ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Just Once Will Hurt

About the Initiative
07 Monday Jul 2014

This blog is dedicated to the cause of eliminating the practice of Mormon bishops asking sexually invasive questions during interviews. Currently, it is common practice for Mormon bishops to ask questions of a sexual nature to Mormon individuals from the age of 12. There is an emphasis on questions regarding the issue of masturbation, or self-abuse as the church has labelled it. The practice of conducting these interviews alone with an individual behind a closed door is prevalent in the Mormon church and needs to be stopped immediately for the protection of individuals, as well as Mormon bishops.

The intended purpose of this blog is not to shame the Mormon church. It is to bring attention to the severity of the issue and the need to address it immediately. Countless people have already been emotionally and mentally hurt by this practice and this blog is here to give a voice to those who need it.

It is not enough to allow members to opt-out or have a parent or guardian present during these interviews. Mormon bishops should never be allowed to ask sexually invasive question to a member of any age. Help us stop this practice by sharing your story and/or support for the initiative here. This blog is a work-in-progress. We are now in the beginning stages of something that could help change the interview process drastically and reduce the risk of sexual-abuse in the Mormon church.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Sasha Aslanian St. Paul, Minn. Mar 12, 2014

A Twin Cities priest whose sexual urges led him to steal church funds and serve time in the Hennepin County workhouse is calling on his archdiocese to face the clergy sexual abuse crisis more openly.

Betrayed By Silence: An MPR News investigation
Explore the full investigation Clergy abuse, cover-up and crisis in the Twin Cities Catholic church

“I have often felt that the Archdiocese is more interested in its public image and avoiding lawsuits than the welfare of its people and priests,” writes the Rev. Stan Maslowski, 77, in his new book, “How to Heal When the Church Hurts.”
“The Catholic Church, in many places, has paid dearly for its cover-up of clergy misconduct.”

Maslowski, now retired, self-published the 68-page volume this month, detailing his experiences and reflections on the clergy sex-abuse crisis. The priest describes how he embezzled from the church to pay for visits to strip clubs, massage parlors and adult bookstores. “I always rationalized I deserved the extra money for extra work I was doing,” he wrote.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sam Griffin
Published 15/07/2014

The UN Human Rights Council has criticised Ireland for not taking accountability for the “collection” of state abuses including Magdalene Laundries, the mother and baby home revelations and symphysiotomy procedures.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald was today heading an Irish delegation for the second and final day before the UN.

The delegation faced further scrutiny under a variety of issues as part of Ireland’s fourth examination of its compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

In his closing remarks, the council chair Nigel Rodley said there were remained “many social issues” that need to be addressed by the State which he described as “quite a collection”.

“It’s (the issue of abuses) carried on beyond any period that is hard to imagine how the state party can tolerate,” he said.

“I guess I comprehend myself from observing that all (the issues) are not disconnected from the institutional belief system that has predominated in the state party and which occasionally has sought to dominate the state party.

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

MINNESOTA
Houston Chronicle

July 15, 2014 | Updated: July 15, 2014

A canon lawyer alleging a widespread cover-up of clergy sex misconduct in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has made her most detailed claims yet, accusing archbishops and their top staff of lying to the public and of ignoring the U.S. bishops’ pledge to have no tolerance of priests who abuse.

Jennifer Haselberger, who spent five years as Archbishop John Nienstedt’s archivist and top adviser on Roman Catholic church law, also charged that the church used a chaotic system of record-keeping that helped conceal the backgrounds of guilty priests who remained on assignment.

Haselberger said that when she started examining records in 2008 of clergy under restrictions over sex misconduct with adults and children she found “nearly 20” of the 48 men still in ministry. She said she repeatedly warned Nienstedt and his aides about the risk of these placements, but they took action only in one case. As a result of raising alarms, she said she was eventually shut out of meetings about priest misconduct. She resigned last year.

“Had there been any serious desire to implement change, it could have been done quickly and easily with the stroke of a single pen,” Haselberger wrote in the affidavit, released Tuesday in a civil lawsuit brought by attorney Jeff Anderson. “The archbishop’s administrative authority in his diocese is basically unlimited.”

The archdiocese has for years pledged it was following the national bishops’ policy, known as the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” which lays out a series of requirements — from conducting background checks to alerting parishioners about offender priests and barring guilty clergy from parish assignments. Archbishop Harry Flynn, who led the Minneapolis archdiocese until retiring in 2008, was an architect of the 12-year-old plan.

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

MINNESOTA
The Republic

By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer
July 15, 2014 – 11:58 am EDT

A church lawyer is making her most detailed allegations yet about a cover-up of clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Jennifer Haselberger says in an affidavit released today that archbishops and staff ignored the 2002 pledge by Roman Catholic bishops to keep abusive clergy out of parishes.

Haselberger spent five years as the top adviser on canon law to Archbishop John Nienstedt.

She says when she started in 2008, she discovered about 20 clergy in ministry who were guilty of sex misconduct with adults and children. At the time, she said most priests hadn’t had background checks since the early 1990s, and church monitors mostly relied on self-reporting by offenders.

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

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 07/15/2014

The whistleblower whose revelations on priest sexual abuse cases and their mishandling by the Twin Cities archdiocese has written a scorching 107-page affidavit describing top officials’ cover-ups, blaming of victims, willful ignorance, lies and a “cavalier attitude toward the safety of other people’s children.”

Canon lawyer Jennifer M. Haselberger, who served as the chancellor for canonical affairs at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2008 to 2013, submitted the document in the civil case of Doe 1. The plaintiff filed suit against the archdiocese, the Diocese of Winona and former priest Thomas Adamson last year, alleging Adamson abused him in the 1970s. Plaintiff’s attorney Jeffrey Anderson filed Haselberger’s affidavit Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court.

Anderson’s experience with church-related sexual abuse cases goes back 30 years, he said, and he found the affidavit to be the “the most stinging and broad-ranging indictment I’ve ever seen of these practices.”

Haselberger provides shocking detail on the action, or lack of action, of past and present officials in the archdiocese, including former Archbishop Harry Flynn, Archbishop John Nienstedt, Bishop Lee Piche, former Vicar General Kevin McDonough, former Vicar General Peter Laird and former chancellor for civil affairs and archdiocese attorney Andrew Eisenzimmer.

Haselberger said she endured “months of harassment, threats, and intimidation” before resigning April 30, 2013. The state Department of Employment and Economic Development concluded she “resigned for good reason caused by my employer, because I felt that I could no longer work for an organization that was not cooperating fully with investigations into illegal activities within the organization,” she wrote.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: July 15, 2014

Jennifer Haselberger, who resigned as canon lawyer at the Twin Cities Archdiocese, describes flawed clergy abuse policies in written testimony.

Jennifer Haselberger, the whistleblower who exposed troubling clergy child abuse practices in the Twin Cities archdiocese, offers further details of the church’s protection of abusing priests in an affidavit filed in Ramsey County District Court Tuesday morning.

Hasselberger described the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as a place where child abusers were given repeated opportunities to remain in the priesthood, where “monitoring” was lax or nonexistent, and where investigations into abuse complaints often missed key interviews and resulted in findings that favored priests.

Financial deals were frequently cut with priests who agreed to step down from ministry, she said. Some, however, tried to come back — even after serving jail time.

The archdiocese, she wrote, had a “cavalier attitude toward the safety of other people’s children.”

The written testimony of Hasselberger, an archdiocese canon lawyer before resigning last year, comes in response to an explosive lawsuit filed on behalf of a man who claims former priest Tom Adamson abused him in the 1970s.

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

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson and Associates

[affadavit]

Attorneys for a sexual abuse survivor, Doe 1, filed and made public a sworn statement signed by former Chancellor of Canonical Affairs for the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis, Jennifer Haselberger. The affidavit was filed in response to the Archdiocese’s attempt to throw Doe 1’s civil lawsuit out of court.

————————————————

News Release
July 15, 2014

Sworn Statement of Former Archdiocese Chancellor Jennifer Haselberger Released Today

(St. Paul, MN) – Today, attorneys for a sexual abuse survivor, Doe 1, filed and made public a sworn statement signed by former Chancellor of Canonical Affairs for the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis, Jennifer Haselberger. The affidavit was filed in response to the Archdiocese’s attempt to throw Doe 1’s civil lawsuit out of court.

The sworn statement can be found on our website here:

[Anderson Advocates]

[Anderson Advocates under News & Events]

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.205.5531

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

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

St. Paul prosecutor and state representative John Lesch says, according to Minnesota Public Radio, that “a call from survivors for a grand-jury investigation (into the St. Paul Catholic archdiocese) has some merit.”

“Of course it’s rare, but if there is a situation that is tailor-made for a grand jury, I think this is it,” he said.

We applaud his thinking and his courage. We continue to be dreadfully disappointed in Ramsey County Attorney John Choi who seems to spend more time explaining his inaction than he does taking action against the clearly complicit and corrupt Catholic officials who head the Twin Cities archdiocese.

Our 25 years of working with victims, witnesses, whistleblowers, police, prosecutors and lawmakers has taught us one crucial lesson: almost always, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Sure, many laws are inadequate and archaic. Sure, Catholic officials shrewdly cover their tracks in clergy sex cases. Sure, many victims don’t come forward promptly.

But time and time again, despite these obstacles, we’ve see law enforcement officials be aggressive and creative and successful in pursuing criminal charges against members of the Catholic hierarchy. The biggest hurtle seems to be finding not the one case or the one legal tool or the one investigative maneuver or the one whistleblower. It seems to be finding the political will.

We aren’t lawyers, police or prosecutors. We assume Choi is doing some worthy action to quietly to bring some of these high-ranking, self-serving and morally bankrupt Catholic officials to justice. But we also firmly believe he can and should do more (as Lesch suggests).

We urge Choi to get on the right side of history and insist that police officers and his own staff do more to investigate those who commit AND those who conceal heinous sexual violence against children in the church.

At the very least, Choi should again make an impassioned plea for victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to come forward. The more time goes by and the more horrors that get exposed, the more hopeless people with knowledge or suspicions about clergy sex crimes become. They should be prodded, again, to call police and prosecutors immediately. Those kinds of public pleas can make a real difference.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Civil case against him settled last week
Victims blast archbishop for “crossing a line”
Carlson publicly attacked an alleged rape victim
His goal, groups say, is “to intimidate others to stay quiet”
SNAP to Carlson: “Defend yourself without being cruel to accusers”
Group also wants church officials to disclose names of 63 “credibly accused clerics”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose that a notorious local predator priest is now back in the St. Louis area (and provide his address and phone number).

They will also urge St. Louis’ archbishop to:

–warn his flock about the predator’s whereabouts,
–disclose names of 63 credibly accused child molesting clerics who he is keeping secret, and
–apologize for and pledge to never repeat his attacks last week on an alleged clergy sex abuse victim.

WHEN
TODAY, Tuesday, July 15, 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
Outside of the “new” Cathedral on Lindell near Taylor in the Central West End

WHO
A man who has never spoken publicly but whose friend was abused by a notorious predator priest who was the subject of a recent, high profile settlement, along with two concerned Catholics and three-four clergy sex abuse victims who belong to a confidential support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

WHYSNAP has learned that a high profile serial predator priest – who was convicted of abuse and involved in last week’s historic settlement of a civil clergy sex abuse and cover up case – is now living in St. Charles. (Recent news accounts said he lives in Arkansas.) SNAP wants Archbishop Robert Carlson to warn his neighbors about him.

During that litigation, Carlson was forced to admit that 115 archdiocesan employees, mostly clerics, have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse. (A research group, Bishop Accountability, had already posted names of 52 of them.)

SNAP wants Carlson, for the safety of kids, to identify the 63 accused archdiocesan clerics who have been accused of abuse but whose identities he is keeping secret. SNAP also wants him to apologize and pledge to stop disclosing private information about alleged victims.

A week ago, in an unprecedented move, Carlson publicly attacked a 22-year-old woman who was reportedly molested – dozens of times, sometimes brutally – by a convicted predator priest who faces several other allegations. Through a spokesperson, Carlson claimed that:

–the woman “has a medical condition” that causes her to “falsify claims (&) exaggerate symptoms,”
–her family members disputed her abuse reports and
–her allegations “contained multiple inconsistencies.”

