AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Monica Tan
@m_onicatan
Friday 12 February 2016

Tim Minchin has written a song about Cardinal George Pell, in which he lambasts Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric over the fact he won’t be returning from Rome to testify at the royal commission into institutional child abuse.

“It’s a really nice song, the chorus just goes ‘come home, Cardinal Pell / we hear you’re not feeling well’,” Minchin said at a press conference in Perth on Friday. “There’s also a bit where I call him a fucking coward.”

Pell is due to appear via video link at a royal commission to give evidence about child sex abuse that occurred within his parishes. Victims were hoping Pell’s medical condition would improve so he could appear in person, but on Monday were told he was still too unwell to make the flight from Rome to Melbourne.

Minchin made the comments while promoting the Perth International Arts festival’s outdoor extravaganza, Home.

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

INDIA/UNITED STATES
Independent (UK)

Chloe Farand

An Indian priest convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the United States more than 10 years ago has had his suspension lifted by the Roman Catholic church.

Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, 61, had the suspension lifted by the bishop of the Ootacamund Diocese in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state after he was instructed to do so by authorities at the Vatican, spokesman for the diocese Rev Sebastian Selvanathan told CBS News.

“After Jeyapaul’s release from the United States and his return to India, this matter was referred to Rome, and according to the guidelines of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the suspension against Jeyapaul was removed,” Rev Selvanathan said.

The Vatican office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declined ito comment, when approached by CBS News.

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

ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Herald

By Richard Townley
Herald Staff

Sex abuse survivor expresses frustration at Vatican, Francis’ reluctance to tackle child molestation

The Catholic Church has lost “all moral responsibility” for tackling ongoing child abuse by its clergymen, a member of a papal panel appointed to deal with the issue has told the Herald, adding that he feels he has been personally “deceived” by Pope Francis. “The Church is failing in the protection of children”, Peter Saunders said.

Peter Saunders, an outspoken member of Francis’ commission set up to tackle child abuse, was at the centre of war of words last week after he was controversially told to take “a leave of absence” from the panel. He has refused, saying only Francis can dismiss him, and has renewed his criticism of both the Church and the pontiff for lacking the resolve to tackle the issue.

“On child abuse, I now fear, there is little or no sincerity on his (Francis’) part to effectively make change,” said Saunders, who was abused by two priests as a child.

Just a year after the Argentine-born pontiff was ordained head of the Catholic Church, Francis set up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to address the endemic sexual abuse of children.

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.

ARIZONA
Newsday

Associated Press

PHOENIX – For nearly 20 years, John Feit was known around the St. Vincent de Paul nonprofit agency as one its most compassionate employees.

The former priest worked in downtown Phoenix with food-pantry volunteers and even raised money to buy a house for a needy family. His desire to help others was apparent at his church and whenever he showed up on the doorsteps of the poor with donated food or furniture. He also mediated disagreements when local agencies were first planning a campus to house multiple services for the homeless.

Feit was able to do all this charity work despite public knowledge that he had long been a suspect in the 1960 rape and killing of a Texas schoolteacher and beauty queen.

Now 83, he was arrested Tuesday for the murder of 25-year-old Irene Garza in McAllen, Texas. She was last seen at the church where Feit was a priest. Her bludgeoned body was discovered in a canal days later.

A grand jury brought the charge based on yet-to-be-disclosed evidence. Feit, who uses a walker, is now in jail and plans to fight extradition to Texas.

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

HAWAII
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016

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

An abusive Catholic cleric – who worked in Nevada, may have molested 50 kids and whose whereabouts were deemed “unknown” by church officials – has turned up in Hawaii. Though his church supervisors knew of his crimes as far back as the 1960s, they let keep teaching for years.

[Los Angeles Times]

He’s Brother Edward C. “Chris” Courtney. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he taught at parochial schools and churches in MI, NY, IL and WA. In the 1980s, he also taught in public schools in Reno.

[Seattle Weekly]

We urge Reno Bishop Roque Calvo to use pulpit announcements, parish bulletins, church websites and other tools to aggressively seek out others in Nevada who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Courtney or cover ups by his colleagues.

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.

ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

By LAHAV HARKOV \ 02/14/2016

Proposal includes first legal definition of an abusive cult; leading a cult would be considered a crime carrying a 10-year prison sentence.

Legislation defining abusive cults and giving the authorities tools to fight them was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation Sunday.

MK Orly Levy-Abecassis (Yisrael Beytenu) called the bill, which she proposed, “the first step towards formulating an overarching policy and building a broad and effective system to fight abusive cults.”

If the bill becomes law, it will be the first time a cult is defined by law and differentiated from other, non-abusive religious groups.

The bill states that an abusive cut its “a group of people, incorporated or not, who unite around a person or idea in a way that takes advantage of a relationship of dependence or authority or of emotional distress of one or more members by using methods of control through thought processes and behavioral patterns and acts in an organized, systematic and sustained pattern while committing crimes according to Israeli law.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 15 February 2016

Cardinal George Pell has had a long-standing “heart problem” but this didn’t stop him from making a secret trip by air to Australia in March-April 2015, Broken Rites has learned. Even the Australian bishops’ spokesman on Royal Commission matters (Mr Francis Sullivan, from the church’s “Truth, Justice and Healing Commission”) didn’t know about the trip until journalists told him in May 2015; and, by then, Pell was safely back in the Vatican. Now, in 2016, Pell is refusing to re-visit Australia, preferring to give his next batch of evidence to the Royal Commission by video-link from Rome without having to face the church’s victims. Some victims are offering to pay first-class air fares for a medical heart specialist to accompany Pell on a flight to Australia for the Royal Commission. But, clearly, Pell is avoiding Australia while civil investigations are under way about church sexual abuse that occurred on Pell’s watch. As for Pell’s “heart problems”, church victims say that Pell is behaving towards them as though he was born without a heart.

Pell’s trip to Australia in March-April 2015 included a visit to Ballarat, the town at the centre of church-abuse allegations (and the cover-up) in western Victoria. And the trip was just a few weeks before the Royal Commission was due to hold a public hearing in Ballarat (the hearing was from Tuesday 19 May to Friday 29 May 2015).

Pell’s trip to Australia was revealed in the April 2015 edition of the magazine of St Patrick’s College, Ballarat — the school where Pell had been a pupil. The magazine indicates that Pell’s visit to the school occurred about 27 March 2015, “during a short vacation in Australia”. There is a photo of Pell, together with headmaster John Crowley, while touring the school to see its latest extensions.

It is not known what else Pell did during his 2015 trip to Australia but it would have been an ideal opportunity to have discussions with his Australian lawyers and his communications strategists, to figure out how to handle the Royal Commission and the victims. (Did the Royal Commissioners realise that Pell had privately visited Australia from Rome in March 2015?)

Pell’s testimony, by video link, in May 2015 was a technical disaster, with disruptions to the vision and/or the sound. And, with the Royal Commissioners sitting in a court-room in Ballarat, it was difficult for the commissioners to show certain documents to Pell when seeking his comment about those documents.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

February 15, 2016

Tom McIlroy
Legislative Assembly reporter at The Canberra Times

The ACT government will move to create a new independent authority to oversee legal reporting requirements for child abuse and neglect, ahead of the completion of the royal commission.

Under the plan put forward by Chief Minister Andrew Barr, organisations with responsibility for children will be legally required to report any allegations of abuse or neglect to a new statutory authority. The move is designed to end internal reporting and handling mechanisms, previously used by churches and other organisations seeking to handle abuse allegations outside legal structures.

The scheme would be based on systems already in place in NSW, which the government believes would bring effective reporting requirements to the territory and complement measures already in place in the ACT.

The proposed scheme would to increase statutory responsibility by creating a new independent oversight body armed with powers to provide further protection for children and young people.

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

CALIFORNIA
Boston Globe

GLOBE STAFF FEBRUARY 14, 2016

“Spotlight,” the film about The Boston Globe’s investigation of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, won best original screenplay at the 2016 Writers Guild Awards Saturday night.

The newspaper drama, which already won best ensemble at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and is nominated for six Oscars, including best picture, was written by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy.

The Writers Guild Awards cermony was held concurrently in Los Angeles and New York. The guild honors excellence in film, television, new media, video games, news, radio, promotional and graphic animation.

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

CALIFORNIA
Variety

Dave McNary
Film Reporter
@Variety_DMcNary

“The Big Short” and “Spotlight” won the Writers Guild of America’s top screenplay trophies Saturday, while the fourth season of “Veep” and the final season of “Mad Men” took the top TV series awards.

“The Big Short,” a darkly comic look at the 2008 financial meltdown, won for best adapted screenplay for Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, while “Spotlight” took the original screenplay award for Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy.

The guild’s 68th annual awards, based on voting by the 12,000 members of the WGA, were announced Saturday in concurrent ceremonies in Los Angeles at the Century Plaza and the Edison Ballroom in New York City. …

The award for “Spotlight,” which details the Boston Globe’s investigation into pedophile priests, was first announced in New York as the WGA continued its tradition of not being able to coordinate the announcement of its two top screenplay awards.

“Spotlight,” which is also nominated for an Oscar, won over the scripts for “Bridge of Spies,” “Sicario,” “Straight Outta Compton” and “Trainwreck.”

McCarthy thanked Open Road “for letting us make the movie we wanted to make” and saluted the Globe reporters and survivors of sexual abuse who are the heart of the story.

In Los Angeles 30 minutes later, “Spotlight” was announced as the winner. “It’s humbling to be here in front of such great storytellers,” said Singer.

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

CALIFORNIA
The Virginian-Pilot

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscar contenders “Spotlight” and “The Big Short” won the top awards for screenwriting from the Writers Guild of America at a ceremony Saturday that was held in Los Angeles and New York.

“Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe’s effort to uncover a priest sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, won for best original screenplay. The writers are Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy.

“The Big Short,” about the 2008 financial crisis, won for best adapted screenplay. Writers Charles Randolph and Adam McKay wrote a screenplay adapted from the book of the same title by Michael Lewis.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By ALEXANDER ROBERTSON FOR MAILONLINE

A BBC documentary will explore the possibility that Pope John Paul II fell in love with a married Polish-American academic.

The latest Panorama programme will delve into the late Pope’s relationship with women and is thought to have discovered a stack of letters sent between him and Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka.
Tymieniecka worked with the Pontiff in the 1970s, when he was still known as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, on his philosophical treatise The Acting Person.

Monday night’s show will investigate claims the Pope and Tymieniecka engaged in a four-year correspondence during the period in which they were working together on the book, when they were both in their fifties.

Tymieniecka, a philosopher and academic, was born into an aristocratic Polish family before later marrying a Harvard professor in 1995, but remained close to the Pope up until his death in 2005.

It is understood that the show will not make the claim that the Pope ever breached his vow of celibacy nor make any firm statements about his relationship with the academic, who died in 2014.

Carl Bernstein, a journalist who wrote a John Paul II biography, conducted interviews with Tymienecka, in which she denied any romantic involvement with the Pope.

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

VATICAN CITY
Radio Poland

14.02.2016

The Vatican has dismissed an upcoming BBC documentary expected to probe whether late Polish-born pontiff John Paul II led romantic correspondence with a married female academic, a newspaper has reported.

The 30-minute “The Secret Letters of Pope John Paul II” documentary will be aired on BBC One on Monday.

“Pope John Paul II ruled the Catholic Church for 27 years until 2005. He was one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, revered by millions and made a saint in record time.

Now reporter Edward Stourton can offer a new perspective on the emotional life of this very public figure,” the BBC writes on its website.

The documentary is expected to delve into the correspondence between the Pope and Polish-born American academic Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka who translated at least one book penned by the Pope while he was still a Cardinal in Kraków.

The two are believed to have written a series of personal letters over four years, and the BBC documentary will explore the possibility the letters had a romantic tone to them, British newspapers have reported.

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

NEW YORK
New York Post

By Dean Balsamini February 14, 2016

Alleged S&M priest Peter Miqueli never broke his vow of celibacy and is a “man of faith” who wants to return to the altar, his attorney said.

The Catholic cleric — who resigned as pastor of his Bronx church after The Post revealed that he was accused of pilfering $1 million in parish funds to pay for bondage sessions with a slave master — denies he engaged in kinky sex or stole any money, said lawyer James Pascarella.

