ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Mary Ellen Kruger of St. Louis, MO, SNAP Volunteer Leader and Chairman of the SNAP Board of Directors – (314) 962-0964 cell, MEK1234567@gmail.com

The past few weeks have been a difficult time for SNAP. Longtime friend and executive director David Clohessy has retired from SNAP, and inflammatory and untrue allegations have been made against SNAP in a lawsuit filed in Chicago, Illinois last week.

David Clohessy informed the SNAP Board of Directors in October, 2016 that it was his intention to resign from SNAP. His resignation was voluntary and was effective December 31, 2016. SNAP is grateful for the many years of dedication and hard work David has given victims of abuse worldwide. We would not be here today if it were not for David’s contributions. Unfortunately, the lawsuit containing false and inflammatory allegations filed last week by Gretchen Hammond has cast an unfair and undeserved pall on David’s resignation—a resignation that was submitted long before the lawsuit was filed.

I will also address some of Ms. Hammond’s allegations.

SNAP is not and has never claimed to be a counseling organization. We are a volunteer-based, peer support network of survivors who help each other in support group meetings, over the phone, through the internet, in person, and through public events.

SNAPs support meetings are closed to non-survivors for privacy reasons. As a member of support staff and a non-survivor, Ms. Hammond’s presence at a meeting would be considered intrusive and a violation of the privacy rights of victims of abuse.

Ms. Hammond admitted that she had very little contact with SNAP leaders and was not given information about their activities. Her position was as a fund-raiser, not a support leader.

All of our peer support and public outreach is done by volunteers who are trained, connected, and supported by the main SNAP office.

All of our leaders’ contact numbers are public and are listed on the SNAP website. SNAP posts dozens of meeting times in 22 states for peer-to-peer survivor meetings that are facilitated by trained SNAP leaders. Ms. Hammonds’ allegation that SNAP has abandoned its survivor outreach work is highly uninformed, if not malicious and defamatory.

It is correct that victims of abuse are referred to attorneys in an effort to bring accountability to those that have condoned and perpetuated this abuse for decades. If abuse victims do not have the courage and the ability to fight back against the system, systemic abuse of authority would continue unabated.

Like all nonprofits, SNAP solicits and accepts donations from anyone who believes in our cause. This includes individuals from all walks of life. This has also included attorneys who have filed lawsuits against priests and “the system.” To be clear, SNAP has never and will never enter into any “kickback schemes” as alleged by Ms. Hammond in her lawsuit, nor has SNAP ever made donations an implied or express condition of the referral of victims.

Most people who have the opportunity to work with victims of abuse feel motivated to help support and to contribute to efforts to bring justice to this systemic abuse.

SNAP has zealously and unapologetically guarded its members’ rights to privacy and anonymity, and will continue to do so. Our members must be protected in reaching out to other survivors of abuse for support and assistance. This is and will continue to be a core part of SNAPs philosophy.

Ms. Hammond says that her lawsuit is an effort to force SNAP to go back to its original mission. Ms. Hammond never voiced any concerns whatsoever to SNAP’s volunteer Board of Directors. Instead of sharing her concerns with the board or volunteer leaders to elicit change within the organization, she filed a lawsuit for personal promotion and financial gain four years after she separated from SNAP.

Our Board of Directors is committed to assisting and protecting victims of abuse in an ethical and forthright manner. If anyone has concerns about SNAPs practices and policies, the Board is active in SNAPs operations and is accessible.

We are saddened and disappointed that Ms. Hammond would sue a group of volunteers—a group with whom she has never spoken about her concerns—in an attempt to challenge our mission. We are more than happy to meet with her and let her know that each of us volunteer dozens of hours a week to help people in crisis. Our work is its own reward. We do it because we want to stop the cycle of abuse.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

BRENDAN MCDAID

Wednesday 01 February 2017

Patrick O’Rourke recently visited the graves of some of the Sisters of Nazareth in the grounds of the Long Tower. Some of the nuns buried there had resided at Termonbacca during their lifetimes, and others from the same Order had been in charge when Patrick was subjected to traumatic physical, sexual and emotional abuse at the former boys’ home there.

Patrick said he was glad the Sisters of Nazareth were able to have their say at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in the north “in case anyone thought this was a one-sided thing.”

“They went in, which was great, which is as it should be,” he added. “I’ve nothing personal against the Sisters of Nazareth. As a matter of fact I visited their graves. The gate was open across from the Long Tower and I’m sure a lot of them were good nuns. I wouldn’t have known them, they’ve been buried there for hundreds of years. I’m not a religious man, but I acknowledged them anyway.”

In what he described as a “pilgrimage” like journey, he also returned to Termonbacca while in Derry recently and met with some of the monks now stationed there (who had no involvement at Termonbacca during its time as a boys’ home).

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For the Post and Neil Pang | Post News Staff

At least three former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by the former leader of the island’s Catholic Church, Archbishop Anthony Apuron, have been contacted by a stateside priest to provide information about their stories. Attorney David Lujan confirmed that three of his clients were contacted to be interviewed in a deposition for Apuron’s canonical trial.

In addition to the canonical trial, which is held behind closed doors in the Vatican, the number of recently filed civil lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Agana in the federal court in Guam rose to 11, after five additional cases were filed yesterday.

The 11 cases now filed in the District Court of Guam seek more than $55 million in damages combined. The lawsuits also seek to hold the Vatican responsible for the allegations against the archdiocese.

Not much is known of the canonical trial for Apuron, and it’s unclear why Apuron was found living in Fairfield, California if the trial is ongoing in Rome. Private investigators working for Lujan tracked Apuron to a two-story house in Fairfield.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Osnabruck Zeitun

KNA/epd Osnabrück. Im Bistum Osnabrück hat es in den zurückliegenden Jahrzehnten 28 Hinweise auf Missbrauchsfälle gegeben. Sie bezogen sich auf 21 Personen, darunter auf 16 Geistliche der Diözese. An 17 Missbrauchsopfer zahlte das Bistum Geld.

Die Zwischenbilanz teilte das Bistum am Montag vor Journalisten in Osnabrück anlässlich der Vorstellung des neuen Ansprechpartners für Missbrauchsfälle, des früheren Landgerichtspräsidenten Antonius Fahnemann, mit. Die Fälle verteilten sich auf einen Zeitraum von sieben Jahrzehnten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Domradio

[The Osnabruck diocese has reported 28 allegations of sexual abuse in past decades. The accused include 21 people, including 16 clergy.]

Im Bistum Osnabrück hat es in den zurückliegenden Jahrzehnten 28 Hinweise auf Missbrauchsfälle gegeben. Sie bezogen sich auf 21 Personen, darunter auf 16 Geistliche der Diözese. Diese Zwischenbilanz teilte das Bistum jetzt mit.

Anlass war die Vorstellung des neuen Ansprechpartners für Missbrauchsfälle, des früheren Landgerichtspräsidenten Antonius Fahnemann. Die Fälle verteilten sich auf einen Zeitraum von sieben Jahrzehnten, hieß es.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Rebecca Camber, Crime Correspondent For The Daily Mail

The disgraced former head of the child abuse inquiry charged taxpayers almost £6,000 to fly treasured possessions including a vase 11,400 miles across the world from New Zealand.

Dame Lowell Goddard, who became Britain’s highest paid civil servant when she took up the role as the third chair of the beleaguered inquiry, demanded that a favourite vase and other personal items be flown from her home in Wellington to Britain.

The New Zealand judge, who was paid £360,000 – double the wages of the Prime Minister – billed the public purse £5,812 to fly out cherished possessions which she claimed she could not be parted from.

She said she needed to have the objects in her flat in Kensington, West London, for which taxpayers were also paying £119,207 in rent and utility bills.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

We’re making the suggested changes, says council leader

A Serious Case Review has been published investigating how organisations in West Sussex handled allegations of sexual offences against children, committed by people in positions of trust.
I welcome this comprehensive report from the Safeguarding Children’s Board and accept the recommendations it makes for safeguarding practices. We recognise that there is learning for us and other agencies. The council has already started making the changes suggested for us.

Protecting young people from harm is the priority for the council and one of the most crucial roles that councils perform. We have 25,000 pupils at school in the district and school safeguarding policies and procedures are very important to us. The interests of young people are at the centre of everything we do. We work closely with schools to ensure we have plans which are robust and regularly reviewed. This review will help us further improve them.

In working closely with schools the Local Authority’s role is to both support them in improving and on occasions to challenge their performance with regards to safeguarding. We are committed to continually improving the safeguarding of all West Berkshire children wherever they are educated. We will work closely with all schools and through the LSCB to ensure this. I am very grateful to the West Berkshire Safeguarding Children’s Board for this review and together we will ensure the recommendations continue to be implemented without delay.”

– COUNCILLOR ROGER CROFT, LEADER OF WEST BERKSHIRE COUNCIL

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A Serious Case Review has been published investigating how organisations in West Sussex handled allegations of sexual offences against children, committed by people in positions of trust.

We welcome the findings of the Serious Case Review. We have created an action plan in response to the findings in the report and have already begun to implement the recommendations.

The Diocese of Oxford takes safeguarding extremely seriously and we are investing more resource in training, following new national guidelines.

Any case like this [case of Reverend Peter Jarvis] is a matter of sorrow and regret for the Church of England. We recognise that the suffering of survivors of sexual abuse is profound and long lasting.

The Church of England will not tolerate abusive behaviour in its clergy or anyone else for whom we have pastoral responsibility. We take allegations of abuse extremely seriously and always work with the statutory authorities to ensure abusers are brought to justice and that pastoral care is offered to those directly affected.”

– RT REVD ANDREW PROUD, BISHOP OF READING

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UNITED STATES
Haaretz

Debra Nussbaum Cohen Feb 01, 2017

NEW YORK – The Orthodox Jewish community is slow to change, even – perhaps especially – on difficult issues like child sexual abuse. But speakers at a gathering of leading Orthodox rabbis and others made clear that significant changes are underway at both institutional and cultural levels. For example, a joint project of the Orthodox Union and Rabbinical Council of America to create training programs for synagogue staff, in an effort to help prevent sexual abuse, is getting started.

The very fact that Rabbi David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, spoke at the meeting also reflected a shift. While the topic has been addressed at recent Agudah conventions, this was the first time that Zwiebel addressed it outside of his own community, he told Haaretz.

It is a challenging subject for a community that prizes modesty, deference to rabbinic authority and believes that turning in a Jew to secular authorities is a violation of Jewish law, especially if there is suspicion but not certainty of sexual abuse. Yet “if you compare the landscape to just a few years ago there have been enormous changes” in the Haredi community, Zwiebel told the opening session, in a conference room rented from UJA-Federation of New York in midtown Manhattan.

The “Global Summit on Child Sexual Abuse in the Jewish Community” was put together by Manny Waks and his organization Kol v’Oz. Waks, who was sexually molested as a child in Melbourne, Australia’s Chabad community, started Kol v’Oz last year in Israel to deal with the issue.

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FLORIDA
Washington Post

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. January 31

Pastor O. Jermaine Simmons stood before his congregation and asked for forgiveness. But he also tried to reconcile the man his parishioners had known for a decade with the adulterer being laughed at in church circles and the media.

Since he took over as pastor in 2005, more than 4,000 people had joined Jacob Chapel Baptist Church in Tallahassee. It had added 27 ministries, focusing efforts on the homeless in Florida’s capital and ministering to youth.