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

UNITED STATES
Addicting Info

The Christian Conservative movement is well known for evacuating its children to special “camps” should they show the slightest inclination of defying the family traditions, over things like their sexuality. A whiff of rebellion and they are disappeared for anything from a semester to a year. Newsweek has this week covered the story behind Escuela Caribe, a Christian reform school in the Dominican Republic that’s the subject of a forthcoming documentary called Kidnapped for Christ -which reveals an epidemic of child abuse at these camps.

Like so many of these ‘schools’, Escuela Caribe is viewed as a sort of last resort by many parents whose children are failing to embody the fundamentalist Christianity they espouse — a faith where homosexuality, depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders are frequently written off as “rebellion” or “demonic possession.”

The stressful environment coupled with no true accountability or regulation often creates an environment of systemic abuse, as the Newsweek report indicates:

By her second day at the school, [Deirdre] Sugiuchi’s image of a nurturing Christian boarding school was shattered when her “house father” made her perform exercises for hours.

“According to him, I had ‘an authority problem’ at home. He made me do bear crawls, pushups and duck walks. He had me hold my arms out balancing books until I cried from pain,” she wrote on a website dedicated to collecting the stories of survivors of the school. “We had 24-year-old male house fathers in a house full of teenage girls. I had a house father that used to watch me change clothes. I was constantly either being abused or seeing people be abused,” she tells Newsweek.

Swatting, or being struck on the rear with a wooden paddle, was among the disciplinary practices at the school, along with a “quiet room” where students deemed particularly insubordinate would be isolated for days with only a thin mattress. A system of points based on obedience kept students on different levels, and low-ranking students would be forced to ask permission to perform any task, and supervised at all times by higher-ranking students, including in the shower, Sugiuchi says.

“When I was there, at 17, I was a high ranker, and it was my job to make sure [low rankers] were properly washing their private parts in the shower. I had to make sure they soaped. That was how I spent my senior year,” she says. Phone calls to parents were recorded, and written letters were monitored. “They would do anything to keep you there.”

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

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

videos

On May 6, 2014 Attorney Andrew Eisenzimmer gave sworn testimony under oath as part of a civil lawsuit involving a man, Doe 1, sexually abused as a child by former priest Thomas Adamson at St. Thomas Aquinas parish in St. Paul Park, Minnesota. Eisenzimmer has represented the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis in legal matters, including child sexual abuse cases, for over 30 years.

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

MINNESOTA
KARE

Laura Yuen, Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio News 8:58 a.m. EDT July 15, 2014

Some prominent Catholics are demanding the resignation of Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt, saying the credibility of the entire archdiocese is at stake. The call for change among lay Catholics is rising after an

MPR News documentary

showed how three Twin Cities archbishops kept quiet about priests who sexually abused children.

After details of abuse and cover-ups began emerging last fall, Nienstedt publicly admitted mistakes had been made. One of his top deputies resigned and the archbishop named a task force that this spring cited poor oversight and flawed policies in the handling of abuse allegations. But it hasn’t been enough to restore the confidence of Catholics like Jim Frey, who says the only way the archdiocese can begin to heal is if Nienstedt steps down.

“I would say if there’s anything the laity can do, it’s to speak with one voice to say as loudly as we can, ‘The time has come to resign,'” he says.

Frey is a major donor to Catholic organizations. He says lay Catholics felt a bit of hope last week when Pope Francis promised to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect kids from sexual abuse. But here in the Twin Cities, Frey says the church scandal has dragged out for nearly a year with few consequences for top church officials.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

BY ADRIAN RUTHERFORD – 15 JULY 2014

The brother of a retired judge who quit her post as chair of an inquiry into historic sex abuse tried to limit an official investigation into Kincora Boys’ Home, it has been revealed.

Baroness Butler-Sloss stood down yesterday – before she had even started the task of examining if alleged abuse by politicians and other figures in the 1970s and 80s was covered up.

Pressure was mounting on her since her appointment last Tuesday, with critics warning of potential conflicts of interest because the investigation was likely to look into the role of her late brother, Sir Michael Havers.

Sir Michael, a former Attorney General, is alleged to have tried to prevent the naming of an abuser in Parliament in the 1980s. It has now emerged that Sir Michael also limited an investigation into Kincora, the east Belfast boys’ home where dozens of children were abused.

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[Journalism icon John Seigenthaler is laid to rest – Jackson Sun]

[John Seigenthaler: You couldn’t choose a better journalism hero – Poynter]

For immediate release: Monday, July 14, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com ) Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

We in SNAP join hundreds of thousands of Americans in mourning the passing of a real hero, John Seigenthaler of Nashville. He quietly helped our group for years.

His most noteworthy achievements were in journalism and government, especially his courage during the civil rights movement. But behind-the-scenes, he was in touch with our organization’s leadership, both locally and nationally.

He was justifiably outraged by how Catholic officials acted – and still act – irresponsibly in child sex cases. And he listened patiently when we described our plight to him while also offering us helpful advice and information.

He will be sorely missed.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Catherine Pepinster
theguardian.com, Tuesday 15 July 2014

As an Argentinian, Pope Francis probably doesn’t know about English diminutives. But he really ought to be called Pope Frank. This is not a man who minces words, as his recent comments about the sex abuse of children by priests makes clear. In a recent meeting with victims of such abuse he talked of the sacrilegious crimes committed by the sons and daughters of the church, and in an interview with La Repubblica this weekend he reportedly talked of abuse as a leprosy and as “the most terrible and unclean thing imaginable” (although it should be noted that the Vatican has since described the quotes as a “product of [the journalist’s] memory … not the precise transcription of a recording”).

We are now a world away from the 1980s, when evidence first emerged of clerical child abuse and the Catholic church’s response was to vilify both the journalists investigating and the victims testifying. The first cases were reported in 1984 in a courageous Louisiana paper, the Times of Acadiana, and led to a church-organised advertisers’ boycott for the editor daring to call for the bishop to resign. Revelations of abuse in the US, Ireland, the UK, Australia and elsewhere were frequently met with denials, both of incidences of abuse by priests and cover-ups by the church hierarchy. In places such as England and Wales, the bishops have since set up child protection and safeguarding committees. Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, took action against one of the most notorious abusers, the Legionaries of Christ founder Marcial Maciel, and frequently met with victims during his travels. One might say that the clean-up, the penitence and the PR are all in hand. But it’s much harder to deal with the cause.

During his La Repubblica interview Pope Francis said that 2% of priests are paedophiles. I have to admit that yes, about two in every 100 priests I have known or reported on have later been exposed as abusers of children, especially adolescent boys. Psychiatrists who specialise in this field estimate its prevalence at about 4% of the general population. One of the most simplistic claims about abusers in the Catholic church is that their acts are directly linked to celibacy, as if these any celibate male has repressed urges that burst out if there’s an altar boy handy. But that doesn’t account for Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris, or the social workers, teachers, Anglican vicars, and fathers and uncles who have all assaulted young people. As Esther Rantzen, founder of Childline, once said to me, people who want to abuse children find ways to access them. Becoming a Catholic priest was one way of gaining a position of trust and authority in the parish, in the school and in the confessional.

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

AUSTRALIA
News 24

Sydney – An Australian Catholic Church body dealing with the legacy of child sex abuse by clergy said on Tuesday it believed the number of paedophile priests was historically twice the pope’s reported estimate.

In an report published on Sunday, Pope Francis condemned child sex abuse as a “leprosy” in the church and cited his aides as saying that “the level of paedophilia in the church is at two percent”.

“That two percent includes priests and even bishops and cardinals,” the pope was quoted as telling Italy’s La Repubblica daily, in comments later questioned by a Vatican spokesperson.

Francis Sullivan, the chief executive of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, said he believed the figure was historically higher in Australia, where clergy were deeply involved in schools and orphanages.

The council, on behalf of the church, is compiling a database of abuse by clergy dating back to the 1940s and its preliminary work suggests the number of perpetrators of child sex abuse was about four percent in Australia, he said.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Kevin Cullen | GLOBE STAFF JULY 15, 2014

Bob Bullock was a great priest and better person. Some years ago, he faced an existential question: Who was he, and what did he stand for? More importantly, what did the Gospel he tried to live by stand for?

In Father Bob’s case, he had to decide whether he was going to publicly repudiate his bishop, Cardinal Bernard Law, or stand with the institutional Catholic Church. Father Bob was appalled at the levels to which Law sank to protect deviants in Roman collars who preyed on kids. He was appalled that good priests were being lumped in with the criminals because the bishops were shielding those who should have gone to jail, protecting the institution at the expense of the individual.

When Father Bob decided he could not be silent and called for Cardinal Law to resign, I drove down to Sharon and asked how he reached his decision. Father Bob said he simply asked himself: What would Jesus do? Would Jesus approve of hush money and transferring predators to other parishes so they could rape more children? Or would Jesus side with the most vulnerable members of his flock? Would Jesus side with expediency or justice? When he framed it like that, Father Bob said, the answer was obvious.

I only wish Father Bob was still alive because I’d like to know what he thought of all the holy rollers, encouraged by a Supreme Court that’s a little slow on this separation of church and state stuff, who are swanning around, dressed in a cloak of bigotry they refer to as religious freedom.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill Crime Editor
July 15 2014

The retired Church of England bishop whom Baroness Bulter-Sloss didi not want to mention in a report on child abuse allegations has been summonsed to court on two new alleged offences, police said yesterday.

The second set of charges against the Right Rev Peter Ball, 82, were revealed as Lady Butler-Sloss stood down from the Westminster child abuse inquiry after concerns that included the way that she handled allegations about the cleric’s conduct.

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

UNITED STATES
Mary DeMuth

Away on vacation, I came home to a pile of mail, one of which had no return address, and my own name and address typed on a piece of paper that had been cut and pasted to the envelope. I opened it. My heart sunk.

The letter had to do with this sexual offender and one church’s handling of the situation. It was a letter “proving” that the church did everything right (although from my limited perspective…I don’t know a lot about this case…it seems like the fact that the abuser wasn’t reported is a problem.)

I glanced at the contents and threw the letter away. I simply did not want it in my house. I could not stomach justifications for inaction. And to be honest, the whole thing just creeped me out.

In my work with sexual abuse victims, I am used to undergoing attack in subtle and not so subtle ways, but this one made me nervous. Whoever sent this knew my home address. What is strange is that I haven’t written about this case, or publicly commented on it here. I have been angry at institutions that have chosen to prefer the perpetrator over the predator and have written about that here. I also applaud Boz Tchividjian’s brave work in this area.

So yesterday, I received another letter. I kept it as evidence. (Anyone know if I have any recourse?)

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

VATICAN CITY
The Salt Lake Tribune

By JOSEPHINE MCKENNA | Religion News Service
First Published Jul 14 2014

Vatican City • Pope Francis has provoked a debate within the Catholic Church after being quoted as saying that one in 50 Catholic clerics is a pedophile.

In the latest example of his get-tough stance against sex abuse — and his signature style of frank answers to tough questions — the pope told the Italian daily La Repubblica that the sexual abuse of children was like “leprosy” in the church, and he pledged to “confront it with the severity it requires.”

But the exclusive interview with 90-year-old veteran journalist Eugenio Scalfari published Sunday drew an immediate reaction from the Vatican that disputed the accuracy of the pontiff’s quotes.

“Even we have this leprosy at home. Many of my advisers who are fighting it with me are giving me reliable data that estimates pedophilia inside the church at a level of 2 percent,” the pope was quoted as saying. “This figure should reassure me, but I have to tell you that it does not reassure me at all. Instead I consider it very serious. Among the 2 percent who are pedophiles are priests, and even bishops and cardinals.”

The number would represent 8,000 priests, based on the latest Vatican figures that count a total of 414,000 priests globally.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 15, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

Sexual assault cases should be heard in specialist courts, the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions told the royal commission into child sexual abuse on Tuesday.

Lloyd Babb, SC, said sexual assault cases comprise almost a quarter of the office’s work but deserve sensitive handling due to their nature.

He told the royal commission it was his opinion that such cases be dealt with by specialist prosecutors in dedicated courts.

“It is a way of facilitating, ensuring that questions are age-appropriate”: Director of Public Prosecutions Lloyd Babb.

“These things in my view should be considered very closely – specialist sexual assault courts and, in particular, child sexual assault courts,’’ the Director of Public Prosecutions told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Frontpage Mag

July 15, 2014 by Stephen Brown

As Christian religious belief declines in Europe, the continent’s pagan heart comes more and more to the fore, and England, is only the latest European country to witness this growing phenomenon.

