VATICAN CITY
Houston Chronicle

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is urging bishops and religious superiors to cooperate with his sex abuse commission, seeking to give the committee a boost as it meets for the first time Friday with its full membership.

In a letter released Thursday, Francis said the commission is an important new way to encourage the church’s commitment to taking “whatever steps are necessary” to ensure children are protected.

He wrote: “Priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors.”

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Appeal

New contract and handbook language proposed by the Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco this week warning Catholic high school faculty and staff that homosexual relations and other sexual activities outside of marriage are “gravely evil” has led to an outcry by the LGBT community and its supporters.

In a letter sent this week to teachers in the Archdiocesan Catholic High Schools, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone wrote that the schools must strive to be truly Catholic institutions. In an effort to reach that goal, the Archdiocese of San Francisco is adding statements of Catholic teaching on sexual morality and religious practice into the faculty and staff handbooks of the four archdiocesan high schools and proposing new contract language to “clarify” the church’s view.

The handbook additions, which would take effect in the 2015-16 school year, will apply to Archbishop Riordan High School and Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco, as well as Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield and Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo.

According to the Archdiocese of San Francisco, there are about 315 teachers at the four schools who belong to the teacher’s union, which is currently negotiating a new contract, expected to take effect on Aug. 1.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A former housemaster who molested ten boys – including a chorister picked to sing at his wedding – was jailed for 10 years today.

David Lowe smiled and waved at his wife as he was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court.

61-year-old Lowe put pupils through years of sexual abuse while teaching at two of the country’s most prestigious boarding schools.

The tutor sexually assaulted six boys at Westminster Cathedral Choir School and four at Ampleforth College – the leading Catholic school in North Yorkshire – between 1978 and 1984.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bristol Post

A Catholic public school master from Bristol who molested ten boys including a chorister picked to sing at his wedding was jailed for ten years today.

David Lowe, 61, from Charlotte Street South, in Clifton, put pupils through years of sexual abuse while teaching at two of the country’s most prestigious boarding schools.

The tutor sexually assaulted six boys at Westminster Cathedral Choir School and four at Ampleforth College – the leading Catholic school in North Yorkshire – between 1978 and 1984.

Married Lowe crept around boys’ dormitories at night fondling and spanking them as they drifted off to sleep in their bunk-beds.

The father-of-five also carried out attacks during piano lessons and even in a sick bay.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A teacher who sexually abused boys at two prestigious Catholic boarding schools has been jailed for 10 years.

David Lowe, 61, from Bristol, who is now retired, assaulted boys aged from eight to 13 between 1978 and 1984, Southwark Crown Court heard.

The offences took place at Westminster Cathedral Choir School and Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire.

He targeted 10 boys, leaving treats for them and spanking them at his home, the jury heard.

Lowe was convicted of 15 counts of indecent assault.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

5 February 2015 By David Mercer

A former housemaster at a prestigious Catholic private school has been jailed for 10 years for sexually abusing pupils.

David Lowe, 61, took advantage of boys as they slept in their dormitory beds and during singing lessons at Westminster Cathedral Choir School, London’s Southwark Crown Court heard.

Lowe invited the youngsters to his flat and “spanked” them when they had broken school rules. He also crept into the vulnerable pupils’ dormitory and touched them intimately while carrying out night-time checks, his trial was told.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Lettera del Santo Padre ai Presidenti delle Conferenze Episcopali e ai Superiori degli Istituti di vita consacrata e le Società di vita apostolica circa la Pontificia Commissione per la Tutela dei Minori, 05.02.2015

Lettera del Santo Padre ai Presidenti delle Conferenze Episcopali e ai Superiori degli Istituti di vita consacrata e le Società di vita apostolica circa la Pontificia Commissione per la Tutela dei Minori

Lettera del Santo Padre

Traduzione in lingua inglese

Traduzione in lingua spagnola

Pubblichiamo di seguito il testo della Lettera inviata da Papa Francesco ai Presidenti delle Conferenze Episcopali e ai Superiori degli Istituti di vita consacrata e delle Società di vita apostolica circa la Pontificia Commissione per la Tutela dei Minori:

Lettera del Santo Padre

Ai Presidenti delle Conferenze Episcopali
e ai Superiori degli Istituti di vita consacrata
e le Società di vita apostolica

Nel marzo dell’anno scorso ho istituito la Pontificia Commissione per la Tutela dei Minori, annunciata già nel dicembre 2013, con lo scopo di offrire proposte e iniziative orientate a migliorare le norme e le procedure per la protezione di tutti i minori e degli adulti vulnerabili, e ho chiamato a farne parte personalità altamente qualificate e note per il loro impegno in questo campo.

Nel luglio successivo, l’incontro con alcune persone che hanno subito abusi sessuali da parte di sacerdoti mi ha offerto l’occasione di essere diretto e commosso testimone dell’intensità delle loro sofferenze e della solidità della loro fede. Ciò mi ha ulteriormente confermato nella convinzione che occorre continuare a fare tutto il possibile per sradicare dalla Chiesa la piaga degli abusi sessuali sui minori e aprire una via di riconciliazione e di guarigione in favore di coloro che sono stati abusati.

Per questi motivi, lo scorso dicembre ho aggiunto alla Commissione alcuni nuovi membri, in rappresentanza delle Chiese particolari di tutto il mondo. E fra pochi giorni, tutti i membri si incontreranno a Roma per la prima volta.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

[with audio]

2015-02-05 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a letter to the Presidents of Episcopal Conferences and Superiors of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life to ask for their complete co-operation with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, in order to insure that everything possible is done to rid the Church of “the scourge” of the sexual abuse of children

Below is the English language translation of the Pope’s letter

Last March I established the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which had first been announced in December 2013, for the purpose of offering proposals and initiatives meant to improve the norms and procedures for protecting children and vulnerable adults. I then appointed to the Commission a number of highly qualified persons well-known for their work in this field.

At my meeting in July with persons who had suffered sexual abuse by priests, I was deeply moved by their witness to the depth of their sufferings and the strength of their faith. This experience reaffirmed my conviction that everything possible must be done to rid the Church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused.

For this reason, last December I added new members to the Commission, in order to represent the Particular Churches throughout the world. In just a few days, all the members will meet in Rome for the first time.

In light of the above, I believe that the Commission can be a new, important and effective means for helping me to encourage and advance the commitment of the Church at every level – Episcopal Conferences, Dioceses, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and others – to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, and to respond to their needs with fairness and mercy.

Families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children. They should also know that they have every right to turn to the Church with full confidence, for it is a safe and secure home. Consequently, priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald (UK)

by Carol Glatz posted Thursday, 5 Feb 2015

Francis has written to bishops’ conferences and religious orders across the world

The leaders of the world’s bishops’ conferences and religious orders must ensure that they are doing everything possible to protect children and vulnerable adults from abuse and are offering appropriate care for victims and their families, Pope Francis has said.

“Priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors,” he said in a written letter.

The letter, dated February 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, was sent to the presidents of national bishops’ conferences worldwide and the superiors of religious orders. The Vatican released a copy of the letter today on the Feast of St Agatha.

In his letter, the Pope said: “Families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children. They should also know that they have every right to turn to the Church with full confidence, for it is a safe and secure home.”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 5, 2015 NCR Today

VATICAN CITY
Pope Francis has written a letter to the leaders of the world’s bishops’ conferences and the various Catholic religious orders, asking them to cooperate fully with all initiatives to prevent sexual abuse of minors and to protect those vulnerable with “fairness and mercy.”

Exhorting the leaders to give “close and complete cooperation” to a new Vatican commission advising him on abuse, Francis also states plainly: “There is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors.”

The pope’s letter, dated Feb. 2, was released by the Vatican Thursday. Its release comes one day before the new papal commission on the issues is to meet for the first time at the Vatican with all 17 of its members.

That commission, which is led by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, will be meeting in Rome Friday-Sunday. Announced in December 2013, Francis added new members to it just last December and has included two survivors of clergy sexual abuse in the number.

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VATICAN CITY
GMA News

By PHILIP PULLELLA, Reuters February 5, 2015

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Thursday ordered Roman Catholic bishops around the world to fully cooperate with a commission he set up to protect children from sexual abuse by clerics and to give the issue top priority even if it unearths new scandals.

The pope sent the letter to the bishops and heads of religious institutions a day before the commission, which he established last year, was due to hold its first full meeting.

In the letter, the pope says: “Everything possible must be done to rid the Church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused.”

“Families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children …priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors,” he said.

One of the members of the commission, Marie Collins of Ireland, herself a victim of sexual abuse, told Reuters that commission members had asked the pope to write a letter to thwart any resistance from bishops to its work.

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VATICAN CITY
Jerusalem Post

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Thursday ordered Roman Catholic bishops around the world to fully cooperate with a commission he set up to protect children from sexual abuse by clerics and to give the issue top priority even if it unearths new scandals.

The pope sent the letter to the bishops and heads of religious institutions a day before the commission, which he established last year, was due to hold its first full meeting.

In the letter, the pope says: “Everything possible must be done to rid the Church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused.”

“Families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children …priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors,” he said.

One of the members of the commission, Marie Collins of Ireland, herself a victim of sexual abuse, told Reuters that commission members had asked the pope to write a letter to thwart any resistance from bishops to its work.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

Agence France-Presse in Vatican City
Thursday 5 February 2015

Pope Francis has sent Catholic clergy a powerful reminder of their duty to stamp out sexual abuse of children by priests, warning that they must never let a fear of scandal lead to cover-ups.

In a strongly worded letter to the heads of national bishops’ conferences and religious orders, Francis demanded “close and complete” cooperation with a new child protection commission he has established at the Vatican.

The commission has been given a brief to drive reform on an issue that has severely damaged the church’s authority and reputation in many countries around the world.

Headed by the American cardinal Sean O’Mally, it includes both clerics and lay people, including two victims of paedophile priests, Marie Collins from Ireland and Peter Sanders from Britain. All 16 members, nine men and seven women, will meet for the first time in Rome on Friday.

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CONNECTICUT
Daily Journal

GREENWICH, Connecticut — The Bridgeport Diocese has suspended a Greenwich priest for an alleged incident of child abuse.

Greenwich Time reports (http://bit.ly/18QcL8Y ) that Bishop Frank Caggiano informed diocese members on Wednesday of “credible evidence” that Stephen DeLuca committed one incident of child abuse more than 30 years ago.

Caggiano placed DeLuca on administrative leave and said he may no longer live at St. Catherine of Siena Church. Details were not released.

