ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A Met Police inquiry into claims a VIP Westminster paedophile ring abused children in the 1970s and 1980s has closed without charges being brought, Scotland Yard has announced.

The controversial Operation Midland ended as ex-MP Harvey Proctor was told he faces no further action over claims against him of child abuse and murder.

He called on four Met chiefs to resign, but the force said it had been right to look into the single source claims.

The inquiry has cost over £1.8 million.

Mr Proctor, 69, who was MP from 1979 to 1987 for the Essex constituencies of Basildon and then Billericay, was interviewed under caution last August as part of the Operation Midland. He had always vehemently denied the allegations.

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TENNESSEE
WKRN

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – A 36-year-old old radio host and homeless advocate in Murfreesboro just recently filed a police report regarding alleged sexual child abuse that occurred decades ago when he was a young child.

Since so much time has passed, his alleged accuser will not face any charges.

However, there’s a bill that is making its way through the state legislature that would give underage victims more time to report allegations.

WGNS radio host Scott Walker often has to read the news about child sex crimes.

“Many times I do report that,” Walker told News 2. “The good thing about that is there’s closure for many of the victims in those cases because someone has been arrested, somebody has been convicted in a lot of the cases.”

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OHIO
10TV

Read The Full Memo: Page 1 | Page 2

COLUMBUS, Ohio – 10TV News @ 6: 10 Investigates exposed problems that lead to changes at the Josephinum. What they are & what it could mean for the future of the Catholic seminary program nationwide.

Story highlights:

* Josephinum College propose sweeping changes today for seminary students
* 10 Investigates exposes loopholes and lack of oversight at Josephinum Catholic seminary
* Seminarian Joel Wright awaits trial for intent to have sex with a minor

It started with the unthinkable. A seminary student at the Vatican’s only school for priests outside Rome was trolling online to find children for sex.

But that wasn’t all. The student, Joel Wright, had left the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus en route to Mexico to buy children so he could act out his fantasies.

Homeland Security officers were in San Diego waiting with handcuffs and Josephinum officials immediately kicked Wright out of the seminary. That was January.

Since then, Wright’s case remains pending in Southern California, but his arrest for aggravated sexual abuse and other charges raised many questions: How can they be sure this won’t happen again? And why is this still a problem in the Catholic Church a decade after clergy sex abuse was uncovered?

After meeting with 10 Investigates twice last week, the Josephinum announced on Monday they are instituting changes to make sure something like this could not happen again.

Monsignor Christopher Schreck, Rector and President of the Josephinum, sent a letter Monday to the school’s board of trustees, school officials, area Catholic Archbishops and Bishops, and the school’s Admissions Committee.

The proposed changes include:

* Pushing for the creation of a national database to “track all formal applications as dioceses, seminaries, and religious orders.”
* The use of private investigators who will better screen applicants including a review of their online history.
* The requirement of an in-person interview by the college’s Admission Committee and meeting with the school’s psychologist.

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RHODE ISLAND
Bruce DeSilva’s Rogue Island

I finally watched the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight tonight, and I had three strong emotional reactions: admiration for The Boston Globe’s investigative team, pride in the profession I labored in for more than four decades, and . . . guilt.

Why guilt?

One day in the 1970’s, I fielded a phone call in the newsroom of The Providence Journal. The caller was a local woman who told me that her ten-year-old son had been repeatedly molested by a Roman Catholic priest in one of the city’s parishes.

Later that week, I sat down with her and her son across from their kitchen table and listened to their story. It was both chilling and hard to accept. Her son said he wasn’t the only one—that two of his friends also had been abused. I asked the woman if she or the other parents had reported this to the Providence Police. She said they’d tried but that the police just scoffed and warned them that it was a crime to file a false police report.

As a journalist, I was skeptical by nature; but by the time I left them that evening, I believed what they’d told me was true. The next day, I consulted with an editor, one of the top guys who ran the paper. He labeled the story rubbish before I could even finish relating it.

I told him I understood why he was incredulous but that I thought it was worth looking into. He forbade it. No way the paper was going to slander a priest, he said. Besides, he added, even if the story were true, no one in Rhode Island (the most heavily Roman Catholic state in the union at the time) would believe it.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Khalil AlHajal | kalhajal@mlive.com

DETROIT, MI — The Michigan Court of Appeals has sent a church embezzlement case back to Wayne County Circuit Court for the possible re-sentencing of a priest originally ordered to serve one year in prison in two-month increments over five years.

Timothy Kane, 59, who served as a pastor at St. Benedict, St. Gregory, and the Church of the Madonna in Detroit between 2008 and 2014, was convicted of embezzling $131,400 from a charitable fund of the Archdiocese of Detroit known as the Angel Fund.

Kane and Dorreca Brewer, 36, of Jackson were accused of conspiring to submit fraudulent applications for grants from the fund, meant for needy families in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park.

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FRANCE
Catholic Culture

March 21, 2016

A French newspaper survey has found that 63% of the public believes that Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon should step down, because of complaints that he failed to removed an accused clerical abuser from active ministry.

However, among the practicing Catholics included in the survey, a solid majority believe that Cardinal Barbarin is innocent of wrongdoing and should remain in office.

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NEW MEXICO
Wall Street Journal

By TOM CORRIGAN

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup, N.M., on Monday unveiled a $22 million reorganization plan, the bulk of which will be used to compensate 57 clergy sexual-abuse victims.

The plan, filed Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Albuquerque, N.M., lays out how the diocese expects to repay its creditors, the vast majority of whom say they were sexually abused by the diocese’s clergy decades ago.

The Diocese of Gallup, which serves about 60,000 parishioners in New Mexico, Arizona and several Native American reservations, filed for chapter 11 protection in late 2013. The filing halted more than a dozen lawsuits related to sexual-abuse allegations.

“It is impossible to overstate the tragedy of the abuse that was inflicted on the children and teenagers of the diocese,” lawyers for the diocese said Monday in court papers.

The bankruptcy plan, which is subject to the approval of Judge David Thuma, was largely drawn up in court-ordered mediation sessions after initial talks with the diocese’s insurance carriers and other participants broke down.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

At a Knesset pre-hearing, groups working to prevent the abuse suggested there may be a ‘significantly higher proportion’ of cases in the ultra-Orthodox community.

Judy Maltz – Mar 21, 2016

Israel has become a safe haven for Jewish pedophiles from around the world, a leading advocate for child sexual abuse victims warned Monday at a Knesset committee pre-hearing on pedophilia in the ultra-Orthodox community.

“Sex offenders tend to move from country to country to avoid jail, but what makes Israel unique is the Law of Return, which essentially grants unhindered access to anyone who is Jewish to come here without any real screening,” said Manny Waks, the chief executive officer of Kol v’Oz, a newly formed nonprofit that aims to prevent child sexual abuse in the global Jewish community.

The Law of Return grants automatic citizenship in Israel to those who meet its definition of a Jew.

Waks was raised in Melbourne, Australia where he attended Yeshiva Centre, a school run by the Chabad movement. Years later, he reported that he had been sexually abused by two members of the staff there. Waks and his family, who have since been featured in several Australian documentaries, were ostracized by the local Chabad community for coming out publicly with their story.

Along with representatives of several other groups active in preventing child abuse in the Jewish community, Waks met today with MK Yifat Shasha-Biton, chair of the Knesset Special Committee for the Rights of the Child.

The full committee is expected to convene for a special session on the topic after the Passover break.

Among those accused of sexual abuse who have fled to Israel, Waks cited the prominent case of Malka Leifer, the former principal of a religious girls’ school in Melbourne, who allegedly assaulted eight of her charges. She is now under house arrest, and the Australian authorities are seeking her extradition. Waks noted several other cases of pedophiles and alleged pedophiles from the United States, Britain and the Netherland who had fled to Israel either after being charged or to avoid being charged. Some have already been extradited back to their home countries where they are serving jail sentences.

“It seems to us Israel is increasingly becoming a refuge for pedophiles and alleged pedophiles,” said Waks. “It’s an easy get-out-of-jail card for them.” Waks, who is married with three children, recently moved back to Israel, where he was born and served in the army.

According to research data he cited, one in five children in Israel experiences sexual abuse.

“There’s a range of factors that suggest there may be a significantly higher proportion within the ultra-Orthodox community,” said Waks. “I think any closed community would have increased cases, because these cases are silenced. They’re swept under the carpet. Not only that, but in the Haredi community, they don’t even talk about sex, so how can they talk about sexual abuse?”

His new organization, he said, will be lobbying the Knesset to change the statute of limitations so that victims of sexual crimes can have more time to file complaints.

Also present at the meeting with Shasha-Biton were the heads of a new Israeli group called “Lo Tishtok” (Thou Shall Not Be Silent) that aims to give voice to ultra-Orthodox victims of sexual abuse. Launched as a Facebook page five months ago, the group already has close to 4,200 followers and is planning to become a nonprofit.

Yitzhak Kadman, the executive director of the National Council for the Child, said he had noticed signs of “the beginnings of a revolution” in attitudes toward child sex offenders in the Haredi world. “I was actually astonished by the amount of openness I’ve seen recently,” he said at the meeting.

Israel may be a preferred destination for Jewish sex offenders, said Kadman, but it has also become a place of refuge for their victims. “We are seeing many of them leave their home countries and come to Israel, perhaps because they are looking for a way to get a fresh start,” he said.

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MAINE
Raw Story

TRAVIS GETTYS
21 MAR 2016

The arrest of a Maine youth pastor on child sex abuse charges has shocked some congregants — but at least one neighbor suspected he “seemed a little different.”

Lucas Savage was arrested Friday evening and charged with unlawful sexual contact after investigators said he sexually abused a girl younger than 5 years old at his own home in Clinton, reported WCHS-TV.

The 37-year-old Savage is co-director of Youth Haven Ministry and a member of Canaan Calvary Church, which has in the past financially supported his youth ministry but maintains a separate board of directors.

Savage and his wife were deeply involved in the church, where they helped organize events and coached youth soccer.

“I trusted him with my daughter,” said Kristine Rice, whose 11-year-old daughter participated in Youth Haven programs and played soccer for Savage’s team through the Canaan Community Sports program.

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ITALY
Religion News Service

Josephine McKenna | March 21, 2016

ROME (RNS) The Catholic Church, under scrutiny for its response to clergy sex abuse scandals, is backing the publication of an Italian nun’s shocking account of her rape as a teenager and years of subsequent abuse by her parish priest in Milan.

The 40-year-old nun, who has not been identified, claims the unnamed priest raped her when she was 14 and continued to abuse her for another seven years.

The sensational book is titled, “Giulia and the Wolf: A Story of Sexual Abuse in the Church,” and it is due to be published in Italy on March 31 by Ancora, a Catholic publishing house.

The memoir is also being published with the backing of the Archdiocese of Milan, one of the largest and most influential in Italy, and a priest, the Rev. Hans Zollner, who is a member of Pope Francis’ panel on fighting clergy sexual abuse, has written the preface. …

The idea to publish the book came after Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, head of the Vatican anti-abuse panel, spoke about clerical sexual abuse on a visit to Milan.

According to reports, the abusive priest worked for years in the Milan archdiocese and died recently.

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NEW MEXICO
The Eagle

Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Attorneys for a New Mexico diocese have submitted a proposed settlement for a bankruptcy case that has spanned more than two years.

Attorneys for the Diocese of Gallup on Monday filed a reorganization plan that would use cash contributions of $21 million from nearly a dozen sources to settle claims filed by 57 alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse.

The Albuquerque Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1RdVcBg ) the settlement would also be used to establish a trust to pay for future claims.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma will consider the proposal at a hearing next month. The plan must also be approved by the claimants.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Monday, March 21st, 2016

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Attorneys in the Diocese of Gallup Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed a reorganization plan today that contains cash contributions of $21 million from 11 funding sources to settle claims filed by 57 alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse.

