UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

27 FEBRUARY 2015

A Catholic priest dubbed the “fat vicar” is facing jail after he was found guilty of sexually abusing a teenage boy at a children’s home.

Father Anthony McSweeney, 68, preyed on the vulnerable youngster while working at Grafton Close Children’s Home in Hounslow, west London, between 1979 and 1981. Morbidly obese McSweeney was also found guilty of making indecent images of children.

He preyed on the boy with his close friend John Stingemore, 72, who managed the care home and was found dead in January – weeks before his trial.

Wearing a black suit and red tie and carrying a walking stick, McSweeney stared straight ahead as the jury of six men and five women returned their verdicts at London’s Southwark Crown Court. He was cleared of three indecent assaults on two other boys at the care home and taking a pornographic photo of one of these boys.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

27 February 2015 by Tina Beattie

Pope Francis has made clear that the question of married priests is open for discussion. Priestly celibacy is a discipline rather than a doctrine. It only became compulsory in the Middle Ages, though there is debate as to how common it was before then. There is already a de facto married Catholic priesthood made up of former Anglican priests who have joined the mainstream Church or the Ordinariate. Particularly in Africa, many Catholic priests have “wives” and children, even if these are not publicly acknowledged by the Church.

People often assume that, as a feminist theologian and supporter of women’s ordination, I also support a married priesthood. However, I am more ambivalent about married priests, not because I am a man-hating feminist harpy (though I am amused to find myself described in those terms), but because I am orthodox when it comes to the doctrinal and sacramental mysteries of our faith.

Liberal Catholics tend to be uncritical in their embrace of progress. Women’s ordination becomes conflated with married priests as part of this progressive liberalism, but the concept of progress is itself deeply flawed. It is a myth rooted in modern Western superiority over other historical and cultural traditions. Rather, we must ask how our faith allows eternity to shimmer within the contingencies and complexities of history, and for that we must nurture the sacramental imagination.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Remember the National Review Board, the panel set up 13 years ago to “oversee” bishops and “help investigate and look for solutions to the scandal.”

[SNAP]

Know who chairs it now?

How about the name of the immediate past chair?

Can you name even one person who is one the board?

Is there a single thing you can remember that it has done in recent years?

I didn’t think so.

But don’t feel bad. No one really knows who’s on the board or chairs the board or what the board’s done.

Because it’s done virtually nothing for more than a decade.

Like almost all the “reforms” adopted by the church hierarchy, the NRB has turned out to be lots of hype but little else. “The so-called watchdog has quickly become a lap dog,” we wrote about the NRB years ago.

(Given this, I hope it’s easier to understand why we have so little hope for the new Vatican abuse panel.)

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

PADRAIC MURPHY HERALD SUN FEBRUARY 27, 2015

A FORMER Catholic priest jailed for molesting students at a Bendigo boarding school is fighting compensation claims brought by his victims.

James Jennings, 81, was jailed last year after being found guilty of molesting boys in his car at St Vincent’s college boarding school in the mid-1960s.

Two victims are now trying to make Jennings pay compensation personally.

Jennings — who maintains his innocence — yesterday attacked one of the victims, claiming he had misled the court by saying he was not motivated by compensation and the jury’s decision may have been different had they known of the compensation claim.

“During my trial (he) very clearly stated he was not interested in money. He had agreed to press charges to assist other victims,” Jennings yesterday told County Court Judge Wendy Wilmoth.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

A 55-year-old Archdiocesan priest tried to entire a child into sex and distributed and possessed child pornography, according to a federal indictment.

Mark. D. Haynes, 55, most recently a vicar at Saints Simon and Jude in West Chester, was awaiting a trial in Chester County court scheduled for April on state charges of possession of child pornography when he was federally indicted last week.

According to the indictment, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tipped off Chester County detectives that someone was posting child pornography online in April 2014 using a particular Internet protocol (IP) and the email account irishwit2@gmail.com. Investigators tracked the IP address to the Saints Simon and Jude Church in West Chester and interviewed Haynes, who admitted irishwit2@gmail.com was his email account. He also admitted viewing nude photos of high school-aged children, authorities said. He also told investigators that in 2010 he posed online as a 16-year-old girl and – via the Internet – convinced a 14-year-old girl to send him images of herself masturbating, according to the indictment. He also admitted sending the teen pornographic images, according to authorities.

Chester County detectives filed charges against Haynes in October, but he was released on $200,000 bail pending trial. However, after the federal indictment was filed, Haynes was arrested by the FBI and he is being held in federal prison.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Kathryn Magann

The headmaster of Sydney’s Knox Grammar School has delivered an emotional apology over the cover-up of years of sexual abuse at the prestigious boys school.

The royal commission into child sexual abuse has been examining reports of abuse of students at the school from the 1970s through to 2003.

Five teachers from the school have been convicted over sexual and indecent assaults on students.

Headmaster Dr John Weeks began his testimony to the commission with an apology.

He said the victims of abuse were the men of integrity, and the abusers were the men of shame.

“To the men who were sexually abused as young boys, I want you to know this. You did nothing wrong, those teachers and resident masters did. And they do stand condemned by their own admissions,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Royal commission into child sex abuse: Please call home, mother tells fugitive former Knox teacher Chris Fotis who failed to appear

February 27, 2015

Rick Feneley

The mother of fugitive teacher Chris Fotis wants him to call home and assure her that he is safe following his failure to appear before the royal commission into the responses to child abuse.

Police issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr Fotis, 52, following his failure to appear before the commission in Sydney on Tuesday to give evidence about his time teaching at Knox Grammar in the 1980s, when he was among teachers who are now suspected of child abuse.

Lois Fotis told Fairfax Media she did she did not know her son’s whereabouts, nor did she know about the allegations raised at the royal commission.

“No I didn’t,” she said from her Nelson Bay home at Port Stephens on Friday.

Her partner, Richard, said: “It was last Tuesday week when he left here. He didn’t say anything. He should have rung her at least to say he was all right.”

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ITALIA
L’Unione Sarda:

[A Franciscan monk is accused of sexually abusing a 19 year old disabled person and a minor.]

Con l’accusa di presunti abusi sessuali su una disabile di 19 anni e su un minorenne, un frate francescano è stato arrestato a Lugo, in Galizia, dalla guardia civile.

Il religioso, J.Q., prestava servizio nella comunità di O Cebreiro e le manette sono scattate due giorni fa lungo il Cammino francese di Santiago a seguito delle indagini avviate dopo le denunce dei parenti delle vittime. Nella sua abitazione sono stati sequestrati computer, cellulare e dispositivi elettronici, con un archivio di video in cui il francescano appare mantenendo rapporti con la minore.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

A reform of the Curia is high on Archbishop-elect Charles Scicluna’s to do list, and he is not excluding a change in personnel.

Speaking during a news conference at the Curia in Floriana during which he was officially named Malta’s next Archbishop, Mgr Scicluna said expert reports had been drafted on a review of the Maltese Church’s top personnel and he would be looking into them.

He said he wanted to have youth around him but also would not disregard experience and those who had already done so much to help the church in Malta.

The Archbishop said he had already been thinking very deeply about this.

“I wouldn’t call them sleepless nights but my sleep hasn’t been as peaceful as it had been. The Curia needs restructuring,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Fox News

Published February 27, 2015

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has named the Vatican’s former sex crimes prosecutor, Charles Scicluna, as archbishop of his native Malta.

The Vatican announcement Friday made clear that Scicluna would continue dealing with the abuse scandal, heading a Vatican committee to hear appeals of priests sanctioned for molesting minors.

Scicluna was named auxiliary bishop of Malta in 2012 after a decade in Rome prosecuting abuse cases. He effectively took over running the Malta archdiocese last year after the incumbent retired.

When he left Rome, Vatican watchers wondered if the tough line on abuse that he had championed would go soft, and if he was being punished for having done his job too well.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Schwaebische

– Die Benediktinerabtei Ettal hat sich entsetzt über das späte Missbrauchs-Geständnis eines ihrer ehemaligen Präfekten und Religionslehrers geäußert. „Dass die Opfer über die erlittenen Übergriffe hinaus so viele Jahre auf Gerechtigkeit warten mussten und sogar einem langwierigen Verfahren ausgesetzt waren, erschüttert uns und tut uns zutiefst leid“, erklärte Abt Barnabas in der Nacht zum Freitag.

Der 44-jährige angeklagte Pater hatte bei Prozessbeginn sexuelle Handlungen an vier Internats-Schülern noch bestritten, sich aber am Donnerstag vor dem Münchner Landgericht während der Vernehmung eines Opfers überraschend bei diesem entschuldigt. In einem anschließenden Gespräch zwischen den Beteiligten wurde dem Angeklagten für ein Geständnis eine Bewährungsstrafe zwischen 21 und 24 Monaten zugesagt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
kath.net

Ex-Benediktiner gestand, in mehr als 20 Fällen sexuelle Übergriffe gegen drei 12- bis 15-jährige Schüler verübt zu haben: Er hatte ihnen in die Hose gegriffen und sie am Geschlechtsteil gestreichelt – Stellungnahme der Benediktiner-Abtei Ettal

München (kath.net/KNA) Überraschende Wende im Ettaler Missbrauchsprozess: Nach der Zusage einer Bewährungsstrafe durch den Richter hat der angeklagte Benediktinerpater G. (44) am Donnerstag vor dem Landgericht München II ein umfassendes Geständnis abgelegt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Radio Bamberg

[The Benedictine Abbey of Ettal has expressed shock at the abuse confession of their former prefect and religion teacher.]

27. Februar 2015 11:33

Ettal (dpa/lby) – Die Benediktinerabtei Ettal hat sich entsetzt über das späte Missbrauchs-Geständnis eines ihrer ehemaligen Präfekten und Religionslehrers geäußert. «Dass die Opfer über die erlittenen Übergriffe hinaus so viele Jahre auf Gerechtigkeit warten mussten und sogar einem langwierigen Verfahren ausgesetzt waren, erschüttert uns und tut uns zutiefst leid», erklärte Abt Barnabas in der Nacht zum Freitag.

