ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

[with video]

BY KODY LEIBOWITZ TUESDAY, MAY 10TH 2016

HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has paid millions of dollars in settlements in the past.

At least one of those settlements included a guide used by the diocese and attorneys to determine how to pay victims, according to an investigation by 6 News Investigates.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane released a grand jury report in March on the Diocese. It outlined shocking allegations against the diocese and its past leadership.

The pages of the grand jury report shed public light on a diocesan payment chart. The March report calls it a “pay out scale” used for “the purchase of silence”. Four levels are transcribed in an escalating degree of sexual abuse-to-payment range. Compensation to victims ranged from $10,000 to $175,000.

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

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Jasmine Stole, Pacific Daily News May 11, 2016

A full-page advertisement published in local newspapers, including the Pacific Daily News, over the weekend showed the back of a person dressed in Catholic clerical attire and featured the black, bolded words: “Were You Sexually Abused? Molested?”

The Concerned Catholics of Guam, a group that has protested the actions of the local archdiocese, purchased the ad, which asks for victims of sexual abuse to come forward.

The advertisement doesn’t accuse any specific person of abuse, but appears to link the abuse to the Catholic Church.

The Archdiocese of Agana didn’t provide a comment about the ad as of press time.

The ad stated: “If you or someone you know was the victim of sexual abuse during these periods and at these locations, you no longer have to suffer in silence.”

Below this statement is the following list of dates and locations:

1974-1975: Father Duenas Minor Seminary
1975-1976: Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, Saipan
1976-1978: Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, Agat
1978-1984: Agana Cathedral

Tim Rohr, a Catholic blogger, said more than one person has come forward alleging abuse and the ad was a call to other victims who might want to come forward as well.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Johanna Salinas | Post News Staff

Guam teacher Joseph Santos has launched a drive for a petition titled “Silent No More” which asks the Guam Legislature to lift the statute of limitations for sex crimes. He said he was inspired by “Spotlight,” a film about the child sexual abuse cover-up by the Catholic Church in Boston.

Yet Santos says that this is not just a Catholic issue. After a student told him of her own trauma, Santos did research on what can be done for victims on Guam. “What I found out is that there is little, especially on the civil side, that the victims can do,” he said. “I then thought that a petition would be a good place to start. I chose the title ‘Silent No More!’ because I, as an individual, have been too passive, especially in cases such as this. Also, I want the victims to have their day in court so that they too can be silent no more.”

Santos said he is motivated by his students who have experienced sexual violence. “They did not ask me to, but I realize that at this point in their lives, they do not have a voice,” Santos said.

His students’ traumas caused him to think about how the statutes of limitations on Guam have prevented some victims from gaining justice. With his petition, Santos said he wants to bring to light child sex crimes that have been unreported.

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.

MINNESOTA
Bemidji Pioneer

By Forum News Service

DULUTH, Minn. — An alleged victim of childhood sexual abuse from a priest has reached a settlement with the priest’s former diocese.

Doe 19, who filed a lawsuit claiming Father James Vincent Fitzgerald had abused them in 1984 while working in the Diocese of Crookston, has accepted a settlement deal with the diocese and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, according to a press release.

Mike Finnegan, attorney for Doe 19, will publicly release documents from the oblate on Fitzgerald Wednesday at 11 a.m. in Duluth. The documents were used last year in a trial last year involving Fitzgerald’s abuse of Bill Weis. Weis was awarded more than $8 million by a Ramsey County jury after it found Fitzgerald abused Weis in Squaw Lake in 1978.

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.

VERMONT
Vermont Public Radio

By ALEX KEEFE

A Catholic priest was placed on leave from a Burlington church last summer for misspending more than $23,000 in parish funds and making inappropriate comments toward staffers, VPR has learned.

Father Richard O’Donnell had been the priest at Christ the King St. Anthony Parish church until he was placed on an indefinite leave of absence around late July 2015, according to the Most Rev. Christopher Coyne, the bishop of Burlington.

An internal diocesan audit and a private outside investigation found that O’Donnell did not break any laws, Coyne told VPR in an interview Monday. But it found O’Donnell spent “exorbitant” amounts of parish money on gifts for staff, personal gas mileage reimbursement and lavish tips when he went out to eat.

“He wasn’t taking the money himself and he wasn’t doing these things [for] himself,” Coyne said.

“It was just basically that there was a problem with his being overly generous with … parish money. He just shouldn’t have been using it that way.”

O’Donnell also got in trouble with the diocese for “inappropriate behavior and language towards staff” at the church and at the Christ the King Catholic school, Coyne said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

by Mike Newall, Inquirer Columnist

There is a bill now before the state Senate that would do something real – something lasting – for survivors of sexual abuse. Something that would allow so many the opportunity for justice they have long been denied. Something that could help them heal – that could help them ease and carry their burdens.

Passed by the state House of Representatives on April 12, H.B. 1947 would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations for sexual abuse and extend the civil statutes by 20 years, until victims turn 50. It would allow victims to sue over abuse that occurred decades ago.

The bill does not go far enough. As written, it would offer no recourse to the many victims of the Catholic Church abuse scandal who are older than 50. But it would represent real and significant progress.

“It would be a big victory,” said John Salveson, an abuse survivor from Wayne and the founder of The Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse. “We have been trying to do this for years. The resistance has just been impossible to overcome.”

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.

MICHIGAN
9 and 10 News

By Caroline Powers, Reporter

An interim Traverse City priest who admitted to trying to sexually harass parishioners is headed to jail.

Reverend Bryant Dennison Jr. has now pleaded guilty to attempted fourth degree criminal sexual conduct.

In exchange, prosecutors dropped three other charges.

Three members of the Grace Episcopal Church in Traverse City say they were sexually harassed by Dennison Jr. between 2008 and 2009.

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.

MARYLAND
ABC 2

The Archdiocese of Baltimore published the names of 71 priests and religious brothers who have been accused of child sexual abuse.

The names of many of these accused men were released back in September 2002, yet this is the first comprehensive list made available online.

Clergymen accused after 2002, and those accused of sexual abuse after their deaths, have been included in the updated list. Also now included are “instances where an investigation concluded that the facts did not indicate sexual abuse had occurred.”

Barbara Dorris, the victims outreach director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said the list is “incomplete.”

“While we’re glad Baltimore Catholic officials are again listing predator priests on the archdiocesan website but wish they would do the same on local parish websites,” Dorris said in a news release. “We’re sad that this has taken so long to do and believe they can and should do much more to protect kids.”

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MARYLAND
ABC News

[List of Accused Priests and Religious Brothers in the Baltimore Archdiocese: Reformatted by BishopAccountability.org for Easier Viewing and Printing]

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Archdiocese of Baltimore has posted a list of 71 priests and religious brothers accused of sexual abuse.

The Baltimore Sun reports that church officials say the move is a response to abuse survivors’ feedback. The archdiocese says it has received “credible” accusations about the listed clergymen during their lifetimes. Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine says the list was posted in January, but there was no announcement since it didn’t include new information.

The church has disclosed the names before, but activists say listing the names in one place may encourage victims to come forward and expose the scope of abuse.

David Lorenz, Maryland director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, says his group has asked every diocese in the country to make such a list.

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UNITED STATES
Christianity Today

(UPDATED) After Bangladesh MKs speak out, ABWE releases final report on past problems and future protections.

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra/ MAY 10, 2016

For years, allegations have swirled about medical missionary Donn Ketcham’s inappropriate sexual behavior.

A surgeon serving in Bangladesh with the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) from 1961 to 1989, Ketcham was accused of both affairs with fellow female missionaries and the sexual abuse of 4 women and 18 girls, many times under the guise of medical care.

Those allegations were true, ABWE confirmed today in a 280-page report by Professional Investigators International (Pii), which conducted more than 200 interviews and sifted through 14,000 pages of material during its three-year investigation. (Ketcham and his family refused to speak to Pii investigators.)

“There is no amount of remorse, regret, or shame that can make up for the suffering and pain we caused,” stated Al Cockrell, interim president of ABWE, in announcing the report’s release. “We are offering to meet with the victims in person to express our deepest apology, to pay for counseling for them, and to ensure them we have implemented measures to prevent such deplorable behavior again.”

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com May 10, 2016

A Crosier priest who has served as an associate pastor or co-pastor in the Diocese of St. Cloud has been suspended from functioning as a priest after the diocese received a report that he sexually abused a minor.

Father Gregory Poser is accused of sexually abusing a minor in the 1970s, when Poser was serving at St. Odilia Church in Shoreview. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis reported the allegation to the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, according to the diocese.

Poser was assigned to parishes in Onamia (Holy Cross), Hillman (St. Rita), Wahkon (Sacred Heart) and Vineland (St. Therese) at the time the diocese received the allegation. Bishop Donald Kettler suspended Poser’s priestly faculties in the Diocese of St. Cloud, meaning that Poser can no longer function or present himself as a priest, while the allegation is investigated.

The Crosiers have been notified of the allegation; that religious order placed Poser on immediate administrative leave from his current assignments.

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.

DEUTSCHLAND
inFranken

[Who can you trust if not a priest?]

von PAUL ZIEGLER

Der ehemalige Ministrant brachte es auf den Punkt: Ein Priester liest die Fürbitten vor und bittet darin um Hilfe für all diejenigen, die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs geworden sind. Jetzt wird gerade dieser ehemalige Geistliche aus dem Stadtgebiet genau dieses Vergehens bezichtigt.

Der junge Mann hat früher den Altardienst bei dem Pfarrer versehen. Er ist geschockt, was ihm da zu Ohren gekommen ist. Das Vertrauen in einen Geistlichen im Speziellen und die Kirche im Allgemeinen ist gestört, wenn nicht verloren. Der junge Mann hat eine Schwester, die in kirchliche Aktivitäten eingebunden ist. Mit ihr hat er über den Pfarrer, und was passiert ist, gesprochen. Er hat Angst, Angst, dass so etwas wieder passieren kann. Daher seine Frage an Generalvikar Thomas Keßler: “Wie versucht die Kirche, sowas zu verhindern?”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

BY KIM PILLING

Canon Mortimer Stanley, now 84, was ‘a celebrity in the playground’ who allegedly targeted children that were dubbed ‘his special girls’, a court has heard

A “godlike” Catholic priest dubbed “a celebrity in the playground” sexually abused nine young girls over four decades, a court has heard.

Many of the schoolchildren were said not to have complained about Father Mortimer Stanley, 84, at the time, because of the “very high regard” he was held in by parishioners and teachers.

The priest allegedly targeted the complainants – who he called his “special girls” – in his presbytery at St Vincent de Paul RC Church in Norden, Rochdale , where he would sit them on his knee and indecently assault them in various ways.

His alleged victims, aged under 11, were either pupils at the adjacent St Vincent’s RC Primary School or members of the parish.

A tenth, male, complainant says he too was sexually abused as a child by the canon after he claimed something “like chloroform” was put over his mouth and he collapsed.

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.

CANADA
Southern Gazette

Daniel MacEachern
Published on May 10, 2016

A residential school survivor fought back tears Tuesday morning after news broke about a $50-million settlement for residential school survivors.

“I’m glad it’s over,” said Rex Holwell of Labrador on Tuesday morning.

Holwell, 65, testified in Supreme Court last fall that he was punished for bedwetting at the Northwest River residential school by being locked in the attic at night without lights or a washroom.

Holwell counts himself lucky to be one of the survivors still around to see a deal reached.

“It’s good there’s a settlement, but there’s a lot of us now that are gone,” said Holwell. “Where this trial has been on the go now for almost 10 years, a lot of us have passed on.”

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.

CANADA
Macleans

The Canadian Press
May 10, 2016

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Lawyers for former students of residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador have reached a proposed $50-million compensation deal with the federal government.

The offer affecting about 800 class-action members alleging abuse along with cultural losses must be approved by a judge.

Lawyers for both sides were in provincial Supreme Court in St. John’s Tuesday seeking approval to notify plaintiffs.

They will be back in court later this year to argue the merits of the proposed settlement before the judge rules.

Plaintiffs’ lawyer Steven Cooper said former students alive as of Nov. 23, 2006, or their estates if they have died since would be eligible for payments.

Students who lived in school residences for less than five years are eligible for $15,000 in general compensation while those who lived there five years or more are eligible for $20,000.

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.

