ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK
The Journal News

Jonathan Bandler, jbandler@lohud.com May 2, 2016

State police are investigating a video purporting to show a school principal in close physical contact with a young boy in the Orange County village of Kiryas Joel.

The video was widely circulated on the internet Monday.

The video camera appears to have been in the ceiling of the principal’s office. An 11-minute version of the video shows a man sitting down at a desk and drawing the young boy to him. As the boys stands between the man’s legs, the man appears to stroke the boy’s face and kiss him several times, shaking him occasionally and pulling him closer. Both remain clothed.

An administrator at the ultra Orthodox Jewish school, United Talmudical Academy, could not be reached. A call to the principal was not returned.

“We have received the video. We have looked at it,” Major Joseph Tripodo, commander of New York State Police Troop F in Middletown said. Tripodo said state police investigators have been looking into the matter along with the District Attorney’s Office and the Orange County Child Abuse Unit. He said it was premature to say whether a crime was committed.

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 Monday, May 2, 2016

Child advocates in the Jewish community spread a video through social media that appears to show a Hasidic school staffer forcibly touching and kissing a young male student.

The video, which surfaced on Facebook early Sunday and had 20,000 views by Monday afternoon, was prompting calls for a criminal investigation and stern rebukes by advocates who have repeatedly complained about the lack of transparency and oversight at private religious schools.

The yeshiva official works at the United Talmudical Academy in Kiryas Joel, N.Y., according to multiple sources.

The footage from an overhead camera shows the educator sitting directly in front of the young boy, who at one point clasps his hands over his pelvic area. At the end of the encounter, the school staffer opens the desk drawer, gives the child a candy, grabs the boy’s arms and then appears to put them near the man’s crotch, the video shows.

The school worker also seems to be kissing the child on the face for several seconds.

New York State police are looking into the circumstances of the video, a source familiar with the case 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.

NEW ZEALAND
Newstalk ZB

The Catholic Church has unreservedly apologised for the actions of a former priest who raped and indecently assaulted four young girls.

Peter Hercock, a former Chaplin at Sacred Heart College in Lower Hutt, was jailed by Judge Bill Hastings yesterday for six years and seven months after earlier admitting two charges of rape, one of attempted rape and four of indecently assaulting a girl aged between 12 and 16.

The offending happened in the 1970s and 1980s in the Hutt Valley, Wellington, against four Sacred Heart pupils.

Archbishop of Wellington Cardinal John Dew stated that these crimes should never happen.

“It brings shame on the church,” he said. “We would certainly want to apologise to them, and say how deeply sorry we are that they’ve suffered this terrible trauma.”

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
InForum

CROOKSTON, Minn.—A Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy on the Red Lake Reservation in 2008 has been removed from his present assignment as a pastor at St. Elizabeth Church in Dilworth and St. Andrew’s Church in Hawley, according to a Crookston Diocese official.

Jeff Anderson & Associates, a St. Paul law firm representing the boy, notified church officials Friday that the boy was accusing the Rev. Patrick Sullivan of sexual misconduct and was planning to sue the diocese, said Monsignor Mike Foltz, vicar general of the diocese.

Foltz said that when the diocese learned of the allegation, Sullivan was placed on administrative leave. “That means he cannot function as a priest until this is resolved,” Foltz said, adding that the church plans to investigate the matter.

Sullivan denies any wrongdoing, Foltz said. Sullivan has been a pastor in Dilworth and Hawley for seven years, and he previously spent 12 years as a priest in Red Lake, the vicar general said.

Mike Finnegan, the boy’s attorney, said the abuse happened at St. Mary’s Mission Church in Red Lake. Finnegan declined to divulge details of the abuse.

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

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 2, 2016

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

Another accused Crookston predator priest has been suspended because of credible reports of child sex crimes. That makes at least seven publicly accused Crookston area child molesting Catholic clerics (according to BishopAccountability.org)

Bishop Michael Hoeppner should spread the word about this move far and wide and aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered the cleric’s crimes.

Over the weekend, Fr. Pat Sullivan was temporarily suspended for abuse that happened eight or nine years ago. He recently worked in Dillworth and Hawley.

[KVRR]

As best we can tell, Bishop Hoeppner told the fewest people possible about this troubling new abuse report: just Fr. Sullivan’s current parishioners. That’s self-serving and irresponsible.

Bishop Hoeppner did not, as best we can tell, inform the public about it. But the US bishops’ national abuse policy purportedly mandates “openness” in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases. Why is Bishop Hoeppner being so secretive?

A genuinely compassionate leader would have held a news conference, so police, prosecutors, parishioners, parents and the public would and promptly know about Fr. Sullivan and could do what they can to keep him away from kids and from destroying evidence, intimidating victims, threatening witnesses, discrediting whistleblowers or fleeing the country.

Or, Bishop Hoeppner should have sent a news release to Minnesota media and posted a notice on his diocesan website.

Instead, he did the absolute bare minimum. Shame on him.

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

NEW YORK
Frum Follies

A very disturbing video was leaked onto WhatsApp of a school principal abusing a pre-pubescent boy who appears to be about eight years old. The viral video was taken from a hidden camera planted in the ceiling of the office of the principal of the Satmar (Aron faction) lower school (cheder) in Kiryas Joel, NY (KJ). Rabbi Moshe Hirsch Klein, the principal, is seen seated with the boy forced between his legs and with body and pelvic motions suggestive of masturbation. He uses his hands to alternately caress the boy’s body and face, and to pull him back as he repeatedly tries to get away. At times he also seems to be kissing the boy on his lips. The boy is obviously upset. Thankfully, the boy’s face is not visible and his identity is not disclosed through this video.

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
News 12

KIRYAS JOEL – A new video has sparked allegations of child sex abuse allegedly from inside an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Orange County.

The video was reportedly leaked from someone inside one of the largest yeshivas in Kiryas Joel and given to News 12 by concerned members of the Hasidic community.

The video seems to show a young Hasidic boy being held, jerked, caressed and seemingly kissed while between a man’s legs for 15 minutes. The boy is repeatedly seen trying to get away, and at one point appears to wipe tears from his eyes.

Hasidic education activist Naftuli Moster says the video was leaked by a frustrated staff member inside a Kiryas Joel yeshiva.

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
KVRR

TJ Nelson, 6 & 9 PM News Anchor / Producer / Reporter, tjnelson@kvrr.com

CLAY COUNTY, Minn. –
A Catholic priest with the Crookston Diocese is accused of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Father Pat Sullivan serves St. Elizabeth’s in Dilworth and St. Andrews in Hawley.

He has been in the Crookston Diocese since he was ordained in 1982.

He has been relieved of his duties while the investigation is underway.

The alleged sexual misconduct occurred about 8 years ago.

No criminal charges have been filed.

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 LAURA BULT NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Monday, May 2, 2016

New York is “a national shame” when it comes to getting justice for victims of child sex abuse, say people who helped change the antiquated law in other states.

The Empire State lags behind states like Georgia, Massachusetts, Florida and Utah, all of which in the past several years have passed bills that lengthened the time victims have to bring their cases to court.

As New York Assemblywoman Margaret Markey and Sen. Brad Hoylman gear up for a two-day lobbying effort in Albany to support the Child Victims Act — which would eliminate statutes of limitations in child sex abuse cases — the people responsible for changing laws in other states are demanding that New York follow their lead.

COALITION OF JEWISH LEADERS BACKS CHILD VICTIMS ACT

“I don’t understand, frankly, what New York is waiting on,” blasted attorney Michael Dolce, a victim of sexual assault when he was a boy who won a six-year crusade to change statutes of limitations laws in 2010 his home state of Florida.

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 MEXICO
SFGate

Russell Contreras, Associated Press Monday, May 2, 2016

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The Latest on a New Mexico campaign aimed at tackling child abuse (all times local):

3:45 p.m.

New Mexico Catholic leaders are expressing skepticism about a new “Pull Together” state campaign aimed at tackling child abuse.

Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester and Las Cruces Bishop Oscar Cantu said Monday that state resources should instead be placed toward expanding earlier childhood education and programs fighting poverty.

The new state-funded campaign features slick commercials and a new website to draw residents to revamped Children, Youth and Families Department programs like foster care and parenting tips.
Wester says the campaign underestimates the lack of internet access for people living in poverty.

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.

ILLINOIS
WAND

SPRINGFIELD – A bill is scheduled to be heard by the Illinois Senate’s Criminal Law Committee that would remove the statute of limitations for felony criminal sexual abuse and sex crimes against children.

Statute of limitations restricts the time during which authorities can charge someone with a crime.

The legislation is being introduced by State Senator Scott Bennett (D-Champaign) and was prompted by last week’s developments involving former Republican U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Hastert admitted in court that he sexually abused teenage boys when he was a wrestling coach in Yorkville.

In court last week, Judge Thomas Durkin noted Hastert avoided serious consequences because of the current statute of limitations in Illinois’ state courts.

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
Syracuse.com

By John O’Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A Liverpool man admitted today that he sexually exploited three children to make child pornography, but wouldn’t acknowledge a prosecutor’s detailed accounting of the crimes.

James Kopp, 40, entered guilty pleas to 22 counts of sexual exploitation of a child and child pornography in a court appearance before U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby.

Then the judge asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Fletcher to state the evidence the government would’ve presented against Kopp at trial. She read a lengthy “offer of proof,” going into detail about Kopp’s alleged crimes.

Suddaby asked Kopp if he admitted to everything Fletcher read. Kopp’s lawyer, Randi Bianco, said he was still willing to plead guilty, but would not admit to the details.

Suddaby would not allow Kopp’s guilty plea to stand without a full admission of guilt.

“He either did it or he didn’t,” the judge said. “Or we can set a trial date.”

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.

MAINE
Portland Press Herald

BY BETTY ADAMS KENNEBEC JOURNAL
badams@mainetoday.com | 207-621-5631

AUGUSTA — A former co-director of a youth ministry program in Canaan accused of sexually abusing a child was in court Monday, the same day an affidavit released for the first time indicated multiple allegations of abuse.

Lucas Savage, 27, of Clinton, appeared at the Capital Judicial Center accompanied by the lawyer of the day, Andrew Dawson, rather than Savage’s attorney, Pamela Ames.

Savage told Judge Eric Walker that he understood the charge of unlawful sexual contact, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

According to the complaint, the offense occurred Sept. 1 -Oct. 31, 2014, in Clinton and involved a child younger than 12. The alleged victim was identified in court only by initials.

The judge said he would not be asking for Savage to enter a plea on the charge Monday.

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.

MAINE
WABI

MAY 2, 2016

BRANDON DOYEN

A Youth Pastor in Canaan charged with unlawful sexual contact made his first court appearance today in Augusta.

37-year-old Lucas Savage is accused of sexually abusing a young girl.

He was arrested last month.

Savage is the Director of Ministries for the Youth Haven Ministry.

According to court documents, the abuse took place at his home and other places.

Savage is free on bail.

Today the judge amended Savage’s bail conditions because he has a child on the way.

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.

MAINE
Seattle PI

CANAAN, Maine (AP) — Court documents indicated a youth minister’s wife was present when he allegedly sexually abused a girl.

Lucas Savage, who made his first court appearance on Monday, is charged with unlawful sexual contact of a child under the age of 12.

Police say the abuse happened in Savage’s home in Clinton.

WCSH-TV reports that an affidavit indicates his wife was sometimes in the room when Savage inappropriately touched his victim. The document mentioned the possibility of other victims, as well. The couple and a lawyer who has represented Savage did not immediately return telephone messages.

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
JTA

By Debra Nussbaum Cohen
May 2, 2016

NEW YORK (JTA) – Advocates for sexual abuse victims in the Orthodox Jewish community will be descending on New York’s state capital on May 3 to lobby the legislature to eliminate the statute of limitations for child sex abuse offenses.

A bill to change the statute of limitations has languished for years in a state legislative committee committee, due in large part to opposition from the Catholic Church and Agudath Israel of America.

The bill, known as the Child Victims Act, would “completely eliminate the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse offenses in the future,” according to SOL Reform, an advocacy group that is sponsoring a series of panels and news conferences May 3 and 4.

It would also suspend the civil statute of limitations for one year, during which time the accuser could bring a civil lawsuit against a private educational organization no matter how far back the alleged abuse dates.

While the bill passed the New York State Assembly, it has been blocked in the State Senate in the decade since it was introduced.

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.

HAWAII
Courthouse News Service

by NICHOLAS FILLMORE

HONOLULU (CN) — Victims of childhood sexual abuse filed a spate of last-minute civil suits in Hawaii state court this past week, ahead of the Hawaii Legislature’s latest deadline to reenact the statute of limitations for sex-abuse cases.