Der 44-jährige angeklagte Pater hatte bei Prozessbeginn sexuelle Handlungen an vier Internats-Schülern noch bestritten, sich aber am Donnerstag vor dem Münchner Landgericht während der Vernehmung eines Opfers überraschend bei diesem entschuldigt. In einem anschließenden Gespräch zwischen den Beteiligten wurde dem Angeklagten für ein Geständnis eine Bewährungsstrafe zwischen 21 und 24 Monaten zugesagt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sexueller Missbrauch durch Angehörige der katholischen Kirche im Bistum Trier

Claudia Adams

Bistum Trier / Admont: “Dem Bistum sind keine Missbrauchsvorwürfe bekannt, die sich auf die Dienstzeit des damals sehr engagierten und anerkannten Seelsorgers im Bistum Trier beziehen”
“Betreff: Adhoc: Verfahren gegen Ordensmann in Österreich
Wichtigkeit: Hoch

Sehr geehrter Herr Bischof, sehr geehrte Herren Weihbischöfe, sehr geehrter Herr Generalvikar, sehr geehrter Herr Dompropst, sehr geehrter Herr Offizial, sehr geehrte Damen und Herren der Leitungskonferenz, sehr geehrte Führungskräfte, sehr geehrte Dechanten, sehr geehrte Dienst- und Fachstellenleiter, sehr geehrte Schulleiterinnen und Schulleiter, sehr geehrte Kolleginnen und Kollegen der GesamtMAV, sehr geehrte Mitglieder des Kirchensteuerrates,

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

Former Anglican priest at Brookfield Andrew Peter Stabback Johns pleads guilty to making and possessing 1000 child porn images

BROOKE BASKIN THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 27, 2015

A FRAIL octogenarian and former Anglican priest has escaped jail after repairs on his laptop unearthed a cache of “sadist” child pornography collected and doctored over four years.

Andrew Peter Stabback Johns, 88, pleaded guilty in the District Court at Brisbane to making and possessing more than 1000 child exploitation images and storing them in a folder on his computer between 2010 and 2014.

Judge Leanne Clare sentenced Johns, who struggled to hear the proceedings and clutched a walking stick, to 15-months behind bars but suspended it immediately for an operational period of two years.

Crown prosecutor Matt Hynes said the case was “unusual” because only three images showed naked boys while the majority were “innocent” images of children that were captioned by Johns “in such a way as to make them child exploitation material”.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

After nine trials spanning 12 years St Joseph’s teacher Brother John Maguire faces sentencing for child sex offences

After nine separate trials spanning 12 years, Brother John Dennis Maguire was used to being in a courtroom.

But when the 71-year-old priest sat in the dock on Friday it was the first time he had faced the prospect of being sentenced for a crime.

From 1978 to the mid-1980s, Maguire was a teacher and dorm master at St Joseph’s College in Hunters Hill, an exclusive Catholic school run by the Marist Brothers.

In 2002, he was charged with multiple sexual offences in relation to several students at the school, with the complainants alleging that he would target boys who were homesick – comforting them and then sexually assaulting them.

Maguire pleaded not guilty to the charges and his lawyers successfully applied for each of the allegations to be heard separately.

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NORWAY
News in English

Bishop Bernt Eidsvig, the top official of the Catholic Church in Norway, has formally denied charges that he and other leaders of the Catholic diocese in Oslo swindled the Norwegian state to the tune of NOK 50 million. He claimed the leadership and staff of the church were “extremely unhappy” over the charges and would cooperate with the police investigation.

Eidsvig, the diocese itself and its finance director were charged on Thursday with fraudulently obtaining state funding based on false membership statistics for the church. County officials had already accused the diocese of inflating its membership numbers, which are used to determine amounts of state funding for all religious organizations in Norway.

“Our intention was never to register anyone (as a member of the church) against their will, or to obtain support for non-Catholics,” Eidsvig wrote in a press release Thursday evening. The church has been accused of registering all immigrants to Norway who come from largely Catholic countries, without asking them whether they actually wanted to join the church.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The deadline for responding to the Royal Commission’s consultation paper on redress and civil litigation has been extended until midday 9 March 2015.

Interested community groups and individuals can respond to the paper by writing a formal submission to redress@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au or make short comments on specific issues by filling out an online feedback form.

The consultation paper was launched by Royal Commission Chair Justice Peter McClellan on 30 January 2015.

The consultation paper can be found on the Royal Commission website.

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

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

27 February, 2015

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing commencing on Tuesday 14 April 2015 at the Rockhampton Court House, Virgil Power Building, 46 East Street, Rockhampton.

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

The experiences of a number of men and women who were resident at St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975;
The responses of:

a. the Sisters of Mercy
b. the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton, and
c. the Queensland state government to complaints made by former residents of St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol of child sexual abuse by workers, priests and nuns at the Orphanage between 1993 and present.

Any related matters.

Any person or institution who believes that they have a direct and substantial interest in the scope and purpose of the public hearing is invited to lodge a written application for leave to appear at the public hearing by 20 March 2015.

Applications for leave to appear should be made using the form available on the Royal Commission website.

The form and the submission should be lodged with the Royal Commission via:

Email: solicitor@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au;
or Mail: GPO Box 5283, Sydney NSW 2001.

Interested individuals and organisations are encouraged to view the proceedings via the webcast on the Royal Commission’s website.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

by Madeleine Davies

Posted: 27 Feb 2015

SURVIVORS of abuse have warned that thousands of people are likely to come forward with testimonies of sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy in the national inquiry into historic child abuse. They are calling on the Church of England to establish a panel for redress now rather than wait to be compelled to do so.

The Bishop in charge of safeguarding, the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, has cautioned against predicting numbers.

A spokeswoman for survivors of abuse within churches, Anne Lawrence, said this month that the Church would face a “deluge” of complaints.

“The Church should set up a redress board and ensure that all complainants can go there, and be provided with support from a range of services, including survivor organisations,” she said. “Research has consistently shown that over 90 per cent of allegations are true. But not one redress board has been set up. People are taking churches to court because, despite the confessions of offenders, convictions, and evidence within files, there is no willingness to provide redress. Going through the courts is a continuation of the abuse suffered and retraumatises the victims/survivors.”

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A Catholic brother pedophile who subjected a boy to two years of sexual abuse shouldn’t go to jail, his lawyer has argued.

John Dennis Maguire, 71, was last November convicted of six counts of indecent assault, relating to the abuse of a student at an exclusive Sydney private school in 1983 and 1984.

The boy, who was aged 11 and 12 at the time of the sexual abuse, had oral sex performed on him and, on four occasions, was lured into a room where Maguire rubbed cream on his genitals, a Sydney court heard during a sentencing hearing.

While the boy was sleeping in a school dorm, which Maguire was in charge of, he woke up to find the then 39-year-old half-naked, crouching next to his bed performing oral sex on him.

Maguire then took the boy into his office and continued the abuse, the court heard.

The prosecution said the offences were grave and serious and Maguire deserved jail time.

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LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

By Ken Daley, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on February 26, 2015

A youth minister at Lakeview’s First Baptist New Orleans church was arrested this week after New Orleans police said a 14-year-old girl confirmed an illicit relationship with the 33-year-old married man.

Jonathan Bailey was booked with one count of indecent behavior with a juvenile, two weeks after being fired and escorted off church property. Bailey was arrested Monday (Feb. 23) at 9:30 a.m. at his home in the 200 block of West Brooks Street, punctuating a scandal that Senior Pastor David Crosby said has left him and his church “devastated.”

“We do everything in our power to keep children safe in our ministry,” Crosby said. “This is just a shock and a tremendous sadness to us.”

Bailey, who had served as the church’s youth minister for more than two years, “is no longer on staff,” said Crosby, who fired the minister Feb. 9. “We had no red flags on him. We do criminal background checks on every staff member and volunteer who works with children. We try to be very careful.”

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague Daily Monitor

Havlickuv Brod, East Bohemia, Feb 26 (CTK) – A Czech court Thursday sentenced Erik Tvrdon, a priest from Havlickuv Brod, to five years in jail for the rape and sexual abuse of several women, it ordered his institutional treatment and banned him from working with children for five years.

The verdict has not taken effect, since the state attorney appealed it as too mild.

The court did not accept Tvrdon’s assertion that the accusations were but a conspiracy aimed to destroy him.

The police launched the investigation of the case based on a report from a 38-year-old woman.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Thursday 26 February 2015

Staff who abused boys at Knox Grammar have been condemned as “men of shame” by the headmaster of the Sydney private school.

John Weeks, headmaster at the Wahroonga school since 2004, is giving evidence at a royal commission hearing into how Knox and the Uniting church handled abuse allegations over a 30-year-period.

He said he wanted to apologise to the victims and their families for the pain they had suffered.

In 2007, Weeks apologised on behalf of the school and said on Friday that he realised no amount of apology could change what happened.

“I do want to say to the young men, here and listening, to the survivors, that I sincerely apologise for the sexual abuse inflicted upon you as young innocent boys,” he told the hearing in Sydney. “There is absolutely no excuse.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 27, 2015

Ean Higgins
Reporter
Sydney

THE current headmaster of Knox Grammar School, John Weeks, believed a teacher, Adrian Nisbett, had committed criminal child sexual abuse but chose to allow him to resign rather than sack him, and waited three years to report him to police.

Mr Weeks also allowed a pedophile teacher, Craig Treloar, to remain on staff for two years until he was arrested, knowing that he had shown a pornographic video to a boy while plying him with cigarettes and alcohol, and asked the boy to perform a sexual act which the boy refuse

Treloar, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard today, continued to coach sports teams right up to his arrest, although, Mr Weeks said, he had understood he had been removed from those duties.

While Mr Weeks did talk to police about Treloar, this was not until some years after he became headmaster when, he said, he received further information.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Il Santo Padre Francesco ha nominato Arcivescovo Metropolita di Malta S.E. Mons. Charles Jude Scicluna, finora Vescovo titolare di San Leone ed Amministratore Apostolico dell’Arcidiocesi di Malta.

S.E. Mons. Charles Jude Scicluna

S.E. Mons. Charles Jude Scicluna è nato a Toronto, in Canada, il 15 maggio 1959. Dopo le scuole secondarie, ha compiuto gli studi presso il Seminario maggiore di Malta e frequentato l’Università locale, ottenendo la Laurea in Diritto Civile e la Licenza in S. Teologia. Successivamente ha conseguito anche la Laurea in Diritto Canonico presso la Pontificia Università Gregoriana a Roma.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 27, 2015

Rachel Browne

Knox Grammar School was advised to destroy documents relating to child sexual abuse while at the same time preparing an apology to victims, a royal commission has heard.

