ABUSE TRACKER

ROME
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor October 28, 2015

On Tuesday, Pope Francis issued a letter reminding aides that even though his council of nine cardinal advisors is pondering a sweeping reform of the Church’s central administration, in the meantime all existing rules and regulations for various Vatican departments still apply.

As the pope put it, there is no “legal vacuum.”

The letter was addressed to Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state, with the request that Parolin inform everyone else.

Depending on how one chooses to look at it, this was either:

A) A fairly routine bureaucratic reminder in a time of transition.

B) A rebuke of Australian Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s top financial official and a prime mover behind a controversial letter to the pope from roughly a dozen cardinals complaining about the process during the recent Synod of Bishops.

As the pope’s missive made the rounds on Tuesday, one could find variations on both those reactions.

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CANADA
De Standaard (Belgie)

Eric Dejaeger, een voormalige katholieke priester van Belgische afkomst, is vorige week donderdag in Iqaluit tot vijf jaar cel veroordeeld voor feiten van kindermisbruik. Dat melden de Canadese media. De ‘eskimopater’ zal evenwel geen extra celstraf moeten uitzitten.

De 69-jarige Dejaeger stond in Iqaluit, in het noordoosten van Canada, terecht voor feiten die tussen 1975 en 1978 plaatsvonden in het Newman Theological College in Edmonton, waar hij toen studeerde. De slachtoffers waren toen tussen de zes en negen jaar. Het ging in totaal om vier aanklachten: twee aanklachten voor grove obsceniteiten en de aanranding van een jongen en een meisje. Dejaeger had in september al schuldig gepleit.

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ROME
New York Times

By GAIA PIANIGIANI
OCT. 28, 2015

ROME — A former Vatican official, who was stripped of his post early this month after acknowledging publicly that he was gay and in a relationship, on Wednesday renewed his criticism of the Roman Catholic church, accusing it of homophobia.

The official, the Rev. Krzysztof Charamsa, made public a letter that he had sent to Pope Francis, dated Oct. 3, in which he denounced the church, saying that it had made the lives of gay and transgender people “a hell.” He wrote that the church had persecuted gay Catholics and had caused them and their families “immeasurable suffering.”

“Be merciful — at least leave us in peace, let the civil states make our lives more humane,” Father Charamsa wrote in the letter.

Father Charamsa, 43, a Polish former official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has made such assertions before. This month, on the eve of the synod, the church’s assembly of bishops from around the world, he announced in the Italian and Polish news media, and then at a news conference in a restaurant in central Rome, that he was gay and had a partner.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Verdict

OCTOBER 29, 2015 MARCI A. HAMILTON

While Pope Francis was visiting Philadelphia last month, the ten-year anniversary of the groundbreaking 2005 Grand Jury Report on Child Sex Abuse in the Philadelphia Archdiocese came and went. Let’s just say it wasn’t one of the topics on the Archdiocese’s agenda for the Pope. Nevertheless, it is important to assess what ten years have wrought as it was the most comprehensive report on clergy sex abuse in any jurisdiction in the United States. While it pales in comparison to the Australian Royal Commission’s report on abuse in multiple institutions across an entire country, it remains the benchmark for responsible prosecutorial initiative on clergy sex abuse in the United States.

There have been eight reports by prosecutors in the United States, and the 2005 Philadelphia Report is the one in my view to be duplicated in other jurisdictions. In the words of Terry McKiernan, president of the comprehensive online archive of the history of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse history, BishopAccountability.org: It “combined many different strong perspectives and modes of analysis. Anyone reading the report can get an education in how priests’ career histories, their abuse histories, and the management approach of the diocese could add up to a catastrophe for children. The report gets at the two crimes better than any other report—it provides detailed case studies of the abuse itself and the best analysis of how management made it all happen. Those case studies and the pattern studies are very unusual in the depth of their engagement and sympathy. The great article in NCR is a good reminder of where that empathy came from and how much it cost.”

Then-District Attorney Lynne Abraham remains the prosecutor who deserves the most credit in the United States for detailing the facts of abuse in a diocese. True, her successor, current District Attorney Seth Williams issued a stinging though much shorter report of his own in 2011, which led to the only conviction on child endangerment of any member of the hierarchy, Monsignor Lynn. But for the work of Abraham’s office, that conviction never would have happened. Full disclosure: I was honored to be selected by Abraham as an outside consultant on the 2005 Report.

Excellent Public Education About Child Sex Abuse in Institutions

The 400-plus page report described in painful detail what dozens of priests had done to children in the Archdiocese, and how the hierarchy covered it up. The now-familiar pattern of shuffling priests among parishes after there were reports of abuse is as clear as the callousness of the hierarchy. The catalog of abusing priests was eye opening to many Philadelphians, especially Philadelphia Catholics whose attendance and giving dropped perceptibly after the facts came out.

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CALIFORNIA
Monterey County Weekly

by Mary Duan
and Sara Rubin

At the Diocese of Monterey, they have a codeword for the case of Edward Fitz-Henry, a former priest accused of molesting boys in several parishes over a number of decades. They call it “Primrose.”

It’s a beautiful flower, bizarrely representing an ugly blight on the diocese’s history. But Primrose, the diocese maintains, is over: Edward Fitz-Henry was “laicized,” or stripped of his duties and removed from the priesthood, in 2013. The paperwork, Fitz-Henry says, came through from Rome just this year.

He walked away with an unspecified cash settlement after he sued the diocese for failing to protect him and for revealing aspects of his private psychiatric history.

The diocese admits they found “credible” an allegation dating back nearly 25 years, that Fitz-Henry behaved inappropriately with a boy at the Mission San Carlos School in 1990, when Fitz-Henry was a priest there and had grown close to the boy’s family. There was tickling into submission, extended hugging and arm stroking and wrestling that ended with the priest’s crotch in the boy’s face. When the boy’s sister witnessed some of it, she told her mother something weird was going on and the mother agreed. The mother complained about it to her bishop, extracting a promise that Fitz-Henry would get help and that he would never be allowed around children again.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Jeremy Gray | jgray@al.com

When former Clarke County pastor Mack Charles Andrews Jr. stands trial in November on charges of raping and sexually abusing and torturing multiple young girls, prosecutors want to introduce evidence of other similar crimes.

District Attorney Spencer Walker last week filed a motion stating he wants to introduce evidence Andrews sexually abused other young girls, crimes for which he was never charged. The evidence, he wrote, would “establish the Defendant’s motive and unnatural sexual desire for underage girls.”

Some of the abuse, the filing states, was witnessed by Andrews’ daughter.

Andrews is expected to stand trial Nov. 16 on charges involving multiple minors in the late 80s and into the 90s when he was pastor of the First United Pentacostal Church in Thomasville and principal of Faith Christian Academy.

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TEXAS
DailyTrib.com

BURNET — The wife of a former church pastor faces a string of felony child sex abuse charges after a woman told police she was molested by the suspect and her now-deceased husband as a young girl for several years, according to police.

Misty Rae Hopkins, 48, of Austin was booked into the Burnet County Jail on Oct. 26 on 15 indictments.

She was indicted by a Burnet County grand jury Oct. 6 for six counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child; four counts of indecency with a child (contact); four counts of indecency with a child (exposure); and one count of sexual performance of a child, according to court records.

The charges are the result of an investigation launched in December 2014 by the Burnet Police Department.

Police say the accuser “came forward to another agency,” which then contacted the Burnet department.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Pilot

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley statement regarding release of “Spotlight”

The Spotlight film depicts a very painful time in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States and particularly here in the Archdiocese of Boston. It is very understandable that this time of the film’s release can be especially painful for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy.

The media’s investigative reporting on the abuse crisis instigated a call for the Church to take responsibility for its failings and to reform itself — to deal with what was shameful and hidden — and to make the commitment to put the protection of children first, ahead of all other interests.

We have asked for and continue to ask for forgiveness from all those harmed by the crimes of the abuse of minors. As Archbishop of Boston I have personally met with hundreds of survivors of clergy abuse over the last twelve years, hearing the accounts of their sufferings and humbly seeking their pardon. I have been deeply impacted by their histories and compelled to continue working toward healing and reconciliation while upholding the commitment to do all that is possible to prevent harm to any child in the future.

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NEW YORK
WBNG

[with video]

By Scott Sasina

Binghamton, NY (WBNG Binghamton) District Attorneys within the region of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse joined Bishop Robert Cunningham in Binghamton. The purpose of the gathering was to “formalize” the procedure following incidents of alleged sexual abuse of minors — by all members of clergy within the Diocese.

“A priest, or any other adult who abuses a child, is wrong,” Robert Cunningham, the Bishop of the Diocese of Syracuse, said.

On Wednesday, Bishop Cunningham, along with seven district attorneys — from Chenango, Cortland, Onondaga, Oneida, Oswego and Madison counties — signed a memorandum to formalize their agreement.

“This essentially makes the Diocese of Syracuse a mandatory reporter for any potential sexual abuse. The complaint will be reported immediately to the appropriate district attorney’s office,” Bill Fitzpatrick, the district attorney of Onondaga County, said.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

October 28, 2015
Geraldine Cardozo
Central Coast Gosford Express Advocate

More than six decades have passed since Woy Woy Bay volunteer firefighter Malcolm Angus was sexually abused by an Anglican priest.

And yet the horrific memories of the repeated abuse, which started in Fiji when he was only 7 and ended in rape in an Australian Anglican boarding house when he was 18, still haunt the 69-year-old former CEO.

“The effects of childhood sexual abuse never leave you,” Mr Angus, who will be speaking out publicly for the first time about his experience on Saturday, said.

“But only the living victims have been offered a chance for justice. Only the living have told their stories of horror and sadness.”

Mr Angus, who never told his parents and only opened up to his two adult sons about the abuse last year, will be talking at a world-first service at St Luke’s Anglican Church in Woy Woy on Saturday night for the “silent” victims of institutional child abuse who have died.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Tom Olsen
Forum News Service
POSTED: 10/28/2015

HIBBING, Minn. — An attorney for the Hibbing priest accused of sexually abusing four girls is seeking to have his client’s criminal charges dismissed, alleging that the case is the result of an overzealous prosecution fueled by the ongoing child sexual abuse controversy in the Catholic Church.

The Rev. Brian Michael Lederer, 29, faces seven felony charges related to the alleged inappropriate touching of the girls and possession of child pornography.

Lederer’s defense attorney, Peter Wold of Minneapolis, contended in a motion filed last week in St. Louis County District Court that there is a lack of probable cause to substantiate the charges.

Wold said in a 17-page memorandum that the church has been “rocked” by abuse allegations, which he argued has led to a “cultural shift” in the perception of interactions between clergy and parishioners.

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MASSACHUSETTS
CBS Boston

October 28, 2015 By Kate Merrill

BROOKLINE (CBS) – It’s the heart-wrenching story forever linked to Boston. The church sex abuse scandal and subsequent cover-up exposed by the Boston Globe Spotlight investigative team in 2002 is now the subject the new movie “Spotlight” showing just how those Boston reporters broke the story.

Matt Carroll is one of the Spotlight reporters he says, “It’s been tremendously exciting and surreal, mind bending.”

Marty Baron is the former Globe editor whose idea it was to investigate the Church says, “I never thought I’d be played in a movie its inconceivable to me.”

Wednesday at the Boston premiere for the film those Globe reporters walked the red carpet alongside the Hollywood stars.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston.com

OCTOBER 29, 2015

BY ALLISON POHLE @ALLISONPOHLE

Ann Hagan Webb didn’t expect to get emotional while watching Spotlight for the first time. As a survivor of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, she had already lived through the events depicted in the film.

