ABUSE TRACKER

A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.

May 20, 2016

Another archdiocese review board member resigns

GUAM
Pacific Daily News
May 20, 2016

The archdiocese review board may have to do without two more members who decided to remove themselves, following recent sexual abuse allegations against Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

Mariles Benavente, one of the review board members, said she will recuse herself from the review board if they are called to review the specific sexual misconduct complaint against the archbishop.

Juan Rapadas said he resigned from the board on Wednesday. This comes after Vincent Pereda, another board review member, resigned Wednesday, which means the five-member board may need to appoint more members.

The archdiocese said the review board would convene after Roy Taitague Quintanilla, 52, on Tuesday publicly accused Apuron of molesting him 40 years ago when he was an altar boy. Quintanilla is the first alleged victim to openly accuse Apuron of sexual abuse. Quintanilla said there are other victims.

Neocatechumenal Way

For Benavente, a conflict of interest was also the reason behind her decision to recuse herself. She said she will recuse herself because she is walking in the Neocatechumenal Way, a group within the Catholic Church whose members meet in small community settings to worship.

Apuron is also part of the Way. Other Catholics have taken issue with how the group appears to separate itself. Apuron’s ties to the Way have angered a number of Guam Catholics.

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.

Communiqué, 20.05.2016

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bollettino

Vatican City, 20 May 2016 – With regard to recent information published by the press in relation to the facts pertaining to the management of the Institute for the Support of the Clergy of the diocese of Savona, Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, awaits notification of the formal acts of the trial initiated by the Public Prosecutor at the court of Savona.

With regard to the merits of the case, Cardinal Calcagno confirms his serenity in relation to the work carried out, considering that it relates to issues that arose primarily in a period of time subsequent to 7 July 2007, when he left the office of bishop of Savona-Noli.

In any case the investigation in no way relates to Vatican-owned assets or to the office currently held by the Cardinal.

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.

Cardinale Domenico Calcagno indagato per malversazione. Milioni di debiti nella gestione dell’istituto diocesano di sostentamento del clero

ITALY
L’Huffington Post

[Cardinal Domenico Calcagno is under investigation for embezzlement. Cardinal Calcagno, former bishop of Savona, and now president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, is being investigated by the Savona prosecution for complicity in embezzlement in the management of the Institute for the Support of the Clergy.]

Il cardinale Domenico Calcagno, ex vescovo di Savona ed ora presidente dell’Amministrazione del patrimonio della Sede Apostolica, è indagato dalla procura di Savona per concorso in malversazione nella gestione dell’ Istituto di sostentamento del clero della diocesi ligure. Per la procura, Calcagno avrebbe avallato la strategia dell’allora presidente dell’Istituto, don Pietro Tartarotti (fino al 2014) e dal vice, Gianmichele Baldi (fino a ottobre 2013), indagati per malversazione. Lo scrivono Il Secolo XIX e La Stampa.

Nel mirino della Procura ci sono investimenti in operazioni immobiliari che avrebbero provocato un indebitamento di alcuni milioni. Tra le operazioni sotto osservazione quella delle ‘Colonie bergamasche’, una grande struttura a ridosso della costa a Celle Ligure che avrebbe dovuto essere trasformata in un complesso residenziale con tanto di albergo di lusso.

Nel 2004 il vescovo Vittorio Lupi, successore di Calcagno, commissariò l’ente dopo che Tartarotti e Baldi si erano dimessi.

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Audiences, 20.05.2016

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bollettino

Vatican City, 20 May 2016 – The Holy Father received in audience:

– Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, France;

– Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, archbishop of Valencia, Spain.

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.

Pope under fire for meeting French cardinal accused of sex abuse cover-up

VATICAN CITY
Today

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis came under fire on Friday (May 20) after meeting Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the Lyon archbishop who is suspected of covering up for a paedophile priest in a scandal that has rocked the Church in France.

“There was a meeting, nothing out of the ordinary,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said, adding that he expected the two men had discussed the crisis in the French church, as well as regular business.

A support group for the alleged victims in the French scandal voiced regret that Francis had met with Barbarin while magistrates are still mulling whether the cardinal should face criminal charges.

“We would have liked to have been received instead of the cardinal, we note that once again it’s the victims who are sidelined,” Mr Bertrand Virieux, a co-founder of Lyon-based group La Parole Liberee, told AFP.

Mr Virieux said he had written to the pope in March seeking an audience.

The surprise meeting with Cardinal Barbarin came three days after the pope was quoted as saying it would be “nonsensical and imprudent” to seek the archbishop’s resignation at this stage, arguing that would be to imply he was guilty of potential criminal charges against him.

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

Deacon defends archbishop accused of molestation

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Jasmine Stole, Pacific Daily News May 20, 2016

A longtime Guam deacon is supporting Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who was accused this week of molesting an altar boy when Apuron was a priest in Agat about 40 years ago.

In a video-recorded message released Thursday night, Deacon Francisco Tenorio, 79, was shown seated and appeared to be reading from a prepared statement not shown in the camera frame.

In the video, Tenorio referred to a recorded statement Apuron released Tuesday in which the archbishop stated that the allegations against him were false.

“When (Apuron) spoke very directly denying any involvement in this alleged offense, I accept that this is the truth,” Tenorio said. “I know this to be the truth since I too was assigned to the Mt. Carmel Catholic Church in Agat between (1973) and (1977).”

The alleged incident happened between these years. Apuron was a priest at Mt. Carmel during this time.

Roy Quintanilla, 52, on Tuesday publicly accused Apuron of molesting him one time when he was a 12-year-old altar boy.

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.

Long time parishioner reacts to priest’s suspension

KENTUCKY
WAVE

[with video]

By Jessica Gavin, Reporter

UNION CO., KY (WFIE) –
14 News is hearing from a long-time parishioner of a church that an accused Western Kentucky priest in a sexual misconduct investigation, led for almost a decade.

Father Gerald Baker has been suspended from his duties as a priest at St. Mary of the Woods in Whitesville, after being accused of sexual misconduct with a child.

Baker had been a priest in Owensboro for the past few years, before that he served at St. Ann Catholic Church in Morganfield.

Father Gerald Baker was the priest at St. Ann for 9 years, from June 2003 to June 2012. Bishop William Medley tells us, the diocese opened its own investigation a few weeks ago, and is cooperating with Kentucky State Police.

Parishioners at Saint Mary of the Woods were told of the allegations against Baker, at mass this past weekend. 14 NEWS talked with Paul Monsour, he’s been a parishioner of St. Ann Catholic Church in Morganfield, for 35 years.

He told us he believes Father Baker positively influenced not only fellow church attendees, but many people throughout Union County, for years.

“He had a big impact not only on our church but on our community, he was very active, I know he joined the Lions Club,” said Paul Monsour, St. Ann Catholic Church parishioner. “He was very positive about a lot of things, he had a lot of friends and did a lot of good works. He had a little conservative bend on a few religious issues, I think that turned a lot of people off, but we were all stunned when we heard about this.” >

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.

‘Is this the closest I’ll get to Pope Francis?’

NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

Andrew Quinn
Twitter: @AndrewEQuinn
Friday 20 May 2016

Derry abuse victim, Brian Doherty, believes having his picture taken beside a waxwork model of Pope Francis is the closest he will ever get to meeting the pontiff.

Brian travelled to New York recently where he had a picture taken beside a waxwork model of Pope Francis at Madame Tussauds.

“It’s been almost three years since I sent a letter to Pope Francis asking him to meet with me,” Brian said.

“I’ve yet to receive a reply from Pope Francis and the more time passes the more I am starting to think the closest I am ever going to get to talking to him is by standing beside a waxwork model,” he added.

Brian was born in Derry in 1947 and when he was three weeks old he was placed into the care of the Sisters of Nazareth in the St. Joseph’s Home in Termonbacca. Brian remained there until he was 14 years-old.

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.

Kincora sex abuse cover-up a case of systemic failure, court hears

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Alan Erwin
PUBLISHED
20/05/2016

Alleged state collusion and cover-up of a paedophile ring at a notorious Belfast care home amounts to a systemic failure, the Court of Appeal has heard.

Counsel for one abuse victim argued that the scale of the Kincora scandal, which includes claims of British security service involvement, warrants an investigation that will “vindicate” his human rights.

Gary Hoy (54), is seeking to overturn a verdict that the probe into the home should remain within the remit of a Stormont-commissioned body.

He believes the ongoing Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry sitting in Banbridge lacks the power to properly scrutinise what went on at the home in east Belfast.

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.

Residential school survivor calls for review of settlement agreement

CANADA
CBC News

As Canada’s Residential Schools Settlement Agreement draws to a close, some survivors are calling for a review.

A review is needed in order to identify any mistakes that have been made throughout the process and make them right, said Garnet Angeconeb, a residential school survivor who lives in Sioux Lookout, in northwestern Ontario.

“It’s not to renegotiate or reopen the agreement,” said Angeconeb. “It’s to look at what worked, what didn’t work and what needs to be worked on some more.”

The settlement agreement is the largest class action settlement in Canadian history, and it involves the distribution of billions of dollars in compensation to former students of Indian residential schools.

But in some cases, the alleged misconduct of legal advisors have left survivors feeling revictimized, and unsure of how their complaints will be resolved, said Angeconeb.

“So these things really need to be addressed and the questions that survivors have need to be thoroughly examined before the agreement expires,” he said.

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.

Jerusalem Yeshiva Mashgiach Indicted for Molesting Nieces

ISRAEL
Frum Follies

The Israeli news site, Arutz Sheva, reports:

Jerusalem prosecutors filed an indictment against a rabbi who served as a mashgiach [spiritual advisor] at a yeshiva in the city, for a series of rapes carried against a number of female relatives over the course of several years.

The accused began his horrific campaign of abuse when his first victim was just six years old, and continued abusing her and other female relatives by various means of coercion and manipulation……

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Le cardinal Barbarin reçu à Rome par le pape François

VATICAN
Le Figaro

Le cardinal est mis en cause pour ne pas avoir dénoncé des affaires de pédophilie et d’agressions sexuelles dans son diocèse de Lyon.

Le pape François, qui a apporté son soutien au cardinal Barbarin dans une interview publiée par le quotidien La Croix mardi 17 mai, confirme son appui en le recevant en audience au Vatican, vendredi en fin de matinée.

Le cardinal Barbarin, visé par une enquête préliminaire à propos de sa gestion d’affaires de pédophilie et d’agressions sexuelles dans son diocèse de Lyon, confiera en exclusivité dans Le Figaro du samedi 21 mai sa rencontre avec le pape et s’expliquera, pour la première fois, sur l’ensemble de ces affaires.

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.

Pope meets French archbishop accused of sex abuse cover-up

VATICAN CITY
Digital Journal

AFP

Pope Francis met Friday with Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the under-fire Archbishop of Lyon suspected of covering up for a paedophile priest in a scandal that has rocked the Church in France.

“There was a meeting, nothing out of the ordinary,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told AFP, without revealing the purpose or content of the talks.

The surprise meeting came three days after the pope was quoted as saying it would be “nonsensical and imprudent” to seek Barbarin’s resignation at this stage, arguing that would be to imply he was guilty of potential criminal charges against him.

French examining magistrates are currently carrying out a preliminary investigation to decide whether to pursue charges against the archbishop for his handling of the allegations against Bernard Preynat, a priest in his diocese who has been charged with sex abuse.

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

Priest jailed for sex attacks on schoolgirl which took place 40 years ago

UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A priest has been jailed for three years for sex attacks on a teenage schoolgirl more than 40 years ago.

John Farmer, now 84, abused the girl between the ages of 12 and 14 while her family were part of his congregation.

A court heard heard the Roman Catholic priest referred to his lap as “the soft seat” – and then abused her as she sat on him.

The girl “idolised” the family priest and the court heard she was “immature and blameless” during the assaults.

Farmer was a priest at St Mary’s Church in Newport, Gwent, and a governor at St Joseph’s RC High School in Duffryn, Newport.

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.

Cuomo stands for justice for child sexual assault victims

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Editorial

For a full two hours, Gov. Cuomo on Thursday engaged with men and women who suffered sex abuse as minors and are pressing Albany to reform statutes of limitations that deny justice to countless victims.

