ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Dec 11, 2015

Last February, I had the distinct privilege to interview Jonathan Hollingsworth and his mom, Amy Hollingsworth about Runaway Radical and the darker sides to being “radical for Jesus”. However, it was not until just a couple of months ago that my wife and I were finally able to finally meet these two heroes in person and share a wonderful meal together. I hope it will be the first meals of many! Jonathan returns this week as a guest writer to share about the dangers of mob forgiveness that finds redemption stories where they don’t exist, while at the same time affirming perpetrators and re-traumatizing victims.

I am grateful for the life and voice of my friend, Jonathan Hollingsworth. – Boz
______________________________

A small town in Missouri recently came under fire for rallying around an accused child sex offender and shunning the abuse victim—even after the offender pleaded guilty in court.

“If it takes a village to raise a child,” said a local prosecuting attorney, “what is a child to do when the village turns its back and supports a confessed child molester?”

The townspeople, who were described as deeply religious, insisted that the sex offender was a “good man” who had already suffered enough and that “only God knows” what really happened.

It’s a familiar ritual, one that’s performed everywhere from small towns in Missouri to megachurches, a subtle form of mob justice where the primary weapons are not pitchforks and torches but mercy and forgiveness. Whenever a beloved Christian figure gets caught in a sexual abuse scandal, it’s not long before the Christian mob comes rushing to his defense.

On the surface, this redemption-over-retribution approach might seem well within the Christian mandate to love one’s enemies and forgive one’s transgressors. However, there’s a fine line between offering a perpetrator grace and denying a victim justice, and it’s a line that Christian culture crosses all too often.

Minimizing wrongs

Mob forgiveness follows a progression. First, the perpetrator’s supporters (family, friends, colleagues, and the like) come out of the woodwork to defend him. Here, the mob doesn’t deny that the perpetrator did anything wrong. Rather, the mob reframes what the perpetrator did in a way that makes it seem less wrong.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By MAI FERNANDEZ

The critically acclaimed movie “Spotlight,” currently in theaters, is a compelling real life look at the cover up of heinous acts by priests against children in Massachusetts that was unearthed by the Boston Globe. It is a powerful story about the active efforts to hide the truth as well as the harm done to innocent victims. It is time that the spotlight be put on New Jersey.

New Jersey is no exception to these horrors and, what is worse, it does little to protect the victims. In fact, the state is ranked in the bottom half of the country in safeguarding children from sexual abuse and letting molesters off the hook, according to an analysis of all 50 states by SOL-Reform.com.

According to data from the Crimes Against Children Research Center, one in five girls and one in 20 boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. In more than half those cases, a trusted person, such as a family member, a coach or a scoutmaster, abused the child. Despite the prevalence, up to 90 percent of the cases are never reported.

We must do better to protect our most innocent of victims. Yet the State Senate refuses to act on bipartisan legislation introduced by Senator Joe Vitale, a Middlesex County Democrat, who is trying to bring decency and good sense to our state.

Institutions that enable sexual predators have been lobbying tenaciously to prevent the bill’s passage as they successfully did in 2012. They seek to avoid responsibility for failing to protect the children placed in their care. How is it that a bill intended to serve such vulnerable and innocent victims is so obviously being stalled?

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

Dec. 10, 2015

VICTIM David Ridsdale says seeking legal redress against the Diocese of Ballarat for abuse he suffered at the hands of his uncle was like being molested all over again.

“It was extremely traumatic, that was my experience,” Mr Ridsdale said. “It was just as traumatic in some ways and the trauma continues for me.”

Catholic Church Authorities attempted to pressure Mr Ridsdale’s parents to drop the charges against notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale, the child sex abuse inquiry heard.

A transcript of the minutes of a Catholic Church Insurances body meeting tendered to the inquiry, revealed Monsignor Glynn Murphy warned Mr Ridsdale’s parents they could “expect a fight” if they pursued legal action against the disgraced priest.

Mr Ridsdale said while it was vindicating to have public acknowledgement of the way victims were treated, it was also “extremely disturbing” to have his fears confirmed.

“They (Catholic Church authorities) were in cahoots,” he said. “This is stuff that we’ve believed and talked about for years.Having it confirmed is both great and also extremely disturbing.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Cardinal George Pell’s appearance at the child abuse royal commission has been deferred, but he’s been told he must still come to Australia to give evidence in person.

The commission has rejected a bid by Cardinal Pell to give his evidence via videolink from Rome after his lawyers argued it would unsafe for him to travel to Australia due to serious health issues.

Cardinal Pell was to appear before the inquiry in Melbourne from Wednesday to give evidence about clergy abuse in the Melbourne archdiocese and the Ballarat diocese.

Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said Cardinal Pell will now have to give evidence in Ballarat in February. ‘In the hope that the cardinal’s health will improve, rather than take video evidence this week, we will defer his evidence to the Ballarat sitting in both the Ballarat and Melbourne case studies,’ Justice McClellan said.

‘If the cardinal’s health has not sufficiently improved by then to enable him to travel, we will further consider the position, which may include further delaying his evidence to a date when he can travel safely to Australia.’

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VATICAN CITY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Vatican City, December 11 – The Vatileaks 2 trial may take up to two months to resume, Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Friday.

“A delay of two months is plausible” given the time needed to prepare various expert testimony, he said.

Earlier this week a Holy See court ruled that Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin should be called as a witness.

The court granted a request by the defence team of one of the five accused, Francesca Chaouqui, to call as witnesses Parolin and Santos Abril y Castello’, the president of the Commission of Cardinals of the Vatican bank, IOR.

The court rejected a petition by Chaouqui’s lawyers challenging the Vatican’s jurisdiction over the case on the grounds that the alleged crimes took place in Italy.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Melissa Cunningham
Dec. 11, 2015

CLERGY sex abuse survivors have been left reeling by news Cardinal George Pell will not be appearing at the child sex abuse inquiry next week. Victim and nephew of disgraced priest Gerard Ridsdale said the lives of survivors had been thrown into turmoil again.

He called for Cardinal Pell to “come and face the music” like the survivors have been forced to do for years.

Cardinal Pell is unable to make his anticipated appearance at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse next week due to ill health, his lawyer has said.

Cardinal Pell’s counsel, Allan Myers QC, told the hearing on Friday that Cardinal Pell, who is based in Rome, had “serious health conditions” and would be unable to fly to Australia to appear at the inquiry on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, at the request of Cardinal Pell, Mr Ridsdale and fellow survivor Timothy Green were cross-examined for allegations they had made about the senior Vatican.

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NEW YORK
Church Militant

by Bradley Eli, M.Div., MA.Th.

(Reader discretion advised) BRONX (ChurchMilitant.com) – Parishioners in the archdiocese of New York have filed a lawsuit against a priest accusing him of embezzling more than $1,000,000 from two parishes since 2003. Further charges are that the money was used in part to fund his drug-laced sex parties with a homosexual prostitute. The lawsuit alleges these crimes were perpetrated with the full knowledge of the archdiocese and Cdl. Timothy Dolan.

For the last several months, ChurchMilitant.com has been investigating the allegations against Fr. Peter Miqueli, pastor of St. Frances de Chantal in Throgs Neck, New York.

A September report by ChurchMilitant.com describes allegations against Fr. Miqueli that he has been ransacking parish funds for nearly a decade to the tune of approximately $1,000,000.

Almost two years ago parishioners started a website and Facebook page to document Fr. Miqueli’s radical behavior.

Another ChurchMilitant.com report filed last week raised the question as to how the archdiocese is still allowing this priest to continue in his ministry with these allegations.

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NEW YORK
Daily Mail (UK)

By ALEXANDRA KLAUSNER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A Catholic priest is accused of stealing over $1 million in donations for years of dirty sex with a muscled homosexual S&M master.

Rev. Peter Miqueli, 53, who is currently a pastor at St. Frances de Chantal in Throggs Neck is accused of taking from the donation plate at leading churches on Roosevelt Island and in The Bronx where he led the congregations.

A lawsuit filed on Thursday in the Manhattan Supreme Court by furious parishoners claims that Miqueli would spend $1,000 at a time for bondage sessions with a ‘homosexual sex master’ named Keith Crist.

The lawsuit also claims that the Archdiocese of New York and Timothy Cardinal Dolan knew about Miqueli’s ‘illegal scheme’ and did nothing to stop it.

‘This lawsuit seeks to finally put an end to this truly sinful conduct so that St. Frances de Chantal parish can regain the strength, spirituality and faith it once had before Father Miqueli arrived,’ court papers say.

The New York Post reports that during sex sessions, Miqeuli was forced to drink Crist’s urine. Miqeuli and his ‘lover’ shared a home in Brick, New Jersey after Miqueli paid $264,000 six years ago. Miqueli also $1,075.50 a month for Crist’s East Harlem apartment.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP

A Catholic bishop now says he was rash when he told a pedophile priest some child sex abuse victims were trying to get “some easy cash”.

The child abuse royal commission has heard Bishop Brian Finnigan, then Ballarat diocese vicar-general, told convicted pedophile Gerald Francis Ridsdale in 1994: “Some of these fellows now see the opportunity to obtain some easy cash.”

Bishop Finningan, now a Brisbane auxiliary bishop, said it was a rash statement and not his view of child sex abuse victims who sought damages from the church.

“It’s a rash statement not given much thought to at the time when it was written,” Bishop Finnigan told the commission.

Bishop Finnigan said he could not remember details of a number of meetings where the movement of priests was discussed, from 1979 to 1998 when he was bishop’s secretary, a member of the College of Consultors and then vicar-general.

Challenged about his lack of memory of important issues about priests offending against children by counsel assisting the commission Angus Stewart SC, Bishop Finnigan said he did not recall them.

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CALIFORNIA
JWeekly

by drew himmelstein, j. staff

A few years ago, Congregation Beth Jacob faced a situation without precedent in the Redwood City synagogue: a teenage student working as an aide in a religious school classroom was accused of inappropriately touching two young girls.

“My community was rocked,” said Rabbi Nathaniel Ezray. “I’m sometimes amazed about how we’re ill-prepared for things we need to be prepared for.”

The experience provided a quick education for the congregation, which reported the situation to authorities and consulted with an outside expert for guidance in handling it. The synagogue now has explicit guidelines for those who work with children. Still, several years later, the pain hasn’t gone away.

“I think that trauma takes a long time to resolve,” Ezray said. “I think people think it was dealt with thoughtfully.”

Handling the delicate, troubling and painful issue of child sexual abuse is challenging for any synagogue, where staff members typically are not experts on such matters. Clergy and administrators may suddenly find themselves in the unexpected position of making reports to legal authorities, counseling the families of victims, protecting the rights and privacy of the accused and rethinking safety and hiring policies.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A former Catholic brother who smiled after abusing boys at a Victorian college more than 30 years ago has been jailed.

Edward Mamo, 71, was working as a groundskeeper, bus driver and sports coach when he abused 14 teenagers in the laundry room of Monivae College at Hamilton in the 1970s and 1980s.

He used a strap or cane to whip some over their bare buttocks and grabbed the genitals of others.

