ABUSE TRACKER

OSTERREICH
Bischofs Konferenz

[Austrian bishops at their spring plenary assembly at St. Polten have decided on further regulations regarding sexual abuse allegations and said concern for victims must come first.]

Frühlingsvollversammlung der Bischofskonferenz in St. Pölten beschließt Schaffung österreichweiter Regelungen – Sorge um Opfer muss an erster Stelle stehen

Wien, 5.3.10 (KAP) Österreichs Bischöfe wollen mit zusätzlichen Maßnahmen einen noch wirksameren Umgang der kirchlichen Verantwortungsträger mit Fällen von sexuellem Missbrauch sicherstellen. Bei ihrer Frühlingsvollversammlung in St. Pölten wurde von der Bischofskonferenz daher eine österreichweite innerkirchliche Regelung in Auftrag gegeben, wird in einer am Freitag veröffentlichten Presseerklärung mitgeteilt.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Allegations of child sexual abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home in Belfast will remain part of the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry in Northern Ireland, a judge has ruled.

An application by a Kincora victim for a judicial review was dismissed by the High Court in Belfast as “premature and misconceived”.

The challenge was taken by Gary Hoy against Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers and the HIA inquiry.

A separate independent review in England and Wales is led by Justice Lowell Goddard.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail (UK)

[with copy of the suicide note]

By EMMA FOSTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A Catholic priest who shot himself in the head after he was accused of molesting a young boy left a chilling suicide note in which he claims he took his own life as ‘a final gift’ to anyone he ‘might have hurt’.

In the note – which appears to be a veiled admission of guilt – Father Virgilio Elizondo, 80, said he had lived a life ‘totally dedicated to serving others’.

The Notre Dame professor left it near where his body was found, at his San Antonio, Texas, home.

Apparently unconcerned by the feelings of his alleged victim, he thanked God for his entire life – ‘especially’ his 52 years of priesthood – during which time his accuser claims Fr. Elizondo sexually assaulted him when he went to him to report abuse by another priest.

The letter – obtained by Daily Mail Online – goes on to describe how Fr. Elizondo felt ‘fatigued and empty’ and was suffering various ailments affecting his kidneys, eyes and knees.

Only in the last paragraph of the carefully typed-out note – discovered on a table just yards from where Fr. Elizondo committed suicide – does the priest ‘beg forgiveness and mercy from those he has hurt or offended.’

Last night the lawyer representing Fr. Elizondo’s alleged victim called priest self-serving and manipulative.

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ROME
ANSA

(ANSA) – Rome, April 8 – Prosecutors on Friday requested a 14-year prison sentence against a priest they say repeatedly abused a little boy who had been entrusted to him by his parents.

Vito Beatrice, 71, is a priest at Sant’Alessio Church in Rome’s tony Aventino neighborhood.

The priest is charged with sexual assault on a child aggravated by abuse of authority while he was the alleged victim’s spiritual tutor between Easter 1995 and October 2004.

The alleged victim, now 28, tried to kill himself by jumping out a nightclub window into a river in February 2010. He then told his girlfriend and his parents about the abuse, finally reporting the priest in 2011.

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SCOTLAND
East Lothian Courier

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 this morning (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, 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.

He said: “I should not be here in this court at all.”

But a jury convicted him on Thursday of 15 charges of assault and indecent assault involving eight boys spanning the decade up to 1981. Murphy was acquitted of a further two charges.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Alan Erwin
PUBLISHED
08/04/2016

An abuse victim has lost his High Court battle to have claims that senior politicians, businessmen and high-level British state agents connived in a paedophile ring at a notorious Belfast care home examined by a Westminster inquiry.

Dismissing Gary Hoy’s bid to judicially review the decision to keep the probe into the Kincora scandal within the remit of a Stormont-commissioned body, Mr Justice Treacy said: “The present application is premature and misconceived.”

Mr Hoy’s lawyers had argued that the ongoing Historical Instiutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry sitting in Banbridge is powerless to properly scrutinise a “closed order” surrounding the home.

With MI5 accused of covering up the sexual abuse throughout the 1970s to protect an intelligence-gathering operation, it was claimed that the current arrangements cannot compel the security services to hand over documents or testify.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Gary Rosenblatt
Editor And Publisher

After an often-contentious four-and-a-half hour congregational meeting on Wednesday night, the membership of the Riverdale Jewish Center voted overwhelmingly in favor of a board-recommended retirement agreement for Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt. He will end his 31-year-tenure as spiritual leader of the Modern Orthodox synagogue next week.

The vote was 352-75 in favor of the rabbi stepping down from the pulpit. He will be compensated with a retirement package spread out until 2032 and valued at about $2.1 million. As a private citizen he will have no title in the synagogue, where he will be given a life membership.

It is believed that it will be at least a year before a new rabbi is hired.

Rabbi Rosenblatt (no relation) has been the center of controversy for his unusual practice over the years of inviting teenage boys, and later young men, to engage in close conversation with him unclothed in the sauna after playing racquetball. Critics said such behavior was highly inappropriate, though not illegal, and unbefitting a rabbi; defenders insisted his reputation was being unfairly tainted for an innocent, if odd, means of seeking to connect as a mentor to young men.

Some members of the congregation opposed the deal because they supported the rabbi and wanted him to remain in his post until his contract ends in August 2018. Others opposed the deal for a different reason; they wanted the rabbi out but felt he was being overly compensated, especially since the synagogue’s membership and reputation have been adversely affected.

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MARYLAND
World Magazine

The day before Easter, members of Covenant Life Church learned police had arrested one of their former children’s ministry volunteers on charges of child sexual abuse. The news cast a familiar pall over the Gaithersburg, Md., congregation already struggling under the cloud of past child sex abuse allegations within its membership.

On March 16, Montgomery County, Md., authorities charged Larry Ellis Caffery, 66, with nine counts of child sexual abuse and two counts of false imprisonment. His arrest comes as the threat of a new class-action lawsuit looms over Covenant Life Church (CLC) founder C.J. Mahaney and leaders within Sovereign Grace Churches (SGC,), formerly Sovereign Grace Ministries, over allegations they covered up accusations of child sexual abuse involving church members decades earlier.

A 2012 civil lawsuit alleged Mahaney, CLC, SGC, and others covered up sexual abuse in SGC churches, including CLC, the former flagship church of the SGC coalition, of which it is no longer a member. A Montgomery County judge dismissed the case in 2013 on technical grounds but did not rule on the merits of the case. Mahaney denied the charges against him. In 2014, a Maryland jury convicted former CLC youth ministry volunteer Nathaniel Morales on five counts of sexual molestation related to events in the 1980s and 1990s.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, April 8, 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 former Chicago minister who was attacked last week by bystanders while molesting a child, has been charged with child sex crimes and is accused of abusing three boys.

[Raw Story]

He is Rev. Willie Lee Bell Jr., who was a youth pastor at New Covenant M.B. Church in Chicago from 2009 to 2014. He is also CEO of WILBE Productions, LLC in Chicago. He also reportedly worked in Jackson, Tennessee from 2008 to 2010.

[Facebook]

Bell has been a youth minister at First United Methodist of Cedar Hill Texas since November 2015. He was reportedly let go from his job at the church the day after his arrest.

Bell, now 29, is accused of sexually assaulting two little boys behind their apartment in the Dallas area in February. And last week, he was reportedly caught in the act of molesting a third boy. The mom says bystanders attacked Bell to stop him.

In a statement, First United Methodist Church said it has no knowledge of any criminal acts happening at the church,” according to Fox 4 News. But that, in our view, is designed to breed complacency when just the reverse – vigilance and action – are needed now.

Every current and former church employee or member who spent any time at either church – in Chicago or Dallas – should be beating the bushes and shouting from the rooftops, finding anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Bell’s crimes and begging them to call police.

Now is the time for Methodist staff and congregants in Illinois and Chicago to step up and resist the natural but irresponsible temptation to be passive.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Eyewitness News

Mandy Wiener

JOHANNESBURG – A fugitive rabbi, who has repeatedly evaded arrest in South Africa, has finally been taken into custody in Johannesburg.

Rabbi Eliezer Berland has been on the run from Israeli authorities for four years.

He is wanted for sex offences.

Eyewitness News understands that the 80-year-old rabbi was finally arrested by police yesterday after being hospitalised.

He has twice evaded arrest in South Africa, once last year when police raided his hideout at a hotel in Midrand and also during a high-speed car chase.

He has been spotted in several countries, including Zimbabwe, Switzerland and the Netherlands, always accompanied by a group of extremely devout followers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

Siobhan Fenton @siobhanfenton

An urgent inquiry must be launched into the sexual abuse of Jewish children following an investigation by The Independent, campaigners have said.

Kol v’Oz,a global organisation dedicated to preventing abuse of Jewish children, has formally written to the UK’s investigations body for child abuse urging action. In a letter to the Independent Inquiry for Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Chief Executive Manny Waks wrote: “The IICSA notes that it will investigate a wide range of institutions, including those who fall under the category of ‘other religious organisations’. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage the IICSA to seriously consider including at least a segment of the Jewish community in its investigations.

“In the past few years there have been numerous reports of troubling incidents within the Jewish community; more specifically, within the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community in the UK, including a series of reports by The Independent which note that child sexual abuse is alleged to have occurred in illegal Jewish ultra-Orthodox schools and that authorities turned a blind eye to these schools due, in part, to the fear of being accused of anti-Semitism,” Mr Waks added.

An investigation by The Independent revealed that thousands of Jewish children are missing from full time education records in the London borough of Hackney and are feared to be attending illegal, ultra-strict faith schools. The schools teach only religious scripture and all lessons are in Yiddish; meaning that many children with no qualifications and unable to speak English. Physical beatings and sexual abuse is also alleged to take place at some schools.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kol v’Oz

On 7 April 2016, Kol v’Oz sent the following letter to the UK Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse:

Hon. Dame Lowell Goddard DNZM
Chair
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
contact@iicsa.org.uk

Dear Dame Goddard,

Firstly, I would like to commend the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse(IICSA) for its ongoing work in addressing the issue of child sexual abuse in England and Wales.

The IICSA notes that it will investigate a wide range of institutions, including those who fall under the category of ‘other religious organisations’. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage the IICSA to seriously consider including at least a segment of the Jewish community in its investigations.

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.

In the past few years, there have been numerous reports of troubling incidents within the UK Jewish community; more specifically, within the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community there. Some examples include:

* In 2016, in a series of reports, The Independent noted that child sexual abuse is alleged to have occurred in illegal ultra-Orthodox schools and that the authorities turned a blind eye to these schools due, in part, to the fear of being accused of anti-Semitism.

* In 2015 Todros Grynhaus was convicted and jailed for sexually abusing two children. A number of unique aspects were raised in this case such as the Israel’s Law of Return, the high regard in which a rabbi and the son of a rabbi is held, and the ostracisation the victims encountered by their communities as a result of coming forward.

* In 2013, Menachem Mendel Levy was convicted and jailed for sexually abusing a child. The victim and her family were ostracised (including being driven from their synagogue and kosher shops refused to serve them) and rabbis ignored her suffering, advised her not to go to the police and publicly supported the perpetrator.

* In 2013, the Channel 4 Dispatches program aired an undercover investigation that revealed that ultra-Orthodox rabbis forbade or discouraged alleged victims of child sexual abuse from going to the police.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Crain’s Chicago Business

The Archdiocese of Chicago has tightened its belt considerably over the past few years, but the Catholic Church’s central operations here still report a negative net worth of more than $45 million, according to its fiscal 2015 report.

Its finances reflect the church’s myriad challenges, including funding underattended parishes and schools, increased pension obligations for retired priests and the ongoing cost of settling sex abuse lawsuits.

The archdiocese said its main services division reported a $4.6 million ongoing operating loss for its fiscal 2015. The division, called the pastoral center, includes administrative functions for the archdiocese and financial support to needy parishes in the city and suburbs.

The archdiocese’s 351 parishes, which span Cook and Lake counties and report their budget separately, recorded a combined $58.8 million loss in 2015, up from a $49.9 million loss in 2014. Parish collections declined slightly in 2015, to $214.4 million, from $215.9 million in 2014.

