ABUSE TRACKER

KENTUCKY
Global News (Canada)

[with video]

By Elton Hobson
Video Producer

***WARNING: Story contains details of a sexual assault case which may not be suitable for all readers. Discretion is advised.***

A Kentucky church is facing tough questions from the local community after an investigation by a local TV station found that the church employs a convicted sex offender.

Now the pastor of Truth Apostolic Church in Madisonville is defending his decision to hire the man – but his comments, specifically those suggesting that the woman the man was convicted of sexually assaulting bore some responsibility for the attack, are coming under fire.

The story came to light when NBC affiliate WFIE received several anonymous tips that a convicted sex offender was working at the local church.

Their investigation revealed that Thomas Hopper, working with the church’s outreach ministry staff, was convicted of rape and sodomy in the early 1990s. According to court documents, the victim, a 13-year-old girl, said Hopper held a razor blade to her throat before he sexually assaulted her.

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UNITED STATES
Baptist News

BOB ALLEN | APRIL 15, 2016

A Southern Baptist pastor/blogger has submitted a resolution for consideration at the upcoming meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention calling on leaders to get tough on churches that tolerate or conceal sexual abuse.

Bart Barber, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, said he is asking the SBC resolutions committee to consider a resolution titled “On Sexual Predation in the Southern Baptist Family” when it reports at the 2016 SBC annual meeting June 14-16 in St. Louis, Mo.

The resolution supports removal of any church that knowingly places a sex offender in a position of leadership over children or other vulnerable participants, or acts to hide alleged misconduct from church members or discourage reporting it to police.

Barber, whose church is aligned with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, said in an introductory blog March 28 he is raising the issue now because “these days more of the women seeking pastoral counsel from me have been molested than haven’t been. A clear majority.”

“The change has taken my breath away,” Barber said. “No, not nearly all of it is happening in churches, but too much of it is.”

Barber said anecdotal evidence alone is enough to suggest reports of predatory sexual behavior toward both minor and adult members of churches by clergy or church staff are widespread in Southern Baptist life. “Woefully common,” he said, are anecdotes about churches that try to prevent its reporting to legal authorities, hide sexual misconduct from the members of the congregation or suppress the public release of information regarding sexual misconduct on the part of church leaders.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kirchensite

[Changes are being made in the way priests are formed in the Munster diocese. Abuse of power by the priest is included in the changes.]

Bistum. Der gewählte Vertreter der katholischen Priesterausbilder in Deutschland, der münstersche Regens Hartmut Niehues, verlangt neue Wege in Seelsorge und Priesterausbildung. “Das System, wie es bisher besteht, ist am Ende”, sagt der Vorsitzende der Deutschen Regentenkonferenz der Wochenzeitung “Kirche+Leben”. Das gelte für die Ebene der Gemeinden, die Strukturen darüber sowie für die Priesterausbildung. Niehues äußert sich zum katholischen Weltgebetstag um geistliche Berufe am Sonntag (17.04.2016).

Bei den Priesteramtskandidaten sei die katholische Kirche in Deutschland “quasi an der Nulllinie” angekommen, sagt der Leiter des Priesterseminars Borromaeum. So sei in Münster im März nur ein einziger Kandidat ins Gemeindejahr gestartet. Das werde tiefgreifende Konsequenzen haben. Zugleich gebe es immer weniger Kirchenmitglieder, die den sakramentalen Dienst eines Priesters überhaupt wahrnehmen.

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URUGUAY
NZZ

(ap)
Die katholische Kirche in Uruguay hat sich für ungeahndete Fälle sexuellen Missbrauch durch Priester entschuldigt. Man fühle «Schmerz und Scham» über die «abscheulichen Akte», hiess es in einem am Donnerstag auf der Webseite der Bischofskonferenz veröffentlichten Brief. Dem Schreiben waren Medienberichte über Übergriffe durch Priester vorangegangen. Die Taten sollen vor 20 Jahren begangen sein und wurden wegen Verjährung nicht bestraft.

Die Bischofskonferenz teilte mit, die Kirche habe 2015 Berichte über das Schicksal dreier Opfer erhalten, die in ihren Jugendjahren von Priestern missbraucht worden seien. In der Folge sei ein Geistlicher zurückgetreten, ein weiterer sei nach Ermittlungen entlassen worden, sagte Weihbischof Milton Troccoli.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg Digital

Beim „Duett mit den Domspatzen“ vergangenen Samstag im Audimax kamen auch drei Ehemalige vorbei, um Info-Blätter an die Besucher zu verteilen. Was sie fordern beschreibt Wolfgang Blaschka in seinem Gastbeitrag für regensburg-digital.

Drei ehemalige Domspatzen, die zum Mitsingkonzert im Audimax der Regensburger Uni mit Flugblättern auftauchten, wollten nicht fröhliche Volksweisen mitsingen, sondern eine andere, eher traurige Melodie von den Dächern pfeifen: Die Anwendung brutaler Gewalt in der Spatzen-Dressur früherer Zeiten. So etwas wird nicht gern gehört. Schon gar nicht, wenn es auch um sexuelle Übergriffe geht: Eltern und Angehörige reagieren auf so etwas verständlicherweise höchst sensibel. Die Verantwortlichen der Einrichtung dulden derartige Thematisierungen erst gar nicht bei ihren Veranstaltungen. Sie möchten am liebsten nichts davon hören, am besten von nichts dergleichen wissen.

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GEORGIA
Georgia Bulletin

ATLANTA—A small group of members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held signs as part of a press conference outside the Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta, April 4.

The group asked that the Archdiocese of Atlanta publish on its website a list of those priests, deacons and religious who were accused of molesting children and who worked in the archdiocese. They named six deceased or former priests that they say should be on the list.

In its press release, SNAP acknowledged that the named priests were accused in other places and not in Atlanta. However, the release asserted that they had been in Atlanta at one point in time.

In response to the request, the Archdiocese of Atlanta released a statement, “We regret any instance of abuse and take every allegation seriously… none of the six priests listed were ever priests of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. We have no information regarding any allegations of misconduct during the time these men were present here.”

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Shonna Milliken Humphrey, Special to the BDN
Posted April 15, 2016

The Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight” compels audiences to re-think institutionalized child sex abuse and the systemic protections for those responsible. Because of “Spotlight,” it is now impossible to sanction intimate relationships between little boys and clergy members without first considering child safety.

But what about lesser-known, secular or smaller organizations with a similar history? Instead of victims numbering in the thousands, what happens when the victim count is in the mere hundreds? Or dozens?

As the real-life Boston Globe Spotlight news team reported its story in 2002, a lawsuit against the American Boychoir School was working its way through the New Jersey court system with similar details — decades of abuse and systemic protection of perpetrators.

However, whereas the Catholic Church is being held accountable by Mark Ruffalo’s hard-charging investigative “Spotlight” reporting, the American Boychoir School is now fictionalized and celebrated on film via “Hear My Song” with Dustin Hoffman cast as choirmaster to an unwanted and troubled young boy.

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MINNESOTA
Mankato Free Press

By Leah Buletti lbuletti@mankatofreepress.com

NEW ULM — Three new priests from the Diocese of New Ulm with ties to Mankato-area parishes have been named in sexual abuse lawsuits.

Revs. Bernard Steiner, Richard Gross and Edward Ardolf have been named in civil lawsuits brought under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, according to Jeff Anderson and Associates, a St. Paul law firm. The law allows survivors of child sexual abuse to bring cases without having to worry about the statute of limitations.

All three priests were ordained in the Diocese of New Ulm in the 1960s and worked at one time in churches in the Mankato area. All three are still alive and had not been named before Friday.

In late March, the Diocese of New Ulm and Jeff Anderson and Associates jointly released the names of 16 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor while assigned as priests.

Mike Finnegan, an attorney with the firm, said the release of the list led to one of the lawsuits, while the firm was in the process of filing the other two when the list was released.

“They’re looking for validation that this happened and to make sure that other people out there know that all three of these guys abused them as kids,” Finnegan said.

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TEXAS
2paragraphs

The beautiful 25-year-old schoolteacher Irene Garza went to confession at her church, Sacred Heart in McAllen, Texas, during Holy Week in 1960. She was never seen leaving the church. Five days after she disappeared, her body was found in a nearby canal. She was sexually assaulted, physically assaulted, and she had died of suffocation. The prime suspect was John Feit, the 27-year-old priest who heard Garza’s last confession, but he was never indicted…until now.

[In 2005, when a Texas Monthly reporter asked Father Feit for an interview, before denying the request he told her, “the speculation intrigues me.”]

In 2002 a new witness had stepped forward. Former priest Dale Tacheny says he covered up the evidence out of religious obligation. “I’m sorry for what I did,” he tells 48 Hours. Tacheny was sent to Sacred Heart to counsel Feit who confessed to everything. It took another 14 years to get an indictment. A relative of Garza tells 48 Hours, “The people who are going to feel sorry for him [Feit] do not know the facts of the case. I guarantee you, once they find out there will be absolutely no pity there.” 48 Hours airs Saturdays at 10pm on CBS.

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TEXAS
CBS News

A former monk who says the suspect in the 1960 murder of a Texas beauty queen admitted the crime to him speaks out on Saturday’s episode of “48 Hours.”

In a 2002 letter to San Antonio police, Dale Tacheny said he was in a monastery in the 1960s with former priest John Feit when Feit admitted to him that he had killed a woman. Feit is accused of killing 25-year-old Irene Garza, who vanished 56 years ago after Feit heard her confession at a McAllen, Texas church during Easter weekend.

Days later, she was found dead in a canal.

Though Feit has long been suspected in Garza’s murder, it wasn’t until February of 2016 that a Hidalgo County, Texas grand jury returned a murder indictment against him.Now an 83-year-old grandfather, Feit was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona and was extradited back to Texas to face the charge.

In the episode “The Last Confession,” which airs Saturday on CBS, Tacheny tells “48 Hours” he kept quiet about Feit’s alleged admission for years.

“I covered up the evidence,” Tacheny says. “I’m sorry for what I did.”

Tacheny reads excerpts of his 2002 letter to police during Saturday’s episode. In it, he says Feit admitted to him during a counseling session at a Missouri Trappist monastery that he had killed a young woman in San Antonio. Feit denies the allegations, and has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By ABE HAWKEN FOR MAILONLINE

A youth pastor described as being ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’ was today jailed for 15 years after he raped two teenagers he had groomed on Facebook.

Timothy Storey, 35, lived a ‘double life’ preaching the virtues of abstinence at St Michael’s Church in Victoria, central London, while he began his ‘incremental’ and ‘insidious’ manipulation of girls from the congregation.

One of his victims was so brainwashed by what he told her she described him as being ‘more influential than God’.

The court heard the girls had complained about the trainee vicar to the church but their allegations were ‘brushed aside’.

Following his sentence today, Judge Philip Katz QC blasted the Diocese of London for their ‘utterly incompetent’ reaction to the issue.

He said: ‘There was a wholesale failure for those responsible at the time for safeguarding.

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UNITED STATES
JTA

By Sharon Weiss-Greenberg
April 15, 2016

(JTA) — Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, the spiritual leader of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck, New Jersey, is no stranger to controversy. In statements from his pulpit and in blog posts, he has demonized Israel’s late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, called for the collective punishment of Palestinian “savages” and, after Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza strip, let it be known that the Jewish state was no longer worthy of his political or financial support.

While many have chosen to ignore him as inconsequential, his statements have been condemned over the years by the Orthodox Union, the Rabbinical Council of America (where he formerly served as vice president) and the Anti-Defamation League. As the past president of the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County in New Jersey, and a former dayyan, or judge, on the Beth Din of America, he has held some of the most prominent positions in modern Orthodoxy and continues to enjoy the support of his large and influential congregation.

