ABUSE TRACKER

OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By COREY JONES World Staff Writer

A volunteer with a children’s shelter in Tulsa — who also is a teaching assistant at a private school for students with learning differences and attention disorders — is accused of sexually abusing multiple children and teenagers who had been under his care for several years, according to court documents filed Friday.

Timothy Shawn Cato, 50, is charged in Tulsa County District Court with eight counts of child sexual abuse. An affidavit and court records say the victims are boys ages 17, 16, 15, 7 and 7.

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OKLAHOMA
News on 6

[with video]

TULSA, Oklahoma – A man who had custody of five children and says he is a volunteer at an Oklahoma Department of Human Services children’s shelter has been arrested on eight sexual abuse complaints.

According to court documents, Timothy Shawn Cato, 50, has cared for the children for several years. He reportedly admitted to bathing the children – ages 7 to 17 – and touching their bodies while they are in the bathtub. Child crisis detectives also said Cato regularly shares sleeping space with the kids in a room away from his wife and own child, an affidavit says.

Police said he used his status in the community with various youth organizations as a way to get children to trust him and, ultimately, abuse them.

A coach, mentor, educator and father figure are the roles Tulsa police said 50-year-old Cato took on to get close to young boys.

“Some of the victims indicated that they had met him through a program at a church where he was a, what they referred to as a commander of their group, that would do scouting-like activities for boys of a younger age,” said Tulsa Police Detective, Sergeant Mike Brown.

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OKLAHOMA
KJRH

[with video]

Nathan Edwards

A Tulsa youth pastor accused of shocking crimes against children.

50-year-old Timothy Cato has worked with kids for 20 years. He’s been a coach, youth pastor and teacher.

Police say Cato admitted to sexually abusing five kids at his home, all between the ages of seven and 17.

He also admitted to taking advantage of kids from the DHS children’s shelter in Tulsa.

The disturbing report says he would volunteer to help out two kids each week, but would take them to his home to bath them and lay with them in the same bed.

DHS will not comment on the claims, but are conducting their own investigation.

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VIRGINIA
Northern Virginia Daily

By Joe Beck

FRONT ROYAL — Warren County Circuit Court Judge Dennis L. Hupp has dismissed three of four claims of legal wrongdoing against a Front Royal-based international Catholic organization in a lawsuit involving accusations of sexual molestation by a priest while performing exorcisms.

Hupp’s opinion issued Sept. 30 states that the plaintiff, an anonymous victim identified in court documents only as Jane Doe, failed to show that the priest, Thomas J. Euteneuer, was acting within his role as an employee of the organization during the moments of alleged sexual misconduct.

Euteneuer worked as president of Human Life International Endowment, Inc. and as president of Human Life International, Inc., which are listed as co-defendants in the suit.

The plaintiff’s accusations – formally called causes of action — against Human Life include assault, battery, intentional affliction of emotional distress and negligent retention of Euteneuer for weeks or months after Jane Doe accused him of sexual abuse.

Hupp’s ruling scrapped the claims of assault, battery and emotional distress but left intact the accusation of negligent retention against Human Life International, Inc. Hupp agreed to dismiss the claim of negligent retention against Human Life International Endowment, Inc.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WFMZ

A Chester County priest is facing charges for possessing and distributing child pornography. Mark Haynes, 55, is a priest assigned to Saints Simon & Jude Parish in Westtown Township, Chester County was charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse of children for possessing and disseminating child pornography.

Police allege Haynes posed as a 16-year-old girl and posted nude photos of a 14-year-old girl on Instagram.

When questioned, police said Haynes admitted to receiving and posting other images of child pornography. The girl in the photos has not yet been identified.

“Every person who possesses child pornography is violating the rights and dignity of these young victims. Every person who disseminates child pornography is continuing the cycle of depravity that makes children around the world vulnerable. No matter whether you are rich or poor, young or old, clergy or layperson, the possession of child pornography will lead to arrest, shame, and jail,” said District Attorney Tom Hogan.

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RHODE ISLAND
Turn to 10

[with video]

By Katie Davis, NBC 10 I-Team Reporter

The NBC 10 I-Team has confirmed a local Roman Catholic priest is under investigation by Rhode Island State Police for sexual abuse. The priest is no longer serving in a church, but is still living.

The new development follows an I-Team investigation that’s now stretched more than a year.

“We’re trying to determine whether it rises to the level of criminality, and fits into the statute,” said state police Capt. Christopher Dicomitis.

He said state police are not releasing the priest’s name because he has not been charged with a crime and that the investigation is ongoing. But he said criminal charges are possible.

The I-Team also learned that about 15 people have come forward to report sexual abuse by priests to state police since the NBC 10 first aired stories about the I-Team’s investigation in November.

State police said the people who filed reports in 2014 had not reported the abuse to law enforcement in the past, although some had reported their experience to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence. …

NBC 10 asked the Diocese of Providence for an interview with Bishop Thomas Tobin on Friday, but received a written statement instead.

The statement said in part, “The Diocese of Providence is not aware of any new allegations of sexual abuse; the issues being investigated are old allegations and have already been widely reported.”

The statement did not address the state police investigation involving the living priest.

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MINNESOTA
Forest Lake Times

By Ryan Howard
October 24, 2014

A former priest who worked in the Forest Lake area and reportedly still lives in town is on a new list of Roman Catholic priests that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says have had allegations of sexual abuse of a minor filed against them.

John Owens, 85, provided what the archdiocese called “temporary weekend assistance” in and around Forest Lake from 1999 to 2004. He spent most of his priestly career (1960-1999) in the Diocese of Bismarck in North Dakota, where the allegations of abuse originate from. According to the list of 17 names released by the Twin Cities-based archdiocese on Oct. 23, there have been no substantiated claims of child abuse against Owens stemming from his time in Forest Lake. The archdiocese also reported that Owens still lives in Forest Lake, but the Forest Lake Times could not obtain contact information for him before this story was published.

As part of legal action and increased investigations into its past treatment of the victims and alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse in the archdiocese, local church officials have released a number of names over the last several months of priests who have served in the archdiocese who have been accused of sexual misconduct. The Oct. 23 list was released as part of a legal settlement with Jeff Anderson and Associates, a St. Paul-based firm that has brought legal action regarding sexual abuse against the archdiocese a number of times over the years.

While in Bismarck, Owens served as the communications director for the diocese and ran a radio advice show for area adolescents called “Padre’s Platters.” The diocese alerted the North Dakota Department of Human Services in 2002 that a report of sexual misconduct against a minor had been reported regarding Owens. According to the diocese, Owens was instructed to “lead a life of prayer and penance,” and the diocese ordered that he be monitored so as to not pose a risk to minors. In 2005, three years after the Diocese of Bismarck alerted the NDHS, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis removed Owens from ministry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daventry Express

A retired priest from Solihull has been cleared of indecently assaulting a young girl after what his barrister described as a “grotesque” inquiry into the allegation.

Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court took around two hours to acquit Father Edward Simpson of indecently touching the girl during the mid-1980s.

The 85-year-old clergyman, of Olton Friary, Solihull, told his trial he could not understand why the historic allegation was made against him last year.

His alleged victim, now in her 40s, told the court she had been groped while in the same room as her parents. But two further witnesses, who had not been interviewed by police before the proceedings were brought, claimed the alleged assault could not have happened.

After Fr Simpson was acquitted, Judge Sybil Thomas thanked jurors for their careful consideration of the case and expressed concern at the police decision not to interview a number of potential witnesses.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washingtonian

By Benjamin Freed

In the wake of Kesher Israel Rabbi Barry Freundel’s arrest last week on charges that he illicitly filmed women in the changing room attached to his Georgetown synagogue’s ritual bath, several organizations have distanced themselves from the modern Orthodox Jewish leader. Along with the temple’s board of directors, Freundel has also been suspended by Towson University, where he was an associate professor; the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington, which supervises the application of Jewish dietary laws; and the Rabbinical Council of America, a major Orthodox governing body with which Freundel once led a group overseeing conversions.

But it’s not just big, institutional entities distancing themselves from Freundel. Washington Jewish Week reports that Char Bar & Eli’s Market, a month-old Kosher steakhouse and deli in Foggy Bottom, scrubbed its menu last week of “the Freundel,” a grilled pastrami and smoked turkey sandwich with chipotle dressing served on thick slabs of toast. Naming dishes after influential Jews is standard practice at kosher delis, but one named after an alleged mikveh peeper probably doesn’t move a lot of sandwiches.

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MARYLAND
Washington Post

Police find ‘micro cameras’ in search of rabbi’s Towson University office

By Peter Hermann October 24

Police searching the Towson University office of a prominent Georgetown rabbi accused of secretly recording women in a ritual bath found a backpack with an assortment of tiny cameras hidden in everyday household objects, including ones embedded in a computer charger, a clock and a tissue box, according to a search warrant filed in a Maryland court.

Authorities said they also seized an empty box for a “micro camera” hidden in a key chain, along with flash drives and memory cards — some in freezer bags — capable of holding more than 200,000 images and 25,000 hours of video. In addition, police found a picture of a nude woman and “hand written lists of names.”

The items listed in the search warrant obtained by The Washington Post indicate that devices that could have been used to spy were kept not only in the home of Rabbi Barry Freundel and the bath adjacent to the Northwest Washington synagogue he led but also on the campus where he taught . Police said Freundel used a camera hidden in a clock-radio to record at least six women in the bath, called a mikvah.

The latest discovery raised further questions about the rabbi’s interactions with his pupils at Towson, a public university in Baltimore County with more than 22,000 students. The rabbi has been an associate professor there since 2009 and has tenure.

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC 7

[with video]

WESTTOWN, Pa. — A priest from Chester County is behind bars, charged with posing as a young girl on Instagram to send and receive child pornography.

55-year-old Mark Haynes, a priest assigned to Saints Simon and Jude Parish in Westtown Township, is with multiple counts of sexual abuse of children for possessing and disseminating child porn.

An undercover investigation revealed Haynes set up an Instagram account and posed as an underage girl named Katie to share multiple pornographic images of children.

Prosecutors say Haynes also posed as a 16-year-old girl to exchange lewd emails with a still-to-be-identified 14-year-old girl.

Investigators have seized all of Haynes electronic devices and are reviewing them.

Haynes has served at eight different parishes in the Philadelphia Archdiocese since 1985. The parishes are located in Chester, Delaware, Bucks and Montgomery Counties.

Haynes is now behind bars after failing to post $200,000 bail.

The Chester County District Attorney says the Saints Simon and Jude Parish immediately excluded him from the parish property after the crimes were discovered, and that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the parish have been cooperating fully with law enforcement.

The Archodiocese released the following statement Friday afternoon:

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has learned that Father Mark Haynes was arrested by Chester County Police. He was charged with two counts of dissemination of child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of criminal use of a communications device.

These charges are serious and disturbing. The Archdiocese is cooperating fully with law enforcement regarding this matter and remains fervently committed to preventing child abuse as well as protecting the children and young people entrusted to its care. Child pornography is a scourge that must be eradicated.

There were no prior indications that Father Haynes was involved in activity of this nature. Additionally, no allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have ever been lodged against him.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Chadds Ford Live

Posted by Kathleen Brady Shea on October 24th, 2014
*** STORY UPDATED at 4:10 p.m. ***

A Catholic priest assigned to Saints Simon and Jude Parish in Westtown Township was charged on Thursday, Oct. 23, with multiple felony counts of sexual abuse of children for possessing and disseminating child pornography.

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced the prosecution of Rev. Mark Haynes, 55, in an Oct. 24 press release. Hogan said Haynes, who was ordained in 1985, has served as Parochial Vicar at Saints Simon and Jude since Sept. 3, 2013.

The investigation began when Chester County Detective Joe Walton, the lead investigator in the case, received. information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Walton learned that an Instagram account, a social media site that allows users to publish and share photographs, was disseminating images that included child pornography, the release said.

Walton traced the user name on the account — Katie — to an email account registered to the church. Initially suspecting that the account might belong to a student at the parish school, Walton interviewed the pastor at Saints Simon and Jude, who identified the user as Haynes, who resides at the parish rectory.

During a follow-up portion of the investigation, Walton also discovered that Haynes had received and posted a multitude of other images of child pornography and that he had been exchanging lewd emails with a still-to-be-identified 14-year-old girl. Haynes had been posing as a 16-year-old girl in those exchanges, the release said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Main Line

By Michael N. Price
mprice@21st-centurymedia.com

Westtown >> A Ss. Simon and Jude Parish priest was arrested on Friday amid allegations that he disseminated child pornography on a popular social media site, according to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.

Mark Haynes, 55, was charged with sexual abuse of children and related charges after investigators traced images of child pornography that were posted with an Instagram account that was registered to a Simon and Jude email account, officials said. Haynes has served as the parish’s Parochial Vicar since last September. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has assigned Haynes to parishes in Chester, Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery counties. He was ordained in 1985.

Law enforcement officials announced the arrest and said the possession of child pornography would not be tolerated.