CANADA
CBC News

by Ariana Kelland and Mark Quinn, CBC News Posted: May 10, 2016

A $50-million settlement has been reached for hundreds of residential school survivors in Newfoundland and Labrador who have been involved in a lengthy class action with the federal government.

Former students also will receive an undetermined amount of money for reconciliation and healing.

They learned of the settlement in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court on Tuesday morning.

Lawyers expect 750 to 900 people will be compensated.

Plantiff Toby Obed, who went to school in North West River, kept repeating the words “this is over” outside the courthouse Tuesday.

“This is real. This is really happening. It’s over. I don’t have to go to court no more. I don’t have to testify no more,” Obed said, choking back tears.

Obed said it’s now time to “let this rest.”

“I can let my inner child go. I can let my inner child rest.”

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.

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY REUVEN BLAU NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Pray for us!

That’s the message a leading Hasidic rabbi gave to his thousands of followers in response to the city Education Department’s investigation into its schools failing to teach secular subjects as required by law.

“These are bad times for us Jews,” said Satmar leader Aaron Teitelbaum during a May 4 speech.

“We need to pray to God that (city officials) should not interfere with the upbringing of our children.”

“Worthless … snitches” in the community are urging the Education Department to take action “which the government doesn’t even want,” the rabbi said at a large synagogue in upstate Kiryas Joel.

The Education Department last summer announced that it is investigating more than a dozen private schools to ensure their curriculum follows secular education standards.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WHDH

There are allegations of sexual abuse against hundreds of children at private schools in New England, including the Fessenden school in Newton.

The attorney for the alleged victims is speaking out, and says there needs to be a federal investigation into the decades of abuse and cover-ups.

“These educators were entrusted with the most precious of our society, children… Yet they let these children be sexually abused time and again. It’s time to put an end to it, the damage is reparable to children,” said attorney Mitchell Garabedian.

Garabedian was portrayed in the movie “Spotlight,” after he represented victims in sexual abuse cases against the Catholic church.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Now

May 9, 2016

By Erin Crosby.

Last week, the archbishop of Oklahoma City removed a priest from his duties after learning the priest had been investigated for sexual battery in San Diego five years ago. In this case, the victim wasn’t a child, but a young adult. As an adult victim of clergy sexual abuse myself, I am saddened but not surprised to hear the priest had been charged only of a misdemeanor and allowed to continue pastoral work. Churches of every denomination should stop diminishing the severity of clergy sexual abuse of adults and begin to institute procedures that protect adults as well as children. This type of change starts with understanding conditions that cultivate power abuse.

I was 27 years old when my pastor started touching me sexually. He’d spent the previous two years gaining my trust, confidence, and respect. He took great interest in my life. We talked about my fears, hopes, and spirituality, and he took on the role of a father. I didn’t understand he was using his position and power to get close to me and to tear down my defenses.

I was not alone. One in thirty-three women in a congregation has experienced sexual harassment or sexual misconduct from a religious leader at some point in her adult life, according to a 2008 study by Baylor University researcher Diana Garland. Whether it’s a sexual overture, proposition, or an ongoing sexual “relationship” with a congregant, such behavior is doubly harmful because it is often misunderstood or dismissed as a relationship between two consenting adults. But I know from my own experiences and from my experiences counseling dozens of adult victims of clergy sexual abuse that these relationships are not affairs. They are not consensual. Predator pastors have mastered the art of power abuse to prey on women in their care, often intentionally “grooming” their victims and their congregation to accept this behavior.

Thanks to countless media stories, many people have come to understand predator priests groom children by “building trust with a child and with adults around the child in an effort to gain access to and time alone with her/him,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Sex Offender Public Website. But this also happens with adults as well. Predator pastors groom their adult victims—spending one-on-one time together, isolating the victim from others, initiating subtle touches, asking about personal matters—as well as the entire congregation, desensitizing adults to behaviors and practices that result in compromised boundaries and silence. Often, the pastor does this by reinforcing more traditional views of the Bible, such as gender roles that define men as authoritative leaders and women as submissive helpers. This dynamic makes women vulnerable. It made me vulnerable. On many occasions when I angry about what my pastor was doing to me, I didn’t say anything to him or anyone else because I believed it was disrespectful to question or challenge him.

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UNITED KINGDOM
RTE News

An Irish priest sexually abused nine young girls over four decades, a UK court has heard.

Many of the schoolchildren were said not to have complained about Father Mortimer Stanley, 84, at the time, because of the “very high regard” he was held in by parishioners and teachers.

The priest allegedly targeted the complainants in his presbytery at St Vincent de Paul RC Church in Norden, Rochdale, where he would sit them on his knee and indecently assault them in various ways.

His alleged victims, aged under 11, were either pupils at the adjacent St Vincent’s RC Primary School or members of the parish.

A tenth, male, complainant says he too was sexually abused as a child by the canon after he claimed something “like chloroform” was put over his mouth and he collapsed.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Courier

Melissa Cunningham
May 10, 2016

Sarah Wade is the only current local federal election candidate that does not have a stance on a national redress scheme for childhood sexual abuse survivors.

The Liberal candidate told The Courier while she commended the work of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, she did not have a clear political stance on redress.

“To start with, I want to make it very clear that I don’t want to make this a political football,” Ms Wade said.

“I understand many children have suffered from systematic sexual abuse which is horrifying.”

“While the issue of redress is simple in terms of need, it is complex in terms of 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.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Chao Xiong Star Tribune MAY 10, 2016

Debora Kinsel was working at the Boys and Girls Club on St. Paul’s West Side a few years ago when a 10-year-old girl went missing after her ride apparently didn’t show up.

“[She] just kind of disappeared, and nobody could find [her],” Kinsel recalled recently.

It was evening. Kinsel phoned the girl’s softball coach, Catalina Adamez-Smith, who is married to St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith. When Kinsel drove about a mile north to the spot where the girl was rumored to have taken the bus, Smith was already there in his street clothes.

“He showed up there, the same place I was, and we found this missing kid,” Kinsel said. “He just left his home, you know?”

Smith, 57, retires Tuesday after serving nearly 27 years at the department—six of those as the chief. Community members and activists praise him for being accessible and going the extra mile, but his one term as the city’s top cop had its share of controversy.

Under Smith’s tenure, the department’s crime lab came under severe criticism for drug testing protocols that had been in place before him, a slew of clergy sex abuse cases raised questions about whether investigators were being aggressive enough and most recently, activists scrutinizing police use of force compelled major policy changes.

“As a chief … you can just never guess what’s going to come your way,” Smith said in a recent interview.

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UNITED STATES
Anti Essays

Below is an essay on “Victims” from Anti Essays, your source for research papers, essays, and term paper examples.

My personal stance on the current state of victims’ rights in America is that even though many states have changed their legislation for victims’ rights and protecting victims there is still work that needs to be done to protect the victims and their families from harm. In my opinion the 2004 Crime Victims’ Rights Act has been successful with out it there would be many more victims and families that would have to suffer and could have been victimized all over again had they not been granted protection from the accused, rights to notification, right not to be excluded from proceedings, right to speak at criminal justice proceedings, right to consult with the prosecuting attorney, right to restitution, right to a proceeding and free from unreasonable delay, and the right to be treated with fairness, respect for the victims’ dignity and privacy. (Justice, 2012) In my opinion about vengeance it is never appropriate to be revengeful or to harm a person period when a person goes and hurts someone for hurting them they are just as bad as the person who hurt them in the first place. It is hard to be the victim especially when it comes to children and want to make a person suffer for their crime but if we were all able to be use revenge as a way to get back at someone then we just would be adding to suffering for families and victims.

Do you agree with the actions of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)? I have to say that I do agree because if this is the outlet that victims need to overcome the trauma from having to suffer the abuse from someone that they trusted then let them do what they need to as long as they are not resorting to revengeful act and they are not causing any physical harm to anyone then they should be able to come together and work out the issues they are still suffering from the abuse when a person is abuse by anyone it affects all aspects of their lives and if the network is helping them through those times then I think it is ok….

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BALTIMORE (MD)
BishopAccountability.org

Reformatted by BishopAccountability.org for Easier Viewing and Printing

Archdiocese of Baltimore
Downloaded on April 4, 2016

http://www.archbalt.org/about-us/child-youth-protection/resources/disclosure.cfm

In September of 2002, the Archdiocese of Baltimore published a list of priests and religious brothers who had served in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and who had been accused, in their lifetime, of child sexual abuse. The 57 men on that disclosure are listed below with links to additional information. As was noted at the time by Cardinal William H. Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore, the disclosure did not include priests and brothers who were accused after their deaths, nor did it include a few instances where an investigation concluded that the facts did not indicate sexual abuse had occurred. For greater context, the documents accompanying the 2002 disclosure can also be found at the links further below.

Also listed below are those priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore who, after September 2002, were accused of child sexual abuse during their lifetimes along with a link to the public disclosure that was made. All allegations of child sexual abuse are reported to authorities and to the Archdiocese’s Independent Child Abuse Review Board. If such reporting and investigation determined that an allegation was not credible, the alleged perpetrator is not listed here. We also provide names and links to public disclosures made by the Archdiocese regarding some priests from religious orders or other dioceses who were accused after 2002, although the Archdiocese’s information about such non-Archdiocesan priests is often limited.

Priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore have no parenthetical after their names. Priests and brothers from religious orders or other dioceses have that noted in parentheses after their names. None of the individuals listed here are in ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore; some have died and some have been laicized–all have had their faculties to function as a priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore removed.

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

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

This page gathers the lists of accused priests (see below) that have been released by dioceses and religious orders, since the first such list was posted by the Diocese of Tucson on June 21, 2002. Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas [3] was co-adjutor bishop at the time, and the Dallas charter’s goal of transparency was cited as the rationale for the release.

Cardinal William H. Keeler [4] released a list for the Archdiocese of Baltimore on September 25, 2002 and explained that he and the other U.S. bishops were making “an absolute commitment” to disclosure in order to earn forgiveness and rebuild trust – the church’s “crisis of trust” was brought on, he wrote, by “horrible and criminal actions, and by inaction and secrecy.”

Keeler was criticized by some for posting his list; one commentator wrote that he had “burnished his reputation by trashing the reputations of his priests.” The Baltimore list was removed from the archdiocesan website before Keeler’s retirement in 2007, and for a decade under his successors, Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien and Archbishop William E. Lori, it was unavailable there. The archdiocese recently – apparently in late March 2016 – restored the list to their website in a supplemented version. We are preparing materials to document this new development.

In the meantime, about two dozen other dioceses and religious orders have released lists, often in compliance with the nonmonetary requirements of a settlement (see, for example, the bankruptcy reorganization plan of the Jesuits’ Oregon Province). In the few cases where a list has not been released according to the terms of an agreement, there are still pressures and considerations of various kinds. It is illuminating, for example, to compare Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli’s public letter about the original Wilmington diocesan list, as published in the diocesan newspaper, with the vicar general’s letter to an accused priest about the release. Scroll down to view our linked list of lists, or click on a diocese or religious order to hop directly to that list on the page below: …

Then, apparently in January 2016, without publicizing his action, Archbishop Lori posted the Baltimore list again, in a different format, and with 14 new names appended, providing detailed accounts of some clerics accused since Keeler’s list was released in September 2002. In April 2016, a glitch was fixed that had made it difficult to navigate from the archdiocesan homepage to the revised and reposted list.

The reposted list was publicly noticed for the first time in Baltimore archdiocese posts list of accused priests, by Alison Knezevich, Baltimore Sun (5/9/16).

The revised list has a serious flaw, still an issue as of 5/10/16. As mentioned above, each name on Cardinal Keeler’s old list was linked to a separate webpage that provided brief information about the cleric’s assignment history and allegations. It was not a convenient implementation, but the information was accessible. Archbishop Lori’s list puts the assignment and allegation information in an HTML title tag under each name. When the reader mouses over the name, the information appears in a box. But the information cannot be printed, and if the information is of any length, some of it is not even visible in the box.

In order to make Archbishop Lori’s revised list usable, we have extracted all the information from the title tags, using the HTML source code for the page, and assembled the information in viewable and printable form. We have also reformatted the information so that each assignment is bulleted.