From his position of prominence, Pruzansky recently authored a blog post asserting that in many cases, women who report being raped on college campuses are leveling false allegations because they felt spurned by their romantic partners or were intoxicated at the time of the act. Citing no evidence other than “media reports,” he asserts that most reported rapes on campus are “situations in which the couple had a romantic relationship that went sour.” Having treated intimacy as “something casual and cavalier,” he writes, many accusers bear responsibility for the “misunderstandings, miscommunications and gray areas” that are erroneously called “rape” (his quotation marks).

“If indeed there was a ‘rape culture’ on American campuses,” writes Pruzansky, “no intelligent woman would want to attend college. The fact that more women attend college today than men itself belies the accusation.”

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson and Associates

4/15/2016

Fr. Bernard Steiner, Fr. Richard Gross and Fr. Edward Ardolf publicly identified for the first time

Doe 62 Complaint
Doe 172 Complaint
Doe 294 Complaint

(New Ulm, MN) – Three sexual abuse survivors have identified three priests from the Diocese of New Ulm as child abusers. The priests, Fr. Bernard Steiner, Fr. Richard Gross and Fr. Edward Ardolf, are being publicly named for the first time.

Fr. Bernard Steiner: Steiner was ordained in 1964 in the Diocese of New Ulm and worked in several parishes throughout Southern and West-Central Minnesota during his clerical career, including parishes and schools in Springfield, Sanborn, Dawson, Clarkfield, Lafayette, Winthrop, Appleton, Holloway, Comfrey, Madison, Granite Falls, Clara City, Raymond, Benson, Clontarf, Danvers, DeGraff, Lamberton, Green Isle, Faxon Township, Jessenland and Henderson. Steiner retired from active ministry in 2005. Doe 172 was abused at the Church of St. Paul in Comfrey, Minnesota in the 1970s.

Fr. Richard Gross: Gross was ordained in 1962 in the Diocese of New Ulm and worked in parishes in New Ulm, Taunton, Rosen, Hutchinson and Watkins. Gross retired from ministry in 2003. Doe 62 was sexually abused by Gross in the mid-1960s at St. Mary’s parish in New Ulm.

Fr. Edward Ardolf: Ardolf was ordained in 1964 in the Diocese of New Ulm and retired from active ministry in 2012. During his clerical career, Ardolf worked in several parishes and schools in the following locations: Winsted; New Ulm (including Cathedral High School); North Mankato (including Loyola High School); Springfield, Canby, St. Leo, Sleepy Eye, and Nicollet. Doe 294 was sexually abused by Gross at St. Raphael’s in Springfield.

All three lawsuits were brought under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, a law passed in 2013 allowing survivors of child sexual abuse to bring cases against the perpetrators who abused them and any institution who may have covered up the abuse. The deadline to file a legal claim is May 25, 2016.

“We applaud the courage and strength of all three survivors in coming forward and sharing their truths,” said Attorney Jeff Anderson. “Our children and communities are safer because these brave survivors chose to speak out and share their stories.”

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.964.3523 Cell: 612.817.8665
Contact: Mike Finnegan: Office: 651.964.3523 Cell: 612.205.5531

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MINNESOTA
West Central Tribune

Three priests in the Diocese of New Ulm have been named for the first time in civil lawsuits accusing them of abusing children.

Revs. Bernard Steiner, Richard Gross and Edward Ardolf were named Friday in a press release through the law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates.

The three victims bringing the lawsuits against Steiner, Gross and Ardolf, named under the anonymous John Doe monikers 172, 62 and 294, alledge they were abused as children in the mid-1960s and 1970s in Comfrey, New Ulm and Springfield.

The three newly-accused priests worked in multiple parishes throughout southern and west central Minnesota from the 1960s up to as late as 2012.

Steiner worked in nearly two dozen communities before retiring in 2005, including Appleton, Madison, Granite Falls, Clara City, Raymond, Benson, Danvers, Dawson and Clarkfield.

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MINNESOTA
Valley News Live

Crookston, Minn. (Valley News Live) Church goers in northwestern Minnesota can expect a protest of sorts this Sunday.

SNAP, the “Survivors Network of those abused by Priests”, plans to hand out leaflets opposing a decision by the church to lift the suspension of Father Joseph Jeyapaul. Jeyapaul was convicted of a sex crime in Greenbush, Minnesota and is now back in his home country of India.

Father Joseph Jeyapaul plead guilty to sexually abusing a teenage girl at his residence, next to the Catholic Church in Greenbush, Minnesota.

Jeyapaul served 4 years in prison and was sent back to his native Country of India. Church officials lifted a suspension against him and it’s expected he’ll soon begin will begin working in a church in India.

Barbara Dorris, SNAP: “And yet, everything we know about a sexual predator is that they will continue to molest throughout their lifetime. And to put this man back is really a slap in the face to victims everywhere.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Legal Intelligencer

Max Mitchell and Ben Seal, The Legal Intelligencer
April 15, 2016

If a bill aimed at lifting time restrictions in civil and criminal child sex abuse cases becomes law, a wave of new prosecutions and civil suits could wash over Pennsylvania. But according to attorneys, the litigation wouldn’t be without complications.

HB 1947, sponsored by Rep. Ron Marsico, R-Dauphin, easily cleared the House of Representatives on a 180-15 vote April 12. If enacted, it would increase the statute of limitations from 12 to 32 years upon turning 18 for victims to bring claims for civil damages. It would also eliminate the statute of limitations for criminal prosecutions tied to child sexual abuse.

According to attorneys working in the civil and criminal arenas, opening up new avenues for pursuing decades-old cases could lead to evidentiary complications, potential constitutional challenges and res judicata issues, among other things.

Plaintiffs attorneys lauded the bill, but also noted its complications.

Ross Feller Casey attorney Matthew Casey, who represented several victims of serial child molester Jerry Sandusky, said the bill would be “an enormously positive and just development,” but he agreed with other attorneys that any new cases brought following a change in the statutes would be inherently difficult cases because they would involve much older incidents.

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UNITED STATES
Peoria Journal Star

By Matthew T. Mangino

Pennsylvania has had an agonizing and embarrassing series of scandals involving sexual exploitation of children. The Catholic Diocese of Philadelphia; Penn State; and the indictment of Franciscan friars in western Pennsylvania have whipped the state legislature into a frenzy.

Pennsylvania House Bill 1947 is a byproduct of those frenzied lawmakers. The bill would treat future child sex-abuse crimes like murder, which can be prosecuted any time, by eliminating a recently expanded 32-year statute of limitation.

Traditionally, the statute of limitations for pursuing criminal prosecution of child sexual assault was five years after the victim’s 18th birthday. In 2002, the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse was extended to 12 years after the victim’s 18th birthday. In 2007, the statute of limitations was extended again as part of a comprehensive package of statutes related to child abuse. As a result, Pennsylvania prosecutors have until the victim’s 50th birthday to file criminal charges for abuse that occurred before the victim turned 18. That would change, yet again, under the pending legislation.

The bill would also add 20 years to the 12-year civil statute of limitations for future cases. Such a change would allow child victims to file a civil suit until their 50th birthdays, up from their 30th under current law.

Therein lies the rub. If a lawmaker genuinely believes that sexual abuse of a child is equally heinous and akin to murder, then the families of murder victims should have an equal opportunity to file a civil lawsuit against the killer.

In Pennsylvania, the family of a murder victim has two years to pursue a wrongful death action. In the case of child sexual assault the victim would have — under the new legislation — 32 years to file suit after the victim’s 18th birthday.

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UNITED STATES
Raw Story

TOM BOGGIONI
15 APR 2016

Faced with what appears to be an epidemic of child sex abuse cases, U.S. churches have taken to asking prospective employees if they have ever been sexually assaulted based on the belief that a childhood attack may result in the victim becoming an potential abuser.

Writing at the Daily Beast, activist and journalist Zack Kopplin notes the rising tide of churches requesting the sexual history of job applicants as a condition of employment — including porn-viewing habits.

While churches should be commended for taking a hard look at applicants who might be working with small children, Kopplin points out they have another motive.

Money.

Wary of civil lawsuits when a church employee is arrested for sexually assaulting a parishioner or their child, churches have begun pressing potential employees to divulge answers to questions one would never think would come up in a job interview.

“Have you ever been physically or sexually abused as a child?” reads a question on the job application at the Twin City Bible Church in Urbana, Illinois, before asking: “If yes, when, where, and what were the circumstances?”

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ALABAMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, April 15, 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 disturbing new investigation has found that “Alabama offers religious day cares the most freedom of any state, shielding them from most government oversight.” As a result, innocent children suffer.

“More than 900 Alabama day cares say they are affiliated with religious groups, leaving almost half of all child care in the state free from most regulation,” according to licensing documents, the new report says.

The horrifying details are here:

[Reveal: The Center for Investigative Journalism]

It’s time for action.

Surely Alabama’s governor or attorney general have some emergency powers they can use to better protect kids. Surely there’s one Alabama legislator who cares enough to introduce a bill to better safeguard kids. Surely there are a handful of lawmakers who would at least insist on a public hearing to warn parents about these dangers.

Surely there are Alabama religious leaders, agency officials and law enforcement personnel who have the courage to use their bully pulpits and hold a few news conferences to let families know of this troubling situations.

Surely managers of secular Alabama day care centers can do likewise.

Surely Alabama adults care more about kids’ safety than adults’ beliefs.

We urge lawmakers to toughen laws so that kids are safer in every day care facility. The religious beliefs of adults cannot trump the physical safety of children. Adults can believe whatever they like but cannot do whatever they like, especially when innocent kids are at stake.

We urge parents to think long and hard, and do considerable research, before putting kids in religiously-affiliated Alabama day care programs.

We urge religious day care owners to voluntarily comply with or exceed state safety standards for secular day cares and prod other religious institutions to do likewise.

And we urge police, prosecutors, judges to do all they can to deter church employees from endangering kids by exploiting religious exemptions for their own financial benefit by aggressively investigating, charging, convicting and punishing wrongdoers.

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
Church Militant

by Joseph Pelletier • ChurchMilitant.com • April 15, 2016

All three friars accused of aiding and abetting have pleaded not guilty to charges

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (ChurchMilitant.com) – A hearing is beginning in the case of three Franciscan friars who purportedly allowed a known homosexual abuser to have access to minors.

Five witnesses testified Thursday in the case against Giles Schinelli, Robert D’Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli, the three former provincial ministers of Franciscan Friars, Third Order Regulars, Province of the Immaculate Conception in western Pennsylvania. The trio are charged with permitting Br. Stephen Baker to work with children despite known allegations of abuse, resulting in the molestation of potentially over 100 minors, the vast majority being post-pubescent males.

The first testimony came from Jessica Eger, a special agent with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Criminal Investigation, who asserted that all three friars knew of the allegations against Baker as early as 1977. According to Eger, Giles Schinelli, the first of the three to head the province, assigned the brother to Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown in 1992 in spite of accusations of abuse and a private admission from Schinelli himself that Baker should not have “one-on-one” contact with children.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Apr. 14, 2016

WASHINGTON
Tony Spence, director and editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service since 2004, unexpectedly resigned from that position Wednesday at the request of a U.S. bishops’ conference official.

In recent days Spence had been attacked by conservative Catholic blogs for tweets he had posted about controversial religious freedom bills in North Carolina and Georgia. These sites accused Spence of “promoting the LGBT agenda.”

“The far right blogsphere and their troops started coming after me again and it was too much for the USCCB,” Spence told NCR in an interview Thursday.

“The secretary general [of the U.S. bishops’ conference] asked for my resignation, because the conference had lost confidence in my ability to lead CNS,” Spence told NCR.

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ISRAEL/RUSSIA
Rapsi

MOSCOW, April 15 (RAPSI) – Israeli Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked has signed an order on extradition of Russian priest Gleb Grozovsky who stands charged with sexual abuse of children, his lawyer Haim Azencott told RAPSI on Friday.

“The order was signed. It seems we can’t do much in this situation,” the lawyer said.