The diocese referred the matter to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families but criminal charges are not being pursued.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

02/04/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Obviously, I want to see the victims of sexual abuse by clergy adequately compensated for the harm that was done to them. And, I want to see this compensation provided sooner rather than later. Recent bankruptcy proceedings involving Catholic dioceses suggest that the easiest way for this to happen is by the insurance companies agreeing to ‘pony up’ big money to provide monetary compensation to victims and other creditors. However, when the news broke in November of 2014 that the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis was suing its insurers for refusing to pay on abuse claims, my sympathies went immediately to the insurers.

After all, most if not all of the companies involved in the Archdiocese’s suit are publicly held, and therefore they have a fiduciary duty to their stockholders. And, in many cases there is truth to their argument that the abuse that resulted in these claims was not an ‘accident’ or ‘occurrence’ but an expected event that, if unintended, the Archdiocese should have been able to foresee and prevent. Moreover, in my experience the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis continued to reassign clergy guilty of misconduct even after receiving notice from its insurers that there would no coverage of the individual going forward.

Take, for instance, the case of Father Stanley Maslowski. In 1991, Father Maslowski served time for the theft of nearly $200,000 during a three year period from the parish at which he had been assigned, Saint Thomas of Corcoran. At the time that he was assigned to the parish the Archdiocese was aware that Father Maslowski had a serious sex addiction, and thought it likely he had embezzled from Saint Pius in White Bear Lake. Nonetheless, they were apparently taken by surprise by the more recent theft, which went to fund sex binges that by Maslowski’s own admission often cost up to $1000 a week. In Corcoran. In the 1980s.

Barely more than two years after his release from the workhouse, Father Maslowski was back in ministry in this Archdiocese (on the condition that he end his friendship with the notorious madam Rebecca Rand), despite the fact that the Archdiocese had received notice from Catholic Mutual- Catholic Mutual!!!!- that they would not provide insurance coverage for him if he was reinstated. And, despite serious concerns about his ongoing behavior, he remained in ministry until the summer of 2013, when he was removed due to ‘a change in the church’s political climate’.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Rosa Prince, Assistant Political Editor

Justice Lowell Goddard, the newly appointed chairman of the inquiry into historic sexual abuse, has said her panel will not report back until 2018 but promised it would remain under control by setting ‘achievable goals’.

Following the chaos which surrounded the first attempts to set up the inquiry, with the departures of two chairmen over claims they were too close to the “Establishment,” Justice Goddard promised that victims would play a key role in selecting the new panel and setting its parameters.

Asked if she herself felt equipped to take on “the Establishment,” she said: “Well, I’m a judge so that’s not a new thing for me.

“It’s very important to remember that at the forefront of the inquiry, and indeed the centre of this inquiry, are the survivors of child sexual abuse.

“Their views will inform the inquiry throughout and at the outset will be hugely beneficial in formulating the composition of the panel and setting the terms of reference and scoping the inquiry.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Matthew Weaver
Thursday 5 February 2015

The New Zealand judge appointed to be the third head of the troubled investigation into historical allegations of child abuse has confirmed that she will consider looking into cases as far back as 1945 and that the inquiry could last four years.

Justice Lowell Goddard said there was a balance to be struck between the need for a thorough investigation and making it manageable and timely. But in radio interviews she confirmed that she would consider claims going back before 1970 – the cut-off point of previous inquiries.

Speaking to Radio New Zealand, Goddard said: “I believe there are some persons involved in this who are survivors of abuse who would like to see it go back to the end of world war II and the beginning of the welfare state. The breadth of the inquiry is something that will need to be seriously discussed when I get to England. Clearly, people want to have the experiences they have suffered exorcised. It is a question too of making the inquiry manageable … and outline the way forward in a relatively timely way. But I’m under no illusion that this will take several years.”

Asked how long, she said: “The indication I have been given is three years, possibility into a fourth. I can’t predict anything further than that at this stage.”

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

The most active are the cardinals, the bishops, the theologians who want to innovate in Church doctrine and practice on marriage and homosexuality. But in the first round of elections for the next synod, the defenders of tradition are much more numerous

by Sandro Magister

ROME, February 5, 2015 – As pre-announced by the secretary general of the synod of bishops, Lorenzo Baldisseri (in the photo), the first selection of participants at the assembly next October has been made public, after their election by their respective episcopal conferences.

What the delegation of the United States would be like was already known. The four appointees are all against the admission of the divorced and remarried to communion – a crucial point of the clash underway – while one of Pope Francis’s favorites, the progressive Blase Cupich, fresh from his promotion to the important archdiocese of Chicago, has not been elected.

France’s delegation appears more balanced, with the progressive Jean-Luc Brunin, president of the commission for the family of the French episcopal conference, counterbalanced by Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, archbishop of Paris.

Among the delegates of Spain, the one who received the most votes is the archbishop of Valladolid and president of the episcopal conference, new cardinal Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, for years a staunch supporter of the Neocatechumenal Way, which is the Catholic movement most engaged in defending the traditional model of the family. While the pope’s favorite, new archbishop of Madrid Carlos Osoro Sierra, made it onto the roster only by a hair, passing by just one vote the conservative Juan Antonio Reig Plá, bishop of Alcalá de Henares.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 05, 2015

Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

ONE of Australia’s leading Orthodox rabbis has admitted asking his son to contact a convicted pedophile to confirm whether a conversation they had while the paedophile was molesting at a Jewish school in Sydney included a confession.

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, head of the Chabad movement in NSW, today told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he had wanted to “refresh” his memory about the conversation, before providing his evidence.

Counsel assisting the commission Maria Gerace told the hearing in Melbourne that Rabbi Feldman’s son, Rabbi Eli Feldman, had contacted Daniel Hayman last September asking for details of a conversation with his father which Hayman had described to police after being arrested for child sex offences.

Hayman pleaded guilty in May to indecently assaulting a child under his authority at a camp run by the Yeshiva centre in Bondi.

Asked if he had requested his son to contact Hayman on his behalf, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman said: “You can say so … to refresh my memory if there was something that I didn’t recall.”

A copy of Hayman’s interview with police shows he told detectives he had spoken with Rabbi Boruch Lesches around the time he was abused the victim in the late 1980s, and Rabbi Lesches told him to “stay away” from young boys.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 5, 2015

Jane Lee

The spiritual orthodox Jewish leader of NSW says he does not recall warning convicted sex offender Daniel Hayman to stay away from younger boys at Yeshiva Bondi.

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, the former head of Yeshiva College Bondi, repeatedly denied receiving complaints about Hayman abusing younger boys at youth camps organised by Yeshiva during the 1980s, at the royal commission into child sexual abuse on Thursday.

Hayman told police before he was sentenced for indecent assault in 2011 that he remembered senior rabbi Boruch Lesches telling him to “stay away” from younger boys, and had a “vague recollection” that Rabbi Feldman had also spoken to him about this, the commission heard.

When police asked in what context the conversation with Rabbi Feldman took place, Hayman said: “A similar thing to what Rabbi Lesches spoke about, to keep away.”

“From the younger boys?” the police officer asked. “Yes, yes,” Hayman said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 5, 2015

Jane Lee

The head of Sydney’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community did not tell police that a rabbinical student accused of child sexual abuse was planning to leave Australia because he did not think it was necessary.

Appearing before the royal commission into child sexual abuse on Thursday, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, the former head of Yeshiva College Bondi, was questioned on the way he dealt with abuse claims against the student, known as AVL.

About July 2002, a parent complained that AVL – then a teacher’s aide at ultra-orthodox Jewish Yeshiva Centre – had abused their child at a local synagogue’s youth camp, the commission heard. Within two days, he had left Australia.

AVL met Rabbi Pinchus Feldman and his son a day after the complaint was made. AVL maintained his innocence and told them he might go back to America.

He had already been told not to return to work until further notice.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Thursday 5 February 2015

The head of an Orthodox Jewish college in Sydney said he had no obligation to tell police that an alleged child abuser and staff member was planning to leave the country.

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman said that in 2002 the alleged abuser, identified only as AVL, was told by leaders of the Yeshiva college in Bondi that a complaint had been made against him and that authorities would be notified.

Just a few hours later, AVL told Feldman he might leave the country, to which Feldman responded: “We are not holding you back”, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse heard.

AVL, a rabbinical student and teaching assistant at the college, left Sydney less than 48 hours later and now lives in the US. He has never been charged, the commission hearing at Melbourne county court heard.

“He held his own ticket and made his own decision as to what he wanted to do,” said Feldman, who is also the head emissary for New South Wales.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Jewish leader put girl, 12, into sex offender Daniel Hayman’s care, royal commission hears

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN FEBRUARY 05, 2015

A SENIOR Jewish leader placed a 12-year-old girl in the care of a now convicted sex offender despite being told he had abused a string of boys, the royal commission has heard.

The young girl said while she was staying with Daniel “Gug” Hayman he indecently assaulted her and would often walk around totally naked.

She was put in his care after being sent to Sydney to study from interstate by her parents.

“Gug would walk out of the bedroom completely naked. I would be sitting on the couch doing my homework and I would be completely shocked. I had never seen a male naked before,” she said.

For years rumours about Hayman had circulated and a string of boys say they complained to senior Chabad leader Rabbi Boruch Lesches.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A senior Australian rabbi told a suspected child sex offender he wouldn’t hold him back if he tried to leave the country.

The head of the Chabad Jewish community in NSW, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, says he didn’t think it his responsibility to notify police that the man intended leaving Australia or that he did so within 48 hours of a complaint being made.

The rabbi gave evidence on Thursday to the royal commission investigating responses by institutions, in this case Yeshiva Bondi in Sydney, to reports of child sexual abuse.

Rabbi Feldman says he met with the suspect, known as AVL, the day after an abuse complaint over an incident at a synagogue camp in 2002.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jean Edwards

One of Australia’s Orthodox Jewish leaders has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse he did not believe he had an obligation to stop an accused paedophile leaving the country.

The commission heard the student at Sydney’s Yeshivah Centre left Australia less than 48 hours after a complaint was made against him in 2002.

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman said he did not tell authorities he thought the accused might go to America.

“I did not believe that I have that obligation,” Rabbi Feldman said.

“I did not act, I did not notify the police that he said that he may be going.

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ECUADOR
El Diario

[A priest received an 20-year prison sentence for alleged rape of a teenager. The decision is on appeal.]

A 20 años de cárcel fue sentenciado un sacerdote acusado de una presunta violación a una adolescente, por parte del Tribunal de Garantías Penales de Santo Domingo. El fallo es de segunda instancia.

La información fue proporcionada por Jorge Montero, fiscal provincial de Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.