“Every person who possesses child pornography is violating the rights and dignity of these young victims. Every person who disseminates child pornography is continuing the cycle of depravity that makes children around the world vulnerable. No matter whether you are rich or poor, young or old, clergy or layperson, the possession of child pornography will lead to arrest, shame, and jail,” said Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan.

Since his ordainment in 1985, Haynes has been assigned to eight different parishes, including: St. Ann, in Phoenixville; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, in Doylestown; St. John of the Cross, in Roslyn; Our Lady of Good Counsel, in Southampton; St. Pius X, in Broomall; Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in Morton; and Annunciation B.V.M., in Havertown.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Times of Chester County

WESTTOWN — A parish priest was charged Friday with possession and dissemination of child pornography.

Mark Haynes, 55, a priest assigned to Saints Simon & Jude Parish in the township, according to Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan. Haynes was charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse of children for possessing and disseminating child pornography.

“Every person who possesses child pornography is violating the rights and dignity of these young victims,” Hogan said in a statement. “Every person who disseminates child pornography is continuing the cycle of depravity that makes children around the world vulnerable. No matter whether you are rich or poor, young or old, clergy or layperson, the possession of child pornography will lead to arrest, shame, and jail.”

Haynes lived at Saints Simon and Jude Rectory and served as Parochial Vicar for more than a year. He was ordained in Philadelphia on May 18, 1985. The defendant had been assigned by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to serve in parishes located in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties. Since 1985, the defendant has been assigned to eight different parishes, including: St. Ann, Phoenixville; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Doylestown; St. John of the Cross, Roslyn; Our Lady of Good Counsel, Southampton; St. Pius X, Broomall; Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Morton; and Annunciation B.V.M., Havertown.

The investigation began, authorities said, when Chester County Detective Joe Walton received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (“NCMEC”) that an Instagram account linked to the immediate area was disseminating photographs including child pornography.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

WESTTOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS) — A priest in Chester County is accused of possessing and distributing child pornography through a popular photo-sharing network.

Rev. Mark Haynes, a priest assigned to Saints Simon & Jude Parish in Westtown Township, has been charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse of children for possessing and disseminating child pornography.

According to authorities, the investigation began when a Chester County detective received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that an Instagram account was disseminating photographs, including child pornography.

Investigators said that two photographs of a female under 14-years-old were posted to the account. Police said one photograph was of the child posing nude. The other photograph was a close-up of the child’s vaginal area.

The e-mail account that was linked to the Instagram was eventually traced to the Saints Simon & Jude Parish rectory building, police said.

Investigators said a detective spoke to the church’s pastor, who identified Haynes as the user of the email address.

After a further investigation, authorities allege Haynes received and posted a multitude of other images of child pornography and had been exchanging lewd emails with a still-to-be-identified 14-year-old girl. Investigators said Haynes had been posing as a 16-year-old girl in the exchanges.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

By Michael N. Price, mprice@dailylocal.com, @MikePriceWrites on Twitter
POSTED: 10/24/14

Westtown >> A Catholic priest from SS. Simon and Jude Parish was arrested on Friday amid allegations that he disseminated child pornography on a popular social media site, according to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.

Mark Haynes, 55, was charged with sexual abuse of children and related charges after investigators traced images of child pornography that were posted with an Instagram account that was registered to a Simon and Jude email account, officials said. Haynes has served as the parish’s Parochial Vicar since last September. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has assigned Haynes to parishes in Chester, Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery counties. He was ordained in 1985.

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PENNSYLVANIA
New York Daily News

BY MARC WEINREICH

A Philadelphia-area priest who pretended to be a teenage girl in an email with a minor in order to get lewd photos of her has been arrested on child porn charges after he allegedly posted the pics to an Instagram account — and the District Attorney handling the case is reportedly concerned there may be other victims.

Rev. Mark Haynes, a 55-year-old priest at the Saints Simon & Jude Parish in Westtown Township, Pennsylvania, was arrested by Chester County law enforcement officials after a local detective was notified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that an Instagram account was posting child pornography, authorities announced in a CBS Philadelphia report Friday.

Haynes posted several photos of a nude 14-year-old girl that he allegedly obtained via graphic email exchanges with her in which he posed as 16-year-old female.

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ITALY
Independent (UK)

ROSE TROUP BUCHANAN Friday 24 October 2014

A scandal-ridden Italian diocese where priests posted naked photographs of themselves on gay websites, sexually harassed parishioners and raided the church’s coffer will be investigated by Pope Francis’s special envoy.

Albenga-Imperia, in the north of Italy, will receive an “apostolic administrator” to assess the allegations laid against “the most gossiped about diocese in Italy” according to local news reports.

The Pope will reportedly send the administrator to determine the truth of charges – including hosting a string of ‘playboy priests’ moonlighting as barmen, stealing the church’s funds and getting tattooed, under the watchful eye of Bishop Mario Oliveri, 70, who has run the diocese for the last 25 years.

Although the bishop, a fervent traditionalists who once held a three-hour mass in Latin, is not accused of any wrongdoing, local newspaper Il Secolo XIX has reported the aging Bishop is expected to be replaced in the near future.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Courier Express

Associated Press

WESTTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A Philadelphia-area priest has been arrested on charges of posting and exchanging child porn images on a photo-sharing site.

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said Friday the Rev. Mark Haynes was taken into custody on charges of child pornography, disseminating images of child sex acts and criminal use of a communications facility.

Police say images of naked underage girls were found on an Instagram account with the user name “Katie” but belonging to 55-year-old Haynes, who has been vicar of Saints Simon & Jude parish in Westtown Township since September 2013.

Detective Joseph Walton said in a criminal complaint that Haynes acknowledged receiving about 100 images and sending about 50 to others. Police said he told them that he posed as a 16-year-old girl on a dating site around four years ago and received lewd videos from someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

by Barbara Dorris & David Clohessy

A humble salute to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee for awarding the prize to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai for promoting human rights for all children.

The committee’s decision to not give the award to odds-on favorite Pope Francis was the right and logical move. Both of this year’s laureates’ strong and decisive actions have led to dangerous physical attacks, yet each remains a voice for our most vulnerable populations. Their words are commensurate with their actions.

On the other hand, Pope Francis has yet to take any real action to protect children. Vatican committees and meetings don’t protect children from abuse. Rebuffing United Nations panels does not safeguard the vulnerable or heal the wounded. Letting abusers and the clerics who cover up for them remain in positions of power tells Catholics that their children are not a top priority. And so we wait.

Kailash and Malala didn’t wait to carefully negotiate the political complexities and personalities within the child labor factories or within the Taliban. They took real action.

Kailash and Malala have faced real threats, physical violence, and Malala was almost murdered. But neither of them have stopped their work. Pope Francis is a man of immeasurable power, and yet he will barely lift a finger to stop child sex crimes within his own organization.

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UNITED STATES
Mary Dispenza

When a long buried memory surfaced after nearly half a century, it sent Mary Dispenza on a quest to understand how the unforgivable happens and what a person can do to survive.

SPLIT, her courageous memoir, reveals the shocking story of her rape by the parish priest at seven years of age, an experience too horrible for the little girl to face.

Leaving the abused part of her self behind, Mary tried to live a normal life, while carrying her terrible, forgotten secret. SPLIT tells of her lifelong struggle for the intimacy, healing and love that always seemed to lay beyond her reach and the events that finally brought her to wholeness.

SPLIT is a story that leaves the reader engaged in current events, encouraged about healing and hopeful of a better future for the faithful and the church.

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MINNESOTA
City Pages

By Jesse Marx
Fri., Oct. 24 2014

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has added 17 names to its list of credibly accused priests as part of a settlement agreement with Jeff Anderson’s law firm. Nine priests allegedly abused minors within the archdiocese and eight allegedly abused minors outside the archdiocese, but held assignments here.

The list has also been updated to include three men whose alleged crimes had previously been considered unsubstantiated. It’s not immediately clear why the status of these claims was elevated, but give it time. Some, if not all, of the files are expected to be made public in the coming weeks and months.

Seven of the 17 are still alive, according to the archdiocese, though we couldn’t reach any of them for comment. Most remain in Minnesota, but two reside on the coasts.

For Bob Schwiderski, the addition of Father William Marks to this list is 52 years in the making. He says he was abused a hundred times as an altar boy in Hector, and church officials responded by transferring Marks to another parish in Green Valley.

Schwiderski is working on his own list of credibly accused clerics — which includes several Christian denominations — and says Thursday’s disclosure, plus another one made by Winona two weeks ago, has added 94 previously unknown locations of suspected abuse to his list. Knowing where these clerics have traveled could open the door to more stories of abuse. It’s possible there are still people out there who haven’t come forward.

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DEUTSCHLAND
RGA

[The trial of a priest and religion teacher has been reopened in Wuppertal.]

Von Sabine Naber

LANDGERICHT Prozess wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs wird in Wuppertal neu aufgerollt. Sexueller Missbrauch von Schutzbefohlenen hatte das Remscheider Amtsgericht einem Pfarrer und Religionslehrer aus Remscheid vorgeworfen. Und ihn im vergangenen Jahr zu elf Monaten auf Bewährung verurteilt.

Weil der 47-Jährige das nicht auf sich sitzenlassen wollte, wird der Fall jetzt im Wuppertaler Landgericht neu aufgerollt. Vorgeworfen wird ihm, er habe im Schuljahr 2010/2011 drei Fünftklässlerinnen in der Klasse und während eines Besuchs im Allee-Center an den Po gefasst und zudem seine Aufsichtspflicht verletzt. Außerdem habe er im Unterricht oft einen rüden Ton angeschlagen, und einen Schüler so grob angefasst, dass der blaue Flecken bekam.

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ITALIEN
Spiegel

Von Hans-Jürgen Schlamp, Rom

Albenga ist eine kleine Stadt an der Küste Liguriens im Nordwesten Italiens. Rund 23.000 Menschen leben dort, es gibt eine Kathedrale mit Grundmauern aus dem 11. Jahrhundert und einen Bischof, der seit einem Vierteljahrhundert die Messen liest – gerne in lateinischer Sprache. Bischof Mario Oliveri heißt der Geistliche, und derzeit hat er andere Sorgen als seine Messe und außerdem ungewohnte Gesprächspartner: Staatsanwälte und aufgeschreckte Emissäre aus Rom.

Skurrile Geschichten aus dem Innenleben des kleinen von Oliveri geleiteten Kirchenreichs beschäftigen die Öffentlichkeit schon seit Längerem. Zu seinem Bistum gehören die Nachbarstadt Imperia und etliche Kommunen im Umland. In einer davon geht es zum Beispiel um einen Pfarrer, der versetzt wurde, weil er eine Geliebte gehabt haben soll. Nicht gerade gut-katholisch.

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POLAND
Ocaleni

DRUGI POLSKI KSIĄDZ OD “AFERY DOMINIKAŃSKIEJ” OSKARŻONY O 8 PRZESTĘPSTW SEKSUALNYCH NA DZIECIACH / 8 CHARGES PRESSED AGAINST THE SECOND PRIEST IN “DOMINICANA CASE”

W dniu 22 października 2014 r. Prokuratura Okręgowa w Warszawie skierowała do Sądu Rejonowego w Wołominie akt oskarżenia w sprawie o sygn. V Ds 281/13 przeciwko Wojciechowi G.

/ The Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw handed up an indictment against Wojciech G. to District Court in Wołomin (case no. V Ds 281/13) on October 22nd, 2014.

W akcie oskarżenia zarzucono podejrzanemu popełnienie łącznie 10 przestępstw. Osiem zarzutów dotyczy czynów z art. 200 § 1 kk polegających na obcowaniu płciowym z małoletnim poniżej lat 15 lub dopuszczeniu się wobec takiej osoby innej czynności seksualnej lub doprowadzeniu jej do poddania się takim czynnościom. Powyższe czyny popełnione zostały na szkodę 8 różnych pokrzywdzonych, w tym 2 obywateli polskich i 6 obywateli dominikańskich. Dwa czyny popełnione zostały w latach 2000-2001 w Polce, pozostałe czyny w różnych okresach na przestrzeni lat 2009-2013 na terenie Republiki Dominikańskiej.

Więcej na stronie Prokuratury Okręgowej w Warszawie.
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The indictment accuses the suspect of 10 crimes in total. 8 charges concern the acts under Article 200 § 1 of Penal Code – subjecting a minor under 15 years of age to sexual intercourse or making him/her submit to another sexual act or to perform such an act. These crimes were commited on 8 minors — 2 citizens of Poland and 6 citizens of the Dominican Republic. 2 of the acts were commited in Poland in 2000-2001, ant the rest of them in 2009-2013 in the Dominican Republic.