“Absolutely no theft. The sexual allegations are completely untrue,” Pascarella said. “He loves what he does, and he wants to be a priest . . . He’s never violated his vows.”

The 52-year-old priest is being smeared by “unreliable sources” and a “small group of parishioners who don’t care for him,” Pascarella said.

Miqueli “knows” Keith Crist, the 41-year-old hardbody alleged to have been his slave master, but “it’s not a sexual relationship,” the lawyer said.

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

ESPANA
El Pais

“Now I understand that it was not normal to be touched.” Because of insistence of the father of a victim, 30 years of repeated sexual abuse has been uncovered at a Marist school in Barcelona.]

ALFONSO L. CONGOSTRINA
CAMILO S. BAQUERO

El Beni, como los alumnos del colegio barcelonés Maristas Sants-Les Corts conocían a Joaquín Benítez, tenía un sueño. Que el shootball o balón tiro fuera un deporte reconocido. En los 30 años que enseñó gimnasia intentó promover esta actividad entre sus alumnos. Les dedicó el reglamento que escribió: “Vosotros aglutináis gran parte de mis aptitudes positivas”. Durante ese tiempo, este pederasta confeso abusó de al menos dos menores y tiene cuatro denuncias en su contra.

El caso de Benítez, que dejó el colegio en 2011 tras la denuncia de una familia que no prosperó, desencadenó un rosario de denuncias que involucran al centro concertado religioso de los Hermanos Maristas. Los indicios sobre abusos se han extendido a otros dos exdocentes (M. M. y A. F.), un subdirector que ha sido cesado de manera cautelar (F. M.) y un monitor de comedor en prácticas en el centro en 2015. Las primeras denuncias se remontan a hechos a principios de los años 80. La comunidad educativa pide que no se meta “a todos en el mismo saco” y trata de recuperarse del golpe. Todos se preguntan por qué nunca trascendieron los casos ante las autoridades.

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.

ESPANA
El Pais

[The Marist order faces lawsuits involving five teachers and school monitors.]

ALFONSO L. CONGOSTRINA
CAMILO S. BAQUERO

Emili Turú, el actual Superior General de la Congregación de los Hermanos Maristas, aseguró ayer que los protocolos antipedofilia de los centros en los que está presente su orden “están muy claros y estudiados”, pero que “no sabe a qué se debe el silencio” de la dirección del colegio barcelonés respecto a la media decena de docentes y empleados que han sido denunciados. Las críticas del director de la orden llegaron el mismo día en el que trascendió que los ‘mossos’ detuvieron en diciembre a un monitor del mismo centro por haber abusado de cinco niñas.

El Superior General de los Maristas defendió en una entrevista a Catalunya Ràdio que inicialmente el centro había emprendido “los pasos correspondientes” pero después reprochó el silencio sobre nuevos escándalos, por los que pedirá explicaciones a la dirección provincial de su orden. Turú reveló que trabajó en la década de los 80 en ese mismo centro durante dos años, en los que coincidió con el profesor de gimnasia, y agresor sexual confeso, Joaquín Benítez. El Superior General negó ayer que cuando él trabajaba como docente en el centro existieran las sospechas de abusos.

El colegio solo ha enviado hasta ahora dos comunicados de prensa en los que explica que en 2011 remitió a Fiscalía el caso de Benítez, que entonces fue despedido. El centro no se ha posicionado sobre los nuevos casos a pesar de que la lista de personal involucrado ya asciende a cinco profesionales, que han sido objeto de denuncias ante los jueces y los Mossos d’Esquadra, aunque algunos casos han prescrito. La policía autonómica confirmó ayer que el pasado mes de diciembre detuvieron a un monitor de comedor del centro por haber abusado de cinco niñas.

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.

ESPANA
El Pais

[Sexual abuse involving three teachers has been uncovered at Marist College Sants Les Corts.]

CAMILO S. BAQUERO
ALFONSO L. CONGOSTRINA

Una semana después de que se destaparan los casos de pederastia en el colegio Maristas Sants Les Corts —que ya alcanza a tres exprofesores, un directivo cesado cautelarmente y a un monitor de comedor— la pregunta principal sigue sin resolver: ¿Qué falló en los sistemas escolar y judicial para que no se detectaran los abusos? En los últimos días el centro concertado, el departamento de Enseñanza y la justicia han intercambiado reproches sobre sus respectivas participaciones en los hechos que, a la larga, llevaron a que se invisibilizaran los casos.

El último episodio de estos reproches fue ayer. El colegio concertado por la Orden de los Hermanos Maristas desmintió al Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña (TSJC) sobre su supuesta negativa a colaborar con la investigación de 2011, cuando una familia le comunicó al centro que su hijo, un exalumno ya mayor de edad, había sido abusado por el aun profesor de gimnasia, el confeso pederasta Joaquín Benítez.

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

VATICAN
La Croix

[Monsignor Tony Anatrella said there has never been a question that allegations of child sexual abuse should be reported to law enforcement. He said one line in his text has been taken out of proportion.He particularly blamed British media for reporting that he said allegations do not necessarily have to be reported.]

Nicolas Senèze avec I.Media, le 12/02/2016

Accusé par la presse britannique d’avoir expliqué aux nouveaux évêques que la dénonciation des abus sexuels aux autorités ne serait pas obligatoire, le prélat français dénonce un « mauvais procès ».

Dans un entretien à l’agence romaine I.Media, Mgr Tony Anatrella a assuré qu’il n’a « jamais été question de ne pas signaler à la police les délits sexuels sur mineurs », contrairement à des titres de la presse britanniques affirmant que, dans un cours donné aux nouveaux évêques, à Rome, il aurait dévoilé de « nouvelles règles » du Vatican en la matière.

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.

TEXAS
The Monitor

KRISTIAN HERNANDEZ AND LORENZO ZAZUETA-CASTRO | STAFF WRITERS

EDITOR’S NOTE: In Monday’s edition, former priest Dale Tacheny details in a taped interview with The Monitor John Feit’s confession to Irene Garza’s murder.

EDINBURG — Noemi Sigler stood over her cousin Irene Garza’s grave Friday and felt the weight of a decades-long fight to bring the young woman’s killer to justice had finally been lifted from her shoulders, she later said.

“You can’t even imagine. I had so many doors closed in my face, and I would often get so discouraged,” said Sigler, who for the past 32 years tirelessly pressed law enforcement to get the man who killed her cousin.

“Many times I would try to stop and I’d try to leave it alone, but Irene would always bring me back,” she added.

But in a stunning development last week, Sigler’s efforts finally seemed to pay off as news broke that the man she believes killed her 25-year-old cousin the night before Easter in 1960 had been arrested in Arizona.

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.

MEXICO
BBC Mundo

[The specter of sexual abuse that haunts the Pope’s visit to Mexico.]

Alberto Nájar
BBC Mundo, Ciudad de México

En su primera visita a México el papa Francisco encuentra una Iglesia Católica que no logra superar uno de los mayores escándalos de su historia reciente: las denuncias de abuso sexual contra menores cometidos por algunos de sus sacerdotes.

Organizaciones de sobrevivientes de los ataques dicen que las víctimas son cientos, y la mayoría de los casos están impunes.

Las acusaciones alcanzan a altos jerarcas de la Iglesia, acusados de proteger a los agresores.

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.

MEXICO
CNN

By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor

(CNN)Imagine this split screen: On one side is Donald Trump, repeating his campaign pledge to build a big wall between the United States and Mexico. On the other is Pope Francis, kneeling to pray for the thousands of undocumented immigrants who have died trying to cross the border.

As the Pope visits Mexico February through February 17, he is not expected to tussle with Trump or directly criticize U.S. immigration policy. Papal aides said Francis wants to avoid appearing to intervene in the presidential election.

That hasn’t stopped Trump from taking aim at the Pope.

“I think that the Pope is a very political person. I think that he doesn’t understand the problems our country has,” Trump said in an interview Thursday on Fox Business. “I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico.” …

Some Catholics say the Pope may also seek to atone for the sexual abuse perpetrated by Marcial Maciel Degollado, the disgraced founder of the Legion of Christ who sexually abused seminarians and fathered several children. Degollado, who died in 2008, was a powerful figure in the Mexican church for decades.

“It will be the first time a pope has been in Mexico since that blew up,” said Kesicki. “That’s another flashpoint that I think he may have to address.”

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.

NORTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016

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

We are grateful that the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina is admitting that a rector has been accused of sexual abuse while working at a Waynesville church for 12 years.

[Citizen-Times]

He is accused of molesting “at least three boys” at a Rhode Island school and is now being investigated by North Carolina police department for perhaps abusing a Waynesville NC.

[Providence Journal

Rev. Howard W. White Jr. worked at two places in North Carolina. In the 1980s, Rev. White Jr. was headmaster of what was then the Asheville Country Day School in Asheville, North Carolina and was rector of Grace Church in the Mountains in Waynesville.

He now leads St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford, Pennsylvania and also worked at a school called Chatham Hall in Chatham, Virginia. But most of the accusations against him stem from his years in Rhode Island at St. George’s Episcopal School in Middletown.

A report issued by the school says that Rev. White — whom it refers to as “Employee Perpetrator #2” — had “inappropriate and potentially sexual misconduct with at least three male students.” School officials quietly “fired Rev. White in 1974 after a student’s parent reported the misconduct, which Rev. White admitted to the headmaster, but “the school never notified child-protection authorities — as required by the state’s 1974 mandatory reporting law,” according to the Providence Journal.

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

UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

February 13, 2016 Joelle Casteix

Eric Johnson is the man who was sexually abused by Fr. Bruce Wellems when Wellems was teen and Eric was seven (photo above). In the piece below, he responds to Bruce Wellems’ statements to the Chicago Tribune. He also responds to commenters on this blog, who say that they are parishioners who say that they love and have forgiven the accused priest.

On Sunday, the Chicago Tribune ran a page-one piece about the case of Fr. Bruce Wellems, a Chicago priest who admitted to luring a seven-year-old boy from basketball games and then sexually abusing him multiple times during the course of a year. Wellems was an older teenager at the time.

Did the Claretians (the religious order to which Wellems belongs) adhere to their promises of transparency and tell Catholics about Wellems?

No … in fact, Claretian officials ordered their priests to destroy emails about Wellems and his crimes.

In 2014, did the Archdiocese of Los Angeles adhere to their promises of transparency and give parishioners in San Gabriel the correct information about Wellems? Did they post information about Wellems’ admission on their website, the parish website, or attempt to reach out to other potential victims?

No. They made one announcement from the pulpit, and then kept parishioners in the dark about the allegations. In fact, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Archbishop Jose Gomez allowed parishioners to believe that the allegations and admissions stemmed from a “consensual dating relationship.”

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

HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

February 13, 2016 Joelle Casteix

Yesterday’s LA Times told the story of Edward Courtney, former Irish Christian Brother who is accused of molesting upwards of 50 kids. He’s living “under the radar” in Hawaii.

The bigger story is that EVERY cleric in Hawaii who has been accused of abuse (including former Bishop Joseph Ferrario) lives or has lived under the radar.

Why? Because unlike more than 30 other dioceses across the US, the Diocese of Honolulu and Bishop Larry Silva (pictured above) aren’t telling us who the perpetrators are.

These are men like:

* Former Honolulu Bishop Joseph Ferrario, who has been accused of abuse by at least two boys. When one of his victims came forward in the 1980s, the diocese said that according to an internal investigation, the accusations were “groundless.” The diocese’s sham investigation and repugnant treatment of the first accuser, David Figueroa, are well-known.

* George DeCosta, a retired priest who still runs retreats on the Big Island. Two civil suits have been filed against him, and he was reportedly forced to retire from the priesthood in 2002.

* Joseph Henry, who has been accused of sexual abuse by at least 18 boys. Although the diocese had known about Henry and his crimes for decades (Henry died in 1974), the diocese last November finally removed a plaque that named the hall at Kailua’s St. Anthony’s Parish after the serial child molester.