And Simmons had just released his first book, “I Need a Man,” a Bible-based paperback on modeling “Godly manhood.”

Then Simmons’s affair with another man’s wife went public in dramatic fashion: On Jan. 17, the 36-year-old pastor — a married father — found himself cowering naked behind a fence, hiding from a gun-toting husband who’d stumbled on the affair, police say.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

The New Zealand former head of the United Kingdom child abuse inquiry charged taxpayers almost £6000 ($10,300) to fly treasured possessions including a vase 18,346km across the world from New Zealand.

Dame Lowell Goddard, who became Britain’s highest paid civil servant when she took up the role as the third chair of the beleaguered inquiry, reportedly had a favourite vase and other personal items be flown from her home in Wellington to Britain, the Daily Mail reported.

The Kiwi judge, who was paid £360,000 ($622,000) – double the wages of the UK Prime Minister – billed the public purse £5812 ($10,036) to fly out cherished possessions.

She reportedly said she needed to have the objects in her flat in Kensington, West London, for which taxpayers were also paying £119,207 ($205,870) in rent and utility bills.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Robert Mendick, chief reporter
1 FEBRUARY 2017

The family of Lord Janner yesterday vowed to ‘undermine from within’ the Government’s beleaguered child sex abuse inquiry after being given a formal role in the investigation.

The family were granted core participant status which gives them access to documents and to have lawyers attend the inquiry’s hearings.

It is not clear if the taxpayer will pick up the bill for the lawyers or whether the family will pay for legal representation themselves.

Lord Janner, who died in December 2015, is accused of abusing boys in children’s homes in Leicestershire where he was an MP.

His children have branded the inquiry into their father a witch hunt, pointing out he was never convicted in his lifetime and that now he is dead he cannot defend his reputation.

They also point out that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was set up to investigate institutional abuse and that Lord Janner is the only individual who has merited an investigation strand of his own.

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SCOTLAND
Express

By GREG CHRISTISON
Wed, Feb 1, 2017

They are among more than 100 locations where abuse is alleged to have taken place, with boarding schools, and institutions run by religious orders and local authorities also being investigated.

The list includes Prince Charles’s former school, Gordonstoun, in Morayshire, and Fettes College in Edinburgh, known as “Scotland’s Eton” which was attended by former prime minister Tony Blair.

The details emerged on Monday as chairman Lady Smith told a preliminary hearing in Edinburgh that the inquiry will be fully independent. …

Aside from Gordonstoun and Fettes, other schools being investigated include Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, Loretto School in Musselburgh, East Lothian, and Morrison’s Academy in Crieff, Perthshire.

Faith-based organisations being looked at include those run by religious orders including the Benedictines, Sisters of Nazareth and the Christian Brothers. The inquiry is also investigating the relationship between the Catholic Church and these religious orders.

Three establishments run by the Church of Scotland will also be covered.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

Mike Wade
February 1 2017
The Times

The private schools attended by Prince Charles and Tony Blair are among more than 60 institutions under investigation by the historical Scottish child abuse inquiry.

Gordonstoun in the Highlands, beloved of the royal family for its character-building outdoors education, and Fettes College in Edinburgh, where Mr Blair spent his formative years, are among five of the most prestigious schools in the country where historical abuse has been reported.

Lady Smith, the chairwoman, suggested that a specific case study within the inquiry was likely to include evidence of former pupils who attended boarding schools.

Others named by the inquiry were Loretto, Musselburgh, whose ex-pupils include the former chancellor Norman Lamont, Morrison’s Academy, Crieff, where the actor Ewan McGregor went to school and Merchiston Castle, Edinburgh, renowned for a rugby playing tradition that has produced more than 60 internationals.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith, Social affairs correspondent

CRYPTIC was the word chosen by one survivor to describe Lady Smith’s comments on the numbers taking part in the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI). “I don’t understand why she was being so cryptic,” Dave Sharp told me. “But the numbers are important for survivors.”

Lady Smith said she was not willing to update the figure of 170 victims of historical child abuse who had come forward to take part in the inquiry which dates back to June last year, before she was even appointed, although she did say “many more” have since been in touch.

I’ve asked, and Lady Smith says the inquiry is asked regularly, for the latest figures. “The extent of our growing knowledge and understanding about what was happening to children in care cannot be measured simply by the number of people who have talked or are talking to us … ” she said, adding: “We are not going to provide a running commentary,” and explained why not.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Editorial

In the nearly 30 years that Archbishop Anthony Apuron held the title of leader of the Catholic faithful on the island, he obviously was held in high regard – until allegations started to emerge about two years ago regarding the church’s assets and finances, and the alleged abuses of altar boys.

As the allegations against the ousted archbishop started to pile up, he left Guam.

The Archdiocese of Agana didn’t really make clear to the public where he was, although in June last year, Apuron did send a video message, with a view of the Vatican in the background.

At the time, he still wore the a bishop’s robe.

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GUAM
KUAM

[with video

Updated: Feb 01, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Where in the world is Archbishop Anthony Apuron? “Fairfield, California,” said Attorney David Lujan.

Cozied in a two-story home in the West Coast, you wouldn’t recognize Apuron at first glance. Here he is answering the door for investigators who faked a story about a missing dog. This picture was captured in mid-January, in a home Lujan believes belongs to Apuron’s best friend, who he identifies as Joseph Quitugua.

“Well, let me ask you this…is it flight or hiding out, isn’t that a sign of guilt? That’s what I think you know,” he said.

Now that Apuron has been located, Lujan suspects the people of Guam and Apuron’s victims have been duped into believing there’s a canonical trial ongoing in Rome. Lujan represents all 15 victims who have surfaced to date, many of whom have accused Apuron of child molestation decades ago.

“Because we found him in California, we do not believe there is any such thing as canonical trial going on in Rome,” said Lujan. “In order for there to be a canonical trial, in my opinion, regarding Apuron, it has to do with the accusations against Apuron. And the only people who have accused Apuron are the people that I represent and none of them has testified in any proceedings.”

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CYPRUS
Cyprus Mail

JANUARY 31ST, 2017 ANGELOS ANASTASIOU

Laws covering domestic violence, sexual abuse, and the exploitation of children are set to be modernised, Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou said on Tuesday announcing the modernisation of family law.

He said the improvements seek to bring it up to speed with societal views and values, aiming to address issues testing social cohesion and the institution of family. The main goal, he said, is the protection of children’s rights in relation to incidents of sexual violence, improvement in relations between parents and their children, and the availability of expert advice.

The comprehensive set of proposals, which Nicolaou said were submitted by two teams of experts – academics and professionals – will be put to a public consultation.

“Our guiding principle will be safeguarding the interests of children,” he said.

“The child-centric character of family law must be preserved preciously, and the justice ministry is and will remain the custodian of this.”

One recommendation by the experts was a constitutional amendment to provisions granting control of marriage-related issues to the Greek-Orthodox church – or other churches.

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By Samantha Vicent Tulsa World

A Tulsa man was sentenced Tuesday to more than 200 years imprisonment for sexually abusing five boys he met through church and while doing volunteer work for a local Department of Human Services shelter.

A jury found Timothy Shawn Cato, 52, guilty on Nov. 10 on 11 counts of child sexual abuse committed against the boys between October 2009 and his arrest in October 2014.

In upholding the jury’s sentencing recommendations, District Judge William LaFortune said he agreed with prosecutors’ claims that Cato has consistently tried to minimize, justify or otherwise rationalize his actions against the boys, who were ages 7 to 17.

The jury acquitted Cato on one count each of child sexual abuse and manufacture, distribution or sale of child pornography.

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UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

By JENNIFER DOBNER | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Jan 31 2017

A Utah civil rights group has launched a two-part initiative to raise awareness of sexual abuse and assault inside the Mormon church and help purported survivors connect with services and support.

The effort of Restore Our Humanity (ROH) also asks leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to engage in a dialogue to improve the faith’s policies related to abuse prevention and the response of ecclesiastical leaders to abuse allegations.

The focus of ROH’s undertaking follows 18 months of gathering data and hearing the personal stories of individuals from across the country, ROH founder Mark Lawrence said Tuesday before an afternoon new conference.

A common thread heard by the group: Raising allegations of abuse with lay Mormon bishops has not always resolved the issue or brought needed help.

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OKLAHOMA
Fox 25

by Austin Prickett

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) —

An employee of a metro church’s theater program has been fired after being accused of inappropriate conduct with minors.

St. Luke’s United Methodist Church has notified parents that an employee with the church’s Poteet Theatre has been fired after alleged misconduct with underage members of the program.

The employee has not been officially charged or identified by police and is accused of the misconduct with several different male students. The church sent the following letter to parents regarding the incident:

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UNITED KINGDOM
Care Appointments

Written by The Press Association

An inquiry into historic abuse must consider the 200 Scottish youngsters who were amongst the thousands of child migrants abused after being sent to Australia and other Commonwealth nations, Gordon Brown has said.

The former PM said that in some cases, “abuse was piled upon abuse” for those involved in the Child Migrants Programme, which ran from the 1920s to the 1960s.

It saw poor children sent to a ”better life” in Australia and elsewhere, but many of them were physically, emotionally or sexually abused.

Mr Brown said: “Approximate 200 Scots boys and girls were child migrants. The separate Scottish inquiry into sexual exploitation, chaired by Rt Hon Lady Smith, should make this a subject of their investigations.”

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JAMAICA
Loop

The two former leaders of the Moravian church group charged with having sex with a girl when she was 12 and 14 years old are to make their first court appearance Wednesday.

Rev Dr Paul Gardner, former president of the church body, and his ex-deputy Jermaine Gibson are scheduled to appear in the Manchester Parish Court.

Both men were arrested Monday, January 23 and charged with carnal abuse in relation to the reported incident that occurred in 2002 and two years later when the child was 14 years old.

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).

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AUSTRALIA
mnnews.today

As a diocese we have an absolute and enduring commitment to promoting and ensuring the safety of all who are connected with us – be it through our parishes, Catholic schools, early education or community outreach services. To ensure we deliver on this commitment and continually improve our practices, I am pleased to announce the formation of a new body − the Diocesan Protection and Safety Council (the Council).

BISHOP BILL WRIGHT PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 01, 2017

Formed in January 2016, this Council will offer independent advice to me, as Bishop, ensuring that the diocese continues to develop its policies and practices in the field of professional standards. The Council will advise on promoting the protection of children and vulnerable adults within the diocese, developing the diocesan capacity to continue to support those who have been affected by child sexual abuse and rebuilding a sense of trust within the community about the diocese’s commitment to protect children and vulnerable adults.

Consisting of a range of professionals from local and interstate communities, the Council is deliberately diverse, with a mix of both Catholics and non-Catholics, clerics and lay people specialising in both the legal and mental health sectors.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

by Michael Yoder

The process of seeking justice for victims of child sexual abuse has been renewed this week in the state Legislature after last year’s contentious battle.

Lawmakers have introduced competing bills in the House and the Senate. State Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Muhlenberg Township Democrat, reintroduced his bill on Tuesday that would allow abuse victims to bring lawsuits in cases that took place years or even decades ago.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, a Jefferson County Republican, had his own bill move to the Senate floor Monday and could see a vote as early as Wednesday. Scarnati’s bill would give future abuse victims a longer window to bring civil and criminal charges.

