NEW YORK
The Daily News

By Scott DeSmit sdesmit@batavianews.com

ALBION — A jury failed to reach a verdict Friday and will resume deliberating Monday in the Orleans County Court trial of a former pastor accused of molesting three of his grandchildren.

Jurors received the case after lunch and deliberated until late afternoon before Judge James Punch sent them home.

Deliberations came after closing arguments from defense attorney Larry Koss and District Attorney Joseph Cardone.

Koss asked jurors to use “common sense” regarding the evidence against Roy Harriger Sr., 71, former pastor of Ashwood Wesleyan Church.

Koss detailed the allegations against Harriger and, specifically, the testimony of Harriger’s son, George Harriger.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Defenseless children paradoxically may defeat the overly defended and childless Vatican. Pope Francis’ seeming smokescreen on contraception was almost blown away, in a “David and Goliath moment”, by a courageous 12 year old former Manila street child victim of sexual abuse. She movingly asked the pope in front of the world’s media, in effect, how can an omnipotent God (and powerful popes) permit sexual abuse to happen to innocent children. This is not a question of theodicy, but of moral theology — the short answers are “lust” and “greed”, mostly of powerful men.

* Francis, evidently taken by surprise, tried to give the girl a 30 minute Jesuitically evasive and woefully inadequate dissertation on suffering, followed shortly thereafter by his latest missteps on doubling down on his contraception ban. This is further discussed wonderfully by prophetic theologian Jamie Manson, at [National Catholic Reporter] , and here where contraception expert Patricia Miller calls the bluff of Pope Francis, as well as by incisive theologian, Bill Lindsey, here, and by me in earlier remarks here, Curtain Up On Pope’s Veto of Hillary C’s Pill

* And as luck would have it in a tough week, Pope Francis’ “secretary” and the ex-pope’s “convent mate”, Archbishop George Gänswein, even weighed in gratuitously according to Crux. by expressing regret over cases in which Vatican spokesmen have had to issue clarifications about things Pope Francis has said or done. What was that all about — criticizing the boss publicly?

* And the objections to Pope Francis’ plan to canonize 18th Century Franciscan, Father Junipero Serra, who had been a very harsh taskmaster of Native Americans, continue to be heard, see,

* [SFGate]

* Nevertheless. Pope Francis still seems almost oblivious to the frequent and obvious connection between millions of abandoned and unaffordable children worldwide and their sexual exploitation. whether by sex traffickers or predatory priests. The shameful public relations ploy during Francis’ visit (that Cardinal Tagle likely was aware of), of locking up street children, and even putting homeless families in expensive resorts, until Francis left, failed totally, as reported here [Daily Mail] and here So the Vatican media machine now tries to pivot and instead hypes that Pope Francis had more spectators at his free final Mass than rock stars and sports teams have at their paid events, which proves what exactly?

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

01/23/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

I, perhaps more than anyone, want to believe that the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has changed. I want to believe the statements of leadership that they are putting the needs of victims and the safety of children above self-interest and the protection of clergy, and I want to believe that all of their new employees and new initiatives are having a positive impact on the way the Archdiocese is responding to sexual abuse committed by clergy.

But I don’t.

From where I stand, the old adage applies: changes wrought from turbulent times do not impact the reality of the situation except to cement the status quo. Never was this more obvious than with the absolutely unconscionable situation that resulted from the release last week of the file of Father William Stolzman.

The release of Father Stolzman’s file, amongst six others, had been agreed upon as part of the ongoing negotiations of the Doe 1 settlement. Along with the release of the six files, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis issued the following statement:

Statement Regarding Unsealing of Priest Files

Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Source: Anne Steffens, Interim Director of CommunicationsFrom Archbishop John Nienstedt, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

By virtue of an agreement reached between Jeff Anderson and Associates and the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in the Doe 1 case, the files of seven current or former priests previously assigned to the Archdiocese have been unsealed. One of the files, that of Rev. Michael Keating, was publicly released earlier this week.

Two of the priests are/were of religious orders. Of these seven men whose files were unsealed, one left the priesthood in 1990, one is deceased, one is retired, one is prohibited from ministry, one has restrictions placed on his ministry, and two are on leaves of absence.

What this statement does not say (following a long tradition in the Archdiocese of telling people what they want to hear, rather than what is true), is that one of the seven was- at the time of the announcement- actually a regularly scheduled Sunday presider at a parish in the Archdiocese (even on days when the Children’s Choir would be present), as well as an Archdiocesan-appointed chaplain to the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee.

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VATICAN CITY
Fox News

January 23, 2015
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis is warning his new cardinals to keep the partying to a minimum — and keep their egos in check — when they are formally elevated at a Vatican ceremony next month.

In a letter written to the 20 new princes of the church published Friday in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Francis warned the cardinals to avoid the type of ostentatious festivities that “stun worse than grappa on an empty stomach.”

Traditionally, new cardinals are feted with lavish parties, often funded by well-meaning parishioners, following the ceremony where they receive their red hats.

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WASHINGTON
Spokesman Review

The law firm of Paine Hamblen has been absolved of all wrongdoing in its bankruptcy representation of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane.

A mediated settlement signed Friday ends the diocese’s malpractice suit against its former law firm.

Though terms of the settlement were not disclosed, court records indicate the diocese did not receive any money.

The two sides mediated under the guidance of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph Mabey. After meetings in mid-January the sides reached a deal.

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WASHINGTON
National Catholic Reporter

Tom Gallagher | Jan. 23, 2015 NCR Today

Just a few weeks before starting the legal malpractice trial, the Spokane, Wash., diocese and the diocese’s former legal counsel, the Spokane-based Paine Hamblen law firm, agreed to a settlement, according to a joint press release published Friday. The lawsuit brought by the diocese stems from the diocese’s 2007 bankruptcy because of priest sexual abuse claims.

The diocese released a brief statement:

Following a mediation conducted by former Bankruptcy Judge Ralph Mabey (Salt Lake City, Utah), the parties to the litigation pending in In re Catholic Bishop of Spokane in the United States Bankruptcy Court in Spokane, have settled their disputes in a manner satisfactory to all parties.

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CALIFORNIA
SFGate

By Caille Millner Updated Friday, January 23, 2015

On my walk home from work, I pass three storefront evangelical churches. They’re often the only institutions of well repute on those blocks, and their congregants have the pride of people who treasure respectability and order, because there’s so little of those things in their surroundings. The women wear long skirts, the men wear boxy suits, the children have clean collars.

Some of them were born here, and some of them are immigrants from Mexico or El Salvador or Nicaragua or elsewhere in Latin America, but the crucial point is that they are all from traditionally Catholic cultures, and they’ve all chosen a different church. It’s a distinct choice that can be appreciated even on the most secular level — they’re choosing to spend their time at small storefronts with ugly overhead lighting and bad carpets, instead of in San Francisco’s beautiful Catholic churches. They’re doing this because the faith of their ancestors didn’t hold enough for them.

I thought about these storefront churches when I heard that Pope Francis is planning to canonize the Rev. Junipero Serra, the priest who “brought” Christianity to California in the late 1700s.

Or perhaps I should say that I thought about why, despite a wildly popular Latin American pope, the church is struggling to hold onto believers even where it’s strongest. The Serra choice is as fine an example of the church’s tone deafness as I can imagine.

There are at least two Junipero Serras. There’s the Serra of California’s roadways and statues, the Serra whom California schoolchildren learn about in the fourth grade.

This is the Serra who was the pious, humble Franciscan. He was a man of immense personal bravery, giving up a comfortable life as a theologian in Spain to bring the Gospel to the Americas. He brought the Gospel to California — at the time one of the most remote and threatened regions of the Spanish empire — along with the famous mission system that became the first permanent European presence on the West Coast.

Then there’s the Serra whom children don’t learn about in school. This Serra is the figure of serious academic historians and a despised figure in the American Indian community. He was a brutal colonist who exploited the local indigenous communities for their labor and for their souls — Indian recruits were forced to convert, sometimes at gunpoint, and rounded up by soldiers if they tried to escape.

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

By Carol Stanton
Guest columnist

Rita Lucey is smiling. She defies her 80 years in photographer Red Huber’s wonderful picture accompanying the article about her ordination to priesthood (“She’ll become priest, get excommunicated,” Friday).

This is a woman who has given many of her eight decades to action, even imprisonment, for social justice and to care for the sick. This is a wife of 60 years, a mother and grandmother who, under ordinary circumstances, would be celebrated in Catholic officialdom as a model of what Pope Francis is encouraging priests and people to be.

This is a woman whose ordination to priesthood through the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests will automatically incur excommunication from a church that does not recognize the association as one of its own, even though many of its own are part of it. A church whose leaders continue to bar women from ordination, the participation in governance that comes along with it and the fullest use of their gifts as servant leaders.

Excommunication has a long history in the Catholic Church. Often used as a political weapon, it could place entire communities under a pall of eucharistic deprivation sometimes lasting years.

Excommunication in 2015 has not lost that whiff of weaponry, and Lucey joins a whole raft of politicians and other waywards who, by the law of the church, either incur it automatically or are pronounced “out of communion” by a local bishop. Its punitive cousins are the increasing threats of job loss for church employees who are judged to stray.

Yet, here is Lucey, well beyond the age of acceptance into any of the Roman Catholic Church’s Seminary or Diaconate preparation programs but, from all indications, a woman faithful, over a lifetime, to her church’s call to discipleship. Somewhere along the way, in her spiritual journey, she found this current path and is following it, despite the official consequences.

And she is not alone. A couple of hundred women from around the world have been following this same path. Without ecclesial space in their church of origin, they find other spaces for gathering and leading communities of worship and service to the marginalized.

Are the Rita Luceys seeking ordination because they are frustrated, disgruntled, angry and alienated and want to poke the eye of a clerical and mostly male church bureaucracy?

Maybe. Women keep Catholic parishes and dioceses going on a daily basis, bringing extraordinary pastoral and leadership skills. Many pastors will admit that should the women in their church go on strike, parish life would come to a grinding halt. It is difficult for women to minister and yet remain invisible and mostly unacknowledged. This is cause for some just anger. However, perhaps there is another and ironically more traditional reason some catholic women are seeking ordination where they can find it.

Catholic faithful, both men and women, are beginning to recognize the dissonance of not having women able to serve sacramentally — not only prepare for baptism but baptize; not only accompany the dying but bury them; not only teach the Gospel but proclaim and preach it.

A Pew Research Center survey in February 2014 shows that 68 percent of the U.S. Catholics polled are in favor of ordaining women as priests, and that 42 percent expect the church to change its position by 2050. Church leaders are not known to be swayed by popularity or polls. At the same time, the church has always taught that there is a sense of the faithful operating in the reception of church teaching, a resonating that speaks to the wisdom and timeliness of a teaching.

In 2015, a serious survey such as Pew’s could be revealing where that sense of the faithful is heading. It may be worth some attention.

Is it possible that despite being excommunicated from the center of the present church, Lucey, at 80, may be the face of the church to come? What is certain is that change rarely comes from the center.

Carol Stanton has worked as a teacher and director of programs, communications and marketing/development in the Catholic Church in Boston, Maryland, Central Florida and the Republic of Ireland. She was also a TV news reporter/anchor for WFTV and WESH in Orlando.

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PHILIPPINES
UCA News

AFP, Manila
Philippines
January 23, 2015

The Philippines government came under fire Friday after admitting that hundreds of homeless people were taken off Manila’s streets and put into luxury accommodation during Pope Francis’s recent visit, when he preached compassion for the poor.

