ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 22, 2016

Stephanie Bunbury
Film and arts writer

They don’t make films like Spotlight any more, so people say. Perhaps they never really did. Spotlight is about a real-life team of investigative reporters at the Boston Globe who worked for months to document and finally reveal the cover-up by the local Catholic church of the sexual abuse of children by priests. What Spotlight is not about: star performances (even though its ensemble cast includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdam); the reporters’ personal lives; plot twists or emotional peaks and troughs; reporters as heroes. There is just work: the painstaking, paper-shuffling, probing work of accumulating facts and corroborating them to the point where a newspaper – that hulking, old-fashioned, barely lamented old warhorse of the Fourth Estate – can speak authoritative truth to power. And, as signposted by its six Oscar nominations, it is absolutely gripping.

The Spotlight team’s investigation came relatively late in the saga of sex-abuse scandals within the church; the series, which would eventually top 600 articles as more people came forward with stories and more priests were exposed, won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 2003. One thing Tom McCarthy’s film makes clear, however, is that Boston is a staunchly Catholic city where the Church, schools, sport and government are clubbily intertwined. Fifty-five per cent of their readers were practising Catholics. “The church had such power,” says Walter “Robbie” Robinson, the real head of the Spotlight unit, played by Michael Keaton in the film, “that if legislation it didn’t like was before the Massachusetts Legislature, they could get it killed.”

Not that the Globe felt compromised. Successive metro-section editors had run stories for years about accused and convicted priests in the normal run of its news coverage, earning a rebuke and an invocation of heavenly punishment from the local cardinal in the process. Even so, it took the arrival of an editor from outside Boston – Marty Barron, who came from the Miami Herald and would go on to become executive editor of the Washington Post – to lift the lid on the whole can of worms. “Don’t go after the man; go after the system,” he tells the team early in Josh Singer’s script, which has reportedly cleaved as closely as possible to the facts even down to what was said. So they do.

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UNITED STATES
Asia One

Run Time: 129 min
Classification: NC16
Genre: Investigative thriller
Grade: 3.5/5

How do you uncover a secret without getting overly emotionally involved, write a good story and do some people justice? Sounds like the job of a journalist? It certainly does.

Actor-director Mark Ruffalo had the challenging task of playing a journalist who broke a story that took the world by storm.

On Jan 6, 2002, The Boston Globe had published one of its biggest stories in history. It was time that people all around the world knew of a great sin in the history of the Catholic church.

Entitled “Church allowed abuse by priest for years”, the article was an investigative journalism piece done by the Spotlight team in the Globe.

Inspired by an actual event, the movie ‘Spotlight’ portrays the whole process of highlighting sexual crimes of the Catholic church, where several Catholic priests were accused of sexually abusing young boys in Boston over a period of 30 years.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Exclusive by the National Reporting Team’s Lorna Knowles

The Catholic Church is in damage control after one of its lawyers demanded that a child sex abuse survivor repay an out-of-court settlement because she spoke to the media about her case.

Lawyers for the Diocese of Wagga Wagga also sought a public apology from the woman for “untruths” she told to the local newspaper.

But after being contacted by the ABC yesterday, the Bishop of Wagga Wagga said he did not instruct the lawyer to make the demands and he would not be pursuing abuse survivor Gina Swannell for the money.

Ms Swannell said she was repeatedly abused by a priest when she was just six years old at a church in Urana, west of Wagga Wagga.

At the time, she was a boarder at the nearby St Francis Xavier school.

Ms Swannell was one of the original campaigners for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In 2013, she was one of the first to give evidence to the commission in private hearings.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Matthew Dixon
Jan. 21, 2016

Opinion:

WATCHING local priests tie ribbons to church fences says a lot about the Loud Fence movement.

Previously, the issue of child abuse within the church had been a matter not to be talked about and kept in the dark.

However, the Loud Fence movement has been one which has been about showing community support for the survivors.

The people tying ribbons, some with connections to churches and others not, want to send a message to those survivors.

To say, ‘we understand it is tough and we want to see change and support you to get the closure you deserve’.

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WASHINGTON
The Daily Astorian

By Matt Winters
The Daily Astorian

Published:
January 21, 2016

LONG BEACH, Wash. — At least three Roman Catholic priests stationed in Pacific County from 1958 to 1971 were identified Friday by the Archdiocese of Seattle as being among 77 Catholic clergy believed to have sexually abused Washington state children.

In one case, a Seaview priest identified by the archdiocese as a sex offender was immediately replaced by another also on the offender list. In another instance, the archdiocese has already paid a Pacific County man to settle a lawsuit over molestation by a priest in Raymond.

In all but one case, the implicated local priests are known to be deceased.

Court case

James Knelleken served at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Raymond from 1958 through 1964. In 2009, the archdiocese agreed to a $350,000 settlement with a Pacific County man who said he was abused as a 16-year-old in 1959 by Knelleken, according to contemporary news reports. The victim was only identified by his initials in court documents. A second victim of Knelleken’s from another county settled his case in October 2007 for $110,000, the Associated Press reported.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Crux

By Michael O’Loughlin
National reporter January 20, 2016

Did a Philadelphia priest die in prison, falsely accused of sexual abuse by an unreliable witness who was desperate to please overzealous prosecutors?

That’s the suggestion of a Newsweek cover story whose author obtained a psychiatric evaluation of Daniel Gallagher, who in 2011 said two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher had raped him in the late 1990s.

His testimony led to a child-endangerment conviction for the Rev. William Lynn, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s former secretary of clergy and the first Church official to go to jail for child endangerment. It also led to the imprisonment of the teacher and the two priests.

One of those priests, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, died in prison in 2014 after being denied a heart operation.

Gallagher was the subject of a 2011 Rolling Stone story written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the reporter who wrote the now discredited story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia.

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RHODE ISLAND
NBC 10

St. George’s School, together with survivor group SGS for Healing, has hired a new investigator to handle the allegations of sexual abuse at the Middletown, Rhode Island school.

Just one week and two days after the school and group announced it retained former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger as lead investigator on the case of alleged sexual abuse, the school and alumni/victims’ group have named Martin F. Murphy as its new independent investigator.

Murphy, a partner at the law firm of Foley Hoag in Boston, is a former First Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County and former chief of the Major Crimes Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

The switch was made after the school and survivors group were “unable to reach agreement on legal terms of engagement” with Harshbarger and his Boston firm, Casner & Edwards, according to a release.

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 20, 2016

60 sex abuse cases
29 settlements
1 stingy insurance company

Things have been pretty quiet in Hawaii. And because of a new lawsuit, we now know why.

The Diocese of Honolulu today sued one of its insurers, First Insurance Insurance of Hawaii, for refusing “to honor commitments made in liability policies it sold the church over the course of several decades.”

The lawsuit isn’t the meat of the story. These kinds of suits happen all of the time. Insurance companies don’t like to pay big claims. It’s bad for business.

It’s what’s IN the text of the Diocese’s complaint that is newsworthy.

* Sixty child sex abuse cases have been filed against the Diocese of Honolulu as a result of the civil window
* There have been three rounds of mediation
* Approximately 29 child sex abuse cases against the diocese have already been settled

Since this information didn’t come from the victims’ attorneys, we can only guess that this intel was a part of the mediation privilege … until now. In other words, they aren’t allowed to talk about it (yet—hence the Hawaii radio silence for the past few months). The only party who could talk about it was the Diocese. And they were mad enough at First Insurance to blow their cover.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

The report commissioned by the Dublin Council of Priests may be found at this link Dublin Archdiocese 2030 projection

Short summary of some of the main points.

A predicted 61% reduction in numbers of priests between 2014 and 2030

If Religious Orders relinquish parish responsibilities, the FTP population would fall to 111 which would represent a 70% reduction in numbers between 2014 and 2030.

(“FTP” refers to the equivalent number of Priests working at 100% capacity.
For example, if there are four Priests, two working at 100% capacity and two working at 75% capacity (due to the impact of ageing), the population for the purposes of the analysis would be 3.5 FTPs)

The age profile of Priests in 2030 will be higher than in 2014 and 75% of Priests are projected to be older than 60 which will present a further issue. This also highlights that the issue will be magnified in the years following 2030 when these Priests retire

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Weekly Mass attendances in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese are projected to drop by a third over the next 15 years, while the number of priests serving in parishes is expected to fall by over 60 per cent to 144 in the same period.

And this is the most optimistic projection. A report prepared for the Dublin Council of priests by external consultants notes that if religious congregations such as the Redemptorists or Jesuits redeploy their priests from parish duties, then Dublin will be left with just 111 priests in 2030 – a drop of 70 per cent.

The analysis, prepared by consultants Towers Watson, also found that 57 per cent of Dublin’s priests today are over 60.

It is projected that three-quarters of priests will be over 60 by 2030.

Weekly Mass attendance levels in Dublin are currently put at 20-22 per cent (of the population), while being as low as 2-3 per cent in some working-class parishes.

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RHODE ISLAND
Rhode Island Public Radio

By ELISABETH HARRISON

St. George’s School and a group of former students who have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse have announced that Scott Harshbarger will no longer conduct the independent investigation into the school’s history.

In a joint statement, the school and the former students say they were unable to come to an agreement with Harshbarger and his firm Casner & Edwards over the terms of engagement.

Instead, the two parties have named a new investigator, Martin F. Murphy, of the Boston law firm Foley Hoag.

The school previously retained the attorney Will Hannum, whose investigation found credible reports of sexual abuse from 26 former students, involving six former school employees. The report also detailed reports of sexual abuse by several former students.

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RHODE ISLAND
Sun Chronicle

Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — A new lead investigator has been chosen to look into allegations of sexual abuse at a prestigious Rhode Island boarding school.

Wednesday’s announcement Boston attorney Martin Murphy will lead the investigation into St. George’s School comes a week after ex-Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger was chosen to lead.

The Middletown, Rhode Island, school acknowledges it didn’t report abusers to authorities.
An attorney for the accusers won’t say why Harshbarger is no longer investigating. Harshbarger hasn’t returned a call seeking comment.

Murphy represented Dr. Dirk Greineder, who was convicted in 2001 of killing his wife. They argued at trial a stranger did it.

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RHODE ISLAND
Durso Law

St. George’s School and SGS for Healing today announced the retention of a new independent investigator, after being unable to reach agreement on legal terms of engagement with Scott Harshbarger and his firm, Casner & Edwards. The inability to reach agreement with C&E had nothing to do with the purpose of the independent investigation, or any underlying facts. All parties have great respect for Mr. Harshbarger and his work, and remain committed to conducting an independent, comprehensive and thorough investigation.

To that end, St. George’s School and SGS for Healing are pleased to announce that Martin F. Murphy, a partner at the law firm of Foley Hoag in Boston, has agreed to serve as the independent investigator. Mr. Murphy is a former First Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County and former Chief of the Major Crimes Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. He has an outstanding reputation and a proven track record as an investigator and courtroom advocate.

Said Anne Scott of SGS for Healing: “SGS for Healing remains deeply committed to working alongside St. George’s School to carry out the independent investigation. We look forward to getting started on that now with Martin F. Murphy, and are confident that the results of the investigation will shine a clear light on a positive path forward for survivors and the entire school community.”

Said Leslie Heaney, Chair of the School’s Board of Trustees: “The board is committed to seeking the truth and ensuring that all the facts are reviewed by the independent investigator. We look forward to Mr. Murphy’s involvement and pledge the full support of St. George’s during his investigation.”

For further information, please contact:
For St. George’s School: Joseph Baerlein, (617) 443-9933
For Anne Scott and SGS for healing: Eric MacLeish, (617) 817-1797 or Carmen Durso (617) 728-9123.

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

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. .Judge Carol Jackson has set March, 2017 as the trial date for Fr. Joseph Jiang’s lawsuit against several defendants. The twice-accused cleric is the only U.S. priest to file a “conspiracy” case against alleged child abuse victims’ parents, the police, a prosecutor’s office and SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

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MICHIGAN
RT

John Nienstedt resigned as head of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2015 after he allegedly ignored repeated warnings of a sexually abusive priest. He has now taken a temporary position at a church in Michigan, to the alarm of parishioners.

Beginning on January 6, St. Philip Catholic Church in Battle Creek invited Nienstedt to assist with saying masses and other duties within the Diocese of Kalamazoo while his friend, Father John Fleckenstein, attends to health issues and other projects for the diocese.

The church announced the move in a bulletin earlier this month. Nienstedt, 68, “will celebrate some of the weekend and weekday Masses, visit the sick in the hospital, visit the sick and homebound, and celebrate Mass for the nursing home and assisted living facilities,” Fleckenstein’s memo said. “He will also celebrate some Masses on Sundays around the Diocese when there is a priest who needs to be away. … While the Archbishop is not ‘assigned’ to the parish, I’m grateful he will assist us in these next few months.”

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MISSISSIPPI
WDAM

By Whitney Argenbright, Associate Producer

WAYNE COUNTY, MS (WDAM) –
The Wayne County pastor accused of sexual abusing a minor waved his preliminary hearing Wednesday in an Alabama court.

