ABUSE TRACKER

SWITZERLAND
swissinfo

Victims who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic Church representatives in Switzerland can now access a special fund to claim compensation. The idea was first launched a year ago by the Swiss Bishops Conference.

At the moment, the newly created fund contains CHF500,000 ($495,500) to compensate abuse victims, who may receive a single payment of up to CHF10,000 ($9,966) according to last year’s plan for the fund.

Bishop Charles Morerod, the head of the Swiss Bishops Conference, said on Monday that the fund “only covers prescribed cases” while recalling the “particularly difficult” situation of abuse victims whose cases “were not heard or addressed for a long time by the Church’s authorities”.

Contributors to the new fund include the Swiss dioceses, the Union of Religious Superiors in Switzerland as well as ecclesiastical corporations. An independent commission has been set up to decide on the amount each victim should receive in compensation.

In Swiss-German regions of Switzerland, unlike the French-speaking part, sexual abuse commissions have existed in dioceses for several years and supported victims. But this is the first compensation fund that has been established.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Dec. 5, 2016

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

We are deeply skeptical of Catholic church abuse victim pay out plans like the one just adopted by Swiss bishops.

[swissinfo]

These programs are almost always unilateral, top-down efforts to prevent litigation and legislative reform of predator-friendly secular laws. They are really about continued secrecy, not victims’ healing or children’s safety.

If kids are to be safer, adults must make it easier, not harder, for victims to report sexual violence. These programs often make it harder.

When these programs happen, church officials should not insist on insensitive, arbitrary and self-serving deadlines which force still-suffering victims to move quickly to deal with decades of pain or else be left out in the cold again.

And the amounts must be much greater, because of the devastating, life-long harm caused to these vulnerable, innocent kids which continues to cause deep suffering for decades.

No matter what church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in churches, schools or institutions – especially religious ones – to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

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NEW MEXICO
Cibola County

CIBOLA COUNTY – Bishop James Wall and the Diocese of Gallup is uniting in prayer for a series of healing services, including several in Cibola County during the upcoming year. The first meeting in the series took place on Nov. 19 in Gallup at Sacred Heart Cathedral. The second meeting is today in Ft. Defiance at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament at 6:30 p.m. The first meeting in the Cibola County area is in February in Grants.

“We extend our invitation to attend these healing services to all who have been affected by physical, emotional, or sexual abuse in the Diocese, especially our brothers and sisters who have survived abuse by members of the Church.

Families and friends of survivors, Catholics and community members who are struggling with forgiveness or who have been affected by the sin of abuse, and all people wishing to unite and seek healing; to them we extend the invitation to attend these services as well,” said a representative from Gallup’s Diocese in a press release.

The healing services consist of prayer, scripture reading, and a reflection from Bishop Wall. The Bishop has and will continue to be available after the services to privately meet with survivors.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Joanne McCarthy

More than 80 Catholic and Anglican Church priests and other representatives – including women – are alleged to have committed child sex crimes against Hunter children over decades, newly released data analysis and evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has revealed.

The shocking figure includes claims and substantiated complaints against 51 alleged and convicted Hunter Catholic offenders from the 1940s to the 1990s, including 19 priests, 20 Marist Brothers, and 12 teachers, employees and volunteers, a report by the royal commission has found.

The data analysis has confirmed, for the first time, the extent of compensation paid to survivors of Catholic abuse in the Hunter after years of confidential settlements enforced by the church. It includes confirmation that nearly $10 million was paid to victims of just one child sex offender priest, John Denham. It also confirms that a single victim of notorious paedophile priest Vince Ryan received one of the highest known church abuse payouts in Australia, of $3 million, more than a decade ago.

The royal commission data analysis has also revealed that abuse survivors in the Hunter have received substantially greater compensation, on average, than survivors in two other Australian child sexual abuse hotspots in Ballarat and Melbourne.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Daniel Hubbard (Patch Staff) – December 5, 2016

WYCKOFF, N.J. — The former priest of township parish was investigated on allegations that he molested a 16-year-old boy and suspended from ministry as a lay person in the mid-1980s.

Rev. Kevin A. Gugliotta, 54, was investigated when he was a Boy Scout leader and engineer, but the Vatican ruled that canon law, church law, prevented him from being punished because he was not an ordained priest yet, a report by NJ.com states. He became ordained in 1996.

Gugliotta was reinstated in December 2004 and served at five parishes, including St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Wyckoff and Immaculate Conception Church in Mahwah, before asking for a transfer this past summer, according to the NJ.com report.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Whistleblowers

From the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee

November 29, 2016

Pope Francis
Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican City State
Europe

Re.: Your support of secrecy over the virtues of truth and justice

Dear Pope Francis,

On November 19, 2016 you created seventeen new cardinals of the Catholic Church. Just before they received their red biretta and ring as signs of their new office in the Church these seventeen bishops recited the Cardinals’ Oath, which says, in part: “I, N., Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, promise and swear, from this day forth and as long as I live, ….. not to make known to anyone matters entrusted to me in confidence, the disclosure of which could bring damage or dishonor to Holy Church, …..”

No doubt, confidentiality and secrecy play a good role in human life because no one has a right to know everything. Families have secrets, businesses have secrets, governments have secrets, and even the Church needs secrets – all for the good of the people involved.

Yet, when confidentiality and secrecy deprive people of the truth and the common good, confidentiality and secrecy must take a backseat to the revelation of the truth, no matter how uncomfortable that might be for some people.

Indeed, how many court battles have there been these past decades as victims / survivors of clergy sexual abuse have struggled to bring forth the truth in the pursuit of justice, while bishops have fought to prevent this from happening? And how many more court actions are still needed?

Moreover, we ask, what motivates such behavior by the Catholic bishops in the Vatican, in the United States, and throughout the world? Protecting money? Fear of embarrassment and loss of reputation? Obviously, yes to both questions. And perhaps there are other motives as well.

So, who can change all of this? You, Pope Francis. Truly you have done many good things as the leader of the Church, and with some risk involved as not everyone in the Church agrees with you. But in matters of the clergy sexual abuse you have done little. Furthermore, you certainly have not addressed a critical human reality as it applies to this issue: without truth there is no justice and without justice there will be no healing. And the revelation of the truth helps to protect children and vulnerable adults.

How sad it is that you continue the Cardinals’ Oath. But, you can change this reality by publicly announcing that all cardinals and bishops are released from all forms of vows, oaths, and promises that bind truth and justice to secrecy. Let’s move into the light of truth for the good of all people.

You have the power to make this change. Now you need to do so.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

/S/

Rev. James E. Connell, J.C.D.
2462 North Prospect Avenue #204
Milwaukee, WI 53211
connell.james951@gmail.com
414-940-8054

Members of the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee who sign this letter are:

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., (West Orange, NJ); Rev. Ronald D. Lemmert (Peekskill, NY); Sr. Sally Butler, OP (Brooklyn, NY); Rev. Patrick Winchester Collins, Ph.D. (Douglas, MI); Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, SNDdeN (New Castle, DE); Sr. Claire Smith, OSU (Bronx, NY); Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, OP, J.C.D. (Vienna, VA); Rev. James E. Connell, J.C.D. (Milwaukee, WI)

cc: Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States
Members of the News Media throughout the USA

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AUSTRALIA
The Freethinker (UK)

The Catholic Church today publicly apologised to a disabled woman who was abused over a period of 14 years by one of its priests, Father Tom Knowles, above, the first priest in Australia to be defrocked for having a ‘long-term inappropriate sexual relationship with a woman.’

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the apology to Jennifer Herrick was issued at Victoria’s oldest and busiest Catholic Church, St Francis

In the apology the Church said:

On behalf of the Australian Province of the Blessed Sacrament Congregation, I wish to apologise to Jennifer Herrick for the pain and suffering she experienced.

Herrick, above, was not at the service. She lives in another state and thought the idea of being there would be too traumatic.

The public apology is the culmination of a seven-year battle Herrick waged against the Catholic Church to obtain redress for an ordeal that began when she was a vulnerable young woman with a disability in Sydney. Knowles, who was later to become the Australian head of his order, was working there as a priest.

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CANADA
Kawartha

Fr. Bill Moloney now the subject of an internal investigation

By Lois Tuffin

Parishioners at Immaculate Conception Church broke out in applause on Saturday evening as they learned their parish priest had convinced police he was innocent of allegations of sexual misconduct.

Fr. Bill Moloney had been removed from his post in early November after a complaint was filed to Haliburton OPP about an incident at Camp Northern Lights, where he is the director. However, the police investigation will not result in criminal charges, Fr. Joe Morin announced to the congregation, on behalf of the bishop, on Saturday.

The news was a big relief for Shanthi Terence, a parishioner at St. Anne’s where Fr. Moloney worked before transferring to Immaculate. She saw half the congregation follow him, especially those with children due to their rapport with the popular priest.

“It’s just who he is — his personality,” she says. “He is very sociable, very outgoing. He is very involved in the community. He goes above and beyond.”

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UNITED STATES
Feminine Collective

Nancy Levine
DEC 03, 2016

Dear members of the boards of directors of Whole Foods Market and Conscious Capitalism, Inc.:

How do we change the culture of sexual violence?
Should conscious leaders hold each other accountable?

We respect and admire Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s commitment to the value of loyalty. As a founding board member of Conscious Capitalism, Inc., Mackey’s intentions were presumably good and noble in prioritizing this value, and pledging loyalty to his friend, spiritual leader Marc Gafni.

However, Gafni said of one of his sexual abuse accusers, as reported by The New York Times ;

“She was 14 going on 35, and I never forced her,”

Gafni’s assertion that his two underage accusers were “willing partners,” as reported by the New York Daily News, is reprehensible.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation of Bishop Denis J. Madden from the office of auxiliary of the archdiocese of Baltimore (area 12,430, population 3,216,626, Catholics 509,491, priests 522, permanent deacons 173, religious 935), United States of America, and has appointed Msgr. Adam J. Parker and Msgr. Mark E. Brennan as auxiliaries of the same archdiocese.

Bishop-elect Adam John Parker was born in 1972 in Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, and was ordained a priest in 2000. He holds a licentiate in communication from the University of Maryland in College Park and in sacramental theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. He has served in a number of pastoral roles, including vicar and parish administrator, parish priest, vice-chancellor and episcopal secretary, special secretary to Cardinal O’Brien in Rome, and member of the council of archdiocesan Caritas. In 2011 he was appointed as chaplain of His Holiness and is currently vicar general and moderator of the Curia.

Bishop-elect Mark Edward Brennan was born in 1947 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, and was ordained a priest in 1970. He obtained a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island in 1969 and attended the Christ the King Seminary in Albany, New York and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he received a bachelor’s degree and Master of Arts in theology. He subsequently dedicated himself to Hispanic immersion studies in the Dominican Republic. After ordination he served in a number of pastoral roles, including parish vicar, pastoral ministry in the Hispanic community of the St. Bartholomew parish in Bethesda, director of priestly vocations and priestly programmes in the archdiocese of Washington, parish administrator, and parish priest. He has also served as member of the presbyteral council and the council of consulters, vicar forane, and counsel at the metropolitan tribunal of the archdiocese of Washington. In 2005 he was named Chaplain of His Holiness. He is currently pastor of the St. Martin of Tours parish in Gaithersburg.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on December 05, 2016

Thirteen years ago, amid allegations he molested a 16-year-old boy, the Rev. Kevin Gugliotta was suspended from ministry in New Jersey, his case referred to the Vatican for guidance because of an unusual circumstance.