Mamo will spend 12 months behind bars after being handed a jail sentence of 34 months, suspended for 22 months, in the County Court of Victoria on Friday.

The court heard Mamo would punish boys for smoking cigarettes, even though he wasn’t authorised to carry out corporal punishment.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

11 December, 2015

Cardinal Pell will not be giving evidence in Melbourne next week.

Cardinal Pell’s legal representative AJ Myers QC made an application for Cardinal Pell to give evidence by video link at his scheduled appearance on Wednesday 16 December 2015. The basis of this application was the Cardinal’s current state of health.

Justice McClellan refused this application, preferring the Cardinal to give his evidence in person.

Justice McClellan noted that Cardinal Pell had previously agreed to give evidence in person.

The Judge further noted that the Cardinal’s evidence relates to two case studies which involve a significant amount of complex material. The Judge also referred to technical difficulties experienced when the Cardinal gave evidence by video link from Rome on a previous occasion.

It is expected that Cardinal Pell will be asked to give evidence in person when the Royal Commission sits in Ballarat in February 2016.

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CANADA
The Westrn Star

Diane Crocker
Published on December 11, 2015

In a decision released Thursday, a two-panel board voted Tuesday to allow Smith, 77, to be released to a community-residential facility upon bed space availability for a period of six months.

Smith was sentenced by the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador in Corner Brook in March 2013 to nine years, 11 months and 10 days in prison for 38 charges — 23 counts of indecent assault against a male, seven counts of sexual assault and eight counts of assault with intent.

The offences happened when Smith was a parish priest in several western Newfoundland communities and during trips to the mainland between 1969 and 1989.

In its decision, the board spoke of the assaults as being intrusive in nature and said Smith breached his position of trust and authority as a member of the clergy. During many of the assaults Smith was under the influence of alcohol and provided alcohol to his underage victims, the board said. It said the assaults were planned and included using bribes, manipulation and threats to gain his victims’ compliance.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

ALISO VIEJO (CBSLA.com) — A 30-year-old youth pastor suspected of engaging in inappropriate conduct with children at an Aliso Viejo church has been arrested, deputies said Thursday.

On Wednesday, Brandon McDade, of Mission Viejo, was taken into custody on suspicion of committing lewd and lascivious acts with a child and child annoyance, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

McDade is being held on $20,000 at the Orange County Jail. He is expected to appear in court on Friday.

The investigation began earlier this week when sheriff’s investigators were contacted after patrol deputies took report of allegations against McDade at Grace Hills Church, located in Aliso Viejo.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register

ALISO VIEJO – A youth pastor at an Aliso Viejo church was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of engaging in inappropriate conduct with multiple teen boys, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Brandon McDade, 30, Mission Viejo, has been booked into the Orange County Jail on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with a child and child annoyance.

He is being held on $20,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in Orange County Superior Court on Friday.

Sheriff’s investigators were contacted Monday after deputies received a report of allegations against McDade while he worked as the youth pastor at Grace Hills Church, Lt. Jeff Hallock said.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By PAIGE AUSTIN (Patch Staff)
December 10, 2015

A youth pastor at an Aliso Viejo church was behind bars today for allegedly having “inappropriate” contact with children, sometimes on church property.

Brandon McDade, 30, of Mission Viejo, was arrested Wednesday and is being held in lieu of $20,000 bail, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. It the second time in a month that a South County youth pastor has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting congregants.

Sheriff’s officials said they began investigating McDade Monday after receiving a report of inappropriate conduct. While investigating, detectives contacted several other alleged victims, each of whom indicated there had been inappropriate conduct by McDade over a two-year period when he worked as a youth pastor at Grace Hills Church, according to the sheriff’s department.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

December 11, 2015

Christopher Knaus
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

Marist ignored allegations that a now notorious paedophile teacher was sexually abusing students, instead shuffling him between schools, in one case even promoting him to principal, and failing to refer complaints to police, the royal commission has found.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse delivered its formal findings on the cases of Brother John Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, and another Marist brother, Gregory Sutton, on Friday.

The pair abused students for decades at a string of schools across Australia, including many at Marist College Canberra.

When allegations child molestation surfaced, they were handled woefully, with the brothers simply moved between schools, given warnings, or placed under “supervision”.
The failings allowed the pair to continue to access and abuse vulnerable children, the royal commission found.

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EL SALVADOR
Channel News Asia

Posted 11 Dec 2015

SAN SALVADOR: El Salvador’s Congress on Thursday passed legislation to remove the statute of limitations on sex crimes against minors as the country’s church faces a growing number of abuse cases.

The bill said that “serious crimes” of sexual abuse of children and teenagers have gone unpunished due to the statute of limitations.

In November, the church fired a senior priest and former secretary of murdered Archbishop Oscar Romero after allegations that the priest had sex with a minor. Another priest has also been accused.

According to victims, the crimes took place decades ago and authorities could not investigate the accused priests.

Jose Escobar, archbishop of San Salvador’s Catholic Church, on Sunday asked lawmakers to remove the statute of limitations and he assured that the church would not cover up cases of abuse. He also denied an accusation that he tried to bribe a woman who was sexually abused by a priest to keep her quiet.

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OHIO
WKYC

CLEVELAND — A Cleveland minister who sexually abused young girls in his congregation will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty made the announcement Thursday.

A jury convicted 52-year-old Ubaldo Ocasio on one count of rape, six counts of gross sexual imposition, six counts of kidnapping, two counts of sexual battery, and four counts of endangering children.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold sentenced Ocasio to life in prison with first eligibility for parole in 128 years.

Ocasio will also be required to register as a Tier III sexual offender for the rest of his life.

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OHIO
newsnet 5

CLEVELAND – Ubaldo Ocasio, Jr., a Cleveland minister who sexually abused young girls in his congregation, has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison, according to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty.

On Thursday, Ocasio was convicted by a jury on one count of rape, six counts of gross sexual imposition, six counts of kidnapping, two counts of sexual battery, and four counts of endangering children.

After the jury found that Ocasio was a sexually violent predator, he was sentenced to life in prison by Cuyahoga County Common Please Court Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold. Ocasio will be eligible for parole after 128 years.

He will be required to register as a Tier III sexual offender for the rest of his life.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Catholic Cardinal George Pell has deferred giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, despite being due to arrive in Melbourne on Sunday.

Cardinal Pell had requested to give evidence via videolink from Rome, with his lawyers arguing it was unsafe for him to travel to Australia due to health issues.

He was due to arrive in Melbourne on Sunday, and appear before the inquiry from Wednesday to give evidence about clergy abuse in the Melbourne archdiocese and the Ballarat diocese.

A statement was released this afternoon from the office of Cardinal Pell in Rome.

“The Cardinal had booked his travel back to Melbourne and until the middle of this week was determined to return to give evidence in person,” the statement read.

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AUSTRALIA
Chronicle Daily

by Benjamin Gardner on 11/12/2015

The judge chairing the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse denied the request and said he wanted Pell, the Vatican’s prefect of the secretariat for the economy, to testify in person.

Cardinal Pell’s lawyer, Allan Meyers, QC, asked the commission on Friday to allow his client to testify via video link from Rome, where he is now head of the Vatican’s finances, citing ill health. The medical certificates detailing Cardinal Pell’s condition – which were partly in Italian – were suppressed.

‘Cardinal Pell deeply regrets this and has been preparing himself for this journey for some time but the circumstances in which he finds himself are the circumstances that exist now.

Justice McClennan said that while Cardinal Pell had previously given evidence from Rome, it was not appropriate this time as the issues before the commission were complex and involve two case studies covering an extensive period of time. Chronicle Daily

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

TIM PALMER: The child sex abuse Royal Commission which has denied a request from Cardinal George Pell to give his much anticipated evidence via video link from Rome rather than in person next week.

Lawyers for the Cardinal made the bombshell application at the hearing today, on the grounds of the Cardinal’s ill health.

That prompted laughter from abuse survivors and their supporters in the hearing room.

They’ve welcomed the commission’s insistence George Pell appear in person.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Cardinal George Pell had been due to appear before the royal commission in Melbourne next week.

He was expected to be in the witness box for about three days.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By STEPH COCKROFT FOR MAILONLINE

A Christian cult leader and psychotherapist who breastfed her clients by telling them to suckle ‘mummy’s milk’ has been jailed for a series of bizarre sexual assaults on women.

Vanessa Clark, 63, manipulated her clients into paying thousands of pounds for ‘skin to skin’ contact – including breastfeeding – which she claimed had been approved by a priest to heal depression.

The court heard Clark massaged one victim until she became aroused before telling her this was her ‘inner baby’ coming out.

Another vulnerable client, who began shaking as she spoke about her childhood, was asked by Clark: ‘Does baby want some milk?’

Clark has now been jailed for four years after ‘wholly abusing’ her position of trust as a psychotherapist.

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UNITED STATES
The Globe and Mail (Canada)

GARY MASON
The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015

There’s a scene in the movie Spotlight in which a reporter played by actor Mark Ruffalo is arguing with his editor about why their newspaper, The Boston Globe, should publish the explosive story they’ve been working on rather than hold it for further corroboration.

“This is not just Boston,” says Mr. Ruffalo, referring to the vast tentacles of sexual abuse the paper has uncovered. “This is the whole country, the whole world. They [the Catholic Church] knew and they let it happen. It could’ve been you, it could have been me. It could have been any of us.”

It’s one of many moments in the film that gave me shivers. If you haven’t seen Spotlight, you should. It’s the true story of The Boston Globe’s groundbreaking probe of child abuse by priests in the Boston Catholic church. The reporting was carried out by the paper’s investigation unit called Spotlight and earned The Boston Globe a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. The exposé did nothing less than blow the lid off the far-reaching network of sexual abuse that had been going on in the church for decades. The stories also revealed the institutional corruption that existed in the church hierarchy that allowed it all to happen.

I consider myself as lucky as Michael Rezendes, the Catholic and Boston-raised Globe reporter whom Mr. Ruffalo depicts in movie. I, too, grew up Catholic and regarded the priest I assisted each morning as an altar boy akin to God. I eventually grew out of my devotion to black robes and morning mass and escaped from that period of my life relatively unscathed. Others weren’t so fortunate. One of the priests I regularly served mass with was a pedophile. He would be convicted on three counts of gross indecency involving minors but likely hurt far, far more children than that.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald

By Melissa Cunningham
Dec. 11, 2015

FORMER Ballarat Bishop secretary Monsignor Glynn Murphy says despite having knowledge of mounting allegations of sexual abuse against children he never went to police.

Australian army chaplain Monsignor Murphy dealt with sexual abuse allegations from 1993 to 1997 as the special issues committee convenor. He told the inquiry he “implicitly” trusted Bishop Ronald Mulkearns to pass complaints onto police.

“Did I have faith and trust that the Bishop would follow through with information I gave him, yes I did,” he said. “There was no indication to me that he was not passing on any material that he should pass on.”

The inquiry also heard there was a Ballarat policeman on the church committee but no abuse claims were reported to authorties.

The culture of secrecy and concealment of child sex crimes was further exposed at the inquiry with Monsignor Murphy admitting Bishop Mulkearns kept locked files on priests and did not disclose information to other clergy.