The settlement also will be used to establish a trust to pay for future claims filed against the diocese.

And it will pay legal and professional costs in the 28-month-old case that have totaled more than $3.5 million. The two primary law firms in the case have agreed to a $416,000 reduction in fees, the lead attorney for the diocese, Susan Boswell of Phoenix, told a judge on Monday.

Boswell outlined major features of the reorganization plan for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma of Albuquerque at a hearing this morning.

The reorganization plan and other details of the settlement agreement will be considered by Thuma at a hearing scheduled next month. The plan also must be approved by members of a committee representing claimants in the case.

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MISSOURI
KFVS

Written by Amber Ruch, Digital Content Executive Producer

NEW MADRID COUNTY, MO (KFVS) –
A southeast Missouri pastor is accused of raping a then-4 year old.

Keith Frye, 54, of Lilbourn, Mo., was charged with first degree statutory rape.

According to court documents, on Monday, March 14 the New Madrid County Sheriff’s Department was contacted by an investigator for the Department of Social Services Children’s Division in connection with a possible sexual assault of a child.

The investigator stated a hotline call reported the alleged sexual abuse.

On Wednesday, March 16, the child was examined and interviewed. The child told authorities the incidents happened more than once.

The incidents allegedly happened between March 8, 2015 and March 7, 2016 when the child was 4 years old. The child is now 5 years old.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 22, 2016

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

In a lawsuit filed recently in the state of Texas Father Milton Eggerling was accused of child sexual abuse for the first time in public. The priest was accused of molesting an altar boy in Austin in the 1970s, beginning when the boy was 11 and continuing for five years.

[American-Statesman]

The attorney for the victim, Tahira Khan Merritt, said that Eggerling, who was ordained in 1954, was a priest for a long time and likely had more victims. She also said that her client filed the lawsuit hoping that others would come forward.

[American-Statesman]

[BishopAccountability.org]

Eggerling worked for many years under the supervision of the Dioceses of Oakland and of San Jose. All of the parishes in the Oakland Diocese where Eggerling worked also had attached schools.

1970-1971: Saint Felicitas, San Leandro, Diocese of Oakland

1971-1973: Corpus Christi, Piedmont, Diocese of Oakland

1979-1983: Providence Hospital, Oakland, Diocese of Oakland

1983-1984: Saint Augustine, Oakland, Diocese of Oakland

1984-1987: Our Lady of the Rosary, Palo Alto, Diocese of San Jose

1991-1993: Saint Patrick, Rodeo, Diocese of Oakland

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NEW YORK
Poughkeepsie Journal

Nina Schutzman, Poughkeepsie Journal March 21, 2016

A longtime Dutchess County priest who was suspended in 2015 after decades-old sexual abuse allegations came to light has officially been removed from the clergy, according to the Archdiocese of New York.

Allegations of sexual abuse made against Peter Kihm have been found to be “credible” by both law enforcement and the Archdiocesan Review Board, said Bishop Dominick John Lagonegro in a letter to parishioners of the Good Shepherd Church in Rhinebeck, where Kihm last served as a priest.

Kihm, who requested “a return to the lay state…will never again be able to serve as a priest here in this archdiocese or anywhere else in the world,” Lagonegro said in his letter.

A “return to the lay state” means that Kihm is no longer officially a priest.

When Kihm was suspended and removed as priest of the Good Shepherd Church in January 2015, the allegation involved a minor — one person — and “more than one occurrence” that happened about 30 years ago, according to Journal archives.

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DEUTSCHLAND
POW

[Professor Dr. Klaus Laubenthal, contact person for the Wurzburg diocese for victims of sexual abuse, said today that about 4,500 full-time and volunteer church workers have so far had prevention training. He received in the last year four allegations of sexual-related abuses that he said were below the thresthold of criminality.]

Professor Dr. Klaus Laubenthal, Ansprechpartner in der Diözese Würzburg für Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs, legt Jahresbilanz 2015/2016 vor – Rund 4500 haupt- und ehrenamtliche kirchliche Mitarbeiter bisher bei Präventionsschulungen

Würzburg (POW) Vier Vorwürfe wegen sexualbezogener Missbrauchshandlungen und wegen Grenzüberschreitungen unterhalb der Schwelle der Strafbarkeit wurden im zurückliegenden Jahr an Professor Dr. Klaus Laubenthal, Ansprechpartner in der Diözese Würzburg für Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs, übermittelt. Das teilte Laubenthal am Montag, 21. März, in Würzburg mit. In den beiden vorausgehenden Jahren waren es ebenfalls jeweils vier Vorwürfe, die an Laubenthal herangetragen wurden. Präventionsbeauftragte Schwester Dagmar Fasel berichtete von rund 4500 kirchlichen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern, die seit 2013 an Präventionsschulungen teilnahmen.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Western Daily Press

A probe has been launched into claims a notorious paedophile bishop impersonated his identical twin brother – by carrying out services in his place.

Former Bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball, 83, was jailed last year after he admitted sexually abusing teenagers and young men.

But there are now fears he took the place of his twin Michael Ball, who was also a bishop and a friend of Prince Charles, by duping congregations in other parts of the UK.

The Diocese of Truro is now looking into the evidence that Ball conducted services in Cornwall, where Michael, had been a Bishop in the 1990s.

An independent review is currently under way into the way the Church of England responded to the case.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Ruth Gledhill CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
21 March

A new group of senior church people, lawyers, academics and politicians has been launched to defend the late Bishop George Bell, who has been accused of being a paedophile.

The George Bell Group has been set up after the Church of England disclosed it had apologised and paid damages following a civil sex abuse claim.

The allegations date from the late 1940s and early 1950s and concern sexual offences against an individual who was at the time a young child.

Bishop Bell, born in 1883 and who died in 1958, became Bishop of Chichester in 1929. He was revered as a leading light on the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church and at one time was even in the running to be Archbishop of Canterbury. He was one of the first to speak out against the Nazi threat before the Second World War.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Melissa Cunningham

No date has been set for former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns to continue his evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Bishop Mulkearns made his much-anticipated appearance at the child sexual abuse inquiry via videolink from the nursing home in which he now lives in February.

He told the inquiry he was “terribly sorry” he did not take the mounting sexual abuse allegations about offending clergy seriously and admitted he did not know how to handle the situation.

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MISSOURI
Raw Story

Tom Boggioni
21 MAR 2016

A Baptist pastor from Missouri has been sentenced to 50 years in prison last week for hiring his mistress and her husband to burn his house down with his wife inside of it, reports the Riverfront Times.

Donald Lafferty, 71, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison after a jury convicted him on charges of attempted murder, arson, armed criminal action and financial exploitation of the elderly after investigators discovered he had embezzled $87,000 from his 89-year-old mother.

The January 12, 2013 fire at Lafferty’s home had become a cold case despite investigators finding evidence of arson.

The case was reopened in April of 2014, after investigators uncovered evidence that Lafferty had forged power-of-attorney documents and transferred his mother’s life saving into an account controlled by him.

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NEW YORK
Gothamist

BY EMMA WHITFORD

A small group of protesters gathered on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights on Sunday to denounce the longtime employment of allegedly abusive teachers at Oholei Torah, one of the largest and most prestigious boys yeshivas in Brooklyn’s Chabad network. The protesters—including members of the Lubavitch community, survivors, and alumni—held signs that read “What would the Rebbe say?” and “Abuse isn’t chinuch [education].” A row of strategically-parked yellow school buses blocked them from the yeshiva’s front entrance, where parents, teachers and rabbis ducked through the light snow into Oholei Torah’s annual gala dinner.

“The culture of violence is being celebrated tonight,” said Chaim Levin, an alumnus of the school and a survivor of sexual abuse. Earlier this month, Newsweek published a lengthy investigation into physical and sexual abuse across Brooklyn’s Chabad yeshiva network. Victims, Levin among them, accused Oholei Torah’s longtime principal, Rabbi Hershel Lustig, of deftly covering up child abuse and employing two known abusers.

In 2013, Rabbi Velvel Karp allegedly tossed a student so hard into a pane of glass that the child sustained a concussion. Multiple alumni told Newsweek that Karp often hit his students across the face, and even hung boys out of his fourth-floor classroom window by their shirts.

Another current teacher, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Zalmanov, allegedly hit a student so hard that the boy slammed into a closet, smacking his head on hardwood. According to the boy’s mother, Zalmanov showed little remorse. “For chutzpah [impudence], I patsh [smack],” he allegedly said.

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NEDERLAND
BN DeStem

[BREDA – That one in three cases of abuse in the Catholic Church are handled secretly has nothing to do with secrecy, according to lawyer Mirelle van Berckel but is done to help the victims.]

BREDA – Dat de kerk één op de drie zaken ‘in stilte’ met slachtoffers van misbruik heeft afgehandeld, zoals blijkt uit cijfers die NRC publiceerde, heeft volgens de Bredase advocate Mirelle van Berckel niks met geheimzinnigheid te maken.

“Ik ga uit van de goedheid van de mens en geloof oprecht dat mediation niet wordt aangeboden vanuit een voordeel voor de kerk”, stelt ze. “Het gaat er voor slachtoffers om dat de zaak netjes wordt afgehandeld.

Dat er naar hen geluisterd wordt en dat ze serieus worden genomen. Het is echt niet zo dat het doel van mediation is om alles fijn onder de pet te houden. Ik zie dit niet als negatief. Openbaarmaking is voor slachtoffers veelal geen belang op zich.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Ruhr Nachricten

[Abuse: deacon from Nordkirchen sentenced. After a sexual assault on an ex-pupil, a retired teacher (75) and Deacon, residing in the district Nordkirchen, was sentenced on Friday to three-and-a half years in prison.]

NORDKIRCHEN Nach einem sexuellen Übergriff auf einen Ex-Schüler ist ein pensionierter Lehrer (75) und Diakon, wohnhaft im Ortsteil Nordkirchen, am Freitag zu dreieinhalb Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Für den Beamten, der nach eigenen Angaben seelsorgerisch arbeitet, sei die Strafe privat und finanziell die Niederlage des Lebens.

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MALLORCA
Inselradio

[NEW ALLEGATIONS AGAINST PRIEST OF THE MONASTERY ST. LUKE IN MALLORCA.]

Im letzten Jahr wurde auf Mallorca ein Pfarrer der Klosterschule Lluc von einem ehemaligen Schüler des bekannten Knabenchors “Los Blauets” wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs angezeigt. Da die Übergriffe aber in den 90er Jahren stattgefunden haben sollen, galt der Fall als verjährt und wurde nach einer kurzen Zeit der Ermittlungen ad acta gelegt.

Jetzt wurde der ehemalige Pfarrer erneut angezeigt, auch diesmal wieder von einem früheren Schüler. Dieser beschuldigt den damals als Erzieher des Knabenchors tätigen Geistlichen, ihn vor etwa fünf Jahren mehrmals sexuell missbraucht zu haben.

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ISRAEL
Times of Israel

Benzion Sanders

This past Shabbat, Shabbat Zachor, I had one of the most meaningful and memorable Seudat Shlishit that I have had in a long time. After Mincha I went with a group of close friends and stood outside the Heichal Rachamim Shul in Givat Shmuel where dozens of other Gabash residents had already gathered. Men, women and children of all ages had all come to spend their Seudat Shlishit here in protest of the appearance at a communal event of Mordechai Elon, a formerly prominent rabbi in the religious Zionist community. Elon, who was once considered a rising rabbinic star in the community, was convicted of two counts of sexual assault against a minor in 2013. Takana Forum, which is a council of religious Zionist communal and rabbinic leaders, has described Elon as a threat to the public and has demanded that he refrain from taking rabbinical, teaching and communal positions. Nevertheless, Elon continues to be honored at communal events and continues to teach.