According to Azencott, the next move for Grozovsky’s defense is to ensure fair trial and humane treatment for his client by asking a court to encourage Israeli investigators to influence their Russian colleagues in this matter.

No comments from Israeli Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General of Israel are available yet.

According to Russian investigators, Grozovsky committed sex crimes against several minors in 2011 and 2013.

In 2013, he fled to Israel where he applied for citizenship. However, his application was dismissed.

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MINNESOTA
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
April 15, 2016

Time is running out. Survivors of sexual abuse have until May 26, 2016 to seek justice against their attackers. The Window is limited by the statute of limitation that was expanded by the Child Victims Act. Anyone who was sexually abused by an employee of the diocese, or who believes the diocese is liable for their abuse have until May 2016.

Those with claims must act within that time.

Abuse of children and the continued silence by the offenders needs to be prevented. If you suffered, saw, or suspected such events, it is important to know that there is help out there.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

BY LAUREN HENSLEY THURSDAY, APRIL 14TH 2016

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. — Two witnesses testified Thursday in relation to the diocese investigation throughout Johnstown and Altoona.

Robert D’Aversa, Anthony Criscitelli and Giles Schinelli went into court at 9 a.m. and exited six hours later.

The Attorney General said the three friars took part in an alleged conspiracy that allowed over 80 victims to be sexually abused by Brother Stephen Baker, placing hundreds of other children in danger.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

[with video]

Altoona, Blair County, Pa.

The bill that would abolish the statute of limitations for the criminal prosecution of sexual abuse crimes is waiting for consideration in the PA Senate.

On Tuesday, the PA House overwhelmingly passed the bill 166 to 28. Five of those no votes came from representatives from our region.

One of the cases that helped pushed this change was the Grand Jury investigation in the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese and the cover up of dozens of accused pedophiles. This had many in the region asking why Representatives voted against the bill when there are abuse cases here in central PA.

We reached all of the Representatives who voted no, and their biggest concerns seemed to be the constitutionality of the bill and how it will affect organizations.

Representative Cris Dush (R) said, “I’m getting some messages back home as to the constitutionality question on this amendment.”

That question — can the government amend a law to work retroactively? That’s why some lawmakers say they voted against House Bill 1947.

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CALIFORNIA
City Watch

BETH CONE KRAMER 14 APRIL 2016

JUSTICE–In California, murder and embezzlement cases don’t face the clock ticking on a statute of limitations. Per California law, the prosecution of felony sexual offenses is generally limited to ten years following the offense, barring DNA evidence, which may buy extra time. The bipartisan Justice for Victims Act (SB 813), which passed the Senate Public Safety Committee earlier this week, is posed to change that.

The legislation, sponsored by Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino) and the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, would allow indefinite criminal prosecution of rape and other felony sex crimes, including continuous sexual abuse of a child.

“I introduced the ‘Justice for Victims Act’ earlier this year for a simple reason: It will help to ensure that rapists and sexual predators are not able to evade justice simply because of a shortened statute of limitations,” the senator shares. “Survivors of sexual assault should always have the ability to seek justice in a court of law, even years after the alleged crime was committed.”

Senator Leyva notes that the bill would not impact the burden of proof but would provide victims more time to come to terms with the assault and to build up courage to come forward to authorities. Supporters of the bill include San Bernardino County DA Michael Ramos, California Women’s Law Center Executive Director Betsy Butler, Assembly Member Mike Gipson, and women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By police reporter Jessica Kidd

A man indecently assaulted by a Catholic Brother more than 30 years ago has told a sentencing hearing he hopes the 66-year-old gets “locked up for good”.

William Peter Standen has pleaded guilty to 18 charges of indecently assaulting 18 boys during the late 1970s and early 1980s while he was a year seven dormitory master at a Catholic boarding school in southern NSW.

At a sentencing hearing in Sydney, 11 middle-aged men read out victim impact statements.

None of them could be identified for legal reasons but each told of how they had suffered years of ongoing trauma, mental health problems and drug and alcohol addiction as a result of the abuse.

One man told the court his parents sent him to the school in order to protect him from domestic violence at home.

“My parents believed they were sending me to a safe place,” he said.

“Not this mind-twisting institution that I had to battle through for six long years.”

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

The first time he saw them they were vulnerable young boys, a long way from home.

But on Friday, sitting in the dock of Sydney’s District Court, it was Christian Brother William Peter Standen who was powerless, one of his victims said.

The former schoolmaster watched with head bowed as the men he indecently assaulted as children, often under the guise of tuition or discipline, took turns to face their abuser.

“I now know that I can look at you and see clearly that your power is rapidly diminishing, whilst my power continues to grow and flourish,” one man told Standen.

“As it turns out, these were your demons, not mine.

“I have faced them, taken them on and defeated them.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

April 15, 2016

Louise Hall
Court Reporter

Victims of a paedophile Catholic brother who went on to become principal of a prestigious Sydney school have told of the broken relationships, drug and alcohol abuse, self-harm and thwarted careers that have dogged their lives in the 30 years since.

William Peter Standen, who also goes by the name Brother David or Brother Dave, was the principal at Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral College for a decade before he retired in 2010.

He cared for thousands of boys during his 37-year teaching career, during which time he spent six years as the deputy principal at St Dominic’s College, Penrith.

Standen has pleaded guilty to 18 counts of indecent assault or acts of indecency committed during his years as a teacher at a Catholic boarding school in regional NSW between 1977 and 1981.

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CONNECTICUT
WTNH

[with video]

By kmargolfo and Josh Scheinblum, WTNH Reporter

WEST HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — A New York man has been arrested on child pornography charges in West Haven.

Police say 73-year-old Thomas Sawyer of Valatie, New York is charged with first-degree possession of child pornography.

According to police, Sawyer is a brother with the Holy Cross Brotherhood and their investigation began when he was living at the Saint John Vianney Church Residence Hall at 300 Captain Thomas Boulevard.

“When you have somebody like that it’s pretty scary,” said a woman named Kathleen, a Saint John Vianney parishioner.

Police say during the investigation, they discovered more than 426 images of child pornography in Sawyer’s possession. Sawyer was arraigned in Milford Superior Court where his bond was set at $25,000.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

ZACK KOPPLIN

Questions about childhood sexual abuse, homosexuality, and even porn are based on the false belief that victims will turn into abusers when they grow up. Worst of all, it’s legal.

If you want to work for the Twin Cities Bible Church, you will have to disclose whether you were raped as a child.

“Have you ever been physically or sexually abused as a child?” is one of the questions on the Urbana, Illinois church’s job application. “If yes, when, where, and what were the circumstances?”

The questions are shocking, but not rare for Protestant churches and religious organizations across the United States. These groups want to know the personal histories of prospective employees in an attempt to protect themselves against liability for potential sex abuse scandals based on the false belief that victims of sex abuse as children are destined to become abusers as adults.

Hundreds of churches, including The National Community Church (PDF) in Washington, D.C., the Shalom Mennonite Fellowship in Arizona, Nazarene Churches (PDF) in Ohio, and Church on the Rock (PDF) in Missouri all ask applicants some variation on: “Were you a victim of abuse or molestation while a minor?”

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By The Associated Press
on April 15, 2016

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Records from a Franciscan religious order show three former leaders knew a friar had been accused of child sex abuse before he was allowed to work at a high school and other jobs where he was later accused of molesting more than 100 children, an investigator testified Thursday.

Jessica Eger, a special agent with the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, said documents showed Giles Schinelli, Robert D’Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli were aware of allegations dating to 1977 against Brother Stephen Baker, who killed himself in 2013.

“He molested children because these men put him in a position to molest them,” Deputy Attorney General Daniel Dye told the judge while arguing with defense attorneys during the testimony.

The hearing, which will resume April 27, will determine whether the three former Franciscan leaders stand trial on child endangerment and conspiracy charges.

Franciscan Robert D’Aversa arrives to his hearing at the Blair County courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pa., Thursday, April 14, 2016. Three Franciscan friars face a hearing on charges they allowed a suspected sexual predator to teach at a Pennsylvania high school and hold other jobs where he molested more than 100 children. Thursday’s hearing will determine whether D’Aversa, Anthony Criscitelli, and Giles Schinelli stand trial on child endangerment and conspiracy charges. (Todd Berkey/Tribune-Democrat via AP)
Todd Berkey

When they were charged last month, Schinelli was a pastoral administrator of a Catholic retreat in Winter Park, Florida; D’Aversa was a pastor in Mount Dora, Florida; and Criscitelli was a pastor in Minneapolis. They have since been removed from their duties.

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HAWAII
Jeff Anderson and Associates

Three More Sexual Abuse Lawsuits Filed Before April 24 Legal Deadline

26 Sexual Abuse Lawsuits Settled Involving the Diocese of Honolulu and other Religious Orders

Roe 45 complaint
Roe 46 complaint
Roe 47 complaint

What: At a press conference Wednesday, Kailua Attorney Mark Gallagher will:

• Announce the filing of three lawsuits on behalf of three sexual abuse survivors before the April 24, 2016 legal deadline. The new lawsuits ask courts to force public disclosure of the identity and whereabouts of all credibly accused clerics in the Diocese of Honolulu;
• Release the expert report of Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, a canon lawyer and expert in the field of clerical child sexual abuse, identifying Bishop Joseph Ferrario as a child molester prior to his appointment as Bishop;
• Discuss the settlements of 26 child sexual abuse lawsuits involving the Diocese of Honolulu and various religious orders; and
• Encourage sexual abuse survivors in Hawaii to come forward and pursue legal action under a Hawaii law that expires April 24, 2016.

WHEN: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 at 11:00 AM HST

WHERE: Front lanai on the Punchbowl side of Kaahumanu Hale
777 Punchbowl Street
Honolulu, HI 96813

Notes: A copy of the complaint and documents will be available on www.abusedinhawaii.com.

Contact: Mark Gallagher: 808.535.1500
Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.964.3458 Cell: 612.817.8665

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MINNESOTA
The Journal

April 15, 2016
By Kevin Sweeney – Journal Editor , The Journal

NEW ULM – Priests from three Brown County parishes in the New Ulm diocese have been named in civil complaints of clergy sexual abuse that were served on the diocese this month.

The complaints, prepared by the law firm of Jeff Anderson and Associates, accuse three priests of sexual abuse of minors: Fr. Richard Gross, while he served as associate pastor at the Church of St. Mary in New Ulm in 1965-66; Fr. Edward Ardolf, while he served as pastor of St. Raphael’s in Springfield during 19979-80, and Fr. Bernard Steiner, while he served at St. Paul’s in Comfrey during 1971 and ’72.

The Diocese of New Ulm announced the new civil complaints in letters from Bishop John M. LeVoir to parishioner this week. The letters arrived in parishioners’ mailboxes on Thursday.

The letters said Gross and Ardolf are retired from ministry.

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CONNECTICUT/NEW YORK
Fox 61

BY DOUG STEWART AND TONY TERZI

WEST HAVEN — Following a nearly 10-month investigation, police have arrested Brother Thomas Sawyer, 73, of Valatie, New York. Sawyer is a member of an international catholic order, and investigators says he may have downloaded thousands of photos of naked children.

Sawyer, a longtime Catholic educator in many schools across the country, lived at West Haven’s St. John Vianney Church. Police were alerted to his activity by another member of the clergy “who witnessed some images on a computer as he entered the room,” said Sgt. David Tammaro, spokesperson for the West Haven Police Department.

Some 427 images, most of preteen males, were recovered by police, who say 250 is the threshold at which it becomes a felony. Thursday, Sawyer posted $25,000 bond after being charged with possession of child pornography in the first degree.

Tammaro says they are working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to determine if any of these children are from Connecticut.

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POLAND
Radio Poland

The papal nuncio in Warsaw has intervened after indications that a Polish bishop once accused of molesting seminarians was due to take part in events marking the 1050th anniversary of the Baptism of Poland.