In all, some 150 people have filed complaints in the four years since the Aloha State suspended the statute of limitations on noncriminal proceedings against sex offenders.

The lawsuits involve various parties as defendants, including the Roman Catholic Church of Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools, Boy Scouts of America, medical facilities, and state agencies. One case names the State Child Protective Services, which the plaintiff says removed him from an abusive home environment only to deliver him into the hands of a predatory foster father.

The original bill to set aside the statute of limitations in sex-abuse cases was set to expire in 2014, but compromise legislation authored by state Sen. Maile Shimabokuro kept the window for filing open another two years. The compromise came after former Gov. Neil Abercrombie vetoed a measure that would have eliminated the statute of limitations altogether.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Huffington Post

A top aide to the Los Angeles County sheriff has resigned over emails he sent mocking several different groups of minorities, including Muslims and Latinos.

Sheriff Jim McDonnell announced the departure of Tom Angel, his chief of staff, in a statement posted to Facebook on Sunday. He called the messages, which also made light of the Catholic child sex abuse scandal, “inappropriate and unprofessional.”

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
KFGO

Monday, May 02, 2016 by Don Haney

CROOKSTON (KFGO-AM) – Allegations of sexual misconduct of a minor by a Catholic priest who serves parishes in Clay County is under investigation.

The Crookston Catholic Diocese identifies the priest as Father Pat Sullivan. He serves St. Elizabeth’s in Dilworth and St. Andrews in Hawley. The priest denies the allegation.

Vicar General of the Crookston Diocese, Monsignor Mike Foltz says the Diocese was notified Friday afternoon of the allegation by an attorney representing the person making the claim and immediate action was taken to relieve Father Sullivan from his duties at both churches while the investigation is underway. The process could take several months or longer.

Monsignor Foltz says, “the process is all about coming to the truth.”

The alleged sexual misconduct occurred about 8 years ago. At this time, he would not identify where it allegedly occurred. He has been in contact with law enforcement but no criminal charges have been filed.

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.

OKLAHOMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: May 2, 2016

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

Last Friday, a serial predator priest – who worked in Oklahoma and abused two Duncan boys – was sentenced to 40 years for more child sex crimes he committed in Michigan. For the safety of kids and the healing of victims, we hope he stays behind bars for as long as possible. And we hope that Oklahoma Catholic officials will spread this news and use church bulletins, pulpit announcements, and church websites to aggressively seek out others who he may have hurt.

[BishopAccountability.org]

[BishopAccountability.org]

[Detroit Free Press]

[WILX]

We’re grateful that Fr. James Francis Rapp was charged again, pled guilty to more child sex crimes.

Because of his crimes in Duncan, Fr. Rapp is already in prison in Oklahoma. So it would have been easy for law enforcement to look the other way when more victims surfaced.

But Michigan’s attorney general filed more child sex charges against him for molesting kids at a Catholic high school in Jackson in the 1980s.

Once a child molester is convicted, many people who could be helpful get complacent. They assume his sentence will stand, his appeals will fail, and he’ll be kept away from kids for many years. But often, child molesters – especially clerics – get top notch defense lawyers, exploit legal technicalities, and escape with little or no jail time. Then, when other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers find this out, it’s too late for them to really make a difference.

So we’re glad Michigan AG Bill Schuette was prudent, pro-active and successful here. Now, the odds that Rapp will ever walk free are even slimmer. And more of his victims feel vindicated.

There are two important lessons. First, these days, police and prosecutors are often more aggressive and creative about pursing child predators, even in older cases. (The old adage “where there’s a will, there’s a way,” fits here.) More law enforcement officials should follow Schuette’s example and consider going after even elderly child molesting clerics.

Second, no victim, witness or whistleblower should ever assume ‘it’s too late’ to seek justice. It’s our job to share what we know and suspect about possible child sex crimes. It’s the job of law enforcement to determine whether anything can be done. If we stay silent, we’re helping those who commit and conceal child sex crimes.

So if you saw, suspected or suffered any crimes or cover ups related to Fr. Rapp, it’s time to find the courage to speak up, so that the vulnerable can be protected, the wounded can be healed, the truth can be exposed and cover ups can be deterred.

Besides Michigan and Oklahoma, Fr. Rapp worked in four other states: Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York and Utah. Since for decades he was part of the Toledo-based Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, we strongly suspect he also spent time in Toledo.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 2, 2016

For more information: David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com), Barbra Graber (540-214-8874, mennonite@snapnetwork.org), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org, Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org)

Ten sex-offending church workers are listed on website

They’re from CA, PA, VA, OH, KS, OR, IN and Manitoba, Canada
Each is an admitted, convicted or credibly accused clergy or church employee
Group vows to “expose more who commit sex crimes & misdeeds against kids & adults”
Victims challenge Mennonite officials: “Burden of stopping predators shouldn’t fall on us”

A support group for survivors of sexual abuse is adding five more names to their recent on-line posting of what they call “sexual predators” in Anabaptist Mennonite institutions. The organization promises to keep expanding the list “for the protection of others.”

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mennonite_map

Called the Mennonite Abuse Prevention (MAP), their posting includes names and photos of Anabaptist Mennonite clergy and church workers who have been proven guilty of, have admitted to or been credibly accused of sexual misconduct, abuse, assault, and/or harassment.

Members of the Anabaptist Mennonite Chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) have posted the list because, they say, Mennonite officials are not taking “meaningful action to effectively stop predators, or make this information easily available to church members or the public.”

Seven of them have been criminally charged and five of them pled guilty. Six of them worked in schools and five were ordained ministers. One of them has been sued civilly and the employer of another one, a high school, was sued for enabling crimes.

The whereabouts of two are unknown. One now works as a Christian counselor.

Of the five “new” names, one is a photographer in Virginia, one is a travel agent in Kansas, one will soon get out of prison in Oregon and two—in Pennsylvania and Ohio—may not be working now.

The newest names added include:

–Paul G. Landis of Pennsylvania who offended against several women while he was President of Eastern Mennonite Missions in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

–Tony Okuley of Bluffton, Ohio, a former business professor at Bluffton University, who filmed students and was convicted on child porn charges in 2007.

–Fernando Marroquin who molested a female babysitter while he was a Spanish professor at Goshen College in Indiana. He now has a photography business in Virginia Beach.

–Matthew David Yoder of Oregon who pled guilty to three counts of second-degree sex abuse in March 2014. One of his students at Western Mennonite High School in Salem, Oregon filed a civil suit against the school and the Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference in March of 2015.

–David Rhodes who was a choir director at Hesston College in the 1980s and nineties and was accused of abusing male students. He resigned in the early 90s, and still lives in Hesston where he has run a travel agency.

The first group of five offenders are listed below, with their last known location:

Andrew Eggman, Porterville, CA

David B. Eller, Mt. Joy, PA

Marco Funk, Gretna, Manitoba, Canada

Steven J. Geyer, Reading, PA

Jess Jay McCall, Portland, OR

“While some offending Mennonites have been named once or twice, mostly in small church publications or smaller news outlets, their names are not easily accessible to parents or the public,” said SNAP Mennonite member Stephanie Krehbiel of Lawrence, KS. “The MAP list protects the vulnerable by making the small print larger. It heals the wounded by helping them see and understand that they are not alone. It also creates transparency around sexual violence in Mennonite communities, which will ultimately help those who want to understand and prevent more sexual violence and cover ups in the future.”

Anabaptism began during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, and today includes a complex network of churches and communities including Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and the Amish. Known for their belief in pacifism and non-violence, there are more than one million Anabaptists worldwide in loosely affiliated denominations and conferences that vary in the conservatism of their faith. While the MAP list currently lists primarily Mennonite offenders, its creators are seeking information on offenders from other Anabaptist groups as well.

Hosted on the international SNAP website SNAPnetwork.org, the MAP list follows a model already established by similar websites that document sexual abuse and cover ups in other faiths, including BishopAccountability.org, Pokrov.org, and Protectjewishkids.com.

To be placed on the MAP list, offenders must have been named elsewhere through established media sources, internal institutional documents or court records.

“We want Mennonites to understand that the closed and secretive way that officials are handling the most recent abuse allegations [regarding Luke Hartman/Lindale Mennonite/Eastern Mennonite University], is part of a much larger pattern of predatory Mennonite church workers and complicit institutions,” said Krehbiel.

“Where there is secrecy, denial, and lack of transparency, sexual violence thrives,” said SNAP Mennonite leader Barbra Graber of Harrisonburg, Virginia. “Despite growing evidence that such approaches re-traumatize victims and enable further abuse, most Mennonite churches and institutions still attempt to manage abuse situations quietly, internally, and at risk to public safety. The health and wellbeing of Mennonite faith communities will be better served when information about who is committing that abuse and how it is being addressed becomes accessible 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.

VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Crux Staff
May 2, 2016

Despite speculation that Cardinal George Pell might step down shortly after his 75th birthday on June 8, Pell’s office said Thursday that Pope Francis has confirmed the Australian prelate as the Vatican’s top financial official until at least 2019.

The news came in a statement from Pell’s office in Rome, after a Thursday visit by Pope Francis to the offices of the Secretariat for the Economy, the body created by the pope in 2014 to be the Vatican’s new lead agency for financial administration.

Saying the pontiff had spent an hour in “a friendly and lively discussion” with the staff of the secretariat, the statement indicated that Pell’s status also had been addressed during the session.

“Cardinal Pell will also be continuing with his current role for the full five-year term,” it 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.

DEUTSCHLAND
Die Tagespost

[Pope Francis spoke freely when he demanded severe penalties for abusers. At midday prayer on Sunday, he described the sexual abuse of children as a “tragedy”. “We can not tolerate these abuses,” he then shouted into the microphone: “We need to protect minors and severely punish the abusers.”]

Von Anna Sophia Hofmeister

Papst Franziskus sprach frei, als er harte Strafen für Missbrauchstäter forderte. Beim Mittagsgebet Regina Coeli am Sonntag bezeichnete er den sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern als „Tragödie“. „Wir dürfen diese Missbräuche nicht tolerieren!“, rief er dann in das Mikrofon: „Wir müssen die Minderjährigen schützen und die Missbrauchstäter streng bestrafen.“

In der Tat. Die Zahlen sind erschreckend. Allein in Deutschland sind neuen Schätzungen zufolge mehr als eine Million Kinder von sexueller Gewalt betroffen. Die enorme gesellschaftliche Dimension von sexuellem Missbrauch an Kindern und Jugendlichen bestätigt sich auch im internationalen Vergleich. Missbrauch findet überall statt. Vor allem in der Familie, in der Nachbarschaft, in Institutionen, durch digitale Medien. Auch in Flüchtlingsunterkünften oder durch organisierte Kriminalität. Nationale und internationale Hell- und Dunkelfeldstudien zeigen eine immens hohe Zahl an Betroffenen – in der Regel sind Mädchen häufiger als Jungen Opfer von übergriffigen Handlungen. Studien, die gleichzeitig mehrere Formen von Kindesmisshandlung erfassen, zeigen außerdem, dass sexuelle Gewalt kein isoliertes Phänomen ist, sondern die Betroffenen oft gleichzeitig verschiedenen Formen physischer und psychischer Gewalt, Vernachlässigung und Traumatisierung ausgesetzt sind, und zwar weltweit.

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
Hamburger Abendblatt

[Vorwürfe hinsichtlich Grenzverletzungen und sexuellen Missbrauchs im Internat Damme – Kloster St. Benedikt Damme]

[A Catholic Benedictine priest is accused to abusing several students at the monastery school in Damme, whichis under the Munsterschwarzach Abbey near Wursburg. The suspected “sexual boundary violations and physical violence” have been confirmed, according to the spokesman of a working group trying to resolve the case. The priest died in 2005.]

Damme. Ein katholischer Benediktiner-Pater hat offenbar zwischen 1966 und 1974 mehrere Internatsschüler in Damme im Kreis Vechta missbraucht. Der Verdacht “sexueller Grenzverletzungen und körperlicher Gewalt” habe sich bestätigt, sagte der Sprecher einer Arbeitsgruppe, die den Fall aufklären soll. Der unter Verdacht stehende Pater sei bereits 2005 gestorben. Das Kloster Damme untersteht der Abtei Münsterschwarzach bei Würzburg.

Die Arbeitsgruppe zur Aufarbeitung und Prävention sexueller Gewalt habe rund 80 frühere Schüler des Internats zu einem Treffen eingeladen, zum dem 17 gekommen seien. In den Gesprächen hätten mindestens fünf Teilnehmer bestätigt, selbst Opfer des Paters zu sein, sagte der Sprecher der Arbeitsgruppe, Staatsanwalt a.D. Rainer Gündert aus Bamberg. Die Arbeitsgruppe respektiere den Wunsch der Betroffenen, “weder ihre Namen noch die seinerzeitigen Vorgänge oder die nun zu ergreifenden Maßnahmen” in irgendeiner Weise publik zu machen.

