ABUSE TRACKER

MISSISSIPPI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Dec. 16, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790cell, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

A new bishop is coming to the Biloxi Catholic diocese. Though we know little about him, we’re skeptical that Louis Kihneman will make Mississippi’s kids any safer.

[Catholic News Agency]

We’re troubled by his involvement in a Corpus Christi child sex abuse and cover up case. He’s accused of essentially ignoring or white-washing a so-called church “investigation” into allegedly improper sexual advances on a child by a deacon who became a priest named Fr. John Feminelli. Kihneman also reportedly swore the alleged victim and his mother to secrecy.

[BishopAccountability.org]

He also comes from Texas, a state with particularly predator-friendly laws that make it very hard for victims to file lawsuits to expose those who commit or conceal child sex crimes. So we know far less about the church’s abuse and cover up scandal in Texas than in many states.

When new bishops take office, many Catholics bend over backwards to give them the benefit of every doubt. We hope that doesn’t happen here. Complacency protects no one. Only vigilance protects the vulnerable. So we hope Mississippians will make Kihneman earn their trust. We hope they’ll be just as cautious with their kids around clergy as they were under Bishop Roger Morin.

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WSHINGTON
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Morris-Young | Dec. 16, 2016

A woman who won a $950,000 judgment against the Seattle archdiocese last month for negligence related to her 1983 rape by a janitor at a Seattle Catholic grade school, has issued a public rebuke of how the settlement was portrayed to parishioners.

Referred to as “A.W.” to protect her identity, the woman was a 10-year-old fifth grader at the time of the attack at St. John the Evangelist School.

In a Dec. 14 statement released through her attorneys, the victim charges that a message to St. John parishioners and school families was misleading and “makes it sound like my claim had no merit.”

A Nov. 17 “message to the parish and the school” signed by Fr. Crispin Okoth, pastor, and Bernadette O’Leary, principal, expressed regret for the incident, hope for the victim’s healing, and assurance that the school is committed to “a safe environment for all children in our care.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
East Lothian Courier

The national child sexual abuse inquiry will retain all of its investigations after an internal review concluded it should not be scaled back.

Chairwoman Professor Alexis Jay rejected suggestions that the remit of the probe is too broad to succeed – describing its scope as a “virtue”.

She said she plans to make recommendations in an interim report in 2018 and spoke of her determination to make “substantial progress” by 2020.

However, no final completion date has been given for what is the largest public inquiry ever established in the UK.

There have been suggestions that it could last for up to a decade.

On Friday, Professor Jay published a review of the troubled inquiry, which she announced in August after being named as its fourth head since it was launched in 2014.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Surrey Mirror

Two more people have come forward with sex abuse allegations against a retired priest who is already facing a string of indecent assault charges, Guildford Crown Court was told on Friday (December 16).

It brings the number of complainants prepared to testify against the former Rector of Oxted, Guy Bennett, from 10 to 12, it was revealed.

Bennett, 83, of Lewes Road, East Grinstead, appeared to face a new indictment containing a total of 25 counts – 24 of indecent assault against complainants who were under the age of 16 at the time, and one of outraging public decency.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

16 DECEMBER 2016

The national child sexual abuse inquiry will retain all of its investigations after an internal review concluded it should not be scaled back.

Chairwoman Professor Alexis Jay rejected suggestions that the remit of the probe is too broad to succeed – describing its scope as a “virtue”.

She said she plans to make recommendations in an interim report in 2018 and spoke of her determination to make “substantial progress” by 2020.

However, no final date has been given for what is the largest public inquiry ever established in the UK.

There have been suggestions that it could last for up to a decade.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

16 December

The Review refocuses the Inquiry and lays out a detailed schedule of work for 2017. It recognises that the Inquiry has two equally important tasks: unravelling institutional failures of the past and making meaningful recommendations to keep children safe today and in the future. It concludes that the Inquiry’s work needed rebalancing to make sure sufficient attention was paid to making recommendations for the future.

The Truth Project, research and analysis and public hearings remain central to the Inquiry’s work and its terms of reference also remain the same. All 13 of the existing investigations will continue.

The Inquiry is also proposing changes to the scope and timing of the public hearing for the investigation into the institutional responses to allegations of sexual abuse involving the late Lord Janner of Braunstone.

The nature and breadth of the Inquiry’s terms of reference require it to make recommendations across an unprecedented range of institutions. The Inquiry’s research and analysis programme is essential to help it understand today’s child protection challenges. The review therefore announces an expanded programme of research and analysis for 2017/18.

To support this, a series of seminars will be held in 2017/18 to gather information and views about significant issues relevant to child sexual abuse. This will help the Inquiry identify areas for further investigation and scrutiny. They will hear from victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, institutions, practitioners in the field of child protection and leading researchers. In 2018, the Inquiry will publish a preliminary report containing recommendations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The chair of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse has rejected calls for it to be scrapped or scaled back, saying its scope is “a virtue”.

Prof Alexis Jay said the broad nature of the inquiry would allow it to recommend “fundamental changes”.

None of its 13 separate investigations will be dropped, a report said, but it may stop short of examining whether the late peer Lord Janner abused children.

The inquiry has announced it will only hold four public hearings next year.

The announcements were made in a report following an internal review, ordered by Prof Jay after her appointment in August.

The report also set the troubled inquiry’s timetable for 2017.

The child sexual abuse inquiry so far
Visible progress needed in inquiry
Who is Prof Alexis Jay?

Prof Jay said she planned to make recommendations in an interim report in 2018 and vowed to make “substantial progress” by 2020.

However, IICSA officials refused to say when the inquiry would end.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Sandra Laville
Friday 16 December 2016

Public inquiry style hearings into key institutions in the national child abuse investigation are being reduced to speed up the process and refocus on preventing abuse now and in the future.

In an internal review published on Friday, the inquiry chair, Prof Alexis Jay, says she is committed to pursuing all 13 investigations into non-recent abuse within institutions. But in some cases, the review reveals, there will only be one public hearing into a key area or institution, although the single hearings are likely to last days or weeks.

The apparent move away from a public inquiry in the mould of the Leveson and Bloody Sunday inquiries may anger some participants and their lawyers, who pressed the then home secretary, Theresa May, for a statutory public inquiry in which witnesses would be forced to answer questions under oath.

In 2017 four public inquiry-style hearings will be held: two on child migrants, one on abuse within the English Benedictine congregation of the Roman Catholic church, and one on Knowl View school in Rochdale, which was linked to abuse by the late MP Cyril Smith.

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MISSISSIPPI
Gulf Pine Catholic

DECEMBER 16, 2016

Pope Francis has named Msgr. Louis Kihneman, a priest of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas, to serve as the fourth Bishop of Biloxi. The appointment was announced today, December 16 in Washington, D.C. by the papal nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre.

Bishop-elect Kihneman, the new chief shepherd of the 58,000 Catholics in South Mississippi, succeeds Bishop Roger Morin, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 on March 7, 2016. Bishop-elect Kihneman will be introduced and speak to the media at a news conference today, Friday, December 16, at 10:30 a.m. at the Pastoral Center of the Diocese of Biloxi, located at 1790 Popps Ferry Rd. The event will be live streamed on the diocesan website: http://www.biloxidiocese.org

Bishop Morin called the appointment of Bishop-elect Kihneman “a wonderful early Christmas gift from Pope Francis” for the people of the Diocese of Biloxi.

Bishop-elect Kihneman, no stranger to the Gulf Coast region, said he is both honored and humbled by the Holy Father’s appointment.

“It is with great joy and deep humility and faith that I accept the appointment by our Holy Father to be the next Bishop of the Diocese of Biloxi. I have been deeply touched by the welcome and hospitality that I have already received, especially from Bishop Morin and my brother priests,” he said. “As a son of a family of the Gulf Coast I have fond memories of summers and summer camp as a boy in the area and thus I feel as if the Lord has lead me full circle in some ways back home. I look forward to getting to know you and growing with you in the love of Jesus Christ and together sharing that love with all our brother and sisters. We have a deep call to share the Word of God, the Good News with all and to bring them to Christ. I look forward to building on all the good work that has already been done. May our loving God bless us as we build up his kingdom together.”

Bishop-elect Kihneman was ordained to the priesthood on November 18, 1977 at the Corpus Christi Cathedral by Bishop Thomas J. Drury. Presently, Bishop-elect Kihneman serves the Diocese of Corpus Christi as Vicar General & Moderator of the Curia while also serving St. Philip the Apostle Parish as Pastor.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father has appointed:

Msgr. Louis F. Kihneman as bishop of Biloxi (area 24,992, population 815,494, Catholics 59,745, priests 84, permanent deacons 38, religious 66), United States of America. The bishop-elect was born in 1952 in Lafayette, Louisiana, United States of America, and was ordained a priest in 1977. He carried out his ecclesiastical studies in the St. Mary Seminary, Houston, obtaining a Master’s degree in religious pedagogy and in theology from the University of St. Thomas, Houston. He has served in a number of roles, including: vicar of the parish of St. Isidro Labrador, mission of the diocese of Corpus Christi in Arteaga in Mexico; diocesan director of religious education and parish vicar in Robstown and in Corpus Christi; parish priest in Alice; member of the Priest Personal Board; director of priestly vocations and director of the St. John Maria Vianney house of studies; adjunct vicar for the clergy (1988-1995); parish priest in Rockport; diocesan chancellor; and member of the presbyteral council. In 1990 he was named Chaplain of His Holiness. He is currently vicar general and pastor of the St. Philip Parish in Corpus Christi. He succeeds Bishop Roger P. Morin, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese was accepted by the Holy Father.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

by Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, Dec 16, 2016 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday the Vatican announced that Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Roger Morin of Biloxi, and appointed Louisiana native Msgr. Louis Kihneman as his successor.

A priest of the Diocese of Corpus Christi for 39 years, Msgr. Kihneman, 64, said in a Dec. 16 press release announcing his appointment that he accepts the Holy Father’s nomination with “great joy and deep humility and faith.”

“I have been deeply touched by the welcome and hospitality that I have already received, especially from Bishop Morin and my brother priests,” he said.

Born in Lafayette, La. Feb. 17, 1952, Msgr. Kihneman grew up in various places along the Gulf Coast, including Corpus Christi, Texas, where he was ordained a priest Nov. 18, 1977.

As a son of a family from the Gulf Coast area, Kihneman said he has “fond memories of summers and summer camp as a boy in the area,” and feels that in some ways “the Lord has lead me full circle…back home.”

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Sun-Times

Sara Freund

A northwest suburban pastor is being sued by a church member who claims that for months she was sexually harassed, defamed and then excommunicated from the congregation by him.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday against pastor Manfred Malagon, his wife, the United Pentecostal Church International and the International Christian Fellowship in Cook County Circuit Court. The International Christian Fellowship church holds services at 240 Standish Street in Elgin and is operated by the United Pentecostal Church International.

In March, Malagon began sending the woman lewd text messages, which included photos of monkey and dog genitalia and a naked woman, the lawsuit stated. He offered to send nude photos of himself and requested nude photos and videos of the woman.