Kudos to Cuomo for affording the citizen activists the attention they deserve — and continue to be denied by leaders of the state Legislature.

While Cuomo explored the difficult legal and moral questions surrounding rewriting civil and criminal statutes of limitations, legislative leaders arrogantly maintained their anti-democratic practice of conducting the people’s business behind closed doors.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Democratic Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie refused to answer even the most basic questions about their positions.

Daily News readers will know that this newspaper has campaigned since March for reforms to criminal and civil statutes of limitations for sex crimes against minors. The case of an alleged serial predator who could not be prosecuted on some accusations cried out for rewriting the law.

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.

Bishops Seeking Plea Bargains

PENNSYLVANIA
National Catholic Reporter

Ken Briggs | May. 19, 2016 NCR Today

The letter was like one of those from the bank, reminding you how special you are to them, reviewing everything they’ve done to upgrade your life, then offering you a chance to return the love by taking out a home equity loan.

Except this one was from Bishop John Barres, dated on Easter Sunday, that circled around to another kind of pitch. As read to Cathoics attending mass in his Allentown, PA, diocese, it began by acknowledging the “prevalence of the sin and crime of child abuse,” noting that the diocese was “not untouched” by this scandal but hastening to add that it was “Just as important” that the church was enforcing “zero tolerance” through a wide variety of strategies. The bishop wanted Catholics to know that the church was doing its utmost to protect their children. While admitting no culpability in fostering the menace, which was inferred to be much bigger than the church, parishioners could be sure the diocese was on the prevention side.

That billboard was the prelude to the punch lines at the end of the letter. Bishop Barres hoped that good will spawned by the diocese’s initiatives would impel parishioners to urge their state legislators to kill a bill that would end limits on the right to file lawsuits against dioceses by victims of church-related sex abuse. The bill’s leading backe was a committed Catholic, Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Bethlehem) who claimed he was raped by an Allentown priest during his teens.

Bishop Barres warned that passage of the law (two weeks later it won House approval handily, 180-15) could trigger dire results including “crippling damage awards” and the “very existence of some ministries.” Understandable disaster from an institutional standpoint. Similar letters were being dispatched from lecturnes in parishes across the state at the behest of the PA conference of bishops.

Two cradle-Catholic friends who trundle to their respective churches every weekend told me separately that they were outraged by the letter and came close to walking out of church. They were appalled by by the suggestion that they join the bishops’ fight against an opening of lawsuits on behalf of victims Each said he’d never before even thought of storming out of church in protest. But there they were.

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.

Fr Kevin Dillon: Geelong’s loud fence ribbons come down, but victims’ suffering is far from over

AUSTRALIA
Geelong Advertiser

May 19, 2016

Fr Kevin Dillon
Geelong Advertiser

THE fence surrounding St Mary’s Basilica in Yarra St will look less colourful by Monday morning.

Since January, the almost 300 metres of “Loud Fence” surrounding one of Geelong’s most iconic buildings have been bedecked with innumerable multicoloured ribbons. They have all been tied by individuals wishing to recognise the suffering of the far-too-many victims/survivors of church-related sexual abuse.

During a public ceremony at 3pm this Sunday, the ribbons will be removed then taken into the Basilica where they are to be placed near the altar as a sign of “repentance, reparation and respect” for those who have suffered so much and for so long.

Just this week, I received an email from Brian, whose son Adam was abused at just seven years of age by a notorious priest offender who was eventually imprisoned for multiple assaults on many children.

Adam was irrevocably damaged by the assaults, which occurred 30 years ago. He has never had regular employment. He has had girlfriends but the relationships never last long. He still relies on his parents as his chief means of personal support.

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.

Maitland Newcastle Catholic priest David O’Hearn after being found guilty of child sex offences

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

JOANNE MCCARTHY
May 20, 2016.

CATHOLIC priest David O’Hearn is in custody awaiting sentence after being found guilty of more than 40 child sex offences against six victims after a fight that has gone all the way to the High Court.

A jury on Friday found him not guilty of three offences against one boy, after separate juries in 2015 and earlier this year found him guilty of 44 offences against six other boys, including sexual intercourse, indecent assault and inciting a minor to commit an indecent act.

The offences occurred in the Hunter while O’Hearn worked as a trainee priest and priest in parishes including Cessnock, Muswellbrook and Windale in the 1980s and 1990s. Victims ranged from nine to 13.

In a statement released late today Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Bill Wright expressed “great shame that another member of the clergy has been guilty of crimes of this kind”.

Judge Richard Cogswell lifted an order on Friday preventing O’Hearn from being named as trials ran in Sydney over a number of years. In 2011 O’Hearn sought leave to appeal to the High Court to have trials involving six victims heard separately. He was first stood down in May, 2008.

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.

Irish priest ‘knocked out boy, nine, with chloroform’ before abusing him in church, trial hears

UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Mirror

BY KATIE STOREY

An Irish Catholic priest sedated a schoolboy before sexually assaulting him at a church, a court has heard.

Canon Mortimer Stanley, 84, is accused of 19 counts of indecent assault over four decades while he was working at St Vincent de Paul Church in Norden, Greater Manchester.

A jury at Minshull Street Crown Court heard on Thursday how one of the alleged victims, who was nine at the time, claimed Stanley, who was born in Limerick, came up behind him while he was getting changed.

He allegedly covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief soaked in a ‘chloroform-type’ substance, Manchester Evening News reports.

Chloroform is a volatile liquid once used as an anesthetic.

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.

Royal Commission releases research on information sharing

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

20 May, 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released two research reports, with the first examining information-sharing frameworks and the second examining best practice in implementation.

A study into the legislative—and related key policy and operational—frameworks for sharing information relating to child sexual abuse in institutional contexts, considered the legislative frameworks for sharing information relating to child sexual abuse in institutional contexts, between institutions and across jurisdictions in Australia.

The second report, Implementation best practice: A rapid evidence review, examined the effectiveness of planned strategies to change or introduce new practices, programs or policies.

Royal Commission Chief Executive Officer Philip Reed said that along with private sessions and public hearings, the Royal Commission’s research agenda was vital in helping inform the Commissioners ahead of their final report.

“The research examining information sharing arrangements looked at a range of sectors, including out-of-home care, schools and juvenile detention, and consolidated the Australian information-sharing landscape in relation to legislative, key policy and operational frameworks, both within and across Australian jurisdictions,” Mr Reed said.

“The report found laws and common objectives across institutions can help ensure that children’s safety is the primary consideration when sharing information, while laws and policies for information sharing need to be clear and well understood to be effective.

“The second report demonstrates the importance of implementation as a factor in the success or failure of policy change. This report identified and critiqued existing evidence of implementation and identifies elements of best practice approaches, including behavioural change, planning and increasing the competencies and skills of individuals and organisations,” Mr Reed said.

A study into the legislative—and related key policy and operational—frameworks for sharing information relating to child sexual abuse in institutional contexts was conducted by Macquarie University’s Carolyn Adams and Krista Lee-Jones.

Implementation best practice: A rapid evidence review was conducted by the Parenting Research Centre.

The research reports can be found here.

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British police ‘will be probing 200,000 child sex cases by 2020’: Huge extent of UK abuse problem is revealed by senior officer who say 100 new allegations come in every month

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By KATIE STRICK FOR THE DAILY MAIL

One hundred allegations of child sex abuse are being passed to police every month as part of an inquiry launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, a senior officer has revealed.

Simon Bailey, head of the police unit co-ordinating claims of historic child sex abuse in England and Wales, said he expected to be handed a total of 30,000 new reports by the Goddard inquiry.

The Norfolk Chief Constable also estimated that officers would be looking into about 200,000 claims of child sex abuse by 2020, given the current trajectory.

Mr Bailey told the Guardian: ‘It is fair to say I am surprised by the extent of abuse being exposed, it is shocking. In trying to get a message across to the public about the scale of this, it is important to remember that behind each of these figures there is a victim.

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.

Residential schools settlement agreement under fire

CANADA
APTN

By Paul Barnsley and Kathleen Martens
APTN Investigates

SIOUX LOOKOUT, Ont.– For the second time this month a call has come to review the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA).

In early May, Chief Bill Erasmus, the Assembly of First Nations executive member who is responsible for the residential schools portfolio, called for a review of the $4 billion out-of-court settlement that allowed the federal government and several churches to escape having to defend themselves against a handful of class-action lawsuits related to human rights violations and criminal acts committed against children who were students at the schools.

Erasmus said there is widespread criticism amongst the survivors about the way some of the defendants in the original class actions – the federal government and the Catholic Church – have conducted themselves as the settlement agreement has been administered.

Then, on May 17, Garnet Angeconeb, a respected long-time advocate for survivors of residential schools, sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett, and several opposition politicians. APTN Investigates obtained a copy of that letter.

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LDS church releases statement on BYU sexual assault issue

UTAH
Daily Herald

Katie England
Daily Herald

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement Thursday evening in support of Brigham Young University’s announcement that it has formed an advisory council and seeks public feedback on sexual assault response and Title IX compliance at the university.

BYU has been under widespread media scrutiny after several women approached multiple outlets, reporting that the religious school’s Honor Code Office would hold women accountable for Honor Code violations after they reported sexual assaults to the Title IX Office.

The church’s statement said that the victims’ stories are “painful to read.”

“But we do not believe (these stories) represent the ideals BYU or Church leaders follow when responding to victims,” the statement said.

The statement stressed that there is no place for any kind of abuse or assault on the campus or in the church.

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

Church must speak louder

CANADA
Ottawa Sun

Editorial

Several days after being approached by reporter Andrew Duffy about the abuse of children by Catholic priests, the Archdiocese of Ottawa issued a statement of regret. It wants us all to know it is horrified by the long history of priests abusing young people; Duffy’s reporting found at least 41 acknowledged cases in the Ottawa area since the 1980s.

The church wasn’t horrified enough to confirm the exact number, mind you; our reporter had to sift through court files as the church sues its own insurers to get back some of the money it paid in compensation to victims. Nor was the church horrified enough to actually answer any of the detailed written questions put to it about the scandal.

But in its statement, the archdiocese said that, several years back, it began “a process to create safe environments in our faith communities, notably parishes, for the protection of minors and other vulnerable persons.” This includes a code of conduct, and a detailed protocol regarding potential sexual abuse of minors. The documents make it clear – on paper at least – that priests and others have a responsibility not only to behave properly, but to report possible abuse to highers-up in the church.

That responsibility is interesting in light of what one lawyer for victims has found. He said he has rarely encountered a priest who spoke out. “Very rarely have I encountered a whistleblower priest,” said the lawyer. “Nobody steps forward. Nobody squeals on their brother priest.”

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.

May 19, 2016

Former Newport priest jailed for sexually assaulting girl 40 years ago

UNITED KINGDOM
South Wales Argus

Hayley Mills

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A PRIEST who spent nearly a decade working in Newport was sentenced to three years in prison for indecently assaulting a girl 40 years ago.

John Farmer, who is also known as Barry, worked at St Mary’s Church in Newport from the 1960s to 70s before moving to a Cardiff parish.

The 84-year-old, now of Cranleigh Road, Guildford, was also a governor of St Joseph’s RC High School in Duffryn.

Farmer was initially charged with 27 counts of indecent assault against one girl, who was between 12 and 14 when the abuse took place, but was found guilty of nine charges after a trial at Newport Crown Court.

The victim was abused as a schoolgirl and as one of Farmer’s parishioners between 1974 and 1976.

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.

Alleged victim tells priest sex abuse trial he was ‘knocked out with chloroform-like substance before being abused’

UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

BY KATIE STOREY

A Catholic priest allegedly sedated a primary school boy before sexually assaulting him at a Norden church, a court has heard.

Canon Mortimer Stanley, 84, is accused of 19 counts of indecent assault over four decades while he was working at St Vincent de Paul RC Church.

A jury at Minshull Street Crown heard one of the victims, who was nine at the time of the alleged offence, claim Stanley came up behind him while he was getting changed and covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief soaked in a ‘chloroform-type’ substance.

The alleged victim says he then passed out slumped over a shelf.

He told the court when he woke up he was partially dressed and Stanley – still partially wearing his church robes – sexually assaulting him.