Tommy Joe Newberry was arrested December 22 in Alabama and charged with enticing a minor, and two counts of sexual abuse and sodomy.

He was released on a $36,000 bond.

According to Washington County Sheriff Richard Stringer, the crimes happened over several years at Newberry’s home in Alabama.

Officials said Newberry admitted to sexually abusing six victims in his congregation between the ages of 11 and 15.

Stringer said Newberry’s case will be presented to a grand jury sometime in February.

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Week

Wed, 01/20/2016
David Clohessy

Hundreds of Jewish officials have signed a “declaration” challenging individuals and organizations to be more transparent and accountable in scandals (“Seeing ‘Crisis’ In Jewish Ethics, Group Urges Reform,” Jan. 15).

We don’t think it will help, at least not in cases of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up. Decisive discipline, not moral exhortations, is what deters those who commit or conceal sexual misdeeds.

In our decades of experience, we’ve seen officials in many denominations make pronouncements, protocols, procedures and policies about clergy sex crimes, misconduct and cover-up. They rarely have any effect.

What does make a difference? The vulnerable are protected, the guilty are punished and the wrongdoing is deterred when two steps are taken.

First, when secular law is reformed, victims, witnesses and whistleblowers are able to expose wrongdoers in court. Second, when church officials publicly and harshly punish those who commit or conceal clergy sex crimes and misdeeds.

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NEW MEXICO
Artesia News

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Attorneys for a New Mexico diocese say they plan to submit a proposed settlement plan next month for a bankruptcy case that has lasted two years.

The Albuquerque Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1Owo6LQ ) that attorneys for the Diocese of Gallup on Tuesday told a U.S. Bankruptcy judge that they will submit a proposal in the 26-month-old case.

Judge David Thuma says he hopes to schedule a confirmation hearing in April to finalize the settlement.

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WASHINGTON
KUOW

[with audio]

By BILL RADKE & MATT MARTIN

When the Seattle Archdiocese released names of 77 abusive clergy last week, many Catholics heralded a new era of transparency.

But attorney Michael Pfau raised an eyebrow. He knew something that wasn’t noted in the press release – or the flurry of news stories that followed. A major trial for a notorious pedophile priest was scheduled for June, and Pfau was interviewing victims.

“Why did you release these names late on a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend in January?” Pfau said he would ask Archbishop Peter Sartain. “Why isn’t the archbishop addressing this in person, taking questions as opposed to putting out a list?”

Pfau has represented hundreds of people in abused by clergy in Washington state. One of his current cases involves Fr. Michael Cody, who worked at St. Edward’s Seminary, St. Luke, Holy Family, St. James Cathedral, Sacred Heart in La Conner, St. Charles in Burlington and Assumption in Bellingham.

The church knew of accusations against Cody as early as 1962. In a March 19, 1962, letter to Archbishop Thomas Connelly, a psychiatrist said Cody had admitted to molesting eight girls age 12 or under and described him as exhibiting “sadistic tendencies toward boys.” Cody spent time in treatment, then returned to the archdiocese, where others within the church expressed concern as he moved from parish to parish, according to documents, where he continued to abuse kids.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PhillyVoice

BY CHRISTINA LOBRUTTO
PhillyVoice Staff

A report by a forensic psychiatrist suggests that a former Philadelphia altar boy known as “Billy Doe” may have provided “unreliable information” in a landmark 2011 sexual abuse case, Newsweek reports.

“Billy Doe,” who was identified in the Newsweek piece, underwent a court-ordered forensic psychiatric evaluation by Dr. Stephen Mechanick, a Main Line psychiatrist, in October 2015.

The 27-year-old accused two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests and a teacher of molesting him at a Northeast Philadelphia parish in the 1990s. He told grand jurors in the case that he was sexually assaulted regularly by three men at St. Jerome’s Parish in Holme Circle, a traumatic experience that he said produced years of torment, drug abuse, behavioral problems and suicide attempts.

All of those charged were convicted, as was Monsignor William J. Lynn, the former archdiocesan secretary for clergy who was sentenced for failing to supervise a priest accused of sexual misconduct who later assaulted a then-10-year-old altar boy in 1999.

Newsweek obtained Mechanick’s report on “Billy Doe”:

The client is apparently immature and self-indulgent, manipulating others to his own ends…. He refuses to accept responsibility for his problems. He may have an exaggerated or grandiose idea of his own capabilities and personal worth. He is likely to be hedonistic and may overuse alcohol or drugs. He appears to be quite impulsive, and he may act out against others without considering the consequences…. Paranoid features and externalization of blame are likely to be present…. His manipulative and self-serving behavior may cause great difficulties for people close to him…. An individual with this profile is usually viewed as having a Personality Disorder, probably a Paranoid or Passive-Aggressive Personality. Symptoms of a delusional disorder are prominent in his clinical pattern.

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FRANCE
News 24

Paris – The child abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic Church are only the tip of the iceberg, the journalists who exposed one of the hierarchy’s biggest cover-ups said on Wednesday.

Walter Robinson and Mike Rezendes, who won the Pulitzer Prize for uncovering how the Church had hushed up the activities of nearly 90 paedophile priests in Boston, told AFP that thousands more have escaped justice in the United States alone.

With the Hollywood film Spotlight about their painstaking probe of the scandal for the Boston Globe newspaper nominated for six Oscars and a slew of other prizes, they said research showed between six- and 10% of priests have abused children.

Robinson, who led the newspaper’s Spotlight investigative team, said they found that around one in 10 priests in Boston were molesters after “the Church was forced to make its records public”.

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MICHIGAN
The Daily Beast

KATIE ZAVADSKI

An archbishop accused of covering up a major sex-abuse scandal is moving to a new church—and local residents are not pleased.

A battle is brewing in Battle Creek, Michigan, where residents are less than pleased that an archbishop accused of covering up a sex-abuse scandal has now embraced a second calling as a pastor in their town.

John Clayton Nienstedt served as the Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis for 7 years but resigned this June, shortly after a prosecutor announced criminal charges and a civil suit against the archdiocese for allegedly covering up child sex abuse. Now Nienstedt has taken up a new post in Michigan, filling in for a sick old friend at St. Philip’s Roman Catholic Church.

A spokesperson for the Kalamazoo diocese told local papers that the arrangement between the archbishop and Father John Fleckenstein, who is ill, is just a simple agreement between friends. But detractors worry that the archbishop’s controversial past is getting a free pass.

Jennifer Haselberger served as Chancellor for Canonical Affairs in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. She was also the person who revealed how the archdiocese allegedly hid sex-abuse allegations.

Haselberger finds it plausible that Nienstedt and Fleckenstein didn’t expect the blowback in Battle Creek.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsweek

BY RALPH CIPRIANO ON 1/20/16

On October 9, 2015, a former Philadelphia altar boy reported to the office of Dr. Stephen Mechanick to undergo a court-ordered forensic psychiatric evaluation. It took nearly three hours because the two men had a lot of ground to cover. Daniel Gallagher is a slender 27-year-old with a wispy beard who is better known as “Billy Doe.” Under that pseudonym, he made national headlines in 2011 when he claimed to have been serially raped as a fifth- and sixth-grader at St. Jerome’s parish by two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher.

Gallagher subsequently became the Philadelphia district attorney’s star witness at two historic criminal trials. His graphic testimony helped convict three alleged assailants, as well as Monsignor William Lynn, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s former secretary for clergy, who was found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child. The monsignor became the first Catholic administrator in the country to go to jail for failing to adequately supervise a sexually abusive priest.

The Billy Doe rape story was so sensational it attracted the attention of crusading Rolling Stone writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely. She described Billy Doe in a 2011 story, “The Catholic Church’s Secret Sex-Crime Files,” as a “sweet, gentle kid with boyish good looks” who had been callously “passed around” from predator to predator. According to the charges recounted by Erdely, two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher “raped and sodomized the 10-year-old, sometimes making him perform stripteases or getting him drunk on sacramental wine after Mass.”

Erdely is the same reporter who later wrote about “Jackie,” a University of Virginia student who claimed she was gang-raped by seven men at a fraternity party. The 2014 story, which dominated headlines and cable TV news for weeks, was subsequently exposed as a hoax by “Jackie,” retracted by Rolling Stone and is now the subject of a couple of libel suits.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bistum Mainz

Das Bistum Mainz sieht sich aufgrund der Veröffentlichung im SPIEGEL vom 16.01.2016 und der AZ vom 18.01.2016 zu folgender Klarstellung veranlasst:

Sowohl dem SPIEGEL als auch Herrn Heibel, auf den sich der SPIEGEL bezieht, ist bekannt, dass das Verfahren gegen Norbert E. mit Beschluss des Amtsgerichts Bad Homburg v.d. Höhe vom 24.07.2006 gemäß § 153 Abs. 2 StPO mit Zustimmung der zuständigen Staatsanwaltschaft auf Kosten der Staatskasse eingestellt wurde. Damit war das weltliche Strafverfahren, das sich insgesamt über vier Jahre hingezogen hatte, abgeschlossen. Tatvorwurf des Verfahrens war, dass Norbert E. einen 13-jährigen Jungen anlässlich einer Übernachtung im Pfarrhaus über der Kleidung für etwa fünf Sekunden am Geschlechtsteil berührt haben sollte.

Eine Einstellung gem. § 153 Abs. 2 StPO erfolgt, wenn die Schuld des Täters als gering anzusehen ist und kein öffentliches Interesse an der Verfolgung besteht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Badische Zeitung

by: Sebastian Kaiser

[Again the Catholic Church is shocked by reports of cases of sexual abuse. Between 1953 and 1992 it is known 231 boys were abused in the Regensburg boys choir and the number of unreported cases is likely to be far higher. Against the work-up of the cases takes place decades later and again the deed are long time-barred.]

Erneut wird die katholische Kirche von Berichten über Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch erschüttert. Zwischen 1953 und 1992 sollen bei den Domspatzen des Bistums Regensburg mindestens 62 Jungen sexuell missbraucht und 231 misshandelt worden sein – die Dunkelziffer dürfte weitaus höher liegen. Wieder findet die Aufarbeitung der Fälle erst Jahrzehnte später statt, wieder sind die Taten längst verjährt. Noch immer stehen der Aufarbeitung von Missbrauchsfällen innerhalb der katholischen Kirche vielerorts verkrustete Strukturen im Weg.

Regensburg ist ein gutes Beispiel dafür, dass in Einrichtungen der katholischen Kirche über Jahrzehnte hinweg sexueller Missbrauch und Misshandlungen geschehen konnten und Taten lange Zeit vertuscht wurden – ohne dass die Verantwortlichen eingegriffen hätten. Es drängt sich der Eindruck auf, dass dies auch mit den handelnden Personen vor Ort zusammenhängt. Der ehemalige Regensburger Bischof Gerhard-Ludwig Müller, der heute die Glaubenskongregation in Rom leitet, hat zu Beginn des Missbrauchsskandals 2010 zum Ausdruck gebracht, dass er die Medienberichte für eine Kampagne gegen die Kirche halte.

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DETUSCHLAND
Crescendo

[Open your eyes Georg Ratzinger!]

Sehr geehrter Georg Ratzinger –
Sie sind müde, Ihre Gesundheit macht Ihnen zu Schaffen: der Körper, das Denken – die Augen. Und, ja, ich kann mir vorstellen, wie mühsam und anstrengend es sein muss, am Ende eines Lebens, fast erblindet, die Augen dann doch noch einmal öffnen zu müssen, wie viel Kraft es braucht, die müden Lider zu heben, nur, um in die Hölle blicken zu können: statt der angenommen 70 Missbrauchsfälle bei den Regensburger Domspatzen reden wir nun wohl von mehreren hundert, der Rechtsanwalt, der die Fälle aufarbeitet, beobachtet einen „Dominoeffekt“ der Offenbarungen und den Einsturz eines Lügengebäudes, lieber Georg Ratzinger, das Sie damals mit erreichtet haben. Hieronymus Bosch hätte sich kaum schlimmer ausmalen können, wie es unter Ihrer Leitung bei den Domspatzen zugegangen ist: Ohrfeigen, Züchtigungen, Missbrauch – im Himmel sollen angeblich die Engel singen, auf Erden wurden sie von Herzens-Zerstörern ausgebildet! Und Sie, Georg Ratzinger, müssten nur einmal noch die Augen öffnen, um Ihre Rolle dabei zu erkennen: vor Gott und der Welt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
NOZ

[German dioceses in the past five years have paid out 6.4 million euros to victims of sexual abuse. So far money application was made by more than 1,000 victims.]

Osnabrück. Die Bistümer in Deutschland haben in den vergangenen fünf Jahren mehr als 6,4 Millionen Euro an Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs gezahlt. Das ergab eine Umfrage unserer Redaktion unter den 27 Diözesen. Die Summe wurde an mehr als 1000 Antragssteller ausgezahlt, die sich zwecks Anerkennung des erlittenen Leides an die katholische Kirche gewandt hatten.