(See the reports below.)

The pastoral center loss has narrowed significantly over the past several years. In 2012, the ongoing operating loss was $75.6 million.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Apr. 8, 2016

VATICAN CITY
In a radical departure from recent pastoral practice, Pope Francis has asked the world’s Catholic clergy to let their lives become “wonderfully complicated” by embracing God’s grace at work in the difficult and sometimes unconventional situations families and marriages face — even at risk of obscuring doctrinal norms.

The pontiff has also called on bishops and priests globally to set aside fears of risking moral confusion, saying they must avoid a tendency to a “cold bureaucratic morality” and shift away from evaluating peoples’ moral status based on rigid canonical regulations.

In a substantial and already hotly debated document addressing church teaching on family life, Francis says that Catholic bishops and priests can no longer make blanket moral determinations about so-called “irregular” situations such as divorce and remarriage.

Writing in his new apostolic exhortation, titled Amoris Laetitia (‘The Joy of Love’), the pope strongly advocates for the worth of the traditional, life-long Christian marriage but speaks respectfully of nearly all models of family life.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION AMORIS LAETITIA OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS TO BISHOPS, PRIESTS AND DEACONS CONSECRATED PERSONS CHRISTIAN MARRIED COUPLES AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL ON LOVE IN THE FAMILY

DOWNLOAD PDF

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Apr. 8, 2016

If you are a layperson and want to read the pope’s apostolic exhortation on the family, skip the first three chapters and start with chapter 4. If you are a priest, moral theologian, or divorced Catholic, read chapter 8.

The 263-page exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”) was released at noon today at the Vatican, 6 A.M. Eastern Time.

The opening chapter is a scriptural reflection, but frankly it comes off as a collection of Scripture references that don’t really hang together well.

It is not that the chapter is bad; there are some good passages. For example, it is nice to see a positive exegesis of Genesis’s description of Eve as a helper fit for Adam. Later in chapter 4 he deals with St Paul’s wives “be subject to your husbands.”

The second chapter examines “the actual situation of families, in order to keep firmly grounded in reality.” This chapter, like the first chapter of the pope’s encyclical on the environment, reflects the pope’s insistence that facts matter.

I think it gives a realistic description of the state of family life, but there are few surprises.

One remarkable feature of this chapter is its call for “a healthy dose of self-criticism” in the church.

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RHODE ISLAND
Boston Globe

By Bella English GLOBE STAFF APRIL 08, 2016

A top administrator at the embattled St. George’s School has been on paid leave since January pending an investigation of allegations about “boundary issues” with students, headmaster Eric Peterson and board chair Leslie Heaney told the St. George’s community in an e-mail on Wednesday.

Robert Weston, the associate head for external affairs, served along with his wife as longtime “dorm parents” in a girls’ dormitory. “The Board of Trustees and the Administration were advised of second-hand allegations concerning Mr. Weston observing appropriate boundaries with students,” the letter said. “These allegations relate specifically to his work as a dorm parent at St. George’s in the late 1990s.”

Through his lawyer, Weston rejected the allegations and expressed frustration with what he had thought would be a brief leave. Lawyer Paul V. Kelly told the Globe that Weston “served as dorm parent at the school for 16 years — without a single student complaint or expression of concern.”

“He was a loyal and good soldier for the school and agreed to what he understood would likely be a very short period of administrative leave while the independent investigator reviewed the specious allegation against him. It has now been four months, and unfortunately he is still in limbo,” Kelly said.

Since December, more than 40 alumni of the elite Episcopal prep school in Middletown, R.I., have told lawyers that they were victims of sexual abuse there from faculty or other students, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s. In January, Martin Murphy was appointed by the board and the victims to investigate abuse allegations.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Philly

BY MATTHEW GAMBINO

Archbishop Charles Chaput led about 150 Catholic school children in an event Thursday, April 7 observing April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month and explaining the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s work of abuse awareness and prevention.

The students and the archbishop displayed the blue and silver pinwheels, which he called “symbols of a carefree childhood,” at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center in center city Philadelphia.

Due to expected rain in the morning, the event was moved inside but organizers for the archdiocese plan to display the pinwheels publicly outside the center’s doors on 17th Street.

In his remarks Archbishop Chaput noted that all children in Catholic schools and Parish Religious Education Programs in the Philadelphia Archdiocese receive safe environment training, which can enable them to spot potential child abusers and guard against abusive behavior.

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MARYLAND
Washington Post

By Petula Dvorak Columnist April 7

For the second year in a row, he put it all out there: the shame, the fear, the self-loathing, the pain, the dark details of his horrific, repeated rape.

An Army veteran and attorney, Maryland Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) stood before his colleagues in Annapolis, confessed that he “really, really” didn’t want to be there and told them why he doesn’t sleep much at night. Why he hoped his children would never be boys. Why he knows he is “a monster on the inside.”

Petula is a columnist for The Washington Post’s local team who writes about homeless shelters, gun control, high heels, high school choirs, the politics of parenting, jails, abortion clinics, mayors, modern families, strip clubs and gas prices, among other things. View Archive

And for the second year in a row, lawmakers in the state legislature put all that in a drawer. And closed it.

“It’s usually the case when we tell our stories,” Wilson said. “Nobody wants to hear this. And we want to be heard.”

Wilson wants his fellow delegates to understand what the adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse endure. And what recourse they have years and years later. And for two years, he has sponsored legislation aimed at helping them.

As it stands, a criminal case against an abuser can be pursued anytime, no matter how long ago the abuse happened.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

by Hattie Williams

Posted: 08 Apr 2016

THE Bishop of Crediton, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, has said that she has been given a “clear and un­­am­biguous mandate” from the Arch­­bishop of Canterbury to make significant changes in the Church’s response to survivors of sexual abuse.

Bishop Mullally, who is leading the C of E’s implementation of the safeguarding reforms, was speaking on Monday at a meeting with “Joe” (not his real …

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CALIFORNIA
Signal SCV

By Martha Garcia
Faith Editor

Posted: April 8, 2016

After heightened media attention and backlash from the community, the L.A. Archdiocese has replaced retired L.A. Cardinal Roger Mahony at Saint Kateri Catholic Church’s April 29 confirmation ceremony.

Auxiliary Bishop Alexander Salazar, who conducted the ceremony at Our Lady of Perpetual Help last week, will conduct the ceremony, Saint Kateri officials said.

“We want to focus on the confirmation candidates and celebrate the rite of confirmation,” explained Renee Fields, Director of Operations at Saint Kateri. “We want them to have a joyous experience as they complete their initiation into the Catholic Church.”

Some parishioners were outraged over Mahony’s proposed involvement in the ceremony.

As the head of the L.A. Archdiocese for many years, Mahony was one of the Catholic Church officials at the center of the molestation and sexual abuse allegations over many decades. While he did not take part in the abuse he often protected the priests doing the abusing, gaining the ire of many parents and Catholics alike.

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VATICAN CITY
news.va

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican on Friday published Pope Francis’ eagerly-awaited Apostolic Exhoratation on the family, drawing together almost three years of consultations with Catholics in countries around the world.

The lengthy document, entitled ‘Amoris Laetitia’, or The Joy of Love, affirms the Church’s teaching that stable families are the building blocks of a healthy society and a place where children learn to love, respect and interact with others.

At the same time the text warns against idealizing the many challenges facing family life, urging Catholics to care for, rather than condemning, all those whose lives do not reflect the teaching of the Church.

In particular the document focuses on the need for “personal and pastoral discernment’” for individuals, recognizing that “neither the Synod, nor this Exhortation could be expected to provide a new set of general rules, canonical in nature and applicable to all cases”.

The text of the official summary of the Apostolic Exhortation ‘Amoris Laetitia’ or The Joy of Love can be found below. The full, unabridged text, can be found here on the Vatican website.

Summary of Amoris Laetitia: On Love in the Family

It is not by chance that Amoris Laetitia (AL), “The Joy of Love”, the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation “on Love in the Family”,was signed on 19 March, the Solemnity of Saint Joseph. It brings together the results of the two Synods on the family convoked by Pope Francis in 2014 and 2015. It often cites their Final Reports; documents and teachings of his Predecessors; and his own numerous catecheses on the family. In addition, as in previous magisterial documents, the Pope also makes use of the contributions of various Episcopal Conferences around the world (Kenya, Australia, Argentina…) and cites significant figures such as Martin Luther King and Erich Fromm.The Pope even quotes the film Babette’s Feast to illustrate the concept of gratuity.

Introduction(1-7)

The Apostolic Exhortation is striking for its breadth and detail. Its 325 paragraphs aredistributed over nine chapters. The seven introductory paragraphs plainly set out the complexity of a topic in urgent need of thorough study. The interventions of the Synod Fathers make up [form] a “multifaceted gem” (AL 4), a precious polyhedron, whose value must be preserved. But the Pope cautions that “not all discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the magisterium”. Indeed, for some questions, “each country or region … can seek solutions better suited to its culture and sensitive to its traditions and local needs. For ‘cultures are in fact quite diverse and every general principle… needs to be inculturated, if it is to be respected and applied’” (AL 3).This principle of inculturation applies to how problems are formulated and addressed and, apart from the dogmatic issues that have been well defined by the Church’s magisterium, none of this approach can be “globalized”.In his address at the end of the 2015 Synod, the Pope said very clearly: “What seems normal for a bishop on one continent, is considered strange and almost scandalous – almost! – for a bishop from another; what is considered a violation of a right in one society is an evident and inviolable rule in another; what for some is freedom of conscience is for others simply confusion.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

Rosie Scammell in Vatican City
Friday 8 April 2016

Pope Francis has called for the Catholic church to revamp its response to modern family life, striking a delicate balance between a more accepting tone towards gay people and the defence of traditional church teachings on issues such as abortion.

In a landmark papal document entitled Amoris Laetitia (Joy of Love), Francis outlined his vision for the church on family issues, urging priests to respond to their communities without mercilessly enforcing church rules: “Each country or region, moreover, can seek solutions better suited to its culture and sensitive to its traditions and local needs,” he wrote.

The apostolic exhortation concludes a two-year consultation that saw bishops twice gather in Rome to debate issues affecting the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

In comments likely to be welcomed by some LGBT organisations, Francis urged the church to “reaffirm that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while ‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence.”

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OKLAHOMA
Texoma Homepage

STEPHENS COUNTY

A retired pastor and principal who police say is facing charges for sexually abusing a child has been released from a Stephens County Jail on $100,000 bail.

71-year-old Jody Hilliard is charged with two counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child.

According to the Duncan Banner, Duncan Police began investigating Hilliard on March 11.

A few days later, they received an incident report out of Cole County, Missouri in which a 10-year-old girl told officers that Hilliard had touched her and made her touch him.

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INDIANA
Times Herald

Mike Grant
Times Herald

A minister accused of abusing a young member of his church presented his tearful version of the events that led to his arrest. Armando Bruno Morales, 56, of Washington is on trial on two counts of Class A felony child molesting and two counts of Class C felony child molesting in Daviess Superior Court.

The second day of testimony opened with Washington Detective Daniel Christie on the stand. Christie had testified about his investigation into the case that reportedly began in 2008 when the victim was 8 years old.

During cross examination by the defense a 30-minute recording of a interview Christie conducted with the boy who was the alleged victim in the case was presented. During that interview the boy again detailed events surrounding his abuse.

“I was scared,” the boy said during the interview. “He would come to my bed at night and would do it to me.”

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CALIFORNIA
My News LA

POSTED BY HOA QUACH ON APRIL 7, 2016

A former pastor of a non-denominational Christian church in Buena Park is expected to receive a life sentence Friday for molesting an 8-year-old female friend of his daughter’s and possessing videos and images of child pornography on his computers.

Christopher Raymond Olague, 44, who was also convicted Nov. 3 of kidnapping the victim to commit a child molestation and attempting to dissuade a witness from cooperating with authorities.

Olague was acquitted of lewd acts on another victim, who is a relative, and using a minor for sex acts. Jurors also found true a sentencing enhancement for kidnapping a victim during a molestation, but denied a sentencing-enhancing allegation of multiple victims.