In a statement released by the Polish Episcopate on Wednesday, the Church confirmed that the Vatican opposes Archbishop Juliusz Paetz playing any role in this week’s events.

“Once again, the papal nuncio personally reminded Archbishop Juliusz Paetz today of the instructions he received three years ago that he should refrain from participating in public celebrations,” the statement clarifies.

“It is hard to imagine that this would not be maintained during celebrations attended by the papal legate, not to mention the visit of the Holy Father in Poland on the occasion of World Youth Day [in July].”

Celebrations marking the Baptism of Poland are due to be held on Friday in Poznań, western Poland. Paetz was Archbishop of Poznań before being compelled to stand down in March 2002, although he retains the role of senior bishop in the city.

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UNITED STATES
Church Militant

by Bradley Eli, M.Div., MA.Th. • ChurchMilitant.com • April 14, 2016

“The Holy Father decisively reiterates his invitation for you to live a life of privacy in repentance and prayer”

WARSAW (ChurchMilitant.com) – The Vatican is warning disgraced archbishop Juliusz Paetz to avoid participating in Poland’s public celebrations.

Archbishop Paetz resigned in 2002 after multiple seminarians accused him of sexually molesting them. He was subsequently ordered by the Vatican to live a private life of prayer and penance.

The former archbishop of Poznan was scheduled to participate at public Mass this week as Poland celebrates its 1,050th anniversary as a Christian nation. Archbishop Paetz told reporters in Poznan that he saw “no reason” he couldn’t participate in their celebrations from April 14–16.

But yesterday, the Apostolic Nuncio to Poland, Abp. Celestino Migliore of Warsaw, contacted the archbishop reminding him of the “instruction he received … to refrain from participating in public celebrations.”

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AUSTRALIA
Moree Champion

A DISABLED girl repeatedly raped by a paedophile priest thought the abuse was “OK with God”.

The girl was one of 12 children groomed and molested by former Catholic priest John Joseph Farrell, 62, in a decade-long period of abuse at Moree and Tamworth during the 1980s.

She was abused from the age of 10 by Farrell, who had been moved from one parish after a “scandal that he had been sexually abusing the altar boys”, the victim, who can’t be identified, said in a statement tendered to Sydney’s District Court last Friday.

The traumatising sexual abuse had continued throughout her teenage years.

“I naively assumed that God must have been OK with it,” she said.

Another of Farrell’s female victims was abused from a similar age and would often try to escape when he would visit her family home.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WATM

During the hearing inside the courthouse, a man outside the courthouse has been fighting for justice for years for victims of Priests. Robert Hoatson says he created “Road to Recovery” as a former Priest who was kicked out of his Diocese for speaking out. He says he created the organization to help victims of sexual abuse and has been dealing specifically with people who say they were victims of Brother Baker. Hoatson says he is relieved to finally see charges for those accused of keeping Baker’s abuse quiet but says his fight is not over.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Calla Wahlquist
@callapilla
Friday 15 April 2016

The Catholic church in Melbourne has defended comments by a parish priest that likened paedophile priests to biblical adulterers as an “excellent homily” and said only “lazy people” would interpret it as equating an extramarital affair with paedophilia.

The homily, delivered by Father Bill Edebohls at St Mary’s church East Malvern on Palm Sunday and reprinted in full in the newsletter of the adjacent Catholic primary school, as it is every week, replaced the adulterous woman shown mercy by Jesus in a gospel story with a priest accused of paedophilia.

“Maybe to get the real drama and effect of the story we ought to replace the adulterous woman with a paedophile priest,” Edebohls said. “Then we might begin to understand the mob eager to stone and the outrageous and profligate mercy and compassion of God ever ready to forgive.”

The full homily, seen by Guardian Australia, speaks of the need to separate the sin from the sinner, arguing the church should be “a community free from legalism or justice without mercy” before drawing the parallel.

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CALIFORNIA
San Diego Union-Tribune

By Kristina Davis April 14, 2016

SAN DIEGO — An appeals court throw out a $13.5 million judgment against the governing body of the Jehovah’s Witness church Thursday in a lawsuit that accuses the organization of covering up years of sexual abuse by a local church leader.

The ruling by the state Fourth District Court of Appeal hits the reset button on the case, potentially leading to another trial but with one major caveat — that documents concerning past sexual abuse cases in the church should be turned over.

The church’s hierarchical body, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, has remained defiant in refusing a court order to produce such documentation, and the ruling gives the organization another chance to comply. If the organization doesn’t acquiesce, the case could potentially end the same way it did the first time, with a multi-million dollar judgment against it.

The lawsuit was filed in 2012 in San Diego Superior Court by Jose Lopez, who claimed he was molested at the age of 7 by a leader in the church’s Linda Vista congregation in 1986.

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URUGUAY
ACI Prensa

MONTEVIDEO, 14 Abr. 16 /

(ACI/EWTN Noticias).- La Conferencia Episcopal del Uruguay (CEU) pidió perdón por los abusos sexuales cometidos por algunos sacerdotes y religiosos en el país, y aseguró su compromiso por prevenir nuevos casos, sancionar a los responsables y atender a las víctimas.

En un comunicado publicado al concluir su asamblea plenaria ordinaria, el 12 de abril, la CEU pidió “perdón a las personas que han sufrido abusos por parte de algunos clérigos y religiosos en nuestro país”.

De acuerdo a la CEU, en los últimos años se han procesado dos denuncias canónicas contra sacerdotes uruguayos. En un caso no se pudo probar la acusación, mientras que la segunda investigación sigue su curso.

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URUGUAY
Washington Post

By Leonardo Haberkorn | AP April 14

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — The Roman Catholic Church in Uruguay apologized Thursday for sexual abuses committed by priests 20 years ago that went unpunished because the statute of limitations expired.

Uruguay’s Episcopal Conference said in a letter on its website that it feels “pain and shame” about the “abhorent acts committed by people who had promised to serve God and neighbor.”

The letter comes after news reports on abuses by priests in the South American country.

“We all know how, unfortunately, acts like these have been denounced for years in several countries, but they can never be justified within the church,” the letter said, adding that the predator priests must be held responsible before “God and the courts.”

The Episcopal Conference said the church launched an investigation after it received reports of three cases of people abused by priests while in their teens. The allegations led one man to leave the priesthood and another was removed after an investigation, said Assistant Bishop Milton Troccoli, the Episcopal Conference’s spokesman.

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

April 14, 2016

Joelle Casteix

Of all of the abuse and cover-up that have been exposed as a result of Hawaii’s civil window for victims of sexual abuse, few things are as explosive as a report released yesterday that states the Vatican knew Hawaii’s former bishop was a sex predator before he was appointed ordinary.

The report, written by Fr. Thomas Doyle (who is also a personal friend), outlines how in 1981, he was tasked with investigating Ferrario for the Apostolic Delegation (now known as the Papal Nuncio).

He pulls no punches:

Shortly after the retirement [of Honolulu Bishop Scanlon] was announced, the papal nuncio began to receive letters from laypersons in Honolulu all of which were urging the Holy See not to appoint Ferrario.
…

The papal nuncio, Archbishop Pio Laghi also received a letter from the father of a young boy who claimed he had been sexually abused by Bishop Ferrario at the seminary. This letter, combined with the large volume of other communications, prompted Archbishop Laghi to do something.

He communicated with the Holy See and informed them about the accusations. He was instructed to conduct a confidential investigation and to appoint the retired bishop, Bishop Scanlan, to carry this out. Scanlan was sent a letter with the instructions from the Holy See. He was instructed to contact the father and his son and to meet with them. He was told the entire matter was to be carried out in absolute secrecy and that the man and his son were to be sworn to secrecy before they were interviewed.

He met with them at a restaurant and questioned them, especially the young boy, using language that was both elusive and intimidating. They were reminded that it would seriously sinful if they gave inaccurate information. In spite of the intimidation the young man stuck to his story of having been sexually abused by Ferrario. The bishop recorded it all in writing but added that he did not think it was totally true and that the boy may have been misinterpreting Bishop Ferrario’s actions. He based this opinion only on his subjective reactions to the entire matter.

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PENNSYLVANIA
San Francisco Chronicle

ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 14, 2016

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. — Records from a Franciscan religious order show three former leaders knew a friar had been accused of child sex abuse before he was allowed to work at a high school and other jobs where more than 100 people eventually accused him of molesting them as children, an investigator testified Thursday.

Jessica Eger, a special agent with the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, testified for hours about documents that she said showed Giles Schinelli, Robert D’Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli knew of allegations dating to 1977 against Brother Stephen Baker, who killed himself in 2013.

Thursday’s hearing will determine whether the friars will stand trial on child endangerment and conspiracy charges.

The three friars successively headed a Franciscan order in Pennsylvania from 1986 to 2010. Schinelli, 73, assigned Baker to Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, where Baker molested more than 80 students, most while serving as an athletic trainer who massaged boys “so they could run faster,” Eger testified.

D’Aversa, 69, eventually removed Baker from the school upon receiving a “credible” though unspecified sex abuse allegation, only to almost immediately appoint Baker “vocations director,” Eger said. In that position, Baker had regular contact with teenage boys in Pennsylvania and other states at retreats and other events, Eger said.

Criscitelli, 61, took over the order in 2002. He was responsible for seeing that Baker — by then the subject of several sex-abuse allegations in Pennsylvania and Minnesota, where he served in the late 1970s — abided by a “safety plan” under guidelines drawn up by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in the wake of nationwide clergy abuse scandal, Eger said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 14, 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)

Three Catholic officials are trying to exploit Pennsylvania’s archaic, predator-friendly laws to evade responsibility for a child molesting cleric who molested more than 100 kids. Shame on them, their colleagues and their supervisors.

[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Just like predators, Br. Giles A. Schinelli, Br. Robert J. D’Aversa and Br. Anthony M. Criscitelli want to take advantage of legal loopholes to hide their wrongdoing with Br. Stephen Baker, a shrewd, serial predator.d

Rather than prove their innocence on the merits, they’re fighting on the technicalities, like complicit Catholic officials have done for decades and keep doing at virtually every opportunity.

Bishops and priests want us to believe they’ve “changed” and deal differently now with child sex cases. But look at this one: the accused clergy wrongdoers are hiding behind statutes of limitations, like they have for ages. Their colleagues and supervisors are keeping quiet, like they have for ages.

Every single cleric in Pennsylvania and in the Franciscans could show courage and denounce these three colleagues or show cowardice and stay silent. They’re all – hundreds of them – staying silent, just like hundreds of thousands of priests, nuns, bishops, seminarians and other Catholic employees have for ages about clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

Yet they’ll all tell us “we’ve reformed!” Baloney.

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

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ALABAMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 14, 2016

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

A new investigation shows that religiously-affiliated day care centers can be especially dangerous for children and that Alabama is one of the worst states regulating them. We urge Alabama legislators to put kids first and remedy this irresponsible imbalance immediately.

[Reveal: The Center for Investigative Reporting]

Alabama is one of six states that provide little or no restrictions or oversight for such centers (along with Indiana, Missouri, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia). About half of Alabama’s day care centers take advantage of the “religious exemption” that puts kids at risk.

The investigation also found:

— “Many faith-based day cares in Alabama, Indiana and Missouri don’t have to meet any required staff-to-child ratios, for instance.

–“Religious day cares in Alabama, Indiana and Missouri also require little to no child safety training for their workers, leading to dozens of serious injuries.”

We urge lawmakers to toughen laws so that kids are safer in every day care facility. The religious beliefs of adults cannot trump the physical safety of children. Adults can believe whatever they like but cannot do whatever they like, especially when the well-being of innocent kids is at stake.

We urge parents to think long and hard, and do considerable research, before putting kids in religiously-affiliated day care programs, especially in the 16 states with safety exemptions for such programs and the states with little or no restrictions or oversight: Alabama, Indiana, Missouri, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.

