generalversammlung der Vereinigung der Generaloberen, das ab Donnerstagmittag im Wortlaut abrufbar ist. Er mahnte zu Vorsicht bei der Ordensaufnahme von Bewerbern, die anderswo abgewiesen wurden, wie die italienische Tageszeitung “Corriere della Sera” vorab über den Inhalt berichtete.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[Child porn suspect in the Limburg diocese.]

Ein Mitarbeiter des katholischen Bistums Limburg ist wegen des mutmaßlichen Besitzes von Kinderpornografie in den Fokus von Ermittlungen geraten. Der Mann sei deshalb vom Dienst freigestellt worden, sagte Bistumssprecher Stephan Schnelle.

Auch ein Sprecher der Generalstaatsanwaltschaft Frankfurt bestätigte die Ermittlungen. Diese führe die in Gießen ansässige “Zentralstelle zur Bekämpfung der Internetkriminalität”. Es gehe um den Verdacht, dass sich der Mann Kinderpornografie verschafft und besessen habe. Dem Sprecher zufolge gab es bei dem Verdächtigen am 1. Februar eine Durchsuchung. Dabei seien Datenträger sichergestellt worden, die nun ausgewertet würden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

[An employee of Bishop Georg Batzing was allegedly found to have child pornography on his computer. The Limburg diocese is examining whether there might be abuse victims in the diocese.]

Gegen einen Mitarbeiter des katholischen Bistums Limburg wird wegen mutmaßlichen Besitzes von Kinderpornografie ermittelt. Der Büroleiter von Bischof Georg Bätzing sei freigestellt worden, weil auf seinem Dienst-PC im Bischofshaus und auf elektronischen Medien zahlreiche Kinderpornos gefunden worden seien, berichtet die „Frankfurter Neue Presse“ am Donnerstag unter Berufung auf die Generalstaatsanwaltschaft Frankfurt.

Das Bistum bestätigte auf Anfrage der Katholischen Nachrichten-Agentur (KNA) den Sachverhalt ohne Hinweis auf die Position des Mitarbeiters. Der Beschuldigte sei aufgrund des Anfangsverdacht von seinen Aufgaben entbunden und vom Dienst freigestellt worden, sagte Pressesprecher Stephan Schnelle. „Das Bistum kooperiert entsprechend der bischöflichen Leitlinien eng mit den staatlichen Strafverfolgungsbehörden.“ An erster Stelle stünden die Opfer.

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AUSTRALIEN
Die Tagespost

[The curse of the evil deed.]

Von Guido Horst

„Was die Kommission bisher herausgefunden hat, ist grauenvoll.“ So der Kommentar von Erzbischof Anthony Fischer von Sydney zum Beginn der Anhörungen eines staatlichen Untersuchungsgremiums zum sexuellen Missbrauch. Es geht um staatliche wie religiöse Einrichtungen, darunter auch Sportverbände und Schulen. Aber die Scheinwerfer richten sich besonders auf die katholische Kirche. Und die Zahlen sind wahrlich beschämend. Bis zu vierzig Prozent der Mitglieder von Orden und sieben Prozent der Priester des Landes sollen von 1950 bis 2009 in Fälle sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs verwickelt gewesen sein. Noch sind reine Beschuldigungen nicht sauber von tatsächlich begangenen Straftaten getrennt, die Kommission sammelt Zeugenaussagen, Beweise und Daten früherer Anhörungen. Aber schon jetzt ist das Material erdrückend. Die Kirche stöhnt: Die kommenden Wochen und Monate werden grausam sein.

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SCHWEIZ
NZZ

[A criminal case has been brought against a former priest who allegedly abused minors. He is said to have been in the canton of Thurgau from 1994 to 1995. The canton police are now looking for people who had contact with the then 30-year-old German.]

(sda) In Deutschland läuft ein Strafverfahren gegen einen ehemaligen Priester wegen sexueller Handlungen mit Minderjährigen. Er soll sich von 1994 bis 1995 im Kanton Thurgau aufgehalten haben. Die Kantonspolizei sucht nun Personen, die mit dem damals 30-jährigen Deutschen Kontakt hatten.

Der heute 52-jährige Mann war 1994 zum Priester geweiht worden. 2008 sei ihm wegen sexueller Handlungen mit Minderjährigen der geistliche Stand aberkannt worden, teilte die Thurgauer Polizei am Donnerstag mit.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

James Macintyre 08 February 2017

A new alleged victim of abuse by John Smyth, the former QC at the centre of claims about sadism and beatings towards Christian youth in the 1970s, has said that the same culture of homophobia still exists in “mainstream Christian fundamentalism”.

The man has come forward to The Guardian newspaper claiming that he was encouraged to self-harm by Smyth as a way of ridding himself of “sinful” homosexual yearnings.

As a schoolboy he was instructed to “do anything to give myself pain” amid “frightening and blunt” warnings homosexuality which drove him into “a dark place”, the paper reported.

Now in his 50s, ‘David’, which is not his real name, said that Smyth’s narrow theology and lack of compassion can still be found in today’s Church of England.

He said that Smyth’s “brand of Christianity” and “literalistic interpretation of scripture” still thrived in the Church.

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DEUTSCHLAND
FNP

[The bishopric of Limburg is shattered by a new scandal. The office manager of Bishop Georg Bätzing has been released because he had child pornography on his PC.]

VON JOACHIM HEIDERSDORF

Das Bistum Limburg wird von einem neuen Skandal erschüttert: Der Büroleiter von Bischof Georg Bätzing ist freigestellt worden, weil er auf seinem Dienst-PC im Bischofshaus und auf elektronischen Medien Kinderpornos gespeichert haben soll. Die Zentralstelle für Internetkriminalität ermittelt.

Limburg.

Die Fotos sollen eindeutig und schockierend sein: Es geht um Kinderpornografie. Entdeckt wurden die Aufnahmen im Limburger Bischofshaus – auf dem Dienst-PC des Büroleiters und engen Vertrauten von Bischof Georg Bätzing. Das Bischöfliche Ordinariat hat sofort reagiert und den leitenden Mitarbeiter freigestellt.

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AUSTRALIA
West Coast Sentinel

Chris Clarke
@chrisclarkenews

9 Feb 2017

Tasmania’s Catholic Church will usher in a new era this year, with the introduction of an Australian-first child sex abuse reporting system.

It follows the handing down of condemning statistics from the Royal Commission in Sydney this week that heard more than 4000 allegations of child sex abuse had been investigated in the last four years, with up to 40 per cent of one mainland church group allegedly involved in paedophilia.

The new system, created by the Archdiocese of Hobart, will “ensure that in all potential environments where there is a risk of abuse, that risk is alleviated or mitigated” and ensure “that where abuse has unfortunately occurred, the correct internal and external processes are followed”.

The framework, dubbed Safe Communities, will also see:

* All allegations of abuse reported immediately to Tasmania Police and directly to Archbishop Reverend Julian Porteous.
* Resources shared statewide for organisations of Catholics and agencies of the Archdiocese of Hobart.
* Stringent interview and reference checking procedures put in place.
* Police checks for all staff, including volunteers.
* Education and training programs instilled.

Furthermore, Tasmania will use a new Australia-wide Catholic database that allows bishops and leaders of religious congregations to check the background of clerics and brothers visiting or moving to their region.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Christopher Knaus
Thursday 9 February 2017

The Catholic church’s “pontifical secret” rule is still preventing bishops from disclosing child sexual abuse allegations in some states, an expert has said.

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Thursday began to examine how canon law contributes to the secrecy surrounding child abuse within the Catholic church.

Since 1974, an instruction from the pope known as Secreta Continere, or the pontifical secret, has imposed strict secrecy on the investigation and handling of child abuse allegations within the church.

The royal commission has heard the rule contributed to the failure of the church to refer abuse allegations to police and other civil authorities.

In 2010, the Holy See relaxed the secrecy provisions, telling church leaders they must obey any civil law compelling them to disclose information about abuse. But many Australian state and territories do not have explicit laws requiring the reporting of child abuse complaints.