Then we created an Excel spreadsheet with all the assignment information in sortable form, so that the list can be analyzed and understood more easily. The Excel sheet reveals that accused priests have worked in at least 94 Baltimore parishes. Many parishes were assigned numerous accused priests over the years. For example, according to the archdiocese’s own assignment information, at St. Mark’s parish in Catonsville, no fewer than 7 accused priests worked for a total of 38 person years. In total, according to Archbishop Lori’s list, accused priests and brothers worked and/or resided for 1,261 person-years in parishes, high schools, and other facilities in the archdiocese.

Note that those data and Lori’s reposted list do not include some priests and a brother known to have been accused: Deacon William Steven Albaugh, , Fr. Robert B. Cullen SJ, Fr. John Danilak (Byzantine rite), Fr. Thom Kuhl , Br. Xavier Langan FSC, Fr. Brian Keith Olkowski, and Antonio Jorge Velez-Lopez OFM Cap.

In his introduction, Lori states that “for greater context, the documents accompanying the 2002 disclosure can also be found at the links further below.” The links are not provided below, but are accessible through the archdiocesan website’s site map: Homepage > Site Map > Click “Expand All” > Under “General Information” Click Key Policies.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A high-profile victim of a notorious pedophile priest who travelled to Rome to see Cardinal George Pell testify before the royal commission has been accused of not being open about his own past as an abuser.

As a child, David Ridsdale was abused by his uncle, Catholic priest Gerard Ridsdale, for four years. Almost 15 years later, in 1995, David pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting a young victim only years after he suffered abuse himself, the ABC’s 7.30 reports.

The magistrate said his behaviour was in part influenced by the abuse he had suffered at the hands of his uncle and placed him on a 12-month good behaviour bond.

After more than 30 years, Ridsdale’s victim, Corey Artz, 43, has broken his silence about the abuse he suffered at Ballarat.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

In an insulting but shrewd public relations move, Altoona’s bishop is holding self-serving “healing” events instead of protecting kids through decisive action. http://dioceseaj.org/node/1075

In the 147 page grand jury report, released two months ago, perhaps the most disturbing fact is that the jurors are “concerned the purge of predators is taking too long.”

[Cincinnati.com]

That’s where the focus should be – removing predators – not holding “healing” events. Altoona Catholic officials should concentrate on protecting vulnerable kids, not winning back upset parishioners.

Their priorities are backwards.

Such services are nothing more than public relations. They don’t protect a single child, expose a single predator, punish a single concealer or deter a single cover up.

Bishop Mark Bartchak should take tangible steps so that the church no longer will need to hold such events. The goal should be no more victims.

As we’ve said before, Bartchak refuses to

–discipline even a single wrongdoer identified in the grand jury report,

–fire a nun who deals with victims and was blasted in the grand jury report,

–replace his review board members who the report called “biased,”

–even oust ONE review board member who refused to answer questions by grand jurors,

–discipline or even denounce a priest who verbally attacked police, prosecutors and jurors,

–alert bishops in Florida, South Carolina, Colorado, West Virginia into whose dioceses Altoona predator priests were quietly sent (and may still be living), or

–aggressively beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police, using pulpit announcements and church websites and parish bulletins.

We’re reminded of the famous fast food ad of years past that popularized the phrase “Where’s the beef?” In this case, it’s “Where’s the action?” The short answer is: In Altoona, it’s sorely lacking.

The grand jury concluded “Nothing has changed” in the Altoona diocese with respect to abuse reports. And nothing WILL change unless Altoona citizens and Catholics insist that Barchak stop the words, apologies, promises and excuses and start showing leadership, and begin by speeding up the purge of predators from parishes.

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GEORGIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

A predatory teacher who repeatedly abused a student and “allegedly demanded she have two abortions” worked in a suburban Atlanta school, a new report shows.

[New York Post]

The secrecy of Catholic officials, who “never disciplined him” but later quietly let him go, allowed him “to work for years in city public schools,” an investigation reveals.

Rodney Alejandro reportedly abused a 15-year-old girl at a Catholic school – St. Francis Preparatory School in New York City – and then went on to work for the Department of Education, a 2015 probe by the city’s Special Commissioner of Investigation charges.

“Alejandro went on to teach at Mount Pisgah Christian School in Alpharetta, Ga., in September 2011, but by December 2012 the school asked him to resign because he didn’t disclose a prior termination,” the New York Post reports.

Our hearts ache for this brave young woman. We applaud her courage. We applaud New York investigators who uncovered this horror. And we beg lawmakers – in New York and Georgia – to reform the archaic, arbitrary statues of limitations that encourage twisted adults to commit child sex crimes and timid adults to conceal child sex crimes. We beg these legislators to show courage, rebuff lobbyists, and side with parents, kids and families, giving child sex abuse victims the chance to protect youngsters and expose wrongdoers in our time-tested justice system.

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

DAVAO CITY—Leading presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is planning a state visit to the Vatican after he is proclaimed President of the Philippines.

Duterte became controversial in November 2015 when he took a swipe at the Roman Catholic Church and cursed Pope Francis for causing inconvenience during his visit early last year.

Spokesperson Peter Laviña said Duterte would visit the Vatican as well as other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) member states.

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INDIA
Crux

By Nirmala Carvalho
Crux Contributor May 10, 2016

MUMBAI — Ordinarily, a Catholic bishop anywhere in the world almost certainly would be delighted to see a spontaneous flowering of devotion to a recently deceased local priest.

The fact that an archbishop in India actually has shut down a parish rather than allow it to host a statue of one such priest, therefore, suggests circumstances in Bangalore are anything but ordinary.

The long-simmering conflict in Bangalore, usually known around the world as India’s IT capital, illustrates how Catholicism here, like the rest of society in the world’s largest democracy, still struggles with often-bitter resentments stoked by class, ethnicity and language.

In turn, it’s also a reminder to Western Catholics of why their perceived priorities sometimes don’t resonate in other parts of the world, which have vastly different fires to put out. …

For one thing, he was one of six priests charged in the sensational 2013 murder of Father K.J. Thomas, at the time the rector of St. Peter’s Pontifical Seminary in Bangalore. According to a police spokesman, evidence shows that Selvaraj took part in crucial meetings when the plot against Thomas was hatched, held a week and then just a day before the murder.

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MARYLAND
WBAL

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has posted a list of priests and religious brothers accused of sexual abuse.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the Archdiocese says the names were previously disclosed by the church, but this posting lists them all on one site. The list includes the names of 71 clergymen who face credible accusations.

David Lorenz, who is the Maryland director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, says his group has wanted the list for a long time and it has asked every diocese in the country to do it.

Click here to see the list.

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ISRAEL
Times of Israel

Miri Regev, whose Culture Ministry determines who will light Independence Day torches at the main state ceremony Wednesday night, says she won’t rush to judgment against Father Gabriel Naddaf.

Her statement appears to indicate she won’t ask Naddaf, accused of sexual harassment, to step down from his role as torch lighter, seen as a major honor.

“I trust law enforcement officials to carry out their check into the case around the priest Gabriel Naddaf,” she says, according to Channel 2 news. “Everyone has the right to remain innocent until proven otherwise.”

Police earlier said they would carry out a preliminary probe into Naddaf, a Christian Arab leader, after claims surfaced Sunday that he tried to elicit sexual favors from soldiers and young men.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

A prominent Christian leader in Israel, soon to be honored by Israel for his work to encourage Christian Arab youths enlist into the army, is suspected of sexually harassment, a television report claimed Sunday evening.

Father Gabriel Naddaf, who is slated to light a beacon at the Independence Day opening ceremony Wednesday night, allegedly sexually harassed teenage boys and solicited favors to use his influence with senior members of the defense establishment, a report broadcast Sunday night on Channel 2 said.

In response, the police said they have begun a preliminary investigation into the claims.

Naddaf, a Greek Orthodox leader, is known for his public campaign to get Christian Arab youths to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces, and is considered very close to senior defense officials.

Naddaf denied the allegations, telling reporters: “They are trying to put together an evil plot against me, my wife and two children. I haven’t hurt a soul, nor did I take advantage of my position to gain privileges from anyone. I shall light the torch on Independence Day.”

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ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

By JEREMY SHARON, LAHAV HARKOV \ 05/09/2016

The police are determing whether or not to open an investigation into Greek Orthodox priest Father Gabriel Naddaf, who is accused of having sexually harassed youths during telephone conversations and electronic correspondence he held with them.

Naddaf has been a high-profile proponent of Christian Arab enlistment to the IDF, and the allegations made against him were made by youths from the sector who had sought his help and advice.

He is also accused of receiving benefit, including sexual favors, from Palestinians for whom he helped obtain entry visas to Israel for illicit business purposes.

The priest is scheduled to take part in a torch-lighting ceremony at the beginning of Independence Day on Wednesday night because of his efforts towards Christian enlistment and integration.

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

The Culture Ministry responded on Monday evening to the Police Department’s investigation into Arab-Israeli priest Gabriel Naddaf, who is meant to light a torch at the Independence Day ceremony.

“Minister Regev trusts the law enforcement authorities to conduct a full investigation into the matter involving Father Gabriel Naddaf… Every person has should be considered innocent until proven otherwise, and so the minister will not intervene in the public committee’s decision until the law enforcement authorities indicate to her that she should act otherwise,” the Culture Ministry announced.

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

By Uzi Baruch
First Publish: 5/10/2016

Gabriel Naddaf, an Israeli Greek Orthodox priest, has responded to recent accusations against him, which arose after he was chosen to light a torch for Independence Day.

“As the torch-lighting ceremony approaches, my enemies are crossing the lines of decency, and increasing their libels and horror stories about me,” he said.

“This is a soldier who was convicted and served time in prison for throwing an IDF grenade during a civilian dispute, and they are trying to use this absurd testimony to darken my name?” he added. “It won’t do them any good; I won’t be dissuaded and I will continue working to encourage Christian soldiers to join the IDF.”

Father Naddaf explained that he underwent polygraph tests twice. “I denied any harassment and left, being truthful of course.”

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ISRAEL
Times of Israel

A number of IDF soldiers from Father Gabriel Naddaf’s Christian Arab community have filed formal complaints against the Greek Orthodox priest, saying he sexually harassed them, according to Channel 2 news.

Eyal Paltek, the soldiers’ attorney who filed the complaint with the Haifa Police, said, “There is no doubt that after this initial complaint, more will follow.”

The complaint followed just hours after the Haifa Police announced it was launching a preliminary investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by the priest, who is an outspoken advocate of the integration of Christian Arabs into the Israel Defense Forces.

“Some of the claims have reached the police and they will be checked by professionals in the police investigations and intelligence unit as needed,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement on Monday, before the complaints were filed.

On Sunday, Channel 2 aired recordings and transcripts of conversations in which the priest appeared to promise to help unidentified young men in exchange for sexual favors. The report included claims from unidentified Palestinians that Naddaf had offered to help them obtain entry permits into Israel in exchange for the favors.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

10 May, 2016

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders survivors of institutional child sexual abuse are reminded that they must register with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse by 30 September 2016 if they wish to have a private session.

Private sessions allow survivors of child sexual abuse in an institution to share their story directly with a Commissioner in a private setting.

The Hon. Justice Peter McClellan AM, Chair of the Royal Commission, said the strong demand from survivors to share their story has resulted in a queue of people waiting to meet with a Commissioner.

“The rate at which people come to the Commission seeking a private session shows no present sign of diminishing. It has averaged 37 per week over the past 12 months,” Justice McClellan said.

“If the present demand for private sessions continues throughout the life of the Commission, unless we close off applications well before we complete our final report, many people who may seek a private session will be disappointed.”

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

GLORIA GALLOWAY
The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, May 09, 2016

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement is nearing its end after paying out billions in compensation, but indigenous leaders say there are so many gaps that left so many people uncompensated for their suffering that the deal must be reviewed, then rewritten or replaced.

The executive committee of the Assembly of First Nations will be asked at a meeting in Ottawa this week to consider what to do about the deal, which was struck nine years ago between former students, the government and the churches that ran the schools where abuse was rampant.

“Ideally you want all the parties to agree that we should review it. Or you can have AFN, as the founding party, to request it … but there definitely needs to be an assessment done,” said Bill Erasmus, the national chief of the Dene who also represents the Northwest Territories on the AFN executive and who is in charge of the residential schools file for the native organization.

“It’s time for a new agreement. We had practice on the first one. Let’s do another. Let’s tighten it up,” Mr. Erasmus told The Globe and Mail. “We know the ups and the downs and the outs and the ins. So we can say, ‘Hey, let’s do this right.’”