* Larry Spellen, who has been accused of abuse by at least two boys. After he was removed from ministry in 1993 by the Bishop of Salt Lake City, he moved to Orange County, CA, where he worked as a hospital chaplain (so much for that suspension) before he died in 2003. You’ll note in the obituary that he is survived by “two foster sons.” Does that remind you of anyone?

And what about the guys who are living “under the radar?” What about the 60 lawsuits? Who’s in there? What about the predators that the diocese knows about, but no victims have filed cases?

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

UNITED STATES
Boston.com

What is Spotlight?

By Kristin Toussaint @kristindakota
Boston.com Staff | 02.12.16

“This 2015 drama shows how The Boston Globe uncovered abuse claims against the Catholic Church.”

What is Spotlight, a major motion picture chronicling the Globe’s reporting, and now an answer on Jeopardy!?

Sacha Pfeiffer, Globe reporter, columnist, and member of the Spotlight team that broke the 2002 story on the systemic sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, tweeted out Friday a picture of the game show’s nod to the film.

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.

PHILIPPINES
Manila Bulletin

by Paulyn Abando
February 14, 2016

It has been earning praise from critics even before it was nominated for Best Picture at the 2016 Academy Awards. Now, we know why.

“Spotlight,” award-winning director Tom McCarthy’s inside look at a newspaper exposé on child abuse by the Catholic Church, is gripping.

It helped that the ensemble cast, including big Hollywood names like Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci, Liev Schrieber and Brian d’Arcy James, were convincing in their respective roles.

The film is based on a true story of Boston Globe’s Pulitzer prize-winning investigative team dubbed the Spotlight spending some two years painstakingly pinning down pedophiles within a Catholic Church in Boston.

It wasn’t exactly an easy subject, probably why the film earned an R-16 rating, but the film braved the sensitive issue to become a truly absorbing thriller.

To be clear, the film is not about religion or God. It simply highlights the plight of child molestation victims and their search for justice.

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.

Religion Digital

[Peter Saunders and Juan Carlos Cruz, two brave men vetoed by the cardinals.]

(Mario Vargas Vidal, en RyL).- Personalidades del mundo cristiano coinciden en que Roma silenció a un valiente, Peter Saunders, uno de los expertos de la Comisión vaticana contra la pedofilia; víctima en su infancia de abusos sexuales por parte de sacerdotes, fue informado sorpresivamente por la Santa Sede que: “Se decidió que el señor Peter Saunders tomaría una licencia para ausentarse de su pertenencia y ver cómo podría apoyar mejor el trabajo de la Comisión” especializada en el trabajo y denuncia de los abusos sexuales a menores por parte del clero.

Así recibió el día Peter Saunders, sorprendido por la noticia la cual calificó de indignante. ” Nunca me dijeron antes de dicha decisión y me resulta indignante que no me lo dijeran “. Pero Saunders estaría muy lejos de renunciar como al parecer lo desean altos dirigentes curiales. Esta víctima, convirtió en una espina para el vaticano cuestionando abiertamente que no han hecho nada, ningún progreso en relación a esta delicada materia de los abusos: ” Nuestro Papa podría hacer mucho más, hacer que las cosas sucedan ahora “.

Saunders, también es un crítico de la forma y el fondo que a la Comisión le han querido atribuir. “Hacer lo que los funcionarios han hecho por décadas: astutamente fijarse en las políticas internas y discutir sin sentido en el papel que dan la impresión de progreso, mientras no se cambia prácticamente nada”.

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.

MEXICO
La Jornada

[Clerical pedophilia has left more than a thousand victims in Mexico: Alberto Athié.]

Periódico La Jornada
Sábado 13 de febrero de 2016, p. 10

El presidente de Morena, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, consideró que la presencia del papa Francisco en México es esperanzadora. Como se expresó en la frase bíblica, nuestro pueblo tiene hambre y sed de justicia, señaló.

Aseveró que aunque corresponde a los mexicanos cambiar su amarga realidad, las palabras del Papa en favor de la justicia, como todo sentimiento espiritual humanitario o cristiano, inquietan, asustan a los poderosos y, lo más importante, reconfortan y alientan a los débiles y desposeídos. …

Es uno de los pendientes que tiene la Iglesia católica, sostuvo en conferencia, y urgió a que la Santa Sede acate las recomendaciones emitidas por el Comité de los Derechos del Niño de Naciones Unidas. ¿A qué viene el Papa a México: a decirnos palabras maravillosas o a comprometerse con la comunidad cristiana?, preguntó.

Athié mencionó que en el país hay por lo menos cinco arzobispos responsables de encubrimiento de curas pederastas: tres de la arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí; el cardenal Norberto Rivera en la Ciudad de México y algunos de sus obispos auxiliares, así como la arquidiócesis de Oaxaca.

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

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Kim Bellware
Reporter, The Huffington Post

As the Catholic church reckons with decades of indifference to clergy abusing children, some followers are finding both their faith and their patience tested.

Catholics world wide are intently watching how the Vatican addresses the issue, while a new controversy has revealed just how far the church has to go in making amends for this dark chapter.

Training guidelines for new bishops prepared by French Monsignor Tony Anatrella, a controversial psychoanalyst and clergy member, include a section that says bishops are not legally obliged to report abuse.

“According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds,” Anatrella said, according to Crux.

As several reports note, the guidelines were drafted without any input from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, the group created by Pope Francis to highlight “best practices” for stamping out clergy abuse. …

SNAP has been highly critical of the Vatican’s response to child abuse revelations, with Blaine characterizing the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — made of up both clergy and laypeople — as little more than an empty gesture.

On Tuesday, the commission reportedly tried to oust one of its members, abuse survivor Peter Saunders. Saunders said the commission accused him of being difficult to work with and too open with the media, Reuters reported. Saunders, head of Britain’s National Association for People Abused in Childhood, resisted pressure to step down.

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.

GlobalPost

Will Carless
Feb 13, 2016

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — A member of a commission set up by Pope Francis to advise him on child abuse says the group is a “token body” exercising in “smoke and mirrors” that won’t help children stay safe from abusive priests.

Peter Saunders, the commission member, is now on a leave of absence as he considers whether to continue with an effort he says he has lost faith in.

Meanwhile, new Catholic bishops are still being taught they’re not obliged to report cases of child abuse by priests to the police.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which Francis set up with much fanfare in 2014, was supposed to issue guidelines for the Vatican on how to deal with child abuse. But the body was never consulted about the training for new bishops on exactly that topic.

These are just some of the signs that Francis’ reform efforts, and his pledge to clean up the Catholic Church’s most damaging crisis, seem to be unraveling before they’ve even really gotten started.

The problems come as Pope Francis pays a visit to Latin America, a region where, as GlobalPost has reported, the church is accused of reassigning and protecting many alleged predator priests. Among the latest scandals in the region, Chileans are outraged that the pope appointed a bishop accused of shielding the country’s most despised pedophile priest from investigation.

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

INDIA
ABC News

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW DELHI — Feb 13, 2016

The Roman Catholic church in southern India has lifted the suspension of a priest convicted last year of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the United States more than a decade ago, a spokesman said Saturday.

The suspension of the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was lifted last month after the bishop of the Ootacamund Diocese in India’s Tamil Nadu state consulted with church authorities at the Vatican, said the Rev. Sebastian Selvanathan, a spokesman for the diocese.

Bishop Arulappan Amalraj of Ootacamund had referred Jeyapaul’s case to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the suspension was lifted on the church body’s advice, Selvanathan said.

“After Jeyapaul’s release from the United States and his return to India, this matter was referred to Rome, and according to the guidelines of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the suspension against Jeyapaul was removed,” Selvanathan said. …

Bishop Amalraj lifted the suspension in mid-January, but Jeyapaul has not yet been assigned any responsibilities, Selvanathan said. “That will be decided in May, when decisions are taken by the diocese on changes and assignments,” he said.

Jeyapaul could not be contacted, with Selvanathan saying the church did not know his whereabouts.

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

CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

PRESS RELEASE SENT STATEWIDE 2-11-16
– – – – – – – –
2016 CALIFORNIA BALLOT MEASURE
Elimination of Civil & Criminal Statutes of Limitations pertaining to sex crimes against children.

San Francisco, California – William Lynch (Proponent) announces granting of Title and Summary by the California Attorney General and the beginning of the qualification process for a 2016 California ballot measure. http://www.StopChildSexAbuse.org

William Lynch was sexually assaulted when he was 7 years old. Like a textbook case of child sex abuse, Will told no one. When the truth came out 20 years later, Will was informed that the criminal statute of limitations had expired when he was 13 and the priest could not be prosecuted.

After exhausting every legal remedy to bring his attacker to justice, Will confronted the retired priest. A physical altercation ensued, and Will was arrested. Will’s trial brought international media attention to the issue of child sex abuse. During the trial, Will took the stand, and told the truth. In a landmark victory and contrary to the law, the jury acquitted Will of all charges exercising jury nullification.

After his acquittal Will founded RISE (http://www.RiseAboveAbuse.org), an advocacy organization dedicated to protecting other children from a similar fate.

After Gov. Brown vetoed SB 131, Will declared that politicians and the legislative process could no longer be trusted to protect children. He has developed a solution that relies on the collective will of the voters to stop child sex abuse once and for all by passing the 2016 California Ballot Initiative that eliminates the criminal and civil statutes of limitations on sex crimes against children.

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.

RHODE ISLAND
NBC 10

[with video]

BY PARKER GAVIGAN, NBC 10 NEWS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH 2016

During a taping of 10 News Conference Friday, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin said he was “outraged” over recent comments made by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families related to reporting sexual abuse of children.

The comments were made on the heels of the scandal that has plagued the elite St. George’s School in Middletown. Alumni and former students have alleged rape and sexual misconduct by teachers from the 1970s and 80s and said the school did nothing to help them or report the alleged abuse.

On Thursday, the NBC 10 I-Team uncovered a more recent police report from Middletown, where in 2005, a former student told police he was sexually molested by his dorm master in the fall of 2004. He told a detective he was touched inappropriately about 15 times.

Police investigated the teacher, identified by the report as Charles Thompson, but closed the case with no corroborating evidence of an assault. The school told police he took a leave of absence and that families in his dorm were notified. However, lawyers for some alumni and the student involved in the 2005 report said St. George’s did not report to police or child protective services, other student complaints they allegedly received about Thompson.

“There was an absolute legal obligation in 2004 to make reports to social services,” said Carmen Durso, a Boston attorney who is representing the former student and alumni. “Why did the school not take action? Why were teachers allowed to continue there? Why were students put in a situation like this, continually, even after they made complaints?”

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

NEW YORK
National Catholic Register

But its chief spokesman insists it has responded appropriately to the allegations of financial and sexual misconduct leveled against the parish priest.

by BRIAN FRAGA 02/12/2016

NEW YORK — Shortly after he was assigned to a parish on Roosevelt Island in New York City, Father Peter Miqueli told a local newspaper that he hoped his parishioners would help him become a good priest.

“I am a regular person from the community who has been called upon to serve the community,” Father Miqueli told The Wire in February 2002.

Today, Father Miqueli, while still a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, has no parish or any assignment. He has been sued by parishioners from two churches who accuse him of embezzling $1 million and of alienating the faithful with an aloof and abrasive demeanor. The embezzling allegations — extensively detailed in a lawsuit filed in December 2015 — are being investigated by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.

The lawsuit also details, in lurid fashion, an alleged long-running paid homosexual relationship that Father Miqueli is said to have had with Keith Crist, an alleged male escort whom parishioners say they often saw around their churches, and who Father Miqueli allegedly assigned to run a parish-operated thrift shop on Roosevelt Island.

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.

MEXICO
La Jornada

[Mexico City . A few hours before the Pope arrives in Mexico, former priest Alberto Athie said the clerical pedophilia continues. “There are hundreds of children abused by clergy, locked in their homes, helpless, frustrated,” he said at a press conference.]

Ciudad de México. A unas horas de que arribe a México el Papa Francisco, Alberto Athié señaló que la pederastia clerical sigue vigente.

“Hay cientos de niñas y niños abusados por clérigos; encerrados en sus casas, impotentes, frustrados”, señaló en conferencia de prensa el exsacerdote.