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AUSTRALIA
Cairns Post

Rebekah Ison, Australian Associated Press
February 9, 2017

Removing the confidentiality of the Catholic confessional box could stop paedophiles ever admitting to their crimes, a priest says.

Catholic Social Services Australia Chief Executive Father Frank Brennan said no one has ever confessed child sex abuse to him but he had been contacted by a woman whose father repeatedly talked of his crimes in the confessional and was forgiven.

He told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he thought priests dishing out such “cheap grace” was appalling.

But if confessional confidentiality was taken away, an abuser would know he was in the same position as if he told someone on the street, “I’m a pedophile”.

“I ask myself if you take away the seal of the confessional, is it any more likely that anyone will come to confession and confess pedophilia?,” he said on Thursday.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic and Enjoying It!

February 9, 2017 by Mark Shea

The best book I have read on this is by a lawyer named Joseph Klest called The Whole Truth. He’s an agnostic out in Chicago who has prosecuted around 500 sex abuse cases against the Church and has really good understanding of the institutional forces that create an environment for predators to seek prey (the same everywhere in the world, which is why this happens everywhere in the Church).

He doesn’t cut the Church one damn bit of slack, but he also doesn’t cut other institutions any slack either. And he argues, counter-intuitively but very persuasively, that if we really care about sexual abuse of minors, then the smartest thing we can do is take a good hard look at the astonishing work the US Church has done to tackle this issue: work that other institutions in dire need of reform (*cough* our entire public school system *cough*) have not done jack about.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY VICTORIA BEKIEMPIS LEONARD GREENE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, February 9, 2017

A correction officer who moonlights as a church pastor is being sued by an inmate and investigated by the city on charges that he sexually abused detainees at Rikers Island.

Raimeir Clay, who is married with two children, is “a serial sexual abuser,” according to the male inmate, who said Clay used his power in the jail to molest him and other male inmates while the officer’s colleagues and supervisors did nothing to stop the abuse.

Clay, 43, wore two uniforms. For his shifts at the jail, he put on a blue uniform complete with a badge over his chest and department lapel on his shoulder.

But when he wasn’t supervising violent offenders and suspects awaiting trial at Rikers’ Anna M. Kross Center, Clay wore the ecclesiastic frock of a trusted minister complete with clerical collar.

In the latter world, he is known as Pastor Clay, preaching the Gospel to a Newark congregation.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne

Catholic church authorities deliberately misused their own legal code to excuse claims of child sexual abuse and protect alleged perpetrators, according to testimony before a royal commission.

The fourth day of an inquiry into the Catholic church’s approach to child sexual abuse heard that canon law has been used to justify the cover-up of alleged crimes.

In a submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Vatican adviser Baroness Sheila Hollins​ wrote that clergy may have used canon law to hide alleged sexual offending in their ranks.

“Canon law may have been deliberately misused to excuse inexcusable behaviour, and to cover up known wrongdoing,” the member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors wrote.

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AUSTRALIA
Latrobe Valley Express

CATHOLIC Bishop of Sale Pat O’Reagan has moved to clarify figures released by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse which show his diocese was the worst hit by accusations of child sexual abuse between 1950 and 2010.

The report ‘Proportion of priests and non-ordained religious subject to a claim of child sexual abuse’ calculated 15.1 per cent of priests in the diocese in that period were accused of child sexual abuse.

In a statement released to media, Bishop O’Reagan said the Diocese of Sale did not have 15.1 per cent of the 4500 claims made in Australia over the past 35 years.

The report revealed a total of 1880 alleged perpetrators including diocesan and religious priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, lay employees or volunteers were identified in claims of child abuse.

Bishop O’Reagan said 384 were diocesan priests and “using the 15.1 per cent figures would be 12 which was consistent with data held by the diocese”.

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AUSTRALIA
NT News

CARLEEN FROST, The Daily Telegraph
February 7, 2017

THE first Catholic Archbishop to front the Royal Commission into child sex abuse has boldly declared “we do our own thing” in the church, which he described as a law unto itself.

Yesterday’s sitting into the systemic exploitation heard the Catholic Church lacked transparency and was so secretive it even hid information between it’s own divisions.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge told the packed public gallery the church had a profound “culture of concealment” throughout its ranks and needed to work on becoming more transparent.

“I suspect it is the lingering effects of what was a deeply rooted culture — we do our own thing,” he said.

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WISCONSIN
Catholic Herald

Written by Mary Skemp
Thursday, Feb. 09, 2017

MADISON — The Diocese of Madison’s Office of Safe Environment is offering a special session of “Protecting God’s Children for Parents.” This session will be held Tuesday, March 21, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Bishop O’Connor Center Auditorium Conference Room.

While this session is geared toward parents/guardians, it also satisfies the compliance requirement for employees and volunteers.

The Diocese of Madison requires that all volunteers who work with children and vulnerable adults and all employees attend a “Protecting God’s Children for Adults” session.

“Protecting God’s Children” includes an education component which helps prevent child sexual abuse by first making every adult employee and volunteer aware of the issues surrounding child sexual abuse. This includes awareness of the many ways that sexual abuse harms its victims, their families, the parish, and the community.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

RHIAN DEUTROM February 9, 2017
.
The Vatican enforced a culture of secrecy regarding cases of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, the royal commission has heard today.

A panel of experts, specialising in canonical or church law, appeared before the final hearing of the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, agreeing almost unanimously that the directives from Rome were often geared to protect its flock rather than its victims.

Counsel assisting Stephen Free described the pastoral approach as a bishop attempting “for an appropriate period of time and with every means available to help the petitioner to overcome to difficulties which he experiences”.

The approach could involve “transferring him (the perpetrator) from the place in which he is exposed to the danger and according to the nature of the case, giving him the help of brother priests, friends…doctors or psychologists,” Mr Free said.

Father Thomas Doyle gave evidence regarding a lack of co-operation from the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the church, the Holy See, when faced with allegations of child sexual abuse.

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MARYLAND
WJZ

[with video]

February 8, 2017 By Denise Koch

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — For nearly 50 years, the disappearance and murder of a beloved, young nun, who taught at Southwest Baltimore’s Archbishop Keough High School, has been a mystery.

Now, WJZ has learned Baltimore County Police may be closer than ever to solving the murder of 26-year-old Sister Cathy Cesnik.

Two women, both with close ties to an unnamed man who may have been recently questioned by police, tell WJZ they believe her death may be linked to widespread sexual abuse by a powerful priest that took place decades ago.

They say they’ve revealed some critical clues to investigators.

One of those women asked not to be identified. We’ll call her “Ann.”

“I instinctively felt that when Sister Cathy was murdered, that my husband at the time had committed the murder,” Ann told WJZ’s Denise Koch.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hull Daily Mail

A former Beverley priest has been jailed for 28 years for sexually abusing vulnerable children.

Roy Lovatt, 71, former priest of St John of Beverley Church, committed the offences in the 1970s and 80s when he was a housemaster at Thorp Arch Grange school on the outskirts of Wetherby.

Lovatt, recently of Queen Street, Redcar, was found guilty after a trial at Leeds Crown Court of four charges of indecent assault and five of buggery against two boys.

Lovatt, who was described by prosecutors as a predatory sex offender, also admitted 23 charges of indecent assault and two of gross indecency on three other boys and a girl who were not resident at the school.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nicole Chettle

An American priest has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that the Catholic Church has used canon law as an excuse for not taking action against clergy accused of molesting children.

The commission is investigating the conflict between canon and civil law, and secrecy within the Catholic Church hierarchy.

Father Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer who first reported allegations of abuse to the Vatican in the 1980s, told the commission that the Catholic Church’s canon law had been used as an excuse in some instances by ecclesiastical authorities for not proceeding and taking action against reports of sexual abuse.

“The focus seems to have been consistently on the priest.