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CANADA
City News

BY SUE BAILEY, THE CANADIAN PRESS
POSTED MAY 9, 2016

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – James Tuttauk will be among hundreds of former residential school students anxiously watching for any sign Tuesday from Newfoundland and Labrador’s Supreme Court of a settlement he says is long overdue.

An update on efforts to resolve a class-action lawsuit filed by plaintiffs alleging abuse and cultural losses is expected in St. John’s, nearly 10 years after litigation began.

“It’s time for the government to be honest and say: ‘Yes, this did happen,’” Tuttauk said from the Inuit community of Hopedale on the Labrador coast. “The money is always good but an apology is a big thing. To be believed, to have the country believe us.

“They ruined our culture, they ruined our language.”

Tuttauk said former residential school students in the province were devastated to be excluded from then-prime minister Stephen Harper’s apology in 2008. A related compensation deal paid more than $4 billion to those who attended what were known as Indian residential schools across the rest of Canada.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WBUR

By DEBORAH BECKER

BOSTON Attorney Mitchell Garabedian is calling for a federal investigation of sexual abuse allegations at private schools in New England, such as the Fessenden School in Newton.

His statement comes after a Boston Globe Spotlight report, published Sunday, found that over the past 25 years, more than 200 students have accused staffers of abuse at dozens of private schools in the region.

Garabedian compares the allegations against private schools to those from his clients who were sexually abused by Catholic clergy.

“It’s time to clean house,” he said during a news conference at his office on Monday. “This is the tip of the iceberg. I’ve been doing this for over 20 years now. These educators obviously didn’t care about children, they only cared about their wallets.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Lexy Hamilton-Smith

Time limits on sexual abuse survivors lodging legal claims are archaic, unfair and must be repealed, the Queensland Government has been told.

Currently under Queensland law, a victim must take civil action by the age of 21 or lose all effective legal rights to compensation.

Child protection advocate Hetty Johnston from Bravehearts said New South Wales and Victoria had already removed legal time limits.

“This piece of legislation is archaic,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Victims of child sex abuse could soon be able to sue the institutions where they were molested, regardless of when they bring a case.

Legal and medical experts have joined a child protection campaign calling for the Queensland government to abolish laws that have prevented some victims from suing for compensation.

The statute of limitations bars people who were sexually assaulted as children from suing for compensation if they do not bring a civil case before they turn 21.

However, advocates say survivors of abuse take an average of 22 years to report sexual abuse, so most victims are never able to seek compensation in the courts from institutions.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Phyllis Zagano | 10 May 2016

The American television series Madam Secretary follows US Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord (Téa Leoni) as she navigates the worlds of politics and world diplomacy. Would the Vatican have a woman Secretary of State? Could it?

Stained glass image of woman preaching from bibleNot long ago, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin suggested there is nothing inherently clerical about his job. Or is there?

The Vatican’s Secretary of State, one of the pope’s principal advisors, must be a cardinal. And cardinals — at least since promulgation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law — must be at least priests. So that leaves half the church out of the running entirely. Women cannot be ordained priests.

But there are three types of cardinals: cardinal bishops, cardinal priests, and cardinal deacons. And in modern times there have been cardinal deacons who indeed were deacons. And throughout history, women have been deacons.

So, is there a chance? Is there any possibility the church will have a woman Secretary of State who is a cardinal deacon?

The only barriers are what are known as ‘merely ecclesiastical laws,’ laws that regulate the running of the Catholic Church, but are not related to dogma or doctrine. In short, the laws that keep women from being cardinal deacons are laws until the pope decides to change them.

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CANADA
Bayshore Broadcasting

by Kevin Bernard

Fred King will stand trial for charges related to sexual and physical assault at church.

(Owen Sound) –
The trial of a man known as “the Prophet” at the Church of Jesus Christ Restored in Chatsworth gets underway today.

57 year old Fred King is facing 24 charges related to the time he was leader of the Church.

Three weeks have been set aside for the case to be heard in Owen Sound Superior Court.

It is not a jury trial — as King elected to be tried by Judge alone.

The charges date from 1978 to 2008 and include sexual exploitation, sexual interference, three counts of sexual assault, and three counts of assault causing bodily harm.

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UNITED STATES
New York Magazine

By Catie L’Heureux

In a new report, the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team paints a horrifying portrait of the reality of sexual abuse in New England private schools. The report itself is an important read, providing a 25-year history of the issue and prompting a breakdown of the most sobering statistics here. It’s worth noting that besides these findings, there is currently no database of allegations against private-school employees (and limited research on sex abuse in public schools).

Among 67 New England private schools, over the past 25 years, more than 200 students have accused private-school authorities of sexual abuse or sexual harassment — teachers, administrators, staff members, and (in one case) an admissions officer.

Their claims: rape, fondling, molestation, and oral sex.

At least 90 students or their families have filed lawsuits.

At least 37 school employees were fired or forced to resign because of the claims.

Nearly two dozen employees ultimately pleaded guilty or were convicted on criminal charges of abusing children or related crimes.

Of at least eight New England private schools that have started investigations of alleged sexual misconduct this year, five schools have fired or placed staff members on administrative leave: at St. George’s School in Rhode Island, the Taft School in Connecticut, Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, and Thayer Academy and Concord Academy in Massachusetts.

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UNITED STATES
PBS Newshour

HARI SREENIVASAN: The past couple of years have brought new revelations about sexual abuse at private schools. At least eight private schools in New England have launched or disclosed investigations this year.

Now a Boston Globe investigation has opened a wider window on the scope of the problem. The report done by the Spotlight unit that exposed the sexual abuse scandal in the church found at least 67 New England schools have faced accusations since 1991. The Globe also found more than 200 former students say they have been assaulted or harassed, and years of alleged cover-ups in some cases.

St. George’s School in Rhode Island is one school under investigation.

Anne Scott is a survivor who was allegedly raped in 1977 at the school by a former athletic trainer when she was 15. Her family later brought a lawsuit, but the Globe said the school fought back with its own suit and pressured her to sign a gag order.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Joshua Robertson
@jrojourno
Tuesday 10 May 2016

The Queensland government is facing calls to act on royal commission findings to abolish a legal loophole that prevents victims of child sexual abuse suing for compensation after the age of 21.

Queensland, which has one of Australia’s most restrictive regimes for victims seeking redress, is yet to make any move towards removing time limits used by churches and elite private schools to reduce their exposure to abuse claims.

That is despite the commission making it a final recommendation eight months ago and three other states since – Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia – either passing or tabling reforms in parliament.

A group of researchers, lawyers and advocates are leading a push for the Palaszczuk government to remove what they say remains a critical obstacle to justice for victims potentially numbering in their thousands.

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ALABAMA
Times Daily

Tuesday, May 10, 2016
By Tom Smith Senior Staff Writer

RUSSELLVILLE — A Spruce Pine woman looked at Freddy Hovater on Monday morning and told him she never thought he could hurt her child.

“God will take care of this,” the woman told Hovater. “What gets me through this is knowing that you will have to answer to God one day.”

Hovater, 74, a former Franklin County pastor, pleaded guilty to charges he sexually abused the woman’s 8-year-old daughter in 2011. He pleaded guilty in March to child abuse and third-degree assault with sexual motivation.

On Monday morning, Franklin County Circuit Judge Terry Dempsey sentenced Hovater to 10 years, which was split with 18 months to serve on the child abuse charge and one year on the third-degree assault charge.

The two sentences are to be served concurrently.

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CANADA
Anglican Journal

By Diana Swift on May, 09 2016

The Anglican Communion’s Safe Church Consultation emerged from painful revelations in the 1990s that Christian churches—supposedly places of trust—were sometimes magnets for bullies and predators and sites of misconduct and abuse.

In 2008, the consultation addressed this phenomenon at Creating a Safer Church, an international conference in Woking, U.K., and in 2011, a second international conference, Partnering for Prevention, in Victoria, B.C., continued the scrutiny of religious structures that perpetuate abuse.

In a revitalized commitment to improving the welfare of all people in Anglican churches across the Communion’s provinces—clergy, parishioners and community members alike—renewed efforts in education, training and screening are under way to ward off abuse and when, inevitably, it happens, to quickly respond.

And the scope of efforts now extends well beyond sexual misconduct to the bullying and mistreatment of a broad range of victims. “Initially the focus was on preventing abuse of kids, youth and vulnerable adults, but as we got started, we realized we needed to help parishes prevent abuse in all forms, regardless of the victims and the abusers,” said Lorraine Street, a program and staffing risk-management consultant providing support and resources for SafeR Church, a project of the Halifax-based diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Liverpool Echo

BY JANET TANSLEY

After years of pain and torment, Chris Ryder had finally had enough.

As he listened to yet more tales of historic child abuse on the TV news, tears welling in his eyes, he picked up the phone to the police…and told them of his own.

“I couldn’t live with the pain any longer,” he says. “I was fed up of hearing about historic sex cases each one bringing me to tears, I had to tell someone and get him off the streets and, hopefully, get help for myself!”

Like so many others Chris’s abuse had been inflicted on him by someone he should have been able to trust. John Michael Creagh – “we knew him as Michael Creagh” – was a scoutmaster who had become a friend of the family in Ormskirk.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Fox Baltimore

BY ZOE ZELLERS MONDAY, MAY 9TH 2016

BALTIMORE (WBFF) – In an effort to improve transparency and encourage more victims of childhood sexual abuse by priests and religious brothers to come forward, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has published a list of those who have been accused of abuse in the past. The list, originally published in September 2002, included 57 men. It did not include those accused after their deaths or cases where an investigation “concluded that the facts did not indicate sexual abuse had occurred.”

The list below also includes priests and religious brothers who have been accused since 2002 of child sexual abuse after that list was originally published, totaling 71 clergymen. All allegations have been reported to law enforcement and to the Archdiocese’s Independent Child Abuse Review Board. If allegations against a person were investigated and not deemed credible, that subject’s name was not included in the list.

According to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, “None of the individuals listed here are in ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore; some have died and some have been laicized–all have had their faculties to function as a priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore removed.”

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A St. John’s priest accused of sexual abuse allegedly told his victim it was required as a part of the confirmation process.

On Monday, a new lawsuit was filed against Father Michael Bik and St. John’s Abbey.

Prosecutors say Bik abused a boy at St. John’s Prep after the school learned he sexually abused two students in the 1970s, when he was a teacher at St. Stephens in Anoka.

They say Bik admitted to the abuse in 1998 and St. John’s allowed him to keep teaching.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KENNETH LOVETT, STEPHEN REX BROWN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, May 9, 2016

The state’s political leaders don’t have time to discuss reform a law shielding sex abuse offenders — so now the public’s voice must be heard.

Advocates asked average New Yorkers to urge lawmakers to support a bill that would extend the statute of limitations on civil claims involving child sex-abuse victims.

“Gov. Cuomo and leaders in the Assembly and state Senate need to hear from you right now. Tell them they should support the Child Victims Act,” Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens) said Monday.

Letters, emails and phone calls would “reinforce the good work” of dozens of supporters who lobbied legislators last week regarding the bill, Markey added.

The urgent call for public support came the same day state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, Senate Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeffrey Klein, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Gov. Cuomo huddled behind closed doors for a discussion of what could be accomplished before the end of the legislative session next month.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY STEPHEN JIMENEZ NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, May 9, 2016

New Yorkers and people of good faith everywhere agree that the sexual abuse of children is among the most heinous of crimes. It is not a political or partisan “issue” – but a universal human concern with lifelong ramifications for all of us and our families and communities, especially our children.

Why, then, has this crucial issue been so neglected by the powers-that-be in our great state of New York? Why is our state plagued by one of the worst records in the nation when it comes to statute of limitations reform?

Sadly, New York ranks alongside Alabama and Mississippi, a potent reminder that the quest for civil and human rights must continue until our children are adequately protected – and all who were previously victimized are allowed to seek legal redress.

As a survivor of years of sexual abuse by a Xaverian teaching brother at Holy Name School in Brooklyn – from age 10 until nearly 14 – I was molested repeatedly in bathhouses, locker rooms, shower stalls, classrooms and other places. I have tried to seek justice for more than a dozen years from Catholic Chruch officials, including Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn. Because I have been barred by the statute of limitations from filing a criminal or civil suit, I approached church officials directly, only to find the church staunchly opposed to the Child Victims Act, including its one-year “window” that would allow older victims like me to pursue claims.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Tracy Bowden

David Ridsdale, a high-profile survivor of child abuse who travelled to Rome to watch Cardinal George Pell give evidence to the royal commission, has been accused of not being transparent about his own past as an abuser.