Three and a half years before his conviction, Takana Forum had stated publicly that they had received incontrovertible evidence that Elon had sexually exploited a number of his students. The Takana Forum received evidence of Elon’s misconduct years earlier and confronted him about it. Elon agreed to take upon himself a number of restrictions in order to avoid further misconduct. The Forum only publicly released the evidence after receiving reports that Elon had committed even more severe offences and had violated the restrictions he had agreed to follow. The chairman of Takana Forum has since stated that the charges that were ultimately brought against Elon in court are small fry compared to the far more serious abuses that they had been presented evidence of. Although Elon is said to have confessed in front of the Takana Forum he has never publicly admitted or expressed any remorse for his actions.

A few days before Shabbat Zachor notices began to appear around Givat Shmuel inviting the public to participate in a series of events over the course of the Shabbat featuring Mordechai Elon as the honored guest and speaker. Quickly word spread throughout the community and a number of people began organizing a protest to take place outside the shul’s event hall where a seudat shlishit with Elon speaking was to be held. As a member of the Bar Ilan University chapter of Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah student organization I created a Facebook event and invited fellow students to participate in the protest. In the end the turnout was estimated to be over a hundred people. Drinks and food were passed around and the crowd joined together beautifully singing Shabbat songs while holding signs saying “Mordechai Elon, we will not be silent”.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

21 March, 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released a consultation paper on best practices in responding to complaints of child sexual abuse in institutions.

Royal Commission Chief Executive Officer Philip Reed said the Commission’s terms of reference require it to look at identification, reporting and investigating allegations of child sexual abuse in institutions.

“A theme identified from our 4,874 private sessions and 38 case studies to date is that there have been institutional failings when responding to complaints of child sexual abuse,” Mr Reed said.

“The Royal Commission is keen to ensure that all complaints of child sexual abuse in institutions are dealt with in an appropriate, timely and responsible manner no matter what the scenario or institution,” he said.

Mr Reed said that child sexual abuse should never happen, however, when it does it should be dealt with in a manner that protects the child, provides justice to the victim and holds perpetrators to account.

The consultation paper is seeking submissions on the best-practice principles, matters that should be canvassed in a model complaint handling policy and how these matters might be addressed.

The consultation paper is available here.

All interested parties are encouraged to make written submissions responding to the paper. Written submissions should be made by Tuesday, 26 April 2016 and can be submitted in the following ways:

* Email response@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

* Complete the online form at www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/policy-and-research/complaint-handling-and-response/have-your-say

* Mail to GPO Box 5283, Sydney, NSW 2001.

Submissions can be anonymous.

Feedback on the issues outlined in the consultation paper will help inform recommendations the Royal Commission may make in order to better protect children in an institutional context from child sexual abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By STEVE DOUGHTY FOR DAILY MAIL

A high-powered group of lawyers, politicians and police officers yesterday accused the Church of England of smearing one of its own heroes.

They declared that an allegation that former Bishop of Chichester George Bell was a child abuser ‘cannot be upheld’ and called for an inquiry into how the CofE came to make it.

The protest, by well-placed figures including Anglican Labour MP Frank Field, leading lawyer Desmond Browne QC, and former police chief Lord Geoffrey Dear, threw the Church into a fresh difficulty over its handling of sex abuse allegations.

Last week the Church declared that a number of senior Anglican figures had failed to act on allegations of historic sex abuse of a teenager by a paedophile priest. It declined, however, to publish the report.

The scandal over Bishop Bell broke out last autumn, when the cleric, who died in 1958, was labelled a paedophile who had sexually abused a child.

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NEW YORK
PIX 11

[with video]

MARCH 20, 2016, BY MAGEE HICKEY

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn — The school buses were lined up along the service road on Eastern Parkway to block protesters from being seen by people going to the yeshiva’s fundraiser. But their voices can clearly be heard.

“Call the cops, not your rabbi,” protesters chanted, carrying signs saying “sexual abuse of little boys and girls is soul murder.”

Dozens of survivors of child sexual abuse, former students, advocates and parents rallied in front of Oholei Torah.

They are protesting what they say is the continued coverup of child sexual and physical abuse that they say occurs in the boys’ yeshiva.

We’re demanding accountability,” Chaim Levin, the rally organizer, told PIX11. “Two teachers who have physically abused students are still here. One teacher threw a student out a window. The principal been here for all the cover ups,” Levin claimed.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

Wednesday 23 March 2016, Radisson Blu Hotel, 301 Argyle St, Glasgow G2 8DL

The Chair of the Inquiry, Ms Susan O’Brien QC, is to launch a formal Call for Evidence on Wednesday 23 March in Glasgow.

The event will take place at the Radisson Blu Hotel, 301 Argyle St, Glasgow G2 8DL.

Since the Inquiry was formally established on 1 October 2015, it has engaged with a range of individuals and organisations with an interest in its work. The Inquiry has already started taking evidence from people who are elderly or seriously ill and this will continue.

Ms O’Brien – supported by the other Panel Members Mr Glenn Houston and Professor Michael Lamb – will set out the ways in which individuals and institutions with information that may be of interest to the work of Inquiry can provide their evidence.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the launch of the Call for Evidence, however seating capacity is limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Those wishing to attend are asked to come to the main reception of the Radisson Blu hotel for 10.30am where they will be directed to the meeting room.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY MARION SCOTT

SUSAN O’Brien, head of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, will hold a summit in Glasgow on Wednesday to give more details on the probe and meet victims.

INVESTIGATORS leading a huge inquiry into child abuse are to urge witnesses and victims to come forward.

Susan O’Brien QC, who is chairing the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry , will encourage individuals and institutions to contact the probe.

At a meeting in Glasgow on Wednesday, she will detail how evidence can be given.

Some sick and elderly victims who have lodged complaints have already been interviewed for the inquiry, which is expected to take several years.

The investigation will cover sexual, physical, psychological and emotional abuse at children’s homes, residential schools, secure care units, schools, borstals and young offenders’ institutions until December 2014.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By Joanne McCarthy
March 21, 2016

A FORMER Hunter Marist Brother who was jailed in 2001 for child sex offences, but was selling comic books and school resources on the Marist Schools Australia website until June last year, has been charged with child pornography offences.

Brother Terry Gilsenan, 60, who taught at the Marist St Francis Xavier College at Hamilton in 1995-96, was refused bail after he was charged with making child abuse material at the order’s Provincial House at Drummoyne.

He was charged nine months after the Marist Brothers removed contact details and references to Brother Gilsenan from its schools website after a complaint from Hunter victims’ group, Clergy Abuse Network, and questions from the Newcastle Herald.

Brother Gilsenan was identified only as “Brother Terry” on the website as contact for sales of “cards, posters and publications” and the “Champagnat Comic Book”, about the order’s founder. The website included his email address, land line and mobile phone numbers.

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IOWA
Iowa State Daily

By Michael Heckle
michael.heckle@iowastatedaily.com

Recent comments by high-ranking officials of the Catholic Church have painted a terrifying picture of the attitudes and policies the church holds toward the most atrocious actions committed by its own clergy: the sexual abuse of children. While allegations of sexual assaults have plagued the church since the 1970s, that Vatican has done little to discipline those responsible.

In a recent report published by the Catholic news site Cruxnow.com, new Catholic bishops are being told they are neither legally nor morally obligated to report sexual abuse by clergy to the proper authorities.

A new church training document for newly ordained bishops created by French Monsignor Tony Anatrella, a consultant for the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, states, “According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds.”

Rather, Anatrella makes it a responsibility of victims and families of victims to report any allegations of sexual abuse.

While sources in the Vatican say that these comments are purely Anatrella’s personal opinion, the church has not released any documentation criticizing or clarifying his statements.

Complicating the situation further are fears that reports of sexual abuse in countries with more hostile attitudes toward the church will make a fair trial nearly impossible, especially in the case of false accusations.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Chris McGillion | Mar. 21, 2016

SYDNEY In some respects, the story of the Australian government inquiry into institutional responses to child sexual abuse is a story that can be told in numbers.

Since its first hearing three years ago, the inquiry — the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse — has received 29,223 telephone calls from victims and other interested parties, as well as 16,171 letters and emails. It has conducted 4,874 sessions in private (to provide, where requested, a safe and confidential environment for those testifying) and made 961 referrals to authorities, including police, many of which have resulted in arrests and charges.

The commission has also conducted nearly 40 public hearings around Australia looking into particular case studies of abuse — such as the one in early March that saw the questioning via video link from Rome of the Australian church’s highest-ranking cleric, Cardinal George Pell.

It has produced more than a dozen research reports covering such subjects as the history of child sexual abuse legislation in Australia, and investigations into why institutions may have failed to identify and report child abuse.

Based on modeling undertaken by actuarial consultants, the commission estimates there may be as many as 60,000 surviving victims of child abuse in Australia. It has found that the most common decade in which abuse occurred was the 1960s (28 percent) followed by the 1970s (23 percent).

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kent Online

by Tom Acres
tacres@thekmgroup.co.uk

Former residents of a Gravesend children’s home are pursuing legal action against the Church of England for allegedly covering up years of drug abuse.

A claim is being prepared by lawyers for Teresa Cooper, 48, a campaigner who says she was forcibly tranquilised at Kendall House between 1981 and 1984.

The mother-of-three hopes the claim can help give a voice to those who are said to have fallen ill as a result of their treatment at the home, as well as their children and grandchildren, many of whom suffered birth defects.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Frank Brennan | 21 March 2016

In light of the publication of his new book Australian Religious Thought, the polymath Wayne Hudson has asked me to offer a few reflections on post-secular consciousness in my capacity as a religious person regularly involved in the public square of a pluralist democratic polity.

Wayne Hudson’s Australian Religious ThoughtLike many of you, I have had cause to reflect these last few weeks on why Cardinal Pell evokes such a visceral reaction from so many Australians who profess to have no religious commitment whatever, especially some in the media.

Of course Pell is often portrayed as the embodiment of tradition and authority of institutional religion. But whatever his shortcomings in relation to dealing with child sexual abuse, this does not fully explain the deep passion of so many of the anti-religious and non-religious factions.

He is also perceived by many of his critics as lacking the empathy, the compassion, and the insight of one who is supposed to tap into the religious sensibility or the secular moral consciousness of the average Australian who never darkens the door of a church but who often enjoys the benefit of hindsight.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Bucks County Courier Times

Posted: Monday, March 21, 2016

By REP. THOMAS P. MURT

First, it was Penn State, then it was the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Now, just when you think that scandals involving the sexual abuse of children can’t get any worse, we learn about yet another one.

After a prolonged and extensive investigation, law enforcement professionals have uncovered literally mounds of evidence of countless cases of child sexual abuse and a multi-year cover-up by Roman Catholic Church officials.

In Western Pennsylvania, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has been found to have knowingly protected priests who were known child molesters. The diocese, through church connections and pathetic public officials, protected the child-molesting priests from law enforcement and prosecution.

Perhaps the worst crime they committed is never taking subsequent action to protect children from these child-molesting priests. When a priest was found to have sexually abused a child, the normal protocol was to simply move the priest to another parish, offer a cash payment to the family and/or to send the child-molesting priest on retreat, only to have him returned to ministry in the future.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

Jerome Christenson Daily News

It’s a syllogism that continues to haunt the Roman Catholic Church:

Some people sexually molest children.

Some people are Roman Catholic priests and religious.

Therefore, some Roman Catholic priests and religious sexually molest children.

For centuries, this was a reality spoken of in diocesan chanceries in hushed tones behind closed doors, spoken of in whispers at priestly retreats, and that haunted the dreams and blighted the lives of victims until it burst into public view and public consciousness.

What had been the deepest, darkest of secrets is now the subject of an Academy Award-winning film, the basis of legal actions that have driven diocese after diocese into bankruptcy and cast a dark shadow over all the Church does and says.