“Either getting [him] off the hook, taking care of him or punishing him in some way.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com Feb. 9, 2017

The world’s largest network of clergy sex abuse survivors said the Vatican’s ongoing investigation into sexual abuse allegations against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron will not lead to justice for former altar boys, citing a lack of transparency in the canonical trial process and the absence of punishment for church officials who helped cover up the abuses.

Civil courts, however, give survivors a chance at healing and justice, said Joelle Casteix, volunteer western regional director for the Illinois-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

“In the civil courts, there is transparency, accountability and justice. There is also a deterrent. Hopefully through the civil process, survivors will get healing and justice,” Casteix said.

Former altar boys who accused Apuron of sexually abusing or raping them in Agat in the 1970s have filed separate lawsuits in the U.S. District Court of Guam.

Apuron is also undergoing a canonical trial at the Vatican, but canon lawyer Patrick J. Wall said Apuron will not be at the Vatican for any of the proceedings.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
Wednesday 8 February 2017

A spokesman for Cardinal George Pell at the Vatican in Rome has criticised a motion that passed the Australian Senate calling on him to return to assist police with child sexual abuse investigations as a “political stunt” and “pathetic point-scoring”.

On Wednesday afternoon the Greens senator Rachel Siewert put forward a motion acknowledging the 4,444 alleged victims of child sexual abuse by the Catholic church in Australia between 1980 and 2015 uncovered by the child sexual abuse royal commission.

Victoria police are investigating allegations against Pell and last year travelled to Rome to interview him. A brief of evidence was handed to Victoria’s Department of Public Prosecutions, which is still considering the file. Pell has consistently denied allegations against him.

The motion “notes the allegations of criminal misconduct against Cardinal George Pell have been forwarded to the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions by the Victoria police” and called on Pell to “return to Australia to assist Victorian police and the Office of Public Prosecutions with their investigations into these matters”. The motion was supported by the Senate.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery, Herald Sun

THE Vatican orchestrated the active cover-up of child sexual abuse cases through secret archives and church law, the child abuse Royal Commission has been told.

It also tried to stop victims of abuse coming forward by imposing a strict limitation on bringing claims of abuse as the horrors of the global child abuse crisis began to be exposed, it was alleged.

On the fourth day of the 15th and final probe of the Catholic Church by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse a panel of witnesses is testifying about church discipline and secrecy.

In an opening address to the commission counsel assisting Gail Furness, SC, said canon law, the law of the church, regulated and proscribe the Church’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse.

She said among the laws was an obligation that each diocese must keep a ‘secret archive’ which is to be separate from the diocese’s general archive.

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HAWAII
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Joelle Casteix, SNAP Volunteer Western Regional Director, (949) 322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com

Shame on Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell. He has given a powerful city job to a man who has been sued for for child sexual abuse and who left a previous government job in disgrace because of an unethical affair with an adult woman while he was a priest.

In fact, because secret Diocese of Honolulu personnel documents and other evidence in Marc Alexander’s recently settled civil child sex abuse case have not yet been made public, we do not know the details of what happened, or the scope of the risk that Alexander could pose to adult women and children. Is this a risk that the people of Hawaii should be willing to take? Is this a personnel investment that Hawaii’s taxpayers should make?

We ask that Caldwell at least put this decision on hold until a thorough public review of Alexander’s Diocese of Honolulu personnel file can be completed. We also urge city and county leaders to immediately enact new hiring regulations that ensure that men and women arrested or sued for sexual assault or child sexual abuse are not given city jobs where they have positions of power over vulnerable populations.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Statement by Joelle Casteix, SNAP Volunteer Western Regional Director, (949) 322- 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com

This most recent lawsuit against Father McCormack is very disturbing and shows the influence that predators have in the areas where they live and work. The 12-year-old child and alleged victim in this case was not a member of the parish where Daniel McCormack worked.

In addition, this victim was abused for the second time after McCormack had been arrested for abuse. However, the priest was allowed back into the parish and had not been placed on any restriction of ministry or put in a secure facility away from children, according to the suit. He was free to continue to prey on children in the parish and neighborhood.

We hope anyone who has suffered abuse will come forward and begin healing. We encourage anyone with information about these crimes to contact local law enforcement.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

February 9, 2017

SAM BUCKINGHAM-JONES
Journalist
Sydney

Cardinal George Pell says the Greens are “anti-religion” and have pulled an “obvious political stunt” in calling for his return to Australia to assist police and prosecutors who are reviewing allegations against him.

In a statement released overnight, Cardinal Pell responded through a spokesman to a motion by the Greens accusing him of avoiding allegations of misconduct.

“The Greens have opted for an obvious political stunt while knowing full well Cardinal Pell has consistently co-operated with the Royal Commission and the Victorian Police,” a spokesman from Rome said.

“The suggestion that Cardinal Pell should be accountable for all the wrong doings of Church personnel throughout Australia over many decades is not only unjust and completely fanciful but also acts to shield those in the Church who should be called to account for their failures.”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

[live steam]

Joanne McCarthy
9 Feb 2017

11.38am The royal commission has adjourned for the morning tea break.

10.03am The royal commission has resumed for a panel hearing into church discipline and secrecy.

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Gail Furness, SC, is just introducing the four panelists.

The hearing will consider canon law, which is the body or system of laws and regulations created by Popes and councils of the church. The first Code of Canon Law was promulgated, or put in place, in 1917.

That code was repealed and replaced by the 1983 Code of Canon Law promulgated by Pope John Paul II.

Furness said the first issue to be considered is the relationship between canon law and civil law. Civil lawyer Kieran Tapsell is expected to say that bishops and other senior church officials have a special obligation to follow canon law where it conflicts with civil law because of the oaths they make.

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HAWAII
Honolulu Civil Beat

The former vicar general for the Catholic Church left his last government job after revelations of an affair with a parishioner.

By Anita Hofschneider / February 7, 2017

The man who left a state government job dealing with homelessness five years ago is now working for the city government on the same issue.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell is hiring former state homeless director Marc Alexander to lead the city Office of Housing.

Caldwell named Alexander along with several other second-term Cabinet appointees in a press release late Tuesday.

Alexander, a former vicar general in the Catholic Church, was appointed by former Gov. Neil Abercrombie in 2011 to serve as state homeless director but resigned in 2012 when news leaked that he had an affair with a woman when he was serving at St. John Vianney parish in Kailua.

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AUSTRALIA
Shepparton News

by BARCLAY WHITE FEBRUARY 09, 2017

Sandhurst Diocese’s Bishop has given his first public statement since the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse revealed that close to 15 per cent of its priests over a 60-year period were alleged abusers of children.

Bishop Leslie Tomlinson said having one priest abuse childer was ‘‘one too many’’.

‘‘As the Bishop of the Diocese of Sandhurst, I have apologised to victims and survivors of sexual abuse on several occasions in the past. I wish to take this opportunity to do so again,’’ he said.

‘‘As a diocese and community we will work together to ensure that this betrayal can never occur again.’’

He said during the 60-year period from 1950 to 2010 there were 27 claims of abuse, against 16 priests in the diocese.

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DELAWARE
The News Journal

Jessica Masulli Reyes , The News Journal Feb. 8, 2017

A former U.S. Navy chaplain and Catholic priest from Millsboro has been sentenced to 30 years in prison and lifetime supervision for taking pornographic pictures of a teen boy, according to U.S. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III of Delaware.

John Thomas Matthew Lee, 51, was sentenced by Judge Leonard P. Stark in U.S. District Court in Delaware on Wednesday afternoon.

Lee, a registered sex offender in Delaware, already served two years in prison after he was court-martialed in 2007 on allegations that he used his position as a Catholic priest in the Navy to prey on lower-ranking servicemen and failed to tell a sex partner he was HIV-positive.