Mr Ridsdale had endured four years of sexual abuse at the hands of his uncle, Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale, but in 1995 was himself charged with two counts of indecently assaulting a young victim.

He pleaded guilty and was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond, with the magistrate noting that the behaviour was influenced by the treatment he had suffered at the hands of his uncle.

David Ridsdale’s victim was Corey Artz, who has broken his silence after 30 years, joining the hundreds of others who have told their harrowing stories to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

And he wants the man who abused him to be equally open about what happened.

“I am just surprised he gets up there and speaks as he does when he knows of his past, he knows he has done wrong,” Mr Artz told 7.30.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The petition was put together by the group called Silent No More!

Guam – First an ad calling on victims of sexual abuse to come forward and now a petition drive for the legislature to lift the statute of limitations on past sexual abuse. While the goals may be similar, the two initiatives are separate.

Joe Santos is a George Washington High School teacher, but he’s taken time off so he could push a petition to collect signatures.

“Our goal is to achieve 100,000 signatures because everyone on this island should be against child sexual abuse,” says Santos.

Santos held a press conference today to announce his effort to get the entire island behind this initiative. After collecting the signatures, Santos will present the collected signatures to the Legislature to urge them to introduce legislation that will lift the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases.

Santos says a law was passed in 2011 that lifted the statute of limitations for reporting sex abuse crimes, but at the time it only allowed for a two year window for victims to come forward.

“But that law has since expired and if you read the law, it’s somewhat handicaps people from pursuing civil actions. In the little research that I’ve been able to do … I’d like the law that gets passed out of this petition, to be one that’s more favorable to the victims as opposed to one that shields the perpetrator.”

Santos says just as there is no statute of limitations on murder, the same should be true for child sexual abuse.

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CONNECTICUT
WTNH

[with video]

By Tina Detelj, WTNH Reporter

MONTVILLE & DEEP RIVER, Conn. (WTNH) — 67 private schools in New England are named in the Boston Globe article on sex abuse.

News8 looked at two in eastern Connecticut where the alleged abusers have now passed away.

St. Thomas More in Montville is a private college preparatory school for boys and according to the article investigating allegations of sexual abuse and harassment by staff it is one of 16 private schools in Connecticut where alleged abuse took place.

“I’m not surprised at all because I’m religious so I guess you see my chains whatever but you just have to pray for the good that’s all,” says Kareem Lucas of Groton.

The article is written by the Globe’s “Spotlight” investigative team which was showcased in the academy award winning film of the same name for its exposure of the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church.

At St. Thomas More a former student sued the school in 2003, saying Father Edward McGrath sexually abused him in the 1970s. McGrath who died in 1998 has also been accused by at least one other student.

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MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 9, 2016

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

While we’re glad Baltimore Catholic officials are again listing predator priests on the archdiocesan website but wish they would do the same on local parish websites. We’re sad that this has taken so long to do and believe they can and should do much more to protect kids.

[Baltimore Sun]

We strongly suspect that this list is incomplete. We also suspect Archbishop William Lori will use this list to try and persuade lawmakers that reforming Maryland’s archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations, claiming “Now, there’s no need to let victims expose pedophiles in court because we’re listing them ourselves.” If he tries this, he’ll of course be dead wrong and dreadfully disingenuous.

Still, most bishops refuse to take this minimal step to warn parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public about child molesting clerics they’ve recruited, educated, ordained, trained, shielded and often still protect. So this is progress. We hope DC Archbishop Donald Wuerl – and about another 140 or 150 US bishops – soon do likewise.

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

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com May 9, 2016

A former student at St. John’s Prep has sued the school, St. John’s Abbey, the Order of St. Benedict and the Rev. Michael Bik, accusing Bik of sexually abusing him in 1998.

The lawsuit filed Monday alleges negligence in Prep School leaders allowing Bik to teach at the school 28 years after Bik abused two boys while he was a lay teacher at an Anoka school.

The lawsuit accuses Bik of abusing the boy, who was 15 or 16 in 1998, during preparations for the boy’s confirmation. The boy asked another abbey monk if what Bik was doing was necessary to prepare for his confirmation, and that monk told him no.

“Michael Bik promised to confirm him if he had sex with him,” said Jeffrey Anderson, the attorney suing the abbey, the Prep School and Bik.

“Michael Bik denies the allegations … and will defend against them vigorously,” the abbey said in a statement released Monday afternoon.

It accused Anderson of building a case against Bik using out-of-context snippets of one monk’s candid, subjective thoughts. Those thoughts are attributed to Brother Robin Pierzina, who wrote memos and work assessments of Bik before Bik was accepted into St. John’s Abbey to study for the priesthood.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson and Associates

[with press conference video]

Bik abused the boy after St. John’s learned he sexually abused two students in the 1970s when he was a teacher at St. Stephen’s in Anoka

Bik taught at Twin Cities Catholic schools in Anoka and Shoreview before becoming a monk and priest of St. John’s

Doe 497 Amended Complaint
5-9-2016- Internal Statement Re the Impact of the May 25 Deadline
Bik, Michael Photo
11-5-2002 Letter from Klassen to Bik re negative media
9-1989 Work Assessment re Bik Unable to Resist the Preps
9-19-1988 Memo re Bik’s emotional needs in Preps
9-4-1988 Letter re Bik spending time with the prep students
9-3-1998 Note from Abbot Kelly allowing Bik to live at the Monastery
9-3-1998 Memo from Abbot Kelly re Allegation of Abuse by Bik
9-19-1988- Memo re Bik’s time spent with Prep Students
1992- Final Evaluation re Bik from RIverside Medical Center
4-11-2008- St. Luke Treatment Report re Bik
9-15-2006- Star Trib Article- Delay in Sex-Abuse Case Sparks Protests
Bik Assignment History
10-9-1998- Ltr from Abbot Kelly to Archbishop Flynn re allegation against Bik
2-28-2006- Treatment Summary from the U of M re Bik
8-15-2011- E-mail from Klassen to Bik re asking permission to go to town
8-15-2011- e-mail from Andert to Klassen re Bik out unsupervised
9-4-1988 Memo re Bik spending time with the prep students

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MICHIGAN
The Daily Beast

Kelly Weill

A teen sex scandal forced him from his church. Now he’s opened a teen pregnancy counseling center.

The Gianna House, a Christian-run teen pregnancy center outside Detroit, offers a safe haven for pregnant teens. Unfortunately, its co-founder is barred from working with the Catholic church, after he allegedly abused a teen girl in his parish.

The Archdiocese of Detroit barred Reverend Kenneth Kaucheck from public ministry in 2009, after a woman accused him of molesting her as a teenager in the 1970s, when he acted as her counselor. But Kaucheck’s ban hasn’t prevented him from working with teenagers. His new role as co-founder of the Gianna House has him leading an organization that advertises safety and guidance for pregnant teens and new mothers.

The sexual abuse charges against Kaucheck went public in 2009, when an alleged victim made an official report to the Catholic church. The alleged abuse had occurred some 33 years earlier, she said, when Kaucheck was her counselor at the Guardian Angels Catholic Church outside Detroit. She was prompted to report the decades-old abuse after Kaucheck scheduled an appointment at the doctor’s office where she worked, the Detroit Free Press reported in 2009.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Isabel Vincent and Susan Edelman

A former Queens biology teacher who allegedly forced an underage student to repeatedly have sex and demanded she have two abortions skirted authorities after a prominent Catholic school quietly fired him, allowing him to work for years in city public schools, officials report.

Rodney Alejandro abused the 15-year-old girl at St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, and then went on to work for the Department of Education, a 2015 probe by the city’s Special Commissioner of Investigation charges.

First a city substitute in 1998-99, he worked from 2004 to 2010 at Robert Wagner Jr. Secondary School for Arts and Technology in Long Island City and was fired after his state license expired, officials said. He then went on to teach at a religious school in Georgia.

His reported victim, now 43 and living in Queens, declined to comment but confirmed to The Post horrendous details she published in a 2014 blog. The Post is withholding her name.

Alejandro, now 52, allegedly began raping the girl in January 1988.

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NEW YORK
Daily Mail (UK)

By JAMES DUNN FOR MAILONLINE

A teacher who allegedly repeatedly abused a 15-year-old girl and forced her to get two abortions was allowed to continue working in education after a Catholic school failed to report him, an investigation claims.

Rodney Alejandro, a biology teacher at St Francis Preparatory School in Queens, allegedly began raping the girl in January 1988, according to the Special Commissioner of Investigations (SCI) report.

But he resigned quietly from the New York Catholic school, and went on to work for various others between 1998 and 2012 when he was eventually fired for an unrelated reason.

The girl reported the case to investigators in 2014 when the school was the subject of a $17million lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse against teachers at the school in 2013. Her case was dismissed.

The victim, who said wrote a blog about the abuse she suffered, said it made her ‘suicidal’, but she was told too much time had passed since it happened and she could not launch a lawsuit.

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MICHIGAN
Mediaite

by Lindsey Ellefson May 9th, 2016

Sometimes, priests get in trouble for serious things, like railing coke on camera. Sometimes, they get in trouble for silly things, like riding hoverboards. The priest we are about to talk about got in trouble for something that falls into that “serious” category: He was dismissed from his position at two churches in 2009 when it was alleged that he had sexually abused a teenage girl in the 1970s.

According to the Detroit Free Press, church officials determined that Rev. Kenneth Kaucheck had acted inappropriately with the girl he was meant to be helping and they banned him from public ministry.

Now, though, he has been given a position as a director at the Gianna House Pregnancy and Parenting Residence. The Gianna House takes in young women and teenagers who are pregnant. It provides them with support and resources for themselves and any kids they may have.

Naturally, a number of people in Detroit and around the country are less than pleased that Kaucheck is being trusted with teenaged girls once again. The Archdiocese of Detroit and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) have both spoken out against his placement.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore

In September of 2002, the Archdiocese of Baltimore published a list of priests and religious brothers who had served in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and who had been accused, in their lifetime, of child sexual abuse. The 57 men on that disclosure are listed below with links to additional information. As was noted at the time by Cardinal William H. Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore, the disclosure did not include priests and brothers who were accused after their deaths, nor did it include a few instances where an investigation concluded that the facts did not indicate sexual abuse had occurred. For greater context, the information accompanying the 2002 disclosures can also be found by hovering over the names listed below (FireFox is the recommended browser to use).

Also listed below are those priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore who, after September 2002, were accused of child sexual abuse during their lifetimes along with information from the public disclosure that was made. All allegations of child sexual abuse are reported to authorities and to the Archdiocese’s Independent Child Abuse Review Board. If such reporting and investigation determined that an allegation was not credible, the alleged perpetrator is not listed here. We also provide names and links to public disclosures made by the Archdiocese regarding some priests from religious orders or other dioceses who were accused after 2002, although the Archdiocese’s information about such non-Archdiocesan priests is often limited.

Priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore have no parenthetical after their names. Priests and brothers from religious orders or other dioceses have that noted in parentheses after their names. None of the individuals listed here are in ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore; some have died and some have been laicized–all have had their faculties to function as a priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore removed.