A major pedophilia scandal is currently rocking British society, in which as many as 20 prominent politicians, judges and other members of the British establishment are suspected of having abused children in the 1980s and 1990s as part of a pedophile ring. The victims were among society’s most vulnerable, being mostly boys from state children’s homes. And such abuse, it is suspected, may have been going on for decades.

“We are looking at the Lords, the Commons, the judiciary- all institutions where there will be a small percentage of pedophiles, and a slightly larger percentage of people who have known about it,” former child protection manager Peter McKelvie told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), calling the predators “an extremely powerful elite” who have been abusing children “for as long as I have been alive.”

This latest episode involving sexual exploitation of children comes on the heels of other, jarring, pedophilia scandals to stun Britain this year. One involved the BBC itself.

BBC star entertainer Jimmy Savile, now deceased, was one of several BBC employees suspected of having molested literally hundreds of children and teenagers, some on BBC premises. Perhaps most shockingly, 28 British hospitals reported Savile may have molested patients on their wards, to which he was allowed access, sometimes even possessing hospital keys.

Another scandal saw artist and “iconic” children’s entertainer Rolf Harris, who once painted Queen Elizabeth’s portrait, found guilty this month of 12 counts of indecent assault on children and teenagers. Harris was described as a “part of millions of British childhoods” and was viewed as “a national treasure.”

One can correctly say pedophilia was not invented in Western countries in our times. But what differentiates the current climate concerning this once very taboo practice from earlier decades is the equally reprehensible movement underway in the West involving some academics, among others, to minimize its devastating effects on children, garner sympathy for the perpetrators and make the practice acceptable to the public. All of which is allowing pedophilia to creep into the cultural debate.

Journalist Andrew Gilligan recently pointed out in England’s Daily Telegraph an example of this gradual, ongoing promotion of pedophilia in mainstream society. Gilligan writes that only last year in July at a conference at the University of Cambridge, one of Britain’s most famous institutions of higher learning, pro-pedophilia positions were put forward. The conference was about classifying sexuality in “a standard international psychiatric manual used by the police and courts” that is produced by the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Raw Story

By David Edwards
Monday, July 14, 2014

A Pennsylvania pastor has been accused of sexually abusing a minor for the second time.

According to KDKA, Higher Call World Outreach Church Pastor Duane Youngblood was charged on Saturday with corrupting a minor.

The 21-year-old victim told police that Youngblood began molesting him at the age of 16 during counseling sessions at the church in Homestead.

A criminal complaint said that Youngblood took the boy in a back room of the church, instructed him to pull down his pants, and touched him inappropriately during their first session. The victim estimated that Youngblood abused him in 25 out of 30 to 40 counseling session until the “sexual activity” ended in 2011.

Youngblood allegedly told the boy, “We are not going to speak about this.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 07/14/2014

The 14-year-old girl had not intended for anyone to know her secret. But when an older teenage cousin was looking for some notebook paper, the cousin came across a folded-up letter that the young girl had written.

A male relative “would ask for sex and stuff,” she wrote. She felt worthless.

“At times, I wish I was dead or never born.”

The girl’s allegations involved Jacoby Kindred Sr., 61, a Maplewood pastor who faces two charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Prosecutors say he sexually assaulted the girl and her older sister for years, forcing anal sex on one and oral sex on both of them. Testimony in his trial began Monday in Ramsey County District Court.

Kindred told police he was a pastor with One Accord Ministries, which he said does not have a building, according to the criminal complaint against him. He referred to himself on his now-defunct Facebook page as “Jacoby Preacherman.”

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NEW MEXICO
KOAT

GALLUP, NM —A hotline set up for people abused by clergy members in the Gallup Diocese stopped working for almost two weeks.

The line is used by victims of clergy sexual abuse to provide their information for an ongoing civil suit against the diocese. They have until Aug. 1 to do so.

But for two weeks, people calling the number just got a dial tone and then were disconnected.

Barbara Dorris with the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP said that experience could turn potential victims away.

“For nothing to happen, for the lines to be essentially broken is very painful,” said Dorris.

No one noticed the problem until a reporter called the line and got that dial tone. Attorney Jim Stang represents the creditors in the bankruptcy case against the diocese and oversees the line. He said the problem occurred when a new phone system was installed.

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LOUISIANA
National Review

By The Editors

When in 2008 Father Jeff Bayhi, a priest then at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Clinton, La., heard the troubling confession of a twelve-year-old parishioner, he likely did not imagine that his sacramental duty would land him in prison. But given a recent ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court, Father Bayhi is in the position of choosing between prison and excommunication.

Per the Supreme Court’s ruling, Bayhi must appear before the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, which will determine whether what he heard – a civil action by the girl’s parents contends that it involved allegations of sexual abuse by a 64-year-old parishioner — constituted a “confession” or instead some other non-confidential statement that invoked Bayhi’s duty to report abuse under Louisiana’s Children’s Code. Under the law, members of the clergy are “mandatory reporters” except when they have a duty to keep private “confidential communications” shared “in the course of the discipline or practice of that church” by “the discipline or tenets of the church” (CHC 603.17.c).

If what Bayhi heard was in fact a confession, that provision would seem to exempt him, except that under Louisiana law, priest–penitent privilege attaches to the client, not the priest. If the client chooses to make the contents of a confession public, the priest can be called to confirm or deny the testimony. However, Church teaching makes no provisions for the statutes of Louisiana: “The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason” (Code of Canon Law 983.1). Priests who make known directly or indirectly to a third party the contents of a confession are automatically excommunicated, subject to reversal by the pope alone. The inviolability of sacramental confession has been formally communicated since the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215, though its origins predate that.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

[with video]

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) –- A police report released Monday to 24 Hour News 8 suggests former Christian radio host John Balyo admitted to another crime after his arrest.

Balyo, 35, is currently facing one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for his alleged involvement with an 11-year-old boy.

In the police report, which includes a narrative of the interview police conducted with Balyo shortly after his arrest at a Christian music festival in Gaylord. Mich., Balyo told investigators he also took pictures of the boy in suggestive poses.

Battle Creek police also interviewed the victim, and according to the report, the victim told them that Ron Moser — who allegedly brought the boy to Balyo — had taken pictures of him before they met up with Balyo on May 17 at a Marriot hotel on Beckley Road in Battle Creek.

On that night, the victim said he believed Balyo was a professional photographer.

The victim also said Moser had purchased women’s underwear for him to wear, and he put it on for Balyo and Moser while the two photographed him. The victim told police the pair then forced him to perform oral sex on them.

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MONTANA
NBC Montana

By Jacqueline Gedeon, KTVM Butte Reporter, jgedeon@ktvm.com

BUTTE, Mont. –
We’re digging into a story that has some claiming an information line set up to help Catholic sex abuse victims is actually victimizing them all over again.

Here’s some background.

The Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for bankruptcy protection in January.

The move comes after a proposed $15 million settlement from claims clergy members abused more than 300 children over five decades.

Victims have until August 11th to join the suit.

When we started digging deeper, we uncovered a possible problem that’s making it tough on victims.

Look at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena’s website and it’s not difficult for victims to find more information on filing sexual abuse claims.

A box in the corner takes you to claim forms, deadline information, and gives you two phone numbers to call with questions.

And that’s where some tell us the problems start.

“It’s so very, very difficult for most victims to talk about what happened to them,” said a survivor Jeb Barrett. He said a Helena Diocese priest abused him.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Laura Pitel Political Correspondent

The reputation of her late brother had been called into question and her actor nephew was left to come to her defence on national radio.

However, the last straw for Baroness Butler-Sloss, the short-lived chairwoman of the sex abuse inquiry, came when her husband was dragged into the affair.

A diary story in the Daily Mail yesterday reported that the retired high court judge Joseph Butler-Sloss, now 87, was caught paying for sex with prostitutes in Kenya in 1988.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Express

BARONESS Butler-Sloss was the wrong choice to chair the inquiry into allegations that child sex abuse was aided and abetted by state bodies.

Her late brother Sir Michael Havers served as Attorney General in the 1980s when some of the alleged crimes took place and the inquiry is expected to look at how he handled claims of abuse.

This is a strong conflict of interest and despite the many undoubted qualities she possesses Lady Butler-Sloss’s ability to remain impartial has to be questioned.

A major aim of the inquiry is to find whether senior establishment figures were involved in a large-scale cover-up of paedophilia.

Having it led by somebody with close family ties to one of those establishment figures would have undermined the inquiry’s findings.

Those who did suffer or who have claimed that they suffered at the hands of paedophiles need to have the chance to deliver their evidence to an inquiry that is completely and utterly impartial.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

Child abuse inquiry: Theresa May under fire over appointment of Lady Butler-Sloss

BY NIGEL MORRIS AND ANDREW GRICE – 14 JULY 2014

Theresa May came under repeated fire over her failure to look in enough detail at the family background of Baroness Butler-Sloss, who today stepped down as chairman of a wide-ranging inquiry into child abuse claims.

The former High Court judge’s dramatic resignation, just six days after accepting the post, has severely embarrassed the Home Secretary.

In fiery exchanges with MPs, Mrs May insisted she stood by the appointment of a woman of “absolute integrity” to head the government-commissioned panel of inquiry.

However, the Home Secretary indicated she had been taken by surprise by allegations that the peer’s brother, the late Sir Michael Havers, attempted to thwart an attempt to expose paedophile activity.

Lady Butler-Sloss’s panel would have had to investigate whether Sir Michael, who was Attorney-General from 1979 to 1987, failed to act on allegations of child abuse involving senior establishment figures.

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WISCONSIN
WISN

MILWAUKEE —A priest accused of embezzling six figures from his Milwaukee congregation is a no-show in court again.

His attorney said Father James Dokos was admitted to the hospital Monday morning.

She waited outside court to show her support. The former secretary at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church compared her former boss to Jesus Christ.

“There’s only one man that’s perfect and what did they do to him? He’s gone. He’s dead. They killed him, and that’s what they’re trying to do to Father Jim — crucify him,” church member Stephanie Rauch said.

Rauch said Dokos was a good priest distracted up by worldly possessions.

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ILLINOIS/WISCONSIN
Chicago Tribune

By Alexandra Chachkevitch
Tribune reporter
2:26 p.m. CDT, July 14, 2014

A Glenview priest who has been charged with theft failed to show up in court today for a second time.

The lawyer for the Rev. James Dokos said his client was absent because he had been admitted to a hospital for an emergency. Attorney Patrick Knight told the court commissioner overseeing the hearing in Milwaukee this afternoon that he couldn’t disclose the nature of Dokos’ medical emergency, but that he had called the undisclosed hospital to confirm Dokos has been admitted.

The court commissioner, Barry Phillips, ordered Dokos to appear in court on Thursday and said he would activate a warrant for Dokos’ arrest if fails to appear, unless the priest is still in the hospital. The prosecutor, Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney David Feiss, did not object.

Dokos, who is pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Glenview, had been scheduled to make his first appearance in court on the theft charge last Thursday. His attorney then told the court that Dokos didn’t make it because of car trouble.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

BY LA PRESSE CANADIENNE/THE GAZETTE JULY 14, 2014

One priest out of 50 being a pedophile isn’t a “huge number,” but one priest being a pedophile is already one too many, said former Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte in response to comments made by Pope Francis.

The pope said recent estimates have shown that as many as two per cent of clerics within the Roman Catholic clergy are pedophiles.

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, he said that instead of being reassuring, the statistic had the opposite effect.

On top of that, Pope Francis said there are other people within the church, an even larger number of people, who are aware of the unforgettable actions taking place but who aren’t speaking out about it.

Turcotte, who retired a little more than two years ago, would not comment on the commonness of the phenomenon, which he says to have “always hated enormously.”

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MONTANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 14, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

For almost two weeks, a toll free phone line giving information to victims of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Helena has malfunctioned.

This is problematic for several reasons, including the fact that there’s a rigid deadline by which victims must come forward to get help, because Helena Catholic officials are exploiting U.S. bankruptcy laws to keep clergy sex crimes and cover ups covered up.

Never mind what lawyers do or don’t do. The person responsible for the crimes of child molesting clerics is the bishop. The person whose duty it is to reach out to those hurt by predator priests is the bishop.

Bishop George Leo Thomas of Helena must step up efforts to find and help victims now. He should personally visit every parish where pedophile priests worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to speak up. He should post the names of every proven, admitted and credibly accuse child molesting cleric in every parish bulletin. He should apologize profusely for his error and more aggressively than ever seek out those who are in pain because Catholic priests assaulted kids and Catholic officials hid those crimes.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Express

EVIDENCE has emerged that the views of the Paedophile Information Exchange influenced policy-making at the National Council for Civil Liberties when it was run by former Labour Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt.