When the alleged sex assaults occurred in the mid-1980s, Gugliotta wasn’t yet an ordained Catholic priest. He was a private-sector engineer and Boy Scout leader.

In the eyes of the Vatican, the distinction appeared to be a critical one, regardless of the case’s merit.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark told NJ Advance Media last week the Vatican ruled that church law, known as canon law, prevented Gugliotta from being punished for something he might have done as a layman. In December 2004, he was quietly reinstated, free of restrictions on his ministry, and served for years in various parishes, including a long stint as chaplain to a youth group.

That decision, which was not widely disclosed, is now being questioned by his accuser and others in the wake of Gugliotta’s arrest in October on 40 counts of possessing and disseminating child pornography.

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MARYLAND
Catholic Review

December 05, 2016

By Christopher Gunty
editor@CatholicReview.org

Pope Francis named two new auxiliary bishops for the Archdiocese of Baltimore: Monsignor Mark E. Brennan, pastor of St. Martin of Tours Parish in Gaithersburg, in the Archdiocese of Washington; and Monsignor Adam J. Parker, current vicar general and moderator of the curia in Baltimore. The appointments were announced Dec. 5 in Washington by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

At the same time, the pope accepted the resignation of Bishop Denis J. Madden, auxiliary of Baltimore since 2005. Bishop Madden (pictured below) submitted his resignation on his 75th birthday in March 2015, as is the custom for bishops, but it was not accepted until the appointment of the new auxiliaries.

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori expressed his gratitude to the Holy Father for the appointments of the new bishops, which he called “an early Christmas gift” from the pope. “This is a joyous and blessed day for our archdiocese,” the archbishop said.

The bishops-designate will be ordained Jan. 19 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

SIMON CUNNINGHAM
05 December, 2016

A FORMER administrator of St Peter’s Cathedral in Belfast has been interviewed by police over an alleged sexual assault.

It is understood the allegation against Father Hugh Kennedy is historical in nature and does not involve a child.

The 59-year-old cleric has been been suspended from ministry while the matter is investigated.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Down and Connor said it had been informed that the PSNI had “initiated an investigation into an alleged incident of an historical adult nature involving a priest”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Premier

Mon 05 Dec 2016
By Aaron James

A former priest and cathedral clergyman in Northern Ireland has been suspended from ministry over allegations of sexual assault.

According to the Belfast Telegraph Hugh Kennedy, 59, was working as Administrator at St Peter’s Cathedral in Belfast (above) until this year before working at More House, a Christian school in the Archdiocese of Westminster in London.

Before going to St Peter’s Cathedral in 2006 he served as a parish priest in north Belfast.

Fr Kennedy is also known for appearing in the BBC documentary Choirboys, which looked at the efforts of St Peter’s Cathedral’s choir as it worked up to performing for the Pope at the Vatican.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Dec 04, 2016

By Krystal Paco

No offense to the new leadership at the helm of the Archdiocese of Agana, but protests will continue outside the Dulce Nombre De Maria Cathedral-Basilica every Sunday morning…with a slight change.

Sunday morning mass at the cathedral was more packed than usual, as Lou Klitzkie, the founder of the Laity Forward Movement, said, “We came out here today to picket for 20 minutes and then we’re going to mass.” She said it’s a gesture of good faith and welcome to Guam’s new coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes that they retire their signs early enough to attend mass and listen to the Gospel.

“We want to give Archbishop Byrnes a chance. We want to work with him. So we’ll give him that chance,” she added. The memo was sent to Archbishop Byrnes on December 4 and signed-off by Concerned Catholics of Guam president David Sablan, as well as Klitzkie. Both groups have spearheaded the weekly pickets since June and have had most of their demands met in recent months, including the restoration of Monsignor James Benavente and Father Paul Gofigan as well as the takeback of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona.

The letter to Archbishop Byrnes notes that only one demand has yet to be met – that’s to defrock Archbishop Anthony Apuron. “We’re going to continue picketing as long as Archbishop Apuron still holds the title of archbishop,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Stephanie Gardiner

Notorious paedophile and former priest Brian Joseph Spillane​ has been found guilty of a string of sexual assaults on students at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, it can now be revealed.

There has been a complete black-out on Spillane’s cases, which have been running in Sydney courts over several years, including two consecutive trials this year.

In the Downing Centre District Court on Monday, Judge Robyn Tupman​ revoked the series of non-publication orders that has been in force during court proceedings since 2013.

A jury last week found the 73-year-old guilty of 11 charges, including sexual assault, indecent assault and buggery on four students at the boys’ school in central west NSW between 1976 and 1988.

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NEW YORK
ABC News

By JENNIFER PELTZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Dec 4, 2016

It took 30 years for a former student to be ready to report he’d been sexually abused by a respected Roman Catholic priest on high school trips. But it didn’t take long to realize the priest wouldn’t be held accountable in court.

Though the church said investigators found the allegations credible, the accuser couldn’t sue or press criminal charges, mainly because of the passage of time.

Instead, he’s looking to a new compensation process set up by the Archdiocese of New York, potentially the most extensive effort of its kind to date. Some 46 people have filed claims in under two months, and the total could at least triple.

The program lets people take claims, often too old for court, to a noted outside mediator while keeping painful details private.

Yet victims’ advocates are wary, noting that the archdiocese hasn’t given any estimate of the payouts or the total it will spend. Some activists see the program as a church tactic to shield information about the handling of problem priests and counter pressure to let decades-old child sexual abuse cases go to court.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

The ever-present picket line that has become a mainstay of morning Mass outside the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica yesterday presented an olive branch to newly-arrived Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes when protestors concluded their march early in order to attend Mass.

The protests, which have been ongoing since June, have taken issue with a number of concerns including the property dispute over the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona, the ousting of Archbishop Anthony Apuron, the passage of child sexual abuse Bill 326 and even outgoing apostolic administrator Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai when he failed to respond to their complaints.

In the past weeks as church leadership addressed protestors’ concerns, members of the lay organizations Concerned Catholics of Guam and Laity Forward Movement have focused their grievances and stated they will continue protesting until Apuron is formally removed of his title as Archbishop of Agana.

‘Let’s give him a chance’

While leadership within the lay organizations have stated their intent to continue the protests, they also say they have expressed their hope by putting their protests on hold for Byrnes’ first Sunday Mass.

“Let’s give him a chance,” said former Sen. Bob Klitzkie of Byrnes’ appointment.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Ciaran Barnes, Chief Reporter
PUBLISHED
04/12/2016

A prominent TV priest who has publicly claimed never to have “molested a child” has been questioned by police about sexual assault.

Sunday Life can reveal that Fr Hugh Kennedy — the former Administrator of St Peter’s Cathedral in west Belfast and star of BBC television documentary Choirboys — was quizzed by detectives last month.

The 59-year-old has been suspended from clerical duties until the investigation is concluded.

PSNI Detective Inspector Zoe McKee said: “Police investigating a report of a sexual assault allegation interviewed a male on November 7, 2016.

“Inquiries into this matter are ongoing.”

A spokesman for the Down and Connor Diocese of the Catholic Church confirmed Fr Kennedy has been withdrawn from ministry.

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UNITED STATES
AlterNet

By Nora Jacques / AlterNet November 30, 2016

Note: The last names of survivors have not been mentioned for privacy reasons.

Since President-elect Donald Trump’s shocking victory, protests have erupted in cities across the United States, but for survivors of sexual violence Trump’s victory has had deeper, more personal implications. ‘Locker room talk’ left survivors of abuse shaken as Trump nears his term during the election.

“I felt kind of powerless, but I’ve had a range of emotions for these last few days,” said survivor and student activist, Maddy, 21, whose last name she asked not to be shared. “It was infuriating that this person who was making these awful comments was a perpetrator of violence and was not acknowledging his assault.”

Before the election, the public dialogue about the alleged sexually aggressive behavior of the Republican presidential candidate had seemed, in retrospect, only temporary. However, Trump’s unexpected victory has divided the nation.

“I had the strongest PTSD symptoms I’d had in years. I felt nauseated, disoriented, depressed,” said Heather, 32, a survivor of sexual violence who left town once she discovered Trump won the election. Heather lived in a red state. “I saw neighbors with Trump signs and I just felt unsafe. I had to get away, so now I’m in L.A.”

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AUSTRALIA
Christian Today

Andre Mitchell 04 December 2016

The third largest church in Australia is reportedly shying away from any references to Jesus Christ and supposedly also steering clear of religious symbols as part of its rebranding and new advertising strategy.

Australia’s Uniting Church adopted a new public relations strategy scrapping faith-based language, primarily to distance itself from allegations of child sexual abuse that has tarred the reputation of religious institutions, the Herald Sun reported.

Peter Worland, executive director of Uniting, which acts as the services and advocacy arm of the church, acknowledged these changes.

“You are right to highlight that sometimes we do not mention Christ’s name in our advertising,” Worland was quoted by the Herald Sun as saying. “Since the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, faith-based organisations like ours are perceived pejoratively. So, sometimes we are overt with our religious language, sometimes we are not.”

He nevertheless said the Uniting Church is not entirely abandoning religious symbols. For instance, he said the new logo still has a crucifix in it.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester

December 3, 2016

December 3, 2016, WORCESTER, MA — Mr. Derek P. Sylvester, a part-time music and theater arts teacher at St. Mary Elementary School in Shrewsbury and St. Joseph Elementary School in Webster, has been terminated from his positions due to allegations of sexual abuse reported to have occurred in the early 1990’s, prior to his employment at the schools. No information has come to the attention of either school of any untoward behavior by Mr. Sylvester while employed at any parish or diocesan school, nor as to any student of any of such school.

On November 7, 2016, Ms. Judith Audette, LICSW, Victim’s Assistance Coordinator for the Office of Healing and Prevention of the Diocese of Worcester, received a confidential report made by the alleged victim, now an adult, who claims that the incidents had taken place in the early 1990’s.

In keeping with its policies, the Diocese of Worcester promptly reported the allegation to the Worcester District Attorney’s office. Following subsequent conversations with the alleged victim by Ms. Audette, representatives of the schools informed Mr. Sylvester on November 10 of the receipt of an allegation of abuse and placed him on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation. His being placed on leave was done as a matter of policy and so as to allow completion of the investigation, rather than as a disciplinary measure. During that investigation, Mr. Sylvester was informed in detail of the allegation, given the opportunity to respond and denied that any sexual abuse had occurred.

On December 2, Mr. Sylvester was dismissed based on the Superintendent’s administrative investigation and recommendation. No definitive judgment has been made as to whether Mr. Sylvester had committed the alleged offenses, but the allegation was deemed more likely than not to be true and that his continued employment would present an unreasonable risk to students. He had remained on paid administrative leave until that time and had not been present in either of the schools since November 10.

Parents at both schools were notified of the decision by email and/or letter following the dismissal. This is a troubling matter for all involved and counseling services are being made available at both school communities if requested by students, their families or staff.

The diocesan Victim’s Assistance Coordinator can be contacted at 508-929-4363 if anyone has questions regarding the policy or any specific concerns regarding potential abuse of a child.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Elaine Thompson
Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER — A local Catholic school teacher has been fired after allegations of sexual abuse that reportedly occurred in the early 1990s.

The alleged sexual abuse occurred before Derek P. Sylvester became a part-time music and theater arts teacher at St. Mary Elementary School in Shrewsbury and St. Joseph Elementary School in Webster, Raymond Delisle, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester, said in a press release Saturday morning. He said that no information has come to the attention of either school of any inappropriate behavior by Mr. Sylvester while employed at any parish or diocesan school or toward any students of the schools.