Members of parliament demanded an explanation after Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman revealed 490 beggars and homeless people were taken to air-conditioned log cabins at a resort near Manila for the January 15-19 visit.

“The pope would have wanted to see the Philippines, warts and all. Let us not pretend that we are a first-world country,” said House of Representatives member Terry Ridon, who is initiating a congressional inquiry.

Soliman said the street people, many of whom live in shanties and hammocks tied to palm trees along the Manila Bay seafront, were removed from the capital’s Roxas Boulevard before the visit.

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IOWA
New York Daily News

BY DEBORAH HASTINGS NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, January 22, 2015

A veteran Iowa pastor has been removed from the priesthood by Pope Francis after a church investigation determined he had sexually assaulted a juvenile decades ago.

Howard Fitzgerald had been on administrative leave since June and has a 35-year history of working in Iowa churches. His most recent postings were at Immaculate Conception Church, St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Simpson College, according to the Des Moines Register.

The 63-year-old was the subject of a diocese review that found “credible evidence” Fitzgerald abused a minor in a “decades-old” incident. Those findings were sent to the Vatican, where the Pope ordered Fitzgerald removed from the priesthood.

“I encourage your prayers for Howard at this time, as well as continuing prayer for victims of sexual abuse both by the clergy and perpetrators in the broader society,” wrote Bishop Richard Pates of the Diocese of Des Moines in a memo to employees, the paper said.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

(Reuters) – Pope Francis has told the men he will elevate to the high rank of cardinal next month to be humble and shun lavish parties in their honor, saying they can do more damage than alcohol on an empty stomach.

“It is not easy to be humble servants if you see the role of a cardinal as a position of power or superiority,” he said in a letter written to each of the cardinals-to-be and published in the Vatican newspaper on Friday.

He also told them to beware that parties held for them by faithful from their countries do not become fancy social events that can disorient them and “stun someone more than grappa on an empty stomach.” Grappa is a very strong Italian liquor.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Jim Gamble

Leon Brittan’s death is a personal tragedy for his family, friends and former colleagues, to whom I offer my personal condolences. But a wider tragedy stretches beyond that intimate circle, as the opportunity for him to give evidence to the child abuse inquiry, to clarify issues concerning allegations of a missing dossier, has been lost forever. This is a consequence of the failure to deliver the inquiry, which was initially launched by the home secretary in July 2014.

Other jurisdictions have managed inquiries, so why can’t we? Why is the child abuse inquiry in Northern Ireland moving forward with some success, for instance, while the best Westminster can do is two false starts?

It boils down to trust and leadership. The bond of trust that was broken when children who should have been cared for and protected were abused is not one that will be easily mended. Abusers used their position of power and/or the influence and reputation of the institution they represented to maintain a veil of secrecy. They believed their power and control over the lives of their victims was absolute; but few will be sleeping easily tonight.

Given the relationship between those institutions, powerful individuals and the state, it’s insulting to expect survivors of such abuse to accept the imposition of an inquiry on trust alone. While some within government claim credit for setting up the inquiry, survivors had been calling for one for many years, and many feel it was the alleged destruction or loss of so many documents at the Home Office, and speculation about who did what and when, that finally forced a government response.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

Dan Horn, dhorn@enquirer.com January 23, 2015

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati launched its largest fundraising campaign in at least a half century Friday with the creation of a new charitable foundation that soon could become one of the region’s largest.

The goal is to quickly turn the new Catholic Community Foundation into a fundraising powerhouse with as much as $130 million available to help Catholic schools, priests, parishes and a wide range of social services – from food pantries to adoption.

The foundation is a departure from the decades-long practice of running all campaigns directly through the archdiocese. Under the new system, the church still will control the money but will conduct fundraising like any other private charity, with more public accountability and a board of directors comprised of lay people, priests, church leaders and Archbishop Dennis Schnurr.

Church officials already have raised about $36 million in pledges through a pilot program that began last year, but the archdiocese-wide campaign is just getting under way. They seek five-year commitments from donors – some for $100 and some for well over $1 million – and hope the new foundation structure assures potential contributors their money will be well spent.

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ITALY
Gazzetta del Sud

Ancona, January 23 – A Bolivian nun gave birth in San Severino Marche after being taken to hospital where she complained of a bad stomach ache, Italian newspaper Corriere Adriatico said on Friday. The newspaper said the nun, whose age wasn’t given, gave birth last Sunday and intends to keep the baby, whose sex wasn’t given. The nun had been staying at a cloistered convent in the province of Macerata since June. The hospital hasn’t confirmed the birth and the bishop of nearby town Camerino, Francesco Brugnaro, hasn’t made any comment on the case. Another case of a nun giving birth took place in 2011 in Marche, when a 41-year-old Congolese nun gave birth to a baby girl in Pesaro. In that case, the nun had been raped abroad by a foreign priest and initially gave her daughter up for adoption.

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UNITED STATES
Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Jan 23, 2015

I am very grateful for this thought provoking guest post and hope it challenges each of us to re-examine how we approach the value of life. Robert Peters is both my student and my friend, and he gives me much hope for the next generation. – Boz
_____________________________________________________________________________

I will never forget the first ultrasound of my unborn child. Expecting an idle smudge on a grainy screen, my wife and I were greeted by a hyperactive baby, all four flailing limbs foiling the doctor’s attempt at accurate measurement. Our child was beautiful, and very much alive.

This week marks the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and across the country pro-lifers gather to profess the humanity of unborn children. However, as Brennan Manning noted in The Ragamuffin Gospel, “the danger of the pro-life position… is that it can be frighteningly selective.” Recent events provide repeated and disturbing evidence of this selectivity.

For example, the Internet is littered with conservatives decrying the abortion of children conceived through rape, yet many of these same conservatives minimize, ignore, and otherwise dehumanize the rape survivors themselves.

We see this in the popular conservative blogger who glibly dismisses the prevalence of sexual assault with an unrelated hyperlink and the question, “Does any rational person really believe that the numbers are this high?” We see this in the perverse portrayal of those who condemn Cosby as “liberals” who, of course, whole-heartedly endorse Clinton’s sexual conduct. We see this in the many Christian institutions that publicly proclaim a pro-life ethic, while actively marginalizing abuse survivors and concealing predators. We see this in repeated incredulity towards abuse allegations, shackling victims in the shadows. We see this in the calloused right-wing pundits who dismiss rape survivors as little girls in need of attention. We see this in the culture warrior who only mentions child abuse if a homosexual is involved.

There is a common thread: a dehumanizing prioritization of partisanship over people, of political platforms over Biblical principles. Mark 12 lists the two greatest commandments: love God and love people. That’s it. No partisan talking points: just the simple command to love others as we love ourselves. How we treat “the least of these” is how we treat Christ (Matthew 25:40). God created man in His image (Genesis 1:27). Life is sacred, precious, and beautiful. If you ignore or exploit rape allegations to score political points, you demean the image of God. You’re not pro-life.

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INDIA
Hindustan Times

A nun has accused former priest of Shyampura Church Fijo Chirnal of sexual assault and ‘rape’. After receiving the complaint on Thursday, superintendent of police Sachin Atulkar forwarded the case to the mahila police station of Sagar for investigation.

Assistant sub-inspector JS Thakur, who is investigating the case, recorded the nun’s statement on Thursday. “We have received the case from the SP for investigation. The nun has accused Father Chirnal of sexually exploiting her between 2010 and 2012,” Thakur said.

Chirnal was transferred to Odisha later in 2012. When the Bishop of Sagar Diosys Anthony Chiyarth was contacted, he asked the correspondent to contact wicker general Father Robin.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY LIAM CLARKE – 23 JANUARY 2015

At least one Tory MP visited Kincora during the 1970s when it was riven with sexual abuse by staff of boys in their care, it has been claimed.

The allegation was made by two retired detectives who were part of a team which investigated the east Belfast boys’ home in the 1980s and successfully prosecuted three members of staff for sexual abuse.

The names of the police officers are being withheld for security reasons. They are instead referred to as officers Smith and Jones.

Both are known to the Belfast Telegraph and we have established that they conducted the inquiry. Both are also willing to help any inquiry into Kincora either here or in England. They revealed that the MP died before they could arrange to interview him.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY LIAM CLARKE – 23 JANUARY 2015

The head of Northern Ireland’s biggest criminal law practice has said that the Kincora investigation should not be conducted in Northern Ireland.

Kevin Winters wants the possible links to child abuse rings elsewhere, and to the intelligence services’ involvement, looked at as part of the overall Westminster inquiry.

He represents a number of former Kincora residents who have launched a judicial review to have abuse at the boys’ home dealt with as part of a UK-wide inquiry and not by Anthony Hart’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry which is currently sitting in Banbridge.

“The Kincora investigation will lose something if it is isolated and put into the backwater of Banbridge. There is still no compellability of witnesses in Banbridge. Until they get compellability and until they have what could specifically be described as Human Rights Act compliant powers we must part company with what is being proposed by the HIA.”

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UNITED STATES
AlterNet

By Ijeoma Oluo / The Guardian January 22, 2015

I am a woman. I am a feminist. And it took me 12 years to admit that someone I loved was a sexual predator.

This isn’t easy to acknowledge, but it feels especially important after a year marked by several high profile accusations of sexual assault and domestic violence. Almost every case featured public scrutiny of the accuser’s history and values and motivations; almost every case featured a woman who choses to publicly stand by the accused. Many other women responded with shock and disappointment: Why would any woman defend a rapist? How could any smart, confident woman be in such denial?

The public refusal to believe rape accusations is harmful to all women, and it casts a shadow on rape victims all over the world. But as appalling as it is to refuse to believe a woman who has been so brutally violated, I cannot help but feel some empathy with the disbelievers, because when a close family member of mine – who I’ll call Steve – was accused and convicted of sexual assault, I refused to believe it.

My father had left for Nigeria when I was two years old and my brother was six months old and, as we grew up, Steve was what we imagined a “cool dad” would be like: he was funny, he swore, he played pranks. He always had time for us when it seemed like all the other adults had more important things to do.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

München – Ein wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern angeklagter Pater des oberbayerischen Klosters Ettal hat sämtliche Vorwürfe gegen ihn zurückgewiesen. «Alle mir zur Last gelegten Vorwürfe sind unzutreffend», sagte der 44-Jährige zu Beginn seines Prozesses vor dem Landgericht München.

Die Staatsanwaltschaft wirft dem Ordensgeistlichen sexuellen Missbrauch von zwei Internatsschülern und versuchten sexuellen Missbrauch von zwei weiteren Jungen vor. Der Priester soll zwischen 2001 und 2005 wiederholt Schülern in die Unterhose gefasst haben.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Times

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia was taken to hospital last night after falling unwell in the Spanish city of Salamanca, where the Scottish bishops have gathered for their annual winter meeting in the Royal Scots College in the city.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Glasgow said that the Archbishop is conscious and in good spirits.

It is understood that the Archbishop became concerned about his health after feeling unwell and asked to be taken to hospital.

He was taken to the city’s University hospital and, after initial treatment and tests were carried out, doctors confirmed that he had suffered a heart attack.

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GERMANY
The Local

A monk and former teacher at a boarding school in the Bavarian alps pleaded not guilty on Thursday at his trial for abusing two pupils and attempted abuse of two more.

Jürgen R., a 44-year-old priest and teacher at the Ettal monastery school, told the judge in Munich that “all accusations laid against me are untrue” when he appeared to hear the charges.