But it does not include the retroactive provision Rozzi says is crucial for victims. Rozzi insists that the legislation should allow any victims of abuse to pursue civil claims in court, even if the abuse occurred decades ago and has passed the statutes of limitation.

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CALIFORNIA
The Collegian

Posted by: Daniel Gligich Jan 31, 2017

Ever since Fresno State Athletic Director Jim Bartko told someone what happened during his childhood, a burden was lifted.

Bartko revealed to the public in the middle of January that he was molested by a Catholic priest about 35 times as a child. He traveled in December to Tucson, Arizona, to a rehabilitation facility, Sierra Tucson, and received treatment for sleeping issues, anxiety and anxiousness.

Bartko never spoke of his experiences as a child. But after more than 40 years, he decided to talk publicly about the molestations.

“It’s kind of funny, after 40-some years you never say it,” Bartko said. “But when you get asked the hard questions, it’s kind of like, ‘Do I tell the truth, or do I lie about it or keep it in?’ and I just said it.”

It was a huge burden to first discuss the abuse, Bartko said, but after returning to Fresno, it became much easier. Talking about the molestations has been therapeutic, he said, whether it is with counselors or people at the grocery store.

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NEW MEXICO
Keeler & Keeler

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Info:

Craig Vernon Cell (208) 691-2768
James Vernon & Weeks P.A.
1626 Lincoln Way
Coeur D’Alene, ID 83814
cvernon@jvwlaw.net

Bill Keeler Cell (505) 979-0688
Keeler & Keeler
108 E. Aztec
Gallup, NM 87301
billkeeler@keelerandleeler.com

(January 26, 2017 – Gallup, New Mexico). IR, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, filed suit against the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as the “Mormon” or “LDS” Church, and against LDS Family Services in the Navajo Nation District Court because she was sexually abused as a young girl during the Church’s “Indian (Lamanite) Placement Program.”

Since March of last year this is fifth participant from this program who has filed a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse. (Click Here for File-stamped Copy of Complaint For Personal Injury filed in Navajo Nation District Court, Window Rock District, Case No. WR-CV-50-17.)

The lawsuit discusses how IR was sexually abused repeatedly by her Indian Placement Program foster father. IR told her case worker that she wanted to be placed into another home. Nothing was done.

One of IR’s attorney’s, Craig Vernon explains that IR was at her wits end so she arranged for her sister to pick her up in Utah and take her back to the Navajo Nation. “This was the only way IR knew how to escape the ongoing sexual abuse,” Vernon explains. “We salute IR for having the courage to get out of that abusive situation and return to the Navajo Nation,” comments Billy Keeler, who also represents IR.

“Inexplicably, after IR returned with her family to the Navajo Nation, her LDS case worker traveled there to try and persuade her to return to the very home where she was being sexually abused,” comments Vernon. “Thankfully, this LDS case worker failed in his attempt to persuade IR to return to that dangerous home” Keeler adds.

Keeler states that the LDS Defendants have continued to press their lack of jurisdiction claim alleging that there aren’t enough contacts between the LDS Church and the Navajo Nation.
What this case shows is “an affirmative act by the LDS Defendants to enter the reservation to try and get IR back into this program,” adds Keeler.

###
PRESS INFORMATION:

NOTE: Telephone interviews of IR or any of her attorneys can be arranged by calling/emailing Billy Keeler at (505) 979- 0688, billkeeler@keelerandkeeler.com
and/or Craig Vernon at (208) 691-2768, cvernon@jvwlaw.net

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FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

Paula McMahon

A 71-year-old Broward County church volunteer who promised a 14-year-old parishioner his BMW and inheritance if she would have sex with him pleaded guilty Monday to a federal sex charge.

Timothy Taffe, of Fort Lauderdale, admitted he aggressively pursued the minor after meeting her at game night at St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church in Plantation in July. He pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity.

Prosecutors said they will recommend that Taffe, who has been jailed since he was arrested in October after showing up for what he thought was a sex date with the girl, should serve 10 years in federal prison. Taffe also will have to register as a sex offender.

Taffe, who used a wheelchair in court Monday, admitted he sent the girl emails asking her “to be his secret friend, soliciting her to meet him in private, and offering her alcohol.” He also took photographs of her at church events, he admitted.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Seacoast Online

CONCORD – State Sens. Martha Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, and Lou D’Allesandro, D-Manchester, on Tuesday introduced Senate Bills 98 and 164 before the Judiciary Committee. Both bills increase protections for sexual assault survivors by eliminating the statute of limitations in sexual assault cases.

“We need to do more in New Hampshire to ensure that survivors are given the resources they need to seek justice,” said Fuller Clark, prime sponsor of SB 98. “We don’t know when an individual who has been traumatized will feel comfortable coming forward. The timing of these charges should not be arbitrary. The damage inflicted by rape never truly goes away. My hope is that this legislation will give survivors the chance to seek damages regardless of how many years have passed.”

Current law imposes a six-year limitation on felony cases involving adult victims. In child sex abuse cases, prosecutors are given 22 years from the child’s 18th birthday to bring charges forward in criminal cases, and until the victim’s 30th birthday in civil cases. According to the New Hampshire Violence Against Women Survey, 41 percent of sexual assault crimes against women occur before they are 18 years old and 68 percent of sexual assault crimes against men occur before they are 18.

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FLORIDA
AOL

ARIS FOLLEY, AOL.COM
Jan 31st 2017

O. Jermaine Simmons, a well-known pastor based in Tallahassee, Florida, was forced to flee a house naked after a husband came home early to find him in bed with his wife.

According to details outlined in a police report, the two were having sex in the married couple’s bedroom in the middle of the afternoon on Jan. 17 when the woman’s husband arrived home early from work.

Officers were called to the scene after the woman called to report her husband was irate and armed with a handgun upon spotting the pastor.

Since news has circulated, the incident has sparked intense backlash on social media and in the community.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

PATRICK WHITE
The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017

A Nova Scotia judge has cleared Canada’s most prominent gay pastor of sex-assault charges that hark back to a time when homosexuality was punishable by jail time and whippings.

Brent Hawkes, who officiated the world’s first legal gay marriage and is considered an icon of Toronto’s social-justice community, was facing charges of indecent assault and gross indecency for allegedly forcing oral sex on a teenager four decades ago. Both charges have since been wiped from the Criminal Code.

During the trial a man told a Kentville, N.S., courtroom that in the mid-1970s, Rev. Hawkes forced oral sex on him during a drunken party. The man was 16 years old at the time and Rev. Hawkes was a teacher in the Annapolis Valley.

Provincial court Judge Alan Tufts handed down the not guilty verdict on Tuesday afternoon, saying he found significant inconsistencies in the testimonies of the witnesses.

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CANADA
CBC News

A Nova Scotia judge has found prominent Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes not guilty of sex crimes dating back to the 1970s.

Hawkes, a high-profile LGBT and human rights activist who officiated at former NDP leader Jack Layton’s state funeral in 2011, pleaded not guilty to charges of gross indecency and indecent assault.

As Judge Alan Tufts acquitted 66-year-old Hawkes Tuesday in Kentville provincial court, there were gasps in the packed courtroom and brief applause.

Tufts said the complainant in the case gave “vivid testimony” during the trial, but it was contradicted by other evidence. He said the testimony was not reliable enough to support a conviction.

The judge also said he didn’t believe all of Hawkes’s testimony, but the onus was on the Crown to prove its case.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Gaynor D. Daleno, Neil Pang | Post News Staff

Taking on the Vatican won’t be easy, but attorney David J. Lujan intends to do exactly that, as he plans to move more cases – alleging pedophile priests victimized altar boys – from the local court to the federal court in Guam.

“We believe that with the naming of the Vatican, that also shows that, really, the archdiocese of Guam is … controlled by the Vatican, which is a foreign state,” Lujan said Tuesday.

Lujan’s law firm last week filed six sex-abuse cases on behalf of former Guam Catholic altar boys in the District Court of Guam. The six cases named retired priest Louis Brouillard as the alleged predator.

As soon as today, Lujan’s law firm is expected to file more cases in federal court, and this time, these cases will be about Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s alleged abuses of altar boys, from when Apuron was still a priest.

The first six cases filed against the Archdiocese of Agana in the federal court argue that the archdiocese is under the control of the Holy See, which is the central government for Catholic churches, and thus constitutes a citizen of a foreign country for purposes of diversity jurisdiction.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For the Post

Thousands of miles from Guam, in a quiet neighborhood in Fairfield, California, sits a quaint, two-story home. On the morning of Jan. 11, the doorbell rings and a man opens the door. He’s asked if he has seen a missing dog. A photo is taken with a cell phone and compared with those found on the internet. The photo resembles the former leader of the island’s Catholic Church, Anthony Sablan Apuron, 71, only thinner and with a goatee.

According to Post files, Apuron’s exact location was unknown and one of his last public statements last year indicated he remained “on retreat” while working with Vatican authorities to establish his innocence.

A video Apuron posted in June last year showed a view of the Vatican in the background leading some to believe he was still in Rome.

But attorney David J. Lujan, whose firm represents a number of victims of sexual abuse by clergy members who once served in parishes on Guam, maintains he knew Apuron wasn’t in Rome. Acting on suspicions that Apuron was in San Francisco, the lawyer hired investigators on three occasions and finally made contact with Apuron on the morning of Jan. 11.

Besides undergoing a canonical trial in Rome, Apuron is also facing lawsuits filed in the Superior Court and District Court of Guam for allegedly raping and sexually abusing altar boys in the 1970s.

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SCOTLAND
Belfast Telegraph

More than 60 residential institutions including several top private schools are being investigated by Scotland’s national child abuse inquiry.

They are among more than 100 locations where the abuse of children is said to have taken place, chairwoman Lady Smith said.

Six boarding schools or former boarding schools, including Fettes College in Edinburgh and Gordonstoun near Elgin, where the Prince of Wales was once a pupil, are being probed.

Several faith-based organisations, other “major” care providers and local authority institutions are also being looked at by inquiry staff.

Lady Smith, a senior judge who was appointed to the role in July, named a list of places being investigated as she provided an update on the inquiry’s progress at a preliminary hearing.

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SCOTLAND
Premier

Tue 31 Jan 2017
By Alex Williams

Three schools and children homes run by the Church of Scotland are among more than 100 locations to be investigated under a national abuse inquiry, its chairwoman has announced.

Ballikinrain School in Stirling, Geilsland Residential School in Ayrshire and the Lord and Lady Polwarth Home for Children in Edinburgh are all Church of Scotland sites being probed by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

Delivering an update at a preliminary hearing in Edinburgh on Wednesday, Lady Smith said the investigation is “determined to get to the bottom of any systemic failures that occurred”.

The probe will also examine historical allegations concerning religious orders including the Benedictines, Sisters of Nazareth and the Christian Brothers, as well as their relationships with the Catholic Church in Scotland.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

The inquiry is also investigating faith-based organisations run by religious orders including the Benedictines, Sisters of Nazareth and the Christian Brothers.

BY HILARY DUNCANSON
31 JAN 2017

More than 60 residential care establishments for youngsters are being investigated by the team working on Scotland’s national child abuse inquiry.

Lady Smith, the inquiry chairwoman, has revealed they are among more than 100 locations where the abuse of children is alleged to have taken place.

Boarding schools, institutions run by religious orders and local authorities are among the establishments being probed.