Montero explicó que la sentencia se emitió el martes por la tarde, luego de la audiencia de juzgamiento.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The historical child sex abuse inquiry in England and Wales must not “drag on” and will have achievable goals, its new chairwoman has said.

New Zealand High Court judge Lowell Goddard said she would run a “very effective” investigation so that it could protect children in the future.

The inquiry would have sex abuse victims at its “centre”, she said.

The independent inquiry into how public bodies dealt with allegations of child sex abuse may last until 2018.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that her first step on reaching the UK would be to set “clear objectives”.

“It is a very broad landscape, and the inquiry is very complex and multi-faceted, but it needs to be achievable as well,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

February 5, 2015
The Canberra Times

Editorial

ACT Policing has launched, with some fanfare, an operation to investigate allegations of sexual abuse at institutions in Canberra as long ago as 1951.

As part of the launch, an open letter was published online this week inviting individuals to report incidents of historical sexual abuse, whether as victims or witnesses to such crimes. The letter reassures potential complainants that their matters will be overseen by a “small team of highly trained members who have extensive experience in investigating historical sexual abuse matters”.

Operation Attest, as it has been called, is the outcome of amendments passed in the ACT Legislative Assembly in October 2013 repealing two statutory limitation periods relating to certain historic sexual offences committed between 1951-85. Those amendments, in turn, are an outcome of revelations at the long-running Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that victims of abuse have frequently been prevented from pursuing criminal charges against their abusers by statutes of limitations in the states and territories.

In the ACT’s case, criminal proceedings for some sexual offences, including indecent assault of a male, had to be started within 12 months of the alleged offence.

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KANSAS
Chanute Tribune

Michael Wayne Hill of Erie pleaded not guilty to two counts of capital sexual battery in Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday.

Hill was the pastor of Seventh Day Adventist Churches in Chanute and several other SEK towns in and near Neosho County until his arrest Jan. 8 in Volusia County, Fla.

Hill is accused of two incidents that occurred in 1990 in Jacksonville while the alleged victim, now an adult, was 11 years old. Hill was arrested while meeting with his accuser. His wife, Marla Hill, was also questioned and released.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, spiritual head of the Sydney Yeshiva and leader of Chabad NSW has apologised to those who suffered child sexual abuse when attending the Yeshiva.

The apology was made at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing in Melbourne at the end of the fourth day. The Commission has heard evidence from two prominent rabbis that the Jewish practice of mesura which prohibits Jews from advising secular authorities of the misdemeanors of fellow Jews does not apply halachically in cases of child sexual abuse. In fact, Rabbi Moshe Gutnick and Rabbi Pincus Feldman both told the Commission that Jews are obliged to advise the authorities if they become aware of complaints of child sex abuse.

In his closing statement to the Commission, Rabbi Feldman said: “As Head of Chabad in NSW and on behalf of the entire movement I would like to say to the victims: we are sorry that you suffered; it breaks my heart personally and it breaks all of our hearts. We are sorry that you continue to suffer from the ramifications of how those experiences have affected your life, and we give you our solemn commitment that absolutely everything in our power is being done and will continue to be done to ensure that others don’t ever go through t he same suffering.”

His full statement:

“I would like to start by thanking G-d Almighty for the blessing of living in this great country of Australia, which is investing large amount of resources, including this Royal Commission, in ensuring the safety of our society as a place where the dignity of every human being is upheld, including the most vulnerable such as children.

Although I have been unable to be here in the courtroom for the entire proceedings due to circumstances beyond my control, I have been closely following the broadcast.

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CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee

BY MARISSA LANG
MLANG@SACBEE.COM
02/04/2015

Sacramento police arrested a 42-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting a teenager he met while working as a choir director at New Testament Baptist Church in North Highlands.

In September, police received a report alleging a sexual relationship between a teenage boy and Kareem Abdul Mitchell that spanned from 2005 to 2008. The alleged victim is now an adult. He told police that he met Mitchell when Mitchell was working at the church on 34th Street off Watt Avenue.

Similar accusations were leveled against Mitchell twice before, while he was working as the choir director, but no charges were ever filed, police said.

On Tuesday, police obtained a warrant for Mitchell’s arrest.

He was taken into custody at police headquarters, where he was being interviewed by detectives.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Police say a man has been arrested on allegations he carried out a sexual relationship with minor for years.

According to the Sacramento Police Department, investigators received a report in Sept. 2014 that 42-year-old Kareem Mitchell had carried out a sexual relationship with a teen boy from 2005 to 2008. Mitchell was working as a choir director at New Testament Baptist Church in North Highlands at the time.

On Tuesday, detectives obtained a warrant for Mitchell and took him into custody later that day. He was booked at Sacramento County Jail on charges of sodomy, oral copulation and others.

Police note there had been other similar allegations against Mitchell in the past, but charges were never filed.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento

Nick Janes

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A church choir director is under arrest, accused of sexually assaulting a minor, after the victim came forward with the allegations years later.

Sacramento Police say Kareem Mitchell met his victim, who is now an adult, while working as the choir director at the New Testament Baptist Church in North Highlands. It’s a position the 42-year-old holds to this day.

Investigators say the victim was a minor in his late teens at the time of the sexual relationship between 2005 and 2008, and came forward in September last year. Police believe there could be more victims.

Rev. Donnie Bryant is urging people to let the legal process run its course before passing judgement.

“The thought of these young boys and the offense that they went through, if this is true, it’s devastating,” he said.

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CALIFORNIA
News 10

[with video]

Carlos Saucedo, KXTV February 5, 2015

A church community in North Highlands is in shock after learning of serious sexual allegations involving one of their own.

Church choir director 42-year-old Kareem Mitchell is behind bars for allegedly having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a male teenager.

The allegations troubled the congregation at New Testament Baptist Church.

“The pain of something like that, if it’s true, is a very deep pain, I do believe as a pastor,” church pastor Donnie Bryant said. “First reaction is praying and hoping it’s an allegation. The second one is that if it’s not — the families that have been hurt, the children, who are now young men, these teenagers, that’s our greatest concern.”

Sacramento police said the relationship dates back to 2005 when Mitchell met his victim while working as the choir director. The alleged relationship lasted for three years.

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CALIFORNIA
Fox 40

FEBRUARY 4, 2015, BY IAN MCDONALD

NORTH HIGHLANDS-

Sacramento Police arrested a man suspected of sexual assault of a minor Tuesday.

Investigators say 42-year-old Kareem Mitchell was in a sexual relationship with a teen boy from 2005 to 2008. The two met while Mitchell worked as a choir director at the New Testament Baptist church in the North Highlands area, detectives said.

According to police, Mitchell had already been investigated for similar accusations but no charges were ever filed.

Mitchell was ultimately arrested Tuesday, and booked into Sacramento County Jail on sex charges including sodomy and oral copulation.

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CALIFORNIA
KCRA

[with video]

STARTS RIGHT NOW. TONIGHT, A SACRAMENTO CHOIR DIRECTOR IN JAIL ACCUSED OF CHILD SEX ABUSE. AND INVESTIGATORS ARE WORRIED THERE MAY BE ADDITIONAL VICTIMS WHO HAVEN’T COME FORWARD. THE ALLEGED VICTIM SAYS IT HAPPENED BETWEEN 2005 AND 2008 WITH KAREEM MITCHELL, A CHOIR DIRECTOR AT THE NEW TESTAMENT BAPTIST CHURCH IN NORTH HIGHLANDS.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

Posted: 02/04/2015, 07:38pm | Sam Charles

A new lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Chicago accuses the church of perpetuating a “public nuisance” by keeping convicted child molester and defrocked priest Daniel McCormack in positions with access to children despite accusations of abuse.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of John Doe 239.

With the “public nuisance” accusation, attorneys for the plaintiff are asking the court to order the Archdiocese to “publicly release the history of abuse of each accused child-molesting cleric,” the suit stated.

John Doe 239 was sexually abused by McCormack between 2000 and 2006 while he was a student and altar boy at St. Agatha church and school on the West Side, the suit stated. The two-count suit also alleges negligence.

“In January and November of 2014, the Archdiocese of Chicago voluntarily released almost 22,000 pages of documents related to 66 Archdiocesan priests who have at least one substantiated allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor,” the Archdiocese said in a statement. “None of the priests’ names have been redacted or removed to conceal the identity of abusers, and most of them have been listed on the Archdiocesan website since 2006.”

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Ken Borsuk
Published 11:20 pm, Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The Bridgeport Diocese has suspended a priest for an alleged incident of child abuse.

Bishop Frank Caggiano released a letter Wednesday informing diocese members there was “credible evidence” that Stephen DeLuca committed one incident of child abuse more than 30 years ago.

DeLuca had been serving as priest in residence at St. Catherine of Siena Church in the Riverside section of Greenwich and was the chaplain at Greenwich Hospital. Before that, he had served as pastor of St. Agnes Church in Cos Cob for many years.

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MARYLAND
WBAL

[with video]

By Saliqa Khan

BALTIMORE —Bishop Heather Cook has been indicted on 13 charges for her alleged role in the death of Baltimore cyclist Thomas Palermo.

The Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City released the grand jury indictment Wednesday afternoon.

This is a normal step in this process. Cook was initially charged by police. Now a grand jury has issued an indictment, a reflection of how serious the charges are:

* Automobile manslaughter
* Manslaughter by vehicle or vessel — criminally negligent homicide
* Homicide by motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, per se
*Homicide by motor vehicle while impaired
* Failure to stop the vehicle as close as possible to the scene of the accident and failure to remain at scene of the accident that might result in death
* Failure to stop the vehicle as close as possible to the scene of the accident and failure to remain at scene of the accident that might result in serious bodily injury
* Driving while under the influence of alcohol
* Driving while under the influence of alcohol, per se
* Driving while impaired
* Texting while driving during an accident that results in death or serious bodily injury
* Texting while driving
* Reckless driving
* Negligent driving

Palermo, 41, was fatally struck on the 5700 block of Roland Avenue on Dec. 27. Cook’s alleged blood alcohol level was .22, nearly three times the legal limit.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Brew

A city grand jury has indicted Episcopal Bishop Heather E. Cook on additional counts arising from her fatal crash with bicyclist Tom Palermo on December 27, the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office announced this afternoon.

In addition to four original criminal charges involving manslaughter, homicide by a motor vehicle while impaired, leaving the scene of a fatal accident and several traffic charges – Cook was indicted today on a series of related counts, including reckless driving, negligent driving, drunk driving, texting while driving and failure to stop a vehicle as close as possible to the scene of an accident.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Media Group

By Staff Reporter

A man abused by pedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth has appealed to the authorities to make an interim compensation payment to the victims of predatory clerics who ran state-sanctioned care homes.