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ROME
Il Tempo

[Several prelates were heard yesterday by Rome prosecutors. Monsignor Luca Lorusso, Don Marco Valentini and Don Orazio Caputo, priests suspected of complicity in slander, spent the day answering questions from the deputy public prosecutor. The priest were close to Patrizio Poggi, the former parish priest who after several priests accused him of pedophilia was arrested and subsequently forced to stand trial. The priest, after being convicted and defrocked, threatened to reveal the names of nine other religious Romans who, he claimed, were stained with the crime of child prostitution. In 2013, Poggi was then arrested for slander.]

Andrea Ossino Tra i corridoi della procura di Roma sembrava di assistere ad una processione. Ieri infatti, diversi prelati sono stati ascoltati dai pubblici ministeri romani. Monsignor Luca Lorusso,…

Tra i corridoi della procura di Roma sembrava di assistere ad una processione. Ieri infatti, diversi prelati sono stati ascoltati dai pubblici ministeri romani. Monsignor Luca Lorusso, don Marco Valentini e don Orazio Caputo, i sacerdoti indagati di concorso in calunnia, hanno trascorso la giornata rispondendo alle domande del sostituto procuratore Eugenio Albamonte e dell’aggiunto Maria Monteleone. I preti, secondo gli inquirenti, erano vicini a Patrizio Poggi, l’ex parroco che dopo aver accusato di pedofilia diversi sacerdoti è stato arrestato e costretto successivamente ad affrontare un processo. Il prelato, dopo essere stato condannato e ridotto allo stato laicale, minacciò di rivelare i nomi di altri nove religiosi romani che, a suo dire, si erano macchiati del reato di prostituzione minorile.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

LAST UPDATED: Friday, October 24, 2014

A priest at a Chester County parish is facing charges for allegedly possessing and distributing child pornography.

The Chester County District Attorney’s Office said the Rev. Mark Haynes, 55, a priest at Saints Simon and Jude Rectory in Westtown Township, is accused of posting sexually explicit images of a teenage girl on Instagram.

“No matter whether you are rich or poor, young or old, clergy or layperson, the possession of child pornography will lead to arrest, shame and jail,” District Attorney Tom Hogan said in a statement.

The investigation began last month, when law enforcement officials received information from the social media site about naked images of young girls.

Detectives traced the email address associated with the account to Saints Simon and Jude, and eventually to Haynes, prosecutors said.

Investigators also found that Haynes received and posted other images and exchanged lewd emails with an unidentified 14-year-old girl, posing as a 16-year-old girl in the exchanges, prosecutors said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Fox Philly

Westtown Township – Police in Chester County have arrested Mark Haynes, a priest assigned to Saints Simon & Jude Parish in Westtown, Chester County, PA. He was charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse of children for possessing and disseminating child pornography.

Haynes, 55 resides at Saints Simon and Jude Rectory, 8 Cavanaugh Court where served as Parochial Vicar at Saints Simon & Jude since September 3, 2013. He was ordained in Philadelphia on May 18, 1985.

Since 1985, Haynes has been assigned to eight different parishes, including: St. Ann, Phoenixville; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Doylestown; St. John of the Cross, Roslyn; Our Lady of Good Counsel,

Southampton; St. Pius X, Broomall; Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Morton; and Annunciation B.V.M., Havertown.

Chester County Detective Joe Walton received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (“NCMEC”) that an Instagram account was disseminating photographs including child pornography. Instagram is a social media site that allows users to publish and share photographs.

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PENNSYLVANIA
6 ABC

WESTTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) — A priest from Chester County is behind bars, charged with posing as a young girl on Instagram to send and receive child pornography.

55-year-old Mark Haynes, a priest assigned to Saints Simon and Jude Parish in Westtown Township, is with multiple counts of sexual abuse of children for possessing and disseminating child porn.

An undercover investigation revealed Haynes set up an Instagram account and posed as an underage girl named Katie to share multiple pornographic images of children.

Prosecutors say Haynes also posed as a 16-year-old girl to exchange lewd emails with a still-to-be-identified 14-year-old girl.

Investigators have seized all of Haynes electronic devices and are reviewing them.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

October 24, 2014

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has learned that Father Mark Haynes was arrested by Chester County Police. He was charged with two counts of dissemination of child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of criminal use of a communications device.

These charges are serious and disturbing. The Archdiocese is cooperating fully with law enforcement regarding this matter and remains fervently committed to preventing child abuse as well as protecting the children and young people entrusted to its care. Child pornography is a scourge that must be eradicated.

There were no prior indications that Father Haynes was involved in activity of this nature. Additionally, no allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have ever been lodged against him.

Father Haynes was immediately placed on administrative leave following his arrest and is no longer residing at Saints Simon and Jude Parish in West Chester, where he was assigned. Priests on administrative leave are not permitted to exercise their public ministry, administer any of the Sacraments, or present themselves publicly as priests.

Biographical Information on Reverend Mark J. Haynes

Father Haynes is 55 years old. He was ordained in 1985. He served at the following parishes, schools and offices: Saint Ann, Phoenixville (1985-1989); Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Doylestown (1989-1991); Chaplain, Archbishop Wood High School, Warminster (1990-1991); Office for Youth and Young Adults (1990-1992); Saint John of the Cross, Roslyn (1991-1994); Office of the Metropolitan Tribunal (1992-2001); Our Lady of Good Counsel, Southampton (1994-2000); personal leave (2000-2001); Saint Pius X, Broomall (2001-2005); Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Morton (2005-2009); Annunciation, B.V.M., Havertown (2009-2013); personal leave (2013); Saints Simon and Jude, West Chester (2013-2014); arrested and placed on administrative leave (2014).

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PENNSYLVANIA
CatholicPhilly

Father Mark J. Haynes, 55, an archdiocesan priest and parochial vicar at SS. Simon and Jude Parish in West Chester, was arrested late Wednesday evening, Oct. 22, by Chester County police and charged with six counts of possessing and disseminating child pornography.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia called the charges “serious and disturbing” in a statement Oct. 24. It said Father Haynes has been placed on administrative leave immediately and he no longer resides at SS. Simon and Jude rectory.

The statement said no allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have ever been lodged against the priest, and there were no prior indications he was involved with child pornography.

“The archdiocese is cooperating fully with law enforcement regarding this matter and remains fervently committed to preventing child abuse as well as protecting the children and young people entrusted to its care,” the statement read. “Child pornography is a scourge that must be eradicated.”

While on administrative leave, Father Haynes is not permitted to exercise public ministry, administer any of the sacraments, or present himself publicly as a priest.

He has had the following assignments since his ordination in 1985: St. Ann, Phoenixville (1985-1989); Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Doylestown (1989-1991); chaplain, Archbishop Wood High School, Warminster (1990-1991); Office for Youth and Young Adults (1990-1992); St. John of the Cross, Roslyn (1991-1994); Office of the Metropolitan Tribunal (1992-2001); Our Lady of Good Counsel, Southampton (1994-2000); personal leave (2000-2001); St. Pius X, Broomall (2001-2005); Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Morton (2005-2009); Annunciation B.V.M., Havertown (2009-2013); personal leave (2013); and SS. Simon and Jude, West Chester (2013-2014).

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTAQ

MILWAUKEE (WSAU-Wheeler News) A judge is letting the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese proceed with its effort to throw out eleven damage claims from sex abuse victims as part of the church’s bankruptcy case. Federal Bankruptcy Judge Susan Kelley has rejected the victims’ request to keep delaying the matter. Creditors’ attorney Jeffrey Anderson says it’s wrong for the church to “pick off” some of the 575 priest sex abuse victims who’ve filed damage claims, saying it creates an emotional toll.

Bankruptcy Judge Susan Kelley said she was sensitive to the victims — but she also has to make sure the law is followed. Two of the eleven cases in question involve victims who had previous lawsuits dropped — and were not allowed to re-file their allegations. Two other victims said they were molested by employees of related Catholic organizations not directly affiliated with the archdiocese.

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LOUISIANA
MyArkLaMiss

West Monroe — A former West Monroe priest is accused child molestation.

According to the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Pastor Charles Potocki is one of several priest with “substantiated claims against them of sexually abusing a minor while they were assigned as priests.”

Potocki served as pastor at St. Paschal’s Catholic Church in West Monroe.

According to the release, Potocki also reportedly worked in Minnesota and Nebraska.

Potocki died in 1992.

The group SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also released a statement.

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FARIBAULT (MN)
Faribault Daily News

October 23, 2014

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is hosting a Mass of healing, reconciliation, and hope at Divine Mercy Catholic Church.

Following mass, there will be an opportunity for private prayer with both priests and trained lay pastoral leaders. The Sacrament of Reconciliation will also be available throughout the evening.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

OCTOBER 25, 2014

Michael McKenna
Reporter
Brisbane

ANGLICAN Bishop Bill Ray has called on Australia’s royal commission into child abuse to hold public hearings and use its special powers to investigate the cover-up of the rape and beatings of young boys at a north Queensland boarding school in the 1960s.

The north Queensland Bishop yesterday said he feared the ­extent of the sexual abuse by former principal Robert Waddington and other clergy at St Barnabas boarding school in Ravenshoe, southwest or Cairns, would remain secret unless the commission investigated.

School files are missing, believed to be have been thrown down a disused mineshaft in 1990.

Bishop Ray’s call comes two days after a church-ordered inquiry found a systematic cover-up by church officials, including the former Archbishop of York, now Lord David Hope, of 1999 and 2003 complaints of Waddington’s abuse in Queensland and Britain. Waddington was principal at Ravenshoe for almost a decade before returning in 1970 to ­England where he rose to become the head of education for the church in Britain and later dean of Manchester.

A joint investigation by The Australian and The Times prompted the British inquiry after revealing the mishandling of the complaints and that at least six boys and a young clergyman were sexually abused and beaten by Waddington.

Bishop Ray said he had referred the case to the royal commission after last year’s newspaper investigation but now believed it should go to a hearing.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

A court has ordered the continuation of a civil claim for compensation filed by 10 clerical abuse victims after it turned down the former priests’ request for them to contest the case.

The priests had failed to reply to the civil case within the stipulated timeframe so technically, they were prohibited from contesting the case.

In August 2011, Godwin Scerri, 78, and Charles Pulis, 69, were respectively sentenced to five and six years’ imprisonment for sexually abusing boys in their care at St Joseph Home, in Santa Venera more than two decades ago.

Mr Pulis was defrocked during the proceedings while Mr Scerri’s defrocking followed the court judgment, which was confirmed on appeal a month later.

Lawrence Grech, Joseph Magro, Leonard Camilleri, David Cassar, Noel Dimech, Angelo Spiteri, Raymond Azzopardi, Charles Falzon, Phillip Cauchi and Joseph Mangion filed a civil case in the First Hall of the Civil Court, calling on the court to liquidate the damages they suffered.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Oct 23, 2014

Since beginning this blog almost ten months ago, I have posted a couple interviews with individuals I believe are heroes for their commitment and service to shining light into the dark places as they serve children and survivors of sexual abuse. I am amazed and immeasurably blessed at these quiet champions and think it is critical that they be introduced to the wider world. In an effort to facilitate this introduction, I have decided to start a monthly interview feature entitled, ‘Heroes in our Midst’. – Boz

Two years ago, I was privileged to meet a man who is giving his life to serving a large population of sexual abuse survivors who have been kept in silence for generations. Chris Anderson is the executive director of MaleSurvivor, an organization that serves male survivors of sexual trauma and their loved ones. This first of a two part interview with Chris will address the challenges faced by male sexual abuse survivors and the work of MaleSurvivor. Part two of the interview, which will be posted next week, will focus on the unique struggles that male survivors of sexual abuse face within faith communities and how those communities can actually be a resource for authentic hope and healing.

Boz: Tell us a little bit about MaleSurvivor? What is it and when did it start?

Chris: MaleSurvivor was founded in 1994 by a group of social workers, clinicians, and other interested professionals who recognized the lack of any formal organizations working to raise awareness and address the unique needs of male victims of sexual abuse. Nationwide, approximately 25% of men – 1 in 4 will experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime.

In our 20 years we have grown into a unique non-profit that brings together professionals across disciplines and survivors to build “communities of hope, healing, and support.” From the very beginning MaleSurvivor has worked to tear down barriers that keep male victims silent and ashamed. We helped establish one of the first, and currently the largest, online discussion board for male survivors and their loved ones. In 2001, MaleSurvivor held it’s first “Weekend of Recovery” – a unique experiential retreat that brings together a small group of male survivors with a trained, compassionate, and experienced group of mental health professionals for a powerful healing experience. Since that time MaleSurvivor has run over 60 retreats in locations all over North America and we have had over 1000 men attend a Weekend. Lastly, we continue to work to build relationships with professionals around the world to train others in how to better engage with and support male survivors of any form of sexual abuse.

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LOUISIANA
The News Star

Barbara Leader, The News-Star October 24, 2014

A former pastor at St. Paschal’s Catholic Church in West Monroe has been identified by as a credibly accused child molester.

According to a news release by SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Father Charles Potocki was named Thursday by the St Paul’s Archdiocese and a legal firm as being one of our priests having “substantiated claims against them of sexually abusing a minor.”

Potocki also reportedly worked in Minnesota and Nebraska.