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SCOTLAND
Telegraph

Auslan Cramb, scottish correspondent
31 JANUARY 2017

Some of Scotland’s most prestigious private schools, including the alma maters of the Prince of Wales and Tony Blair, are to be investigated as part of a national child abuse inquiry.

Gordonstoun near Elgin, attended by Prince Charles, and Fettes College in Edinburgh, where Mr Blair was a pupil, are among 100 locations where historical abuse is alleged to have taken place.

The figure includes more than 60 residential care establishments, including institutions run by religious orders and local authorities.

Other prominent boarding schools being looked into include Loretto in Mussleburgh, Scotland’s oldest boarding School, Edinburgh’s Merchiston Castle School, the former Keil School in Dumbarton, and Morrison’s Academy in Crieff, when it was a boarding school.

Lady Smith, the new chairman of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, named the schools at the start of the inquiry at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

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OHIO
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Daniel Pater was ordained for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1979. He was an assistant priest at St. Charles Borromeo in Kettering OH until 1982, when he went to Rome to study. He joined the Vatican diplomatic corps, serving in Burundi and Zaire in Africa, Australia, Vatican City, and in New Delhi, India.

In 1992 a woman reported to the Cincinnati archdiocese that Pater had sexually abused her, beginning when she was 14-years-old in the early 1980s and continuing until late 1990 or early 1991, during his trips back to OH. Pater had stepped in to counsel the girl after the accidental death of her brother. The girl was a St. Charles Borromeo parishioner and a student at Alter High School, which was adjacent to St. Charles. Pater admitted to the abuse. The girl sued in 1993 and received a settlement in 1995. Pater was sent to treatment at St. Luke’s Institute in MD, then returned to ministry.

In 2004 Pater’s victim again sued, along with another woman, claiming the Church did not protect children overseas from Pater. The other woman claimed, too, that Pater sexually abused her as a teenager at St. Charles in the early 1980s. The suit was withdrawn in 2006 due to a ruling by the OH Supreme Court that victims must file before age 20.

Pater resigned from his post in India in 2003, and stated he was “very sorry for what happened.” He was thereafter on Administrative Leave. In February 2014 the Vatican announced that Pater was permanently removed from ministry and commended to a “life of prayer and penance.”

Ordained: 1979

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

February 1, 2017
..
DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

A former Catholic brother who worked at Sydney’s St Ignatius College, Riverview, which counts former prime minister Tony Abbott among its alumni, has been charged with indecently assaulting children during his time at the prestigious private school.

Victor Higgs did not enter a plea during a brief court mention yesterday after being extradited from South Australia. The 79-year-old former Jesuit brother has been charged with four counts of indecent assault, allegedly involving three victims, between 1978 and 1980.

Mr Higgs worked at the exclusive school, which also counts Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher and several Olympians among its alumni, for a decade from 1971, after transferring from St Ignatius College, Adelaide.

Riverview principal Paul Hine contacted about 6500 former pupils in 2015 asking them to come forward if they knew of any child sex abuse allegations at the school. The Jesuits referred a similar allegation, an incident said to have taken place at Riverview, to police a year before. Mr Higgs left the order in 2001.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Monique Hore, Herald Sun
January 31, 2017

A PRIEST who was accused of molesting a seminarian, 18, in the 1980s is boarding at a parish house next to a Brighton East primary school, prompting anger among parents.

St Finbar’s parish priest Father Ian Ranson moved to reassure parents in a letter sent by St Finbar’s Primary School last Wednesday.

A meeting has also been schedule for tomorrow to “address concerns” among parents.

“Fr John’s stay is dependent on his next appointment by the Archdiocese, and, as such, he won’t have any active role in the daily life of the parish and the school,” Fr Ranson said.

It prompted calls for a boycott by pupils of the first day at school on Tuesday.

Fr Walshe was accused of the early 1980s sexual assault of an 18-year-old seminarian, who reportedly later received a $75,000 payout. The priest, who denies abuse, resigned from the nearby Mentone-Parkdale Parish in December.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

LORENZO ZAZUETA-CASTRO | STAFF WRITER

EDINBURG — Attorneys declared they are closer to a trial during a brief hearing in the case of a former priest accused of killing a local teacher.

John Bernard Feit, the 83-year-old former priest and lone suspect in the death of Irene Garza, listened on Monday morning as his attorney O. Rene Flores, and the prosecutors for the state, Assistant District Attorneys Michael Garza and Krystine Ramon, gave the court an update on the case that was re-initiated last year, 60 years after the killing took place.

Garza said they have gone through most, if not all, of the evidence — more than 20,000 documents.

Flores said he too was ready — aside from another 1,000 or so documents which were recently turned over to him.

Both attorneys are still awaiting the results of lab analysis of some of the evidence.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

A former north Queensland principal and Christian Brother has been jailed for three years for abusing boys at a Catholic school in the 1970s.

Terence Patrick Aquinas Kingston, 79, was sentenced in Brisbane District Court on Tuesday for nine counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16.

The court heard Kingston abused seven boys in grade eight and nine while he was principal at St Teresa’s College in Abergowrie, near Ingham, more than 40 years ago.

Chief Judge Kerry O’Brien acknowledged the former headmaster’s advanced age, current ill-health and the time since the offending as mitigating factors.

But he said the nature of the abuse was such that he must serve at least nine months in jail.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nick Wiggins

A former Christian Brother and high school headmaster has been jailed for molesting seven boys at his north Queensland school more than 40 years ago.

Terence Patrick Aquinas Kingston, 79, molested the seven boys at St Teresa’s College in Abergowrie, near Ingham, in 1976.

He pleaded guilty to nine counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 last year and has been sentenced in the District Court in Brisbane to three years’ jail, suspended after nine months.

The court was told that over a period of months Kingston touched a number of boys on their groin.

Some of the students had first been told to strip.

He put oil on two of the boys and rubbed their genitals.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com

The state Senate reopened debate Monday on the thorny issue of ensuring wider paths to justice for victims of child sexual abuse.

Judiciary Committee members voted without opposition to move a bill to the Senate floor that would give future abuse victims longer windows to bring lawsuits or criminal prosecution against their tormentors.

But it does not include any changes for those adults for whom statute of limitations have already run, a demand insisted on by many advocates for abuse victims that was included in House-passed versions of the bill last year.

Action on any reforms stalled on that issue in 2016.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County and prime sponsor of Senate Bill 261, said he wanted to move quickly to bring the issue back up now because he believes there are good changes in his bill that should be enacted, separate of the retroactivity issue.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

HARRISBURG — One of the most controversial legislative reforms of the 2015-16 session was reintroduced Monday, and with it, a standoff over its contents will likely be rekindled.

The measure, Senate Bill 261, would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases and remove the civil statute on certain cases against individual defendants, essentially giving most future survivors a lifetime to sue their abuser or seek prosecution.

“This bill musters constitutionality. This bill does a lot of good for victims going forward, and it also helps level that playing field between public and nonpublic institutions in the sex abuse arena” said Sen. Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, of the bill, which unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday afternoon.

Under the new legislation, victims would also be granted more time to sue individuals who conspired with their abuser to commit the sexual abuse or an individual who had knowledge of the abuse but didn’t report it, according to the bill.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

January 31, 2017

MICHAEL OWEN
SA Bureau ChiefAdelaide
@mjowen

VERITY EDWARDS
ReporterAdelaide
@VerityEdwardsau

Pressure is mounting on the South Australian government to fall into line with the rest of the country and abolish time limits for compensation claims by survivors of child sexual abuse, which currently prevent most victims from bringing civil actions against perpetrators and institutions.

As legal experts and victim advocate groups say the Weatherill government should “hang its head in shame for dragging the chain”, the opposition is calling on Labor MPs to support legislation before parliament to remove any limitation period on institutional child sexual abuse claims, to align South Australia with other jurisdictions.

Actions for personal injury in most states must generally be commenced within three years of it happening, and this time limit had applied to victims of childhood sexual abuse in every state, despite experts saying it takes survivors an average of 20 years to speak up.

But following a national royal commission, which recommended all states remove the limitation period on claims for child sex abuse, Victoria, NSW and Queensland removed the time limits.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

Opening statement by Lady Smith, Edinburgh, 31 January 2017
Statement by Glenn Houston, Edinburgh, 31 January 2017
Press Notice 6

The Inquiry held a preliminary hearing on Tuesday 31 January 2017 at Parliament House in Edinburgh.

During the hearing Lady Smith gave a comprehensive update on the work of the Inquiry and the significant progress it has made to date

Lady Smith gave details of the investigations currently underway, confirming that over 50 residential care establishments for children are being investigated by Inquiry staff ahead of future public hearings. These are among more than 100 locations that have been identified where abuse of children has been said to have taken place.

The current investigations include institutions run by faith based organisations, other major care providers, boarding schools and local authorities. A full list is at the foot of this page.

Details were announced of the focus of public hearings to be held later this year. The public hearings will proceed in phases, with the first commencing on 31 May 2017. Phase one will cover:

* Interim reports of commissioned research
* The State’s role in, and responsibility for, children in residential and foster care in Scotland
* The history and governance of organisations providing residential and foster care
* The background to, and reasons for, the establishment of survivor groups

Panel member Glenn Houston described the Inquiry’s forthcoming publicity campaign to encourage people to get in touch with the Inquiry. He detailed the steps that would be taken to increase work with relevant organisations, the production of a range of publicity material and public information campaigns across Scotland. …
Core Participants

The legal representatives of those organisations and individuals who have so far been recognised as core participants introduced themselves:

FBGA (Former Boys and Girls Abused of Quarriers Homes) – Stuart Gale QC
INCAS (In Care Abuse Survivors) – Simon Collins
Quarriers – Duncan Batchelor
The Chief Constable of Police Scotland – Duncan Hamilton
The Scottish Ministers – Christine O’Neill
Current investigations

Institutions run by religious orders

Benedictines
Sisters of Nazareth
Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul
Christian Brothers
Sisters of our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd
De la Salle Brothers
Marist Brothers
Church of Scotland (Crossreach)

Other providers

Quarriers
Barnardo’s
Aberlour Child Care Trust
Widower’s Children’s Home

Boarding schools

Fettes College
Gordonstoun
The former Keil School
Loretto School
Merchiston Castle School
Morrison’s Academy (when it was a boarding school)

Local authority establishments

Clerwood Children’s Home, Edinburgh
Colonsay House, Perth
Nimmo Place Children’s Homes, Perth
St Margaret’s Children’s Home, Fife
Linwood Hall Children’s Home, Fife
Kerelaw Secure Unit, Glasgow
St Katherine’s Secure Unit, Edinburgh
Larchgrove Remand Home, Glasgow

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SCOTLAND
STV

Scotland’s national child abuse inquiry is due to stage its first public hearing.

Chairwoman Lady Smith will provide an update on the inquiry’s current investigations during a preliminary hearing in Edinburgh.

She will also set out how individuals and interested parties can participate in the process, and outline the different ways the inquiry is gathering evidence.

The session, at Parliament House in the Old Town, will deal only with procedural matters so no witnesses will be called.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is looking at historical allegations of the abuse of children in care and is currently taking evidence from people who were abused.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The chairwoman of the inquiry into Scottish child abuse in care has insisted the investigation will be fully independent.

Lady Smith’s comments came at the start of the inquiry at the Court of Session building in Edinburgh.

Its original chairwoman, Susan O’Brien, resigned from the post in July 2016, complaining of government interference.