Just before the trial began, charges related to a third alleged victim were dropped because she did not want to testify, Deputy District Attorney Lexie Elliott said.

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INDIANA
The Observer

Catherine Owers | Friday, April 8, 2016

Notre Dame faculty, staff and students gathered in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart for Thursday afternoon for a Mass in memory of theology professor Fr. Virgilio Elizondo, who died March 14 in San Antonio.

Elizondo, the University of Notre Dame professor of Pastoral and Hispanic Theology, is widely considered the founder of U.S. Latino theology and received the 1997 Laetare Medal. University President Fr. John Jenkins celebrated the Mass, and Fr. Daniel Groody, director of immigration initiatives for the Institute for Latino Studies, delivered the homily.

Groody said Elizondo was a man who was devoted to relationships, gave generously and “greeted people with open arms.”

“Wherever he went, he often could be found around a table, gathering people together, forming new relationships, discussing new ideas,” he said. …

In his homily, Groody spoke on the allegations of sexual abuse made against Elizondo last year.

“In May of last year, a man came forward with allegations that he was sexually, repeatedly abused by a priest more than 30 years ago. If such allegations are true, it’s an egregious injustice against this human being. That priest, however, was not Virgil Elizondo,” he said. “These allegations [were] against another priest who fled the country and was never heard from again. Virgil later became connected to the allegations through one disputed incident of the plaintiff, which Virgil completely denied. He was brought into this case not because he was a serial abuser, but because he was a highly visible, accomplished, respected cleric. … This one accusation put the spotlight entirely on Virgil.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Caleb Cluff and Matthew Dixon
April 8, 2016

Ronald Mulkearns will be the first Ballarat bishop not to be interred in the crypt of St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Ballarat Diocese Vicar-General Justin Driscoll said it was not appropriate in light of the revelations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to grant Bishop Mulkearns a position inside the Cathedral.

“That is correct; he will be the first bishop not to be placed in the crypt. It really is a direct response to the revelations of the Royal Commission. It was not appropriate for the former bishop to be buried there,” he said.

During his time as bishop, numerous paedophile priests were moved across the region while they were abusing children.

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AUSTRALIA
Cairns Post

AAP

Pedophile NSW ex-priest awaits sentence

A disabled girl repeatedly raped by a pedophile 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, in NSW’s north, 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 on Friday.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Karl Hoerr

Victims of a former Catholic priest who sexually abused children in northern New South Wales in the 1980s have described the devastating impact of his crimes in statements read out in court.

John Joseph Farrell, 62, is awaiting sentencing for 62 offences involving 12 victims.

One victim said in his statement, which was read by his mother, the abuse was compounded by the fact that when he reported what happened to him, he was not believed.

“I felt completely abandoned by the institution I had put so much faith in,” his statement said.

The victim said he had enjoyed a happy childhood until the age of 11.

“When I met Farrell, all of that changed,” he said in his statement.

He said the Catholic Church merely protected Farrell.

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AUSTRALIA
Bay 93.9

A former priest convicted of 62 child sex offences involving the sinister abuse of 12 victims targeted kids in a church, a pool and during car trips.

A disabled girl repeatedly raped by a pedophile 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, in NSW’s north, 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 on Friday.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY MICHAEL O’KEEFFE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, April 8, 2016

Kevin Braney went through hell in the basement of a church rectory.

Braney says he was a devout 15-year-old altar boy when Msgr. Charles Eckermann first raped him in a rectory storage room at St. Ann’s Church in Manlius, a suburb of Syracuse. Braney says Eckermann assaulted him at least a dozen times in 1988 and 1989 on a mattress the priest had stashed in the storage room.

“I was taught to trust and believe priests because they were the closest thing to God on Earth, and he told me if I defied him, I was defying God,” Braney said. “He said he had a divine right to abuse me.

“He told me he would put my genitals in a vise if I resisted,” added Braney, now an executive at a mental health agency in Boulder, Colo., and an advocate for sexual abuse victims. “He said he would kill me if I said anything.”

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CONNECTICUT
Norwich Bulletin

By Dave Collins The Associated Press

Posted Apr. 8, 2016

HARTFORD — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford is taking its dispute with an insurance company to trial, seeking reimbursement of more than $1 million in payments made to settle sexual misconduct cases involving priests and minors.

The case is one of many around the country in which insurance companies have balked at paying claims related to lawsuits against church officials seeking to hold them responsible for sexual assaults of minors by clergy — accusations that in many instances date back decades and involve priests who have since died.

A key issue in the Connecticut case and others is whether insurance companies can deny claims under assault and battery exemptions in liability policies. Many policies don’t cover intentional acts, but church officials have argued that they did not know about the alleged assaults.

A bench trial in the Hartford case is scheduled to begin Friday in federal court in New Haven before Judge Janet Bond Arterton.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Southtown

Ted Slowik

I see parallels in the case of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the sexual abuse of children by priests. As Hastert faces sentencing, a judge must weigh whether the damage to Hastert’s reputation resulting from the revelations of alleged sexual abuse is punishment enough.

I have to choose my words carefully, because Hastert isn’t charged with sexually abusing children, and he hasn’t admitted to it. As part of a plea deal, he’s pleaded guilty to a bank structuring charge for withdrawing large sums. When federal authorities confronted him about the withdrawals, he allegedly lied about it. But that charge was dropped as part of the plea deal, in which he also admitted paying about $1.7 million to someone.

The federal investigation and a Tribune report revealed the reason for Hastert’s alleged hush-money payments. The recipient of Hastert’s illegal bank withdrawals was a student and wrestler in the 1970s at Yorkville High School, where Hastert taught and coached. The individual is one of four men who accuse Hastert of sexually abusing them when they were teens, the Tribune found.

My past work as a journalist includes extensive investigation of sexual abuse of children by priests of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet. Most of the stories I wrote were about men who were abused as boys during the 1970s and 1980s. As I related heartbreaking tales from abuse survivors, I often wondered how the criminal conduct occurred in the first place, and why it remained secret for so long.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

BY PATRICIA MILLER APRIL 6, 2016

e Catholic Church has been trying desperately to suggest that the days of rampant sexual abuse of minors by priests and subsequent cover-ups by bishops are a thing of the past and that the church has moved into a new, more transparent future. But to paraphrase a classic mob movie, just when they think they’re out, they get pulled back in.

First, it was Spotlight’s focus on the Boston-area abuse scandal that proved to be the tipping point for public awareness of widespread abusive priest-shuffling. It also reminded people of just how hard senior Vatican officials like Cardinal Bernard Law worked to keep the church’s complicity covered up.

And just when the publicity over Spotlight’s Academy Award dies down, now comes a hard-hitting report chronicling 50 years of abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in Pennsylvania. A state grand jury report determined that hundreds of children had been abused by at least 50 priests. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Hundreds of children were molested, raped and destined to lasting psychological trauma by clerics whose abuses were covered up by their bishops, other superiors and even compliant law-enforcement officials in Blair and Cambria counties.

It’s the conspiracy nature of the long-running pattern, with both church officials (including two consecutive bishops, and local authorities, including police, judges and district attorneys) colluding to cover up abuse, that led the authors of the report to call the whole mess “soul murder.”

One state legislator is calling for a RICO investigation of the conspiracy, calling it “nothing less than organized crime.”

Despite the pledges by Pope Francis and other Vatican officials to take a zero-tolerance position on abuse and to make a full reckoning of sins of both omission and commission, it appears that the church is still dedicated to protecting its power and privilege over seeking justice for abuse victims. The New York Times reports that lobbyists for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference have been working overtime to quash a move to open a “window” that would allow previous abuse victims to sue under a bill moving through the legislature that would remove the statute of limitations for sex abuse crimes and allow victims to sue past the current limit of their 30th birthday.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 7, 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 newspaper is reporting that an ex-priest who was convicted of child sex crimes is now at a North Carolina “spiritual center.” We think, this is a dangerous move and we urge his colleagues and supervisors to oust him.

[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

The Atlanta Journal Constitution spoke recently with William Groves, a now-defrocked priest who pled guilty to felony abuse and sheltering “runaway Indian and Hispanic kids and giving them drugs and alcohol.” In June 2015, he was vice treasurer at the Spiritual Light Center in Franklin, North Carolina. Two local citizens told us they began to be suspicious when Groves repeatedly offered to set up a children’s program at the Center even though there were few children among the members there.

[Spiritual Light Center]

The AJC says he’s now an office manager there.

In our view, “reformed” alcoholics don’t seek jobs in bars. Likewise, a purported “reformed” child molester who hurt kids in a church shouldn’t seek employment with youth.

And he shouldn’t be given such a position. Child predators shrewdly use any role or responsibility or job or title to help persuade parents that they are trustworthy. So officials at the Spiritual Life Center, by giving Groves any job or position, are making it easier for him to win the trust of unsuspecting families and sexually violate more kids.

Groves was also named as a predator in two clergy sex abuse and cover up cases in Colorado. Those suits settled for $175,000. (His victims were represented by Ft. Lauderdale attorney Adam Horowitz.)

Previously, Groves worked in Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas and allegedly got abuse counseling at a center in Atlanta in the 1990s.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

By Mary Jo Noworyta

When I hear the media report a pastor’s sexual sin as an “affair,” it awakens a deep well of despair within me, remembering my own “brush with the devil.” Simple, lax descriptions such as, “falling from grace,” or “an act of indiscretion,” completely miss the mark on what is happening to religious communities throughout the world.

After my “indiscretion” with my pastor, I learned it was not an affair. There was no consent. It was merely an illusion of a consensual relationship when once we understand who is responsible to keep appropriate boundaries and why.

In every helping profession, the helpers are responsible to keep healthy boundaries between themselves and those they serve. One can argue that religious leaders are held to an even higher standard when you add the element of spirituality. By their very nature, they are representatives of God and hold a most sacred, trusted position.

An overwhelming majority of these leaders counsel those in their congregations. Those seeking help are the hurting, the confused, the broken, the lost; people without an answer looking for direction. The leader is fully accountable, working with the vulnerable and wounded. His sole purpose is to help. Never should he take advantage of the person under his care.

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BELGIE
The Post

[The Catholic Church in Belgium goes unpunished.]

Het spraakmakende onderzoek naar misbruik van minderjarigen door katholieke geestelijken in België lijkt geen straffen op te leveren. Alle misdrijven in de zogenoemde Operatie Kelk zijn verjaard, liet het federaal parket dinsdag weten.

Dat zou betekenen dan niemand meer kan worden vervolgd. De rechtbank in Brussel buigt zich op 28 april over de zaak.

Operatie Kelk begon in juni 2010 met huiszoekingen bij onder meer het aartsbisdom in Mechelen en de privéwoning van kardinaal Godfried Danneels, die van tientallen misbruikzaken op de hoogte zou zijn.

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BELGIE
kernet

Wat voorafging Sinds het federale parket het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik binnen de Kerk coördineert, vanaf september 2010, hebben in totaal 261 slachtoffers rechtstreeks contact gehad met een magistraat van het federaal parket.

In het dossier Kelk werden tussen augustus 2010 en december 2012 in totaal 83 klachten met burgerlijke partijstelling neergelegd.

In het voorjaar van 2012 werden in het dossier Kelk een aantal huiszoekingen uitgevoerd onder meer bij alle bisdommen.

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SOUTH AFRICA/ISRAEL
Forward

(JTA) — An Israeli rabbi who has been on the run to avoid extradition back to Israel on sex abuse charges has been arrested in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Rabbi Eliezer Berland, 78, has been hiding out in South Africa for the past nearly eight months with several of his followers. Since the accusations in 2012, he has also hidden in Morocco, the Netherlands and Zimbabwe.

Berland’s followers confirmed to the Israeli media that he had been arrested this week by South African police. He reportedly had been hospitalized in Johannesburg and may have been arrested there.

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ISRAEL/SOUTH AFRICA
Haaretz

Three years after fleeing Israel, the head of the Shuvu Banim community, Rabbi Eliezer Berland has been arrested this week in Johannesburg, South Africa, his followers told Haaretz.

Berland was on the run for three years from Israeli police, skipping across three continents since 2013, among Canada, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Holland and elsewhere.

