ABUSE TRACKER

DEUTSCHLAND
NDR

[In order to determine whether pupils of a Catholic boarding school were abused in Damme (Vechta County) in the 60s and 70s, the Benedictine Order has decided on an unusual step. A letter has been sent to all former students of the now closed school regarding abuse from 1966 to 1974 by a certain priest. The alumni are asked to report possible abuse.]

Um zu klären, ob in den 60er- und 70er-Jahren Schüler eines katholischen Internats in Damme (Landkreis Vechta) missbraucht wurden, hat sich der Benediktiner-Orden zu einem ungewöhnlichen Schritt entschlossen. Er ist für die mittlerweile geschlossene Schule zuständig und hat nun allen ehemaligen Schülern einen Brief geschickt, die zwischen 1966 und 1974 von einem bestimmten Pater misshandelt worden sein könnten. Darin werden sie aufgefordert, einen möglichen Missbrauch zu melden.

Möglicher Täter ist verstorben

“Das ist ein ungewöhnlicher Schritt, den wir so das erste Mal tun”, sagte dazu der Missbrauchs-Beauftragte des Ordens im bayerischen Münsterschwarzach, Pater Christoph Gerhard. Anlass für diesen Schritt seien Gerüchte, denen der Orden bereits seit zwei Jahren nachgehe, ohne konkrete Hinweise oder Namen von Betroffenen erhalten zu haben. Man wolle Aufklärung, auch, um mit den Betroffenen über Formen der Hilfe und Unterstützung zu reden, sagte Pater Christoph. Der mögliche Täter, der damals das Internat in Damme aufgebaut hat, kann nicht mehr zur Verantwortung gezogen werden – er ist bereits vor elf Jahren gestorben.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Washington Times

ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) – A grand jury report saying two former bishops helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of victims by more than 50 priests is continuing to cause fallout in a central Pennsylvania diocese.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests plan a rally outside diocesan offices on Tuesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Bishop Mark Bartchak has ordered banners of all former bishops removed from the diocese’s Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Bishops James Hogan and Joseph Adamec, who headed the diocese from 1966 until 2011, were criticized by the report. Hogan died in 2005 but Adamec’s attorney has denied he did anything wrong.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

Last night the Board of the Riverdale Jewish Center met and then sent an email to members announcing the resignation of Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt. This follows a week of uncertainty as reported last week by Gary Rosenblatt (no relation) in the New York Jewish Week (‘Sauna’ Rabbi Stepping Down; Or Is He?/ Riverdale leader’s surprise statement unclear about intentions and timing.)

The Rabbi has been a source of controversy for years because he regularly took underage minors to saunas gawking at their naked bodies while talking to them at length. His conduct finally erupted into public view when the New York Times reported on the controversy.

At first the board voted to seek an end to his employment but the executive committee overrode the board. This led to an exodus of many members some of whom formed a new prayer group. Membership is down and the RJC is suffering financially. The impact was felt by the board when the new dues year started on January 1. I suspect the shortfall, rather than moral considerations drove the board to reverse course and seek Rosenblatt’s resignation.

It is not clear if this measure will be enough to placate disaffected members. While Rosenblatt will not have any official role going forward according to the email message (i.e., he is not being made rabbi emeritus) the letter does not censure him in any way and speaks of him still being welcome.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

Bellwood, Blair County, Pa.

Nearly a week after a devastating Grand Jury report revealed decades of sexual abuse, covered up within the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, groups are coming together to help victims.

Tonight in Blair County will be a self-help group for victims to attend.

The group organizing the meeting is called SNAP which stands for “Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests”.

Victims, family members, and supporters are welcome to attend from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Antis Public Library in Bellwood.

Based in Chicago, SNAP was founded in 1988 and now has nearly 30,000 members.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

First posted on 3/8/13

Text of Statement to Hearings of the New York State Assembly, Committee on Sexual Abuse, March 8, 2013 by Rabbi Yosef Blau, mashgiach ruchani (spiritual adviser) at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) of Yeshiva University. The Committee hearing were devoted to the Child Sex Abuse Act (CSA) to extend the Statute of Limitations for filing criminal and civil cases beyond the current limit of age 23. The CSA is also know as the Markey Bill after its sponsor, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak on behalf of survivors of abuse who suffer from the present statute of limitation; this statute prevents them from starting criminal and civil proceedings against their abuser and those who covered up and protected him.

My name is Rabbi Yosef Blau. For more than two decades I have been supporting and advocating for survivors of abuse, particularly within the Orthodox Jewish community. During these years my understanding of the trauma and its ongoing consequences has grown from conversations with the survivors and reading the literature. Most of the people who have contacted me are adults who are first confronting abuse that occurred during their childhood.

Twenty three and a half years ago I was part of a rabbinical court that dealt with an accusation of slander. A young man accused a rabbi [Boruch Lanner], who worked as an educator and youth leader, of sexually abusing teenagers; that rabbi sued the young man. Naively we restricted testimony to events that had taken place during the last ten years. Few victims came forward and they found it difficult to testify. Soon after, I received a number of letters from survivors clearly describing acts of abuse done to them by this rabbi fifteen and twenty years earlier. Only as adults, having had extensive therapy and in many cases a supportive spouse, were they able to openly confront their abuser. When they were adolescents he seemed all-powerful.

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FRANCE
National Secular Society (UK)

08 Mar 2016 13:25

Vatican officials face prosecution in France over failure to report sex abuse priest to police

Senior Vatican officials are facing investigation in France over the “non-reporting of crime” and endangering lives, following allegations that clerical sex abuse was not reported to the police.

Father Bernard Preynat was indicted in January 2016 for the alleged abuse of Scouts between 1986 and 1991 and admitted that he sexually abused young Scouts in 1986-1991 in the group which he had run for twenty years.

Prosecutors have now ordered an investigation into senior figures over their “failure to report a crime” after Preynat’s victims said top officials in the Catholic diocese of Lyon, including its Archbishop Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, had failed to report the priest to the police, as required under French law.

In addition, Preynat’s own lawyer told the judge that “the facts had been known by the church authorities since 1991”.

According to AFP, the Vatican had earlier given Cardinal Barbarin its backing, saying it had confidence he would deal with the matter “with great responsibility”. A source close to the cardinal claimed, “Cardinal Barbarin … quite rightly suspended Father Preynat after meeting a first victim and taking advice from Rome, and this, even before a first official complaint was made”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Guardian (UK)

Joanna Walters in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania
@Joannawalters13
Tuesday 8 March 2016

One of Brian Gergely’s fellow altar boys had a code he would use to signal danger in the room where they and the priest prepared for mass.

“He would say ‘red buttons’, and that was the alert that the priest was coming up behind you, and we would try to get away from him, running around the desk in the middle of the room where he kept the chalices, the host and the wine,” said Gergely, 46.

Gergely was 10 at the time.

The priest was Monsignor Francis McCaa, a commanding figure in the small Pennsylvania town of Ebensburg in his black cassock with the red buttons, and one of dozens of Catholic leaders named in a devastating report issued last week by a state grand jury detailing appalling child sex abuse in his diocese and a systematic cover-up by the church.

“I was standing in the sacristy and he pinned me to the desk. I was just a little guy,” Gergely said. McCaa assaulted him there and also while the boy gave confession, at the Holy Name church where his family worshipped.

“My parents were patrons,” Gergely said. “They were going door to door raising money for the church. The community put Monsignor McCaa on a pedestal.”

Other priests named in the report worked in the past at the school, where Gergely recalls being subjected to tough corporal punishment.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims blast Altoona Catholic officials
Bishop should fire a nun and his abuse advisors
Grand jury showed “victims advocate” is a sham
SNAP: “Saying ‘sorry’ is wrong without clear changes”
Group wants outreach about “sadistic yet ignored teacher”
And victims say Bartchak’s letter on Sunday was “pure public relations”

WHAT:
Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse survivors and their supporters will demand that Altoona’s Catholic bishop

–fire a nun and his abuse panel,
–work with the Attorney General to pick replacements, and
–disclose more about a high school librarian who is named in last week’s grand jury report – but has been ignored by news media even though he downloaded “hundreds of pages of violent child rape stories and chats” and was on the job for eight years.

They will also urge the bishop to

–move quickly in posting predators’ name on his diocesan and church websites,
–include their photos, whereabouts and work histories, and

And the group will urge any who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in Altoona to come forward now to secular authorities, not church officials.

WHEN:
Tuesday, March 7 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE:
On the sidewalk outside the Altoona-Johnstown diocese headquarters, 927 S. Logan Blvd. (corner of Hawthorne St.) in Hollidaysburg, PA

WHO:
Two-three members of a support group called SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), including a Pittsburgh woman who is the organization’s local volunteer director

WHY:
1) Last week, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General released a scathing grand jury report that concludes “nothing has changed” in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese regarding child sex crimes and cover ups. The report was particularly critical of how Catholic officials deal now with abuse reports, saying there is “no privacy or confidentiality” for victims and that an abuse “review board” is not “unbiased or neutral” and was, in fact, set up to “convince the public that the days of a mysterious bishop deciding how to handle a scandalous report of child molestation and sodomy were over,” but “in reality, the bishop still makes the decision.”

The jurors also found that the work of a so-called “victims advocate” does not, in fact, “remotely resemble advocacy” but instead is “fact-finding” for church defense lawyers, and that victims’ information “is forwarded to lawyers whose interest is solely in protecting the diocese.”

SNAP wants Bishop Mark Bartchak to fire the nun who is the purported “victims advocate” and every member of the board, especially, Fr. Joseph Byrnes, a board member who “pled the Fifth” and refused to answer questions from the grand jury. (Staff and board members include Sister Donna Marie Leiden, Colleen Krug, D.J. Bragonier, Fr. Joseph W. Fleming, Dr. Russell Miller and Dr. Mary O’Leary Wiley.) http://www.ajdiocese.org/children-and-youth

2) The group wants Bartchak to voluntarily work with Attorney General’s office staff to choose replacements.

3) SNAP also wants Bartchack to reveal more about Mark Powdermaker who, as librarian at Bishop Guilfoyle High School, used school computers to “download graphic stories of rape and torture” of girls and “actively discuss” on “chat logs” his “desire to sexually assault and torture a child with other men on line.” Even though investigators found “hundreds of pages of his violent child rape stories and chats” in diocesan offices and jurors concluded that school and diocesan staff “helped him keep his secret” and Powdermaker “spent eight years (1994-2002) amongst the teenage girls he dreamed of raping.” (pages 140-141)

4) Even though the grand jury noted that Bartchak’s “power is nearly absolute,” it said that the “purge of predators is taking too long.” SNAP feels the same way about Bartchack’s pledge to post predators’ names on church websites. The group wants him to provide details and to make sure the information is posted on parish websites too, not just the diocesan website.

5) SNAP is also very critical of a three-page letter Bartchak had read in Altoona area parishes this weekend that repeatedly stressed “mercy” (ten times), “sin” (nine times) and “reconciliation (three times), but not once mentioned the words “crime” ““abuse,” “molestation” or “cover up.” It also announced not a single reform and contained no plea for victims, witnesses or whistleblowers to come forward.

“The letter repeatedly begged Catholics not to leave the church but said nothing that might make kids safer, expose more predators, unearth more cover ups or deter future recklessness, callousness and deceit,” said SNAP’s Judy Jones.

6) Finally, for all the “tragedy and evil” in the 115,042 pages of church abuse records, the grand jury said Bishop Mark Bartchak and his predecessor Bishop Joseph Adamec had one “brief conversation on the subject (of abuse),” “no detailed briefing,” and Bartchak was “unaware of the number of historical predators in the diocese when he appeared before the grand jury.

SNAP believes this was a deliberately self-serving move by Bartchak and is calling on him to explain why he cared so little to learn about this crucial crisis.

Contact:
Judy Jones 314 974 5003, SNAPjudy@gmail.com, Fran Unglo-Samber 717 514 9660, samber13431@comcast.net, David Clohessy 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gamail.com, Barbara Dorris 314 503 0003, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org

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UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights

Why is it important that predator priests’ files are exposed?

More than 30 US bishops – out of nearly 200 – have grudgingly posted partial lists of predator priests on their diocesan websites. But virtually none have voluntarily released their voluminous records about child sex crimes and cover ups.

Why should they?

Because, as the Bible tells us, “the truth shall set you free.”

Because, as Alcoholics Anonymous tells us, “we’re only as sick as our secrets.”

Because for decades, bishops have pledged to be “open and transparent” about this crisis.

Because since 2002, US bishops have claimed such “openness” is mandatory, as promised in the church’s first-ever belated, grudging nationwide abuse policy.

But here are the best reasons:

Because disclosing long-secret abuse and cover up records is the quickest, easiest, cheapest and most effective way to protect kids now. It’s a way to be sure that no proven, admitted or credibly accused abusive priest is still on the job today.

Because it’s the best way to deter future cover ups. For thousands of years, adults have known that most child sex crimes will never be exposed. So for thousands of years, many adults have not reported knowledge or suspicions of child sex crimes. Unless adults see that this is changing, and learn that even decades-old abuse cover ups are being exposed, many will continue to conceal child sex crimes.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

8 March, 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released a consultation paper on out-of-home care today.

Royal Commission Chief Executive Officer Philip Reed said the Commission’s terms of reference direct it to examine how to better prevent, report and respond to child sexual abuse in institutional contexts.