Sam Adair, who was repeatedly abused by Fr Brendan Smyth when he was ‘in care’ at Nazareth Lodge on the Ormeau Road, warned yesterday that the slow pace of the institutional abuse enquiry could mean that the first payments to the abused “will be funeral payments”.

in the seventies and eighties, Fr Brendan Smyth had the free run of Catholic care homes and schools across Belfast where he was a favourite of nuns who unwittingly allowed him access to pupils. After church authorities were aware Smyth was a pedophile, he moved into Nazareth Lodge even though he had no formal role in the institution.

“He raped and abused hundreds of children here, in Britain and in the US,” said Sam Adair. “The irony is that this inquiry isn’t bringing us any new information because the state and the church knew about the activities of priests like Brendan Smyth since the fifties when the records show the perpetrators were moved south of the border by their orders. The police knew all about this but claimed they could do nothing once the abusers were moved out of the jurisdiction.”

Former Archbishop Sean Brady was embroiled in the Smyth scandal when it emerged he had been among three priests who were informed in 1975 by victim Brendan Boland that he had been abused by the serial rapist while aged 11. Smyth went on to abuse dozens more victims after Brendan Boland was sworn to silence by the church enquiry.

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AUSTRALIA
The Jerusalem Post

A senior Australian rabbi told a government commission of inquiry on Wednesday that the Jewish-Australian Orthodox community was guilty of covering up sex crimes against its members, going so far as to use intimidation to prevent people from coming forward.

In testimony before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, a senior Chabad leader in Sydney and the head of the Organization of Rabbis of Australasia, said that “a culture of cover-up, often couched in religious terms, pervaded our thinking and our actions.”

Gutnick asserted that those who reported abuse were labeled mosers (“informers”), and subjected to social ostracism, according to The Guardian.

Such actions are a “gross misuse of rabbinic power,” he said, adding that those who push for victims to go to their rabbis rather than the authorities are trying to “hush it up, to cover it up, to prevent the victim from finding redress. There is no doubt at all: Mesira [‘informing’] has no application whatsoever to instances of child sexual abuse. To use mesira in this way is an abomination.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 5, 2015

Jane Lee

One of Australia’s most senior Orthodox rabbis says Jewish people have an obligation to report sexual abuse, and that the prohibition against informing against other Jews to secular authorities does not apply to child sexual abuse.

Rabbi Moshe Gutnick spoke out against the ultra Orthodox Chabad community’s treatment of victims and cover-up of past crimes at the royal commission into child sexual abuse on Wednesday.

“I believe it is an absolute religious obligation to report any allegations of child sexual abuse as quickly as possible to the appropriate authorities and to suggest there is some religious obligation not to do so is an abomination,” he said.

Victims of former Yeshivah Centre employees David Cyprys, Daniel Hayman and David Kramer have told the commission that senior rabbis have labelled them “mosars”, or informers, for breaching the prohibition of mersirah, which they said prevented other victims coming forward.

Rabbi Gutnick called the treatment – which has led to some, including Manny Waks and his father Zephaniah, feeling forced to leave Australia – a “tragedy”.

“I believe the cover-ups and bullying and intimidation that has gone on … represents the antithesis of the teachings of Chabad and Judaism and orthodoxy,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Wednesday 4 February 2015

The testimony of a senior orthodox Jewish rabbi condemning the response of orthodox Yeshivah centres to child sexual abuse has sent shockwaves through the community, victims say.

On Wednesday Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, a senior judge of the Sydney Beth Din rabbinical court, told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse a “culture of cover-up, often couched in religious terms” had pervaded the thinking of the centres in Sydney and Melbourne.

Manny Waks, who was abused by staff at the Melbourne Yeshivah Centre, told Guardian Australia he was left “speechless” by Gutnick’s statement to the commission that a senior religious figure, Rabbi Boruch Lesches, knew about abuse but did not report it.

Gutnick told the commission: “I’m prepared to say that Rabbi Lesches lied when he said that he didn’t know about the abuse by convicted child abuser Daniel ‘Gug’ Hayman.”

Waks said Gutnick’s testimony was “empowering and profound” and had deeply affected victims.

“I don’t think people quite understand the impact of Gutnick’s statement within the orthodox Jewish community, and even the broader Jewish community,” Waks said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

Home Secretary Theresa May has faced a backlash after announcing that the Kincora child sex abuse scandal will not be probed as part of a UK-wide inquiry.

Ms May told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the Westminster-led inquiry will be confined to England and Wales and will not probe the east Belfast home where three staff were jailed in 1981 for child abuse.

Northern Ireland politicians and campaigners have repeatedly called for Kincora to be included in the Westminster probe.

“But Mrs May responded yesterday that Kincora was already being probed by the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry in Banbridge, which is examining abuse in Northern Ireland institutions from 1922 to 1995.

The home secretary told the Commons that there were “good reasons for confining the inquiry’s scope to England and Wales”.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

By Colin Campbell
The Baltimore Sun

Episcopal Bishop Heather Elizabeth Cook was indicted on 13 charges Wednesday in the death December of cyclist Thomas Palermo in North Roland Park, the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office announced.

Cook, 58, the second-ranking official in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, is accused of striking Palermo on Dec. 27 with her car as she was texting and driving drunk. The charges include automobile manslaughter, driving under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of an accident.

The indictment came nearly a month after State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby announced charges against Cook. Cook has been free on bail while awaiting trial; she is scheduled for arraignment March 5.

Authorities say Palermo, 41, was riding in the bicycle lane on Roland Avenue when he was struck. Witnesses said Cook initially left the scene before returning. Police said she registered a 0.22 percent blood-alcohol content level.

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CONNECTICUT
Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport

January 31, 2015

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It is my very sad duty to inform you that I have put Father Stephen DeLuca on administrative leave and have removed his faculties to exercise any and all forms of public ministry as a priest.

My decision was made after I determined, with the assistance of the Diocesan Review Board for Sexual Misconduct, that there is credible evidence of an incident of child abuse on the part of Father DeLuca more than 30 years ago.

I want to be entirely clear that the diocese did not learn of this allegation until recently, well after Father DeLuca retired on June 30, 2014. In accordance with both state reporting mandates and the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, we notified both the police and the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) immediately. Given the information a vailable and the significant time which had passed, neither the police nor DCF took further action. As required by the Charter, the Diocese immediately initiated its own investigation into the allegation. As a result of this extensive and deliberative inquiry, which included the use of outside investigative resources, the allegation was ultimately judged to be credible. Please be assured that all available measures to fairly and thoroughly investigate the allegations were taken while protecting the privacy of the victim.

As a result and in accordance with the Charter, Father DeLuca will no longer reside at St. Catherine and is prohibited from any future ministry. Parish leadership where Father DeLuca served was notified of my action in advance of this letter. We have taken steps to work with Father DeLuca in this transition, and the services of our diocesan clergy counselor have been made available to him.

Diocesan personnel will also be on hand as a resource to the parishes in which he served in the coming days.

It is important to note that, other than this reported incident, we are not aware of any other victim that has come forward with an allegation of misconduct by Father DeLuca in any of his previous assignments.

In order to protect the privacy of the victim, we cannot provide further details other than to say the diocese has reached out to the victim and the victim’s family and offered assistance to promote healing. I realize that this is distressing news for you and it further wounds the diocese and our Church as a family of faith. I can only reassure you that we remain committed to a zero tolerance policy for child abuse and total transparency in the handling of cases. It is for that reason that you are hearing of this news directly from me.

As you may know, on November 30, 2014, I re-promulgated all diocesan Safe Environments policies and practices that are integral to our work as a Church. These policies improve on the good work one over the past decade by redoubling our effort to protect our children and incorporate best practices from across the country.

I ask your prayers for all involved and pledge that the diocese will continue to do everything in its power to fulfill the sacred obligation we share to protect children, youth and vulnerable adults in our community.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Frank J. Caggiano,
Bishop of Bridgeport

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CONNECTICUT
Greenwich Free Press

Former St. Agnes Pastor Suspended from Bridgeport Diocese after “Credible” Child Abuse Evidence

A letter penned by Reverend Frank Caggiano, Bishop of Bridgeport, dated Jan. 31, 2015, advised diocese members that Father DeLuca, formerly a priest at St. Agnes Church at 247 Stanwich Road, has been put on administrative leave following “credible evidence of an incident of child abuse on the part of Father DeLuca more than 30 years ago.”

Father DeLuca was appointed pastor of St. Agnes Parish in August, 1984, a position he held until June 2006. St. Agnes Parish was founded in September 1963 from the established parishes of St. Catherine’s and St. Mary’s.

In the letter from the office of the Bishop at 238 Jewett Ave in Bridgeport, Caggiano said that the diocese did not learn of the allegation until recently, well after Father DeLuca retired on June 30, 2014. The letter states that the diocese was contacted by police and DCF, but that, given the “significant time which had passed,” neither the police nor DCF took action.

The letter further goes on to state that after extensive and deliberative inquiry which included use of outside investigative resources, the allegation was ultimately judged credible and as a result, Father DeLuca will no longer reside at St. Catherine and is prohibited from any future ministry.

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CONNECTICUT
Greenwich Time

Ken Borsuk
Updated 9:40 pm, Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The Bridgeport Diocese has suspended a priest with longstanding ties to Greenwich for an alleged incident of child abuse.

Bishop Frank Caggiano released a letter late Wednesday afternoon informing diocese members that there was “credible evidence” that Stephen DeLuca committed one incident of child abuse more than 30 years ago.

DeLuca had been serving as priest in residence at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Riverside and was currently the chaplain at Greenwich Hospital. Before that he had served as pastor of St. Agnes Church in Cos Cob for many years.

The bishop placed DeLuca on administrative leave and ruled that he was no longer allowed to live at St. Catherine or work as a priest. Details about the incident were not released but a diocese spokesman said it did not take place in Greenwich.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

Patricia Miller

Pope Francis has promised to lift up women’s voices and create more meaningful roles for women in the church, but if the Vatican’s latest bumbling effort to do so is any indication, it might be better for the pope to just say something else cute about puppies or bunnies.

At its three-day annual meeting beginning today the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture will be discussing “Women’s Culture: Equality and Difference.” As the title suggests, the meeting is less an attempt to advance the status of women in the church by giving them access to any real authority—which would necessitate admitting women to the priesthood—and more an effort to burnish the church’s tarnished reputation with women while holding fast to its “complementarian” views.