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

Catholic priest resigns from pregnancy center in Eastpointe for teens

MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press May 19, 2016

A Catholic priest who was removed in 2009 from churches after allegations he abused a teenage girl has resigned from a center for pregnant teens in Eastpointe that he co-founded, Catholic officials said this week.

Fr. Kenneth Kaucheck, 69, was the co-founder, development director and a board member of Gianna House, a new Catholic center to help teenage girls who are pregnant. But after a Free Press report last week on his position there, officials with the center and the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit are now saying he has resigned and no longer works there.

Kaucheck’s name has been scrubbed from Gianna House’s website, which used to say that Kaucheck co-founded the center along with Sister Mary Diane Masson, executive director at the House, and that he selected the board along with Masson.

Now the website says Masson alone had selected the board and is a co-founder.

The center has also selected a new board, with Dr. Robert Welch, formerly the board’s chairman, no longer on the board.

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.

Abuse victim speaks for first time, demands to know why priest not defrocked

CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

ANDREW DUFFY, OTTAWA CITIZEN

A victim of Rev. Barry McGrory’s sexual abuse is demanding to know why the Catholic priest has never been defrocked.

Colleen Passard sent a written statement to the Citizen after the newspaper published a story this week about McGrory, a Catholic priest who admitted in an interview that he sexually abused three adolescents at Ottawa’s Holy Cross Parish in the 1970s and 80s.

McGrory was convicted of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old native youth in 1993 — six years after he was moved to Toronto from Ottawa.

Passard, who asked that her name be published alongside her statement, said diocesan officials assured her in 1997 that he had been removed from the priesthood.

“However, despite assurances from church officials that Barry McGrory had been defrocked since his sexual abuse conviction in 1993, he has continued to be a priest, to hold a sacred trust in the community, under the auspices of the archdiocese,” she wrote.

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OH, IL – Predatory seminarian is sentenced; Sex abuse victims respond

OHIO/ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 20, 2016

Statement by Melanie Jula Sakoda of Moraga, California, Orthodox Christian Director for SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (925-708-6175, melanie.sakoda@gmail.com)

Former seminarian Dario Spasic pleaded guilty this week to one count of indecent solicitation of a child. He was sentenced to probation, and will be required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

[News-Sun]

We had hoped for jail time, since that is the only proven way to stop a predator from hurting children. The former seminarian is a relatively young man. We firmly believe that he will try to harm more kids.

We now beg anyone who suffered, witnessed, or suspected abuse by this predator to call police. Another conviction will mean another chance to take Spasic off the streets.

Spasic was in his final year at Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox School of Theology in Libertyville, Illinois, when he was charged with two counts of indecent solicitation of a child on September 19, 2014. The seminarian contacted what he thought was a 14 year old boy to engage in sexual activity. When he showed up at the arranged meeting he was arrested by sheriff’s detectives. While Spasic was convicted in Illinois, the judge in the case agreed that Spasic can serve his probation under the supervision of the state of Ohio, where he is now living.

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Police expect 30,000 new child abuse reports from Goddard inquiry

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Exclusive: Extent of child sexual abuse in England and Wales begins to become clear as inquiry passes on 100 cases a month

Sandra Laville
Thursday 19 May 2016

The scale of child sexual abuse in England and Wales is being exposed by evidence from thousands of victims, with cases being passed to police at a rate of 100 a month by the public inquiry set up following the Jimmy Savile scandal.

Simon Bailey, Norfolk’s chief constable and head of the national coordinating unit Operation Hydrant, said his team was expecting to be given 30,000 reports of new child sexual offences by the Goddard inquiry, and predicted the rate of referrals of allegations of abuse would increase.

The chief constable said that given the trajectory of the number of reports, police would be investigating about 200,000 cases of child sexual abuse by 2020, giving an insight into the extent of child sexual abuse in Britain over many decades.

Bailey added: “It is fair to say I am surprised by the extent of abuse being exposed, it is shocking. In trying to get a message across to the public about the scale of this, it is important to remember that behind each of these figures there is a victim.

“We are seeing a significant rise in the number of referrals each month from the Goddard inquiry, and these allegations relate to abuse in a range of institutions from the church, to schools, the scouts and hospitals.”

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Archbishop of Canterbury apologises to Jersey’s Dean for abuse probe

UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The Archbishop of Canterbury has formally apologised to the Dean of Jersey for years of “hurt” following an investigation into allegations of abuse in the church in the island.

The Dean’s handling of a complaint from a parishioner about abuse she claimed she suffered at the hands of a senior figure in the church was the subject of a formal investigation, and led to the breakdown of relations between the Jersey church and the Winchester Diocese to which it officially belongs.

Jersey is currently being ‘managed’, instead, by the Bishop of Dover.

Today, the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Welby has written to Jersey’s Bailiff, in which he acknowledges the “enormous personal stress hurt and uncertainty” suffered by Bob Key and his wife Daphne.

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Senator calls for investigation into St. Mark’s Cathedral School after lawsuit filed

LOUISIANA
KSLA

[with video]

By Nick Lawton, Reporter

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) –
Back in April, a Shreveport mother spoke out to us anonymously about her lawsuit against St. Mark’s Cathedral School for her son, identified as M.R.

We’ve now obtained documents showing a Louisiana Senator asking for a full state investigation into the school.

The mother’s lawsuit alleges her then 12-year-old son was expelled for his behavior with his cabin mates on a 2014 school field trip to Pine Cove.

The school claims the boy inappropriately touched the other boys, behavior his mother claims did not happen.

“He agreed that he and several other boys were playing these same type of games, just boy dormitory-type behavior, but he was the one that was told on,” his mother said during an April 7 interview.

The lawsuit alleges that even though the camp counselors denied M.R.’s inappropriate behavior and a local psychologist reported M.R. showed no signs of sexual deviant behavior, St. Mark’s still expelled him for “inappropriate touching of other students when not in the presence of adults.”

The mother is suing the school, asking if this sexual abuse did happen, why didn’t Head of School Dr. Chris Carter follow LA R.S. 14:403, the Mandatory Reporter Law?

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New charges against North Aurora pastor accused of sex assault

ILLINOIS
Aurora Beacon-News

Dan Campana
Aurora Beacon-News

Kane County prosecutors have added two new charges against North Aurora pastor Ralphael Robinson, who sits in jail accused of sexually assaulting and abusing a girl last month.

Robinson, 39, most recently of Aurora, has now also been charged with violating the state’s sex offender registration rules and not properly reporting his job status when registering with Aurora police in April, court documents show. Prosecutors allege Robinson “knowingly furnished false information” and “failed to furnish current employment information” to authorities, according to charges.

Robinson – who is still described as the “senior leader of Kingdom Church” on his website – is listed as a sexual predator on the Illinois Sex Offender Registry stemming from a 2004 sex abuse conviction in Cook County. He was arrested and charged with criminal sex assault and sex abuse in April on allegations he fondled a girl while at the church on South Lincolnway Street. Robinson is in Kane County Jail on $107,500 bail with a May 26 hearing date scheduled on all his charges.

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Andrew Cuomo Backs New York Child Sex Abuse Reform Bill

NEW YORK
Forward

Sam Kestenbaum
May 19, 2016

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday backed a bill that would make it easier for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to seek justice from their abusers as adults.

By bowing to repeated calls by victims and advocates, Cuomo removes a significant roadblock to the reform measure, although it remains to be seen if lawmakers will pass it.

“This is an incredibly important issue and we are serious about addressing it this [legislative] session,” said Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi, according to the Daily News . “We have been discussing options with the Legislature, have met with advocates and survivors, and are meeting with them again (Thursday).”

Cuomo had previously dodged questions from both the press and activists as to whether he would support current legislation, known as the Child Victims Act, which would eliminate New York’s statute of limitations for sexual abuse, one of the shortest in the nation. Currently, survivors have until their 23rd birthday to bring forward legal claims about their abuse.

Over 100 Jewish leaders, including rabbis from all major denominations , are lobbying in support of the legislation. A significant contingent of Jewish backers claim to have been abused by rabbis or teachers in religious schools as children.

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Cuomo’s Rapidly Changing Stance on SOL Reform

NEW YORK
Frum Follies

This morning’s (5/19/16) New York Daily News ran a headline, “Gov. Cuomo will push law allowing child-abuse victims to seek justice as adults.” The URL tells a different story about his position when they first created the article: “http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/gov-cuomo-pushes-liquor-law-reform-ignores-child-sex-abuse-vics-article-1.2641982.” Its seems the spirits have moved the governor to a new public stance.

The good news is that New York State’s governor is feeling the heat from anti-abuse activists. The bad news is that he is still committed to protecting the interests of the Catholic church and Agudath Israel of America. Both of them know, that for all their denials, there was a massive coverup of abuse. Opening a window for suing about past abuse will both cost them a lot and will further expose their moral indifference to the epidemic of abuse inflicted by the employees of their institutions.

Cuomo will probably maneuver the legislature to extend the SOL in the future while not opening a window for suing about past abuse by older victims/survivors who are now barred from suing after their 23rd birthday. Politically, such legislation will probably take the wind out of future efforts to open a window for suing about past abuse. This will only be half a loaf. It would have the beneficial effect of scaring the bejeebus out of Haredi schools that continue to protect molesters in their employ.

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Member of church’s sexual misconduct board resigns

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Jasmine Stole, Pacific Daily News May 20, 2016

A member of a board within Guam’s Catholic Church that reviews sexual misconduct complaints wrote an email to the church’s sexual abuse response coordinator Wednesday stating he believes accusations that the archbishop sexually assaulted a minor.

Vincent Pereda, the board member who wrote the email, also stated he would resign from the board immediately.

Pereda’s email addressed an accusation against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who oversees the island’s Catholic Church.

Raymond Taitague Quintanilla, 52, on Tuesday came forward publicly accusing Apuron of molesting him as a 12-year-old altar boy about 40 years ago. Quintanilla delivered a letter for Apuron to the Chancery Office on Tuesday, detailing the abuse.

Hours after the letter was delivered, the Archdiocese of Agana issued a three-sentence statement that said it affirms its commitment to its sexual misconduct and harassment policy. In light of Quintanilla’s allegations, the archdiocese statement said the Sexual Abuse Response coordinator Deacon Larry Claros had been informed and was coordinating a response. Part of that response includes convening the Archdiocese Review Board.

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Texas man who ran orphanage in Malawi admits to sexually abusing children at facility, then sending victims hush money

TEXAS/MALAWI
New York Daily News

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, May 18, 2016

MIDLAND, Texas — A Texas man who managed an orphanage in Malawi has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing orphans at the East African facility.

Gerald Campbell pleaded guilty before a U.S. magistrate Wednesday in Midland, Texas, to one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place.

The 66-year-old Odessa man could get 10 years to life in prison. Sentencing hasn’t been scheduled yet.

Campbell admitted to sexually abusing eight orphans at the Victory Christian Children’s Home in Malawi between 1997 and 2009.

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US pastor raped Malawian boys

MALAWI
Malawi 24

An American pastor has told a court in his native country that he raped orphaned boys in Malawi and knew he would get away with it.

The shameless pervert, Gerald Campbell, 66, raped eight orphans, including one who infected with HIV, at the Victory Christian Children’s Home in Malawi between 1997 and 2009.

According to Reuters, the rapist faces up to 10 years in jail after pleading guilty to one count of illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place.

The monster used his position as general manager of the orphan to lure his victims; he offered them access to better rooms within the orphanage and allowed them to use hot water at his house. He also lived with some of the victims for months in his house.

Campbell said he gave money and valuable things to two of his victims so that they should not disclose the sexual abuse. He told the court that he knew that no one will believe the children if they reported the sexual abuse.

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Pressure to scrap time limits preventing historical child sex abuse claims

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Christopher Knaus

The government is under pressure to move swiftly to scrap time-limits making it harder for historical child abuse victims to sue for damages.

NSW, Victoria and the federal government have all moved in recent months to remove the statute of limitations which prevented survivors from suing after too many years had passed.

The states were acting in response to the child abuse royal commission, which recommended last year that limitations be scrapped, that it be done retrospectively, and that a consistent approach be taken across jurisdictions.

It also recommended the establishment of a national redress scheme that would begin hearing applications for compensation by survivors in July 2017.