He is suspected of commiting sexual offenses, especially against women who were a part of his community, Shuvu Banim. Some complainants had been inside a room with him seeking advice or a blessing.

Berland’s lawyer Sharon Nahari confirmed his arrest and said Israel has filed a request for extradition.

“We are preparing to leave for South Africa and deal with the [extradition] request in court. Like we released him from detention in the Netherlands, we will fight now,” Nahari said.

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SOUTH AFRICA/ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

Chief Rabbi of South Africa Warren Goldstein has warned the local Jewish community against cooperating with Berland or his followers

Fugitive Rabbi Eliezer Berland was arrested in South Africa on Thursday and is expected to face extradition to Israel, where he is wanted on suspicion of carrying out sex crimes.

Berland’s attorney Sharon Nahari on Thursday confirmed his client’s arrest, and said Israeli authorities had filed a request to extradite him.

Nahari vowed that he would fly to South Africa and contest his client’s extradition, as he did last year after he was arrested in Amsterdam. Nahari also represented Israeli underworld boss Yitzhak Abergil ahead of his extradition to Israel in January 2014.

Followers of Berland said that he underwent surgery a week ago and that local law enforcement may have pounced on the opportunity to arrest him.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

Rosie Scammell in Rome
Thursday 7 April 2016

Pope Francis is likely to disappoint Catholic reformists on Friday with the publication of his views on family life, which observers predict will not change church doctrine on divorcees and gay people, despite presenting a more open approach.

The Amoris Laetitia (Joy of Love) document, known as an apostolic exhortation, follows a two-year consultation with bishops to determine how the church should address the challenges facing modern families.

Francis is expected to adopt a positive tone and welcoming approach to Catholics who do not fit the nuclear family model; but in keeping with the outcome of the bishops’ synods, there is unlikely to be a dramatic shift in church teachings.

The pontiff is not expected to grant divorced Catholics who remarry the right to take holy communion, though he is likely to acknowledge that they should play an active role in church life and not be sidelined.

A similar stance will be taken on gay Catholics, whose relationships will continue to be described as “intrinsically disordered”. The focus instead will rest on the respectful engagement between the church and gay people.

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NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

Leaders of the Salesian Priests and Brothers have refused to settle a childhood sexual abuse claim against one of its priests, Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB, causing the victim, who was abused in Indiana, to be re-victimized. The victim is being denied justice.

Fr. Timothy Zak, SDB, a leader of the Salesian Priests and Brothers, based in New Rochelle, NY, told advocate Dr. Robert M. Hoatson during a recent demonstration at a New Jersey church that the Salesians were settling the claim from a Salesian seminary in Indiana, but there has been no settlement and no settlement talks

At the “Will and Anthony” concert at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, New Jersey, the Salesian Priests and Brothers will have another opportunity to keep their promise by announcing to concert-goers that they intend to settle the credible sexual abuse claim from Indiana against Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB

What
A demonstration alerting high school parents, the media, concert-goers and the general public that the Salesians of Don Bosco, a religious order of men, have refused to settle the credible claim of sexual abuse in Indiana by a man who was promised a timely and fair resolution. Thus far, it has not happened.

When
Saturday, April 9, 2016 from 6:00 PM until 7:30 PM before the “Will and Anthony” concert

Where
On the public sidewalk across from the main entrance of Don Bosco Preparatory School, 492 North Franklin Turnpike, Ramsey, New Jersey 07446

Who
Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including its co-founder and President, former Archdiocese of Newark priest, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why
A few weeks ago, Fr. Timothy Zak, SDB, a member of the leadership team of the Salesian Priests and Brothers of Don Bosco, approached Dr. Robert M. Hoatson at a demonstration at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Orange, NJ, and told him that there was no need for a demonstration outside Our Lady of the Valley Church or any Salesian parish or school (like Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, NJ) because the Salesians were “in settlement talks” with two men who were sexually abused, one by Br. George Sheehan, SDB, and the other by Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB. Fr. Timothy Zak was incorrect. While the sexual abuse victim of Br. George Sheehan received a settlement, the sexual abuse victim of Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB, did not and has not received a settlement yet. No settlement talks have taken place in months, and no settlement has been reached. Demonstrators will demand that the Salesian Priests and Brothers do what they promised.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc., 862-368-2800

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer Posted Apr. 7, 2016

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. — Saint George’s School placed an administrator on leave in January as an independent investigation into systemic sexual abuse at the elite Episcopal school was getting under way, the school said in a letter to alumni Wednesday. The widening investigation involves allegations against half a dozen former faculty members and several students, largely in the 1970s and ’80s.

The allegations against Bob Weston, current associate head for external affairs, stem from his conduct as a dorm parent in the 1990s, and concern “Mr. Weston observing appropriate boundaries with students,” the letter from Headmaster Eric F. Peterson and Board Chair Leslie B. Heaney says.

The school’s letter, obtained Thursday by The Journal, states, in part:

“As you know, the independent investigation into sexual abuse at St. George’s led by Martin F. Murphy is underway and fully supported by the School. While that inquiry proceeds, we are committed to keeping our community informed on these important matters.”

After the board and the administration received the allegations, “the decision was made to place Mr. Weston on administrative leave pending the results of an investigation, and the appropriate authorities were informed,” the letter states. “Since the independent investigation was beginning at this same time, we asked Mr. Murphy and his team, whose work is ongoing, to include this matter in their inquiry.”

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HAWAII
Hawaii Tribune-Herald

By JOHN BURNETT Hawaii Tribune-Herald

A high-ranking Catholic Church official arrested last August in Kona for drunken driving had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal threshold for intoxication.

According to court records, Cardinal William Joseph Levada had a blood-alcohol level of 0.168 when he was stopped at about midnight Aug. 19 on Hina Lani Street in Kailua-Kona.

According to a police spokeswoman, Levada was driving a 2015 Nissan Altima and was alone in the car when he was pulled over after a patrol officer saw him swerve while driving northbound on Queen Kaahumanu Highway north of Kealakehe Parkway.

Through his attorney, Levada pleaded no contest and was fined $300 on Jan. 25 in Kona District Court.

The 79-year-old Levada, who lives in Menlo Park, Calif., wasn’t required to appear at the hearing and was not present.

Levada’s driver’s license was revoked for a year and he was ordered to pay $162 in various fees in addition to the fine. He also was ordered to undergo substance abuse assessment and to follow any recommended treatment.

A proof of compliance hearing was set for 8:30 a.m. July 8. Levada will not be required to appear and his Honolulu attorney, Howard Luke, will be allowed to participate by telephone.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Church Militant

by Joseph Pelletier • ChurchMilitant.com • April 7, 2016

Archdiocese has paid out $140 million in clergy sex abuse settlements

CHICAGO (ChurchMilitant.com) – The archdiocese of Chicago’s financial situation is being described as “unstable” amid sharp declines in parish and school attendance and a growing number of clerical sex abuse settlements.

In a financial statement released Tuesday the finance team for Chicago Abp. Blase Cupich admitted the archdiocese faces “continued financial pressure” and despite “recent progress, some of [their] parishes and schools have low parishioner and/or student counts, unstable operating results and unsustainable capital repair needs.” The 2015 report reveals a decrease of $1 million in parish collections compared to the prior year and a near $5 million loss at the diocesan parish center. Expenses at diocesan schools alone exceeded the tuition and fee intake by $40.2 million last year; the archdiocese of Chicago has nearly 250 elementary schools, seminaries and universities.

A further burden on the archdiocese’s wallet are the continually multiplying allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of diocesan clergy. Over the past 30 years the church in Chicago has shelled out over $140 million in abuse-related court settlements, with auditors reporting $10.8 million of that sum having been paid since June 2015. The number could also increase drastically in the near future, as a Cook County judge ruled in February an abuse victim will be allowed to petition for punitive damages on top of compensatory damages, paving the way for other victims who had previously settled to demand further recompense.

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UNITED STATES
WBUR

The critically acclaimed film, “Spotlight”, tells the story of the Boston Globe’s 2002 investigation of what later became the world-wide clergy sex abuse crisis.

We’ve talked to members of the original Globe team, to a lawyer, and a priest. Now, we hear from someone who represents the most important group of people in this story: the survivors.

This conversation originally aired on Nov. 6, 2015.

Guests

Phil Saviano, founder of the New England Chapter of SNAP, the Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests.

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BOSTON (MA)
Poynter

By Benjamin Mullin • April 7, 2016

The Boston Globe on Thursday became the latest newspaper to announce it’s undertaking a major reassessment of its strategy and coverage priorities to keep pace with the ongoing tumult of the digital age.

The announcement, an internal memo from Globe Editor Brian McGrory, tops 1,000 words and touches on several major aspects of The Boston Globe’s operation. Among other things, it calls into question the viability of longstanding editorial processes at the newspaper:

There are important issues to raise and explore in what I’ll call a reinvention initiative: Do we have the right technology? Do we train staff in the right way? Should we remain in the current print format that we have now, same size, same sections? Do we have the right departments? Is our beat structure outdated? How can our work flows improve? Do we have too many of XX and not enough Ys? Should we publish seven days a week? Do print and digital relate in the right ways?

The questions could go on and on. They could become bolder still. …

At The Boston Globe, the changes come during an era of simultaneous pride and newsroom austerity. The dramatization of its investigation into the Catholic Church, “Spotlight,” recently won an Oscar and brought the Globe a measure of Hollywood fame. But The Globe has executed multiple rounds of staff cuts in recent years, once in 2014 through voluntary buyouts and again in 2015 through layoffs.

Meanwhile, the owner of The Boston Globe, billionaire Red Sox owner John Henry, has presided over a company on a mission to build standalone publications focused on specific coverage areas. STAT, a Globe publication that covers the life sciences, launched last year. The Globe also launched vertical focused on coverage of the Catholic Church, Crux, that it relinquished after failing to find enough advertising support.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Ines San Martin
Vatican correspondent April 7, 2016

ROME – Pope Francis’ highly anticipated document on the family will be unveiled on Friday. Called “Amoris Laetitia, on love in the family”, it’s expected to touch on several hot-button issues, including Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.

The text, said to be close to 250-pages long and divided in more than 300 points, will be presented by Cardinals Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, and Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, Austria, at a press conference in Rome.

Set to begin at 11:30 Rome time, the news conference be broadcast live through the Vatican’s Television Center.

Secrecy surrounding the document is greater than usual, with no copies leaked in the media as of 24 hours before its unveiling. Vatican sources say the final version of the document hasn’t yet left the pope’s inner circle.

Some bishops have expressed their frustrations via Twitter over the fact they haven’t yet seen the text, including Archbishop Mark Coledrige, of Brisbane, Australia.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune APRIL 7, 2016

Bankruptcy court judge Robert Kressel approved a $3.3 million bid for the headquarters of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on Thursday.

The chancery and the archbishop’s residence has been on the market since last year, when the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following a flood of child abuse claims.

The $3.3 million bid was submitted by the Minnesota firm 1777 Bunker Lake Blvd NW LLC. Donald Regan, chairman of Premier Bank is listed as the firm’s manager in state documents.

Premier Bank , which has 19 bank branches across the state, has not commented on the purchase. Court documents do not mention any specific plans for the property.

The firm was the top bidder at an auction for the property held Monday. It tops the previous high bid of $2.75 million by Minneapolis-based United Properties.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Joseph Serna

An Orange County religious nonprofit that prosecutors have linked to a former pastor accused of molestation has denied any ties to the suspect, the organization said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Orange County prosecutors announced that Douglas Dale Whinery, 80, had been arrested and accused of molesting two girls for years after he met them in Tustin in 2011. The girls are now 8 and 10, according to prosecutors.

Authorities said that Whinery had remained active at Olive Crest in Santa Ana, the Foothill Family Church in Foothill Ranch and the Grace Church in Yorba Linda until his arrest last week.

But an Olive Crest spokeswoman on Thursday said the faith-based nonprofit, which works with at-risk youths, has no record of Whinery working or volunteering with the group.

“Olive Crest is dedicated to guarding the safety and well-being of the children we serve,” the agency’s statement read. “Given our commitment to the safety of children, Olive Crest does not take allegations of this kind lightly. Our organization is always available to assist the District Attorney’s Office and other law enforcement entities. We have offered them our complete cooperation in this case.”