The investigation into Lee’s current case began in 2013 when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children got a cybertip indicating Lee’s cellphone had attempted to upload an image of three naked boys lying on a bed, according to court documents.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Giani Don Trotta was defrocked in 2012 after several complaints of abuse. But the Curia does not want you to know that Trotta began to coach a football team and abused 11 boys.]
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Don Giani Trotta viene ridotto allo stato laicale nel 2012 dopo diverse denunce in veniva accusato di violenze su minori. Ma la Curia non vuole che si sappia. Trotta per la comunità rimane don e si mette ad allenare la squadra di calcio del paese, abusando così di 11 ragazzini.

C’è una storia terribile a Foggia, fatta di silenzi e abusi, di un prete stupratore e pedofilo e delle giovani vite di bimbi spezzate senza pietà.

È la vicenda che ha come orco Don Gianni.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
9 Feb 2017

ONE of the Australian Catholic Church’s strongest internal critics has told the child abuse royal commission that Pope Francis should replace half the church’s most senior clerics with “progressive women theologians”.

Catholics for Renewal president Peter Johnstone said women in the church was “an obvious lack”, a point accepted by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge during a hearing on Wednesday about church governance and its role in the child sexual abuse crisis.

“The first thing anyone who understands the challenge of leadership does, is understand the need for gender balance. Women are half the population and should be involved in good governance,” Mr Johnstone said.

“I think there needs to be a circuit breaker in the church. The Pope could appoint 50 per cent of positions within the curia as progressive women theologians. That would change the dynamic tomorrow.”

Mr Johnstone strongly criticised the church for failing to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, a factor that he said contributed to the global crisis.

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UNITED STATES
NPR

February 8, 2017
Heard on All Things Considered

NPR’s Robert Siegel speaks with Rachel Browne, reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald, about the official report regarding alleged pedophilia by Catholic priests in Australia. She says over 4,500 people have made claims of child sexual abuse connected to Catholic institutions over the last 35 years. One of the key figures is American priest and canon lawyer Thomas Doyle, who is a whistleblower. He’s been testifying to The Royal Commission investigating the abuse about the Church’s cover-ups.

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AUSTRALIA
RTE (Ireland)

By Joe Little
Religious & Social Affairs Correspondent

The Catholic Church in Ireland has been “almost fatally destroyed” by the clerical child sexual abuse scandal, according to a former Provincial of the Jesuit Order here.

Fr Gerry O’Hanlon SJ told an Australian inquiry into abuse that the loss of the Church’s moral authority here once the scandal was publicly exposed was what he called the “crucial” factor.

He said the Irish hierarchy was forced in the 1990s, “not least due to media intervention and the intervention of public opinion to be more proactive” about the crisis. He said the bishops here owe a lot to survivors and victims who have spoken out on the issue.

But he added that “Rome didn’t seem to quite get it” probably well into the current millennium and that the Catholic Church was poorly prepared to examine abuse complaints because the priest was perceived “as in some sense superior”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Record

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I write to you as the final hearing involving the Catholic Church at the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse commences on February 6, 2017.

For the victims and survivors, for the Catholic community and for many in the wider Australian community, this hearing may be a difficult and even distressing time, as the Royal Commission reviews the evidence it has already received and seeks to understand why and how this tragedy has occurred.

Deeply mindful of the hurt and pain caused by abuse, I once again offer my apology on behalf of the Catholic Church. I am sorry for the damage that has been done to the lives of victims of sexual abuse. As Pope Francis said recently, ‘it is a sin that shames us’.

Over the next three weeks, evidence presented during the Royal Commission hearings will be analysed, statistics about the extent of abuse will be made public, and the way forward will be explored. Many of our bishops and other Catholic leaders will appear before the Royal Commission. They will explain what the Church has been doing to change the old culture that allowed abuse to continue and to put in place new policies, structures and protections to safeguard children.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Care Appointments

Written by David Young

A former resident of a notorious Belfast boys’ home is set to mount a legal challenge against the findings of an inquiry that rejected claims that senior establishment figures used it to abuse children.

Richard Kerr (pictured), who alleges he was abused by “very powerful people” with links to the Kincora home, does not accept the conclusions of the four-year Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry.

The inquiry dismissed long-standing claims that senior politicians, civil servants and businessmen were complicit in a paedophile ring that operated at the home in the 1970s and for which three staff members were jailed.

The report also rejected associated allegations that the UK security services knew what was going on and, instead of intervening, used the information to blackmail the establishment figures involved.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Gazette Live

A teacher and a housemaster who abused vulnerable boys in their care at a children’s home have received jail sentences totalling 46 years.

Between them Roy Allen and Roy Lovatt molested nine boys in the 1970s and 1980s while working at Thorp Arch Grange school on the outskirts of Wetherby, West Yorkshire.

Lovatt who was later ordained as a Roman Catholic priest was described by the prosecution as a predatory sex offender in his trial at Leeds Crown Court .

The 71-year-old of Queen Street, Redcar , who was a house master at the school was found guilty of four charges of indecent assault and five of serious sex assaults against two boys.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Harry Farley JOURNALIST 08 February 2017

John Smyth QC, accused of abusing boys at Christian youth camps, continued his attacks after he fled to Zimbabwe, according to an ongoing investigation by Channel 4.

The barrister left the UK in the early 1980s after an inquiry by the Christian charity the Iwerne Trust uncovered he had beaten boys, prompting one university student to attempt suicide.

But he set up similar Christian youth camps for public school boys, Zambezi Holidays, in Zimbabwe.

Concerns about Smyth’s behaviour at the camps in Zimbabwe were raised as early as 1986, according to Channel 4’s Cathy Newman, with documents revealing how “incidents of nudity and beatings on Zambezi Ministries camps increased”.

An investigation into the camps after a 15-year-old boy died found Smyth “would stand, in the nude, in the vicinity of, or just inside, the shower area”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Gloucestershire Live

By Janet Hughes | Posted: February 08, 2017

Victims have reacted with anger that a former Bishop of Gloucester jailed for sex abuse has been released before a Church of England report into how he escaped justice for over two decades.

Peter Ball, a former Bishop of Gloucester who was jailed for abusing young men, has been released after serving half of his 32-month sentence.

During his trial, there were allegations of an establishment cover up to protect Ball, now aged 84, who admitted abusing 18 young men between 1977 and 1992.

Now questions are being asked why he has been set free before the results of the independent Church of England inquiry into his activities ordered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, have been published.

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JAMAICA
Loop

The sex case of Moravian clergymen Rev Paul Gardner and Jermaine Gibson has been transferred to the Manchester Circuit Court.

The matter was transferred when the men appeared in the Manchester Parish Court Wednesday morning.

The case is expected to be mentioned for a trial date to be set.

Both men were offered station bail in the sum of $300,000 each following their arrests by the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA).

Gibson allegedly had a sexual relationship with the complainant when she was 12 years old. According to CISOCA, Gardner also engaged in sexual relations with her when she was 14.

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

MANCHESTER, Jamaica — Former Moravian Church president Rev Dr Paul Gardner and his deputy Jermaine Gibson who made their appearance at the Manchester Circuit Court this morning had their bail extended again.

The men are answering to carnal abuse and indecent assault charges and are due back in court on February 23.

OBSERVER ONLINE understands that the two had their bail extended last Wednesday at the Manchester Parish Court; however their matter were moved upstairs to the Circuit Court this morning. It was not clear if their bails were extended due to the change in courts.

Attorney-At-Law, Pierre Rogers represented both men today. He is the lawyer for Gibson, while Peter Champaignie is the attorney representing Gardner.

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

Tamara Bailey, Gleaner Writer

MANDEVILLE, Manchester:
Moravian ministers Dr Paul Gardner and Jermaine Gibson, who are facing carnal abuse charges, arising from a series of incidents that allegedly happened in 2002, had their matter moved from the Manchester Parish Court to the circuit court this morning.

The two are expected to return to court on February 23, where a request will be made from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, to have the matter transferred to Kingston.

Gardner and Gibson, who were today represented by attorney Pierre Rogers, were both taken into custody, pending the signing of the new bail bond requested from Judge Evan Brown.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

Suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron will never be present in his canonical trial in Rome for sex-abuse allegations, according to canon law expert, Patrick J. Wall.