The ACT is yet to make a move on scrapping its time-limit, which is generally six years from the cause of the civil action or from the time the child turns 18.

A spokesman for the ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell said the government was pushing for the establishment of the national redress scheme.

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Piura: arzobispo sorprendido por estar en denuncia contra Sodalicio

PERU
RPP

[The Archdiocese of Piura said in a statement that Archbishop José Eguren Anselmi is surprised to have been included in the complaint against members of the Sodality of Christian Life by five alleged victims of abuse by the founder of this Catholic group, Luis Fernando Figari. The religious group expelled him months ago. The archbishop said the complaint in question does not refer to sexual abuse.]

El Arzobispado de Piura, mediante un comunicado, indicó que el arzobispo monseñor José Eguren Anselmi está sorprendido de haber sido incluido en la denuncia contra integrantes del Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, por parte de cinco presuntas víctimas de abusos por parte del fundador de este grupo católico Luis Fernando Figari, a quien la congregación religiosa expulsó meses atrás.

En el comunicado del Arzobispado indican que la denuncia en cuestión no se refiere a abusos sexuales.

La denuncia penal ampliatoria presentada al Ministerio Público pide se añada a los cargos por los que se abrió una investigación de oficio, el pasado 22 de octubre de 2015, los delitos de secuestro, lesiones graves y asociación ilícita para delinquir.

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Cura acusado de pedofilia ofició misa un año en Carapeguá pese a denuncia

PARAGUAY
Ultima Hora

[Priest Estanisiao Arevaleos is alleged to have groped altar boys and tried to kiss them on the mouth. The information reached the ears of his superior who did not take it as a complaint and sent the priest to Paraguari to reopen a mission.]

jvargas@uhora.com.py

El presbítero Vicente Soria, superior de los misioneros redentoristas del Paraguay, tomó conocimiento del supuesto hecho de pedofilia contra dos monaguillos, ocurrido en la vicaría Divino Espíritu, a instancias de una catequista. Esto lo confirmó el religioso a ÚH. Igual, envió al párroco Estanislao Arévalos a Paraguarí con la misión de reasumir la casa provincial redentorista en Carapeguá, decisión que ya la habían tomado “a inicios de ese año 2013”.

Recién en diciembre del 2014, Soria le suspende de su ministerio sacerdotal a Arévalos, a raíz de la denuncia presentada por los padres de los menores ante el Ministerio Público sobre el caso que un año antes recibió “como una cuestión de confidencialidad”.

“Para mí la información llegó en diciembre del 2014, antes no tomé conocimiento del caso; así como denuncia, no (…) Desde que el curso de la denuncia tuvo la formalidad, estamos siguiendo lo que dice el protocolo (de la Iglesia) y la justicia paraguaya”, argumentó sobre la cita para declarar en el marco de la causa por supuesto abuso sexual contra un sacerdote de su congregación.

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Piden al Papa investigar al rector de Universidad Católica

PARAGUAY
ABC

[con video]

[Ask the Pope to investigate the rector of Catholic University. The rector of the Catholic University (UC) Our Lady of the Assumption, Father Narciso Velazquez, was allegedly one of the “abettors” of the Argentine priest Carlos Ibanez, who came to Paraguay from Argentina, where he had been accused of sexual abuse minors.]

El rector de la Universidad Católica (UC) Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, padre Narciso Velázquez, había sido supuestamente uno de los “encubridores” del sacerdote argentino Carlos Ibáñez, quien vino al Paraguay desde Argentina, donde había sido acusado de cometer abuso sexual contra menores, denunciaron funcionarios de la institución durante una manifestación, que se realizó ayer en horas de la tarde.

Por su parte, el rector Velázquez aseguró que no conoce a ningún sacerdote pedófilo y que está a disposición de la Comisión de Investigación para que se esclarezca el caso.

El secretario general del Sindicato de Trabajadores de la UC, Julio López, manifestó que solicitan al papa Francisco que intervenga y se interiorice de la situación de los sacerdotes en el Paraguay.

El gremialista solicita a las autoridades de la Iglesia que se investigue a fondo, no solo al sacerdote Ibáñez, sino también las posibles responsabilidades de otras personas que permitieron que por tantos años se engañe a la feligresía en el país.

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Bishops must repent for inaction on child abuse, says survivor

UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

by Tim Wyatt

Posted: 19 May 2016

A MAN who was abused by two senior Church of England clergyman has demanded that senior bishops make public statements of “repentance” because of what he says is their failure to act quickly on safeguarding reform.

The survivor, known only as “Joe”, was sexually assaulted by the Revd Garth Moore, a former Chancellor of the dioceses of Southwark, Durham, and Gloucester, who died in 1990 (News, 4 December); and later exploited by Michael Fisher, who was then a brother in the Society of St Francis, and later became Bishop of St Germans.

An independent report on failings in his case called for sweeping changes to the Church’s safeguarding procedures, condemning them as “fundamentally flawed” (News, 18 March). But in an open letter, published last week, Joe said that there had been total silence from bishops since the report came out in March.

“I call on the House of Bishops to repent at your meeting in York at the end of this week,” he wrote. “Others in the survivor community are saying the same. Repentance implies action and not just word — it is about turning around 180 degrees and starting again.

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Calls for Guam’s Archbishop to stand down

GUAM
Radio New Zealand

[with audio]

Transcript

There are calls for Guam’s Archbishop to stand down after an accusation of historical sexual abuse was made against him.

Archbishop Anthony Apuron is denying the allegation he molested an altar boy 40 years ago.
Jo O’Brien reports.

The allegation was made during an emotional media conference posted on the Pacific Daily News website. 52 year old Roy Quintanilla read out a letter addressed to the Archbishop, the most senior person in the Catholic Church in Guam.

ROY QUINTANILLA: “Dear Archbishop Apuron, when I was 12 years old and an altar boy you molested me when you were the pastor of Agat.”

Mr Quintanilla went on to describe how Archbishop Apuron had abused him after asking him to stay the night at his house. He says the abuse left him so confused he later considered suicide.

ROY QUINTANILLA: “I cried then and I’ve never stopped crying. I felt a lot of emotions. I was scared, angry, sad, alone, embarassed and humiliated. I did not know what to do.”

Mr Quintanilla says he wants the Archbishop to step down and apologise for what he did to him. But in a video statement on the website of the Catholic Archdiocese of Agana in Guam, Archbishop Apuron gave this response.

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Next mission for Twin Cities archdiocese: Life after bankruptcy

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan St. Paul · May 19, 2016

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is about to move a step closer to emerging from bankruptcy.

By the end of the month, the archdiocese will file a bankruptcy reorganization plan detailing how it expects to remain a financially viable organization while providing compensation for victims of clergy sex abuse.

The proposal will likely be controversial.

The archdiocese has been in bankruptcy for about 16 months and insurers, parishes, abuse victims and other parties have been in mediation during most of that time. The parties involved were told to keep talks confidential. But there are indications that critical matters, especially insurance coverage, remain unresolved.

At a late March court hearing, archdiocese attorney Richard Anderson told a federal judge that a plan would include financial contributions from the archdiocese and insurers. But he didn’t offer details and said the church could file a plan without first securing the support of sex abuse victims.

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Reform priests on impossible task of change in the Catholic Church

IRELAND
Irish Central

Nick Bramhill @irishcentral May 19,2016

A leading advocate for reform in the Irish Catholic Church has conceded that trying to bring about meaningful change is “like beating one’s head against a stone wall.”

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), which represents over 1,000 priests across the country, and a four-man delegation of Irish bishops are due to hold their first face-to-face talks in three years on Thursday.

But Father Tony Flannery, a founding member of the group, has admitted he fears the meeting is little more than a token gesture from church leaders and will not pave the way for significant reform.

Speaking ahead of the talks, which take place at Columba Center in Maynooth, Co. Kildare, the veteran Redemptorist said, “Experience leads me to have little hope or expectation from the meeting. I suspect the motivation of the Bishops Conference is to quieten us, and stop us from saying that they won’t meet us.”

Flannery, one of several clerics who have been “silenced” by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith for his liberal views, also called for ongoing dialogue between the clergy and church authorities to tackle the ever-worsening vocations crisis.

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Probation for ex-monastery student in child-solicitation case

ILLINOIS
Lake County News-Sun

Jim NewtonContact Reporter
News-Sun

A former Libertyville Serbian Monastery monk trainee, who was charged in 2014 with indecent solicitation of a minor, accepted a negotiated plea deal Monday and will serve a year of probation in Ohio.

Dario Spasic, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of indecent solicitation of a child, a Class 3 felony, in exchange for the probationary sentence. If convicted at trial, he could have potentially faced a sentence of two to five years in prison.

The sentence, approved by Judge Patricia Fix, specifies that Spasic will serve his year of probation in Ohio, where he now lives, under the supervision of a sex-offender probation program in that state.

He must also register as a sex offender for the next 10 years, have no unsupervised contact with children and pay $2,000 in court costs.

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Siege Mentality Grows in Hasidic Kiryas Joel as Corruption and Sex Probes Loom

NEW YORK
Forward

Uriel Heilman
May 19, 2016

(JTA) — Even before FBI investigators descended last week on the Satmar Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel, there was a growing sense in this insular community that it and its unique way of life were under attack.

Two months earlier, the FBI had been in the village investigating alleged fraud of a government program, and community leaders also have been facing a mounting campaign by dissidents to increase state oversight of yeshiva curricula.

“We need to know what kind of danger we’re in,” the Satmar rebbe in Kiryas Joel, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, said in a widely publicized May 4 speech about the threat of closer state supervision of yeshiva curricula. “These are bad times for us Jews, terrible. We need to pray to God that they should not interfere with the upbringing of our children.”

In last week’s FBI raid, investigators confiscated computer equipment and boxes of documents from the village’s Department of Public Safety and its main yeshiva, United Talmudical Academy. An unnamed law enforcement source interviewed by a local newspaper, the Journal News, said the raid was related to the publication on social media two weeks ago of a leaked hidden-camera video that appeared to show a principal of the yeshiva kissing and grasping young boys in his office. Some 6,000 students are enrolled in the school.

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Dame Lowell Goddard in Manchester to launch Child Sexual Abuse ‘Truth Project’

UNITED KINGDOM
Rochdale Online

The Chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Honourable Dame Lowell Goddard is visiting Manchester to launch the Inquiry’s ‘Truth Project’ in the region.

Dame Lowell Goddard is meeting organisations that support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse in Manchester today to announce the start of the Inquiry’s Truth Project in the north west of England.

The Truth Project gives the victims and survivors of child sexual abuse that occurred in an institution, or where there was an institutional failure to protect a child, an opportunity to share their experience during an informal discussion called a private session.

The information shared will help to provide a better understanding of the scale of child sexual child sexual abuse and will assist in identifying patterns and themes about its nature and impact. In due course, the Inquiry may publish anonymised accounts of the experiences shared, to provide a better understanding of the consequences of child sexual abuse on the lives of victims and survivors and their families.

The Inquiry is guided by three principles which underpin all of its work. It is, and must seen to be, comprehensive, inclusive and thorough. Bearing witness to the personal experiences of victims and survivors is central to the Inquiry’s terms of reference.

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Clay County pastor turns self in on child sex warrant

TEXAS
Times Record News

By John Ingle of the Times Record News

The pastor of Henrietta Church of Christ in Clay County is in the Archer County Jail Wednesday morning after he turned him self in on a warrant from Clay County.

Archer County Sheriff Staci Beesinger said 50-year-old Robert Todd Davis turned himself in at 4:45 a.m. on a charge of sex abuse of a child/continuous victim under 14.

The recommended bond placed on the warrant was set at $250,000 and Davis bonded out Wednesday morning.

Clay County Sheriff Kenny Lemons said his office investigated an incident after an “outcry” by the victim.

He said they completed their investigation in February and handed over their finding to the District Attorney’s Office.

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Owensboro Pastor Suspended Due to Allegations

KENTUCKY
Tristate Homepage

[with video]

On May 3, an allegation was made that an Owensboro pastor had engaged in inappropriate conduct with a minor.

The Diocese of Owensboro says they immediately reported the allegation against Father Gerald Baker to the Kentucky child abuse hotline.