The effort started off disastrously when the Vatican created a widely derided video featuring a sexy blonde Italian actress rather vampishly soliciting short videos from women to be part of a “great meeting of cardinals and bishops in Rome” to discuss their lives—without them.

While the Vatican notes that a panel of women had a hand in drafting the conference document, the actual discussions about the lives of women will be held by the all-male Pontifical Council for Culture, who will in all their manly wisdom ponder such questions as why “women had so little impact on the Church’s structures.”

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FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

John Romano, Times Columnist

After all these years, the lie had begun to seem real. Chris McCafferty had convinced himself the past had been put to rest, and distant memories could no longer touch him.

This, of course, was never quite true. And all it took was a single phone call to plunge him back into a world of doubt, fear, shame and anger.

The former Catholic priest who McCafferty said sexually abused him as a child in Pinellas Park is scheduled to be released from prison in nine days.

McCafferty was stunned to discover Robert Schaeufele will have only served about 12 years of the concurrent 30-year sentences he received in Pinellas and Pasco counties.

In a conversation Tuesday evening, McCafferty sounded frustrated and perplexed. Hours later, he called back with a sharper perspective.

“Do you want to know the real answer? Do you want to know the truth?” he asked. “It feels like he just (assaulted) me again.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with video]

A New Zealand High Court judge who has been named as the head of an inquiry into historical child sex abuse in England and Wales says she comes to the role “with no agendas”.

Justice Lowell Goddard was appointed after two previous chairwomen resigned over concerns with their links to the establishment.

“I can come, I suppose, as a fresh face and someone with no involvement,” she said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WXOW

CHICAGO (AP) – A man who says he was sexually abused by a former priest is suing the Archdiocese of Chicago, claiming it created a public nuisance by shielding pedophile priests and allowing them to live freely in the community.

The claim filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court comes on top of other legal action taken in recent years by plaintiffs and their attorneys.

Last year, the archdiocese released thousands of files on dozens of priests that it identified as abusers.

But Chicago attorney Marc Pearlman says a nuisance claim allows victims to seek evidence of sexual abuse across the archdiocese, rather than focus on allegations against one individual. The lawsuit seeks disclosure of the names and documents for all abusive clergy dating to 1950.

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CANADA
Digital Journal

IQALUIT, NUNAVUT–(Marketwired – Feb. 4, 2015) – Eric Dejaeger, 67, was sentenced today in the Nunavut Court of Justice to 19 years in prison for sex crimes against children. With credit for time served on remand, the remainder to be served is 11 years.

He was found guilty on September 12, 2014, of 31 counts of sexual offences against children and one count of bestiality. Most of the crimes were committed in the Hamlet of Igloolik in what was then the Northwest Territories, where he was one of the local priests, between 1978 and 1982. He was found not guilty of 48 other charges.

He was arrested on January 20, 2011, when he was returned to Canada after spending 15 years in Belgium. He has been in custody since.

Both parties have 30 days to decide whether to appeal this decision.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada is responsible for prosecuting offences under federal jurisdiction in a manner that is free of any improper influence and that respects the public interest. The PPSC is also responsible for providing prosecution-related advice to law enforcement agencies across Canada.

(Version française disponible)

Sujata Raisinghani
PPSC Communications
613-957-8680
www.ppsc-sppc.gc.ca

Media Relations
613-954-7803
media@ppsc.g.ca

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CANADA
Toronto Sun

A pedophile ex-priest has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for sex offences committed in Nunavut between 1976 and 1982.

Eric Dejaeger, 67, was found guilty last year of 24 counts of sexually abusing Inuit children.

The convictions include unlawful confinement, indecent assault, unlawful sexual intercourse and one count of bestiality and involved both boys and girls.

He had previously pleaded guilty to eight charges of indecent assault against boys.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WNEP

BY JACKIE DE TORE AND SUZANNE GOLDKLANG

WHITE HAVEN — A former youth pastor in Luzerne County is facing charges after a teenage girl said they had a relationship.

Adam D’Albero, 34, of Drums is charged with corruption of minors and sexual contact with a minor for an alleged relationship with a 13-year-old girl. He faced a magistrate Tuesday afternoon for the first time.

D’Albero was arraigned around 2:30 p.m. at a magistrate’s office outside Hazleton.

White Haven police said D’Albero had a relationship with a teenage girl. They said it started in 2011 and went on for about a year.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Standard Speaker

BY AMANDA CHRISTMAN
Published: February 4, 2015

A former pastor and youth group director has been charged with unlawful contact with a child.

White Haven police charged Adam D’Albero, 34, Beech Mountain Lakes, Drums, with corruption of minors and unlawful contact with a minor, both third-degree felonies. He was also charged with indecent assault of a person younger than 16, a second-degree misdemeanor.

D’Albero once served as director of an inter-congregational youth group at Mountainview Community Free Methodist Church in White Haven. Youth group members followed him when he later formed his own congregation, Wellspring Life Center, which is now closed, White Haven Police Chief Tom Szoke said.

The alleged offenses took place between May 2011 and May 2012 when the victim, who was a youth group member, was 12 to 13 years old, Szoke said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Racist, sexist and in denial: Now police will investigate Rotherham Council over child sex abuse at hands of Asian gangs as entire cabinet resigns

By Martin Robinson and Steph Cockroft for MailOnline

A criminal investigation has been launched today after a damning new report found Rotherham Council is ‘not fit for purpose’ and still ‘in denial’ about the 1,400 young girls who were abused in the town over 16 years.

Investigators concluded girls as young as 11 were left to be abused by mainly Asian men between 1997 and 2013 because the council’s staff and politicians feared being labelled racist.

The council also had a ‘deep-rooted’ culture of sexism and bullying where it would ‘shoot the messenger’ and sought to force whistleblowers into silence or pay them off, it was said.

Inspectors also found the council ‘goes to some lengths to cover up information’ and said that children in the town were still at risk of abuse.

The report said South Yorkshire Police also failed in their role to protect victims, turning a blind eye to their plight and in many cases holding them responsible.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with video]

Lucy Duckworth, of the Survivors’ Alliance, set up to represent victims engaging with a national inquiry into historical child sex abuse, has said many are delighted the inquiry will have new powers.

She said the new chair, Justice Lowell Goddard, had proved herself in New Zealand and they were looking forward to working with her.

Since the inquiry was announced last July, two chairmen have stepped down.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The New York Times

By STEVEN ERLANGER
FEB. 4, 2015

LONDON — The British government on Wednesday severely criticized legislators in the northern English town of Rotherham for a culture of “complete denial” that led to a long-running sexual abuse ring involving the abuse of up to 1,400 children from 1997 to 2013.

A report into the scandal by a senior official at Britain’s Department for Communities and Local Government found a deep-rooted culture of cover-ups and bullying, and grounds for possible criminal indictments.

The Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council leader, Paul Lakin, has resigned and the council’s cabinet is also set to resign. Earlier, Shaun Wright, the police and crime commissioner of South Yorkshire, stepped down over the scandal.

The work of the council will be given to five commissioners appointed by the British government, which will call early elections in Rotherham next year to choose a new council.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The chair of the new child sex abuse inquiry has been named as New Zealand High Court judge Justice Lowell Goddard.

In her first interview since the announcement, Justice Goddard said she can bring an “independent and fresh approach” to the child sex abuse inquiry.

She will head up a new panel after Home Secretary Theresa May dissolved the existing inquiry, following a series of criticisms and the resignation of two previous chairs.

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MONTANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 4

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

We are grateful to the hundreds of Montana men and women who have bravely reported being sexually assaulted as kids by Catholic nuns, priests and other clerics. We commend them for their courage. But we deplore the legal maneuvers by Catholic officials who are finally agreeing to compensate these deeply wounded individuals with the paltry amount of less than $20,000 each.

[NBC Montana]

These nuns no doubt say they’re ‘poor’ but frankly we doubt that claim. When it suits them, Catholic officials say they’re part of a huge global church. But when it benefits them, like in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases, they claim each diocese or religious order is autonomous.

Did these nuns even try to borrow money from other Catholic institutions (like Boston’s disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law did) or raise more money in any way, so they could do justice by these hundreds of still-suffering victims? We doubt it. Shame on them.

Still, we hope this settlement brings some measure of closure to these hundreds who were smart and strong enough to seek justice in the courts rather than beg for crumbs from callous Catholic officials. Kids in Montana are safer now because of these brave victims. We are proud of them and wish them well. And we encourage them to stay in therapy, self-help groups and other recovery programs, because no one event can magically reverse years of painful results that stem from horrific childhood betrayal.

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CANADA
The Raw Story

DAVID EDWARDS
04 FEB 2015

A Canadian pastor has been charged after authorities said that he sexually assaulted a women while performing exorcisms.

Toronto police said that United Spiritual Baptist Church Pastor Wayne Marlon Jones, 53, assaulted the women during “spiritual guidance” sessions between May 2011 and May 2013, The Hamilton Spectator reported.

The sessions included exorcisms, when the alleged assault took place.

Jones was also accused of defrauding the woman of more than $5,000 in money and property. He was charged with sexual assault and three counts of fraud.

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CANADA
Our Windsor

Scarborough Mirror

A Scarborough pastor has been charged after a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted during exorcism sessions.

Police allege a pastor at the United Spiritual Baptist Church at 787 Midland Ave. offered spiritual guidance to a woman and performed exorcisms between May 2011 and May 2013. During the sessions, the woman was sexually assaulted.

Police also allege a suspect convinced the woman to give him money and property.

On Aug. 31, Wayne Marlon Jones, 53, of Ajax was arrested and charged with sexual assault and three counts of fraud.

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CANADA
Daily Courier

TORONTO – A man is facing several charges after police say a woman was sexually assaulted and defrauded by a pastor at a Toronto church.

Police say a pastor at the United Spiritual Baptist Church (in the area of Midland Avenue and Eglinton Avenue East) offered spiritual guidance to a woman — including performing exorcisms — between May 2011 and May 2013.

It’s alleged that during these sessions, the man sexually assaulted the woman.

It’s also alleged that the man convinced the woman to give him money and property.

Wayne Marlon Jones, 53, of Ajax, is charged with sexual assault and three counts of fraud over $5,000.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015

Statement by Amy Smith, SNAP Dallas Director 281 748 4050, watchkeepamy@gmail.com,

We are here today to prod Ft. Worth Catholic officials to do more to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. Specifically, we urge Bishop Michael Olson to

1. make public the personnel files of Fr. Bede Mitchel, a recently-outed predator priest,

2. post at least three more names of credibly accused child molesting clerics on his website, and

3. send a letter rebuking an Arkansas church staffer who made harsh remarks that hurt a victim, and

4. aggressively reach out to others who may have been hurt by Fr. Mitchel and other predator priests.