A few months later, the suit alleges, the woman was sexually assaulted when Malagon kissed, hugged and fondled the woman under a set of stairs in the church. When the woman would come for services on Thursdays and Sundays, the pastor would repeat this unwanted sexual behavior many times. On another occasion, he forced her into a room in the church, sexually touched her and pressed his hips against her body, according to the lawsuit.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

James Bascon is the seventh victim to come forward with allegations that Father Louis Brouillard sexually assaulted him.

Guam – Another sexual abuse victim has come forward with allegations of sexual abuse against the Archdiocese of Agana in a lawsuit that was filed Friday.

This latest lawsuit comes from James Bascon who accused former Guam priest Father Louis Brouillard of sexually assaulting him in the 1960s when Bascon was between 12 to 13 years old.

Bascon is the seventh former altar server to file a civil suit against Brouillard and the church. The other six are Anthony Vegafria, Vicente San Nicolas, Norman J.D. Aguon, Leo Tudela, Bruce Diaz and Vicente Guerrero Perez.

Four others have filed lawsuits against Archbishop Anthony Apuron who’s currently facing a canonical trial in Rome on the similar allegations. They are Roland Sondia, Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton and the Estate of Joseph “Sonny” Quinata who revealed his decades-long secret to his mother on his deathbed 11 years earlier.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

The Catholic bishop trustees of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, have advertised for a new president. The trustees are the four Catholic Archbishops in Ireland and 13 diocesan bishops.

The new president will assume office next summer for a five-year term,“which may be renewed or extended for one further term”.

He will succeed Msgr Hugh Connolly, a priest of Dromore diocese, one of only two Catholic dioceses that are wholly within Northern Ireland. Msgr Connolly became president at Maynooth in 2007.
His period as president has not been without incident.

Following publication of the Ryan and Murphy reports in 2009 the Vatican initiated apostolic visitations (investigations) of the Irish church. In 2011, a visitation team, led by the Cardinal Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan, inquired into Ireland’s seminaries. The Cardinal was said to be concerned about what he felt was laxity in theological formation at Maynooth.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne

Innocent people could be wrongfully jailed under reforms put forward by the child sex abuse royal commission, with the Australian Lawyers Alliance describing the proposal as “dangerous”.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released draft bills which would allow more details about an accused person’s past, known as tendency and co-incidence evidence, to be put before a jury.

In releasing the draft bills, royal commission chief executive Philip Reed said tendency and co-incidence evidence as well as joint trials, involving a number of alleged victims of the same defendant, could be significant in child sex abuse cases.

“Where the only evidence of child sexual abuse offences is the complainant’s evidence, it is likely to be more difficult for the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the offences occurred because the jury is effectively considering the account of one person against the account of another,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Pro Bono Australia

Friday, 16th December 2016

Wendy Williams, Journalist

A broad group of specialists from across Australia have been appointed to advise the national redress scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, creating “a unique opportunity to show survivors that they have been listened to and heard”.

The 15 member Independent Advisory Council on Redress, named on Friday, includes survivors of institutional abuse, representatives from support organisations, legal and psychological experts, Indigenous and disability experts, institutional interest groups and those with a background in government.

Former solicitor and Western Australian Attorney General Hon Cheryl Edwardes AM, who has had a long career in victim advocacy and support, will chair the council.

President of Blue Knot Foundation Dr Cathy Kezelman AM said the broad representation of the council was “critical” to the creation of a fair and equitable scheme.

“The establishment of a national redress scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse creates a unique opportunity to show survivors that they have been listened to and heard – that what happened to them mattered,” Kezelman said.

“The harm done to them has been acknowledged and they will receive support and some compensation.

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MINNESOTA
Bemidji Pioneer

By Richard Chin / St. Paul Pioneer Press on Dec 15, 2016

ST. PAUL—Competing bankruptcy payment plans drawn up by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and victims of clerical sexual abuse will go to the victims as well as parishes, vendors and other creditors for a vote.

Judge Robert Kressel, presiding over the archdiocese’s case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minnesota, ordered lawyers on both sides Thursday to start preparing documents and ballots that will be sent to creditors in the case, including hundreds of survivors of clergy sexual abuse. The vote is expected early next year.

The archdiocese plan calls for a proposed trust fund for claimants of about $150 million, the bulk of which will come from settlements with insurance carrier groups. The archdiocese would also contribute about $14 million in direct cash and other assets from the church to the trust fund, and $500,000 for a counseling fund for victims of sexual abuse.

The competing plan developed by the survivors’ committee calls for the archdiocese to pay about $80 million of its own money or money it would raise through borrowing. The plan developed by lawyers for about 450 victims also would allow the victims to pursue claims against the insurance companies which survivors’ lawyers believe will exceed the amount being offered in the archdiocese plan. The victims’ plan also would allow the survivors to continue to seek claims in lawsuits against individual parishes.

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ILLINOIS
ABC 7

By John Garcia
Thursday, December 15, 2016

ELGIN, Ill. (WLS) — A lawsuit has been filed against a minister in Elgin, Ill., who is accused of sexually abusing a woman.

The alleged victim, a former member of his church, said the pastor sexually abused her on numerous occasions, harassed her with text messages and then called her names in front of the congregation during his sermons.

One church in Elgin is home to a small congregation of members of the International Christian Fellowship, which rents space for worship led by their pastor Manfred Malagon.

The lawsuit states where the victim claims that Malagon sexually abused her.

“In the church building, he grabbed her and put her into a closet and abused her, put her under the stairs and abused her,” Richard Gordon, the alleged victim’s attorney said.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Dec 16, 2016

By Krystal Paco

60-year-old James Bascon is the 13th victim to surface and sue Guam’s Catholic church. The Inarajan man alleges he was around 12 or 13 years old when he fell victim to Father Louis Brouillard. According to court filings, Bascon was an altar boy at San Isidro Catholic Church and a Boy Scout when the priest repeatedly sexually molested him.

Court papers also describe swimming trips with Father Brouillard, who would swim completely naked and instruct the boys to do the same before he molested them.

Father Broiullard, who now lives in Minnesota, has been accused of being a pedophile priest by former altar boys Norman J.D. Aguon, Leo Tudela, Bruce Diaz, Vicente Perez, Vicente San Nicolas and Anthony Vegafria.

Former altar boys that have accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of sexual molestation are Walter Denton, Roland Sondia, Roy Quintanilla, and the Estate of Joseph “Sonny” Quinata. And former altar boy Paul Joseph Borja alleges he was abused by now-deceased priest of the Chalan Pago church Father Antonio Cruz.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

The head of the troubled child abuse inquiry will attempt to get the process back on track later when she outlines its schedule for the coming year.

Professor Alexis Jay, who is the inquiry’s fourth chairwoman in only two years, will try to draw a line under a year that has seen a victims’ group withdraw and several lawyers leave.

A leading barrister told Sky News the inquiry has been “so badly managed from the beginning”.

Michael Mansfield QC said: “It is a rather dismal exercise and I am not surprised that groups of survivors have had enough because they’ve been waiting in some cases 20-25 years to see justice in their cases.”

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) – A federal bankruptcy judge has indicated he may allow all parties to vote on two competing clergy abuse settlement plans against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

In a packed courtroom filled with clergy abuse victims and attorneys, Federal Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel heard arguments on the disclosure statement in the case.

Attorney Richard Anderson representing the Archdiocese told Judge Kressel that they have now settled with all of the Archdiocese’s insurance carriers on dollar amounts. He did not disclose the new amount, but on Nov. 15 the Archdiocese announced they had reached an agreement with 11 of 13 insurance underwriters to increase their settlement fund to $133 million.

Bankruptcy judge may allow vote on two Archdiocese settlement plans
Victims’ attorney Robert Kugler argued that the Archdiocese settlement is not reasonable. Kugler told the judge that he believes more money is available from the insurance companies and that survivors could not evaluate the settlement disclosure without the full knowledge how much could be paid out. Additionally, Kugler suggested that the Archdiocese could borrow $38 million, hold a fundraiser, and assess parishes for settlement fund money.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

16 December, 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published the written submissions for the public hearing into disability service providers on its website.

The public hearing was held in Sydney in July 2016. It inquired into the responses of the following disability service providers to allegations of child sexual abuse:

1. Mater Dei School located in Camden, New South Wales;
2. Gold Coast Family Support Group (now FSG Australia);
3. The Disability Trust and Interchange Shoalhaven.

The public hearing also examined the current systems, policies, procedures and practices for preventing, receiving, investigating and responding to allegations of child sexual abuse within institutions providing services to children with disability.

The submissions can be found on the Case Study 41 page of the Royal Commission’s website.

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AUSTRALIA
PerthNow

Nick Butterly, PerthNow
December 15, 2016

THE Anglican Archbishop of Perth, Roger Herft, has resigned after admitting to a royal commission earlier this year he let down survivors of child sexual abuse.

The resignation makes Archbishop Herft the highest-ranking casualty of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

In a statement last night, the Church revealed that Arch-bishop Herft, who had stood aside in October, would not return.

Victims’ advocacy groups had demanded his resignation after he gave evidence to the royal commission in August showing how he had failed to act on warnings of priests abusing children in Newcastle when he led the Church there between 1993 and 2005.

“The Archbishop of Perth, The Most Reverend Roger Herft, informed the Diocesan Council today of his decision to retire a year ahead of schedule, namely 7 July 2017,” the Church statement said.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Dec 15, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

We’re very disappointed that Ohio’s Supreme Court arbitrarily insists that damage caps apply even in horrific cases of child sexual abuse by clergy. Had the court sided with innocent kids and wounded victims, instead of with powerful employers, Ohio kids would be safer today. Instead, those kids are more vulnerable because those who ignore or hide child sex crimes have essentially gotten a reprieve from the state’s highest court.

[Sandusky Register]

Severe wrongdoing stops when wrongdoers are severely punished. But this ruling does just the opposite – it enshrines a clear, low ‘cap’ that will do little to prod wrongdoers to stop doing wrong.

So tomorrow, an Ohio cult could hire a convicted, serial child molester after his release from prison. No matter how egregiously they all act and no matter who’s hurt how much, the cult and its insurers would never have to pay more than $350,000. That’s shameful.

Ohio’s predator-friendly statute of limitations helps wrongdoers by giving them clarity – “all we have to do is hide these child sex crimes until the deadline for lawsuits elapse.” Now, this predator-friendly ruling also helps wrongdoers by giving them more clarity – “even if we’re caught, the most we’ll ever have to pay is $350,000.”

We hope Ohio lawmakers remedy both of these injustices, no matter how hard powerful institutions and lobbyists fight.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

One of the country’s most senior church figures, the Anglican Archbishop of Perth Roger Herft, has resigned after admitting he let down survivors of sexual abuse.

Reverend Herft had been Archbishop of Perth since 2005, but stood aside in October this year to “focus my attention on the royal commission’s ongoing inquiry into the Diocese of Newcastle”.

He gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in August, and finished his testimony with an apology to the people of Newcastle, where he served as bishop between 1993 and 2005.

“I let them down badly.

“[I have] let down the survivors in a way that remorse itself is a very poor emotion to express.”

Archbishop Herft thanked the royal commission for holding him “personally accountable” during the hearing, which stretched over two weeks in the New South Wales city.