“Out of darkness has come a great light” resonates through the Christian tradition, and may well speak to the most lasting impact of the revelations of clerical abuse. With the October 2014 settlement of a suit brought against the Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona committed itself to a specific set of protocols to defend children against abuse in the future and make amends to those who suffered abuse in the past.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Betty Clermont

Fr. Alessandro De Rossi, 46, pastor of a parish in Rome, was arrested on Dec. 31, 2014, charged with aggravated sexual abuse. An Argentine judge had issued the international arrest warrant on December 26 and transmitted it to Interpol.

De Rossi, born in Rome and sent to Argentina by Church authorities, was accused specifically with corrupting and sexually abusing minors, and “causing also the practice of group sex,” while he was a missionary in the Province of Salta from 2008 to 2013 working with young drug addicts.
On Dec. 23 and 24, 2014,

Salta police officers carried out several raids to seize computers, photographs and some other information that could be used as evidence of the alleged ties between De Rossi and the sexual abuse cases that had been reported by minors.

Prosecutor Pablo Paz explained to local media that there was enough evidence to charge the priest. Paz explained that he did not only have the depositions from the victims but also e-mails that De Rossi sent to the young man who filed a complaint. According to the prosecutor, De Rossi has to face charges for aggravated sexual abuse.

The Buenos Aires Herald also reported that “Judge Diego Rodríguez Pipino of Salta did not just request that Interpol arrest De Rossi but he also requested the assistance of the Foreign Ministry, the Border Guard, the Federal Police and the Airport Security Police. The Foreign Ministry is expected to play an important role to seek the extradition of the priest.”

The article noted that Italy had recently rejected Argentina’s request for extradition of two men connected to the atrocities committed during that country’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship. One “was charged with the kidnapping and torture of more than 60 people.” He had fled to Italy “trying to take advantage of his dual nationality” and “had taken refuge in a chapel in Genoa.” The other “was said to have witnessed torture in a clandestine detention centre.”

In January 2013, De Rossi had been hospitalized after he said he was attacked by a young man who had asked him for money and food. “I will not return to Italy,” he told a provincial newspaper.

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FRANCE
Fdebranche

Lors du traditionnel pélerinage de Saint-Joseph, qui a réuni plus de 3.000 personnes ce samedi à Cotignac, l’évêque du diocèse de Toulon-Fréjus n’a pas fui la « tourmente » qui secoue actuellement l’église catholique.

Au contraire même, Monseigneur Dominique Rey a, dans son allocution, a tenu des propos très clairs, et fermes, sur ces affaires. «On ne peut admettre que les mêmes mains qui donnent le corps du Christ, touchent le corps d’un enfant… La messe sera un office de réparation», a-t-il ainsi déclaré aux fidèles.

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FRANCE
Le Figaro

[A majority of French people – 63 percent – pwant the resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who is accused of non-reporting of sexual assaults, according to a survey relayed by Le Parisien on Saturday. The Archbishop of Lyon is accused of having reacted too late in case Preynat Bernard, the priest indicted for pedophiles assaults on scouts in Lyon between 1986 and 1991.]

Une majorité de Français souhaitent la démission du cardinal Philippe Barbarin, visé par plusieurs plaintes pour non-dénonciation d’agressions sexuelles, selon un sondage relayé par Le Parisien ce samedi.

L’archevêque de Lyon est accusé d’avoir réagi trop tard dans l’affaire Bernard Preynat, du nom d’un prêtre mis en examen pour des agressions pédophiles de scouts lyonnais entre 1986 et 1991. Une nouvelle plainte touchant l’archevêque a été déposée en février, concernant des atteintes sexuelles commises par un autre prêtre lyonnais, suspendu mardi.

“Des problèmes passés sous silence” pour 88% des Français

Même si le cardinal s’est défendu d’avoir couvert “le moindre acte de pédophilie” dans son diocèse de Lyon, 63% des Français estiment qu’il devrait renoncer à ses fonctions en attendant que la justice soit rendue. À l’inverse, une majorité de catholiques pratiquants, qui représentent 10 % de l’échantillon interrogé, pensent qu’il devrait rester. 38 % d’entre eux suggèrent tout de même une mise en retrait.

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FRANCE
BFM

[A majority of French people – 56 percent – have a poor opinion of the Catholic Church, according to a survey after the recent controversy over cases of pedophilia.]

Une majorité de Français a une mauvaise image de l’Église catholique, selon un sondage réalisé après les récentes polémiques sur les affaires de pédophilie.

“Trop conservatrice” pour 83% des Français, et “pas transparente” pour 81% d’entre eux: le jugement est sans appel. Selon un sondage Odoxa pour Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui en France publié ce dimanche, les Français sont une majorité à avoir une opinion négative de l’Eglise catholique, après la révélation de nouvelles affaires de pédophilie par des prêtres.

Quelque 63% des sondés estiment que le cardinal Barbarin, accusé par plusieurs victimes d’avoir tu les agissements pédophiles de prêtres de son diocèse de Lyon, devrait démissionner. Une position partagée au sein même du gouvernement par Juliette Méadel, secrétaire d’Etat de l’aide aux victimes.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[Former former choristers of the Regensburg cathedral choir are only now breaking their silence and cannot bear delays in processing complaints of abuse and physical violence.]

Von: Thomas Muggenthaler
Stand: 18.03.2016

Die Aufarbeitung kommt zu spät und sie kommt nur zäh voran, sagt Ludwig Faust. Der ehemalige Redakteur der Mittelbayerischen Zeitung und Inhaber eines Werbebüros hat nie öffentlich über seine Zeit bei den Domspatzen gesprochen. Jetzt tut er es. Der Grund: Er ist schlicht darüber empört, wie Bistum und Domspatzen in den letzten sechs Jahren mit den Opfern sexueller und körperlicher Gewalt umgegangen sind, und wie auch ehemalige Schüler schweigen, die es besser wissen müssten.

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AUSTRALIA
SoCAA

A study to determine the veracity of the statement that the Catholic clergy is filled with the best educated men and women of action and compassion and are capable of providing support, guidance and assistance to survivors of childhood sexual abuse by their fellow clergy men and women.

SoCAA is inviting Catholic clergy to contact us on 0756412311 or ClergyStudy@MolestedCatholics.com with whatever offers of support and assistance they can provide.

Each survivor assisted will be noted publicly to acknowledge the compassion, knowledge and understanding of Catholic clergy of this issue. We will provide opportunities to distribute via Social Media and Internet technologies each and every endeavour.

Your role should you choose to engage with us is to make contact with a Catholic or Catholic clergy and advise them of our offer. You may inform that we have an extensive inventory of survivor contacts who have an even greater range of immediate to urgent needs to be taken care of.

Visit us on Facebook or online

contact@molestecatholics.com
Australia 0756412311
SKYPE: TFYQA1

Prepared, written and distributed by John A Brown

Please distribute to any know survivors of clergy abuse in Australia.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Mail on Sunday

By Martin Beckford for The Mail on Sunday

The troubled historic child abuse inquiry is so wide-ranging and costly it risks ‘breaking the system’, one of Britain’s most senior ex-judges has warned.

Lord Woolf said he feared Dame Lowell Goddard faces a ‘huge task’ chairing the five-year investigation into Establishment sex abuse and cover-ups, and predicted that he would not live to see its final report.

The former Lord Chief Justice added that the £18million-a-year probe is ‘sucking huge amounts of resources’ out of the system and questioned the Government’s priorities at a time of austerity.

He told a solicitors’ conference last week: ‘She [Goddard] has more and more on her plate.

‘I don’t believe I will see the results of her work. There is a danger that the task is so great that it might break the system.’

Lord Woolf went on: ‘If we have got the money to conduct these inquiries then I can see that they perform a service.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Churches are being asked to check records for any evidence that a convicted paedophile bishop may have taken services in the 1990s.

Former Bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball was jailed last year after he admitted sexually abusing teenagers and young men.

The Diocese of Truro is working to find out what evidence it has that Ball conducted services in the area.

Bishop Ball’s brother, Michael, was a former Bishop of Truro in the 1990s.
An independent review is under way into the way the Church of England responded to the case.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Emilie Gramenz

Tasmania’s new Anglican Bishop has met with a survivor of child sexual abuse in preparation for new complaints, and there are calls for other institutions nationally to follow his lead.

Bishop Richard Condie was consecrated on Saturday and is now the highest clergy member in Tasmania.

The Anglican Church reached out to abuse survivor and long-time campaigner Steven Fisher to invite him to meet with the Bishop.

It was an invitation Mr Fisher was pleased to receive.

“I believe it’s a huge step for them to reach out and ask a victim to come down and actually talk to them,” he said.

“It’s something we’ve been campaigning for for 15 years.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Mail on Sunday

By Jonathan Petre for The Mail on Sunday

Senior Anglicans are urging the Archbishop of Canterbury to apologise for an ‘astonishingly inadequate’ Church inquiry into a celebrated bishop whose reputation has been ‘carelessly destroyed’ by allegations of sex abuse.

The 12-strong group, whose members include a former police chief and a retired judge, said Church authorities had leaped to judgment without speaking to key witnesses, such as Bishop George Bell’s former chaplain.

Ex-naval officer Canon Adrian Carey, who lived at the Bishop’s Palace at Chichester when the sex abuse is alleged to have taken place, said he found it impossible to imagine how such incidents could have occurred.

Bishop Bell, who served in Chichester for 30 years until his death in 1958, was a renowned opponent of appeasement and Nazism before and during the Second World War.

But last year an unnamed woman said he had sexually abused her while she sat on his lap as he read her stories at the Bishop’s Palace.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
@harrietsherwood
Sunday 20 March 2016

A group of academics, lawyers, politicians and church figures has challenged the Church of England over an apology it issued last year for sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by one of its most revered figures, George Bell.

Bell’s supporters say his “condemnation as a paedophile” by the church has irreparably damaged the reputation of the former bishop of Chichester and has resulted in the renaming of schools and institutions dedicated to his memory.

Members of the George Bell Group include Desmond Browne QC, historian and Bell’s biographer Andrew Chandler, Labour MP Frank Field, and Martyn Percy, dean of Christ Church Oxford.

They say the C of E failed to make adequate inquiries before apologising and paying compensation over Bell’s alleged abuse in the 1940s and 50s. The church’s statement, according to the group, “appears to accept the allegation as true”.

In a statement accompanying a report of its own investigations, the group said: “The valuable reputation of a great man, a rare example of self-sacrificing human goodness, has been carelessly destroyed on the basis of slender evidence, sloppily investigated.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The naming of a bishop as an alleged paedophile has been criticised by a group of lawyers, academics, politicians and senior Church figures.

The Church of England settled a civil claim in October made by a woman who says she was abused by the late Rt Rev George Bell in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The Church said its “overriding goal” had been to search out the truth.

But defenders of Bishop Bell say its inquiries were “inadequate”.

The bishop’s supporters, known as the George Bell Group, say the inquiry had not provided details of any corroboration to enable the complainant’s story to be judged.

‘Much admired’ bishop

The BBC’s religious affairs correspondent Caroline Wyatt said supporters of the late bishop had been angered by the way the Church dealt with the historical allegation of sexual abuse against a man who was no longer alive to defend his reputation.

In a statement, the George Bell Group says Bishop Bell – Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until his death in 1958 – was “much admired” and noted for being one of the first to speak out in the 1930s against the dangers Adolf Hitler posed.

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ALABAMA
ABC 11

Washington Co., Ala. A court date has been set for a pastor at a Buckatunna church, who was indicted by a Washington County grand jury for sexual abuse of young boys.

The Washington County grand jury indicted Tommy Newberry in February, alleging he sexually abused seven children. Newberry was a pastor at the Red Creek Church of God near the Alabama/Mississippi state line. Authorities believe the abuse started as early as 2003. Newberry’s court date is set for Oct. 18.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

BY RACHEL OHM MORNING SENTINEL
rohm@centralmaine.com | @rachel_ohm | 207-612-2386

CANAAN — Community members said Saturday that they were shocked and saddened to learn that a local youth ministry director allegedly sexually abused a young girl at his home in Clinton.