The diocese says a 13 member review board suspended Father Baker from public ministry until the matter is resolved.

According to the diocese, Father Baker and the diocese are cooperating with investigation by law enforcement.

Bishop Medley states, “Any allegation of the abuse of a minor is unsettling. The Diocese of Owensboro has offered support to the alleged victim in this case and to his family. In a sad moment such as this, it is always incumbent upon us to address any who may have ever suffered abuse within the embrace of the Catholic Church and invite them to come to us that we might offer support and assure that no one else is ever harmed.”

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Advocates push for justice for child sex abuse victims

PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

By Liam Migdail-Smith

HARRISBURG – It took a lawsuit for Phil Saviano to learn the truth that set him on the path of an activist fighting childhood sexual abuse. He had spent years trying to put his own abuse behind him. The Catholic priest who had molested him when he was an 11-year-old growing up near Worcester, Mass. was impulsive and reckless. Saviano figured he must have been caught and wouldn’t have access to other kids.

He was in his 40s when he saw news reports that the priest had been arrested for abusing children in New Mexico. And when church officials contended the allegations were news to them, Saviano turned to the courts.

That’s how he got his hands on the church documents that showed the priest had been kicked around to parishes all over the country before he was eventually arrested.

“What a lawsuit does for you is it gets you access to the personnel files,” Saviano said during a panel discussion at the Pennsylvania Capitol Wednesday. “It gets you to the truth.”

It was that discovery that he took to the Boston Globe reporters who, in 2002, revealed a systematic cover-up of abuse by church officials that allowed child predators to continue to operate. Saviano is a key character in “Spotlight,” last year’s Academy Award-winning film about the Globe investigation.

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Gov. Cuomo will push law allowing child-abuse victims to seek justice as adults

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KENNETH LOVETT

ALBANY — After being called out by victims, Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday said he wanted to pass a bill in the next few weeks that would make it easier for adults who were sexually abused as kids to seek justice.

“This is an incredibly important issue and we are serious about addressing it this session,” Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said. “We have been discussing options with the Legislature, have met with advocates and survivors, and are meeting with them again (Thursday).”

The governor, Azzopardi said, will push to extend the legal time frame for an adult abused as a child to bring a civil lawsuit. Currently, adults victimized as children have until their 23rd birthday to bring a case.

Cuomo would seek to do away entirely with the statute of limitation as it pertains to bringing child sex abuse criminal cases.

And he would look to change a law that requires victims who were abused in a public institution like a school to file a notice of intent to sue within just 90 days of the date when the incident occurred.

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New Jersey’s victim-friendly statute of limitations law helps child sex abuse victim sue the teacher that scarred his life, decades later

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY LARRY MCSHANE

If New York’s child sex abuse victims lived across the Hudson River, facing their attackers in court would be a legal right instead of an unending battle.

A New Jersey man filed a lawsuit this month alleging his Spanish teacher at Hightstown High School initiated a sexual relationship when he was 16, during the 1985-86 school year.

“He thought he was in a loving relationship with this woman,” said the alleged victim’s attorney, Robert Fuggi. “He didn’t realize all those years were not love, but sexual assault and rape.”

The man, identified in court papers only as J.D., is now 46. But unlike New York, where victims must file legal action by age 23, New Jersey suspends the statute of limitations if the victim fails to realize both what happened and its continued negative impact on the victim’s life.

Those targeted by adult predators often turn to drugs and alcohol, bury their memories or suffer from ailments like panic attacks, experts say.

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Boston church sold to pay abuse victims despite parishioners’ 12-year battle

MASSACHUSETTS
The Guardian (UK)

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
@harrietsherwood
Thursday 19 May 2016

For the past 12 years, the church of St Frances Xavier Cabrini in Scituate, near Boston, has not been empty for a single moment.

Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, a group of parishioners has maintained a vigil inside the building to prevent its sale by the archdiocese of Boston, to help pay the Catholic church’s enormous bills relating to its long and sordid history of child sexual abuse.

Children have slept in the sacristy, meals have been eaten beneath the stained glass windows, planning meetings have been held in the pews, prayers said and candles lit.

But not for much longer. After the supreme court this week declined to hear an appeal against an earlier court ruling, the parishioners must now vacate the premises, and will hold a final farewell service on 29 May.

Their long battle against the archdiocese of Boston is over. But, far from being exhausted and defeated, the core group of about 100 parishioners who have occupied the church since 2004 are gearing up to start afresh.

“We’re going to stay together, reach out and re-energise thousands of disenfranchised Catholics who no longer trust the church,” Jon Rogers, the group’s spokesman, told the Guardian.

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Henrietta Pastor Charged With Sex Abuse

TEXAS
Texomas Homepage

HENRIETTA

The pastor of a Henrietta church and a long time coach and teacher has been charged with the continuous sexual assault of a child and has bonded out of the Archer County Jail.

Archer County Sheriff Staci Beesinger said 50-year-old Robert Todd Davis turned himself in to her office early this morning.

Davis was charged in a Clay County warrant and his bond was set at $250,000.

According to District Attorney Paige Williams, the alleged assaults occurred from May 2009 to May 2013 and were continuous — meaning 2 or more criminal acts in a period of more than 30 days.

Williams said the specific offenses are sexual assault through penetration and indecency with a child through contact.

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It takes a village to abuse a child

NORTH CAROLINA
Daily Reflector

Thursday, May 19, 2016

When we hear stories about children being violated by someone trusted in their lives — a teacher, coach, pastor, or family member — we are horrified and angry. Often in these situations, people likely knew something was wrong, but did not act out of fear or lack of knowledge. This is why the line in the Academy Award-winning movie, Spotlight, resonates with us at Prevent Child Abuse NC: “It takes a village to abuse a child.”

Our reactions cannot stop with horror and anger. We all have a role to play. We can prevent child sexual abuse when we shine a light on protective factors and stay involved in our community and work together to make sure our schools, faith communities and neighborhoods are safe, nurturing environments for children of all ages.

Preventing child sexual abuse is not the responsibility of children; it’s the responsibility of the adults who live in the neighborhoods and communities where children live. Sexual abuse has been identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control as a significant public health issue.

Child sexual abuse is preventable. There are ways school leaders, PTAs, coaches, faith leaders, communities and parents can prevent abuse from occurring. When we speak up, we transform the lives of children, the adults they will become and the schools, faith communities and neighborhoods they call home.

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Woman challenges man running sex abuse press conference outside Haverhill church

MASSACHUSETTS
Eagle-Tribune

By Jill Harmacinski jharmacinski@eagletribune.com

HAVERHILL — The Rev. Arnold Kelley is accused of sexually abusing a boy at a Boston area church in the 1970s — but not at All Saints Parish in Haverhill, where he mostly recently lived before retiring and going into a nursing home.

This made All Saints parishioner Kathleen Parker question why a recent civil sex abuse lawsuit against Kelley was being discussed with the media late Wednesday morning on a public sidewalk outside her church at 120 Bellevue Ave.

“I find it quite offensive,” said Parker, who asked Robert Hoatson, the leader of a sexual abuse recovery organization, why he felt it necessary “to defame our happy home.”

Parker said her family has also been touched by the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, but for “the better part of 20 years we have found a home” and “healing” at All Saints, she said.

“Father Kelley doesn’t live here,” said Parker, adding the priest in now in his 80s, retired and lives at Mary Immaculate nursing home in Lawrence where he is in failing health.

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‘Administrative split’ left some residential school victims ineligible for compensation

CANADA
Montreal Gazette

CHRISTOPHER CURTIS, MONTREAL GAZETTE

Lawyers working for the federal government used a technicality to avoid compensating a man who survived sexual abuse at an Indian residential school in Quebec, legal experts say.

The survivor, an Innu man, says he was molested by a priest and a nun while attending a residential school near Sept-Îles between 1969 and 1971. And while a judge deemed the claim “credible” in a 2015 legal document, federal lawyers managed to get it thrown out because it occurred after the school’s administration was transferred to the province in 1969.

A confidential memorandum obtained by the Montreal Gazette suggests the federal government knew this distinction was merely technical. The federal government document shows that even after 1969, the Sept-Îles residential school was being run by the same nun who administered it when it was a federal Indian Residential School with documented cases of sexual and physical abuse.

The claim was one of an estimated 1,000 rejected across Canada because of this technicality — often referred to as the “administrative split.” That estimate, first reported by The Globe and Mail, comes from independent officials who evaluate residential school abuse allegations.

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Churchill: Time to pass Child Victims Act is now

NEW YORK
Times Union

Chris Churchill Published Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Albany

In 1997, Bridie Farrell was a 15-year-old from Saratoga Springs who dreamed of becoming an Olympic speed skater. That’s when she was repeatedly sexually abused by an Olympian more than twice her age, she says.

Like many underage sexual-abuse victims, Farrell kept her mouth shut. She didn’t dare report what was happening.

“I didn’t know if anyone would believe me,” Farrell said Wednesday. “And if they did, I didn’t know what would happen next.”

Farrell says it took a decade to fully understand that she was not to blame for what happened and the personal struggles that followed. It took even longer before she was ready to go public with her story.

By then, the deadline to pursue criminal charges or civil litigation had long since passed. New York’s statute of limitations bars child sexual-abuse victims from proceeding with cases once they turn 23.

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Head Of Catholic Church In Guam Accused Of Sexual Abuse

GUAM
Malaysian Digest

HAGATNA: The head of the Catholic Church in Guam was Wednesday forced to publicly defend himself from accusations of sexual abuse, describing the allegation as part of an ongoing “malicious” attack.

“To be absolutely clear and to avoid any misinterpretations of my statement I deny all allegations of sexual abuse,” Archbishop Anthony Apuron said in a televised statement.

The accusation was made by 52-year-old Roy Taitague Quintanilla who said he was molested 40 years ago when he was an altar boy at a church where Apuron was the parish priest in the western Pacific US territory.

Quintanilla, gathered with family and friends outside the archdiocese office in the Guam capital Hagatna, read a letter addressed to Apuron claiming he was abused after a trip to the movies with other altar boys.

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Bishop of Durham ‘needs retraining’ after victim claims his response to abuse claim was inadequate

UNITED KINGDOM
Northern Echo

Rachel Conner, Reporter (Weardale)

A VICTIM of child abuse at the hands of a priest is calling for the Bishop of Durham to be retrained after claims he failed to respond to his complaint adequately.

The man, who has asked to be identified only as “Joe”, has written to the Durham Diocesan Safeguarding board calling for Bishop of Durham Paul Butler to be retrained before dealing with other victims.

Joe reported the abuse to Bishop Paul, who is the Church of England’s head of safeguarding, in July 2014 and received an apology from him around 18 months later. A church spokesperson said he was taking the lead in changing its policies.

Joe has also written to the House of Bishops, a body of senior members of the Church of England, ahead of a meeting in York next week calling for them to repent and act on the findings of an independent report into sexual abuse.

The Elliott Review, which looked into Joe’s case, was published in March and contained a number of recommendations calling for changes to be made to the church’s safeguarding structure and training on dealing with disclosures of abuse to be introduced.

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May 18, 2016

Alleged victim responds to archbishop’s denial of abuse

GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Jacqueline Perry Guzman | Post News Staff

Roy Taitague Quintanilla, who publicly accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of molesting him 40 years ago when he was a 12-year-old altar boy at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Agat where Apuron was then the parish priest, launched a rebuttal to Apuron’s denial late yesterday.

On Tuesday afternoon, Quintanilla held a press conference in front of the Archdiocese of Agana chancery in Agana Heights to confront Apuron over the alleged sexual abuse.

Quintanilla, a 52-year-old former Guam resident who now lives in Hawaii, gathered with family members and friends and read a letter detailing the incident beginning with a trip to the movies with the altar boys of the parish and then each of them being dropped off at their home. “I was the last of the altar boys in the van. I thought you were going to take me home like the others, but instead, you asked if I could sleep at your house,” he said, reading the letter.

He alleged that he was told to sleep in the same room as Apuron and that Apuron grabbed his private parts.

After reading the letter, Quintanilla delivered it to the chancery office.