According to a news release issued Friday, Catholic officials claim they don’t know when Potocki was at St. Paschal’s.

SNAP is calling on anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Father Potocki, or any cleric, “to speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers, protectors others and start healing.”

Potocki was a religious order priest from the Order of Friar Minor and assigned to the Shreveport diocese.

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TOWSON (MD)
Jewish Times

October 23, 2014
BY MARC SHAPIRO

A Towson University senior who is taking a class Rabbi Barry Freundel taught prior to his arrest said she and “a couple of other girls” were invited to tour his synagogue.

“I had never planned on doing the mikvah, but going to the synagogue sounded like a cool experience,” Karen Berry, who is a student in the “Judeo-Christian Perspectives in Medical Ethics” class, said Thursday afternoon outside the classroom.

Freundel was arrested on Oct. 14 for allegedly setting up a hidden camera disguised as a clock radio in the National Capital Mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath next door to his Washington, D.C., synagogue, Kesher Israel Congregation, in Georgetown. He is charged with six counts of voyeurism, to which he has pleaded not guilty. He is suspended without pay from his synagogue and suspended from all faculty responsibilities at Towson.

On Wednesday, the university began its own investigation into whether or not Freundel violated Title IX guidelines that pertain to sexual misconduct, university spokesman Ray Feldmann said. His office in the university’s liberal arts building was searched by police the previous day

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Nathan Guttman
Published October 24, 2014

There is no playbook guiding Modern Orthodox congregations on what to do when their rabbi is accused of abusing congregants and of violating their privacy at the most holy and intimate of moments.

But when the venerable Washington congregation Kesher Israel got the news on October 14 that its spiritual leader of more than 26 years had been arrested on just such charges, its members didn’t hesitate: First, the board voted unanimously to suspend Rabbi Barry Freundel. Then, the very next night, its members gathered to dance in the street, as Jewish tradition demands, to celebrate their completion of the yearly cycle of reading the Torah.

“We will celebrate, dance, sing,” said Kesher’s president, Elanit Jakabovics, as she urged congregants to fulfill the calling to be joyous on Simchat Torah.

None of this was meant to mask or paper over the sense of utter shock that swept across the pews at the small but prominent synagogue in the upscale Washington neighborhood of Georgetown during the long holiday weekend of which Simchat Torah was a part. Freundel, according to the charges connected to his arrest, had used a hidden camera in the synagogue’s mikveh, or ritual bath, to record videos of female congregants and other women as they disrobed to submerge themselves in its waters.

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ITALY
The Local

The Vatican has launched an investigation into a diocese in north-west Italy following a series of scandals by “playboy priests”, including one being convicted for sexual abuse and another posting naked photos of himself on Facebook.

Pope Francis has ordered a Catholic Church representative to help bishop Mario Oliveri bring his priests into line, Il Messaggero reported.

During his 25-year-old reign over the diocese of Albenga-Imperia, Oliveri has allegedly turned a blind eye to the actions of priests under his direction.

They include Luciano Massaferro, who was sentenced to seven years and eight months for sexual abuse, and Gabriel Viorel Irla, a priest who allegedly posed naked on Facebook. Another priest – Alfonso Maria Parente – reportedly stole money from a Catholic church.

Other priests have raised eyebrows for working in bars at night and having tattoos, Il Messaggero said.

The Vatican’s decision to intervene follows a visit to the diocese by envoy Adriano Bernardini, after a local woman, Luisia Bonello, sent a dossier to the Pope detailing the scandals. Bonello committed suicide last month and an investigation is currently underway into her death.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated on 24 October 2014)

In late 2014, a New South Wales magistrate is conducting the next steps in the court case of a former Catholic priest (from Moree and Armidale in northern NSW). The priest, whose name (for legal reasons) cannot be published at this stage, has already pleaded “Guilty” to 45 child-sex charges. Now, in the Armidale Local Court, the magistrate has begun preliminary proceedings (a “committal hearing”) to determine how the court system will handle 31 other charges, to which the ex-priest is pleading “Not Guilty”. There are multiple steps in this complex process, and the final steps may not be completed until 2015.

The ex-priest (who turned 61 years of age in mid-2014) allegedly committed the offences in the 1970s and 1980s while he was living in Armidale and Moree.

So far, each step in the process has been conducted by a magistrate in the Armidale Local Court but eventually all the charges will be passed on to a judge in a higher court, the New South Wales District Court.

The 45 charges to which the ex-priest has pleaded “Guilty” involved offences committed against five boys and three girls. For these charges, the District Court will merely need to conduct a sentencing.

The 31 other charges, which the ex-priest is contesting with his “Not Guilty” plea, are a more complex process and these contested charges are a reason why the court has placed a non-publication order on the priest’s name at this stage. After the magistrate finishes the committal hearing, these 31 contested charges would proceed to the NSW District Court, where the ex-priest would have the opportunity to confirm (or otherwise) his “Not Guilty” plea. If a jury is needed, the judge will preside over the jury hearings.

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RUSSIA
Voices from Russia

Dear Metropolitan Tikhon,

We are members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims.

It recently came to our attention that the Archdiocese of Canada has continued to pay Archbishop Seraphim Storheim a salary, despite the fact that his retirement was announced by the synod of bishops on 3 April 2014.

http://archdiocese.ca/content/2014-may-23-24-ottawa-minutes-and-reports

(Page 6)

The material linked above clearly indicates that the archbishop is no longer an employee of the archdiocese. It seems apparent to us that these monies are simply a clandestine way to use Church resources to help pay for Archbishop Seraphim’s attorneys.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Daniel Mizzi 24 October 2014

The First Hall Civil Court has ordered the continuation of a compensation claim filed by 10 sexual abuse victims after it rejected the request of two defrocked priest for them to contest the case.

The case goes back to August 2011, when two priests of the St Paul’s Missionary Society, Godwin Scerri, 78, and Carmelo Pulis, 69, were defrocked and jailed for five and six years respectively after they had been convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys in their care at St Joseph’s Home in Santa Venera in the 1980s.

Following the priest’s imprisonment, the ten victims, led by Lawrence Grech – the man who broke the silence on this case – called for financial compensation, but did not specify the amount.

The compensation claim was filed by Lawrence Grech, Joseph Magro, Leonard Camilleri, David Cassar, Noel Dimech, Angelo Spiteri, Raymond Azzopardi, Charles Falzon, Phillip Cauchi and Joseph Mangion against the Curia, the government, the Attorney General, Carmel Pulis, Godwin Scerri, the Archbishop and the St Paul’s Missionary Society.

Contesting the compensation claim, the priests argued that they did not respond within the stipulated 20-day timeframe due to several reasons since the assistant superior general of the Society left them with the impression that “everything would be handled.” Consequently, it argued that it should nevertheless be given the opportunity to contest the claims.

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NEW YORK
Times of Israel

Manny Waks

It is heartbreaking that yet another victim of child sexual abuse within the Jewish community has suffered a tragic premature death. Last weekend, 34-year old Joey Diangello (formerly Yoel Deutsch) from New York died of a drug overdose. It is somewhat irrelevant if the overdose was intentional or not, as some have been debating on blogs and social media. We will probably never know definitively. What we do know is that Joey was sexually abused within his former Hasidic community. “I think when that person raped me, he murdered my Jewish soul,” Joey told PIX11 Investigates in early 2009, when he courageously went public with his story, describing how he was raped in a Mikvah (Jewish ritual bath-house) as a child. Joey became a victim advocate and featured in numerous media articles.

It is reasonable to connect Joey’s untimely death with his abuse as a child. Statistics show that drug use among victims of child sexual abuse is higher than in the general population. Moreover, suicide was apparently on Joey’s mind, as noted in his recent Jewish New Year message to Rabbi Eisenman.

So here we have what may be described as akin to the murder of an innocent man – whose Jewish soul had already been murdered – yet the Jewish world maintains its relative silence. At the time of writing, not a single mainstream Jewish media outlet has covered this story. Moreover, I have not seen a single prominent Jewish community leader – rabbinic or otherwise – speaking out about this tragedy. The only ones who have spoken out are victims/survivors of child sexual abuse, victim advocates and those who were connected to Joey in some way. Of course some individual community members have also spoken out.

A disturbing story that has been the focus of the Jewish world and media this past week has been the allegations regarding Rabbi Barry Freundel. It is most appropriate to compare the lack of reactions to Joey’s death, as noted above, to the reactions regarding Rabbi Freundel. In the latter case, so many rabbis, community leaders and members have shared their opinion and generally expressed their disgust. And the media – both Jewish and mainstream – has provided this case significant coverage. The vast majority of those that have spoken out have very little, if anything, to do with the actual case. The most common point of connection is that Rabbi Freundel is a prominent Orthodox rabbi who is alleged to have been filming women using his Synagogue’s ritual bath. Of course those victimised by his alleged actions deserve our full support and compassion. Moreover, it is appropriate for rabbis, community leaders and members globally to condemn Rabbi Freundel’s alleged abuse, as is currently happening. Indeed, I applaud the ground-breaking changes that have ensued – impressively, within a week of these allegations surfacing.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
National Catholic Reporter

Maureen Fiedler
Oct. 23, 2014

It was a cool, rainy night Wednesday at Augustana Lutheran Church in Washington, D.C. But the drizzly weather did not keep more than 150 people from coming out to hear Fr. Tony Flannery, a priest from Ireland who has been ordered by the Vatican to sign a statement of orthodoxy and to remain silent. But Flannery — unlike many theologians before him — did not sign and won’t keep quiet. In fact, this was the first stop in an 18-city speaking tour of the United States, sponsored by a coalition of U.S. church reform groups.

The evening began when the Rev. John Kidd, the Lutheran pastor, welcomed this congregation of “modern Catholic reformers” to his church and offered quotations from Martin Luther on the significance of conscience. Both he and Flannery were grinning from ear to ear.

I interviewed Flannery the day before for “Interfaith Voices” and found him an absolutely delightful human being who has been deeply hurt by his treatment at the hand of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican. He explained that they condemned him and his views without even a conversation with him. They communicated only with the leadership of his Redemptorist order. He had no opportunity to dialogue or answer the charges against him.

“Any institution which acts against human rights and human dignity has lost its legitimacy,” he said.

His reforming views include many that are held by majorities of Catholics today: welcoming LGBT people into church life and treating them with dignity, choice in the use of contraception, and the ordination of women. (Although he sounds like many feminist theologians I know who don’t think women should become part of the current “system.”) He believes that the role of women is the “elephant in the church,” the obvious issue that cries out for change.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Victims’ anger as Clegg backs boss of abuse inquiry: Deputy PM says he has ‘not heard anything’ to suggest she is wrong choice for the role

By Sam Greenhill and Jack Doyle for the Daily Mail

Nick Clegg was condemned by sex assault victims yesterday for giving his support to the under-fire chairman of the Government’s child abuse inquiry.

The deputy prime minister offered his backing to Fiona Woolf, who faces mounting pressure to quit over her friendship with Lord Brittan, a possible key witness at the inquiry.

Mr Clegg said he had ‘not heard anything’ suggesting she was the wrong choice for the role.

But survivors of abuse, including one of his old schoolfriends, accused him of being on ‘a different planet’. Ian McFadyen, who was subjected to violent sexual assaults by two male teachers at Caldicott School in the 1970s, when he was in the same year group as the future Liberal Democrat leader, is spearheading the drive to have Mrs Woolf removed as inquiry chairman.

After the deputy prime minister backed Mrs Woolf, Mr McFadyen wrote on Twitter: ‘I’m sorry Mr Clegg, do we live on a different planet?’ Mr McFadyen is behind a High Court challenge demanding a judicial review of Mrs Woolf’s appointment.

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MARYLAND
Daily Journal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: October 23, 2014

WASHINGTON — Towson University has launched an internal investigation into whether it complied with federal sex discrimination laws after learning a rabbi who teaches there invited students to take ritual baths at his District of Columbia synagogue.

The school also began more aggressive efforts to find current and former students of 62-year-old Barry Freundel, who has been charged with six counts of voyeurism after police found a clock radio with a hidden camera in the shower area of a ritual bath at the Kesher Israel Congregation in Georgetown. Police say at least six women were taped changing clothes, and that Freundel was captured on tape setting up the recording device.

Police have not said whether any of the recordings show Towson students, and school spokesman Ray Feldmann said the university will not publicly reveal if any had come forward.

Freundel’s attorney, Jeffrey Harris, declined to comment on specifics of the allegations Thursday.

“He’s pleaded not guilty and we stand by that plea,” Harris told The Associated Press. “That says it all.”

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ITALY
Nigerian Bulletin

Catholic Church to Investigate Italian Priests For Posting Nude Pictures Online,Stealing Offering

The Catholic Church is set to investigate priests in the diocese of Albenga-Imperia in Italy for allegedly posting nude pictures online, stealing church money and sexually harassing worshipers.