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

A Catholic monk has been found guilty of a catalogue of abuse to pupils at an East Lothian residential school during “a regime of fear”.

Michael Murphy, 82, was known as Brother Benedict at St Joseph’s List D School in Tranent.

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

A jury convicted him of 15 charges of assault and indecent assault involving eight boys over the decade up to 1981.

Murphy was acquitted of a further two charges on Thursday.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY DAVE FINLAY

MICHAEL Murphy, 82, was known as Brother Benedict or Brother Ben to children at St Joseph’s List D School in Tranent where he perpetrated indecency and violence.

A CATHOLIC monk carried out a catalogue of brutality and degrading abuse against pupils at a residential school during “a regime of fear”.

Michael Murphy 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, 82, denied a string of charges against him during his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh claiming: “I should not be here in this court at all.”

But a jury convicted him of 15 charges of assault and indecent assault on Thursday involving eight boys spanning the decade up to 1981.

Murphy was acquitted of a further two charges.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on April 07, 2016

Mount Cashel civil trial enters third day

Courtroom No. 2 at Newfoundland Supreme Court in St. John’s was gripped this morning with a soft-spoken man’s testimony of marriage that he says failed because of his abuse experiences at Mount Cashel and a once-promising career derailed by alcoholism.

The man, now in his 70s, spent 11 years at the infamous St. John’s boys orphanage, run by the Catholic lay order Christian Brothers.

It was an eerie atmosphere when the witness softly sang to the court one chilling song that a taunting fellow resident who disliked him would recite about him being a teacher’s pet and wanting to be coddled by the Brother that he now claims was fondling him in his bunk many nights.

But the witness said he never told of the abuse to other boys and initially denied it to police decades later.

The man said he might have had a normal, happy life — not one of drinking, depression and boarding houses — had it not been for the abuse. Instead he said while he married and had a son, his wife eventually left him for another man because of his inability to perform sexually.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Herald Express

A MAN who taught at a Devon school for three decades is to appear at trial where he will face more than 60 charges in connection with the alleged sexual and physical abuse of children.

Paul Kelly, aged 63, is one of five men accused of a series of assaults and indecent assaults between 1970 and 1983 at St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife.

The Roman Catholic school was run by the Irish Christian Brothers organisation until it closed in the 1980s.

The men – Kelly of Glade Close, Plymouth, John Farrell, aged 73 of Motherwell; Michael Murphy, aged 76 from Dunfermline; William Don aged 62 from Leven and Edward Egan, aged 78 from Altrincham – face a total of 131 charges involving more than 40 alleged victims.

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ITALIA
Molisedoc

[The bishop of Cassino defends himself and said allegations of sexual harassment are unfounded.]

April 07, 2016

Oggi arriva – forse – la parola fine rispetto alle accuse, direttamente dalla procura della Repubblica di Cassino.

Il vescovo della diocesi di Cassino-Sora, monsignor Gerardo Antonazzo, sarebbe indagato – secondo quanto riporta l’Agi – per presunte molestie sessuali a carico di 8 seminaristi.

Sabato il vescovo aveva parlato di “totale infondatezza delle accuse” attribuitegli. Antonazzo ha preso possesso anche della diocesi di Cassino, dopo che quella di Montecassino è stata sciolta per volere del Papa (un atto questo preso anche per altre realtà abbaziali italiane e dunque neppure qui c’è un collegamento diretto con fatti di cronaca). Oltre alla confessione scritta, la polizia ha ascoltato tutti i ragazzi che avrebbero subito molestie da parte del vescovo.

Titolare del procedimento è il procuratore capo Luciano d’Emmanuele che nei giorni scorsi avrebbe concluso le verifiche per poi procedere con la richiesta di rinvio a giudizio dell’alto prelato.

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NEW YORK
New York Times

By KATE TAYLOR
APRIL 6, 2016

A group representing parents and former students at ultra-Orthodox yeshivas accused the de Blasio administration on Wednesday of dragging its feet in investigating their schools, out of fear of alienating a constituency that the mayor has assiduously courted.

In July, 52 parents, former students and former teachers sent a letter to New York City’s Education Department saying that 39 yeshivas were violating state law by not providing students, particularly boys, an adequate education in secular subjects like English, math and science. The Education Department said then that it would conduct an investigation of the yeshivas, located in Brooklyn and Queens.

But on Wednesday, the group behind the letter held a news conference in front of City Hall to express its frustration with the lack of any apparent progress in the investigation.

“It’s eight months later, and there’s no sign of a serious investigation taking place,” Naftuli Moster, the leader of the group, Young Advocates for Fair Education, said. “In fact, all indications are that the D.O.E. is just stalling us. In the meantime, tens of thousands of boys — we estimate around 30,000 — are not getting a basic education.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

Somewhere in an ultra-Orthodox enclave of Israel, former Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer continues to evade extradition to face criminal charges in Australia. Now one of her alleged victims speaks out for the first time.

By Sophie McNeill

Malka Leifer’s role in Melbourne’s Adass community was all-powerful.

As head of the Adass Israel School from 2003 to 2008, she was highly regarded in the community, running day-to-day operations at the school and teaching Jewish studies.

Leifer is now under house arrest somewhere in the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Bnei Brak in central Israel, where she fled in 2008 — allegedly with the help of senior members of Melbourne’s secretive Adass community.

She is wanted by Victoria Police to face prosecution for 74 child sex offences involving the abuse of girls at the Adass Israel School.

For almost two years, she has managed to evade extradition proceedings and her latest hearing scheduled for today has been postponed to an unknown date.

Outraged at the failure to extradite Leifer, one of her several alleged victims, who we will call Rebecca, is speaking out for the first time.

“It’s still extremely difficult for me to go into detail in regards to what happened to myself and the other victims,” she told Lateline.

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FRANCE
Oest France – Religions

[Sexual abuse of minors: The Church in France must speak the truth.]

Les signataires de cet appel publié dans Le Monde, le 7 avril 2016, demandent que “la pleine lumière soit faite sur la pédophilie. Même sur les actes couverts par la prescription. L’institution doit appeler les coupables à se dénoncer et les victimes à témoigner.”

“A l’heure où nous écrivons cet appel, les versions s’opposent à propos des affaires d’abus sexuels sur mineurs qui touchent le diocèse de Lyon. Nous nous garderons bien d’empiéter sur le travail d’enquête en cours. Nous disons simplement que la justice doit passer.

“Mais elle ne doit pas seulement dire le vrai dans telle ou telle affaire particulière. Nous sommes persuadés que de trop nombreux cas d’abus sexuels de la part de membres de l’institution se sont produits dans notre pays depuis des dizaines d’années.

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FRANCE
Catholique 95

[After raising a controversy over the concept of sin in pedophilia, Bishop Stanislas Lalanne, Bishop of Pontoise, said that on Thursday, April 7 on RCF that the priority in these cases is the victims.]

Après avoir soulevé une polémique sur la notion de péché dans la pédophilie, Mgr Stanislas Lalanne, évêque de Pontoise, a rappelé ce jeudi 7 avril sur RCF que la priorité dans ces affaires, ce sont les victimes.

S’exprimant jeudi 7 avril 2016 sur RCF, l’évêque de Pontoise a tout d’abord demandé pardon à ceux qui auraient pu être blessés par ses propos, qu’il estime avoir été mal compris. “Si jamais mes propos ont été maladroits, j’en demande pardon à tous ceux qu’ils ont pu choquer” a-t-il tout d’abord déclaré, précisant que “ma première attention est d’abord et avant tout pour les victimes” d’abus sexuels au sein de l’institution religieuse.

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FRANCE
La Croix

[Bishop Stanislas Lalanne argued that pedophilia was a “bad” but not necessarily a sin.]

Marie Malzac, le 06/04/2016

Interrogé, mardi sur RCF, Mgr Stanislas Lalanne a soutenu que la pédophilie était « un mal » mais pas forcément « de l’ordre du péché », entraînant la condamnation du collectif de victimes La Parole libérée et l’incompréhension à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur de l’Église.

Qu’a dit Mgr Lalanne ?

« La pédophilie est un mal. Est-ce que c’est de l’ordre du péché ? Ça, je ne saurai pas dire, c’est différent pour chaque personne. Mais c’est un mal et la première chose à faire, c’est de protéger les victimes ou les éventuelles victimes ». Ces mots, prononcés mardi 5 avril par Mgr Stanislas Lalanne, évêque de Pontoise, sur les ondes de RCF, ont soulevé très vite une polémique. D’autant que plusieurs auditeurs étaient revenus en direct sur ces propos pour les contester.

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FRANKREICH
katholisches

[The French Bishop Stanislas Lalanne said that pedophilia “evil,” but he “could not say” whether pedophilia is a sin. The statements of the bishop challenged the protest of a victim organization. The words of the bishop were “embarrassing” and for the victims “degrading”.]

(Paris) Der französische Bischof Stanislas Lalanne erklärte, daß Pädophilie „ein Übel“ sei, er aber „nicht sagen könnte“, ob Pädophilie eine Sünde ist. Die Aussagen des Bischofs forderten den Protest einer Opferorganisation heraus. Die Worte des Bischofs seien „peinlich“ und für die Opfer „erniedrigend“.

Diese Worte sagte der Bischof dem Radiosender RCF, einem Zusammenschluß von 63 christlichen, französischsprachigen Radiosendern.

Bischof Lalanne nahm an einer Sendung zum Thema „Die Kirche von Frankreich und die Pädophilie“ teil. Die Sendung fand angesichts der Vorwürfe gegen Kardinal Philippe Barbarin, den Erzbischof von Lyon statt, gegen den die Staatsanwaltschaft wegen des Verdachts ermittelt, einen Priester seiner Diözese nicht rechtzeitig wegen sexueller Gewalt angezeigt zu haben.

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BELGIQUE
CathoBel

[The hierarchy of the Belgian Catholic Church should not be prosecuted for culpable abstention in cases of sexual abuse in the context of a pastoral relationship. The federal prosecutor said that the facts were prescribed.]

La hiérarchie de l’Eglise catholique belge ne devrait pas être poursuivie pour abstention coupable dans les dossiers d’abus sexuels dans le cadre d’une relation pastorale. Le parquet fédéral a estimé que les faits étaient prescrits.

Débutée en juin 2010, l’opération « Calice » avait défrayé la chronique et provoqué un vif émoi au sein de l’Eglise belge. Il faut dire que dans une même journée, le juge d’instruction Wim De Troy avait ordonné des perquisitions au siège de l’archevêché à Malines (au moment même où se tenait une réunion de la Conférence des évêques), à la cathédrale Saint-Rombaut (où l’on fit ouvrir des tombes), au domicile privé du cardinal Danneels (qui fut entendu une journée entière), au siège de la commission dirigée par le pédopsychiatre Peter Adriaenssens (qui se penchait alors sur les faits de pédophilie au sein de l’Eglise), ainsi qu’aux Archives générales du Royaume.

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BELGIQUE
7 Sur 7

[Information about abuse in the Catholic Church obtained through Operation Chalice is beyond the statute of limitations for prosecution.]

L’ensemble des faits visés par l’Opération Calice, l’enquête du parquet fédéral chargée de faire la lumière sur des faits d’abus sexuels présumés commis au sein du clergé et la tentative d’étouffement de ces affaires par la hiérarchie catholique, sont prescrits et plus personne ne peut être poursuivi, selon le point de vue que défendra le parquet fédéral dans son réquisitoire final devant la chambre du conseil de Bruxelles. Cette dernière doit se pencher sur l’affaire le 28 avril prochain.

Le parquet demande ainsi de constater l’extinction de l’action publique étant donné la condamnation antérieure de 4 prévenus pour les faits dénoncés, les décès de 37 suspects et la prescription de presque tous les autres faits. En ce qui concerne les accusations d’abstention coupable, le parquet constate de même que les faits concernés sont manifestement prescrits.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims prod church to “take action”
Youth minister was arrested last week
He’s accused of molesting three children
SNAP: “Parents, ask your kids if they were hurt”
Group wants Methodist officials to “do outreach”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will

–blast local church officials for their public comments in a pending child sex abuse case,
–urge them to “do aggressive outreach” seeking other “victims, witnesses and whistleblowers,”
–beg parents in the congregation to “ask their kids if they were hurt,” and
–prod anyone who may have “seen, suspected or suffered” crimes by the minister – or cover ups by his colleagues or supervisors – to “protect kids by calling law enforcement immediately.”