“We decided to examine out-of-home care because it was apparent from our private sessions, public hearings and research work that children in out-of-home care are at a heightened risk of sexual abuse,” Mr Reed said.

“To date we have held over 4,700 private sessions, in which out-of-home care was the largest category of institutions identified, constituting over 40 per cent of all reports of child sexual abuse,” he said.

“We have heard numerous accounts of the significant sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children that occurred in these institutions and its detrimental impact on many people’s lives.”

Mr Reed said the Commission had heard concerns that the current out-of-home care system did not adequately protect children from sexual abuse, or consistently respond as well as it should when abuse occurs.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Dan Sheehan
Of The Morning Call

ALLENTOWN — In a little more than 15 years, Our Lady of Mercy Syriac Catholic parish in Allentown has grown from a small mission outpost to a thriving community of 500 families.

Now, the mysterious suspension of the parish’s longtime priest — and the appointment of a priest from a different rite to offer the sacraments — has many of the faithful in the Eastern rite church convinced they are being abandoned by their diocese.

Why?

“That’s the million-dollar question,” said George Makhoul of Neffs, a parishioner at Our Lady of Mercy and one of the leaders of a campaign to restore the suspended priest, the Rev. Bassim Shoni, to ministry. “They’re not giving us answers.”

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NEW MEXICO
New Mexican

Aaron Chavez, a Catholic elementary school teacher accused of molesting five students since 2007, entered a not-guilty plea at his arraignment Monday morning in state District Court.

Chavez, 47, an art teacher at Santo Niño Regional Catholic School south of Santa Fe, was arrested in January after a 6-year-old girl told her parents he had insisted on tucking in her shirt during an art class and touched her genital area in the process.

Four other alleged victims — including an 8-year-old and two teenagers who were in Chavez’s class as first graders — have since come forward saying he also inappropriately touched them.

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WASHINGTON
HeraldNet

Blye Pagon Faust, a 1993 graduate of Monroe High School, was a producer on this year’s Oscar-winning film “Spotlight,” the story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese. In addition to best picture, “Spotlight” took home the Oscar for best original screenplay. Faust, 40, took time this past week to talk with The Herald about the movie and her life. More about “Spotlight” is at spotlightthefilm.com.

What do you remember about the moment at the Academy Awards when you heard Morgan Freeman read the name of your film as the best picture winner?

To be honest, it’s a bit of a blur, but I do remember just feeling an enormous surge of excitement, not only for our entire team, but for all our journalists and the survivors (of pedophilia), knowing that this would be further validation for all their work and efforts to be heard over the years.

Here’s what you said that night: “We would not be here today without the heroic efforts of our reporters. Not only do they affect global change but they show us the absolute necessity for investigative journalism.” How has this story changed your life?

When we were growing up, my parents subscribed to the Everett Herald, the Monroe Monitor and the Seattle Times, so I had always appreciated newspapers. After we made the movie, we knew absolutely how essential investigative units are, but I also realized just how crippled many newspapers had become. I joined the board of the Center for Investigative Reporting because I really believe in investigative journalism and I know it’s tough out there for newspaper reporters. The work the Boston Globe did had global ramifications. They won a Pulitzer prize. What if those reporters hadn’t had the six months it took to do all that research?

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UNITED STATES
Dallas Observer

BY JIM SCHUTZE
TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2016

You have to wonder: Are daily newspaper people ever struck by the fact that a movie about what they do is so much more popular than they are?

Spotlight, Tom McCarthy’s movie about The Boston Globe’s 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative series on child molestation among Catholic clergy, was two things. It was a really great movie, and it was a delicious opportunity for self-back-patting by old ink-stained wretches. Like myself.

I watched. I patted. But since the Oscar ceremony, it has taken me a month or more to figure out why the discussion of the movie within my craft inevitably leaves me so sad and lonely. Oh, now I remember. It’s not the movie. It’s the craft.

For every bathetic reminiscence about the way it was when dailies ruled, about what they did and how great they were, I hear at least three expressions of complete bafflement about why dailies don’t do it anymore.

On the PBS Newshour recently, former New York Times ombudsman Margaret Sullivan said, “But I think that the will to do this kind of work is weakening somewhat, and it has to be beefed up. Spotlight is such an inspiring movie, that I’m hopeful that it will cause owners and editors and publishers to realize just how important this work is and to fund it and to get behind it.”

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FRANCE
20 Minutes

[Barbarin Case: New complaint against Lyon Cardinal and members of the diocese.The Archbishop of Lyon is targeted by a new complaint. Following his hearing as part of a preliminary investigation opened by the prosecutor of Lyons ten days ago, a second alleged victim of Father Preynat filed suit Monday against Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and also against several members of the diocese for “failure to report sexual assaults on children under 15 years” and “failure to assist a person in danger,” according to La Parole Liberee.]

L’archevêque de Lyon visé par une nouvelle plainte. A la suite de son audition dans le cadre d’une enquête préliminaire ouverte par le parquet de Lyon il y a dix jours, une seconde victime présumée du Père Preynat a porté plainte, lundi, contre Philippe Barbarin, mais également contre plusieurs membres du diocèse, pour « non-dénonciation d’agressions sexuelles sur mineurs de moins de 15 ans » et « non-assistance à personne en péril », a indiqué ce mardi à 20 Minutes l’association La Parole Libérée.

Le directeur de cabinet de l’archevêque, Pierre Durieux, Régine Maire, membre du Conseil épiscopal du diocèse, et Xavier Grillon, vicaire du diocèse de Roanne, sont également visés par cette plainte.

D’autres plaintes probables

Vendredi, François Devaux, membre fondateur de La Parole Libérée et victime présumée du Père Preynat, avait été entendu plusieurs heures par la justice dans le cadre de l’enquête préliminaire et avait déposé plainte à l’issue de son entretien contre les membres de l’église lyonnaise et deux hauts responsables du Vatican.

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC 23

Fall-out continues after a Grand Jury report that uncovered widespread sex abuse and its cover-up across the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese. This as a Cambria County Judge resigns from the Bishop McCort Board of Trustees. Monday the Judge’ legal team released a statement. Missing from Bishop McCort’s Board of Trustees web page Patrick Kiniry. We confirmed the Board of Trustees has accepted a letter of resignation from Judge Kiniry effective immediately. We asked for a copy of the letter and when it was submitted and did not hear back. Kiniry was named in the Grand Jury report in connection with the investigation of the Monsignor Francis MCCAA. MCCAA is now dead but served for more than two decades at Ebensburg’s Holy Name Catholic Church until 1985. The report call MCAA “a monster” because of sexual abuse of as many as Juveniles. The documents say Kiniry who was at that time the Assistant District Attorney, met with Bishop Hogan.

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UNITED STATES
Aleteia

John Burger
March 8, 2016

The Oscar-winning movie Spotlight ends in January 2002, when the results of a months-long investigation by The Boston Globe ends in the publication of the first of many articles on the archdiocese of Boston’s mishandling of clerical sexual abuse.

In many ways, for the Church in the United States, it was just beginning.

Kathleen McChesney played a major role in that work, serving as the head of an office for child protection established by the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Conference. A former executive assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, McChesney developed and oversaw a national compliance mechanism to ensure that all dioceses complied with civil laws and internal policies concerning the prevention, reporting and response to the sexual abuse of minors. She also coordinated a major research study into the nature and scope of the problem of sexual abuse in the Church.

Now head of Kinsale Management Consulting and co-editor of Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis, she spoke with Aleteia about what has been done since 2002 and where the Church needs to go from here.

What has the Catholic Church in the United States done to address the sex abuse problem since the Boston Globe’s expose? What reforms were put into effect, both for clergy and laity?

The two most important things that the U.S. bishops and religious superiors have done to address this problem in the U.S. were to utilize professional survivor advocates to assist persons who are reporting abuse and to ensure they are provided with pastoral care if they desire; and to implement programs to prevent future abuse, including the removal of offenders from ministry. These programs include abuse-awareness training that has been provided for millions of adults and young people and background checks of clergy, educators and volunteers.

How effective do those reforms seem to be?

The reforms in the United States, and the efforts of many dioceses and religious institutes initiated before 2002, have been effective in significantly reducing the incidence of abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

BY BRAD BUMSTED | Monday, March 7, 2016

HARRISBURG — When his wife was pregnant in 1996, Mark Rozzi said he “prayed to God we wouldn’t have a boy.”

Rozzi, 44, a Democratic state House member from Reading, had a reason for that prayer. Rozzi says he was raped by his priest at the Holy Guardian Angel Catholic Church when he was 13. The vast majority of sexual abuse by priests is perpetrated against boys, experts and national studies suggest.

Rozzi, elected in 2012, is at the forefront of an effort in the state Legislature to provide greater criminal and civil recourse to child sexual assault victims. One bill would eliminate the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse in criminal and civil cases. Rozzi is sponsoring legislation that would raise the age from 30 to 50 years for an adult victim of child sex abuse to file a civil complaint.

He’s driven to push ahead, not only because of his own reported molestation by the late Rev. Edward Graff, but for his friends who were abused and struggled with alcoholism or drug addiction, and those who committed suicide.

“I have had three childhood friends kill themselves,” he said. All were abused. Last year, before Easter, the third friend killed himself.

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INDIA
Times of India

TNN | Mar 7, 2016

Kochi: The Vadakkekara police have filed the chargesheet against Catholic priest Edwin Figarez (41) who was booked for raping a minor girl at Puthenvelikkara last year. The chargesheet was submitted before Ernakulam additional sessions court set up to hear cases related to atrocities and sexual violence against women and children.

The chargesheet said that the priest raped the 14-year-old girl several times between January and March 28 last year. The accused was the parish priest of Lourdes Matha Church, Puthenvelikkara in Ernakulam when he committed the crime. Vadakkekara CI Vishal Johnson said that the chargesheet was submitted at the court before the accused completed 90 days in judicial custody; Figarez is yet to be granted bail in the case. After the girl’s mother filed a complaint, Figarez went into hiding and evaded arrest for nearly eight months.

A lookout notice was issued against the priest. However, Figarez surrendered before the police on December 18, 2015, after the high court rejected his anticipatory bail plea.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

MARCH 8, 2016

They knew and they let it happen! To kids!

That’s a quote from the movie Spotlight attributed to real-life reporter Mike Rezendes when he was investigating Boston priests accused of sexually molesting altar boys and other children 15 years ago.

The comment could just as well be applied to Pennsylvania authorities who for decades did precious little to stop similar abuse by priests and cover-ups by religious leaders in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

A grand jury report released last week by Attorney General Kathleen Kane said an investigation had revealed evidence of “several instances in which law enforcement officers and prosecutors failed to pursue allegations of child sexual abuse occurring within the Diocese.”

Cambria County Judge Patrick T. Kiniry, a former district attorney, reportedly told state investigators that the close relationship between local authorities and diocesan officials when the alleged abuse cases occurred was a reflection of the Catholic Church’s influence.

Evidence presented to the grand jury included material gathered in a raid of diocesan offices last August by state agents. They found a “secret archive” of documents, including handwritten notes sent to Bishop Joseph Adamec by the late Bishop James Hogan, which detailed alleged abuse cases, including victims’ statements.

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OHIO
WKBN

By Molly Reed
Published: March 7, 2016

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – The Youngstown Diocese is responding to a request from a nonprofit advocate for victims of sexual abuse that an investigation be launched into the diocese.

Road to Recovery made the request after a grand jury report on alleged sexual abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in Pennsylvania was released. That investigation claims that the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children, including abuse by Brother Stephen Baker, who was on staff at Warren JFK in the late 1980s.

In 2013, the Youngstown Diocese announced abuse settlements with 11 former students of Baker’s. Road to Recovery says 28 more students are still waiting for Bishop George Murry to settle their claims.

Monsignor John Zuraw, chancellor of the Diocese of Youngstown, said the diocese does not have a secret archive, nor does it have secret files. He said the situation is completely different from one that was reported at the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

“This is the second wave of individuals who have come forward,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
The Salt Lake Tribune

By DeAnn Tilton and Ken Ivory

For every legal action, lawmakers decide how long a victim has to take the offender to court. Historically, the state of Utah has given survivors of childhood sexual abuse just a few years to get to civil court to seek redress for the harm done to them by those who have abused them.

While short time limits, also called statutes of limitation, can be appropriate for some legal actions, such as property disputes, where it’s in both parties’ best interest to get to court quickly and sort out who owns what, decades of research into the experiences of survivors of childhood sexual abuse tell us that traditional statutes of limitation are inappropriate in these cases.

We now understand, better than ever before, that there are many significant barriers survivors face in going public with the abuse inflicted upon them, not the least of which includes disclosing it to their loved ones. Other barriers include intimidation, shame, fear of losing important family relationships and the distortion that child sexual abuse causes to the mental and emotional ability of a survivor to comprehend the nature and damage caused by the exploitation and abuse. Research now shows that survivors are into their 40s, on average, before they are able to publicly disclose the abuse.

Despite these barriers, some survivors eventually heal enough to find the courage to knock on the courthouse doors seeking justice for the harm done to them. Tragically, they have found those doors were locked years ago by unrealistically short statutes of limitation. This injustice not only prevents survivors from seeking civil damages to recover some of the financial costs for the physical and mental harm done, it also prevents them from publicly informing the rest of society about those who are still free to abuse others.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Jeff Sparrow

By one of those peculiar historical coincidences, Cardinal Pell appeared before the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse just as the conservative attack on Safe Schools reached its peak. In doing so, he provided a striking example of why the program matters so much.