A scandal-ridden Catholic diocese in Italy where priests posted naked photos of themselves on gay websites, raided church coffers and sexually harassed parishioners is to be investigated by a special envoy to Pope Francis. The Pope reportedly intends to send an “apostolic administrator” to assess allegations that the diocese of Albenga-Imperia, in the Liguria region of northern Italy, has hosted a string of “playboy priests” moon-lighting as barmen, stealing parish funds and getting tattooed.

Described by one Italian newspaper as “the most gossiped about diocese in Italy”, it has been run for the last 25 years by Bishop Mario Oliveri, 70. He is expected to be replaced in the near future by an auxiliary bishop, according to Il Secolo XIX, the region’s main newspaper. Pope Francis has already sent Adriano Bernardini, an apostolic nuncio, or ambassador, to conduct a preliminary investigation into the scandals thay have allegedly unfolded under Bishop Oliveri’s watch.

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ITALY
Daily Mail (UK)

Pervert priests who posed nude for gay websites, sexually harassed parishioners and stealing Communion cash in Italy are set to be investigated by the Pope

Pope Francis has ordered a secret sex inquiry into an Italian bishop who has presided over a diocese of ‘playboy priests’, it has been reported.

An independent investigator has been called in to the Albenga-Imperia diocese in northern Italy, which has been rocked by scandal after scandal.

Priests have variously been caught naked pictures of themselves on Facebook, having affairs with parishioners and moonlighting as barmen.

Others, more seriously, have been investigated or convicted for child abuse.

Pope Francis has sent an apostolic visitor to assess the capability of Bishop Mario Oliveri, who has been in charge for 25 years.

The decision follows a primary investigation by a papal Nuncio sent in after Francis was warned about the wayward diocese, La Repubblica reported.

The bishop is accused of having welcomed aspiring priests into the seminary without discernment, including former models, reality stars, priests with tattoos, bodybuilders and trainees who had been expelled from the seminary, generated a body of ‘weak’ priests, the newspaper reported.

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ITALY
Irish Independent

Pope Francis has launched an investigation into a Catholic diocese in Italy where priests have posted naked photos of themselves on gay websites, stolen money from church coffers and sexually harassed parishioners, according to Italian media.

The Pope has despatched a special envoy to the Albenga-Imperia diocese, in northern Italy, which has hosted a string of “playboy priests” moon-lighting as barmen, stealing parish funds and getting tattooed.

Led by Bishop Mario Oliveri (70), Albenga-Imperia has been described as “most gossiped about diocese in Italy”. While the bishop is not accused of any wrong-doing himself, the recruitment standards have been strongly criticised – with priests with very chequered pasts appearing in the diocese.

Some of the scandals which have enveloped the diocese include a priest who was found guilty of running an under-age prostitution ring and others who posted nude photos of themselves on Facebook and gay websites.

Other priests associated with the diocese have been accused of openly having gay relationships, stealing Communion money and sexually harassing mass-goers.

The scandals hit the headlines in Italy last month after Luisa Bonello, a doctor who lives in the diocese, committed suicide. She had written to the Pope last February to express her horror at what was going on in the diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

OCTOBER 24, 2014

Michael McKenna
Reporter
Brisbane

THE head of Australia’s Anglican Church has acknowledged the “cover-up’’ of child sexual abuse in Queensland and Britain as it emerged a pedophile clergyman was still allowed access to choirboys after the first complaints were made to church officials.

Primate of Australia, Melbourne Archbishop Philip Freier yesterday said he was profoundly disappointed with handling of allegations of horrific sexual abuse of boys by former Queensland headmaster, and later Dean of Manchester Robert Waddington over several decades.

A church-ordered inquiry in Britain this week found a “systemic failure” of church officials, led by the former Archbishop of York, now Lord David Hope of Thornes, in handling allegations against Waddington, made in 1999, 2003 and 2004.

The 164-page report by British judge Sally Cahill, following a year-long inquiry prompted by a joint investigation by The Australian and The Times, has sparked a proposed overhaul of child protection measures within the Church of England.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

by Madeleine Davies

Posted: 24 Oct 2014

IN JULY 2008, a 26-year-old woman complained to the Dean of Jersey, the Very Revd Robert Key, that she had been subject to abusive behaviour by a churchwarden. Five years later, an investigation into his handling of her complaint resulted in his suspension by the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Tim Dakin. This led to claims of “constitutional crisis” in Jersey, and, eventually, transfer of episcopal oversight for the island to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The facts of the case have been subject to extensive scrutiny and dispute. Both the Dean, reinstated in April last year, and the woman have criticised that first investigation, carried out by a psychotherapist, Jan Korris. In 2013, Bishop Dakin commissioned two more reviews of the situation. The results of neither have been published after concerns about confidentiality and legality.

What is agreed is that, three months after the 26-year-old arrived at a church in Jersey, a churchwarden and his wife invited her to stay in their home.

“We took risks in our relationship with [the woman] but thought we were doing so under God’s calling,” he later told the Dean.

According to the Korris report, within a few months, the woman had moved out and reported “unwelcome and potentially abusive behaviour” to the Dean. Over the course of the next three years, she also made complaints against the Dean, the safeguarding officer, and others, and was eventually arrested for breaking a harassment order and deported from the island for three years. She has since written a number of blog posts expressing her rage and hurt about what she says was violation at the hands of the Church.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee can proceed with its efforts to throw out 11 sex abuse claims filed in its ongoing bankruptcy, a judge ruled this week.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley on Wednesday refused to stay motions filed by the archdiocese arguing for the dismissal of those claims, over the objections of victims’ attorneys.

Jeffrey Anderson, whose firm represents most of the 575 who have filed sex abuse claims in the case, pleaded with Kelley to stay the motions, saying the archdiocese’s efforts to “pick off” survivors exacts an emotional toll. Kelley rejected that, saying she is sympathetic to the pain of victims but also is required to apply the law in the bankruptcy case.

“I am sensitive — and you know that I am, attorney Anderson — to the plight of the survivors…. But at this point, I have to apply the law,” she said.

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2011 to address its mounting sex abuse claims.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Caroline O’Doherty

Religious orders are still failing to respond adequately to victims of clerical child sex abuse, the latest tranche of monitoring reports reveals.

While practices have improved in terms of acting quickly on allegations of abuse and alerting the gardaí and health authorities, orders are subsequently running scared of complainants and cutting themselves off from contact with them.

“They miss that human bit,” said Teresa Devlin, chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) which yesterday published reviews of safeguarding practice in 18 orders and congregations.

“After they have notified the civil authorities, they should be writing and inviting those people to come and meet with them. Survivors can get angry and can get upset, but that’s what they have to put up with.”

The latest tranche of reports shows that many orders are still having to actively manage members against whom allegations have been made but where there has either been no criminal investigation — because the complaint relates to a time when the member was working overseas — or no conviction.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED
24/10/2014

The way religious congregations respond to survivors of clerical sexual abuse needs to improve and become more compassionate and meaningful.

That was one of the key findings of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) in its sixth tranche of safeguarding audits, which were published yesterday.

The reviews cover five male religious congregations and 13 female religious congregations and document 121 allegations against 54 priests and religious brothers or sisters which resulted in just two criminal convictions.

The audits also found that time frames for reporting abuse allegations to the civil authorities up to 2009 was “variable”, but has “improved considerably since the introduction of the Safeguarding Children, Standards and Guidance”.

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ITALY
Press TV (Iran)

[with video]

The Catholic Church has been hit with another sex scandal as a special envoy to Pope Francis is to investigate an Italian diocese for alleged sexual harassment of parishioners and involvement in pornography.

Pope Francis is set to send the envoy to the northern city of Albenga in the region of Liguria to assess the allegations that the diocese has hosted a group of “playboy priests.”

The priests in the diocese are accused of sexually harassing parishioners, posting naked photos of themselves online and raiding church coffers as well as moonlighting as barmen and stealing parish funds.

In addition, a priest working for the diocese has been found guilty of organizing an underage prostitution ring.

The Albenga diocese has been run for the last 25 years by Bishop Mario Oliveri, aged 70, and has been described by Italian media as “the most gossiped about diocese in Italy.” According to local media, Oliveri is expected to be replaced by an auxiliary bishop.

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MISSOURI
Webster Kirkwood Times

October 24, 2014
Rev. John J. Ghio, who most recently served at Annunciation Catholic Parish in Webster Groves, has been suspended by the Archdiocese of St. Louis following allegations of sexual abuse.

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson announced Ghio’s suspension this week in a letter to archdiocesan parishes. The abuse was alleged to have occurred in the early 1980s.

Ghio is currently retired from active ministry and resides in a monitored environment, according to the archdiocese. He joined Annunciation Parish as priest in residence in June 2011, and had previously spent time at other St. Louis area parishes.

“I have suspended Father Ghio’s priestly faculties until a canonical process is concluded,” Carlson said in a statement.

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ITALY
International Business Times

By Mark Hanrahan @markdhanrahanm.hanrahan@ibtimes.com on October 24 2014

Pope Francis is to send a special administrator to take charge of an Italian diocese where priests have been accused of a spate of crimes including theft and sexual abuse. The diocese has been seen as hosting a number of so-called “playboy priests,” who often broke the law.

The appointment of an “apostolic administrator” follows a report on the diocese of Albenga-Imperia in northern Italy by papal envoy Monsignor Adriano Bernardini, according to a report in The Times of London. The paper reports that one priest in the diocese was jailed for four years for running a prostitution ring, while another posted naked photographs of himself on a gay website.

The scandals took place during the tenure of Bishop Mario Oliveri who, while not accused of any wrongdoing personally, is regarded as having recruited a number of priests with checkered personal histories, according to a report from The Telegraph.

When asked by the paper about the scandals, the bishop reportedly said: “I don’t want to talk about it – it’s not the right time.” The Vatican also reportedly said that it would not comment on an ongoing investigation.

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NEW YORK
Chappaqua Daily Voice

by Tom Auchterlonie

NEW CASTLE, N.Y. — The Legionaries of Christ is suing the Town of New Castle to overturn the loss of its property tax exemption.

In the lawsuit, dated Oct. 14 and filed with the state Supreme Court in White Plains, the Roman Catholic religious organization argues that the use of the property, which is about 97 acres, has not changed.

“To date, Petitioner continues to use the Property for its religious purposes,” the complaint says.

The lawsuit is called a tax certiorari, a type of litigation used for challenging property assessments.

The non-profit organization’s corporate name, which is Legion of Christ, Incorporated, is listed as the plaintiff. The suit claims that the exemption had been granted every year since the organization bought the property in 1994.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this week released three research reports that shed light on the history of child protection legislation in Australia, out-of-home care residential institutions and past inquiries that have reviewed these institutions.

Royal Commission CEO Phillip Reed said these historical reports, prepared by Professor Shurlee Swain of the Australian Catholic University, provide a much-needed context for the work of the Royal Commission.

“The Royal Commission was set up to investigate where systems have failed to protect children, and to make recommendations on how to improve them,” Mr Reed said. “This research helps the Royal Commissioners better understand the broader socio-political and legislative contexts within which the cases we are considering have taken place.”

Mr Reed said that as a community we have largely moved away from the institutionalisation of children who cannot live at home and have come to rely more on evidence and best practice to guide our policies in this area.

The reports form part of the comprehensive research program supporting the work of the Royal Commission and to inform its findings and recommendations.

The Royal Commission has commissioned a significant number of research projects across a range of themes including the causes, prevention and responses to institutional child sexual abuse and support for victims and survivors.

You can read the reports via this link: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/policy-and-research/published-research

About the reports

History of child protection legislation documents the history of child protection legislation in Australia from its establishment in 1860 to today. It reveals the way different jurisdictions structured their child welfare system initially around concerns of vagrancy to establishing systems of inspection and regulation of punishment. It also includes ways in which parents were treated under legislation, from the desire to prevent them from ‘foisting their children on the system’ to keeping families together. It then documents legislation dealing with special groups such as Aboriginal children, child migrants and children with disabilities.

History of Institutions providing out of home residential care for children examines the history of the many different types of institutions providing out-of-home care for children from 1788 to the de-institutional movement of the 1980s. It sheds light on the complex mix of government, church, charitable and community organisations that provided care.

History of Australian inquiries reviewing institutions providing care for children summarises the history of Australian inquiries that have reviewed institutions providing care for children from 1852 to 2013. The inquiries fall into three main categories: those that examined the establishment and refinement of the child welfare system from 1852 to postwar, those that examined child abuse scandals of 1860s to the 1990s, and those that hear survivor testimony from 1990s to now.

For specific stakeholder enquiries please contact stakeholders@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing at the Hobart Federal Court from 19 November 2014 at 10:00am AEST.

The public hearing will inquire into the responses by the Hutchins School and the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania to allegations of child sexual abuse at the School.

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

1. The Hutchins School’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse made against David Ralph Lawrence and Lyndon Alfred Hickman.
2. The role of the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania in respect of the Hutchins School’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse made against David Ralph Lawrence and Lyndon Alfred Hickman.
3. Any related matters.