We urge religious figures to voluntarily comply with or exceed state safety standards for secular day cares and prod other religious institutions to do likewise.

And we urge police, prosecutors, judges to do all they can to deter church employees from endanger kids by exploiting religious exemptions for their own financial benefit by aggressively investigating, charging, convicting and punishing wrongdoers.

No matter what lawmakers or church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child abuse, neglect, sex crimes and cover ups in day care centers – especially at religious ones – to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling journalists and regulators, get justice by calling attorneys, get comfort by calling support groups like ours and push for long-term change and protection by prodding lawmakers. This is how kids will be safer, devastated families will recover, the criminal and the negligent will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

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HAWAII
Crux

[REPORT OF THOMAS P. DOYLE, J.C.D., C.A.D.C. In the case of JOHN ROE 2 vs THE Catholic DIOCESE OF HONOLULU, THE SOCIETY OF ST. SULPICE AND THE CATHOLIC FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY (MARYKNOLL FATHERS AND BROTHERS) – via BishopAccountability.org]

By Marina Starleaf Riker
Associated Press April 14, 2016

HONOLULU (AP) — Three additional lawsuits were filed Wednesday accusing Catholic priests in the Diocese of Honolulu of sexual abuse.

The three suits allege that priests abused children and teens throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The Diocese of Honolulu is a defendant in all three cases, which say the diocese knew or should’ve known about the abuse. The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers were also named as a defendant in two of the cases.

The Very Rev. Gary Secor of the Diocese of Honolulu said the organization hasn’t reviewed the lawsuits filed Wednesday yet.

“However, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu remains committed to treating victims of sexual abuse with compassion and respect, with the goal of providing just resolution,” Secor said.

The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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HAWAII
Hawaii News Now

[REPORT OF THOMAS P. DOYLE, J.C.D., C.A.D.C. In the case of JOHN ROE 2 vs THE Catholic DIOCESE OF HONOLULU, THE SOCIETY OF ST. SULPICE AND THE CATHOLIC FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY (MARYKNOLL FATHERS AND BROTHERS) – via BishopAccountability.org]

By Mileka Lincoln, Reporter

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) –
The Catholic Church knew late Honolulu Bishop Joseph Anthony Ferrario had been accused of sexual abuse while a priest in Kailua, but appointed him to head the Honolulu diocese anyway, a Catholic priest who was in charge of managing the process in which candidates were vetted for the office of bishop alleges in a new 18-page court report.

The report by Father Thomas Doyle was released Wednesday, in conjunction with three new sex abuse lawsuits filed in Hawaii against the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu and Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.

Doyle claims the Vatican was informed about serious sexual abuse allegations against Ferrario, but chose to ignore them.

The first sexual abuse allegation against Ferrario was made back in 1976, when he was the pastor at Saint Anthony Church in Kailua, according to the report. Since then, Ferrario has been accused of sexually abusing boys in at least five cases between 1969 and 1981, most of them at Saint Anthony Church. All of the alleged incidents happened before he became bishop; he headed the Catholic Church in Hawaii from 1982 to 1993.

Ferrario died in 2003.

According to court documents, the 1976 allegations involved a 12-year-old victim who went to Ferrario to confide in him about an incident of sexual abuse involving another priest three years earlier.

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MICHIGAN
Central Michigan Life

By Sydney Smith

After a lawsuit was filed by a Central Michigan University student in January, attorneys for the Saginaw Diocese and St. Mary’s University Parish claim there is no “sufficient information” to confirm or deny multiple counts against them and former St. Mary’s priest Denis Heames.

Both the church and the diocese, represented by Masud Labor Law Group in Saginaw, requested all accusations in the lawsuit be dismissed. DeWitt senior Megan Winans filed the lawsuit on Jan. 14, asking the court to consider whether she was abused by Heames, who was removed from St. Mary’s in July, during her work as a “media intern” at the church from 2012-14.

The lawsuit claimed battery, defamation, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent supervision and retention.

Both the diocese and church responded on March 21, by either saying both entities deny the accusations as untrue or did not have sufficient information to confirm or deny the allegations made in the lawsuit.

“The Saginaw Diocese and St. Mary’s lack knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations in this paragraph,” read the response for most accusations.

This response was listed for the majority of accusations made by Winans and her attorneys in the original lawsuit, including that Heames and Winans maintained a dating relationship and Heames tried to have relationships with other female parishioners.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 14, 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)

In a stunningly mean-spirited move, Catholic officials are blaming a college student for the abuse she suffered at the hands of a charismatic, powerful and manipulative priest.

[Central Michigan Life]

And they make contradictory claims – that the girl was responsible for sexual contact AND that no sexual contact happened.

In a legal filing, Bishop Joseph Cistone of the Saginaw diocese blames Megan Winans for being sexually exploited as a young, devout college student.

We believe Cistone’s goal is to shame and deter others who were hurt by priests into keeping quiet. We hope his selfish effort fails. Shame on him.

It’s worth noting that college officials have already found Winans credible. A Central Michigan University investigation has found that the priest “engaged in sexual harassment” of Winans, then a teenager who he had counseled and hired.

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MASSACHUSETTS
ABC 6

By News Staff
news@abc6.com

A Fall River Catholic school teacher was found liable in a civil trial for the sexual assault of one of his students back in 1987.

A New Bedford Superior Court judge rendered a civil verdict against Albert Vaillancourt, a teacher at Notre Dame School in Fall River. The jury awarded $300,000 to the plaintiff, who sued under the name John Doe.

The plaintiff testified that he was sexually assaulted in 1987, when he was 10 years old, by Vaillancourt who was then his sixth grade teacher.

He says the abuse occurred on two occasions in the classroom, during recess breaks, and on one occasion at Vaillancourt’s home, when he was there to cut the grass.

Another person testified that he was also sexually assaulted by Vaillancourt when he was ten years old at the Fall River CYO building in a manner which was similar to the way in with John Doe was assaulted.

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MASSACHUSETTS
SouthCoast Today

By Brian Fraga
The Herald News

Posted Apr. 14, 2016

NEW BEDFORD — A civil jury has awarded $300,000 to an anonymous plaintiff who alleged that Albert Vaillancourt, a long-time Fall River Catholic school teacher, sexually abused him when the plaintiff was a 10-year-old student in the mid-1980s.

During the recent civil trial at New Bedford Superior Court, a second person testified that during the same time period, when he was also 10 years old, Vaillancourt sexually abused him in the Fall River Catholic Youth Organization building, in a similar manner to which the unidentified plaintiff testified, according to attorneys representing the plaintiff.

Carmen L. Durso, one of two Boston attorneys who represented the plaintiff, said the verdict, which the jury reached on March 21 after four hours of deliberation, vindicated and pleased his client.

“People really don’t understand civil cases,” Durso said. “They think of them as only being about money, but frequently a civil case is the only way which a person gets the ability to have their version of the truth vindicated. And that was the most important thing for my client. If the jury had come back and awarded him a dollar, I think he would have been emotionally fulfilled as he was by the verdict.”

Vaillancourt’s attorney filed post-trial motions, seeking to overturn the verdict, which Superior Court Judge Robert Kane, the presiding judge, denied on April 4.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 14

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 victim of a predatory Catholic teacher has won his civil trial. We applaud him for having the courage to report and expose crimes by Albert Vaillancourt of the Fall River Catholic diocese and those who ignored or hid those crimes.

[BishopAccountability.org]

We hope this verdict will encourage others who were sexually victimized in Catholic schools or by Catholic predators to step forward, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and deter cover ups.

We urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

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UNITED STATES
Broadway World

More than five decades after the brutal murder of a church-going young woman, police in Texas have arrested a former priest suspected of killing her. DID HE DO IT? Richard Schlesinger and 48 HOURS report on the case against Father John Feit, the last man believed to have seen Irene Garza alive, in an updated edition of “The Last Confession” to be broadcast April 16, 2016 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

The broadcast will air 56 years from the day that Garza disappeared.

“He thought he got away with it. He thought he got away with murder,” Garza’s distant relative, Noemi Ponce Sigler, tells 48 HOURS of Feit, who was arrested on Feb. 9, 2016, in Scottsdale, Arizona and charged with murder.

It’s a case that 48 HOURS has been covering for years and involves allegations of a cover-up, secrets hidden for years by people who say they know what happened, and is one that has again become a hot topic far beyond Hidalgo County.

The story starts in 1960 in McAllen, Texas, when Garza, 25, told her family she was going to church for confession. But Irene never came home. Five days after she disappeared she was found dead in a canal. Police say she was beaten, sexually assaulted and was suffocated. Police questioned hundreds of people but locked on one suspect, Father Feit, who admitted hearing Garza’s confession. Feit steadfastly denied any involvement in her murder. But Sigler, whose father was one of the original investigators, recalls her father saying early on, “It was the priest.” Eventually, Sigler says, her father was told by his superiors to hand in his records and step away from the case, that they would take care of it.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 14, 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)

The pastor of a St. Louis mega-church with six locations has been removed amid controversy. Among the allegations against him are “inappropriate relationships” with two women, that church officials claim “were not adultery.”

He’s also reportedly a chaplain to the St. Louis Cardinals. He is Rev. Darrin Patrick of The Journey.

[Christian Today]

Thirty three church elders signed a letter to congregants explaining their removal of Patrick.

It’s crucial that people understand it’s never healthy or appropriate for any clergyperson to have any kind of sexual contact with any congregant. The power differential is too great, just like it is between therapists and clients and between doctors and patients. In fact, in a dozen or more states, this kind of sexual contact is illegal.

We don’t know the details of Patrick’s misdeeds. But if, in fact, he abused his power and manipulated women in his church, he should never be allowed to minister again.

We urge Journey elders to report knowledge of or suspicions about misconduct to police. Church officials are not trained to recognize what constitutes criminal conduct or how to investigate it.

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

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OHIO/CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 14, 2016

Statement by Judy Jones of St. Louis, Associate Midwest Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (636 433 2511, SNAPjudy@gmail.com)

We’re grateful that a sexually troubled Ohio seminarian has pled guilty to child sex crimes and hope, for the safety of children, that he’s given the longest sentence possible.

We also worry there may be other kids he’s hurt and deplore how little his former church supervisors are doing to find other victims, witnesses or whistleblowers.

[Courthouse News Service]

[KRQE]

After initially claiming he was innocent, Joel A. Wright admitted his guilt in court yesterday. Catholic officials who recruited, accepted, taught and assigned him, however, insist they did nothing wrong.

[SNAP]

Two Ohio prelates – Bishop Jeffrey M. Monforton of Steubenville and Bishop Frederick Campbell of Columbus – should ­­­do aggressive outreach, using church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements.

Church officials in Kentucky (where Wright also attended a Catholic college) and Vermont (where Wright is from) should do likewise.

Bishop Campbell continues to largely being silent and passive about Wright, even though Wright was a student at The Pontifical College Josephinum, just north of Columbus, and within the boundaries of Bishop Campbell’s diocese. (Bishop Campbell in fact has taught at the Josephinum.)

In cases like this, bishops distance themselves from and pretend to be powerless over Catholic institutions in their dioceses, instead of stepping up, admitting responsibility and aggressively helping law enforcement. (According to Catholic church practice, custom and law, a bishop is responsible for the safety and well-being of his entire flock.)

If Josephinum staff were ripping off Columbus Catholics financially, Bishop Campbell wouldn’t be passively sitting back and keeping quiet. He can and should do more.

The only prudent assumption is that Wright has assaulted or exploited kids elsewhere. And Columbus Catholic officials have the ability and duty to see if that’s true by using their resources to beg others with information or suspicions about Wright to call police.

should do outreach seeking other victims of Wright.

News accounts show that Ohio Catholic officials had at least three warnings about Wright. But it seem clear that they did little or nothing to heed those warnings.

1) An informant for Homeland Security called and wrote to Josephinum staff about Wright and his efforts to buy infants or toddlers so he could abuse them.