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TEXAS
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Ordained for the Diocese of Galveston-Houston in 1983, Robert C. Ramon assisted in parishes in Houston, Port Houston and Dickinson, and was briefly lead priest at parishes in Houston and New Caney. He spent two years early on as a student at Catholic University in Washington D.C.

In 1991 Ramon was accused of sexually abusing a minor female. The diocese investigated and determined there was no evidence. Per the request of the girl’s family, the diocese provided counseling. The sessions ended after a few months, and the family threatened to sue. They filed a civil lawsuit in 1993.

Ramon is not indexed in the Official Catholic Directory beyond 2002. He died in August 2014.

Ordained: 1983
Died: August 13, 2014

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Associated Press
Thursday, December 15th, 2016

GALLUP, N.M. — A New Mexico diocese is a step closer to resolving its bankruptcy case after a federal judge rejected a claim that had stalled the proceedings.

The Gallup Independent reports (http://bit.ly/2hpni2F ) that the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament filed a claim against the Diocese of Gallup as it was concluding its Chapter 11 reorganization case.

Attorneys for the diocese say the claim wasn’t filed in a timely matter. The Sisters’ attorney says the organization did not know of the diocese’s bankruptcy case until December 2015, more than two years after its Chapter 11 petition was filed, but the attorneys for the diocese say the Sisters were sent legal notices at the time the claim was filed.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Monday, December 12, 2016

Source: Tom Halden, Director of Communications

From Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda

As part of the July 19, 2016, Amendment to the Settlement Agreement with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis agreed to not “enter into confidentiality agreements regarding allegations of sexual abuse of minors unless requested by the victim and noted in the text of the agreement”. In addition, the Archdiocese agreed to release “any victim of alleged sexual abuse from any confidentiality obligation that may exist in any settlement agreement [previously] entered into with the Archdiocese”.

My hope is that, in some way, these provisions will reflect our ongoing commitment to transparency concerning our failings and our desire to be helpful to those who may have been harmed and sensitive to their needs.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

For the first time in a Diocesan or Religious Order bankruptcy case, two competing plans will go to vote

(Minneapolis, MN) – In a hearing today in United States Bankruptcy Court in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul & Minneapolis Bankruptcy case, the Honorable Robert J. Kressel ruled that two proposed reorganization plans will move forward. One plan was submitted by the Archdiocese and the other plan was submitted by the Creditors’ Committee.

“We are pleased that the court is going to allow the survivors’ voices to be heard,” said Attorney Jeff Anderson. Both plans are drastically different and this is the first time that two competing plans will go to vote in a Diocesan or Religious Order bankruptcy case.

The plan submitted by the Archdiocese proposes that the Archdiocese contribute $20 million of its own funds, that all insurance issues are settled for unreasonable amounts, and that all parishes will be released from the case without contributing a penny. The plan submitted by the Creditors’ Committee proposes that the Archdiocese contribute $80 million of its own funds, and that all survivors retain their rights to pursue the insurance companies and any claims they may have against the parishes.

A status conference is scheduled for January 12, 2017, to finalize the disclosure statements and determine a procedure for the forms and ballots to be sent to sexual abuse survivors and other creditors in the bankruptcy proceeding.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.205.5531

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Reader

By Albert Williams

Lucas Hnath’s intriguing 2014 drama The Christians, now receiving its Chicago premiere in a finely acted production at Steppenwolf Theatre, is unlike any play I’ve ever seen about religion. There’s no nun boldly overstepping her authority to expose a suspected pedophile priest; no charismatic hypocritical preacher bilking the gullible faithful; no philandering phonies or self-hating homos, preaching traditional family values while pursuing their own illicit lusts. Instead, The Christians concerns a basic question that might seem better suited to a scholarly lecture: Is God’s love for humanity so great that it encompasses everyone, not just Christians?

This is the question that the play’s protagonist, Pastor Paul, proposes to his flock on the particular Sunday morning on which Hnath’s 80-minute one-act takes place. Paul is the leader of a modern American megachurch, which he has built over two decades from a small storefront into a sprawling complex thanks to the prayers—and donations—of his thousands of followers. Now, having paid off the debt incurred erecting this magnificent edifice, Paul preaches a sermon of “radical change.”

Speaking softly and humbly into his handheld microphone, Paul explains that after having a heart-to-heart talk with the heavenly father, he now sees that Christians must break down barriers separating them from the rest of a world torn by violence. He recounts the story of a non-Christian boy in an unnamed foreign country who gave his own life to save his sister from a terrorist attack. Should that boy not receive salvation just because he hasn’t been baptized as a Christian? Should belief in the divinity of Jesus determine whether one goes to heaven or to hell? And then Paul drops the other shoe: there is no hell.

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NEW ZEALAND
NZ Catholic

By Rowena Orejana – December 16, 2016

New Zealand’s Catholic bishops have designated the first Friday of Lent next year as a day of prayer and penance for victims of abuse and violence in New Zealand.

In 2017, this day will fall on March 3, the Friday after Ash Wednesday.

The president of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, Bishop Patrick Dunn, said New Zealand has an alarmingly high incidence of domestic violence. This day would acknowledge the impact of such abuse and violence, both by members of the Church family, but also everywhere it occurs throughout New Zealand.

NZ Catholic understands it is likely the first Friday of Lent will become a permanent day of prayer on this topic.

Bishop Dunn said Catholics often undertake devotions like the Stations of the Cross during Fridays in Lent, so the bishops’ conference thought that a Friday in Lent would be suitable.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

Sen. Frank Blas Aguon Jr. released a statement Tuesday where he raised questions concerning a Freedom of Information Act request by Archdiocese of Agana legal counsel John C. Terlaje for any and all opinions of the legislative counsel regarding Bill 326-33.

According to Aguon, Bill 326 was a highly publicized piece of legislation that garnered wide media coverage and comprised three scheduled public hearings where numerous community members attended and offered oral and written testimony in support of the legislation that was eventually passed by a unanimous vote and signed into law by Gov. Eddie Calvo on Sept. 23.

Aguon pointed out, “At no point during this legislative process did the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Agana, a Corporation Sole, voice any concern or objection to the legislative process or the bill.”

Aguon stated that he had no qualms with the inquiry made at the behest of Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes, but added, “I have to wonder where these concerns were during the legislative process.”

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CANADA
The Telegram

Lawyers for four John Does have asked the Supreme Court of Newfoundland for damages of nearly $8 million for abuse suffered at the hands of certain Christian Brothers at Mount Cashel.

The four test-case John Does say the church, through the Episcopal Corp., should be held liable for physical and sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of certain members of the lay order of Irish Christian Brothers. The Does — all orphanage residents several decades ago — represent about 60 clients who were at the orphanage during the late 1940s to early 1960s.

The amounts for the other 60 claimants who could be affected by the outcome of this trial will be determined in the future based on whether the four John Does win their cases.

The church insists the lay order Irish Christian Brothers ran the orphanage and were independent of the archdiocese.

The trial, during many of its 31 non-consecutive days this year, contained disturbing testimony concerning the experiences of the four John Does at the orphanage several decades ago, as well as personal details of their lives since then and various expert opinions on child sex abuse and its impacts.

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OHIO
Statehouse News Bureau

[with audio]

By KAREN KASLER

The Ohio Supreme Court says a state law capping damages in certain cases is constitutional. That means a 15-year-old Delaware County girl raped by her pastor in 2008 will get a quarter of a million dollars – not the $3.5 million the jury awarded her family.

The girl’s lawyer had argued the $250,000 cap is unconstitutional, especially when it comes to underage victims of sex crimes. But a majority of the court agreed those caps on non-injury cases passed by state lawmakers in 2005 are constitutional. In her majority opinion, Justice Judith French wrote evidence showed the girl played sports, had good grades and hasn’t sought mental health treatment. So she wrote in this case the non-injury cap applies. In their pointed dissents, Justice Paul Pfeifer wrote that tort reform has ensured child rapists will not have to pay the full measure of damages, and Bill O’Neill wrote – quoting here – “Shame on the General Assembly”. The pastor, 54-year-old Brian Williams, just finished serving an eight year sentence for sexual battery.

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Press

By: Dr. Michael J. Salamon
Published: December 15th, 2016

A plague of childhood sexual abuse of students by teachers over many years at yeshivot in Australia, and the prodding of Manny Waks, a victim who as an adult became an advocate, led to the appointment several years ago of a Royal Commission to study the situation. Although preliminary findings were issued two years ago, the final commission reports were just released.

Cover-ups on the part of school administrations, rabbis, and the community as a whole were placed under the scrutiny of an objective outside panel of experts who interviewed a wide range of people – rabbis, teachers, victims, professionals, advocates, etc.

The results are scathing.

One of the reports made it clear that children were, in fact, regularly abused. When attempts were made to stop the abuse, the schools failed to act, abusers were protected – and when families attempted to confront the abusers and their protectors, they were victimized all over again.

Additionally, the commission found that the organizational culture at the yeshivot perpetuated a climate that was “conducive to the perpetration of child sexual abuse.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican on Thursday announced the Cardinals Commission of Vigilance of the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, has appointed Mr. Scott C. Malpass, Javier Marín Romano and Georg Freiherr von Boeselager as members of the IOR Board of Superintendence, bringing the total number of members to seven.

Mr. Malpass, from the United States, has held various prestigious positions and has served for over 25 years as Chief Investment Officer for Notre Dame University in the United States, where he works in the field of investment in conformity with the social doctrine of the Church, and teaches courses in the field of investment research at the same University.

Mr. Marín, from Spain, enjoys a wealth of experience in banking and in particular has held various positions for Banco Santander, including Chief Executive Officer and as Head of the Private Banking, Asset Management and Insurance Division.

Mr. von Boeselager, of German nationality, has worked for many years in the private banking field and presently holds the position of Head of the Supervisory Board of Merck Finck & Privatbankiers AG, in Munich.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

St. Paul, MN) – A hearing is scheduled for Thursday, December 15, 2016, at 1:00PM before Hon. Robert J. Kressel in United States Bankruptcy Court in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul & Minneapolis bankruptcy case. Several issues will be addressed at the hearing and Judge Kressel may decide whether the proposed bankruptcy plans filed by the Archdiocese of Saint Paul & Minneapolis and the Creditors’ Committee, will move forward.

Honorable Robert J. Kressel
Courtroom 8 West
United States Courthouse
300 South 4th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55415

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.318.2650 Cell: 612.817.8665

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

THE new boards of Yeshivah-Beth Rivkah Schools Ltd (YBRSL) and Chabad Institutions Victoria Ltd (CIVL) were urged this week to “act decisively and expeditiously to address those issues emanating from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse … so that the community can truly move forward from this stain”.

The elections of the boards – the first ever held, after a new constitution was adopted this year – are seen as a move towards transparency in the wake of the scathing findings of the Royal Commission, which slammed the way key Yeshivah leadership figures handled the crisis.

Welcoming the conclusion of the election process, child sexual abuse victims’ advocate Manny Waks called for the new boards to “take immediate and decisive action to end their association” with three individuals in particular, who he claimed had failed the victims: Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Telsner, who resigned as the Yeshivah Centre’s senior rabbi last year after admitting that his conduct towards victims and their families had not been in line with the values of Yeshivah, but who still performs religious leadership functions; Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Groner, the only member of the former board who did not resign and who holds a seat on both of the new boards; and Nechama Bendet, the former Yeshivah general manager and board member who remains in a senior management role.