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No charges against Rev. Dolan after Edina child porn probe

MINNESOTA
Fox 9

EDINA, Minn. (KMSP) – No charges will be filed against Father Timothy Dolan after the Edina Police Department completed its investigation into allegations the Fridley, Minn. pastor was in possession of child pornography. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released the following statement Wednesday:

“The Edina Police Department notified us that its criminal investigation is complete and that the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office will not pursue charges against Father Timothy Dolan, who is on a required leave from ministry. Father Dolan had been pastor at Saint William Church in Fridley, a position he recently resigned.

“In accordance with our protocols and with law enforcement’s permission, the Archdiocese’s Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment will now conduct an internal investigation focused on Father Dolan’s fitness for ministry.

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Supporters, critics begin the battle over Pa. sex abuse bill

PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

by Maria Panaritis, STAFF WRITER

HARRISBURG – Rep. Mark Rozzi turned to Phil Saviano, sitting next to him inside the Capitol. Like Rozzi, Saviano was raped by a priest decades ago and has worked to expose such abuse.

But the Boston-area man’s efforts had huge impact: They helped spark the global clergy-sex abuse scandal in 2002 and figured in this year’s Oscar-winning film Spotlight.

Saviano was marquee draw on a panel assembled Wednesday by Rozzi to support a high-stakes bill that would open a new window for adult victims to sue the men or women who abused them as children and the institutions that could have, – but did not – discover or stop it.

“You are keeping victims alive here in Pennsylvania,” Rozzi told Saviano, “because they know they have opportunity here with this reform legislation.”

Saviano’s appearance capped an intensive two-day lobbying effort by victims’ advocates to win over key Senators on the bill, at the same time opponents – including the Catholic Church – are marshalling efforts to defeat it.

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Lawyer’s career dominated by clergy abuse scandal

CANADA
Ottawa Sun

ANDREW DUFFY

In his London, Ont. firm, lawyer Robert Talach is known as “the priest guy.”

That’s because, for more than a decade, Talach has done little else in his practice but sue the Catholic Church on behalf of Canadians who say they were sexually abused as children by priests. He has represented abuse victims from Vancouver to Moncton,

“I’m almost 13 years into just chasing the priests,” he said in an interview. “I do one United Church case every year, maybe one Anglican. But I have 50 Catholic cases…It says they have a problem.”

He believes the Catholic Church, by requiring a celibate priesthood, made sexuality a forbidden subject among priests and the bishops responsible for managing them. It meant, he said, that even sex abuse was not discussed.

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Local activists rally for the Child Victims Act

NEW YORK
Riverdale Press

May 18, 2016
By Alice Guilhamon

Local activists and a delegation of Jewish leaders went to Albany earlier this month to lobby for passage of the Child Victims Act, the legislation to end the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases and to open a window for past cases to be prosecuted.

Rabbi Ari Hart of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale joined the group in the state capital.

“This is an issue that cuts across every demographic and every faith and all sectors of society,” he said.

He and his colleagues represented 150 rabbis and Jewish leaders who signed a letter of support for reforming the state’s statute of limitations, or SOL, on child sex abuse. Rabbi Hart said about 50 people participated in the activism on May 3 and 4.

Activists and politicians who support the Child Victims Act spoke. Speakers included Jim Scanlan, a clergy abuse survivor depicted in “Spotlight.” The film was screened as part of the lobbying days.

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Reverend tried to rape me, says priest

SOUTH AFRICA
IOL

CAPETIMES /
18 May 2016

By: Siyavuya Mzantsi
Siyavuya Mzantsi

FORMER St Matthews Church reverend June Major alleges a bishop and a reverend were among Anglican Church of Southern Africa members to separately attempt to rape, sexually harass, abuse and discriminate against her.

She has named the priests, but the Cape Times is withholding their names at this stage.

Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said a case was opened at the Bellville police station and transferred to the Grahamstown Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit for further investigation.

Among her allegations, Major said a Reverend X had tried to rape her.

She had also allegedly been discriminated against by her former employer at the church, Bishop of Table Bay Garth Counsell, by denying her a means of earning a living abroad when she resigned.

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Ottawa diocese repeatedly warned about local clergy’s most notorious abuser

CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

The Archdiocese of Ottawa responds to Ottawa Citizen articles on sexual abuse

ANDREW DUFFY, OTTAWA CITIZEN

The Archdiocese of Ottawa continues to pay for the many sins of Rev. Dale Crampton.

Court documents reveal that the diocese has paid $741,783.44 in compensation to 10 of Crampton’s victims, who were sexually abused by the Catholic priest between 1963 and 1982.

More lawsuits are before the courts. The victims in those cases are seeking $3.7 million.

In total, the diocese now knows of at least 17 people who say they were victimized by the priest as children.

Through interviews and court documents, the Citizen has learned that members of the Ottawa clergy were warned at least seven times about Crampton’s sexual misconduct, beginning in 1965.

In a statement issued Wednesday, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic diocese, Deacon Gilles Oullette, said it has been engaged in a process of “justice and reconciliation” with victims for many years. “We engage with victims in the forum which they choose, but we do so always in a spirit of reconciliation and repentance,” he said.

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Abuse survivor whose story was told in ‘Spotlight’, advocates for reform to PA’s sex crime laws

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com
on May 18, 2016

Phil Saviano earned vindication in 2001 when a tough investigating team at the Boston Globe began to look into his claims that priests in that diocese had been molesting children for decades.

Saviano’s story, which was depicted in the Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight,” has been widely recognized and on Wednesday, the 63-year-old activist recounted that story as part of a panel discussion at the state Capitol on the need to reform the state’s sex crime laws.

“This effort to improve statute of limitations across the country is one of most significant things to come out of this Globe investigation,” said Saviano, who is also a member of the support and advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Saviano was joined on the panel discussion by its organizer, Rep. Mark Rozzi, (D-Berks), George Foster, the Altoona businessman who led investigators into uncovering decades worth of clergy abuse in that city’s diocese, Marci Hamilton, a constitutional lawyer, Patricia Dailey Lewis, the executive director of the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children as well as two survivors of sexual abuse.

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Former Union County priest suspended after abuse allegation

KENTUCKY
The Gleaner

By Tom Lovett of The Gleaner

A Catholic priest who once served in Union County has been suspended by the Diocese of Owensboro after an allegation of improper conduct with a minor.

An allegation against Father Gerald Baker, pastor of St. Mary of the Wood Catholic Church in Whitesville, Kentucky, and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fordsville, Kentucky, was filed with the diocese on May 3, according to Bishop William Medley.

Baker served at St. Ann Catholic Church in Morganfield from June 2003 until June 2012, when he was appointed at St. Mary of the Wood.

“We got a call that a young person had made an accusation that Father Gerald Baker had acted in an inappropriate manner with him — of a sexual nature,” Medley said. “So our first response was to report that to authorities and then move to assure that the person making that accusation is getting whatever support that they might need.”

Medley said the allegation came from a young person in the St. Mary of the Wood parish. He was uncertain when the alleged incident might have taken place.

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Christian peddling creepy ‘discipline’ sticks wants to keep his business a secret

UNITED STATES
Raw Story

ARTURO GARCIA
18 MAY 2016

A reclusive man describing himself as a fundamentalist Christian is attempting to resume sales of a “virtually indestructible” stick he sold as a disciplinary tool — without drawing attention to himself, the Friendly Atheist reported.

The vendor, Steve Haymond, sent letters to former customers nearly 10 years after his California-based company, Biblical Child Training, stopped operating because of what he called “external pressures and family reasons.”

Haymond said in the letter, sent from a Montana address, that he was ready to resume making the “chastening instrument” — a 9-inch long and 1.5-inch wide polyurethane stick that is 3/16ths of an inch thick. However, he said he would only do so “on a private basis and without a web site or any internet exposure.”

“Feel free to let other Biblically-minded parents know about this chastening instrument, but do not post anything about it on the internet and please exercise discretion as to who you tell about them,” the letter read. “Although proper chastisement is legal, there are some (even among family members) who mistakenly believe that spanking of any kind constitutes child abuse. Our willingness and ability to make these instruments available to parents who believe in Biblical chastisement depends both on their responsible use by us as parents (see our tips) and care in who we tell about them. Thanks for your sensitivity on this.”

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Statement Regarding Rev. Marvin Klaers

Date: Thursday, May 12, 2016

Source: Tom Halden, Director of Communications

From Archbishop Bernard Hebda

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis learned that a lawsuit was served today alleging that Rev. Marvin Klaers sexually abused a minor in the 1970s. As is our protocol, we immediately notified law enforcement from the area where the abuse is reported to have happened. Our Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment will wait to conduct its own investigation until law enforcement gives its approval.

Father Klaers is not currently in ministry and has not been since 2014.

Please join me in praying for all victims of abuse.

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Statement Regarding Rev. Timothy Dolan

MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Source: Tom Halden, Director of Communications

From Archbishop Bernard Hebda

The Edina Police Department notified us that its criminal investigation is complete and that the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office will not pursue charges against Father Timothy Dolan, who is on a required leave from ministry. Father Dolan had been pastor at Saint William Church in Fridley, a position he recently resigned.

In accordance with our protocols and with law enforcement’s permission, the Archdiocese’s Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment will now conduct an internal investigation focused on Father Dolan’s fitness for ministry.

At the completion of the internal investigation, this matter will be reviewed by the Ministerial Review Board (MRB). That board and the Director of the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment will then make recommendations to me regarding Father Dolan’s fitness for ministry. The investigative and review processes are thorough and it is uncertain how long these processes will take.

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No charges for Fridley priest investigated after Edina neighbors’ concerns

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Karen Zamora Star Tribune MAY 18, 2016

The priest who served a Catholic church in Fridley and was investigated by Edina police for possibly possessing child pornography will not be charged, according to a statement posted on the The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ website.

However, in the statement, the Archdiocese said they are continuing their investigation to determine the priest’s fate. He is currently on “required leave from ministry” and has since resigned from the Church of St. William in Fridley.

“In accordance with our protocols and with law enforcement’s permission, the Archdiocese’s Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment will now conduct an internal investigation focused on [the priest’s] fitness for ministry,” the statement says.

Because the priest has not been arrested or charged, the Star Tribune is not naming him.

Neighbors at his Edina apartment complex called police four times in the past few years about what they said were the sounds of a child crying and “in distress” coming from his apartment. The most recent report was Feb. 8.

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National Review Board Appoints Chairman, New Members

WASHINGTON (DC)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

May 18, 2016

WASHINGTON—Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) named two new members to the National Review Board and reappointed its chairman for the next four-year term, 2016-2020, beginning in June.

The new members are Ernest Stark, a long time Catholic school educator and administrator, and Garry Hall, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, and CEO and president of the Association of the United States Navy. Francesco C. Cesareo, Ph.D., president of Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts, was reappointed as chairman of the board.

Ernest Stark currently serves as chair of the review boards for several religious communities including the Augustinians, Carmelites, Passionists, and Benedictines and is a member of the review board of the De La Salle Christian Brothers. He has served as a teacher and administrator in Catholic secondary schools and colleges for fifty years. He was a member of the review board of the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, for ten years, serving as chair for eight of those years. He holds a master’s degree in education from St. Mary’s University, Minnesota, and a master’s degree in theology from Manhattan College, New York. He has pursued additional studies at Northern Illinois University, and he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for summer study at the University of Notre Dame.

Garry E. Hall is a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral who currently chairs the review board of the Archdiocese of the Military Service and is an active member of the Knights of Columbus. He is also the CEO and president of the Association of the United States Navy, in Washington. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marine engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, and an MBA from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He was designated a naval aviator and served 35 years on active duty. Operating in helicopter squadrons throughout the Pacific, he commanded two squadrons, the capital ship USS Tarawa, an expeditionary strike group, and was commandant of the Eisenhower College of National Security and Resource Strategy at National Defense University. He spent his entire Navy career operating in and managing risk.