By: James Murray & James Fielding
Published: Sun, March 2, 2014

PIE members were lobbying NCCL officials for the age of consent to be reduced and campaigning for “paedophile love”.

Their view that children were not harmed by having sex with adults appears to have been adopted by those at the top of the civil liberties group.

Today we publish extracts from an NCCL report written for the Criminal Law Revision Committee in 1976 when Mrs Hewitt was general secretary.

It says: “Where both partners are aged 10 or over, but under 14, a consenting sexual act should not be an offence. As the age of consent is arbitrary, we propose an overlap of two years on either side of 14.

“Childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in, with an adult result in no identifiable damage.

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UNITED STATES
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
July 14, 2014

SNAP has continued to follow and get information out about the United Nations Committee Against Torture Report. Recently, the report disclosed information about Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, who was the papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic and is accused of molesting children in Poland and the Dominican Republic.

The Washington Post also reported:

Tackling the controversial case of Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, the panel demanded “a prompt and impartial investigation” of abuse allegations in his native Poland and in the Dominican Republic, where he served as papal nuncio until his dismissal in August 2013. The committee said the Vatican should reconsider an extradition request from Poland if warranted.

The question is whether Wesolowski should be returned to Poland to face criminal charges there. Up until recently, he has claimed diplomatic immunity and that the Vatican doesn’t extradite its citizens. The Holy See recalled Wesolowski last August and relieved him of his job after the archbishop of Santo Domingo, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez, told Pope Francis in July about rumors that Wesolowski had sexually abused teenage boys in the Dominican Republic. Dominican authorities subsequently opened an investigation, but haven’t charged him. Poland also opened an investigation into Wesolowski and a friend and fellow Polish priest.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

Archbishop Robert Carlson is getting more news coverage across the U.S., but not the kind he wants. Under the heading, “Least Competent Bishop”, Chuck Shepherd, in his nationally syndicated “News of the Weird” column, recounts Carlson’s now-famous deposition testimony in which he said he was “not sure” in 1984 whether he “knew it was a crime or not” for an adult to have sex with a child.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Editorial
The Guardian, Monday 14 July 2014

The decision by Lady Butler-Sloss to stand down from the inquiry into historical child sex abuse was too slow coming. It is welcome, but by derailing the inquiry before it started the government has lurched from seeming at sea in the face of a possible establishment cover-up to appearing both at sea and incompetent. And when the process does finally get going at some yet-to-be-determined point in the future, persuading the survivors of abuse to place their faith in it will be the harder. For a home secretary more sure-footed than most in her perilous office, this has been an uncharacteristic lapse. To get this important inquiry back on track, she must act with less haste this time round.

The Home Office response to the swirl of allegations of abuse going back as much as 50 years has been damagingly uncertain, betraying an ingrained reluctance to take seriously such notoriously difficult questions even under pressure from politicians of all parties. Having repeatedly said an investigation was unnecessary, right up until the moment when it became necessary after all, there was then a rush to appoint someone distinguished to chair it. In the complex context of offences under laws that no longer exist, or did not exist then but do now, and the analysis of failures to protect children that had to be considered, Lady Butler-Sloss was an obvious choice. She has a universal reputation for integrity, long legal experience and a distinguished record conducting child abuse inquires. Equally, because of her personal circumstances – not what she knew, but who she knew – she should just as obviously have been rejected. That neither she nor Theresa May seem to have been aware of the impossibility of her appointment is evidence of a worrying insensitivity.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Bishop Peter Ball has been summonsed to court over two alleged sexual offences which took place in Litlington and Berwick.

Bishop Ball, 82, a former Bishop of Lewes and currently of Aller, near Langport in Somerset, had already been summonsed in March this year for alleged:

– Misconduct in public office between October 1977 and December 1992 while a Bishop in the Church of England, by misusing his position and authority to manipulate and prevail upon others for his own sexual gratification;

– Indecent assault on a boy then aged between 12 and 13, in 1978;

– Indecent assault on man aged 19 to 20 between 1980 and 1982.

All those offences are alleged to have taken place at Litlington.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

By Msgr. M. Francis Mannion *

More than one commentator has suggested recently that Pope Francis is all symbolism and little substance. I disagree. (For one thing, I think symbolism is substance.)

Here are six areas in which Pope Francis has made real differences which are unlikely to be overturned by a future Pope.

1. The end of the imperial papacy. “Conservative” theologians never tire of saying that the Church is not a democracy. That’s true. But neither is it a monarchy, not mind an empire. It is, as Cardinal Avery Dulles said, “a community of disciples.”

Pope Francis is no imperial figure. He does not live in the Apostolic Palace, but in a guesthouse. He has avoided much of the traditional papal regalia. He dislikes the idea of a papal court, with its myriad of ceremonial attendants. He travels in a modest car, even on occasion on a bus (with cardinals).

2. More effective communication. Traditionally, popes have spoken with extreme caution and avoided spontaneous comments. Now, Francis gives daily homilies off the cuff. He speaks freely to crowds–and never over their heads. His engaging and open style of communication has mesmerized the media, and it is often said of Pope Francis that “The world is listening.”

3. Initial reform of the Curia (Vatican offices and departments). It has long been a complaint that the curia is too powerful and, yes, imperious. It has tended to boss bishops around.

Recently, bishops have spoken about a new mood in (many) curial offices, one that is more respectful of local bishops and national bishops’ conferences. The bishops of Japan have, for instance, stated that Rome is now much more respectful of the authority of their bishops’ conference on liturgical matters, and is more willing to let them judge what is best for their country. Bishops’ conferences do not want a repeat of the Vatican procedures for approving liturgical translations, as occurred in the English-speaking world.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on July 14, 2014

If Pope Francis were truly sorry for the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic church, he’s take a gander at a little Catholic diocese is California, where a cleric found guilty of abuse in a civil trial is still a powerful priest.

Here’s the situation: Fresno priest Eric Swearingen was recently appointed the pastor of a Visalia, California, parish and will oversee four parishes and a school.

The problem? Well in 2006, a civil jury found 9-3 that Swearingen had sexually abused Army Sgt. Juan Rocha when Rocha was a child. How is Fresno Bishop Armando Ochoa able to justify this?

Well, his predecessor Bishop John Steinbock said the jury “got it wrong.” But Ochoa takes a different tack. Swearingen’s trial ended in a mistrial because the jury did not think that the Fresno diocese was liable for the abuse. So Ochoa believes that Swearingen has a “get out of jail free card” and that his civil guilty verdict doesn’t count.

But remember: a CIVIL JURY found the Swearingen HAD abused Rocha. And in a 2008 settlement, the Diocese of Fresno settled with Rocha for a large, undisclosed sum.

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LOUISIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 14, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

Two new stories by Minnesota Public Radio – a ten minute piece and startling one hour documentary – shed disturbing light on the case of a Lafayette, Louisiana predator priest. Both are available now online.

Ten minute piece

Documentary

It includes painful interviews with Louisiana clergy sex abuse victims and their family members who contradict the carefully-crafted but patently false image of former Lafayette Bishop Harry Flynn as a “reformer” on abuse.

This is a very close look at how Flynn dealt with the horrific Fr. Gilbert Gauthe case. We are grateful that MPR unveiled Flynn’s deceit in Louisiana. For decades, church officials have claimed that prelates like Flynn and Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley “cleaned up” abuse in dioceses far earlier than their colleagues. In our view, that’s a convenient and self-serving myth.

These Catholic officials were simply forced to deal with clergy sex crimes and cover ups sooner than their peers. And they learned, as MPR reports, that continued secrecy was key. Yet they used smart public relations and soothing words and symbolic gestures to foster a false impression of change.

MPR reports that the lesson Flynn learned in Lafayette and encouraged other bishops to follow was “express concern for victims, hire aggressive attorneys and disclose nothing. He did not ask the Vatican to kick out a single abusive priest.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

A bishop will appear in court on further sex abuse charges after two new victims came forward accusing him of offences dating back 30 years.

Peter Ball will appear at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Thursday charged with two new offences alleged to have been carried out during his tenure as the Bishop of Lewes.

The 82 year-old, who now lives Aller in Somerset, will appear in court charged with an indecent assault on a man over 16 between 1990 and 1991 in Berwick and on a boy under 16 between 1984 and 1985 in Litlington near Seaford.

He is also set to appear at Lewes Crown Court on August 1 over charges of misconduct in public office between October 1977 and December 1992 by misusing his position and authority to “manipulate and prevail upon others for his own sexual gratification”.

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IRELAND
Daily Mail (UK)

By PRESS ASSOCIATION

Survivors of Magdalene Laundries are getting an average compensation pay-out of almost 36,000 euro (£29,000), Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has revealed.

Before a United National human rights watchdog, Ms Fitzgerald said 12.4 million euro (£9.9m) has been paid so far to 346 women who were incarcerated in the institutions.

Although some have sought a review of the amount of compensation offered to them under the publicly-funded scheme, the minister suggested it was working well.

“Women are coming to the redress scheme, are using it and payments are being made,” she said.

“There are some issues for some of the women, obviously, in terms of records and documentary evidence which can be very difficult.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 14, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A new and startling one hour documentary by Minnesota Public Radio – titled “How three archbishops hid the truth about abuse” – is available now online.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

It includes:

– painful interviews with Louisiana clergy sex abuse victims and their family members who contradict the carefully-crafted but patently false image of Archbishop Harry Flynn as a “reformer” on abuse,

– part of a never-released tape in which an angry Twin Cities priest calls Archbishop John Nienstedt “a liar, a thief and a coward” while being booed by other priests (at the 54 minute mark),

–a victim who discloses that he is incapable of having children because his perpetrator, Fr. Patrick Ryan, crushed his testicles (at the 43 minute mark),

–a man who died of AIDS after having been sexually violated as a child by a priest (He did not get the disease from the cleric.)

Several chilling lines stand out:

–“In sworn testimony in May 2014 Flynn falsely claimed that (convicted predator Fr. Gil) Gustafson was no longer a priest.”

–“At the time (whistleblower) Jennifer Haselberger resigned (in April 2013), some accused priests were still in ministry. Despite all their public promises, church officials showed no interest in removing them.”

–“More than a decade ago, Catholic officials vowed to change. Haselberger revealed that the cover up never ended.”

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VATICANO
Correio do Estado

Em entrevista ao jornal italiano “La Repubblica”, o papa Francisco teria afirmado que 2% dos membros dos clérigos da Igreja Católica podem estar envolvidos em abusos sexuais. Mas um comunicado divulgado neste domingo (13) pelo Vaticano desmente partes da entrevista, incluindo o trecho em que o pontífice afirma que muitos cardeais estariam dentro desse percentual. Na reportagem do “La Repubblica”, o pontífice teria classificado o fato como uma “lepra” dentro da Igreja. O artigo é a transcrição de uma conversa de cerca de uma hora entre o papa e o fundador da publicação, Eugenio Scalfari, ateu que já escreveu algumas vezes sobre encontros com o pontífice. Scalfari, 90, é um dos jornalistas mais conhecidos da Itália.

“Muitos dos que lutam comigo (contra os abusos sexuais) me asseguram com estatísticas confiáveis de que o nível de pedofilia na Igreja é de cerca de 2%”, teria dito o papa.
Também é atribuída ao pontífice a declaração de que, enquanto muitos dos casos de pedofilia ocorrem dentro de dinâmicas familiares, “até nós temos essa lepra dentro de casa”.

Segundo dados de 2012 da Igreja, há cerca de 414 mil padres católicos em todo o mundo.
O padre Federico Lombardi, um dos porta-vozes do Vaticano e autor do comunicado, afirma que nem todas as frases podem ser atribuídas “com certeza” ao pontífice. Segundo ele, isso vale particularmente para a fala de que cardeais estariam entre os estupradores, uma tentativa de “manipular leitores ingênuos”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jason Om

A key Catholic Church body says 4 per cent of priests in Australia have been paedophiles, double the number estimated by the Pope.

Pope Francis has reportedly described paedophile priests as a leprosy infecting the Church, saying the problem will be met with severity.

“It’s a no-nonsense, a zero-tolerance attitude,” Francis Sullivan from Australia’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, said of the Pontiff’s approach.