Mr. Sylvester, who is from Worcester, has taught at the schools for about three years.

The allegations came to light Nov. 7, when the alleged victim, now an adult, made a report to Judith Audette, the Diocese’s Victim Assistance Coordinator for the Office of Healing and Prevention. The alleged victim said the incidents had taken place in the early 1990s.

Mr. Sylvester was placed on paid administrative leave on Nov. 10, after the allegations were reported to the Worcester District Attorney’s office. He denied the accusations during an internal investigation and was subsequently terminated Friday, Dec. 2.

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CANADA
CBC News

Two former students are launching a class action lawsuit over physical, sexual and emotional abuse they say they experienced at St. Eustache School in Saint Eustache, Man., throughout the 1960s at the hands of nuns who ran the school and a priest in the community.

The former students are suing the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, the Archdiocese of Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba on behalf of all Indigenous and Métis children who attended the school between 1960 and 1983, according to a statement of claim filed to the Court of Queen’s Bench on Nov. 25.

According to the statement, children of Indigenous or Métis descent who resided in or around Saint Eustache, Man., were made to attend the school during the period, including the two plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs are a man and a woman who both attended the school for six years in the 1960s. The male plaintiff attended from age eight to 14, and the female plaintiff attended from age six to 12.

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TEXAS
ABC 13

FORT BEND COUNTY, TX (KTRK) — An assistant pastor has been charged with sexual assault of a child, the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday.

Authorities arrested Daniel Carrel, 27, for his alleged assault of a 14-year-old girl. He is the assistant pastor at the Sienna Ranch Baptist Church.

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ROM
Katholisch

[A former priest from Rome was sentenced to barely seven years imprisonment for defamation. In 2013, he is alleged to have said falsely that several clergy had abused children.]

Rom – 02.12.2016

Ein römischer Ex-Priester, der andere Geistliche fälschlich des Kindesmissbrauchs bezichtigt hatte, ist wegen schwerer Verleumdung zu knapp sieben Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Ein Strafgericht in Rom befand den Mann am Freitag für schuldig, systematisch falsche Aussagen zu angeblichen Pädophilie-Fällen konstruiert und Zeugen beeinflusst zu haben. Der Verurteilte war seinerseits 2007 wegen sexueller Vergehen an Minderjährigen aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen worden und saß bereits eine mehrjährige Gefängnisstrafe ab.

Mehreren Geistlichen Kindesmissbrauch nachgesagt

2013 hatte der Ex-Geistliche mehreren römische Priestern Kindesmissbrauch nachgesagt, darunter persönlichen Mitarbeitern von zwei Kardinälen. Demnach hätten die Beschuldigten einen Zuhälterring gebildet, um Minderjährige anzulocken und Klerikern zuzuführen. Papst Franziskus hatte sich in einem ungewöhnlichen Schritt im März 2014 von dem ehemaligen Priester distanziert und den römischen Klerus öffentlich in Schutz genommen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[Bishop Stephan Ackermann: The protection of children and young people must remain a hallmark of the Catholic Church, with the result that “it is doubly fatal if we fail.” \

Köln – 02.12.2016

Sexueller Missbrauch, Gewalt, Mobbing, Hasskommentare – sicher gibt es schönere Themen, mit denen man sich tagein, tagaus beschäftigen kann. Und dann bekommen katholische Missbrauchs- und Kinderschutzexperten auch noch regelmäßig Sätze zu hören wie “Jetzt muss es aber bald mal gut sein mit dem Thema!” Doch “das Thema ist noch längst nicht durch”, bringt der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann die Antwort der Fachleute auf den Punkt. Und beschränkt das nicht auf Missbrauchsfragen, denn auch Themen wie Gewalt, Mobbing oder Chancen und Risiken moderner Medien gehören für ihn dazu.

Ackermann ist nicht nur Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Bischofskonferenz, sondern auch Leiter der bischöflichen Arbeitsgruppe zum Kinder- und Jugendschutz. Und die hat zur ersten bundesweiten Tagung rund um das Thema nach Köln eingeladen. Für Fachleute aus Jugend-, Sport- und Behindertenverbänden, aus Caritas, Orden, Pfarreien, Hilfswerken und Schulen.

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MINNESOTA
Post-Bulletin

A federal judge on Dec. 8 will consider millions of dollars more in payments to attorneys and other professionals working on the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The latest requests for fees and expenses total $4.5 million. If the requests are granted, that would bring the tab for legal and related professional service costs for the bankruptcy to about $12 million.

The archdiocese is responsible not only for payment of its attorneys but also those representing creditors.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy nearly two years ago. The church’s most recent reorganization plan would provide $130 million in compensation to clergy abuse victims.

But an attorney for abuse survivors says insurance companies for the archdiocese should put more money into a settlement.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

. .In a downtown courtroom, KC barrister (and Southwest Baptist College trustee) Rebecca Randles asked our town’s Judge Moriarty to keep alive Tom Viviano’s civil case against Fr. Charles M. DeGuire and St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson. The suit alleges the priest molested a child and that church officials could have stopped it. DeGuire worked at churches in U. City, Perryville and near Jefferson City.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Nick McKenzie, Richard Baker

Just after 10am on Sunday, inside Victoria’s oldest and busiest Catholic church, the congregation will hear something extraordinarily rare.

A senior church official will tell those seated in the pews at St Francis on Lonsdale Street that their one-time priest, Tom Knowles, has become the first in Australia to be defrocked for having a “long-term inappropriate sexual relationship” with a woman.

The church official will also say sorry to that woman in public.

“On behalf of the Australian Province of the Blessed Sacrament Congregation, I wish to apologise to Jennifer Herrick for the pain and suffering she experienced,” reads a copy of the apology, which has been obtained by Fairfax Media.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Peter Hermann December 2

A former athletic trainer at Archbishop Carroll High School has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing a female student at the Catholic school in Northeast Washington, according to D.C. police and the archdiocese.

Jimmy Augustin, 33, is charged with a single misdemeanor count of sexual abuse of a minor. He was arrested Thursday and could make an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Friday. Police listed an address for him in Fort Washington, Md.

Police said in a statement that the alleged abuse occurred at the school, in the 4300 block of Harewood Road NE, near Catholic University of America, between September and October. The school has 385 students.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Washington said Augustin taught one class in addition to athletic training. A statement from the archdiocese says Augustin has been fired.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WTOP

By Mike Murillo | @MikeMurilloWTOP
December 2, 2016

WASHINGTON — A former athletic trainer at an area Catholic high school has been charged with sexually abusing a female student.

On Thursday, D.C. police arrested Jimmy Augustin, 33, of Fort Washington, Maryland, after investigators believe he had sexual contact with a student between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31.

The alleged inappropriate encounters, according to police, occurred at Archbishop Carroll High School in Northeast D.C.

The Archdiocese of Washington, which operates the school, said in a statement that it’s aware of Augustin’s arrest and has been cooperating with police in their investigation.

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TEXAS
KHOU

MISSOURI CITY, Texas – A Fort Bend County pastor has been charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

Daniel Carrel, 27, is an assistant pastor at Sienna Ranch Baptist Church. He faces multiple counts of sexual assault, according to the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators said they got a tip from the victim’s mother on Wednesday and on Friday they arrested Carrel.

The mother told investigators she noticed some suspicious conversations between her daughter and the pastor on the teen’s phone.

The two were communicating through social media, she said. Carrel has confessed to having sex with the 14-year-old, authorities said.

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TEXAS
Click2Houston

[with video]

FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas – A youth minister at a church in Fort Bend County is accused of having sex with an underage girl several times.

Daniel Carrel, 27, has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault of a minor, according to the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office.

Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls said Carrel sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl who was a member of his church, Sienna Ranch Baptist Church, which is located on the 9000 black of Sienna Ranch Road in the Sienna Plantation subdivision.

“The girl is from the Sienna Plantation area,” Nehls said.

Nehls told KPRC2 his office was given the case Wednesday. Deputies arrested Carrel Friday evening.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com December 3, 2016

Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai said Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron had more than a year, from early 2015, to prove to the Vatican he could improve his weak pastoral governance and unify the Catholic Church on Guam.

But Apuron failed to heed the calls, and the subsequent public allegations that Apuron sexually abused Agat altar boys in the 1970s made matters worse for him, Hon said.

Concerns about Apuron’s pastoral governance included his failure to constantly communicate with the Vatican and his own archdiocesan priests, and playing favoritism toward one group, Hon said.

Apuron’s health problems and actions, including calling his sex abuse accusers in 2014 and 2016 liars and threatening to sue them, gave the Vatican more reasons to find a successor for him as early as 2015.

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WASHINGTON
NBC Washington

[with video]

A teacher and coach at Archbishop Carroll High School in Northeast D.C. has been fired after police arrested him on charges he sexually abused a student at the school.

Jimmy Augustin, 33, is accused of having “sexual contact” with a 17-year-old girl at least two separate times, once in early September and another time at the end of October. Both incidents happened at the Catholic school at 4300 Harewood Rd. NE, police said.

Augustin, of Fort Washington, Maryland, was arrested on Thursday and charged with misdemeanor sexual abuse of a minor, police said.

He was listed as “Head Athletic Trainer” and “Science Teacher” on the school’s website.

According to court documents, Augustin and the student denied anything inappropriate

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INDIA
The Hindu

Says the right to a fair trial cannot be separated from the right to a speedy trial

Observing that the right of an accused to fair trial includes the right to speedy trial also, the Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to expedite the probe into the affairs of an unregistered home for girls run by Pastor Gideon Jacob of Tiruchi-based Mose Ministries. The CBI should file its final report before the jurisdictional court, preferably within nine months.

Disposing of a public interest litigation petition filed by an NGO accusing the pastor of running an unauthorised home, Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran ordered the CBI Director to entrust the case to a women officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police.

This was necessary as the charges included trafficking and sexual abuse of girls.

The judges rejected the CBI special prosecutor’s request to permit the existing investigating officer to continue with the assistance of a woman officer.

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NEW MEXICO
KRQE

[with video]

By Haley Rush
Published: December 2, 2016

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A registered sex offender is behind bars for distributing child porn. Investigators said it all happened while he was working and living at an Albuquerque church.

Sandia Valley Nazarene Church in the South Valley is also home to convicted sex offender, Randal Paul.

According to a criminal complaint, Paul and his wife moved from California to Albuquerque in 2011 to live and volunteer at the church.

The complaint said Paul did maintenance and even helped prepare sermons.

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IRELAND
The Irish News

Patrick Murphy
03 December, 2016

BAD news for some Protestant graffiti artists: they may soon have to replace the traditional “No Pope here” with “Pope here – but not for very long”.

Yes, the Pope is coming to Ireland. Northern nationalists are celebrating their prediction that he will come north, which suggests that they do not see the north as part of Ireland. (It’s a bit like the way they used to complain about the British army occasionally crossing the border. It implied that the army had a right to be in the north.)

So, apart from re-writing some slogans, what will a papal visit mean for Ireland, north and south? The answer is that its legacy will probably be more political than religious. …

While the Pope’s visit is part of a worthy programme of renewing family pastoral care, his visit has a significant political dimension. Five years ago, Enda Kenny and the Dáil accused the Vatican of obstructing investigations into sexual abuse by priests, following publication of a damning report on Cloyne diocese. Ireland and the Vatican later withdrew their respective ambassadors.