Any person or institution who believes that they have a direct and substantial interest in the scope and purpose of the public hearing is invited to lodge a written application for leave to appear at the public hearing by 29 October 2014. See the application for leave to appear.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Oct 23, 2014

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has released the names of 17 additional priests accused of sexual abuse, as part of a settlement of a clergy abuse lawsuit.

Four of the names were previously unknown to the public. They include the Revs. Robert Clark, Donald Dummer, Harry Majerus and John Owens.

In a statement, Archbishop John Nienstedt said he released the names as part of a legal settlement reached last week with attorney Jeff Anderson. Nienstedt said the 17 men “have substantiated claims against them of sexually abusing a minor while they were assigned as priests.”

However, the archbishop did not explain why the archdiocese had kept the allegations secret. Nor did he provide information on the alleged sex crimes or when the archdiocese learned of them.

The disclosure also raises questions about the archdiocese’s previous statements that it had already released every name. Nienstedt’s statement does not explain how the archdiocese determined that more priests had “substantiated claims” against them. Nienstedt did not respond to an interview request.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By RICHARD MARSDEN FOR THE DAILY MAIL

A former archbishop who failed to act on alleged crimes of a paedophile priest should be jailed, the abuser’s victims have said.

Lord Hope, the former Archbishop of York, did not act on 19 occasions when allegations of abuse or inappropriate conduct by the priest were raised with him, a scathing report revealed yesterday.

But despite that, Lord Hope remains as an honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Bradford.

Eli Ward and Bim Atkinson, who were among seven victims of the Very Reverend Robert Waddington, former Dean of Manchester, said it is ‘incredible’ that the man who did nothing to stop the priest has been allowed to keep his post.

The report by Judge Sally Cahill QC said Lord Hope failed to act because his ‘concern for the welfare of Robert Waddington seems to have been paramount’.

Waddington, who kept an official position in the church until 2005 and died in 2007, targeted young choirboys over several decades. One of the seven victims committed suicide in 1989.

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MINNESOTA
San Francisco Chronicle

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Archbishop John Nienstedt made a false statement when he testified earlier this year about his knowledge of an abusive priest’s past, according to a report Thursday by Minnesota Public Radio News.

The station reported (http://bit.ly/1wv8TSJ ) that during his April 2 sworn deposition, Nienstedt said he had learned about the prior conviction of the Rev. Gilbert Gustafson “during the last six months.”

But letters obtained by MPR show that one parishioner wrote to Nienstedt about Gustafson in 2008. The parishioner said Gustafson had a criminal conviction and was working as a consultant for Twin Cities parishes.

Nienstedt responded with a letter of his own two weeks later, MPR reported. In it, he told the parishioner he had no control over Gustafson because he was no longer an archdiocesan priest. Nienstedt also referred in the letter to Gustafson as a former priest — which was not true.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has come under fire in the last year for the way it handled allegations of sexual abuse by clergy, prompting some to call for Nienstedt to resign. His statements on Gustafson mark the second time his April testimony has been called into question.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: October 23, 2014

The latest list brings to 55 the number of priests credibly accused of abuse while serving the archdiocese.

The names of 17 more priests identified as child sex abusers were released Thursday, a sign of the new transparency created by the historic clergy abuse settlement announced last week between the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and victims’ advocates.

The priests served in 84 parishes in Minnesota, including 56 in the archdiocese. Nine priests were accused of misconduct while working in the Twin Cities archdiocese, bringing to 55 now its list of “credibly accused” offenders.

For church officials and victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson, the joint release of information illustrates the impact of the settlement, which has both parties working together to release priest names and files.

“This is the first significant disclosure of information that arose from the settlement,” said Anderson. “It’s a very hopeful sign.”

Archbishop John Nienstedt, in a written statement, said he was “profoundly saddened” by the harm the abuse caused the victims and their families.

“Ten of these 17 men are deceased,” he wrote, “but the pain they caused is very much alive.”

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NORTH DAKOTA
Bismark Tribune

By Andrew Sheeler

The Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Bismarck on Thurday named longtime Bismarck priest and disc jockey Father John Owens as one of 17 priests facing allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.

The announcement comes as part of a settlement agreement with the law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates, which represented alleged victims in the case.

The 85-year-old Owens now resides in Forest Lake, Minn., where he lives a life of atonement, according to a prepared statement released by the office of the Bismarck Diocese.

For nearly 40 years, Owens lived and worked in Bismarck, where he served as director of communications for the local diocese and also ran a weekly radio show on KFYR, “Padre’s Platters,” that reached out to area youths and discussed drugs, alcohol, acne, obesity, sex, teenage pregnancy and other problems, according to a Tribune article from June 2, 1982.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Oct. 23

Statement by Barbara Dorris of SNAP (314 503 0003)

Again, Pope Francis says he’s sending an “investigator” into a scandal-ridden diocese. This is not an effective approach.

[Telegraph]

Despite making nice promises on abuse, Francis has yet to defrock, demote, discipline or even clearly denounce a single Catholic employee anywhere for refusing to call police or prosecutors about known or suspected child sex crimes. Not one.

Until he does, he can respond when scandals reach a fever pitch by announcing another small, belated and ineffective internal church “investigation” into one of hundreds of dioceses where priests are accused of committing sexual misdeeds or crimes. But little or nothing will change.

Let’s be honest: this is a late, tepid and almost silly response to a global crisis of sexual crimes and misdeeds by thousands of clerics who are helped by thousands of complicit church colleagues and supervisors. This is like battling Ebola with band-aids. The Pope knows better.

We applaud every single person who has reported wrongdoing in the diocese of Albenga-Imperia. Staying silent helps no one. We hope their courage will inspire others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by any cleric will find the courage to speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect others and start healing.

The best way to do this, however, is to call secular authorities, not church officials and to keep reporting until someone listens and acts.

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IRELAND
Aljazeera

Laurence Lee

In recent months there has been a welter of reports about the horror of FGM, or female genital mutilation. The health service in the UK, for instance, is having to deal with thousands of cases, but because FGM is ‘cultural’ politicians don’t appear to be able to do much to wipe it out.

While FGM has become a real cause of concern in the UK – the former foreign secretary William Hague was particularly personally interested in it – nobody ever said a thing about a practice carried out for many, many years in Ireland which is only now being regarded as a similar human rights violation.

It’s called symphysiotomy, or the separation of the pelvis. Put simply, it involves sawing through a woman’s pelvic bone and cartilage during a difficult childbirth to open up the pelvis and enable birth.

It was banned in most places before the 20th century, but in Ireland hundreds and hundreds of women had it done to them, apparently because doctors preferred it to caesarian section. Why? Because c-section limits the number of children a woman can have, and once a woman has been effectively spatchcocked through symphysiotomy the doctors hoped she could have more and more. After all, this is in line with Catholic thinking on family size.

You can see in the attached video what the effects of all this were: women felt butchered, their physical lives and emotional wellbeing wrecked completely by a medical hierarchy which seemed, to campaigners, to insert religious dogma into medical practice. As a violation of a person’s rights, often without their consent, it’s easy to see the comparison with FGM.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Washington Post

Top Anglican calls for lifting seal of confessional in child abuse cases

By Trevor Grundy | Religion News Service October 23

CANTERBURY, England — Anglican priests should no longer be bound by the centuries-old principle of confidentiality in confessions when they are told of sexual crimes committed against children, the Church of England’s No. 2 official said.

Speaking at the end of an internal inquiry on whether senior church officials ignored abuse allegations involving children, Archbishop of York John Sentamu said that “what happened was shameful, terrible, bad, bad, bad.”

He said that the Church of England must break the confidentiality of confession in cases where people disclosed the abuse of children. “If someone tells you a child has been abused, the confession doesn’t seem to me a cloak for hiding that business. How can you hear a confession about somebody abusing a child and the matter must be sealed up and you mustn’t talk about it?”

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AUSTRALIA
Armidale Express

Armidale’s court drama in the case of a defrocked priest facing historic child sexual abuse charges

By SAMANTHA-JO HARRIS Oct. 24, 2014

THE committal of a defrocked priest has heard one alleged victim of historic child sexual abuse told his mother “he raped me too”.

On Wednesday Armidale Local Court heard how the man, who was in court to be cross-examined, discovered the allegations against the former priest after he heard about it on the radio.

In a statement made to police in early 2013 the man claimed the “mongrel from Moree” had assaulted him when he was an altar boy in the early 1980s.

The complainant, his mother and partner were in court to be cross-examined about their evidence to see if they would give evidence at the trial.

Magistrate Karen Stafford allowed the cross-examination to start, saying there were “inconsistencies in the statements” and the fact the allegations were from a recovered memory.

But the hearing was delayed after the Crown prosecutor Peter Woods was rushed to hospital with chest pain.

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ITALIA
Il Mattino

ALBENGA – ​ La diocesi di Albenga è stata commissariata da Papa Francesco: era retta da 25 anni da monsignor Mario Oliveri, 70 anni.

La decisione sarebbe stata presa dopo che il Nunzio apostolico Adriano Bernardini ha compiuto una indagine sulla chiesa locale. Era stato inviato lì dal papa dopo che in Vaticano erano arrivate varie segnalazioni su un clero ”disinvolto”.

La notizia non è stata commentata dal vescovo. E la curia ha scelto il silenzio. A monsignor Oliveri viene rimproverato di aver accolto in seminario aspiranti sacerdoti senza aver esaminato con attenzione la reale vocazione dei giovani e questo avrebbe generato preti ”deboli”.

Così la sua diocesi ha dovuto subire vari scandali: sacerdoti condannati o indagati per pedofilia, altri che posano nudi su Facebook, parroci con tatuaggi, sacerdoti che lasciano le parrocchie portando via la ”cassa”, preti che fanno i barman in locali notturni, altri che corteggiano le fedeli.

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ITALIA
Liguria Notizie

GENOVA. 23 OTT. La diocesi di Albenga, retta da 25 anni da monsignor Mario Oliveri, 70 anni, sarebbe stata commissariata da Papa Francesco.

La decisione sarebbe stata presa dopo che il Nunzio apostolico Adriano Bernardini ha compiuto un’ indagine sulla chiesa locale.

Era stato inviato lì dal Papa dopo che in Vaticano erano arrivate varie segnalazioni su un clero “disinvolto”.

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ITALIA
Repubblica

dal nostro inviato MASSIMO CALANDRI

ALBENGA – “Liberaci dal male”, mormora monsignor Mario Oliveri dall’altare della cattedrale di San Michele Arcangelo. E sulla fronte gli s’allunga una ruga profonda: dolore, inquietudine. Amen, signor vescovo: ma è proprio vero che con tutti questi preti peccatori, Papa Francesco ha deciso di “commissariare” la sua diocesi? “Non voglio parlarne. Non è il momento”, taglia corto.

Dopo un quarto di secolo da indisturbato padrone di casa, Oliveri tra pochi giorni dovrà condividere il palazzo vescovile di Albenga con un altro prelato. Un “amministratore apostolico” scelto da Bergoglio per aiutarlo a reggere il peso dei troppi scandali delle sue parrocchie: sacerdoti condannati o indagati per pedofilia, altri che in processione corteggiano le fedeli più carine, parroci che posano nudi su Facebook o per siti gay, che svuotano le cassette delle elemosine e se la danno a gambe, che palpeggiano turiste adolescenti sul lungomare.

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ITALY
Telegraph (UK)

Pope Francis to investigate ‘playboy priests’ who posed naked online in scandal-hit disocese

By Nick Squires, Rome 23 Oct 2014

A scandal-ridden Catholic diocese in Italy where priests posted naked photos of themselves on gay websites, raided church coffers and sexually harassed parishioners is to be investigated by a special envoy to Pope Francis.

The Pope reportedly intends to send an “apostolic administrator” to assess allegations that the diocese of Albenga-Imperia, in the Liguria region of northern Italy, has hosted a string of “playboy priests” moon-lighting as barmen, stealing parish funds and getting tattooed.

Described by one Italian newspaper as “the most gossiped about diocese in Italy”, it has been run for the last 25 years by Bishop Mario Oliveri, 70.

He is expected to be replaced in the near future by an auxiliary bishop, according to Il Secolo XIX, the region’s main newspaper.

Pope Francis has already sent Adriano Bernardini, an apostolic nuncio, or ambassador, to conduct a preliminary investigation into the scandals thay have allegedly unfolded under Bishop Oliveri’s watch

The bishop himself is not accused of any wrongdoing, but is reported to have been overly-charitable in recruiting “black sheep” priests with distinctly chequered pasts, including trainee priests expelled from seminaries for misconduct.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, October 23

Statement by Frank Meuers of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )

We are glad the names of four newly “outed” predator priests are surfacing today, especially because three of them are likely living among unsuspecting neighbors in Massachusetts, and Arizona and Forest Lake, MN. (Fr. Donald Drummer, Fr. Robert P. Clark and Fr. John Owens, respectively). But police, prosecutors, parishioners, parents and the public need and deserve to know where and when these priests assaulted children. Archbishop Neinstedt must be more forthcoming if kids are to be better protected and victims are to be better supported.