“He is probably ruffling feathers within the Vatican and good on him.”

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Pope Francis said 2 per cent of clergy, including bishops and cardinals, were paedophiles.

That would equate to 8,000 of the 400,000 Catholic clergy worldwide.

In Australia, the Truth, Justice and Healing Council is compiling statistics on abusers for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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COLORADO
TheDenverChannel

Anica Padilla
9:12 AM, Jul 14, 2014

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. – A Westminster pastor accused of sexually assaulting a teenager faces a judge Monday.

Gerald Leroy Clark, 52, is charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and involving a pattern of abuse. Clark has an arraignment hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. in Jefferson County.

The arrest affidavit reveals that the victim was an aspiring member of the church’s ministry team who was helping out the pastor and his wife at their home.

“In one of the charges he’s alleged to have committed this offense against a child who was under 15 and the second offense covers the time when the teenager was older than 15 but under 18,” explained Pam Russell, spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office.

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UNITED STATES
Seth H. Langston

Is the Pope Parsing Words?

Pope Francis told an interviewer that two percent of Catholic Priests were “pedophiles”. For decades Dioceses around the country have routinely claimed in priest sex abuse cases that they had absolutely no idea that the abusing priest was a “pedophile”. Of course, they never informed the public that pedophilia is defined as the fantasy or act of sexual activity with prepubescent children..

If a priest was attracted to, or abused older children, he would be accurately described as suffering from ephebophilia. This term applies to adults whose primary sexual interest is in children between fifteen and nineteen years old. This often meant that the Church’s pronouncements on the lack of knowledge of the priest being a pedophile was often technically correct.

Studies by the Catholic Church and data collected by Bishop Accountability show that the percentage of child molesting priests was significantly higher than two percent.

Is the pope relying on flawed data or merely continuing the Catholic Church’s long history of parsing words? Will Pope Francis state that the number of priests who are child abusers, pedophiles or suffer from ephebophilia, was also two percent. I will not hold my breath.

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NEW MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 14, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

For almost two weeks, a toll free phone line giving information to victims of clergy sex abuse in the Gallup Catholic Diocese has malfunctioned.

This is problematic for several reasons, including the fact that there’s a rigid deadline by which victims must come forward to get help, because Gallup Catholic officials are exploiting U.S. bankruptcy laws to keep clergy sex crimes and cover ups covered up.

Never mind what lawyers do or don’t do. The person responsible for the crimes of child molesting clerics is the bishop. The person whose duty it is to reach out to those hurt by predator priests is the bishop.

Bishop James Wall of Gallup must step up efforts to find and help victims now. He should personally visit every parish where pedophile priests worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to speak up. He should post the names of every proven, admitted and credibly accuse child molesting cleric in every parish bulletin. He should apologize profusely for his error and more aggressively than ever seek out those who are in pain because Catholic priests assaulted kids and Catholic officials hid those crimes.

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UNITED STATES/ISRAEL
Frum Follies

Israeli Beit Din Announces Removal of Meisels from His Seminaries and Gives Green Light for Attendance

On Friday I posted a 7/10/14 Chicago Beit Din ruling about an investigation into sexual misconduct by Elimelech Meisels which advised against sending girls to Meisels’ four Israeli post-high-school seminaries. Last night (7/13/14) an Israeli Beit Din issued a ruling reporting “the removal of the party responsible” [i.e., Elimelech Meisels] and a legally binding agreement empowering the Israeli Beit Din to make, supervise, and control changes in the ownership and management of the seminaries. Based on these interim measures, the Israeli Beit Din advises parents and principals of US and Canadian girls’ high schools to feel comfortable sending students to these seminaries.

Below is an image of the Israeli ruling and my rough translation.

A few observations are in order about this Israeli Beit Din ruling:

1. I am aware of the reputations of Rabbis Shafran and Malinowitz as men of great intelligence and integrity. This is not to say that they are right, but I do believe they are being honest to the best of their understanding.

2. This ruling was a rush job in response to the pressures created by the Chicago ruling. I know they had been in session for a while trying to reach some agreement with Meisels to remove himself. Rabbi Malinowitz, one of its members was in the US sitting shiva for his brother, Rav Zalman Malinowitz when this ruling was issued and they must have secured his signature by fax. Yet under this pressure they got some interim agreement with Meisels and produced a ruling.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
theguardian.com, Monday 14 July 2014

In just a week, Lady Butler-Sloss, Theresa May’s choice to chair the inquiry into historical child sex abuse, has been swept aside by a media tide of allegations of personal conflicts of interest.

When the home secretary first announced her appointment in the Commons only last Monday it had seemed there were few people more qualified than the retired appeal court judge, who had been the highest-ranking female judge in Britain and the president of the family division, and had chaired the Cleveland inquiry into child abuse.

May had made clear that as far as she was concerned the inquiry was not being set up to replicate a police investigation into claims of a child sex ring at Westminster. Instead she said its job was to consider whether public bodies such as the NHS, the BBC and non-state institutions such as the churches “had taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse”.

It was widely expected that Butler-Sloss, 80, would convene a panel of legal and child protection experts, and come up with recommendations on child policy to ensure that a Jimmy Savile or a Stuart Hall could not get away with what they did for so long ever again.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

In a statement published by Italian blog “Il Sismografo”, Fr. Federico Lombardi clarifies that certain expressions “La Repubblica”’s founder Eugenio Scalfari attributes to Francis regarding paedophile cardinals and priestly celibacy, apparently never left the Pope’s mouth

FEDERICO LOMBARDI
VATICAN CITY

“In the Sunday edition of La Repubblica an article by Eugenio Scalfari was prominently featured relating a recent conversation that took place with Pope Francis. The conversation was very cordial and most interesting and touched principally upon the themes of the plague of sexual abuse of minors and the Church’s attitude toward the mafia.”

“However, as it happened in a previous, similar circumstance, it is important to notice that the words Mr. Scalfari attributes to the Pope, “in quotations” come from the expert journalist Scalfari’s own memory of what the Pope said and is not an exact transcription of a recording nor a review of such a transcript by the Pope himself to whom the words are attributed. We should not or must not therefore speak in any way, shape or form of an interview in the normal use of the word, as if there had been a series of questions and answers that faithfully and exactly reflect the precise thoughts of the one being interviewed.”

“It is safe to say, however that the overall theme of the article captures the spirit of the conversation between the Holy Father and Mr. Scalfari while at the same time strongly restating what was said about the previous “interview” that appeared in La Repubblica: the individual expressions that were used and the manner in which they have been reported, cannot be attributed to the Pope.”

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio – Betrayed by Silence

[with audio]

Story by Madeleine Baran · Produced by Sasha Aslanian · July 14, 2014

For decades, the archbishops who led the Catholic archdiocese in the Twin Cities maintained that they were doing everything they could to protect children from priests who wanted to rape them.

Reporters picked up those assurances and repeated them without question. Police and prosecutors took the assurances at face value. Parents believed the assurances and trusted priests with their children.

But the assurances were a lie, and the archbishops knew it. Three of them — John Roach, Harry Flynn (pictured above) and John Nienstedt — participated in a cover-up that pitted the finances and power of the church against the victims who dared to come forward and tell their stories.

The radio documentary above draws on dozens of interviews, thousands of never-before-published documents and insider accounts to explain how and why powerful men protected priests who abused children.

The deception began in southern Louisiana, where Flynn arrived in 1986 as bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette. He was there to fix the first national clergy sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. Catholic Church. Flynn pledged to protect children and restore the faith of parishioners. In fact, he rarely met with victims, and used attorneys to fight victims in court and protect the financial assets of the church.

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IRELAND
Journal

THE DEATH RATE of babies at the Tuam mother and baby home was almost double the rate of other homes around the country.

Figures from National Archives seen by TheJournal.ie show that 31.6% of babies under the age of one in Tuam died over the course of one year.

This compares to an overall death rate in other homes around the country of just over 17% among babies of the same age.

The return from Galway Local Authority shows that in the Tuam mother and baby home 49 babies were born in the institution in 1947. A further 30 children under the age of one were admitted to the institution, making there a total of 79 children under the age of one in the care of the maternity home.

In that year, 25 babies under the age of one died in the home.

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NEW MEXICO/MONTANA/CALIFORNIA
Gallup Independent

(NOTE: The phone lines for the Diocese of Helena and Diocese of Stockton were also affected.)

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, NM, July 12, 2014:

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

GALLUP – A toll free phone line, set up to provide information to people with clergy sex abuse claims against the Diocese of Gallup, was discovered to be malfunctioning for nearly two weeks because of a phone system snafu.

The phone line failure, which apparently occurred between June 25 and July 7, also affected two other similar toll free numbers that were set up to serve individuals with sex abuse claims against the Diocese of Helena in Montana and the Diocese of Stockton in California.

All three telephone lines were being monitored by the California law firm of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones. Attorney James I. Stang, a founding partner in the firm, serves as legal counsel for the Unsecured Creditors Committees in all three church bankruptcies. The committees advocate for the interests of clergy sex abuse survivors who file claims against the Roman Catholic dioceses in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

The Gallup Diocese filed its Chapter 11 petition on Nov. 12, 2013. It was followed this year by the Stockton Diocese on Jan. 15, and the Helena Diocese on Jan. 31.

The toll free phone lines, which are being advertized to the public, were set up in the three cases to provide information to sex abuse survivors wanting to file abuse claims before the “bar date” deadline next month. The Gallup and Helena abuse claim deadline is Aug. 11, and the Stockton deadline is Aug. 15.

Inoperable phone line

The Diocese of Gallup’s phone line was discovered to be not working on Monday by a reporter seeking to provide information to an abuse survivor. The line’s answering machine prompt transferred callers to dead air and silence.

Stang and other officials in the Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy case were notified of the inoperable phone line Monday.

In an email Thursday, Stang said the problem was caused when his office changed phone systems at midnight on June 25. Once notified that the toll free lines were not working, he said, the telephone programming was corrected July 7 at 3 p.m., Pacific Time.

According to Stang, during those 13 days, only one other phone number besides the reporter’s was listed on the Diocese of Gallup’s caller identification equipment. Stang said his staff was attempting to track the second number, which he said may have been made by a “robo-marketing” number in a foreign country.

“My office took immediate steps to correct the error and to determine its cause,” Stang said. “The Committee is glad that no abuse survivor or member of the public was injured by the error.”

Stang was not asked about the number of calls made to the Diocese of Helena or the Diocese of Stockton’s phone lines.

From now on, Stang said, his office will call Gallup’s toll free number each day to make sure the line is working properly.

Impersonal processes

In light of the phone failure, Stang and diocesan attorney Susan G. Boswell, were asked about the appropriateness of using a telephone answering machine to record the names and contact information of clergy abuse survivors rather than having a trained person answer the toll free phone line.

“Your question goes to fundamental issues of the best means of communication with an abuse survivor,” Stang said. “I do not believe that your question is appropriately answered in this setting.”

Boswell, the lead bankruptcy attorney for the Gallup Diocese, said she agreed with Stang.

“I would also point out that Mr. Stang and I used this same process in the Fairbanks Diocese case without concerns or problems being expressed or identified,” she said.

David Clohessy, the executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, was contacted for comment.

“It’s extraordinarily hard for many victims to summon the strength to speak to others about their horrific pain,” Clohessy said in an email Friday. “When they do, they should be dealt with in the most compassionate way possible. This foul up exacerbates the already often dreadfully impersonal processes that characterize church bankruptcies.”

Obtaining information

Because of the absence of calls to the Gallup number, both Stang and Boswell said they did not see the need to notify the public that the toll free phone line was not working those 13 days.

Boswell pointed out that the toll free number is not the only method by which individuals can obtain information about the bar date and how to file an abuse claim against the Gallup Diocese. The information is also posted on the diocese’s website, she said, and contact information for the case’s attorneys is included in the legal pleadings.

Boswell said the Diocese of Gallup will be publicly advertising the bar date deadline and claims process one more time at the end of July.

Diocese of Gallup claim information:
1-888-570-6269
Abuse claims forms and instructions: http://voiceofthesouthwest.org/2014/04/11/notice-of-deadline-to-file-claims/

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

It is not a surprise that Lady Butler-Sloss has stepped down as chair of the independent inquiry panel into child abuse: a critical mass of stories had built up against her which meant it was impossible for her to continue leading an inquiry that is partly about conspiracy theories without herself becoming the target of conspiracy theories which would eventually weaken her findings.