A series of emails tendered in evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse revealed an unnamed solicitor had recommended the destruction of documents in 2009, following the arrests of five teachers who abused children at the Uniting Church school.

In one email with the subject heading: “apology drafts”, implicates former moderator of the Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of NSW and the ACT, James Mein in the act.

“The solicitor who drafted this is one who has been advising the school to destroy documents, with Jim’s assistance,” Uniting Church manager of insurance and property services Dwane Freehely wrote.

Rob Wannan, a high profile solicitor and chairman of the Knox Grammar School Council from 2007-13, said the “Jim” in the email was likely to be Mr Mein but denied that he, Mr Wannan, ordered the destruction of the documents.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

THE headmaster of Knox Grammar says when he took over at the school, he wanted to sack an alleged pedophile teacher “on the spot” but was advised he could not.

John Weeks, who became headmaster at the private school on Sydney’s north shore in 2004, said the Association of Independent Schools advised him there weren’t sufficient grounds to sack Adrian Nisbett.

Mr Weeks told a royal commission hearing into child sex abuse there were “red flags” everywhere about Nisbett, who had been at the school since 1971.

He said Nisbett had been “a protected species at Knox Grammar School” when Ian Paterson was headmaster.

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SPAIN
The Local

Spain’s bishops conference on Thursday defended the right of priests to maintain the secrecy of the confessional booth even in cases of serious crimes such as the sexual abuse of children.

“Not reporting a crime learned of in the course of the secret of confession is not a cover up or a crime,” the secretary general of the Spanish bishops conference, Jose Maria Gil Tamayo, told a news conference.

This principle applied even in cases of sexual crimes, he added.

“This legal principle is recognised by the Spanish state for all religions,” he said. Spain’s Catholic Church followed Holy See directives on the issue, he added.

His comments come as Spain is grappling with its biggest ever paedophilia scandal involving the Catholic Church in terms of the number of suspects.

A Spanish court last month charged 10 Catholic priests and two laymen with committing or abetting the sexual abuse of a teenage altar boy in the southern city of Cordoba.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

A former headmaster of Knox Grammar lied to students about police arresting a balaclava-wearing sexual predator at the school, one of his assistants has told an inquiry.

Stuart Pearson, former general duties master at the prestigious Sydney school, said Ian Paterson, the principal at Knox for 30 years, discouraged investigations of sexual misbehaviour by teachers.

Mr Pearson, a former policeman, was a resident master at the school from 1985 to 1990 and investigated infringements as part of his job.

He told the sex abuse royal commission there were no restrictions on investigating matters such as misappropriation of funds, but Dr Paterson’s “attitude was different when it came to inappropriate behaviour by teachers”.

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MALTA
Malta Today

[with live stream]

Matthew Vella 27 February 2015

Follow the live press conference announcing Charles Scicluna as Malta’s new archbishop

Mgr Charles Scicluna, 55, will be Malta’s next Archbishop.

Scicluna was Apostolic Administrator since the resignation of Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona in 2014.

Scicluna’s appointment follows years of service at the Vatican where he was as Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, by the side of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI.

He was later tasked with the Church’s fight against sexual abuse by priests. Scicluna is also president of a Vatican College which will consider appeals moved before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith related to serious offences by priests.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Scicluna came to Malta with his family in 1960 and was educated at St Aloysius College and the University of Malta from where he graduated as a lawyer and in theology. He was ordained a priest in 1986.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Without eternal vigilance, the terrible blight on humanity that is the sexual abuse of children can happen at any school; private or public, wealthy or poor.

It can happen anywhere that safeguards are weak, people turn a blind eye or communities place the reputation of an institution above that of the safety of a child.

That the sexual abuse of boys by teachers – and the subsequent failure to act to protect more children – occurred at one of Australia’s elite schools with an otherwise laudable reputation raises concerning issues for all parents.

A three-decade-long open secret about sexual abuse at Knox Grammar on Sydney’s affluent North Shore has been dragged into the public spotlight this week at hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

[live stream]

Malta’s new Archbishop Mgr Charles Scicluna will be addressing the media at noon, at the same time that all parishes have been asked to ring church bells in celebration for his appointment.

The official news of his appointment is expected in today’s Vatican news bulletin, which is also issued at noon.

Mgr Scicluna will be replacing Mgr Paul Cremona, who resigned in October. Mgr Scicluna has been acting as apostolic administrator since the resignation.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: Friday, February 27, 2015

Attorneys have asked a judge to authorize an Albuquerque firm to appraise several Gallup of Diocese properties, including two Catholic schools in Gallup and Thoreau, as a possible source of funds to pay for a bankruptcy reorganization plan.

The bankruptcy case had racked up about $1.86 million in legal and professional costs through Dec. 31, court records show.

Attorneys have asked to appraise St. Bonaventure Indian School, a private Catholic school in Thoreau, and Sacred Heart Catholic School in Gallup. Both teach students from preschool through eighth grade.

St. Bonaventure school contends it is not owned by the diocese, the school’s attorney said this week.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

BOB STEWART, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER STEWARR@PHILLYNEWS.COM, 215-854-4890
POSTED: Friday, February 27, 2015,

A PHILADELPHIA Catholic priest took advantage of a quiet kid when he allegedly molested a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997, a prosecutor told a Common Pleas jury yesterday.

The Rev. Andrew McCormick, 58, is being retried a year after a jury remained deadlocked after more than four days of deliberations.

McCormick is accused of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, endangering the welfare of a child and indecent assault of a child under 13 years of age, among other charges.

In her opening statement yesterday, Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp said that McCormick had “picked and targeted [the victim] because he wouldn’t tell.”

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Malta’s new Archbishop Mgr Charles Scicluna will be addressing the media at noon, at the same time that all parishes have been asked to ring church bells in celebration for his appointment.

The official news of his appointment is expected in today’s Vatican news bulletin, which is also issued at noon.

Mgr Scicluna will be replacing Mgr Paul Cremona, who resigned in October. Mgr Scicluna has been acting as apostolic administrator since the resignation.

This website will be offering readers the opportunity to follow the press conference live.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Mgr Scicluna came to Malta with his family in 1960 and they resided in Qormi. He was educated at St Aloysius College and the University of Malta from where he graduated as a lawyer and in theology. He was ordained a priest in 1986.

In 1991 he also obtained a doctorate in Canon Law in Rome.

Between 1990 and 1995, he was defender of the bond and promoter of justice at Metropolitan Court of Malta, Professor of Pastoral Theology and Canon Law at the local Faculty of Theology and Vice-Rector of the Major Seminary of the Archdiocese. His pastoral activities included service at the parishes of St. Gregory the Great in Sliema and Transfiguration in Iklin. He served as chaplain to the local Convent of St. Catherine.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By RICK FENELEY Feb. 27, 2015

A former Knox Grammar teacher who failed to appear at a royal commission into child abuse this week has not been seen near his Nelson Bay home for days.

An arrest warrant was issued for Chris Fotis when he did not show up to give evidence at the royal commission on Tuesday.

The 52-year-old, who taught religious education, was asked to leave Knox in September 1989 after he was arrested for masturbating outside a school at North Ryde.

The commission has heard he was also suspected of molesting a student while wearing a balaclava in 1988 or 1989. The attacker, wearing a Knox tracksuit, had hid under a bed before groping a student in a boarding house at the school.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A former Knox Grammar teacher who was once arrested for masturbating outside a school is wanted by police after failing to turn up to the Royal Commission into child abuse on Tuesday.

Chris Fotis, 52, has not been seen at his Nelson Bay house for almost a week, with police issuing a warrant for his arrest after the no-show.

Fotis is suspected to be the balaclava-clad man dressed in a Knox tracksuit who hid under a bed and molested a year eight student in a boarding house at the school in the late 1980s.

King’s School headmaster Tim Hawkes, who was at Knox at the time and recently came under fire for his handling of the incident, described the attack as “bizarre” and “frightening.”

Fotis was dismissed from his position as a religion teacher after being arrested in 1989 for masturbating outside a school in North Ryde.

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ESPANA
El Comercio

[The bishops defend the secrecy of confession even in cases of sexual abuse]

ANTONIO PANIAGUA / EFE | MADRID.
27 febrero 2015

La Conferencia Episcopal Española (CEE) defendió ayer el derecho al secreto de confesión, incluso en el caso de presuntos abusos sexuales, en un momento en que la Iglesia española se ve sacudida por un escándalo de pederastia que conmocionó al papa Francisco. «Pese al deber de denunciar los delitos de los que se tenga conocimiento, no existe encubrimiento ni infracción penal alguna al no denunciar un delito del que se ha tenido conocimiento en el ejercicio del secreto de confesión», declaró en rueda de prensa el secretario general y portavoz de la CEE, José María Gil Tamayo. Y precisó que este principio concierne también a los ataques «a la integridad sexual».«Este principio del derecho se reconoce a todas las religiones y confesiones en el Estado español», agregó, subrayando sin embargo que «no hay absolutamente lugar en el ministerio para los que abusan de menores».

Gil Tamayo recordó que España sigue en este punto las directivas de la Santa Sede y citó al papa Francisco, quien desde su elección en marzo de 2013 aboga por la tolerancia cero contra la pederastia, incluso en el seno de la Iglesia, una lacra que podría haber causado decenas de miles de víctimas. Subrayó, eso sí, que si es fuera de la confesión «sí se mantiene la obligación de declarar». En el protocolo que siguen se contemplan también otros dos supuestos, el caso en que una persona denuncie agresión o abusos sexuales ante la diócesis y el caso en que el denunciante acuda directamente a la Policía. En ambos supuestos, según ha apuntado Gil Tamayo, la Iglesia acompaña a las víctimas pero tampoco olvida el derecho de presunción de inocencia del acusado.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

MATT GELB, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Thursday, February 26, 2015

A hung jury resulted last spring in the mistrial of Rev. Andrew McCormick on child sex-assault charges. Lawyers in the retrial that started this week spent parts of four days to select a jury before opening arguments could be heard Thursday afternoon.

The Common Pleas Court jury of 10 women and two men heard accusations of how McCormick, 58, abused a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997 at St. John Cantius Catholic Church in Bridesburg.

Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp, in her opening statement, showed the jury an old photo of the boy while describing a troubled child who was victimized by a man of authority.