Preguntó si ante los pendientes que tiene la Iglesia -uno de ellos la pederastia-, el pontífice viene a decir palabras maravillosas o a comprometerse con los feligreses. Athié resaltó la importancia de que se eleve la voz ante los abusos cometidos por sacerdotes, en el marco de esta visita, y de que el Papa Francisco se pronuncie.

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.

MEXICO
Aristegui Noticias

[The Holy See is guilty of covering up cases of pedophilia: Alberto Athie.]

El ex sacerdote aseguró que el Papa Francisco, quien llega la noche de este viernes a México, tiene conocimiento de varios casos.

El sacerdote Alberto Athié declaró este viernes que la pederastia clerical sigue vigente, aun durante el papado de Francisco, quien arribó la noche del viernes a la Ciudad de México para comenzar con su visita de seis días.

Athié también presentó documentos relacionados con denuncias de pederastia contra sacerdotes como el padre Eduardo Córdova, de San Luis Potosí, y Gerardo Silvestre, de Oaxaca.

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.

ITALIA
Bergamo News

[Priest Diego Rota has been arrested and is charged by the Brescia public prosecutor of child prostitution with aggravated soliciation of children through the internet.]

In un’inchiesta della Procura di Brescia, che vede coinvolte 11 persone in varie province lombarde, figura anche un procedimento giudiziario nei confronti di don Diego Rota, parroco di Solza.

È la stessa Curia di Bergamo a informare di aver ricevuto nella mattinata di mercoledì 10 febbraio notizia di un procedimento giudiziario nei confronti di don Diego Rota, 45 anni, parroco di Solza e di dover quindi nominare un amministratore parrocchiale per garantire il servizio alla comunità dei fedeli di Solza.

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.

MEXICO
Fusion

by Rafa Fernandez De Castro | February 9, 2016

MEXICO CITY—When Pope Francis visits Mexico from Feb. 12-17, many people will be watching to see if he finally addresses the Vatican’s failures to prevent and punish cases of child sexual abuse by some members of the Mexican clergy.

There’s plenty of such scandals to address—from a priest in Oaxaca accused of abusing indigenous minors to the fugitive priests of San Luis Potosí on the run from sexual abuse charges. There are other cases of the Church hierarchy allegedly protecting accused pedophile priests such as Nicolas Aguilar Rivera, who was transferred from Puebla to Los Angeles, California, after facing several accusations in Mexico.

But perhaps the most notorious case is that of Marcial Maciel, a priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of minors during his tenure as the leader of the powerful Catholic order known as “The Legionaries of Christ.” Maciel founded The Legion in Mexico City in 1941 as a movement to prepare young men for the priesthood and Catholic leaders from across Latin America. Today, the Legion is best known for creating dozens of private schools and universities that primarily serve Mexico’s middle- and upper-classes.

In a recent interview with a Mexican reporter, Pope Francis said Maciel, who died in 2008, was “sick, greatly sick.” But he downplayed the Vatican’s involvement in any cover-up. The pope told Televisa that Maciel most likely had an enabler within the Vatican—someone who “suspected and didn’t know” about the priest’s pederasty.

But many Mexican victims who were sexually abused by Maciel believe the pedophile priest must have been protected by more than one individual in the Vatican. A cover-up of that magnitude would require the protection of many.

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.

MEXIKO
Christ und Welt

Unterstützt der Papst in Mexiko die Reformer? Es sieht so aus. Doch beim sexuellen Missbrauch der Legionäre Christi bleibt er zu mild

Sein Wunsch wurde erhört: Als der mexikanische Bischof Raúl Vera gefragt wurde, welche Orte der Papst bei einem Besuch in Mexiko aufsuchen sollte, ließ er sich nicht lange bitten: »Er sollte die Route der Flüchtlinge kennenlernen, die in die USA auswandern wollen«, erklärte er im Juli 2014 gegenüber der spanischen Zeitung »El País«. Vera empfahl dem Papst auch einen Gefängnisbesuch, einen Abstecher in die vom Drogenhandel gezeichneten Armenviertel und die Begegnung mit Mexikos Indigenen.

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.

MEXICO
Urgente24

[Francisco in Mexico, overcoming the stigma of Maciel and Wojtyla.]

¿Estaba en sus cables Juan Pablo ll cuando el 05/12/1994 le envió una carta de felicitación a Marcial Maciel Degollado, publicada en los diarios más importantes de la Ciudad de México, llamándolo “guía eficaz de la juventud” que “ha querido poner a Cristo […] como criterio, centro y modelo de toda su vida y labor sacerdotal…”? Maciel Degollado fue un depredador sexual. En noviembre de 1997, 8 ex Legionarios de Cristo publicaron una carta a Juan Pablo II, luego de que hicieron público a través del diario Hartford Courant, de Connecticut (USA), el abuso sexual que sufrieron. Juan Pablo II tampoco se interesó en el tema. En marzo de 2015, el papa Francisco dijo en entrevista con Valentina Alazraki, corresponsal de Televisa en el Vaticano, acerca de Marcial Maciel: “Uno puede presumir que sí (hubo encubrimiento), aunque siempre en justicia hay que presumir la inocencia, pero sería raro que no tuviera algún padrinito por ahí, medio engañado, medio que, que sospechaba y no supiera”. De todos modos, la visita a México debió lidiar con el tema.

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.

SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

By Liz Leydon

As the film Spotlight brings the Boston Catholic Church clerical abuse crisis back to the forefront of our minds, reopening old wounds for all involved, it draws inevitable but inaccurate comparisons between the abuse crisis and cover up in the church in the US, dating from the turn of the millennium expose, and what is happening in the Scottish Church at present.

I have had the demanding privilege of working on Church abuse stories on both sides of the Atlantic during my time with the Boston Herald group at the height of the Church abuse crisis and now as editor of The Scottish Catholic Observer (SCO), Scotland’s independent national Catholic newspaper. It is clear from survivors’ accounts in both countries, others such as in Ireland and from subsequent investigations that crimes occurred, serious mistakes were made and the Church as an institution had a steep learning curve on reporting and handling accusations of abuse, issues too repulsive to imagine. While I have respect for the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize winning-team featured in Spotlight, wider mistakes were also made in the early reporting on the abuse issue – such as sensationalism of already horrific news– due to a lack of understanding about such an emotive subject and of the Catholic Church; also, because of agendas.

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.

WEST VIRGINIA
Courthouse News Service

By EVA FEDDERLY

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (CN) – A West Virginia Baptist church accused of covering up the sexual and emotional abuse of a minor shouldn’t expect anyone but itself to bear the cost of its legal defense, the church’s former insurer says.

The Bible Baptist Church, in Belva, W.Va., its Blue Creek Academy, in Clendenin, W.Va., and two of their employees are accused in an underlying lawsuit if subjecting a minor in their care to among other things, sexual abuse, starvation and isolation.

The plaintiff in the current action provided the defendant church and academy with liability insurance from June 13, 2011, to June 13, 2014.

“Some of the Church Defendants have requested insurance coverage (defense and indemnity) from Brotherhood for the allegations and claims in the Underlying Action,” according to Jan. 21 complaint filed by Brotherhood Mutual. “Brotherhood denies that it has or had any obligation to defend or indemnify any of the Church Defendants.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Young Herald

Keith Porteous Wood, NSS executive director, commented: “It is unfortunately no surprise that these guidelines encourage bishops not to report suspected abuse, rather than obligating them to do so as the United Nations recommended specifically to the Vatican in 2014”.

A document that spells out how senior clergy members ought to deal with allegations of abuse, which was recently released by the Vatican, emphasised that, though they must be aware of local laws, bishops’ only duty was to address such allegations internally.

As The Crux says, “If the Church is to recover from the abuse scandals, bishops need every tool available, and these courses provide a chance to equip them”.

The report claims that church officials believe they are under no legal obligation to report child sex abuse allegations to law enforcement officials; evidently, church officials believe they have no moral imperative to report such allegations either. The guidelines on child abuse was presented to new bishops last September in the annual training course organised by the Congregation for Bishops, Allen noted.

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

AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Elle Farcic
February 13, 2016

A Jehovah’s Witness elder who sexually assaulted two vulnerable teenagers he met through the church was sentenced to three years jail yesterday over the “destructive” abuse.

David Frank Pople, 68, met the boys through the Safety Bay congregation of the church and assaulted them between 1989 and 1996.

One of the teens reported the sexual assaults to elders in 1997 but police were not made aware of the abuse until he filed a police report in 2014.

Pople was forcibly ejected from the church for being “insufficiently repentant” in 1997 and readmitted the following year at his request.

District Court judge Troy Sweeney accepted Pople was genuinely remorseful but said he had interfered with his victims’ natural maturing process in a “very destructive way”.

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

NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

The pastor of a Union City church has been charged with offenses related to the alleged sexual contact with two juvenile girls in Clifton over a two-year period, authorities said Friday in a news release.

Vicitacio Rivas-Valle, 68, was arrested on Tuesday and is accused of abusing two teenagers who were members of his church, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes said. The girls, she said, were between 13 and 16 years old when the alleged abuse took place.

“The crimes are alleged to have occurred in Clifton, New Jersey, over a two-year period,” Valdes said. She did not provide details about when the alleged crimes occurred.

Rivas-Valle was charged with two counts each of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, the prosecutor said. His bail was set at $50,000, Valdes said.

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

NEW JERSEY
NBC New York

A 68-year-old New Jersey pastor has been arrested, accused of sexually abusing two teen girls who attended his church, authorities said.

Passaic County prosecutors said Vicitacio Rivas-Valle of Union City was arrested Tuesday after investigators say he had criminal sexual contact with two girls who attended his Union City church over a period of two years.

The girls were between 13 and 16 years old when they were allegedly molested.

Rivas-Valle was charged with child endangerment and criminal sexual contact. He remains jailed on $50,000 bail.

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

UNITED STATES
Jewish Journal

by Naomi Pfefferman

“Marty belongs in the pantheon of great Jewish heroes,” Josh Singer, a co-writer of the Oscar-nominated film “Spotlight,” said during a recent interview at a Santa Monica coffee house.

He was discussing the real-life newsman at the center of the much-lauded film about how Boston Globe reporters exposed a conspiracy of silence about pedophile priests some 15 years ago.

Martin Baron, then the Globe’s brand-new editor, seems rather stiff and hardly heroic as he attends a meeting with the newspaper’s investigative team on his first day of work in 2001.

To be sure, it’s not the most welcoming environment for this former editor of the Miami Herald. Boston’s media had already pointedly noted that Baron – who in real life is now executive editor of the Washington Post – was to become the first Jewish editor at a publication whose readers were 53 percent Catholic, while Baron’s reporters on the Globe’s investigative team all were raised Catholic. And one character remarks that not only was the new editor coming from Florida, he was also an “unmarried man from the Jewish faith who hates baseball” in a town obsessed with the Red Sox. Later in the film, a church leader insinuates that Baron is a meddling outsider as he gives the editor a copy of the church’s Catechism, advising him to “think of it as the Cardinal’s guide to Boston.”

Unabashed, the reserved but intense Baron (played by Liev Schreiber) tells his reporters he wants them to look into the highest echelons of the church, because he’s noted a news item about a priest accused of child abuse. He wants to see if there’s more to the story.

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.

ARIZONA
Hawaii News Now

By Janice Yu

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) –
The Roman Catholic Church told newly ordained bishops that they are not obligated to report sexual abuse to authorities, stating the responsibility to report the abuse falls on the victims and their families.

This was first reported by a journalist with Crux, a Catholic news website.

Tucson Diocese Bishop Gerald Kicanas said there is a lot of effort in the U.S. to make sure bishops report any sexual abuse to authorities.

He also said bishops are well aware of their responsibility to report.

Locally, the diocese screens those working in the ministry, as well as volunteers and staff.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said they are upset by the news.

“No mention was made that you should call the police when a crime is reported to you and we found that deeply disturbing,” said Barbara Dorris, with SNAP.

Dorris said there has been a lot of talk about changes that will be made within the church, but nothing has actually been accomplished to make sure those responsible for sexual abuse are held accountable.

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.

WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By GREG JORDAN Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — Sexual abuse and sexual assault, robbery, escape and assault on a police officer were among the indictments handed down by the February 2016 term of the Mercer County Grand Jury.