But Webb found herself feeling completely overwhelmed as she observed how The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team of investigative journalists personally reacted to uncovering the systemic problem of clergy sexual abuse. Seeing it play out on the big screen reminded her of the moment she realized that, as a victim, she wasn’t alone.

“All of the survivors thought of ourselves as the only ones at some point,” she said. “Then we would meet a few other people and realize the enormity of the problem. Seeing the journalists figure that out, too, the horror of ‘oh, there are so many,’ was very personal.”

Spotlight hits theaters nationwide on November 6. In Boston, where the scandal broke wide open, some survivors are anxious about how the movie portrays their story, in part because the film is told from the perspective of the journalists rather than the survivors. They’re also worried that the film might force them to re-live their trauma.

“There are also a lot of survivors who just don’t remember because it’s buried so deep. This movie could be the trigger,” said Robert Costello, an abuse survivor who hasn’t seen the movie yet. “It also might be a trigger for other people who were violated but not by a priest or a nun, or were assaulted in some other way.”

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NEW YORK
WSKG

[with audio]

By SOLVEJG WASTVEDT

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse and seven district attorneys announced a new agreement on handling of sexual abuse cases Wednesday. The memorandum of understanding requires the diocese to report all abuse claims directly to the appropriate DA, whether they involve current or former clergy. Onondaga District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick introduced the agreement.

“There is no potential offender who is presenting any danger to any child in central New York,” he said.

Fitzpatrick says he knows this because the memorandum released today has been a verbal agreement for 12 years. The document requires the diocese to refer all allegations or suspected sexual abuse of a minor directly to the appropriate DA. The diocese will not conduct independent investigations, and will make an effort to preserve evidence. Fitzpatrick says that’s the way they have been working and that Bishop Robert Cunningham has always cooperated.

The memorandum is a change from official diocese policy, though, which was last revised in 2007. That policy promises that allegations involving current diocese personal will be reported to law enforcement. It does not have a provision for cases where the alleged abuser is no longer in the church.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WBUR

[with audio and video]

BROOKLINE, Mass. Some local journalists and filmmakers are hoping a major motion picture in wide release as of next week demonstrates the importance of investigative journalism.

“Spotlight” chronicles The Boston Globe investigation of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, and the film had its local premiere Wednesday.

The gray, rainy weather was fitting for a movie that depicts the Globe’s extensive investigation into widespread pedophilia in the Boston Archdiocese. Tents protected journalists, and the film’s cast and crew lined up on the red carpet leading into the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

“It’s been a much more sober press line than anywhere else we’ve been, except for Venice, which may as well be the second seat of Catholicism,” said actor Mark Ruffalo, who plays Globe Spotlight reporter Michael Rezendes in the film.

He says Boston is where the team behind “Spotlight” has to get it right.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has granted a plenary indulgence in the form of a jubilee year to the Legionaries of Christ and the members of Regnum Christi during the year in which they commemorate 75 years since their foundation. Please find the full text of the English-language press release making the announcement, below.
****************************************************
Rome. October 28, 2015. Pope Francis has granted a plenary indulgence in the form of a jubilee year to the Legionaries of Christ and the members of Regnum Christi during the year in which they commemorate 75 years since their foundation. This jubilee will conclude with the solemnity of the Sacred Heart in 2016.

The Apostolic Penitentiary published a decree signed by the Major Penitentiary, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, as a response to the request from the General Director of Regnum Christi and the Legion of Christ, Father Eduardo Robles-Gil, L.C.

The Legionaries and members of Regnum Christi may receive the jubilee indulgence during the solemnity of Christ the King in 2015 and the solemnity of the Sacred Heart in 2016 if they profess or devotionally renew the promises or vows which bind them to the Movement or the Legion, pray that the Lord keep their country faithful to its Christian vocation, as well as pray an Our Father, the Creed and an invocation to Our Lady, Queen of Apostles.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Crux

By Margery Eagan
On Spirituality columnist October 28, 2015

Remember the famous line in “Jaws” when Chief Brody first sees the monster shark and says, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”?

Phil Saviano remembers a similar line when he first told Boston Globe reporters there weren’t just one or two priests molesting a handful of children. Saviano knew of nearly 30 priests, if not more, with dozens of victims. And the Church was covering it up. He remembers how one editor took it all in, then called his boss to say: We’re gonna need more reporters. This is so much bigger than we thought.

Not long after that, stories of priestly sexual abuse and its cover-up burst onto the front page of The Boston Globe. It turned out there were scores of criminal priests, hundreds of victims. The abuse spanned decades. Cardinal Bernard F. Law shuffled abusers from parish to parish while lawyers pressed victims to sign confidentiality agreements in exchange for, essentially, hush money.

Now that story has been made into a highly praised movie, “Spotlight,” named for the Globe’s investigative team. It opens in theaters Nov. 6, and Phil Saviano is one of the victims portrayed. Played by actor Neal Huff, Saviano’s in that Globe meeting room holding a picture of himself at 12, the age he was when convicted serial rapist Father David A. Holley showed up in his parish. He asks the reporters, “How do you say no to God?”

“Spotlight” is not so much a story about survivors and their abuse as it is about the Globe’s uncovering a massive criminal network protected by the Catholic hierarchy. But Saviano, who for years ran New England’s chapter of SNAP (Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests) says it’s important as a powerful reminder of the scope of the crisis. At the movie’s end, there’s a list of around 200 cities where priests sexually assaulted children, and were protected.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

October 29, 2015

Louise Hall
Court Reporter

A Sydney judge has suppressed the name of a Catholic primary school teacher who has pleaded guilty to child pornography offences to “limit the embarrassment and distress” of the school.

In the Downing Centre District Court on Thursday, a 59-year-old man admitted to accessing, transmitting and possessing thousands of images and videos of child abuse material.

The court heard between 2011 and 2014 the man used the internet to download child porn for his “sexual gratification”.

At the time of his arrest in September 2014, the man was a teacher and e-learning co-ordinator at a Catholic primary school in Sydney’s south-west.

Following pleas of guilty to one count of transmitting, one count of accessing and three counts of possessing child abuse material, Judge Chris Craigie made a non-publication order on the man’s name following an application by the Commonwealth DPP.

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NEW YORK
Binghamton Homepage

[with video]

BINGHAMTON, N.Y.

District Attorneys across the region have come to an agreement with the Syracuse Roman Catholic Diocese that states specific requirements on reporting sexual abuse.

Broome County District Attorney Jerry Mollen was joined by DA’s that serve seven other counties within the Diocese of Syracuse to discuss details of the memorandum.

The agreement states that any complaint regarding abuse to minors must be reported to the appropriate DA’s office.

It also says that the Diocese will cooperate with the DA’s office and will not conduct its own investigation.

Bishop Robert Cunningham said abusers will be held accountable for their actions.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By John O’Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com
on October 28, 2015

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — A man who says he survived child-molesting at the hands of a priest prompted prosecutors to ask the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse to turn over all cases of suspected pedophile clergy.

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick revealed today that his office heard from the survivor about a year ago, leading to today’s announcement about a new written agreement between the diocese and seven district attorneys.

Bishop Robert Cunningham and the seven district attorneys in the diocese announced at a news conference that the diocese signed an agreement to report all accusations of pedophile priests to the prosecutors.

The survivor contacted Fitzpatrick’s office from another state about a year ago.

“After dialogue with him, I contacted my colleagues,” Fitzpatrick said, referring to the other DAs. “We began the process of discussing this with the diocese as to how we could formalize some of the agreements that we have had verbally discussed in the past.”

Fitzpatrick said he couldn’t release the name of the survivor without that man’s permission.

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NEW YORK
WICZ

After allegations of sexual misconduct within the Syracuse Diocese, a memorandum of understanding has been created between seven county District Attorneys, including Broome County’s, and the Diocese.

The document puts into written word a verbal agreement that has been present for more than a decade. It includes protocol for the Diocese reporting any reports of sexual abuse directly to the county DA to immediately assess the situation.

“Today is a great step forward to further our collective efforts to eradicate this issue and to keep our children safe,” said Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse Bishop Robert Cunningham.

“It makes sure that no matter who the Bishop is or no matter who the prosecutor is, this is the way it should be done. It also tells the community that we understand that that’s how it should be done,” said Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen.

The document states responsibility to refer allegations directly to the DA regardless of its age or if the suspect is active in the diocese.

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NEW YORK
TWC News

By Matt Jarchow
Wednesday, October 28, 2015

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — It’s meant to bring healing to victims and prevent future cases of abuse in the Syracuse Catholic Diocese, but one survivor said a new agreement between the Diocese and seven area counties does neither.

“Not at all,” Charles Bailey Jr. said. “Why they didn’t view themselves as mandated reporters is beyond me. Why we had to go to this step to have this happen? I just don’t understand.”

As a child, Bailey faced abuse from a priest. On Wednesday, he listened as Bishop Robert Cunningham called the memorandum of understanding a giant step forward. Bailey said that step won’t come until the names of offenders gets released.

“Their names are forever hidden,” he said. “Which to me does not protect children and protect the public, because if you don’t know the names of the offenders you don’t know who to avoid.”

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NEW YORK
Oswego County Today

Written by Steve Yablonski, Oct 28, 2015

OSWEGO, NY – On Wednesday (October 28), the District Attorneys for Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga and Oswego counties held a press conference in Binghamton to announce that they had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Bishop Robert Cunningham of the Syracuse Diocese regarding the reporting of sexual misconduct of minors.

The document establishes a consistent policy and protocol for the reporting of sexual abuse by any member of the clergy and religious orders under the auspices of the Syracuse Diocese, regardless of when the incident was committed.

Read the Memo of Understanding Syracuse Diocese here

The memorandum states that when a Diocesan official learns or has reason to suspect that a member of the clergy or religious order has sexually abused a minor, the person disclosing the abuse will be strongly urged to report immediately and directly to the appropriate District Attorney’s Office.

The Diocese will also immediately refer the matter to the appropriate District Attorney’s Office for investigation, regardless of the age of the allegation, and regardless of whether the clergy member or religious is currently active.

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PERU
Catholic Review

October 28, 2015

By Barbara J. Fraser
Catholic News Service

LIMA, Peru – Allegations of physical, psychological and sexual abuse by leaders of a Catholic movement founded here in the 1970s have led to a lawsuit against Lima Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani and a promise of an internal investigation from the group’s leader.

The allegations were described in a new book, “Mitad Monjes, Mitad Soldados” (“Half Monks, Half Soldiers”), by Pedro Salinas, a former member of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, who interviewed about 30 other former members.

The interviewees, some of whom were minors when they joined the group and moved into one of its formation houses, recalled military-style physical exercise and separation from family and friends. Some said spiritual directors had ordered them to disrobe and then touched them, and there were several accounts of rape. One of those accused is the organization’s founder, Luis Fernando Figari.

Figari resigned as head of Sodalitium in late 2010, after the organization withdrew its proposal for the beatification of its deceased former vicar general, German Doig, in the wake of sex abuse allegations.

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PERU
El Regional Piura

[Allegations of sexual abuse creates concern in the Peruvian church and the Vatican.]

ERP. Las denuncias contra miembros de la Iglesia Católica, sobre todo por abuso sexual contra menores, ha llegado al Perú y con diversos testimonios se acusa al fundador de Sodalicios de Vida Cristiana como el principal responsable. Frente a la arremetida mediática, monseñor Luis Cipriani, salió a declarar indicando que los presuntos delitos son “hechos increíblemente malos”.