Lucas Savage, 37, co-director of Youth Haven Ministry on Easy Street, is charged with unlawful sexual contact and was arrested Friday by state police.

“I trusted him with my daughter,” said Kristine Rice, a Canaan resident who said her 11-year-old daughter used to attend ministry programs at Youth Haven. Savage was also her daughter’s soccer coach through the Canaan Community Sports program, Rice said.

“I talked to him in church and he was my daughter’s soccer coach. He never gave me any indication that there was anything to be concerned about, but if police are arresting him, they must have proof. The whole thing is very sad,” said Rice, 34.

She said she and Savage both attend Canaan Calvary Church. The church has supported Youth Haven Ministry financially in the past, but the two organizations are separate and have different boards of directors, according to a news release Saturday from the church’s elder board.

The Maine Department of Public Safety originally reported Friday that Savage was a youth pastor at the church, but the statement Saturday from the church said he never has been a youth pastor there, though he is a member of the church.

“The church leadership will be doing everything in our ability to support and minister to all families involved. We are making ourselves available to anyone involved or affected by the situation,” the release said. “Our ultimate desire is to see that the truth is brought forth. That being said, we will do everything in our ability to completely cooperate with the ongoing investigation, and we hope and believe that all involved will do the same.”

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

THE REV. BILL KEANE

Thirty-two years in the pulpit have shown me that ministry isn’t based on what you plan, it’s expressed in how you stand up to what can’t be foreseen. That’s why, after wrestling with futile internal protest, and seeing no definitively informative and positive change, I decided to make public the failure of my church hierarchy to expose one of its long-term ministers as a pedophile.

On the contrary, last April, the annual report of the American Baptist Churches of Connecticut included praise and gratitude for Eli Echevarria, convicted four months before and sentenced to prison for possessing child pornography involving young girls down to toddlers. The printed endorsement nearly sucked the life out of my soul.

More than a year earlier, the same man began visiting my congregation in Branford. We welcomed him, and in the following months he mixed with the congregation, including the children.

Then, after he had been with us for several months, when I had returned from a summer holiday, it was brought to my attention that Echevarria had been recently arrested for possessing child pornography. The arrest was for behavior when he was still preaching in New Haven, well before he crossed our threshold. I then discovered he had been convicted before on charges of illegal sexual contact in 2006, put on three years’ probation and registered as a sex offender.

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TEXAS
San Antonio Express-News

By Elaine Ayala
March 19, 2016

More than 1,000 people filed into St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church on Saturday morning and at least 100 more stood behind those packed pews to say goodbye to one of the Archdiocese of San Antonio’s best-known and most-beloved priests.

Father Virgilio Elizondo, 80, died Monday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The church parking lot was filled an hour before the 11 a.m. memorial service, attended by dozens of brother clergy who wore the customary white vestments of funerals.

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller presided over the Mass, and Father David Garcia, a longtime friend of Elizondo, delivered a sorrowful homily in the parish where Elizondo served for 20 years while traveling back and forth to teach at the University of Notre Dame.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen on Mar 19, 2016

HOYT LAKES — In a small cemetery on the eastern edge of the Iron Range, one gravestone sticks out.

Literally.

A granite headstone honoring the Rev. Thomas Stack, who founded the Catholic church across the street, sits atop a hill near the entrance of the Hoyt Lakes Memorial Cemetery. The stone is the only one permitted to stand above ground in the municipal cemetery.

It would seem to be an unremarkable site in an off-the-beaten-path graveyard, but one Grand Rapids woman is fighting for the stone’s removal.

Pat Helms, who grew up in a devout Catholic family and came to the mining boom town as a teenager in the 1950s, says she believes her brother was sexually abused by the priest.

“It’s always bothered me to see that headstone,” she said. “To go and visit the cemetery, the way this man looms over my family, it makes me absolutely sick.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Times

By Tom Davidson tdavidson@timesonline.com

PITTSBURGH — On behalf of the Catholic church, Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik wants to say “I’m sorry.”

They’re simple words, and it will be at a simple Service of Apology that starts at 7 p.m. Monday at St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland, where Zubik will say them.

“It’s to anybody who’s felt in their lives that they have been hurt by the church,” Zubik said.

It could be for something as simple as harsh words from a priest at confession or being offended by a homily at Mass, or as complex as the lingering hurt rendered by the Catholic sexual abuse scandal, Zubik said.

“I think the element of hurt is determined by the person who feels they have been hurt,” he said. “I think one of the biggest damages we do in terms of our relationships with other people is to be presumptive.

“We do have to say it. As human individuals we need to be convinced that someone is really sorry and asking for forgiveness,” he said. “There’s something in asking for forgiveness that can be very healing on both sides.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

19 Mar 2016

The Church of England’s decision to name the former Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, as a paedophile has been strongly criticised by a group of senior Church leaders, academics, politicians and retired police officers.

The group claims that the internal inquiry which found Bishop Bell guilty of abuse committed a “grave miscarriage of justice” after failing to interview key witnesses or examine documents which could have cleared his name.

Before he was condemned as a child sex abuser, in October last year, Bishop Bell had previously been one of the most revered figures in the Anglican church, praised for his work in speaking out against Hitler during the 1930s, welcoming refugees from Germany and later condemning the Allied destruction of German cities.

But his reputation was destroyed after the church accepted the claims of a woman who came forward to say she was sexually abused by him during the late 1940s and early 1950s, when she was aged between five and nine.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Bill White

Child sex statute reform opponents spend millions on lobbying

I was in Harrisburg on Monday, and The Morning Call’s Capitol correspondent, Steve Esack, helped me with some research while I attended a rally for child sex abuse statute-of-limitations reform and waited for a medical marijuana bill to finally hit the state House floor.

Here’s what he came up with: The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the umbrella group for every diocese and archdiocese in the state, spent $3.5 million on lobbying in Harrisburg between 2010 and 2015, according to Department of State records.

That breaks down to an annual average of $58,890. It includes payments to three of the state’s leading lobbying firms, which in turn send individual lobbyists to advocate before lawmakers and state officials the Catholic position on 32 topics, including “children’s issues,” “liability reform” and “prevention of child abuse.”

The expense reports list three types of expenses, direct and indirect communication and “gifts, hospitality, transportation and lodging for state officials or employees or their immediate families.”

The Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania, one of several insurance industry lobbying organizations operating here, spent about $10.3 million on lobbying between 2015 and 2010, which comes to an annual average of about $1.7 million. The federation’s lobbying disclosure forms do not break out topics lobbyists discussed with lawmakers and other state officials, but it’s safe to say that this much spending gives the insurance industry a lot of clout.

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Tom Mendelsohn
March 19, 2016

A Canadian law professor has settled for £40,000 ($57,900) in damages from the Church of England for abuse she suffered at the hands of a vicar 40 years ago. Julie Macfarlane, who teaches at the University of Windsor, Ontario, was preyed upon by a priest at the age of 16 in the mid-1970s while undergoing a religious crisis in Chichester. The abuse continued for a year, before she left for university.

She made a complaint to the Australian branch of the church in 1999, as the minister had moved there. He resigned when he discovered he would be subject to a disciplinary hearing.

However she did not make her legal claim until 2014, once she heard about the abuse scandal in the diocese. This initially led lawyers representing the CofE to claim that she could not make her claim as it the abuse had happened so long ago.

She claimed that she was “ripped to shreds” by a psychiatric expert appointed to assess her claim when she did eventually come forward in a gruelling two-hour examination. She also said that the church had tried to claim that she had consented to the relations.

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DEUTSCHLAND
WDR

Muss die Kirche ihre Verkündigung angesichts von Missbrauch überdenken? Ein Interview mit Erika Kerstner. Erika Kerstner / Barbara Haslbeck / Annette Buschmnann, Damit der Boden wieder trägt. Seelsorge nach sexuellem Missbrauch, Schwabenverlag (Ostfildern), 2016, 240 Seiten. Autor: Christoph Fleischmann

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NETHERLANDS
Dutch News

One third of the sexual abuse cases involving the Dutch Catholic church have been dealt with behind closed doors, the NRC said on Saturday.

In total, 342 of the 1,045 proven cases were dealt with outside the official complaints procedure and the amount of financial compensation paid to the victims was kept secret, the paper said. The paper bases its claim on church documents. T

he official committee set up to investigate the abuse claims had called for total transparency. Officially, 703 cases have been closed, with total compensation payments of €21.3m. According to the NRC, the secret cases – settled either with or without a mediator – involved further payments of €10.6m.

Abuse victims who went through the ‘secret’ procedure had to sign a contract pledging to keep quiet about their case and to refrain from making negative comments about the church and the perpetrators, the NRC said.

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FRANCE
La Vie

[Two truths about Barbarin case. The first truth. Across the whole of the Catholic Church, the fight against the abuse of authority was faulty or amateur. They refused to believe complaintants and the church feared scandal. They moved the aggressors instead of moving them out of the church.]

JEAN-PIERRE DENIS, DIRECTEUR DE LA RÉDACTION

Plusieurs personnes ont porté plainte contre le cardinal Barbarin pour sa gestion d’affaires anciennes impliquant des prêtres ayant commis des abus sur mineurs. Les actes eux-mêmes semblent prescrits. Mais l’époque fait remonter à la surface des souffrances qui ont cheminé de manière insidieuse. Si ce décalage temporel semble étrange, il faut admettre que dans de telles situations la victime se contraint souvent à un silence prolongé et destructeur, au point que certains plaident pour un rallongement de la prescription. Sur le plan proprement ecclésial, sans la culture du secret qui a longtemps prévalu, nombre de ces affaires seraient purgées depuis belle lurette.

Première vérité. À l’échelle de l’ensemble de l’Église catholique, la lutte contre les abus d’autorité a été défectueuse. Soit par amateurisme. Soit par refus de croire les plaignants. Soit par peur du scandale. On s’est contenté de déplacer les agresseurs au lieu de les mettre dehors, et on a fait passer victimes ou lanceurs d’alerte pour de mauvais chrétiens. En voulant protéger l’institution, on a trahi les innocents et bafoué l’Évangile. Les choses ont changé grâce à Benoît XVI et au travail des journalistes, comme le montre le film Spotlight, même s’il reste, comme l’a reconnu le président de la conférence épiscopale, Mgr Georges Pontier, « des cas épars qui apparaissent chaque année ». Je suis fier d’avoir supervisé, il y a longtemps déjà, la première grande enquête, qui portait sur plusieurs communautés religieuses.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

The 73-year-old Marcel Roomans was sexually abused in his boyhood on a Roman Catholic boys school in Maastricht. Roomans reached a settlement with the Brothers of Our Lady Immaculate.]

De 73-jarige Marcel Roomans werd in zijn jongensjaren seksueel misbruikt op een rooms-katholieke jongensschool in Maastricht. Roomans trof een schikking met de Broeders van onze lieve vrouw onbevlekt ontvangen uit Maastricht, een congregatie die scholen en internaten had. Hij zat op de Aloysiusschool in Maastricht.

Toen Roomans in de derde klas zat, smeerde een broeder zijn geslachtsdeel in met zalf. Later werd hij door een andere broeder misbruikt in een pikdonkere kast op school. Na tien minuten was het voorbij. “Hij is klaargekomen, neem ik aan”, zegt Roomans in NRC Handelsblad, dat aandacht besteedt aan alle geheime schikkingen in zaken van seksueel misbruik binnen de kerk.

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ESPANA
Diario Sur

[Miguel Angel Hurtado, the victim of a pederast priest, has initiated a collection of signatures for amendment of statute of limitation laws in Spain.]