Having welcomed Kenny to the Vatican this week, the Pope is visiting Ireland to mend diplomatic fences. But while diplomacy will address the Vatican’s concerns, it will do little to tackle the two main challenges facing the Irish Church.

The first is that many of the faithful and former faithful no longer have the same trust or belief in the organisation following its handling of the child sex abuse scandal. Secondly, in a period of all-island austerity and associated deprivation, the Church has rendered itself increasingly irrelevant, by offering neither explanation nor solution to the growing imbalance of wealth.

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VIRGINIA
Crux

Christopher White December 2, 2016
CRUX CONTRIBUTOR

Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, Virginia, who retires next week, always kept his focus on the needy and the wounded — whether sex abuse victims, the hungry, migrants, or the victims of pornography.

When Paul Loverde’s tenure as Bishop of Arlington, Virginia comes to a close next week, perhaps his greatest legacy will be his reputation as a priest with an eye on the peripheries-long before we had a pope who popularized the concept.

Born an only child, and prematurely, to Sicilian immigrant parents, Loverde wasn’t expected to survive. But such a formative experience would instill in him a great respect for the value of life and an appreciation for the deep faith that sustained his family and proved formative to his youth. …

Soon after his arrival in Arlington, he set up a place of healing for victims of sexual abuse and future prevention. The fact that the diocese of Arlington had been spared much of the fallout from the sexual abuse crisis that plagued the American Church in the early 2000s didn’t stop Loverde from making his diocese a model of best practices and a place of assistance and support for those from all other dioceses.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Tim Rohr December 3, 2016

In his post-election analysis on a local news show, Guam pollster Ron McNinch attributed Sen. Frank Blas Jr.’s loss to his introduction of a bill lifting the civil statute of limitations on crimes involving child sexual abuse of minors.

McNinch may be right, but so what.

Guam has a problem ­— a big one. Last year the Pacific Daily News reported that Guam has twice the rape rate of the rest of the nation and noted that 80 percent of Guam’s registered sex offenders have assaulted a child. Another news source labeled the rate of child abuse on Guam “a frightening epidemic.”

In response to this horror, we have had the usual fare of roundtables, candle lightings, awareness weeks, education efforts and general legislative hand-wringing, but the papers keep telling us one horror story after another.

Recently the horror got more horrible as we learned of the unimaginable alleged assaults on young boys in the 1970s by the priest who would become Guam’s archbishop for three decades.

According to his accusers, now-Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron used his position to seduce, molest and rape innocent altar boys, and then threatened them into a torturous decades-long silence that haunted and broke their lives.

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CANADA
Ottawa Sun

BY ANDREW DUFFY, POSTMEDIA NETWORK
FIRST POSTED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 02, 2016

The Archdiocese of Ottawa has launched the process required to officially remove Rev. Barry McGrory from the priesthood. It’s the strongest penalty that can be imposed by the Catholic Church against a wayward cleric.

“We have reported the case of Barry McGrory to the Holy See and are waiting to hear from them,” Deacon Gilles Ouellette wrote this week in response to a question from abuse victim Colleen Passard, who has been calling since May for the priest to be defrocked.

A diocese can initiate the process to remove a priest, but only the Vatican has the power to impose such a penalty.

Ouellette, a spokesman for the Ottawa diocese, said Friday the Vatican will now have to review the facts of the case and decide whether to remove McGrory from the priesthood, a process known as laicization.

The news comes one week after McGrory was charged by Ottawa police in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy in the late 1960s. McGrory was then working at the Major Seminary of Ottawa and at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish. He was released on $10,000 bail.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WWAY

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Investigators say a man who served as a youth pastor at a Wilmington church has been charged with indecent liberties with a child.

New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Jerry Brewer says investigators arrested Tyler Simkus Smither last night. Brewer says Smither worked as a youth pastor at Harbor United Methodist Church on Masonboro Loop Road. The church’s pastor confirmed to WWAY that Smither had worked with the church for two years until last night, when he was fired after the church learned of the charge against him.

Nanney also sent WWAY this statement:

“As a church and denomination, we hold all staff members to the highest form of moral behavior, a behavior that is free of any sexual misconduct. We believe that all human beings have sacred worth because they are created in God’s image, and our behavior must reflect this belief at all times and places. This charge against Tyler Smither means that there is a possible betrayal of sacred trust, a possible exploitation of power against a minor, and a possible violation against God’s creation.

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NORTH CAROLINA
StarNews

A youth leader at a New Hanover County church was arrested Thursday evening, accused of taking indecent liberties 11-year-old.

By F.T. Norton StarNews Staff

NEW HANOVER COUNTY — A youth pastor at a New Hanover County church was arrested Thursday evening, accused of taking indecent liberties with an 11-year-old boy.

Tyler Simkus Smither, 30, is charged with felony indecent liberties with a child. According to the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office arrest warrant, Smither “unlawfully, willfully and feloniously did commit and attempt to commit a lewd and lascivious act” on the child.

Sheriff’s Lt. Jerry Brewer said the offense, between Nov. 20-Nov. 21, is internet-based.

At the time of his arrest, Smither was a youth pastor at Harbor United Methodist Church on Masonboro Loop Road. On his Facebook page, Smither states he is from Raleigh and that he previously worked as a youth pastor at a Mississippi church.

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FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

By Waveney Ann Moore and Leonora LaPeter Anton, Times staff writers
Friday, December 2, 2016

ST. PETERSBURG — Bishop Robert Nugent Lynch stood under the dome of the cavernous cathedral he rebuilt and looked out at the faces of priests he had ordained over the years. The sun was setting; the sky changed color through the glass walls he had commissioned. If ever there was a physical apex of his legacy, in his last year at the helm of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, this was it.

It had been 20 years to this day, Jan. 26, that he lay prostrate at this altar at St. Jude the Apostle, inheriting a flock of more than 325,000 Roman Catholics in five counties stretching north to Citrus. That day, in 1996, he thought he knew what this job would bring. …

Lynch had been bishop less than a month when he was forced to address revelations that the Rev. Rocco Charles D’Angelo had admitted to sexually abusing altar boys in South Florida in the late 1960s and implicated in similar abuse against two boys in the Tampa Bay area in the early 1970s. His first year as bishop, two priests were accused of sexual misconduct, another of embezzlement and another had been married for 15 years and was living a double life.

“I wish to express my personal sorrow to anyone who has been victimized at any time by any representative of the Church,” Lynch wrote at the time, “and I promise to do all in my power to see that it never happens again.”

But the cases kept coming, with dozens of men and at least one woman accusing local priests of abusing them as children. The Rev. William Lau resigned. Robert Schaeufele, a priest in the diocese for 27 years, went to prison. Nine priests in all, not including those from religious orders, have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.

“The harm and hurt doesn’t lend itself to a simple, ‘I’m sorry,’ ” Lynch said last May, during the only interview he gave the Times.

In 2002, the Diocese of St. Petersburg refused to release its priest records and acknowledged it had previously handled sex abuse complaints without contacting authorities. That same year, however, Lynch ordered a review of all active priests to ensure allegations were properly investigated. He hired a victims’ assistance minister and enforced new rules forbidding priests from entertaining unchaperoned youths in their cars or personal living quarters.

The diocese spent $5.6 million to settle claims.

A Times reporter once asked what he would say to a parishioner questioning how to trust the bishop.

“You have to trust me by getting to know how I live, what priorities I place in my life,” he said. “My life kind of has to be an open book. That is to say, there can’t be any secret part to it.”

• • •

But soon Lynch was the one fending off allegations after the church’s spokesman accused him of sexual harassment.

In 2001, Bill Urbanski accused Lynch of forcing him to share a room when they traveled, grabbing his thigh and showering him with expensive gifts. At one point when they were in a Santa Fe, N.M., hotel room, Urbanski said Lynch asked to take pictures of him without a shirt so he could superimpose his head on Urbanski’s muscular body for Christmas cards. The married father of two said he did as he was told, then vomited in the lobby.

The diocese gave Urbanski $100,000, a sum characterized as severance. Church officials also insisted that Lynch — who had socialized with Urbanski and his wife, and was their children’s godfather — had done nothing wrong.

Urbanski, who has spoken in the past about the allegations, would not talk on the record for this story.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WUSA

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) — A 33-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly having sexual contact with a female juvenile between the months of September and October of this year, Metropolitan police said.

Thirty-three-year-old Jimmy Augustin, of Fort Washington was arrested and is being charged with misdemeanor sexual abuse of a minor.

Police said the incidents happened between September 1 and October 31 in the 4300 block of Harewood Road, in Northeast, D.C. The victim and suspect knew each other.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WJLA

WASHINGTON (ABC7) — A 33-year-old man was arrested for sexually abusing a girl in Northeast Washington.

Jimmy Augustin was charged with misdemeanor sexual abuse of a minor on Dec. 1, according to police.

Augustin engaged in sexual contact with the unidentified girl between Sept. and Oct. 2016 in the 4300 block of Harewood Road. Police say the two knew each other.

Metropolitan Police are asking anyone who had past inappropriate encounters with Augustin or has information on the case to call 202-727-9099.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox 5 DC

WASHINGTON – D.C. Police have arrested a 33-year-old former teacher suspected of inappropriate contact with an underage girl at a Catholic high school where he worked.

Jimmy Augustin, of Fort Washington, was arrested on Thursday and charged with Misdemeanor Sexual Abuse of a Minor after police say he inappropriately touched and kissed a female student at Archbishop Carroll High School.

The abuse allegedly occurred during the months of September and October of this year at the school.

Investigators are asking anyone with information regarding the case to call 202-727-9099.

Archbishop Carroll High School and the Archdiocese of Washington are aware of Augustin’s arrest and released the following statement:

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AFRICA
Face 2 Africa

Less than a week ago, the world was stunned by images of a South African pastor spraying harmful insecticide in to the faces of his congregants to supposedly cure them of various ailments.

What was even more shocking was the fact that one of the congregants was quoted as saying that they had gone to the church with a back pain and stomach ache — and after the pastor sprayed them with the insect killer, which is called “Doom Super Multi-Insect Killer” — they were healed.

Another believer claimed that his nose was blocked for one week, but after he was sprayed with the chemicals, he felt relieved.

Unfortunately, acts like these are not new in Africa: A lot of people have died in the hands of pastors and self-proclaimed prophets who claim to heal all kinds of diseases through miracles.

In Kenya, for instance, many patients leave hospitals to attend the much-publicized miracle rallies held by renowned priests and prophets.

After attending these prayer rallies, most patients flout doctor’s prescriptions and wind up in the grave.

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AUSTRALIA
The Weekend Australian

FRANK BRENNAN
The Australian December 3, 2016

I was accurately quoted in The Australian (“Catholic Row over probe into confession”, Wednesday) saying, “If a law is introduced to say that a priest should reveal a confession, I’m one of those priests who will disobey the law.” Being also a lawyer, let me explain.

Like most Australians, I have been appalled and distressed by the revelations before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

I hope this five-year royal commission is able to provide solutions so that institutions are made safe places for children. I am one of those Catholics who has been rocked by the disproportionate number of victims whose assailants have been members of my church in positions of trust. Of course, the Catholic Church ran more schools and orphanages than most other organisations. But that provides no excuse or justification for what went on. Nor does it provide a complete explanation for the horrific statistics.

It’s now clear that before 1996, most institutions, including churches, police forces and state child welfare agencies, were insufficiently attentive to the signs of predatory behaviour by pedophiles. Before 1996, the Catholic Church was a closed, hierarchical, opaque organisation administered by bishops who were more like feudal princes than modern accountable managers. The clericalist mindset of a celibate male clergy compounded the vulnerability of children preyed on by church personnel.