* Seit 2011 können Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs bei der katholischen Kirche einen Antrag auf Anerkennung des Leides stellen. Mehr als 1000 Anträge sind seitdem bei den Bistümern eingegangen.

* Die Bistümer haben in den vergangenen Jahren 6,4 Millionen Euro an Betroffene ausgeschüttet.

* Die Summe beinhaltet auch Kosten für psychologische Betreuung.

Die Zahl der Beschuldigten Geistlichen oder Laien liegt bei weit mehr als 800. Nicht alle Bistümer machen dazu Angaben. Die Taten sind in aller Regel verjährt. – 17 Anträge: Missbrauch im Bistum Osnabrück: Opfer erhalten 66.000 Euro | noz.de – Lesen Sie mehr auf:

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DEUTSCHLAND
Wir Sind Kirche

[Overview of the abuse cases in diocesan and religious as far as they were made public by the Church or the press.]

Bis heute ist die katholische Kirche nicht in der Lage, den 2010 versprochenen Abschlussbericht über die Missbrauchsfälle in den eigenen Reihen vorzulegen – auch dies eine Missachtung der Opfer, die sich gemeldet haben. Die vorliegende Aufstellung ist nicht vollständig. Mit Fehlern muss aus mehreren Gründen gerechnet werden: Nicht immer ist klar, ob der Begriff “Fall” einen Täter, eine Gewalttat oder ein Opfer meint. Wenn die Täterzahl genannt wurde, nicht jedoch die Anzahl der Opfer, bin ich davon ausgegangen, dass jeder Täter ein Opfer hatte – wohl wissend, dass ein Täter im Schnitt 4 Opfer hat (Leygraf-Studie 2012). In einigen Veröffentlichungen wurden als Täter auch benannt, wer körperliche und seelische Gewalt, nicht jedoch sexuelle Gewalt anwandte. Da alle Gewaltformen vergleichbar traumatisch erlitten werden, halte ich die Differenzierung zwar für sinnvoll, aber nicht für entscheidend.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A Sussex school named after a former Bishop of Chichester alleged to have sexually abused a child in the 1940s and 1950s is to be rebranded.

The Diocese of Chichester paid compensation and apologised after sex abuse allegations were made against the Rt Rev George Bell in a civil claim.

He was Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until his death in 1958.

Bishop Bell C of E School said it was looking at two new names – St Edward’s College and St Catherine’s College.

In a statement, the Eastbourne school said it was reviewing its name as part of a rebranding exercise that started in 2014.

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SLOVENIA
STA

Ljubljana, 20 January – The Supreme Court upholding a judgement that ordered the Catholic Church to pay damages to a victim of a paedophile priest can only help the institution that builds itself on trust and religion, the daily Delo says in Wednesday’s commentary.

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WASHINGTON
KUOW

[audio\

By BILL RADKE & MATT MARTIN

Bill Radke speaks with Greg Magnoni, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Seattle, about why the church recently released a list of 77 priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Radke also speaks with Mary Dispenza, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, about her reaction to the list and what she would like to see the church do in order to better handle abusive priests.

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CALIFORNIA
A Room with a Pew

PAUL FERICANO

“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.”
— Seneca

On January 12, the 165 friars that make up the Franciscan Province of St. Barbara in California overwhelmingly elected a new provincial, David Gaa. Their choice not only signified the most hopeful sign of change in the province since the clergy abuse crisis of 1993, but it also brought an end to seven years of autocratic rule. Make no mistake: the Franciscans are poised to do a complete 180 in the ways that count most. And while the friars would never admit to it publicly, it’s clear that Gaa’s election is a compassionate but firm repudiation of former provincial John Hardin’s divisive policies. The suffering people of this province, friars and laypersons alike, could not feel more grateful if St. Francis himself had kneeled and washed their feet.

The evidence supporting this new direction was overwhelming. Many Franciscans felt angry, frustrated, and weary with the management style and spiritual path of their order. Their votes last week reflected this as plainly as their hopes for the future. Not only did they elect a new provincial with strong reconciliation and pastoral credentials who, for years, worked as a missionary in the Ukraine and the American southwest, but they also chose a vicar provincial, Martin Ibarra, with equally sound pastoral skills who has spent the last several years ministering to the poorest of the poor in Mexico. These are the top two men the friars have chosen to lead them into a brighter light. And to ensure their success, they elected a slate of six new definitor friars (Garrett Galvin, Anthony Garibaldi, John Gutierrez, Dan Lackie, Bill Minkel and Joe Schwab), the majority of whom have a long history of engaging in pastoral and social justice work.

Dissatisfaction among the friars has been smoldering for quite some time. Over the past few years, private conversations have revealed a deep displeasure with some of their “misfit brothers” (as one friar put it kindly). If I sometimes challenged them to take action I was often met with silence. One can argue that a sense of helplessness kept the friars from publicly speaking out. But their oath of allegiance actually contributed to their own suffering and, more to the point, to the unnecessary suffering of others. Repressive vows of obedience shackled these men to an antiquated rule that ultimately allowed others to distort the order’s principles and to abuse their power. Does this sound familiar? We saw these same tactics employed during the worst years of the abuse crisis. As a result, the unhealthy environment that one outgoing administration created will long be remembered as one of the most regressive leaderships on record and one of the least Franciscan in spirit. The irony here would be woefully tragic if it weren’t so absurd. And perhaps it’s a bit of both.

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MICHIGAN
Pioneer Press

Associated Press
POSTED: 01/19/2016

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Some members of a Michigan Catholic diocese have expressed concerns that a priest who led the Twin Cities archdiocese during a clergy sex abuse scandal is helping out in a Battle Creek church.

John Nienstedt is celebrating Masses at St. Philip while its pastor recovers from an illness.

Nienstedt resigned as archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in June after charges were filed claiming the church failed to protect children from clergy sex abuse. Nienstedt has not been charged.

The Associated Press left a message Tuesday evening seeking comment from Nienstedt.

St. Philip parent Samantha Pearl said “the church is demonstrating that it is willing (to) protect those who have hurt children.”

“It’s hard to imagine them inviting this kind of scandal on themselves,” she said. “It defies reason that this is the choice they have made and that they continue (to) defend. It makes no sense.”

Kalamazoo diocese spokeswoman Victoria Cessna said the church has no knowledge of pending allegations against Nienstedt. She added the diocese uses “every process available to us to ensure that the Archbishop, as any visiting priest who is exercising priestly ministry, meets the requirements set forth for them to do so.”

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NEW ZEALAND
The Northern Advocate

By Kristin Edge

A clinical psychologist has given evidence in a trial involving the alleged sexual abuse of 13 Northland girls to help a jury understand why children do not report abuse when it happens.

The trial in the Whangarei District Court has been set down for three weeks during which all 13 complainants, who at the time were aged between 6 and 15, are expected to give evidence. James Brian Sanders, 68, has denied 38 charges including rape and indecent assault committed against 13 complainants at Doubtless Bay and Bream Bay between 1998 and 2013.

The alleged offending happened when Sanders was president of the Bream Bay branch of the Latter Day Saints Church and when he helped his wife run an after-school programme in the Far North.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 20, 2016-

Paul Byrnes
Film critic

SPOTLIGHT ★★★★1/2
(M) General release (129 minutes)

From January 28

At the end of Spotlight, in case you weren’t already angry enough, there is a list of all the places around the world in which major cases of sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy have been uncovered since the Spotlight investigative team did its work in Boston in 2002. There are 105 American cities and 102 from other parts of the world. These include a list of 22 places in Australia, from Adelaide to Wollongong.

That’s hardly a surprise, given that our own Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has produced so much harrowing and damning testimony since 2013 – and it’s not finished yet.

Wisely, the movie is not about child abuse. It’s about how a newspaper, The Boston Globe, had the guts to go after the Catholic Church in a town full of Catholics, knowing that their own heavily Catholic readership would not like it. It’s about the way the Catholic Church, a powerful institution in Boston (as everywhere), tried to conceal the knowledge that almost 250 of its priests were implicated in child sexual abuse – some of them repeatedly, in other dioceses, before they were given new positions supervising children in Boston. And it’s about a depressing question, one that faces every newspaper journalist: could this story still be done now? How many of the world’s great newspapers can still afford to run a unit like Spotlight, the oldest continuous investigative unit in the American media, founded in 1970?

Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, Win Win) handles this story with restraint and intelligence. This might just be the best newspaper film since All the President’s Men in 1976. The reasons are many, but mainly a sense of proportion, by which I mean the movie doesn’t treat the reporters as bigger than the story. Mark Ruffalo plays the rumpled Mike Rezendes, a terrier, always ready to fight, but he’s no more important than the other reporters. Michael Keaton is the Spotlight team leader, Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson, who plays golf with some of the people he has to go after.

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WASHINGTON
The News Tribune

FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD

The Archdiocese of Seattle last week published what it calls a comprehensive list of priests and clergy known to have sexually abused children. The 76 men and one woman on the list held positions of authority in the Catholic church around Western Washington – including Pierce County – as far back as 1923. Their egregious breaches of sacred trust had been known for years.

The list easily could be filed under the label “what took you so long?” It could be cross-referenced under the heading “better late than never.”

It took several years for the archdiocese to release the list because of what a spokesman described Tuesday as a long, sustained process of “facing our failure.” The church has apologized and tried to help victims heal, rooted out the offenders, and installed safeguards to ensure that crimes so evil are never again perpetrated by individuals acting in persona Christi.

An Archdiocese Review Board has worked deliberately (translation: slowly) since 2003. Taking measured steps toward openness and transparency is part of the process, spokesman Greg Magnoni said. The list was released freely, not compelled by any legal threat, he said.

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MEXICO
Daily Mail (UK)

Ruth Wariner was the thirty-ninth of her father’s forty-two children, growing up on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turn a blind eye to the practices of her community. She lived in ramshackle house without indoor plumbing or electricity.

After Ruth’s father – the man who had been the founding prophet of the colony – was murdered by his brother in a bid for church power, her mother remarried, becoming the second wife of another faithful congregant.

At their church, preachers teach that God will punish the wicked by destroying the world and that women can only ascend to heaven by entering into polygamous marriages and giving birth to as many children as possible.

That is what life was like on Colonia LeBaron, the polygamous compound in Chihuahua, Mexico, where Ruth lived until she ran away at the age of 15, taking her three younger siblings with her.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

January 20, 2016
Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

A MAN who vandalised court and church buildings calling for George Pell to be jailed has been slapped with a good behaviour bond.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, today admitted to the early morning attacks on Melbourne’s County Court and the Catholic Church’s headquarters.

He launched the attacks in the early hours of November 25, a day after the child abuse royal commission continued its probe into the Melbourne Archdiocese.

The attacks, in which he sprayed anti-Pell slogans, were caught on CCTV.

The man claims to be the victim of sexual abuse but his alleged attacker was acquitted in 1995.

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WASHINGTON
HeraldNet

Julie Muhlstein | jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com

A day after my husband died in 1998, Sister Dolores Crosby showed up on my doorstep. She handed me a used paperback. It was “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” by the rabbi Harold Kushner.

I considered Crosby a friend, although not a close one. From 1992 to 1999, she was the respected and well-liked principal of Everett’s Immaculate Conception & Our Lady of Perpetual Help School where my kids went to school.

And now? I’m stunned. That was my reaction to seeing Crosby’s name — the only woman — on the list of 77 names released Friday by the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. According to the archdiocese, the listed people either admitted to sexually abusing children while serving as Catholic clergy or the church found that allegations against them were credible.

Crosby, who retired from Immaculate in 1999, was 73 when she died in 2007 in her native Spokane. The niece of famous crooner Bing Crosby, she had also worked at Holy Rosary School in Edmonds and St. Frances Cabrini School in Pierce County in the 1970s, and for 13 years at Our Lady of the Lake School in Seattle.

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HAWAII
Honolulu Civil Beat

By Chad Blair

Lawsuits against the Catholic Church alleging sexual abuse of parishioners are all too common.

But in a twist, the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii is suing a local insurance company, alleging that the insurer won’t cover settlements arising from scores of past sexual abuses cases in the islands.

In a lawsuit filed Jan. 14 in 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu, the church alleges that First Insurance Co. of Hawaii refuses to honor commitments made in liability policies it sold the church over the course of several decades.

The settlements, according to the lawsuit, involve more than 60 former and current parishioners and students who confirm that when they were children, “a number of priests or brothers of others subjected them to sexual abuse.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Kristina Keneally

Viewed through modern eyes, it seems extraordinary that it took the Catholic church nearly two millennia to comprehensively condemn slavery.

After centuries of grappling with the issue, including attempts to distinguish between just and unjust enslavement of human beings, the Catholic church gave a full denunciation of slavery in the 1965 Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World).