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
Rhein-Erft Rundschau

[Pastor from Efferen: Case of sexual abuse raises many questions.

Hürth –
Der Fall eines ehemaligen Pfarrers aus Hürth-Efferen, der sich in den 1970er-Jahren des sexuellen Missbrauchs schuldig gemacht haben soll, wirft bei den Gläubigen Fragen auf. Warum wurde der Fall erst jetzt, mit dem Ende des kirchenrechtlichen Verfahrens, bekannt?

Bereits 2011 war eine Untersuchung eingeleitet worden, nachdem sich ein Betroffener beim Erzbistum Köln gemeldet hatte. „Unsere Richtlinien sehen vor, dass ein Pfarrer mit der Eröffnung eines solchen Verfahrens suspendiert werden muss“, erklärte Christoph Heckeley, der Pressesprecher des Erzbistums.

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
Rhein-Erft Rundschau

[A former Catholic priest from Huerth confessed to abuse and proceedings in Rome were finished after five years. He was declared guilty but was not defrocked because he was retired.]

Hürth –
Gegen einen früheren katholischen Pfarrer aus Hürth ist ein kirchliches Strafverfahren wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs abgeschlossen worden. Dies teilt das Erzbistum Köln mit. 2011 hatte sich demnach ein Betroffener gemeldet, der in den 1970er-Jahren von dem Pfarrer sexuell missbraucht worden war. Laut Erzbistum hat der Beschuldigte dies im eingeleiteten Verfahren zugegeben.

Das Urteil hat die Glaubenskongregation in Rom nun endgültig bestätigt. Demzufolge ist dem Geistlichen künftig die öffentliche Feier der Eucharistie und die Sakramentenspendung untersagt. Kinder- und Jugendeinrichtungen sowie Schulen des Erzbistums Köln darf er nicht mehr betreten, er muss zudem eine Geldstrafe zahlen. Weiterhin darf er den Titel „Pfarrer in Ruhe“ nicht mehr tragen.

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
Regensburg Digital

[45 years ago Regensburger students publicly denounced “terrorism” in the church board school. A spiritual director denied the allegations and rose a few months later to be director of board at the Regensburg Domspatzen.]

Von Robert Werner in Nachrichten, Überregional

Vor 45 Jahren prangerten Regensburger Schüler öffentlich „Terror“ an. In der von ihnen im Jahre 1971 verteilten Broschüre „terror regensburger heimen“ kritisierten sie gewalttätige Übergriffe und autoritäre Strukturen, vor allem in kirchlichen Internaten. Die Verantwortlichen der Heime wiegelten damals ab. Ein geistlicher Direktor bestritt die Vorwürfe barsch und stieg wenige Monate später zum Direktor der Internate der Regensburger Domspatzen auf.

Im Januar 2015 hat auch der Regensburger Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer von „Terrorsystem“ gegen Heimzöglinge gesprochen und dieses verurteilt. Mit dieser Bewertung leitete er einen überfälligen Kurswechsel im Umgang mit Gewaltopfern ein. Allerdings beschränkt sich seine Wahrnehmung auf die Einrichtungen der Regensburger Domspatzen in Etterzhausen und Pielenhofen. Die Gewaltopfer und Täter anderer kirchlicher Einrichtungen scheinen für Voderholzer kein Thema zu sein. Die Anfrage unserer Redaktion blieb unbeantwortet. Ein aufschlussreicher Rückblick.

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.

MAINE
WGME

AUGUSTA (WGME) — A youth pastor accused of sexually abusing a young girl made his first court appearance.

Lucas Savage did not enter a plea Monday at his initial court appearance. He’s charged with a Class B felony for unlawful sexual contact, which is punishable by up to 10 years behind bars.

Investigators say the 37-year-old sexually abused a girl who is younger than 12-years-old.

Court documents indicate a series of alleged abuse incidents happened from September 2014 until the end of October 2014.

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.

ILLINOIS
Religion News Service

By David Gibson and Emily McFarlan Miller | April 30, 2016

(RNS) Gay students, supporters and alumni at Wheaton College, a top evangelical Christian school that counts former House Speaker Dennis Hastert among its most famous grads, have told the administration they are “stunned” the college has not condemned the sexual abuse of boys that Hastert admitted committing when he was sentenced last Wednesday for fraud in trying to cover up the abuse.

In an open letter dated and released Saturday (April 30), the group, OneWheaton, said “we are stunned that Wheaton College has not issued a stronger statement of condemnation and grief over damage done by someone whose image has been so strongly connected to Wheaton College.”

The college had named a major center on economics and government after the Republican leader, who retired from Congress — and his position as second-in-line to the presidency — in 2007.

After reports first emerged a year ago that Hastert was under investigation for bank fraud (he had sought to hide $3.5 million in transfers to pay one of the boys he abused more than 30 years ago while a wrestling coach) Wheaton said in accepting Hastert’s resignation from the advisory board of the center that it “respects Mr. Hastert’s distinguished public service record.”

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
Catholic League

Bill Donohue wrote a full-page ad, published today in the Albany Times-Union, on the anti-Catholic efforts underway in the New York capital this week. Lawmakers will consider bills to lift the statute of limitations on the sexual abuse of minors, the real target being the Catholic Church, not the public schools. Anti-Catholic activists will push their agenda on May 3-4, devoting all day Wednesday to attacks on the Church.

To read the ad, click here.

We will provide contact information for select lawmakers over the next two days.

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
Somatosphere

By Stephanie Krehbiel

This case begins with an unsettling email. It came from a powerful man of the church, a Mennonite executive, and it was a response to an email from me, in which I told this leader that he was perpetuating violence against queer people.

I was an ethnographer writing about the Mennonite movement for queer justice, and I also was a Mennonite, at least by background. In the interviews I was doing with LGBTQ Mennonites around the country, I kept hearing the word violence: rhetorical violence, spiritual violence, institutional violence, systemic violence. The violence they spoke of was often quiet and subtle, invisible to many. It happened in the wording of denominational statements, in all the ways in which LGBTQ identities were cast as worldly distractions from more important church work; it happened in families, inherited patterns of sexual shame that thrived on the specter of a monstrous sexual outsider. It happened most particularly in the process of what Mennonites call “discernment.”

Mennonites have little in the way of doctrine. What they do have are committees, some of which are called “discernment groups.” Listening committees are a regular feature of Mennonite discernment, particularly in the realm of LGBTQ people, who in the course of the forty-year history of their organizing within Mennonite contexts have often been invited to “share their stories” in front of appointed listeners. I will return to discernment, but for the moment, I will say two things about it.

One, I don’t believe I know any LGBTQ Mennonites for whom the word “discernment” fails to produce groans, eyerolls, and other expressions of deep cynicism. For them, discernment about whether they are acceptable to the church has rarely yielded anything more than promises for more discernment. Two, the powerful church leader whose email I am about to quote has written a book about discernment and its role in understanding God’s will.

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.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Victoria O’Hara
PUBLISHED
02/05/2016

Former PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has faced criticism after he called for less money to be spent on historical child abuse cases, and more on safeguarding children now.

Sir Hugh described it as a “back to front” way of using limited resources.

However, campaigners said there is “no cut-off date for the suffering caused by sexual and other abuse in childhood. Nor should there be a cut-off date for justice”.

In an interview with Sky News, Sir Hugh said: “You fully resource a historical investigation, yet you don’t fully resource a current day investigation. That is back to front.”

He said the focus should be on people who need protection now.

Sir Hugh was Chief Constable between 2002 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.

NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By John O’Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – A Liverpool man is scheduled to plead guilty this morning to accusations that he and an elementary school aide sexually exploited three children to make child pornography.

Jason Kopp, 40, is on U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby’s calendar for an 11 a.m. change of plea, an indication that he will plead guilty.

Kopp and Emily Oberst, 23, of Syracuse, were indicted last month on charges of sexually exploiting three children to make child pornography. The victims were a 16-month-old girl, a 4-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy, according to a federal indictment.

One of the victims was a student at All Saints elementary school and day care center, where Oberst worked as an aide, according to sources. The FBI found naked photos of that child in a school bathroom at the school, the sources said.

All Saints fired Oberst after her arrest last month.

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 JERSEY
NJ.com

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

For the third time in four years, our lawmakers will soon be required to pick a side: They can continue to give legal protection to child predators and their enablers against civil suits, or they can try to bring some comfort to sex abuse victims whose lives are forever shattered.

Some New Jersey legislators actually call this a dilemma, but we call it a conscience-cleansing, soul-searching no-brainer – you go to your church, we’ll go to ours – and it should be illuminating to learn how many make this choice with the care and compassion it demands.

Once again, Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) is proposing legislation that would expand the statute of limitations for civil suits pertaining to childhood sex crimes from two years to 30, which provides more time for victims to sue their abusers and the institutions that harbored them – not only the Catholic Church, but all religious organizations, along with state and local governments and schools.

Throughout the country, this kind of legislation has faced rigorous opposition from the Church, which buttonholes lawmakers and uses powerful lobbyists to protect its interests, even as it has incurred $4 billion in costs related to the clergy sex crime crisis in the U.S.

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 ZEALAND
One News

[with video]

Ryan Boswell
ONE News Reporter

Ann-Marie Shelley has finally conquered her demons – after years of abuse at the hands of Catholic priest Peter Joseph Hercock.

As her attacker goes to jail, the 60-year-old asked the court to lift her name suppression and sat down with ONE News for an interview.

Ms Shelley first met Hercock at Lower Hutt’s Sacred Heart College in 1970.

She was just 14 – and he was the school’s chaplain and counsellor.

“I came to completely trust him and talk to him about everything that was going on in my life,” Ms Shelley told ONE News.

“It became quite easy to not notice the things that were kind-of going on in the periphery.”

Within a year he’d begun indecently assaulting her, at first rubbing her back and thighs.

Three years later, Ms Shelley was training to be a nurse when she fell pregnant and was considering adoption.

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
news.com.au

Benedict Brook
news.com.au
@BenedictBrook

A PAEDOPHILE priest, who raped one of his victims on the church’s altar, has been sentenced to almost three decade behind bars.

At Sydney’s District Court on Monday Judge Peter Zahra said former Catholic priest John Joseph Farrell “disregarded and took advantage” of his victims who he groomed over long periods of time.

Last month, Farrell was found guilty of 62 offences involving rapes and indecent assaults against three girls and nine boys over nearly a decade in the northern NSW towns of Moree and Tamworth.

As well as the 62 historical sexual crimes against children, a further 17 offences were taken into account when he was handed down a sentence of 29 years, with a non-parole period of 18 years.

He will not leave prison until 2033 at the earliest.

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
news.com.au

MAY 2, 2016

By Sophie Tarr
AAP

A depraved former priest was able to carry out a decade-long reign of abuse against three girls and nine boys because he was protected by the Catholic Church, a Sydney judge says.

Loud applause broke out in court on Monday as John Joseph Farrell was led from the dock after being sentenced to 29 years behind bars for his crimes in Moree and Tamworth, in country NSW.

Victims and their loved ones packed into the courtroom at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court to watch the 62-year-old face sentencing for dozens of historical sexual crimes committed against children between 1979 and 1988.

The disgraced ex-priest sat with his eyes closed as Judge Peter Zahra told how he preyed on his victims, grooming the children, cultivating the trust of their parents and exploiting his powerful position as a priest.

“This allowed him to offend whenever and wherever he chose,” Judge Zahra said.

“The offender created situations where he was confident he would not be detected even where his sexual abuse was, at times, brazen in the extreme.”

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
Times Ledger

By Bill Parry

In her push to eliminate the statute of limitations for child sex abuse crimes, state Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Maspeth) and supporters of the Child Victims Act will lobby the Legislature in Albany for passage of the reform bill. The CVA has been adopted in the Assembly four times in various forms since 2006, but has never made it to the floor of the Senate.

“New York is among the very worst states in America for how it treats victims of childhood sexual abuse,” Markey said. “We rank right at the very bottom among the 50 states along with Alabama and Mississippi. This is the year to change that deplorable situation. Now the CVA has more than 60 co-sponsors in the Assembly and visitors are coming to tell legislators in both houses they want to see the law changed this year.”

The two-day lobby effort will include a roundtable forum Tuesday, May 3, which will be moderated by Benjamin Cardozo Law Professor Marci Hamilton, a national advocate for statute-of-limitations reform. Participants will include Olympic speedskater Bridie Farrell, who has accused speedskater Andy Gabel of molesting her in 1997, when she was just 15. Farrell was unable to pursue criminal prosecution or a civil lawsuit against Gabel because New York’s statute of limitations bars victims from proceeding with cases after their 23rd birthday.