He claims that he did nothing more than stroke the children on their backs and stomachs, saying that his mother did the same thing to him when he came to her for comfort.

“At that time I was in the place of the father and the mother” for the children in his care at the boarding school, he said.

Although he apologized for not maintaining the proper distance from the children, he argues that they came to him to cry on his shoulder due to his position as a “prefect” – the title given to teachers at the Benedictine monastery in the Ammergau Alps.

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OREGON
Mail Tribune

By Thomas Moriarty
Mail Tribune
Posted Jan. 22, 2015

Medford police have added child pornography charges against a former youth pastor they allege had been secretly videotaping women at various locations in Jackson County.

According to a Medford Police Department news release, investigators with the Southern Oregon High Tech Crimes Task Force so far have obtained 28 videos from a hidden camera in the bathroom of Donald Biggs’ Jacksonville home showing women and young girls in various states of nudity.

Biggs, 36, has been held in the Jackson County Jail on charges of invasion of privacy and two counts of second-degree burglary since Jan. 15, when he was arrested, police say, after they connected him to a Jan. 12 burglary at Mountain Christian Fellowship, where he was formerly a youth pastor.

He’s now also charged with six counts of using a child in a display of a sex act, six counts of encouraging first-degree child sex abuse and two counts of private indecency. Using a child in a display of a sex act is a Class A felony, carrying a minimum sentence of more than five years in prison without parole under Measure 11 guidelines.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

Jan 22, 2015 By Tom Pettifor

The former Tory Home Secretary has died after a long fight with cancer – leaving unanswered questions about his role in the disappearance of a dossier

Child sex abuse campaigners have spoken of their fury that Leon Brittan has taken secrets of an alleged Westminster paedophile cover-up to his grave.

The former Tory Home Secretary has died after a long fight with cancer – leaving unanswered questions about his role in the disappearance of a dossier said to reveal the existence of an abuse network at the top of government.

And detectives declared they would still be investigating claims Lord Brittan raped a teenager in 1967.

The dossier was handed to him in 1983 by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens and the row over its “loss” led to Home Secretary Theresa May launching a wide-ranging public inquiry into the allegations of a paedophile ring.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

23 January, 2015

The Royal Commission is launching a public consultation paper on redress and civil litigation at a public hearing in Sydney on 30 January 2015 at 9.30am.

At the public hearing, the Chair of the Royal Commission Justice Peter McClellan will outline key issues for consideration in the provision of redress and civil litigation for survivors of child sexual abuse in institutions.

The public hearing will commence at 9.30am. Members of the public and the media are invited to attend the public hearing in person: Level 17 Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place Sydney or watch live via the Royal Commission’s website.

A detailed public consultation paper on redress and civil litigation will be available on the Royal Commission’s website from 9.30am on 30 January 2015. The Royal Commission invites submissions by interested parties to the consultation paper by midday Monday 2 March 2015.

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FLORIDA
NBC 2

[with video]

By Jim Spiewak, NBC2 Investigator

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA –
A group of Catholics are calling for answers into allegations surrounding Bishop Frank Dewane.

The NBC2 investigators have covered the bishop’s troubles for nearly a year now.

The group wants to know why church leaders have not even acknowledged their concerns. The international group, The Voice for the Faithful, called Thursday’s meeting in part because of a letter uncovered by the NBC2 investigators, signed by ten priests and sent to the Pope’s aide in Washington D.C.

It alleges Bishop Dewane lacks financial transparency, violates canon law and uses bullying tactics.

Now the group alleges the Diocese is buying up land under a company called Trinity Enterprise Holdings instead of in the name of the Diocese and they say that could protect assets against a pending $5 million sexual abuse lawsuit.

Land records show Trinity owns land in Sarasota County. We asked the president of the Voice of the Faithful if Bishop Dewane needs to be removed from his position.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

PAUL PEACHEY Thursday 22 January 2015

The Prime Minister has led tributes to Lord Brittan, the former Home Secretary, whose retirement after years of public service has been dogged by controversy over the alleged cover-up of child abuse on his watch.

The death of Lord Brittan, at the age of 75 from cancer, was greeted with sorrow by his family and the admiration of his political peers, but with disappointment from abuse victims’ groups seeking answers about an alleged establishment paedophile ring.

As the youngest Home Secretary since Winston Churchill, Lord Brittan was a key member of Cabinet after the Conservative landslide of 1983 swept Margaret Thatcher back to power.

He was a central figure in the controversy over the policing of the miners’ strike and the Libyan embassy siege that resulted in the fatal shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher. He was forced to resign from the cabinet over the Westland affair and spent a decade in Brussels as one of the UK’s European commissioners.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

By Andrea Gagliarducci

Vatican City, Jan 23, 2015 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis completed the membership of the new Vatican body with responsibility for dealing with clerical sex abuse on Wednesday, marking a further step in providing adequate procedures to insure justice for all the victims.

The body is a specific office within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that will deal with ‘delicta graviora’, or ‘more grave crimes’. These are the most serious crimes in the Church, and most notably include offenses against morality: the sexual abuse of a minor by a cleric; or the acquisition, possession, or distribution of child pornography by a cleric.

The new office is established as a college of seven people, whose names were announced Jan. 21.

Bishop Charles Scicluna has been appointed president of the college. Now the Auxiliary Bishop of Malta, Bishop Scicluna served from 2002 to 2012 as Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – that is, as the Vatican’s public prosecutor – personally handling the sex abuses crises of 2002 and 2010 and carrying forward the ‘zero tolerance’ line wanted by St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI to tackle the issue.

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VIRGINIA
The Free Lance-Star

BY PORTSIA SMITH / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

A Spotsylvania County man who served as a youth minister at a local church pleaded guilty to custodial indecent liberties with a 17-year-old girl.

Timothy Ralph Noszek Jr., 33, waived indictment and entered an Alford guilty plea in Spotsylvania Circuit Court last Thursday. An Alford plea means that he does not admit guilt, but acknowledges that there is enough evidence for a conviction.

Noszek received a suspended five-year sentence and must register as a sex offender. He was also ordered to have no contact with the victim for five years or unsupervised contact with juveniles not related to him, under the plea agreement.

He had served about two months in jail following his arrest last fall.

According to the plea agreement, a deputy responded to the back parking lot in the 11000 block of Gordon Road around 10:40 a.m. on Oct. 10 for a report about two suspicious parked cars. The cars were spotted there at least five times in the two weeks prior to this incident, the agreement said.
When the deputy arrived, he found Noszek and a 17-year-old girl in the car.

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OREGON
Statesman Journal

Alexa Armstrong, Statesman Journal
January 22, 2015

A former youth pastor for the Brooks Assembly of God church made his initial appearance in court today and was formally charged with 10 counts of first-degree rape.

Peter Bass, 36, appeared for his arraignment at the Marion County Circuit Court annex behind a glass partition sporting a blue jumpsuit and orange sandals.

With his attorney, Robert Botta, by his side, he stood casually, resting his elbows on the ledge behind the glass. Bass did not speak or enter a plea.

Bass of Brooks was arrested Wednesday morning on 15 counts each of first-degree sodomy and second-degree sex abuse, shocking the members of his small town. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office has declined to say how Bass knew his victims, but said that it was not through his work as a youth pastor.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

[On the dark side. A monk is on trial for abusing youngsters at the Ettal Monastery.]

Von Heiner Effern

Ein büßender Mönch auf der Anklagebank sieht anders aus. Im dunkelgrauen Anzug, mit weißem Hemd und blau-gestreifter Krawatte ist Pater Georg ins Landgericht München II gekommen. Aufrecht, den Kopf erhoben, nimmt er vor seinen Verteidigern Platz. Mitgebracht hat er zum Prozessauftakt ein dickes Konvolut, aus dem er gleich nach dem Vortrag der Anklage vorliest. Mit vielen Worten zeichnet er mehr als zweieinhalb Stunden lang das Bild eines Menschen. Einfühlsam, manchmal unglücklich, konfliktscheu, oft überfordert. Er beschreibt sich als einen Mann, der sich verirrt hat. Doch nicht auf die Abwege, die ihm die Staatsanwältin vorwirft. Niemals habe er sich den ihm anvertrauten Schülern als Präfekt des Internats in Kloster Ettal sexuell genähert, sagt der 44-jährige Pater Georg. Er ist nicht als Büßer gekommen, sondern um seine Unschuld zu beweisen.

Zwischen den Jahren 2001 und 2005 soll er zwei Schüler sexuell missbraucht haben. Er soll sie mit der Hand am Genital berührt und auch gestreichelt haben. Bei zweien ist er des Versuchs angeklagt, sie sollen rechtzeitig gegangen sein. Pater Georg soll seine Position als Vertrauensperson der Kinder dafür schamlos ausgenutzt haben. So steht es in der Anklageschrift der Staatsanwaltschaft. “Falsch”, sagt Pater Georg. “Alle mir zur Last gelegten Vorwürfe sind unzutreffend.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A former priest described in court as one of Australia’s worst paedophiles has had his jail term extended for sexually abusing students.

John Sidney Denham, 73, has been serving a 14-year sentence for abusing 40 children, mostly at Newcastle’s St Pius X College in the 1970s and early 80s.

The District Court today handed down a 13-year jail term for abusing another 18 boys, with Judge Syme saying the offences “represent the most abhorrent and sadistic combination of circumstances that courts are likely to see”.

“The offender operated as if he was at some paedophilic smorgasbord, entitled to abuse boys at any time or place of his choosing,” Judge Syme said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sarah Gerathy

The New South Wales Government is considering removing a time limit on legal claims being lodged by victims of child sexual abuse.

Under existing laws, victims of child sexual abuse in NSW typically have between three and 12 years to sue for damages in a civil court before the statute of limitations can be used to block their claims.

But Attorney-General Brad Hazzard said the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had highlighted the trauma this causes victims, who often taken years to work up the courage to come forward.

“Most of us would be thinking after hearing the horror stories at the royal commission that removing the limitation would be a good way to go,” said Mr Hazzard.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Thursday 22 January 2015

The NSW government is considering lifting the time limit in which survivors of child sexual abuse can sue for damages.

The NSW attorney general Brad Hazzard said the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse had uncovered widespread claims about abuse and the legal barriers survivors face in pursuing justice many years after the crime.

“It is well documented that many survivors of child sexual abuse do not disclose their experiences or act on them until decades after the abuse, well after the time period has ended,” Hazzard said on Friday.

The government has released a discussion paper on whether to amend the Limitation Act 1969 and wants to hear from the public.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

By Gary Popp
News and Tribune

LOUISVILLE, KY (News and Tribune) – The former pastor of a New Albany church was sentenced Wednesday in a Louisville court to 15 years in prison for the sodomy of a child.

Isrom Johnson, 35, Louisville, was a pastor at Prince of Peace Missionary Baptist Church along Linden Avenue at the time of his arrest in December 2012.

According to court records, Johnson committed three offenses of, “sodomy in the second degree by engaging in deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 14 years of age.”

He was taken into custody by the Louisville Metro Police Department after he was indicted by a Jefferson County Grand Jury.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

THE headmaster of an exclusive Sydney private school which will come under the gaze of the sex abuse royal commission has welcomed the opportunity to work with the national inquiry.

The royal commission announced on Thursday it will next month begin a hearing involving the Wahroonga-based Knox Grammar school and the Uniting Church in Australia between 1970 and 2012.
It relates to concerns raised about inappropriate conduct by a number of teachers towards students at Knox.

In 2010, former teacher Craig Treloar was jailed for two years for numerous sex offences against four boys, aged 11 to 13, who attended Knox in 1986 and 1987.