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UNITED STATES
San Diego Union-Tribune

By Kristin Gilger Dec. 10, 2015

If your son is a priest and your daughter a journalist, “Spotlight” is a jarring movie.

There are journalists and lawyers aplenty in this recently released movie about The Boston Globe’s investigation of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, but hardly any priests.

I went to see “Spotlight” to cheer for the journalists. I’m a longtime journalist and journalism professor who raised a daughter who is an investigative reporter. But I’m also the mother of a Catholic priest. And that made “Spotlight” very difficult to watch indeed.

My son Patrick joined the Jesuit order of Catholic priests nearly 12 years ago, a decision that startled us then and still has the power to unsettle us now.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Jennifer Choi, CBC News
Posted: Dec 10, 2015

The Diocese of Moncton has filed a civil lawsuit against Co-Operators General Insurance to recoup $4.2 million dollars it paid out to victims of sexual abuse.

This case comes on the heels of another civil lawsuit in which the Diocese of Bathurst is seeking $3.3 million from Aviva Insurance.

Judge Stephen McNally is the presiding judge in both cases. The arguments in both cases are similar.

Both dioceses participated in a confidential compensation process run by Michel Bastarache. The former Supreme Court justice interviewed approximately two-hundred victims and awarded them compensation based on the age of the victim when assaulted, the severity of abuse and the frequency of abuse.

Court documents obtained by CBC revealed that the Diocese of Moncton has paid a total of $10.6 million to victims of abuse through the Bastarache process.

The diocese claims that $4.2 million dollars of that total falls within the time period in which the church had an insurance policy with the Co-operators.

That policy dates from 1977 to 1999.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey

Thursday 10 December 2015

The chair of a royal commission has rigorously challenged claims by the auxiliary bishop of Brisbane, Brian Finnegan, that he was not aware that a now notorious paedophile priest he had oversight of was suspected of abusing children.

Finnegan was secretary to the bishop of the Ballarat diocese, Ronald Mulkearns, between 1979 and 1985, a period during which Gerald Ridsdale was abusing children in his role as a priest at parishes within the diocese.

Finnegan repeatedly told the commission he had no idea of concerns about Ridsdale abusing children while working for the diocese, despite receiving a telephone call from a mother who told him she was concerned for the safety of her eldest son following his interactions with Ridsdale at a presbytery.

During the phone call, the mother told Finnegan she wanted a private meeting with Mulkearns to discuss her concerns. According to notes of that conversation tendered to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, Finnegan told the mother there was no need for concern, and there had been no reports of improper behaviour by Ridsdale.

Finnegan also did not help the mother to make an appointment with Mulkearns, and told the commission he doubted he would have informed Mulkearns of the conversation. He also said he did not take the complaint to mean there were concerns about Ridsdale abusing the boy.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Guy Stayner

The current Bishop of Brisbane ignored complaints about notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.

Bishop Brian Finnigan was the secretary to the Bishop of Ballarat in the 1980s.

In 1981, he took a phone call from concerned parents in Mortlake about Gerald Ridsdale.

Counsel Assisting Angus Steward read a statement from the parents.

“We said that the enquiry was related to the safety of our son,” he read.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey

Thursday 10 December 2015

The chair of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse has refused to allow Cardinal George Pell to appear by video link, instead deferring the hearing until February to ensure Pell can appear in person.

A lawyer representing Pell, Allan Myers, made an application for Pell to give evidence next week via video link from Rome rather than appear in person, citing health reasons.

Myers told the commission chair, Justice Peter McClellan, that Pell “deeply regrets this and has been preparing himself for this duty for some time”.

McClellan refused the request, and said he would rather Pell appear in person. He said given there were two complex matters Pell was due to give evidence on, and after technical problems when Pell previously appeared before the commission via video link, he would defer Pell’s evidence until February, when the third part of hearings into abuse within the Catholic diocese of Ballarat are due to be heard.

Victims present in the court room applauded McClellan’s decision. A substantial crowd was expected next when Pell was due to appear, and extra provisions had been made for the media to cover it.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

December 11, 2015
Padraic Murphy
Herald Sun

CARDINAL George Pell has pulled out of giving evidence at the child abuse Royal Commission next week, claiming he is too sick to travel.

Cardinal Pell applied to give evidence by video link to Rome at next week’s hearing, but that request was rejected by the Commission.

Cardinal Pell’s solicitor said he was suffering high blood pressure and could not take long flights.

Cardinal Pell was meant to arrive on Sunday ahead of his planned appearance at the Commission next Wednesday.

“Cardinal Pell is currently affect by a very serious health condition that in the opinion of his treating specialist makes travel to Australia unsafe,” the solicitor said in a letter.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

December 11, 2015

Jane Lee
Legal affairs, health and science reporter

Cardinal George Pell’s testimony to a child abuse royal commission has been delayed until next year because he is too unwell to travel to Australia.

The cardinal was to appear in person at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Melbourne next week to give evidence on how he responded to child abuse allegations as a priest in Ballarat and as the Archbishop of Melbourne.

His lawyer, Allan Myers, QC, asked the commission on Friday to allow his client to testify via video link from Rome, where he manages the Vatican’s finances, citing ill health.

The personal details of the medical certificates detailing Cardinal Pell’s condition — which were partly in Italian — were suppressed but understood to include his blood pressure. Mr Myers said he did not wish to “waive confidentiality” of his health records.

Cardinal Pell’s office released a statement shortly after the hearing, saying he had suffered from a heart condition “for some time”, and that its symptoms had “recently worsened”. A specialist cardiologist in Rome advised “it is not safe for him to undertake long haul flights in his current condition”. He “reluctantly and only on medical advice” asked to appear via video and had only decided in the “middle of this week” not to come to Australia.

Mr Myers said that the 74-year-old cardinal had booked his flights and had been due to arrive in Australia on Sunday.

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OHIO
cleveland.com

By Cory Shaffer | cleveland.com
on December 10, 2015

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The former pastor of a small West Side church was sentenced Thursday to spend the rest of his life in prison after a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing young girls in his congregation.

Ubaldo Ocasio’s first chance at parole will be after 128 years in prison, in the year 2142.

Cuyahoga County Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold handed down the sentence after a jury found Ocasio, 52, guilty on one count of rape, six counts of gross sexual imposition, six counts of kidnapping, two counts of sexual battery and four counts of endangering children.

The jury also found Ocasio to be a sexually violent predator.

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OREGON
Herald and News

By STEPHEN FLOYD H&N Staff Reporter

A local pastor accused of sexually abusing a congregation member has been released from jail, but remains barred from interacting with church members.

Larry Marshall Murrell, 63, was released Tuesday on his own recognizance while waiting trial on charges of second-degree sexual abuse and third-degree sexual abuse (two counts). As a condition of his release, Murrell is allowed no contact with the congregation or the victim, as requested by prosecutors.

Though a trial was scheduled for Wednesday, the court granted a continuance allowing Murrell’s attorney, privately retained Nathan Ratliff of Klamath Falls, more time to investigate and potentially reach a settlement with prosecutors.

A new trial date has not been scheduled and Murrell’s next court appearance is Feb. 2 before Judge Dan Bunch.

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NEBRASKA
KWBE

SIDNEY – A Jan. 12 trial date is scheduled for Roger Craig Kissel, 68, of Sidney on allegations of sexual abuse involving a five-year-old girl in 2013.

Kissel, who had led the nondenominational Sidney Cowboy Church, entered a not guilty plea to the charge in April of 2014.

Prosecutors have said the charges, which include lascivious acts and indecent exposure, are not connected with the church.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler Dec 10, 2015

Have you seen Spotlight? Although I had serious reservations about the hype surrounding the film, I found Spotlight to be an excellent movie. It is a powerful, and surprisingly accurate, retelling of the story of how the sex-abuse scandal exploded: with a Boston Globe investigation of the cover-up in the Boston archdiocese.

It wouldn’t be accurate to say that I “enjoyed” the film. Reliving those awful days, when one inexcusable action after another came to light, and the corruption of the hierarchy was exposed, put me through an emotional wringer. Yet Spotlight made me think seriously, one more time, about the important lessons that we learned in 2002—and the lessons that have not yet been learned.

I’ll be writing more about Spotlight soon. I’ll explain how the movie, which is certainly a powerful indictment of the Boston archdiocese, is also, in a more subtle way, an indictment of the Boston Globe. For that matter, there are a few scenes in which Spotlight almost indicts itself—unintentionally, I’m sure. There’s a good deal to be learned from this film, including some lessons that the filmmakers themselves missed.

But for now I’m writing with a simple (and, I admit, self-serving) purpose. Since Spotlight has reopened discussion of the scandal—with a special focus on Boston—it’s as good a time as ever to plug my own book: The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture.. Yes, it’s a book about the scandal, but it’s not just about the scandal. Nor is it just about Boston. The late Father Richard Neuhaus, in a generous review, called it “the best book-length treatment of the sex abuse crisis, its origins and larger implications, published to date.”

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Julia Marsh December 10, 2015

A Catholic priest skimmed ​from the collection plate to ​make himself a millionaire ​and pay for drug-fueled ​bondage sessions with his male “sex master,” pay his lover’s rent and take trips to Italy, Manhattan and the Bronx, parishioners​ charge in a new lawsuit​.

The startling suit ​claims ​the Rev. Peter Miqueli​​ paid $1,000 ​a session with ​a musclebound “master” named Keith Crist, who allegedly made him drink his urine, the lawsuit said.​

​The suit names ​Father Miqueli, Crist, Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the Archdiocese of New York as defendants.

The Manhattan civil suit claims Miqueli has swiped “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in donations from St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church on Roosevelt Island and St. Frances De Chantal Church in the Bronx since 2003.

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AUSTRALIA
Geelong Advertiser

December 10, 2015

Fr Kevin Dillon
Geelong Advertiser

“JIMMY” was only eight years old when he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest, soon after he started serving Mass in his local parish.

It was 1964, and he had been taught that priests were honourable people doing God’s work.

He had no idea of what to do, what to say, whom to tell.

He was bewildered, and because of what the priest had told him, even ashamed — sometimes just a little, at other times overwhelmingly guilty.

So he did nothing, said nothing, and told no one.

He had been a talented student until then — always near the top of his class. Then, inexplicably to family and teachers, his learning ran into a brick wall.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

11 December, 2015

The Royal Commission’s report of Case Study no. 13 – The response of the Marist Brothers to allegations of child sexual abuse against Brothers Kostka Chute and Gregory Sutton was released today.

The report follows a public hearing held in Canberra last year which examined the response of the Marist Brothers to allegations of child sexual abuse in schools in the ACT, NSW and Queensland.

The Marist Brothers is a Catholic Order established for the education and ‘Christian formation’ of young people. Since 1972, Marist Brothers have operated 21 schools in their own right and administered a further 74 schools on behalf of parishes or dioceses at which Brothers have been placed. Since 1984, the Marist Brothers have taught approximately 200,000 children.