The Catholic church is a slow-moving beast, especially when it comes to social and economic reforms. Fifty years after Vatican II, the Church announced just this week that it would slavery-proof its supply chains.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, Prefect of the Holy See Secretariat of the Economy, confirmed in a keynote speech at an international financial conference in Rome this week that the Vatican would join some 400 companies in eradicating the use of forced labor from suppliers. Cardinal Pell not only signed the Church up to the anti-slavery campaign, but also provided his assessment of the current global “economic malaise” and offered what he described as a “Catholic contribution” to improving the global economy.

Pell’s speech was odd, but it was also revealing. Odd because Pell did not offer a coherent and systematic assessment grounded in Catholic social thought (and these exist) of how to achieve a fair and just economy. Rather he provided a selective history of Catholic economic teachings and a disjointed commentary that borrowed from both the Occupy Movement and Margaret Thatcher. Maybe that’s the best we can expect from a man whose boss is an Argentinean socialist, and whose good friend is Tony Abbott. Pell straddled the fence: he condemned CEOs who earn large bonuses as the “undeserving rich” who pay too little tax, but also took to task nations who accumulated debt and political constituencies that won’t embrace sacrifices. …

For Cardinal Pell, this preference for motivating right action by inspiration rather than regulation is relevant when it comes to understanding his reaction, as well as others in the church, to the sexual abuse crisis. Pell has preferred to deal with complaints about priests on a discrete basis rather than recognise a systemic problem that requires a systemic solution. His Towards Healing process is just that – a process for handling complaints. It does not prescribe new rules or regulations for the purpose or preventing future abuse.

The church in Australia and across the western world comprehensively failed to understand that the rules – the laws of civil society – applied to them. Rather than heed the law, or even use it to their advantage to motivate priests to comply with civil laws, the church continued to believe that individual priests could make individual decisions to stop abusing children. The hierarchy believed that priests could be “inspired” to be good. This, of course, had disastrous consequences for thousands of children.

Cardinal Pell has been a reluctant participant in the Royal Commission into Institutional Sexual Abuse. Pell is the only person to be called before the Royal Commission for a third time. Scheduled to appear in December 2015, he submitted a last minute request to appear via video-link, citing poor health that prevented his travel to Australia. The Commission declined his request. At this stage it is unclear if or when Pell will appear.

My prediction – we won’t see Cardinal Pell physically in Australia again, at least until the Royal Commission has completed its work and submitted its findings. Perhaps never.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 20th, 2016

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Attorneys in the Diocese of Gallup bankruptcy case told a judge Tuesday that they plan to submit a proposed settlement plan in early February.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma said he hopes to schedule a confirmation hearing in April to finalize the settlement and resolve the 26-month-old case.

An attorney representing 57 alleged victims of sexual abuse said in a phone interview Tuesday that the settlement may include a release of church documents by the diocese.

Two members of the claimants’ committee are negotiating with the diocese about “nonmonetary” issues such as document disclosures and policy changes, said James Stang, a Los Angeles attorney who represents alleged victims.

The Diocese of Gallup in November 2013 became the ninth Roman Catholic diocese in the U.S. to file for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in response to lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children by clergy.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Press and Journal

20 January 2016 by Jon Hebditch

A police probe into claims of historic child abuse at a Moray monastery has ended with no one being charged.

The investigation focused on allegations a young boy was violently sexually abused and two others suffered physical harm at 13th century Pluscarden Abbey in the 1960s and 1980s.

Officers began making inquiries at the Roman Catholic abbey – the only working medieval monastery in the UK – after being contacted by a man who claimed to have suffered abuse.

Both he and a second man who also made allegations of abuse at the Benedictine monastery have discussed their claims with support group White Flowers Alba.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

Dave Aeikens

St. John’s Abbey says it has released the files of 18 monks believed to have sexually abused children.

The 18 files include nine monks who have died and two who have separated from St. John’s Abbey and live as laymen.

The other seven files include monks who live on the St. John’s campus under a safety plan the abbey has developed.

The abbey said in a statement it knows of no incident of sexual abuse of a minor by a monk at St. John’s in more than two decades.

The files include detailed personal information on the monks that is protected by state and federal laws, the statement said.

“The victims need to know the scope, the magnitude, the horrific nature of this abuse,” said Charles Reid, a St. Thomas professor and Catholic Church expert. “When we learn everything about these priests, it benefits everyone,” Reid said.

You can read the files here.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

Ben Rodgers, brodgers@stcloudtimes.com

COLLEGEVILLE — St. John’s Abbey announced Tuesday it released the personnel files of 18 monks who have been accused of sexual misconduct against minors.

The release of the personnel records is a part of a 2015 settlement of a sexual abuse lawsuit brought against the abbey and one of the 18 accused monks.

The monks whose files were released include Allen Tarlton, Richard Eckroth, Tom Gillespie, Finian McDonald, Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Fran Hoefgen, Othmar Hohmann and Bruce Wollmering.

According to the abbey, nine of the monks whose files have been released are now deceased, and two have left the abbey. The other seven live at the abbey under a campus safety plan, according to the abbey’s statement issued Tuesday.

The files that were published on Tuesday were released to Jeff Anderson & Associates law firm, who would publish the files in their entirety. According to a release from the law firm, nine of the 18 files were released in 2015.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Matt Sepic Collegeville, Minn.
Jan 19, 2016

St. John’s Abbey on Tuesday made public the personnel files of 18 monks it says have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors decades ago.

The release of the papers is the result of a lawsuit settled last spring. The pages number in the thousands. They include everything from the monks’ birth and baptismal certificates to work assignments on the 2,700-acre campus.

There are also many personal letters and emails, as well as psychosexual assessments from doctors.

Attorney Jeff Anderson had already made documents public on nine of the monks. Abbot John Klassen says the release of the rest is the abbey’s latest step in reckoning with allegations of sex abuse.

“We look at this as a 30-year process of responding in a positive way to respond to survivors, secondly to make sure we hold offenders accountable, and thirdly to make sure that we’re living in a safe environment.”

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By John Fitzgerald

St. John’s Abbey on Tuesday released personnel records on 18 monks accused of sexual abuse against minors. Ben Rodgers of the St. Cloud Daily Times reports that the files were released to Jeff Anderson & Associates law firm, which notes that seven of the 18 monks were allowed to work in diocese after initial reports of abuse. The files are available at The Minnesota Transparency Initiative’s website. The monks are Andre Bennett (dead), Michael Bik (on restriction), Robert Blumeyer (dead), Cosmas Dahlheimer (dead), Richard Eckroth (dead), Thomas Gillespie (on restriction), Francis Hoefgen (no longer a monk), Othmar Hohmann (dead), Dominic Keller (dead), John Kelly (no longer a monk), Brennan Maiers (on restriction), Finian McDonald (on restriction), Dunstan Morse (on restriction), James Phillips (on restriction), Francisco Schulte (on restriction), Allen Tarlton (on restriction), Pirmin Wendt (dead), Bruce Wollmering (dead).

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MINNESOTA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 19, 2016

or … The proof is in the paper, but only if you can find it.

And the monks at St. John’s want to make sure you never find it.

Today, Minnesota Public Radio announced that St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville (MN) is releasing the secret sex abuse files of 18 predatory monks in a large document dump. The monks were forced to release the files to victims as a result of a 2015 lawsuit brought by a victim from the St. John’s Prep School. In theory, it was supposed to be up to the victim when the documents were made public.

Some of the 18 predators whose files are slated to be released live in the St. John’s Monastic Residence (location C above – right smack between the Prep School dorm and cafeteria, in case you were wondering if the offending monks had access to students on campus.). The prep school has students from the 6th to 12th grades. High schoolers can live on campus.

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MINNESOTA
Saint John’s Abbey – Minnesota Transparency Initiative

Saint John’s Abbey is voluntarily releasing the files of monks who credibly have been accused of sexual abuse of minors. These files include the personal letters, medical records, legal documents, and other papers that document every aspect of these monks’ lives. They are being released with the consent of the monks in the hope that their disclosure will help survivors.

Read an interview with Abbot John Klassen, OSB, on the importance of the files and their role in the abbey’s decades-long journey to help the healing of survivors, to hold offending monks accountable and to prevent abuse. The interview is here.

The release of these files builds on a more-than-quarter-century-long record of transparency by the Abbey, including multiple times in which the names of those credibly accused have been made public. In no way do we minimize the actions of the monks or the harm caused survivors. We do believe, though, that a fair discussion of these issues must include some critical facts:

* No incident of sexual abuse of a minor by a monk of Saint John’s has occurred in more than two decades. Saint John’s is a safe and nurturing environment. …

Monk Status Summary

Bennett, Andre
Bennett_Summary_History
Bennett_1

Bik, Michael
Bik_Summary_History
Bik_1

Blumeyer, Robert
Blumeyer_Summary_History
Blumeyer_1

Dahlheimer, Cosmas
Dahlheimer_Summary_History
Dahlheimer_1

Eckroth, Richard
Eckroth_Summary_History
Eckroth_1
Eckroth_2

Gillespie, Thomas
Gillespie_Summary_History
Gillespie_1

Hoefgen, Francis
Hoefgen_Summary_History
Hoefgen_1

Hohmann, Othmar
Hohmann_Summary_History
Hohmann_1
Hohmann_2
Hohmann_3
Hohmann_4
Hohmann_5
Hohmann_6

Keller, Dominic
Keller_Summary_History
Keller_1

Kelly, John
Kelly_Summary_History
Kelly_1

Maiers, Brennan
Maiers_Summary_History
Maiers_1
Maiers_2

McDonald, Finian
McDonald_Summary_History
McDonald_1
McDonald_2
McDonald_3

Moorse, Dunstan
Moorse_Summary_History
Moorse_1
Moorse_2

Phillips, James
Phillips_Summary_History
Phillips_1

Schulte, Francisco
Schulte_Summary_History
Schulte_1
Schulte_2

Tarlton, Allen
Tarlton_Summary_History
Tarlton_1
Tarlton_2
Tarlton_3
Tarlton_4
Tarlton_5

Wendt, Pirmin
Wendt_Summary_History
Wendt_1

Wollmering, Bruce
Wollmering_Summary_History
Wollmering_1

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune JANUARY 19, 2016

St. John’s Abbey released its personnel files on 18 monks credibly accused of sexually abusing minors on Tuesday, but the files already were being labeled incomplete by victims’ advocates.

It marks the first time the abbey, long the subject of sex abuse allegations, has made its files public. The release was the result of a legal settlement reached by a St. Cloud man who said he was sexually abused by a monk as a 14-year-old prep school student in 1977.

The monks worked as teachers, counselors, parish priests and chaplains across Minnesota and beyond. The files reveal how they were transferred to other religious work even as the abbey was aware of sexual improprieties.

“The files share heartbreaking and tragic details of suffering inflicted on survivors of misconduct,” said Abbot John Klassen. “We in the monastic community grieve the pain and suffering of those who have been harmed.”

But Patrick Marker, a former St. John’s Preparatory student who has long run a website focusing on sexual misconduct at the abbey, said the list is incomplete.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

1/19/2016

St. John’s Abbey Releases Files of 18 Monks Accused of Sexual Abuse as Required by 2015 Settlement

Monks Were Allowed to Work Elsewhere After Abbey Received Abuse Reports, Including Minnesota Dioceses

Dioceses of St. Cloud, Duluth and Crookston Have Yet to Release Their Files on Accused St. John’s Monks

(St. Paul, MN) – St. John’s Abbey today released personnel files of 18 of its monks who were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors. The documents in the files show that several of these monks were allowed to work at other parishes and dioceses internationally, in the United States and in Minnesota, without warning to parishioners or the public in those locations, after St. John’s Abbey received abuse reports about them.

Today’s release was required pursuant to the terms of the 2015 settlement of a sexual abuse lawsuit brought by Troy Bramlage against St. John’s Abbey and the Rev. Allen Tarlton, one of the 18 credibly accused monks. Nine of the 18 files were previously released publicly by Jeff Anderson and Associates, Bramlage’s attorneys, pursuant to the settlement in 2015. The files of the following credibly accused monks were released previously: Tarlton, Richard Eckroth, Tom Gillespie, Finian McDonald, Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Fran Hoefgen, Othmar Hohmann and Bruce Wollmering. The other nine monk files released today are those of Michael Bik, Brennan Maiers, Dunstan Moorse, James Phillips, Francisco Schulte, Andre Bennett, Dominic Keller, James Kelly and Pirmin Wendt.

The files show that multiple accused monks were allowed to work at other locations after the Abbey received abuse reports, including:

• Hoefgen – Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and Diocese of Marquette, MI;
• Hohmann – Diocese of Duluth, Diocese of St. Cloud
• Tarlton – Bahamas, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Archdiocese of Louisville;
• Eckroth – Bahamas
• Schulte – Bahamas, Rome, Mexico City, Oregon, Diocese of Crookston, Diocese of St. Cloud;
• Moorse – Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Archdiocese of Santa Fe;
• Maiers – Diocese of Duluth, Diocese of St. Cloud

“It is alarming that so many of these credibly accused monks were allowed to work at other parishes, dioceses and communities after St. John’s Abbey received abuse reports,” said Mike Finnegan, attorney for Bramlage. “Parishioners, parents, kids and communities were not warned about the monks’ abusive past. We urge the Dioceses of St. Cloud, Duluth and Crookston to release all files and documents on these monks and any other credibly accused priests.”