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ARGENTINA
Latin Times

By Tatayana Yomary | Dec 02 2016

Sexual abuse in Catholicism is a topic that brings forth major controversy. Over the years many Catholic leaders have been accused and found guilty of participating in sexual abuse and by the looks of it the accusations are not slowing down.

According to FOX News Latino, there is a full out investigation of sexual abuse of deaf children at a Catholic school in Argentina’s Mendoza province underway.

Many child advocacy groups have expressed outrage after Argentine police arrested 82-year old Nicola Corradi, priest Horacio Corbacho, 55, and three other men at the Antonio Próvolo Institute, a school for youths with hearing disabilities in the northwest of the country.

Prosecutor Alexander Gulle tells the site that the investigation is truly gruesome.

“Every minute,” he told reporters, “we see different circumstances, different facts … I am frankly embarrassed about the direction in which the investigation is taking us.”

The site reports that the case that Gullé is talking about is one in which a priest accused of sexually abusing deaf children in Italy wasn’t sanctioned by the Vatican, and allegedly went on to abuse children in Pope Francis’ native Argentina.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

December 1, 2016 – Response by Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director, BishopAccountability.org (781-439-5208 cell)

Background

Argentine authorities arrested this week Father Nicola Corradi, S.M., an Italian priest reported to the Vatican in 2008 or 2009 and again in 2014 by deaf survivors in Verona, Italy. Now 82, Corradi is accused of a range of more recent abuses in Argentina, including forcing hearing-impaired children, ages 10-12, to have oral sex with each other. The alleged crimes occurred at the Antonio Provolo Institute for Deaf Children in the Mendoza province of Argentina.

Authorities charged Corradi, and four other adults, including Rev. Horacio Hugo Corbacho S.M., of molesting eight children at the school. Since the arrest, a total of around 60 children have been identified as possible victims.

In May 2014, an Italian survivors’ group issued a public plea (see 1, 2 and 3) to Pope Francis to bring to justice Corradi and 15 or so other reported child molesters who had worked at Istituto Provolo, a school for deaf children in Verona, Italy. The survivors’ plea to the Pope included the alarming news that Corradi and three other alleged Verona abusers were currently working at the order’s two schools for deaf children in Argentina (one in La Plata and the other in Mendoza).

Although he knew or should have known (1, 2) that deaf children in his home country were in immediate peril, it appears that the Pope took no action. Neither did the local Church ordinaries: Héctor Rubén Aguer, archbishop of La Plata since 2000; José María Arancibia, archbishop of Mendoza between 1996 and 2012; and Arancibia’s successor, current archbishop Carlos Maria Franzini. Survivors claim (1, 2) that the archbishops knew of Corradi’s alleged crimes in Italy. In any case, they should have known: before granting Corradi faculties to work in La Plata or Mendoza, a Google search would have revealed instantly the grave allegations of a child sex ring and dozens of victims at the school for deaf children run by Corradi and his colleagues in Verona, Italy.

(The horrible story of the Verona victims received worldwide press attention in 2009 and 2010. More than 65 deaf men and women have reported being sodomized and assaulted as children by numerous priests at the Verona school. )

Comments by BishopAccountability

Words fail. It is appalling and heartbreaking that Corradi was not stopped by Pope Francis or by other Church authorities. Corradi’s presence at the school in Mendoza was no secret.

Because of the Church’s inaction, Corradi appears to have been able to replicate exactly the grotesque situation he enjoyed in Verona – a ring of child molesters in charge of utterly defenseless children who could neither hear nor speak.

When the crimes at the school for the deaf in Verona were revealed in 2009 and 2010, the world was shocked. Corradi and his colleagues escaped criminal charges in Italy because the statute of limitations had expired. But every reasonable person assumed that these priests would never find work near children again.

If the allegations are true, the Pope must accept responsibility for the unimaginable suffering of these new victims.

No other pope has spoken as passionately about the evil of child sex abuse as Francis. No other pope has invoked “zero tolerance” as often. No other pope has promised accountability of Church superiors. Today, in light of these horrific revelations, the Pope’s assurances seem empty indeed. To quote from his remarks to U.S. victims in 2015: “God weeps.”

At the very least, Pope Francis must immediately follow through on the promise of his June Motu Proprio. Archbishop Aguer of La Plata and Archbishop Franzini of Mendoza exemplify the disastrous negligence to which the Pope referred. The Pope should suspend both men now and begin an immediate and sweeping investigation of their handling of allegations and accused clerics.

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

GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Dec 02, 2016

By Krystal Paco

Guam’s new coadjutor, Archbishop Michael Byrnes, says he alone can’t heal the pain suffered by victims of sexual abuse in the church. In a press conference held earlier this week, he states he’s still getting up to speed with all the suits filed against the Archdiocese of Agana, but has observed each of the suits follow a similar pattern.

“I know I’ve got a lot to learn over these next few weeks, months, years,” he shared, “and I know there’s a lot of hope. I know just having a new face, a new person lifts a little of the pain and sadness. One of the things I want to say today might be a little shock to you – I’m not the one here to heal the pain. And I can’t do it, but I know the one who can, that’s Jesus.

“It’s not just Jesus up in Heaven doing his thing, but it’s us. We are the church. We are the body of Christ.”

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IOWA
World-Herald

By Mike Bell / World-Herald News Service

COUNCIL BLUFFS — Friends and colleagues of the Rev. Paul Monahan came to his defense Wednesday during a trial stemming from allegations that he looked at several teens’ genitalia while using the restroom during a track meet in Treynor, Iowa.

Monahan, 83, is a retired Council Bluffs priest and former principal at St. Albert Catholic School. He faces five counts of invasion of privacy.

District Associate Judge Gary Anderson of Pottawattamie County will decide if Monahan is guilty.

The defense brought forth several character witnesses, including Monahan’s friends, co-workers, alumni from St. Albert and others.

Each said he trusted Monahan, considered him an upstanding man of God and didn’t have issues with him, including around children.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016

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

We are glad that a child sex reform bill is moving forward but Michigan lawmakers can and should do much more that extend the state’s archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly statute of limitations.

[Morning Sun]

We’re relieved that Senator Steve Bieda’s measure won a unanimous vote in committee. But six states have gone further. They’ve opened one or two or three years “civil window” which immediately makes kids safer by exposing hundreds of child sex offenders and their “enablers” in civil courts. These essentially suspend the statute of limitations for anyone abused at any time as a child.)

Windows also do more to discourage employers from ignoring or enabling child sex crimes in the future.

Any longer statute of limitations for child sex crimes is progress. But this particular reform, if enacted, just nibbles at the edges of a crisis. Immediate statute of limitations reform – especially a civil window – is much more effective and just. It will expose those who commit and conceal child sex crimes right away, not decades in the future.

We urge Michigan citizens, especially parents, to actively back this bill and vigorously push for even more effective legislative reform so that tens of thousands will be spared the crippling devastation child sex crimes cause.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016

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

The recklessness of Vatican officials, including Pope Francis, has evidently enabled a predator priest to sexually assault more kids by just moving elsewhere. This increasingly well-documented trend – more and more child molesting clerics simply going abroad in search of fresh victims – is one of the most troubling and virtually unaddressed aspects of the church’s child sex abuse and cover up crisis. It’s also breathtakingly irresponsible.

[Washington Post]

The Associated Press reports that “a priest accused of sexually abusing deaf children in Italy wasn’t sanctioned by the Vatican and allegedly went on to abuse” kids in Argentina.

Fr. Nicola Corradi, Fr. Horacio Corbacho and three others have been arrested on charges of molesting at least eight children at a school for youths with hearing disabilities for years and years.

In 2008 and 2014, according to BishopAccountability.org, Vatican staff were told that Fr. Corradi and others accused of molesting children at a school for the deaf in Verona, where allegations of a ring of predators were also made.

We are grateful that secular officials in Mendoza have suspended classes at the school and forbidden faculty and staff from having contact with students. This caring action by government officials stands in stark contrast to the clearly callous actions of church officials.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

The Dublin boarding school where a 13-year-old boy last week allegedly suffered a serious sexual assault with a hockey stick delayed reporting it to the authorities for four days, despite being told by lawyers to do so immediately.

The incident is alleged to have happened in a dormitory at the Church of Ireland-governed King’s Hospital school in Palmerstown on Thursday night last week.

It was reported to the school authorities the following morning, and the school’s lawyers advised later that day that the matter be reported to the Garda and the child and family agency Tusla.

“They were absolutely clear about that,” a source said in relation to the legal advice. However, the advice was not acted upon until Tuesday of this week.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Friday, December 02, 2016

Ann O’Loughlin

A former Catholic priest, who is being sued in the High Court for alleged sexual assault and abuse of a teenager in a school, has claimed revenge is the motivation behind the claims.

The priest, who was a chaplain in the school in the South East, also denied at a school disciplinary hearing any sexual activity of any kind took place, including at the girl’s home when her parents were away; when she was babysitting for a neighbour; in the chaplain’s office; the oratory; or his car.

He told the hearing that at one stage he pleaded with the girl to stop and rejected her by telling her to “fuck off”.

“I wanted to get out from under her clutches,” he said.

The now 28-year old woman has sued, alleging between 2004 and 2007 she was repeatedly and wrongfully physically and sexually assaulted, falsely imprisoned, and sexually abused and subjected to sexualised behaviour by the then Catholic chaplain and teacher in her secondary school. She has sued the priest, as well, as the school in the South East and the local bishop.

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IRELAND
Irish independent

Tim Healy
PUBLISHED
02/12/2016

A former Catholic priest being sued for alleged sexual abuse of a student in the school where he was chaplain has claimed revenge is the motivation behind the allegations, the High Court heard.

The man, who was a chaplain in the school in the south east, had denied at a school disciplinary hearing that sexual activity of any kind took place with the girl, the court heard. He denied her claims the activity took place in a number of places including at the girl’s home when her parents were away, when she was babysitting, in the chaplain’s office, or his car.

He told the disciplinary hearing that at one stage he pleaded with the girl to stop and rejected her by telling her to “f*** off”. “I wanted to get out from under her clutches,” he said.

The now 28-year old woman has sued, alleging between 2004 and 2007 she was repeatedly and wrongfully physically and sexually assaulted, falsely imprisoned and sexually abused and subjected to sexualised behaviour by the then-Catholic chaplain and teacher in her secondary school. She has also sued the school and the local bishop who deny the claims.

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CALIFORNIA
Lodi News-Sentinel

December 1, 2016

By News-Sentinel Staff

STOCKTON — After allegations of inappropriate conduct against Father Editho Mascardo were reviewed, the Stockton Diocese has concluded that sexual abuse did not occur and has restored the priest to the ministry.

Bishop Stephen Blaire first released to the public on July 10, 2015 that the Diocese of Stockton had received an accusation of inappropriate conduct with a minor that occurred many years ago regarding Mascardo.

At that time, in accordance with the Charter for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Mascardo was placed on administrative leave pending further investigation

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CALIFORNIA
The Union Democrat

By Giuseppe Ricapito, The Union Democrat
Published Dec 1, 2016

A priest with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton has been reinstated to active ministry from administrative leave following an in-house investigation of alleged inappropriate conduct with a minor.

Father Editho Mascardo, who served as a parochial vicar at St. Patrick’s Church in Sonora, where he celebrated the 30th anniversary of his ordination in 2013, was placed on administrative leave in July 2015.