Abuse victims are often very slow to come to grips with what happened to them, some not until middle age or even later in life, according to Markey.

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 ZEALAND
Newstalk ZB

Jimmy Ellingham, NZ Herald, Publish Date Monday, 2 May 2016

UPDATED: 4.31PM She went to him for help, counselling and support, but instead the chaplain at a Catholic girls’ school raped the vulnerable young teenage girl.

He raped her with his “wretched Leonard Cohen” album playing in the background and his priestly robes hanging in the presbytery room.

Ten years later he raped her in a Women’s Refuge safe house as her children slept next to her.

More than 40 years ago, when attending Sacred Heart College in Lower Hutt, Ann-Marie Shelley turned to Peter Joseph Hercock, 72, for help.

Instead, he groomed her, always joking “I’ll see you in pieces” rather than the usual “I’ll see you in peace”.

Today, Ms Shelley said she got her own back: “I’ll see you in pieces” she said to Hercock, as he stared gun-barrel straight ahead while standing in the Wellington District Court dock, avoiding eye contact with those recalling the effects of his crimes.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Bath Chronicle

By JamesCrawley | Posted: May 02, 2016

A church worker from Saltford, found guilty of committing 13 sex crimes on a child, has continued to protest his innocence, reports the Bristol Post.

Christian youth worker Philip Stephen Barlow, 33, denied the sexual abuse charges and has claimed his trial was mishandled by a “biased” judge.

Married father Barlow walked a free man despite being sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail in April 2015 having already spent the equivalent time behind bars when he was awaiting his trial.

Barlow, of Raleigh Close in Saltford, near Bath, had been facing a second trial, having previously had convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal.

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 ZEALAND
Stuff

[with video]

SHANE COWLISHAW AND TALIA SHADWELL

GRAPHIC WARNING: Some content in this story may upset some people

In the dimly-lit room of a Wainuiomata presbytery bedroom, priestly robes lay strewn across the floor.

Background music plays softly on a record player, while on the bed a drunk teenager is about to be raped by her priest.

The girl can’t feel her legs and has no idea what’s happening.

“I’ll always remember that bloody horrible Leonard Cohen album.”

The year is 1974 and the 18-year-old is Ann-Marie Shelley.

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
ABC News

By Nick Dole

Former priest John Joseph Farrell has been sentenced to a minimum of 18 years for a string of sexual assaults on children in the 1970s and 80s in New South Wales.

Farrell, 62, who has previously been known as “Father F”, was convicted earlier this year of 79 offences against 12 victims.

The assaults were committed against boys and girls, around Moree, Tamworth and Armidale.

Many of the victims were altar boys, but three of the victims were girls.

In the NSW District Court, Farrell was sentenced to a total of 29 years in prison with a non-parole period of 18 years.

The court heard the offences were committed at a public pool, on church property, during car trips and in private homes, sometimes with the victims’ relatives just metres away.

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.

NETHERLANDS
Dutch News

The chairman of the Catholic church committee set up to investigate sexual abuse claims pressured victims not to call for a parliamentary inquiry, according to radio current affairs show Argos at the weekend.

Former Christian Democratic party chairman Wim Deetman headed the commission set up by the church in 2010 after the sexual abuse scandal broke in the Netherlands.

The commission report said in 2011 at least 800 Roman Catholic priests and monks were involved in abusing children in their care between 1945 and 1985.

Argos reported at the weekend that in March 2012, Deetman had pressured members of the victims lobby group Klokk not to call for a parliamentary inquiry, arguing that the issue had been ‘researched sufficiently’.

His secretary Bert Kreemers had also sent emails to Klokk members saying that parliament is ‘not a research institute’ and that hearings under oath were ‘a farce’.

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
Sydney Morning Herald

May 2, 2016

Emma Partridge
Court Reporter

Victims stood and clapped as one of the most notorious paedophile priests in NSW was sentenced to 29 years’ jail after committing 62 acts of child sex abuse in regional NSW.

Former Catholic priest John Joseph Farrell, 62, sexually abused nine young altar boys and three girls between 1979 and 1988 in Moree, Armidale and Tamworth.

Farrell, also known as “Father F”, committed 27 acts of sexual assault, 48 acts of indecent assault and four acts of indecency.

The “predatory” former priest was sentenced to a maximum of 29 years but a minimum of 18 years at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Monday.

He closed his eyes and showed no emotion during the three hour sentencing.

One of the people who clapped and cried was victim Mark Boughton and his wife, Belinda.

Outside court he said he hoped the outcome would allow himself and other victims to “have a life”.

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 ZEALAND
Stuff

TALIA SHADWELL AND SHANE COWLISHAW

Four troubled Catholic schoolgirls each visited their priest’s rooms, alone, seeking guidance.

What Peter Hercock did to the pupils of Sacred Heart in Lower Hutt instead left them feeling ashamed.

On Monday, the women broke their silence to expose the former priest for sexual abuse going back decades.

Three had complained to the Wellington archdiocese in the early 2000s. The church investigated and paid them settlements after Hercock confessed – but it did not tell police.

The trio and one other victim ultimately did, and on Monday in Wellington District Court, Hercock was sentenced to six years and seven months’ jail after admitting the sexual offending against all four.

He stared blankly ahead as each read out statements in court, including Ann-Marie Shelley, whom he began grooming in 1971.

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
Zee News

Monday, May 2, 2016

Sydney: An Australian court on Monday sentenced a former Catholic priest to 29 years in prison for sexually abusing a dozen children between 1979 and 1988.

John Joseph Farrell, 62, who abused three girls and nine boys in the towns of Moree and Tamworth, was found guilty of 62 sexual crimes against children and 17 other offences.

Sydney district court judge Peter Zahra said Farrell planned his crimes in advance, including the seduction of his victims and deceiving their parents, EFE news reported.

Farrell will not get parole for a period of 18 years, which includes the time he has already served in jail, and will not be released until 2033.

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
7 News

Samantha Brett and AAP – Yahoo7 on May 2, 2016

A former Catholic priest has been sentenced to 29 years in jail for sexually abusing children more than 30 years ago.

John Joseph Farrell’s 12 victims were boys and girls that he attacked in his Moree church, at public pools and sometimes in their own homes.

The 62 year old often committed the crimes after gaining the trust of the victim’s family. Many of the children were altar servers.

Farrell refused to meet the eyes of his many victims in court on Monday, as a judge outlined the horrific crimes he committed in the 1970s and 80s.

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
Washington Post

By Paul Mones
May 1

Paul Mones is a Los Angeles lawyer who represents victims of sexual abuse.

After decades of representing victims of sexual abuse, I was convinced that Jerry Sandusky’s arrest at Penn State in 2011 would put to rest the belief that child molesters are slovenly, leering guys wearing dirty raincoats and lurking outside playgrounds. But when word leaked last year that former Republican House speaker J. Dennis Hastert had paid hush money to a high school student he had allegedly sexually abused decades earlier, while he was a high school wrestling coach, the reaction by many in his home town of Yorkville, Ill., in Congress and elsewhere proved that the myth was alive and well. Not Denny Hastert, the beloved coach. Impossible!

The enduring fantasy that nice guys don’t molest children provides dangerous cover to perpetrators and engenders abject hopelessness in victims. Hiding behind a facade of kindheartedness, child molesters know they are committing the perfect crime, one that silences most of its victims forever. For those few able to muster the strength to come forward years later, it is not their perpetrator but the law itself that denies them justice. Maryland is a case in point: It gives victims just seven years after their 18th birthdays to file civil lawsuits — a period when few victims are yet able to acknowledge the horrific violation they experienced. …

Child molesters are a patient lot. A 2015 study on offenders in youth organizations found that more than half joined specifically to gain access to children. In no rush to achieve their goal, they are willing to spend months working their way into the fabric of a child’s life. Constantly proving “nice-guyness” is essential to abusers. They exploit the child’s inherent lack of life experience by lavishing him or her with gifts and adulation. The molester then manipulates the child’s reality — soon making an “innocent” rub of the shoulder, or a casual tussle of the hair, a normal part of his relationship with the child. Then the more invasive forms of abuse begin, and the child’s fate is sealed.

If you need a primer on how these molesters operate, read the U.S. attorney’s sentencing brief detailing not just the way Hastert allegedly went about sexually abusing the victim to whom he was paying the hush money, but also the tactics he used on other teenagers on his team. One victim, who was 14 at the time, alleged that Hastert told him to get up on a table so he could “loosen him up,” then in the process molested him.

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

IOWA
Eventbrite

Thursday, May 5, 2016 from 6:30 PM to 10:00 PM (CDT)

C.S.P.S. Hall
1103 3rd Street Southeast
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401

2016 Best Picture “Spotlight” shines a light on the impact of investigative journalism and a real news team at the Boston Globe. Join us for an evening celebrating IowaWatch, a statewide non-profit news organization, as we talk live via Skype with a member of the Spotlight team before we watch the film.

Doors open at 6:30. Guests can enjoy a cash bar and complimentary desserts. The program will begin at 7 p.m.

Matt Carroll, who describes himself as a data geek, was one of the four people on the Boston Globe’s original Spotlight team that won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for exposing clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church. In the movie “Spotlight”, Carroll is played by Brian d’Arcy James. Although Carroll left the Boston Globe in 2014, he is probing the future of journalism at the MIT Media Lab. He writes the popular blog “3 for the week” that highlights a trio of stories, videos and data visualizations about the news media. Carroll also leads Hacks/Hackers Boston, a 1,300-person meet-up “which educates journalists about digital and technologists about media,” according to MIT.

IowaWatch, also known as the Iowa Center For Public Affairs Journalism, is a non-profit news organization. Its mission is to maintain an independent, non-partisan journalistic program dedicated to producing and encouraging explanatory and investigative journalism in Iowa, engaging in collaborative reporting efforts with Iowa news organizations and educating journalism students.

Proceeds from the event will benefit IowaWatch. To learn more about the organization and how you can support investigative journalism in Iowa, visit http://www.iowawatch.org.

The $15 ticket price includes $5 for the movie and $10 for the discussion, desserts and support for IowaWatch. Please reserve your seats now. Additional tickets may be available at the door.

This event is sponsored by Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, P.L.C., of Cedar Rapids.

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
Huffington Post

Kim Bellware
Reporter, The Huffington Post

For nearly 40 years, Scott Cross hid from everybody what he called his “darkest secret.” And in a federal courtroom, the 53-year-old revealed it to the world.

“Coach Hastert sexually abused me in 1979, my senior year in high school,” Cross said at former House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s Wednesday sentencing hearing on bank fraud charges.

Hastert reluctantly admitted to abusing multiple students back when he was a high school wrestling coach — a fact federal investigators inadvertently learned while probing him on banking violations he committed while paying hush money to one of his victims.

But a standard loophole in the justice system meant that Hastert would technically go unpunished for his admitted sexual abuse, while his victims would get nothing.

Like Cross — and hundreds of victims from the Catholic church’s priest sex abuse scandal — many child sex abuse survivors come forward later in life only to learn the statute of limitations has locked them out of the courtroom.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, May 1, 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 a purportedly “forceful” tone, Pope Francis said child molesters must be “severely punished” but “did not specifically mention the church or its response to abuse.”

So what? When will a few papal sentences about how bad abuse is stop being news?

Just this week, a convicted priest who assaulted a California teenager was promoted to head an Oklahoma parish with a parochial school, until parishioners protects and their archbishop backed down.

[SNAP]

Just this week, a second young adult publicly reported being sexually abused as a child by Fr. Greg Yacyshyn who remains on the job in a Long Island parish.

[SNAP]

Just this week, we begged victims of Fr. Emmerich Vogt to come forward, because he’s being sued for child sex crimes yet still working as a priest.

[KATU]

[court document]

[BishopAccountability.org]

[SNAP]

Just this week, we drew attention to Fr. Bruce Wellems of Chicago who admits molesting a child yet violates the restrictions put on him by church officials and continues to be around kids.

[SNAP]

And all this is in the US, the nation where the abuse and cover up crisis first grabbed national headlines more than 30 years ago.

When we pretend that papal pronouncements about abusers mean something, we do a disservice to kids. When we applaud words but ignore inaction, we hurt children.

We strongly question the claim by the National Catholic Reporter that Francis “has come under some criticism for not speaking out on the subject more strongly …” Very few want Francis to talk more often or strongly about clergy sex crimes and cover ups. Most want him to DO something to stop clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

No matter how many times Catholic officials talk about child sex crimes and cover ups, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered them 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.