Several years ago, when working on my book Money Shot, I asked Save the Children’s Karen Flanagan, one of the country’s most experienced advocates for children’s rights, about the forms that child abuse took in Australia.

“Intra-familial abuse, that’s the most common,” she said. “Most children are abused by someone very closely related to them or very well known to them – in other words, a trusted, respected person. About a third of all sex offending is committed by adolescents, about 6% of reported sex offences are by women and the rest is by men. Probably about 95% would be intra-familial.”

In other words, most abused children know the perpetrator.

“If it’s not within the home,” Flanagan said, “it’s the babysitter, or the school or the sporting club. It’s people who know the child, who have a relationship with him or her, who are trusted.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

BY LAUREN HENSLEY MONDAY, MARCH 7TH 2016

EBENSBURG, Pa.– A Cambria County judge has resigned from the Bishop McCort Board of Trustees.

Judge Patrick Kiniry was named in the state attorney general’s grand jury report that uncovered widespread sexual abuse allegations and a cover-up involving the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese.

Kiniry was named in particular during the investigation into Monsignor Francis McCaa in 1985.

The chairman of the board of trustees confirmed Kiniry’s resignation with 6News on Monday. 6News asked for a copy of the letter of resignation and date it was submitted but our requests went unanswered Monday.

The grand jury report says Kiniry, who was at the time the assistant district attorney of Cambria County met with Bishop James Hogan. The document says it was agreed to have McCaa pulled from the church and given counseling.

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WASHINGTON
KGMI

Priests and a psychiatrist warned the Seattle Archbishop about a priest who abused children, but the Archbishop just moved the priest to different parishes.

Three people now say the priest, Michael Cody, abused them as kids when he was the pastor of the Assumption Parish and School in Bellingham from 1972 to 1975.

The Seattle Times reports seven other women accuse Cody of preying on them as children while he served in Skagit County before coming to Bellingham.

Archbishop Thomas Connolly was told Cody was a sick and dangerous pedophile, but Connolly kept putting Cody in situations where he could abuse kids.

The information is from Cody’s “secret file” obtained by the Times.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 8, 2016

Josephine Tovey
Reporter

One of the most influential newspapers in the United States, The Washington Post, has devoted an editorial to Australian Cardinal George Pell’s appearance at the royal commission last week, noting his “stumbles” and condemning some of his testimony for seeking to “airbrush the church’s staggering lapses.”

The newspaper’s editorial board told its readers that on the same day the film Spotlight, which depicts an investigation into abusive priests in Boston’s Catholic church, was awarded the Oscar for Best Picture, a “related drama” was taking place in the Vatican, as Australia’s most senior Catholic gave testimony to a commission back in Australia.

The Post stated that while Cardinal George Pell stayed mostly “on message” during his appearances before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, he “stumbled” at several moments, and in doing so, revealed “the shortcomings in the church’s response to revelations of misconduct.”

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Editorial Board March 6

ON THE same day Hollywood conferred its most prestigious prize on “Spotlight,” the newsroom drama about the Boston Globe’s reporting on the Catholic Church’s complicity in the sexual abuse of children by priests, a related drama was unfolding near the Vatican itself. For hours, Cardinal George Pell, the Holy See’s treasurer and one of its top-ranking clerics, answered questions posed by an Australian commission that quizzed the cardinal on the extent of his knowledge about pedophile priests he knew decades ago.

Cardinal Pell, the most senior Australian Catholic, stayed mainly on message, the message from the Vatican for years having been one of carefully couched contrition in the face of incontrovertible evidence that the church enabled and covered up for sex abuse by clergy. “I’m not here to defend the indefensible,” said the cardinal.

But under polite and sustained grilling, the 74-year-old cardinal, who testified in Rome by video link to Australia, stumbled on several occasions, revealing the shortcomings in the church’s response to revelations of misconduct.

He referred to having heard rumors, during his years as a young clergyman, of “eccentricities” among priests teaching at Australian Catholic schools, a case of whitewash by euphemism. He pleaded a “senior moment” to explain away his failure to recall various allegations and the church’s response. While discussing a notorious priest who was widely known as a serial abuser by the early 1990s, when Cardinal Pell was a high-ranking church official in Melbourne, he said: “I didn’t know whether it was common knowledge or whether it wasn’t. It’s a sad story and [the extent to which it was known publicly] wasn’t of much interest to me.”

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Jasmine Stole | Post News Staff

Former Sen. Bob Klitzkie is calling on the Department of Land Management to look into what he suspects are deliberately doctored government documents that the Archdiocese of Agana printed in the Nov. 29, 2015 issue of the U’Matuna Si Yu’os.

The U’Matuna Si Yu’os printed a copy of a certificate of title on the front page of the paper. In the article, approved by the Monsignor David Quitugua, vicar general, Quitugua said the certificates established that the archdiocese, by Archbishop Anthony Apuron, “maintains legal ownership of the seminary property and it is only the archdiocese through the mechanisms of Canon Law that will determine the transferor conveyance of this property.”

The property in question is that on which sits the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Guam in Yona. At issue is the legal ownership of the property. Critics, like Klitzkie, refute the archdiocese’s claims that the property is under the control of Apuron and the archdiocese.

The church printed the certificate of title retrieved from DLM records on Oct. 30, 2015, and the accompanying article, under the headline “Ownership of Seminary property confirmed.”

About a month after the article was published, in a December letter to DLM Director Michael Borja, Klitzkie wrote that four certificates of title are “clearly erroneous on their face.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Mar 7, 2016 by Rob Boston

Last week, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane released a damning grand jury report about the rampant sexual abuse of minors by priests in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese – and the failure of anyone in authority to stop it.

News of the report hit me hard. I was born and raised in Altoona. For 16 years I attended a Catholic church in that diocese. I spent eight years in a Catholic school appended to one of its churches.

The nuns occasionally punished us in ways that were inappropriate, but I never suffered the kind of abuse detailed in the report. Still, I felt like I’d been socked in the gut. As I read the report, I kept coming across the names of familiar towns, churches and people.

The report is not easy reading. It goes into explicit detail about the horrors inflicted on these children. Be aware of that if you decide to take a look.

I was especially disgusted by how the powers that be in both the church and the state failed the victims. If you’ve seen the Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight,” you know how church officials reacted: They created, then hid, secret files on problem priests. They did not report them to authorities. They attacked the victims. They shipped molesters off to other parishes where, inevitably, the priests sought more victims.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Mark Shanahan GLOBE STAFF MARCH 07, 2016

An Academy Award is good — but not great — for business apparently. “Spotlight” earned $1.8 million at the box office during the first weekend since winning the Oscar for best picture. To date, director Tom McCarthy’s movie about the Globe series exposing the priest abuse scandal in the Catholic church, has grossed $41 million. “Spotlight” was in more than 1,200 theaters this past weekend, which is the most since the movie opened last fall. While it got a bump at the box office because of the Oscar, it wasn’t huge.

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MAINE
CentralMaine.com

BY AMY CALDER STAFF WRITER
acalder@centralmaine.com | @AmyCalder17 | 207-861-9247

The Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight” might not have been made if not for Waterville native David Mizner.

Mizner, an associate producer of the film, pitched the idea of turning the story about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of the Catholic Church priest abuse scandal into a movie.

Waterville native David Mizner was the inspiration for bringing the Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight” to the screen. Mizner, an associate producer for the film, is a novelist and contributing writer to The Nation and other publications and wrote the description of a course on the Boston Globe’s investigation of the Catholic Church abuse scandal for Columbia University journalism class.

“I had no real creative role in the film,” said Mizner Monday. Producers, though, cited him Feb. 28 when they accepted the Oscar for Best Picture at the 88th annual Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

A novelist and freelance writer, Mizner several years ago wrote a case study for the Knight Case Studies Initiative at the graduate school of journalism for Columbia University.

In doing so, he contacted producers Nicole Rocklin and Blye Faust, who were interested in creating a film about one of his novels, and told them he had a great idea for a different movie — about the priest abuse coverup.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor March 7, 2016

Recently two different constituencies in the Catholic Church have complained of feeling misunderstood or let down by Pope Francis, and it’s instructive to compare the pontiff’s responses in each case.

One group is made up of Eastern Catholics, especially the 5 million-strong Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine, while the other is composed of survivors of clerical sexual abuse. In a nutshell, the pope’s reaction to the former seems a textbook example of effective outreach, while the latter so far appears largely a tale of missed opportunities.

To begin with Greek Catholics, many felt that Francis’ historic Feb. 12 meeting with Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church in Havana, Cuba, was a propaganda coup for Moscow, and that the joint declaration the two men issued was even worse — mostly a series of Catholic concessions to the Russians, including language that could be read to invalidate criticism of Russia’s invasion of Eastern Ukraine. …

Meanwhile, survivors of sexual abuse, as well as their families and advocates, have had their own reasons of late for feeling ambivalent about Francis.

They’ve complained that he appointed a bishop in Chile known as an apologist for that country’s most notorious abuser priest. They’ve watched as a survivor on the pope’s anti-abuse panel was assigned an involuntary leave of absence by fellow members after voicing criticism over the Chile appointment and other matters, and they also wonder why Francis hasn’t had any reaction to criticism of Cardinal George Pell, his hand-chosen financial reformer, for Pell’s record on abuse cases in Australia.

Survivors also noted that Francis did not meet abuse victims during his trip to Mexico last month, even though that country was hard-hit by a scandal surrounding the Legion of Christ and its late founder, Marcial Maciel Degollado.

So far, Francis has not addressed those concerns in his own voice, apparently content to let others do it for him.

Last week, a group of 15 Australian survivors, along with relatives and supporters, were in Rome to watch Pell testify before a Royal Commission in their country via video link. They told everyone who would listen that they’d like to meet the pope, and at one stage Pell released a statement vowing to try to help make it happen.

It was a bit mystifying, then, to hear a Vatican spokesman assert on Friday that no meeting would take place because there had been no “official request.” Everyone knew the victims wanted it, and Francis rarely has shown himself to be a slave to protocol when he’s determined to do something.

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UNITED KING
BBC News

The alleged abuse victim of a former Sussex bishop has said an open letter from a former Archbishop of Canterbury praising him is deeply distressing.

The Church has settled a civil claim made by the woman, who claims she was abused by Bishop of Chichester George Bell in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

In a letter to the bishop’s niece, Lord Carey said he was “appalled” by the way authorities had treated his memory.

But Rt Rev George Bell’s unnamed victim said: “Great men can do evil things.”

She says he molested her as a child in Chichester Cathedral as she sat on his lap listening to stories.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 8, 2016

Kate Aubusson

What is the minimum age of moral culpability?

Somewhere north of 28-years-old, according to Alan Jones.

On Monday night’s Q&A, the radio presenter appeared to absolve all those aged 28-years-and-under of moral and ethical responsibility as he defended Cardinal George Pell’s response to the sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church.

The shock jock was responding to an audience question which suggested Pell – now one of the highest ranking Vatican officials – should be removed from his post over his lack of action on reports of abuse.

Jones called the discoveries of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse “almost too grotesque to even define” and agreed Pell’s choice of words during his evidence to the Royal Commission were “appalling”.

But he defended Pell’s unresponsiveness to cases of abuse during the cardinal’s early career within the church.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Elle Hunt
@mlle_elle
Monday 7 March 2016

Senior Liberal minister Michaelia Cash has condemned George Pell’s apparent lack of compassion and empathy for victims of abuse in the Catholic Church as being against the teachings of Jesus.

The minister for women was one of five panelists on ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night and was asked whether she thought Pell should be removed from his position in the church.

Pell gave evidence at the royal commission into institutional responses to child abuse in Sydney via video link from Rome over four days last week.

Cash began her answer by acknowledging that she is Catholic.

“What we’ve all seen over the last few weeks – over the last few years – it was that complete lack of empathy.

“Jesus was someone who had compassion and who had empathy. I would expect nothing less from the leaders of our church, especially of those victims in verbalising what they went through, to at least show them compassion and empathy.

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

MICHELLE R. SMITH, SUSAN HAIGH
Associated Press

HARTFORD — It’s called “passing the trash”: A school suspects a teacher of sexual misconduct and forces the teacher out to protect the students. But that teacher can still get a new job in a new school, sometimes with a glowing recommendation.

Only Pennsylvania, Missouri and Oregon ban the maneuver, but a federal mandate passed in December now requires states to address its potential risks. Connecticut is considering such legislation.

One woman abused by such a teacher says it’s about time the problem is getting attention.

She was 16 when her English teacher at the exclusive Marlborough School in Los Angeles began grooming her. He showered her with praise, gave her gifts and pitted her against her friends. Then there was a sexual advance, and sex. Eventually, she became pregnant and miscarried.

She reported him only years later, after she learned he had targeted another girl more recently. A lawsuit she filed says he was accused of misconduct at two schools before Marlborough hired him. When he was finally pushed out of Marlborough, the school gave him a recommendation, the suit asserts.