Evidence before the Royal Commission showed that until the 1990s accusations or admissions of sexual misconduct by Marist Brothers were treated as highly confidential. Information concerning child sexual abuse was usually held by the Provincial (a person with direct authority over the Brothers in that Province) and, with some rare exceptions, seemed not to have been passed on to their successors or to the Provincial Council.

Between 1962 and 1993, allegations of child sexual abuse were not reported to police by the Marist Brothers. Before 1992, there was nothing kept in writing concerning the transfer of Brothers nor, before 1983, were written records kept of allegations against, or admissions by, Brothers.

Brother John (Kostka) Chute taught at various schools in Queensland, NSW and the ACT. In 2008, he was charged and convicted of 19 child sex offences against six children he taught at Marist College Canberra.

Commissioners heard the Marist Brothers knew about a number of allegations and admissions of child sexual abuse by Brother Chute but continued to transfer him from school to school.

The Commissioners found the failure to act by one Provincial resulted in a missed opportunity to remove Brother Chute from teaching or from contact with children thus putting more children at risk.

Brother Gregory Sutton also taught at a number of schools in Queensland, NSW and the ACT. In 1996 he pleaded guilty to 67 child sex offences in relation to 15 students at schools in New South Wales.

In 1985 Brother Sutton commenced teaching at St Carthage’s Primary School. In 1987, he was removed from this school. Although described as being due to problems with interpersonal relationships with staff, the Commissioners found his removal was only after:

* a number of complaints of inappropriate behaviour with children, primarily girls
* a direction given by the school’s executive to refrain from that conduct which Brother Sutton breached by being alone and in physical contact with two girls
* a final warning about this conduct, and
* a further allegation.

Commissioners also heard that successive Provincials seemed to not have passed on information regarding Brother Sutton’s behavior to their successors and the Provincial Council.

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MISSOURI
Fox 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) A Wentzville man who attended a Catholic high school in Creve Coeur in the 1970s has filed a lawsuit accusing the Marianists of hiding knowledge of child sex abuse by priests.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the lawsuit is against Chaminade College Preparatory School, Marianist Province of the United States and the Rev. Martin Solma, who heads the St. Louis-based Roman Catholic order.

The suit alleges the defendants lied to “multiple” victims by telling them they were the first to report sex abuse by clergy.

Fifty-seven-year-old Christopher Wimmer filed the suit Tuesday and said in a prepared statement that he asked the Marianists about the abuse years ago.

Wimmer alleges he was abused by two priests who are now deceased.

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NEW YORK
Bronx Times

AUGUST 14, 2015

By Patrick Rocchio

An embattled church pastor has heard from a higher authority.

The Archdiocese of New York issued directives to the pastor of St. Frances de Chantal Church, encouraging him to improve his stewardship after parishioners raised concerns about his handling of cash donations and his strained relations with his flock.

The parishioners, totalling about 30, have learned that seven directives have been issued by Timothy Cardinal Dolan to Fr. Peter Miqueli, pastor of the Throggs Neck house of worship.

An official Archdiocese of New York spokesman did not respond to requests for confirmation of the directives’ contents.

Two of the church leaders, Jack Lynch and Janet Bitner, said that while they were not permitted to see the actual letter Fr. Miqueli received, key portions were read to them by an Archdiocean representative, acting a a mediator, at a restaurant meeting they attended in City Island several weeks ago.

Among the alleged management directives are:

• the Archdiocese of New York will conduct an audit of St. Frances’ finances
• the pastor must publish parish collections in the church bulletin, with the figures verified by an impartial witness.
• annual financial statements must be issued.
• the pastor must appoint a Parish Finance Council
• Fr. Miqueli must appoint two new trustees, which must be selected from among long-time parishioners
• Fr. Miqueli must form a parish council, with the first step being the establishment of a nominating committee.

So far, said Bitner, it does not appear that the pastor has moved on any of the directive’s demands, but she added that the group has to give the priest some time.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY BARBARA ROSS, LARRY MCSHANE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Thursday, December 10, 2015

Father, forgive him.

A scandalous lawsuit accuses a Bronx priest of looting more than $1 million from a pair of city parishes, then spending the cash on a long-running S&M romance with a muscle-bound boyfriend.

The Rev. Peter Miqueli reportedly paid $1,000 per rough sex session with his hunky lover, who demanded the priest address him as “Master” — and drink his urine, the lawsuit said.

The sex slave priest and his boy-toy shared a house in Brick, N.J., after Miqueli paid $264,000 cash six years ago, according to the fifty-shades-of-pray lawsuit.

Miqueli, 53, was also accused of stealing money donated to fix a church pipe organ, siphoning funds from a parish thrift shop and getting high on drugs provided by a Bronx parishioner.

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OHIO
Church Militant

by Ryan Fitzgerald • ChurchMilitant.com • December 9, 2015

The seminary’s vice rector said there was a “credible accusation of homosexual activity”

COLUMBUS, Ohio (ChurchMilitant.com) – An expelled seminarian in Ohio has filed a lawsuit against his now-former seminary, the Pontifical College Josephinum (PCJ), after he was kicked out for alleged sodomy.

This past October, the vice rector of PCJ, Rev. Walter Oxley, told the ex-seminarian, who’s filed the complaint anonymously as “John Doe,” that he’d discovered a “credible accusation of homosexual activity” against Doe.

According to Doe, Msgr. Christopher Schreck, rector-president of the seminary, was at the meeting when the seminary confronted him about the matter. Based on the complaint, Schreck was apparently quite concerned about the student, encouraging him to “get [his] life in order and to avail [himself] of the sacraments.”

Doe argues that Schreck’s alleged involvement with the dismissal violates canon law, since Schreck was apparently his spiritual director.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy

I have some advice – and a request – for Jack Dunn, the Boston College PR guy who claims he’s unfairly portrayed in Spotlight. Show us the records.

[Boston.com]

I’m not unsympathetic to him. Like Dunn, I have kids. Like Dunn, I’d like them to know good things I’ve done. And like Dunn, I’m not keen on being misrepresented and misunderstood. So if a film portrayed me in a negative light, I’d certainly be upset.

But surely Dunn knows that Catholic church officials estimate more than 100,000 boys and girls in the US have been sexually violated by priests. Surely he knows that bishops have concealed and are concealing child sex crimes committed by hundreds or thousands of predatory priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers, teachers and fellow bishops.

So surely Dunn understands that many of us are skeptical of his claims that he urged school officials to “create a hotline so alums can call in and report anything they know; hire an independent child advocate to review each case; report any criminality to the police; and provide counseling and compensation for the victims.”

So why not show us the emails and memos about all of this? But first, let’s look at each of these four notions more closely.

–A hotline for abuse victims? Is that a good thing? It certainly is good PR. But maybe it’s yet another way for church officials to try to handle child sex crimes quietly and internally? (Why not urge victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call law enforcement with information or suspicions about abuse?)

–An internal review of each abuse case? Is that a good thing? It certainly is good PR. But maybe it’s yet another way for church officials to try to handle child sex crimes quietly and internally? (Why not urge victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call law enforcement with information or suspicions about abuse?)

–Report criminality to the police? Obviously, that’s a good thing. But it certainly is good PR too, especially because in a private institution and a secretive church hierarchy, there’s no way to ever really know if this suggestion was or is followed. (Again, why not just give school records about abuse reports to the experienced and unbiased professionals in law enforcement?)

–Counseling for victims? That’s gotta be a good thing, right? Well, it too is good PR. But maybe it’s yet another way for church officials to try to handle child sex crimes quietly and internally, by making victims dependent on them and coming to them for “help” and worry that this help will end if they speak up or take legal action? (Why not set up independent counseling programs, in which victims aren’t forced to report their betrayal to the very institution that betrayed them?)

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OHIO
Courhouse News Service

By KYLE ANNE UNISS

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CN) – A would-be Roman Catholic priest wants court help after his seminary expelled him over a supposedly “credible accusation of homosexual activity.”

The seminarian in question filed the complaint anonymously as John Doe last week in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.

He claims he has been a member of the Pontifical College Josephinum’s “priestly formation program” since 2010.

Though expected to graduate this May with a master’s degree in theology, Doe says the Columbus, Ohio, school sent him packing after an ambush meeting on Oct. 10.

The Rev. Walter Oxley, the school’s vice rector and a priest in Toledo, told Doe that his investigation found a “credible accusation of homosexual activity,” according to the Dec. 2 action.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

December 10, 2015

The Council of Cardinals began its 12th session on December 10 meeting with Pope Francis to continue outlining plans for reform of the Roman Curia.

At their most recent meeting, in September, the “C9” finalized a proposal for the creation of a new Congregation for Laity, Family and Life. Pope Francis formally inaugurated that dicastery in October.

The Vatican has not announced the main subject(s) for discussion at this week’s meetings, which will conclude on Saturday, December 12.

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UNITED STATES
Deadline

By Mike Fleming Jr
December 9, 2015

Spotlight has been in the Oscar hunt since Toronto Film Festival audiences gave it a long, thunderous standing ovation. At the heart of the film is a team of dogged journalists whose exposé of the shameful Boston Archdiocese cover-up of pedophile priests led to the forced resignation of the all-powerful Cardinal Bernard Law. The film subsequently has been as well-reviewed as any this fall, even getting a thumbs up from the Boston Archdiocese, which acknowledged the role the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Spotlight team played in forcing the church to confront a malignancy and renew its vow to stop predatory priests, who previously were moved to other parishes, leaving shattered lives and hush-money payouts in their wakes. Despite its incendiary subject matter, Spotlight so far hasn’t had to bear the brunt of accuracy attacks that hobbled so many fact-based Best Picture aspirants in recent years.

Spotlight director Tom McCarthyDirector Tom McCarthy and his co-writer Josh Singer took a page from The Globe’s investigative Spotlight team playbook: They stuck to the facts. For The Globe, that mandate grew out of a series of 1992 stories the paper wrote about predator priest James Porter, which caused Cardinal Law to threaten to bring down the wrath of God to ostracize the newspaper in the Catholic community comprising the majority of its readership.

The topic of predatory Catholic priests was just as polarizing for Hollywood, a factor in DreamWorks dropping the picture before Open Road signed on. Other inherent risks in the film were structural: no traditional lead, and, as Spotlight reporter Mike Rezendes says, “no Hollywood clichés, no car chases, no sex scenes and no guns. Just a true story.”

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UNITED STATES
Parenting

By Joelle Casteix

Nobody loves a stereotype better than a child sex predator. Whether the stereotype is about the “creepy guy in the trench coat,” the “hot for teacher” fallacy, our collective denial of incest, or our emphasis on “stranger danger,” predators know that the more parents rely on stereotypes, the easier it is for those predators to gain easy access to vulnerable children.

Stereotype No. 1: Most abuse happens as a result of stranger abduction or by use of force.

This stereotype is one of the most widely believed and the most damaging. It has kept victims silent and children at risk for decades.

And it all boils down to our over-reliance on “stranger danger.”

Even now, when it comes to educating and empower our children about abuse, parents and educators continue to focus on abduction. The media is quick to follow along, continually covering stories about child kidnappings and attacks. And that’s exactly what the vast majority of child predators want us to focus on.