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
Crux

By Associated Press
May 1, 2016

ALBERT LEA, Minn. — A bookkeeper has pleaded not guilty to charges that she stole nearly $200,000 from a Catholic church and school in Albert Lea, marking the latest incident suggesting to some observers a problem with lax financial controls in American Catholicism.

Thirty-seven-year-old Ryan Mae McFarland of Austin entered her plea Thursday in Freeborn County District Court.

McFarland is charged with nine felony counts of theft by swindle. She was in charge of payroll and church contributions. A criminal complaint says McFarland transferred funds from St. Theodore Catholic Church and its school to her personal accounts

The Albert Lea Tribune reports the alleged theft reportedly took place from August 2013 through Feb. 5, 2014.

Judge Steven Schwab ordered McFarland to have no contact with church personnel or staff and to stay away from the church. McFarland is due back in court on Aug. 4 for a settlement conference.

The latest charge of shoddy financial controls comes against the backdrop of a 2006 study by Villanova University, which found that 85 percent of dioceses in the United States had experienced some form of embezzlement within the previous five years, mostly at the parish level. …

A retired U.S. Postal Service inspector and lifelong Catholic named Michael W. Ryan has examined money management in the Church in the United States. His estimate is that Catholic parishes in the the country may lose as much as $90 million annually due to inadequate controls over the collection plate.

Other experts find that estimate difficult to support with hard data, but most observers agree that money management remains a challenge for the Church, especially at the parish level where most funds are collected and disbursed.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, May 1, 2016

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

A new Associated Press story cites “lax financial controls” in the Catholic church, quotes one source as saying that the US church may lose $90 million annually from theft and cites an independent survey that shows that 85% of US dioceses have experienced recent embezzlement.

[Crux]

“American Catholics drop roughly $150 million into the Sunday collection plate every week,” the AP reports.

We urge citizens and Catholics to keep all this in mind the next time a bishop claims “poverty” and cities poor finances as an excuse to not better protect kids or help victims.

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 Crux Staff
May 1, 2016

ROME— Pope Francis on Sunday condemned every form of child abuse, calling it a “tragedy” that can’t be tolerated, and also asked all the parties involved in the Syrian conflict to respect the cease fire.

“[Abuse of minors] is a tragedy,” Francis said as he led the thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly Regina Coeli prayer.

“We mustn’t tolerate abuse against children,” the pope said. “We must defend them, and we must punish the abusers severely.”

The pontiff was speaking off-the-cuff after thanking the Italian Association Meter for the work they do in the fight against pedophilia. The institution was founded in 1989 by Father Fortunato Di Noto in the northern region of Sicilia, and has since then fought child abuse and also on-line child pornography.

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
Terrace Standard

by Cecile Favron – Terrace Standard
posted May 1, 2016

SENIOR OFFICIALS from the Anglican Church of Canada gathered in the Nisga’a community of Laxgalts’ap in the Nass Valley, north of Terrace, on April 27 to apologize to residential school survivors for its role in the federal government’s aboriginal residential school program.

The event followed a Nisga’a Lisims Government request sent to Archbishop Fred Hiltz who is the Primate and senior-most official in the county, citing that many of the Nass Valley’s former students of Anglican-run schools were not included in the church’s 1993 blanket apology to aboriginal peoples across Canada.

Church officials said they were unaware, even years later, that the earlier apology was not well-known among Nisga’a peoples.

“[This] is a historic event,” remarked hereditary chief and Laxgalts’ap village councillor Willard Martin, Sim’oogit Ni’is Yuus, referring to the event on Nisga’a lands.

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
Reuters

VATICAN CITY | BY PHILIP PULLELLA

Pope Francis called for “severe punishment” for pedophiles on Sunday after new details emerged in Italy of the 2014 death of a six-year-old girl who is alleged to have been thrown from an eighth-storey balcony by her abuser.

“This is a tragedy. We should not tolerate the abuse of minors,” Francis said, departing from prepared remarks at his weekly Sunday message and blessing to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

“We must protect minors and severely punish abusers,” he said.

Though the Catholic Church itself has been rocked by its own abuse scandals, he did not mention them on Sunday as he has in the past.

Italians have been shocked as details emerged in the case of six-year-old Fortuna who died in June 2014 after a fall from an eighth-storey balcony in Naples.

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
Manila Bulletin

by AP
May 1, 2016

Pope Francis is insisting that pedophiles who abuse children be severely punished.

Speaking to faithful in St. Peter’s Square Sunday (May 1, 2016), he greeted an Italian organization dedicated to fighting child abuse.

Calling pedophilia a “tragedy,” Pope Francis said “we mustn’t tolerate abuses on minors.”

He adds “we must defend minors and severely punish the abusers.”

Pope Francis didn’t mention pedophile scandals in the Catholic church in which bishops systematically transferred pedophile priests around parishes instead of reporting them to police. Victims’ groups have demanded Pope Francis punish such bishops.

Italians were recently shocked by the death of a 6-year-old near Naples thrown from the roof of an eight-story building after trying to resist her rapist.

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
Irish Independent

Pope Francis called for “severe punishment” for paedophiles on Sunday after new details emerged in Italy of the 2014 death of a six-year-old girl who is alleged to have been thrown from an eighth-storey balcony by her abuser.

“This is a tragedy. We should not tolerate the abuse of minors,” Francis said, departing from prepared remarks at his weekly Sunday message and blessing to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

“We must protect minors and severely punish abusers,” he said.

Though the Catholic Church itself has been rocked by its own abuse scandals, he did not mention them on Sunday as he has in the past.

Italians have been shocked as details emerged in the case of six-year-old Fortuna who died in June 2014 after a fall from an eighth-storey balcony in Naples.

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
Slate

Galen Baughman seemed like an ideal spokesman for sex offenders’ civil rights. Then he got arrested for texting a teenage boy.

By Leon Neyfakh

Galen Baughman had been out of prison for about three years when he came to Queens last spring to meet a friendly crowd of reporters, activists, and academics over lox and bagels. Baughman, then 31 years old, had been invited to tell the story of how he came to be incarcerated and labeled a sex offender. His goal for the day was to educate his audience about how the legal system mistreats people like him, and to convince any skeptics in attendance that he was not the dangerous monster that his criminal record might suggest.

Lenore Skenazy, the New York journalist who hosted the meet and greet, billed the event as a “sex offender brunch.” Skenazy had met Baughman while reporting out her parenting book, Free-Range Kids, about the virtues of letting children take risks and the perils of trying to protect them from every conceivable danger. In the course of her research, Skenazy came to believe that American sex offenders were being oppressed by the criminal justice system—that in the name of protecting children, lawmakers had turned hundreds of thousands of people into helpless pariahs while doing next to nothing to make kids safer.

Baughman, who grew up in the D.C. suburb of Arlington, Virginia, and attended Indiana University to study opera, arrived at the brunch wearing a blue collared shirt and a bright, friendly smile.* As he told his story, he spoke with the deliberate diction of a former theater kid.

“When I was 19, I went to prison for what was supposed to be 6½ years for having a consensual relationship with a high-school–age kid,” he said. “He was 14½. He was someone I’d known for a while and was really close to.”

After he completed his prison sentence, Baughman said, the state of Virginia refused to let him out. Instead, he was kept behind bars for more than two additional years because prosecutors believed he might fit the profile of a sexually violent predator. That meant Baughman could be held against his will under what’s known as “civil commitment,” a form of long-term psychiatric treatment that in practice amounts to indefinite detention. (Civil commitment is legal at the federal level and in 20 states. According to the New York Times, roughly 5,000 people convicted of sex crimes are now being held under civil commitment laws around the country.)

Despite Virginia’s best efforts, Baughman won his freedom in 2012, at which point he was placed on probation and added to the state’s sex offender registry. Upon his release, he set about becoming an activist on behalf of the population he would later start calling “my people.” He co-founded a nonprofit called the Center for Sexual Justice, dedicated to changing “the cultural beliefs leading to unjust sex laws that effectively target sexual minorities.” He got a job as communications director for Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, or CURE, a criminal justice reform group. He started attending conferences, showing up at important court hearings, and networking with other people in the movement. …

About two months ago, Baughman’s work was abruptly interrupted when he found out that his probation officer suspected him of violating the terms of his release. There were allegations that Baughman had exchanged inappropriate text messages with a 16-year-old boy. On March 3, Baughman was ordered to hand over his cellphone and his laptop. A month later, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.

* * *

The official violation report, compiled by Baughman’s probation officer at the Virginia Department of Corrections, accused him of carrying on a monthslong correspondence with a boy in Minnesota whom he’d met at a mutual friend’s funeral. In late 2015, the boy’s mother had found text messages on her son’s phone that disturbed her, saved some of them, and alerted the Virginia State Police. Later, in an email to Baughman’s probation officer, she stated that she considered him a threat and expressed concern that he was “contacting other underage boys” he had met at the funeral.

The violation report, which I obtained from someone who received it directly from Baughman, noted that the terms of Baughman’s probation forbade him from having verbal or written contact with anyone younger than 18. The report included pages upon pages of text messages between Baughman and the unnamed 16-year-old.

In one of the messages, Baughman invites the teenager to come visit him in D.C. In another, he advises him to use Kik or Snapchat for “conversations you don’t want to be seen” by police or parents. Elsewhere, Baughman flirts (“Are you the best looking boy you know?”), shares wisdom (“If you’re magnetic, you can draw people into you and hold them there—they buy into you, believe you, love you”), and boasts (“My work is helping people and winning ever-increasing support!”).

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

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | May. 1, 2016

ROME
Pope Francis railed against the sexual abuse of children in a weekly address in St. Peter’s Square Sunday, calling any such abuse a “tragedy” and saying the church cannot tolerate the matter and “must severely punish the abusers.”

Greeting members of an Italian association that has worked to raise awareness against pedophilia and to report sexual abuse crimes, who were present in the Square for the recitation of the Regina Coeli prayer, the pontiff thanked them for their work before departing from his prepared text.

“This is a tragedy,” said Francis off the cuff, his voice raised and his arm extended from the window of the Vatican’s apostolic palace above the Square. “We must not tolerate the abuse of minors. We must defend minors. And we must severely punish the abusers.”

The Catholic church around the world has been embroiled in scandals over its handling of sexually abusive clergy for decades, with survivors, advocates, law enforcement agencies, and some local jurisdictions saying members of the hierarchy covered up crimes in order to protect the institution at the risk of children’s well-being.

While Francis did not specifically mention the church or its response to abuse on Sunday, he spoke in the plural using a remarkably forceful tone.

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.

FLORIDA
Florida Times-Union

I choked up the first time I watched the movie “Spotlight.”

And the second and the third.

The Oscar-winning movie hit home in three areas.

First, it’s about journalism. That’s been my only career since realizing in high school that this is what I wanted. I’ve been a lucky guy to love my work.

Second, it’s about the Roman Catholic faith. I am a cradle Catholic. I would ascribe any success in life to intense loyalty to faith and family — the two are intertwined. I spent 12 years in Catholic schools, including one year in a Franciscan seminary. My faith keeps me centered.

Third, I am a former movie reviewer, so I appreciated the difficulty of putting the unglamorous work of investigative journalism onto a big screen. Digging through dusty old rosters of priests is real life.

So please allow me to offer a few thoughts about the movie and the issues it raised.

Accuracy: The issues involved in newsgathering were illustrated honestly, warts and all. The Boston Globe had an earlier opportunity to investigate the sex abuse within the church and simply missed it. But as long as that investigative team existed, there remained an opportunity to follow up.

The movie also revealed the difficult decisions involved in when to publish.

All towns are small towns: Within the power elite, at least, all towns are led by a relative few. Every city has its sacred cows. A good newspaper must be willing to take on a local institution, even if it is beloved, when it’s called for.

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
New York Times

Frank Bruni
APRIL 30, 2016

FOR a lesson on the riddles of human nature, look no further than Dennis Hastert.

Go back to early 1999, when he became the speaker of the House of Representatives. Revisit the reason he got that job. His Republican colleagues were sick of provocateurs, had been burned by scandal and wanted a reprieve — an antidote, even. Hastert fit the bill. In their view he wasn’t merely above reproach. He was too frumpy and flat-out boring to be acquainted with reproach.

“Like an old shoe” was how one prominent Republican described him to a reporter at the time.

In the closet with that old shoe were skeletons, but no one around him knew it or could have guessed which kind. …

Hastert described himself as a born-again Christian and had a diploma from Wheaton College in Illinois, which advertises itself as “explicitly Christian” and is an alma mater of Billy Graham’s. This was a factor in his colleagues’ assessments of him as safe, uncontroversial. This was a drum still being beaten by authors of letters urging the judge to treat Hastert leniently.

Tom DeLay, who served as the House majority whip and then the House majority leader under Hastert, was one of those writers. He told the judge that he, Hastert and a pastor would routinely read and discuss the Bible together in lunchtime sessions on Capitol Hill.