Priests and Religious named in the September 2002 Disclosure:

Avant, James (Capuchin)
LeFevre, Francis
Ball, Bruce E. (Diocese of La Crosse, WI)
Lorento, Anthony (Pallotine)
Banko, John (Diocese of Trenton/Metuchen, NJ)
Loskarin, George
Bauernfeind, Thomas
Mardaga, Ronald
Blackwell, Maurice
Martin, Kenneth (Diocese of Wilmington)
Brett, Laurence (Diocese of Bridgeport)
Maskell, A. Joseph
Brinkmann, Frederick (Redemptorist)
Maurer, Arthur (Josephite)
Bugge, Gerald (Redemptorist)
McGrath, Francis(Diocese of Trenton)
Carney, John
Melville, Raymond (Diocese of Portland, Maine)
Carroll, Douglas (Pallotine)
Michaud, Ronald
Cox, Brian
Mike, John
Deakin, Richard (Capuchin)
Murphy, Timothy (Trinitarian)
Dimitroff, Donald (Christian Brother)
Newman, Robert (Sons of Charity)
Dowdy, James
O’Toole, Henry (Redemptorist)
Duggan, John (Jesuit)
Pecore, Dennis (Salvatorian)
Duke, Frederick
Rochacewcz, Thomas (Redemptorist)
Emala, Walter (Diocese of Memphis)
Rouse, Charles
Farabaugh, Kenneth
Rydzewski, Thomas
Gallagher, Joseph
Simms, William
Gerg, Joseph (Benedictine)
Smith, David
Haight, Mark (Diocese of Albany)
Smith, Thomas
Hammer, John (Diocese of Youngstown and Saginaw)
Spillane, Michael
Helowicz, Marion
Stroup, Edmund
Hopkins, Robert
Sweeney, Francis (Paulist)
Knapp, Paul (Redemptorist)
Toohey, Jerome
Kruse, Joseph
Toulas, James (Redemptorist)
LaMountain, Michael (Diocese of Providence)
Tragesser, Gerald
LaPorta, Ross
Wehrle, William (Jesuit)
Lee, Thomas B. (Archdiocese of Seoul, Korea)

Additional Allegations (in order of disclosure):

Barnes, Michael
Bevan, Thomas
Bonacci, Louis (Jesuit)
Coyle, Charles (Jesuit)
Cristancho, Fernando (Diocese of Istmina-Tado, Colombia)
Dean, Alfred (Josephite)
Girard, Steven
Kolodziej, Michael (Franciscan)
Lentz, Robert
Lippold, John
Murray, J. Glen (Jesuit)
Salerno, Michael (Pallotine)
Smith, Richard
Wielebski, John

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

Alison Knezevich
The Baltimore Sun

Posting list of accused priests is response to request by survivors, Baltimore archdiocese says.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has posted a list of dozens of priests and religious brothers accused of sexual abuse in a move church officials say came from listening to feedback from abuse survivors.

All of the names had previously been disclosed by the church, in most cases years ago. But activists say having them in one place can help encourage victims to come forward — and help expose the scope of abuse.

“We’ve wanted it a long time,” said David Lorenz, Maryland director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “We’ve asked every diocese around the country to do it.”

The list, posted on the archdiocese website, includes the names of 71 clergymen about whom church officials have received what they call “credible” accusations during the priest’s lifetime.

Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine said the list was posted in January, but church officials didn’t announce it because the list included no new information.

The decision to post the names was “a response to what we’ve heard from survivors,” Caine said. “It’s something we’ve been working on for a while.” …

Only a fraction of Catholic dioceses have published the names of accused priests. Some lists have been required as part of a lawsuit, said Terry McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org a Massachusetts-based watchdog group that tracks data on clergy sexual abuse.

“I personally feel that it’s valuable that they are putting these names out there and taking some ownership,” McKiernan said. “In all fairness, Baltimore is to be commended for just doing it, not doing it because it they have to.”

Still, McKiernan said the way the list is formatted makes it difficult for website users to view all the details released.

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WISCONSIN
Fox 11

GREEN BAY (WLUK) — A retired priest was ordered Monday to stand trial on allegations he exposed himself to a minor.

Fr. Richard Thomas will enter a plea May 23 to four counts of exposing genital area to a child. He waived a preliminary hearing Monday in Brown County Circuit Court.

After the report of misconduct, the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay restricted Fr. Thomas from performing any public ministry.

Thomas was living in Grellinger Hall, a home for retired priests in Allouez. He allegedly exposed himself four times in March to a 16-year-old boy when the boy was walking to school.

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GEORGIA
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sandy Springs police announced Monday their investigation involving a Catholic school priest and a juvenile is over and no laws were broken.

The investigation began a week ago, but the school, Holy Spirit Preparatory School, and police released little information about the case, not even what was being investigated.

A police incident report was blank except for listing an unnamed female student at the school’s Long Island Drive campus as the victim and Thomas Flynn as a suspect. Flynn had been listed previously on the school website as chaplain. On Friday, police said detectives were still gathering information.

Sandy Springs police Sgt. Forrest Bohannon said via email the department’s investigation is closed and referred questions to the school.

The school’s headmaster, Kyle Pietrantonio, declined comment via email Monday, saying the school doesn’t comment on personnel matters.

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MICHIGAN
ClickonDetroit

Any way you look at this, it’s outrageous.

Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit Free Press reports that Rev. Kenneth Kaucheck, 62, a Catholic priest removed from churches in metro Detroit after he was accused of sexually abusing a teenager, is now the development director of Gianna House Pregnancy and Parenting Residence, next to St. Veronica Catholic Church in Eastpointe, a new Catholic center in Eastpointe that counsels pregnant teenagers.

The church found he had sexual misconduct in the 1970s with a 16-year-old girl he was counseling as a priest.

The organization declined to respond to attempts by the Freep to get a comment.

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MICHIGAN
Patch

By BETH DALBEY (Patch Staff) – May 9, 2016

EASTPOINTE, MI – A priest who was banned from public ministry while serving parishes in Royal Oak and Ferndale in 2009 after allegations that he sexually abused a 16-year-old girl he was counseling in the 1970s resurfaced is again working with teens at a Catholic center in Eastpointe — for now.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit is asking the Rev. Kenneth Kaucheck to step down from his position as development director of Gianna House Pregnancy and Parenting Residence, which he co-founded a year ago with a Catholic nun, The Macomb Daily reports.

Gianna House, located in the former convent adjacent to St. Veronica Catholic Church in Eastpointe, takes in pregnant girls and women, and assists them and any children they may have.

If Kaucheck doesn’t voluntarily resign, he could be removed under canon law because his position at Gianna House “violates the restrictions placed on his ministry in 2009,” John Kohn, a spokesman for the archdiocese told the Detroit Free Press.

“We assert that he should not be allowed to continue in this position.” Kohn said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Jane Lee
Legal affairs, health and science reporter

Survivors say a national redress scheme for child sexual abuse should be beyond party politics, as research reveals that the Royal Commission’s preferred model could cost the federal government about $872 million.

Adults Surviving Child Abuse, Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) and Broken Rites called on the Coalition and Labor to commit to fully funding a national scheme on the first full day of the election campaign.

CLAN executive director Leonie Sheedy said: “Redress shouldn’t be about party politics. It should be bipartisan. We’re all Australian citizens and care leavers who were abused in orphanages and children’s homes and foster care were the children of the (states’ and territories’) government.”

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, started under Labor and extended under the Coalition, recommended last year that institutions compensate survivors under a single national redress scheme for 60,000 survivors, which it said was the “most effective” for ensuring justice and the most cost-efficient model.

The Coalition has opted for the commission’s “next-best option” of allowing states and territories to run their own schemes under a set of national principles, which are still being negotiated. A taskforce in the Prime Minister’s Department will continue these consultations throughout the campaign and present recommendations following the election.

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RHODE ISLAND
ABC News

By MICHELLE R. SMITH AND DENISE LAVOIE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — May 9, 2016

An email obtained by The Associated Press shows that an elite Rhode Island boarding school where dozens of alumni say they were sexually abused is negotiating possible settlements with lawyers for more than 30 people.

Carmen Durso, an attorney representing people who say they were abused, wrote in the email to clients on Friday that St. George’s School in Middletown wants to start individual settlement discussions in June. If agreements can be reached, he said he expects most claims could be resolved by the end of the month.

Durso would not comment in more detail Monday. A school spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

May 9, 2016
Kate McKenna
The Courier-Mail

THE Palaszczuk Government is considering falling into line with other states and eliminating a “demoralising” time limit preventing child sex abuse survivors from pursuing civil claims.

Communities and Child Safety Minister Shannon ­Fentiman will tonight host an open forum at Parliament House about the limitations, which, under Queensland law, require survivors to lodge a civil claim against institutions by the age of 21.

Both NSW and Victoria have passed reform legislation, while Western Australia has introduced a Bill.

Last year, the royal commission into child sex abuse said many survivors, advocacy groups and academics had labelled time limits a major — “sometimes insurmountable” — barrier to bringing legal action and the commission recommended that governments get rid of them retrospectively.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., May 4, 2016

Judge sets Diocese confirmation hearing

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

ALBUQUERQUE – U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma scheduled a confirmation hearing on the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 plan of reorganization for June 21, after attorneys for the diocese filed amended copies of the plan and disclosure statement early Tuesday.

Thuma then spent much of the court hearing working out the deadlines that will lead up to the confirmation hearing.

As outlined in the order Thuma signed later in the afternoon, diocesan attorneys will mail solicitation packages to classes of creditors in the bankruptcy case by May 17. Clergy sex abuse claimants will receive ballots to accept or reject the diocese’s plan of reorganization. The ballot voting deadline of June 10 will also be the filing deadline for any objections to the agreements the Gallup Diocese has negotiated with the insurers and participating parties that are contributing money to fund the plan of reorganization.

But before the voting deadline, abuse claimants have been promised they should be able to electronically access a read-only personnel file of their abuser.

“They will be able to access the file of the person named in the proof of claim as the abuser,” Susan Boswell, the diocese’s lead attorney, told Thuma. “There will not be the ability to download or print the file or duplicate it in any manner,” she added, explaining that abuse claimants who view their abuser’s file are bound by a confidentiality order.

Although court documents outline how this password protected system should work, James Stang, the legal counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors that represents the interests of abuse claimants, told Thuma the attorneys’ Internet technology specialists have yet to work out the security details of the system.

“If it’s not possible,” Stang said, “I don’t know if this provision ends up going away.”

Stang also raised a question about the procedures of the upcoming confirmation hearing, asking if members of his committee and possibly other abuse survivors could address the court personally. Thuma, who expressed hesitation about the idea, agreed to the request after questioning Stang about how long those abuse survivor statements might be, noting he didn’t want the statement period “to drag on” during the hearing.

“I think it’s important for them to give their piece,” Thuma said, “but since I don’t think I’m going to let the debtor have a counter argument … try to make it so it’s not just a broadside attack on the debtor.”

Non-monetary commitments

In addition to filing the amended plan documents, diocesan attorneys also filed two exhibits they hadn’t filed previously. The first was the diocese’s agreement with St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School. The Catholic mission in Thoreau has agreed to contribute $550,000 to the diocese’s plan of reorganization in exchange for settlement of its property dispute with the diocese.

The second exhibit was the list of non-monetary commitments diocesan attorneys negotiated with Stang’s committee and attorneys representing abuse claimants. Contrary to the wishes of a number of abuse survivors, the Diocese of Gallup did not agree to publicly release the files of credibly accused abusers. The diocese, however, agreed to let abuse claimants have digital access to their own abuser’s file for up to one year — under the tight Internet security provisions the attorneys and computer specialists are trying to arrange.

Other non-monetary provisions include referring to abuse claimants as survivors of clergy sexual abuse rather than “alleged victims” or “alleged survivors,” providing a mechanism for abuse survivors to tell their stories, posting clergy abuse-related information on the diocesan website for specific lengths of time, and prominently displaying abuse awareness plaques in Catholic parishes and schools.

In addition, Bishop James S. Wall will be required to send personally signed letters of apology to all abuse claimants, and he will be required to make well publicized visits to each operating Catholic parish or school “in which abuse is alleged to have occurred” or where identified abusers have served. Invitations will be extended to all known survivors of abuse from those communities.

The confirmation hearing will be held at 9 a.m. June 21 at the Sandia Courtroom in Albuquerque’s U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The hearing is open to the public.

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.

WISCONSIN
WBAY

[Assignment History– Rev. Richard L. Thomas – BishopAccountability.org]

By Rhonda Roberts
Published: May 9, 2016

A retired priest accused of exposing himself to a teenager has been bound over for trial.

Richard Thomas appeared in a Brown County courtroom Monday where he waived his preliminary hearing. A judge ordered the case move forward to trial.

Thomas, 78, was arrested in April on four felony counts of exposing himself to a minor.

According to a criminal complaint, Thomas exposed himself to a 16-year-old boy on March 14, 15, 16 and 17.

The teen told investigators while he walked to school, past Grellinger Hall in Allouez, he saw a naked man standing in one of the windows. Grellinger Hall is an independent living facility for retired priests.

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.

MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

Catholic officials should demote and discipline two nuns who are letting a suspended Detroit predator priest work at a center for teenagers. And Detroit’s archbishop should stop pretending to be powerless and discipline the priest harshly while warning the public about him vigorously.

[Detroit Free Press]

Fr. Kenneth Kauchek was temporarily ousted because he molested a girl. He now works for Gianna House Pregnancy and Parenting Residence, a Catholic-run group that reportedly helps girls.