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UNITED STATES
The Scripps Voice

March 4, 2016

By Evelyn Gonzalez ’18
Feminism Columnist

The personal stories and accounts of survivors get lost under the weight of a heavy silence when we, as a society, allow those in power to have so much influence over the relevancy and importance of our words. As a result of our reliance on a capitalist system that often thrives on the exploitation of society’s most vulnerable, very few mechanisms exist at the present to protect survivors of abuse if it means that the image of corporations might be damaged in the process. In allowing this to continue, we have created a culture that forces survivors of abuse to speak up; but those that speak up are faced by a society who refuses to listen, reinforcing a damaging culture of violence and injustice.

On December 25, 2015, The New York Times released a piece on the connection between Whole Foods Market co-founder John Mackey and sex offender and creator of the nonprofit Center for Integral Wisdom, Marc Gafni. Approximately one month later Sara Kabakov submitted an exclusive to Forward’s online website. In it she detailed her personal account of the sexual and spiritual violation and molestation she faced under the hands of Marc Gafni during the 80’s. Along with Kabakov, several other women, including one of Gafni’s ex-wives chose to come forward with their own descriptions of the violence enacted on them. The similarities in the stories written by these women were striking in that they highlighted the varying ways they were forced into silence by Gafni himself and from their own communities. In this current society, speaking out about one’s past experience, especially against people in positions of power, can often result in a high degree of danger and vulnerability. Gafni’s ex wife, who chose to stay anonymous when she published her story in The Times of Israel about Gafni’s abuses said, “there is also a risk to staying silent, staying safe. 20 years and untold numbers of victims later, I have learned that staying safe can also be risky business.” In exposing the connection between Whole Foods Market and Gafni, the voices of those who are most at risk can be brought to the forefront of the conversation.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., March 2, 2016

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

ALBUQUERQUE – The Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy case continues to be marked by a series of delays.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma’s goal of seeing the Gallup Diocese file its plan of reorganization Monday failed to materialize after a status conference Friday was canceled and rescheduled for Tuesday.

A few weeks ago, the diocese’s own goal of filing its reorganization plan in early February became a casualty of a dispute between two other parties in the case — attorneys for Catholic Mutual, the diocese’s current insurer, and Michael P. Murphy, the former future claims representative who resigned his position.

During a brief court hearing Tuesday, Thomas Walker, a diocesan attorney, explained the latest delay was caused by the illness of the diocese’s lead bankruptcy attorney.

“We had a significant holdup last week because Susan Boswell got very sick and was out of commission for the week, and it did slow things quite a bit,” Walker told Thuma.

Boswell attended Tuesday’s hearing by telephone. Although both she and Walker expressed optimism that the diocese could get a reorganization plan on file next week, Thuma suggested a later date for the next hearing.

“I don’t want to have another conference where we don’t have a plan. … Once we get a plan on file, we’ll probably have enough to talk about,” Thuma said. “I’d like to have this soon afterwards so we can talk about scheduling of the disclosure statement hearing and plan confirmation hearing.”

Boswell then suggested the hearing be held March 21.

“That way no excuses — absolutely the plan and the relevant motions and the disclosure statement will be on file,” she said.

Thuma agreed and scheduled the continued status hearing for 11 a.m. March 21.

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SPAIN
Expatica

7th March 2016

A third teacher at a school run by a Roman Catholic order in Barcelona has confessed to having sexually abused students in a video released Monday, deepening one of Spain’s biggest paedophile scandals.

The man, who is in his 70s and was identified only by his initials A.F., can be heard in the video recorded with a hidden camera apologising to one of the victims he abused in the 1980s.

“I don’t know why I did it…it was like a child’s game,” he says in the video posted on the website of Barcelona-based daily newspaper El Periodico de Catalunya which masked his face.

The victim said he was sexually abused by the former teacher dozens of times when he was 8-14 years old. His allegations were not refuted by the former teacher.

The abuse took place at a Marist school in Les Corts, a Barcelona neighbourhood, at the centre of a paedophile scandal which erupted in February after the paper published the confession of a former gym teacher who said he had sexually abused his students.

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ITALIA
Il Giorno

[Sex abuse in the Lombard diocese.]

Milano, 7 marzo 2016 – Era il 2003. Il parroco di Villa di Serio, seimila anime nella Bergamasca, è don Vittorio Damiani, 62 anni. Il 6 maggio i carabinieri bussano alla porta della canonica: il sacerdote è accusato di abusi sessuali su minori. Lui protesta la sua innocenza, ma non regge alla pressione. Si toglie la vita in cella, nel carcere di Bergamo, appena due mesi dopo l’arresto. È il primo clamoroso episodio di pedofilia in canonica a scuotere la diocesi di Bergamo e la Lombardia intera. Un episodio destinato a non restare isolato.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Pittsburg

[with video]

March 2, 2016 By Ralph Iannotti

VANDERGRIFT (KDKA) — Robert Mizic, 45, lives in the small Westmoreland County borough of Vandergrift.

Back in the late-1970s, when Mizic was growing up in suburban Philadelphia, he attended a small Catholic school in Pottstown where he served as an altar boy at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church.

That’s when he says the abuse began.

He says his mother, Bev, went to rectory and complained when he told her “the priest had asked me some lewd questions in the confessional.” He was never specific at the time.

After that, he says the priest first sexually and then physically abused him for a period of several months.

Mizic is going public now for the first time because of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s report on the alleged widespread sex abuse of children in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

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IOWA
Brown County Democrat

By Associated Press – 3/7/16

SIDNEY, Iowa — A southwest Iowa pastor has been convicted of sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl.

A Fremont County jury Friday found 68-year-old Roger Kissel guilty of sex abuse and lascivious acts. Radio station KNCY in Nebraska City, Nebraska, reports (http://bit.ly/21S6L9r ) that the jury deliberated for about 2½ hours. Kissel’s sentencing is set for May 4.

When he was arrested, Kissel was a pastor at the nondenominational Sidney Cowboy Church. Police have said the allegations weren’t connected to the church. Prosecutors say the crimes occurred in 2013.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

07 March 2016 | by Megan Cornwell

The Holy See’s statement was a response to heightened scrutiny from the media

Critics of the Catholic Church’s response to the child sex abuse scandal are “sensationalist” and have “a short memory”, the Vatican has asserted in a scathing response to Cardinal Pell’s evidence in front of an Australian Commission.

Fr Frederico Lombardi SJ, Head of the Vatican press office, said in the statement that “those who are least informed or have a short memory” think the Church has done nothing to combat and respond to “these terrible problems”, but that “objective consideration shows that this is not the case”.

The Holy See’s statement was a response to heightened scrutiny from the media while Cardinal Pell was giving evidence to Australia’s inquiry into historic child abuse in the Church and as Spotlight won best film at the Oscars.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

[with video]

March 8, 2016

Peter Craven

Last week we saw Cardinal George Pell cross-examined for about 20 hours at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, with the 74-year-old prelate speaking via video link from Rome. Afterwards there was a meeting with victims who were pleased to hear he would try to set up a centre for survivors of abuse.

In an hour-long interview on Sky with Andrew Bolt, Pell said he wasn’t so stiff on the inside and, at one point, he appeared to weep. Yet none of this cut the mustard: from much of the response to Pell’s testimony, both during and after it, you would imagine he is personally responsible for the sins of the Church.

Why? Because we were witnessing a show trial. A week before the hearing began, the Herald Sun published a leak from Victoria Police that investigations were under way into possible crimes of the cardinal. No new lines of inquiry were offered, no reliable source was indicated and the one specific matter referred to allegations which had been laid to rest in 2002 when they were examined by Justice Southwell.

Still, the day after Pell made his notorious slip about not being “interested” in the sexual abuse, the front page of the Herald Sun said “Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Stop No Evil”.

It’s nonsense. When Pell initiated the Melbourne Response in 1996 he went further than any bishop had gone to fixing the problem. Yet a lot of people want to blame him for the horrors that were perpetrated for no better reason than they see his formidable, take-no-prisoners manner as the embodiment of the attitude of an arrogant and heartless church.

So, when he says that as a young priest in Ballarat he heard of a brother not only using excessive discipline but behaving dodgily with boys and he spoke with the chaplain who said the Christian Brothers were attending to the problem, this is met with derision.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Chris Davis

Autres temps, autres moeurs. French for “other times, other customs”. A phrase that is relevant as the media and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse examine 20th century decisions using 21st century morality.

For those who weren’t there, I’ll share my 20th century experience. My boys’ only school was a place of great good, thanks to some exceptional teachers. The most enduring and inspiring was an English spinster who had lost her fiancé in World War I. Her surrogate children were her “boys”. She taught us English in the finest tradition, as well as a love of literature and a code of excellent conduct. Having been in the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, she sang beautifully. She was strict, but with a delightful warmth and sense of humour. The headmaster was a World War II veteran, highly decorated for his skill and courage. He imparted wisdom and balance, acquired from having witnessed the best and worst of the human condition.

Sadly, there was a dark and unspoken side to it all. Older unattached male teachers who lived in at the boarding school. They invited schoolboy “pets” in for special tutoring and special occasions, and exclusive weekend camps. Given the status of teachers, amongst boys being a “pet” was seen as an achievement. Not that anyone talked about what actually went on behind closed doors, except when it emerged as unacceptable sexual behaviour amongst boarding school pupils. Some of it was seen as entertaining, such as when a “misbehaving pet” was backside up on the teacher’s lap for the duration of a lesson, whilst being intimately “spanked”.

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ITALY
PanARMENIAN

March 7, 2016

PanARMENIAN.Net – Building on the momentum of its best-picture Oscar win, Spotlight grossed $1 million on 297 screens this past weekend in Italy, an increase of 43 percent from last weekend, The Hollywood Reporter reveals.

This is more than one-fifth of the $4.8 million international gross that Spotlight brought in overall this past weekend in its post-Oscar victory lap, a 124 percent increase across international territories. To date, it has grossed $2.6 million in Italy.

To compare, the $1 million weekend revenue is approximately 13 percent higher than Birdman’s post-Oscar weekend in Italy, when it grossed $885,000 on its way to a total of $5.4 million throughout its run in the country.

Spotlight has been a huge media draw in the Catholic country. Michael Keaton, and the man he plays in the film, Boston Globe editor Walter Robinson, toured Rome in January where they praised the investigative journalism behind the film that brought to light the abuses of the Catholic church from Boston all the way up to the Vatican.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

[with video]

By Marielena Balouris | mbalouris@wtajtv.com
Published 03/06 2016

Altoona, Blair County, Pa.

It’s been nearly one week since the Attorney General announced the results of a multi-year investigation into the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese. The findings revealed cases of sexual assault dating back to the 1940’s.

Even though there is overwhelming evidence of the abuse in the Grand Jury report, they cannot prosecute because the statute of limitations has run out. Local Catholics are upset by the findings of the investigation, but some say this hasn’t affected their faith.

Mike Glashauser has been a parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes for 35 years. He says it’s a tight-knit community and the results of the Grand Jury investigation has shocked them all. But now, it’s time to move forward. He said, “I think now we just have to come together and have church and pray for the victims and their families. We have to keep the faith forward and God will lead us in the right direction.”

Glashauser knew one of the priests named in the report from when he was in grade school. He was not affected, but says he’s glad the truth is out. His father agrees.

Frank Glashauser said, “We’re losing so many people in the Catholic religion anyhow and then to have this happen to us, its you know, its uncalled for and for the priests to hide it, its really uncalled for and it should never be hidden, they should have dealt with it from the very beginning.”

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OHIO
Vindicator

Mon, March 7, 2016
Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The leader of a national support group for victims of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy is calling on county prosecutors in Mahoning and Trumbull counties to urge Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to launch an aggressive investigation into sexual abuse within the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown.

At a press conference Sunday outside the headquarters of the diocese, Robert Hoatson, president of the New Jersey-based Road to Recovery support group, said, “We want the same type of investigation as was done in Altoona [Pa.].”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane last week released findings of her office’s investigation of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese. It revealed that former bishops either covered up or didn’t do enough to respond to hundreds of allegations of abuse committed by more than 50 priests from 1966 to 2011.

“We want state officials to raid that building,” Hoatson said, referring to the West Wood Street headquarters of the diocese.

“In that building, I guarantee you are the same types of files found in Altoona,” Hoatson said. He added he would like the state to review records of all priests who have served in the diocese over the past 60 years or so.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Herald-Standard

By Mike Tony mtony@heraldstandard.com

Local priests in the Greensburg and Pittsburgh Catholic Dioceses were shocked by Tuesday’s grand jury presentment outlining child sexual abuse in the neighboring Altoona-Johnstown Diocese spanning some 60 years.

“As Bishop (David) Zubik (of the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese) said, this is a devastating time for the church, and we’re definitely sorry for the hurt that’s been caused,” said the Rev. Pierre Falkenhan, pastor of Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Parish in Donora.

The Rev. Bill Berkey, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Western Fayette County, said his parishioners in Masontown and New Salem will be reassured that the parish has done all necessary child protective clearances of church clergy, staff and volunteers. Clergy and volunteers in the Diocese of Greensburg, which includes parishes throughout Fayette, Westmoreland, Armstrong and Indiana counties, are required to have criminal background checks and child abuse clearances.

“I think we’re all shocked by it. It’s disheartening,” said the Rev. Vince Gigliotti, pastor of St. Anne Parish in Belle Vernon.

Neither Berkey nor the Rev. Wiliam Terza, pastor of St. Damien of Molokai in Monongahela, said they believed that their parishioners would have a crisis of faith or confidence in the church because of the grand jury presentment.

“I have not had anyone come up to me and make a comment about it,” Terza said. “I’m sure everyone is going to think, ponder, question.”