“We held each other accountable and we studied God’s word,” wrote DeLay, later adding: “He is a good man that loves the Lord. He gets his integrity and values from Him. He doesn’t deserve what he is going through.”

Doesn’t deserve it because he prays in what DeLay, also a born-again Christian, considers the right way, to the right divinity? Perhaps that will earn Hastert the most important forgiveness of all. But it’s no free pass for bringing pain into the lives of children he was paid to instruct and inspire.

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Three Franciscan friars will have the opportunity to defend their judgment as it pertained to the reprehensible appointments of a peer who is accused of molesting more than 100 children, primarily at a Johnstown Catholic high school.

A district judge last week ordered the trio to stand trial on charges of child endangerment and conspiracy.

Among his various appointments, Brother Stephen Baker was named “vocations director” — which put him in contact with teenagers — after he was removed from Bishop McCort Catholic High School in 2000, The Associated Press reported. His removal was based on a “credible” sexual-abuse allegation dating back 20 years.

More than 90 former high-schoolers settled lawsuits totaling more than $8 million, which claimed the Rev. Baker molested them. And that occurred after 11 students from a high school in Ohio settled similar claims against Baker, who committed suicide.

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 MEXICO
Clovis New Journal

April 30, 2016

Wendel Sloan

While attending the recent New Mexico Press Women Convention (open to everyone) in Albuquerque, I heard several panelists discuss the state of journalism.

With so many competing news sources, staff sizes have been sliced. Thousands of veteran journalists have lost their jobs, with newspapers and broadcast media often retaining less experienced and lower paid reporters.

Editors and news directors no longer have the luxury of assigning seasoned reporters to stories requiring in-depth research. …

Webber said we “spend too much time thinking about success and not significance.”

The media play an absolutely critical role in rooting out unfairness, corruption and the abuse of power, Webber says.

He used the movie “Spotlight” about pedophile priests as an example.

“Everybody knew about them, but nobody wrote about them until the ‘Boston Globe’ dared to investigate. The silence of acquiescence is not acceptable,” Webber said.

“It is journalists’ jobs to ask why things are the way they are.”

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 RABBI ARI HART NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, May 1, 2016

The famous joke goes: two Jews, three opinions. Yet last week, more than 100 Jewish leaders from across the religious and ideological divides came together, with one voice, to declare their support for statute of limitations reform for child abuse victims in New York State.

Why statute of limitations reform, and why are Jewish leaders lining up behind this bill? Because it’s our obligation as men and women of faith who purport to help people heal. And it is, I believe, our obligation as followers of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

After decades of denial, cover-ups and darkness, the light is finally shining on the scourge of child sexual abuse. Today, we better understand the high rate of its prevalence, the lasting and far-reaching damage caused by abusers, and the extreme difficulty survivors face in coming forward and seek justice. Tragically, New York State’s regressive laws prevent many victims from getting the justice they deserve and from stopping abusers from causing more harm.

While mental health experts have shown that it can take decades for a victim of child sexual abuse to overcome the fear, shame and trauma of abuse and come forward, our statutes allow someone to pursue criminal or civil justice only until the victim turns 23.

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.

ILLINOIS
Northwest Herald

Published: Sunday, May 1, 2016

Federal Judge Thomas M. Durkin did not mince words last week in sentencing former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert to a 15-month jail term in a sexual abuse-hush money case. Durkin described Hastert as a “serial child abuser” and described his attempt to accuse one of his victims of extortion as “unconscionable.”

In addition to jail time, Durkin ordered Hastert to undergo sex offender treatment, serve two years of supervised release after his release from prison, and pay $250,000 to a crime victims’ fund.

Hastert admitted in a statement he “mistreated” some of his Yorkville High School athletes when he was a teacher and wrestling coach at the school between 1965 and 1981, when he left YHS to begin his political career. He told the judge and courtroom, “I wanted to apologize for the boys I mistreated when I was their coach. What I did was wrong, and I regret it. They looked to me, and I took advantage of them.”

Fortunately, Durkin did not let Hastert off with a blanket apology. The judge asked Hastert, point-blank, if he had sexually abused three wrestlers. Hastert – after conferring with his lawyers – agreed to accept their statements accusing him of sexually abusing them.

We’re pleased Durkin refused to accept Hastert’s initial apology and instead pressed him to admit publicly to sexually abusing multiple victims. Hastert’s victims, their families and the public – whose trust he violated – needed to hear the former House Speaker confirm the heinous nature of his crimes. Hastert’s admission leaves no doubt – as stunning as it still may be to some of his friends and ardent political supporters – that he was, in fact, a predatory criminal during his years as teacher and coach at Yorkville High School.

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
Stop Baptist Predators

Christa Brown

In anticipation of the Southern Baptist Convention’s June 14-16 annual meeting in St. Louis, Pastor Bart Barber of Farmersville, Texas, has floated a proposed resolution “on sexual predation in the Southern Baptist Convention.” In explaining his reason, Barber wrote: “What drives me to submit this resolution is my concern that the worst days of church sexual misconduct may be ahead of us rather than behind us.”

I believe Barber is probably right that the worst days of clergy sex scandals may be ahead for Baptists — because they don’t yet seem to have learned the needed lessons from past scandals — and I applaud Barber for his apparent recognition that Baptists do indeed have a dire problem. However, I don’t think for one second that Barber’s resolution will actually bring about any significant change in how the Southern Baptist Convention deals with clergy sex abuse. Here’s why.

1. What’s being proposed is a “resolution.” Nothing more. It’s just talk. A resolution doesn’t actually do anything. It was almost 10 years ago that SNAP wrote its first letters to top SBC officials, requesting specific action, and action is still what’s needed. It is not enough — not nearly enough — to simply resolve that things should be better.

2. While the resolution generically expresses disapproval of churches that have acted in ways to prevent victims or others from reporting sexual abuse, the fact of the matter remains that the SBC provides no denominational mechanism by which survivors may safely report clergy abuse and church cover-ups with any realistic hope of being compassionately and objectively heard. By continuing to insist that clergy abuse survivors must go to the church of the accused pastor, the denomination itself institutionally discourages the reporting of clergy abuse, and assures that, most of the time, denominational officials will not even have to feel the discomfort of hearing about clergy abuse and cover-ups. Cases that make it into the media are the bare tip of the iceberg. If the SBC wants to express disapproval of churches that have acted in ways to prevent people from reporting instances of sexual abuse, then it must start by being willing to institutionally hear the voices of those who are trying to tell about such instances. And that would require a system by which survivors could make a report to a “safe place” office staffed by people with the training, experience, objectivity and professionalism to at least receive them with compassion and care.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

1 MAY 2016

BY GERALDINE MCKELVIE , MONICA CAFFERKY

For most of her childhood, Hannah Robinson had no idea who her dad was.

The inquisitive schoolgirl kept asking her single mum questions about him, but all she was told was that he was a university lecturer.

It was only when she reached 12 that her mother revealed the bombshell truth – Hannah had been fathered by a Catholic priest.

And his church bosses had tried to bully her mum into hiding the explosive secret – with one even coldly suggesting Hannah should be put up for adoption.

Now, after nearly 30 years of failing to find acceptance and love from the man who fathered her, Hannah has received a groundbreaking apology from Britain’s most senior Catholic.

Yet her disgraced dad is still allowed to say Mass at a parish in the south of England.

For Hannah, 38, it is scant recompense for what she really wanted: a loving father.

And, instead, the married mum-of-three has been torn apart by her feelings over him. “Covering up the existence of your child and not being honest with your colleagues and congregation smacks of hypocrisy,” she says.

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
Crux

By Associated Press
April 30, 2016

JACKSON, Mich. — A former Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for sexual abuse connected to his work at a Michigan high school in the 1980s.

At age 75, James Rapp likely will die in prison. He’s been in prison for similar crimes in Oklahoma, one of many stops as a priest.

Rapp’s victims from Lumen Christi High School spoke for more than two hours in a Jackson courtroom Friday. He pleaded no contest in February to criminal sexual conduct.

Defense attorney Alfred Brandt said Rapp coerced students into having sexual contact while working as a teacher and wrestling coach.

An investigation began three years ago when victims approached the sheriff’s department. Attorney General Bill Schuette says Rapp’s prison sentence “hopefully offers some solace” to victims.

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
New York Daily News

BY MEG WAGNER NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Saturday, April 30, 2016

A Catholic priest is facing up to 40 years behind bars for sexually abusing Michigan high school boys three decades ago — and six of his victims confronted him in the courtroom before he was hauled off to prison.

James Rapp — a 75-year-old former priest who taught at Jackson Lumen Christi High School in south central Michigan in the 1980s — pleaded no contest to criminal sexual conduct for raping and molesting his students.

“His crime and position was a murder on my soul,” victim Andy Russell said in court Friday, according to the Citizen Patriot. “He’s a monster and his path of destruction extends far further than it ever should have.”

Rapp is already serving a 40-year prison sentence for lewd molestation in Oklahoma, where he worked after he left Michigan.

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.

CALIFORNIA
The Mercury News

By Gary Peterson, gpeterson@bayareanewsgroup.com
POSTED: 04/30/2016

They stood quiet as church mice outside Oakland’s Cathedral of Christ the Light. They spoke only to those passers-by who engaged them. Their presence was their message, and the message is that molestation of children by clergy didn’t disappear with the final credits of “Spotlight.”

In the past two months, lawsuits filed against the Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas, have accused once-local priests — the Rev. Emmerich Vogt and the Rev. Milton Eggerling — of sexual abuse. Vogt’s attorney has denied the allegations. Eggerling is deceased.

“Between these two priests, they worked in the Diocese of Oakland, the Diocese of San Francisco and the Diocese of San Jose,” said Melanie Sakoda, one of three volunteers from Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), which held the half-hour event Tuesday.

The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team blew the lid off the Catholic Church’s dirty not-so-little secret in a series of stories in 2002. In February, a movie celebrating that journalistic effort won the Academy Award for best picture.

By comparison, Sakoda and her fellow volunteers are more selective and low-key when it comes to whom they spotlight and what they seek.

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.

SOUTH CAROLINA
WBTW

By Eric Walters
Published: April 29, 2016

FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – A youth group volunteer at a Florence church has been arrested for sexually assaulting a minor.

According to Florence Police Major Carlos Raines, a 15-year-old boy claimed Leo LaSalle Comissiong, 20, of Florence kissed and folded him through his clothes.

The incident happened in February at the NewSpring Church on North Cashua Drive, Raines 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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

22 April

In January this year, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse invited applications for core participant status in relation to four of its investigations. For further information on core participants please read this document. Having considered each application received, the Chair granted some applications on paper and in March preliminary hearings were held to consider further submissions. The Inquiry has today announced the results of those applications and the documents relating to the decisions can be found on each of the investigations pages via the links below.

A total of 94 applications were received. Of these, 80 were granted, nine were declined and five remain to be considered. Where an organisation has made applications in relation to more than one investigation, this is counted as one application.

The Inquiry granted 18 applications from organisations and 59 applications from individual complainants, victims and survivors. Two groups, Minister & Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors (MACSAS) and the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (SOSA) also were granted core participant status, both of whom represent a large number of complainants, victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. One application from a perpetrator was granted.

Lord Greville Janner

Out of a total of 36 the Inquiry granted 34 core participant applications – 27 individual complainants and seven organisations and institutions. Two applications were declined.

The Anglican Church

Out of a total of 43 the Inquiry granted 34 applications as core participants – 24 to individual complainants, victims and survivors, Minister & Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors group, eight organisations and institutions and one perpetrator, Peter Ball. Five further applications are still being considered by the Chair. Four applications were declined.

Cambridge House, Knowl View and Rochdale

Out of a total of 15 the Inquiry granted 13 applications as core participants – eight complainants, victims and survivors, five organisations and institutions. Two applications were declined.

Lambeth Council

Out of a total of six, the Inquiry granted five applications as core participants – Shirley Oaks Survivors Association group representing hundreds of complainants, victims and survivors, and four organisations and institutions. One application was declined.

The Chair may designate a person as a core participant at any time during the course of the inquiry provided that person consents to being so designated. In deciding whether to designate a person as a core participant, the Chair must in particular consider whether:

* The person played, or may have played, a direct and significant role in relation to the matters to which the inquiry relates
* The person has a significant interest in an important aspect of the matters to which the inquiry relates
* The person may be subject to explicit or significant criticism during the inquiry proceedings or in the report, or in any interim report

A person ceases to be a core participant either on a date specified by the Chair in writing or at the end of the inquiry.