The probe is expected to last four years, and will look in detail at historical abuse of children in care.

Education Secretary John Swinney has rejected calls for the remit of the inquiry to be broadened.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

Daniel Sanderson
January 31 2017
The Times

The former head of Scotland’s national child abuse inquiry is suing SNP ministers for £500,000 amid claims they forced her out of the role.

Susan O’Brien, a respected QC, stood down last summer as head of the Scottish government’s inquiry, claiming she was being undermined and blaming political interference.

Court documents reveal that Ms O’Brien is claiming damages for breach of contract, arguing that moves to sack her after she made allegedly inappropriate comments at a training session had made her position untenable.

The case centres around a complaint made about Ms O’Brien by a clinical psychologist, Claire Fyvie, who is director of the Edinburgh-based Rivers Centre, an NHS facility set up to help people affected by psychological trauma. The centre had been providing support services to the inquiry temporarily.

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DEUTSCHLAND
der Freitag

Missbrauch Eine nationale Kommission hört am Dienstag erstmals Betroffene an. Aber was kann sie bewirken? Ein Opfer sexueller Gewalt ist skeptisch

Große unabhängige Aufklärungen sexualisierter Gewalt haben in den USA, in Irland und Großbritannien stattgefunden. Man wollte herausfinden, wie weit Gesellschaft und Politik verstrickt sind – etwa in die ungeheuerlichen Taten des BBC-Moderators Jimmy Savile. Rundfunk, Polizei und Kinderheime wurden dafür unter die Lupe genommen. Nach diesem Vorbild beschloss der Bundestag die Einrichtung einer Aufarbeitungs-Kommission in Deutschland, am Dienstag werden zum ersten Mal Opfer angehört werden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg Digital

[On behalf of the association “Friends of the Domspatzen” the historian Roman Smolorz is to illuminate the role of the choir in the Nazi era. Now he has published a first essay, which has little hope of an unbiased review.]

Von Robert Werner in Nachrichten, Überregional

Im Auftrag des Vereins „Freunde der Domspatzen“ soll der Historiker Roman Smolorz die Rolle des Domchores in der NS-Zeit beleuchten. Jetzt hat er einen erster Aufsatz dazu veröffentlicht, der wenig Hoffnung auf eine unvoreingenommene Aufarbeitung macht.

Roman Smolorz macht es nur polnischen Interessierten leicht, seine Arbeit lesen zu können. Sein Aufsatz mit dem Thema „Der Regensburger Domchor im oberschlesischen Grenzgebiet und in Polen 1936 und 1940 – Zum deutschen und polnischen Katholizismus in der NS-Zeit“ ist nämlich in einer kleinen polnischen Zeitschrift namens Zaranie Śląskie erschienen.

Obwohl die vom Autor 2016 vorgelegten Ergebnisse keine grundsätzliche Revision darstellen, sind sie dennoch bemerkenswert. Nicht zuletzt wegen der Hintergründe des Aufsatzes, der nur einen Teil einer größeren noch unveröffentlichten Auftragsarbeit ausmacht. Der Auftraggeber von Smolorz, die Freunde des Regensburger Domchores e.V., prüft derweil eine Veröffentlichung.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS, The Daily Telegraph
January 31, 2017

SOME of the most prestigious boys’ schools in NSW face multimillion-dollar lawsuits alleging systemic sexual abuse on an “outrageous” scale.

Lawyer Jason Parkinson has more than 1500 cases against such schools as Trinity Grammar, Knox Grammar, St Patrick’s at Goulburn, Newington College and De La Salle colleges at Revesby Heights and Marrickville.

Mr Parkinson said the scale of litigation was similar to the flood of cases following the revelation of the dangers of asbestos in the 1970s and ’80s.

“There has not been a common thread of criminality or negligence that has affected more Australians than child abuse and it is more egregious than asbestos because these institutions’ reason for being was caring for children,” Mr Parkinson said yesterday.

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FRANCE
The Tablet

30 January 2017 | by Tom Heneghan

Catholic bishops produce figures as part of new guide designed to combat child sexual abuse in the church

Nine clerics in prison and 26 under investigation on abuse charges, according to Church in France

The French bishops conference has said that nine priests and deacons are currently in prison for sexually abusing minors and 26 more clergy are being investigated by judicial authorities in such cases. A further 37 have served their sentences and been released.

The results of a recent survey of French dioceses with their 15,000 priests were released as the bishops presented an updated edition of “Combatting Paedophilia,” their 72-page guidebook for dealing with sexual abuse.

The survey and the guidebook reflected the bishops’ efforts in recent years to reorient their approach in the abuse issue to better reflect the suffering of victims. The failure to do so in the past led to the current abuse scandal in Lyon, where Cardinal Philippe Barbarin has had to admit he was slow to react in the case of a priest now awaiting both civil and canonical trials for his repeated abuse in the 1980s.

The survey noted the current 26 civil investigations were half the total reported in 2010. Since that time, 137 claims of clerical sexual abuse of minors have been made to judicial officials.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Steve Esack
Call Harrisburg Bureau

In a surprise move Monday, a Senate panel resurrected and then unanimously approved a controversial bill to lift time limits for some child sex abuse victims to sue their alleged abusers and employers who protected them.

But the bill, which is identical to Senate legislation that failed last session, would not permit victims, if they are 31 or older, to retroactively sue their perpetrators as the House had sought following scathing grand jury report into child sex abuse at a Catholic diocese in western Pennsylvania.

After the Senate Judiciary Committee’s 13-0 vote, Senate President Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said he reintroduced the bill in an effort to start negotiations early.

“This is a bill I thought, because of my involvement last year, I will take the lead and we’ll work it through the process and the process has just begun here,” he said. “My hope is we get the bill out of the Senate this week but that is yet to be seen.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

Melissa Cunningham
@MeljCunningham

31 Jan 2017

The Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse will examine the current policies and procedures of Catholic Church authorities in Australia in its final public hearing into the church.

The public hearing will be held on Monday inside the royal commission’s hearing rooms at the Governor Macquarie Tower in Sydney.

The hearing will probe existing child protection and child-safe standards within the Catholic Church, including responding to allegations of child sexual abuse.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com Jan. 31, 2017

U.S. District Court of Guam Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan granted on Monday separate requests of three California-based lawyers from two law firms to represent the Archdiocese of Agana in clergy abuse cases, along with local counsel John C. Terlaje.

They are Attorney Paul E. Gaspari, shareholder at the San Francisco-based law firm of Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin; Attorney Mary McNamara, a partner at the San Francisco-based law firm of Swanson & McNamara; and Attorney Britt Evangelist, an associate also at Swanson & McNamara.

The three U.S.-based lawyers have the expertise and experience that the archdiocese legal team needs, Terlaje said.

Gaspari, for example, represented Catholic archdioceses in California in clergy abuse cases, one of which resulted in the affirmation of a dismissal claim against the archdiocese.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

JANUARY 31, 2017

by Maria Panaritis and Angela Couloumbis, STAFF WRITERS

Leaders of the Pennsylvania Senate on Monday introduced a bill to extend the amount of time that future victims of child sexual abuse would have to sue or prosecute their attackers, reviving a controversial measure that led to a legislative standoff before it collapsed late last year.

The bill, introduced by Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, seeks to eliminate the criminal statute of limitations for prospective cases of child sexual abuse and would allow future victims to sue their attackers at any age. Currently, victims may sue only for 12 years after their 18th birthday.

Scarnati’s bill excluded the one provision that victim advocates and prosecutors have sought for more than a decade and that recently led to a pitched legislative battle in Harrisburg: a change that would allow victims of past abuse to sue for what happened to them many years ago. That was the centerpiece of a bill passed by the House last year and that vanished in the Senate at Scarnati’s urging amid lobbying by the Catholic Church and the insurance industry.

Scarnati last year backed a version that would not allow retroactive application of the civil statute of limitations for victims up to the age of 50. Scarnati said the bill he put forth Monday replicated the one that died after the House declined to act on it. He said he does not support allowing people to sue for decades-old abuse because of concerns it would violate the state constitution.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Spiked

BARBARA HEWSON
BARRISTER

Northern Ireland shows us the right way to address past crimes.

n 20 January this year, Northern Ireland’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) published its report into institutional abuse at a number of children’s care homes and juvenile justice centres, some run by religious orders, and failings by state departments responsible for home affairs and social services. This was a statutory inquiry chaired by a retired judge, Sir Anthony Hart. The inquiry was set up in 2012 by the Northern Irish Assembly, and commenced work in 2013. Its estimated cost is £13.2million. Of 526 who applied for their complaints of abuse to be considered, the inquiry accepted 493 as within its remit. The complainants were aged 55 and over; 10 per cent were aged over 75.

In marked contrast to England and Wales’ dysfunctional and unproductive Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), the HIA’s performance has been efficient and focused. It examined 15 homes or other training schools or borstals, in a series of modules. It decided which homes to investigate based on the number of complaints it received, their nature, and the type of institution. It heard evidence both from former residents and from representatives of the orders, the church, civil servants and others. Its report is exemplary: careful, rigorous and balanced.

There is no doubt that children’s care homes in Northern Ireland, which used to be run by religious orders, had been woefully understaffed and under-resourced. In 1953, an inspector wrote to the Northern Ireland Ministry of Home Affairs about four homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth in Derry and Belfast: ‘I find these homes desperately depressing….’ By 1954, things had got worse:

‘The babies’ hands were blue with cold and felt icy to touch…. The schoolchildren are now the worst off and Rev Mother agrees that they are not getting any sort of chance in life and cannot make proper development, especially those who have known nothing but this institutional care from babyhood…. What is needed here is really fundamental reorganisation so that these little creatures can have some individual loving care instead of being dragooned. Rev Mother recognises this and even went so far as to say that children playing in the gutters of the slums were better off, if they had a father and mother to care for them, however poorly.’

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jan. 30, 2017

It is a moment of tumult and transition for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

In mid-January, the advocacy and support group for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy learned of a lawsuit filed by a former employee alleging the group had abandoned its core mission of supporting survivors and had engaged in a “kickback” scheme with attorneys who sued the Catholic church on behalf of survivors.

But the new year initially began for SNAP without one of its most outspoken and ardent voices, David Clohessy, who left the organization after more than two decades, as first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

In a statement to SNAP supporters dated Jan. 24, board chairwoman Mary Ellen Kruger said Clohessy “has voluntarily resigned from SNAP effective December 31, 2016.”

In a phone interview, Clohessy told NCR he informed the board of his decision in October — months before the lawsuit was filed Jan. 17 — citing some minor health issues and a desire for a change.

“What led to the decision? Fatigue. Wanting to do something different and perhaps less stressful,” he said.

“I’ll certainly always be a member of SNAP,” Clohessy said.

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SCOTLAND
The Scottish Sun

BY DOUGLAS WALKER 30th January 2017

THE former boss of a child abuse investigation is suing the Scottish Government for £500,000 over claims they forced her to quit.

Former chair Susan O’Brien QC stood down saying ministerial interference meant the probe wasn’t able to work independently.

Ms O’Brien’s legal team claim her resignation came as Holyrood forces were attempting to have her SACKED, we can reveal.

The highly respected lawyer says they had earlier threatened to remove her which they called “the nuclear option”.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry into historical abuse has been dogged by controversy and saw Ms O’Brien quit last July.