“Secrecy is king. There will be no public hearing,” Wall said. “The process began in secret, will be conducted in secret, decided in secret and the findings will be kept in secret Vatican archives.”

This insight into the Vatican way of justice was disclosed by Wall as Apuron was found in Fairfield, California recently, thousands of miles away from the Vatican process regarding child sex abuse cases against him and other former members of Guam’s clergy.

16th lawsuit

Meanwhile in the federal court in Guam, a 16th lawsuit accusing Guam clergy of child sexual abuse filed in the District Court of Guam yesterday claims that, in the 1970s, the Guam Police Department was in possession of a police report involving a minor boy and former Guam priest, Louis Brouillard, at the St. Williams Catholic Church in Tumon.

Felix Manglona, now a 58-year-old Inarajan resident, said in his complaint filed yesterday that several years after he was abused by Brouillard in the 1970s, he was assisting the GPD statistician as part of his responsibilities under a cadet program. Court documents state that while performing his daily duties to review police reports and collect data, Manglona reviewed a police report pertaining to Brouillard.

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MAINE/MASSACHUSETTS
WHAV

A former associate pastor at St. John the Baptist Church in Haverhill was indicted Monday by a York County, Maine, grand jury on 29 counts of gross sexual misconduct dating back to the late 1980s.

The indictment alleges Ronald H. Paquin, 74, abused two children, ages 11 and 14, at seasonal locations in Kennebunkport, Maine. He will be charged with 13 counts of gross sexual misconduct, class A, and 16 counts of gross sexual misconduct, class B, Kennebunkport Police Chief Craig A. Sanford told WHAV.

“With the help of two courageous victims and the hard work of a dedicated police investigator and District Attorney, the Kennebunkport Police Department presented evidence to the grand jury of York County that resulted in the indictment,” the chief said. “I am glad that we were able to present a case that hopefully brings the victims some type of peace in their future and holds the offender accountable for these horrific crimes,” he added.

A warrant will be issued for Paquin’s arrest after which he will be returned to Maine for eventual court proceedings.

During October, 2015, Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett said he was forced to withdraw his petition to keep Paquin in prison as a “sexually dangerous person” because experts who examined the former priest could not conclude the former priest poses a threat.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

BY EDWARD D. MURPHY
STAFF WRITER

A former Catholic priest who was at the center of the Boston sex abuse scandal has been indicted on 29 counts of sexual abuse in Maine dating back three decades.

The indictments against Ronald Paquin were handed down by a York County grand jury on Tuesday. Paquin is accused of having abused two boys that he took to Kennebunkport in the 1980s.

Paquin pleaded guilty in 2002 to repeatedly raping a Haverhill altar boy between 1989 and 1992. The rapes began when the boy was 12.

Kennebunkport Police Chief Craig A. Sanford said the Maine case was referred to his department by the state Attorney General’s Office, which was approached by one of the alleged victims in 2011. Sanford said the acts occurred at a “seasonal location,” but neither he nor Kathryn Slattery, the York County District Attorney, would provide any more details. The dates range from Nov. 1, 1985 to Aug. 20, 1988.

Paquin was laicized, or removed from the priesthood, in 2002 and was jailed on the rape charges until 2015. The Boston Globe reported in October 2015 that two medical specialists said that Paquin, 72 at the time, no longer met the criteria to be considered sexually dangerous. The paper also said that court records indicated that after his release Paquin would seek treatment in either New York or Massachusetts and eventually move to Maine, where he would also seek sex offender treatment.

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MAINE
WMTW

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine —
A Massachusetts man has been indicted on nearly 30 sex charges in Maine, according to Kennebunkport police.

A York County grand jury indicted Ronald H. Paquin, 74, on 29 counts of gross sexual misconduct.

Police said criminal acts took place in the late 1980s at seasonal locations in Kennebunkport.

The alleged victims were 11 and 14, police said.

“I am glad that we were able to present a case that hopefully brings the victims some type of peace in their future and holds the offender accountable for these horrific crimes,” Police Chief Craig Sanford said.

According to court documents, the incidents occurred between November 1985 and October 1988, all in Kennebunkport.

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MAINE
Seacoast Online

By Staff and wire reports yccs@seacoastonline.com

ALFRED, Maine – A former Roman Catholic priest who spent more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for raping an altar boy has been indicted on 29 counts of sexual misconduct dating to the 1980s in Kennebunkport.

Ronald H. Paquin, 74, was indicted by a York County Grand Jury on Feb. 6 on 13 counts of gross sexual misconduct, a Class A crime, and 16 counts of gross sexual misconduct, a Class B crime. Kennebunkport Police Chief Craig Sanford said the charges came about “with the help of two courageous victims and the hard work of a dedicated police investigator and District Attorney.” Sanford said the alleged acts took place in the late 1980s at seasonal locations in Kennebunkport when the alleged victims were 11 and 14.

“I am glad that we were able to present a case that hopefully brings the victims some type of peace in their future and holds the offender accountable for these horrific crimes,” Sanford said.

According to the indictment, the alleged incidents took place from 1985 to 1988, all in Kennebunkport.

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MASSACHUSETTS/MAINE
Eagle-Tribune

By Mike LaBella mlabella@eagletribune.com

HAVERHILL — A former Haverhill priest who served time in prison after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a child is facing new charges in Maine.

Kennebunkport Police Chief Craig A. Sanford said that on Monday a York County grand jury indicted Ronald H. Paquin, 74, of Massachusetts on 13 counts of gross sexual misconduct, class A, and 16 counts of gross sexual misconduct, class B.

Sanford said the criminal acts took place in the late 1980s at seasonal locations in Kennebunkport. The male victims’ ages were 11 and 14 when Paquin began his inappropriate criminal conduct.

“I am glad that we were able to present a case that hopefully brings the victims some type of peace in their future and holds the offender accountable for these horrific crimes,” Sanford said.

He noted that with the help of two victims and the hard work of Kennebunkport Detective David Breault and the York County District Attorney Kathryn Slattery, the Kennebunkport Police Department presented evidence to the grand jury of York County that resulted in the indictment.

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MAINE
ABC News

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
YORK, Maine — Feb 8, 2017

A former Roman Catholic priest who spent more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for raping an altar boy has been indicted in Maine on 29 counts of sexual misconduct dating to the 1980s.

York County District Attorney Kathryn Slattery tells The Boston Globe ( http://bit.ly/2kkiBWp ) some counts against 74-year-old Ronald Paquin involve a child under 14.

Paquin, freed in 2015, was a central figure in the Boston archdiocese’s sex abuse scandal. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to raping an altar boy.

Although he was convicted of raping one boy, several other people accused him of molesting them. He was later defrocked by the Vatican. At sentencing, Paquin expressed remorse through his lawyer and said that as a teenager, he was abused by a priest.

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AUSTRALIA
Yahoo! News

Megan Neil – AAP on February 9, 2017

The Catholic Church’s canon law may have been deliberately misused to excuse and cover up child sexual abuse, a member of the Vatican’s child protection body says.

Canon law has not been a reason for abuse occurring in the church, Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors member Baroness Sheila Hollins has told an Australian inquiry.

“I know of no evidence that canon law has been a reason for the occurrence of abuse,” part of her submission to the child abuse royal commission states.

“In no canon does it require a member of the church to ‘cover up’ a canonical offence in order to protect the reputation of the church.”

Baroness Hollins said such cover-ups completely misunderstood the purpose of canon law in that area – the reparation of scandal, the restoration of justice and the reform of the offender.

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UNITED STATES
GetReligion

Terry Mattingly

It would be hard to imagine a subject more intriguing to some editors at The New York Times than suggestions that the Darth Vader of the Donald Trump administration – that would be Stephen K. Bannon – was somehow working with forces close to the Vatican to undercut Pope Francis.