Su nombre es Miguel Ángel Hurtado, víctima de un cura pederasta, y ha iniciado una campaña que se ha convertido en la de mayor crecimiento por minuto en la historia de Change.org. En menos de cuarenta y ocho horas ha conseguido reunir más de 200.000 firmas. Su objetivo -también por la historia de Miguel Ángel -han calado hondo: que el delito por abusos sexuales a menores no prescriban nunca, al menos, en España.

#Nohayperdón reza la campaña en Twitter. El Mundo habla con Miguel Ángel, víctima de abusos sexuales cuando tenía 16 años. El pederasta fue un sacerdote. Cuando lo denunció a los 22 años, el crimen ya había prescrito. «El motivo que me llevó a lanzar esta acción fue la indignación que sentía al ver cada vez más casos de abusos sexuales a menores en España y que estos quedaran impunes por el tiempo que había transcurrido tras ser cometidos», afirma en un tiempo en el que el escándalo de los Maristas en Barcelona y la petición fiscal de archivar por prescripción trece denuncias ponen de actualidad su caso.

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PARAGUAY
Paraguay.com

[The Paraguayan Episcopal Conference (CEP) issued a statement which confirmed that priests Francisco Javier Bareiro and Gustavo Ovela, of the Oblates of Mary Congregation, Villarrica, were removed from office. The departure occurs after the religious be accused of molesting minors.]

La Conferencia Episcopal Paraguaya (CEP) emitió un comunicado en donde confirman que los sacerdotes Francisco Javier Bareiro y Gustavo Ovelar, de la Congregación Oblatos de María, de Villarrica, fueron separados del cargo. El alejamiento se produce luego de que a los religiosos se los acusara de abusar sexualmente de menores.

La CEP considera importante el proceso de investigación que está llevando acabo la fiscalía en Villarrica. Además piden al obispo de la ciudad, Monseñor Ricardo Valenzuela, a que sigan de cerca el caso y que se mantengan en comunicación con las víctimas y familiares.

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ESPANA
El Confidencial

[The judge uncovers sexual abuse and profit in the sect of the Miguelianos]

PABLO LÓPEZ. VIGO

Durante una década Miguel Rosendo campó a sus anchas. Primero desde una pequeña herboristería de Vigo y, después, en un lujoso chalé de Oia (Pontevedra), fue formando una comunidad que llegó a alcanzar los 400 fieles a los que manipulaba con sus ínfulas. No sin levantar sospechas, pero igualmente sin oposición del Obispado de Tui-Vigo, que autorizó su orden como asociación privada de fieles y después la ascendió a asociación pública de derecho diocesano. Pero en 2014, los familiares de sus víctimas lograron que todo saltara por el aire. Un demoledor informe de un despacho de detectives detalló los abusos sexuales, físicos y psicológicos que ejercía el brujo con sus miguelianos. La juez acaba de concluir la primera fase de su investigación, con la citación de una decena de imputados a los que se les atribuye los presuntos delitos de asociación ilícita, contra la Hacienda Pública y abuso sexual.

Esta misma semana, el juzgado de instrucción número 1 de Tui (Pontevedra) alzaba el secreto de las actuaciones del caso de la Orden y Mandato de San Miguel Arcángel. Una vez completadas las diligencias de investigación previstas, y recibido el informe de la Agencia Tributaria, la titular del juzgado ha llamado a declarar a los imputados, en un caso que no ha parado de crecer desde que comenzó a aparecer en los medios de comunicación. Finalmente es más dinero presuntamente ilícito el que manejaban los miguelianos del que inicialmente se sospechaba, pero también son más las víctimas de los supuestos abusos sexuales que las que suponía la Guardia Civil cuando detuvo a Rosendo, el 11 de diciembre de 2014.

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FRANCE
CathoBel

[Karlijn Demasure: “The Church of France has not really changed in the prevention of sexual abuse”.]

18 mars 2016 par Pierre Granier

Alors que l’Eglise de France est secouée par de nouveaux scandales de pédophilie, mettant en cause la gestion du cardinal Barbarin dans l’archidiocèse de Lyon, le travail au Vatican concernant la prévention des abus sexuels sur les mineurs se poursuit. Sous la houlette de la théologienne belge Karlijn Demasure.

A Rome, le Centre pour la protection de l’enfant a été inauguré le 16 février 2015 à l’Université Pontificale Grégorienne. Il est composé de 13 experts venus du monde entier, et présidé par le père jésuite Hans Zollner, doyen de l’institut de psychologie de l’université grégorienne et membre de la commission pontificale pour la protection des mineurs créée par le pape François en 2014.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

[The true reward of our work.]

Er war Chefredakteur des “Boston Globe” und drängte seine Reporter, sexuellen Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche aufzudecken. Der Film “Spotlight” feiert den Mut der Enthüller – und gewann dafür einen Oscar. Kleine Dankesrede

Ein Gastbeitrag von Martin Baron
18. März 2016

Bevor der Film einen Oscar bekam, wurde ich gefragt: Gibt es etwas, was Sie darin vermissen? Eine wahre Begebenheit, die nicht vorkommt, aber sich in Ihr Gedächtnis eingebrannt hat? Ich bekenne, es gibt eine Szene, die im Film fehlt. Der Zorn, den ich damals empfand, wird noch lange brauchen, um zu verlöschen.

Es geschah am 4. November 2002, bei einer Rede der Harvard-Professorin Mary Ann Glendon. Die Juristin sagte auf einer Konferenz vor Katholiken: “Ein Pulitzerpreis für die Reporter vom Boston Globe wäre wie ein Friedensnobelpreis für Osama bin Laden.” Damit machte Glendon unsere monatelange Recherche über sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern durch katholische Priester nieder. Ich war damals Chefredakteur des Boston Globe und hatte unser Investigativteam massiv gedrängt, die Vertuschung einer ganzen Serie von Missbrauchsfällen in der Erzdiözese Boston aufzudecken. Das gelang den Kollegen auch, und wir bekamen dafür einen Pulitzerpreis für den Dienst an der Öffentlichkeit. Der Angriff der Professorin ging also ins Leere, aber er sagte viel über jene Unkultur der Verleugnung und Vertuschung, die die ganze katholische Kirche vergiftete – lange bevor wir begannen zu recherchieren und auch noch lange danach.

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FRANKREICH
Aargauer Zeitung

[The cardinal, who did nothing for once.]

von Stefan Brändle, Paris

Kardinal Philippe Barbarin soll mehrere fehlbare Geistliche gedeckt und geschont haben. Der französische Premierminister Manuel Valls fordert, dass der Kardinal seine Verantwortung wahrnehmen müsse. Barbarin selber betont, er habe «nie pädophile Akte gedeckt».

Barbarin gilt als der höchste Würdenträger der französischen Kirche: Der 65-jährige Erzbischof von Lyon trägt zugleich den aus dem Mittelalter stammenden Titel «Primas von Gallien». Bekannt ist er als «Monseigneur 100 000 Volt», da er ebenso schnell zu sprechen wie zu agieren pflegt.

In einer Hinsicht soll Barbarin allerdings sehr langsam oder gar nicht gehandelt haben. Von mehreren Seiten wird ihm vorgehalten, er habe pädophile Geistliche gedeckt. Ein 55-jähriger Priester seiner Diözese soll zwischen 1986 und 1991 mehrere Pfadfinder sexuell missbraucht haben. Die Opfer verstehen nicht, warum er nicht seines Amtes enthoben wurde, ist er doch geständig und Gegenstand eines Ermittlungsverfahrens.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

[One in three cases abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands has been dealt with secretly with a cash settlement, according to NRC Handelsblad on Saturday. This is not prohibited, but is against the advice of the Deetman committee who adviced transparency. It is not clear how much money the church has paid out.]

Een op de drie misbruikzaken in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk in Nederland is in het geheim afgehandeld met een geldbedrag. Dat meldt NRC Handelsblad zaterdag. Dat is niet verboden, maar gaat in tegen het advies van de commissie-Deetman, die juist transparantie adviseerde. In 342 van de 1045 zaken is nu niet duidelijk wat er is gebeurd en hoeveel geld de Kerk heeft betaald.

Tot 1 januari dit jaar zijn 342 misbruikzaken in beslotenheid afgehandeld: 210 keer via mediation en 132 keer via een schikking, zonder mediator. Op basis van interne documenten schrijft de krant dat in deze gevallen 10,2 miljoen euro is betaald als compensatie. In ruil daarvoor moeten slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik hun mond houden over wat er zich heeft afgespeeld en mogen ze zich niet meer negatief uitlaten over de daders.

Een groot deel van de compensatieregelingen is wel openbaar te vinden, bij de Stichting Beheer & Toezicht. Tot 1 januari is via deze procedure de compensatie voor 703 slachtoffers afgehandeld. Zij kregen 21,3 miljoen euro.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Portland Press Herald

BY LYNNE TUOHY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CONCORD, N.H. — A graduate of a New England prep school who was convicted of sexually assaulting a younger student was taken into custody Friday after acknowledging that he violated conditions of his bail agreement by missing curfew multiple times.

A judge in Merrimack County Superior Court said Owen Labrie would begin his one-year jail sentence immediately.

“You are unlikely to abide by any conditions,” Judge Larry Smukler said. “I don’t relax conditions because you can’t comply with them.”

Labrie, 20, was stoic as he was handcuffed and led from the courtroom. His mother appeared to sob quietly.

Labrie was arrested in 2014 days after graduating from St. Paul’s School, an elite prep school in Concord.

He was 18 at the time of the encounter in a near-deserted building on the St. Paul’s campus. Prosecutors linked the assault on a 15-year-old freshman to a competition at St. Paul’s known as the “Senior Salute” in which seniors seek to have sex with underclassmen.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 18

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 are grateful that Owen Labrie is behind bars and believe his probation violation may have three positive impacts.

[Portland Press Herald]

First, we hope Labrie’s jailing will prod law enforcement officials to look more often and more closely at other sex offenders and whether they are honoring their parole or probation requirements. Many sex offenders are narcissistic and believe, deep down, that “the rules” don’t really apply to them. So many of them, we fear, are ignoring those restrictions and getting by with it. This case should encourage police and prosecutors to more closely monitor sex offenders and take advantage of chances to revoke their probation or parole.

Second, we hope Labrie’s jailing will bring some comfort to the thousands of victims of sexual violence whose perpetrators are on probation or parole. There’s always a chance that rapists or molesters can be imprisoned if they’re caught overstepping their boundaries, as they are sadly wont to do.

Third, we believe Labrie’s jailing will bring some consolation to his victim and her family.

Finally, we are confident that Labrie’s jailing makes women safer.

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FRANCE
International Business Times

By Mary Papenfuss
March 14, 2016

In a ground-breaking case, a court in France has launched a criminal investigation into allegations that the French Catholic hierarchy protected a priest who admitted sexually abusing at least 40 boys. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, has denied any culpability in the sex abuse of young scouts by Father Bernard Preynat from 1986 to 1991.

Preynat, who told authorities he committed the crimes, was finally kicked out of the priesthood by Barbarin in 2015, at least 25 years after the assaults began. After the parents of Preynat’s victims first came forward in 1991, a former archbishop in charge at the time removed the priest from parish work where he had access to boys — temporarily. After Preynat “repented” for his crimes he was allowed to work again with children.

In 2007 he was promoted by Archbishop Barbarin to an administrative post where he helped run six dioceses and had access to even more children. The cardinal claims he did nothing wrong because the crimes didn’t happen when he was archbishop, and he eventually booted Preynat from the priesthood in 2015 — when French civil authorities finally launched an investigation into the priest’s activities.

Barbarin says he first heard of the abuse sometime in 2007 and was convinced Preynat had reformed, reports Associated Press. But Preynat’s lawyer says Barbarin knew of the charges for decades.

The French court could levy charges of “failing to report a crime” and “endangering the life of others,” which carry a maximum three-year prison sentence and fines up to €45,000 (£35,000). Ironically, the cardinal has taken a particularly harsh stand against gay marriage, arguing that same-sex unions would lead to polygamy and possibly incest.