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OHIO
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Michael A. Parniuk was ordained for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1981. After several years as an assistant at Our Lady of Visitation, Paraniuk was assigned to St. Bernard’s in Winton Place, where he served until 2005. He was also was a long-time hospital chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s, among other hospitals. In 1995 a man came forward to allege that Paraniuk sexually abused him in 1983, when the man was a young teen. Paraniuk denied the allegation; the archdiocese investigated and said the claim could not be substantiated. The man came forward with the allegation again in 2004, after the archdiocese was indicted for not reporting clergy sex abuse. The man subsequently received money from the archdiocese’s victims’ compensation fund and, as a result, Paraniuk was suspended from active ministry in March 2005. The archdiocese again investigated the man’s claim, again deemed it unsubstantiated, and Paraniuk was returned to ministry. He was named pastor of St. Mary’s in Hillsboro and in 2009 became pastor also of St. Benignus in Greenfield. In 2016 he remained at both parishes.

Ordained: 1981

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has been sued before, and while it has been hurt by those filings, the latest one suggests the end is near. It can’t come too soon.

The Catholic League has been tracking SNAP for years. From news releases to radio and TV interviews, we have kept the media abreast of just how corrupt the outfit is. We’ve sent people undercover to attend its public conferences; we’ve taken out ads in major newspapers; we’ve issued several lengthy reports; we’ve fielded complaints from its clients; and we’ve consulted with bishops and others. SNAP is a fraud.

The lawsuit by a former employee, Gretchen Rachel Hammond, registers several serious accusations against SNAP, all of which are supported by the Catholic League’s own investigations of the group. The two together—an eyewitness account and our research—wholly discredit its reputation and completely disarm its supporters, namely, those in the mainstream media.

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ITALIA
Il Secolo XIX

The story is so crazy and yet is so compact that seems It seems to be invented by a novelist: two parish priests are involved in a round of orgies and parties, with judicial inquiry contour ( private violence and abetting prostitution), suspected embezzlement and a bishop who must precipitously return from a visit to the missions in South America.]

Alberto Mattioli
(ha collaborato Roberta Polese)

Roma – La storia è talmente pazzesca eppure così compattamente tipica che sembra inventata da un romanziere: due parroci coinvolti in un giro di orge e festini, con contorno di inchiesta giudiziaria (violenza privata e favoreggiamento della prostituzione), sospette malversazioni e vescovo che deve precipitosamente rientrare da una visita alle missioni in Sudamerica. Il tutto nella provincia benpensante e malfacente, nel bianco Veneto e nella cattolicissima Padova, a due passi dalla basilica del Santo. Roba da “Signore e signori”, anzi signore e monsignori.

L’inizio

Tutto inizia quando una piacente 49enne si presenta ai carabinieri per denunciare Andrea Contin, stessa età, parroco di San Lazzaro. Gergo militare a parte, la querela sembra scritta dal marchese de Sade. La donna rivela di avere una lunga relazione con il presule, e fin qui sono fatti loro e in ogni caso non reati, ma anche che il reverendo la picchiava (dunque, violenza) e la faceva prostituire (ed ecco il favoreggiamento). I militari indagano. E si apre il vaso di pandora. Don Contin nega le botte e la prostituzione, ma confessa la relazione con la signora e altre cinque donne.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

BY ELISE HARRIS, CNA/EWTN NEWS
January 30, 2017

VATICAN CITY – After Pope Francis asked Knights of Malta Grand Master Matthew Festing to resign earlier this week, the Order has accepted the resignation, named an interim leader and reinstated their former Grand Chancellor, Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager.

According to a Jan. 28 press release from the Order of Malta, their Sovereign Council – in an extraordinary meeting held Saturday to vote on Festing’s request to step down from office – “accepted his resignation” and informed Pope Francis of the decision.

They also announced the appointment of Grand Commander Fra’ Ludwig Hoffmann von Rumerstein as the new “Lieutenant ad interim” until a new Grand Master is elected.

Along with Festing’s resignation, the decision to annul the decrees establishing “the disciplinary procedures” recently taken against former Grand Chancellor Albrecht Boeselager as well as “the suspension of his membership in the Order” was announced.

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AUSTRALIA/UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Rachael Burford For Mailonline

Gordon Brown has accused the UK authorities of ­’criminal negligence’ for ignoring the alleged abuse of British children sent to abroad

Thousands of British children, some as young as five, who were sent abroad to start a new life may have been sexually abused – and then moved as part of a cover up.

Former Prime Minster Gordon Brown has accused the UK authorities of ­’criminal negligence’ for ignoring the alleged abuse of children who were relocated under the Child Migrants Programme from the 1920s to the 60s.

Writing in the Mirror, he claimed new evidence suggests many children fell victim to sexual predators before they left the U.K and that the Home Office was warned they were at further risk abroad.

Under the Child Migrants Programme, poverty-stricken youngsters were compulsorily deported to Australia, Canada and other parts of the Commonwealth until it was stopped in 1970.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

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

The fight against the growth of online child abuse images is about to be transformed by a cyberweapon that scours the web for illegal material and demands its rapid removal.

Project Arachnid has released an army of “web spiders” that crawl across the internet tracking down abuse images, identifying the company hosting them and sending immediate take-down notices.

In a six-week trial by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, Arachnid processed 230 million pages, located 5.1 million with paedophile material and identified 40,000 unique abuse images. The Internet Watch Foundation, Britain’s trace and removal centre, says it assesses about 1,000 URLs, or web addresses, every week.

Lianna McDonald, chief executive of the Canadian centre, said early feedback from North America indicated that more than 90 per cent of images were being taken down within 48 hours of the removal notice being served. She described the number of child abuse images being located as a “reality check”.

The data harvested by the spiders, from both the open web and the so-called dark web, which is not accessible to standard web search engines, can be shared with law enforcement agencies around the world in seconds. Interpol is supporting the project and Canadian officials will visit Britain soon to share the technology with child protection bodies.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

A participant in the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home vaccine trial has made a formal Garda complaint after it emerged files relating to the trial were altered in 2002.

In November, the Irish Examiner revealed the files of mothers and children used in the 1960/61 4-in-1 vaccine trial were altered in 2002 — just weeks after the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse sought discovery of records from the religious order running the home.

Mari Steed was born in Bessborough in 1960 and subsequently adopted in the US.

Her natural mother’s file is one of those listed as having been changed.

Earlier this month, Ms Steed made a formal complaint to the gardaí and Data Protection Commissioner concerning the matter.

In the Garda complaint, which has been seen by the Irish Examiner, she states she has also informed the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes of the complaint as it has requested her to provide documentation to it relating to her participation in the vaccine trial.

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IRELAND
The Cork

29 January 2017
By Tom O’Sullivan
tom@TheCork.ie

Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire has called on the Justice Minister to address the Dáil to explain the manner in which the Magdalene Redress scheme is being administered.

Deputy Ó Laoghaire made the call following the revelation that the Department of Justice is to be probed by the Ombudsman after evidence suggesting maladministration surfaced.

This follows the adjournment of proceedings by two women suing over their exclusion from the scheme on Thursday.

“When announced, the Magdalene Redress Scheme had a number of serious failings and while redress was not unwelcome, it is not the same as compensation; a great deal of other actions should have been taken for justice to truly be delivered,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Ordained in 1941, Frank Massarella served in parishes of the Cincinnati archdiocese as a member of the Glenmary Home Missioners until 1945. From 1945-1951, with the exception of a year at Our Lady of the Holy Ghost Abbey in Conyers GA, Massarella was a Trappist monk at Gethsemani Abbey in KY, taking the name “Pius.” Thereafter he was a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, working as a hospital chaplain, a high school faculty member, and assisting in a number of parishes. In 1956 Massarella was assigned as resident chaplain to Siena Retirement Home in Dayton, OH. He was on Sick Leave 1958-1959. For the next almost forty years, Massarella resided and ministered at Siena and assisted at St. John’s parish in Tipp City. In 1993 the archdiocese reviewed his personnel file and found that there were complaints that he had inappropriately touched girls in 1952 and in 1953-1954. Massarella admitted to the allegations. He was allowed by Archbishop Pilarczyk to remain in “limited” ministry because, as Pilarzyk said, “it was clear that he no longer posed a threat to anybody.” In 2003, after the U.S. Bishops’ new policy of “zero tolerance” regarding the sexual abuse of minors, Massarella was removed from active ministry. In 2005 the Vatican ruled that he was to live a “life of prayer and penance.”

Massarella died May 3, 2014 at Mercy Siena Woods Nursing Home.

Born: May 16, 1915
Ordained: June 7, 1941
Died: May 3, 2014

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

BY SAOIRSE MCGARRIGLE
30 JAN 2017

Victims of sex beast Bill Kenneally are willing to meet the paedo’s priest uncle, who quit his role at a local primary school after they called for his dismissal.

Monsignor John Shine, 91, was chairperson of the Holy Cross School in Tramore, Co Waterford, but victims of his abuser nephew said his position was “no longer tenable” after claims he knew about the abuse and did nothing.

He resigned from the school on Saturday, days after they wrote to Pope Francis saying he “played a key role in the shielding of Bill Kenneally after the Monsignor became aware of his nephew’s paedophile crimes as early back as 1987”.

Victim Colin Power told the Irish Daily Mirror: “I am willing to meet him, because I would welcome him disclosing the information he has. We need to know the truth. We need to know who knew what was being done to us and turned a blind eye.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Evelyn Ring
Irish Examiner Reporter

Rebel Redemptorist priest, Tony Flannery, has called for the papal nuncio to be removed from his post.

Fr Flannery, who is forbidden to minister as a priest, has described the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Browne, as the single most destructive factor in the Irish church.

He said the church’s biggest problem and the one thing he would like to change, was the way bishops were appointed. It was why the church did not have proper leadership.

“I would love to see the present papal nuncio being removed because I think he is doing great damage to the Irish church by the policies by which he is appointing bishops,” he said.

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ROME
Crux

Austen Ivereigh January 29, 2017
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

[Editor’s note: Today, Crux contributing editor Austen Ivereigh comments on the drama surrounding Pope Francis and the Knights of Malta. Tomorrow, Dr. Kurt Martens of the School of Canon Law at the Catholic University of America will provide another perspective.]

ROME – When it came, the skirmish was brief. Despite their aggressive shows of defiance, the rebels’ surrender was unconditional.

Following a tense standoff between the leadership of the Knights of Malta and the Vatican, its Grand Master, Fra’ Matthew Festing, agreed to resign last week following a report by a papal commission that documents serious claims about dysfunction in his leadership.

The report highlights the need for serious reform of the order’s tiny leadership clique, drawn from around 50 “professed” Knights, who take vows, and are traditionally drawn from noble European families.

The pope named another of the senior knights, its Grand Commander, Fra’ Ludwig Hoffmann von Rumerstein, as interim leader until his own legate was appointed.

Some speculated that the order’s ruling Sovereign Council might reject Francis’s intervention. But when it met on Saturday, the council bowed to the need for the change.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne

The long-serving head master of Trinity Grammar, Milton Cujes, has announced he will retire at the end of the year after a 41-year association with the Summer Hill private boys school.

Mr Cujes and the Trinity Grammar school council made the announcement ahead of this week’s new school term.

The announcement follows Mr Cujes’ appearance at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse last year in which he said the school should have done more to investigate claims students were sexually assaulting each other in 2000. The commission has yet to hand down findings from the public hearing.