WHEN
Thursday, April 7 at 11:00 am

WHERE
Outside First United Methodist Church of Cedar Hill, 128 North Roberts Road in Cedar Hill, Texas

WHO
Three members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including the organization’s Dallas-area director

WHY
Willie Lee Bell Jr., a youth pastor at this church, is accused of sexually assaulting two little boys behind their apartment on East Little Creek Road in February. And last week, he was reportedly caught in the act of molesting a third boy. The mom says bystanders attacked Bell to stop him.

Bell, 29-years-old, was arrested in West Oak Cliff.

[Raw Story]

In a statement, First United Methodist Church of Cedar Hill said it has no knowledge of any criminal acts happening at the church,” according to Fox 4 News. That’s designed to breed complacency, SNAP says, when just the reverse – vigilance and action – are needed now.

“Every current and former church employee or member who spent any time at this church should be

Beating the bushes and shouting from the rooftops, finding anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Bell’s crimes and begging them to call police,” said Amy Smith of SNAP. “Now is the time for United Methodist staff and congregants to step up and resist the natural but irresponsible temptation to be passive.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WESA

By MARY WILSON

The state House is poised to consider major changes to the statutes of limitations on child sex abuse cases in Pennsylvania, one month after the release of a grand jury’s findings that the clergy of the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese covered up child sex abuse allegations for decades.

The bill, passed by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, would eliminate the time limit for bringing criminal charges in a child sex abuse case. It expands the timeframe for bringing civil suits, giving victims until they’re 50 years old, instead of 30.

Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks), who has renewed his public crusade for statute-of-limitations reforms since the Altoona-Johnstown case was made public, said the plan should also include a two-year period when even expired cases can be brought by law enforcement and victims, since so many weren’t ready to confront their abusers until well after the statute of limitations had expired.

“When we talk about the hundreds of victims that have been abused,” said Rozzi, “this bill does nothing for them.”

He plans to amend the bill when it reaches the House floor.

Opponents of the two-year retroactive window for prosecution and civil suits said it’s unconstitutional and would create problems for insurers.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

April 6, 2016 Joelle Casteix

Yeah, even I was surprised.

Parishioners at Los Angeles Archdiocese’s St. Kateri Church were not pleased when they were informed that disgraced Cardinal Roger Mahony was going to perform their parish confirmations.

From the Santa Clarita Valley Signal:

Brooke Bambrick is among the outraged. Growing up Catholic, her father was a deacon at St. Monica’s. When he found out about the widespread coverups and Mahony’s failure to hold abusers accountable and protect the abused, he decided the family should leave the Catholic Church.

“He thought it was hypocritical of the church,” said Bambrick. “Mahony protected the priests and shuffled them around, that’s a crime, and a crime against kids.”

Now that Mahony is coming to Saint Kateri, she is outraged and believes the church should request another Bishop for the ceremony.

“It is an atrocity that he is able to step foot in a church,” she said. “He ignored the facts and allowed people to do atrocious things to children. The Catholic Church didn’t handle it correctly and he shouldn’t officiate at such a large church here in the valley.”
But instead of just “taking it,” parishioners decided to do something.

Reports are now saying that the parish filed a formal complaint with Archbishop Gomez and that the Los Angeles prelate approved the removal of Mahony from their services.

Good job. Now it’s time to remove him from everything else. I wonder if there is a formal complaint form for that issue.

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CALIFORNIA
Signal

By Martha Garcia
Signal Staff Writer

Sex abuse and molestation charges have rocked the Catholic Church for decades. Amid the allegations, one man whose career was tarnished by the scandals was retired L.A. Cardinal Roger Mahony.

On April 29, Mahony will confer the sacrament of confirmation to the teen class at Saint Kateri Catholic Church, and many parishioners and community members are outraged.

Brooke Bambrick is among the outraged. Growing up Catholic, her father was a deacon at St. Monica’s. When he found out about the widespread coverups and Mahony’s failure to hold abusers accountable and protect the abused, he decided the family should leave the Catholic Church.

“He thought it was hypocritical of the church,” said Bambrick. “Mahony protected the priests and shuffled them around, that’s a crime, and a crime against kids.”

Now that Mahony is coming to Saint Kateri, she is outraged and believes the church should request another Bishop for the ceremony.

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UTAH
KUTV

BY CHRIS MILLER WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6TH 2016

The movie “Spotlight” won the Academy Award this year for Best Picture. It shined a light on sexual abuse and the importance of exposing it.

The film was based on the real life experiences of Phil Saviano, who was in Utah Wednesday, to attend a screening of the movie at the Salt Lake City Library and to encourage other victims to come forward.

“I’m finding that a lot of people want to talk to me and I do have some interesting stories to tell,” says Saviano, whose business card describes him as a “survivor” and “whistleblower”. “I was molested, assaulted repeatedly when I was 11 and 12-years-old.”

Saviano first told his story to the Boston Globe in 1992 and worked with investigative journalists for a decade to expose widespread allegations of sexual abuse within the clergy of the Catholic Church.

“I gave them names of 13 priests in Boston and another 14 priests in the next diocese over, who I knew were child molesters, but whose names had never appeared in the newspaper,” he says.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Apr 6, 2016

A private firm has bid nearly $3.3 million to buy the chancery of the bankrupt Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, offering about $500,000 more than a previous offer from United Properties.

Archdiocese attorneys plan to ask a federal judge on Thursday to approve the new offer.

The firm that made the higher bid is managed by Donald B. Regan, the founder and chairman of Maplewood-based Premier Banks.

If the deal goes through, proceeds would top $8 million, said Paul Donovan, who’s helping to sell church properties.

Once the chancery is sold, the church still will have to sell two more St. Paul properties: a vacant lot and a two-story building used for offices, both on the 200 block of Dayton Avenue near the St. Paul Cathedral.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Associated Press

Posted Apr. 7, 2016

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (AP) — An elite Rhode Island boarding school embroiled in a sexual-abuse scandal said an administrator has been placed on leave over allegations concerning his conduct as a dorm parent in the 1990s.

St. George’s School said in a letter sent to alumni Wednesday that associate head for external affairs Bob Weston was placed on leave in January pending the outcome of an independent investigation. The Middletown school said it received “secondhand allegations” regarding Weston’s “boundaries with students.”

Weston’s lawyer Paul Kelly denied Wednesday that his client had done anything wrong, saying the allegations stem from a disgruntled former employee. He said no student has ever accused Weston of wrongdoing.

Kelly called claims that Weston violated students’ boundaries “dated and utterly specious,” adding that Weston has a 26-year unblemished record. He said Weston agreed to the temporary leave to allow the investigation to move forward and to handle a serious family matter.

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RHODE ISLAND
Patch

By MARK SCHIELDROP (Patch Staff) – April 6, 2016

MIDDLETOWN, RI—Alumni of the elite St. George’s School in Middletown were notified Wednesday that Bob Weston, associate head for external affairs, was placed on leave after the school received “secondhand allegations” about his “boundaries with students.”

Weston was placed on leave in January, the school said. It is not clear why alumni were notified about three months later in April.

A school spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

St. George’s has been mired by a sex abuse scandal since December scandal after dozens of former students came forward with tales of being raped and sexually assaulted by former athletic trainer Al Gibbs in the 1970s, former chaplain Rev. Howard W. White Jr., in the 1970s and 80s along with about five other former employees of the school.

A total of about 40 victims have since come forward reporting abuse dating back to the 1960s.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on April 06, 2016

Former Mount Cashel Orphanage resident testifies of terrifying shower beating
In excruciating testimony Wednesday at the Mount Cashel civil trial, a man in his late 70s told how he tried as a boy in the 1950s to get a Roman Catholic official to help orphanage residents who were being beaten constantly by Christian Brothers.

“We need help here,” he said he pleaded to the official.

But while promises were made, nothing was done, the witness said in Newfoundland Supreme Court presided over by Justice Alphonsus Faour.

The Roman Catholic Church is now fighting four test cases, representing 60 claimants, because it says it did not operate the orphanage.

In cross examination, one of the church’s lawyers, Chris Blom, pointed out the church official the witness spoke to as a boy may have been bound by confessional confidentiality rules and could not break that seal.

“Could be, yes,” the witness said.

But the witness had also said that official was “the last resort” and he’d hoped the official could go to the Christian Brothers’ superior and have a word about the beatings without mentioning names.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Leading Australia child protection expert Freda Briggs has been hailed a “warrior for children” who took advocacy for their welfare out of the shadows.

Dr Briggs’ family on Thursday confirmed the “wonderful mother, grandmother and sister” died at the Royal Adelaide Hospital the previous night, aged 85.

“A fierce intellect and determination to change the understanding of protecting children from injustice has been a force that has propelled her onto the world stage,” they said in a statement.

Dr Briggs’ concern for the plight of children began when she first encountered victims of abuse while working as a policewoman in London in the 1950s.

It grew into social work and teaching, where she focused on the need for increased awareness of child abuse, and in 2003 she co-authored a major report into the Anglican church’s handling of sexual abuse complaints.

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

by Cathal Barry
April 7, 2016

Paranoia as a result of the clerical sex abuse scandals is “hampering” priests from engaging fully with society, a prominent psychotherapist has warned.

Kevin Egan, who has lectured in All Hallows College in psychology and pastoral theology, told The Irish Catholic that “the main thing that blocks mission in the Church today is paranoia or fear”.

“That is why the Church has difficulty now in engaging with groups in society, with statutory bodies, in the area of education and in others. The Church in its relationship with all these bodies acts in a quite a paranoid way.

“One of the functions of the Church in society is to engage for the good of society with all the other groups in society and so its ability to do that is hampered in Ireland particularly. You can’t go and reach out to people if you fear them,” he said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WITF

Written by Mary Wilson, Capitol Bureau Chief | Apr 6, 2016

State lawmakers are taking heat from Pennsylvania’s Office of Victim Advocate for their latest efforts to change the statutes of limitations in child sex abuse cases.

Jennifer Storm said she supports a House plan to abolish the time limit for criminal child sex abuse cases, but she’s not thrilled that lawmakers are merely extending the statute of limitations on civil cases, giving victims until they’re 50 instead of 30 years old to file suit.

Storm said that will add to the confusion surrounding Pennsylvania’s statutes of limitations in child sex abuse cases.

“You have to literally have a calendar and a calculator to determine which victims have which rights,” said Storm.

She also said she’s disappointed the proposal doesn’t apply to adult victims of sexual assault, some of whom can also take years to report such incidents.

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MINNESOTA
The Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
April 6, 2016

Diocese of St. Cloud’s Secrecy Practices Cracked By Two Stearns County Judges
Judge Frederick Grunke gives green light to survivor’s public nuisance action against the Diocese of St. Cloud
Judge Kris Davick-Halfen orders release of priest files

(St. Cloud, MN) – Judge Frederick Grunke’s order, issued April 1, 2016, says that the Diocese of St. Cloud’s long-standing practices of concealment and protection of sexual abusers created a dangerous condition that threatens public safety. Judge Grunke wrote in his order that the “harboring and concealment of multiple serial child-molesters at large in the community is hardly a lesser threat to public safety [than harboring a dangerous dog.]” Sexual abuse survivor, Doe 65, who filed her lawsuit in August 2015, was sexually abused by Father Donald Rieder in the late 1960s when she was 14 years old. This is the second time a public nuisance claim has been allowed to move forward against the Diocese in less than a year. Judge Grunke also allowed Doe 65’s negligence claims to move forward.