Responding to Waks’s call, Bendet yesterday told The AJN, “I vehemently deny that I breached any legal or moral obligation to victims of child sex abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks
​15 December 2016

​​Victims of child sexual abuse at Yeshivah Centre Melbourne are outraged and appalled at comments by former Yeshivah General Manager and Trustee Mrs Nechama Bendet to the Australian Jewish News (16 December 2016 – see below from print version, may not be viewable from mobile devices).

Responding to calls for her to be stood down from Yeshivah’s senior management in the wake of the recent findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Bendet was quoted in the newspaper as follows: “I vehemently deny that I breached any legal or moral obligation to victims of child sex abuse. The Royal Commission made no such findings about me”. Bendet went on to say that she had “personally apologised and reached out to victims of child sexual abuse”.

Following the Commission’s public hearing into Yeshivah in February 2015, Bendet stated that she would resign as a Trustee of Yeshivah, which she eventually did, but has remained a member of its senior management.

The findings of the Commission, handed down in October 2016, included:

* ‘that there was a marked absence of supportive leadership for survivors of child sexual abuse and their families within Yeshivah Melbourne. Halachic principles were stridently – even if incorrectly applied. Criticism of those that spoke out was forceful’;
* ‘The leadership did not create an environment conducive to the communication of information about child sexual abuse. If anything, the mixed messages were likely to have produced inaction’; and
* ‘If the Yeshivah Melbourne…had shown leadership, survivors of sexual abuse and their families and supporters might have received a very different response from the members of the Yeshivah Melbourne community’.

The Commission heard evidence that Bendet had personally labelled two victims of abuse as mosers, a derogatory term for a Jew who informs on other Jews to secular authorities. Bendet gave evidence that she could not recall using that term.

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WASHINGTON
LMT

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

SEATTLE (AP) — A woman who weeks ago settled her child sex abuse claim against Seattle Archdiocese for $950,000 is now issuing a statement about the deal — because she’s upset about how the agreement was portrayed to parishioners.

The woman, identified as A.W., was raped in 1983, when she was 10, by Charles Siddons, a janitor at St. John Parish and School. Siddons pleaded guilty a month later. He died in 1997.

The woman sued the Archdiocese in 2015 after she learned previous incidents of assault and inappropriate conduct involving Siddons had been reported to school officials.

Last month, the archdiocese sent a message to parishioners about the settlement, noting that there was nothing to indicate Siddons was a threat when he was hired.

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IRELAND/FLORIDA
Irish Sun

BY ANGELA MULLIN 15th December 2016

A Galway-born priest who had three residences – including a beach condo – has been charged with embezzling more than €47,000 ($50,000) from an elderly parishioner in Florida.

Fr Nicholas King is charged with using a 79-year-old woman’s money to fund a lifestyle ‘beyond his means’, according to cops at Brevard County near Orlando, Florida.

The Irish Examiner reports that the 73-year-old priest officially stood down as pastor of the parish he lead for more than 20 years a few days before being cuffed in September.

Donna Seyferth, spokeswoman for the Rockledge Police Department, said the priest had three residences, including a beach condominium, and lived far above his annual $28,000 salary.

He spent hundreds of dollars on restaurant meals, made a $9,000 down payment on a car, gave $6,000 to his sister, and spent $900 at a gourmet chocolate shop.

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Thursday, December 15, 2016

IRELAND/FLORIDA
Irish Examiner

John Breslin

A Galway-born priest charged with embezzling over $50,000 (€47,000) from an elderly parishioner in Florida was a vocal supporter of one of two jailed Irish clerics accused of defrauding their parish of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Fr Nicholas King, aged 73, is charged with using money belonging to the elderly woman to fund a lifestyle “beyond his means”, according to police in Brevard County near Orlando.

The priest, who officially stood down as pastor of the parish he led for over 20 years just days before his September arrest, was a public supporter of Francis Guinan, one of the two Irish clerics propelled to nationwide and international infamy over their plundering of church coffers to fund gambling trips, rare coin collections, and homes.

Guinan, from Offaly, spent over three years in jail after being found guilty by a jury of stealing some $100,000.

The other, Kilkenny-born John Skehan, aged 81 when sentenced in 2009, served just under a year of a 14-month sentence after pleading guilty to stealing close to $400,000.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Dec. 14, 2016

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

ALBUQUERQUE — U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma spent nearly an hour listening to and sorting through the legal arguments of two Arizona attorneys — opposing lawyers in a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit — in an effort to resolve a legal dispute that has stalled the Diocese of Gallup’s exit from bankruptcy court during a hearing Monday.

The dispute centers on a lawsuit Phoenix attorney Robert E. Pastor filed in 2015 in Arizona’s Coconino County Superior Court. Pastor represents a Navajo woman who said she was sexually molested as a child by Brother Mark Schornack, a Franciscan brother who allegedly abused her during his employment as a school bus driver and maintenance man at St. Michael Indian School in St. Michaels, Arizona. Schornack, a former resident of Little Sisters of the Poor in Gallup, died in 2012.

St. Michael Indian School and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the founders of the school, are named as defendants in the lawsuit. The Diocese of Gallup and the Franciscans were also previously named as defendants, but because they were participating parties that contributed funding toward the Gallup Diocese’s Chapter 11 settlement agreement with sex abuse claimants, they were removed as defendants and are now protected parties with no legal liability in the case.

St. Michael Indian School and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament were not participating parties and did not contribute any funding toward the settlement; therefore, they are not protected parties under the plan of reorganization.

The lawsuit became a matter of concern in U.S. Bankruptcy Court because the Sisters filed a claim against the Diocese of Gallup while the diocese was concluding its Chapter 11 reorganization case. Attorneys for the diocese have objected to the Sisters’ claim because it was not filed in a timely manner and because, they assert, it is disallowed under the Bankruptcy Code.

Scott B. Cohen, the Sisters’ Phoenix attorney, has said the Sisters did not know of the Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy case until Dec. 4, 2015, more than two years after the diocese filed its Chapter 11 petition Nov. 12, 2013.

In contrast, diocesan attorneys have stated the Sisters were sent legal notices regarding the bankruptcy since November 2013. In addition, throughout the case, the Sisters’ lack of participation in the mediation and settlement process has been noted in bankruptcy court documents.

Liability arguments

During Monday’s hearing, Susan Boswell, the lead bankruptcy attorney for the Diocese of Gallup, expressed frustration that the Sisters’ claim is “the only thing that’s keeping this case open.” Boswell, who told the judge the matter was costing the diocese money for U.S. Trustee fees, as well as for professional fees, requested Thuma enter an order and disallow the Sisters’ claim so the case could be closed.

“If somebody wants to keep this case open because they think that they need the assistance of this court for interpretation of the plan,” Boswell added, “I’d be happy to do that provided they also paid the costs of keeping this case open.”

Much of the hearing was devoted to Pastor’s and Cohen’s opposing interpretations of the language in Pastor’s lawsuit regarding various legal definitions of liability. Noting the Diocese of Gallup and the Franciscans have been dropped as defendants, Cohen argued, “But despite the dismissal of these two protected parties … the plaintiff still attempts to hold the Sisters liable for the alleged wrongdoing of others, including these protected parties.”

In particular, Cohen said Pastor and his client were trying to hold the Sisters liable for the actions of Schornack’s religious order at the time of the alleged abuse, the Franciscan Province of St. John the Baptist, one of the protected parties in the plan of reorganization.

Pastor disputed that assertion. “It’s only an attempt to hold the Sisters and the school liable for the bad acts of its employee, Brother Mark Schornack,” he said.

In a document filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Nov. 28, Pastor said Schornack had been a patient at Via Coeli, the notorious clergy treatment center once operated in Jemez Springs by the Servants of the Paraclete. In their comments to the court Monday, both Cohen and Pastor indicated it was likely the Franciscan Province of St. John the Baptist withheld information regarding Schornack’s history from the Sisters.

Through questioning both attorneys, Thuma managed to sift through their arguments and finally solicit some common agreement around the legal concept of comparative fault, where the Sisters would only be held liable for what a jury decided was their fault.

“Isn’t that a way to do this that is consistent with the confirmation order and consistent with what Mr. Pastor’s client’s rights still are?” Thuma asked.

The judge requested Cohen and Pastor submit proposed language within 10 days that he could enter into an order that would be helpful to the Arizona state court judge assigned to Pastor’s lawsuit against the Sisters.

Thuma concluded the hearing by approving two requests from Boswell, the attorney for the Diocese of Gallup. Boswell asked for an order disallowing the claim by the Sisters, and she asked to be allowed to file a motion for a final decree, which will move the diocese a step closer to having its bankruptcy case closed.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By TANYA TALAGA
Global Economics Reporter
Wed., Dec. 14, 2016

Survivors of the St. Anne’s residential school in Fort Albany, Ont., will have to wait until March to find out if the courts will even proceed with their abuse compensation case.

Edmund Metatawabin and a woman known only as K-10106 attended the notorious St. Anne’s, a church-run, federally funded school when they were young children. They say they were victims of horrific abuse, including being shocked by an electrified chair and having to eat their own vomit.

Metatawabin and the female survivor have led a court challenge, arguing they should receive proper compensation for the abuse they suffered.

The two survivors want the Superior Court to order a full-scale inquiry into why records of a criminal investigation and prosecutions that took place as a result of abuse allegations were only disclosed under court orders in 2014. This secrecy and delay meant other survivors missed out on compensation granted under settlement of a class action related to the residential school system, they say.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Andrew Norfolk
December 15 2016
The Times

The former lead counsel to the independent inquiry into child abuse has been cleared of an allegation of sexual assault after an investigation ordered by his chambers.

Ben Emmerson, QC, a founder member of Matrix Chambers, had been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a lift at the offices of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in London earlier this year.

After the claim was reported in the media and repeated in parliament, Matrix asked Sir David Calvert-Smith, a former High Court judge, to investigate. Sir David, who is also a former director of public prosecutions, interviewed Mr Emmerson and the alleged complainant before preparing a report for the Matrix management committee.

The chambers said in a statement: “Sir David concluded ‘without hesitation’ that Mr Emmerson had not committed any act of sexual assault or sexual harassment. The management committee has accepted Sir David’s findings and is satisfied that they demonstrate no case of professional misconduct to report to the Bar Standards Board.”

Matrix, whose lawyers are known for fighting human rights actions and often represent the media in open justice cases against government secrecy, said the full report was “confidential and its contents will not be made public”.

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MINNESOTA
The Catholic Spirit

December 13, 2016

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Kressel ruled Dec. 8 that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis wouldn’t be responsible for paying approximately $355,000 in legal fees incurred by the Unsecured Creditors’ Committee in seeking to consolidate parish, school and foundation assets into the archdiocese’s bankruptcy.

Judge Kressel’s July 28 ruling that institutions “such as churches, schools and charitable organizations and foundations cannot be forced into bankruptcy” was upheld Dec. 6 by the Federal District Court after the Unsecured Creditors Committee, which represents more than 400 sexual abuse claimants, filed the appeal.