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3473 Cell/612.817.8665
Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3473 Cell/612.205.5531
Mike Bryant: Office/320.259.5414 Cell/800.359.0061

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OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 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)

Long-secret records about a child molesting Catholic cleric who worked in Oregon have been released because abuse victims insisted on the disclosure as part of a legal settlement. Oregon church officials should tell parents, parishioners and the public about him.

He’s Father Raymond Francisco Schulte. (His photo is at BishopAccountability.org) As recently as 2010, he was living in Rome. But around 1998, he worked at three missions of the Parish of St. Patrick in Madras, Oregon (in the Baker diocese).

[Jeff Anderson & Associates]

He is accused of sexually molesting a child in 1988 and of knowing about abuse by two other clerics (Br. Dunstan Moorse and Br. John Kelly). His Catholic supervisors claim he’s living a “restricted” lifestyle in Minnesota at St. John’s but has reportedly traveled often, including to Italy. Two boys filed a civil abuse and cover up suit against him in 2010 and one year later, another similar suit was filed in Puerto Rico. At least one of those suits has settled. And church officials from two institutions – St. John’s Abbey and the St. Cloud diocese – have included his name on lists they’ve made public of credibly accused clerics.

Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample and Baker Bishop Liam Cary should personally visit the parishes near where Fr. Schulte lived or worked (even temporarily), begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to come forward. They should also use parish bulletins, church websites and pulpit announcements across the entire diocese to seek out others who may have been assaulted and are still suffering. And they should permanently post on his diocesan website the names, photos and whereabouts of every child molesting Oregon are cleric, whether alive or dead, diocesan or religious order, or admitted, proven or credibly accused. (About 30 US bishops have done this. It’s the bare minimum a bishop should do to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded.)

We hope that every single person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in Oregon will summon the strength to speak up. Kids are safer only when victims, witnesses and whistleblowers are courageous enough to act. Silence is tempting but it only helps wrongdoers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By EMMA GLANFIELD FOR MAILONLINE

A children’s pastor raped two vulnerable teenage girls after grooming them on Facebook, a court heard today.

Timothy Storey, 35, allegedly led a ‘double life’ expounding Christian values of abstinence at St Michael’s Church in Victoria, central London, while targeting young girls from the congregation.

Storey began his ‘incremental, insidious’ grooming by sending the girls flattering messages on Facebook, jurors at Woolwich Crown Court heard.

He allegedly sent explicit sexual content including photographs of his penis and his manipulation of the women was so powerful one of them described him as ‘more influential than God’, jurors were told.

Storey is said to have bullied girls when they didn’t submit to his demands, telling one she ‘wasn’t worth wasting a condom on’.

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ITALIA
Perugia Today

[Father Lucio Gatti, who has been accused to sexual abuse and other kinds of abuse, is back in court but the discussion is about compensation for the victims.]

È iniziato oggi il processo, in sede civile, a Don Lucio Gatti. Il prete che patteggiò in sede penale, due anni di reclusione, per abusi sugli ospiti della Comunità di Sanfatucchio di Castiglione del Lago (PG) che egli stesso dirigeva.

Diversi i capi di imputazione che lo riguardavano, tra i più importanti abuso dei mezzi di correzione e abuso sessuale. Umiliava e ricattava i suoi assistiti, spesso persone abbandonate e con problemi di tossicodipendenza, fino al punto da abusarne sessualmente.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 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)

We are thrilled that Rev. Jacob Malone has been arrested but we hope law enforcement officials will investigate and perhaps charge others at his churches – in Minnesota, Pennsylvania or Arizona – who may have ignored or concealed his child sex crimes.

[NBC 10]

Very often, such investigations turn up evidence that fellow church employees or members knew of or suspected child sex crimes but kept silent. We hope that’s not the case here. But it’s important that such investigations happen. That’s the best way to deter current and future cover ups in other churches.

We hope every single person who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Malone or cover ups by his colleagues will find the strength to call police, expose wrongdoers and protect kids.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Crown Prosecution Service

An independent inquiry into allegations made against Lord Greville Janner

Response to the independent inquiry into allegations made against Lord Greville Janner

19/01/2016

On Friday 15 January, Mr Justice Openshaw brought to an end criminal proceedings against Lord Greville Janner for child sexual offences, after the Central Criminal Court received formal evidence of his death.

The conclusion of criminal proceedings means that the findings of an independent inquiry into the handling of past allegations of sexual abuse by Lord Janner can now be published.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) commissioned the inquiry last year, when she stated that decisions not to prosecute following previous investigations into Lord Janner were wrong. Retired High Court Judge Sir Richard Henriques was asked to conduct a thorough and independent review into the CPS decision making and handling of all past allegations relating to the Lord Janner case and to make any recommendations he felt appropriate.

The independent inquiry found:

* The decision not to charge Lord Janner in 1991 was wrong and there was enough evidence against him to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for offences of indecent assault and buggery. In addition, the police investigation was inadequate and no charging decision should have been taken by the CPS until the police had undertaken further enquiries.

* In 2002, allegations against Lord Janner were not supplied by the police to the CPS and accordingly no prosecution was possible. This merits investigation by the IPCC.

* There was sufficient evidence to prosecute Lord Janner in 2007 for indecent assault and buggery. He should have been arrested and interviewed and his home searched.

Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders said: “The inquiry’s findings that mistakes were made confirms my view that failings in the past by prosecutors and police meant that proceedings were not brought. It is a matter of sincere regret that on three occasions, opportunities to put the allegations against Lord Janner before a jury were not taken.

“It is important that we understand the steps which led to these decisions not to prosecute, and ensure that no such mistakes can be made again.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 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 Detroit priest who rose to become an archbishop but resigned amid controversy is back in Michigan and generating more controversy. He’s accused of sexual impropriety with several Detroit area seminarians, retaliating against one who rebuffed his advances, concealing clergy sex crimes, and interfering with an investigation into his alleged sexual misdeeds.

For seven years, Archbishop John Nienstedt headed the Catholic church in St. Paul Minnesota. But he stepped down last year ten days after prosecutors filed criminal charges against Nienstedt’s archdiocese, becoming “the nation’s first (to be) charged with failure to protect children,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

But three days ago, Nienstedt said his first masses at his new post at St. Philip’s parish in Battle Creek in the Kalamazoo diocese. He has deep roots in the Detroit area (see below).

This is a stunningly reckless and callous move. We call on Pope Francis to reverse it all of Michigan’s bishops to denounce it. Again, he is accused of committing sexual misconduct and concealing child sex crimes. Why take the risk that he’ll hurt young Michigan Catholics or betray adult Michigan Catholics?

This is an outrage. Kalamazoo church officials are putting young people in harm’s way. It’s just that simple.

Shame on Kalamazoo Bishop Paul Bradley, Twin Cities Archbishop Bernard Hebda and on every single Catholic priest, employee and parishioner who silently approves or accepts this dangerous decision without protest.

As Michigan’s “metropolitan” prelate, it’s especially important that Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron denounce this move.

This is a key reason clergy sex crimes, misdeeds and cover ups continue in the church: because those who commit these heinous acts are still usually protected – and sometimes promoted – regardless of how much harm they cause.

We urge Michigan Catholics and citizens to learn about Nienstedt’s deceitful handling of the abuse and cover up crisis, especially the case of Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer, at BishopAccountability.org

Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, like Nienstedt, resigned because of the abuse crisis. Pope John Paul later put Law back into a church. Pope Francis is allowing the same irresponsible move here. Arguably, this is worse. Law was never personally accused of sexually abusing or exploiting anyone.

Catholics who believe their church hierarchy has “reformed” and now handles abuse cases “better” should take note. This decision shows that Catholic officials still put the wishes and needs of their brother bishops ahead of nearly every other consideration, including the safety of the flock.

Again, Pope Francis should stop this reckless and hurtful move.

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DEUTSCHLAND
religion.orf

[According to a former member of the Regensburg cathedral choir said many teachers at the world-famous boys’ choir were not only physically and sexually violent but they also had Nazi pasts. These included former SA, SS and Nazi party members that could not teach in a regular schools, according to Udo Kaiser. Kaiser is among sexual abuse victims at the choir and he said he was abused at the time Georg Ratzinger was choir director.]

Laut einem früheren Mitglied der „Regensburger Domspatzen“ waren viele Lehrer bei dem weltberühmten Knabenchor nicht nur gewalttätig und sexuell übergriffig, sondern hatten auch eine NS-Vergangenheit.

„Das waren ja lauter frühere SA-, SS- und NSDAP-Leute, die an einer normalen Schule nicht unterrichten durften“, sagte Udo Kaiser einem Kathpress-Bericht zufolge der Berliner „tageszeitung“ (taz). Es werde nichts getan, um diese Verbindungen aufzuklären. Kaiser wurde nach eigenen Angaben in seiner Zeit bei den Domspatzen, deren Kapellmeister 1964 bis 1994 Georg Ratzinger, Bruder von Papst Benedikt XVI., gewesen war, sexuell missbraucht. Die Diözese Regensburg habe das bis heute nicht anerkannt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

Der Zwischenbericht zu den Misshandlungs- und Missbrauchsfällen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen hat offenbar noch mehr Betroffene ermutigt, sich beim zuständigen Juristen Ulrich Weber zu melden. Seit seiner Pressekonferenz am 8. Januar hätten ihm 60 weitere Personen von körperlicher Gewalt berichtet, sagte der unabhängige Anwalt am Dienstag dem Bayerischen Rundfunk (BR): “Meine Neutralität ist der Grund dafür, dass sich erneut Opfer bei mir melden. Sie haben den Eindruck, bei mir Gehör zu finden.”

Das Bistum Regensburg selbst wollte sich nicht zu den neuen Zahlen äußern. “Unabhängigkeit bedeutet, dass wir die Arbeit von Herrn Weber nicht kommentieren”, sagte ein Sprecher auf Anfrage der Katholischen Nachrichten-Agentur (KNA).

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[An additional 60 people have come foward to say they suffered abuse at the Regensburg choir school. The lawyer conducting the investigation previously announced that 231 were victims.]

Am 8. Januar hat der Regensburger Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber seinen Zwischenbericht über Misshandlungen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen vorgelegt – mit dem Ergebnis, dass sich seitdem 60 weitere Opfer bei ihm gemeldet haben. Ein ehemaliger Domspatz sagt außerdem, dass viele prügelnde Lehrer NS-belastet waren.

231 Fälle körperlicher Gewalt und 62 Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs von 1953 bis 1992 nennt der mit der Klärung der Vorfälle beauftragte Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber in seinem Zwischenbericht. Die meisten Misshandlungen seien in der früheren Vorschule der Domspatzen in Etterzhausen und dann in Pielenhofen bei Regensburg begangen worden. Weber geht davon aus, dass die Dunkelziffer der misshandelten Kinder noch deutlich höher liegt. Das zeigen auch die aktuellen Reaktionen auf seinen Zwischenbericht: In den vergangenen zehn Tagen haben sich 60 weitere Opfer körperlicher Gewalt gemeldet.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[Conductor Lothar Zagrosek discusses his time spent at the Regensburg boys choir school in the 1950s.]

Mindestens 231 Fälle körperlicher Misshandlungen habe es bei den Regensburger Domspatzen gegeben, so der mit der Aufklärung betraute Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber. Erstmals äußert sich nun auch ein großer Name der Musikwelt als Betroffener: der Dirigent Lothar Zagrosek. Hier sein Bericht.

“Mein Name ist Lothar Zagrosek. Ich war mit meinem Zwillingsbruder Eberhard und einem drei Jahre jüngeren Bruder Johannes in den Jahren 1952 bis 1959 in Etterzhausen und in Regensburg. Die Schilderung meiner Erlebnisse möchte ich auf einige wenige aber signifikante Erinnerungen beschränken. Mein kleinerer Bruder Johannes hatte einmal während einer Messe nicht sofort mitgesungen, weil er das Kirchenlied im Liederbuch nicht gleich gefunden hatte. Daraufhin wurde er noch während der “heiligen” Messe herausgerufen und in der Bibliothek so geschlagen, dass man eine Putzfrau rufen musste, um das Blut aufzuwischen. Sein Ohrläppchen war eingerissen.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016

For more information: David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org), David Ouellette, NH SNAP Leader (603-833-0391, SNAPNH@SNAPnetwork.org)

Victims urge prosecutors to pursue predator priest
He admitted abuse and pledged to stay away from kids
But he’s worked for years at two more NH churches
SNAP to AG: “Investigate whether he violated plea deal”
Group also prods Hillsborough County Attorney to act

A victims’ support group is urging New Hampshire prosecutors to investigate whether an admitted predator priest broke a legal agreement that he stay away from children.

Fr. Mark Fleming, who now lives in Manchester, “admitted molesting three boys” and “signed an agreement that forbade him from ‘participating in any future religious, educational, or organized social programs which involve children,’” according to legal documents and news accounts.