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CALIFORNIA
My News LA

POSTED BY KEN STONE ON MARCH 18, 2016

(NOTE: This is an updated story that includes a statement from the archdiocese saying the lawsuit wrongly identified a school with a similar name to the one with which the late coach was affiliated. In addition, the archdiocese said the coach was a volunteer, not a school employee. An attorney for the plaintiffs, in a phone interview, declined to discuss the discrepancy.)

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a school were sued Friday by a teenage girl and her father, who allege those entities bear responsibility for her sexual abuse at the hands of a coach who killed himself after being confronted by her dad.

The plaintiffs are identified in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit as John and Jane Doe, who are seeking damages of $10 million and $5 million, respectively.

The suit erroneously named St. Lucy’s Priory High School in Glendora as a defendant instead of St. Lucy Catholic School in Long Beach, according to the archdiocese, which released the following statement:

“The lawsuit appears to incorrectly name St. Lucy’s Priory High School and the Benedictine Sisters as defendants,” the statement read. “It appears that the lawsuit refers to St. Lucy’s School in Long Beach since it also names the late Scott Landerville, a former volunteer (coach). The complaint contains a number of claims, including an allegation of misconduct involving a former student, which the complaint states to have occurred, after the student was at our school. We will be investigating the matter and have not been served in the litigation.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

BY BRAD BUMSTED | Friday, March 18, 2016

A state legislator and former law enforcement officer is asking the Justice Department and the FBI to start an investigation of child sexual abuse by priests under a federal law designed to prosecute corrupt organizations.

State Rep. Mike Vereb, R-Montgomery County, said such an investigation should focus on cover-ups by bishops, as outlined this month in a statewide grand jury report.

Vereb wants federal investigators to use the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, which was established by Congress in 1970 to target organized crime. It has since been used against abusive police departments, gangs and corrupt judges. The law allows leaders of an organization to be targeted for telling others to commit crimes or for assisting subordinates’ efforts.

U.S. Attorney David Hickton declined to comment.

The statewide grand jury alleged that nearly two dozen priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown molested hundreds of victims during a 40-year period. None was charged because some people had died, statutes of limitation had expired or victims were reluctant to testify.

“RICO is one of those incredibly broad statutes,” said Bruce Antkowiak, a former federal prosecutor who teaches law at St. Vincent College.

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UNITED STATES
Orthodox Outpost

More good, more often.

Orthodox Christian writers are often called upon to author articles that focus on positive aspects of life in the Church. Mission trips, fasting recipes, and ethnic customs are all topics that make for a friendly encounter with Orthodox Christianity.

But what if the calling to do more good, more often was much more difficult?

What if doing more good, more often meant being unpopular? What if doing more good, more often meant being cast out by those around us?

The movie Spotlight recently won the Oscar for Best Picture. It tells the story of how a dedicated group of reporters fought a culture of denial and uncovered decades of abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston along with efforts by its leaders to suppress accountability. Spotlight is a movie that every Orthodox Christian should watch during Great Lent. Child abuse, misuse of authority, and clericalism are not limited to the Roman Catholic Church. They are present in the Orthodox Church as well. Spotlight is a powerful reminder that genuine repentance means coming to understand reality as it is -not reality as one would like it to be. “Servants of the Truth must speak the truth.” writes St. Hilary of Poitiers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill Chief Reporter
March 19 2016

A law professor described yesterday how she was “ripped to shreds” by the Church of England when she made a legal claim over sexual abuse by a vicar when she was a teenager.

Julie Macfarlane said that the church tried to rule her claim out of date, suggested that she had consented to sex with her abuser and put her through a gruelling psychiatric examination before settling her claim last month.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) —A teenage girl and her father are suing the Archdiocese of Los Angeles alleging they bear responsibility for the female’s sexual abuse at the hands of a coach who killed himself when he was confronted by the dead.

St. Lucy’s Priory High School, an all-girls school in Glendora, was also named in the suit.

The suit erroneously named St. Lucy’s Priory High School in Glendora as a defendant instead of St. Lucy Catholic School in Long Beach, according to the archdiocese, which released the following statement:

“The lawsuit appears to incorrectly name St. Lucy’s Priory High School and the Benedictine Sisters as defendants,” the statement read. “It appears that the lawsuit refers to St. Lucy’s School in Long Beach since it also names the late Scott Landerville, a former volunteer (coach). The complaint contains a number of claims, including an allegation of misconduct involving a former student, which the complaint states to have occurred, after the student was at our school. We will be investigating the matter and have not been served in the litigation.”

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

CALIFORNIA
Patch

By ALEXANDER NGUYEN (Patch Staff) – March 19, 2016

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a Glendora Catholic all-girls high school were sued Friday by a teenage girl and her father, who allege those entities bear responsibility for her sexual abuse at the hands of a coach who killed himself after being confronted by her dad.

The plaintiffs are identified in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit as John and Jane Doe, who are seeking damages of $10 million and $5 million, respectively.

The suit erroneously named St. Lucy’s Priory High School in Glendora as a defendant instead of St. Lucy Catholic School in Long Beach, according to the archdiocese, which released the following statement:

“The lawsuit appears to incorrectly name St. Lucy’s Priory High School and the Benedictine Sisters as defendants,” the statement read. “It appears that the lawsuit refers to St. Lucy’s School in Long Beach since it also names the late Scott Landerville, a former volunteer (coach). The complaint contains a number of claims, including an allegation of misconduct involving a former student, which the complaint states to have occurred, after the student was at our school. We will be investigating the matter and have not been served in the litigation.”

Also named are former St. Lucy principal Diane Pedroni, who according to the school’s Facebook page retired last June, and Patrice Landerville, the ex- wife and special administrator of the estate of the late coach.

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MAINE
WLBZ

CANAAN, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Maine State Police have arrested the youth pastor of a Canaan church and charged him with sexual abuse of a young girl.

Detectives have charged 37-year-old Lucas Savage of Clinton with unlawful sexual contact. Savage is the youth pastor of the Canaan Calvary Church and was arrested Friday evening in Mercer and taken to the Kennebec County Jail.

Detectives said the abuse took place at Savage’s home on Mutton Lane in Clinton. State Police have been investigating the allegations for the past month.

Detectives do not know if there are additional victims and their investigation will remain open.

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GEORGIA
Gainesville Times

By Nick Watson
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
@NickWatsonTimes

A former Gainesville Scoutmaster is the target of a civil lawsuit alleging sexual abuse that brought a 22-year-old closed investigation into the light.

Royal Fleming Weaver Jr. is accused of raping Robert William Lawson III on a scouting event in 1985, according to a civil action filed Thursday in Fulton County State Court.

Multiple attempts to reach Weaver for comment Friday were unsuccessful.

A criminal investigation was conducted at the time but no charges were brought due to the alleged incident falling outside the statute of limitations.

Weaver served as the scoutmaster for Troop 26 from 1969 to 1981, which was sponsored by the First Baptist Church of Gainesville

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MAINE
CentralMaine.com

State police arrested the youth pastor of a Canaan church Friday evening and charged him with sexual abuse of a young girl, according to Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

Detectives have charged Lucas Savage, 37, of Clinton with unlawful sexual contact, McCausland said in a news release. Savage, the youth pastor of Canaan Calvary Church, was arrested in Mercer and taken to the Kennebec County jail.

Detectives said the abuse took place at Savage’s home on Mutton Lane in Clinton. State police have been investigating the allegations for the past month. Detectives do not know whether there are additional victims, and their investigation will remain open.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact state police in Augusta at 800-452-4664.

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MAINE
WCVB

CANAAN, Maine —Maine State Police arrested a youth pastor Friday, charging him with unlawful sexual contact.

State police spokesman Steve McCausland said Lucas Savage, 37, of Clinton, is the youth pastor at the Canaan Calvary Church.

Investigators allege the reported abuse involving a young girl happened at Savage’s home on Mutton Lane in Clinton. McCausland said police have been investigating the allegations for the past month.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lexology

March 11 2016

Cox v Ministry of Justice Mohamud v WM Morrison Supermarkets Plc Supreme Court 2 March 2016

As the opening sentence of Lord Reed’s judgment in Cox says, “vicarious liability is on the move” and the conjoined appeals of Cox v Ministry of Justice and Mohamud v WM Morrison Supermarkets Plc provided the UK Supreme Court with “an opportunity to take stock of where it has gone so far”.

Recent years have seen the courts extend the scope of the doctrine of vicarious liability and these appeals presented the UK’s highest court with an opportunity to either rein it in, or allow its further expansion and, crucially, outside the arena of child abuse claims. The growing theme in recent years has seen a loosening of the criteria such that it is easier for claimants to pursue cases against those more likely to have the financial means to pay compensation.

The Supreme Court has continued that onward trajectory deciding that the defendants in both cases were vicariously liable for the personal injuries suffered by the two claimants. Paul Donnelly and Andrew Cousins look at the development of the doctrine of vicarious liability and where these judgments take us.

Vicarious liability

Vicarious liability is the doctrine through which a person or organisation can be held strictly liable for tortious acts or omissions committed by others i.e. without a breach of any duty of care owed by, or fault on the part of, that person or organisation. The doctrine’s roots can be traced back to the Middle Ages but, as a legal principle, came to the fore in the Victorian era when the industrial society was developing. A useful explanation of the purpose of the doctrine can be taken from Ward LJ’s judgment in JGE v The Trustees of the Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust (2012). He noted a growing acceptance that “the existence of the master/servant relationship was itself enough to impose liability on the master if the servant was acting within the scope of his employment” and quoting Lord Brougham in 1839: “The reason I am liable is this, that by employing him I set the whole thing in motion; and what he does, being done for my benefit and under my direction, I am responsible for the consequences of doing it”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Guardian (UK)

Joanna Walters
@Joannawalters13
Saturday 19 March 2016

Bringing criminal charges against church leaders for covering up abuse is almost unprecedented in the US despite the serial scandals that have engulfed the church since widespread abuse and concealment of the crimes began being exposed by the media in Boston in 2002.

But on Friday, three Catholic friars appeared in district court in Hollidaysburg, near Altoona, accused of allowing a known predator in their midst to have access to children.

Friars Robert D’Aversa, 69, Anthony Criscitelli, 62, and Giles Schinelli, 73, were arraigned in court on child endangerment and conspiracy charges, felonies that carry a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

“My son is dead because of your poor decision-making,” Barbara Aponte of Poland, Ohio, shouted as the three men, wearing traditional clerical collars and black outfits, entered court.

The woman’s son, Luke Bradescu, had been abused while the predator previously worked at the high school he attended in Ohio. Bradescu killed himself in 2003 at the age of 26.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PA Homepage

By Adam McGahee | amcgahee@pahomepage.com
Published 03/18 2016

(WBRE/WYOU) ALTOONA Three Franciscan friars accused of covering up sexual abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese have been removed from their religious assignments.

Charges against Giles Schinelli, Robert D’Aversa and Anthony Crisitelli turned themselves in on Friday morning. They’re accused of allowing Brother Stephen Baker to remain at Bishop MCCort High School in Johnstown and covering up the sexual abuse of more than one hundred students.

Baker spent decades working as a bishop in high schools before committing suicide in 2013.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pocono Record

By Michael Rubinkam
The Associated Press

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Three Franciscan friars charged with allowing a suspected sexual predator to hold jobs where he molested more than 100 children surrendered Friday in western Pennsylvania, where they were confronted by the mother of one of his victims.

Robert D’Aversa, 69, Anthony Criscitelli, 62, and Giles Schinelli, 73, are free on unsecured bond until an April 14 preliminary hearing on child endangerment and conspiracy charges. Each is a third-degree felony carrying up to seven years in prison.