James Lilly, 24, of Bluefield was indicted on 22 charges including sexual abuse first degree, sexual assault third degree and incest. Lilly allegedly started abusing a female juvenile when she was 9 to 10 years old and continued abusing her until she was 16.

Lilly, by his own admission, is transgender and in the process of becoming a woman, Detective K.L. Adams of the Bluefield Police Department said at the time of the arrest.

Lilly once served with youth ministry at the Christ Episcopal Church in Bluefield. Rector Chad Slater told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph that Lilly had been hired with a grant from the Diocese of West Virginia, and came highly recommended. His position at the church ended Sept. 15, 2015 because the grant funding had ended and because “he really wasn’t doing a whole lot.”

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.

NORTH CAROLINA
Citizen-Times

Emily Patrick and Julie Ball, jball@citizen-times.com February 12, 2016

The Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina in an open letter to parishioners this month acknowledged a rector has been accused of sexual abuse while serving at a Waynesville church for 12 years.

The diocese said a member of Grace Episcopal Church in the Mountains in Waynesville reported being sexually abused by the Rev. Howard White while she was a juvenile. In the letter, Bishop G. Porter Taylor urged anyone who might have been a victim contact the diocese.

Waynesville police said the department is investigating, but White has not been charged with a crime. The diocese in its letter also said White has not been charged, though he also faces similar accusations elsewhere. White served as rector of Grace Episcopal from 1984 to 2006.

Waynesville police Lt. Chris Chandler said the investigation is ongoing.

“It’s still the beginning stages of this investigation,” he said, adding this type of inquiry operates with a “different time frame.”

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A Hunter Valley child sexual abuse victim is urging anyone who suspects a crime has been committed to contact police.

Peter Gogarty said he was relieved Adelaide’s Archbishop Philip Wilson will have to defend a charge of concealing child sexual abuse.

Wilson’s application was yesterday denied by magistrate Robert Stone, who said “elements of the offence may be able to be proved”.

If you suspect that a crime has been committed then you need to say something.
Peter Gogarty, Hunter Valley sexual abuse victim
During the hearing, the court was told the charge against Wilson was invalid as there was no evidence the offence he is accused of concealing ever happened.

The concealment charge relates to abuse in the 1970s by the now-dead paedophile priest James Fletcher.

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

UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler Feb 12, 2016

This week I read dozens of headlines about a new Vatican document that allegedly instructed bishops not to report sex-abuse complaints to the local police. For example:

* Catholic Church Tells Bishops They Are Not Obliged to Disclose Child Sex Abuse: Report (Time)
* New Catholic bishops told they don’t have to report sexual abuse to police (Newsweek)
Catholic bishops not obliged to report clerical child abuse, Vatican says (The Guardian)
* Vatican: Bishops not required to report abuse to police ( UPI)

Here’s what was wrong about those stories:

* There was no new document.
* Neither the “Vatican” nor the “Catholic Church” had taken any new stand on the topic.
* The controversial statement reflected in the headlines was the personal opinion of a French monsignor.

How did the headlines get so far from the truth? Oddly, every one of the reports cited above gave proper credit to the original source for the story: an item posted on the Crux site on February 7 by the respected Vatican journalist John Allen. But Allen had the story right. Somehow dozens of other journalists read his report and dashed off in the wrong direction.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Citizen

A CHURCH elder who sexually abused vulnerable children was invited to speak at his first victim’s wedding, a court heard.

A court was told Harry Holt, 71, now of Rutland Street, Nelson, went on to attack seven more girls as young as nine after the Jehovah’s Witnesses failed to report him to police.

When the matter was raised, a local beat officer advised parents to ‘just keep your children away from him’, the court heard.

Holt is facing a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of attacks against eight girls in Scotland dating back over 40 years.

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy, director of SNAP (davidgclohessy@gmail.com, 314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915 home)

Francis has done more about the abuse crisis than his predecessors. Isn’t that encouraging?

First, we should judge church officials NOT by what their terrible predecessors did but by what responsible officials would do. It’s little comfort to a girl who’s been raped under Francis to say “Well, under Benedict, there might have been an even smaller chance of your predator being ousted.”

Neither Benedict nor Francis has exposed a single child molesting cleric or really punished a single complicit church official. They’ve made lots of reassuring talk but taken little meaningful action.

But several bishops have been forced out because of abuse. Isn’t that good news?

We don’t think this is true. A tiny handful of bishops (Finn in Kansas City, Nienstedt and Piche in St. Paul) have resigned. Were they forced out? Who knows. Continued Vatican secrecy means that no one can be sure whether they were forced and if so, what the real reason or reasons might have been.

There’s nothing new about bishops resigning, while keeping their titles and paychecks and honors. A pope firing bishops would be new. And it would deter wrongdoing. But it didn’t happen under Benedict and it isn’t happening under Francis.

What about the Paraguay bishop? Francis ousted him.

That’s true. But within hours, the official papal spokesman said that this move was NOT because the bishop mishandled abuse. (Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano had promoted Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity, who has been described by bishops from Switzerland to Pennsylvania as ‘dangerous,’ ‘abnormal,’ and ‘a serious threat to young people’ and against whom a $400,000 settlement was paid.)

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

UNITED STATES
Out

BY NICHOLAS RICHARD REES

Spotlight has thoroughly captured the attention of critics and moviegoers with its dramatic retelling of the Boston Globe Spotlight team’s investigative efforts to expose sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church. Praised as a realistic and compelling portrayal of journalists at work, the film showcases the Boston Globe’s revelatory discovery of the Church’s misdeeds.

Nominated for six Oscars, Spotlight has brought much needed attention to the victims, abuse, and the advocacy done on their behalf. Phil Saviano—a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest—represents the Spotlight team’s original source. As a leader of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), Saviano is a pivotal character in the film, and though he’s only in a handful of scenes, his name and tale inform the Spotlight team throughout.

When tasked with the immense responsibility of playing Saviano, Neal Huff—an actor known for roles in HBO’s The Wire and Show Me a Hero—embraced the importance of getting the role right. Huff spoke with Out about Spotlight’s success and cultural impact, his career-defining advice from Ian McKellen, and how Phil Saviano changed his life.

Out: I just watched Spotlight and absolutely loved it. In many ways it’s doing exactly what you hope a film will: inspire conversation, win awards, and make money so more films like it can be made in the future.

Exactly. This is kind of the dream. You hope that you can do a project with this sort of purpose behind it, and it’s so rare that something like this makes it. It’s a rare thing to be in [a film] that hits a nerve like this with everyone. It’s been really unprecedented in my life, to be honest….

How did you prepare to for the role?

Josh Singer [Spotlight’s writer] and Tom McCarthy [Spotlight’s writer/director] got me in touch with him. Right from the get go Phil and I started talking and spending time together. We became great friends. He came down to New York [and] I spent time with him up in Boston.

He’s got a very interesting body language and the way he communicates is very kinetic. He’s connected to his body, so I thought there’s all this amazing material to draw on that is specific and original. So when I first met him I thought, Oh I need to learn all of these mannerisms of Phil. But the more I got to know him, that kind of took a backseat to what I was learning. What initially was a treasure trove of interesting detail quickly became a huge responsibility, because I realized I was going to be the proxy for Phil and for all the people Phil was representing. Some actors don’t like to get to know the people that they might represent if it’s a real person, but I felt in this case that Phil and I were an absolute team.

How did that preparation translate into filming your scenes?

I knew Phil felt a certain level of adrenaline going into the Spotlight office and meeting them. So there was a certain level of nerves and anticipation, and I knew that talking to Brian d’Arcy James, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, and Michael Keaton would serve me well because any nerves and anticipation I had about going in and talking to those unbelievable talents would hopefully translate in a similar way to how Phil felt.

How did Saviano respond to your portrayal?

The fact that Phil Saviano said he felt vindicated by a film and my portrayal of him is more than I could ever ask for. [Also] when I finished that scene where I come and meet the Spotlight team, Walter Robinson and Mike Rezendes walked up to me and they said, “Just want you to know that that was what it felt like. What just happened is exactly what we felt.” They were being so generous to me. So between those guys and Phil saying he felt vindicated, it’s more than you could ever hope for as an actor.

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

UNITED STATES
Newsweek

BY LUCY WESTCOTT ON 2/11/16

Updated | New Catholic bishops have been told that they have no obligation to report clerical child abuse, according to reports.

During a presentation for newly appointed bishops, French Monsignor Tony Anatrella said they don’t have a duty to report abuse because it should be the responsibility of victims and their families to go to the police. The comments were first reported by John L. Allen at the Catholic news site Cruxnow.com earlier this week.

Anatrella, a psychtherapist and consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, is known for his controversial views on homosexuality, including that the acceptance of homosexuality in the West is creating “serious problems” for children. He also helped to write a training document for newly appointed bishops that further spells out the church’s stance on clerical sexual abuse.

“According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds,” the training document, which was released by the Vatican earlier this month, reads. The document says bishops are required only to report the suspected abuse internally.

A Vatican source told Newsweek that the comments made during the presentation are Anatrella’s opinion and not an official Vatican position. The source added that in some countries it is difficult for clergy to report abuse to authorities due to the “quite hostile” relationship between church and state. In countries with corrupt police forces and hostile governments, for example, there is greater risk of not having a presumption of innocence and a fair trial, he said. …

“In one sense, this isn’t surprising. As BishopAccountability.org has pointed out, ‘zero tolerance,’ while often uttered by Catholic officials, isn’t even the official policy of the global church,” Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement emailed to Newsweek.

“But it’s infuriating—and dangerous—that so many believe the myth that bishops are changing how they deal with abuse and that so little attention is paid when evidence to the contrary—like this disclosure by Allen—emerges,” she said.

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

ILLINOIS
Telemundo Chicago

La oficina del fiscal del Condado de Kane ha presentado cargos de abuso sexual a un sacerdote de Aurora que presuntamente abusó sexualmente de dos niños.

Alfredo Pedraza Arias, de 49 años de edad y con dirección en la cuadra 200 High Street, ha sido acusado de dos delitos grave de abuso sexual criminal.

Las autoridades alegan que entre enero del 2009 y noviembre del 2014, Pedraza Arias, sacerdote en la Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón en Aurora, habría abusado sexualmente de dos víctimas que en ese momento eran menores de 13 años.

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

MICHIGAN
Life Story

April 1, 1951 – December 26, 2015
Kalamazoo, MI

Through the life he lived each day, Fr. Carl Peltz was a man of purpose as well as a true servant of God who cared deeply about his fellow man. He was highly intelligent and deeply devoted to the people he served including during his time spent in the military. Fr. Peltz possessed a compassionate heart and will be fondly remembered for his sense of humor and tireless commitment while he faced debilitating health conditions. He was also a person who was loving and accepting toward all.

The 1950s were a time of great change in America. Rosa Parks brought civil rights to the forefront when she refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus, Alaska and Hawaii became our country’s 49th and 50th states, and by the time the decade was drawing to a close the United States and the Soviet Union were deeply invested in a race to make history in space. It was just as this exciting time was dawning that Carl F. Peltz was born on April 1, 1951, in Martins Ferry, Ohio, the oldest of 5 children born to William and Theresa (Olszewski) Peltz. Like most young people of that era, Carl was influenced by the ever changing events of the 1950’s and 1960’s and society’s challenge to the norm. These times would help shape his character and ministry.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News

THE Governance Review Panel’s (GRP) proposal for the restructure of the Yeshivah Centre would only be possible if trustees and Interim Committee of Management (ICOM) members were to break their promise to the community.

Both the trustees and ICOM members told the community last year that they would step down and relinquish control at the end of 2015, but that time has been extended because the implementation of a new governance structure is taking longer than expected.

However, under the proposal put forward by the GRP, both groups would be embedded in the Yeshivah Centre’s leadership for at least three years. For the first three months, until elections are held, the centre would be run by two former ICOM members, two people nominated by the trustees and a fifth person appointed by the four board members.

There would then be elections, and for three years the centre would be run by a nine-person board (the YCL), which would include three former ICOM members and two members appointed by the trustees. As a result, the ICOM-trustee bloc would have a controlling interest on the YCL board.