Mr Cujes’ retirement follows the sentencing of former Trinity Grammar teacher Neil Albert Futcher, who learned on Friday he would spend 11 years behind bars for sex crimes against six victims as young as 11.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

Mike Wade
January 30 2017
The Times

Campaigners have urged ministers to extend the powers of an inquiry into the abuse of youngsters in care, enabling it to authorise compensation for victims.

The senior judge Lady Smith will tomorrow chair a preliminary hearing of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, but her officials have already made clear that it cannot recommend payments to victims.

Campaigners, however, have been encouraged by a report into historical child abuse in Northern Ireland published this month by Sir Anthony Hart, which concluded that victims should receive financial redress of up to £100,000.

Victims groups last night urged Lady Smith to follow suit. Alan Draper, spokesman for In Care Abuse Survivors, said: “What survivors want is justice, accountability and redress.

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IRELAND
The Journal

TWO PRIESTS HAVE said the Vatican should change how it deals with clergy and lay people.

Fr Tony Flannery and Fr Sean McDonagh, co-founders of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland, have both been at odds with the Vatican on more than one occasion.

Speaking to Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ Radio 1 today, they said the Catholic Church also needs to apologise for how it has treated women and give them more power in the Church.

Flannery (70) said his first public mass in over four years last week to mark 40 years in the priesthood. He was banned from saying mass publicly in 2012, after some people in the Vatican took issue with his stance on certain subjects.

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Ninety-four per cent of the 746 respondents to a recent OBSERVER ONLINE poll said that the authorities are not doing enough to tackle carnal abuse in Jamaica.

Since the start of the year, the church has been tainted with the growing sex scandals involving members of the clergy and minors. To date at least four clergymen have been arrested for alleged sexual dealings with minors.

Three, who are a part of the Moravian church, were charged with sexual offences committed against minors while a Pentecostal pastor was last week convicted and is awaiting sentencing in February.

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GUAM
KUAM

Jan 30, 2017

The off-island law firms who represent the Archdiocese of Agana visited the island last week. In a statement from the Archdiocese, they confirm members from law firms Swanson & McNamara, as well as Weintraub Tobin, visited to perform consultative work for the cases on sexual abuse. “We are grateful for their work.”

According to District Court filings, attorneys Mary McNamara, Britt Evangelist, and Paul Gaspari have filed and were approved to represent the Archdiocese alongside local attorney John Terlaje. Last week, six of the fifteen victims moved their cases from the local court to the federal court because each of the judges in the Superior Court of Guam disqualified themselves.

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IOWA
Des Moines Register

Molly Longman , mlongman@dmreg.com Jan. 29, 2017

DALLAS CENTER, Ia. — The arrest of Dallas Center Church of the Brethren’s 14-year pastor on child molestation charges tinged Sunday school and a worship service at the church Sunday, although it wasn’t explicitly referenced.

About 40 people gathered in the wooden pews for worship, four days after Randy August Johnson, 52, was accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a girl from 2013 to 2014 while she was 12 and 13 years old.

Randy Johnson’s wife, the Rev. Kathy Johnson, 54, delivered the sermon on Sunday, reading from Philippians 2:16, about not living a life in vain, and leading hymns.

When she addressed the congregation, she started by saying, “Wowzers, what a week we’ve had.”

In an interview Sunday, Kathy Johnson said her husband resigned officially as pastor two weeks ago after 14 years with the church. Kathy Johnson said he’d stopped delivering sermons on Christmas Eve, when detectives told the family he was being investigated.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Barry Roche

Gardaí have arrested the imprisoned former Waterford sports coach, Bill Kenneally for questioning after three more men have come forward with allegations that he had abused them when they were teenagers in Waterford in the 1980s.

Detectives arrested Kenneally (66) at the Midlands Prison on January 17th and conveyed him to Portlaoise Garda station where they questioned him for over six hours about the latest allegations against him before he was returned to the Midlands Prison. …

Resignation

Meanwhile Kenneally’s uncle, Msgr John Shine resigned at the weekend from his position as chairman of the board of management of Holy Cross National School in Tramore following a letter the victims wrote to Pope Francis questioning his suitability to deal with child protection.

In his statement of resignation issued by the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore on Saturday, Msgr Shine said he had decided to step down, “bearing in mind the wishes, and indeed the distress, of the victims of my nephew, Bill Kenneally”.

Msgr Shine also offered to meet the victims of his nephew when he has recovered sufficiently from a recent operation “to hear their views and to share with them all that I know of events of the past” and he expressed hope that he might “be reconciled with them in their immense suffering”.

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IRELAND
The Sunday Times (UK)

Stephen O’Brien, Political Editor
January 29 2017
The Sunday Times

Enda Kenny has asked Pope Francis to review the cases of five priests disciplined by the Catholic Church, in order to “improve the environment” for the papal visit to Ireland in 2018.

The priests — including Brian D’Arcy and Tony Flannery — were sanctioned over their views on married clergy and women priests on the orders of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) .

The taoiseach spoke to D’Arcy and Flannery before he met the Pope in the Vatican last November, and briefed D’Arcy afterwards.

Kenny gave Pope Francis a number of letters from Ireland, including one from Flannery and another from an alleged victim of clerical sexual abuse.

D’Arcy did not write to the Pope, but briefed the taoiseach about his case and suggested Pope Francis might deal with these “unfair” disciplinary sanctions before his visit.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

MEDIA RELEASE – JANUARY 28, 2017

Jesuits of the Northeast Province, based on the upper eastside of Manhattan and surrounded by a parish, an elementary school, and two high schools, continue to re-victimize Neal E. Gumpel, a childhood clergy sexual abuse victim of Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, a deceased, serial pedophile Jesuit priest, by refusing to reasonably settle his claim

Jesuits admit to having credible information from approximately five (5) persons (besides the victim) about Neal E. Gumpel’s childhood sexual abuse by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, and still refuse to settle Neal E. Gumpel’s claim reasonably

What
A demonstration and leafleting alerting the media, parishioners of a Jesuit-sponsored parish, and general public that the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) has insulted and re-victimized a childhood sexual abuse victim of a Jesuit priest by refusing to reasonably settle his credible claim.

When
Sunday, January 29, 2017, from 10:00 am until Noon

Where
On the public sidewalk in front of the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, 980 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10028 (between East 83rd and East 84th Streets) – 212-288-3588

Who
Neal E. Gumpel; his wife, Helen Gumpel, and members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including its co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why
The Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) knows that Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, was a serial molester of boys. The Province settled at least one public claim against Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, in the past. Neal E. Gumpel’s credible factual account of having been sexually abused as a minor child by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, where Fr. Roy Alan Drake was a professor and Jesuit priest at Maine Maritime Academy, was credibly supported by approximately five (5) individuals, in addition to Neal E. Gumpel. Now, the Northeast Province of the Jesuits, which has found that Neal E. Gumpel’s claim is credible, has insulted and re-victimized Neal E. Gumpel by refusing to reasonably settle his claim. Demonstrators will ask parishioners and the general public to voice their outrage to the Jesuits of their parish and the leaders of the Northeast Province of the Jesuits whose offices are located around the corner on East 83rd Street and demand of the Northeast Province Jesuit leaders that they treat Neal E. Gumpel with compassion, fairness, and justice.

Contact
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D. – Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800

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ROME
Settimo Cielo

Sandro Magister

Decapitated by the pope of its Grand Master, the Englishman Matthew Festing, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta not only has ratified his forced resignation on Saturday, January 28, but it has turned back the hands of time to the fateful 6th of December, 2016, reinstating in the role of Grand Chancellor the very man who on that day had been removed from it and suspended from the Order, the German Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager.

What reversed the fortunes within the Order, to the point of driving it to this act of total submission to the bidding of Pope Francis, were three acts carried out in rapid succession by the pontiff himself: the summoning of the Grand Master on January 24 with the order given to him to resign; the letter on the following day from secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin with the specification of the pope’s wishes; and finally two letters on January 27 from the pope himself, with a further specification of the role to be performed by the “pontifical delegate” whose arrival has been announced: “for the spiritual and moral renewal of the Order.”

And it is this last element that is the most newsworthy in the statement released this evening by the Order. As Settimo Cielo had correctly reported, Pope Francis has in effect granted the Order the faculty of proceeding according to its constitutions concerning its interim regency – now assumed by the Grand Commander of the Order, Fra’ Ludwig Hoffmann von Rumerstein – and the appointment of the new Grand Master. So the “pontifical delegate” will neither replace nor overlap the legitimate governance of the Order, as many had hoped or feared. Instead he will accompany it with the task of “spiritual” guide. A task, that is, very similar to the one that already belongs by statute to the cardinal patron.

The decapitation inflicted by Pope Francis on the Order of Malta is therefore twofold. Because what is falling is not only the head of Grand Master Festing, but also, de facto, that of cardinal patron Raymond Leo Burke. Meaning the ones who had brought about the removal of Boeselager in the certainty that they were thereby putting into practice the mandate entrusted to them by the pope, in a December 1 letter to Burke: to “promote the spiritual interests of the order and remove any affiliation with groups or practices that run contrary to the moral law.”

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NEW YORK
Newsday

January 29, 2017

By Bob Keeler

As a priest, in private moments with the ill or the grieving, Bishop William F. Murphy has been admirably pastoral and compassionate.

As a bishop, he’s too often been autocratic, with a knack for committing unforced errors, marring his 15-plus years leading the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

Unfortunately, it was not Murphy the gentle pastor, but Murphy the high-handed, controversial master, who shaped his image.

Less than a week after his installation in 2001, terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000. In that tragic time, Murphy was at his best, reaching out quietly to comfort bereaved families.

Then, at the start of 2002, The Boston Globe began its Pulitzer Prize-winning series about sexual abuse by priests and negligence by bishops in the Archdiocese of Boston, where Murphy had been Cardinal Bernard Law’s top aide. Though no one has accused Murphy of a crime, that series started a cascade of image-staining news.

The headlines are familiar: his testimony before a Massachusetts grand jury, the same week that a Suffolk County grand jury issued a scathing report about sexual abuse here before Murphy arrived; his refusal to let Voice of the Faithful, a lay group arising from the crisis, meet on church property; his decision to commandeer a space that was to have ho-used six nuns; his taste for pricey appliances and a wine cooler that led then-Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin to brand him “Mansion Murphy.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

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

The Vatican has confirmed Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s canonical trial is ongoing, and some leading canon law experts said it could last for years.

Vatican policy dictates that only Rome can investigate bishops and archbishops who are accused of sexual abuse.

Besides undergoing a canonical trial in Rome, Apuron is also facing lawsuits filed in the Superior Court of Guam for allegedly raping and sexually abusing altar boys in the 1970s.

“This is new ground, as no bishop I am aware of, who sexually abused children, has ever finished a canonical trial,” Attorney Patrick J. Wall, a world-renowned expert on canonical trials and the Catholic clergy abuse crisis, said.

Wall is a former priest and Benedictine monk. He left the Catholic ministry after he felt he was used to help cover up other clergymen’s sex abuses. He has since been advocating for hundreds of clergy abuse survivors.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[The church lawyer Nobert Lüdecke has examined the guidelines of all 27 German dioceses dealing with sexual abuse. He came to a clear conclusion. He called for uniformed handling of abuse allegations in the German church.]