Thus, there has been quite a bit of online buzz about the rather BuzzFeed like feature (in terms of its sourcing) that Times editors ran under the headline, “Steve Bannon Carries Battles to Another Influential Hub: The Vatican.”

Catholic insiders – on the left and right – will be able to see more in the thin tea leaves of this piece than I can. I am primarily interested in journalism issues linked to how the piece was reported and presented. The bottom line: It is very rare to see such sweeping, conspiratorial language used in a news feature that – on its key points of fact – appears to have one crucial named source, other than quotes from other journalists. Hold that thought.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Jane Lee

A man who prostituted and sexually assaulted children could soon be free after a judge ruled he should no longer be supervised in the community.

Robin Fletcher, 60, has been under strict supervision conditions since 2006, after serving 10 years for a number of child sexual crimes.

He was not allowed to move out of a particular address without the Adult Parole Board’s approval, and could only leave the place under strict conditions.

Fletcher, who is now legally blind, was working as a drug abuse and sexual guidance youth counsellor in South Caulfield in the 1990s when he performed violent sexual acts on two 15-year-old girls, including whipping their naked backs and buttocks.

He previously justified his behaviour as being a pagan ritual in line with his “Wiccan” religious beliefs.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

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

A 16th former altar boy filed a $5 million clergy sex abuse lawsuit in federal court Wednesday. He alleges that former island priest Louis Brouillard sexually abused him in the early 1970s.

Felix T. Manglona, now 58, said Brouillard repeatedly sexually molested and abused him while he was serving as a Boy Scouts of America scout in or about 1970, and when he was an altar boy about a year later at the Malojloj Parish. He said he was about 12 or 13 at the time.

“On or about three occasions, Brouillard required Felix to spend the night at the convent in order for Felix to serve as an altar boy during the early Sunday Mass. When Felix slept at the convent, Brouillard sexually molested and abused him,” the complaint states.

Manglona said Brouillard would sometimes use weekly outings to recruit young boys to become altar boys or join the Boy Scouts. Brouillard was a scoutmaster in the Guam chapter of the Boy Scouts.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kent Live

By Sian Elvin | Posted: February 08, 2017

A victim of child sex abuse allegedly carried out by a Catholic priest from Tonbridge has spoken out about the horrific abuse he suffered at the hands of a “devious predator”.

The victim, who must remain anonymous for legal reasons, successfully claimed compensation from the church last year after Monsignor Michael Smith took his own life before the case against him could be taken to court.

A parish priest at Corpus Christi Church in Lyons Crescent for 19 years, the 63-year-old was arrested in December 2010 on suspicion of sexually assaulting a child but was found dead after taking fatal doses of a prescription painkiller in April 2011.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the resignation of the founder and president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Barbara Blaine:

Blaine announced her resignation over the weekend. She quit in disgrace, as did the executive director, David Clohessy, who packed it in less than two weeks ago.

Both Clohessy and Blaine tried to put a happy face on their departure—which effectively kills SNAP—but no one believes them. Clohessy said his decision had nothing to do with the devastating lawsuit brought against SNAP by a former employee, Gretchen Rachel Hammond. Blaine echoed the same line, saying the lawsuit “had absolutely no bearing on my leaving.”

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

For many years at TheMediaReport.com, we have been saying that SNAP and its leadership – so beloved by the media for its constant bashing of the Catholic Church – was little more than a contingency lawyer front group disguised as a victim support group.

Then along came Gretchen Hammond.

A few weeks ago, Hammond, a former director of development at SNAP, filed a blockbuster retaliatory lawsuit against SNAP alleging that SNAP was funded by illicit kickbacks from plaintiff lawyers like Jeff Anderson, had little or no regard for actual abuse victims, and was driven by an ideological hatred of the Catholic Church. What’s more, Hammond had a trove of internal SNAP documents to substantiate all of her claims.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

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

A canonical trial, such as the ongoing trial of Archbishop Anthony Apuron, is a highly secretive process with many possible outcomes, according to canon lawyer Patrick J. Wall, who said Apuron will not be at the Vatican for any of the proceedings.

Wall, a former Catholic priest, is lead researcher for Jeff Anderson & Associates, a Minnesota-based law firm representing victims of childhood sexual abuse. He is helping to dissect the defenses that dioceses mount during trial. He co-authored “Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes,” a leading book on the 2,000-year history of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis placed Apuron on leave last June after several former altar boys publicly accused Apuron, 71, of molesting or raping them when he was parish priest in Agat, in the 1970s. Only the pope can take action against a bishop or archbishop, and the Vatican has confirmed there is an ongoing canonical trial for Apuron.

“Few people outside of the Vatican know as much about the canonical trial process as Patrick does,” said Joelle Casteix, volunteer western regional director for the Illinois-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, the world’s largest network of clergy abuse survivors.

Wall said Pope Francis has two options in the Apuron trial — administrative action or judicial action — after the pope’s appointed auditor, or investigator, gathers and presents the facts. Wall said a likely candidate to serve as the pope’s auditor is Reverend James Conn, a professor of Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and professor of the Practice of Canon Law at Boston College.

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GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

Updated: Feb 08, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Archbishop Anthony Apuron is reportedly being tried in the Vatican for allegations of child sex abuse, but he was spotted in Fairfield, California just last month. What’s the deal? One expert gives us a better understanding of protocol in Rome.

What can we expect from the ongoing canonical trial in Rome for Archbishop Apuron? Nothing.

“All of this, of course, is done in secret. This is not like any trial you’ve seen on TV or you’ve ever experienced. There is no hearing. There is no public airing of this. Everything is done in secret,” explained Patrick J. Wall. Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Wall is an advocate, former priest, and canonist intimately familiar with cases of child sex abuse in the church. After all, he’s spent years filling-in for accused pedophile priests.

In his most recent blog post, Not-So-Great Expectations for the Canonical Trial of Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron OFM Cap, he breaks down the canonical trial process step-by-step. Once a priest stands accused, investigators or auditors are appointed to gather the facts, which are then presented to Pope Francis, who will decide on administrative or judicial action. Administrative action may result in Apuron being ordered to a life of prayer and penance in a Capuchin monastery far from Guam where he would continue as a bishop, priest, and Capuchin.

As for judicial action, he’d be subject to further investigation and present his defense through his canon lawyer and a decision rendered in secret. Wall continued, “And the third option of course is the nuclear one where he is completely removed as a bishop, removed as a priest, we would call laicization and removed from his Capuchin Franciscan order. So completely taken down and stripped of everything.”

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RHODE ISLAND
Rhode Island Public Radio

[with audio]

By ELISABETH HARRISON

When an elite boarding school in Middletown, Rhode Island became the center of a growing sexual abuse scandal, Rhode Island Public Radio discovered an apparent loophole in the state’s child abuse reporting statute, which may have contributed to the school’s decision not to report the allegations, made by students and former students on multiple occasions over a period spanning decades.

RIPR’s report surprised and alarmed advocates for survivors of sexual assault, and angered the state’s attorney general, who maintains that schools do have a legal requirement to report abuse, even though no record could be found of a school or school official ever being prosecuted for failure to report sexual abuse in the state.

After RIPR’s story aired, advocates and lawmakers successfully fought for the passage of an amendment, which adds school employees to the list of alleged perpetrators who must be reported to child welfare officials. The amendment also gives child welfare officials the authority to investigate sexual abuse allegations in schools.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A second excavation is being conducted at the site of a former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.

The tests were requested by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.

The commission was established following allegations about the deaths of 800 babies in Tuam over a number of decades and the manner in which they were buried.

Last October, a preliminary excavation took place at the site.

Specialist archaeologists returned to Tuam in recent days and are expected to continue their work there for another two weeks.

It is understood the latest excavation will entail a more detailed examination of the grounds and will involve deeper excavations than those initially carried out last autumn.

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WEST VIRGINIA
The News Center

[with video]

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. – Updated: 2/7/2017

On the day his trial was set to begin, a.Williamstown youth pastor pleads guilty to two charges of distribution of obscene materials to a minor.