Aunque en nuestro país se esperaba hace días que el cardenal Juan Luis Cipriani se pronuncie de una vez por todas respecto a las graves acusaciones de abusos sexuales que sacuden al Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana (SVC), fue necesario que el primado de la Iglesia peruana arribara a Chile para que rompa su silencio y hable sobre estas denuncias.

En una entrevista que concedió al diario El Mercurio, el arzobispo de Lima calificó las acusaciones como increíblemente malas y al caso como lamentable y doloroso.

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PERU
National Catholic Register

by CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY 10/28/2015

LIMA, Peru — The superior general of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae has made public that the community has had an apostolic visitor since April, who is charged with investigating accusations that its founder committed sexual abuse.

The apostolic visitor, who was appointed April 22, is Bishop Fortunato Pablo Urcey, Prelate of Chota, Peru. He was charged by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life with investigating allegations of abuse committed by Luis Fernando Figari.

“When we were told this measure was being taken, the Holy See asked us to not make the visit public or to share who had been appointed as [apostolic] visitor, so he could carry out his work in a serene environment without any pressure from the media,” Alessandro Moroni Llabrés, superior general of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, stated Oct. 26.

“In the midst of the difficult situation we are going through, I requested authorization to make public that this investigation includes an apostolic visitation to our communities in Peru,” Moroni stated.

He explained that the visit began in August “and should conclude in March 2016.”
Bishop Pablo, who made solemn profession in the Order of Augustinian Recollects in 1968, was tasked with “determin[ing] the actual authenticity” of “accusations of improper behavior leveled at the founder of this society of apostolic life.”

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Winnipeg Free Press Published on Wed Oct 28 2015

DETROIT—A former archbishop convicted of sexually assaulting a young altar boy at a Winnipeg church has been demoted to a monk.

Seraphim Storheim, who is 69, was once the highest-ranking official in Canada for the Orthodox Church in America.

The church’s website says Storheim was removed from the priesthood during the annual fall session of its Holy Synod of Bishops last week in Detroit.

Storheim was found guilty early last year of assaulting the boy while he was working as a parish priest at Holy Trinity Sobor Orthodox Church in the 1980s.

He started serving an eight-month sentence earlier this year after an unsuccessful bid to overturn his conviction before the Manitoba Court of Appeal.

He was freed in July under an earned early release.

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MEW YORK
Press & Sun Bulletin

Anthony Borrelli, aborrelli@pressconnects.com | @PSBABorrelli October 28, 2015

Bishop Robert Cunningham will join prosecutors from seven counties, including Broome, on Wednesday to formalize protocols on allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse by members of the clergy in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse.

A memorandum of understanding will be signed at 2 p.m. this afternoon at the Broome County District Attorney’s Office in downtown Binghamton.

The agreement would require the diocese to immediately report suspected abuse by clergy members, regardless of how old the claims are, or whether the suspected abuser is no longer an active member of the clergy.

Broome County District Attorney Gerald F. Mollen, Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick, Chenango County District Attorney Joseph A. McBride, Cortland County District Attorney Mark D. Suben, Oneida County District Attorney Scott D. McNamara and Oswego County District Attorney Gregory S. Oakes will join Cunningham at this afternoon’s press conference to announce the agreement.

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NEW YORK
WICZ

District Attorneys from throughout Central New York will join Bishop Robert Cunningham of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse in Binghamton at 2pm Wednesday.

They will announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding formalizing the procedures to be followed in all incidents involving alleged sexual misconduct and abuse of minors by all members of the clergy and religious in the Diocese of Syracuse.

We will update the story throughout the day.

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DEUTSCHLAND
RP Online

[Karlsruhe / Willich. The sentencing of former priest Georg K. from Willich who was convicted of abusing two boys has been sentenced to six years in prison and his appeal has been rejected.]

Karlsruhe/ Willich. Die Verurteilung des früheren Pfarrers Georg K. aus Willich wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von zwei Jungen zu sechs Jahren Haft ist rechtskräftig. Der Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) wies die Revision gegen ein Urteil des Landgerichts Krefeld als unbegründet zurück.

Die Nachprüfung dieses Urteils habe keine durchgreifenden Rechtsfehler ergeben, wie der BGH am Dienstag in Karlsruhe mitteilte. K. trägt alle Kosten des Revisionsverfahrens.

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MINNESOTA
KTTC

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says it needs more time to file a bankruptcy reorganization plan because of the large number of clergy abuse claims.

Attorneys for the archdiocese plan to ask a bankruptcy judge Thursday for a second extension of a deadline on filing that reorganization plan. They’re hoping the judge will extend the deadline to May 31, 2016. The court earlier approved an extension to Nov. 30.

The Star Tribune (http://strib.mn/1M1IXq6 ) reports a motion before the bankruptcy judge says 717 claims have been filed in the case, including 416 alleging liability for sexual abuse. Claimants had until Aug. 3 to file.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy reorganization in January as the number of claims mounted. A 2013 state law opens a three-year window for older claims of clergy abuse.

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ROME
Daily Mail

By SIMON TOMLINSON FOR MAILONLINE

A high-ranking Polish priest who was fired after coming out as gay has accused the Catholic Church of making life ‘hell’ for millions of homosexuals.

Father Krzystof Charamsa was stripped of his post earlier this month on the day he announced he was in a relationship with another man.

In a scathing letter to Pope Francis, he accused the Vatican of hypocrisy because he said the clergy was ‘full of homosexuals’.

He also condemned the Church for causing ‘immeasurable suffering’ to homosexual Catholics and their families.

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MARYLAND
Baltimore Brew

Fern Shen October 28, 2015

Sitting a few feet from Heather E. Cook, the former Episcopal bishop who killed her son in a drunk driving hit-and-run in North Baltimore last year, Patricia Palermo spoke with raw fury, aiming her stinging words right at Cook.

“You didn’t make calls to help my son, but you managed to make calls to help yourself,” Palermo said, as Cook broke down, dabbing her eyes with a tissue.

Cook, who was in Baltimore City Circuit Court yesterday awaiting sentencing on automobile manslaughter and other charges in connection with the death of bicyclist Thomas Palermo, was spared absolutely nothing during two hours of family members’ testimony.

“I have terrible nightmares. I keep seeing imprints of my son’s precious head on the windshield of Heather Cook’s car,” Palermo said, her voice ragged but firm. “I fear he suffered terrible pain.”

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MARYLAND
ABC 2

Catherine Hawley
Oct 27, 2015

She used to be the second highest ranking Episcopal Church member in the state diocese, but now Heather Cook is a prison inmate.

The former Episcopal was sentenced Tuesday to serve seven years of a 20-year prison sentence for the accident that caused the death of bicyclist Tom Palermo. A judge ordered the remaining 13 years be suspended.

It was a difficult day for Palermo’s family, who spoke at Cook’s sentencing hearing.

“This tragedy will not define Tom or our family, our resolve is strong as we hold Tom in our hearts,” Palermo’s sister-in-law Alisa Rock said.

They didn’t say much after court, but for two hours inside, Palermo’s family gave emotional and powerful statements, sobbing and asking the judge for a harsh punishment.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

Ian Duncan
The Baltimore Sun

Former Episcopal Bishop Heather Cook was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for killing a cyclist in a drunken crash in Baltimore two days after Christmas.

The sentence came at the end of a two-hour hearing in which the wife, mother and sisters-in-law of Thomas Palermo directed their grief and anger at the disgraced clergywoman.

Prosecutors said Cook was far above the legal limit for alcohol and sending a text message as she drove her Subaru Forester in Roland Park on the afternoon of Dec. 27. She struck and killed Palermo, a 41-year-old software engineer and father of two young children, as he enjoyed a ride.

She left the scene twice, a fact that weighed on judge Timothy J. Doory.

“Your leaving the scene at that time was more than irresponsibility, it was a decision,” Doory said.

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MARYLAND
Christian Today

Mark Woods CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 28 October 2015

Former Bishop of Maryland Heather Cook will serve seven years in prison for killing cyclist Tom Palermo. She was driving while drunk.

A Baltimore judge sentenced her to 20 years imprisonment but suspended 13 years. Cook will serve five years for manslaughter followed by two years for leaving the scene of the accident and will serve a further five years on probation on the completion of her term.

Cook was driving her car in Baltimore on December 27, 2014, with more than three times the state’s legal alcohol limit in her bloodstream. She began to text while driving and swerved out of the traffic lane onto the bicycle lane, hitting Palermo from behind. Cook then drove away, returning half an hour later. She drove away again but returned a second time and was arrested.

At the sentencing, Tom Palermo’s mother Patricia told the court that she had asked God many times why he let her son die and had had a revelation. “God didn’t do this,” she said. “Heather Cook killed Tom.”

Cook said: “I am so sorry for the grief and the agony I have caused . This is my fault. I accept complete responsibility.”

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UNITED STATES
American Spectatori

By George Neumayr – 10.28.15

The scandalous synod on the family skidded to a stop last weekend in Rome but not before Pope Francis got in a few more licks at conservatives, whom he caricatured in his final remarks as heartless.

The speech was notable for its nastiness, displaying the very lack of charity he routinely assigns to conservatives. The synod, he said, had exposed “closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families.”

He continued: “It was about trying to open up broader horizons, rising above conspiracy theories and blinkered viewpoints, so as to defend and spread the freedom of the children of God, and to transmit the beauty of Christian Newness, at times encrusted in a language which is archaic or simply incomprehensible.”

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FLORIDA
Naples Daily News

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A former South Florida youth pastor has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of a federal sex abuse charge.

Fifty-one-year-old Jeffrey London was sentenced Tuesday for using a cellphone to entice an underage boy into sexual activity in 2011 and 2012. A jury found London guilty of the charge in June.

The unidentified victim testified that London sexually abused him from ages 7 to 16.

Last year, London was tried and acquitted on 27 child sex abuse charges in state court. Investigators say about a dozen young men have accused London of abusing them after meeting them through family members.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
KELO-TV

SELBY, SD – A Walworth County jury found a former South Dakota pastor and educator not guilty of felony sex crimes.

Thirty-nine-year-old Timothy Thompson faced two counts of sexual contact with a child less than 16 years old. The jury acquitted him Friday.

Thompson, who now lives in California, pastored a church in Mobridge. He also worked as a teacher and administrator in South Dakota schools.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Press & Dakotan

Associated Press

SELBY, S.D. (AP) — A jury has cleared a former South Dakota pastor and educator accused of having sexual contact with a minor.

KELO-TV (http://bit.ly/1MRXjpE ) reports that a Walworth County jury has acquitted 39-year-old Timothy Thompson of two counts of sexual contact with a child less than 16 years old.

Authorities filed the counts against Thompson last year. They accused him of having sexual contact with a boy in 2008, when he was a pastor at Cornerstone Community Church in Mobridge. Thompson also previously served as a school principal in McLaughlin.

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IRELAND
Mayo News

Fr Kevin Hegarty

LAST week I gave a talk on the ‘Association of Catholic Priests’ to an assembly of the ‘Missionaries of the Sacred Heart’ held in Mount St Annes in Portarlington. Members of the congregation work in Pastoral Ministry in Ireland, England, USA, South Africa, Venezuela and Russia. The talk gave me the opportunity to reflect on the history of the ACP. Just over five years ago, the association did not exist. future historians will, I am convinced, see 2010 as a particularly harrowing year for Ireland.