The judge also ruled Dec. 8 that professional fees of about half a million dollars incurred by attorneys, accountants, appraisers and others could be paid immediately from the archdiocese’s regular operating account. The remaining $2 million for attorneys’ and professional fees for the archdiocese, the Unsecured Creditors Committee and the Parish Committee will be paid once the court confirms a plan of Reorganization. Going forward, all payments for professional fees will be paid once a plan is approved, the judge said.

The court is scheduled to hear arguments on disclosure statements associated with Reorganization plans on Dec. 15. The archdiocese announced Dec. 8 its intention to amend its plan to provide more than $155 million to sexual abuse claimants after settling with all 13 of its insurance carriers.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic Culture

December 14, 2016

A federal bankruptcy-court judge in Minnesota has ruled that the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis is not responsible for the $355,000 in legal fees incurred by sex-abuse victims who had sought to include the resources of Catholic parishes and schools in the accounting of archdiocesan assets available to creditors.

Under the terms of a proposed bankruptcy agreement, the archdiocese is responsible for legal fees associated with the case. But the archdiocese is not responsible for the fees incurred during the unsuccessful appeal, Judge Robert Kessel ruled.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan St. Paul · Dec 15, 2016

The bankruptcy reorganization of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is about to enter its third year. But there is a chance that the church could reach a settlement with hundreds of sex abuse victims and emerge from bankruptcy by summer.

A court hearing scheduled for Thursday will focus on how well the archdiocese and creditors can explain their separate plans to the people who would vote on them, including some 450 sexual abuse victims seeking compensation. There will also be a discussion about voting procedures and counting the results.

The archdiocese envisions a vote by spring and a conclusion of the bankruptcy by mid-year, said Charles Rogers, an archdiocese attorney.

“We have $155 million, potentially more than $160 million, set aside at this time for a victim fund,” Rogers said. “We have the parameters of a plan that we believe is eminently workable. It is now for the court to determine what plan is voted on and how we proceed.”

The plan also seeks a court order protecting parishes and their insurers from future lawsuits by victims who’ve filed claims in the archdiocese bankruptcy.

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UNITED STATES
Christian News Network

By Heather Clark on December 14, 2016

The board of the organization GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), which includes the brother and uncle of Tullian Tchividijan, as well as the son of Ronald Reagan, has released a statement of grief over Tchividijan’s sexual misconduct and is urging churches to implement reformation to protect against “wolves” in their midst.

“The GRACE board is deeply disturbed about the revelations of sexual misconduct by Tullian Tchividjian. As an organization that deals with the abuse of God’s lambs and the damage silence causes, we feel compelled to speak,” the statement reads.

As previously reported, Tchividijan, the grandson of Billy Graham, resigned from his role as pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, formerly led by the late D. James Kennedy, in June of last year after admitting to having an affair with a church member.

However, Tchividijan stated that he had fallen into an inappropriate relationship in confiding with the woman about his wife’s infidelity. After being hired as the Director of Ministry Development at Willow Creek Presbyterian Church in Winter Springs, he soon admitted that he actually had already been in another affair before his wife was unfaithful, and then had a second sexual relationship. He was consequently fired.

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ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

The Herald

Fungai Lupande — AN Apostolic Faith Mission Ruwa pastor, Oliver Makomo, who is accused of raping a congregant, was yesterday removed from remand after the State failed to give him a trial date.Makomo’s lawyer, Mr Nickel Mushangwe, said he was advised that the docket was sent to the Prosecutor-General’s Office because of insufficient evidence.

“I am surprised that there is no communication from the PG’s Office on the position of the docket,” said Mr Mushangwe.

“The accused appeared in court on August 25 this year and State made numerous promises to provide a trial date.”

Prosecutor Ms Audrey Chogumaira argued that defence council was not being truthful about the PG’s Office being mum about the docket.

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OREGON
KDRV

[with video]

By Kasey Kershner Dec. 15, 2016

JACKSON COUNTY, Ore. — Kenneth Baker is behind bars tonight in the Jackson County Jail facing six counts of sexual abuse.

Reports say Baker met the victim through his church where he was a youth pastor.

It also stated that when the abuse started the victim was younger than 14, and it happened between 2006 and 2011.

However, there wasn’t an investigation until five years later, which law enforcement investigators say they see frequently in these cases.

“Delay disclosure is not uncommon for these types of cases and actually it’s probably more common than an immediate disclosure. So there’s obviously some obstacles with the lack of physical evidence with years past when the abuse took place. However, like any other investigation we talk to any potential witnesses and anyone who might have information for us,” said Detective David Seese with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

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OHIO
Sandusky Register

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request from a woman raped by a pastor when she was 15 to boost the amount of damages paid by the church where the minister worked.

Attorneys for the woman and her father argued a state law that limits noneconomic damages to $350,000 violates the constitutional rights of underage sexual assault victims.

They argue that sexual abuse is typically more emotionally damaging than physical injury and sexually abused minors often spend years dealing with the trauma.

Attorneys for the church argued that distinguishing between sexual abuse and physical injury isn’t arbitrary or unreasonable. They also said the woman didn’t suffer the types of catastrophic injuries needed to override the cap.

As evidence, they said the woman finished high school, attended college, has a full-time job and hasn’t participated in mental health counseling or treatment since 2008, the year the assault occurred.

The court agreed, ruling 3-2 to uphold the caps with two additional justices saying the court shouldn’t have taken the case.

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TEXAS
Crux

Mark Zimmermann
December 14, 2016
NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Taking over one of America’s front-line dioceses in terms of both the political and pastoral challenges of immigration, Bishop Edward Burns, named December 13 as the new shepherd of Dallas, Texas, has pledged to emphasize solidarity with immigrants.

Asked by Crux what he would tell immigrants who are fearful of the immigration policies in the upcoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump – who as a candidate had said that all illegal immigrants may be subject to deportation – Dallas’s new bishop underscored the importance of service.

“As the shepherd of the Diocese of Dallas, I want to assure them that we will do everything we can to help them and assist them. Regardless of the circumstances of how they entered this country, we will seek to serve their needs,” he said, adding, “…We need to be present to them. For us, it is the very essence of being a universal church.”
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TEXAS
Dallas Observer

BY STEPHEN YOUNG

Almost four months after the Vatican poached Bishop Kevin Farrell, Dallas’ 1.3 million Catholics have a new leader.

On Tuesday, Pope Francis appointed Edward J. Burns, currently the bishop of Juneau, Alaska, to Farrell’s vacated post. Burns, 59, will start his new gig on Feb. 7.

“I am profoundly grateful for my experience in Juneau and I pray for God’s grace as I take on my new duties as chief shepherd of this ever-growing Diocese of Dallas,” Burns said. “I look forward to listening and learning all that I can about this beautifully diverse Catholic community and I want to assure all in the Diocese of Dallas that I will be a shepherd for all people.” …

During his time in Juneau, Burns also served as the chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, which has sought to ensure that Catholic churches are safe environments “designed to ensure necessary safety and security for all children as they participate in church and religious activities” in the wake of the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the church over the last 25 years.

Last year, in an op-ed for the National Catholic Reporter, Burns cited numbers indicating that the church was getting better at stopping sexual abuse, but acknowledged that there was still work to do.

“Nevertheless, this is certainly not a sign that we have somehow put this scandal behind us, nor is it an occasion for self-congratulation. We must remain vigilant. We must not grow complacent. We should not regard the clerical sexual abuse scandal as a distraction from the church’s mission, as if, once we have somehow ‘rectified the problem,’ we can continue on as before.

Rather, our shepherds, myself included, need to face and repent of the betrayal of trust. Authentic and heartfelt repentance by the shepherds of our church is not a distraction from our mission: It is the mission at this moment in the life of the church and her leaders,” he wrote.

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CANADA
Sudbury.com

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — The Mount Cashel lawsuit is not about money — it’s to finally see local church officials held responsible for horrific abuse at the orphanage, a plaintiff said Wednesday as the case neared an end.

“I would really like to see that the church will be proven derelict in their duty to looking after youngsters,” said the man, now in his 70s, who can’t be identified under a court order.

“How can you hurt a child?” he asked. “I’ll stay until I see that they have been brought to task.”

He spoke outside provincial Supreme Court after closing arguments started Wednesday in the civil action led by former residents who claim church officials ignored repeated reports of sexual and physical attacks.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet bsweet@thetelegram.com
Published on December 14, 2016

On the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador steps, a John Doe former Mount Cashel resident now in his 70s held out hope for atonement from the Roman Catholic Church that he is convinced could have helped boys abused long ago at the infamous orphanage.

“How could you hurt a child?” asked the man, who detailed at the Mount Cashel civil trial earlier this year the horrific childhood physical and sexual abuse he said he suffered at the hands of Irish Christian Brothers in the 1950s.

Church officials and priests are not implicated in any of the abuse allegations connected to the case, but he is convinced the church had a role in the operations of the Christian Brothers’ orphanage and could have intervened.

In his mind, the answer is one of clear responsibility.

But the question of liability before Justice Alphonsus Faour is infinitely more complex and tied up in a long and winding history of the archdiocese — involved in the case through the Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s — and the lay order Christian Brothers, as well as legal precedent.

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NEW YORK
Forward

Daniel J. Solomon
December 14, 2016

For four decades, a Jewish man says he did not tell anyone that a counselor at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires forced him to perform a sex act in the woods one summer as a boy. But now that his alleged abuser has been convicted in the sexual abuse of several children in Canada, the unnamed victim is filing a lawsuit against the Jewish sleepaway camp and its parent organization, the Jewish Theological Seminary.

“I was trying to punish myself for putting myself in this position and not doing anything about it,” the anonymous man told the Daily News, who said that the episode drove him to depression, trust issues, alcoholism and numerous suicide attempts. “The fact is: This went on for years and nobody stopped it.”

The lawsuit, filed several weeks ago in Manhattan federal court, alleges that the New York-based camp engaged in a cover-up of the counselor’s sexual abuse. It names JTS and the National Ramah Commission, both of which oversee Camp Ramah in the Berkshires as well as more than a dozen other camps that form the Ramah network.

Neither JTS nor Ramah returned calls for comment from the Forward.

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WASHINGTON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790cell, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

We applaud the brave woman who just settled her child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against the Seattle Catholic archdiocese. But we deplore the continuing secrecy of church officials with predators.

[KING]

Archbishop Peter Sartain could have publicly disclosed the first time someone reported janitor Chuck Siddon’s alleged abuse. He could have done so the first time an abuse report against Siddon was deemed “credible.” He could have done so the first time the archdiocese was sued because of Siddon’s alleged crimes. He could have done so when the archdiocese first paid off one of Siddon’s alleged victims.

Instead, at every juncture, Sartain opts for secrecy over openness, until the bitter end. And even then, instead of providing the full truth, he provides self-serving “spin.”

Sartain should publicly apologize for hiding Siddon’s alleged crimes. He should publicly disclose the names, whereabouts and work histories of every single proven, admitted and credibly accused sex offender who has worked in Seattle area church jobs, whether living or deceased, clerical or lay, high-ranking or entry-level. And for the safety of kids and the healing of victims, he should list all of this, permanently, on archdiocesan and parish websites.