Stefan Deliramich entered the plea Tuesday morning in Wood County Circuit Court.

Deliramich admitted to using a fake Instagram account to send obscene videos.

At the time of his arrest in April of 2016, Deliramich was a youth pastor at the First Baptist Church in Williamstown, and a girls soccer coach.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Marietta Times

PARKERSBURG – An April sentencing date has been set for a former youth pastor indicted on 14 counts related to obscene materials.

Stefan Andrew Deliramich, 30, appeared in Wood County Circuit Court Tuesday and entered pleas of guilty to two counts of distribution and display to a minor of obscene matter.

As part of the plea agreement, additional charges in the indictment will be dismissed. His trial was set to start this week.

Deliramich, a Wyoming native, was indicted by the September 2016 grand jury on 14 counts, seven for use of obscene matter with intent to seduce a minor and seven counts of distribution and display to a minor of obscene matter.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For the Post Feb 8, 2017

A canon law expert from Rome who also works at Boston College has directly contacted three victims of sexual abuse to seek their depositions. The attorney who represents the victims has called for answers, threatening to file an ethical complaint if communication with his clients continues without his consent.

In a letter to Rev. James J. Conn, attorney David Lujan questioned why the religious professor contacted three of his clients – Roland P.L. Sondia, Roy T. Quintanilla and Walter G. Denton – to discuss their cases for a matter “not related to the lawsuits on Guam.”

Conn is listed as the ordinary professor of canon law, Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; and professor of the practice of canon law, School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, according to the Canon Law Society of America.

Lujan said his clients were contacted directly, and despite his clients insisting that Conn would need to go through their lawyer, the professor said the matter is not related to the lawsuits in Guam so they did not need their attorney’s consent.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

February 8, 2017

JACK THE INSIDER
ColumnistCanberra
@JacktheInsider

The figure of 4444 people reporting abuse at the hands of Catholic clerics between 1980 and 2015 has seemed staggering to some. I was surprised that people were so shocked.

It is important to note the figure only represents those who have come forward and reported their abuse to some 90-odd Catholic authorities.

The rule of thumb for police investigators like those from VicPol’s Sano Task Force, is for every victim who comes forward, at least four will not.

There are those victims who cannot come forward, who are deceased, their lives often ended by suicide or in a storm of recklessness.

There are others who won’t ever come forward. They may a feel a victim’s shame at the abuse they have suffered. More often they appreciate coming forward will come at significant personal cost, the prospect of family dislocation, the ugly business of clerical sexual abuse meeting religious clannishness.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Cate McCurry
PUBLISHED
08/02/2017

The man who tried to expose historical sex abuse at the notorious Kincora boys’ home in Belfast in the 1970s has criticised a major inquiry after it redacted part of his evidence.

Former Army captain and intelligence officer Colin Wallace, whose attempts to blow the whistle on the abuse of the young boys were thwarted by superiors, said the censored information undermines the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry (HIA).

He refused to testify before it last year, because he said it did not have adequate powers to get answers. Instead, Mr Wallace submitted a 45-page document about Kincora.

However, two sections were redacted – blacked out – before the material was placed on the HIA website. The redacted information, published by Lobster Magazine, includes details about senior figures from public life.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier-Mail

FAITH is a curious thing, and when it is betrayed, a person can be broken.

For the past four years The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard harrowing tales of how trusted people beat, raped, tortured, starved, humiliated and threatened children.

The commission process has been awful. There has been testimony of not just physical abuse but how entire world views had been ripped apart.

This week the Catholic Church has been in the spotlight again and for the first time there has been calculation of the profound secrecy, isolation and spiritual hurt inflicted over 60 years.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, ahead of his giving evidence, warned his flock of “grim moments and some truths”.

Yesterday he acknowledged that the church acted as a law unto itself.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
8 Feb 2017

ONE of the Catholic Church’s most vocal internal critics has urged the Australian child abuse royal commission to push the church to change because “what you say and what you come up with is going to have an effect around the world”.

“I believe what you are doing is unique in the world. It is historic. It is going to make a mammoth difference in the long run,” said American Dominic priest Dr Tom Doyle during evidence on Tuesday, after more than 33 years of fighting for change from within the church.

“You have taken something on that is mind-boggling and you are going into it in a deeper, more enlightened, more courageous manner than any other body that I have had contact with.”

Dr Doyle said the problem of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church was “not unique in Australia”, but the royal commission was the strongest response from any nation.

He hoped the royal commission was “going to have a profound effect in the Vatican, and it is another pile of information that is saying what they do not want to hear”.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Catholic

[with video]

My dear friends,

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has begun its final three-week review of the performance of the Catholic Church in Australia. And what has been revealed has already been harrowing.

I have personally felt shaken and humiliated by this information, as I have by other important revelations in the Royal Commission to date. The Church is sorry and I am sorry for past failures that left so many so damaged. I know that many of our priests, religious and lay faithful feel the same: as Catholics we hang our heads in shame.

We have already heard many distressing and shameful cases of sexual abuse told to the Royal Commission by courageous survivors. Today we heard these individual stories aggregated in data presented to the Commission on the proportion of priests and religious with claims of abuse made against them since 1950.

To my shame and sadness it would seem that Australia-wide as many as 384 Catholic diocesan priests, 188 religious priests, 597 religious brothers and 96 religious sisters have had claims of child sexual abuse made against them since 1950. Claims have also been made against 543 lay church workers and another 72 whose religious status is unknown.

Unlike previous hearings based on particular cases or events, and involving interviews of those connected with those events in some way, this hearing will address ‘the big picture’ and feature expert witnesses along with Church leaders and lay people, some of whom will be drawn from our Archdiocese. The Royal Commission will now focus on two main issues: what factors caused or contributed to historical child sex abuse cases in the Church and failures to respond adequately; and what the Church has done or plans to do to address this by way of changes to structures, policies and culture, the discernment of priestly and religious vocations, formation and supervision of those engaged in ministry, and so on.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Josephine McKenna Religion News Service | Feb. 7, 2017

VATICAN CITY

Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher said he was ashamed and humiliated by revelations that 7 percent of Australia’s Roman Catholic clergy may have abused children between 1950 and 2010.

The alarming figure was presented by the church to an Australian inquiry looking into institutional sex abuse.

“The church is sorry and I am sorry for past failures that left so many so damaged,” Fisher said.

“I know that many of our priests, religious and lay faithful feel the same,” he said. “As Catholics, we hang our heads in shame.”

The Vatican press office distributed a link to Fisher’s statement on Monday, Feb. 6, and declined to make any further comment.

In these complex and difficult times, NCR pledges to publish unrelenting, independent journalism. But we can’t do it without your support. Subscribe or donate today!
More than 4,440 Australians claim to have been victims of church abuse between 1980 and 2015, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge does not feel shackled by celibacy, nor does he view it as one of the causes of widespread child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Coleridge says he made a free decision to choose to live a celibate life when he was ordained in his 20s.

“I’ve never had the sense of being shackled, of having a burden imposed upon me by an oppressive church,” he told the child abuse royal commission on Wednesday.

The inquiry into the complex reasons behind child abuse in the Catholic Church has heard research shows less than 50 per cent of priests at any given time are actually practising celibacy.

Archbishop Coleridge said he wasn’t naive enough to think most clergy lived a strictly celibate life.

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AUSTRALIA
Riverine Herald

by ANDREW MOLE FEBRUARY 08, 2017

THE Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sex Abuse has ground along its painful trail of tears since 2015.

We have all seen the highlights on the news, seen figures as lofty as Cardinal George Pell dragged into the witness box and seen the pain of the survivors, the people seeking some form of justice for childhoods so brutally stolen.

That its insidious reach would be into every corner of Australia was never in doubt.

But that it would land on our doorsteps with such a sickening thud must have come to most, not just Catholics, as a bolt out of the blue.