[Daily Tribune]

This is a stunningly irresponsible move. Those responsible should be demoted and punished for putting youngsters in harm’s way.

In 2009, Fr. Kaucheck was removed from Guardian Angels parish in Clawson because of credible allegations he had molested a girl.

Sister Mary Diane Masson is Gianna’s co-founder. Sr. Theresa Mayrand is on the board. Both are recklessly endangering kids. Demoting them would deter such recklessness in the future. Doing nothing will encourage such recklessness in the future.

But the one person who could and should move immediately to protect kids, warn parents and discipline wrongdoers is Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron.

As best we can tell, Vigneron evidently told few or no parishioners where Kaucheck was which, we believe, is a violation of church policies and Vigneron’s repeated pledges to be “open and transparent” in clergy sex cases.

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.

MICHIGAN
Raw Story

DAVID EDWARDS
09 MAY 2016

A Catholic priest who was accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl has been appointed as director of a teen pregnancy center, prompting activists to call for him to be removed from the post.

The Detroit Free Press reported on Monday that Rev. Kenneth Kaucheck was named director of the Gianna House Pregnancy and Parenting Residence in Eastpointe.

According to the paper, “the center takes in teenagers and young women who are pregnant, assisting them and any children they might later have.”

The report said that Kaucheck was removed from two churches after the Archdiocese of Detroit determined in 2009 that he had sexually abused a 16-year-old girl who he was counseling in the 1970s.

At the time, prosecutors declined to file charges against Kaucheck, arguing that the girl was old enough to legally consent.

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

GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

By Krystal Paco

It’s the latest of accusations against the Archdiocese of Agana. An advertisement published over the weekend suggests there’s victims of sex crimes who have kept quiet because their alleged molester is the head of the island’s Catholic church.

Like the popular church hymn says, be not afraid. “The only way to stop this is to come out and come forward,” said Tim Rohr, a blogger and concerned resident. Big and bold, a full-page ad in a print publication over the weekend suggests there’s been sex crimes occurring in the local church community for over four decades and calls on alleged victims to speak out.

Said Rohr, “Because they’re from here, they have the pressure from their family, their culture, the church, family embarrassment, all these things that have kept them quiet for 40 years. I’m just saying that enough is enough 0953 this diocese has been completely broken.”

Rohr confirms the ad was paid for by the Concerned Catholics of Guam, a group formed in 2014 in response to various areas of concern within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Agana. According to Rohr, an alleged victim spoke out late last year…that as a young alter boy in Agat, he was molested. “The ad is targeted at finding out who else is out there. Because these things don’t happen in isolation. We know that kind of a practice is basically serial. That there’s a long period of where kids are groomed and selected and targeted,” 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.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

May 09, 2016

In the latest session of the “Vatileaks” trial, an Italian newspaper editor and two booksellers testified on behalf of one of the defendants, Gianluigi Nuzzi.

Nuzzi and another journalist, Emiliano Fittipaldi, are charged with “soliciting and exercising pressure” on Vatican employees to obtain confidential documents.

In November 2015, Nuzzi and Fittipaldi published separate works on Vatican finances based on documents from a special commission set up by Pope Francis to offer suggestions on reform. Testifying on behalf of Nuzzi, Venetian booksellers Marco Bernardi and Paola Brazzale said on May 7 that neither Nuzzi nor Fittipaldi knew of the other’s work, according to remarks made by Nuzzi and reported by La Stampa.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bollettino

Vatican City, 7 May 2016 – This morning a further hearing was held in the ongoing trial for the dissemination of reserved information and documents in Vatican City State Tribunal, according to information provided by the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J. The hearing was convoked for 9.30 a.m., and began with a slight delay. It was attended by the members of the Tribunal (Professors Giuseppe Dalla Torre, Piero Antonio Bonnet, Paolo Papanti-Pelletier and Venerando Marano), the Promoter of Justice (Professors Gian Pietro Milano and Roberto Zannotti), and all the defendants, Ángel Lucio Vallejo Balda, Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, Nicola Maio, Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi with their respective legal representatives Emanuela Bellardini, Laura Sgrò, Rita Claudia Baffioni, Lucia Teresa Musso and Roberto Palombi.

The hearing was dedicated fully to the further examination of witnesses. Five “external” witnesses – those not employed by the Vatican – had been summoned, of whom three were present, request in the defence of Nuzzi. The hearing was therefore dedicated to the examination of Paolo Mieli, a renowned journalist, and two Venetian booksellers, Marco Bernardi and Paola Brazzale. Those who were not present, despite having received a court summons, will be summoned again for a subsequent hearing, as in one case a lawyer and in another the Promoter of Justice did not consider it appropriate to renounce their testimony. Following the interrogation of each witness, the report of the examination was read and approved.

The hearing ended at approximately 11.15 a.m. The next hearings will take place on Saturday, 14 May at 9.30 a.m., Monday 16 at 15.30 p.m. and Tuesday 17 at 10.30 a.m., and will be dedicated to further examination of witnesses.

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ISRAEL
Times of Israel

Police spokesperson Luba Samri says officials are looking into sexual harassment claims against Father Gabriel Naddaf, a controversial leader of Israel’s Arab Christian community, after accusations surfaced against him Sunday night.

Channel 2 aired recordings and transcripts of conversations allegedly between Naddaf and a series of unidentified young men — including both Israeli soldiers and Palestinians — in which the priest appeared to promise to help them in exchange for sexual favors.

“Some of the claims have reached the police and they will be checked by professionals in the police investigations and intelligence unit as needed,” Samri says.

The police move is not an official probe or investigation, but may lay the groundwork for one.

Naddaf, who heads a group promoting IDF service among Arab Christians, has been named as one of the ceremonial torch lighters at the state’s Independence Day ceremony in Jerusalem next week, has firmly denied the allegations against him.

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INDIANA
NWI Times

Bob Kasarda bob.kasarda@nwi.com, (219) 548-4345

The fate of a Michigan City priest accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with a minor 25 years ago is still pending six years later with church authorities in Rome, according to the Catholic Diocese of Gary.

“It can be a lengthy process,” said Debbie Bosak, director of communications at the diocese.

Background

The Rev. Terrence Chase was placed on administrative leave in April 2010 after denying allegations of the misconduct at St. Patrick Church in Chesterton where he was serving as an associate priest.

Church officials did not identify the person, who they said came forward with the allegation in 2010.

Parishioners of Queen of All Saints Church, where Chase had been serving as pastor, expressed “shock and disbelief” at the news, Mark Plaiss, former director of communications for the Diocese of Gary and a church deacon, said at the time.

Chase said in a prepared statement at the time: “I can assure you that the allegations accusing me of inappropriate behavior are simply not true. I do not know why these destructive accusations were leveled against me.”

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ROMA
Blitz

ROMA – Era accusata dalla Procura di Roma di avere utilizzato il pass della zia disabile, deceduta nel 2008, per accedere nella zona Ztl del centro storico di Roma. Per questo Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, ex membro della Commissione d’indagine per gli affari economici della Santa Sede e arrestata nel novembre scorso per lo scandalo Vatileaks 2, ha patteggiato una condanna ad 8 mesi di reclusione. Della vicenda ne dà notizia il Corriere della Sera.

Nei suoi confronti, le accuse erano di falso, tentata truffa e truffa aggravata. Secondo quanto accertato dall’accusa, la Chaouqui avrebbe utilizzato il permesso fino al 2014. Tra le contestazioni anche il tentativo di non pagare 95 contravvenzioni, che la pr ha impugnato sostenendo di avere il diritto di accedere nel centro storico con il pass della zia morta.

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.

ITALY
Morocco World News

Larbi Arbaoui

Rabat – Moroccan-Italian Francesca Chaouqui, who faces multiple charges in the Vatican for her involvement in the Vatileaks scandal, has reportedly been sentenced to eight months in prison for using her deceased aunt’s residence card to park in the center of Rome without difficulties for six years.

Francesca Chaouqui, an Italian public relations consultant who was accused of leaking classified documents to journalists, was sentenced on charges of fraud and falsifying identity papers.

The former Vatican adviser was found guilty of misusing a parking pass for her disabled aunt, who died in 2008.

The pass gave her the right to enter and park in a traffic-free area in central Rome, as well as in places reserved for the disabled.

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.

ISRAEL
Haaretz

Aimee Amiga May 08, 2016

Extradition proceedings against an Australian woman accused of sexually abusing students at an ultra-Orthodox girls’ school were halted Sunday, after a judge in Israel ruled her unfit to stand trial.

The move imposes a significant delay on an already-prolonged effort to extradite Malka Leifer, a former headmistress at Adass Israel School, who stands to face 74 counts of indecent assault and rape in Australia, brought against her by three former students of the school, located in the Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick.

Using her Israeli passport, Leifer fled to Israel in 2008, shortly after the allegations of sexual misconduct arose. She was taken into custody in Israel in 2014 at the request of Australian authorities, and released to house arrest in September that year.

Extradition proceedings were meant to begin the following month, but have been delayed some eight times, including for Leifer’s psychiatric hospitalization.

At a hearing Sunday morning at the Jerusalem District Court, Judge Amnon Cohen said that after having received the “unequivocal professional opinion” from a state-appointed psychiatrist, the sides have agreed to halt extradition proceedings against Leifer, citing a law that permits stopping proceedings when a defendant is deemed unfit to stand trial.

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.

ISRAEL
Sydney Morning Herald

May 9, 2016

Kate Shuttleworth

Jerusalem: An Israeli court has ruled that all legal proceedings against a fugitive principal should be suspended until she receives psychiatric treatment, further delaying a decision on her extradition to Australia.

Malka Leifer faces prosecution in relation to 74 alleged sexual offences against girls she taught at Adass Israel School, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in the Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick.

Ms Leifer on Sunday failed to appear in the Jerusalem District Court for the eighth time in two years, but her legal team led by Yehuda Fried managed to avoid a court hearing on an extradition order to Victoria.

So far all court hearings have concentrated on Ms Leifer’s psychiatric state.

Ms Leifer’s lawyers have consistently argued she is unwell and unfit to appear in court. They argue she experiences panic attacks and bouts of depression as each court hearing approaches, resulting in each session proceeding without her participation.

Prosecutor Avital Ribner-Oron asked Judge Amnon Cohen to hospitalise Ms Leifer for treatment, with the district psychiatrist’s reporting that she had suffered a psychotic episode ahead of her last court appearance in April. At the time she was hospitalised for two days.

Ms Ribner-Oron told the judge the state believed Ms Leifer should be hospitalised and not treated in an outpatient capacity.

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.

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

The commonwealth should cough-up an initial contribution of $250 million for a national redress scheme for child abuse survivors, the Greens say.

And that amount should be matched by the states and territories.

The minor party is prepared to work with whoever forms government after the July 2 election to get a redress scheme in place as soon as possible, West Australian Greens senator Rachel Siewert told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

“Survivors have suffered long enough; it’s time that action is taken,” she said.

Australia had a responsibility to look after all its children which is why it was so essential the commonwealth show leadership.

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ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

May 8, 2016

Shannon Deery, Andrew Friedman
Herald Sun

EXTRADITION proceedings against a fugitive school principal accused of molesting and raping students at an ultra-orthodox Jewish school have been dropped.

In a major blow to Victorian authorities an Israeli court ruled overnight that it would suspend extradition hearings against Malka Leifer because she is unfit to stand trial.

It means the former principal of Elsternwick’s Adass Israel Girls School may never face justice.

Authorities have been fighting for her return to Victoria since 2014, but Ms Leifer has told family and friends she would never return to Australia.

She fled under the cover of night just days after one of her alleged victims spoke out about her abuse for the first time in 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.

GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Father Edivaldo Oliveira issued a statement denouncing the ad, calling it a malicious intent to destroy the Catholic faith.

Guam – An ad paid for by the Concerned Catholics of Guam is stirring up some controversy as it calls on victims of sexual abuse to come forward. The targeted dates and locations, according to Catholic blogger Tim Rohr, are directly related to when Archbishop Anthony Apuron was a priest.

The paid advertisement starts off by asking “Were you sexually abused? Molested?” In the background is the image of an altar boy with his back facing the camera. It then lists dates and locations as to when and where victims may have been sexually abused. Local Catholic blogger Tim Rohr says he didn’t pay for the ad, but he is working with the people behind it.