According to the California Attorney General’s office, approximately 90 percent of children who are sexually abused in the United States know their abuser.

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UNITED STATES
No Longer on Pedestals

This is a heads-up for anyone still doubting the truth of clergy sexual abuse reports being made against priests in the Catholic Church. This movie exposes the Church Officials’ appalling behavior in just the Boston area; shocking everyone in 2002.

I recently viewed Spotlight at a St Louis South County theatre. Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams portray journalists assigned to investigate reports by abuse survivors in Boston. A specific investigative team of the Globe newspaper, referred to as the Spotlight Team, exposes heartbreaking evidence of the crimes committed against vulnerable children by predator priests, as well as the continuous, outrageous cover-ups by Church Officials.

Spotlight shows how the Team gathered all the incriminating facts, having to be determined in getting documents sealed by the Church released for public knowledge. Their months-long investigation eventually proved that cover-ups reached the highest echelons of the Church, right to the Vatican.

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OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015

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

An abuse and cover up suit against the Portland archdiocese and a convicted predator priest has settled. We deplore the secrecy surrounding this case.

[Portland Tribune]

The cleric, Fr. Angel Armando Perez, was the only priest ordained in the archdiocese in 2002.

We fully understand why the young boy’s family would not want to take this case to trial. The parents are surely most concerned with the emotional well-being and recovery of their wounded child.

That said, however, we are sad that apparently no records about Fr. Perez, and his church supervisors and colleagues who may have hidden his crimes, will be disclosed. And the amount of the settlement, which might deter future recklessness and callousness and deceit by other church officials, remains secret.

We hope Portland Catholic officials will honor their repeated pledges to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex crimes and cover ups by being more forthcoming about this case and others.

When Fr. Perez was criminally charged, the Oregonian reported that “The Archdiocese of Portland offered an open-ended loan to the Rev. Angel Armando Perez to cover the legal fees of (his expensive defense lawyer).” We hope Portland area Catholics will insist that Archbishop Alexander Sample divulge whether this “loan” has been or is being repaid or not.

When this suit was filed, church spokesman Bud Bunce referred to Fr. Perez’ crimes as “misconduct.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Ken Briggs | Dec. 10, 2015

Tom Fox, the recently retired NCR publisher, may choke on his English muffin out of sheer modesty if he reads this, but I see clear shades of him and NCR in the fabulous movie, “Spotlight.”

As throngs of viewers have discovered, the film depicts the Boston Globe’s exposure of the child abuse scandal in that city that shows both church and newspaper with rare candor. The church fights to keep its secrets and the Globe confronts its own pattern of protecting the church from bad news a means of pleasing its 40 percent Catholic readership.

The turning point is the arrival of the Globe’s new editor, Marty Baron, who insists on pursuing the evidence of major harm regardless of the reaction of the church or the public. Courage finds its way where fear of the archdiocese stifled coverage. Step by step the case unfolds, to the shock of the reporters themselves.

What elevates this movie to uncommon ground is that it neither villifies the church as a whole or casts the Globe as a purist hero. It focuses on the machinations of the criminal priests and their mishandling by Cardinal Law, but never impugns the integrity of a single staple of Catholic belief itself, except as its own teachings are violated. Law is sunk by his own actions, not because he’s being defiled for upholding the church’s core values and beliefs. …

For decades, NCR has exhibited those same qualities under the aegis of Tom Fox. The paper’s constituency and setting strikingly contrast with those of a purely secular publication like the Globe, which in some ways has made the goal of truthfulness tougher. Most obviously, having “Catholic” in its name has led many to believe it belongs to the institution and therefore exists to promote the church’s own version of itself whereas in reality it is independent and relatively crusading.

Tom Fox was until a few months ago the inheritor of that record of confronting the often unwelcome stories of wrongdoing and injustice. As publisher, he heard the often barbed protests and, if I’m not mistaken, veiled warnings from both laity and top rungs of hierarchy. In fact, no similar publication existed to screen the church’s practices and decisions for signs that Vatican II was either being enhanced or curtailed, that clergy were being treated justly or unjustly by the church’s own standards, or that things were either what the church portrayed them to be or not. It was overseen from a Catholic “progressive” frame of mind, but like all papers that let you know where they stand editorially, NCR let you know where they stood in matters of opinion.

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OREGON
Portland Tribune

Created on Thursday, 10 December 2015 10:51 | Written by Tyler Francke

An $8.5 million lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, along with St. Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn, has been dismissed following an out-of-court settlement.

The complaint, filed last year on behalf of an unnamed Salem boy, was in connection with a 2012 sex abuse case involving former local priest Angel Armando Perez.

Perez was a priest at St. Luke in August 2012, when he was charged with first-degree sex abuse (a Measure 11 offense), driving under the influence of intoxicants and two counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, Perez pleaded guilty in April 2013 and was assessed the mandatory minimum sentence for the sex abuse charge — six years, three months — which he is currently serving at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla.

The complaint was filed by the conservator and family of Perez’s victim, who was 12 at the time and who is identified in court documents only as “J.T.”

The case was scheduled for trial in Multnomah County court in March. However, on Oct. 26, a notice filed in the court record indicated the case had been dismissed “pending settlement,” and the trial and all other pending hearings were canceled.

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OHIO
MMD Newswire

What: Supreme Court of Ohio case 2014-1953: Jessica Simpkins et al. v. Grace Brethren Church of Delaware, Ohio (jurisdictional appeal). This case addresses the injustice to minor victims of sexual assault whose compensation is capped by Ohio law(1). This law harms victims while protecting the rights of those who sexually abuse children as well as those who aid and abet the abusers.

Who: Attorney John Fitch will present oral arguments representing the victim, who was raped twice by her pastor at age 15. Opposing counsel will deliver oral arguments on behalf of the appellee, Grace Brethren Church.

Why: The case is on appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court regarding the question of whether Ohio’s tort damages cap violates minor sexual assault victims’ constitutional rights to due process of law, equal protection of the laws, right to a remedy, and trial by jury. This law protects sexual predators while depriving children of their rightful compensation due to devastating pain and suffering. In this case, the jury awarded the victim $3,500,000 in pain and suffering, but her compensation was effectively capped at $250,000 for two rapes. Under the law, 50 rapes in a single course of conduct would equate to $5,000 per rape, out of which the victim pays her attorney fees and expenses.

When: Tuesday, December 15, 2015. Simpkins is the third case presented after oral arguments begin at 9:00 AM.

Where:
The Ohio Supreme Court
65 S. Front St.
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 387-9000

Contact:
The Fitch Law Firm
900 Michigan Ave.
Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: (614) 545-3930
Fax: (614) 545-2930
Email: Clerk@thefitchlawfirm.com
Website: www.thefitchlawfirm.com

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release, Thursday, December 10, 2015

Statement by SNAP leader Tim Lennon who was abused in Sioux City (415-312-5820, tlennon@snapnetwork.org)

Many of us are confused by and skeptical of Sioux City’s bishop’s claim that he’s starting a new program to teach kids about avoiding child molesters. We suspect it’s just a public relations move. We hope we’re wrong.

The “new program” is touted in the Catholic diocesan newspaper under the headline “Diocese of Sioux City Promulgates Safe Environment Program in Catholic Schools.”

[Catholic Globe]

Such a program was supposed to be set up 13 years ago when bishops were pressured to adopt their first-ever national church abuse policy. According to Article 12 of that policy in 2002 (called the Charter for the Protection of Children and Youth), dioceses are to “provide education and training for children. . .and others about ways to make and maintain a safe environment for children and young people.”

[Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People]

We urge Bishop Walker Nickless to hold a news conference, give more information and take questions from reporters about this supposedly “new program.” We ask for other concrete actions:

~~Make a commitment to report to civil authorities, police and child protective agencies, of abuse or a reasonable suspicion of abuse previous to any church action; aggressively encourage victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police and prosecutors about known and suspected clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the Sioux City area, no matter when they took place.

~~Visit every parish to seek any child harmed by sex abuse and offer aid and comfort

~~Open the books, notify each parish that has be plagued with clergy who have abused children; permanently and prominently post on the diocesan website the names, photos and work histories of every single child molesting cleric who spent time in Sioux City Diocese.

~~Make any new “Safe Environment Program” real by speaking from the pulpit; confirm the errors of the past; encourage awareness of parents, teachers and the community of the dangers

Dozens of US bishops are clearly worried about the new, highly-acclaimed film “Spotlight.” It details how dedicated journalists and brave victims exposed decades of abuse and cover up in the Boston Archdiocese.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015

Statement by Claudia Vercellotti of Toledo SNAP (419-345-9291, SNAPtoledo@mail.com)

Next week, the Ohio Supreme Court will have a chance to lift Ohio’s unwise cap on damages for victims of horrific child sex crimes. We hope the justices will side with innocent, vulnerable kids and deeply wounded adults over institutional wrongdoers.

[NBC4i]

Financial penalties deter wrongdoing. It’s just that simple. That’s why we support the effort to lift the cap on damages. As a society, we must encourage, not discourage, victims of sexual violence to come forward, seek justice, and expose and punish those who commit or conceal child sex crimes.

It’s absurd and disingenuous for business lobby groups to claim that the clergy sex abuse and cover up case involved here is an “outlier.” Thousands of boys and girls are sexually violated every year in Ohio. Many of these crimes happen in schools, churches, camps and day care centers where officials know or should know how to prevent this horror.

But when these officials act recklessly or callously, they must be held responsible. That’s what jury awards do. And these awards make other employers and co-workers start behaving more responsibly when they see or suspect child sex crimes.

We applaud the courage of Jessica Simpkins, who was 15 years old when she was raped by her pastor, Rev. Brian Williams, at Grace Brethren Church in Sunbury. (Williams went to prison.) We are grateful she exposed wrongdoing at this church and that a jury sent a strong pro-child, anti-abuse signal. We hope that Ohio’s Supreme Court will send an equally strong signal to those who might be tempted to ignore, hide, minimize or even enable similar crimes in the future.

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NEW YORK
Justia

People v Weberman 2015 NY Slip Op 09128 Decided on December 9, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

Decided on December 9, 2015 SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department
WILLIAM F. MASTRO, J.P.
THOMAS A. DICKERSON
SHERI S. ROMAN
ROBERT J. MILLER, JJ.
2013-00972
(Ind. No. 1589/11)

[*1]The People of the State of New York, respondent,
v
Nechemya Weberman, appellant.

Mischel & Horn, P.C., New York, N.Y. (Richard E. Mischel of counsel), for appellant.

Kenneth P. Thompson, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove and Anthea H. Bruffee of counsel), for respondent.

DECISION & ORDER

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Ingram, J.), rendered January 22, 2013, convicting him of course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree, criminal sexual act in the second degree (12 counts), criminal sexual act in the third degree (2 counts), sexual abuse in the second degree (18 counts), sexual abuse in the third degree (25 counts), and endangering the welfare of a child, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is modified, on the law, by vacating the convictions of sexual abuse in the second degree under counts 45 and 46 of the indictment (submitted on the jury’s verdict sheet as counts 31 and 32), vacating the sentences imposed thereon, and dismissing those counts of the indictment; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Emily Saul and Joe Tacopino December 10, 2015

A court on Wednesday tossed out two counts of sex abuse against a Brooklyn counselor convicted of child molestation — but he will still rot in jail for the rest of his life.