Headmaster John Weeks says the school regularly reviews child protection policies, student awareness programs and support structures to provide surety to parents and students about safety.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Thomas Oriti

Exclusive Sydney school Knox Grammar is set to become the focus of a royal commission, with a public hearing to examine how a number of teachers were able to molest boys for decades.

Located on Sydney’s Upper North Shore, Knox Grammar boasts former prime ministers and prominent actors amongst its alumni.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is turning its attention to the school to examine how the independent school, run by the Uniting Church, responded to concerns about inappropriate conduct from 1970 to 2012.

In 2009 and 2010, four men pleaded guilty to abusing students at Knox Grammar.

The high profile cases included former teacher Craig Treloar, who was jailed in 2010 for abusing four boys aged from 11 to 13 between 1986 and 1987.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • January 22, 2015

If you haven’t yet read the “How To Be A Gay Jesuit” post, do. The introduction, which I appended to the dialogue, was written the the Jesuit priest Fr. Tom Smolich. I had never heard of him, somehow. From his introduction:

Through the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, male religious in this country developed the Instruments of Hope and Healing, a comprehensive approach of outreach to victims of child sexual abuse and of concrete steps toward its prevention. Included in these Instruments is a requirement of continuing education for all religious in their communities.

In 2009, the Society developed an online questionnaire and four case studies in an adult learning format to meet this requirement for the succeeding three years.

This program and its structure were well received, as they provided the impetus for important conversations among Jesuits on issues we are often reluctant to engage: affective needs, appropriate boundaries, and healthy internet usage, to name a few. This 2009 program serves as the foundation for our continuing education for the next five years. This new program has been christened Conversations that Matter.

As part of Conversations that Matter, every Jesuit working or living in the United States will take a yearly on-line questionnaire which refreshes our knowledge about the problem of sexual abuse of minors and the abuse of power in pastoral ministry. The questionnaire also presents information on changing guidelines in these areas. For example, revisions in Vatican policies now include sexual abuse of vulnerable adults and possession of child pornography as offenses which disqualify a priest or religious from ministry. We need to be up to date on such changes.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Newcastle solicitor specialising in compensation for survivors of child sexual abuse says he would welcome the removal of the statute of limitations on historic abuse claims.

In New South Wales, victims of child sexual abuse typically have between three and 12 years to sue for damages, but the government is considering extending or scrapping the time limit.

Peter Kelso said although the limitation seems arbitrary, when it was first introduced legislators would not have been considering its impact on victims of historic sex abuse.

“There would be no way they would have been thinking about historical child sex abuse case,” he said.

“They would have been thinking purely about cases like workers compensation, slip and fall, motor vehicle accidents – that sort of thing.

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NEW YORK
The Daily News

By Scott DeSmit desmit@batavianews.com

ALBION — Closing arguments are expected today in the Orleans County Court trial of a former church pastor accused of molesting three children, all his relatives.

Roy Harriger Sr., 71, former pastor of Ashwood Wesleyan Church in Yates, is charged with three counts of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and three counts of incest.

Harriger, who took the stand Thursday and denied all the accusations, claiming his son and grandchildren were lying, is accused of molesting the children in 2001, 2002 and in 2008.

A state police investigation detailed allegations of abuse dating back to the 1970s in New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan, including molesting his son, who also testified this week.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Gaston Gazette

By Lauren Baheri
Published: Thursday, January 22, 2015

A recently removed pastor who once worked in Lincolnton and Shelby was charged last week with sexually assaulting a child.

The abuse is alleged to have occurred decades ago in Jacksonville, Fla.

Michael Wayne Hill, a 52-year-old former Seventh-day Adventist pastor, was charged with sexual battery of a person younger than 12 years old.

No statute of limitations exists in a child sex crime.

Hill served as pastor of churches in Shelby and Lincolnton for 15 years, according to Robert Crux, marketing director for Carolina Conference, the division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church that covers Gaston, Cleveland and Lincoln counties

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

Two separate lawsuits filed by seven men allege a series of sexual abuses against adolescent boys by a Presbyterian pastor from the early 1980s through the late ’90s at ministries in the Austin and Ukrainian Village neighborhoods.

The suits were filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court by John Does 1-3 and John Does 1-4, respectively.

The suit filed by John Does 1-4 said they were molested by Pastor Douglas Mason at San Marcos Youth Ministry. The men were between 11 and 14 years old when they were abused at different points between 1991 and 1999, the suit claims.

Mason allegedly paid for the boys’ tuition to St. Gregory the Great High School and would check each of them out of class at least once a month to molest them. The suit also lists the Archdiocese of Chicago, which runs the high schools as a defendant, claiming administrators never reported those visits to the boys’ parents or guardians.

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OREGON
Bend Bulletin

By Claire Withycombe / The Bulletin / @kcwithycombe
Published Jan 23, 2015

Deschutes County Circuit Judge Beth Bagley on Thursday lowered the bail for a Gresham pastor facing sexual abuse charges.

Bagley set bail at $250,000, reduced from the $1 million set Jan. 7 by Circuit Judge Walter “Randy” Miller for James Worley, 42, a general pastor at Powell Valley Church.

Worley faces 37 charges, including 20 counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of first-degree rape, in connection with alleged abuses reported to have taken place between 2002 and 2004, when Worley was a resident in Deschutes County. Worley was arrested Dec. 17 by Gresham Police.

The two alleged victims , one of whom is a minor, spoke at the hearing Thursday, attesting they fear for their safety if Worley were to be released from custody.

“I feel that if he’s released, other people could be hurt,” said one victim in a brief statement to the court.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WSOC

LINCOLN COUNTY, N.C. — A former pastor with ties to Lincolnton and Shelby is charged with sexually abusing a child.

Channel 9’s partners at the Gaston Gazette reported Michael Hill is charged with sexual battery of a person younger than 12 years old.

The alleged abuse happened decades ago in Jacksonville, Florida.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

When Western Australia halved the compensation payout for children abused in state care Premier Colin Barnett received half a Christmas card from a survivor.

It was an ironic “thank you” on behalf of thousands of people still suffering the effects of what happened to them as children.

Next week the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is expected to reveal its thinking on how people should be compensated for physical, sexual and psychological damage inflicted in organisations where children should have been safe.

The commission is prioritising redress because many abuse survivors are old and ageing.
A public hearing in March will follow the commission’s consultation paper next week and final recommendations will go to the federal government in June-July.

A lot of people are anxiously awaiting the consultation paper – and they’re not all abuse survivors.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Pedophile priest John Sidney Denham will spend at least 19 years and five months in jail after being sentenced for systematically abusing dozens of vulnerable boys.

Denham, 73, had already been jailed for at least 14 years in 2010 for his “sadistic” sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But today Judge Helen Syme sentenced him to at least another 13 years for the abuse of another 18 boys, describing his crimes as some of the worst the courts have ever seen.

“As the crown rhetorically asks, `How much worse does it get?'” she stated.

Judge Syme said he treated St Pius X as “his own pedophilic smorgasbord”, with dozens having complained of abuse over four-and-a-half years at the school.

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AUSTRALIA
The New Daily

JAMES FERNYHOUGH Money Editor

A prolific paedophile priest has been jailed for his “sadistic” and “depraved” abuse of boys.

A paedophile priest who abused a “staggering” number of boys has been sentenced to 13 years in prison in a Sydney court today.

John Sidney Denham, 73, who treated schools as a “paedophilic smorgasbord”, had already been jailed for at least 14 years in 2010 for his “sadistic” sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But on Friday Judge Helen Syme sentenced him to at least another 13 years for the abuse of another 18 boys, describing his crimes as some of the worst the courts have ever seen.

“As the crown rhetorically asks, `How much worse does it get?’” she stated.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

LEIGH VAN DEN BROEKE NEWS LIMITED JANUARY 23, 2015

A Catholic priest who treated schools as a “paedophilic smorgasbord” will spend at least another 13 years in jail after being sentenced for systematically abusing dozens of vulnerable boys.

John Sidney Denham, 73, had already been jailed for at least 14 years in 2010 for his “sadistic” sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But yesterday in the District Court in Sydney, Judge Helen Syme sentenced him to at least another 13 years for the abuse of another 18 boys — describing his crimes as some of the worst the courts have ever seen.

“As the crown rhetorically asks, ‘How much worse does it get?’,” she said.

Denham’s victims intermittently left in tears as the court heard how, through the protection of church colleagues, he was able to have 18 years of uninterrupted offending across schools in NSW.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 23, 2015

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

A “sadistic” paedophile priest who repeatedly abused more than 50 young boys in the Newcastle region while being protected by two fellow priests has been sentenced to a further 13 years jail.

John Sidney Denham used his position as a parish priest and a teacher at St Pius X Catholic School at Adamstown to repeatedly assault, rape or molest at least 57 young boys without interruption for 18 years.

In the Downing Centre District Court on Friday the 73-year-old was sentenced for 48 of these offences, having already been sentenced to at least 13 years’ jail for the other nine offences.

With a partial accumulation of the sentences he now will spend 19 years and five months behind bars.

“Some of the offences represent the most abhorrent and sadistic combination of circumstances that courts are likely to see,” Judge Helen Syme said of the abuse as Denham sat in the dock with his head bowed.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

For years a Catholic priest viewed a NSW school where he taught as a “pedophilic smorgasbord” catering to his depraved desires.

Unfettered by the church, John Sidney Denham abused dozens of boys whenever and wherever he chose.

He found new victims during his frequent transfers to parishes across the state.

Denham, at 73, is already in the middle of a jail term, handed to him in 2010 for his sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But on Friday, Judge Helen Syme sentenced the priest to another 13 years jail for charges stemming from his abuse of 18 boys at St Pius X in the Hunter in the 1970s.

“Some of the offences represent the most abhorrent and sadistic combination of circumstances that courts are likely to see,” she said.

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CANADA
Digital Journal

By Marcus Hondro

A defrocked priest found guilty of 32 counts of sexually abusing Inuit children between the years 1978 and 1982 apologized in a courtroom at his sentencing hearing today. As he did so, dozens of victims and members of their families cried out.

Threatened children for sex

Eric Dejaeger, 67, and in poor health, committed offences against boys and girls, mostly between the ages of 8 and 12, but for some the abuse started when they were but four-years-old. He was appearing Thursday in an Iqaluit, Nunavut courtroom.

From Belgium, when he committed the offences Dejaeger was an Oblate missionary in Igloolik, Nunavut. His crimes were horrific and cruel, including threatening children with fire and brimstone if they did not perform sexual acts. There was testimony of the former priest offering food to hungry children for sex, even dangling food in front of them.

“I can only take responsibility for what I have done,” he told the judge. “I would like to ask for forgiveness. I promise not to re-offend. And that’s not just words.”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Jan. 23, 2015

JOHN Denham is one of Australia’s worst paedophile priests whose crimes were the catalyst for a royal commission.

When we look back and ask how this national tragedy occurred, we need only look at him.

‘‘He is a man who enjoyed the power and status of his priesthood,’’ said Judge Helen Syme when she first sentenced him in 2010.

Defrocked, shackled at times, without his books and offended by the company he keeps, Denham minus the garb of the Catholic Church is now revealed for what he is, and what he was for decades while he was moved around the Hunter and Taree – a sadistic, violent predator of children.