2) Franciscan University officials in Steubenville reported to police that Wright had offered to pay $150 to babysit young kids alone (but the university may not have told Josephinum officials).

3) Wright’s mother admits that more than 40 seminaries across the US had rejected her son’s applications for enrollment. (She claims it was because of his physical disabilities, but SNAP leaders don’t believe this is true.)

When he was arrested in San Diego en route to Mexico to obtain youngsters, Wright’s studies were sponsored by Bishop Montforton. Wright spent some time in the Steubenville diocese.

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MARYLAND
Washingtonian

By Tiffany Stanley on April 14, 2016

Larry Caffery, a former children’s ministry volunteer at Covenant Life Church, was arrested on child sexual-abuse charges last month. The Gaithersburg congregation and its former parent organization, Sovereign Grace Ministries, were at the center of an investigation Washingtonian published in February.

More than a dozen people have alleged they were sexually abused as children by members of Sovereign Grace Ministries. At least seven people have seen their abusers convicted.

Caffery, 66, was charged in March with 11 counts related to sexual abuse, child abuse, sexual offense, and false imprisonment. Caffery’s attorney Mallon Snyder says he denies the allegations against his client. (His case was not part of Washingtonian’s original reporting.)

When reached by phone, the mother of the alleged victim said of her daughter, who is a minor: “I hope she does heal from this, so she can have a full life. That’s what I hope.” The mother is no longer a member of Covenant Life, but she said she does not blame the church for the alleged abuse, nor does she believe the abuse happened on church property.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 14, 2016

For more information: David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

Abuse victims to leaflet parishes
They’re worried about convicted predator
Despite priest’s guilt, Vatican lifted his suspension
Group wants to find other “victims, witnesses or whistleblowers”
SNAP: “Another criminal case is our only chance to protect other kids”

Weeks ago, Vatican officials lifted the suspension of a Catholic priest who pled guilty to child sex crimes last year in Minnesota.

That decision is prompting one of his victims to launch a “leafletting tour,” seeking out other victims in each of the four towns where the cleric worked.

Next week, Megan Peterson will spend two days in seven towns handing out fliers at or near Catholic churches where Fr. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was assigned or where his church colleagues and supervisors now work. The leaflets will urge “anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups to call law enforcement immediately,” according to Barbara Dorris, the outreach director of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. She’ll join Peterson in the effort.

And the two vow to keep coming back to northern Minnesota with more leaflets in the future.

“Our goal is to find just one more victim who might be able to file criminal charges and get this proven predator behind bars again,” said Peterson.

“Catholic officials refuse to keep this admitted sex offender away from kids, so our only hope of stopping him is to get him charged and convicted again,” said Dorris. “I’m stunned that top church staff are being so extraordinarily irresponsible, knowing this man is guilty of abusing one girl and is accused of molesting at least two girls.”

News accounts suggest that Fr. Jeyapaul’s current supervisor, Bishop Arulappan Amalraj of the Ootacamund diocese in India (Telephone 0423 2442.366, Fax 0423 – 2441604, 0423 – 2447996, bishopooty@hotmail.com, secretaryooty@yahoo.co.in) plans to re-assign him next month.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle Times

Salvatore (Stephen) Trippy passed away on March 9th 2013 in Seattle at the age of 70. He was born in Seattle March 16th 1942, the beloved son of Salvatore and Mary Trippy. He attended Our Lady of Mount Virgin grade school and Seattle Prep, completing his education at Seattle University. Steve then worked in real estate and with his father in the fur industry. In his 20’s Steve entered into the Dominican Community, and was ordained a Roman Catholic Priest in Seattle. He took the name of Stephen, and ministered in Tacoma and Sedro Woolley, impacting the lives of everyone he touched. He retired early, suffering from emphysema for many years.

Steve was the consummate cook and ultimate host, opening his home and himself to anyone who crossed his path. His celebration of life will truly be missed, Heaven shines a little brighter now that he has walked through those gates.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

April 14, 2016 Joelle Casteix

Joel Wright, the Steubenville seminarian caught trying to buy children in order to sexually molest them, pleaded guilty to federal charges of trying to entice a minor.

He faces up to 10 years in prison.

Authorities released some of the emails Wright exchanged with undercover agents. You can read some of them here. But a warning: they’re repulsive.

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KENTUCKY
Soundcloud

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler introduces CJ Mahaney speaking at Together for the Gospel Conference 2016

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MASSACHUSETTS
Durso Law

A New Bedford Superior Court jury has rendered a civil verdict against Albert Vaillancourt, a long-time Fall River Catholic School teacher. The jury awarded $300,000 to the plaintiff, who sued under the name John Doe. A judgment in the amount of $560,352 was then entered by the Court.

The defendant filed post-trial motions, seeking to overturn the verdict, which were denied, on April 4, 2016, by Judge Robert Kane, the presiding judge at the trial. The defendant has now filed a Notice of Appeal.

The plaintiff testified that he was sexually assaulted in 1987, when he was 10 years old, by Vaillancourt, who was his sixth grade teacher at Notre Dame School, Fall River. The abuse occurred on two occasions in the classroom, during recess breaks, and on one occasion at Vaillancourt’s home, when John Doe was there to cut the grass.

A second person testified that during the same time period, when he was 10 years old, he was also sexually assaulted by Vaillancourt, at the Fall River CYO building, in a manner which was similar to the way in which John Doe was assaulted.

The plaintiff was able to prosecute his case because of a new, retroactive, MA statute of limitations law which allows a person sexually abused as a child to file suit at any time prior to his 53rd birthday, against the perpetrator. The MA Supreme Judicial Court declared the law constitutionally sound in December, 2015, and this is the first case tried under that law since the Court’s decision.

The plaintiff was represented by Boston attorneys Carmen L. Durso and Sara Elizabeth Burns. The defendant was represented by Taunton attorney Francis M. O’Boy.

For additional information, contact:

Carmen Durso
DURSO LAW
LAW OFFICE OF CARMEN L. DURSO
175 Federal Street, Suite 1425
Boston, MA 02110-2287
Tel: 617-728-9123 – Fax: 617-426-7972
carmen@dursolaw.com
www.dursolaw.com

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NEW YORK
Times Newsweekly

By Anthony Giudice
agiudice@ridgewoodtimes.com
@A_ GiudiceReport

The fight to allow childhood sexual abuse victims the right to bring their abusers to justice has just gained another supporter.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has joined forces with Maspeth-based Assemblywoman Margaret Markey to make the Child Victims Act the law of the land in New York State, which seeks to eliminate the archaic statute of limitations in the state which restricts the time for childhood sexual abuse victims to come forward and expose their abusers and the organizations that hid or protected them.

“As the state’s top law enforcement officer, it is my job to ensure equal justice for all New Yorkers — especially the most vulnerable among us,” Schneiderman wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. “No one is more vulnerable than children who have been the victims of sexual abuse. Yet, New York remains one of just four states … that denies victims their day in court, and allows those who prey on children to walk away unpunished.”

Currently, New York is among the worst states in the country — along with Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi — on how they deal with child victims of sexual abuse, giving the victim of child sexual abuse until their 23rd birthday to come forward and press charges, or they lose the chance to bring their abuser to justice forever.

Schneiderman has called the state’s current laws “unconscionable,” and that they “must be addressed during this year’s legislative session.”

In the letter, Schneiderman cited statistics from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention stating that one in four girls, and one in six boys are sexually abused before the age of 18.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on April 14, 2016

The Archdiocese of St. John’s had no control over the vetting of Christian Brothers assigned to Mount Cashel, nor do historical documents show a role in operating or financing the facility or being wardens of the boys at the orphanage, the Mount Cashel civil trial at Newfoundland Supreme Court in St. John’s heard this morning.

Historian John FitzGerald, expert witness for the RC church, is seen prior to testifying Thursday at the Mount Cashel civil trial. — Photo by Barb Sweet/The Telegram
Historian John FitzGerald is testifying as an expert witness for the church and questioning of him by the church’s lawyer Mark Frederick continued this morning.

The lawsuit against the RC Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s seeks compensation and involves four test cases that claim the church should be held liable for the physical and sexual abuse of boys at the orphanage by certain Christian Brothers during the period late 1940s to early 1960s. The test cases represent about 60 claimants in the case being pursued by Budden and Associates.

The church contends it did not run the orphanage, therefore is not responsible for actions of the lay order Christian Brothers there.

FitzGerald, who reviewed historical documents and wrote a report on the relationship between the archdiocese and the Christian Brothers, said the Brothers were a separate incorporated entity.

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CALIFORNIA
10TV

SAN DIEGO – A former Ohio seminarian has pleaded guilty to trying to adopt or purchase infants from Mexico to sexually molest them.

Joel Wright pleaded guilty Wednesday in San Diego to a federal charge of attempted enticement of a minor. The 23-year-old faces 10 years to life in prison when he’s sentenced in July.

Beginning in November, Wright placed Craigslist ads for a Tijuana tour guide, then told someone who responded that he wanted a baby girl for sex.

Wright acknowledged sending explicit emails describing his desires to assault children, from infants up to the age of 4.

The person he contacted was cooperating with federal agents and Wright was arrested when he flew into San Diego in January.

Wright is a former student of Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released the following statement on the plea:

We’re grateful that a sexually troubled Ohio seminarian has pled guilty to child sex crimes and hope, for the safety of children, that he’s given the longest sentence possible. We also worry there may be other kids he’s hurt and deplore how little his former church supervisors are doing to find other victims, witnesses or whistleblowers.

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UTAH
YouTube

Published on Apr 14, 2016

In Salt Lake City on April 6, a screening of the Academy Award winning film, “Spotlight” was followed by this panel discussion moderated by Jim Struve, a founding member of MaleSurvivor.org. Taking part in the discussion before an audience of 300 people were Joe Ellis, local survivor and activist, Boston SNAP leader Phil Saviano (who is portrayed in the film), and DeAnn Tilton, whose campaign “Talk to a Survivor” co-sponsored the event with the Utah Film Center.

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UNITED STATES
Reveal: The Center for Investigative Reporting

By Amy Julia Harris / April 14, 2016

She’s been called a crook. A con artist. A snake in the grass. But in Alabama, the only thing that really matters to state regulators is that she calls herself a Christian.

She ran a church day care from a decrepit warehouse that one worker called a “house out of a horror movie.” She opened another child care center next to a porn store.

Each of her day cares has been dogged by complaints of abuse and neglect. Workers said she hit children with flyswatters, locked them in closets or rapped them with rulers. She’s failed to pay so many employees that one reportedly slapped her in the face and another threatened to hurl a pickle jar at her, according to police reports.

She has been arrested multiple times, for crimes ranging from theft to child endangerment.

In total, Deborah Stokes has operated at least a dozen Christian day cares across southern Alabama. Every time she is chased out of town by furious parents, workers or landlords, she reopens in the next town over. In the process, she has collected at least $86,000 in taxpayer funding to run her day cares with almost no oversight.

She doesn’t need a license. She doesn’t need a curriculum or qualified workers. All she needs is a building with a roof, desperate parents and a piece of paper saying she runs a church.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By MARTHA AZZI FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

A Catholic priest has caused outrage after he compared paedophile priests to adulterous women in a primary school’s newsletter.

Father Bill Edebohl’s a parish priest for St Mary’s Primary School in Malvern East, Melbourne, had his homily printed ‘word for word’ in the school’s March newsletter for parents.

The controversial priest also said he was concerned the Royal Commission into child sex abuse will not allow victims to heal, reported The Age.

The priest began his homily recounting a gospel passage of Jesus showing mercy towards an adulterer by halting a mob ready to cast stones after telling them ‘he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her’.

‘Remember this [adultery] was a sin, a crime that carried the death penalty – by stoning,’ Father Edebohl said.

‘Maybe to get the real drama and effect of the story we ought to replace the adulterous woman with a paedophile priest.