Satmar Hasidic youth counselor Nechemya Web­erman, who abused an underage girl from 2007 to 2010, had two of the 59 counts leveled against him thrown out by an appellate court.

The two convictions of sexual abuse in the second degree were overturned because the court found the evidence was not sufficient to support guilt in Counts 45 and 46 of the original indictment.

But Weberman, a 57-year-old father of 10, will still spend the next 100 years locked up.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY CHRISTINA CARREGA-WOODBY NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, December 10, 2015

A 50-year prison sentence for a Hasidic Jewish leader convicted of sexually molesting a young girl for three years was upheld by an appellate court.

Nechemya Weberman, 56, filed the appeal shortly after he was sentenced in January 2013 by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Ingram for his horrendous acts to a then-12-year-old girl he was supposed to be counseling.

Weberman’s attorneys filed the appeal in a bid to overturn the conviction, citing that they were not allowed to present a fair case during the jury trial.

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ITALY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Bari, December 10 – A preliminary hearing judge on Thursday ruled a suspected pedophile priest will get a fast-track trial.

Father Giampiero Peschiulli, 73, was placed under house arrest in May on suspicion of molesting two altar boys while he was the parish priest of Brindisi church.

He is charged with sexually abusing the victims aggravated by “abuse of moral and religious authority”.

The alleged offenses date back to 2012, when the boys were not yet 14, and reportedly lasted through 2014.

The prelate was unmasked by a satirical TV show that specialises in stings, Le Iene (Reservoir Dogs).

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

A $47,000 compensation payout to the victim of a pedophile priest is not enough, a priest has told an inquiry.

Australian Army chaplain and former Ballarat bishop’s secretary Monsignor Glynn Murphy says compensation needs to be a whole package.

Former Diocese of Ballarat priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale has been jailed for abusing 53 children, including victim BWA who he abused for two years.

Dr Kristine Hanscombe QC told the child abuse royal commission BWA initiated proceedings to get compensation shortly after Ridsdale was first convicted in 1993.

Monsignor Murphy agreed taking five years to settle a compensation claim when someone had been convicted for the offence was an inordinate amount of time.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

. . .Duluth’s Catholic diocese has declared bankruptcy because of an $8 million verdict in a pedophile priest case involving a former Missouri and southern Illinois cleric. He’s Fr. Vincent Fitzgerald, who spent 13 years in Belleville (and shorter stints in Alton, Godfrey and Peoria) until his death in 2009. He also worked in Mansfield in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese. .

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CANADA
Windsor Star

DECEMBER 10, 2015

Jurors returned with a guilty verdict in the case of the former Ste. Anne Parish pastor shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday.

Assistant Crown attorney Tom Meehan says he might seek jail time for the disgraced priest. He doesn’t know how much but the maximum is 10 years.

Jurors began deliberations late Wednesday following closing arguments and a two-hour charge by Superior Court Justice Scott Campbell.

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CANADA
CBC News

A southern Ontario Catholic priest accused of embezzling more than $150,000 from his Tecumseh, Ont., church was found guilty Thursday morning on one count of theft over $5,000.

Assistant Crown attorney Tom Meehan said he will seek jail time for Rev. Robert Couture.

Couture could face up to 10 years in jail, Meehan said outside Ontario Provincial Court in Windsor.

Couture, 52, was released on a promise to appear Feb. 5, at which time a date will be set for sentencing.

Meehan was pleased with the jury’s verdict, saying Couture was a trusted figure in the community, who broke that trust.

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INDIA
Times of India

Ishita Mishra,TNN | Dec 10, 2015

AGRA: Parmeshwar Das, a mahant in Govardhan, Mathura, was gruesomely killed by three youths who told police they were tired of constant abuse from him. While two are in their early 20s, one is a minor.

Police said that one of the youths has already been awarded life imprisonment by a court in Panna (Madhya Pradesh) for killing a woman with axe in 2013.

Mathura senior superintendent of police Rakesh Singh said that the youth was absconding from Panna since the judge announced life sentence for him in 2014. He was living in the ashram in Govardhan for past several months.

“The mahant was found dead in his Akhil Bharitiya Kirar Ashram in Govardhan block of Mathura district on Tuesday. His face was smashed with a brick and later he was strangulated. We were clear that some insider is involved in the crime as no outsider was allowed inside the ashram during late hours. Our cops interrogated all the followers of the mahant and found discrepancies in the statement given by these three. We arrested them and later they confessed to the crime,” the SSP added.

The senior cop claimed that the crime was not planned and the boys killed the priest in a fit of rage.

“The mahant used to sexually exploit his followers. Many others in the ashram too accepted this. The accused killed him in a fit of rage as they failed to resist the abuse,” the SSP said.

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UNITED STATES
CBS News

Last Updated Dec 10, 2015 10:14 AM EST

“Carol” swept up five nominations, leading the pack this year for Golden Globe Awards nominations. The film picked up nods for Best Picture and Best Actress for both Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. …

In an awards season that has so far seen honors spread around, Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight” came into the Globe nominations as the Oscar favorite. While it took three top Globe nominations Thursday, including best director for McCarthy and best screenplay, its ensemble cast is failing to stand out from the pack.

After the Screen Actors Guild passed over Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo, the Globes did, too. Ruffalo, however, was nominated for best actor in a comedy for his performance as a bipolar father in “Infinitely Polar Bear.”

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

MICHAEL CIEPLY and BROOKS BARNES
DEC. 10, 2015

LOS ANGELES — Leonardo DiCaprio, still chasing his first Oscar victory, edged closer to Hollywoods top laurels on Thursday, as he took a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “The Revenant,” a bloody frontier drama that was also nominated for best drama and best director. …

Best screenplay nominations went to “Room,” “Spotlight,” “The Big Short,” “Steve Jobs” and “The Hateful Eight.”…

Among smaller films, “Spotlight” has beaten the gloom. After well-received festival appearances in Venice; Telluride, Colo; and Toronto, the newspaper drama, about The Boston Globe’s investigation of child abuse and a Catholic Church cover-up, has done well in a relatively confined theatrical release, and now has a shot at the top Oscar. …

Among smaller films, “Spotlight” has beaten the gloom. After well-received festival appearances in Venice; Telluride, Colo; and Toronto, the newspaper drama, about The Boston Globe’s investigation of child abuse and a Catholic Church cover-up, has done well in a relatively confined theatrical release, and now has a shot at the top Oscar.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 10 December 2015 (VIS) – This morning the twelfth meeting of the Holy Father with the Council of Cardinals (“C9”) began in Vatican City. The meeting will continue until Saturday 12 December.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DECEMBER 11, 2015

Tessa Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

The principal chaplain in the Australian Army has told the child sex abuse royal commission he “implicitly trusted” former Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns, who moved Gerald Ridsdale from parish to parish and did not report Ridsdale’s ­offending to police.

Monsignor Glynn Murphy was the chairman of the Ballarat Special Issues Committee from 1993-97, which he said was set up in part to respond to the Ridsdale situation and to support his ­victims.

He said during his time on the committee, it dealt with three or four historical matters of sexual abuse and no current matters. The committee did not refer anything to police as it believed it was referring anything it needed to refer through the office of the bishop.

“[Bishop Mulkearns] did not report back to us as to what he did with that material,” he said.

In a 1993 interview with Catholic Church Insurance officers, Monsignor Murphy said he met the parents of David Ridsdale, who was abused by his uncle, Gerald, and told them the diocese would defend legal ­action against Bishop Mulkearns.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Melissa Cunningham
Dec. 10, 2015

FORMER Ballarat Bishop secretary Monsignor Glynn Murphy says despite having knowledge of mounting allegations of sexual abuse against children he never went to police.

Australian army chaplain Monsignor Murphy dealt with sexual abuse allegations from 1993 to 1997 as the special issues committee convenor. He told the inquiry he “implicitly” trusted Bishop Ronald Mulkearns to pass complaints onto police.

“Did I have faith and trust that the Bishop would follow through with information I gave him, yes I did,” he said. “There was no indication to me that he was not passing on any material that he should pass on.”

The inquiry also heard there was a Ballarat policeman on the church committee but no abuse claims were reported to authorties.

The culture of secrecy and concealment of child sex crimes was further exposed at the inquiry with Monsignor Murphy admitting Bishop Mulkearns kept locked files on priests and did not disclose information to other clergy.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith
posted Thursday, 10 Dec 2015

Some years ago now, I used to sit in the aula of the Gregorian University and listen to the lectures of Don Rino Fisichella, a Roman priest, who lectured on the credibility of Revelation. He was a stimulating lecturer, though he sometimes got carried away, I seem to remember.

He is now an Archbishop and in charge of the New Evangelisation, and he seems to have got carried away again, suggesting that to criticise the Pope is the equivalent of a physical attack on him, which carries the penalty of automatic excommunication. In fact, a distinguished canon lawyer explains that this is simply not the case.

The Church has been here before. In the period of the Italian Risorgimento, the Piedmontese state made war on the Papal States, eventually driving the Pope out of Rome and making him the prisoner in the Vatican.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

BY JOHN SCHEERHOUT

A lawyer fighting for justice for alleged sex abuse victims of a primary school head has urged others to come forward.

In 2012 the M.E.N. revealed how the late John Mulligan, head of St Anne’s Catholic School in Ancoats, was accused of raping and sexually abusing a pupil 40 years earlier.

His alleged victim, now 61 and living in east Manchester, is suing the city council over the claims.

Since our stories 44 witnesses have come forward and 18 of them are mounting a group action against the education authority, Manchester City Council, for compensation.

The former pupils allege Mulligan would make them stand naked after they got out of the showers while he ‘checked’ if they were dry.

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VATICAN CITY
Democrat-Gazette

By The Associated Press
Posted: December 10, 2015

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican confirmed that some “irregularities” were discovered in its doctrine office after a German newspaper reported that investigators found a wad of about $22,000 in euro bills in a desk drawer.

Bild newspaper said the money was discovered during a search of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith office that followed a February request for information about its assets. The Vatican’s new economy secretariat has been trying to gather information about the holdings of various departments.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Wednesday that “some irregularities” were discovered, corrective measures were taken and the congregation is now “vigorously” following the Vatican’s new administrative rules.

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UNITED STATES
Medill Reports Chicago

By Emma Sandler

The new movie “Spotlight” focuses on an investigative unit of the same name at The Boston Globe that uncovered in 2001 and 2002 the systemic Catholic priest abuse scandal. It involved about 70 local priests and more than 1,000 victims.

The reporting garnered the paper a Pulitzer Prize. The investigative team comes to life with an all-star cast of Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci, John Slattery and Brian d’Arcy James. No one takes the lead or chews the scenery in this movie, which perfectly mirrors the collaborative efforts of the investigative team. It’s an ensemble piece in its finest form.