The Stockton Diocesan Review Board reviewed the allegations from July 2015 until May 23, 2016, and did not conclude that sexual abuse had occurred.

The Review Board “recommended that a path toward healing be considered to resolve the situation,” a Diocese of Stockton press release said.

No further information about the accusation, the age and gender of the minor, or when and where the alleged sexual conduct took place has been released.

Northwest Director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) Joey Piscatelli said “the Diocese and the Review Board is a total sham.”

“My personal experience is that they don’t handle it well,” he said. “How would the review board know if it occurred? How they do the investigation is they ask the priest. They always, as a rule, as a habit, say that it hasn’t occurred. They say that to the press and its ludicrous.”

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AUSTRALIA
Eternity

JOHN SANDEMAN | DECEMBER 2ND, 2016

As Christmas approaches, journalists’ minds turn to religion, and not always positively as the Uniting Church has found out.

“JESUS WIPED” was the headline in Friday’s Daily Telegraph with the subhead proclaiming “Top Church Losing its Religion”.

The welfare agency once known as UnitingCare rebranded as “Uniting” about a year ago, dropping the church’s cross/dove/boat logo in favour of the plain word “Uniting”. It turns out that a letter to the Church’s NSW/ACT magazine Insights triggered the story.

“I came across a half page (Uniting) advertisement,” Reverend Meredith Williams (a Uniting Church minister) wrote. “Nowhere in the ad was the Uniting Church mentioned, nor even the word ‘church’ to be found.”

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AUSTRALIA
Insights – Uniting Church

Today’s Daily Telegraph has run a series of inaccurate and vexatious news items about the Uniting Church and our Uniting community services agency in NSW and the ACT. The accusation on the front page of the newspaper that the Church is removing Christ and religious symbols is totally incorrect.

The explicit Christian commitment to people in the care of Uniting Church agencies remains the same as it has for the last 40 years. Our Church, since its beginning, has borne witness to a unity of faith and life in Christ which transcends cultural and economic, national and racial boundaries. The work of our agencies is a crucial expression of our continuing faith and mission. The Uniting agency in NSW and the ACT states clearly on its website “Christ invites us to serve humanity by creating an inclusive, connected and just world.”

Uniting, the largest provider of social services in NSW and the ACT, changed its brand name last year. This decision was taken to ensure that awareness of our services reaches more of the vulnerable and disadvantaged people we seek to serve. Preparation for moves towards the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the shift to self-managed care were important considerations in this decision. Other church agencies are considering adopting the Uniting brand.

The Daily Telegraph articles also misrepresent the Church’s very real concern for survivors of child sexual abuse. The suggestion that branding decisions are “a desperate bid to distance itself from child sex abuse scandals” is completely false and despicable.

The Uniting Church has acknowledged, apologised and expressed our deep regret to those children who were sexually abused in our care. We are committed to working with survivors to make amends for what happened in the past.

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TEXAS
Democrat-Gazette

By LYNN LaROWE TEXARKANA GAZETTE
Posted: December 2, 2016

TEXARKANA — A pastor accused of sexual misconduct with two girls entered innocent pleas Tuesday morning to 10 criminal charges before a Miller County judge.

David Wayne Farren, 41, of Texarkana appeared before Circuit Judge Carlton Jones for arraignment at the Miller County correctional complex. Lawyer Jason Horton entered innocent pleas on Farren’s behalf to nine felony counts and a single misdemeanor charge.

Pretrial hearings are set for Feb. 28 and April 4, and jury selection is scheduled for April 24.

Farren is accused of having sex with a minor over whom he was in a position of trust or authority in seven counts of first-degree sexual assault that allegedly occurred from April 2013 to August 2013. An eighth count accuses Farren of having sexual contact — second-degree sexual assault — with the same girl from April 2012 to August 2013.

The ninth count alleges Farren had sexual contact, second-degree sexual assault, with a second victim in 2007. The tenth count alleges Farren had knowledge of “child maltreatment” in 2012 and failed to report the abuse to officials as members of the clergy, teachers, medical personnel and law enforcement are required to do by law.

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CALIFORNIA
Record

By Nicholas Filipas
Record Staff Writer

STOCKTON — A priest who was placed on administrative leave after being investigated on allegations of sexual abuse was restored to service on Thursday, the Diocese of Stockton said.

The diocese had spent nearly a year looking into allegations of inappropriate conduct with a minor by the Rev. Editho Mascardo, according to a news release.

After what the diocese said was a “thorough and extensive review,” the Diocesan Review Board on May 23 advised Bishop Stephen Blaire that it “did not conclude that sexual abuse occurred.”

Based on that recommendation, Blaire reinstated Mascardo.

The decision was soundly criticized by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“We are deeply troubled that Stockton Catholic officials are putting a suspended, accused predator priest back on the job,” he said in a statement. “This is a very reckless and callous move. … Blaire has been very secretive about the accusations from the outset.”

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CALIFORNIA
KCRA

Melinda Meza
Stockton Reporter

STOCKTON, Calif. (KCRA) —
A priest accused of inappropriate conduct with a minor is cleared of wrong doing and is now back at work, the Diocese of Stockton said.

Father Editho Mascardo was put on leave last year after an allegation of inappropriate conduct with a minor. The alleged incident happened in 2001 when Mascardo was a priest at St. Mary’s church in Stockton.

The Stockton Police Department was notified of the allegation in 2001. The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office did not file charges against Mascardo.

In July 2015, the claim resurfaced and the diocese launched an investigation. In accordance with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Mascardo was put on leave.

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UNITED STATES
Vanity Fair

BY MARTIN BARON
NOVEMBER 30, 2016

Monday, the second-annual Hitchens Prize—honoring the memory and legacy of the late Vanity Fair contributing editor and columnist Christopher Hitchens—was given to Marty Baron, Executive Editor of The Washington Post, at a dinner held at New York City’s Waverly Inn.

The prize, awarded by the Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation, is bestowed upon a journalist or author whose work reflects a commitment to free expression, a depth of intellect, and an unwavering pursuit of the truth. This year’s citation acknowledged Baron’s long career in journalism and his work as editor of The Boston Globe and The Washington Post. …

After the release of the movie Spotlight, I was often asked how we at The Boston Globe were willing to take on the most powerful institution in New England and among the most powerful in the world, the Catholic Church.

The question really mystifies me—especially when it comes from journalists or those who hope to enter the profession. Because holding the most powerful to account is what we are supposed to do.

If we do not do that, then what exactly is the purpose of journalism?

God forbid we take on the weaker institutions, the weaker individuals, while letting the strongest ones off the hook only because they can forcefully fight back.

A day before I started work at The Boston Globe in the summer of 2001, I read something startling. It was a column by The Globe’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, Eileen McNamara. She wrote about the case of John Geoghan. He was a priest. Geoghan had been accused of abusing as many as 80 children. It was shocking. So I read closely.

The column detailed how the attorney for the survivors—those victimized by the priest—had asserted that the cardinal himself, Cardinal Bernard Law, knew about this priest’s repeated abuse and yet continued to reassign him from one parish to the next—notifying no one, not the parish priest and certainly not the parishioners, that a priest known to have committed sexual assaults would serve in ministry at their church.

Those were the allegations of the plaintiffs’ attorney. But the attorneys for the Church called those allegations baseless and irresponsible.

And then Eileen ended her column by saying the truth might never be known because the internal Church documents that could reveal the truth were under court seal. …

Well after our first story was published in January 2002, I received a letter from Father Thomas P. Doyle, who had waged a long and lonely battle within the Church on behalf of abuse victims. He wrote this: “This nightmare would have gone and on were it not for you and the Globe staff. As one who has been deeply involved in fighting for justice for the victims and survivors for many years, I thank you with every part of my being.

“I assure you,” he wrote, “that what you and the Globe have done for the victims, the Church and society cannot be adequately measured. It is momentous and its good effects will reverberate for decades.”

There is a lesson in Father Doyle’s letter: The truth is not meant to be hidden. It is not meant to be suppressed. It is not meant to be ignored. It is not meant to be disguised. It is not meant to be manipulated. It is not meant to be falsified. Otherwise, wrongdoing will persist.

I kept Father Doyle’s letter on my desk in Boston until the day, four years ago, that I left to join The Washington Post. It served as a reminder of what brought me to journalism and what kept me in it. And as a reminder of the work we as journalists must always do.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

SOME of the evidence given by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Telsner was not accepted, his “recollection is inaccurate”, his comments were “likely to have the effect of dissuading some members of the Yeshivah Melbourne community from communicating with the secular authorities about child sexual abuse” and he failed to “provide pastoral leadership, support, direction and affirmation for abuse survivors, their families and advocates”.

Those are some of the findings published in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s report that was tabled in Parliament this week.

According to the report, Rabbi Telsner gave two defining sermons in 2011. The rabbi admitted to the Royal Commission that he knew the first sermon, in June, was seen by many as an attack on victim AVB, who asked people to help police investigate child sexual abuse allega-tions, but the rabbi did not make any attempt to correct that perception.

“The timing of the sermon and the understanding that it was directed at AVB was likely to have the effect of dissuading some members of the Yeshivah Melbourne com-munity from communicating with the secular authorities about child sexual abuse,” the report stated.

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FLORIDA
WFLA

By Steve Andrews
Published: December 1, 2016

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) – Headlines around the country during the last five days show the horrid, hurtful and harmful problem of priests sexually abusing children in this country has not gone away.

The molestation of young boys humiliated the Diocese of St. Petersburg back in 2002. Under Bishop Robert Lynch the diocese addressed transparency.

The lawyer who represented many of the early 2000s victims, heard what the incoming bishop had to say, but he didn’t hear what he had hoped. “I think he should’ve reassured people in the diocese that, that was a priority, because it really is kind of the elephant in the room with the Catholic Church,” attorney Joe Saunders said.

Saunders has represented 30 to 40 clients during the last 15 years who were abused by local priests. He hoped incoming Bishop Gregory Parkes would have addressed the issue at his introduction last Monday. He did not.

“It”s something that’s not going away. It’s not something that’s in the past; abuse is still occurring,” Saunders said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

29 November

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has today held its first Inquiry Seminar in the Civil Justice System as part of the Accountability and Reparations Investigation. The full transcript can be found in our library section on our website.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

1 December

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has published the transcript of the second day of the Inquiry Seminar in the Civil Justice System as part of the Accountability and Reparations Investigation. The full transcript can be found in our library section on our website.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

1 December

We have today published the first personal accounts from victims and survivors who have taken part in our Truth Project.

The 45 accounts, which have been anonymised, provide a first indication of the abuse suffered by children who were abused and/or let down by those in authority who should have protected them.

The Inquiry aims to publish as many anonymised summaries as possible and will use the information to better understand the scale, scope and nature of child sexual abuse.

Panel member Dru Sharpling, who leads the Inquiry’s work on the Truth Project, said:

“I have personally facilitated some of the Truth Project private sessions, so I have heard some of these experiences first hand. This first summary of personal experiences serves as a powerful reminder of the devastating consequences of child sexual abuse.

“Reading these accounts will be difficult for many people, but nowhere near as difficult as it is for the victims and survivors who have come forward to help the Inquiry by sharing their experiences. I want to thank them and reassure them that their bravery will help us to identify how we can better protect children in the future from such abuse and betrayal.”

Around 500 victims and survivors have expressed an interest in attending a Truth Project private session; to date nearly to 150 people will have shared their experiences with us in a private session. Victims and survivors can also share their experiences in writing and we will publish these anonymous experiences in due course, with the permission of those who took part.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Press Association

An average of 80 child sex abuse cases a month have been referred to police over the last year following victims’ testimony to an independent inquiry.