Cesareo is president of Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts. He holds a doctorate in Late Medieval/Early Modern European History from Fordham University. He also was a Fulbright Scholar and studied at the University of Rome and Gregorian University in Rome. He has been president of Assumption College since 2007, and has held both faculty and administrative positions at several Catholic colleges and universities, including Duquesne University, Pittsburgh; John Carroll University, Cleveland; Albertus Magnus College, New Haven, Connecticut; and St. John’s University, Jamaica, New York. He serves on several boards including the Board of Visitors of Worcester Academy, the New England Center for Children, and the Adopt a Student Committee for the Diocese of Worcester. He also served on the Seminary Advisory Board for the Diocese of Pittsburgh. He became a member of the National Review Board in 2012 and was appointed chairman in 2013.

The USCCB established the National Review Board in 2002 as a consultative body of lay individuals tasked with reviewing the annual report of the Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection on the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. It is part of the church’s ongoing efforts to prevent and combat clergy sexual abuse of minors.

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IL–Admitted predator priest will not be put back to work in Chicago

CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 18, 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)

An admitted child molesting cleric will NOT be put back on the job in Chicago, his victim was told today via email by an archdiocesan official. (A copy of the email is below.)

[Chicago Tribune]

Fr. Bruce Wellems admits having repeatedly sexually abused Eric Johnson when Wellems was 15 and Johnson was seven. The Chicago Archdiocese temporarily suspended Fr. Wellems but dragged their feet for months while pondering whether to let the priest work again in Chicago again.

When confronted about his abusive acts, Fr. Wellems attacked the messenger, saying reports of his abusive acts had “no factual basis.”

In a bizarre twist, when our group warned parents and parishioners about Fr. Wellems, he attacked us, saying we’re guilty of “poor judgment” and “victimizing the thousands of families in the parishes where I have worked.”

[Pasadena Star-News]

Now, Archbishop Blasé Cupich should hold a news conference, explain his irresponsible and secretive behavior with this admitted predator and announce this decision to keep Fr. Wellems out of ministry in Chicago.

Fr. Wellems’ backers try to spin this as a story of sin and redemption. That’s disingenuous at best and downright dangerous at worst. This is a story of crime, not sin, and of recklessness, not redemption.

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Bridging the gap between logic and emotion on sex abuse lawsuits

NEW YORK
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Editor May 18, 2016

There are plenty of tough jobs in the Catholic Church, but whenever the issue flares up, Dennis Poust of the New York State Catholic Conference faces an especially daunting challenge – trying to bridge the gap between logic and emotion when it comes to suing over clerical sexual abuse.

Rationally speaking, it’s easy enough to make the case that allowing people to sue for alleged crimes from, say, fifty or sixty years ago, when by now the alleged perpetrator is dead, the supervisors are all dead, and there are no witnesses or any other evidence, simply violates common sense.

On the other hand, who wants to be the person who tells an abuse survivor that there’s no way to get justice?

“Nobody wants to be the ‘bad guy’ when it comes to sex abuse,” said Poust, who serves as director of communications for the conference, the lobbying arm of the New York bishops, which is currently fighting a proposal in the state legislature to open a window to file lawsuits over abuse otherwise barred by the statute of limitations.

“I’m a parent too, and I have children,” Poust told Crux on Monday. “I’m as disgusted as anybody by what happened, in the Church and elsewhere.”

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Haverhill priest accused of sexual abuse

MASSACHUSETTS
Fox 25

HAVERHILL, Mass. —
A senior priest from a Haverhill church has been accused of sexual abuse.

According to the lawsuit, the unnamed Massachusetts man accused Fr. Arnold Kelley of sexually abusing him for around three years when he was a child.

The man accused Fr. Kelley of abusing him from approximately 1973-1976, when the priest was working in Jamaica Plain at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish. The man said he was around 10 to 13 years old when the abuse happened.

The man was active in the church as a parishioner, band member, and religious education student at the time of the abuse, the lawsuit says.

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Bishop, Catholics pray for sex abuse victims

PENNSYLVANIA
The Altoona Mirror

May 18, 2016

By Sean Sauro (ssauro@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror

More than an hour before a prayer service began Tuesday inside the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, a crowd of people gathered outside holding signs, which displayed different messages.

“Protect the children,” read one.

“No more apologies. We want justice,” read another.

The Tuesday evening service was one of three set up by the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese to pray for victims of sexual abuse.

The services came a few months after a grand jury report was released by the state Attorney General’s Office in early March.

The report detailed the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by at least 50 priests or religious leaders during a 40-year period, as well as an alleged decadeslong cover-up by diocesan leaders.

Among those outside the Cathedral was Robert Mizic, who said he traveled an hour and a half to be there.

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Cosby, Catholic Church rape cases prompt states to rethink statutes of limitations

UNITED STATES
PBS Newshour

BY REBECCA BEITSCH, STATELINE May 18, 2016

Fueled by sexual abuse allegations against comedian Bill Cosby and the Catholic Church, and other high-profile cases dating back decades, state legislators across the country are considering lengthening or eliminating statutes of limitations on rape.

Statutes of limitations, which exist for most crimes besides murder, are intended to encourage the timely reporting of crimes. As time passes, evidence deteriorates or gets lost, memories fade and witnesses die.

But it can take years for sexual abuse victims to find the courage to come forward. Advocates for victims say statutes of limitations for rape and sexual assaults are arbitrary and outdated, and note that police departments across the country are still digging through a backlog of rape kits, some of which are three decades old.

Advocates for victims say statutes of limitations for rape and sexual assaults are arbitrary and outdated, and note that police departments across the country are still digging through a backlog of rape kits, some of which are three decades old.

Forty-three states have statutes of limitations for sex crimes, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. Of the states with statutes, 27 include an exception that allows prosecutors to file charges when there is DNA evidence. State statutes of limitations often range from three years to 12 years, but in some states, accusers have more time to come forward when they say they were abused as children — until they are 21 in some states or as old as 50 in others. Some states don’t start the clock until the victim turns 18.

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Catholic Church Confronts Significant Revisions To Statute Of Limitations

PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

[with video]

Exclusive report by Joe Holden

HARRISBURG, Pa (CBS) – Priests gathered in Montgomery County for a private meeting on Tuesday, May 17.

The meeting dealt with how the church might be confronting significant revisions to the statute of limitations.

In what the archdiocese billed as a private gathering between Archbishop Charles Chaput and scores of priests, sources inside St. Helena in Blue Bell say Chaput, the leader of the church and its 1.4 million Catholics addressed statute of limitations reform in Harrisburg.

“We’ve had so many secret meetings in secret agendas, all we are asking for is transparency,” said Karen Polesir of SNAP.

Outside the archbishop’s meeting – with police patrolling the property – protesters from victims advocacy organizations called fouls on the church over the perceived opposition to House Bill 1947.

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Guam archbishop denies sex abuse allegations in video

GUAM
San Diego Union-Tribune

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — An archbishop in Guam is defending himself against claims that he sexually abused an altar boy 40 years ago.

Archbishop Anthony Apuron released a video Tuesday, in which he denied the allegations brought by Roy Taitague Quintanilla, of Hawaii. Quintanilla has accused Apuron of sexually abusing him when he was an altar boy and the archbishop was a priest at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Agat, The Pacific Daily News reported (http://bit.ly/24WQuhA).

“To be absolutely clear and to avoid any misinterpretations of my statement, I deny all allegations of sexual abuse by Roy Quintanilla,” Apuron said in the video.

The archbishop also referred to “malicious ads” recently featured in local newspapers, including the Pacific Daily News. In a previous news release, the archdiocese said the advertisements insinuated sexual abuse by Apuron.

“As predicted just four days ago, these malicious ads have resulted in a false accusation of sexual abuse,” Apuron said in the video.

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Inquiry announces contract for providing Truth Project support services in the north west

UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

16 May

Following a formal tender process, LimeCulture has been awarded a contract by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to provide support services for victims and survivors attending the Inquiry’s Truth Project in the north west.

LimeCulture will use the resources of RASA (Rape and Sexual Abuse) Merseyside to provide support workers and counsellors for the Truth Project which is due to start in the region later this month.

In accordance with our terms of reference, the Truth Project will give victims and survivors of child sexual abuse a chance to share their experiences with the Inquiry. It will also provide the Inquiry with a clearer picture of the nature, scope and scale of child sexual abuse in England and Wales.

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Goddard inquiry into child abuse arrives in Manchester promising to ‘give a voice to the victims’

UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

18 MAY 2016
BY NEAL KEELING

An investigation which will give a voice to victims of child sexual abuse is coming to Manchester.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse will investigate whether police, councils, and other non-state institutions shirked their duty to protect children from sexual abuse in England and Wales.

The wide-scale inquiry aims to identify institutional failings and make practical recommendations to protect youngsters from abuse.

The inquiry team will be in Manchester on Thursday, May 19.

It is led by judge Dame Lowell Goddard supported by an independent panel and child experts.

There have already been a number of high-profile investigations into abuse in Greater Manchester, including the grooming of children in Rochdale and specifically abuse at the town’s notorious Knowl View school.

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TALK TO KIDS ABOUT ABUSE, ORTHODOX PSYCHOLOGIST URGES

CANADA
The Canadian Jewish News

By Sheri Shefa, Staff Reporter – May 16, 2016

There are two questions New York-based child psychologist David Pelcovitz is often asked by child protective service professionals about the Orthodox community that makes him cringe.

“The first question they usually ask me, is, ‘What is it about you guys that you care more about the perpetrator than the victim?… This is when I want to take my yarmulke off,” said Pelcovitz, who spoke Sunday to roughly 100 educators and concerned parents at Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation about the impact of sexual abuse on children and how to protect them from it.

“The second question they ask… is, ‘What is it about you guys that you seem to have a higher rate of sibling sexual abuse? Older brothers with younger sisters? We’re seeing this as an epidemic in the New York community, and I know it happens here… we have to be aware of that. Part of it is that we need to do better sexual education with our kids. We don’t talk to our kids about sexuality.”

The presentation by Pelcovitz, a highly regarded clinical psychologist who specializes in childhood trauma and abuse, and is co-editor of Breaking the Silence: Child Abuse in the Jewish Community, came just a few months after Stephen Joseph Schacter, who taught at Eitz Chaim Schools between 1986 and 2004 and what is now Robbins Hebrew Academy from 2004 to 2006, was charged with possession of child pornography, gross indecency, sexual interference, sexual exploitation and sexual assault.

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Hasidic activist Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg: Parents in Kiryas Joel scared to send children to school

NEW YORK
News 12

KIRYAS JOEL – A longtime Hasidic activist is speaking out against an alleged child sex abuse cover-up involving the principal of United Talmudical Academy and young boys in Kiryas Joel.

Outspoken Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg has been a voice for what he says are otherwise silenced, sexually abused Hasidic children for nearly two decades.

The 66-year-old’s activism has shunned him from his own community in Brooklyn. He also says there are parents in Kiryas Joel who have reached out to him who are scared to send their kids to school but have no other option.

While the yeshiva and parents themselves are defending the principal, Rosenberg says what’s happening here is clear.

“People know what this is all about so the pattern goes that he’s giving grandfatherly love,” he says.

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Powerful Brooklyn Satmar Hasidic Rabbi Drowns in Florida

FLORIDA
Forward

Josh Nathan-Kazis
May 17, 2016

A wealthy and politically connected leader of the Williamsburg-based Satmar Hasidic sect drowned May 17 in Miami Beach, Florida.

Yitzchak Rosenberg, 67, was the president of Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, the central religious organization in Brooklyn of the followers of the Kiryas Joel, New York-based Grand Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, and a founder of the sect’s yeshiva system in Brooklyn. Rosenberg was also a major Brooklyn real estate developer and the owner of a building supply wholesaler.

Rosenberg was one of five Hasidic men pulled to sea by rip currents off of Miami Beach’s Haulover Beach on Tuesday morning, according to Miami television station Local 10. Three of the men were retrieved by jet ski, while two others reached shore on their own.

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Vatican secretary not to testify in Vati-leaks scandal

VATICAN CITY
Premier

Wed 18 May 2016
By Hannah Tooley

The Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin will not be testifying during the Vati-leaks scandal that has embroiled the heart of Catholicism in recent months.

It had been that he may have testified on behalf of Francesca Chaouqui.

She was a Vatican public relations expert and has been charged with leaking confidential documents, a crime under Vatican law, and faces up to eight years behind bars.

She denies the charges.

The court ruled earlier in May that three witnesses – Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state; Cardinal Santos Abril Castello, archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major; and Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner – would not be testifying on behalf of Ms Chaouqui.