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

HAWAII/MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

for immediate release: Friday, Feb. 12, 2016

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

An abusive Catholic cleric – who is suspected of molesting more than 50 kids and whose whereabouts were deemed “unknown” by church officials – has turned up in Hawaii. Though his church supervisors knew of his crimes as far back as the 1960s, they let keep teaching in Michigan and four other states.

[Los Angeles Times]

He’s Brother Edward C. “Chris” Courtney. He taught at a Catholic school in Birmingham, Michigan (and worked at church institutions in IL, NY, NV and WA).

We urge Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron to use pulpit announcements, parish bulletins, church websites and other tools to aggressively seek out others in Michigan who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Courtney or cover ups by his colleagues.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Feb. 12, 2016

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

Iowa lawmakers are trying to reform child safety laws. We applaud this effort.

[KCCI]

A new bill has been introduced into the legislature that will protect more kids from child molesters by reforming the state’s archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly statute of limitations. We wholeheartedly endorse this long-overdue measure that will make families safer from predators.

We applaud Sen. Janet Petersen for her concern for kids, victims and crime prevention. We hope every Iowa lawmaker backs House Bill File 6 so that more adults who commit or conceal heinous crimes against kids will be exposed, punished and stopped. We hope legislators will also reform Iowa’s dreadful civil statute of limitations.

The vast majority of child sex offenders go undetected. That’s one reason why one in four girls and one in eight boys are molested.

One reason for such widespread trauma is because short, rigid statutes of limitations prevent victims from using the courts to publicly expose those who commit child sex crimes and deter those who conceal child sex crimes. These legal deadlines reward wrongdoers who successfully intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, destroy evidence, fabricate alibis and sometimes even flee overseas.

When lawmakers extend or eliminate these deadlines, criminals know they can no longer just “run out the clock” and evade justice.

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.

LOUISIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Feb. 12, 2016

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

Shame on Alexandria’s bishop for urging victims of a predator priest to call him instead of calling police. Child sex abuse is a crime. It should be reported to the independent, unbiased professionals in law enforcement, not to the biased, self-serving Catholic officials who, even now, work to keep a tight lid on clergy sex scandals.

Bishop Ronald Herzog knows this. Still, he insists – as Catholic officials have done for decades – on trying to handle this horror internally. Again, he should be ashamed of himself.

or the safety of kids, Herzog should put Fr. Antonio Jorge Velez in a remote, secure, independent treatment center.

He should use church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements to aggressively seek out other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers. If Fr. Velez molested in Maryland, he very likely molested in Louisiana. Herzog has a moral and civic duty to try to find this out and prod people with information to call secular authorities.

No matter what the church hierarchy does or doesn’t do, every Louisiana Catholic church member and employee should beat the bushes, spread the word and ask their loved ones if they saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. Velez or cover ups by his clerical colleagues. Anyone with information or suspicions about Fr. Velez should find the courage to call law enforcement, expose all wrongdoers, protect the vulnerable and start healing.

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.

IDAHO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release, February 12, 2016

Statement by Barbra Graber, Leader of the Anabaptist Mennonite Chapter of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (540-214-8874, Mennonite@SNAPnetwork.org)

Our hearts go out to Clayton Peaster and his family, and anyone else who may have been hurt by any Mennonite predator. We applaud Mr. Peaster for his courage and we hope his seeking justice will protect others and bring healing.

[CDA Press]

We urge anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered sexual violence, either as a child or an adult, to come forward, get help, protect others, deter cover ups, start healing and expose those who commit or conceal assaults on the innocent and vulnerable. We especially urge them to contact independent sources of help, like therapists, police, prosecutors and support groups like ours. Sadly, calling church officials often leads to more pain and secrecy, not less.

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.

TEXAS
The Monitor

ARCHIVE: State Police Get Garza Case Files; No Suspects Are Charged

ARCHIVE: More Than 500 Questioned In Garza Slaying

ARCHIVE: Police Still Sift for Murder Clue

ARCHIVE: Killer Reward Up to $2500

Editor’s Note: This article about Irene Garza was originally printed in the April 21, 1960, edition of The Monitor.

The badly beaten body of Miss Irene Garza, missing 25-year-old McAllen school teacher was discovered floating in the Second Street canal near the Sears Roebuck Co., store at 7:40 a.m. today.

The body; clad in the clothing Miss Garza was wearing when she disappeared, was floating face downward.

Police chief Clint Mussey announced he was questioning suspects “although we have no strong leads.”

An intensive police manhunt for the abductor and slayer of the attractive, dark-haired woman was spurred by a $1,000 reward offered by Whalen’s for “information leading to the arrest and conviction” of the person of persons responsible for the crime.

Later in the morning, O. Terry, local department store owner, announced he was offering an additional $500 reward.

Autopsy Being Held

At noon today pathologists were still working on the body at the Kreidler Funeral home to determine the immediate cause of death and police said the autopsy report would not be released until afternoon.

Justice of the Peace Harley Jackson said he had been ordered to report his death verdict only to the police.

Although police refused to confirm reports that the body was mutilated, an observer at the autopsy said the face was badly beaten and that there were other severe beating marks over the body. The autopsy was expected to show if the victim had been criminally assaulted.

The body was discovered almost simultaneously by Mrs. W. Arnold. 206 First Street, and George Pearson, 200 Peking Avenue. They were passing by the canal when they saw the sack floating in the water only a few yards away from the busy intersection of U.S. Highway 83 and South Second Street opposite the Sears store.

The body was floating face downward. It was removed to the Kreidler Funeral Home where positive identification was made by members of the family. According to police, she was wearing the clothing which she was wearing when she left her home on North 15th Street at 6:45 p.m. Saturday to attend services at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

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

UNITED STATES
Journalists Resource

Walter V. Robinson, editor at large for The Boston Globe, offered his thoughts on the future of investigative journalism during a talk he gave at Harvard Kennedy School about his newspaper’s coverage of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and the movie that is based on the investigation. An audio file of the taped conversation is offered through Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

Robinson, who’s played by actor Michael Keaton in the Oscar-nominated film “Spotlight,” said it was a “small miracle” the movie was ever made. “None of us thought how we made the sausage was interesting at all,” he said, describing the tediousness of the news gathering process. But in 2003, he was asked to write an article for Nieman Reports magazine about the making of the investigation. Later, Columbia University published a case study about it. The writer of the case study was introduced to some film producers, who showed an interest in the story. After a year, Anonymous Content, a production and management company, put up money for the development of a screenplay. But the production stalled without the commitment of additional financing or actors. Then actors Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Keaton read the script and agreed to sign on — at which point Participant Media, an entertainment media company, offered a modest budget to produce the film. “The actors loved the film so much they all worked for whatever the industry minimum is,” Robinson said.

Robinson discussed the evolution of the Catholic Church investigation by the Globe‘s investigative team, known as the Spotlight Team. “We were asked to do an investigation on one priest by Marty Baron,” said Robinson. “I confess that our reaction was more out of fear of a new boss than any conviction that there was a story we could get. The four of us called everybody we could think of … and because we put so many feelers out, we very quickly discovered that it wasn’t just one priest, that there were 12 or 15, and from that point the number kept growing as we investigated.”

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

ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Janelle Walker
Elgin Courier-News

Bail was set at $50,000 for a priest, who was previously affiliated with two Aurora-area parishes, accused of molesting girls in Kane County.

The Rev. Alfredo Pedraza Arias, 49, was arrested by Kane County sheriff’s deputies and the U.S. Marshals Service on a warrant at his Rockford residence Thursday. He appeared at Kane County’s bond call Friday morning.

Pedraza Arias, recently of the 200 block of High Street in Aurora, is charged with two Class 2 felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor under age 13.

Authorities launched an investigation into Pedraza Arias after receiving reports of alleged abuse in 2014, according a release Thursday evening from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford. Pedraza Arias was asked to remove himself from all ministries, including the Hispanic Ministry in the DeKalb County Deanery, the release stated. He has not been active in any ministries since October 2014, the release said.

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

TEXAS
WRCB

By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) – Prosecutors face a tough road in their case against a former priest accused this week in the killing of a young Texas teacher and beauty queen nearly 56 years ago, according to legal experts.

John Bernard Feit, 83, remained in custody Friday in Phoenix following his indictment in South Texas’ Hidalgo County for the murder of 25-year-old Irene Garza.

Feit had been considered a suspect in the past, and two fellow priests told authorities he confessed to them. But like many cold cases, this one will pose special difficulties stemming from decades-old evidence, a lack of DNA and the long delay in bringing charges.

“These are challenges that are not unsurmountable, but they are going to be looked at very carefully by the defense,” said Philip Hilder, a Houston criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor.

Authorities allege the then-27-year-old Feit killed Garza on April 16, 1960, after hearing her confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, where he was a priest.

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

MARYLAND
Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore – The Catholic Review

February 12, 2016

The Archdiocese of Baltimore released the following statement Feb. 12.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has learned of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against Father Jorge Antonio Velez-Lopez, T.C., 60, a member of the religious order known as the Tertiary Capuchins, who last served in the archdiocese in 2010. The alleged abuse began approximately in 2007 while Father Velez was assigned to St. John the Evangelist Parish in Columbia. The alleged victim was a parishioner at Church of the Resurrection in Laurel.

The allegation was immediately reported to civil authorities in Howard County, to the superior of Father Velez’s religious order, and to the Diocese of Alexandria, La., where Father Velez has most recently been serving.

After receiving permission from civil authorities, a representative of the archdiocese traveled to the Diocese of Alexandria to meet with Father Velez to discuss the allegations. At the meeting Feb. 11, Father Velez admitted to the allegations. The Archdiocese of Baltimore reminded Father Velez that he is not permitted to function as a priest or to minister in any capacity in the archdiocese. His authority to act as a priest in the archdiocese ended when he left service here in 2010. In accordance with archdiocesan policy, counseling assistance has been offered to all those affected.

Father Velez began working in the Archdiocese of Baltimore in July 2002 and served at St. John from 2003 to 2010. During this time he also ministered to members of the Spanish-speaking community in several other parishes, including Church of the Resurrection in Laurel, Holy Trinity in Glen Burnie, St. John the Evangelist Church in Frederick, Sacred Heart Church in Glyndon, and St. Joseph Church in Cockeysville

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is committed to protecting children and helping to heal victims of abuse. We urge anyone who has any knowledge of any child sexual abuse to come forward, and to report it immediately to civil authorities. If clergy or other church personnel are suspected of committing the abuse, we ask that you also call the Archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection Hotline at 1-866-417-7469. If you have any other information relevant to this matter, please contact the Archdiocese Office of Child and Youth Protection at 410-547-5599.

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

ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Harry Hitzeman

A Kane County judge set bail Friday at $50,000 for Rev. Alfredo Pedraza-Arias, a 49-year-old from Colombia accused of sexually abusing two girls younger than 13.

Pedraza-Arias was arrested at his Rockford home Thursday night. He faces two felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor younger than 13. If convicted on both charges, he faces up to 14 years in prison, along with registering as a sex offender.

Pedraza is accused of abusing a girl at her Aurora home and another in an office at Sacred Heart Church in Aurora. According to court records, the abuse occurred between January 2009 and November 2014.

Kane County Judge Elizabeth Flood Friday read a synopsis of the allegations, saying authorities were told Pedraza-Arias abused the girls in the two locations. The police report, read by Flood, said he declined to be interviewed at the Kane County Child Advocacy Center, which investigates crimes against children.

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

VATICAN CITY
Latin Times

By Cedar Attanasio | Feb 12 2016

The Vatican is denying reports that it trains bishops to hide sexual abuse allegations, according to the Catholic News Agency. Trainings for new bishops omit best practices on combating sexual abuse, Crux reports. In one training material, reporting sexual abuse to the police is described as “not necessarily the duty of the bishop,” according to the Guardian. The Vatican says the message is in no way a discouragement for Church officials to dodge civil authorities, and not a blanket Vatican policy.

“[The reported training content is] not in any way – as someone has mistakenly interpreted – a new Vatican document or a new instruction or new ‘guidelines’ for bishops,” Holy See spokesman Father Federico Lombardi tells CNA.