He was first convicted in 2000 when a courageous victim went to police. That man phoned me in June 2006 to ask why no media had ever reported it. I spoke to Denham and included lines about his conviction in a longer article, and it sat on the page like a ticking bomb.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Fri, Jan 23, 2015

A Dublin parish priest, rebuked by two Catholic archbishops last June for casting doubt on media reports that Fr Michael Cleary fathered children, has described their reaction “as disappointing to say the least”.

Fr Arthur O’Neill, administrator in Cabinteely, said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and the Catholic Primate Archbishop Eamon Martin reminded him of 1980s pop group the Housemartins.

“Their melodies and harmonies were always a mixture of populist politics and Christianity, which gave them lots of public appeal.” In his parish newsletter Fr O’Neill recalled his “real surprise” last year was “to read about myself on page one of The Irish Times ‘being rebuked’ by Archbishop Martin for daring to ask such a question.”

He said he had “simply asked what evidence was there at the time to allow so many journalists write with such certainty [about Fr Cleary].”

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CANADA
StarPhoenix

BY HANNAH SPRAY, THE STARPHOENIX JANUARY 22, 2015

A jail sentence is the only way to properly denounce an 82-year-old priest’s actions when he sexually touched a young girl 35 years ago, a Saskatoon judge ruled.

On Thursday, Omer Desjardins was sentenced to six months in jail, plus one year’s probation, for assaulting a 10-year-old girl in 1978. The victim, now 46 years old, reported the assault to police in 2013.

“Sexual abuse of children cannot be tolerated and the sentence of this court must adequately reflect society’s revulsion for such conduct,” Judge Byron Wright said while pronouncing Desjardin’s sentence in Saskatoon provincial court.

Desjardins previously pleaded guilty to indecent assault and sentencing arguments were heard in December, when his lawyer George Green argued for a conditional sentence order, or jail term served in the community.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Jemima Thackray 22 Jan 2015

Since entering the Vatican in 2013, Pope Francis has become something of a media darling, charming even the most secular journalists with his unfussy style and acts of humility (choosing, for example, to live in the Papal guest house rather than the palace).

His commitment to the poor and condemnation of exploitative economic systems, as well as his willingness to learn from other faith traditions, have made him so popular that he was even named Time magazine’s person of the year.

However, it seems that His Holiness has experienced a rather dramatic fall from media grace in recent weeks.

His comments following the Charlie Hebdo attack suggesting there should be limits to freedom of speech were disconcerting for some Francis fans. This week he has disappointed many women by staunchly defending the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which sets out the Catholic Church’s opposition to artificial birth control.

If some people had been fooled into thinking Pope Francis is the person sent to revolutionise the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage and the family, they have now been emphatically disillusioned.

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VATIKAN
Christ und Welt

Erzbischof Georg Gänswein über seine kurialen Krankheiten, sein Verhältnis zu Franziskus und Benedikt als Gegenpapst

Der Vatikan wirkt an diesem finsteren Nachmittag im Januar wie verwaist, Papst Franziskus ist auf Reisen. Kurienerzbischof Georg Gänswein (58), Präfekt des Päpstlichen Hauses, erscheint im schwarzen Talar. Gerade hat er noch in den Vatikanischen Gärten den Rosenkranz mit dem emeritierten Papst Benedikt XVI. gebetet. Mit ihm und vier Helferinnen lebt Gänswein im Kloster Mater Ecclesiae im Schatten des Petersdoms zusammen. Gänswein führt in die ausgestorbenen Gemächer der Präfektur. In Abwesenheit des Papstes hat der Präfekt seinen Mitarbeitern freigegeben. „Als Anerkennung“, sagt er. In seinem Arbeitszimmer mit Blick auf den Petersplatz sind ein übervoller Schreibtisch und nicht ausgepackte Umzugskisten zu erkennen. Das Interview findet im prächtigen Empfangssaal des Präfekten statt. Monsignore Gänswein wirkt gut gelaunt und zündet vor dem Gespräch noch einmal den Adventskranz an.

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ROME
Crux

By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent January 22, 2015

ROME — A close aide to emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has denied the former pontiff is playing any behind-the-scenes role over the issue of Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, calling such reports a “pure invention.”

The aide also dismissed suggestions that Benedict is a sort of “anti-pope” for conservatives upset with Francis, calling it “stupid and irresponsible,” and labeling such rumors a form of “theological arson.”

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, prefect of the papal household and personal secretary of emeritus pope Benedict XVI, made the comments in an interview with the German magazine Christ und Welt.

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MINNESOTA
Fairbault Daily News

By CAMEY THIBODEAU cthibodeau@faribault.com

A Catholic priest who served in Faribault in the 1980s has been accused of sexual abuse and the allegations are outlined in a file recently obtained from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Archdiocese by a St. Paul attorney who is representing survivors.

According to documents from the Archdiocese file, Father James Robert Murphy was charged with criminal sexual conduct in Minneapolis for touching a moral squad officer in an adult bookstore in 1980.

In a memorandum dated Dec. 8, 1980, from Father Robert J. Carlson to the Archdiocese file of Father James Murphy, Carlson says that Murphy saw Judge Patrick Fitzgerald, who asked Judge Robert Schumacher to take the case.

The memo further stated that the two judges would ask Murphy to see Archbishop John Roach or Carlson and begin a year of probation and counseling and that psychological testing and treatment would also be ordered. Additionally, he was to report to Roach or Carlson on a regular basis and make a report to the court after one year.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Commonweal

In November 2014, Blase Cupich succeeded Cardinal Francis George to become the ninth archbishop of Chicago—the nation’s third-largest diocese. It was Pope Francis’s first major episcopal appointment in the United States. Cupich had previously been the bishop of two much smaller dioceses: Spokane, Washington, and Rapid City, South Dakota. In 1975, he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Omaha, Nebraska, where he was pastor of two parishes before being made bishop of Rapid City in 1998. Archbishop Cupich has served on several committees, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Ad Hoc Committee on Scripture Translation, as well as the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, which he chaired from 2008 to 2011. In December, Grant Gallicho spoke with the archbishop in Chicago. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. …

GG: The first Sunday Mass you celebrated following your installation was at St. Agatha, a parish that has been wounded by revelations about the now-laicized abuser Daniel McCormack. In the homily of your installation Mass, you spoke about the need to rebuild trust broken by bishops who have mishandled abuse cases. You said that holding bishops accountable is a “sacred duty.” Every time I return to Chicago, my hometown, I’m struck by how shaken local Catholics remain over the McCormack case. According to that Chicago magazine survey, the issue local Catholics are most concerned about is sexual abuse. But when it comes to accountability for bishops, a lot of people still wonder: Where is that happening, or how might that happen?

BC: I know that this is a very important topic that is going to be decided soon by the Holy See and the pope’s sexual-abuse commission, headed by Cardinal Seán O’Malley. In November, the cardinal gave an interview on 60 Minutes and indicated that this has to be part of the equation. It is part of our good stewardship in terms of governance. There has to be a way in which we are held accountable. We’re held accountable for financial mismanagement, for personal morals, but we also have to be held accountable when it comes to protecting the vulnerable under our care. So I’m fully supportive of what Cardinal O’Malley said on 60 Minutes.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops did, however, in 2002, pass a resolution about our commitment to mutual accountability. There has to be some mechanism by which the Holy See triggers that too. It’s not just our part, but the universal church has to deal with this.

Let me say something too about folks who are really shaken, as you said. It is a healthy sign that they’re shaken. We should be shaken. We should not diminish or dismiss it as unimportant. That should say something to us. There’s a healthy sensitivity about what’s right and wrong. Maybe there was a past era in which people would say, “Well, you know, kids will bounce back” or “It really doesn’t harm them.” But there is maturity—a spiritual maturity—and a social awareness people come to that allows them to be shaken. And that’s good. We should tell people, “You should be shaken by this.” We all should be shaken by this—so that this never happens again.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston.com

By Chris Caesar
Boston.com Staff

Investigators say they will not press charges against a Catholic school janitor once suspected of indecently exposing himself to a student in a campus bathroom.

Revere police said they investigated allegations that an employee of Revere’s Immaculate Conception School acted inappropriately in the bathroom over a period of a month and a half.

Ultimately, though, detectives said no crimes were committed.

“The investigation revealed that a 64-year-old male assigned to the school’s custodial staff used the boy’s restroom, which was across the hall from his office, on several occasions in December and early January,” a statement from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office read. “One boy reported to a parent that he had observed the adult using the urinal during this time.”

The employee did not engage in physical contact, use sexual language, or engage in other behavior that would support criminal charges, the statement continues. He voluntarily met with investigators and was willingly interviewed by detectives.

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DEUTSCHLAND
katholisch

[Bishop Stephan Ackerman of Trier, sexual abuse officer for the German Bishops’ Conference, said the church in the last five years has taken on their responsibilities. He condemned the heinous acts and asked the concerned parties for forgiveness.]

Es gab Fortschritte, aber auch Rückschläge: Nach fünf Jahren Aufarbeitung des sexuellen Missbrauchs in der katholischen Kirche hat die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz heute Bilanz gezogen. Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte, der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann, sagte, die Kirche habe sich ihrer Verantwortung gestellt, die abscheulichen Taten verurteilt und die Betroffenen um Vergebung gebeten.

“Seitdem arbeiten wir an einer ehrlichen Aufklärung und Aufarbeitung, frei von falscher Rücksichtnahme, auch wenn uns Vorfälle gemeldet werden, die schon lange zurückliegen. Die Betroffenen haben ein Recht darauf”, so Ackermann.

Ackermann: Der Skandal hat die Kirche verändert

Rückblende: Im Januar 2010 kam ein Stein ins Rollen, der die katholische Kirche in Deutschland in eine ihrer größten Krisen stürzte. Nachdem Pater Klaus Mertes, der damalige Direktor des Berliner Canisuis-Kollegs, Missbrauchsfälle an Kindern und Jugendlichen an der katholischen Schule öffentlich machte, wurden immer mehr Fälle in ganz Deutschland bekannt. Die Täter der oft Jahrzehnte zurückreichenden Verbrechen waren Gemeindepfarrer, Lehrer, Ordensleute, die das Vertrauensverhältnis der Jugendlichen ausnutzten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
NetzwerkB

Norbert Denef:

“Die jagen den Kindern Angst ein, so dass sie dann damit überhaupt nicht zurecht kommen – mit der Gewalt die da ausgeübt wird.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

Von Robert Werner in Nachrichten, Überregional

Er habe „genug von dieser Institution“ und wolle „von diesen Typen“ aus dem Regensburger Ordinariat niemals mehr etwas hören“. Mit diesen unmissverständlichen Worten meldet sich ein weiterer ehemaliger „Domspatz“ zu Wort. Unserer Redaktion schildert er sein Leid als blutig geprügeltes Kind, sein Los als Opfer von sexuellen Übergriffen und seine Enttäuschung nachdem er sich 2010 bei der damaligen „Missbrauchsbeauftragten“ Dr. Birgit Böhm gemeldet hatte. Die Glaubwürdigkeit des Regensburger Bistums in Sachen Aufarbeitung von sexuellem Missbrauch von Minderjährigen und Schutzbefohlenen scheint indes tiefer nicht mehr sinken zu können. Das es auch anders gehen könnte, zeigt ein Blick nach München und Ettal.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

München – “Alle mir zur Last gelegten Vorwürfe sind unzutreffend” – mit diesen Worten hat sich ein Pater des oberbayerischen Klosters Ettal vor Gericht verteidigt. Die Staatsanwaltschaft München geht hingegen davon aus, dass der 44-Jährige wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs zu bestrafen ist. Sie hat ihn angeklagt: Der Mönch habe sich an zwei Schülern vergangen und es bei zwei weiteren versucht.