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KENTUCKY
Christian Today

Mark Woods CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 14 April 2016

Organisers of a major preaching conference have been criticised for involving CJ Mahaney.
A major conference on preaching in Louisville, Kentucky, has been overshadowed by a row over the presence of a pastor who has faced accusations of a cover-up of child sexual abuse at his church.

The Together for the Gospel conference, which finishes today, features leading evangelical figures including Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Mark Dever, senior pastor of Washington’s Capitol Hill Baptist Church, John Piper, founder of Desiring God, and Matt Chandler, lead pastor of The Village Church in Dallas, Texas.

However, the participation of CJ Mahaney, one of its founders and now pastor of Louisville’s Sovereign Grace Church, has led to controversy because of previous accusations that he and other leaders of Covenant Life Church (CLC) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, were complicit in covering up crimes committed by its youth leader Nathaniel Morales.

Mahaney was named as a defendant in a lawsuit which alleged that he and several other leaders of Sovereign Grace Ministries conspired to “permit sexual deviants to have unfettered access to children for purposes of predation and to obstruct justice by covering up ongoing past predation”. This case was dropped due to the statute of limitations. However, the case has recently been the focus of media attention in The Washingtonian and Time magazine, which have raised fresh questions about the conduct of Mahaney and others.

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC News

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. — Apr 14, 2016

A former student at a Pennsylvania high school told a judge Thursday that a Franciscan brother who worked as a teacher and athletic trainer molested him and other student-athletes during rubdowns that were meant to stretch out their muscles.

The testimony came at a preliminary hearing for three friars who are charged with endangering Brother Stephen Baker’s students by assigning him to jobs where he had contact with children. Baker, who authorities believe molested more than 100 children, killed himself in 2013.

The hearing will determine whether Robert D’Aversa, Anthony Criscitelli and Giles Schinelli should stand trial on child endangerment and conspiracy charges.

The former student, who is now 30, said Baker was a family friend who molested him on the training table at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown and fondled him on car trips to other states and when he visited a monastery in Pennsylvania.

The three friars successively headed a Franciscan order in Pennsylvania from 1986 to 2010. They assigned and supervised the order’s members, including Baker.

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UNITED STATES
The Guardian

Andy Kopsa

After this month, victims of pedophile priests in the Catholic church will no longer be able to find justice – at least, not in Hawaii or Minnesota, two states that extended the statute of limitations (SOL) after a renewed wave of allegations came to light in 2013. This is yet another perfect example of our country’s willful ignorance about rape and sexual abuse.

Why are there SOLs in these cases at all? There shouldn’t be.

It’s already impossible in most other states for victims of rape and sexual assault within or beyond the bounds of the church to gain justice, since SOLs vary wildly from state to state but are often impossibly short. Alabama, to offer just one example, gives victims above aged 16 three years to file a criminal complaint in the case of felony sexual abuse. (Civil SOLs are comparatively longer and easier to pursue; criminal cases must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, while civil suits hinge on the lower bar of providing a preponderance of evidence.)

Some states allow cases to be filed beyond the SOL deadline if definitive DNA evidence is found. It should be noted Alabama isn’t one of them, but they aren’t alone. States have similar windows, and stratify abuse into categories like “forcible” rape or rape with the “threat of harm”. Threat of harm? Rape is itself harm.

Meanwhile, there is a staggeringly unacceptable backlog of untested rape kits in America, as well as loads of research showing that it can take years for victims to feel ready to come forward with their stories.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The JC

By Sandy Rashty, April 14, 2016

A leading campaigner has called for a major inquiry into child sex abuse in England and Wales to investigate strictly Orthodox community institutions.

Australian Manny Waks, who was abused at a yeshivah in Melbourne, said the independent Goddard Inquiry should “seriously consider” looking at Charedi schools.

The inquiry, examining how public bodies protect children from abuse, is due to look at alleged activity across religious groups including the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches.

But in a letter to Dame Lowell Goddard, chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA), Mr Waks called for her to investigate “at least a segment of the Jewish community” in her probe.

He wrote: “While child sexual abuse occurs in every segment of society, the context of the abuse, the response by the institution and community, and other factors differ to some degree.

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NIDERLANDE
RTV

[The Groningen-Leeuwarden diocese is paying compensation of 70,000 euros to two abuse victims.]

ASSEN – Het bisdom Groningen-Leeuwarden, waar ook Drenthe onder valt, betaalt 70.000 euro aan twee slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik binnen het bisdom.

Dat meldt het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik Rooms Katholieke Kerk in het jaarverslag.

Één dader
Volgens het bisdom is één persoon verantwoordelijk voor het misbruik. “Het gaat in ons bisdom in beide gevallen om dezelfde pleger van het seksueel misbruik. Die was al overleden toen de zaken voorgelegd werden”, laat Bisdom Groningen-Leeuwarden in schriftelijke reactie aan RTV Noord weten.

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FRANCIA
Rete L’Abuso

Di Emanuele Longobardi.

Chiesa cattolica francese nel caos per lo scandalo pedofilia. Dopo la bufera per il cardinale Philippe Barbarin, accusato di aver insabbiato alcuni casi di pedofilia ecclesiastica avvenuti in gruppi scout lionesi, la Conferenza dei vescovi francesi (CEF) ha deciso di collaborare con le autorità per contrastare il fenomeno della pedofilia nella Chiesa cattolica francese.

Più controlli nelle comunità cattoliche.

L’arcivescovo di Marsiglia, Georges Pontier, ha dichiarato al quotidiano Le Monde che la Chiesa cattolica collaborerà con le autorità giudiziarie francesi affinché si faccia luce non solo sui recenti casi di pedofilia ecclesiastica, bensì anche su quelli più vecchi. Inoltre, saranno costituite delle cellule d’ascolto che accoglieranno tutte le segnalazioni di pedofilia provenienti da ogni diocesi e provincia della nazione. Questa nuova struttura di controllo sarà facilmente raggiungibile da chiunque grazie ad un sito web apposito.

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MISSOURI
Lake News

By LAKE SUN STAFF
newsroom@lakesunonline.com

Posted Apr. 14, 2016

Laclede County

Travis R. Smith of California, Mo. is scheduled to for jury trail in Laclede County Circuit Court April 18-22.

He is facing multiple charges filed by the Missouri State Highway Patrol for alleged incidents that took place in Moniteau County in 1998,1999, 2000 and 2005. The case was transferred to Laclede on a change of venue.

Charges include one county of forcible rape, five counts of second degree statutory rape, one count of sexual abuse, one count of forcible sodomy and one count of second degree statutory sodomy. The charges stem from allegations by two different women who were underage at the time in question.

Smith was arrested in 2012 by the Highway Patrol. After a mistrial in December 2015, the case was transferred from Moniteau County to Laclede.

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ILLINOIS
CBS Chicago

April 13, 2016 By Brad Edwards

(CBS) — Two things former House Speaker Dennis Hastert wanted to avoid: jail time and facing those who accused him of sex abuse when they were boys. Wednesday, a judge cleared the way for both.

Hastert will be sentenced in two weeks in his hush money case and, the judge made it pretty clear: He won’t be lenient.

CBS 2’s Brad Edwards reports on how the pain of sex abuse for some, never goes away.

“With the thing with Dennis Hastert right now, there’s a lot remembrance of what I went through,” said Billy Reidy.

Because for him, it was at a school and it was a person in authority.

Starting when he was 15, he says he was abused, “every single day” from 1976 to 1979 by a priest at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. His life changed.

“I had gone through suicide attempts, I had gone through anxiety attacks, lotta depression,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Catholics4Change

Broken Silence
by Victoria Cubberley

So enormously disappointed in human kind. Their choice to deny: live in fear, abandon the most innocent whose childlike eyes seek our refuge. In their helplessness, you chose to look away, turn your back on such screaming pain. A thousand years and still you chose to hurt. This history forever embraced, accepted, fear. Is there no one to stand tall with me free of attachments or agendas? Is there one, single, voice that can listen to my cries, my soft child cries? As I keep reaching, will I ever be touched by love? Must I keep standing here-alone, feeling only my own bravery? In this stillness of my loneliness. I am so angry at your cowardice, the ultimate betrayal in your distortion of my God-my God how you tried to take my very breath. There exists no greater sorrow-my life source, my existence, my harboring soul, than to use what held me together-My God!

I chose to stand tall.
I chose to not allow you, priest, to slowly and deliberately decimate me, God’s child.
I chose to embrace my rage at all of you.
I chose silence.
How could you not see, how could you not hear all the many cries of us, your children?

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MEXICO
Excelsior

[Interpol seeks former pederast priest of San Luis Potosi. Eduardo Cordova Bautista is accused of abusing dozens of children during the 22 years he was in the Archdiocese]

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO.

Interpol busca a Eduardo Córdova Bautista, ex sacerdote acusado de abusar de decenas de menores durante los 22 años que estuvo en la Arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí.

En días pasados, la interpol publicó la ficha en la que se describen datos personales del ex sacerdote y los cargos que se le imputan, entre los que se encuentran privación ilegal de la libertad, abuso sexual calificado y corrupción de menores.

Según reportes, Córdova Bautista habría abusado durante años de adolescentes que fueron sus alumnos en diversos colegios católicos privados.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Eyewitness News

Mia Lindeque

JOHANNESBURG – The lawyer representing a fugitive rabbi wanted for alleged sexual crimes in Israel has accused the Hawks of using “dirty tactics” to arrest him.

The 80-year-old rabbi has repeatedly evaded arrest in South Africa until he was nabbed in a Johannesburg hospital by Interpol.

The rabbi claims he is in South Africa legally.

He is due to appear in the Randburg Magistrates Court today.

Rabbi Eliezer Berland says he had to go to hospital urgently due to a heart condition and members of Interpol arrested the 80-year-old man there last week.

His lawyer Themba Langa claims the Hawks are not acting in the interest of justice and have ulterior motives.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Thursday 14 April 2016

A senior Catholic nun, alarmed that a priest had boys in his bedroom, told a Melbourne archbishop about rumours he was sexually abusing boys. Nothing was done.

Boys would climb through a window to get to the bedroom of Gardenvale parish priest Ronald Pickering, the Star of the Sea college superior told the congregation leader of Victoria’s Presentation Sisters order, Sr Marie Therese Harold, in 1978.

“I recall thinking that having boys in a priest’s bedroom was alarming and that it should be reported,” Harold told the child sex abuse royal commission on Thursday.

Around the same time the Gardenvale parish curate, Leslie Harper, also told Harold he was suspicious of Pickering and believed boys were being sexually abused, her statement said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

April 14, 2016 –

Henrietta Cook
Education Reporter at The Age

A Catholic priest has offended parents at a Malvern East school by comparing paedophile priests to adulterous women in a school newsletter.

St Mary’s Primary School parish priest Father Bill Edebohls also took aim at lawyers and the media for not showing enough mercy during the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

He said he was concerned the Royal Commission would not give victims an opportunity to heal.

“Why? Because both the media and the lawyers, like the baying crowd of men in the gospel ready to throw stones, don’t understand the need for a justice that is drenched in mercy.”

The statements were printed in the school’s March newsletter and delivered at the St Mary’s church in East Malvern.

“Maybe to get the real drama and effect of the story we ought to replace the adulterous woman with a paedophile priest,” he wrote, after recounting the gospel tale of Jesus showing mercy towards an adulterous woman, telling the baying mob “he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

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NEW YORK
The Daily Star

“Statutes of limitations,” according to Lawyers.com, “are laws that set time limits on how long you have to file a ‘civil’ lawsuit, like a personal injury lawsuit, or how long the state has to prosecute someone for committing a crime.”

As far as we are concerned, the New York state Legislature doesn’t know a statute of limitations from the Statue of Liberty.

There are certain people who have committed atrocities for which there should be no statute of limitation. Among these are murderers, rapists and Auschwitz prison guards.