“The Hillsborough County Attorney’s office agreed not to seek indictments if Fleming stuck to the deal,” the Concord Monitor reported yesterday.

But until recently, Fr. Fleming worked at South Parish Unitarian in Charlestown, NH (603 826 3418) and before that at the First Universalist Church of West Chesterfield(603-256-6193, betseybrackett@hotmail.com, Shanjmac@gmail.com).

[Concord Monitor]

“If prosecutors sign plea deals with predators, they must enforce those deals,” said David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “Unitarian officials admit he worked at these churches. He may, in fact, have worked in other settings around kids. So we beg New Hampshire’s Attorney General and Hillsborough County’s prosecutor to investigate this troubling situation.”

Documents from the Manchester diocese and the attorney general’s office “reveal that Fleming admitted molesting three boys at Saint John the Evangelist Parish in Hudson in 1983” and Fr. Fleming’s work at those churches “may have broken his (non-contact) agreement,” the Concord Monitor reported on Monday.

“A murderer shouldn’t work in a gun shop and an admitted serial child molesting cleric shouldn’t work in a church, especially when he’s sworn to law enforcement that he won’t,” said David Ouellette of Rochester, SNAP’s New Hampshire Director. “Common sense tells us Fr. Fleming broke his word. But only an independent investigation by experienced law enforcement professionals can tell us he has assaulted more boys or girls since his 1984 plea deal.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas C. Fox | Jan. 18, 2016

The call came 36 years ago this month. It was the always-scheming Arthur Jones. He said he would be in Washington, wanted to sit down at the National Press Club over lunch. Jones was NCR editor; I was then an editor at The Washington Star. I’d written for NCR over the years and always enjoyed Jones’ edgy journalism style.

We had corresponded over the years and had met once, in Rome, during the conclave following Pope Paul VI’s death in 1978. He was there for NCR; I, for the Detroit Free Press, where I was a reporter before coming to the Star.

Over lunch at the Press Club in January 1980, Jones asked if I might consider coming to Kansas City, Mo., as NCR editor. As I had just come to Washington 18 months before, I told him the timing was bad.

He was persistent. Two months later, he called again. “There’s no other journalism position in America with the freedom and satisfaction of NCR editor,” he again said. Would I consider coming to Kansas City, just to look around?

Well, you know where this story went. …

And, of course, in June 1985, we began coverage of the clergy sex abuse tragedy. Alone for years, we were persistent and faced much ecclesial and social pressures. Jones, and later editors Tom Roberts and Dennis Coday, have stayed the course, much to their credit.

Countless other reports, exposés and features have filled NCR’s pages over the years. The late 1990s and early 2000s were years of editorial transition, from print to electronic. It has meant our reporting has gotten much faster, our reach farther. We have gone from weekly to hourly, from national to global.

And in the past two years, we’ve added Global Sisters Report to our editorial repertoire. It has been a creative source of energy within the company, highlighting some of the best work going on in the church today.

Oh, the rich memories.

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MINNESOTA/MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 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)

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP outreach director (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

“I’m being picked on because of the evil news media’s and gay marriage supporters.” That’s what the just-moved ex-head of the Twin Cities Catholic archdiocese told his new Michigan flock last Sunday.

[Battle Creek Enquirer]

Shame on Archbishop John Nienstedt. We hope his ducking and dodging will persuade prosecutors to cut him and his complicit church colleagues no slack and those with knowledge of and suspicions about his own sexual misconduct to step forward.

In the Twin Cities, some 400 child sex abuse victims have come forward in recent years. Some 66 clerics are proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesters. The archdiocese faces pending criminal charges for refusing to report suspicions of child sex crimes to police.

But no matter. Nienstedt’s to blame for none of this. It’s tragic, and telling, that even now he can’t find the humility to admit, or even pretend to admit, a single lie, deceit, misstep or irresponsible move.

Like thousands of Catholic clerics who commit or conceal heinous child sex crimes, Nienstedt has quietly been moved out of state and recklessly put back to work in a parish even though he’s accused of

–sexual impropriety with young seminarians
–retaliating against at least one of them who rebuffed his sexual advances
— repeatedly minimizing, enabling and hiding child sex crimes by other clerics.

The archdiocese he headed for years faces a pending criminal charges. And he’s one of about two dozen US bishops to resign in the face of allegations of committing and/or concealing clergy sexual misdeeds.

But he’s done nothing wrong, he’s telling his new Battle Creek Michigan parishioners. Shame on him.

While providing no proof or specifics, he self-servingly claims that

–news media last week reported “misleading information” about him and
–that “some would like to punish (him) for (his) defense of Catholic teachings (on) marriage.”

How convenient to cry “misinformation” while refusing to give media interviews or even a single example of inaccurate reporting. How disingenuous to attack and claim to know others’ people’s motives.

Every US Catholic bishop opposes gay marriage. So why haven’t pro-gay marriage forces gotten every bishop to resign and every diocese to be criminally charged and every prelate to be accused of molesting six or more seminarians and retaliating against one who rejected his sexual advances?

We hope Nienstedt’s mind-boggling denials will prod:

— St. Paul prosecutor John Choi to double down on his effort to hold Nienstedt and his: colleagues responsible for their irresponsible decisions to protect themselves and endanger others,
— St. Paul Catholic officials, especially Archbishop Bernard Hebda, to denounce Nienstedt, and

– every single person who saw, suspected or suffered sexual misdeeds or cover ups in Minnesota or Michigan will find the strength to call police, expose wrongdoers and protect kids.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jan. 19, 2016

After years of raising concerns to U.S. bishops about potential holes in their clergy sexual abuse policies to little avail, a group of Catholic advocates has requested Vatican intervention.

Catholic Whistleblowers, in a formal request for investigation, alleges the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has not followed through fully on its policy of zero tolerance toward abusive priests and deacons, in part because its guidelines lack a mechanism to assure that bishops send the necessary cases to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In addition, the organization argues that the conference uses a higher bar than church law to determine which cases require review by Rome.

“In a deliberate and ongoing way, the USCCB reneges on its commitment [to zero tolerance]. The conference does not exercise the leadership necessary to assure that known sexually abusive priests and deacons are removed from the community and that the community is warned about the sexually abusive priests and deacons,” Fr. James Connell, a canon lawyer and a member of Catholic Whistleblowers, said in the letter.

The U.S. bishops’ conference declined comment on the petition, saying that since it was sent to the Congregation for Bishops, the conference defers to the Vatican on how the questions raised are addressed.

The 13-page letter, dated Jan. 4, is addressed to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and was mailed to more than 450 U.S. bishops. It requests a formal investigation into the U.S. bishops’ practices, particularly those spelled out in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, or the Dallas Charter. Like previous petitions Catholic Whistleblowers has sent the Vatican, the latest cites Canons 1389 and 1399 of the Code of Canon Law, arguing the U.S. bishops’ conference has caused harm and scandal through its policies and behavior to address sexual abuse.

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

Sarah Mac Donald | Jan. 19, 2016

DUBLIN Irish clerical abuse survivor Marie Collins has said she hopes 2016 will see results from the work of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, despite the “frustratingly slow” pace of the reforms being developed by it.

Speaking to NCR in a personal capacity, Collins, a member of the commission, admitted that she has found Vatican bureaucracy “very difficult.”

The safeguarding body, which is starting its third year of work, is headed up by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley and holds its next plenary meeting at the beginning of February.

“We do work in our working groups in between these big plenary meetings. A lot of it is done electronically. We’re working all the time. It is busy and quite stressful,” said Collins.

Collins, who brought the priest who abused her as a sick child in a Dublin hospital in the 1960s to justice in 1997, warned that “there is still resistance” within the church to safeguarding protocols and that is why the commission’s work is “essential.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 1/19/16

WEST CHESTER, Pennsylvania — Police say a married Pennsylvania pastor wanted on charges he raped and impregnated a teen girl is back in the United States and in custody.

West Whiteland Township police tell WCAU-TV that Jacob Malone arrived Monday at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport from Ecuador. He was arrested by customs agents and is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania.

The 33-year-old Exton resident was charged earlier this month with rape, institutional sexual assault and other crimes. Police say it began in September 2014, when the girl was 17.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyVoice

BY CHRISTINA LOBRUTTO
PhillyVoice Staff

A Chester County pastor accused of raping and impregnating a teenage girl has been arrested, CBSPhilly reports.

Jacob Malone, 33, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers upon his arrival back in the United States at Newark Liberty International Airport.

West Whiteland, Pa. Detective Scott Pezick told People Thursday afternoon that Malone, of Exton, had been in Ecuador for approximately two weeks.

He is expected to face charges of rape, institutional sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of minor and furnishing liquor to a child, according to the detective.

Malone reportedly met the victim when she was 12 while he was a pastor at a church she attended in Mesa, Arizona. In 2014, he reached out to the then-17-year-old girl and invited her to stay with him and his family at his new home in Minnesota, where he allegedly tried to have inappropriate contact with her.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NJ.com

By Jeff Goldman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 19, 2016

A former pastor at a Pennsylvania church who fled to Ecuador after allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl was arrested entering the country at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday, authorities said.

Jacob Malone, 33, of Exton was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals and will be extradited to Chester County to face charges of institutional sexual assault and rape, West Whiteland, Pa., police said in a news release.

Malone met the victim when she was 12 and he worked at a church in Mesa, Arizona. The married father then moved to a church in Minnesota before relocating his family to Downington, Pa in 2014.

The then-17-year-old girl moved in with Malone and his family soon after they settled in suburban Philadelphia, police said. He allegedly provided the victim alcohol after she turned 18 and sexually assaulted her on one occasion after she became intoxicated, police said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

[with video]

A former Chester County, Pennsylvania, pastor wanted on charges he raped and impregnated a teen girl sat behind bars Monday morning after returning to the United States to face charges.

Jacob Malone, who lived in Exton, was in Ecuador as allegations came to light that he raped a girl while working at Calvary Fellowship Church in Downingtown, said police.

Malone arrived in Newark, New Jersey and was taken into custody by United State Customs agents at Liberty International Airport, said West Whiteland Township Police..

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

“Basta essere presi in giro, ora voglio i fatti”. Dopo 6 anni di attesa che sono pesati come un macigno sulla sua vita, quella della moglie e i suoi 2 figli, Diego Esposito ha deciso di intraprendere una clamorosa protesta, lo sciopero della fame ad oltranza.

Diego è tra le altre cose l’unica delle vittime della rete L’ABUSO ad aver ricevuto una risposta scritta dal Vaticano, nella quale gli si prometteva di intervenire, ma dopo più di 2 anni, dopo l’assordante silenzio della Diocesi di Napoli che per ora si è limitata a nascondere il prete, Diego non ce la fa più. “Le vittime chiedono giustizia e vedere impunito il proprio carnefice non è giustizia, ma un’ulteriore violenza”, commenta Diego.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[NAPLES January 18, Diego Esposito (not his real name) has begun a hunger strike to the death because Father Silverio Mura, who Diego alleges abused him, is hiding from the curia.]

Come annunciato la scorsa settimana, è iniziato questa mattina lo sciopero della fame a oltranza di Diego Esposito (nome di fantasia) , vittima don Silverio Mura, il sacerdote napoletano nascosto dalla curia.

Una protesta civile e non violenta con la quale Diego vuole sensibilizzare la Diocesi e le gerarchie vaticane alle quali chiede da 6 anni “verità e giustizia”. Scrisse anche a Papa Francesco il quale rispose a Diego, ma a distanza di due anni da quella risposta, Diego denuncia che niente è cambiato.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

[Andreas Ebert was abused as a child in the evangelical Windsbach Boys Choir. He has forgiven the perpetrators. This is a conversation about covering up in the Catholic and Protestant churches.]

Andreas Ebert wurde als Kind im evangelischen Windsbacher Knabenchor misshandelt. Er hat den Tätern verziehen und wurde Pfarrer. Ein Gespräch über Vertuschung in der katholischen und evangelischen Kirche.

Interview: Hannes Leitlein

Frage: Bei Missbrauch steht meistens die katholische Kirche im Fokus. Sie wurden im evangelischen Windsbacher Knabenchor drangsaliert.

Andreas Ebert: Gegen die Vorkommnisse in Regensburg war das in Windsbach vergleichsweise harmlos. Dort ist mir kein Fall sexuellen Missbrauchs bekannt. Doch es gab auch bei uns ein System der Gewalt. Delinquenten wurden vom Internatsleiter übers Knie gelegt und mit der Peitsche behandelt. Sein Nachfolger hat im Jähzorn brutal zugeschlagen. Unser Chorleiter wandte selten körperliche Gewalt an. Das lief vor allem auf der psychischen Ebene ab. Für ihn waren wir “Stimmmaterial”. Wenn wir versagten, wurden wir erniedrigt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Aachener Zeitung

[The Aachen diocese has stop paying a priest accused of sexual abuse.]