Church officials like to use words like “mistakes” and “failures” to describe their incredibly hurtful moves. We respectfully disagree. Deliberate decisions to help keep criminals concealed aren’t “goofs” or “oversights.” These are careful choices made by smart men to protect their own reputations, careers, comfort and “brand.”

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ILLINOIS
NBC Chicago

By Mary Ann Ahern

A Chicago-area priest who was removed from the ministry for an “inappropriate relationship” was hoping to start over in San Antonio, Texas, but has instead relocated to Mexico.

The San Antonio Archdiocese told NBC 5 that Fr. Marco Mercado “never had a formal assignment” and has returned to live with his family in Mexico.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, national president member of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (312-399-4747, bblaine@SNAPnetwork.org)

For the second time in five months, top Chicago Catholic officials are letting a priest who engaged in sexual misconduct move down the road to even more vulnerable and unsuspecting families where he’s apt to hurt others. It’s a continuation of the callous and irresponsible pattern of moving predators that Catholic staffers have engaged in for centuries.

[NBC Chicago]

In August, Cardinal Blasé Cupich sent Fr. Marco Mercado to Texas to work, even though the priest had, in church officials’ own words “an inappropriate adult relationship.” (Notice this is no “allegation.” Cupich is admitting the Fr. Mercado misused his power and prestige as a priest to sexually exploit another person.)

[SNAP]

Now, Cupich is sending Fr. Mercado to Mexico, or at least letting Fr. Mercado move there. According to NBC 5, “Cupich played a role in the latest decision that sent Mercado back to Mexico. The Chicago Archdiocese refused comment.”

So just last year, Cupich deemed Fr. Mercado too dangerous to work in a Chicago parish. But he apparently has no problem if Fr. Mercado works in Texas or Mexican parishes. Shame on him and on every Catholic staffer who is choosing to protect himself, his comfort and his career by staying silent while the higher-ups deliberately and repeatedly act recklessly.

Several factors make Mexican families even more vulnerable to offending priests like Fr. Mercado. First, the gaps between a priest and his parishioners – in terms of education, prestige, sophistication and money – are even greater in Mexico, giving the priest considerably more power over his flock. Second, there’s an even longer and deeper culture of unquestioning respect for priests in Mexico than here. Third, the US enjoys a stronger investigative media climate and justice systems, making it more apt that Fr. Mercado might be exposed, prosecuted or sued in the US than in Mexico.

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NEW YORK
Church Militant

by Stefan Farrar • ChurchMilitant.com • December 9, 2016

NEW YORK (ChurchMilitant.com) – Forty-six people have registered claims of sex abuse in the archdiocese of New York through a newly developed victims’ compensation program.

The compensation program was established by Cdl. Timothy Dolan in early October, who said, “I wish I would have done this quite a while ago. I just finally thought: Darn it, let’s do it. I’m tired of putting it off.”

According to the official protocol, “This Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (the ‘IRCP’) follows in the wake of initiatives already implemented by the Archdiocese of New York … to address the problem of sexual abuse of minors alleged against clergy of the Archdiocese.”

The program has come under fire from advocates for sex abuse victims. Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, wrote, “While the fund certainly will help some victims, its biggest beneficiary will be Dolan and his management team. This is a legal strategy in pastoral garb, a tactic by the powerful archbishop to control victims and protect the church’s assets and its secrets.”

Barrett Doyle’s criticisms are based on two elements of the program: (1) claimants are required to sign a confidentiality agreement, and (2) victims aren’t given information on what happened to their abuser.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Evening Standard

MARTIN BENTHAM

The former chief lawyer at the independent inquiry into child sex abuse was today cleared of allegations of sexual misconduct after a probe conducted by a former High Court judge.

Sir David Calvert-Smith, who also served as Director of Public Prosecutions before moving onto the Bench, said he had concluded “without hestitation” that there was no truth in allegations that Ben Emmerson QC had committed sexual assault or harassment while working for the inquiry.

His finding follows allegations reported on the BBC’s Newsnight programme that Mr Emmerson – who resigned from the inquiry earlier this year after being suspended over concerns about his conduct – had groped a female colleague in a lift.

Mr Emmerson strongly denied the allegations, but his chambers, Matrix, ordered an investigation to establish whether further action, including a referral to the Bar Standards Board, was needed.

Today, however, it announced that the investigation, carried out by Sir David, had cleared Mr Emmerson.

“Sir David concluded without hesitation that Mr Emmerson had not committed any act of sexual assault or sexual harassment,” Matrix said in a statement.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Legal Business

by Matthew Field

Matrix Chambers has concluded an investigation into top silk Ben Emmerson QC following allegations of sexual assault during his work on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and found he did not commit any act of sexual assault or harassment.

Emmerson (pictured) was the subject of allegations on BBC Newsnight in October that said a female member of staff had been assaulted by the lawyer, who was lead counsel on the inquiry at the time.

Matrix Chambers launched an internal investigation into the claims and the management committee instructed former Director of Public Prosecutions and retired High Court Judge Sir David Calvert-Smith to investigate the allegations.

In a statement, Matrix Chambers said: ‘After examining the evidence, Sir David submitted his final report to the management committee earlier this week. In his report Sir David concluded “without hesitation” that Mr Emmerson had not committed any act of sexual assault or sexual harassment.’

The statement added there was no case of professional misconduct to report to the Bar Standards Board.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

THE future of Rabbi Pinchus Feldman as a member of the Rabbinical Council of New South Wales (RCNSW) hangs in the balance after a formal complaint was lodged against him this week by child sexual abuse victims’ advocate Manny Waks.

The complaint, which was made to RCNSW president Rabbi Eli Cohen, has seen four out of five RCNSW executive members – Rabbi Cohen, Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, Rabbi Eli Feldman and Rabbi Chaim Ingram – step aside in relation to the matter, with the rabbis citing a conflict of interest. As a result, executive member Rabbi Paul Lewin will appoint a committee to address the complaint “in due course”.

In an email to Rabbi Cohen, Waks said that Rabbi Pinchus Feldman “did not fulfil his moral, religious and legal responsibility to protect children, and was a party to conduct that denigrated victims”.

The complaint comes after the Rabbinic Council of Australia and New Zealand (RCANZ), Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) and RCNSW publicly stated that those who did not fulfil their legal responsibility to protect children should “stand down from their public positions”, and that “those who denigrated or undermined the victims have lost their moral right to serve”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Tim Sculthorpe, Mailonline Deputy Political Editor

The former top lawyer at the struggling child abuse inquiry has been cleared of allegations of sexual assault and harassment.

Ben Emmerson, a senior QC, was suspended from his job on the inquiry because of concerns over his leadership. He subsequently quit his post as senior counsel before the claims emerged about the alleged incident, which happened weeks before he left.

His chambers, Matrix, set up an independent inquiry to look at the claims reported on BBC Newsnight about an alleged sexual assault in a lift.

A formal complaint was not made by the woman involved.

The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) has not commented on Mr Emmerson’s departure beyond an initial statement raising concerns about ‘aspects of Mr Emmerson’s leadership’.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The former senior counsel to the independent inquiry into historical child sexual abuse in England and Wales has been cleared of allegations of sexual assault and harassment.

An inquiry worker claimed he groped her in a lift in September.

But a former director of public prosecutions has now exonerated Ben Emmerson QC “without hesitation”.

Mr Emmerson, who quit the inquiry in September, said he was “very pleased” with the investigation’s outcome.

He said: “This has been a difficult period and I am naturally very pleased that an independent senior judge has now confirmed that the allegations against me were always unfounded.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Sandra Laville and Owen Bowcott
Wednesday 14 December 2016

The former senior counsel on the national child abuse inquiry has been cleared of any wrongdoing in an independent investigation by his chambers. Ben Emmerson QC, who quit the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) in September, was named in a BBC Newsnight programme after an inquiry worker revealed details of an alleged sexual assault in a lift.

The abuse inquiry, under the chairmanship of Prof Alexis Jay, has repeatedly refused to release any further information about Emmerson’s departure. His law chambers, Matrix, set up an independent inquiry into the allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment. It was led by the former director of public prosecutions, Sir David Calvert-Smith.

Matrix said on Wednesday: “After examining the evidence, Sir David submitted his final report to the management committee earlier this week. In his report, Sir David concluded ‘without hesitation’ that Mr Emmerson had not committed any act of sexual assault or sexual harassment.”

Welcoming the inquiry’s findings, Emmerson said: “This has been a difficult period and I am naturally very pleased that an independent senior judge has now confirmed that the allegations against me were always unfounded. I hope that the inquiry can now be left to get on with its important work, free from unnecessary distractions.”

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CANADA
CTV News

Sue Bailey, The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, December 14, 2016

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Closing arguments began Wednesday in a civil lawsuit led by former Mount Cashel residents who claim church officials ignored reports of horrific abuse at the orphanage in Newfoundland.

Lawyers for about 60 claimants are in provincial Supreme Court, and say the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s is liable for incidents dating back to the 1940s.

He took aim at defence arguments, including that attitudes toward physical punishment of children have changed over time.

“Some things are eternally regarded,” he told Judge Alphonsus Faour.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Council of 9 Cardinals met this week in the Vatican, from Monday, December 12th, to Wednesday, December 14th. The Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Greg Burke, held a briefing on Wednesday to inform journalists of the work done during the sessions.

Two key issues emerged as guidelines for the reform of the Curial dicasteries: missionary thrust and synodality.

The Cardinals have concluded their study of other departments (Doctrine of the Faith, Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Causes of Saints and Promotion of Christian Unity) and delivered their final proposal to the Holy Father.

Considerable time was devoted to the projects of the two new dicasteries.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell spoke of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, of which he is Prefect. The discussion focused on the role of the laity, with an invitation to all to re-read the letter of Pope Francis to Card. Marc Ouellet, President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Cardinal Peter Turkson presented the work plan for the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, which combines four offices: Justice and Peace, Cor Unum, Health Care, and Migrants and Itinerant People.

Card. Turkson was accompanied by Archbishop Silvano Maria Tomasi, who explained the new department as an implementation of the conciliar Constitution Gaudium et Spes.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has today (14 December) announced that its preliminary hearing will take place on 31 January 2017 at Parliament House in Edinburgh.

At the preliminary hearing, Inquiry Chair Lady Smith will explain the Inquiry’s approach to its work and will provide an update on the Inquiry’s current investigations. She will set out the Inquiry’s key procedures including how people and interested parties may participate in the Inquiry and the different ways in which the Inquiry is gathering evidence. Information will also be shared about the proactive communications campaign to drive public awareness of and engagement with the Inquiry.

As this hearing will deal with procedural matters only, no witnesses will appear and no evidence will be heard.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the preliminary hearing. However, seating capacity is limited for health and safety reasons and as a result access will be granted on a first come, first served, basis.

Anyone wishing to attend the preliminary hearing should come to the main reception at Parliament House where they will be directed to the hearing room. The preliminary hearing will begin at 11am and is expected to run for approximately one and a half hours.

For those not able to attend the preliminary hearing, a recording of the full event will be available on the website, www.childabuseinquiry.scot.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The Scottish inquiry into allegations of abuse of children in care is to hold its first hearing in the new year.

The preliminary hearing will take place at Parliament House in Edinburgh on 31 January.