Trevan Borum, McCormick’s defense attorney, cautioned the jury from commiserating with the accuser, who will testify, and his family.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

Steve Tawa

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A jury has heard opening statements in a sexual assault case against a Philadelphia priest, nearly a year after another jury was deadlocked after four days of deliberations, and a mistrial was declared.

KYW’s Steve Tawa reports testimony will begin in the morning in the new trial against the same defendant.

Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp told jurors “no 41-year-old adult has a right to touch a child like Father Andrew McCormick did to a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997.”

The defendant is now 59 and the alleged victim, who will take the stand again, is 28.

Kemp says the defendant, known as Father Andy lured the boy up to his 2nd floor room in the rectory at St John Cantius in the Bridesburg section, and the alleged victim was “ashamed, in shock, and too young to understand what happened.”

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UNITED STATES
America

Sean Salai, S.J. | Feb 24 2015

Camille Paglia is an American cultural critic who serves as the University Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she has taught since 1984. She received her B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1968 and her M.Phil and Ph.D degrees from Yale University in 1971 and 1974, respectively. …

What is your impression of Pope Francis so far?

Francis seems like an affable gust of fresh energy after the near-sepulchral persona of the prior pope, who seemed strangely stiff and reserved for a Bavarian. So that’s a big positive, in terms of captivating young people around the world and inspiring them toward charitable social action. However, I am somewhat baffled by the cat-and-mouse game that Francis seems to be playing with the media. Is he or is he not signaling his support of revolutionary reforms in Catholic doctrine?—particularly as it applies to sexuality. As a veteran of the 1960s, I of course strongly support the sexual revolution. But as a student of comparative religion, I have to say that when the Catholic Church trims its doctrine for politically correct convenience, it will no longer be Catholic.

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IOWA
Des Moines Register

William Petroski, bpetrosk@dmreg.com

Victims of child sexual abuse would have more time to file civil lawsuits, and the statute of limitations for child sex crimes would be eliminated, under a bill advanced by an Iowa Senate subcommittee following emotional testimony Thursday.

However, a proposed amendment to Senate File 107 would remove a key provision that says victims of alleged child sexual abuse who are now barred from filing civil lawsuits under Iowa’s statute of limitations would be given a three-year window to commence lawsuits.

The bill was sent to the Iowa Senate Judiciary Committee following testimony from three men who spoke of being sexually abused by clergy members as minors.

Bill LaHay, of Des Moines, who participated as an adult in a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles after sexual abuse he experienced as a child, urged lawmakers to open a window for abuse victims to file civil lawsuits. He said it would help restore the balance of justice.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
l’Espresso

Riesplode VatiLeaks: l’Espresso pubblica i documenti riservatissimi in cui i cardinali si insultano e litigano tra loro per la gestione del potere e di affari milionari. Tutti contro George Pell, il nuovo zar delle finanze chiamato da Bergoglio. Il camerlengo: «Siamo in una fase di “sovietizzazione”». A rischio le riforme di Francesco

di Emiliano Fittipaldi
26 febbraio 2015

Alla Santa Sede scoppia un nuovo Vatileaks. Dopo lo scandalo dei corvi che portò alle dimissioni di Benedetto XVI, “l’Espresso” in edicola domani pubblica documenti esclusivi che descrivono gli scontri tra i cardinali che papa Francesco ha messo al vertice della sua gerarchia ecclesiastica.

Le due fazioni sono capitanate dall’australiano George Pell (capo della nuova potentissima Segreteria dell’Economia) e da Pietro Parolin, il segretario di Stato che ha preso il posto di Tarcisio Bertone, e stanno battagliando da mesi per il controllo delle finanze vaticane, per il destino dello Ior e dell’Apsa e per quello dei alcuni business strategici, come l’ospedale romano dell’Idi.

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VATICAN CITY — Feb 26, 2015

Associated Press

Pope Francis’ finance czar is coming under intense scrutiny after ruffling feathers at the Vatican as he seeks to impose order on its unruly finances.

Italian weekly L’Espresso reported in its Friday editions that Cardinal George Pell’s economy secretariat had run up a half-million euros (dollars) in expenses in the first six months of its existence. The total includes seemingly legitimate expenses, including computers and printers, but also a 2,508 euro bill from the famed Gamarelli clergy tailor.

The expenditures are notable given that Pell has instituted a spending review across the Vatican to ensure any excess money is spent on the poor, L’Espresso noted.

Resistance to the Australian Pell from the largely Italian Vatican bureaucracy has been growing steadily but spiked in December after he boasted that he had “discovered” hundreds of millions of euros that had been “tucked away” in sectional accounts off the Vatican balance sheet.

In fact, the money was well-known and was purposefully kept off the books, much of it set aside for use as reserves for funding shortfalls.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

[A priest accused of sexual abuse of Ettal monastery has surprisingly confessed. A witness testified in court that the priest apologized.]

Von Heiner Effern

Der des sexuellen Missbrauchs angeklagte Pater Georg aus dem Kloster Ettal hat am vierten Prozesstag überraschend ein weitgehendes Geständnis abgelegt. Seine Verteidiger erklärten vor dem Landgericht München II, dass ihr Mandant den Missbrauch von zwei Schülern und einen Versuch bei einem weiteren Buben einräume. Zuvor hatte der dritte Belastungszeuge unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit alle Vorwürfe gegen den 44 Jahre alten Geistlichen bestätigt. Daraufhin entschuldigte sich Pater Georg bei ihm. Er muss nun mit einer Bewährungsstrafe zwischen einem Jahr und neun Monaten und maximal zwei Jahren rechnen. Darüber hinaus sagte er zu, eine ambulanten Sexualtherapie zu absolvieren. Das geht aus einer Mitteilung des Gerichts vom Donnerstag hervor.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Josh Halliday
Thursday 26 February 2015

In harrowing detail, 60 men and women have recounted the abuse they suffered at the hands of Jimmy Savile many years ago.

One woman described how she was raped aged 12 by the late DJ after being admitted to Stoke Mandeville to have her tonsils out. Even though the encounter took place in January 1977, the woman had a vivid recollection of the hospital ward smelling of vomit and faeces. Savile, she said, smelled strongly of cigars and body odour. …

Another attack took place in the hospital’s chapel. Savile, who claimed to be a devout Roman Catholic, systematically abused a girl over a period of five years, carrying out the attacks behind a curtain in the presbytery.

The girl, named only as Victim 24 in the report, described how she felt powerless to stop him and unable to tell anyone: “Every time I went in that room I just knew that he would touch me wherever he wanted to touch me.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Robert M. Hoatson | Feb. 26, 2015

I am an ex-Christian Brother of Ireland, ex-priest, survivor of sexual abuse, and advocate for thousands of sexual abuse victims for over a decade. Recently, I saw the movie, “50 Shades of Grey,” but not for reasons one might suspect. I saw the movie because a preview I read mentioned that the title character was a victim of childhood sexual abuse. I was not interested in being titillated with images of intimate sexuality, nudity, or pornography. I was most intrigued by how the film would depict the life of a childhood sexual abuse victim, and I was not disappointed.

The movie I saw on opening night in a packed New York City theater was not about sex, despite all one might read about “50 Shades of Grey”. The fifty shades of Christian Grey were unfortunate shadows hovering over a young, handsome man who seemingly had never received any counseling, psychotherapy or sympathy for the sexual violation of his innocence as a boy. The movie was about the “break” in the psyche of Christian which led him to fear intimacy, vulnerability, passion, and friendship. Christian needed an intervention by a compassionate advocate to help him understand how his life had ironically cycled out of control despite his efforts to control everything and everyone.

“50 Shades of Grey” is not a movie about kinky sex. There is hardly anything sexual about the movie. It is about abuse of power and its aftermath. Christian, a wealthy, handsome young man at the peak of his manhood is incapable of developing an intimate and meaningful relationship with a beautiful young woman who tries everything (including becoming somewhat of a sex slave) to get to Christian’s soul. What she did not realize was that her boyfriend’s soul had been murdered as a child and, as a result, he could not emote as most normal human beings can.

I am hoping psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and other mental health professionals will view this movie and weigh in on its psycho-social and psycho-sexual implications. The “toys” that Christia possessed (women, cars, helicopters, ropes, chains, handcuffs, etc.) never brought him peace, security, or satisfaction. They exacerbated his profound loneliness, a loneliness that can be traced back to his childhood when an adult’s sexual abuse isolated him from the rest of humanity and made him feel shame and guilt.

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Star Tribune

Associated Press Updated: February 26, 2015

PRAGUE — A court official in the Czech Republic says a Roman Catholic priest has been convicted of rape and sexual abuse and sentenced to five years in prison.

Jan Dolezal, spokesman for the county court in Havlickuv Brod, located some 120 kilometers (75 miles) southeast of Prague, said Erik Tvrdon was found guilty of raping four women and sexually abusing a minor. Police previously said they believed he forced a 13-year old girl to send him naked images of herself.

Tvrdon pleaded not guilty.

Thursday’s verdict is not final. Dolezal says the state prosecutor has appealed, demanding a stiffer prison term.

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CANADA
CBC News

A former Ottawa priest jailed for stealing $130,000 from his parish has joined the clergy at a New Brunswick church after being released from custody on good behaviour.

Father Joe LeClair joined Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity Parish near Moncton, NB as an assistant priest in January 2015, church staff told CBC News.

LeClair, a diagnosed pathological gambler, pleaded guilty to defrauding Ottawa’s Blessed Sacrament Church over the course of five years, between 2006 and 2011.

He was sentenced to one year in jail but released in Nov. 2014 after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

LeClair is originally from Prince Edward Island. He became known as a popular and charismatic priest at Blessed Sacrament in the Glebe. He left the parish in May 2011 after the Archdiocese of Ottawa launched an audit of the church’s finances.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Feb. 26, 2015

As U.S. dioceses continue their Vatican-ordered consultations for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family, a national clergy group has launched its own questionnaire in an effort to highlight the issues most pressing to priests.

The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests sent a synod survey on Jan. 31 to its 1,000-plus members, asking each not to answer the 46 questions presented in the synod’s working document, the lineamenta, but instead to rank them in importance on a seven-point scale from “not important” to “essential.” Each question also offers comment space for priests to expand on those questions they deemed as essential.

The instructions for the survey also ask respondents to keep in mind two “preliminary” questions posed by the synod document: Does the descriptions of family issues in the lineamenta correspond to today’s church and society? And what aspects are missing that should be included?