And, oh yes, child molesters.

In 2006, New York enacted a law eliminating the criminal statute of limitations on felony sex offenses. But our state is among the worst in the country when it comes to allowing civil cases against those who prey on children.

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CALIFORNIA
KPCC – AirTalk

Five of the women have accused comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault, but at least some of the alleged crimes are too old for prosecution.

A state bill, SB 813, authored by Senator Connie Leyva (D-Chino) would abolish all legal deadlines for rape, sodomy, lewd, or lascivious acts, continuous sexual abuse of a child, oral copulation and sexual penetration.

The bill was heard Tuesday by the Senate Public Safety Committee.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY DAVE FINLAY

MICHAEL Murphy, 82, was jailed this morning following a hearing before Lord Uist at the High Court in Edinburgh.

A CATHOLIC monk who carried out a catalogue of brutality and degrading abuse against pupils at a residential school during “a regime of fear” has been jailed for seven years.

Michael Murphy , 82, was jailed on Friday following a hearing before Lord Uist at the High Court in Edinburgh .

The pervert was known as Brother Benedict or Brother Ben to children in his care at St Joseph’s List D School in Tranent, in East Lothian, where he perpetrated indecency and violence against youngsters.

Irish-born Murphy denied a string of charges against him during his trial at the High Court.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Matt Hamilton

A former Roman Catholic seminary student from Ohio pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to adopt or “own” young children in Tijuana in order to sexually assault them, prosecutors said.

Joel Alexander Wright, 23, admitted to traveling to San Diego in January, when he was arrested at San Diego International Airport with a duffel bag stocked with baby clothes, bottles, toys, candy and lubricant, according to his plea agreement.

For months before arriving in San Diego, Wright had corresponded with a witness, and later, undercover federal agents, according to court papers. He thought he would be meeting up with three children, all under the age of 3, at a Tijuana hotel.

“There are no words to describe the horror that might have happened, had an innocent baby been placed in this man’s arms,” U.S. Atty. Laura Duffy said in a statement. “There is nothing more important on my agenda than keeping children safe from pedophiles.”

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CALIFORNIA
Courthouse News Service

By WILLIAM DOTINGA

SAN DIEGO (CN) – A former seminary student on Wednesday pleaded guilty to federal charges relating to his efforts to adopt female infants and toddlers from Tijuana in order to sexually molest them, the Justice Department said.

In the plea agreement, Joel Alexander Wright admitted to placing ads on Craigslist Tijuana for the purpose of adopting or buying a baby girl under the age of three because he wanted “to have intercourse with her after I own her.”

Wright further admitted that after federal agents took over the email account of the person he had been corresponding with, he wrote that “I think one fun thing we could do at the same time with the infant baby is you could be in her mouth with your thing and I could be penetrating her so she would be getting it from both ways,” according to the plea agreement.

He added, “With the four-year-old I think I will spank her a while to warm her up and make her a little angry so we can chase her around the place, and I will penetrate her very hard which will be fun and if she is angry at me she will be even more fun because she will probably try to get away and it is so much more fun when it is a bit of a struggle.”

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CALIFORNIA
KRQE

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A former Ohio seminarian has pleaded guilty to trying to adopt or purchase infants from Mexico to sexually molest them.

Joel Wright pleaded guilty Wednesday in San Diego to a federal charge of attempted enticement of a minor. The 23-year-old faces 10 years to life in prison when he’s sentenced in July.

Beginning in November, Wright placed Craigslist ads for a Tijuana tour guide, then told someone who responded that he wanted a baby girl for sex.

Wright acknowledged sending explicit emails describing his desires to assault children, from infants up to the age of 4.

The person he contacted was cooperating with federal agents and Wright was arrested when he flew into San Diego in January.

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CALIFORNIA
NBC San Diego

By Samantha Tatro

A former seminary student pleaded guilty Wednesday to traveling to San Diego seeking to adopt and have sex with infant girls, according to a plea agreement.

In the plea agreement, Joel A. Wright, 23, admitted to writing numerous explicit emails where he described how he wanted to sexually assault infants under the age of four in Mexico.

“There are no words to describe the horror that might have happened, had an innocent baby been placed in this man’s arms,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy in a statement. “There is nothing more important on my agenda than keeping children safe from pedophiles.”

Wright, a former seminary student in Columbus, Ohio, originally posted Craigslist ads starting Nov. 25, seeking a female tour guide, according to the guilty plea. When an unidentified witness replied, he told the witness he wanted to “adopt/own a baby girl (under the age of 3)” and have sexual intercourse with her, according to the plea agreement.

In a different email with an undercover federal agent, Wright admitted to telling the agent he bought infant pain relief medication and a “pretty outfit” for a 1- or 2-year-old, according to the document.

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC News

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. — Apr 14, 2016

Three Franciscan friars face a hearing on charges they allowed a suspected sexual predator to teach at a Pennsylvania high school and hold other jobs where he molested more than 100 children.

Thursday’s hearing will determine whether Robert D’Aversa, Anthony Criscitelli, and Giles Schinelli stand trial on child endangerment and conspiracy charges.

The three successively headed a Franciscan order in Pennsylvania from 1986 to 2010. They assigned and supervised the order’s members, including Brother Stephen Baker. Authorities say Baker molested scores of children, most at a high school. Baker killed himself in 2013.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

14 April, 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is holding a series of public roundtables in April to discuss a range of criminal justice issues with invited participants.

The public roundtables follow March’s public hearing into criminal justice issues.

Royal Commission Chief Executive Officer Philip Reed said the public roundtables will discuss adult sex offender treatment programs, Director of Public Prosecution’s (DPP) oversight and complaint mechanisms and reporting offences.

“These roundtables will invite comment and discussion from a range of participants, including police, public prosecutors, criminal justice policy officials, academic and practitioner experts and others,” Mr Reed said.

“Consultation through these public roundtables will help inform the Royal Commission’s criminal justice policy work,” Mr Reed said.

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HAWAII
The Eagle

HONOLULU (AP) — Three additional lawsuits were filed Wednesday accusing Catholic priests in the Diocese of Honolulu of sexual abuse.

The three suits allege that priests abused children and teens throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The Diocese of Honolulu is a defendant in all three cases, which say the diocese knew or should’ve known about the abuse. The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers were also named as a defendant in two of the cases.

The Very Rev. Gary Secor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu said the organization hasn’t reviewed the lawsuits filed Wednesday yet.

“However, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu remains committed to treating victims of sexual abuse with compassion and respect, with the goal of providing just resolution,” Secor said.

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NETHERLANDS
NL Times

Posted on Apr 14, 2016 by Janene Pieters

The diocese of Groningen/Friesland is paying a total of 700 thousand euros in compensation to two victims of sexual abuse within the diocese, according to the annual report of Hotline Sexual Abuse Roman Catholic Church, RTV Noord reports.

According to the diocese, both cases involved the same perpetrator, who died even before the cases got started. As much of the sexual abuse happened in the 50’s and 60’s, many of the perpetrators are now deceased. “But the impact on the victims remain high”, Ben Spekman, spokesperson for the hotline, said to the broadcaster.

The Catholic Church itself established the hotline five years ago when it became known that priests abusing kids, with the knowledge of the church, was a widespread problem. Over the past five years, the hotline received 3,656 complaints from Dutch victims. 700 of these victims received compensation, totaling at 21 million euros.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY WILMA RILEY

FIVE men went on trial yesterday accused of sexually and physically abusing boys in their care at a school between 1967 and 1983.

It’s claimed they attacked pupils aged 11 to 16 at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife. There are 121 charges on the indictment involving abuse, and prosecutors say there were 35 victims.

Many ex-pupils claim they were assaulted with implements, including shoes, a belt and a ruler.

John Farrell, 73, Paul Kelly, 63, Edward Egan, 78, Michael Murphy, 76, and William Don, 61, deny all the charges they face.

Most of the allegations are against Kelly and Farrell. Kelly is alleged to have left a boy of 13 rolled up in a rug overnight, and to have stripped another pupil and hung him upside-down from a bridge.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Link

THURSDAY, 14 APRIL 2016

BY PHIL JACOBS

Riverdale—It was in late February that Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, Riverdale Jewish Center’s embattled spiritual leader of 31 years, gave notice to its board that he intended to step down from his pulpit.

On April 6, RJC’s membership overwhelmingly approved the proposed retirement agreement, 352-75.

An email sent to shul members from Board President Samson Fine and VP Chaim Haas thanked those who participated in the “special meeting” and apologized “if the tone and tenor became contentious at times.”

In a follow-up email to RJC members, questions were addressed. Rabbi Rosenblatt’s retirement was effective Tuesday, April 12. “His entry into early retirement would follow a board vote to approve the agreement, including the transfer of the residence at 3039 Netherland Avenue to the rabbi.”

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AUSTRALIA
Clayton Utz

By Jennifer Wyborn and Nick West-Foy.

Key Points:

Employers will probably be protected from unfair dismissal claims by employees who are subsequently convicted, but it will be harder to resist claims from employees who are subsequently found to have no case to answer.

Allegations of child sex abuse are extremely serious. When they occur in the workplace they raise questions relating to the security and health and safety of a range of parties. One would think the ability to terminate an employee accused of such behaviour in a school setting would be uncontroversial. A recent decision, however, suggests that this is not so and employers must now grapple with two cases providing conflicting guidance on terminating employees in these situations.

The most recent decision from the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) specifically considers the scenario where a teacher is charged with offences relating to child sex abuse and whether or not termination of employment in circumstances where an employee is not qualified to work with children can amount to unfair dismissal.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on April 14, 2016

A man told the Mount Cashel civil trial at Newfoundland Supreme Court Wednesday he was taken in the 1950s by a Christian Brother to the orphanage boiler room where he was kissed and fondled, beginning a pattern of being sexually “stalked” by that Brother and abused numerous times.

And during that period, he said, he asked priests for help.

The man also talked about another Brother who beat him, leaving his eye swollen for two weeks.

“Sexual stalking, it was persistent,” the man, now in his early 70s, said of the Brother who sexually abused him. “The two years, the 2 1/2 years, were probably the worst period of my life ever, under any circumstances, when (the two Brothers) were in the orphanage. It was awful.”

The man said he told some Roman Catholic priests about the incidents in and out of confession, and his once-serious interest in pursuing a career in the priesthood or as a Christian Brother ended because they did not help him.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reuters

HARRISBURG, PA. | BY DAVID DEKOK

Pennsylvania prosecutors will lay out their case on Thursday against three former leaders of a Roman Catholic order accused of endangering hundreds of boys by putting them in contact with a priest they knew to be a sexual predator.

The preliminary hearing for Giles Schinelli, 73, Robert D’Aversa, 69, and Anthony Criscitelli, 61, on felony charges of endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy is expected to last much of the day at the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.

Each is a former leader of the Franciscan Friars, Third Order Regulars, Province of the Immaculate Conception based in Hollidaysburg. Prosecutors accuse them of enabling the sexual predations of Brother Steven Baker, a member of their order who committed suicide in 2013.

“They acted to protect the institutions they led rather than the children and family they served,” according to the grand jury presentment which recommended charges. “Moreover, they could have prevented additional victims.”

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PERU
La Republica

[The Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cusco, Monsignor Fredy Aparicio Quispe, said that Luis Fernando Figari, founder of the Sodality of Christian Life, should be condemned by justice. Figari was convicted for sexual abuse committed against its members.]

José Víctor Salcedo

Cusco

El Vicario General de la Arquidiócesis del Cusco, monseñor Fredy Aparicio Quispe, consideró que Luis Fernando Figari, fundador del Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, debe ser condenado por la justicia. Figari fue hallado culpable por abusos sexuales cometidos en contra de sus miembros.

“Se tiene que revisar y buscar a los culpables. Y la ley y la justicia están para eso, para poder poner un límite y condenar a estas personas que han incurrido en faltas que están demostradas”, anotó.

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