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Monday, March 7th, 2016

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An attorney who filed 13 lawsuits against the Diocese of Gallup on behalf of alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse said the disclosure of church records will be an essential part of any settlement in the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

Robert Pastor, a Phoenix attorney, said claimants and their attorneys in the case are adamant that the diocese must release church records, including the personnel files of accused priests.

Attorneys working toward a settlement told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma of Albuquerque last week that they intend to file a reorganization plan with the court later this month.

“Exposure of these facts is critical to why we bring these cases,” said Pastor, who filed suits against the diocese from 2010-13.

“We are not going to settle unless those files are exposed,” he said. “There may be a delay in exposure, but those files are coming out. They must.”

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UNITED STATES
Daily News Egypt

Rana Khaled

For centuries, investigative journalism is widely believed to have played an instrumental role in guarding the interests of society and giving a chance for the otherwise silenced victims of wars, natural crises, and sexual assaults.

The same can be said of the role of cinema in raising people’s awareness on divisive or underrepresented issues, and piquing the public’s attention to the major human stories that require public consideration. So what of a film that tells the story of one of the leading investigative reports that revealed scandalous facts about some of the biggest religious institutions in the world?

Spotlight’ “Spotlight”, based on the true story of the Boston Globe’s investigative team, achieved huge success, both critically and in box offices, despite its plot not necessarily adhering to a commercial formula. The film, starring Michael Keaton, Rachel MaAdams, and Mark Ruffalo, won the Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards, receiving a total of six nominations.

The film tackles the controversial issue of child sex abuse by a number of Catholic priests in Boston, inspired by the actual series of stories published by the team portrayed in the film.

On 6 January 2002, the Spotlight team, including reporters Matt Carroll, Sacha Pfeiffer, Michael Rezendes, and Editor Walter V. Robinson, published their first story, entitled “Church Allowed Abuse by Priest for Years”. The article shook not only for the Boston community, but thousands of readers around the world.

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AUSTRALIA
Anadolu Agency (Turkey)

By Recep Sakar

MELBOURNE, Australia

Days after Australia’s most senior Catholic gave evidence from the Vatican on sexual abuse by priests, one of those abused has told Anadolu Agency of the extent of the suffering.

“I was abused in my own house and my older brothers were abused and other siblings. I had three sisters — they were all abused,” says Tim Lane, who is now 44, but was just four-years-old when he became a priest’s victim in the Victoria state diocese of Ballarat.

“It is a terrible thing… a terrible thing to live with.”

Lane is just one of the many Australians who were abused by priests in their homes, at churches and at religious seminaries in the cities of Ballarat and Melbourne during the 1970s and 1980s.

Last Monday, senior Catholic Cardinal George Pell insisted to a royal inquiry into child sex abuse that while he was a priest in Ballarat, he was unaware such offenders were being moved between parishes to escape prosecution, and to protect the reputation of the church.

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PENNSYLVANIA
StateCollege.com

by Patty Kleban on March 07, 2016

In the Bible, (Matthew 15: 8-9) Jesus refers to hypocrisy when he says “these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.”

When the news came out last week that the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church has joined the ranks of Boston and Philadelphia, to name just a few, in facilitating sexual abuse by priests, I could not help thinking about hypocrisy. According Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathy Kane who released the summary of grand jury proceedings and years of investigation, more than 50 priests and other diocesan personnel were involved the sexual abuse of minors. Leaders in the diocese then allegedly compounded those crimes by hiding the atrocities from the proper authorities and reassigning priests to other parishes where they inevitably continued their sickness. Few if any criminal charges will be brought forward in this case because of the statute of limitations.

Is it not the definition of hypocrisy for those who we looked to for spiritual guidance and who heard our confessions and baptized and confirmed our children to not only perpetuate but cover up the torture of the weakest members of their flock? Using their status within the church, and in some cases God’s name, the men sought sexual gratification and power over others. It is not only hypocritical but both legally and morally reprehensible.

And all the while they were preaching from the pulpit about sin, confession, penance and redemption.

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OHIO
WFMJ

By Janet Rogers, Reporter

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio –
Youngstown Catholic Bishop George Murry is being called on to settle 28 cases of child sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated Brother Stephen Baker, who was a coach at Warren John F. Kennedy High School in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

“We want the county prosecutors in Mahoning and Trumbull Counties to request Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to do the same kind of investigation that Pennsylvania’s Attorney General did,” said Dr. Robert Hoatson, who was among the protesters outside the offices of the Youngstown Diocese on Sunday.

The recently completed Pennsylvania investigation revealed decades of alleged systematic protection of sexual predators within the community of priests and religious leaders in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona Johnstown, including Brother Stephen Baker.

In 2013 Baker committed suicide shortly after the church settled lawsuits filed by 11 victims who had been students at Warren JFK.

“We want a group of law enforcement officers to raid the Youngstown Diocese and take out the secret files on every priest, just like they did in PA. It is the only way we got to the truth in Altoona and Johnstown. It is the only way we will get to the truth in Youngstown, Ohio,” said Dr. Hoatson, who is a counselor with Road to Recovery based in New Jersey and works with victims of sexual abuse.

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ROME
Bendigo Advertiser

By Melissa Cunningham in Rome
March 6, 2016

Cardinal George Pell says he grieves for Ballarat and prays daily for victims whose lives have been shattered by the Catholic Church’s scourge of sexual abuse.

In a his bid to try and set the record straight in his hometown, Australia’s most senior cleric spoke directly with The Courier in Rome on Saturday.

He accepted some victims may never be healed and others would never be willing to accept any help from an institution that failed to protect them.

During the rare interview, the Cardinal refused to answer questions relating directly to church’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations inflicted on children by clergy he work alongside for years.

“I spent nineteen and half hours refusing to defend the indefensible, I am not about to try and do that again,” he said.

“The Catholic Church has made enormous mistakes and I accept that.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

BY JILLIAN HARTMANN SUNDAY, MARCH 6TH 2016

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – It was not your typical Sunday mass at St. John Gualbert Cathedral in Johnstown Sunday morning.

Bishop Mark Bartchak asked priests and religious leaders in the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese to share a message to fellow Catholics during Sunday’s mass.

The message is in regards to the grand jury report uncovering alleged widespread sex abuse within the diocese.

“A number of people asked, ‘Do I want to be part of the church anymore?” Father James Crookston said while reading Bishop Bartchak’s message. “Where is God in all of this?”

Bishop Bartchak heard a number of questions asked from victims of abuse, their families and other Catholics responding to the grand jury report. He said this week was filled with darkness of sin.

“We will pass through this darkness,” said Crookston.

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OHIO
WKBN

By Molly Reed
Published: March 6, 2016

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Road to Recovery, a group that represented and advocated for alleged victims of sexual abuse by a former Warren JFK baseball coach, was back in Youngstown on Sunday calling for an investigation.

The group wants Mahoning and Trumbull County prosecutors to request the state attorney general’s office launch an investigation of the Youngstown Diocese.

“We want a group of law enforcement officials to raid off that building, and to take out the files just the way they did in Pennsylvania,” said President Robert Hoatson.

The grand jury report in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in Pennsylvania said the Diocese helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children.

In 2013, the Youngstown Diocese announced abuse settlements with 11 former students of Brother Stephen Baker while he was on staff at Warren JFK in the late ’80s. Students came forward years later, claiming they were also abused by Baker.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Child sexual abuse survivors from Ballarat who flew to Rome to watch Cardinal George Pell give evidence at the child abuse royal commission want the Prime Minister to commit to a redress scheme.

The Victorian group arrived home on Sunday after a crowdfunded trip to Rome.

“A lot of people might think this is the end of our journey. It’s not,” abuse survivor Andrew Collins told reporters at Melbourne Airport.

He said clerical abuse in Ballarat – including that by Australia’s worst paedophile priest, Gerard Ridsdale – and its long-term effects on victims highlighted the importance of supporting survivors.

“We call on the Turnbull Government to put into place the redress scheme that the royal commission has put forward,” Mr Collins said.

“The longer he holds off, the more people will die.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

Standing inside Our Mother of Sorrows’ stained glass doors before Sunday mass, Rick Messina had no trouble finding words to describe his reaction to new details released last week regarding decades of years-old child abuse by local Roman Catholic clergy.

The parishioner called it a striking reminder that “horrible and disgusting” things happened for far too long in churches like his. As hard as it was to hear, it was also a necessary reminder, he said.

“It’s sad that things that happened so many years ago are taking away from the beautiful things that are happening in this church,” Messina said. “But it’s happening right now because it needs to. This has to be out in the open so we can learn from it and people can heal.”

He was among parishioners Sunday who said the both decades-long and decades-old scandal has hung over the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown and its parishes for too long – but has done so because it was hushed rather than healed.

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OHIO
Vindicator

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The leader of a national support group for victims of sexual abuse by priests and other Catholic Church clergy today called upon county prosecutors in Mahoning and Trumbull counties to urge Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to launch an aggressive investigation into sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown.

At a press conference this morning outside the headquarters of the diocese, Robert Hoatson, president of the New Jersey-based Road to Recovery, “We want the same type of investigation as was done in Altoona {Pa.].”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane last week released findings of an investigation of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese. It revealed that former bishops either covered up or didn’t do enough to respond to hundreds of abuse allegations in the diocese by more than 50 priests from 1966 to 2011.

“We want state officials to raid that building,” Hoatson said, referring to the West Wood Street headquarters of the Youngstown Diocese.

“In that building, I guarantee you are the same types of files found in Altoona,” Hoatson said. He added his group recommends the state review records of all priests that have served in the diocese over the past 60 years or so.

Also speaking at the press conference today were Barbara Aponte, mother of a former student at Warren John F. Kennedy High School who says her son committed suicide due to the shame of abuse he suffered at the school; her husband Felix Aponte and “John Doe,” a former JFK student who described the long-term impact of abuse he said he suffered also at JFK in the 1980s.

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

Galway Bay fm newsroom – Around 50 people attended a flower laying ceremony at the Magdalene graves in Bohermore cemetery this afternoon.

The event is part of the national ‘Flowers for Magdalenes’ event which saw flowers laid on Magdalene graves in cities and towns that had Magdalene Laundries.

The Galway event was sponsored by Galway City Community Network – the network of community, voluntary and environmental groups in the city.

The ceremony saw the womens’ names read out, while the crowd also heard some poems and a song, dedicated to the Magdalene women buried at Bohermore.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Flowers were laid at five separate plots in Glasnevin Cemetery, in memory of the women who died in Magdalene laundries.

A special ceremony in honour of the women was held at the graveyard.

Several hundred people came to the event, which was organised by the Justice for Magdalenes Research group.

Spokesperson Claire McGettrick said there are seven known plots in Glasnevin where Magdalene women are buried.

She said it is estimated that the remains of up to 400 women were buried in the graveyard, but many of their identities remain unknown.

The women were from laundries in High Park, Drumcondra and Sean MacDermott Street in Dublin.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Michael Bodey
The Australian
March 7, 2016

Andrew Bolt has hit back strongly at the implication he changed his view of Cardinal George Pell’s testimony to the Royal Commission into child abuse.

Within hours of confirmation the News Corp Australia columnist had secured an exclusive interview with Cardinal Pell in Rome last week, Bolt turned on the Cardinal, saying his testimony that a particular case “wasn’t of much interest to me” was “disastrous” and “will be hung around his neck for the rest of his career”. The following morning, Bolt tempered his criticism, noting he felt “embarrassed because I think I’ve joined the pack attacking Pell” and joked “for the first time in my life I’m trending positive on Twitter as a result”.

He told The Australian he was offended by the implication he would be so “craven” as to change his opinion in order to curry favour with anyone.

“Even when I attacked Pell this week there was no suggestion that the interview would not proceed, or that some extra conditions would be imposed,” he said.

“I note that (ABC 7.30 host) Leigh Sales thought there was now such a good chance of my interview being cancelled that she offered to take over instead.”

Indeed, discussions between Bolt and Pell’s communications adviser at the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, Katrina Lee, began before Christmas, in a chance encounter in Sydney.

Bolt told Lee he believed Pell’s public responses had been poor and the public, and parishioners, needed to hear ­directly from him to “see if he really got it”.

Ms Lee made no promises but the Cardinal later agreed, with the only caveat being his health and that the interview take place after his testimony.

Cardinal Pell, the Vatican’s third highest-ranking official, is understood not to have sought counsel or permission from the Vatican or imposed any conditions for the interview. Bolt’s request that the interview be long enough to cover topics beyond the royal commission, and unedited, was amenable to the Cardinal. The only conditions placed on the interview, Bolt said, were his own: that he retain editorial control and that it run for an hour.

Bolt secured the interview without a broadcaster or producer, although he told the church he would be in Rome for the week covering the Cardinal’s testimony.

Bolt asked Simon Nasht, the producer of a documentary about indigenous constitutional recognition he is filming for the ABC, I Can Change Your Mind About Recognition, to produce the interview.
The documentary outfit Nasht formed with philanthropist Dick Smith, Smith & Nasht, is also producing the political two-parter, Howard on Menzies, for the ABC.

Nasht is understood to have shopped the Pell interview to commercial networks, at least one of which turned it down due to the inability to execute, repackage or edit the material.

Sky News Australia — for whom Bolt worked as a “contributor” in Rome during Pell’s testimony, ahead of what is expected to be a more substantial role this year (possibly making The Bolt Report a nightly program), could accommodate the one-hour, live broadcast, which aired on Friday night.