The Government had lost its moral authority as it sought to cope with the most acute economic recession since the wall street crash of 1929. Equally, the moral authority of the Catholic Church had zoomed downwards. The series of official reports, starting with the diocese of Ferns and culminating with the Ryan and Murphy investigations, on the physical and sexual abuse of children by clerics had left Church leaders reeling. In the spring of that year Pope Benedict had summoned the Irish hierarchy to Rome to account for its stewardship. Many priests felt then the need of an organisation to provide a forum for discussion. Since the demise of the “National Conference of Priests” in 2007, no such forum existed. While the NCPI did have some achievements to it’s credit in its 30 year plus existence, in the view of many priests, it was hampered by being a creature of the hierarchy who established it. Bishops either ignored it or patronised it. In the 1980’s, Fr Seamus Ryan, who was then president of the NCPI, had a meeting with the then Papal Nuncio Alibrandi, on the need to consult priests about the appointment of bishops.

The Nuncio dismissed him saying he was a nobody leading a group of nobodies. Under the NCPI all Irish priests were automatically members. Here, there were shades of the great eagles song, ‘Hotel California’, where you can check out any time but never leave. Priests in Ireland are a diverse group. There are those who fervently wish for a restoration of the pious certainties of the past, those who cling tenaciously to the need for a Church that engages positively with modernity and those who just long for a quiet life. This diversity meant that NCPI statements died the death of a thousand qualifications as drafters sought to accommodate all views. In that context, it was a case of, as Seamus Heaney once wrote, ‘whatever you say, you say nothing’. In the summer 2010, soundings about the possibility of a new priests’ organisation, resulted in September in the formation of the ACP at a meeting in Portlaoise. Organisers had hoped that 100 might attend. In the event over 300 turned up. It was an index of the hunger for dialogue in an official Church that pays only lip service to it. Probably the greatest achievement of the ACP is that it has provided a safe place where priests can talk freely. Diocesan priests, in particular, can feel isolated. So the ACP has erected a sense of togetherness and solidarity.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Legal Intelligencer

P.J. D’Annunzio, The Legal Intelligencer
May 15, 2015

The plaintiff in a civil clergy sex-abuse case is asking the court for summary judgment against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Monsignor William Lynn based on the reinstatement of Lynn’s criminal conviction.

Billy Doe, who alleged that he was sexually abused by priests as a minor, claimed in court papers that Lynn, in his role as an archdiocese administrator, knowingly shuffled priests accused of misconduct from parish to parish across the state where they could come into contact with children. The civil case was filed under the pseudonym “Billy Doe.”

The Legal does not name confirmed or alleged victims of abuse.

The Supreme Court’s April reinstatement of Lynn’s criminal conviction of endangering the welfare of children means the archdiocese and Lynn can be held civilly liable, Doe claimed.

Lynn’s attorney, Thomas Bergstrom of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, said he had not yet had a chance to review Doe’s motion, but he would file a response before the deadline in early June. He declined to comment further.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Washington Times

By Anne Hendershott – – Tuesday, October 27, 2015

While the moral panic of Salem’s witches may be over, an equally pernicious panic continues to haunt Massachusetts — that of a pedophile priest embedded in a complicit Catholic Church determined to protect him. This narrative recently resurfaced in the Boston suburb of Revere, where a male janitor at the Immaculate Conception elementary school used a bathroom that had long been used by adults as well as students — and a student saw the janitor using the urinal. When the parent of that student complained that her child had seen the janitor in the bathroom, the hysteria began. And, although the police and Suffolk prosecutors quickly cleared the janitor of criminal wrongdoing, the Immaculate Conception School’s parish priest was removed by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, and the school’s principal and a second-grade teacher were forced to resign.

The lawsuits have already begun. Last week, Alison Kelly, the former principal of Immaculate Conception School, filed a $1 million lawsuit against the archdiocese. According to the Boston Globe, “She claims the church forced her to resign in January even though she had immediately reported the parent’s complaints to the pastor in charge of the school.” Claiming that her firing was a “cold, calculated attempt by the Church to do some face-saving at the expense of innocent people,” Ms. Kelly’s attorney told reporters that the archdiocese did not bother with a full investigation into the recent episode because “it served their own aims to appear to be taking quick and decisive action against its employees.” An attorney for the fired teacher plans to file her own lawsuit within the next weeks.

The Boston Globe reports that archdiocesan spokesman, Terrence Donilon, claims not to have seen the lawsuit and refused to comment on pending litigation. Yet Mr. Donilon assured the reporter that the church observes a “zero-tolerance policy” in efforts to protect children from sexual abuse. Mr. Donilon continued: “All mandated reporters must report suspected or potential child abuse to the appropriate authorities, as they have been trained to do.” According to the lawsuit, the principal immediately called the pastor, the Rev. George Szal, who assured her that he would “take care of it.” Two weeks later, when the parent complained yet again about seeing the janitor use the bathroom, Father Szal asked Ms. Kelly to contact the archdiocese. The archdiocese asked Ms. Kelly to file a report with the State Department of Children and Families. And, according to the Globe, Father Szal told Ms. Kelly that Cardinal O’Malley had asked for his resignation the next day. Three days later, Kathleen Power Mears, the superintendent of Catholic schools in Boston told Ms. Kelly to resign or she would be terminated — despite the fact that within the week, the police and Suffolk County prosecutors cleared the janitor of any criminal wrongdoing — claiming, “No child had reported that the man had touched him or used sexual language.”

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Lisa Wangsness GLOBE STAFF OCTOBER 28, 2015

The film company that released “Spotlight,” the forthcoming movie about The Boston Globe’s investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, is offering a free screening for clergy abuse victims in Boston on Thursday evening.

Open Road Films organized the screening this week after some victims complained that they would not have an opportunity to see the film in advance of its official release. A few victims portrayed by actors in the movie have been to screenings and plan to attend the film’s Boston premiere Wednesday night.

Robert Costello, who sued the church in the early 1990s and has been active in the survivors’ community ever since, said he has been lobbying the film’s representatives and the Globe since the summer to offer a larger group of victims a special preview.

“The stories in it are our stories,” he said.

The company held a small screening in early October for the victims portrayed in the movie, plus a few of their invited guests — about a dozen people altogether.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

THE CHURCH was rocked yesterday after a third Sussex priest in as many weeks was found to have committed sexual offences.

Vickery House, former vicar of Berwick, was convicted of five counts of indecent assault on males – with one as young as 14 – over a period of 16 years.

He was cleared on three further counts at the Old Bailey.

It comes after former Bishop of Lewes, Peter Ball, was jailed for 32 months on October 7 for committing acts of “debasement” in the name of religion with regards 18 vulnerable victims.

On Thursday last week, former Bishop of Chichester George Ball, was also outed as an offender after the Church paid compensation to a victim he abused more than 50 years ago.

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UNITED STATES
Monterey County Weekly

by Mary Duan

He has attained the popularity of a worldwide rock star. And that’s how the hundreds of thousands of people who lined the streets of Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia greeted Pope Francis during his first trip to the U.S. in late September.

First to D.C., where he met with the president, addressed Congress and urged leaders to use their power to help heal the world of poverty, conflict and injustice. Then to New York, where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly on human rights and environmental justice. Then to Philadelphia, where he attended the citywide Festival of Families, the world’s largest gathering of Catholic families—and met with five survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

According to published reports, Francis met with the survivors as a group and individually, apologizing to them for both the abuse they suffered and for not being heard or believed when they reported it.

According to a story in the National Catholic Reporter newspaper, the pope told them: “Please know that the Holy Father hears you and believes you.” He added that blame rests not only with the priests who committed the abuse, but with the bishops who kept the abuse hidden or gave predator priests continued access to children, according to the Catholic news website Cruxnow.com.

He told the victims that “all responsible will be held accountable.”

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Bay Area

A former after-school program coordinator at a Hayward Catholic school was acquitted Tuesday of charges that she sexually abused a male student beginning when he was 12.

Mia Cummings, 31, of Oakland, was charged with 10 felony counts, including five counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, three counts of oral copulation with a minor and one count each of contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sex crime and continuous sexual abuse of a minor.

But after a day and a half of deliberation, an Alameda County Superior Court jury found Cummings not guilty of all charges.

Cummings was arrested and charged in November 2013 after Hayward police began investigating her when they were informed of a possible incident of child sexual abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
Mercury News

By Malaika Fraley
mfraley@bayareanewsgroup.com
POSTED: 10/27/2015

HAYWARD — Branded a child molester, the former Catholic school employee spent two years in jail, ripped away from her son when he was just 3. But on Tuesday, a jury set the woman free, acquitting her of molestation charges that could have sent her to prison for nearly two decades.

Mia Cummings, 31, of Oakland “wept tears of relief and gratitude” in Alameda County Judge Kevin Murphy’s Hayward courtroom as a clerk read consecutive not guilty verdicts, said her attorney David Cohen, who defended Cummings with his Bay Area Criminal Lawyers associate Cherie Wallace.

Cummings was expected to be released from Santa Rita Jail late Tuesday and reunited with her 5-year-old son and her longtime boyfriend.

“This thing ended her career. It ended her life,” taking her away from her family and her young son, Cohen said.

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NEW YORK
WSYR

BINGHAMTON (WSYR-TV)

The Bishop of the Syracuse Diocese will sign an agreement with District Attorneys in counties throughout the diocese regarding sex abuse incidents.

According to the Broome County District Attorney’s office, Bishop Robert Cunningham will meet with prosecutors representing counties throughout the diocese on Wednesday.

They say the bishop will sign a “memorandum of understanding,” which will establish a process for sex abuse allegations regarding clergy and minors.

The Syracuse Diocese includes:

Onondaga County
Broome County
Oneida County
Chenango County
Cortland County
Oswego County
Madison County

The press conference is set for 2 p.m. in the Broome County District Attorney’s office.

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NEW YORK
CNY Central

BY MICHAEL BENNY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27TH 2015

BINGHAMTON — There is a sweeping new agreement between the Roman Catholic Bishop of Syracuse and District Attorneys representing every jurisdiction in the Diocese. The new deal, to be announced by the Broome County District Attorney on Wednesday in Binghamton is a “memorandum of understanding.”

The language in the document will “formalize the procedures to be followed in all incidents involving alleged sexual misconduct and abuse of minors by all members of the clergy and religious in the Diocese of Syracuse. The Diocese spans an area of seven counties. The top prosecutors in each of those counties has signed the agreement. That includes Onondaga, Oswego, Oneida, Chenango, Cortland, Madison and Broome counties.

The document also states the Diocese will not conduct its own investigation into allegations and will do its part to preserve any evidence.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune OCTOBER 27, 2015

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will ask a bankruptcy judge Thursday for a second extension of its deadline to file its reorganization plan, arguing the extra time is needed to address the volume and complexity of sex abuse claims.

The church is now seeking an extension to May 31, 2016.

“There remains a number of difficult issues to be resolved before completion of the mediation process,” the archdiocese stated in its motion before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel. “As of the filing of this motion, 717 claims — including 416 claims alleging liability for sexual abuse — have been filed in this case.

“Each of these sexual abuse claims must be analyzed and negotiated by various constituencies … as part of the mediation process.”

Extending the deadline is not surprising, as the archdiocese has had less than three months to examine the full universe of abuse claims that poured in by the Aug. 3 filing deadline, said University of Minnesota law professor Christopher Soper. But it does have its drawbacks.