The reports mark the latest shortcoming on failed promises by higher authorities of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis created the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to identify “best practices” for dealing with sexual abuse. Yet the Crux report argues these practices aren’t being shared with decision makers.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

Another woman, allegedly abused by a now dead Hunter Valley priest, has become the second alleged abuse survivor to seek damages from the estate of a late bishop and the Catholic church.

Earlier this week, the ABC revealed a woman known as LG was suing the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese and the estate of the late Bishop Leo Clarke for abuse she allegedly suffered as a five-year-old in the 1970s and 80s.

A special commission of inquiry heard her alleged abuser Denis McAlinden was a prolific paedophile priest.

The same inquiry found Bishop Clarke’s inaction in relation to McAlinden was inexcusable.

The diocese rejects that the alleged abuse happened, and argues it had no supervisory role of McAlinden.

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.

IRELAND
RTE News

The prominent child abuse survivor Marie Collins has said senior Vatican bureaucrats frustrated Pope Francis’ plans to have his Commission for the Protection of Minors train bishops in child protection.

Ms Collins, who is the only survivor-member of the Commission, revealed the Commission’s difficulties following the publication in Rome of instructions to new bishops that they are not obliged to report allegations of clerical child abuse to their local police authorities.

Earlier this month the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops published documents including the text of a lecture to recently appointed bishops who were attending a training course in Rome.

The speaker, the French Monsignor Tony Anatrella, stated that bishops have no duty to report allegations of clerical child sexual abuse to the police the moment they receive them.

He said reporting is a matter for victims and their families instead. He also said bishops also had to be mindful of mandatory reporting laws in their own countries.

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

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Philly

BY CAROL GLATZ
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A talk given to new bishops during a Vatican-sponsored course does not represent new guidelines on the church’s response to abuse against minors by religious, a Vatican spokesman said.

A 44-page report authored by French Msgr. Tony Anatrella and just published by the Vatican publishing house “is not in any way — as someone erroneously interpreted — a new Vatican document or a new instruction or new guidelines for bishops,” Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said in a written statement released late Feb. 11.

The talk was part of a conference of experts given in September and was “published together with other (talks) on different subjects,” Father Lombardi wrote.

Msgr. Anatrella’s talk addressed emotional maturity and deviant behaviors in the priesthood as well as church procedures for dealing with accusations of the abuse of children by clergy.

The monsignor, a psychoanalyst and a consultant to the pontifical councils for the family and for health care ministry, “does not say anything new or different from what has been said up until now by relevant church institutions,” Father Lombardi said.

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

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

This week, as Carnival was in full swing in many Catholic regions of the world and as the body of Padre Pio was paraded in Rome in a glass coffin, things appear to have gone from bad to worse in news of the response of Catholic officials to the abuse crisis. Patricia Miller sums up the response of many thinking Catholics (and non-Catholic observers) to the papal abuse commission’s recent silencing of Peter Saunders by noting that “[f]or abuse survivors, the move to silence Saunders confirms their fears that the commission was largely a PR tactic.”

In an editorial statement yesterday, the New York Times took note of Saunders’s sacking by the abuse commission (and of Pope Francis’s failure to attend the recent Vatican screening of “Spotlight,” something Saunders made public right before he was voted off the commission). The Times notes that the Vatican could learn a valuable lesson about accountability from “Spotlight.”

Then it adds:

Hierarchical accountability remains a pressing issue that the Vatican has not fully confronted in the numerous dioceses of the world where the scandal was suppressed. The pope’s 17-member commission presented fresh evidence of this failing when one of its two abuse-victim members, who had gone to the news media to criticize the slow pace of its work, was suddenly suspended on Saturday in a commission vote of no confidence.

For the Daily Beast, Barbie Latza Nadeau cites the response of SNAP leader David Clohessy to what has just happened to Saunders:

“The Pope’s abuse panel will issue recommendations. The Pope will adopt them. And nothing will improve. Why? Because there will be no enforcement,” says David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests, called SNAP. “Why? Because the church hierarchy is an entitled, rigid, secretive, all-male monarchy. No new protocols or policies or procedures will radically undo a centuries-old self-serving structure that rewards clerics who keep a tight lid on child sex crimes and cover-ups.”

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.

MARYLAND
The New York Times

by MIKE McPHATEFEB. 10, 2016

When student reporters at Mount St. Mary’s University, a small Catholic institution in Maryland, published an article in January that quoted the university’s president likening struggling freshmen to bunnies that should be drowned, they knew it might get a big reaction.

It finally came this week, it appears — in the form of a pink slip for the faculty adviser of the campus newspaper.

The university informed the adviser, Ed Egan, that he had been disloyal and was now fired, a move seen by many on the campus in Emmitsburg as a retaliatory strike.

The decision, along with other recent punishments of faculty members at Mount St. Mary’s, has triggered outrage well beyond its rural campus in northern Maryland, earning condemnation from thousands of academics across the country as well as national monitors of academic and journalistic freedom.

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy

2010:

Indian Catholic Bishops Draft ‘Zero Tolerance’ Abuses Policy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/indian-catholic-bishops-d_n_559299.html

2016:

Indian bishop lifts convicted priest’s suspension

http://www.ucanews.com/news/indian-bishop-lifts-convicted-priests-suspension/75204

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.

MEXICO
Sin Embargo

[CLERICAL PEDOPHILIA IN MEXICO: THE MAP OF IMPUNITY]

Por Shaila Rosagel febrero 12, 2016

Las víctimas de los sacerdotes pederastas en México relatan la pérdida de evidencias por parte de la justicia civil y el ocultamiento de información, en total impunidad, por parte de la Iglesia Católica. ¡Justicia!, es su demanda al Papa Francisco I.

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.

SCHWEIZ
kath.ch

Freiburg, 11.2.16 (kath.ch) Der Westschweizer Bischof, Charles Morerod, erklärt in einer Medienmitteilung vom Donnerstag, 11. Februar, weshalb er der Tageszeitung «La Liberté» keine Auskunft über einen Priester geben wollte, der des Missbrauchs verdächtigt wird. Das wäre Diffamierung gewesen, schreibt er.

«Das Gesetz gilt auch für mich», schreibt Morerod in seiner Mitteilung. «Wenn ich präzis sage, dass diese Person jenes Delikt begangen hat, während diese Person nicht verurteilt worden ist (wegen Verjährung oder nicht beendetes Verfahrens), dann ist das Diffamierung».

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.

RHODE ISLAND
NBC 10

[with video]

BY PARKER GAVIGAN, NBC 10 NEWS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11TH 2016

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. — St. George’s School oceanfront campus in Middletown is picturesque. The student body comes from some of the wealthiest families in America. Tuition is close to $60,000 a year.

Tradition was tainted around the New Year, when several alumni came forward, claiming rape and sexual misconduct on the part of teachers from decades ago, in the 1970s and 1980s.

“It hurts. My parents didn’t believe me, the school didn’t believe, and nothing was done,” said Katie Wales, class of 1980, at a press conference in January.

Questions circled around what school officials knew and when they knew it. Did they report the allegations to Rhode Island’s social services? Lawyers for the alleged victims have shown evidence that the answer is no.

Working on a tip, the NBC 10 I-Team discovered a newer complaint against St. George’s, this one from May 2005.

A former student, who NBC 10 News has decided not to name, was expelled for smoking marijuana. He was back on campus and told to leave or else the police would be called. That’s when he said he had a story to tell.

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

CANADA
The Globe and Mail

GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016

The man who oversees the process established to compensate people who were abused at one of Canada’s Indian residential schools has put a hold on all undecided claims in which a technical argument called the “administrative split” is being used to deny a payout.

The Globe and Mail reported last week that as many as 3,000 former students who were abused at schools listed in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement involving the government, the survivors and the churches that ran the institutions have been denied compensation as a result of the legal strategy by Justice Department lawyers.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett has asked her department to conduct an “urgent” review to find out why the claims were denied. The government is not speculating about when that investigation will be complete.

Daniel Shapiro, the chief adjudicator of the Independent Assessment Process (IAP), which was created to allow former students who suffered serious physical or sexual abuse to obtain quick redress without going to court, issued a bulletin to all of his adjudicators saying they should not proceed with cases that could be affected.

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

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Feb. 12, 2016

Statement by Verne Wagner of Duluth, Northeast MN SNAP director (218- 340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com)

Dozens of northern Minnesota Catholic church staff members have a chance to protect kids in from a proven predator priest. And since Vatican officials are knowingly putting these kids in harm’s way, Duluth area church employees and parishioners must take action to safeguard the vulnerable.

Church bureaucrats in Rome have told a bishop that he can lift the suspension of convicted cleric who molested at least two Crookston area girls.

[UCA News]

That means this priest, Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul, can be put back to work, even though he was

–extradited to Minnesota from India by governmental authorities there and in the US,

–found criminally guilty of sexually assaulting one Minnesota girl,

–accused of sexually assaulting a second Minnesota girl,

–deported back to India, and

–sued by one Minnesota victim (and church officials settled that suit),

Why must Minnesota Catholics act now? Because their efforts might result in Fr. Jeyapaul being convicted, extradited and jailed again. And because their spiritual “leaders” brought Fr. Jeyapaul here and gave him access to Minnesota kids, some of whom he molested.

What must Minnesota Catholics do now? They must beat the bushes, spread the word, and ask every current church member and worker “Did you see, suspect or suffer crimes by Fr. Jeyapaul?” And if the answer is “yes,” they should gently but firmly be prodded to call police. It’s just that simple.

Fr. Jeyapaul’s bishop won’t protect these kids. He’s lifting Fr. Jeyapaul’s suspension.

Pope Francis won’t protect these kids. He’s letting Fr. Jeyapaul’s suspension be lifted.

Only the justice system can protect them, and only if others with information or suspicions about him call law enforcement. That’s most likely to happen if caring Catholics use word-of-mouth and social media and if Catholic employees use parish bulletins and church websites to sound the alarm and beg – literally beg – others to come forward.

Five months ago in Philadelphia, Pope Francis told US bishops and Catholics “I commit myself to the zealous watchfulness of the church to protect minors, and I promise that all those responsible will be held accountable.”

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.

MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016

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

A priest who worked in Baltimore for a decade is accused of molesting a girl. We urge Baltimore Catholic employees to aggressively seek out any one else he may have hurt and beg them to call police.

[The Town Talk]

Church officials in Alexandria Louisiana have suspended Fr. Antonio Jorge Velez and “prohibited (him) from living within the diocese” because of child sex abuse reports stemming from his time in Baltimore.

We hope anyone who has seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Velez’ crimes, or cover ups by his church colleagues or supervisors, will call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

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
KCCI

[with video]

Kim St. Onge

DES MOINES, Iowa —A new Iowa law being proposed by lawmakers would remove the statute of limitations for victims filing criminal charges in sexual abuse cases.

Right now, the statute of limitations for pressing charges is 10-years after the victim’s 18th birthday. After that point, you can’t file criminal charges.

Jessica Henderson said she was sexually abused by a family member for nine years from age 6 to 14. Right now, Iowa law prevents her from pressing charges in the case.

“I believe everything that has destroyed my life and made me feel like this, made me feel like nothing is from the abuse,” said Henderson.

She now suffers from depression, chronic anxiety, PTSD and was diagnosed with HPV, a sexually transmitted virus.

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.

SWITZERLAND
National Catholic Reporter

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt | Feb. 11, 2016

Twelve Catholic reform groups have accused the papal nuncio in Switzerland, U.S. Archbishop Thomas Gullickson, of publicly criticizing Pope Francis and have called on the Swiss bishops’ conference to proclaim that the Swiss church is fully committed to the Second Vatican Council.

The reform groups have formed an alliance entitled “Enough is Enough,” and have warned the Swiss bishops that religious peace in Switzerland is endangered. “We are seriously concerned that the nuncio is splitting the Swiss church,” the alliance says in its letter to the bishops.