It will include an update on current investigations and set out how evidence will be taken. No witnesses will be called.

Chaired by Lady Smith, the inquiry will take four years and identify the extent of abuse and any systemic failures.

During the hearing, Lady Smith is expected to explain the inquiry’s approach to its work and set out how people can participate.

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WASHINGTON
KING

[with video]

Susannah Frame, KING December 13, 2016

Two years ago at the age of 42, a woman who KING is identifying by the initials of A.W., took the step of sharing a secret she’d kept since the age of 10.

She decided it was time to tell her parents the truth about what really happened on the last day of third grade at St. John Catholic School in Seattle, and the trauma the event and aftermath had caused for so many years. In 1983, in the school janitor’s office, the long-time school employee didn’t just touch the little 10-year-old inappropriately. A.W. admitted that the janitor, Chuck Siddons, had raped her.

“As a child, after this I struggled. I began drinking and smoking. I struggled in high school. I had problems in high school, and my whole life I’ve carried a dark secret feeling guilty. You feel ashamed, you feel dirty,” said A.W.

After the assault, Siddons told the third grader to keep her mouth shut, but she didn’t. A.W. told her parents the man had put his hands on her private parts. They immediately called the police department. The janitor was arrested, fired from his job, pled guilty to indecent liberties and went to prison. According to A.W., the school appeared to move on.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Laura Crimaldi GLOBE STAFF DECEMBER 13, 2016

A former associate chaplain at St. George’s School in Rhode Island who has been accused of sexual abuse in three other states and stripped of his priesthood by the Episcopal Church was arraigned Tuesday on charges that he molested a teenager during two trips to Boston in 1973.

The criminal charges against Howard White Jr., 75, grew out of a Rhode Island State Police investigation into allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by former faculty and students at the elite prep school in Middletown, R.I., going back to 1970, according to the Suffolk district attorney’s office.

The DA’s office and a civil attorney for three alleged victims said the criminal proceedings are the first they know of to be initiated against White, who lives in Bedford, Pa.

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CANADA
Catholic Register

BY DEBORAH GYAPONG, CANADIAN CATHOLIC NEWS
December 13, 2016

OTTAWA – Pope Francis has said no to visiting Canada in 2017, but that hasn’t stopped Saskatchewan’s bishops and Indigenous leaders from planning a papal visit.

The bishops, Indigenous leaders and civic authorities have invited Pope Francis to visit the province in 2018 or ’19 to offer an official apology for the Catholic Church’s role in operating residential schools. A papal apology on Canadian soil was called for in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) 2015 report.

“The principal purpose of the visit would be to meet with, listen to and address our Indigenous people,” said a draft statement issued by the Catholic bishops of Saskatchewan.

“While this remains only an invitation at this point, we are hopeful that a pastoral visit by Pope Francis to Canada may indeed come about, and that an apology given in Saskatchewan to indigenous leaders and residential schools will be part of it,” said Regina Archbishop Donald Bolen.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press Posted: Dec 13, 2016

Two survivors of a notorious Indian residential school want the courts to ensure they aren’t forced to foot the government’s legal bills if they lose a complex case involving hidden police documents and a dispute over compensation for the abuse they say they suffered.

The government, however, was set to argue at a hearing on Wednesday that the request for a no-costs guarantee should be rejected out of hand.

The claimants in the case, Edmund Metatawabin and a woman known as K-10106, attended the church-run St. Anne’s residential school in Fort Albany, Ont., which was equipped with an electric chair used to shock students.

Metatawabin, who also speaks for the Peetabeck Keyway Keykaywin Association or PKKA — a group of St. Anne’s survivors — and the woman both say they were victims of horrific abuse that included being forced to eat vomit.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

He was born in Pittsburgh, grew up in Ellwood City, got his undergraduate degree from Duquesne University and sensed a call to the Catholic priesthood here.

“I always envisioned I would be a pastor in a parish in Western Pennsylvania,” Bishop Edward Burns said Tuesday.

And he was — for a while. Then he went on to direct the recruitment and training of new priests in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., before heading to Alaska in 2009 to lead the smallest U.S. diocese.

Now he’ll be leading one of the largest.

Pope Francis on Tuesday named Bishop Burns, 59, to lead the Diocese of Dallas. It is the nation’s 11th largest, has 1.3 million Catholics and is growing fast, largely due to a Hispanic influx. In contrast, Bishop Burns’ current flock of 10,000 in the sprawling Diocese of Juneau could fit into a single Dallas parish.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer

BOSTON – Former Episcopal priest Howard “Howdy” White Jr., one of six named perpetrators in the sex-abuse scandal that has embroiled St. George’s School in Middletown since last year, has been charged with sexually assaulting a former student during two trips to Boston in 1973.

White was associate chaplain at St. George’s at the time.

White pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court after being indicted on five counts of assault and battery. White, 75, was indicted last month for assaulting the boy, who was between 15 and 16 years old. White, of Bedford, Pa., was freed on personal recognizance, said court spokesman Jake Wark.

The court ordered that White have no contact with the victim, have no unsupervised contact with any children under 18, and surrender his passport. Trial is scheduled for June 26.

White, 75, remains under criminal investigation in Waynesville, N.C., based on two allegations brought early this year. He was removed from his Pennsylvania church ministry in January and removed from the priesthood in October after an ecclesiastical investigation.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Caledonian Record

BOSTON (AP) — A former Episcopal priest who worked at several elite boarding schools pleaded not guilty Tuesday to sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1973 in Boston.

Howard “Howdy” White appeared in Suffolk Superior Court after being indicted on five counts of assault and battery. White, 75, of Bedford, Pennsylvania, was freed on personal recognizance.

He was ordered not to contact the victim, to have no unsupervised contact with children and to surrender his passport.

The district attorney’s office said the statute of limitations does not bar White’s prosecution because he never was a resident of Massachusetts.

White and his lawyer, David Duncan, did not comment outside court.

Prosecutors said White assaulted the boy when he was 15 or 16 during two overnight trips to Boston when White worked at St. George’s School in Middletown, Rhode Island, and the boy was a student there. The boy reported the abuse to a teacher in 1974, and White allegedly admitted he had sexually assaulted the boy, the district attorney’s office said.

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RHODE ISLAND
Patch

By Margo Sullivan (Patch Staff) – December 13, 2016

MIDDLETOWN, RI — The statute of limitations will not prevent Massachusetts from arraigning a priest who allegedly assaulted a St. George’s School student more than 40 years ago.

Howard “Howdy” White Jr., 75, of Bedford, Pennsylvania, was arraigned today for allegedly assaulting a student in his care during two trips to Boston more than 40 years ago, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

He is charged with five counts of assault and battery. The indictments, which were returned Nov. 21, charge White with sexually assaulting the boy during two trips to Boston in 1973 when the victim was between 15 and 16 years old.

White appeared voluntarily at arraignment and prosecutors did not request bail. He was ordered to surrender his passport, not to have contact with the victim, and not to have any unsupervised contact with any children under 18.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror
DEC 14, 2016

RYAN BROWN
Staff Writer
rbrown@altoonamirror.com

A former Bedford Episcopal priest and New England school chaplain pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he sexually assaulted a teenage boy in Boston in the 1970s.

Howard “Howdy” White, 75, was arraigned on five counts of assault and battery, Suffolk County, Mass., District Attorney’s Office spokesman Jake Wark said in a news release. White, a Bedford resident, had worked for years as a part-time replacement priest at St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford before church officials suspended him in January.

Audrey Scanlan, Episcopal bishop for central Pennsylvania, formally removed White from the priesthood in October, citing months of media reports claiming White had abused boys at a Rhode Island boarding school.

On Tuesday, White was released without bail in preparation for a possible trial next year. Prosecutors said he was an associate chaplain at St. George’s School in Middletown, R.I., in the 1970s when he took a male student on several overnight trips, including two to Boston.

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NEW YORK
Times Union

By Emily Masters, Times Union Tuesday, December 13, 2016

JEFFERSON — A 51-year-old man is accused of sexually abusing three teenage boys who he had contact with through a Schoharie County religious organization, State Police said.

Jonathan M. Luce of Jefferson is charged with felony criminal sex act, misdemeanor sexual misconduct, misdemeanor sex abuse and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child.
The abuse took place inside Luce’s home over the past five years, State Police said.

“Luce would create opportunities to be alone with the victims and then engage them in various sexual activity,” State Police said in a news release.

The law enforcement agency did not immediately release the name of the Schoharie County religious organization that gave Luce access to the teens. The victims ranged from 12 to 17 years old, troopers said.

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NEW YORK
WNYT

A Schoharie County man is accused of sexually abusing boys he met at his church.

State police arrested 51-year-old Jonathan Luce of the town of Jefferson. They say he engaged in sex acts with three different boys at his home over the last five years.

Troopers say he met the boys through a religious group and would create opportunities to be alone with them. The victims ranged in age from 12 to 17 years old.

Luce is charged with second-degree criminal sex act, which is a felony. He’s also charged with second-degree sexual misconduct, second-degree sex abuse, and endangering the welfare of child – all misdemeanors.

Luce lives at 152 Deer Path. We wanted to talk to him, but the home is tucked behind a load of no trespassing signs down a long driveway in the woods.

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NEW YORK
Daily Star

A Schoharie County man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly sexually abusing several teenage boys, according to a media release from state police.

Jonathan M. Luce, 51, of Jefferson, engaged in sexual acts with three teenage boys at his residence over the past five years, according to troopers. They believe Luce had contact with the victims from his participation as a parishioner at a Schoharie County religious organization, which was not disclosed.

Troopers said Luce created opportunities to be alone with the victims and then engaged them in sexual activity. The alleged victims ranged in age from 12 to 17 years old, according to the release.

Luce has been charged with second-degree criminal sex act, a felony; sexual misconduct; second-degree sexual abuse; and endangering the welfare of a child, the release said. He is scheduled to appear in Jefferson Town Court on Jan. 2.

Lynn Hait, Jefferson’s town justice, said he expects to receive court papers regarding Luce’s case within the next week or so. He didn’t have any information on the case Tuesday, he said.

A source close to the investigation speaking on anonymity said Luce has a wife and children. According to his LinkedIn professional networking account, he is a loan officer at Community Bank and previously worked at The National Bank of Delaware County. He apparently attended SUNY Cobleskill, according to the site.

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NEW YORK
Watershed Post

By New York State Police, Tue, 12/13/2016
December 13, 2016 – SP Cobleskill

State Police arrested Jonathan M. Luce, 51, from the Town of Jefferson for charges related to the sexual abuse of teenage boys. He was charged with 1 count of Criminal Sex Act 2nd (felony), 1 count of Sexual Misconduct (misdemeanor), 1 count of Sex Abuse 2nd (misdemeanor) and 1 count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child (misdemeanor).

State Police allege that he engaged in sexual acts with three different teenage boys at his residence over the past five years. State Police allege that Luce had contact with the victims from his participation as a parishioner in a Schoharie County religious organization. Luce would create opportunities to be alone with the victims and then engage them in various sexual activity. The victims ranged in age from 12 to 17 years old.

Luce was charged in the Town of Jefferson and is scheduled to reappear there on January 2, 2017.