There is no glorifying or vilifying of journalists as vigilantes or upstarts in the movie. There are no romantic entanglements and few scenes look into the personal toll that these journalists endure throughout their investigation. It is a simple portrayal of the facts of the reporting, as they are known, with no embellishments—just as an actual journalist would write the script for accuracy rather than Hollywood drama..

What the film does so well is showing the strong ties the Globe and Boston in general had with the Catholic Church. Boston has historically been a Catholic city to its core since it became populated with Irish Catholic immigrants in the 1800s. Demonstration of this relationship shows up with references to the journalists’ Catholic upbringings as well their family ties. Editor Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson (played by Michael Keaton) even makes an appearance at his Catholic alma mater Boston College, where a picture of John F. Kennedy, the only Irish Catholic president, can be seen hanging on a wall.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
CBS St. Louis

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – A lawsuit filed by a former Chaminade High School student accuses the Marianist Order of covering up what it knew about abusive clergy at the school.

The suit filed on behalf of former Chaminade student Christoper Wimmer alleges that while he was a student there in the 1970’s, he was abused by two Chaminade Brothers that the Marianist order knew were trouble.

The two Chaminade brothers are deceased.

“We know from prior cases that the Marianists knew that these abusers had been abusing kids before they abused Chris Wimmer, who is our client,” Attorney Nicole Gorvosky says. “So, when he went and asked them about his abusers, they told him he was the first one to come forward and they had information sitting in their records that, that was not true.”

A statement was released by Rev. Martin Solma Provincial of the Marianist Province of the United States:

Regarding the lawsuit filed by Christopher Wimmer, the Marianists have not yet received a copy of the suit. We were first approached by Mr. Wimmer about 10 years ago, have met with him and his lawyers, and have assisted with counseling needs.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Chris Greenwood and Eleanor Harding for the Daily Mail

A leading independent Catholic school was plunged into a new scandal yesterday after its deputy head teacher was accused of possessing indecent images of children.

Peter Allott, 36, from St Benedict’s School, Ealing, was arrested by officers from a specialist child abuse team at the National Crime Agency (NCA).

He was charged with possessing almost 400 illegal images and videos, the majority of which were classified as the most depraved available.

The material was allegedly recovered from his iPhone and a hard drive kept in his office at the prestigious £15,000-a-year school.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Some clergy are in denial about pedophilia and do not believe Australia’s worst pedophile priest abused children, a priest says.

Former Diocese of Ballarat priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale is in jail for abusing 53 children but Fr Eric Bryant says some older clergy in particular are still in denial about pedophilia.

‘I know Gerry Ridsdale’s still got friends amongst the clergy who don’t see the severity of what he has done,’ Fr Bryant told the child abuse royal commission.

He said some priests, and a lot of people in society, still did not understand the impact of pedophilia and try to look to the good things Ridsdale did as a priest.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Charlotte King

A witness who gave harrowing evidence at the child sex abuse royal commission has called for the Government to enforce a redress scheme that would ensure the Catholic Church pay compensation to victims of past crimes.

Despite the mounting evidence of the horrific legacy of clergy abuse across western Victoria, many survivors have yet to receive any compensation for the harm they endured as children and its lifelong effects.

Gordon Hill, who has given evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse detailing his treatment at a catholic orphanage in Ballarat, says he has waited 65 years for compensation.

His body is covered in the physical scars of his abuse, making it difficult to ignore his past.

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TEXAS
LMT Online

By Joshua Fechter
San Antonio Express-News

A 68-year-old Central Texas pastor has been charged with continuously sexually abusing a teenage churchgoer for more than a year.

Round Rock police arrested Henry Lee McGee Sr., a pastor at First Baptist Church in East Austin, on Monday, according to Williamson County Jail records.

McGee was released the same day on a $80,000 bond, records show.

Police learned of McGee’s alleged offenses after her friends at a youth group church meeting asked her about their relationship, according to an arrest affidavit. She told her friends that she had been having a sexual relationship with McGee for the past year.

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TEXAS
American-Statesman

By Katie Urbaszewski – American-Statesman Staff

At First Baptist Church on Heflin Lane in East Austin, the name of its pastor, who is accused of having sexual relations with a teenage congregant, has been covered by black duct tape on the church’s front sign.

The Rev. Henry Lee McGee’s name has also been covered on the church van, but one of the other pastors said the church has covered his name on its property for a while.

The church congregation voted out McGee, 68, of Round Rock, as pastor back in the fall, said the Rev. James Limuel. Before McGee’s ouster, the church in September held a special service celebrating McGee and his wife’s 17th wedding anniversary, according to the Austin Villager.

“Everybody was surprised by this,” Limuel said about the allegations. He offered his condolences to the teenage girl’s family. “We didn’t know what was going on.”

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TEXAS
Patch

By REBEKAH MARCARELLI (Patch Staff)
December 9, 2015

EAST AUSTIN, TX — A pastor from East Austin’s First Baptist Church was arrested Tuesday for committing sexual acts with a minor female church member in Round Rock and other locations, and new information suggests he had been voted out of the church months before.

The church congregation of First Baptist Church on Heflin Lane is reported to have voted out Henry Lee McGee, 68, of Round Rock, back in the fall, the American-Statesman reported. This occurred only shortly after the church held a special service celebrating McGee and his wife’s 17th wedding anniversary in September. The pastor‘s name has reportedly been covered by black duct tape on the church’s front sign.

The incidents of abuse were first reported to Austin police by the victim’s parents. The reports suggest McGee had been in a sexual relationship with the young member of his church for about a year, since the victim had been 13-years-old.

The victim told police the first encounter occurred in a storage unit in Georgetown in June 2014, and the abuse continued at the man’s home while his wife was away. The last time the victim and pastor met was reportedly at a hotel in Round Rock on October 9. The victim said she had sex with McGee over 15 times, and some of the incidents occurred in the pastor’s church office.

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OHIO
NBC4i

[with video]

By Ted Hart

SUNBURY, Ohio (WCMH)–The Ohio Supreme Court will hear arguments next week in a case that challenges the constitutionality of the Ohio law that limits compensation for childhood victims of sexual abuse.

At the center of the case is Jessica Simpkins, who was 15 years old when she was raped by her pastor at Grace Brethren Church in Sunbury.

The pastor, Brian Williams, went to prison.

A Delaware County jury awarded Simpkins more than $3.5 million for pain and suffering. But her attorney, John Fitch, says the award was reduced to $250,000 because that’s the maximum for damages under the state law.

Simpkins says she suffers from post-traumatic-stress-disorder and relives the events in her head several times a week.

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Gleaner

Published:Thursday | December 10, 2015

Barbara Gayle

A PASTOR who raped a 15-year-old schoolgirl at a church in May Pen, Clarendon, in April 2012, was yesterday sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment.

Oraine Ellis, 32, was convicted in the Clarendon Circuit Court last month by a seven-member jury. Sentencing was put off until yesterday in the Home Circuit Court.

Ellis has one previous conviction for carnal abuse. He pleaded guilty in 2007 to that offence, and was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.

The Crown, represented by Kelli-Ann Boyne, Crown counsel, led evidence that the girl went to church one Sunday in April 2012, to get some solace.

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MINNESOTA
Mesabi Daily News

Posted: Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Jerry Burnes Managing Editor

VIRGINIA — A bankruptcy protection filing by the Diocese of Duluth isn’t expected to affect day-to-day operations at the local level.

Rev. James Bissonette, vicar general of the diocese, said his knowledge of the process is that the diocese’s assets go under review and not its services.

“My understanding is that the day-to-day operations of the parishes and schools will remain the same,” he said.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, a month after a victim of priest sex abuse was awarded $8 million in damages. The diocese was found responsible for $4.8 million. On its website, the diocese says the award is greater than its annual budget of $3.2 million.

“If you put together the diocese’s limited assets and its insurance coverage, it doesn’t add up to anywhere near $4.8 million,” said Susan Gaertner, an attorney representing the diocese.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Massachusetts’s highest court upheld a law extending the time sexual abuse victims have to file lawsuits against their alleged perpetrators.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday in the case of a woman who sued her uncle in 2012, alleging he sexually abused her repeatedly between 1968 and 1977, beginning when she was 5 years old.

The uncle had reached a settlement with his niece for $26,500 in exchange for her not suing him for nine years of sexual abuse. However, after therapy, the woman later alleged her uncle forced her to have sex with other men and sued him again. The uncle’s lawyer, however, had the case dismissed.

The Legislature amended the law in 2014 to extend the statute of limitations for civil cases alleging sexual abuse of a minor from three years to 35 years and allowed it to be applied retroactively. The SJC has now upheld that law, saying it recognizes that in many cases, victims are not able to appreciate the extent of harm caused to them until years after the abuse ended.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Posted: Wednesday, December 9, 2015
By SAMANTHA PERRY Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — A physical examination of an alleged victim and the question of whether a pastor violated the priest-penitent privilege were issues brought before the court Wednesday in a pretrial hearing of a former church volunteer accused of sexually abusing boys.

Timothy Probert, 57, of Mercer County, is facing 50 charges related to alleged sexual abuse of children stemming from his time spent as a volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bluefield and for the Working to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect (WE CAN) program.

Retired Fayette County Judge Charles Vickers heard the motions in Mercer County Circuit Court. Mercer County judges Omar Aboulhosn, Derek Swope and William “Bill” Saddler recused themselves from the case earlier this year citing conflicts of interest.

Addressing the court, defense attorney William Flanigan said one alleged victim spoke of bleeding after anal and rectal sex with Probert. The victim said he had to “use tampons to control the bleeding.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Thursday 10 December 2015

A Catholic priest escaped immediate censure for trying to take a bath with a young boy because church leaders in Victoria did not want to arouse suspicion about him, the child abuse inquiry has been told.

In 1991 the archdiocese of Ballarat heard from a mother who complained that Paul David Ryan tried to have a bath with her youngest son when he was 12 or 13.

Giving evidence to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, an Australian army chaplain, Monsignor Glynn Murphy, who was the bishop’s secretary at Ballarat between 1990 and 1997, said the bishop, Ronald Mulkearns, subsequently told him that Ryan was to be sent to another parish, in Ararat.

However, he was not sent there until Easter, weeks after the complaint was made to Murphy, “so that his change would not have been seen as out of the ordinary”, Murphy said. After a few months at Ararat, Ryan was sent to the US for treatment.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 10, 2015

Jane Lee

Only bishops could refer child abuse allegations they discussed within a Catholic Church committee to the police, despite the fact one of its members was a police officer, a royal commission has heard.

Monsignor Glynn Murphy helped establish the church’s Special Issues Committee in the 1990s, initially to help survivors of convicted paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale. The committee also advised Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns on child sexual abuse and other issues. The committee members included police officer Paul Murnane, a retired magistrate and another priest who was a clinical psychologist.

Monsignor Murphy told the child abuse royal commission on Thursday that he advised Bishop Mulkearns in 1991 that Father Paul Ryan be “removed immediately and indefinitely pending any investigation” after he heard allegations that the priest had invited a 12-year-old boy to have a bath with him. The boy’s mother did not want to report the allegations to police, as she was worried this would subject him to bullying.