It is not necessary to be a core participant in order to provide evidence to the Inquiry. A witness may provide evidence to the Inquiry either by providing a witness statement or documents. Witnesses also may be asked to attend to give oral evidence during a public hearing. Witnesses may be legally represented if they wish and section 40 of the Inquiries Act 2005 gives the Chair the power to award expenses and legal costs to those who provide the Inquiry with evidence, whether they are core participants or not.

A core participant has a formal role as defined by legislation. Core participants are individuals, organisations or institutions that have a significant interest in the work of the Inquiry.Their role is restricted to the particular Inquiry investigation for which they have been granted core participant status, not the entire Inquiry.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

29 April

On Friday 22 April the Inquiry announced all of the core participant application results apart from five from the Anglican Church investigation which remained to be considered. These have now been decided and of the five applications from complainants, victims and survivors, two have been granted and three have been declined. This means that of the overall total of 94 core participant applications received, 82 were granted and 12 were declined.

In the Anglican Church investigation, a total of 43 applications were received. The Inquiry granted 36 applications as core participants – 26 to individual complainants, victims and survivors, one to Minister & Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors group, eight to organisations and institutions and one perpetrator. 7 applications were declined.

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 West Australian

Amanda Banks – The West Australian on May 1, 2016

More than 320 WA institutions have been reported to the royal commission into child sex abuse, which has held almost 600 private sessions to hear the stories of WA victims.

Details of the extent of the commission’s investigations in WA were revealed yesterday as the inquiry announced it had been so inundated with requests for private sessions that it had set a September 30 cut-off for applications from people wanting to tell their story.

Commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan said demand for private sessions, which started almost three years ago, had exceeded expectations and showed no signs of easing.

Nationally, the commission has spoken to 5111 people who have told their stories of sex abuse in institutions. It has accepted another 1544 people who are in a queue for private sessions. Over the past year, an average of 37 people a week sought the private hearings.

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.

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

for immediate release: Saturday, April 30, 2016, 2016

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

Yesterday, a serial predator priest – who for years belonged to a Toledo-based Catholic group – was sentenced to 40 years for crimes in Michigan. For the safety of kids and the healing of victims, we hope he stays behind bars for as long as possible.

[BishopAccountability.org]

[Detroit Free Press]

[WILX]

We’re grateful that Fr. James Francis Rapp was charged again, pled guilty to more child sex crimes.

Fr. Rapp has already been convicted on other child sex charges and is imprisoned in Oklahoma. So it would have been easy for law enforcement to look the other way when more victims surfaced.

But Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed more child sex charges against him for molesting kids at Jackson Lumen Christi Catholic High School in Jackson in the 1980s.

Once a child molester is convicted, many people who could be helpful get complacent. They assume his sentence will stand, his appeals will fail, and he’ll be kept away from kids for many years. But often, child molesters – especially clerics – get top notch defense lawyers, exploit legal technicalities, and escape with little or no jail time. Then, when other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers find this out, it’s too late for them to really make a difference.

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.

ILLINOIS
Daily Southtown

Ted Slowik
Daily Southtown

It’s difficult to grasp the power that child sex predators hold over their prey. The fear they instill in their victims and the convincing lies they tell are keys to understanding people like Dennis Hastert, who U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin said was a “serial molester.”

The stunning revelation of Hastert as the highest-ranking American politician known to have publicly admitted to sexually abusing minors deserves exploration of tough questions. How could a monster with such dark secrets achieve such power? Why did his victims remain silent for so long? What motivates victims to pursue compensation from those responsible for their suffering?

For help finding answers, I reached out to Tim Placher, an attorney and teacher who won awards for his Southtown columns describing his experience being abused by a priest as a teen.

Placher agreed to share his insight with readers and offer the perspective of a survivor who surrendered his privacy in pursuit of accountability.

Threads connect Placher’s abuse by the late Rev. Richard Ruffalo to the teen boys abused by Hastert, including Scott Cross, brother of former state representative and Illinois House Majority Leader Tom Cross. Their experiences happened in the 1970s and included despicable acts committed by men of power.

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
Providence Journal

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer

Jacqueline Tempera
Journal Staff Writer

Posted Apr. 30, 2016

In December 1966, the Charleston Daily Mail noted the ordination of Howard W. White Jr. as an Episcopal priest in West Virginia.

White, like all other Episcopal ordinates, vowed to follow the teachings of Christ and be “a wholesome example” to his people.

White’s first assignment, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Martinsburg, West Virginia, lasted less than a year. He moved, and moved again, from parishes to elite boarding schools, from prep schools to churches, from state to state and within states. New Hampshire. Rhode Island. Virginia. North Carolina. Pennsylvania.

Along the way, White’s accusers say, he left trail of wrecked and broken lives. The allegations of sexual abuse span decades and distance.

A godson. A boy who says he lived with White in a rectory and fled to the streets. A teenage parishioner who says White molested her at the same church. A former St. George’s School student. All between 10 and 15 years old. Two of whom have recently stepped forward in North Carolina.

In 1974, St. George’s in Middletown quietly fired the Rev.”Howdy” White after he admitted sexual misconduct, but did not report him to authorities despite a mandatory reporting 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.

ILLINOIS
Naperville Sun

Bill Bird
Naperville Sun

A former Roman Catholic priest once assigned to St. Raphael Church in Naperville was sentenced Friday to between 20 and 40 years in prison for sexually abusing students in the 1980s while a high school teacher in Michigan.

James Rapp, 75, served in the Roman Catholic Church Diocese of Joliet between 1987 and 1990. That included his tenure at St. Raphael Church, at 1215 Modaff Road in Naperville’s West Highlands neighborhood.

Rapp is completing a 20-year term in an Oklahoma prison for sexually molesting children while serving as a priest in that state. He was convicted Friday of a total of six counts of criminal sexual conduct while a priest, teacher and athletic coach at Lumen Christi Catholic High School in Jackson, Mich., located in the south-central part of the state about 40 miles west of Ann Arbor.

A judge heard more than two hours of testimony from six men who described in detail how Rapp molested them.

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.

KANSAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 4, 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 the new issue of his church newsletter, Archbishop Joseph Naumann is finally admitting that two of his priests are accused of sexually exploited adults.

[The Leaven]

But there’s another Kansas City Kansas archdiocesan predator – Fr. Paul Hosler – who has committed the same devastating, manipulative self-serving sexual misconduct. Naumann continues, however, to keep silent about Fr. Hosler, as he done for years.

We suspect there are several other similar offenders still in eastern Kansas parishes. We hope their victims will come forward soon too.

The two “outed” wrongdoers today are:

–Fr. Anthony Kiplagat, who’s reportedly fled back home to Kenya from his parishes in Osage City and Scranton, &

–Fr. George Seuferling, who faces multiple allegations, was suspended more than four years ago, and now is reportedly being defrocked (a process that involves the Vatican and often takes years).

Perhaps the most tragic part of these latest grudging and partial disclosures is that – just like the Fr. Shawn Ratigan case in Kansas City Missouri – innocent parishioners were hurt because a bishop opted for secrecy instead of openness and put his own comfort and convenience ahead of the safety and well-being of his flock. It’s just heart-breaking.

And now, Naumann’s taking the easy way out by trying to defrock Fr. Seuferling. Instead, Naumann should be ordering him into a treatment center, giving his personnel file to law enforcement, visiting his old parishes, and begging victims to call police so he might be prosecuted. That’s what a caring shepherd would do.

Our hearts ache for the victims of all three priests. We especially ache for those who were manipulated and betrayed by Fr. Seuferling after Naumann knew of his sexual misconduct but kept silent (and refused to handle those reports properly and put Fr. Seuferling in a facility so he couldn’t hurt others.) And we ache most especially for anyone he hurt in El Buen Pastor, a community in El Salvador that has worked with Good Shepherd Catholic Community in Shawnee Kansas for more than 20 years.

We worry that Fr. Seuferling will hurt others in the future, especially because, as Naumann admits, he’s disobeyed previous restrictions in the past, so why should he obey any restrictions now? And of course we worry that the other two clerics will also hurt others again.

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
Amazon

This is the true story of the bizarre, historic case of Andrew Lee Sullivan.

He exposes the hidden and outrageous world of a budding Catholic institute. A discarded insider and captive in an apartment near Rome, the once broken priest with suicidal tendencies survives. He shares his ordeal and bares his soul with raw sincerity.

In 1979, an idealistic and naïve Sullivan leaves California and joins a wannabe religious order named Miles Jesu. Two tragic but unclear realities threaten his future. The young man has a condition that retards the proper development of his emotional life. The eighteen year old unwittingly joins a cult. These two menaces trigger gradual human destruction. Life deteriorates into a victim’s futile attempts to endure a virtual sociopath.

Then a miracle of overwhelming love bursts in the soul of Father Sullivan. Secrets of the power of love, Jesus’ love transform him. All hell breaks loose. Breakneck emotional development surges. His only path to human salvation is to escape into the Vatican and face his worst fears. He must risk his future and unmask the cult to seize his freedom. Sullivan must face the consequences of feeling divine and human love for the first time.

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.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Alan Erwin
PUBLISHED
30/04/2016

An abuse victim is to appeal his failed legal attempt to have claims that senior politicians, businessmen and high-level British state agents connived in a paedophile ring at a notorious Belfast care home examined by a Westminster inquiry.

Earlier this month the High Court dismissed Gary Hoy’s bid for a judicial review into the decision to keep the Kincora scandal probe within the remit of a Stormont-commissioned body.

But the 54-year-old’s legal team will now mount an urgent attempt to have that verdict overturned. Judges at the Court of Appeal yesterday listed the renewed challenge for a hearing next month.

Mr Hoy’s solicitor, Claire McKeegan of KRW Law, said later: “The applicant and all survivors of abuse at Kincora are vulnerable individuals and should not have to relive the trauma of that abuse by going through this process more than once.

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.

ARGENTINA
La Opinion

[Prosecutor Ruben Martinez presented yesterday an appeal against the decision to grant home detention priest Nestor Monzon (47) of Reconquista who is accused of sexual abuse of minors.]

El fiscal Rubén Martínez presentó ayer un recurso de apelación contra la decisión de otorgar prisión preventiva domiciliaria al sacerdote Néstor Monzón (47) de Reconquista.

La apelación realizada por el funcionario del Ministerio Público de la Acusación, se enmarca en la investigación en la cual el sacerdote está imputado por el delito de “abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante, agravado por la condición de ser un ministro de un culto religioso reconocido y por producir un grave daño en la salud de la víctima”.

Recordemos que el miércoles último, el sacerdote Monzón, tuvo malas noticias, ya que la Abadía Benedictina del Niño Dios, en Victoria, Entre Ríos, donde el hombre iba a cumplir una condena domiciliaria de 60 días no aceptó recibir al sacerdote abusador. “El cura Monzón no ha estado, no está, ni va a estar en la Abadía”, fue la respuesta del abad benedictino Carlos Oberti a la prensa.

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
WHBY

A retired priest in the Green Bay Catholic Diocese is banned from performing church services, after Brown County prosecutors charged him with exposing himself to a teen.

Court records accuse Rev. Richard Thomas of repeatedly flashing the boy last month. Prosecutors say it was happening when the child walked past the retirement home where Thomas lives in Allouez.

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.

SPAIN
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

Two devotees have undergone chastity exams to defend their sect’s ex-Catholic prelate, who stands accused of telling female followers his ‘holy’ semen would purify them.

ROME — Some people will do anything for love—even deny it.

Or at least that’s what it appears two Spanish pseudo-nuns have done in an attempt to save Feliciano Miguel Rosendo, a priest who has been accused of forcing them to take part in orgies by claiming his semen was holy and represented the “body of Christ” and would “purify” them.

The nuns reportedly agreed to virginity tests in the Spanish town of Tui to prove that they hadn’t had carnal relations with the prelate, despite eyewitness accounts that imply at least some sexual contact.

Rosendo was arrested in December 2014 on charges of sex abuse and tax crimes associated with the Order of Saint Michael Archangel, a Roman Catholic sect whose choir performed for Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 during his apostolic voyage to Madrid. After allegations of sexual escapades and money laundering surfaced, the Vatican relieved Rosendo of his duties—after which the prelate simply changed the name of his sect to the Voice of Serviam and apparently carried on with business as usual, unusual as it might have been.

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
Catholic Register

Fr. Raymond de Souza
April 29, 2016

ST. JOHN’S, NFLD. – There it was, on the front page of the St. John’s Telegram, a detailed discussion of the sacramental seal of the confessional, and rather fairly done too.