Die Vorfälle, die ihn vor Gericht brachten, sollen sich zwischen 2001 und 2005 ereignet haben. Laut Staatsanwaltschaft fasste der Mann die Schüler im Intimbereich an. Der Angeklagte aber sprach jetzt davon, die Schüler an Bauch und Rücken gestreichelt zu haben – mehr nicht. “Ich habe es in vielen Fällen an der notwendigen Distanz zu Schülern fehlen lassen”, sagte er mehrmals in seiner rund zweieinhalbstündigen Erklärung am ersten Verhandlungstag. Dies sei unprofessionell gewesen. “Zu keinem Zeitpunkt aber habe ich mich Schülern in sexuell motivierter Absicht genähert.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

A new chair of the Government’s crisis-hit child abuse inquiry should be in place by the end of the month, the Home Secretary has insisted.

Theresa May has revealed her third nomination to chair the panel will be announced soon, as well as a decision on whether to change the panel into a statutory inquiry or a royal commission.

Mrs May set up the inquiry in July to find out whether public bodies had covered up allegations of child sex abuse in the wake of claims paedophiles had operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

The inquiry has faced a series of problems, including the resignation of two previous chairs over their alleged links to Establishment figures of the time.

Mrs May said: “I am clear that the new chairman must be someone who commands that confidence and who has the necessary skills and experience to carry out this vital work.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Labour has said there is “no choice” but to restart the inquiry into historical child sex abuse, with a new chair and statutory powers.

Shadow home secretary Ms Cooper said that after six months the inquiry still had no chair, powers or clarity.

Raising the matter in the Commons, she warned that survivors of abuse “are being let down”.

Home Secretary Theresa May told MPs she would announce the new chair and powers for the inquiry at the end of January.

Mrs May also said a file found in the National Archives containing allegations of “unnatural sexual” behaviour at Westminster was being looked into.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Thursday 22 January 2015

Theresa May has announced that she will make a decision on a new chairman for the official inquiry into child sexual abuse by the end of next week, in an effort to rescue the troubled investigation.

The home secretary has told MPs that a shortlist of names has been drawn up from 150 people who were nominated and that she will consult with survivors before her preferred candidate is announced. She said that a lot of the due diligence on the existing shortlist had already been undertaken.

May made the announcement after facing accusations that she was losing control of her attempt to get the inquiry under way.

May also told MPs that a newly discovered Downing Street file dating from 1980, entitled unnatural sexual proclivities, may be a duplicate of a Home Office file that had already been seen by an internal inquiry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Tom Symonds
Home affairs correspondent, BBC News

Home Secretary Theresa May has faced calls for an inquiry into historical child abuse, which has been beset by problems, to be “re-started”. The inquiry, set up six months ago, remains without a leader, and there have been disagreements within the expert panel over its workings and its future.

Behind the scenes, there is now a bruising confrontation between the child abuse inquiry panel and one of its members, the children’s charity founder Sharon Evans, who was herself abused as a child.

She is furious that the government plans to disband the panel, and redesign the structure of the entire inquiry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

John Crace
Thursday 22 January 2015

It’s been 200 days since Theresa May said she would set up an inquiry into child sexual abuse. In that time, two chairs have come and gone because proper checks had not been carried out on them nor survivors consulted, proceedings have been started without a chair and then cancelled, some panel members have been asked to reapply for their own jobs, there have been tensions between the panel, accusations of bullying, the discovery of a file that may or may not have been missing and no clarity over what powers the inquiry might have when it does eventually start work.

On the day it was announced that Leon Brittan, the former home secretary who had been linked to historical cover-ups, had died, Yvette Cooper decided it was time to table an urgent question to find out what progress was being made.

The home secretary was in an unusually conciliatory mood. Some might say defensive. “The right honourable lady is trying to make an argument between us about this inquiry where I think none exists,” she began. She wanted nothing less than the shadow home secretary wanted.

It had been regrettable there had been delays but she had previously said that a new chair would be appointed and the terms of the inquiry agreed by the end of January and she was on course to deliver that even though she couldn’t actually say how many people were on the shortlist for the job. It’s going to be a hectic next week for Theresa.

It all sounded more or less reasonable, though May did manage to make it sound as if much of the blame lay with Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf themselves for failing to realise they didn’t have the confidence of survivors, rather than with the selection panel for not bothering to check their connections, and it did seem to be taking her department rather a long time to establish whether the new file was the same as the old one. But by the time she had nibbled humble pie – as close to eating it as she’s ever likely to get – to long-time child abuse campaigners Keith Vaz, Simon Danczuk, Tom Watson and Sarah Champion, she was beginning to sound more like her old, confident self.

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Ewan Palmer
January 22, 2015

Labour are calling for the troubled government inquiry into child abuse to be scrapped after developing into a “farce” in the six months since it was set up.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper criticised Theresa May’s review into allegations there was a cover-up of a Westminster paedophile ring in the 1980s as lacking “power and clarity” and said the victims are frequently being “let down”.

The home secretary’s inquiry has got off to a staggered start following the resignation of two of its chairmen – which it has still not replaced – as well as allegations panel members are being “bullied” and the victims voicing their frustrations at the lack of progress.

In response, May said she will make a decision over who will replace Fiona Woolf and Baroness Butler-Sloss as the new chair of the inquiry. She added a recently discovered secret file detailing “unnatural sexual” behaviour at Westminster may be a duplicate of one previously seen by a report led by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless with Richard Whittam QC.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Cooper urged the inquiry to be relaunched with a new chair and statutory powers.

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MALTA
Gozo News

The Commission for the Safeguarding of Children and Vulnerable Adults, which falls under the responsibility of the Maltese Episcopal Conference, will be made up of five members, the Curia announced today.

These are: Andrew Azzopardi, who will be the Head of the Safeguarding Commission, Dott. Roberta Attard, Dr Kevin Borg, Fr Antoine Farrugia S.D.B and Clarissa Sammut Scerri. Two other persons, Dr Joseph Sammut and Ms Mariella Fenech Pace, will have the role of legal consultant and administrator, respectively.

Andrew Azzopardi is a qualified social worker and specialises in safeguarding children. He worked in the public sector as a practitioner and manager, where he completed complex child protection investigations and worked with asylum-seeking children. He previously worked with the NSPCC where he completed risk assessments and offered therapy in child sexual abuse cases with both victims and sex offenders. More recently he headed the safeguarding investigations team at the Football Association in England. Andrew holds a post graduate degree in international politics and human rights from City University London. Andrew is the Head of the Safeguarding Commission.

Dott. Roberta Attard is a chartered clinical psychologist and social worker with training in Applied Systemic Theory. She has extensive experience in the field of child and adolescent clinical disorders, child psychotherapy, child forensic psychology, child protection and child abuse investigation. Roberta has practiced in a variety of settings specialising in the use of drawings, play, and psychotherapeutic techniques in individual and group psychotherapy with traumatised children and adolescents. She provides supervision and consultation to other professionals and institutions and delivers training workshops focusing on creative ways of working therapeutically with children suffering from psychological, behavioural and social difficulties. She is a full-time lecturer with the Department of Counselling and a consultant for various State boards and State run programs seeking to provide aid to vulnerable minors.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Martina Borg 22 January 2015

The Maltese Episcopal Conference has set up a Commission for the Safeguarding of Children and Vulnerable Adults, that will begin functioning in February and will be composed of five members.

Once functioning, the commission will take over five cases from the current response team, two of which have recently received media attention.

The five members are: Andrew Azzopardi, who will be the Head of the Safeguarding Commission, Dott. Roberta Attard, Dr Kevin Borg, Fr Antoine Farrugia S.D.B and Clarissa Sammut Scerri.

Two other persons, Dr Joseph Sammut and Ms Mariella Fenech Pace, will have the role of legal consultant and administrator, respectively.

“The team promises an excellent service as it is comprised of people who have worked in the field for many years,” said Azzopardi

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

January 23, 2015

AAP

Thousands of people who suffered sex abuse as children in institutions across Australia are likely to know by the end of next week whether a national compensation scheme is on the cards.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is expected to publish a consultation paper on redress by next Friday.

The paper, anticipated not only by abuse survivors but by churches, governments and non-government bodies who had responsibility for the care of children, will give some indication of how the commission is leaning before it makes its final recommendations on compensation in June or July this year.

The questions addressed in the paper will be the merits or otherwise of a national scheme, who should fund it and run it, as well as levels of proof required, scales of payment and how claims should be assessed.

Last June the commission asked for submissions on redress and got 86 – the highest number received on any of its seven issue papers to date.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Matthew Vella 22 January 2015

The Curia’s new commission on the protection of children is investigating an alleged case of abuse that has not yet been referred to the police, Apostolic Administrator Charles J. Scicluna said on PBS’s Dissett.

Scicluna, temporarily at the helm of the Maltese archdiocese pending the Vatican’s decision on the next archbishop, said the church had forwarded two cases to the police.

Scicluna said the new commission, which replaces the Curia Response Team headed by retired judge Victor Caruana Colombo, will be investigating all reports before forwarding them to the police.

He was challenged about the lack of transparency of hearing such cases behind closed doors, and demanding that criminal cases involving clerical sex abuse be heard behind closed doors in court. Even archbishop emeritus Paul Cremona – presenter Reno Bugeja revealed – was allowed to testify behind closed doors in the criminal case against the MSSP priests accused of sexually abusing orphans in their care at the St Joseph Home in Hamrun.

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CANADA
CBC News

An 82-year-old Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to a 1978 sexual assault north of Saskatoon is going to jail.

Father Omer Desjardins assaulted his young victim when he served in the town of Marcelin.

Judge Byron Wright sentenced Desjardins to six months in jail, to be followed by one year of probation. He also submitted his name to the national sex offender registry.

Wright rejected a defense request for a sentence to be served in the community.

“In cases involving the abuse of children,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Bitchspot

At least they caught the guy. Former Catholic priest Robert “Bob” Poandl, who worked, at one time, at the Holy Cross Church in Pembroke, Georgia, has been sentenced to seven and a half years for transporting a 10-year old boy across state lines to Spencer, West Virginia for the purposes of sexual molestation.

Poandl, who worked in the Savannah area from 2007-2009 and again from 2010-2012, was finally convicted of the sexual assault, which took place in 1991. He could have been sentenced to up to ten years in prison but he now has cancer and the judge decided to let him serve his sentence in a hospital where he is not expected to survive to see the end of his imprisonment. It’s really a shame that there’s no hell for people like this to go to.

Rev. Chet Artysiewicz, head of the Glenmay Home Missioners, based in Cincinnati, the order to which Poandl belonged, said “I respect and accept the decision of the 12 jurors. … Sexual abuse is a heinous crime. … While the jury has rendered its verdict, I realize this does not mark the end of the pain involved in this situation. Today, more than ever, I pray that God’s love and compassion will lead to healing for all involved, especially the victim and his family.” Well maybe you ought to stop thinking that God will fix things and just stop employing pedophiles in the first place!

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TEXAS
Denton Record-Chronicle

22 January 2015

Jeffrey Dale Williams, former pastor of The Church of Corinth, is expected to be in court next month.
Williams had a plea hearing initially set for Wednesday in Judge Brody Shanklin’s 211th District Court, but it was canceled, despite several people waiting to hear his plea in court.

The former pastor was charged with attempted sexual performance of a child, a third-degree felony, after he allegedly tried to coerce a teenage girl to remove her clothes.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services contacted Corinth police investigators about possible allegations of sexual abuse on April 3, 2013, police said at the time of his arrest.