Alliance member Markus Arnold, the head of the Religious Education Department at Lucerne University, has also written to Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann asking the president “not to allow Gullickson to have a long-term, poisonous effect on the climate in Switzerland. We have enough problems with religious fanaticism as it is. We do not need a nuncio who wants to revive this fanaticism in the Catholic church.” …

Gullickson, 65, is a keen blogger and Twitter-user and is not shy about openly expressing his opinions in the social media. He calls himself an “ultramontanist — and proud to be one” and makes no secret of the fact that he sympathizes with the schismatic Society of St. Pius X. In several tweets, he has praised the elitism of St. Pius X priests.

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

NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board
Friday, February 12th, 2016

Recent contentions from five students at Santo Niño Regional Catholic School in Santa Fe that a teacher had put his hand on their bodies in places where it didn’t belong unfortunately reminds us that our children can’t be perfectly safe anywhere.

That’s a shame. In an ideal world, no child would be touched in any way that isn’t loving, supportive and completely non-sexual. They should be handled as the precious treasures that they are.

At this point, no conclusion has been reached about the truth of the accusations. So far, teacher Aaron Dean Chavez has been charged with five counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor. On behalf of his client, Chavez’s attorney has denied all of the allegations. It will take some time for this matter to work its way through the court system and reach a resolution. That is as it should be, with a presumption of innocence before proven guilty.

A somewhat disturbing aspect of this case, though, arises from revelations that two girls alerted the school’s principal in 2012 that Chavez had allegedly touched them on their buttocks while he bounced them in his lap when they were first-graders.

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.

SCOTLAND
Evening Times

Victims say they will continue to press Education Secretary Angela Constance to increase the scope of an independent inquiry into childhood abuse.

Andi Lavery, who founded the support charity White Flowers Alba, said there had been “no movement whatsoever” from the Scottish Government during a meeting with Ms Constance.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, which is being chaired by Susan O’Brien QC, is not fit for purpose, he claimed, saying it would only look at a “small proportion” of abuse cases.

Campaigners at both White Flowers Alba and the In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas) group want the remit of the inquiry to be extended to include abuse at religious organisations and children’s groups such as the Boy Scouts.

The Scottish inquiry, which could take four years, will focus on allegations of abuse in formal institutional care settings, such as children’s homes and secure care, care, long-term hospital care and boarding schools.

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.

ROME
The Tablet (UK)

11 February 2016 | by Christopher Lamb

It looks bad. An outspoken abuse survivor and victims’ advocate leaves the Vatican’s child safeguarding commission. Peter Saunders, the founder of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood, had been growing increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of change. Why, he asked, had a tribunal for bishops accused of covering up abuse still not been set up when it was announced last June? His fellow members on the commission were unhappy with his frequent comments to the media, which included criticism of Pope Francis for appointing Bishop Juan Barros to Osorno, Chile. Bishop Barros has been accused of covering up abuse.

Speaking at his hotel in Rome on Monday, Saunders said that on Saturday members of the commission expressed their displeasure with his views after presenting him with a set of press cuttings that quoted him. A vote of no confidence was taken with 15 out of the 17 members in favour of him taking leave of absence. The commission has been clear that its raison d’être is to propose initiatives to the Pope and not to comment on individual cases (See Sheila Hollins, page 8).

“I suppose there was a misunderstanding there because I actually thought we were going to get cracking with child protection,” Saunders told me. But his removal from the commission begs a more pressing question: does Rome “get it” when it comes to clerical sexual abuse?

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

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Friday, February 12, 2016

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has insisted that every allegation of clerical abuse must be reported to gardaí.

He was responding after groups representing the victims of paedophile priests reacted angrily to a Catholic Church edict to newly appointed bishops that they are “not necessarily” responsible for reporting allegations of child abuse to the police.

The instruction, in a new Vatican training manual advising senior clergy on how to respond to allegations of abuse, states that only victims or their families should decide whether to report to authorities, but bishops should be aware of local legal requirements.

“According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police, or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds,” states the training document.

Archbishop Martin said: “The norms in Ireland are very clear — all allegations must and are reported to the gardaí.

“Gardaí have the ability and the expertise to investigate matters that diocesan personnel would not.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

All allegations of clerical child sexual abuse on the island of Ireland must be reported to civil authorities, said Catholic Church representatives.

Maynooth-based director of safeguarding for the church Teresa Devlin said it was mandatory within the Catholic Church in Ireland to report allegations of child abuse and that has not changed.

“The national board delivers training to bishops and provincials which sets this out clearly following their appointment,” she said.

Ms Devlin was responding to reports of a Vatican training document for new bishops which said that, though bishops must be aware of local laws, their only duty was to address allegations internally.

“According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds,” the document states.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Science Monitor

By Molly Jackson, Staff FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Survivors of clergy sex abuse and their advocates are dismayed by a document for new Catholic bishops which suggests they do not need to report abuse to legal authorities, released this month after being used at a September training session for new church leaders.

“According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds,” the guidelines say, according to the Guardian.

Criticism of the document was first launched by the Crux, a Catholic-news website.

Recommended: How much do you know about the Catholic Church? Take our quiz!
Associate editor John L. Allen, Jr. also questioned why prevention strategies – drafted by Pope Francis’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in response to a sex abuse crisis that has shaken the Church over the past two decades – were not part of new bishops’ training.

Although there are no exact numbers of victims and abusive priests worldwide, the Vatican investigated about 3,000 claims of priestly abuse between 2001 and 2010. According to Crux, American bishops have spent more than $260 million since 2002 to prevent abuse.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

by Clifford Longley

Are the Churches doing any better than the police in handling domestic abuse?

One in six of all violent incidents reported to the police concerns domestic violence – an attack by someone with whom the person concerned is in a close relationship. It accounts for a third of all murders where the victim is female. Yet despite these truly horrendous statistics, a recent investigation by the Police Foundation declared that “domestic abuse is a difficult issue for the police to handle; one which they have historically dealt with reluctantly and, on the whole, ineffectively”. This prompts the question: are the Churches doing any better, or are they also ineffective in dealing with a major scourge of society?

The evidence may be incomplete and largely anecdotal, but it is not reassuring. There are parallels with the way the institutional Church failed to appreciate the situation regarding sexual abuse of children by priests. An assault was seen as a one-off lapse calling for repentance and forgiveness. There was a failure to see the lasting damage to the victim; and to realise that the abuser – for all the protestations to the contrary – was very likely to repeat the behaviour. Child abusers are often manipulative, as are perpetrators of domestic violence. “Victim blaming” is common to both.

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

CANADA
The Telegram

One step forward, two steps back.

Child sexual abuse by the clergy is not a problem that Pope Francis created, but it is one he promised to address.

It’s a shame then that not everyone in the church seems to be getting the message.

Tuesday, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on details that had been discovered by Cruxnow.com’s John Allen about a training manual for Catholic bishops — most importantly, about how they should handle the discovery of child sexual abuse by clergy.

And the manual is anything but heartening.

In fact, it says that it’s “not necessarily” the job of bishops to inform police of the abuse of children.

“According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds,” the training document states.

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.

WASHINGTON/HAWAII
Los Angeles Times

Rick Anderson

When the Archdiocese of Seattle recently released the names of 77 priests, brothers, deacons and a nun reported to have sexually abused children over an 85-year-period, the list included a short entry near the bottom:

“Courtney, Edward CFC, Unknown,” with the names of three schools.

What readers learned was that Courtney had been a member of the Congregation of Christian Brothers (the Latin version of the name is abbreviated as CFC), and once taught at the three schools.

That was about it.

Though Roman Catholic Church investigators had spent 1,000 hours compiling the offender list and were aided by a former FBI agent, they were unable to determine Courtney’s whereabouts, or even whether he was dead or alive.

But Courtney, who would now be 81, hasn’t exactly disappeared. He sold his Seattle-area home in 2013 and signed a sales document notarized in Honolulu. His phone number and address are listed in the Honolulu phone book.

At the number this week, a recorded voice of an older man told callers to leave a message. Requests for comment left by The Times drew no response. An operator who intercepted messages the next day said the customer was no longer accepting calls.

Also missing from the nine-page Seattle disclosure list was any mention of what Courtney and the 76 others were accused of doing to earn their sex-offender status.

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.

IDAHO
CDA Press

JEFF SELLE/Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — A lawsuit filed Wednesday claims a child was sexually abused by his father, while leaders of a Mennonite church in Bonners Ferry failed to protect the boy.

The lawsuit was filed late Wednesday by attorneys with the Coeur d’Alene firm of James, Vernon and Weeks. It states Clayton Peaster was 11 when the alleged molestation occurred. He is now 27.

The defendants named in the suit are Mt. View Mennonite Church, Inc., the National Church of God in Christ, Mennonite, and Clayton’s adoptive parents, David Peaster and his wife, Cynthia Peaster.

During a press conference held Thursday at the firm’s office, Clayton’s attorney, Craig Vernon, said the child was adopted by the Peasters who both belonged to Mt. View Mennonite Church. The Kansas-based Church of God in Christ Mennonite, commonly known as the Holdeman Mennonites, is the parent organization of Mt. View.

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.

TEXAS
The Courier

By Jay R. Jordan

A Montgomery County pastor accused of sexually abusing his young niece pleaded guilty to the actions Monday.

Delso Erazo, who pastored Iglesia Cristiana La Nueva Jerusalen off FM 2920 in Spring, will spend 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to two second-degree felony counts of indecency with a child. Erazo, 70, will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life upon his release from prison.

“Prison time was an excellent resolution in this case,” Prosecutor Laura Bond said. “It was a case that’s even bigger to us even now based on his position in authority in the church in the community.”

Erazo pleaded guilty to sexually contacting his niece for almost 10 years starting when she was six years old, according to court records. The abuse would occur in a residence in the 100 block of North Burberry Park Circle in Spring.

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.

MASSACHUSETTS
The Berkshire Eagle

The humble, open approach to Catholic Church issues by the head of the Diocese of Springfield is welcome. A similar attitude in recent years could have helped the church here and elsewhere avoid loss and anguish.

In a pastoral letter issued on Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski apologized to Western Massachusetts Catholics for the clergy sex abuse scandal and the pain caused by church closings. Echoing Pope Francis, he urged diocesan priests to get out among parishioners to bridge whatever divides had emerged. (Eagle, February 10).

The clergy sexual abuse scandal that damaged the Springfield diocese as well as the church worldwide, was magnified dramatically by the determination of the Catholic Church hierarchy to cover it up, discredit those who were abused and blame the media for investigating the scandal. A more open approach could have spared the church losses of credibility and finances.

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.

ALABAMA
AL.com

By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com
on February 12, 2016

A group of leaders from St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills recently asked the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct at diocesan headquarters that happened 25 years ago.

The diocese has responded by having a law firm conduct an investigation, led by lawyer Augusta Dowd.

The diocese is investigating allegations by former employee Tyrone Lucas, who now goes by the name Titus Battle.

Battle says a male administrator — who died in 1990 at age 56 after working for the diocese since 1971 — forced him to submit to sexual acts, threatening to withhold his pay as an office worker and revoke his college scholarship paid by the diocese.

Dowd engaged a former FBI agent and a former police chief to investigate the claims. The investigation “has been quite comprehensive and at this time is still ongoing,” Dowd said.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Brisbane Grammar School (BGS) says it will not refund the school fees of former students sexually abused by paedophile counsellor Kevin Lynch in the 1970s and 1980s.

Many of the abused students gave evidence at Brisbane hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse last November.

In the wake of evidence given to the royal commission, the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane agreed to refund fees to its former students who were abused, after numerous complaints emerged from Lynch’s time at the Anglican-run St Paul’s School in northern Brisbane.

Lynch worked at St Paul’s after his time at BGS.

BGS also agreed to consider the option of refunds, but revealed late on Friday it had decided against refunding fees.

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

AUSTRALIA
Brisbana Times

February 12, 2016

Jorge Branco
Journalist

Victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a notorious paedophile allowed to abuse students at one of Queensland’s most prestigious schools throughout the 1980s will not have their school fees repaid.

Brisbane Grammar School announced on Friday afternoon it would not follow the lead of the Anglican Church in refunding fees.

The Anglican Diocese of Brisbane announced its proactive fee refund policy in the wake of child sex abuse hearing royal commission hearings in November, which laid out the crimes of systematic child abuser Kevin Lynch in horrific detail.

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.