A second judge, Judge Kris Davick-Halfen, days earlier ordered the Diocese of St. Cloud to turn over the files of any priests of the Diocese who have been accused of sexual abuse of children. Judge Davick-Halfen’s order follows her decision last summer to allow another survivor, Doe 50’s public nuisance claims to go forward. Doe 50 filed his lawsuit in January 2015. Doe 50 was sexually abused by Father James Thoennes in the early 1970s when he was 11 years old. Thoennes is currently retired and living alone in an apartment in St. Cloud. Judge Davick-Halfen gave the Diocese until April 25th to provide the files to Doe 50’s attorneys, Jeff Anderson and Mike Bryant. Doe 50 v. Diocese of St. Cloud, 73-CV-15-276.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Sun-Times

Michael Sneed
@Sneedlings
It’s a first.

Sneed hears Archbishop Blase Cupich, who was handpicked by Pope Francis to shepherd Chicago’s 2.2 million Catholics, just sent his flock a renewal form.

• Translation: Cupich in recent weeks dispatched a survey to every Catholic in the Chicago Archdiocese to reassess the church’s mission.

The 39-question survey, which was made available to all parishioners, did not require a signature and could be filled out online.

“There is no doubt church membership is static, declining or changing — and the Archbishop is hoping to chart a new course for vibrancy and vitality,” a top Archdiocesan source said.

“The survey he [Cupich] just launched has never been done here before and asks parishioners to comment on a wide variety of parish life,” the source said.

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UTAH
Good4Utah

[with video]

By Glen Beeby | gbeeby@good4utah.com
Published 04/06 2016

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 Utah) – Phil Saviano is a sex abuse survivor whose story is featured in the movie Spotlight. He was in Salt Lake City Wednesday for a screening, and to talk about why it’s important for victims to speak out.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness month. The first Wednesday is known as Start By Believing Day. Advocates for survivors say it’s important for people to believe someone if they say they’ve been sexually assaulted or raped.

Saviano was the victim of a Catholic Priest in Boston and didn’t tell his story until 1992. That was a time he said when survivors were often believed.

“Couple of family members criticized me brining a scandal to my home town, but I’ve lived long enough to see the issue turn around,” said Saviano.

Judy Larson was also at the event. She was a victim of rape at the hands of her Catholic Priest back in 1957 when she was 10 years old. She didn’t tell anyone until January of this year, but was surprised by the reaction of police and the church.

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MISSOURI
The Courier

By Kellie Houx

The Missionaries of the Precious Blood and the Deanery XIV, which includes five Northland churches, will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 21, at St. James Catholic Church, 309 S. Stewart Road, for a service to promote healing for those affected by sexual abuse from church leaders.

The five churches are Church of the Annunciation in Kearney, St. Andrew the Apostle in Gladstone, St. Ann in Excelsior Springs, St. Gabriel the Archangel in Kansas City North and St. James.

Father Joseph Nassal, the provisional director of the Kansas City Provence of Missionaries of the Precious Blood, will co-officiate the evening service with Father Mike Roach, lead pastor at St. James. Along with the two local men, the Rev. James Van Johnston Jr., the bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, will preach and be on hand to listen.

Roach said the Catholic Church has been affected by sexual abuse from priests. In the early 2000s, the issue hit a new level in Boston with the revelation of the widespread nature of the abuse due to the number of Catholic churches in that metropolitan area.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

THE ISSUE

House Bill 1947 was approved by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, and House Republican leaders plan to bring the bill to the House floor next week, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The bill proposes to eliminate the criminal statute of limitations in future child sexual abuse cases and expand the length of time a victim has to bring a civil case. As the law now stands, a criminal case must be brought before a victim’s 50th birthday, and a civil case may be brought until a victim turns 30. If this bill passes, some victims will have until they turn 50 to press a civil case.

It’s progress, and we’re glad to see it.

But we’re still hoping that reform of the statutes of limitations in child sexual abuse cases goes further to help victims who suffered such abuse decades ago.

While we’ll be pleased to see the criminal statute of limitations eliminated in future cases of child sexual abuse, we were hoping that older victims of childhood sexual abuse would be given the opportunity to seek justice in civil court.

But House Bill 1947 would not apply to many past victims.

When, as we hope, this bill is signed, victims still under the age of 30 will be given until age 50 to press a civil suit. But if a victim is over 30 — by even one day — when the legislation is signed, they are excluded from being helped by this bill.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

The Jewish Week has been named a finalist in two categories of annual awards contest of the Deadline Club, the New York City Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

“Don’t Know Much About History: Inside the Battle to Improve Chasidic Education,” the result of a six-month investigation by Hella Winston and Amy Sara Clark, is a finalist in the category for Reporting By A Newspaper With A Circulation Under 100,000, and a four-part radio series by the same name produced in partnership with WNYC is a finalist in Radio or Audio Reporting category.

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UNITED STATES
Jewish Journal

by Kylie Ora Lobell
Posted on Apr. 6, 2016

More than a dozen philanthropists and funding organizations have signed a pledge to only support Jewish day camps and schools that have child sexual abuse policies in place in the hopes of raising awareness and supporting best practices.

The pledge, which was introduced April 3 and can be viewed in its entirety at childsafetypledge.org, promises to “Create and Promote a funder pledge strategy for philanthropic giving only to those Jewish organizations which have taken adequate steps to prevent, report, and investigate sexual abuse of minors.”

Founding signatories include Lynn Schusterman, co-founder and co-chairwoman of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation; Dana Raucher, executive director of the Samuel Bronfman Foundation; and Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation.

Jumpstart CEO Joshua Avedon and Los Angeles-based philanthropist Rochel Leah Bernstein-Deitcher were organizers of the pledge.

“Without an open, urgent and broad-based communal conversation about this issue, we will continue to see headlines about children being molested while in the care of our community’s organizations, which are supposed to keep them safe,” Avedon said. “This had to be addressed urgently, and we believe a child safety funder pledge is the way to address it.”

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KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Matthew Glowicki, @MattGlo April 6, 2016

A Louisville man has come forward nearly 40 years after he says his scoutmaster sexually abused him, alleging in a lawsuit that Boy Scouts of America officials knew about it but failed to tell police.

The man, only identified by his initials in the suit filed in Jefferson Circuit Court, claimed former leader of Troop 364, Timothy Fleming, sexually assaulted the then-minor in the 1970s at Fleming’s Louisville home, on two out-of-town trips and on property owned by the troop’s sponsor, Aububon Baptist Church.

Both the national scouting organization and the Louisville church were aware of the allegations, according to the suit, and failed to report the allegations to police, prosecutors or Child Protective Services – as was required by state law.

The suit, filed Friday, also alleges both the church and the scouting group were told of “confidential reports of sexual abuse of minors,” yet allowed Fleming to continue leadership roles in both organizations.

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KENTUCY
WAVE

Joey Brown
Posted: 04/06/2016

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – A Louisville church, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), and a former scout leader have been sued in Jefferson County Circuit Court by a man who says the scout leader repeatedly sexually abused him as a child during the 1970s. The church and BSA also are accused in the lawsuit of ignoring previous child abuse claims against the man, causing the plaintiff to become one of his victims.

According to the lawsuit, defendant Timothy Fleming was an adult church leader at Audubon Baptist Church (ABC) on Hess Lane and also served as a scout leader for BSA Troop 364, which the church sponsored during the period when the alleged abuse occurred. Church officials confirm Fleming was a member of ABC, but they have no record that he was a church leader.

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ARGENTINA
Big Bang News

[Confirmed: Priest Justo Jose Illarraz will be tried for allegations that they abused 50 seminarians between 1984 and 1992. The judges wrote they could not understand the attitude of his superiors who remained silent for years.]

La Justicia confirmó el procesamiento de Justo José Ilarraz, el cura acusado de abusar de al menos 50 seminaristas de 10 a 14 años entre 1984 y 1992. En un fallo unánime, los integrantes del tribunal de Apelaciones de Paraná decidieron así que avance el proceso por “promoción a la corrupción de menores agravada”.

La causa se inició en 2012 e incluye las declaraciones del arzobispo de Paraná, Juan Alberto Puiggari, y su predecesor, Estanislao Karlic. La investigación interna nunca fue elevada al Vaticano ni puesta en conocimiento de la justicia ordinaria.

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GEORGIA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By Johnny Edwards – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Concerned that some victims of sexual abuse by clerics still may not have come forward, advocates have been pressing Atlanta’s Catholic leader to post the names of accused child predators on the archdiocese website.

But after a year of pressure from the nationwide Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, Archbishop Wilton Gregory has yet to act. Nor has he explained why he won’t post the names of any priests, deacons, brothers or nuns accused of molesting children who spent time working in the Atlanta area, whether the allegations arose here or not.

The group has already identified six who fit the profile, including two who worked at Marist School in Brookhaven. One was a science teacher and the other a school counselor, the school’s president said in an email.

“Archbishop Gregory has been doing the bare minimum,” said SNAP President Barbara Blaine, who was molested by a priest as a teen. “We’re asking Archbishop Gregory to be the shepherd and to reach out to the lost sheep.”

She was among about a half dozen SNAP activists, most of them victims, who staged a small protest earlier this week on the sidewalk outside the Cathedral of Christ the King in Buckhead, holding up posters that said “Protect children” and “Keep kids safe.”

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Philly

BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A former consultant to a pontifical commission vehemently denied giving private documents regarding the Vatican’s financial reform to two journalists.

Francesca Chaouqui, a member of the former Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, replied, “absolutely not” when asked by a Vatican prosecutor if she gave documentation to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.

She also denied having had a sexual relationship with Spanish Msgr. Lucio Vallejo Balda, the secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

The trial resumed April 6 after the court granted Chaouqui, who is pregnant, a three-week postponement after her doctor recommended 20 days of bed rest.

Chaouqui is on trial along with Msgr. Vallejo Balda, Nicola Maio, the monsignor’s former assistant; and two journalists: Nuzzi, author of “Merchants in the Temple,” and Emiliano Fittipaldi, author of “Avarice.”

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VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost

Agence France-Presse on Apr 6, 2016

An alleged night of sex at the centre of a controversial Vatican leaks trial never took place, accused former PR consultant Francesca Chaouqui told a Holy See court on Wednesday.

One of Chaouqui’s co-accused, Spanish Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda, has admitted leaking classified documents to journalists but claims he did so under pressure from his former colleague after she made advances to him culminating in a “compromising” encounter in a Florence hotel in December 2014.

“I never had any sexual relations with him,” the heavily pregnant Chaouqui told the court as she gave evidence for the first time in a trial that was adjourned last month for her to have medical treatment.

“His mother was sleeping in the room while he was speaking to me,” the Italian said.

Chaouqui, who has previously implied that Balda is gay, added: “He confided in me about sexual matters which I will not recount in full out of respect for his status as a priest. The habit he wears has a value for me.”

In another bizarre twist to a case that has already thrown up claims of blackmail, computer hacking and contacts with Chinese spies, she went on claim that Balda had had a relationship with a male astrologer she had introduced him to.

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VATICAN CITY
Seattle PI

Nicole Winfield, Associated Press
Wednesday, April 6, 2016

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A communications expert testified in a Vatican court Wednesday that she never gave confidential documents to journalists. But she said a Vatican monsignor did after he was turned down for a promotion, began hanging out with an astrologer and confessed his sexual secrets to her.

Francesca Chaouqui took the stand Wednesday to defend herself against charges she passed confidential Vatican information to two journalists whose blockbuster books exposed waste, greed and mismanagement in the Holy See.

“Never, never,” Chaouqui testified. “I can assure you that no reserved documents ever passed from my hands.” She said she only ever gave journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi an invitation to a Vatican reception and a collection of newspaper clippings.

Chaouqui, Monsignor Angelo Lucio Vallejo Balda, a former high-ranking official in the Vatican’s finance office, and Vallejo’s secretary are on trial in the Vatican’s criminal court, accused of forming a criminal organization that provided top-secret documents to Nuzzi and journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi.

The two journalists are on trial too, accused of exerting pressure on Vallejo and publishing the material, which is a crime under Vatican City State law.

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VATICAN CITY
New York Post

Reuters

VATICAN CITY – A woman charged with leaking Vatican documents denied on Wednesday that she had had sex with a priest, telling a court he revealed secrets about his private life to her in a hotel room while his mother slept.