Records obtained from Corinth police state that Williams allegedly locked a door and put a chair against it before asking the victim to take off her clothes so he could see “eye candy.”

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with audio and video]

Guests
Madeleine Baran: Reporter, MPR News
Charles Zech: Director of the Center for Church Management at Villanova University

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is the 12th in the nation to seek bankruptcy protection. Archdiocese leaders announced their decision last week in the face of sex abuse claims.

How will the process play out here compared to in other archdiocese around the country? What does it mean for parishes and schools? MPR News Reporter Madeleine Baran, who led MPR’s coverage of the clergy sex abuse scandal, and Charles Zech, director of the Center for Church Management at Villanova University, join The Daily Circuit to talk about what’s next.

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CANADA
CTV

The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, January 22, 2015

IQALUIT, Nunavut — A defrocked priest who abused a large number of Inuit children has told a judge that he’s sorry for his crimes and won’t commit any more.

At those words from Eric Dejaeger, an Iqaluit courtroom packed with his victims swelled with cries and weeping.

Dejaeger, convicted on 32 counts of child sexual abuse, took the witness stand before Justice Robert Kilpatrick considers the length of his prison sentence.

The Crown has asked for 25 years, which would be reduced to 17 years once credit for time already served is subtracted.

Dejaeger’s lawyer says 12 years — of which no more than four would be spent behind bars — would be more in keeping with previous judgments.

The defence says Dejaeger, who is 67, is being treated for cancer, has heart problems and fears dying in prison.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Jan. 22

Statement Kate Bochte of Chicago, SNAP leader ( 630 768 1860, keight@sbcglobal.net )

Chicago’s top Catholic and Presbyterian officials are acting like cold-hearted CEOs, not spiritual shepherds, when it comes to the crimes of a serial child molesting cleric.

Seven new accusers have filed civil suits that include as defendants the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese and the Chicago Presbytery. These two religious institutions must take action now to aggressively find and help every single person who may have been sexually assaulted by Rev. Douglas Mason. (Mason reportedly sexually violated kids at Presbyterian churches and at St. Gregory the Great High School.)

[Chicago Tribune]

Rev. Mason allegedly molested as recently as the 1990s. At least four of his accusers are in their 30s. A settlement was reached with four of his alleged victims in 2007. All of this strongly suggests that there may be dozens of other young men who were assaulted by Mason and who may be suffering in silence, shame and self-blame.

Catholic and Presbyterian officials have a simple choice: They can sit comfortably in their fancy offices, hiding behind expensive lawyers and using smart public relations professionals to duck, dodge and deny. Or they can get out into local churches, act like real shepherds, and seek out young men who may have suffered horrific childhood trauma and now may be trying to numb their continuing pain with addictions to drugs, liquor, sex or work, or experiencing depression, eating disorders or suicidal thoughts – young men who desperately need validation, support and professional therapy.

How Chicago Archbishop Blasé Cupich responds now in this case will show clearly whether he is a Cardinal Francis George clone or is more compassionate toward deeply wounded child sex abuse victims.

Two final points:

First, we firmly believe that Cupich, and likely his predecessor Cardinal Francis George, knew about reports that Rev. Mason abused kids at a local Catholic school months ago, perhaps even years ago.

So Cupich is violating his promises, archdiocesan policies and the US Catholic bishops’ policy, by keeping silent about these serious and credible allegations.

Time and time again, Catholic officials – including Cupich – have pledged to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex abuse cases. Local and national policies purportedly mandate such openness. But Cupich is, we believe, breaking those promises and policies – like many other Catholic officials do and have done. And we believe Cupich will never be disciplined for this. Why? Because those policies are pure public relations, meant to mollify the parishioners, not meant to be enforced. Those policies are window-dressing, nothing more. And this unwillingness by the Catholic officials – to discipline wrongdoers in the church hierarchy – is why cover ups of child sex crimes continue.

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MARYLAND
WBAL

BALTIMORE —Police said they’re hoping to extradite an Ohio rabbi back to Maryland after they said he fled when he was accused of abusing a girl in Baltimore County.

Baltimore County police said they’ve obtained an arrest warrant charging Frederick Karp, 50, of Beachwood, Ohio, with sexual abuse of a minor, perverted practice and second- and third-degree sex offense.

Investigators said they received information on New Year’s Eve that a Baltimore County girl had been abused by Karp over a period of time last year. Police said the abuse happened in Baltimore County, but they didn’t reveal any other details.

Police said Karp is a rabbi in Ohio and also goes by the name Ephraim Karp. Detectives said they went to Cleveland last week to interview him.

After the arrest warrant was issued, detectives went back Karp’s Ohio home, but he wasn’t there. Baltimore County police said he was later found at JFK International Airport in New York, where he was taken into custody and will remain until he can be extradited to Maryland.

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MARYLAND/OHIO
The Baltimore Sun

By Jessica Anderson
The Baltimore Sun

A rabbi from Ohio was arrested and faces charges of sexually abusing a girl in Baltimore County, police said.

Frederick Martin Karp, 50, of Beachwood, Ohio, was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, where he is awaiting extradition proceedings, according to a police department news release.

Police said that on Dec. 31, it received information that a juvenile female living in Baltimore County had been sexually abused over a period of time by the suspect. When detectives went to Cleveland last week to interview Karp, he was not there, police said. He was later stopped by police at JFK Airport.

Karp is president of the Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains, and served as spiritual living director at a senior living in Beachwood, according the Cleveland Jewish News.

Gail Herman, an administrative assistant with the Association of Jewish Chaplains, said Thursday that the organization is aware of the charges but declined to comment further, including on Karp’s status with the association.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Foxboro Reporter

By Frank Mortimer
Published: Thursday, January 22, 2015

St. Mary’s Church parishioners have turned to prayer, keyboards and a gathering this week in a respectful hope to keep Rev. Steve Madden in the town he calls home.

“Many of you are upset, confused and frustrated over this major decision. You are not alone,” Laura Canfield, director of the children’s choir, acknowledged in an email to dozens of friends shortly before noon Sunday.

Madden notified the congregation during Masses last weekend that the Archdiocese of Boston has handed him the challenge of leading four Boston parishes.

Some people gasped. A number of them wept.

Madden appeared to be holding back tears and his voice shook as he announced the plan for his departure.

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WISCONSIN
LaCrosse Tribune

By Chris Hubbuch

Diocese bars McGarty from ministry in misconduct case

The Diocese of La Crosse has barred Monsignor Bernard McGarty from public ministry while it investigates his being fined for disorderly conduc… Read more

Monsignor Bernard McGarty was convicted of non-criminal disorderly conduct this week in connection with a December incident involving a massage therapist.

McGarty, an 89-year-old retired priest, pleaded no contest Monday in Wausau Municipal Court and paid a $250 fine for the non-criminal disorderly conduct citation.

The Diocese of La Crosse barred Monsignor Bernard McGarty from public ministry while it investigated the incident. A diocese spokesman was not immediately available to comment Thursday.

McGarty was not arrested but was issued a $250 ticket after he lifted the covering off of his groin during a massage and asked the masseuse to rub his genitals.

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CANADA
CBC News

Eric Dejaeger addressed the court today as his four-day sentencing hearing wrapped up in Iqaluit.

“I am really sorry for what I have done,” the 67-year-old former priest told the judge as victims in the court’s gallery cried. “I am sorry to the families and to my own family,”

Dejaeger says he has done extensive counselling and said, “I promise not to re-offend again.”

Dejaeger was convicted last year on 32 counts of child sexual abuse dating back to his time as a priest in Igloolik, Nunavut, between 1978 and 1982.

Justice Kilpatrick extended the hearing yesterday to give Dejaeger’s defence lawyer, Malcolm Kempt, a chance to compile a line-by-line list of recommendations for sentences per charge, as the Crown had done. This morning, Kempt declined to do so, saying such an outline would hurt his client’s case.

Crown prosecutor Doug Curliss gave a rebuttal to Kempt’s final arguments. He said the defence’s guilty pleas were hard won and therefore “insincere.”

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OHIO
Cleveland Jewish News

ED WITTENBERG | STAFF REPORTER
ewittenberg@cjn.org

Rabbi Ephraim Karp, director of spiritual living at Menorah Park Center for Senior Living in Beachwood, was arrested Jan. 15 in New York on an active felony warrant from Maryland.

According to the Queens, N.Y., district attorney’s office, Karp has been charged by the state of Maryland with perverted practice, sex offense, sex abuse of a minor and sex abuse. He is listed in court records as Frederick M. Karp and a release from the Baltimore County Police Department linked the charges to the alleged abuse of a juvenile female over a period of time.

Karp, 50, was arrested at 9:25 p.m. Jan. 15 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as “a fugitive from justice” on the warrant issued by the District Court of Maryland, Baltimore County, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department.

He was arraigned Jan. 16 in Queens Criminal Court and has a hearing set for Jan. 22 in the same court. As of Jan. 21, he was in custody at the Anna M. Kross Correctional Facility in East Elmhurst, N.Y., according to the New York Department of Correction website.

Karp will likely be extradited to Maryland after his Jan. 22 court appearance because he faces charges there, said Ikimulisa Livingston, spokesperson for the Queens district attorney’s office. She said the crimes he is charged with probably occurred in Maryland.

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MARYLAND/OHIO
Failed Messiah

Rabbi Fredrick “Ephraim” Karp and his wife boarded out of town teenagers who came to the Cleveland, Ohio area to attend local yeshivas. Karp was arrested in New York City last week on child sex abuse charges as he was about to board a plane to Israel to attend a conference of Jewish chaplains – or flee the country. Karp is the president of the US national society of Jewish chaplains and is the rabbi at an Orthodox-run nursing home in the Cleveland area.

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MARYLAND/OHIO
CBS Baltimore

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) — A 50-year-old rabbi from Ohio was arrested for the sexual abuse of a Baltimore County girl.

According to Baltimore County police, Frederick Martin Karp of the 24200 block of Woodway Road in Beachwood, Ohio was arrested last week at JFK Airport in New York. Police obtained the warrant after detectives learned that a Baltimore County girl had been sexually abused over a period of time by the suspect.

Baltimore county detectives traveled to Cleveland last week to interview Karp after which they obtained the warrants.

Karp was charged with sexual abuse of a minor, perverted practice, second-degree and third-degree sex offenses.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Cape Cod Times

An advocacy group held a demonstration Wednesday in Fairhaven to alert the public to two lawsuits filed last month accusing Roman Catholic Church officials of failing to supervise the late Rev. James R. Nickel, who allegedly sexually abused two boys while he was assigned to Holy Trinity Church in West Harwich and another church in Fairhaven.

Road to Recovery Inc., a New Jersey nonprofit organization that assists victims of sexual abuse, staged the demonstration outside the headquarters of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a religious order, to encourage other victims to come forward, Robert Hoatson, the charity’s president, said.

The plaintiffs are represented by Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston lawyer who spearheaded the sexual abuse lawsuits against former priest John J. Geoghan and the Boston Archdiocese. Both lawsuits accusing Nickel of abuse were filed in December in Bristol Superior Court.
“He is a known pedophile,” Garabedian said of Nickel.

According to one lawsuit, Nickel was assigned by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts to Holy Trinity Parish from around 1972 to 1978, during which time he counseled children and participated in youth activities.