Let’s take these one at a time.

First, last week a settlement was announced in a clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuit involving Fr. Mitchel and two Catholic institutions: the Ft. Worth diocese and an Arkansas abbey. The victim is a Ft. Worth woman and the crimes took place in Cooke County at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Muenster. The alleged predator is a now-deceased priest, Fr. Bede Mitchel, who taught at Corpus Christi Academy and Laneri High School in Ft. Worth, worked at six local parishes and traveled extensively leading retreats and missions.

[Star-Telegram]

We urge Ft. Worth’s bishop to make public every piece of paper in his files about Fr. Mitchel. Since Fr. Mitchel’s colleague in Arkansas claims Fr. Mitchel is innocent, the Ft. Worth bishop should let parishioners, police, prosecutors, parents and the public see and judge for themselves about the allegations against Fr. Mitchel. (Besides, Ft. Worth’s bishop has repeatedly pledged to be “open” about clergy sex cases and the US bishops national abuse policy mandates such openness.)

Second, in 2013, the Ft. Worth diocese posted some names of predator priests on its website. About 30 US bishops have done this. We’re glad Ft. Worth’s bishop did. But his list is incomplete.

It makes no mention of three credibly accused child molesting clerics who spent time in the Ft. Worth diocese: Fr. Mitchel, Fr. Tony Pistone and Fr. Hugh John Sutton. It’s wrong and reckless to help these predator priests exploiting technicalities by keeping them off the diocesan website. For the safety of kids and the healing of victims, we urge Ft. Worth’s bishop to come clean now and add these three predator priests’ names – and any other child molesting clerics’ names – immediately.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312 399 4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

We applaud the first-ever clergy sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit, just filed in Chicago, that accuses Catholic officials of perpetuating a “public nuisance.”

[Jeff Anderson & Associates]

These “nuisance” suits have helped to disclose more deeply-held and embarrassing church secrets in Minnesota. We hope this suit will do so in Illinois.

Many assume that the public knows all about the Fr. Daniel McCormack case. It does not. We are convinced there is crucial information about how Chicago Catholic officials dealt with this notorious predator that church figures are still hiding. Just as important, we believe, is information about other clerics who committed and concealed awful crimes against kids that is similarly still being hidden.

Archdiocesan officials have put out a very sanitized version of how they handled pedophile priests. Parents, police, parishioners, prosecutors and the public deserve more. We hope this new, ground-breaking suit will pry that helpful information out of the files, hands and mouths of current and former top Catholic officials here.

Kids are still being assaulted by Catholic clergy. Bishops are still hiding predator priests. So something more and new must be tried so that more of the truth can be revealed, more of the wrongdoers can be exposed, and more of the vulnerable can be protected.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Mark O’Regan Twitter

04/02/2015

HUNDREDS of Magdalene Laundry survivors will have access to a GP of their choice under the government’s redress scheme.

It has been agreed that women will have the option of using a private GP, or one who has a contract with the HSE.

Minister for Justice and Reform Frances Fitzgerald also said the legislation will now allow for chiropody and physiotherapy services which were not originally provided for in the Act.

Addressing the Dail Justice Committee this afternoon, she stressed it was never her intention to restrict the choice of general practitioner for the women concerned.

“I’m aware many of the women have a medical card and they may wish to stay with their GP,” she said.

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VATICAN CITY
InSerbia

VATICAN CITY – Today an unprecedented canon law petition was dispatched to the Vatican by Serbian Orthodox Christian, Jewish, and Roma Holocaust survivors and their families imploring Pope Francis to settle the long standing dispute about gold looted during the Second World War and deposited at the Vatican Bank. Under canon law, non-Catholics may petition the Pope.

The petition filed by Dr. Jonathan Levy on behalf of thousands of Holocaust survivors and their families is aimed not only at the Vatican Bank but the two watch dog organizations at the Vatican with authority over the scandal plagued bank. The petition coincides with new and serious allegations of financial misdeeds at the Vatican in the just released book God’s Bankers by Gerald Posner.

The Vatican Financial Authority and the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy are accused of shirking their duties to investigate money laundering and in the case of the Vatican Financial Authority, misleading the European Commission which made inquiries on the Holocaust survivors’ behalf.

The Vatican Financial Authority falsely claimed the Vatican Bank was not part of Vatican City therefore did not fall under European Union anti money laundering rules. Dr. Jonathan Levy, who represents several thousand Holocaust victims, their heirs, and organizations has long criticized the Vatican’s handling of Holocaust related claims.

According to Dr. Levy, “Ever since the US government uncovered evidence of Holocaust loot deposited at the Vatican in 1998; the Vatican has been in cover up mode, alternately denying and claiming immunity, it is my hope that Pope Francis truly means what he says about a new era of transparency at the Vatican and sends that same message to his subordinates.”

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CANADA
APTN

Kent Driscoll
APTN National News

IQALUIT– Eric DeJaeger, the priest convicted of 32 counts of abusing Inuit children in the Nunavut community of Igloolik, was sentenced Wednesday to 19 years in prison.

DeJaeger received 8 years credit for time served, so the maximum amount of time he will spend in jail is 11 years. There are no limits on parole, and the parole will have to consider both age and health. DeJaeger is 67 and is in poor health.

The Crown was seeking a 25-year sentence and the defense was looking for 12 years.

In his written ruling, Justice Robert Kilpatrick had comments for both the victims and DeJaeger. For the victims, Justice Kilpatrick had sympathy and advice.

“This Court is powerless to undo the past. No sentence can ever compensate you for what has been taken. No sentence can ever compensate you for the pain and anguish that you have suffered. No sentence can ever return the quality of life that has been missing these past many years. For many of you, no sentence will ever be long enough, or hard enough,” wrote Kilpatrick. “Your anger must be put aside. Your trust in others must be restored. You must learn to rely on the good around you, in your family, in your neighbors, and in your community. Despite what has happened to you, there is still much good in people. It is all around you. You will find that by sharing your burden with others, the burden will eventually become easier to carry.”

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CANADA
Expatica Belgium

A defrocked Catholic priest was sentenced Wednesday to 19 years in prison for sexual assault of dozens of children in the Canadian Arctic, where he worked as a missionary for decades.

Belgian-born Eric Dejaeger, 67, was convicted in September of 31 counts of sexual offenses against Inuit children and one count of bestiality with a sled dog.

With credit for time served while awaiting trial, he is expected to spend the next 11 years in jail.

Dejaeger had originally faced 80 charges, but the judge ruled the evidence had been weakened by the passage of time, and whittled down the number in the indictment.

During the emotionally-charged trial, more than 20 victims testified that Dejaeger used his position as a missionary to lure them into sex, threatening them with hellfire and separation from their families if they exposed him.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Newsweek

By Lucy Draper 2/4/15

Infamous hacker group Anonymous have called for several demonstrations in the UK to protest against what they believe is a huge coverup of paedophile networks by “those who are meant to protect”.

Anonymous have recently turned their attention to international and institutional paedophiles, including those connected to the Westminster child sex abuse scandal currently unfolding in the UK. The group are now calling for people to ‘take to the streets’ next Friday in London’s Trafalgar Square, Glasgow and Essex.

Heather Marsh, speaking on behalf of the group, explained that “Operation Death Eaters”, as the project is referred to, is not only seeking to expose those responsible for the historic crimes, but also those who enabled the sexual abuse to continue.

On the Facebook page for the march, the OpDeathEaters write that the protests will take place “in the street, on social media, in your communities everywhere” and the aim is to inform the public of “the high level complicity and impunity in the paedosadism and child trafficking industry and the need for independent inquiries [sic]”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

THE Government’s inquiry into historical child abuse has been plagued with controversy since it was established last year. Here are the key events:

* July 7, 2014: Home Secretary Theresa May announces she will establish an independent inquiry to examine the handling of allegations of paedophilia by state institutions as well as bodies such as the BBC, churches and political parties.

* July 8, 2014: Baroness Butler-Sloss is named as the chairwoman. Eyebrows are immediately raised by the choice. Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz questions the choice of a member of the House of Lords, ‘’no matter how distinguished’’, to investigate the establishment – pointing out that her brother was Lord Chancellor during the era being probed.

* July 9, 2014: Calls for the appointment to be abandoned intensify over reports that Baroness Butler-Sloss’s brother, Sir Michael – later Lord – Havers, tried to prevent former West Yorkshire MP Geoffrey Dickens airing claims about a diplomat in Parliament in the 1980s.

* July 14, 2014: Downing Street announces that Baroness Butler-Sloss is stepping aside by her own choice.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

The long-delayed inquiry into historic child sex abuse is to be reconstituted under a new chair with tough new powers to compel witnesses to attend and provide evidence.

Home Secretary Theresa May named New Zealand High Court judge Lowell Goddard to head the inquiry, which lost its first two chairs after questions were raised over their links with establishment figures.

Justice Goddard promised to hold a “robust and independent inquiry” which would hold to account those responsible for failing abused children.

Announcing her appointment to the House of Commons, Mrs May said that Justice Goddard had been selected after a search that involved more than 150 candidates, “due diligence” on potential conflicts of interest and consultation with victim groups.

The existing panel is being dissolved, with members able to reapply for positions.

The terms of reference are also being revisited, meaning that investigations could go back beyond 1970, though Mrs May indicated they were unlikely to be extended – as some have demanded – beyond England and Wales.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wall Street Journal

By ALEXIS FLYNN
Feb. 4, 2015

LONDON—The British government on Wednesday named a New Zealand judge to lead a high-profile inquiry into child abuse by prominent figures, including lawmakers, to put back on track an effort that had faced some setbacks.

The government pledged to set up the broad-ranging inquiry last summer in the wake of a series of child-abuse scandals, including investigations that revealed widespread abuse in children’s care homes and allegations of abuse dating back decades by lawmakers and well-known individuals in the entertainment industry.

The inquiry was established to investigate whether public bodies and other nonstate institutions have neglected, or even covered-up, decades of child abuse. Home Secretary Theresa May named Lowell Goddard, a New Zealand high court judge who oversaw a similar probe in her native country in 2009 to lead the U.K. investigation.

Ms. Goddard will face a pre-appointment hearing on Feb. 11 before a panel of lawmakers, Ms. May said in an address to parliament.