Francesca Chaouqui, 35, a married public relations consultant, and the priest, Spanish Monsignor Angel Lucio Vallejo Balda, are two of the people on trial in the so-called “Vatileaks II” case.

The case centres on the publication last year of two books based on leaked documents that depict a Vatican plagued by graft and where Pope Francis faces stiff resistance to his agenda.

Vallejo Balda admitted during an earlier hearing that he leaked documents to journalists, but Chaouqui said on Wednesday that she had not given them anything more than press articles already in the public domain.

Vallejo Balda had told the court last month that his relationship with Chaouqui had been “clearly for me as a priest compromising,” and suggested that she had seduced him in a Florence hotel room.

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CANADA
VOCM

Another former resident of Mount Cashel continued testimony today at Supreme Court.

The man, now in his 70s, says he witnessed other children being beaten about twice a day, every day, during his time at the orphanage. He says no one would dare report the abuse to anyone, because a Christian Brother would be present throughout every visit with relatives—something he says he always found to be strange. The man told the court he was once taken to hospital for a knee injury he received during a beating. He says children were regularly warned not to tell doctors or dentists that their injuries were caused by anyone at Mount Cashel, so he told the doctor he hurt himself on the softball field.

The man says he once reported a beating to a member of the clergy, and was told his abuser would be reprimanded, though nothing ever changed. He says after arriving late for showers one morning, the water was too cold for him to use. One of the Brothers forced him to shower anyway, and when he couldn’t bring himself to get under the freezing water, he was beaten with a strap, naked. The man says the pain was atrocious and that he “screamed like hell.” He says he felt like he had no dignity as a grown man watched and forced him to shower in freezing cold water.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on April 06, 2016

In excruciating testimony this morning at the Mount Cashel civil trial, a man in his late 70s told how he tried as a boy in the 1950s to get a Roman Catholic official to help orphanage residents who were being beaten constantly by Christian Brothers.

But while promises were made, nothing was done, the witness said in Newfoundland Supreme Court.

The Roman Catholic Church is now fighting four test cases, representing 60 claimants, because it says it did not operate the orphanage.

The man, the second former orphanage resident to testify in the trial in which abuse claimants assert that the RC Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s should be liable for physical and sexual abuse of orphanage boys from the 1940s to 1960s by certain members of the Christian lay order, said he pleaded the boys’ case.

Then he showed welts on his body to a Christian Brothers official.

This was after the man said he was belted by Christian Brother Ronald J. Lasik while he was nude and wet. He said Lasik, known by the boys to have a collection of straps, was frustrated because the boy had missed shower time for his class.

The man said there was something wrong with a grown man watching naked boys shower, referring to the Brothers who supervised the classes of boys during their turns in the shower room.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 6, 2016

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

We’re grateful that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is joining the chorus pushing to reform New York’s archaic, predator-friendly abuse laws. He’s right when he says “By denying child sexual abuse victims their day in court, we are denying them their right to equal justice under the law.”

But worse, New York’s incredibly strict statute of limitations is also helping child molesters stay hidden and putting kids at risk. It’s almost always through the criminal and civil courts that predators are exposed and children are protected.

[New York Daily News]

To safeguard kids and prevent cover ups, we strongly believe that Assemblywoman Margaret Markey’s “window” bill is the best option in New York. Claims that public and private entities must be treated identically are a red herring.

We hope Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-Suffolk County) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) are listening and will quickly allow a floor vote on this sorely-needed public safety legislation.

The civil statute of limitations for child sex crimes needs to be lifted for new and old cases. Those who enable and cover up these sex crimes need to be held accountable too. Otherwise, cover ups will continue and children will never be safe from being dealt this life sentence of trauma and pain.

Most victims of child sex abuse are unable to even speak of it until they are much older. Filing a suit gives victims the opportunity to warn others about and protect kids from their perpetrators.

It also enables them to deter future cover ups by having their day in court and expose those who concealed – not just those who committed – horrific child sex crimes.

Through civil “discovery,” victims can force high ranking officials to testify under oath, revealing their complicity.

Victims want the full truth to be exposed so that no other child is sexually abused. They should have that chance.

No matter what happens in Albany, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions in New York 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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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 6, 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 credibly accused Ohio predator priest has passed away. Now, we beg Bishop Frederick Campbell to aggressively seek out anyone else who may have been hurt by him” by using church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements so that the wounded may be consoled and learn that they aren’t alone.

And Campbell should explain why he basically kept silent for more than three months, despite his repeated pledges to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex crimes. Had Campbell done what many bishops do, and told the public about this predator priest’s passing, he might have brought comfort to some of the cleric’s victims.

[Columbus Dispatch]

We are glad that Fr. Raymond Edward Lavelle can no longer hurt kids. We’re glad too that his victims can hopefully sleep better at night knowing that he can’t assault any more children.

We hope that all of Fr. Lavelle’s victims – whether hurt long ago or more recently – find the strength and courage to step forward, get help, expose wrongdoing and start healing. And we hope they find consolation.

Now that he’s passed on, we hope Campbell Columbus Catholic officials will be more forthcoming about Fr. Lavelle’s crimes and about those who ignored, concealed and enabled them.

According to church sources, Fr. Lavelle worked in these assignments: Assistant Pastor, St. Agnes Church, (1957-1961); teacher, Holy Family High School, Columbus (1958-1961); Assistant Pastor, St. Dominic Church, Columbus (1961-1963); teacher, Bishop Hartley High School, Columbus (1961-1963); Assistant Pastor, St. Mary Church, Lancaster (1963-1968); priest in residence, St. Timothy Church, Columbus (1969-1969); priest in residence, St. Phillip the Apostle Church, Columbus (1969-1970); counselor, Bishop Hartley High School (1969-1970); Spiritual Director, Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus (1969-1970); Pastor, St. Agnes Parish (1971-1980); Pastor, St. Matthias Church, Columbus, (1980-91); Associate Pastor, St. Brendan Church, Hilliard (1992); Pastor, St. Vincent de Paul Church, Mt. Vernon (1992-1996); Associate Pastor, St. Joan of Arc Church, Powell, (1996-2000); sacramental and pastoral administrator, St. Catharine Church, Columbus (2000). He reportedly retired from active ministry in 2000.

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KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 6, 2016

For more information: David Clohessy (314) 566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Pam Palmer (240) 994-1278 cell, palmerp@live.com

Abuse victims to protest outside big church conference
They want preacher accused of concealing crimes “disinvited”
But event organizers are ignoring their request sent last week
Group says preacher’s role “will deter others from reporting abuse”
SNAP: “And it rubs salt into wounds of those who were hurt on his watch”

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims will protest outside a religious conference in Louisville later this month that is expected to draw more than 8,000 church-goers and staff.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are upset because a controversial pastor who has allegedly concealed child sex crimes by at least 15 accused offenders will speak at the event, along with other officials from his troubled denomination.

He is C. J. Mahaney, the former head of a denomination called once called Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) but now known as Sovereign Grace Churches (SGC). It has roughly 70 churches across the US (mainly in eastern states) and in Australia, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Great Britain, Germany and Mexico.

Mahaney is accused in civil lawsuits of ignoring and hiding known and suspected child sexual abuse by church staff and members while he led SGM and Covenant Life Church in Maryland.

Last week, SNAP asked conference organizers to rescind their permission to let Mahaney and other SGM/SGC officials speak at the biennial international Together for the Gospel (T4G16) conference at the KFC Yum! Center on April 12-14. ( http://t4g.org ; http://t4g.org/speakers/ )

None of the three conference organizers has replied to SNAP’s letter. So SNAP members will picket and hand out fliers to attendees outside the main entrance to facility (near the fountain) at 1 Arena Plaza on Tuesday, April 12 from noon until 2:00 p.m.

“We’re sad but not surprised that these church officials won’t even reply to us, and feel like we have no choice now but to warn others about the reckless and callous actions of SGM/SGC officials by our presence outside the conference,” said Pam Palmer of Hagerstown, a former SGM member whose daughter was sexually abused in 1993 by a teenager and who plans to be in Louisville at the protest. “We’ll be a small, peaceful group and hopefully we’ll be able to teach some people about this secretive, reckless denomination and maybe even reach one abuse victim who is still suffering in shame, silence and self-blame.”

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UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

By NATE CARLISLE | The Salt Lake Tribune

In a hearing that dealt with polygamy and child sex abuse as much as alleged food stamp fraud, a federal court judge on Wednesday considered whether Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Bishop Lyle Jeffs should remain in jail until his trial.

U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart is expected to issue a ruling later Wednesday, or perhaps later this week.

Prosecutors want Jeffs, 56, to remain in jail where he has been held since indictments against 11 FLDS members were unsealed Feb. 23. Jeffs’ lawyer, Kathryn Nester, asked Stewart to release her client to a home his family or supporters have in Provo and to be tracked by a GPS ankle monitor.

The hearing was supposed to be about whether Jeffs, if freed, would return to court for future proceedings, and whether he would tamper with witnesses or evidence. In the course of those discussions, the 90-minute hearing veered into whether Jeffs had married three underage girls and how much contact he has with his infamous older brother, FLDS President Warren Jeffs.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Lund contended Lyle Jeffs doesn’t acknowledge court orders or the law. He presented Stewart with an excerpt from a revelation Warren Jeffs sent elected officials in February, saying he was wrongly being incarcerated at a prison in Palestine, Texas, and that laws should be overturned when they contradict religious beliefs. Lyle Jeffs, who at the time of his arrest was the bishop in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., signed the document.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 6, 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)

Under the headline “Hometown Team,” the latest issue of Catholic St. Louis portrays Bishop Robert Finn as one of several local priest who have climbed the clerical ladder to become prelates. But it makes no mention of Finn’s status as the only US bishop to be convicted for concealing evidence of child sex crimes from police and prosecutors.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

In a nutshell, this is one key reason why the clergy sex abuse and cover up scandal keeps roiling the church: because those who endanger kids, hide predators, stonewall prosecutors, deceive parishioners are almost never defrocked, demoted, disciplined or even denounced by their Catholic colleagues or supervisors.

Ignoring wrongdoing essentially encourages more wrongdoing.

Archbishop Robert Carlson should apologize for the deceptive and hurtful portrayal of Bishop Finn as some kind of “local boy who makes good.” And he should discipline the editor of Catholic St. Louis.

Finn is a criminal. Pretending otherwise rubs even more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of Catholics whose kids were hurt by Finn’s priests, especially those whose daughters were shrewdly turned into child pornography pictures during the months Finn refused to give Fr. Shawn Ratigan’s huge photo collection of child pornography to the police. (Imagine how those moms and dads feel seeing their convicted bishop put forward as some sort of hero or role model in a Catholic publication.)

Last year, three years after having been found guilty, Finn voluntarily resigned as head of the Kansas City diocese. But he remains a bishop with all of the salary, benefits, honors and status that title and position confers. He has faced no disciplinary action for his law-breaking.

After a few months of “laying low,” several weeks ago, he resurfaced and is now ministering to nuns in Nebraska. Our group protested that move as reckless and callous. He has no business ministering to anyone.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

[The Catholic Church says it is concerned about cases of sexual abuse. The church sought ways to address the crisis and one of the ways was to instruct in prevention of child abuse . In the Diocese of Chillán, a session was held Monday and virtually no one was absent. Attending were 37 priests, 2 seminarians, religious and a deacon in transit. All bishops of Chile took the course in November.]

La Iglesia Católica asegura que está preocupada por los casos de abusos sexuales. Sin especificar si por los ocurridos al interior del clero o fuera de él, desde que se dieron a conocer, buscaron la forma de enfrentar la crisis y uno de los caminos fue la instruir un ciclo de formación en prevención de abusos de menores.

En la Diócesis de Chillán, el lunes se realizó una nueva jornada, en la que prácticamente no hubo ausentes. Asistieron 37 sacerdotes, 2 seminaristas, una religiosa y un diácono en tránsito. En enero recibieron instrucción los diáconos y sus esposas; en marzo las religiosas y funcionarios del obispado y el personal docente de un colegio católico.

El sacerdote Luis Flores, uno de los monitores, explicó que su tarea es la de entregar elementos para distinguir los signos de un posible abuso y saber abordar la situación.

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