That format and broadcaster was also to Cardinal Pell’s liking; his advisers chose the venue in Rome.

Bolt said any implication he was a friend of Pell’s is incorrect. He, and sources at the church, say they’ve met less than a handful of times, and only once in private. Even so, the issues surrounding the Catholic Church’s behaviour, and its coverage in the Australian media, have been some of Bolt’s most wrenching topics.

Sources close to Bolt told Media they had not seen, in almost two decades’ writing, the normally forthright opinion-maker for the Herald Sun as torn and contemplative about his feelings on the matter. Previously, Bolt had described the media coverage of Cardinal Pell as a “witch-hunt” and he was furious his home paper, the Herald Sun, led two weeks ago with the story that the Victoria Police was investigating the Cardinal on separate matters to the royal commission. Yet he has also been disappointed at Cardinal Pell’s public attitude. Bolt’s about face on Wednesday was typical of his conflict.

But that’s off screen. “In the end, it is just another interview,” Bolt told Media.

“I asked. He accepted.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 5, 2016

Martin Flanagan
Columnist for The Age

Two faces of Australian Catholicism were on display this week. One was Cardinal George Pell’s testimony before the royal commission on child sexual abuse.

Pell could have been discussing the internal workings of a department store. He had his job, others had theirs, he didn’t “indulge rumours” and had “no interest” in tracking those rumours down even though they concerned the welfare of the youngest and most vulnerable members of what once would have been called his flock. What his testimony lacked was moral imagination.

Patrick Dodson has moral imagination and courage to match.

I do not equate religion with spirituality, but it is genuinely spiritual people who make religion meaningful by investing it with humility and compassion. Without those qualities, religion is no more than a series of empty rituals encased, in the case of the Catholic Church, in a medieval pomp which is supposed to embody a Jewish rebel who sided with social outcasts and was openly contemptuous of the religious authorities of his day for their double standards.

Also this week, Patrick Dodson was named as Bill Shorten’s pick to replace WA Labor senator Joe Bullock. If there’s a person whose vision contrasts with Pell’s, it is Dodson.

Dodson was sent to Monivae College in Hamilton as an Aboriginal kid from the Northern Territory at a time when Aboriginal people were still not counted in the census. Within three years, he was school captain. That achievement alone marks him as an extraordinary person.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholic4Change

MARCH 6, 2016 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

Click here to read: “Law officers, clergy forged ties stymieing prosecutions,” by Caitlin McCabe and Maria Panaritis, The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 6, 2016

Having faith and holding leadership accountable should not be mutually exclusive. We can have faith in God and send Bishops to jail. We can be Catholic and not tolerate the cover up of clergy child sex abuse. How many Saints died for their faith? The least we can do is speak up to protect our Catholic faith from its morally and criminally corrupt leaders. Or, we can sit in Church and put our blinders on. After all, everyone makes mistakes. Just so long as a priest doesn’t make a child rape “mistake” with their own grandson or granddaughter.

This is where I’d like to insert a string of expletives but I’ll continue to use the vocabulary the Immaculate Heart Sisters taught me. Pope Francis is a breath of fresh air but the Church needs a hurricane now. It needs every Catholic voice to say, “We will not tolerate this.”

If you can’t get angry about child rape then maybe muster up some irritation at the amount of money going to victim settlements that could have been avoided if predators had been stopped when they were first discovered. That money should have gone to feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless or keeping your parish open. How much have you put into the collection basket over a lifetime? How much did your parents? Keep it coming.

According to the US Bishops Conference, the Catholic Church spent almost $3 billion on settlements, therapy for victims, support for offenders, attorneys’ fees and other costs in the United States from 2004 until 2013. Restitution to victims is fair and right. But I’m sure victims wouldn’t have traded their childhoods for it. Wouldn’t it have been better to shut the abuse down in its tracks before the numbers grew? Instead they covered it up and caused immeasurable emotional damage and still growing financial burdens.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier

By MELISSA CUNNINGHAM
March 6, 2016

Their extraordinary bond was formed under the most harrowing of circumstances.

They call each other “brothers.” They call themselves survivors.

They’re the the men who form Ballarat’s Centre Against Sexual Assault mens’ survivor group.

All have survived sexual abuse in some form but many suffered it at the hands of Ballarat clergy.

Since it was established in 2013 in response to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse the highly successful CASA men’s group has grown to more than a 100 members.

Behind the scenes, CASA senior counsellor Andrea Lockhart has worked tirelessly for years, directly with the men to rebuild their shattered lives.

Many of the men credit her with bringing them “back from the brink”.

Last week, Ms Lockhart was right beside them on arguably their biggest step in their a journey so far: A trip to Rome to bear witness to Cardinal George Pell’s evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 7, 2016

Phil Cleary

Church leaders were not doing anything that unusual when they covered for Ridsdale and his ilk.

Was anyone not moved to despair, or maybe even outrage, watching Cardinal George Pell’s evidence at the royal commission on child sexual abuse? Even if Pell didn’t know, as implausible as it looks, that Father Gerald Ridsdale and a cabal of priests and brothers was systematically raping children in the 1970s and ’80s, his church’s guilt is palpable.

Why was Pell, a big strong outspoken man in his younger years, so timid when a generation of children was being terrorised by cowardly, sadistic brothers and priests? If he’d been a reserved, retiring kind of man we might have imagined he didn’t have the nerve to confront those who covered for Ridsdale and his like. But Pell is not that kind of man. He’s never flinched in a public debate about Catholic doctrine or the failings of sinners. A man of the old world, George Pell was never one to mince his words.

Yet when acting as a “consultor” to Bishop Ronald Mulkearns it seems he never asked one forthright question about why a known sadistic “sinner”, Ridsdale, was being moved from parish to parish. All the while, says Pell, those with knowledge of these crimes either lied to or failed to confide in him. Whatever the truth of what he knew, there can be no mistaking his indifference to the lives of young boys at Catholic schools. While some men in his predicament might have shed a tear for those who have suffered, the cardinal from Ballarat is made of sterner stuff. His testimony was all about survival and proving that, because he was ignorant of the crimes, he had no moral culpability.

Now that we’ve established the church’s culpability, we need to answer other, very serious questions. Why could men supposedly called to God act so sadistically? Were there reasons, other than the protection of the church’s name, that induced its leaders to protect those men engaged in a brutal misuse of power? Were some church elders burdened by what they believed were their own guilty secrets?

Just as importantly, we must ask what part notions of male entitlement played in the crimes about which Pell has been interrogated. It’s all too convenient to reduce these crimes to the acts of “evil paedophiles”, as if men weren’t committing the same crimes against women and children with impunity in the broader society.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

It’s my honor to share with you today an important essay by Ruth Krall responding to a recent report published by National Catholic Reporter regarding the discussion of the legacy of John Howard Yoder in the Mennonite Church. As I’ve noted repeatedly on this blog,* the work of Ruth Krall, a Mennonite peace-and-justice scholar, and of other Mennonite women has been critically important in making the Yoder story known to the public, and in forcing Mennonite institutions to come to terms with Yoder’s legacy of serial sexual violence towards female students and women he counseled pastorally, even as he represented the church in the public square as its most well-known advocate of non-violence.

And so, as Ruth herself is, I was dumbfounded to read the recent NCR article by two (male) scholars reporting on the discussion of Yoder’s legacy and not in any way referring to the ground-breaking work Ruth has done in this field. Here’s Ruth’s response to this article:

A Considered Response to Lambelet and Hamilton:
Vis-à-vis the topic of being made invisible…one more time

Lambelet, K. and Hamilton, B. (February 29, 2016). Viewpoint: Engage Survivors More, and Yoder Less (p. 1). National Catholic Reporter Online.

Ruth E. Krall, MSN, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus and Program Director Emeritus
Goshen College
Goshen, IN

Thesis: When male Yoderian scholars seek to bury me and my academic scholarly work about John’s life and his patterns of victimization in silence, they simultaneously also bury the story of Yoder’s victims in the very same breath. These are the voices the Yoderians now claim they want to hear. They cannot have it both ways. Either the narrative, including my contributions to this narrative, is allowed to stand on its own and be recognized for what it is, or the narrative is skewed and we can learn nothing from it of value. When the narrative is manipulated and skewed, the victims’ voices are once more buried inside a dominant male prerogative to define reality.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Chronicle

A shamed vicar has pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault against a boy in the 1970s.

Leonard Skinner, 79, of North Tyneside , is now facing a possible jail sentence after pleading guilty to the four offences.

Skinner, of Brighton Grove, Whitley Bay, pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault on a boy aged under 14 and two counts of indecent assault on a boy aged under 16 at Highbury Magistrates’ Court.

The offences are understood to relate to when Skinner lived in the south of the UK. He moved to the region following his retirement in 2001 where he has performed “stand-in” duties at local parishes.

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AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks

He only recently learned of his full name, Gordon Hill, and his date of birth. He used to be called Number 29.

You see Hilly was placed in the Catholic St Joseph’s orphanage in Ballarat when he was very young. He was just a number to them. And when, in his early teens, they needed to make room for the new-comers, they heartlessly kicked him out. Number 29 was around 14yo at the time, all alone in this world, left to fend for himself. St Joseph’s gave him the meagre sum of two shillings and nine pence, enough money to pay to return by post the suitcase they lent him. Because he couldn’t read, he didn’t realise he was meant to return it. So he kept it. He still proudly has the suitcase.

During his years at the orphanage, he was treated with brutal inhumanity, ostensibly by religious people. Individuals who pray regularly to their God, people who believed the rest of us were going to pay gravely for our sins, unless, of course, we joined them.

He was deprived of his dignity and basic human rights; no education, food deprivation, mental abuse, brutal physical and sexual assaults, and the like. The nuns used to force him and his peers to cut the whips from the trees with which they would brutally assault them. They even pulled out his teeth with pliers; he was caught eating a carrot he found while working because he was starving. While as an adult he received false teeth, they no longer fit in his mouth due to the damage they caused to his cheek bones when the brutes pulled out his teeth. As you can imagine, Hilly has scars all over his body – not to mention his emotional scars. As he tearfully told me, he never even got a hug. Listening to his harrowing ordeal, I had to wipe away my tears, too.

Hilly was constantly on the run. He pretty much ran as far as he could within Australia; from Ballarat (Victoria – Australia’s East) to Western Australia.

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FRANCE
L’Express

[Cardinal Barbarin never covered up pedophilia, according to the bishops conference in France.]

La Conférence des évêques de France a rappelé samedi sa “politique de fermeté” menée contre les actes de pédophilie commis par des prêtres, après les accusations de “non dénonciation de crime” contre des responsables du diocèse de Lyon, dont le cardinal Barbarin.

Dans un communiqué diffusé ce samedi, “la Conférence des évêques de France tient d’abord à redire sa profonde compassion et son soutien aux victimes” d’actes pédophiles. Une réaction après des accusations portée contre les responsables du diocèse de Lyon pour “non dénonciation de crime”.

Les évêques tiennent à réaffirmer “la politique de fermeté menée depuis plus 15 ans sur ces questions de pédophilie”, poursuit le texte, en répétant la “volonté de coopération complète avec la justice” et en assurant le cardinal Barbarin “de son soutien et de ses prières”.

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FRANCE
Liberation

[A complaint against Cardinal Barbarin and the Vatican.]

Par Bernadette Sauvaget — 4 mars 2016

Après l’ouverture d’une enquête préliminaire par le parquet de Lyon, une victime présumée du père Bernard P. porte plainte contre Philippe Barbarin et un puissant membre de la curie romaine.

Le ciel s’assombrit singulièrement au-dessus de l’évêché de Lyon. Une première victime présumée d’un prêtre pédophile, a déposé plainte, vendredi contre Philippe Barbarin, cardinal-archevêque de Lyon et un des hauts responsables du Vatican, le cardinal Ludwig Muller pour «non-dénonciation d’agressions sexuelles sur mineurs de quinze ans». Président de l’association La Parole Libérée, qui regroupe les victimes présumées du père Bernard P., mis en examen le 27 janvier, François Devaux a indiqué à Libération, que cette plainte concernait également le directeur de cabinet de Barbarin, Pierre Durieux et une bénévole du diocèse, Régine Maire. Cette dernière avait organisé, le 11 octobre 2014, une rencontre entre le père Bernard P. et l’une de ses anciennes victimes présumées.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Religions Philosophischer Salon

[Spotlight – the film. And about the lack of investigative journalism to topics Church in Germany.]

SPOTLIGHT: Der Film.

Über die gute Macht der kritischen Presse und das Fehlen des Recherche-Journalismus in Deutschland….