Catholic officials are NOT disclosing when abuse reports were made against these priests. We suspect that in virtually every case, St. Paul church employees sat on this information for years or decades.

Let’s look specifically at the four newly-named priests. With each of them, Twin Cities Catholic officials kept secret about the child sex abuse allegations against them for years. This secrecy continued unabated over the past decade, despite an allegedly binding national US bishops’ abuse policy that supposedly mandates “openness and transparency.”

They hid accusations against Fr. Clark for at least 14 years, against Fr. Owens for at least nine years, and against Fr. Drummer for at least eight years. Among just those three clerics, that’s 31 years of secrecy, recklessness and callousness.

(Fr. Clark was “removed from active ministry on March 26, 2002.” Fr. Owens was quietly ousted in 2005. Ditto with Fr. Drummer in 2006. And we suspect that allegations against Fr. Majerus were first made in 1971, but he stayed on the job until 1987.)

This new information confirms again just how much St. Paul Catholic officials have endangered and continue to endanger kids. In each case, Twin Cities church officials chose to endanger kids and protect predators by making these moves behind the scenes instead of disclosing them in public.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Thu, Oct 23, 2014

Support for people making allegations of clerical child sexual abuse continues to be inconsistent in some Catholic Church religious congregations, a review published today has found.

“Contact in many instances was not made directlyby the congregation and the opportunity for pastoral support was missed,” it said .

The observation was made by Teresa Devlin, chief executive of the Church’s child protection watchdog, its National Board for Safeguarding Children.

Today it has published 18 reviews of child safeguarding practices involving five five male and 13 female religious congregations. Eight are standard reviews of safeguarding practices against the seven established standards that the Catholic Church in Ireland has agreed to meet.

The congregations fully reviewed included the Vincentian Fathers, the Redemptorists, Sisters of St Louis, Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the Pallottines, St Joseph’s Missionary Society (Mill Hill), The Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers), the Presentation Sisters.

However, because 10 of the congregations are so small and have very limited contact with children, also due to the advanced age of their members and the fact that they face no allegations of sexual abuse in Ireland, these were assessed against a revised framework. “The 10 Congregations demonstrated a strong sense of commitment to working positively with the National Board, in spite of their limited ministries”, Ms Devlin said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

October 23, 2014 Author: berger

As part of a settlement agreement, Twin Cities Catholic officials released names of 17 priests with “substantiated claims of abuse” against them. Among them: Fr. Edward Beutner who worked at SLU in the 1970s and Fr. James Porter who was at a church treatment center here.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Catholic Church child protection watchdog has found that eight religious congregations often failed to contact directly people making child sexual abuse allegations against priests, brothers and nuns and their support for complainants continues to be inconsistent.

In audits of the congregations, the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church also found the time frame for reporting allegations against congregation members to the civil authorities was variable up until 2009.

However, it has improved considerably since the introduction of new church standards.

This latest tranche of audits by the NBSCCC examines the responses of eight religious congregations to allegations of abuse against their members.

The congregations are the Presentation Sisters, the Vincentian Fathers, The Redemptorists, the Sisters of St Louis, the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, The Pallottines, The Mill Hill Fathers and the Missionaries of Africa, also known as the White Fathers.

It said allegations were made against a number of priests ministering abroad by children both in Ireland and in missionary countries.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with copy of Archbishop Nienstedt’s testimony]

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Oct 23, 2014

Archbishop John Nienstedt gave a false statement under oath about his knowledge of a priest’s criminal conviction for sexually assaulting a child, letters obtained by MPR News show.

Nienstedt testified on April 2 that he first learned of the criminal conviction of the Rev. Gilbert Gustafson, an archdiocesan priest, “during the last six months.” He also claimed little knowledge of Gustafson. “I believe that he is retired,” Nienstedt testified. “He’s in our monitoring program, and he’s living on his own.”

That statement surprised Catholic parishioner LaLonne Murphy, who had written to Nienstedt more than six years ago to inform him of Gustafson’s criminal conviction and his ongoing work as a consultant for Twin Cities parishes.

Murphy, who retired last year as director of liturgy and music at St. Edward’s parish in Bloomington, provided MPR News copies of the letters she sent to Nienstedt, as well as the archbishop’s

Nienstedt’s false statement casts doubt on his credibility as he struggles to respond to a clergy sex abuse scandal that has led to calls for his resignation as the leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

This latest revelation marks the second time that Nienstedt’s testimony in that April deposition has been called into question. MPR News reported in August that Nienstedt gave false testimony about his knowledge of a different priest accused of abuse.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 10/23/2014

The Twin Cities archdiocese and the law offices of Jeff Anderson issued a joint statement Thursday disclosing the names of 17 priests with “substantiated” claims against them of sexual abuse of a minor.

The names bring to 55 the priests deemed to have substantiated claims of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Ten of the 17 priests have died, “but the pain they caused is very much alive,” Archbishop John Nienstedt said in a written statement. “I am profoundly saddened and sorry for the harm clergy sexual abuse has caused victims and survivors, their families and the community.”

The joint statement comes 10 days after archdiocese officials and Anderson’s office, which represents victims of clergy sex abuse, held a joint news conference at the Landmark Center. They announced settlement of a lawsuit that had disgorged more than 50,000 pages of priest personnel documents going back decades and a new child protection plan.

The disclosures Thursday were part of the Oct. 13 settlement, Anderson said.

Four of the names have never been released to the public before, he said. Those are Robert P. Clark, Donald Dummer, Harry Majerus and John Owens. Dummer and Owens are still alive.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

(AP) – The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has released the names of another 17 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

The release of the names is part of last week’s settlement between the archdiocese and a victim of alleged abuse.

Nine of the priests had claims against them inside the archdiocese; the other eight priests had claims against them elsewhere, but some may have traveled to the archdiocese, had temporary assignments in the archdiocese or lived there as a lay person.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Oct. 23

Statement by Barbara Dorris of SNAP (314 503 0003)

A Catholic priest who lives in Tewksbury has been “outed” today for the first time as a credibly accused child molester. We call on Massachusetts Catholic officials to warn parents, parishioners and the public about him.

In a joint announcement by a law firm and the St. Paul archdiocese, Fr. Donald Drummer is one of three priests whose names are being disclosed today for the first time as having “substantiated claims against (him) of sexually abusing a minor.” The revelations come as part of a settlement of a clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuit announced last week (John Doe 1 vs. Fr. Thomas Adamson and the St. Paul archdiocese).

We applaud Doe for insisting that more names of predator priests are disclosed as a result of his courageous litigation.

[St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese]

Let there be no mistake about this new information: it’s being released because victims have filed lawsuits and insist on real safety measures, not just pay offs. It’s not a sign of reform by Catholic officials. It’s a sign that when victims are brave enough to step forward and smart enough to file lawsuits, more truth can be exposed and more kids can be protected.

We hope that anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. Drummer – or any cleric – will find the courage to speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect others and start healing.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

The Names of 17 Priests Accused of Child Sexual Abuse Added to Archdiocese’s List of Abusers

Disclosures part of Doe 1 settlement and child protection action plan

Documents and priest files on all 17 priests soon to follow

(St. Paul, MN) – Today, the names of 17 additional priests who are the subject of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors were added to Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis’ disclosure lists posted on its website. In addition, three men whose names were previously identified as having unsubstantiated claims are now added to the substantiated claim disclosure list. This disclosure of names was agreed upon as part of the settlement of the Doe 1 civil lawsuit and is an early step in the child protection action plan announced last week.

At least four of the names* announced today have never been released to the public before. The list of names includes the following priests:
Edward Beutner Ambrose Filbin *Harry Majerus James Porter
*Robert Clark Jerry Foley William Marks Charles Potocki
Eugene Salvatore Corica Ralph Goniea Wendell Mohs Roger Vaughn
*Donald Dummer Reginald Krakovsky Jim Nickel James Vedro
Thomas Erickson Robert Loftus *John Owens Adalbert Woski

“This is a big step forward in an action plan begun and reached as part of an agreement with the Archdiocese,” said attorney Jeff Anderson. “The more that is known about these offenders and their histories, the safer our community becomes. This is just the beginning of a plan for full disclosure.”

Attached is a fact sheet compiled by Jeff Anderson & Associates based on files received in the Doe 1 case, the official Catholic Directories, and independent investigations. Documents and priest files on all 17 priests will be released in the upcoming weeks and will be available at www.andersonadvocates.com.

————————————————-

NEVER BEFORE KNOWN

Robert Clark (deceased)
Donald Dummer, OMI (alive- Tewksbury, MA)
Harry Majerus (deceased)
John Owens (alive- Forest Lake, MN)

NEWLY RELEASED BY THE ARCHDICOESE – ALIVE

Thomas Ericksen, Minneapolis, MN
Jerry Foley, Minneapolis, MN
Wendal Mohs, OSC, Sartel, MN
Roger Vaughn, OSC, New York, NY (previously released but “unsubstantiated”)
James Vedro, OSC, Murrieta, CA

NEWLY RELEASED BY THE ARCHDIOCESE – DECEASED

Edward Beutner
Eugene Salvatore Corica (previously released but “unsubstantiated”)
Ambrose Filbin
Ralph Goniea, OMI
Reginald Krakovsky, TOR
Robert Loftus (previously released but “unsubstantiated”)
William Marks
Jim Nickel
James Porter
Charles Potocki, OFM
James Vedro
Adalbert Wolski, TOR

This information was compiled by Jeff Anderson & Associates based on files received in the Doe 1 case, the official Catholic Directories, and independent investigations.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Thursday, October 23, 2014
Source: Rita Beatty, Communications Manager

From Archbishop John Nienstedt, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Today, we join law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates in jointly disclosing the names and assignment histories of 17 men who have substantiated claims against them of sexually abusing a minor while they were assigned as priests. As part of a legal settlement with Jeff Anderson and Associates announced last week, a process was established for the disclosure of additional names of priests who are the subject of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor.

Of these 17 men whose names are disclosed today, nine are the subjects of substantiated claims of abuse of a minor within this archdiocese.

The remaining eight individuals are or were priests of other dioceses or religious orders who have substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor outside of this archdiocese. The archdiocese is not aware of any substantiated claim of sexual abuse of a minor asserted against these individuals relating to any conduct that occurred in this archdiocese. Some of these eight individuals held temporary assignments in this archdiocese. In other cases, they may have traveled to the archdiocese, or resided here without ministry faculties or lived here as a lay person.

Most of the reported incidents of abuse related to these 17 men occurred between the mid-1950s and the mid-1980s. All of these men have been permanently removed from ministry in this archdiocese; most of them have been out of ministry here for a decade or more. Ten of these 17 men are deceased, but the pain they caused is very much alive. I am profoundly saddened and sorry for the harm clergy sexual abuse has caused victims and survivors, their families and the community.

In addition, the status has changed for three men whose names were previously disclosed. Both Eugene Corica and Robert Loftus are now moved to the list of men who are subjects of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor within this archdiocese, bringing the total number of names on that list to 55. Roger Vaughn is added to the new list of men who are the subjects of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor outside of this archdiocese. There are a total of nine names on that list. …

DISCLOSED NAMES

Edward Beutner
Robert P. Clark
Donald Dummer
Thomas Ericksen
Ambrose Filbin
Jerry Foley
Ralph Goniea
Reginald Krakovsky
Harry Majerus
William Marks
Wendell Mohs
James Nickel
John Owens
James Porter
Charles Potocki
James Vedro
Adalbert Wolski

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NORTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Oct. 23

Statement by Barbara Dorris of SNAP (314 503 0003)

A Catholic priest from Bismarck has been “outed” today for the first time as a credibly accused child molester. We call on North Dakota Catholic officials to warn parents, parishioners and the public about him and to beg anyone with information or suspicions about him to call law enforcement immediately.

[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis]

In a joint announcement by a law firm and the St. Paul archdiocese, Fr. John Owen is one of three priests whose names are being disclosed today for the first time as having “substantiated claims against (him) of sexually abusing a minor.” The revelations come as part of a settlement of a clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuit announced last week (John Doe 1 vs. Fr. Thomas Adamson and the St. Paul archdiocese).

More about Fr. Owen is here:

[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis]

We applaud Doe for insisting that more names of predator priests are disclosed as a result of his courageous litigation. And we denounce Bismarck Catholic officials who apparently have kept silent about the accusations against Fr. Owens for almost a decade. (Twin Cities church officials say they “removed his faculties” in 2005. We strongly suspect that even before then they alerted their North Dakota colleagues about these allegations against Fr. Owens.)

We urge Bismarck’s bishop to “come clean,” explain why he and his colleagues have hidden these allegations, and to fire or at least demote every single Catholic employee who endangered kids by keeping quiet about them.