AACHEN. Der wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs verurteilte Pfarrer K. aus Nettetal erhält kein Geld mehr vom Bistum Aachen. Das bestätigte am Montag Bistumssprecher Stefan Wieland auf Anfrage unserer Zeitung.

Nachdem der Bundesgerichtshof K.s Revision im Herbst verworfen hatte und das Urteil des Landgerichts Krefeld rechtskräftig wurde, habe das Bistum die Zuwendungen in Höhe von 1100 Euro pro Monat gestrichen. Unmittelbar danach habe das Bistum die Akten des Falles in den Vatikan geschickt, wo nun das kirchenrechtliche Verfahren läuft, sagte Wieland weiter.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Baden Online

[An allegation of sexual abuse has been made against Father Richard.]

Gegen Pater Richard aus der Seelsorgeeinheit Zell am Harmersbach ist der Vorwurf des sexuellen Missbrauchs erhoben worden, das teilte ein Sprecher des Kapuzinerordens heute per Schreiben mit. Der Fall liege weit über 30 Jahre zurück. Pater Richard habe das Kloster bereits verlassen und lasse derzeit alle Ämter ruhen.

Pater Richard aus der Seelsorgeeinheit Zell am Harmersbach lässt ab sofort seine Aufgaben in der Seelsorgeeinheit und im Kloster ruhen. Das teilte der Provinzial der Kapuziner, Bruder Maruinus heute über einen Sprecher des Ordens in einem Schreiben mit.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Evangelisch

[Those affected by sexual abuse are calling for an overhaul of the penal code as it relates to sexual abuse.]

Sexualisierte Gewalt an Kindern, Jugendlichen und Erwachsenen sei nach wie vor ein mehr oder weniger straffreies Delikt, beklagte der Betroffenenrat beim Missbrauchsbeauftragten der Bundesregierung am Dienstag in Berlin. Neben Gesetzesänderungen sei auch eine repräsentative Studie über den Umgang mit Sexualstraftätern bei der Polizei, den Staatsanwaltschaften und Gerichten nötig.

“Wir fordern, dass das Ausmaß und die Existenz sexualisierter Gewalt in allen Gesellschaftsschichten sowie das Leid und die Folgen von erlebter sexualisierter Gewalt gesellschaftlich anerkannt und nicht totgeschwiegen werden”, heißt es in der Stellungnahme des Betroffenenrats. Das Gremium rief die Opfer von Übergriffen in der Silvesternacht, aber auch alle anderen Betroffenen auf, über die Taten zu sprechen und sich Hilfe zu suchen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
epd

[Abuse expert misses academic workup.]

Der Leiter des Kinderschutz-Zentrums an der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom vermisst akademisch-theologische Arbeiten über den Missbrauch von Kindern in der Kirche. “Die akademische Theologie hält Abstand zu dem so schweren, abgründigen Thema”, sagte der deutsche Theologe, Psychologieprofessor und Psychotherapeut Hans Zollner der Zeitschrift “Publik-Forum”. Es gebe “nahezu keine Veröffentlichungen”. Es stellten sich aber dringende Fragen wie die, was es bedeute, beim Täter von Vergebung zu sprechen und bei einem Opfer von Erlösung oder Heilung.

Wichtig sei es auch, zu erforschen, was der Missbrauch von Kindern für das Bild der Kirche von sich selbst bedeute oder was es heiße, dass der Priester als “Mann Gottes” ein Täter sei, sagte Zollner, der auch Mitglied der Päpstlichen Kommission für den Schutz von Minderjährigen ist. Bischöfe delegierten das Problem gern an Psychologen und Kirchenrechtler, kritisierte der Vizerektor der Universität Gregoriana und sagte: “Das genügt nicht.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy

Every single day, I try my best to read – or at least skim – every single article about clergy abuse I can find. One reason is because of guys like Fr. Anthony Daly, a Jesuit.

And I try even harder to read the smaller or more obscure new sources. One reason is because of stories like the one I recently saw in the St. Louis University News. There I found a statement by Fr. Daly that’s very telling.

WHAT HE SAID

Fr. Daly confirmed that each year he takes (an abuse) exam (from his religious order).

“Every year I’ve got to do [the exam] so that if someone sues our order, the settlement will be less.”

[The University News]

WHY IT MATTERS:

Catholic officials have long claimed their abuse policies, procedures and protocols are well-intentioned. We disagree.

They claim the policies are about “helping” victims and “preventing” abuse.

We say they’re about smart public relations and legal defense.

And Fr. Daly’s comment proves our point.

LET’S GET SPECIFIC

Look at some of the parts of the “Dallas Charter” and ask yourself “Who really benefits from this?”

— They set up one person in each diocese to handle abuse reports. This makes dioceses look good. But ask yourselves: is this genuine reform, or simply savvy PR and simple efficiency? (And ask yourselves: did any mom or dad try to report the abuse of his or her child but give up because the diocese had no “point person” designated to handle abuse.)

— They’ll talk of fingerprinting/background checks of staff. But most church officials conceal clergy sex crimes so predator priests rarely have convictions on their records. And this doesn’t address the core issue: corrupt, callous bishops with limitless power.

— They set up review boards, but these panels are entirely handpicked by bishops, made up almost always of just Catholics, have no real power, can only make recommendations, and get almost all of their information from the same chancery staff who have concealed and are concealing pedophile priests. And again, these committees don’t address the core issue: corrupt, callous bishops with limitless power that is often abused.

— They talk of training kids & volunteers. But of course this doesn’t address the core issue: corrupt, callous bishops. And other groups that deal with kids did this decades ago. And actions speak louder than words, so all the workbooks and talk and training sessions have little impact when the church hierarchy remains secretive, reckless, & unresponsive.

— They talk of ‘codes of conduct’ that employees must now sign saying “I won’t abuse.” But these are, of course, utterly meaningless. (Is there a child molesting cleric anywhere who pondered molesting a kid, realized he or she had never signed a pledge to NOT molest, so opted to go ahead and molest?)

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KENYA
Standard Digital

By Mercy Kahenda

Police are interrogating three suspects who allegedly burnt a minor in Ponda Mali estate on the outskirts of Nakuru town, claiming they were exorcising demons from her.

The suspects were reportedly in a group of seven, all of whom are members of The Holy Spirit of Israel Church during the last Friday night incident. County Police Commander Hassan Barua said four other suspects associated with the burning of the 13-year-old girl are still at large.

Mr. Barua said police officers are following leads to arrest the suspects, who are well known to the victim.

“Officers are following some leads to arrest the suspects, who have since gone into hiding. This is a criminal incident that cannot be accepted,” he said.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Rev. Alexander Santora/For the Jersey Journal
on January 19, 2016

Archbishop Bernard Hebda made it official: he’s staying in the Newark Archdiocese.

Ever since the coadjutor or assisting Archbishop, was given a second job last June as Temporary Administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis, rumors have swirled that he would remain there. “I will be there until a new man is installed and expect to come back,” said Hebda in a wide-ranging, one-hour interview in the archbishop’s conference room at the Newark chancery on Clifton Street. “I’ve said this from the very beginning.”

Having come to Newark in November 2013, Hebda made a very positive impression as he visited parishes, schools, deanery meetings and attended events. But much of that has been curtailed since he travels to Minnesota weekly – a five hour trek to get to and from the airport with a three hour flight.

Archbishop John Nienstedt resigned on June 15, 2013. Archbishop Carlo Vigano, the Apostolic Nuncio, called Hebda the Saturday before to alert him to the possibility and inform him that Pope Francis would appoint him administrator.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Rajeev Syal
Monday 18 January 2016

A former Conservative MP who is under investigation for child murder has accused the Metropolitan police of attempting to kill off the Westminster paedophile inquiry to protect the careers of senior officers.

Harvey Proctor made the claim after the Met’s Operation Midland – which is investigating claims that establishment figures murdered and raped boys – dropped claims of child abuse against the war hero Lord Bramall.

Steve Rodhouse, deputy chief constable of the Met, who is in charge of Operation Midland, has written to Proctor’s solicitors to say that detectives are assessing new information which could be relevant to their inquiry.

The former MP for Billericay, who denies the claims against him, said Rodhouse’s latest claim was part of a plan to kill off Operation Midland by degrees.

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ROME
Catholic Herald (UK)

Mgr Nunzio Scarano was found not guilty of involvement in a huge tax evasion plot

A former Vatican accountant has been cleared of corruption and plotting to smuggle millions of euros into Italy via a tax evasion scheme.

Mgr Nunzio Scarano was chief accountant for Apsa, which manages the Vatican’s property portfolio, until his arrest in 2013.

At a court in Rome, Mgr Scarano was found innocent of corruption and attempted money-smuggling but was convicted of making false accusations against one of his co-defendants, and was handed a two-year suspended sentence.

Mgr Scarano had denied plotting to transport €20 million (£15.2 million) in untaxed cash on a private plane from Switzerland to Italy.

A financial broker and a former intelligence agent were also allegedly involved in the plot, prosecutors claimed, but the agent was not able to carry out the plan.

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ROME
International Business Times

BY VISHAKHA SONAWANE ON 01/19/16

A court in Rome acquitted a former Vatican accountant Monday of corruption charges and plotting to smuggle millions of untaxed euros into Italy from Switzerland. Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was also facing a separate trial for money laundering in the southern Italian town of Salerno, charges he denied.

Prosecutors alleged that Scarano conspired to smuggle 20 million euros (about $22 million), using a private plane, from Switzerland in a tax-evasion scheme on behalf of a rich family of ship owners from Naples, Agence France-Presse reported. The Rome court acquitted Scarano of corruption and attempted money-smuggling charges but found him guilty of making false accusations against one of his co-defendants, for which the ex-accountant was handed down a two-year suspended sentence, according to AFP. Scarano, who has been nicknamed “Mr. 500” for his reported tendency to carry 500 euro bills on his person, denied any wrongdoing.

According to prosecutors, a former intelligence agent and a financial broker were also part of Scarano’s money-smuggling plot. They added that the agent, who allegedly rented the private plane, was unable to execute the plan. During the trial, the cases involving the agent and the broker were separated from Scarano’s case, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Scarano worked for Apsa, an organization that looks after the Vatican’s real estate holdings and stock portfolios, until his arrest in 2013. After his arrest, the Vatican froze the monsignor’s assets, worth 2.2 million euros (over $2.3 million).

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Prestigious Hobart boys school, The Hutchins School, has admitted that “more could have been done” to respond to concerns about the sexual abuse of students.

The school has formally responded to findings of abuse at the school, which were outlined in a report by the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission investigated reports of abuse by former headmaster David Lawrence and teacher Lyndon Hickman in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the Anglican Church’s response.

It noted that given the number of students who had complained about sexual abuse and the number of teachers implicated, the nature of the school environment “clearly placed students at risk”.

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AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
The Times of Israel

For more than a year, the State Attorney’s Office has been trying without success to extradite an ultra-Orthodox woman who is wanted in Australia on 74 counts of sexual assault against Jewish girls who were her students in a Melbourne school.

The woman, Malka Leifer, allegedly assaulted the girls while she was principal of the Adass Israel School in Melbourne, Australia, until 2008.

Leifer today lives in Bnei Brak, a largely ultra-Orthodox city in central Israel where she is under house arrest. She fled Australia to Israel, allegedly with the help of school employees, on the night she got wind of the allegations against her in 2008.

The school psychologist told Leifer that she was facing arrest, and on the same day the school staff bought plane tickets for her and her family, according to evidence presented at a civil trial in Australia last year.

Most of Leifer’s alleged victims were 14-15 years old at the time of the assaults.

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WASHINGTON
The Daily World

A handful of former Catholic clergymen from Grays Harbor and Pacific counties have been included on a list of clergy and religious officials accused of sexually abusing a minor.

The list was compiled by the Archdiocese of Seattle and is “being published as part of the Archdiocese of Seattle’s ongoing commitment to transparency and to encourage persons sexually abused by clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the church to come forward.”

Included on the list are Richard Stohr, who was assigned at Our Lady of Good Help in Hoquiam from 1970-1973, James McSorley, assigned to St. Mary in Aberdeen in 1982 and Anthony Slane, who was assigned to Our Lady of Good Help in Hoquiam from 1982-1987.

In Pacific County, James Knelleken was at Immaculate Conception in Raymond from 1958 to 1964.

All four of the men are deceased.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Patrick Beretta

Leaves fall early in Montana. On the first day of October, the trees, in front of St Patrick Church in Butte, seemed to welcome Bishop George Thomas with bare, ascetic arms. He was coming to our church to deliver a solemn message on the terribly dark subject of child abuse. On all of us gathered, the crisis had taken a heavy toll. None of us knew what to expect. As we waited, our souls felt as naked and cold as branches.

Just as humanity has always been on the move, from its origins the Church has also been in motion. Since the time of the apostles it became a pilgrim church on the Silk Road, Roman thoroughfares, Mediterranean sailings. But the primary journey of the Church has always been interior. Some of these pilgrimages within were transcendent, some were tragic. The recent child abuse scandal has been a pilgrimage of great shame and sorrow.