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Shattering the silence: Ballarat’s cycle of sexual abuse

AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser

Melissa Cunningham
May 18, 2016

Corey Artz made a harrowing journey back to his hometown with one purpose: To end the cycle of child sexual abuse which has crippled Ballarat and protect future generations of children.

His visit follows the reignition of the debate about whether abuse victims are at risk of becoming abusers.

While experts argue it is a rare exception, Mr Artz’s abuser David Ridsdale was himself an abuse victim.

Mr Artz has returned to Ballarat a broken man, vindicated by the truth.

He is now calling on the man who abused him, high profile Ballarat clergy sexual abuse victim David Ridsdale, to be equally open about what happened.

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“Es werden sogar Kinder vor der Kamera umgebracht”

DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

[“There are children even killed on camera”]

Die Welt: Herr Rörig, Sie sind seit Ende 2011 Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Bundesregierung. Warum braucht es einen Job wie Ihren?

Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig: Mein Amt braucht es, um dafür zu sorgen, dass die Empfehlungen des Runden Tisches “Sexueller Missbrauch”, der von 2010 bis 2011 getagt hat, Realität werden. Dabei geht es vor allem um verbesserten Schutz für Kinder. Ich muss die Verantwortlichen immer wieder daran erinnern und fragen: Tut ihr wirklich genug angesichts des tausendfachen Missbrauchs von Kindern in Deutschland jedes Jahr?

Die Welt: Nach der Aufdeckung verschiedener Missbrauchsskandale in kirchlichen Einrichtungen und Internatsschulen kochte die öffentliche Erregung hoch. Jetzt redet keiner mehr von dem Thema. Warum?

Rörig: Es gibt bei sexueller Gewalt an Kindern in jedem Menschen den Wunsch zu verdrängen – sich nicht vorstellen zu wollen, was hinter dem Wort sexueller Kindesmissbrauch tatsächlich an schrecklichem Leid stattfindet. Die Politik denkt wohl, dass das kein Gewinnerthema ist und möchte es immer wieder gerne schnell abräumen.

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Pope Francis supports French Bishop on child abuse cases

VATICAN CITY
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Gavin Jones

Pope Francis has voiced support for a French cardinal who has faced allegations of covering up cases of paedophile priests in his Lyon parish, saying he should not resign.

Francis said in an interview with French Catholic daily La Croix that a resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin “would be a mistake, an imprudence”.

“Based on the information I have, I think in Lyon, Cardinal Barbarin has taken the necessary measures and has taken things well in hand,” the pope said. “He is a brave and creative man, a missionary.”

Francis said “we must now wait for the result of the proceedings before the civil courts,” but resigning now “would amount to admitting guilt.”

Barbarin, one of the most high-ranking officials in the French Catholic Church, has been targetted by two investigations for not reporting cases of child abuses by priests to judicial authorities.

The cardinal has denied any cover-ups, but acknowledged “some mistakes in handling and appointing some priests” last month. Other church officials have been also investigated.

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Sense of siege in Kiryas Joel amid FBI raids and scrutiny of yeshivas

NEW YORK
JTA

By Uriel Heilman
May 17, 2016

NEW YORK (JTA) – Even before FBI investigators descended last week on the Satmar Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel, there was a growing sense in this insular community that it and its unique way of life were under attack.

Two months earlier, the FBI had been in the village investigating alleged fraud of a government program, and community leaders also have been facing a mounting campaign by dissidents to increase state oversight of yeshiva curricula.

“We need to know what kind of danger we’re in,” the Satmar rebbe in Kiryas Joel, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, said in a widely publicized May 4 speech about the threat of closer state supervision of yeshiva curricula. “These are bad times for us Jews, terrible. We need to pray to God that they should not interfere with the upbringing of our children.”

In last week’s FBI raid, investigators confiscated computer equipment and boxes of documents from the village’s Department of Public Safety and its main yeshiva, United Talmudical Academy. An unnamed law enforcement source interviewed by a local newspaper, the Journal News, said the raid was related to the publication on social media two weeks ago of a leaked hidden-camera video that appeared to show a principal of the yeshiva kissing and grasping young boys in his office. Some 6,000 students are enrolled in the school.

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Father Gabriel Naddaf insists he is innocent of all charges

ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Greek Orthodox priest and campaigner for Christian IDF enlistment, said on Tuesday that he is innocent of the allegations of sexual harassment and indecent assault made against him in recent days.

Last week Channel 2 reported an investigation into the priest, including audio interviews with men and women with whom Naddaf had interacted, who accused him of making sexual references and allusions in conversations with them, as well as in Facebook messages in which Naddaf allegedly made similar such inappropriate remarks.

Two days later, a sexual harassment charge was filed against the priest by a discharged Christian IDF soldier.

On Friday, a second complainant filed charges of indecent assault against Naddaf.

Speaking to Army Radio on Tuesday, Naddaf said that opposition to his efforts to promote enlistment to the IDF among the Christian Arab community are behind the allegations against him.

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New suit filed over woman’s bequest to Legion of Christ

RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By John Hill
Journal Staff Writer

Posted May. 17, 2016

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The disgraced Catholic order that successfully fended off a challenge to its control of a deceased woman’s multi-million estate last year is facing a new threat from a national anti-abortion group.

Americans United for Life is asking a Superior Court judge to overturn a Smithfield Probate Court ruling that found AUL waited too long to challenge changes Gabrielle Mee made in her 1991 will, which would have left a tenth of her approximately $60 million estate to the organization. The new version, drawn up in 2000, left all her estate to a religious order called the Legion of Christ. She died in 2008.

AUL wants its day in court to argue that the Legion used fraud and undue influence to induce Mee to change her will in the Legion’s favor.

Mary Lou Dauray, a niece of Mee, made similar arguments in a 2012 lawsuit. She lost when Associate Justice Michael Silverstein ruled that, though Dauray produced significant evidence of fraud and undue influence, because she wasn’t named in the will she didn’t have legal standing to challenge it. That ruling was upheld by the state Supreme Court in January, 2015.

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Rare view of Vatican justice in secrets trial

VATICAN CITY
BBC News

By James Reynolds
BBC News, Vatican City

Next to St Peter’s Basilica, two Swiss Guards stood underneath an arch. One carried a sword, the other a spear. The Vatican had evidently calculated that two guards familiar with medieval weaponry would be enough to deter a raid.

At the very least, they might be able to duel assailants into a standoff until reinforcements arrived.

The guards allowed us into the heart of Vatican City, for a trial that has gripped Italians for weeks.

We walked past the Casa Santa Marta, the anonymous-looking guesthouse which doubles as Pope Francis’s home. A single Swiss Guard stood at the front door. The Vatican’s tribunal building is in the same square.

“No mobile phones, no satellite phones, no transmitters,” a Vatican official joked – as if we might try to smuggle them in.

He led us towards two rows of plastic chairs at the back of a wood-panelled courtroom on the ground floor. The coat of arms of Pope Pius XI was engraved on to the ceiling, flanked by four chandeliers.

A crucifix hung on a panel behind the judges’ bench – a coincidental reminder for the devout that Jesus Christ was himself condemned by a questionable judicial verdict.

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A victim speaks – Part 2

PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

[with video]

Part 1

Altoona, Blair County

New allegations of priest abuse in the Altoona/ Johnstown Catholic diocese surfaced Monday when a letter sent to Bishop Mark Bartchak was released to the media. In it “Whistleblower” George Foster calls for 5 priests and 1 sister to be removed from their posts and investigated.

For one victim – we call him “John” – it’s the action that he wants to see now.

“How many victims are out there, afraid to talk, because they know there ain’t going to be any help,” explains “John”.

“John” was repeatedly raped when he was a teen by a priest who he says bribed him with alcohol, money, cars and made him dress as a women. He’s still battling the trauma today.

“I feel so much better talking about it. I kept the shit inside me so damn long, when I finally exploded, I ended up in 3G,” explains “John”.

That was the mental ward of the UPMC Altoona.

“Maybe that was God’s blessing for me, you know making me snap,” adds “John.

Today, John is sober and in treatment for PTSD.

As “John” tells it, “Life’s getting better for me. I still believe in church. I do get upset with the diocese – not doing enough for the victims.”

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Attorneys File Six More Sex Abuse Lawsuits Against the Seattle Archdiocese

WASHINGTON
Seattle Weekly

By Sara Bernard Tue., May 17 2016

A law firm representing sexual abuse survivors filed six more lawsuits against the Seattle Archdiocese on Tuesday, alleging that Archdiocese knew or should have known about the crimes, yet did nothing.

Five out of the six cases involve abusive priests outed on the list of 77 names that the Archdiocese released in January. And all six plaintiffs called the law firm after the list was made public, according to Seattle attorneys Michael T. Pfau and Jason P. Amala, who’ve filed hundreds of such cases over the years. (One case settled with the Seattle Archdiocese in late March for $9.15 million.)

The six victims whose cases were filed this week “all saw the names [of their alleged perpetrators] on the list and called with questions, many of them thinking that they were the only one,” says Pfau. That fact alone is worth noting, he says. The Archdiocese had, in its files, credible accusations of sexual abuse — enough to publish each priest’s name on a list — but none of the survivors who called Pfau’s law firm had spoken out previously, or had any idea that their perpetrators may have abused other children. “To see that they weren’t the people who had called the Archdiocese to complain,” says Pfau, makes it “obvious that there are other victims.”

Still, the breadth of the six alleged crimes is astonishing, and points, once again, to the culture of abuse and secrecy that many claim dominates the Catholic Church — both in Seattle and across the world. “It’s not six abuse survivors saying one notorious pedophile abused them during a limited time,” Pfau says. “It’s six different people accusing six different pedophiles spanning 30 years at parishes all over the [Seattle] Archdiocese.” As a result, thanks to today’s news and all of the news that came before it, “You can’t really say it’s just a few bad apples.”

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Protesters rally outside of prayer service for healing

PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

[with video]

By Carolyn Donaldson | cdonaldson@wtajtv.com
Published 05/18 2016

Altoona, Blair County

The second of three prayer services of healing for victims of child sex abuse took place at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Altoona Tuesday night.

About a dozen protesters greeted church-goers as they entered for that service. They carried posters showing pictures of children who had been sexually abused. One protester – a victim when he was a child of priest sexual abuse – handed out his “call to action”.

As Robert Mizic says, “I’m here because I want justice for victims of childhood sexual abuse – not only by priests – by other adults too. We’re looking for reform and we’re looking to tell the Catholic church we’re tired of empty apologies.”

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Sexual Abuse Questions Swirl Around Yeshiva Leader in Kiryas Joel

NEW YORK
New York Times

By JOSEPH BERGER
MAY 17, 2016

KIRYAS JOEL, N.Y. — In a place where young boys spend their days hunched over volumes of Torah and Talmud, delving into timeless stories and precepts in an ancient singsong, the scene was incongruous.

Dozens of agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and county law enforcement officers — more than 50 by the count of officials in this Hasidic village about 50 miles northwest of Manhattan — converged on a four-story brick yeshiva here on Thursday, some armed with guns, others carrying crowbars, as helicopters whirred overhead. According to parents of children at the school, the authorities took away boxes filled with computers, office files and security-camera videos.

“They scared all the kids,” said Yoel Weiss, whose three sons, Moishe, 12, Shloime, 8, and Pinchas, 7, attend the yeshiva that was targeted, United Talmudical Academy of Kiryas Joel.

“They made a big commotion.”

The United Talmudical Academy. Local residents believe a recent law enforcement action is linked to video filmed in an office at the school. Credit Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times
The motivation for the operation, according to parents who learned of the questions being asked of yeshiva officials by the law enforcement authorities, was a suspicion that a longtime principal had sexually abused students. At least one episode of possible abuse was captured on video, portions of which have been shared on social media.

The parents did not want to be identified because they were wary of being drawn into the investigation. The video was filmed from overhead in the office of the principal, Rabbi Moshe Hersh Klein. One snippet shows Rabbi Klein, the gray-bearded principal of the yeshiva’s third, fourth and fifth grades, his legs around a pupil who appears to be about 8, patting the boy and kissing his cheeks, and rocking him for several seconds.

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