“The downside is it slows down the process and means more uncertainly for the creditors,” said Soper. “The whole point of this process is to figure out how much the church is going to pay to these 400 people. Until a plan is negotiated and approved, they don’t know how much they will be paid, or if they will be paid.”

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

The Labor party’s commitment to a national redress scheme for abuse survivors has been welcomed by the Uniting Church.

The church’s president in Australia, Stuart McMillan, said he “warmly welcomed” the promise made by federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to establish the $4.3 billon scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse in Australian institutions.

“The Uniting Church in Australia strongly supports this initial commitment by Labor, and we sincerely hope the Turnbull government will show similar leadership on this issue,” Mr McMillan said.

Mr McMillan has released a statement after Labor’s announcement on Tuesday, saying the United Church stands ready to play its part.

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KENTUCKY
WKYT

By: Phil Pendleton

DANVILLE, Ky. (WKYT) – A Boyle County man was charged Monday with sending inappropriate text messages and photographs to two teenage boys.

Bobby Cassady, 28, was arrested Monday evening and charged with promoting sexual performance by a minor, unlawful transaction with a minor and portraying a police officer.

Police say they were contacted by a 17-year-old Sunday night. Danville police say an investigation was launched after the 17-year-old boy told police about “suspicious activity.” That investigation led them to a 15-year-old boy.

Police say Cassady had a juvenile send him pictures over a period of several months. In a release, police said Cassady’s activity “centered around improper text messages and photographs.” Police did not provide any other details.

Cassady has worked as a volunteer with the Danville School system and was the youth director at Gethsemane Baptist Church. The pastor at Gethsemane Baptist says the allegations are troubling based on the man they hired two years ago to work with their young people.

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UNITED STATES
WBUR

Tue, Oct 27, 2015
by Eileen McNamara

One could hardly tell from the media’s preoccupation with all things papal that Islam, not Catholicism, is the fastest growing religion in the world.

In the 19 months since Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina became Pope Francis, an enchanted media has been dispensing a steady diet of “news” from Vatican City about everything from the pontiff’s preferred footwear to the birthday breakfast he shared with a few homeless men.

That the humble Jesuit from Buenos Aires has captured the public imagination is certain. Witness the throngs who greeted him in Washington, Philadelphia and New York during his U.S. visit last month. But the journalistic excess — more than 4,000 mentions in The New York Times alone — is matched by the breathless quality of the coverage.

One could hardly tell from the media’s preoccupation with all things papal that Islam, not Catholicism, is the fastest growing religion in the world.

The latest installment came over the weekend at the conclusion of a three-week meeting of the world’s Roman Catholic bishops at the Vatican to discuss family issues and Catholic doctrine. The final document produced by the synod was so ambiguous on so many points that it was hailed as a victory by conservative and liberal Catholics alike. The bishops proposed no doctrinal changes. It is still a sin to have sex outside of marriage. Homosexuals should be treated with respect but they are still “intrinsically disordered” and their legal unions are in no way comparable to heterosexual marriage.

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CANADA
CBC News

An ex-archbishop found guilty of sexually assaulting a pre-teen boy has been demoted to simple monk.

Seraphim Storheim, 68, was sentenced to eight months in jail last year for sexually assaulting a young boy who lived with him briefly in 1985 in Winnipeg.

The boy and his young brother both lived with Storheim when they worked as altar boys during that time.

Storheim was originally charged with sexually assaulting both boys but was only convicted of sexually assaulting one.

Now, he has been stripped of his title as archbishop and returned to rank of lay or “simple” monk.

The decision came from the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America late last week.

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PERU
Peru21

La Sala Penal Permanente de la Corte Suprema de Justicia confirmó, en última y definitiva instancia, la condena de 35 años de prisión impuesta al sacerdote Waldir Pérez Salias, por ser autor del delito de violación sexual en agravio de un menor de edad.

De igual manera, ratificó lo dispuesto en primera instancia por la Segunda Sala Penal para Reos en Cárcel de la Corte Superior de Lima a fin de que el sentenciado pague a la víctima un monto de S/.8 mil de reparación civil.

El Poder Judicial estableció que Waldir Pérez Salias aprovechó su condición de sacerdote y capellán del colegio parroquial San Alfonso de la Congregación de los Padres Redentoristas, ubicado en Ate, para abusar sexualmente del niño.

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PERU
Reuters

A Peruvian court sentenced a Catholic priest to 35 years in prison on Tuesday for repeatedly raping a boy in the school where he was chaplain – one of the few times Peru has jailed clergy accused of sex abuse.

The court found that Waldir Perez used his position as priest and chaplain at a private school in a poor district to abuse the boy between July 2010 and April 2012.

The boy was 10 years old when Perez first sexually assaulted him, the criminal chamber of Peru’s Supreme Court said in a statement.

Perez, who must also pay the victim 8,000 soles ($2,439) in reparations, confessed to the crimes, the court said. Medical and psychological tests also backed up the boy’s testimony.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By John O’Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com
on October 27, 2015

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Catholic Diocese of Syracuse has signed an agreement with the seven top prosecutors in Central New York to immediately report suspected child-molesting by priests.

Bishop Robert Cunningham signed a “memorandum of understanding,” along with the seven district attorneys in the diocese, that sets out how the diocese will respond to allegations against priests or other religious workers.

No one involved in the agreement is saying what prompted it.

A diocese official would not comment on the document, except to say Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen plans to hold a news conference on Wednesday about it.

None of the seven DAs who signed the document responded to requests for an interview.

Among the terms in the memorandum is that the diocese will immediately refer
child-molesting accusations to the local DA’s office for investigation “regardless of the age of the allegation or whether or not the clergy member or religious is active.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 27 October 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has written a letter to Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin regarding various issues that have arisen during the process of reforming the structures of the Roman Curia. The following is the full text of the letter:

“While the process of reform of various structures of the Roman Curia, to which the Council of Cardinals I instituted on 28 September 2013 is dedicating its attention, is continuing in accordance with the established programme, it is necessary to note that certain problems have emerged in the meantime, in relation to which I intend to take prompt action.

I wish first to state that the current period of transition is not a time of vacatio legis. Therefore, I confirm that the Apostolic Constitution “Pastor bonus” and subsequent amendments thereto remain in full force, along with the General Regulations of the Roman Curia.

Since compliance with the common rules is necessary both to guarantee the orderly conduct of work in the Roman Curia and in the institutions connected to the Holy See, and to ensure equitable treatment of employees and collaborators, also in economic terms, I order that the provisions in the aforementioned documents, as well as in the Regulations for lay staff of the Holy See and Vatican City State and the Regulations of the independent Commission for the evaluation of the recruitment of lay staff in the Apostolic See, be scrupulously observed.

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VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

Associated Press By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Just days after closing a contentious meeting of bishops from around the world, Pope Francis turned his attention Tuesday to more domestic but equally contentious affairs.

He issued a stern warning to Vatican bureaucrats to obey Vatican rules and laws as he goes about overhauling the Vatican administration — a sign that those charged with enacting the reforms perhaps need some reform themselves.

Francis penned an unusual letter to the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, asking him to remind Curia leaders that they must observe Vatican law about the structure and powers of the existing administration and follow existing rules on new hires, transfers and salary caps.

According to the current law, Parolin’s office is at the top of the Vatican hierarchy and is in charge of human resources. He imposed a hiring freeze last year.

One target of Francis’ letter could be the new Secretariat for the Economy, headed by the Australian Cardinal George Pell, who has moved aggressively to try to assert authority over other Vatican entities and their finances as he builds up a new office from scratch. The Vatican in June also named a new auditor general.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS – Chicago

By Lisa Fielding

CHICAGO (CBS) — Parishioners of a northwest suburban church have asked Archbishop Blase Cupich to reinstate a priest who was removed for having an inappropriate relationship with a man.

Supporters of Rev. Marco Mercado prayed outside the Archdiocese of Chicago on Tuesday, as they delivered petitions bearing 5,000 signatures, all in support of reinstating Mercado, the rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines.

Cupich removed Mercado earlier this month, because of an “inappropriate relationship with an adult man.”

Mercado has said he is cooperating with the archdiocese investigation. His supporters said they want Cupich to reconsider the decision to remove Mercado from his post.

“There has been no criminal act committed. Father Mercado has a fundamental right to seek counsel, and to defend himself as a person. One is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” said activist Raul Montes Jr.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

OCTOBER 28, 2015

Michael McKenna
Reporter
Brisbane

A victim of child abuse at a prestigious Queensland private school, who is about to be the subject of royal commission hearings, has called for the nationwide ­implementation of laws to prevent churches and schools escaping legal liability for covered-up cases of pedophilia.

The victim, “John’’ — who does not wish to be named — has been fighting for changes to statute of limitations laws. The changes were recently endorsed by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse but only Victoria has adopted the reforms. The royal commission will begin public hearings in Brisbane next week.

Brisbane Grammar School and St Paul’s Anglican School are being investigated over their ­response to the abuse of scores of students by two pedophiles; Kevin “Skippy’’ Lynch, at both schools, and Gregory Knight at the Anglican school.

Formal complaints had been made about Lynch more than a decade before he was eventually investigated, with the veteran teacher killing himself in 1997 just hours after being arrested.

A class action by 86 victims of Lynch was settled with the schools’ denying liability.

A victim of Lynch, John, has written a 75,000-word submission to the royal commission and has renewed a plea for legal changes to current Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk that he first made to her Labor predecessor, Anna Bligh, in 2009. A professional, John, is expected to be a star witness at the hearing.

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FLORIDA
Dignity – Oak Lawn Funeral Home

December 27, 1935 – May 21, 2013
Obituary

Gerard Thomas McMahon, 77, of Pensacola, died May 21, 2013. He was born on December 27, 1935, to Thomas and Helen (Martel) McMahon in Boston, MA. He had a Doctorate in Education and retired as a Navy Commander in 1990, after serving more than 20 years as a US Navy Chaplain. He was predeceased by brothers John and Leonard, both of Boston, MA; and is survived by cousins, Eileen T. McMahon, of Quincy, MA; Anne Marie Delacono, of Hanson, MA; and Raymond McMahon, of Atlanta, GA. Mass will be held at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, followed by burial with military honors at Barrancas National Cemetery, in Pensacola, FL. An additional memorial mass will be held in Boston, MA. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to St. Vincent De Paul at www.svdpusa.org. Oak Lawn Funeral Home in Pensacola, FL has been entrusted with arrangements.

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CHILE
Catholic Culture

October 27, 2015

Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Chile, has issued a statement repeating his insistence that he was not aware of sexual abuse by a priest who had been his friend.

In a statement read at Mass in all parishes of the Osorno diocese on October 26, Bishop Barros said that he has been unjustly accused of covering up misconduct by Father Fernando Karadima, a notorious abuser. At least three of Karadima’s victims have charged that the future bishop knew about the abuse at the time it occurred. Bishop Barros has consistently said that he was unaware of the abuse much alter.

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UNITED STATES
Variety

James Rainey
Senior Film Reporter
@RaineyTime

That doesn’t exactly make a newspaper an obvious backdrop for a movie — or a ripe setting for praiseworthy endeavors. Yet “Spotlight” places journalists and the printed word shamelessly front and center, celebrating a quiet kind of heroism. No wonder preview and festival audiences are chock-full of ink-stained wretches swelling with pride and affirmation.