Der Kirchenrechtler Norbert Lüdecke fordert eine einheitliche Ordnung für den Umgang der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland mit Fällen von sexuellem Missbrauch durch Geistliche. Bislang gebe es 27 verschiedene, von denen nicht einmal klar sei, ob sie in Kraft gesetzt seien, sagte Lüdecke am Freitag bei einer Veranstaltung an der Universität Bonn. Das Kirchenrecht sehe vor, dass Bischofskonferenzen den Vatikan um eine entsprechende Gesetzgebungskompetenz in dem Fall bitten können. Dies sei zum Beispiel in den USA geschehen.

Lüdecke erklärte, dass bislang jedes Bistum die von der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz 2013 überarbeiteten Leitlinien zum Umgang mit Missbrauch einzeln in Kraft setzen müsse. Dazu reiche es nicht aus, die Leitlinien nur im kirchlichen Amtsblatt abzudrucken. Die Diözesanbischöfe müssten für ihre jeweilige Diözese die Regelungen auf Grundlage der Leitlinien erlassen, wie etwa die 2014 veröffentlichte Ordnung des Erzbistums Köln. Bei mehr als der Hälfte der deutschen Diözesen sei zweifelhaft, ob sie geltendes Partikularrecht seien, so der Professor. Er hatte mit seinen Studierenden überprüft, ob Bistümer die Leitlinien einfach übernommen oder eigene Bestimmungen formuliert haben.

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ITALIA
VEB

[A furious fight broke out in the Maggiore Hospital delivery room in Novara. The fight was between the father of a newborn baby and the parish priest who claimed paternity of the child.]

Nella sala parto dell’Ospedale Maggiore di Novara è scoppiata una rissa furibonda fra il padre di un bimbo appena nato e un parroco che del nascituro rivendica la paternità.

I riflettori che illuminano parrochi e parrocchie non si riescono a spegnere.

Le pagine dei giornali, ancora zeppe dell’episodio di Padova ormai noto come “orge in canonica”, devono occuparsi anche del prete di Novara, padre Giorgio, che candidamente si è recato nella sala parto in cui stava per nascere il bimbo della “colpa”, almeno a detta dell’intraprendente prete che ne ha rivendicata la paternità.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[The network of horrors of a pedophile priest who brutalized other children. Trotta is in the dock.]

Per l’ex sacerdote e allenatore di calcio la storia non è ancora finita. Possibile nuovo processo a carico di Giovanni Trotta, 55enne già condannato per pedofilia e violenze nei confronti di minorenni. Ci sarebbero altri 9 presunti casi di abusi sui quali l’uomo dovrà rispondere davanti al giudice in un’aula di tribunale. Appuntamento con l’udienza preliminare il prossimo 7 febbraio al cospetto del gup Roberto Oliveri Del Castillo.

È l’ennesima mazzata per Trotta, già condannato alla pena di 8 anni di reclusione e al pagamento di 64mila euro di multa. L’ex sacerdote ed ex allenatore di una scuola calcio giovanile di Pietramontecorvino, era accusato di violenza sessuale aggravata nei confronti di un 11enne e di produzione, distribuzione, divulgazione, condivisione e pubblicizzazione di materiale pedopornografico ai danni del bambino. I fatti risalgono agli anni 2013 e 2014, commessi a Pietra ma anche a Casalnuovo Monterotaro.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Jan 28 (Reuters) – On the afternoon of Jan. 24, a black BMW pulled out of a 16th century palace in Rome, crossed the Tiber River and headed for the Vatican, a short trip to end a brazen challenge to the authority of Pope Francis.

Inside the car was 67-year-old Englishman Matthew Festing, the head of an ancient Catholic order of knights which is now a worldwide charity with a unique diplomatic status.

Festing was about to resign, the first leader in several centuries of the Order of Malta, which was founded in 1048 to provide medical aid for pilgrims in the Holy Land, to step down instead of ruling for life.

The move was aimed at ending a highly-public spat between Festing and the reformist pope over the running of the chivalric institution. The weeks-long conflict had become one of the biggest internal challenges yet to Francis’ efforts to modernize the 1.2 billion member Roman Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
PerthNow

Peter Law, PerthNow
January 28, 2017

CHILD sex abuse is expected to cost the Anglican diocese of Perth more than $1 million over just three years.

Settlement payments to victims of abuse by clergy or church staff in WA soared in the past year, an internal church report reveals.

But the Perth diocese this week refused to say how many complaints of child sex abuse it had received, how many allegations were reported to WA police, how many victims received settlements or what confidentiality restrictions were attached to payments.

The Diocesan Council Report to Synod 2016 shows costs associated with settlement, counselling for victims and legals fees was expected to total $432,800 in 2016-17. The figure is $263,739 more than the original budget.

This was due to “increased claims as a result of referrals” from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the document shows.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang and Gaynor D. Daleno | Post News Staff

When six of the more than a dozen sexual abuse cases for former local altar boys were moved to the federal District Court of Guam earlier last week, one reason for the transfer of jurisdiction was the lack of local judges who didn’t have a conflict or potential conflict.

But there’s another major significance to the transfer of the six cases to the federal court.

The federal court must take jurisdiction, says David Lujan’s law firm, which is representing the accusers, because this isn’t a Guam issue alone.

The cases filed in federal court directly addresses the seat of the Catholic Church’s global leadership: The Vatican, in Rome.

“This probably already has the Vatican scared. Guam is one big, ugly monster on the Vatican’s radar, and it just got real ugly,” said Tim Rohr, who has been a constant commenter on the turmoil in the local Catholic church leadership over the past few years, and runs a blog with local and international followers.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sudwest Presse

[Mr Zollner, you are the Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. What are you doing? Hans Zollner: We are committed to the prevention of sexual abuse worldwide. That is we are training members of the Catholic Church and beyond. Through e-learning we offer learning units in five languages ​​at present. This is about questions: How to recognize abuse? What to do if you suspect? What is the legal situation in each country? We currently have 25 partner institutions worldwide.]

Vor sechs Jahren löste der Jesuitenpater Mertes eine Lawine aus als er über sexuellen Missbrauch an seinem Gymnasium berichtete. Das stürzte die katholische Kirche in eine Krise. Sie reagierte. Hans Zollner sitzt an einer der Schaltstellen. Er ist Theologe und Psychologe und arbeitet zur Prävention von Missbrauch weltweit.

Herr Zollner, Sie leiten das Zentrum für Kinderschutz an der päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom. Was tun Sie da?

Hans Zollner: Wir haben uns der Prävention von sexuellem Missbrauch weltweit verschrieben. Das heißt, wir machen Schulungen für Mitarbeiter der katholischen Kirche, aber auch darüber hinaus. Über E-Learning bieten wir Lerneinheiten in derzeit fünf Sprachen an. Da geht es um Fragen: Wie erkennt man Missbrauch? Was tun bei einem Verdacht? Wie ist die Rechtslage im jeweiligen Land? Wir haben im Moment 25 Partnerinstitutionen weltweit.

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OSTERREICH
Kathpress

[Jesuit Hans Zollner: Abuse also has spiritual dimension. The Vatican child protection expert spoke at the Viennese Prevention Conference: “Spiritual wounds” can destroy the faith of victims, he said.]

Wien, 27.01.2017 (KAP) Die Diskussion um Missbrauch in kirchlichen Einrichtungen hat bislang die geistliche Dimension des Verbrechens völlig übersehen: Das hat der Jesuit Hans Zollner, Mitglied der päpstlichen Kommission für den Schutz von Minderjährigen und Leiter des Kinderschutz-Zentrum CCP in Rom, am Mittwoch bei einem Wiener Symposium über die Prävention von Missbrauch dargelegt. Der Theologe, Philosoph und Therapeut bezeichnete den Kinderschutz dabei als “bleibende Aufgabe”, da Missbrauch trotz aller Prävention nie völlig ausgeschlossen werden könne.

Wenn Missbrauch in der Kirche stattfinde, komme zum physischen und psychischen Trauma auch ein spirituelles Trauma hinzu, sagte Zollner. “Eine geistliche Person wird mit der Kirche identifiziert. Geschieht durch sie ein Missbrauch, dann steht dahinter noch eine weitere Dimension, denn sie repräsentiert Gott.” Opfer von Missbrauch seien in Gefahr einer “spirituellen Verwundung”, die den Glauben zerstören könne. Dies sei vielen in der Kirche nicht klar. “Es gibt keine Theologie angesichts des Missbrauchs”, stellte der vatikanische Top-Experte für Kinderschutz fest.

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MALTA
iNews

[Victims of sexual abuse by priests in Malta will go to the European Court.]

Il-vittmi ta’ abbużi sesswali minn tliet qassisin, liema vittmi ilhom 13-il sena jistennew li ssir ġustizzja magħhom billi jingħataw kumpens finanzjarju, issa permezz tal-avukati tagħhom talbu lill-Qorti biex tagħti is-sentenza. Fl-aħħar seduta li kellhom quddiem il-Qorti tal-Appell, huma talbu li tingħata s-sentenza. Il-vittmi issa qed jagħmluha ċara li l-ħsieb tagħhom hu li jkomplu l-ġlieda quddiem il-Qorti Ewropea.

Lawrence Grech f’kumment lil Inewsmalta qal li “fl-aħħar jiem kompla jinstema’ l-appell wara li s-seduti ta’ qabel kienu għal tliet darbiet differiti. L-avukati tagħna talbu li mmorru għas-sentenza. Is-seduta li jmiss hi fil-15 ta’ Marzu. Wara il-ħsieb tagħna hu li niftħu proċeduri quddiem il-Qorti Ewropea”.

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MARYLAND
Baltimore Sun

BALTIMORE (AP) — Lawyers for a Catholic high school girl say they’ve reached a tentative settlement with the Archdiocese of Baltimore in a civil lawsuit alleging she was preyed upon by a lesbian soccer coach.

Attorney Al Scanlan told The Associated Press in an email Friday that the parties have informed the Baltimore City Circuit Court of the pending settlement. Scanlan says the details will be confidential.

Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine declined to comment on the case.

The civil lawsuit contended that Catherine Czapski (ZAP’-ski) took advantage of the girl’s medical conditions, including depressive disorder and Asperger’s Syndrome, to seduce her at the Bishop Walsh School in Cumberland.

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IOWA
Dallas County News

Brian Johnson, the former pastor from Dallas Center Church of the Brethren who was arrested on several charges involving sexual abuse on a child, is out of jail after posting a $10,000 bond.

According to court documents, 1st Call Bail Bonds posted the $10,000 bond on Friday.

Johnson is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 6 at 11 a.m.

Beginning in December of 2016, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office in cooperation with the Dallas Center Police Department began an investigation about a possible sex abuse by Randy Johnson, 52, who resides at 1201 Ash Street in Dallas Center.

Johnson is listed as the pastor at the Dallas Center Church of the Brethren, located at 1207 Ash Avenue in Dallas Center.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

BYJAMES WARD
28 JAN 2017

For years Mary Collins has campaigned fruitlessly to have her mum Angela removed from a mass burial site where she lies beside 72 other Magdalene women.

Traveller Angela was “snatched from the side of the road” when her daughter was just two years old, and spent the following 27 years in hellhole St Vincent’s home in Cork, where she stayed until her death.

Mary wants a Commission of Investigation to be set up to provide answers to the children of the Magdalene women but says she has been ignored by the Department of Justice and the nuns from St Vincent’s.

She held a graveside memorial service for her Angela and the other forgotten women.

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