For what reason? It was not for lack of news. My first ever visit to Newfoundland coincided with a number of major stories. There was the inaugural budget of the new Liberal government, which raised taxes on everything that moved, cut services and still booked a whopping $1.8 billion deficit (more than 20 per cent of total government spending). The Liberals will take the heat, but it was the Progressive Conservatives in power from 2003-2015 who deserve the blame, having squandered the oil boom. Then there was the resignation of the CEO of Nalcor, along with the entire board of directors. Nalcor is the Newfoundland crown corporation established in 2007 to manage the province’s energy industry. And for good measure, St. John’s was hit with the worst April storm in its history — 49 cm of snow and howling winds that rendered the city impassable. If a visitor needed reminding that Newfoundland really is in the middle of the north Atlantic, closer to Iceland than to Vancouver Island, the “spring” storm was sufficient.

So with all that going on, why were Catholic matters on the front page? It was coverage of the Mount Cashel trial. Yes, more than 25 years after the revelations of the horrific abuse at the Irish Christian Brothers orphanage, it is in the courts again. The Christian Brothers in Canada have long since been liquidated, the government of Newfoundland has paid compensation to the victims, the Mount Cashel building itself has been torn down and a supermarket built on the site — but there is a new trial. A civil trial, a test case brought on behalf of victims, charging that the Archdiocese of St. John’s itself should be held “vicariously liable” for the abuse at the orphanage, even though it was not an archdiocesan entity, either according to civil law or canon law. The trial will resume hearing testimony in June.

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.

NEDERLAND
Volkskrant

Wim Deetman heeft bestuursleden van de slachtofferorganisatie KLOKK (Koepel Landelijk Overleg Kerkelijk Kindermisbruik) onder druk gezet om een parlementaire enquête over seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk te voorkomen. Deetman, die namens de kerk zelf het misbruik had onderzocht, zou tijdens een gesprek in Den Haag de bestuursleden hebben ‘geïntimideerd’. Hierop besloten ze, volgens het radioprogramma Argos, de Tweede Kamer niet langer om een enquête te vragen.

Vier bestuursleden van KLOKK bevestigen in het programma Argos, dat zaterdag op NPO Radio 1 wordt uitgezonden, dat ze door Deetman onder druk zijn gezet en erkennen te hebben toegegeven aan de ‘intimidatie’.

Uit e-mails die Argos in handen heeft zou blijken dat de secretaris van Deetman, Bert Kreemers, al langer druk uitoefende op Klokk om de eis van een parlementaire enquête te laten varen.

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.

NEDERLAND
1 Limburg

[Wim Deetman asked board members of victim advocacy Klokk in a compelling way to abandon a parliamentary inquiry. The allegation was made on the NPO Radio 1 program Argos which is broadcast Saturday afternoon. Deetman led a committee that investigated abuse in the Catholic Church.]

Wim Deetman vroeg bestuursleden van slachtofferbelangenorganisatie KLOKK op dwingende wijze af te zien van een parlementaire enquête.

Dat blijkt uit een onderzoek van het NPO Radio 1-programma Argos dat zaterdagmiddag wordt uitgezonden.

Tienduizenden kinderen

CDA’er Deetman leidde een commissie die onafhankelijk onderzoek deed naar seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk. Het misbruik kwam in 2010 naar buiten. Tienduizenden kinderen bleken in de jaren 50, 60 en 70 op katholieke seminaires en internaten door geestelijken te zijn misbruikt.

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.

PARAGUAY
Cafe Paraguay

DANIEL WIENS KEINE KOMMENTARE 29. APRIL 2016

Verschiedene Pressemitglieder der Zeitung „La Nación“ haben im vergangenen Monat eine eigene Untersuchung durchgeführt, wobei sie sich auf einen Fall der katholischen Kirche gestürzt haben, um die Wahrheit ans Licht zu bringen – ähnlich wie im aktuell sehr berühmten Kinofilm „Spotlight“.

Es geht in dieser Untersuchung um einen argentinischen Pfarrer der katholischen Kirche, namens Carlos Ibáñez, der in Argentinien mit sexuellen Missbrauch angeklagt wurde. Warum das für Paraguay relevant ist? Dieser Pfarrer ist 1993 nach Paraguay geflohen, wurde tatsächlich festgenommen und ins Gefängnis gesetzt, aber trotzdem nach einem Jahr frei gelassen. Die katholische Kirche entnahm ihn aus dem Gefängnis, und so konnte er weiterhin seinen Ruf als Pfarrer in Paraguay ausleben.

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.

NEDERLAND
NRC

[Wim Deetman pressured board members of the victim organization called Klokk to avoid a parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Deetman investigated abuse on behalf of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands.]

Wim Deetman heeft bestuursleden van slachtofferorganisatie KLOKK onder druk gezet om een parlementaire enquête over seksueel misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk te voorkomen. Deetman, die namens de Kerk zelf het misbruik onderzocht, deed dat tijdens een gesprek op 30 maart 2012 in Den Haag. Na te zijn „geïntimideerd” door Deetman besloten de bestuursleden de Tweede Kamer niet langer om een enquête te vragen. Die was daarmee van de baan.

Dat onthult radioprogramma Argos deze zaterdag. Vier bestuursleden bevestigen door Deetman onder druk gezet te zijn, en te zijn gezwicht.

Uit e-mails in handen van Argos blijkt ook dat de secretaris van Deetman, Bert Kreemers, al langer druk uitoefende op KLOKK. Zo mailde hij KLOKK-voorzitter Guido Klabbers dat er wat hem betreft „genoeg onderzocht” was. „Ik gun het jou van harte dat mevrouw Arib, mevrouw Gesthuizen en meneer Dibi dat onderzoek [van de commissie-Deetman] nog eens dunnetjes overdoen, maar ik heb niet de innerlijke overtuiging dat ze nog met iets nieuws komen.” Volgens Kreemers is de Tweede Kamer „geen onderzoeksinstituut” en horen onder ede „een farce”.

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.

MAINE
The Greek Reporter

By Evgenia Choros – Apr 29, 2016

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court upheld the conviction of a former Greek Orthodox priest on sex charges involving a former altar boy.

Adam Metropoulos, 53, of Bangor was sentenced a year ago to 12 years in prison. The Bangor man is currently serving a six-and-a-half-year sentence for four counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

The Superior Court found Metropoulos guilty on four felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor following a jury-waived trial in March 2015. The charges stemmed from the former priest’s sexual assault on a 15-year-old altar server at the church in 2006 and 2007. The former altar boy at St. George Greek Orthodox Church said that he was sexually assaulted by Metropoulos as a teenager. The man, now 23, testified that Metropoulos “stole his life.”

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.

UTAH
The Guardian (UK)

Maria L La Ganga in Provo, Utah and Dan Hernandez
Saturday 30 April 2016

Madi Barney sat sobbing in the Provo, Utah, police department. It had been four days since the Brigham Young University sophomore had been raped in her off-campus apartment.

She was scared – terrified – that the officials at her strict, Mormon university would find out and punish her.

Nonsense, the officers told her, they’ll never know, and they won’t hurt you. But a month or so later, there she was with her attorney in Brigham Young University’s Title IX office – a place where rape victims are supposed to get help – and offered an ultimatum by a university official.

Barney was told the school “had received a police report in which ‘A) it looks like you’ve been raped and B) it also looks like you may have violated the honor code’”, she recounted, and that “I was going to be forwarded to the honor code office unless I let them investigate me. I said absolutely not.”

The university has told Barney that she cannot register for future classes. She is no longer welcome at the institution her father attended before her, along with aunts and uncles and two cousins, a university that devout families consider the Harvard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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
New Indian Express

ELURU: The police have taken a pastor into custody on the charges of sexual harassment of girls at Nimmalagudem village in Buttayagudem agency mandal of West Godavari district on Friday.

According to the police, Chode Suresh of Nimmalagudem village in Buttayagudem village was running an unauthorised children’s home at Nimmalagudem village since 2010. He sheltered Class 10 and Intermediate girls from Ramannagudem and Nimmalagudem villages in the mandal.

Recently, said the police, he began sexual harassment of Class 10 and Intermediate girls. A fortnight ago, a Class X girl went back home unable to bear the harassment and told her family members about his behaviour. With this, the other parents too brought back their children from the home.

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
MLive

By Benjamin Raven | braven@mlive.com

JACKSON, MI — James Rapp’s Friday, April 29 sentencing wasn’t just about how long the former high school priest and coach would spend in prison.

It was about giving the 75-year-old former Jackson Lumen Christi High School priest’s victims a chance to tell their stories and confront the man they once viewed as an authoritative, respected figure.

Six of James Rapp’s victims provided gripping, detailed testimonials of how the former priest and coach abused them and affected their lives. Some remained anonymous, but others made the choice to make themselves known in court.

Rapp, who is currently serving a 40-year prison term in Oklahoma where he pleaded no contest to lewd molestation, was sentenced to up to 40 more years in prison by Jackson County Circuit Judge Susan Beebe.

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
KRON

JACKSON, MI (WLNS) – Six of James Rapp’s victims came forward to talk about how the former Lumen Christi wrestling coach and priest changed their lives forever.

“I wish we were here under different circumstances today to put a person like him to sleep…I know to this day that I could have been a different person had this not happened,” said victim Andrew Russell.

“He knelt besides a bed I was in. He had a bed. Held my hand, said the Lord’s prayer and then climbed in bed with me and had his way with me,” said another victim John C. Wood.

The 75-year old Rapp pleaded no contest to three counts of first degree Criminal Sexual Conduct and three counts of second degree Criminal Sexual Conduct back in March.

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
NDTV

Associated Press

JACKSON, MICHIGAN: Victims confronted a former Roman Catholic priest in court on Friday as he was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for sexually abusing students at a Michigan high school in the 1980s.

A judge heard more than two hours of testimony from six men who described in detail how James Rapp molested them. Rapp coerced students into having sexual contact while working as a teacher and wrestling coach at Lumen Christi High School in Jackson.

“His crime and position was a murder on my soul,” Andy Russell said. “He’s a monster and his path of destruction extends far further than it ever should have.”

The Associated Press doesn’t typically identify victims of sexual abuse, but Russell has talked publicly to the Jackson Citizen Patriot about what happened at the school.

In February, Rapp, 75, pleaded no contest to criminal sexual conduct. He was in prison in Oklahoma for similar crimes when he was charged in Michigan last year. He worked in Philadelphia; Salt Lake City; Naperville, Illinois; Duncan, Oklahoma; Jackson, Michigan and Lockport, New York before he was defrocked as a priest.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

April 29, 2016

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

Australia’s most senior public prosecutors have rejected a suggestion that their decisions should be subject to judicial review at a discussion about how the criminal justice system manages sexual abuse cases.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse invited Directors of Public Prosecutions from each state and territory as well as victims’ rights advocates to the meeting to examine the question of external oversight of DPPs and whether there should be avenues for victims to seek a review of a decision not to prosecute.

The DPPs rejected the necessity for a judicial review of the reasons for their decisions, saying findings could be reviewed internally if necessary.

They also unanimously argued against a suggestion that an independent inspector be appointed to audit the processes of the DPPs in each state and territory.

Most DPPs undertake internal audits, with the results published in their annual reports.

Commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan suggested greater oversight and transparency would improve public confidence in the criminal justice system.

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
Fox 11

[with video]

BY ANDREW LACOMBE, FOX 11 NEWS FRIDAY, APRIL 29TH 2016

ALLOUEZ (WLUK) — A volunteer with a support group for people abused by priests is raising questions after Rev. Richard Thomas, a retired Diocese of Green Bay priest, was charged Thursday for allegedly exposing himself four times last month to a 16-year-old boy when the boy was walking to school.

Thomas was living in Grellinger Hall, a home for retired priests in Allouez.

According to the criminal complaint, Thomas told investigators at the time of his arrest that “he is already seeking treatment.”

“Why was he already in it if this was his first experience with some kind of sexual impropriety?” asked Alice Hodek.

Hodek is the Green Bay coordinator the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

“I’d like to know if there have been allegations against him before,” said Hodek.

In a statement, the diocese says it is fully cooperating in the investigation.

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.

NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

An abuse victim is to appeal his failed legal attempt to have claims that senior politicians, businessmen and state agents connived in a paedophile ring at a notorious Belfast care home examined by a Westminster inquiry.

Earlier this month the High Court dismissed Gary Hoy’s bid to judicially review the decision to keep the probe into the Kincora scandal within the remit of a Stormont-commissioned body.

But his legal team are now to mount an urgent attempt to have that verdict overturned.

Judges at the Court of Appeal yesterday listed the renewed challenge for a hearing next month.

Mr Hoy’s solicitor, Claire McKeegan of KRW Law, said later: “The applicant and all survivors of abuse at Kincora are vulnerable individuals and should not have to relive the trauma of that abuse by going through this process more than once.

“They are entitled to an investigation which has the powers to get to the truth. An urgent appeal has been lodged seeking to achieve exactly that.”

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.