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

By Kevin Sharkey
BBC News NI

A former resident of a boy’s home has said there should be no compensation arising from the findings of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

The retired policeman, was cared for by Sister of Nazareth nuns in Termonbacca, Londonderry.

It is one of 13 institutions being investigated by the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA).

Some victims groups want compensation payments before the inquiry completes it work in two years time.

Bernard McEldowney spent 16 years at Termonbacca.

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GUAM
Concerned Catholics of Guam

February 26, 2015

The Concerned Catholics of Guam submitted the following reports to the Vatican delegation that visited the Archdiocese of Agana in January 2015. Click on the links below to view and download the reports:

Report On Affairs Within Archdiocese of Agana

Report On Affairs Within Archdiocese of Agana (Supplement)

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

02/25/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

If you have not already done so, I strongly encourage everyone to read Professor Jack Ruhl’s analysis of diocesan fiscal practices, found in the National Catholic Reporter. Under the title, ‘Survey Finds Serious Flaws in Diocesan Financial Management’, Ruhl provides a thoughtful and thorough explanation of the pending crisis in funding for the retirement of priests, as well as an explanation of how diocesan pension plans are managed and funded. He also evaluates the types of financial reports provided by Catholic dioceses to their faithful, concluding that many are little more than ‘an unsupported assertion by the diocese’.

The article includes a very useful spreadsheet including information for all dioceses for which detailed financial information was available, and listing those for who it is not. The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis appears as being somewhere between the two categories, despite the recent bankruptcy-driven financial disclosures.

Ruhl’s conclusions may strike some as being obvious, unless one considers how infrequently they are done. For instance, he argues that every diocese should post a full set of audited financial statements on its website within 60 days of the close of the fiscal year, and that such disclosures should include the entire diocesan accounting entity (including, for instance, seminaries and pensions). He also suggests that priests and laity should assume the roles of financial watchdogs over diocesan resources, and that all dioceses with projected pension shortfalls should initiate a plan to fully fund the shortfalls within a reasonable period (he suggests three years).

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Kirstyn Harasyn, Abused by Youth Ministries Director at Glen Cary Lutheran Church, Takes Back Power, Provides Statement

(St. Paul, MN) – Kirstyn Harasyn, an adult who was abused as a minor by a Ham Lake, Minn., youth ministries director, has settled her civil lawsuit against her abuser and the church for which he worked. Today, she speaks out with a powerful statement about the abuse she endured, her journey of recovery and her mission to save other children from being hurt by her abuser and others.

Kirstyn was sexually abused in approximately 2010 by Damian Blake Burkhalter, while Burkhalter was the youth ministries director at Glen Cary Lutheran Church in Ham Lake, and Kirstyn was a member of the church youth group. Prior to Burkhalter’s abuse of Kirstyn, Glen Cary Lutheran Church was warned that Burkhalter had engaged in inappropriate behavior with children. Kirstyn filed suit against Glen Cary Lutheran Church and Burkhalter regarding her abuse.

The lawsuit, which recently settled, allowed Kirstyn to stand up for herself and for others. She wants the story known. She has provided today’s statement and is available for comments.

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle

By C.W. Nevius
February 25, 2015

This week, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone met with The Chronicle’s editorial board. He’s charming, humorous and engaging.

He’s also dead wrong.

The controversy stems from his proposed changes in the collective bargaining agreement with teachers in archdiocese high schools that would designate them as “ministers.” In addition, “clarifications” to school handbooks would emphasize that employees would have to follow the teachings of the church, leading some parents and teachers to call the additions morality clauses because they involve things like same-sex relationships and abortion.

Cordileone may have reconciled his personal beliefs — saying he would allow gay students at archdiocese schools but adamantly opposes the right of same-sex couples to marry — but many of the rest of us are still shaking our heads.

Cordileone made every effort to minimize the controversy, but his explanations were difficult to follow at best.

Take his statement: “To call an act gravely evil does not mean that the person who does the act is an evil person.”

That may be clear to him, but I don’t get it. Among the “evil” activities he’s talking about are homosexuality, same-sex marriage and even in-vitro fertilization. It’s the kind of chilling distinction that puts everyone on edge.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

OPENING statements are set to begin this week in the case of a suspended Philadelphia priest whose previous trial ended after a jury deadlocked over charges that he molested a boy almost two decades ago.

The Rev. Andrew McCormick is accused of having assaulted an altar boy in a rectory bedroom in 1997 when he was at St. John Cantius in Bridesburg. He was arrested in 2012. A jury deliberated for four days last March without reaching a verdict.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY JOANNE SWEENEY – 26 FEBRUARY 2015

Only one in five Catholics is regularly attending Sunday Mass in the Down and Connor Diocese, a new report has revealed.

And attendance at Mass in the greater Belfast area has been recorded as low as 16% of all Catholics who live in the area, according to the diocesan report.

Figures from an audit taken last year in Down and Connor, the second largest diocese on the island, showed that based on the 2011 census figures of a potential 356,585 Catholics, only 72,818 were recorded as attending weekly Mass over a two-week period when the count was taken.

The findings also show a situation of an aging church population against the backdrop of an aging priest population.

There were 27 priests aged under 50 in 2014 and 54 aged between 51 and 65, while a third of all Mass-goers were aged 61 and over.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

[video]

[Quite surprisingly, the diocese of Regensburg announced on Tuesday to pay damages for the injuries from physical abuse in the cathedral choir Preschool Etterzhausen and Pielenhofen. According to the Ordinariate students were beaten 1953-1992 mainly by the former director Johann Maier.]

Von Robert Werner in Nachrichten, Überregional

Völlig überraschend kündigte das Bistum Regensburg am Dienstag an, für die erlittenen körperlichen Misshandlungen in der Domspatzen-Vorschule Etterzhausen und Pielenhofen Schmerzensgeld zu zahlen. Nach Angaben des Ordinariats seien Schüler von 1953 bis 1992 vor allem vom ehemaligen Direktor Johann Maier regelmäßig so schwer verprügelt worden, dass strafrechtlich gesehen Körperverletzung vorliege. 72 ehemalige Schüler, die sich seit März 2010 mit Berichten an das Ordinariat gewendet hätten, sollen nun ein Schmerzensgeld in der Höhe von 2.500 Euro erhalten. Die in den Regensburger Domspatzen-Einrichtungen körperlich Misshandelten scheinen leer auszugehen. Wie schon im November letzten Jahres vorgelegten Bericht zu sexuellen Missbrauch, schweigt sich das Ordinariat erneut über die vielfach und gleichlautend beklagten Regensburger Vorfälle aus.

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MALLORCA
Mallorca das Inselradio

[A former priest is accused of abuse]

Auf Mallorca wurde jetzt ein ehemaliger Priester aus Selva angezeigt. Der Kläger, ein 38-jähriger Anwohner der Gemeinde, beschuldigt den Pfarrer ihn als 10-Jährigen sexuell missbraucht zu haben. Damals war er als Messdiener in der Kirchengemeinde in Selva tätig. Die Polizei hat die Ermittlungen bereits aufgenommen. Der beschuldigte Priester weist die Vorwürfe unterdessen von sich. Die Anschuldigungen seien nichts weiter als ein Racheakt des ehemaligen Ministranten, so der Rentner.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sexueller Missbrauch durch Angehörige der katholischen Kirche im Bistum Trier

Claudia Adams

“Mein Standpunkt” aus dem Kölner Stadt Anzeiger von Prof. Becker
“Sexueller Missbrauch ist Seelenmord”

“Professor Dr. Werner Becker lebt und arbeitet in Köln. Er ist Zahnmediziner und Heilpraktiker. Werner Becker, selber Missbrauchs-Opfer, nimmt Stellung zu den Vorfällen in Erftstadt und zu Pfarrer Jansen.

Was sich in Erftstadt abgespielt hat, seitdem am 1. Februar Missbrauchsvorwürfe gegen den Pfarrer der katholischen Gemeinde, Winfried Jansen, laut geworden sind, hat mich als Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs durch einen Geistlichen bis an die Grenze des Erträglichen aufgewühlt. Ich habe von Solidaritäts-Gottesdiensten gelesen, von Unterschriftenlisten und heftiger Kritik am Erzbistum Köln.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

26 February, 2015

The Royal Commission has released a report that examines issues related to the effectiveness of pre-employment screening in preventing child sexual abuse within institutions.

Royal Commission CEO Phillip Reed said the report, prepared by the Parenting Research Centre and the University of Melbourne, makes valuable findings which will be used to shape the Royal Commission’s final recommendations.

“The Royal Commission was set up to investigate where systems have failed to protect children, a core area of our work is also recommending ways to improve them,” he said.

The report summarises evidence on the effectiveness of pre-employment screening practices.

“Research on current employment screening practices helps us better understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to checking people who apply to work with children,” Mr Reed said.

“We have used this research to inform our draft consultation paper on Working With Children Checks, which is currently with Children’s Commissioners and Guardians for comment before the Royal Commission releases its report on this topic in May.

“Effective pre-employment screening practices are just one piece of the puzzle that can help prevent child sexual abuse from occurring in the first place.”

Researchers found that criminal background checks are an important component of pre-employment screening and are most effective when used with other safeguards, such as thorough reference checks and verification of the applicant’s identity, employment history and qualifications.

About the report

Scoping Review: Evaluations of pre-employment screening practices for child-related work that aim to prevent child abuse

Key findings include:

* Criminal background checks appear to be universally considered an important component of pre-employment screening practices.

* Criminal background checks are most effective when combined with other pre-employment screening practices including:

* thorough reference checks including direct questions about any concerns regarding the applicant’s suitability to work with children

* structured employment interviews with a focus on determining the applicant’s suitability to work with children

* checks against other sources of information on suspected or substantiated child abuse, for example child abuse registries, Children’s court decisions, disciplinary body proceedings

* critical examination of an applicant’s employment history and/or written application

* verification of the applicant’s identity using, for example, photo-based documents or finger-printing

* verification of the applicant’s education and/or qualifications.

* Given the methodological difficulties in measuring the effect of pre-employment screening on rates of child sexual abuse it is not surprising that the review did not identify any rigorous evaluations of these practices.