The friars served successively as ministers provincial who headed a Franciscan religious order in western Pennsylvania from 1986 to 2010. In that role, each assigned and supervised the order’s members, including Brother Stephen Baker, who authorities say molested scores of children, most of them at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, where he was assigned from 1992 to 2000.

Baker killed himself at the Franciscan monastery near Hollidaysburg by plunging two knives into his heart in January 2013. That occurred nine days after Youngstown, Ohio, church officials announced settlements involving 11 students who accused Baker of molesting them at schools there in the late 1980s.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Morning Times

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Throughout the 1990s, priests across Philadelphia and Altoona were molesting hundreds of children.

Grand jury investigation reports have detailed the horrific crimes of sodomy, rape, and countless other acts of depravity carried out in confessionals, sacristies, rectory bedrooms, locker rooms and cars on altar boys, members of choirs and legions of other children across parishes.

Across Catholic communities, few parents suspected such an unthinkable travesty, investigators concluded, but there were some who did.

Scores — if not hundreds — of parents and individuals in the state’s Catholic Church communities called Pennsylvania’s ChildLine hotline throughout those years to report that they suspected a priest of molesting a child, according to former Childline staffers.

Restricted by weak laws, the clerks and counselors who staffed the hotline could do little to help the callers or the possible victims. All they could do was to alert local law enforcement officials — the very people who, according to a recent state grand jury report, often ignored or colluded with church officials to hide the abuse.

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OREGON
KATU

[with video]

BY KELLEE AZAR, KATU NEWS FRIDAY, MARCH 18TH 2016

Portland, Ore — A local priest is still on the job weeks after a civil complaint was filed alleging he sexually abused a Portland boy for over 10 years.

The man claims he was sexually abused by Father Vogt at Holy Rosary Church in Northeast Portland when he was an altar boy.

Bill Crane and David Clohessy work for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) helping victims of abuse in the Catholic Church. The recent complaint in Portland against Holy Rosary brought them to the steps of the church.

“It says that there were at least 10 times Father Vogt physically molested a boy and fondled him — at least 50 times kissed the boy on the mouth,” SNAP Director David Clohessy said.

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UNITED STATES
Brain Blogger

by Richard Kensinger, MSW | March 18, 2016

I am prompted to compose this article for two primary reasons. First, I live in a Catholic Diocese (Altoona-Johnstown, PA) where a grand jury report very recently exposed that over four decades, over 50 priests and other church officials have harbored, protected, and enabled the victimization and mortification of hundreds of innocent children and youth in our community. Second, an article appearing in the New York Times written by Frank Bruni and published this past week, explores the impact of child sex predators in the Boston, Mass. Archdiocese.

These incidents are revealed in the searing and troubling movie Spotlight. This movie’s focus is on the very courageous efforts of investigative journalists to expose the wide complicity of many in that community who protected these predators. The article is entitled “The Catholic Churches Sins Are Ours”.

In Bruni’s article, he highlights how “churches benefit from the American Way of giving religion a free pass”. He ends his article by indicating that “if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one”!

My intent here is to discuss the clinical impact of this type of abuse by focusing what happens to these innocent victims. In a previously published article appearing on BrainBlogger, I offer a profile of a serial preferred predator in my area: Jerry Sandusky and the Penn State Scandal still rocking our community.

I am guided in my clinical focus by Erik Erickson’s stages of psychosocial development, Abraham Maslow’s needs hierarchy, and Judith Herman who published a book in 1992, Trauma and Recovery. I present here the accumulative damage of lifelong development of this kind of trauma.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Jasmine Stole | Post News Staff

The Department of Land Management corrected recording errors pointed out by former Sen. Robert Klitzkie three months ago and issued new certificates of titles for the Yona seminary property this week.

However, Klitzkie said the corrections were not done the right way. “The memorial is correct but the way it was done is not correct,” Klitzkie said.

In a news release, DLM officials said their department and the legal counsel for the archbishop of Agana settled on canceling the four certificates of title issued on Oct. 30, 2015 and issuing four new certificates of title to include the Declaration of Deed Restriction, in favor of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, a non-profit organization.

The certificates of title issued on Oct. 30 were printed in the U’ Matuna Si Yu’os and were shown as evidence supporting that Archbishop Anthony Apuron is the “owner of the seminary property,” according to the article in the U’Matuna.

In the Oct. 30 2015 certificates of title, there is no Declaration of Deed Restriction listed under memorials. In the certificates of title for the same property Klitzkie obtained in December 2015, the Declaration of Deed Restriction is listed under the Memorials section. They were also listed in favor of Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WCVB

Editorial

BOSTON —Sometimes an Oscar win for Best Picture is cause for celebration beyond Hollywood, not just limited to those individuals involved in making the movie. Such is the case with, “Spotlight,” the now Academy Award-winning film about the Boston Globe’s investigation into the city’s clergy sex abuse scandal.

The headlines first appeared over 15 years ago, and many of the abuses themselves go back for decades, even 40 to 50 years ago. So it’s easy to imagine public attention to what these innocent, young victims endured might easily have begun to fade. The film and its attendant publicity assures it won’t, re-focusing attention where it belongs – on the continuing struggles of survivors, many of whom carry lifelong scars. They continue to need support, if only to know they’ve been heard, and will not be forgotten.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Religion News Service

Emily McFarlan Miller | March 18, 2016

CHICAGO (RNS) Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Life Principles has lost its membership in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, which gives accreditation to leading Christian nonprofit organizations.

Its membership was terminated last Friday (March 11) for failure to comply with its standards for governance, according to the ECFA website.

The loss of accreditation is yet another setback for the Institute in Basic Life Principles. Eighteen people are suing the Oak Brook, Ill.-based institute, and Bill Gothard, its 81-year-old founder, for sexual harassment.

Christianity Today noted ECFA’s explanation of its governance standards on its website:

“When a ministry encounters failure—or even worse, scandal—its difficulties can almost always be traced to a breakdown in governance. For this reason, ECFA places much emphasis on strong, effective governance.”

Those standards require organizations to be governed by a majority-independent board that must include at least five people and meet at least semiannually to establish policies and review accomplishments.

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UNITED STATES
Deseret News

By David Gibson, Religion News Service
Published: Friday, March 18

The headline was eye-catching, and most likely that was the goal:

“Pope fires Vatican ambassador to U.S. over Kim Davis,” shouted the story this week in the left-leaning Daily Kos.

Pretty amazing, if it were true.

In reality, Pope Francis’ current ambassador, or nuncio, to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, was still in his job, though that could change at any minute.

Church sources say that the pontiff has chosen French-born Archbishop Christophe Pierre, now the Vatican’s representative to Mexico, to be his next envoy to the U.S., a move that has generated widespread speculation about what Pierre will do when he arrives, in part because the man he is replacing has been so controversial.

Vigano gained notoriety last September when it emerged that he set up a secret meeting between Francis and Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who briefly went to jail for refusing to sign marriage certificates for gay couples.

The encounter took place at the Vatican Embassy in Washington when the pontiff was visiting the nation’s capital. When news leaked a few days after Francis returned to Rome, it caused an uproar because it made it seem the pope had quietly been giving support to an icon of the very culture wars that he had spent his visit preaching against.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston Globe

By Kathy McCabe GLOBE STAFF MARCH 18, 2016

CONCORD, N.H. — Owen Labrie was sent to jail Friday after a judge found he had violated the terms of his bail by missing curfew.

Labrie, who was free on bail as he appealed his conviction for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl who was a fellow student at the elite St. Paul’s School, showed no emotion as he was led away in handcuffs to begin his one-year sentence.

“You made the decision,” Merrimack Superior Court Judge Larry Smukler told Labrie as he revoked his bail.

Prosecutors said Labrie had thumbed his nose at his bail conditions by traveling to Boston several times to visit his girlfriend at Harvard University.

Under his bail conditions, Labrie was supposed to be at his home in Vermont between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. each night, but on some trips to Boston he left earlier and returned later.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew in Rome

The Vatileaks 2 trial in a Vatican City court took a bizarre turn yesterday when Italian media reported one of the chief defendants, Spanish Msgr Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda, had given false medical documents about Pope Francis to the Chinese secret service in Dubai in 2014.

During a raid on Msgr Vallejo’s apartment last autumn, Vatican police discovered emails and other documents which showed the monsignor had travelled to Dubai and allegedly gave a confidential medical report on the pope to Chinese agents

However, the document handed over to the Chinese instead contained detailed information on the health of Msgr Vallejo’s 82-year-old mother. Msgr Vallejo allegedly removed his mother’s name from the medical files, replacing it with that of the pope.

Retired policeman and former Italian secret service operative, Giuseppe Di Donno has confirmed he accompanied Msgr Vallejo during his visit to Dubai. Mr Di Donno , who now works for a private “security and intelligence” company called “G-Risk”, was, however, unable to confirm that the senior Vatican official met with Chinese agents.

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UNITED STATES
Christianity Today

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra [ POSTED 3/18/2016

Bill Gothard’s former ministry has lost its seal of approval from the leading group that sets the standards for evangelical ministries.

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) terminated the membership of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) last Friday, citing “failure to comply” with its governance standard.

ECFA requires member organizations to have a board of at least five people (mostly independents) that pray, chart long-range strategy, and identify potential conflicts of interest, among examples of other duties.

“When a ministry encounters failure—or even worse, scandal—its difficulties can almost always be traced to a breakdown in governance,” states ECFA’s explanation of Standard 2. “For this reason, ECFA places much emphasis on strong, effective governance.”

ECFA declined to specify to CT how IBLP failed to meet its governance standard. IBLP did not respond to CT’s request for comment by press time.

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NEW YORK
Newsweek

BY LUCY WESTCOTT ON 3/18/16

Hundreds of people are expected to attend a protest in Brooklyn on Sunday following a Newsweek exposé on the alleged sexual and physical abuse of students by rabbis at a Crown Heights school.

Survivors of sexual abuse and survivor advocacy groups will meet in front of Oholei Torah, a yeshiva on Eastern Parkway, at 6 p.m. on Sunday, according to a press release. The protest is timed to take place during an annual fundraising gala for the boys’ yeshiva, attended by roughly 2,000 students.

“For too long, teachers and principals in this school have ignored children being abused physically and sexually. There is evidence to suggest that in most of these cases the school knew about these crimes and chose not to act,” reads a statement on the Facebook page for the protest, which is being organized by Chaim Levin, whose story of abuse at Oholei Torah was chronicled in the Newsweek article.

“Furthermore, three of the people mentioned in the Newsweek article, people who either abused children themselves or oversaw it, are still employed by the school,” the statement said.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

A centre working with child sex abuse survivors has received a $110,000 grant from the Victorian Government.

The government said it was matching the funds remaining from crowd funding efforts that sent survivors to Rome for the evidence of Cardinal George Pell to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

It means the Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault will receive more than $200,000 to work with survivors in Ballarat and Western Victoria.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

[with video]

Three Franciscan friars charged with allowing a suspected sexual predator to hold jobs where he molested more than 100 children have surrendered in Pennsylvania on child endangerment and conspiracy charges.

State prosecutors say Schinelli assigned Brother Stephen Baker to Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, where he molested students from 1992 to 2000.

D’Aversa and Criscitelli also headed Baker’s Franciscan order based near Hollidaysburg. They are charged with continuing to allow Baker to teach or have access to the school and its students.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

BY RON MUSSELMAN FRIDAY, MARCH 18TH 2016

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Three Franciscan Friars facing criminal charges were arraigned Friday morning in Blair County.

The men are accused of enabling a serial sexual predator to continue to prey on children by a grand jury.

Robert J. D’Aversa, Anthony M. Criscitelli and Giles Schinelli are facing one count each of endangering the welfare of children and criminal conspiracy. All of the charges are felonies.

They appeared before Magisterial District Judge Paula Aigner.

D’Aversa, Schinelli and Criscitelli all received $75,000 unsecured bail.

They do not have to remain in the jurisdiction, but are required to make weekly check-ins with court personnel.

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