The figure emerged as the first report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s (IICSA) Truth Project was published on Thursday amid a growing scandal of historical offences in youth football.

As one strand of the wide-ranging probe, the project was intended to help victims of child sexual abuse share their experiences with the inquiry, allowing it to build a picture of why crimes remain unreported and undetected for so long.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

2 December, 2016

The Royal Commission will continue its public hearing into Catholic Church authorities in Maitland-Newcastle (Case Study 43) on Friday 9 December 2016 for one day in Sydney.

This hearing started in Newcastle in August 2016. It is inquiring into the response of Catholic Church authorities in the Maitland-Newcastle region to allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy and religious.

Continuation of public hearing into Catholic Church authorities in Maitland-Newcastle:

* Date: Friday 9 December 2016
* Hearing times: 9:30am – 4:00pm AEDT
* Location: Hearing Room 1, Level 17, Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney

The hearing will be streamed live via webcast on the Case Study 43 page.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Mary Carolan

A former priest being sued in the High Court for alleged sexual assault and abuse of a teenager in a school where he was chaplain told a school disciplinary hearing “revenge for not going with her” was the motivation behind the claims.

At that hearing in 2012, the man, who left the priesthood some years ago, denied any sexual activity took place at the girl’s home when her parents were away; when she was babysitting for a neighbour, in the chaplain’s office, the oratory or his car.

He also told the hearing he at one stage pleaded with the girl to stop and and rejected her by telling her to “f*** off”. “I wanted to get out from under her clutches,” he said.

In her High Court proceedings, the now 28-year old woman alleges that between 2004 and 2007 she was repeatedly physically and sexually assaulted, falsely imprisoned and sexually abused, and subjected to sexualised behaviour by the then Catholic chaplain, who was also a teacher in her secondary school.

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ARGENTINA
Fox News Latino

“This is like opening Pandora’s Box,” is how one prosecutor, Alexander Gullé, described the investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of deaf children at a Catholic school in Argentina’s Mendoza province.

“Every minute,” he told reporters, “we see different circumstances, different facts … I am frankly embarrassed about the direction in which the investigation is taking us.”

The case that Gullé is talking about is one in which a priest accused of sexually abusing deaf children in Italy wasn’t sanctioned by the Vatican, and allegedly went on to abuse children in Pope Francis’ native Argentina.

Advocates for clerical sex abuse victims expressed outrage on Thursday, a few days after Argentine police arrested 82-year old Nicola Corradi, priest Horacio Corbacho, 55, and three other men at the Antonio Próvolo Institute, a school for youths with hearing disabilities in the northwest of the country.

The men are accused of abusing at least eight children, fondling them and subjecting them to various forms of sexual intercourse over a decade, said Fabricio Sidoti, the chief investigating prosecutor.

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ARGENTINA
Washington Post

By Luis Andres Henao and Nicole Winfield | AP December 1

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Advocates for clerical sex abuse victims expressed outrage Thursday that a priest accused of sexually abusing deaf children in Italy wasn’t sanctioned by the Vatican and allegedly went on to abuse children in Pope Francis’ native Argentina.

Argentine police arrested the priest, 82-year old Nicola Corradi, this week. Corradi, priest Horacio Corbacho, 55, and three other men are accused of abusing at least eight children at a school for youths with hearing disabilities in northwestern Mendoza province.

BishopAccountability.org, an online resource about clerical abuse, reported that Italian survivor groups told the Vatican in 2008 and 2014 about Corradi and others accused of molesting children at a school for the deaf in Verona.

“Words fail. It is appalling and heartbreaking that Corradi was not stopped by Pope Francis or by other Church authorities. Corradi’s presence at the school in Mendoza was no secret,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.

“Thanks to the Church’s inaction, Corradi appears to have been able to replicate exactly the grotesque situation he enjoyed in Verona – a ring of child molesters in charge of utterly defenseless children who could neither hear nor speak. If the allegations are true, the Pope must accept responsibility for the unimaginable suffering of these new victims.”

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

By Nitza Lowenstein
1 DEC 2016

Speaking to SBS Hebrew Radio, Rabbi Dr Benjamin Elton, Chief Rabbi of the Great Synagogue in Sydney and Secretary of the Rabbinical Councils of Australia and New Zealand (Australia’s most senior Orthodox Rabbi) has called on Jewish leaders, who failed to protect child abuse survivors, to stand down from their public positions.

“If somebody has failed to carry out their legal obligations to protect children, then they ought not to be in the position of leadership in the community,” Rabbi Elton says of his and the Rabbinical Council’s stance.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this week found that the two insular, Ultra Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch communities discouraged the reporting of child abuse, failed to act when complaints were made, and treated survivors and their families as outcasts.

The findings vindicated victim Manny Waks, the whistleblower who first exposed systemic abuse within the sect.

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VIRGINIA
Washington Post

By Adam Kilgore November 29

In the next couple weeks, Ian McCaw’s lawyers are scheduled to respond to a lawsuit by a woman named Jasmin Hernandez. In the suit, Hernandez alleges McCaw, as the athletic director at Baylor, knew a football player named Tevin Elliott had been accused several times of committing sexual assault. She alleges McCaw failed to protect Hernandez before Elliot raped her and showed willful indifference afterward.

Barring a settlement, a jury will determine what culpability McCaw had in both Hernandez’s rape and in an atmosphere that enabled a shocking number of alleged assaults by Baylor football players. In early stages of this litigation, with the ink barely dry on McCaw’s Baylor severance agreement, he landed a new job: Monday afternoon, Liberty University hired McCaw to be its athletic director.

Liberty and its president, Jerry Falwell Jr., hired a man in the midst of ongoing litigation relating to the high-profile disgrace that forced him from his old job. McCaw ran the athletic program in which law firm Pepper Hamilton, tabbed by the school to perform an independent investigation, found “a failure to identify and respond to a pattern of sexual violence by a football player, to take action in response to reports of a sexual assault by multiple football players, and to take action in response to a report of dating violence.”

Evidently, that did not disqualify McCaw from landing the same position at Liberty.

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VIRGINIA
Washington Post

By Julie Zauzmer November 29

Ian McCaw will be the new athletic director at Liberty University, the prominent evangelical college in Virginia announced Monday — six months after McCaw left the same job at a different evangelical college in disgrace.

Liberty’s decision to hire McCaw raises an old question: Can a Christian school aim for big-time sports success without compromising its religious values?

McCaw was the athletic director at Baylor when the law firm Pepper Hamilton issued its damning report on the program he ran: that Baylor failed to respond to rapes reported by at least six female students from 2009 to 2016. Since 2011, a recent report said, 19 Baylor football players were accused of violence against women, including four instances of gang rape.

McCaw and football coach Art Briles, who along with Baylor president Kenneth Starr also left Baylor as a result of the scandal, knew about at least one allegation of gang rape yet did not report it to police, the university found.

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VIRGINIA
USA Today

Former Baylor athletics director Ian McCaw was named Liberty’s new AD on Monday.

McCaw resigned from his post at Baylor, where he helped transform the Bears to a national power in football, following a widespread sexual assault scandal that led to McCaw being sanctioned and placed on probation. It also cost coach Art Briles his job. Earlier this fall it was reported that Baylor regents claimed McCaw and Briles were both informed of a gang rape that involved football players but they failed to report the allegations.

“My vision for Liberty is to position it as a pre-eminent Christian athletic program in America and garner the same type of appeal among the Christian community as Notre Dame achieves among the Catholic community and BYU garners from the Mormons,” McCaw said in a statement.

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VIRGINIA
Together We Heal

December 1, 2016

Monday, November 28th 2016. That date will go down in Baptist history as the beginning of the end. Not of the end of baptists; but something more tragic, and much more sinister. It’s the end of women being safe on Liberty University’s campus.

It was on Monday that Liberty University gave the middle finger to all victims of sexual abuse and sexual assault and told “whoever has ears to hear” that THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT THE SAFETY OF WOMEN ON CAMPUS.

On Monday, Liberty University and Jerry Falwell, Jr., joyfully welcomed Ian McCaw as its new Athletic Director.

Falwell, Jr. said of McCaw, “He’s a Godly man of excellent character and I could not be more excited about this announcement!”

Just in case you don’t know Mr. McCaw, let me catch you up to speed.

He was up until recently the Athletic Director for Baylor University. Yes, the Baylor that bears the same Baptist support as Liberty. And yes, it’s the same Baylor who fired its President, Ken Starr; Head Football Coach, Art Briles, and depending on which media outlet you believe, the aforementioned Athletic Director, Ian McCaw.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Jorge Branco

A royal commission investigating historical child sex abuse has been asked to make damning findings against Queensland’s most prestigious school and a former governor-general.

In submissions published on Thursday, counsel assisting said a large number of students likely would not have been abused had former Brisbane Grammar School headmaster Maxwell Howell investigated sexual abuse claims from students.

Over two weeks in November 2015, the commission heard shocking details of abuse committed by notorious paedophiles Keith Lynch and Gregory Robert Knight at Brisbane Grammar School and St Paul’s School in the 1980s and ’90s.

Tasked with investigating the institutional response to the crimes, it heard from witnesses including survivors of horrific sexual abuse, current and former school leaders and former governor-general Peter Hollingworth.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Laura Banks and Anthony de Cegli, The Daily Telegraph
December 1, 2016

AN unholy war has broken out within one of the state’s biggest church denominations after it admitted to steering clear of religious symbols and even the word “Christ” as part of a rebranding and new advertising to avoid criticism over child sex abuse.

Child abuse survivors have criticised the Uniting Church, which has the third biggest Christian following in Australia, for trying to “disown” the past through a “culture of denial”.

The executive director of Uniting — the services and advocacy arm of the church — admitted the royal commission into child sexual abuse had tarred religious institutions. Therefore he said it made sense to scrap “overt” faith-based language from its PR strategy.

“You are right to highlight that sometimes we do not mention Christ’s name in our advertising,” Peter Worland recently wrote. “Since the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, faith-based organisations like ours are perceived pejoratively. So, sometimes we are overt with our religious language, sometimes we are not.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

December 2, 2016

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

The body representing more than 140 Catholic dioceses, religious ­orders and other institutions is calling for new national laws making it a crime to not report information about child sex abuse — unless it is obtained by a priest ­during the confession.

In a formal submission to the child abuse royal commission, the Truth, Justice and Healing Council argues this exemption would reflect Victorian legislation granting a similar “occasion of privilege” to that protecting commun­ic­ations between lawyers and their clients.

The issue is expected to provoke controversy when the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse holds a three-week hearing into the church in February, having ­recently flagged it will use this to consider “the protection of the confessional”.

The commission has the power to recommend changes to laws in some states allowing priests who hear admissions of criminal ­activity during confession to not report this to police.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESS LIVINGSTONE
The Australian
December 2, 2016

Australian cardinal George Pell has waded into the row at the top of the Vatican, backing four cardinals who have questioned the Pope over efforts to shift church teaching on marriage, divorce and Holy Communion.

At a speech in London this week, Cardinal Pell admitted that while his boss enjoyed “a prestige and popularity outside the church”, some Catholics were uneasy.

Asked whether he agreed with the four cardinals, who wrote to the Pope two months ago asking for clarification over his document ­Amoris Laetitia, Cardinal Pell said: “How can you disagree with a question?” It was “significant’’ the four had asked the questions.