More information

Read the Executive Summary
Download the full report (PDF 944 kB)
Download Appendix 1: Citations details of all 270 excluded papers by exclusion category (PDF 622 KB)
Download Appendix Appendices 2 and 3: Data extraction forms for scoping review (PDF 1.1 MB)

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CANADA
Coast Mountain News

by Caitlin Thompson – Coast Mountain News
posted Feb 25, 2015

Hundreds of people gathered in the small community of Alert Bay last week to witness a symbolic end to a dark period of Canadian history: the destruction of St. Michael’s Residential School.

Although its doors officially closed in 1974, the impact of the school is still very much alive. The first church-run residential school in the area dates back to 1882, and St. Michael’s opened its doors in 1929 in Alert Bay on Cormorant Island, near Port McNeill on northern Vancouver Island.

Constructed by the B.C. government, it was the largest school of its kind operated by the Anglican Church. St. Michael’s school held aboriginal people from northern Vancouver Island and B.C.’s north coast, including from Bella Bella, Bella Coola, the Nisga’a territories and Haida Gwaii.

An estimated 160,000 children attended residential schools across Canada and last Wednesday, a massive survivor ceremony hosted by the Namgis First Nation celebrated the demolition of St. Michael’s.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

An arrest warrant has been issued for a former Knox Grammar School teacher who failed to appear at the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Christopher Fotis was called to give evidence at the Sydney hearing on Tuesday, but did not show up.

Counsel assisting the commission David Lloyd said New South Wales Police was investigating, and Mr Fotis may be brought in to give evidence while in custody.

“On Tuesday morning we called Mr Christopher Fotis up and there was no appearance,” Mr Lloyd told the hearing.

“In the wake of Mr Fotis’s failure to answer the summons issued on him by the royal commission, the royal commission has issued a warrant for his arrest.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nicole Chettle

A former teacher at the prestigious Knox Grammar School in Sydney was suspected of hiding under a boy’s bed and inappropriately touching him, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has heard.

The commission heard details of the alleged assault, which was said to have occured in the late 1980s, from Dr Timothy Hawkes, who was a former Knox Grammar boarding house master and is now the current headmaster at Kings School at Parramatta.

Dr Hawkes said he was alerted to what became known as the “balaclava man” incident when he responded to what was believed to be an intruder about 5:00am.

“This was just a bizarre, extraordinary and extremely worrying and even frightening event,” Dr Hawkes told the hearing.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Ten years after mandatory reporting of child sex abuse became law there was no system in place at Knox Grammar to make sure teachers knew they should call police.

In the fourth day of a hearing into how the up-market boys school on Sydney’s north shore dealt with sex abuse allegations, Peter Crawley said there were few systems in place when he took over from Ian Paterson as headmaster in 1999.

He said any system to educate staff about their obligations in terms of mandatory reporting was absent.

‘When I took over it was pretty clear that there were a lot of systems in that school that were absent …’ he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rick Feneley
News and features writer

A former Knox Grammar teacher who failed to appear at a royal commission into child abuse this week has not been seen near his Nelson Bay home for days.

An arrest warrant was issued for Chris Fotis when he did not show up to give evidence at the royal commission on Tuesday.

The 52-year-old, who taught religious education, was asked to leave Knox in September 1989 after he was arrested for masturbating outside a school at North Ryde.

The commission has heard he was also suspected of molesting a student while wearing a balaclava in 1988 or 1989. The attacker, wearing a Knox tracksuit, had hid under a bed before groping a student in a boarding house at the school.

He has been living in Nelson Bay, Port Stephens, and was acting as secretary of the Nelson Bay Tennis Club last year.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mid Sussex Times

A Roman Catholic priest from Pease Pottage has denied sexually abusing young boys at a children’s home in London.

Father Anthony McSweeney, 68, of Old Brighton Road, Pease Pottage, faces historic child sex charges involving boys at Southwark Crown Court.

The court heard McSweeney was close friends with John Stingemore, who was the manager of a care home in Hounslow, west London. Stingemore was found dead last month aged 72.

Last week, Sarah Plaschkes QC, prosecuting, said Stingemore also abused boys and provided McSweeney access to children at the care home.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Washington Times

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Opening statements are scheduled to begin in the case of a suspended Philadelphia priest whose previous trial ended after a jury deadlocked over charges that he molested a young boy almost two decades ago.

The Rev. Andrew McCormick is accused of having assaulted an altar boy in a rectory bedroom in 1997. A jury deliberated for four days last year without reaching a verdict in the trial.

The 26-year-old victim alleges that the abuse started when he was 11 and later led him to attempt suicide. His mother says she previously spoke with the priest at their northeast Philadelphia parish about concerns that her son was gay.

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AUSTRALAI
Newcastle Herald

By GABRIEL WINGATE-PEARSE Feb. 25, 2015

BISHOPS and religious leaders must ‘‘get with the program’’ of the zero tolerance culture being demanded by Pope Francis, Catholics were told at an information session in Newcastle on Wednesday.

They also needed to steer away from viewing and handling matters of child sexual abuse as legal issues, and accept and embrace their importance from a wider, moral perspective, said the chief executive officer of the Australian Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan.

‘‘We are a bit lucky, I’m lucky, that I do this at this time because the new Pope, unlike previous popes, has made it abundantly clear in correspondence to Bishops and religious leaders of the world … where he expects full co-operation,’’ he said.

That meant he expected full co-operation with all of his annunciated policies, directions and processes, Mr Sullivan said.

‘‘What he is saying is there needs to be a zero tolerance culture around that and that where if can be demonstrated that religious leaders have dropped the ball, they need to be held to account.’’

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CANADA
The Daily Courier

The Canadian Press

REGINA – A Regina man who volunteered with Scouts Canada as well as with church groups is facing sex-related charges involving teenagers.

RCMP say two parents came forward last July after finding inappropriate text messages from an adult man to their teenage son.

An investigation turned up another alleged victim and RCMP believe there could be more.

Nathan Labatt, who is 24, is charged with sexual exploitation, invitation to sexual touching and possession of child pornography.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on February 25, 2015

CONTENT MAY DISTURB SOME READERS

The United Church is once again distancing itself from a former doctor and minister, denying liability for the latest sex abuse allegations against him stemming from his time in this province decades ago.

The church filed a statement of defence last week in the latest civil claim against Stephen James Collins, the first defendant in a Jane Doe case that dates back to the 1960s. The allegations have not been proven in court and her community cannot be named.

The statement of claim, filed late last year by Will Hiscock of Budden and Associates, contends the church failed to properly screen Collins or to properly supervise him and should have known there was “criminal behaviour against children.”

The woman claims she was abused in the 1960s when she participated in church activities such as choir and Sunday school led by Collins.

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CANADA
The StarPhoenix

BY ASHLEY MARTIN, LEADER-POST FEBRUARY 26, 2015

A Scout leader and church youth group volunteer is facing three charges related to the alleged sexual abuse of a youth.

Nat han Michael Labatt, 24, of Regina is charged with sexual exploitation, invitation to sexual touching and possession of child pornography following an RCMP investigation.

Through Scouts Canada, where Labatt worked with boys aged 14 to 17 as a Venturer leader, and the Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Catholic churches, he attended various youth camps, retreats and other events throughout Saskatchewan between 2009 and 2014.

RCMP believe there could be more potential victims, most likely male youths, and are asking anyone with information to come forward.

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NEW JERSEY
The Jersey Journal

By Michaelangelo Conte | The Jersey Journal
on February 26, 2015

It took the jury just over 30 minutes yesterday to convict a North Bergen church pastor of aggravated criminal sexual contact against a 13-year-old boy in 2012.

Gregorio Martinez, 47, who was described as a prophet and exorcist during testimony, was also convicted of child abuse and endangering the welfare of the child.

He was found guilty of touching the victim’s genital area and kissing him on the lips while inside the boy’s mother’s minivan in a Walmart parking lot in North Bergen on June 10, 2012.

The boy’s mother had gone into the store to buy diapers for her 4-year-old daughter, according to testimony.

At the time, Martinez was a deacon at Third Bethesda Pentecostal Church in Union City and knew the boy through the church, according to testimony. He is currently co-pastor at Elohim Church in North Bergen.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Mgr Charles Scicluna will be officially named as Archbishop by the end of this week, according to sources.

The 55-year-old, who has served as Auxiliary Bishop since October 2012, will succeed Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona who stepped down last year for health reasons.

Mgr Scicluna’s appointment follows years of distinguished service at the Vatican where he was as Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In that post he led the Church’s fight against sexual abuse by priests.

Earlier this month the Pope appointed him president of a Vatican College which will consider appeals moved before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith related to serious offences by priests.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

The headmaster of the prestigious King’s School, Tim Hawkes, said he was not sorry about the way he handled the alleged sexual assault of a year 8 boy under his supervision at Knox Grammar School in the 1980s.

Dr Hawkes was housemaster at Knox Grammar’s MacNeil House when a masked man entered the building and assaulted the boy in the middle of the night late in 1988.

He told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he did not call the police because he believed it was the responsibility of the then headmaster, Dr Ian Paterson.

Outside the commission, he said he was not sorry for his response.

“I have no regrets,” he said. “I have nothing to regret.”

Under cross-examination from counsel assisting the commission, David Lloyd, Dr Hawkes said he was unaware of a legal requirement for teachers to report abuse to the director-general of the Department of Family and Community Services.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

Former teachers at Knox Grammar school say mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse was never part of in-house training.

Timothy Hawkes was a senior boarding master at the Sydney private school in the late 1980s when a boy was sexually assaulted by a balaclava-wearing intruder.

Dr Hawkes, who’s now headmaster of Kings College Parramatta, told a national inquiry on Thursday he was unaware of mandatory reporting laws during his time in Knox. He was there from 1981 to 1989.

The children care and protection act 1987 became law in January 1988.

“I had no understanding of what my legal or proper obligations should have been in relation to reporting sexual assault on a child other than the requirement to immediately notify the headmaster,” he said.

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TEXAS
Dallas Observer

By Amy Silverstein Wed., Feb. 25 2015

The letter was anonymous, just like other warnings that came before it. In late January, it arrived in the mailboxes of advocates who work on behalf of Christian sex-abuse victims. For 26 pages, it offered a rambling defense of a place that shouldn’t need one — Prestonwood Baptist Church, a Plano mega-church with 37,000 members, three campuses, decades of mostly good publicity and a celebrity pastor named Jack Graham.

But for the last several years, the church has come under scrutiny from a small, vocal group of Christian critics for its handling of child sexual abuse. None of the critics has been more effective than Amy Smith, the daughter of a former Prestonwood deacon. Five years ago, Smith alerted a church in Mississippi that a pastor on its staff had been quietly accused of child molestation at Prestonwood decades before.