Ms. Goddard, 66 years old, will be expected to interview more than a hundred abuse victims and other witnesses as well as parse reams of classified documents. She will have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence and any allegations of criminal activity will be passed to the relevant authorities, Ms. May said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yahoo! News

Laurence Wheeler, a 61-year-old survivor of sexual abuse from Kent, explains what the inquiry into historical child abuse within the British Establishment means to him:

As an adult survivor of childhood abuse, I am pleased that an inquiry into historical child abuse allegations has at last been set up.

With a background of cover-ups and deception, it is essential to have an open and independent panel and chair, to fully publish their findings with complete clarity.

For this to happen it is essential that the inquiry has statutory powers to compel witnesses to give evidence, and that exemption from the Official Secrets Act and other impediments are removed.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Editorial

It is more than two years since the infamous revelation that BBC Newsnight had dropped a report exposing Jimmy Savile as a serial sexual abuser. It is seven months and two false starts since Theresa May promised an inquiry into allegations of an establishment cover-up of abuse in Whitehall and Westminster, and it is six months since Alexis Jay uncovered the extent of abuse in Rotherham. At last it feels as if the end of the beginning has been reached.

There have been never-again moments many times before in the history of abused children, but the Savile affair has been a watershed. It has triggered an extraordinary moment of national catharsis. Now the home secretary has finally grasped the scale of the challenge and, by setting up a new inquiry on a statutory footing, has set in motion what promises to be an investigation into institutional failure that will carry the confidence of all those involved. At the same time, the report of the Whitehall official in charge of the troubled families programme, Louise Casey, into the catastrophic failings of Rotherham council has prompted the communities secretary Eric Pickles to send in the commissioners to run the council’s key services. Its cabinet is resigning and the whole council will have to stand for re-election next year. There is, at last, action on a broad front and at the highest level.

Events in Rotherham since the publication of Professor Jay’s report in October show how deeply entrenched self-deception can become. Most observers thought the report left no doubt about the council’s inadequacies. Yet Louise Casey found a jaw-dropping refusal to face up to failure. More than two-thirds of councillors were refusing to accept Professor Jay’s findings. Casey described deep-seated poor governance, a pervading culture of bullying and sexism, and a misplaced political correctness that only cemented failure. She reported that whistleblowers were silenced and that there was an unhealthy climate where people feared to speak out. There was not even a permanent chief executive in place to start the process of turning the council around. “Both today and in the past, Rotherham has at times taken more care of its reputation than it has of its most needy,” she concluded.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo! Finance

By Nicole Goodkind

The Vatican Bank is one of the most mysterious institutions in the world. The completely independent financial institution is run by the Catholic Church, and until 2013, had never released so much as a financial report.

Pope Francis is finally attempting to shed some light on the fabled bank. Under his watch, investigators have closed more than 3,000 suspect accounts, long-standing bank officials have been fired and the institution now serves only Catholic institutions, clergymen and diplomats within the Vatican. The pope even reportedly considered closing the bank after a scandal in January of 2014 where Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, then-accountant for the Vatican’s real estate holdings, was arrested for attempting to use the bank to smuggle and launder millions of Euros.

In his book, “God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican,” investigative journalist Gerald Posner, who was raised Catholic, dives deep into the shrouded history of the Vatican Bank. That history includes sordid stories of financial alliances with Germany during World War II, and Italian mobsters in the 1980s.

Prior to 1942, the Vatican handled its money elsewhere but during WWII decided it needed its own bank. “Why did the Vatican need a central bank all of a sudden?” Posner asks. “It needed it because the Americans and British were trying to stop money going to Nazi Germany, and the Vatican knew that. It wanted to play both sides of the game by making money with the West and making money with the Italian and Germans, and the only way to do that was to have its own bank.” He alleges that the Vatican Bank would knowingly invest in companies through Italian proxies that would steal money from Holocaust victims.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

By Ryan Buxton

Gerald Posner’s book God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican chronicles the secret side of the Vatican Bank, the Catholic Church’s completely independent financial institution. Part of that history is how the bank became a haven for the loot of mobsters, mafia men and money launderers, which Posner explained to HuffPost Live’s Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani in a Tuesday interview.

The Vatican Bank appealed to the mob, Posner explained, because it was totally free from the oversight of Italian authorities thanks to Vatican City’s status as its own nation. Once the mafia realized it could hide cash there, suspicious characters with well-lined pockets turned the Vatican Bank into “one of the largest banks for money launderers and mobsters,” Posner said.

Knowledge of that system did not reach the top of the church hierarchy, however, which Posner argues is evidence for the corruption within the bank.

“The Vatican Bank was used by mobsters both in America and in Italy as a repository for some of its accounts — without the knowledge of the popes at the time, I’m convinced of that. Maybe without even the knowledge of the head of the Vatican Bank. But it goes to show you how bad the controls were there at the time, that [the mob] was able to use it so well,” he said.

But it seems the church is making an effort to clean up the bank. Posner said more than 200 “dodgy” accounts were closed last year, and several years previously the bank shuttered a shady account that belonged to Giulio Andreotti, a seven-time Italian prime minister.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

The lawsuit seeks disclosure of the identities and secret documents of all clergy offenders since 1950

(Chicago, IL) – The law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates, in conjunction with Kerns, Frost & Pearlman, filed a lawsuit today on behalf of a man, John Doe 239, who was sexually abused by Father Daniel McCormack at St. Agatha parish in Chicago. The lawsuit names the Archdiocese of Chicago as the defendant and alleges the Archdiocese created a public nuisance by conspiring and engaging in efforts to conceal the sexual assault of children within the Archdiocese from authorities and allowed known child molesters to live freely in the community.

Jeff Anderson & Associates has filed several public nuisance cases against Catholic dioceses throughout the country with notable success. As a result, dioceses have been forced to disclose the identities of the accused priests and the files pertaining to each priest.

The lawsuit seeks to expose the dangerous practices employed by the Archdiocese of Chicago in protecting known child abusers. Attorney Jeff Anderson noted, “We acknowledge that the Archdiocese has made significant strides towards transparency and the protection of children. But that there is still more work to be done. We wish to work with the Archdiocese rather against them to achieve these goals. This lawsuit is an invitation to the new Archbishop to compassionately engage with survivors and to fulfill his pledge of openness and transparency. In order for the community to be safe today the secrets of the past must be disclosed.” The new lawsuit requires further disclosure regarding Daniel McCormack and all other priests accused of sexually abusing minors in the Archdiocese.

Archbishop Cupich was not involved in the McCormack case and does not have a history in the Archdiocese. Anderson thinks Cupich is well-equipped by reason of his experience and his word to work with the survivors instead of against them in court.

A copy of the complaint can be found here: Doe 239 Complaint 2-4-2015

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.318.2650 Mobile: 612.817.8665
Contact Marc Pearlman: Office: 312.261.4550 Mobile: 773.368.0142

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CANADA
Global News

IQALUIT, Nunavut – A defrocked Arctic priest has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for dozens of sex offences against Inuit children.

Eric Dejaeger‘s crimes took place 35 years ago in the remote Nunavut community of Igloolik when he was there as an Oblate missionary.

He was originally supposed to be tried on some of the charges in 1995, but fled to his native Belgium and lived in Oblate homes until he was returned to Canada for immigration violations.

His return roiled long-suppressed memories and traumas in Igloolik.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

JIM BELL

Convicted of using numerous Inuit children as his private sex toys between 1978 and 1982, ex-priest Eric Dejaeger, 67, must spend 11 more years in prison, Justice Robert Kilpatrick said in a 60-page written judgment issued Feb. 4.

“Your selfishness has devastated a generation of young Roman Catholic parishioners in Igloolik. Many lives have been irrevocably altered by your dark legacy,” Kilpatrick said in a direct address to Dejaeger.

The judge imposed a sentence of 19 years, minus eight years, calculated on a two-for-one basis from the four-year period during which Dejaeger was detained in custody following his arrest in January 2011.

Kilpatrick, following a lengthy trial that held 2013 and 2014, convicted Dejaeger this past September on 24 of 68 charges he stood trial on.

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CANADA
CBC News

A former priest found guilty of sexually abusing children in Igloolik, Nunavut, 30 years ago has been sentenced to 19 years in prison.

Eric Dejaeger, 67, was found guilty last year of 32 counts of child sexual abuse dating back to his time as a priest in between 1978 and 1982.

“Your selfishness has devastated a generation of young Roman Catholic parishioners in Igloolik,” Justice Robert Kilpatrick wrote in his sentencing decision.

“Many lives have been irrevocably altered by your dark legacy. For many victims, the commission of your offence has marked the end of living and the beginning of their survival. You must now atone for the many wrongs that you have inflicted on others. This sentence is only the beginning of that atonement.”

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ROME
The Tablet

02 February 2015 by Liz Dodd, Hannah Roberts in Rome

A new Vatican report has warned that the Church’s image of women does not correspond to reality, and called for them to be given decision-making roles.

However, days ahead of the Pontifical Council for Culture’s 4-7 February conference, which will focus on women’s issues, the organisers removed from their site a video promoting the event because of “a very negative reaction from both conservative and progressives in Anglo-Saxon countries.”

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the dicastery, said that bishops had also written to him privately to express their concerns about the English-language version of a video featuring a blonde Italian actress Nancy Brilli (pictured above).

The authors of a discussion document for the conference warn the Church against using “rhetoric and clichés” to portray women as an “army” of teachers, catechists, mothers and grandmothers – a depiction it says that “seems to belong to a small ancient world that is disappearing”.

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ROME
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Nuns, a plastic surgeon, an actress, a mother and daughter, women in the workforce and in the killing fields of Syria. These are just some of the women who took part in an event organized in Rome by the Pontifical Council for Culture to kick off its plenary assembly February 4-7.

Tracey McClure was there and filed this report:

The focus of this year’s plenary is “Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference.” Council members will be discussing among other themes, the social and cultural pressures facing women today, the rising numbers of women leaving the Church and violence against women.

Wednesday afternoon’s gala event in Rome’s Teatro Argentina included video clips sent by women from around the world. They were responding to the Pontifical Council for Culture’s President Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi’s call for input ahead of the plenary to jumpstart a conversation about the “Life of Women”.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The UK’s Home Secretary, Teresa May, has finally acted to establish an independent child sex abuse commission with power to compel testimony, as reported here,

[Mirror]

and here:

[BBC News]

Will it call ex-Pope Benedict to testify, as it appears it should, and as it can, in my view as an experienced international lawyer? Please see my “Pope Continues Priest Child Abuse Cover-up Policy” at:

[Christian Catholicism]

Teresa May’s boss, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, recently on US CBS’ “Face the Nation” challenged the pope on the pope’s position that would limit free speech about religious matters. Has the English common law finally caught up to the Vatican? Stay tuned, please!