A resignation before the inquiry has even kicked off is a serious blow to the government, which had been trying so hard to play conspiracy whack-a-mole, to stay ahead of the critics by acting fast and appointing big names to lead big investigations into historic allegations. But it is not quite right to say that this is a blow to David Cameron’s authority. Of course by extension everything that the government gets wrong is a blow to the Prime Minister. But more specifically this is a blow to the Home Office, who appointed Butler-Sloss in a hurry. They would have announced her appointment to the panel even quicker than they did if she’d responded by the time Theresa May stood up in the Commons to give her statement on the matter on Monday afternoon. There seems to have been a rush to make the appointment – perhaps a naivety, even – that meant the links journalists were able to dig up very quickly indeed were missed.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

MP Keith Vaz, who raised questions over Baroness Butler-Sloss’ appointment to the abuse inquiry last week, has said the process has become “shambolic”.

The Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee said he was “not surprised” by Lady Butler-Sloss’ decision to stand down, adding that “it is the right one”.

“As I pointed out to [Home Office permanent secretary Mark] Sedwill, the public would be concerned that a member of Parliament, no matter how distinguished, had been appointed to head this important panel.

“The whole inquiry process is becoming shambolic: missing files, ministers refusing to read reports and now the chair resigning before the inquiry has even commenced.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A law firm representing alleged victims of assaults in institutions linked to the child abuse inquiry has welcomed Baroness Butler-Sloss’ decision to stand down.

“We are relieved that Lady Butler-Sloss has taken this decision to stand down,” Alison Millar of Leigh Day said.

“This was the only sensible decision to ensure that survivors and the public could feel confident that the inquiry was not going to be jeopardised by accusations of bias,” she added.

The issue was never the integrity of Lady Butler-Sloss or what she knew of her brother’s actions as the chief legal adviser to the Government. It was always the fact that she would ultimately have to judge those actions.

This would never have been acceptable for an inquiry which requires not only to be transparent but to be seen as such by those who have in the past been so badly failed by the establishment.

– ALISON MILLAR, LEIGH DAY LAW FIRM

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Nick Assinder Political Editor
July 14, 2014

The decision by Lady Butler-Sloss to stand down as head of the major inquiry into child sex abuse in Britain has pitched the entire process into disarray and underlined the shambles that marked its creation in the first place.

And it raises significant questions over the judgement of the prime minister and home secretary in apparently failing to see the glaring conflict of interest created by the appointment.

It was met with an instant barrage of criticism over the fact Butler-Sloss was not only part of the very establishment she would be investigating but more specifically that her brother, the late Sir Michael Havers, had been attorney general at the time of the abuse and cover-up claims.

The weekend saw more claims about both his role in failing to pursue evidence of a paedophile ring in Westminster in the 1980s, but also that she previously wanted to exclude a bishop’s name from a child abuse report because she wanted to protect the reputation of the church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By PRESS ASSOCIATION

The resignation of Baroness Butler-Sloss as the chair of an inquiry into allegations of historic child sex abuse within the establishment comes after days of pressure on the Home Office over her appointment.

These were the main events:

Monday, July 7:
Home Secretary Theresa May announces that she will establish an independent inquiry under an expert panel to examine the handling of allegations of paedophilia by state institutions as well as bodies such as the BBC, churches and political parties.

It will be chaired by “an appropriately senior and experienced figure”, she tells the House of Commons.

Tuesday, July 8:
Baroness Butler-Sloss is named as the chair.
Prime Minister David Cameron’s official spokesman tells reporters: “It is the very wide respect that her professional expertise as well as her personal integrity commands that makes her a very strong appointment for this role. It is the width and breadth of her experience that counts.”
Eyebrows are immediately raised by the choice however.

Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz questions the choice of a member of the House of Lords “no matter how distinguished” to investigate the establishment – pointing out that her brother was Lord Chancellor during the era being probed.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
Hispantv

[con video]

[Summary: The word of God in the Catholic Church in many cases has become abuse of innocent children. This video is about the facade of the Vatican todayas it rows against the tide.]

La palabra de Dios en la Iglesia católica en muchos casos se ha convertido en la palabra seductora que lleva a niños inocentes o a incautos a caer en las garras del sacerdote hambriento de la fechoría. Esta es la fachada del Vaticano hoy con la que tiene que remar a contracorriente.

Esta es la fotografía de decenas de casos de violación y abuso sexual cometido por sacerdotes que abusando de la confianza de la fe, satisfacen su deseo más carnal, lo que hace que el delito moral, penal y espiritual sea peor.

Ante todo ello al Papa Francisco no le quedó más remedio que aceptar y hasta pedir perdón. Pero ¿Esto es un perdón real o un cambio de estrategia? Esta noche desde Teherán, capital iraní, en “Detrás de la Razón”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Religion and Ethics

Francis Sullivan
ABC RELIGION AND ETHICS 11 JUL 2014

Last week, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse released its interim report. Much of the attention so far has focused on the first volume of the 700-page plus report. It is the second volume, however, that brings together what is a truly horrifying litany of abuse and suffering. It is this volume that tells the individual stories of abuse and the treatment survivors subsequently received from the institutions in which they were abused.

The stories have been chosen as a representative group to help the community understand the accounts the Royal Commission is receiving and the experiences of survivors. Well over half of the stories involve abuse which occurred in Catholic Church institutions. The stories have been selected in the hope they will contribute to a better understanding of the profound consequences of child sexual abuse on the lives of survivors and their families

The volume also brings together some of the more prominent, and consistent, themes which have emerged from these and other stories. Many survivors reported a culture of fear in institutions, created by severe physical abuse which allowed for an environment in which sexual abuse was both possible and unlikely to be disclosed.

The stories also reveal the long-term effects of abuse – including physical and mental damage, failed relationships, limited education and career prospects. It was reported that perpetrators commonly prepared a child with the intention of sexually abusing them. They did this by building a relationship of trust with the child and their family or carer and by isolating the child.

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LOUISIANA
The American Conservative

[with video]

By ROD DREHER • July 14, 2014

This might seem like inside baseball to some of you, but the above report from WBRZ, the ABC affiliate in Baton Rouge — if the video doesn’t embed, you can watch it here — is exactly the kind of thing that worries me so much about how this seal-of-the-confessional case is going to play out in the media and in popular culture. It’s a good thing that it is impossible under libel law to libel the dead, or the family of George Charlet Jr. might have a case against the station for that biased report on the abuse allegations at the heart of a controversy with potential national implications for religious liberty.

Background: Rebecca Mayeux, now 20, claims that when she was 14, she was subject to groping and other unwanted sexual attention from Charlet, a much older man who was a prominent businessman and beloved community figure. At least some of the harassment took place on the grounds of Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, where both families attended. Mayeux says on three separate occasions, she told Father Jeff Bayhi in confession that Charlet was coming on to her sexually, and that he told her this was her own problem, that she should sweep it under the rug. Mayeux eventually told her parents, who went to the police. Charlet died of a heart attack during the criminal investigation, which was dropped upon his passing.

Now, Mayeux has filed a civil lawsuit against Charlet’s estate, his family’s business, Father Bayhi, and the Diocese of Baton Rouge. She wants Fr. Bayhi to testify that he heard her speak of this in confession, and what the content of the confessions were. He refuses even to acknowledge that the molestation conversations took place, because to do so would be to violate the seal of the confessional, the rock-solid obligation Catholic (and Orthodox) priests have to go to their deaths before revealing to anyone what they learned in confession. The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that under state law, Bayhi could in principle be compelled to reveal those conversations (or go to jail for contempt of court), because the law only recognizes the priest-penitent privilege as protecting the penitent — who, in this case, releases the priest from that privilege. Under Catholic canon law, the obligation is binding on the priest, regardless of what the penitent later decides.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

New research has cast “serious doubt” on one of the key findings of the McAleese report concerning the length of time women spent in Magdalene laundries.

The research, undertaken as part of the Justice For Magdalenes Research (JFM Research) Names Project, comes as the group reiterated its call for Magdalene laundries to be included in the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation.

According to the McAleese Report, 61% of known entries spent less than a year in Ireland’s 10 Magdalene institutions.

However, JFMR say their research based on comparisons between Magdalene grave records and electoral registers, “cast serious doubt” on this assertion.

The research found that 63.43% of the women who appear on the electoral register for the High Park laundry from 1954-55 also appear on the laundry’s headstones at Glasnevin Cemetery — indicating that they spent a minimum of nine years confined there. Some 61.43% of the women from 1955-56 were there for a minimum of eight years.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Claire McGettrick

One thing that would help rectify the failings of the McAleese Report into the Magdalene Laundries would be to include them in the mother-and-baby home inquiry, writes Claire McGettrick

THE Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC) on the Magdalene Laundries vindicated Justice for Magdalenes’ (JFM, now JFM Research) contention of extensive state involvement with these institutions.

However, the IDC also went well beyond its mandate and produced a report offering an inaccurate and incomplete representation of the experiences of those who were incarcerated against their will.

The McAleese Report utterly failed the Magdalene women, both living and dead, and their families.

The ‘Magdalene Names Project’ is a JFM Research initiative which examines various archives and records, including gravestones, census records, electoral registers, exhumation orders and newspaper archives.

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VATICAN CITY/IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah Mac Donald, David Barrett and Nick Squires
PUBLISHED 14/07/2014

POPE Francis has been called on to release further details of Vatican research into clerical sex abuse, after stating that one in 50 Catholic clergy is a paedophile.

The Pope described child sex abusers as “leprosy” within the church, adding that the offenders include “priests and even bishops and cardinals”.

In an interview with ‘La Repubblica’ newspaper in Italy, the Pontiff cited aides as saying that “the level of paedophilia in the church is at 2pc”.

“I find this state of affairs intolerable,” he said.

With Catholic clergy numbers at 414,000, more than 8,000 priests fall into this category. Estimates of the prevalence of paedophilia in the wider population range from a fraction of 1pc to as high as 4pc.

In Ireland, the total number of priests and those in religious orders is almost 5,000 including those who are sick and retired.

That would suggest the number of paedophile priests in Ireland, on the basis of 2pc of the clergy, would be less than 100.

However, this would appear to be an underestimation based on the findings of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church reviews.

But a prominent child safeguarding expert said the figure raised more questions than it answered.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, the source said the Pope’s statistic did not indicate whether he was talking about priests convicted of abuse, priests who were paedophiles, or those who targeted teens.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The Church of England has spent £190,000 handling a rift between the Channel Islands and the Diocese of Winchester, it has emerged.

The islands split with the diocese in a dispute involving the Dean of Jersey and the Bishop of Winchester about the handling of an abuse complaint.

The figure was revealed after the Dean of Portsmouth asked the CofE’s ruling body how much the rift had cost.

The money was spent on two inquiries and does not include legal fees.

The Dean of Portsmouth, the Very Reverend David Brindley, said the money could have been allocated to parishes elsewhere in the country.

“Those costs haven’t yet finished and don’t include legal costs incurred either by the Diocese of Winchester or by the Channel Islands,” he said.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Daily Maverick

The sexual abuse crisis that rocked the Catholic Church worldwide has been one of the most disillusioning things I have had to face as a Catholic Priest. It is a source of shame, anger and frustration for me and many other faithful Catholics. Abuse can and has happened in many contexts but is amplified when it occurs in the Church, an institution that many trust and seek help and protection from. Even more deplorable is the fact that accountability has not been what it should have. So how, then, do we move forward? By RUSSELL POLLITT.

Since the crisis erupted in the USA in 2001, the Church has put strict protocols in place to prevent such scandalous behaviour recurring. The South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has had a Protocol in place for a number of years which is publicly available on their website. The Bishops in South Africa insist that every parish Church display, for all to see, an independent person’s contact details (a “contact person”) so that accusations of sexual abuse against Church personnel can be reported independently and efficiently. The Protocol insists that allegations of abuse be reported to civil authorities.

While these steps have been welcomed, many people – especially victims of abuse, feel that the Church has not taken full responsibility for what has happened. Some Church leaders stand accused of covering up abuse cases and others, after allegations were made, did not deal with offenders in a decisive manner. Shameful stories emerged of how offenders were moved from place to place when they were accused and so the abuse was perpetuated.