“The dates and the locations are specifically targeted as to when the now Archbishop Apuron, when he was serving as a priest and pastor–was in that capacity in those dates and locations,” explains Rohr.

Rohr says this advertisement came as the result of an interview K57 host Patti Arroyo had with a guest on her show. The guest, Mae Ada, had claimed that she was at a funeral service when someone had mentioned to her that he was molested by Archbishop Anthony Apuron as a child.

“Since then we’ve had a pretty regular stream of information,” notes Rohr. “There has been a pretty regular flow of information and contact. I won’t say with how many but more than one–people who have identified themselves as having been sexually molested.”

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TEXAS
San Antonio Express-News

By Roy Bragg
May 8, 2016

Southern Methodist University lost the right to play football when it was caught cheating in 1987.

Penn State fired Joe Paterno for failing to tell police assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was raping boys.

The NCAA and school presidents have punished other coaches and programs for much less.

What, then, are we to do with Baylor University in light of allegations head coach Art Briles knew players had sexually assaulted women and didn’t act quickly and responsibly?

And what of Baylor President Ken Starr, who famously prosecuted a sitting American president for lying about a consensual sexual encounter, but who has been largely invisible in this case?

The Baylor rape scandal began with the 2013 recruitment of Sam Ukwuachu, a transfer from Boise State. Briles and his staff made little or no attempts to learn about the player’s off-field life.

Had they done so, they would have learned Ukwuachua’s former girlfriend accused Ukwuachu of sexual abuse (there were no criminal charges in that case).

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UNITED STATES
New York Times

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
MAY 8, 2016

BOSTON — Since 1991, more than 200 students from at least 67 private schools across New England have accused teachers, administrators or other staff members of sexually abusing or harassing them, according to a report on Sunday by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigation team.

These and other allegations, going back decades, include claims of rape, fondling, molestation and oral sex by trusted adults in positions of authority, including, in one case, an admissions officer.

At least 90 lawsuits or other legal claims have been filed on behalf of the people who have made the accusations, and at least 37 school employees have been fired or forced to resign because of the allegations, the newspaper said. In addition, nearly two dozen employees eventually pleaded guilty or were convicted on criminal charges of abusing children or related crimes.

The Globe’s tally of abuse claims at New England’s private schools, many of them among the nation’s wealthiest and most prestigious institutions, appears to be one of the first efforts to quantify the extent of the problem. There is no central database of allegations against private school employees. A 2004 analysis of the scant research on sex abuse at the nation’s public schools estimated that 9.6 percent of students between kindergarten and 12th grade had experienced some form of sexual misconduct by an educator, ranging from offensive comments to rape; there is no comparable research on private schools.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Brian Morris

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull swept many budget options off the table — both revenue and expenditure — but glaring opportunities for bold new revenue measures were never considered.

Religion is a multi-billion dollar entrepreneurial colossus that pays virtually no tax, and the extent of this tax-free bonanza helps create a budgetary black hole.

A new national poll in April shows 64 per cent of Australians think religions should now be taxed. People are fully aware of the wealth owned by big churches — not the hard-pressed charities — but the large religious institutions and the corporate enterprises they run.

While two-thirds of the nation support the notion of taxing religious businesses, only seven per cent think they should remain tax-exempt, while 13 per cent say they simply don’t know.

Much has contributed to the public’s view that the big churches now operate well beyond the traditional parish precinct. There’s disquiet over revelations from the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, the Vatican Bank scandals and the rank politicisation of religion across a raft of contemporary social issues.

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

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea | May. 9, 2016 NCR Today

Editor’s note: This blog introduces “Hell, hope and healing”, an NCR four-part series on sexual abuse. Part 1 of the series has been posted online. Parts 2, 3 and 4 will be published first in our print edition first and then posted to our website. You will be able to read the whole series at the feature series page Hell, hope and healing.

Since 2002, we rightly have been bombarded by stories about sexual abuse in the Catholic church. Many Catholics have felt the church has been singled out as a particularly heinous committer of crimes. There is truth to this, but it is also important to contextualize clergy abuse as a part of the wider phenomenon of serious child maltreatment that is still much too prevalent in this country and in others.

The first article in this four-part series, therefore, will place clergy sexual abuse within the universe of child abuse and neglect and will describe the damage suffered by victims of early maltreatment. The other three parts will be published in upcoming issues of NCR, and later posted to NCRonline.org.

We also have heard many times since the church crisis exploded into the public square that victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse are damaged for life, that these horrible experiences never leave them and instead turn their lives into hell on earth forever. While this can occur, it does not have to. Survivors of adverse childhood experiences can heal and the second article in this series extends hope by describing what processes can help that happen.

In the third article, I extend the discussion beyond healing to discuss the possibility, now validated through research, that some trauma survivors actually experience post-traumatic growth. While never suggesting that somehow the survivor is better off because of the abuse, it is possible to derive meaning from those traumatic experiences and the healing processes addressed in Part 2 of this series. At that point, survivors often develop capabilities, interests and skills that add fullness to their lives. Part 3 also suggests that institutions and organizations affected by trauma can strive for growth by understanding the parts they are playing in healing or impeding their own and others’ recoveries.

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.

INDIA
Nyoooz

Summary: In 2015, 27 sexual abuse cases were reported against madrassa teachers in various parts of Malappuram. In another case, Kalapakanchery police recently arrested two Madrassa teachers for sexually abusing more than fifteen boys of a madrassa.A madrassa teacher in Pookottumpadam was arrested for molesting a Class II student at Koottampara two months ago. The details of the abuse tumbled out after the parents of the children called up the Childline authorities. Kottakkal sub-inspector Manjith Lal said the police have collected statements from the abused children and that they have widened their search for the accused.In another incident, Tirur police have received a complaint of child sexual abuse against a madrassa teacher at Paravanna. They said the parents had lodged a complaint with the madrassa authorities who hushed up the matter and dismissed the teacher.

Malappuram: Just two days after the Tirur police arrested a madrassa teacher for sexually abusing seven Class I girl students, two more cases of child abuse involving religious teachers were reported from the district on Saturday.Police have begun their hunt for a madrassa teacher at Puthuparamba in Kottakkal after several children alleged that he had been sexually exploiting them for almost a year. The details of the abuse tumbled out after the parents of the children called up the Childline authorities. They said the parents had lodged a complaint with the madrassa authorities who hushed up the matter and dismissed the teacher.

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.

ISRAEL
The Jewish Press

By: David Israel
Published: May 9th, 2016

A Channel 2 News report Sunday night presented serious evidence of sexual abuse against Gabriel Naddaf, an Israeli priest of the Greek Orthodox Church, a judge in the community’s religious courts, and a spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Naddaf, who has been selected to light a torch at the Independence Day ceremony this year for his role in encouraging Christian Arabs to enlist in the IDF, has allegedly conducted conversations rife with sexual innuendo with soldiers who sought his help. He is also accused of soliciting benefits from PA Arabs in return for helping them obtain entry permits into Israel.

Naddaf has been embraced by the Israeli establishment for his pro-Zionist activism, as part of a growing group of Israeli Arab activists of the Christian faith who declare their loyalty to the Jewish State and insist on being viewed and treated in a different manner than Muslim Arabs.

Naddaf issued a statement Sunday saying the source for the complaints against him are criminal elements in the Arab community who are determined to deny him the success he has enjoyed in promoting Christian youths’ enlistment in the IDF. He noted that he had passed two separate polygraph tests regarding the allegations against him and that he had filed a complaint with police over them.

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MINNESOTA
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant

St. Paul News Conference Monday

New Lawsuit Against St. John’s brought by Survivor Abused by Father Michael Bik in 1998

Bik abused the boy after St. John’s learned he sexually abused two students in the 1970s when he was a teacher at St. Stephen’s in Anoka

Bik taught at Twin Cities Catholic schools in Anoka and Shoreview before becoming a monk and priest of St. John’s

What: At a news conference Monday in St. Paul, attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Bryant, along with advocate and former St. John’s monk, Patrick Wall will:

* Announce the filing of a civil lawsuit naming St. John’s Abbey and Father Michael Bik as defendants. The suit is being brought by Doe 497, a survivor who was sexually abused by Bik when he was a 15 or 16 year old Sophomore at St. John’s Prep School in 1998.

* Discuss the fact that just weeks before Bik started abusing Doe 497 he admitted to St. John’s that he sexually abused at least two boys in Anoka in the 1970s.

* Encourage survivors of sexual abuse by Fr. Michael Bik, and others, to come forward safely and confidentially before the Child Victims Act window legislation expires on May 25, 2016.

WHEN: Monday, May 9, 2016, at 1:00 PM CT

WHERE: Jeff Anderson & Associates

366 Jackson Street, Suite 100

St. Paul, MN 55101

Notes: The event will be live-streamed online with links available on our homepage shortly before the event at www.andersonadvocates.com

* A copy of the complaint and other documents from Bik’s file will be available at the press conference and on our website and the event will be live-streamed online with links available on our homepage shortly before the event at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.227.9990 Cell: 612.817.8665
Contact Mike Bryant: Office: 320.259.5414 Cell: 800.359.0061
Contact Patrick Wall: Office: 651.227.9990 Cell: 949.307.3935

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.

MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press May 8, 2016

A Catholic priest removed from churches in metro Detroit after he was accused of sexually abusing a teenager is now the development director of a new Catholic center in Eastpointe that counsels pregnant teenagers, prompting calls for him to step down.

The Rev. Kenneth Kaucheck, 62, was banned from public ministry by the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2009 after church officials determined he had sexual misconduct in the 1970s with a 16-year-old girl he was counseling as a priest.

Kaucheck is now a director at the Gianna House Pregnancy and Parenting Residence, next to St. Veronica Catholic Church in Eastpointe. Opened last year in a former convent, the center takes in teenagers and young women who are pregnant, assisting them and any children they might later have.

The website for Gianna House says it “is a scared sanctuary for its residents, each of whom deserve to continue the life of her unborn child in an environment imbued with spiritual grace, emotional and social support, and knowledge.” The website says its “Board has been selected by Father Ken Kaucheck and Sister Mary Diane Masson to provide a wide range of ideas and skills.”

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

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea | May. 9, 2016

The past two decades have witnessed an interdisciplinary explosion of new information about the prevalence and aftermath of child abuse and neglect.

From 1995 to 1997, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente conducted a study of more than 17,000 Americans to determine how many had been subjected to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and what symptoms and disorders they suffered that differentiated them from those patients who did not have such histories. At the same time, researchers in clinical, developmental and neuropsychology, along with neurobiologists and trauma specialists, have increased our understanding of the potential impact of early abuse and neglect on virtually every aspect of a victim’s life.

So what do we know?

The CDC data indicates that only a little over one-third of subjects had no ACEs; 26 percent had one; 15.9 percent had two; 9.5 percent had three; and 12.5 percent had four or more. The study found that symptoms and disorders in ACE survivors were correlated with the number of ACEs experienced and with the frequency and/or intensity of each particular stressor. Let’s make this real.

The U.S. Census Bureau tells us that in 2014, there were about 245.2 million Americans over 18, meaning that more than 156 million adults have histories of ACEs, with more than 30 million having four or more. Over 50 million of us were sexually abused before the age of 18. Over 30 million watched our mothers get hit.

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.

VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Ines San Martin
Vatican correspondent May 9, 2016

ROME — When the Catholic Church in the United States, Australia, and Ireland was hit by sexual abuse scandals during the first decade of the new millennium, many in the global south looked on with dismay, describing it as “an Anglo-Saxon obsession” and a media-driven campaign to discredit the Church.

Today, it’s far more difficult to deny the widespread scope of the problem, which affects not only the Church but society: According to the Centers for Disease Control in the U.S., approximately 1 in 6 American boys and 1 in 4 girls are sexually abused before the age of 18.

A 2014 report from the United Nations estimated that globally, 1 in 10 women are abused before they reach their 20s.

New developments in Pope Francis’ own backyard in Latin America offer additional confirmation of the global nature of the challenge, and also appear to show that in many places, media exposure leads to the Church cleaning house.

In Uruguay, a country with a population of just 3.3 million, the local church recently received 20 allegations of clerical sexual abuse of minors, something which the Archbishop of Montevideo, Cardinal Daniel Sturla, defined as a “human tragedy.”

The alleged survivors came forward after church authorities opened a phone line for people to do so.

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.