Cardinal Pell said the unease related to false theories of conscience. “The idea that you can somehow discern that moral truths should not be followed or should not be recognised is ­absurd,’’ he said. “We all stand under the truth.”

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CANADA
CBC News

By John Lancaster, CBC News Posted: Dec 01, 2016

Canada’s borders have become less porous in the wake of a CBC News investigation that revealed a major security gap in the way passengers were being screened before being allowed into Canada.

In the past 12 months since new screening measures came into effect on Nov. 21, 2015, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) apprehended 3,067 people with outstanding criminal arrest warrants at border crossings.

In the previous 12 months, before the changes came into effect, the CBSA caught just 556 alleged fugitives. …

Priest accused of rape

In 2013 the southwestern Ontario woman demanded answers as to why a Nigerian priest she had accused of rape in 2004 was able to get back into Canada nine years later. Father Anthony Onyenagada left Canada before police could arrest him in 2004.

Police assured the alleged victim that Onyenagada would be arrested if he ever tried to return, because there were Canada-wide warrants out for his arrest.

But in 2013 the priest did return to attend a Catholic church event near London, Ont. Again, by the time police realized he had returned to Canada, he had slipped away a second time.

The CBC News investigation revealed federal government officials had granted Onyenagada a visa to enter Canada in 2013, and when he arrived at Pearson International Airport he breezed through customs because border agents didn’t screen him through CPIC.

Now, with the changes in policy, a simple scan of his passport would result in him being arrested and handed over to police for prosecution on the 2004 charges.

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NORWAY
The Local

AFP

The Norwegian Catholic Church was fined on million kroner (more than €110,000) on Monday for exaggerating the number of members it has to receive more state aid.

Oslo prosecutors slapped the fine on the Diocese of Oslo, responsible for keeping national records of Catholics living in the Scandinavian country, according to the ruling seen by AFP.

The diocese is accused of having gone through telephone directories looking for immigrants with names suggesting that they were from Catholic countries and adding them to the list of members of the church between 2011 and 2014, sometimes without their knowledge.

In Norway, a predominantly Protestant country, the state finances the various religious minorities in proportion to the number of church members.

By exaggerating the list of its members, the diocese was able to obtain undue government subsidies. Its chief administrative officer, Thuan cong Pham, has been charged with aggravated fraud, the prosecution said.

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NORWAY
Crux

Catholic News Agency
December 1, 2016

OSLO, Norway – In an unusual turn of events, the Catholic Church in Norway is under fire for reportedly lying about its number of parishioners in order to receive more state monetary aid.

Scandinavian prosecutors fined the Diocese of Oslo more than $140,000 – or one million kroner – on Monday for the apparent fraud offense, according to AFP. In addition, the state of Norway is asking for a $4.4 million – or 40.6 million kroner – reimbursement from the Catholic Church.

“We’ve never done anything illegal or received too much money,” the Catholic Church said in response to the allegations, according to the Local.

“We have always recognized that we have made mistakes and an unfortunate practice in parts of our registration. This was cleaned up a long [time] ago.”

The accusations against the Church stem from 2011-2014, during which the state believes the diocese pulled names from telephone directories of individuals who were not actually members of the diocese.

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NORWAY
Independent (UK)

Shehab Khan @shehabkhan Wednesday 30 November 2016

The Norwegian Catholic Church has been fined for overstating the number of its members in an attempt to receive more state funding.

The church is accused of looking for immigrants with names that would suggest they were of Catholic origin and adding them to the list of members without their knowledge.

Prosecutors have given the Diocese of Oslo, responsible for keeping records of Catholics living in the country, a one million kroner (£95,000) fine.

If the church refuses to pay the fine it will face trial and the chief administrative officer of the diocese has already been charged with aggravated fraud, prosecutors have said.

“We’ve never done anything illegal or received too much money,” the Catholic Church said in a statement, AFP reported.

“We have always recognised that we have made mistakes and had an unfortunate practise in parts of our registration. This was cleaned up a long (time) ago.”

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NORWAY
The Freethinker (UK)

Last year it was reported in Newsweek that Bernt Ivar Eidsvig, the bishop of Oslo, above, had been charged with ‘gross economic fraud’. He and his diocese was accused of overstating ther membership numbers, thereby claiming state funding to which it was not entitled.

This week, according to the Independent, the case culminated with the imposition of a one million kroner (£95,000) fine on the Church.

The Church was accused of looking for immigrants with names that would suggest they were of Catholic origin and adding them to the list of members without their knowledge.

If the Church refuses to pay the fine it will face trial.

The Church responded in a statement:

We’ve never done anything illegal or received too much money. We have always recognised that we have made mistakes and had an unfortunate practise in parts of our registration. This was cleaned up a long time ago.

In Norway the state finances religious groups in accordance with the number of members.

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DEUTSCHLAND
RP

[The 2015 public allegations of abuse against the bishop Heinrich Maria Janssen, who came from Rindern, were examined by a working group. Result: Nothing points to the deeds.]

Kleve/Hildesheim . Die 2015 öffentlich gewordenen Missbrauchsvorwürfe gegen den aus Rindern stammenden Bischof Heinrich Maria Janssen wurden von einer Arbeitsgruppe untersucht. Ergebnis: Nichts weist auf die Taten hin. Von Peter Janssen

Für Christa Storch waren die vergangenen Monate keine leichten. Die in Rindern lebende 69-Jährige ist die Nichte des ehemaligen Bischofs von Hildesheim, Heinrich Maria Janssen (1907 – 1988). Gegen ihren Onkel wurden im November 2015 schwere Vorwürfe öffentlich. Er soll Anfang der 1960er Jahre einen Messdiener regelmäßig missbraucht haben. Als Erstes berichtete damals das Nachrichtenmagazin “Der Spiegel” über die Anschuldigungen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Dewezet

[Former church superintendent Eckels was already sentenced in 1945 for sexual assaults but the judgment was later canceled.]

Am 20. Mai dieses Jahres berichtete unsere Zeitung über einen Fall des sexuellen Missbrauchs im Jahr 1965 durch den damaligen Rintelner Superintendenten Kurt Eckels. Wie Kirchenkreis und Landeskirche jetzt öffentlch machten, ist Eckels schon 1945 wegen mehrfacher sexueller Übergriffe gegen Schutzbefohlene in der Wehrmacht verurteilt worden. Das Urteil wurde später zwar aufgehoben, der Vorgang war der Landeskirche allerdings schon damals bekannt. Superintendent Andreas Kühne-Glaser spricht von einer „Mitschuld“ und erklärt, wieso man den Schritt an die Öffentlichkeit gegangen ist. Auch das damalige Opfer äußert sich nun erstmalig persönlich.

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ROM
Domradio

[Kiechle also spoke about the ordeal-related debate about the sexual abuse of minors by Jesuits. Two documents discussed at the recent Rome assembly in Rome, a public request for apology and a declaration of self-declaration for the prevention, were not accepted as official decrees, he explained. The reason for this was “above all” the concern that “in some corners of the world” such a public statement would have made Jesuits the target of “fundamentalist, anticircular circles” and endangered the lives of religious members and their associates.]

Flüchtlinge und gesellschaftlich Benachteiligte sollen künftig stärker im Mittelpunkt der Arbeit der Jesuiten stehen. Das ist ein Ergebnis der jüngsten Generalversammlung des katholischen Ordens.

Dies beschreibt Stefan Kiechle, Leiter der deutschen Jesuitenprovinz, in der “Herder Korrespondenz”. Er fordert zudem ein größeres Engagement für Umwelt- und Klimaschutz. Dabei sei jeder gefordert, seinen persönlichen Lebensstil auf den Prüfstand zu stellen. In einer von Oberflächlichkeit geprägten Gesellschaft brauche es neue geistige Tiefe, so der Jesuit. Dabei müssten Barmherzigkeit und Gerechtigkeit zusammen kommen.

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GUAM
USA Today

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News (Guam)

HAGATNA, Guam — Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes officially stepped in Wednesday as head of Guam’s large Catholic Church, during a historic celebration marking the start of his episcopal ministry.

“I belong to you today. I’m one of yours,” Byrnes, 58, said, to the applause of the hundreds gathered inside the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagåtña on Wednesday morning.

Several other archbishops and bishops joined the celebration which was rich in symbolism — from Byrnes knocking on the door of the church building that will be his home, to Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai seated next to a pew covered in blue, symbolizing the Vatican’s solidarity with all victims of child sex abuse on Guam and around the world.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

By Chris Wong | Post News Staff

A chorale ensemble sang religious hymnals deep from within the Dulce Nombre De Maria Cathedral-Basilica, the music echoing through the hall, making its way through a corner vestibule of the cathedral where Coadjutor Archbishop Michael J. Byrnes shared his thoughts on pain during a preconference event Wednesday, before the official start of his episcopal ministry of the Catholic Church on Guam.

“Pain is something we all fear, but it’s something we can’t avoid,” Byrnes said. “We as a church here in Guam, there’s a lot of pain, a lot of different kinds of pain. Betrayal of trust causes pain, we experience from the news of honestly the sexual abuse of minors the accusations, the allegations, the victims themselves are suffering tremendous pain, shame, guilt, but that pain radiates. It radiates throughout our dioceses, and in this pain, one of the pains we feel is our inability to trust one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. That pain of alienations is one of the deepest, we question each other, we even start to question God. ‘Where are you in all of this?’

A lot to learn

“I know I’ve got a lot to learn over these weeks, days, months and years. I know that there is a lot of hope, and I know just having a new face, a new person lifts a little bit of some of the pain and some of the sadness. One of the things I wanted to say today might be a little shock to you,” Byrnes said.

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MICHIGAN
Morning Sun

By Jameson Cook, jamie.cook@macombdaily.com, @jamesoncook on Twitter

A bill that eliminates the 10-year statute of limitations for criminal cases involving child sex-abuse victims unanimously passed a Senate panel.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill 5-0 on Wednesday, and it was referred to the full Senate for a potential vote, according to state officials. The bill’s main Senate sponsor is state Sen. Steve Bieda, D-Warren. A companion bill, HB 5859, in the state House of Representatives, sponsored by Rep. Adam Zemke, D–Ann Arbor, has not made it out of the Criminal Justice Committee.

The bill would eliminate the requirement that certain charges be filed within 10 years of the incident or in the case of a minor victim that it is filed before the accuser turns 21.

“The sexual exploitation of children is one of the most heinous crimes conceivable,” Bieda said in a written statement. “Michigan law must be able to hold perpetrators accountable, regardless of how long it takes victims to report, and I am glad that my colleagues and I were able to agree on this issue.”

The bill would remove the limitation in cases involving child pornography, second-, third- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct. First-degree criminal sexual conduct, which equates to forcible rape, already does not have a statute of limitations in Michigan.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJLA

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A former Roman Catholic bishop of Pittsburgh who now heads the Washington archdiocese has apologized for initially voicing doubts about a seminarian’s claims in 1988 that as a young boy he had been sexually abused by a priest.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl says Tim Bendig, who since left the seminary and is now a businessman, “told the truth about a priest who was a terrible danger to children and without his action that priest might have continued in the ministry.”

“Telling that truth helped all of us to become a better church,” Wuerl said in an interview Nov. 23 in the church newspaper in Washington, the Catholic Standard. …

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement Wednesday that the group is glad Bendig is pleased with the apology. But, he said, SNAP believes Wuerl is using Bendig to do “damage control” ahead of grand jury disclosures on how Pennsylvania dioceses dealt with abuse claims, including when Wuerl was bishop from 1988 to 2006.

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