Bishop Mulkearns delayed removing Father Ryan for a number of weeks to keep up appearances, the commission heard, writing in a letter: “It was agreed that (Ryan) would remain there until after Easter when other diocesan changes were to be made so that his change would not be seen as completely out of the ordinary.”

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NORTH CAROLINA
The News & Observer

BY JIM JENKINS

The film “Spotlight” has terrific actors and a sickening, true story for the plot line: It’s 2001, and Boston Globe reporters are researching accusations that some Catholic priests have been molesting scores of young children, perhaps for decades. The city is 50 percent Catholic; the church, its most powerful institution.

The story is double-edged. There is the sexual and spiritual abuse of so many children, and the systematic coverup by the church. Priests found to have engaged in these despicable acts are routinely transferred to other parishes, where they are likely to prey upon other children.

As the world now knows, the church got a scandal for the ages, thanks to the work of some tenacious reporters on the Globe’s Spotlight investigative team, and to a new editor who was not overwhelmed by the magnitude of the story or by the clout of the church — which he experienced first hand in a meeting with Cardinal Bernard Law, perhaps the most powerful man in Boston. After the first story (there would be 600 stories the first year, and 300 the second) was published under the direction of that editor, Marty Baron, the subsequent reports would lead to Law resigning, eventually going to a post in Rome, despite the fact that he had orchestrated settlements with some of the victim’s families, and would be shown a figure in the coverup.

The movie, now playing at the Rialto theater, is said to be an Academy Award favorite. In fact, it may be the big favorite.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Dan Adams GLOBE CORRESPONDENT DECEMBER 09, 2015

Inspired by the success of the movie “Spotlight,” the Boston Globe and the Hollywood companies behind the film have set up a $100,000 fellowship to promote investigative journalism.

The selected fellow or team of reporters will work with the Boston Globe Spotlight team on an investigative story that could be published by the paper.

The Spotlight Investigative Journalism Fellowship is being funded by Participant Media and Open Road Films, the Hollywood firms behind “Spotlight,” a recent film that dramatizes the 2001 efforts of the paper’s investigative unit to uncover sexual abuse in the Catholic church. Online news publisher First Look Media is also supporting the fellowship.

“The Boston Globe has an unwavering commitment to produce high-impact investigative stories that pierce secrecy and shine a light on issues, individuals, and institutions to expose the truth,” said the paper’s editor Brian McGrory, in a statement. “Whether it is the Spotlight Team’s investigation of the Catholic Church in 2002; its relentless reporting of the criminal dealings of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger and his ties to federal law enforcement; or its most recent report on hospitals where doctors are running two surgeries at once, accountability reporting is an integral part of The Boston Globe’s daily coverage.”

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IRELAND
The Journal

BISHOP FRANCIS DUFFY has told communities in the diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois he is “shamed” by the alleged child abuse of their former parish priest, Fr Brendan Hynds, and apologised for it.

Duffy acknowledged recent testimony he had received about the conduct of Hynds, who was parish priest in Cloghan, Co Offaly and before that, Ballymahon, Co Longford.

He died in 1993.

In statements issued at St Mary’s Church in Cloghan, and St Matthew’s Church in Ballymahon in the past week, the Bishop called the priest’s reported behaviour “appalling,” and sought to reassure the congregations.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Washington Times

By – Associated Press – Wednesday, December 9, 2015

BOSTON (AP) – Massachusetts’s highest court has upheld a law extending the length of time sexual abuse victims have to file lawsuits against their alleged perpetrators.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Wednesday in the case of a woman who sued her uncle in 2012, alleging he sexually abused her repeatedly between 1968 and 1977, beginning when she was five years old.

The state Legislature amended the law in 2014 to extend the statute of limitations for civil cases alleging sexual abuse of a minor from three years to 35 years and allowed it to be applied retroactively.

The woman’s lawsuit had been dismissed.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

[excerpt]

We recite here the facts alleged in Sliney’s complaint and for purposes of this appeal we assume the facts to be true.

Jarosz v. Palmer, 436 Mass. 526, 529-530 (2002) (motion for judgment on pleadings filed by defendant is essentially motion to dismiss). From the time she was five years old in 1968 until she was fourteen years old in 1977, Sliney was sexually abused many times by Previte, her uncle. She required psychiatric treatment to deal with issues related to the abuse, and was hospitalized on numerous occasions for the same reason, beginning when she was approximately twenty-four years old.

Sliney began to recall some of the abuse by Previte beginning in 1988, and confided in her relatives. Thereafter, Previte wrote a letter of apology to Sliney and asked for her forgiveness. Sliney was under family pressure to forgive Previte, and in March of 1991, Sliney was coerced into signing a document that purportedly released Previte from all claims in exchange for a payment of $26,500; Sliney’s mental state was such at the time that she did not understand the nature of this document. Thereafter, she continued to require mental health hospitalizations. At some point in 2011, Sliney began to recall new, different memories that Previte, in addition to committing acts of sexual abuse himself, had forced her to engage in sexual acts with other men who were unknown to her.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Durso Law

WHAT:
LANDMARK STATE SUPREME COURT OPINION: Sliney v. Previte Decision issued today, constitutional ruling opens court house doors until age 53 for past victims of child sex abuse. Link to Decision: http://www.mass.gov/courts/docs/sjc/reporter-of-decisions/new-opinions/11844.pdf

WHO:
ROSANNE SLINEY:

Plaintiff, who was sexually abused by her uncle between the ages of 5 and 14 years old, and was also instrumental in obtaining passage of the law which the court reviewed in this case

JETTA BERNIER:
Executive Director, Mass Citizens for Children, (Mass Kids), whose organization worked for 11 years to obtain passage of the law

INVITED GUESTS:
Rep. John Lawn & Sen. William Brownsberger, principal sponsors of the legislation
CARMEN DURSO & MARK ITZKOWITZ, Plaintiff’s Attorneys

WHEN: THURSDAY, December 10, 2015, 4:00 P.M.

WHERE: Suite 1425, 175 Federal Street, Boston, 02110-2287

WHY: Very important constitutional decision which will be an example for several other states considering child sex abuse statute of limitations reform

For more information, contact:

CARMEN L. DURSO, ESQUIRE
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

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NEW YORK
Times Herald-Record

By Andrew Beam
Times Herald-Record

Posted Dec. 9, 2015

MONTICELLO – A rabbinical student is a free man after a judge on Wednesday dismissed the case in which he was charged with sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy in 2011.

Sullivan County Court Judge Frank LaBuda dismissed the case against Haim Boukris because Sullivan County Assistant District Attorney Eamonn Neary was not able to provide enough evidence to prove the charges against the 29-year-old South Fallsburg resident.

“The decision is not based on the credibility of the young man or any witness,” LaBuda said. “It’s because the court was not able to find the innocence or guilt of the defendant.”

LaBuda specifically said the prosecution could not nail down the date or location where the alleged acts occurred. The judge also said that the prosecution’s sole witness gave contradictory testimony.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston.com

By Eric Levenson @ejleven
Boston.com Staff | 12.09.15

The Supreme Judicial Court upheld a 2014 state law, supported by survivors of sexual abuse, that extended the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse lawsuits.

Previously, plaintiffs had three years to file civil lawsuits against perpetrators. The law extended that to 35 years, and applied it retroactively.

The judges considered whether that law violated a defendant’s right to fairly gather evidence and witnesses given that length of time. They unanimously ruled on Wednesday that, although that was an issue, the compelling interests of the law were more relevant.

The expanded statute of limitations “appears to be tied directly to the compelling legislative purpose underlying the act, and in particular, the apparent recognition that in many cases, victims of child abuse are not able to appreciate the extent or the cause of harm they experience as a result of sexual abuse perpetrated on them for many years after the abuse has ended,” Justice Margot Botsford wrote for the court.

The case dealt with Rosanne Sliney, who said she was sexually abused by her uncle Domenic Previte from 1968, when she was five years old, up until 1977. Sliney struggled with mental health issues for years, the court writes, and she eventually told family members of the abuse in 1988.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015

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

The highest court in Massachusetts today made it easier for sex abuse victims to expose child molesters which will help prevent future sexual violence against the vulnerable. We applaud the court and the brave survivor who brought this case. The unanimous ruling is part of a larger, longer trend toward repealing or reforming archaic, predator-friendly statutes of limitations that keep being exploited by those who commit and conceal child sex crimes as a way to protect their secrets and evade consequences for their horrific acts.

[Boston Globe]

We share Justice Margot Botsford’s view that “in many cases, victims of child abuse are not able to appreciate the extent or the cause of harm they experience as a result of sexual abuse perpetrated on them for many years.’’ We are grateful Massachusetts lawmakers realized this and extended the state’s troubling statute of limitations and that Massachusetts’ highest court upheld the legislature’s wise and compassionate reform.

We hope this ruling will prod more lawmakers to extend or eliminate statutes of limitations which protect wrongdoers, endanger kids and re-victimize victims.,

We also hope it will encourage more victims of sexual violence to use civil courts to expose child molesters and their allies. The legal system can be difficult and draining. But it can also often help prevent more violence to kids, if survivors are strong and brave enough to use it.

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CANADA
Windsor Star

DECEMBER 9, 2015 3:58 PM

The jury retired after a two-hour charge by Superior Court Justice Scott Campbell, reports Trevor Wilhelm from the courthouse.

Earlier, defence lawyer Patrick Ducharme told jurors his defence was simple. Robert Couture, he said, “did not steal any money from Ste. Anne Parish.”

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015

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 criminal prosecution of a Catholic youth minister and school employee is proceeding and Detroit’s archbishop should aggressively seek out others with information or suspicions about the alleged predator.

Joseph Sturza, a former director of admissions at Austin Catholic High School in Ray Township, and a former youth minister at St. Isidore Catholic Church in Macomb Township, is charged with four felony counts of sex offenses against a child.

[C & G Newspapers]

Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron will likely hide behind his desk, his lawyers and his public relations team and do nothing. That’s irresponsible. As shepherd of the Detroit area flock, Vigneron has a civic and moral duty to help law enforcement learn as much as possible about the truth of these allegations. That means using pulpit announcements, church bulletins and parish websites to beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police and prosecutors. That’s what a caring shepherd or responsible citizen would do.

If Vignernon refuses to take these quick, simple and inexpensive steps to protect kids and help prosecutors, other Catholic officials at Austin Catholic High School, St. Isidore Catholic Church and the archdiocese should show courage and compassion and do outreach like this.

We hope that every single person who saw, suspected crimes by Sturza or cover ups by his colleagues will find the courage to step forward, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

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CANADA
CBC News

Lawyers for the Diocese of Bathurst have told judge Stephen McNally that the church is seeking $3.3 million to recoup some of the money it paid out to victims of sexual abuse.

The diocese has made its final presentation in its civil suit against Aviva Insurance, its former insurer.

In a confidential compensation process, the diocese paid out $5.5 million to 90 victims of abuse by its priests.

Lawyer Chris Blom argued that Aviva Insurance is responsible to help the diocese pay for some of the compensation.

“Aviva drafted the policy, the diocese played no role in it,” said Blom.

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