This week Pope Francis took an unprecedented step. He not only apologised and expressed his own “deep pain and suffering” at what happened but admitted that for too long abuse has been “hidden, camouflaged with a complicity that cannot be explained…” He calls this scourge a “crime and grave sin” and says that these “despicable actions” are like a “sacrilegious cult”. He pledged a zero tolerance approach to the abuse of minors by clerics and lay people working in the Church. These are the strongest words that have ever been used by a Pope to address the devastation caused by sex abuse in the Church.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

THE EDITORIAL BOARD
JULY 14, 2014

Pope Francis is showing that he means business — sound fiduciary business — in his campaign to clean up the Vatican Bank. Since the pope made his promise of credible reform last year, investigators and bank officials have vetted and closed out 3,000 suspect and unwanted accounts.

Francis continued the shake-up last week with the hiring of a veteran European fund manager, Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, to be the bank’s new president, the naming of an advisory board dominated by banking specialists, and the sweeping redesign of Vatican finances and assets under the direction of a trusted troubleshooter, Cardinal George Pell.

“Our ambition is to become something of a model for financial management rather than a cause for occasional scandal,” Cardinal Pell candidly explained. He announced that the Vatican would hand over management of its billions of euros to external banking specialists and be subject to regular reports by an auditor general.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
theguardian.com, Monday 14 July 2014

Lady Butler-Sloss, the retired high court judge, has resigned as chair of the panel that is due to examine the extent to which public institutions failed to investigate allegations of child abuse after admitting that she had failed to take into account a family conflict of interest.

Hours after the former solicitor general Vera Baird called on Butler-Sloss to stand down because her brother served as attorney general in the 1980s, when reports of child abuse were allegedly not examined properly, the former judge issued a statement announcing that she would withdraw from the post.

Butler-Sloss said she had been honoured to be invited to chair the inquiry. But she added: “It has become apparent over the last few days, however, that there is a widespread perception, particularly among victim and survivor groups, that I am not the right person to chair the inquiry. It has also become clear to me that I did not sufficiently consider whether my background and the fact my brother had been attorney general would cause difficulties.”

The retired judge had faced intense criticism from victims’ groups because her brother, the late Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general during the 1980s – the period due be examined by the panel. …

Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee who raised concerns about the appointment with the Home Office permanent secretary, Mark Sedwill, last week, said that the inquiry was now becoming shambolic.

Vax said: “I am not surprised by this decision – it is the right one. As I pointed out to Mr Sedwill the public would be concerned that a member of parliament, no matter how distinguished, had been appointed to head this important panel. The whole inquiry process is becoming shambolic: missing files, ministers refusing to read reports and now the chair resigning before the inquiry is has even commenced.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Baroness Butler-Sloss has decided to step down as chairwoman of the inquiry into the historical cover-up of child abuse in response to widespread concern about her appointment.

The former High Court judge informed Theresa May, the home secretary, of her decision at the weekend and said in a statement today that she did not want to the inquiry to be hamstrung by the controversy over her nomination.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The full statement from Baroness Butler-Sloss confirming she will stand down as chair of an inquiry into allegations of historic child sex abuse within the establishment:

I was honoured to be invited by the Home Secretary to chair the wide-ranging inquiry about child sexual abuse and hoped I could make a useful contribution.

It has become apparent over the last few days, however, that there is a widespread perception, particularly among victim and survivor groups, that I am not the right person to chair the inquiry.

It has also become clear to me that I did not sufficiently consider whether my background and the fact my brother had been Attorney General would cause difficulties.

This is a victim-orientated inquiry and those who wish to be heard must have confidence that the members of the panel will pay proper regard to their concerns and give appropriate advice to Government.

Nor should media attention be allowed to be diverted from the extremely important issues at stake, namely whether enough has been done to protect children from sexual abuse and hold to account those who commit these appalling crimes.

Having listened to the concerns of victim and survivor groups and the criticisms of MPs and the media, I have come to the conclusion that I should not chair this inquiry and have so informed the Home Secretary.

I should like to add that I have dedicated my life to public service, to the pursuit of justice and to protecting the rights of children and families and I wish the inquiry success in its important work.

– BARONESS BUTLER-SLOSS

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Baroness Butler-Sloss should be removed from Westminster abuse inquiry, says former solicitor general

By Alice Philipson 14 Jul 2014

Baroness Butler-Sloss should be removed as the head an inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse at the heart of the establishment, a former solicitor general has said.

Vera Baird, now the Labour police and crime commissioner for Northumbria, said the appointment was “an error” because the former judge’s family connections meant she had a conflict of interest.

Lady Butler-Sloss’s brother Sir Michael Havers, who was attorney general and lord chancellor in the 1980s, is alleged to have tried to prevent ex-MP Geoffrey Dickens airing claims about a diplomat in Parliament.

Pressure mounted at the weekend when she was reported to have told a victim of alleged abuse she did not want to include the allegations in a review of how the Church of England dealt with two paedophile priests because she “cared about the Church” and “the press would love a bishop”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Georgia Graham, Political Correspondent 14 Jul 2014

Baroness Butler-Sloss has stepped down as the head of a major inquiry into child abuse claims following criticism of her links to the establishment.

The retired senior judge quit less than a week after her appointment after a series of claims about her brother’s role in previous investigations more than 30 years ago.

Downing Street said that it was “her decision” to stand down but insisted that the Prime Minister still believes she was the right person to head up the inquiry.

Her decision will prove embarrassing for the Government and comes amid allegations of a Westminster “cover-up” over historic paedophilia allegations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

Westminster child abuse inquiry: Judge in charge of investigation bows to conflict of interest claims and quits role

Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss has stood down as chairman of the government-ordered inquiry into allegations of child abuse involving senior public figures in the 1980s.

Her surprise decision came after she was put under growing pressure to step aside because her brother, the late Sir Michael Havers, served as Attorney General from 1979 to 1987.

Her panel would have had to investigate whether Sir Michael failed to act on allegations of child abuse involving senior establishment figures. He reportedly tried to prevent the late Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens from using parliamentary privilege to name diplomat Sir Peter Hayman as a paedophile.

Baroness Butler-Sloss said it had become apparent that there was “a widespread perception, particularly among victim and survivor groups, that I am not the right person to chair the inquiry”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
RTE News

Elizabeth Butler-Sloss has stepped down as chair of an inquiry into allegations of historic child sex abuse within the establishment, Downing Street has announced.

The UK Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the decision to stand down was entirely Ms Butler-Sloss’s.

Her departure comes after the former judge’s appointment became the centre of controversy because her brother Michael Havers, who was attorney general and lord chancellor in the 1980s, is alleged to have tried to prevent ex-MP Geoffrey Dickens airing claims about child abuse.

Critics said victims of child sex abuse would not have confidence in an inquiry led by someone from the heart of the establishment.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Retired judge Baroness Butler-Sloss has said she is stepping aside as the head of an inquiry into allegations of historical child abuse.

Downing Street said “it was entirely her decision” and a new chair would be appointed within days.

Lady Butler-Sloss has been under pressure to quit from MPs and victims concerned about her family links.

Her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general in the 1980s.

Downing Street said it would “take a few days” to appoint a new chairman and appeared to indicate that whoever was chosen would not be so closely linked to the establishment.

David Cameron’s spokesman said there had been no change in the view of the prime minister or Home Secretary Theresa May about Lady Butler-Sloss’s integrity or suitability for the job.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Downing Street says Baroness Butler-Sloss’ stepping down from the abuse inquiry was “entirely her decision”.

The Government’s view hasn’t changed, that she would have done a first-class job as chair.

The reasons for her appointment still absolutely stand in terms of her professional expertise and her integrity, which I don’t think has been questioned from any quarter whatsoever, and rightly so.

– PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON’S SPOKESPERSON

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

By Chris Ship: Deputy Political Editor

It was becoming “unsustainable”.

That is the view of one of the MPs who has been leading the campaign to investigate the historic allegations of child abuse – many of which centre on claims of a cover-up at Westminster.

Simon Danczuk was referring to the decision by Baroness Butler-Sloss to stand down as head of the independent inquiry.

Questions have been raised about her appointment since it was announced last Tuesday.

Elizabeth Butler-Sloss is the sister of the last Sir Michael Havers – who was the Attorney General for much of the 1980s – the period in which the claims of a cover-up have centred.

Downing Street insists the decision was hers – and there was no pressure from the government.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Last updated Mon 14 Jul 2014

Home Secretary Theresa May has said she is “deeply saddened” but understands and respects Baroness Butler-Sloss’s decision to stand down as the chair of an inquiry into allegations of historic child sex abuse within the establishment.

I am deeply saddened by Baroness Butler-Sloss’s decision to withdraw but understand and respect her reasons. Baroness Butler-Sloss is a woman of the highest integrity and compassion and continues to have an enormous contribution to make to public life.

As she has said herself, the work of this inquiry is more important than any individual and an announcement will be made on who will take over the chairmanship and membership of the panel as soon as possible so this important work can move forward.

– HOME SECRETARY THERESA MAY

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UNITED KINGDOM
Exeter Express and Echo

Lady Butler-Sloss, who lives near Exeter, has stood down as chair of the child abuse inquiry

Lady Butler-Sloss is standing down as chair of the child abuse inquiry, Downing Street has announced this afternoon.

She decided over the weekend and is putting out a statement about now. The prime minister’s spokesman made the announcement at the Number 10 lobby briefing.

The Home Office was forced to defend the appointment of Devon peer Baroness Butler-Sloss to run the inquiry into allegations of an establishment cover-up of child abuse amid claims she refused to go public about a bishop implicated in a scandal.

Lady Butler-Sloss told a victim of alleged abuse she did not want to include the allegations in a review of how the Church of England dealt with two paedophile priests because she “cared about the Church” and “the press would love a bishop”, according to The Times.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
CBS Pittsburgh

[with video]

Christine D’Antonio

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A local pastor has been arrested, accused of sexually assaulting a teenager.

Duane Youngblood with the “Higher Call World Outreach Church” in Homestead was charged Saturday with corrupting a minor.

The boy, now 21, told police Youngblood sexually abused him over a period of two-and-a-half years while Youngblood was supposed to be counseling him at the church. The assaults allegedly happened in the church office, bathroom and back room.

Reverend Scott Entwisle who lives directly across the street from Youngblood said, “If it is proven it’s horrendous it’s you know worse than horrible … what can I say?”

The victim told police that the abuse started in 2009 and ended in 2011 when he was a freshman in college and told Youngblood he didn’t want to be counseled by him anymore.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Portsmouth News

A REPORT into how a child sex offender was able to use church networks to abuse boys has been published – 10 years after it was completed.

The report, published by the Diocese of Chichester and Chichester Cathedral, was commissioned following the conviction of Terence Banks in May 2001, for a string of sex offences.

Banks was convicted of 32 sexual offences against 12 boys over 29 years.

The report was commissioned by the previous Bishop of Chichester, The Rt Revd Dr John Hind following the trial.

In a joint statement, the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner and the Cathedral Chapter, said: ‘Today, as we publish this report, first and foremost our thoughts are with the survivors and their families. The effects of abuse can last a lifetime.

‘And the passing of the years may or may not have resulted in any kind of healing.

‘As Christians we are profoundly ashamed of abuse that has happened in church or church institutions.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Mon, Jul 14, 2014

In a highly unusual move, senior Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, intervened yesterday to deny comments allegedly made by Pope Francis to Rome daily, La Repubblica, in relation to the issues of clerical sex abuse and priestly celibacy.

In an interview with one of the paper’s founders, former editor Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis was quoted as saying that cardinals had been involved in acts of clerical sex abuse, while he also allegedly said he would “find a solution” to the question of priestly celibacy. In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Fr Lombardi suggested that, given Mr Scalfari had been working from his memory rather than from a recorded interview, some of the comments attributed to the pope were not accurate.

He said: “For example, this applies to two statements which have aroused a lot of interest but which are not attributable to the pope. That is when the pope says that there are cardinals amongst the ranks of paedophile priests and also when he says in relation to the question of priestly celibacy that he ‘will find a solution’.”

Accusation

Fr Lombardi even goes on to accuse Mr Scalfari of perhaps attempting to manipulate ingenuous readers by his use (or lack of) of quotation marks. Despite the Vatican spokesman’s denials, however, one can only conclude that whatever about the wording, there is much truth in the sentiments attributed to the pope.

For a start, there is nothing new about accusations of a cardinal being involved in clerical sex abuse. Remember that in March 2013, Scottish cardinal, Keith O’Brien, withdrew from the conclave that elected Francis because of his involvement in a sex scandal involving seminarians. The cardinal even issued a statement in which he confessed that “my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”.