Ein Hinweis von Christian Modehn

Der große Spielfilm SPOTLIGHT (eigentlich auch ein „gespielter Dokumentarfilm“) beweist: Wenn der politische, der demokratische Wille bei Journalisten geweckt und dann tatsächlich auch gelebt wird, kann durch journalistische Recherche unglaublich Wichtiges und Wertvolles geleistet werden. Das Investigativ-Team der Zeitung „Boston Globe“ (USA) hat allen Einschüchterungen und Angstmachereien der „großen Herren“ ,vor allem in der römischen Kirche von Boston, widerstanden; die Journalisten haben in diesem Umfang sicher als die ersten (2002) der Welt gezeigt: Es gibt einen weit verbreiteten Missbrauch von Kindern durch Priester im Erzbistum Boston. So wurde die Wahrheit frei gelegt, die mit aller Macht zugedeckt und verschwiegen wurde von den Vorgesetzten, also den kirchlichen Bürokraten an der Spitze. Sie werden ja oft „Verantwortliche“ und „Elite“ genannt, ein seltsamer Titel angesichts ihrer Kumpanei, die eigenen Leute, die Kleriker, unter allen Umständen zu schützen. Diese Tatsache erschüttert genauso wie das Leiden der Opfer Mitgefühl weckt und Schmerz.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Publik-Forum

[Cardinal Pell abused his church]

von Thomas Seiterich 05.03.2016

Als Rambo hat George Pell gewirkt, seit ihn Papst Johannes Paul II. zum Erzbischof in der aufgeschlossenen australischen Metropole Melbourne und später in der liberal progressiven Millionenstadt Sydney machte. Auch als Kurienkardinal in Rom tritt der konservative Pell heute gern mächtig auf. Doch nun wendet sich das Blatt. Denn Pell hat offenbar sexuelle Gewalttaten von Priestern in Australien vertuscht

Die bösesten Seiten dieser Geschichte von sexueller Gewalt durch katholische Priester spielen in der australischen Provinz. Dort, wo es heiß, trocken und zumeist langweilig ist, im Städtchen Ballarat im Norden des Bundesstaates Victoria im Südosten des fünften Kontinents. George Pell wird dort geboren, im Weltkriegsjahr 1941. Später ist er – ein Hüne von Mann, ein erfolgreicher Football-Spieler und Priester – Weihbischof in der kleinen Diözese Ballarat.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Vicky Allan, Senior features writer / Saturday 5 March 2016

SURVIVORS are growing so despondent at the progress of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry that many say they feel like they are being abused all over again.

Survivors say the Scottish government is failing them, and feel the slow progress and limited remit of the inquiry is adding insult to the already very grievous injuries they have suffered, and believe they will never see the justice they deserve.

Andi Lavery, of Catholic survivor group White Flowers Alba, has even declared that he no longer wants to testify at the inquiry. “They offer us only further trauma and intrusion upon our continued suffering,” he said. Alan Draper of survivor organisation In Care Abuse Survivors (INCAS) has also said that survivors have “lost all faith in the Scottish Government’s ability to help them to achieve justice, accountability and redress”.

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VATICAN CITY
The Sunday Times (UK)

Christopher Lamb Published: 6 March 2016

A VATICAN trial of a pregnant public relations consultant has been quietly shelved as Pope Francis fights to salvage a reform agenda overshadowed by scandal.

Francesca Chaouqui, a 34-year-old PR, is accused of leaking secret Holy See papers while Francis is beset by calls for the resignation of some of his closest allies.

Chaouqui told The Sunday Times last week that “proceedings are at a standstill ”, adding that she did “not know if it [the trial] will resume”.

It had been adjourned on December 7 but failed to restart on schedule at the end of February. A Holy See spokesman said no new date had been set.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

Karen Brooks
The Courier-Mail

AS THE Academy Awards were presented and Spotlight, (the film about the Boston Globe exposé on the clergy and child sex abuse) won the Oscar for Best Picture, Cardinal George Pell began giving evidence at the child abuse royal commission from the Hotel Quirinale in Rome.

Ironic really, as Pell’s adamant stance he “knew nothing”, “was deceived” and his consistent use of the “hierarchical defence” (it was someone else’s responsibility) was a performance in itself.

From confident and articulate to almost bumbling and vague, what became very clear over the four days of questioning was that, regardless of Pell’s protestations of innocence and/or ignorance, he never once asserted himself on any victim’s account, nor went out of his way to prevent what was clearly happening from continuing.

On the contrary, Pell did the minimum required at all times and then, it appears, dismissed it from his mind.

Like the stories of Father Gerald Ridsdale’s abuses, they were sad stories “and of not much interest to me”.

But, after all, Cardinal Pell had a career to shore up. Is it a coincidence that the more he “didn’t know” and act upon the harrowing tales of sexual abuse of children, the higher up the Catholic ladder he climbed?

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PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

Maureen Powers | Special to LNP

They say timing is everything.

In view of “Spotlight” just receiving an Academy Award for best picture, last week’s grand jury report on two Catholic bishops’ cover-up of rampant child sexual abuse by 50-plus priests over 40 years in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese couldn’t be more timely.

(“Spotlight” is the story of The Boston Globe’s investigation of massive child sexual abuse and its cover-up by Cardinal Law in the Archdiocese of Boston.)

I grew up in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, and I can say unequivocally from personal experience that child sexual abuse by clergy existed more than 50 years ago. I was sexually molested by a prominent priest of that diocese between the ages of 12 and 14, and I can shed light on some ways in which these acts are kept secret from a victim/survivor’s standpoint.

Of course, there was the grooming of both me and my family. I played the organ in church from the time I was 12, and also volunteered in the church office. I accompanied my abuser on various overnight trips, one of which included my sister and parents.

This man was a real go-getter, universally admired and trusted. To be honest, I loved him and was flattered by his attention. He couched some of his actions as “research,” some as “educating” me, and some as “friendship.” When things got to a point that I drew the line — this was witnessed by a friend of mine — the behavior stopped.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By JONATHAN PETRE FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

The former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has lambasted the Church of England for destroying the reputation of a celebrated bishop over unproven child abuse claims.

In a fierce attack on the church he once led, Lord Carey said he was ‘appalled’ at the way it handled the accusations against Bishop George Bell – whom he said had been judged guilty without a fair hearing.

Bishop Bell, who served in Chichester for 30 years until his death in 1958, was renowned during the Second World War as a peacemaker and almost certainly would have been Archbishop of Canterbury but for his denunciation of the Allied bombing of Dresden.

But last year an unnamed woman alleged that he had sexually abused her in the 1940s. The diocese gave credence to the claims, issuing an apology and paying compensation.

Chichester cathedral has now renamed its education centre –previously called Bishop George Bell House – and plans to change its prominent memorial to the bishop.

But in a move that will embarrass his former colleagues, Lord Carey has added his weight to protests that the diocese’s investigation into the claims had been flawed and unjust, saying an individual had been crushed by a ‘powerful organisation’.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Premier

Sun 06 Mar 2016
By Antony Bushfield

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has criticised the Church of England for the way it responded to allegations of abuse against Bishop George Bell.

He said he was “frankly appalled by the way the Church authorities have treated his memory”.

In October 2015 the Church of England released a statement apologising to a woman who claimed she was abused by the respected Bishop Bell in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

It also paid compensation to the woman who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Sussex Police has revealed it would have arrested Bishop Bell and interviewed him on suspicion of serious sexual offences had he still been alive.

In a letter to Bishop Bell’s niece Lord Carey is highly critical of the Church’s response to the allegations.

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UNITED STATES
NJ.com

By Mark Crawford

Last Sunday night at the Academy Awards, in many ways, was an event to remember. Not just because of the controversy so boldly acknowledged by the show’s host, Chris Rock regarding the lack of diversity among those nominated for awards, but also because it shined a light on the issue of sexual assault and abuse — an issue which, for much too long, has been one that we as a society would rather not talk about.

A highlight was the appearance of Vice President Joe Biden, who challenged those watching to “pledge to intervene on behalf of those woman and men sexually abused, who did not or cannot consent.”

He acknowledged sexual assaults happen to women and men at staggering proportions on college campuses. He then introduced pop star Lady Gaga — herself a sexual assault survivor — who performed a sobering rendition “Til it Happens to You” to the backdrop of a stage filled with sexual abuse survivors.

Finally, from the awarding of the first Oscar to the last — when the Academy chose to honor the movie “Spotlight” as Best Picture, a movie about the importance of investigative journalism and its responsibility to shine a light on issues that must be exposed in an effort to protect and maintain a healthy and safe society.

When “Spotlight” was named best picture, it also gave a voice to the countless victims of sexual abuse — I among them — who hoped this real life story would continue to shine a light on the long-held dark secrets of a powerful institution. It gave us a glimpse of the suffering of those sexually abused as children and the walls that were built to ensure the protection of the powerful, so their secrets remained hidden and victims suffered in silence.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 6, 2016

Stephanie Wood
Senior Writer

As Monsignor William Mullins led Sunday mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, some flapped the order of service booklets before their faces to keep cool; others absorbed the words on the pages in their hands.

If they’d started on the first page, they would have read an attention-grabbing introductory missive from St Mary’s Dean, Father Don Richardson. “I prayed six exorcisms last week,” the dean wrote.

It wasn’t just Cardinal Pell’s testimony that put the Catholic Church in the headlines last week: according to an ABC news report, the Psychology Council of New South Wales is investigating a Wollongong psychologist and priest for comments about exorcism he made to triple j broadcaster John Safran.

It was, thought Father Richardson, “an opportune teaching moment”.

What he was talking about and what he had prayed were “minor exorcisms”, the type performed at the celebration of Baptism – simply, prayers “that the candidates be kept safe from Satan”.

“My advice is not to give Satan a foothold … Try to have a healthy spiritual, mental and physical lifestyle. Don’t be complacent about sin and evil.”

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SURVIVORS of clerical sex abuse have called on the federal government to adopt a national redress scheme after returning from Rome.

The Ballarat survivors were welcomed by family at Melbourne Airport yesterday after returning from hearing Cardinal George Pell give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

“We call on the Turnbull government to put into place the redress scheme that the royal commission has put forward,” survivor Andrew Collins said.

“All we need is Malcolm Turnbull to stand up and say he’ll do it. The more he holds off, the more people will die.”

The commission recommended in September last year a national redress scheme to cost $4.3 billion over 10 years. The scheme would be largely funded by institutions where the abuse occurred, with an est­imated 60,000 abuse survivors able to receive payments of $10,000 to $200,000.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

David Kearns
PUBLISHED
06/03/2016

To mark Mother’s Day members of the public are being asked to place flowers on the graves of Magdalene women.

A number of events are taking place today to honour the thousands of women who died in Magdalene Laundries, and Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) is calling on the public to visit these graves and “lay a flower for those who lived and died behind convent walls”.

The Magdalene laundries, also known as Magdalene asylums, were institutions, generally run by the Catholic Church, that ostensibly housed “fallen women”.

Continuing to operate well into the late 20th century, an estimated 30,000 women are believed to have been confined in these institutions.

At least 1,663 former Magdalene women are buried in cemeteries across Ireland, many interred in unmarked graves.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

One week ago, “Spotlight” captured the Academy Award for Best Picture, detailing the gritty investigative journalism at the Boston Globe that blew the roof off the rampant problem of the sexual abuse of children by priests in the Boston Archdiocese.

In a sad bit of irony, just two days later Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane was shining another “spotlight” on the same problem, this time much closer to home.

In a horrifying 147-page grand jury report, Kane laid out the sordid details behind decades of predator priests who preyed on children in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

The saga was hauntingly familiar, especially here in the Philadelphia region, and not just because of the Oscar-winning film.

The grand jury report into the depravity in Altoona mimicked the findings of a grand jury report issued a decade ago detailing similar issues in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

The Altoona report cites dozens of priests abusing hundreds of innocent children over a period of nearly a half-century. Even more damning, once again the grand jury found the leaders of the archdiocese seeming more concerned with their reputation and that of the church, as opposed to the kids who were routinely being molested.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 6, 2016

Carolyn Webb

A Catholic priest whose parish is at the centre of historical sexual abuse allegations has spoken of the burden of living in a possible “crime scene”.

Father Michael Shadbolt, parish priest of Holy Family church in Doveton for 17 years, said he was horrified by allegations that some of his predecessor priests had committed sexual and other assaults on parishioners.

He said he knew Peter Searson in 1996 when both were priests in the area, but he had not known he was a paedophile. “In a way I’m horrified,” Father Shadbolt said. “But I guess also in a sense I’m not surprised because he did seem a very strange personality.”

“I’m possibly living in a crime scene,” he told Fairfax Media before 9.30 Mass on Sunday. “It’s quite sad. Perhaps the presbytery is where some of the crimes were done, I don’t know for sure.”
“I like the house, but since this stuff has come up in the last couple of years, you can’t help have some feelings, that it’s my home but it also has a dark history.”

Searson, a priest at Doveton for 13 years, was stood down in 1997, after being charged with physical assault of two altar boys. He died in 2009.

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ROME
Sydney Morning Herald

March 6, 2016

Christopher Lamb

For years he has been one of the big beasts of the Catholic Church.

When in Sydney, Cardinal George Pell would regularly make the gruelling 22-hour flight to Rome so he could keep his Vatican contacts warm and his ear close to the ground.

He impressed popes and fellow cardinals with his forthright, no-nonsense defence of Catholic teaching and, it is understood, would regularly send church leaders press cuttings of articles where he had been criticised in the Australian media for standing up for the faith.

But after four days of forensic cross-examination by the royal commission, where he repeatedly pleaded ignorance about clerical sexual abuse, the cardinal’s stock is no longer rising.

Senior figures in the Vatican were closely monitoring the video-link testimony at the Albergo Quirinale and will no doubt have noted the remark by Gail Furness, counsel assisting the commission, that she found Pell’s denials “implausible”.

Here in Rome the cardinal has a critical role in trying to clean up the Holy See’s finances – that in turn has made him enemies in a culture where accountability and transparency are in short supply. Even his staunchest defenders now accept that Pell is an embattled figure seemingly under attack from all sides.