My only personal encounter with the horror of child abuse was not within the Church. Years ago, I had a restaurant employee who, one evening, did not come to work. After days of wild speculations and contradictory rumors, his daughter came to see me. Nothing in life had prepared me for the experience she recounted. Her father had been arrested because, as a child, she had been sexually abused by him. The staff and I knew them both very well and we literally felt physically sick for days afterwards. The dreadful abuse of one child had made victims of all of us.

Since the painful subject of clergy sexual child abuse came to the attention of the media, a false narrative has emerged. The scrutiny and the numerous investigations and reports have given the false impression that child abuse is essentially a catholic scourge. Whereas all surveys in the US and other countries have shown this crime to be widespread and not specific to particular religious affiliations. Indeed some evidence shows that the incidence in public institutions is higher. And, further, most abusers by far are family members and home is the most common setting

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UNITED STATES
Forward

No matter what happens at the Oscars, the very best film of 2015 was “Spotlight,” the improbable drama of how a team of newspaper reporters painstakingly revealed an institutional cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The film’s excellence lay not only in its superb acting and storytelling, but in the way it humanized without sensationalizing the lasting pain of child abuse.

Who can forget the scene of a tough Bostonian recounting how a priest molested him when he was a vulnerable youngster? His confusion, embarrassment and shame were laid bare on the screen before us, allowing us to viscerally understand how it can take years for a young victim to comprehend what happened and to muster the courage to challenge a figure of religious authority.

That image needs to remain in our sights, alongside the images of the young men the Forward wrote about in 2012 and 2013 who bravely stepped up to reveal the abuse they suffered at the hands of esteemed rabbis at Yeshiva University High School for Boys.

And it should remain alongside the stunning essay by Sara Kabakov published in this week’s Forward, where she for the first time detailed how she was repeatedly molested in her home by the former rabbi and spiritual guru Marc Gafni when she was only a teenager and he was a rabbinical student.

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AUSTRALIA
Geelong Advertiser

January 18, 2016

DANNY LANNEN
Geelong Advertiser

PARISH priest Fr Kevin Dillon wants St Mary’s Basilica’s Yarra St fence to shout on behalf of victims of institutional sexual abuse.

The acclaimed advocate joined abuse survivor Chris Pianto tying ribbons to the fence yesterday, signalling it had become part of the Loud Fence movement which originated in Ballarat and has gone global.

Fr Dillon urged people to follow the lead by tying ribbons for themselves or in support of victims they might know.

“The invitation is there,” Fr Dillon said.

“Such a simple little sign lots of people can do which over time will bring I think a sense of recognition for people.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Item

LYNN —Â The longtime pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish, The Rev. James Gaudreau, is not being charged after a yearlong investigation into an allegation of child sexual abuse.

“I thank God and His Blessed Mother for this day of deliverance, and I thank all those parishioners of St. Joseph’s Parish and others who stood by me and prayed for me during this long ordeal,” Gaudreau said in a statement through his attorney. “My conscience was always clear. I knew that I was innocent of any wrongdoing. I was also confident that, in time, I would be thoroughly exonerated.”

But Gaudreau remains on administrative leave pending the conclusion of an investigation by the archdiocese.

“While the criminal investigation may have concluded, Gaudreau is well aware that the ecclesiastical process can now continue,” Terrence Donilon, a spokesperson for the archdiocese, said in an email Monday. “Under our policies and procedures a preliminary investigation may now continue given that it will not interfere with a civil investigation. Gaudreau remains on administrative leave and restricted from public ministry. Our thoughts and prayers remain with all persons affected by these matters.”

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SLOVENIA
STA

Ljubljana, 19 January – The Supreme Court has upheld a 2013 judgement that ordered the Catholic Church to pay damages to a victim of a paedophile priest thus setting a precedent for any further damages suits, according to the daily Delo.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Rosemary Parker | rparker3@mlive.com
on January 19, 2016

BATTLE CREEK, MI — A pastor was sick. Another priest was available.

When Archbishop John Nienstedt celebrated three Masses at St. Philip Catholic Church this weekend, he was merely helping out his old friend Fr. John Fleckenstein, who is ill. He plans to continue to help as needed for about a six months.

In the eyes of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, it’s just a matter of old friends who made an arrangement between themselves in a way that does not violate any rule of the Diocese, a spokesperson said.

Nienstedt may have passed muster with church leaders. But many parents, community members and former victims of sexual abuse are angered by the arrival of the archbishop who is embroiled in one of the ugliest clergy sex scandals in the country, at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Nienstedt and his high-ranking clergy were accused of repeatedly ignoring warnings, for years, about sexually abusive priests, and of failing to contact law enforcement to report possible criminal acts they knew about.

“The entire nation’s Roman Catholic child sexual abuse scandal just moved to Battle Creek,” said former Catholic priest and monk Patrick Wall, now a Minnesota attorney, about the decision to allow Nienstedt to fill in as a temporary volunteer priest here.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

[with video]

By Connie Leonard

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – It was a shocking confession when a Louisville priest and former St. Margaret Mary Pastor admitted to accessing child porn. Now, as Steven Pohl waits to be sentenced, some parents have signed a petition demanding photographs.

According to the parents attorney, the petition has more than 100 signatures. During the investigation of Pohl it was discovered that he took photos of some students fully clothed, in what was described as inappropriate stances or positions.

Parents involved with the petition want to make sure those photos are preserved so they can see them and depending on what they find, a civil suit could follow.

Even if there were no student victims at St. Margaret Mary as Federal investigators have said, there were some students who ended up in those clothed photos taken by Pohl. Those photos were not part of the child pornography case against the priest who has now pleaded guilty to accessing child porn on his computer. Some parents want to see them anyway. A parent driven petition obtained by WAVE 3 News asks the Archdiocese of Louisville, St. Margaret Mary, the U.S. Attorney’s office, the FBI and other agencies to provide those the images. A return letter from the school explained to parents that Federal authorities have the images.

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MINNESOTA/MICHIGAN
City Pages

BY MIKE MULLEN
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016

t’s hard enough getting a job these days. Here’s a tip: You don’t have to include all of your work experience, especially if you’re not sure listing a previous gig will help you get the new job. Say, for example, your former employer is in bankruptcy, and you’ve been indicted as a lead figure in a conspiracy to cover up the sexual abuse of children. That might be something you would leave off your resume.

This sort of selective memory is our best guess for the surprisingly swift career comeback for Archbishop John Nienstedt. Nienstedt held that post with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for eight years. But he vacated his position in June, for some fairly obvious reasons. The church was in bankruptcy, and, by August, would be facing more than 400 claims of sexual abuse by parishioners.

Reason number two: The archdiocese had been indicted on criminal charges, which alleged that Nienstedt and other higher-ups in the church had repeatedly ignored or quieted disturbing talk about Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, now in prison for sexual abuse and child pornography.

The nature of Nienstedt’s assignment by the Kalamazoo Diocese is unclear: He’s filling in for another priest, who has come to Mayo Clinic for treatment of a serious illness; it’s also not apparent if Nienstedt is being paid or is just taking the position as a favor to the church.

His role was announced quietly in a local church bulletin, and Nienstedt has variously been described as “retired” or “emeritus,” as in this statement, given to the National Catholic Reporter:

“Archbishop Emeritus Nienstedt begins his temporary ministry at St. Philip Parish as a priest in good standing, having met the Church’s stringent standards required to attain that status.”

Said “good standing” is good enough for some of Nienstedt’s new parishioners, who told WWMT television station in Michigan that Nienstedt seemed like a decent enough guy on first impression. One guy shook hands with Nienstedt, and thought that went well. Another churchgoer says Nienstedt “denies any kind of wrongdoing and I feel he is telling the truth.”

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LOUISIANA
Beaumont Enterprise

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Retired Archbishop Francis B. Schulte, who led the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1989 to 2001, has died in his native Philadelphia.

Archdiocese spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey McDonald says Schulte died on Sunday at a church-run retirement facility. He was 89.

Schulte, who was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1952, served as a bishop in Philadelphia and in West Virginia before he became the archbishop in New Orleans. McDonald said Schulte moved back to Philadelphia several years after his 2001 retirement.

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LOUISIANA
Louisiana Record

Chris Galford
Jan. 18, 2016

BATON ROUGE — One case has given rise to another, as the Rev. Jeff Bayhi filed a defamation and false light suit against Baton Rouge’s WBRZ-TV on Nov. 20, alleging the station misrepresented allegations in another case involving the Catholic priest as facts.

The case in question pertained to Rebecca Mayeux, who claims that at the age of 14 she was sexually abused by a now-deceased parishioner in Bayhi’s church, Our Lady of the Assumption in Clinton. In that case, she alleges Bayhi neglected his duty to Louisiana law by failing to report the alleged abuse. At the heart of the case is the notion that she made these initial claims in confessional. The question is whether the confidentiality of confessional overrides the obligation to report abuse.

“Should Father Bayhi violate that sacred seal in any way, his faculties as a Roman Catholic priest would be immediately and automatically suspended by the Vatican itself,” Henry Olinde Jr., Bayhi’s lawyer who is with the law firm of Olinde & Mercer in Baton Rouge, noted in the suit against WBRZ.

Previously, the Baton Rouge diocese had attempted to block Mayeux’s testimony on the grounds of that sacred seal, but State District Judge Mike Caldwell ruled that seal was Mayeux’s to break. After some back and forth up the legal chain, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the notion that priests are mandatory reporters of abuse and likewise that Mayeux had every right to waive her privilege of confession.

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ROME
Wall Street Journal

By LIAM MOLONEY
Jan. 18, 2016

ROME—A Rome court acquitted a former Vatican official on corruption charges tied to allegations that he had tried to smuggle millions of euros into Italy from Switzerland.

The court found Msgr. Nunzio Scarano innocent of having corrupted public officials as part of an alleged attempt to bring €20 million ($21.8 million) from Switzerland to Italy in a private plane in 2012 on behalf of friends.

Prosecutors alleged that Msgr. Scarano was working with a former member of the Italian Secret Service and a financial broker, but that the plan ultimately fell through because of bickering among the trio. He was accused of having bribed Italian police to smooth the way for transporting the cash. The two other individuals are being tried separately.

The monsignor is an accountant who had been a senior official at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, or APSA, the Vatican office that manages the Holy See’s large real estate holdings. APSA has come under scrutiny for a lack of transparency in its financial dealings and is one of the targets of reforms to clean up the Holy See’s financial management.

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ROME
Boston Herald

Associated Press Monday, January 18, 2016

ROME — A court in Rome Monday acquitted an Italian monsignor, who was fired from his job as a Vatican accountant, of corruption, a defense lawyer for the priest said.

According to prosecutors, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was involved in a plot to use a private plane to try to smuggle 20 million euros (about $22 million) from Switzerland into Italy in a tax-evasion scheme. They suspected the money had been deposited in Switzerland to avoid Italian taxes.

A lawyer for Scarano, Silverio Sica, confirmed Italian news reports that the court acquitted his client of corruption but convicted him on a slander charge and gave him a suspended two-year sentence. The monsignor had denied any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors alleged that a former intelligence agent and a financial broker were part of the plot along with Scarano. The ex-agent, who allegedly had rented a plane to fly to Switzerland to get the money, never was able to carry out the mission, prosecutors contended. During the trial, the cases involving the ex-agent and the broker were separated from Scarano’s case.

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ROME
News 24

Rome – A former Vatican accountant known as “Mr 500” for his cash-rich lifestyle was acquitted by an Italian court on Monday of corruption and attempted money-smuggling.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was a chief accountant for APSA, the organisation that manages the Vatican’s vast real estate portfolio, before his arrest in June 2013 for allegedly plotting to smuggle millions of euros in cash into Italy.

Investigators had accused Scarano of hatching a plot to use a private plane to repatriate €20m that were untaxed from Switzerland, on behalf of a rich family of ship owners from Naples.

A court in Rome found Scarano innocent of corruption and attempted money-smuggling, but guilty of making false accusations against one of his co-defendants, slapping him with a two-year suspended sentence.

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ROME
Daily Mail

By Philip Pullella

ROME, Jan 18 (Reuters) – A former Vatican prelate was acquitted on Monday of conspiring to smuggle millions of euros in cash into Italy from Switzerland for rich friends.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano worked for 22 years as a senior accountant in APSA, a Vatican department that handles real estate and stock investments for the Holy See.

He was dismissed from his post after Italian magistrates charged him in June 2013 with plotting, along with an Italian secret service agent and a financial broker, to smuggle 20 million euros ($21.8 million) into Italy.

Prosecutors said a private plane had gone to Locarno in Switzerland in 2012 to pick up the cash and bring it into Italy without tax and customs controls. The plane returned without the cash because of last-minute complications at the Swiss bank where it was being held, officials said at the time.

The court in Rome found Scarano innocent of corruption and attempted money smuggling but guilty of a separate, lesser charge of making false accusations against one of the other defendants, for which he received a two-year suspended sentence. His two accused co-conspirators are being tried separately.

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