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VATICAN CITY
Tempo (Philippines)

Ignacio Bunye

Pope Francis recently backed with strong action his pronouncements to hold officials accountable in connection with the sex scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church.

On his assumption as pontiff, Pope Francis announced “zero tolerance” for the sex abuses which he called “the shame of the Church.” He further said that dealing with the sex abuse allegations was “vital to the Roman Catholic Church’s credibility.”

Last December, he announced the creation of a Vatican committee that will help fight child abuse in the Church.

Three weeks ago, BBC reported that the Vatican tribunal convicted a Polish archbishop and stripped him of his priesthood because of sexual abuse.

The archbishop is the highest ranking Church official so far investigated. He was found guilty of charges that he had abused boys in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, during his assignment in that city as a papal ambassador.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Sounak Mukhopadhyay | July 14, 2014

Pope Francis said that one in every 50 clergymen is a paedophile.

The revelation came from the pontiff as he was quoted saying the around two per cent of all the clergymen in the Catholic Church are paedophiles. The claim is apparently based on reliable data. According to the pope, paedophilia is contaminating the church like “leprosy.” However, he claimed to have vowed to deal with it with “severity.” The pope’s claim also indicated that there were 8,000 paedophile priests in the world.

The pope’s statement appeared on Italian newspaper La Repubblica. He said in the interview that he would follow what Jesus did and “use the stick against the paedophile priests.” Paedophilia exists even among bishops and cardinals, he said. The pope said that the corruption of a child was the most terrible one. He also said that most of the child-victims came from the church family or from the community of old friends.

Father Federico Lombardi, one of the spokesmen from the Vatican, on the other hand, said that it was not exactly what the pope had said. The pope was interviewed by the editor of the newspaper, Eugenio Scalfari, on Thursday, July 10. It was presented more like a tête-à-tête rather than an official interview. Scalfari apparently does not have the habit of recording his interviews in digital recorders. On the other hand, Father Lombardi claimed that the pontiff had not checked how accurately the interview was presented before it got published. He also denied that Pope Francis had said that there were paedophile cardinals.

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VATICAN CITY
Christian Today

14 July 2014 | Carey Lodge

Pope Francis believes “about 2 per cent” of Catholic clergy are paedophiles, according to an Italian newspaper.

La Repubblica ran a three-page ‘interview’ with the Pope, in which he referred to the abuse of minors as like “a leprosy in our home” and branded the presence of paedophilia within the Church as “intolerable”.

It is “the most terrible and unclean thing imaginable”, the Pontiff continued, vowing to “confront it with the severity it demands”.

He said his advisors estimated that 1 in 50 members of clergy were involved in child sex abuse, and – allegedly – noted that it includes “even bishops and cardinals”.

“And others, even more numerous, know about it but keep quiet, they punish without saying the reason why.”

However, a Vatican spokesperson has criticised La Repubblica for presenting the Pope’s words as an interview without quoting Francis accurately.

Father Federico Lombardi released a statement highlighting that alleged quotes attributed to the Pope “come from the expert journalist Scalfari’s own memory of what the Pope said and is not an exact transcription of a recording nor a review of such a transcript by the Pope himself”.

Lombardi refutes the claim that Francis implicated “some cardinals” in the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Church in recent years, despite the admission of Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien that his “sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”.

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VATICAN CITY
Headlines from the Catholic World

Vatican City, Jul 13, 2014 / 05:49 pm (CNA).- The Vatican spokesperson said that Pope’s words reported in an article in the Italian newspaper “La Repubblica” cannot be considered with certainty Pope Francis words.

Fr. Federico Lombardi of the Holy See Press Office pointed out “explicit acknowledgment” of making “a manipulation for naive readers” in the interview.

“La Repubblica” published July 13 an article by his founder Eugenio Scalfari, reporting about a conversation he had with Pope Francis July 10.

The conversation is about the two hot topics of mafia and clergy sex abuses on minors, which Pope Francis recently dealt with.

“Pedophilia, Mafia: the Church, the people of God, priests, community, will be entrusted, among other things, of these very important issues,” Pope Francis reportedly said.

Pope Francis met with victims of clergy sex abuse in the Vatican July 7, asking forgiveness to the victims for the abuses and for the omissions of the hierarchy; and reiterated the excommunication to Mafia people July 5, during his one day trip to the small diocese of Cassano all’Jonio, Calabria, Southern Italy, in one of the territories most infiltrated by Mafia people.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

David Mellor says Tory ‘rent boy parties’ claim is improbable tittle-tattle: Former minister hits back at claims made by political activist

By SAM GREENHILL and JOHN STEVENS

A former political activist triggered a furious response yesterday by claiming Tory grandees attended rent boy parties in the 1980s.

Anthony Gilberthorpe alleged he witnessed top Conservatives having sex with boys at cocaine-fuelled romps in private rooms at seaside conferences.

He named four senior figures, all now deceased, among those he says were at the sordid parties. But his allegations were denounced as ‘improbable tittle-tattle’ by former minister David Mellor who accused Mr Gilberthorpe of smearing the dead.

The 52-year-old was an aspiring politician when he attended Tory party conferences, starting in 1978 when he was 17.

He claimed he was ‘manipulated and groomed’ to procure underage rent boys for private sex parties on the orders of senior figures in Margaret Thatcher’s government.

He alleged boys as young as 15 were plied with alcohol and cocaine before they had sex with powerful politicians.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Scotsman

AN INQUIRY into allegations of child sex abuse at the heart of the Establishment is likely to turn up fresh claims about the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury has admitted.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said it was something he dealt with daily and it was becoming clearer that “for many, many years things were not dealt with as they should have been dealt with”.

Abuse survivors must now be shown justice and the Church must be “absolutely transparent” every step of the way, he said when interviewed yesterday.

Asked if he was braced for the inquiry to uncover “bad stories”, Archbishop Welby replied: “I would love to say there weren’t, but I expect there are. There are in almost every institution in this land.

“This is, it’s something I deal with every day and it is becoming clearer and clearer that for many, many years things were not dealt with as they should have been dealt with.

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UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

LAUREN RAAB

An interview that credits Pope Francis as saying about 2% of Roman Catholic clerics are pedophiles stirred controversy Sunday, as the Vatican sought to raise questions about the article’s accuracy and others called on the pope to take more action on the issue.

The remarks, reported in in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, came a week after the pope asked for forgiveness in his first meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse.

The interview by Eugenio Scalfari, published Sunday, quotes the pope as calling the rash of sex abuse scandals “a leprosy in our home” and saying the pedophiles include “priests and even bishops and cardinals,” according to a CBS News translation. “And others, even more numerous, know about it but keep quiet, they punish without saying the reason why. I find this state of things untenable and it is my intention to confront it with the severity it requires.”

The Vatican has pushed back on some points. According to Vatican officials, Scalfari does not record his conversations with the pope nor transcribe them word for word. News.va, an official Vatican news source, cited Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi as saying Scalfari quotes Francis from memory alone, and that the pope does not review the results before publication.

Lombardi did not rebut any assertions Francis was said to have made, but raised questions about the lack of a closing quotation mark at the end of the paragraph that included the 2% figure.

“A lapse of memory or an explicit acknowledgment the naif reader is being manipulated?” he asked.

Meanwhile, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said the “real percentage of predator priests” is much higher than 2% and called on the pope to defrock clerics who participate in cover-ups.

“I’m convinced that no threat of penalty will deter a child molester,” David Clohessy, executive director of SNAP, told the Los Angeles Times. However, he said, “defrocking a bishop or cardinal who hides abuse would have an enormous deterrent effect.”

“I would challenge fans of this pope to name a single step he’s taken that has had a practical impact on the crisis,” Clohessy said. “He’s made significant, dramatic, quick effective steps to transform church governance and finances. He obviously has both massive power and the willingness to use it, but not on this crisis.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bedfordshire on Sunday

Written by STEVE LOWE

AT long last there could be hope for those historically abused at a former Catholic boys home.
The Government, under pressure itself, is setting up an inquiry into historic abuse.

And the current Pope has also promised to listen and act on allegations of abuse by Catholic priests. St Francis Home, in Shefford, took boys from across the county and wider, where, instead of being cared for, they were systematically abused, both physically and sexually.

While we have been reporting this for more than a decade, so far no arm of the Establishment has taken any action.

They told us of a paedophile ring, which we reported and the Establishment ignored. They told us that at some homes, not necessarily St Francis, boys were ‘hired out’ to paedophiles, some of whom were high ranking and famous, which we reported and the Establishment ignored.

This newspaper also demonstrated that Savile visited the home. Two did take legal action and won out of court settlements. And many of them are currently taking out a class action against the Catholic Church. The police are also investigating claims of abuse, for the third time, but it does not look hopeful.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

Pope Francis has revealed “about 2%” of clergy in the Catholic Church are are paedophiles.

The astonishing claim is a result of research conducted by the Vatican.

Speaking to the Italian La Repubblica newspaper, the Pope said the abuse of children was like “leprosy” infecting the Church that needed confronting with “the severity it demands”.

He added: “I find this state of affairs intolerable.”

The 2% figure would mean 8,000 clergy out of a global number of about 414,000 are paedophiles including priests, bishops and cardinals.

But a Vatican spokesman claimed the quotes were not wholly accurate and did not correspond exactly to the Pope’s words.

Father Federico Lombardi denied the claims related to Cardinals

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PENNSYLVANIA
WPXI

PITTSBURGH — The pastor of a church in Homestead is facing charges for alleged sexual abuse, police said.

According to a criminal complaint, the unidentified 21-year-old victim claims Duane Youngblood, pastor of the Higher Call World Outreach church, molested him multiple times over a two-and-a-half year period when he was a teenager.

The victim told investigators that the alleged sexual abuse began when he started going to counseling with Youngblood at the age of 16, police said.

During the first counseling session at Youngblood’s church office, Youngblood allegedly took the victim to a back room and told him to pull down his pants. Youngblood then began touching the boy inappropri

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

PAUL PEACHEY Author Biography CRIME CORRESPONDENT Sunday 13 July 2014

Disgraced vicars convicted of child sex attacks have abused their former Church titles by posing as respected members of society, victims claimed last night, after the Archbishop of Canterbury warned that new cases of abuse by clergy were likely to emerge.

Justin Welby said the Church had to be absolutely transparent, after learning from victims of cover-ups, bungled investigations and the devastating long-term impact of abuse, at a fringe meeting of the Synod of the Church of England. His comments came as the Pope described child abuse as “leprosy” that affected 2 per cent of clergy in the Roman Catholic Church and was determined to confront the problem.

The figure would represent some 8,000 out of a global figure of more than 400,000 priests worldwide.

The intervention of two of Christianity’s most prominent religious figures highlighted the damaging legacy of long-term child abuse and the failure of organised religion to confront the problem.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

David Brown

Calls for Baroness Butler-Sloss to be removed as head of the inquiry into historical claims of child abuse intensified yesterday following further lurid allegations against political figures.

The government is considering appointing a co-chairman of the independent panel following growing concerns about the former judge’s close links to the establishment.

James Brokenshire, a Home Office minister, said the department was “working on” the idea of appointing a co-chairman from a panel of experts.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

Pope Francis has been quoted as saying that reliable data indicates that “about 2%” of clergy in the Catholic Church are paedophiles.

The Pope said that abuse of children was like “leprosy” infecting the Church, according to the Italian La Repubblica newspaper.

He vowed to “confront it with the severity it demands”.

But a Vatican spokesman said the quotes in the newspaper did not correspond to Pope Francis’s exact words.

The BBC’s David Willey in Rome says there is often a studied ambiguity in Pope Francis’ off-the-cuff statements.

He wants to show a more compassionate attitude towards Church teaching than his predecessors, but this can sometimes cause consternation among his media advisers, our correspondent adds.

Analysis: David Willey, BBC News, Rome

When is a papal interview not an interview? Sunday’s edition of La Repubblica devotes its first three pages to an account of a conversation between Pope Francis and editor Eugenio Scalfari, which took place last Thursday. Papal spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a sharp note that it was not an interview in the normal sense of the word, although he admitted it conveyed the “sense and the spirit” of the conversation.

Mr Scalfari does not use a digital recorder, and Father Lombardi said Pope Francis never checked the accuracy of the interview.

Until now, the Vatican has declined to quantify the extent of clerical sexual abuse scandals in the worldwide Church. Statistics are usually available only for countries in the developed world. In the developing world, information is usually only sketchy.

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