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AUSTRALIA
Otago Daily Times

Child sex abuse survivors have called on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to commit to a national redress scheme.

The group from ballarat in Victoria arrived home today after a crowd-funded trip to Rome to witness Australia’s Cardinal George Pell give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

“A lot of people might think this is the end of our journey. It’s not,” abuse survivor Andrew Collins told reporters at Melbourne Airport.

He said clerical abuse in Ballarat – including that by Australia’s worst pedophile priest, Gerard Ridsdale – and its long-term effects on victims highlighted the importance of supporting survivors.

“We call on the Turnbull government to put into place the redress scheme that the royal commission has put forward,” Mr Collins said.

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CALIFORNIA
KEYT

Tracy Lehr, KEYT – KCOY – KKFX Reporter, tracy@keyt.com

FILLMORE, Calif. –
Spotlight won two Oscars and the publicity has been followed by more cases of abuse.

One day after the Academy Awards Ceremony officers arrested Vidal Morales, 55 of Ventura. The longtime youth coordinator at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Fillmore is accused of committing lewd acts with a girl. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said Morales posted bail early Saturday. They also said other alleged victims have been identified.

Manny Vega is not surprised. “With this prestigious recognition of Spotlight, more folks understand what took place and the incredible power the church has. It is disheartening to hear of another case of childhood sexual abuse by a church member in our community. The absolute betrayal and abuse of power again proved to be an ongoing systemic problem within the Catholic Church. My hopes are that the church will fully cooperate with law enforcement and be as transparent as they say they are. However my experience and fear are more child victims and deception and delays by the church,” said Vega via text message.

Vega described it as a David and Goliath struggle that survivors have been engaged in with the church.

The former Oxnard Police Officer and Marine has been one of the most outspoken victims of the Catholic church priest abuse case that led to a multi-million dollar settlement.

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UNITED STATES
Casper Star-Tribune

By Michael Reagan

If you’ve seen the excellent movie “Spotlight,” you know what it takes for a newspaper to expose the sexual abuse of children by priests in the Catholic Church.

“Spotlight,” which recently won the Academy Award for best picture, is the true story of how the Boston Globe’s investigative Spotlight team uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the Boston Archdiocese.

Challenging one of the most powerful institutions in Boston, digging up the ugly truth and detailing it on Page 1 took a strong mix of principle and guts by the Globe’s editor, Marty Baron.

Many journalists around the country before him had heard similar charges about priests repeatedly molesting children in their cities and towns, but they had done nothing.

The Globe’s in-depth investigation, which began in 2001, made headlines around the world, shamed the Boston Archdiocese and shook the entire Catholic Church to its core.

It set off a series of exposes in other cities that proved that the problem the Catholic Church — my church — was having with serial pedophiles was nothing new or restricted to Boston.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A former Whitley Bay vicar is facing a possible jail sentence after pleading guilty to four counts of sexual abuse against two boys in the 1970s.

Reverend Leonard Harold Skinner, 79, of Whitley Bay has pleaded guilty to the offences, which took place while he was serving as a vicar in London.

The Archdeacon of Northumberland, the Venerable Geoff Miller, has offered an ‘unreserved apology’ to the victims.

We offer an unreserved apology to the survivors of the appalling abuse by the Reverend Leonard Skinner and acknowledge their courage in coming forward.

The Diocese of Newcastle treats all allegations of sexual abuse with the utmost seriousness and expects the highest standards from its clergy, including in retirement. As soon as the diocese was told that Leonard Skinner was under investigation by the Metropolitan Police, he was immediately prevented from carrying out any further duties in church.

Leonard Skinner moved to North Tyneside after he retired from his last post as Priest-in-Charge of a parish in 2001.

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PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

Rick Lee, rlee@ydr.com March 5, 2016

While “profoundly” and “deeply” saddened by the child abuse allegations leveled by a grand jury against the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese last week, reverends at two York County parishes said there have been no repercussions here.

After mass on Saturday, both the Rev. Keith Carroll, of St. Patrick Catholic Church, and the Rev. Daniel Mitzel, of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, invoked the name of Bishop Nicholas C. Dattilo, the head of the Harrisburg diocese from 1990 to 2004, as the origin of the diocese’s youth protection policy concerning child abuse by the Catholic clergy or church employees.

Last week, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane released the findings of a grand jury that determined two bishops who led the Altoona- Johnstown Diocese for 40 years were instrumental in covering up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by over 50 priests or religious leaders.

Rev. Carroll and Rev. Mitzel said that none of their parishioners have approached them with questions or concerns about the allegations in the neighboring diocese. They have not, therefore, found it necessary to address it from the pulpit, they said.

“No one has approached me about it,” said Rev. Mitzel after Saturday’s evening Mass. “We do remind our congregation twice a year to be aware of and report anything of that nature.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Michael Short
Journalist

In this column two weeks ago, I wrote about the experience of being painfully hit a few months earlier by flashback visions of a paedophile priest’s genitals.

The memory, which I had suppressed for about 35 years, was triggered by a joint email from the then headmaster (who retired at the end of last year) and the chairman of Ballarat and Queen’s Anglican Grammar School, seeking information about past abuse at the school, which I attended for the final five years of my secondary education.

I was, and remain, critical of that email – which, because of the school’s incomplete database, went only to a limited number of former students – as it seemed designed to keep things quiet, rather than exposing these crimes. Instead of urging victims to contact the police and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the authors claimed it was not prompted by the royal commission and asked people to contact the school, which would treat the information confidentially, or to contact the Anglican Church.

It is self-evident that institutions, I wrote then and repeat now, can not conduct independent inquiries into themselves.

That column triggered a community response that has left me drained and dismayed. I received many kind and gentle messages of support, which buoyed me, but I was saddened by the messages from people who shared harrowing tales of the sexual and physical abuse they suffered at the school.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

BY JASON CATO | Saturday, March 5, 2016

Decades of silence by the Roman Catholic Church regarding child sexual abuse by priests has given way to an era of atonement, as public apologies and condemnation come from local dioceses up to the Vatican.

But that isn’t enough for some. The church needs to name priests suspected of abuse, like those outed last week in a 147-page grand jury report about the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, so more go to prison, said David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“More words, clearer words, sadder words — it’s all words, and words protect no one. Decisive actions protect kids,” said Clohessy, expressing a desire for local dioceses to post online the names of priests accused of sexually abusing children. “They often are fixated on PR, policies, panels and protocols that look terrific on paper but essentially are worthless.

“Sincerity must be judged by actions, not words.”

Leaders of the Catholic Church in Pittsburgh and Greensburg said they are committed to stopping sexual abuse and righting decades of wrongs.

“I would hope in every diocese we realize we can never do enough to keep this horror from occurring,” said Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik, who will host a special “Service of Apology” March 21 in St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland.

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

IOWA
WHO

BY REID CHANDLER

DES MOINES, Iowa – It’s Saturday morning, and Smokey Row Cafe is full the sounds of footsteps and coffee cups clanking down on ceramic plates. It’s a busy atmosphere, but in the noise, a small group of survivors are huddled in a back corner, hoping to meet some new faces.

The Iowa SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) group isn’t a large organization, but it’s a resource of support for anyone who needs it. People like John Chambers, who says he was abused by a priest while attending Dowling Catholic High School in the 1960s, joined SNAP only after the group was highlighted by a Boston Globe investigative report in 2002, uncovering a massive scandal within the Boston Archdiocese to cover up sexual abuse claims.

It’s that same group that’s highlighted in the Oscar Award-winning film, “Spotlight.” The 2015 film documents the true story of the Boston Globe’s uphill battle to uncover the truth. In the movie, a member of SNAP talks with Globe reporters about his experiences being abused in the church as a child. With the film’s success, local SNAP members are hoping more abused Iowans will come out of the shadows.

“If you need a therapist, if you need an attorney, if you need just a support group of other survivors that you want to meet with – any of these things, to recognize that there’s a community already out there that knows what you went through,” said Bill LaHay with Iowa SNAP. “A community out there that isn’t going to say, ‘Get over it.’ Or isn’t going to tell you, ‘No it didn’t happen.’ Isn’t going to do the stuff that non-survivors just can’t know.”

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

By Karen Shuey

Two Roman Catholic bishops who led a Pennsylvania diocese helped conceal the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by more than 50 priests and other religious leaders over a period of at least 40 years, according to a grand jury report made public this week.

The 147-page report unveiled by Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane outlines how the two bishops filed away allegations from children in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese as part of an effort to avoid public scandal. And worst of all, Kane announced at a press conference, no criminal charges will be filed because some abusers have died, the statute of limitations has expired or victims are too traumatized to testify.

Corey Harris and Gerald Vigna, theology professors at Alvernia University, said the report contains tragic and horrific revelations. But they agreed the discovery of these crimes is not necessarily surprising given the dark cloud of abuse that still hangs over the church.

“The sad thing is that at this point I don’t feel much of anything because it happened with such frequency for such an extended period of time,” Harris said. “It doesn’t cause as much of a reaction as it once did. And that’s really upsetting.”

Especially since Harris grew up in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

“The fact that I didn’t even get a call from my mother when the news broke about this tells me that no one is really shocked by these horrible reports anymore,” he said. “It’s become a part of our history.”

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

by Caitlin McCabe and Maria Panaritis, STAFF WRITERS.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – In January, a deputy attorney general and two agents walked into a judge’s chambers here with questions. They wanted to discuss a meeting decades earlier that had ended with a “monster” priest being allowed to go free.

This undated photo shows Bishop James Hogan, right, and Pope John Paul II in Rome. Hogan and Joseph Adamec, two Roman Catholic bishops who led a Pennsylvania diocese, helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by over 50 priests or religious leaders over a 40-year period.

Back in 1985, Cambria County Judge Patrick T. Kiniry had been a local prosecutor, and met with Bishop James Hogan to discuss a priest suspected of sexually abusing children. As leader of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, the bishop had outsize influence in the area. Kiniry, a former altar boy, had been excited to meet him.

Hogan didn’t dispute the claims about the Rev. Francis McCaa that day.

But nothing happened.

McCaa, suspected of abusing at least 15 boys, some as young as 8, lived another two decades without ever being charged.

“You have to understand: This is an extremely Catholic county,” Kiniry allegedly explained this year when Deputy Attorney General Daniel J. Dye and two agents came to talk to him about the case.

Such cozy alliances between law enforcement and church officials were pervasive and a central theme in a 147-page grand-jury report last week on decades of clergy sex abuse in the central Pennsylvania diocese.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

BY ERIC RUSSELL STAFF WRITER
erussell@pressherald.com | @PPHEricRussell | 207-791-6344

For 40 years, Neal Gumpel kept the details locked away in a dark corner of his memory.

Details about the night he met the Rev. Roy Drake while visiting his brother at Maine Maritime Academy. The night Drake violently molested him. The night everything changed.

Though he kept it hidden, the encounter shaped his entire life. It led to alcohol and drug abuse, helped ruin his first marriage, kept him awake nights and even affected his health.

“It sounds dire, but I felt like I was at a point where I had to come forward or I was going to kill myself,” Gumpel said.

At the urging of his wife, Helen, who feared she was losing her husband, Gumpel contacted Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston lawyer who has represented hundreds of victims of sexual abuse by clergy and helped expose a massive cover-up of pedophile priests by the Catholic Church.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By SAMANTHA PERRY Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — The mother of a boy who was allegedly sexually abused by a church youth volunteer is losing faith in the justice system after the case has dragged on in the courts for more than two years.

The woman, who was interviewed by the Daily Telegraph on the condition of anonymity, is the mother of one of nine victims allegedly molested by Timothy Probert, a former volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bluefield and mentor for the Working to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect (WE CAN) program in Mercer County.

“It keeps the wounds open and prevents us from healing like we need to be able to do,” the mother said. “How unfair is it that the victims have almost no say in any part of the process? We just have to wait for someone else to decide when this terrible time in our lives can come to an end.”

•••

Probert, 57, of Mercer County, is facing 50 charges relating to alleged sexual abuse of children.

Arrested in December 2013 on 38 counts of child sexual abuse related charges, Probert’s grand jury indictment in February 2015 included 12 new charges that stemmed from another victim coming forward and additional charges being added in other cases, Sgt. M.D. Clemons, with the Crimes Against Children Unit of the West Virginia State Police, said in a previous report.

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NEW YORK
PIX 11

WOODSIDE, Queens — The spotlight is still on “Spotlight” and the clergy sex abuse scandal.

Megan Peterson, 26, is a painter and a leader in the New York City branch of SNAP, the survivors network of those abused by priests.

When the movie, “Spotlight,” detailing the Boston Globe’s investigation into the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal won best picture, Paterson’s phone started ringing with more alleged victims coming forward.

“I think my phone started ringing an hour after,” Peterson told PIX11 News, “with new survivors and whistleblowers.”

“More victims are coming forward every day,” Peterson said.

Peterson herself said she was a victim herself. She was allegedly raped by her parish priest in Minnesota 12 years ago.

Peterson said Father Joseph Jeyapaul was convicted of sexual assault, served some time, but is now about to work as a priest again in a parish in his native India.

“There are children who, without a doubt, are going to be hurt,” Peterson said, fighting back tears. It’s because of “the Vatican’s decision to reinstate him,” she added.

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.