Again, it took Teresa May, a brave woman, to act, following the bold example of Julia Gillard (also UK born), who set up the outstanding and ongoing Australian Royal Commission.

Will Hillary Clinton, who studied the common law at Yale and worked on the Watergate Commission that transparently and independently investigated US President Nixon’s criminal cover-up conspiracy, be next to call for a national investigation commission in the USA. President Obama seems to lack the fortitude to do so. Is this a women’s thing only? Why is Michelle Obama. a Harvard lawyer, so silent here?

Will UK abuse survivor and advocate, Peter Saunders, who demanded this action in the UK, this weekend (as he meets with the long stalled first full meeting of the pope’s abuse commission), now demand that the pope add to his commission some experienced, independent and proven members, like Fr. Thomas Doyle, Illinois Justice Anne Burke and former Irish President, Mary McAleese? If not, why not?

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CALIFORNIA
National Catholic Reproter

Dan Morris-Young | Feb. 4, 2015

Faculty handbooks of the four high schools owned and operated by the San Francisco archdiocese will carry a new, free-standing section for the 2015-16 school year that puts teachers and faculty on notice about heightened demands regarding adherence to Catholic teaching, particularly on sexual issues, and warns against taking public positions that are contrary to church teaching.

The section:

* Delineates areas of church teaching on “sexual morality and religious practice” it says needs more clarity and emphasis;
* Underscores that “administrators, faculty and staff of any faith or no faith are expected to arrange and conduct their lives so as not to visibly contradict, undermine or deny” church doctrine and practice;
* Calls on “administrators, faculty and staff who are Catholics” to “not only avoid public contradiction of their status as professional agents in the mission of Catholic education,” but to also “conform their hearts, minds and consciences, as well as their public and private behavior, ever more closely to the truths taught by the Catholic Church”;
* Warns educators to “refrain from participation in organizations that call themselves ‘Catholic’ but support or advocate issues or causes contrary” to church teaching.

Developed by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and titled “Statement of the High Schools of the Archdiocese of San Francisco Regarding the Teachings and Practice of the Catholic Church,” the new 2,000-word faculty handbook section was made public Tuesday afternoon during meetings between administrators of the four schools and their faculties and staffs.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

FOR EIGHT YEARS, a credibly accused serial predator priest lived quietly across the river while two bishops warned no one of his presence. Newly-released church records show that from 1995-2002, Fr. J. Vincent Fitzgerald lived at St. Henry’s Oblate Residence in Belleville. (In 2006, an admitted predator priest, Fr. Real Bourque, was found at the same facility.) Fr. Fitzgerald, who was sued for reportedly assaulting two Native American kids on a South Dakota reservation, also worked at in the Springfield, MO and Springfield, IL dioceses.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Dominic Casciani
Home affairs correspondent

Last year’s catastrophic double-failure to launch the historical child sex abuse inquiry posed serious questions for Home Secretary Theresa May and her team.

Two chairs appointed, two chairs resigned and there was a deepening sense of despair among people who’ve been abused that the truth would never come out.

Right from the start, both of the previous chairs – Baroness Butler-Sloss and her successor Fiona Woolf – were under incredible scrutiny. And both were ultimately compromised because they could not command the support of people who have spent years waiting for justice.

Justice Goddard has all the key qualities necessary to lead the Inquiry’s work … this is a completely fresh start”

So last November, under immense political pressure, the Home Secretary publicly conceded she had got it wrong. She would pause and listen to survivors and their representatives before she went any further.

The omens did not look good. She knew that abuse survivors were at the end of their tether – so much talk, so many promises, but so little delivered.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

4 February 2015 By Owen Bennett

A New Zealand judge is the new chairwoman of the troubled child abuse inquiry, Home Secretary Theresa May revealed today.

Lowell Goddard, 66, is the third person chosen to lead the panel after the two previous appointees stepped down for having links to the British establishment.

Justice Goddard has experience of investigation child abuse cases, having previously chaired an inquiry into how police in New Zealand handled such cases.

As well as the new chairwoman, Mrs May also announced today the inquiry would investigate allegations further back than the 1970s and witnesses would be compelled to give evidence.

The current panel was being dissolved in order to have fresh start, but those who had been axed could apply to be part of the new inquiry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The chair of the new Child Sex Abuse Inquiry has been named as New Zealand High Court judge Justice Lowell Goddard.

She will head up a new panel after Home Secretary Theresa May dissolved the existing inquiry, following a series of criticisms and the resignation of two previous chairs.

Former Child Protection manager Peter McKelvie has welcomed the appointment of New Zealand judge Lowell Goddard to lead the Child Sex Abuse Inquiry.

Speaking after a meeting at the Home Office, he said it was a “positive day for survivors” and that “the cement has been put down so whichever government comes in at the next election, the [inquiry] process will go on.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardin

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Wednesday 4 February 2015

A senior religious figure within the orthodox Jewish community, rabbi Baruch Lesches, told a child sex abuse victim that “the proper, clever thing to do” about the abuse “would be to let it go”.

The victim, identified only as AVB, told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse about that Lesches also told him that if he spoke up about the Yeshiva Centre Sydney and Melbourne staff who had abused him, he would ruin their lives.

Lesches said: “If you are going to do something to them at a certain stage in their life, you are destroying their whole life and their children and therefore, this is like something ridiculous.”

The conversation happened in 2011 when, as an adult, AVB phoned Lesches to confront him about what he knew about the extent of the abuse that had occurred within the orthodox Yeshivah community.

Lesches told AVB he had confronted a known abuser, former Yeshivah Centre Bondi director Daniel Hayman, about his abuse of children several times, but had never gone to the police.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sarah Farnsworth

Jewish victims of child sexual abuse are being treated like the devil and told they should burn by members of the ultra-Orthodox community, the royal commission has been told.

A man known as AVB gave evidence at a hearing of the Royal Commission in Institutional Responses to Child Abuse in Melbourne on Wednesday.

He was sexually assaulted at the age of 10 by convicted child abusers Daniel Hayman and David Cyrprys in the 1980s, but he remained silent for 20 years.

AVB told the inquiry he had been subjected to ongoing bullying and intimidation at the hands of the Yeshivah community for speaking out.

“There are issues we are still encountering,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant accused of telling abuse victim to ‘remain silent’ royal commission hears

SHANNON DEERY NEWS LIMITED FEBRUARY 04, 2015

AUSTRALIA’s top Rabbi tried to silence a victim who called on Jewish leaders to confront the child sexual abuse crisis telling him to “remain silent”, it has been claimed.

The victim, known only as AVB, told the royal commission yesterday respected rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant told him he had no right to speak up over the abuse crisis.

Rabbi Kluwgant is the president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australia and a current Victoria Police chaplain.

AVB said after the call for action he was bullied and ostracised from the orthodox Chabad community and vilified by senior rabbis.

He said he had emailed a group of influential figures connected to Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre calling on them to confront the issue of child sexual abuse in 2011.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 05, 2015

Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

A PROMINENT ultra-Orthodox rabbi has warned that key Jewish concepts are being misused to prevent reports of child sexual abuse, amid claims that leaders within the Chabad community are still failing to confront cases they have known about for years.

Rabbi Moshe Gutnick yesterday told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that the historical code against mes­irah (informing on a Jew to non-Jewish authorities) should never apply to criminal cases, but had been misused by those in power.

He described how a Jewish doctor who discovered injuries on an infant consistent with sexual abuse was threatened with mes­irah after reporting it to police and child protection services.

“This was only a few years ago, with an infant,” said Rabbi Gutnick, a former president of the ­Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia. “It is my belief that the threat of transgressing mesirah is used as a means with which to ­retain power and control.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Prominent Australian rabbis are set to give evidence at a hearing into how sexual abuse reports were dealt with in two Jewish communities.

Rabbis including current and former principals of Melbourne’s Yeshivah College will give evidence as part of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The hearings have focused on abuse at the Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi by David Cyprys, Rabbi David Kramer and Daniel Hayman.

All three have been convicted for offences in the 1980s and 1990s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Wednesday 4 February 2015

Justice Lowell Goddard, a New Zealand high court judge, is to be the new head of the official inquiry into child abuse, the home secretary, Theresa May, has announced.

Goddard, who already conducted one inquiry into the police handling of child abuse in New Zealand, said she was well aware of the scale of the “crucial inquiry” that faced her.

“The inquiry will be long, challenging and complex,” Goddard said. “The many, many survivors of child sexual abuse, committed over decades, deserve a robust and thorough investigation of the appalling crimes perpetrated on them. It is vitally important that their voices are now being heard.”

Goddard, who will arrive in Britain next week when she will face a confirmation hearing before the Commons home affairs committee, said she was committed to “leading a robust and independent inquiry that will act on these matters without fear or favour and will hold those responsible to account”.

She added: “The outcome of the inquiry must ensure that the children of today and the future will not only be protected from such dreadful exploitation but empowered to combat it.”

Goddard’s appointment as the third head of the troubled inquiry was immediately welcomed by survivors’ groups and MPs after May made clear her renewed determination to expose “the hard truths” of past child sex abuse, those who had failed to act and those who “positively covered up evidence of abuse”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Northern Ireland will not be included in the new statutory inquiry into historical child sexual abuse being set up by the government in Westminster.

Home Secretary Theresa May told the House of Commons that the inquiry will be confined to England and Wales.

Campaigners had called for Northern Ireland to be included, demanding that a fresh investigation of the Kincora scandal form part of a UK-wide inquiry.

But Mrs May said the Hart Inquiry in Northern Ireland was already under way.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

New Zealand high court judge Justice Lowell Goddard has been named as the latest chair of the troubled child abuse inquiry.

Home Secretary Theresa May said in a statement to MPs that a new statutory inquiry will be established, meaning the current panel will be dissolved.

Current members have been encouraged to reapply for their roles, and the panel has been asked to produce a report on its work so far.

The terms of reference are also being looked at, meaning that the investigations could potentially go back beyond 1970.

However, Mrs May suggested the remit is unlikely to be extended beyond England and Wales

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

New Zealand High Court judge Lowell Goddard has been named as the head of a new inquiry into historical child sex abuse in England and Wales.

The inquiry will have statutory powers and a new panel, Home Secretary Theresa May told the House of Commons.

Mrs May said she was determined to “expose despicable crimes”.

Since the original child abuse inquiry was set up last July, two chairwomen have resigned amid concerns over their links with the establishment.

Mrs May said Justice Goddard was “as removed as possible from the organisations and institutions that might become the focus of the inquiry”.

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