John Langworthy, a former youth minister at Prestonwood, resigned from the Mississippi church not long after Smith spoke up and soon faced criminal charges in that state. He pleaded guilty to molesting five boys between the ages of 6 and 13 in the early ’80s in Mississippi. He avoided prison time and is now registered as a child sex offender. Smith was widely credited for bringing Langworthy’s crimes to light and causing him to admit to “sexual indiscretions” from the pulpit of his Mississippi church. The case disappeared from headlines soon after, but Smith has stayed on Prestonwood’s case, holding rallies outside the church, seeking other victims and publicly pressuring Graham to open up about what he knew of Langworthy’s crimes.

Yet the anonymous letter that arrived this January insisted that Smith was a liar. Smith had an agenda, the author wrote, but didn’t say what it was. She had fooled countless activists, journalists and Prestonwood officials. “I am dead serious and committed to exposing Amy Smith’s many falsehoods and stopping her continued and relentless attacks upon Prestonwood and Jack Graham,” the author warned.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

Former Knox Grammar teacher Timothy Hawkes reveals ‘bizarre and extraordinary’ sex attack on a pupil was not reported to police… despite the headmaster knowing about it

By Sarah Carty for Daily Mail Australia and AAP

A ‘bizarre and extraordinary’ incident where a boy at an elite Sydney school was sexually assaulted by someone wearing a balaclava was reported to the headmaster but not police, a hearing has been told.

Timothy Hawkes, a former teacher at Knox Grammar School on Sydney’s north shore, was in charge of the boarding house where the incident happened in 1988.

On Thursday, Dr Hawkes, who is now headmaster of The Kings School, told a royal commission hearing he rang then headmaster Ian Paterson about 5am to report the incident which he described as ‘bizarre and extraordinary and extremely worrying and even frightening’.

It was not his role to ring police, he said, but he expected the headmaster would.

However, he was never interviewed by police nor, to his knowledge, were any of the boys.

Dr Hawkes said there was no history of intruders getting into the dorms.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Declan Brennan

An officer of the DPP has told the trial of a detective charged with forging a DPP letter that there was no file for a priest the detective was investigating for child abuse.

Wicklow detective Garda Catherine McGowan, aged 48, has pleaded not guilty to one count of forgery on January 15, 2009, at Bray Garda Station and two counts of using a false instrument at Bray Garda Station and at Harcourt Street Garda Station between June 21 and 22, 2011. The instrument is alleged to have been a letter from the office of the DPP, dated January 14, 2009.

Henry Matthews,of the DPP’s office, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court his job was to assess Garda investigation files.

He told Alex Owens, prosecuting, that in 2011 he was asked to check his office filing systems for a file on a priest who Garda McGowan was investigating from 2007.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH FEBRUARY 26, 2015

ONE of Knox Grammar’s religious teachers was found late at night in the school laundry in “suspicious” circumstances next to the boys’ dirty socks and jocks, the child sex abuse royal commission was told.

Former teacher Michael Probert yesterday said seeing house master Christopher Themistocles Fotis in the laundry had freaked him out.

The commission has heard that Mr Fotis, now 53, had been suspected as the man in a Knox tracksuit and a balaclava who hid under a student’s bed and sexually assaulted him. The man fled and the school never called in the police.

Mr Fotis later resigned from Knox after he was caught masturbating in his car outside the school but the headmaster, Dr Ian Paterson, still gave him a glowing reference, the commission was told.

The commission is investigating whether the elite Wahroonga school covered up 33 years of sex abuse of students by five teachers who were criminally charged and another three who were not, including Mr Fotis.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 26, 2015

Ean Higgins
Reporter
Sydney

AN arrest warrant has been issued for the suspected “Balaclava Man”, the Knox Grammar teacher accused of dressing in a school tracksuit and balaclava, and sexually molesting a student as he slept in a school dormitory.

David Lloyd, the counsel assisting the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse this morning informed the commission that the warrant had been issued for Christopher Fotis, who had been a resident master at the boarding house at the time of the incident in 1988.

Mr Lloyd told the inquiry Fotis had failed to appear.

“In the wake of Mr Fotis’ failure to answer the summons issued on him by the Royal Commission, the Royal Commission has issued a warrant for his arrest,” Mr Lloyd said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 26, 2015

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

When a masked man entered a boarding house at Knox Grammar School and sexually assaulted a year 8 student in his bed, the then housemaster Timothy Hawkes fully expected the police to be notified.

Dr Hawkes, now headmaster of the Kings School, told a royal commission that he never saw police at the school and, to his knowledge, the victim and witnesses were never interviewed.

He said he did not see it as his responsibility to report the matter to the police, instead leaving it in the hands of the then headmaster, Dr Ian Paterson.

“I was comfortable with the fact we had a highly experienced headmaster,” he said.

“I had every confidence that proper protocols would have been followed. I was not aware of what those particular protocols would have been.”

Under cross-examination by counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Dr Hawkes said he was unaware of mandatory reporting laws regarding child sexual abuse at the time of the so-called “balaclava man” incident in late 1988.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS NEWS LIMITED FEBRUARY 26, 2015

A WARRANT has been issued for the arrest of one of Knox Grammar’s teachers who has failed to turn up to the child sex abuse royal commission.

A former religious education teacher Christopher Themistocles Fotis, 52, was due to give evidence at the Sydney hearing on Tuesday but failed to turn up and has not been able to be contacted.

Former students claim that Fotis wore a Knox tracksuit and balaclava, hid under a student’s bed and groped the student in late 1988 or early 1989.

He was also found alone in the pitch black in the school’s laundry one night close to the dirty socks and jocks of the pupils and resigned some months later after he was caught by police masturbating in his car outside the elite school.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

A FORMER teacher at Sydney’s prestigious Knox Grammar school has failed to appear at a royal commission into child abuse.

The commission has issued a warrant for the arrest of Christopher Fotis, who was due to give evidence on Tuesday.

A public hearing this week has heard disturbing claims of abuse at Knox, which happened in the 1970s and 80s. Boys at one of Australia’s most exclusive schools were allegedly shown pornography, given alcohol and groomed for sex by a number of teachers at the school.

On Thursday David Lloyd, counsel advising the commission, said police were searching for Fotis and if he was found he would be brought to the commission.

Fotis was never charged with offences at Knox but was jailed in Melbourne for sexual abuse offences at a school there after his time at Knox, in Wahroonga on Sydney’s north shore.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News

SHUL presidents and rabbis came together on Tuesday night to improve the protection of children at synagogues across Sydney.

More than 20 representatives from Orthodox synagogues attended the meeting at Jewish House and pledged to offer better training to rabbis and communal leaders, and to implement an accreditation process for shuls.

“A group of people will be set up by the community to work with every synagogue and to make sure they are compliant when it comes to policy, procedures for dealing with child sexual abuse, protocols and policies to report any allegation of abuse, signage in the synagogue, and proper communication with members,” Jewish House’s Rabbi Mendel Kastel (pictured) told The AJN.

“While almost all synagogues already have these policies in place, this is a more formal way to raise the standards and ensure that we can all work together, share resources and ensure greater accountability,” Rabbi Kastel said.

The training for rabbis will begin next week when the Rabbinical Council of NSW holds a session with Dr Cathy Kezelman, who was made a Member of the Order of Australia last month for her advocacy for survivors of child abuse.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago

February 25, 2015

The Archdiocese of Chicago has learned that Fr. Clovis Javier Vilchez-Parra, Associate Pastor at Misión San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights, was charged with possession and reproduction of child pornography on February 24, 2015. The Archdiocese is grateful for the vigilance law enforcement exercises in the protection of children. The exploitation of any child is a crime and a sin that deserves swift attention by all responsible adults.

Based on this information pertaining to Fr. Clovis Javier Vilchez-Parra, Archbishop Blase J. Cupich has accepted the recommendation of the Independent Review Board that Fr. Vilchez-Parra be withdrawn from ministry pending the resolution of this matter.

Under our justice system, Fr. Vilchez-Parra is innocent until proven guilty. The Church stands ready to cooperate fully with the civil authorities as part of our commitment to the safety of children.

The Archdiocese encourages anyone who has been sexually abused by a priest, deacon, religious, lay employee or volunteer, to come forward to the civil authorities or the Archdiocese. Complete information about reporting sexual abuse can be found on the Archdiocesan website under Protecting Children at www.archchicago.org or by calling the Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review, 312-534-5205 or 1-800-994-6200, or the Office of Assistance Ministry, 312-534-8267 or toll-free at 866-517-4528.

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ILLINOIS
WICS

February 25, 2015

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago Catholic priest has been ordered held on $175,000 bond after being charged with felony possession and reproduction of child pornography.

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s office announced the charges on Wednesday against 34-year-old Clovis Vilchez-Parra, associate pastor at the Mission San Juan Diego Catholic Church in suburban Arlington Heights.

The Archdiocese of Chicago says that Archbishop Blase Cupich (BLAYZ’ SOO;-pitch) has removed Vilchez-Parra from ministry while the case goes forward. The archdiocese says it’s “ready to cooperate fully” with law enforcement authorities.

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COLORADO/MICHIGAN
TheDenverChannel

A Catholic priest who worked at a Detroit high school faces at least 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to a child pornography charge.

The Rev. Richard Kurtz appeared in Detroit federal court Wednesday and admitted transporting child porn to Chicago in 2011.

Investigators say that Kurtz also secretly recorded video of hockey players while they changed clothes in the late 1990s. They were students at University of Detroit Jesuit High School, where he was a chemistry teacher for years.

Other priests found the video among his possessions after Kurtz was charged with sexually assaulting a student on a trip to Colorado. The sexual assault in Colorado happened in 2001, deputies said.

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TEXAS
Plano Star Courier

State Senator Van Taylor has filed Senate Bill 701, which would remove the statute of limitations for felony indictments of sexual crimes against a child. Taylor has already filed Senate Bill 113, which would remove the statute of limitations for civil suits of such crimes.

“Crimes against children are vile and reprehensible,” Taylor said in a press release. “Because of the nature of the crimes and the young age of the victims, children of sexual abuse often do not come forward until after the statute of limitations have passed. In these circumstances, the perpetrator remains at-large and without penalty for some of society’s most horrid crimes. My legislation would eliminate the statute of limitations for crimes involving the sexual abuse of a child, allowing victims the means to pursue their perpetrator whenever they are ready.”