The Diocese of Sandhurst, which covers us and the many Catholic schools in the region, has been implicated in the findings of the Royal Commission as one of the worst areas in 60 years of church-institutionalised abuse of boys and girls.

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AUSTRALIA
Lismore Echo

Scott Sawyer | 8th Feb 2017

THE figures released by the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Abuse are shocking, there’s no other way to describe them.

Average ages of the victims were 10.5 for girls and 11.6 for boys.

Truly horrific.

In only 35 years, from 1980 to 2015, almost 4500 people alleged they were abused as children in more than 1000 Catholic institutions.

How were these despicable acts covered up for so long?

Who knows, but one thing is clear, conservatives fearing a rise of Islam already overlooked what can only be classed as religious terrorism that is thriving within our communities.

Victims took on average 33 years to come forward and reveal the horrors they suffered.

This means we’ll be dealing with this problem for decades to come. That’s without taking into account fresh abuse taking place.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Leader

February 8, 2017

AS well as fronting the Royal Commission this week, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge has spent time speaking extensively to journalists about child abuse and the Church.

Speaking to the ABC’s Radio National Breakfast, Archbishop Coleridge told presenter Fran Kelly, the Church was doing all it could to change the culture of the past to protect the children of today.

“The data is absolutely horrific,” Archbishop Coleridge said, following the release of Royal Commission figures revealing the extent of priest abuse.

“Sitting in the hearing room … listening to the litany of horror had an extraordinary impact. And it did on all of us.

“I for one never imagined the scale of the problem in years past. The data is there for all to see now.

“There is almost certainly more out there that has not come to light.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Lisa Flynn

What we have learnt is that it was almost inescapable. The revelations at the royal commission of how widespread the child sex abuse was in the Catholic Church has shocked everyone. It really is the first time the community have truly understood how pervasive and extensive this abuse was over the decades in Australia.

But believe it or not there will be some good that will come from hearing this horror.

For far too long victims of child abuse have lived with the shame and the fear and the worry that no one would believe them. But this was happening on a bigger scale than anyone had thought.

We also know the courage and bravery it takes to come forward to authorities and report it. My team has helped hundreds of people seek justice in crimes against them, including helping them give evidence to the royal commission.

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AUSTRALIA
The New Daily

NRL great Matthew Johns has revealed he witnessed “incredible cruelty” during his time in the Catholic education system.

Johns — who played rugby league for Newcastle, Cronulla, New South Wales and Australia — attended All Saints College in Cessnock, NSW, for his education.

The school was formerly run by Marist Brothers, and Johns, deeply moved by the ongoing Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, opened up on Wednesday morning.

He dubbed evidence that has emerged as “horrific” and added that his own experience attending a Catholic school was “tough” and “over the top”.

“I didn’t see anything, as far as child abuse, of a sexual nature,” Johns told listeners on his Triple M breakfast radio show, The Grill Team.

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AUSTRALIA
PerthNow

Megan Neil, Australian Associated Press
February 8, 2017

The child sex abuse scandal has destroyed the image of the Catholic Church in Ireland, an Australian royal commission has heard.

The former provincial of the Jesuit order in Ireland, Dr Gerry O’Hanlon, said the scandal changed the culture in Ireland so much that in the 1990s almost all priests were viewed as pedophiles.

“The image and the reality of the Catholic Church in Ireland has been severely dented and almost fatally destroyed by the abuse scandal,” Dr O’Hanlon told the child abuse royal commission on Wednesday.

The Jesuit priest and theology professor said the voice of the child would not have received a proper hearing in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

He said the culture had now swung in the opposite direction and there was little evidence of the presumption of innocence for a priest accused of abuse, in the small number of cases where the allegations were found to be false.

Many priests now felt they would not receive a fair hearing within or outside the church, he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Matthew Connors, The Courier-Mail

BRISBANE’S Catholic Archbishop says the Church is a law unto itself and must change its culture but does not believe celibacy played a role in its shocking history of sexual abuse.

Appearing at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney yesterday, Archbishop Mark Coleridge said the Catholic Church needed to address issues that are “systemic and cultural”.

He said he was not naive enough to think all priests remained celibate but did not believe celibacy caused people to abuse children sexually.

Despite his very senior role in the Catholic Church in Australia, Archbishop Coleridge said he did not believe he could question a priest about his sex life unless allegations had been made publicly against him.

He said it would be up to someone such as a spiritual director to ask those questions if a priest was not functioning effectively.

“I have no right to ask those questions or, if I do, to expect an answer,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser

Emma D’Agostino
@amassedmedia

8 Feb 201

SANDHURST Bishop Leslie Tomlinson has apologised to victims and survivors of sexual abuse, following figures indicating the diocese was the second worst in Australia for rates of alleged child sexual abuse in a 60-year period.

The data released from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse related to the period between 1950 and 2010, in which almost 15 per cent of priests who ministered in the Sandhurst Diocese were accused of child sexual offences.

“The evidence of the Royal Commission, along with all we have heard over the past four years, can only be interpreted for what it is – a massive failure on the part of the Catholic Church as an institution in Australia to protect our children from abusers and predators,” the bishop wrote in a statement.

He acknowledged that the Diocese of Sandhurst had its share of perpetrators of sexual abuse, “like every other Diocese in Australia”.

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NEW YORK
The New York Jewish Week

Manny Waks, a native of Australia who grew up in a large chasidic family, estimates that he was sexually abused “dozens and dozens of times” for two years as a tween by respected members of the Orthodox community.

In the three decades since, Waks has spoken about his traumatic experiences “well over a hundred times” in media interviews and international public forums, becoming one of the most prominent advocates for survivors of sexual abuse, particularly in the charedi community.

Last week, in a conference here he organized about sexual abuse, Waks talked again — briefly — about the abuse he suffered.

The Global Summit on Child Sexual Abuse in the Jewish Community was notable not only for the participation of a large number of rabbis and other leaders from the charedi community, a community that for decades had shied away from public discussion of a sensitive topic of such a sexual nature, but for an apparently evolved approach that balances the interests of charedi institutions and of individuals who had suffered abuse in those institutions.

In an opening night panel discussion, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of the charedi Agudath Israel of America, said the umbrella organization’s rabbinic leadership now supports an extension of the statute of limitations in New York State for sexual abuse victims to bring civil and criminal suits. Agudath had earlier opposed such an extension, citing the potentially financial liability that day schools, camps and other institutions could face.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge News

BY ANNA SAVVA
00:00, 8 FEB 2017

The Bishop of Ely Stephen Conway warned the Anglican church more than three years ago about alleged abuse in its ranks, it has been claimed.

The Right Rev Stephen Conway’s correspondence was revealed in a six month Channel 4 investigation into the activities of John Symth QC, a former leader at the Iwerne Trust Christian camps, which had close links with the Church of England.

Alleged victims have claimed they endured violent beatings at the hands of Smyth in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

In the report the church admitted that by 2013 police had been notified about the alleged abuse and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, was shown a letter written by the Bishop of Ely to the Bishop of Cape Town highlighting “concerns” expressed by “an alleged survivor”.

A spokesperson from Ely Diocese told the News: “We have the facts on file. When we were made aware in 2013 we did all we could to tell the appropriate authorities.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Washington Post

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. February 7

The children shipped to Miracle Meadows boarding school usually arrived with a long list of behavioral problems.

Some had been diagnosed with ADHD, bipolar or oppositional defiant disorders that had frustrated schools and family members for years. Others had been given a choice by a judge: Miracle Meadows or jail.

So school administrators, in particular Susan Gayle Clark, who started the Salem, W.Va. school affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1988, ruled with “an iron fist.” But the strict discipline often crossed the line into abuse, investigators found.

Worse, court documents filed last week say, a “culture of silence and secrecy” covered up years of physical and sexual abuse.

Two former students of the shuttered school are suing, claiming staff members handcuffed them to beds, raped and beat them. School administrators knew about the abuse at the school, the lawsuit claims, but covered up the criminal acts to keep the school open, with tuition reportedly at $2,000 a month per student.

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