But it’s not mere nostalgia that has put director Tom McCarthy’s fifth film prominently in the conversation for best picture and multiple other potential honors this awards season. What’s making “Spotlight” the “it” movie of the moment, even prior to its Nov. 6 theatrical debut, is that it has pre-release audiences talking not just about journalism and freedom of the press, but about the Catholic Church, Pope Francis’ stance on the plague of sexual abuse by priests and even about the bounds of faith.

With an ensemble cast led by Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Liev Schreiber, the movie tells the real-life story of the Boston Globe’s four-member investigative reporting team (aka Spotlight) which uncovered the scandal and massive cover-up of child molestation within the local Catholic Archdiocese beginning in 2001.

A throwback in more than just its setting (the Globe newsroom), the production (backed by Open Road Films) evokes filmmaking of another era. The story is notable for eschewing the building blocks of today’s most popular movies — CGI pyrotechnics, comic-book superheroes, sex and violence.

Instead, the script, co-written by McCarthy and Josh Singer, advances character and plot gradually and assuredly. “Spotlight” is a slow burn. The investigation gets sidetracked. The journalists are flawed. But they are the only ones in a position to hold a powerful institution accountable for its greatest failing. With a monolithic adversary and children as the victims, the filmmakers establish a powerful rooting interest among the audience.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Robert Mickens | Oct. 26, 2015 A Roman Observer

If you really want to know what happened inside the Synod of Bishops this past month, don’t obsess too much over its final report (relatio) on the church and the family.

Each of that document’s ninety-four articles or paragraphs was approved by at least two-thirds of the 264 prelates (and one layman) that showed up for the final vote. And the reason there was such overwhelming approval is because of a delicate compromise that took all of the most controversial issues off the table or treated them with open-ended language.

Nonetheless, Catholics of contrasting points of views (and even ideologies) have found ways to claim “victory” for their side through a favorable reading of one passage or another. But they are missing the point.

Pope Francis’ novel decision to call the synod into session twice in twelve months to speak freely about the exact same issue (“the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the contemporary world”) was primarily not about the family. Rather, it was about re-introducing a process of discussion and debate at the highest level of the church, not seen since the first years immediately following the Second Vatican Council. He confirmed as much in a key address he gave on Oct. 17 during a symposium to mark the 50th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Western Morning News

The right-hand man of pervert bishop Peter Ball has been found guilty of a string of gay attacks dating back to the 1970s.

Retired priest Vickery House, 69, was convicted at the Old Bailey of five counts of indecent assault on males, one of them in Devon – with one as young as 14 – over a period of 16 years. He was cleared on three further counts.

During much of that time, House was vicar in Berwick, East Sussex, and worked under Ball – who earlier this month was jailed for 32 months after he admitted molesting young men between 1977 and 1992.

The pair targeted young men and aspiring priests through a Church of England scheme called Give A Year For Christ with four members abused by both men, it can now be reported.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired Church of England priest has been found guilty of a string of sex offences dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.

Vickery House, 69, had denied eight counts of indecent assault against six males aged 15 to 34, between 1970 and 1986.

He told the Old Bailey he was ashamed of his actions, but claimed they were not sexual assaults.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Oct. 27

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 new film about how journalists broke open the widespread Catholic abuse and cover up crisis will hit theatres next month. We urge every US bishop to order all church staff to see it, even if it means arranging special viewings at church facilities.

[The New York Times]

[Trailer: YouTube]

The movie is about how reporters began exposing 249 predator priests and their complicit church supervisors in the Boston archdiocese when a judge ordered long-secret files to be revealed.

So we urge every US bishop to do now, voluntarily, what courts forced church officials to do years ago: release long-secret records that show which clerics committed and concealed heinous crimes against children.

Releasing this information is the quickest way bishops could safeguard kids and deter cover ups. We’re told that “the truth shall set you free.” And Martin Luther King once said “No lie lives forever.”

Yet bishops across this country, and the world, continue to keep secret hundreds of thousands of pages of documents about crimes and cover ups, while claiming they’re “transparent,” they’ve “reformed” and they want “healing” and “prevention.”

We urge parents, parishioners and the public to remember that child sex crimes and cover ups in the church are still taking place now. In the few years right after the Spotlight Team’s revelations in 2002, we saw some improvements in how bishops dealt with child molesting clerics. But for the last decade, bishops have largely been moving backwards and working even harder and smarter to conceal child sex crimes.

Why? Because they now know they can get by with protecting predators and endangering kids. Only three US bishops have resigned because of this scandal (Law, Piche and Finn). Only one was criminally convicted (Finn, who withheld evidence of child sex crimes from law enforcement). Many complicit clerics have since been promoted. And because there continues to be a grave shortage of priests and seminarians, so bishops desperately cling to even sexually troubled clerics.

To its credit, the film acknowledges that years before the Boston Globe’s award-winning investigation, there were earlier waves of nation-wide attention on pedophile priests, notably in 1985 and 1993. This is important to remember because after every way, church officials pledged to “do better” only to break those promises and continue to act recklessly, callously, deceitfully and secretively.

We hope millions will see and discuss this important and acclaimed film. We hope it will encourage more journalists to look harder at and dig deeper into clergy sex cases. We hope attorneys who handle these cases will go through their files and see what information they may have that could and should still be made public. We hope the film will prod police, prosecutors, judges and juries to look more skeptically on claims made by Catholic officials in child sex and cover up cases.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 27 October 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed:

– Bishop Matteo Maria Zuppi, auxiliary of Rome, as metropolitan archbishop of Bologna (area 3,549, population 998,600, Catholics 951,462, priests 590, permanent deacons 127, religious 1,115), Italy. He succeeds Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

– Msgr. Corrado Lorefice as metropolitan archbishop of Palermo (area 1,366, population 916,000, Catholics 909,000, priests 479, permanent deacons 41, religious 1,249), Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Ispica, Italy in 1962 and was ordained a priest in 1987. He holds a licentiate in moral theology and a doctorate in moral theology, and has served in a number of pastoral roles in the diocese of Noto, Italy, including bursar and vice rector of the seminary, lecturer in moral theology, director of the diocesan and regional centres for vocations, director of formation of permanent deacons, director of the diocesan catechistic office, parish administrator, and episcopal vicar for the clergy. He is currently parish priest and vicar forane, episcopal vicar for pastoral ministry, and lecturer in the “San Paolo” theological faculty of Catania. He succeeds Cardinal Paolo Romeo, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

– Msgr. Giacomo Morandi, vicar general of the archdiocese of Modena-Nonantola, Italy, as under-secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

[letter from the Newark archdiocese]

By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on October 27, 2015

Decades-old sexual abuse allegations against a prominent Short Hills pastor will be referred to the Vatican for further investigation — and a possible canonical trial — after a church review board found sufficient merit in the claims to raise “grave concerns,” according to a letter distributed to parishioners.

Msgr. George Trabold, 68, stepped down as leader of St. Rose of Lima Church in October 2014, when someone came forward with an abuse claim that dates to the mid-1970s. At the time of the alleged abuse, Trabold served as associate pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Bergenfield.

The two-page letter, which was shared with parishioners at both parishes Sunday, reveals for the first time the existence of a second accuser. The letter does not describe the nature or extent of the alleged abuse, and a spokesman for Newark Archbishop John J. Myers said he could not comment on the specifics of the case.

Trabold has been barred from serving as a priest since his removal and will remain out of ministry while the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith considers his case, according to the letter and the spokesman, Jim Goodness.

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IDAHO
The Spokesman-Review

Scott Maben The Spokesman-Review

A long-haul truck driver from Coeur d’Alene who also served as a church youth camp counselor is suspected of raping and abusing underage boys in Spokane and Kootenai counties over the past decade.

Kevin G. Sloniker, 30, faces felony charges of rape and lewd conduct involving two underage boys and is a suspect in the sexual abuse of at least eight other boys, according to court documents. He’s being held in the Kootenai County Jail on $1 million bond.

Sloniker met and befriended some of the boys in his role as a youth camp counselor at Immaculate Conception Church in Post Falls, according to investigative reports filed with 1st District Court in Kootenai County.

Some of the alleged abuse occurred at Sloniker’s parents’ home in Latah, south of Spokane, and some happened when he took boys on the road with him around the Western U.S., according to court records.

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FLORIDA
NWF Daily News

By TOM McLAUGHLIN
315-4435 | @TomMnwfdn
tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com

Posted Oct. 26, 2015

Two employees of Saint Mary’s Catholic School have been charged with using a computer to seduce a child and traveling to meet the victim.

James Patrick Applegate, a part-time school band director, and Cameron Ahlsen-Girard, a substitute teacher for Saint Mary’s School and volunteer with the Saint Mary Catholic Church youth ministry, were arrested over the weekend.

Okaloosa County deputies took Applegate into custody Saturday on charges of using a computer to solicit or seduce a child and traveling to meet a child after using a computer to solicit or seduce.

Ahlsen-Girard was arrested Sunday on the same charges.

Parish Administrator Father John Licari sent a note Sunday to the parents of children at the school, faculty and staff, parents of children in the youth group and people who work with the youth.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The New York Times

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OCT. 27, 2015

BOSTON — It was a scandal that shook the Roman Catholic Church to its core: Hundreds of priests molested children for decades and got away with it because church leaders covered it up.

More than a decade later, the story of how The Boston Globe exposed the church’s secret is being told in “Spotlight,” a movie starring Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo, set for release Nov. 6.

In Boston, where the scandal led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law and settlements with hundreds of victims, key figures featured in the film say it captures the shock of the scandal as it unfolded, the pain suffered by the victims and the work done by journalists to bring it to light.

“We obviously stumbled upon something far more extensive and horrifying than we had any right to expect to find,” recalled Walter Robinson — played by Michael Keaton — who led the Globe’s Spotlight Team, the investigative unit that broke open the scandal with a series of stories in 2002.

The stories detailed how church higher-ups — including Law — knew priests were abusing children but moved them from parish to parish instead of removing them. The series won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2003.

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NIGERIA
Nigerian Bulletin

Nigeria – A 53-year-old pastor has been arrested by the Police in Nsukka, Enugu State, for allegedly impregnating married women and young girls in his church.

The Pastor, identified as Timothy Ngwu, is the General Overseer of Holy Trinity Ministry popularly called Vineyard Ministry in Umudikwere Community in the University town.

Ironically, police sources said the suspect claims he was directed by the Holy Spirit to sexually abuse female members of his church in the name of God.

The alleged sexual exploits of the self-acclaimed man of God was blown open by his estranged wife, Veronica Ngwu, who lodged a complaint at the Criminal Investigations Department, Enugu. This led to the arrest of the pastor.

She said she escaped from the ministry with one of her daughters after her husband impregnated her niece and claimed he was obeying the directives of the Holy Spirit and a prophetic revelation.

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CANADA
Cowichan Valley Citizen

posted Oct 26, 2015

By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press

TORONTO – The question of what to do with records of deeply personal, often heart-wrenching testimony from thousands of survivors of Indian residential schools who sought compensation for sexual and other abuse lands on the doorstep of Ontario’s top court Tuesday.

On one side of the two-day hearing are those who argue a lower court judge was right to order the material destroyed in due course. On the other are those who believe it should be kept in perpetuity under appropriate lock and key.

Justice Murray Sinclair, who headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said his concern is that the stories of what went on in the schools will be lost forever if the “rich trove” of documents is destroyed as ordered.

“In a few generations, that will allow people to be able to deny the validity of the stories we have heard,” Sinclair told The Canadian Press from Vancouver. “Right now there are deniers of those facts.”