Officials ask that anyone who feels they may have information regarding Mr. Luce, additional victims, or who may have been a victim to call State Police at 518-630-1712.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Shawn Raymundo , sraymundo@guampdn.com December 14, 2016

The Archdiocese of Agana, which faces 13 lawsuits in connection with alleged child sexual abuse, has asked the Legislature for background information about the recent law that lifted the statute of limitations and made it possible to sue the church.

Among other things, church legal counsel John Terlaje on Dec. 12 asked Sen. Frank Aguon Jr. for all documents analyzing the constitutionality or legality of Bill 326-33, as well as all opinions of the Legislature’s attorney, regarding the bill. Terlaje submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to Aguon, who on Tuesday raised concerns about the request.

Aguon’s Judiciary Committee worked on the bill, which was introduced by Sen. Frank Blas, Jr. It lifted the statute of limitations on civil cases related to child sexual abuse, allowing victims to sue their abusers and the institutions that supported them.

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ARGENTINA
ACI Prensa

SAN RAFAEL, 13 Dic. 16 / 01:30 pm (ACI).- En un comunicado leído en conferencia de prensa el 12 de diciembre, el Obispado de San Rafael (Argentina), informó que el Vaticano ha encontrado culpable al P. Carlos Miguel Buela, fundador del Instituto del Verbo Encarnado (IVE), de “comportamientos impropios con mayores de edad”.

En el mensaje, leído por el P. José Antonio Álvarez, la diócesis argentina señaló que surgieron denuncias contra el P. Buela “sobre acciones en materia sexual que afectaron a religiosos y a seminaristas del Instituto”.

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ARGENTINA
Catholic News Agency

San Rafael, Argentina, Dec 13, 2016 / 05:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Father Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, has been found guilty by the Vatican of sexual improprieties with adults, the community’s home diocese announced on Monday.

The accusations against Fr. Buela “regarded actions in sexual matters which harmed religious and seminarians of the Institute,” a spokesman of the Diocese of San Rafael announced Dec. 12.

“The competent Congregation of the Holy See, having ensured the exercise of the legitimate right of defense of the accused, determined, in conformity with the canonical procedures in force, the veracity of the accusations and the imputability of Father Buela of improper behavior with adults,” he stated.

The diocese made clear, however, that there are no “cases of the abuse of minors attributable to him.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

Brian Dowling Wednesday, December 14, 2016

A 75-year-old former Episcopal priest in Rhode Island was arrested and charged yesterday with assaulting a 15-year-old prep school student he took on trips to Boston more than 40 years ago, Suffolk prosecutors said.

Howard “Howdy” White was an associate chaplain at St. George’s School in Middletown, R.I., in 1973 when prosecutors say he took one of his academic advisees on two overnight trips to Boston and assaulted him. He faces five counts of assault and battery from the two trips.

“Whether as a child or as an adult, disclosing sexual abuse can be the most daunting experience in a person’s life,” Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement. “Survivors everywhere should know that they can feel safe and supported coming to us, and that we place their well-being above all else as we investigate and prosecute the harm committed against them.”

As the student’s academic advisor, White helped him with his studies, took him out to dinner and invited him on the trips to Boston, prosecutors said.

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NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch

While the Rome Catholic Diocese of Syracuse declines to elaborate on nearly 30-year-old abuse allegations levied against a local priest, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Tuesday the conduct reported to his office never alleged any physical contact.

By Micaela Parker

While the Rome Catholic Diocese of Syracuse declines to elaborate on nearly 30-year-old abuse allegations levied against a local priest, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Tuesday the conduct reported to his office never alleged any physical contact.

The Rev. Paul Angelicchio, pastor of St. John the Baptist and Transfiguration parish in Rome, was placed on administrative leave following a 27-year-old allegation of abuse of a minor, according to information previously released by the diocese. Angelicchio told his parish he would be taking leave during the Nov. 19-20 weekend Masses. The diocese noted that while the allegation has not been substantiated, Angelicchio is not permitted to “publicly function” as a priest until the matter is resolved, in keeping with the policy and practice of the diocese.

“It was never alleged that Father Angelicchio had any physical contact with anyone, despite the impression given by the original article,” Fitzpatrick wrote in an email. “It was alleged that he was aware of sexual abuse committed in his presence and did nothing to prevent it, conduct which if true would constitute a misdemeanor.”

Additionally, Fitzpatrick wrote that his office’s investigation revealed the following information:

* The conduct attributed to Angelicchio “had never been mentioned before despite a number of interviews by the complainant,” whom the office declined to identify.

* There were “no corroborating witnesses, no admissions, a denial by Father Angelicchio, no crime scene and no physical evidence.”

* Angelicchio “posed no danger to minors in his presence.”

As a result, the office closed its investigation and referred the matter to the diocese, Fitzpatrick wrote.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

An Episcopal priest, who currently resides in Bedford County, was arraigned in a Boston court Tuesday on five counts of assault and battery, stemming from an incident that allegedly took place in 1973.

Rev. Howard J. “Howdy” White Jr., formerly the associate chaplain at St. George’s School in Middletown, Rhode Island, is accused of sexually assaulting a boy during two trips to Massachusetts when the juvenile was 15 or 16 years old.

The alleged victim reported the incident to school faculty and White reportedly admitted the assault to the headmaster, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. White was fired in 1974.

St. George’s, however, never notified child-protection authorities, according to an article in the Providence Journal. White then received other assignments, including at St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford.

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CANADA
Metro

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Men who claim church officials ignored reports of horrific abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland are expected back in court Wednesday.

Their civil lawsuit will return to provincial Supreme Court as they argue the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s should compensate them for incidents dating back to the 1940s.

Their lawyers will make closing arguments that church officials knew or ought to have known what was happening.

Representative plaintiffs for about 60 claimants can’t be named under a court order, but they have alleged sexual and physical abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Andrew Norfolk, Chief Investigative Reporter
December 13 2016
The Times

Britain’s leading Roman Catholic school is to be investigated by the charities watchdog over its handling of sex-abuse allegations, it was announced yesterday.

The Charity Commission’s inquiry into Ampleforth Abbey and its educational trust, which runs Ampleforth College, was launched after The Times revealed the school’s past cover-up of a potential scandal when 11 boys alleged inappropriate conduct by a teacher.

Pupils told Ampleforth’s headmaster in 1989 of having been stroked, touched and kissed by Paul Sheppard. The Canadian was asked to leave but police were not informed and he was given job references praising the quality of his “exceptional dedication” and “care for the children”.

Dr Sheppard, now aged 53, subsequently taught at schools in seven countries across four continents.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

DAVID BEHRENS, DIGITAL EDITOR
Tuesday 13 December 2016

A YORKSHIRE religious community was today at the centre of a raft of new investigations linked to allegations of sexual abuse against students.

The Charity Commission announced it was looking into Ampleforth Abbey’s handling of abuse claims at its two church schools near Malton.

At the same time, it emerged that North Yorkshire Police was investigating three new claims of abuse at the Benedictine monk-run institution.

The new claimants are understood to have come forward following the announcement three months ago that the chairman of governors at Ampleforth College had stepped aside while police looked into other allegations of abuse.

The Right Reverend Cuthbert Madden, who was also abbot at Ampleforth, has denied any wrongdoing.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

An inquiry is to be held into how a leading Roman Catholic school deals with allegations of sexual abuse and safeguarding issues.

The Charity Commission said the inquiry will investigate charities which administer Ampleforth Abbey and Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire.

The regulator said it followed “recent media reports” of alleged sexual abuse linked to the college.
The Abbey and school said they were co-operating fully.

The Charity Commission said the inquiry would not investigate allegations of abuse or actual incidents of abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Sally Weale Education correspondent

The Charity Commission has launched an investigation into safeguarding and the handling of sexual abuse allegations at a prestigious independent Catholic boarding school in North Yorkshire.

Police have been investigating allegations of historical sexual abuse at Ampleforth College, which has educated cultural luminaries such as the Downton Abbey creator, Julian Fellowes, the sculptor Antony Gormley and the actor Rupert Everett.

Announcing its inquiry on Tuesday, the commission – which is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales – stressed that its role was not to investigate allegations or actual incidents of abuse, whether historical or recent.

Its remit is solely to look into the trustees’ approach to safeguarding and their handling of allegations of sexual abuse.

Ampleforth Abbey, a registered charity, is the home of a Catholic religious community which is based on the same site. The St Laurence Education Trust is the registered charity which runs Ampleforth College and a second independent school, St Martin’s Ampleforth.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Northern Echo

THE Charity Commission has launched an inquiry into how a leading Roman Catholic independent school has handled allegations of child sexual abuse.

The probe follows a North Yorkshire Police investigation into the Right Reverend Cuthbert Madden, chairman of governors at Ampleforth College and Ampleforth Abbey’s abbot, roles which placed him at the head of the largest Benedictine community in the country.

The force announced last month that the historical child sex inquiry had concluded Father Cuthbert, 61, who was ordained as a priest in 1990 and has been at Ampleforth for 30 years, would not face any charges.

A police spokesman said: “An investigation has been carried out, and based on the evidence available, no further action will be taken.”

Ampleforth Abbey, near Thirsk, said Abbot Cuthbert Madden had always denied any wrongdoing and cooperated while the allegations were investigated.

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UNITED KINGDOM
i News

Dean Kirby

An inquiry has been launched into the handling of child sex abuse allegations at one of the country’s most prestigious independent Roman Catholic boarding schools.

The Charity Commission said the inquiry will look at charities that administer Ampleforth Abbey and Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire.

The college is already the subject of a police investigation into historical allegations of abuse.

In September, the Right Reverend Cuthbert Madden, Ampleforth College’s chairman of governors and Ampleforth Abbey’s abbot, stepped aside as he denied any wrongdoing after North Yorkshire Police confirmed it was investigating non-recent allegations of indecent assault against four pupils.

The Charity Commission announced it had opened an inquiry into Ampleforth Abbey and St Laurence Education Trust, which runs both Ampleforth College and St Martin’s Ampleforth.

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SCOTLAND
Motherwell Times

A priest from Motherwell who’s at the centre of a row over a book alleging sexual misconduct has quit his parish role.

Fr Matthew Despard was accused by Bishop Joseph Toal of “causing considerable scandal” with his publication and offending many parishioners who could no longer attend mass because of him.

However, a support group set up for the priest branded the bishop’s comments “disgraceful” and claimed attendance at St John Ogilvie in Blantyre has fallen because of the way the Bishop of Motherwell has treated him.

Fr Despard had been suspended from his duties for three years after publishing Priesthood in Crisis. Last year the diocese won a court battle to have him evicted from the parish house and last month it emerged his elderly parents could lose their Motherwell home, which is in Fr Despard’s name, in legal action aimed at recovering costs from him.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lincolnshire Live

By Paul Whitelam | Posted: December 13, 2016

Arrests have been made following a number of allegations of historic sexual abuse of children at a group of Lincolnshire churches.

Lincolnshire Police has confirmed a number of people have been bailed pending further enquiries as part of an investigation called Operation Redstone.

This was launched following “a number of concerns” being referred to the force in 2015 after a review of past safeguarding cases by the Diocese of Lincoln dating back to 1958.

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