The suit names the Rev. Gabriel Healy, former pastor of Holy Trinity Church; the Rev. Fintan D. Sheeran, formerly of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts; former Fall River Bishop Daniel A. Cronin; and two unspecified church officials as defendants.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Muenchen TV

[A priest of the Upper Bavarian Ettal Monastery is before the Higher Regional Court of Munich. The 44-year-old monk is said to have repeatedly abused two students at the boarding school.]

Fünf Jahre nach Bekanntwerden von Gewaltexzessen im oberbayerischen Kloster Ettal muss sich der Pater wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs der Schüler vor Gericht verantworten. Außerdem wirft die Staatsanwaltschaft dem 44-Jährigen versuchten sexuellen Missbrauch von zwei weiteren Buben vor. Vor einer Jugendschutzkammer des Münchner Landgerichts sind sieben Verhandlungstage angesetzt, an denen zahlreiche Zeugen und Sachverständige gehört werden. Das Urteil wird Ende März erwartet.

Der Ordensgeistliche soll sich zwischen 2001 und 2005 wiederholt an zwei Schülern vergangen haben. Es ging dabei immer um Berührungen im Intimbereich. In zwei weiteren Fällen soll er es versucht haben. Als die Kinder sich dagegen wehrten, ließ der Angeklagte aber von ihnen ab. Der Mönch war als Erzieher im Klosterinternat und als Religionslehrer an dem kirchlichen Gymnasium beschäftigt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Neumarkt Online

[The former Reichert Hofener pastor has been returned to his parish in Heideck after being in custody for five months after being suspected of abuse.]

NEUMARKT. Der lange unter Mißbrauchs-Verdacht gestandene ehemalige Reichertshofener Pfarrer wechselt jetzt offenbar in die Klinikseelsorge.

Der 50jährige Mann war erst vor wenigen Wochen in seine Pfarrei in Heideck zurückgekehrt, nachdem er monatelang in Untersuchungshaft saß. Ihm war vorgeworfen worden, an seinem frühen Wirkungsort in der Pfarrei Reichertshofen in der Gemeinde Sengenthal in den Jahren 1998 bis 2001 einen Buben sexuell mißbraucht zu haben, der damals unter 14 Jahre alt war.

Das Ermittlungsverfahren durch die Staatsanwaltschaft wurde allerdings zum 17. November eingestellt. Die Diözese sieht den Geistlichen rehabilitiert: die Untersuchungen hätten ergeben, dass der Vorwurf des sexuellen Missbrauchs nicht begründet ist, hieß es aus Eichstätt (wir berichteten).

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Bischofskonferenz

[Bishop Dr. Stephan Ackermann takes stock of what has been done since clergy sexual abuse scandal became known five years ago.]

„SEXUELLER MISSBRAUCH AN MINDERJÄHRIGEN: KIRCHE IN INTENSIVEM LERN- UND ENTWICKLUNGSPROZESS“

Anlässlich der Aufdeckung von Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs an Minderjährigen in der katholischen Kirche vor fünf Jahren erklärt der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann:

„Nach dem Schock der Erkenntnisse von 2010 und der Folgejahre, als das Bekanntwerden zahlreicher Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Priester, Ordensangehörige und Mitarbeiter der Kirche die Öffentlichkeit und uns erschütterten, hat die katholische Kirche einen intensiven Lern- und Entwicklungsprozess durchlaufen, der bis heute nicht abgeschlossen ist. Bei diesem Prozess hat es viele positive Fortschritte gegeben, aber auch Rückschläge. Seit fünf Jahren legen wir das Hauptaugenmerk darauf, einschlägigen Hinweisen sorgfältig nachzugehen, Vorwürfe gewissenhaft zu prüfen und dazu die vorhandenen Regelwerke zu überarbeiten oder neue zu schaffen. Es ist unser Ziel, flächendeckend zu einer Kultur der Achtsamkeit durch Präventionsarbeit auf allen Ebenen zu gelangen.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

01/21/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

A few days ago I wrote about the assertion of Richard D. Anderson, attorney for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in its bankruptcy proceedings, that the Archdiocesan Finance Council ‘did not consider matters relating…to a potential Chapter 11 reorganization’ prior to October of 2013. As I said at that time, I have no reason to doubt that Mr. Anderson is being honest in his statement. However, it continues to puzzle me how the Archdiocesan Finance Council could have been left out of the discussions about potential bankruptcy and the need to protect church assets given that these discussions began long before October of 2013.

These conversations took place in different contexts and with different purposes. Within a short time of my arrival at the Chancery in 2008, for instance, I participated in a series of meetings between Archdiocesan officials and the staff of the Catholic Finance Corporation in which we identified certain problematic decisions and practices that left assets at risk in the event of bankruptcy or even punitive damages awards. Initially these conversations were occurring at times when neither bankruptcy nor litigation was threatened and our concerns were not to shield Archdiocesan resources from legitimate claims and settlements, but instead to fulfill our obligations as stewards of the resources that had been generously given by the faithful of the Archdiocese.

As was generally the case, while everyone could agree to the logic of taking certain actions, the will to do so was not there, and as such these concerns, and mine in particular, were pushed aside. This situation continued until 2012, when two things occurred that brought these issues to the fore. The first was the discovery of the abuse committed by Father Curtis Wehmeyer, which was immediately identified as having potentially disastrous consequences should it reach litigation. The second was the publication of an article in The Economist about the finances of the American Catholic Church entitled ‘Earthly Concerns‘.

The conclusions presented in that article are grim indeed. In fact, the title of this post (‘The picture that emerges is not flattering.’) comes from the very text of the article. Drawing its deductions from pre-2012 church bankruptcy proceedings and confidential interviews with church officials, the article concludes that ‘the financial mismanagement and questionable business practices [found within the Catholic Church in the United States] would have seen widespread resignations at the top of any other public institution’.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WCVB

Police will not file charges after allegations of improper exposure at a Revere Catholic school, and while parents are relieved some are not happy that three people lost their jobs.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by Tim Stanley posted Thursday, 22 Jan 2015

Cardinal Burke was ridiculed for saying men are repelled by a ‘feminised’ Church. But he grasps that fathers have a huge influence over whether children grow up to be Mass-goers

Relations between clergy and media now conform to a silly pattern: clergyman says something perfectly reasonable; media reports that he wants to bring back the Inquisition. So Cardinal Burke was taking a big risk when he gave an interview to the New Emangelisation Project (sic) on the subject of gender and the Catholic Church. With striking candour, he bemoaned the influence of feminism on Catholicism – and with grating predictability, the media called him a Neanderthal.

Newspapers like the Independent jumped on his suggestion that feminism took some responsibility for the child abuse scandals because it encouraged a crisis in sexual identity. The Washington Post’s Kaya Oakes wrote that the cardinal had an old-fashioned view of gender and was oddly blind to the continued institutional domination of men. And David Gibson, of the Religion News Service, pushed things further with an observation that was cattier than Joan Collins playing Puss-in-Boots: “Burke, a liturgical traditionalist as well as a doctrinal conservative who is renowned for wearing elaborate silk and lace vestments while celebrating Mass, also said that ‘men need to dress and act like men in a way that is respectful to themselves, to women and to children’.” Miaow!

But what did the cardinal really say, and how accurate was it? He argued three things. First, that there’s a crisis of Catholic spirituality among men that results in low Mass attendance. Second, that this is partly down to a feminisation of the liturgy. Third, that feminism has also undermined traditional male roles in the family and caused a wider societal crisis. Let’s test each hypothesis in turn.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

The Government is under mounting pressure to include Magdalene laundries, private adoption agencies and a myriad of related institutions in the upcoming mother and baby home inquiry.

The Dáil debate on the terms of reference saw a succession of opposition politicians add their voices to those of adoption campaigners who have expressed concern that the investigation will be limited to only the practices and procedures of institutions, adoption agencies, and individuals with a direct connection to a mother and baby home.

The Adoption Rights Alliance has pointed out that potentially tens of thousands of women gave birth in state and private maternity homes and suffered the same fate of forced and illegal adoptions but, if they did not have a link to a mother and baby home, would be excluded.

Sinn Féin spokesman on children Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said successive governments had failed to address the issue and called for the list of 14 institutions named in the terms of reference to be expanded to include the Magdalene Laundries, the Westbank orphanage, and all the activities of private adoption agencies.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Meredith Rodriguez
Chicago Tribune

Seven men filed suit Wednesday against the Chicago Presbytery and related organizations, claiming they were sexually abused by a now-deceased minister whose trail of allegations led to a multimillion-dollar settlement.

The plaintiffs, three of whom filed one lawsuit and four who filed the other, allege that they were abused by Presbyterian minister Douglas Mason, whose alleged sex abuse led the Presbytery to settle with four accusers in 2007. The settlement was confidential, but church officials told the Tribune last year that the amount was $11 million. Mason died in 2004.

In one of Wednesday’s suits, three men now in their 40s allege that Mason abused them from 1982 to 1986 while he was pastor at Austin United Presbyterian Church, where the three attended.

The Presbytery at the time encouraged pastors to counsel young men in private and ignored warnings that Mason was a pedophile, the suit claims.

The three plaintiffs say in the suit that they didn’t remember their alleged abuse until they read about details of the Presbytery’s 2007 settlement early last year, when church officials voted to sell a campground in Michigan. That vote came as the Presbytery was navigating nearly $8 million in debt. The head of the local Presbytery at the time wouldn’t say whether the two were related.

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VATICAN CITY
UCA News

Andrea Gagliarducci for CNA/EWTN News
Vatican City
January 22, 2015

Tommaso Di Ruzza was appointed Wednesday as the new director of the Vatican’s Authority for Financial Information, filling the post left vacant November 19, when the previous director, René Bruelhart, was made president of the Authority’s board of directors.

Di Ruzza’s appointment indicates continuity in the advancement of financial reforms that have been carried on by the Vatican since 2009 under Benedict XVI.

A respected international juridical expert who studied at the universities of Siena, Rome, and Oxford, Di Ruzza has served as a juridical advisor to the Holy See since 2005.

After having served at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Di Ruzza was entrusted with following the operational, juridical, and international issues of the Authority for Financial Information since its establishment in 2011.

In this capacity, Di Ruzza had a prominent role in the negotiations with the Council of Europe’s Moneyval committee regarding its 2012 evaluation of the Holy See’s financial system.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 22 January 2015)

A Catholic priest, Father Theodore Arrivoli (now aged 92), who has ministered in many parishes around the Sydney region during the past 60 years, was charged in court on 15 January 2015 regarding alleged sexual assaults of two children near Sydney in the 1970s. The alleged offences include buggery.

This court hearing was a “first mention” procedure, with a magistrate in the Penrith Local Court, north-west of Sydney. This was a brief administrative process for the charges to be officially filed in court. Father Arrivoli has not yet been required to indicate how he will plead in answer to the charges.

The Arrivoli case will come up again in the Penrith court in March 2015 for a further mention to consider the subsequent steps in the judicial process. The main proceedings would be held on a later date.

In March 2014, police investigators from Hawkesbury Local Area Command, acting on information received about alleged sexual assault matters involving children, commenced investigations.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Russell Lissau

Bond was set at $1 million Wednesday for a former church volunteer from Round Lake accused of sexually assaulting a child about five years ago, police said.

Roberto D. Almeida, 41, of the 1200 block of West Oriole Court, was arrested at his home Tuesday on a warrant after an investigation that began in December, police said.

Almeida is charged with predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child. He could face up to 30 years in prison if found guilty.

Police launched the investigation after receiving a tip from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. That agency had learned of a boy who reported being abused by a volunteer at a local church about five years ago, Detective Sgt. David Prus said.

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