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NEW JERSEY
NJ Today

NEWARK – A Linden man who was a leader in a boys’ youth organization and a religious education teacher admitted to sexually abusing children and possessing images of child sexual abuse.

Gregory J. Aker, 46, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan G. Wigenton in Newark federal court to an information charging him with possession of child pornography. He is currently in state custody.

According to U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, the documents filed and statements made in court:

Aker was a leader with a boys’ youth organization and a religious education teacher with his church. On Feb. 22, 2014, Aker was arrested by the Linden Police Department for sexual assault and endangering the welfare of two minor children.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

October 27, 2015

Jane Lee
Legal affairs, industrial relations and science correspondent

The Turnbull government has not met the Catholic Church to discuss a national redress scheme for child abuse survivors, months before it will decide whether to establish such a scheme.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse last month recommended the federal government set up a $4.01 billion redress scheme for 60,000 people sexually abused as children in institutions.

The commission’s report – published on the day Malcolm Turnbull ousted Tony Abbott as Liberal leader – said the federal government should announce whether it will do so by the end of this year.

The Catholic Church is expected to be among the largest contributors, if not the largest, to compensation under the scheme. Francis Sullivan, chief executive officer of the church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council, told Fairfax Media that he had not been able to meet Attorney-General George Brandis on the issue despite repeated requests this year.

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OKLAHOMA
The Lawton Constitution

Tue, 10/27/2015 Scott Rains

An 82-year-old Anadarko pastor had his bond vacated Friday after five more counts of sexual abuse involving four alleged young victims were charged.

Marion Milton-Otis Toehay Sr. of Carnegie received two counts of first-degree rape by instrumentation of a victim under 14 and three additional counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child under 16 in Caddo County District Court, records indicate. The five new charges are on top of 10 counts of lewd acts with a child allegedly committed every Sunday for two years in the church study that were filed Sept. 14. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison for each count.

The new charges followed an Oct. 5 prosecutor’s request to endorse additional witnesses. Toehay is newly accused of improprieties with four other children dating back to 2001. Dates for the older charges are from within a one-year-period.

Both rape counts stem from alleged incidents that took place in a van at an Anadarko convenience store parking lot. One incident involved a 5- or 6-year-old in 2000 or 2001 and the second with a 9 or 10-year-old between 2010-2011, according to the charges. The child in the second incident was also impetus for one of the lewd acts charges.

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GHANA
Graphic Online

By: Seth J. Bokpe
Date : Tuesday, 27 October 2015

Church leaders in the country have been advised not to shield perpetrators of child abuse in their churches as it is a violation of the Constitution.

Mr Ebenezer Tetteh Kpalam, the Founder and President of the Kinder Foundation, a Christian non-governmental organisation (NGO), urged churches to have child protection policies that protect children from abuse, and stressed that “Although the church is a place where children are sometimes abused, it is also a place where abuses are not reported.

“The church should not handle cases of sexual abuse. Domestic violence cases are criminal in nature. Such cases must be reported,” he said.

He, however, stated that the church could offer emotional support to such victims because of the trauma they go through.

He was speaking at the ninth anniversary celebration of the Child Development Centre of the Trinity Parish of the Global Evangelical Church at Kotobabi in Accra.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WCVB

BOSTON —It was a scandal that shook the Roman Catholic Church to its core: Hundreds of priests molested children for decades and got away with it because church leaders covered it up.

More than a decade later, the story of how The Boston Globe exposed the church’s secret is being told in “Spotlight,” a movie starring Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo, set for release Nov. 6.

In Boston, where the scandal led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law and settlements with hundreds of victims, key figures featured in the film say it captures the shock of the scandal as it unfolded, the pain suffered by the victims and the work done by journalists to bring it to light.

“We obviously stumbled upon something far more extensive and horrifying than we had any right to expect to find,” recalled Walter Robinson – played by Michael Keaton – who led the Globe’s Spotlight Team, the investigative unit that broke open the scandal with a series of stories in 2002.

The stories detailed how church higher-ups – including Law – knew priests were abusing children but moved them from parish to parish instead of removing them. The series won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2003.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

October 26, 2015

Mark Kenny
Chief political correspondent

Sixty-thousand Australian victims of child sexual and other abuses at the hands of churches will be able to seek financial compensation under a future Labor government with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten set to announce Labor’s support for a new “national redress scheme”.

Mr Shorten will formally unveil the commitment on Tuesday in Melbourne, pledging $33 million initially even though the bulk of any financial liability would still fall on the religious institutions themselves.

The proposal reflects a key recommendation of the ongoing Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

While it reflects only a fraction of the estimated $4.01 billion in combined liabilities of a full redress scheme, the policy is likely to be welcomed by victims as it would drive the process of obtaining recompense and provide official recognition of institutional abuse over decades.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By LEITH HUFFADINE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

An Anglican bishop has revealed he was victim of sexual abuse at the hands of members of his own church denomination.

The revelations of Newcastle Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson come after a diocese apology for the way the church had treated abuse victims.

Bishop Thompson said as a 19-year-old he was targetted by an Anglican bishop and senior clergyman in the 1970s and later sexually abused, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

On Sunday a formal apology from the Newcastle Diocese was made in which it admitted it actively discouraged those who reported abuse, the ABC reported.

Earlier this year Bishop Thompson also apologised for cover-ups by the church and the manner in which it dealt with child sex abuse reports.

He told the Sydney Morning Herald the bishop and clergyman, now both dead, ‘made him feel special’ and manipulated his faith to cover for their abuse of him.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

JESUIT PRIESTS AND BROTHERS CONTINUE TO RE-ABUSE CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIM OF A JESUIT PRIEST – ENOUGH WITH THE FOOT DRAGGING!

Neal E. Gumpel is a clergy sexual abuse victim of a previously named predator, Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, now deceased and former teacher and professor at Fordham Prep and University and Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, where Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, sexually abused Neal E. Gumpel when he was a minor child

The Northeast Province of the Jesuits interviewed five individuals, including Neal E. Gumpel, who provided credible evidence confirming that Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, held himself out at all times as a Jesuit priest at Maine Maritime Academy and sexually abused Neal E. Gumpel there

What
A press conference and leafleting alerting the media, general public, Fordham University and Fordham Prep students, parents, alumni, and staff that the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and Fordham Prep and University keep dragging their feet in assisting a childhood clergy sexual abuse victim of one of its priests, Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ.

When
Tuesday, October 27, 2015 from 2:00 pm until 4:00 pm

Where
On the public sidewalk outside the gates of Fordham Prep and University on Southern Boulevard (near the entrance to the Bronx Botanical Gardens), Bronx, NY

Who
Neal E. Gumpel, a childhood sexual abuse victim of Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ; his wife, Helen Gumpel; and members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including its co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., and Kevin Waldrip, a victim/survivor from New Jersey

Why
The Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus knows that Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, was a serial molester of minor boys. They settled at least one claim against Fr. Drake in the past. Neal E. Gumpel’s credible story of having been sexually abused as a minor child by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, at Maine Maritime Academy was credibly supported by four other individuals. Now, the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus is dragging its feet in settling Neal E. Gumpel’s claim, and they are re-abusing Neal E. Gumpel. Demonstrators will demand that the Jesuit Priests and Brothers of the Northeast Province cease their foot-dragging, acknowledge and verify Neal E. Gumpel’s story, allow him to heal, and try to gain a degree of closure.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D. – Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ursula Malone

More than a quarter of people calling a helpline for adult survivors of child abuse are now over the age of 60, a leading support group says.

The figures have been released to mark Blue Knot Day, which aims to raise awareness of the estimated five million Australians who have suffered childhood trauma and abuse.

“We’re seeing more people in older age groups coming forward, and what we believe that relates to is the Royal Commission (into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse),” said Dr Cathy Kezelman, President of Adults Surviving Child Abuse.

“Older people who may have kept this secret their entire life are now ringing up and reaching and seeking help.

“We have people in their 80s ringing our line and saying they have never told a soul, but then hearing how it has profoundly affected their life.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Shalailah Medhora
Monday 26 October 2015

Simon Cole was nearly 40 years old when he read a newspaper article noting the conviction of the man who he alleges abused him as a child. For a decade prior, he had been slowly piecing together the effect that the childhood abuse had had on his mental health.

“I was around 30 when I really started to make the connection,” Cole, who at 52 still suffers from anxiety and insomnia, said.

For three decades, he had been carrying the burden of the abuse on his own. Reading that scoutmaster Rod Corrie, the man who he said inappropriately touched him, had been jailed for abusing other children over a 30-year period, was the circuit breaker he needed to speak out and seek help.

The article prompted Cole to launch a civil case against Corrie and the scouts, which was settled out of court.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Shalailah Medhora
Monday 26 October 2015 1

Up to 60,000 adult survivors of child sex abuse could receive monetary compensation through a national redress scheme if Labor wins office at the next federal election, the party announced on Tuesday.

Labor will set aside $33m for the creation of a scheme aimed at offering counselling services and compensation for survivors of institutional child sex abuse.

The money includes $20m for the formation of a national body and advisory council to help implement the scheme. The agency would report to the federal attorney general.

There would be three broad goals for the national scheme:

* The chance for survivors to receive a direct personal response from their abuser or the institution that housed their abuser
* Monetary compensation for the abuse suffered
* Counselling and psychological support that is accessible through the course of their lives.

The redress scheme was recommended by the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, in its final report on redress and civil litigation.

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CANADA/UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, October 26, 2015

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

A Canadian archbishop criminally convicted of child sexual abuse has finally been defrocked by his synod. A support group for victims is grateful for this decision, but wants the bishops to do more.

Archbishop Seraphaim Storheim, who was once the highest ranking official in Canada for the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), was removed from the priesthood this past week, according to the Church’s website.

[Orthodox Church in America]

[Orthodox Church in America]

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are grateful that the OCA has finally applied the mandates of its sexual misconduct policy to Storheim.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

There has been a spike in the number of older Australians seeking professional help because of childhood sex abuse, new research shows.

The research released by Adults Surviving Child Abuse (ASCA) on Monday to coincide with Blue Knot Day – a national day to raise awareness about the five million Australian adults who survived childhood abuse.

The research, based on an analysis of 5000 calls to ASCA’s 1300 professional support line, reveals abuse survivors aged between 40-69 are still the most common age group to seek support for past abuse.

There has, however, been a 10 per cent increase in the 50-59-year-old age group looking for help compared to last year.

The data shows 19 per cent of callers in the 60-69-year-old age group, and six per cent in the 70-79 age bracket called the helpline for the first time.

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

A 53-year-old rabbi from central Israel was arrested on Sunday for sexual assault and statutory rape of a girl since she was 12-year-old.

The affair was discovered after the girl, now 17, complained to social services about the rabbi’s behavior.

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CHILE
La Tercera

[Bishop Juan Barros in a letter to the faithful of Osorno, which was read at the weekend, the bishop said he was a “a victim” and was unjustly accused to covering up abuse by priest Fernando Karadima and reiterated the rejection of the abuses committed by the former pastor of El Bosque.]

María Paz Núñez
26 de octubre del 2015

“Me siento en algún grado una víctima más, pues me he visto injustamente envuelto faltándose gravemente a la verdad”, aseguró el obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros al negar nuevamente el haber tenido conocimiento de los abusos del ex párroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, a través de una carta firmada el 22 de octubre y que fue leída a los fieles de dicha ciudad el fin de semana.