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UNITED STATES
Second City Torah

October 23, 2014 by Rabbi Ben Greenberg

It has now been more than a week since the revelations occurred in the media of the alleged voyeuristic spying committed by one of the most influential and powerful Modern Orthodox rabbis in America, Rabbi Barry Freundel. If it was not horrible enough that women, most of them in the process of converting to Judaism, were violated in one of the most special and intimate ritual places in Judaism, it is now clear that the problems go back for years. Abuses of a sexual nature are often more about exerting power over someone as much as they are about sexual gratification. Secretly filming women nude at their most vulnerable in a time of their lives during a conversion process when they are particularly vulnerable is about unequivocally declaring, “I have absolute power over you: your soul, who you will marry and when you will marry them and, yes, even your very body.” The violations of rabbinic propriety that surfaced beginning in 2012 (and perhaps earlier) were also abuses of power.

These abuses of power are not unique to Rabbi Freundel or to the Orthodox rabbinate as Rabbi Ruth Abusch Magder pointed out in a blog post on MyJewishLearning.com. They do send a very powerful message though: The time has long come to open up the door for learned women working in clergy roles in the Orthodox community to join all of the Modern Orthodox rabbinic associations. The time has long come to make sure every mikvah has women serving on its board of directors.

Opening up the power structures to women is not because all men have failed, it is because men in conversation only with themselves fail. Men and women together can make better decisions, hold each other accountable and make sure that the needs, concerns and voices of both women and men are respected.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Catholic Primate of All Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin is to call this afternoon for the development of a new relationship between his church and the media characterised by mutual respect and trust.

In an address to the Radharc television awards ceremony in Dublin, he praised what he calls the “vitally important role” the Irish and global media have played in exposing child sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church.

According to his speaking notes, he also criticised some unidentified commentators, particularly on social media, for failing to objectively question stories, and for publishing instead “their consensus caricature of the Church”.

Archbishop Eamon Martin recalled 35 years of output on RTÉ by what he called the “radical” Catholic television documentary unit of the same name on a wide spectrum of contemporary issues from ethics at home to liberation theology abroad.

He called for the development of a new relationship between his church and the media characterised by mutual respect and trust and not based on fawning or deferential attitudes.

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IRELAND
The Journal

CATHOLIC ORDERS ARE getting better at reporting child abuse allegations.

That is according to the latest child welfare reports from the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church.

The reports cover five male and 18 female female religious congregations.

The reports show that between variable times in the 70s and 2009, there were 121 allegations of abuse against 54 members of the orders. Of these, two brothers from the Missionaries of Africa were convicted. The complaints came from children in Ireland and abroad.

However, despite the improvement, the board’s CEO Teresa Devlin says the responses to complaints are “inconsistent”.

“However, support for complainants continues to be inconsistent. Contact in many instances was not made directly by the congregation and the opportunity for pastoral support was missed. This however is an improving picture and the reviewers highlighted instances of compassionate meaningful responses to survivors.”

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

By Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie | Oct. 23, 2014

Wherever you look right now in the Jewish press, you find distressing stories about conversion to Judaism – and about the ugly politics of the conversion process.

Conversion should be moving and sublime, demanding but profoundly meaningful, and reflective of Judaism’s broadly inclusive values. Sadly, what we see in the media in the last few weeks is how human weakness and political opportunism have caused pain and suffering to candidates for conversion in America and turned conversion in Israel into a political football. Whatever else happens, this much is certain: Sacred values have been trampled.

The “voyeur case,” as it’s been called in the press, involves Rabbi Barry Freundel, a Washington, D.C. rabbi accused of videotaping women candidates for conversion while they were naked in the mikveh (ritual bath). The Jewish world has responded to these accusations with outrage and revulsion. But since Rabbi Freundel denies the charges and nothing as yet has been proven, full consideration of the matter will have to wait.

For now, it can simply be noted that in some ways the case is not about conversion at all; it is about rabbinic misconduct and exploitation of religious authority, of the sort that can happen in a variety of settings and by clergy of all movements and all faiths. At the same time, it does raise questions about the problems of conversion in the American Orthodox world, which in recent years has adapted its procedures, usually not for the better, to accommodate the demands of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. At a later point, these matters will need to be discussed.

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TOWSON (MD)
WTOP

By Nick Iannelli

TOWSON, Md. — Students of a disgraced rabbi are back in class, stunned and saddened to hear about allegations against their former teacher.

Barry Freundel was arrested last week and charged with voyeurism.

According to police, Freundel used a hidden camera to film women as they undressed, preparing for a ritual bath at Freundel’s synagogue in Georgetown.

“It’s just very surreal,” explains Jonathan Munshaw, one of Freundel’s students.

Freundel was a respected, longtime teacher at Towson University.

The school has now replaced him with a new teacher who asked students to share their feelings when they went back to the classroom for the first time Tuesday.

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ROME
Reuters

By James Martin October 23, 2014

If you told me a few years ago that a synod of bishops would make the front page of almost every newspaper, be featured prominently on almost every news website, and be the topic of heated conversation among Catholics worldwide, I would have said that you were — to use a theological term — crazy.

The interest generated by the Synod of Bishops on the Family, the two-week meeting of bishops, priests and lay people that concluded last weekend at the Vatican, surprised even veteran Vaticanologists. In recent years, synods did not garner much enthusiasm, to put it mildly. One reason for the renewed interest this year was Pope Francis’s urging participants to be as open as possible. And they were. Not only to one another, but also in the daily media briefings, which brought their candor before the general public.

The document that received the most attention was the relatio, or report, issued midway through the two-week session. (The Synod of Bishops on the Family, incidentally, is a two-year event. This session was the first. In other words, that first relatio was midway through midway.) The first relatio was characterized by a warm pastoral outreach to divorce and remarried Catholics, cohabitating couples, as well as to gays and lesbians, the last of which were included under the subject line “Welcoming Homosexual Persons.”

The synod’s final relatio, however, proved a less controversial publication, reflecting the variety of viewpoints that exist among the Catholic bishops. Nevertheless, there was still a great deal of confusion over the final document, particularly regarding what it did or did not do. So let’s address those two questions.

WHAT DID THE SYNOD DO?

1. Fostered openness

The synod seems to have ushered in an era of openness in the Vatican. In the past, the results of synods were sometimes seen to be foregone conclusions. Why? Some bishops, for a variety of reasons, may not have felt as comfortable discussing controversial topics, or may have concluded that a pope might not want certain topics raised. That was not the case this month. Bishops were vocal, disagreeing with one another politely but vigorously, a consequence of the pope’s encouragement to be open. “Speak clearly,” he said at the synod’s opening. “Don’t tell anyone, ‘You can’t say that.’”

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OHIO
WLWT

CINCINNATI —Four freshman football players are gone from their team after questionable locker room behavior and a police investigation.

Archdiocese of Cincinnati spokesman Dan Andriacco told WLWT News 5 Wednesday night that Cincinnati police were investigating after receiving reports of alleged inappropriate behavior at McNicholas High School.

Andriacco would not say specifically what happened in the locker room, but that the four teens were suspended from school for five days and kicked off the freshmen football team.

He also said that the school had notified Cincinnati police, who have started their own investigation into the incident.

So far, no charges have been filed.

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OHIO
Local 12

[with video]

Updated: Thursday, October 23 2014

CINCINNATI (WKRC) — The Archdiocese of Cincinnati says they are investigating an incident involving four teens at McNicholas High School for “inappropriate behavior.”

The four freshman football players were suspended from the school for five days and are no longer with the team.

The teens are scheduled to return to school Thursday.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Examiner

Oct 23, 2014 11:18 By Martin Shaw

A group of men who claimed they were sexually abused as boys in a Catholic college in Mirfield in the 1960s and 1970s have settled out of court.

The 11 men were training to be priests at the Mirfield Junior Seminary run by the Verona Fathers, an Italian missionary order.

The boys claim they were subjected to a catalogue of abuse by several priests running the boarding school.

Now it has been revealed, all 11 men have accepted payments totalling £120,000. The settlements paid by the order, now known as the Comboni Missionaries, have been made without any admission of liability.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By Sam Rigney Oct. 23, 2014

HUNTER activist and abuse victim Peter Gogarty said he hopes his new book will provide understanding and hope for victims of child sexual abuse.

Mr Gogarty – a victim of Hunter paedophile priest Jim Fletcher – launched his book ‘‘Judas Church – Memoir of a Shy Young Fellow’’ at Maitland Gaol on Thursday night.

‘‘I was nine years old when I met newly ordained Catholic Priest Father James Patrick Fletcher,’’ Gogarty says.

‘‘Before I turned 18 I told him I would kill him if he ever touched me again.

‘‘Twenty-five years later, driving home from work, I heard that he had been arrested on multiple child abuse charges.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Damian Thompson

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales are to hold an inquiry into the case of the Rt Rev Kieran Conry, he of the two (or is it three?) girlfriends, who resigned as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton when he had a crisis of conscience caused by the tabloids knocking on his door.

Displaying their celebrated transparency, the bishops have decided to keep the name of the ‘chair’ of the inquiry secret. The committee will focus on whether Conry breached guidelines on ‘vulnerable adults’. I very much doubt whether it will ask why Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor persuaded Rome to make his protégé a bishop when his relationship with a woman was already common knowledge. Conry was ‘one of us’, you see: a member of the Magic Circle of ambitious liberals (life president, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor; honorary press officer, Doctor A. Ivereigh) who had various nuncios wrapped round their little fingers.

Meanwhile, what about Catholics who are not ‘one of us’? You can’t get further from the Magic Circle than the parishioners of Our Lady of the Rosary, in Blackfen, Kent. The previous parish priest, Fr Tim Finigan, is a traditionalist who celebrated the Tridentine Latin Mass on Sundays – but also the New Mass, in strict conformity with rules laid down by Pope Benedict XVI. No sooner had he left earlier this year than the new PP, Fr Steven Fisher, cancelled the traditional services. Fr Fisher has the backing of his boss, Archbishop Peter Smith, but it’s a decision that has caused terrible distress to traditional Catholics for whom the old Mass at Blackfen was the centre of their spiritual lives. Now, you could argue that an incoming pastor is entitled to change – gently – the way things are done in his parish; but in this case the new man, having apparently concluded that the traddies were ‘divisive’, has effected change in a brutal fashion that has left his flock truly divided. More of a Cromwell than a Fisher, you might say.

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TOWSON (MD)
WJLA

[with video]

By Brad Bell October 23, 2014

TOWSON, Md. (WJLA) – A search is under way to find out if a prominent D.C. rabbi, accused of spying on women as they undressed, may have also recorded video of students he taught at Towson University.

Rabbi Bernard “Barry” Freundel is already charged with voyeurism, after police say he hid a camera inside a ritual bath at Kesher Israel Synagogue.

At Towson, Freundel’s students wonder how many more victims there may be.

“I don’t think we should have to worry about that when we’re interacting with our teachers,” said Grace Peterson.

“I think it’s really inappropriate and … kinda disgusting,” Alex Halperin added.

Freundel was arrested last week in D.C. on charges he secretly spied on several women at the Georgetown synagogue he led as rabbi. It is alleged he used a camera hidden in a clock radio to record video of women in a sacred mikvah cleansing bath.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Hody Nemes

As a teenager, Joey Diangello, a self-described survivor of child sex abuse, left the insular Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, where he’d grown up and plunged into the world of heavy metal music.

There, Diangello, who wore mascara and heavy metal T-shirts and sported long, black hair, found some measure of comfort in the music of such bands as Metallica.

But in death, Diangello, a co-founder of the group Survivors for Justice, which seeks to expose child sexual abuse in the Orthodox community — where it is often repressed — returned to the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Monsey, New York. On Ocotber 19, he was buried in a cemetery there under the birth name he abandoned long ago: Yoel Deutsch.

Diangello, who was 34, died of a drug overdose, according to PIX11, a local New York television news outlet. But friends remained uncertain of whether the death was a suicide.

“As of late he had been clean. He was running a marathon, he was really getting his life together, which is why it’s especially frustrating,” said Mark Weiss, a fellow member of Survivors for Justice.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

Oct 23, 2014 06:00 By Neal Keeling

A paedophile former police officer has been found hanged just days after appearing in court to face fresh allegations of child abuse.

Prolific abuser Don Mackintosh, a ex-sergeant in Greater Manchester Police, and church Boys’ Brigade leader was convicted in 1994 of a string of sex offences against young boys and sentenced to nine years in jail.

Mackintosh, 71, was found hanged at his home on Calico Crescent, Stalybridge, by officers who broke in when neighbours reported he had not been seen for several days.

Last week he appeared at Manchester Crown Court for a preliminary hearing accused of indecent assault against two boys dating back to the mid 1970s and 80s. …

Mackintosh, who also worked as an education welfare officer for Manchester council in the 70s, was also a lieutenant in the 59th Battalion of the Boys’ Brigade, based at Platt Lane Methodist Church, Fallowfield, where he abused his trust to pursue youngsters.

He got away with his crimes for 25 years until one victim had the courage to come forward. This triggered a police investigation and other victims were traced.

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