Senator Taylor’s legislation would indefinitely extend the statute of limitations for felony indictments for employing, authorizing or inducting a child younger than 18 years of age to engage in sexual conduct or sexual performance. This extends the statute of limitations for felony indictments from its current authorization, which is 20 years following the 18th birthday of the victim.

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NEW JERSEY
The Jersey Journal

By Michaelangelo Conte | The Jersey Journal
on February 25, 2015

JERSEY CITY — During closing arguments today in the trial of a church deacon accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy, the prosecution said the victim knew his alleged molester as a prophet and exorcist, and believed his mother thought the alleged sexual contact was OK with her.

“There was a lot of testimony about him ‘delivering’ people and exorcisms and removing demons and evil spirits from people,” Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Linda Claude-Oben said today during summations in the trial of Gregorio Martinez, 47, of Jersey City.

“This defendant, this prophet who could take out demons, ask yourself if (the victim) could have done something. Ask yourself if he would be confused and scared and not know what to do,” she added.

Martinez is charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact, child abuse and endangering the welfare of the 13-year-old in a car in a Walmart parking lot in North Bergen on June 10, 2012, officials said. At the time, he was a deacon at Third Bethesda Pentecostal Church in Union City, according to testimony.

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by Chiara Vasarri and Flavia Rotondi
ROME
Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Father Massimo Cavallo jumped at the chance to go back to school after struggling with maintenance work, suppliers and taxes as the manager of a Catholic students’ dormitory in Rome.

The 34-year-old is one of 26 attendees of a pastoral management course inaugurated on Feb. 16 at the Pontifical Lateran University for those who manage financial and human resources in parishes, dioceses and other organizations affiliated with the Catholic Church. The 15-month course covers topics such as strategic communication, business ethics and creative problem-solving.

The effort is in line with the Holy See’s attempt to close a budget shortfall and comes as Italy strives to emerge from the longest recession since World War II. Pope Francis is also trying to boost efficiency and clean up finances after scandals involving the Vatican Bank and the Holy See’s administrative body APSA, which manages real estate and financial holdings of the world’s smallest state.

“Making ends meet is not easy,” Cavallo said in an interview outside his office filled with stacks of theology books, pictures of him shaking hands with Pope Francis and his two predecessors, a desktop PC and a calculator.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

[“Blows until the children went to the ground”]

Der Chor der Regensburger Domspatzen ist weltberühmt. Doch in seinem Internat spielten sich bis weit in die 90er-Jahre hinein Gewaltexzesse gegen Schüler ab. Was wusste Chorleiter Georg Ratzinger?

“Liebe Eltern, mir geht es gut, wie geht es euch?” Mit dieser Floskel mussten Schüler am Internat des Domspatzen-Chores in der Vorschule in Etterzhausen und später Pielenhofen (Landkreis Regensburg) regelmäßig Briefe an ihre Eltern beginnen. Die Briefe wurden zensiert – von Priestern und kirchlichen Mitarbeitern, die im Alltag die Dritt- und Viertklässler prügelten, was das Zeug hielt.

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VATICAN CITY
Newsmax

Wednesday, 25 Feb 2015

A Vatican department allegedly intercepted over a hundred copies of a new book written by five cardinals to prevent it being read by the majority of participants of a synod last October called by Pope Francis.

“Remaining in the Truth of Christ,” a commercially successful book reaffirming Catholic teaching on marriage and the family, was mailed to all the synod fathers in the Paul VI Hall, where the meeting was taking place.

Reliable and high level sources allege the head of secretariat of the synod of bishops, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, ordered they be intercepted because they would “interfere with the synod.”

A source told me that Baldisseri was “furious” the book had been mailed to the participants and ordered staff at the Vatican post office to ensure they did not reach the Paul VI Hall.

Those responsible for mailing the books meticulously tried to avoid interception, ensuring the copies were sent through the proper channels within the Italian and Vatican postal systems. The synod secretariat nevertheless claims they were mailed “irregularly,” without going through the Vatican post office, and so had a right to intercept them.

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ILLINOIS
CLTV

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. — A Cook County judge set bail at $175,000 for a Catholic priest who is facing child pornography charges.

Rev. Clovis Javier Vilchez-Parra, 34, appeared for a bond hearing today at the Rolling Meadows courthouse.

He is charged with reproduction of child pornography and felony possession of child pornography.

He is an associate pastor at the Mission San Juan Diego Catholic church in Arlington Heights.

The charges were filed against Rev. Vilchez-Parra following an investigation by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

By Michael P. Rellahan, mrellahan@dailylocal.com, @ChescoCourt
POSTED: 02/25/15

PHILADELPHIA >> The FBI has arrested and charged the former SS. Simon and Jude parish priest who was accused last year by local authorities of sending and receiving child pornography on a popular social media site, on which he pretend to be a 16-year-old girl.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia said Tuesday that charges had been brought against Mark Haynes, 55, of Egg Harbor, N.J., on Friday. He was detained on Monday pending a bail hearing in federal court next Tuesday. Haynes previously served parishes in Delaware County. Haynes served at St. Pius X parish in Marple from 2001 to 2005, Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Morton section of Ridley Township from 2005 to 2009, and at Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Havertown section of Haverford from 2009 to 2013.

Haynes face charges of enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, distribution of child pornography, and possession of child pornography. The federal complaint against Haynes adopts much of what was laid out by Chester County authorities when they charged him last October with similar crimes.

The investigation began when county detectives received a tip about pornographic images that were being posted from an Instagram account in the name of “Katie.” They tracked that to a computer that was registered to a Simon and Jude email account, officials said.

When Haynes was confronted by detectives in October, he confessed to having child pornography on his computer, and of sending out images to others. He also stated that he had in early 2010 communicated with a young girl by using the name “Katie Caponetti,” and that he and the girl discussed sexual matters over the Internet.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis has made another significant international misstep, in addition to the one that led to his apparent recent “dressing down” by “no-nonsense” German Chancellor Merkel. Merkel apparently expressed her concern privately for Francis’ seemingly indirect support of Russia’s President Putin’s Ukraine invasion, as well likely on some of Francis’ shortcomings on protecting children and respecting women and women’s reproductive rights. As the head of the pope’s major “donor country”, when Angela speaks, Francis evidently listens.

This time the pope, in effect, insulted Mexicans, including many Mexican American voters, with his unwarranted “Mexicanization slur” revealing the pope’s view of Mexico. Francis reportedly wrote: “Hopefully we’re in time to avoid the Mexicanization. I was talking to some Mexican bishops and it’s a terrible situation, ,,, “. The pope was apparently referring privately, negatively and gratuitously to the risk of Mexican-style drug violence, and the related sexual abuse of children and women, reaching Argentina.

The Vatican defensively reacted to the unexpected disclosure of the pope’s insult by saying reportedly, in pertinent part, that the “pope had absolutely no intention of offending the feelings of the Mexican people, … . The expression ‘avoiding Mexicanization’ was used by the pope in a strictly private and informal email, … ” ! (emphasis mine).

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico reportedly said “… The pope is very well informed about Mexico’s situation … ” Perhaps, but the pope seems less well informed about the risks of e-mail records.

So? If anything, private e-mails likely reflect more accurately the pope’s real views as compared the endless stream of pious pontifications that the pope’s publicists pump out, too often parroted automatically by opportunistic and conflicted journalists. Once again, the pope is caught practicing “revisionism”. Changing his stated positions, seemingly at times, as often as the weather changes, depending on the latest direction of the wind, it appears.

More than 80 percent of Mexicans are Catholic, as are many Mexican American voters that the pope and his US bishops appear eagerly to want to have vote next year for a “low tax” US Republican President (likely Jeb Bush with his Mexico born wife).

Of course, this drug violence also entails the sexual abuse of children, including “rent boys”, a Latin American subject that Francis neglects too often, especially as it relates to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Peru, and many other predominately Catholic countries, as well as to Latino neighborhoods of US cities like Los Angeles.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Rarely is the concept of “supply and demand” cited as a contributing factor to the church’s on-going clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis. But it should be.

A university professor writes in the National Catholic Reporter today: “Fewer than 26,265 diocesan priests remain in the U.S. today and of them, only 68 percent — about 17,900 — are still in active ministry. Only about one-third as many new priests are being ordained each year to make up for the ones who are retiring, dying or leaving active ministry.”

“Dioceses now have one retired priest for every two active priests, and half of all priests in active ministry are over the age of 60. Half of all priests currently in active ministry also expect to retire by 2019.”

[National Catholic Reporter]

Yet the number of Catholics in the US continues to climb.

Wonder why bishops still cling to and shield sexually troubled seminarians and priests? Now more than ever, bishops desperately need clerics. So they must be very tempted to give seminarians and priests every possible “benefit of the doubt” and “second chances.”

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IRELAND
Breaking News

25/02/2015

An officer of the Director of Public Prosecutions has told the trial of a detective charged with forging a DPP letter that there was no file for a priest the detective was investigating for child abuse.

Wicklow detective Garda Catherine McGowan (aged 48), who is based at Bray Garda Station, has pleaded not guilty to one count of forgery on January 15, 2009 at Bray Garda Station and two counts of using a false instrument at Bray Garda Station and at Harcourt Street Garda Station between June 21 and 22, 2011.

The instrument is alleged to have been a letter from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), dated January 14, 2009.

On day three of the trial, Henry Matthews, a professional officer in the DPP’s office, told the jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that his job was to assess garda investigation files and make decisions on whether or not to prosecute the cases.

He told Alex Owens SC, prosecuting, that in 2011 he was asked to check his office filing systems for a file for a priest who Gda McGowan was investigating from 2007 after a Wicklow woman made an allegation of sexual assault against him.

The 2011 investigation of Gda McGowan’s handling of this allegation was prompted by the publication of the Murphy Report which investigated clerical sexual abuse in the Dublin area.

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ILLINOIS
WGN

A Catholic priest who is facing child pornography charges is scheduled to appear for a bond hearing today at the Rolling Meadows courthouse.

Rev. Clovis Javier Vilchez-Parra, 34, is charged with reproduction of child pornography and felony possession of child pornography.

He is an associate pastor at the Mission San Juan Diego Catholic church in Arlington Heights.

The charges were filed against Rev. Vilchez-Parra following an investigation by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

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