En la misiva, Barros señala que “reitero mi gran dolor por quienes han sido víctimas de los delitos del mencionado sacerdote. En declaraciones públicas le shemos ofrecido humildemente nuestra petición de perdón y he pedido que me disculpen si por mis limitaciones no he sabido expresar bien mi poisición (…) Muchos fuimos duramente impactados al conocerse esos acontecimientos de abuso que nos han escandalizado”.

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ROME
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew in Rome

Mon, Oct 26, 2015

If anyone ever had any doubt that there are forces inside both the Catholic Church and the Roman Curia working against Pope Francis and his “reform process”, they need only look at events of the last three weeks during the Vatican’s synod on the family.

To the non-Catholic world, the conclusions might look tame in that they represent no significant (doctrinal) changes, rather an amount of pastoral fine-tuning. Much ado about nothing?
Curiously, though, somebody somewhere seemed to care. Did a series of “outside the synod” events in Rome in the last three weeks not suggest that diverse, presumably minority, groups of anti-Francis dissidents are alive and active?

For example, the synod “opened” with the coming-out of Polish monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa, a middle management theologian at the Vatican’s Congregation For the Doctrine Of The Faith (CDF), ex-Holy Office. He and his partner appeared together in a Roman cafe the day before the synod, announced their relationship and then suggested there were plenty more like them within the Holy See. As Francis tries to keep everyone on board, that did not help.

One day into the Synod, an arguably more heavyweight protest surfaced when a small number of senior cardinals wrote to the pope expressing their concerns about a potentially “pre-cooked” synod outcome (of a progressive tendency).

Media invention

The third “event” came this week with Italian media speculation that Pope Francis has a brain tumour. There seems little doubt that this is a media invention, circulated by those who wish to undermine Francis. The current archbishop of Buenos Aires, Victor Fernandez, said it appeared to be a strategy to “discredit the person in control” .

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UNITED STATES
Salon

MARY MAHONEY

I left the Children of God in the early 2000s. It took a long time to come out of the haze of those 30 years, but when I did, I was appalled by my former self. One of the most common questions people ask is: How could you be part of such a thing? And how could you stay? For years — as I came to grips with my own guilt, remorse and shame — I asked myself the same things. In 2003, my eldest son, then an adult, sent me a link to a thorough three-year investigation into the COG as part of a child custody case filed with the High Court in England in the early 1990s, and I learned that, according to these court records, I was not alone in the horrors I’d experienced.

I grew up in suburban Washington, D.C., the youngest of seven children in a comfortably middle-class Catholic home. We must have looked like the perfect family. My parents were leaders of the Charismatic group at their large church. Our house was clean – almost sterile. “Rake the rug after you walk through the living room to clear your footprints. Put a sheet on the sofa before you sit down,” my mother would chime. After my older siblings left home, I felt lost and alone. At 16, I fell into anorexia and depression. I spent my summer lifeguarding, swimming and dabbling in drugs.

Perhaps that’s why I began my spiritual quest, or perhaps it was just a symptom of the times. I was looking for meaning to life, to belong to something larger than myself. In my junior year of high school, I saw a friend reading a Bible at school. She had recently met the COG, and gave me one of their publications to read. I found it a bit strange, but it touched something in me. I went with her to meet the COG after school that day.

I was trying to find my path in life, and I thought this might be it. Here was a group of dedicated Christian young people determined to return to the pure roots of Christianity by living communally and sharing all things. I felt loved and accepted, and was welcomed into the fold as a new “babe” in Christ. Born again. I didn’t see this as a “cult”; I saw it as a chance to live an honorable life of service to God and others. And I was so young. What did I know about how the world worked? It would be another nine years before my frontal lobe was completely developed, the portion of the brain involved in decision-making that allows us to envision long-term consequences. I had no idea I was walking into a nightmare. I couldn’t see past the utter joy of the overwhelming love and acceptance I felt.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

October 26, 2015

Joanne McCarthy

Anglican bishop Greg Thompson has spoken about being groomed by an Anglican bishop and senior clergyman in the 1970s and later sexually abused, after an historic diocese apology on Sunday for the “shameful” treatment of abuse survivors in the past.

The Newcastle bishop said he was an impressionable 19-year-old when the two men singled him out, made him feel special and used his strong faith and their shared religion as the cover to sexually abuse him.

His allegations against the two men, now dead, were revealed to NSW Police and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse earlier this year.

Bishop Thompson said he did not reveal the information before the diocese synod at the weekend because he wanted the vote on an historic apology to be a genuine response from clergy and senior diocese parishioners, and not a response to him personally.

“I couldn’t have spoken about the need for an apology if they’d known I was a survivor,” Bishop Thompson said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

An advocate for victims of child sexual abuse says a community-wide approach is needed to deal with the ramifications of the abuse revelations.

Dr Cathy Kezelman, president of the Adults Surviving Child Abuse organisation, said the community needed to gain an understanding of the lasting impacts trauma could have on child abuse victims.

Today, Newcastle Anglican bishop Greg Thompson revealed he also was a victim of child sexual abuse.

Bishop Thompson told 1233 ABC Newcastle that as an Anglican bishop and a survivor, he was on his own personal healing journey.

Over the weekend, the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle in New South Wales moved to issue a formal apology to local people abused by members of the clergy.

“It sends a strong message that we are recognising, we have recognised the great harm. We are working on it, but [it] also enables survivors to come forward themselves,” Bishop Thompson said.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

[Cardinal Bernard Law Fast Facts – CNN]

Jason Berry

The shadow villain of Spotlight, Bernard Law was one of America’s most ambitious and prominent cardinals—until his handling of the sex-abuse scandal caught up with him.

“Spotlight” is a gripping new film by Tom McCarthy on the Boston Globe’s investigation of how that archdiocese concealed child-molester priests. Set in 2001, the film serves as backstory to the Pulitzer Prize-winning series that began on January 6, 2002—“Feast of the Epiphany,” as we learn in the intelligent script by McCarthy and Josh Singer.

Taking on the church in heavily Catholic Boston was no small order. Several of the reporters came from Catholic homes. Marty Baron, the Globe’s new editor, by way of the Miami Herald, suggested the investigation after reading a Globe columnist on a priest abuse case. Baron wanted to know more; he later became editor of The Washington Post.

Played by the bearded Liev Schreiber, Baron presents as a shy man, of few but forceful words, an outsider to tribal Boston, and a Jew, as a Catholic businessman says, sotto voce, to Michael Keaton in his edgy, pensive portrayal of “Spotlight” editor Walter “Robby” Robinson.

Robinson’s clutch of reporters worked months before the first article appeared, finding documents and tracking down victims of some 30 priests. The turning point in 2001 came when a court ruling against the church unsealed lawsuits that put clergy personnel documents into the public record. The Globe ultimately reported that the archdiocese had sheltered 249 predatory clerics going back several decades.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

As Newcastle’s Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson urges his diocese to come to terms with the church’s handling of child sexual abuse, he has admitted that he too was a victim.

Members of the Synod took part in an historic vote at the weekend, making a formal apology from the Newcastle Diocese, acknowledging it actively discouraged those who reported abuse.

Synod members watched video interviews of two Newcastle priests recounting harrowing stories of their own experience of being sexually abused as children.

Earlier this year, Bishop Thompson marked 500 days in the top job, fighting tears as he apologised to victims for past church cover-ups and the poor handling of complaints about child sexual abuse.

This morning Bishop Thompson revealed to 1233 ABC Newcastle’s Aaron Kearney he has been making his own journey as a survivor.

“Well, I’m both a Bishop, but also a survivor,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Two Hunter Anglican priests have spoken of the sexual abuse they experienced as children, as Newcastle’s Bishop admits the diocese protected perpetrators.

Newcastle’s Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson addressed members of the Synod who met on Saturday.

His address covered a range of issues from domestic violence to climate change, but child abuse within the church was the main focus.

“We had cultures that dissuaded people from speaking of their experience,” he told the Synod.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

2004

COMMONWEALTH
v.
DEBERARDINIS

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
SUFFOLK, ss.
SUPERIOR COURT
CRIMINAL ACTION
NO. 2003-10072 (001-021)
COMMONWEALTH
v.
FIDELIS DEBERARDINIS
FINDINGS OF FACT AND ORDER ON
DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO DETERMINE COMPETENCY

The defendant, Fidelis DeBerardinis (“DeBerardinis”), has been charged with unnatural and lascivious acts with a child under sixteen (Counts 1-3, 9, 15-19 and 21), indecent assault and battery on a child under fourteen (Counts 4-8, 10-13 and 20), and open and gross lewdness (Count 14). He has now moved the court for a determination of his competence to stand trial on these charges.

The court conducted an evidentiary hearing on the defendant’s motion on May 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 19, 2004. It heard testimony from Laura Bridges, Terry Watters, Ph.D., Dr. Renee Sorrentino, Susan Lewis, J.D., Ph.D., Dr. Bruce H. Price, Brother Charles Gingerich, Nancy Hebben, Ph.D., Deborah Levy, Ph.D., Dr. Alexander Bodkin, and Timothy P. O’Neill, Esq. The court also received 33 exhibits into evidence at the hearing.

Upon consideration of such testimony from the witnesses as the court finds credible, the exhibits, and the memoranda and oral arguments of counsel, the court makes the following findings of fact and Order on the issue of the defendant’s competency to stand trial in this case.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Frank Paul (Brother Fidelis) DeBerardinis, was born on July 10, 1927, the sixth or seventh of nine children. At least two of his siblings are alive, although neither the Commonwealth’s competency experts nor his own expert witnesses made any effort to contact or speak to them about DeBerardinis, or to secure any information from them about his past or his physical or mental health history. Thus, the only information presented to the court about DeBerardinis prior to age 45 is from his own self-reported history to the various individuals who examined, tested, and treated him. (Exhibits 12 and 13).

At age 18, DeBerardinis left the tenth grade of public school to enter a Catholic seminary. Although he desired to become a priest, he apparently was unsuccessful in his studies for the priesthood and instead undertook training to become a Franciscan Friar. He never received a high school diploma. After becoming a friar in 1948, DeBerardinis was assigned, in successive years, to missions in Troy and Brooklyn, New York. He was then sent to Central America, where from 1953 to 1964 he served as a missionary in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. DeBerardinis then served at a church in the Bronx, New York for four years. He was then transferred to Our Lady of Mount Carmel in East Boston, where the present offenses allegedly occurred from 1968 to 1973. In 1974, DeBerardinis was sent to Jerusalem where he briefly served as a missionary before returning to upstate New York. He then went to St. Francis Church in Toronto, Ontario, where he stayed from 1974 to 1988. During this period he developed numerous medical conditions, including hypertension, type II diabetes, hyper-cholesterolemia, hypothyroidism and worsening coronary artery disease. (Exhibits 12 and 13).

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Oct. 24, 2015

VATICAN CITY
A worldwide gathering of some 270 Catholic bishops has recommended softening the church’s practice towards those who have divorced and remarried, saying such persons should discern decisions about their spiritual lives individually in concert with the guidance of priests.

Pope Francis also closed the meeting with a strong renewal of his continual emphasis of the boundless nature of divine mercy, saying: “The Church’s first duty is not to hand down condemnations or anathemas, but to proclaim God’s mercy.”

Although the final document from the Oct. 4-25 Synod of Bishops says discernment for remarried persons can “never overlook the demands of truth and love in the Gospel,” it seems to significantly move decision-making for how they can participate in the church to private conversations in dioceses around the world.

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